Two For Rain is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.
To my Sweetie Lindo, without you I would have nothing to write about.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
CHAPTER 1
The sun glistened off the dark asphalt road ahead of us, less than twenty miles away was the US border and behind us red lights from a police car were flashing. Sebastian and I were treating Nelly and Gwen to a vacation in San Diego to thank them for letting us stay with them the past few months. From the moment we left Phoenix Nelly started dropping hints that she wanted to take a day trip to Mexico. Sebastian quickly shot down the idea on day one and backed it up with a long list of examples to why it was an awful idea. From then on Nelly reserved her Mexico quips for only Gwen and myself.
The night before we were getting pulled over in Mexico we were in the middle of drinks with some of Gwen's old friends when Nelly summoned us to the restroom. It was our last night in San Diego and I wasn't surprised she was making one final plea for her quest to go south of the border. She mouthed the word bathroom to me from across the table and I mouthed back the word no. Gwen laughed at our exchange because she had been through this many times before. Gwen and Nelly were my best friends from college. Nelly always insisted on having pow-wows with us in the women's restroom and I always resisted.
I let Nelly know by my sarcastic 360 glance around the room that I wasn't keen on hitting the bathrooms with her. We were in a cool little dive bar with a nice ocean view but it finally clicked in Nelly's head that it was not frequented for its cleanliness. She pointed outside and started walking towards the door. I kissed my husband Sebastian on the cheek before reluctantly getting up to follow Nelly. He was not concerned I was leaving him with people he didn't know because he found a guy to talk football with.
Once outside Nelly gave me the spiel I was expecting. She put the guilt trip on me thick pleading with me that tomorrow was her last chance to get the medicine she desperately needed. Her insurance didn't cover the meds and if I didn't persuade Sebastian to take her to Mexico she would rent a car to drive herself.
Driving down to Mexico to buy drugs didn't sound like a good idea but I was intrigued. I had been yearning for adventure since we left Florida a few months ago. We escaped a hellish situation and I would never want to go through anything like that again but I was longing for some kind of action. The extent of any adrenaline rush since moving back to Phoenix had been test-driving the cars Sebastian bought on Craigslist. That along with one night out where I had to make like a ninja to smuggle Nelly out of the club before the cops arrived over a fight she instigated. While this was only a day trip to Mexico it gave me hope for experiencing some kind of thrill.
Nelly went on and on about why I should be on board with her idea. I had already made up my mind that I was cool with it. She had me at 'I know it's dangerous but YOLO.'" The dangerous part had me not YOLO. Nelly's latest fad was using acronyms when she talked. She had to watch her language since she taught elementary school kids and to help curb her bad mouth she resorted to using acronyms, a G-rated version of the word or a made up word in place of the swear word. By habit she started turning a lot of her language into acronyms. It was getting on everyone's nerves.
Later that night when we walked back to the cottage we rented for the week I gave Nelly's spiel to Sebastian. He hated the idea but since Nelly was serious about renting a car if he wouldn't take her he obliged.
Well that was the other night the following day with cherries flashing in the rearview mirror I was sure Sebastian wished he had let Nelly rent that car. We had an uneventful day trip to Mexico up to the point where the Mexican police car was pulling us over. Nelly had bought her drugs and we were so close to crossing back over the border unscathed.
"You got to be kidding me!" Sebastian yelled. "I can't believe this."
I perked up and glanced back at Nelly and Gwen. They had fear on their face. Part of me was excited because this is what I was longing for. I wanted adventure and fear but only on my terms. I felt bad for that as I thought of headless bodies hanging over a bridge that I had recently seen for a preview about a documentary on Mexico's violence. My stomach dropped looking in the rearview mirror at the cop car. I felt a smidgen of guilt.
Sebastian slowly pulled over to the side of the road. "Aren't you happy now you got your damn drugs Nelly?" Sebastian was fuming. "So glad you got your precious pills."
Nelly didn't even know what to say for a moment. She had her blonde shoulder length hair in pigtails. It made her look like a teenager. Her blue eyes were big and I could tell she was scared. Nelly could never stay silent for long though.
