Andrea Donovan Pt. 10 - Conclusion

"Obviously, Tim" Andrea said, looking across the table at me. Andrea's eyes told me that she was thinking about something else entirely other than movie titles or gas stations.

"Are you making love with me in your mind again, woman?" I asked with a straight face.

"Obviously, Tim" Andrea answered again as she looked at me from over her coffee cup brim.

I held eye contact with my wife for several seconds, knowing we were only a few yards from the bedroom...

Want some toast?" She suddenly asked, getting up again.

"...(sigh)...Yes please, I'll get some orange juice for us too and feed the Wolfer" I said, standing myself now and slightly frustrated that Andrea and I couldn't roll around in bed all day. ...Seems like it's been a month since we spent the day in bed, I thought to myself...

"He takes after you, Husband, he's a beef eater so give Wolfie one of those brown cans" Andrea said.

"C'mon, WolfCat" I said as I reached for a can of cat food and began preparing him breakfast.

"...I should be able to knock-out the coral and stables by Friday, we'll have to rent one of those small portable cement mixers for the coral posts" I said as Andrea set a plate of toast before me and we sat down again with our orange juice.

"Let's focus on getting Indio on the road today, no hurries on the rest of it; we'll get everything done when we're supposed to. ...Tim, this crossword puzzle was done by a left-handed woman" Andrea suddenly said gesturing toward the sixty eight year old News paper in front of us.

"It looks like a woman's hand" I said quickly glancing at the crossword puzzle.

"It is" Andrea nodded, looking more closely at the crossword puzzle now.

"-You know something, Andrea, ...if I was a famous person that wanted to disappear, I think the best way to do it would be to fake my own disappearance right on the heels of a much more famous person's loss, like say, Hank Williams. If it had been any other time, Mildred Mayfield's loss would have been front-page News all over the world but here she is on page three in an article that's what, a mere thousand words? I think when Hank Williams passed, John Light and Mildred Mayfield scrambled to get into action and fake her own loss at sea, knowing that she'd play second fiddle to Hank Williams in the News papers - pardon the pun. What doesn't make any sense to me is why they stole the movie and buried it." I said, speculating.

"I don't know WHY they stole it either but stealing the movie would be the easy part, Tim, especially for a professional thief like John Light. According to Vic he was a top caliber safe cracker AND master forger" Andrea reasoned.

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean - stealing the movie would be the easy part" I said.

"First of all, to make any of this work, you'd have to get a reputable airline to go along with your ploy, unless you were just extremely fortunate that the airliner which you were travelling aboard did happen to develop a minor mechanical problem and needed to make a brief stop for repairs in Mexico at exactly the coinciding time of Hank William's funeral and his accounted write-ups within the News papers. SECOND, you'd have to convince a boat owner to scuttle his own boat, while at the same time, have a second boat take you aboard and whisk you away to a discreet location where you could then slip into obscurity. That many people can't keep a secret, Tim, no way! Whatever they did to make her disappear was slick and has essentially fooled the entire world for almost seventy years now" Andrea said.

I put my chin in my hand and said nothing, Andrea was right.

"I called and left a message for a guy that I used to date, early this morning. He's in New York now but he used to be stunt coordinator in Hollywood when I was in my thirties, maybe he can shed some light on all this, I'm curious now myself. Steel's a good guy and very discreet so none of what we ever talk about will go any further. Someone would probably like to have those Master Reels back and he'd be the one to know - if he does call back." Andrea answered.

"Steel, that's an interesting name, Andrea; I hope he does call back, I'd love to know anything he can tell us. Those reels may still hold some value to someone, Mildred Mayfield was a big, big star once" I answered, sipping my coffee.

"Steel was one of Mick's buddies, the only one that I ever really liked - in fact, I was introduced to Mick through Steel" Andrea answered.

"Steel's not in the movies anymore?" I asked.

"No, last I heard, he married a gal from Sydney and works in high end real-estate now, New York is the big league game of the world and he's a smart guy that works well under pressure, in fact I think he prefers it that way" Andrea answered.

"I'm sure he is a guy that..." I began to answer as my phone started ringing; it was Indio I noticed on the screen.

"Mister Garcia, good morning!" I answered.

"Good morning Tim, we are here at the gas station but there is no one here" Indio said.

"I'll unlock the gate in five minutes, Indio" I said.

