Michelle looked at Dondi, trying to act rational after the overwhelming revelation of her marriage to Omar.
“You said my husband came to see me after the surgery, while I was asleep?”
“Yes. Oh, I totally forgot. He told me that he had friends looking after a cat named Lucifer. Is that really the name of a cat?”
Michelle smiled for the first time. “Yes. He was a gift to me, and already had that name. He can be a little devil, though.”
“So now you don’t have to worry about the cat,” Dondi said. “And your sister is doing well, too.”
“Was Leilanie’s surgery successful?”
“Oh my, yes. The doctor says she’s fine. They implanted three eggs, because sometimes all the eggs don’t attach to the uterine wall.”
Oh my God, Michelle thought. Triplets!
Chapter 13
Sammy, Rod’s pilot, located a rental space for the Lear Jet by communicating with ground control while they were still in flight, several hundred miles from Guadalajara airport. When they landed he was directed where to taxi the jet and tie up.
They deplaned and started a long walk to the main airport building. It was early evening and the sky was massed with pink and purple clouds as the sun lowered in the sky. The air was warm and humid, without a hint of a breeze.
“These things are huge,” Heather said, waving her arm around over her head at a swarm of mosquitoes. Of course Lucifer was thrilled and tried to whack at them with his little paw as Heather carried him on the walkway to the passenger terminal. “Thank God the trade winds mostly keep them out of Hawaii.”
“Reminds me of a swarm of bats, they’re so big,” Mike said ducking and swinging at the attacking blood-suckers.
“Don’t mention bats,” Heather warned.
“Why not?”
Heather looked at him sideways, “Reminds me of Dracula. Which reminds me of Omar. Don’t you think he’d be a perfect Dracula, if they ever did another movie? He’d fit the part flawlessly. Nasty. Scheming. Devious. Treacherous. Deadly. Conniving...” She ran out of words.
Mike smiled, “Now that you mention it. A scary guy, for sure. And he looks the part.”
Rod and the professor were not smiling as they finally went through the double glass doors into the airport terminal. They’d had more experience with Omar Satinov.
As they hurried through the terminal, Heather remembered Michelle mentioned that the first time she’d seen Omar up close he’d been wearing a cape. Michelle said he reminded her of the fictional character, Dracula, since he was so handsome, with that black cape and his black hair with the perfect silver threads running through it. Heather could imagine Omar wearing that cape, raising his arms, and flapping off like a giant bat in the night sky.
She really didn’t believe in vampires, but Omar could suck the life out of anyone, if he chose to do so. He had those creepy, mesmerizing eyes. Once he caught your gaze it was almost impossible to look away.
The Guadalajara airport was huge and crowded as they went inside and tried to decipher all the pointing signs, printed in Spanish. They had to rent a car and do a currency exchange. Most everyone spoke English, which was a definite plus, because they were in a hurry. Visiting hours at the fertility clinic, where they needed to go, were limited.
Heather was afraid they wouldn’t get there in time to see Michelle. She was still juggling the cat, trying to get Lucifer into his travel carrier, but was again unsuccessful, so she just carried him in her purse, like she’d seen Michelle do in the past. He seemed content to stay there, although he preferred being carried around on Rod’s shoulder.
“We need balloons, a cake, and a big bouquet of flowers,” Vincent said. “If we come in a little late, maybe they’ll be lenient about the time, since we’ve traveled so far.”
Mike was studying his cell phone. “I got a return email from Dr. Franz a few minutes ago. He’ll let me see Michelle any time we get there, since he believes I’m her doctor. I said I was traveling with Michelle’s father, who is very anxious to see Michelle, too.”
What if Omar’s there? Heather thought. That would be uncomfortable. He knew who they really were. But then, they all knew who he was, too. A real Mexican Standoff.
Sammy, Rod’s pilot, was the designated driver on the trip to the clinic. The rental car had GPS, luckily, so getting there didn’t look like a problem, even though it was quite a long way from the airport. Except they quickly found themselves dead into the evening rush hour traffic. The snarls were like any other big city.
Heather felt like screaming and kept glancing at her watch, sure it had stopped, and then comparing it to the time on her cell phone to make sure it hadn’t.
Mike was gazing out the window. “I’ve always wanted to visit Guadalajara. Look, you can see the twin spikes of the famous Cathedral.”
Heather ducked to look out of the car window. She was pretty much squashed, trapped between Mike and Vincent in the back seat. The view was beautiful and foreign to her in the early evening, but the drivers around their car seemed frantic, whizzing around them dangerously, almost giving her a headache.
Mike continued looking out the windows with bright eyes. “Guadalajara is the second largest city in Mexico. With the second largest population. It’s also the birthplace of Mariachi music...and Tequila. The night-life’s supposed to be fantastic.”
“Who needs Google?” Heather said, smiling at Mike and bumping shoulders with him. She wondered about the hotel rooms Rod had arranged for all of them. He had deep pockets; probably reserved a room for each of them individually. If she wanted to stay with Mike tonight she’d have to sneak into his room.
Rod pointed at a shopping center
