The urn started to shake, and I put the figurines and the card in the now empty urn. I thought again about the breakdown docket. I thought I had already passed the baton to Luna, but the suspension would pass before I knew it. Could a lawyer take over the breakdown docket after his own breakdown? What would that be, the resurrection referral?
I put the urn back in the storage compartment of the jet ski. I then took the jet ski across the lake in the rising sun. Thankfully, the rays were behind me, and seemed to guide me right back to the dock. After I arrived, I tied up the jet ski tightly, and then emptied the storage compartment. After I took the urn out, the rope un-raveled and the jet ski floated back onto the lake.
“Hey buddy! Your jet ski is floating away!” one of the dock workers said.
“Don’t worry. I don’t need it anymore. Merry Christmas.”
“I’ll take it then.” The worker swam out and got the jet ski, and headed for Rattlesnake Island on his own. I wondered what he was seeking. “Happy new year!” he shouted.
“We’ll see,” I said. I walked up to the parking lot. No one had bothered the Lincoln, even though I had parked in a no parking zone. This parking lot was the size of a football field, but it was totally empty. My adventure had begun at the most crowded intersection in New Mexico, the Big I. This adventure was ending here in a deserted parking lot.
Wasn’t something supposed to happen now?
And then I noticed there was a figure standing by the Lincoln, waiting for me, wearing a white hoodie to protect against the cold. Was it an angel or was it Denise?
“Denise?” I yelled.
“It’s me,” the voice said.
Chapter 36
Truth or Consequences
Luna was there in jogging clothes. I didn’t know she owned anything in white. I opened the door for her. We sat inside the Lincoln, and said nothing for the next ten minutes as the rising sun now reflected off the lake directly into the Lincoln.
Had the last three days on the road been a waste for a silly card trick? I had been looking for something and was now at some deserted, unpaved parking lot, no closer to my destination. Was this all there was?
“Hello?” I said to the empty urn. “I don’t understand what you want from me!”
No reply. No rattle.
Luna stared at the empty parking lot and out to the shimmering lake. We could see the reflection of the car in the clear waters. I noticed she was wearing our wedding ring again, albeit on the wrong hand. I had almost won her verdict, won her heart.
I pondered that in silence, and eventually turned the motor off and took Luna’s hand. That must be the spark. Suddenly, I felt a shaking from inside the urn, as if the little rattlesnake figurine was trying to escape. Then the urn itself disappeared in a small cloud of dust and ash. If something was going to happen, it would happen right here, right now. I didn’t touch the car at all, but the motor turned on by itself.
Luna nodded at me.
“I’m ready,” I said. “I have faith.”
“This is it,” Luna said.
“Hello?” I said to the dashboard. There was silence, then I heard a voice come from the radio. No, this wasn’t about making the three of clubs reappear.
“We can hear you now,” I said.
–THE END–
Author’s Note
"Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative
will be prosecuted: persons attempting to find a moral
in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot
in it will be shot." ~ Mark Twain.
While this book is no Huckleberry Finn, people shouldn’t look for a motive, a moral, much less a plot here. Marley’s experiences at Caldera Academy should not be viewed as an allegory for anything. Over twenty-years ago, I once represented a young man who brought a homemade Klingon weapon to school—a bat-leth if memory serves—and I always wondered what happened to him. He wasn’t dangerous, he was just different.
Marley is not based on any real person and the story in this book is thankfully not inspired by any true events.
There most certainly is not a Caldera Academy in a hidden valley near Las Cruces, New Mexico. The characters’ comments regarding the students at Caldera Academy do not reflect my own views of students who suffer very real tragedies. This is a legal thriller and legal thrillers require antagonists. Thriller plots require twists and turns. The administration of Caldera is not based on any real school administration. The twists and turns are not representative of any real news story.
That being said, Rattlesnake and Son is a book I felt compelled to write. This book is the result of several overpowering visions—often while driving through the wilds of New Mexico—where I pictured the entire story, including the twists. It felt like Dan, Luna, and Marley were telling the story to me in big bursts. All I had to do was transcribe their words.
Marley demanded to be fourteen, the same age I was when I first moved to New Mexico and started a new school. Dan remains in his fifties and Luna a few years younger. Dew and Denise snuck their way into the story, and they are now in their twenties. The math doesn’t quite add up with the previous stories, but I’ve always said that time flows differently in the Rattlesnake Lawyer universe.
While I am occasionally referred to as a rattlesnake lawyer, I am not the Rattlesnake Lawyer. I am not Dan Shepard, and as I’ve said, I’d like to think I’m a much better lawyer than he is, even without his possible psychic connections. The psychic attorney-client link is something I have pondered for a long time. Other than knowing a few clients’ rings before they call, I don’t claim any paranormal abilities.
As I’ve never been involved in a disciplinary hearing like Dan’s, that hearing is imagined.
The “breakdown docket” doesn’t really exist, but it should. I have taken over the cases for lawyers who’ve gone astray. Hopefully, I can finish all my cases of my own.
Jane Dark remains a fictional character. Someone should definitely write a novel about her. I hope to write about Denise’s adventure in Lordsburg in the very near future.
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico is a very real place. I’ve done the occasional case or two down there during the past twenty years. Dan, Luna, and Marley have definite opinions on the town, and on the local high school, but they are not necessarily my opinions.
There is also a place in Elephant Butte State Park called "Rattlesnake Island," but it can sometimes be reached by foot depending on the lake level. For the purpose of this story, it remains an island. And, you cannot rent a jet ski at Benny and the Jet Skis. Well, at least not yet.
The spaceport does exist, and it can be reached off Exit 32 off the interstate. There is no Shoftim satellite system, and they have had a few successful launches down there. By publication date, they should be launching commercial spacecraft into orbit, and perhaps even beyond. Dragon Moon corporation, Shiva Petrochemical and all other corporations remain fictional. Those corporations have not taken over the Odyssey court filing system, much less the spaceport.
A weapon such as a cratercross does not exist, but most certainly would be dangerous. Penn and Teller have performed a trick with a gun and a deck of cards, and I don’t know how it is done. The card picked usually is the three of clubs.
There is indeed a small billboard with biblical connotations off Exit 156, Lemitar, New Mexico, but it does not say the promised land. The billboard in this book has no connection whatsoever to that billboard.
I still do not know, as of this writing, if Lemitar is the promised land, or not.
Table of Contents
PART I
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9<
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Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
PART II
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
PART III
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Author’s Note
Rattlesnake & Son Page 32
