She of the Jade Skirt

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

** Part III **

If she kept this up, we would both end up drowning.

{“Melody! Calm down.”} I said as I fought her for control.  It took me a second or two, but I managed to relax our body and we floated to the surface. I coughed and grabbed onto the edge of the pool.

{“Whhhho are you?! Where am I!? What’s happening?!”} Melody said, stuttering with fright.

My heart, our heart, went out for her. I felt my eyes beginning to sting and it wasn’t from the chlorinated water. I just wanted to hug her so badly and tell her that she was safe and that everything would be all right.  

{“I’m sorry Melody...”} I started to say, but I felt so overwhelmed and confused because it was at that moment that I realized that I didn’t know the answers to her questions either.

Who am I?  Was I still Donald James Wolf?

Where am I? Was I really here or was I back in my room in the hospice having a very vivid dream?  

Everything felt so real.  Chalchiuhtlicue presence felt real. Did I take the red or the blue pill? The emergence of Melody threw everything I thought I knew on its head. What is really happening?

It was then that I realized that I was sitting on the steps inside the pool. Melody was hugging and gently rocking me back and forth. Well, she was hugging and rocking herself, but it felt like she was hugging me. It felt good. I decided to just relax and enjoy the feeling.

{“Thanks Melody...”}

{“Ummm, no problem, but this is a little weird.  What’s going on? Who are you? Why can I hear you inside my head? Are you an alien?”}

She had me seriously considering how to best answer her questions; all the way until her last question.  That one did me in and I laughed.

{“Hey! It’s not funny!”} Melody said, full of indignation.

{“I’m sorry Melody, but I don’t think that I am an alien.”} I said, still feeling amused by both her question and her reaction.

{“Okay then, what are you and how are we talking to each other?”}

That question brought me back to earth. {“Honestly?  I don’t know.”}

I could feel her confusion and she wanted to say something, but I decided to just charge ahead and rip the bandaid off.

{“Up until an hour ago, I was a 58 year old ex-Navy SEAL who was dying from a host of issues, including cancer. Now, as to how we are talking to each other right now...I have no clue about that either.”}  I laughed at the absurdity of the situation, but Melody didn’t say anything. If anything, I sensed that she felt curious instead of alarmed by the idea that some 58 year old dude was in her head.

{“Okay, well, it is a little weird, but at the same time, kind of cool. I mean, I always wondered what it would be like to have mental telepathy, but if you were a SEAL, then why do you sound like a woman?”}

That question surprised me. {“What do you mean?”}

{“I mean, I thought that SEALs were all men, but when you talk to me, you sound like a woman. Shouldn’t you sound like a dude?”}

If I was surprised before, I was really surprised now and I didn’t know how to explain it to her. I was more afraid of freaking her out if I told her the truth. {“Ummm, maybe my voice changed to make you feel more at ease with me in your body?”} I said, hesitantly as I glance over at my M4 assault rifle. I felt my Combat OCD kick in again. So, I swam over to the edge of the pool until I was next to my gear.

{“How did you do that?”} Melody asked.

{“Do what?”} I said, absently as I visually checked over my weapon.  The routine helped to distract me from the issue at hand.

{“Take over...are you sure that you’re not some alien or something?”} Melody asked, dubiously.

I could almost imagine her standing next to me with her arms crossed and her head canted to the side with a look of disbelief on her face. That made me smile. {“Hehe...No, I am most ‘definitely’, not an alien. I don’t know how I took over and I don’t know exactly why I sound like a woman to you. Maybe it is like I said, so that I don’t creep you out as much?”} I said, hopeful that she would buy it.

{“Hmm, I’m not sure about that. It feels like you are afraid to tell me the truth. Are you sure that you’re not really a girl?”} Melody asked, not buying my explanation at all.

*Sigh*

{“I’m sorry Melody, but I have some trust issues and I am afraid that if I told you the truth; you wouldn’t like me.”}  I felt a lump forming in my throat. It took all my self control to not cry. Melody was the primary protectee. It was my job to keep her safe and from all of my past protection jobs; I knew that getting too close to your primary was bad. It made you react in ways that could get you both killed. Maybe if I adopted that mental mindset, things would be easier.  Of course, that mindset was a little harder to follow through on when you happened to be sharing bodies with the person you were supposed to protect.

{“Hey, it’s okay. It can wait. I’m sorry, umm, what is your name?”} Melody said, softly and supportively leaving me feeling like she was leaning over my shoulder and hugging me.

{“Ummm, it’s Donald James Wolf, formerly Chief Petty Officer, United States Navy.”} I said, hating the sound of my own name.

{“I’m sorry, but that won’t work!”} Melody said, triumphant mixed with mischievous. {“Navy, yes, but you just don’t sound like a Donald or Don to me. How about Dawn? That’s kinda close, right?”}

I hesitated. I did not like ‘Dawn’ and I found her eagerness to find me a female name to be very
surprising, pleasantly surprising. {“I don’t know Melody. It’s kind of too close to my real name.”}

“Hmmm, Donna? No...that doesn’t feel right. Doris? Yuck, never mind. Denise? More ditto. I know a girl in school named Denise. She’s a total b.i.t.c.h. Oh! I know, Danica! I can call you Dani for short. What do ya think?”

I feel like crying, but I can’t let her know that.  I can’t believe that she picked Danica/Dani. {“I, umm, I kind of like that name.  Reminds me of my daughter, Danielle.”}

{“Oh, I’m sorry. Is that why you’re so sad? I can come up with something else...”}

{“No! I mean, no. I love it. Thanks Melody.”} I said, fighting back tears.

{“Awesome!”} Melody’s excitement was infectious. {“Dani...I like it and I’m glad you like it. It fits you. Not sure why, but it just does.”}

{“Thanks.”} I said, happy with her acceptance.  Maybe she would not freak out if I told her about how I have felt all my life.

{“So, umm, Dani. Why are we in the pool and why is there a gun sitting there and why do we have a knife on us and where are all the bad guys?”}

{“Weapon.”} I said, automatically correcting her. {“And that’s kind of a long story, Melody.  What is the last thing that you remember?”}  Please, please, please don’t tell me that you remember being raped.

{“Well, I climbed down from my window. The dudes were chasing me and I was running through some old ruins out in the jungle, then I woke up back here. Why?”}

Thank the Goddess! {“Oh, no real reason. I was just curious because I saw the rope you made and I thought that you were very brave to do that.”}

{“You’re hiding something from me again, aren’t you?”} Melody asked, full of suspicion and curiosity.

{“Yes.”} Melody is the primary. Melody is the primary. I needed to keep that firmly in mind.

{“What is it?”} Melody asked, not willing to let it go.

{“Nothing.”} I said as I felt a touch of the memory wash over me before I could stop it and I felt brief flash of panic.

{“What was that? Are you okay!?”} Melody asked full of concern for me.

I was not sure what leaked through and she felt from me. {“I’m fine...really.”} I said as I felt my resolve strengthen. I hope that she never finds out what happened to me and her.  

Melody paused for a couple of seconds. I could feel both her concern for me and her curiosity wage war with each other. {“Oh, okay, umm, but where are all the bad guys?”} She asked.

I hesitated with my reply. I was not sure how to tell her about what I did to secure the mansion. She was only 12 and I didn’t want to freak her out even more, but she was probably going to find out pretty soon anyway. {“Ummm, well, I kind of killed them...”}  

{“Seriously!? All of them?”} Melody asked, incredulously.

{“All of the hostiles that were here, yes.”} I said using a business like tone that I found easier to adopt now that we were talking about the mission.

{“How many, umm, hostiles did you kill?”}

{“Six, but Creepy was killed by his boss for letting you escape.”}

{“Hmm, his boss is not a nice person.  Are we going to kill him too?”}  Melody asked, indifferent to the challenge that casual statement entailed.

{“Whoa, whoa, whoa! What is this ‘we’ thing?”} I asked.

{“Well, I’m me and you are me. What else could ‘we’ do?”} Melody asked as if it was only natural and expected.

It was time to set her straight. {“First of all, you are far too young to be killing anyone let alone watching someone be killed.  First thing ‘we’ are doing is getting you to safety.”}

{“Oh, so you’re going to take me back to my mom and dad?”} Melody asked.

Crap, crap, crap with some fuck on top of the crap. {“Umm...”}

{“What?! Are they okay?!? Dani! What’s wrong!?”} Melody asked.

I could feel her desperation and concern for her parents. If I told her, then she would want me to rescue her parents. A true Catch-22 situation since I wanted to rescue her parents, but doing so would automatically put Melody in danger too. {“I think that the drug lord who kidnapped you is going to grab or he might have already grabbed your parents.”}

{“What!?! Why? Dani, we have to do something!”} Melody said, wailing with desperation.  Her concern was so great that she managed to take over and pull us out of the pool.

{“Calm down, calm down. I’m not sure why. I think it has to do with your dad making a new drug for the drug lord and I was starting to work on a plan, but I just don’t know what I can do right now. I need more intel.”} I said, regaining control and crouching down next to my M4.

{“Can’t we just call the police?”} Melody asked, full of trust.

{“Umm, Melody, this is Mexico. The drug lord probably owns the police and that is also why we can’t just run in and spring your parents.  The only safe place is the American Embassy in Mexico City and we would probably never make it.”}

{“Oh...”} Melody said, much subdued.

{“Yes, Oh.”}

{“Umm, Dani, why were we in the pool?”} Melody asked, abruptly changing subjects in a direction that surprised me.

{“Because we are covered in mud.”}

{“Why are we covered in mud?”}

{“Melody, do you always ask so many questions?”}

{“No, why?”} Melody asked with fake innocence.

Grrrrr...

{“Hehehe...Seriously though, why are we covered in mud?”}

{“Camouflage.”}

{“Oh, okay. Kind of gross, but I guess that I can see that. My, umm, our skin is kinda white.”}

{“Exactly!  Anyway, we need to get moving.”}  I said, diving back into the pool and scrubbing our body as best I could while holding my breath.  Yes, with Melody awake, it was a little confusing about me, her and us.

{“Well, that feels, umm, strange.  Can I do that myself? I mean, if you really are some old dude, I am not so sure you should be touching me...you know...good touch, bad touch.”} Melody said with a mental giggle that told me she found the idea more humorous than creepy.

