Storiesonline.net ------- Cover Up by Openbook Copyright© 2005 by Openbook ------- Description: Man finds himself caught up in a dilemma. He makes a tough decision, and then is forced to choose again. There is not much in the way ofexplicit sex, only some violence and the repercussions of that. Codes: Mf violent het interr ------- ------- Chapter 1 Ed Harris had gotten off duty at 6:00 A.M. and driven the fifteen miles to his off base apartment. After 12 years in the Air force, Ed had finally gotten tired of living in a barracks and had rented himself a little one bedroom apartment in town. He liked the privacy. The ability to sit by himself, doing nothing, without constant interruptions, was what he had been seeking. His apartment gave him that. He had parked and was walking up the stairs when he heard a shot fired, a woman screaming, and then two more shots in quick succession. Ed ran up the remaining stairs and towards the sounds he'd heard. A door opened just as he had arrived at it, and a woman collided with him, forcefully enough to send her tumbling back inside the apartment she had been leaving in such a hurry. Ed reached in to give her a hand back up when he spotted a bloody mess lying on the floor next to the fallen woman. The bloody mess in question was Ed's neighbor, Ted Forrest. He was bloody because someone had just fired three shots into him, two in the chest and one in the face, just to the right of his nose. "Please, I've got to go. Please, let me go, I've got to get home, please?" The woman was back on her feet, trying to push past Ed, who was effectively blocking the door. "Hold it lady, you aren't going anywhere until the police get here. Just settle down." Ed restrained her in his arms easily. She was panicked, but not to the point where she was very resisting yet. She just collapsed against him and began weeping disconsolately against his chest. Ed grabbed her black handbag from underneath her arm and led her around the body to the sofa on the far side of the room. He was careful to avoid stepping in any blood or disturbing the crime scene in any way. He helped her sit down and then opened her purse, confirming with his own eyes that the probable murder weapon was inside. There was a small pistol, a revolver, blue tinted gray, resting on top of the pile of things in the purse. Ed looked down at the woman, really taking a look at her for the first time. She appeared to be in her late 30's, brown hair, dark complected, on the shortish side and carrying about an extra 30 pounds of weight on her. She was neither pretty or homely in her facial features. Ed thought that he'd describe her as average looking, probably Hispanic. Ed knew she wasn't anything at all like the other girls he's seen with Ted in the past. The woman continued to keep her head down, her crying somewhat abated but still taking place quietly. She now seemed to be having problems with a case of hiccups. Ed started looking around for a telephone, wanting to call in the authorities and let them get to the bottom of this mess. He saw a phone on the breakfast nook over in the kitchen. It was fifteen feet away and Ed didn't want to put that much distance between himself and the woman, afraid she'd make a run for it. He had just about talked himself into chancing it, when a young girl opened the bedroom door and peeked her head out. She saw Ed and the woman and then looked over at the dead body by the door. She opened the bedroom door and started to walk towards Ed before she stopped short and collapsed onto the carpet. One second, she was walking just fine, the next one she was dropping in a pile on the floor. She made some noise as she fell down and the woman on the sofa looked up. Seeing the girl, she jumped up from the sofa and ran over to her. "Maria! Get up Maria." She started to gently shake the unconscious girl. Ed stood between her and the door, making sure that neither tried to leave the apartment. The woman put her arms under the girls and dragged her over to the sofa, lifting her and sitting her up on one end, and then sitting herself down right next to the girl. She then began rubbing the girl's arm and talking to her quietly, soothingly, reassuring the girl that things would be OK. After a couple minutes, the girl opened her eyes and hugged the older woman and started to cry. The two spoke together quietly for a time and then the woman asked Ed if he would get the girl a glass of water. "You get her the water, I'll stay right here and make sure neither of you makes a run for it. There's a dead man over there and the police are going to want to talk with both of you." Ed motioned with his hand towards the kitchen and the woman got up and went to the sink. She found a glass and filled it with water and returned to the sofa, offering the girl the glass and watching as she drank it down. The woman took the empty glass from the girl and put it down on a lamp table next to the sofa's edge. "Please let my daughter leave. She didn't shoot him, I did. I don't want her here when the police come. Please, she's only 14 years old." As she spoke, she used her hands to urge the girl up off the couch. The girl resisted, clinging to the woman and saying no, no, no each time the woman tried to move her away. Both of them were crying as they struggled, each trying to get their way. Ed finally told them both to quit it and asked the woman what had happened to lead up to the killing. "He was a bastard, that man, using innocent girls, giving them drugs and making them do terrible things to earn him money. He took my Maria and made her into a whore! She's a baby, and he had her doing things that were unspeakable for a grown up to do, let alone a little girl. He gave her drugs and then he made her sell herself to get money for more drugs." "He didn't make me, Mama, I wanted to do it. I only used a little drugs, just to party sometimes. Teddy was my friend, he helped me. He got me on the birth control so I wouldn't get pregnant. I was doing things with the boys at school for nothing and Teddy showed me how to do the same things, but to at least make money from it. He was my friend and now you've killed him!" Ed watched the two, fascinated by the interplay between them. He had only known Ted slightly, but he had seen a steady parade of young girls coming and going during the day. None as young as Maria, but still girls in their teens or early 20's. He took a good look at Maria. She did look fourteen, maybe even younger. She was thin and cute, not developed much, certainly not someone he'd think of having sex with. "So Maria, Ted was helping you?" "He was my friend. He set up my 'dates.' He made sure I got paid and he gave me rides to the parties. I worked bachelor parties mostly. Sometimes conventions. If I wanted some weed or some pills, he got them for me. He was a friend. I'd give him some head sometimes, but mostly we were just friends. He let me keep my clothes here, the ones I couldn't take home with me. He kept my money too. When I needed any, for any reason, I'd ask him and he'd just give it to me." Ed looked over at Maria's mother. She was staring at her daughter. Maybe she was starting to realize that she'd killed her daughter's agent and that the agent hadn't totally been responsible for her daughter's corruption. Ed could understand a mother wanting to protect one of her children. He was sorry now that he'd gotten himself involved. "Look, I'm sorry about your daughter. It looks to me like Ted was a piece of shit, exploiting her in some ways. It also looks like she was already bent that way, from what she says about the boys at school. I don't envy you. I don't condone you killing him either. You should have just called the cops and gotten Maria some psychological help afterwards. I'm going to leave now. I'd appreciate it if you'd just both forget that you've ever seen me. My advice is that you call the cops and tell them what happened here, but you guys can do whatever you want to. Just, please, keep me out of it." Ed dropped the purse on the floor and walked out of the apartment, carefully stepping around the body as he made his way outside. He walked quickly over to his apartment and let himself inside. A minute later, he saw Maria and her mother leave. They got in an old red Mustang and drove away from the apartment complex. Ed went into his bedroom, undressed, took a shower and went to bed. He was awakened at 1:00 PM by the police knocking on his door. He spent about 20 minutes answering their question, telling him that he'd gotten home at about 8:00, had heard or seen nothing out of the ordinary. He told the police that he knew Ted casually, had had a beer or three with him over the couple months that they'd been neighbors. He couldn't say what Ted did for a living but did remember he'd had lots of lady visitors. No, he hadn't met any of the visitors. No, he didn't know why anyone would want to kill Ted. Two months went by and Ed hadn't heard or read of anyone having solved the case. He had put the whole unpleasant episode out of his memory. He was returning to his apartment after a day spent quietly at the nearby beach. As he reached the top of his stairs, he looked over and saw Maria sitting by his doorstep. She was wearing jeans and a tank top with worn tennis shoes. There were two large shopping bags laying beside her. When she saw Ed, she stood up and smiled. Ed moved to his door, unlocked it and walked inside. Maria picked up her two bags and followed him inside, shutting the door behind her. "Hello Maria, I'm surprised to see you again. How is your mom?" "Hi, my mother is fine, I'm sorry, I don't know your name?" "Ed, Ed Harris, like the actor?" "Hi Ed. My mother, my brother and I moved to Las Vegas right after that day. I hated it there. My mother was always yelling at me and watching me every minute I was awake. We fought all the time. It got so bad that she just gave up and told me to do whatever I wanted to do. So I left. And here I am." "OK, so why did you come here. Don't you think that's dangerous?" "No, not for me. It would be dangerous for her. I knew she'd never come looking for me here. Besides, I think you're cute. I was hoping I could stay here for awhile. Just until I get myself set up again with an outcall service. Don't worry, I'll take care of you, you won't be sorry." She licked her lips and put her thumb in and out of her mouth suggestively. Ed picked up the phone and took a business card out of his wallet and started dialing. "Detective Walters please, Ed Harris calling." Maria snatched up her bags and scooted out of his apartment like a swarm of bees were after her. Ed listened as the recording told him the correct time and then he cradled the phone. He went over to the window and watched as Maria ran across the street and continued moving away from his apartment. ------- Chapter 2 Ed was sitting in his small apartment, trying to relax in the heat. Even with the front door wide open, and all the windows opened as well, the apartment was sweltering. This seldom happened in Santa Cruz, this unbearable dry heat. Usually the off shore ocean breezes assured residents of moderate temperatures and pleasant, comfortable weather. For the past few days though, the air had been hot and dry, and there was only a gentle little warm current of air moving in from the desert and then out to the sea. Further south and along the coast, the natives referred to these as Santa Ana winds, but down there, the winds were much stronger than they were here. The various chambers of commerce never mentioned this particular weather condition when they put out their advertising blurbs in the travel magazines, trying to entice more tourists to come there for a visit. It had been a month since Maria had shown back up on his doorstep. He'd sent her away as soon as she told him what her intentions were, and had then tried his best to get her out of his mind. As far as he was concerned, she was just another runaway, one making choices for herself that could only lead to a wasted life, probably cut short too soon by drug use and disease. It wasn't his problem though, and he wasn't about to let himself get involved. Not getting involved was something Ed Harris was good at. Twelve years he'd put in with the Air Force, doing his work, but keeping mostly to himself. He stayed out of trouble, mostly by refusing to get involved with anything he wasn't absolutely required to be involved with. His needs and wants were simple, both nearly identical to each other, as a matter of fact. In his entire adult life, the most radical decision he'd ever made, other than first signing up to join the Air Force, had been renting his off base apartment. It was his discontentment with barracks living that was the first real sign that he was no longer happy just drifting through life aimlessly. Ed didn't particularly like the military service life, and, if you'd have asked him, he wouldn't have claimed to be particularly patriotic, or to have served for so long out of any strong sense of duty. It had simply been easier to keep signing up for another four years of service, each time his previous enlistment had been close to expiring. He had nothing else he wanted to do, no one that he cared enough about to even consider visiting. Ed got thirty days of annual leave a year. He used half of it, usually doing nothing, and the other half he would sell back to the government, every time he reenlisted. For the average person, Ed's life would have been extremely dull and boring. For Ed, it was all that he had ever been used to. He had no real firm goals in his life, and harbored very few aspirations. He was thirty two years old, was responsible to or for no one else, and was very content with caring for no one. He didn't want trouble, but, want it or not, trouble was about to descend on his doorstep in a hurry. ------- "Hey. Are you awake in there?" Ed looked up from the near stupor of extreme heat exhaustion. He'd been almost asleep when the voice had disturbed the quiet tranquility of his attempt at getting some rest for his weary body. At his front door stood that girl, Maria. This time she had a large green duffel bag, balancing the weight of it on her hip, held there by the long strap she had slung over her head and pressed against her neck and shoulder. "You've come back? I thought I told you there was nothing around here for you? Either beat it right now, or else I'm calling that detective again." "Can I come in for a minute? Maybe just to pee, and get a little glass of ice water? I'm tired, and I didn't have no other place I could think of where I could go." Ed sat there, trying to think of some other way of telling her he didn't want to get involved with her in any way. She was nothing to him. He sure didn't want or need to get himself caught up in any of the problems she was likely to be bringing. "I don't have any ice. Look, I don't want to sound mean, but I really don't want to get myself involved in whatever this is you think you're doing. I thought you were going to go back to doing whatever it was you were doing with Ted before? Why don't you go see some of those people, instead of coming here to pester me?" "That didn't work out so good, so I left. Can I come in? I gotta pee, really