“You’ve got spark,” the girl told Kazu. “Mind if I join you?”
Before he could reply, she sat down beside him. She took his hand gently in hers, her skin cool and soft.
The crowd out before the low table closed together like drawing a curtain.
Kazu was dazzled, looking at his hand in hers—his hand being held by a beautiful and sexy girl, missing teeth and all.
“You didn’t ask, so I’ll fill in the gap.” She breathed across his shoulder, her fragrant scent brushing his heart and further clouding his thoughts.
“Name’s Ed ‘Never Ever Eddie.’ Pleased to meet you.”
Part III
Ed & Kazu
“Here's a story about Surfer Joe
He caught the big one,
but he let it go
There's somebody satisfied
with winning.”
“Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze” by Neil Young
27
After dinner from the buffet, Ed and Kazu walked side by side down from the top deck and past the party in the wandering swimming pool. The two padded down the wood steps seeking distance from the bright torches and noise.
“How did you land here?” Ed asked watching a young hotel employee assisting her middle-aged date up past them on the stairs. The man was struggling for balance, looking groggy. The girl’s smile was constant.
“Looking for a friend. And a place to hide.”
“From?”
“The policia.”
That floated in the warm evening air, untouched.
“What are you doing here?” Kazu asked when they were on the last deck level.
“Tonight? Was buddying up to a wealthy surfer. Has his own airplane. I’m looking for a way out of here”
“Why?”
“This place may look all tropical cool, but it’s got a real ugly side.”
Their feet left the last board and slid into the white sand.
“Can I?” Kazu said, voice hesitant. He was looking to Ed’s small hand.
“You can,” she replied in a pleased and husky voice.
She put her hand in his.
“Hands,” she whispered. “Big thing here, especially with the owner. Constance never stops with her dumb hand jokes. Gotta hand it to me.”
“Give me a hand.”
“On the other hand.
“Need me a handyman.”
“Hands off my plans.”
“What is she up to?” Kazu asked.
“She has this eleven-million-dollar plan. Then a yacht in the Caribbean. Sail away, be one of those who is hands down envied and admired.”
“Soon, I hope?”
“The way she blows through money, not even. This place received a bunch of hurricane warnings. She ignored them. Hosted her birthday event instead. The hotel got smashed, and now she’s climbing huge hills of repair bills.”
“How was her party?”
Ed laughed, shaking her head. “She believes she was fabulous. She’s almost as smart as she thinks she is.”
They stopped walking. Waves were pounding out before them in the darkness.
“Where are we going?” Kazu asked.
“Don’t know. North or south?”
“North.”
“Any reason?”
“Not at all.”
Ed’s fingers were lightly exploring the dent in Kazu’s skin.
“What happened to your thumb?”
“I got shot. It still works okay.”
She raised his thumb to her lips and kissed it. “Curious about my missing teeth?”
“No, not really. I like your smile with them gone.”
“I’ll tell you, anyway. I crashed in a mining car.”
“That happens a lot.” Kazu deadpanned, and they both grinned.
The two of them walked side by side parallel to the crashing waves. The music and lights and loud drunken voices faded from behind. A hundred yards along the beach, a single torch flame leaned from the breeze beside the northern property flag. Halfway to the light, Ed said, “Been yakking with Sand, Santiago, about ways to rip the hotel off. He’s one of my close friends.”
“Like a boyfriend?”
“No, not that close” Ed laughed, a sandy bubbling. “He’s going to help me stop some really bad things going on here.”
“I also like stopping really bad things.”
“If you want to join in, the first step is turning off the stupid air. Explain that later. Also, want to find out what happened to a carload of surfers. They disappeared when I first got here. Know anything about cars?”
“A little.”
“I might get you assigned to the Or’s gas station. You could sniff around. Find out where they are.”
“I’m game.”
“Good, let’s scheme some more. Later.”
Kazu watched the wavering flame paint the beautiful and sexy Ed in kind amber. She was watching him in the same affectionate way.
