Pueblo Antiguo (Ancient Village)
After ending the call with Madeline a thought that could only be described as miraculous in nature entered Pete's mind. He decided to wait until morning to break Jeremy out. "I'm a genius." He laughed as he retreated to the exit of Hospital Reforma and to the streets of Oaxaca. "A little food and some sleep and tomorrow...the great escape!"
The bearded man found his space in the Oaxaca nightlife. His friendly outgoing personality combined with his fluency with the language made it seem as if he had lived there all his life. Pete went throughout the night talking to the locals trying to find a place his grandmother spoke about. A place he knew only as Pueblo Antiguo. The Ancient village.
For Pete, a natural conversationalist, information seemed to flow his way. His clothing never looked like a tourist and his beard drew people to him like a magnet. He would never press too hard for knowledge and would buy a round for the table before he moved on.
Late into the night, Pete's idea seemed to be more illusion than substance and he sat at the end of the bar talking about his friend to himself. "Boss, I want you around for many more years. After all who else would tell me not to chase the Thompson twins." He had to laugh at that thought.
The owner of the pub walked to the end of the bar, nodded to the bearded stranger, and poured two shots of his finest sipping tequila. "You, I have never seen before and I know every local drunk, drink scammer, and regular ever to walk through my door. Except tonight. So either you are a friend or someone I should ask to leave." The man watched Pete raise his head.
"Friend." Pete looked at the tavern owner with a tiredness the man knew as a traveler. "Solo un amigo que busca el hogar de infancia de mi abuela." Just a friend searching for the childhood home of my grandmother.
The owner's eyes were stuck to Pete. "Drink, you will find no answers here." Then he raised the shot glass. "¡Al centro!"
Pete raised his glass but lowered it again. "I can not drink to health when my friend is dying." He shook his head. "Mi amigo!"
"So the story of your grandma's village. A lie?" The owner gave a gesture of 'I knew it' to Pete.
"No, not a lie. I just forgot the name of her village...Pueblo Antiguo, or something." He countered. "I need to find it for my friend."
The owner made the sign of the cross and looked to the heavens before speaking slowly. "I know the village you speak of." He took another sip of the smooth tequila. "It is no longer there." He shrugged. "Well, it is there but no one lives there."
Pete shook his head before taking a sip of the tequila. "Senor?!" The bearded man's eyes lit up.
The owner smiled as he took a napkin from the bar top and made a rudimentary map. "Aquí. Here!" He pointed to the X on the napkin. "Go there. Maybe you will find God. So now, we will drink to your friend's health."
Both the owner and Pete raised their glasses and echoed each other's cheer. "¡Al centro!"
The owner handed Pete keys to his old truck. "The truck ~ it is not much ~ but it will get you there."
"I can't take your truck." Pete put the keys down.
"You will never get anyone to drive you there." The owner nodded. "I tell you what. You need to sleep. Go down the hall."
Pete raised his hands as he shook his head, "No. I can not."
"Si!" The owner lifted a second key on the ring. "Down the hall, last door on your right. Sleep!" He pointed to the dimly lit hallway. "Go."
Pete raised his glass and finished the best tasting sipping tequila he had ever had. "Gracias." He nodded, grabbed the keys, and headed for the room offered to him.
The Great Plan
Pete opened his eyes as filtered sunlight passed through the heavy curtains. He checked his phone and ejected himself from the bed. "Ten-thirty! Crap!"
He ripped the door open. "The keys!" Pete remembered, even after all the alcohol he consumed. He stopped at the bar to speak to the owner before setting off.
"Oh ho ho, you are alive!" The owner laughed at the state Pete presented the world on this morning. "Good luck on your adventure today, Amigo!"
Pete sat at the same stool he ended his night on hours earlier. "Thank you. Gracias." He showed the keys to the owner. "Say, what is your name?"
"Miguel Consuelo Rodriguez Garcia, Senior." The man smiled proudly, turned and pointed to a photo behind the bar with both Miguel and his father.
Pete smile and offered to pay. "Money for using your truck!"
"No. I can not take." Miguel smiled. "Find your answers. Go!"
Pete lifted his butt from the stool, raised the keys as if to say thanks, and stepped outside to the truck, checked the keys, then got into the truck. "Seems oddly familiar." He frowned as he started the truck. "Very familiar." Though in his mental state he couldn't put a finger on the oddity he felt. What he did not realize, Miguel's truck was the same make, model, and year as Jeremy's truck.
On the third floor of the hospital, Jeremy fought with the nurses not to receive another syringe with pain medication. He lost, again and again, they gave enough medication to fully sedate him. In moments he could not feel a thing and he stared at the ceiling until he fell asleep.
Pete arrived on the third floor and headed to see his friend but the two nurses exiting the room closed the door behind them. "No visiting, he is asleep." The lead nurse waved her hands in front of Jeremy's friend.
Pete's frustration began to get the best of him though it could have been the lack of sleep and the alcohol he consumed the night before. The combination did not make him a happy man. "It is eleven o'clock!"
"You can speak to the doctor but no visit!" The nurse headed for the phone. "I will call her to see you."
Pete frowned as he spoke. "Why am I not allowed to see my friend?"
Ariella made her way to the disagreement. "Because you are not allowing us to do our job."
"What exactly is your job with my dying friend?" Pete did not understand.