{“Umm, sure...will try, but I am not sure how.”} I said. I am not sure how I managed to do it, but I switched off and Melody took over the scrubbing. She was right; it did feel weird to have someone else washing your body for you.

{“Seriously, how did you get mud in here? Did you swim in a mud puddle or something?”} Melody asked, incredulously as she took off her top and cleaned out the mud.

{“Actually, yes.”}

That stopped her for all of two seconds as she tried to figure out if I was joking with her or not. {“There’s nobody here, right?”} Melody asked, timidly.

{“Just the two maids that I locked in the storage room instead of killing them.”}

{“Umm, so not going to touch that right now because I need to take my bottoms off too. Seriously Dani, next time, try not to get mud in there or down there, it’s kinda yucky.” Melody said, cleaning out the mud from our privates and bikini bottoms.

{“Umm, Dani?”} Melody paused with her cleaning.

{“Yes Melody?”} I asked, patiently because it was a little bit of a struggle to keep up with her. She changed conversations on a dime.

{“Why are we not drowning?”} Melody asked, full of confusion as she looked up at the surface one or two feet about our head.

{“Because we are holding our breath.}” I said.  Then, I thought about it because it did seem a little strange. {“How long can you hold your breath?”}

{“Hmmm, I dunno? 30 seconds?”}

I could not believe that we had been under the water for over two minutes, yet I didn’t feel the slightest need to breath. Was it my SEAL training?  I was not sure because that involved increasing lung capacity and reducing both the mind and the body’s reflexive need to breath with training, lots and lots of training.  {“I told you that I was a SEAL. We are fine. Keep going and I will let you know when we should surface for air.”} I said, curious to find out just how long we could hold our breath.

Reassured, Melody swam down to grab her top off the bottom and I thought that the water felt wonderful on my bare skin. Our body felt so sleek and supple. I also felt the beginnings of a slight pressure from my bladder.

{“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”} Melody asked, giving me the sense that she was smiling at me.

{“Yes! It feels so good to be able to move around so easily and freely. Plus, the water feels wonderful! What about you?”}

{“Well, it does feel kinda good, but I feel weird being butt naked in a pool and we need to pee. So, can we hurry up and find a bathroom?”}

I hate to admit it, but I was actually kind of looking forward to using the toilet. Not because I wanted to go to the bathroom as a girl, but just because I wanted to pee without using a catheter or a fucking bedpan. I had been stuck using one of those damn things for over a month now and it is amazing how much a person can take for granted about their health. Okay, so I also wanted to see what it was like with my new plumbing, but sadly, we did not have the time. So, I surfaced, then swam a few feet away and let go. It felt...different, but the relief was the same.

Melody was not amused. {“Eeww!  You didn’t just make us pee in the pool?!”}

{“Well, yeah, that is what SEALs do to keep warm in our wetsuits.  Urine is sterile anyway.”}  I said, laughing at her reaction. {“Hey, I kept our head out of the water!”}

{“O,M,G, so gross! Let’s get outta here, please?”}

{“Okay.”} I said as I swam over to the edge and with bikini in hand, pulled our body up and out of the pool. My gaze passed over Creepy as I automatically scanned the area for threats. I did not spot any so I picked up my gear and transferred it to the table so that it would be closer to hand while I put back on our limited amount of clothing.

{“Come on! Naked here! Some clothes, please! OMG! Is that guy dead?!”}

I glanced over at Creepy as I started to put the bikini bottoms back on. {“Yes. Don’t look.”} I said as I started to feel a bit nauseous. I look back down at our body instead and I start to feel better. I have not had that kind of reaction in decades.

{“What do you mean don’t look?!? He’s right there and you made us look at him! Was that Creepy?”} Melody asked, going from frustrated to angry before landing back at curious and all in the span of one thought.

Melody really made my head spin. I felt like I was trying to keep up with a caffeinated squirrel. {“Yes, that was Creepy. Can you put your top back on?”} I asked, giving her control again in an effort to refocus her attention and give me some breathing room.  {“And...don’t look at him again. I don’t want us to get sick.”}

{“Yes, Mom!”} Melody said, a little snidely as she expertly put her top back on. {“Umm, did you kill him?”}

{“No, the fu...damn Don Rodriguez did.”} I said, instantly censoring my language mid-stream.

Melody giggled at me. {“You almost dropped the f-bomb there, didn’t you?”}

{“Yes, sorry. I’m just not used to being around young people anymore.  My youngest daughter moved out of the house a few years ago and she was used to my salty language.”}

{“Oh, that’s okay, I’ve heard it before. You had a daughter?”}

{“No, it’s not okay, but yes, I have or had, not sure if I am dead or not, a daughter plus two other children with my ex-wife.”}

{“Oh, I’m sorry.”} Melody said, softly and with compassion before bouncing back. {“So! What’s next Miss Kick-Ass Navy SEAL dudette?”}

Her can-do attitude made me smile.  She was definitely worth protecting and so were her mom and dad because any parent that could raise a daughter like Melody had to be worth at least trying to help. I hoped that Chalchiuhtlicue would agree and let me stay long enough to accomplish that goal.

{“Intel gathering time.”} I said as I took back over and re-equipped the MOLLE vest, grabbed my M4 and walked back into the mansion with my weapon at the ready, just in case.

{“Whoa! This is so cool!”} Melody said, giddy with excitement.

That is when I decided that I needed to have some of that Scotch, well, after I checked on the maids and double checked the mansion and checked the Don’s office for more intel and, well crap. Maybe I would just have to liberate the bottle and bring it with me when we left.

{“Melody, can you close your eyes and not see things?”} I asked as I walked over to the storage closet.

{“Hmmm, I dunno...umm...whoa!”}

{“What? What’s wrong?”}

{“I can’t see!”} Melody said, panicked. {“Oh, phew! That’s better.”}

{“Melody...”}

{“Sorry, I just imagined myself closing my eyes and I couldn’t see, but I could still feel my eyes open and everything else. It was weird and kinda scary, like I suddenly went blind or something.”}

I paused outside the door. I didn’t want to open it until I was sure that Melody was ready for possible action. {“Okay, how about your ears? Can you make yourself not hear?”}

{“Ummm, not sure...Hmmm, maybe, kind of sort of?”} She said sounding a little dubious about her results.

{“What do you mean?”} I asked.

{“Well, I imagined myself sticking my fingers in my ears and the TV wasn’t as loud. Why do you need me to do this?”}

{“If I have to do something that might, umm, make you sick, I don’t want you to see it. If it grosses you out and makes you sick, then that will make me sick too and that would be bad, okay?”}

{“Oh, okay...like what?”} Melody asked.

Of course she asked.  I sighed. {“Look, I’m sorry, but there are things that a child...”}

I felt her starting to interrupt me. {“...sorry, young lady like you should not have to see or experience. Hell, no one should have to see or know about some of those things. What kind of things?  Bad things and when I ask you to close your eyes, please trust me and do like I ask. I’ve seen it far too much in my life and it darkens your soul. It gives you nightmares that take years to recover from, if ever, and you are far too precious to me for me to allow that to happen too.”}

{“Okay, but if you are talking about shooting someone, I’ve seen people get shot on TV...”}

{“Not the same. Trust me on this one Melody. It is totally not the same when you see it in real-life.”}

{“Okay, I guess so. I mean, I did sorta feel a little sick from seeing Creepy there.”}

{“Exactly! So, if I tell you to close your eyes, please close your eyes and cover your ears right away, okay?”}

{“Okay...”} Melody said, sounding a little dejected.

{“Good, now, I am going to open this door and check on the maids, but if something goes wrong and I tell you to close your eyes; what are you going to do?”}

{“Close my eyes and cover my ears?”}

{“Yes, good girl. Now, I don’t expect anything to happen, but as a test can you please not look?”} I asked.

{“Yes, Mom...”} Melody said impatiently just to give me grief.

I imagined myself sticking my tongue out at her as I turned the handle, pushed the door open and took a step back with the M4 at the ready.  The maids were sleeping, but that woke them up and they screamed again.

{“What was that?!”}

{“Melody...”}

{“Sorry...”} Melody said sounding a little contrite.

“Are you two okay?” I asked. They both fearfully nodded their heads yes.

{“Ask them if they need to go to the bathroom.”}

{“They are fine, they have a sink right here.”}

{“Eeewww! Gross, ask them.”}

“Do you need to use the restroom?” I asked.  They both nodded their heads yes.  Great.

“Okay, Rosalita, you first, then when you are done, your mom.” I said gesturing for Rosalita to come toward me.  She hesitantly rose and glanced nervously back to her mom.

{“She looks scared. What did you do to them?”}

{“Nothing, just hogtied them and the bad guys sort of made a lot of noise, so, ummm...yeah.”} I said, stopping before I got into the details.

{“Well, tell her it’s okay. Geesh, you don’t have to be such a meanie and keep pointing your gun at her.”

“Come on.” I took another step back and relaxed my stance a little. Rosalita cautiously stepped out of the storage room and I directed her toward the small downstairs restroom.  Then, I closed and relocked the door before I followed her.

{“Weapon. It’s not a gun.”} I said, trying to correct Melody again.

{“Whatever, just don’t point it at her. No wonder she is so scared of you. Hey, how do you know Spanish?”}

{“Melody, busy here.”} I said, trying to not snap at her, but she was distracting me.

{“Okay, okay...”} Melody said, sounding a little dejected.

Rosalita entered the restroom and started to close the door for some privacy. “No, leave it open.” I said.

{“Meanie...”}

{“I didn’t check the room for hidden weapons.”}

{“Geez, paranoid much? I mean, look at her, she’s petrified and you’re worried about her finding a weapon?”} Melody asked incredulously.

{“Yes, now be quiet, please.”}

Once Rosalita finished, I led her back to the room and exchanged her with her mother.  Her mother was a little less terrified of me. She also kept looking back and it looked like she was trying to study my necklace.  Again, I had her leave the door open and thankfully, Melody did not call me a meanie.  

{“What’s her name?”}

{“I don’t know.”}

{“Why don’t you ask her? I mean, just because she is your prisoner doesn’t mean that you that can’t find out her name, right?”}

{“Can you go back to sleep?”}

Melody mentally stuck her tongue out at me. Then, she giggled. The brat.

“Sorry senora, but what is your name?” I asked the mother as she finished doing her business.

