Bad Moon Rising

He looked at my arms and hands, which had blisters the size of quarters on portions of them. “You’re going to look like a pinto pony when those pop and show the pink skin on your tan.” He saluted me with his cup, “Glad that’s the worst of it.”

I said, “How good was the Kiowa?”

“Almost as good as me,” he said, holding his thumb and forefinger a hair’s breadth apart. “But not quite.”

“Makes me glad the cops showed.”

“Amen to that.”

We drank our coffee, refilling our cups because it seemed like a two-cup day. I said, “We need to do something for Juan’s family.”

“We’ll talk to the police, see if they can help us on the address.”

I said, “I don’t have much in savings, but I’m willing to send it to them.”

“Me too.”

When we finished coffee, Hondo rinsed out his cup and put it on a towel to dry, then said, “Take your time coming in. I’ll open the office, make a few calls from there and see how things are progressing.”

“Did you check with Bodhi?”

“First thing this morning. She’s hanging in there. I told her to come to the office and be with us. She said she would.”

“Good. I’ll be there in a little while. I still smell like smoke, and I need a bath.”

“I’ll see you there.”

When I arrived at our office, I saw a police car and a County Sheriff’s sedan. I went inside and saw Vick and a big-shouldered police sergeant I didn’t know. Hondo and Bodhi sat with them at our table.

Vick said, “We’d like you to go with us this morning.”

I said, “Where?”

“On Mount Lee. The fire is under control and our people can’t locate where you said the three men went down. We want to find the bodies.”

“Okay.” I looked at Bodhi, “You don’t have to go.” She looked relieved.

The police sergeant said, “I’m John Mata. You want to ride with me?”

“Sure.”

Mata’s car led a small procession to Mount Lee, with Vick behind us. He said, “What I hear, they’re not sure exactly what part of the slope to check.”

“I’m sore from yesterday, but I’ll gimp up there and see if I can point it out.”

Mata said, “They’ve got some four-wheel drives out there. We’ll get them to take you up to the top, save you a little walking.”

“I’m for that.”

He said, “Least we can do, you being a hero and all. One of the firefighters got a video of you topping out on the mountain, carrying those two people and with the flames and smoke behind you, kind of epic.”

“You’d have done the same thing.”

“I couldn’t have done the same thing, brah. By the way, the video is on YouTube and going viral. Last I looked, it had over three-hundred thousand hits in twenty-four hours.”

“I hope they got my good side.”

Mata laughed, “It was all good, Baca.”