"OK, we are ready" Indio replied. We each said good-bye and clicked off.

"The green flag has dropped and we're off to the races now, Love" I said standing and leaning down to kiss my wife.

"Indio's about forty minutes early this morning; guess they're serious about getting it done today." Andrea said glancing at the clock.

"Make hay while the sun shines, cowgirl" I said saluting Andrea prominently with two fingers.

"Take some toast with you and I'll be there in about forty five minutes, Tim" Andrea said, pulling me down for another kiss.

...The gate at the Texaco was already open when I arrived and Ricky's battered old Ford was parked in front of the foyer. Three of the bright yellow Pioneer Construction & Demolition pick-ups were backed neatly to the open garage bay entitled TIRES / TUNE-UP'S at its top. ...Indio ran a tight ship and there were already sounds of busy activity emanating from within the bay, including that of the wheeled back-hoe. The tow-behind air compressor soon roared to life with a puff of smoke and was soon joined with the annoying sound of Billy's concrete saw. It was going to be a busy day.

"- Hey Ricky, morning Bren, how'd it go last night?" I asked in reference to their first night at the new house as I walked into the Texaco's foyer and leaned down to hug Brenda.

"Hey, Tim, wonderful, we love it!" Brenda said as she glanced up from her phone, hugging me back from her seat.

"I think it'll take us a while to get used to not living next to the Interstate and traffic noise, Tim" Ricky said, tipping his coffee as he leaned against the old Coke machine.

"We'll have plenty of noise today, Ricky" I said nodding toward the closed door leading to the bays.

"They're sure getting after it" Ricky nodded.

"Where's your bride?" Brenda asked.

"She'll be here in about half an hour, Bren, she's home now if you want to walk over there" I answered.

"Ah, too early, I'll wait for her here" Brenda answered, focusing back on her phone.

Andrea arrived at the Texaco around eleven thirty and I made a trip to the Casa Grande Post Office with her in the green Deuce coup, drawing attention where ever we went with the vintage car and Andrea's extraordinary good looks. Teenage boys were especially drawn to the antique car and certainly Andrea, I understood this.

"Want to stop someplace and get a bite to eat?" Andrea asked as we walked out of the Post Office and sat back down in the car again with Andrea at the wheel.

"...Sure want me to call back to the Texaco and see if anyone would like something?" I asked.

"...(sigh)... Let's have everyone buy their own lunch today, Tim" Andrea said with a hint of reluctance.

"Works for me, Honey" I answered from the passenger's seat, somewhat relieved that I wouldn't be standing in line for forty minutes someplace.

"What are you in the mood for?" Andrea asked in reference to food as we pulled back onto the black top from the Post Office with a rumble of the Ford's exhaust pipes.

"Something with carb's, I want to do a serious bicycle ride later this afternoon" I said.

"Want to try that new place, the nineteen fifties burger joint in Casa Grande that just opened? You'll get carb's there, for sure" Andrea said.

"Yeah, let's go there" I answered as I waved to two kids on bicycles who were giving Andrea's car, the thumbs - up sign.

"People sure like this car" Andrea said as she too, waved back to the kids and smiled.

"They were probably infatuated with the foxy lady at the wheel, they were both boys, Andrea" I said more seriously than not.

"Girls like this car too, Tim" Andrea answered as we stopped for a traffic light.

"The nineteen thirty four Ford Coupe was always a pretty car, Andrea" I said.

"...I guess Mary Lane grew up with the people that just opened this new burger place, in fact I think she even donated some of her mother's antiques to them for interior décor" Andrea said over the noise of the Ford's pipes as she mashed the pedal now and we rumbled onto I-10, smoothly meshing into traffic with the old Ford.

"Mmm" I answered, staring out at the passing scenery of the passenger's window.

Andrea and I drove along in silence for a few minutes as we made the short drive to Casa Grande.

"...I guess she's on her way to Texas now, as of yesterday, she chose to drive. Said she's all done here in Arizona, once and for all now" Andrea elaborated further on Mary Lane.

"She's a nice lady; I hope she finds peace wherever she goes, Andrea. God, I just hope we don't find anything else weird buried under that second hoist today" I said, running a hand through my hair and closing my eyes. I was suddenly extremely tired of thinking about Mildred Mayfield, stolen movie reels and old safes.

"If we do, then we do, Tim" Andrea said as we exited for the first off-ramp to Casa Grande with a back rattling of the Ford's pipes.

