A PAST FOREVER PRESENT
CHAPTER 14
The two men finally joined Ortega who was riding in front of them, unaware of the conversation that had taken place between his friend and Jeremy. And, by the time they entered the small town, it was Johnny who was leading the way.
Jeremy noticed the care the young gunfighter put into checking his surroundings, the way his eyes darted left and right, noting everything along the way, without seemingly doing so. And he noticed the calmness that seemed to descend upon the boy as he slowly rode into the main street of the dirty little town – if the place could be called a town. To him, it looked more like a village, albeit bigger than San Cristobal, but certainly not what he would call a town.
They rode until they reached a medium-sized white adobe construction, housing what seemed to be both the general store and the gunsmith shop. Johnny stopped in front of it and dismounted gracefully, turning to face his two companions.
"Ortega, you keep watch and water the horses. I'll go inside with Señor Gringo. We'll need a few supplies for our little trip across the border and beyond."
Jeremy also dismounted and followed Johnny inside the establishment as he was told to do, surprised at himself for following the boy's lead so easily. What awaited him inside surprised him. By the time he had closed the door, he saw Johnny being surrounded by two lovely Mexican girls of no more than eighteen years of age. The girls, dressed exactly alike and looking also like mirror images, were talking to the boy both at the same time and were pushing him towards an older woman he figured to be their mother. Johnny was trying to disengage himself but as soon as he got free, the Mexican matron enclosed him in her arms and hugged him fiercely, almost choking him to death.
"Juanito, mi chico. Como esta?" the woman said. "You have not come to see your Mamacitá in a long while, mi hijo. I ought to tan your backside."
Johnny bowed his head, blushing furiously, while Jeremy had to hide a smile. He was getting to see a side of the famous Johnny Madrid that very few people had seen, he was sure of that.
"Ah! Mamacitá, I was busy. You know I cannot stay away from you and your good cooking for long."
"Speaking of food, have you looked at yourself? You're too thin. You need to put some meat onto those bones of yours."
"I know, I know. Tell you what, Mamacitá. I'll come as soon as I can and then, you can feed me as much as you like. But right now, I need to see Roberto."
The woman turned her head slightly, without releasing her hold on Johnny and yelled, "Roberto, customers."
Jeremy laughed inwardly. The boy sure seemed to have a way with women, young and old. He could see, from the corner of his eyes, that the two young girls were just waiting for the older woman to step aside so that each could put their hands on the youngster again. The boy was definitely a charmer, as young as he still was. Give him a few more years, and he would break a legion of hearts – that is, if he managed to stay alive in that harsh world he was living in.
A plump bald man wearing spectacles emerged from the back of the store. As soon as he saw who his customers were, a huge smile graced his lips.
"Juanito, what can I do for you and your gringo friend?" he asked, indicating Jeremy with a motion of his left hand.
"Holà, Roberto. I need ammunition, lots of it." Johnny said, finally disengaging himself from the matron. "You go, Mamacitá. I'll come as soon as I can," he whispered into her ear but loud enough so that Jeremy, who was by now standing very near the boy, could hear. And while the woman left with the two girls, Johnny turned his attention back to Roberto who was examining Johnny gravely.
"No problem. I got plenty. Need a gun, too?"
Johnny smiled and shook his head as he patted his jacket. Roberto turned to face Jeremy.
"And you?"
"No, thank you. I have my gun."
"It is always good to have an extra gun, Señor. Particularly if you are riding with my young friend here," Roberto insisted. "Juanito always has an extra gun or two. I have some very nice ones. You want to see?"
Jeremy pondered the question a few seconds and nodded. "Show me what you have. I might let myself be tempted."
"You won't regret it, Señor Gringo. Roberto has the best guns around. Take your time, I'll check on Ortega," Johnny said.
Jeremy didn't need to be told twice, he was already absorbed in the choosing of another gun. One look only and he disregarded all the guns Roberto showed him, shaking his head in disgust. None were worth the money they would cost.
"Is that all you have to show me, Amigo?" he asked the man, looking him directly in the eyes.
