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Excerpt from a private letter.
May 3, 2029
My dearest Bonita,
It’s been over two months since I’ve seen your beautiful eyes and I miss them so much. All of this, the distance between us and the hard work has paid off, making it worthwhile. I struck the biggest vein to date at the second claim and have pulled more gold out of it than the entire first claim. We will never have to work again and our children will be able to live in luxury.
I have put so much time into this vein that the work on our house in the valley took longer to complete than I thought it would but I’m happy to say that it is now finished! On my next trip out, I will focus on bringing all the furnishing and household goods to fill it so that it will be ready for your arrival.
I know you are resistant to the idea of bringing the baby here to live but it may be our only option if we lose the war. I’m hearing rumors of a wall that is being constructed to cut us off from the north. If we lose and they build it, life will become incredibly hard for everyone in the south and it won’t matter how much gold we have. Water is already getting scarce for the farmers so without food shipments from the north, people will begin to starve. I fear for our lives if we don’t make plans.
I’ve spoken to Charlie about it and he’s in agreement that things look bleak for us southerners. When I passed through, Avi was like a ghost town. The slot machines and tables were empty and they’ve been forced to drain and close all but the smallest pool. He told me that the council has plans if we lose the war to close the resort to the public and move the band members into it so they can be closer to the river. He even said there was talk of ripping up the golf course to plant crops! Can you imagine that? A PGA rated course turned into farmland!
I’m confident that if the worst should happen, we would be able to be self-sufficient and comfortable in the valley. I understand all the reasons you don’t want to come but we may not have a choice so I would be willing to discuss bringing another family with us if we are forced to flee.
Please consider it, sweetheart. I couldn’t bear to see you and our child suffering from the lack of resources if we lose the war.
I plan to head out and back to you both next week and look forward to being a family once again.
Your loving husband,
Lucas
“There! Start braking, Beck!” I yell over my shoulder to be heard over the roar of the wind and the constant pings of rocks and sand that are blasting the cart. I can just barely make out a dip in the tracks that are bracketed by tall rocks on either side ahead of us. We need to get behind some kind of cover or the wind will tip us over. As if my thoughts are prophetic, we are hit by a gust so strong that I feel the left side of the cart start to tilt up.
“Move to the left side!” Beck screams, but I’m already moving. I grab Glo where she is huddling on the floor in front of the forward-facing windows with her hands covering her ears and her eyes squeezed tightly shut and drag her with me to the left side shelves and cling to them. I’m whispering frantic prayers that our combined weight will be enough to bring the wheels on this side back down onto the track. What feels like minutes later but is only a few seconds, we all feel the steel wheels clunk back down and the screeching of the brakes ring out. Glo and I are thrown forward against the front windows of the cart and I groan in frustration when I see we have stopped at the top of the dip that will hopefully protect us from the storm’s crazy winds.
I shove away from the windows and lunge back towards the handle. “Pump! We stopped too soon!”
Beck and my hands hit the handle at the exact same time with a hard push but it’s locked tight and won’t budge. I let out a very nasty curse word that has Beck’s eyes flaring wide in shock but they clear quickly when he realizes the problem.
“The brake’s still on! Hold on.”
He reaches down and struggles with the lever but finally gets it to move and release the brake. As soon as I see it flip over I start pumping the handle. There is so much resistance that I think that the brake hasn’t released all the way but then understand that I’m fighting against the wind to make the cart move. Beck adds his muscle to it and we finally manage to go the fifteen feet we need to move to be down in the dip with the rocks on both sides. The noise level of the wind drops by at least half and the near constant hail of rocks and sand hitting us goes from constant to occasional. I slump to the floor in relief and rest my forehead on the stationary handle as Beck sets the brakes again.
As my ears adjust to the new volume of noise, I can just make out the sound of Glo sobbing. I don’t bother getting to my feet and just crawl the few feet to her and pull her off the floor and into my arms. She sobs against my shoulder while trying to talk.
“Wanna...go...home...no...more...adventure!”
I rub her back trying to soothe her but I have no words. I want to go home too. More than anything, I want to sob out my own tears at all that has happened in the past few days but I have to be strong for Glo so I gulp them back and just rest my head on hers, wishing for the thousandth time that Abuela was here with us. We sit like that for at least a half an hour with my legs going numb from her weight on them until all that’s left of her sobs are a few hiccups. She finally lifts her swollen tear streaked face and whispers,
“I have to pee.”
