Further Adventures (23 page)

I do not blush if I admit I am not a Olympic Athlete & I had to crawl up the muddy Mexican shore on my hands & knees. I arrived in Mexico very pooped out & a sad vista met my eyes from there—the Raymobile stranded & slanting in the water not a Fortunate Position for a station wagon. Some more rain and the mighty Raymobile will shove off yet it does not sink for I rolled up all the windows & locked the doors it will depart very dignified like the Titanic.

Amelia patted me there there there on my shoulder in Sympathy. She did cheer me up over it but deep in my mind I already bid my metal friend Bon Voyage.

In the sparkly sunshine of Ojinaga all of Mexico is on sale from soup to nuts. A display of tropical fruits i.e. cantaloupes & papayas over here & over there they are selling peeled mangos on a stick. Or maybe you need a new pair of sandals—did I mention the native Arts & Crafts? Real leather with soles made out of used tires which will grip the road. Or go enjoy a relaxing stroll on the Promenade under the shady arches. Watch out for pesky street urchins who tug on your sleeve beseeching can they shine your shoes. Did I mention the charming shops? Under
the awnings behind the bead curtains you can haggle the Natives over the price of a Hershey Bar! Around the corner you will find more treats for the hot weather. Fruit juice & colored soda pops you can stop there all day to taste different flavors yes a cool drink in one hand & a hankie in the other to mop off your sweaty brow.

I never saw this side of Ojinaga. I imagined the place to myself while Amelia described. She talked the whole time we walked I believe out of mercy. To take my mind off the weather which was like this: another round of Thunder & another dark cloud cracked open on our head. Rain did not sprinkle down by a gentle pitter-patter it came down by fire buckets. And the fire buckets came down too. By my calculations of Velocity in Nautical Knots the Raymobile was on the last mile of its Viking funeral somewhere out in the Gulf of Mexico.

Do I need to mention we did not see a taxi anywhere?

Dirty water backed up from the gutters it curled upward & coated the sidewalk where there
was
sidewalk. The buildings even did not look washed by the rain they looked sticky & dripping with grimy sweat.

“Are we in a bad part of town?” I asked.

“Bad or good part in Ojinaga it’s the same.” Then Amelia ducked around the next corner her arms she wrapped around her chest & her face down in the force of the rain.

Where a stairway was like a shadow cut into a wall she led me inside a hotel. A entire corner of the building got torn off somehow which by the Evidence I will say by a bus driver who did not care if he turned 100% on the street. I covered our flank I let Amelia go ahead a couple of steps. Here I remark a funny thing—she walked up & not a Sound but every step I tiptoed upon squealed. The peeling paint & broken linoleum did not invite & my shoulders could practically touch both walls. Beer or a different liquid trickled down by our feet from the top step. Up there the smell of cigarettes & sweaty shirts surrounded me. If I remember right this establishment is called the Hotel Imperial.

The lobby is a big square room & all the lightbulbs hang downward on their wires. All persons in there looked at our Entrance—from the padded bench built in around the edge of the room & from the Cart Tables under the lights. A couple dozen blank & dark faces the same I saw in Tio’s house. When they went back to playing dominos & talking low Amelia spoke up. Where is Benito she wanted to know.

A buzzer went off by the Reception desk. This Desk is behind a wire cage and by my experience this is not a Good Omen. Behind the wire cage is a door & this opened & a chunky man arrived to greet us. This Benito packed his fleshy torso in a shiny shirt a size too small for him. Chubby rolls of tight skin squeezed out under his arms & over his white belt. His beaky nose pokes forward it is the only hard point on him & his loose cheeks sag around it. Benito does not look like he laughed at a Joke anytime in his Life. He opened the cage door & let Amelia inside & when she was in his Reach he moved fast. He grabbed her he pulled her close he kissed her mouth so she had to squirm away from him because Benito did not kiss her out of Love his sour kiss landed on Amelia a punishment.

With my bare hands I pulled on the cage it rattled but it did not budge. This move did not upset Benito maybe this kind of thing happens a lot in the Hotel Imperial. Abba-zabba-zabba she told him enough about my Presence so he opened the cage door & bid at me to join them.

