The shiny metal shoes on Ka’s front feet fanned the air like a boxer as the other rattler struck at her. Ka let her heavy body fall back to earth, and her front feet hit the dirt with an eerie crunch. She reared again and continued her screaming, but the ticka-ticka-ticka of the second snake stopped. Ka had hit her mark as well.
Carlos quickly regained his balance and stood on the hard trail with his feet wide apart. The bloody severed tail of the second raging rattler lay lifelessly in the dirt a few inches away from its coiled body.
Ka kicked up more dirt and Carlos flipped the Winchester end-for-end back to shooting position, but the thick clouds of dust made it difficult to see.
“Oy! Oy!” Carlos shouted, and then backed up a few paces. Ka lowered her body back to the earth with a dull thud. Her screams turned to a series of short whinnies and snorts.
“Sssss!” hissed Carlos.
Ka dragged her feet backward as commanded, let out a long snort and shook her head. Carlos reached for the rifle’s hammer and caressed the ribbed metal with his thumb. He searched the ground frantically for the other snake as the dust began to settle, but the snake was nowhere to be found.
Ka snorted and shook her head again. The ends of her reins rested in the fine dirt directly below her head. Carlos coughed at the dust. He turned in his tracks and nervously aimed the Winchester at everything he saw, but the second snake was long gone. Ka shifted her weight and took a deep breath before letting out a low, comforting whinny.
“Another time,” Carlos said aloud. He lowered the rifle from his shoulder and inspected it for damage. A shiny splotch of deep red blood was smattered across the right side of the rifle’s stock. He held the barrel with his left hand and pressed the stock against his stomach. He pulled out a neatly-folded handkerchief.
“Aye!” he scoffed at the sight of the snake’s blood. His stomach turned into knots. The thought of using his most prized possession as nothing more than a club disgusted him. He gently wiped away the serpent’s blood and checked his surroundings in case the other snake decided to have another go.
Ka stood sleepily with her head lowered below her withers. Dirty spittle caked her lips and she lazily gummed her bridle.
“Si, old friend,” Carlos said. “I too thirst.”
The same pale brown chickadee reappeared atop the prickly pear with a fresh round of disapproving peeps. He flitted from pad to pad and pecked at the tiny spots of dark blood that replaced the spines that had been knocked off by the rattler’s body.
Carlos suddenly remembered why he stopped in the middle of the valley to begin with. He thought about the ground squirrel that caught his eye, and knew that if he turned and looked, the squirrel would be gone.
†
“A snake?” Augie asked. “You mean have I seen one like at a zoo or something?”
“No, I mean like really close-up,” said Colleen.
“When I was about six we caught a garter snake in the yard, but I never really got a good look at it. It was just this little bitty thing.”
“This is a little different,” said Colleen.
“Different like how?”
“I knew this dude once that had this huge boa constrictor,” Colleen explained.
“Eew!” Augie squirmed.
“I know, right? Disgusting fuckin’ thing,” said Colleen. “He kept it in this big aquarium in his living room.
“I don’t mind snakes, but I wouldn’t want one as a pet.”
“Same here,” said Colleen. “I don’t mind ’em and we see so many at the ranch. We just let ’em go about their business, and if you leave them alone, they leave you alone.”
“Uh huh,” said Augie sarcastically. “That’s what I thought about my boyfriend, and look what happened to me.”
Colleen wasn’t sure what to say next. She couldn’t read the look on Augie’s face, so she continued as if she didn’t hear her comment. “Anyway, they used to feed this boa constrictor these big damn rats,” she continued. “Now that’s disgusting.”
“Oh yeah,” added Augie. “I fuckin’ hate rats.”
“What I learned was, once they start the process of shedding their skin, you gotta be careful when you feed ’em.”
“Why?” Augie asked. “I mean, I imagine you gotta be really careful when you feed snakes anyway, but what difference does it make how you feed ’em when they start shedding?”
