Chapter 2

The cost of gas at the filling station was a shock to Amy. She wondered what had happened to cause it to spike so high. Right away, she figured it would necessary to rent a much more economical vehicle even if she lost the hideaway space. She had about $5,000 in cash stashed under the spare tire taped to the underbelly of the car inside a slit in the thin carpet. She didn't want to touch the discharge money because it might be her "ace in the hole".

She had been sorely tempted to just barge in on Douglas and his new little "sweetie pie" but when she saw him slap her through the window with the kids at the dinner table it firmed up her resolve not to come under his control a second time. Her instinct was to just grab the kids and run but she was smart enough to realize that would only get her into trouble with the law. After all, she was legally dead and her former spouse was legally married in the eyes of the State of California. The conflict between legal and right never seemed so stark naked right in front of her very eyes.

They seemed well-fed, happy when they got off the bus and dressed with the trendiest clothing available. The last thing they needed was some wild woman they had never seen before come screaming into their home declaring she was their long-dead mom. There was time to figure out some way to change things in her favor but now was not the time when Douglas and Candy were at odds with each other and the business was going "belly up" losing all of her parents hard-earned fortune in her absence.

She had decided the cheapest and most legal way to change her name was to get married.

Her maiden name would make tracking her much too easy for those who might want to do her harm. Amy had to laugh at her own paranoia but she was not the same person who left for military duty overseas. It didn't take her long to figure out she had an available pool of unmarried males sitting on the sidewalks in front of the hardware stores and other hiring spots for "day labor" consisting mainly of illegal aliens with little or no documentation. All she needed was one unmarried male with some proof of identification either from another country or even furnished by some liberal state with a sense of doing good. She and her former husband had gotten married right in Las Vegas on the same day with very little difficulty. A quick trip to the Clark County courthouse would give her all she needed to finalize the name change and give her the documents she needed to establish a new identity. It would be just as easy to update her military records to show her new name since it is a common occurrence with female personnel. It was far better to be legal and duplicitous than to use false pretenses with illegal documents.

She knew she had found the right guy almost immediately.

He was eager and jumped up each time a prospective employer wheeled up looking for cheap labor. However, he was never selected because he was short, skinny and limped like he had one leg shorter than the other. In a way, he kind of reminded her of her own physical problems except she kept them well hidden.

Amy pulled up to the almost deserted sidewalk and rolled down the side window. The little guy approached warily because the SUV looked a little like the ones the ICE agents used when they were rounding up the illegal aliens and bringing them to the detention center. Sometimes they just let them go when they were too crowded or if the higher command decided the political climate was not favorable to enforcing the law.

"Si, Senora, what you need? Cut the grass, clean out garage. Diego does it all. $25 for half day and $50 for all day."

Amy looked at the little man from behind her shaded lenses. He seemed innocuous enough and she was pretty good at reading people after her years in captivity. His English seemed passable if not grammatical and he looked like he had taken a shower that morning.

"Are you married, Diego?"

"Married? Did you say married, Senora? No, Diego not married. But he is good worker."

She liked the way he talked about himself in the third person. It made him seem like a salesman for his own labors.

"I might have a job for you, but you must have a form of identification to show your true name. Do you have your Mexican documents?"

The sun darkened short man pulled out his wallet and waved a bedraggled piece of paper at her.

"I have here, senora. See, it say Diego Gonzalez born 1989 in Tijuana, Mexico. There is my home address of my mama and papa. You let me work now?"

Amy motioned for him to get into the SUV. He seemed a little leery of her because he was not used to being employed by crazy white women early in the morning. He was desperate for a job because it was already Wednesday and he had not worked since last Friday. He knew that if he just turned himself over to one of the contractors, he would have every day filled with backbreaking labor but they were very greedy and tried to keep most of the pay for themselves. No, it was better to try to make contact direct with the employers who trolled the labor pick-up points.

"Listen up, Diego. I got a job for you but I need for you to marry me down in Las Vegas. It is only about six hours away even staying inside the speed limit. I can give you $500 for the ceremony. It should only take about 72 hours' tops and I will buy you a bus ticket back here to Sacramento. I won't be like a real wedding or anything. I just need to use your name to get some documents for me. It is quite legal. You can keep the record from the courthouse to get your own documents and when you meet a nice young senorita, you can file a paper for $20 and all free and clear again. I will give you a consent paper to use signed in front of a notary."