by Becca Bloom
I ducked as it flew at me again.
Adi's eyes widened and I heard Jake chuckle beside me.
Adi screamed. "That's not a bird, it's a bat! Oh my gosh, get it out! Get it out!"
A bat? I looked again as the bird-bat swooped down from the ceiling again. Sure enough, it's dark little face, pointy wings, and sharp teeth got close enough for me to see them.
I squealed, turning for the door, but it was blocked by four other females who couldn’t get out of each other’s way quick enough to scramble down the stairs.
Jake shook his head at us, keeping his cool like he always did every time he'd had to save me from an unwanted intruder of the creepy, crawly variety.
He said, "Kindly clear the doorway and take Lady downstairs with you. She's aggravating the bat and could get bitten, and then I'd have to capture the thing to get it tested for rabies."
Rabies? Ew. Covering my head and hunching over to cross the room, I grabbed Lady's collar and dragged her over to the door, talking to her to get her to calm down.
"Why you talk dog? You crazy," said Abuelita. Crazy and estúpida. Those were her favorite adjectives to describe me. I didn’t care. I just wanted away from that bat.
They dislodged themselves from the doorway enough to allow Lady to pass, then we blocked her by standing at the top of the stairs to watch Jake trap the bat. It was like driving by a car accident. You didn't really want to see anything gross, but you couldn't keep from looking anyway. Yeah, that's what I felt as I watched him grab a towel and the trash can from the bathroom, toss it over the bat so that it fell to the ground where it limped along the floor until he could put the small, plastic garbage can over it. He made it look too easy, making me feel silly for overreacting.
Jake, the hero … again.
He looked up at us, his green eyes creased in laughter in the dim light of Adi's hallway. "You'd better get out of the doorway unless you want to see this little guy up close."
He didn't have to tell us twice. Rushing down the steps, I listened to the plastic trash bin slide over the wood floor. I followed everyone into the kitchen, making sure the screen door closed behind us.
Minutes later, Jake joined us. Returning Abuelita's rolling pin, he said, "I closed your window before closing the door."
I still had to go back up there to work on Victor's computer.
"You're sure it's gone?"
"Unless Adi has a bat nest somewhere in the house, yes, I'm sure it's gone."
Adi groaned. "If there is, it's in my bedroom. A whole family could live in there and I wouldn’t know it."
I nodded in agreement, adding, "There's plenty of space in my room. I had to pick through your room for the screwdriver I asked you about earlier and nearly got lost. You've been sweet to let me stay with you, but I can't let you stay so cramped when my room is practically empty."
"She need studio," said Tia Rosa, earning a glare from Abuelita.
Adi, either wanting to escape another bickering brawl in the kitchen or sensing how badly I didn't want to go back inside the apartment alone, said, "I need a bit of a break. Let me go up with you and I'll make us a cup of coffee."
That sounded great. I had a long night ahead of me yet.
Chapter 15
The entire sky burst into a red flame with pink, cotton candy clouds. I paused at the top of the steps, admiring the quickest sunset in the world. It would be gone in five minutes, the night swallowing us with darkness.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" said Adi, joining me at the top of the landing. Even Lady stood from her pillow bed beside the front door, looking in the direction we were.
"That's the one thing I really miss about Portland. The sunrises and sunsets last long enough to truly appreciate them. It looks like a heavenly canvas and each night brings a new painting to admire. Here, I blink and I miss the whole thing."
Adi placed her hand on my shoulder. "Welcome to life on the equator. It is nice to know the sun rises and sets within ten minutes of six-thirty every morning and evening. No nasty Daylight Savings Time to rob us of sleep in the springtime."
I shivered at the memory. I hated that time of year.
Handing Lady a bone Abuelita had set aside for her in the kitchen, we went inside the apartment. I pressed on the light switch, but nothing happened. "We're still out of power?" Strange, I had spent most of the afternoon without noticing.
