Maricruz guided herself back down the dark hallway of her parents' house and into her Abuelita's room, where Benny lay on their pallet of blankets, already back in deep sleep. The combination of Abuelita's snoring and Benny's heavy breathing would have kept Maricruz from falling asleep had that been what she planned to do. She should have been tired, exhausted really; she'd been up for more than twenty hours except for a brief cat nap on the couch in the afternoon while Benny was sitting on the floor watching Ninja Turtles on TV. But lying there she couldn't sleep because she knew what she had to do. Lyle was all alone out there. She knew it wasn't her fault--at least she knew that some of the time--but that didn't matter. Before she had been helpless, with no way to get to him. But now there was a way, as insane as it sounded in her head, and she decided that saving Lyle was worth the risk. So as soon as she knew everyone was asleep she would take advantage of it. Excitement and fear swirled together in her gut as she lay there waiting.
After about forty-five minutes lying on the floor in the dark, Maricruz kissed Benny on the forehead, and crept slowly up the hallway, leaning in close to her parents' door. Hearing nothing, she tiptoed up the hallway to the foyer and started to pull on all of her cold weather gear: her ski bib and boots, her shawl neck sweater, coat, and stocking cap. She put her ski goggles around her neck and crept into the kitchen and stared at the hooks holding her parents' keys: her mother's house and Honda Civic keys held together by a hand-crocheted royal blue and orange key chain and her father's Chevy Blazer keys on the ring of a pewter soccer ball Benny had bought him for Christmas a couple years earlier. Next to them was the key she had come looking for. Maricruz reached up and held the snowmobile's keys in her hand without pulling them from the hook yet. She closed her eyes for a moment. Was she really going to do this? She'd never even driven a snowmobile and now she was going to drive one out into the country in the middle of a blizzard? But what if Lyle was out there hurt or freezing to death? He could be dying in a ditch somewhere all because he couldn't wait to see her and Benny. She might be his only chance. She pulled the key from the hook, stuffed them in her pocket, pulled on her gloves, grabbed a flashlight from the kitchen counter, and then slowly opened the front door.
The snow was still blowing in the early morning darkness, but when she'd first arrived at her parents' house her mother had told her that the radio had said the snow would be stopping a little earlier than expected, around dawn. Maricruz stared at the snowmobile and made sure she could recall each thing her father had done to start the machine. First she inserted the key in the ignition and then pushed the red kill switch to "on." She reached down to pull the start cord, knowing that if it didn't start on one of the first couple pulls that someone in the house would surely wake up and come out to stop her, mistaking her for a thief. As the snow blasted her face, she breathed in and out deeply, whispering a quick prayer that it would start on the first pull. She yanked on the cord and the engine tried to turn over but it didn't start. She had two more tries max. She looked back toward the door, and seeing no one coming she pulled the cord again. Still no luck. Her heart began to race with panic. She leaned over to give it one more pull, but then she heard the front door of the house open, and turned to see her younger brother Umberto standing on the porch with a flashlight, wearing just his flannel pajama pants and a white tank-top undershirt. Maricruz wasn't sure whether she should even acknowledge him or not so she went ahead and pulled the cord again but the engine still wouldn't turn over. It appeared that she needed his help.
The look on Umberto's chiseled face was one of confusion as Maricruz approached him, pulling off her goggles and ski mask. He held himself, shivering. "What the hell are you doing Mari? It's the middle of the damn night and it's freaking freezing out here." He blew on his hands to warm them. Seeing her twenty two year old brother's exposed arms, sculpted and viscous like an Aztec warrior's, it was hard for her to believe that Umberto was the same scrawny little boy who had worn children's size clothes after his friends had graduated to adult sizes. When he was in eighth grade he finally got tired of the redneck white kids calling him a beaner and a wetback even though his family had been in Colorado longer than most of theirs. So he found a new hobby: lifting weights. After a couple years of curls and squats and a truck-load of whey protein powder, the name calling stopped.
"I'm going out to see if I can find Lyle," Maricruz said. "He's out there somewhere." She pointed out toward the west. "I don't have time to explain everything. I just need your help to get the snowmobile started."
"You're crazy, Mari," Umberto argued. "You'll die out there."
"The storm's supposed to end soon," Maricruz tried to convince him. "And I know he's somewhere on the county road. I can find him. I know I can."
Umberto rubbed the sleep from his eyes with the palms of his hands. "I'll help you start it," he told her. "On one condition."
Maricruz wondered how much this was going to cost her. "Okay, what?"
"I'm coming with you." Umberto smiled like the little boy Maricruz remembered.
