The slight rustle startled her awake, Jake's head was still down on the towel she put against the tree roots. She rolled into a crouch behind the Jeep, jagged rock in hand. Darby's head appeared, and she exhaled, not knowing she had even been holding her breath.
"Your kid is an extremely effective flirt." She nodded at him, "Those three wouldn't say a word if they paid them." She sighed, again, "I have them convinced he is a movie star in the US and the people looking for you are tabloid idiots. They want to protect him, so he will stay a while and get to know them."
The boy woke with their voices, and groggily asked, "Whats up now?"
"Apparently I am a good liar, and you are a good flirt." She said to his sleepy visage; turning to Darby, "So are we safe here for a while? I had to leave the dogs with Rose, I called her from a pay phone while were in the US still, and she was going to pick them up from a kennel and do the quarantine thing and bring them where ever we went - I told her probably here."
"Diane, I'm not sure yet. Leave the Jeep, grab a few things and lets go up to the house. I have some calls to make, and maybe, we can work this out."
Her stomach audibly rumbled as she bent to pick her guitar and a small bag of clothes up, "Sorry, we picked and ate a couple mangoes while we waited, we haven't eaten since breakfast really early this morning."
"We can fix that part easy. The rest may take some doing." Darby now flashed the easy smile that she had been hoping to see from the start.
Walking back up the two track, Darby explained the "Camp" part of her farm's name. She was a Mexican citizen now, having renounced her US one after falling in love with this tiny Mexican village. People stayed with her a lot, mostly part-time residents who only lived here part of the year, the rest back in the US. It reminded Diane of Michigan snowbirds and Florida. There were a few trailers strewn about the property, and few small shack further back into it. Tina Rosa, as they called Rose around here, would indeed be coming too and had mentioned the dogs already. There was a Canadian couple staying here right now, for the next month; both teachers. She went on, saying one of whom could help them with a crash course in Spanish.
Darby brought out some fruits, cheeses and tortillas, and told the famished travelers to hang tight while she made some calls. "I like it here," Jake looked intense. "I have a very good feeling about this place. I could live here." His Mom paused before answering, "You know, I was gonna tease you about 'You got that from a short nap hiding in the thicket," but I know what you mean. This place has an amazing vibe."
Darby ducked her head back into the kitchen, "Have you been using your laptop?" She answered she had been on for a few minutes in Monterrey, and added that she had been trying to leave a crumb trail to Cancun, and that may have ruined it. "Cancun, thats good. Was it a chain restaurant you used it from?" The boy popped up with the name, and Darby looked pleased. "Give me it please, I think I can make this work. Dial up is slow here, but I have someone on the line who can reroute you, and chains often share servers."
A half hour later, she was sitting at her computer, making a few obtuse posts, and with prompting describing a few things in the scenery that would point only to Cancun. They routed her back and forth from Cancun to the restaurant in Monterray.
Each time she tried to ask Darby about who had been there, and what had happened, she was brushed off and told that this was of essence. First, to make a trail away from here, then they would have time to talk.
She IM'd a neighborhood friend and asked how the dogs were. Thank God for brilliant people, the neighbor said she'd had them for a day, and forgot about the gate... that they had gotten out and probably were either trying to find their way home or the Humane Society had gotten them. The neighbor said she had been checking daily. Diane pretended to be distraught. Rose had picked them up from a boarder in Colorado, and had them in quarantine in CA. One more loose end tied.
Darby was like a force of nature. She came back in and said, "I have the Jeep taken care of. I have a guy who will give you the equal of $300 in pesos and make it disappear far from here." She started to object, the price meant taking a huge loss, and the being stranded with no vehicle terrified her. "The two men who were looking for you asked nicely in town. When they came here, they came with guns, Diane. They weren't nice, and searched my place. If you want to stay in MY world for a while, every shred of you has to be eliminated so me and mine are not at risk."
"Oh my god, Darby. I didn't know, we should leave, now. I'm so sorry." The last thing she wanted to do is make trouble. She knew they wanted her, but enough to send two agents this far on an outside chance? She jumped up and started to close her laptop. Darby reached out and stopped her. "You have no idea, do you? They can't kill you now. You have become something of a cause de' celebre around the World in the last 24 hours. The locals already despise the men, they like your people, your government, not so much. But once your story went viral on twitter, facebook and in the Gonzo Press? Everyone is rooting for you."
Then why the lie to those girls," she asked.
"Because, people will know soon enough and help us; but we don't need some drunk bragging about abetting the notorious Senora D before those Feds are gone."
She sat back down, dazed, and Jake started laughing. "See the World while you're young Jake," imitating her voice again, "and did I mention it was as Bonnie and Clyde Jr?" He roared with laughter, tears coming to his eyes. The two women soon joined him.
"Wait, wait, Senora D? Gonzo Press? I don't even know that blog."
Darby smirked, "Senora D is your nickname in all of Latin America. Most call you D-G, and in England, one of your friends tagged you with "The Fighting Goddess." You've more hits than that stupid Kony thing, because your story is real."
Diane did a quick face-palm. That would be Rick, the smartass.
"And the Gonzo Press is no blog. Its all blogs." Her head tipped slightly at this news, and she waited for the explanation for that.
