Bill woke up very early and left in the tiger-striped Jeep Wrangler. After Nelson saw that the client’s account card was missing from behind the portrait of the rare snakes. He walked toward the wine rack, pulled out a corkskrew, picked a bottle and glass, and drank red wine. He broke his three-year sobriety. He was stunned.
Bill had started the ransack in the kitchen first, took all the frozen meal boxes and piled them in the sink to search the refrigerator. Nelson observed as he sat on a stool behind the counter, refilling his glass. The green recliner chair was in the corner of the living room, upside down, and across was the sofa with its cushions flipped over. The coffee table was covered in toss pillows, and a picture frame atop one was face down. Bill had indeed found the client’s card and had no time to spare.
Nelson grabbed some cheese and crackers, checked their parking space number, and found it empty when he went outside in his blue plaid pajamas. The morning was unpleasantly gray as he strolled out, wearing slippers, feeling the cold breeze on his skin.
Nelson stopped and stared at the wood fence surrounding the townhouses’ covered parking. The vehicles were all familiar, except for a couple, which Nelson was convinced he did not recognize. He massaged his neck and wondered who the owners of the good-looking SUVs were. He got his mail and daily newspaper and went back inside. On the front page, “The Maniac’s Victim Count Lifted from Eleven to Fifteen. Our State Task Force is Losing Badly.
“The snakes,” Nelson thought, “must be returned.” Bill understood that their venom was his brother’s cure for controlling his appetite and maintaining his eyesight.
The Persian cats mirrored what was left of his own broken marriage. The only way Nelson would swap the fake for the authentic Scarlet Owl ring was if they were safely returned. Indeed, Bill was happy to reverse the agreement with Nelson over the mugs of nonalcoholic beer they had drunk the night before.
The Boss and Bill, Nelson thought, are not blamed for wanting revenge for leaving Bill alone after Nelson escaped the desert motel to cope with the Mountain Gorilla’s rescue of their leader, Silverback. Fighting off the Gray Wolf, who had Bill already down. It was not what he expected. Hell. Yet Bill would be dead but for Silverback’s mercy in calling the Gray Wolf back.
Despite Nelson’s severe warnings in the earlier days when Bill visited his townhouse. Nelson realized that Bill was resolved, so he’d surely go to the hospital to find Ivory’s room on the correct floor. She’d been sent to recuperate from the knife wound Bill had delivered. Now, the snakes and Persians weren’t Bill’s concern, and that of itself was what immensely bothered Nelson.
Why wasn’t Bill panicked? Then Nelson realized he likely had a vision of the bank from which he had taken the Scarlet Owl ring.
Nelson showered, then jogged to the drugstore, though his blood pressure was dangerously low. The cold air stimulated his joints and muscles. He was satisfied. Nelson pulled himself together; a sugar surge from a candy bar and a chewable aspirin was his miracle medicine for a hangover. Nelson swallowed. Bill’s spinning out of control over Silverback was not his crisis. It’s not my problem.
Nelson checked his heart rate while waiting behind a group of shoppers. He had rushed through the aisles of medicine, and his thoughts burned and turned around in his head. He had figuratively returned to the dim motel room in the profound, miserable depths of the monstrous desert.
Nelson pulled a tall bottle of sweet raspberry tea from the store’s cooler behind him and removed the cap.
The clerk looked at Nelson sourly, counting the change to help an older patron. Nelson burped an apology, cracked a twenty on the edge of his billfold, and dropped the folded note by the cash register. It was official: He had paid for the rude customer service.
Nelson’s blistered tongue was still dry and bitter, and the blisters were still unhealed. He was already drinking a lot of water. Nelson recalled that the Piranha’s throats were white, red, and lavender; the water turned his the same. At least he was alive, which was the difference.
Last night, Nelson told Bill, “Feed The Boss’s wife to the Pine Motel Piranhas.” Nelson hated her; it was the wine to some degree, but they had shared a love for Persians.
What had Bill planned for Ivory? Hadn’t Bill had enough punishment from Silverback? The Gray Wolf? Nelson thought. But he had no answers and exited the glass doors of the store. The sun sucked in the coolness and spat out the past like a stopped clock.
The clerk smiled and said, “Have a fun day.” Her teeth were bent forks, stained brown like the desert’s scorpions. “A Sale and a coupon on lip balm are on the last day.”
“Bitch.”
Ivory and Silverback proved they could handle Bill, but not by themselves. They were a bit vulnerable if something happened to Mouse. And if the circumstances were in Bill’s favor, he had a chance to finish his goals there in the frying yolk of the desert.
Wait, Bill was taking their snakes to the hospital!
Nelson’s cell vibrated.
“Spade has caught and killed your pet snakes. Mouse and Spade are arguing about the destiny of those cute Persians.”
In Utah, the sun and moon weren’t anyone’s allies. Nelson understood he no longer possessed the Scarlet Owl ring. The Snakes are dead! The bank closed Nelson’s security box at the order of The Boss. Nelson wasn’t the master of his circumstances.
