BOMAW Vol. 10-12 (205 page)

Her especially.

Had she done that, stuck to that, he was certain, at the end of it, she would have been strong enough to stand back and not be persuaded by anyone or anything to make the decision she must have made last night. For the life of him, he still couldn't believe it. That she'd given up all they now had, to return to a life that was an accident to begin with. He loved Isaac and Darren, sometimes, more than their own father loved them, but the fact was, her life - was an unplanned, accidental journey that he prayed ended well for her. Shawn was putting
his
wallet away, and the money he took into his own wallet, when what he was saying snapped him from his thoughts, "When we get back, I'll be giving your sister a lesson in cooking greens," He started out, grinning, "I feel like eating some tonight, so when we hit Mauston, drop by the store there, we'll pick up all the ingredients, so I can show her the right way to cook greens! We're gonna do some catfish too, your mother could cook that a bit more for me!" Laughing, he finished, "Wait until she see's me teaching Crystal, she won't be able to control her input! How many times you think I'll have to stop her? Excuse her from the scene?"

Mundo sighed, his stomach hurt.

"Dad ... " He paused, trying to find the words, then thought, say it. "I'm afraid, you ain't gone have that session, because ah - well - last night, or, sometime during the middle of the night, Crystal - she ah - she went back to Victor. They gone, the boys and her, went back to him."

Shawn couldn't believe his ears, the news was as if someone had pushed him back, and hard into the seat.

Ben popped up in the back, shaking his head, "What were you guys, just talkin' about? I just had this weird, crazy dream - scared the shit out of me, woke me up!" He shook his head chuckling, "I could have sworn you said something like, Crystal and the boys, went back to Victor - crazy ass dream." He looked from Shawn, to Mundo, staring into his eyes in the rear view mirror, they were at a light. Shawn and Mundo were silent, Ben stroked through his hair, "Come on man, was I dreamin' or what?"

Mundo swallowed hard, "Naw man, wasn't no dream - she gone man, she took the boys last night, went back to Victor ... she gone."

Ben shifted back in the seat, squirming slow, trying to steady himself from the blow to his stomach; he bit into his bottom lip, trying to look everywhere but at Shawn, at Mundo, his head went back - he felt sick, tears rushed to his eyes, both hands went to his head, covering his eyes, trying to stop the trauma of the immediate pain; but this was new to him. He'd never known pain like this - not ever in his life; he hadn't a clue of how to stop it, all he could do was writhe and squirm with it, as he slid back to the side, laying along the seat and bite into his lip hard - tightening his fist that he pressed into his closed eyes.

From the top of Washbend road once you turned on it, about half a block in for the next half a mile, there were vehicles, trucks, semi's, diggers, tractor trailers, and every variation of heavy duty building equipment with a split delivery of a double wide mobile home in the midst, waiting on the side to be placed on it's lot, that was also being formed. The noise level was high, with the looks of a major building site for a high-rise instead of a family home. The original plans for the home which Shawn had drawn up with the new security measures, had now doubled in width and depth. Because of all that needed to be checked, tested and in place within the home once completed, it couldn't take all summer to finish, it needed to be done immediately. The target for full completion was four weeks, no more. The team Shawn had hired, would still be in on the building work, but they would not be the primary builders. To compensate them, Deidre was paying them now, and much more than the original offer, which they gladly took. In addition, they still would get to claim and use the home in their portfolio as reference to future clients. If that were not enough, they would be learning even more in the building trade when it came to building high-end mansions with complicated security layouts and systems, this was a bonus, well worth being in the midst of to add to their knowledge base; they couldn't be happier. In the meantime, the focus for them was on the garage top, open plan, apartment for the bed and breakfast, and the decking that would run along the back and side of the garage, to end at the rear corner of the house. There, a stunning no slip outer deck, wrap stairs would take one up from the basement in either direction onto the deck, and up once more to the apartment backdoor, landing/balcony that would be above it. They would also finish Sylvia's kitchen upstairs; there wasn't much left to do other than the flooring, the walls and then fitting the new cabinets, mini-pantry, kitchen bar structure, and the new stainless steel appliances she purchased for it, which would give it a very polished, professional looking work kitchen, something well into a high end presentation when she started preparing meals for the guests.

