Telling Fortunes in Phoenix

Eddie

Johni and Eddie had a smooth routine: Eddie was responsible for bringing the merchandise in, Johni for getting it out. Eddie’s day would begin with shopping in Phoenix. He’d bring supplies down in his own car then get the van from Johni’s stable to meet Chaco to bring in the families. They moved the sleeping ‘guests’ into the bunk house, took pictures, drew blood samples from the adults, and finally left the merchandise to sleep away the night. Eddie was usually free to return home at this point.

Johni’s work would then begin. After a good night’s sleep she would gather the children up, leave mildly dosed food and drink for the adults and take off on a long loop. She’d drop the blood at the surgery center in Casa Grande then drive on to Phoenix to bring the children to the kid guy. After shopping again for items Eddie forgot or wouldn’t pick up (her monthly cache of heroin, for one) she’d return to the ranch in time to make dinner for the adults who’d need feeding and drugging again by then.

The Mexicans were nearly always blood type O, the universal donor, and because they came from deep in the country they had no strange anti-bodies nor diseases. The surgical center specialized in kidney transplants and it never took long to fly in the recipients. The dates were known and when the blood tests were cleared the center called and she’d drive the adults to Casa Grande. Her monthly work was finished in a couple of days.

Now, though, Johni was in a huge hurry to get everyone out of here. She made a call. Someone had to get back to her so that there would be a place for them to land but Casa Grande understood the urgency. Arrangements were being made.

Eddie left Johni behind and drove back to Phoenix. He worried that her nerves would cause her to shoot up again and he saw her lying there like buttered toast when the cops came screaming in. He was too tired to care. He just wanted away.

As he drove his mind turned the problem over and over. Who had picked up the kids? He turned the police radio on and listened to the chatter. There was no word of children being picked up in the desert. If an individual had found them wouldn’t he or she tell the police about it? Wouldn’t there be word?

In a while he couldn’t tolerate the sound of the police radio and turned it off. Out here in the sticks there were only two FM stations strong enough to make the distance: one with classic rock and the other with classic country. Both of them were playing upbeat daytime songs and the AM channels had staticy born-agains and conspiracy theorists. He turned the radio off.

One thing was certain: those children would recognize him. Eddie was a handsome man. His jaw was square, his eyes a piercing blue, his body narrow-hipped and wide-shouldered. He was aging but he kept in shape with long swims and regular workouts and the crow’s feet and silver highlights in his thick blond hair added dimension to a face whose only fault had been blandness He was more striking now than he’d been at twenty and in any line up he would be spotted. So there was that.

The road whipped by under his car.

A rumbling noise woke him before he drove off into the nearest barbed wire fence because he’d fallen asleep at sixty-five miles per hour. At the next Palo Verde tree he pulled over, hoping its scant shade would keep the car cool long enough for a nap. He fell asleep in the air-conditioned cab but woke fifteen minutes later drenched in sweat. He rubbed at his face and discovered he had a bad sunburn. By the time he’d taken three more mini-naps the two hour trip home had stretched to three.

His beautiful home in Paradise Valley with the thick green lawn and shady terrace looked like heaven when he arrived. Eddie and his daughter lived alone in a four bedroom house in a newer neighborhood with good schools, the heat and crime of the city center far away. His wife had chosen it back when they’d planned a life full of kids but she died and he was left with a toddler and a big empty house. He couldn’t bear to sleep in the room they had shared so he’d moved Julia into the master suite. The giant space was soon filled with her toys and games and as she grew she had room for sleepovers, her own desk and library, a television. He had co-workers who lived in apartments smaller than Jewel’s room.

He’d co-opted two of the bedrooms down the hall, one for sleep and one for his office. He went to his bedroom, showered and threw himself onto his bed, determined to sleep enough so that he could think. Contingency plans crowded his mind but nothing made sense and if he weren’t such a big strong man he knew he’d dissolve in cranky tears.

He laid on the bed, his eyes clenched, then unclenched them and rolled his neck back and forth. Focusing methodically he consciously relaxed body parts: toes limp, instep heavy, ankles falling into the mattress, heels dropping through the floor, bottom of his feet relaxed and floating…

He remembered the footprints in the wash.

Return to the body, calves soft, knees soft, thighs, rolling his thighs and knees and calves back and forth. The neck again, tense and achy, rolling his head again, rolling and rolling…

And he remembered the limp bodies in the back of the van…

Return to the body, base of spine dropping into the mattress…

He remembered moving the Mexicans like ungainly carpets into the wheelbarrow and up to the guest house, humping them up and into the rooms one by one and then the count, the count was off.

His neck was tight again. He flipped onto his side, maybe a pillow between his legs, his hips ached.

Why did he let that boy escape? Why didn’t he count, why didn’t he keep the back of the trailer locked until Johni came out? Where were those kids?

He jumped out of bed. Sleep wasn’t in the cards.

Padding down the hall he drifted into his office and was seated before the monitor without knowing quite how he’d gotten there. He clicked away until he was in the Swiss account. His heartbeat slowed, his breath came easily and he felt drowsiness descend as he scrolled through the year’s income. The totals were fabulous. His neck relaxed, he sighed deeply.

Feeling better, he went ahead and input this week’s data. There was a file for money and a file for the merchandise that included special comments, always recorded in the stilted form used in police reports, the writer a distant uninvolved observer no matter how heinous the content.

When it started so many years ago he didn’t want to track their trade. Johni certainly didn’t, though she had the more damning contact information for the surgical team and the kid guy. But Eddie had been a cop all his life. Writing reports was habitual and helped him remember what happened. No job was complete without them so he kept his records. No one would see them.

Though the Mexicans had numerous surnames in the Spanish style he and Johni burned their papers once the cargo was moved. All that remained of them were in Eddie’s files, the gender, number and approximate age with photographs and dates of transactions.

After downloading his information he realized that Johni must be dealing with their customer about now. The kids were already sold, there was a standing order, the market never flagged. Eddie didn’t know the buyer but Johni always talked about ‘him’, never ‘them’ so he assumed it was one man. Returning the money wasn’t a problem but would that be all? Crime movies flashed through Eddie’s mind. For the man in charge of the children the month was a loss, especially if he had customers lined up. Would that guy want to… get rid of us? To prevent any further problems? Did this guy know where he lived? Maybe they should give him some money for his trouble. He called Johni to discuss this but the phone just rang and rang.

He opened his foreign bank files again. It was comforting to see it all in one place and more comforting to know he didn’t even need it. That was the most soothing part of the money. So much, easy to get to, no output just input. There would be plenty of time. There was enough to last him and Julia the rest of their natural lives. He could send Julia to the finest college. When she left home he could buy her a house, plenty of money for grandkids when the time came. Set her husband up in a business. His eyes drooped. He slid the keyboard away and, laying his head on the desk, finally fell asleep.