Finding Love - 10. Chapter 10 - Desperate Times

After Tad and I were pushed into the room at our new temporary abode and we heard the deadbolt slide into place behind us, Tad began to cry.

“Oh God, Win. I’m so scared,” he sobbed, as his chest heaved frantically from the exertion and his entire body trembled almost uncontrollably. “They’re going to sell us to some guy so he can molest us whenever he wants and do who knows what else to us, so we’re never going to see either of our families again.”

“Tad, don’t think like that, because we’re going to be rescued,” I countered, while trying to sound as encouraging as I could.

“I’m not so sure about that,” he whined. “They might also keep us from being together once we get there, so what are we going to do? We’ve got to get out of here and get back home. Maybe we should have tried to escape from that other place… when we were still in Texas. Maybe we ought to try to escape from here as soon as we can and see if we can get help. What do you think we should do and how do you think we should do it? When do you think we should try to get away?”

Tad had been babbling like this since the door to our room had closed and I wasn’t even sure if he’d taken a breath at any point during this last rant, before I stopped him by placing my hand over his mouth.

“Tad, calm down,” I advised him. “Get yourself under control and we’ll think of something. I know we will. No, we shouldn’t have tried to escape from the other place even if it was closer to our homes, because even Dean told us we would have died if we tried to run away from there. He was our friend and wouldn’t have lied about something like that, because I was convinced he was really trying to help us. We’ll figure something out, so just calm down,”

After saying this, I leaned close to Tad’s ear and whispered something else to him.

“Let’s give Dean an opportunity to find a way to send someone down here to rescue us. Not all hope is lost yet,” I offered. “He was going to tell the cops about Sovie, so maybe they’ll be able to find out where we are before Sovie has a chance to sell us off to that other guy.”

I held Tad tightly against my body and we stayed like that until I could see he was starting to relax and had calmed down a bit. At that point, I reached up with one of my hands and started to run my fingers over the surface of his hair. I wasn’t actually able to run my fingers through his hair though, because after all of this time in captivity, our hair was quite long, tangled and just downright disgusting. We hadn’t been able to shampoo it since we’d been taken, because we hadn’t had a real bath or shower for over a year now, just the sponge baths Dean allowed us to take.

Thinking about this actually made me smile though. Since our hair was filthy and greasy, maybe Sovie’s buyer wouldn’t want us, once he saw the pictures Diego took of us on the plane. We obviously didn’t look our best right now, so those pictures had to make us appear as if we’d been marooned on an island for ages – hell, even worse. If we’d have been on an island, at least we would have been able to keep clean in the ocean.

At this point, I turned my attention back to Tad, because I needed to find a way to alleviate his fears and help him control his emotions. I was trying to come up with an idea to help me to do this, when I remembered something from long ago. I bent forward and gently kissed Tad on his forehead, as I cradled him in my arms. Next, I kissed the lids of each of his eyes, which were closed tightly, before I kissed the tip of his nose and then I finally placed a little angel kiss on his lips.

I did this because I remembered reading about a character in a book having this done to him once. It was the way his mother kissed him before he went to sleep each night when he was little, but it was also the way she kissed him farewell after he’d signed up to serve aboard a ship and before he went out to sea. I just felt this seemed to be a tender, calming type of gesture that I could use to reassure Tad that everything would be fine.

After I finished doing that, I just held him in my arms, since I had done everything I could think of to prevent him from reacting badly to our current situation. I realized he was intelligent, so I was confident he would have eventually come to the same conclusions I had about giving Dean time to do something to save us, but he was right about some of it too. This was truly a desperate situation for us to be in, so if something didn’t change in the next couple of weeks, then we would need to come up with our own plan to extricate ourselves.

We couldn’t wait forever for someone to come to our rescue, but at the same time we had to remain hopeful. Yes, there was still a chance that Dean might be able to do something to help us, but we couldn’t depend on it happening in time, even if he was able to contact the authorities and inform them about our situation. Dean didn’t know precisely where we were, so they’d have to locate where Sovie was hiding us first, before they could attempt a rescue. For that reason, it would be to our advantage to give them as much time as we could to do locate where we were, so maybe we should try to escape, so we could hide out long enough to give the cops the time they needed. Since I had come to this conclusion, I would now attempt to come up with a plan to escape, before Sovie had an opportunity to finalize the sale.

