Authors: Mercedes Keyes
Mundo closed the front door, moving further into the room as well.
Lucas took his eyes off of Shawn to gaze at Mundo again, he looked so much like his brother David, it was mind blowing.
"Ah, Shawn, this is my brother Lucas; Lucas... this is my husband, Shawn." Sylvia introduced them trying to work through the tension that was there.
Once more, the men's eyes met, Shawn decided to be the first to extend a hand, "Nice to finally meet you, Lucas."
Lucas looked down at his hand, deciding to be decent at the very least, taking it for a very brief, very quick shake and releasing it as if he couldn't stand to hold it a moment beyond that brief touch.
"Yeah, it's certainly a surprise, meeting you - I was ah, talking to my sister when you walked in the door, mind if we, continue where we left off?"
Sylvia couldn't believe he was dismissing Shawn within moments of him walking in the door, his views were one thing, but he was after all, in Shawn's home. Taking them both by surprise, Shawn cleared his throat saying, "So, you're excusing me from the room in my own home? Is that right? And uh, if I came into your home where you pay the bills and the cost to be the boss - doing to you, what you just pulled with me, what would your reply then be?" He confronted him on it boldly.
Sylvia's mouth dropped open for the second time until she saw the look on her brother's face. It was clear, he hadn't expected this from Shawn - to have the nerve to come back at him in such a way. In truth, she was a bit stunned herself, she hadn't been sure how he would handle a black family member of hers, treating him as Lucas was, disrespectfully. As for her brother, it was apparent he let the fact that he was white fool him into believing he was easy prey to be disrespected in such a way. Moving away from her brother's side, she positioned herself to stand next to her husband, saying, "Ah, Lucas, while you try to find an appropriate answer for my husband - this young man is my son - Armundo Jr. -or-Mundo as we all call him. Mundo, this is your Uncle Lucas." She introduced them.
"Em - yeah - right, I've heard of'em." Mundo eyed him up and down, turned and left the room, his disdain of him clear. He had no choice but to leave, because the man was his mother's brother, his elder, family, but for his actions towards Shawn, rather than disrespect him and get ugly, his choice was to leave the room. He didn't know his "uncle" Lucas from Adam, this would be his first time meeting him, seeing him in real life. Before this, only on pictures. The only uncle he'd ever known was his uncle David, and besides him, Dennis. But this man, - no, he wasn't about to just now step into his home and dis the only man who'd ever been a real father to him, in the true sense of the word, for the reason of him being white. To leave the room was best, besides, as far as he was concerned, he was a lightweight, as Shawn's words had shown, he could handle him just fine on his own.
Lucas stood burning in embarrassment, his assumptions about how he was going to handle things once facing the white man his sister married seemed to fall at his feet. In most cases he'd known of, where there were white males trying to be with a black woman and fit into her world, any confrontations from present black males, they folded - backed up, excused themselves trying to keep the peace; especially if confronted by black males of her family. It was automatically expected that they would let their wives deal with them and step aside, he'd assumed that would be the case with this one. Instead, he, her husband, this Shawn, stood his ground, staring him down, not budging from an obvious full blown confrontation.
Lucas took a deep breath, looked Shawn in the eyes, "I see, it's like that huh?"
"I'm not sure what you mean? It's like what?" Shawn returned right away.
Making her decision, Sylvia backed away saying, "I have kids to see about, you've been introduced, I'll let you two work the rest out."
Lucas couldn't believe her, "Hang on, you gone just walk off?" He asked stunned.
"You're a grown man Lucas, you don't need me, your little sister to hold your hand do you? After all, you set the theme, you created the temperature in this room, now you deal with it." And from him she asked Shawn, "Baby you need me to fix you something to eat?"
"No I'm fine, but have you eaten this morning?" He asked with a lifted brow.
"I'm on my way now to." She admitted.
"Sylvia McPherson, you know better." He mildly scolded her.
Making a face, she returned at the basement door, "I know, I know - I'm going now." She grumbled back.
Lucas put his hands on his hips incredulous as they spoke to each other as if he wasn't in the room.
