Further Adventures (20 page)

Etc.

Mixed in I saw PHOTOS (off a smudgy Xerox like all of the rest) of Amelia in the company of Tio but they did not I.D. him by that moniker. According to the label he was Julio Defuentes from Calexico. In another photo there he was again younger with his arm around a chorus girl in a casino in the city of Acapulco on the date March 17 1972.

Also PHONE BILLS from that time concentrating on Tio & Amelia &
with many calls to Washington D.C. also Dallas and Albuquerque. Stuffed in these pages I saw HOTEL BILLS from Las Vegas and CANCELLED CHECKS from there also Juarez Mexico. Some to Amelia and some to Tio. Some of them from 20 years ago & many from Recent days.

Also a ARREST WARRANT. I do not regret to tell you I stole this Document so I could rub her nose in it & teach her a Lesson of Life i.e. how lies lead liars to Defeat. How Guilt leads to Punishment. In my mind I started Rehearsal of my lines of anger & mercy. But after I
flipped her file face down I saw my Surprises for the day did not finish yet. A little white envelope Newberry stuck on the back there. Inside he put a coupon from a magazine the usual pitch i.e. THIS FREE GIFT IS YOURS TO KEEP FOREVER EVEN IF YOU SAY NO! Underneath where it had the Toll Free number to call & say YES! Newberry wrote in a local number instead. Also his instruction—4 O’CLOCK.

This was my Free Gift from him To Keep Forever: a brand new Driver’s License. This one will not expire for 10 years! Maybe he did not want me to worry about Traffic Court or a driving test at my age or he wanted to encourage me on my travels but now I believe his True Desire was to lure me by his favor.

Nurse Dubovey I have a Free Gift for you since this is my Last Will & Testimony. I want you to have the Contents of my Manure Box (safe deposit box) in the Johnson-Peabody Bank of Mason New Mexico. I HEREBY GRANT YOU all the Permission you need so you can open it just ask Mr. Lovebird to direct you to No. 3310 in the name of Reuven Agranovsky. What is in there is the Deed that belongs to John Newberry. Since I lost the Raymobile the only Property I have left is the money in the ashtray on my night table but that is not the only Difference between him & me. Look where High Ideals get a person!

I folded Amelia’s File double I crunched it down I used it for my pillow though I did not rest my aching head on a pile of Answers it was a pile of Questions. Namely & foremost I pondered how certain parties Deceive out of selfish motives & certain other parties deceive out of fear.

“Ooh-hoo,” you heard me cry then the Pressure doubled me over likewise I felt the Pacific Ocean rolling inside me. “Ooh-hoo!” I was crying & that was when you walked in on me.

My foot on the gas and my bowels going ooh-hoo even if I did not cry my pain out loud I missed the Entrance of the supermarket parking lot by a few feet & I drove up on the curb. To stay on the safe side so as I do not alarm any bystanders with a suspicious move I pretended I
was searching for a choice spot by snail crawling up & down every row. So by the time I drove around the back of the building Mr. or Mrs. Bystander would figure I just did not find any spot to my liking ergo I was circling around for another Looksee.

There she was Amelia as soon as I got around the corner. All by herself back there by the trash nor she did not see me for a long second so I got the privilege of a peek at her Genuine Character. She sat in the shade dangling her feet over the side of the Loading Bay where trucks deliver your vegetables fruit etc. she kicked her heels against the concrete wall carefree a Tomboy on vacation. By this same token I got a big smile and a sharp wave from her when I parked.

“You come early,” she slid in & said.

“Nothing’s wrong.” My reply came out too hasty it did not nip the bud of her Fears it fertilized them. So likewise in a Hell of a hurry I said, “Here we go!” & I stepped on it with the High Hope I left a tricky moment in the dust behind.

I let her enjoy the cowboy music on the Radio until I saw the final buildings of town shrink in my rearview & somewhere ahead the Open Spaces of Mexico. The hot atmosphere laid a heavy hand on my chest I could not catch my Breath from time to time. “Thirsty,” I said & licked around my dry lips.

