Further Adventures (14 page)

“I can make your chart.”

“I don’t want to know from that hocus-pocus.”

“It’s no for you.”

For her she meant. To help her decide stay or go. “Mm-mm,” she went. “Mm-
mm
.”

Furthermore I admit this got me curious regarding her investigations in specific how did they affect her opinion of me? “What do you mean ‘mm-mm’?”

“For your rising sun. Aries.”

“Is it good or bad?”

“You have trouble to end some things. You know? To finish.” She concentrated very rigorous. “You go strong for sometimes then—” She buzzed her lips.

“Yeah? What
then?
”

“You change directions. You go someplace. You do something different so you don’t—mm—” She started over & got it straight in her mind so it came out straight. “You stop early then you can say you don’t really fail. But you don’t succeed. You don’t do both.”

“Is that a fact?” I scowled down at her.

“I’m no sure I want to stay with you Ray.” Cramming her books in her bag! “I want to go home.”

I jumped over & blocked her path. “All right. Just don’t tell me you’re deciding on the facts because you don’t
know
all the facts! Planets DO NOT enter in. I decide. Sagittarius isn’t deciding. What if I decide I’m not going to let you go away from here by yourself?”

“You yell at me see? Explosion. Water sign against fire sign.” She made a grab for the doorknob.

“I’ll follow you,” I warned her. “I’ll follow you all over and make sure nothing terrible happens. I decided so I’ll do that.”

Her view was:

Stars & Planets all hum and each one hums a different note. So they circle around each other they dance very graceful & complicated in the Sky so every minute is a new combination. Sweet notes by Venus sour notes by Saturn they beam down on us Earthlings. In the certain minute a person is born the Orbs are singing his tune the Sky is humming certain notes around him. This vibrates his flesh & bones his whole body is a fingerprint of the hum of his first minute breathing Earthly Air. From now on the pattern of the Planets will play him the way the Moon plays on the tides of the World. This is a beautiful tale the way Amelia explained it & today it does not sound like Anarchy to my ears. But this was her false impression in regards to my motives in this Episode with her.

If I convinced her I did not know it then nor I am not sure today if my Argument changed Amelia’s mind and reversed her. Maybe it was not her mind it was her Bladder for she let go of the door turned around & went into the bathroom. It took a few seconds before my inner warning was maybe she went in there to outsmart me (her Rescuer!) via the bathroom window. So I said to the locked door, “Amelia? You look up in the sky it’s not the stars just the light coming from them millions of years ago. Amelia? Maybe those Sagittarius stars exploded already &
they’re just holes in outer space where they used to be. I’m sorry but those are the Scientific facts. Understand?”

Her Voice came back, “Sure. Light is how the humming looks like.”

I lay down on the bed tuckered out & the minute my head hit the pillow the phone rings. On the other end was the Manager. The message he gave me was my car is delivered all repaired by the kid from the gas station. Maybe he located the transmission parts what did I know? Did I care it was the middle of the night? Did I question? I did not! I admired the jiffy service & accepted my Good Luck.

They parked the Raymobile 100 Feet from my door by the Office. Rain was coming down very light & I ignored it I walked over for my Reunion. Good as new the car! Better even. They washed it & waxed it inside and out. The carpet they shampooed even the coffee stain around the rubber mat they combed it with a fine-tooth comb so it came out perfect. And the steering wheel polished also the dashboard also the lid of the glove compartment they lubricated so it did not stick anymore. I vowed myself I was going to tip that nice kid $2.00 first thing in the morning.

I dinged the bell on the desk inside but the Manager was not around or anybody else. My car keys I saw hanging on the peg of my room number so I put them in my pocket & I cased the area for pad & pencil so I could leave a Note but did not even get to Dear Sir. I heard heavy wheels grind the gravel where I just walked over & had to focus my eyes in the dark before I saw what was there. A pickup truck it was rolling down the driveway with no headlights on. It stopped in front of our room then the Air around there exploded—

How many guns went off I do not know but all the barrels fanned out from the back from behind some bales of hay. A blast blew into the siding another blast shot holes in the door. A blast blew the window to pieces. Still the guns did not stop Blasting into the room!

