"A man unwilling to fight for what he wants deserves what he gets."- Captain Hook, Once Upon a Time
"Guad, wake up."
My eyes flash open to see Bob above me, shaking my shoulder. "What?" I ask, clearing my throat.
Bob points to the front of the van, reminding me of where we are. The van is still chugging through the jungle with Perry at the wheel.
The loud rainstorm from earlier is gone, replaced by a quiet drizzle that softly taps on the window.
Alice is turned around in tht passenger seat, looking at everyone else all who seem to be awake. "We have something to tell you," she begins.
Rolling her eyes, Janis says, "Come on, guys, we already knew about you two."
"You were watching?" Alice says, looking surprised. Watching what? I think.
"No," Janis admits, "but it's so obvious. You guys hang out all the time."
"Are you talking about Perry and me?" Alice realizes, blushing. "No, that wasn't what I was going to tell you at all." Perry shifts uncomfortably in the driver's seat.
I can't help but grin at how awkward they are.
"We need to tell you about something a bit more important than Perry and me," Alice tells us, her face growing serious.
"This must be good," Janis whispers.
Diana giggles.
"Guys, seriously, stop," Alice snaps, more irritated than I've ever seen her. "Last night, when you guys were sleeping, Perry and I noticed a weird pattern of house lights. Like, all of a house's lights would flicker on and off."
I wring my hands in my sweater, balling the soft fabric in my fists.
"We found out that the pattern was morse code, and that it spelt out something," Alice continues. None of us move as she rummages through her pocket for something. I don't think to ask how she knows morse code, which is a topic I now nothing about.
We suddenly hear the sound of paper crumbling over the sound of the rain and Alice pulls out a wrinkled sheet of paper, showing it to us. Perry takes a deep breath from the front seat.
Although my education is limited, I can still read, and for a second I wish I can't.
On the wrinkled paper, in scrawled handwriting (you can tell the letters were written individually) are the words, "Bob I see you."
. . .
"What did the paper say, Guad?"
Bob and I are sitting alone outside a trashy convenience store on the edge of the jungle. The rain has stopped, and now the sky is just a grey overcast. The rest of the squad is at the restroom while Bob and I are stuck with watching the car. Bob insisted that he wanted to be outside, so we perched ourselves on a rock. I look at my friend curiously and he stares back. I forgot he is illiterate.
"Janis wouldn't tell me," Bob adds, reffering to the message on the paper.
I can see why Janis wouldn't want to talk to him about it. She's had weird enough experiences with the guy.
"The paper said, 'Bob I see you,'" I state.
Bob's normally colored face blanches, like someone came and powdered it with flour. "Who sees me? Why? Where? How?" Bob wonders, breathing frantically. He stops and whispers, "Delgato."
I shake my head. "I don't know."
For a few more moments, Bob stares helplessly into the jungle. It's always scary when he's the one afraid. He normally can keep the mood light when it's heavy, but if he goes down I get dragged a little too.
"Hey guys," Perry says, leading the squad over to us. Janis observes Bob for a second and then moves back a few paces.
"Is it time to get back in the van?" I ask.
Perry nods, sending me an understanding look. I silently thank him as he takes the rest of the squad to our van.
Once they're all gone, I encourage Bob to stand up (it takes a few seconds) and we walk back to join the others.
I climb into the back before him and lean against the car wall, waiting. As Bob gets into the car to sit by me, he suddenly yells out a loud cry of pain.
Everyone's attention is suddenly turned to my friend, who is rubbing his forehead, where a large bruise has formed.
"Did you hit your head?" Diana asks.
"Yes," Bob groans. For the first time I notice a small black cylinder hanging in the corner of the doorway. "It has a lens," he notices, peering at the device.
"Is that a camera?" Perry asks, getting out of the passenger's seat to come look at it.
Bob nods. "Is someone monitoring us? Is it Delgato?"
I join him and Perry, studying the new problem in our lives.
After a minute Perry shrugs and goes back up to his seat. "We should ignore it," he tells us. "Don't let them know we know about it. Try not to glance at it for a while."
Bob laces his hands while I help him into the van, and Alice pulls us out onto the road.
Suddenly, I get what Perry calls an "epiphany."
"Ashton's the one that gave us this car, remember?" I say.
Whatever noise there was is gone. "You think he's watching us?" Janis asks. "He helped us, didn't he?"
"He used to work for Delgato," Alice reminds her sister. "Delgato might have gotten to him."
Diana shrinks against the wall, obviously irked by the conversation. I scoot over next to her. "Uh, we'll be fine," I tell her. "We can handle that guy."
The smile she gives me back is more sympathetic than grateful.
What happens next is unexpected. My stomach drops the same way it did when our plane plummented to the ground. Diana is putting her head on my shoulder.
Bob glances at us and grins. When Diana sees this, she sits up straighter and pulls her head away. I curse Bob in my mind with all the profanities I know.
I notice that the rest of the squad has stopped talking about Delgato.
Not knowing what else to do, I lean back and fall asleep, thinking of Diana.
...
At our next stop, we somehow end up alone in the van together while the rest of the squad gets things from a store.
"I suck," is all that she says at first.
"Don't say that," I mutter.
"All I did when we first started was keep the morale up and encourage the others. But now I can't even do that." Looking into her harsh green eyes, I know that she believes what she's saying. She doesn't think that she can do anything. It's funny how we have such differing opinions about the same person.
"Why? Why was your job to keep the rest of us up?" I find myself asking.
She bites her lip and I try not to smile seeing it. "Making what was around me happy was the only way anyone couldn't see what was sad inside me."
I can't think of anything to do but put my arm around her shoulder. "If you want, I can boost your morale to help you boost the others'."
She looks at me and I look at her. We sit her in the van analyzing each other, and I really want to kiss her the way I saw my dad my mom, but I know there's no way I can. Perry would kill me, and Diana's life is too difficult for anything like that to happen.
So instead I let her fall asleep in my arms, not waiting to join her.
. . .
"Guad!" A frantic voice whispers.
"What?" I grumble, hefting myself up.
"Shh!" The voice snaps, pushing me down.
I blink my eyes open and glance around. The van has stopped. Bob is holding me to the floor.
"What's going on?" I breathe.
Bob doesn't speak and the only sounds are footsteps coming from around the van.
I hear talking from the front. I look in between the front seats and see Perry, Janis, and Diana talking to Columbian men in uniforms.
"¿Hablas español?" One of the uniformed men asks.
"Sí. Estudio español en mi escuela," Janis says fluently.
I feel someone shift next to me. Alice, I think.
"Mis amigos quieren ingleas por favor," Janis says, telling the man that we want them to speak in English.
Bob begins to move us closer to the front seats so that we can lie on the ground and not be seen.
The uniformed man grunts. Up between the seats and look past Janis to see his head looking through our window.
"We looking for refugees," the man says in broken English. "We are the border patrol."