“Silverback. “
“The Mouse is a cold-blooded killer. He’s not as unhinged as Bill, but pretty close. Sorry, The Boss doesn’t have the Owl ring either. Alright., The Boss walked up to your security box with the key and opened it to find nothing but a rubber, squeaking toy mouse. You can pick up the Persian cats when you come with Ivory and me. In our hunt for the Scarlet Owl ring.”
Nelson wondered if he had changed his identity when a long tour bus stopped before him. Found a legal job with pay and dignity, and a fantastic girlfriend like Ivory. Though he was too sick to hold a full-time position, a part-time one would pay crap. Not enough to buy the particular food of a sickly diabetic, keeping his feet from the enemies that lash him in the summer and winter seasons.
Nelson would perhaps go far from Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and Death Valley. At last, I will be free from my dependence on Bill and discover what happiness truly means. With the Scarlet Owl ring, maybe the dream was a possibility. Nelson would split from Bill and The Boss. They’d have to leave him alone permanently.
“Okay,” Nelson said after a long silence.
“The Surreal Forces are coming; we have to hurry.”
Nelson had a super intuition about Silverback. There was something extraordinary about him. Yet he was not the maniac, but Bill’s Prey. Nelson had sympathized with Silverback in the desert. He tried to help Ivory from Bill’s evil lust. The dessert was both a curse and a salvation.
“Will find the Scarlet Owl ring together. Oh, God. My cats. I know where The Boss will seek to solve the Scarlet Owl ring’s paradox.”
All that Nelson would ever miss was the striking desert stars, but nothing else. He never wanted to look at another Juniper tree in the moonlight again. Or Bill.
Ivory was gorgeous, but was possessed by the Scarlet Owl ring and pride for the Mountain Gorillas and their crimes. Maybe that was why his brother Bill was so fascinated by her. The only good thing about her was her devotion to Silverback.
The Boss was upset with everybody. Silverback was an underestimated enemy, which was a big problem. Bill was blown apart by the Mountain Gorillas destroying his side operations. The Boss wanted Silverback to be kidnapped, beaten, and forced to separate from the Mountain Gorilla gang, so there would be no more interference.
***
“I hate Silverback, the pine desert, and nearly losing my finger to the Gray Wolf!” Bill said.
The Boss convincingly said, “The Gray Wolf is a hallucination caused by your fear, thirst, and weakness from the sidewinder rattlesnakes. You and Nelson are stupid to fear the Utah desert; I am the one most deadly and vengeful to worry about. I’ll slaughter whoever messes with my rich clients. Fuck the maniac as well!”
Nelson massaged his neck as he took a taxi to the Smokies. He thought about Ivory’s Beauty mark in the shape of a dragonfly. He dialed Bill’s number.
“I wouldn’t harm you, Nelson. But the Utah Lily, Ivory, and Lord, Adam Silverback, that’s completely different.”
“The Boss will get rid of you, Bill,” Nelson said as the driver drove. “I will not murder for money; come to train as a hitman. I am not a criminal, not a squirrel. A damn murderous thug.” Not a servant to The Boss. anymore.
“The Surreal Forces are the land and property owners of the Desert Pines Motel, Bill said. “The beast of the Utah desert is Silverback. He is the canyon’s demon. And they’re the kings of hell.”
“No! Silverback was not the threat; it was always The Boss. They had us there, Bill. To be the desert canyon victims. We made it change their plans.”
Yet neither made Nelson feel more inclined to run than the rumors surrounding the Scarlet Owl ring and the Desert Guards, the Surreal Forces. They were the evil guards of the desolate desert, and he would be prepared when they came.
The Goddess of the Mountain Basin hit men like a thundering stack of drugs. Nelson had Bill’s deer knife, and the Scarlet Owl ring was kept in a mirrored jewelry box he bought but never gave to his ex-wife.
Bill was bluffing. Nelson’s loyalty was cracking. Nelson swore not to be lured by his brother or by the luxury of things like the Jeep Sports Wrangler. God was his sole witness and never the desert darkness.
“Nelson, where’s the Scarlet Owl? I don’t control the Gray Wolf. I am its shadow. The Scarlet Owl ring. Give it back. You can’t comprehend the danger that you’re in. You are a target for the Surreal Red Forces.”
“Silverback, how did you get this number? I changed it yesterday?”
“What should matter is the Mountain Gorillas heading to your townhouse right now. Mouse, Spade, and Ace are on their way. And they are an unpredictable combination.” Silverback replied.
“I appreciate the belated warning. The Boss doesn’t want you dead, Silverback, as long as he believes you can read the microchip embedded in the unique Scarlet Owl diamond. Of course, you don’t. The Owl ring is buying you time, right?” Can it buy me time, too?
Silverback was playing a complicated, risky game with Nelson.
Celia Garza 