Left Behind Ch. 01

"Oh, it's like that in parts of Honduras. No hay pedo, no big deal. You've just got to stay alert, that's all."

"Stay alert for people shooting at me? I don't THINK so! It's bad enough to have to watch out for drivers with phones in their ears. That takes about all the attention I can spare."

"Hey Serena, you're a woman, you can multi-task! Just set up mental apps. This app watches the road. That app watches the drivers. Other apps plan dinner and wardrobes and job stuff, all at once, basic time-sharing."

"I'd still rather not have to watch for guns. Hey, is coming here going to be, like, culture shock for you? No, wait, I guess not. Culture shock? My friend Matías says he's nervous around the Bay Area because there aren't enough guys with shotguns. In Guatemala, armed guards are everywhere, and up here, they aren't. Matías says he feels more secure with firepower around."

"Yeah, I know how that goes. Gringos get pretty complacent about security." Rosa recalled her encounter with Ally. Complacent gringos get robbed. An alert Mexicana doesn't. It's all about survival, she thought.

"Well, we're burning up the clock," Serena said. "How about we get on the road and get to Oakland? We're getting close to the end of your journey."

"That reminds me of something I read," Rosa said. "'No journey is ever complete until you come home again, or until some new place becomes home.' Maybe, sometimes, the journey never ends." She shivered. "But yeah, it's time for me to end this drive. I'll see you in Oakland."

"Gotcha! Let's roll! Bye for now."

Rosa concentrated on freeway traffic as she crossed the Central Valley. But highway survival did not occupy her mind completely. No, she also thought about... sex. Sex she had not had, except with herself and briefly with LaVonne. Sex she wanted, but with who? She rubbed herself as she drove. Hmmm, that's not really safe, she thought; I will stop somewhere.

A roadside rest area on a grassy hillside west of the valley overlooked the north end of greater San Francisco Bay and the coastal mountains beyond, cut by the Golden Gate. Rosa appreciated the sweeping view, but parked in a less-than-scenic spot. She arranged sunshades in the windows for as much privacy as possible, reclined her seat, and hung a bandanna on the steering wheel. She loosened her bra and slipped it up over her breasts but still under her blouse. She lifted her butt and slid her thong aside, just enough.

She asked herself, am I really going to do this in public? YES!!

Rosa employed various techniques for different qualities of masturbatory orgasms. What she needed right now was a mix of quick-n-dirty and slow-n-sweet with careful manipulations of nipples and clitoris. Not a fast rubout; no prolonged wet finger-fucking, either. Just slow, steady, easy... then faster, and harder... and pinching, and release, ahhhh... nothing worth screaming about, but that's for another time and place.

The bandanna soaked up her juices. The rear-view mirror assured that she had put herself back together suitably. Her flushed face signaled her relief.

She dismantled the sunshades and rolled the windows down; let a zephyr blow away my scent, she thought. She glanced up to see a young couple strolling along the edge of the parking area. They saw her, waved, smiled, and winked. Was she obvious? She smiled and waved back, and then spun onto the freeway.

Rosa tossed the bag-wrapped pistol out the window and over the railing as she crossed the Carquinez Straight bridge. Adios, evidence.

*****

Traffic was mid-afternoon light for the Bay Area, which meant it was only slightly murderous.

Rosa had no difficulty navigating the asphalt maze to and through Oakland. The driveaway agency occupied the site of a failed used car dealership. A gleaming mulberry Toyota Celica sat out front, and Rosa's cousin sat inside. They hugged and kissed, of course, and turned in the SUV. With Serena by her side, the local Chans (or their cousins?) gave Rosa no trouble, importuned no blowjobs, merely scowled and signed-off her paperwork. Rosa's gear was quickly stashed in the Celica's back seat, and they were off.

Serena was tall and lean like her cousin, a little darker and a few years younger, with a similar hourglass figure and sparkling obsidian eyes in an oval face. Her "business casual" attire was a mid-thigh lemon sundress and scarlet sneakers setting off her tawny legs.

"You in a hurry to get stationary or could you stand a scenic drive?"

"Ummm, how scenic, and how long? I won't mind seeing some good stuff."

"Couple hours, no more. See some scenery, have some laughs, okay? And you can tell me everything you couldn't talk about before, right? Right?" Serena jabbed an elbow insistently into Rosa's side. "C'mon, say 'right'."

"Alright already," Rosa laughed. "Drive on!"

Across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco; across the Golden Gate Bridge, wisps of fog starting to drift in from the Pacific; up the rocky Marin coastline; and over low coastal hills into Petaluma, where Serena's condo indeed backed against an old oak grove browsed by horses and goats, and vineyards climbing the surrounding hills. It indeed felt real good there.

And along the way, Rosa spilled her story. Most of it, anyway, but not the part about LaVonne.

"She did WHAT?? And you did WHAT?? HOLY FUCK!! And she had WHAT in the pack?? No shit??"

"Es verdad, nothing but the truth, I swear."

"That was real smart to get rid of everything that could be identified. So now you have piles of cash and gold and shit in your bag there? ¡Hijole, that ain't safe!"

"Tell me! I've been sweating it for days now."

