T Parker - The border Lords

"Then watch this," he said.

Ozburn set his sunglasses on the table, then walked over and pulled open the curtains to let the late-afternoon sun rush through the sliding glass doors. He looked out to the bright Pacific and though his eyes ached at the brightness of it he did not look away. In the living room he pulled the beach towel off the mirror. The mirror was framed in stamped aluminum that caught the onrushing sunlight. Ozburn stood before the glass and looked at himself. The light scorched his eyes but he willed them to stay open and to stay focused on himself. In his reflection he saw almost nothing he understood or even recognized but he kept staring hard and true into his own vast absence. It was like being burned alive.

"I'm doing it," he said.

"Oh, baby. Look at your tears."

"I'm looking at my reflection."

"You sure are."

He was aware of her getting up from the dinette table, felt the thump of her bare heels on the pavers. In the mirror he watched her wedge between his body and one arm. Her platinum hair shone against his black vest and she faced the glass bravely. She squinted, her eyes almost shut, her fair face wrinkled with the effort and the pain.

"Me, too!"

"You, too, Sel. See? We don't have no stinking rabies. Look at us. We can do it. We're going to be okay."

Their faces were wet ghosts in the glass. He watched Seliah reach up with her hand and wipe her mouth.

"We've got it and I know it. I'm going back, Sean. I'm going to get the protocol. You have to come with me or you'll die down here. I didn't come here for me. I came here to get you."

"I'm here because this is where I'm needed."

"Because some drunk priest tells you so?"

"Joe has nothing to do with this. No more than he caused what's ailing us. See? We're looking at our reflections."

"I can't look anymore. My eyes are on fire."

Ozburn moved between Seliah and the mirror and gathered her close in his arms. Her body was hot through the cobalt satin and he could feel her strength. Their mouths found each other and Ozburn untied her robe and pushed it away and it dropped in a soft rush. He lifted her up firmly so as not to break the kiss and carried her into the bedroom.

He laid her on the bed and straddled her and whispered into her ear. "If I make love to you long enough, you won't have the strength to leave."

"I'm ready. I'm eager. Then I'm leaving." Twenty hours and eleven orgasms later Ozburn lay exhausted, watching Seliah pack the last of her things. She was just out of the shower and she moved with grim purpose.

Ozburn worked himself out of bed and slipped on his jeans. It was noon. Almost an entire day had gone by and they had barely left the bed. His feet were numb and his legs were weak and his cock ached and was filling with blood again. Out in the living room he dug into his duffel and pulled out the cash and counted out ten grand. This he folded neatly and stuffed down into Seliah's purse.

Daisy trotted from the bedroom like an impresario, followed by Seliah, rolling the suitcase behind her.

She let go of the handle and walked up to her husband and took his hands in hers. "I love you more than anything on earth. In the name of that love, come with me. You'll be dead in a week if you don't."

"I can't."

"You're choosing loneliness and death over life and me."

"They'll lock me up, Sel. You know that. It would be worse than being dead, sitting in a cell and wondering where you were and what you were doing. Don't ask me to do that."

"Charlie says maybe we can work something out."

"Charlie says whatever you want to hear."

"Father Joe Leftwich is not your friend."

No matter how hard Ozburn tried, he still could not see one reason why Joe Leftwich of Dublin, Ireland, would do such a thing. No reason at all. But Seliah had until now been a wise and loyal wife and he owed her allegiance and respect even when they saw things differently.

"I'll get to the bottom of little Joe," he said.

"It will be too late."

"It must be done, Seliah."

She put her face up to his ear and whispered, "Forget him. All you have to do is get dressed, pack that duffel and get in the car. I'll drive. Daisy can have the whole backseat. We'll be in the hospital in Orange by midafternoon. But maybe we can stop off home for a not-so-quickie. Leave Daisy and get one of the neighbors to feed and walk her."

"I love you and I'm sorry. I'm very sorry for everything, Sel. I don't know how to even begin an explanation."

"Good-bye, then."

"Good-bye."

"I didn't think they could ever bring us down."

"Who's they?"

"I don't know," said Seliah. "The whole world? ATF? Father Joe? Charlie? I know there's more to this than you and me. You and I were just fine, weren't we?"

"More than."

"We were good. We were golden. We were the best of them. Write. Call. Pray."

"I'll write and call," Ozburn said. "And I'll come to you when I'm finished. I promise."

"We're never going to see each other again. Do you understand, Sean?"

"I don't believe that. I can't believe it and live."

She put her arms around him and rested her head on his chest. Ozburn felt the weight of it with each beat of his heart. He held her gently and the minutes went by.

He rolled her suitcase to the car and put it in the trunk. He put her laptop and the bouquet of paper flowers on the passenger seat of her car. He was still having trouble feeling his feet and his legs felt heavy as iron.

Ozburn stood in the parking lot watching her drive away. Daisy sat beside him. He watched the Mustang as it slowed, then swung out of the lot and onto the road. It was a red car and it looked optimistic against the gray asphalt but it picked up speed and headed for a rise and she was gone. Ozburn's heart finally broke. He stood there for a long while, dazed by the new silence, waiting for the feeling to come back into his feet so he could walk back into the room.

He ate the leftovers and guzzled some vitamins and packed as quickly as he could. His feet felt better. He found one of Seliah's earrings wrapped up in the bedsheet and for a beat the breath in him stopped. I am alone, he thought, and it is now up to me and I will see you again. I will see you again.

He swallowed the earring then called Daisy and paid cash for his nights at the Estero and drove Father Joe's loaner to the airstrip where Betty waited, yellow and freshly washed, eager to take to the sky.

Four hours later Hood was parked outside the Ozburn home waiting for Seliah to come out. In the time it had taken her to get here from Ensenada, Hood had called in a favor with his old LASD patrol sergeant and was now at the wheel of a white slickback Interceptor with screened-in backseats for transportees and a short bar of interior running lights and bulletproof windows. The sergeant had offered a backup unit and two uniforms but Hood had declined. He was afraid they'd set her off and she'd change her mind. He was afraid she might change it anyway. She said it would take a few minutes to pack up some things.

He pulled the buzzing cell phone off his belt.

"Charlie Hood, this is Mike Finnegan. Erin told me you wanted to talk. I was so truly happy to hear that."

Hood looked up at the Ozburn front door. No sign of Seliah. He felt the same uneasy suspicion he'd always felt when talking to Finnegan, a suspicion that the man was somehow outside of his own understanding and experience. Mike's companion, Owens, had once told Hood that the only way to comprehend Mike was to understand that he was insane. But Hood had wondered if it was more than that. As a boy, Hood had seen a tiger walking down a Bakersfield sidewalk-escaped from a private collection, he later learned-and Hood had realized that nothing in his life had prepared him to understand such a being. He had the same feeling now.