Home Sweet Home

Jerry... ready to go after the party last night.


I wake up in a lawn chair. There are empty red plastic glasses laying around my feet like fallen soldiers gracing the hallowed ground of a battlefield. I think I won. I have no hang over, no sour stomach... I don't even have to take a piss. Before I move I look around in the growing light of dawn. I am not the only one out here. Jerry is laying on one of the couch cushions from the bunkhouse. Aside from the two of us, Lou is up and drinking coffee by the fire, along with Tapia and a couple of the boys.
"Buenos días, Jake. Come... have some coffee and wake up." Tapia holds up a steaming cup of ranch coffee and I take it from him.
"Thanks Tapia. Man, that was the best shit we were drinking last night. I don't feel hung over one bit."
Lou nods, "Me neither. We need to put some of that in the coke bottles we have in Abby so we have something to take on the road."
"No problemo boys. Take all you want. We made it especially for these occasions."
Lou gestures toward the motionless body laying ten feet from us. "Ole Jerry drank a shit load last night."
Tapia nods, "He is on pain medication for his arm. So that and sangria are enough to make him sleep like a baby."
"Well, we have places to go and people to see." Lou walks over and kicks his foot, "Wake up princess." Nothing. "Hey Jerry, time to get up." Still nothing... just the light buzz of snoring.
"I guess isn't time to wake up."
"Let's take a look at Naomi once we get back to El Corazon. We don't want to start pulling panels on her here." I look at Lou, "You already gave her the once over, huh?"
"Well, there isn't anything obvious, if that's what you mean."
"If there is something hidden, it is in a damn good spot if Bear's men couldn't find it."
Lou gives me a look, "Who do you suppose those guys were anyway?"
Tapia sips his coffee, "What guys?"
"There was an aircraft that followed us from Caracas to Panama. We thought we lost them when we left Panama, but they found us anyway." I take a sip of the steaming brew, "They shot at me and forced us to land. Lou went down first and managed to get off the airstrip and in position when I came by with these guys on our tail."
Tapia shrugs, "So what happens?"
"Lou here pops a couple of rounds into the engine nacelle as the plane flies by and it blew up and crashed."
"So you boys don't know who these people were? Did they have tongues?"
"Tapia, they weren't La Segunda Vida. We didn't get that close to see if they had tongues, but I know they weren't. These guys were either the former owners of Naomi, or they traded with the former owner of Naomi."
Lou's eyes light up, "Maybe Bear will know something. We should call him."
"Not from here. We'll call him from the air. That's how they found us last time. Tapia doesn't need any more excitement here."

Jerry is finally up and around after nine o'clock. His wrist and arm are still in a sling, but the wound is healing nicely according to Mari. She tells Jerry if he were a steer she would have made him all better by now. We all walk up to the ranch house and Mari is waiting there to change his dressing. Before we hit the door you can smell breakfast cooking.
"Tapia, with all of Mari's cooking how is it that you don't weigh six hundred pounds?"
He smiles and grabs at Mari's ass as she passes him to get to her patient. "It is because of all the exercise we get in the bedroom, eh mi gorrión pequeño?"
She slaps him on the shoulder, pretending to be offended. "I get more exercise feeding the animals, usted cabra vieja."
Tapia smiles, "She called me an old goat. You should see the balls on that old goat... enormes pelotas." He looks at me and holds his hands like he is holding a basketball, "huge balls, my friend."

It is high noon before we are ready to depart. Jerry cannot put into words how thankful he is for them taking care of him in this ordeal. So I figure money will talk. I talk to Lou and we both agree that ten thousand dollars from the money that we got from the Dominican Brothers would do nicely.
"Put it in a bag or something and don't let them open it until we leave or they will never take it."
Lou comes up with a small cloth duffel bag out of one of Naomi's side bins. "This will do the trick.."

We are at the planes and have said our good-byes... for now. I hand the duffel to Mari, who I know will respect my wishes and not look in it until we leave. Tapia would be like a kid at Christmas and have it unwrapped and refused before we even got seated in the airplane. Even as we turned to walk to the planes he was trying to see what it is.

I am once again alone in Abigail. Jerry and I did a quick walk around. I did the actual walkaround, and Jerry just wanted to see if I had done anything bad to her. Now he is in the cockpit with Lou, and I am on my own for the third time on this adventure.
I set up the cockpit. As soon as I put the headset on and turn on the radio, Lou is there.
"Hey Captain."
"Lou, are you ready?"
"Yeah, brother. Let's get home and go drink Jerry's beer."

We fire 'em up. The sound of those radials firing up is the sweetest sound. Abby is primed to go and I give Tapia's man on the ground the signal to pull the chocks, a job he has done dozens of times. He calls good luck up the cargo bay as he tosses the chocks in through the door, then I roll out. We are lined up and ready to go. I lock the tail wheel and Abby is in the wind. Tapia's strip is long and smooth. I take half of it just to get up some speed and then we are up.
I make a turn over the La Dora and then line back up with the airstrip at about a thousand feet and watch Lou lift off.
"Jake?" It is Jerry on the radio.
"Yeah?"
"This is a sweet little plane. Have you done any water landings or take offs?"
"Me and Lou both."
"Bastards. I have never done either." There is silence for about thirty seconds and then, "Jake?"
"Yeah?"
"Come close and do a little fly-by. I have never seen Abby fly before without sitting at the controls."
I entertain his request and do a couple of close fly-bys, peeling off on the right wing to turn away and then comeback on him again.
"That is fucking beautiful, man."
I can hear Lou in the background saying something. It is obvious to me that we are going to have to get another headset.
"When we land you go first so I can watch." Jerry tells me.
"Why don't you go first and that way you can watch her land."
"Better."

Within the hour I see our compound. It is such a sight for sore eyes. I drop back and then watch as Lou makes his approach. It is a perfect landing.
"Hey, Jerry... you were supposed to let Lou land the plane so he could get the practice."
"That was all him. I didn't even tell him anything. He is good."
I fly over as they are still taxiing back to the compound.
"Hey Jake, do me a favor and make a hi-speed fly by... gear up and as low as you feel comfortable."
"Just one, then I have to piss."
I take her down as low as I dare and go full throttle toward the airstrip. I see the two of them running from inside the compound to watch me as I scream by. Once I have passed them I pull up and bank her on her wing and then come around to land. It hits me as I feel her touch down... how fortunate we are that we lived to make it back here.

I taxi her in and make my turn. As I shut down her engines, the jungle seeps back into camp and the noise seems to rise a bit and then settles on a dull chatter.
"Abby is one sweet sight flying by like that." Jerry calls from the cargo door as I slip out of the cockpit.
"I'm just glad to get her back in one piece."
Jerry and Lou are waiting as I step out on home ground once again. Jerry seems impatient.
"Let's check out the hanger and the crash pad and make sure the monkeys didn't get in and fuck it up. Then we better head to town and pay a visit to Nester and tell him everything that has happened."