Lake Lili
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Thanks for this one, too. Checking to see if you added any more (and to start the "you made me look" round).
She'll be back when she and family are recoved from the flu...
Story Emi on the Caloosahatchee
- Thread starter Kathy in FL
- Start date
She'll be back when she and family are recoved from the flu...
Chapter 23
There was a mosquito dive bombing her ear. Emi knew she needed to wake up and kill it or she’d wind up with whelps all over her face. But it was a struggle she didn’t win, at least not then.
After some time had passed, Emi wasn’t sure how long as she never quite made it to full consciousness, she heard a quiet curse and she shuddered when a cool cloth was laid across her forehead.
“Dad? Is …is she sick?”
“She needs fluids. Go tell Benji …”
Emi finally managed to croak out, “I ain’t seeing no doc and that’s final.”
There was a moment of silence in the room then Nate told Bastian, “Help Benji pour those buckets of water into that tub in Arden’s old rooms then you two scram and finish your chores.”
Emi heard feet thunder down the stairs and then almost choked as something was spooned into her mouth. “Easy Emi. It is just some water with a little lemon in it.”
“Scurvy?”
“I don’t think so, your teeth are surprisingly good – smart girl – but you’ve either got anemia or the closest thing to it so we’ll play this on the careful side. Will you eat greens?”
Emi was finally able to crack one eye open which she glared at him with. “Do I look stupido? You get what you get and don’t make noise about it unless you want somebody bigger and faster to take it away. ‘Sides, I survived mostly on greens before they showed that cooking killed the DV in most animals.”
“Whoa there,” Nate told her as she tried to get up. “Let me do the work for now. The way you look you’ll wind up on your head instead of your feet.”
Surprisingly Emi found that she was too weak to fight and couldn’t find a bone to care with that Nate was seeing her naked … again. She’d picked her fate, now she’d just have to see where it led … to life or death.
After wrapping her in a sheet Nate carried her down a once ornate staircase, through a living space empty of all furniture, and then toward the back of the house. As he did so she noticed that the light was completely wrong and her sense of time was thrown further out of whack than it already was. “How long was I out?”
“Little over a day. You were starting to worry me. Don’t like worrying Chica.”
Emi sighed. “Dad used to say the same thing. He didn’t like worrying either. Always setting some watcher over me. Now look, I’m the only one left and that’s probably my fault as well.”
Nate knew that Emi wasn’t intentionally pulling at his heart strings, that it was a symptom of just how weak she was, and that worried him further as he knew from short acquaintance that she wasn’t the type to reveal too much. “There are a lot of us that are the only one left. Lost all of my bio family in second and third waves except for my sister and would have lost her if not for Kiko. Lost my marriage and nearly lost my kids in the aftermath.”
“Still have your in-laws.”
“Ex in-laws. And I don’t have them so much as I can’t get rid of the damn leeches.”
“Because of the kids.”
“That and they’ve gotten used to what they could get from me. But I ain’t salvaging for a while. Got more than I can take care of by myself now. If people knew what I had in the outbuildings around here there’d be trouble.”
She shuddered as he lowered her into the lukewarm water but tried to cover it by observing, “Looks like you’ve already had trouble from what I remember of the stucco.”
“Before my time. The place had been taken over by smugglers for a while, or so the story goes. Most of the bad ones have been cleaned out.”
“Except around Denaud.”
“Caught that did you?”
“Er … you …you don’t have to do that,” she said uncomfortable as he began unbraiding her hair.”
“Nope but I wanna see how long it is.”
“Why?”
“Just ‘cause.”
Emi sighed. “That’s the same answer my father gave every time I asked to cut my hair and he said no and I then asked why.”
“More I hear about your father the more he sounds like a man of good sense.”
“Well he was full of machismo that’s for sure. I didn’t know what it was back then but he and Momma …” Emi’s smile faded and she looked away.
“My parents had a good marriage too. Guess we were both lucky that way. Sets a goal.”
Emi turned back to look at him both confused and cautious but didn’t say anything negative. Nate considered that a good enough start. He’d tell her some other time that he was the youngest of twelve, his oldest sibling had been just over twenty-five years his senior.
Nate went from unbraiding her hair to washing it. Emi knew she should say something to stop him but instead almost dozed again. When he started washing her other places she finally found some dignity. “I can do that.”
“Maybe.”
“Then let me … or let me try … however you want to look at it.”
“Aw, you’re no fun.”
Emi gave him the look the comment deserved. “If you wanted fun you should have picked one of the other girls.”
“Didn’t want one of the other girls. Buncha feather headed idiots. The lot of them must have had protectors before or none of them would have lived, at least not around here.”
Emi shrugged as she took the natural sponge from Nate, grateful he was backing off a bit. “Didn’t get to know them much but Barb said a couple of them were salvageable whatever that means.”
“Not our problem anymore.”
Emi shrugged again and tried to turn so that Nate didn’t get quite the eye full that he was obviously hoping for. This time he said and repeated, “Aw … you’re no fun.”
They were both quiet after that, both of them intent on their own thoughts. Finally Emi said, “I need some clothes.”
“No you don’t. You’re going back upstairs, I’m going to redress your arm, then you’re going back to bed. I don’t even have to change the sheets, you didn’t sweat them out.”
“Bossy,” Emi muttered but there was no heat in it which told Nate she at least had enough sense to know when a fight would garner her something and when it wouldn’t. For her part, after having lived in a male dominated society her whole life, she simply recognized there were times it was just smarter to let them have their way regardless of the subject.
Soon all was accomplished and Emi was ensconced in the large bed once again. She had expected Nate to take off but instead he pulled up a chair. “What?” she asked. “I don’t need watching. Do you think I’m going to get up and wander around in your business?”
“No. And don’t start fighting at this late date. Even if you were able to get up and ‘wander around in my business’ that’s a right I gave you when I gave you my name.”
Unsure what to make of that Emi just looked at Nate wondering what his game was. Nate could see the distrust beginning to build and he sighed. “Emi I know this is going to take some time but don’t do the one step forward, three steps back routine. I had to deal with that with Gina and it got old real fast.”
“Look Gringo ...” Then Emi stopped and shook her head and tried to pull back on what for her felt like out of control emotions. “I don’t even know what to say to you. If you ain’t watching me to keep me out of your business then what is going on?”
Seeing she was trying Nate relaxed a little and said, “I’m not watching you Emi, I’m watching over you. There’s a difference.” He could see that Emi was trying to figure out what he meant but he decided to show her so she’d see he was serious about their deal. “Now, don’t take this the wrong way ‘cause your current state of undress makes me pretty happy, but you need some clothes.”
“I have clothes if you’ll …”
“You’ve got a few things true. Kiko knows his salvage.”
“Kiko is a pain in the butt and didn’t salvage nothing for me if that’s what you’re thinking. He … well he might have but the gang lost everything.” She explained the incident during the fire in more detail than he’d heard it to that point.
“Then where did your stuff come from?”
“Picked it up different places. Most came from the militia camp. Guy who dug the shrapnel out of my back …”
“What?!”
“Ow Gringo, not so loud. My head feels like it is going to fall off and all your noise …”
“Here, drink some more of this. You’re still dehydrated. And then tell me why some guy was digging shrapnel out of your back.”
She did, ignoring that it was an order rather than a request, and explained how she’d been captured by a border patrol group when some of the people she was traveling with fell for a baited trap. “The pack I was carrying at the time took most of the blow but during the explosion a strap gave way and … you know how things go. The group’s medic triaged most of the injured but me he figured would live with only a little attention. Makes me think they weren’t the ones that baited the trap.”
“Hmmm.”
“My clothes were pretty much trashed and he let me get a few things out of storage to keep the other men from …getting ideas. Went into the holding pens for a while and got what else I needed there.”
“Black market?”
“Nope. To the victor goes the spoils. And get that look off your face. Women can be worse than men when they get all bunched together in too small a space for too long.” Emi smiled grimly when that sunk in and Nate gave a theatrical shudder. “Exactly though you are trying to joke about it. Some of the stuff in my pack I salvaged when Kiko would give me more than two inches of leash. Boots I took off a dead guy. Those I wouldn’t mind getting shed of and if you have some old leather or something like that around I can …”
“I can get you boots,” Nate said in a growl.
“Why waste the money? Trade these and …”
“I said I can get you boots.”
Emi saw that something was bothering Nate and she tried to puzzle it out. “Gringo? You mad ‘cause you think I’m gonna cost you money? ‘Cause I don’t have to. I know how to make do.”
“No, I’m not …” He cursed which only confused her more.
“I ain’t gonna take nothing you need for your kids.”
“That’s … that’s …dammit, do you take me for a poor man?! I can get you boots without breaking the bank.”
“Huh? My head must be hurting worse than even I know. ‘Cause you know, I ain’t getting this. Why you so mad?”
“And stop talking like you haven’t got any education. If you went to the school that Patricia taught at you …” Nate winced.
Emi snorted. “That school was so not special. My grandparents sent me there ‘cause I got into too much trouble in the public school where my brothers went when my oldest brother moved over to the high school. The teachers kept trying to say I had ADD and needed medication even though none of the tests they gave me said it. So Momma thought there’d be less temptation to misbehave at a different school.” Emi couldn’t stop the laugh that gurgled up from her past, surprising both herself and Nate. “My dad knew it wouldn’t work but decided to let my mom and both sets of grandparents give it a try when they presented the plan to him. I heard him and mom talking about it. I can still hear him say, ‘All girls’ school? All of ‘em running around with hormones in the on position? No outlet for it ‘cause they aren’t even allowed to play sports? Yeah, that’s gonna work for our Noemi. You better find her something to keep her busy when she gets home or she’s gonna drive us all crazy just like Twila did my parents when they tried it with her.’ ”
“Who’s Twila?”
“My dad’s older sister. The one that rode me worse than anyone else in the family. She said it is because she’d been there and barely lived to tell the tale … or something like that.” Emi’s smile faded once again. “Why am I telling you this? Any of it? It don’t matter no more if it even mattered then. Stop making me talk to you. You ain’t my Confessor.”
Having lost his anger as fast as it had come over him Nate told her, “I’m not making you. It might just be time. You bleed off some of whatever you’ve been carrying around and it leaves more space for you to walk this new path. And yes, that’s partly from my Seminary days so get rid of the face you’re giving me; but since I’ve experienced it myself in my own life I know it can be true.”
Emi shrugged and there was no more talking and Nate backed off so she could go to sleep and escape the discomfort of her memories.
There was a mosquito dive bombing her ear. Emi knew she needed to wake up and kill it or she’d wind up with whelps all over her face. But it was a struggle she didn’t win, at least not then.
After some time had passed, Emi wasn’t sure how long as she never quite made it to full consciousness, she heard a quiet curse and she shuddered when a cool cloth was laid across her forehead.
“Dad? Is …is she sick?”
“She needs fluids. Go tell Benji …”
Emi finally managed to croak out, “I ain’t seeing no doc and that’s final.”
There was a moment of silence in the room then Nate told Bastian, “Help Benji pour those buckets of water into that tub in Arden’s old rooms then you two scram and finish your chores.”
Emi heard feet thunder down the stairs and then almost choked as something was spooned into her mouth. “Easy Emi. It is just some water with a little lemon in it.”
“Scurvy?”
“I don’t think so, your teeth are surprisingly good – smart girl – but you’ve either got anemia or the closest thing to it so we’ll play this on the careful side. Will you eat greens?”
Emi was finally able to crack one eye open which she glared at him with. “Do I look stupido? You get what you get and don’t make noise about it unless you want somebody bigger and faster to take it away. ‘Sides, I survived mostly on greens before they showed that cooking killed the DV in most animals.”
“Whoa there,” Nate told her as she tried to get up. “Let me do the work for now. The way you look you’ll wind up on your head instead of your feet.”
Surprisingly Emi found that she was too weak to fight and couldn’t find a bone to care with that Nate was seeing her naked … again. She’d picked her fate, now she’d just have to see where it led … to life or death.
After wrapping her in a sheet Nate carried her down a once ornate staircase, through a living space empty of all furniture, and then toward the back of the house. As he did so she noticed that the light was completely wrong and her sense of time was thrown further out of whack than it already was. “How long was I out?”
“Little over a day. You were starting to worry me. Don’t like worrying Chica.”
Emi sighed. “Dad used to say the same thing. He didn’t like worrying either. Always setting some watcher over me. Now look, I’m the only one left and that’s probably my fault as well.”
Nate knew that Emi wasn’t intentionally pulling at his heart strings, that it was a symptom of just how weak she was, and that worried him further as he knew from short acquaintance that she wasn’t the type to reveal too much. “There are a lot of us that are the only one left. Lost all of my bio family in second and third waves except for my sister and would have lost her if not for Kiko. Lost my marriage and nearly lost my kids in the aftermath.”
“Still have your in-laws.”
“Ex in-laws. And I don’t have them so much as I can’t get rid of the damn leeches.”
“Because of the kids.”
“That and they’ve gotten used to what they could get from me. But I ain’t salvaging for a while. Got more than I can take care of by myself now. If people knew what I had in the outbuildings around here there’d be trouble.”
She shuddered as he lowered her into the lukewarm water but tried to cover it by observing, “Looks like you’ve already had trouble from what I remember of the stucco.”
“Before my time. The place had been taken over by smugglers for a while, or so the story goes. Most of the bad ones have been cleaned out.”
“Except around Denaud.”
“Caught that did you?”
“Er … you …you don’t have to do that,” she said uncomfortable as he began unbraiding her hair.”
“Nope but I wanna see how long it is.”
“Why?”
“Just ‘cause.”
Emi sighed. “That’s the same answer my father gave every time I asked to cut my hair and he said no and I then asked why.”
“More I hear about your father the more he sounds like a man of good sense.”
“Well he was full of machismo that’s for sure. I didn’t know what it was back then but he and Momma …” Emi’s smile faded and she looked away.
“My parents had a good marriage too. Guess we were both lucky that way. Sets a goal.”
Emi turned back to look at him both confused and cautious but didn’t say anything negative. Nate considered that a good enough start. He’d tell her some other time that he was the youngest of twelve, his oldest sibling had been just over twenty-five years his senior.
Nate went from unbraiding her hair to washing it. Emi knew she should say something to stop him but instead almost dozed again. When he started washing her other places she finally found some dignity. “I can do that.”
“Maybe.”
“Then let me … or let me try … however you want to look at it.”
“Aw, you’re no fun.”
Emi gave him the look the comment deserved. “If you wanted fun you should have picked one of the other girls.”
“Didn’t want one of the other girls. Buncha feather headed idiots. The lot of them must have had protectors before or none of them would have lived, at least not around here.”
Emi shrugged as she took the natural sponge from Nate, grateful he was backing off a bit. “Didn’t get to know them much but Barb said a couple of them were salvageable whatever that means.”
“Not our problem anymore.”
Emi shrugged again and tried to turn so that Nate didn’t get quite the eye full that he was obviously hoping for. This time he said and repeated, “Aw … you’re no fun.”
They were both quiet after that, both of them intent on their own thoughts. Finally Emi said, “I need some clothes.”
“No you don’t. You’re going back upstairs, I’m going to redress your arm, then you’re going back to bed. I don’t even have to change the sheets, you didn’t sweat them out.”
“Bossy,” Emi muttered but there was no heat in it which told Nate she at least had enough sense to know when a fight would garner her something and when it wouldn’t. For her part, after having lived in a male dominated society her whole life, she simply recognized there were times it was just smarter to let them have their way regardless of the subject.
Soon all was accomplished and Emi was ensconced in the large bed once again. She had expected Nate to take off but instead he pulled up a chair. “What?” she asked. “I don’t need watching. Do you think I’m going to get up and wander around in your business?”
“No. And don’t start fighting at this late date. Even if you were able to get up and ‘wander around in my business’ that’s a right I gave you when I gave you my name.”
Unsure what to make of that Emi just looked at Nate wondering what his game was. Nate could see the distrust beginning to build and he sighed. “Emi I know this is going to take some time but don’t do the one step forward, three steps back routine. I had to deal with that with Gina and it got old real fast.”
“Look Gringo ...” Then Emi stopped and shook her head and tried to pull back on what for her felt like out of control emotions. “I don’t even know what to say to you. If you ain’t watching me to keep me out of your business then what is going on?”
