Family Reunion (12 page)

Because I swear to you, I will kill you…and use every bit of strength in my body to do so." The intense conviction and promise from her words, fired from her eyes to his with such power, it shook him.

"No man or woman, will I ever give license to harm my child before me, or behind my back. I don't care what you think he did. With all of his faults and bad manners, he is still
my son
,
my
child. You see him as a white trash bastard; very well that's your opinion. Don't let that opinion see you drawn and quartered. I am capable Rollo, make no mistake about it. Take heed. If because of this, you find your place here impossible to bear hearing these things…then my suggestion is that you depart, and soon!"

She stood her ground a moment waiting for him to say something in reply. Rollo swallowed and said nothing. Lena turned and left the kitchen. Rollo's head dropped to his arm as he groaned. Though she stood no taller than his shoulder, weighing little over half his weight, he'd be damned if she didn't spark a touch of fear in him. He could only shake his head as he slowly rose from the chair. He'd always viewed her as the fragile soft, delicate Miss Lena. Well no more, he thought as he slowly made his way across the kitchen, it hurt just to try and walk.

The following day, Rory went off to school wearing a turtle neck
to hide his bruised throat. When school was over, he went out to see the carriage waiting and went to it without a sulk. Rollo sat high in his driver's seat when he reached it and opened the door to enter. It was empty. Lena had not come this time. Rory stood looking into the open coach, reading the silent message well. She was going to trust him. He took a deep breath and stepped inside. Rollo pulled away without comment.

Upon arriving at South end, Rory left the coach and disappeared from sight. A while later he returned with Mailon walking shyly beside him. Rory stopped by the coach. "Rollo, this is Mailon...Mailon, Rollo." She smiled timidly and nodded in greeting, too shy to speak. Rollo turned slightly to look down at her from his high seat, and nodded with a gruff.

"Hi."

"Would you mind driving us to her home Rollo?"

"Get in." Was his only response.

Rory held the door open for her as she climbed in, he was about to follow when he heard Rollo loudly clear his throat, making him look up. "Echm, um, Sorry for - choking you boy... um... I was – wrong – and that's all I got t'say."

"Thank you …Rollo…sir." He climbed inside.

That evening Rory arrived at work on time. However, he was on the Princess only a few minutes before he was called out by Leon to go to two other ships to help clean and throw down sand because of the rapidly

falling snow. He was thankful that he didn't have to work these chores alone, his neck, head and back were hurting like crazy, plus he was hungry and feeling dizzy. Leon and two other cabin boys worked along with him, cleaning the docks where the cargo would be unloaded. If he and the others weren't shoveling snow and throwing sand, they were in the bottom cargo holds of the ships that had just unloaded after docking to clean the hold of stowaway rats, snakes or other unwanted passengers. That was then followed by a thorough scrubbing and the laying of poison for the ones that may have gotten away; Manny demanded clean ships within his fleet.

However, Rory’s condition had not escaped Leon's notice, even so, no matter how hard he worked him, he did not complain. Back at the Princess before leaving for the evening, Manny reached out and pulled his sweater away from his neck, looking pointedly at his bruised blue, red and purple throat. Rory pulled away embarrassed. "Who did that to you?" He asked – disturbed by the sight of it, that he was angry seeing it, was clear.

"Got into a scuffle is all. I'm fine…the other guy got the worst end of it. Don't worry about me." He returned.

Manny and Leon made eye
contact. "Does your mother know?" Manny asked.

"I said I'm fine mister, can we just go." Rory was fighting for every ounce of strength just to remain standing, everything around him swam.

When he made it home, his mother was waiting, food was waiting. No matter how badly his throat and body hurt, he devoured everything she laid before him. In the following weeks Rory was kept so busy aboard the other ships that he hardly had an opportunity to see to the Princess. His call to duty changed from one day to the next, so he never knew what he might have to do the following day. Whatever his duties might be, at the end of his day he was left so tired that by the time he got home he felt like doing nothing but falling into his bed to sleep.

Because he came there not long after school, Leon insisted that he start taking his meals with him, making sure that he ate first before doing whatever he had in store, Leon saw to it that he ate well.

"You ever hungry, you speak up, understand?"

Rory nodded, thankful.

It was close to December and for the first time in weeks he was called to the Princess by Manny and sent out on an errand to pick up the report logs from the various captains who had recently docked. Upon returning to the ship, he encountered Esteban for the first time, when he was coming out of his grandfather's cabin with his father. Mike was laughing at something he was saying, the sight of him stopped Rory who stood transfixed and surprised, Leon came up behind him and introduced them.

"Rory, this is Esteban, Esteban, Rory, he works for your grandfather as his cabin boy." Esteban smiled at Rory and nodded in greeting. "Nice to meet you Rory." He held out his hand to shake, but Rory could only stare a moment stunned.
'He's black!'
His mind shouted.

He knew the mother to be Mexican, but not even she was this dark in complexion. At his look, Mike took immediate offense just as Maria stepped up to the door.

"You have a problem Rory!?" Mike asked gruffly, snapping him from his gaping. Rory looked at him and grew a little defensive. "No. I got no problem; he just took me by surprise that's all." Rory turned from Mike back to Esteban.

"Sorry for starin', nice to meet you."

Esteban shrugged, he could
very well understand his reaction. "It's okay, I understand."

"It's just I've never seen a Mexican so dark." Rory admitted truthfully.

"That's because I'm n-…"

"Let's go son!
Rory hasn't time to stand around jawing; he has a job to do!" Mike interrupted, ordering Esteban. His son had no qualms about what he was since he had never been in a situation that made a difference. His father, on the other hand, had an extreme chip on his shoulder, as well as being overly protective of him. His attitude dared anyone to hurt or degrade him, which was the reason he had cut Esteban off. It was only because his father had hired Rory that he put up with him.

