Act 21: THE GOOD NEWS
We missed our connector out of Mexico City and had to wait in the stifling heat for just a little longer. The airline was good to us after being late, paying for a first class upgrade and putting us on a plane that went all the way to Seattle; we had a layover in Los Angeles, but didn't have to get off the plane. Kat slept the whole first leg, while I drank as many free drinks as I could and enjoyed the hot towels. It was a double bonus, not getting off the plane and not having to worry about luggage getting transferred to a new plane.
We could feel the temperature drop on the second flight, so Kat put on some sweat pants and a sweater, which she had smartly stuffed into her carry on. The food was bad and we were hungry, but knowing that we would be home soon seemed to compensate for that.
With everything that had happened in Mexico, it made me reconsider going back to our old way of life. That life felt boring, the same hum drum routine each and every day. Kat's soft snores on my shoulder made me smile.
Was Kat a different person in that small village, or was that the real Kat, just blossoming out? We talked at length on the second half of our flight about ending our game, stashing away all those devious actions that played in our memories and returning to our startlingly average life. I could schedule another vacation, to another distant land, but would it be the same? Like a drug, the first high is always the best, then you spend the rest of your life chasing after it. I tucked my hand into my pocked and traced the round burgundy button with my finger. Kat was no longer wearing the soft plastic piece, held tightly against her clit with silky black lace. She had folded it away with all the other sexy clothes in her luggage, ready to be placed back into storage. I guess I could call this a win in our little game we played, in all respects...it just didn't feel that way.
Seattle was chilly, or at least cold for what we had become accustom to. I could see the grey drizzle out the airport window as we waited for our luggage to make its way around the carousel. Picking each bag off, one by one, shoulder to shoulder with all the other dreary faces, my heart sank.
"Don't slouch." Kat whispered, her fingers pressed into my shirt, pulling my shoulders back.
It was the first time I had worn a shirt in quite a while, and it felt stifling to me, like it burned my very soul. We packed the airport cart and pulled it to the elevator.
Crossing the skyway, dogs barked below us, pulling their police officers in every direction. The men in blue jerked them toward each car, pointing at the trunks and making them sniff. They would turn yapping, uninterested in the vehicles.
"Someone's in trouble." Kat laughed, as we walked high above them, toward the parking lot.
The twenty minute drive home took an hour, the rain and wind causing rush hour traffic to slow down to a crawl. We had planned on getting home just a little earlier this day, but our delayed flight changed that. The saving grace was that we arrived on a Friday, and we had the weekend to recuperate, that was Kat's brilliant idea.
"I need a long bubble bath." Kat sighed as my truck pulled into the garage.
"You go take one, I'll get the luggage." I told her, patting her leg.
"Thank you honey." She returned, eyes sparkling.
I lugged the heavy bags upstairs into the bedroom while Kat lay in the jet tub, white bubbles like pillowed clouds over her naked body. She had a margarita resting on the side of the tub and was reading a book.
"Vacation for two more days." I told her, winking, while putting the toiletries on the bathroom counter.
"I suppose so." She answered, not taking her eyes off her science book.
"The rain has let up, you can actually see the sun now." I informed her. Here the sun was just a big yellow fireball in the sky that only made random appearances, or so it seemed.
I was already into my fourth beer, when Kat finished her bath. I slipped into the shower as she stepped out of the tub, water running down her slick, tan body. The warm water rinsed away all my concerns; I most definitely was also needing a good cleaning. I could hear Kat unpacking some of her things in the bedroom, when the sound of an engine fired up in the back yard.
"What's that?" I yelled out of the shower.
"It's Andrew." She yelled back. "He's here to mow the lawn."
Andrew was a college kid who lived a couple neighborhoods over. He had been mowing our lawn since High school and started college a few years ago. He was dependable and did a fairly good job and we liked that fact that we were helping him pay for college.
"But the grass is wet, why doesn't he come back?" I continued, as I washed my body.
"Do you want me to tell him?" Kat said with a little contempt.
"No, don't worry." I argued.
Cleaned and refreshed, I walked up behind Kat, who was standing naked at the window, staring down from above through the blinds at Andrew mowing the lawn. His shirt was laying on the patio table and his chest and back muscles rippled while he pushed the old lawn mower. I put my arms around her, pressing my cock into her ass.
"We're still on vacation you know." I breathed into her ear, hands on her tight stomach, and eyes glaring down at the kid mowing our lawn.
