Crazy For The Storm Part 14

She made this for you.

He handed me a puka-sh.e.l.l necklace. I slipped it over my head. The sh.e.l.ls were cool on the back of my neck.

We stood under the drizzle and let the mist coat our faces.

When we came out of the jungle backward and jolted up the embankment and reversed onto the highway it was pitch-black beyond the headlight beams and raining hard. My dad rolled down the window and stuck his head out and we crept along slowly. At the first sharp turn in the road the slas.h.i.+ng rain took the shape of a roadblock and I gasped and my dad hit the brakes.

G.o.d dang it, Ollestad.

Sorry, I said.

We went through a dark little town made of corrugated tin. An hour pa.s.sed and there was nothing except the edges of the jungle and the rain splattering on the road. I finally relaxed.

We spent the night in Sayulita, sleeping in the truck. As the sun rose we entered Vallarta and my dad got a little tense. He slouched in his seat and his eyes s.h.i.+fted from side to side. I pretended not to notice. The truck chattered over the cobblestones and it was weird to see cement buildings, a soccer stadium, churches and shops. We crossed the bridge and I knew we were close.

My dad floored it up the steep cobblestone road to my grandparents' house. The house clung to the hillside and overlooked the entire Vallarta bay. We parked in front of the open garage where the sign CASA NORMAN CASA NORMAN was screwed into the stone wall. My dad looked at me. He twisted his lips to one side. was screwed into the stone wall. My dad looked at me. He twisted his lips to one side.

Well that was quite a journey. Wasn't it? he said.

I nodded.

Maybe we don't want to scare Grandma and Grandpa, you know? he added.

He patted my leg. He looked in the rearview and brushed down his mustache with his fingers. He hadn't shaved in days and his whiskers poked out, gray ones appearing.

You got some blond surfer hairs, I said, thinking I was awfully clever repeating back to him one of his own jokes.

He smiled and then Grandma came out of the house.

There was a lot of kissing and hugging and she was ecstatic about the new was.h.i.+ng machine. My dad said it was no problemo no problemo and talked about my great tube rides. Grandma took a deep breath, put her hand on her chest and lifted onto her toes. and talked about my great tube rides. Grandma took a deep breath, put her hand on her chest and lifted onto her toes.

Oh my, she said.

Grandpa came home and kissed us all and he and my dad carried the was.h.i.+ng machine up some stairs, grunting and groaning until they got the machine onto the deck above the garage and Grandpa hooked it up. Grandpa knew how to fix things because he used to be a telephone repairman. He could climb a pole faster than any other man in his unit, only missing one day of work in thirty years. Thinking of him s.h.i.+mmying up the pole reminded me that he was a great dancer like Dad. That's how he had wooed Grandma, dazzling her with his waltz and swing moves. He married Grandma after her first husband left her with two kids-Uncle Joe and Aunt Charlotte. Grandpa was willing to take on a preformed family, which was rare in those days, said Grandma. Then my dad was born and, last, his sister Aunt Kristina.

We all went swimming, then after dinner we played a card game. Grandma asked me about my puka-sh.e.l.l necklace. Already what had happened seemed like a dream in another time long ago.

I found the sh.e.l.ls where I got tubed, I said. Somebody strung them for me.

They sound like wonderful people, she said. That's Mexico.

For dessert we had apples that had been brought down from California by one of the many visitors my grandparents took in each month. Dad bit into a worm and Grandma got excited.

Great, Norie. Now we know they're organic, she said.

After the card game, Grandma wrote the Mexico Report Mexico Report, a monthly update sent to the entire family. But Bob Barrow and my mom said that it was the occasional letter by Grandpa that proved he should have been writing the report, and Al said that Grandpa's letters reminded him of Hemingway.

It was a real luxury to sleep on a soft mattress that night. I slept in a separate room, hearing the bugs buzzing and the animals thras.h.i.+ng around, and I wasn't scared at all.

My dad had arranged a special treat for me. We went to the airport the next day and Chris Rolloff, my friend who I surfed with at Topanga, stepped off the plane.

You bought him a ticket? I said.

Well you said you missed your friends.

Grandpa and Dad took us surfing every day, driving Grandpa's orange jeep. In Sayulita Grandpa would order ostras ostras from the only restaurant in the village while we waxed up the boards. The waiter would write down the order, take off his s.h.i.+rt and then drive his boat out to the rocky headland. When we came in from the surf the oysters would be waiting for us under the from the only restaurant in the village while we waxed up the boards. The waiter would write down the order, take off his s.h.i.+rt and then drive his boat out to the rocky headland. When we came in from the surf the oysters would be waiting for us under the palapa palapa.

Finally having a buddy of my own to surf and pal around with instead of my dad gave me a taste of what pure fun was like. There was no one pressing for more. I loved when Rolloff and I just hung out, sometimes letting good waves go by while we made up our own surfing lingo like tweak-mondo tweak-mondo and and hairball-McGulicutty hairball-McGulicutty.

One day we rode burros up to a waterfall and all four of us had a contest: who could swim under the waterfall and back the fastest. It was tricky because the current tried to sweep you into the boulders and tried to tow you into the rapids just below our pool. After Dad and Grandpa clearly let us boys win the contest, declaring a tie, Dad dove off the top of the waterfall. Grandpa spotted a deep hole in the pool for him to land in. I could tell that Rolloff thought my dad was the coolest guy in the world, and it made me proud. Too bad it only lasted a week, I thought when Rolloff boarded the plane home.

