Authors: Dianne Harman
"As soon as possible. Why wait? Let's go to that little church we passed on our ski trip. Let's do it right away." Sean pulled her close and vowed he would do everything he could to deserve her faith and love. "Jeanne, spend the night and move in with me tomorrow. I want to be with you every moment. At our age, there's no reason to wait.”
Jeanne and Sean never spent a night apart from that moment on. His days were filled helping people, something he passionately loved. He loved Jeanne just as passionately and proved it to her every night, sometimes several times a night. It was the best of times for Sean.
CHAPTER 17
Maria spent most of the four hour ride back to Irvine making lists. Fortunately, their condominium was small, so their furniture would easily fit into a U-Haul truck. The old man at the motel had very little furniture in the house behind the motel and from what Maria had seen, there was nothing there she would want. She needed to pack the kitchen items, bedding, and their clothes. She made a note to drop off her work clothes at the church, thinking it rather fitting that the "rich lady" clothes she still had would be going back to the church. Jeans and tees would be her new wardrobe staple.
Moore Labs had a dress code, which required that all of the scientists who worked there wear ties. They didn't have to wear suits because of their extensive work in the labs, but Sidney Moore wanted them to look professional, so even under their lab coats they wore ties. Maria made a note to donate most of Jeffrey's ties to the church as well.
Late in the day they were back in Irvine. Jeffrey called the real estate broker who had originally sold them the condominium and made an appointment to meet with him the following day to put their unit on the market. Next, he called a U-Haul center and made arrangements to rent a truck in two days with a proviso that he would drop it off in Blythe after they unpacked at the motel. In the meantime, Maria drove around the neighborhood getting cardboard boxes from several stores and began to pack up the household goods.
That night, the enormity of what they were about to do kept Maria from sleeping. The old aging fears returned, looming larger than ever. What if Jeffrey couldn't get the extracts he needed to make the hormone? Would the desert air cause her to age? What about exposure to the sun and wind? Would the physical work that she would be doing cause her to age? The days of being inside a building protected from the elements would be gone. Would her skin become leathery and lined because she would be living in a place where the furnace ran full time in the winter and the air-conditioner ran constantly in the summer? Maria and Jeffrey rarely used their furnace or air-conditioner in Irvine. She worried what such a sudden change would have on her physical appearance. Finally, she fell asleep, letting her future rest in God's hands, just as her mother and the church had taught her to do so long ago.
They were up early on Sunday, preparing for what they knew was going to be a very busy day. Jeffrey was to meet with the realtor and then go see his parents, telling them what he and Maria had decided to do. Meanwhile, Maria cleaned out the refrigerator and the pantry. She decided to take a few refrigerator items in a cooler with them, knowing she and Jeffrey wouldn't have time to stock up in Blythe the day they arrived at the motel. The rest of the food she packed up to take to her parents. When Maria had called and told them of their plans, they were not happy. They were very close to one another and Maria and Jeffrey spent a couple of nights each week at their home. This was going to be very hard on Elena and Fabian.
Next on her "to-do" list was the church. When she knocked on the "Outreach" door at the church, it was quickly opened by Judy Greer. "Maria, I haven't seen you for years. You don't look a day older than the last time I saw you! What's your secret? I've often thought about you, wondering how you were doing. Since your wedding, I've lost track of you. I guess we must be going to different church services. From the looks of you, your life must be going well."
"My life is going very well, thank you." Maria said. "Actually, my life is changing. That's why I'm here. Jeffrey and I bought a motel just off the 10 Freeway, out in the desert on the road between LA and Phoenix. He's got a bit of scientific burnout and we decided to do something entirely new. I'm really excited. I've got some boxes of clothes I'd like to donate to the church. Maybe they will help some young woman the way the ‘rich lady's’ clothes helped me. I don't think I'll need them in the desert."
"I wish you well, Maria. You're one of the few young women who ever made it out of the barrio. I'm happy we could help. The "rich lady" who donated the clothes the day you got your job was another one who made it out of the barrio. That's one reason she always donated so much. I always thought that maybe she bought clothes without ever wearing them just so she could give them to us. She wanted to help someone and it looks like she did. Her husband was transferred to San Francisco a few years ago and I haven't seen her since. Guess there's kind of a lineage in these clothes. We'll see who gets them next."
Judy gave Maria a big hug and said, "I'll help you get the boxes from the car and when you get ready to open the motel, let me know the name and some information about it. If I hear of anyone who is going that way, I'll tell them to stop in and say hello. I really wish you all the best of luck. It sounds exciting!"
Maria drove back to the condo, arriving just in time to let in the professional cleaning crew that the realtor had been able to arrange on short notice. Actually, Maria was very glad he had. She was running out of time and if she had to do a deep clean on the condo, plus the packing, she'd be up all night. That was no way to start a new life!
Monday morning they looked around the condo for the last time, feeling a bit sad to be leaving it. Maria remembered how excited she had been when they bought it. It represented everything good about getting out of the barrio. There were no rats or gangs in Irvine. She remembered how happy and proud her mother had been of her. She and Jeffrey had carefully picked out each piece of furniture, each piece of linen, the kitchen items, and everything else that made a house a home. It had been their home for several years, a happy home. Now they were leaving for a new and uncertain life.
She looked back one last time with tears in her eyes. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jeffrey wipe something out of his eye. While the new was exciting, the old had been very, very comfortable.
CHAPTER 18
The drive from Irvine to the motel was uneventful. Jeffrey drove the U-Haul truck, while Maria followed in their van. Just as he had said he would, the old man was waiting for them, ready to leave, with his car packed.
"Here's them papers you wanted drawn up. Had my lawyer friend do it. This sheet of paper has the address and telephone number where I'll be if you need me. My lawyer friend will take care of the rest of the sale. You'll have to pay the balance of the sale price to him through an escrow account he's set up. I'm gettin' outta here. Hope this place makes you happier than it did me," the old man said.
