Further Adventures (24 page)

This kind of wild behavior you expect from parties who let Emotions rule them sometimes because they do not know how to take Disappointment. John Newberry himself i.e. or his hamhead sidekick Nilo. He has to boot the lamp shade across the room and the big gorilla has to tear all the doors off the kitchen cabinets & kick holes in the walls he can not stop until the
entire house
is his helpless Victim because Amelia is not where he wants her i.e. under his fist. If I owned a
goldfish
this crazy I would beg my Vet to give it the needle!

Amelia’s king-size bed was still in 1 piece but the box-spring mattress did not survive the chainsaw attack which cut it in ½ very neat like a slab of Cheddar Cheese. Forget it.
Minor redecoration
compared to the job they did on Dolores’s pretty bedroom. Where she used to play
& sleep tucked in safe & sound it was a nasty Wreck with no respect for the delicate belongings of a 8 yr old girl.

Her Chest of Toys he toppled over & trampled on the sweet contents. Beautiful dolls smashed open under his heel he ripped the covers off her Story Books. For Amelia’s sake I zipped my mouth I was a Pillar of Strength for her to lean upon. Therefore I choked down my worry & High Disgust when I saw what somebody did to Dolores’s bed. He did not care if it is the Innocent place a child lays her head he flipped it over on the side & the Bugs Bunny sheets strewn down with grimy shoeprints stamped all over. Where her soft pillow rested before now it was a hole in the wall as big as a basketball.

“You see?” Amelia nodded me her belief. “You see him for real now?” I took another look at her daughter’s besmirched bed & agreed about the meaning of the whole Depraved Mess.

Oh yes Newberry was behind it but by my analysis of the Scene of the Crime he was a long way behind it by then. At least I hoped Fervent that he took Dolores with him when Tio was still alive & her bedroom was how she liked it. Amelia put the Toy Chest back on its feet very tender. “She’s no here Ray. Her favorite one. Her special toy I gave her.”

“Dolores could have taken it with her. For company.” My suggestion did not cheer Amelia up even a small iota.

She dropped the broken toy pieces back in the toy chest & on her hands & knees she crawled over to the closet. Amelia hugged the loose skirts shirts and so on. Nor I could not do any good for her. Maybe it is better you should leave a person alone in their Grief but you should not leave them alone in a closet.

“Tell me what I can do Cookie.”

Amelia spoke up very calm. “Get me a hammer. Look in the kitchen somewheres. Under the sink.”

The Gorilla probably took & used it to knock his holes in the place because I found the household hammer on top of a pile of plaster chips in the hallway. Amelia was sitting Indian Style on the bathroom floor when I came back with it. In the cradle of her hands she had a pink Burro of papermashy. Like everything else Dolores’s toy donkey got cracked apart kicked in the guts his poor stomach crushed & open. “Dolores love her,” she said & laid it down. Amelia smiled over its corpse so Tranquil now the first shock in her cleared out. I handed the ballpeen to her. What did I know? She pounded that donkey to a pulp!

“Stop it! Stop!” I grabbed her arm I figured she was going delirious she was caught in temporary Insanity from her grief & woes.

Some
kind of fury made her grip very strong. Amelia beat the hammer down to a flat Tortilla until it was a worse day for pink burros than it was for her. I asked her how do you feel now & for a reply she tossed the hammer on the floor & I picked it up preventing further Harm. Her wild smile slipped off her mouth & moved up into her eyes. She reached past me to drop the plug in the drain & turn on the hot water.

“That’s a good idea,” I told her. “A bath is a surefire relaxer.”

But she did not pay any attention to me she sat on the side of the tub flicking her fingers in the slow dribble of water which coughed out of the faucet.

In spite I knew her bare bosoms from that time in Tio’s bed I made my Exit outside in the front yard. I lifted my eyes what did I see? Nothing but Blue Skies smiling at me and sunshine soaking up the leftover shadows of Tres Osos. A perfect Ending to me. What did I need a Symphony Orchestra for a Cue? Amelia I must depart from you it is time to say Good-bye! Remember how I answered when you called upon me to bring you home and here you are. So you may stand upon your own 2 feet & build your Life upon the foundations of Truth & Honesty from now on! Adios! There is a time to Meet and a time to Part and now I must return to Pecan St. where I will always keep you safe in my Heart!