“Mmm, Michelina.” She said, stuttering fearfully.

“Well, Senora Michelina, I am sorry to have frightened you two so much, but I had some animals to put down.” I said as I followed her back to the storage room.  

“Yes, we heard.” Senora Michelina said, glancing back at me as her hand hovered over the door handle. I motioned for her to open the door.

She entered looking a little less frightened and even a little curious.  I started to close the door and she looked back. “Where did you get that necklace?”

“I’m not sure, it was a gift.” I said, softly as I absently touched it before I closed and locked the door once more. I almost told her that I got it from Chalchiuhtlicue, but I doubted that she would believe me. That’s if she even knew who Chalchiuhtlicue was.

{“See, that wasn’t so bad, now was it?”} Melody asked.

I sighed and glanced longingly over at the bar.

{“Ooohh, nice bar. Can we get a soda? I’m thirsty.”}

“Fine...I need a f’ing drink now anyway.” I said, muttering softly under my breath.

{“Hey! Language!”}

{“I censored myself.”}

{“Not enough. I know what you really said there.”}

I walked behind the bar and took out a soda from the mini fridge and then, I pulled down The Scotch, with a capital S, and place it on the bar top.

{“What are you doing?”} Melody asked rhetorically.

{“Getting a drink.”}

{“We can’t drink that!”} Melody said emphatically.

{“Why not?”} I asked, feeling a bit frustrated because having her as my shoulder angel was a little distracting at time.

{“Hello! We are only 12!”} Melody said like we were breaking a huge law.

{“So? Pretend you’re German or something.”} I said, dismissing her legal argument as baseless since it has been more than a few decades since I was 12 years old.

{“I, we, am not German and I am pretty sure that even they do not let 12 and a half year olds drink booze.”}

{“Okay, then, between the two of us, we are 70.”} I said as I ignored her complaints and poured myself a finger of Scotch, then sniffed it.

The heavenly peaty smell and crisp flavor could be sensed in the aroma.

{“Gross...smells like burnt nail polish remover or something.”} Melody said.

I pictured her turning up her nose and making a disgusted expression, but I ignored her as I took a sip and let the warm liquid wash over my tongue. Savoring the rich and complex taste that only aged scotch can provide.

{“Oh my god! That’s nasty!”}

Saliva filled my mouth and my throat constricted as Melody’s body reacted to the taste.  

{“Soda! Please!”} She said as we started to gag a little and in her desperation, she took control.

{“Noooo! Not with 100 year old Scotch!”} I said, desperately. {“You can’t wash it down with soda!”}

“I don’t care!  That stuff is nasty!” She said out loud as she took a large gulp of the sticky sweet soda.

{“It’s not fair. Can’t you just not taste it?”} I said, plaintively.

“No, can you just ‘not’ taste the soda?” Melody said, giving me plenty of sass.

*Sigh*

{“Fine...”} I said as I wrested control back away from her and decided that we needed to inspect the arms room more thoroughly.  I still was not sure how or if we could rescue Melody’s parents, but the arms room might give me some extra options.

Jackpot! In addition to the Glock 9mm pistol, the M4 assault rifles and ammo, I found two 20 kilo packages of C-4 with 10 blocks each, a roll of blasting tape and plenty of blasting caps for setting all the goodies off.  I also found a crate of Russian F-1 grenades, a crate of smoke, ballistic vests that were too large for us, an extra USP, two extra k-bars,  two boxes of MRE’s and two rucksacks to carry the goods in.

Even Melody was a little excited by all the stuff. {“This is too cool! Can I have a gun too?”}

{“Weapon and No.”}

{“Ahhh, why not?”} Melody said, whining.

{“Because I don’t have the time to right now to properly train you and I don’t want you shooting our foot off.”} I said, ignoring the fact that since I was in her body, technically she was armed.

Into one of the rucksacks, I loaded a box of 50 rounds of 9mm for the USP, one extra k-bar, 5 smoke grenades, 10 of the Russian grenades, the blasting tape, a box of blasting caps and one of the 20 kilo packs of C-4.  I know that the C-4 was going to make the rucksack heavy for me, and it did, but I figured that I might need it.  It is always better to have and not need, than to need and not have.

With the rucksack loaded, I added four MREs and a couple bottles of water. Finally, I almost fall over trying to lift it the first time.  

{“Melody, you really need to work out more.”} I said, gasping for air.

{“Hey! You’re the one who put too much stuff in there!”} Melody said, indignantly.

{“Oh fu...crap! I almost forgot more 5.56mm for the M4!”}

I want to add my standard 2,000 rounds of 5.56, but I know that the extra 200 pounds will be too much for me to carry. I decide to compromise with 1,000 rounds.  

{“That’s going to make it too heavy.”} Melody said, chanting snidely.

I ignored her. It’s nothing. Just mind over matter. Then, I tried to lift it and instead of me lifting it, I fell over.

Melody did not say anything as I cut my ammo load in half to reduce it to 500 rounds, but I got the feeling that she was laughing at me.  It was a struggle, but I managed lift it and get it settled on my shoulders.  It was pretty damn heavy, but I thought that I could manage it.  Satisfied, I dropped it and took the time to load all the mags for the M4 and the USP 9mm.

All of that took 30 minutes, but it was worth it. I closed and locked the arms room door, then on a whim, grabbed the bottle of Scotch and stuffed it into my pack for later. Maybe Melody will fall asleep and I can try it or something.

{“Why did you grab that? You know that it tastes nasty, right?”}

{“Just in case. Can’t leave a $600...”}

{“$600!  Holy crap! Sorry. For that?!?”}

I sigh with frustration as I trudged up the stairs. The rucksack is not going to work. It is just too large and too heavy for my body. Sure, I can carry it, but if shit hits the fan; I will have to drop it in a hurry and leave it behind.

{“Is he sleeping?”} Melody asked as the soccer fan’s body entered our vision.

{“Yes.”} I said, looking away from him.

{“Oh, are we going to wake him up?”} Melody asked, concerned that we might actually wake him up.

{“No.”} I said as I forced my way into Don Rodriguez’s office and thankfully lowered the rucksack onto the leather couch. I will have to plot a path out of here that does not involve walking past the first guy I killed.

I started my search for intel by giving the safe one more once over before giving up on it.  Melody did not say anything until after I found the button that caused the monitor to rise up from inside the desk.

{“Whoa! That’s pretty cool.”}

I pulled out the keyboard and mouse, but when the screensaver stopped, I didn’t recognize the operating system. It’s not Windows and it’s not Apple. I know my way around Windows pretty damn well and I have had to use a few Macs, but whatever The Don had loaded on this PC, I don’t even know where to start.

{“Fu...Fiddle sticks!”}

Melody laughs. {“Seriously Dani, you can say it because ‘fiddle sticks’ just sounds lame. Oh, and that is Ubuntu. My dad uses this on his workstation at home.”}

{“Can you see if you can find anything useful on this thing?”} I said, giving her control.

{“Sure! Piece of cake.”} Melody said as she started by opening a terminal window and typing in  strange commands like ‘ls’, ‘find’ and ‘grep’.

The ‘find’ command I can understand, but why did it have to be so complicated? The OS looked like it had a graphical UI. Why couldn’t she just use the file manager thing?  Within five minutes she had a list of document and spreadsheet files that looked very promising, except they were all password protected.

{“What was the code to get into the arms room?”}

{“1985, why?”}

{“Just going to try something...”} Melody said as she used ‘1985’ with the find command plus something called xargs plus the grep thing.

That search returned 10 files, but one of them stood out. It was called, ‘.passwords.txt’. That was a strange name to call a file. It looked too obvious.

{“The dot in front makes it a hidden file.”} Melody said, explaining it for me as she typed ‘pg .passwords.txt’.

{“Bingo!”} Melody said, shouting with glee as file names, user names, passwords, account numbers and item names scrolled across the screen.

The safe’s fingerprint override combo plus the passwords to his files and what looked suspiciously like bank account numbers and passwords for each scrolled off the screen.  I let Melody stay in charge. She seemed to be pretty happy and in her element. The first thing she wanted to try was the safe and I can’t say that I wasn’t curious about its contents either. I expected it to be empty, but Melody was hoping to find a few thousand dollars.  She giggled with excitement as she punched in the safe’s combo.

[Click!]

It opened and there were two briefcases plus a small stack of $100 US, a stack of $100 peso, some jewelry and a USB drive.  

{“See, told ya that there wouldn’t really be much in here.”} I said.

{“Shush...not done yet girlfriend.”} Melody said as she pulled out one of the briefcases and set it down. It wasn’t locked, so she popped it open.  {“Booya! In your face!”}

Even I was surprised. The fucking case was full of $100 dollar bills wrapped with $10,000 wrappers.  And a standard run of the mill Beretta 9mm semi-automatic pistol. I estimated that there was probably one million, easy.

Melody could hardly contain her excitement as she grabbed the second briefcase and tested the weight like it was a Christmas present.  {“What do you think? Drugs or more cash?”}

{“Umm, drugs?”} I said, kind of hoping it was drugs because I was kind of worried where we could stash that kind of cash, but I was also thinking about it.  One million, properly laundered, could come in handy for Melody’s college fund.

It was not drugs and I am glad that everyone was dead because Melody’s scream of pure excitement was pretty damn loud.  {“Holy crap Dani! I haven’t seen this kind of money before. Are all these pesos?”}

I checked the bills over. {“Nope. About half of them are, the other half are Euros.”}

{“Wow, this is soooo cool!  Now what?”}

{“Now, I need for you to check out some of those files on the PC and see what is on the USB drive we found in the safe. I am thinking that the DHS might be interested in some of the data in there.”}

{“Sir! Yes sir!”} Melody said, jumping to her feet and saluting before she broke down with a giggle that destroyed the near perfect salute she started out with.

{“Sir? Don’t call me sir, I worked for a living!”}  I said before I broke down and joined her in giggle-dom.  So, embarrassing.  She really is a bad influence.

After Melody got to work on the PC and she found some very interesting intel.  Yes, several police, including the Salina Cruz police captain were on the take and so were more than a few high level Mexican politicians, high ranking military personnel, the Mexican Attorney General and a Supreme Court Justice.  The Don was an idiot to have all the pay off information so well documented.  

