Angels and Assassins: 2: The Protector by K. Alex Walker

Author:K. Alex Walker [Walker, K. Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sage Hill Publishing
Published: 2022-02-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

They left the jet like tourists, holding hands and with sunglasses covering their faces, the lenses tinting the morning sun.

A minibus shuttle waited for them at the edge of their walk, Larke’s hair in a halo braid she’d styled just before they left. Their thin tops and shorts billowed in strong breezes coming from every direction. The air somehow smelled cleaner, fresh, and held a level of relaxation she’d never experienced. It was as if the country had opened its arms and coaxed her into them with the promise of a mother’s love.

The driver, who’d introduced himself as Fedor, took their bags and placed them in the back of the shuttle while they climbed inside. He greeted them with a smile, his teeth like pearls against his dark skin, his hair wavy and cut low. He told her he’d spent every day of his fifty years in Belize, never travelling outside the country and never being interested in doing so.

While he drove, he gave them bits of the country’s history that Larke picked up in snippets. He spoke of the spread of the ancient Mayans and the ruins of the civilization that still stood, the timeline from slavery to abolition, and the creation of the Kriol language. Fedor also boasted of the strength of the Belizean people through time as they raced toward independence.

Larke listened with half an ear because it was all she could give. The city’s beauty was hypnotizing, a pocket watch spouting bursts of color being dangled and swayed in front of her face.

Colorful buildings lined both sides of wide streets. Fedor drove with precision, avoiding bicyclists in the middle of the road with an expertise only experience could’ve developed.

Power lines dangled like hammocks above their heads. Clothing hung high in shop windows. Fruits and vegetables were sold in open-air markets, brighter and larger than she’d ever seen them back home.

The pace was slow and quick all at the same time, each person having somewhere to go, walking with purpose or stopping to glance at the price of a dress, finger its fabric.

Its beauty lay in its difference, the way it proudly wore its traditions and heritage for the world to see because the scars were not as deep, did not mask a hidden shame.

Inside the shuttle, the air conditioner blasted. This was day one of their excursion and even though they didn’t know where to start, there was a confidence building in her gut that she knew had come from their progress so far, the people she’d met, and the budding relationship with the man sitting across from her.

It was dizzying to realize that even as a woman who’d been independent for the majority of her adult life, she could still find shelter in someone else.

Larke, overwhelmed, leaned back in her seat. “What kind of place is it that we’re staying in anyway? Is it a house or…?”

Dez shrugged and she marveled at the size of his shoulders. “I don’t know. We just recently acquired it.

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