Savior by Anthony Caplan Read Free Book Online

cartels and the submarines out on the horizon seemed very far away, not real at all. Al wondered if it was some kind of phenomenon like deer being caught in headlights, the calm that had come over the two of them, Ricky and him, as they walked back to the apartment. The sun high overhead beat down on them, and in combination with the hunger and the strange sense of displacement caused by Newman's appearance on the trail, made it hard to think.
    They surfed for three days straight while the tides came in and out and the rain clouds swept in. It was the heaviest deluge in years. The low-lying beach town did not suffer badly; but on the television at the restaurant bar, the newscasts ran stories of floods and drowned bodies washing up on the beaches of the Caribbean coast and crocodiles gorging themselves on dogs and cats caught in the sweep of the flood water.
    Ricky got very good. Even in the low tides , he could manage the ladder, the erratic pattern of telescoped waves breaking far offshore in the early evenings. Al struggled getting to his knees on the board. His face took on a swollen look with the battering he was receiving. He had not shaved in days. He would go home while the sun was hanging above the horizon in a melting after-image and cook dinner and drink a couple of bottles of beer to get over the pain in his joints. Then Ricky would come in and shower. They ate silently, both of them awkward without the intervening voice of Mary to save them from their self-pity. They would run down the day's surfing and that would be it. Al tried starting a conversation, but it was never on something that Ricky would respond to. Then Al hit on the idea of talking about the future, conjecturing about the state of the world. Ricky had many ideas on this, gleaned from the pages of Popular Science and the like, and Al liked to hear the wild and, in his opinion, absurd theories that had sprouted forth. Men would live in bubbles on distant planets or in domes under the ocean.
    On the fifth day , Ricky had a hard time getting out of bed at dawn as they had been doing. He struggled to the kitchen and had his coffee with lots of milk and sugar. Al sipped on his and had a thought, observing Ricky's sluggish progress.
    Hey. Maybe it 's time to head up country to see Evelio.
    Okay. When do we go?
    Well, we have five more days before we're due to fly home. We could go for a couple of days up to San Juan Grande and see if we could find him. Remember the cafe there with the hummingbirds?
    Yeah.
    If you've had enough surfing.
    I don't know. I'm kind of exhausted.
    Me too.
    I mean it's been fun. But I might need a break.
    We've been going all out for three days. At least you have. You managed the ladder, didn't you?
    You too. Lets go up to the mountains.
    Yeah, okay. We'll give Coconut Juan the boards and go rent a car.
    After a breakfast of noodles and tuna fish salad with toast, they packed their belongings into the two duffel bags and laid them by the door. Al finished off the coffee in the pot and hurried Ricky along. He was stuffing the tablet down inside his duffel bag, taking out clothes and sneakers to make room. Al didn't know why he was suddenly in a hurry. It was one of those inexplicable mood changes. Now that it was time to go, he just wanted to get on the road and out of there.
    Come on, you can finish later. Let's get the boards back and get the car.
    All right.
    I'm sorry. I don't mean to nag.
    No, you're right. There's only so much time. Although I'm sure you could have done it, Dad.
    Maybe. Next time I'll get a better board. That'll make all the difference.
    There was a crowd outside the surf shop. It was as if the entire town had congregated on the corner. A clutch of jeeps with the sunshield insignia of the Policia Nacional Civil was parked at odd angles in the road. Most of the people were silent. Ricky and Al cautiously approached the crowd outside the door. A policeman saw them and motioned for them to leave the boards