However; I was kind of expecting that kind of intel, but it was the files on the USB stick that had me taking back over.  Melody found blueprints and pictures of drug submarines as well as project plans, timelines, materials and construction site locations. The submarine plans looked very high tech and stealthy to me. Diesel electric, complete with oxygen generators that could allow them to stay submerged for weeks at a time. Way more advanced than the death trap drug subs that I saw on one of the Discovery channels a few months ago.  

No, these were worse. They had seating for passengers as well as cargo configurations. Perfect for sneaking people into the country that probably should not be sneaking in.

We needed to make a call.  {“Okay Melody, we need to call some of my old, umm, friends.”} I said, reaching for The Don’s fancy executive desk phone.

I paused before I punched in the number.  {“I think that it might work best if you talked to them.”} I said then gave her a quick rundown of what she should say.  It wasn’t hard, plus I figured that I could just feed her what to say with our telepathy thing, but she was excited to be able to help out.  Once she calmed down, I dialed the number.

{ring}{ri...}

“Lieutenant Archer, SouthCom Command Desk. How may I direct your call sir or ma’am?”

{“Okay, Melody, you’re on.”} I said giving her back control.

“Hi, umm, I’m sorry, but this man told me to call. He just came into Senor Victor Rodriguez’ mansion in Salina Cruz and shot everyone. He’s like this big drug lord or something who kidnapped me. I mean, the Senor dude is.”

{“Tell him that it is an S-2 Alpha Priority Active Op”} I said.

“Oh yeah, he said to tell you that it was an S-2 Alpha Priority Active Op and that he had some intel that he needed to pass on. I am sitting at the drug lord’s PC and there are all these spreadsheets here with payoff information, but there are also plans for submarines. Do you all have, like an email address or something that I can send it to?” Melody asked.

“Sorry kid, but you do know that it is a Federal Offense to prank call a U.S. Military Installation? Are your parents there?”

{“Okay, Melody, I can take over from here.”}

{“Sigh, and I was just starting to have fun!”}

“I’m sorry Lieutenant, but have you followed SOP and traced this call yet?”

“What? Oh crap! Umm...”

“Relax LT...Just give me an email address that I can send some intel to, then it is out of your hands and you will be in the clear. Okay?”

{“You tell him sis!”}

{“What?”}

“Sorry ma’am. Here is one of our S-2 drop boxes.  Alpha one Juliet X-ray Echo tree niner niner at Sierra Charlie Oscar Mike dot Mike India Lima dot November Echo Tango. Did you get that?”

“Got it, thanks. Don’t forget to log this call Lieutenant. Bye.”

{Click}

{“OMG! That was so cool!”} Melody said, giddy with excitement.

{“And you were such a peaceful little sleeper...”}

{“H-Hey!”} Melody said, indignantly just before she broke down and giggled.

{“Hehe, okay. Now, can you zip all this stuff up and send it to the email address for me while I think?”} I said.

{“Sure thing...sir.”} Melody said, cackling gleefully as she went to work.

I decided to not dignify her dig with a response.  Okay, mission planning time.  

First order of business is to take stock of my assets and compared to my first mission, I had oodles of assets to work with.  I have cash for buying stuff and bribes. An adequate amount of weapons and ammo. Adequate because there is no such thing as too much.  The C-4 was icing on the cake and the Audi, transportation, check and mate!  Okay, so the Audi was a little flashy, but it was all I had.

Okay, next up are my liabilities.  Age or the lack thereof, that could be a problem with driving or interacting in an adult world. While our body is extremely healthy, the lack of upper body strength will limit my combat load. I already feel my Combat OCD bugging me about not having a full 2,000 rounds of 5.56. Clothing, that could be a real problem, but money could easily solve that issue.  

Okay, the age thing. Not sure if that is actually a liability for us. I know from personal experience that very few people expect a kid to try and kill them.  That thought dredged up a memory that I would rather have not remembered because it sends me back to a very dark place.

{“Dani? Are you okay?”} Melody asks, concerned.

{“Umm, sorry, was just thinking. Thanks.”} I said as I started to feel our eyes begin to tear up. It felt so good having someone here with me.

{“Hey, no problemo sis!  Is why I keep you around! hehe.”} Melody said.

That is the second time she called me that. {“Umm, what is this ‘sis’ thing?”}

{“Oh, I dunno. You kind of feel like a big sister to me. I mean, you’re bossy enough, but I guess you could just be a BFF if that bothered you.”}

{“No, it doesn’t bother me. Not at all. Thanks, umm, sis and I am not bossy. It’s for your own good.”} I said trying to retain my dignity by not laughing and crying.

{“What-ev-ah...”} Melody said before she giggled and got back to sending all the files.

Okay, the clothes liability problem.  I doubt that we will get far walking around in a bikini everywhere.  We need a purse to hide a weapon or two. We need clothes to blend in to non-beach locations. We need makeup to help us look older.  Hmmm, maybe we would have to check out those clothes in The Don’s room again.

{“There! All done. Now what?”} Melody asked, triumphantly.

{“Now, we head upstairs to The Don’s bedroom and check out his ex-girlfriend’s left over clothes. Maybe if we are lucky, some of them will fit us.”} I said, not really expecting us to be that lucky.

I left the pack and the briefcases in the offices. No sense in lugging all that weight up the stairs when I didn’t have to and no, it would not be ‘good training’ as we used to say. I did not hear any changes in the mansion’s general noise signature that might indicate that someone had entered the mansion. Still, I kept the M4 at the ready as I carefully stalked up the stairs.  

I could sense Melody’s excitement just bubbling over by all the combat stuff, but halfway up I realized that I had left Shifty’s door open. I did not want Melody to see his body because there was no way that she would think that he was sleeping.

{“Okay Melody, close your eyes please.”} I said.

{“Umm, okay...”} Melody said, sounding less than pleased and a little scared.

{“It is just for a little bit. Don’t worry.”} I said as we topped the staircase.  I headed for the door to Shifty’s room. I could have just closed the door, but my Combat OCD insisted that I at least give the room a quick visual before moving on.  

{“Okay, do you have them closed?”} I asked.

{“Yes...”} Melody said, clearly not happy.

Reassured, I entered the room and glanced around. Shifty’s body was more than a little gruesome. It looked like he had been the victim of a low budget slasher movie. It also smelled like death in here with all the blood and crap that drained when his bowels relaxed.  No, death is not pretty like they make it look on TV.

I was about to close the door behind me when I felt Melody panicking, our body start to hyperventilate and that icky bile taste form in our mouth. {“Melody!”} I said, yelling at her.

{“Oh my god, oh my god, I’m sorry...”} Melody cried as our stomach started to heave.  

I ran into the bathroom and managed to just make it in time as we heaved the remains of her soda and unknown bits into the toilet.  At first, I was mad at Melody for not listening to me, but it was hard to stay that way when she was crying, puking and apologizing. We were a mess with tears, snot and barf making a triple threat.

{“I didn’t mean to look. I just didn’t hear anything, then I smelled something and I thought that a little peek wouldn’t hurt. I’m sorry...”} Melody said, managing to get all that out while crying, heaving and sniffling at the same time.

I imagined myself hugging her. {“Melody, I am sorry that you saw that and I am sorry that you were even put into a position to see that.  If I could take away that memory too, I would, but I can’t. I’m here for you, remember little sister?”}

{“Y-yes...”} Melody said as she started to get herself back under control.

I grabbed some tissue and blew our nose.

Melody laughed. {“Sorry, that is still kind of strange. Having you do things like that for me.”}

{“You’re telling me!  At least you’re in your own body!”} I said with a mock indignation.

{“Hey! I can’t help it if you decided to possess me, turn me into Rambo-ette and become my bossy big sister!”} Melody said, sounding miffed yet pleased at the same time.

{“I didn’t decide to possess you. It was the Goddess’ idea.”} I said.

{“What?”} Melody asked.

I sighed.  I have to tell her something, but I can’t let her know all of the truth. I tell her about my dream and the deal I made with the Aztec Goddess Chalchiuhtlicue. I leave out the part about her being raped, but explain it as her being beaten up and stabbed by Shifty. That is close enough to the truth.

{“So, that is why, when I killed...”} I started to feel her panic again. {“Look, Melody, I’m sorry. We will rescue your parents. I will help you and be your big sister for as long as the Goddess will let me, okay?”}

{“Okay...but, do you really believe in this Goddess?”} Melody asked, skeptically.

{“Yes, it is either that or one of us is having a very strange dream. Which do you think it is?”} I asked.

{“Ummm, now that you put it that way. I really don’t know.”}

{“Okay, now, can you please close your eyes so that we can get out of this room?  I will take us into The Don’s master bath where we can get cleaned up properly.”} I said.

{“Sir, yes sir! Eyes closed! Not opening them until you give me the all clear. Sir!”} Melody said.

I sighed with frustration, but smiled as her zest for life made its reappearance. {“Please, I told you. I am not an officer. I work for a living.”}

Melody giggled. {“Chief Petty Officer, I can’t hear you. La la la la la”}

I quickly rinsed out our mouth and I caught a glimpse of Shifty’s body reflected in the mirror.  Melody didn’t react, so I assumed that she had learned her lesson.  Our hair was still damp from the pool and a total mess.  I hoped that The Don didn’t toss out all of his girlfriend’s shower stuff because we really needed to do something about our hair.  I know, I know, not something that I would normally be worried about during a mission, but if we didn’t do something about our tangled mess, we would attract attention.

I exited the room and closed the door behind me. {“Okay Melody. All clear.”}

{“Phew!  Thanks for rinsing our mouth out. Where is The Don’s room?”} Melody asked.

Melody was impressed when we entered The Don’s inner sanctum, but it was mostly the size of his closet that she was most impressed with. I showed her the dresses and let her have control. After all, she was the expert here and it showed.  She knew that all of the dresses were designer and very expensive.  Same with the shoes. She kept gushing about the brands and squealing over Jimmy Choo, Coach and Micheal Kors.  I swear that she was more excited about that than the cash.

She was even more excited when she tried on a pair and they fit.  She pulled down a dress and after holding it against her body, she was a little disappointed. {“I don’t think this will fit. My boobs aren’t big enough.”}

{“Umm, don’t they make things that you can stuff your bra with?”} I asked.

{“Yes, but I don’t see any breast forms, do you?”} Melody asked.

