On Wings Of Deliverance

Scowling, the officer put his hand on his gun. “Diez.”

“Owen—” Benny grabbed his arm “—give him the money so we can get out of here.”

He stared down at her for a moment, startled by the real fear in her eyes. Maybe she had a point. The guy would remember two Anglos giving him such a hard time. Making himself relax, he reached for his wallet, which contained nine American dollars. He handed it all to the officer. “No tengo más.” I don’t have any more.

Except the three hundred-dollar bills he’d stashed in one of his shoes.

The federal glared for a few seconds, which wasn’t too intimidating since Owen towered over the guy by at least a foot. Finally the man stepped back, waving Owen and Benny on. “Salgan ustedes.” Get out of here. He muttered a few choice phrases about cheap tourists.

For Benny’s sake, Owen ignored him and swung onto the mule’s back. Hoisting Benny up behind him, he kicked their intrepid steed into motion. He could feel the federal’s stare as they trotted down the road.

When they were out of earshot, Benny sighed against his back. “I hope he doesn’t have a radio.”

“Yeah. If somebody’s looking for us, he won’t have any problem describing us.”

“Owen, we’re going to have to split up. I’m the one they want and I can easily make it back to the States by myself. With my coloring I can pass for Hispanic.”

“I’m not leaving you to travel through Mexico by yourself.” The very idea made Owen’s blood pressure rise.

She patted his hand. “You’re such a gentleman, but I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time. I’ve traveled to other foreign countries alone, my Spanish is fluent and I’m familiar with the culture. I’ll really be safer without—”

“No, you would not be safer without me!” Owen reined in so hard the mule brayed in protest.

By now they had reached the outer edges of Poza Rica, named “rich hole” because it was Mexico’s largest oil town. Derricks rose like skeletal trees in the eastern distance and the Sierra Madre rippled off to the west. In front of them, the buildings of downtown fell into a pile like blocks dumped out of a toy box. Close by, straggling rows of plywood-and-palm-frond shacks stuck out from the road, intersected by sagging power lines. Children played in the junky, flower-bedecked yards, and old men lounged on cars and trucks parked along the dirt streets.

Mexico in its essence. Not particularly frightening at first glance. But all kinds of danger lay in wait for an unaccompanied woman.

He hooked a leg over the old-fashioned saddle horn and turned sideways. He could see the fragile violet veins at her temples, and long, curly black wisps had come loose from her braid to blow against his cheek. Beautiful and vulnerable.

“Okay, lady, let’s have this out once and for all. You claim to be so good at interpreting men. Did you not see the way that federal was looking at you?” He leaned in, practically nose to nose. “You. Are. Stuck. With. Me. Period.”

She stared up at him, mouth pursed to protest. Then something shifted in her expression and she looked away. “I guess I shouldn’t expect you to say anything else.” She didn’t exactly sound grateful.

“What does that mean?”

“Never mind.” Leaning back a little, she gave him a gentle poke in the side. “Turn around and let’s get going before Señor Federal decides to come after us. We’re going to have to disguise you and find a change of clothes.”

“Disguise me?” Owen nudged Sunflower in the ribs with his heels. “How?”

“You’ll see. Just find a general store.”

Owen cast a look over his shoulder and found Benny’s eyes twinkling. “I have a feeling I’m not going to like whatever you’re cooking up.”

“You want to stay with me, you’re going to have to do this my way.”

Unable to get her to come clean, Owen had to content himself with the full-time task of keeping Sunflower’s attention off the wild onions growing along the side of the road.

He could not wait to trade in this contrary, spavined animal for a vehicle with wheels. Cousin Jorge had better have a decent selection.

“I look like an Elvis impersonator!”

Benny surveyed Owen critically in the wavy, speckled mirror. She thought she’d done a pretty good job, considering she’d never been to cosmetology school and hadn’t dyed her own hair since she was fourteen. Back then she’d gone in for magenta and green streaks or a full-platinum bleach. She wrinkled her nose. Thank goodness those days were over.

On the outskirts of Poza Rica, they’d stopped at the first general-store-cum-tourist-trap they came to. Leaving Owen to tend to the mule, Benny had gone inside to purchase a beach towel, a bottle of hair dye, a hat and a pair of cheap sunglasses.

She’d had to get creative to find a place to effect Owen’s disguise. The restroom in the store was out of the question. Slipping a man of Owen’s height past the clerk would have been impossible, and besides, anybody could walk in on them. So they’d headed toward town until they saw an outhouse in an empty schoolyard. It was relatively clean and contained a sink and mirror—the major requirements for Benny’s impromptu beauty salon. Propping the door open, she’d draped the gaudy towel around Owen’s broad shoulders and got to work.

Now his blond hair and eyebrows were jet black. By contrast, his horrified blue-green eyes looked even more electric. She had to admit, he bore a strong resemblance to the King, whose black-velvet portrait hung over the couch in Roxanne Gonzales’s living room. Every day during her sophomore and junior years of high school, Benny had giggled at that portrait as she walked into the kitchen for breakfast.

She whipped the towel off his shoulders. “Can you do ‘That’s All Right, Mama’?”

Giving her a pained look, he slipped on a wrinkled Hawaiian shirt he’d had stuffed in his backpack and buttoned it up. “You’re making fun of me.”

“Would I do that?” She crammed his discarded T-shirt and the towel into the backpack. Fooling around with Owen’s hair had been an intimacy that left her flustered.

“What are you gonna do with your hair?”

“What do you mean?”

“You ought to cut it.”

“Oh, no you don’t!” She grabbed the braid lying across her shoulder. “If I cut this off I’ll look like a Brillo pad.” Vehemently she plopped on her new straw sun hat. “The hit man saw me wearing a skirt, with my hair down. See? In these jeans, with my head covered, I’ll look like a boy.”

There was a short silence as Owen studied her. “I don’t think so.” The look in his eyes seemed to suck every bit of oxygen out of the room.

Or maybe she was just breathless because it smelled so bad in here. “You s-said you wouldn’t—”

Owen sighed. “I know, but…”

There was nothing threatening in his stance, and his gaze was tender. Still, she closed her eyes. Was she afraid of him or herself? She couldn’t help thinking of that picture of her in his notebook.

“Bernadette, look at me.”

She was trying to summon the courage to open her eyes when someone banged on the door. With extreme vigor. Apparently it had swung shut while she was occupied with Owen’s hair.

“What’s going on in there?” demanded a female voice in scandalized Spanish. “Get out here right now or I’ll call the police!”

FIVE

Owen stared down into Benny’s wide brown eyes. He’d been this close to kissing her. What kind of jerk kissed a woman for the first time in an outhouse?

The pounding on the door got louder. “Open up! What’s going on in there?”

He shook his head to regain his composure. “I’ll handle it.” Yanking open the door, he found a middle-aged woman who, from every indication, was an out-of-work schoolteacher. “¡Hola, señora!” he said in the worst Texas accent he could muster. “Gracias por letting us usar el baño. Yo estoy embarasado—” He stopped when the woman’s eyes widened and Benny gasped. “What? What did I say?”

“You know you just told her you were pregnant, you dork!” She looked as if she didn’t know whether to laugh or faint.

“Oops.” Pleased that his diversion had worked, he turned back to the woman still blocking the doorway. Her florid face was convulsing in laughter. “Lo siento, señora. Yo no embarasado. Yo—Yo—”