Roberto smacked his lips in appreciation. "I see I have a connoisseur, Señor. I had to make sure, you see. Come with me in the back store. I keep my best guns there."
Jeremy looked back at the front door, where Johnny had disappeared a couple of minutes ago, clearly uncomfortable.
"Don't worry. The niño, he knows how to take care of himself. He trusts you, so I will also trust you and I will show you my best merchandise."
"He trusts me? How do you know he does?"
"He wouldn't have brought you here, if it were not the case. Come."
Jeremy had the strange impression that Roberto wasn't only a general store owner or an ordinary gunsmith. He stepped in the back store and followed Roberto through yet another door hidden from the view at the very back of the room. A few candelabras lit the way to a short stairway, which in turn lead to another door. Once that door was opened, he found himself in the centre of a small room filled with a vast array of guns, carbines and rifles and boxes of ammunition for them. Less than ten minutes after, Johnny joined them and leaned comfortably on one of the counters, chewing thoughtfully at his hat's strings.
"You made your choice, Señor Gringo?"
"Give me a minute Johnny. This is really impressive. Where do these all come from?"
"It might be better not to ask too many questions. It's more healthy," Roberto said, in an English suddenly much more fluent with hardly more than a slight Mexican accent.
"Am I right if I say these guns have been smuggled here?"
Johnny nodded in agreement after exchanging a look with Roberto. "That's part of what El Capitán and Santiago do. And this is one of the shipments I stole from them."
"You what?"
"You heard. I told you they're working on something big. And I'm planning to create problems for them. Well, I'm not alone in this and I'm not in charge but I try to help in any way I can. I'll tell you more later, if we get the chance. Right now, we must hurry."
"They're there?" Jeremy asked, surprised that Johnny had disclosed so much.
"They weren't just a few minutes ago, but they will be soon. We better get ready. Roberto, can I get a few boxes of ammunition?"
"Yes. You know where they are. Take whatever you need. Who is after you this time?"
"El Capitán and a few others. They're not after me, they're after him," Johnny responded, laughing lightly. "He hired me."
"I haven't hi…"
"And he's gonna pay for the ammunition," Johnny continued, with a wink directed at Roberto.
Jeremy couldn't believe how impudent the boy was as he took some money out of his jacket and put it on the counter. "Will this suffice?" he said, shaking his head and half closing his eyes in exasperation.
Roberto took the money and pushed it back toward him. "It's free, at least for this time around. Now, get going. Things may start to get rough. And Johnny, you watch your back. I would hate to have to bury you."
Johnny grabbed Roberto's forearm and squeezed it with his two hands. And then he turned and made his way to the door, which he had carefully closed when he had come in. Climbing the stairs, he pushed the other door open, and making sure Jeremy was following him, crossed the anteroom and then the store itself to finally step out, squinting his eyes at the bright sunlight that greeted him outside.
As soon as they came out of the general store, Ortega showed them the street with a movement of his head. Johnny stopped in his tracks and spoke to Jeremy under his breath.
"Mierda! I thought we would have time to get out of town."
"What do you mean?"
"They're here," he answered, showing Jeremy four men who were now stepping away from the boardwalk in front of the cantina, a few hundred yards away from them. "Better get ready, Señor Gringo. Bullets are gonna fly pretty soon."
"Johnny, this isn't your fight. Go away while you can."
"No, you're wrong. As soon as I sided with you, it became my fight," the boy answered, his voice tight. "I'm not going to leave you alone to deal with these men, unless you want to die here. You see, they're not alone… others are hidden."
"In that case, let's get ready, my friend," Jeremy answered, taking out his gun from his holster and checking it to make sure it was fully loaded.
Johnny grinned and did the same while Ortega quietly untied their horses and moved away from the store with them in tow. He left the three horses loosely tied to the hitching rail in front of a house with the front shutters and door painted lilac. He then nonchalantly came back to stand side by side with Johnny and Jeremy, a small smile playing on his lips as he pushed his hat on his back and took out his gun too.
Meanwhile, three more men had joined the first four… one of them being Santiago. El Capitán was nowhere in sight and that surprised Jeremy who turned slightly to look at Johnny and whispered "Your El Capitán, where is he?"
