by Kim Hornsby
Walking up and down the aisles of La Colonia, Tina tried to imagine what they might buy at the well-stocked store. Wyatt liked candy and chips like any other kid, but would they indulge him? She stood by the milk, then the cereal, even the beer, with no results.
It was getting dark. She had to be done for the night. Without the slightest hint of a clue, she had to believe that the truck hadn’t pulled in to Granada yet. Climbing the steps to their hotel room floor, Tina hoped to God that they wouldn’t just blow into town on Sunday. Two more days of this would be torture.
Chapter 10
Jamey’s phone had been pinging all day while they traveled and Tina tried to not ask him who was texting. Probably Carrie. Or Chris. But while Jamey was showering, a text came in, and she glanced at the screen. “Leilani” it said, with a set of emoticon lips after the name. Tina had no idea who it was and thought nothing of it again until Jamey was out of the shower and another text came in and he grabbed the phone quickly.
He walked to the balcony and shut the door leading outside. Tina tried to not watch him but she had a strange feeling about his behavior and watched anyhow. Her husband stood leaning on the railing of the balcony with a sexy smirk on his face, reading the text.
After wondering what or who could make her husband smile that way, Tina took a deep breath and got ready for bed. Jamey was a flirt, something she’d admired in the past and hadn’t worried about. Women loved him and he didn’t seem to realize this. Many times when Jamey was single, he’d told her that he hadn’t noticed when a woman was interested.
When Jamey came inside the hotel room, he looked to her in the bed and turned his phone volume down. “I closed the door because I didn’t want to let out the air conditioning,” he explained without looking her in the eyes.
***
In the dream Jamey and Tina were at a restaurant on what looked like Lake Nicaragua. The wind blew off the lake making whitecaps on the open water. Tina sat with Kai at a table for four. A man ran up to Jamey, holding a piece of paper. The stranger looked Spanish. He had grayish curly hair, a bushy grey moustache, and a small, wiry physique. “I got directions.” He pointed beyond the restaurant to a cluster of small islands; from this angle, it was impossible to tell what was mainland and what wasn’t attached.
Jamey shot a look at Tina who gave him a thumbs up to indicate she was in the jump too. “Chocolate chip cookies,” she said. He signaled back. The blurred edges of the horizon and the pale colors indicated this was a premonition.
The man held up the sheet of white paper. “The boat driver knows the house, but we have to go now. All the boats are booked in an hour for a tour group.” He was probably about sixty years old, but looked to be in excellent shape. He wore a wedding ring.
“Good,” Jamey said, not knowing exactly what was next in this scene. “Hey, can I ask you something obvious?”
The man nodded. “What?”
“What day is today?”
The man squinted. “You feel okay, or what? It’s Friday.”
Jamey smiled. “I just wanted to hear you say it. I’ve got until Sunday to find these guys.”
“What happens on Sunday?”
Okay, so this guy didn’t know anything much. “I want to go to church.” It didn’t really make sense, but Jamey hoped the stranger in front of him didn’t care.
The man nodded and looked over at Tina. “Is she coming with us on the boat?” he asked.
“What do you recommend?” Jamey tried to be elusive, get a feel for what they were about to do.
“Well if there’s a shit storm and it ends up with you grabbing the kid and taking off in the boat, you might not want the baby there.”
This dude knew they were looking for a kid. “That’s true.” Jamey continued. “Hey, I think I’ve been saying your name wrong, man. How do you say it?”
The man looked over at Jamey like he didn’t believe him. “Diego. You been saying it perfect, Jamey. Diego.”
Diego. Where did he meet this guy? “I’ll just tell Tina to wait here. How long do you think we’ll be?” Doing whatever it is we’re going off to do.
Diego looked out at the islands. “With any luck, half an hour.”
“Let’s do it.” Jamey nodded and ran over to Tina at the table playing with her baby. “We’re heading off on a boat to an island. The guy’s name is Diego. Apparently he knows us. It’s Friday.”
