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Chapter 2
The week passed quickly—much too
quickly. The boys mostly avoided each other, and when they were together, they
talked very little. They didn’t want to talk about the Templarios, but that
weighed so heavily on their minds that they couldn’t think of anything else to
talk about.
The call came on Thursday morning, one
week to the hour since the abandoned heist.
“Hello?”
“Nicolas, have you made your decision?”
“My friends don’t have to join, and you
will leave them alone so long as I join?”
“You have my word.”
Nicolas exhaled. “Okay, I’ll do it.”
“An excellent decision. Please, go
outside.”
Nicolas frowned. “You mean my front yard?”
“Yes.”
Puzzled, Nicolas strode through the front room
and opened the door. He stepped onto the small porch, paused to look around,
then closed the door and walked to the middle of the yard.
The Mercedes SUV drove in front of his
house and stopped. A Vespa scooter stopped directly behind it. He recognized
the driver of the scooter as one of the goons with Luis that day—he parked the
scooter and stepped off.
Nicolas glanced around guiltily. He was
glad his family were all elsewhere that morning. His younger sister, Inés, was
participating in a cultural activity, and the rest of the family had gone
together to watch. Nicolas got out of attending by feigning a stomachache.
The window on the rear door of the SUV
rolled down, exposing Luis’ beaming face.
“What do you want?” Nicolas asked warily.
“Just bringing you a gift.”
The thug who had driven the scooter held
out his closed hand. Nicolas stared at his hand but didn’t move.
“Here you go.” The thug extended his hand
closer to Nicolas.
“What is it?” Nicolas leaned back
uncertainly.
“Key to your scooter.”
Nicolas stared blankly at the thug.
“You need your own transportation,” Luis
explained.
The thug grabbed Nicolas’s hand, turned it
palm up and dropped the key. He closed Nicolas’s fingers around the key and
released his hand. Scowling and shaking his head, he opened the passenger door
and entered the SUV.
“Be in Ixtapa before noon, Saturday,” Luis
directed. “I will call you with your assignment then.”
“What am I supposed to tell my parents
about this?” Nicolas gestured toward the scooter.
“Tell them whatever you wish. Tell them it
is a gift from a friend.” Luis continued to smile at Nicolas as the tinted
window closed. The SUV drove away, leaving Nicolas standing alone in his yard.
Nicolas frowned. They knew where he lived.
How did they know? How much did they know about him? About his family? His parents
wouldn’t approve of his decision. He was planning to keep it a secret—at least
for now. But if they were just going to show up whenever they felt like it …
His phone rang, pulling him from his
thoughts.
“Hola.”
“Hey, it’s Oscar.”
“Hey, Oscar, what’s up?”
“Have you heard anything yet?”
“Yeah.” Nicolas looked around guiltily,
fearing someone might be eavesdropping on the conversation. “They just left a
few minutes ago.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“What did you say?” Oscar’s voice was
tinged with impatience.
“I said yes.”
Oscar whistled softly. “For all of us?”
“No, just me. I can’t make a decision like
that for the rest of you.”
“I told you I got your back.”
“Yeah, I know. But still.” Nicolas shifted
nervously. “You wanna go for a ride?”
“A ride?” Oscar sounded puzzled.
“You home?” Nicolas climbed on the
scooter.
“Yeah.”
“I’ll be there in a couple hours.” Nicolas
ended the call and started the scooter.
The drive from Ixlayotla to Ixtapa was
thrilling. Nicolas had been on a motorcycle once before, with his father. His
father had taught him how to drive it. The scooter was similar enough, and he
quickly grew comfortable with its controls and handling.
Nicolas drove faster than was prudent on
the winding dirt road leading out of the mountains and to the paved two-lane
road, which followed the shoreline south and east to Ixtapa.
He thrilled to the rush of the wind in his
face and blurred scenery rushing by. Rather than reduce his speed, he cut the
corners on the tight bends. Halfway through one particularly sharp turn, he
came face to face with an oncoming car. He swung right, narrowly missing
clipping the car’s fender. He was pretty sure that, had there not been a
windshield between him and the driver of the car, he could have leaned over and
kissed the terrified woman on the cheek.
