Shadow Seed 1: The Misbegotten (80 page)

“You know, now I’m thinking about it, I really don’t mind spending their blood money when it’s going to a good cause,” my mom announced, her demeanor changed one thousand percent.  “Maybe it’ll help right the wrongs those nasty bastards did in order to procure it.

“How much did they give you, Effy?”

“Fifty thousand dollars.”

“Sonofabitch, that’s a lot of money!” she bellowed before she could catch herself.  She clamped her handover her mouth, her orbs bulging comically.

I couldn’t help it, I laughed.  Katie was on my heels, and then the rest of the group started to giggle, my mom too.

“Here I am asking all of you to be on your best behavior and I’m cussing like as sixty-year-old whore.”

The giggles turned to full-blown, raucous laughter.  My mother just sat there, wrestling with the fact she couldn’t stop cursing for some reason.

It was a couple minutes later until she dared to speak again.  “So, now that you all know I apparently have a dirty mouth, who’s going to go with me to the grocery store?  We have to stock up on food.”

“Under any circumstances, Tirza, Jolene and Sandy cannot go, mama,” I retorted at once.

“Why?” asked my mom.

“Well, Tirza and Jolene are in hiding for obvious reasons, and last night Sandy’s mom told her to stay away, because government stiffs were hanging around their house.  So, the three of them shouldn’t be seen on the street right now,” I replied.

My mother nodded.  She agreed.  “The more I understand of what you poor kids have had to endure these last few weeks, the more I am proud of how you handled yourselves.  Tirza, Jolene, is there anything you’d like for me to get for you at the market?  Maybe your favorite food…?”

Tirza smiled from ear to ear.  “Oh my god, Pat, if you got me some Red Snapper, I’d be in heaven.” 
Tirza was gaga for seafood, always had been and always will be.

My mom’s lips thinned, seeing a part of my ex-girlfriend she had yet to see.

“I like Pot Stickers!” gleamed Jolene, and a few of moaned with delight at the thought of eating chicken and vegetables wrapped in pasta.

“And you Sandy, any requests?”

“I love homemade hamburgers made from real lean ground beef,” she said without skipping a beat.

“Oh god, you guys, you’re making me sooo hungry right now!” squawked Leda, which made us chortle, but she was right.  My mouth was watering.

In the end, Katie, Leda, Ramona and Johan left with my mother, while Sandy, Tirza, Flavia, the two little ones, and I stayed behind.

To this day, I will never forget the look on my mommy’s face when I put fifteen, one hundred dollar bills in her hand and said: “No bargain hunting this time, mama, buy what you want and make sure it’s the best they have.”

“Don’t
ever
forget how much I love you, Estefan,” was what she had said.

[He has to say it in his own words.]

I never have, mama!  I wish I could hold you one more time…

{ ¹Kleenex: a
brand name
for a variety of paper-based products such as
facial tissue
,
bathroom tissue
,
paper towels
, and
diapers
.
  This instance refers to facial tissue. }

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(Summer – 2018)

A Disconcerting Message

Those of us
, still at the house, decided to move the kids to the Theatre room on the second floor of the house.  The plan was to lay them down in over-stuffed chairs, while they watched a cartoon.  With them distracted and unaware, we could talk.  We had them each of them on the chairs closest to the huge 75-inch Plasma TV my step-dad had installed on the wall furthest from the door.  I made sure they were comfortable, had drinks and snacks now that their Muto sickness was passing.  I had given them both a hug and a big sloppy kiss, which made Martín push me away, but tiny Lucia squealed with delight and hugged me, so tight I thought my neck was going to break.

I had settled down with the girls
for no more than ten minutes when my cell phone chirped with my default ringtone, which would chime for a number
not
inputted in “my contacts” file.  It was an unknown number.  In less than a heartbeat, I fingered the answer icon and stepped away from the girls and the background noise of the movie.

I walked into the
Multi-media room, which was immediately beyond the Theatre room.  It was a space filled with a huge circular table upon which stood no less than eight high definition monitors, hooked up to as many PC’s.  It was an online gamer’s wet dream that room, but I wasn’t thinking about the 75 Mbps pipe feeding the network or the deca-core processors that ran each computer.  No, I was curious about who would be calling me from a number I had never seen before.

“Who is this?” I asked.

“It’s me, deeeeck,”
answered Jacob.

Fucking Jacob!!!

“Whose fucking phone are you calling me from?” I asked, because this was not Jacob’s cell number.

“It’s not really a phone, bitch ass, but that’s not important.  I need you to listen, okay?”
he said, more serious than I heard him speak in quite some time.

“Ok, shoot.”

“Uncle Roberto wanted me to tell you guys not to use any landlines to make a call, because they’ve all been tapped - the entire neighborhood has been wired by the NIA.  Something big is about to go down and he wants to make sure you guys are completely off the grid, ok?”

“Yeah sure, no problem,” I said, nodding into my cell phone.

