TTSOML #101: Bujanda Introduces Me To His Boss

When Bujanda got back from San Diego, he called me again and said he wanted me to go out with him, and he wanted me to meet his boss. He asked if I had a friend I wanted to bring with me but I didn't. He said okay then, and I agreed to meet him and his boss (who the FBI tried to tell me later, was never his "boss"), Armando Garza.

I wondered about the name Garza because I had written to a Supreme Court judge by the last name of Garza, and had talked to him over the phone, about the unethical process from the Abbey and the judges. So I wondered if he was any relation to a judge who was also a "Garza".

At any rate, I wondered why it was important for me to meet the boss. I met them for drinks at Berbattis, in Portland, Oregon.

Oh wait, I met Bujanda for coffee, alone, on my own first. Before I met the "boss".

I remember it was very strange, this meeting. I met Bujanda at the Starbucks near Terwilliger, sort of by Tigard, next to a shopping mall area. As I was approaching, I saw Bujanda looking at me. He was talking on his cell phone and when he saw me, he got this look of disgust on his face. It was sort of like he hadn't seen me see him though. He kept talking on his phone and only altered his expression a little when I sat down. It was like he didn't want to be having coffee with me at all. It was very odd. I tried to brush it off and make small talk. Bujanda asked if I had any tattoos. I said, "What? identifying characteristics? no." He smirked and I asked if he'd asked because there was a magazine out, in the cafe, with tattoos on the front page. He said no, that he'd thought of it because most of the people he worked with had tattoos. The women, he said, all had tattoos.

Then he asked general questions and I had to go. He walked me to my car and I was going to give him a hug but he gave me a kiss instead. Still, he seemed very distant, like his heart wasn't in it and he was just doing the rote thing.

So the next time I saw him in person was when I met him and his "boss" at Berbattis.

They asked what I'd be wearing and I said a yellow shirt. They seemed very interested in the yellow. I talked to Garza over the phone after talking to Bujanda. Garza was chattier so we struck up more of a conversation but I still liked Bujanda for whatever reason, even though he didn't say as much. He said his friends told him he only spoke in movie quotes. I remember he told me, or I found out on my own, Bujanda was left handed. We talked about how this affected his holding a gun and everything.

(to be continued tomorrow)