Untitled (23 page)

    I make an announcement to driver and passengers. "This is an emergency. We need to get to the fort immediately. Please, folks, if you want to take the regular route, would you kindly wait for another trolley?"

    Nobody moves. There's grumbling, but no movement.

    
"Por favor,"
the driver says with a thick Spanish accent, "perhaps I say no."

    Now all my girls are talking at once. Lost friend. Might be hurt. Missed the ship. Have to find her. Please help us. Matter of life and death.

    A couple of the meeker passengers, sensing unwanted trouble, hurriedly jump off. A few stay, either indecisive or curious.

    "No," the driver insists, "you want Calle Norzagaray."

    "No," I insist back at him. "There's no other trolley and no other cab. We're here now and we need your help."

    A voice behind me says, "Hey, señor, help the ladies out." It's my Packer, Greg, looking large and menacing. "Just drive straight through to that there fort."

    "Yeah," agrees Polly. "We'll never tell."

    Now we have a chorus of other tourists egging him on.

    The driver says something under his breath, which I am thankful I can't translate, and he starts driving up a street named San Justo. If that means justice, I feel it's a good sign.

    I know now that it really isn't far, it's just that it's uphill all the way.

    As the trolley driver chugs along, clanging his bell to get people out of his way, we look from one side of the street to another hoping to spot Amy.

    The Dolls help console our tourists by calling out places of interest so they won't miss anything.

    Evvie says, after a while, "So, Dolls, how often do you win back in Tuscon?"

    "A lot," Judy says.

    "Yeah, she's real lucky," Rose offers.

    With a heavy bump that practically knocks us off our seats, the bus jolts to a stop.

    "El Morro." The driver swings open the door, eager to be rid of us.

    I'm rustling around in my purse to find money for a tip, but Rose says, "Let me. After all, I won yesterday."

    She offers the driver a ten-dollar bill. "
Gracias
for helping us."

    The driver waves the money away. "
No es
necesario, señoras. Vaya con Dios.
Find your friend in good health."

We thank him profusely and get off.

    Behind us I hear Greg tell his wife, "Let's hit the road, Polly."

    Obviously Roberto and the girls have alerted the guards at the entrance gate. They're expecting us. "Looking for your friend? Go right through."

    Evvie and I, the Dolls, and the Packer couple hurry through the gate.

    "Spread out," I say. "Yell as loud as you can if you find her. Rose, please stick with me with your phone."

    And we take off, calling out Amy's name. Judy and Evvie head down the ancient steps. Rose and I climb up to the top level of the fort. Greg and Polly turn left. I see Roberto and my girls at the very far end. I am overwhelmed once again at the size and scope of this massive stone fortress. Quickly, I realize that this level is wide open and we would see Amy easily. If she were here.

    As we look down from parapet to parapet, my heart is in my mouth. Where could Amy be? I can still see our cruise ship in the distance. It hasn't left port.

    It's not more than ten minutes or so before I hear Ida scream, the fearful sound resonating against these walls that have seen so much pain. At the same time, Rose's phone rings.

    "They found her," Rose says, her voice apprehensive.

    Everyone seems to be yelling now as searchers and tourists converge from the lower areas. We run the long length of this level to where I see people peering over the gun turret ledges.

    Sophie and Bella are clinging tightly to one another. Ida is leaning against a wall, her hand over her mouth. Roberto is standing, staring down toward the sea.

    I run to him, my heart pounding. He says, "You don't want to see this. It's bad."

    But I must. Holding tightly to the stone sides, I peer down and see Amy sprawled across patches of shrubbery, hanging about ten feet from the rocky beach below. She is not moving.

    I am in shock. Roberto shakes me. "Listen. I'm running back to the ship to get help. I'm a fast runner. I'll be back soon. Do you hear me?"

    Numbly, I nod and he is off.

    Evvie shouts, "Forget the trolley, find a cab."

    Sophie and Bella shout encouragement at him.

    He throws promises back at them. "I can do it faster myself. I'll run like the wind."

    I call after him. "Tell them at the gate."

    Stunned at the realization of what is happening, I am filled with guilt. Why didn't I take Amy's story about being followed seriously? What happened here? Did she fall? Did she jump? I feel icy cold. Did someone push her?

    Jack. Why aren't you here? I don't know what to do. I need you. I need your advice. I need your strength.

T
here is nothing for us to do but keep out of the

    way while the rescuers do their job. At least it's still light and they are able to see. Has it only been an hour or so since we discovered that battered body, lying facedown, so far below us?

    Men from the ship are standing by with some sort of stretcher-pulley, preparing to send it down to get Amy. The ship's doctor is waiting to examine her as soon as she's brought up. The San Juan police are here and an ambulance is outside the front gate. Everyone is breathlessly waiting to hear from the climber, a local firefighter. Armed with ropes, he is scaling his tortuous way down the sheer face of the cliff.

    There is a groaning sound, a fearful one.

    What is it? Evvie runs in closer to find out. I

cannot move. My legs are jelly. What's taking her so long? Finally she's back.

    "He's reached the shrubbery where she is. For a moment they were afraid it wouldn't hold his weight. But it's OK."

    I can't stand it. I have to get closer. I force my weak legs to move. And naturally, everyone else follows me.

    I nudge one of the sailors. "What happening?"

    "She's alive. She's even conscious. We couldn't tell from up here because she didn't dare move. If she had dislodged herself, she might have fallen down onto the rocks and beach."

