Rattlesnake & Son

by Jonathan Miller

  Luna’s cramped office was on the second floor and had a view down to the hangar on one side, and out to the turtle-shaped main building on the other. She looked outward rather than inward.

  She had done her best to make this space her own—lots of Native American artifacts in turquoise and silver. She was back to her Acoma phase as opposed to her Navajo. These designs featured a lot of eagles, which seemed appropriate. She could be the curator at a southwestern art museum rather than an executive at an aerospace company.

  Luna took a deep breath, and then took off her shoes and jacket. She had been a judge once, and never let me forget it with her stare.

  “So what’s the verdict on joint custody?” I asked.

  “Jury is still out, you know that. You survived directed verdict, which means your case will continue. For now. You didn’t kill him at least.”

  “I tried. Maybe next time.”

  She didn’t laugh. “He’s in one piece, but I still want to see how you do, how we do as a family.”

  “I’d like that.”

  We watched the activity down below in the hangar. The men in the white jump suits kept working. Luna waved to them.

  “Do you know what you’re doing here?” I asked.

  “Not even a little bit,” she said. She was now the vulnerable lawyer I had met so long ago. “Dr. Yu down there is doing the heavy lifting. As for me, I’m faking it, Dan. I don’t know the difference between a sine and a cosine. Does it show?”

  I looked down at the engineers. They were hard at work, pitching and yawing, sining and cosining on the small tablet computers and with other devices I had never seen before.

  “You fooled me,” I lied. “You also fooled them, which is the important part. Tell me again why your company put a lawyer in charge of a launch?”

  “It’s not about the rocket, it’s about the satellite, about the Shoftim system in the satellite. I helped program it with Dr. Yu, and Dew did some beta testing.”

  “I just saw it in action down in Cruces.”

  “You saw the New Mexico edition. We’re going worldwide. The new system will have real time access to every legal decision from any court anywhere in the world, and can integrate with the Shiva supercomputer in Bangalore to make informed decisions of every probability in litigation.”

  “Why do you need a satellite to do that?” I asked. “There’s this thing called the internet. It’s on computers now, computers here on earth.”

  She shrugged. “Just think, you’re in Acapulco, or even Afghanistan, on vacation and get popped for a DWI. You have the app on the phone and it tells you everything about the most recent cases of the local judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys, and gives the probabilities in real time. Now imagine that for corporations. A company wants to expand a factory in Bangalore or Bermuda. The satellite will provide the most up to date information about local regulations, economics . . .”

  I nodded, “Cool.”

  Through the window, we saw Marley walking with Denise. He looked fascinated with the rockets and aircraft. He and Denise were smiling, but it didn’t appear as if they were exchanging words aloud.

  I could barely see the Organ Mountains in the distance to the south. Caldera Academy was hidden somewhere between those peaks.

  “I still don’t know if Marley belongs at that school,” I said.

  “Dew told me about it, too,” she said. “You both may be right. But what can we do?”

  “I’m thinking that I home-school him, then we see if he can get into Albuquerque Academy.”

  “Rattlesnake Home School?” She started to laugh. “You’ve never taught anyone anything in your life. I know you screwed up in court today from the Shoftim system on my phone.”

  “Shit happens.” Time to go back into rattlesnake lawyer mode. “We really do need to come up with a parenting plan. Now that he has been un-adopted by Mister Arnold, I want to assert my parental rights.”

  Luna stopped. She was thinking. Did she want to take this to court? Was she my enemy? Before she could answer, Marley and Denise came back into the hangar and hurried up the stairs into the office.

  “This place is so awesome!” Marley said. His voice was cracking from puberty and excitement. “It’s like we were in a science fiction video game—like Cratercross X-2, the new version, but for real. Mom, you are so lucky!”

  “I don’t know about that.”

  There was an awkward silence. I didn’t know whether I should stay or go. Luna looked down at the crew who were bustling away without her supervision. Finally, she looked over at Marley and then at me.

  “Why don’t we take a family trip for our last night as a family,” she said.

  “I hope it’s not our last,” Marley said.

  Chapter 17

  Last Supper

  Luna decided on a family outing to the Riverbend Hot Springs, probably the largest hot springs resort in Sierra County. Dew and Denise were happy to join us at this oasis.

  Riverbend Hot Springs was an upscale hippy sort of retreat with bungalows, and sunken public pools that overlooked the Rio Grande south of the Elephant Butte Lake Dam. Clothing was mandatory, and I still happened to have a slightly damp bathing suit in the car.

  It was six p.m., a last day of summer vacation, so only a few families were still soaking. The sun was about to set, the mountains were turning pink, and the river waves were glistening with the rays. A few fish swam near the surface and did the occasional leap into the desert air. From the big Sierra pool, Marley aimed at the fish with his imaginary cratercross. He was in heaven.

  “What’s in the water?” he asked.

  A guy with a long gray pony tail who was a dead ringer for Jeff Bridges as The Dude was already in the pool. “This pool has lithium in it,” I said.

  “Wow, I don’t need to get my meds.”

  I didn’t even want to ask him what meds he was on. Lithium was for bi-polar, right?

