by Gus Leodas
“What wires? Come on Tomayo. For an electronics engineer your thinking is primitive. Don’t mock me.”
He shrugged. “I tried.”
“Don’t say anything, wise cracks or theatrics. Listen and I’ll explain how simple it is.” She held up the volleyball. “This is the weapon.”
“That!” He raised his arms in mock surrender. “I’m sorry for interrupting. Go ahead.”
“Here’s what I need done. Have the ball cut open along the seam wide enough to insert a powerful explosive. Don’t know the name, but seen it numerous times in movies. A remote unit will detonate the explosive device, or maybe a cell phone. When the explosive attaches to the sides, you reseal the seam and refill it with air. We put the ball back in the pool. When Uncle Rafael is a safe distance away, I press the remote unit, which should be small, and that is that. What do you think?”
Tomayo nodded, thinking. He strolled to the refrigerator behind the bar and pulled out a champagne bottle. He poured two glasses and brought them to the cocktail table by Pilar. Then he walked to Pilar, raised her chin, and kissed her.
“You taste good.” Tomayo kissed her again. He sat, handed a glass to her, and raised his glass to toast.
“I believe you can get away with it. It should be easy to dispose of a small remote unit. My compliments, it is not as harebrained as I thought, clever, ingenious. Cheers.” He jabbed the glass in the air and drank.
Excitement overtook Pilar.
“Then you’ll help me?”
“No.”
“But why? You know it will work!”
“How about the chance of something going wrong? I don’t want to risk that.”
“Nothing will go wrong. They’ll never know we did it. There won’t be anything left of the ball to yield a clue.”
“I will do anything for you, anything…but that. If you can figure out how I can do it alone, I will do so because you asked me to. I don’t want you involved.”
“I’m already involved, up to here.” Her hand touched her throat.
“You know I’m stubborn.”
“As a mule, no less.”
“My answer is an irrevocable, no!”
Pilar turned on the radio to soft music. She switched off the lamp near Roberto then stared out the window. She expected Tomayo’s reaction, surprised if he agreed, but encouraged he thought the plan could work. She came with determination and had no intention returning to the estancia without Tomayo’s commitment to help. He could handle the electronics, with explosives obtained through his committee. She had to ease Tomayo into acceptance.
The sadness that naturally filled her eyes for months appeared upon command. The look of suffering had been her partner at the same time and it came running when she called for symptoms. She ordered it to surrender her appearance. Without hesitation, the tears came when beckoned. Her gentle muted sobs provided her shoulders a familiar lift and her knees participated by weakening forcing her body to go limp against the open weave drapes.
Their message reached Tomayo. He hurried to hold and comfort her. He kissed her eyes, mouth, and neck.
“Please don’t cry.”
She sniffled. “I want to save Uncle Rafael.”
Pilar leaned against him, her body pressing; raised her arms and held him around the neck and pressed tighter against his jacket; gazed into his eyes and mouth then her lips covered his; kissed him tender increasing pressure as a moan of contentment escaped from her in rhythmic intervals. Her fingers furrowed through his hair; long dormant sensations of passion seared through her veins with an abrupt awakening screaming for freedom.
Her rhythm was patience.
Pilar felt his tongue probing her lips. She parted them to let him enter. His tongue rolled within as her lips pressed tighter. She pulled away. Her sleeping body frightened her with its craving, determined to tempt Tomayo to help her although losing control. Pilar forced a smile and a deep breath to regain her lost inner composure.
To Tomayo her response was ecstasy, reciprocation from the one you love, rewarding because he was unsure how she felt about him, how much she loved him if at all – no need to tell him now. He held her face and kissed her.
“Many things I have never told you. I have thought about them often and the ideal setting and atmosphere to tell them to you. This discussion is the wrong setting. I want you to know I love you more than life. I loved you always. When you left for America, I died. When you returned, I found my need for you greater than I imagined. I love you. So please don’t ask me to do anything that may hurt you. Or take you from me.”
Pilar prepared to open the prison gates that guarded her emotions but she hesitated. The prison stayed closed. She left him for her glass of champagne then to the bar and sat on a stool. He sat next to her, their knees interlocked. She filled both glasses.
“Here’s to you, Tomayo.” She drank the champagne without stopping. “That’s to tell you my feelings for you are endless.”
“And mine for you.” He drank the same way. She refilled the glass.
“If you can’t help me maybe Quintero will.”
His silence made her uneasy.
“Did you lose your tongue?” she asked.
He continued, his curiosity aroused by the Achilles Heart. He held and examined the Heart.
“Forget Quintero. Only I can help with your plan. What an interesting necklace. What is it? Do you have someone in New York?”
“No one in New York. A few friends and I bought similar ones. It’s my favorite neckpiece.” Then she added after looking at it upside down as he held it, “There’s a legend that goes with it.”
“What’s the legend?”
“I’m embarrassed to say.”
“Don’t be silly.”
“It’s said that when a man holds it and kisses the arrow it means that he wants to make love to you. If you kiss it then you accept. It’s called the Heart of Fertility.” She was impressed with her fairy tale. Tomayo kissed the arrow. “Boy, you didn’t hesitate at all,” she added.