Darby started to explain. "In the few short days since that reporter got dragged off stage, all television and radio had been seized by the US Government; essentially now even moreso propaganda mouthpieces for the 1%. They had tried to shut down the internet, but far too much of the economy was tied to it. The infrastructure for the "2-internet" system was not strong enough yet to do it. So they had resorted to shutting down all Political Blogs and Pages. Your page shut down right after you posted yesterday. This is all under the NDAA rules.
Anonymous jumped in, not to be outdone and had created the Gonzo Press. What they do is either create blogs, or take over random blogs for a few hours. Say, there is a nice gardening blog. They hack it, open it to writers and reprint articles found elsewhere, then move on to the next one. The government is playing whack a mole, and they cannot keep up. Once a post is made, it gets retweeted, people take screenshots of it, or copy it, and then put it up on as many non-political blogs as they can.
In other words, every site in the States has become Gonzo Press. Its elusive as picking up mercury with a spoon.
In Oakland, when the Occupiers tripled in force? They sent drones and bombed some of them, there was live gunfire where people shot back. San Antonio burned for days. Denver has become a bastion of sniping between factions hiding in the mountains. The more YouTubes that got out? The more people chose the side of the people.
There are stories of our Army guys switching sides, leaving their posts to defend citizens. In DC, someone managed to take the power out for a while to the Beltway area. That pissed them off.
So, somehow, when this story of a widowed Mom, a regular citizen trying to make a difference being hunted down like a dog hit? When the stories of your allies being detained, some think tortured for what they have written politically and about you hit? When they found out Bernie in Vancouver's house got hit after he wrote a piece damning the US for quelling free speech and called it a Nazi regime; asked the people to overthrow the government?
Yours became the tale of a female David against Goliath. I mean, you talked to all these celebrities against all odds. You always referred to yourself as no one. You became every woman to them, you became a plain-spoken Mom with attitude.
They've made you into a heroine."
Her face remained buried deep in her palm, her head slowly shaking side to side in disbelief. Rage started to bubble.
"My friends are being tortured for me?"
"No, honey, not for you. They are doing what they always did, would have, had you not existed. Resisted the direction the US was moving, standing against Class War, and loyal to their allies and friends. If not you, it would be another person, or another reason. You didn't make those people "them" nor can you take credit for their character. They just happen to love you.... and now you, as their symbol have to do what YOU do."
"So, if they hit all my people when they were hitting my house, how the hell did my story get out?"
"Oh, they only grabbed US bloggers, and shut down US sites," she said looking at me intently.
"Bernie? No wonder..."
"Not Bernie, dear. Your former partner is now a citizen here too. He asked sanctuary from the US, got it, and posted from SMA. They cannot touch him without an International Incident.
He wrote your story; and made sure his own immunity was in it. But now, he is not posting much. He did his job and got it out."
Her jaw dropped even further. Her partner Murphy and she had long since parted ways, in fact she never even thought of San Miguel de Allende except in terms of Rose, Tina Rosa they called her here. She hoped he and his wife would suffer no reprisals, and wondered what that would bode for their daughter still in the US. She hoped their girl was safe and with them before this all went down.
"I need a beer. And Jake? Grab my purse."
Now it was Darby's turn to drop her jaw, as she brought about her baby food jar and pipe. "You smuggled in pot?" turning her head askance and raising her hands in disbelief. "Were you begging to be turned away or caught?"
"Oh, shit, Darb, I never even thought about it," she laughed. "It was in my purse on the boat, and I'm so used to it being legal in Michigan with my medical card, it never even occurred to me."
The sweet smell made her hostesses eyes widen even further, "Dammmmmnnn, I love you," she chirped, heading toward the kitchen to grab a couple beers. "There's nothing like that here at all!" This was the batch her friend had flubbed a bit. There were a few seeds in it. That too, may come handy in barter later, she thought.
They spent the next hour relaxing somewhat, filling in details of the events of the week they had missed in their travels, and retelling the story of their journey to Tenacatita. No matter how much Diane and Jake begged, visiting the beach would not be safe until an all-clear was called.
She jumped when she heard the sound of approaching hoofbeats. Darby flipped her hand and rolled her eyes. "Paranoid much? The CIA doesn't have a Calvary here." She choked on her hit, giggling. "That's Luis, come to get your truck."
It was a smallish beautiful bay, a little on the thin side but with long pasterns that belied a smooth ride. She couldn't help but fuss over it. Her son said something to the man in Spanish and the man said something to Darby. "He wants to know if you know horses. Jake told him you were dying to ride it."
He handed her the reins looking doubtful. He went to put his hands out to leg her up, but she waved him off and swung up seamlessly, having only ridden bareback her whole life. "Where can I go?" They pointed her to another two track that did a half mile loop through the grove and came right back to where they were.
She rode up to the little gate, unlatched it, swung through, and backed the horse up to relatch it without missing a step. Horses she could do, and she wasn't above showing off a little for the good looking guy who expected her to be a novice. She gathered him into a slow canter and was off into the palms, ocean breeze lifting her hair even more than the sweeping gate.
Sometimes, even for a moment, it was hard to remember her world was on fire.