Pink Neon Dreams (32 page)

“You can’t, not this time,” he said. “I’ll go and be
back here tonight, tomorrow at the latest with your cousin.
 
Then it will be over and we can get on with
life.
 
I’ve got you,
querida
, and I don’t intend to give you over to the grave.
 
We’ve got a future, Cecily, and I’m not
compromising it.
 
Besides, you’re in no
shape to go anywhere.
 
You’ve lost all
color in your face and you’re shaking worse than a wet dog.
 
Whether its nerves or you’ve got a virus,
you’re sick to your stomach.
 
Please let
me take you back to bed, clean up the mess, and go.
 
We’re wasting time fighting about it when I
need to be getting a plane ticket and heading up there.”

Her tummy threatened to rebel again and her legs
considered collapse.
 
Her skin alternated
from searing hot to cold.
 
Dizziness made
the room spin, the result of her intense spell of puking, but she felt icky
enough not to argue anymore.
 
“All
right,” she said with a major sigh. “You win.
 
I’ll stay, you go but you promise to be damn careful.
 
And call me a lot.
 
And bring Nia back in one piece, you hear?”

Daniel held her in his arms and nuzzled her forehead
with his lips. “I promise all of it,
mi
corazon.
 
Now, come back to bed while
I clean up after you.”

Cecily nodded. “Okay, but I want to get dressed, not
lie back down.”

The sour stench of her vomit almost undid her
resolve.
 
She thought she’d be sick again,
but she held her nose as he removed the offending mess.
 

“At least you managed to get it all in the trash
can,” he said as he carried it away. “I’ll be right back.”

Although the smell lingered, she managed to put on
clean jeans and a fresh blouse in his absence.
 
Cecily touched some lavender perfume to both wrists and the hollow of
her throat to further banish the bitter odor. Fresh air from the window helped,
too. By the time Daniel returned, she’d put on a little lipstick too and made
the bed.
 
His grim expression lightened a
little when he saw her.
 
“I thought you
were going to lie down.”

“I can’t,” she said. “I’m too worried and
nervous.
 
And I want to go to the airport
when you leave to say good-bye.”

He gathered her into his embrace and held her tight.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea or not.”

Some things she’d concede and others she wouldn’t.
“I’m going.”

****

An hour later, around eight o’clock, Daniel had a
seat on a plane leaving El Paso International at nine. Cecily sipped a tepid
soft drink while he booked it online through one of the travel sites.
 
He’d have a layover at Dallas-Fort Worth
airport but could catch the connecting flight into Springfield-Branson Airport
and arrive around four-thirty or five.
 
“I’ll rent a car from there,” he told Cecily. “And I’ll get to Branson,
take care of the situation, and come back.”

“You’d better,” she said. Dark foreboding gnawed
around the edges of her heart.
 
I don’t like this, not at all.
“Want me
to pack for you?”

Daniel shook his head. “I’m traveling light.
 
There’s nothing I really need but thanks.”

“What if you need to change clothes?”

“I left a few things at your place,” he said. “Or I
can buy a pair of jeans if I need them.”

Michael cleared his throat. “Are you ready? We need
to go if you want to make your flight.”

“Yeah,” Daniel said. “Let’s go.”

Luz stood straight as a soldier at attention near
the front door.
 
Her lips pressed
together in a tight line, her demeanor somber.
 
Michael patted her shoulder as he headed out to his vehicle, but when
Daniel approached, Luz opened her arms wide.
 
He kissed her cheek and hugged her.
 
Cecily heard their whispered exchange in Spanish but couldn’t grasp more
than a few simple words.
 
Even so, she
understood the pain and worry clouding Luz’s eyes.
 
Daniel followed his brother and Cecily
paused. “We’ll be back in a little while,” she said to the older woman.

“When you do, we talk,” Luz said.
 
“By then you’ll know what you must do,
chica.
”

With no idea what she meant, Cecily nodded.
 
She’d thought Daniel’s mom liked her but maybe
not. “Okay, sure.”

At the airport the red brown hills loomed tall
beyond the runways and dwarfed the large terminal.
 
Michael dropped them both off near the
arrivals entrance because there weren’t any parking slots near and time grew
short.
 
“Watch your ass,” he said to
Daniel as they climbed out onto the pavement.

“I will.” Daniel leaned back into the truck to clasp
his younger brother’s hand and then slung his arm across Cecily’s shoulders.
“Let’s get this over with,
querida.”

I don’t want to let him
go.
 
I can’t.
 
But
she walked into the airport with him, aware they must soon part ways.
 
Cecily remained at his side as he picked up
his ticket. She clung to his hand, unwilling to break physical connection.
 
Over all the din of the busy airport, they
heard the last boarding call announced for his flight.
 
“Don’t you have to go through security?” Cecily
asked.
 

“Yeah, I do.
 
I’m not flying as FBI today and besides, I’d still have to go through
the process.
 
It’s time for me to go,
Cecily.”

“Oh, God, sugar,” she said. Tears stood in her eyes
although she willed them not to flow. “I want to say so much and can’t think of
anything to say except I love you.”

“
Te amo
,”
he said.
 
He stood facing her. “I’ll be
back tomorrow if not tonight.”

“Take care,” she whispered. “Call me, all the time
or I’ll go crazy.”

“You won’t but I’ll call when I can,” he said. “Kiss
me and I’ll go.”

Willing, she took a step closer and their mouths
fused together with furious need.
 
They
matched and fit together, she thought, two halves of one whole.
 
