by Ted Clifton
“I agree. Screw it Ray, I’m coming with you—and damn right we’re billing the fucking Governor—it’s his case.”
That got Ray’s attention. “You sure you want to leave at some god-awful hour in the morning just to sit in an airport or on a plane all day? I appreciate the thought, Sue, and I love you very much, but no, you don’t have to go and watch me. I’ll be fine. If I’m too tired when I get back, I’ll get a room in Albuquerque and drive home the next morning. Still it’s nice to have a mother hen.” He gave her a hug.
By about four o’clock most everything was in place to accommodate the expected crowd. Within a matter of minutes the place was full—and it began to look like they’d underestimated the size of the crowd. Beverly was scrambling for more beer and food. The band, per a request from Sue, was playing at a softer tone than the way they’d begun, with much less screaming—even so, most people stayed on the other side of the room.
Nancy came in looking absolutely stunning. She saw Sue and waved.
“Nancy, you’re gorgeous. That’s such a wonderful dress. I’m so glad you came—come on over here and get some food and a beer. Or do you prefer wine?”
“A glass of white wine would be perfect.” As if by magic, Tyee handed Nancy a glass of white wine.
“Hello. How did you know I’d want white?”
“Sue told me.”
“I did not.” Sue poked Tyee in the arm and went off in search of Ray.
“Actually I had a glass of red and a glass of white—and if you’d said beer, I had one parked on that table next to you.”
“Think Big Jack is going to win tonight?”
“Not sure anyone knows that yet. I know Martinez is a creep, though, so I hope Big Jack wins—although Big Jack has one or two faults of his own.”
“Do you have faults Tyee?”
“None.”
“Well, it looks like false modestly isn’t one of your faults.”
“Nancy, don’t think I’m being too forward, but you looked particularly attractive this evening.”
“Well okay, that’s a little bold, but I accept your compliment. Why don’t we sit down?”
Sue walked by and smiled at them, then continued on to deliver more beer to Beverly.
“You know Sue is trying to fix us up.”
“Yep. She seems to have a need to fix everyone. Ray and Sue are special people. It wasn’t that long ago that I was a complete drunk. I was a part-time fishing guide living in a tent. Now I’m Ray’s and Big Jack’s partner and I only occasionally drink too much.”
“Why were you so low?”
“I thought I’d failed at life. Apaches are taught to be tough and I felt weak. I just didn’t want to face my failures.”
“What happened to drive you to that point?”
“I bet Sue’s told you that I was married once, right?”
“Yep.”
“Well it failed. She was a wonderful person who fell in love with someone else. I hadn’t had many relationships and she was the world to me—when she left, something happened inside me. I thought I wanted to be dead. I just didn’t know how to deal with it. I couldn’t go home, because the way people there saw it I’d abandoned my people to be with the white people. So I went into hiding as a drunken Indian fishing guide.”
“I’ve had two relationships with men. They both ended because the men said I had a screw loose and didn’t know how to enjoy life. I moved here with my parents to hide. I thought I was just one of those women who couldn’t be with a man, until I saw you. I’m not any different from before, but I wanted to be with you.” Nancy blushed. She had never talked like this, much less to someone she hardly knew.
“Nancy, if I asked the weird band to play a slow song, would you dance with me?”
“Yes.”
The music wasn’t very good, but Tyee and Nancy didn’t care.
“Ray, look at Tyee. Does he have a different expression on his face?”
“I think he does. I have to admit that Nancy cleaned up pretty good.” He got a slug to the shoulder for that.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, we have some numbers from city hall. They have counted 60% of the ballots and it stands Martinez fifty-two percent and Big Jack forty-eight percent.” A spattering of boos greeted the news, then people went back to drinking and eating.
“You know, it’s funny Sue. I haven’t thought much about Big Jack losing. I guess I just assumed he’d win.”
