The Influence(99)

“Wear my slippers,” he said, going inside to retrieve them. “Then go back and get dressed.” He brought the slippers out, handing them to her. “They’re probably a little big for you, but it’s better than walking in your bare feet through…” He motioned toward the flowers.

“Thanks.”

“So where is your mom? And what happened?”

She sniffled. “Albuquerque General. It was a drunk driver.”

“Just like—”

“Yeah.” She shivered even as she wiped tears from her eyes. “We got the call last night, in the middle of that storm. I’ve been up ever since. Dave fell asleep about ten minutes ago.”

“I’ll drive, then. You’re both tired. Go back in, get what you need to get, wake up Dave, make whatever arrangements you have to make, and let’s get out of here as quickly as we can.”

Lita frowned, turning her head. “What’s that music? Are those…are those flowers whistling?”

“Yes,” he told her. “So do what you need to do, and let’s go.”

After watching to make sure she got safely back to the house, Ross went inside and called Jill. She was obviously still asleep—it took her five rings to answer the phone—and when she spoke, she sounded frazzled. But he told her they were leaving Magdalena and they wanted her to come with them.

“Leaving?” she said. “What does that mean? For good?”

“I don’t know.”

But he did know. Although he hadn’t planned on bringing anything with him other than his laptop and the clothes on his back, Ross suddenly realized that he was leaving Magdalena and not coming back. It was time to cut and run. Wasn’t that the phrase politicians used? It was always meant as a pejorative, but sometimes bailing was the best policy. You needed to know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em, and right now it was time to cut, run, leave, flee and put Magdalena in his rearview mirror.

“Yes,” he said. “For good. And I want you to come with me.” He quickly explained to her about the rash of job offers, and Lita’s mother’s death. “After what happened yesterday with your dog, and everything else that’s going on, it’s not safe to be here anymore. We need to be realistic. We can’t fight this. We can’t do anything about it. All we can do is leave. You said yourself that you can do your telemarketing anywhere. Well, do it somewhere else. Maybe it’ll be safe to come back later, maybe not, but for right now, I think the best thing to do is to get as far away from Magdalena as quickly as possible.”

He expected an argument, expected to have to do more to convince her, but to his surprise, she said, “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay. I’ll get some clothes together, some other essentials…”

“And we’ll pick you up at your place.”

“I’ll drive myself. I’ll meet you downtown by the gas station. A half hour?”

“Sounds good.”

There was a pause. “Are there any…red flowers around Dave and Lita’s?”

“Millions of them. And they all have faces.”

“Just making sure. I’ll meet you by the gas station. Love you,” she told him.

It was the first time either of them had said it, but it sounded natural, sounded right, and, just as easily, he replied, “Love you, too.”

Hanging up, Ross looked around the room, quickly deciding what to take and what to leave. There was a chance he might come back for the rest of his stuff later, but for the moment he was assuming that he would never return. So he only needed the essentials. And those were? Laptop and clothes. He packed a small box of CDs for the trip as well, but left everything else, since all of it was easily replaceable.

Dashing as quickly as he could over the flowers, he packed his laptop and suitcase in the trunk, put the CD box on the floor between the two front seats, and ran over to the Big House, where Lita and Dave were ready to go. He hadn’t told them yet that he was leaving for good and decided to have that conversation on the road. They shouldn’t come back either, but it would waste time to have that discussion here and now, and he figured he’d be in a better position to argue his point once they were away from the ranch.

“I called Jackass,” Dave was saying. “He’ll take care of the animals and bees for us, feed Mickey while we’re gone.”

“Okay,” Lita said. She was crying again.

“Let’s go, then,” Ross suggested. “Before…” He trailed off.

Before what?

He didn’t know. But he was gripped by the strong feeling—the certainty—that if they did not leave quickly, they would not be able to leave at all. Irrational, he knew, but what wasn’t these days?