The Shape of Things to Come (Hypernaturals 15)

Pris

Our next stop is near Jessica's ski condo. We do not need the RV to have a place to sleep and regroup. The bad part is that there is no place to put any part of the rig at the condo. Her garage has a Jeep in it, but the supertanker pickup is too big to fit inside it. The fiver would block the street. The neighbors would notice. This is a ski town, not an RV'ing paradise.

Also: Jessica has a different ID here, and so do I. We are not well known as those people, but we have been here as them. They do not match our current PI roles. Prudence dictates we keep those two things as separate as we can. As much as I would have liked to stay in the condo for sentimental reasons (this is where I found out what I am, and found out I had a life with Jessica), we went to a nearby RV park.

Baby number two from Denise's search project was born about 4 months after Ajei. Leon left Gallup, traveled east, had a layover for a week at the diner to pick up some extra money and leave a strong impression, and then he continued on to Santa Fe

With Lean's name in hand, we are in much better shape for tracking him. The first thing we did after leaving Halona is to call Angel and give her the new details. The entire time we have been traveling across the northern New Mexico landscape, Angel has been researching Leon and sending us data.

We know Leon got a job at Angelfire, a ski resort nearby. There he did odd jobs. Handyman type of things. When the ski areas are closed, that is when they do all their maintenance. When they are open, that is when they work hard to just keep everything going. The jobs change by the season. In winter, Leon might have worked in a gift shop, or night shift cleaning up after the day's ski boots stomping everywhere. Off-season, the jobs are to do all the facility ground work and machinery repair required to get ready for the next season. Repaint things. Fix signs. Fix snow-making equipment. A wide range of options. It seems Leon is pretty handy. His gigs at Angelfire were much more varied and technical. He was wasted as a busboy, but I do not imagine in the end that he minded, since he was not looking for a career. Just some fast cash. The other events at the diner were unplanned, unexpected, and I guess that while he enjoyed them at the time the party and resulting group sex left him with some disquiet. It's hard to imagine how someone would react to the sudden, intense, and deeply intimate popularity he has found himself with.

Leon's reaction so far is to be a rolling stone, gather no moss, and move on. He is not happy about the unexplained.

Leon moved on, settled again briefly here at Angelfire, where he met the second mother we know about.

Pris Cortez works at a tourist gift shop and also at a gym. She teaches Pilates, yoga, and does personal training. According to Angel, Pris added a series of healthy pregnancy workout classes when she was pregnant. Making the most of her situation.

Right now, Pris is at the touristy T-shirt shop. We looked around at all the usual ski slope things. jackets, sweats, and T's with various logos about Angelfire, Santa Fe, pictures of snow-capped mountains, bunny rabbits on snow skis, one featuring one bunny telling another bunny they should not have stuck their tongue on the metal pole of a ski lift because now it is frozen to it. Snow on the ground, and skiers dangling from the chairs above them.

We goofed off in the store looking at things until Pris Cortez was not with a customer. A young and hopeful man hitting on her hard. Getting nowhere except for smiles and 'That's nice' type of responses.

"Hi. How can I help you?" Pris asked, friendly but after that last customer, not too friendly.

Morgan held up her ID, and we went through the usual intros. PI. PI. PI. Doctor. Then she held up her current best picture of Leon. "We are looking for this man." Morgan laid it out very simply, with no hints as to why.