Where are we going? Robbie’s expression seemed to say as he looked at David. David shrugged and repeated the question to Sally as they went.

  “Where are we going?”

  “I have a friend down the street: Carlos. He’s a mechanic.” David frowned, not understanding. Sally looked at him, still walking, and explained. “There’s no one at the police station except Stevie right now. The sheriff has to take that man to the hospital, and he’s taking a deputy with him. I happen to know the other deputy, Joshua, is home sick with a really bad flu.”

  She stopped as they came up to an auto shop with the name ‘Ramos Auto Service’ on the front. She turned to the boys again. “I have a bad feeling about that girl, something’s not right. And there’s nobody around to do anything. Carlos might be able to help.”

  She proceeded to walk into the auto shop’s garage, right past a sign that said ‘no customers beyond this point’, and shouted for Carlos several times. After a long wait, a side door opened and a slightly pudgy man in his thirties stepped out- he was wearing dirty overalls.

  “Sally, you scared the…” He stopped himself as he saw the boys. “…pants out of me.” I was just using the bathroom.” He began to chuckle in embarrassment. “What’s up?”

  “I’m sorry, but I gotta tell you something really important.” Then she continued with a very quick version of that morning’s events. It turned out that her description of the man who picked up the sandwiches from her café rang a bell to Carlos.

  “I know who you’re talking about – well, one of the men anyway,” he said excitedly. “I sold him that white pick-up truck last month. He came by and told me he heard I had that truck for sale. I told him yeah - it was an old thing, I bought it at an auction and fixed it up. I told him it was running great and he paid me three thousand dollars in cash, right on the spot. I definitely didn’t like the look of him but, I was trying to make my money back on the truck. Anyway, it’s none of my business, I figured.” He looked at Sally with concern on his face.

  “None of this adds up. Why would someone from out of town come all the way out here to buy a car? What’s he gonna do with it? And what’s that girl got to do with it?”

  Sally nodded in agreement. Then she paused for a second, as if not sure if she should say what she was about to say. Carlos could read her mind, though.

  “Well, Sally, of course I wanna help. I’m already involved.” He looked down at the ground with a worried look, as if he were playing the events over in his mind again. “I gave them that truck. If those men are involved in some messed-up business, and there’s a child in danger… Dang, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. Anyway, you said it yourself; with the sheriff gone, there’s no else right now. At the very least I should drive to the mine and see if anyone’s over there. Most likely this is a dead-end, but it’s worth trying.”

  He pursed his lips and looked down, as if thinking about it some more. Then he looked up and clapped his hands as if he’d made up his mind.

  “Alright, let me grab my keys and some water and I’ll head over there.”

  “We should go with him,” said David, looking at Sally. “We might be able to recognize the girl better than him.

  “Absolutely not,” Sally responded so fiercely that David was a little taken aback. Sally realized she had spoken too harshly and apologized. “I’m sorry boys, but we don’t know what’s going on, and you guys have gotten yourselves into enough trouble for one day. Let Carlos handle it, ok? We’ll go down to the police station and let Stevie know what’s going on so she can alert Sheriff Morton so he can get in touch with Carlos if he hasn’t come back yet.”

  Robbie was about to protest but David stopped him.

  “Forget it,” David whispered to his brother. Robbie scrunched his brow into a frown but David ignored him.

  Carlos came out of his shop with an empty gallon-sized plastic bottle which he held up to show them.

  “Hey Sally, I’m all out of water. Do you have any jugs at your place? This heat’s brutal and I don’t know how long I’ll be out.”

  “Of course, I’ll go over there now. Just meet us there and I’ll have some ready for you.”

  “Thanks. I gotta grab a couple of things from inside to throw in my truck. I’ll meet you in a couple of minutes.”

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  “C’mon Robbie,” David shouted at his brother, noticing he had lingered behind when he and Sally walked away.

  “I’m coming,” Robbie answered, but without moving. He was looking at Carlos as he had begun to load some equipment – flashlights and rope – onto his truck. After David called to him again, with a growing annoyance in his voice, Robbie finally turned around and followed him back.

  Sally asked the boys where they wanted to wait for their parents as they reached her café again.

  “You’re welcome to hang out with me, but if you get bored, you can always just cross the street and go say hi to Stevie. She probably wouldn’t mind showing you around the station. And you can always come back to my place if you get bored again.”

  “Oh, yeah. Can we go now?”

