Golddust On Switches... It started out to be just an ordinary party. Some friends and I had been invited, and it wouldn't look good not to show up. The evening sun hung low in the August sky, like a dusty drop of gold. I could almost taste its metallic light and feel it run over the ground like melted butter on popcorn. My friend Ric-ardo had invited us to his house and I was looking forward to some real Spanish food and good conversation. I had met Ric at another party a month before. He was a friend of a friend. This was one of those hot August days when the heat and lull of summer seem to dull everything just before the final revival at autumn. I had the addrees in my hand, and I knew about where Ric's house was. Still I got lost a couple of times. I drove up to the house and parked in the dirt driveway. The sun fell hot on my car. Just in front of the car was a pile of dog manure with its congregation of flies. I saw the little house. It stood looking through a wire fence across better than a quarter mile of railroad tracks. Its left side faced the sun, but that hadn't prevented the paint all around from 16 curling and turning yellow. The wood looked as if it would be tasteless even to termites. The house stared across the road at the town gran-ery. The tall white columns reached to the sky as if waiting for the clouds to whitewash the sun from their sides. And the road just ended there. I walked across the dirt lawn, now gone to seed. It looked as if it would leave if it could, but need for nourishment still tied it to the ground. I opened the unpainted gate and got a sliver in my right hand. When I walked into the front yard, Ric came up and held out his hand. I stopped sucking my finger with the sliver and took his hand, but didn't want to. All the old cliche's about the other side of the tracks and the Mexican people seemed to blow into my mind like the wind across the tall grass. My hand was sweating and so was his. The sun's warmth seemed to slide under my feet. Ric has large, brown eyes, and he has a chipped tooth in front so when he talks he lisps a little. Most people don't notice his tooth. 'Come in, come in. The food will be ready in about half an hour. He took me over to meet the other guests. I knew most of them. They all had an uneasy look on their faces I thought. It 17