Tomayo raised her hand and handed the Heart to her encouraging a kiss. Pilar held and rubbed the Heart and hesitated.
“The legend doesn’t say one has to kiss it right away in return.”
“Touche, you slippery eel.”
“Slippery eel? What poetry. Whatever happened to – and as I gaze into your eyes and sail to yonder star are dreams the magic vessel or is it my Pilar?”
Funny, the laughter lightened the atmosphere.
“What time is it,” she inquired.
“Eight forty-five.”
“I shouldn’t stay long. I have to go back. I told them I forgot a few things in packing.”
“Were you followed?”
“No, I checked.”
Tomayo decided to withhold that he was. Pilar held him and pleaded.
“Please help me.”
“I can’t. I won’t.”
“Please.” Her voice sounded desperate her eyes pleading. “If you don’t help me, I may wind up doing something stupid.”
He refused to buy.
The actors came back on stage: Remorse and Sadness. Suffering and Knees. Tears waited in the wings.
“Help me if you love me.”
“My love for you is unconditional, except that. Erase the madness.”
“I can’t.” Pilar put the glass down. “If I sit here and drink I won’t be able to drive home. Come and dance. A dance might make you more agreeable.”
“You refuse to ease up.”
About to begin dancing, she hesitated.
“Now wait a minute. No reason why you can’t take off your jacket and loosen your shirt.” He did.
They flowed with the rumba. Their lips met and locked, their bodies maintaining tempo. Their breathing grew heavier. Tears came on stage. Tomayo kissed their flow. She whispered passionately, “You must help me.”
She pressed tighter. When Pilar opened her eyes, she realized they drifted by the bedroom door. She tried again w
hispering, “Please, for me. For me.”
They stopped dancing. She sensed a turning attitude in his eyes, needing another push.
She kissed him and stepped back. Her hand came up and fondled the Achilles Heart. She raised the Heart towards her mouth then hesitated. His eyes begged her to continue the movement. She hedged. He nudged her hand.
Then with eyes fixed on his lips, she raised the Heart to her mouth and held it with her lips.
The sirens wailed and the inmates of Emotion and Passion shouted with joy as the prison gates started opening, running in exhilaration and perspiration shouting the news to every inch and vein and nerve. Freedom ran rampart penetrating her body as Tomayo encouraged everything and everyone out of every corner flowing without restrain, without reservation, warming and floating in the sudden reawakening.
He herded and nudged them to move faster. Pilar joined in that urging to empty the prison faster, urging hands and mouths until the impact of the sudden surge forced the main gate wide open. Their bodies pulsated then collapsed. The prison nearly emptied…and the rush to freedom completed. The successful effort was total and exhausting accomplished together as a team.
When the prison emptied, they were one.
Wednesday and Thursday, the two longest days in Pilar’s life, filled with tense expectation. Then Friday arrived. Tomayo promised to have the volleyball ready by noon. Pilar left the presidential retreat at eleven-thirty for Tomayo’s plant facility after telling her uncle she planned to shop before having lunch with Tomayo.
Her deadly scheme coming to reality frightened. She regained courage by what the results would yield.
Then thoughts of Tomayo dominated. Tuesday night lingered gloriously in her senses and mind. Tomayo brought a smile. She wanted to spend the night with him that night to slumber in his arms. Wisdom beckoned over emotion, needless to arouse suspicion or concern by absence at the retreat. The adults would have missed the ball in their morning routine. She could have claimed Roberto lost it but why take the chance? Tomayo would buy a new one, same brand.
She reached the retreat that night without remembering the route taken. The impact of her lovemaking lingered strong and fresh in her senses.
Nostalgia returned when she drove unto Tomayo’s company parking area. Half the company once belonged to her and Carlos. The company housed in a wide two-story structure in an industrial park. The employees parking zone filled to near capacity. The landscaped grounds remained the same. Tomayo’s secretary came to the reception area and escorted Pilar to Tomayo’s office.
“Please have a seat, Mrs. deLorenzo. His meeting is running over.”
Pilar noticed her attractiveness and grinned realizing her jealous moment. She browsed the office after the secretary left. A metal framed photograph of her and the children, sent from New York, displayed on his desk and brought a smile. The probe continued until her eye caught a photo of Tomayo on a yacht holding high the four-foot fish he caught. A woman had her arms around him kissing his cheek, and to the photo’s left a smiling photo of the same woman. Pilar looked at the photo when he walked in.
“Pilar.”
He shut the door and hastened to kiss her. In his arms, she shifted her eyes to the photos of his mistress.
“Is that 9 de Julio?”
Grinning he replied, “Used to be. It was!”
“Oh, that’s what I thought,” she mocked. She placed both photos in the waste basket then returned to his arms.
“I missed you,” she said.
“I missed you more.”
“Where’s the volleyball? Is it ready?”
The purpose of her visit reached out to him. He turned somber and tried to conceal his mood.
“How were the past two days?” he asked.
“Nothing unusual.”
