#27 The Telephone Call

Fernando sat in one of the phone booths of the petroleum company's telephone network which had just begun to work again. He dialed the number.
If Benecio answered then he would hang up, but it was Alexandra's questioning voice and Fernando asked to speak to Benecio.
"Who is this? she asked. The voice sounded familiar to her."This is Alexandra. Benecio is gone for a month."
"This is...this is....Fernando, Dona Alexandra. How are you, how are things going with you."
"Fernando, where is my daughter Dolores? You were with my husband when he was with the gringo. What has happened to my daughter?"
"She is safe Dona Alexandra down river. She can not get out yet because of the logjams and when everything...when everything is done I will bring her back to you myself. Do not worry about her."
"But my husband said-
"And where did your husband go ?"
"I think he is doing something with that Paco Moreno of the Colombian Rebels. I think he is maybe doing something with the coca. He got drunk last night and told me I would be proud of him because he would be coming home from his Conquest very very rich. Cocaine is the only thing it could be."
"And when did he leave?"
"Just today.I asked him who he was going with and he said Cortes and Pizzaro. Do you know any Cortes and Pizzaro and he said he was going to take the riches from the Sun God for himself. Then he passed out. I think he has gone mad. Maybe he is taking this cocaine."
"I don't know what to tell you Dona Alexandra...it sounds terrible. I guess I mean, I don't know. I mean, I mean...Hello?"
And with that Fernando hung up the phone cursing,railing at his lack of timing, missing yet again his chance to kill Benecio, and now making his life even more complex. Well his brother would have been proud of him because he had a backup plan. Maybe he, too could get the tatoo of a harpy eagle on his chest after all this was over.

He headed towards the boat yard which fronted the river a few hundred yards down from the dock where he was now prepared to begin the most complicated thought processes of his life: A negotiation had taken place for the three emeralds and then a plan to rescue his brother and the others who he presumed were still alive before Benecio arrived- or with the ammunition and extra rifle he had bought lay seige and at least get Benecio which might or might not be enough to prove he had done his all. He could not think past that point it gave him a headache.He had tried to think what his brother would do. He could think no more.

He stood quite close to the crane which lowered the heavy steel boat into the water and closely supervised the loading of his wooden boat inside the steel boat deciding that it fit best from bow to stern matching the steel boat although it did not fit perfectly inside the boat but hung over the edges-neither boat being quite symmetric and the wooden one ,in sum ,just a little too large to fit perfectly inside. It had seemed like it would when he had measured the two boats but he knew he had miscalculated something and now that his plan was unfolding he neither punished nor rewarded himself for small individual missteps but proceeded forward with only the goal fixating his brain.

He loaded in his weapons and fuel, the gringos motor, and tested the other two he had purchased as part of his package deal and the load of spare parts and propellors, and tools and one extra transmission, the bottom half of an outboard motor that would be most likely to break before the top half from repeated concussions. He had watched his brother change transmissions before.

Putting a40 hp Johnson motor on the back of the steel boat he gave it all the gas it would take but headed slowly for the confluence of the two rivers, the weight and draft of the steel boat keeping it from clipping down the river at the pace he was acustom to.He drove back and forth across the wave line and when he saw an opening he gunned the motor ,raised the shaft out of the water as the boat flew on the wave ,and he thudded onto the longjam for several moments completely out of the water. The steel boat was undamaged and he removed the motor. The boat settled in among the logs and he was heading down river at a slow but steady clip.

The sun beat ferociously. It was then that he realized he had forgotten to bring food or water. He scoured the sky for potential rain clouds, but none were visible. The hunger he could deal with for days if he had to and if no rain came he would drink the river water even though he knew it would give him bichos, bugs , in his stomach, but how many times had he had bugs in his stomach. When he got near land he would try to find some una de gato, the bark of which his family had used since he could remember when there was no rainwater to drink after a long dry spell and Gustavo had been too lazy to boil the water from the small stream which ran by their house, when their mother had gone to Francisco de Orellana to shop or visit amigas and play Cuarenta, that Ecuadorian card game played with such fervor throughout the country. They were children then and Gustavo was in charge of taking care of his younger brother.Fernando knew it was wrong to drink the water without boiling it, but he drank it anyway because Gustavo told him to. And their mother Rosita would get mad when she found out, but never hit Gustavo for the lazy or misguided things he did but would counsel him like an adult. Repeat explanations for repeated wrong behavior in the hope that in this way, with her husband Carlitos always off with Benecio building oil company encampments deep in the jungle and sometimes, without adequate explanation, coming home completely empty handed despite working for a month in that hard remote labor- with the hope that Gustavo would become- she saw the makings of it in his character at an early age- would become a man who would know how to do wrong when need be to get was rightly his when it was his due. Gustavo, she hoped would not be like her weak willed husband- though she loved him- and Fernando was one of God's creatures who if she trained Gustavo right- she hoped- would allow Fernando to ride along on his back. For Fernando she knew, what never make it, even in the simple world of river life without Gustavo's help.

She was pleased that it had worked out that way.That Gustavo went out into the world, such as it was in the backwaters of the Amazon and made a name for himself and by the time Fernando finished his six years of institutional schooling at the mission in Francisco de Orellana, Gustavo was there waiting to take him in as a partner. Together they would go through life. Even she hoped , when the time came, setting up homes near each other.

She had seen how Fernando had grown under Gustavo's guidance and Rosita who was now in the capital at the house of her sister across the street from the Church of the Basilica wondered how her two sons were doing now. Fernando had called her and in his simpleminded way tried to tell her that everything was all right. That he was taking care of Gustavo. She had asked him what that meant and he told her that Gustavo had been trapped down river by the logjams but he was sure he was all right and then he faltered and in his confusion he told her the only thing that he thought would give her peace of mind . He told her he was working with Benecio to get Gustavo and the Gringo out and Benecio would verify his story if she would just call him and she said she would and he hung up with her.

He knew she would not be able to talk to Benecio because he was gone down the Aguarico with Paco Moreno. But what would Alexandra the sad wife of Benecio say to her? And would she ever forgive him for lying?Maybe she would come to Francisco de Orellana with her husband to try to find him after her talk with Alexandra. He could not think about that now. He was in a steel boat in the middle of a logjam floating slowly downriver. The sun burned mercilessly and his recollections of recent events more than any physical or external heat caused him to work up a great thirst. He cupped his hand into the brine in which he floated and drank several gulps. The water had an oilish taste to it, and grit, and the flavor of a thousand dying forests too. It did note slate his thirst.

After three hours, he was still in a logjam in the center of the river, passing the land he had known all his wife. His parents homestead. He calculated that he was traveling at the speed of between one and two miles an hour.

# 26 zodiacs

Benecio winced- and not from the sight of the roaring Aguarico from the recent rains and not from the pain in his collarbone the removal of the sling had caused and not from the youth of the paramilitary dressed mercenaries Paco had enlisted who now stood by the two rubber zodiacs with their ak-47's on their chests in the ready offensive position as if displaying the menacing for unseen movie cameras - but from the late ruling by Paco that they should each be paid Ten Thousand Dollars in advance, compadre, and with the rocky river raging the way it was. It would give everyone a chance to go home and leave the money with their families.
"It is the only fair thing, compadre, you think they know how valuable a green rock might be ? But give them ten thousand dollars and wait two days for the river to calm and they will come back ready to kill for you, like conquistadors !"