I was able to keep Tad calmed down for the rest of the day, but I knew he was still worried. Fortunately, he trusted me when I assured him we would do everything we could to get out of this mess, so we both began to concentrate on how we were going to escape. We did that until we heard Diego unlock our door.

Diego entered our room to bring us our dinner, if you could call it that. It was a plate full of beans with a thick slice of bread and a bottle of water. I knew they’d loaded the supplies from the shack into the plane when we were brought here, so I was not expecting this. Either they hadn’t brought that stuff here yet, since I know they didn’t put it on the bus with us, or Diego was keeping the better stuff for himself and serving us this crap. If that was the case, then this wasn’t a good sign. It also definitely wasn’t a good meal.

We went to sleep that evening quite disheartened, but I wanted to keep Tad’s spirits up, so I pulled him over to me and spooned up behind him. I put one arm over his side and draped it across his chest, and then he clung to that arm with both of his, like a drowning man clinging to a log. Our sleep came in spurts and we’d only doze off for short intervals at a time, because we’d either awake in a cold sweat or attempting to stifle a scream that resulted from the nightmares haunting our slumber.

By the time our breakfast arrived the following morning, we were still nearly as tired as we had been when we went to sleep the previous evening. As it turned out, it was actually a shame we hadn’t been able to sleep through breakfast, because we were served the same meal as we had for dinner the night before. Whoever heard of having a plate of beans, a thick slice of bread and a bottle of water for breakfast? It would appear as if our new chef had a very stunted repertoire of dishes he knew how to prepare, so we were going to have to make do with this unusual fare.

The routine over next few days seldom varied and each of the meals we received were nearly identical. Throughout the day, Tad and I would spend all of our time totally isolated from the outside world, except for when Diego brought in our food, which always consisted of the same things: beans, bread and water. Even though we thought of complaining about the multitude of beans causing us to have a lot of gas, we never said a thing. Since our room also served as the toilet, it didn’t really make a great deal of difference whether the smell came from our farts or the kettle repository.

To break the monotony of this boring existence, we tried to concentrate of formulating a plan to escape from this place, so we could break free from Sovie’s control. The problem was, every scheme we came up with had more holes in it than a slice of Swiss cheese. We may not have come up with a workable strategy to break out of our cage yet, but our efforts have still accomplished two things. It has made the days pass by much more quickly, but it also made us feel better, because not only were we doing something to help ourselves, but we also felt we’d eventually come up with an idea that would work.

Diego proved to be an enigma though. He never spoke to us and didn’t linger in our presence, so we neither heard nor saw what he was doing in the other room. We weren’t even sure if he remained in that room during the day or if he was going out in between serving our meals. We did see him one time, however, when he came in to empty our non-flushable toilet. Other than that single exception, the only time we saw him was when he gave us our breakfast and dinner.

No, it wasn’t an oversight on my part when I didn’t list lunch, because we were only served two meals a day and couldn’t get any extra. We were given the same meal twice a day, every day, so I think Tad and I were beginning to understand how Oliver Twist felt and why he asked for ‘more.’ We weren’t being fed gruel, although that would have been a nice change of pace, but we were experiencing hunger pangs in between receiving those sparse offerings.

About a week after we arrived there, I finally got up the nerve to ask Diego a question. When he opened the door to give us our dinner that evening, I posed my query.

“Diego, can we have the creams and oils that Dean got us to use on our skin?” I asked, since I knew those had been brought along too.

“Bart says I’m not to give you anything except your meals,” he responded, sounding like a robot.

“Well, it will probably be your ass when the guy who Sovie thinks is going to buy us decides he doesn’t want to pay so much money for damaged goods,” I pointed out. “Once he sees our skin rashes from not being able to wash and not having the required stuff to clear it up, then he’ll probably cut the purchase price in half or possibly even more.”