bad too." Ed was getting ready to tell her that she couldn't come in, when she did. She unslung her huge tote, or whatever that thing was called, and walked quickly over to Ed's bathroom. Without her even bothering with closing the bathroom door, Ed soon heard the unmistakable sound of the girl's pissing. From the sound of things, she hadn't been exaggerating one bit when she'd said she'd really had to go. He heard his toilet flush, and then the sound of water running in the bathroom sink. A minute later, Maria emerged from his bathroom. "Thanks. I was afraid for a second there that I wasn't going to make it. Can I get some water now too?" Ed nodded his head, not wanting to have a fight with her about anything so small as her getting a simple glass of water. Maria moved over to his tiny kitchen and went right for his refrigerator. Less than five seconds later, Ed heard the metallic click of one of his diet Pepsi's being opened up. A second after that, he saw the refrigerator door closing and Maria hurriedly gulping down the contents of the can of soda. It looked like she wanted to get as much as she could down her, in case Ed wanted to raise some objections about her just taking one of his sodas like she had. "You can take the can with you and leave." "Can I stay here inside with you until it gets dark? I'll sit over there, on the floor. You won't even know I'm here. Please?" She pointed to the front corner of the living room, at the far wall away from his door. "I'm sorry, no. Please leave. I told you I'm not comfortable with any of this, so I'd rather you just leave, now. There's nothing here for you. You need to be on your way." Maria stood there, looking at him. He returned her stare, noticing as he did, the dark bags under her eyes, and the obvious signs of strain and fatigue on her face. She looked like she felt lost and alone, so sad and defeated too. This wasn't the same girl he'd seen only one short month ago. That girl had been confident and full of life and hope. He knew this was the same girl, but something must have happened for her to start looking so run down and unsettled, which was how she now appeared to him. "If you let me stay, I'll do you. Just for long enough so it will be dark out. Then I'll leave, I promise." "I don't want you to do me. Look, if you're broke, I can let you borrow a few dollars. You can go over to the movie theater and take in one of the movies over there until it gets dark. They have air conditioning in the theaters. You'd be a lot more comfortable being there." As he spoke, Ed stood up and reached for his wallet. He found a ten dollar bill inside and pulled it out, thinking to walk over and hand it to her. "I've got money myself, more than you do, that's for sure. I just don't want to go anywhere where someone might see me right now. Just let me stay here until it gets dark, okay? I'll clean up your kitchen or something. I could mop the floor in the kitchen for you. It could sure use it too." Ed knew his apartment was already clean. He kept it that way all the time, out of force of habit. A habit he'd gotten into from all his years of having to be ready for those surprise military room inspections over in the barracks. If it hadn't been so warm, and if all his energy hadn't already been used up from too many nights of it having been too hot for him to get a good night of sleep. Maybe it would have been different too, if he hadn't just gotten home after pulling a fourteen hour double shift out at the base the night before, Ed would have probably kept on resisting her. He knew all it would take was a little bit of firm resistance to make Maria give up and leave him in peace. Instead of putting up that resistance though, he just shrugged his shoulders and went over to turn on the television set. He'd let her stay, but only until after it got dark. Maria went and reclaimed her large duffel, taking it over to the one bare corner of the small living room, before dropping it right there in that corner. She then sat down heavily, right in front of the bag, leaning her back up against it and the wall. Ed tried to ignore her, and mostly succeeded in this, because his channel surfing had turned up a fishing program that he'd never seen before. Ed liked watching fishing shows. He'd never been fishing himself, and had no intentions at all of ever doing so. Still, in spite of that, he liked watching shows like this one, because he enjoyed seeing other people catching fish. He sat there in his chair, engrossed in the show, forgetting that Maria was even in the apartment. When he did remember, during a particularly long and boring commercial break, and turned his head to look at her, she was already sleeping. Her head had slumped forward, until her chin was resting on her chest. Ed went back to watching his show, just as soon as the commercials were over. The remainder of Ed's afternoon and early evening were spent like that, him watching the television, and Maria sleeping. At around eight thirty, a half hour before it would be getting dark, Ed awakened Maria. He had heated up two TV dinners before he awakened her, thinking that she might like to eat something before she took off. All he had were Banquet Mexican TV dinners. They had been on sale for twelve for ten dollars, and Ed had taken advantage of that good price by filling his small freezer with them. The two of them sat at his tiny dinette table, quietly eating their meals, each thinking their own thoughts as they did so. It only took a few minutes to finish off their meal. "Thank you, that was good. Can I take a quick shower before I go?" Hearing her voice had startled Ed out of whatever thoughts he'd been having. He looked up at her as she spoke, and then told her he guessed it would be okay for her to do that. She stood right up after he had given her permission, walking over to the living room corner to retrieve her bag to take it into the bathroom with her. Ed heard the sound of the shower water starting up as he began to clear away the mess left over from their dinner. Ed started looking at his watch after Maria had been in the shower for fifteen or twenty minutes. He could usually shower just fine in five minutes or less. He wasn't used to having anyone else in his apartment using his shower. He looked at his watch a second time and told himself he'd give her five more minutes before telling her she had to turn off the damn water and get out of his bathroom. He waited five more minutes, and then another five minutes after that, before finally deciding that enough was enough. He really was going to get her out of his bathroom, out of his apartment, and out of his life. He went over to the bathroom and began knocking loudly on the door. "Maria, come on, let's go. You've been in there long enough. You've got to be clean by now." He waited, but she wasn't responding to him. The shower was still running, and she hadn't ever responded to his many knocks, or to his shouted instructions. After another two or three minutes of him calling out to her, but not getting any answer back, he reached down and tried the door handle He was surprised to find that the door hadn't even been locked. Inside the bathroom, he found Maria slumped over on the toilet, naked, her left arm tied off with a rubber tourniquet, and, on a plastic cutting board covering her lap, an empty used syringe. Ed had taken all of this in during the time it took him to reach in to turn off the water in his shower. Maria was oblivious to all he was doing, completely out of it. For a minute, Ed thought she might have taken a fatal overdose of some narcotic. In front of the toilet, right near her feet, was the green canvas bag she'd brought into the bathroom with her earlier. Inside the bag were several smaller plastic bags, each containing four or five ounces of some kind of a white, powdery, substance. He also found two fully loaded automatic pistols, and a few items of girl's clothing. He discovered a large cardboard shoe box, which, after he had opened it and looked inside, had turned out to be filled with several syringes, five or six smaller boxes of hypodermic needles, three Bic butane lighters, a small opened bag of cotton balls, and several metal kitchen spoons, all with bent handles. All of these spoons also carried the tell tale black burn marks on their bottoms. All the way in the far back of the bag was a brown paper grocery bag that had been rolled up at the top and clipped closed with two of those plastic clips people often bought and used to reseal the tops of their potato chip bags. When Ed looked inside this bag, in order to discover its contents, he found forty seven tightly rolled wads of cash, all of them hundred dollar bills. Each of these were kept tightly rolled together by having been wrapped with three twists with a black rubber band. They all seemed to be of a single uniform size, so Ed took the rubber band off of one of these rolls and counted up the money. When he finished counting it the first time, he then started over, counting it again, but more slowly this time. It came out to be a total of fifty bills, both times he counted. That was $5,000.00, and, assuming all the other wads of bills were the same, there was $235,000.00 sitting in that paper grocery bag. Ed was in shock. What was Maria doing with all these drugs, and all this money? Ed carefully put everything back just the way it had been, then took the bag out of his bathroom and back over to the corner of his living room, right where Maria had originally moved it. He then went back into the bathroom and tried to awaken the girl. First, he removed the white plastic cutting board and the syringe, putting them on the basin of his sink. Next, he lifted Maria, grabbing her from underneath her arms, then, half dragging her, half carrying her, made his way over to his bed. She was alive, he knew that much now at least. When he dropped her on the bed, she started grumbling and complaining about not wanting to be disturbed. Ed noticed a large tattoo that had recently been applied right in the center of the small of her back. It was a huge black skull with fire erupting from both eye sockets. Beneath the skull, written in an ornate script design were the letters B.D.M.C.C. Seeing that, Ed let out a surprised breath. He'd seen that skull design before. At the time he'd first seen the design, it was adorning the leather motorcycle jackets of a biker gang, some of whose members were then in the process of passing him while he'd been driving back from the air base where he was stationed. It was the insignia of the members of the Black Diamond Motor Cycle Club. They were a gang of mostly black motorcyclists, but their leader, and about another third of their gang members were made up of various nationalities of Asians. Ed didn't know too much about the gang, other than the fact that they had been through numerous run in's with all the local law enforcement people. According to news reports, they were often linked to many ongoing criminal investigations. It wasn't unusual to hear their names and see their faces featured in the local print news, or on the TV news programs. Ed remembered that the gang had been linked to some of the organized prostitution rings operating within some of the nearby cities. He was afraid now, very afraid. Somehow, he just knew that Maria had gone and gotten him mixed up in the middle of something that could easily wind up getting him killed. He knew now who the drugs had belonged to, and the money too, not to mention both guns that he'd found. He went to his open front door and closed it, turning the lock shut as he did so. He knew that little lock wouldn't keep any determined person out for very long, but it made him feel just a little bit safer anyway. After that, he closed and locked the two windows in the front of his apartment. That done, he turned off all the lights, except for the one he'd deliberately left on in his bathroom. He was sitting in the bathroom later, trying to come up with some plan which would enable him to put some distance between himself and Maria, and all the danger her presence now posed for him. All he had managed to come up with, after more than an hour of deep thought, was for him to call the base first thing in the morning and put in an urgent request for some emergency leave. He knew it shouldn't pose any problem for him to have his request approved. The personnel clerks were always telling him he needed to take some of his excess leave. He'd have to drive over to the base and sign out from there to begin his leave. He could probably handle the whole process by only needing to deal with the squadron clerk who was tasked with handling personnel issues. After he had gotten his leave approved, and had signed out from the station, he'd have plenty of time to drive Maria as far away from him as he could possibly get her. He had an idea the he'd probably end up driving her back to her mother and brother in Las Vegas. After he'd turned her back over to her mother, then, he could continue on from there, possibly driving all the way back to Illinois, where he'd lived while growing up. Maybe, after him being gone for a month, any trail that Maria might have left which could point back to him, would then be too cold for anyone to be able to follow it. He hoped so, because this was the only plan he could come up with. Once he'd reviewed his plan and it felt all right to him, he got up and turned out the light while exiting the bathroom. He went back into his bedroom, hoping to be able to revive Maria enough so he could find out about anything else he might need to know before he started putting this plan of his into motion. Waking her proved impossible though. Short of slapping her awake, he knew she wasn't going to allow herself to be roused. After ten or fifteen attempts at trying to get her to respond to his calls for her to wake up, he simply gave up, climbing over her sleeping naked body to try to get some rest himself. He slept in his tee shirt and the light track shorts he wore over his boxers. He wasn't planning to rest for long, but his lack of adequate sleep from the previous days soon had him snoring away contentedly. When he woke up, at seven the next morning, Maria and her green canvas bag were both gone. When he went into his bathroom, a short time later, he noticed the syringe she'd used, and the plastic board he'd found on her lap, had been taken away as well. He should have been relieved, but he wasn't. He knew that the people who were after Maria would be coming after him too, sooner or later. He only spent a minute sitting down in his chair in the living room before getting back up and going back into his bathroom to get himself a shower. He would have to hurry to make himself ready in time if he was going to be pulling his regular duty shift later out at the base. When he came out of the bathroom, naked, still drying his hair with his bath towel, Maria was sitting down on his bed, eating a jelly doughnut, and sipping from a large container of coffee. As soon as he caught sight of her, he pulled the towel off his head and quickly wrapped it around his waist. He was angry, and also a little embarrassed that she'd seen him without his clothes on. "I thought you took