Chapter 5

Larry & Wendy

So Larry and Wendy took turns telling the older couple their complete stories. The only thing they left out was the location and directions to their canyon. When they explained about the police officer paying way too much attention to them and then the highway patrol car. And the panic that had driven them to pack up and drive here to wait for the store to open, Mark held up his hand.

“So it comes down to you love each other and don’t want to become separated, and you love this canyon and want to live there until Wendy turns eighteen. There are things you need, and that is why you come out every six months or so. And you need help to get back to the canyon undetected! Is that all?”

“Yes sir, that about covers it!”

“This is what Ma and I are going to do. We own a bobtail box truck to make deliveries. We can load up your bike, trailer and the two of you and take you to the streambed where you leave the highway to go to your canyon. We’ll set up a schedule for when we will make a delivery to the same place every six months. At the same time we can pick up anything you want to send to Dale or anyplace else. And we will do this for the next four years. But there are conditions! One, Wendy must be on some kind of birth control! Two, both of you have to complete your education, so we will bring and pick up course work towards getting a high school degree. Third, someday we would like to see this canyon. And fourth when you get married, I want to walk the bride down the aisle!”

Larry and Wendy looked at each other and smiled, then nodded to each other. Wendy said, “We agree, but with one additional request, that Ma, walk Larry down the aisle too!”

Everyone laughed and the deal was made. The next morning the motorcycle and trailer were driven up the ramp and into the back of the truck. All of their order was already stowed away in the trailer. The new batch of coins had been sent to Dale. They called Dale and explained what was going on and introduced Pop and Ma to both Dale and Glenda.

Then they drove fifty eight miles to the junction of the dry stream and Highway 288. They drove past a city police cruiser and an Arizona Highway Patrol car, but Pa was observing the speed limit. They offloaded the bike and the kids, everyone hugged and they went their separate ways. They buried the two rifles and fingers near the bones of the two animals that had followed them. Just under an hour later Larry and Wendy arrived at the cave. They unloaded the trailer then stripped and went to the pool and played in the water, making love in the grass and laying in the sunlight for a while. Later after supper they made love again on the mattress with clean sheets.

The winter was a mild one, the temperature in the cave stayed the same, after Larry put a tarp over the entrance to keep the wind out. They busied themselves with preparing the garden, hunting deer when they tired of rabbit, and smoking the venison to preserve it.

Winter passed and spring arrived, they were busy planting the garden, light spring rains kept it watered and the plants grew. Then it was time to go meet Pop at the end of March. September was usually dry, but in March they had to be very aware of rain on the mountains. The canyons were formed by water rushing down from the mountain, walls of water a hundred feet high and traveling eighty to a hundred miles an hour, sweeping through the canyons and out into the desert weren’t unheard of. Even moving water only a foot deep can knock a person off their feet.

So the morning they were to leave to meet Pop, Larry climbed as high as he could in order to look at the weather on the mountains. The air was clear and there wasn’t any sign of rain. There was no guarantee that it wasn’t going to change, but at that moment it looked good. They started down the canyon, getting past the narrow part without any problems. Traveling within the streambed was always the fastest part of the trip, it was solid rock with occasional sand bars so in places he could go thirty miles an hour.

Then they heard a roaring sound over the thrumming of the Harley’s engine. Wendy looked back and saw water gushing out of the narrow part of the canyon at least sixty feet up, spreading out in the wide streambed; it was three feet deep and coming at them faster than they were going. Looking in his mirror Larry could see it too! They had discussed the possibility of getting caught like this, better to lose the trailer than themselves. Larry had tied a line to the hitch release on the trailer. He spoke into the intercom,

“Wendy, pull the string and release the trailer!”

“I’m trying but it won’t come loose!”

“Hold on, we’ll just try to make it along with the trailer!”

Larry increased this speed, they were airborne coming off of the sandbars, just around the next bend there was a shelf with a game trail leading to the top, about thirty feet from the streambed. The water was almost to them but the curve forced the water against the outside of the curve, he rounded the inside and gunned it making the rear wheel come up from its slide and they shot up the game trail, the wagon followed them but a big bounce caused the hitch to come off of the swivel ball and the trailer flipped end over end into the roiling, frothing water below them.

They continued to climb until they reached the highest point on the shelf and then prepared to leave the bike if they needed to. Larry unbuckled the saddlebags and packed it full of everything under the seats, then he looked for a way to climb higher if needed.

The water rose a few more feet, but soon the roar began to lessen and the water receded.

Out at the bridge, Pop had watched the thunderstorm as it hid his view of the mountains, a lot of lighting could be seen, cloud to cloud as well as cloud to ground. Curtains of rain were sweeping the peaks, he prayed for the kids hoping they had stayed in their canyon, or had found a safe place to take refuge until the waters passed. A few minutes later a wall of water ten feet deep swept down the streambed, after the leading edge had passed he glimpsed an aluminum and black motorcycle trailer being rolled over and over in the water. It had to have been theirs. The question was, did they lose it, or uncoupled it to save themselves, or is the bike and their bodies somewhere under all of that water too?