It was in the midst of all this activity that Lucas Henry Martin Jr. found himself driving into, having to stop and ask one of the workers which home was Sylvia's, it was hard to spot buried behind trucks and equipment. Her lawn was history for the time being, now a temporary parking lot for many at the building site. As for the lot of land Deidre purchased, a row of 5 port-a-potti stalls were lined up, as well two shower stalls for safety reasons, and a temp break area - all done at the break of dawn.

After parking down from Sylvia's house, in what he hoped was a safe place, fearing for his BMW - Lucas looked around him, wondering what in the world was going on, and was his sister connected to any of it? Considering how many vehicles were parked up and down the road and on her land, off to the side of her home and elsewhere, he figured it had to be. In his mind, it all immediately translated into dollars, money, big money, he was a bit surprised by that. He made his way to her front door and knocked, standing with his hands in his pockets looking around him in rapt wonder trying to make heads or tails of what was happening when he heard her ask, "Who is it?"

Smiling, he turned, "Your brother - Lucas." He answered, now facing the opening door.

Sylvia stood with her eyes wide in disbelief, "Lucas? Oh my goodness?! Lucas!"

"Hey sis - long time no see huh? Don't just stand there, do I get a hug?" He asked.

"Oh my goodness of course!" She stepped forward hugging him, too stunned to think straight, happy to see him, while blown away by his sudden presence. "Where've you been, how'd you find me? Oh my goodness Lucas, come in!" She invited him. "Excuse my home, things are a little upside down right now."

"I see, all this going on out there - that all you?"

She nodded and then, "Well, yes - mainly my husband's doing - I'm uh - married again. Shoot, well - not sure if you know, Armundo died a few years ago, in a car accident."

"So I heard, by the looks of things, you've recovered pretty well - landed on your feet, didn't you girl." He looked down at her softly protruding mid-section, while she wasn't big, it was easy to tell that she was pregnant. "What's up with that?" He nodded towards her growing mound.

Sylvia blushed, was still a bit self-conscience about being pregnant, after all, she had two adult children, "I'm having a baby, isn't it obvious?" She asked, and was immediately put on her guard. It was like that with her brother Lucas, he had always been arrogant, judgemental, with strong opinions about women, especially the black woman - one of the reasons he and their mother hadn't gotten along so well.

"Definitely obvious - what's up with that? One would think you'd be ready to move onto something else, I mean, you've done the domestic thing, isn't it time for a more planned out professional life? What happened to your singing? I always thought you'd stand up one day, fill a concert hall with that voice."

Sylvia scratched behind her ear, a nervous gesture and sighed, not sure what to say when, Angela and Sasha made their way out of the bedroom; Angela moving slow to assist her cousin if she needed it. Because everything was so hectic that morning, Sylvia hadn't finished breakfast and it was already close to afternoon, when lunch in fact was closest to the meal needed. Her eyes were on them as well her brother's, standing beside her.

"We cleaned our room, we're going downstairs." Angela spoke softly, she was still down, not smiling, clearly depressed about Crystal.

"I'll be down in just a minute to fix breakfast, okay?"

They both nodded, looking up at Lucas. Sylvia turned to her brother, "Lucas, this is Angela, my husband's daughter, my daughter," She emphasized the my, "... and her cousin, Sasha." She pointed them out.

Lucas took special note of both, little white girls, especially focusing on Angela, "Pretty girls, nice to meet you." He politely greeted them, in his mind, unsettled by their whiteness, even though the cousin looked more Hispanic to him.

They both smiled, nodded to him as Sylvia explained who he was, "This is my oldest brother, Lucas, - we'll be down in a minute okay?"

"Sylvia I can fix us toast and cereal, that'll be fine." Angela volunteered.

"No cereal please, but there's plenty of fruit, yogurt - will you fix that instead? I've been meaning to get rid of that cereal."

"Okay, we can handle it, can't we Sasha?"

