Digger 1.0 by Michael Bunker Page B

filling the Caddy and paid.
    As they drove away, Mr. Vo said, “Outlaws
all wear black hats, right Mr. Texas?”
    Jim smiled to himself and then chuckled a
bit because he couldn’t help it.
    “Yes, Mr. Vo. Outlaws do wear black
hats.”
    “So, where we dig tunnels?”
    They drove on. Jim dialed in a station out
of Abilene. Buddy Holly sang, “Everyday, it’ s a gettin ’ closer, goin’ faster than a
rollercoaster.”
    The night and the wind consumed them and all
that was left were two red taillights that in time were gone,
almost seeming to disappear.
    “Well Mr. Vo, we’re gonna start far off the
beaten track. A strange place, high up on a mesa. The government
was gonna make into a state park because of the land features, but
they never did. It’s a high valley no one really knows about up
along some cliffs, and there’s a beautiful river there me and my
Dad used to take trout out of. We’ll have to tunnel under the river
to access the main county telecommunications tunnels.”
    “Tunneling under rivers is very dangerous,”
said Mr. Vo.
    “But it can be done, right?”
    Mr. Vo
lit a cigarette. Then, “Yes, it can.”
    “No one ever goes out that way. We can work
as much as we like and once we start earning some money, we’ll take
time off and spend it down in Mexico on the other side of San
Antonio.”
    The bright headlights made the old highway
speeding in front of them seem like the spotlight on a stage in the
moments just before someone might enter and sing.
    “So, this place, it will be our outlaw
hideout?” asked Mr. Vo.”
    Jim Howard laughed. “Yeah, Mr. Vo. That it
will be. We’ll start up at the top of the place, in these rocks,
and make a lookout. Then we’ll start digging a tunnel that leads
down toward the river. We’ll tunnel everywhere and no one will ever
know until we’ve run off with all their money. We’ll be outlaws,
like Jesse James and Pancho Villa, Mr. Vo. And we’ll be rich and no
one’ll ever figure it out ‘cause they won’t be lookin’ for tunnels.
They’re Americans. They only think on the surface.”

Chapter 14
     
     
     
     
    Now.
     
    As he passed from the pasture through the
makeshift gate and into the long garden, Ellis heard a shriek and
some yelling. His mental alarms were triggered—just for a
micro-second—but he relaxed when he saw Amy running from the barn
with two mens hats clutched in front of her. She was sprinting as
fast as she could, and as she ran she was laughing so hard there
were tears in her eyes and rolling down her face, and Ellis heard
Chuck and Shooter yelling, “ Rooster! ” as they sprinted after her, too late and
too slow to catch her. Shooter slowed up a tad and threw a ball
they’d once made from a pig’s skin and stuffed with lamb’s wool and
it missed her by nearly a foot but only made her laugh louder and
run faster.
    Chuck and Shooter pulled up and Chuck yelled
after Rooster, cupping his hands so she might hear him over her
cackling, “We’re going to take you out to the Nowheres and leave
you there, Rooster! I promise we will!”
    Rooster realized she was no longer being
chased and stopped running, dropping head and hands. She wasn’t
scared of being left in the Nowheres, but the game wasn’t fun if no
one was chasing her. She dropped the hats in the pasture and moped
back toward the house. She wouldn’t take the hats back to the boys.
They’d have to go get them themselves. If she gave the hats back,
then next time they wouldn’t chase her, and what fun would that
be?
    Ellis watched as Amy skipped up the front
stairs of the house. As she walked by, she swung her hips and
bumped Renny off the porch. He’d been bending over, trying to
carefully pour some dirty dishwater on bean plants that were
growing in the small garden next to the porch. Renny yelled,
“ Rooster! ” as he tumbled
off the porch and spilled some of his water a little less
cautiously than he’d originally intended. “You’ re gonna make me