  We didn’t need any medication to relax as we watched the sun’s rays glide over the Rio Grande along with the locals. I could learn to like being part of this. No one said anything for the next few moments. Marley was enraptured by the play of light and water.

  “You love sunsets, don’t you?” Luna asked him.

  “Sunrises, too. It’s the only time of day that I feel at home. Maybe it’s the light, that magic pink light, where everything seems possible”

  “Are you afraid of the dark?” I asked.

  “I’m not too fond of the light of day either.”

  “I’ll protect you during the day,” I said. “Your mom will protect you at night.”

  “You guys are a good family,” the dude said. A family of five entered the pool next to us. They could have been us—a mother, a father and three kids. They nodded at us, we nodded at them.

  I recognized the father, even though he had lost his blond hair and now was completely bald. His name was Tyler and I had represented him on a felony down in Cruces. I had saved him from a manslaughter charge. He was with the same girlfriend, now apparently his wife.

  “You’re the rattlesnake lawyer. You saved my life,” he said as he toweled off.

  “No problem,” I said. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m a contractor,” he said. “I go all over the state. Remodeling, mainly.”

  Luna overheard our discussion and came over. “I need a contractor, and I know Dan needs a contractor, too. Marley said his bathroom needs some loving.”

  “I do bathrooms,” Tyler said. “I don’t do loving.”

  “What was that about?” Luna asked after they left for a hotter pool. “He didn’t do an arson or anything like that?”

  “To be honest, it’s been so long that I don’t even remember.”

  That was good, in a way. I had helped so many people that the specifics of their cases no longer mattere
d. Whatever was in the mineral water worked. I felt the lithium of the water enter my blood stream and calm down my heartbeat.

  Marley smiled. “I have to go to the bathroom.” I gave him a dirty look in case he was considering going in the tub. He left and ran for the locker room.

  “That’s an improvement,” she said. “He used to pee in the pool.”

  I looked at Luna, who was in a demure one piece black and turquoise bathing suit. She even wore the earrings I had bought for her in Taos, the five-dollar earrings that would retail for five hundred anywhere else in the galaxy. Thankfully, the lithium in the water dulled any unfortunate longings. She was beautiful. I would do anything to get her back.

  Dew and Denise were too cool for school, and sat on the deck chairs as if sunning themselves in the twilight. They were having quite an animated discussion about some incident in Lordsburg, a shooting that somehow involved aliens. Perhaps Denise would go off on her own adventure.

  “I like this place,” I said.

  “This place is special to me, too,” she said. “I first came here when I found out my father was still alive and had abandoned us to move to Mexico to start a new family. I felt like the hot water washed away both his sins and mine.”

  “That’s deep. Is the water washing off our sins now?”

  She nodded.

  “I feel my own sins washing away,” I said. “Boiling them away; the water is pretty hot.”

  “Drink more of this.” She handed me a pitcher of her amazing ice tea. I gulped it down.

  Then she took my hand and held it. “I like this,” she said. “Maybe we can be a family.”

  “I travel the state,” I said. “I don’t have to be in Albuquerque.”

  “Could you live here in the land of consequences?”

  I looked at the pink mountains, and the pink sky. The waters of the Rio Grande were sparkling from the last rays of sun. The air was so incredibly clear here. The land of enchantment had the enchantment dialed up to eleven.

  Marley came back and got back into the pool. Dew and Denise came in for a final soak. We were a family again.

  “In a heartbeat,” I said.

  It was now about eight p.m. and completely dark. The desert had cooled down and it was comfortable, with no humidity. We would have a late dinner, but I didn’t mind. Luna checked her phone, noticed a message, and frowned.

  “We’ve got to go to the Sierra Grande Lodge,” she said. “Something’s come up.”

  She didn’t say anything more. We didn’t shower, just toweled off and put on our old wrinkled clothes and drove a few blocks to the two-story adobe hotel in the heart of town. The Sierra Grande Lodge and Spa felt like a Palm Springs resort—and even the palms looked springy. The lodge had been owned by billionaire Ted Turner, and he had sunk a spare million or two into these grounds. The thriving palm trees had heaters beside them as if to say, we pamper our trees and our guests.

  Marley, the girls, and I all felt intimidated by this old school resort right out of Palm Springs. It reeked of old money. An elderly couple in plaid golf shorts and matching polo shirts gave us a dirty look. Luna was normally immune to dirty looks, but I could tell that even she felt ill at ease. I wasn’t sure why a stare from a stranger would make her so nervous until I saw the sign at the entrance: welcome shiva petrochemical and dragon moon board of directors.

  The Board was having a meeting at this resort? That was the “something that came up?” By the looks of Luna’s shaking hands, she had not been told of this meeting until the sudden text. That couldn’t be a good thing.

  “I have to check on something,” Luna said, and then disappeared down a hallway.

  “Maybe we should leave her here and grab something on our own at Sonic,” Dew said. “She could be here for hours.”

  “Hours? Last time she went to one of their board meeting she left me,” I said, “and I didn’t see her for years.”

  Marley laughed. “She’ll be back.”

  I wasn’t so sure.