“What goes on?” I said & then I shouted again. “WHAT GOES ON?” I ran toward them even when they hit their headlights I ran toward them faster I did not stop until I stood in front of the bullets. Let me say BETWEEN the bullets because nothing hit me not a bullet not a ball of buckshot not even a ricochet not a scratch on me. “Stop this!” I yelled at the hooligans louder than the Gunshots I yelled. They got out of there in a big hurry. Wheels tearing up the gravel swerving out of the driveway skidding in the road they punched a hole in the rain & pulled the dark through it.

All of the Sound in the motel room went with them it got sucked out of the smashed windows & the only thing moving inside there was smoke & dust a cloudy Curtain of it from the plaster they just blasted off the walls. The Air blurry from it. I caught one foot in a lamp shade knocked over on the floor like a bear trap & I tripped over the wire of the other one. Also under my feet I felt all the glass from the mirror and the pieces of it even too small to break any smaller.

By the dim light my eyes got used to I saw all of the Furniture was shot up I do not know how many bullets it took to leave the bed slanting on 1 leg the chair blown to shreds & the door of the clothes closet hanging like a piece of Swiss Cheese by a hinge & all over the floor fingers of raw wood torn off from everywhere. When I saw where the Light was shining a dozen holes in the bathroom wall the Silence stopped all around me I heard how the shower was still running wild.

I called Amelia by name & pushed the bathroom door open no I did not rush in there. If she got hurt in any way I was going to reach by myself the Truth of the situation. How I am a 73 years of age pathetic dumbkoff. I am not the man who I was Before & even Before I was not him either. I am only somebody in my mind. I am a liar to myself & others I am useless on the Earth. I do not deserve Love or Kindness Affection or Respect. If Amelia has on her a scratch even or a cut with blood it is proof about me. No Hero I am less than dirt. I will say out loud I am good for nothing good for nobody only good to forget about.

I found her in the stall shower she was sitting down on the drain with the plastic curtain open wide. Her back was facing the bathroom door. Cold water was soaking her hair it went dripping down her back. She did not flinch. Maybe she just turned on the shower when the Shooting started but not the hot faucet. I crawled over to her on hand & knee I had a towel to cover her up with. I leaned in to shut the water off then I heard Breathing only hisses of air. Amelia was trying to force one word through her teeth—

“Nada…nada…” she said & her Voice echoed very sharp off the tiles. NADA which means NOTHING in her Language but now I see I am writing this word down I think I got it wrong at the time. Now I think she was saying this: “Ojinaga.”

She did not have a spot of Blood on her. No cut no scratch. Nada. I wrapped her in the towel very tender I hugged her in my arms I rubbed her to warm her up. Her stiff arms I rubbed I rocked her back & forth then she did not try to talk anymore but I felt her cuddle up to me. She went so weak in my arms but I felt very strong for her to hold on to.

“I got rid of them…sssh…they didn’t hurt you…they didn’t hurt me,” I soothed her. “You’re safe doll.” Amelia put her fingers on my lips & looked like she wanted to see the words come out of my mouth. “They can’t hurt us,” I said, “and here’s why. I’ll tell you a secret nobody else knows about me my sweetheart. I’m The Green Ray.” There I said it out loud the 1st time in 45 Years. “Those weasels don’t realize who they’re up against. I’m The Green Ray,” I revealed to her. “I’m The Green Ray.”

The only sound was the rumble of my Raymobile’s radials and sometimes rainwater hissed underneath us. The windshield wipers slapped to & fro with my Heart beating likewise very slow & calm. Rain was not pouring down now just spitting and I could see where the rain cloud
ended a few miles ahead over Mexico. From the sun rising the Air that came rushing in was the color of ripe peaches.

I did not wake Amelia up to see this hopeful sight I was plain glad she fell asleep to rest & recover after the Drama of the shooting episode. I drove along and I pondered over the conversation I had with her after we put 100 Miles between us & the Bluebird Motel.

AMELIA: I don’t know who did it. He did it. I don’t know who else.

ME: Those noodniks from the gas station. With their anti-Mexican Citizens Patrol.

AMELIA: Still is him.

ME: The responsible party will pay.

AMELIA: Is him. For sure.

ME: O.K.—if. If. Is John Newberry going to be in Gonzales? Waiting for us?

AMELIA: You have to be very smart for him.