  “Sure, but you’re just going across the street, ok? Only to see Stevie and then back. I’m responsible for you two now, so don’t go wandering off.”

  David nodded and Sally went inside – then he noticed a look on Robbie’s face which made him uncomfortable. The look told him that Robbie was mulling something over in his mind – and it made David nervous. His brother was a bit impulsive sometimes, and found it hard to shed an idea once he’d glommed on to it. Robbie noticed David looking at him and looked away before his brother had the chance to probe any further. David had the uncanny ability to guess what he was thinking more often than Robbie wanted to admit. And sometimes he wanted to keep his thoughts to himself. This time, however, David decided to ignore him, and whatever he might be thinking about.

  “Well, should we go across the street and say hi to Stevie?” David ventured to Robbie, pointing the way with a nudge of his head.

  Robbie paused for a moment before responding – he was looking straight ahead as if still distracted by some thought. “Hmm…,” he said. “You wanna wait for Carlos to come by first?” He suggested. “I wanna see him leave.”

  “Ok” David responded, still not shaking the feeling that Robbie was up to something. “I guess so,” he concluded cautiously.

  The boys moved over to lean against a nearby wall and stuck their hands in their pockets as they surveyed the street, trying to spot Carlos’ truck coming up the road.

  Inside the café, Sally grabbed two gallon-sized water bottles from her inventory and asked her cook to make a quick sandwich for Carlos – in case he got hungry. She couldn’t help it - feeding people was her business.

  The boys had begun to wonder why it was taking so long for Carlos to show up when Robbie pointed out a dark pickup truck that was pulling up to the café - it was Carlos. He jumped out of the truck, waved a quick hello to them, and went inside to get his water.

  Robbie made a frowning face at David again, but David didn’t blame him – he felt the same way. They were both frustrated at being told to stay put. It didn’t feel fair to be excluded from helping the girl – especially when they had been the ones to first notice her. And, Robbie thought to himself - Maybe the whole thing was a mistake - a misunderstanding, like Sheriff Morton had supposed. Maybe the girl was fine and they were all worried for nothing. It couldn’t possibly be that dangerous - could it - to go with Carlos?

  Inside, Sally told Carlos to wait just a minute as her cook Richie was about to finish a sandwich for him to take. In the meantime, a customer who knew Carlos started asking him about some car issue he was having. Carlos was anxious to get going, but since he had to wait for his sandwich, he figured he would chat for a quick minute.

  Outside, the boys were still feeling frustrated when Robbie pointed out something very interesting on Carlos’ truck. The truck didn’t have an open back, like most pickup trucks. It had a camper shell, which was a special roof on top of the truck’s back, so you could carry equipment in the truck’s bed without it getting wet. One of their friends back home went camping a lot and his dad’s truck had one too. The shell had a movable window on the backside, so you could load gear onto the truck without opening up the tailgate on the bottom of the truck’s bed.

  On impulse, Robbie hopped up on the truck’s bumper and tried the handle on the shell’s window. It wasn’t locked and he turned it, with the result that the entire window opened. Then, without waiting to check with David, Robbie went inside and beckoned David to join him.

  David whispered fiercely “Robbie, what are you doing?”. He looked inside the store, certain that Carlos would come out and yell at them any minute, but he was busy chatting with someone. Then, before his thoughts had time to catch up with his instincts, he quickly climbed inside the truck and closed the window they had come through. He felt certain that at any point Carlos or Sally would have seen them and would yank them out.

  They waited nervously, lying flat on the truck’s bed, next to equipment that had been tied to the side of the truck bed. They looked at each other as they lay there quietly and eventually Robbie giggled nervously. David couldn’t help giggling quietly too. He knew they shouldn’t be doing this, but at the same time, he felt justified in his desire to help.

  After a minute or so, they heard Carlos open the door to the cabin – the front of the truck get in, and turn the ignition to start the engine. The boys raised their eyebrows at each other as the truck pulled away. They couldn’t believe no one had seen them.

  In the back of their minds, they felt bad about disobeying Sally’s instructions. But, thinking about the girl, they still felt justified in making themselves part of the rescue effort. This was bigger than all of them, and helping someone in need was bigger than the possibility of getting in trouble for disobeying an adult. Plus, this was the first real adventure they had ever had – and the thrill of it made them feel alive.

  ? 2025 Gil Pedro Bento. All Rights Reserved.