Seeing she was trying Nate relaxed a little and said, “I’m not watching you Emi, I’m watching over you. There’s a difference.” He could see that Emi was trying to figure out what he meant but he decided to show her so she’d see he was serious about their deal. “Now, don’t take this the wrong way ‘cause your current state of undress makes me pretty happy, but you need some clothes.”
“I have clothes if you’ll …”
“You’ve got a few things true. Kiko knows his salvage.”
“Kiko is a pain in the butt and didn’t salvage nothing for me if that’s what you’re thinking. He … well he might have but the gang lost everything.” She explained the incident during the fire in more detail than he’d heard it to that point.
“Then where did your stuff come from?”
“Picked it up different places. Most came from the militia camp. Guy who dug the shrapnel out of my back …”
“What?!”
“Ow Gringo, not so loud. My head feels like it is going to fall off and all your noise …”
“Here, drink some more of this. You’re still dehydrated. And then tell me why some guy was digging shrapnel out of your back.”
She did, ignoring that it was an order rather than a request, and explained how she’d been captured by a border patrol group when some of the people she was traveling with fell for a baited trap. “The pack I was carrying at the time took most of the blow but during the explosion a strap gave way and … you know how things go. The group’s medic triaged most of the injured but me he figured would live with only a little attention. Makes me think they weren’t the ones that baited the trap.”
“Hmmm.”
“My clothes were pretty much trashed and he let me get a few things out of storage to keep the other men from …getting ideas. Went into the holding pens for a while and got what else I needed there.”
“Black market?”
“Nope. To the victor goes the spoils. And get that look off your face. Women can be worse than men when they get all bunched together in too small a space for too long.” Emi smiled grimly when that sunk in and Nate gave a theatrical shudder. “Exactly though you are trying to joke about it. Some of the stuff in my pack I salvaged when Kiko would give me more than two inches of leash. Boots I took off a dead guy. Those I wouldn’t mind getting shed of and if you have some old leather or something like that around I can …”
“I can get you boots,” Nate said in a growl.
“Why waste the money? Trade these and …”
“I said I can get you boots.”
Emi saw that something was bothering Nate and she tried to puzzle it out. “Gringo? You mad ‘cause you think I’m gonna cost you money? ‘Cause I don’t have to. I know how to make do.”
“No, I’m not …” He cursed which only confused her more.
“I ain’t gonna take nothing you need for your kids.”
“That’s … that’s …dammit, do you take me for a poor man?! I can get you boots without breaking the bank.”
“Huh? My head must be hurting worse than even I know. ‘Cause you know, I ain’t getting this. Why you so mad?”
“And stop talking like you haven’t got any education. If you went to the school that Patricia taught at you …” Nate winced.
Emi snorted. “That school was so not special. My grandparents sent me there ‘cause I got into too much trouble in the public school where my brothers went when my oldest brother moved over to the high school. The teachers kept trying to say I had ADD and needed medication even though none of the tests they gave me said it. So Momma thought there’d be less temptation to misbehave at a different school.” Emi couldn’t stop the laugh that gurgled up from her past, surprising both herself and Nate. “My dad knew it wouldn’t work but decided to let my mom and both sets of grandparents give it a try when they presented the plan to him. I heard him and mom talking about it. I can still hear him say, ‘All girls’ school? All of ‘em running around with hormones in the on position? No outlet for it ‘cause they aren’t even allowed to play sports? Yeah, that’s gonna work for our Noemi. You better find her something to keep her busy when she gets home or she’s gonna drive us all crazy just like Twila did my parents when they tried it with her.’ ”
“Who’s Twila?”
“My dad’s older sister. The one that rode me worse than anyone else in the family. She said it is because she’d been there and barely lived to tell the tale … or something like that.” Emi’s smile faded once again. “Why am I telling you this? Any of it? It don’t matter no more if it even mattered then. Stop making me talk to you. You ain’t my Confessor.”
Having lost his anger as fast as it had come over him Nate told her, “I’m not making you. It might just be time. You bleed off some of whatever you’ve been carrying around and it leaves more space for you to walk this new path. And yes, that’s partly from my Seminary days so get rid of the face you’re giving me; but since I’ve experienced it myself in my own life I know it can be true.”
Emi shrugged and there was no more talking and Nate backed off so she could go to sleep and escape the discomfort of her memories.
Chapter 24
Emi was desperate and desperately embarrassed but didn’t have a choice. “Gringo. Uh … Nate.”
Nate woke up instantly. “You hurting?”
“Sorta. Uh … where’s the … the bano? The bathroom?” She heard him getting up and snapped, “I don’t need …”
“Even if you can get down the stairs without falling you’ll probably have problems getting back up.”
He did let her try but her legs were so shaky that she gave in before he had to force the issue. Embarrassed Emi snarled, “This is ridiculoso. What’s wrong with me?!”
“At a guess? Your brain knows you are at a safe stopping point even if your consciousness doesn’t. Your body has taken a lot of abuse. It is a wonder you haven’t been bad sick before this.”
Denying his explanation she snapped, “I’m not sick.”
“No, but you will be if you don’t let yourself heal up. It … look Emi, take it however you want to but as a man it makes me … makes me … look, I like that you know you are safe here, even if it is just subconsciously right now. Don’t let it bother you ‘cause it doesn’t bother me.”
Real life having been taken care of Emi came out of what used to be the downstairs half bath obviously impressed. “You know how long it’s been since I’ve used real indoor plumbing? Since the airport.”
“Airport?”
“When they shipped me out of the country like a piece of rancid meat. My mother’s cousins didn’t have it. The ships I worked on don’t count. And … well … there hasn’t been anything since then. I think you are kidding. You gotta be a Don or something important like that.”
“What I’ve got is an artesian well out in the grove. That’s why it smells like the bowels of hell in there,” he said referring to the heavily sulfured odor of the water. “We try and aerate the water some before it goes into the cistern but it doesn’t help much. You ready to go back up?”
“Sure. Look … about … about before. I’m … I’m no so good … not so good I mean … about … about apologizing … but …” She shook her head. “I … I guess I made you mad about something. What I’m trying to say is I didn’t mean to and I’m … I’m sorry that I did.”
“Don’t Emi. I got mad for a stupid reason. Just next time if I say I can afford to get something for you don’t make out like I can’t.”
Shaking her head Emi told him, “I wasn’t thinking that. I just … look … I remember my parents talking about how expensive kids were and I also remember what it was like when my dad was first starting his courier business. Momma told me it was our job – hers and mine – to make things easier on dad and my brothers because that was part of a woman’s suerta en la vida. I ain’t ever gonna be the mujer my momma was but … but since I made a deal to be your mujer it is my job to …”
Nate laid Emi gently back on the bed and pulled a sheet up to cover her with. He saw she was struggling to keep her eyes open and they were suspiciously damp. “Shhhh. You and I have some things to work on but this time the working needs to be on my side. I’m not angry and you need to rest.”
While Emi went immediately to sleep, it took Nate a while longer. He wasn’t sure if this was an issue of age or innocence – though how she still hung onto any innocence after all she’d been through he had no idea – but he was sure that Emi wasn’t pushing his buttons on purpose, at least not on this. That said, he’d need to carefully guide her into understanding that the money issue was a sensitive one for him. Growing up he watched his father willingly nearly work himself to death to provide for his large family. He’d watched most of his older brothers do much the same thing but for some of them with less return as it were. He’d set out to do the same thing for Gina but she’d never been satisfied no matter how hard he’d worked or how much he’d brought in. She always made him feel if he could give her just a little more … but that was his hang up, not Emi’s, and he was man enough to own it. The fact that her grandparents had been wealthy people wasn’t her fault either and it appeared she wasn’t raised spoiled, or at least not financially spoiled. For some reason it made him even more determined to give her things but he was just as determined that she not know the reason for it. So thinking he finally relaxed and went to sleep for what remained of the night.
*****
Emi woke to the sound of squirrels fighting on the window sill. Or that’s what she thought it was until she woke up enough to remember that squirrels didn’t use English … or Spanish either for that matter.
“All that means is that you married a whore and I’m not having my children raised by a whore.”
“Don’t even go there Gina. And as for you Patricia I suggest you tell your men to back off or you might not like the consequences.”
That brought Emi the rest of the way awake. Faster than it would take to explain it she spied her clothes folded on top of the dresser and tugged them on and then grabbed her rifle where it stood in the corner with the rest of what little she called her own in this world. She checked to see it was properly loaded as she made her way down the stairs as quickly and quietly as she could manage. She made it to the kitchen just in time to see a man shuck a round into his shotgun and raise it to aim.
Emi was faster and better and the shotgun shattered in his hands. The man fell to the ground screaming and cradling the hand that she’d shot through.
Into the shocked silence she called, “Gringo? Is there trouble?”
“Yes there is.”
“Do you want me to shoot anyone else?”
With a shark’s bite to the words he answered, “The next one that moves without my express permission and I don’t care who it is.”
Emi looked around carefully and saw Kiko, furious as he stood in front of Dora who held a shrieking Darla with several other children all around her. Then she spied Bastian being held onto by a large hombre who looked like he would just as soon tear his arm off. Emi called, “Bastian? You like where you’re at?”
“No!”
“Then you move over by your Uncle Kiko. Si?”
The hombre didn’t want to let Bastian go until Emi put the laser from her scope right into his eye almost blinding him. He got the message and let the boy go but he gave her a feral grin that promised bad things. Emi had been promised bad things before and filed it away for future reference.
Gina and her mother started making the same noise the chickens make when they get their feathers ruffled but shut up when Emi took turns letting them know that she wasn’t above using the laser scope on them either and then when the big guy with the bad ideas tried to charge he got lead poisoning from several angles … hers took him in the throat, Nate’s got him in the chest, Kiko’s took him in the back, and a man running up from the river got him in the gut. The guy was dead before he hit the ground.
Gina started screaming louder than Darla. “Nauldo! Nauldo!!”
Emi saw movement out of the corner of her eye and took out two more men while a third was taken out by a man on the roof. That finished off those that had any ideas of being the bigger bad.
It took a while to sort things out to Nate’s satisfaction and while he did so Emi hustled Bastian and Dora and the little girl and other children into the house and would growl at anyone that came too close to the door where she leaned that she didn’t recognize. Once Bastian tried to come to stand beside her but she told him, “No hijo. Stay over there with your Aunt Dora and the others. If a shot comes in, I don’t want you to be a target.”
As things calmed Emi said, “I musta missed something big. Your crew and Nate’s ex showing up. Was it at the same time? Together?”
“It wasn’t together. Benji came by our place and asked if Angelique – that’s Kiko’s cousin by the way – would come give you a look over. And don’t growl like that, she’s the older woman out there dosing Gina so she’ll … er …”
“It’s ok Aunt Dora,” Bastian said sounding like a sad little old man when he realized his aunt stopped talking because of him. “I know she has problems. Aunt Arden explained it to me when Dad was still too sad about it. She’s got herself all worked up and now can’t stop even if she wanted to. Tia Angelique is helping her to stop before she makes herself sick and pukes like she normally does.”
Emi spared a glance at Dora to see her nod her head with a grim expression. Needing some answers that might not come if the children were in the room Emi said, “Bastian, why don’t you get your Aunt Dora and the kids something to drink?”
“Actually, let him take them to his room. It is just up the stairs and down the hall so they won’t be far.”
“Bastian the shutters closed?”
He answered her, “No, but we’ll close them when we get up there. I guess Aunt Dora wants to talk to you about … about her.”
After the little boys traipsed eagerly after Bastian and were out of earshot Dora sighed. “He can’t even call her momma anymore.”
As she kept an eye on what was going on in the yard Emi responded, “I’d noticed but wasn’t sure what to make of it.”
“This is only going to make it worse.”
“This as in what happened just now or this as in me?”
“Both if you turn out to be what’s best for Nate and the kids. You gonna turn out to be that?”
“No clue. For now, Nate wants me. Not sure how he’ll feel when he actually gets to know me.”
“Hmmm.”
Emi brushed a small wasp away from her face and told Dora, “I’m not looking to make trouble, don’t want it either. Nate and I have a deal and I’ll do my best to hold up my end … including stuff like just happened. But he’ll have to decide whether that is what he really wants long term. And Bastian … he’s a good kid and I don’t want to make it harder on him. But my job is to keep him and anyone else Nate tells me safe. Which brings us to that oversized hombre … that Nauldo … I take it he was the guy Gina was shacked up with?”
“Yeah. The others were men he’d picked out for Mrs. Rivera’s crew. She has a good-sized fishing operation that her husband started up after things fell apart and most started figuring out that we’d have to find food close to home or not at all. Her son runs most of it now but she still has majority control since her husband’s death last year. She was getting crowded by her competition and a few even tried to take out their headquarters. Nate can tell you the rest.”
“If the hombre was a smuggler and was getting too friendly with the family, it probably made their competitors nervous. Anyway, I still don’t get what Gina was doing here? She still upset about the kids?”
“My honest opinion?” At Emi’s guarded nod she said, “It was a cover, or Nauldo was using her as a cover and Mrs. Rivera as a distraction. Nauldo and his men were too interested in what Nate had brought in.”
“Loose lips … Nate expected it, or at least seemed to be expecting something.”
“Hmmm. You know you hold up that door any harder and you’re going to take the house out of square.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t play dumb. Your hands are pretty steady but I’ve seen your legs shaking when you unlock them to keep the circulation going. And don’t try and fool me, I’ve seen the same thing in Kiko and his men when they were on the ragged edge of nothing left to give.”
Emi didn’t have to respond because it was that moment that Nate stepped onto the veranda and guided her into the kitchen. “Where are the kids?”
“Darla is sleeping in some little bed thing Bastian pulled in here and he and all the little Kikos are upstairs in his room.”
After a moment of silence Nate asked, “Not gonna say anything about my pretty face?”
Seeing the bruising around his eye and his busted lip up close for the first time Emi said, “Not in front of your sister. Just tell me the cabron that did it is one of the ones I shot.”
Nate gave a twisted smile. “Nauldo.”
“Too bad we didn’t have no gators to feed him to a piece at a time … before he got lead poisoning. Is there law around here?”
“None that will make noise about Nauldo going to his Judgment Day. You step outside Ft. Myers city limits and the rule of law is very, very basic and Castle Law officially extends to your property boundary. On the water Maritime Law applies.”
“Good to know. Now what kinda mess can Mrs. Rivera make? As I remember she was really good at giving other people heart burn.”
Nate had gone over and poured all three of them cups of water, handing the first one to Dora and then looking at Emi until she consented to put the rifle down and drink hers. After that he answered her. “Patricia is in a bit of shock as the men in her crew that weren’t Nauldo’s men told her some uncomfortable facts including that a lot of people think the raid that wound up causing her husband’s fatal heart attack was set up by Nauldo, or his boss.”
“Do you think this boss is going to be sad that I made Nauldo meurto?”
“No. The boss was assassinated not too long after that raid and suddenly Nauldo is a bigger man than he should have been.”
Emi muttered her general opinion of men, stupid men, greedy men, and stupid, greedy men in particular in a long, low torrent of feisty Spanish. Both Dora and Nate whistled in appreciation with Nate teasing, “You’ll need to take that to Confession.”
Finally sliding into a chair that Nate practically shoved under her Emi said, “If I confess all my sins the priest will lose all his hair before I finish. It’s why I send them direct air mail to God … saves another sin of traumatizing a priest.”
A surprised giggle escaped from Dora which in turn made Nate smile like the cat that got the cream.
Emi heard the floor near the stairwell squeak and looked at Nate. He nodded and said a little more loudly than necessary, “Gina and her mother will be leaving shortly. If Bastian wants to say good bye to his grandmother, he can come down but I’d prefer he wave from the window.”
Emi looked slightly uncomfortable before suggesting, “Why don’t you … you let me speak to Mrs. Rivera.”
“Wait … why?”
“Gotta find some peace in this mess some place Gringo or neither one of us will have any quiet. I don’t like the woman for my own reasons but that don’t make her malo … bad. And she is your kids’ grandmother. My own grandmother – my mother’s mother – could be incredibly strict and I hated it but it wasn’t because she didn’t care for me, more like she cared so much she forgot to ask me what I wanted since she believed she knew best all the time. I don’t want to be the cause of Bastian having no heartache. I make peace with the old … er … with Mrs. Rivera or at least start it, it’ll make things easier for your kids in the long run.”