This I promised her to my highest Abilities. I licked my lips I hit the Gas & put on some speed when I saw the daybreak behind the roofs of Gonzales. One of those belonged to Amelia’s Uncle Tio a safe place to stop & refresh before we dived in all the way to Mexico.

Let me quote Lamont Carruthers here: “A clue is never a secret but a secret is always a clue.”

I did not have any idea what he meant by that statement when he wrote it in his own handwriting on top of the Script of the Final Episode of The Adventures of The Green Ray. Nor I did not connect it to the conversation we enjoyed man to man that sad night with Lamont sitting on one toilet seat in the mahogany cubicle of the 39th Floor Executive Washroom while I occupied the next seat down. Both of us with the dizzy stomach from the Cheez Skweez & Powder Puf Marshmallows also the grief & parting.

Except for the words “This machine kills Fascists!” it was Lamont’s last inscrutable Saying because 3 Seconds later he jumped out of the window of the 38th Floor Executive Dining Room in front of P. K. Spiller and Howard Silverstein et all while they choked down their Jell-O cubes & meat spread sandwiches.

Lamont’s dramatic Exit sure lowered the boom on the black tie cocktail party that Mr. Spiller laid on his celebration over the Final Broadcast of our Show. I want to go back & tell Lamont Carruthers how I understand the Wisdom in his words today if I could do it and not return to that low moment. Why do I worry about it now since a person can not go back even 1 minute no matter how much he yearns.

I observe in this Case in particular: A Clue will stare you smack in the kisser deadeye like a rattlesnake if you pay attention & watch your step. It will bite you the same if you ignore it it will sneak behind your back & bite you the same if you try to walk around.

I believe I am in step with the late Dr. Sigmund Freud the great Psychological Investigator when I state that it is NORMAL for a person to guide himself by High Ideals & take his eyes off the important Clues & Evidence. It is NORMAL for a person to head for certain Conclusions and wander down the wrong track especially when it involves a Woman! This is how a NORMAL thinking man behaves according to one of the Greats.

A person can not guide himself from his Apartment door down to the drug store on the corner steering by the Stars above. Like that he will get lost all right his eye being on the wrong thing at the wrong time. The Stars being the right thing at the right time for a Captain to navigate a boat in the middle of the Ocean. I mean by this the Deeds a person does alone when nobody is watching him or when his Loved One is. His Deeds of Honor. His matters of Life & Death. Nor the Stars above are not a handy guide to steer around a buried iceberg. And furthermore if F.D.R. or J.F.K. or Sigmund Freud was a passenger on the
Titanic
he would just go down with the ship like everybody else O.K. so High Ideals do not
protect
. So—

Forget it. The hell with Philosophy. I just want to make a point how I at least recognize a Reason for what happened with Amelia for where was my Success & Failure. Here are some clues coming up which I did not recognize at the time my Mind’s Eye being on higher things i.e. Justice and Love.

Let me go back to Gonzales.

Besides Uncle Tio’s house (“casa”) in it this Border town also has a bank. In this bank is Amelia’s safe deposit box and the key to it Tio was hiding for her. This Amelia explained to me in the last second before I parked the Raymobile across the street from a gray clapboard 2-story in the middle of the neighborhood full of clapboard 2-stories & bungalows walnut trees front yards full of dry grass & toys dusty air grinning down on the cracked sidewalks.

Amelia led me inside by the back door at the top of a porch then half a dozen tarpaper steps. A Perfect Breeding Ground for black widow spiders I noticed & I was hoping that the residents of the house bolted the linoleum to the floor very snug.

The door opened up into the kitchen. The Radio on the table had the Baseball on from back East. Somewhere else in the house a different Radio was playing out Mariachi music. I saw the beefy back of a dark red man he was standing at the stove listening to the Game & humming along to the Mariachi music also whipping some thick yellow batter around a plastic bowl he gripped in the curl of his flabby arm.

Amelia grabbed his gut from behind. “Tio!”

Abba-zabba-zabba they chattered back & forth like monkeys in the Zoo and all the time the expression on Tio’s face was changing from happy surprise to shock & confusion it stretched out to anger something
furious
then it snapped back into Misery. But with him Amelia
kept calm. His big hand in both of hers that was how she comforted Tio with a squeeze on his arm & a steady look.