off. How did you get back inside here?" "I woke up and I was hungry. I wanted some coffee too. You were dead to the world, and I couldn't even find any instant here in your apartment. I brought you back a couple of doughnuts too. They're out on your table in the kitchen. I didn't bring you any coffee though." "I don't appreciate what you did in my bathroom last night, Maria. Suppose you had overdosed and died? Do you have any idea how much trouble I'd be in then?" "I was only fooling around with that, just chipping a little. That shit's powerful man. I'm glad I chickened out and only skin popped it. If I'd gone for a vein, like I was planning on doing, I probably would have OD'd. I don't think anyone has even stepped on it at all yet. You don't find anything that pure out on the streets. You probably went through my bag when you saw what had happened, right?" "I had to clear it out of the way so I could bring you over here to the bed. I put it back in the living room. I didn't take anything, if that's what you were wondering about." "But you still went through all my stuff, right?" "I looked, but only after I noticed those guns that are in there. I saw the drugs, syringes, the packs of needles, and all the other drug paraphernalia. I saw that tattoo on your back too, so I have a pretty good idea of where you got all that stuff. Those people don't play any games Maria. Is there any way you can give them their money and drugs back, a way where they wouldn't necessarily still think they have to kill you?" "I'm not giving any of this shit back to those murdering motherfuckers. They killed Calvin. We were going together when it happened, and we were getting pretty close too. So now, I think anything he had in his crib when he died, all that stuff has gotta be mine now. Everything I took away from his crib, that's what I'm going to be keeping. All of it." "Have it your way. I'd appreciate it though if you wouldn't tell them that I let you sleep here when they finally do catch up to you. I don't want to get involved in the kind of trouble I know they can give to people." "They won't catch me. I'm not even sure that they knew about Calvin and me, that we had our little thing going on together. As far as they ever knew, I was just one of the street girls that he was running on his string. When word got out to all of us down on the boulevard, that Calvin been taken down, most of the other girls, they took off too, just like me. Nobody even knows that I had my own key to get into Calvin's crib." "Thinking like that is going to get you killed, Maria. Whoever killed Calvin is going to be going around looking for all that money, and for those drugs too. When they do, they won't be wanting to leave anyone they find with their property alive. Especially not someone who could possibly identify them later, or who could be used to tie them to a murder. Then there's you, Maria. They'll come looking for you too, even if they don't know you have their drugs and money. Doesn't the fact that you have their club symbol tattooed on your back mean that they will consider you to be their personal property? "Calvin got these tats put on all his girls. I don't think us having them has any special meaning. He was just a freak about wanting people to look at him and think he was some kind of a bad ass. I do know Calvin sometimes partied with some guys who ran with that black biker gang, but he was mostly just doing a little business with them. He'd get some grass and some speed from them once in a while, and, after, he would take some girls over to some of their club parties, his way of paying them for the pot and the meth. He never took me over there though. They wouldn't know my face at all, even if they saw me. I don't think he was really into any of the rest of it. Calvin just ran a few whores, that's all." "What about that bag then?" "This was Skeeter's bag. He was a good friend of Calvin's. Now Skeeter, he really was a hard core biker dude. But, he was a white boy. He wouldn't be running with the Black Diamonds, no way. The people that came into that bar on Wednesday, they were both white too, and they had come there just to pop Skeeter. At least that was how people who were there said it went down. All this I'm telling you now is just what I heard later. Calvin just happened to be sitting there in the same booth with Skeeter when the shooting started. I'm pretty sure no one else even knew that Skeeter had come by and dropped his stuff off at Calvin's crib before him and Calvin finally hooked up at the bar. Him and Calvin, they had jailed together. They were tight. He had his own keys to the apartment so he could come and go whenever he was in town. Calvin and Skeeter, I guess they could have possibly had something they were up to together, but I really kinda doubt it. Calvin didn't like doing any real strong arm stuff. He said he was a lover, not a fighter. He liked people to think he was all hard and tough, but that was just him fronting up. Calvin was very sweet. He never did hit any of the girls he had out hustling for him." He started feeling better about his chances for getting out of this alive. He still knew his possibilities for surviving were going to hit rock bottom if anyone ever came looking for that bag, and then found Maria standing there holding it. He wished she hadn't come by. He wished his front door had been closed when she did. Most of all, he wished she hadn't gotten him involved like this with her problems. He knew one thing for sure, and that was that he didn't want to let her out of his sight until after he decided on how to separate himself from her without having to always be worried that someone might be coming after him. "Get yourself ready to leave. We're going out to the air base." Ed turned away from her, walking over to his clothes dresser to get his underwear out so that he could start getting dressed in his fatigues, and drive out to the base. What Maria had said had comforted the worst of his fears. He still felt that he should go forward with the plan he'd put together the night before. If nothing else, it would put four hundred plus miles between himself and Maria. Not as much as he might have liked, but much better than what he now had. ------- Chapter 3 Ed and Maria drove up to the air station without any problems. Maria had chosen to ride in the back seat of his car at first, and had been sitting hunched down in the seat so as not to be easily seen or recognized. Once they were out on the road heading up the mountain, Maria climbed over the console opening and sat in front. "Sitting in the back makes me car sick. How far is this base we're going to?" "At the top of this hill, maybe another seven or eight miles. I'm going to go straight to the orderly room and try to get everything taken care of from there. If things all go right, we should be able to drive back through San Jose and head south from there." "San Jose is where this all happened. I can't be seen in San Jose. Can you leave by a different way?" "I can use a back road I know about. It won't be as fast, but we won't end up in the city that way. How come you haven't asked me where we're going?" "As long as it takes us away from here, it doesn't matter that much where you're taking me. After you drop me off, I can get a bus to anywhere I decide to go. I might go to New York, or maybe to Florida. I haven't decided where I want to go yet." Ed left her in the car while he went into the orderly room to apply for leave. The clerk wasn't busy, so he wrote up Ed's leave request and carried it right in for the first sergeant and the squadron commander to both sign off with their approval. Thirty days leave was granted after no more than a ten minute delay. The clerk even let him sign out on the first line of the next day's sign out log, so that his leave didn't officially start until the next day. Ed left the address and phone number of his aunt back in Illinois as the place where he could be reached in an emergency. That was also his military home of record, since he'd been living with his aunt when he'd first enlisted. When he came out of the orderly room, Maria had attracted two younger airmen to her side of the car, and the three of them were involved in an animated discussion. As soon as Maria spotted Ed coming back to the car though, she said something to the two G.I.'s and they looked over at Ed and said their goodbye's rather quickly before walking away from Ed's car. "What was that all about?" Ed wasn't pleased with the idea of Maria possibly soliciting those two guys for paid sex. The last thing he needed was to come back to the base and have people thinking he had been bringing Maria up to the base in order to pimp her out to the other G.I.'s. "I was just sitting here like you told me to. They came over and started asking me some questions. I told them I was waiting for my boyfriend. They said they recognized your car, and they didn't believe that you were really my boyfriend." "I'm not. You weren't flirting with them or trying to set up some kind of a date for money, nothing like that?" "They were only there for like four or five minutes. I'm through with that life anyway. Whoring isn't any fun after you've done enough of it. I've got enough money now that I don't have to do that any more." Ed took it nice and carefully as he drove down the winding road back towards Almaden. He'd never cared for that stretch of curvy, single lane, two way traffic. Too many young airmen liked to see how fast they could make it up or down the mountain, relying on their quick reflexes to save them in case of sudden oncoming traffic. Ed wasn't someone who cared to be made an innocent victim of another's reckless folly. From Almaden he drove straight through, heading east until he joined Highway 101 over by the IBM off ramp. He drove south on highway 101, until reaching state highway 152, where he headed southeast again until getting to highway 99 which would take him into Bakersfield. From Bakersfield, he planned to take the 58 into Barstow, before catching interstate 15 right into Las Vegas. He figured he could make the whole trip in seven or eight hours. He planned to refuel in Bakersfield. "How come you don't want to do anything with me? Don't you think I'm pretty enough?" They'd been driving in near total silence for more than an hour. Ed had gotten himself into the near trance state he liked to be in when driving for any long distance. It made the time and the distance go by more quickly for him. Her speaking to him had disturbed this comfortable state of non-attention. "I'm sorry. Did you just say something to me?" "I asked you why you don't want to do anything with me." "Well, in the first place, you're fourteen, and..." "Fifteen, my birthday was last Wednesday." "Sorry, fifteen. Still, I'm thirty two years old, and if anyone found out I did anything with you, they'd throw my butt in jail and then throw away the key. I could get twenty years for doing that." "You don't act like you'd want to, even if I wasn't jailbait." "That's true too. I guess I'm old fashioned that way. I'd need to have it be with a woman that I liked a great deal, someone I had a real relationship with. Sex just for the hell of it, that has no appeal for me." "You expect me to swallow that line? How dumb do you think I am? I know guys, and you're a guy. If you weren't so afraid, you'd be after me, just like all the others. You're timid. My mother thought you were such a nice guy, letting us leave like you did from Ted's pad that day. You were just afraid you'd get in trouble too, that's what I think." "Have it your way. It doesn't matter to me what you think. We both know who's the one in trouble now though." "I'm not in any trouble. As soon as we started heading south, whatever trouble I was in, it just disappeared. Every mile takes me further away from it too. Where are you going to drop me off, L.A.?" "I'm heading to Illinois, to visit my aunt. I thought I'd take you back to your mother's, in Las Vegas. After that, you can do whatever you want to." "Take me to Illinois too. Are you going through Chicago?" "No, I don't want to take you with me that far, and no, I'm not going that far north. You can catch a plane to Chicago, from Las Vegas." "You can't get a plane ticket without an adult being with you to buy it. You want to pretend you're my father and get me one?" "No. Maybe your mother will buy you a ticket. Ask her." "I need to stop somewhere and buy myself some clothes. Stop when you see a big mall, okay?" "They might have a mall in Fresno, but I'm not sure." Maria didn't say anything, so Ed went back to whatever thoughts he had to use to get him into one of his near hypnotic states while driving. In Fresno, Maria looked around and asked him what the next big town they went through was going to be. He told her it was Bakersfield, and she nodded, telling him she'd wait and shop for clothes when they got there. When they got to Bakersfield, Maria had fallen asleep. Ed decided to get over close to the State Highway 58 turn off before waking her. When he shook her awake, she said she didn't feel like doing any shopping right then, and was soon back sleeping again. Once he got on Hwy. 58, heading for Barstow, Ed started thinking about what Maria had said to him, about him being afraid, and about him being too timid about things. She hadn't been the first person to tell him that. He didn't think of himself as being either timid or afraid. Instead, he thought of himself as cautious, someone who refused to get himself into any situations where he knew the possible harm outweighed the possible good. He'd lived his whole life like that, and for him, he felt like it had worked well enough. He hadn't ended up having to deal with any of the problems most of the other G.I.'s were always getting into. He had money saved, no debts, no one who wanted him to support her. No kids to have to pay for and worry over. He had no friends, that was true, but this meant he wasn't obligated to change his personal schedule in any way to accommodate anyone else. What he was doing with Maria right then just reinforced in his mind, all the advantages of refusing to allow yourself to become involved with other people's problems. In spite of this, Ed had to admit to himself that the way he'd been going about things all of his adult life hadn't exactly made him happy. There were times now when he wished he'd been more outgoing, more adventurous. He was afraid that he was too set in his ways, that he couldn't let himself go, not even if he decided he wanted to do so. Living so cautiously hadn't turned out to be as satisfying a life as he'd believed it was going to be. When Maria awakened next, over in a place called Four Corners, Ed was getting some gas, having forgotten to fill up in Bakersfield, where the gas prices had been cheaper. Ed saw his passenger side door open and Maria went into the store connected to the gas station. Ed waited for about five minutes before she came back out, carrying a small plastic bag and two big plastic cups of some drink. "I got you a diet Pepsi. I had to wait in line to take a pee, which is why it took me so long. I got a bag of Frito's, and some regular potato chips too." Ed appreciated her getting a drink