    Now the girls and I grab one another, hugging, tearful. Thank you, God. She's alive! The word spreads. The onlookers react happily. Tragedy has been avoided.

    How extraordinary life is. Only yesterday this woman was unknown to me, a stranger. Today, her safety brings me to overwhelming emotion. She will forever be important to me.

    If I had only been able to save him, I think. Don't go there, I tell myself. This is not the time to think about my husband.

    There is much commotion. The crewmen are preparing to send down the pulley. Knowing that Amy's alive has given momentum to their actions.

    The hell with being afraid of heights. We all run to the nearest openings in the wall. We can see Amy, her hands tightly clutching the roots of the shrubs. The climber whispers to her and she lets go. We watch breathlessly as he carefully shifts her.

I can't help it. I yell, "Amy! Amy!"

    She actually turns her head up toward me and gives us a weak smile.

    Brave lady. All this time, she must have been so frightened.

    She mouths, "Thank you."

    We are all a puddle of tears.

Amy insisted she was well enough to go back to the ship. Now we're standing outside the infirmary waiting to hear what the doctor has to say.

    The Tucson Dolls stop by and say they're starved and are going to dinner. They ask us to wish Amy luck and tell her that if she's ever in Tucson, she should look them up. They'll teach her bingo.

    We thank them profusely for their help.

    "We wouldn't have missed it for the world," Rose says.

    "See you at bingo tomorrow," says Judy. "You will come?"

    "Yeah, tomorrow there's a one-thousand-dollar prize," Rose adds.

    "And one of us intends to win it," says Judy.

    "Not if we win it first," Bella retorts.

    "We'll be there," Bella and Sophie say in unison.

    "It all depends on how Amy is," I say.

    They wave and take off for the dining room.

    "Uh-oh," whispers Ida. "Look who's coming. It's the captain."

    Sure enough, in his crisp white uniformed splendor, Captain Hugh Standish is marching toward us with the same two sailors who gave us such a hard time earlier.

    Bella salutes nervously when they reach us. Ida pulls her arm down.

    "Mrs. Gold?"

    I step forward. "That's me."

    "Do you have any idea how many international maritime laws you have broken?"

    Bella clings to my arm and begs. "Please, Captain, don't throw her in the brig. She was just trying to save someone's life."

    "Yeah," agrees my faithful sister. "She's a hero." My girls form a semicircle around me, as if to shield me from whatever is to come.

    "She is a captain's nightmare, that's what she is," he replies sternly. "Do you have any idea what chaos you caused, Mrs. Gold? Ruining this very expensive pleasure trip for two thousand people? Destroying the rigid timing of this ship's schedule? And that of every other ship to follow that depends on our getting out of port on time? Not to mention the incredibly bad example you have shown by not following orders."

    "I'm sorry," I whisper, "for all the trouble I caused. But I'm not sorry we went to find Amy."

    "I will deal with you later. All of you."

    With that, he sharply turns on his heels and marches away. His men follow after him.

    
"Oy vey,"
says Sophie. "Do you think they'll put us on bread and water?"

"God forbid," says Bella.

    The infirmary door opens and the doctor beckons us in.

    Amy is lying in one of the two cots in the room. The color has returned to her face. She reaches out and we all take her hands in ours. "How can I ever thank you?" she says tearfully.

    Dr. Fernandez introduces himself. "Mrs. Larkin has a mild concussion. And some bruising. Nothing serious. She is very lucky that it wasn't worse."

    "What happened?" Evvie asks Amy.

    The doctor moves toward the door. "I'll leave now so you may chat. Don't stay too long; she needs to rest. Mrs. Larkin is to remain in the infirmary overnight."

    This worries me. "Wait. Please. Is there someone who will be staying with her?"

    "Absolutely. The nurse is here round the clock. The doors remain locked at all times."

    With that, he exits.

    "I was so scared," Amy says. "I tried to yell but nobody heard me over the sound of the ocean. I was terrified that I'd be there all night if I didn't fall off the cliff first."

    "That was smart you held on," says Ida as she straightens the pillows around Amy's head.

    "But my hands were getting so tired. And because I was afraid to move, my whole body was getting stiff. If you hadn't come back . . ."

    I shudder to think what might have been. "Do you remember when it happened?" I ask her.

    "Yes, I had just looked at my watch. It was time for me to leave so I'd be on time to meet you back at the ship."

    "What made you fall?" I ask nervously.

    "I'm not sure. I forgot to take my blood pressure medicine this morning and I was feeling dizzy. I think someone came up behind me. He was even talking to me. I thought I knew him, but maybe I was hallucinating. Next thing I knew I was falling. I don't know. It's all a blur."

    "Are you sure you didn't see him?"

    "No . . . I didn't turn around."

    "Was anybody else nearby?"

    "I didn't see anybody."

    "Amy, you mentioned you thought someone was following you last night. What if the same person followed you ashore and tried to kill you?"

    She gasps and turns her head away, unwilling to face us. "It's not possible."

    "Why would anyone want to do this to you?" Evvie is puzzled.

    "I didn't have time to tell you," I say to the girls, "but earlier today, Amy also told me she thought someone may have tried to break into her room."

    There is much consternation at this.

    "You should have the captain call your husband," says Ida.

    "Oh, no, don't do that. He's scuba diving in the Keys with friends. He doesn't like it if I call when he's away. I don't want to spoil his good time. I'm really all right."