Future Writer Chapter 9 (15 pages)

Chapter 9

"Dr. Salinas presentese en rayos X, Dr. Salinas presentese en rayos X... [Dr. Salinas, report to X-ray, Dr. Salinas Report to X-ray.]"

I awoke to the sounds of heart monitors and Spanish, monotone, voices over a public address system. My eyes were slower to focus than my hearing. Light from the window was so blinding that I could not open my eyes. I had no idea where I was. As my sight developed into the focusing of objects, the first thing I saw was four hospital beds along the opposite wall of the room that I was in. Each bed was separated by a thin curtain. At the end of the room was a window. Three other hospital bed where in a similar fashion along the wall that my bed was on. At the end of the room was a window. I could tell immediately that it was a south east facing window by the way the glare of the morning sun was leaving streaks of shadows across the worn tile floor. I began reflecting back, trying to trace how I came to being in the hospital.  Flashes of the rainforest kept exploding in my mind.

"Buenos días Señor McKain, como se encuentra usted hoy? [Good Morning Mr. McKain. How are you feeling this morning?]"

"What?" I said in a groggy voice.

"Good morning," said a young Hispanic woman in a white smock. "You gave us quite a scare."

She picked up a chart and writes in it while looking at the monitor above my head.

"What... What are you talking about?"

"You have suffered a massive brain hemorrhage. Most people do not survive such a condition. I would suggest that you take it very easy for a while."

"What... How... How did I get here?"

"You were in a plane crash about five hundred mile away from here."

"You're at Centro Medico Hospital in Venezuela."

She lifted up my hospital gown exposing my stomach.

"Tell me if this hurts," she said while applying pressure to my abdomen.

She pulled the gown over me then writes more on the chart.

"Do you remember anything of the crash?" she asked me.

"We were in the jungle for several days. We found a garden. There where Indian, and shooting,... somebody was shooting at us... and then... and then we got away then I wrote that Alexia would get her wish... and she wish to be found and..."

"You wrote that Alexia would get her wish?" she asked.

"THE LEDGER! WHERE'S THE LEDGER?"

"Your belongings are in the closet," she told me, "There was no ledger."

"What happened to the rest of the group?" I asked. "Where are they?"

"They were diagnosed as being healthy and flown back to their homes yesterday."

"Somebody must know where that ledger is."

"I'm afraid I can't help you with that, but I do need you to swallow these and get some rest."

She handed me some pills and a glass of water. When I had taken the medicine she left the room. Soon after she left two men entered the room.

"Hey, Vato! Get your lazy butt out of bed and get to work!"

I looked up the find Zeke and Randy entering the room.

"Hey!"

"Que paso man? Am I glad to see you?" Zeke said to me.

"Ohhhhh! It hurts to laugh," I said.

"Here," said Randy, "the guys all pitched in and put this together."

Randy handed me a 'Get Well' card with the signatures of all my co-workers.

We visited for a while. When asked about the ledger, nobody seemed to know what I was talking about. Later that evening, I was awoken by a dream. I looked to the table that was next to my bed. On the table was a note in an envelope marked, 'Sam'.

I open the envelope and to my surprise, it was note from Alexia.

The note read:

  Dear Sam,

  I hope that you get well enough to read this. I don't know

   why you did what you did. You must place a high value on

   the book which you fought for in order for you to do that.

   Most of the people in the group assumed that you would die.

   Despite what they thought, I had big hopes that you would

    come back. It took us three days to leave the jungle then

   we went through medical test and gave testimonials of our

   accounts regarding the plane crash. I waited in your room

   for two days hoping that you would come back. I am out of

   time and I must leave. Call me when you get better.

   [phone].

              Best Wishes Alexia.

For the next two days my health improved dramatically. Newspaper reporters, FAA inspectors, local health inspectors, Insurance inspectors, and a representative from the airlines gave me extensive interviews regarding the events surrounding the plane crash. I told none of them about the ledger. As far as I was concern, the ledger was not a factor in the events. They were just extraordinary coincidences. How could I prove the existence of the ledger. For all I knew it was in the hands of a Yanomamo headman.

Two days later I was transported to a hospital in Corpus Christi Texas. Upon a clean bill of health, I was released and went home. It was good to be home.

On my answer machine was a message from Zeke who asked when I would be well enough to come back to work. I called him back and told him immediately. I enjoyed my job and looked forward to getting back to it. The next crew transfer was in two days and I made sure that I was on the departing tug. Once there, the normal routine was that a crew stayed on the rig for six months before returning to the shore. Many people thought that that long of duration would be too much to handle after having been through what had happened. On the contrary, I have always been more at home at sea than on the shore. For the next six months I remained isolated from the rest of the world. During that isolation I realized that I had never responded to Alexia's letter. I didn't have her address and the ship to shore phone service was reserved for emergencies. The thought of her increasingly dwelled upon my mind until my return. As soon as the boat landed I called her. She did not answer so I left a message on her voicemail. I told her that I was back in the United States and that I would like to meet with her. I told her at one o'clock to meet me at B & S Pizza Restaurant on South Padre Island Drive. If she can not make it to call me, and I left my phone number.

