The Mustache Man

Chapter Eight

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CHAPTER EIGHT ON LINE MUSTACHE MAN

Once…”

            “Yes.”

            Pete retreated into silence.

“Let’s get back to your trip to Crestone. Was that after you left Chance and Jewels and her bulldog Bert?”

            “Yes.”

            “So you got back from this place called Crestone in…”

            “Colorado.”

            “And what did the noise do to you?”

            “Paralyzes me. When you found me I was all folded up, right? Leaning over my legs and rocking back and forth with my eyes open. That’s because of the in between.”

            “Which is what exactly? What is the in between?”

            “It’s where I go just before I disappear and it’s where I appear when I come back. I had this call. On my cell phone.”

            “I thought you said you rarely answer it.”

            “I try never to answer it. But once in awhile I have to answer it when it rings. Because she texts me.”

            “She? Chance Markoneer?”

            “She hopes that I will reply. But I never reply. It’s been what?”

            “Three years she said.”     

            “Yes, it’s been three years that she’s been trying to contact me. So I pick it up sometimes to listen to her voice or to imagine her forming words. I listen just to hear the sound of her voice but then, then I…”

            “Yes?”

            Pete Vargas got up and walked up and down the ramps of the Vault. Carlton waited patiently. His voice reverberated from above and below and everywhere. The acoustics of the Vault could amplify a whisper from God.

            “It was a foreigner with some kind of accent from Tunisia or Algeria. He asked if I was satisfied with my new car.”

            “Your new car? The one you drove from Crestone, Colorado? How did you get the money to buy a new car, Pete?”

            “I don’t know. I have cash stuffed in my pockets every time I get to a new place after I disappear. I have credit. I can go into bank and they’ll loan me anything.”