Wild Goose Chase In Havana (part 1)

Finally, we have the continuation of a story that’s been left hanging since October. This is part two of our misadventures in Cuba. If you want to read the prologue, go here.

The path from Playa Chiquita to Havana wasn’t painless. There were a lot of agencies willing to book trips and tours to Cuba, but this trip was too urgent to wait a week or even a few days. Fortunately, flights from airline carriers TACA and COPA were plentiful, and I made quick arrangements for a return trip via COPA after a few phone calls and a mad rush to the airport.

I met up with Meredith across Malecon, the shores of Havana’s beach where people mingled freely to bathe, to fish, to have long romantic walks. It was also the best place to blend in with the crowds.

Apparently, there wasn’t time to catch up, as we rushed just as quickly off to a car, to speed across Havana’s Old World streets. Well, speed as quickly as we could with whatever jalopy Meredith had hired out. “What kind of trouble did your brother get into anyway ?” I blurted out. She gave me a look that blended disapproval with weariness, and just a little bit of annoyance.

“He went to watch a cockfight”, she finally exclaimed.”He was out looking for trouble again, but told me everything was going to be OK. I’ll just check out what it’s like, he said. You know I wouldn’t get to watch this in the middle of Massachusetts, he said. He swore he wasn’t even going to bring money!” Seeing she could break to tears, I reached out for a hug, but she pushed my arms away with that weary annoyed look now directed towards me.

“What do you think you’re doing? I’m trying to tell you what happened here!” I feel a quick smack of her entire arm across my chest, and she continues. “Next thing I hear, he’s running away from the Cuban police and hiding in some cigar factory.” “Cigar factory?” “Look, it’s all unbelievably contrived and it would take an idiot like Jim to get in a mess like this. Did you come here to help me out or what?”

“OK, what do we do?”

“We’re going in the easy way. A cigar factory tour. We’re a newly married couple, and you’re overeager to spend on fine Havanas.”

“Do you really think people will believe we’re married? I-” a snarky comment was interrupted by a deep, warm kiss. When I got over my bewilderment, I realized this girl had just shoved me aside and pulled me in in a span of a few minutes. She was desperate, and she was acting a little crazy. This may not be about me.

“I really need your help in this, Bobby”, she quips as we drop off. “Try to act natural and we’ll sneak down the factory when we find out where he is in the assembly lines.”

Cuba’s cigar factory tours are pleasant affairs, in this context bordering on obnoxious. I play it up that I’m so happy to be married to my hot wife and can’t wait to get all these boxes of cigars to bring home. The guide gushes proudly about Havana’s rich history and the quality of cigar manufacturing in this area, which he grew up in. The workers appear even more lost in their work than you would expect.

And she catches Jim from the corner of her eye, rolling up leaves like a madman. His eyes shoot back immediately at us, before his attention once again gets absorbed in his task. I question my sanity a bit when I see a kid, that same kid all the way back from Playa Chiquita, running across the room and passing by him.

So we shouldn’t have run off after them. Here we are in jail, Meredith screaming and waving our passports around while the cops look at us like we’re both crazy. Cuban law enforcement is not as scary as you might think; serious crimes are treated harshly, but us? We just made too much of a ruckus in a factory. I decide it’s best to sit out our night in jail while planning our next move. The cops are amused as I sweet talk her down, but I murmur “There’s no way they’ll believe us. There’s no way they can help us. But they don’t know what we’re after either.” She listens to reason, we have a cold but not inconsequential dinner, and I lie sleepless, wondering about all the other times I’ve had to bail Jim out, the crazy times with Meredith, Jennifer and all the others, and if that child is mine.

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