for him too. He also was starting to wish he'd used the men's room back when they were still at the gas station. He knew he wouldn't have a problem waiting until they got to Barstow though, probably another hour or so. He drank his Pepsi from the straw, and took some Frito's and potato chips when she offered them to him. "Thanks for the drink, and for the snacks." "S'okay. How much was the gas? I can split the costs with you for it." "No, you don't have to do that. I was thinking about taking some leave anyway. Save your money, you might need it." "I'm not going to see my mother. I'll get out in Vegas, but at the bus station instead, okay? If I go to see her, she'll go through my stuff, and she'll freak out when she sees what I have there." "I was going to ask you about the drugs, and about all that other stuff. Now that we're out here in the middle of nowhere, this would be a good time to throw all that away, don't you think?" Maria just looked at him, thinking he had to be crazy. She figured he had no idea how much all that pure heroin was worth. She didn't know exactly herself, but she knew there was over a pound's worth, and knew it was worth a whole lot of money. All she had to do was make a good connection in some big city and then unload it. She'd need to find someone to help keep her from getting burned, but she felt confident she could manage that easily enough. She just needed someone who was big, loyal and stupid. "I told you this was all mine, and that I'm going to keep it." "I'd feel a lot better about taking you to Las Vegas, if I knew you weren't still carrying drugs and other contraband. If you get rid of all that, I'm sure your mother wouldn't be as worried if she did find the money." ------- Chapter 4 Ed was driving fast on Interstate 15, about ten miles west of Baker, when he suffered a blow out of his right front tire. He fought the car as it careened crazily to the right, off onto the soft shoulder of the road. By the time he got the car back under control again, the front wheel had come off, and the exhaust system had been knocked off as well, when the car passed over a large rock. The Highway Patrol radioed into Baker for a tow truck, and Ed and Maria were forced to get a motel room for the night, until a mechanic could look at his car and give him an estimate for the repair costs. The blowout, and the subsequent aftermath of bringing the car to a stop, had shaken up Ed's whole nervous system. He'd never come so close to dying. Had the tire waited another hundred yards before blowing, they would have ended up in a steep ravine, undoubtedly flipping over as they slid sideways into it. The incident could have just as easily ended in a fiery crash. Sitting on one of the motel's double beds, Ed waited for Maria to finish cleaning up in the bathroom. When she finally came out, he went in to wash his face and hands, and to change into a different set of clothes. They had decided to walk over to the hamburger joint that was a part of the motel complex. Maria hadn't seemed much affected by the near crash. She appeared to be somewhat amused by Ed's strong reaction to it. Inside the restaurant, both were seated and quickly placed their orders. Upset or not, Ed found himself hungry. Ed got the Bun Boy Burger Special while Maria ordered a bowl of chili and some French fried potato's. Both ordered Diet Cokes. "How long you think it will take to get your car fixed?" "Not long if they have the muffler and the pipes we'll need. The exhaust manifold seems fine, so it shouldn't be that hard to fix the rest. The tire and wheel might be harder, but we can use my spare and take our chances to get to Las Vegas. It's less than a hundred miles, and the spare is almost new anyway." "The TV doesn't get any channels hardly. One of those UHF ones, and the one that's all fuzzy, that's it. This town doesn't have anything to do either. I hope we can leave here tomorrow." "If they have everything, it shouldn't take more than an hour or two to fix it." They ate their meal in relative silence, although, towards the end of it, Maria did strike up a conversation with their waitress. Maria had started the conversation by asking whether a Greyhound Bus stopped in Baker on the way to Las Vegas or not. The girl didn't know it they did or not. She claimed she'd only been in town herself for less than a week. Listening as the two girls talked, Ed found out that their waitress had gotten into a big fight with her boyfriend a few days before, and he'd just driven off, heading back to Los Angeles, leaving her stranded and broke when he did so. She said she was only working at the restaurant until she found someone to give her a ride back home. The people who ran the motel and restaurant fed her, and gave her a room at the motel. A room she shared with another girl, in a similar situation, who now worked as a maid for the motel. Whatever tips either woman made were what they earned over and above the room and the meals provided to them. After they left the restaurant, Ed went over to the mini market on the other side of their motel and bought himself a twelve pack of beer. He didn't drink a lot, but he decided he could use a little something to make sure he could get to sleep that night. At nine o'clock, Angie, their waitress, came knocking on the door of their room. Maria had told her what room they were in. She had gotten off work scant moments before, and was still wearing her waitress uniform. Angie had told Maria that she was twenty years old. She looked about the same age Maria did, about fifteen or sixteen. She too was Hispanic, with dark hair and brown eyes. She was taller than Maria, and seemed overweight, but in a muscular way. She didn't look soft. When Maria let Angie into their room, Ed was laying on his bed, drinking a cold one, his fourth, and watching a travelogue of India and Pakistan on the UHF channel. The beer was having its intended effect, and he was beginning to relax a little. Maria had been pestering him for a beer, but he told her she was too young to be drinking. As soon as Angie came in though, Maria came over by his bed and snagged one of his beers for her new friend. Ed didn't say anything to her. The two girls sat back on Maria's bed and shared the beer between themselves. Five minutes later, having finished the drink they had been sharing, Maria came over and grabbed two more from the cardboard container. Again, Ed didn't comment on it. He did reach over, after she did that, and pick up the remaining beers in the container, putting it on the side away from Maria's bed. The girls started whispering together and laughing after he did that. It was only a few minutes later before Maria got up and announced to the room that she was going to take a shower. Angie got up, saying she'd be leaving, pointedly thanking Ed for the beers. "Don't go, Angie. I'm not going to be that long. You can talk to Ed while I'm taking my shower. I'll be out in just a few." Angie looked over at Ed, waiting for him to say something. Ed smiled at her, and took out a fresh brew, holding it towards her. He didn't know why he'd do that, it just seemed like he was helping Maria keep her friend there. He wasn't thinking anything about possibly having something develop between himself and Angie. He opened his fifth can of beer, returning his attention to the TV program. After about fifteen minutes, Maria came out of the bathroom. She staggered a little, and when she looked over at Ed, to see if he'd noticed, he saw that her eyes seemed glazed and glassy. Ed wondered if she'd gotten into those drugs of hers again, but he didn't say anything. Maria was wearing a man's tee shirt, over what Ed assumed were her panties. She got back up on her bed, and the whispering and laughter continued. At ten thirty, now out of beer, Ed decided to turn in for the night. He left the TV on and turned out the table lamp on his side of the room. The only light remaining came from the TV screen and from the light that escaped through the partially closed bathroom door. Ed took off his trousers and hung them on the back of the chair. He took off his shirt and his socks, electing to sleep in his undershirt and boxers. He got under the covers and said good night to both Angie and Maria. He tried to go to sleep, but was unable to manage it. Both girls were still whispering back and forth, laughing, and these periods were followed by long stretches of silence. Ed kept his back to Maria's bed, but his mind was working overtime, coming up with lots of interesting possibilities about what the silent periods might mean. Half an hour after he had bid the girls good night, Ed started hearing moaning coming from the other side of the room, then some whispering, and more quiet laughter. He could sense rather than hear some movement, followed by louder groans and more hurried whispering. It took all of his will power for him not to turn around to see what was taking place in the bed across from his. This went on for at least another forty five minutes. Both girls had started moaning by then, and Ed no longer had to wonder what was happening in the room. He could hear them more clearly now, and they weren't taking any precautions to try to cover up what they were doing. The room was beginning to have the smell of female arousal and the sexy smell of sweat mixed with bodily fluids. It was after midnight when Angie left their room. Maria walked to the door with her to lock up after. Ed could make out her naked form, and see some drops of sweat on her neck and arms. Ed had been hard for most of the time since he first began suspecting that Maria and Angie were fooling around. Maria walked back to her bed. "Are you still awake, Ed?" Maria whispered the words, but loud enough for Ed to hear her easily if he was awake. For a few seconds, Ed debated with himself about whether or not he should answer her. "I'm awake. It's hard to sleep with all that going on in the same room with me." Ed tried hard to not make it sound like he was complaining. He didn't feel angry or upset. He just didn't want her believing that he didn't have a pretty good idea of what has just taken place. "You could have joined us, you know? Angie said she was cool with doing things with you too. You would have liked her. For as big as she is, she really is very tiny down there. She could make a lot of money if she wanted to turn a few tricks. She likes girls too. You'd be surprised at how many John's like to watch two girls going at it. Those kind of dates always pay good too." "I don't think she paid you. Seems to me I heard you moaning too." "I'm not used to doing without for so long. You could have helped me out, but you wouldn't. You still can if you've changed your mind. I didn't really get off with her. It was fun, but I'm more into dick's than pussies. I could use some of yours, if you'd want to now?" "You're still only fifteen, Maria. I don't have any rubbers anyway." "I do. I have five or six in the front pockets of my jeans. You want me to get them?" Ed thought about it. He thought about what he'd been listening to, and he felt his dick signaling him that it could use a little sex. Part of this was from all the beer he'd consumed, but even more of it was from the earlier scare he'd had. No matter how safe a person tried to play it, you could never predict when it was your time. He could have ended up dead out there by Zzyzx Road earlier that day. If he had, what advantages would all of his earlier caution and control have gained for him? None. He knew that. Sure, she was young in years, but he knew she had far greater sexual experience than he did. If she had been a typical teenager, he rationalized, this situation never could have come up. He turned over so that he was resting on his left elbow, facing her. She had a smile of satisfaction, from watching him looking at her naked body. She even moved her legs apart further, allowing him to get a good look at her glistening pussy lips. Her pubic hair was all matted and wet, testimony to the use she had already put it to that night. Ed lifted up the covers on his bed, silently inviting her to join him. She needed no more invitation than that. Before another word was spoken, Maria had his prick in her hand, pulled expertly through the opening in his boxers. She quickly examined it before placing it inside her mouth. Ed could easily count on one hand the number of times someone had given him head. Always before though, except for his first time, back in high school, it had been a strictly commercial transaction. To Ed, this time seemed somewhere between those two polar opposites. He hadn't given her any money to do this, but he had provided her with something she probably valued more than money. He'd given her shelter, and had helped her to escape. Maybe this was just her paying for his help? He didn't know. As she sucked him to a quick and powerful cum, he didn't care. It was enough for him that he was finally getting some relief from all the tension he'd been under. She kept sucking him, swallowing his spend until he had shrunk down to relaxed limpness. After she released his dick from the wet warmth of her mouth, she moved up, trying to nestle in his arms. Almost instinctively, he drew her nearer, wrapping his arms around her in a welcoming embrace. Had he been trying to provide her with the one thing she'd welcome most, he couldn't have picked a better response to give her. Maria had rebelled against a too controlling mother, after spending her whole life without any father around to lavish the kind of loving acceptance on her that she both wanted and needed. By the age of twelve, Maria had started going out looking for love and acceptance on her own. From the first, she was perfectly willing to trade on her physical assets in order to attract the male attention she was so starved for. She had started with boys her own age, but that hadn't yielded her the emotional satisfaction or the feeling of love and acceptance she'd been seeking. She enjoyed all the attention that her willingness to put out had made possible, but she soon realized that what she was getting out of doing that wasn't what she wanted or needed. Meeting Ted Forrest had changed all that for her. He showed her a different way of making herself important to people. At the parties, she got more than the instant lust response she'd know with young boys. She felt appreciated. Often, with the older John's she met at some of these parties, she felt like she was really special to them. She felt appreciated, and she would often end up feeling cherished. Before the actual sex began, Maria would play a little game with herself, seeing how long she could delay the sexual parts to pretend that these men were like her father would have been to her. Aside from the money she earned, Maria got emotional nourishment from being fawned over and appreciated for her youth and attractiveness to them. To the young boys she'd let use her, Maria hadn't seemed all that attractive, but to most of the older men, her youth alone made her seem much more desirable. Holding her like he did, for half an hour before doing anything more than gently stroking her back and hair, Ed was feeding into her feeling of being prized by an older male figure. Ed might