The Energizer Bunny

Before we can slap the dust out of our jeans the girl in the window runs out of the house and dashes toward us. I look at Lou and he at me... who the hell is she? She runs straight for us as fast as she can go and then she leaps into Lou's arms and knocks him to the ground.

"Ohhh Baby, you're back, you are BACK."
At first he looks at little shocky, like she hurt something when she plowed him over. Then she plants one on him and it starts to look like it just might be a contest of some sort, like the kind where you win a car if you are the last couple locked in an embrace. When she lets him up for air she looks my way and I become her next target. She is on her feet in a split second and her arms lock behind my head as she pulls me in. It is obviously not a monogamous relationship. I am slightly repulsed at the thought she was just swapping spit with the pirate/cowboy over there.

"Where have you guys BEEN?" She lets me go and then hauls off and slaps me hard on the chest like I just pinched her ass in an elevator or something. "You were only flying up to San Cristobal. How long does that take? Five or six hours round trip? Eight if you sit in the hovel of a bar at the air strip?"
She falls silent, looking first at me, then Lou. It was obvious she was waiting for an answer. All I have are questions.

"We... uh... how long have we been gone?" I step back just a little, still stinging from the whack I had received.
"Three fucking days, assholes, THREE DAYS." She turns to Lou and as their eyes meet she socks him in the arm. Good jab for a girl.
"Hey, Baby, don't... "
"No, not this time, don't Baby me Lou. You have a radio in that fucking plane. I have been calling you on it for two goddamn days now." She starts to cry as she talks. "You never met up with Jerry. The plan had changed... about you just making a drop. The guys that were to fly shotgun bailed on him. He needed you two to go with him up north. You know Jerry hates flying up there without protection."

She plops down in the dirt, cross-legged with her hands holding her head. I take a knee, as does Lou, and we try to comfort her.

"Look..." I try to make something up that might make all of this right.
"Look, we made it to San Cristobal. We went to the bar and... "
I hesitate for a split second, trying to formulate a story that is sensible, but Lou pushes through the hole, "We were dosed."
I look at him... dosed?
He pauses so I can finish what he started. Not this time. I just give him a blank stare.
"The guys in the bar, we had never seen them before. They put something in the salsa. We were tripping harder than Timothy Leary at an Alumni Dinner. It was bad." He looks to me for re-enforcement.

"Yeah... babe, it was a whole day of tripping our balls off before we started to come down off of that shit. I'm surprised we could find our way back here."

She struggles to her feet and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand.
"You're not bullshitting me, are you?"
"No baby, no bullshit. It was a bad trip. Once we came down we didn't even know why or where we were. All we could do is scour the plane... we recognized that at least. We found a chart and headed here. Give us a chance to rest a bit and get our wits back. We'll be alright."

We gather her up and she leads the way inside the home. As soon as we step inside I feel like we are home. Most of the things we have... or had at El Corazon are here. I walk through the room and see pictures on the wall and in frames, something we never had back at the compound. There is Jerry on a horse, Jerry on a golf course with some guy... which is funny because my Jerry hated golf, Jerry and this girl that just got done kissing the two of us. Another shot of them in a bar, recently I would suspect, and they have company at the table. I am there, looking off toward what must be a stage or something, smokey eyes, half a bottle of whiskey in front of me. And then there is the crazy bastard sitting next to me.

"Lou, take a look."
He comes over and starts to look at the collection of photographs.

"You boys want a beer? I bet you're thirsty after all of that."
"Yeah, sure."

Lou gives the bar picture a good once over. He is sitting between the girl and me, a slick smile on his face. She is kind of sideways with Jerry's arm all the way around the front of her from over her left shoulder.
"Check it out, Jake." He points to the table. In a moment he sees that I am not looking at what he wants me to see. "Under the table, Nancy."

Beneath the table our little lady has one leg in his lap and his right hand and forearm disappear under her long skirt. Above the table Jerry has an arm around the top half, but under Lou is petting her cat.

"She is like a groupie or something." I tell him.
"I could use some of that action." He whispers as she approaches with two Dos Equis.
"What are you guys looking at?" She focuses on the bar shot.
"That was a fun night. That was the only picture Taylor got in focus."
"Taylor?"
"Yeah, funny, Jake."
"No... Taylor, who is Taylor?"
She looks at me in the eye, a quick study, "You boys must have been dosed if you don't remember my brother."
"No, no it isn't that I don't remember your brother, I... I'll be alright. I think I need some sleep or to sit down or something."