Pop had been around too long to let negative thoughts intrude into his mind! He always remembered Donald Sutherland’s line in “Kelly’s Heroes”, “Stop with the negative waves, Moriarity! Think positive thoughts!” And from another movie, “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” the song “Always Look On the Bright Side of Life”! He had gotten out of the truck and was standing in the middle of the bridge next to the railing when he heard another roar, but this roar warmed his heart, it was the roar that only one kind of motorcycle in the world makes. The throaty roar of a Harley! They came around the bend in the stream, the streambed was scoured of its sandbars that had been laid down by the wind and removed by the water, they were hauling ass, knowing he would be worried. They waved at him and he smiled and waved back.

Larry managed to get the bike up the muddy almost washed out trail and up to the truck. Pop had just opened the back and was putting the ramp in place.

“I saw the trailer tumbling by, I hoped that the two of you weren’t doing the same! Trailers are easily replaced, they just cost money, something you already have plenty of!”

“It was close but we made it Pop! Wendy said as she hugged him.

Larry started to shake his hand but was drawn into the hug as well. They loaded the bike and turned around and drove to the store. An hour later when the highway patrolman drove by, the tracks had already dried up and blown away.

When they arrived at the store Ma was surprised, but very happy to see them! She had already adopted them both in her mind. Pop and Larry went into the office and looked on Amazon for a replacement trailer. Larry had no problem with purchasing the same one again it held as much or more than he ever wanted to carry. Once again he ordered it from Amazon, this time there was a one week delivery time. He also ordered replacements for everything that had been in the trailer when it was lost. Two five gallon gasoline jugs, four ratchet straps, they were delivered the next day. He also read the review about the Honda wheels and tires. He had noticed the tire wear on his old trailer. He messaged the guy that wrote the review and he sent him a copy of the receipt for the wheels and tires so he could buy the right ones.

Pop took him to the Honda dealership in Payson and he bought them, mounted and balanced. When Dale found out that they were in town for at least a week, he and Glenda flew to Phoenix and rented a car to drive the ninety one miles to Payson. Larry was pleasantly surprised to see the both of them and they loved meeting Wendy, Ma and Pop.

The women went shopping and to get Wendy’s hair done, but rather than getting the new “in” style, she found a style that was practical for where they were living, the same was true in her choice of clothing, rugged and durable, though she did let them talk her into a pretty sexy black nighty from Victoria’s Secret store and a nice dress to go out on the town in.

The men took Larry to a barber and he had his hair cut shorter; he also bought rugged clothing. The women insisted that he buy at least one nice going out on the town set of clothes so they could all go out and celebrate being together.

Larry had brought six more of the New Orleans minted gold coins out with him. The last six had been auctioned off and had brought in an additional $618,000, if taxes hadn’t taken almost half of it he would have been a millionaire. But he had more where that had come from. Two hundred and eighty eight more to be exact! As it was he could easily afford the trailer and the clothing!

They all fit into a limousine that was hired for the night, and they all dressed up and went to the best restaurant in town, then they went dancing, laughing at themselves as Larry and Wendy learned how to dance. But soon they were dancing with the best of them. They had a great time!

The trailer came in and the Honda wheels were put on, the lug nut pattern was a perfect match. The Harley had been serviced and tuned at the dealership, the new trailer wheels almost matched those on the bike. They all decided that they should mount two spare wheels and tires just in case something happened. So they ordered two more and then mounted both spares on the sides of the box in front of the wheel wells. Another thing they added was a large folding solar panel on the front slope of the trailer. It was wired to charge the battery of the motorcycle and another power cell mounted inside the box. Two iPads and a Canon Rebel digital camera kit with a bag and a tripod were purchased along with several high capacity SD cards. They could be charged through the bike or the power cell in the trailer. They looked at Hugh’s satellite dish for getting on the internet, but the power required was too much.

Ma had gotten information about an alternative school company that sold learning programs for homeschooled children. She bought age appropriate programs that would teach both kids through the first two years of college. The comprehensive tests would earn them a high school diploma and an associates degree. They were designed to run on the iPads.

They loaded up everything and Ma and Pop drove them to the junction of Hwy 288 and the stream. Everyone hugged and kisses were given and Larry and Wendy once again rode up the dry streambed on the rock that left no trace of their passing. Ma and Pop had turned around and were ten miles up the highway when the Arizona Highway Patrol car went by them going east. He had missed seeing them by ten minutes.