not really be old enough to be her father, but he wasn't some young kid, too anxious to please himself to bother trying to comfort her. When the action started heating up between them again, it was Maria taking the initiative again. Now though, this had become more than turning a trick in repayment for a series of favors. She was responding to Ed having given her something she craved more than anything else. She hadn't come to his bed with that in mind. Now though, she felt a real desire to please Ed. To give back to him some of the love she had felt from him. All of this would have surprised Ed greatly, had he even known what she was thinking and feeling. When Maria started the next phase of her seduction, all Ed did was not resist her. Like the consummate little professional she was, Maria was soon kissing Ed passionately, and rubbing her pudenda up and back along his recovering shaft. By the time Ed was certain of what her intent was, his cock was already seated well up inside her moist warm opening, and she was working her interior muscles as she adjusted herself to his size. She had always liked being on top, because this allowed her to control the pace and the friction she needed to get herself off. All a guy had to do was keep himself somewhat hard. Ed was certainly up for performing that task. By the time they'd finished their first coupling, each had taken away far more than they expected from the encounter. By the next morning though, both were wary of being the first one to talk about what they'd shared in the night. For the first time in a long time, Maria felt at a loss for how she should be acting. She didn't want to say anything to ruin what she now felt with Ed. She wanted him to make the first signal as to how they would treat each other. What she knew, was that what she was feeling seemed real, and very right to her. Ed was a man she could be close to. He had shown her that he could anticipate and meet her needs. It had nothing to do with sex for her. It was having someone wanting to hold her, needing to wrap her in his arms and offer her his protection. What Ed woke up feeling was even more confusing. His inner voice was screaming to him that she was only a child. He knew she was young, but he also realized that she was far more mature sexually than he was. She was only the second girl who'd let him fuck her without him paying her to do so. He was also impressed that she hadn't gotten up to get a rubber before letting him do it. He didn't even think of possible pregnancy, AIDS, or of all the other possible STD's he might have exposed himself to. For Ed, the most surprising thing for him was realizing that he didn't regret what had happened. By the time each had showered and dressed, separately, it was almost ten o'clock. They went over to the garage where Ed's car had been towed. When they got there, the mechanic had already put the car up on a hoist and had examined the damage underneath. He told Ed he needed a new oil pan, a whole new exhaust system, a new wheel and tire, and that he had damaged one of the control arms on the steering mechanism on the right front side. He could have the parts he'd need, from Las Vegas, by noon, if he called in the order in the next fifteen minutes. He quoted a price for everything and Ed looked at him as though he were crazy. "Forget it! Fourteen hundred dollars? A job like this wouldn't be more than three hours labor, tops. The parts wouldn't be more than another three fifty. Put my spare tire on and I'll take it to another garage. If they can't do the work at a decent price, I'll order the parts from Las Vegas myself and rent a stall and a welding rig." The mechanic looked at Ed. He'd hoped to make his whole week with this little job. Most of the time, when people got stuck in Baker like this, they'd pay whatever they needed to in order to get back on the road and away from that bleak desert landscape. "I might could come down some, seeing as how you're stuck here, but not less than a thousand. If I took less than that, I'd be doing all the labor for nothing." "Rent me a stall and your tools and equipment for three hours. I'll pay you a hundred for that, and for calling in my parts order." "My insurance don't let me do that. Can't have nobody isn't covered working in any of the bays. Pay me for the parts, whatever the invoice is, and give me five hundred for the labor. That's really the best I can do." "Drop my car down, and push it out here so I can change the tire and take it somewhere else. It doesn't look like that tie rod end would cost more than forty bucks for the whole thing, the catalytic converter looks fine, so just the exhaust system, including the muffler, this is maybe two hundred more, plus about another eighty for a good four wheel alignment. Call it three hundred twenty, tops, plus two and a half to three hours of shop labor at eighty bucks and hour. That's five sixty. If you want to bring in another rim and a new tire, we'll make it seven hundred even, out the God damned door. I won't pay any more than that." "Can't do it. I'd be losing money. Plus, there's that oil pan and gasket you left off. Seven hundred, without the tire and wheel." "Six without the tire and wheel, seven with them." "Six fifty, no tire, no wheel." "You want me to drive another hundred miles with no spare?" "Seven fifty, including all of it." "Six without the tire or wheel." "Seven and a quarter, with it all. Really my last offer." Maria had been standing there next to Ed, listening as the two of them went back and forth. She really wanted to take the money out of her duffel bag and pay the man so they could get out of town. She knew she couldn't do that though. They were only twenty five dollars apart. Surely they could quit all the haggling and get on with repairing the car? It had cost Ed over forty five dollars just for their motel room the night before. They could be in Las Vegas in a few hours if he'd just pay the man the little bit extra he was asking for. "If I pay seven and a quarter, it will be on my Visa card. Seven hundred, and I'll pay you in cash." "I'll take it in cash, seven hundred." The two men shook hands, both of them certain they'd struck the best deal possible. Now that they had the money all squared away, they went into the tiny office in the garage and started ordering up the parts that were needed. That done, and the parts promised for delivery before two that afternoon, Maria and Ed walked across the street and paid another forty five dollars for a second night at the motel. Ed figured something might go wrong, and, because of what had happened the night before, he wasn't in such a hurry to drop Maria off at her mother's place. Neither of them spoke about why he had decided to pay for another day. At three, they went back to the burger restaurant for a late lunch. They'd spent the last few hours sitting up on Ed's bed, pillows supporting their backs, and watching Sesame Street and similar program fare on the PBS station. What had kept them there so long was the closeness of their bodies as they watched the TV. Ed had his arm around Maria's shoulders. There was nothing overtly sexual, and neither made any move to make it like that. They were seated once again at Angie's station. Just like the last time, Angie and Maria were engaged in some quiet conversation. Angie had to leave to take care of her other tables, but, whenever she had a free moment, she'd come by their table and resume her conversation with Maria. By the time their lunch was done, Maria and Angie had both agreed that, as soon as Ed's car was repaired, the three of them would journey on to Las Vegas together. Maria had promised to loan Angie enough money to catch a bus back to Los Angeles. She also told her that she knew someone in Las Vegas who might have a good job for her if she wanted to talk to him about it. Maria didn't come out and say it, not in front of Ed, but she was thinking that Angie might enjoy working a little out call in Las Vegas. Maria had looked too young, but Angie really was old enough. The fact that she was past eighteen years old, but could pass for fifteen, would work in her favor. It never occurred to Maria that Angie might not want to become a whore. Ed picked up another twelve pack for the room, but only after he went over to the garage and found out that his car probably wouldn't be ready until the next morning. Something was wrong with the alignment machine, and the factory rep couldn't come out to fix it until early the following morning. Ed didn't want to risk driving without an alignment, not with a new tie rod. Angie quit work at six, telling her bosses that she had managed to catch a ride back to Los Angeles. She gathered her few possessions from her shared room and came to spend the night with Ed and Maria. Ed didn't try to stop either girl from drinking beer. He did get Maria to promise to not take anything stronger than a few beers though. He didn't want her doing anything with those drugs of hers. By nine, the three of them had polished off the twelve pack. Maria and Angie both pleaded with Ed to go buy another one. They were watching some kind of movie on the Las Vegas channel, but the reception was so weak, Ed couldn't follow the story line. He could make out that it starred a pretty brunette woman. He didn't know her name, but he liked the way she looked anyway. The picture quality was intermittent. Sometimes, she could be seen clearly, but most of the time you could only tell it was her because of her voice. Jennifer Connelly, that was the name of the actress. Ed went out to get another twelve pack. When he returned, about ten minutes later, both girls had taken off all their clothes and were underneath the covers of Maria's bed. "Don't give Angie any more beer, Ed. Not unless she shows you her boobies first." Ed stood up and opened up the new twelve pack, reaching in and grabbing three cold beers. He opened one, and took a long pull on it before sitting down on the side of his bed, facing the girls. He lifted up one of the other two cans to show them. "Whoever wants another beer has to come over here and get it." Maria got out of bed and came around to get her beer. She was completely naked. Ed could see that she was already showing distinct signs of arousal. Her pussy lips were already opened some, and her outer labia was a rich deep pink color. She took the beer from Ed and hopped on his bed, rubbing as much of her body against him as she could manage as she climbed over to get to the far side. Once she was back under the covers, she opened her beer and started drinking. "You better get over here, Angie. If you don't hurry, I'm going to do him all by myself." As if to emphasize her words, Maria had her little hand clutching the front of Ed's trousers. His hard cock was clearly outlined as Maria raised it up for her friend to see. Angie threw off her covers and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Like Maria, she too was naked. When she stood up, Ed could see that her body was even heavier than it had appeared when she was dressed. She came over to Ed's bed and settled herself on Ed's other side. It took less than a minute for Ed to shuck off his clothes too. After Ed got under the covers too, the three of them started snuggling up together. Over the next two hours, the entire twelve pack of beer was consumed. Ed found out how cold beer in a girl's mouth made getting blow jobs an entirely different experience. He found out that Angie really did have a smaller, tighter, pussy than Maria's, and that Angie's sexual favorite was being fucked in her ass and being eaten at the same time. Maria seemed to like everything that Ed and Angie did to her. After the beer had been completely consumed, and the sexual appetites had all been slaked, Maria and Angie returned to Maria's bed. Ed fell asleep soon after they left. For him, the sex had been an eye opening experience. Ed had never had much success with women. He really hadn't made that much of an effort to pursue them. This experience with the two girls at once had left him shaken. Ever since Maria had come back to his apartment this last time, Ed's whole world had been turned around. He recognized that almost all of this was due to outside influences on him, and not caused by any of his own actions. He was only passively going along with what was unfolding around him. Still, he was experiencing a different kind of life than any he'd known before. He was letting himself go a little too. In the past, he might have successfully avoided this entire series of events. He was willing to allow himself to be carried along for awhile, reasoning that it would all be over soon enough, and he could then go back to living his life the way it used to be. Ed was being changed by these experiences, but he didn't realize the extent of all those changes. If someone had warned him that he could never go back to the way he used to experience his life, he wouldn't have believed them anyway. ------- Chapter 5 The next morning was awkward for Ed. Angie also seemed quieter and more reserved than she had been in the past. Only Maria seemed unchanged by the going's on of the night before. Angie and Maria got up together to make use of the bathroom. Ed heard the two of them showering and laughing together a few minutes after they went into the bathroom. After half an hour, the last fifteen minutes of it having been very quiet, Ed started getting concerned. Another fifteen minutes passed by before Maria stuck her head out of the bathroom and told Ed to go to the mini mart to get her a big bag of ice. When Ed got up off the bed, Maria yelled at him to hurry up. He ran to the bathroom door and saw Angie collapsed on the floor. He started trying to push his way past Maria when she told him that Angie might die if he didn't hurry up and bring her the ice. "I'll get the ice, but after I get back with it, you and I are going to have a serious talk, Maria. You promised me you wouldn't mess with that stuff anymore." Ed was back with three bags of ice within five minutes. Maria had used the time to somehow get Angie into the bathtub and had been running cold water into it. She took all the ice bags and ripped open the plastic, letting the ice fall directly on Angie's body, or else into the bath water. Ed was relieved when Angie started coming around shortly after that. She tried climbing out of the cold water, but Maria kept her right where she was, telling the girl several times that she needed to stay in the water, that she'd overdosed, and had nearly died. It was soon obvious to Ed that the three of them weren't going anywhere together that day. He came close, on several occasions to just leaving the two women in the motel room by themselves. He did walk over to the garage, picking up and paying for his car. He then went over to the motel's office and paid for another night's stay. When he came back to the room, Angie was sitting up on the bed she'd shared with Maria the night before. She was wearing blue panties and nothing else. Maria was behind her, propped up by the two pillows, and nodding off in a drugged stupor. "What happened? Did she take more of that poison?" Ed felt himself starting to lose more than his temper. He felt like he was