In the back office new friends appeared to us & Amelia recognized them by name. Nor I did not need to know further words in Mexican to tell me this was not a happy bunch. Down some stairs we went twice as many as the ones we walked up in front so in my opinion we went underground. They crammed in front of me they cleared a trail for Amelia & sealed it behind. The mumbling started around her it followed her to the other side of the Basement & it curled under the way a wave curls back in the Ocean. Also same as the next wave which comes roaring in over the edge of such stillness Amelia cried—

I roared through those Muchachos their fists sprang around me but I punched through to defend Amelia before any harm befell upon her from Benito’s horny hands—if he was hurting her then blow by blow he was hurting me—my ribs split when I heard her cry again! No it was not that kind of pain for her Benito did not lay a finger on her. It was misery which pierced her & came out the other side for I felt it Enter me when I stood behind her.

Do not flinch here because I did not flinch I forced this Sight into my eyes & hereby I force it out:

On a table stretched out against the wall it was Tio there. His mouth hanging open & dried blood on his lips. A plug of Skin flapped out of a hole in his jaw. A pond of crusty Blood sat on his chest. Splinters of his ribs tore up out of his skin. The raw meat of him scooped out for all to see. Down below on his pants wet & dirty Stains joined between his legs. Not because of his fear in his final minute I do not believe Tio was afraid then. It is a Medical Fact when a person dies he will lose control so his dirty business comes out he can not stop it this Last Act of his on Earth. I say it is a wise comment on Life from somebody who is leaving.

Furthermore this is Nature. By the noted scientist Dr. Wesley Geissman I learned the natural process in his book
The Wonders of Microbes
. Organisms dig into the dead object they eat it from the outside in & the inside out. It is a Banquet to a colony of Microbes who digest out Anatomy. They eat a body down to the Molecules down to our Chemicals and show what Mankind is made of. Skin & Blood & Bones which is not higher than a hyena or vulture. No I say a man is lower. Look how a man starts out full of Hope when he is alive now look at what he does when he is dead. Full of pus & yellow fat a feast for Microbes. Hereby I give you the end of Hope.

Oh the Humanity!

Maybe I fainted against the wall. When I blinked my eyes open
again when I unstuck them from the sight of Tio I saw I was standing all by myself in there. I feared what Benito & his rough henchmen did with Amelia then I smelled that smoke.

Benito had a little cigar going in a tortoiseshell holder. He sucked on it and blew smoke fast around it. His forehead was ploughed up by worry. “O.K. señor. O.K.” He pushed his harmless hands in front of him against the pillow of space between us. “Ssh…ssh.”

I listened & her Voice came in with her behind I will say I was not prepared to see Amelia again so beautiful. Without the wig or Bermuda shorts all dressed up in local Garments a flowery dress & a scarf over her head she stood still at the bottom of the stairs. A young bride Rembrandt van Rijn would paint!

“Ray take off your clothes.” Amelia did not give me a choice either she pointed over to a Muchacho who stood about my size.

“What for?”

“We go to Tres Osos in the bus.”

“Wait a minute. Who are these people? What do they know about—” I waved my arm behind me over the remains of Tio.

“Some mens leave Tio on the stairs. Benito think before I do it to Tio.” She shook her head to be free of this crazy idea. “Benito heard stories around town.”

“Of what?”

“About me. About John. Other things.”

“What the hell on Earth do they think could possibly entice you to do such a terrible thing? To Tio! To somebody you love…”

The poor Muchacho next to me stood in his underpants with his flowery shirt & dungarees & straw Cowboy hat which he held them out for me. So in front of everybody I took off my Safari Suit & I clutched the Snubnose Revolver & I shook the bullets out of my front pocket. “They’re my extra ones,” I informed Benito.

Back & back. If & if. If I did not dress up like a real Mexican then &
if I did not act like a Muchacho hither or yon then probably this Episode would not end so tragic. His pretty shirt would not be ruined by my Blood Stains nor my Doom would not approach me so fast. If you ask me I think he got a better deal even if you take in Consideration the mud all over my pants because mud you can get out after it dries by a mild brushing. Then a little bit of soap & water the material comes out good as new.

Onboard the bus to Tres Osos Amelia set me straight. Benito etc. et all in the Hotel Imperial were her Mule Pool i.e. the trusted ones who guided her Customers over the U.S. Border. Fear gripped them in their den on account of many possibilities:

NUMBER 1: New Sponsors from Chihuahua want to run Amelia & Newberry out of business by making their precious Mules disappear.

NUMBER 2: The Citizens Patrols are going on a torture & murder spree. Not Newberry nor Wayne Feather can stop them. Tio was on their Death List likewise anybody he knows.

