Chapter 12

Daniel stood with his boot-clad foot wedged between the door and the jamb and impulsively said, “If you’re not going to pay me, then you don’t leave me any other choice. I’m sorry, Mrs. Wentworth, but I quit.”

Her resigned sigh as she opened the door assured him that she wasn’t prepared to let him walk so easily. He pulled his foot away. He was too valuable to her and she knew it. He’d been working there for six years, since before the house was even finished being built, and he was responsible for maintaining every square inch of that property, so it would always be perfect anytime she drove up from Denver.

“It’s a free country,” said Mrs. Wentworth. “Do whatever you want, but the caretaker’s cottage is a perk of the job. Since you’re no longer working here, I expect you to clear out your shit and get the fuck off my property, or I’ll have you arrested for trespassing.”

He gasped. “But, where the hell am I supposed to go?”

She regarded him with cold indifference and shrugged. “Not my problem,” she said, and slammed the door in his face.

Daniel stared at the heavy oak door in shock. Oh god, what had he done? He needed this job. He needed a place to live! He lifted his hand to knock but stopped himself. He knew Vivienne Wentworth well enough to know that she’d never back down now. Not without making him grovel first, and she’d probably demand he accept a pay cut too. No way. Fuck that! He couldn’t do that. He wouldn’t do that. Not when she already owed him a month’s back wages. He would never bow to that greedy, heartless bitch, no matter how badly he needed the money.

Back in the cottage, Daniel sat at his small, round dining table and held his head in his hands. But for a small spot he left clear to eat his meals, the table was covered with objects of interest he’d collected from the property and surrounding areas over the years. Interesting rocks and minerals like topaz, quartz, and feldspar, small pieces of petrified wood, fossilized plants and small marine animals, notched arrowheads once used by the Ute and Arapaho, and small fragments of their broken pottery, decorated with geometric designs. Nothing of significant value, but a reflection of the many years he’d lived and worked there. He absently picked up a piece of smoky quartz and tumbled it in his fingers before letting it fall back into the pile.

“Fuck.”

He needed to find a place to stay, which was going to be tough without any money. He first thought to ask his uncle Raffie and aunt Anna Maria for a place to crash, but Daniel’s cousin, Mike, his wife Sophia, and their two kids were already occupying the two spare bedrooms. Daniel figured he could probably talk them into letting him crash on the couch, but he didn’t want to put even more strain on them in an already cramped house. Especially when he had nothing to contribute.

His best long-term option was to call his mom. She’d been harassing him for years to move back home anyway, so this would be the perfect excuse. The only problem was, she lived in El Paso with the rest of the family. Not only would it take eleven-hours to drive there, he wasn’t sure if he had enough money to afford the gas.

No, he needed to get temporarily settled somewhere first and either earn or borrow some more money. Borrowing would be a problem. He already owed a bunch of friends who’d help float him the past few weeks. Fifty bucks here, a hundred bucks there. At least they weren’t charging him interest.

Daniel’s face compressed into a scowl when he thought about that, and he looked out the window to the mansion beyond. He closed his eyes and shook his head, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. Then he picked up the phone to make a call.

“What do you want, cabrón?” came Luis’s voice. In the background, Daniel heard the high-pitched sound of grinding metal and loud banging.

“Hey, you got a minute?” Daniel asked.

Luis talked for a while in rapid-fire Spanish to someone on his side of the call. Probably some of his crew based on the way Luis was shouting orders and directions. When he came back on, he sounded frustrated.

“Sorry about that. We’re trying to hurry up and finish this job in Bellvue and get the fuck out of here. Dude, have you been watching the news? Shit’s fucking crazy, bro! All the güeros on the jobsite are, like, packing heat and shit. I had this one guy come up to me yesterday and ask to see my fucking green card! I was like, yo, you better back the fuck up, homie! I was born here, asshole. I served two tours in motherfucking Afghanistan. What the fuck have you done, you fat fuck? He was all like, uhhh, I was just checking. Then he said, thank you for your service. Can you believe that shit? Fuck man, after that, I told my crew to strap up. I even brought my AR with me this morning, just in case one of them white boys got jumpy and started popping off.”

“Yeah, it’s nuts. Look, when do you think you’re going to be done today?”

“I don’t know. Pretty soon. Why, what’s up? Oh, hey, I thought you said la bruja was driving up today.”

“They are. They did. They got in this morning.”

“Is she cracking that whip yet?” he asked with a snicker, then made a few quick whipping noises. “Ándale, huevón! Muévete!”

“Dude, she fucking fired me today.”

Luis stopped laughing. “Holy shit, dude, are you fucking serious?”

“I mean, pretty much. She hasn’t paid me in over a month.”

“Wait, so you quit?”

