The thought grew slowly, and… I finally caught on. Mr. Ortiz wanted to give me his pepper to stop Ah-Puch! Could it work? It was one thing to paralyze a human, it was something else to try and paralyze a god. He tugged the pepper off the vine and very carefully set it in a small burlap bag. “For you,” he said, placing the sack in my hands. “To stop the Stinking One.”
“What about the Guinness Book and Ms. Cab?”
“No good to have a world record if the world is gone.”
He had a point.
I didn’t know what to say. “What… what if it doesn’t work? What if I can’t do it?”
He clapped my shoulder. “I always knew you were very special, Zane. I believe you can stop this monster.”
It felt really good that Mr. Ortiz had so much faith in me, but it also felt like a heavy burden, because I didn’t know if I deserved it.
“Destiny smiles on me, Zane. She was asleep for many years, and now she has come to my door so I could give you this chance. All I had to do was open it.”
I gripped the sack. “But if your destiny had been something else, something dangerous… would you still have opened the door?”
Mr. Ortiz thought for a second, rubbed his chin, then looked at me. “If you don’t open the door, she will come in through the window.”
Before I left, I turned to face Mr. Ortiz. “Could you not say anything about all this to my mom? I—”
“I will honor your wishes to keep her safe.” He placed his weathered hands on my shoulders, tightening his hold. “No te preocupes. I will protect both of them.”
Hondo wrote six versions of the note for Mom before I finally approved this one:
Hey Sis,
Me and Zane went fishing. Wanted some fresh air, some bro time, after the bank heist. Back in a few days.
I picked up the pen and added:
We can talk about my dad
My hand hovered. I didn’t know if I should write when I come home? If I come home? Later? I finally wrote later then signed my name and stuck the note on the fridge. Where could she have gone after she talked to the cops? At least I felt a little better knowing Mr. O would keep an eye on her and Ms. Cab.
Hondo left to get money from the ATM, and when he came back, he tossed a stack of hundred-dollar bills onto the kitchen table, where Brooks had the gateway map spread out.
“That’s a lot of money,” Brooks said, leaning across the table for a better look.
Hondo smiled. “Been saving for a speaker-system upgrade for the truck, but… I figured we’d need some coin for food and stuff.”
“I can’t let you waste all your cash,” I said.
“On saving the world?” Hondo laughed. “What good does it do me if we get blown to smithereens?”
“Can’t argue with that,” Brooks said.
Hondo grabbed a big sack off the counter, reached inside, and pulled out a leather tool belt. Then, one by one, he began stuffing tools from the sack into the loops: a hammer, a screwdriver, a small ax.
“What’s all that for?” Brooks asked.
“Some war stash,” Hondo said. “Gotta be prepared.”
I highly doubted his tools were going to save us. But how do you prepare to save the world when you’re a featherweight up against an immortal heavyweight?
Hondo swung his arm around my neck. “So what’s the plan? Go find a few gods to help us take this guy down?”
I’d thought the same thing until Brooks saw the flaw in that plan. “Tell him, Brooks.”