Flight to the Lonesome Place (14 page)

He was trying to decide which was the main plug, when his eye caught movement in the kitchen door. He turned to see a woman in an apron staring at him.

“You there!” she snapped. “What in the world do you think you are doing?”

Ronnie held up a finger for silence and gave her a smile. “I've been ordered to play a trick on the party,” he informed her in a stage whisper. “Don't say anything.”

He was already past the count. Holding both his stick and flashlight in one hand, he jerked out the first plug.

Nothing happened.

He thrust the plug into his pocket so it could not be used again, and jerked out the second one. Again nothing happened. Desperately he gave the third a jerk, and instantly Las Alturas was plunged into darkness.

He got down from the chair and hastily thrust all three plugs behind a pile of newspapers he had noticed in the corner. Only now did he turn on his light and dart past the servant woman who was still gaping in the doorway.

From the rooms beyond the kitchen he could hear startled voices, mutterings, and uncertain laughter. Abruptly there was an earsplitting scream, and a woman shrilled, “
Something's biting me! Help! Help!
”

Using his light as little as possible, Ronnie dodged around the near-panicky crowd in the drawing room, gained the entry hall, and raced up the great marble stairway. By the time he reached the door to Ana María Rosalita's room, Black Luis had torn open a mesh bag and with an unsteady hand was trying to thrust a huge key into the lock.

The key went in, the door opened, and the light shone on the white pinched face of the tiny girl inside. So much had happened since he had seen her last that it seemed to Ronnie weeks had passed instead of less than two days.

“Oh, I
knew
you'd come!” he heard her say. “I
knew
it. I'm all ready.”

“Thank Marlowe,” he told her quickly. “Grab her bags, Black Luis. Let's get out of here,
camarada!
Fast!”

He caught her hand and tugged her swiftly along the hall to the stairway. They hurried downward. In the rooms below matches and lighters were beginning to make pinpricks in the darkness. As they reached the entrance hall, the beam of a flashlight suddenly swept the area and fastened upon them. The beam touched Ana María Rosalita, and there was a startled grunt followed by a curse.

“So it
was
a trick!” a man said hoarsely. “Get back upstairs, girl! As for you two, I'll have the law—”

Ronnie swung his light in the man's face, hoping to blind him momentarily so they could slip past, but a hand far stronger than his own knocked it from his grasp and seized him firmly. The flashlight smashed against a wall and went out. But Ronnie was still carrying his stick under one arm, and now he managed to get a grip on it with his left hand. He began swinging it in a fury.

That it was Bernardo he was attacking he had known from the instant he glimpsed the man's face. There was no mistaking the resemblance to the Señora. It added strength to his fury, and he must have knocked Bernardo down and broken his flashlight, for the way to the front entrance was suddenly clear. He managed to find Ana María Rosalita's hand again, and they ran outside together.

Black Luis was close behind, but Ronnie did not know this until they had dodged around a row of cars in the courtyard and were near the gate. The rushing blackness overhead had already swallowed the moon, and the stars were rapidly vanishing. He could barely make out the gate opening.

Then he heard Black Luis say, “What are we going to do? We'll never find our way down the mountain unless we follow the road. And in two minutes the sky will break open and we'll be wishing we had fins.”

“Can you drive a car?”

“No.”

Ronnie swallowed. He had handled a car only once in his life, and that was a little Italian sportster he had been allowed to use on an Argentine estate. There were cars here he could have stolen, for he doubted if many of the owners would have bothered to remove the keys in a place like this. But most of them seemed to be large machines with which he was unfamiliar. Dare he risk driving one on a narrow mountain road, on an inky night in a rainstorm?

Already scattered drops were beginning to fall. He looked wildly around, hoping to see a small sports model, but a sudden warning from Black Luis sent them scurrying to the side of the courtyard. They crouched behind a large sedan as racing headlights swept around the mountain. A car whined upward at high speed, and whirled recklessly through the gate. It came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the driveway, effectively blocking the only exit.