Amelia looked over my face for a telltale of Worry which I was hiding from her but I concentrated both eyes on the road. The best way to treat Human Worries is one at a time and Number 1 then & there was I had to find a good location to pull over before 4 O’clock. Number 2 was how to force out the Truth behind Amelia’s dishonest deeds and what was I going to say when she started begging me not to hand her over also begging me to Forgive her etc.

“Got to pull over a minute,” I said when I saw a Diner a ways back from the side of the road. They built it out of a Authentic train car boosted up on a platform in the middle of a raw dirt lot. Also very im
portant in my Scheme of Things it had a phone booth behind the other side of the Diner so I parked where Amelia could not see it from the Raymobile. I sighed I did not stir.

Amelia twisted around in the front seat she twisted back with the Thermos in her hands. “Maybe they got good ice tea here hm?”

“Wait.” I dug in my pocket for the proof of her True Past to watch her trip up on her own fancy footwork but I had to get a few other items out of the way first in this case some loose change a gas station receipt & my fresh pack of Certs. “Wait,” I told her again.

“I have money,” she offered very helpful.

“Wait a minute.” I found the Arrest Warrant in my other pocket. I flapped it open in front of her. My new Driver’s License dropped in her lap. I rattled the Xerox. “This. I want to know about this.”

So the Tears are rising. A blink from her eyelids & they could spill out so Amelia did not blink. All going wrong at the final minute for her I believe she knew this. “Sure Ray.” Besides that she did not speak.

“Explain it to me!”

“Don’t shout!” She showed me her teeth. “I’m scared you know? How you get this…”

“Don’t worry about that. Before we go one step further,” I laid it out, “you have to explain it to me.”

“You explain me one thing too.”

“What?”

“How you get this.”

My calm tone of Voice let her know I am the Master of this tricky situation. “John Newberry.”

Amelia screeched at me like a wild animal & kicked the dashboard. “You meet him? You
cheat
!” She yanked on the door handle very furious she butted her shoulder on the door to get out.

“Wait a minute!”

“You cheater! You stink Ray!” She had the door open she grabbed her suitcase she ran into the road.

When I caught up with her she booted me in the leg she kept walking hitchhiking South. She called me a Stink & a Cheat a few more times also other names in Mexican which must be equal or worse. We got about 100 yards away from the diner and she grabbed my arm. “You tell him I’m going to Ojinaga?”

I shook my head no.

“What you tell him?”

“Let’s talk in the car.”

She stuck her thumb out for a ride. “Go away from me.”

“Not until you explain to me what went on with you before. I read your official F.B.I. file. Will you get back into the car before somebody stops?”

She did not stop with that eager thumb of hers. “It’s no mine.”

“It was Doris Day I was reading all about.”

“You say explain so I explain.”

“Come back to the car with me will you. Please.”

She shook her head and called me a Cheater again. “John Newberry give you that paper so you believe him. You believe
him
about my life!”

“Why can’t you just give me a straight answer for once?”

Out of the side of her mouth I got Disgust & she turned on a reckless smile very fetching to the cars going by. Except the next car did not go by it stopped & the driver waited.

“You can’t get into a stranger’s car,” I told her.

The motor revved. He beeped his horn & waved out of his window Hurry Up. Amelia waved back but she did not go ahead so he ran out of patience & peeled.

Back in the Raymobile we Continued.

“I told you,” she said. “It’s no mine.”

Did she think I was a Sucker of some kind? “You say. Somebody’s leading me around by the nose.”

“This is big lies.” She poked the Document she scolded it. “From him. So you cheat me.”

“It’s evidence Amelia! Official papers! Not from him from the F.B.I. in Washington. Proof in black and white!”

“F.B.I.! F.B.I.!” She waved her hands over her head. “He can make the things up! Just fake! Anthings he want. Any papers. Official! Any!”

My brand spanking new Driver’s License glared back at me from the dashboard. Good Point. “It’s a very confusing business Amelia. Tell me what’s really doing because this is making my head hurt very bad. Tell me what’s what so the next move I make I won’t regret.”

So Amelia gave out with the Following which according to her & practically in most of her Own Words is

THE STORY OF WHAT WAS REALLY DOING

The Story is Amelia Vasquez was born in Tres Osos a village in Mexico on October 25 1952 which by a coincidence also happens to be the birthday of the world-famous painter Pablo Picasso so maybe something in the Stars on that date makes a person grow up with a cockeyed view.

