“I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”
“Thank you so much!”
Hunter smiled. Those three boys were like having a trio of puppies around. You couldn’t help but play with them. She called the parents and each said it was fine since they weren’t in Mexico and that she would be there
. She called David and told him, hearing the “whoop!” as he pulled the phone from his ear and told the others.
Hunter said, “You need to fill me in on when and where and how long we’ll be there, okay?”
He said, “Yes, I’ll text you the info right now!”
All three boys were at Lonny’s house in Marfa, and she picked them up thirty minutes later, loading their drones in the pickup bed and covering them with a tarp so they wouldn’t be damaged. She drove through Alpine and on to Marathon, turning south on US 385, with the boys chattering the entire way. She’d be ready for some quiet time after this day completed, she was sure.
The competition location was on a small ranch several miles down FM 2627, and she turned off 385 above Panther Junction at the park entrance to access 2627, then again where the ranch had been marked with streamers and a hand-drawn sign that said, drone racers turn here.
The headquarters sat among several low hills, and colorful streamers on small wooden stakes marked the caliche road to it. The boys grew more excited the closer they got, and Hunter thought that someday she would like children. Then the boys began putting their hands under their armpits to make farting noises and giggling, and Hunter grinned, figuring she might have to rethink that “having children” idea.
A half-dozen other vehicles were parked near the house, with a dozen or more children milling around the grounds. She noticed three were girls about David’s age, and Hunter saw that the three boys in her pickup noticed them, too, going quiet and discretely checking their own hair and faces in her rearview mirror.
To be that young again, Hunter thought. She said, “Where should I park?”
David pointed and said, “Over there, to the left of the others. It’s near the course.”
Hunter parked, and then walked with the boys to look at the course. The rancher and the drone club members had done a good job. There were hoops to fly through, narrowing alleys between upright pvc pipes, a weaving course trail that went up the side of the hill and through a long tube made of bent pvc tubing covered with clear plastic, and then a tight turn on top of the hill before coming down for the remainder of the course.
David said, “What do you think?”
“I’m impressed.”
David said, “It’s a little like the Dubai course for the world championships last year. Not that fancy, but there’s a resemblance. Did you know the prize money at Dubai was a million dollars?”
“That much?”
“Yeah. Winning team got two hundred fifty thousand.”
“Wow.”
“I’ll say. They have drones now that can go a hundred miles an hour. Ours aren’t anything like that, but for the money, we can scat around pretty good, too.”
The crowd gathered near several men in caps who seemed to be the officials. David said, “We better go join them. They’re setting up the run order. See ya!” Lonny and Carlos went with him.
Many of the observers carried foldout chairs and put them in various places around the track, with most crowding around the finish line. Hunter didn’t have one, but one of the ranchers she knew loaned her a foldout chair, and she set it up a little to the side of the finish line, under a small pecan tree that had been recently planted. One of the competitors walked by and said, “Even a little shade’s good when it starts getting hot.”
Hunter gave him a thumbs-up and said, “You’ve got that right.”
They ran in three groups of four and one of three, then had a short break before letting the winners race against each other, winnowing down the contestants until only two finalists remained: David and Carlos.
Their young faces were serious as the official began the countdown, and both drones whizzed away together, sounding like high-pitched bees. After the first lap it became evident that David was more skilled, and he gradually increased his lead, finally crossing the finish line two full seconds ahead of Carlos.
All of the kids crowded around and patted the backs of the two contestants. When the three girl contestants came up and gave them hugs, both David and Carlos blushed and grinned, looking embarrassed and thrilled at the same time, and Lonny kidded them about it.
The after party was a mixture of soft drinks and finger foods and teaching novices how to fly the drones, the teaching done by the drone owners. David even gave Hunter a few lessons. Hunter felt like it was a keeper of a day.
~*~
The five sicarios from Culiacán watched the party through binoculars, and when they saw Hunter’s pickup leaving, Rodolfo called on his phone, saying, “Open the van and release them. Her pickup is the only green one, dark green like a forest.” He looked at his cousins and said, “Good thing Hiyoki had his men bug her pickup, otherwise we wouldn’t know where the hell she was.”
Adan said, “Lots of kids in there with her.”