Ramona took charge of the other children, pulling them around her and Anita, and telling them she would make sure they returned to their parents.
Ike’s face looked like the loser of a fight with Mike Tyson. He shuffled to Hunter and Kelly.
“You handsome devil.” Hunter said.
Kelly laughed, then covered her mouth but couldn’t stop snickering.
Ike grinned, and it was good to see he still had all his teeth in that white smile.
“You don’t look as fevered anymore.”
“Still a little, but they gave me some amoxicillin when we got here. Wanted to keep me healthy until they could kill me. So, what are we doing now?”
“We can all go. My Jeep’s up the road, and I’m sure there are a few vehicles here that we can use. What do you think?”
Ike, serious, looked at her for a long moment. “When you showed up from out of nowhere, I thought we would all die and you would too. But you came in like…” Ike thought a moment, “Like Wonder Woman charging into No Man’s Land.”
“You’d have done the same thing.”
“I couldn’t have done the same thing.”
By now, the adrenalin was dissipating in Hunter, and the muscles in her thighs and arms involuntarily twitched, attempting to burn off the last of it. “Let’s get out of here before someone else comes.”
They took a Suburban and loaded it with children. Ramona drove, and before they left, Ike talked to Paco about burying the dead child somewhere outside the compound, and he said he would make it a nice place.
Ramona dropped the other three at Hunter’s Jeep, and they travelled to the border, crossing at the Amistad Dam late that evening. Hunter felt like they’d been gone a year. Taking Kelly to her home was first on the list. Kelly almost didn’t get out of the Jeep, but continued to weep and hug Hunter’s neck until her mother touched the child’s arm and gently took her from the back seat, all the while crying as well and saying to Hunter and Ike, “I can never thank you enough, not in a million years.” She hugged each of them, holding the hug with Hunter for a long time.
When Hunter let Ike out at the Hampton Inn so he could get a room and clean up, he said, “I probably won’t be seeing you again. Ramona and Anita and I are moving far from here.”
Hunter felt a small sting at the thought, “Where to?”
“Ramona’s rich, with money Solomon didn’t even know she accumulated. We’ll be in Cabo. If you’re ever there, look for us at sundown at the Medano Beach Club. I’ll buy you a margarita.”
“You can count on it.”
She drove to Norma’s home and went inside where Norma squealed and jumped from the couch to hug her. Hunter felt pain in her hip, but didn’t stop her friend.
They talked long into the night, and although Hunter told her some of it, she didn’t tell her everything. That night when she went to bed, Hunter tossed and turned and dreamed of the girl Bobbi, lying alone in a shallow, unmarked grave on a lonely ranch in the hills north of San Angelo.
She woke at three, crying hard, her cheeks wet. Taking a blanket from the bed, she walked out in the back yard and sat in a lawn chair looking at a luminous moon and a sky full of stars. She cried off and on until dawn, then went inside to pack for the return to her home in Marfa, and then she cooked breakfast for herself and her friend.
After they ate, Norma dressed for work and Hunter went to load up her suitcase in her pickup. As she reached the vehicle, she saw a note under the windshield wiper.
It was from Kelly, and said: Thank you for saving me. I didn’t think anybody could, or would. I will never, ever forget you, Hunter. I love you, Kelly.
~~***~~