Cartel Chronicles

Chapter 13

"Hey, brother!" The boy greeted. Javier made no effort in trying to hide his contempt of his word choice.

"Do you have any dust?"

"I just ran out about an hour ago, I have some kush though...."

"Do you have anything besides brown weed?"

"I have a few X, and some Viagra." Javier considered the ecstasy, but knew that it would worsen his condition rather than improve it. He was running out of options and time, his body was weakening and he wouldn't be able to continue walking for long. He headed back to his truck defeated. He picked up his cellphone and stared at Karina's number for a long time, desperate times called for desperate measures, but was this really that big of an emergency? Despite their falling out he knew that he could get her to do anything that he wanted her to, his claws were too far deep into her for her to walk away unaffected, but she had signed that contract with Jorge, that complicated matters. Perhaps he could send for her and she could stay a few days on the beach with him, he supposed he could tolerate her for a day or two if she brought enough heroin. Then again, no one back home knew the location of his other house, they had a general idea, but he liked to maintain his privacy especially since there had been two attempts to kill him in the last week alone. His shaking fingers dialed her number before he could change his mind, her not answering was a sign that he should try and remain anonymous.

He decided to stop off at the clinic; perhaps he could talk the doctor into giving him something stronger for the pain. He would take Vicodin at this point, anything would be an improvement. He was grateful that the clinic was just a few miles away. He made it there just in time for him to puke in the parking lot. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stumbled inside, which was a chore enough in itself every muscle in his body was stiff.

"Good evening Mr. Moreno is everything alright?" Adrianna asked from her perch behind the reception desk. Javier was taken aback by the greeting; no one ever called him that, but it was the sight of her that made him speechless, she was stunning, had she been that beautiful the day before? If she was he hadn't noticed.

"Are you having issues with your leg and shoulder?" She persisted interrupting his thoughts.

"Ummm...no...I'm sick I need to see the doctor."

"I see...well as you can see there are quite a few people ahead of you, are you willing to wait?"

"I guess I don't have a choice," he groaned looking around at the crowded waiting room.

"What kind of sickness?"

"I don't know, my entire body hurts; I haven't been able to keep any fluids down since I left last night, I've been puking all morning, maybe it's an infection."

"Um....perhaps."

"What else would it be?"

"I have my theory, but I'm not a doctor, would you like some water or something to sip on while you wait?"

"No, I just want the pain to go away, I'll wait."

"Have a seat then." Javier shuffled his way over to the only open seat and flopped down in the chair, his body was exhausted, but the pain wouldn't allow him to obtain rest or drift off to sleep. The chairs were uncomfortable to say the least. Waiting was a daunting task for Javier under normal circumstances, in the condition that he was he found it almost unbearable.

Sitting beside him was a little girl no older than five; her hair was braided in two pigtails one resting on each of her shoulders. She had a coloring book and markers resting in her lap and she quietly busied herself while an elderly woman he guessed was her grandmother dozed. Javier hated children, only because he hated being sociable, and kids had no boundaries, they wanted to know about everything, and always had to ask a million questions. Of no fault of their own, they were unaware of social cues and usually talked incessantly, something that Javier loathed. Furthermore, he hated having to censor his language, even he of all people thought it was disrespectful to curse in front of them, he believed that children should have the opportunity to remain as innocent as possible; a fate he wished that he would have been able to have. Would be have become the person that he was today had he been able to maintain his innocence?

His head began to throb and he squeezed his eyes shut hoping he would be able to control his nausea. He focused his attention on imaging where he would be had his childhood had been different. It was only the afternoon; he would be working, but what? He would be a firefighter, why not? He would be healthy; he wouldn't be enslaved by his drugs....his drugs. He felt sweat begin to bead on his forehead and he began to fidget imaging the feeling of ecstasy that coursed through his veins when he could feel the drug entering his blood through the syringe. His arm began to tingle and he could almost feel the needle on his arm, no wait there was something on his arm.

Javier opened his eyes; there was something on his arm, a purple marker to be exact, coloring on his skin. For a moment he sat there in astonishment, his muddled mind trying to process what exactly was going on, the little girl with the pigtails was coloring in one of his tattoos. His initial reaction was to jerk his arm away, it startled the little girl so much she jumped and dropped her markers on the ground. Adrianna looked up from her paperwork her eyes widened as she watched Javier examine his arm while the little artist picked up her tools.

"I ran out of pages in the book, I saw you hadn't colored in your pictures on your arms yet, I wanted to help," the little girl explained climbing back up in her seat. She had these big brown eyes that seemed to swallow up the room in them she focused her attention towards him and stared at him curiously, waiting to see how he would respond, he wasn't sure how to respond.

The first thought that crossed his mind was why did had she chosen that picture to color in the first place? The tattoo was a black and white portrait of the grim reaper it's now purple scythe circling around the vein he use to inject. The tattoo was large and took up his entire forearm; he found in peculiar that out of his tattooed sleeve she felt the need to color this one.

"Why this one?" He asked pointing to it for emphasis. Her eyes sparkled and her face shone with excitement as if she had been anticipating him to ask and couldn't wait to answer.

"I thought it looked scary, I like purple, I wanted to make it happy." Her enthusiasm was contagious; Javier almost smiled, almost as he listened to her chatter away excitedly about how her favorite color was purple and how someday she wanted her bedroom to be purple too. "What's your favorite color?"

"I don't have one."

"I bet it's black."

"Why do you think it's black?"

"Your pictures are all black," she pointed out touching all of the black tattoos on his arm. "That's why I was trying to color them." Javier looked around at all the people in the waiting room and let out a fatigued sigh.

"Well, thank goodness it seems that there seems to be nothing but time for you to color them in."

"Oh can I?"

"Might as well, but no pink I hate pink."

"Skulls aren't pink, they're red," she stated in a matter of fact tone.

"How silly of me not to know." Adrianna cleared her voice from behind her desk and she held a hand over her mouth trying to stifle a laugh, had she been watching this entire exchange? They locked eyes for a split second, a moment, her cheeks flushed and she returned back to her paperwork. He was transfixed by her, and he was staring, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from her, the longer he stared at her more beautiful she looked, was that even possible? The nausea in his stomach grew and he felt his stomach burn, he leapt up out of his seat causing an accidental mark on his shorts, he hurried to the bathroom and barged in. He made it into the bathroom barely, his entire body tightened as he wretched into the toilet. His throat burned, he felt defeated how long would this last? His breathing was labored by the time he had finished; he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and washed his hands. He stared at his arm admiring the artwork before lathering it up with soap, the ink dripped into the sink, like blood, he closed his eyes taking a deep breathe to steady himself and opened them slowly.