“Also, if there is ever a time where
all
of your cell phones don’t work, he said to run.”
  It was when he said the last few words, I realized my cousin was speaking much faster than normal.  Something was wrong.  There was urgency about his tone I had never heard before.  Jacob was never in a hurry to do anything.  He was typically so fucking slow, he was beyond annoying.

I didn’t like this one bit.  “Jacob, what’s going on, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t have the time to tell you, just remember what I said, okay? 
He sounded like he was talking away from the phone or the headset, or whatever the fuck he was using to call me, because the volume of his voice decreased for a few moments.  Then, it came back blaring in my ear. 
“Remember what I said!  Everything is moving very fast now.  The stand-off in El Sereno has made everything super-intense.  Even Uncle Roberto is acting more cautious than he’s used to doing, which is saying a lot.  His informants are being compromised by the hour.  So please, Eff, pay attention to everything and everyone around you.”

“Ok, Jake, I got it.”

“Good, remember what I said – no land lines and if all of your cell phones go off at the same time… run!”

I was about to reply sarcastically, but he hung up and that was that.

I walked back to where the others were lounging – my two youngest siblings dosing off toward the front of the LCD TV, Sandy, Jolene and Tirza sitting further back.  They weren’t paying any attention to the movie and were instead talking intensely about something.

I sat next to Sandy, knowing full well my face was bunched up with concern, not to mention this sense of trepidation growing like a vine around my neck about to choke-off the air at any second.

“Who was it, Eff?” asked Sandy, flippant, in a “going-through-the-motions” sort of way.

“Jacob,” I answered
simply, unaware my reply made them all came up and gazed at me.  It must’ve been the look on my face.

Tirza dragged her tiny, bubble-butt to the edge of the over-sized chair she, making her look even smaller.  “What did he say?”

I felt my frown deepen.  “He said to stay off the house phone and, if our cell phones all go dead at the same time, to run…”  I looked over at my ex-girlfriend.  “He said something big was going to happen and soon.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” mumbled Jolene, barely audible over the raucous noise of the animated feature the little ones were watching.  They were both still trying to watch it, fighting their fatigue.

“No, it didn’t.”  I scratched my head.  “And he sounded rushed, like he couldn’t stay on the line more than a minute.”

“You think he might’ve thought he was being monitored?” asked Sandy nudging forward as well.

“Sure sounded like it,” I said.

Jolene sat deep into her seat, folding her arms across her midsection, much like a girl three or four years younger might.  “Did he say what might happen?”

“No, he didn’t give me a clue.”

“I don’t like this, Estefan.  It gives me the creeps,” conceded Sandy, her body shaking as if she got the chills.

“I know what you mean, girl.  I hate these feelings of being constantly watched or wanting to look over my shoulder to make sure no one bad is in the room with me.”  It was Tirza, shivering too.

“I wish I could hold my mom.  She’d tell me everything is going to be okay,”
murmured my brother’s fourteen-year-old girlfriend, her eyes already brimming with tears.

Sandy walked on her knees toward the younger teen, and leaned forward to give her a hug.

Over her shoulder Jolene continued, pathetically.  “I don’t have a family anymore.   What am I going to do without a family?”  The tears fell.

Tirza stood and stepped to the two hugging girls, her hand tracing the edge of Jolene’s face.  “We’re your family now.”

I think I fell in love with Tirza for the third time – all over again.

“We will never leave you,” added Sandy as Jolene continued to cry.

I came to my feet nearing my ex-girlfriend, reaching out to touch Jolene upon the crown of her head, letting my hand rest upon it.  “And I will make sure nothing
ever
happens to you.”  My heart was full, which was a good thing, because, even then, I could feel the muck of the surrounding world closing in on us.  It was the thick carpeting beneath my bare feet, only deepening, widening.  At any moment, I knew the entire floor would fall out from underneath us and we’d be on our own, vulnerable, facing death.

She glanced up at me, grateful.  Her eyes were full, dripping, and sorrowful.  “I believe you,” she said like she wanted to believe it so badly.

Tirza turned and wrapped a diminutive arm around me.  I stiffened in her clutch, still unaccustomed to our renewed intimacy.  She didn’t seem to take notice.  She was staring at Jolene, who was peering back.  “You can count on Estefan, Jolene.  He won’t let
anything
happen to you.”

She nodded, her eyes dropping, her head resting upon Sandy’s shoulder.

I looked down at Tirza, an tentative arm of mine encircling her.

Her eyes were only for me.

I bend downward.  She rose to meet me.  Out lips touched, softly, a brushing and then something more.  Time froze.

“Ramona was right,” she mouthed against me.

From below, Sandy snickered playfully.  “This is going to be one wild ride…”

Even Jolene grinned at that.

We stayed that way long after the little ones had fallen asleep.  We were almost afraid to break-up our sphere was warmth and security.  We were waiting.  Full with dire thoughts, we waited.  We knew why, though we didn’t say a word.  We didn’t have to.

There was a fight coming, whether we like it or not.

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