...The new burger place in Casa Grande was called "Archie's Burger Palace" and was adorned with all the memorabilia one would expect, complete with a large retro nineteen fifties flashing neon sign overhead. Andrea found a parking space and shut off the Ford's engine.

"Love your car, lady!" A guy said as Andrea and I exited the vehicle.

"Thank you! My husband gave it to me." Andrea answered.

"Better keep him in that case" The guy replied a bit humorously.

"I plan to, thanks!" Andrea said smiling.

Andrea and I went through the polished chrome entryway doors and were immediately greeted with the smell of food and a moderate number of people waiting in line ahead of us to be seated; I suddenly realized that I was hungry. Looking around, I noticed the diner boasted dozens of antiquated novelties from the nineteen fifties complete with large photo plaques of people and places including a large aerial view of a very spartan Casa Grande when the town was first founded, complete with dirt roads and windmills.

Within a very few minutes of arriving within the diner Andrea and I were quickly shown to a booth and sat down together. A large faded color photo plaque above us depicted a cowboy leaning nonchalantly against a support column of a ragged porch with an old dog sleeping by his feet.

"This place is charming, I hope the food's as good as the décor" Andrea said, looking around at the diner's interior.

I said nothing in reply as I closed my eyes and contentedly ran my cheek and nose against Andrea's jasmine scented hair.

"You OK" Andrea asked in a serious voice.

"I'm OK, Honey, It just seems like we've been working our asses off this last month and all this Mildred Mayfield stuff is just a bit spooky, almost like we've been chasing ghosts. Friendly ghosts perhaps, but ghosts just the same." I said honestly, closing my eyes again and massaging my face.

"We'll all feel at home here soon, Tim." Andrea assured me.

"Folks, would you mind if I took your photo? We want to create some decorative photos of our actual patrons that we can hang on the walls and you're a very attractive couple!" A young girl with a camera said smiling enthusiastically.

"We'd love for you to take our photo, young lady!" I said eagerly before Andrea could object.

"Say cheeese" the girl said as she quickly snapped several photos of Andrea and me leaning together complete with a flash bulb popping in our faces. "Thanks so much you two, enjoy your meal!" the girl said as she hurried off to the next table.

"You're a shit, you know that, Tim?" Andrea asked rolling her eyes at me.

"I just like having my photo taken with a stone cold fox" I said as I kissed my wife.

"You're still a shit" Andrea said leaning against me.

A few minutes later Andrea and I ordered lunch from a very attractive waitress, a brunette named Debbie in her early thirties, I would guess. I suddenly felt as if Andrea and I were courting again and on our second or third date after being introduced. I just couldn't stop flirting with my wife and soon had her giggling with some of my adolescent antics left over from high school. Maybe I was just relieving tension which had built up over the last few weeks or maybe Andrea just turned me on, I suspected that it was probably a combination of both. Maybe I just loved flirting with her and hearing her giggle when she was trying hard not to. I seemed to settle down some once our meals arrived and was pleasantly surprised at how good the food was, we would come here often I was sure. As we ate, Andrea and I talked about the Gingerbread Ranch, Ricky, Brenda and the recent arrival of Pippi Longstocking into our lives. We also pondered on how Vic was doing and Andrea assured me that she would call him within the next few days and check-up on him. An hour after sitting down, I reached over and grabbed our check and walked over to the cashier to pay our tab.

"No charge sir, we love the photo of you and your wife and plan to use it in our entryway. Thanks so much for allowing us to take your picture!" Debbie said, smiling.

"In that case then, this is for you, honey" I said laying a twenty on the counter for the girl.

"Awww, thank you so much, you two have an awesome day and come back and see us real soon!" Debbie replied.

"You already have a wife, Husband, and this lady is too young for you" Andrea teased as she slipped her index finger into my shirt collar and led me away from the girl and toward the doorway.

"Yes and I've got the best looking..." I began to say as I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks.

"What?" Andrea suddenly asked in a serious voice as she followed my gaze toward a large photo plaque on the entryway wall, facing us now.

I said nothing as comprehension now dawned on Andrea as she stared at the plaque, herself.

