by Unknown
“Hale?”
“Hello, Son, you made good time.” He looked at Fortune. “The boy’s still unconscious.”
Fortune looked from Hunter to the worried man and back at her surprised partner. She slipped past them to the side of the bed where Joe was lying. He looked as if he’d shrunk even more. His small face was puffy and discolored, his eyes swollen shut, his lip split and covered with angry scabs.
“Joe? Joe, it’s Fortune. How are you?”
He didn’t move. He didn’t respond.
“What—what happened—to Joe?” Hunter’s voice was strained as if he had trouble focusing on the question.
“Tourists found him at a welcome station,” Hale explained. “He’d been badly beaten.”
“What does the doctor say?”
“He doesn’t know. It could go either way. He might wake up in ten minutes, or maybe …”
“Never,” Hunter finished the sentence in a whisper.
The nurse, waiting in the background, stepped forward. “I’m sorry. But only one of you can remain. Normally, we don’t allow visitors to stay, but in the case of coma, we make exceptions. Hearing a familiar voice can hasten the patient’s recovery. The waiting room is just down the hall.”
“I’ll stay,” said Fortune, taking Joe’s small cold hand in hers. “You two go, you’ve done enough.”
Hunter started forward, but Hale’s hand on his arm restrained him. Hunter turned back to face the man he’d considered his enemy for so many years, then allowed himself to be led away.
Fortune didn’t even hear them leave. She sat on the edge of the bed, still holding Joe’s hand. “Joe, can you hear me? Joe, wake up. I want to tell you about the scavenger hunt. I was picked, Joe. Thanks to you, we have a chance at winning all that money.”
The sound of the machinery hissed and plopped in the silence. There were bubbles of liquid that released themselves at intervals. Somewhere beyond the half-walls of Joe’s white cocoon there was someone moaning softly. The squish of nurses’ shoes moving back and forth spoke of activity behind her.
Fortune continued to talk. Hours passed. Her voice grew hoarse. Hunter came in and urged her to take a break. She didn’t even answer. If she could give enough of herself to Joe, she could bring him back. Finally, she felt her head drooping. She slid to the chair beside his bed, laid her face against his arm, and slept.
She was dreaming. From some faraway place Joe’s voice came to her. She could hear him calling her, hear him as she strained to hear what he was saying.
“Fortune! Fortune! Wake up!” Joe’s voice was louder. He was holding on to her arm, shaking her.
Fortune sat up. He really was calling her. Joe was awake. She felt tears of joy coursing down her face. He was all right. He wasn’t going to die.
Behind her there was movement. Fortune turned her face to the intrusion. Hunter was standing there, misty-eyed and smiling.
“Good job, wild woman,” he said quietly.
“Who’s the dude, Fortune?”
“He’s my partner,” she said softly, “Hunter Kincaid.”
“And this”—Hunter stood aside and allowed Hale to enter the cubicle and stand at the foot of Joe’s bed—“this is Hale Kincaid, the man who got us here.” Hunter couldn’t call the man ‘Father’ yet. But after spending most of the night talking to him, he’d begun to realize that he might have been wrong about his adoptive father.
“Oh, my goodness,” Fortune said apologetically, “I didn’t even thank you last night. I was so concerned about Joe that I forgot all my manners.”
“Don’t worry, Ms. Dagosta, this night has brought me all the thanks I need. Now, young man, the nurses said that as soon as you came to, we could get you out of here and into a room. I’ll bet you’re hungry.”
“You bet,” Joe said brightly.
“What would you like to have to eat? Just name it,” Hale said. “If they don’t have it here in the hospital, we’ll send for it.”
“What I’d really like is some barbecue from the Creature House, but I’ll settle for a Coke and some pizza.”
“Is it really that simple?” Fortune asked with a worried frown.
But the nurse confirmed Hale’s conclusion. Coma victims often woke up hungry and ready to go. Joe was out of danger, though his recovery was not yet complete.
It was the next day, after Fortune had slept most of it away, when the limo brought her and Hunter back to the hospital that she brought up what Joe had said about the barbecue.
