Forty-one-year-old Celia Jubera closed her eyes and opened the envelope. She knew the electric bill was going to be high given the hot summer that had begun last month. She unfolded the bill and opened her eyes. Her eyes searched for a moment and then saw the “amount due” number. Her heart sank a little. The number was more than double last month’s amount. She sat down at a small kitchen table and took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She was still sitting there wondering why electricity was so expensive when her son Victor walked in with his friend Carlos, two teenage boys without a lot to do for the summer. They had both tried to find summer jobs with no success. Victor took after his mother and was short for his age. Carlos was a head taller than Victor, but was as skinny as a rail.
Victor flashed a smile at his mother. “Hey mom, can I go with Carlos down to the mall? We want to see that new movie, Miami Death. Part of it was filmed right here in Miami Gardens and at Sun Life Stadium!” The Jubera’s modest home was on NW 196 th Terrace and was so close to Sun Life Stadium that they could sometimes hear an announcement being made during a Miami Dolphin’s game when they were “tailgating” in their own backyard.
“That doesn’t sound like a very good movie, honey. What’s it rated?”
“PG-13,” Victor said. Then he added, “It got great reviews! It’s only rated PG-13 because of blood and guts. “
“Like we don’t have enough violence in real life I suppose. “
“Come on Mom, we’re bored.”
Celia knew that a lot of men loved action movies with violence, but never really understood it. The boys had been helping out a lot around the house so she said, “Okay, you can go, but you have to take your brother. He’s in the backyard.” Victor’s younger brother, Marcus, was thirteen and he enjoyed being with his older brother much more than his older brother enjoyed being with him.
Victor started to protest, but then said, “No problem, but I need a twenty. Okay?”
Celia grabbed her purse off the table and dug out a twenty and handed it to Victor. “Have fun sweetie. You guys please get home by eleven, okay?” She then added, “Carlos, drive safely. No more speeding tickets!” Celia had learned through Marcus that Carlos had recently gotten a speeding ticket.
“No problem Mrs. Jubera,” Carlos said as he and Victor headed out the back door to get Marcus, who was dutifully giving the family dog, Max, a bath. Max was a black and tan mixed breed with some pit-bull in him. A very smart dog and well trained, thanks to Marcus’s hours and hours of devotion working with him.
Victor stood on the porch and hollered at Marcus, who was in the middle of the backyard. “Finish up bro! I’ve talked Mom into letting us go see ‘Miami Death’ tonight; we’re leaving in half an hour.”
Marcus grinned from ear to ear at the news of this unexpected treat. The Juberas only made it to two or three movies a year due to their meager budget for such frivolities as entertainment. And this was a night movie to boot. Bargain matinees were the usual fare for the Jubera family.
After the boys had left for the movies, the house was quiet. Celia concentrated on finishing the decorating of two birthday cakes and an anniversary cake before her husband, Jorge, got home from work, which was usually around seven. The kitchen was hot, but Celia was determined not to lower the thermostat until her husband got home. She would make seventy dollars profit on these three cakes and she planned to use all of the money on supplies to make a huge four-tier wedding cake that she was hoping would help launch her new cake decorating business to the next level.
Jorge didn’t get home from work until after seven and found Celia in the kitchen laboring over her cakes. “Sorry honey. We had a job that gave us a little trouble today and put me running late.” Jorge worked as a carpenter for a construction firm that built marinas and boat docks up and down the Florida coast. His stocky build was powerful and at six feet three inches, he appeared an intrepid man.
“Oh, you probably stopped for a cold beer with the boys I bet,” Celia kidded.
“No, actually I had to help a beautiful woman that had car trouble,” Jorge kidded back.
They both laughed. Jorge and Celia both knew they were soul mates. This knowledge was a great comfort to them when confronting the many problems life can offer. They both knew money wasn’t everything, but it sure came in handy to have some.
Celia laughingly replied, “You’re such a nice man to help a damsel in distress!” and then said, “I’m just finishing up my three cakes and I’ve got some hamburger thawed out. You want to grill hamburgers for dinner?”
“That sounds great. I’ll change clothes and get on it. Where are the kids?”
“They went to the mall with Carlos to see a movie. I told them to be home by eleven. I’ll be glad when we can afford to get Victor’s cell phone turned back on so we can keep up with them a little better.”