Diego thought about this for a minute or more before he finally answered.

“Ok, I’ll get the shit for you,” he relented, although he didn’t seem happy about having to do it. “I’ll even bring you a cloth and a bowl of warm water every day, so you can wash up a little bit too. The only thing you won’t be able to do will be to tell Bart about what I’m doing for you. You’ll have to keep everything hidden in your room, and I don’t want it anywhere in sight, just in case he drops in unannounced. Do you promise?”

“Yes,” we echoed.

Diego went out and came back with our supplies, which told us the food they had brought down with us must have arrived here as well, which meant he was holding it back from us. Tad and I put the various items he gave us in the corner of the room and threw one of the blankets over them, but we also promised that’s how it would be kept during the day, once we were up. We could tell he wasn’t pleased at having been outsmarted or conned into giving in to us, but I think he knew I was probably right in my assumption. A rash like we had could effectively lower our value to a prospective buyer, so thank God we were smarter than the average bear, or boy in our case.

Not only did these supplies bring us the needed relief from our skin problem, but they also allowed us to continue having sex, not that we had much strength or desire to do anything like that often under these conditions. There were, however, those rare occasions when we either needed or desperately desired that unique connection with each other, so by having the supplies in with us, we could do it whenever we reached either or those points.

I can’t begin to tell you how terrified we were because of what we feared was going to happen to us, so making love to one another provided us with a boost to our spirits each time we got to the point where we thought we couldn’t bear it any longer. When we made love, we not only filled the other with some of the new secretions our bodies had just begun to produce, but we would also inject each other with enough hope to keep us going for a little while longer. Another advantage was that we usually slept very soundly after a good session, devoid of any bad dreams, so we were temporarily whisked away from the misery, suffering and fear we endured the rest of the time. Our lovemaking also became a hiatus from our stay in purgatory, if not hell itself.

It was a couple of weeks later when we finally came up with a strategy we thought might work to help us escape, even though we didn’t have all of the details worked out yet. We went over the plan multiple times, in order to see if we could detect any noticeable flaws, before we decided on a time to implement the plan. We also decided our best opportunity would come when Diego came in to give us our evening meal and Tad would wait behind the door holding the item he would need to assist him.

When we were finally ready to proceed, we got into position. When Diego opened the door, a look of concern came over his face. He scanned the room quickly, trying to locate Tad, but since he was behind the door, he didn’t immediately spot him.

“Hey, where’s the other kid?” he shouted, as he began to panic.

Thinking quickly, he grabbed the door and pulled it toward him, so he could look behind it. When he did, Tad took the cast iron pot, which was less than half full with our bodily wastes at the time, and sent the contents of the kettle flying into Diego’s face. Diego spit and sputtered as the urine burned his eyes and then he immediately bent forward, to allow the waste to drip from his upper body onto the floor. When he did that, Tad swung his body around in a 360-degree spin, with the handle of the kettle clutched firmly in his hands, as he built up momentum and forcefully smashed the kettle into our jailer’s head.

As I watched him do this, Tad looked like a guy at a track meet getting ready to throw the hammer, but he never released what he was holding, at least not until it had done what he’d intended. All I heard was a dull thud as the container smashed into bone and Diego stumbled for a second, before collapsing onto the floor. Without hesitation, Tad and I rushed through the door, closed it behind us and locked Diego inside. Then we raced for the other side of the room and bolted through the door leading outside. We were naked and on a dirt pathway, but since we did this when he was bringing our dinner to us, it was also dusk, so this helped to conceal us somewhat. We had no real plan once we were free of our temporary residence and merely intended to locate a hiding place quickly, so we could stay there until Sovie and his partners stopped looking for us.

We hurriedly looked around and made a quick appraisal of our situation, but there was nowhere to go directly in front of us, at least not without being completely visible to others in the area. Seeing this, I told Tad to follow me and we ran around the side of the building and then behind another structure. After that, we continued to weave our way between other buildings, as we continued moving along walls and past other edifices until we could not advance any further undetected. Suddenly, we found ourselves at the outskirts of the village where we were being held, with only a vast openness in front us. There was obviously no place to hide and nothing to conceal our movements, once we cleared the village limits, so we had to rethink what we were going to do.