Or similar sentiments I went back into the house to tell her. I did not find Amelia soaking I only found her in the bathtub up to her elbows. The steaming water was dyed pink going pinker where she swilled her hands around very slow. What is such a dreamy smile doing on her? What is that Sticky Mess bubbling in the foam? With soggy little crumbs of pink cottage cheese floating to the surface! Good move I did not panic because in a second I saw Amelia was not bleeding by her wrists she was rubbing something under the water rubbing this thing very tough with her thumbs. She raised it out & swished off more of the pink curds then I made out she had the carcass of Dolores’s toy donkey in the tub rub-a-dub-dubbing the paper skin off its Flanks.

Very slow the way a Photo develops in the lab something else came to view before my eyes. Yellow paper wrapped tight in Glad Wrap I counted 6 strips. Amelia hugged them on her shirt to dry them also to Adore them. She let her thoughts of Dolores flood in & fill her to the brim they leaked out of her eyes drop by drop. Further I did not intrude on Amelia for this was not the right moment for words of Farewell.

Or a few seconds after when she sucked in a fresh Breath & sat up & came back to Life that was not the right moment either.

Good thing. For I stayed & saw all of Newberry’s personal love letters in his own handwriting. What moxie on this woman! “Now we make him bring Dolores home,” she said & curled my fingers around that incriminating Evidence. “You can beat him. With this proof against him.”

Let John Newberry testify this is a Figment in my warped mind THEN let him show you the Proof. He will pull out Expert Testimonies on me which he wrote very neat on a computer the same as the rest of the Lies in his Files. Hear this: Amelia had a Message for you & a Message for me when she trusted me & me alone with your tender Love Letters—she yearned for my fight against crime To Be Continued!

I want to state for the record I am not a male who is against doing Manual Housework. I admit on Pecan St. I did slip into a rut but what
I ask you is the point of basking in the desert Air if dusting is going to irritate my sinuses? Under different circumstances I did this labor & I did not suffer so my attitude toward it is different today i.e. if I was not going to shoot myself in the head in a few Minutes I would start on the dusting & Vacuuming in my own apartment. A Lesson of Life coming too late to do me any Good!

After the masculine work of fixing her furniture etc. pushing the vacuum cleaner over the carpet was a vacation. Her bed I put together with a couple of bricks under it solid as the Rock of Gibraltar. With the sheets & blankets restored to their position your naked eye would not believe this is the same bed a crazy lunkhead cut to death with a chainsaw. No creases etc. The sofa was altogether another long story! You can not compress Foam Stuffing after it is released into the wild so it did not all fit back in the cushions. The extra I put in a trash bag with a beach towel around it so it turned into a king-size pillow very handy for relaxation.

Amelia was in the kitchen cooking dinner & I noticed here we are the Masculine & the Femuline side by side. Our house spic & span plus all the warm smells of our Evening Meal such satisfaction I never felt so strong since a child. Nor I never felt so content compared to when we settled down on the living room floor with our plates like Newlyweds who just moved in. Candles we had going & no other Light in there.

By me eating is a joy for 2 people to do together. Eat a meal with somebody near & dear your enjoyment is double. If you want proof eat a meal on a T.V. tray by yourself in front of your T.V. & for company you can even switch on the set. Then eat the same meal across from a person you care about. Compare! Observe the difference! I liked it better with Amelia instead of Tom Brokaw. Every bite I tasted TWICE because Amelia had the same morsels in her mouth i.e. the Sparkle of hot chili on our tongues at the same time.

“You like frijoles hm?”

“I like these,” I said with my mouth full of food. “I know a poem about beans.”

“Refry beans?”

“It can apply.”

Instead of musical fruit rhymes I scooped another forkload it was smooth as peanut butter with a Sparkle though. A cloud of Enjoyment enwrapped me. I believe the Silence boomed in our ears because neither of us heard the front door open. Therefore I do not know exactly how long Dolores stood there watching us from the hallway behind.

“Dolores?” Amelia sat up to say it.

One move Dolores made she raised her hand up to her mouth & pressed out a spritz from her Asthma Inhaler. A sore sight that yanked Amelia’s arms up like they were on wires and Dolores ran right into her Mama’s bear hug. She ran by me so fast I could be a shadow hanging in the middle of the room. They hugged each other very close & Amelia’s sobs of Joy made it such a beautiful Scene to behold. By my eyes as fine as a famous painting with Amelia on her knees & Dolores standing tall in her arms. Nor Dolores did not sob a tear she stroked her Mama’s hair she comforted she patted Amelia’s shaking shoulders. What was the Story behind her dirty bare feet & both of her knees scraped raw. Dolores held the Emotional bundle of her Mama in her tiny arms & down below she crossed her foot behind her leg & scratched around very casual. Let me tell you this little girl had a lot of her Papa in her.