“Before they shed, they get this thick, milky film over their eyes and they can’t see too good,” informed Colleen. “It’s really creepy-lookin’.”
“Well,” Augie corrected.
“What?” asked Colleen.
“They can’t see too well,” Augie said with a chuckle.
“That too,” said Colleen sarcastically. “Anyway, they can’t see too good, so if you make any sudden movements while you’re feeding them, they strike at whatever they see because they think it’s food.”
“No shit,” said Augie.
“No shit,” Colleen assured. “My point is… that look in their eyes… that milky-white film that they get before they shed their skin…”
“That’s what your mother’s eyes looked like when she was in outer space somewhere,” Augie added assumingly.
“Exactly like that,” replied Colleen. “It sent a shiver up my spine.”
“Hmmm,” Augie added. “So she wasn’t herself by any stretch of the imagination.”
“Not at all,” said Colleen. “I didn’t know who it was standing there.”
“So… what do you do now?” asked Augie. “How are you gonna repair the damage you did?”
“Fuck, I don’t know,” said Colleen in a defeated tone. “I’ll just let it blow over, I guess.”
“No… you won’t,” Augie instructed. “You’ll meet it head on and take care of it before it’s too late.”
“But…” Colleen said, but trailed off.
“But what?”
“But what if it’s too late?” asked Colleen.
“It’s never too late,” said Augie.
“Does that go for you, too?”
“We’re not talking about me right now,” Augie said smartly.
“Where the hell is that call bell thing?” Colleen asked aloud as she searched the covers around her. “Here it is.” She pushed the button and shifted her position in the uncomfortable bed. She stared at the metal pins that protruded from her left leg and shook her head in disgust.
“Can I help you?” Leah asked through the speaker on the wall.
“Leah, can you come in when you have a minute?”
“Sure can,” said Leah. “It’ll be about five minutes, is that okay? Or did you need something before that?”
“No. That’s fine,” said Colleen.
Colleen heard the sound of Augie opening a can of soda. She suddenly realized how hungry she was. She looked at the mostly-empty bedside table. It had a small plastic pitcher of water, a foam cup, and the leftover bacon from breakfast wrapped in plastic.
“Augie?” Colleen called quietly.
Augie slurped her soda loudly and swallowed before she answered. The bubbles from the warm Sprite tickled her nose. “YEEAAAHHH?” she belched thunderously.
Dead silence.
Augie cupped her mouth, surprised by the loud eruption that emanated from deep within her. She tried to contain her laughter, but knew if she held it in, her whole body would hurt even more. Her eyes watered and her nostrils burned from the acidic bite of the soda’s carbonation.
“Un… fucking… believable.” scoffed Colleen.
“HA HA HA HA HA!” Augie blurted and then gulped a painful, choppy breath before she bellowed another round of uncontained laughter. “HA HA HA HA HA!”
Colleen closed her eyes and shook her head. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Either of them hurt her chest too much, and her left shoulder ached worse than her leg. “Good one,” she said finally with a smirk.
“Hooo-eeee!” Augie said in a high-pitched chortle. “That one burned
!”
“How in the hell can something so small let out something so loud, for Christ’s sake?” Colleen asked with a fake scold.
“It’s a gift,” Augie chuckled, and then slurped a smaller sip of her soda. “I learned from the best.”
“And who was that?” Colleen asked. “Britney Spears?”
“Ha!” spurted Augie in response.
Colleen shifted position and the pillow that supported her left leg had worked its way out to the end of the bed between her feet. She settled to a less-comfortable position and grunted as she studied her broken shoulder. She knew that the blue sling wouldn’t be there long. Not if she had anything to say about it. She thought about what Carlos had told her about the filly that did this to her. “Camorrista,” she said with a chuckle
“What?” Augie asked and then took another sip of her soda.
“I was just thinking about what my foreman said about the plug that did this to me,” said Colleen.
“What was the word you said a second ago?”
“I said Camorrista,” said Colleen. “It means trouble in Spanish… or more accurately… troublesome.”
