My ex in Mexico

For those of you who aren't that familiar with the term 'butterfly effect' it was coined by a scientist, Edward Norton Lorenz in the year 1972 who noted that in a long series of causes and effects the slightest variation in the first cause would lead to a drastically different outcome way down the line. To instance this he stated that the flap of a butterfly's wing could alter the formation and course of a tornado miles away.

I don't fully subscribe to this image but I do know that the most minute details of chance delays on sidewalks or pausing to stare in a storefront window for thirty seconds led to my meeting my future wife, in other words it changed the future course of my life radically, and will be described in the following detailed account of my journey to Mexico. The reader can judge for himself if the 'butterfly effect' truly exists.

This is a continuation of my post "Barren Hills" from two days ago. My friend Louie and his new girlfriend Robin (whom I'd met even before he did) had planned a trip to Mexico with Louie's close friend Larry (an aspiring artist) over the Christmas vacation. They bought three airplane tickets and paid a deposit on a rent-a-car in Mexico city. The plan was to fly there and in leisurely day trips, taking in all the sights, make their way to Acapulco then down the Pacific coast all the way to Salina Cruz, near Guatemala and far more south than tourists venture. Larry's brother Joel had been residing there for a year. They were close and Larry wanted to check on him, his mental health, as he had been an up and coming lawyer in Seattle and all of a sudden disappeared to this remote spot alone where he sat on the beach and stared at sunsets, 'into the wilds' you might say, with no explanation.

Three days before this expedition was to begin Larry received an invitation to be the minor artist in a San Francisco art showing. That meant he could display two of his paintings alongside the major artist's twenty to an affluent audience of patrons and art critics. This was his big break, his foot in the door, to have his name finally noted in the papers and his works possibly sold. It was a once in a lifetime break for an unknown he couldn't pass up.

This put Louie on the spot. He wasn't that affluent and was paying Robin's way. She was a hairdresser and he was in love with her, and having met just a few months earlier this was their honeymoon stage of the affair.

So he came to me, knowing I had wads of money and all the free time I chose. I owed him a favor for introducing me to 'K' that Fall. He pleaded, I instantly agreed. I could use a strange adventure and pass up another planned business trip up north, where all elements of 'adventure' after two trips, were spent.

But as Louie explained, this vacation came with a mission. Larry was so upset that he wasn't able to rendezvous with his brother and spend a week with him (which Joel was expecting), he wrote him a very long missive, some twenty pages judging from its bulk, which we had to deliver to his P.O. box in Salina Cruz near the day of Christmas when he was originally expected to arrive.

Fine with me, I thought, one part of Mexico being indifferent in my mind to the next, as I'd never been more than twenty miles south of the border. And Louie was equally delighted I was coming along because I could easily and without a thought put five or ten thousand in my pocket and flip most of the expenses, which I did. Robin too was happy, because I had met and talked with her at length at two wild parties the summer before, lasting till dawn, not as a suitor but in a fatherly way, me and Maggie, all three of us ripped on alcohol and speed. She was a skinny waif, with short blond hair with streaks of red, maybe ninety pounds when wet, seven years younger than us and seemed to want guidance in life, so we three talked for hours in a close circle, doing lines, giving her our skewered and drug hazed opinions and advice on life. I drove her home in my Datzun 'Z' around four am, and she thanked me, without a kiss. I quickly drove back to the party and took Maggie to bed. About a week later she attended a similar party at Jim's, at the warehouse. This time she brought a girlfriend, equally young and tiny, perhaps five foot two, and we had a similar talk and a similar drive home, so we were friends, platonically, which Louie fully realized and which made us a great trio for a trip.

last post ...

next post ...