“Well, it’s not over yet. Hold your horses—our guy is going to win.” Ray stepped back a bit, thinking he might get another shoulder pop.
There had to be a hundred and fifty people at the party by this time, which meant there must be a real mess outside as far as the parking went. Ray decided that it wasn’t his concern at that moment, so he didn’t bother looking.
Big Jack got up in front of the crowd and quieted everyone down, including the band.
“Before we get anymore results, I want to say a few things. You all know that I arrived here under some strange circumstances and was mostly just running the shop for a few years. But recently, mostly because of Ray Pacheco, I’ve become a part of this community. I probably would have said that I didn’t want to be a part of anything, much less a community, but I was wrong. The support you’ve given me over the last few months, despite my being an outsider, has been wonderful. I may have to rethink my whole attitude about people. But let me tell you, win or lose the election tonight, I’ve already won. So I want you to have a good time and no matter what happens, we have all won something. Thanks.”
There was a standing ovation and some cheering. Ray wasn’t sure what was happening to the people around him, but it seemed like they were becoming better, more complete humans. And he realized that he was doing the same, even at his age—he was growing. He’d read about old people losing control of their emotions, and now he fought back tears, but he felt a huge warmth for his new friends.
The band started again, playing whatever kind of music it was that they played, driving everyone to move back to the far side of the room.
Some guy went to the front of the room and called for quiet.
“Got more results. Ninety-four percent of the votes have been counted. Martinez fifty percent, Big Jack fifty percent.” Everyone cheered.
A tie would be something else. Maybe Martinez and Big Jack could have a duel on Main Street at noon—that’d get TV coverage. Ray decided he needed a beer.
The evening began to drag on. If they’d counted ninety-four percent of the votes an hour before, why was it taking so long? Some people were leaving—most had work or school in the morning.
Finally, the guy came back in with his paper. He held up his hands for quiet.
“We have a winner. With fifty-one percent of the vote, our new mayor: Big Jack Parker!” Everyone began clapping and screaming. The band started making noise. Where was Big Jack? After a slightly frantic search, they found Big Jack asleep in one of the spare bedrooms and dragged him back.
“Well as you can see, I’m tired. Thank you all very much. I’ll try to make you proud to have voted for me—but right now I need to go home and go to sleep. Good night.”
Big Jack had won.
Father and Son Talk
Ray got up more or less in the middle of the night to get packed and have time to drive to the Albuquerque airport.
“Ray Pacheco, you be careful. If you get tired, you stop somewhere and rest. And call me when you can and tell me what Tony has to say.” Sue was awake, but just barely. They had postponed most of the clean-up from the night before until today—and there was going to be a lot of it.
“Don’t worry about me, Sue. As soon as I know what the hell this is all about I’ll call you. You be careful too, and don’t work too hard putting things back together.” They kissed and hugged. Ray gave Happy a good ear rub, then headed out to the Jeep. Man it was dark.
There was a little fog on the way, so it took him a bit longer than expected to get to I-25. Once on th
e interstate, though, he made good time—there were almost no other cars. One of the unforeseen advantages of his old Jeep was it had such a rough ride no one could possibly fall asleep behind the wheel—unless they were dead.
The airport was on the south side of town, which helped. Ray decided to use the short term parking—he was sure that he’d be in no mood when he got back to look far and wide for his car. He checked in with TWA and waited. There were few people in the airport that early in the morning, and it had an abandoned feel. Ray had only brought a carry-on bag, so he was ready to go. The wait wasn’t long, and soon he heard his boarding call. This early flight originated in Albuquerque, so he figured it probably wouldn’t be full—that proved to be an understatement. The plane could probably hold over a hundred people at capacity, but it looked like only about twenty had boarded. Ray sat back and tried to relax. He wasn’t an avid flyer, and although he didn’t mind it, he still felt a certain tension as they prepared for takeoff. The miracle of flight, especially in something weighing so many tons, was still something of a mystery to him.