He got into his rusted old Lincoln, lit a cigarette, and waved good-bye out of the broken window on the driver's side. He was sure that whatever waited for him in Montana was better than what had happened to him here. He left in a cloud of dust, glad to be rid of the place where his wife had died.
Maria and Jeffrey unpacked for the next couple of hours, moving the little furniture that was left in their new house outside. After they unloaded the U-Haul, they packed up the old man's furniture to take to the Goodwill in Blythe the next day on their way to return the U-Haul.
Exhausted, they ate what Maria had brought in the cooler and got into the bed they'd made. They could hear the desert wind howling outside their window. The stars in the sky provided the only light and they shone brilliantly. It was cold and desolate in the desert winter. Even though the howling wind was a foreign, eerie sound, it was strangely comforting. Nothing mattered but that they were alone in the desert and they were together. They snuggled, eager for the warmth of the other, and soon both fell into a deep sleep.
At 2:15 a.m., Maria was awakened by the sound of the roaring wind which had intensified.
Oh
well
, she thought,
as
long
as
I'm
awake
I
might
as
well
go
to
the
bathroom
. She didn't want to wake Jeffrey so when her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, she made her way into the bathroom. The full moon shone through the small window, bathing the bathroom in a soft light. Walking the few steps to the toilet, she passed by the medicine cabinet mirror and stopped. It was cracked in the center in a jagged line and as she looked in the mirror, it was as if she was looking at two people.
By some strange play of the moonlight, the face she saw on the right side of the crack was exactly as she looked now, but gasping involuntarily, she stared at the left side of the crack and saw herself as she would look twenty years from now. She stood stone still, rooted to the spot. Several minutes went by while she simply stared, looking first to the right side of the crack, then to the left. She realized what she was seeing was her future if Jeffrey failed to get the extracts he needed for the hormone. She continued to stare into the broken mirror, becoming more and more terrified. In a few minutes, the light changed and both sides of the cracked glass merged, reflecting her as she was now, young and beautiful. She breathed a sigh of relief.
As she got back in bed, she could feel her heart racing and in that moment she knew she would do whatever was necessary to make sure that Jeffrey kept her looking young. She didn't want to look old. She refused to accept aging and swore it would never happen. A cold tingle of fear ran down her back. The mere thought of getting old terrified her.
No, I'm not going to let that happen,
she thought as she finally drifted off to sleep.
CHAPTER 19
This was not fun. This was not how it was supposed to be. Weddings were supposed to be joyous occasions. Just before Jorge and Luisa Ortega boarded the flight from Rio to Los Angeles, they discovered that all of the Southern California airports were shut down due to an air controller's strike. They were finally able to get a flight to Phoenix with a two hour layover in Miami where they cleared Immigration and Customs. From Phoenix, they were to drive a rental car to Laguna Beach, located on the coast, south of Los Angeles.
Luisa's sister, Selena, was getting married in Laguna Beach in three days. Jorge and Luisa had planned on leaving with the rest of the family a week ago, but, as usual, Jorge had gotten tied up with his business in the Amazon. Luisa could have predicted something would happen. It always did. With Jorge, business came first. Jorge and his father, Tomas, owned a huge gold mining operation located in one of the most remote areas of the Amazon. It was a wild and lawless area. With gold prices on the world market approaching $1,800 per ounce, their efforts were well compensated. The Ortega mining operations were estimated to hold thirty percent of the known gold reserves in the world.
Presently, they were working at a furious pace trying to get it out of the earth and out of the Amazon as fast as possible in order to take advantage of the spike in world gold prices. The mining, refining, and transporting of gold was a long, difficult process. The mines operated by Jorge and his father were massive open pits, hundreds of feet deep. The bottom of the pit, where the gold was located, was often flooded with four to six feet of polluted and sometimes toxic water. At any one time, hundreds of miners would be working in the pit, operating heavy equipment as well as hand tools.
It was very dangerous work and accidents and even deaths were common occurrences. A lot of the gold from the mines was stolen by the miners. There were tales of the Brazilian natives, who made up the major part of the work force at the mines, trying to escape with the gold by swimming across the river. The river was home to both crocodiles and swarms of piranhas, fierce flesh-eating fish that could reduce a full-sized man to nothing but bones in a matter of minutes. The rivers of the Amazon carried many dangers.
The local and national newspapers, constantly writing exposes about the poor working conditions at Ortega Mines, had not been kind to Jorge and his father. There also were stories about how the Ortegas were damaging the environment with reckless and harmful mining practices. These "attack pieces" in the press seemed to be never-ending. It had gotten to the point where Luisa just told people Jorge traveled a lot with his job. She never told them about the nature and extent of his business operations. She was tired of always having to defend his business. When Jorge returned to their home in Rio, after spending some time at the mines in the Amazon, he was drained and emotionally spent with the constant strain of dealing with the natives, the government, and the environmentalists, not to mention his father who could be a hard taskmaster. Traveling to California for a wedding was the last thing he wanted to do.
After two long flights and no sleep, Jorge was exhausted. His mind kept churning. How was he going to be able to get the gold they needed for their investors out of the Amazon? He continued to think of the investors and his father and they were not happy thoughts. And now this, the long drive in the rental car. The drive to Laguna Beach would be nearly six hours and Jorge had not driven in a long, long time. He and Luisa had a driver in Rio and Luisa had never learned to drive.
They took the shuttle bus to the rental car agency at Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix where Jorge showed them his international driver's license. The SUV seemed huge after the Ferrari his driver drove when he was in Rio. He took the wheel and began the long drive. The evening rush hour traffic only added to his exhaustion and stress.