Hello. I'm Alice. I... Sorry, I'm not used to talking like this. I've had to

keep my own council for a while. Had to go by what seemed right to me. I know I have

a lot to answer for. And I will. I'll answer for all of it. There are many places

I'll never go. Almost an entire world of them. There are 195 countries in the

world right now depending on which government you ask. How many of those do I

think I'm going to get to in one lifetime? Not many. I'll never go to Merida,

colonial capital in the Yucatan jungle. All the walls painted pastel. The old

buildings built by Spanish flavors and now those mansions are market halls and

with donalds. The sky is a hot sheet of glass during the day and at night the

air is so wet and hot that sleeping feels like drowning. I'm never going there.

Not in this life. I have my own story, you know. Of course I do. We all have

our own stories, right? I don't have time to tell mine right now but I will. But

I'll try to. Later. I owe that much. Not to you, I guess. I don't care about you.

To her. I owe that to her. It's been three days since Arizona and the

heat on us is still intense. We've been hiding out in some backwater that

hasn't seen real traffic since the 50s. Of course that can bring its own kind of

attention. Newcomers stick out so even here we try to keep a low profile. They

want to find us and crush us. We've revealed ourselves now. Open war and we

intend to win. Marida where the people will still speak mine despite the best

efforts of the colonizers where the office workers line up to buy cheese and

tomato sandwiches at the little windows in El Centro. Marida on the unfashionable

side of the Yucatan Peninsula. Hours of jungle highway away from Cancun and

...