“What did you mean by the creature house?”
“You never had any barbecue from the Creature House?” He eyed her with disbelief.
“No, I never even heard of it.”
“It’s awesome, Fortune, the best. There’s this pig, this great big ugly pig on the top of the joint—at least it’s supposed to be a pig, but it’s so ugly that people call it the creature. And the barbecue sauce is so hot that the pig’s crying real tears.”
Fortune looked at Hunter.
“ ‘The hideous beast,’ ” she said.
“ ‘A tear from the creature’s eyes’,” Hunter said.
“What’s going on?” Joe asked.
“Do we still have time, cowboy?”
“This is Tuesday. We have till Friday. Two and a half days. I don’t know,” he answered.
“Where is the Creature House, Joe?” Fortune asked, holding her breath.
“It’s just over the Florida line, outside Tallahassee. You can’t miss it, everybody knows it. Southeast Monster Meat is what the sign says.”
“You can get there in a couple of hours,” Hale said. “You can use the limo.”
“No,” Hunter said, shaking his head. “Fortune can’t leave Joe.”
“Sure she can,” Hale argued. “I’m here. I’ll stay until he’s well enough to travel. Then he can go home with me. Your mother will have my hide if I don’t bring him.”
“I can understand that,” Fortune said, looking at Hale Kincaid’s relaxed expression. “But none of it matters, we can’t go from here by limo. The contest rules say that we have to travel on the Panther, remember?”
“And it’s in Atlanta.” Hunter walked to the window and back.
“And we’re here. I’m sorry, Hunter. I know how much winning meant to you.”
“To you too. Look, we can still make it, wild woman. Hale, will you fly us back to Charlie Brown Airport?”
“Sure, the jet is on standby.”
“If we don’t have any problems, darling,” he said, holding out his hand to Fortune, “we can pick up the bike, and maybe we can still get there. What do you say, shall we go for it?”
Fortune grinned. “There was a woman from Bentz, who had absolutely no sense. When asked to fly, she said, ‘I’ll try.’ She was not too hard to convince.”
“You’re right, Hunter, she’s some woman,” Hale Kincaid said, laying his hand on Hunter’s shoulder. “Reminds me of your mother.”
They climbed into the limo with Hunter charging the driver to hurry. Once inside, he pulled Fortune into his arms.
“No, Hunter, stop.”
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“I’ve had a lot of time to think in the last two days. I know that we’ve been caught up in a dream, but I’m not sure that we ought to let ourselves get carried away by it.”
Hunter released her and leaned back. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. I just know if you kiss me, we’ll start making love, and maybe that’s not smart.”
“Oh, and why is that?”
“I mean, look at my mother. Look at your mother. They were both caught up in love affairs that hurt so many people.”
“A love affair? You think that’s what this is, an affair?”
“I wasn’t sure until I saw you with your father this morning. But you’ve talked through your problem, haven’t you?”
“Not completely. But yes, we’ve talked. I don’t know if we’ll ever have a solid relationship, but we
have an understanding that we’ll try.”
“I’m glad. He seems ready to meet you halfway.”
“I think so. And it’s because of you. I found out a lot of things I didn’t know. I found out that the plant where my father was working was sabotaged by union organizers. The workers didn’t want a union. But some union sympathizers thought if enough bad things happened, the people would turn to the union to save them from unsafe working conditions. Something went wrong, and my father was killed.”
“But why would you believe Hale now?”
“I was only eight years old, Fortune, but one thing I knew—my father was a union man. I went with him. I heard them talking about Hale Kincaid, about how Hale was against them, about how they planned to fix it so that Hale would have to let the union in.”
“Oh, Hunter, I’m sorry, so sorry.”
“I saw him leave that night. Nobody ever understood why he was in the plant. There was an explosion, and he was killed.”
“And nobody was suspicious of his being there?”
“Hale covered it up, Fortune. He said that my father was working. He paid all his funeral expenses and took my mother and me to South Carolina so that I wouldn’t find out.”