“Huh,” said Augie.
“So that’s what Carlos named her,” Colleen continued.
“Everything settled down in here now?” Leah called from the doorway.
“Speaking of trouble,” Augie chided.
“Uh huh,” Leah mocked as she stepped in the room and closed the door.
“Thank God Leah’s here again,” said Colleen.
“Why?” Leah asked as she pulled another pair of gloves from the box on the wall. “What’s wrong?”
“My pillow fell out,” Colleen said in a girly voice.
“My pillow fell out,” Augie mocked sharply.
“Eat your lunch, Godzilla,” Colleen scolded.
“Wuh-ever,” said Augie through a mouthful of food.
Leah approached Colleen’s bedside and re-worked the pillow under the gorgeous blonde’s mangled leg. The other pillow behind Colleen’s head and shoulders had worked its way over to one side.
“You are just a mess here,” said Leah as she untangled and straightened the covers.
“That’s not the half of it,” said Colleen with a deep sigh. “I made a huge mess of things all around.”
Leah said nothing as she continued checking everything around Colleen’s bed, including the amount of Morphine dispensed from the pump.
“You haven’t needed any extra Morphine over the last couple of hours?” Leah asked.
“Well,” Colleen began. “I wouldn’t say I haven’t needed it. I just keep forgetting to punch the button.”
“Okay. You know it’s there if you need it,” said Leah reassuringly. “It’s a good sign that you’re forgetting it already.
“It is?” Colleen asked.
“It is,” said Leah. “It just means that either the pain is subsiding or you have a high threshold for it.”
“It’s the second one,” said Colleen. “I’ve been through a lot of pain over the last year. Longer than that, actually.”
“And there’s more to come,” Augie added.
Room 258 had calmed down once again, but both tenants knew that there were more storms headed their way within the next few hours.
CHAPTER 8
Salty crystals of drying tears held on for dear life at the corners of Joan’s bloodshot eyes. Her head swam with a hundred different thoughts that ranged from confusion and deep sorrow to rage and unbearable pain. Her mind raced through the events that shook her to her very core a few minutes before. She replayed the things that Colleen said and tried to understand where they came from. Even more, she tried to understand the way she said them.
“One Goddamned thing,” she said aloud, repeating what Colleen said. The El Camino’s small cab made her words resonate loudly against the silence beyond the thick, tinted windows. “I said I was sorry.” She gripped the leather steering wheel tightly and gritted her teeth. The leather squeaked as it rubbed against the hard steering wheel. Joan’s teeth squeaked the same tune as she ground them in disgust.
“What did I do to deserve this?” she scoffed and squinted her eyes. The red Visitor Parking sign on the wall in front of her offered no explanation. She felt as if she had been stomped by the same horse as her daughter-in-law. The sixty-one-year-old widow and mother of two dead children closed her eyes, leaned forward, and rested her forehead against her knuckles. She drew in a deep, choppy breath as she began to think about what to do next. She opened her eyes, let out her breath and leaned back in the seat.
She studied her knuckles, which had turned white from gripping the steering wheel. They stood in bright contrast against the El Camino’s dull black dashboard. She released her death grip on the steering wheel and grabbed her purse. She lifted the brown leather satchel to her lap and reached for the zipper, but suddenly stopped short. A deep, bright scratch as long and as wide as an unsharpened pencil was etched a few inches below the zipper. The scratch ran straight through the word COACH as if it were crossed out with a thick white marker.
“That figures,” she said aloud. Her body went limp and her head bumped the rear window. “What next?”
The answer to Joan’s question came with a knock on the window. “Joan, is that you in there?” asked Father Francis Jones. He peered inside the cab through cupped hands and looked as if he were trying to see through a one-way mirror.
†
“Is there anything else you need?” Leah asked her patients.
“Other than a fresh lunch tray?” asked Colleen.
