The Black Opal by S.G.Norris

Author:S.G.Norris [Norris, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: S G Norris

Chapter 25

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Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico

I wake up. Another day and this time another country.

Last night, I could hardly keep my eyes open to consider the state of the hotel room. Now as daylight fights its way through the thin curtains, I can see it is clinging onto life. It probably looked good the year I was born but now the wall colour is indeterminate from nicotine staining. The lamps and furniture are full of dust and insects.

Across the room, Mia is asleep but there is no sign of Sophia. I get up and walk to the window. There is a café downstairs with chairs outside but she’s not there. It’s only just past nine so she can’t have gone far.

I wonder if I should go get coffee and leave Mia to sleep but I decide it’s best not to leave her. We need to stick together, for better or worse.

I decide to negotiate the shower. The bathroom is small with the shower barely a cupboard space. I push the door closed and turn it on. Water comes out like a spurt and dies to barely a trickle. I squeeze the wall soap dispenser and some indeterminate liquid comes out smelling barely of floral scent. It will have to do though I think yesterday’s dip in the lake would have made me cleaner.

As I try to wash, I think back to yesterday. Twenty-four hours but almost a lifetime. Robbing a diner, a shootout, fake passports and another confrontation and stabbing, a trip to an Emergency Room and finally an escape across a border. It’s a life in one day and I’m not sure if today will be any better. We’ve still got to decide what to do. At least I spoke to Rose. Her deep rasping voice so familiar and so delicious. How is the saying? You don’t know what you miss until you lose it.

I swear to myself, that I will get back to her as soon as I can. We will fix this and get back to normal.

Stepping out the shower, barely aware even if I’m clean, I catch the mirror. My eyes are faded, tired perhaps and bloodshot. Modelling an eighties goth look, not that different to Sophia yesterday before we took her to ER in El Paso. I look closer at my face, rubbing my eyes to cleanse them some more.

I think about what Sophia said yesterday and the other night. Am I a coward?

I’m still here aren’t I? I didn’t run. The question is, what would a brave man do? Go back to Nashville, see my family and face the police? Sophia thinks that’s the coward’s way out but it feels like the hardest route to me. Running further away is the action of a coward isn’t it? Regardless of whether I think I can run some fanciful rescue mission. The mirror offers no answer to the question so I get dressed with a fresh T-shirt and pants.

Returning to the bedroom, Mia is still asleep.

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