Tina’s raised eyebrows showed she was impressed they’d met someone and told him that much of their story. “Should I wait for you guys here? Do you think you’re going off to an island where they have Wyatt?”
Diego was now within earshot and spoke to her. “Tina, my friend will take care of you if you want to wait here. We shouldn’t be too long.” He pointed to a man standing by the bar talking to customers.
“Sounds good,” Tina nodded. “Hey Diego. Where did you meet Jamey?” There was a fierce pull backwards and they were out of the dream and awake in their hotel room. Kai had cried out in his sleep and torn them from the premonition. Damn it. They’d been doing so well.
“Shit.” Jamey whispered, and looked over at his wife. There was just enough illumination from the outside streetlights filtering through the cracks in the blackout curtains that he could see Tina nodding.
“Yeah, but tomorrow we meet someone named Diego who thinks Kevin and Rose are on an island. Am I right?”
Jamey threaded his hand through his hair and took a deep breath. “I think you’re right.” He let it out slowly. “Thank God.”
***
Tina woke from a disturbing dream and looked over to see Jamey gone. Not in bed. Her watch said 7:32. On his pillow was a note.
Doing my early morning patrol of the streets. Call me when you two wake up. J
He had such lovely penmanship compared to her scrawl. This was another thing about her husband that was controlled. Jamey was the neat freak and Tina was a bit sloppy. He’d been up to feed at 3 a.m., and must be tired. But now, Kai had slept through his usual 7 a.m. feed and was still sleeping, his arms flayed out like he was flying in his dreams. What could a baby possibly have to dream about with their limited life experiences?
Lying back in the tangled white sheets, she remembered bits and pieces of her dream from before she woke. There was an older woman; they were talking at a patio table. The woman’s long, grey hair was braided down one side; she had a kind smile. Had Tina been telling her about motherhood? When the woman began to cry, babies poured from her eyes, like tears. Tina had to leap up to try to catch them before they hit the floor. Then she woke feeling disturbed about not being able to keep up with the flow of babies.
Dreams of late had mostly been about Tina’s insecurities with motherhood. Was she doing everything right? How could she possibly avoid all the mistakes? Just the other night, she’d dreamed that when Kai was born the doctor didn’t give him a drug to make him grow and he was doomed to remain a baby. She’d woken furious with the doctor, more angry than she ever remembered being in her waking life. It took Jamey twenty minutes and a box of tissues to calm her from the emotion of that dream.
As far back as she remembered, Tina had been a vivid dreamer and at times, a lucid dreamer. Jamey theorized that her paternal grandmother had some dreaming capabilities beyond lucid dreaming, maybe even shared dreams. Her grandmother once said that little Tina could sleep over at her house and they’d have fun dreams together. Go on an adventure in their dreams. When Tina told her mother this, she was not allowed to visit her Gramma alone again. Looking back on that decision to keep a five-year-old from her grandmother because of a sleepover fantasy, Tina wondered if her mother knew anything about dream jumping, or if her mother was simply acting protectively because Gramma appeared to be losing her grasp on reality.
After her twin brother’s death at the age of three, Tina surmised that maybe her mother wanted to keep her remaining child close. Or maybe keep Tina from the trauma of bad dreams. Now that she was a mother herself Tina could understand ho
w horrific the death of a child would be. It was a mother’s worst nightmare, losing one’s baby, especially to an avoidable accident like drowning in the backyard pool. Having your preschooler die because of your own negligence would be like sticking a knife in a mother’s heart and letting her bleed out one drop at a time.
Thinking of her dream of babies falling to the floor, Tina shuddered to think of what might happen if for some strange reason they couldn’t find Wyatt on Sunday, or couldn’t get to him fast enough. She and Jamey had to do everything possible to make sure they never had to find Kevin and Wyatt at the hipica. They needed to find them today.