"Yep, we can handle it. Bye Lucas, nice to meet you." Sasha lifted a hand from her crutches to wave at him.

He nodded at her, his eyes rolling to Angela, "Me too, nice meeting you - Sylvia you want me to do enough for you and Uncle Lucas?" Angela asked.

"Ah, you can call me Lucas young lady, that'll be fine, just Lucas." He immediately corrected her.

Sylvia's eyes went to him, widening and then back to Angela, "No baby, just enough for you all, don't worry about us."

"Okay." She gave them one last smile and followed her cousin into the basement, her mind on anything but Lucas' correcting her on what to call him. When the door closed, the brother and sister turned back to each other, and of course, he was the first to speak.

"Damn, you playing nanny, nursemaid, maid and babymaker to'im huh? When we gone let white folks raise they own damn kids?" He couldn't believe it, shaking his head, "What has happened to you? I can't believe you this deep into this? A white man Sylvia? All the men in the world, you had to hook up with a white one."

"Is this why you came here? To check up on my martial status? This deep into exactly what, Lucas? My family? Yes, I am deep into my family!" She defended immediately.

He leaned in close to her as if someone else might hear, "That - them - they - ain't yo'family - white folks - geez girl! You still a beautiful, talented, blessed black woman - incredible voice - what in the heck you doing up in this white man's world? Playing nursemaid to his - an' havin' his baby - woman I can't believe you - my lil'sister," He shook his head, "You do not belong here - this don't even look right."

Sylvia stood with her head buzzing, thinking, 'Lord - I do not need this right now, not now.' Because she was so caught off guard by his sudden appearance, she was trying to think before she spoke, and could only come up with, "So you know about my husband? Shawn? Who told you?"

"Mama!"

"Oh, I see - how long were you there, to see mama? Did you also see that our father is back?"

"Yes, I saw'im - I'm not interested in discussing him - he took off."

"Em, yeah, he did - and if my memory serves me correctly, you followed suit - taking off."

"Can you blame me? Was there any reason to stay?"

"I guess not Lucas, you left after all - so no; with that in view, why are you back now?"

"I came to see about you?"

Sylvia turned away with a sarcastic chuckle, "To see about me huh? Em, well, as you can see, I'm doing just fine - though, not to your satisfaction." She lead the way to the sofa, choosing not to take him downstairs amidst the kids, he'd already made his stand obvious by correcting Angela on calling him uncle, which wasn't sitting well with her at all. He sat on the sofa next to her, trying to think, "Look - I came on the scene, because I thought, by now, surely you were ready for a change - to do something worthwhile with your life - besides having babies - and now I see, with whom, I cannot believe it."

Before she could come back on that; timing was perfect, speaking of - the devil - the white man walked in; Mundo and Ben right behind him.

The sudden sound of the front door coming open brought both Lucas' and Sylvia's eyes to it. Sylvia was both relieved, and dreaded that he was home. Today was really not a good day for her brother to show up on their doorstep. She stood, "Shawn... you're home." Was all that came out of her mouth.

The only thing on Shawn's mind when he walked in the door, was getting a hold of Crystal, talking to her. Therefore, seeing a black man, his age or older, sitting on the sofa with features similar to Sylvia's mother and father - stopped him dead in his tracks.

Lucas Henry Martin Jr.

'Jesus! Not now!'

While his eyes were dead set on Lucas's, so was the gesture being returned.

Lucas slowly came to his feet, his eyes flitting to Mundo and then to Ben and back to Shawn again.

Ben couldn't have stood giving small talk at that moment if his life depended on it, his stomach hurt, his chest was feeling tight, and he was fighting with emotions he had no experience with - his entire body felt weak, the urge was uncontrollable to find somewhere to lie down. He nodded to Sylvia and Lucas and immediately made his way to the basement door, closing it behind him.

Mundo stood by Shawn's side, eyeing his uncle, then looking to his mother, she looked nervous to him. The room crackled in awkward silence until Shawn was the first to look at his mother, stepping towards her, "Yeah, I wanted to get back here right away." He murmured, pulling her to his side, his hand on her back, his eyes on Lucas.