Road Dogs

TWELVE

THEY WATCHED DAWN COME THROUGH THE GATE SAYING, "You're starting early, aren't you? I have to have my coffee first." Foley said, "Did he call you?"

"I've been talking to him all this time, telling him where I've been."

"He was worried about you."

"Now I have to find a straw beach hat, a big one, and stop by Ralphs, pick up whatever I told him I had to get." "He ask you if you're being a saint?"

"Not today. Let me get a cup," Dawn said. "I'm regressing Tico, finding out who he was in a much earlier life. My spirit guide put me in touch with a spirit"-Dawn looking at Tico now-"who knew you sixteen hundred years ago, if you can imagine that. I'll be right back."

"You hear her?" Tico said. "Is no bullshit. Dawn is been trying to find out who I was in another life, she say now was sixteen hundred years ago, man."

"How does she know where to look?"

"She has her spirit guide help her. Didn't she ever look at your past life for you?"

"She couldn't find anything prior to '63," Foley said. "At first she thought I might've been Jack Kennedy-I've had a bad back off and on-but she couldn't tell if I was ever president of the United States."

"Yes, but maybe you were?"

"It's possible," Foley said.

"She say I was of the Maya race in Guatemala," Tico said. "I tole her I come from Costa Rica. She say is close enough. She didn't know what I was called, so she couldn't find out what I was doing there"-Tico looking anxious-"but now I believe she found out."

They waited, smoking Slims and sipping whiskey. Dawn returned with a cup of coffee and sat down with them at the patio table. She said, "Oh, would you like one of my Slims?" in her innocent way. Tico said he already had one. If he didn't know she was putting him on, he didn't know her, Foley thought. They still could've got naked together-or why bother to deny it? Now she was telling Tico, "It seems you appear in the early part of the Maya classic period, about the year 400. You're the son of a god-king, the one and only Fire Is Born. Really, that's his name, Fire Is Born. Your name, Tico, was Spear-thrower Jaguar. You were a famous warrior."

Tico said, "Spear-thrower Jaguar," nodding his head.

"Your girlfriend," Dawn said, "is taken up to the top of the temple to be sacrificed as a gift to the gods, who will freak when they see her, she's a beauty. But," Dawn said, "you can save her life if you're willing to take her place, have your heart cut out instead of hers."

Foley said, "What's the girl's name?"

The way Dawn hesitated he knew she was taking a few moments to think of one.

Foley said, "How about Spear-chucker's Honey?"

Dawn stared at him with a straight face getting her act back together. She said, "You know who the spirit is I was put in touch with? Spear-thrower Jaguar's girlfriend herself. Everyone on the other side calls her Heart, short for Heartless Virgin, because of, you know, what happened to her. She passed over and loves being a spirit guide. Tico, she said you turned chicken, even though the chance you'd be sacrificed was next to zero. You're the son of Fire Is Born, you're popular, brave, you're a good-looking guy, especially in your headdress, with all the feathers and ornaments. Heart said the headdresses were quite heavy and resulted in neck ailments. But you wouldn't risk it, you let Heart be sacrificed. Aren't you sorry, Tico, you didn't step up?"

"You telling me," Tico said, "she's my girlfriend but she's still a virgin? How long am I going with her, a day or two? I don't see I know her well enough to, you know, offer my life."

"You're saying you wouldn't try to save her?"

"I don't even know her. Maybe if I see her again."

"According to Heart," Dawn said, "when you didn't do the right thing, it got our Higher Power pissed enough to make you, in your next several reincarnations, bugs. That's why I had trouble locating you in a previous existence."

Foley said, "Did she say what kind of bug he was?"

"No, she didn't," Dawn said, refusing to look at him. "She did say Tico, when he passed over, would come back as another insect unless he redeems himself."

"How's he do that?"

"The usual way." Dawn said to Tico now, "You have to risk your life to save someone from certain death."

Tico said, "I do?"

"You'll know it when it happens," Dawn said. "It's your only chance to get a better life from now on." Tico said, "Man, I don't know."

"Go home and think about it," Dawn said. "Do you want to be a bug all your lives?"

"Getting swatted," Foley said, "and stepped on?"

Tico looked confused saying he wasn't sure what to think about. Dawn told him the secret was to empty his mind, keep a channel open by trying not to think, and there was a good chance the spirit guide would contact him.

Foley said, "Maybe your old girlfriend, the Heartless Virgin."

After Tico had left Foley said, "If he wasn't aware of being a bug until you told him, what difference does it make if he was?"

"I got carried away," Dawn said.

"I thought you were setting him up."

"For what?"

"I don't know-to use him?"

"You knew I was making it up," Dawn said, "most of it," turning her eyes on him. "You want to take a shower?"

Once they were in there soaping each other up, Foley said, "Don't forget, you have to put a bathing suit on you in the painting."

Dawn said they should get Little Jimmy to do it. "He finished and took his paints with him."

Foley said or they could buy a tube of paint and dab some on her here, and here…and here. What color did she like?

Dawn said, "Mmmmm, black?" and slipped her clean shining arms around his neck. She kissed his mouth and said she wasn't sure about the color, he should ask Jimmy. She said, "You ready?" Then had to ask him, "Jack, why're you wearing shoes in the shower?"

They were lying across the bed now on their towels.

Dawn said, "I almost told you about Cundo, what he said on the phone, but decided not to ruin our shower. They're releasing him a week early. He'll be here Friday, the day after tomorrow."

Foley said, "Why didn't he tell me? I spoke to him-I did everything I could to get rid of him. I put him on hold to watch you come out of the house in my sixty-nine-dollar drip-dry sport coat. Why didn't he tell me he's getting out early?"

"You're a little ripped, aren't you?"

"I was."

"Jack, we've only got forty-eight hours to act crazy, maybe try something new, like I'm on top."

"There's a reason he didn't let me know."

"He wanted to tell me first," Dawn said. "He likes you, Jack, but doesn't go to bed with you. The way to look at it, the sooner he gets here, the sooner we pull the job and leave."

The job.

Foley closed his eyes.

The sooner we pull the job. After we find out what the job is and how we go about pulling it. We're not going in a bank. Not we. You. Keep it simple. Do you know where this is going? What you're getting into? Who's who? If you don't know that you don't know anything. The sooner we pull the job. Why isn't she biting her nails? What does she have going with Tico the spear-chucker? Why didn't Cundo tell you he's getting out early? Why wasn't he excited, wanting you to know about it, his old buddy? Why was it the other day, you and Dawn finding each other, talking about the job, you didn't see a problem? Didn't get down and look at what you'd have to do. It left Foley with the feeling, What you see isn't what you think it is.

He opened his eyes.

Dawn was lighting a cigarette.

"Are we picking him up at the airport?"

"He said a friend at Glades is arranging for a guy in L.A. to meet the flight and bring him here."

"He doesn't have a friend at Glades."

"Well, someone is saving us the trouble."

She placed her cigarette between his lips and watched him draw and let the smoke drift out of his mouth.

She said, "You want to rest a little more…?"