{“Not yet, but there are two bags on the floor there, plus I saw cosmetics in the bathroom.”}

{“Oh, okay.”} Melody said, her excitement levels increasing again as she opened the bag with the heads and wigs.

{“These look like nice wigs and O! M! G! Purses!”} Melody said, yelling in our head loud enough to give us both a headache.  Still wearing the heels, she quickly dragged the bag out and dumped it onto the bed.  She gasped at the name brand purse labels.

I thought that most of the purses looked hideous, but Melody had to pick up and touch each and every one of them.  One of the purses, a small clutch purse felt heavy. Like it had something in it.  

She opened it and we found some cash, pads, a few photos, driver’s license and credit cards all in the name of Carmelita Rodriguez.  She looked pretty in her license photo and now I knew that she wasn’t an ex-girlfriend. She was The Don’s wife and I doubted that she was alive anymore.  Absolutely no woman would leave her purse behind with all of her identification.

{“Dani, what’s wrong?”} Melody asked.

{“Umm, nothing, but I think our ‘friend’ had his wife murdered. What about the wigs?”}

Melody paused for a few seconds as she studied the woman’s face on the license.  She was clearly disturbed by that thought as she absently replaced the license into the clutch and zipped it closed.  Next, she put all the foam heads on the dresser and put the wigs on them.  There were two blonde wigs, one short and one long. Two red wigs, one short with straight hair and the other long with tight ringlet curls.  There was also one short, black haired wig.

Satisfied, she pulled out the last bag and dumped it onto the other side of the bed.  Panties, bras, lots of different bras, nylons, tights, jeans, leggings, t-shirts, tops, socks, three bikini’s, a skimpy red negligee and an even skimpier black negligee spilled out of the bag.  Of course, everything was high-end and wrinkled, but that wouldn’t matter for some of the items.   Amazingly, it looked like everything except the bras would fit us. Much to Melody’s disappointment, Carmelita was either a C or a D cup.

We didn’t spot any breast forms until Melody started sorting the clothes, when she found a pair of medium forms. That helped explain the different cup sizes for her bras.  {“Okay, now what?”} Melody asked.

{“Bathroom. Check the cosmetics and we take a good shower.  Then, you get us dressed and made up to look older so that we can hopefully pass as at least an 18 year old.”} I said.

{“Okay!”} Melody said, excited with the plan so far.

I was glad that I had something she could do to take her mind off of everything.  She was excited and looking forward to working on our disguise. As an extra bonus, I was also glad that she didn’t say ‘sir’ this time.

Melody checked over the cosmetics and she also found some name brand bath products. Then, we locked the bedroom door, jammed a chair under the door handle, locked the bathroom door and brought both the knife and the USP 9mm into the shower with us.  Melody stayed in charge the entire time and that felt extremely strange to me. It felt strange feeling yourself wash yourself, but not actually do the actually washing. The spray of hot water felt wonderful, but I absolutely marveled how smooth and sleek our body felt as she washed her skin. It took her forever to wash her hair with the extra step of needing to condition her hair too.   She also decided to shave her legs, armpits and bikini area. I didn’t think that she needed it, but I was over ruled.

It was not until we were done with the shower and she started on our hair and makeup that she stumbled.  {“What happened to my eyes!?”} Melody asked as she opened them as wide as possible and moved them desperately around.

I did not see anything wrong with her eyes. I thought that their brilliant green color was extremely attractive. {“What do you mean?”}

{“My eyes, they changed color!”} Melody said with alarm.

{“Well, I think they look stunning. Why, what color were they?”}

{“Hazel.”}

{“Kind of close, maybe they changed on their own?”} I asked, not really believing that.

{“Ha ha, very funny...well, I guess they do look pretty.”} Melody said, after a moment of studying her reflection.

After we located a hair dryer, Melody went to work on her hair. First she dried it, then pulled it back and into a tight pony tail before she pinned it up.  Next, she selected three different dresses along with multiple shoe selections for each before picking an sophisticated looking black mini dress that wrapped around one shoulder and draped loosely across her chest. Perfect to hide her chest.  She selected a pair of black French cut panties with a matching demi-bra, stuffed the breast forms in them and shimmied her way into the dress. It looked great on her and after she put on the black and white four inch heels, she easily looked 16 and that was without any makeup.  She selected the short blonde wig and pinned that to her hair. Finally, she went to work on her makeup. It was an amazing transformation.  When she was done, I thought that we could easily pass for 18 and maybe even 20 with some sunglasses.

We dug through some more drawers and found a large smattering of jewelry that The Don must have just tossed in the drawer.  Melody grabbed some gold bracelets, a silver thumb ring, a pair of large hoop earrings. She wanted to change out the necklace for a nice thick gold and sapphire torc, but I had to put the kibosh on that by telling her that Chalchiuhtlicue’s  necklace was there to stay.

All done, Melody grabbed a medium sized rolling suitcase from the closet and then, she folded and packed away the wigs, 4 different dresses, 6 pairs of shoes and the coordinating undergarments. I had to stop her from packing the negligees and she pouted until she remembered the jewelry and cosmetics packed.

I suggested the purse. We needed one that was large enough to hold the USP without leaving a bulge.  I put the Audi’s keys in our purse, along with the spare change and Carmelita’s ID and credit cards.  Hey, they weren’t expired. Finally! We were ready to go. So, I took over, hobbled my way back into the closet, grabbed a pair of flats and put them on instead of the heels.

{“Dani!  Those do not go with this dress!”}

{“Sorry, we still need to get the car loaded and if we run into hostiles, I don’t want to break our ankle in those shoes.”}

{“But...}”

{“No buts, we can take them with us.”}

I think that we probably looked rather silly when we exited the room dressed to kill with a suitcase towed behind and holding the heels by their straps with one hand while holding an M4 assault rifle in the other hand, ready for action.  Yep, a real on the go drug lord wife. All I needed to do was put the k-bar between my teeth instead of in our purse.

There really is no combat effective way to go down a staircase while carrying a suitcase, an M4 and while wearing a mini-skirt.  I had to tell my OCD to take a hike.  We got the suitcase loaded into the car. So, I pulled it out of the garage and parked it closer to the front door to make loading the rest of our gear easier.  The rucksack was a real struggle to carry without ruining the dress, but we did it and it barely fit in the tiny trunk with the suitcase. The briefcases with all our expense money, I was able to squeeze behind the seats. I debated putting the M4 in the front seat, but it would be too visible there.  It would also be too visible behind the seats, so I had to stuff it in the trunk.  I felt twitchy just thinking about not having it next to me and easy to grab.

Ready to go, I started the R8 and the purr of the big 5.2 liter V-10 motor sent tingles down my spine. I adjusted the seat, set the mirrors, programmed the GPS for Melody’s hotel and started to slide it into gear.

{“Wait! We have to take the maids with us.”} Melody said in a near panic.

{“What?”} I asked, incredulous.

{“We can’t leave them here.”}

{“Umm, we can’t take them with us. No room and no reason.”}

{“If we leave them here, they might get hurt by The Don dude or they will tell him what we look like or they might escape and call someone. We should just take them to their home and ask them not to call anyone.”}

{“Hmmm, you bring up some interesting points.”} I pull out the USP and screw on its suppressor. {“I’ll be right back, oh wait, never mind, I will need you to close your eyes in a minute or two.”} I said as I opened the door and struggled to get out of the car without flashing our panties.

{“Wait! What are you doing?”} Melody asked, desperately.

{“Getting rid of a security risk.”}

{“No! You can’t! I won’t allow it!”} Melody said as I started to have difficulty walking.

Melody fought me for control. It soon became a struggle to walk even a few steps and then, she made me drop the USP.  I managed to pick it back up, but that was a struggle too.

{“Melody, stop. I have to do it. I promise that they won’t suffer.”}

{“I won’t let you...”} Melody said, grimacing with effort.

{“Melody...”}

{“No! You’re a monster! I hate you!”} Melody said, screaming at me with disgust.

That made me stop. {“Melody, what else can we do?”} I asked with a much calmer voice than I felt.  It hurt to hear her say that to me. Yes, I am a monster and she if she really knew me, then she would hate me for real.

{“I told you, take them with us and drop them off at their house. We can give them some of the cash, maybe then, they won’t need to call The Don because they won’t need the job anymore.”}

{“Then, The Don comes and kills them, plus their entire family for stealing from him.”}

{“He’s not going to do that because we are going to kill him.”} Melody said, growling with frustration.

{“Why are so you determined to take them with us?”}

{“I don’t know! Okay? I don’t know! It’s just a feeling...I don’t know why. I know it’s dumb, but we have to take them with us!”} Melody said, crying uncontrollable inside while tears ran down our face.  

I sure hoped that our mascara was waterproof. {“Okay. We will do it your way. If your gut feeling is that strong, then we would be foolish to ignore it.”}

{“Really?”} Melody asked, hopefully.

{“Yes.”} I said as I took out some tissues and blotted our eyes. It was a good thing that the prior Mrs. Rodriguez packed them in her purse because I would have never thought of them otherwise. {“Come on, let’s get this over with. They probably won’t want to come with us anyway.”}

{“Can you put away the gun?”}

{“Pistol and no.”}

{“But, you’re not going to use it, so why keep it out? It might scare them.”}

{“Because they might attack us and I don’t know when we might get more company. We do have to stay safe, ya know?”}

{“Okay, but we need to wear the heels.  These flats do not go with this dress, at all.”}

{“Not safe. I can’t move in them.”}

{“You need the practice and the women would suspect that something was wrong if you wore the flats with this dress.”}

{“No they wouldn’t. You just want me to break  our ankle, right?”}

{“No, that would hurt, but you need the practice and now is a good time. What could happen? Everyone is dead, right?”}

Damnit, she was right. I did need the practice.

{“Ever hear of Murphy’s Law?”} I asked, rhetorically.  

She did not reply, but I did not really expect her to. {“Fine, but don’t say that I didn’t warn you.”} I said, shaking a mental finger at her.

High heels and all, I gingerly made my way from the car, into the house and back down the stairs. With Melody’s helpful hints, it wasn’t as hard as I expected and it was kind of nice actually. It made me feel kind of sexy and dangerous. With the blond wig, I almost felt like I could be Sarah from that TV show, Chuck. Which, after I thought about it, was kind of a strange comparison to make while sharing the body of a 12 year old girl.