Shawn grinned, threw her a kiss with the pursing of his lips, ignoring Lucas for the moment. Grinning, Sylvia touched her lips throwing him one back and disappeared from the room.
Taking a deep breath, Shawn turned back to Lucas, "Now, where were we?"
Lucas did a, 'Hmph.' gesture, shaking his head. He looked up at the man before him again, realizing he had to come to him in a totally different way, or leave, it was one or the other. "You know what, can we rewind this tape, start over again?"
"All things considered, sounds like a pretty good idea to me. However, I would prefer it if we took this across the road into my studio, if you wouldn't mind?" Shawn asked, stepping back to the front door, opening it, with a clear show, the answer to his question was non-negotiable. Taking a deep breath, Lucas bolstered up his mandible, squared his shoulders and stepped to the door with unfazed bravado. Wondering as he followed Shawn, who this man was and how to best deal with him? He wasn't anything like he expected. He watched him stop quickly, briefly, speaking with the workers they passed, and then moved onward, leading the way to this new building. They entered, with Shawn holding the door for him as they passed through it, and then to his office.
"Must excuse my office, there are still things to be added, like an extra chair, have mine, I'll lean on the desk here."
"No thank you, I'll stand." Lucas informed him, not about to be positioned in a lower place, for him to look down at him, to hell with that psychology - he wasn't stupid, he knew the thinking of the white male, always trying to put the black man in the subservient position, below him.
"Suit yourself, mind if I sit?" Shawn asked, taking it himself, it was comfortable and he liked it, it was a perfect office chair.
"It's your office." Lucas returned, thrown by the move, which now placed him in a standing over position; once more, his mind went into trying to figure out this move, he didn't trust him as far as he could toss him.
Shawn wasn't about to waste anymore time, he had Crystal on his mind, agreeing with him saying, "That's a good start, my office. Across the road, my home. Inside, my wife, Sylvia Lucinda McPherson. As you are her brother, I'm going to give you the benefit of a doubt, that your arrival here is to see about her. As her husband, let me assure you, she is safe with me, unlike she was with the first asshole she was married to. You know - the one that treated her and the kids like shit - the one who abused her - as I've heard from various ones that knew him, and saw this. Where were you then, by the way? When she needed you more than ever? Just something I thought I'd ask."
That completely threw Lucas for a whirl, it was the last thing he expected to hear or be confronted with. "Man who the fuck are you, to ask me something like that? That choice, by her, I might add, took place after I'd already left the scene." He defended himself.
"Fair enough, hey I left the scene as a young male too, can't fault you there. Even so, you had to have known what was happening to her, you weren't that far away at first, were you?"
"I don't have to answer that." Lucas returned, his resentment clear.
"Nope, you don't - so then, after all this time, why are you here now?"
"To see my goddamn sister! Seein' as how she's my sister, I do have that right, you know."
"Lucas, I have no problem with that, no problem at all. It's a shame that your first time here is wasted on this ideal and attitude you have against me, when you don't even know me."
"Hey man, I didn't ask you to waste your time! I came here to see my little sister, not you."
Shawn stood, "Okay, fine - you've already got it in your head not to like me, and I can't stop you from seeing Sylvia. So all I'm gonna ask is this, for her sake, that you keep it simple okay? Meaning, while visiting her, please avoid too deep a discussion surrounding your brother, David."
"Why?"
"Because he's missing. The idea of that - and the possibility of what it could mean, will be really upsetting to her. After all, they were close, so I've heard - regardless of what was going on with him, he did try to see about her-..."
"And I didn't?"
"Did you?" Shawn returned right back.
There wasn't much Lucas could say in his own behalf as the truth of it put him on the defensive because he did know. Had heard, from David - in fact David had come to him, asking him to go and see about Sylvia, but at the time, he was too involved in getting his band together. She had two small children; financially, he wasn't in any position to really help her out. There was no sense getting in the middle of her problems when he wasn't in a position to take her on. Besides, she could have gone home to their mother if it was that bad, he figured it must have not been that bad, because she stayed with him, put up with whatever was wrong with him; now, because he had to say something, "Why you keep turning the discussion back to that? She's all right now, isn't she? What's that old saying, anything that doesn't kill you, can only make you stronger?" He returned.