In some consternation Nate told her, “This type of thing wasn’t part of the deal Emi.”
Emi shrugged. “Eh, I look at it one way, you look at it another. Like I said, if I can keep my mouth shut around La Gran Bufalo that was my mother’s cousin’s wife then this should be a piece of pastel … cake I mean … piece of cake. Mrs. Rivera is a tough ol’ gator but she’s nothing compared to what I had to deal with in Honduras. At least let me try … for Bastian and Darla.”
Emi felt that Nate was going to say no but he was called away before he could voice it. Emi then looked at Dora who was no help. She decided that she was going to at least try her way and got up and walked out onto the porch.
Gina was being loaded into an older model car that looked – and smelled – like it had been converted to some kind of alternative fuel, possibly methane. Mrs. Rivera stood off to the side observing. She was pale and nervous but trying not to show it. Emi walked over to her but stopped several feet back giving both of them plenty of personal space to have the conversation.
Mrs. Rivera’s nose flared and her chin came up. “You aimed a gun at me.”
“Yes I did … ma’am. You were a threat. However, it has come out that Gina’s … uh … Gina’s … er … anyway he was the real threat. Nate explained how that Nauldo took advantage of you.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You are grieving for Dr. Rivera. You expected that Nauldo to … er … support the family, not abuse your trust. So …”
Emi wasn’t sure how to say what she had intended to say and Mrs. Rivera only stood there imperious as she ever had been. Finally, Emi just said it baldly even if it came out rudely. “So look, I figure everyone is out to make sure that Bastian and Darla get taken care of right. Nate has expectations. You have expectations. Gina … well, she’s not … hmmm … she’s not in a good place right now to be able to shoulder the responsibility of parenthood. And you have a boatload of responsibilities as well. Nate trusted Arden … well I’ve sorta come to fill Arden’s place … kinda like a housekeeper and nanny … a package deal that he got a priest to witness. The … the priest was my Uncle Roger so you know there is no mal negosio … I mean no bad business. Uncle Roger … he wouldn’t …”
Having finally placed the young woman with the girl she had in school Mrs. Rivera asked, “Father Jensen was really the priest that married you?”
“Si … er … yes ma’am. He didn’t recognize me at first so there were no special favors involved. And you know he would never tolerate any attempt by me to … to …” Emi shut up. Trying to make peace was one thing. Humiliating herself was another.
“And the purpose of you telling me this?”
“Like I said, we all want what is best for the kids. It was the only reason Nate got me. Arden had waited long enough and had her calling to answer to. Gina isn’t … she isn’t well.” That’s not precisely what Emi was thinking after seeing how she acted but she figured it would go over better with Mrs. Rivera than calling her daughter a pedazo de besura blanco.
“Gina is … fragile. At the moment.”
“Sure. Anyone can see it. Makes it hard for her to make good decisions. She needs to focus on … on … her … uh … on pulling herself together after what all she’s been through. So what I’m saying is … we let her focus on herself for a while. She should take as long as she needs. But I don’t think anyone wants to really see her – or you and Arden – cut off from the kids. But maybe after seeing his mother act … er … fragile it isn’t such a good time for Bastian to … to come down. He might ask questions he ain’t old enough to understand the answers to. Maybe the porch to say good bye to you? But not where Gina would see and get upset all over again. What do you think?”
Mrs. Rivera was a cranky old bat but she was no fool. She knew she was being played. Unwillingly however she also sensed that Emi was doing it so they could all walk away with some dignity and to avoid further drama. She decided for the time being she would allow herself to appear to go along with it and see where things went. She wouldn’t be kept from her grandchildren but for now she needed to focus on getting Gina cleaned up and behaving with more decorum.
“Very well.”
“Would you care to have Bastian come to the porch?”
“No. I must see to his mother’s care. He’s old enough to understand that if it is explained properly which I expect that it will be.” That left Emi in no doubt what her place was going to be. “You will see that Bastian writes to her and me, and that the letters are sent over weekly.”
The glare meant nothing to Emi who rarely cared what anyone thought one way or the other; however, rather than agreeing to the terms outright she said, “I’ll speak with Nate and see what can be arranged.”
“See that you do. And I also wish to be kept apprised of their progress in school and any other matters of importance.”
With that she turned away dismissing Emi who struggled to not give her a gesture to take with her.
Emi was desperate and desperately embarrassed but didn’t have a choice. “Gringo. Uh … Nate.”
Nate woke up instantly. “You hurting?”
“Sorta. Uh … where’s the … the bano? The bathroom?” She heard him getting up and snapped, “I don’t need …”
“Even if you can get down the stairs without falling you’ll probably have problems getting back up.”
He did let her try but her legs were so shaky that she gave in before he had to force the issue. Embarrassed Emi snarled, “This is ridiculoso. What’s wrong with me?!”
“At a guess? Your brain knows you are at a safe stopping point even if your consciousness doesn’t. Your body has taken a lot of abuse. It is a wonder you haven’t been bad sick before this.”
Denying his explanation she snapped, “I’m not sick.”
“No, but you will be if you don’t let yourself heal up. It … look Emi, take it however you want to but as a man it makes me … makes me … look, I like that you know you are safe here, even if it is just subconsciously right now. Don’t let it bother you ‘cause it doesn’t bother me.”
Real life having been taken care of Emi came out of what used to be the downstairs half bath obviously impressed. “You know how long it’s been since I’ve used real indoor plumbing? Since the airport.”
“Airport?”
“When they shipped me out of the country like a piece of rancid meat. My mother’s cousins didn’t have it. The ships I worked on don’t count. And … well … there hasn’t been anything since then. I think you are kidding. You gotta be a Don or something important like that.”
“What I’ve got is an artesian well out in the grove. That’s why it smells like the bowels of hell in there,” he said referring to the heavily sulfured odor of the water. “We try and aerate the water some before it goes into the cistern but it doesn’t help much. You ready to go back up?”
“Sure. Look … about … about before. I’m … I’m no so good … not so good I mean … about … about apologizing … but …” She shook her head. “I … I guess I made you mad about something. What I’m trying to say is I didn’t mean to and I’m … I’m sorry that I did.”
“Don’t Emi. I got mad for a stupid reason. Just next time if I say I can afford to get something for you don’t make out like I can’t.”
Shaking her head Emi told him, “I wasn’t thinking that. I just … look … I remember my parents talking about how expensive kids were and I also remember what it was like when my dad was first starting his courier business. Momma told me it was our job – hers and mine – to make things easier on dad and my brothers because that was part of a woman’s suerta en la vida. I ain’t ever gonna be the mujer my momma was but … but since I made a deal to be your mujer it is my job to …”
Nate laid Emi gently back on the bed and pulled a sheet up to cover her with. He saw she was struggling to keep her eyes open and they were suspiciously damp. “Shhhh. You and I have some things to work on but this time the working needs to be on my side. I’m not angry and you need to rest.”
While Emi went immediately to sleep, it took Nate a while longer. He wasn’t sure if this was an issue of age or innocence – though how she still hung onto any innocence after all she’d been through he had no idea – but he was sure that Emi wasn’t pushing his buttons on purpose, at least not on this. That said, he’d need to carefully guide her into understanding that the money issue was a sensitive one for him. Growing up he watched his father willingly nearly work himself to death to provide for his large family. He’d watched most of his older brothers do much the same thing but for some of them with less return as it were. He’d set out to do the same thing for Gina but she’d never been satisfied no matter how hard he’d worked or how much he’d brought in. She always made him feel if he could give her just a little more … but that was his hang up, not Emi’s, and he was man enough to own it. The fact that her grandparents had been wealthy people wasn’t her fault either and it appeared she wasn’t raised spoiled, or at least not financially spoiled. For some reason it made him even more determined to give her things but he was just as determined that she not know the reason for it. So thinking he finally relaxed and went to sleep for what remained of the night.
*****
Emi woke to the sound of squirrels fighting on the window sill. Or that’s what she thought it was until she woke up enough to remember that squirrels didn’t use English … or Spanish either for that matter.
“All that means is that you married a whore and I’m not having my children raised by a whore.”
“Don’t even go there Gina. And as for you Patricia I suggest you tell your men to back off or you might not like the consequences.”
That brought Emi the rest of the way awake. Faster than it would take to explain it she spied her clothes folded on top of the dresser and tugged them on and then grabbed her rifle where it stood in the corner with the rest of what little she called her own in this world. She checked to see it was properly loaded as she made her way down the stairs as quickly and quietly as she could manage. She made it to the kitchen just in time to see a man shuck a round into his shotgun and raise it to aim.
Emi was faster and better and the shotgun shattered in his hands. The man fell to the ground screaming and cradling the hand that she’d shot through.
Into the shocked silence she called, “Gringo? Is there trouble?”
“Yes there is.”
“Do you want me to shoot anyone else?”
With a shark’s bite to the words he answered, “The next one that moves without my express permission and I don’t care who it is.”
Emi looked around carefully and saw Kiko, furious as he stood in front of Dora who held a shrieking Darla with several other children all around her. Then she spied Bastian being held onto by a large hombre who looked like he would just as soon tear his arm off. Emi called, “Bastian? You like where you’re at?”
“No!”
“Then you move over by your Uncle Kiko. Si?”
The hombre didn’t want to let Bastian go until Emi put the laser from her scope right into his eye almost blinding him. He got the message and let the boy go but he gave her a feral grin that promised bad things. Emi had been promised bad things before and filed it away for future reference.
Gina and her mother started making the same noise the chickens make when they get their feathers ruffled but shut up when Emi took turns letting them know that she wasn’t above using the laser scope on them either and then when the big guy with the bad ideas tried to charge he got lead poisoning from several angles … hers took him in the throat, Nate’s got him in the chest, Kiko’s took him in the back, and a man running up from the river got him in the gut. The guy was dead before he hit the ground.
Gina started screaming louder than Darla. “Nauldo! Nauldo!!”
Emi saw movement out of the corner of her eye and took out two more men while a third was taken out by a man on the roof. That finished off those that had any ideas of being the bigger bad.
It took a while to sort things out to Nate’s satisfaction and while he did so Emi hustled Bastian and Dora and the little girl and other children into the house and would growl at anyone that came too close to the door where she leaned that she didn’t recognize. Once Bastian tried to come to stand beside her but she told him, “No hijo. Stay over there with your Aunt Dora and the others. If a shot comes in, I don’t want you to be a target.”
As things calmed Emi said, “I musta missed something big. Your crew and Nate’s ex showing up. Was it at the same time? Together?”
“It wasn’t together. Benji came by our place and asked if Angelique – that’s Kiko’s cousin by the way – would come give you a look over. And don’t growl like that, she’s the older woman out there dosing Gina so she’ll … er …”
“It’s ok Aunt Dora,” Bastian said sounding like a sad little old man when he realized his aunt stopped talking because of him. “I know she has problems. Aunt Arden explained it to me when Dad was still too sad about it. She’s got herself all worked up and now can’t stop even if she wanted to. Tia Angelique is helping her to stop before she makes herself sick and pukes like she normally does.”
Emi spared a glance at Dora to see her nod her head with a grim expression. Needing some answers that might not come if the children were in the room Emi said, “Bastian, why don’t you get your Aunt Dora and the kids something to drink?”
“Actually, let him take them to his room. It is just up the stairs and down the hall so they won’t be far.”
“Bastian the shutters closed?”
He answered her, “No, but we’ll close them when we get up there. I guess Aunt Dora wants to talk to you about … about her.”
After the little boys traipsed eagerly after Bastian and were out of earshot Dora sighed. “He can’t even call her momma anymore.”
As she kept an eye on what was going on in the yard Emi responded, “I’d noticed but wasn’t sure what to make of it.”
“This is only going to make it worse.”
“This as in what happened just now or this as in me?”
“Both if you turn out to be what’s best for Nate and the kids. You gonna turn out to be that?”
“No clue. For now, Nate wants me. Not sure how he’ll feel when he actually gets to know me.”
“Hmmm.”
Emi brushed a small wasp away from her face and told Dora, “I’m not looking to make trouble, don’t want it either. Nate and I have a deal and I’ll do my best to hold up my end … including stuff like just happened. But he’ll have to decide whether that is what he really wants long term. And Bastian … he’s a good kid and I don’t want to make it harder on him. But my job is to keep him and anyone else Nate tells me safe. Which brings us to that oversized hombre … that Nauldo … I take it he was the guy Gina was shacked up with?”
“Yeah. The others were men he’d picked out for Mrs. Rivera’s crew. She has a good-sized fishing operation that her husband started up after things fell apart and most started figuring out that we’d have to find food close to home or not at all. Her son runs most of it now but she still has majority control since her husband’s death last year. She was getting crowded by her competition and a few even tried to take out their headquarters. Nate can tell you the rest.”
“If the hombre was a smuggler and was getting too friendly with the family, it probably made their competitors nervous. Anyway, I still don’t get what Gina was doing here? She still upset about the kids?”
“My honest opinion?” At Emi’s guarded nod she said, “It was a cover, or Nauldo was using her as a cover and Mrs. Rivera as a distraction. Nauldo and his men were too interested in what Nate had brought in.”
“Loose lips … Nate expected it, or at least seemed to be expecting something.”
“Hmmm. You know you hold up that door any harder and you’re going to take the house out of square.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t play dumb. Your hands are pretty steady but I’ve seen your legs shaking when you unlock them to keep the circulation going. And don’t try and fool me, I’ve seen the same thing in Kiko and his men when they were on the ragged edge of nothing left to give.”
Emi didn’t have to respond because it was that moment that Nate stepped onto the veranda and guided her into the kitchen. “Where are the kids?”
“Darla is sleeping in some little bed thing Bastian pulled in here and he and all the little Kikos are upstairs in his room.”
After a moment of silence Nate asked, “Not gonna say anything about my pretty face?”
Seeing the bruising around his eye and his busted lip up close for the first time Emi said, “Not in front of your sister. Just tell me the cabron that did it is one of the ones I shot.”
Nate gave a twisted smile. “Nauldo.”
“Too bad we didn’t have no gators to feed him to a piece at a time … before he got lead poisoning. Is there law around here?”
“None that will make noise about Nauldo going to his Judgment Day. You step outside Ft. Myers city limits and the rule of law is very, very basic and Castle Law officially extends to your property boundary. On the water Maritime Law applies.”
“Good to know. Now what kinda mess can Mrs. Rivera make? As I remember she was really good at giving other people heart burn.”
Nate had gone over and poured all three of them cups of water, handing the first one to Dora and then looking at Emi until she consented to put the rifle down and drink hers. After that he answered her. “Patricia is in a bit of shock as the men in her crew that weren’t Nauldo’s men told her some uncomfortable facts including that a lot of people think the raid that wound up causing her husband’s fatal heart attack was set up by Nauldo, or his boss.”
“Do you think this boss is going to be sad that I made Nauldo meurto?”
“No. The boss was assassinated not too long after that raid and suddenly Nauldo is a bigger man than he should have been.”
Emi muttered her general opinion of men, stupid men, greedy men, and stupid, greedy men in particular in a long, low torrent of feisty Spanish. Both Dora and Nate whistled in appreciation with Nate teasing, “You’ll need to take that to Confession.”
Finally sliding into a chair that Nate practically shoved under her Emi said, “If I confess all my sins the priest will lose all his hair before I finish. It’s why I send them direct air mail to God … saves another sin of traumatizing a priest.”
A surprised giggle escaped from Dora which in turn made Nate smile like the cat that got the cream.
Emi heard the floor near the stairwell squeak and looked at Nate. He nodded and said a little more loudly than necessary, “Gina and her mother will be leaving shortly. If Bastian wants to say good bye to his grandmother, he can come down but I’d prefer he wave from the window.”
Emi looked slightly uncomfortable before suggesting, “Why don’t you … you let me speak to Mrs. Rivera.”
“Wait … why?”