The hamburgers were grilled to perfection. Jorge took pride, although he would never admit it, in his grilling abilities and considered himself somewhat of an outdoor chef. In the summertime, the Juberas grilled outdoors frequently for both enjoyment and to keep from heating up the house unnecessarily.
Jorge took the hamburgers off the grill and placed them on a dinner plate. “These are going to be good, if I do say so myself,” he said to Celia as he walked from the patio into the kitchen.
“They sure smell good honey. Too bad the kids aren’t here to eat them while they’re hot and fresh.”
“Oh well, they’re still pretty good warmed up in the microwave.”
After dinner, Celia and Jorge were relaxing in the family room when Max began barking in the backyard.
“What on earth is that dog barking at now?” asked Celia as she got up from the couch.
“No telling,” Jorge said as he got up from his recliner and stretched. “I’ll go see what it is if you will make me one of your famous hot fudge sundaes.”
Celia smiled, “Okay, you got a deal.” She turned to walk to the kitchen and added, “You want the works?”
Jorge followed her to the kitchen and grabbed a dog leash hanging from a hook by the back door. “Absolutely the works with extra hot fudge! I’ll be right back honey.”
Jorge stood on the back porch and looked towards the back of the yard where Max was barking through a chain link fence that separated the backyard from a vacant field of tall grass. Beyond the vacant field was a busy four lane road, NW 199 th Street, which ran between the Jubera’s house and Sun Life Stadium.
Jorge clapped his hands and hollered, “What you barking at boy!”
Max was focused on something just beyond the fence and acted as if he didn’t hear his master as he continued his vicious low pitched bark which would scare anyone off. Jorge was now next to the dog saying “Hush! Hush!” The dog now heard his master and obeyed his command as he had been trained, but a deep growl continued. Jorge put the leash on the dog and said, “Come on boy, let’s go see what’s out there.” Jorge opened a small gate in the fence and Max pulled on the leash towards the tall grass. Jorge suddenly saw what Max had been so excited about. There was a man in a suit lying on his stomach in the tall grass only a few feet from him. Jorge commanded Max to sit, which he promptly did, and then he cautiously approached the man.
“Sir! Are you hurt or just a drunk lost out here?” The man mumbled something unintelligible and Jorge leaned down and rolled the man over on his back. “Are you drunk mister? You can’t sleep out…” Jorge’s eyes grew large as wet blood that covered the front of the man’s shirt glistened in the faint glow of the far off porch light.
“Is that blood?!” Jorge gasped. Without really thinking, Jorge picked up the man and carried him to the back porch and laid him on the porch floor. Jorge hollered for Celia as he rolled up an old cleaning towel that happened to be nearby and placed it under the man’s head for a pillow. Celia came running out the back door onto the porch.
“What’s the matter Jorge?”
“I found this man in the field. He’s been hurt bad. Call 911 and tell them to get here ASAP! Then bring me some towels!”
Celia’s eyes were wide as she took in the scene for a moment. She then left and returned in a minute with the towels. Jorge took one of the towels and pressed it against the man’s stomach where he had discovered a knife wound that was the source of the bleeding. The man moaned when Jorge pressed the towel down on the wound and then he mumbled something.
“Sorry mister. I have to press down to try and stop the bleeding. “
The man mumbled again and Jorge placed his ear close to the man’s mouth so he could hear.
“What are you trying to say mister?”
The man mumbled again and Jorge could barely make out two words, “Hide me.”
All of a sudden headlights shone on the back porch. An SUV was coming across the field fast and headed directly toward the Jubera’s backyard. The SUV smashed through the chain link fence and came to a stop just a few feet from the porch. Jorge grabbed Celia by the hand and they ran into the house. He hollered at Celia to hide and then raced to their bedroom closet and retrieved his rifle.
He had a shell in the chamber when he came out the back door. He saw three men moving the wounded man towards the SUV.
“Stop right there!” Jorge hollered at them.
“Just go back inside and we will be gone in a minute!” hollered one of the men with a middle eastern accent.
“Put him down or I’ll start shootin’!”
Jorge saw the flash of a shot fired almost at the same time he realized a bullet had torn through his shirt sleeve missing flesh by a fraction of an inch.