Maricruz didn't even have to think about. "Deal!" she said. She gave him a big hug and sent him back in the house to put on his snow gear, telling him to leave a note on the kitchen counter but to hurry up about it. As she waited for Umberto, she walked back over to the driveway and wiped the snow from the other snowmobile and then sat on it. What if they couldn't find Lyle? she wondered. What if they found his frozen body? He wouldn't be out there if she hadn't given him the ultimatum? Maybe she should have just let him in that night and he wouldn't have fallen down the stairs. No, no. This was Lyle's fault, and his fault only. But he'd done everything she'd asked. She had to go find him.
Maricruz's train of thought was broken by hearing the front door open and close, then seeing Umberto, covered from head to toe in cold weather gear. "Let's get the hell out of here," he said. "Before anybody wakes up. Dad'll flip if he catches us. We'll just deal with him when we get back." He handed her a backpack. "I put a couple drinks and some food in there. He'll be hungry and thirsty when we find him." Maricruz liked the sound of Umberto's confidence, "when we find him."
Umberto adjusted the choke on both snowmobiles and told Maricruz, "As soon as these start we have to haul ass because the whole house could wake up. Don't look back. Just keep going. I'll be right behind you. This is going to be great!"
Maricruz had been a little surprised at first by Umberto's willingness to help. He'd always been a good brother, of course, but much of the time he seemed more interested in working out at the gym or going to one of the clubs over in Pueblo with his friends. He had worked at the restaurant off and on as a prep-cook and waiter while trying to talk their father into loaning him the money to start up his own gym in Rocky Ford, but so far their father had refused, repeatedly telling Umberto that there just wasn't enough of a market for it in their little town. "Umberto's House of Flexing just won't work, son." Maricruz had always hoped that was just a made up name that their father used and not what Umberto really wanted to call it. For the time being, Umberto had settled for living with their parents and working at the nutritional supplement store in Pueblo a few days a week, all the while working on his "business plan." He'd even talked a few times about enlisting in the Army but had never followed through. Umberto wanted some adventure, she thought. Well if that's what he wanted then that's what he was going to get!
"Turn the key," he instructed her. "I'm going to pull the cord and then you better haul ass."
Maricruz placed her gloved hand on top of his. "Thank you, Umby." She looked up at him. "I mean it. Thank you."
"Just go," he said and then pulled the cord, firing up the engine. The machine jerked a bit as Maricruz got the feel of the throttle but it didn't take her long. She gunned it and headed out towards the exit of the neighborhood, looking back each block to see if her brother was behind her yet. The snow and cold pounded her as she made her way past the Northside Bakery, one of the Baptist churches, and the Here & Gone gas station. She stopped for a moment by the high school football field and looked back to the lightening horizon in the east, her heart lifting when she saw Umberto sliding around the corner much faster than he should have. When he caught up with her, he didn't even bother stopping. He just sped by and gestured with his hand for her to follow him.
Maricruz felt a tinge of guilt for leaving Benny behind and for actually feeling like she was having a bit of fun. She almost forgot for a moment the errand she was on. The ice cold air blowing in her face and the speed and power of the snowmobile was exhilarating. She followed Umberto through the snow packed streets lined with dark houses, smoke rising from their chimneys. They would get to Lyle and have him back in town eating steaming soup by a fire in no time. But then Maricruz noticed that Umberto had stopped about a half a block short of the county road. He must be waiting for her so they could ride side by side. As she eased off the throttle and skidded up beside her brother she saw what he was looking at: a police car parked across the county road so that no one could pass.
"Damn it!" Maricruz yelled as she slammed her hands down on the handle bars.
Umberto pulled his goggles up away from his eyes and his ski mask down from his face and smiled at his sister. "Maricruz," he said with excitement. "This is about to get awesome!"
The snow was still blowing in the early morning darkness, but when she'd first arrived at her parents' house her mother had told her that the radio had said the snow would be stopping a little earlier than expected, around dawn. Maricruz stared at the snowmobile and made sure she could recall each thing her father had done to start the machine. First she inserted the key in the ignition and then pushed the red kill switch to "on." She reached down to pull the start cord, knowing that if it didn't start on one of the first couple pulls that someone in the house would surely wake up and come out to stop her, mistaking her for a thief. As the snow blasted her face, she breathed in and out deeply, whispering a quick prayer that it would start on the first pull. She yanked on the cord and the engine tried to turn over but it didn't start. She had two more tries max. She looked back toward the door, and seeing no one coming she pulled the cord again. Still no luck. Her heart began to race with panic. She leaned over to give it one more pull, but then she heard the front door of the house open, and turned to see her younger brother Umberto standing on the porch with a flashlight, wearing just his flannel pajama pants and a white tank-top undershirt. Maricruz wasn't sure whether she should even acknowledge him or not so she went ahead and pulled the cord again but the engine still wouldn't turn over. It appeared that she needed his help.