"KMA Sebi you are the one driving! Why are you speeding?"
Sebastian's eyes narrowed as he turned over his shoulder to glare at her. "I'm not speeding mojón. We're from the US driving a nice car they either want to extort us for money or they're going to bust you when they find all those drugs. It might not even be a real cop!"
Nelly didn't have a comeback for Sebastian. The night before outside the hole in the wall bar Nelly had told me the drugs were for girl stuff. Gwen giggled hysterically. Hearing Gwen laugh the way she did made me realize I didn't want to ask specifics because I wouldn't be able to lie to Sebastian about it and he would nix the trip. I shook my head knowing Nelly got this idea from my grandparents. They take a trip to Mexico each year and stock up on medicine. Hell my grandma got a new set of teeth there a few years ago.
"You got us into this Nelly you have to get us out," Sebastian proclaimed.
The police officer took his sweet time getting out of his car and our nervousness was building rapidly. I looked out the window at our surroundings. We were in the outskirts of a Mexican city with a few raggedy stores and houses surrounding us. It reminded me of a Pepsi commercial without the supermodel.
Nelly looked perplexed. "How?"
"You better do something. Fake like you're sick and have to crap."
"What?" Nelly shrieked.
I spotted the police officer in the rearview mirror as he walked toward our Camry. A nervous gasp left Gwen's mouth. I took a deep breath.
"Fudge! Fudge! Fudge!" Nelly said quickly. "What should I do?"
The officer knocked on our window and all of us except Sebastian flinched.
"Be dramatic say you need a toilet," Sebastian said. "Point at your ass!"
When Sebastian rolled down the window he greeted the officer in Spanish so he knew he spoke the language. I had hoped this would give us extra points. Sebastian was Puerto Rican and fluent in Spanish. He was also 6'2" and built. With his dark hair and blue eyes he was gorgeous but his size and demeanor could come off as intimidating. I was hoping the power tripping police officer didn't take off points for that. They spoke back and forth in conversation for a moment. The police officer looked scary. His facial expression remained stern and even. His voice offered no compassion. Nelly sat behind Sebastian leaning against his headrest like a little kid in trouble. After a few moments Sebastian snapped his fingers to the side and til
ted his head to look at Nelly indicating it was her turn to do her thing. She would not speak though and sat there with a terrified look on her face.
Through my teeth I whispered to Nelly. "Tell him!"
Nelly paused like a deer in headlights and I wanted to burst out laughing. I turned away and looked out my window to distract myself from the sight.
"Um I have dia-ree-ah!" She began to sputter in a loud voice. "I'm really sick!"
The officer tilted his head and looked at her with confusion. He squinted his eyes and said something in Spanish to Nelly.
"Um Montezuma's revenge!" Nelly brought her weight to her left side, raised her booty in the air and pointed at it. "Butt! I gotta go!"
"Say nalgas," I whispered. "Nalgas means butt." I said this proudly since it was one of the few Spanish words my husband had taught me.
Nelly pointed to her butt again and spoke loudly, "Nal-gas, nal-gas!"
She dragged out the pronunciation. Sebastian was embarrassed and extremely agitated. I couldn't hold in my laughter and put the top of my tank top in my mouth to prevent myself from busting out. Nelly pointing at her ass and yelling was too much for me to handle. Sebastian started talking in Spanish again to the officer. All of a sudden there was a loud pop and all of us jumped. A few quick seconds later a string of loud pops echoed through the air. It sounded like firecrackers going off but I knew that sound it was gunshots.
"Get down!" Sebastian shouted.
The car shook as all of us quickly got down struggling to fit into the small floor space in the Toyota Camry. There was another loud pop and the sound of glass shattering. Small pieces of our front window shattered around me. Nelly and Gwen both let out loud screams. I raised my head up ever so slightly to look over at Sebastian. I tried to get as low as possible but it hurt trying to cram myself low to the ground. We heard the police officer yelling as he left the vicinity.
"What the hell!" I yelled.
