Further Adventures (15 page)

Over his shoulder Tio said, “I don’t ’spect the
po
-lice showed up t’hep owt none.” A perfect Texas accent on him go figure!

“We should get out right away,” I said. “After a nap. Also you have a bathroom I can use?”

“Top of the stairs.” Tio craned his neck in that direction.

When I got there I noticed the dead silence hanging in the Air. The Mariachi music stopped playing and the only human Sounds came from Amelia & Tio speaking very low & serious in the kitchen. Every step I went up creaked which made me feel like a sneak thief coming in looking for the bathroom.

Look at my problem:

All the doors upstairs were shut a Choice of 4 every one of them painted the same (turquoise) a eye-pleasing contrast next to the gray panels in the hallway. Which way was the bathroom? O.K. this does not look like it is a very important decision in the course of Human Events but look where it led me face to face with a Clue I did not recognize.

My ideas about refreshing my face & hands etc. got pushed to the side of my Mind when I sniffed a smell standing there it was the scent of the East 8th. A cooking smell of hot oil & tortillas & refried beans also salty sweat. A Voice whispered to me it was the Voice of Peter Tremayne who encouraged me SNOOP AROUND. So very careful I nudged open the door in front of me it was not the bathroom it was a bedroom which could be a Army Barrack.

Maybe 30 faces stared at me all silent all Mexican all blank just wondering about my next move. All the cooking was on a hotplate in the middle of the floor and all around it they had blankets & sleeping bags with rolled-up clothes for pillows. A few bunk beds they squeezed against the walls even in front of the window. The shade behind they pulled down tight & I observed it was nailed to the wall.

“Howdy fellas,” I greeted them I waved my friendly hand. “I’m looking for the bathroom.”

Nobody answered me back. They went back to what they were doing before I interrupted. Combing hair playing cards stretching out reading magazines etc.

Good thing next door down was the promised bathroom. Also good thing I did not accept the Temptation to go in there to take a bath because the tub overflowed from dirty clothes soaking in cold water. It was foamy scum of dirt & dead suds floating on top. The sink was not better but at least nothing floating in it. I rinsed the hairs & whiskers etc. down the drain & filled up the clean sink with hot water. I caught a look at my face in the mirror on my way up from the sink dripping wet. A bloodhound stared back at me from the other side of the mirror.

Back in the kitchen when I waltz in Tio was by himself. His answer to my question what happened to Amelia went this way: “She’s around. Woman stuff.”

“In the house?”

“Hey Ray. You hungry enough for some o’ my flapjacks?” He even poured out Maple Syrup for me just like in the Log Cabin commercial pretty as a picture also out of a fresh pot I got a cup of hot coffee.

But I could not be the Hungry Lumberjack I choked on my first forkful it stuck in my throat like a little fist. I gulped a splash of hot coffee down after it then I gulped some air.

“Take ’er easy Ray! You O.K. now?”

“It’s my digestion. If I eat certain foods it’s cramps for me.”

Tio pulled my plate in front of him & he picked at the damp stack of hotcakes. “I got a similar complaint too.”

“Spastic colon,” was where I left it. In my High Ideals & Deeds etc. I am The Green Ray but my Earthly body is a different thing altogether I am Ray Green to my 73 year old bowels. Digestion problems do not disqualify me from Glory nor vice versa. “Blockage that’s what Tio.”

“You eat nuffa that fiber? Bran flakes and whatever?” Tio leaned across the table very interested in this discussion.

“Sometimes a week I’m cement down there.” My kitchen cabinet full of every food & constipation remedy known to Modern Science. “Doesn’t matter what I eat. Bran muffins. Bran-covered pretzels. Bran sprinkle. Uncle Sam Laxative Cereal.”

“What’s ’at? Never heard of it.”

“No damn good,” I said. “What I need is a high colonic. Anywhere you can recommend in the area?”

“High what?”

“Colonic. With a rubber hose. They insert it in your—a medical professional inserts this hose & pumps the water in and—” I spelled the mechanics of it until Tio started giving me a look like he smelled a dangerous gas leak.

“Like a enema,” he said to make sure he had it right. “That fixes you up huh?”

“For a couple of weeks.”

“Then you do it again?”

“Usually.”