Frantically, I looked around, hoping to spot a place where we could take shelter, at least temporarily, because it would be dark soon. If we could hold out until then, we could move about more freely, because it would be more difficult for anyone to locate us. That’s when I spotted a two-story structure that might have been a barn, a garage or even a simple a storage area, but whatever its purpose, it would serve as our shelter. Tad followed me over to the building and we found an opening through which we could enter it.

Once inside, we spotted a ladder leading to an upper level, so we climbed it rapidly and looked for a good hiding place. Hurriedly, but noiselessly, we moved to a rear corner of the loft where we huddled together behind a collection of discarded and outdated appliances. We remained motionless and completely silent from that moment on, and I don’t think either of us even breathed for a couple of minutes, until we were convinced our unauthorized entry had gone undetected.

As I glanced over at Tad’s face, I could see the fear in his eyes, so I assumed he was worried about what Diego might do to avenge our attack on him, if he eventually caught us. My heart was pounding within my chest and the sound of the blood pulsing through the arteries in my ears was masking all other noises and prompted me to fear the sound would give us away. I was certain we were both breathing heavily enough to be heard too, after the exertion from our little jaunt to find this place, so I prayed we weren’t doing anything loudly enough for others to detect our presence.

We stayed there as the night slowly grew darker and it became more and more difficult to see, because we’d been fortunate in that we chosen an overcast night to break out of captivity. At various times we would hear a slight commotion in the area, but I never heard anyone enter the building or attempt to search it in any way. As the minutes passed into hours, I whispered to Tad that we would need to go down and look for a safer place to hide before morning, because once it was daylight, we would be easy to find if they searched this place. We would have to locate someplace less obvious in order to remain undetected for more than just a few hours.

Once the noises in the village faded into silence and total darkness consumed the land, we climbed down the ladder and exited the building, so we could look around for a new place to hide. We sneaked all around the deserted village, sometimes crawling, sometimes crouching and sometimes making short but quick dashes from one place to another, in our attempt to remain undetected. Regardless of our efforts, we weren’t having much success in finding a new safe haven.

Dawn was rapidly approaching and the sky was beginning to slowly brighten, so I was just about ready to suggest we return to our original hiding place when I observed something worth exploring. It was a small wooden hatch that appeared to lead underground, so I hoped it didn’t lead into a septic tank or that we’d find something dangerous on the other side. I attempted to lift the wooden cover, but it wouldn’t budge. That’s when Tad observed there were two small slats of wood nailed to the frame and positioned to prevent the door from accidentally being opened.

Now that I knew what had prevented me from pulling the hatch open, I rotated those pieces of wood so they wouldn’t interfere with the door’s operation and tried to lift it again. This time, the door rose skyward and I looked quickly inside to see what it protected. It appeared to lead down into a small, root cellar that someone was obviously using for storage. I signaled Tad to follow me and we climbed down the wooden ladder until we reached the dirt floor below. After we entered the area, we pulled the hatch closed behind us and felt our way along the wall until we reached the far corner, where we planned to remain for as long as we needed.

Less than an hour later, the sun rose above the horizon and we began to hear movement in the area above us, as the residents began to scurry about, while carrying out their daily endeavors. Luckily, some of the sunlight filtered through the cracks in the hatch’s construction and allowed us to look around a bit. There wasn’t much to see, because there were only a few items stored there, so we didn’t really have much protection from being seen, if someone were to come down. It was just a small, damp and musty smelling hole in the ground, but at least it would keep us from being spotted by those looking for us above. Eventually we stopped concentrating on its flaws and settled down enough to fall asleep, which we did in each other’s embrace.

When we awoke a few hours later, it appeared to be very bright out, so it was probably around midday, and we hadn’t heard anything other than the normal sounds of the daily activity in the immediate area. We also hadn’t eaten in over 24 hours and our stomachs were beginning to growl, even more than they had normally been doing over the past couple of weeks. Believe it or not, we could actually hear the noises the other’s belly was making and wondered if those moving around above us could also hear the sounds of our hunger pangs. After some thought about it, we determined the noises weren’t loud enough to attract attention, even though they were loud enough to make us uncomfortable with our current situation.