A man got out and stood swaying drunkenly while he bellowed for a servant to come and carry his packages. When no servant appeared, he lurched toward the villa, leaving the motor running and the headlights on to show him the way.

“We've got to take it,” Ronnie whispered. “Let's go!”

He caught Ana María Rosalita's hand, and they raced to the car and piled in. Black Luis followed with the bags and tumbled into the back seat amid a collection of bottles and boxes.

It was a sports car, and it had a set of floor shifts enough like those he had once used to give him a grain of confidence. But his legs were not long enough to reach the brake pedal, and he was forced to slide the seat forward before he could put the thing in reverse and attempt to turn around.

Somehow, perhaps with the aid of Ana María Rosalita's whispered prayers, he got the car turned and headed through the gate.

As they started down the mountain, thunder clanged and roared around them, and the tropic rain began to fall in blinding sheets.

10

SPELL

RONNIE HAD THE PRESENCE OF MIND to shift to low gear, or they might have gone over the edge of the mountain on the first hairpin turn. The car, though a sportster, was much larger and heavier than the one he had been allowed to use so briefly, and he sat so low in the bucket seat that he was unable to make out the side of the road. The only thing to do, he realized, was to hug the mountainside on his left, and pray.

The rain increased. With every passing second it became more difficult to see the way. Several times he braked to a full stop, waited until he could glimpse a few more yards ahead, then cautiously inched onward.

They may have been halfway down to the main road when some instinct warned him it was time to stop. As he braked again his straining eyes were able to distinguish what seemed to be two ancient gateposts on the left.

“Do you know if it's safe to drive in there?” he asked Black Luis.

“It's a good road for a short distance. It goes down to a pineapple field in the other valley.”

Ronnie tugged the wheel over. Carefully, slowly, he sent the car between the posts and on into the blackness on the other side. When he finally stopped, it was only because it had become impossible to see anything ahead.

He turned off the switches and closed his eyes, suddenly limp. Behind him Black Luis whispered fervently, “
¡Madre de Dios!
We made it!”

“Yes,” he managed to say. “We'll be safe here for a while. But as soon as we can see, we'd better start walking.”

Beside him Ana María Rosalita gave a tremulous, “Oh!” Then, “Oh! It's so
won
derful!”

“It sure is,” said Black Luis. “It's wonderful.”

“What's so wonderful?” said Ronnie.

“Being with people who care about you,” she said. “I mean people who really care. It's so awful to be alone and not have
any
body.”

“I know what you mean,” Ronnie admitted. “I've been all through that.”

“Then why don't you be my brother?” she said. “Black Luis is. I made him my brother after Bernardo turned out to be such a monster. Anyway, I think it would be nice to have two brothers. Then we'd be a sort of family.”

Ronnie swallowed. “Why,” he began, “that—that's a great idea. We're all in the same boat. I mean, we don't have relatives or anybody else that gives a hoot. We have only each other.”

They were silent a moment, and the only sound was the thundering rain. Then in a tiny voice Ana María Rosalita said, “I—I'm so happy I could cry.”

“Then why don't you?” Ronnie said. “From what I've read, it's the best thing in the world for people at times.”

“But
hechiceras
don't cry. Only I—I'm so weak.” She tried to suppress a sniffle and added, “And when I'm weak I'm like a run-down battery, and I just can't help myself.”

“Oh, golly,” Ronnie burst out, “you must be starved! Marlowe said those devils didn't give you a bite to eat! What made them treat you that way? Are they just plain mean?”

“Money-loving mean,” Black Luis muttered. “Can't you see? They've got to get rid of her. If they don't, that
bribón
of a Bernardo won't inherit what her papa left her. But they're afraid of her. Especially the Señora. So they starve her.”

“You mean—”

“It's just like our little sister says. Starve an
hechicera
, and she gets so weak her battery runs down. She can't protect herself.”

“I—I see.”

“And she can't protect herself when she's trying to help somebody else, either. That's why the Señora was able to wallop her on the dock, like you told me about. But she kept that man from shooting you.”

