Ken Douglas - Gecko

Jim didn’t try to stop her as she made the call, because he knew she was right. Without ID he wasn’t going to get very far. He sat on the bed next to Roma as Edna made the call and watched a gecko dart across the wall.

“ It will be all right,” he told Roma, as Edna Lambert talked in the background.

“ I hope so,” she said. “I really hope so.”

“ Oh, and Eddie,” they heard Edna say, “bring a spare eye patch.” She hung up and faced the couple sitting on the end of the bed. “He’s leaving right now, he’ll be here in four hours.”

They spent the next hour going over all their options, but in the end they agreed that Jim was right. The best thing would be for the women to return to Long Beach and try to clear him. Once it was decided, there was nothing more to be gained by discussion. The women went back to their room to rest and wait for Eddie Lambert.

Jim lay on his bed and stared at the connecting door. He half wanted Roma to come through it and he half feared she would. Twice he got up and started for it and twice he went back to the bed.

He could only imagine what was going through her mind. Was she eager and afraid? Or did she regret what had happened? Was she watching the door from the other side, like him, and, like him, was she thinking about her twin sister.

He closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep.

“ Go to her,” Donna thought.

“ I can’t,” he thought back and then he shut Donna out of his mind.

The phone woke him from a restless sleep a few hours later.

“ Hello.”

“ Eddie’s here,” Edna said.

“ I’ll be right over.”

When he went over he was introduced to Eddie Lambert. His wild hair, beard and muscular build made him giant looking, but he was no taller than Jim and his eye patch gave him a menacing look, till he smiled and the twinkle in his single eye glowed. He dressed in Levi’s, running shoes and a flannel shirt, the kind surfers wore. His handshake was firm and friendly. Jim liked him immediately.

“ Mom explained the whole thing.” He handed Jim a passport, credit cards, driver’s license and an eye patch. “With this on and your short hair, you could probably pass for me. Anybody looking at the picture would have a hard time figuring out what I really looked like under all this hair.” He had a low easy voice.

“ I hope this doesn’t get you in too much trouble.” Jim flipped the passport open and agreed. It would be hard, at first glance, to tell that Jim was not the same man in the photo. If he wore the eye patch, he could probably pass all but the most thorough of inspections.

“ Naw, if anything happens because of it, I’ll just say I thought I left my wallet at work. That’s why I didn’t report it missing.”

“ I’ll pay you back for anything I might have to charge on your cards.”

“ It’s not necessary. I owe you.”

“ I appreciate it, but I can afford it and I’d feel better if I could pay you back.”

“ If it’s what you want, but you don’t have to.”

Jim looked at Eddie’s running shoes.

“ I’ve got a pair of shoes that are about a size too tight and they’re killing my feet.”

“ Mine are eights. Sorry,” Eddie said, looking at Jim’s large feet.

“ They looked small, but I had to ask,” Jim said.

The group spent a few minutes making small talk, before Jim retold the events of the last two days for Eddie’s benefit.

“ So if it was you,” Jim asked Eddie, “would you go after Kohler or go to the police?”

“ Go after Kohler,” he said, without hesitation.

“ That’s how I feel. I just wanted to hear somebody else say it.”

Fifteen minutes later, after having decided that Eddie would take the girls back at first light, Roma asked Jim to take a walk with her.

“ Where to?”

“ To the mini market on the other side of the highway. I’ve got a sweet tooth that I very rarely indulge, but tonight I feel like a candy bar.”

A walk across the highway in tight shoes was the last thing he wanted to do, but Roma was going to be spending the remainder of the night with Edna and he was going to be bunking with Eddie, so it was probably the last time they’d get to spend together till this was all over.

“ I feel kind of like I’m having sex behind my momma’s back,” Roma said as soon as they started out.

“ We could get our own room.”

“ No, then I’d feel cheap.”

He put his good arm around her and felt a little rebuffed when she shrugged away, laughing like a little girl.

They walked across a grassy lawn to the Inn’s main building, where they cut across the parking lot to the highway, then they crossed on the overpass and then on to the all night mini market. A quarter mile in all. A silent quarter mile.

They entered the market and Roma picked up two Snickers while Jim went to the magazine section and flipped through Business Week. Roma held up the candy bars for him to see and beamed a smile at him. Then she screamed and jumped back as a gecko went scurrying across the floor.

“ I’ve never seen anything like that in here,” the girl behind the counter said, screwing up her face and accenting her pimples. “Looked like a slimy lizard.”

“ I saw one in my room, over at the Inn,” Roma said.

“ Wait till I tell Dad,” the girl said. “He thinks he knows everything there is to know about every kind of animal we’ve got out here, but I bet he’s never seen slimy lizards.”

“ It’s only a gecko.” Jim said, thinking it strange. This was the second one he’d seen, so far away from where they were supposed to be.

“ Let’s go back,” Roma said, clearly embarrassed by her outburst. Jim paid and she put the candy bars in the handbag she’d gotten from Edna, next to the gun.

They walked back over the interstate, stopping to watch the late night travelers and truckers tunnel through the night below. White headlights approaching, headed toward San Francisco, red tail lights receding, going south to Los Angeles.

Jim moved closer to Roma, looked up as the full moon found a hole in the clouds, briefly brightening the night.

“ You know I’ve always loved you,” Roma said as she gently pushed him away, so she could see his face lit up by the passing headlights. Then she asked, “Were you happy?”

“ I thought we were. I loved your sister with all my heart, like I used to love you so long ago. We wanted the same things, enjoyed the same friends, shopped, spent money. I honestly don’t know where it went wrong.”

“ I want you, Jimmy,” she said.

“ Right here?” he smiled.

“ No, not here. I want you forever.”

“ We have to give it time.”

“ No, I don’t want to give it time.”

“ What about Julia?”

“ She’s got her doctor. She can’t have you.”

“ She’s your sister.”

“ And she loves me and will understand.”

“ There’s so much happening right now. I really do need some time,” he said. “Time to find out what’s going on. Who’s trying to kill me and why. Right now I believe it’s Kohler, but what if it isn’t?”

“ Dammit, I don’t want you out there risking your life. Come back with us. Let the police handle it.”

“ I can’t run away,” he said.

“ Then come back with us and work with the police. That makes more sense. I don’t want to lose you. I need you.”

Part of him wanted to go back with her. But the common sense part of him knew it would never work. The press would have a field day. They would hound him unmercifully about marrying his wife’s twin. There would always be talk. Heads would always turn. They would become the fodder for gossip magazines and tabloids. It wasn’t the kind of life he wanted to lead. His privacy would be over.