Gordo?” I cheered. He shrugged, still smiling.
Gwen looked at him approvingly and then turned to me,
“Gordon liked not speaking so much that he decided to remain silent
for a while longer. He enjoys not talking.”
“Groovy,” I said trying not to laugh. It sure seemed an
improvement. “Take it easy you guys!” I waved them good-bye.
I cruised down to the sand and crashed alone on the beach. I
wanted to finish the book I had been reading and was nearly finished
when they broke the news.
“Jake! Jake!” The blonde American came running up to me,
with the dark-haired one not far behind. “Jake!” he yelled at me
despite the fact that he was standing right next to me and
inadvertently blocking my sun.
“What? What?”
“Jake!” he said again.
“What is it?” I prodded. He looked distraught.
“They’ve come for your friend Tree!”
“They? Who’s they?”
“The FBI, man,” the dark-haired one joined in, panting.
“They’re all over the place and they’re asking all the Thais where he
can be found. Noi told us. They’re showing a flyer with his picture on
it and offering a reward of twenty thousand baht! Jake, this is serious
shit! Maybe those rumors were true!”
“Shit! I have to tell him!” I jumped to my feet in a panic and
began to run down the beach. The Americans were running beside
me, yelling.
“Jake, don’t do it! He could be dangerous! You don’t know
what’s going on!”
“Don’t worry! Stay here, I’ll be back.” After I picked up my
stride, they slowed down and let me go. I disappeared in the foliage
and up the overgrown trail that led to Tree’s clearing on the hill.
Half-expecting to find a rabble of investigative agents at the top,
I was relieved to see it deserted. I sat down on a patch of moss and
tried to catch my breath. I glanced over at the tent that housed his
meager stack of belongings. I looked around at the area that was his
kingdom, and at the nylon dome which was his state capital, and
noticed that affixed to the outside of the tent was a piece of paper
neatly folded. Upon closer inspection I saw that it had my name
written on it. I jumped up to tear it open.
BIG AMERICAN BREAKFAST
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