"The police have made it clear. He is not to leave. If he does, we can be fired!" The doctor turned from the man.
Pete raised his voice to the doctor. "So they are denying my friend his right to live and die the way he wants?" He looked at Ariella.
"There is nothing my nurses and I can do for you." The doctor shrugged. "I wish I could help but this is our life, our jobs."
Pete had a crazy idea and raised a smile on his face.
"What is it? Why are you smiling like that?" Ariella frowned. "Oh! I don't want to know ~ do I?"
Pete lowered his voice. "Is there a place where we can talk and no one can hear us?"
The doctor grabbed Pete by the shirt and headed into the washroom. She turned the water on to drown out their voices to anyone trying to listen.
"We make a switch, me for Jeremy. You order a test that sends me to wherever. You have an officer escort me. I overtake him, tie him up." Pete shrugged. "It's the best I can do."
"So you want me to wheel your friend to the parking lot?" Ariella began to see the picture take place.
"I will pay a local to wheel Jeremy to the getaway car." He smiled. "You and your nurses do not jeopardize your careers. My friend and I do what we need to do."
The doctor looked at Pete, thought about what he just said then answered. "No." She shook her head.
"Why no?" Pete didn't know why she would want to help but say no to a plan that would be safe for everyone.
"No to using a local. This has to be done...by...me." Ariella shrugged. "I will not involve any more people." With her future on the line and the wishes of a dying man pulling her in two directions, of course the doctor chose the patient over her well being. Though the fallout for her could well be prison time or worse ~ unable to practice medicine ever again.
Pete disagreed with her. "I can not have you lose everything. Jeremy wouldn't want that either!"
"Too bad! It's my way or no way!" The doctor waited for Pete to answer.
Pete nodded at the twist to the plan. "If you are fired, you will be my personal physician."
"God I hope this works," Ariella mumbled.
"What was that?" Pete didn't hear it clearly with the water running.
The doctor shut the water off. "I said, God, please be with us!"
"Yeah yeah. Definitely!" Pete nodded several times as he turned the water back on.
"So at four o'clock I will order a test."
Pete cut the doctor off. "Why so long?"
"He is fully medicated by order of the police. I can not handle him when he can not help." Ariella stated. "So be here at that time and shave that thing off your face or it will never work!"
"Oh crap! I didn't think of that!" Pete looked at the mirror. "I hope the Thompson twins forgive me!"
"Who are the Thompson twins?" Ariella questioned Pete.
"Forget it." Pete smiled as he shut the water off again and opened the door. "Can I sit with Jeremy until this goes down?"
Ariella nodded and opened the door to 301B. "He can probably hear you but just won't be able to respond."
Pete happily shared time with his best friend. When it came time, he left Jeremy and entered the washroom. "Are you ready for this?" The short stubby scissors Ariella gave him to remove the wiry beard hair seemed inadequate for the job.
He managed to trim his beard down to a close stubble so he could shave. "I can't believe I just did this! I must be out of my freaking mind!" Looking into the mirror he laughed. "The twins won't even recognize me!"
The time for the great escape neared as the doctor brought the wheelchair in for Jeremy. "Whoa!" Ariella had her first look at Pete without the beard. "You clean up pretty well."
"What's that suppose to mean?" Pete patted his face dry with the hand towel.
"You are not half bad looking." Ariella laughed at the man. "Are you ready?"
"As ready as I will ever be. Let's check on Jeremy." Pete walked past the doctor to see if his friend was alert. "Hey Boss, let's get you out of my bed."
Jeremy did not open his eyes but he did respond to his friend. "Hey Pumpkin, are you tired?"
"Yeah Boss, I am tired." Pete looked at Ariella who seem to be confused with the whole Boss and Pumpkin thing.
"What are you two talking about?" The doctor appeared lost with their conversation as they dressed Jeremy.
"Don't worry about it. We have...let's say a unique friendship. I know everything about him." Pete laughed, "and he knows just enough about me."
"Uh-huh. Okay." Ariella shook her head.
"Where are his shoes?" Pete looked at the doctor.
"He didn't have any when they brought him in." Ariella shrugged. "What should we do?"
Pete slipped off his shoes and placed them on his friend. "That solves his problem. I guess I'll figure it out as I go."
"Now wrap this towel around your arm. They are taking you to get an x-ray. Good luck! I have to get Jeremy out of here before the police get here." She pointed to the bed. "Get in now. We're cutting it close!"
Pete looked at Jeremy in the wheelchair. "See you in the truck, Boss." He nodded to the doctor, wrapped his right arm, and covered himself in the bed with a blanket.
Voices could be heard from the hall. The police were there and they were not gone. Ariella pushed Jeremy into the washroom and closed the door.
"Aquí!" Here. The doctor motioned to the police officers. "¡El esta aqui!" He is in here!
The officers made their way into the room with their own wheelchair. They had the handcuffs ready for the foreigner.
"No los necesitará." Not necessary. The doctor objected. "Es un moribundo." He is a dying man.
The officers helped Pete into the wheelchair but one noticed his bare feet. He asked Ariella for hospital slippers adding, "los pisos están fríos!" The floors are cold!
"Si, si." The doctor waved the police to the hall then she placed hospital slippers on Pete's feet. She asked the officers to meet her at the x-ray room.
Ariella did not know how Pete could possibly escape the police now.