CHAPTER 17.

FROM AN ELEVATED position above the crash site I could see Sandra and myself under the wing of the airplane. position above the crash site I could see Sandra and myself under the wing of the airplane.

We were fused together. An ice-clad heap. Frosted hair. Blue lips. It took me a while to understand that I was dreaming. I felt like I was swimming and swimming and swimming. Never reaching the top. Running out of oxygen. A last gulp of air trapped in my throat.

Yielding to the warm water I sank. A pebble landing softly on a cus.h.i.+oned floor. Safe. Comfortable. Warm at last.

I saw this as if from outside my body and finally realized I had to pull myself out of the sleep. Move your arm, lift your head, I told myself. I used all my strength but to no avail. Instead I waded in blobs of glue. Drunk and unable to coordinate my muscles. The feathery bottom was irresistible. Cozy and inviting.

No. Get up, I insisted.

I bucked. My lids cracked, then closed again under pneumatic pressure.

Now my fingers wiggled. They are wiggling. Or I just think they are-a dream within a dream within a dream. No they are wiggling. And then a vacuum of bliss drew me deep into a heated cave. I countered the seductive sleep by trying to move my fingers again.

One eye splintered open. Light. White. Cool. But dark warmth enveloped me once more. Mmm. Goodnight.

I ordered my fingers to spread. A pitchfork. Elbow unbend. Elbow unbend. Unbend!

My arm was reaching up. But it would hit the wing. I see from my elevated perch that I am only dreaming this. Reach, I urge. Punch the wing.

My fingers struck metal.

Pull open your eyelids. Use anything. I used my stomach muscles. My forehead muscles.

The lids peeled open and my hand banged against the metal roof. All was blurry and I lunged toward the light. Don't close your f.u.c.king eyes, Ollestad.

My body corkscrewed as if wringing itself out. I was in the snow. My eyelids dipped and then ripped free of the last tugging webs of sleep. I saw the snow and the tree and the wing. It was darker now and that accentuated my panic-afternoon is here, next is night, no chance then.

The horror of having observed myself slipping away widened my focus, allowing my dad's crumpled body, the pilot's leaky brains, and the wound in Sandra's forehead to a.s.sault me. I wanted to roll back under the wing and say good night to this cruel h.e.l.l.

Fight through it, Ollestad, boomed a voice. Keep moving.

I shouted under the wing.

Get up!

Sandra did not flinch.

I reached under the wing and shook her violently.

Get up! You can't sleep.

Norman?

Get up.

I'm tired, Norman. Very tired.

I know, but you can't sleep. My dad said when you freeze to death you feel warm and then you fall asleep and never wake up.

Her head moved toward me and I saw that her eyes were wide open. She was staring at me but was focused somewhere else.

Big Norm is dead, she said.

The bad thoughts tried to get me. I lolled my head and arched my shoulders.

We have to go now, I said.

They're coming.

They're not coming.

She stared at me. I studied the wound caving in one side of her forehead by her hairline, her dislocated shoulder that made one arm dangle like a partially severed branch. She receded farther under the wing, as if to hide this from me, and her eyes dimmed and her face looked like a skull.

Sandra. We have to go, I said.

No.

I'm going, I said.

You can't leave me here.

Then come on.

I waited. Scoped out the conditions. Heavy snow falling. Now there's going to be a layer of snow dust over the ice. It'll be really difficult to tell where the grippier grippier snow is. s.h.i.+t. How will we hold on? Especially Sandra. snow is. s.h.i.+t. How will we hold on? Especially Sandra.

I reached up and touched the branches sheltering me. Some of the branches were stiffer than others. I broke off two long stems, then snapped off as many twigs and needles as I could. My hands were frozen again and my dexterity was awkward.

We have to go now, I called to her.

I kneeled down to see under the wing. She was squirming, her good arm oaring her forward like a bird flopping along the ground dragging a broken limb.

Sandra emerged from under the wing. Her eyes lolled in their trenches and the skin around them strained as if trying to compose the landscape.

It's icy, I said. Use this like an ice axe. Okay?

I ill.u.s.trated by jabbing the stem into the snow and tugging on it.

I can't use my arms, she said.

Use that arm.

I handed her the stem. She gripped it and held it up to her face like a baby pondering a toy she didn't understand.

I'll go below you. Use me to step on, I said. Stay right above me so I can stop you from sliding. Okay?

f.u.c.kin' h.e.l.l.

Okay?

Your face is cut open, she said.

I touched my face. Felt around. Traced frozen blood over a gash in my chin. Another gash on my cheek.

It's not bleeding, I said.

Am I okay? she said.

You're fine. Let's go.

CHAPTER 18.

MY DAD AND I took the ferry directly from Puerto Vallarta to La Paz, avoiding any chance of running across those took the ferry directly from Puerto Vallarta to La Paz, avoiding any chance of running across those federales federales again. From La Paz we drove the Baja highway north, homebound. In Tijuana we went to a bullfight. I rooted for the bull. again. From La Paz we drove the Baja highway north, homebound. In Tijuana we went to a bullfight. I rooted for the bull.

We spent the night in a hotel in San Diego and the next morning my dad woke me and we were in front of my mom's house on Topanga Beach. He opened the door to the side walkway and I listened for sounds of Nick coming down the corridor. My dad knocked on the sliding-gla.s.s door.