The beaming face of Mildred Mayfield now greeted us as she smiled widely with genuine heartfelt joy within the three foot square photo plaque. A man, similar in appearance to Buddy Holly and smiling just as widely held her from behind as the two looked into the camera. ...Young lovers, end over tea kettle in-love and posing in front of a bright red Chevy farm truck loaded with bales of hay. An old barn and cactus could be seen within the distant background and the two were dressed like they'd spent the whole day working on the farm. It was a mesmerizing photo that would make anyone smile with joy yet also feel just a bit envious of the two. The photo was cropped close and showed the couple from head to elbow level as they stood in front of the Chevy. Mildred Mayfield - or Mindy Lane, as locals had known her, had been an exceptionally beautiful woman and strongly reminded me of Mom. It was also easy to see where Mary Lane had gotten her own extraordinary good-looks from in studying the photo. The photo was now close to seventy years old it suddenly dawned on me...

"Mindy Lane, a local Casa Grande girl for years, Tim" Andrea said nonchalantly.

"Andrea, I know, but the truck" I said quietly.

"What about it?" Andrea asked as she pulled out her phone and carefully took a photograph of the plaque.

I didn't heart Andrea's question, I just stared at the plaque.

"What, about the truck intrigues you, Husband?" Andrea asked.

"One and a half ton Chevy of the Advance Design Series, obviously brand new when this photo was taken, and a solid windshield" I said, nodding my head.

"Why does any of that that matter? Mindy Lane was a local here for decades and everyone knew her and Juan, we already know that" Andrea said looking me deep in the eyes.

"It matters because the last year that Chevy trucks had a two piece SPLIT windshield with flat glass was nineteen fifty THREE, Andrea. Nineteen fifty FOUR was the first year that Chevy trucks had a solid CURVED windshield with no center bar in the middle. This photo was taken in nineteen fifty four or later. That proves that she definitely was very much alive AFTER nineteen fifty three." I said looking Andrea in the eye.

"And Mary Lane was made in nineteen SIXTY four, the same year that you were born which proves that Mildred Mayfield was alive then too. Obviously she was also alive when she was later photographed in nineteen seventy on the Texaco calendar - we've been over this ground before, Tim. Cute photo of Mildred Mayfield and John Light though" Andrea said rolling her eyes at me as she grabbed my hand and drug me out the door.

We walked outside into the parking lot and put on our sunglasses. I was about to say something as we neared the car when Andrea's phone suddenly began ringing.

"... Hel- ...Hello?" Andrea said as she fumbled through her purse for the phone.

"A.J.? ...Is this A.J. West?" a man's voice asked.

"STEEL!" Andrea exclaimed as she held the phone at arm's length, obviously it was a face time call.

I could see a smiling robust man, around sixty years of age, with grey hair and a healthy golfer's tan within the screen of Andrea's phone now. ...Maybe it was jealousy on my part or maybe it was from weeks of tripping over the ghosts of Mildred Mayfield and John Light... whichever the case, the adolescent humor which had struck me earlier inside the diner's booth with Andrea suddenly returned and I began deliberately trying to annoy Andrea as she talked with another man, a married man, a platonic friend of Andrea's, but a man none the less.

" - it's Donavan now ...yes this is my husband, Tim" Andrea said, tilting the phone in my direction as I made a solemn two finger salute to the gentleman.

"...yes, we've been married almost a year now and we're here in Arizona, we love it!" Andrea elaborated to her friend.

I covertly held two fingers, like antennas, behind Andrea's head and tried not to snicker. Andrea quickly noticed this on the screen and nudged me away in slight annoyance with her left arm as she continued to talk with Steel. I wasn't even listening to the conversation now and really didn't give a shit what the guy thought. Seconds later I leaned back into the phone's face time screen with a serious expression as I made a motion behind Andrea's head with my thumb and fingers, like alligator jaws opening and closing, -the universal sign that said "All she does is yak, yak, yak." Seeing this, Andrea quickly rolled her eyes and took another quick step away from me.

"...he's usually much more MATURE than this!" I heard Andrea saying apologetically now as I began snickering all over again - she was trying to convince the guy that I really wasn't a whack-job and I started laughing even harder now.

Shaking her head in disbelief, Andrea rolled her eyes and ignored me.

...Leaning against the car, I raised my boot against Andrea's ass and began nudging her with a rhythmic motion, making her appear as if she were tuning into some vibes from a favorite song.

"...JESUS! - just a minute Steel..." Andrea said as she quickly turned toward me with a very annoyed expression on her face.