I called the number anyway. It went to automatic voicemail.

I found the number for the World Health Organization and dialed. Gina may no longer work for them, but they would still know the exact location of Tibióno.

Again, no answer.

I did notice that the headquarters for the WHO was in Geneva, which by happenstance, wasn’t all that far away. Five and a half hours by car. I was considering the idea of driving there, when I heard a loud crash.

Clark!

I’d left him unattended for going on twenty minutes. I jumped out of the chair and ran into the kitchen. There was dog food all over the floor, and both Clark and Baxter were shoveling it into their mouths.

I scooped Clark up and pulled the remaining pieces of dog food from his mouth. “No,” I said. “This isn’t for you.”

I placed him in his crib, then went back into the kitchen. Baxter was asleep with his mouth full of kibble. I carried him to the sink, turned him upside down, and shook the kibble out. I quickly cleaned up the remaining mess, then went back to check on Clark, who, of course, was MIA. I found him a minute later hiding under the bed in Lacy and Caleb’s room and, somehow, diaperless.

I sighed. “Dude, I can’t deal with this right now.”

I cajoled the naked fugitive out from under the bed, then picked him up. I found my phone and dialed Lacy.

Like anytime I called her at work, she answered, “Is Clark okay?”

“He’s fine,” I assured her. Then I told her about Gina. Of all my girlfriends, Gina was by far my sister’s favorite, and though Lacy was the toughest person I knew, I could hear the strain in her voice as she said, “I’ll be home in five minutes.”

It took those five minutes to get Clark into a fresh diaper and a T-shirt and to brush his teeth, so his mom wouldn’t know I had let him get into the dog food.

Lacy walked into the bathroom and glared at us. With her hands on her hips, she asked, “What did he eat this time?”

“Um, just a little dog food.”

Lacy laughed, then took Clark and said, “Did you eat some dog food?”

He nodded and smiled.

She gave him a few kisses, then turned her attention to me. “Now let’s figure out how to get you to South America.”

≈

I’d been scouring the internet for the last hour, trying to figure out how to get into Bolivia. Lacy was doing the same on her phone. Some countries in South America don’t require a travel visa for American citizens, but Bolivia was not one of these.

Lacy said, “This company says they can get you a rush visa in three days.”

“What company?”

“Swift Passport Services.”