Hope
Chapter 24
Hector had Lee and Amanda tied up in the backroom of Alvaro Fernandez's shop. The cartel leader had just finished threatening Amanda with bringing in his specialized cattle prod to use on her.
Amanda took a deep breath to help calm her nerves. No way would she ever reveal those names. Her job was to help stop the illegal drug trade in Mexico, and by George, she was going to do it!
She bravely faced Hector, "I don't care what you do to me, Mr. Hector, I will NEVER give you the informants' name, NEVER!"
"Mmffff!" a gagged, supportive Lee struggled to say.
Hector shrugged, "It don't matter to me if you squeal now or in two hours. My boys will get here soon enough with my prod, and THAT'S when the party will really start!"
Amanda glared at him, "I've been taught not to hate anyone, but I'll make an exception with you, Mr. Hector! You're, uh..." she tried to think of the meanest description, "...you're like a cloudy day with a dose of hurricane mixed in!"
"Oooo, ouch! I'm so hurt! I'm gonna need a band-aid!" he sardonically sneered back.
"You don't need a band-aid, you need jail time!" Amanda angrily retorted back, "Some place where you can never get out!"
"-Which reminds me," Hector mulled over, "I've gotta find a place to hold you two 'til my boys arrive."
He yelled over to the shopkeeper, "Fernandez! Ungag Mr. Smart-Mouth over there and then untie their feet, but not their hands...we are about to take a field trip!"
Alvaro the shopkeeper timidly came forward and knelt in front of Lee to untie his feet. His eyes were pleading, "Please, Señor," he whispered to Lee, "do not cause trouble! They will hurt my family!"
"HEY! STOP WITH THE YAPPIN' OVER THERE, FERNANDEZ!" lectured Hector and then declared, "I swear to God, for every word you foolishly say to him, that's how many times my boys will be slappin' your dog-faced wife around!"
Alvaro bowed, "I understand," he meekly responded. The rest of the untying was done in silence.
As Lee and Amanda rubbed their ankles with their tied hands to get the circulation going again, Hector then commanded, "Enough! Get up! Let's go!"
Lee slowly got up from the chair and did what he could to help Amanda get up as well.
"Come on! Outside!" Hector snarled, maintaining the gun right at Lee's back as Amanda walked in front of him towards the back door.
"Keep moving, you!" Hector impatiently commanded, jabbing the gun harshly into Lee's back.
Lee grimaced, "Watch it, Pal! Can't you see I'm already moving?" he complained.
"Yeah, but you're moving at MY speed now!" Hector smugly retorted back.
Shopkeeper Alvaro had walked ahead and opened the door for them. They all squinted their eyes at being in the bright sun again.
The back yard of the shop consisted of mostly dry dirt ground, with weeds growing everywhere. A huge olive tree provided the only shade from the hot sun. The only other structure standing was an abandoned well made of bricks. A worn ladder leaned against the olive tree.
"Fernandez!" Hector addressed the shopkeeper, "Go and put the ladder inside the well!"
After Fernandez did as he was told, Hector mockingly gestured towards the well and announced to Lee and Amanda, "Agents, welcome to your new home!"
Scowling, Amanda went over and peered down the well. She couldn't see much of anything since the ladder seemed to disappear into the darkness.
"It's really dark and dirty-looking down there," Amanda commented, "You sure you want us to climb down there?"
"Either that or I can make you tumble down there, like Jack and Jill," Hector jeered, obviously pleased with his own cleverness.
Lee leaned towards Amanda, "Better go down there on your own, Amanda," he suggested and then stated a little more loudly so Hector could hear, "that-a-way, we won't have to stay up here with the trash!"
Reluctantly Amanda nodded, "Al-right, I'll go down there, but when I said I needed a little adventure in my life, I should have been more specific!"
She lifted up her hands to Alvaro so he could untie them and then awkwardly climbed over the side of the bricked well before grasping the rungs of the ladder. It was difficult climbing down, being that the ladder creaked and she felt as if she were going down to the deep unknown.
When her foot reached the bottom at last, she heard Hector ordering the shopkeeper to untie Lee and then go back in the shop to get a huge rug to cover the top of the well.
Lee took half the time she had to climb down, and when he reached the ground, he saw how miserable she looked. He immediately reached over and enclosed her in his arms.
