Old Friends, Part Two

by jmiland1 Mon Mar 30, 2009 1:25 am

Ramon vouched for him, which put everyone at ease pretty quick. Most of them were new faces whom Joshua had never met. But they let him in, and soon he was seated with Ramon, the two of them scooping huevos with tortillas. “Goddamned shame what happened with your family,” Ramon said, and Joshua just ate in silence. “Word got around. Sounded very nasty, very nasty. Was it spooks?”
Joshua shook his head. “I don’t know what it was.”
Ramon just nodded. “That’s fine. You keep your own counsel, that’s fine. But you know more than you say.” He leaned in and whispered—not that anyone was listening. “You go off the reservation for a long time, Eddie. Weird shit like that go down, boom, then you disappear, without a trace.” He nodded, sitting back up, and popped the last of his tortilla in his mouth before continuing. “I been keeping an eye out, y’know. Figured they took you away, popped your skull for info, and soon the black helicopters be showin’ up, setting our home on fire and trying to take our guns. But they didn’t,” he says, sounding a bit proud. “You kept quiet. Good for you.”
Joshua smiled, in spite of himself. When he was younger, when his family used to come out this way—oh and you better believe it hurts to think about those days, friends and neighbors, and best put that shit away quick—he had always thought Ramon was full of bullshit. Now he was sure of it. But it was funny how much truth there was in the paranoid fantasies of the families living in this compound.
Not a lot of facts, but a lot of truth, if you can dig it.
“No, no, it wasn’t… it wasn’t like that,” Joshua said. “But yeah. I been underground. I been around, seeing what there is to see.”
“You do more than that, white boy,” his father’s friend said, getting up for more food. He motioned to Joshua, who shook his head, and Ramon started piling more on his plate. “You got an all new name, I know that for sure. Eddie Pulgot, he’s gone.”
“Is that a crime?” Joshua asked, and they both laughed. “Yeah, sure,” he said when Ramon had sat down again, “I know some people. Got a way for a while, learned a few things.” Part of him rose up, wanting to yell, I CAN DO MAGIC, and he tamped it down hard. “I know people,” he finished, lamely.
Ramon watched him for a bit. “You on a mission right now, ain’t ya?” Joshua just shrugged, which they both knew was all the answer needed. “Yeah,” Ramon said, looking at his plate. “You ever need anything, you know…”
“Yeah,” Joshua said. “I know, man.”