We felt safe enough to hold a conversation, but we did it in whispers, as we tried to determine what we should do about procuring food and clothing, as well as otherwise improving our present circumstances. We agreed that once it got really dark, hopefully sometime after midnight, we’d go out to look around again, so we could see what we could find. Until that time, we would sit tight and pass the time as best we could, possibly by getting some more sleep.

Once the appropriate conditions presented themselves, we sneaked out of our earthen dungeon and moved about the surface in search of things we could use. After making quite a lengthy examination of our surroundings, we came up with absolutely nothing we could use to meet our immediate needs for food and clothing. It looked as if the people in this village had only the bare minimum of necessities and nothing left over for us to confiscate.

After a fairly lengthy search, we didn’t come across any extra clothes hanging on clotheslines or find any food left lying around that we could grab for ourselves. The only excess we had discovered so far were the few worn out and discarded items that had been stored in the loft of the first building we hid in, plus a few tools and containers that were stored in the root cellar. When we began to feel we had been out long enough and were beginning to tempt fate, we headed back to our hideout before it started to get light. Dejected by our lack of success, we climbed down into the root cellar again and spent another day naked and hungry.

Once we were back in our little hole in the ground, we cuddled together and commiserated for a few minutes, before we fell asleep. I’m not sure how long we had been there before we were awakened by the sound of the hatch being lifted and dropped against the ground, so someone could climb down the ladder and enter our sanctuary. We each bolted upright when we heard the noise and strained to see who was entering, as we grabbed ahold of each other for moral support. We remained motionless and speechless while hoping we wouldn’t be noticed, as we waited to learn our fate.

After what seemed to be a lengthy delay, we saw a pair of legs, dressed in dirty white pants and sandals descend down the ladder. It appeared to be one of the villagers, possibly even the owner of our hideaway, but he was facing away from us, as he began to pick through the collection of tools leaning against the wall nearest the entrance. When he turned back to climb back up to the surface, he spotted us and his body went rigid from being surprised by the encounter. Tad and I were clutching each other, shaking with fright and holding our breath, because we were uncertain what he was going to do next.

While we waited to see how the man was going to react, I studied his face to see if his expression might give me any indication of what his next move would be. It didn’t seem as though he wanted to hurt us or had even been looking for us when he came down here. Figuring he must have found us completely by accident, I slowly lifted a finger to my lips, to let him know we didn’t want him to give us away or be afraid, like an adult would be afraid of two naked boys huddling together.

He nodded his head to confirm he understood, but he surprised me when he winked at us, in an effort to put us at ease. Once we seemed to have reached this unspoken agreement, he threw the tools through the opening, so he could climb back up and utilize them in a few minutes. Once he had what he needed, he made his way up the ladder and then closed the covering to our hiding place again, leaving us in peace.

As soon as he was gone, Tad and I looked at each other, but didn’t speak for several minutes. Finally, we began to breath again and started to discuss what had just happened.

“You don’t think he’s going to tell on us, do you?” Tad asked, deeply concerned that the man would lead Diego to us.

“No, I don’t think he’ll say anything,” I responded. “He did nod and wink at us, so I think that means he understands we want to remain hidden.”

“But what are we going to do now?” Tad followed. “We need to eat and get something to drink or we’re going to starve to death.”

“I know,” I agreed, as I attempted to soothe Tad’s fears. “We’ll go back out tonight and look around some more, just as we would have done if he hadn’t spotted us. We’re bound to find something we can use tonight, so just calm down and get some more rest, because we’ll need to conserve all of our strength for later.”

He nodded in agreement and we cuddled together again. Unfortunately, we were unable to fall asleep after that and remained awake for what seemed like forever. Then, just as we finally started to drift off, the sound of the door to our hideaway opening once more jarred us wide awake again. We immediately feared our whereabouts had been disclosed by the guy who’d discovered us earlier, so we held our breath as we waited to see who was there.