“Why didn’t your mother tell you the truth?”
“Hale wouldn’t let her. He wanted to protect my memory of my father.”
“So, now you’ll go home and work with Hale, the way he’s always wanted you to.”
“Maybe, I don’t know. Right now what we want to do is win that money. Lucy’s house needs a new roof.”
“Yes,” Fortune agreed, more sure than ever that she’d made the right choice when she’d pushed Hunter away. He’d go home, where he belonged. But she didn’t belong in his world. She’d never fit in. And Hunter would expect her to change. They’d shared something special, something neither had ever experienced. Together they’d erased all those years of hurt and bad feeling. They couldn’t mistake that for love—not the forever kind.
He’d been her first lover, and she was still fascinated by his lovemaking. She understood that he’d credit her with his new relationship with his family. But she didn’t want gratitude. She didn’t want sex.
Fortune wanted Hunter’s love, but she’d learned a long time ago that wanting was something she could live with. She’d also learned to move on when the time was ripe. That way she’d always have the happy memories. That way she wouldn’t be hurt. That way she wouldn’t lose the cowboy with the sun-god eyes.
The plane landed in Atlanta. They thanked the pilot and reclaimed their Panther. After consulting the map, Hunter handed Fortune her helmet and donned his own. By two o’clock they were heading south, back toward Cordele, where they’d started.
By six o’clock they were turning in the prison-farm gates. Lucy and the kids met her at the door with hugs and questions. While Hunter took a quick run back to contest headquarters to make certain that there wasn’t a winner already, Fortune explained the situation to her friends.
“Yes,” she’d answered, “Joe is going to be fine. Hunter’s father is taking him to Greenville to Hunter’s family home to recuperate from the beating he received. After that? Who knows. It depends on Joe, and the shelter.”
“Why would anybody hurt Joe?” Mickey asked.
“The boys who beat Joe didn’t know he was broke. They wanted money, and when he didn’t have it, they punished him.”
“Surely, the authorities can find them,” the warden said. “With Joe able to give them a description of the boys and the truck.”
“They’re looking,” Fortune said, “but they haven’t been found yet.”
“Fortune, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t find a thing at the library about any creatures with tears,” Lucy said dejectedly.
“We think we have the answer,” Fortune explained, glancing at her watch. “Joe solved it. It’s a barbecue place with a big ugly pig as its logo. Apparently, the sauce is so hot that the pig cries real tears.”
“All you have to do is bring back some of its tears, and you’ll win!” Jade exclaimed with excitement.
“Then we can rebuild the roof and get a license and you’ll have Fortune’s House. We decided to name it for you,” Beau said shyly.
But Fortune had heard the sound of Hunter’s bike arriving. She stood up, gave everybody a good-bye hug, and ran down the walk to meet him.
Though Hunter seemed to be over his aversion to prisons since his talk with his father, she wasn’t certain that he was comfortable about being behind bars.
“Has anybody claimed the prize, cowboy?”
“Not yet. One team gave up, took the bike, and left. One team had a wreck, and one team was disqualified. So far as the officials know, the other eleven teams are still in it.”
“And we still have another day and a half,” said Fortune, sliding behind Hunter. “Are we going to spend the night somewhere and go for the tears tomorrow, or keep moving?”
“I think we’ll keep moving. We’re too close to take a chance on something happening.”
Too close. Hunter’s words haunted Fortune as they left Cordele and took Highway 19 toward Albany and on to Tallahassee.
What did he mean by too close? He wanted to hurry and end the contest so that he could claim the money and they could part company? They were too close, not too close to the end?
She felt a pain somewhere in her throat. It swelled and tightened, threatening to close off her air. The miles seemed to fly by, and now she was torn between wanting to finish and dreading the end of the hunt. By the next day it would be over.
Holding on to Hunter, feeling the smoothness of the leather against her face, she felt like Joe’s creature. Her head ached, and the tears spilled over her eyelids and wet the back of Hunter’s vest.
The next day Hunter would take his money and be gone.