She hands us the beers and then plops down on an over-stuffed leather sofa. Not from our place. I take the other end and Lou sits in the glider/rocker, another piece we never had.
"You guys can't rest too long. Jerry is going to be in some deep shit without you boys backing him up."

I take a draw off of the beer and shoot a glance over to Lou. His eyes must be seeing the same blank stare I am giving him. It's like Rod Serling should be standing over behind him in the corner.

"Forgive me, uh... babe" it occurs to me that we don't even know her name. To ask her might be too much, so we will just pretend we do and go from there.
"Where is Jerry going again?"

Her jaw drops slightly and a moment later she rolls her eyes, "You've got to be kidding me." She looks at Lou, who is busy peeling the label off of his beer.
"Some shit-hole near Guadalahara." She moves some papers on the old coffee table from El Corazon.
"Mascoala", she points to it on a make-shift flight plan that Jerry had sketched out on an old chart.

I slide the chart over toward me and silently breathe a sigh of relief. A flight plan, and it shows this Mascoala as the first stop of three going north with the last stop of Anahuac.
"Anahuac?"

"That is where he offloads. He picks up in Mascoala and drops it up there. I told him not to fly it, not to go north. That fucking Mike, he got him into this shit."

"His brother... Mike?"
"You know what, Jake, this shit isn't funny any more. Yes, his brother Mike. Who do you think lined this... oh fuck it. Just sleep on it and I won't have to explain all of this crap to you. It's like talking to one of these fucking monkeys out there."

She gets up and storms into the other room. If there were any doors in here I think she would have slammed it. Lou takes a spot next to me and we both look at the chart.

"Mike?" Lou says the name and we both shake our heads. Mike was gunned down in our timeline up on the border. I knew and worked for Mike before I met Jerry. Lou had never met Mike, but had heard Jerry speak of him when he still had the bar.

The chart is just landing spots and nothing more. There are two dates with times written in the margins. The first is tomorrow and it is in the margin near Guadalahara, the second is north about five hundred miles north at Anahuac... the date is two days later.

"Jesus, Jake..." Lou shakes his head and then rubs is face with his hands, "That looks like, what, thirteen hundred miles? I gotta tell you, I'm beat. I was hoping for a hot bath, a bottle of whiskey, and big sleep."
I look at him without saying a word.
"Man, was that my whiney bitch side or what?" Lou smiles and tries to look ready to go.

I know how he feels... like somebody has kicked the shit out of the Energizer Bunny and expects it to keep on going. It seems like we have been rolling non-stop for months now. I don't think I can go anywhere, not right this second. We need a good night's sleep and some of that guarana root or something to make the trip. As if on cue, Babe emerges from her room with a shoebox, a small zippered pouch, and a plastic jug with what looks like apple juice.

"I know you boys are tired. I know you are. But if you don't leave by first light then Jerry and Taylor are going in unprotected. We might as well make plans to bury them tomorrow." She sits down between us on the couch and grabs each of our legs and holds them tight.
"I have a couple of B-12 doses left. Then there's this." She opens the shoebox and we see a large Ziploc bag filled with white powder.

"No coke... " Lou waves it away.
"Not coke, it is refined guarana root. Mix it in this apple juice and do a couple of shots to start out and then just keep hitting it as you go along."

She looks at the two of us, "I stayed up for a week on this stuff and never crashed on my way down. It's better than coke or speed and isn't illegal... anywhere."

I hear a sigh escape me, then feel a calming hand rubbing my shoulders. We are going to go, first light, on a desparate run to find and help Jerry on a border run that is sure to get us all killed.

We tell Babe to start cooking. We will need to cover a lot of distance and that won't leave any time for much more than fuel when we touch down, then it's wheels up for the next run.

I tell Lou to hit the hay. I will follow as soon as I check Naomi's oil tanks... has to be done within an hour of landing. We will be up in about six hours to find tools, guns, oil, and whatever else we might need on the run. I try not to think too hard about all of this, how... where... why, well I know why. It occurs to me that there might be two of the both of us here in this timeline. What might happen if we stumble across them on this mission I keep away from my thoughts like a circling wolf on the outskirts of the firelight. There will be plenty of time to think about it tomorrow when we are flying.