"Ummm, let's see... first thing to do is get you an identity here. Driver's license, bank cards, library card, all the basic stuff. Good thing you have your passport! Then you've got to deposit that cash and stash the gold in a safe deposit box. You might want to hang on to the gold, just in case."

"I thought about that. It's not a fortune but it sure could be useful as a backup, for certain transactions, y'know? I'll leave the gold, gems and a grand in cash in the box as an emergency stash."

"An ace in the hole, as the poker players say. Then the next thing is, where are you going? You can stay with me for awhile; I have an extra bedroom. Just don't mind when my boyfriend Nguyen stops over. We might get noisy." She giggled. "You have any long-term plans worked up?"

"That's the big question, verdad? My goals are rough, no details. My main goal is to stay away from Roberto and his family - and I lump the kids in there, they're more with him than with me. My next goals are to find some ONE who's good, in some PLACE that's good, and with some JOB that's good. I don't ask for much, do I?"

"You're in luck! There are plenty of good jobs available and good guys to be found in pretty good places. The only trick is finding them, y'know." She giggled again.

Rosa looked exasperated. "You're lots of help!" she grunted.

"Well, I am so far!" Serena spun the steering wheel to avoid a careless squirrel, then turned down the driveway leading under a two-story stucco building. "And here we are. C'mon, lets go shake off the miles."

Serena's patented "shaking off the miles" ritual involved getting naked, showering, hopping into her not-too-hot tub, sipping Korbel Brut champagne, and laughing and crying. This worked quite well; those miles just faded away, replaced by dreams and plans.

"Okay, how about this? You have network skills, right? My data center always needs network techs; they're snatched by competitors a lot. You can get a job there, no problem, and the pay is good. If you rent a place nearby, we can drive to work together, save time and gas."

"Sounds like a good start. A furnished studio is all I'll need, and basic transportation - I'm thinking of maybe a motorbike for now. And I don't need to buy a bunch of shit. I'll stay light, in case I need to move fast."

Serena splashed her older cousin. "Like if you need to run...?"

"Or maybe I'll get lucky. Could happen, y'know." They both laughed.

"How could this play out? We work together. You meet a great guy. You shack up and live Happily Ever After, or at least Happily For Now. Bobo's private dick doesn't trace you. All is well. Maybe you move to Nevada for a few weeks and get a divorce there."

"No, not Nevada. I checked online and I'd do best in Mexico. I don't even have to go - I can just send a lawyer to the right court. It can be all over in a day. All it takes is a little money in the right places."

"So are you going to...?"

"Probably... no, certainly... but not today. You're right, I need an address first, and local I.D., and a bank account, and..."

"No, not a bank, a credit union - they don't rob customers like banks do. And you should rent a post-office box. Then, if you need to give out an address, you're harder to find, especially if the post office is in another city and ZIP code." She smirked. "It's another layer of deception."

"You're clever and evil. I knew I had a good reason to love you." Rosa leaned over and kissed her cousin's cheek.

Serena squeezed Rosa's thigh. "You're pretty smart yourself."

Rosa slapped her own forehead. "If I was so smart, I would have remembered - I need a doctor to renew my prescription for The Pill. I can't let those run out. Just in case, y'know."

"No problem; my OB/GYN is a great gal. As for a studio, let's check with the management here, see about vacancies. But something I can see already - we're both turning into prunes. It's time to get out and dry off."

They climbed from the water. Still naked and dripping, Serena embraced Rosa and kissed her lightly. "Oh, it's so good to have you here! And we'll free you from Robo totally." She released Rosa. "Now let's dry off and get dressed in case Nguyen comes around. No need to give him a free show!"

They drained the champagne, and dried and dressed, and were thus presentable but slightly tipsy when Serena's phone sang The Toreador Song.

"Hi lover, what's up? Oh yeah, she's here. Yeah, she's... what? Oh, you're tied up tonight? That's okay, we can fend for ourselves this evening. Yeah, right... uh huh. Okay then, see you tomorrow. Be good. Yeah. Bye..."

Rosa's radar bleeped. "Uh, that sounded sort of..."

"Yeah, didn't it, though? Sounds like he has something hot lined up, doesn't it? I told him a couple days ago that you'd be here and he said he'd like to meet you. Maybe he has a better prospect than the two of us together, huh?"

Rosa said nothing. She had heard calls like that from Roberto, calls that were excuses for his screwing around.

"So what can we do, then? Local clubs are pretty dead on a weeknight like this. Are you even into the club scene?" Rosa shook her head, no. "Yeah, I didn't think so. What do you say we just stay home and get drunk?" Rosa nodded, yes. "Got some killer smoke, too. And it's even legal - I have a prescription. Yeah, let's go out on the back deck and get wasted."

They lounged in shaded redwood chaises, and passed the pipe and bottles, and watched the evening fade away, along with their conscious thoughts. They somehow dragged themselves into separate beds for the night. Tomorrow would be a new day.

*****

NEXT: They're after her! The game is afoot! Plus, there's Serena's scheming boyfriend, and nosy neighbors, and heavy traffic, and some real sex. Well, as real as it gets here. :)