The tires of the scooter skidded on the
dirt road as Nicolas swerved to the left just beyond the car, to avoid flying off
the road and down into the ravine on the right-hand side.
As he regained control of the scooter, he
noticed the slight adrenaline tremble in his hands. Laughing, he opened the
throttle wide again.
The dirt road wound out of the mountains
and on to the flat strip of land between the mountains and the ocean. It ended
roughly three kilometers from the coast, dumping onto the paved road that
followed the coastline. He covered the distance in just barely over an hour,
ten minutes or so faster than his family had ever driven it.
A little less than an hour to go. Nicolas grinned;
maybe a lot less.
The scenery along the road was drab and
dreary, consisting mostly of dry, yellow grasses and small scrubby brush with intermittent
clusters of feeble-looking deciduous trees, or lines of sickly palm trees. Occasionally,
the drabness of the natural landscape was interrupted by a dilapidated building,
accented by crumbling stone and random graffiti.
Nicolas despised this road. He despised
the small town he lived in. It was only lush and green for a few brief months, during
the rainy season. The rest of the time it was dry and barren, a miserable,
boring wasteland.
He despised the slow, boring life in the
town. The relatively small number of students in his school and their backward,
country-bumpkin way of doing things. He longed for the excitement and energy of
the big city––that and the many luxuries available there: the beaches, the
swimming pools, the dazzling array of restaurants and clubs, the sophisticated
people, the lights, and the energy. Oh, how he longed for that. He sighed as he
continued along the road, impatiently racing around an old rusty automobile
making its way southward. He stared disdainfully at the old man inside, barely
able to see over the steering wheel. Why was that old fool still allowed to
drive? He was a hazard, puttering along so slowly.
Nicolas shook his head and sped on. As he
approached the city of Pantla, he slowed. Only a few kilometers more to Ixtapa.
There were more cars on the road, and he was more likely to run into policía. Technically, he
was still on a limited driving permit for one more year. Best not to draw
attention.
Minutes later, Nicolas arrived at Oscar’s
house on the outskirts of Ixtapa. Oscar was outside, sitting on a chair in the
shade of the small porch. Nicolas pulled up in front of the house and Oscar
jumped up, his eyes wide and his mouth agape. He crept toward the street as
Nicolas stopped, then cut the engine.
“What do you think?” Nicolas glanced from
Oscar to the scooter, then back to Oscar.
Oscar scowled. “Where did you get that?”
“From the Templarios.”
Oscar stared at the scooter in disbelief,
examining every inch.
“They just gave it to you?”
“Yeah, said I needed a way to commute to
Ixtapa.”
“You haven’t even started working yet and
they gave you a scooter?”
“Yeah.” Nicolas responded with a single
nod. “Wanna go for a ride?”
“Sure.” Oscar shrugged noncommittally, but
his eyes glimmered with eager anticipation.
The two boys drove to the pier, and then
south on a road that followed the ocean, winding through a lush canopy of trees,
finally stopping in a small parking lot next to a heavily forested area.
Hiking a winding trail, they dropped
through the forest to a secluded beach. It was a narrow strip of sand, bordered
on either side by rocky structures which rose from the ocean and disappeared
into the heavy green growth of the forest. The whole of the beach was shaded by
a thick canopy of trees. The area was void of activity, save for two young
families playing with their children near the lapping waves.
“When do you start working for them?” Oscar
queried as the two strolled through the sand down to the water’s edge.
“Next weekend.”
“Just weekends then. He’s not gonna make
you drop school?”
“I don’t think so.”
“What’s he gonna make you do?”
Nicolas shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Smuggle drugs?”
“Probably not.” Nicolas squinted. “I mean,
we’re too far from the border, right?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Oscar frowned, then his
eyes lit up. “Do the Templarios have a drug farm near your place? Maybe he’s
gonna have you bring product to Ixtapa.”