  • • •

  Marley was right of course. Luna emerged fifteen minutes later, but it was impossible to read her expression.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  “You know, I’d rather eat dinner with my family then with these jerks on the board.”

  We ended up a half mile north up Date Street, dining at Los Arcos, the best steakhouse on the Jornada del Muerto. Los Arcos meant the arches, and these were the only arches in town that weren’t golden. A single arch separated the two sides of the joint. On one side, the restaurant side, were tourists just back from their summer boating excursion. We fit right in with them, wet hair and sweats and all. The other side of the arco—the arch—the bar side, was the nightlife for the whole judicial district, a county of ranches and real ranchers. I respected people who worked the land and worked with animals. I just knew that they didn’t respect my crazy family—or me.

  We stayed on our side and had a delicious dinner. I had the filet, and Luna had the surf and turf. Over bites of medium rare filet, we all gave Marley advice on how to do well at school tomorrow.

  “Take out the toughest kid right as we drop you off tomorrow,” I said.

  “That’s prison not high school,” Dew said. “You probably shouldn’t listen to me since I failed out so many times, but find what you’re good at and focus on that. Just get through high school and you can be a rocket scientist like your mother here.”

  “Rocket science isn’t brain surgery,” Luna said sheepishly.

  “What do you want to do, Marley?” I asked.

  “I want to create VR first-person shooter computer games.”

  “Well, take creative arts classes,” Luna said. “All the other classes are just stepping stones that will help you get to your dream. As I’ve said, and I’ll say it in front of everyone, just focus on that class and if the school isn’t right, we’ll let you transfer, okay?”

  Marley nodded. “I still am excited about the freshman showcase. What should I do? I can’t juggle, and I can’t sing.”

  I couldn’t carry a tune, and I doubted Marley could either. I looked at his fingers as they twiddled on the table. The answer was obvious. I had a kid who may or may not be psychic, he could do magic, right?

  “Magic,” I said.

  “Like what?” he asked. “Card tricks?”

  “No, like Penn & Teller.”

  “Penn, I like, Teller, I don’t care for,” Luna piped in.

  “What is a Penn and what is a Teller?” Marley asked.

  I had seen the famed magicians Penn & Teller several times in person and watched their show on TV when stuck in motel rooms on the road sans HBO. I showed Marley a few of their famous tricks on my smartphone. I liked the one where Teller seemingly drowned in a water tank, but then was resurrected with the three of clubs in his mouth. It was always a three of clubs, by the way.

  Marley was hooked. I showed him more videos. He especially liked the one where Penn shot a bullet and Teller caught it in his mouth. He played it over and over again. There was a three of clubs somewhere in that trick as well.

  “I could do that with a cratercross,” he said. “The school would go wild.”

  I was uneasy about him bringing a home-made weapon and discharging it at school in these troubled times. “Why don’t you just do a card trick? Have someone pick a card, shuffle the deck a few times, lock the deck in a safe, and then you guess that they picked the three of clubs. That would impress the kids at school.”

  “I don’t know if the kids would be that impressed with a simple card trick.”

  Marley played with a spoon and made it disappear. For a moment, I had faith that everything would be all right. Maybe he’d pick the three of clubs and the audience would cheer. He’d be inspired, and someday he’d create a virtual reality game where I could relive my youth.

 
The spoon then fell on the floor and made a loud clang when it bounced on another utensil. How many pieces of tableware had already fallen during his dinner?

  Marley put his head in his hands, disappointed about his short magic career. “I don’t know if I can make it at Caldera.”

  I patted his shoulder. “We’ll help you get through this semester, whatever it takes.”

  Luna patted him on the shoulder, too. “We will. All of us.”

  “Give me one more night to decide,” he said. Luna got in her judge mode one last time. “If you really don’t want to go, I will respect your decision. I’ll think of something.”

  Chapter 18

  Full Metal Leather Jacket

  I spent Thursday night in the guest room at the Luna Landing. I liked being part of this quirky family, even more so after being away for so long. The adobe walls in my room seemed to close in just a little bit more, but I didn’t mind. Was there such a thing as comfortable claustrophobia? Cozy claustrophobia?

  Still, I woke up at three in the morning and had trouble getting back to sleep. I kept changing the thermostat on the wall, but it always seemed cold, even when I put it up over eighty. I kept hearing the earth rumble, as if Marley was tossing and turning. I must have slipped into sleep right before dawn, Friday morning. I woke up to a knock on my door.

  I put on my still damp bathing suit, as I didn’t want anyone to see me in my underwear. Denise appeared outside the door with a full wardrobe for me—khakis and a purple polo shirt, purple for Caldera of course. She had even included a fresh pair of underwear, also Polo, although I didn’t know how she knew my size. When I looked in the mirror, I looked every inch the proud dad dropping his son off at private school. Was that a good thing?

  At breakfast, the whole family dined together while Denise cooked huevos rancheros. Luna also wore khakis and a polo shirt, but her shirt was turquoise. I liked that we almost matched. Luna even sipped the orange juice with calcium in it. Dew even looked preppy in turquoise as well today. Had she stolen her mom’s clothes?