"Oh fudge, oh fudge, oh fudge," Nelly whined.
Sebastian slowly kneeled up and looked over the steering wheel.
"There is a fire fight up ahead of us," Sebastian grimaced. He was struggling to contort his body to be able to stay low. "We can't stay in the car we're sitting ducks! Everyone get out from the right side! Stay low and get into that store over there! Go. Now!"
We scurried out of the car and sprinted to the store. It felt like we were moving in slow motion. When we reached the store we ran through the aisles continuing to get as far away from the gunshots as we could. When we got to the back of the store we all went down to the floor. I leaned back against the cooler door to catch my breath. I looked around and saw that most people were shopping like there was nothing out of the ordinary going on outside. A young mom was huddled to the left of us and had two young kids under her arms. Other than that the few customers in the store carried on with their shopping. I saw a young boy walking down one of the isles with a stack of papers. He was handing out some kind of flyer to everyone he walked by. When he walked by us Sebastian reached up motioning the boy to hand him a flyer. He looked it over and asked the young boy a few questions.
"Que es eso?" I asked.
Sebastian handed me the flyer. A picture of a Chinese girl was surrounded by Spanish words.
"The kid said a Chinese man gave him $20 to hand these out."
"What's the flyer say?" I asked Sebastian.
"It's about a missing girl."
I glanced at the picture of the girl then folded the flyer and put it in my back pocket. I looked over at Nelly and Gwen. They were both visibly shaken. Their faces were bright red and it looked like they were on the verge of tears. We sat in silence all of us trying to wrap our mind around what just happened outside. Well at least I got the adrenaline rush I was looking for. I smiled at Sebastian and he shook his head still reeling from his disgust with Nelly for dragging him down to Mexico. He gave me a sly look and I assumed it was because he realized that I was slightly amused at our predicament. My husband knew me too well. He put his arm around me, pulled me close to him and kissed the side of my head.
"You have missed the thrill of danger haven't you my lady?"
I smiled coyly. "Maybe a little."
The frequency of the popping from the gunshots slowed down. After a few more minutes of waiting it ceased all together. Sebastian told me he was going to check on things outside and walked to the front of the store. Gwen, Nelly and I stayed sitting on the floor. I realized that for Gwen and Nelly this had to have been the scariest moment of their lives. They don't know about the self-proclaimed private eye business we ran in Orlando so they had no idea that Sebastian and I had been through far worse.
"Holy fudge nuts!" Nelly ended her silence.
Gwen rolled her eyes and got the giggles. Gwen's laugh always started out as a giggle then gained momentum into a belly laugh. It was contagious. "Butt!" Gwen managed to say between giggles.
"Do you have diarrhea now?" I asked Nelly.
Nelly broke out her infectious laugh and all three of us started laughing non-stop. The laughing escalated when we watched an older married couple leap arm in arm over Gwen's long legs as they went to pick out a carton of orange juice. After a good five minutes or so we finally gained our composure and stood up to head to the front of the store. Through the store's front door we could see Sebastian talking to a local. I opened the door to go out but Gwen and Nelly hesitated not wanting to go outside where shots had just been fired a few moments ago.
"Leah go ask your man if it's okay to come out," Nelly said. "I want to get the f out of this place!"
"Oh now you know why Sebastian wasn't keen on your little day trip idea," I teased. "In your sales job last night you said that crime down here is exaggerated."
"Shut up b-zitch."
Gwen and I shot each other the look we had been sharing with each other since Nelly started using her new vocabulary.
"Nelly seriously!" I snapped. "You have to stop with your lame replacement words. It's super annoying."
I turned and let the door shut so I wouldn't have to listen to her response. I confirmed with Sebastian that it was safe to come out and gave the girls a thumbs up sign. Sebastian and I inspected the Camry. A bullet hole went through the front window and landed in the back seat. Nelly gingerly strolled over to us knowing she was going to take the heat on this one. Sebastian glared at her half-heartedly knowing that she felt bad about the situation she put us in.
"Hope that hemorrhoid medicine was worth it." He pointed at the backseat. "Check out where you were sitting."