The next day the contest would be over.
She’d been wrong. This time she hadn’t left in time. This time her memories wouldn’t be happy ones.
It was late when they crossed the state line. Stopping by Lucy’s had delayed them, but even Hunter had agreed that they should. Now they had to find the restaurant. Joe could only say that he’d stopped there after he’d accepted a ride with his attackers. But he was fuzzy about the location.
For more than an hour they drove around, stopping, asking, until finally Hunter headed for the Tallahassee Police Department. He left Fortune outside while he went in. Instead of a spring in his step when he came out, he was walking slow, putting one foot carefully in front of the other.
“No luck?” she asked.
“Yes, I found out where it is.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“Nothing, it’s just been a long day.”
That might be, Fortune decided, but it wasn’t the entire reason for his dejection. “What is it, Hunter? Has someone beat us to it?”
“They didn’t know. I just have a bad feeling about this.”
“You’re having woman’s intuition? I don’t believe it.”
“I’m having—I don’t know what I’m having!” He spoke sharply, swung his leg over the bike, and brought the engine to a loud roar, shutting out any further conversation.
“Are you sure you don’t want to find someplace to sleep tonight and go there in the morning?” Fortune yelled over the noise.
Hunter didn’t answer.
Hunter didn’t know what was wrong. They were almost at the end. He knew that they were going to win. For the first time in his life he was going to accomplish something he set out to do. But the accomplishment was suddenly filling him with doubt.
He kept seeing Joe, bruised and battered. Joe who’d only wanted to see the Hemingway cats because they were freaks too. He thought of Jade and Beau and Mickey, all the ragged members of Fortune’s little group.
He’d been like them once. But he hadn’t found anyone like Fortune to stand up for him—not then. Now? He didn’t know. Did he dare to trust her to return his feelings? Hale h
adn’t been what he’d thought. He’d spent so many years hating the man because he was afraid to know the truth. He’d taken the path of least resistance and had gone where the wind blew him.
Not Fortune. She’d stomped off into the sunset, a sneer on her face, her six-shooters drawn and ready for action. He was the Bounty Hunter, but she was the one who wrestled the world for what she wanted. He felt her arms around him, and he wanted them to stay there. He’d always told himself that if he didn’t care, nothing could hurt him.
Now he was hurting.
The stars seemed to be congregating in the sky overhead. They’d left the city behind, heading back toward the Georgia line. At the proper spot he turned off the main highway and drove back into the woods, deeper and deeper, until finally he came to a stop.
The structure was dark, but even Fortune could see the large shape of an animal looming over the roof. There was the sound of water nearby, but she couldn’t see the source. At that moment the moon vaulted out from behind the trees and hung there, a big, glaring silver-dollar moon that illuminated the shack, exposing the biggest, ugliest pig Fortune had ever seen.
“It’s crying, cowboy. The water is from an artesian well, it’s piped up to the pig’s head and coming out of one eye like tears.”
“ ‘North is South and West is East.’ That’s it, wild woman, The hottest barbecue in the Southeast. And here’s our beast.”
“I’ll get the camera,” said Fortune, hopping off the bike and plowing through the saddlebags. “Otherwise, they won’t know we got the tears from the pig. Can you get up there?”
“I’ll get up there, but how will we collect the tears?”
Fortune thought a minute. “The cooler. Are there any drinks left inside?”
“You mean those we swiped?”
“Yep. You see, you never know when you’re going to need something.”
Hunter nodded, opened the cooler, and emptied one of the cola bottles. He started toward the shack, studying the building while he tried to determine the best way to reach the roof. He’d told Fortune that he was fine, but his back had started to hurt long before they’d left Cordele. Now he was in quiet agony.
The tears were quite possibly worth fifty thousand dollars. But by collecting them, he would lose Fortune. He was having very mixed feelings about accomplishing their goal. But he didn’t know how to stop. And he knew, too, that he didn’t have the right. There were others involved, a motley group of teenagers who were homeless. Hunter walked to the tree beside the building and began to climb.