"Hey, you okay?" he concernedly asked, giving her a full-on bear hug.
Amanda closed her eyes and revelled being in his arms, "Yeah, I'm okay," she assured him.
"It'll be alright," he comforted her, "At least we're not hurt, right?"
"Not yet, at least," she agreed, not wanting to think about what will happen to her in two hours, "and I did learn one thing about being held captive in an abandoned well."
"Oh? What's that?"
"That I'm not afraid of heights..I'm afraid of depths," she joked.
Lee laughed and then gave her a deeper hug, "Oh, Amanda," he half-mumbled to himself, "You are completely brave, baffling and terrifying, all at the same time...and I wouldn't have it any other way."
Amanda's eyes widened. Could Lee have given her a compliment? Her mind went over his words and then she recalled a word he used.
She separated from him so she could watch his expression, "I'm terrifying?" she asked.
Lee looked incredulous, "I confessed to you my inner thoughts and THAT'S what you got out of it?"
"In what way am I terrifying?"
"You're not going to let it go, are you?" he rhetorically asked, trying hard not to break into a smile, "Fine!Let's see..." he looked thoughtfully up in the air, before facing her again, "You, Amanda...are terrifying... in a way that a chocolate frosted cupcake is terrifying inside a box of plain muffins!"
A tingle went down Amanda's spine as she realized Lee had actually complimented her.
"Oh, gee...I don't know what to say..." she stated, looking flustered, as she felt her insides tightening up.
Lee gave her a charming smile, "Say you like bakery analogies," he teased back.
But their sweet interlude was interrupted when, to their dismay, they heard the ladder being lifted away. And as they continued looking up at the opening of the well, Hector's shadow came across it, blocking part of the sunlight.
"Good-bye, amigos. Enjoy the short time you have together." he informed them, his words echoing off the wall of the well, "Screaming and yelling will do no good, for no one is around this isolated area and it will only tire you out. And the lady agent will definitely need her strength later today!"
Lee shouted back up to the cartel leader, "It's not over yet, between you and me, Hector! I'm going to get you if it's the last thing I do!"
From up above, they heard Hector self-satisfied laugh, "Hard to believe that when you're being held captive, waiting to be tortured!" he stated and then he was gone.
Still looking up, they saw Alvaro begin covering the top of the well with what was probably a huge carpet. They were soon bathed in darkness.
But, luckily, it didn't last long. From up above, Alvaro was waiting. And once he was sure Hector was out of sight, he rolled up a corner of the rug, allowing some light and air to come in. And then he was gone as well.
Lee and Amanda looked around the tiny, semi-dark air. It was like a round, filthy bricked cell. The floor was made of hardened earth and there was barely enough room to move around in and just enough light for them to make out their faces.
Amanda finally broke the silence, "Any chance we can reach the top of the well to escape?" she asked.
Lee looked up and didn't feel encouraged. He figured the bricked well was at least 20 feet high.
"Even if you stood on my head, and had wings, I doubt we could get out," he candidly told her, "but...maybe there's a way I can climb out..."
He felt the walls with his hands, trying to find flat edges or pockets that he could use as handholds or footholds. But every time he found one possibility, there wasn't another piece he could connect his hands or feet to.
"Dammit!" he murmured to himself as he continued to feel around the walls, "I can't seem to get a hold on anything! These walls are as rough as smooth silk, if that makes any sense!"
"Well, at least we have a couple of hours to think about how to escape," Amanda suggested optimistically.
"Except I don't have another plan!" Lee frustratingly responded back.
"I think the first thing we need to do is think positively," Amanda stated, "Like Mother used to say-"
"Really? Your Mother? Has she ever been stuck in an abandoned well in Mexico before?"
"Noooo, not really, but..do you want to hear her pearl of wisdom or not, Mr. Grumpy?
Lee realized he shouldn't be taking it out on Amanda, "Sure, why not? I'm not going anywhere, anyhow! In fact, give me the entire pearl necklace of wisdom."
Amanda recited carefully, "Mother used to say, 'Being in trouble is like peeling an onion. As you peel it layer by layer, there may be times when you feel like crying, but you just endure on until your goal is completed'."
There was a pause.
"I suppose your mother thought that up during Stew Night?" he asked, straight-faced.
