Chapter 37
But Short Straw Has Red Hair
I was leaning on the rail, facing Fort Clayton.
We passed the parrots, the bus stop, the fire station, and the bamboo forest.
Robert approached me with a greeting.
“How are you holding up?” he asked looking sober.
“Look at that gate guard. Would you say he has red hair?”
“Do you want to find out?”
He scanned the deck.
“Patrick, son, come here!”
Patrick came running over.
He had a pair of binoculars hanging from his neck.
“Can we borrow those for a minute?”
He took them off and handed them to his dad.
“Thanks, Bud.”
He passed them to me.
I declined.
“Patrick, will you look for me?
Tell me if the man at the gate has red hair or brown hair.”
Patrick adjusted the binoculars back around his neck and then held them up to his eyes.
It took a minute.
“Looks like brown to me.”
He shuffled his feet as he scanned to see if there was anything else interesting.
“Can I go back now?”
“Go ahead,” Robert and I said that at the same time.
“Jinx.” A tie.
“Double jinx.” He won that time.
“Just what I need,” I said, “more bad luck.”
“No bad luck if you keep your mouth shut.”
His response was too complex for me right then.
“Are you ever going to tell me what all of this is about?” he asked.
You never believe me.
Someone believes me now.
I don’t need that from you.
“No more than I’ve already said— general’s orders.”
“They told me we aren’t eligible to get the certificate for the trip today.”
“That’ll make the colonel happy.”
“They said because you were given the coin, that takes the place of the certificate.”
“That makes sense.”
“What coin?”
I fished the coin out of my pocket.
Robert inspected it, flipped it over. Looked at the back.
“That’s a coin for all of Panama.”
“That’s the same thing the general said.” I held my hand out to get it back. He returned it.
“Why would he give it to you?”
“We’re friends?”
“They only give those coins out to military.”
“He said it’s mine. He said I can use it to contact him if I need to.”
“So, I’m supposed to believe that you are under drug lord protection?”
“Believe it.
Don’t believe it.
Or hurt me and find out.
I don’t care anymore.”
Daniel's Den 