Palm Springs Nights

Chapter One Mr. Wright….I do believe a lot of women are looking for you………. He breezed into town on a sun drenched afternoon, all smiles, big hat, absolutely no cattle. Who knew the calamity he left behind? Broken hearts were strewn from Utah to California. A simple toss of a coin decided his destiny; Palm Springs, heads, San Juan Capistrano, tails. He chuckled to himself remembering how she liked to put him down telling him he didn’t have two nickels to rub together. Oh yes he did! He loved his new Escalade. Katherine had been foolish enough to put his name on title and her sweet gift of a Visa Credit card had been successfully maxed out twice! Surely she had come to her senses and terminated it by now. So what, he had the two grand cash advance tucked safely in his box. Katherine, so generous, so smothering, so very gone. She had ten years on him, but she was beautiful, sophisticated and an ardent lover. She taught him how to preen himself to attract a real woman, not the little cowgirls he was used to. Ramey proved useful at her business events; the handsome bartender making the perfect cocktail. Katherine wore him like a boutonnière! For a while he was enthralled with her. Now he despised her. Taking her money was easy because he felt he earned every penny! xxxxxxxx Palm Springs looked like a picture post card for real. He read all about it and words didn’t do it justice. The mountains twinkled with snow in the bright sunshine; the temperature was shirt sleeve seventy two. Date laden palm trees swayed in the warm desert breeze, the place was paradise. The Chamber of Commerce dubbed it the playground of the rich and famous. Well, he was neither, but Ramey Wright was a born actor and could easily pretend to be both. Raymond Thomas Wright could be anyone he wanted to be…..At least for a little while. The town was small, population 40,000 in the sizzling summer and tripled with tourists in winter. It was October and the California license plates were about one out of three. He drove around getting the lay of the land. By two o’clock his stomach felt like his throat was cut. He pulled under a spreading mesquite tree in the far corner of the Spa Casino parking lot. He quickly dropped his driving sweats and pulled on a pair of white shorts and a muscle top. Glancing in his driver’s door mirror he appraised himself. Regular trips to the tanning booths kept him a smooth golden bronze. Weight lifting and a daily five mile run was testament to his hard, beautiful body. The desert birds were singing, bright flowers bloomed in manicured flower beds and gigantic pots, this place was downright magnificent! Ramey was going to like it here. He locked his truck and walked up to Indian Canyon the main drag. He grabbed a sandwich and milk, settled at a table and people watched. Many pretty girls breezed by completely ignoring him. This was a foreign concept. Women always glanced his way and he was somewhat miffed. He couldn’t tell their ages, they all had tight skin, enormous breasts and puffy lips. The women in Northern California were more natural looking, robust yes, phony no. These gals were mostly bottle blondes, no one looked right at him and if they did they were hiding behind sunglasses, so who knew? He walked the entire town in two hours. Bars, restaurants and trendy clothing boutiques dominated the streets. He hoped it wasn’t like Hollywood, two days there and he knew it wasn’t his kind of place. Maybe he had become accustomed to young Northern females who wore tattered jeans and clothing the color of dirt! Southern California’s warm sunny days encouraged people to wear bright, shocking trendy clothes. Spotting Gold’s Gym, he pulled out his card and went in. His bright blue eyes scanned the weight room. Never before had he seen so many good looking men in one place! Ramey didn’t like too much competition. His membership was good for another year. Good old Kathryn. He worked out for thirty minutes, smiling to himself with the realization most of the men in the place were gay. He didn’t care, gay men were party animals, they knew where the action was and he was in no way homophobic. A guy named Tony introduced himself, before he could get a conversation going another man came in and Tony joined him. Ramey took a shower, picked up a newspaper and headed back to his truck. He needed a place to stay, this time of year the temperature dropped drastically at night and it would be mighty cold in the back of the Escalade. Sunsets in California were a fifteen minute deal. The sun rolled through the sky like a big fiery ball then crashed behind the snowcapped mountains taking the warmth with it. The day radiantly transformed to night leaving the sky stroked with breathtaking hues of gold, violet and orange on a sapphire blue canvas. xxxxxxx The truck was in an isolated spot with a lacey mesquite tree sheltering it from view. Security patrolled the parking lot; his truck would be safe here. He pulled on a pair of neatly pressed jeans, a long sleeved shirt and spit polished black cowboy boots. All his worldly possessions were in a big cardboard box. Ramey traveled light…no strings. Tossing his jean jacket over his shoulder he headed for the bars. He ducked into a little Cantina on the main drag, sat at the bar and nursed a beer. The clientele was young, mostly Mexican, the girls were pretty, dark haired, dark skinned and with dates. Mexican girls were short for the most part with thick waists and dark hair and eyes. They had Indian features, pretty, but not ‘done’ like the movie types he had been watching earlier. The bartender worked the other end of the bar where three pretty girls kept him occupied. They all ignored him. He finished his beer and hit the next place. The décor was glitzy modern; he quickly realized it was a gay bar. The bartender was Tony from the gym, he decided to have one beer and talk to him. “Hi, cowboy, what’ll it be?” “Bud light, thanks.” Tony served his beer in a tall frosted glass. “Where are you from, partner?” “Seattle, I‘d been living in Yosemite for three years before that. I thought I‘d check out the Southern part of the State and enjoy the weather California’s famous for.” “Winter is Heaven, summer is Hell. The temperatures can spike to 115 degrees.” “Death Valley isn’t too far away, I noticed.” “Climate in the desert is occasionally extreme. It can be eighty in the day and fifty at night. You learn quickly to always have a jacket in your car.” “Do you stay here year round?” “Sure do, just the locals and the rattlesnakes. We like the summer. It’s quiet and we have the place to ourselves for a few months. Eight months of tourists can be hectic, it’s nice to easily get into restaurants and it’s only a thirty minute drive up the mountain to Idyllwild to cool off. The Palm Springs tram is a great way to get up to the mountains fast and it’s always gorgeous up there. If you like the outdoors there are hiking trails galore and moon walks with breathtaking views. It’s awesome in the winter if you like snow.” “Idyllwild, I’ve heard of it, what’s it like?” “Twenty degrees cooler than here, freezing in winter, snow, ice the whole deal. It’s an artist colony and a vacation destination, lots of cabins and big trees, really picturesque and worth seeing for sure.” “How cold does it get here at night this time of year?” “Night temperatures hover around fifty or so here on the valley floor but it can drop to the forties. The days warm up to awesome, three hundred fifty five days of sunshine! Northern California is beautiful, what did you do in Yosemite?” Ramey smiled and slipped into his Midwestern drawl, “I was a park guide, I graduated from Humboldt State, got a degree in Forestry. I like the outdoors.”