Adi went to the kitchen and pulled some candles out of a drawer. "Losing electricity isn't such a big deal so long as your phone is already charged. Losing water, on the other hand, is the worst."
"What about the restaurant? Doesn't it mess you up?" Unless the electricity turned back on before tomorrow morning, I was most certainly messed up.
"That's why we have gas stoves and ovens. And Mom makes extra juice to put in the freezer for such occasions. We just have to be careful to keep the meat cold and have enough candles and lanterns in supply for the dining room. It's actually quite romantic with all the flickering lights."
She clustered several candles on a plate on the counter, providing enough light for her to light a burner with a match for her French press.
Borrowing one of the candles, I went to my room for Victor's computer, hoping that its charge had held since Victor gave it to me. I took it out to the counter, setting it beside the light.
Before the coffee was done, I'd installed the extra RAM and replaced the base. Pressing the power button, I held my breath, hoping this was all the maintenance it needed.
A white bar blinked at me against the black screen, teasing me. "Will I open or were you wrong?" it taunted.
With a loud beep, the screen filled up with icons and I breathed a sigh of relief. It had turned on and, from the look of Victor's desktop, it was most definitely a RAM problem. The plain blue background was loaded with icons, looking a lot like a wave pool full of little kids and floating devices on a hot summer day. Flipping the computer around, I said, "Check this out. No wonder Victor's computer wouldn't turn on. Have you ever seen this many downloads?"
Adi's eyes widened. "My goodness. It looks like he clicked on every ad ever sent to him. I bet he didn't even know what he had on here."
I restarted the laptop a couple more times just to make sure it'd turn on for Agent Vasquez when he got it, then turned it off to drink my freshly brewed cup of coffee. Now that the computer was ready for inspection, I turned my mind to more immediate matters.
"Have you ever been inside Abuelita's spare room?" I asked Adi.
"I tried to break in with Jake once, but she caught us. We were grounded for what felt like forever."
"Do you think she has a security system set up in there?" Having all day to think about it, my mind had conjured up a booby trap so complicated, it was movie-worthy. Lasers, cameras, heat sensors … the whole shebang.
"If there are, then maybe it's a good thing the power has been out most of the day. Still, I'd let Jake go in first just in case. He's bigger and stronger and can take a hit better than you or Mom could."
"Now, that's sisterly love right there."
Adi shrugged. "He'd say the same thing about me."
I didn't have a brother, but I knew from experience with my sisters that what she said was true. Only, we wouldn't mean it. Just as I was sure Adi didn't mean it.
My phone rang. I knew who it was before even looking at the screen.
I hadn't even said "Hello" when Agent Vasquez asked, "I got approval for the part. Can you have the computer ready for me tomorrow?"
"I can do better than that. I already got the part and the laptop is up and running. You can have it tonight if you want it." I really didn't want to be responsible for Victor's computer a second longer than necessary.
Adi whispered to me, "Don't forget about the mixer."
My anxiety to get rid of a laptop that didn't belong to me and that could contain some important piece of evidence had made me overlook that little detail. I looked at the clock. It was seven o'clock. Sylvia would swing by for m
e any minute and I still needed to change into my dark clothes.
"Excellent," said Agent Vasquez. "Give me the receipt and I'll reimburse you."
"I won't have that until tomorrow. The piece is kind of on loan until I saw if it worked or not."
"You managed to take home a computer component worth a couple hundred dollars just to see if it worked? How did you manage that?"
When he put it like that, I realized how much stress Diego must put his poor sister through. "I don't know. I have a trustworthy face?"
"Hmm. I can be there in an hour to take the computer off your hands, but I'll need that receipt if you want your money back."
"I'll get it to you tomorrow as soon as the computer shop opens." I had always lived a touch frugally, my tastes were simple, I worked hard, and I saved as much as I could every paycheck, but I wasn't so well-off I was willing to blow two hundred dollars for something I could be reimbursed for.