NUMBER 3: Newberry is doing it to cover his filthy behind.

NUMBER 4: Drug smuggler partners of Newberry made these Mules a sweetheart deal so now Amelia’s X-friends will double-X her for the extra money.

NUMBER 5: Newberry is double-Xing Amelia. Also he killed Tio & Anybody loyal to her he is going to treat the same.

Amelia told me do not worry too much about 3 and 5. By her memory Newberry has a sentimental streak to his behavior which he can not resist nor predict. He does not want to harm her he does not want to bury her in the ground he only wants her to go to jail for him. Here
is the reason why Amelia sent Tio to Tres Osos. So he could hide Dolores from the clutches of her sentimental Papa. Our supply of worry she saved for this: Did Tio meet his Doom before he got to Tres Osos or after?

“Does Dolores understand your business,” I asked Amelia.

“She’s a smart girl. No like me sometimes.” She turned around on the seat she hunched up her back under the shawl. I did not take this gesture personal Amelia just had enough of the world then. I watched over her & she fell asleep in a minute.

I sat up awake on vigil. A merry-go-round out of control went inside my skull & this idea riding up & down:

JOHN NEWBERRY endows himself with certain POWERS
a la
he can BEND THE LAW around him and RUN US OVER with it. This is the Trouble I face while the rest of the world sleeps. To wit:

1. A. Newberry does not want a trace of his Trail of Crime to remain so he will change the Evidence of the Past. He will rub out any person who remembers what he did (Tio etc.)
   
2. B. Until only Amelia is left standing & certain Feelings toward her which he can not rub out. He will make up a fake File on her & convict her of his crimes.
   
3. C. He has to lure her in & he will not use Money or Promise Auld Lang Syne he will use little Dolores he will use his own Daughter for bait. He will use her for Power over Amelia to make sure she bends to his Will. He will twist her into handcuffs.
   

My mouth is dry yet I ask out loud WHAT IS GOING ON WITH FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS THESE DAYS?

I remember the land of Mexico outside of Tres Osos. The red ground spread out so empty & untrampled. Shadows from rocks & plants streak it below the cold Sun. No people anywhere only hardy plants & the earth they grow in & the creatures who belong there. And us coming by with our Trouble in our belching bus. People foul up every beautiful place with their behavior they ruin every place on earth with their selfish Deeds. I ask you this: Tell me why did the Earth end up with Human Beings? Information Please! What do Human Beings ADD to a landscape?

By me Tres Osos is a sorry place to live also a sorry place to visit. Go look for yourself I do not say this from cheap spite I do not hold this View from my angry memories. Powdery brown dust sticks to every Surface there a crust of it cakes on the walls & stairs. A dry puff of Air and it sprinkles off the corners of the roofs like sand inside a Hourglass. Plus a constant supply of that dust curling off the low slopes behind the adobe houses. If a Astronaut by accident looks down upon Tres Osos the view will remind him of a handful of mushrooms on a crinkled paper bag. I say it looks the same from ground level.

Besides the dust etc. I observed a few children on the dirt road. They scampered all over & watched us go by their houses. Now I know how the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade feels. A little boy in droopy jockey shorts glued his eyes on us & forgot he was holding a watering can which was making thick mud under his feet. His sister pushed a bucket under it & they carried the sloshing load into their yard. Whitewashed walls wood shutters & no glass in the windows. Child faces popped up & looked out when they heard the Sound of our shoes on the bare hard dirt. Some excitement!

The only redbrick house in the Neighborhood belonged to Amelia. With glass in the windows & a heavy front door. A new affair with shingles instead of red tiles on the Roof this place was maybe ordered out of the Sears catalogue! Her American Dwelling which portrayed her financial achievements. Amelia skittered a few steps ahead of me to the shock of seeing the door was hanging open & the edge of it split & splintered to shreds.

This is what happened—

You can say a Bulldozer drove through her house. Or a bull. Her furniture turned over etc. a very violent sight. Even the carpets they ripped up & the floor underneath & holes hammered in the walls for spite! Her house wounded by the same wounds on Tio so I saw what happened there in a Flash—Tio got in the way of this Force it punched right through him & ploughed the house I say Tio was not strong enough to stop it. To fight off so much Hate a person needs equal hate inside him and Tio went down there his Love for Amelia & Dolores in both arms. The remains of his Love I saw in Ojinaga but the remains of the Hate that beat him I felt still buzzing in the midair.