Her family was poor in a poor place her Papa did not rise higher than a lowly Bartender. Her Mama did not mind eating tortillas & beans for breakfast lunch & dinner & a snack she had more important things on her mind namely the secrets of the Zodiac. Mama’s knowledge of the push & pull of the Stars & Constellations did not help her foretell how Papa Vasquez was going to get squashed to Death by a runaway bus nor it did not foretell Amelia how her dear Mama was going to go crazy from Loneliness & get lost in the desert & die of a rattlesnake bite.

When this load of misfortunes befell upon her head Amelia was only 14 years old but she did not drag out the weeping & wailing instead she went direct into the Garment business. In Juarez her authentic Serapes & Sombreros got lapped up for pennies by the American tourists and by the end of the Tax Year the total of jumping beans in Amelia’s cash register was on the low side. Every single time she helped some Gringo load a pile of her pretty serapes in the trunk of his shiny Cadillac and she watched it hump away over the Border she imagined how cozy it would feel to be a tiny Flea hiding inside those serapes plus how her Life would turn into something better if she could jump out of the Cadillac trunk and plant her feet in the Land of Opportunity.

This idea ate her brain many years until it took up all the room in her head it did not stop there it burst out into Action. She took all of her jumping beans which came out to $500 American. The night Amelia went she did not tarry on the bank of the river to wait & see if the coast was clear she did not bid any sad good-bye to Mexico she just waded in the water up to her hips across the Rio Bravo & over into the Lone Star State.

When her Heart stopped pounding around her rib cage she heard whispering Voices in a ditch a few feet away. So she crawled over. A dozen hands pulled her down with them in the Ditch they covered her mouth. One of these Muchachos peeked up at the road & then he ducked down fast when the rumbling Sound of heavy wheels came at him out of nowhere. A spotlight scraped the ground by the Ditch & a Immigration car parked there.

The first American words that Amelia heard in the U.S.A. came out of a Beam of a flashlight pointed straight at her face. “Lookit here. Fresh fish.”

And next this—in a sweaty hut inside a wire fence it was young John Newberry asking her what was her name in a gentle tone of Voice.
This tactic of persuasion worked on her so she revealed her plans & High Hopes to him. This personal info he wrote down in the Official F.B.I. Report but he did not put Amelia’s on the pile with the rest of them he hid it in his personal pocket.

When the Sun came up she was sitting on a bus going back across the Mexican Border. A chubby man with dimples on his smooth cheeks & sweat stains on his Cowboy shirt was caring for her on their free ride home to the Land of Hot Tamales. His name was Julio Defuentes but on account of the Sympathy & Respect he gave her she called him Tio a Mexican kind of Endearment it means Uncle.

Tio was not any ordinary Wetback he had the honor of being a Mule. Now this critter may not have much Endearment attached to it but it lifted him above the Common herd since Tio was the Guide who led the Muchachas & Muchachos who were yearning to breathe free. Yes he had a kind Heart to him but no he did not do it for Charity. Tio was a working stiff for Señor Aguilar who did this low manner of Travel business for a good living. For a small Fortune in jumping beans he Guaranteed delivery in California or Arizona or New Mexico or Texas but on the other side a Client was on his own.

Amelia’s sudden Uncle recognized a spark in her Tio appealed very hard to her sensitive Nature & he proposed her a job. It was a service to the Needy so to say a perfect way for her to do Good Deeds for the poor huddled Mexicans yearning to breathe free la de doo dah plus at the same time boost up her supply of Tax-Free jumping beans.

Amelia signed on the dotted.

Out of his lawman curiosity maybe or private & from observing her success take off so fast John Newberry felt a urge tingle him to write a LETTER to Amelia. He wrote to her of his private Feelings about the unfair & unsquare shares of Wealth in this world. How he felt sincerely this cockeyed arrangement was nobody’s fault it was just a mess by Accident. For instance which side of a Border a person is born on or if such
a person is a woman or a man it loads the dice it stacks the cards. Or a criminal or a F.B.I. Agent.