"Good. See you in an hour."
"I won't be here, but I'll leave it in the kitchen with Adi. Okay?"
I got a nod from Adi and a "Got it" from Agent Vasquez before the call ended.
Putting my phone on the dining room table, I gathered up Victor's laptop and his power cord, saving the empty RAM box to take to Diego for a receipt sometime in the morning. Hopefully, my booth wouldn't be so busy, I couldn't spare a few minutes to go there.
"I'll be right back. I'm just going to leave this downstairs."
"You know, it's ironic how Agent Vasquez threatens you not to get involved, and yet, he practically has you as his tech assistant on this case. You'd probably find whatever Victor wanted to show Roberto on that faster than the police will."
She had much more confidence in my investigative abilities than I did. I was just happy to be rid of the thing. However, she did have a point. "Next time he threatens me to stay out of his investigation, I might have to remind him of this."
Adi laughed. "I want to be there when you do."
Lady was still contentedly chewing her bone when I went outside, down the steps, and to the back door of the kitchen.
Lifting the laptop, I said, "Agent Vasquez is swinging by in an hour for this. Can I leave it here just in case I'm not here?"
Sylvia looked over at her mom and aunt, "Did you hear that? That means that neither of you should touch it."
They shrugged their shoulders. Tia Rosa said, "I no can understand complicated machines."
Abuelita's eyes followed me across the room to a shelf under the island. Thinking better of it, I changed my spot to the top of the refrigerator. Abuelita was too short to reach it without getting a chair to stand on.
"What? You think I steal it?" she asked, her hands fisted on top of her hips.
I couldn't say what I really thought, so I said, "I don't want it to be in your way or for anything to spill on it by accident." That was true too.
"Where you go you no be here?" she asked.
She'd caught me. I couldn't tell her I was going to her house to break into her spare room. Nor could I lie to her and tell her I had other plans. This was something Jessamyn would brush over splendidly, so I did my best imitation of her. Shrugging my shoulders, I said vaguely, "I'm going out," then did my best to look like going out was something I did on a nightly basis.
Sylvia caught my eye and twitched her head toward the screen door, communicating that I should leave. Good idea.
Spinning around, I left before anyone could ask anything else I wasn't prepared to answer.
Once inside my room, I changed into my darkest clothes and asked Adi for a hat to cover my light hair. It was almost time to break and enter.
Chapter 16
Sylvia knocked on the door at seven-thirty sharp. "Come on. Jake's waiting for us in front of the house with a dolly."
Lady looked at us with her ears up and alert. Then, she cocked her head to the side, her ears flopping down in the process. Her questioning expression made me doubt the wisdom of what we were about to do, but I patted her on the head and reassured her I'd be home soon. She lay back down as if she could understand me. I would miss her when it was time to leave. At least, I had another month. Mom had emailed me my new itinerary.
We crossed the park, the streetlamps lighting our way, which struck me as odd since we'd been without power most of the day. Turning around, I saw the problem. The block the restaurant was on, and the blocks behind it leading to the main highway were black. However, everything from the park over was shrouded in light.
"Do you think we'll be able to use the mixer tomorrow?" I asked Sylvia, my confidence slipping.
"We'll do everything to be prepared for it. If not … well, if not, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Thanks to you, I have my filling ready and was able to get it in the fridge before the power went. I have enough ice to keep it cold until the morning, so there's nothing to stop me from helping you with the dough." She rubbed her arms in anticipation of the intense workout awaiting them if the power didn’t come back on.
As for me, I tried not to cry. Seriously, how do you even prepare yourself for something like that? My arms would fall off and I'd still have a mountain of dough waiting to be worked into soft, malleable submission.
Jake arrived just as we did, dolly in tow. It was one of those sturdy ones with a wide, metal base and thick wheels.
Sylvia pulled out her keys, looking up and down the street as she did so. It was quiet. Only the sounds of a lived-in residential neighborhood with their televisions and chatter to add to the chirping of insects and rustling of leaves.