The look on Umberto's chiseled face was one of confusion as Maricruz approached him, pulling off her goggles and ski mask. He held himself, shivering. "What the hell are you doing Mari? It's the middle of the damn night and it's freaking freezing out here." He blew on his hands to warm them. Seeing her twenty two year old brother's exposed arms, sculpted and viscous like an Aztec warrior's, it was hard for her to believe that Umberto was the same scrawny little boy who had worn children's size clothes after his friends had graduated to adult sizes. When he was in eighth grade he finally got tired of the redneck white kids calling him a beaner and a wetback even though his family had been in Colorado longer than most of theirs. So he found a new hobby: lifting weights. After a couple years of curls and squats and a truck-load of whey protein powder, the name calling stopped.
"I'm going out to see if I can find Lyle," Maricruz said. "He's out there somewhere." She pointed out toward the west. "I don't have time to explain everything. I just need your help to get the snowmobile started."
"You're crazy, Mari," Umberto argued. "You'll die out there."
"The storm's supposed to end soon," Maricruz tried to convince him. "And I know he's somewhere on the county road. I can find him. I know I can."
Umberto rubbed the sleep from his eyes with the palms of his hands. "I'll help you start it," he told her. "On one condition."
Maricruz wondered how much this was going to cost her. "Okay, what?"
"I'm coming with you." Umberto smiled like the little boy Maricruz remembered.
Maricruz didn't even have to think about. "Deal!" she said. She gave him a big hug and sent him back in the house to put on his snow gear, telling him to leave a note on the kitchen counter but to hurry up about it. As she waited for Umberto, she walked back over to the driveway and wiped the snow from the other snowmobile and then sat on it. What if they couldn't find Lyle? she wondered. What if they found his frozen body? He wouldn't be out there if she hadn't given him the ultimatum? Maybe she should have just let him in that night and he wouldn't have fallen down the stairs. No, no. This was Lyle's fault, and his fault only. But he'd done everything she'd asked. She had to go find him.
Maricruz's train of thought was broken by hearing the front door open and close, then seeing Umberto, covered from head to toe in cold weather gear. "Let's get the hell out of here," he said. "Before anybody wakes up. Dad'll flip if he catches us. We'll just deal with him when we get back." He handed her a backpack. "I put a couple drinks and some food in there. He'll be hungry and thirsty when we find him." Maricruz liked the sound of Umberto's confidence, "when we find him."
Umberto adjusted the choke on both snowmobiles and told Maricruz, "As soon as these start we have to haul ass because the whole house could wake up. Don't look back. Just keep going. I'll be right behind you. This is going to be great!"
Maricruz had been a little surprised at first by Umberto's willingness to help. He'd always been a good brother, of course, but much of the time he seemed more interested in working out at the gym or going to one of the clubs over in Pueblo with his friends. He had worked at the restaurant off and on as a prep-cook and waiter while trying to talk their father into loaning him the money to start up his own gym in Rocky Ford, but so far their father had refused, repeatedly telling Umberto that there just wasn't enough of a market for it in their little town. "Umberto's House of Flexing just won't work, son." Maricruz had always hoped that was just a made up name that their father used and not what Umberto really wanted to call it. For the time being, Umberto had settled for living with their parents and working at the nutritional supplement store in Pueblo a few days a week, all the while working on his "business plan." He'd even talked a few times about enlisting in the Army but had never followed through. Umberto wanted some adventure, she thought. Well if that's what he wanted then that's what he was going to get!
"Turn the key," he instructed her. "I'm going to pull the cord and then you better haul ass."
Maricruz placed her gloved hand on top of his. "Thank you, Umby." She looked up at him. "I mean it. Thank you."
"Just go," he said and then pulled the cord, firing up the engine. The machine jerked a bit as Maricruz got the feel of the throttle but it didn't take her long. She gunned it and headed out towards the exit of the neighborhood, looking back each block to see if her brother was behind her yet. The snow and cold pounded her as she made her way past the Northside Bakery, one of the Baptist churches, and the Here & Gone gas station. She stopped for a moment by the high school football field and looked back to the lightening horizon in the east, her heart lifting when she saw Umberto sliding around the corner much faster than he should have. When he caught up with her, he didn't even bother stopping. He just sped by and gestured with his hand for her to follow him.
Maricruz felt a tinge of guilt for leaving Benny behind and for actually feeling like she was having a bit of fun. She almost forgot for a moment the errand she was on. The ice cold air blowing in her face and the speed and power of the snowmobile was exhilarating. She followed Umberto through the snow packed streets lined with dark houses, smoke rising from their chimneys. They would get to Lyle and have him back in town eating steaming soup by a fire in no time. But then Maricruz noticed that Umberto had stopped about a half a block short of the county road. He must be waiting for her so they could ride side by side. As she eased off the throttle and skidded up beside her brother she saw what he was looking at: a police car parked across the county road so that no one could pass.
"Damn it!" Maricruz yelled as she slammed her hands down on the handle bars.
Umberto pulled his goggles up away from his eyes and his ski mask down from his face and smiled at his sister. "Maricruz," he said with excitement. "This is about to get awesome!"
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