under some type of attack. He knew that Maria had deliberately gotten into the dope again, probably just to let him know that he couldn't tell her what to do. Angie was still feeling the effects of her own earlier drug usage. She looked up at him when he spoke, but she couldn't seem to focus well enough to form any kind of response to his query. Ed went into the bathroom, upset and disgusted with the situation he found himself in. He found the green canvas bag, including all the drugs and drug paraphernalia, put back inside the box and bag. He zippered up the bag and took it outside to his car. Once he had it locked up in his trunk, he felt better. "Angie, how much would it cost to take the bus into Las Vegas, for the two of you?" Angie again looked up at him, but her eyes still refused her attempts to bring Ed into focus. "Here's two hundred dollars, take it. I'm sure that's enough. Today's the twenty fourth. Tell Maria that I'll stop by at the Greyhound Bus station in Las Vegas on my way back. Tell her I'll be there on the fifteenth of next month, at three in the afternoon. She can meet me there if she wants to talk about me giving her bag back to her. I'm going to Illinois to visit my aunt. The room is paid for today and tonight." Ed left right after he got all his things packed. Maria was still propped up on the pillows. Once in awhile, she'd scratch absently at her arms or run her hand over her face and mouth. At no time did her eyes open, she didn't seem aware that anyone else was in the room with her. Ed took his bag out to the car and put it in the trunk also. While he was there, staring at the green bag, he remembered that Maria had some of her clothing in the bag as well. He got it out and took it back to the motel room, putting it on his bed. This time, neither of the young women reacted at all to him opening the door to the room. He let himself back out and got into his car. He sat there, behind the wheel, telling himself that he should start it up and get as far away from the two of them as he possibly could. He knew it was the smart thing to do. Maria had already shown him that she was firmly set on a course that could only lead to her utter destruction. If she wasn't already physically addicted to those drugs, she was well on her way to it. After ten more minutes of talking to himself, Ed finally came to a decision. He reached over and turned the key in the ignition. The car started right up. He put the car in reverse and backed carefully away from the motel building. Three minutes later, he was on Interstate 15 again, heading East, towards Las Vegas. Each mile he put on the car made him feel better about what he was doing. The only thing he had any doubts about at all was taking all that money. If someone had asked him to explain why he'd done that, he'd have been at a loss to do so. It had more to do with his belief that Maria was using the bag, and everything it contained, to injure herself. She seemed bent on doing all she could to place herself in untenable positions. She also didn't seem to mind taking other people down with her. Somewhere, back in the recesses of his mind, was the hope that a few weeks without the money or the drugs might make her realize how foolishly she'd been acting. In spite of himself, Ed was beginning to develop strong feelings for Maria. Had he not felt strongly, he never would have taken the bag when he left. His having done so, served to tie them together, when leaving her and the bag would have effectively severed whatever connection they still had. He drove all day and part of the evening, ending up in Salt Lake City, where he spent the night. The next morning, after a troubled night's sleep, Ed got back into his car and headed further East. He ended the driving day in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The next day he drove a little farther, ending up in Iowa. He knew he'd make it to his aunt's house the next afternoon. What he didn't know was what he'd say to her when he showed up on her front doorstep again, after so many years of there having been no contact between the two of them. When Ed's father had died suddenly, back when he was eight years old, Ed and his mother had moved across the state to go live in a small house with his maternal grandfather, and with his mom's sister, Judith. The following winter, Ed's grandfather had come down with pneumonia, and he had then died, a few weeks later. A year after his grandfather died, Ed's mom had met a new man, and that relationship had quickly grown serious. It came to an end though, when a fourteen wheel tractor trailer combo, carrying a fully refrigerated trailer filled with beef, broad sided Ed's mom and her boyfriend as he drove across the interstate. After Ed's mom was buried, Aunt Judith didn't know what to do with Ed. Mostly, she tried to ignore him. She didn't try to be mean to him. She had gone through her own life, hoping to be ignored and left alone. Life had overwhelmed her at an early age, and she'd tried to withdraw from it to the fullest extent possible. Ed was ten years old when he found himself living alone with a woman whose most fervent desire in life was to be left alone. Ed did most things for himself. He fixed his own meals, laundered all his own clothes, and cleaned up his own room. He went to school, only needing to bother his aunt when there was some paper that needed to be signed, since she was now his legal guardian. He'd joined the Air Force, right after graduation from high school. By this time, thanks to the example his aunt had set for him, Ed's main wish was to be left alone too. On the day his train left for Lackland A.F.B., in San Antonio, Texas, Ed and his aunt had spoken their final parting words to each other. "Don't cause any bother to anyone, Eddie." "No Ma'am." Both had turned away then. Ed had no idea what his aunt had been thinking. For his part, Ed was slightly excited to be free from his aunt's control. Not that she'd ever exercised that control, but Ed had often felt the potential for her possibly doing so. It was good to no longer have to worry about the one person who had sufficient connection to him to have influenced his decisions. Ed was now on his own. That sense had stayed with him right up until he was met at the train station by some training instructors from the air base. Over the next twelve weeks, Ed learned a lot about influence and control. It seemed like every breath he took was being influenced and controlled by someone other than himself. He went from no supervision to intense supervision. From having no one to answer to, to being dependent on someone else for all the decisions needing to be made in his life. Once basic training was over, things started being more relaxed. Ed remembered how they had been in basic though, and he took pains not to do anything to bring attention to himself. Once again he strove to become invisible. He did his job and just wanted to be left alone. Maria had changed all of that. She had come in and turned his whole world on its ear. Part of him had started welcoming the change. The drugs had scared him too much though. The thought of being arrested and sent to prison was too much worry for him to manage. He was running away from that possibility. Running back to the one person he might be able to explain himself to. He didn't have any idea how to go about opening up that kind of conversation with his aunt. He knew it would be uncomfortable for both of them if he did manage to think of a way to even bring the subject up. More than anything else, he wanted to have someone else knowing what he knew, someone else deciding that what he'd done had been the correct response for him to have made. Aunt Judith seemed shocked to see her nephew on her doorstep. She'd long since accepted that he had decided to keep himself away from her. She didn't blame him for avoiding her. She had always known that she'd failed to provide him with any emotional support or nurturing after her sister had died. She'd wanted to do so, but had been unable to break the tight emotional constraints that had made her so closed off to others for her entire life. In the years before Ed had gone off to be in the Air Force, Judith had ceaseless ongoing arguments with herself about Ed's needs, and about her inability to provide for them. She had wanted to be there for him, but she hadn't the strength to break free of her own reticence and shyness. Having lived his own life as he had for the past years, a life that was much the same as what his aunt had lived for her entire adult life, Ed had learned that the closed off lifestyle wasn't really a willing choice made by the individual living it. He saw his aunt, just like himself, as victims of their personalities. The time Ed had spent with Maria had done a lot to help him break slightly free of his habitually withdrawn personality. Years of conditioning though were making these new changes, at most, superficial ones. Just being back alone and on his own again for these past few days, Ed could see stark evidence that he was reverting back to how he'd always been before. He hated the idea of going back to how he'd been. He'd felt so much more alive and free when he'd been traveling with Maria. Now, seeing his aunt, Ed became determined to try to break out of his previous drab existence. He didn't want to end up like his aunt. He wanted to take a more active part in living the life he'd been given. "Hello, Aunt Judith, are you surprised to see me?" Ed had been worrying about, dreading really, this moment with his aunt. He was mostly afraid that she would react poorly to him coming back into her life. She was all the family he had left though, and he couldn't think of any other place he could go that might be something like home to him. "Eddie, why didn't you call first to let me know you were coming? I'm afraid your room isn't ready. If I'd known, I could have moved things around so that it would be." "I wasn't even certain that I was going to come here, not until I was already in town. I wasn't sure whether I'd be welcome or not if I did come." He saw the hurt look that his words had caused in his aunt's face and eyes. It surprised him that she would react so strongly to something he had said. "It's been so long since I was here last." The two of them stayed in place, each looking at the other, taking a mental inventory all the changes they saw in each other since the last time they'd been together. Aunt Judith had looked much the same on that day, so long ago, when Ed had departed for San Antonio and the air Force. A few more strands of gray in her hair, a few more wrinkles around her eyes. Ed could see himself in her face though, and seeing that, once again understood why he would always feel something for his aunt. They were related, by blood, and their similarities were more than the few surface physical characteristics they shared. Because of his time with Maria, Ed now understood himself a little better. That understanding of himself made it easier to recognize some of the same behavioral mannerisms in his aunt. He understood her a little better than he ever had before. He wondered to himself if she too had ever wanted to make radical changes in how she lived her life? One thing he'd become certain of as he drove across the country was that he now wanted to force changes in his own behavior. He also wondered whether the two of them could push past their normal extreme social reserve in order to have some discussion on that subject? Judith didn't verbally invite Ed inside. Instead, she pushed the screen door wider and stepped to the side, opening a wider path for him, if he should choose to enter the house. Ed recognized this gesture as her giving him permission to come into the house. Gratefully, he did so. In all his thoughts, while driving there, Ed hadn't gotten past the front door. He'd been prepared to let his aunt dictate what would happen after he presented himself at her doorstep. "I'll fix you something to eat, Eddie. I have a pork chop left over from last night's supper, would that be all right?" After Ed ate, he and his aunt continued sitting at the kitchen dinette table. She had sat down with him after serving up his plate. This was something unusual for her to be doing. Ed attributed her doing this as a sign that she was curious about what had transpired in his life since he'd left there many years before. While he'd been eating, neither of them had spoken at all. Finished eating, Ed pushed his plate away from him. "I met this girl a while ago, Aunt Judith, a younger girl. I was trying to help her out, but, no matter how hard I kept trying to help, she didn't seem to want to change. I ended up leaving her back in California, because she went back to being on drugs again." This wasn't at all like Ed had planned to bring his aunt up to date with what had transpired in his life since he had joined the Air Force. In fact, he'd not had any intention at all of even mentioning Maria to her. He raised up his head enough to look into his aunt's face. Seeing that she was smiling at him completely unnerved him. "You met a girl? That's wonderful, Eddie. Were you bringing her here? Before you had to leave her, I mean." Ed was at a loss about what to say after hearing these words from his aunt. He'd never thought of bringing Maria to meet his aunt. He wondered if she'd heard him when he had talked about the reason why he'd left Maria in California? He looked at his aunt's smiling face, stumped for what he should be telling her. "She's only fifteen years old. Barely fifteen, since she just had her birthday." Ed assumed that hearing this, his aunt would stop talking about Maria and Ed's relationship. "Did you like her? Did you both get along while you were together?" His aunt didn't seem to be paying much attention to what Ed had been telling her about Maria. It was as if she didn't think Maria's age or drug use were that important. "She takes drugs, She sleeps with people for money. She doesn't care about all the risks she takes." "You must have liked her a lot, Eddie. If you didn't, why would you be telling me about her now?" Ed stared at his aunt. He wondered what had happened to her in the years since he'd left? He didn't remember ever having as disturbing a conversation with his aunt as the one he was then engaged in. It was like he was talking to a complete stranger. "You've changed, Aunt Judith." He watched as his aunt's face reddened in embarrassment. She was nodding her head up and down though. "There have been some changes since you left here, Eddie. I've been keeping company with Vern Turner for the past few years. Do you remember Vern?" "I remember him. He worked over at the lacquer plant? Used to be good friends with Curtis. They both used to come over here together back when mama first started dating Curtis. He stopped coming around after Mama and Curtis had their accident. Wasn't he married to Curtis's sister before I joined up?" "He was, but it didn't take. They got divorced a few years after that. Vern helped me with some of the yard work after you left home. After he'd been over a few times to take care of the yard, I started inviting him in for a home cooked supper. He likes my cooking. After a few years of