Chapter 31
“Holy Shit. What should I do now?”
Gazing at the vastness of Santiago’s International Airport, Chad stared, mouth agape, at the unfamiliar surroundings.
Before now, he had never left the United States, and he wasn’t quite sure exactly what to expect. But one thing for sure, the scene currently in front of him certainly wasn’t it.
According to the plans he carefully made before leaving Miami, this new adventure was supposed to be a smooth one. He would leave his dorm and meet Maria and her mother an hour before their departure. Then after she overcame the shock of seeing him at the airport and learning that he was planning on travel to Chile with them, they would happily board the plane.
However, upon arriving at Miami's international airport, things didn’t happen that way at all. For a totally unexplained reason, neither Maria or her mother was at the terminal, nor were either of them on American Airlines Flight 1536.
“Sure. It's a fact. I did arrive at the airport a lot later than I had initially planned,” Chad mumbled to himself as he approached Santiago's terminal’s main walkway. “But Maria should have told me if her and her mother’s had suddenly changed their schedule. How could she do this to me?”
Chad stewed on his predicament as multiple seats in perfectly aligned rows on the north and south sides filled and emptied, as various jetliners arrived and departed.
Loud announcements from strategically placed hidden speakers above the center aisle blared above him in first in Spanish and then in English. Yet, no matter what possibly was being said, it did not seem to affect the hurried conversations (most in fluent Spanish) several feet below.
It seemed like each person within the large crowd at Santiago’s primary airport knew exactly where he or she was heading. Everyone, that is, except for one lonely “gringo” teen. He seemed to be as about as lost as a single goose that for some unknown reason, decided to fly north in mid-September when the rest of the flock was naturally heading south.
“Buenos dias, señor” (Good morning, sir), a dark haired, uniformed young man in his mid-twenties said, walking up and giving him a broad smile. “You appear to be lost. Could I be of some assistance?”
Chad quickly turned to face him. “Ah. Sure. I think you might. Would you happen to speak English?”
Miguel grinned and raised his brow. “It is possible. Isn’t that the language I’m currently speaking?”
Chad blushed and then began to chuckle at his apparent foolishness. “Yes, you certainly are. Sorry. My mistake. … I’m looking for another passenger – a Ms. Maria Vargas. She’s my age, with dark hair, light tan skin, and out of this world gorgeous brown eyes. … Have you seen her? She’s traveling with her mother from Miami to Arica.”
“I see,” Miguel said, as his lips formed a smile. “No. I haven't seen her, and she might be a bit difficult to find - especially around here.”
“Oh?” Chad hurriedly did a three hundred and sixty degree search just in case Maria might have somehow miraculously appeared. “Why’s that?”
“Well. If you haven’t noticed,” Miguel continued. “In this part of the world there are probably at least a thousand people inside this airport who would fit that description. Would you happen to know if she had any distinguishable traits – like a tattoo or something?”
Chad unconsciously raised his hand and clasped his chin. “Hmm. I’m not sure. Let me think.”
Maria loved Arica, Chile. And in her opinion, there was no other place in the world like it.
Unlike Miami, here it was sunny almost a full three hundred sixty-four days each year. The air was always desert dry. And even though the providence was the largest town in all of northern Chile, it still maintained a homey small-town feel.
In contrast to what one might find in a large city, in this neck of the woods (sort to speak since there weren't any trees or even a blade of glass outside the city limits), neighbors around here would stop and wave whenever someone strolled by. And it definitely was not uncommon for a few of them to even motion you over so you could join them for some friendly conversation and a cup of tea.
However, despite all the above, Maria was beginning to miss her friends at Florida’s International University. Especially Chad, her best friend during the Fall semester.
If it wasn’t for my long-term relationship with José, Chad easily could have been my boyfriend … if he hadn’t been gay.
Maria smiled as she lingered on this thought, and continued to relax inside her lounger.
After enduring the brutal sixteen-hour flight yesterday, today there wasn't anything she wanted to do more than to take it easy. No rushing downtown to visit one or more of her mother’s jewelry stores. No dealing with the nasty business, which had arisen between Michelle and José. No, no nothing. Period. All she wanted to do was enjoy the sun, sip on a tall chilled glass of ice tea, and listen to the Latin top 40 on her stereo.
Later on this afternoon, in perhaps a couple of hours or so from now, her and her mother would stop by Arica's Regional Hospital and visit her father.
Poor Rudolf, though conscious now, was still in critical condition. And even though the best specialists in the northern Chile had run a least a hundred medical tests, none of them had successfully determined the cause of his sudden illness.
Perhaps it’s just old age, Maria considered. After all, poor Papa is almost eighty.
“Maria,” Rosa, the family’s cook and housekeeper, called from the kitchen’s back door. “You have a long-distance phone call, dear. And it’s from the United States. Do you want it or should I take a message?”
A phone call from the U.S.? Hmm. I wonder who it might be. Chad, perhaps?
“I’m coming, Rosa,” she said, pausing a short second to stretch before raising herself.
Rosa smiled cheek-to-cheek, before rotating her large torso and heading back to the living room. “It’s a young man so you better not keep him waiting, Maria. I’ll tell him you’re on your way.”
Eric coiled around so he could face Mike, who had decided to join him at the phone booth located at one end of their dorm’s hallway. “Whoever this Rosa person is, she said that Maria's on her way. Apparently, Chad’s girlfriend was outside doing a little sunbathing on her family’s back patio.”
“I see,” Mike replied, looking unusually serious.
“Hello. This is Maria. Who is this? Is it you, Chad?”
Eric paused before he answered. “No Maria. This isn’t Chad. It’s me, Eric. Do you remember me?”
Maria grinned as the brown haired, handsome young man's physique came to mind.
“Of course I remember you, Eric. You used to be Chad’s boyfriend – that is until you exchanged him for Mike. So what’s up? Why are you calling? I thought if anyone from the U. S. would call, it would be Chad. And by the way, how in the world did you get my phone number?”
“It wasn’t that hard,” Eric said, answering Maria’s last question first. “We do live in the twentieth century, you know. Anyway, Chad had mentioned your mother’s name a couple of times in previous conversations, so all I had to do was to get the Santiago operator to find a Victoria Vargas in Arica.”
“The operator was able to do that?” Maria sounded astonished. “I wouldn’t think they would know that much English.”
“She didn’t have to,” Eric replied.
“Oh?”
“Hola. Como estas, Maria?” (Hello. How are you, Maria?), Mike shouted over the telephone. “I make a bet that you didn’t think a country hick like myself would know any Spanish? Did you?”
“You’re right, Maria said with a short nod, though Mike couldn’t see it. “I definitely wouldn’t expect it.”
“Well, I do. During my last two years in High School, I took two years of it in order to fill a few elective requirements. … Now here’s Eric. He really needs to talk to you, and this call’s an expensive one. Okay?”
“Okay. Nice talking with you, Mike.”
“Hello. You there, Maria?”
“Yes. I’m here, Eric. So what’s this call all about? Is someone in trouble?”
“Possibly,” Eric answered after a slight hesitation. “Did you happen to run into Chad at the Miami airport yesterday?”
“No. We weren’t planning to meet so I wasn’t even looking for him. Chad and I had said our good-byes last Wednesday since I knew my mom and I had changed our plans and were going to leave Thursday morning.”
“Oh?” A sunken feeling rapidly filled Eric’s stomach. “Did Chad know about that?”
“Yes. I think so,” Maria said, starting to wonder. “Why? What would it matter?”
“Well. If what you said is correct, we definitely have a problem. Let me bring you up to date.”