When Kai was fed and dressed for the day, Tina packed up the diaper bag and they ventured downstairs to the café. She desperately wanted coffee now that Jamey was partaking again. Nicaraguan coffee was grown just up the volcano that loomed behind the town of Granada and he’d said it was as good as its reputation. Tina smiled at the young waiter and ordered a fruit plate with a pastry and peppermint tea. For the first time that day, but probably not the last time, she wished she’d paid more attention in Spanish class in high school. “Con leche,” she added, hoping that she was asking for milk.
Kai sat upright in his stroller playing with a string of toys fixed to the stroller. Soon he’d be out of the baby seat and in the next size if he continued racing towards the twenty-pound mark. He hadn’t been weighed in two weeks. Had he gained while they were on the road? Since he’d started eating solid food in mush form, his growth rate had been steadily climbing like the only thing holding him back from his true weight was real food. Jamey guessed he was going to be a big guy like him, and Tina had to agree. Kai’s hands and feet were large and if that was any indication, like it was with a puppy, Kai would take after his Daddy.
Just as the waiter placed the fruit tray in front of her, Tina remembered she hadn’t checked in with Jamey yet. She’d been waiting for his return. She looked at the fruit and tried a bit more Spanish. “Muy bonita,” she said, hoping she just told the waiter that the breakfast looked very beautiful.
He smiled patronizingly. “Enjoy your breakfast.”
A quick call to Jamey’s number had him connected in two rings. “You guys up?” he asked.
“We’re in the café. Where are you?”
“I’m waiting outside a real estate office across the park and a couple of streets over. Apparently there’s an agent named Diego who fits our description and he’s expected in to work any minute.
“That’s great.” If they could identify the man from the dream last night, get to the islands and find Wyatt, this nightmare might be over today.
“I have a good feeling about this,” Jamey said. “Several people told me that my description sounded like this guy.”
“How much are you going to tell him?”
“As much as I need to. Probably a portion of the truth if he seems like a good guy. I’ll see what my gut tells me.”
“I love your guts.” This had become their inside joke.
He laughed. “This could all be over soon.” He exhaled loudly. “How’s our baby?”
“Full of peaches and bananas and mommy milk. Just playing in his stroller, watching the ceiling fan above us go round and round in the cafe.” It was a good thing for Kai and his parents they had ceiling fans everywhere in Granada. “I miss coffee.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll quit again.”
“It’s okay, I’m just whining.”
“Gotta go.” Jamey said hurriedly. “I see him walking down the street. Bingo. It is the same guy.”
***
Jamey sat in the real estate office of Diego Ramirez, waiting for the man to finish a client call. From what he could hear, someone was buying a house on the side of the local volcano, Mombacho. He’d heard that they grew coffee up there as well as having tourist activities like zip lining and eco tours. This country was gorgeous. It was interesting enough to want to come back someday. As he listed off best-case scenarios in his mind, Jamey realized that Wyatt could be sleeping with them tonight in their hotel bed and Chris would be on his way to Nicaragua to collect his son. That would be a beautiful thing.
It had been a shame what Kevin tried to get away with, what he did to Carrie and her family. To everyone. Hell, even Pops had shed some tears about the possibility of never finding Wyatt when Jamey talked to him on the phone the other night. “That man and his worthless, crazy girlfriend should be locked up in a Nicaraguan prison,” Pops said, with a catch in his voice.
“We’re getting closer all the time, Pops,” Jamey’d said, hoping it was true.
Diego hung up on his call and returned to the small cubicle in the real estate office, sitting across the desk from Jamey. “What can I do for you today, Sir?” He had an accent, just like in the dream. He also wore the clothes they’d seen in the dream. A good sign.
Jamey sat forward, leaning towards Diego. “I’m going to be honest with you. I’m sorry to say I’m not looking to buy real estate, but I have a problem you might be able to help me with.”
Diego raised his bushy grey eyebrows and tented his fingers on the desk in front of him.
“I’m looking for a man who recently abducted a child in Seattle. He’s the biological father, but it’s against international law to take a child across the border, away from the other parent. My ex-wife is the other parent. I’m an ex-cop and an American soldier, so I offered to come looking. I have reason to believe you might have seen them.” Jamey held up the well-worn photo of Kevin, Rose, and Wyatt, taken at his wedding.
