On Tenterhooks (33 page)

She leaned over and unzipped her backpack.

“
If everybody has one, we go
.
If not, we sit here, compare notes and then go on our merry way
s
.
Deal? I’ve got mine right here
—
brought it just in case.”

She threw her passport on the table.

“I
have
mine
,
too,” said Martin
.
“Last time I got on a plane trying to use my driver’s license I got a bunch of hassle
.
The picture on it isn’t very good
.
I was heavier and had a beard back then, and less gray hair
.
So I carry this now just to speed up the process.”

He pulled his from his back pocket and tossed it on the table with Abby’s.

Abby and Martin looked at
Veronica
.
She laughed as she pulled hers from her purse and
added
it
to
the
stack
.

“I have mine too,” she said
,
“
but
I cannot tell you why
.
I had no intention of leaving the country with these two jokers, but something told me to pack it when I made plans to leave.”

All three of them turned expectantly, almost hopefully, toward Steve. He was not looking forward to being the one to spoil the fun.
“Guys,
I am sorry
.
I have one,
just got it renewed in fact
. But it didn’t occur to me to bring it. I
t never crossed my mind that I’d need it
.”

“Are you sure?” asked Martin.

“Yeah, ‘fraid so.”

“That’s a pretty big pack you’re carrying around,” said
Veronica
. “Couldn’t it be in there somewhere?”

“No.
Like I said,
the passport
was just renewed
.
W
e were gonna
take a cruise of the western Caribbean this summer
,
so I had
it in my nightstand
with all the cruise info.
I didn’t even think of it when I was packing.
”

“Would it hurt to look?” asked Abby, smiling hopefully.

“Sure, w
hy not?” He knew he was delaying the inevitable let down for the entire group
, but he nonetheless
picked his pack up off the floor and began unzipping pockets
.
He found t
hings just as he had expected,
just as he had packed them
—
his
phone
charger
, his car keys, his sunglasses, his
MP3 player
. He unzipped the small front pocket and felt the thin telltale cover
.
He
pulled his hand
out, and
in
it,
he held the familiar navy blue booklet with gold lettering.

“I’ll be damned,” he said
softly, staring hard at the unused passport
.

“No
,
” said Martin, laughing
,
“
but
maybe you
will
be a little less skeptical!”

Veronica
laughed, Abby squealed and
clapped, and
Steve slammed his passport down on top of the others.

“Cozumel it is!”

Chapter
3
1

Abby waited in the breakfast bar while the others went
upstairs
and collected their belongings
.
They had agreed to
get back
to the airport and take the next available flight to Cozumel.
At 10:00a.m
.
,
Steve dropped Martin and
Veronica
off at the terminal
to
check the available flights
.
Abby stayed with him as he returned the rental. They left
t
he
SUV
in the
return
lot and unloaded the rest of their belongings
.

“Wow, it is
egg-frying
hot out here,” Steve remarked.

When
he had
finished
with the paperwork at the rental kiosk
, they walked backed to the main terminal
.
Steve slowed several times to allow Abby to catch up.
“You coming?” he
asked
.

She smiled back and continued walking silently.
Th
ey reached the main crosswalk
and waited for the hotel shuttle and taxi traffic to clear long enough to make a break for it
.
After several seconds, Steve saw an opening
in the near-constant bus traffic
.
“Here we go,” he said, stepping off the curb on to the crosswalk.

“Hey, Steve,” she said
, “wait.”

“Yeah?”

He turned around and stepped back up onto the sidewalk next to her
.
“What’s the matter?”

“Listen, my
plan has a flaw
.”

“I’m listening.”

“Well, unless a ticket to Mexico costs about $28, I am not going to be able to go
.
I got all excited back there at the hotel
,
and it kinda slipped my mind, a little bit
.
And well, my parents won’t let me have a credit card yet
.
I dunno I guess they think I’d do something stupid with it.”

“Like buy a pl
ane ticket to Mexico?”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

She could
only manage a meager half smile as she chewed on her bottom lip.

“Okay, well, I assume you’re
good
for a loan, right?”

She beamed back
,
“Count on it!”

“Then we’re good.”

He
started across the crosswalk.
“Come on, coast is clear and
I’ve already lost 10 pounds sweating out here
!”

“Oh, one more thing,”
she said, jogging to keep up as they trotted across the crosswalk.

“Yep?”

“Well, could we keep this between us
?
All that hype I made back at the hotel, about me being an adult and all
.
This’d make that a little bit weak, huh?”

“Not a problem.
Just make sure your next hunch doesn’t send us jetting off to Europe
.
My contingency fund for this expedition will only take us so far before I’ll need a loan of my own!”

“Well,
I have no idea about these
things .
.
. they
just kinda come to me
.
But yeah, I’ll do my best to keep them on a budget!”

“Fair enough.”