He raised his rifle and fired. The man that had done the talking fell backwards suffering a shot to his forehead. He was dead before he hit the ground.
The other two men dropped the wounded man and one hollered, “We’re leaving! We’re leaving!”
The SUV was gone as suddenly as it had appeared. Jorge went to the wounded man lying on the ground.
“Are you still alive mister?”
The man made a faint moan and Jorge knew the man was dead if an ambulance didn’t arrive soon. He stood up to look for a towel to try to stop the bleeding again and was relieved to see Celia and two paramedics coming through the back door.
“Over here,” Jorge called out to them.
The paramedics started to work immediately on the man and started asking questions at the same time. Jorge told them he thought the man had been stabbed and explained what had transpired in the past twenty minutes. One of the paramedics went over and checked on the man that Jorge had shot and confirmed what Jorge already knew. The man was dead.
Jorge realized Max wasn’t around. He looked around the yard and saw Max’s motionless body next to the fence. He quickly went to check on the dog and discovered Max had been run over by the SUV. He picked up the dog’s body and carried it to the porch.
As Jorge was laying Max’s body on the ground next to the porch, the first two police officers arrived. Jorge explained everything to the officers, just as he had explained to the paramedics and showed them where everything had happened. After several minutes of intense questioning, the police officers allowed him to ask them a question.
Jorge pointed to the dead man lying on the ground. “Will I get in trouble for killing him?”
The older of the two officers, a gray haired man, grinned at him and motioned to where the paramedics were still working on the wounded man. “Do you know who that wounded man is?”
“No, never got a good look at his face with all the blood and everything.”
“Well, that is Nick Weedon, a young software multi-millionaire from LA. He was here in Miami working on some type of new communication software for the stadium over there.” The officer pointed toward Sun Life Stadium.
Jorge remained silent so the officer continued, “Listen, you’re gonna be a hero over this. You just helped foil a terrorist kidnapping attempt, not to mention saving Nick Weedon’s life. As far as we can put together for now, the terrorists rammed Mr. Weedon’s car in the parking lot of Sun Life Stadium, somehow abducted him and then sped off down NW 199 th Street. I guess Mr. Weedon managed to escape somehow and ended up here in your yard.”
Jorge just stood there in disbelief. He felt Celia’s arm slip around his waist and suddenly realized she had been standing beside him for some time. Jorge hugged his wife.
“Let’s go inside and sit down honey,” Celia said, pulling his hand toward the house.
The older police officer said, “That’s a good idea. You two go inside and rest because you’re about to have a yard full of law enforcement folks out here in about another ten minutes. And don’t worry about going to jail Mr. Jubera, I wish it could have been me that shot him and not you.”
Inside the house, Celia and Jorge sat at their small kitchen table, both visibly shaken, but finally able to take a deep breath. They began to sort through what had just happened and started considering what they should do now.
“I wish the kids were home,” Celia said.
Jorge took Celia’s hand and said, “Don’t worry honey, it’s almost eleven and they’ll be home in a few minutes.” He squeezed Celia’s hand and added, “I’m gonna have to tell Marcus that Max is dead. He was run over by that SUV the terrorists were driving.”
Celia pulled Jorge’s hand to her chest and said, “What a horrible night this has been.”
Carlos was driving slower than Victor wanted him to drive. “Come on Carlos, pick it up a little, we’re gonna be late gettin’ home man!”
“I’m not getting another speeding ticket,” replied Carlos, maintaining his speed and keeping his eyes on the road. He was sincere about being a safe driver and took his responsibility a little more seriously than Victor had thought.
Marcus chimed in from the backseat, “What an awesome movie! If we get in trouble for being a little late, it’s worth it!”
“Nobody’s getting in trouble,” said Carlos. “The next exit is ours and we still have five minutes.” Carlos nodded his head towards the digital clock in the dashboard that displayed in green block numbers “10:55″ and then added, “I’ll bet anybody five bucks that we’ll be at your house by eleven. Any takers?” There weren’t any.
Carlos was still six blocks from the Jubera’s house when he noticed blue and red flashing lights in his rearview mirror. “Oh man, what did I do?”
Victor and Marcus turned to look out the rear window and saw the flashing lights gaining on them fast and then suddenly the flashing lights changed lanes and flew by them.