“Here,” she lowered to her knees.
Kazu let her hand draw him to the soft, warm sand.
“I’ve decided that we’re going to be best friends.” Ed rested her palms on both of Kazu’s shoulders.
“If we must,” Kazu gave the words a disappointed voice.
Ed laughed, kissed his cheek and drew him lower and back onto his side so that they lay eye to eye.
“There’s a half moon,” she whispered. “Significant.”
“Of?”
“No idea,” Ed bumped his nose with her own before a soft kiss. “Let’s sleep here tonight?” she asked.
Kazu nodded in unintended rhythm with a wave explosion. Ed snuggled up against him.
With his heart racing, feeling the warmth of her skin, her body against his, he was at a loss. The gentle embrace was like none he had ever had, only imagined.
“We’re going to stop Constance,” Ed whispered.
“Collage,” he whispered, his lips inches from hers.
“As in?” Ed closed her lovely eyes.
“Her face.”
“Constance, yes,” Ed confirmed.
“A collection of beautiful parts, but all together, it’s…”
“Yes. I can’t see it as attractive. Parts, yes, but as one, it’s too… you know what ‘surreal’ is?”
“Yes.”
“Enough of her. Here, hold this.”
Kazu extended his hand.
Ed untied her bikini top at the back of her neck. As the slight strings fell, her left breast appeared—a round, wonderful, buoyant curve with an air-chilled, hard nipple. Something he had seen in films and drawn often, but never seen in real life. Her hand took his and placed it on her breast.
His fingertips brushed her nipple. He lightly caressed and formed his fingers to cup it.
Ed turned around in the sand and pressed her rear and back to Kazu’s groin and chest. “Keep enjoying it,” she encouraged. “Good friends,” she whispered, sleepily. “Like two spoons.”
Holding her breast, holding her soft, fragrant body close, Kazu breathed. “Yes.”
Closing his eyes, he willed himself to find sleep, somehow—his twelve-year-old fingers experiencing magic for the first time.
Though the morning sun couldn’t be seen, the waves were dappled and sparkling with the first swipes of sunlight.
“Good morning,” Kazu said when Ed stirred and rose on her elbow.
“I’ll say. We slept together. Big no, no,” her voice groggy and amused.
Kazu sat up and looked back to the hotel.
Looking at his sand-covered body, Ed grinned at him before asking, looking down at her breast, “Can I put this away?”
“Makes me sad, but yes.”
The bikini top rose and covered her sandy, beautiful breast. Watching the very last of her nipple disappear inside the fabric, Kazu said, “Got to get to work. Safes to open.”
“Same, to her office. Not like she’ll be in early. Never is.”
The two walked the chilled sand pa
ssing an entangled nude couple sleeping in a hand-dug wind pit just before the stairs to the hotel. On the first landing, Ed nudged Kazu’s shoulder with her ear, saying, “Partners.”
She stepped into the outdoor shower pan and turned the taps, adjusting the temperature to warm, not hot. Kazu stepped in also, watching her hands remove his sunglasses and hat. She pirouetted so that the water rinsed her back, legs, and shoulders. She took Kazu in her arms, turning both of them in a circle and washing the remaining sand from their skin.
Kazu closed his eyes and raised his chin to the spray.
“Hold this?” she asked.
His eyes opened wide, hoping she was offering her perfect breast again. Instead, she filled his fingers with her soggy wig.
He held the wig while she filled their palms with body gel from a push lever on the side of the water pipes. Gently and curious, each washed the other’s sand specked, bristled scalp.
“Trust fund surfers,” Ed said as they passed by the first of many young and old men and a few women sleeping in drink-stunned silence with their dates on the upper deck couches. Shadows from the hotel tower shaded the silent remains of the previous night’s antics. The music was still playing, but no one was dancing. Three large men were awake and muttering into their morning drinks at the bar. Up near the lobby entrance, they came upon Constance Snapp laying alone on a couch.