There was no response, but I could tell she was thinking about something. Her muscles felt tense, shoulders drawn back and breath shallow.
"I'm just kidd..." I stopped mid sentence.
"Colins?" She choked out. "Colins..." She repeated.
"I didn't mean it." My voice low and rough.
"Colins, we... we got the wrong luggage." She stuttered.
I could tell by her monotone voice that something was wrong. It took a lot to shake Kat and she was visibly shaken.
"Don't worry sweetie, I'll just call the airline. It's nothing that can't be fixed." I reassured her, still sensing it was something more.
"Colins!" Her voice now high and serious. "just Look at the bag."
I turned and looked over to the bags on the bed. Some had been unpacked, and clothes were thrown out all over the bed. They looked like our clothes, separated into two distinct piles on our respective sides of the bed. I glared at her, trying to figure out if she was playing some sort of game, like we do, but her face was drawn down, looking almost scared.
"Those are our clothes!" I argued, pointing at the bed. "I don't understand."
"Colins." This was the fifth time she said my name, I knew she wasn't joking.
"Please look in the bag." She pulled away from me and began throwing her finger at the black bag.
I crept over to the black suitcase, it was the one we thought we lost on the plane ride into Mexico city on the way home, and the one we thought we lost at the start of our trip. I wasn't liking this bag right now. Using two fingers, I flipped the top open, the lid seemed to crash back against the bed.
I stepped back, mouth hanging open, then stumbled back a few more steps. The words were not able to form in my mouth, my head felt dizzy and my stomach queasy. I stumbled back a couple more steps, trying to say something.
"I...I...I..." The words were not there, and the blood drained from my head.
Sitting on our bed was a large black suitcase, that looked like Kat's, stuffed with plastic bags full of some sort of white powder. Kat crossed her arms, squishing her breasts underneath them. Her head was shaking and toe tapping on the ground.
"What is it?" I proclaimed, pointing at the suitcase, like she should know, because it's her bag.
"How the fuck should I know?" Kat's voice was now angry. "Cocaine, Heroin? How the fuck should I know." She raised her palms in the air.
We both stood glaring at the black suitcase, mouths wide. As the reality of the situation started to set in, I crept up to the mystery bag and picked up one of the large white plastic bags, holding it in my hand, feeling its weight. Kat watched me, still not moving.
"Jesus, it's heavy." I raised it up to eye level. "There must be fifty of these things in there." I paused. "How much do you think it's worth." A half smile formed on my face.
"I don't care." Kat's eyes narrowed and she put her hands on her hips. "We need to get rid of it."
"No shit." I said in the most sarcastic voice I could muster. "But how?"
"Call the police!" She reached for her phone lying on the bed.
"Wait!" I belted out. "Just... wait. Let's think about this." My mind was now trying to make sense of everything. "I need time to process this."
I carried one of the big white bags downstairs and into the den, placing it on my desk. I sat down, opened my laptop and started searching online for pictures of cocaine. I immediately recognized the plants that grow them. Kat was standing behind me, hands on my bare shoulders.
"Those are the trees that we passed on our hike." She proclaimed, as though I hadn't already figured that out.
"Yes, yes I know." I answered.
"The police." She demanded again.
"Just wait." I grabbed her hand on my shoulder. "Now, I've seen enough movies to know that this is probably worth a lot of money, and whoever lost this," I tapped the bag of cocaine." is probably going to come looking for it."
"Movies?" Kat's voice was now incredulous. "You really want to base our decision on what you saw in a movie?" She pinched my shoulders, pain shooting down them.
"I'm just saying Kat." I swept one of her hands off of my shoulder. "We need to think about this, not rush to any decisions."
The air in the room was thin and hard to breathe. I blinked a couple of times, hoping the white bag would disappear from my desk. This was stupid, this whole situation, it didn't happen to average people like us. Kat's fingers tensed, tightening on my other shoulder.
A loud clicking sound came from the living room, then the creaking of the front door. Both our heads jerked to the side and I grabbed a sheet of paper on my desk and threw it over the white bag, it dangled on top of it, not hiding anything. Kat ran out of the room and down the hall; rounding the corner, she let out a yelp and jumped back.
"Andrew?" She screeched, stepping back.
"Katherine?" Andrew's low voice boomed as he ogled her naked body.
He turned his head down, averting his eyes from my wife, then slowly looked back up at her. Her breasts, large with nipples sticking straight out and the gentle curve down between her separated thighs, open to his view.