Marcus was beside himself with excitement, “Did you see that. That was a black Suburban like they drive on ‘Criminal Minds’ man!”
Victor nodded in agreement, “What’s the FBI doing out here in our neighborhood.”
Carlos, who was relieved he wasn’t in trouble, let out a deep breath and said, “Who knows, maybe there’s a serial killer out here somewhere.”
When Carlos turned the corner onto NW 196 th Terrace, no one in the car could speak for a moment. A parade of all types of law enforcement vehicles lined the street, many with lights flashing, some blocking the road making it impassable.
Carlos pulled to the curb behind the nearest car, its flashing lights almost blinding him.
He was the first to speak, “What the heck is going on!”
Victor regained his voice, “Whatever it is, it almost looks like our house is in the middle of it.”
Marcus didn’t speak, but just stared with wide eyes at the spectacle of all the flashing lights, making his home street look like a scene from “Miami Death” where the bad guys had met their demise at the hands of half of the Miami police force.
“Let’s go make sure Mom and Dad are okay!” Victor said as he opened the passenger side door.
“Good idea,” Carlos agreed and opened his door.
Marcus, who had been in a trance until he heard the car doors open, said, “Yeah! Let’s get home and check this out!” He bailed out of the car behind his brother Victor and the three of them started walking down the middle of the road. They had only gotten about fifty feet when a female police officer stopped them.
“Sorry kids, this road has been closed for the time being.”
The three boys all started talking at the same time.
“Quiet! Quiet!” The police officer pointed at Carlos. “You talk.”
Carlos, who had gotten a little keyed up, swallowed, then nodded towards Victor and Marcus, and said, “Their parents live a few houses down that way on the left.” Carlos pointed toward the Jubera’s house.
The officer looked at Victor and Marcus, “What’s you boys last name?”
“Jubera!” Victor and Marcus said in unison.
“You three wait here a minute.” The officer walked over to another officer who was wearing a t-shirt with “S.W.A.T” written across the back and spoke to him. After a moment, the “S.W.A.T.” officer looked over at the three boys. Marcus waved to him.
“Put your hand down stupid!” Victor said and slapped at Marcus’s arm. Marcus quickly obeyed.
The female officer walked back over to the boys. “You guys follow me.”
“What’s going on?” Carlos asked.
“Just follow me,” the officer said. She then noticed the concern on all their faces. “Don’t worry, your parents are fine, I promise. Come on, just follow me,” she said again, a little louder, as she noticed the boys weren’t moving.
The boys, who had been lost in their own thoughts, finally realized the officer was trying to get them to follow her and they began moving. When they reached the Jubera’s front yard the officer stopped and said, “Wait here just a second guys.”
The officer went up on the porch and talked to two men in business suits, and then motioned for the boys to come up on the porch which they promptly did.
“Boys, these are the FBI agents in charge of things here. They’ll take care of you from here.” With that, the officer left the boys alone on the porch with the agents.
The FBI agents quickly determined who was who amongst the boys. One agent took Carlos and the other one took Victor and Marcus to a separate room in the house for further questioning. One of the FBI agents had told the boys, “We have to treat everyone as a suspect until we can clear them. We don’t think you guys had anything to do with what happened here tonight, but we can’t take any chances.”
Finally, after what seemed like hours, but in reality was only about thirty minutes, all three boys were allowed to be with Celia and Jorge, who were still in the kitchen.
Both Celia’s and Jorge’s faces lit up when they saw the boys enter the kitchen from the living room.
Celia got up from the table when she saw them and said, “Oh, it’s good to see you guys!” as she tried to wrap her arms around all three of them at once.
“Can someone just please tell us what’s going on?” Victor asked with a hint of attitude in his voice. He was getting a little hacked off with no one telling him anything.
Celia looked at Victor and started to say, “Oh sweetie, I’m just…,” when Jorge raised his hand, as if to demand silence from everyone, and said, “Sit down boys and we’ll tell you everything that’s happened.”
Once everyone had been seated around the kitchen table, Jorge said, “Now please, no questions until I’m finished and then you can ask me any questions you want, okay?” Everyone agreed and Jorge, leaving out unnecessary details, explained to the boys what had happened while they had been away at the movies.