“Gotta find some peace in this mess some place Gringo or neither one of us will have any quiet. I don’t like the woman for my own reasons but that don’t make her malo … bad. And she is your kids’ grandmother. My own grandmother – my mother’s mother – could be incredibly strict and I hated it but it wasn’t because she didn’t care for me, more like she cared so much she forgot to ask me what I wanted since she believed she knew best all the time. I don’t want to be the cause of Bastian having no heartache. I make peace with the old … er … with Mrs. Rivera or at least start it, it’ll make things easier for your kids in the long run.”
In some consternation Nate told her, “This type of thing wasn’t part of the deal Emi.”
Emi shrugged. “Eh, I look at it one way, you look at it another. Like I said, if I can keep my mouth shut around La Gran Bufalo that was my mother’s cousin’s wife then this should be a piece of pastel … cake I mean … piece of cake. Mrs. Rivera is a tough ol’ gator but she’s nothing compared to what I had to deal with in Honduras. At least let me try … for Bastian and Darla.”
Emi felt that Nate was going to say no but he was called away before he could voice it. Emi then looked at Dora who was no help. She decided that she was going to at least try her way and got up and walked out onto the porch.
Gina was being loaded into an older model car that looked – and smelled – like it had been converted to some kind of alternative fuel, possibly methane. Mrs. Rivera stood off to the side observing. She was pale and nervous but trying not to show it. Emi walked over to her but stopped several feet back giving both of them plenty of personal space to have the conversation.
Mrs. Rivera’s nose flared and her chin came up. “You aimed a gun at me.”
“Yes I did … ma’am. You were a threat. However, it has come out that Gina’s … uh … Gina’s … er … anyway he was the real threat. Nate explained how that Nauldo took advantage of you.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You are grieving for Dr. Rivera. You expected that Nauldo to … er … support the family, not abuse your trust. So …”
Emi wasn’t sure how to say what she had intended to say and Mrs. Rivera only stood there imperious as she ever had been. Finally, Emi just said it baldly even if it came out rudely. “So look, I figure everyone is out to make sure that Bastian and Darla get taken care of right. Nate has expectations. You have expectations. Gina … well, she’s not … hmmm … she’s not in a good place right now to be able to shoulder the responsibility of parenthood. And you have a boatload of responsibilities as well. Nate trusted Arden … well I’ve sorta come to fill Arden’s place … kinda like a housekeeper and nanny … a package deal that he got a priest to witness. The … the priest was my Uncle Roger so you know there is no mal negosio … I mean no bad business. Uncle Roger … he wouldn’t …”
Having finally placed the young woman with the girl she had in school Mrs. Rivera asked, “Father Jensen was really the priest that married you?”
“Si … er … yes ma’am. He didn’t recognize me at first so there were no special favors involved. And you know he would never tolerate any attempt by me to … to …” Emi shut up. Trying to make peace was one thing. Humiliating herself was another.
“And the purpose of you telling me this?”
“Like I said, we all want what is best for the kids. It was the only reason Nate got me. Arden had waited long enough and had her calling to answer to. Gina isn’t … she isn’t well.” That’s not precisely what Emi was thinking after seeing how she acted but she figured it would go over better with Mrs. Rivera than calling her daughter a pedazo de besura blanco.
“Gina is … fragile. At the moment.”
“Sure. Anyone can see it. Makes it hard for her to make good decisions. She needs to focus on … on … her … uh … on pulling herself together after what all she’s been through. So what I’m saying is … we let her focus on herself for a while. She should take as long as she needs. But I don’t think anyone wants to really see her – or you and Arden – cut off from the kids. But maybe after seeing his mother act … er … fragile it isn’t such a good time for Bastian to … to come down. He might ask questions he ain’t old enough to understand the answers to. Maybe the porch to say good bye to you? But not where Gina would see and get upset all over again. What do you think?”
Mrs. Rivera was a cranky old bat but she was no fool. She knew she was being played. Unwillingly however she also sensed that Emi was doing it so they could all walk away with some dignity and to avoid further drama. She decided for the time being she would allow herself to appear to go along with it and see where things went. She wouldn’t be kept from her grandchildren but for now she needed to focus on getting Gina cleaned up and behaving with more decorum.
“Very well.”
“Would you care to have Bastian come to the porch?”
“No. I must see to his mother’s care. He’s old enough to understand that if it is explained properly which I expect that it will be.” That left Emi in no doubt what her place was going to be. “You will see that Bastian writes to her and me, and that the letters are sent over weekly.”
The glare meant nothing to Emi who rarely cared what anyone thought one way or the other; however, rather than agreeing to the terms outright she said, “I’ll speak with Nate and see what can be arranged.”
“See that you do. And I also wish to be kept apprised of their progress in school and any other matters of importance.”
With that she turned away dismissing Emi who struggled to not give her a gesture to take with her.
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thank you very much.
Chapter 25
Several hours later, everyone had departed and Emi was searching irritably in the kitchen and trying to decide what she would cook for la cena. Bastian had started to haunt the kitchen, checking to see if she was “burning water.”
“What’s this?” Nate asked coming inside to get something cool to drink.
Ignoring the question Emi snorted and said, “I still think you are some kind of Don. No one has this kind of food out in the open. Only powerful people can afford it. And only crazy people don’t put locks on it.”
Nate came over to see what she was looking at. It was cans and sacks of food, many of them missing labels and looking dented, but it was still more than Emi had seen in years. Nate said, “Salvaging did well for me. Are you saying that food was scarce where you were?”
“Si … I mean yes.” Emi shook her head. “I’ve gotten used to speaking Spanish and even think it now. It is going to take me time to speak English all the time.”
“Stop worrying it to death. As long as I can understand you.”
“No. Bastian says he doesn’t speak Spanish and neither do your men from the look of them. You understand it but don’t really speak it. Better I take care of it.”
Nate didn’t argue. If she was willing, then so be it. Being multi-lingual was useful but there were still some people sensitive to the issue. “You avoiding telling me how things were?”
“Huh? No. Just … Madre de Dios … things may be better than they were but there are plenty of people in the world that would kill you just to have a few of these. These cabinets need locking or all of this needs to go in one room and it get secured. And things are just … just thrown around in the cabinets. How do you tell if something is close to going over?”
“That you can do if you want and with my gratitude. Arden … she …” He stopped and shook his head. “Arden has a great many good qualities but organizational skills has never been one of them.”
“Wasteful,” Emi said shaking her head. “I grew up being taught …” Emi shook her head to shut off the words that tried to slip out of her mouth.
Nate decided to let time help her along to sharing. What he didn’t know is that it wasn’t the memories of her family that stopped the words so much as she was trying not to say bad things about his ex-wife’s family. When Emi made a deal she threw her whole self into it. She’d watched her cousin’s children get torn apart by many he said/she said spats and it made her cautious about being part of the same thing happening to Nate’s children.
Nate looked around and said, “I don’t hear Darla.”
“She wore herself out.”
“So all we need to do is let her bang pots and pans for a couple of hours to get her willing to take a nap?”
“Until she gets bored and we have to come up with something new. She and Bastian will come with me tomorrow while I try and figure out what each tree is. We are going to pick leaves, press them, then look them up in some books in that little room that Bastian said was the library. Did you know there is no school for them? We don’t need to give Mrs. Rivera any more reason for making problems so he’ll talk about the things he learns but he just won’t say he didn’t learn them in a school room.”
“Bastian told me about the teacher yesterday being run out of town and Dora explained the rumors I heard elsewhere. The guy was a pervert. They caught him … never mind what they caught him doing. He was pure filth. Dora said she heard that some men dragged him out into the palmettos, castrated him, and then put him on a train to someplace else.”
“If it was like that why leave him alive?”
“As an example to spread the word.”
“Oh.” Emi shrugged. She’d seen much worse befall someone like that. She’s also seen nothing happen at all. So long as there was no immediate threat she put it from her mind easily. “How about … hmmm … arroz con … grrr … how about rice and beans. It is too late to get fancy.”
“So … you can cook?”
“Dealing with the catch wasn’t the only thing I had to do on the boats. And sailors get mean if they don’t get fed what they consider good. I’m feeling stupid for not taking some gator tail along with the skins.”
“Wouldn’t have done much good. Those gators had the pustules under the skins.”
“Hmph. No wonder they were so mean and hungry. I’m surprised then that they aren’t kept cleaned out of the river.”
“As long as they don’t start making incursions into homes they are allowed to live. They serve a purpose by keeping the worst of the river predators from getting too numerous. A couple of years ago we had trouble with bull sharks coming pretty far up the river, farther than they normally do. It threw the entire ecosystem around here out of whack. They’ve been pushing further up river again this year for some reason.”
“Probably scared not a few people.”
“Yeah,” he said with a grimace. “Last time it happened I lost a couple of good men – including one of Miguel’s brothers – to those monsters. Held Franco while he bled out. As bad as infected humans can be the infected animals leave just as many nightmares behind.”
“I lost a … well not a friend but we travelled together across most of the Sonoran, covering each other’s back more than a few times. We were just on the other side of the last stretch, and saw the first building we’d seen for days. It was a carnival – what was left of a carnival – and we were so hungry and thirsty. We went in to salvage …” Trying to show as little emotion as possible Emi said, “There were these little monos … monkeys. The sign called them spider monkeys. They … they mobbed her … like you’ll see blackbirds do around here. She was covered in them in seconds. All the screaming and … then she just stopped. But they didn’t. They kept screaming … screaming and biting and … I couldn’t do nothing for her, all I could do was escape with my own life.”
Nate reached for her and Emi let him, but only for a moment. She stepped back and straightened her spine. “Everyone has stories like that. Bad stories. Bad memories. Best to learn to live with them before you let them kill you. It will be generations before they fade to nothing and maybe the world won’t even be better then.”
“Who knows?”
“When I was a Nest Destroyer there were some scientists that said that DV was mutating, getting less virulent. But because too many animals have learned to be carnivores … maybe were carnivores before but man wasn’t on the menu …he said the ecosystem may never be what it was before. Most people still living have developed some kind of immunity to DV but it has changed the behavior of those animals that survive DV too much which has changed the food chain too much …”
“Eh … it’s anyone’s guess,” Nate said pulling her back once again. “Not something we need to worry over. Memories are bad enough. Guesses make things that much worse. It’s better to put all our energy into living instead of spending all our time worrying about dying which is going to happen in due time for each of us no matter how we fight. Let’s go with what we know and I know I’m starving and if you can really plate up beans and rice I will be very, very grateful. Would you like me to tell you how grateful? Or maybe show you instead …”
Emi was shocked into absolute stillness as Nate’s head descended towards hers. Then the kitchen door banged open and Bastian barreled in shouting, “Dad! Mr. Miguel is here!!” Bastian blinked at his dad and Emi then became worried. “Is she sick again? Are you going to give her CPR? I think you only need do that if she stops breathing.” In complete disappointment he moaned, “And she was going to fix dinner.”
Emi backed out of Nate’s embrace and said, “Your dad was just making a funny. He said he’d be ever so grateful if I cook him some food. You going to give me a kiss on the cheek too if I cook you some food?”
Bastian looked horrified as only seven-year-old boys can look at the idea of kissing a girl. “Awwww … do I have to?”
Emi laughed. “No. I was just making a funny like your dad. But you and me need to talk. I think I’ve got a way to calm your grandmother down but it takes some work from you. We’ll talk about it after dinner.”
“But we were gonna talk about bug hunting and stuff.”
“That’s part of it. Oh stop with the pinched up face before it gets stuck that way. It ain’t bad. Better than getting chewed on by Darla.”
“Anything is better than getting chewed on by Darla. You promise you’ll cook?”
“Yeah, so scram and do your chores so you don’t have to go to bed with no supper.”
Bastian scrambled out of the room as fast as he had barreled into it. Nate shook his head. “The boy doesn’t know what walk means apparently. And he’s going to take that door off if he isn’t careful.”
“He won’t be the first boy to do it.”
“Seem to recall my father saying the same thing to my mother. You do pretty good with kids. Even Kiko noticed you handled his good enough that Dora didn’t mind it. That takes some doing as she’s protective.”
Emi shrugged, more focused on food than explaining memories. “Used to take care of kids to earn things my allowance didn’t cover. I had quite a business going. Did the same thing when I first got to Honduras – it was the kids that taught me Spanish. I didn’t get paid exactly … but the mothers they’d feed me or show me how to make crafts that could be sold in the market. Or at least I did until the Bufalo started telling stories about me and all the women got afraid of me. That’s when I went on the boats.”
“You were what? Thirteen? Fourteen?”
“Something like that. But I was tall … taller than some of the sailors. And my feet are big too.”
“Hell’s bells. You barely come to my chin and I was wondering where I was going to find boots to fit you.”
Emi stopped and gave him a look letting him know she wasn’t buying what he was selling. “Go. I ain’t gonna burn your house down.”
He chuckled despite the frustration he felt building. But then he asked, “You sure you’re up to it? Now wait and don’t get on your broom. I just meant your arm. Wasn’t that long ago that …”
“Go,” Emi repeated this time with some irritation showing around the edges. “Take care of your business and I’ll take care of mine.”
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thank you.
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
thank you for adding this chapter!
Chapter 26
Bastian leaned back in his chair and mimicked what Nate had just done. In other words, he scratched his belly and tried to belch then said, “Good cookin’.” Then he added with a grin, “We got lucky huh Dad?”
Trying not to laugh Emi said, “You full or you think you can hold some flan. There were milk and eggs that needed using.” Emi stopped trying not to laugh when she saw the expression on both of the faces turned her direction. She laughed even harder at the look Benji and his father and uncle had on their faces. “Looks like I have some hungry hombres to feed.”
“Uh … Missus Bale … you really …?”
Emi turned away as she felt her face grow red and hot at being called Mrs. Bale. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the satisfied look on Nate’s face and then he came over and helped her to carry the flan to the table for everyone and whispered in her ear, “You’re going to eat some of this too right? ‘Cause you didn’t eat much of the other.”
Emi cut the pan of Spanish custard in six pieces and then cut the sixth piece in half so that she could feed some to Darla who at her first taste started bouncing in her highchair hard enough to rock it back and forth. “Honestly Chiquita, you act like you’ve never had food before.”
Bastian licked his spoon and said, “Oh she’s had food. Aunt Arden and I usually have to feed her first or there’s so much noise the chickens stop laying.”
Emi rolled her eyes. “That’s quite a story.”
Benji backed Bastian up. “Ain’t no story Mrs. Bale. Chickens start molting every time Darla starts squawking too much. They don’t like it. She’s loud.”
Emi looked at Darla for a moment and wasn’t quite sure what to believe. “Well, we’ll just have to tire her out so she don’t feel like squawking so much. Maybe she is getting old enough to have some chores. Bastian, what are your chores?”
That conversation led to what they could do for school – including bug hunts, labeling leaves, and counting and making graphs as they moved the cans around in the kitchen. And after Benji and the men had left to go about their business before it got too dark, the conversation turned to what it was going to take to fulfill Mrs. Rivera’s expectations.
“It won’t hurt anything Bastian and might help in the long run. At least when you get older you can say you did the right thing instead of feeling guilty.”
“You feel guilty about something?” he asked.
Nate snapped, “Sebastian!”
“It’s all right,” Emi told Nate. “It’s an honest question and the answer to it is there’s lot of things I wish I had done different when I was a kid … but I was a kid and things happened that made it so I couldn’t make up for it. I like you so I’m trying to make it so you don’t have to live with such a thing.”
“What kinda things do you wish you’d done different?”
“Eh … wish I had been an easier kid for my parents. I was always getting letters sent home from school because I wouldn’t sit still or always seemed to go out of my way to be different. About the only time I could be still is when I had the guitarra in my hands.”
“Guitarra. You mean guitar? You played the guitar?”
At the same time Nate asked, “Do you still play?”
“It has been a while … and … and …”
“And she is getting tired Bastian. You help with the dishes and I’ll get Miss Attitude down for the night. OK?”
“Sure Dad.”
Dishes washed, dried, and put away Emi and Bastian turned to find that Darla had been as well. “Now it’s your turn young man. Morning comes early and I expect you to help me show Emi around now that she is feeling better.”
Bastian ran upstairs but did so quietly so he would not wake up his little sister. Seeing she was stirring a pot on the stove Nate asked, “More cooking?”