The day came that I was to meet with her. I was a nervous wreck.

At twelve thirty five I walked to restaurant. I was somewhat nervous as to the outcome of the lunch date with this beautiful woman from a foreign country. At twelve forty seven I arrived at the restaurant. Looking southwest, I saw a woman walking down South Padre Island Drive that matches the basic description of Alexia. The woman was walking in the opposite direction as the restaurant.

"I wonder if that is Alexia?" I thought to myself. "If it is her then I hope that we didn't mis-communicate. Maybe she's standing me up, or chickening out."

I sat down at a table that is facing the front of the restaurant so that I would be able to see her arrival. At two minutes after one I suspected the possibility of being stood up. At four minutes after one Alexia arrived.

I stood up to greet her arrival, "Hi, how are you?"

   

"I'm sorry for being a few minutes late," she told me as she approached the table.

   

"That's quite all right," I responded. "Shall we order? ... Oh, is pizza alright with you? We can always go for Chinese if you wish." I added.

   

"No this is fine," she told me.

"Are you sure?" I verified.

"Yes. This is okay," she replied while nudging her shoulders and displaying a coy smile.

We walked to the counter to order. An elderly man without teeth asked in a mumble to take our order, "What you have?"

Alexia seemed confused.

"What do you like on your pizza?" I clarified to Alexia.

"Oh, I don't know, mushrooms? ..." she shyly responded.

"You like mushrooms?" I asked her, "MMMM. I love mushrooms, How about onions? Do you like onions?"

While nodding, Alexia said, "Yes, onions, good."

"And cheese, do you like lots of cheese?"

"Yes cheese."

I turned to the man behind the counter, "We'll take mushrooms, onions, extra cheese, light on the sauce..."

"Wait a minute," the man interrupted. "Now say it again slowly."

"Onion, ... mushrooms, ... extra cheese, ... light on the sauce..."

"No light sauce," interrupted the man, "You get with sauce, all pizza you get sauce."

"Okay. Okay. Whatever."

"What size?" asked the man.

I looked to Alexia, "What size? Are you hungry?"

Alexia nudging her shoulders says, "I don't know."

"How about a medium?" I suggested.

   

The man interrupted again, "No medium," as he points to the menu on the counter showing only small, large, and extra large.

"How large is the small?" I asked.

   

The man pulled out a pan displaying the size of the pan.

I looked to the Alexia.

She responds while nodding, "That should be enough."

"Drinks?" the man barked.

"What kind do you have?" I asked the man.

In a mumbling, and difficult to understand, voice, the man said, "We have Coke, Diet Coke, Root Beer, Sprite, Coke," he repeats, "Diet Coke."

Turning to Alexia, I asked, "What do you like?"

With shrug of her shoulders, Alexia answered, "I guess Coke is good."

"Diet Coke?" the man confirmed.

"What?"

"Diet Coke? Coke?" the man repeated.

Alexia was confused by the garbled words spoken by the man behind the counter.

Seeing her confusion, I translated to her, "Diet Coke, or regular Coke?"

"No diet, just Coke," she told me.

Alexia returned to the table. The man rang up the order on the cash register.

"Ten-o-five," the man told me.

I pulled money from my pocket and handed over a twenty dollar bill.

Alexia approached the counter, "Would you like me to half this?"

I was confused at why she would ask to ->half<- the pizza. I said to her, "Yes, you may have half the pizza. We'll split it down the middle."

Alexia returned to table.

Upon seeing the money on the counter, I realized what Alexia was asking. I returned to her, who was digging through black leather bag and said, "Did you mean to pay for the pizza?"

She nodded her head.

"No I'll pay for it," I told her, "I thought you were asking whether or not you were to eat half of the pizza, and I'm like 'yea right' you can sit there and watch me eat."

We sat down across from each other. A huge excited, yet nervous, smile stretched across Alexia's face.

"So how have you been?" I asked her.

"Good, and you?"

"Not bad, in fact very busy."

I was interrupted by the announcement, "34!"

I looked to the ticket and read, "38".

"I do feel so glad that you are better. Why did you not call me sooner? Have you been ill this whole time?... I mean.. after not too much talk from you I think you are not well or dead or something."

"I'm sorry. It didn't occur to me that you would be concern for me."

"How can you say that?... You're who kept us from being killed by doing Jonny B. Good. ... and without you we may not have escaped Ivan.. you know? My husband, or X-husband. So of course I am .. you know? wanting to know how you are doing. It's like... I don't know.. like ...."