We watched intently as the same pair of legs climbed down the ladder and put the tools back where he had retrieved them earlier. Then, he climbed halfway up the ladder again, and appeared to reach out to grab something. When he descended the ladder the second time, he was holding a rough sack, which he held onto as he climbed back down. He then brought the bag with him as he approached us, opened it and reached inside, so he could pull out two white pieces of cloth, which he then handed to us. We looked the articles over quickly and realized he had given us two pairs of crude pants that were similar to the ones he was wearing. We slipped them on, but they were much too large for our small waists, so we had to hold them up.

He released a little chuckled when he noticed our predicament and then reached back into the bag. This time he brought out a collection of fruits and raw vegetables, which he offered to us. We didn’t hesitate and took the items from him and began greedily devouring various items, not even caring what they were or tasted like, as long as the stopped the rumbling in our tummies. Once we had each wolfed down a couple of these healthy foods, he reached back into the bag and drew out a few more, which we stored for later consumption.

Once he’d handed us everything, he patted us on the top of our heads, before he turned and left again. Those simple gestures let us know he would help keep us safe from discovery and we could relax a little, while no longer imagining the worst. After this, we wouldn’t have to go back out tonight to search for items we could use, thus eliminating the possibility of accidentally being discovered. He had taken care of our immediate needs and we could stay put in relative safety.

Remaining in this hole throughout the entire night was more than a little disconcerting though. As soon as the sun went down, the place was extremely dark and we felt as if there were creepy, crawly things slithering about unseen along the floor and walls. We spent a very restless evening; as we kept our eyes open watching for this possibility, so sleep was totally out of the question. I came up with a plan to keep us from thinking about the bad things though and we ended up passing the night by talking about what we wanted to do once we got home.

First, Tad told me about all of the things he wanted to do with his parents, but he made sure to let me know these plans also included me. He also told me there was a great deal he wanted to say to his mom and dad, such as things he had previously taken for granted, but which he had now grown to appreciate, since he had been without them for so long. There were so many little things they did for him, such as the way they talked to him about stuff or the way they kissed him when he went to bed at night. It also included all of the special times they set aside for him and how they were so concerned about his happiness. I could see it in his face, but mostly in his eyes, and could clearly tell how much he missed both of his parents and how he longed to be in their protective embrace once again.

I thanked him for including me in his plans, but explained that doing those things would have to wait for a while. I then told him I wanted to spend some time at home with my mother first, because I needed to find out if I might be able to set things right with her and forge new and closer ties.

“I’ve heard comments from Sovie and Dean that are leading me to believe that she might still love me,” I confessed. “If that’s the case, then I want to give it one more try to see if we can really have a mother-son relationship again. I’ve dreamed about it happening for so long that if there’s any chance we can make it work, I will give it my best effort. I know I’ve said I hated her in the past, but down deep in my heart I still love her. She’s my mother and the one who gave me life, so I’ve got to try, Tad. I can’t just turn my back on her and walk away, not if there’s a chance she might still love me.”

“I understand, Win, and I don’t blame you,” Tad replied. “If I were in your shoes, I’d do exactly the same thing, but I also want you to know that if it doesn’t work out, you still have a home with us. You know, with my mom and dad and…”

Tad stopped in the middle of his sentence when the door to the cellar was lifted open once again. We both looked toward the opening and held our breath, until we saw the familiar pant legs begin its descent down the ladder. In one hand he was carrying two plates as he used the other to navigate down the wooden rungs. He handed us a plate each, before he turned and went back up the ladder without saying a word.

The plates contained some kind of food, although we didn’t recognize what it was, but it appeared to be a circular piece of flat dough-like ‘bread,’ for lack of a better term. It was folded over a collection of other ingredients stuffed inside, but we didn’t care what it was, because we were ravenous once again. We quickly lifted it up and took a bite, although some of the filling fell out and landed on the plate. Whatever it was, it tasted pretty good and we ate the whole thing.