For reasons he could not explain, in the weeks he had worked for Manny, the boy seemed to rub him the wrong way. He didn't know why he didn't like him, he just didn't. Were he to dare put Esteban down or scorn him because of his Negro origin, there was no telling how he might respond, he decided a distance between them was best.

It was also the reason all were careful not to bring Lena up around Rory, Mike had already warned Manny and Leon, "If that high class, rich runt dares to make one demeaning remark or gesture about my mother, it'll be his last ever!"

So Lena was an off subject out of fear that Mike would lose his head over something Rory might say. Rory had to bite his lip to keep from giving a smart retort to Mike, for some reason he could not bring himself to like him. He was the boss's son with everything handed to him on a silver platter. He couldn't help but notice the pride and love Manny had for his son. It hadn't escaped Rory's notice that they were almost always together, laughing, talking and doing father and son things. No doubt all of this, Manny's shipping business would be his one day. He didn't need to start at the bottom as a cabin boy; all would be his because his father would pass it to him; because his father wanted the best for him; because his father was attentive to all of his needs.

His father!

Rory's stomach cramped because he knew he would never be able to claim anyone the same.

"Why is everyone standing around? No work to do?" Manny asked, as he stepped down into the corridor after leaving his office to come to the ship. Leon expelled a breath glad that he was there, as well as Maria.

The minute silence, as short as it may have been, was charged with
tension and underlying hostility between the two. Manny immediately noticed as he walked up.

"Yes father, there's plenty of work to be done. Why don't you get to it Rory! After all, you are getting paid, whether you need the job or not!"

"Mike!" Manny called his name in subtle gruff warning.

"Miguel! Please!" Maria immediately followed Manny's call. "Come." She asked him softly, knowing her husband, who was directing a snide smirk toward the youth.

"Echm." Leon cleared his throat. "Come on Rory, let's get to work." He walked between the two and pulled Rory inside. Esteban, having stood witness to it all, called to Rory feeling bad about his father's treatment of him.

"See you later Rory."

Rory’s eyes met his with a smile after pulling his resentful gaze from his Mike. "Yeah, sure, see you later."

Maria turned to lead the way down the hall with Esteban behind her.

Pulling his office door shut so that he could have a private word with Mike in the passageway, Manny ordered sternly. "Son, please…leave him alone."

Mike sighed as he turned and nodded. "Yeah, yeah, yeah sorry, I forget he’s a troubled kid with sensitive feelings. What he needs is a sound kick in the ass!" He continued in a low mutter, but not so low that his father hadn't heard.

"Mike!"

"I know, I know." Mike finished, going down the corridor behind his wife and son. Manny shook his head. He hadn’t a clue as to why Mike didn't like the boy, treating him as an intruder who didn't belong. With a sigh Manny entered his office; he had a lot of work to do. The next month he was due to make a delivery to Virginia City and knew he would be gone for most of January and February. As a bonus, he was giving most of his landed crewmen the holiday and New Year off.

Maria would miss Mike, but she had the children and Gaitsu to keep her company in his absence. Rory wanted to go along on the delivery but Manny felt it was too soon to take the boy off under the conditions they would be traveling. The harsh cold of the winter had its dangers, the last thing he needed was to be worried over Rory’s welfare.

Although he and Leon would be gone, he asked him if he would come to the ship in his absence to keep his office up. He had little choice but to agree as he gazed at Esteban, wondering if he knew how lucky he was, lucky to be a part of this family.

It was times like then
that brought back the fact that he had no father who would take him on trips, teaching him the trade of the family business. Soon, the time came and they were gone, and he turned to wandering about bored, lonely and depressed.

* * *

Hope fell back on
the soft bed in their hotel suite with a relieved whimper of pleasure pushing through her discomfort and pain. Her mother-in-law and sister-in-law were next door to them. With her arms flung carelessly to her sides, she lay motionless with her eyes closed. She couldn't believe it. They had finally made it to New York. She was positively travel weary and frozen. Joseph tipped the bell boy for helping him carry up their satchels, trunks, and two carpet bags as his wife lay resting, too cold to undo her hat that was tied down by the mauve scarf, with a matching plume now irreparably bent from her fall back on the bed. She still wore her mauve gloves and fashionable high waistcoat that buttoned to the neck. Joseph walked past the end of the bed with a sympathetic grin on his face. Undoing his dark brown cape coat with one hand, he removed his matching homburg felt top hat with the other, launching both articles on the chair beside the window of their room.

"I'm cold."

"I know." He simpered as he loosened his ascot tie that he wore with his dark brown and fawn colored suit. Removing his clothes reminded him of how much he hated the white man's custom of dress. The Indians wardrobe was so much simpler to don and remove. That thought crossed his mind as he gave a tired sigh unbuttoning his outer suit jacket to remove it.

"I hate the cold." She murmured aloud to no one in particular.

"I know."

"It's so…? What's a word…umm? Cold!"

He grinned. "So true, it usually is." He returned, taking off his waist coat and now opening his shirt at the neck. With his own clothing loosened up, he walked to the bed over his wife and began undoing the top three buttons of her coat, hating the ruffles of his sleeves that fell over his hand annoyingly.

"By dose is cold." She mispronounced to emphasize her discomfort.

"Yes, it's quite pink." He answered opening her coat. "My dear wife I do believe you'd warm up a lot quicker without all these articles of clothing on." He stated hopefully, untying the scarf under her chin that held on her hat.

Removing it, he noted the condition of the ruined plume and
tossed it aside to join his things that were piling up on the chair which it missed, landing on the floor nearby.