The boy shrugged his shoulders and sighed. "You won't see him. He's hiding, as usual."
"El Capitán does not dirty his hands with fights like these," said Ortega, speaking for the first time since their arrival in town. "Watch yourself, Señor. He will not hesitate to shoot you in the back."
Mysteriously, the streets that were very animated just moments earlier were now emptied except for the seven men who were only about fifty yards away from them. They saw Santiago holding his hand for the men to stop while he, himself, continued until he was closer to them.
"Madrid, this is not your fight. Leave while you still can. I'll deal with you and Ortega later."
"Lo siento, Santiago. Me and Ortega, we want to share the fun and even up the odds a bit," Johnny responded. "Nice day, isn't it?" he continued, looking up at the blue sky.
Jeremy watched Santiago while Johnny was talking. The man shook his head and said something Jeremy didn't grasp to his men but he was sure it didn't bode too well for them. The six Mexicans spread out behind their boss and stepped back a few yards, taking cover behind a barrel, behind a cart, and wherever else they could.
Jeremy noticed that Ortega and Johnny were moving further away from him as well. He wondered, for just a moment, whether he had fallen into a trap when all of a sudden a volley of bullets started flying right and left, none shot by him or his two allies. He ran behind a post and started to shoot at whoever was in his line of fire. Johnny and Ortega also took cover and started to shoot as well. Within minutes, each of them took down one opponent but very soon, however, more men joined the fight against them. Each group fired a few more rounds of bullets and then, everything went quiet for a few minutes.
By the time Jeremy was ready to open fire again, Johnny had moved closer to him, within speaking distance.
"We have to find a way to get out of this mess."
"How the hell do you want to do this? In case you haven't noticed, we're heavily outnumbered."
"Yeah, you tell me! I'm planning to even the odds a bit more."
"Johnny, don't take chances with your life. Let's get out of here as quickly as possible."
"Watch my back."
No sooner had these words been uttered that Johnny rushed in the middle of the street and ran along with Ortega who had joined him. The two boys fired a few shots and, like Johnny had told him, evened out the odds a bit as some of their adversaries fell in the dusty street – some flat on their face, some on their backs, but all meeting their maker.
Still, though, there were too many men for the three of them. He heard Johnny yell something to Ortega and saw the young man darting forward, leaving Johnny alone in the street, firing with one gun in each hand. Jeremy joined the fight again and fired a few more shots, to give a chance to the boy to make it to safety. As soon as he saw Johnny running again, he started to run too.
Looking behind him after what seemed minutes but was only seconds, Jeremy saw that Johnny was hot on his heels. Suddenly, the boy started to zigzag and motioned for him to do the same. And then what Jeremy had feared all the while happened. He saw Johnny stumble and fall. The boy seemed to be stunned but shortly after, he turned on his back to fire a couple of shots. Jeremy fired a few shots himself and looking around, noticed Ortega who was still running in the direction of the lilac house, where he had left the horses.
Jeremy turned again to make sure Johnny was behind him. He stopped dead in his tracks when he realized the boy was still lying down in the street and wasn't moving. As he was about to go back to help him, the boy got up and started to run to join him.
"Hurry, Señor Gringo," he yelled, barely slowing down as he passed Jeremy.
"You okay?" Jeremy asked, running alongside the boy who had started to run in a zigzag pattern again.
"I'm fine!" the boy answered, grinning, a bit out of breath. "We have to light out now."
Jeremy could swear the youngster was enjoying the whole thing. He seemed to thrive when danger was around. They still had a few yards to cover before reaching the horses that Ortega was now holding ready for them. Bullets were still flying around them and they had to stop briefly to turn and fire a couple of rounds too.
Finally, they reached Ortega and both jumped on their respective horses. They all rode out of town as if the Devil was after them – which wasn't too far from the truth as Jeremy saw it. After thirty minutes, they slowed down; just long enough to have Johnny say a few words to Ortega in Spanish.
"You ride with me," Johnny said to Jeremy. "Hurry up."