“For desayuno … breakfast. Setting some wheat to cook overnight.[1] The soaking will take off a little time that I’ll need in the morning plus I’ll season them too.”
“You didn’t learn that in Honduras.”
“No, this is what my grandmother – my father’s mother – made when we stayed the night at her house. Her grandparents were from Norway and apparently they eat a lot of that type of thing over there. She called it stick to your ribs so you can be a lumberjack all day kind of meal. It will hold you and the men until I can figure out what I have to work with. You’ll get sick of rice and beans at every meal.”
“Not if they tasted as good as supper did.” He saw the red creep up into her face again as she turned away try to not let him see. He shook his head in amazement. A woman that can out shoot and out curse most men and yet still blush over such a small compliment.
“You ready for me to lock down the house?” he asked.
“It’s your house, your rules.”
“Hmmmmm.” He locked the door and put the heavy brace on knowing that Miguel’s men were patrolling the river.
Out of the blue Emi told him, “You need a wall …and gates.”
“We’ve lived without one all this time.”
“No. Arden and the kids have lived here for a year with some watchers … and no wall or gates. You moved around a lot, made it seem like there was nothing worth bothering with because as fast as it came in the salvage went out … or that’s what you intentionally made people think. Now that you are here full time and starting a business there will be some to think that there will be something worth taking.”
“Emi …”
“If I’m here to do the job of taking care of your kids then at least hear me out. Walls and fences make good neighbors. You’ll need better security at the river so … so maybe not a wall down there but some type of … of … I don’t know what you call it but it is a post or pylon system that keeps people from coming up to your dock except in a pattern that you want them to. And a tower that is high enough that you can see up and down the river with an unobstructed view. And …”
“Emi.”
“Fine. Whatever. I’ll figure out how to take care of them another way. Besides walls and …”
“Emi … they’re good ideas, just not totally practical.”
Emi ground her teeth. She’d seen it before. People with good survival skills any place else out in the world go home and suddenly their brain turns to mush. They idealize how civilized “home” is and forget that the worst cabrons in the world can hide in plain sight and pretend they are the most civilized of all.
Surprised at Emi’s reaction he asked, “No fight about this?”
“No.”
“But you’re angry. I can see it.”
She turned around and threw a dishrag at him. “Do you want me to fight or do you want peace? Eh? I give you peace and you pick at me because I’m not fighting. Just pick one already so we can get on with it.”
Getting irritated himself Nate said, “I don’t need a toy doll that tells me what I want to hear.”
“I wasn’t being a … a cualquiera que sea el infierno que está hablando. I gave you my opinion. You said no. I’ll think of some other way. End of story. No reason to fight. No reason to wreck up your peace or my quiet.”
Emi turned to go up the stairs but was too fast and learned her light headedness hadn’t completely dissipated. She stumbled and then hit her arm on the wall and saw stars as she doubled over. Nate rushed over and tried to help but Emi was having none of it. When he grabbed her she panicked and ran a fingernail under his thumbnail and the shock of it had him turning loose quickly. Of course that only caused her to stumble more and she wound up on the floor.
Nate, understandably upset let slip a derogative female epitaph then instantly regretted it when Emi flinched as if he had hit her. He tried again this time more slowly. “Let me see your arm.”
“No. I said I’d be willing to be bedded by you, not to be smothered like I’ve got no sense. I can take care of myself. Leave me alone to do it then you can have whatever it is you want.”
Nate was shocked speechless for a moment and ready to have a fight when he realized maybe that was partly what had set Emi off. Every action she was taking was defensive. It made him wonder what it had taken for her to get this way. His initial instinct was to do exactly what she warned him off of doing … to take care of her, but he had the good sense to know that likely that would only make her suspicious and more defensive.
“Woman, whatever you have rolling around in your head, get it under control. I’m not going to climb all over you your first day out of bed even if I might want to …explore the option a bit. I’m a man not a freaking DV infected perv. As many times as I could have had you I haven’t. Don’t that count for something?”
Emi looked at him through her lashes and he could tell she was trying but something had shaken her up. Had he been able to look inside her head he would have been furious but not at her. She’d been raped after only a few days on the street by a man that she had “made a deal with” that included looking after his two little kids. She didn’t find out until later that he had been lying and his wife wasn’t dead, just off visiting her sister. Her fear at finding herself alone on the street had led her to make a fool’s choice back then and she had briefly wondered if history was repeating itself. But slowly, painfully, she controlled her runaway emotions and stood up as if daring Nate to mention the state she’d just been in.
He asked, “You gonna let me get close or you gonna take my throat out with one of those playthings you like so much?”
“No me insultes. I’m getting tired of telling you I don’t go back on a deal.”
“I’m not insulting you woman, trying not to wind up more in the doghouse than I already am.”
Emi didn’t understand. She just looked at him, obviously confused. Finally, she shook her head. “Usted esta loco.”
“Maybe … but not so crazy I want to get a knife in the ribs even if it is just a little poke.”
“I wouldn’t do that to your kids.”
“Oh really. So I’ve got my kids to thank ‘cause all you did was just about break my thumb.”
“Did not.”
“Did too. Look. It’ll be sore tomorrow. Wanna kiss it and make it better?”
“You really are a loco Gringo.” And Emi only flinched a little as Nate gently turned her so he could look at her arm.
“Doesn’t look like you started it bleeding. That’s a good sign. Means it has finally healed over. Now don’t pound me for asking a stupid question but does it hurt?”
“Not hurt … just … sore. Like a bruise.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah Gringo, I’m sure. I know the difference between hurting and just being sore.”
Nate snorted. “That’s a fine line of difference. But, unless I’m gonna call you a liar, I guess I have to accept your answer. Next question. You gonna let me take you upstairs and help you to bed?”
“I tol’ you I don’t back out on a deal.”
“I’m not asking because of the deal – or not totally because of the deal. I want you to trust me Emi … maybe need you to trust me.
[1] How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Very big thank you, I couldn't resist reading tonight. 
Has to be late there in FL. 8:15 PM here in WA. and I'm dead tired.
Has to be late there in FL. 8:15 PM here in WA. and I'm dead tired.Jeepcats27
Senior Member
Thank you, nice chapter!
Sammy55
Veteran Member
Spent my morning reading about and watching info and videos about Queen Elizabeth. I'm tired of feeling low and needed a pick me up. Your new chapter did just that! Life goes on. Time to pick yourself up and do the best you can with what you've got available. Thank you, Kathy, for the very timely reminder! Queen Elizabeth would give her hearty approval!
THANKS FOR THE INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO BOIL WHEAT
[1] How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
IF YOU BOIL THE WHEAT ON HIGH..................YOU MUST STIR IT EVERY LITTLE BIT OR IT WILL STICK ON THE BOTTOM
I USE A DOUBLE BOILER, BRING IT TO A BOIL AND TURN IT DOWN ON LOW FOR 20-30-40 MINUTES
WHEN IT IS TINDER ENOUGH FOR YOU, JUST POUR OFF ANY WATER YOU HAVE LEFT
ADD BROWN SUGAR, BUTTER. FRUIT
[1] How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
IF YOU BOIL THE WHEAT ON HIGH..................YOU MUST STIR IT EVERY LITTLE BIT OR IT WILL STICK ON THE BOTTOM
I USE A DOUBLE BOILER, BRING IT TO A BOIL AND TURN IT DOWN ON LOW FOR 20-30-40 MINUTES
WHEN IT IS TINDER ENOUGH FOR YOU, JUST POUR OFF ANY WATER YOU HAVE LEFT
ADD BROWN SUGAR, BUTTER. FRUIT
Chapter 27
Emi still wasn’t sure what to make of Nate’s comment despite it being lunch time of the next day. She had been unable to bring herself to reply, to risk saying the wrong thing. Instead she decided to say nothing and let Nate think what he wanted to.
Nate moved slow, helping her up the stairs, then helping her to undress. “Emi, not that I want to cover you up but …” He then helped her into what her mother used to call a short nighty. It had spaghetti straps and was just long enough to cover what she needed it to. She recognized it as something she had seen in passing on the cruise ship when she’d collected the eco-bags.
“Salvage?”
“You have a problem with salvage?”
Emi didn’t call him stupid but implied it with a snort. “Everything is salvage of one sort or another these days. Just meant from the cruise ship.”
“Yeah. I thought about giving you one of my shirts to sleep in but …”
“But …”
“This is better. The shirt might give me ideas and …”
“Uh …” Emi swallowed and took her courage in hand. “You … you wouldn’t be jumping on me.”
“What?”
“What you said downstairs. You wouldn’t just be jumping on me. If you want to. I … I …”
Nate stepped up behind her and put his hands on her practically bare shoulders. “There’s time to … anticipate things some more. That’s not a bad thing for either of us.”
“Er … ok.”
“Would you mind me sleeping in the bed? Hammock isn’t bad … but it ain’t no mattress.”
“Uh … ok. Which side you want?”
A few more minutes and they were in the bed and then out of the blue Nate asks, “You snore?”
Emi could hear the smile in his voice and figured he was trying to ease things for both of them. In kind she asked, “That a deal breaker?”
“Not a deal breaker per se …”
“Like that is it? You snore?”
“Some … or so I’m told.”
“Well, if you get as loud as my dad and brothers did you might wind up with your mouth full of pillow.”
“That bad?”
“The story goes that I climbed out of my crib when I was a bebe and my parents caught me trying to tape a diaper across the face of my brother. He was the oldest and almost as loud as Dad when he really got going.”
“That’s some story.”
“Not the only one that they used to tell on me. I … I could be a brat.”
“Well, better a brat than being considered an adorable angel. Trust me, having your mother and older sisters – of which there were several – dress you like Little Lord Fauntleroy until you were finally reduced to begging your dad for help … naw, trust me, being a brat is better.”
Having been forced to listen to the story in grade school Emi gave an unrepentant giggle at the idea of Nate dressed in in old timey clothes. “Bet if you had any brothers they were just all sorts of helpful.”
“Yeah … right. I was the youngest of twelve by the way.”
“T … twelve?”
“Yep. At least as the only girl you never had to wear hand me downs.”
“Wrong. My mother and grandmothers didn’t believe in waste. [SOME PHRASE IN SPANISH]. I had girl cousins and I inherited a lot of their stuff when they outgrew it. The only brand-new clothes I had growing up were my school uniforms – and they didn’t exactly thrill me – and my recital outfits that Momma and Abuela sewed for me themselves.”
“Your Uncle Roger made it seem …”
“Don’t listen to him when it comes to my mother’s family. There was bad blood there before my parents were even engaged. Something about my grandparents having too much influence in the parish or something just as ignorant. Uncle Roger took a vow of poverty, which is no big deal really if that is your thing, but my grandparents didn’t see it as the complete virtue some make it out to be … to them it was more about what you did with what you had, not so much showing how virtuous you were because you had nothing. Money isn’t the sin … it’s the love of money that is.”
“Is that so?”
“Hah, believe what you want but trust me that mess in your kitchen would have been considered the sinful scandal to my grandmothers, aunts, and mother, and we’d all still be elbows deep in hot water and suds until the job was done.”
“Mmmm.”
Emi could hear the real fatigue in Nate’s voice. “Go to sleep Gringo. You are stupid tired.”
His answer was a pretend snore followed by a real one. Emi allowed herself to sleep and woke up only once to find Nate draped over her. She didn’t mind enough to make him move. She woke up a second time to the sound of a rooster.
Nate growled, “Damn bird. I’m gonna …”
“Move so I can get up and get you something to eat to improve your mood?”
Nate moved but slowly so that Emi could see he was still tired. She remembered he hadn’t been sleeping much, if at all, since he and his crew had picked them up in Galveston.
Nate may have still been worse for wear but Emi was feeling better than she had in weeks if not longer and it showed in both her energy level and mood. Food, rest, and attention from someone who cared really were all she needed. As a result, Emi took the daring step of making a bit of production of getting dressed for the day causing Nate to growl softly, “No fair Chica. Was I so mean to you?”
She could only hold onto her innocent look so long before stifling a giggle and turning red. “You’re loco. I’ll call up when I have hot water made so you can have a shave and wash. I’ll let the bebes sleep until it is closer to time to put the food on the table.” And with that she went downstairs.
As she did so she took real stock of her surroundings almost for the first time. The house was dark and smelled slightly musty but she figured sun up would take care of the dark and she’d look over what needed cleaning to take care of the smell at some point during the day. She was in the middle of turning the soaked wheat into patties that would taste sausage-like when Bastian stumbled into the kitchen looking like he couldn’t believe what he was actually seeing.
“What?”
“You’re cooking. Again.”
“Yeah. And?”
“It … it smells good.”
“Yeah. And?”
“And I’m hungry,” he moaned and Emi could see spit collecting at the corners of his mouth.
Emi grinned nostalgically and said, “My momma would call you a bottomless pit. At the very least you gotta have a hollow leg or something. You put away a lot of food last night.”
“Uh huh, sure did. So did Dad.”
From the stairwell they both heard, “Someone taking my name in vain already?”
Nate entered the kitchen carrying Darla who looked like she was just as hungry as Bastian but prepared to be noisier about it. Emi quickly put a piece of cornbread she had put aside the night before into Darla’s hands and almost didn’t turn loose quickly enough to avoid the sharp pearlies that started chewing like a bandsaw. Nate laughed and Bastian said, “Warned ya. Um … is …”
“Go wash up and you can have some milk to knock the edge off. Nate? How many am I cooking for this time?”
“Like last night. Miguel and his brothers own the next canal over and they’ll feed themselves. Did you take the bar off the door?”
“Si … I mean yes. Seems somehow or other a pup got locked in the house overnight and desperately needed out.”
Nate turned to look at Bastian who hunched his shoulders and said, “He doesn’t stink and doesn’t have fleas.”
“The fleas definitely not but the stink? Hmph. I have nothing against dogs but if you are going to have one in the house you need to get up and let the poor bebe out earlier. His legs were so crossed he could barely walk out.”
Bastian gave his father a begging look. Nate sighed. “Let me think on it. I’m not against it but I want you to prove you will be responsible.”
Bastian sensed his father wouldn’t be pushed so ran to get washed up as Emi had told him. While he was out Nate asked, “You mind if the dog stays in?”
Emi thought Nate was crazy for asking. “He’s your kid. You want him to keep the dog in then the dog stays in.”
“Emi …”
“Oh for … look Gringo, I ain’t got a problem with it. I’m just saying it ain’t my place to make those kind of rules … or object to them. Dogs are good for boys … or so said my father … and they teach them responsibility … again so said my father.”
“What about little girls?”
“Eh? Oh … well … I was pretty rambunctious. Kinda irritated the dog. She didn’t mean to not like me but by the time I came along she was already done being a puppy. My younger brothers … she liked them better. I did better with the guitarra and plants.”
“Why?”
“Because neither one has ears so they couldn’t get tired of all the talking I did or the noise I made. Although Poppy …” Emi stopped and tried to hide a smile.
“Your grandfather what?”
Emi shook her head and said, “Poppy used to tell me to make music instead of noise, that it would be appreciated more.”
“I know I stopped Bastian from expecting an answer last night but … do you still play?”
“It’s been a while. Besides … no guitarra.”
“I …” Whatever Nate was going to say was interrupted as the other men came to the kitchen door and he had to turn to go out onto the porch.
Chapter 28
That was breakfast and the men were as happy about it as they had been about dinner the night before. Afterwards instead of starting on the kitchen cabinets as Emi had planned Nate asked her to walk around the property. “I’ll be busy later today and I want you to get the lay of the land.”
After an hour Emi shook her head. “You’re a Don. I knew it. This has gotta be forty acres.”
“Good eye. It’s forty-five when you include the access road which is deeded with the rest. What do you think so far?”
“I think you need more goats to help keep the grass down between rows and under the trees but otherwise … you got more than you’ve got men to take care of it. Now that I’ve got the name to these trees … you … uh …”
“Spit it out Emi. If you got ideas I’d like to hear them.”
“Why?”
“Why? ‘Cause I’m tired of being the only one coming up with ideas.”
“Well … ok. Look, what kind of business you gonna have?”
“Why?”
