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Read with me. The Inferno begins on Good Friday in the year 1300. That would mean that on the eve of Dante´s journey we are at Thursday evening and some commentators believe that rather than Thursday April 7, it was perhaps Thursday March 24. Some 676 years later on March 24 1976, General Videla launched the coup that would lead to the bloodiest chapter in Argentina´s history. Exactly a year later, Isadora was born. The good thing about being born on the anniversary of the coup is that everyone remembers your birthday. Unforgettable. And you will forgive me I hope if I use the eve of the Inferno as a bridge between these events - historical and fictional. My own birthday is the second week of March so we combine the two in one celebration. But Diego has other plans so I find myself heading up the Autopista del Sol towards Ezeiza in his truck rather than helping with the preparations. He´s assured us we´ll be back in time after picking up his container that he shipped down from Miami - furniture and odds and ends from the bungalow in Little Havanna.

It´s warm, almost hot and the Air France Airbus is making a racket warming up it´s engines on another tarmac maybe a kilometer or so away. We´re at the warehouse and Diego is filling out forms and looking anxious. He´s worried his guitars might have been stolen. An officer with the Policia de Seguridad Aeroportuaria stomps by looking annoyed. There was a dust between them and some customs officials a while back over alleged bribes, so the situation may still be tense. Or maybe the officer is just having a bad day. I hear a woman´s voice, arguing loudly and angrily. Over there and she´s with that same officer and two, no three, customs officials. I notice musical equipment cases, quite a few of them, stacked up behind a counter. Let´s see ... I move closer. Killswitch Engage. I guess they´re in town for a show. I hear Luna Park mentioned by the woman while one offical stares at her sullenly, receiving the brunt of her indignation while the other two shuffle papers. Our customs official takes us over to the same counter. He needs a signature on one of the forms it seems. We´ve paid the duties and only need a final stamp and it´s done. The woman´s voice is more measured now but she´s still angry. She pulls out her phone,

Si!! Silvia! Si!! Sil - vi -a!! Estas sordo por dios!! ... aca en Ezeiza! Un descuido ... ya lo arreglo. Estan en Luna ya? Por dios nene!! Cuando carajo llegan??

I steal a glance at her paperwork. Hobbit Logisitcs Worldwide S.A. Brokers and Freight Forwarders, Special Logistics etc. I try not to smile. What would Tolkien think? Offices on Moreno ... I guess they´re in charge of getting the band´s equipment through customs. I wonder where Killswitch Engage´s road manager is. Silvia mentions something about Porto Alegre. Is he stuck there? I shift my attention to our own paperwork so as not to annoy or arouse the suspicions of Silvia. That´s a lot of expensive equipment stacked up there ... all ready and waiting. Our official gets the stamp required and we go hunting for a cart to load Diego´s container onto. I have to think quickly. I look back and see Silvia, two of the customs officials and the PSA cop head off to another part of the warehouse.

Late afternoon now but we´re back on highway 2 heading south. The Ford is stacked full and we had to scare up some bungee chords to hold it all in place. The good thing about a monitor board and speakers is they´re quite compact. I had loaded them up on another cart I had noticed nearby while Diego wheeled his own stuff out to the truck. The two customs officials didn´t notice or didn´t care. I loaded the board first into the back of the truck while Diego looked on quietly. He gave me a look and then simply loaded his own stuff on top so the stolen equipment wouldn´t be visible. So the JBL Floor Monitor system is ours and no longer Killswitch Engage´s. Hopefully a studio in Mardel will be interested; or a band. I doubt we´ll get more than a few thousand for it. It´s worth way more but we´ll have to take what we can get. Maybe 5 thousand. I´ll have to look up what it´s worth. We pass General Piran as a Tony Tur micro passes us doing well over 100 km an hour. The windows are open and Diego has Sherlyl Crow playing. Not a bad day´s work. I lean back and close my eyes, satisfied for now, and try to enjoy the rest of the ride.