They crossed
to
the terminal and wove their way through the busy curbside check-in crowd
.
San Antonio International was in full swing. The Texas sun was already high in the sky.
Diesel exhaust from the barrage of hotel shuttle busses and the heat from cars idling curbside made the crowd a hot, sticky mess
.
Steve was grateful when they
passed
through
the
sliding curbside
doors
and entered the metallic cool air of the airport.
Abby spotted Martin and
Veronica
near the
Globalcon
counter and flagged them down
.
They
all
met in the middle of the terminal.

“Okay,” said
Veronica
. “Here’s the deal.
Globalcon
is the only
airline
with
a decent flight out of here
.
We’d have to make a stopo
ver in Houston, but it leaves in about an hour
.
Since we’ve only got carry-ons, we should be able to get through
,
no problem.
”

“Only thing is, it isn’t cheap,” Martin said
.
“It’s about 650 bucks for an open-ended round tripper
—
kinda steep.”

He looked expectantly at Abby, who appeared
oblivious
to the reference.
She nodded along.
“Sounds good to me,” she said and looked at Steve.

“
Me too
,” said Steve
, nodding
. “Let’s do it. W
hy don’t you guys go get yours?
  Abby and I can go hit that bookstore and see if we can
find a travel guide to Cozumel
,
and then we’ll
circle back and
grab ours too.
”

Abby turned and headed to the
bookstore
without looking back
. Martin looked at him with a questioning look
.
Steve gestured to Abby with his eyes.

“Ah, okay,” said Martin, with a slight smile
.
He and
Veronica
returned to the
Globalcon
counter and Steve joined Abby on a path across the terminal to the bookstore.

T
hirty minutes later, they all had their tickets in hand as they sat at the gate
.
They still had forty minutes left before they could board their flight.
Martin slept upright in the seat next to Steve. His head was back
,
and he had a folded newspaper covering his face. Across the aisle, next to
Veronica
,
Abby consumed three seats on her own
.
Once she
had spread out
her backpack
, she
sat sideways in the row
,
scribbling notes
.
She had her hair pulled back
,
her sunglasses on
, and
her feet
propped
up on her book bag
,
ankles
bouncing
in time
to
the music
thumping into
the ear buds in her ears.
She
smacked
her gum
,
and Steve had to laugh when she loudly popped bubbles, oblivious to the occasional chastisin
g stares she got from the other travelers
in the gate area
.

They had
only been with her for a few hours, but already she was a welcome addition to what was becoming a tight-knit group.

Veronica
watched Steve watching Abby. “You’re worried about her being here.”

“That obvious, huh?”
he
asked
, turning to
face her
.

Veronica
shrugged. “Yeah, but to be expected
,
I s’pose. Jack is a big man.”

Steve
shook his head
. “I am more worried about her mom. She seemed so fragile. And now we’re taking her only other kid to Mexico?”

“No
, not
taking her
,
Steve. It wasn’t really your decision to make. We’re just gonna have to accept that she knows herself and her parents better than we do.”
W
atch
ing
the girl
move her shoulders in time with her music
,
Veronica
continued,
“
I like her.  Kid
’
s got spunk
. She’s
so full of life
it makes
me wanna reach out and give her a
big
hug.
She m
akes life seem so
simple
, huh?”

Steve nodded. “Yeah, she does.”

“And Sleeping Beauty over there is pretty positive
,
too,”
Veronica
smiled as she pointed with her chin
in Martin’s
direction
. 

Steve chuckled again. “Yes, he has been since the beginning.
They are a lot alike
,
I suppose. Martin seems to believe in
the
journey
and Abby
seems
to believe in
herself
.
I wish I had as much confidence as they do.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself over that
,
Steve. I am having the same thoughts as you. Our plan, if you want to call it that, so far has been one step at a time. I prefer the big picture, y’know
. . .
the endgame?”

Steve nodded.

“Still,”
Veronica
went on
. “Nobody forced us to be here
—
any of us. Remember that.”

“Well, I am glad we are here, together. Sometimes we gotta go for it, right?”

Veronica
smiled.

“Hey Steve,” Abby yelled directly across the aisle from
him
.

Steve
waved at her
and motioned for her to take
out
her
ear buds
.

“Oops
!
My bad
,
folks!” she announced to those around her.
Then she
continued in a quieter tone
to Steve,
“Hey
, could
I borrow the
letter
that you got back, the one from your wife? I’d like to take some notes.”

“Sure.”

He pulled it out of his rucksack and handed it to her.

“Thanks! 
Hey listen, I am sorry to ask, but can you tell me how your wife died?”

“A car wreck.
A
drunk plowed into the side of her
car
when he
blew through a solid
red
light.”

Abby took notes.

“Was there any way the light was messed up or maybe it was like a blind curve or something?”

“No,
I doubt it.
The p
olice would’ve probably checked that
.
Plus, Julie was an auto insurance adjuster
.
She knew
all
the bad intersections and
what to avoid
.
She was a very, very defensive driver.
It was just a typical
random
intersection.
”