Telling Fortunes in Phoenix

Eddie

The moon had passed its zenith when Eddie reached his destination, a ranch hidden near a bluff west of S.R. 85. He eased out of the cab and hobbled stiffly to the back. He hated getting old. He couldn’t sit in one position for long without stiffening up, but he was mostly recovered by the time he opened the rear doors. He shone a light around the interior to satisfy himself that everyone was asleep and still breathing, then went to the house to get Johni.

Johni Ellen Knutsen used to be a nurse. She had prepared the sodas and beers that Eddie had carefully passed around after his guest’s late night dinner and she would be responsible for drawing the vials of blood to be sent off for tissue typing. Fact was, this was Johni’s show. Eddie pulled some strings and provided muscle, but without Johni’s contacts, location, and skills, their endeavor would be impossible. And she was a beautiful woman, too, if your tastes ran to slim, blonde rancher types. They had both been single for a very long time but Eddie had never considered Johni romantically. It was her heart of stone that put him off. You needed ice water in your veins to run this kind of business, he should know. He felt the ice trickling through his own body often enough.

The ranch had been built in the Twenties. The main house sat on the northern side of the ranch yard and a long row of small, private, guest rooms bordered the eastern edge, the dirt road from the highway entering beside it. Johni had soundproofed these self-sufficient rooms and added security features. On the southern end of the yard was a large stable, though the fine horses it used to house were no longer there. The days of long rides and happy callers enjoying the cowboy life were in the distant past and Johni lived alone here now with chickens and a burro.

The stable and the sound-proofed rooms were in excellent repair. As Eddie trudged across the yard he wondered, as he always did, why she’d let the main house fall to ruin. Johni argued that it wasn’t that bad. The roof was in good shape and she didn’t see the need to ‘gussify’ with such things as fresh paint or screens and truly, it was so well built that it would take another decade before it was beyond help. She concentrated on the important things, she said, like sound housing for their ‘guests.’

He sighed and joined Johni to muscle the adults one by one into a blanket lined wheelbarrow and deposit them in separate rooms of the bunkhouse. Then they returned for the children and Johni swept the light beam through the van’s cargo area.

“I thought you said there were five kids,” she said.

Eddie grabbed the flashlight and looked through the jumbled bedding, then heaved up into the back and started tossing blankets. He was just making more chaos, so he moved the little bodies, unresisting, to the opening. She was right. There were four children here, two girls and two boys.

Johni looked at Eddie and lifted her brows questioningly. Eddie shook his head. “Chaco and I had two men, three women, and five children in here.”

“You took a count?”

Eddie thought back. Sure, he’d easily counted heads while they were eating and he surely passed out ten carefully watched drinks. There had been ten sitting there, ten drinking and ten heading toward the van.

“Could the kid be back where you picked them up?” Johni asked. “Did you count them as they got in?”

“Not really, everyone just jumbled in. Me and Chaco were helping them.”

“Did you lock up right away?”

“Yes. It was locked before I drove off. I remember unlocking it when we got to the main road to check on everyone.”

“Did you count heads then?” Johni said.

“No, I was just checking for chest rise. I didn’t count them…”

“And it’s been wide open since you got here,” Johni said. “Well, he either got left behind or he’s wandering around here with the rattlesnakes.”

“He’s the oldest boy,” Eddie said. “The rest are little kids.”

“Better and better.” Johni looked disgusted. “Didn’t everyone drink up?”

“Yeah. I saw them drinking and I always collect and count the empties.”

“Well, then, he must be back there,” Johni said. “Everyone’s still knocked out. He might have stepped behind a cactus to pee and fallen asleep.”

“I guess I better go back.” Eddie parked the van in the stable and took his own car for the trip back to the rendezvous. He’d been looking forward to being at home when his daughter went to school but that no longer seemed possible.