He locked the door, knelt before the safe behind his desk, and dialed the combination hesitating as if something persuaded him to change his mind. Although indecisive, he withdrew then offered the ball to her. Its potential danger alarmed and she recoiled.
“Is it safe?”
“Yes. Nothing will happen even if dropped.”
She accepted the ball gingerly and placed it on the desk.
“It feels normal.”
“I compensated for the extra weight by adding helium. The minor weight imbalance will be obvious to anyone if held for too long.”
“I didn’t feel anything.” She picked the ball up again and felt the imbalance.
Tomayo opened the bottom left drawer for a woman’s compact and opened it. Inside were two switches and a transistor cluster.
“Clever,” Pilar said raising eyebrows.
“I’ll show you the procedure. To detonate, both switches have to activate. The left one, as you can see by the arrow, you push upwards, the right one downward. With this procedure the device can’t be triggered accidentally…and gives you time to change your mind before pressing the second.”
Pilar studied the compact. “What happens if one is pushed accidentally?”
“Nothing. Push it back in place. Okay? Both switches have to be activated.”
“How long does it take after the two switches are on?”
He snapped his fingers. “Instantly.”
She studied further. “How powerful?”
“The impact will decimate the pool, a chance windows may shatter. The pool should contain the explosion if detonated in the deep end.”
She checked the seams rolling the ball delicately in her hands.
“You’re sure it’s safe?”
“Yes. The seals are perfect and tested.”
Tomayo sat in the maroon leather chair behind his desk and swiveled back and forth. Pilar closed the compact and placed it in her purse.
He probed. “Are you determined to go ahead?”
“Yes.”
“Pilar, planning is one thing, doing another. I hope you freeze before you push those switches.”
“I won’t freeze,” Pilar said with a confident tone.
“Don’t bet on it. You’re incapable of committing murder.”
“It’s not murder.”
“It sure as hell is.”
“Call it anything else but that.”
“You’ve been gentle all your life. It takes a violent person to do what you plan. And you’re not a terrorist.”
“In that one instant I’ll convince myself I’ve been violent all my life. I have causes. Women are strong although deemed gentle by men. Anyone who can go through the rigors of childbearing can do anything, is capable of anything if motivated.”
“You’ll freeze.”
“I won’t.”
His elbows rested on the chair’s arms, his fingertips touching in a triangular pattern.
“Nothing I say will make you turn back?”
“Nothing.”
“The other night I had the same attitude about refusing to help you. I regret changing my mind. I did because of my love for you. And for the same reason I say – If you love me at all, you won’t proceed.”
Pilar lowered her head.
“I must. I love you, but if my going ahead with my plans means I must lose you then I must lose you. How can I live with myself if I do nothing? If I can’t live with myself, it will be impossible to live with anyone else. Please understand, I–must–do–this!” Underscoring the four words added a tremor to her voice.
He mimicked her, louder. “No–you–don’t! When do you plan to do it?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
“Tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning,” he repeated in acceptance and finality. “How are you going to switch balls?”
“Roberto will bring the pool ball up to the room then I’ll return this one to the pool.”
“How are you going to get rid of the old ball?”
“I’ll dispose it somehow.”
“You’d better come up with something quick.”
“I will. The ball will disappear.”
“You’ll switch balls at the end
of the day, right?”
“Sure. No one has gone swimming at night yet. I don’t expect they will tonight. The weather for tomorrow is nice so they should go swimming as usual.”
“Looks like you covered the loopholes.”
“I gave it thought.”
“Insufficient to change your mind.”
“Enough to know I must go on! They murdered Carlos. I may lose my son, they’re about to cause Uncle Rafael’s death, and they plan a war with Chile! That’s more than ample justification to act. I’m in a position to stop them. And I will.”
Tomayo decided to try a more sensitive approach to veer her course headed for failure and imprisonment, a greater tragedy.
“You haven’t thought of everything. What of the unexpected? What if the unexpected happens and something happens to you, caught, and placed before a firing squad? Let’s say you’re killed…”
“What a pessimist!”
“…what shall I do with the children? No mother. No father. Orphans.”
“Damn it!” She pounded the desk. “I don’t want to hear that!”
“What do I do with the children? Shall I give them to Marisa? Uncle Rafael? Shall I keep them? Maybe you should sign a paper authorizing power of attorney to dispose of them as I choose. Or do you make the decision?” Pilar was silent, shattered. “Come on, Pilar. Speak to me. What do I do with the leftovers?”
Leftovers!
“It won’t work!” she screeched..
He grinned at targeting her vulnerability, her weakness, her Achilles heel.
“Answer the question.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
She wrung her hands. “The thought is unbearable.”
“Nothing is worth the sacrifice.”
“You know the subject is sensitive. Don’t bring the children up again. You’re making me insanely nervous. I cannot afford nervousness now.”
“I’ll change the subject. But plan ahead should something happen to you.” He rubbed and salted the wound.
“You sound like an insurance agent.” Her eyes veered to the ball. “Do you have something to wrap the ball in?”
Tomayo threw up his hands in feigned resignation knowing the children would gnaw away until the mad scheme fled her mind or forced her to freeze and abort. The children were his weapon, the road to sanity.