I opened the storage room door, once again waking up the maids.  This time they didn’t scream, but maybe that is because we didn’t look as crazy and I was not pointing an assault rifle at them. I did keep the USP hidden behind my back though. I am guessing that with the dress, the wig and everything else, they probably didn’t recognize us at all.

{“Well, aren’t you going to talk to them?”} Melody asked.

{“It’s your show.”}

{“I can’t speak Spanish!”} Melody said, flustered.

{“Try.”}

{“What?!?”}

{“Try speaking Spanish.”}

“Ummm, sorry, but I need to take you both home. Your sister needs you.” Melody said, speaking perfect and unaccented Spanish.

{“Holy, how did I do that?!”} Melody asked.

{“Beats me, the Goddess and what did you mean about her sister?”}

{“I dunno...”} Melody said, perplexed.

“W-who are you?” Michelina asked.

“Umm, I’m just Melodá­a. The scary girl is, umm, not here right now. Come, come.” Melody said using the Spanish pronunciation for her name as she motioned the women out of the room.

{“Nice, thanks a lot.”} I said with a smirk.

{“Hey! What else could I have said?”}

{“How about, ‘come with me if you want to live” using an Austrian accent?”}

{“What? Is that from a movie?”}

{“What do you mean? Are you trying to tell me that you haven’t seen Terminator 2?!?!”}

{“Yuck...have you seen The Hannah Montana Movie?”}

{”*sigh*”}

Melody decided to take the lead instead of following the maids up the stairs. So, of course they cringed away from us when they saw the USP in her hand.

“No, no, no. It is for just in case we run into more bad men. Please, I’m not going to hurt you, but we need to leave.” Melody said, pleading with them.

Somehow, Melody was able to win them over and they followed us out the front door. Just in time to see the headlights of a vehicle pull into the driveway.

“Fuck me to tears...” I said before I realized I that I had taken over and said it out loud.

{“Dani!”} Melody said, chastising me for my slip.

{“Sorry...”}

“Back into the house and lie on the floor! Now!” I said, yelling back at the maids. They scampered back into the house as I debated on how to handle this.  The R8 was out and ready to go. I am sure that they would see it and probably even recognize it as The Don’s.

{“Melody...”} I said, warning her of the violence that was to come.

{“*Sigh* I know, I know. Close my eyes, right?”}

{“Yep...”}

I held the UPS 9mm behind my back and as the vehicle pulled up to the house I smiled and waved at the vehicle with my other hand.  Then, I tip toe ran my way towards the vehicle as if I was happy to see them.

“Oh thank god you’re here!” I said, yelling with relief as I closed the distance while a man with another mp5 exited the black SUV from the front passenger door.  The goon looked at me with dismissal in his eyes as he saw what I hoped that he would see, a blond bimbo who was not a threat to anyone or anything.  I just hoped that I wouldn’t trip in the heels.

“What is going on!? Who are you?” The man asked.

It was time to play the damsel in distress card and distract them from what I was hiding behind my back. “Oh it’s horrible!  The Don sent me to grab him a spare suit, but when I got here, no one answered the door! So, I tried to walk around to the pool,” I pointed with my left to the north side of the house were the first sentry’s body lay. “, b-but there’s a dead guy back there!” I said, breathlessly and with a panic strained voice as the driver exited the vehicle and joined his passenger. It was just the two of them. They both looked past and through me to scan the house. I put my other hand behind my back, bit my lip and kept my eyes open as wide try and appear as scared as possible.

They took a second to glance at each other, back to me and finally, back to the house as they weighed my story.

“Wait here...” The driver said, like he was going to protect me as he directed his partner to move around the east side of the house while he started for the door.

“Oh my god! Please be careful!” I said with desperation as I stepped aside to give them room.

{“Eyes closed, right?”}

{“Yyyes...please be careful.”} Melody said, fearfully.

I waited until they were two meters past me.

[Pfffrhipt!][Pfffrhipt!]

The suppressor equipped USP spat as my first round punched through the middle of the driver’s back with the second round immediately following in a nice tight shot group. My small arms instructor would be proud.

Confused by the strange sound, the passenger started to turn as his buddy fell to his knees with a gasp.

[Pfffrhipt!]

My third shot instantly dropped the passenger as my round entered his temple and blew out the opposite the side of his skull with a spray of blood, bone and brains.  I swiveled back to check on the driver. I estimated that my total time to kill was slightly over two seconds and that made me feel slow. It should have taken less than two seconds, but maybe I was just being too critical with myself.  It is not like I ever trained while wearing a mini skirt and high heels for f’ing sake.

Amazingly, the driver was still on his knees, struggling to understand what was happening as he clutched the large exit wound in his chest. He looked down at his bloody hands, and then with a horrified and confused expression he turned his head to look back at me. He tried to say something, but only blood bubbled out.

[Pfffrhipt!]

Out of pity, I shot him in his head as a coup de grá¢ce.

{“Keep ‘em closed...hostiles are down, but we are not done yet.”} I said.

{“O-Okay...”} Melody said.

I double checked the SUV, just to make sure that there wasn’t someone sleeping in the backseat.  I pulled the keys out of the ignition and debated swapping vehicles, but I didn’t feel like messing with the luggage.  With the latest adventure, I doubted that even Melody could get the maids out of the house now.

I retrieved our purse from the Audi; put the SUV keys and the USP sans suppressor into it.  I debated that move a lot, but I talked myself into it by leaving my purse open and the USP in an easy to draw position.  I had to admit that women might be onto something with purses. It certainly made conceal and carry a lot easier, but I hoped that Melody appreciated my sacrifice as I made my way back into the house while still wearing four inch heels. I cautiously opened the door and spotted the maids hiding fearfully in the small formal sitting room.

“It is safe now.  See? I even put the pistol away.” I said, gesturing to my purse and empty hands.

{“Can I look yet?”}

{“Yes, but I will need you to close your eyes before we leave the house. It’s kind of messy out there.”}

“Ww-we can stay, please?” Michelina asked, stuttering with fear.

{“Tell them that this Chalchiuhtlicue goddess warned you or something.”} Melody said, trying to be helpful.

{“Shhh, I can’t tell them that! They probably wouldn’t believe me and she didn’t warn me.”}

{“Maybe she did warn me. Why else would I mention her sister?  Does she even have a sister?”} Melody asked.

“Sorry, but I need you to come with. I don’t know why, but someone is telling me that your sister is in trouble.” I said as I absently touched my necklace drawing their eyes down to it.  I don’t know why I touched it, but Michelina’s eyes widened with recognition.

Did she know who Chalchiuhtlicue was?

Michelina stood as her daughter clutched at her arm and tried to pull her back down.  “We will come with you, Melodá­a.”

“Good, come and try not to look at the dead guys.” I said as I turned back toward the door.

{“Eyes...”} I said.

{“Yep, got it! Thanks Dani.”} Melody said, pleased that we managed to convince the maids to come with us.

I had to take the heels off to drive. I know that some women can drive with huge ass heels, but I was not even going to try. Not with the R8. One wrong move with the gas pedal and we could end up in the weeds.  Michelina and Rosalita managed to squeeze themselves into the passenger seat, but it was a tight fight for them.  Thank the Goddess that their house was on the way and just outside of Salina Cruz. With their help, I did not need to use the GPS, but it was still nice to have.

While Melody, or Melodá­a, as the other women called her chatted up a storm, I drove. It was freaking weird hearing Melody speaking while I paid 100% attention to the road and handling the car. Talk about true multitasking. However, I have to admit that the R8 was f’ing nice. I toyed with the idea of just driving back to the States and skipping everything else.  Okay, maybe for a second and it was not that serious of a thought, honest.  Damn it, now Melody had me censoring my thoughts too. That’s not going to fucking work. Hah! Sorry. Damn it.

It was 4 AM when we pulled up to their tiny little house with a dirt covered yard that probably would not count as a yard in even the poorest of states in the U.S.

{“We should give them some money. Rosalita wanted to go to the University, but her family couldn’t afford it.”} Melody said.

{“What?”} I asked, confused because I did not remember them talking about school. Actually, I did not remember them talking about much of anything really. It was more background noise than anything else while I concentrated on driving the car.

As Rosalita and Michelina extracted themselves from the car, the front door opened spilling warm light onto the mud stained front steps.  An older woman’s grey haired and wrinkled face peered out and her eyes widened with surprise.  

“Michelina! Rosalita! What are you doing here?! Come! Hurry, your sister needs you.” The woman said looking at Rosalita.

The briefcase with the pesos was behind my seat, so I opened the door, exited the car and extracted the case.  I managed to do all that without flashing my panties even once or tripping on my heels.  I think I was starting to get the hang of this.

{“Way to go sis!”} Melody said, cheering me on.

{“Thanks”} I said, pleased by both my minor accomplishment and her encouragement.

“Momma, what’s wrong!? Is Maria’s baby okay?” Michelina asked, in a near panic

That is when I heard a woman scream in pain from inside the house. It sounded like a woman in labor and not having an easy go at it. Fuck.

{“What was that?”} Melody asked.

{“Sorry.”} I said until I realized that Melody wasn’t asking me about the F-bomb I just thought about.  {“Oh, I mean, it sounds like a woman in the middle of a difficult birth.”}

{“Oh, should we try to call a doctor or rush her to the hospital?”} Melody asked, full of concern for the woman.

{“They don’t use doctors in most countries, they can’t afford it.”} I said.

{“Oh, well, is there anything that we can do?”}

{“I doubt it.  They should have an experienced midwife in there helping, but I guess we can check, just in case.”} I said as I grabbed our purse from the front seat and failed miserably with my girl wearing a dress technique. I totally flashed our panties to the world, but no one saw so it is not a big deal, right?

I tip-toe ran to catch up with Michelina and Rosalita before they closed the door in my face. “Wait for me!” I said, yelling anxiously.  Damn heels. I should have just let Melody take over.

Inside, there was a young woman or older teenage girl lying on top of some blankets on the floor. I assumed that she was Maria, Rosalita’s older sister. Next to her was a young boy, maybe three years old, holding a wet washcloth over her forehead as she whimpered from pain and exhaustion!  I guessed that the boy must be Maria’s son and on the other side and holding her hand was a young man. He must be  Maria’s husband because he looked worried and I did not blame him.  