Leah, with one hand on her hip in a fake scolding posture said, “Actually, I figured you would want another one, so I took the liberty of calling the kitchen.”
“She’s great, ain’t she?” Augie chimed in.
“She’s an absolute doll,” said Colleen. “There is one other thing I need, come to think of it.”
“What’s that?” Leah asked.
“That walnut-cracker’s phone number,” said Colleen coyly. “Is he married?”
“Hey!” scoffed Augie. “Hands off!”
Colleen and Leah looked at Augie and then back at each other. Both searched their minds for the right thing to say because of Augie’s unstable situation.
“Actually, he is married,” said Leah as she looked at Augie again. “His wife Becky is the sweetest thing.”
“And I’ll bet she’s hot as hell, isn’t she?” asked Colleen.
“She’s gorgeous,” said Leah. “She’s a bodybuilder too.”
“No shit,” said Augie.
“Ugh,” said Colleen. “Does she look like a man?”
“Not at all,” said Leah. “She is very muscular but at the same time very feminine.”
“Like how big is she?” Colleen asked.
“She’s a bit smaller than David, but not much,” replied Leah. “What surprised me the most is her high-pitched voice. It’s girly and cute.”
“Like me!” Augie chimed in again.
“She said girly and cute, Godzilla,” Colleen fired back playfully, referring to Augie’s man-sized belch a few minutes earlier.
Leah gasped at Colleen’s dig at Augie. Augie’s face turned red from embarrassment, and suddenly the bandage on her head and face seemed brighter than before.
“You guys kill me,” said Leah as she started for the door. “I need to go check on your lunch tray.”
“Would you mind handing me the bag that my mother brought before you go?” Colleen asked.
“Sure,” said Leah. “Do you want both of them?”
“Yes, please,” said Colleen in her girly voice again.
“Yes, please,” mocked Augie.
“You go straight ta hell!” Colleen fired playfully.
“Pfft!” Augie sputtered and then went back to eating.
The plastic bags rustled as Leah placed them in Colleen’s lap. Colleen inspected the contents of one bag, and then the other. “This one goes to Godzilla,” she said as
she lifted the Wal-Mart bag and offered it to Leah.
Augie perked up in her bed. “Fer me?” she asked.
“Yes. Fer you, Miss Pain in the Ass.”
“What is it?” Augie asked excitedly. “What is it?”
“Just stuff,” said Colleen. “Stuff I wouldn’t be caught dead without in a place like this.”
Leah handed the bag over to Augie. She tore through it like a two-year-old on Christmas morning.
“Oh my God! I need all of this stuff!” Augie squealed.
Leah pulled the table that held Augie’s lunch to the side. She watched intently as the excited twenty-five-year-old pulled out each item. She held it up in show-and-tell style and then placed it in a neat line in front of her.
“Whatcha got there?” Leah asked as she played along with the game.
“I got… a hairbrush…” she said as she grabbed the first item in line, held it up, and then presented it like a Price is Right model before moving on to the next. “Deodorant,” she continued, held it up, and moved to the next item.
Along with the hairbrush and deodorant were tampons, mini pads, hair scrunchies, toothbrush and toothpaste, body spray, and hand lotion. As Augie presented each one, Leah and Colleen made a game of saying Ooh! and Ahh! in unison.
“Very nice,” Leah said as Augie held the last item in the air and then placed it on the bed again.
“Oh wait,” said Colleen. “Isn’t there anything else in there?”
“Ummm…” said Augie as she grabbed the empty bag, turned it upside-down, and shook it. “Nope,” she said. “Why? Is there supposed to be?”
“There should be,” said Colleen as she turned her attention to her own bag.
“That is just the sweetest thing ever,” said Leah. She fought back tears at the Caldwell family’s generosity.
“Here they are,” said Colleen as she rifled through her own bag.
“Here they are?” asked Augie excitedly as she clapped the palms of her hands together.
“Leah, would you mind one more time?” asked Colleen.
Remembering August (Triple C Ranch Saga) Page 23