“Look, tell me to shut up if you don’t like it or whatever but … lots of this fruit, and yes I know most of it, well it don’t keep good. Like them custard apples. They don’t stay fresh long but you got … gotta be at least fifteen custard apple trees. You gonna wind up with a lot of rotten fruit and that will bring other kinds of trouble like scavengers and maggots that could infest the other trees. The citrus fruit … like the limes and lemons and stuff … will keep longer. You got markets out of town for this stuff?”
“Right now everything is local … and if not local pretty much within a hundred-mile radius if you count people coming in to buy. Some of the big growers are putting their citrus on trains to go north but I’m not set up for anything like that … at least not yet. You … er …”
“I know … my mouth is big on this but I ain’t trying to tell you your business Nate. Honest. Just my grandparents grew fruit and I guess … maybe I think I know more than I do. So tell me to shut up already.” Emi turned away embarrassed at how she was letting her imagination make more of things than she should have.
Bastian was running around with the pup so Nate bent down and surprised Emi with a kiss on her temple. “Don’t want to tell you to shut up. I don’t think you’re being stupid. Know I need all the help I can get. So tell me your ideas already woman before I get some of my own.”
Emi shook her head. “Loco,” she muttered loud enough for him to hear but not so loud as he would take it seriously. “One of the things Bastian and I can do is look up the fruit trees in the books in the library, find out when they are supposed to be ripe, then make a chart. This way you can see what and how much is going to be ripe each month … or what a harvest by tree is supposed to be. We get set for what is coming in, figure out the best way to use it up before it goes rotten … and maybe make it easier for you to make some money to take care of your kids and do the fixing you want on your house. Unless you already got something like that going.”
“Nope. On my to-do list but every time I think I’ve got time to start it I have to go do something else instead. You really think you can get such a thing written up?”
Emi nodded. “Poppy would set me to doing stuff like that when I started getting a bit much for the women in the family to handle. Dad and his father would do the same sort of thing only … they’d make me help clean out the garage or shed or something like that. Busy work but stuff that … that kept me from getting up to trouble or pranks and that really helped someone out. Got to be a habit. Mom said my room was the only thing she never had a complaint about. I used to clean my brothers’ rooms too … or until they got freaked out about having a girl messing in their stuff.”
“Didn’t bother you being the only girl?”
“Naw. Just wish I had been a better one for my parents.”
“Hey, none of that. ‘Cause I bet they’d be proud you survived.”
Emi looked at Nate and he could see the shadows in her eyes when she said, “The things I did to survive weren’t always something to be proud of.” She blinked and stepped away from Nate and said, “And I’ll get this work done for you. I get this done and … and maybe it means there’s more keeping that kind of life away from your kids.”
Emi turned and stepped over to read yet another plaque under a clump of small trees. Nate hoped one day that Emi would be able to trust him enough to open up but if it was as bad as she was trying to hide it had been he’d need to be careful how he reacted. He’d already messed up once, he didn’t intend on making it a regular habit.
Emi turned back and Nate noticed her lips were moving, saying the names of the fruit that they’d already looked at and in the order they’d passed them. Then she blinked and looked at him, “We can go on to the next if you’re ready.”
“You telling me you’re memorizing everything?”
“Uh …”
“You are. Damn it, I should have thought to bring a tablet or …”
“Don’t get mad Gringo, like I said … it’s a habit.”
“Habit. This part of what you were taught as a kid?”
“Yeah. You don’t like it?”
“Not that … just don’t want you to think …think I … well hell.”
Emi’s face cleared. “You worry too much about what I think. Ain’t nothing bad. Besides, having it straight in my head will make it better in the long run.”
“If you say so.”
And she did. Emi preferred memorizing to writing. As a result her memory was extraordinary when she intentionally memorized something and still not bad when she only accidentally memorized something. Emi’s handwriting wasn’t bad – her Abuelita made sure of that by assigning her pages in the Bible to write when she misbehaved – but it would never be her favorite activity. She’d been forced to outgrow many of her particular behavioral issues to survive but she would always prefer moving around to sitting still.
Another two hours passed by when Emi looked at the sky and said, “If I’m going to feed you I need to get back to the house.”
“Just fix a quick tray and don’t let Bastian try and guilt you into more by acting like he is starving. The boy eats more than I could ever believe if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Miguel’s brothers’ boat came back in last night and there is going to be a crab boil.”
Emi nodded, familiar with the practice. “Stone crab or blue crab?”
“Blue crab. Stone crab season isn’t until the middle of October.”
“Are the harvest seasons still enforced?”
“You betcha. You get caught crabbing or fishing out of season and some of them fish and wildlife guys will just as soon shoot you as look at you. Poaching is a felony crime in the entire state. It messes up the DV-free animal populations and it isn’t just the crazy environmental types that say it.”
Emi saw it and her confusion cleared up. “Guess that means you got enough food around here that you can tell people stuff like that.”
“We do now. A couple of years ago, not so much. That’s when the rules had to be put into effect. If they hadn’t … everything would have been fished and hunted over by people coming in from other places. Let’s head back to the house. I want to discuss some of the things you brought up with Rob and Don.”
“Uh …”
Nate gave Emi another light kiss before calling Bastian over. “Like I said Emi, I don’t want to have to be the only one coming up with ideas anymore. And the thing about the goats might be doable and will save from having to hire a mower to come in. And it’ll keep outsiders out of our business.”
Emi’s mind caught on the words “our business” and she added it to the rising total of things that Nate said that had Emi leaning in the direction of believing she’d finally caught a break.
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thank you.
Chapter 29
“June … it’s June. What ripens in June? The month school would get out and we’d be free for the summer. What did I help Poppy with then?” Emi was on a quest, or at least that is how she was looking at it. It had been a long time since she’d done “busy work” for someone but she found that just like in her childhood she was eager for it as a way to get approval. She didn’t recognize it as such but that is exactly what it was. When she was a child it had been her father, grandfathers, and mother … sometimes her eldest brother … that had set “quests” for her but she’d lost all of that for a long time. Now there was Nate and though she wasn’t consciously doing it, she was allowing Nate to fill that void. She wasn’t ready to acknowledge it yet but already she had begun to put him in the place very few had ever filled … an authority figure she’d actually listen to with any regularity.
She and the children were holed up in the library making the chart she’d promised Nate. Emi was well aware that paper and pencil were luxuries so she was being careful to make as few mistakes as possible. Bastian was helping by putting books back as she pulled them down to look for the ones that would help them. Darla was being Darla. Finally, the boy couldn’t stand it and covered his ears while yelling, “Can’t she bang on something softer?! It feels like the pots are inside my head!”
Emi shrugged as she had blocked out the noise that Darla was making but she looked up at Bastian when he tugged on her arm and yelled, “You sure she hasn’t made you deaf yet?!”
Emi smiled and then looked to the sky before once again looking at Bastian. “My momma is probably laughing her head off in heaven.”
“Why?!”
“’Cause I got one just like me to look after. Momma always said that someday I’d get paid back for all the noise I used to make. Looks like Darla is on her way to trying.”
Suddenly there was a lot of yelling and screaming from the direction of the water so loud it could even be heard above Darla’s “musical performance.” Emi grabbed up her rifle and made to run out but stopped short remembering she couldn’t just leave the children without anyone to protect them. “Conyo.” Shaking her head in frustration she grabbed up Darla who was about to scream because she’d been pulled away from her new toys. “Hush Chiquita. Muy mal is out there … something bad. You need to be quiet so the something bad doesn’t come in here. Bastian, come.”
Emi sat the two children on the bottom step of the rear staircase and started to lock the house. Benji ran up just in time to stop her. “Missus Bale, Nate says for you to come and bring your rifle. I’ll watch the kids. He wants to see if you can shoot something for him.”
Benji was pale so Emi was clued that it was bad … very bad if she had to guess. She turned only long enough to direct Bastian and Benji to take Darla upstairs and to keep her occupied by giving her some blocks to build up and then knock down. She ran towards the dock but Nate stopped her short.
“You feel up to trying some target practice?”
“No practice, doing … just point me to the target.”
Nate hurriedly drew her near the water’s edge but not out onto the dock. “See that?”
“It’s a little sailboat.”
“That sailboat belongs to the school. Some kids took it out I guess but now look at the water.”
Emi saw and cursed the monsters. She went to her knee without further prompting and started taking careful shots at the waterline every time a fin broke the surface of the brackish river. She timed the shots as best she could be she still put two in the deck of the little sailboat.
Shortly she snapped out, “Cabron! Those kids need to stay down. If they rock the boat too much …”
“Miguel has them on the radio. Most of them know the drill but they’ve got a couple that are panicking.”
“Tell the biggest to knock ‘em out then. Safer all around.”
No sooner has she said it than she watched a big boy do just that. “What the hell?” Nate asked in surprise.
Miguel smiled grimly and said, “The mic was open. Kid musta heard what she said.”
The water churned red and not just from the thrashing of the bullet ridden bull sharks. Predators, big and small, had been attracted to their death throes and were quickly swarming the huge fish.
“Gators?” Emi asked as she tried to count all the various animals in the water.
“Why I didn’t want you on the dock. Didn’t get close enough to tell whether these had DV or not. Decided not to take the chance after they started fighting with each other. They’ve been slapping the dock pretty heavy. We were trying to figure out what had stirred them up when the kids started screaming.”
Emi nodded. “Gators must have been already wound up ‘cause of the sharks. Made ‘em cranky.” After a moment the small sailboat started carefully tacking for shore.
Something caught the corner of Emi’s eyes and there wasn’t even time for her to curse as she kept putting bullet after bullet into the torpedo shape that was streaking towards the boat. It briefly disappeared beneath the keel before the entire boat was lifted from the water by nearly twelve inches. It came down with a loud slap and Emi heard something snap even above the noise of the feeding frenzy.
The kids started yelling they were taking on water. Nate and several other men ran onto the dock dragging a chain and hook despite the danger and while they threw it – missing the first time causing Emi to have to kill a gator they’d hooked instead – Emi did her best to watch for danger and shoot it away if it came too close.
The more water the sailboat took on the harder it was for the men to pull the boat towards safety. Another shark took aim at what it saw as bait but Emi and the other men that had taken up arms were able to stop it before got close enough to do more damage. A few times something made to bite the chain that was in the water but eventually they were able to get it to the end of the dock where they emptied the boat only a little faster than it was sinking. The boat was finally completely swamped when a large bull gator jumped on the deck right as the last kid put his foot on the wood of the dock.
There was a bit of chaos as things were sorted out. Emi stepped back but didn’t get to completely escape because there had been some girls on the boat and they were finally free to have a royal panic and get hysterical. The men all looked like they were about to panic at the idea of having to deal with a teenage girl in that condition.
Sighing Emi looked at Nate who was starting to show his frustration at all the mess and asked, “You really gonna ask me?”
Nate chewed on his mustache before saying, “I’ll try and arrange to get them out of here as soon as possible but you gotta do something with them girls until then. Fish and Wildlife already have eyes on us. With luck they’ll take the kids off our hands.”
Emi sighed and gathered up the three girls who looked ready to start puking if they didn’t get calmed down. Suddenly she wished for Barb who, though she could be rough, always seemed to know the fastest way to get women to mind her. But Barb wasn’t there and Nate needed her to do this so she handled the girls the only way she knew how whether they liked it or not. “C’mon. Sit on the porch, close your mouths, and put your head between your knees before you pass out.”
She had gotten a bucket of water and three cloths and told the girls to wash their faces but they were still hiccupping and carrying on like they hadn’t been rescued yet. That’s when the big boy that Emi had seen clobber the two boys came up and said, “Knock it off already. They can hear you clear to Sarasota.”
“Oh you’re just awful Robert Dawkins!” one of the girls yelled. “I can’t believe you just let Terry steer us right into a whole school of sharks! We almost died!”
“Well you ain’t dead. You’re making too much noise to be dead. Terry didn’t steer us into a school but was trying to outrun them. And nobody twisted your arm Neela. I even warned you. Now you sit here complaining like you been kidnapped and are about to be sold on the block or something. Get over it already.”
“I’m telling your Dad.”
“Big whoop. He probably already knows since he’s friends with the Area Coordinator for Fish and Wildlife and when he finds out the only reason I went along was to keep you from acting stupid with Jay-Ray what do you think he is going to say to that?”
Obviously brother and sister of some flavor Emi left them to it when she saw that the other girls were no longer crying but interested in the spectacle before them and watching avidly all their tears forgotten.
Sour at the wasted time Emi gave serious thought to throwing what was left of the bucket of water on the participants when the boy surprised her by turning and saying, “Thank you. Mr. Bale said you were the one that took the bulls out. I was loaded and prepared for gators but those sharks have hides that are even tougher if you can believe that. Dad’ll probably be by to ask what you used and to see if maybe he can reload some shells for you if you’re interested.”
“Uh … Mr. Bale can handle that.”
“Sure. That’s who Dad will talk to anyway. He don’t generally talk to women if he can help it except for Neela’s mom.”
“You’re not brother and sister?”
“Steps. Our parents hooked up after … you know.”
“God Robert you are so gross!” the girl called Neela snapped in embarrassment.
To goad her a bit since she’d been such a pain Emi said, “No shame in it. You’re never too old to hook up if you’ve got the motivation. Two is certainly better than one when it comes to surviving.”
Robert nodded his head so hard Emi thought she heard some rattling. “That’s what Dad says … and Neela’s mom says it too when she ain’t busy chasing after the adorkable duo.”
“Will you stop calling them that? You’re going to give them a complex or something,” Neela growled. Turning to Emi she explained, “Um … Mom and … er … Robert’s dad … anyway they’re twins and they’re three so … yeah … Mom is kinda busy with them right now.”
Trying and failing to imagine dealing with twins and the two in front of her at the same time Emi just shook her head and said, “She has my sympathies. Maybe you should help out … some more mature hombre might see you and think you might be worth the trouble.”
The arrested look on Robert’s face would have made Emi laugh if she hadn’t been so seriously hacked off at her day’s interruption. It reminded her of the look on her brothers’ faces when one of their friends had suddenly invited her to his school dance. Not that her father would have allowed it but Emi remembered her brothers acting very strange for a couple of weeks afterwards and that friend no longer being asked to come around.
Hours later Emi was very grateful she hadn’t had to cook a large meal. The air was suffocating and there was heat lightning playing across the night sky. “Listen Darla, I like jokes as much as the next person but you bite me again on purpose and you won’t get any more dinner. Got it Chaquita?”
“No!”
“Well then have it your way.” And so saying Emi pulled the bowl of crab meat and rice back away from Darla’s place at the table.
“Want it!”
This time it was Emi who said, “No.”
Darla started to kick the table making the men uncomfortable. Nate leaned over to pacify the child but Emi beat him to it. She picked up the highchair and walked out of the room. Nate quickly followed only to find that Emi had set the chair down in the library facing a corner while she started organizing the piles of books she’d never been able to get back to.
“Emi …”
“I ain’t gonna hit her if that’s what you’re worried about so go eat your food.”
“She just … er …”
Emi stopped and sighed. “You don’t think I know what I’m doing but on this I do Nate.” The fact that she used his name rather than calling him Gringo clued him into the fact that she was serious.
“I didn’t think you were going to hit her.”
Emi snorted. “Yeah right.” She shook her head and put another book on the stack she was making. “Nate, if she don’t get stopped now she’ll never stop without some serious hurt coming down on her. Now she can learn other ways of doing things. You don’t want her to be like I was as a kid. Believe me you don’t.”
“Roger didn’t make it out that you were bad … just wild.”
“Not bad. Not wild. Strong-willed and hardheaded … and it got me in trouble, sometimes bad trouble. And made life hard for people I was supposed to be loving. You don’t want for your kid the kind of lonesome that can make you.”
Nate was surprised at the sudden insight Emi was showing.
“Yeah, yeah. Pot meet kettle right? Well maybe so but that means I know not just that she needs training out of this but why she needs training out of it in a way you can’t … Little Lord Fauntleroy.”
“You going to make her go without dinner?”
“That ain’t the plan.”
“Then what is?”
“To get her to understand that if she wants something, she needs to give something and that being an easier person to get along with will make her life easier, and maybe better. Might even help her to survive with her head on straight instead of …like me. One of me in this world is more than enough.”