Michelina stood at her mother’s side as her mother sat anxiously in a well worn rocking chair working over a rosary as she looked at the young woman on the floor.  Rosalita joined the young man and comforted both him and her sister.  The only person who didn’t seem to belong, other than me, was a young woman wearing hospital scrubs who was kneeling on the floor in between the woman’s spread legs.  She had the mother’s blood on her gloves and some smears on her scrubs.  She looked scared and way over her head.

Since there was not much that I could do at the moment, I glanced around the room, looking for exit and entry points. Attached the room we were in was a small dining area and a kitchen. Past that were two small bedrooms and the back door. I would be very surprised if the house was more than 500 square feet. I did not see a bathroom, so I assumed that they had an outhouse in the back.  As poor as they obviously were, the house was neat and clean as a pin.  Against the north wall of the main room was a small Christian shrine set up with an image of the Virgin Mary and a bronze Jesus on a cross. A rosary was draped over the bronze Jesus.  There were also a couple of white candles burning.

Next to that was another small shrine. I found myself drawn to it and as I walked over to it, I discovered a simple shrine that was devoted to Chalchiuhtlicue. It contained a small ceramic bowl filled with water and a small jade figurine of Chalchiuhtlicue.  I touched the figurine and I felt a tingle travel up my arm.

{“What was that?”} Melody asked.

{“Either it was stone somehow conducting electricity or it was Chalchiuhtlicue trying to tell us something.”} I said as I thoughtfully rubbed the tips of my fingers together. I shifted my gaze over at the Christian shrine, then back again. What an interesting dichotomy.

Turning around, I glanced back at the Maria. She looked exhausted and I spotted more blood exiting her dilated birth canal than should have. Yes, I know that I was a 58 year old guy, but I have also delivered three babies on my own.  When you’re in the middle of a jungle and the nearest medically trained person is over 100 miles away, by helicopter, you tend to get asked by the natives to help do some unusual things, like deliver babies.  

Plus, even if I didn’t have all that experience, I knew that the feet are not the first things that should be coming out. The baby was breech and the midwife must not have been able to or know how to turn it.

Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, we do not have time for this!

{“Dani? What’s wrong?”} Melody asked, slightly panicked.

{“The baby is breech and if someone doesn’t do something soon, both the mother and the baby are going to die.”} I said.

{“Can you do something?”}

{“I could try to push the baby back up and turn it, but that might kill it at this stage. Only thing that might work is a C-section and this is not an operating room.”}

{“Do you know how?”}

{“In theory, yes.”} I said as I studied the sweat drenched, pale and exhausted mother. I absently rubbed Chalchiuhtlicue’s stone on my necklace as I considered the options. I did not see how I could help. I might be able to save the baby with a c-section, but the mother had already lost a lot of blood and a c-section would probably kill her.  

I looked over to the grandmother and Michelina.  They were both calmly studying me.  The grandmother’s features looked different that most Mexicans that I have seen. Her nose and face were more chiseled in appearance.  Her features vaguely reminded me of Chalchiuhtlicue’s.  

“Elder, do you want your granddaughter and her baby girl to live?” I asked, not in Spanish, but in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs.

Her ancient eyes widened in shock as Michelina looked back and forth between her mother and me with confusion.  She stopped fingering her rosary and bowed her head to me. “If the Goddess Chalchiuhtlicue deems our simple shrine worthy of her blessing.” She said using the same language.

I gave her simple nod and kicked off my cursed heels.

{“What are you doing?”} Melody asked with a touch of panic.

{“I’m not sure. Work with me here.”} I said.

I switched back to Spanish and looked over at Rosalita. “Rosalita. Please get me a mug of fresh goat’s milk.”

Rosalita looked up at me, anger mixed with shock danced across her face. I could almost read her thoughts as she struggled to form words.  She looked absolutely pissed at me for daring to her to fetch me something to drink while her older sister lay near death on the floor.

“Rosalita! Now!” Her grandmother shouted and Rosalita jumped to obey.

Michelina clutched her mother’s arm and glared briefly at me before turning back to plead with her mother. “Momma, what is happening? Why are you letting this gringo devil woman order Rosalita around?”

I pretended to ignore the tension in the room as I calmly set my purse down with a solid thunk from the USP hitting the wooden chair. Next, I reached up and removed the hair pins holding my wig in place. The wig soon joined the purse on the chair as I pulled out the pins holding my hair down, letting it fall and cascade naturally across my shoulders.

{“Dani, you’re starting to freak me out. It took me a long time to get my hair up like that.”} Melody said, frustrated.

{“Sorry, just running on instinct here and the next thing is probably going to freak you out even more, so please try to be calm.”}

{“Oh, now I’m worried...”} Melody said, anxiously

I reached behind my back, unzipped the dress, pulled it off and draped it neatly over the back of the chair.

Melody nearly panicked and I felt her trying to take control and cover us up. {“Dani! There are people here! Strangers!”}

I ignored her as I removed the bracelets, and hoop earrings and set them down next to our purse.  Melody was totally going to freak out here in a second or two.  I removed my bra, and then followed that up with my panties. Just in time for Rosalita to return from the back of the house with a simple clay mug filled with goat’s milk.

{“DANI!”} Melody screamed with panic.

{“Calm down. We don’t have anything that these folks haven’t seen before. Pretend that you’re in gym class.”}

{“My school canceled gym! Budget cuts and hello, there is a small boy in the room. What about him?”}

{“Don’t worry, they aren’t looking at you. They are looking at me.”} I said, smugly.

{“...”}

I crouched down and pulled the k-bar from my purse. I was not about to bend over because that would just not be dignified in my current state of dress.  Everyone except for the grandmother jumped a little when I pulled the knife from its sheath.  Knife in hand, I walked back to Chalchiuhtlicue’s shrine and carefully removed the bowl of water before resolutely walking back to the young mother’s side.  

I calmly looked down at the midwife. “Move.” I said using my NCO voice of command while pointing for her to stand over by the grandmother with my knife.

She was brave. I will give her that. She looked like she was going to fight me.

“Nelli!” The Grandmother shouted to gain the midwife’s attention before continuing in a more reasonable tone. “Your work is done. Maria and her baby are now in the hands of the Goddess. Please let her try.”

Nelli looked frustrated. She had tried so hard to deliver this baby.  I could see that she was weary, but she did not want to give up and she most certainly did not want to let someone who looked like a child take over.  

“Please child. I know that you did your best, but sometimes even the best will fail. Nothing in life is certain.” I said, smiling down at her. I had no idea what possessed me to say that. Well, I did, but I did not want to dwell on it too much because as much as Melody was freaking out right now; I did not have time to freak out.

Nelli stared at me with stunned disbelief as she struggled to contain her emotions. I could see her fighting herself over what to do. She sighed with defeat and moved to make room for me.

I refused to show any sign of victory. I kept my features calm and serene as I took her place, kneeling on the blood soaked blanket facing the mother. I reached across the mother’s pelvis and placed the bowl of Chalchihuitlicue’s water next to her left hip.

With that in place, I motioned for Rosalita to bring me the mug of goat’s milk.  I could sense Melody’s intense curiosity, but she seemed to have calmed down enough to stop asking me questions.

{“What is the goat’s milk for?”} Melody asked.

Okay, so I was wrong.

{“I’m not sure. Just wait. You will find out as soon as I do.”}

{“Should I close my eyes for this?”}

{“No. Whatever happens, this is life and worth witnessing.”}

I set the mug of goat’s milk down in front of me, then continuing on the path of least resistance, I sliced the palm of my left hand with my knife.  My hand instantly began to bleed and I held it over the mug to allow my blood to drip into the milk.  The milk turned a pale pink color as my blood blended itself into the milk. Satisfied by the results, I reached over with my bleeding hand and placed it palm down in the bowl of water.

My blood swirled in the water and I held my hand there for a few heartbeats. When I removed my hand, the cut was completely healed without a trace.  Everyone in the room gasped by that display, but I was more amazed by the fact that the water looked as clear as it did before I placed my bloody and bleeding palm into the bowl.

With that little miracle displayed, I picked up the mug of blood stained goat’s milk and handed it to the man at her side. “Have her drink this.” I said.

He numbly accepted the mug and put it to her lips. Then, helped her tilt her head forward and with a whimper of pain, she began to drink from the mug.  As she drank, her breathing became more regular and less ragged. She also started to relax and the pain in her eyes faded.  For the first time since I arrived, she looked over at the man holding her hand and wanly smiled at him.

With her taken care of, the baby was next and I was not sure how I could perform surgery using only a k-bar, a bowl of water and not anesthesia.

{“You’re not going to do what I think you’re going to do, are you?”} Melody asked.

{“Probably...”} I said as I dipped my blade in the bowl of water.  Then, with my other hand, I felt her belly to locate the child inside her.  Locating the child, I removed my knife from the water and cut into her belly. As I cut into her belly, I pushed into her to move the baby away from the outside. My initial cut was about four inches long across her the bottom of her belly. I noticed a curious lack of bleeding and the mother did not seem to even notice me cutting into her.

I dipped my blade into the bowl. Then, ever so carefully, I used my other hand to help feel the mother’s tissue and guide my blade, I deepened the cut until the placenta was visible. The mother bled, but very slowly.  

I looked up and into the blissfully happy face of the mother. “Maria, your baby girl will be with us soon.”  

How did I know that the baby was a girl?

I re-dipped my blade while keeping Maria’s incision open with my blood soaked left hand.  I pulled the placenta away from the baby and cut the sack open. With the sack open, I set my blade in the bowl of water. Then, while maintaining light pressure on the incision with my left hand, I moved and kneeled down on the mother’s left side. With my right, I felt inside for the child’s head and after finding it, I carefully shifted her head towards the opening, pulling and shifting  her around until her head emerged from her mother’s belly.

As soon as her head cleared the opening into the air it started crying, a very good sign indeed. I finished taking the little girl from her mother’s womb.  She was so tiny. Blood and all, I clutched the child protectively to my breast as reached over her mother and grabbed my knife once more.

I looked over at Nelli. “Do you have a clamp or some string that you can use to tie the cord?”

She jumped up and retrieved two surgical clamps from her bag and locked them onto the cord an inch apart for me. That way, when I cut the cord, blood wouldn’t spray out.