Shawn stood staring at him long enough to bite his tongue and control the urge that swept through him just then.
Lucas saw it, saw a fierce and angry surge of fire that reddened his face, corded the veins on his forehead and neck. He also saw his jaw tense, as if he was grinding his teeth, clamping his mouth shut. He watched him take a deep breath, reel in what he was feeling, and after running his hand over his head, asked him again.
"Avoid a deep discussion of David, that's all I ask. You may not care to hear this, but I love that woman across the road, with every fibre of my being, and I can't stand the idea, of her hurting. I can't - stand it. That's all I ask - please."
Lucas stood silent, trying to gain some insight into who this man was and why he should work with him on anything. "Man, why my sister? Why not one of your own? You had one, I saw your daughter."
The statement hit Shawn wrong, "Man what the hell does that mean? One of my own? My wife, is - one of my own! As for the woman before her, it didn't work out, simple as that. And no matter how you see it, Sylvia and I, were meant to be - our skin color has nothing to do with that fact other than it makes things interesting, lively - appealing, nothing more."
"Then you must be blind, or simple, or crazy, or out of touch or something. One of you own?" He scoffed at his words, "Not in this world, because the color of a man's skin has always been an issue and I didn't create that problem." Lucas argued.
"True enough, but the problem that stands between you and I, you created that one. You came here, to my home, intent on not liking me-..."
"You don't know that!"
"Oh, sorry, I do."
"Em, I guess them same people that told you about her first, been telling you about me." Lucas surmised.
"You know what man, it doesn't matter how I came by my insight - facts stand as they are. You don't owe me anything, I don't owe you anything. But Sylvia, she's a different story. All I want from you, is what I asked concerning her and this situation with David, that's all I, personally - want from you."
Lucas stood a moment more, realizing he would give in this, after all, he was standing on this man's domain, his ground, besides that, he wasn't really interested in deliberately causing his sister stress, being married to him, no doubt brought in enough. "Yeah man, fine - I'll keep mention of David to a minimum, I can do that."
"Thank you. You're welcome back to our home, I won't burden you with my presence beyond this, I have a daughter to see about." Shawn turned and made his way out of his office, fully expecting Lucas to follow him; which he did. Back at the house, he lead him into the basement, where the family was gathered in the kitchen, at the table, eating. His eyes went to Sylvia, where she sat eating and then to his daughter, she'd been crying. That stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Angela, what's - why are you crying?" His asking, got her started again, the tears began rolling, her lower lip trembled as she played with her food, no appetite to eat it. Sasha's eyes reflected her sympathies as Sylvia explained, "She's upset over Crystal, been crying all morning." Sylvia explained, her eyes moving between her husband and brother standing not far behind him, obviously trying to wait out a moment with her.
"Aaah honey-..." He started in sympathy for her.
"Can you bring her back daddy? Make her come back ho-home." She wept.
He knelt at her chair, wiping her eyes, clearing her face. "I'm gonna go and talk to her now, okay?"
"Make her come back home." She pleaded softly.
"Angela, your dad can't make Crystal come back, that's something she has to want to do."
She started crying again, wiping at her own eyes, both arms up, hands scrubbing at her tears. Sylvia had to look away from her, she wished her daughter had just stayed with them, just taken the time given her. She didn't understand how she could have made such a decision to go back after all their talks in L.A.
Lucas stood with enough sense to realize he'd arrived on a family crisis, and he also knew that Crystal was his niece, Sylvia's daughter and decided to ask, "What's going on with Crystal?" He was looking at Sylvia when he asked.
"It's too much to go into, she's married, they had problems, she moved back home, and we all feel that was the right thing to do for now. However, last night while we slept, she went back, needless to say, none of us are happy about that."
Shawn had been hugging his daughter, stroking her hair, "I'm on my way there now, to talk to her." He announced.