Someone had kindly laid a yellow Surf Or… Hotel beach towel over her spidery body. The low table in front of her was littered with empty cocktail glasses and a silver champagne bucket with an upside-down bottle. Dead insects floated in the water from melted ice. Three ashtrays were spilling with stubbed out, unlit cigarettes and unfinished fat cigars.
Ed and Kazu parted ways with a soft kiss. She winked and gave him another of her secretive and playful smiles before heading off to the office.
Kazu stood still in the lobby, watching her walk, admiring her rear with each step.
“Partners,” he agreed, tasting their last kiss, seeing her smart, lively eyes and hearing her raspy voice.
When she turned into the office hall and disappeared, he shivered and blinked before heading off to find Sand for their early morning safe-cracking.
28
After a good take with Sand, Kazu pocketed two fifties and seven twenties and walked to the back of the hotel and retrieved his trash can from the tiki hut. Chaz was once again cranky and insulting. Starting at the southern flags, Kazu began cleaning the beach pulling his trash can along.
“Now I’m your fucking mailman?” Chaz interrupted him an hour later, crossing the sand to him. He had a yellow card which he handed to Kazu. It read:
Ka Choo, you’re reassigned.
Go see Casimir,
C.S.
“Go on, half Jap,” Chaz instructed. “Leave the can.”
Kazu saw a young local girl standing behind Chaz and assumed she was his replacement.
He found Casimir in the maintenance shed fueling his mower from an elevated gasoline tank.
“Hello, Casimir,” Kazu offered. “Can I help you?”
Casimir was on the top rung of a step ladder struggling for balance and the rusted valve.
“Got this,” Casimir replied, his hands prying the valve, torqueing his shoulders, the step ladder teetering. The metal creaked, and rust fell and fuel flowed.
“I’m to give you a ride,” Casimir climbed down and stared at the nozzle inside the mower’s tank. “Be a minute. Close the lever when I say.”
Kazu stepped past and put his hand on the on and off lever.
With the mower fueled and capped, Casimir climbed aboard and turned the key. He backed the mower out of from the shade, shouting to Kazu over the loud idling engine.
“Climb aboard.”
Seeing nothing to hold onto at the front of the lawnmower, Kazu circled and climbed up on the mounting bar at the back. Taking hold of the sides of Casimir’s seat, he called, “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see. Try not to fall off.” The mower was put into gear and steered around the corner of the tall yellow hotel. He lowered the blades as they rode up the side lawn alongside the hotel driveway and up the side of the road to the highway.
They motored past the security hut at the hotel’s entrance where Casimir turned left, steering to the North along the shoulder of Federal Highway 200.
Forty-five minutes later, Casimir turned in on the first road they came to, an overgrown and twisty dirt road with tall jungle walls on both sides. The spinning blades launched rocks from the mulcher chute as they bumped and turned for a mile.
Coming around a tight right turn, Kazu got his first look at the Or Petrol y Restaurante. It looked deserted and not burdened by customers. A few cars were parked off to the left with For Rent and For Sale signs on their dusty windshields. To the side of the island of gas pumps, the rolling service door was raised.
Casimir steered to the gas station while Kazu looked to the restaurant’s windows and doorway for any sign of employees or guests. When the mower went silent, he climbed off, his fingers still clenched and tingling. His feet found comfort on the concrete pad that was flat and not trembling.
“You’re working the gas station,” Casimir explained, “You’ll be walking home later.”
A middle-aged woman stepped from the side door of the office and crossed the shade of the service garage. She wore a layered dress of bright forest green and turquoise silk and satins. Her brow was worried, her black eyes studying Kazu closely.
“Ka Choo your real name? Or another of that bitches attempts at being funny?” she asked.
“I’m Kazu.” His eyes went to her arms across her full chest. A circling of tape held bracelets in place at her wrist which ended in a bandaged, blood-stained stump.
“I’m Marlaina. You’ll answer only to me.”