When Jorge got to the part about Max getting killed, he placed his hand on Marcus’s knee and said in a sincere and soft tone, “Max gave his life tonight protecting this family.”
Marcus was fighting back the tears and his Dad squeezed his knee and said, “Son, I’m proud of the great job you did in training Max to obey commands. I want you to remember that Max couldn’t have helped out like he did if he hadn’t obeyed commands. We owe you one pal!”
“Can I go see Max?” Marcus asked.
Jorge held up both hands as a signal of surrender, “I’m afraid they’re letting no one in the backyard until they’ve completed their investigation.”
“Who’s out there Dad?” Victor asked.
“FBI, police, Homeland Security and a few others I’ve never even heard of before.”
Marcus was anxious to see his old buddy Max and said, “How long do you think it will be before we can go out there? They won’t take Max’s body away will they?”
Jorge looked at Marcus, “No, they promised me they had no reason to take Max’s body and they said they would be done in about another two or three hours.”
Carlos, who had been silent, spoke up, “These must be some bad dudes to have all this fuss made over them. I wonder if it’s safe to stay here. What if the dead guy’s friends come back?”
“Oh my gosh, I hadn’t even thought of that!” Victor exclaimed.
Marcus’s eyes widened, “We’ll all probably be dead by morning!”
Jorge raised his hand, “Calm down everybody. The police have already told your mother and me that they will have officers posted out front and in the back throughout the night and maybe longer. And by the way, one of the FBI agents told me it’s highly unlikely these dudes will ever come back here. He said they’re probably putting as much distance between themselves and here as possible”
“I’m not too worried about it,” Carlos said. “They won’t come back if they know what’s good for them, but I’m wondering if there is some kind of reward available for the one you got.”
“You’re mighty perceptive Carlos. As a matter of fact, I’m told that there is a reward posted on the man I had to shoot tonight.”
“How much is it?” all three boys said at once.
Jorge smiled at them and said, “Quite a bit.”
Victor leaned toward his dad, “Come on dad, how much?”
Jorge leaned toward Victor, “I’m afraid that’s confidential son. As a matter of fact, I want to ask you boys not to speak to anyone about all of this. Just tell people some bad guys were in the field behind our house after the police chased them off the road. Tell them that’s all you know and your parents wouldn’t tell you anything else.”
“No problem Dad,” Victor said.
“Yeah, no problem Dad,” Marcus added.
Carlos smiled at Jorge, “Can you give us an idea of how big the reward is?”
Jorge smiled back at Carlos, “Big enough for us all to go to Disney World this summer. How’s that sound?”
Carlos laughed, “Sounds good as long as ‘us’ means me too!”
Celia shook her head and said, “I don’t know, it all sounds like blood money to me.”
“But honey, I didn’t kill him because of the reward. I didn’t even know there was a reward or even who he was. Heck, all I knew was that the dude was trying to kill me!”
Celia’s expression relaxed, “I guess you’re right.”
The news of the huge reward lifted the mood of the room considerably, but Marcus, still grieving over Max, excused himself and went to bed.
Celia looked at Victor and Carlos, “Why don’t you two boys go to bed too. Carlos, I think it would be a good idea for you to spend the night here tonight.” Carlos probably slept more at the Jubera’s than at his own house anyway. Carlos was an only child and he and his mother lived alone in a small apartment a few miles south of the Jubera’s. Carlos’s mother worked two jobs, a day job at a tropical nursery and an evening job as a waitress at a Don Shula’s steakhouse. She rarely had anytime off to be with Carlos except for Sundays.
Two weeks passed and things quieted down around the Jubera house and were beginning to return to normal. The FBI had arranged for Jorge’s reward money to be direct-deposited into his and Celia’s joint checking account. The net amount after taxes was roughly $350,000.
The Juberas went to Disney World that summer. They took both Carlos and his mother, not to mention a few other kids from the neighborhood.
Carlos’s mother was able to go because she had quit her two old jobs for a single new one, with much more flexible hours. She now worked for a successful wedding cake bakery known as “Max’s Wedding Cakes.”
Six months later, Nick Weedon made a full recovery and invited the Juberas and all their friends to his island paradise in Grand Cayman. All expenses paid of course. Once there, the Juberas received a most generous gift of gratitude. Half of Nick Weedon’s fortune.