Nate heard real regret in Emi’s voice but not self-pity. He looked over at his daughter who was by now throwing a hissy fit that made the gators look like kittens and shook his head. “You really think we can break her of this? She … she’s got a lot of Gina in her. I refused to hold it against her, but I also don’t want her to be a replica of her mother.”
“She ain’t ruined Nate, just willful. And it isn’t … isn’t good to let her get away with things the way she has. Look at how Bastian and Benji act around her, a cross between not wanting to have anything to do with her and almost being afraid of her. That needs to stop. Now. Darla is nothing but a bebe but she is old enough to understand rules and boundaries. Once she understands what they are, she needs to learn why they are … and then she has to grow up and decide even if knowing what and why she’ll obey them.”
Acknowledging she was right Nate also began to see there were depths to Emi that wouldn’t be readily apparent to most people on short acquaintance. It made him want her even more and made him curious. “Your parents let you get away with murder huh?”
“No. I knew the rules and why. But that just made it so I had less excuse when I went my own way anyway and had to be punished. I ain’t like that now … least not always on purpose. But what I am … what it took to teach me those kinds of lessons … you don’t want it for your daughter. Trust me on that.”
Swallowing and giving another look at the holy terror in the corner Nate said, “OK. We’ll try it your way. But if she has to be spanked I’ll do it.”
“Sure. She’s your kid. Now just go eat before you make the others wonder what’s going on and wonder if we are up to drama or something stupid like that.”
It took almost two hours for Darla to calm down and behave long enough for Emi to be able to feed her. The first couple of times she made to bite again and Emi simply returned her to the corner. Finally, after a spell of crying pitifully that had Emi pushing Nate out of the room to keep him from picking her up, Darla allowed that she would eat without turning Great White. It was Emi that then washed the little girl up, got her ready for bed, and told her a Honduran fairy tale as a bedtime story. Darla wasn’t happy but she wasn’t fighting her either. Even with the battle over Emi was under no illusion that the war had been won.
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
One tough young lady!
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Many thanks
Chapter 30
Bastian looked over at Darla who was in the corner throwing another fit. “Is she ever going to stop?”
“Eventually. Then she’ll go on to the next thing to get her way.”
Bastian wiped the sweat off his face because even at ten in the morning it was already roasting even with a breeze coming off the river. “Ain’t she hot?”
“As a petardo … firecracker. That’s half of why she’s so angry.”
“Why not just give her what she wants so she’ll be quiet? Aunt Arden always knew how to make her quiet.”
Not wanting to say anything rude Emi just shook her head. “And now Darla expects people to jump to her tune for every little thing all the time. She may be the bebe of the family but she still needs to learn. If it’s too much for you, go on and see if Benji needs some help with them ornery goats. They got more burrs on their ears than hair. And the chickens probably need watering too. And make sure the dogs’ pans are filled. They don’t need to be made so desperate they go to the river to get something to drink. And …”
“If Dad is wondering where I’m at tell him I’ll be with Benji,” the boy yelled as he ran out the library door before she could weigh him down with another chore.
Emi looked over to the corner and just shook her head. Good thing she could tune Darla out or she’d probably be running faster than Bastian. Emi raised her eyes heavenward once again and said to herself, “Le venganza es mía dice el Señor. So ok, I get it already. I was a rotten kid that could have made better choices. Meaning no disrespect Señor but instead of making a mono out of me, how about a little help with the bebe. The chickens are gonna molt and the milk turn sour from all that screeching.”
With no answer forthcoming – Emi hadn’t really expected one to be honest as she’d learned when God was playing a joke it generally lasted long enough for the lesson to well and truly stick – Emi returned to searching books in the library for when things were supposed to be ripe, how much per mature tree, and how the fruit could best be used. In an attempt to ignore Darla and get something constructive done until she wound down Emi started humming as she made notes. It was a traditional Honduran tune; one of the first her Poppy had taught her to play. She switched from that tune to another one and simply kept going. Her throat dried and she stopped to take a drink and Darla let out a squeal. “What?!”
From the window Nate said, “She doesn’t want you to stop.”
Emi jumped and knocked over the stack of books she had been trying to put back on a shelf. This caused Darla to laugh and clap her hands and Nate to laugh. “Little jumpy aren’t you?”
Emi grumbled about irritating men under her breath and then snapped. “It isn’t time for lunch yet. Go away.”
“No,” he said leaving Emi in no doubt that not all of Darla’s orneriness came from her mother’s side. “Sing some more. We like it.”
Slowly Emi asked, “Who is we?”
“Me and Dad is we,” Bastian piped up from beneath the window. “That’s cool. So you can sing and play the guitar?”
“Eh … some I guess.” Darla picked that moment to try and tune up again and Emi asked her, “You want a drink Bebe?”
Darla stopped and slowly closed her mouth on the yell she was about to blast. “Dally wants a dink.”
“Dally wants a drink … ?”
“Peeze. Dally wants a dink. Dink peeze.”
“Very, very nice. Would you like a banana too?”
“Dink and a banana and a dink. Peeze.” Emi was just about to give it to her when she added, “Dink and a banana and a dink and hmm hmm hmm. Peeze.”
“Er …”
“Yeah,” Nate said and Emi could hear the laughter in his voice. “I’d like a drink and a banana and some more hmm hmm hmm myself.”
Bastian said, “Me too!”
Knowing a lost cause when she saw one Emi gave in and told them to come to the kitchen and while they ate their snack she sang another song, this one a Honduran love song and soon enough both Darla and Bastian were nodding off. Darla was put to bed for a nap but Bastian perked back up and ran out the door but caught it before it slammed.
“Well that’s new,” Nate said with relief after expecting a large bang.
“I told him if he woke up the bebe he could help me to take care of her.”
“Yep, that’d do it. And you?’
“Me what?”
“You need a break?”
“Naw,” Emi answered in surprise. “You want some more snack? I can …”
Nate stepped in close enough that Emi could smell his sweat. “Emi … I’m … I’m glad it was you.”
“Huh?”
“That God put in my way back in Galveston. I’m … I’m glad it was you.”
“Oh. Uh …”
He tipped her head up so that their eyes met. “You feeling … better?”
Emi knew immediately what he was asking. “Yeah. Just … just go slow. OK?”
“I can do that.”
Landcruiser
Contributing Member
I love this story too. I always wanted to see more of it. You twist a wonderful tale Kathy.
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
LOvely another chapter .
Chapter 31
It was hot but Emi had the sheet pulled up to her chin. Nate pulled her closer and asked, “You ok?”
“Si … I … I mean yes. I’m ok.”
“You sure?”
Emi sighed. “I’m fine Gringo just …”
“Emi I can’t fix it if you won’t talk to me.”
“There ain’t nothing to fix Nate. Just … just … I don’t know. It was … different than I thought.”
“Uh …”
Emi pushed away from him gently and said, “I don’t mean that. I know how it works. I just mean … different.” Then she shook her head, clearly confused.
Nate carefully pulled her back and said, “Different ok or different not ok.”
“Different ok … ok?! I can’t explain it. Just different.”
“Well I’m going to take that as a good thing. And now I’m going to tell you something and no clobbering me for saying it. Let it ride for a bit Emi. I’m trying not to push so you don’t push yourself either.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
“It means it’s gonna take time,” he said brushing a sweaty curl out of her face. “Me to know you, you to know me. This between us … it’ll get better.”
Emi snorted. “Stupido, it was … better. That’s what I mean when I say different. I didn’t expect … stuff.” In the moonlight Emi saw a brief look of surprise on Nate’s face before it turned into an oversatisfied male grin. “Shut up Gringo.”
“I didn’t say nothing.”
“Gringo …,” Emi growled in response to his continued grinning.
“Go to sleep Emi. Morning comes early.”
With only a brief bit of muttering in Spanish Emi allowed Nate to cuddle up behind her and despite the heat – both from the season and from what had happened between them … they were both soon asleep.
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thank you girl.
Chapter 32
“It’s green.”
Emi told Bastian, “It ain’t poison hijo; it’s guacamole[1]. We need to eat them before they start spoiling.”
“But they’re … green.”
Nate looked at Bastian sharply. “You telling me you aren’t hungry?”
Bastian got the message real quick and started nibbling the thick avocado salsa type dish with the pieces of flat bread that Emi had fried up to go with the light comida she had fixed for the last meal of the day. Darla was eating better than Bastian only instead of nibbling she was smearing as much around her mouth as she was getting in it. While the children ate – the day had been long and over warm so Don, Rob, and Benji had taken their portion of the meal back to the little guest house they used so they could undress down to their skivvies – Nate quizzed Emi on how far that she and Bastian had gotten on the chart.
“Don gave me a good estimate for some things that could go to market but I want your take. Besides the bananas and avocados what do you think we can offer the buyers coming tomorrow?”
Still confused over why Nate would want her “take” on anything, much less something as important as his business, she nevertheless reported to him what she’d found thus far. “Hmmm, to start there are sapodilla left on the trees, but they won’t last much longer. I made a sapodilla pie for your sweet tonight and I’ll make a smoothie from them for the kids’ snack tomorrow. But beyond that? I don’t know Nate. We only ever ate them fresh and in ice cream Poppy would make on special occasions. And he only had the two trees, not a small grove of them like you have.”
“Ice cream?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmmm. You remember how it’s done?”
“The ice cream? Puede ser … sorta … maybe. Why?”
“Enough to describe it to someone?”
“Like I said … maybe.”
“I got a particular buyer coming in on a boat in the morning. See what you can do with your maybe.”
“Uh … Gringo …”
“He has an upscale place in Ft. Myers and is always looking for something new … new but something that’ll give him a good profit. C’mon … just try. For me?” And he winked.
For some reason that wink made Emi want to giggle, something she hadn’t done for a long, long time. And wanting to giggle subsequently made her feel cranky. Rather than let him know any of it she shook her head. “You’re loco. What do I know about business?”
“Enough to know the difference between a good deal and a bad one. ‘Sides, I want you to get to know some of my customers. I want you to tell me what you think of them.”
Cautiously she asked, “Why?”
“Because you see things. Look at what you caught with Ernie.”
Emi muttered in disgust, “I almost caught something all right.”
With a matching look of disgust for what he’d missed for so long Nate said, “You know what I mean. You don’t have any preconceived notions of what people should be so you are less likely to be fooled.”
Emi slowly nodded. “So long as I don’t run into anyone I might know … or know of.”
“I doubt there are many that you would know but I’ll try to give you some warning if they are locals.”
“Yeah … might be best. But I’ll … I’ll try not to … let … oh forget it. I’ll try not to put my foot in it but no promises.”
Nate gave her a grin. “Stop worrying it to death woman. I trust you. Now let me have a kiss so we can finish up while my head is on straight.”
“Uh huh,” Emi said quietly. “Claro. Usted puede tener un beso. Pero dudo que dejará su cabeza bien puesta. Probablemente lo contrario.”
When Nate started laughing Bastian and Darla looked over and gave him a strange look before asking Emi, “What did you say?”
"Never mind. Your father is trying to be funny again,” she told the boy reminding him of the last time he’d caught them almost kissing. “Now finish up so I don’t have to wait all night to clean your dishes … or don’t you want that slice of pie already?”
Threatened with the loss of the treat he’d been eagerly awaiting all day Bastian finally consented to eat the avocado-based dish though he still didn’t go at it with the gusto he normally used. Emi turned back to Nate and said, “I been making a list, trying to figure out how much.”
Nate had been watching a bead of sweat slide down into Emi’s cleavage so took a moment to refocus. “Uh …”
Emi shook her head and muttered, “Loco.”
Finally, back to business Nate just grinned. “So tell me about this list.”
“I been looking around. You got more variety than my Abuelo really wanted. He said he liked to know what he knew and not worry about having to know too much about too much and have it get away from him. On the other hand, not putting all of your huevos in one basket is better for what you need these days.” Emi got up and brought back a single-page draft of the big chart that she and Bastian were working on. She tried to hand it to Nate but he indicated he wanted her to explain it to him. She shrugged and told him, “To start with you got six little trees that I think are June Apples. They ain’t been taken care of so good so what is coming off of them is small and hard. I … I … well I think I can do what Abuela would do to make them worth something but it’s gonna take most of the honey that is left in the bucket so maybe not. Depends on what you say.”
“Use it. That’s just the bucket that Arden kept for the house. I’ve got more in one of the storage containers if it isn’t enough. Like a couple of fifty gallon drums or so. Will that be enough?”
Emi froze and just blinked at Nate while a piece of avocado hung half out of her mouth. “Eres un hombre muy loco. How can you be so … so …” Then she went off in a slew of Spanish of which Nate only understood to mean that she thought he was taking risks he had no business taking. “How can you just say you have fifty-gallon drums of honey like it’s no big deal?! Ayiiiii!”
“Chill woman. If you don’t want honey I’ve got twice that in raw sugar from down South and …”
Emi seriously considered throwing something at Nate. “You been salvaging too long. You don’t know how things work,” she complained. “Tomorrow all that gets brought to the house and we gonna finish making that storeroom like old Fort Knox.” She continued to mutter until she felt Nate’s bare toes nudge the back of her knee, causing her to startle and jump.
Nate grinned. “That’s better. Fine. We’ll move it tomorrow. And sure. I should have done it before now. Just relax already. All that bosom heaving is … distracting.”
Gritting her teeth at what she considered Nate’s unnecessary levity she nevertheless continued on after noting that she needed to find out what else Nate had stored in the outbuildings and get it rearranged and properly secured. “Fine. Abuela used to cook the little apples she would get into a mash that she would then seal in jars. I been emptying some of the jars that there was only bits and pieces left in and the seals around the lids look like they can be reused.”
Surprised and more than a little impressed Nate asked, “You can do that? Preserve stuff in jars?”
“Eh … like I said … busy work. My father’s mother taught my mother. Momma then taught Abuela and she liked it so well that she … well … Abuela …” Emi shrugged. “Reason I understand your mother in law …”
“Ex mother-in-law.”
Emi rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “The reason why I get Mrs. Rivera … even if I don’t want to … is because she … Look Abuela wasn’t a snob and she wasn’t as cranky as Mrs. Rivera but she could be … starchy and set on having her way. And when Abuela … well she pulled the whole family into it like it had been her idea all along. All of us cousins had to help but being the youngest girl and to keep me out of trouble, they kept me busy with all of it. Sometimes Abuela would make me write lines … from the Bible mostly but sometimes recipes and just stuff she dictated … if she didn’t think I was paying enough attention to what was being said to me. She wasn’t satisfied until I could answer all her questions about how stuff was done and in what order.”
“She sounds … uh …”
“Naw. Abuela wasn’t … well … bad to us or anything. She could be fun and she had lots of good ideas and she put the whole family ahead of herself. It’s just that she had her own ideas of what was proper for a girl and I missed the mark a lotta the time. I wasn’t quiet or gentle or able to sit still and be good or most other things … the only thing she liked is that I could sing and play music better than my cousins though she wanted me to play el piso … the piano … instead of the guitar. Sometimes she would make my Momma mad because she would say that Momma and my father would let me get away with too much, that if they would just handle me the way she did I would change and be a little princess like the other girl cousins were.” Emi snorted. “Momma told me so long as I behaved most of the time she didn’t expect me to be like the other girl cousins. She said Abuela had standards that were kinda hard to live up to. When I got old enough it made me wonder how it was growing up as Abuela’s daughter.”
Emi chuckled causing Nate to ask, “What?”
She shrugged and said, “If Abuela had known how my cousins would act when she wasn’t around …” Then Emi’s smile faltered. “She would have been triste … sad. Family was everything to her. She had … had ideas of what her family was and what family meant. Sometimes my cousins would make fun of her for being old-fashioned. But Momma explained it to me one time … explained she needed things for reasons many of us were too young to understand. Abuela had it hard in her family growing up. Her mother died when she was a bebe and her stepmother pushed her aside for her own children. Her father … eh … he didn’t have much time for a girl child, especially one that at least should have been a boy to make up for killing her mama.” Before Nate could say anything Emi added, “But like my father always explained, it was different times and a different culture. When Abuela met Poppy, she married him even without her father’s consent and when Poppy became successful despite the cursing both families did … it is some of what caused the hard feelings.” Emi shook her head more than a little irritated at herself for getting caught up in history that was better left buried in the past. “Long ago and means nothing. Let us return to what you need.”
