Langston stops the car on the edge of town, parking it along the side of the round. He steps out and opens the door for me, offering his hand to help me out, but I can’t take it. I have to start getting used to not depending on him.
I climb out on my own. Langston doesn’t talk to me, look at me.
We walk in silence in the direction of the desert, down a path to a small house that sits on the furthest edge of town.
When we reach the house, Langston knocks, and we wait in silence until a middle-aged woman opens the door. Her hair is dark and long, and she wears a long tan dress. She looks between us and then motions for us to come inside.
It appears that Diego has told her to expect us because she doesn’t ask who we are or why we are here.
“Sit,” she commands as we enter a living area containing four chairs.
Langston and I both sit as the woman heads into her kitchen and returns with a cup of tea for each of us.
She doesn’t speak, and I’m beginning to get used to the silence. After what I’ve d
one, no one will ever want to speak to me again. She looks back and forth between us, her eyes judging us.
“My name is Ramla. Please, drink your tea.”
We both drink, hesitantly, like the tea is poisoned with a truth serum or worse. I brace myself for getting sick again, but the tea soothes the ache in my belly, and I’m able to keep it down. Not only am I able to keep it down, but the tea rejuvenates me and makes me feel more like myself.
Ramla continues to study us like she’s looking for answers in the way we drink our tea.
“You did it,” she says to me. It’s not a question, it’s a statement, but I nod my head in shame anyway, knowing she’s referencing my betrayal of Langston.
Langston looks at me for the first time, frowning like he doesn’t understand. I’m not going to tell him now; the damage is done. We need to get the clue and move on with our lives.
She looks to Langston. “I need you to come with me.”
I frown, afraid of what is going to happen. I had to betray him, what will he have to do to me?
Hurt me?
Sell me?
Kill me?
There is no telling what my father’s twisted game will require next. If we could bury the treasure forever with my death, then I’d kill myself. But it would only cause everyone to shift their focus to my child, thinking he can still find the money they desire.
Langston stands. He looks at me one last time, and then he follows the woman out of the room. I’m left behind to drink my tea and hope for forgiveness.
26
Langston
How can I want to wring Liesel’s neck at the same time I want to worship at her feet?
Liesel is hiding something from me, and I think I know what it is. I can’t think about it too much, though. Right now, I need to focus on the task at hand. Whatever Liesel had to do before she left the house in Peru really tore her up. Something changed in her after that. I need to focus so that I’m prepared for what awaits me.
“Sit,” Ramla says, pointing to a chair at her small dining room table.
I sit, and she brings me more tea.
I politely drink the stuff even though I don’t like the taste. I have no idea what awaits me. No idea what task I’m going to have to do.
“Tell me everything you are feeling,” she says.
I frown. I wasn’t expecting that.