A short time later, the villager came back carrying a bottle and some golden colored thin rope or thick string. I say it that way, because it was actually too thin to be considered rope and too thick to be called string, so I wasn’t sure what it was. Tad then informed me that it resembled bailing twine, which he had seen some of the farmers in the area where he used to live use when bailing hay for the cattle and horses. The villager set the twine down on the ground momentarily, so he could pull the cork out of the bottle. After it had been removed, he handed the bottle to me and pantomimed that I should take a drink.

I took a gulp of its contents and almost spit it back out, because it definitely wasn’t water, but I managed not to do that, because I felt he might take it as an insult. It was definitely some kind of strong, homemade wine; at least I assumed it was homemade, because there was no label on the bottle. I warned Tad about it before he took a swig, so he was more careful about his first encounter with this new brew. We both drank it in very small sips and took only enough to help wash down our meal. Once we finished, our Mexican benefactor smiled at our satisfied expressions.

At that point our host reached out his hand to me, and when I gripped it, he pulled me toward him. I had to grab my pants so they didn’t fall to the ground, since Tad and I had been leaning back against the wall to keep them up, and we all a good chuckle over that. The villager then reached down and picked up the piece of twine, looped it around my waist, over the top of the pants, and measured an appropriate length. He then pulled a jackknife out of his pocket, cut it off and tied it in a bow, as he made an impromptu belt for me. Once he finished, he patted me on the shoulder to let me know I was all set. Then he motioned Tad to come over to him next and did the same thing for him. Now, we could stand up and walk around without having to worry about losing our britches.

Now that Tad’s and my immediate needs had been taken care of, the Mexican pulled me toward the ladder, so I followed him, only somewhat unwillingly. I wasn’t sure what he was planning to do next, but I decided to trust him, because he had been good to us so far. He reached up and tugged lightly at my long, golden locks and said, “Sol,” but I didn’t understand what he meant and must have had a puzzled look on my face. That’s when he pointed up through the opening toward the sky again and used his hands to form a circle.

“Sol,” he repeated, while pointing upward and then back toward my hair.

“I think he’s saying sun, Win,” Tad informed me. “I learned a few words in Spanish where I used to live and think he’s trying to tell you that your hair is the same color as the sun or that it looks like the sun, maybe both.”

I smiled at the villager, nodded and repeated his word. “Sol,” I uttered, while smiling at him.

“Si. Si,” he said triumphantly.

Then, he walked over to Tad and began to finger his hair, before he ran back to the ladder, climbed up and grabbed a small box he had stashed there. He opened it, extracted a wooden match and struck it against the rough striking pad. When the match lit, he pointed to the flame and then to Tad’s hair.

“Fuego,” he exclaimed.

“I think he’s saying your hair is the same color as the flame or maybe just fire in general,” I noted. “Yes, I think that’s it. He is saying your hair is the color of fire and mine is the color of the sun.”

Tad nodded and pulled a strand of his hair in front of his face, as he held it out toward our benefactor.

“Fuego,” Tad repeated to our new friend.”

“Si. Si,” the Mexican said again. Then he pointed to my head and said “sol”, and then to Tad’s and said “fuego.” He repeated this action several times, in order to make sure we understood what he was doing.

“I think he just named us,” Tad observed. “He’s calling you ‘sun’ and me ‘fire.’ I guess those will be our new names while we are here, since I don’t think we should risk having him call us by our real names. If anyone overheard him using those names, it would probably attract unwanted attention.”

I agreed with Tad’s assessment and we happily accepted our new monikers. In order to let the villager know we understood and appreciated what he was doing, we both pointed toward Tad and said “fuego” in unison, and then we both pointed toward me and echoed “sol.” The villager seemed very pleased to see we understood and started dancing around, with a huge grin on his face.

“Si. Si. Sol,” he stated while pointing toward me. “Fuego,” he added, while pointing toward Tad.

We both nodded and repeated our new names one more time, before he picked up the plates and climbed back up the ladder. He turned and waved at us before he got to the top and then said “adios” just before he popped through the opening. The door was then lowered shut and Tad and I were left alone again.