“I don’t think it’d hep me Ray. Got the
opposite
problem. I cain’t
stop
goin’. Maybe I eat too damn much!”

“Listen. That could turn into something serious. You should have a checkup. If there’s a colonic place we could make our appointments together.”

“Naw. I don’t want t’get
that
friendly with anybody.”

“They’re medical professionals,” I tried to convince him. Then I dropped the Subject when Amelia came back in all smiles.

“Tomorrow I go to the bank. Now I can be tired and sleep,” she said & did a twirl for us in the middle of the kitchen very happy.

Tio wiped his hands on a towel before he reached over to hold Amelia’s hand. “I knowed it weren’t as bad as you thought it was. Be awright.”

To me she said, “You can sleep in Tio’s bedroom. Come on. Help me put on new sheets.”

“Where are you going to be?”

She jerked her chin in the direction of the stairs. “My bedroom. Tio is cleaning for me.”

From upstairs a noise of doors opening feet scuffling & things moving around. Which reminded me. “Who are they all in that room?”

“My cousins. Big family,” Amelia said. “Catholic.”

As soon as I set my eyes on Tio’s king-size bed a riptide of exhaustion heaved all the way through me from my feet upward from my head downward from my bones outward. Comfy cozy in there a boy’s idea of a cowboy bunkhouse with cattle horns on the wall & Navajo rugs on the floor Navajo blankets over the windows. I got into my clean p.j.’s I crawled inside the clean sheets I was ready to hit the happy trail to Sleepytime Corral.

Amelia sat on the side of the bed also she held my hand in her lap. I said, “Welp. We got here in one piece. Two pieces,” I corrected. “One piece each.”

She squeezed my fingers. “Muchas gracias. Muchas gracias to you.”

“Muchas gracias,” I repaid her.

“No—you say de nada.”

“De nada. What’s that mean?”

“You’re welcome.’”

“Thank you.”

“Gracias,” she said.

“Gracias,” I said back.

Amelia held her stomach to contain her laugh. “I say ‘gracias.’ You say ‘de nada.’”

“Got it. Start over.”

“O.K. Muchas muchas
muchas
gracias Raymondo.”

“De nada.”

“Bueno. Muy bien.”

“Beans you said. More beans. I think I’m getting the hang.”

By this point she was not listening to me she was laughing too hard. A very easy Audience in a festive frame of mind. Tears filled up her eyes & one of them hit my cheek when she leaned over to kiss me there.

A knock came on the door in that tender moment and Tio poked his head in. No hanky panky going on so he squeezed into the room he had a empty suitcase in his hand. His hair combed back & he had a snazzy suit on. I gave out with a Wolf Whistle which I think handed him a slightly nervous moment which handed me a real laugh. He put on his pair of Cowboy boots also he scooped a few items from his dresser a set of silver hairbrushes some cuff links etc. a couple of plaid shirts.

“Real nice to’ve made your acquaintance Ray,” Tio nodded at me.

“Likewise.”

“See ya around sometime.”

I waved good-bye. Amelia hung on his neck for a hug. “Con dios.” He kissed the top of her head then he went. She came over to me with a bloom of a smile on her lips. “You do all this things for me and you don’t want somethings back.”

“Give me this,” I said. “Those people in the other room. They really your cousins?”

Amelia did not let go of my hand she squeezed it.

So I asked her, “How many? A few?” She shook her head no. “A couple?” Again she shook no. “One?” She nodded yes—then she shook no.

“No cousins.” She tensed up & wanted to go.

But I held her wrist to keep her close. “I’m on your side Amelia. That’s fine. You don’t have to tell me anything else. See what you did for me? You told me something out of trust. The way I told you before.”

“What you told me?”

I will say this remark of hers sank in hard & belted me where it hurts. For on the floor of the bathroom at the Bluebird Motel outside of Van Horn Texas in a tender moment after danger passed us over I revealed my personal secret to her alone. Which it appears she altogether forgot!
I reveal who I really am to her and this minor Fact slips her mind!
Words I did not speak for 45 years I spoke out loud again! To Amelia! Out of the entire population of the world she was the woman who I handed this live Ammunition for I trusted her she was never going to use this atomic knowledge against me.

“What you told me before?”