I let out a small laugh and cup her face using my thumbs to brush her tears away.
“Me too. Come on, let’s go take care of that.”
I rise to my feet on half asleep legs and turn towards the door. Beck’s in our way and he’s doing this weird tip toe dance.
“What on earth are you doing?” I ask in confused disbelief.
He answers us in a strained high pitch voice. “I have to go toooooooo!”
The giggle that erupts from Glo at his antics makes me realize that he’s making a fool of himself for her benefit so I shake my head and send him a grateful smile.
“Well, get the door open so we can go then!” I laugh.
He sends me a wink and reaches out to open the door but it only moves a few inches before the wind slams it closed. He steps closer to the door and puts his shoulder into it but still only manages to open it a foot before letting the wind slam it closed again. He steps away from it and sighs before turning to us.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to go out there right now. Even with the rocks protecting us, the wind is too strong.”
Glo makes a strangled noise and bounces up and down with the need to go. I look around the cart and think for a minute before rummaging through the bags and boxes we brought with us. I empty out a small plastic bin that has a few jars of Abuela’s homemade seasoning and jams in it and grab the one blanket we have. I hold them up for Beck and Glo to see and then shrug at their groans. We don’t have a lot of choices here. Glo makes Beck stand in the corner facing away and she makes me sing loudly as I hold the blanket up to screen her while she does her business and then she does the same for me. It’s uncomfortable and embarrassing but it gets the job done. I open one of the windows on the opposite side of the door where the wind isn’t as strong and dump the contents out of the bin. I just hope the storm passes before we have to go again.
There’s not a lot to do now that we’re stuck here until the storm passes, so I divvy up the last of the cold soup and potatoes for our supper. With only a few tortillas, jam and dried fruit left in the basket I try and think about what we can eat tomorrow but my mind comes up blank. I have no way to cook any of the supplies we brought with us unless we build a fire so it’ll be raw vegetables and cold protein. I put that worry aside for now and bring up the next one with Beck.
“Do you think Boyd is still after us?”
He swallows the last of his potato and frowns.
“I don’t know. If they found another way to cross the river then maybe. But even if they did manage to cross, they’d be caught in this storm too. I don’t know what that thing was that they were driving but it didn’t look like it had a roof so they’d be completely exposed to the sand unless they found shelter somewhere.” He shakes his head in annoyance. “He’s stubborn but he’s not suicidal so I think he might have turned back. At least, I hope he did.”
I stare down into the last dredges of soup in my cup, thinking. I finally ask him what’s really on my mind.
“If he didn’t turn back and he catches up to us, are you going to be ok with me protecting us?”
His face fills with confusion. “What do you mean?”
I swallow hard but my voice is firm. “If he catches up to us, I’m going to kill him.”
Beck’s mouth drops open in shock but he snaps it closed and studies me for a moment.
“How do you plan on doing that?”
I place my hand on the messenger bag and decide it’s time he knew what was inside of it.
“I have a gun. I shot Boyd the night he came to the house but it just wounded him. If he shows up, I won’t wound him again, I’ll kill him.”
His eyes are huge as they track from my face to the bag and then back to my face. “You shot Boyd? You have a gun?”
I nod. “I won’t let him hurt Glo. I’ll do what I have to, to stop him. Can you live with that?”
He pushes to his feet and walks to the other end of the cart to stare out at the raging dust and sand that swirls around us. I look away and my eyes meet Glo’s. She’s chewing on her lip in uncertainty with tears in her eyes so I open my arms to her. She launches herself against me and clings tightly for a few moments before leaning back to look into my face.
“He’s a really bad man, right? He killed Abuela?” At my sad nod, she takes a deep breath. “Then you wouldn’t be a bad person if you shoot him again, right?”
Beck answers before I can. “No, she would be doing the right thing if she shot him again. If he catches up to us, the only thing we can do is stop him for good.”
The look in his eyes breaks my heart. They are completely empty of any hope his brother would change into what a brother should be, so all I can do is nod with as much compassion in my own eyes as I can and hope I’m not forced to make good on my threat.