“Yes,” Ronnie admitted. He was careful to keep doubt from his voice, even though he wondered. “She sure did.”

Ana María Rosalita giggled suddenly. “It's not really funny; it just seems that way when I look back on it. Maybe it's because I'm so hungry I'm silly. But you should have seen that weaselly creature's face when I cried to him, ‘You can't shoot!'—and of course he couldn't, because I'd turned on all I had. And then the Señora gave me the wallop. O-o-oh! I've never been hit so hard. Bernardo's chauffeur had to carry me to the car, and I was still dizzy when they locked me in that room.”

Ronnie found himself clenching his fists in renewed fury. “Anyway,” he said, “Marlowe partially paid her back for hitting you. He bit her. But good. I hope her foot rots off.”

“Marlowe bit her? I thought I heard a scream, but—”

“That was Marlowe sinking his teeth in. When he let her have it, she dropped the bag that had the key to your room in it. So you can thank him—” He stopped suddenly, then exclaimed, “Hey! Where
is
Marlowe, anyway?”

Black Luis said,” He doesn't like to ride in cars. But don't worry about him. He'll be curled up somewhere waiting for the rain to stop.”

“I keep wondering what he is,” Ronnie said curiously. “I'm pretty sure I know, because only a—”

“Don't say it!” Black Luis interrupted quickly. “Remember what he told you.”

“And we're not allowed to tell you,” Ana María Rosalita added. “Because we promised we'd never,
never
give his secret away, and if we didn't keep our promise to him he'd know it, and it would spoil everything. But he'll tell you himself later, specially when he learns you've become our brother. Anyway, what difference does it make what he is? He's a personality, and practically a brother, and that's all that matters.”

She paused, sniffed, and said abruptly, “I smell shrimp!”

“Maybe they're falling in the rain,” Ronnie offered.

“Oh,
Madre mía
, I mean
cooked
shrimp. I wish I didn't love them so. I've been dreaming of them for hours and hours. I could eat tons of them. I tell you I smell them.”

“You're so hungry it's making your nose play tricks.”

“But I do smell shrimp!”

“I smell them too!” Black Luis burst out. “They must be back here. Under all these bags and bottles. If we had a light …”

Ronnie fumbled hastily over the instrument panel. Suddenly the light above his head came on. Ana María Rosalita, seeing his dyed skin for the first time, squealed and cried, “
¡Cáspita!
You've turned into an Indian!” At the same moment he saw the left side of her face, which had been hidden from him when her door was opened. It was swollen and discolored, and her eye was nearly closed.

Black Luis saw it and gasped, and muttered an angry exclamation. Ronnie growled, “For what she did to you, I hope both that devil's feet rot off!”

“No,” said the tiny girl. “Don't say that. I think she is
loca
and cannot help what she does. Where is that shrimp? Oh, find it, Black Luis, before I perish utterly!”

Behind them bottles clinked and clattered and there was a great upheaval of things. All at once Black Luis cried, “
¡Mira!
” He emerged holding up a large container made for carrying hot and cold foods. Inside was a heavy plastic bag filled with freshly boiled shrimp, all peeled and buttered. There were enough in the bag to feed thirty people. “And there are ten big boxes of potato chips to go with it,” Black Luis said happily. “
Gracios a Dios
. Let us eat.”

“And go easy,
camarada
,” Ronnie cautioned. “I went hungry for a couple days once, then stuffed myself. Was I ever sorry!”

Ana María Rosalita made only gurgling noises of pure happiness. But after ten minutes she was able to say, “I've never,
never
tasted anything so good, and I just couldn't stop till I'd built up my willpower. It took fifty-two shrimp to do it. But now I have the will to resist further food until we get to the cave.”

At the thought of the cave, Ronnie scowled at his watch, suddenly troubled. Finally he began searching the car for a flashlight. There was no flashlight in the car, though he located some paper cups, which they held out in the rain to fill with drinking water.

At last he said to Black Luis, “Is there a path along here somewhere that will take us down to the highway?”