"Lee!"
He laughed, "Sorry, Amanda, I couldn't help myself. At least it did help to lighten the mood."
"I suppose," Amanda relented as she looked about and put her hands on her hips, "but it sure doesn't make this place any less dank and dingy."
"Yeah, well, we better get used to it, being that we'll be in here for a while," Lee stated, "Maybe you should find a place to sit."
"Didn't I just tell you that it was dank and dingy?"
"You did..." Lee agreed, he looked around, and then an idea hit him, "Amanda, what if I take my shirt off?"
"What?!" Amanda was flabbergasted. Her entire body began to feel warm as she took a step away from him and stood in the shadows, "Lee, if you're thinking of doing that just to give me a cheap thrill..."
"What? Noooo, that's not what I meant!" he claimed, "what I meant was..." and then he paused, "wait a minute...you're reacting this way because you're picturing me shirtless, aren't you?"
Amanda was glad he couldn't see her reddened cheeks, "No, no, no, that didn't even enter my mind. Nope, never, NO."
Lee grinned. He liked teasing Amanda this way as he took a step forward towards her.
But that was his mistake.
It was as if her body warmth had transferred over to him at their nearness. Heat permeated throughout him, starting from the center of his body. As he stared at her in half-shadows, he tried to block off these warm sensations, but it was of no use. And now his pulse had started to race as well.
But this was Amanda!
His grin disappeared as he looked down on the ground and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, so...uh, what I was saying was….I suggested the idea because I thought since the ground was so filthy, you could use my shirt to sit on," he explained, "after all, standing stiffly for two hours may zap too much of your energy..."
"Oh!" Amanda exclaimed, embarrassed, "Well, that's nice of you, Lee, but it's really not necessary…
"Yeah, okay..." he stated, still looking at the ground.
He was wondering why his heart was still beating faster than usual, "Maybe I should try again to find a handhold in a different part of the well."
But Amanda was still imagining a shirtless Lee.
"Okay," she vaguely answered, "You might get lucky this time," she stated, and then her eyes widened when she realized her words could be misconstrued, "That is to say...you can get lucky finding a handhold! Or foothold! Or some other kind of hold. Except a person hold! No, that came out all wrong!"
Now that she was a safe distance away in the half-shadows, Lee couldn't help getting playful with Amanda again. He'd just have to keep his distance, "Why, what do you mean, Amanda?" he innocently asked.
She sounded nervous, "Nothing! Forget I mentioned anything! I guess sometimes I just talk way too much! And the next time I do, Lee, just let me know. Then we can talk about it; noooo, that's what we should NOT do!"
Lee grinned as he puffed up his chest, "Is taking off my shirt really that much of a major distraction for you?"
"Pffft! Hardly," she answered, trying to sound nonchalant, "unless you mean a major distraction as in a train wreck!" she sweated, as she took a further step into the shadows. He could barely see her now.
He was really having fun now "Are you telling me, Amanda, that you DON'T want a glimpse of my body?"
From the darkened shadows, Amanda answered, "Ew. No! Go away. Ew."
"Well, okay," he stepped back, "You don't have to be so insulting about it!" he snapped, as his ego deflated.
"No, no Lee! I wasn't referring to you! There's a...a gigantic spider web over here!" Amanda explained.
When he squinted, he could slightly make out Amanda swatting the air.
"Oh yuck!" she complained, as she continued swatting, while at the same time, thinking the web felt awfully thick.
And sturdy.
What?
Grabbing the air, she was able to finally capture the web, or whatever it was, in her hand.
"Oh my gosh! Lee!"
She stepped out of the shadows and he could see her clearly now.
"What is it?" he questioned.
"I was wrong...it isn't a spider web at all!" Amanda exclaimed as she held onto something in her hand.
Lee looked around, "What is it then?"
"It's...a string!"
"A string?"
As they continued watching, the string kept lowering itself more and more. Finally, at eye level, they noted a piece of paper tied onto it.
"Lee! There's a note attached!" Amanda excitedly stated, as she ripped the note from the string and opened it up.
After she read the note, her eyes lit up, "Lee! It's from Pepita!"
"Pepita?!"
They both looked up towards the top of the well, and sure enough, a small hand was waving down at them through the small opening of the pulled-away corner of the carpet.
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