Amelia wore the same blank look when she had a hunch she was going to hear bad news or sad news or if she had to brace herself for Trouble ahead. She did not blink & her eyebrows bent very low. She did not look upon me nor she did not look away she just waited stiff & calm for the dumbbell to land on her neck.

“Who delivered you from danger?” I hinted her.

“You.”

I awaited in Silence and I got:

“I don’t know how you want me to say.”

“Say who I am.”

She shifted on the bed & tried, “Ray.”

“O.K. you need a bigger hint. When people are in despair they want to believe there’s somebody somewhere in the world or beyond who’d care for them if he only knew about their terrible trouble & show up in person right on cue and make a difference in their sorry circumstances.” This did not jog her memory. “You know how a desperate person hopes it isn’t just empty space out there around him. I know it isn’t. Now you know it too for a fact. I hear all the despair going on because it’s my purpose on Earth to
find
people in despair. I found you. I singled you out. So you don’t have to wonder about is there somebody out there who cares what happens next. You know there is and you know who.”

Then she said, “Tomorrow is all finish. I get my money and things so maybe you don’t take me to Tres Osos. You can go home.”

This I did not wish to Discuss! “Of course I’m going to deliver you home! Halfway is no way! That’s why I told you the highest secret about me…I want to know…Listen. We can talk later. Tomorrow. On the way to Tres Osos.”

“I don’t want somebody else know things about me.”

“I’m not somebody else.”

Then defeated she kissed me on my cheek very deep.

Which reminds me—

“You’re the missing piece of the puzzle of my life,” I stated.

“You’re not going to tell her
that
!”

“Soon as I get her alone.”

“In those exact words?”

“Why not?”

“She’ll laugh in your face.”

“No she won’t. You don’t know her.”

“It’s the kind of sappy line Lamont Carruthers’d make you say.”

“Good. By me that’s a guarantee of quality.”

“She’ll laugh in your face.”

“I belong with Annie and she belongs with me. We go together like peaches and cream.”

“Like pickles and milk.”

This conversation between David Arcash and me went on while we pushed the button a dozen times for the elevator in the Liberty Building. Actors I think can be highly emotional under the heat of a moment
pleasure
or
pain
more like little Children than other civilians. Emotion
flares up very hot and it passes through in a hurry to make room for the next one.

A blessing in the Skies that came from our argument over Annie was I moved in to my own Apartment where I enjoyed myself living alone but I did endure long nights of Torment. Ideas about Annie returned to my mind they caused me Insomnia something frantic. I shut my eyes & I saw snapshots of how my Life could be with her in a sweet moment on a lawn or fresh coffee & the Sunday paper in the kitchen etc.

Nor this was not a fairy tale to tickle me back to Dream Land for in daylight hours Annie eyed me up sometimes by the drinking fountain e.g. or a curious glance off the page of her Script she obliged me some soft kind of interest. I know it is a easy matter to mix up pity & tenderness also how a wishful person will read into events but I felt some other emotion underneath those glances of hers. Which line of thinking led me back on the track of reckless romance.

This is before the pickles and milk conversation. When Annie’s glances and so on I took were a good sign David was working on Annie for me like a true pal. So before the Broadcast that night that day I went into the Green Room to be by myself for 10 Minutes before the Broadcast and calm my nerves as usual but the sight I got in there fired a jolt of Electricity into me it curled my toes & straightened my hair!

This:

DAVID & ANNIE

MOUTH TO MOUTH

They could pose perfect for the world-famous statue
The Kiss
by Auguste Rodin.

Annie saw me first. “Oops,” she said and smoothed her skirt and picked up her Script. She had to get past me to get away from that shameful Scene blushing not all embarrassment. She planted a kiss on my cheek. “You’re a sweet one Ray.”

“How do you know?” she got from me.

“I know a thing or two.” Annie clicked her tongue cocked her head and left the pretty cloud of her perfume in the Air.

David’s cloud in the air was talk & more talk. When his lips stopped moving I said, “You never told me what’s what. Shame on you.”

“Because we’re friends,” was his excuse.

I advised him he needed a headshrinker if he believed that. We scrapped back & forth over friendship and Annie also loyalty to somebody else’s Heart. “You’re worse than Lionel Horvath!” I accused him. Every time David spoke to me I made him talk to the back of my head.