"Why?" Jeremy asked as he dismounted and vaulted behind Johnny. He heard a slight hiss coming from the boy in front of him as he did, but he didn't make anything out of it.
"Ortega will lead them on a merry chase, to give us a chance to escape. Let's go."
"He's not coming with us?"
"No, he doesn't want to cross the border. Never has and never will, or so he says."
Ortega saluted, a mocking smile on his lips. "Hasta luego, Amigos", he said as he spurred his mount and rode in the direction of the desert, along with Jeremy's horse.
Johnny and Jeremy, now riding double, disappeared behind a series of boulders where they stayed hidden. Shortly after, they saw a group of a dozen men ride by and rush after Ortega who was by then a small point on the horizon, disappearing fast into the depths of the desert.
As they resumed riding, Jeremy wondered where they were going. He desperately wanted to ask but he sensed that now wasn't the time. He had felt Johnny's body tense when he had passed his arms around the boy's waist earlier and he thought back to when the boy had fallen in the street of Sonoita.
An hour later, they stopped. The horse needed to rest and to tell the truth they also needed it. Jeremy dismounted and waited for Johnny to do the same but the boy stayed where he was, unmoving.
"You coming down or you staying up there forever?"
"I… I don't think I can," the boy answered sheepishly. "If I do, I'll never be able to mount again."
"You're hurt, aren't you? I thought I felt you tense a few times while we were riding. Here. Let me help you."
Johnny looked down at him and Jeremy didn't like what he saw. The boy's eyes were brilliant, too brilliant. It was obvious he was starting a fever. Very slowly, he pulled the youngster off the horse and sat him carefully on the ground, his back resting against a boulder.
He tied the horse to a branch of a scrawny tree. It wouldn't do much good if the pinto were to bolt and leave them in this desolated place. Grabbing the canteen, he hurried to Johnny's side. The boy's face was pale but his cheeks were flushed with the rising fever. He felt his forehead and, effectively it was warmer than it should be.
"When?"
"It's what made me fall…"
"Why didn't you say something? I asked you if you were fine and you said yes," Jeremy said, his voice shaking with a barely suppressed anger.
"We had to… to…" the boy started to say, catching his breath as a hiss of pain came out of his lips.
"Get away, yeah, I know. Johnny, what are we going to do? We're in the middle of nowhere with only one horse and one canteen."
Johnny looked at him, eyes even brighter than they were a minute ago. "Not nowhere…We rest for an hour and then… then we go to Sonoita."
"Sonoita? Are you crazy? We just left the darn place. Why the heck would we want to go back there?"
"We're almost… there… We made a circle. They… won't expect us back."
"Oh, stop talking, for God's sake and let me look at your wound," Jeremy exclaimed as he saw the boy wincing in pain.
Sheriff Browne, still sitting at his desk, shook his head as the story of his meeting with Johnny Madrid was still hovering on the surface of his mind. He had gone back to Sonoita holding the limp form of Johnny in front of him. Before losing his grip on the world, the boy had told him where to go – the house with the lilac door and shutters – Mamacitá's house.
Jeremy had gone there only to realize, once inside, that it was the local bordello and that Mamacitá wasn't the name of the woman. All this time, he had thought she was the mother of the twin girls he had met at the general store. And Johnny had not said a word to tell him that it wasn't so. He could have strangled the boy if he wasn't so sick.
Together, he and Lucinda, as he found out her name was, had taken care of the boy. Lucinda had removed the bullet from his lower back and the girls had helped nursing him. The boy had been out of it, hovering between life and death for two whole days. When he finally regained consciousness, he had been adamant that they should leave while they could, before Santiago and his men returned to Sonoita.
And so it was that against all that was sensible, Jeremy had taken Johnny across the border with him, a mere four days after having had the bullet removed.
The special agent and the gunfighter had then started an unexpected friendship, running into each other whenever the boy would be around. There had been other times when they had fought on the same side and their friendship had grown in strength.
Jeremy had promised himself that he would always be there for the boy, should he need help. And now, it was time to fulfill his promise. Johnny needed help and help he would get, whether he wanted it or not.
TBC