Diego’s gaze fell to the photo and then slid up again to Jamey. “How do I know you’re telling the truth? How do I know you aren’t the one trying to abduct the child from his parents?”
Jamey nodded and reached to his back pocket where he kept a photo of Wyatt, Carrie, Chris, and the other kids. “This is the boy’s family. He unfolded some papers. “And this is a copy of Wyatt’s Passport, his mother’s passport with her photo and a notarized letter saying I’m acting on her behalf.” He laid the papers on the desk and watched Diego Ramirez study the documents.
“This little guy has been taken against his will. I don’t know what these two have told him, but we have reason to believe that they smuggled him across several borders to Nicaragua and are now in Granada. The man is a horse lover and they might be in town for the hipica,” he added, hoping it sounded good.
“Why do you think I know something?” Diego looked deep into Jamey’s face.
Jamey had already thought out his answer. “Because they were in this office recently and you were seen here at the same time.” He hoped he was right.
“Have you called the police?”
“No. I’d like to find this guy without using a foreign police department, if possible. Because it’s an international offense. As a former police officer in Seattle, I know how long it takes to get something approved.”
Diego took a deep breath and looked out the window. “Probably a good idea. The paperwork alone…”
“Have you seen any of these people?” Jamey pushed the photo closer to the man.
Diego nodded. “Yes. And I know where they slept last night.”
Chapter 11
Tina pushed Kai’s stroller around the Parque Central admiring all the wares for sale under the trees. It was tempting to buy a few things while she waited for Jamey’s call, but there might be time for that after they got Wyatt today. When the phone rang, she was busy with a sweet little boy Wyatt’s age who was trying to get her to buy from his mother’s jewelry table. “Excuse me, Señor.” She moved on with the phone to her ear. “Yes, I’m in the park. I’ll be right there.”
Jamey had told her to stand out in front of the yellow and white cathedral off the square and he’d pick her up with Diego. Things must’ve gone well with the man from their dream, but it wasn’t until she and Kai slipped into the back seat of the car with the stroller attachment that she realized how well.
“Tina, this is Diego Ramirez,” Jamey said
from the front seat. “He knows where Kevin’s gone.”
“First I’d like your wife to tell me why you need to find this boy,” Diego said, cutting off Jamey.
How much had Jamey told him? “He’s been abducted and we’re trying to find him.”
Diego looked in the rear view mirror to lock gazes with her. “And why bring a baby on the search? Why didn’t you stay home with your child?”
Tina supposed it was a fair enough question. What had Jamey said? She got the impression he hadn’t talked about this aspect, so she forged ahead. “We had to bring Kai and two sets of eyes are better than one. And we’re newlyweds.” Even if Jamey told this man they were the parents, she hadn’t given anything away.
He nodded, Jamey nodded, and they took off down a dusty road.
They arrived at Lake Nicaragua. Tina had seen it on the map, but up close it looked like the ocean it was so big. She wasn’t able to see across to the other side. Granada was practically built on the lake.
“Unlike America,” Diego said, pointing to the lake, “the poor people live by this lake because of the mosquitoes. The rich people live inland.” Diego turned right and followed the lake road through a cement gate to the marina resort area.
“They rented a house down here?” Jamey asked.
“Not exactly.” Diego pulled the car into a restaurant parking lot. “They rented a house out there.” He pointed to the water and beyond where tiny islands dotted the lake and the wind was blowing fiercely off the water. “Your missing family is renting a house on a private island. I’m waiting for the rental agent to tell me how to find this island because in the Islets there is one island for every day of the year and I doubt we’ll be able to find the house without some directions.” He turned to face both Jamey and Tina. “This is your lucky day.” His smile stretched across his friendly face, widening his thick moustache. “I believe your story, and I’m going to help you get a boat and get this little boy back.”