Affirmation (22 page)

Selange chuckled, only Shanda would make such a statement. “You can’t help yourself, can you?”

“What, seriously, you saw the boy, he looks like Casper, am I lying?”

“He is pale, but most babies are.”

“
No your children were red. I wanted to give them spears and put them on horseback and tell them to go hunt like their ancestors the Indians
once
did. Mine, I’ll have to use him for a
light bulb
at night.”

They laughed. If humor was any indication of good health, then Shanda was going to be alright. When the chuckles died, Shanda asked her friend if she received her letter and Selange responded, “What letter?”

“I wrote to you
. I wanted to explain why I took off the way I did.”

Selange shook her head
.
“It doesn’t matter Shanda. I forgive you
.
” Selange’s eyes began to burn. She was just happy to have her friend alive and well. “Let’s not talk about it.”

Shanda slid up a bit in the bed. She felt weak and slumped down again. Where had her energy gone, she wondered. She had to tell Selange before anything happened. She had to warn her it’s what she should’ve done earlier. This was a second chance. “Selange the feds were following me…they wanted me to wear a wire to your house…I had to leave…I couldn’t stay.”

Selange sobered.
“Sha’ what are you talking about, why would the feds come to you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Your father…your father had something to do with it, didn’t he?”

“He came to my apartment with the agents. I think he knew of their investigation and figured I’d help nail Alfonzo for some dumb reason. I don’t think he thought he’d lose me, but he did.”

“
B
astard!”

Shanda squeezed with everything she had, “Selange…let me handle my father…please
, don’t have him killed
.”

“Shanda he’s crossing the boundaries…he…”

“He’ll have to accept his grandchild’s father is
in the
mafia
,
it
s
punishment, believe me. I know when he finds out, it’ll kill him
.”

Selange’s face contorted from
anger to
empathy
. It’s ironic, what Mister Johnson despised
,
its
blood and semen mingled with everything he loved to produce a child.
She didn’t have to lift a finger in retaliation, fate’s hand already intervened and she called it karma!

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

“This is the last time I’m sticking my nose out for you Sergio. We part ways here.” Nico said to the man as they shared a meal at a diner in Astoria on the Queens side of the Triborough Bridge
. It was renamed the R.F.K Bridge years ago, but many locals still used its former name
.
Old habits definitely are hard to break and Sergio obviously had too many for Nico to reshape.

“I fucked up Uncle Nico. I’ve been doing it my whole life but I’m trying to change, if my family just gives me a chance to prove it and stop beating me down.”

Nico chewed on his breakfast sausage. He wasn’t buying it. The youth lied about the amount of money he owed Chip, failed to mention it was mafia connected and those lies could have gotten
them
killed. Anyway, why should he believe anything he said now?

He was cutting the strings, Giuseppe was right. Sergio was too much trouble and he didn’t want to babysit a grown-ass man who didn’t have an ounce of honor or loyalty to anything except money. “This sister of yours, she’s a cop?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s her name?”

“
Why?”

“Just making small-talk, why you have something to hide?”

Sergio sipped his coffee. Free breakfast was always the best. “No, her name’s Tonya, but my mom and I call her Peaches.” He frowned, “My mom said she was the sweetest out of her kids and I was the rotten one.”

“It’s what you tell yourself that affirms who you are. If you believe you’re shit, then shit you’ll be. What about her father, did he stick around?”

“Nobody sticks around long where I’m from if they have any sense.”

Nico stabbed another piece
of the
sausage and plunked it in his mouth. His jaw moved as he chewed and he eyed Sergio
with a bored expression.
The
pity party
con intended to sway him, w
asn’t working. “Man up!”

“What?”

“You heard me. Take off the panties and put on some motherfucking pants!”

“Fuck you!”

“That’s what I’m talking about. You say shit like that and then you get your face busted
in
. Look in the mirror. How many times does it have to happen before you learn?”

Sergio’s anger was actually frustration. His Uncle Nico would never understand what it’s like growing up without a father or being poor. He had money and a close-knit family, Sergio
didn’t.
What he learned about being a man, he learned from the streets. It would have helped if his father had taken his mom out of th
e
hell-hole, maybe his life would be different.

Sergio put down his fork and sulked.

Nico dug into the home
fries
unaffected by the silent tantrum, he had two boys at home
.
This Sergio jack-ass almost started a war and didn’t even know it. Nico forked the eggs, they were a bit
soggy,
he liked the way Ari cooked them,
but he ate them because he was hungry and finished the flapjacks in a few short bites.

Sergio watched Nico
eat, amazed at how cold-hearted he
seemed. “Doesn’t it bother you about how your brother treated my mom?”

“Nope.”

“Is that how you mafia guys treat women?”

“Nope.”

“Nope…nope…nope…is that all you can say?”

Nico wiped his mouth and pushed aside his plate to give Sergio his undivided attention. The young man needed a reality check. “I’m not your father and I can’t talk for him. But what I will say Sergio is you can live in the
past and keep playing the same old record or update to
satellite radio and
get with the times. Either you accept you had it rough as a kid and move on to become the man you want to be or stay a kid!” Nico rose, dug in his pocket and slapped a hundred dollar bill on the table. He eyeballed Sergio, “Wh
ere does Tonya live
?”