that, Vern started helping me with some needed repair work on the house. Seems like, after that, we sort of started keeping regular company with each other." "Are you thinking of maybe getting married to him?" "We haven't talked about that. What we are talking about is whether or not we might start saving some money by combining our living expenses." "You mean living together, right?" "We've been discussing that possibility. We also talked about my selling this house, and him selling his. If I sold the house, I'd be giving you your mother's half of the money for it. Vern has enough years in now that he could put in for his pension at the plant. We both like the idea of settling somewhere that has a lot milder winters. We've talked about either California or Florida. We've talked about Las Vegas too." "My friend has family in Las Vegas. My friend doesn't like living there. California has pretty good weather. I don't know that much about Florida. I spent a summer in Mississippi, at tech school, and it was pretty hot and muggy. Cockroaches are huge down there too. I don't really need any money from the house, Aunt Judith. I always just assumed it was all yours, after mama died." Later that afternoon, Vern showed up at the house. He was working real hard at trying to be friendly to Ed. His face looked a lot older than Ed had remembered him being. He looked like he might be ten or fifteen years older than Ed's aunt. He helped Ed and Aunt Judith get Ed's old room set up again for someone to sleep in. When Ed went to bed, Vern was still downstairs with his aunt. Ed's sleep was interrupted because he kept thinking about Maria. For some reason he was missing her. He didn't remember ever having anyone in his thoughts like Maria was that night. He spent quite a long time trying to figure out what it was she meant to him. He didn't think he loved her, but there was definitely something there. ------- Chapter 6 Ed found himself with a lot of free time on his hands. He'd picked up a few skills in the Air Force, enough to give him some confidence in his ability to figure out how to make basic repairs around his Aunt's house. Mostly, they were cosmetic improvements, like painting the fence in the front yard and reattaching the storm drains where they'd become separated from the accumulated weight of the leaves and other detritus that had accumulated in the gutters from the roof. These things kept him occupied during his stay in Illinois. Ed also spent a lot of his free time thinking about his situation with Maria. Naturally, he was confused by the conflicting emotions he was experiencing. On the one hand, he realized that he really was missing having her around. She definitely made his life more exciting. She added so much color and vitality to what he easily admitted had been a rather drab and gray existence. On the other hand, Ed wasn't to the point where he could bring himself to believe that Maria added more good to his life once you took into consideration all the negatives that being around her entailed. He was mostly concerned about her drug use, and secondarily, about the dangers that being associated with her might bring. She had certainly given no indication that she was in any way open to the idea of making any definitive changes in her lifestyle. He had to face up to some hard realities. Maria carried a lot of negative baggage around with her. Being with her might end up getting him killed, or even worse, arrested and put into jail for being her accomplice. How much was he willing to risk by trying to continue their relationship? Hell, he wondered, was it even a relationship in the first place? They'd been thrown together, mostly through her instigation, not his. She'd gotten what she wanted and needed, a way to escape from the area where she was in danger. He'd gotten a lot more than he'd expected from her. More than he'd had any right to even hope for, given their differing backgrounds, ages, and common interests. He kept coming back to the sex she'd given him. Not just with her either. That last night they'd been together, all three of them. That had been something he never would have even dreamed of doing before. Maria didn't seem to have any limits that he could see. Not when it came to sex or taking drugs. She hadn't tried to get him to take drugs with her. That was something in her favor at least. The more he thought about her and worried about all the bad possibilities being with her could open up for him, the more sure he was that he should give her back her bag, and then put as much distance between them as he possibly could. The only problem he was having with that was doing that wouldn't allow him to experience any more of the overpowering experiences that she'd opened up to him. Jim recognized the fact that whichever way he finally decided to go with Maria, the truth was he was making a choice about how he was going to live his future life. He couldn't see himself going back to the life he'd been leading before. Maria had already changed his expectations. Before, he could live with his chosen lifestyle. It had been all he'd ever known. He couldn't just go back and pretend he didn't know any other way to live. He certainly didn't want that. Another thing he recognized was that he, by himself, didn't have what it would take to lead this much different lifestyle. He needed Maria, or someone else with her life energy, to push him out of the safe cocoon he'd always wrapped himself in. It was a real dilemma. As the time passed and his departure date loomed ever closer, Ed started to panic, because of his inability to arrive at a decision. On the morning of his departure from Illinois, Ed finally made a tentative choice. He'd drive back to Las Vegas and be waiting at the bus station with Maria's bag. If she came by to pick it up, he'd give it to her. If not, he'd get rid of all the drugs and the needles out in the desert, then head back to the air base. He had a vague hope that Maria would ask him for a ride back to San Jose. If she did ask, he'd already decided to tell her she was welcome to come with him. He got back to Las Vegas a day earlier than he'd told Angie to tell Maria to meet him. He got himself a cheap room in a motel close to the downtown bus station. He left the green bag in his trunk. It had remained there ever since he'd left Baker several weeks before. The next day he checked out of his room and drove over to the Las Vegas Club. He passed the time playing nickel slots and eating fifty cent hot dogs, and seventy five cent shrimp cocktails. By two o'clock, feeling stuffed and bloated, he left the casino and walked the short distance to the bus station. Three o'clock came and went, without any sign of Maria. Ed bought himself three new rolls of nickels and settled down at one of the slot machines that left him with a good view of most to the bus terminal. He had made a deal with himself. The deal was that he'd play off the three rolls of coins. As soon as he had lost the six dollars, he'd get up and leave if he hadn't seen Maria by that time. He played slowly, but methodically, putting in each coin and pulling the handle. He was almost done with the third roll when he hit a small jackpot of one hundred coins. He was relieved that he'd won, because he'd been arguing with himself about whether he should buy another roll of nickels to give Maria more time to get to the bus station. Ed hadn't really considered the possibility that Maria might not come to retrieve the green bag. He knew she would, if she could. It was a little after seven when Ed looked up from his machine and saw Maria looking at him from across the terminal. She looked very frightened as he noticed her. In fact, when she saw Ed notice her, the first thing she did was turn her head away from him. Ed looked around at the people standing near her. He noticed a large black man with an angry red scar on his right cheek. Right beside him was an Hispanic man who seemed to be with the black man. Two or three minutes passed from when Ed had first noticed Maria. He had continued pouring in more nickels and pulling the handle on his machine. Ed kept his gaze away from Maria, but he still kept her somewhat in view, using his peripheral vision. He saw the black man close over to Maria and grab her roughly by the arm. He leaned down to whisper something in her ear, and, at the same time, started pulling her over towards one of the side entrances. Just past the bus terminal was another casino, the Union Plaza. Maria and the black man were heading towards the open parking lot between the bus station and the casino. The Hispanic man followed directly behind those two, his eyes moving back and forth, obviously trying to spot anyone paying any attention to the couple walking in front of him. Ed got up and started moving towards the door that Maria had just gone through. Nervously, his hand went to the right hand pocket of the windbreaker he was wearing. Once his hand found the reassuring weight of the pistol in the pocket, Ed started to regain some of his previously lost composure. He'd decided earlier that he might need the pistol in case Maria brought along some of her friends to try to coerce him into giving her back the bag and all its contents. Ed hadn't wanted to risk getting himself slapped around before he even had a chance to hand the bag over to Maria. The situation looked different than that to him now. The black guy certainly wasn't acting like Maria was a friend of his. Maria didn't act like she wanted anyone else but her to recognize Ed. Ed made a big mistake when he started hurrying after Maria. He saw the smaller Hispanic man yell out a warning to the big black guy. When he did that, the black guy wheeled around with Maria's arm still held tightly at her bicep. Ed watched as the Hispanic guy moved over to be on Maria's other side. Together, the two men had her trapped between them. Maria's expression let Ed know that she was disgusted with him for giving himself away like he had. He didn't care. For whatever reason, watching her being dragged away like she'd been had made him act impulsively. He continued walking closer to Maria and her two captors. "You got somethin' belongs to me, Motherfucker!" Ed watched the black mans face set in an angry snarl as he spoke. Ed could feel the tension rise in him. Confrontations weren't something he welcomed. "Let her go." Ed's voice seemed to him to sound much calmer than he was actually feeling right then. When Ed spoke, the man pushed Maria around so that she was in front of him, putting his other arm around her neck as an obvious threat to do Maria some harm. The man was still snarling, trying his best to appear as menacing as he could manage. "I'll break her fucking neck, you don't hurry up and give me what I axed you for." His other hand left Maria's bicep and grabbed onto Maria's hair. Ed could see that it would be easy for the man to snap Maria's neck. He glanced over at the Hispanic man to see what he was doing. He was smiling and watching to see how everything would play out. Ed's body felt vibrant and alive. It was the sudden jolt of adrenaline flowing that caused this. Ed felt his face beginning to tingle, and felt something contracting deep down in the pit of his stomach. He would have sworn that his balls were trying to pull themselves up there too. He pulled the pistol out of the windbreaker's pocket and fired a shot aimed at the black man's hip. The loud report from the pistol froze every one within fifty feet or so. Ed watched as blood began flowing from the hole he'd made in the black man's upper thigh. He turned his hand and pointed the pistol at the other man who was already back pedaling away from Maria as quickly as he could manage, his hands raised up in front of him, as though he were hoping to ward off any possible attack. "I said let her go!" Ed repeated. This time, he pointed the gun right at the black man's face. By then he'd closed the distance between them to no more than four feet. He knew he was ever so close to pulling the trigger again. He hoped that the man could see how serious he was about doing whatever it took to secure Maria's release. Ed watched as the man's hands released Maria and grabbed at his injured thigh. Ed stepped one more step closer and grabbed Maria's hand, pulling her towards himself. Trying to appear calm, Ed placed the pistol back in his jacket pocket and turned to walk quickly away from the scene. He heard a combination of screamed threats and anguished complaints of pain coming from the man he'd just shot as he and Maria hurried away. They turned a corner, ran across a street, and went in through a side door of another casino. Without stopping to talk at all, Ed led Maria out through a different door and across another street to yet another downtown casino. It took about four minutes to get to where Ed's car was parked in the lot at the Las Vegas Club. He and Maria got in the car and left the parking structure as soon as Ed was able to get his car moving. Maria was talking excitedly to him as soon as they got to Ed's car. She was babbling more than talking, excited to be free from her captor, and seemingly impressed that Ed had freed her without having been made to give up the green bag. She was also trying to find out whether Ed still had all the bag's contents. "Let me concentrate on driving, okay? Let's get out of here first, then we can have our little talk." "You should have killed him, Ed. Caesar saw what you did, and now they both know what you look like. Lewis will look like the worst kind of fool if he doesn't come after you and get what we have. Lewis can't afford to be made to look foolish. He won't quit until he finds us again." "Are they from here, or from San Jose?" Ed was driving carefully, but Maria's words had sounded ominous enough to have him seeking immediate information from her. "Here, but that don't matter. Lewis needs my money, and he really wants the other shit in that bag. He knows me, and more than that, he knows where Mama and my brother live. He'll fuck them up until he finds out where I am." Ed drove for twenty minutes in silence. He was on Interstate 15, heading back to California. He was halfway to Stateline before he decided to get off the interstate and find a motel for the two of them. He didn't want Maria to get more hysterical than she already was. He needed to think, plus he was already somewhat tired now that the adrenaline was leaving his system. It didn't take long to find themselves a room. "Lewis is probably going to be more interested in getting his leg looked at tonight. You better call your mother and let her know she needs to move again." "She works as a maid in one of the casinos. It's a good job she says. I don't think she'll move just because I call her." "Tell her about what's his name, the guy I shot." "Lewis. She won't care about that. She won't believe anybody will bother her to get at me." "Call her anyway. She needs to be warned at least. Think about your brother too." "You got all my money and stuff, right?" "We need to talk about that, Maria. Those drugs are going to kill you if you keep messing with them." "Whatever. You do got them though, right?" "I'm tired. I'm going to bed. Go call your mother and warn her." "Get