Saul Pierce
January 05, 2010 12:26 PM
I'm leaving on a Jet Plane by Saul Pierce
OOC: Originally posted to Wedded to Sonora on InsaneJournal on 5 January, 2010. BIC:
Saul sat in the middle of the tent pitched in the backyard of Jose's Hernandez grandparents, just barely north of the Mexican border. The bleached blond cousin who he normally shared it with was currently out on a gig. Like his father and brother, Harvey and Simon Tellerman, Neil was talented in the musical arts and had begun a folk singing career upon graduation. Tonight, he was out at some coffeeshop that was paying for his overnight accommodations in town, so Saul had the tent to himself. He was using the time to pack.
He'd used the proceeds from selling the wagon and oxen, as well as some of the other supplies from his journey that he'd no longer need, to buy plane tickets to Austria. It hadn't quite covered the new expenses, but Maria had let him keep half his income from the play he was currently acting in to cover the rest of his trip. Closing night had been tonight, and he was skipping the cast party to get his suitcase ready for tomorrow's early morning visit to airport.
He suspected Neil had intentionally scheduled tonight's gig so he wouldn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn when Saul's alarm was set to go off. That, and Neil also knew Saul's packing ability tended to involve a bit of petty theft, and he'd taken everything he wanted to keep in America with him, far out of Saul's reach.
Saul had needed to raid Maria's tent to get toothpaste and Dad's to get clean socks. (Dad's tent was an excellent source of clean socks since he didn't actually wear socks but Mom insisted on collecting a ration of them for him from the communal clothes closet, just in case, so any socks found in there were generally clean.)
Said communal clothes closet had also provided Saul with four pairs of jeans, a half dozen t-shirts and a couple of sweatshirts (Austria, he was pretty sure, was cold in December). He'd also packed the winter coat, winter gear, and one of the blankets from his Oregon Trail trip. He'd cleaned those three times since he got back but he thought they still smelled a little like ox. Fortunately, he didn't need to use them much in Southern California, even now that it was officially winter. Tonight, though, he was wearing a light Mexican poncho in deference to the season. The tent was a chilly seventy-one degrees, after all.
"Mom!" he called out, sticking his head out of the tent's flap, as he realized he still didn't have something very important. No less than four of the women milling about the yard turned in his direction, looking for their sons, so he clarified, "Aunt Lo!" Everyone except his mom turned back to what they were doing before. It was not uncommon among the caravan to call parents and grandparents and even cousins 'Aunt' or 'Uncle' if that was how nearly everyone else addressed them. "Where's my passport?"
She held up the folder she'd been carrying. "I was just bringing it to you." She handed it over and Saul opened it up. In addition to the shiny new muggle passport that declared him a citizen of the United States (he'd been born in a muggle hospital and had a muggle birth certificate, so it hadn't been too hard to obtain), the folder also contained about four hundred dollars in traveler's checks, his plane tickets, and a handful of other documents that she evidently thought he'd need for international travel.
"Thanks," he said, and took out the checks to put them in his wallet. He looked up in surprise as she also held out a small plastic card. "A credit card?" he asked, amazed. "You're giving me a credit card?" It had his name on it and everything. He felt hugely grown up all of a sudden.
"Emergencies only," she told him. She held onto it as he tried to take it and gave him a stern look. "It's got a two thousand dollar limit on it. Maria will have your head if you abuse this privilege. Your trip budget is the four hundred we gave you in checks. This is for emergencies only, are we clear?"
"Emergencies only," Saul promised, and took the card almost reverently. He ran his fingertip over the raised letters of his name.
She gave him another serious look and added, "Not having enough food is an emergency. Don't come back as skinny as you came back from Oregon."
He grinned at her, and made his second promise of the night, "Got it, Mom."
"Good," she ruffled his hair. "And remember to tell Elly and her family that we all said hi."
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Saul Pierce
I'm leaving on a Jet Plane
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