"Did you say X-husband?"

"Oh I did not tell you? My husband was found dead in jungle and I was called to, how you say... confirm him? So I did and he was not too good, you know? Animals eat him.  The authorities could not say how he died. I no longer need run from him."

"How did we get out of the jungle?" I asked her.

"Because you lose battle... you know? fight, Chief regain respect from his people. They help us to river, they carry you. We take small boat, so small boat we almost tip over. We go by donkey to clearing and we were, you know, flown? By helicopter to hospital. They say that we're healthy then ask all sorts of questions for ..all day. It was tough. I wait for you to wake up, we all wait for you to wake up. Then they come and tell me, I need to go so I leave note for you."

"38!" yelled the man behind that counter.

"That's us," I told her after looking at the ticket again.

I stood up to get the order while Alexia stayed in her seat. At the counter I picked up the pan with the pizza and lifted the two Cokes by inserting his thumb and forefinger into the cups. Alexia stood to ask if I needed assistance.

"Do you need help?" she asked me.

"No, I think I've got it."

I sat the pan, and Cokes, on the table. As I did, I made reference to the size of the pan, "That pan sure is deceiving, isn't it? It's about this size right here," I imitated the man behind the counter. "They should shrink the pan to about 50%."

I pulled off a slice of pizza from the pan and set it onto Alexia's paper plate, "I hope you don't mind me handling you food... Here you go."

I dished up a slice for myself as well.

"Would you like a napkin?" I asked.

She nod briefly as I lifted myself out of the seat.

"I'll get it for you."

I came back with a hand full of napkins and I passed them out among the two of us.

In making small talk I asked her thing about her country.

"When you first came here. What was the hardest thing to deal with?"

"I have two different impressions of America. I've been here..  almost two years ago, I came for vacation just to see what America is, you know? Because our society was really closed. We were not allowed to... not allowed.. it is really strong word, but I mean we are kind of, how do you say...?"

"Segregated?" I suggested.

"We were.. we were, I know it was kind of policy, kind of closed, you know? And to go out of the country, to go and visit some other country that was a political issues, you know? It wasn't that much of your desire to have fun or.. It was just some traditional culture you were supposed to go through huge red tape stuff, you know? Now it's different. You can go wherever you want. But I do remember in my childhood everything American was a miracle. Everything that was.. What was different was called American. We had some ####### a Disneyland stuff you know? all of this... I can't .. how do you call...?"

"Amusement parks?" I suggested.

"Amusement parks ah.. yea. If something is really, very, very, very surprising or impressive, it was called American. I don't know why. Because that was something very different, and it was like the image of ... not the image of the enemy, but something absolutely opposite, you know? That was of course something attractive, and you know? When I first came to U.S. I went to New York City. I was there for a couple of weeks. That was different, I mean, all the people I met and everything around is so beautiful. People were so good because they are kind of open. All of them were saying, you know? Always greeting you on the street or, I don't know, You could do whatever you want, I

mean, I was walking down the street and they would say 'Oh you're adorable', and all that stuff, I mean ladies were, not the guys were, and you know? Trying to pick you up or something.. Ladies, old ladies or something. The attitude was good.  New York City is something different. and I know that people told me that... New York City, It's kind of, not American. but America is mostly in the small cities like this. People living in this, You know?"

"New York is the world all in one place," I added.

"Yea... I love it. I like it. Whenever I get the chance, I'm going there."

I noticed that in all of her talking I have been eating most of the pizza.

"You're going to make me look like a pig," I told her as I took another bite.

Alexia began to blow my self-ridiculing off when I added, "I am a pig".

"I don't know." she told me, "Come on now. I don't know. I'm... I'm just not hungry. Whenever I'm hungry, I eat everything."

After she took a few bites of her pizza, I began to ask more questions.

"What would you do if you were home right now?"

"Hmmm?" Alexia responded.

I clarified, Imagine Corpus Christi disappearing right now, and you walked out and it was your country."

"Frankly that is the reason I came back..."

"What?"

"I now have new job. It is a very good job. It feels like I use to work at home... my country. I was working for a huge Japanese cooperation who... and ah.. I was there from the very beginning when the office opened. There was only one Japanese guy, a chief, another one from our country, and they needed a girl like a secretary or something, so they invited me. And then I was promoted pretty quickly and we expanded office 15 to 20 people you know? and I was doing pretty interesting stuff, I was involved in pretty interesting projects, I mean people here though are getting MBA or better to get a job like this. In my country it's easier. I've been working there for 4 years for this Japanese company. There's not much chance for promotion because they are kind of promoting their own people, not... not locals, It's not because my country is bad or anything. It's normal all over the world. All the chief positions, you know? or main positions are filled by Japanese, . so, it was getting kind of boring and I was too much involved in job. I've been spending all of my time in the office hour and ... I mean really enjoying, and we were kind of family, you know friends. So for me weekends were... I didn't know what to do. I would, you know, wake up around mid-day.. just sitting and thinking what should I do?"

