As it turned out, Aguascalientes was a happening town.
Tyler was extremely surprised.
Its population was around half of his own small town, and yet it seemed like there was always something going on, a fiesta or a cultural event, hanging out at cafés in the little squares, and the kids running free range throughout the parks and just about everywhere.
He thought about his days at the gas station, or when he walked past the park at home. Everything empty, like a ghost town, despite the fact that he knew people were there, because of how many of them ended up tattling on their neighbors for letting a kid play in their own yard unsupervised, or that the bins were in the wrong place, or something like that. Otherwise, he hardly ever saw a human soul outside.
Whereas this place, although probably more dangerous on the whole, was alive with life and light.
But the very best part were the hot springs, from which the town got its name.
The river water itself was warm, and an absolute delight.
Paco had, for the time being, disappeared to look for 'the Professor', so Tyler had some time on his hands.
He wished that he had access to more stuff, but even if he'd been able to bring any of the tech along with him, it wasn't like it would work. Apparently, time travel didn't work the same for him as it did for Doctor Who, and he had the somewhat amusing thought that the Doctor was some kind of very privileged and wealthy time traveler with all that gear and those gadgets.
Still, he figured that human beings throughout time had figured out ways to entertain themselves even in stressful circumstances, so he decided to do something everybody had done for a long time: 'take the waters'.
He had read it described that way in some old book or other, and besides, he hadn't had much opportunity to see the world and all that was in it. Time to find out what everywhere else had to offer.
"This is for you, Trixie," he said aloud, and took a first hesitant step in.
It was glorious. Like an all-natural bathtub, but in the jungle, which made him think of all those many daydreams he'd had in the depths of winter when he had very few customers and he was freezing his ass off going out to restock the firewood they kept in the front, or deal with anything outside of the convenience store. His daydream had often consisted of the warmth of a humid jungle, a clear blue pool, and a waterfall. Sometimes, a hot girl joined him, and the usual happened after that, of course. But for the most part, it had been a fantasy of him alone on an adventure. It was much safer solo, too, when a customer arrived to surprise him, than if he'd been thinking about the other version of it.
But the hot springs of Aguascalientes matched the solo daydream very well, he thought, as he submerged himself and started swimming. There were a few other people around of various ages, some were clearly parents with their kids, some were old and sitting together on the rocks, laughing. There was a sort of natural set of pools leading to waterfalls on the rocks, and the kids were shrieking with laughter as the pool would spin them around into the little waterfall and plunge them into the pool below.
Tyler thought of his relatively tame upbringing, where even riding bikes around the neighborhood had been looked at with some suspicion, although he had been told that in the past, that was totally normal kid behavior. So he looked at these kids with all their freedoms and honestly felt a little jealous.
"Excuse me," said a soft voice near his elbow, nearly scaring him half to death. "Are you Professor Joseph Mulcahy?"
Tyler half-turned in the water to see the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on in his entire life, and that included movies or online.
"Uh?" said Tyler intelligently, almost telling her his real name in the moment of shock.
She had enormous bright-gray eyes in a heart-shaped face, and long, wavy hair. Her breasts were large, round, and firm, which he only knew because it was not strange to go swimming topless here and so of course she was. Her lips were very full, and she had the kind of set to her eyebrows and eyes that was a little turned down, making her look extremely exotic.
"Yes, I'm - I'm Joe Mulcahy," said Tyler finally, once he got his tongue unstuck from the roof of his mouth. "How can I help you?"
He cringed inwardly with his usual convenience-store greeting.
She smiled, and it was like the sun came out all over again.
"My name is Serena," she said, and he noticed she had softly-accented English, although it was definitely not exactly local. "I am told that you are searching for the Lost Continent of Mu."
"More or less," he said, and then wondered if professional archaeologists said things like that, they were probably more confident. He reached for the kind of officious tone that he'd heard from some teachers at school. "Technically it could probably have a different name, but it has been called a variety of things throughout time, Lemuria, Mu, others, and it's entirely possible the one we are looking for is a different place entirely."
She gave him a look of newly-acquired respect, and nodded.
"I'm glad to hear you say that," she told him. "Many in our line of work are not exactly openminded. In any way."
Our line of -
"Are you an archaeologist?" he asked, his fascination now going to utter crush territory.
"Yes," she said, and did not elaborate further.
"Are you looking for the Lost Continent?" demanded Tyler, as if this was something that belonged to him and Paco and maybe the Professor, although he had no idea who that might be.
And then her smile turned devious, and oh shit was he screwed.
"Let the best man win," she said.
She swam back to shore then, without saying goodbye.
"Is that all you were going to tell me?" shouted Tyler after her retreating figure, smarting from the fact that she had apparently come all this way just to needle him about the fact that he wasn't the only guy gunning for the prize, and also for leaving him there confused and horny.
Not that she was at fault there, he did it on his own for the most part, he figured -
and then she stepped out of the water, beautiful ass on display, wearing nothing but a very thin white bikini bottom, her body thin and toned, as the steam rose up from the river. She turned then, giving him a real good look at the goods, and he decided that while his initial response was most likely on him, this was intentional, and it was all on her.
And wow, what was on her!
Tyler was completely dumbfounded, and it was also clear that's what she'd been going for the entire time.
"That's not very professional for an archaeologist!" he shouted.
She laughed, and scooped up her clothes - giving him yet another good, long eyeful at the goods - and waved at him over her shoulder.
"See you around, Joe," she called. "Word to the wise - watch out for the piranhas."
Tyler froze.
"Piranhas?" he asked, and she laughed again, which just pissed him off, let's be real here.
Tyler treaded water for a while, and looked down at himself, his body completely betraying him.
"Damn it!" he said, and decided he should extend his swim for a little while, snakes or not.
Completely out of sorts with his head and heart and body all over the place, Tyler made his way back to the cantina. He was thrilled to find Paco already sitting there, and with him, an old man with a beard wearing a white suit and a Panama hat. The kind of guy who thinks he's on an adventure but he's too old and rich to realize that everybody's catering to him anyway because he is so obviously both old and rich.
"Ah! Here is Joe," said Paco, waving him over, and giving him a surreptitious wink. "The Professor and I were just discussing the new discovery."
Tyler sat down at the table and said:
"You might want to hide that. There are other people here looking for the lost continent, too," he said. "Keeping it out in the open might not be wise."
"Is that so?" asked The Professor, who had a Scottish accent. "The usual amateurs, I assume? What do they know about it?"
"I just ran into Serena - "
Both Paco and The Professor recoiled.
"Serena is here?!" they both demanded, so loudly that if they had hoped to preserve any kind of incognito, it was completely shattered.
"Excuse me, I must send a telegram at once," said The Professor, and nearly knocked over his chair in his hurry to get away.
Tyler gave Paco a surprised and questioning look.
"Doctor Serena Firesinger," said Paco. "She's Joe's worst enemy. They've never met, but they hate each other."
"Has he seen her?" asked Tyler, before he could stop himself.
Paco gave him a hard look.
"Don't be thinking with the wrong head, Tyler," he said. "I have heard she is beautiful. But I also know she will double-cross even her own grandmother to succeed. She is completely devoid of integrity, honor, even morals. Step with caution here. Don't make me regret not maiming you when I had the chance."
"I'm sure you'll have plenty more chances," said Tyler, sternly telling his hopeful heart to back down already, despite the panoply of half-visions it was trying to assert over his mind, all of which were not the kinds of things he wanted to be thinking about while sitting in the cantina talking with Paco.
It was likely a lost cause, but he could keep his head in the game.
He owed it to Joe, after all.