Carey sat up and stretched his arms straight up, then crossed them behind his head. He yawned and made a little groaning noise, then laid back down and threw the pillow over his head. Jack just laid there with his eyes half open like they had been all night long. He covered his face with his hands and shook his head, not being able to believe it could be morning already. They laid there for an immeasurable amount of time before hearing a knock at the door. Neither moved, waiting for the other to get it.
"Jack? Carey? Are you guys up?" Molly was talking through the door. Jack used all his strength to get up out of bed and start getting dressed.
"Give us a few minutes here, mom!" He called back to answer her.
After some coaxing, Jack managed to get Carey out of bed, and in no time they were out in the hall with Molly and Annie, ready for a day of exploring their way around Cuernavaca, Mexico, about an hour and a half south of Mexico City. They saw some interesting sights, Molly took some pictures, and Carey managed not to break anything in any of the gift shops they went in. They had just finished eating at a restaurant with very Mexican cuisine, and were walking again at about 1 pm. Annie walked along fanning herself with a map she'd gotten, and Carey was wiping sweat off his forehead.
"Hey, look, mountain biking, dude we should so go!" Carey pointed to a billboard for "Advent Mexican Mountain Biking."
"In this heat? I don't think so. Find a billboard for a pool and I'm there," Jack replied.
"Swimming in Mexican water?" Annie turned to look at Jack, who was wiping sweat off his forehead as well. But it wasn't him she was noticing. A guy was walking behind them, a little in the distance, but Annie made distinct eye contact with him. She suddenly realized that he'd been behind them ever since – before lunch.
"Well it's not like I'd be drinking it," Jack said, scrunching his forehead after seeing Annie's puzzled expression. "What?"
"I think that guy's following us," she said, pointing a little. Jack turned to look, and the guy somehow managed to drop back behind some other people in a crowd.
"What guy?" Jack asked, looking back. Carey wasn't really paying that much attention to the guy so much as how stupid Jack looked when Molly suddenly stopped and Jack, staring behind him, walked right into her. Carey cracked up as Molly regained her balance.
"Jack! Be careful."
"Sorry, Mom, I was—"
"Annie, what are you talking about, honey? Who's following us?" Molly interrupted.
"That guy, the one with the brown shirt on," Annie said, having stopped now and was frantically searching the crowd for him with her eyes. The four of them watched as the crowd passed and then some. Annie was squinting, trying to see if he was hiding somewhere.
"Honey, I don't see anyone…" Molly said, putting her hand on Annie's shoulder.
"I swear I saw – well, I guess… I was wrong," Annie said with a sigh and a confused expression.
"It's probably just the heat," Molly said putting her arm around her and starting off again.
"Oh no, Annie's hallucinating again," Carey said playfully.
"Lets get back to our room, in the air conditioning and relax for a while, okay?" Molly said. Annie turned and agreed reluctantly.
Jack stayed behind for a couple seconds, staring back. In the distance he thought he saw a familiar face from the past, but it turned around and walked the other way down the street, off into the shadows of the overhanging Mexican roofs. Jack got a feeling in his stomach and a memory he hadn't thought of in a long time.
Later that night Molly was doing her show, and Annie had decided to stay behind. She had gotten badly sunburned from their walk earlier, being so pale, and didn't feel much like going anywhere. Molly objected to Annie being by herself in the hotel, so Jack agreed to stay. Annie didn't want to keep Jack cooped up or anything, and she didn't think she needed protection, but Jack said he had homework to work on anyway.
Annie sighed and sat down on the bed after putting the remote control down on top of the TV. All Mexican channels, and she didn't speak Spanish, so they weren't of much use. Molly did most of the talking for the group, however Jack could spout out a few words for himself from time to time. She could hear nothing next door, so she assumed he was busy on homework. Looking around the room, her eyes fell over her laptop case stashed behind the table. Now would be the perfect time to try out those power and phone adapters she bought.
After taking about half an hour to figure out how to hook everything in and troubleshooting on the occasional problem, she felt a sense of comfort when she saw Fi's name pop up on her buddy list.
Annie: Hi Fi, what's up?
Rockerbaby: Not much, how's Mexico?
Annie: All right, hot down here. How's Clu?
Rockerbaby: Doing okay, just got off the phone with him.
Annie: Tell him I said hi next time.
Rockerbaby. Will do. So what's up?
Annie: While we were walking today I saw someone following us.
I tried to point him out to Jack, he was gone.
Rockerbaby: Gone?
Annie: It was like he just disappeared.
Do you think it could be dangerous?
Rockerbaby: What did he look like?
Annie: Tall, thin, black hair, mustache, wearing a long, brown coat.
Annie: What difference would that make?
Annie: Fi? Are you there?
At the other end of the line, Fi was too worried to know what to type.
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