Better they should powwow in their own Language & no interference from 3rd parties so I washed the dishes in the kitchen. The sad Details of what happened I heard from the pony’s own mouth later. The Gorillas did not expect to run into Tio there nor they did not come for a fight. Nilo plus a pair of local Muchachos knocked on the door very polite with a sledgehammer while Meanwhile in the rear Tio was pushing Dolores out of her bedroom window. Nobody observed her running up the hill so she squatted down & watched them from Afar—in the frame
of her window Nilo performed his Act of smashing every object. Then she saw those Muchachos push Tio into a car & drive him away.

“Why don’t you tuck her in?” Dolores curled in the crook of her Mama’s arm on the living room floor. “It’s like new in there.” I tilted my head backwards to Dolores’s bedroom.

Amelia pressed a chain of kisses & soft words over Dolores’s forehead. “Hm?” That small girl said this expression exactly like her Mama does. Not awake or asleep here is the thing of Children how they trust us when they are in a limp daze how they look toward us to guide them. Dolores stood up & followed Amelia past me hand in hand.

So what all of a sudden turned a groggy Munchkin into a screeching wild animal? “Nuh! Nuh! Nuh! Nuh!” This Alarm made me drop my dirty dishes & run to her side. I cursed him out loud how I did not predict Nilo could pull the oldest trick a hoodlum can pull i.e. sneak in behind my back & hide in Dolores’s closet.

Her raspy cries stuck in the back of her throat with the Sound of a whistling toy top winding down. She saw me arrive and stopped kicking at Amelia instead she dug her heels into the carpet & locked her knees—she dug her fingers into the door jamb & locked her arms stiff—this angry baby Donkey belting out “N-nuh! N-nuh!”

This acting up was a scary surprise this Wild behavior put a jolt of Fear in Amelia. She backed off & gave Dolores a breathing space so she did not excite her into a Asthma Attack. Nobody came jumping out of any closet so I kept off the grass of their argument then Amelia illuminated me: “She’s scared of her bed.” Dolores wrapped her arms around her Mama’s legs for Protection.

From the rotten Memory of Nilo in her room and still there like a rotten smell. Some invisible Mark he left behind some disturbance in the Atmosphere. Memory is the 6th Sense I believe.

Abba-zabba-zabba. “She want to go asleep in my big bed,” Amelia advised me.

This Bulletin did not need a reply only I bent down & said to Dolores, “Listen I wouldn’t want to sleep in there either.” She nuzzled deeper in Amelia’s legs. “I’ll sleep out in the living room. On guard.”

The girls went to bed very weary. Amelia let the bedroom door stay open a crack but Dolores came back & banged it shut. I do not blame her for this move. I know from my personal Life there is a time to go Public and a time to be in Private. I never slammed a door in anybody’s face like a Barbarian who does not care how it can make a older person feel left out. I excuse Dolores. Look at it from her Angle. Inside the big bedroom was her own dear Mama. Outside was a grinning Idiot who cleaned the house & washed the dishes & fixed the furniture not to mention the front yard.

Dolores came back alive & this changed Everything. So John Newberry did not get away with her this being a big relief. I did not dare & bask in it since this did not mean the end of all our Trouble it meant here we go again. At least Experience informed me he would wait for us to catch our breath and strike when we started breathing easy again. The power of a Crime Stopper is equal to his power of thinking how his Criminal Opponent thinks. Be he a criminal Genius like Newberry or a criminal Hamhead like Nilo. Every crook has got his own M.O. And if I was going to outsmart Special Agent John Newberry I had to crawl under his skin. All this I had to think about so after 10 or 15 Minutes I did not mind it out on the sofa by myself it was a better Arrangement altogether since I was 100% awake & full of beans.

My usual routine is Reading before I close my eyes for the day. My advice is go to sleep with a new idea in your mind & while you snooze it plants itself & sends out roots you might say. What I read on the night in question practically sat up & begged for my attention. All the clues of Newberry’s Character & the pattern of his Past behavior stared at me from his Love Letters. Believe me I cherish the American ideals
standing up against the invasion of Privacy but do not judge me by this sneaky act.