Echo Location by Linda Kay Silva

Author:Linda Kay Silva [Silva, Linda Kay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bella Books
Published: 2011-08-15T22:00:00+00:00

We arrived in Santa Cruz a little after four p.m., which was a good thing, considering every freeway in the Bay Area becomes gridlocked right after two in the afternoon.

After the 1989 earthquake destroyed much of the downtown area of Santa Cruz, it had regrown like the limb of an octopus, only cleaner and nicer. The city had a state university whose mascot was the banana slug, and the most popular vegetation was marijuana. Santa Cruz made Berkeley look semi-normal, with all of its tie-dye clothes and hemp sandals.

“Every time I come here, I wonder why I don’t come here more often,” I said.

“Traffic, Clark. Traffic keeps us all apart. It is the great divide, if you ask me.” She paused for half a beat. “That would be a great title for an article about how traffic has changed our lives in the twenty-first century.” She stuck her head out the window like a dog and I thought that she and Bailey would be a better match than her and Connie. “I’m telling you, Clark. I think I see a series of articles in your future.” Bringing her head back in, she yawned and stretched. “You’re nervous, huh?”

“Totally.”

“No matter what, you will always rock, sister, and don’t you forget it.”

As we drove through the small, narrow street along the shoreline, I realized we were headed for Capitola, a little town nestled on the edges of the beach. It was a little bedroom community sporting multimillion dollar cracker box houses that weren’t worth a fraction of that, but location, location, location was everything.

When the driver pulled up to 100 North Seaside Drive, my heart rate picked up speed. It was a beach house; one of the smaller homes originally built to be a vacation getaway, but had now been converted to a million dollar mansion.

“Someone has dinero,” Dani remarked, getting out of the car.

I couldn’t respond. My knees were weak and I thought I was going to throw up.

The driver got out and opened my door. I sat there, staring at him, as if I was too dumb to figure out what he wanted. When Danica came around to my side, she helped me out and slid her arm through mine. “Remember, Clark, she gave up a helluva lot to save your life. Put your anger aside for the moment and just experience the emotions.”

We walked together to the front door and Danica rang the doorbell. “You’ll be fine,” she whispered. “You’ve waited your whole life for this moment, and it’s going to be great. Just don’t forget to feel. Come out of your head for this one, okay?”

The front door opened and a tall, thin man with graying sideburns stood looking down at us. He wore a red and white Hawaiian shirt and black walking shorts. His feet wore Teva sandals. “You must be Charlie,” he said, grinning. “Jig called about two hours ago to let her know you were on the way. Please, come on in.”

I’m pretty sure I would have just melted into a puddle had Danica not had a firm hold on my arm.

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