We wandered out of the room into the gym and worked our way to the front of the place, passing through layers of coolness to the door.
Even though it had remained a grey overcast day, we were stunned by the light and everything was instantly noisy, car-like, confused, poor, rundown and Mexican.
It was as if we had been in a time capsule and now were released again to be in the world.
The children were still playing in front of the doctor’s office and again they stopped their games of life to watch two squint-eyed gringos holding, clinging, holding to each other walk up the street and into a world without them.
Book Six The Hero
Woolworth’s Again
We slowly, carefully and abortively made our way back to downtown Tijuana surrounded and bombarded by people trying to sell us things that we did not want to buy.
We had already got what we’d come to Tijuana for. I had my arm around Vida. She was all right but she was a little weak.
‘How do you feel, honey?’ I said.
‘I feel all right,’ she said. ‘But I’m a little weak.’
We saw an old man crouching like a small gum-like piece of death beside an old dilapidated filling station.
‘Hey, a pretty, pretty girl!’
Mexican men kept reacting to Vida’s now pale beauty.
Vida smiled faintly at me as a taxicab driver dramatically stopped his cab in front of us and leaned out the window and gave a gigantic wolf whistle and said, ‘WOW! You need a taxi, honey!’
We made our way to the Main Street of Tijuana and found ourselves in front of Woolworth’s again and the bunnies in the window.
‘I’m hungry.’ Vida said. She was tired. ‘So hungry.’
‘You need something to eat,’ I said. ‘Let’s go inside and see if we can get you some soup.’
‘That would be good,’ she said. ‘I need something.’
We went off the confused dirty Main Street of Tijuana into the clean modern incongruity of Woolworth’s. A very pretty Mexican girl took our order at the counter. She asked us what we wanted. ‘What would you like?’ she said.
‘She’d like some soup,’ I said. ‘Some clam chowder.’
‘Yes,’ Vida said.
‘What would you like?’ the waitress said in very good Woolworth’s English.
‘I guess a banana split,’ I said.
I held Vida’s hand while the waitress got our orders. She leaned her head against my shoulder. Then she smiled and said, ‘You’re looking at the future biggest fan The Pill ever had.’
‘How do you feel?’ I said.
‘Just like I’ve had an abortion.’
Then the waitress brought us our food. While Vida slowly worked her soup, I worked my banana split. It was the first banana split I’d had in years.
It was unusual fare for the day, but it was no different from anything else that had happened since we’d come to the Kingdom of Tijuana to avail ourselves of the local recreational facilities.
The taxicab driver never took his eyes off Vida as we drove back to America. His eyes looked at us from the rear-view mirror as if he had another face and it was a mirror.
‘Did you have a good time in Tijuana?’ he said.
‘Lovely,’ I said.
‘What did you do?’ he said.
‘We had an abortion,’ I said.
‘HAHAHAHAHAHAHAVERYFUNNYJOKE!’
the driver laughed.
Vida smiled.
Farewell, Tijuana.
Kingdom of Fire and Water.
The Green Hotel Again
Our desk clerk was waiting for us, agog with smiles and questions. I had an idea that he drank on the job. There was something about how friendly he was.
‘Did you see your sister?’ he asked Vida with a big false-teeth smile.
‘What?’ Vida said. She was tired.
‘Yes, we saw her,’ I said. ‘She was just as we remembered her.’
‘Even more so,’ Vida said, catching the game by the tail.
‘That’s good,’ the clerk said. ‘People should never change. They should always be the same. They are happier that way.’
I tried that one on for size and was able to hold a straight face. It had been a long day.
‘My wife’s a little tired,’ I said. ‘I think we’ll go up to our room.’
‘Relatives can be tiring. The excitement of it all. Renewing family ties,’ the desk clerk said.
‘Yes,’ I said.
He gave us the key to his mother’s room.
‘I can take you up to the room if you don’t remember the way,’ he said.
‘No, that’s not necessary,’ I said. ‘I remember the way.’ I headed I him off by saying, ‘It’s such a beautiful room.’
‘Isn’t it?’ he said.
‘Very lovely room,’ Vida said.
‘My mother was so happy there,’ he said.
We took the old elevator upstairs and I opened the door with the key. ‘Get off the bed,’ I said as we went into the room. ‘Off,’ I repeated.
‘What?’ Vida said.
‘The Mother Ghost,’ I said.
‘Oh.’
Vida lay down on the bed and closed her eyes. I took her shoes off, so she could be more comfortable.
‘How do you feel?’ I said.
‘A little tired.’
‘Let’s take a nap,’ I said, putting her under the covers and joining her.
We slept for an hour or so and then I woke up. The Mother Ghost was brushing her teeth and I told her to get into the closet until we were gone. She got into the closet and closed the door after her.
‘Hey, baby,’ I said. Vida stirred in her sleep and then opened her eyes.
‘What time is it?’ she said.
‘About the middle of the afternoon,’ I said.
‘What time does our plane leave?’ she said.
‘6.25,’ I said. ‘Do you feel you can make it? If you don’t, we’ll spend the night here.’
‘No, I’m all right,’ she said. ‘Let’s go back to San Francisco. I don’t like San Diego. I want to get out of here and leave all this behind.’
We got up and Vida washed her face and straightened herself up and felt a lot better, though she was still a little weak.
I told the hotel ghost mother good-bye in the closet and Vida joined me. ‘Good-bye, ghost,’ she said.
We went down the elevator to the waiting desk clerk whom I suspected of drinking on the job.
He was startled to see me standing there holding the KLM bag in my hand and returning the room key to him.
‘You’re not spending the night?’ he said.
‘No,’ I said. ‘We’ve decided to stay with her sister.’
‘What about your snoring?’ he said.
‘I’m going to see a doctor about it,’ I said. ‘I can’t hide from this all my life. I can’t go on living like this forever. I’ve decided to face it like a man.’
Vida gave me a little nudge with her eyes to tell me that I was carrying it a little too far, so I retreated by saying, ‘You have a lovely hotel here and I’ll recommend it to all my friends when they visit San Diego. What do I owe you?’
‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘Nothing. You’re Foster’s friend. But you didn’t even spend the night.’
‘That’s all right,’ I said. ‘You’ve been very friendly. Thank you and good-bye.’
‘Good-bye,’ the desk clerk said. ‘Come again when you can spend the night.’
‘We will,’ I said.
‘Good-bye,’ Vida said.
Suddenly he got a little desperate and paranoid. ‘There was nothing wrong with the room, was there?’ he said. ‘It was my mother’s room.’