“Did you hear what I said? She owes me, like, three grand! What the fuck else was I supposed to do? Work for free?”

Luis sucked air in a pained hiss. “Damn, ése, I don’t know. I mean, that’s a fucked up situation, but don’t you get, like, free rent and shit too?”

Daniel sighed and said, “That’s why I’m calling.”

“Oh shit! Did she kick you out?”

“She said I have to get all my stuff out of here and leave, or she’s going to call the sheriffs.”

The morbid chuckle on the other end of the line didn’t make him feel any better. “Oh, Daniella, you done fucked up, bro!”

“Hey!” Daniel snapped, in no mood to be teased. “I need your help, okay? I can’t fit everything in my truck, and I’m worried that if I leave she won’t let me back in to get the rest of my shit. So, do you think you can come help me out, or what?”

“Where are you going to live?”

Daniel noticed that he hadn’t said yes. “I don’t know yet. I’m still working on that.”

“Look, I’d offer to let you stay at my place, but you know how Lisa is. Plus, with the new baby and all this shit going down right now, it’s not a good time-”

“I get it. I wasn’t going to ask you anyway. I was thinking about asking Hector if I could crash at his pad for a couple days while I sell some of my shit before heading down to El Paso.”

“Oh shit, man, are you really thinking about moving?”

“I don’t really have much of a choice.”

“What about Katrina?”

Daniel sighed. “Yeah, I don’t know yet. I’m going to have to work something out with Elena. Anyway, how about it? Do you think you can come help me, or what?”

“Bro ... It’s, like, four o’clock already, and I’m all the way on the other side of the reservoir from you. Besides, we still have to finish up here, and then I have to drive three of my guys home. Can it be tomorrow? I can head over there first thing in the morning.”

“Tomorrow? Dude, are you listening? I have to be out of here today!”

“Dude, bro...”

Daniel felt himself becoming emotional, and it reflected in a thickening of his voice. “I’m in a really bad spot, Luis. I mean, I’m fucking homeless, man. Please, I could really use your help right now.”

Luis sighed heavily. After far too long, he said, “Fine, you little bitch. Give me, like, an hour, okay?”

Daniel wiped his face. “Thank you.”

“It’s all good, homie. Hang in there, alright? I’ll see you in a few.”

After hanging up with Luis, Daniel’s next call was to his ex-wife, Elena, and he wasn’t looking forward to having that conversation.

“You quit? Danny! Are you kidding me? You still owe me for last month! What the fuck?”

“Well, what the hell else was I supposed to do?”

“Not quit! How about that?”

Fuck. He took a deep breath. “I was planning on getting a different job anyway.”

“Well, here’s an idea. How about you get another job first and then quit?” Her frustrated sigh tickled his ear. “I take it this means I shouldn’t expect anything from you again this month?”

“I’m sorry, Elena. I’ll get you back as soon as I can. I promise.”

She scoffed. “Yeah, sure. From where?”

“I’ll get it.” He closed his eyes as he broke the other bad news. “I’m going to be heading down to El Paso for a while.”

“To visit?” she asked cautiously.

“Probably for longer than that.”

“How long?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

“Oh, Danny,” she said softly. “Katrina’s going to be devastated.”

“I know. Is she there? Can I talk to her?”

“Yeah, hold on a second. Oh, by the way, Rosa called. Again.”

“What did she want?”

“Other than to ask when I’m going to come to my senses and take you back?”

“Sorry about that,” Daniel said with a forced laugh. “You know my mom loves you to death. You’re like the daughter she...”

Elena lowered her voice. “I know, Danny. Anyway, she was trying to get in touch with you. She says you never answer your phone when she calls.”

“Yeah, because I don’t get any service.”

“I know. I keep telling her that, but she says you don’t answer your house line either, and you never return her messages.”

He felt like an ass about that. Especially now that he needed something from her. “I’m going to call her later.”

“Alright, well please pass along my love. Here’s Katrina.”

“Hi, dad.”

“Hey! How’s everything going?”

“Alright, I guess,” she said, sounding down. She lowered her voice. “Mom’s really scared.”

“About everything that’s going on?”

“Yeah.”

“I know, baby. People are acting a little crazy right now. You guys should be alright, though.”

She was quiet for a while. “Are you really moving?”

Damn, he’d hoped she hadn’t been listening in on his conversation with Elena. “I’m going to go stay with grandma while I work through some things, but just for a little while.”

“When are you coming back?”

“As soon as I can, sweetheart. Hey,” he said brightly, changing the subject, “it’s almost Halloween! Do you have any plans yet?”

He could almost hear her shrug. “I don’t know. I mean, not really. It’s a school night.”