"Gee life's tough!"

"My job is same.. you know, Japanese company... I change jobs because Ivan would find me... But now it is different. Now I need them to endorse visa."

The man without teeth interrupted, "What kind of pizza?... Do you like the pizza here?" he said while referring to the two slices of pizza left on the table.

"What?" I asked while trying to understand his garbling.

"You like?... It's pretty good pizza?"

"We love it. MMM. We're just full, you know? full... Could we get a box?"

"Yea," he said while motioning to the counter.

I got up and walked to the counter and picked up the smallest box from the stacks of boxes on the counter.

The man yelled across the restaurant, "A smaller one."

I held up the smallest box I could find.

"No, not that one," yelled the man.

"Oh, you have a smaller one?" I asked the man that was now walking towards me.

"In a minute," the man said while stopping in route to stock napkin dispenser at a table, "don't get in a hurry."

"Okay," I responded.

"I'm over here... You go over there," said the man while motioning me to sit back down.

"We have all the time in the world," I added, "at least until 3:00 o'clock."

"At three o'clock I hav...."

"I'm going to Austin today," mentioned Alexia.

"Are you?"

"I've never been there, I mean except airport. I've never been to city... I don't know... I have a friend of mine. I don't know. For me it is easier road to go to New York city for a weekend.

The man came by the table with the pizza box and places it on the table.

"Thanks," I told the man.

"The man asked Alexia, in a very hard to understand voice, "Are you for Texas?"

Alexia is confused and starts laughing.

"Are you from Texas?" the man repeated.

Alexia is still confused at the man garbled voice, and began laughing, then states, "I really do not understand that much...."

"Where you from?" the man insisted, "Where are you from?"

Alexia is still having a hard time understanding what the man is asking.

"Where are you from?" I translated.

"Ah... I'm always confuse when I am telling people where I am... I always telling them I'm from the former Soviet Union."

"Where you from?" the man persisted.

"Russia.. ha, ha," Alexia said while laughing.

"Oh, Rucha."

"Are you from here too?" he asked me.

"No, I'm not from here. I'm from California actually."

"You came all the way here from California?"

"I work here," I told him.

Alexia looked to a calendar that was hanging behind the counter and read the name of it's sponsor. "Kuzneski Agency, that might be Russian agency. I mean a Russian guy's family or something. Kuzneski sounds like a Russian word."

"Sam looks to the pizza that is now in a box and says to her, "You take this.."

"No, no, no I'm not that much, you know, into pizza."

"So we should have done Chinese, right?"

"No, No, I mean, it's okay, I'm not eating much pizza, I just..."

"A person's got to eat."

When I came here first, everyday I'm eating pizza, and now I'm not to much with pizza myself."

I looked to my watch.

"I'm just keeping an eye of the time," I told her, "I have to be somewhere at Three twenty, so I have to leave about Three o'clock because it takes about fifteen minutes to get there. So how about we call it a day?"

"Huh?"

"How about we call it a day? and..."

"I don't know if there would be something you find interested in," she told me.

"Oh, I'm always interested... especially things I haven't seen or done or places I've been. Well, thank you for coming... that's all I can say."

"This was so interesting for me."

We stood up and began to figure out what was to be done with the paper plates, and napkins that were still on the table."

"Are we supposed to clean this up?" I said out loud while picking up the napkins, then I continued by saying, "Here you take this," while pushing the leftover pizza towards Alexia."

"No, I can't."

"Please take it."

"All right. Thank you."

"While you are eating it you can think of a wild adventures."

I disposed of the trash then came back and continued where I had left off, "Who knows, maybe you'll read about yourself someday."

We walked outside.

So, I'd like to do this again sometime."

Yea.."

"I'm going this way, Which way are you going?"

She points in the opposite direction.

"I am parked over here. Okay, thank you.."

"Alright. See you."

"I'll see you."

"Wait!" She exclaimed, "I almost forgot."

From her black leather pouch she pulled out the ledger.

"Where did you get this?" I asked.

"I carried it from jungle and safeguard for you."

"This is great thank you!!... Thank you so much. Did you know that this was my grandfather's?"

"I am glad then that I brought this to you."

"I am too. Thank you so much."

We smiled and walked in separate directions. I glanced back to see her pull out and light a cigarette. We continued walking in opposite directions.

Time passed and we lived separate lives. After reading the ledger entries, I remembered that she came about as being a perfect women. Nothing has persuaded me to think otherwise.