me my bag first. I'll call her after you let me check all my stuff." Ed got up from the bed where he'd been sitting. He re tied his shoe laces and stood up. It took him only a moment to go out to his car and retrieve Maria's bag. He watched the excitement on her face as he handed it to her. It didn't surprise him at all when she went to the bathroom and closed and locked the door behind her. What did surprise him was that she came out only a few minutes later, still carrying her bag. "I'm a little surprised that everything's still here. I was sure you'd end up throwing everything but my money away. How come you kept the dope too?" Ed shrugged his shoulders, waiting for her to decide what she wanted. "I'm going to call her from the pay phone. You got any change?" Ed reached in his pocket and pulled out three rolls of nickels he'd gotten from the attendant after hitting his small jackpot. It was all the change he had on him. He watched as Maria left the room, noticing that she kept her bag close to her side, protectively. He didn't bother locking the door to the room. She'd come back when she was done, or else she wouldn't. Ed got undressed and climbed under the bed covers. It took him almost no time to fall asleep. When Maria came back to the room, she woke Ed with a blow job and rode astride him after she had him up and attentive. After he came, she slid off of him, and they settled down to go to sleep. He woke up early the next morning. The other side of the bed was rumpled and looked like it had been slept in, but Maria was missing. Ed wasn't that surprised. Maria had gotten what she'd wanted from him. He'd served her purpose. It took him less than fifteen minutes to shower, shave and get dressed. He packed his bag and walked out to where he'd parked his car. That was when he first noticed was that his car was gone too. It took him a few seconds of searching through his pockets before he was finally convinced that his car keys were gone too. At least his wallet and remaining money were still in his pants. Ed knew he had enough money left to get back to Las Vegas and catch a plane back to San Jose. He was angry about her taking his car, but, that was somewhat offset by the fact that it looked like there'd be no reason now for anyone coming after him now. Ed was back in the motel room packing his few possessions when he heard a car braking hard, right in front of the door to his room. He took a quick peek out of the window, recognizing his car, along with Maria behind the wheel, her mother in the front passenger seat, and a young boy he thought must be her brother, sitting in the back seat. Maria jumped out of his car and hurried over to the motel door. "Ed, hurry, we have to leave. Lewis and Caesar were following us when we left Mama's apartment fifteen minutes ago. I'm pretty sure I lost them, but we still need to get going." Ed wanted to scream at her, or, perhaps, to grab her by the arms and shake her until her eyes were crossed. All that kept him from doing so was his relief that she'd returned, and the urgency she had created when she told him about those men following his car. He grabbed his bag, went to the car and took his keys out of the ignition in order to open the trunk, and put his small traveling bag inside. While he was doing that, Maria had gone over to the front passenger side and was getting her mother to move to the back seat. By the time he had finished stowing his bag, Maria had replaced her mother in the front passenger seat. Ed hopped behind the wheel. No one spoke at all for the first hour or so. It was eerily quiet inside the car. Ed's mind was racing. There were a hundred questions he wanted to ask Maria. The only reason he failed to do so was the embarrassment he felt over Maria's mother seeing him with her daughter again. He had little doubt that she recognized him from before. He knew she must be thinking the worst about him. He also knew that most of what she was thinking had probably already happened. She'd already killed one man for doing to her daughter what she probably thought Ed had been doing as well. "I'm hungry. When we gonna stop to get something?" It was Maria's brother asking about eating from his seat in the back of the car. The boy was about ten or eleven years old, dark like his mother and sister. His voice, what Ed had heard of it at least, had a high, whining, tinge to it. Ed hoped he wouldn't have to listen to much of that on the trip. "We'll stop when we get to Bakersfield, Carlos. Be quiet now so we can think." Maria had spoken before Ed had gotten a chance to say anything. Bakersfield was at least three hours away from where they were. Baker was the next town where they could turn off to get something to eat, and it was ten or fifteen minutes ahead. "You don't want to stop in Baker, Maria?" Ed looked over at her while he was speaking. "No, too dangerous. They might be waiting for us there. It's too small too. If we make it to Bakersfield all right, I don't think they could cover all the eating places like they might be able to in either Baker or Barstow." "Three hours at least to get to Bakersfield. Why not head South to L.A., and then take the coast road back up to Santa Cruz? I also think we can risk grabbing ourselves a burger and fries in Baker. I don't think they'd try anything out in the open, not in broad daylight like this. We'll stay with the car and let your mother and brother run in and get us something. We can eat while we're driving." "If that's what you want, Ed. You still have that thing from before? What you used to get me away from Lewis and Caesar?" Ed knew she meant the gun, and he did still have it. He'd left it in his jacket pocket ever since that other time. "I've still got it. I think you're worrying about nothing. I doubt that they took off after us, not right away like that. I'm getting hungry too. Let's get something to eat, and we can talk about some things while they go after our food." Ed moved his head towards the back seat indicating the two in the back. "I wanna get out in Los Angeles, Maria. Me and Carlos, we don't want to get caught up in any of this business you have with those other men. You give me some of that money you showed me before, like you said, just enough to last me until I can find some new work. I had a good job that you made me leave. Where I'm going to get more work that pays as good?" "You call a hundred a week good? I told you I'd give you a thousand if you left, and I will. You want out in L.A.? Fine with me. Nobody should bother you there. Ed will write down our address, and you can write me when you get settled somewhere." "What about me, Maria? What you giving me from all that money you got?" The brother spoke again with his whiny, nasally voice. "You just shut your boca, Carlos. You're lucky we're giving you a free ride and buying you some lunch." We stopped in the parking lot of the Bun Boy and Maria's mom and brother left to go get some food. I'd handed over a twenty dollar bill and asked for a large burger, Coke, and fries. Maria asked for the same, first telling her mother to get a receipt and to bring back my change. "I don't appreciate you stealing my car, Maria. You don't even have a license." "I couldn't sleep from worrying about them. I didn't want to wake you up, and I thought we'd be back before you got up and saw I was gone." "How did you get your mother to leave? Last night you told me she just hung up on you." "I took the bag up to her apartment and showed her the money and the chiba. She knew, after she saw everything, that they'd kill her and Carlos if they had any idea she could give them some information about how to find me. She talks about her job like it was so good, but I already knew they treated her like shit there. L. A. will be better for her. She can live in the barrio and blend in better. After we eat, do you have any problem if I catch a nap? I didn't hardly get no sleep these last two nights." The burger's and fries hit the spot. Ed drove straight through to the outskirts of Los Angeles, stopping for the night in a little town called Buena Park. Ed got two rooms, half expecting Maria to spend the night in the same room as her brother and mother. He'd have been much more comfortable if she'd done it that way. Instead, while they were out having something to eat, Maria loudly insisted that she and Ed would sleep together in their own room. Her mother made a face about that, but Maria said something to her in Spanish, too fast for Ed to understand, and the mother made no spoken comment after that. Maria behaved herself in bed that night, kissing Ed a little, but not insisting after he explained how he'd be too uncomfortable doing anything with the rest of her family on the other side of a very thin wall. The next morning, Maria gave her mother one thousand dollars, all in hundreds, and told Ed she was ready to leave. Ed told her that she should give them more than that, saying they had to have enough to get started up all over again. Reluctantly, Maria peeled another five hundred dollars from the roll of money she'd been using. "You be good to my Maria, mister. Don't let her be a puta no more." Ed nodded, not really able to make any reassuring comment in answer to her bizarre request. He figured that she already knew that it was Maria who was calling all her own shots in life. She had to know that it was highly unlikely that anyone could control her daughter now. Back in the car and on the road north at last, Maria seemed more settled and at ease. "Those two are so helpless. At least I won't have to worry now about Lewis and Caesar finding them. We got enough to worry about with just the two of us." Ed drove north until they came to the town of Carpentaria. It was only two in the afternoon, but he stopped at a motel on the beach and got a room for them. "Why we stopping here? It's still early. I thought you needed to get back to that base of yours?" Maria seemed confused that Ed was stopping like this. Her voice had some worry in it. "Grab your bag and come with me, Maria. We need to get some things straight before we go any further." Ed turned away after opening the car's trunk, and started hiking towards the very flat expanse of sand that led out to the beach some two hundred yards in the distance. He didn't turn to watch whether Maria was following. It took her several minutes, but Maria caught up to him before they arrived at the water. Her canvas bag was slung over her head and one shoulder. The bag itself was across her chest. "You aren't going to ask me to get rid of any of my stuff, are you?" They had gotten to within five feet of where the water was coming. It would come up close, but then recede, so that it was at least fifty or sixty feet away from where they were standing. "You need to choose, Maria. You know that dope is bad for you. If you keep it around you, you won't be able to resist experimenting with it. I don't want to see you get hooked on drugs like that. If you want to come with me, you have to get rid of all the drugs and the needles." "That stuff is worth so much money, Ed. You can't seriously think I'd throw almost a million dollars away like that?" "I said you had a choice, Maria. I can't take you with me if you keep the drugs." "That isn't a choice. You're talking crazy. We could sell the stuff, a little bit at a time. How about this, I'd let you hold on to it for me? If you had control of it, I couldn't use any, right?" "I'll give you five minutes to decide. You can keep the money, but all the rest has to get thrown in the ocean if you want to come with me." "Fuck you then, Ed! I'd have to be stupid to go for your crazy deal. You're not worth a million bucks to me, not even close to that." Ed turned away from her and started walking back up to the motel. Maria stayed right where she'd been standing with him. When he was fifty yards away from him she screamed something at him, but the wind turned her words away before he could decipher what she was yelling. Ed kept walking. He put his key in the door to the room and went inside. He felt kind of numb about everything. He hadn't really believed that she'd do what he asked. He'd had some hope though, enough to bother asking her to make the choice. Maria trudged back to the room half an hour later. When she saw the door to the room had been left ajar she entered. "You planning to just leave me here, like we left my mom and Carlos? Where the fuck are we, anyways?" Ed told her where they were and offered her a ride to either Ventura or Santa Barbara. He told her she could get a bus to almost anywhere from either city. He even offered to purchase a ticket for her if she wanted him to. "Maybe if you gave me some time to decide? How about if you wait a week or two and then ask me again then? You can hold onto the whole bag if you want to. It doesn't make sense to just throw away something that's worth so much money. Suppose I do decide to get rid of it and then you decide you don't want me with you no more? What then?" "Maria, didn't I come back with all your stuff, just like I said I would? I could have thrown it away myself and just brought you the money, but I didn't. You have to choose what kind of life you want to live. We can't be together with the drugs. If you can't let them go, then we don't have any future together. If you can, I'd know how much you were willing to give up so we'd have a chance. Your decision is more about the life you're going to choose for yourself. It isn't about us, not directly. Whatever you end up deciding, you must realize that you're already the most important person in my life." "Important? I need to be more than important to you for what you're asking. If I do it, you'd have to convince me that you at least loved me first. Can you do that?" "If I love anybody, it's you. I came back to Las Vegas for you, not just to give you that damn bag. If you didn't matter to me a lot, I wouldn't feel right about asking you to throw that stuff away." "You have to tell me that you love me, Ed. If you don't, then no deal." He looked at her face then. He could see a lot of emotion and tension on it. She looked to be on the verge of crying. "Okay, I love you, Maria. I thought about you the whole time I was at my aunt's house. I missed you so much it almost made me go crazy. Is that enough?" Maria started smiling. The tension on her face started to immediately relax. She opened the zipper on her bag and poured out the contents on the bed. All the money was there, but none of the rest of it. "You fuckin' scared me there for a minute, Ed. I'd feel so stupid after throwing all that shit away, only to find out that I was wrong about you. I still think you're crazy, but I couldn't take the chance that you'd leave me again like you did before." That night, while Ed was sleeping, Maria snuck out of their motel room and retrieved the heroin, and all the other drug paraphenalia that she'd hidden under Ed's car. She hurried down to the ocean and finally did what she'd told him she'd done. She managed to undress again and get back into their bed. She never noticed the smile that Ed had plastered on his face. ------- The End ------- Posted: 2005-08-21 Last Modified: 2008-12-11 / 11:53:25 pm ------- http://storiesonline.net/ -------