Until Daniel, she’d never known love could be
both joy and sorrow, a sharp-edged knife.
 
As they kissed, Cecily touched his hair, her fingers combing through it
as if she could commit each strand to memory.
 
She caressed his cheeks, stroked his arms, and then just held him.
 
The kiss became communion and a blessing.

Daniel stoked her inner desire with his lips but
deeper. He drank from her and she gave all she had.
 
Before he released her, his arms tightened
around her and she drew strength from his love.
 
“Go,” he said. “Michael will pick you up and take you back to Mama’s
house. I’ll call you and I love you.
Adiós!”

“Bye,” Cecily whispered. “I love you.”

He squared his shoulders and left her in the lobby.
 
She couldn’t follow but watched him although
he never glanced back. Cecily’s heart ached as she watched, eyes blinded with
tears she didn’t try to stop any longer.
 
It isn’t good-bye forever, it’s
not.
 
He’ll be back tomorrow and I’ll run
to meet him.
 
He’ll wrap me up in his
arms and I won’t let him stop.
 
It’s
going to be fine.
 
Her bravado provided
courage to take the first few steps back through the lobby, but she stopped,
stricken with a sudden image in her head.
 
Daniel, face down on the floor, blood puddled beneath him and Nia
screaming, mouth open wide, eyes staring.
 

Panic built up, pressure within her chest until Cecily thought
she’d burst open.
 
She paused and leaned
against the wall, dizzy and sick to her stomach with the impact of what she’d
seen.
 
It’s not real.
 
It’s just because
I’m so scared.
 
It won’t happen.
 
Her wild thoughts rushed through her mind
with the force of hurricane winds, but she knew although it hadn’t happened
yet, it might.
 
She never saw visions or
whatever the hell you called this shit often and when she did, sometimes things
came true, sometimes they didn’t.
 
But
when they didn’t, she caused change.
 
I’ve gotta change it now.
 
I have to—I can’t lose him. I won’t.

Luz wanted to talk, she remembered.
 
And recalled too that Daniel had said
something about Luz’s having psychic gifts.
 
Maybe she’ll have answers.
 
Together we can figure it out unless she
wants to chew me out for bringing danger to her son.
She doubted the last—Luz
appeared to like her. Spurred with a combination of determination and hope, Cecily
found her stride and strolled outside to where Michael, as promised, picked her
up.

She didn’t say much on the ride back to Luz’s as her thoughts
wandered. She missed Daniel already.
 
Part of her mind winged across the wide open skies with him and she
imagined the view from the jet’s windows, the blue punctuated with puffy
clouds.
 
Although she’d never tried
before, Cecily attempted to cut loose her thoughts to see if they could find
him, like a homing pigeon.
 
Maybe she
imagined it, but she swore she sensed him, believed she tuned into his mind.
 
Something of his personality touched her and
lingered the way a favorite aroma might.
He’s
tense and afraid, but he won’t show it. He’s wound tight and he’s becoming lethal,
something I’ve not seen in him before now.
 
And he loves me, he’s thinking about me.

After blowing mental kisses his way, hoping he might somehow be
aware, she stared out the truck window.
 
Michael made an effort to talk and although she answered each question
he used as a conversation starter, Cecily didn’t elaborate and they fell
silent.
 
She hoped he didn’t mind—she
liked him but he brought out long latent bashful qualities she thought she’d
shed with adolescence.
 
Queasiness still
made her stomach uneasy and her concerns preoccupied her mind.

When Michael turned into his mother’s drive, Luz stood in the
open front door, a sentinel on watch.
 
Her serious expression didn’t lighten when they approached, but she
stepped back so they could enter.
 
“Daniel’s on his way, then?” she asked.

“Yes,” Michael said.

“Are you going home today as planned?”

“No, Daniel asked me to stay until he returns,” Michael said.
“I’ve got the time so I told him I would, to help you and Cecily with anything
you need.”

“Good,” Luz replied. “I made a list for the supermarket, some
things I need. It’s on the kitchen counter with some money.
 
Could you go now?”

Michael’s eyes widened and Cecily understood why.
 
Luz’s tone sounded crisper than burned
bacon.
 
“Sure, I can.
 
Cecily, would you like to come too?”

Before she could open her mouth to answer, Luz spoke. “No, I
need to talk to her.
 
She’s staying,
you’re going.
Hasta la
vista, mi hijo.”

His mouth dropped open. “Mama, is something wrong?”

“No,” she said, her blue eyes blazing with electricity. “But
there will be if I don’t talk with Cecily.
 
Go on, son.”

His expression changed and he resembled Daniel more than Cecily
thought he could.
 
Without another word
he hustled into the kitchen, retrieved the list, and headed back out the front
door.
 
Luz sank into her recliner and
motioned for Cecily to sit on the couch.
 

She did and they sat without speaking until the sound of
Michael’s truck faded into the distance.

Luz turned her piercing gaze toward Cecily.
 
She appeared to be fierce but not angry. “So,
now, we talk.
 
I think maybe you know
what about.”

Consumed with fatigue, nerves frizzled, and nursing an upset
stomach, Cecily met the older woman’s eyes without flinching. “Daniel.”

“
Si
,” Luz said. “He’s
heading into danger, maybe even death, but I don’t think I’m wrong to say you
feel it, too. You look as worried as I am, maybe even more.
 
I know you’re together, but you love him,
don’t you?”

“Yeah, I do,” Cecily said with some of her normal bravado.
“And, I have a bad feeling.
 
I even had
something like a vision at the airport.”