“Tio Raffie and Tia Anna’s Día de los Muertos party is tomorrow. I know Isabella and Carlito are going to be there, and I think Hector and Leite are coming this year too. Why don’t you come with me? I really want to hang out with you before I head to grandma’s, and I know everyone would love to see you again.”

“I don’t know,” she said, sounding as if she were talking into her chest. “I don’t even have a costume to wear.”

“What are you talking about? Your mom and I have a ton of our old costumes in those bins in the garage. You know the ones I’m talking about. On the black shelf? Just go in there and pick something out.”

She hemmed and hawed and finally relented. After getting permission from her mom, she sounded a little more excited.

“Mom wants to know if you’re okay with coming to pick me up,” she said.

Shit, did he even have enough gas to go pick her up and take her home afterward? “Seriously? She can’t take you?”

“Dad...”

“Just ask her, please.”

After a brief discussion with her mom, Katrina said, “She says she can bring me to your house, but that’s it.”

That wasn’t going to work either. He didn’t know where he was going to be living tomorrow. He decided to stall for time. “Alright. Look, I have to do a few things right now, but I’ll call you back in a little bit, okay, and we’ll sort out transportation for tomorrow. How’s that sound?”

Katrina sighed. “Fine, I guess.”

“Alright. Hey, I love you, Katrina.”

“I love you too, dad.”

“Say bye to your mom for me. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“I will. Bye dad.”

“Bye, baby.”

Calls to other friends and relatives in the area yielded no one who could take him in for more than a night, with the exception of his buddy Igor, but he lived all the way down in Lochbuie, which was an hour and a half away. He thanked him for the offer and said he’d get back to him if he couldn’t find something closer. He thought about calling Elena back to ask if he could stay in the spare bedroom for a couple nights, but thought better of it. He was already on thin ice with her for missing last month’s support payment. The way things were looking, it was very possible he’d be sleeping in his truck tonight.

With nothing left to do, he decided to start packing, only to realize that he didn’t have any boxes. He had plenty of heavy-duty, fifty-five-gallon trash bags though, which would have to do. True to his word, Luis came sliding up to the gate in his dusty, rusty, but very trusty Ram 2500 about an hour later, and had brought three of his guys along with him.

Luis popped out of the truck with a straw cowboy hat on his head and an AR-15 slung over his shoulders. He stepped up onto one of the gate’s crossmembers and whistled, waving his hat around like a rodeo cowboy.

“Oye, pendejo! Open the fucking gate!”

Daniel whistled back and flipped him off. “Cállate, huevón! Just hold on a second!” He reached into his truck and pushed the button on the gate opener, but it didn’t open. Shit. He took it off the visor and pointed it straight at the gate. Nothing. “Fucking battery,” he mumbled, then held up a finger and shouted, “Hold on!”

“What the fuck?” Luis shouted back.

Daniel could have run down to the gate and opened it manually, but it was a good hundred yards away and he knew where there was a spare battery. He trotted into the cottage and found it in the junk drawer. Just as he replaced the old one, he heard Mrs. Wentworth’s shoes rapidly click-clacking down the driveway as she shouted his name.

“Daniel! Daniel!”

Aw, shit. He was supposed to clear any visitors with her ahead of time. She must have seen Luis pull up. Daniel clipped the gate opener back onto the sun visor and turned just in time to catch her by the shoulders.

“Who-who are those men?” she asked in a strained, high-pitched voice. “What do they want?”

Was she serious? Luis and his crew had spent four months doing all the custom steel work in her house. They’d even custom-fabricated the very gate Luis was standing on. Mrs. Wentworth, of course, had been the client from hell, and had spoken to Luis – shouted at him, really - numerous times, complaining about every little detail, making countless last minute changes, and generally being a huge pain in everybody’s ass.

Daniel looked into her eyes and saw that she was scared. No, not just scared. She was terrified! She trembled in his hands. He moved his eyes between Luis and Mrs. Wentworth, looking for any sign of recognition from her. Holy shit, she really had no clue who he was. Just then, an idea rushed into his head. He let her go and wandered to the back of his truck.

“I’m not really sure,” he said. “I think they want me to open the gate.” He slammed the tailgate shut. “But that’s not really my problem anymore, is it?”

“W-wait! What are you saying?”

“You didn’t want to pay me, remember? So I quit, and now you’re kicking me out of my house.” He looked at Luis and shook his head, fighting to keep a straight face. “Call 911 if you need someone’s help. I’m sure the sheriffs will be along in an hour or two to help you out, if they come at all.”

Mrs. Wentworth, pasty on the sunniest of days, went white as bleached flour. “I’ll pay you! Right now! I’ll pay you everything you’re owed.” She held out her hand to him. “J-just don’t leave, okay? Stay right there. Give me two seconds and I’ll go get my checkbook!”