Nelly put her finger on the small hole in the seat from where the bullet pierced it. "OMG!" She said this dramatically as she took a moment to reflect. When she saw the bullet mark she realized how close she was to being shot. "OMFG it landed right where I was sitting! I am so freaked out you guys. Gwen look!"
"Day trip everybody! YOLO, LOL, KMA, BRB USA. Let's go to Mexico!" Sebastian mimicked Nelly using his best womanly voice and even acted out her body language.
Nelly snapped out of the reflective sentimental moment she was in. While she tried not to laugh at his impression of her she couldn't keep herself from smiling. She shook her head in an effort to get a serious expression back on her face. "Oh be quiet," she grumbled. "And I didn't get hemorrhoid meds you jango!"
"You sure? And what? Is jango short for Jango Fett in your new language?"
"No I call you jango so I don't call you an f'er."
"Stop it children," Gwen said. "Can we like seriously just get the hell out of here now? I've been shot at enough for one day."
Sebastian inspected the windshield and ordered Nelly to go back into the store to look for duck tape to put over the bullet hole. When Nelly didn't return Sebastian went in and came out a few minutes later with a roll of dark tape that would have to do. Once on the road again all of us were silent. I think we all shared the same thought that we wouldn't feel relieved until we crossed the border back into the US. Nelly put on her headphones and listened
to her iPod to avoid anymore of Sebastian's wrath. Gwen closed her eyes trying to sleep off the terrifying event she just lived through. Sebastian held my hand as he drove. We would be back in San Diego with plenty of day left and I started to plan what I wanted to do before our California vacation was officially over. I wanted to get one more round of beach volleyball in along with a final dip in the ocean before we had to drive back to Phoenix that night.
"Hey did you keep that flyer?" Sebastian asked.
"Yeah." I grabbed the flyer from my pocket and unfolded it. "Okay so tell me everything it says Sebi."
Sebastian leaned his head over to get a better look at the writing on the flyer. "A Chinese girl went missing down here. It lists her features. She's 5'4", dark hair and eyes. Last seen wearing jeans and a yellow tee shirt. Her name is Grace Yu. If you have any information call Bo."
"The phone number is a US number right?" I asked. "619."
"Yep looks that way," Sebastian said.
"Yeah that's a San Diego area code," Gwen said quietly.
I looked back at Gwen. She still had her eyes closed.
"Hmm," I said. "So does the flyer say anything else? Did she go missing while visiting Mexico? Is there a reward?"
"Doesn't say much else and no reward listed but that's not a surprise."
"Why?"
"This Bo guy doesn't want to place a dollar amount on it or he might get extorted or kidnapped himself. The amount of kidnappings that take place here is ridiculous. He would get a bunch of calls with false information."
Gwen sighed. "Yeah it happens all the time. A girl I worked with the summer I lived in San Diego had a cousin get kidnapped when they were down here for a wedding. She said it was awful. The family paid the money and got her back in the end. They went through hell though."
"Wow," I said. "That's so sad. I don't know why anyone would want to risk coming down here."
All three of us glanced at Nelly who had her eyes closed bobbing her head slowly to her music.
Sebastian shook his head. "That one back there."
"Only Nelly," Gwen laughed.
"And PBJ," I said. We called my grandparents PBJ it stood for pretty boy and Jazzy.
"Oh yeah of course your grandparents they are regulars down here," Gwen laughed. "We will have to send Nelly with them next time because I am sure as hell not coming back here. Have you talked to Jazzy lately?"
"Yeah I talked with her a few weeks ago she told me a story about a lady at church who walked down the aisle for communion and only one leg had pantyhose on it, she missed the other leg."
Gwen cackled. "How does that happen?"
"I have no idea."
Sebastian frowned. "Hey wake up the drug mule I want her to have to endure this."
We were approaching the border. Gwen nudged Nelly in the leg. "Wakey-wakey."
"I am up you," Nelly searched for a safe word. "You people!"
Gwen laughed. "Good one Nels."
"Suck it."
