Ada Unraveled
that Elixchel didn’t trust, apparently. But I got
no more information from them this evening. Just the occasional
angry discussion leaving me little usable information.
     

Chapter 10: Eddie 3
    The air was filled with smoke. The heat and
winds said Santa Ana’s. Eddie was planning once again to take that
walk to his grandparents. Trying to muster up the courage.
    When…his grandpa Jake just showed up! Told
him to get in his truck. Said it wasn’t safe, that the fires were
moving fast. Drove him away. Took him to the long crooked house he
remembered from his early years.
    His grandmother was ancient! And his
aunts…they were old, too. Maybe in their fifties and sixties. It
made him sad. But then they fed him. Told him about their bakery.
They seemed happy. Full of joy. At first.
    Now Eddie stood outside, glorying in the
feel of wind on his skin. Standing beside the small outbuilding
that Luke was so afraid of. Something about snakes. It had been
decades since he’d been outside. It frightened him. It thrilled
him.
    Around him, the winds were blowing with a
mix of emotions as great as his own, twisting his long hair about
his head, taking his mind with his matted hair. He was alive! He’d
been discovered. He would get help now.
    Eddie was taking refuge from the people he’d
dreamt so long about being with. He found their presence
overwhelming. Needed to be alone. To watch from afar for a few
restful moments. Besides, they’d started arguing.
    Eddie tried to block out the shouted
emotions coming from the long, disjointed house. Beyond the house,
to the east, he could see the fires approaching in the distance, a
long band of orange and blood-red on the horizon—looking like a
spreading wound ripping open the uneasy seam between land and sky.
Earth and heaven.
    And between the howling gusts, angry voices
flew like hawk cries--carrying only snatches of meaning.
    “ How long have they…down there? How
long…known…horror?” It was the big woman, one of his many
aunts. Her voice carried well.
    Before, inside the kitchen, the littlest
aunt with sad eyes had told him she’d thought he’d died long ago.
She said they’d even had a funeral.
    No wonder no one ever came looking for
him.
    “And where is Luke? Are you still helping
him hide…you always knew...?”
    The words made him look around nervously,
suddenly afraid the madman was out there behind him in the crazy
dark. He shook his head, trying once more to clear his thoughts.
Eddie was fighting the drugs by hiding the horse pills under his
tongue. But a couple of times he’d been made to swallow.
    Suddenly his grandfather ran out the back
door. A wiry, skinny, ancient man, he turned to yell back at the
furious women, “She lived just up the street…to see her so
badly, why didn’t you? She been missing for three months!”
    Eddie watched him as he went around the side
of the house and disappeared into the darkness. Then he surprised
himself by deciding to follow, carefully stepping across the dry
grasses. But it only took a few feet down the narrow path for his
legs to start hurting.
    He stopped, letting a sadness reclaim him.
There was no point denying it. He was old and frail, not as old and
frail as his grandfather, but in some ways…. ¸
    His breath came hard and shallow along with
his disappointment.
    He couldn’t even keep up with a guy twice
his age.
    The winds screamed around him as if they
were being chased by something even greater and he leaned against
some boulders, waiting for his heart to stop fluttering. He slid
down the hot stones. He would rest a moment. He would….
    Something moved nearby him, also going
down.
    Maybe it was just the wind tickling the
chaparral--wind and shadows toying with the light flowing over the
hill from the long disjointed house. He wedged deeper between the
rocks, half-hiding, half-dreaming in the sultry stupor he’d
suffered from for years.
    Since…since….
    A memory flitted into his brain. Of a time,
just

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