Chapter 7 : Hot Momma

The rain thundered down on the hood of the car as Michael tried to veer through the already difficult streets. Rain had made them impassable as he pulled off to the side of the road and turned the windshield wipers off.

He thought about returning for Fi. She was probably already soaked from the downpour and he wondered if he could find her with the pain in his head. He knew the trail she would be on. They both had traveled it last night as the ventured to the Manuela compound. Its high stucco walls with the extra large Spanish style sprawling country home made it the perfect get a way for any drug dealing cartel. The thick vibrant rain forest that surrounded it made it the perfect retreat.

Even Michael and Fi, both physically fit people found the trek up in the night difficult at best. He knew, sitting in the car with the rain coming down that he would not be able to make it. It did not happen often. He hoped she was all right, but she was strong in many ways and he knew that he would see her again.

The car idled roughly as it sat. The vehicle had been a loner from the hotel. It was a jeep rented out for excursions. Easily done on a company credit card. Movement in and out of the town needed to look legit for tourists. Michael slid the seat back and lowered his head. He didn't think it was possible for his headache to get worse, but it was. Closing his eyes helped, but only a little. Fi was right, what he had thought was just the outside temperature was indeed a fever. He had fought them before, it had been difficult, but he was healthy overall. He would be fine.

The AC felt good on his hot skin, until he started to shiver. It would get worse before it got better. Chills were just a fact of life for illness. Especially ones from the South American Rain forest. Chills were the body's own natural defense as it fought the internal bug trying to take over. He lay back knowing what was coming without medicine to treat the fever. He would have to wait it out, and the body would eventually relax. The shivering took over in the chair and he turned the AC down to counter act. The headache grew and reached ever crevice of his working mind.

He wasn't sure how long he shivered, or how long he slept after, but he woke in a sauna of heat and humidity. The car had turned off, though he might have done it, he wasn't sure. The rain out side has ceased and the sun shone again as the clouds moved on down the path of the wind.

Michael opened the door looking for relief, but there wasn't any. It was just as hot and humid outside. Checking the key for the car, it was still engaged. Backing off and turning again he got nothing. He tried again. "Damn it!" he said aloud hitting the steering wheel.

He rubbed at his neck hoping it would help with the pain behind his eyes, but it didn't. He sighed loudly to himself. He could try to fix what was wrong with the car and risk dehydration under the hood without tools, or he could try walking back to town and risk the same. Either way, he might have to walk back to town. Either way, they were bad choices.

Getting up from his seat, he began to walk. In his head he estimated that it was only four or five miles to the edge of town, and another mile or so to the hotel. Well and without a fever it would be hard in this heat, but sick and feverish he knew it would be more than difficult.

One foot in front of another was his constant moto as he struggled to do so. Every now and then he could hear a noise in the distance behind him and he turned hoping it was a car that might give him a lift. He walked on. His head pounding with each step until the chills returned. He wrapped his arms around his body as the fever engulfed him. Walking became impossible, his body convulsed with the shaking and he sought refuge below some trees. There, he found a soft mound of dirt covered in a moss like growth and lay down.

Lying there in the warm wet moss, he though of anything to keep his mind busy. His mom and the last day he had spent with her alone. He woke that day knowing he needed to take her to lunch and really talk. The team had just finished with their first op and he finally had some down time. Time he was usually uncomfortable with. Jesse had almost ordered him to have some time to relax. He was still healing from a bullet wound in his thigh and two in his left arm inches apart from one another. All had been minor, missing bone and arteries, but muscle still needed to heal.

"Michael?" his mother said as she saw him walk through the back door into the kitchen. She was just finishing a cigarette and put it out on the ashtray on the dining room table.

"Is everything OK?"

He smiled his charming smile at her. "Everything is just fine, I was wondering if you wanted to go to lunch?"

"Why, what do you need?" She said cautiously.

He smiled at her again. She was right. He frequently took her for lunch when he needed her to do something. "You are right mom. I have done that a lot in the past, but not anymore. My life has turned a new page."

"Really." She said looking at his face. He looked sincere, but she was still unsure.

"Actually Mom, I don't have an Op at the moment. I am not working on a job. It is officially my day off and I just wanted to take you for lunch. No strings, I promise. It has been a crazy couple of months and I need to just sit down with you and tell you about the last few years of my life."

He could see the tears forming in her eyes. He had thought about it. When he was a kid, he could talk to her until his father came home, but as he got in more and more trouble, it became increasingly difficult. She would scold him frequently for his actions, but he tried to explain that he was doing things for her. He was providing food his father never did, clothing and transportation. If life had been normal, he would not have needed to do all those things, but they also made him who he was.

"Why don't you go and get dressed? How is the Fontainebleau?"

"Really Michael? I love that. It is my favorite?"

"I know mom, that is why I suggested it."

She had to turn from him. He could tell she was crying. "I will be just a few minutes."

"OK mom. No rush. We will leave when you are ready."

He would remember the large smile forever when she returned from the bedroom in her best Miami outfit and large white hoop earrings. She practically glowed. It was the happiest he had seen her in a while. This what he thought about as he drifted in and out of the haze of fever.