Nelly wiggled around nervously. She took her headphones off and began to fidget with her seatbelt. Sebastian told her to calm down and act normal. We all breathed a sigh of relief after we were given the okay to continue on by the border patrol without an inspection.
"Go, go, go," Nelly yelled.
She was relieved to be out of Mexico. All of us were.
"Relax Nels we're all good," Gwen assured Nelly. "We're back in the good ole USA."
Nelly stayed turned around in her seat peering back at the border. After a few moments she turned forward and smiled brightly. "Home sweet home."
I took the flyer out of my pocket and kept studying it. I couldn't help but wonder where this girl was and what she was going through. Being kidnapped or having a loved one kidnapped in Mexico would be a nightmare. I wondered if Bo was her dad or brother or boyfriend. The girl looked quite young but guessing how old someone is nowadays is tricky. I am 24 and a few weeks earlier I couldn't get into an R rated movie because I didn't have my purse to show ID. Sebastian couldn't believe they wouldn't let me buy the tickets then told me I did look like a teenager with my dark brown hair up in a high ponytail.
"Grace Yu where are you?" I said quietly.
Nelly inched to the edge of her seat behind me and popped her head over my headrest to see what I was doing. Sebastian did not put on the radio at all during our trip to Mexico. He said he needed a break. On the drive to San Diego we sang and laughed the entire time. He didn't understand how we could laugh so much when we were around each other. Nelly and Gwen were like sisters to me. We played college volleyball at Arizona State together. Gwen grew up not that far from me in Colorado so I had known her since we were in grade school.
"What's with Hello Kitty?" Nelly asked.
"It's the flyer the boy was handing out in the store. A girl is missing. Her name is Grace Yu."
"What boy in the store?"
Gwen gave her a bewildered look. "Yeah just the only boy walking around the store we were in while we hid from bullets being fired. He had a stack of papers and was holding a rather scary staple gun. That boy!"
"Hey I was trying not to piss myself," Nelly snarled. "I wasn't paying attention to anything else in that store. So does this China girl live in Mexico and went missing?"
Sebastian filled Nelly in on the kidnapping and crime that Mexico was known for. He pointed out that he touched on this when she first brought up her brilliant idea of visiting Mexico.
"Sucks to be Grace Yu," Nelly mumbled.
Gwen gave Nelly a disapproving look for her snarky comment.
"Well it does!" Nelly exclaimed. She sighed then leaned back and sat normally in her seat.
After a few moments of silence I nudged Sebastian. I gave him the universal call sign and when he gave me a puzzled look I whispered to him that I wanted to call the number on the flyer. When I got something in my head I couldn't let it go. I knew Sebastian was thinking about the missing girl as well. Sebastian nodded his head slightly but I knew he didn't want to discuss this with Gwen and Nelly in the car. I was anxious to know if he was in agreement and I whispered to him that we could help find this missing girl. Of course with her headphones no longer on Nelly couldn't resist inquiring what I was whispering about.
"What are you two love birds talking about?"
"Nothing just thinking about this missing girl."
"Are you going to call the guy?" Gwen asked.
With her angle she heard what I had said to Sebastian. "Maybe. I'd like to get more information on her disappearance."
"And what?" Nelly smirked.
"Sebastian and I could help. We have no place to be, no commitments. No harm in trying to help. How many people even care this girl is missing? I feel for this guy Bo and this girl's family."
Nelly let out a snicker. "And what you two are going to make like Bonnie and Clyde and rescue th-"
"Those were bank robbers," Sebastian interrupted.
"Whatever, you know what I mean. Um, Turner and Hooch or whoever you want to call yourselves and make like detectives?"
"That's Tom Hanks and a French Mastiff," Sebastian said.
"Shut it," Nelly told him with a laugh. "Seb earlier you said you would never go down to Mexico now you want to go on a scavenger hunt down there for a fortune cookie? Please."
"I don't mind taking a chance on going to Mexico when the mission is to find a missing girl. I just don't like it when the mission is to get you hemorrhoid pills for your flaming ass."