“Why?”

“I want to
drive by and make sure Chip kept his word.”

“I’ll show you. I need a ride to Brooklyn.”

Nico shrugged and headed for the door. Sergio slipped the bill in his pocket and followed. Outside the restaurant Nico halted
.
“You failed the test. Go back inside and pay the tab or I break your legs, capisce?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Giuseppe stuck his hand in the incubator smiling at the little baby. “He’s got a big head, eh fratellino?”

Alfonzo nodded, “He takes after his father.”

“I did have a very large head my mother said. She said labor was very hard.”

“I bet,” Alfonzo
quipped;
glad Giuseppe had begun to return to normal.

“You failed to warn me about childbirth. I am traumatized fratellino.”

“Warn you
about what?”

Giuseppe
cocked an eyebrow in his brother’s direction, “The baby pushes out of the mother’s micio like an alien spawn. It is frightening.”

Alfonzo chuckled
.
“Let me guess, your ass fainted?”

“I may have tired from not eating and napped.”

“Bull-shit!”

Giuseppe
pushed Alfonzo’s shoulder but his brother didn’t budge
.
“Do not repeat this to anyone.”

“Don’t
worry;
you’re not the first man to topple over when he sees that pussy stretch wide. Kind of makes you wonder whether that big dick of yours is really big enough, huh?”

“True.”

“Read more books. It explains the entire reproductive process. I don’t have time to school you, but don’t worry lover boy, the size of your
weapon is adequate.”

“Adequate…I am more than adequate.”

They were joking when they heard a tap on the nursery window. It was Selange. She gestured for Alfonzo. He stepped into the corridor
.
“Everything okay…what happened?”

Giuseppe joined them in the hall.

The minute Selange said, “Shanda’s parents are here
and her father
wants to arrange transport to have Shanda flown to New York
with the baby for medical care
.”

“What?” Giuseppe bellowed and took off.

Alfonzo shook his head and then followed his brother
to mediate if he had to because holy hell was certain to break loose if he didn’t.
 

                                   ****

Shanda’s parents were in the patient’s room with the doctor
who fill
ed
them in on Shanda’s condition. They were shocked to learn she gave birth because they didn’t know she was pregnant. The emergency crisis was related to compli
c
ations afte
r childbirth. The doctor explained there are several possible reasons for severe bleeding during
a
nd after the third stage of labor:
uterine atony, failure of the uterus to contract properly after delivery,
trauma related
to cervical, vaginal, or perineal lacerations, retained or adherent placental tissue, clotting disorders, and inverted or ruptured uterus. In Shanda’s situation, uterine atony was the cause. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson listened. They were numb.

The doctor assured Shanda’s parents
she received the
best treatment and the hemorrhaging had stopped.
They were monitoring her
for
any signs of anemia. Overall, Shanda had survived and her condition steadily improved.  They were about to ask about the premature delivery of their grandchild and his condition when G
iuseppe entered.

Mister Johnson recognized the man immediately and pointed
.
“What the hell
is he
doing in here?”

The doctor held up his hand
.
“Please, please this is a hospital.”

“Dad,” Shanda said in a weak voice, “he has a right to be here.”

“The hell he does. You’re my daughter and this thug and his friends are screwing
with
your head
!
”

Giuseppe stood chest to chest with Mr. Johnson and was half a foot taller
.
“
You are her father and yet you stand here tossing insults around to make her upset?”

Alfonzo appeared and Mister Johnson scowled, “You’re responsible for this. You’re the reason she’s in here. What the hell have you done to my daughter?”

Alfonzo put up his hands in mock surrender, “Me, I haven’t done shit to your daughter.”

The doctor slipped out of the room. This was a family matter that he wanted no part of. He had the nurse put security on alert to call the police if the group disturbed the floor. When she looked at him with frightened eyes and told him who the men were he changed his m
ind about the police. He did not want trouble later at his
home.

“My brother has done nothing to her. Address me
with your anger
.”
Giuseppe interjected.

Mrs. Johnson clutched her husband’s arm when he
balled his fist.
Her husband had a hot temper and this wasn’t the time or place for blame. She’d read the letter. Their daughter had left to be free of their meddling, and whatever reason these people were here, it wasn’t to cause Shanda harm.
She wasn’t
stupid;
she surmised the man st
anding in
Shanda’s
hospital room
was the father of her child and his rights overrode theirs.
“Honey calm down.
Shanda and her baby
are what's important.
”

“Yes, listen to your lovely wife Mr. Johnson. Her advice is wise. I do not want to upset your daughter by breaking your neck, stronzo!” Giuseppe glared.

Selange remained near the door. She had a front row seat to the great and mighty Mr. Johnson’s downfall. Alfonzo fell back and stood near his wife. He’d referee if needed but this was Giuseppe’s fight.