They had to do some reconstruction on the trail up the slope to the shelf the cave was on. An hour of work had improved the access enough to make it. The cave was undisturbed and they quickly unloaded the trailer. The last thing they unloaded took both of them, it had seriously overloaded the trailer but it couldn’t be helped, it was a pink granite headstone,

Here lie Phil Roberson & Philly MacPherson Together through Eternity

They carried it to the grave and placed it securely at their heads, supported by the shelf of rock at the back. Once again they both felt a warmth envelope their bodies as if they were being shown appreciation from the couple buried there.

They both studied hard and both caught up quickly and then passed the grade level they should have been in. They saw Ma and Pop every six months, always delivering six coins for Dale to sell. They would give Pop their coursework which would be evaluated by the company and if found to be adequate, which it was always far above that for both of them, they would be graduated to the next grade level.

They continued to love each other and make love together often, usually by the pond in the grass. They had their birthdays, Wendy turned fifteen, and a little over a month later Larry became seventeen. The next visit with Ma and Pa, they found out that they had been promoted to their Senior and Eighth grade levels. That same visit Ma gave them a rescue puppy, a Hines fifty seven mixed breed puppy that immediately stole both of their hearts. It grew to be a medium size dog with a loud bark, he looked like Benji, so that’s what they named him.

Benji saved them from the wolves twice, waking them up both times before the wolves made it to the cave. Both Wendy and Larry opened fire as soon as the wolves appeared inside the cave. They had another mild winter, though the temperature dropped below zero for almost a week and it snowed over a foot once. They were snug in the cave, a fire kept them warm and they had over three cords of wood stockpiled in the cave. It took the snow a long time to melt in the shade where it never got any light.

That next March when Ma and Pop met with them, they had been followed, the three men had been casing the store in order to rob them, but when they saw Wendy, they changed their minds. They figured that it would be easy pickings to kill the boy and rape the girl. Judging from the supplies transferred from the truck to the trailer there was plenty of food too! They followed the motorcycle and trailer from a distance then lost them when they came to the truck that was all shot up. They didn’t notice the bones which were mostly covered by blowing sand. They had brought two five gallon water jugs with them and two cases of Jack Daniel’s Black Label they had stolen out of the back of a truck. But to top it off they had kidnapped two fifteen year old girls as they had been walking to school that morning. They were trussed up in the back of the old four wheel drive Suburban they had stolen that morning too.

They looked for a way around the truck and the narrow gap that had stopped it but there wasn’t one. So they decided that they would just party with the two girls then bury them in the morning. What they didn’t know was that Larry and Wendy had learned their lesson with the two animals from the truck. They checked their back trail often, they knew the Suburban couldn’t get through the rocks even if they moved the truck. So they had back tracked and were waiting in the rocks to find out what the men were going to do.

They were shocked when the two girls were pulled from the back of the Suburban, untied, then stripped by the men who by then were each drinking from a bottle of whiskey. The men started a fire using the girls’ clothes as kindling. The girls were terrified and crying as they were fondled and pinched as they were passed around from one man to another. Then the men started talking about which two would be fucking the two virgins, one of the men went to the passenger side front door and opened it, then from the glovebox he pulled a 9mm automatic handgun turned around a shot one of the men, shot him dead! It’s hard to miss from five feet away!

The man with the gun turned to the other man and said,

“I don’t like to argue, do we both get a girl, or am I going to do both of them?”

With a nervous laugh the man said,

“We can both have one!” The gun went off again and the second man fell dead,

“Wrong answer, asshole!” He said.

Larry had moved so that he could shoot without endangering the two girls. When he had gotten in position and aimed at the head of the man, he yelled,

“Drop your weapon or you will be fired on!”

The man was quick, he spun around and fired two shots at the sound of Larry’s voice! Larry made sure of his aim and squeezed the trigger. The man grew a new hole in his head, actually two holes!

The naked girls were frozen in fear, were they rescued or was this person going to rape them as well? When a girl their age walked toward them from the darkness along with a boy not much older than them, even though he was holding a rifle, they began to have hope of surviving the night untouched.

“Girls, you can put your hands down now, we aren’t going to hurt or bother you in any way! Let’s see if we can find you something to wear in the truck!” At Wendy’s suggestion they dropped their hands and turned to the Suburban, noticing that the boy was studiously looking anywhere but at them. He was going through the dead men’s clothes. They found a blanket folded up behind the driver’s seat,

“Larry, can we borrow your knife, please?” Wendy asked.

Larry drew his Buck knife from its scabbard, then keeping his head down took the knife to her. He returned to what he had been doing. Wendy cut the blanket in half, then folded them each corner to corner twice, finding the center of the almost square pieces. Then she made an “X” cut in each of the centers. She lifted the crude ponchos over each girl’s head, they were not only warmer in the chill desert air, but they had regained a modicum of dignity as well.