PAGE 1
“Voy a saltar!” Scottie heard a young woman cry from the belfry to the jeering crowd below where he was. Still nursing his hangover from a long flight which started in Houston, he was shifting away from the details and updates of the highway construction Clyde was explaining minutes before while having coffee and huevos rancheros at an outdoor cafe´ to focus his attention at this woman who was about to kill herself. Still forgetfully holding on to his empty cup whose contents he spilled on his boots, he cranked up his jaded brains attempting to size up the situation forced upon the crowd and himself. The young woman brought up the memory of Carrie reminding him how he failed to save her. That tragedy from the past suddenly haunted him compelling him to save this woman in order to redeem himself. Oh my God! Is this a nightmare or for real? Scottie doubted himself having arrived in the lush green Cuyapo´ valley only yesterday from Bogota´ where his new bosses briefed him on the highway project he was taking over from Clyde. I got to save this woman. I got to.
PAGE 5
Talking about highway construction was beyond her world and did not mean much to her. Then, she remembered her decision to end her life. “Why do you want to save me? Porque´?” she asked bitterly. “Do I have to tell you why? I can’t stand to see you jump to die.” He could not reveal that in saving her he was also redeeming himself before God to atone for his fatal neglect of his sister. “And you’re so young. Your life is still ahead of you.” Nobody spoke so caring for her before. A new dimension was bridged between them. Their mutual combativeness melted away. They have identified each other and silently knew there was a reciprocal attraction between them. Her eyes blinked and whose turquoise tint reminded him of those several pieces of precious stones which he bought from that Isfahan bazaar. Still, he was baffled why such a lovely woman would want to kill herself. “But why do you want to kill yourself?” “My novio left me....” She lowered her eyes becoming ashamed. Then, looking up at him, she wondered how he would react. His mind had already moved to another level as to whether he should help this beautiful but hapless woman. All his life he helped people along the way.
PAGES 22 -23
“Scootee! Scootee! Don’t leave me!” Gabby burst out into the street screaming dressed in a flimsy nightie with its price tag still attached. She opened the door and entered the truck’s cabin. “What’s the meaning of this?” he demanded, now irritated. “Please don’t leave me, Scootee.” “I’m not leaving town. I have to work now.” Her nightie slipped off her right shoulder. “Gosh almighty! What’s the idea of running out into the street almost naked?” “But I did not have time to dress,” she pleaded holding on to his arms. “I heard you start the engine. You did not wake me up. You did not say goodbye....” “I’m sorry, Gabby. I woke up late for the office.” He loosened her grip gently but firmly. Close contact annoyed him. “Gabby, I’m already late.” Becoming irritated with the silly situation, he was ready to shout at her. Her face reminded him again of Carrie tempering his ire. “I left some pesos on the dresser top in case you need to buy something or go out for lunch, okey-dokey?” “No, no! I do not want to be solita, alone.” She let out a torrent of Spanish expressing her objections. As her nightie slipped farther a perky nipple peeked above a lavender lace. “You better go back to the house before the neighbors see you in your nightie.” She did not budge while adjusting her nightie. “Come on! Come on!” He tried to raise her rump and gently push her out the door. “I want you...to carry me upstairs,” she demanded in a sudden fit of caprice. “What...! You must be crazy!” “Una vez, Scootee? Just once? Pleese?” “Listen. I have lots of work to do. Must I spank you?” “Go ahead, papi, spank me.” She raised her derriere toward him and closed her eyes in gluttonous anticipation.
PAGE 93
“Emergencia? Accidente?” Juancho inquired. Scottie did not respond, just stared at them. The padre and Heidi, surprised by his sudden appearance and strange behavior, stopped eating. “Estas bien, Scootee?” Heidi was becoming concerned. Still he was stone silent. “Que pasa, hombre! Can you talk at all?” the padre asked. Unlike Heidi, he was simply getting impatient by the minute. “Sit down and compose yourself.” Scottie sat down slowly, looking blankly at them with Juancho assisting with the chair. Tight-lipped, he placed his hands together on the table. “Here, I pour you a glass full of Santa Helena,” Heidi volunteered hoping the wine will relax him. “Good girl!” the padre praised his woman and impulsively gave her a playful slap on the rump. “You have something more in your brains than your pretty culito, your cute rear, eh, chica?” “You embarrass me,” she complained frowning, relieved that other customers did not notice the padre’s indiscretion. The two empty bottles, aside from the one the padre was working on, got him shellacked and was ready to take a siesta with his mujer. Scottie began sipping the red wine as he thawed from his numbed condition. “Padre...you gotta help me....” His voice was faint and halting as if his words were choking him. He blinked his eyes. “You must explain yourself more clearly, amigo, before I can help you.” Annoyed with his strange behavior, the padre was tempted to chastise him. “Padre Joe,” Scottie started again, his thoughts gnawed by the fear of having to bring up that baby. “I can’t believe what happened....” Unable to continue, the dead silence which followed strained his listeners’ patience. “Somebody....” he attempted to explain himself again, “somebody left a baby...at my door!” Getting his problem out in the open, he gulped his glass of Santa Helena empty with one swig. “Just left her baby! And to me...a bachelor!” The padre and Heidi sighed with relief while Juancho’s face broke into a big smile. Now that they knew what bothered him.
|