Chapter 7
Indy and Marion said their goodbyes to Azor and boarded their flight. Despite his excitement in attempting to find the last of the artifacts, Indy was ready to return to the States.
Marion had not been feeling too well on the flight and they had rented a car. Indy drove and Marion, who began to feel nauseous, had asked Indy to stop the car, where she promptly got out of the vehicle and threw up on the side of the road.
She felt much better now she had done so and when they reached the hotel, she went straight to bed.
The hotel was on the outskirts of the city and Indy left to find the abandoned church.
He wandered into a small town where several stores and taverns were closing for the evening. Skeletons, paper lanterns and hundreds of decorations filled the streets and Indy realized the date. It was November 1 and the beginning of the Day of the Dead festival. The area was amassed with calaveras (sugar skulls), candles, pictures of loved ones and brightly colored garlands.
He found himself walking down a street and walked past a small white house and noticed that a young girl was sat outside on a rocking chair. This house was also decorated in the same fashion as the other houses. Indy thought that the girl might be in her late teens and at first, she didn't see him, but when she did, she smiled. For some reason, she reminded him of Marion when they had first met, even though the girl was of different ethnicity.
She was dressed in a long skirt, the color of brick red and also wore a white peasant top.
Esperanza Rodriguez was born in Mexico and was from this very same town. Her mother had died when she was 12 years old, the same age that her sister Rosa was now.
She had noticed the handsome stranger dressed in khakis, a fedora and leather jacket and smiled, and Indy smiled back. She could not remember seeing such a good looking man and had never been on the receiving end of such a beautiful smile from a gentleman, and her heart did summersaults.
It was now getting dark and Indy decided to look for the old church the next morning.
Moments later, he circled back and found himself once more walking past the small, white house and this time the girl was nowhere in sight. Then he heard something. A man was yelling and a female voice was telling him to stop.
Indy snuck around the back of the house and noticed that the back door leading to the kitchen was ajar. The man's voice was getting louder now, and as Indy walked into the kitchen, the man was just about to hit the girl, when Indy's fist seemed to come out of nowhere and hit the man square in the jaw. The archaeologist had punched him so hard that the man had landed on his rear end. He glared at Indy, then got up and ran out of the house.
The girl shouted at the man and her anger quickly turned to fear as she began to cry.
Indy's tone was immediately soothing.
"Hey", he began, gently putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay. He won't hurt you anymore".
"Who are you?" she asked, curiously as she slowly calmed herself.
"My name is Indiana Jones. I happened to be passing by when I heard shouting."
"Indiana", she repeated.
"Yes, but you can call me Indy. What is your name?"
"My name is Esperanza. It's very nice to meet you."
"Who was that guy?" he asked.
Just as Esperanza was about to explain, a girl, some years younger slowly appeared in the kitchen."
"Espa, I heard shouting. Was that Lopez?"
"It's okay Rosa", began Esperanza. "Indy is here to help us."
Indy introduced himself and the little girl smiled.
"Please", she gestured for Indy to sit down. "Let me make some coffee."
Indy rubbed his eyes trying to fight the tiredness.
"That would be wonderful. Thank you."
"The man who has been threatening us is Raul Lopez and he says that our late father owed him money, but that's a lie." My father was an honourable man and left no debts".
The girls spirit reminded Indy once more of Marion and he found himself thinking back to when he had gone searching for the Ark three months prior.
The Raven Bar, Patan, Nepal
Indy swallowed hard as he entered the bar. At first, all he could see were several patrons huddled around a long, wooden table. Then he saw her. She was now different, older from how he originally remembered her. Those same pretty features, the long, dark hair which was now done up in a French braid. But what was she doing? He looked on in amazement as she proceeded to drink a man under the table. She won the drinking contest and as the patrons filed out, he moved closer. But what on earth was he going to say to her?
It all happened so fast.
He slowly moved towards Marion and she currently had her back to him, but when she saw the enlarged shadow on the wall, she knew immediately.
She turned around, and the two small shot glasses that she had been holding were smashed to the floor.
She smiled. It was really him and it took her a second to compose herself.
"Indiana Jones. I always knew someday you'd come walking back through my door. I never doubted it. Something made it inevitable. So what are you doing here in Nepal?"
Indy found himself smiling at her and tried to be as eloquent as possible, but it didn't happen. Instead, he found himself saying: "I need one of the pieces your father collected."
Jones couldn't believe how fast and especially how hard Marion had hit him. He reeled back from the blow.
How the hell did she learn to hit like that? He wondered.
"I learned to hate you in the last ten years!"
"I never mean to hurt you." he told her.
"I was a child. I was in love. It was wrong, and you knew it!"
"You knew what you were doing", he muttered. It's not like I came onto her he thought.
She had told him that this was her place now and to get out and that's when he had asked her to find the headpiece to the Staff of Ra.
Yes, Marion was angry, because Indy had broken her heart ten years before and now he had just returned out of nowhere, as if he was almost expecting her to forget about the past.
After some bantering, Indy had offered her three thousand bucks and she had almost hit him again. She told him to come back the next day and he asked why and she had replied: "Because I said so, that's why."
Before he left, she was sat on the edge of one of the tables and beckoned him to come over.
Jones was curious. Was she going to try to hit him again?
He slowly walked over to her and to his surprise, grabbed him by the lapels and kissed him fiercely.
Jones was not displeased and something inside of him stirred. The girl was now gone and the woman remained.