Hitchhiking To Guatamala Part 19
The final chapter
I watched for Windy at the airport. He did not show up. I flew home next to a man and a woman who were incredibly hung over. “Really?” I asked, excitedly. “I tried to get hungover in the tropics. I didn’t think it could be done. How much did you drink?”
“So much.” she answered without lifting her sleep mask. “We went on a booze cruise.”
“Ah, yeah. The booze cruise.”
They did not have a vegetarian option for lunch. I ate my stale roll and potato chips and had a can of Ginger ale. “Hey bro, you gonna eat that?” the muscular man in a Cabo Wabo t-shirt struggling to be comfortable in the tiny airplane seat next to me asked.
“No, man. It’s all you.”
“Thanks!” he wolfed down the ham sandwich I’d pushed aside. And ordered a beer to wash it down. “Can I get you a drink?” he offered.
“No, I’m good for a while I think. You’re going for a bit of the hair of the dog that bit ya, eh?”
“It’s the only way, man.” He said. His companion snored.
We landed in San Francisco. I retrieved my bag and dragged it with one arm through customs. They asked if I had any fruit. I did not. Unfortunately, they allowed me to keep what was left of the spicy peanut mix.
I had arranged for my brother to pick me up. I was pleasantly surprised to see Elsa waiting for me instead. “Where’s Elliot?” I asked before giving her a kiss on the mouth.
“I told him I wanted to come get you. You’re injured?”
“Yes. I was attacked by a chocolate princess last night, but I came out with my honor intact, if not my collarbone.”
“Oh, you have stories. Let me feed you and then we’re taking the train home.”
“Okay, but you’re going to have to carry my bag.”
“Wait, where is Windy?”
“Oh, he’s chasing a drunk woman around Cancun, maybe to Cuba, I don’t know.”
“Oh, you really have stories. What do you want to eat?”
“Mexican.”
“Mexican, really? Didn’t you just come from two weeks of eating Mexican?”
“Not so much. I mostly ate spicy peanut mix and avocado. I want a big ass American style burrito, with avocado.”
We moved slowly and caught a later train. Once home I took a hot shower which felt amazing. Standing there letting the hot water hit me, I laughed thinking about the shower I’d paid for at Cosmos. It was chilly when I got out of the shower and I shivered, every shiver sending blinding pain through my collarbone. I slept propped up carefully on pillows and in the morning had my brother drive me to the doctor for a proper x-ray and a proper sling. I had a small fracture on my right collarbone.
Two weeks passed with no word from Windy. Finally a postcard came.
“Dear Frog Prince,
I have your Toad and my crazy Frog girl as well. We all made it to Cuba together and when we got back to Mexico we decided to extend our vacation. American DJ is spinning records for tourists but plans to come home soon to play catch up with his schooling. He sends his love.
I hope your broken bones are all healed. Love, Chocolate Princess.”
A month passed before I heard from Windy. “Loyal! Hey man!” his voice came across the phone line as I stood in my kitchen in my pajamas.
“Windy, great to hear from you. Where are you?”
“I’m in San Francisco. I got back a week ago, but things have been crazy. I managed not to get kicked out of school, but I have had so much work to do to catch up. There is a housing crunch in SF so I’m staying at a hostel and it's really expensive. I hope I can find a room to rent soon. I can only talk for a minute; I’m on a payphone. I just wanted to let you know where I was.”
“Thanks for calling. I was sure you were going to stay and go to work for William Michael Warrior, or become the house DJ at Senor Froggy’s.”
“Ha ha, it was tempting. More tempting was the invitation to follow two rich girls to Germany. I’m so glad we had stupid backpacks.”
“God bless stupid backpacks. Windy?”
“Yes, Loyal?”
“Did you fall in love?”
“Ha ha, no not quite. But I just started dating someone in SF and I really like her.”
“So do you believe in love now?”
“Mmmmaybe.”
“Okay man, I’ll let you go. How do I get you some money?”
“Just set it aside for me. I’ll be back in town to visit my parents in a couple months and we’ll square up. How’s your shoulder? Lo told me you might have broken it.”
“Healing. My collarbone was in fact broken. But, totally worth it. Windy, thank you. That was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I wouldn’t have done it without you.”
“Oh, yeah man, for me too. Thank you. I love you, Frog.”
“I love you too, Toad.”
I hung up the phone. It was good to hear from Windy. I didn’t know if I’d be his first choice the next time he planned a trip, but I felt like our friendship had survived. It was a big deal for me to have traveled internationally, to have stretched the tether that connected me to home. To have confronted fears and come away stronger. I felt confident and capable.
I had one order of business left to attend to. I left my apartment and walked down to the corner store. There, sitting on a shelf staring at me was a small glass bottle with a red paper label reading “Folgers Instant Coffee Crystals.” I picked the bottle up and hurried to the register like I was buying pornography and wanted it in its black bag before anyone I knew saw it. I got my purchase home and put water on to boil. I prepared it according to the instructions on the bottle. I took a deep breath, let it out, and took a sip. To my great relief it tasted like shit. I drank the rest of the mug. Drinking the horrible bitter coffee served as a strange meditation on the wonderful adventure I’d had. And the next morning as I measured my coffee beans, and carefully ground them I considered the extra effort I put in making my cup of coffee delicious to be a matter of compensating for a severe lack of ambience in my life.
The End
A note from the author. THANKS. You’ve finished reading my first novel. I read Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises and decided I wanted to try the “Roman à clef” approach, taking a true story and fictionalizing. At first I imagined I’d drum up conflict between Loyal and Windy, but ultimately I decided to lean into the influence of Bob’s Burgers, Bluey, and Kipper (British cartoon) and go the low stakes and low conflict route. The reality is, the actual trip this was based on was a great time and my friend Steve (Windy’s inspiration) and I had our differences but always managed to get along in spite of them, and I think that’s actually a satisfying story. I put all the conflict into Lo and Anna’s relationship, they are us magnified, and rich. I had a great experience writing it and I hope you enjoyed reading it. I immediately started another novel, the first draft of which is done, following a bunch of comedians as they make their way to a comedy festival. I want to clean it up and start offering it chapter by chapter here, as I did this one, sometime in the next month or so. Loyal is a major character again, this time much older. Mwah.