Kazu nodded. A “yes” wouldn’t be heard as the lawnmower fired up.
Casimir motored away spitting rocks and dust. When the whirling sound was a ghost around the bend, Marlaina said, “Come, we’ll start you off with sugaring gas tanks and loosening timing belts. Should get a tourist or two later in the morning.”
Kazu followed her to the well-stocked tool bench along the rear wall of the garage where she showed him a cigar box of dime-size plastic-wrapped balls of sugar.
“This kind of plastic is special order. It dissolves as soon as it touches gasoline. We spike every third car. Good for aborting departures and expensive repairs. Also drives customers to the diner.”
The hood was up on a minivan parked in the right side second bay. Taking a socket wrench in her good hand, she used it as a pointer while teaching him the slight adjustment needed on the timing belt.
“If the car is a rental, nearly every customer is going to be frightened when you explain the engine seizure that is about to happen. It should be replaced. Immediately. Got it?”
Kazu looked the belt system over closely, leaning over the fender. “Yes, and tell them to go have a leisurely lunch while we repair it.”
“Good. How is your español?”
“Conversational, no more than that.”
“I think you’ll fit in fine here. One other angle. Occasionally, we will offer to rent them a car while theirs is being repaired. We also sell the ones out on the side lot. If you’re gonna pitch that, you call for me first. I’ll do the deal.”
They walked to the edge of the shadowed garage and stood side by side looking up the entrance road.
“You get hungry or thirsty, you use the office phone to call the restaurant. You’re not allowed inside there. One of the gypsies will bring you over whatever you want. Have any cash?”
“Yes, some.” Kazu had the money in his pocket from his and Sand’s early morning work.
“Good, good. You will also be nailing the occasional tire. Good for selling them one of our retreads. There is also causing oil leaks and a few other ways to make money. Today, just work the station honestly. Get used to the cash register and all.”
/> Marlaina left Kazu and crossed to the side door of the restaurant.
Without any customers, Kazu spent the next hour exploring the tool bench and figuring out the cash register. He emptied the trash cans and finding a push broom, swept out the office and service bays. He was cleaning up and organizing the office desk when a tan truck rounded the far turn and rolled up slowly. It parked between the gas station and the restaurant. Two men climbed out.
The thin man at the passenger door wore a police uniform. The driver was in street clothes, rumpled and ill-fitting, at least two sizes too large.
“Marlaina aquí? Hacer.” Marlaina here? Get her. He studied Kazu, who had pulled on his sunglasses as soon as the truck rounded the turn.
“Quién eres? Mostrar su identificación.” Who are you? Show me your identification, the uniformed policeman demanded of Kazu, rounding the front of the truck.
“Mi nombre es Kazu Danser. Mi ID es en el hotel amarillo.” My name is Kazu Danser. My ID is at the yellow hotel.
The thin officer stepped right up before Kazu, his dark hands clenching the front of Kazu’s shirt and lifting. Kazu rose on tiptoes while the man’s spicy, sour breath heated his face.
“No hay identificación? Vamos a ir para una charla.” No ID? Let's go for a talk.
“Relax, Officer Donde,” the other man ordered in English. “Nos encontramos en otro negocio. Ir a buscar Marlaina.” We are here on other business. Go find Marlaina. Looking at Kazu’s expensive sunglasses and American baseball cap, he said, “English?”
The uniformed officer let go of Kazu with a shove to his chest before walking in urgent stride to the restaurant.
“Yes, I’m from the States,” Kazu answered.
“Another soulless urchin working for Señora Snapp? You could do better elsewhere. Working for her often leads to jail. Or worse.”
“Yes, I’m working here long enough to save up for a flight home,” Kazu lied sincerely.
“You’re new around here, so you don’t know anything. We’re following up on the disappearance of five Americans. It’s possible they stopped here. They were backtracking for their travel friends who never showed up at the airport.”
The Girl in the Hotel Page 16