I'd often speculated about what was on the other side of the inhospitable hedge surround Abuelita's house, so I looked around curiously as Sylvia let us in.
We walked up a pathway wide enough for two to walk side-by-side. On one side, was a lemon tree surrounded by a bed of flowers in a circular design. It was tiered and each level had a different color flower so distinct I could see the difference even in the dark. The perfectly manicured flower bed reminded me of the entrance of Disneyland with the purple, red, and white flowers laid out to form a happy Mickey Mouse.
The other side boasted an impressive rose garden. I knew Ecuador was famous for their roses, but I'd not seen so many blooms in any other place besides the flower market. Their perfume reached me as we passed by, and I paused to inhale. In my mind, I was Mary Lennox in the Secret Garden she brought back to life.
"Come on, Jessica," Sylvia whispered to me, pulling me out of my daydream.
There was an entryway with a bench for guests to remove their shoes. Sylvia and Jake slid their shoes off, leaving them in front of the bench.
Jake explained when I hesitated, "If we track any dirt inside the house, she'll know we were here."
Without thinking, I plunked down on the bench, and was instantly reminded of my pesky injury. I swallowed my yelp, untying my sneakers as quickly as I could so I could stand back up.
The hardwood floors were slippery under my cotton socks.
The stairs in front of us creaked and the dolly thunked as we went up the steps. Sylvia turned on a flashlight and pointed it up the stairwell. It was lined with pictures … all of them of people, and most of them smiling.
At the top of the landing, a long, floral rug softened our steps. There was one door to the right and two to the left. We followed Sylvia to the last door on the left. It was a solid door with no handle, but rather two metal hooks locked together with a large padlock. I took the flashlight when she handed it to me to dig in her pockets.
"I had to watch several videos on the Internet to find out which way would work best, but I think this'll do." Sylvia held two paper clips which she bent and inserted strategically into the padlock, wiggling them around until it clicked.
"Ah! It worked!" she exclaimed, slapping her hand over her mouth in case Abuelita heard her.
She looked at Jake and I could tell this was a big moment for them.
"Are you ready?" he asked, pushing the dolly between them and the door
. "Just in case Abuelita rigged something else inside, let me push this through first." Opening the door just enough to push the metal cart inside with one hand, we waited for it to set off a trap. But when we heard nothing, Jake moved the dolly to the side and pushed the door open. It creaked and groaned from disuse.
Once we stepped inside, Sylvia flipped on the light switch.
"What if someone sees the light from outside?" I asked, nervous she'd made a mistake.
"Mom covered the windows years ago. The room's a cave."
Jake furled his eyebrows. "What is she hiding that she'd do that?"
On one side of the room was a closed closet. Opposite it, where a window had once been, were cinder blocks cemented in and painted over with a thin layer of white paint to match the walls. Beneath the window was what I could only guess was a chest of drawers under a large, white sheet. In the middle of the room were several large lumps with sheets covering them. So far, it looked like nothing more than a storage room … except for the peculiar removal of the windows.
"We'll have to remove these sheets to find the mixer. I can't tell where it's at. All I remember is that Mom put it up here." She picked the center of one sheet and drew if off a large, rounded object. I hoped that wasn't the mixer or else we'd have a much more difficult time getting it back to the kitchen than I'd supposed.
The sheet fell in a pile at the bottom of six steel barrels mounted on wood carriage wheels. I moved out of its way just in case it was loaded.
"Oh my," Sylvia said, covering her open mouth with her hand.
“It looks the grandfather of the machine gun,” I commented.
Jake shook his head in silence, then grinned. "This explains so much."
"That's scary," I mumbled at his comment. "Why would Abuelita store this in her spare room? Is that … common … here?"
"No. Not common and very illegal," Jake said, pulling more sheets off of various objects, filling the room with dust and our gasps of amazement … which led to a good deal of coughing.