“On a scooter?” Nicolas looked skeptically
at Oscar.
“Oh, yeah.” Oscar’s eyes fell. “Well,
shoot. What else could they have you doing?”
“No idea.”
The two stared silently at the ocean for a
moment.
“Okay.” Oscar finally broke the silence.
“What time do we start?”
“We?”
“Yeah, we. I can’t have your back if I’m
not there.”
Nicolas grinned. “It’s just me next weekend,
let me find out what’s going on before I drag us both into it.”
“Well,” Oscar dragged the word out, “okay,
but try and keep your cool. I know how you tend to fall apart under pressure.”
Nicolas snorted and playfully punched
Oscar in the arm. Oscar snickered.
Nicolas grew somber as he stared out at
the water again.
“Why?”
Nicolas turned an uncertain gaze to Oscar.
“Why didn’t they just … you know …”
Nicolas drew a finger across his throat.
Oscar rubbed his chin.
“You’re pretty smart, Nicolas. Look at the
way you handled last weekend. You saw it coming, and you kept us out of jail.
You’re the one that came up with all the plans. Me, Javier, Gaspar, we’re just
the muscle.”
“Ow!” Nicolas flinched as Oscar punched
his shoulder.
“We probably should get going.” Oscar
peered at the sky. “Your mom will have a whole litter of kittens if you’re not
home by dark.”
Nicolas rolled his eyes and grunted. He
turned his head to steal one last peek at the ocean as he followed Oscar into
the dense vegetation.
“Speaking of your mom,” Oscar pushed a
low-hanging branch out of his way, “what does she think of all this?” He
released the branch, allowing it to whip back.
Nicolas threw his arms up just in time to
avoid getting slapped in the face by the thin branch. He scowled at Oscar.
“She doesn’t know about any of this, and
she’s not going to know about any of it.”
Oscar turned his head, furrowing his brow.
“How exactly are you going to keep the
scooter a secret?”
“I don’t know.” Nicolas shrugged. “I guess
she’ll know about that, just not anything else. I’ll tell her it was a gift
from a friend or something.”
“Right,” Oscar snorted, “because you have so
many friends with pockets full of money and more scooters than they can fit in
their giant garages. Hey!” Oscar stumbled as Nicolas successfully kicked the
bottom of his shoe mid-stride.
“Hey yerself.” Nicolas smirked
triumphantly.
“You can be such a punk sometimes.” Oscar
shook his head, smiling.
***
Nicolas dropped Oscar at his house, then made the return
drive to his own home, arriving just as the sun was setting.
“I’m home,” Nicolas announced as he
entered the house. His mother entered the living room from the kitchen,
scowling.
“Where have you been?”
“I went to hang out with Oscar.”
“How did you get there?” She looked out
the window. “What is that?”
“It’s a scooter.”
“Were did it come from?” She placed her
hands on her hips.
“It’s a gift from a friend,” Nicolas
responded lamely.
“Who?” his mother demanded.
“Uhm, I got a job, for a private courier
company. I am delivering packages for them. They gave me the scooter to do
that.”
“What is the name of this company?”
“Mamá,”
Nicolas whined, “I don’t know, it’s just a guy.”
“Who?” his mother persisted.
“Luis, Luis Arroya.” Nicolas figured there
was no sense making up a name. Maybe Luis would be willing to support his cover
story. His mother continued to scowl suspiciously. Finally, with a huff, she
turned and went back to the kitchen.
“You’re late for dinner. Everyone has
already eaten. There is still beans and rice in the pot, you can have that.”
Nicolas breathed a sigh of relief, though
he doubted this was over. She was so overprotective! Didn’t she realize he was
almost an adult now?
“Can you give me a ride?” Leticia, his
twelve-year-old sister sitting quietly in the corner of the room, had gone unnoticed
throughout the conversation with his mother.
“Okay.” Nicolas smiled. “But just around
the block.”
Leticia grinned, then jumped to her feet
and raced outside.
