The Great Wall of America: A Novelette

By David A. Hewitt

How America built the Wall?

"The Great Wall of America" by David A. Hewitt is an urgent and compelling novelette. Hewitt paints a nightmarish yet plausible scenario of what could happen if workers from migrant caravans were pressed into forced servitude, building a wall at the southern Mexican-American border.

The Southern Border Wall: originally a public-works project to employ America’s down-and-out, fiscal necessity has transformed it into a string of forced-labor camps for prisoners, refugees, and undocumented immigrants. In this tale of a dark and not-so-distant future, when Asaad, one of a four-person work crew, is injured by brutal captors, his crewmembers, led by the resourceful Rafa, must make a grim decision. Will they abandon their comrade to almost-certain death? Or stand together and attempt a perhaps-suicidal escape, hemmed in by razorwire, armed guards with dogs, the unforgiving desert, and the towering Wall?

Interview with David A. Hewitt: This book includes a must-read interview with David A. Hewitt by Salik Shah, the founding editor and publisher of Mithila Review. "The Great Wall of America" first appeared in Issue 11 of Mithila Review, the journal of international science fiction & fantasy (2019).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pidgin Studios
• Release date: Oct 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463049211

David A. Hewitt

David A. Hewitt is a graduate of the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program in Popular Fiction. His fiction has appeared in Kaleidotrope and Severed Press's 2012 AD anthology, and his poetry in Three Line Poetry and 50 Haikus. As a Japanese-English translator his credits include the animated series Gilgamesh, Area 88, Welcome to the NHK, Kingdom, and most recently Kochoki: Young Nobunaga. He has nearly 20 years’ experience teaching English to immigrants and non-native speakers of myriad cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

Book preview

Biography

David A. Hewitt is a graduate of the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program in Popular Fiction. His fiction has appeared in Kaleidotrope and Severed Press's 2012 AD anthology, and his poetry in Three Line Poetry and 50 Haikus. As a Japanese-English translator his credits include the animated series Gilgamesh, Area 88, Welcome to the NHK, Kingdom, and most recently Kochoki: Young Nobunaga. He has nearly 20 years’ experience teaching English to immigrants and non-native speakers of myriad cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

Dedication

This story is dedicated to Ben, to Jung, to Siret, to Barry, to Jorge, to Julio and Maggie, to Thaina, to Dennis, to Tracey, to Farhana, to Amin, to Jumana and to Jerome and to Juliet, to name only a few, and to so many more . . . to every immigrant or non-native speaker of English I’ve met or worked with in the classroom or in tutoring. You came to an America that wasn’t quite what you thought, but resolved that, if the streets weren’t paved with gold, from a place of courage and determination and love of family and optimism, you would unearth that gold and start on the paving job yourself. Your strength makes us stronger, and I can only hope that, step by patient step, America will become a nation that deserves you. 

All author proceeds from this e-book will be donated to the American Civil Liberties Union or the International Rescue Committee.

The Great Wall of America

David A. Hewitt

The night before the escape attempt — two nights after Asaad’s beating — the crew had a heated exchange. Lori, Rafael, and Windward did, that is; Asaad was by this time on the decline and, after an exhausted attempt at his night prayers, had fallen into a fitful sleep.

"If we tell the guardias he’s got a fever, maybe we can get ’im some medicine," Lori insisted in a hushed voice.

You’re joking, right? Windward, the youngest, hugged his knees and rocked, sitting upright.

We fall behind deadline, whispered Rafa, sitting on his bunk’s edge, elbows on knees, head drooping.

Lori shook her head to drive sleep away. "Too much behind quota and we’re all gonna be busted down to twobafours."

I do feel bad for the man, for real, said Windward, "but yeah, we’re talking about all of us, now."

Lori leaned a little toward Rafa, across the aisle. "You ain’t heard from your cousin at the West End? Your primo? In Cali-for-nigh-ay?"

Nothing.

An ember of anger sparked in Lori, and she stoked it as her best shot at keeping awake. How is this our responsibility anyways? We were busting our butts to make quota even with a crew of four, so how’s it our responsibility to not just do his share of work, but to drag his ass outta bed and practically carry him back ’n forth to detail?

Windward rocked a little harder and forced his eyes open, their round whiteness stark in the outline of his dark face. "So, you saying maybe in the morning, we just don’t help him outta bed?" 

Rafael Alejandro let this go, let the conversation go — and it faded and burnt out abruptly as the other two, as though by agreement, slumped into sleep. Rafa, no less weary, rose silently in the dark. There was something to decide, and something to see