With the cord clamped,  I cut and quickly tied it in a knot at the child’s belly button.  With the baby clutched to my breast with my left arm, I used my right hand to gently pull out the remaining umbilical cord and placenta from Maria’s womb.  Yes, that made a mess, but leaving it in could cause complications for Maria.

I felt a curiously pleasant sensation on my nipple and when I glanced down, the baby was trying to suckle from my breast.  I smiled at her initiative, but I doubted that she would get anything from me. She needed her mother’s milk.  With my blood stained hand, I reached across the mother and grabbed the bowl of water.  Then, I slowly poured the water over the incision.  As the water poured into the incision, the blood washed away and the incision closed.

{“Wow...”} Melody said, clearly amazing and for the first time, limiting herself to a single word.

{“Yes, wow is putting it mildly.”} I said, amazed myself.

{“What is the baby doing with our breast?”} Melody asked.

I looked back down at her and she seemed to be happily suckling me.  I felt so bad for her. She had to be so hungry and she had to be frustrated by the lack of milk in my breasts. I gently pulled her away and her little mouth continued to try and reach for my breast.  The midwife appeared with a blanket for the baby and grateful, I handed the baby to her.  She expertly cleaned and wrapped the softly crying baby before handed the baby to her beaming mother.

I looked back down I was covered in blood and embryonic fluid from the baby.

{“Okay, you were right and now I am glad that you took off our clothes.”}

I smiled at Melody’s comment, but as I checked my breasts, they appeared to be a little fuller. We looked like we might be a full cup size larger. I couldn’t be expressing milk, could I?  I lightly pressed my left breast where the baby was trying to suckle and a drop of milk leaked out of my nipple.

{“No way!”} Melody said, shocked

I was even more shocked when Maria, with her husband’s help, handed me her baby again. “Please Lady Chalchiuhtlicue...” She said, hopefully.

Feeling slightly dazed, I held the baby to my breast again and she immediately latched on. I felt her feeding and a deep feeling of contentment flooded through my body.  I smiled at the baby and my heart melted.  

{“Dani, that’s so...”} Melody said, euphoric as tears began to drip from our eyes.  

I felt a blanket being placed over my shoulders and wrapped gently around my body. I looked back up and everyone except for Maria and her husband was bowing to me, but even those two were smiling at me reverently.  “Please, you don’t need to do that, I’m not Chalchiuhtlicue.” I said.

With the baby suckling me, I helplessly watched as Rosalita reverently picked up my blade and the now empty water bowl. She placed the bowl back in the shrine. Then, Michelina and her mother stood at her side. As Rosalita held the bloody blade over empty bowl; Michelina slowly poured fresh water over the blade, washed the blood from the blade and into the bowl without allowing a single drop to fall outside the bowl.

I felt the baby release my left nipple and begin to get fussy.  She couldn’t still be hungry, could she?  I reversed my grip and transferred her to my other breast.  Once again, she immediately latched on and began happily suckling from me.

{“When we get home, can we have a baby?”} Melody asked, wonder filling her voice.

{“No.}” I said, feeling slightly depressed because I felt the same way, but I knew that Melody was far too young to have a baby.  She needed to finish college first, then maybe if she had a good career and stable home environment. Oh yeah, and if she and her husband both agreed that it was a good idea.  Okay, so maybe never.

I looked back up at the shrine and my k-bar had been carefully set beside the bowl. My OCD urged me to retrieve my blade, but with a baby suckling my breast; I could not move. Plus, even if I could move, I didn’t want to move. I was enjoying myself far too much.  We both were. I could feel Melody’s emotions matching my own.  We both started crying again when the baby stopped feeding and fell asleep nestled up to our naked breast.

I looked over to Maria and she was crying too, but her tears were tears of joy.  Reluctantly, I handed her sleeping baby back to her and she pulled her baby tight to her body, smiling at her baby. I was a little surprised when Michelina and Rosalita arrived with a large pot of warm water, towels and washcloths.  That was rather thoughtful of them because I needed to clean all the blood off my body before I could get back into my dress.

They motioned for me to stand and as I stood, I let the blanket drop to the floor.  Rosalita soaked a washcloth in the water then began to gently clean me. I did not expect that at all.  Especially when Michelina joined her.

After the blood was cleaned from every inch of my skin, a second pot of water was brought out, but this pot smelled of flowers.  Once again they gently rubbed my entire body, leaving a light fresh floral scent in its wake. My skin also felt so much softer. What else did they put in that water?

{“Can we get dressed now?”} Melody asked.

{“I was just about to do that.”} I said.

I turned back to the chair that had all my clothes on it and except for my purse, were all gone. The grandmother must have noticed my expression.

“Come.” She gestured for me to follow her into one of the small bedrooms and sit down in front of a small vanity. I must have been in shock because I left my purse with the USP and my knife out in the other room.  I was about to get up and retrieve them when Rosalita and Michelina entered the room with all my clothes and then, laid them all out neatly on top of the bed.  Next, Michelina grabbed a silver comb and began to work on my hair.  She very quickly and professionally had my hair back up and into a tight roll for the wig.  Then, she pinned the wig to my hair and when she was done, I couldn’t tell that I was wearing a wig.  I could feel it, but visually, it looked like my real hair.

{“Maybe we should hire her?”} Melody asked.

{“No.”} I said.

{“Meanie.”} Melody said.

Rosalita replaced her and she began to re-apply my makeup.  Unlike Melody and me, she was a pro and had us looking stunning, sophisticated and older in no time.

{“How about Rosalita?”}

{“No.”}

{“Geesh!”}

{“You forgot meanie.”}

I got the feeling that Melody was sticking her tongue out at me.  I smiled at both Melody’s antics and Rosalita’s skills.  

{“I hope you paid attention to how she did that...”} I said.

{“I did and I think I can duplicate it.”} Melody said.

Rosalita helped me get back into our clothes. Sharing a body with Melody was starting to get me confused with my self identification pronouns. Sometimes I felt like me and sometimes I felt like us.  I gave Melody control and with Rosalita’s assistance, we were dressed to the hilt again very quickly. It was very handy having a real second hand to help you zip up the back of your dress.  

{“Ahhh, why couldn’t our boobs stay big?”} Melody asked, disappointed as she stuffed her bra with the breast forms before Rosalita finished zipping up the back.

{“Don’t worry, they’ll grow. My daughter felt the same way when she was your age. Then, when they did grow, she complained about all the boys who tried to cop a feel and stared at her boobs.”} I said, trying to be helpful.

{“*sigh* you’re no fun sometimes.”} Melody said as she slipped the high heels back onto our feet.

When she stood up and checked out how she looked in the mirror; all I could was stare at the elegant beauty reflected back at us. If I got the chance, I decided that I needed to ask Chalchiuhtlicue if I could stay until Melody turned 21 or something because she was going to be beating off the boys with a fucking baseball bat or two.

{“You like?”} Melody asked, sounding pleased.

{“I want to yell at you to take all that stuff off because you can’t leave the house looking like that, but I can’t because you look absolutely stunning!”} I said.

Melody laughed and I felt her eyes starting to tear up.  Rosalita quickly handed her a tissue and Melody dabbed her eyes to keep her mascara from running.  {“Thanks, but you’re looking kinda hot yourself.”} She said as she turned and hugged Rosalita. Then, she hugged Michelina before we ventured back into the main room.  

It was a happy but tired family we joined.  I would have liked to stay, but we had work to do.  The old SEAL motto of, “The last easy day was yesterday” was never truer.

“I’ll be right back!” I said as I made my way back to the Audi.  The sun was starting to rise in the horizon.  We were running out of time, but this time, when I extracted the briefcase from the front seat, I didn’t flash the world.  

{“Good job, you go girl!”} Melody said, cheering me on.

I returned to the house and politely gestured for the grandmother to follow me back into the bedroom.  I placed the briefcase on the bed and after she entered the room, I peeked out at the curious stares directed toward me, smiled and closed the door.

“What is it Lady Melodá­a?” She asked, concerned.

I really liked how she pronounced Melody’s name. “Nothing much, I just wanted to give your family a hand, maybe help Rosalita get an education so that she doesn’t have to work for a drug lord. Also, to help with some clothes for the baby.” I said, feeling a twinge of wistfulness over the baby.

“That is not necessary Lady Melodá­a! You have already given us more than you can know.” She said with tears in her ancient eyes.

“Please, I insist.” I said as I opened the briefcase and pulled out over half of the pesos. As I stacked them on the vanity, with the 200 and 500 denomination bills, I estimated that there was around 4 million pesos for her to divide up however she saw fit.  She tried to refuse again and even hand the stacks back to me, but I snapped up the briefcase and refused to take the money back.

“Just don’t try to deposit or spend it for a few more days. Don Rodriguez won’t miss it after that.” I said as I walked out of the room leaving her mouth agape with shock.

I tried to leave right after that, but everyone insisted on giving me a hug and a kiss on the cheek before I could even think of reaching for the door. I grabbed my purse and retrieved my knife from the shrine. I fondly touched the jade figurine, and then gave the baby girl one last kiss before I left.

I blissfully slid our body into the leather driver’s seat, slipped off the heels, closed the door and started the motor.  I gripped the wheel and stared straight ahead, lost in thought.  What I had just done was a miracle.  There was absolutely no doubt about it and it kind of scared me. I just performed an emergency c-section without any modern medicine or surgical instruments.

{“That was cool.”} Melody said, softly snapping me out of my reverie.

{“Yes, yes it was.”} I said as I put the Audi in gear and slowly drove away from the house with a heavy heart.

The GPS system wasn’t any help until we made it back to the main road, then I told it to direct us to Melody’s hotel and we were off.

“Well, that put us behind, but no matter what happens, I think it was worth it. Don’t you?” I asked.

It took Melody a few seconds to reply. {“Yes. That was truly amazing.  Thanks Sis.  Now I know that you’re not all mean.”} Melody said before she broke down and giggled.

“You stinker! Well, it’s the morning, it’s less than 10 miles to the hotel, we are out of cigarettes and I need to buy some sunglasses.” I said with a smile as I adapted the Blues Brothers quote to fit my needs.

{“You’re weird...”} Melody said.

In response, I laughed, dropped a gear and punched the accelerator.

{“Daaani!”} Melody screamed as the R8 accelerated like it had a JATO pack strapped to the roof.