Nate reached over and put his hand on hers. “I like that you feel you can tell me about your family. It helps me to understand where you come from.”
“Why? I never hear about yours?”
Nate sighed. “I … I guess … sometimes when something hurts you … you just turn it off. Eventually if you leave it off too long … you forget.”
“That bad?”
Nate shook his head. “All families have their own problems, mine is no exception but my marriage to Gina … that is some of the worst drama there was. If anything my family was painfully and boringly normal. Then one day most of them were simply … gone. You never know what you have and how much it is worth to you until you’ve lost it and know there is no getting it back.”
Emi picked up the pitcher of sangria she’d made and poured him another glass while she said, “Tienes un agujero en tu corazón. I’m sorry that you sorrow so much you can’t even remember it.”
Nate drank deeply before changing the subject. “This sangria tastes different than the one you made yesterday.”
Accepting the change of subject gracefully she explained, “I use what fruit there is. And on that subject, are there more jars in these magic storage sheds of yours?”
Nate grinned, “A few.”
Emi gritted her teeth and vowed silently once again to explore the sheds before saying, “Good. We will need them to take care of all the fruit you don’t haul to market.”
“So you told me about the apples … and even small and pithy apples bring a good bit in the local market because very few grow anywhere near here. What else do we have to work with tomorrow?”
“There is something called an ambarella … Poppy said some people called it a June plum but it isn’t really. Why people want to call something by so many different names I don’t know. It’s not a plum … it’s an ambarella. The bananas and plaintains will keep giving to October so long as we can keep the possums and raccoons out of them. You need a bigger hanging shed that is more secure. Either that or you need to let Benji set some traps and catch the meanest and boldest. I’ll put them in a cage and fatten them up with good food and then …”
Curiously Nate asked, “You ate raccoon growing up? I wouldn’t have thought your grand … uh …”
Emi grinned. “Abuelo came from poor but never yearned to eat the mapache or zarigueya. My father’s people were even poorer than Abuelo’s family. My grandfather – my father’s father – said that if it moved his parents considered it fair game to feed their many children and other relatives that lived with them. Some of the things that my grandmother said her people ate …” Emi shuddered. “It sounded like they would even eat rotten fish to keep starvation away if that is what it took.”
Nate noticed that like all the other times before talking about her family slowly sank Emi into a funk but this time she surprised him by shaking it off and saying, “But you and the kids won’t have to do that. The trees will grow and fruit. The goats and chickens will live. And I will learn about the other good things that can come from the land here. It won’t be like it was before. Now let us finish this list before Darla has to be dunked in the trough to get all of the guacamole off of her.”
Nate smiled and said, “Yes … I love my daughter but there are things I’m more interested in doing besides scraping her clean.”
Emi was in no doubt of what Nate was interested in doing and truthfully she had no problem with it. A deal was a deal, but this deal seemed to be working well for both of them. Still, she wasn’t about to tell him that so she once again continued. “Rob said that here is a … a deshidratador … a thing that dries. He says it was used to dry bricks in olden times.”
Nate nodded. “Yeah.”
“Could it be made to dry other things? Like fruits?”
Nate thought for a moment then suddenly gave a wicked grin. “I think so. Rob … and if not him one of Miguel’s people maybe … could fix it so. You got ideas?”
Emi pulled out a sketch. “I saw it in a book that was in Poppy’s library when I was little. He wanted one but Abuela always talked him out of it as a waste of time. But it reminds me of the thing you have. If we could work a way to have big trays that could be pulled in and out I could do things without heating the house up so much … like make fruit paste or when the garden comes slice the vegetables so they will shrink and can be stored in smaller containers and make it harder for the ratas y ratones y cucarachas to get to.”
As Nate made a few notes of his own he said, “Continue.”
“Not much left. Mostly it is just to let you know what else is coming in and maybe some ideas how you can make people want to buy it.”
“So tell me already woman,” Nate said grinning around another drink of sangria.
“Loco,” Emi said though it was with a grin of her own. “The Barbados cherry … it is good with lots of Vitamin C, something your customers might like to know. The capulin … can be used like a sweet cherry and that too is good because like the apples there aren’t real cherry trees this far south. Abuelo would even make a wine from such fruit … much to Abuela’s sometimes disgust. Then there is the coconut you know, or you should since the wind threw one at your head this morning.”
Nate growled playfully. “Watch it.”
Emi just shrugged innocently … or as innocently as she could pretend to be. “You have the Chickasaw plum though they need to be cleaned and fenced off better to keep the cabras out. They eat the saw briar vines but then just continue on to everything else. Luckily we caught them before the poor goats could get sick. Next to the Chickasaw is the cocoplum and closer to the water’s edge are a stand of elderberries though I think those are natural and not part of the planted orchard. Some other things are … hmmm …” Nate saw her close her eyes momentarily before reciting, “Jamaica cherry, the lychee will finish this month, pitomba, sea grapes, white sapote, and those cactus that Benji doesn’t like are actually dragonfruit. Your buyers should also like the mangoes and papayas. There will be other things next month but mostly just a continuation of what is coming in this month. Is that enough? Is it good?”
Buzzing from the sangria Nate said, “Let’s get the kids to bed and I will show you how good.”
[1] HOME | tfgsf-2
Chapter 33
When Nate had told Emi that the buyers would be arriving early he hadn’t been exaggerating. Before the roosters crowed there were boats at the dock and men standing around the citronella laced torches that lit open spaces near the water and the barn that had been chosen for the bidding as well as the path between the two.
Emi was feeding a very sleepy Bastian and doubly cranky Darla, wondering how she was supposed to look after the children and help Nate at the same time when there were steps on the porch. She tensed but then she saw several little Kikos staring in at her from the screen door.
“What are you little monos doing out there? Your momma know where you are at?”
Dora sighed unseen in the darkness and said, “Yes she does.”
Emi hurried to open the door and drew the children and Dora into the kitchen before re-shutting the screen. “Nate didn’t say …”
“I know. It wasn’t planned. I just had to get away … good Lord … is she actually eating quietly?!”
Emi bit the inside of her cheek and said, “She will if she wants to get more than a banana to eat.”
Darla sang out, “Bikit and banama and gits and hmmm hmmm hmmmm. Peeze.”
Dora looked for a moment like she was going to fall down before shaking herself and saying, “Er … what’s hmmm hmmm hmmm?”
Emi winced but before she had to answer Bastian said, “Emi sings real good and Darla likes it. Dad and me do too.”
A male chuckle was followed by, “Dad and I like it too.”
Emi momentarily felt like throwing a skillet at Nate who had quietly entered the kitchen from the front of the house to let him know what she thought of his foolishness but figured doing it in front of his sister wasn’t the best strategic move on her part. She did however give him a look that would have peeled paint … or would have if it hadn’t simply made Nate chuckle again. Emi tried to ignore him but he came in and gave her a peck on the cheek causing her to freeze at the public display with her hand half way to the pot that held the grits that needed to come off the heat.
Knowing he had likely pushed his luck as far as it could be pushed Nate reached around her and gently moved the pot himself before pushing Emi towards a chair. “Sit and eat.”
“The children …,” she objected.
“I’ll fill their plates but I need you to hurry and come out and meet the buyers. I’ve got a couple new ones out there throwing the Spanglish around and I want you to tell me if it is legit or if they are playing me.”
Emi tried again. “The children …”
Dora said, “I’ll watch them. Like I started to say … before we were rudely interrupted …” She arched her brow at her unrepentant younger brother. “Kiko wants to get rid of some his portion of the salvage. Tony came with him but at the last minute he decided to also bring that menace that he married. She is a piece of high maintenance salvage that is getting on my last nerve and she is even wearing on Angelique’s nerves.”
Emi shrugged, not understanding the problem. “So kick ‘em out. They big enough to get married without permission, they big enough to do the rest of it on their own too.”
“Don’t I wish,” Dora sighed revealing just how tired she was and how the situation was truly wearing on her.
Emi glanced at Nate who missed it as he already had a lot on his mind – including trying to untangle from his daughter’s banana covered hand where it had gripped his collar in an attempt to get more grits than he’d originally piled in her bowl.
Emi sighed and stood back up. “You’ll need to change that shirt or the gnats will swarm you.” Turning to Darla she gave her “the eye” and said, “Let your poppa go and eat your breakfast. Be good bebe for your Aunt Dora or no musica.”
“I want …!”
One word left Emi’s mouth. “Darla.”
It was with a great deal of obvious disgust that Darla picked up her spoon and started attacking her grits and aiming them in the general direction of her mouth.
Emi turned to find Dora just looking at the little girl like she’d never seen her before. Emi asked, “You sure you … uh …”
“Go,” she told Emi as her brother walked onto the back porch with a clean shirt he’d grabbed from a hook in the old utility area.
“Uh …”
“Nate wouldn’t say he needed you if it wasn’t true. Just do me a favor and see if you can keep Tony from killing a deal for Kiko.” She sighed again showing she was really concerned. “Kiko loves his brother but lately … too much friction. He’s turning into what he …”
Carefully Emi asked, “This girl really the problem? Or did Kiko … come home too much the man he used to be?”
With a shrug Dora answered, “You saw it? He’s different now.”
“Sure.”
Like she had to believe it which let Emi know that at some point the man Kiko used to be had been a problem for Dora, Nate’s sister added, “That girl is most of the problem but not all of it. And while Tony is far from a saint himself, he has never been in the same league as Kiko and Kiko has tried to keep it that way. But this time Tony really bit off more than he was ready to chew and that wife of his is such a drama queen about it all. Neither one of them knew what they were getting into. Kiko grumbles but he wants to believe they’ll work it out. I’m not so sure. I wish I knew what to do. It is starting to affect the children.”
“Would anyone be triste if this girl … goes away?”
“What? No … I mean …”
Emi shrugged, accepting that her reputation made people think the worst first. “I do not mean permanently. I mean if a new living arrangement can be found.”
A little guiltily Dora admitted, “It’s something Kiko and I have discussed but while she may be a hot mess, she’s not really trash. I wouldn’t want to see the girl go to the block.”
“Let me think on it. Maybe I know someone that could have some idea.”
“Who?” Dora asked suspiciously.
“Woman that crossed the Gulf with us. She’s now married to Nate’s man Miguel. I haven’t seen her since we came to Alma but I think I know a way to contact her.”
“I … I don’t want to see the girl hurt but …”
“Sure. But you need her gone so for Nate I’ll do this.”
“Why?”
Emi repeated, “For Nate … you’re his familia. He won’t want to see what you are trying to hide. Better for us women to handle this. Thing is Tony will have to cooperate and if he …”
“He’ll cooperate or else,” Dora replied grimly.
“Good enough. I’ll see what I can do. Even if she doesn’t go, maybe she could be … encouraged … to ser major … be better. For the family. Now I’d best get out there before Nate sends Benji to give me what for.” With another look of warning Darla’s way Emi slung her rifle over her shoulder and stepped out into the yard.
She could tell as soon as her eyes adjusted that Nate was irritated beneath his good-natured salesman act. She headed in his direction but caught Benji as he ran by and asked, “Who is getting on his nerves? Me for being late?”
“Oh no Mrs. Bale. More people showed up for the sale than were invited. Some of ‘em are getting kinda pushy and wanting to see the goods before the agreed upon time.”
“Should I head for the barn?”
“Uh … no ma’am. Mr. Miguel showed up and he’s stationed some of his brothers over there. But maybe you’d best go … er …”
“Smooth Nate’s feathers?”
Benji bit his lips trying not to smile. “Yes ‘m. Dad says he’s getting a little hot under the collar.”
Emi nodded then strolled over slowly listening to the conversations flowing around her while observing the people crowding Nate more closely than she was happy with. Some of them were even women and there was one in particular that made her want to grind her teeth though she refused to contemplate just why that was.
Noticing where some of the torches were unlit or had been put out … some of them throwing shadows where there shouldn’t have been any … Emi grabbed an extra torch, lit it and then walked around relighting things. She then nonchalantly tossed the torch into a burn barrel perilously close to the one hanging all over Nate.
When the barrel suddenly flamed to life the woman gave a little shriek and backed away. Emi walked into the space the woman had vacated but said nothing and kept her face carefully blank. Nate looked down and asked, “Kids ok?”
“Dora is with them.”
Nate looked like he wanted to say more but was interrupted by the other woman asking, “Who the hell are you?”
Neither Nate nor Emi had to answer because another woman said, “Trouble you definitely do not want to find. Or hadn’t you heard that Nate here had gotten hooked up by a priest?” Barb. Emi glanced her way and a silent message passed between them.
The other woman made a face. “So the rumor is true? Funny. He wasn’t acting married a minute ago.”
Emi suddenly flicked a blade and a snake fell from the tree they had been standing under. She stepped over and used her booted foot to give the snake a boost into the air so she could remove the blade which promptly disappeared again … causing a few whispers at how fast it had happened. She gave a piercing whistle and Benji came out of the dark. “Yes Mrs. Bale?”
“Your father said you need a new Sunday belt. See if this will work.”
“Yes ma’am,” Benji said enthusiastically as he took the dead boa and left to find his father who’d promised his next good belt could be of snakeskin.
Emi was silent once again and just looked around. She saw two men step back into the shadows and saw that one of the torches she’d just lit was once again dark. A suspicion began forming in her mind and she turned and in a pretense gave Barb a hug while passing a blade to her and whispering, “Cover the kids in the house. Somethin’ don’t feel so good.”
Barb stepped back hiding her surprise with a cackle of laughter and saying, “Wait ‘til Miguel hears.”
Both Nate and Kiko had caught her very unusual display of affection but didn’t say anything. They did however start maneuvering themselves around in the crowd. Nate started drawing some of the buyers into an area where he’d stationed several guards. Kiko directed a young man and woman who could only be Tony and his bride to follow Barb. He then strolled by and mouthed, “Mira tu espalda chica.”
Emi had every intention of watching her back. The question for her was whether the ultimate target was her back or Nate’s? Or was it a two-fer. She’d spent too much time on the street not to think of the possibility that Nauldo’s people were here for venganza … for revenge. She glanced at Nate just in time to see him looking into the dark behind her and his eyes fill with fury.
Emi swung around just in time to avoid the woman that she had displaced come at her with a knife. The woman obviously had some experience in knife fighting … but just as obviously not as much as Emi. And her technique was very sloppy. She held her knife like an ice pick; good for penetration and close work … and for stabbing your opponent in the back … not so much for anything else. Emi preferred to hold her blade in a hammer grip that was best for long and midrange moves allowing her to make body cuts and stabs while still being able to move out of range before her opponent could take counter measures.
Emi also noted that the woman wasn’t just holding the knife wrong, she was using the wrong knife. The one she held was something that Emi would have used for throwing … thin, lightweight, sharpened on both sides, and no significant hilt. For fighting Emi preferred a fixed blade … one with a good grip and a hilt substantial enough that it too could be used as a weapon if need be.
The woman’s attitude was also questionable. She was all sharkteeth grin though Emi could also sense a great deal of anger beneath the grin. Emi’s passive visage and lack of fear aggravated the woman just enough that she took a second attempt by making a sudden circle to the right and a tight lunge where the woman attempted to put her blade between the ribs under Emi’s breast. Emi spun at the last moment and though she took a small cut, that was all.
“Hah! Not so good are you?” the woman sneered. “Look at you bleed.”
Emi relaxed her stance and picked up her rifle. “So do you.”
That’s when the woman looked down in confusion and saw the blooms of red across her stomach. She grabbed herself and slid to her knees while blood began to pour faster. No one else had moved. The woman looked around in shock and slowly fell over. Emi could tell she wasn’t dead yet but shock and blood loss would take care of that shortly.
Emi once again used the toe of her boot, this time causing her opponents knife to shoot upwards, but rather than holding onto it she spun and sent the knife into the dark where it found its mark and a man fell out of the tree to land crumpled at Nate’s feet. “Gringo, you got too many snakes around here. Think we need to clean them out.”
Miguel chose that moment to step into the firelight and whisper something to his former Captain who then announced, “Already accomplished but Don asks if you’d go to the dock and handle a couple of bulls that are getting in their way of salvaging the pirate sloop.”
“Eh. You’re the boss.”
It was a toss-up who was being watched more, Nate … or his killer bride.