Once in the air, Ray relaxed. He leaned back, then surprised himself by dozing. The early hour had several advantages—one was that it was easy to go back to sleep. As the plane was descending, he woke and found to his surprise that he’d slept the whole way to Dallas. He deplaned with the other passengers and found the gate for his next flight—which wasn’t for a couple of hours. He located some coffee and began his wait.
Ray had debated with himself about calling his son. Michael was an attorney in Boston, and their relationship since Ray’s wife died hadn’t been good. His son became angry when Ray told him he was remarrying, and they hadn’t spoken since. On impulse, Ray decided to call.
“Hello, I’d like to speak to Michael Pacheco, please.”
“Just a moment.”
“Pacheco.”
“Michael, it’s your dad. How are you?”
“Something wrong Dad?”
“No. Nothing wrong. At the last minute I needed to come to Boston to meet someone. I’m going to be in Boston later today, towards evening. I was wondering if maybe we could get together for a drink or something.”
“Well, I don’t know. Where are you staying?”
“The Hilton downtown.”
“That’s actually very convenient to my office. Who are you meeting?”
“Well, you know this stuff is sort of like your legal stuff Michael, so best if we don’t talk about it.”
“Sure that’s fine I was just wondering if your meeting place was around here that was all.”
“Yeah, sure. The guy I’m meeting works for a law firm downtown, Taylor, Jefferson and Clinton—mean anything to you?”
“Dad, that’s where I work.”
“I didn’t recognize the name. My goodness I’m getting terrible at remembering stuff.”
“It’s not you, Dad. I changed firms. I probably didn’t mention it specifically, but when I gave you that new contact number for me it was because of the new job.”
“Interesting coincidence. Well, I should be at the hotel around five. I still have to call my appointment and make sure when we can get together, but I imagine I’ll see him tomorrow morning—so if you’d like we could plan on meeting for a drink at five thirty or so—how does that sound?”
“Sure. I’ll see you then.” His son hung up. For some reason Ray thought it was a little abrupt—but maybe that was his imagination. Then he called Tony.
“Tony, how about we meet for breakfast tomorrow at the Hilton?”
“Sure that’d be perfect.”
“Tony, you do know that my son, Michael, works at the same firm as you—I just found this out from him. He said he’d told me he’d changed firms but it didn’t stick with me and I didn’t make the connection to you.”
“Well sure, I knew Michael was your son. I had no idea that you didn’t know he worked here. Does that make it a problem to meet with me?”
“Tony, my son and I are not real close. I’m going to have a drink with him tonight—but until I talked to him today, I didn’t know he worked at the same place. I don’t really see this as a problem and I won’t mention your name if you’re concerned on your end.”
“Your son is a good guy, but yeah, it’s probably best to keep our conversation confidential—although he knows that you know me. I mentioned it to him when I found out who he was. What the fuck—you can tell him you’re meeting with me, that it has something to do with cleaning up some messes I left and the governor asked you to get involved. Ray, I need to go, so I’ll see you tomorrow morning at the Hilton.” Tony also abruptly hung up—maybe it was a Boston thing.
Ray heard the call for his flight, so he gathered his stuff and boarded. Unlike the first leg this flight was packed, and he ended up on the aisle. It was going to be a long flight. They quickly got everyone situated and began the taxi to the end of the runway. They were held briefly, but then they were quickly airborne. Ray tried to sleep, but it wasn’t going to happen. He shut his eyes and pretended.
After an uncomfortable, bumpy trip they began their descent into Boston. The landing was smooth, and the passengers quickly deplaned. With only a carry-on, Ray headed directly to the hotel shuttle area. Once he was on the Hilton bus he sat back and tried to relax, tired but glad to be on the ground. He’d have time to check in and maybe refresh a bit before meeting Michael. He was a little apprehensive.
The check-in process went without a hitch. Soon he was in his room and washed up, feeling much better than he had. Entering the bar, he didn’t immediately see his son, and he decided to take a seat at the bar so he could watch the entrance as he sipped a beer.
“Hey Dad, I was already here. I have a booth over in the corner.”
Ray got up and shook Michael’s hand. Then, after a brief pause, gave him a hug. Michael didn’t respond—they went to the booth.
“Sorry, I didn’t see you over in the corner.”
“No, I should have spotted you. I think you must have come in while I was in the restroom.”
“So, how are you son?”
“I’m fine, just fine. You must be tired after being on a plane almost all day.”
“Yeah. Not the best connections out of Albuquerque, especially on a last minute deal.”
“Dad, I can guess who you’re here to see. I’ve met Tony Garcia and he said you two were friends from his time as the DA in Dona Ana County—then of course he became the AG of the state. He said you were doing some special work for the governor—sounds like a big deal.”
“No, not really. I actually started doing some investigative work for Tony and then lately, have ended up working directly for the governor. And yeah, my meeting tomorrow is with Tony—he said it was fine for me to tell you. There was something of a mess at the end of Tony’s time as AG’s office and the governor wanted me to talk to Tony about some loose ends.”
“Long trip for just a conversation.”
“Yeah. A little bit more complicated than I’m making it sound—the governor and Tony are kind of at odds. Anyway, I’ll meet with him tomorrow morning and then it’s back to Albuquerque.”
“How’s your wife?” Michael’s asked it without obvious emotion one way or the other.
“She’s good. I know you don’t approve and that’s fine—but this has been a good thing for me.”
They were both quiet. Ray was remembering how close he’d been to his son while Michael had been growing up—and now here he sat, unable to think of anything to say.
They chatted some more about Boston and Michael’s job, but didn’t return to anything related to Ray’s life—especially Sue.
“How about you Michael, any girlfriends in your life?”
“Actually, Dad, there is someone. We’ve been dating for a few months now and she’s become very special to me. If you were staying longer, I’d have liked for you to meet her.”
“That’s great, son. I know your mother would be very pleased to know you’re with some
one. She worried about you a lot more than she let on.”
“I know. She was a great mom.”
“She was a great mom and a great wife. Just because I’ve remarried doesn’t mean I don’t still love your mother. She was the best thing that ever happened to me. And I know you won’t believe it, but she’d be the first person to be happy about my relationship with Sue.”
“Yeah, I know she would be. I just need more time to absorb everything. I’m glad you were able to visit. Listen Dad, in a couple of months I have some vacation time coming and I’d like to bring Terri, that’s my girlfriend, out to New Mexico to visit you and Sue and show her where I used to live.”
“That’d be just fantastic. You’re very welcome to come and stay with us anytime. You’re going to be surprised when you see the cabin—it’s actually pretty impressive.”
Maybe sensing that this was as good as it was going to get, they said their goodbyes and gave each other a hug. Ray knew they had crossed an important line that might let them finally connect again—he hoped so.
Once in his hotel room, the toll of the day hit Ray pretty hard. He called Sue and gave her an update on the meeting with Michael, and she was pleased that it had gone well. He said he’d call her the next day after his meeting with Tony, but now he needed to go to sleep. Which is just what he did.
Confession Three
Ray woke up starving. He realized that he hadn’t eaten much of anything the day before and had completely skipped dinner. He got dressed and headed down to the dining room. He was going to be early for his meeting, but his primary goal at this point was some kind of breakfast.
Ray was just finishing his breakfast when he saw Tony, who came over and they shook hands and exchanged greetings. Tony just ordered coffee, and Ray was glad he hadn’t waited on the guy to have his breakfast.
“Ray, I know the governor is still pissed at me and I guess I really don’t trust him. He really is an odd duck, and I was worried that if I came back into New Mexico the old bastard just might have me arrested. I’m sorry to have made you come all of this way, but there’s something that I need to share with you. I wanted to do it in person.”
