Shadow Seed 1: The Misbegotten (43 page)

“You won’t let them take me, will you, Eff?”

I twisted to look at Sandy, right into the pool of those light brown orbs, uncaring of who was watching.  “No, Sandy, I will not.”

“Promise?”

“Of course,” I replied, my voice deeper than I had intended, which almost made me apologize.  I chanced a quick glance at Ramona, who was looking back at me in resignation, her eyes welling.

She leaned forward, taking her legs from my lap and whispered accusatorially, “I told you!”

I shrugged a wordless, “what?”

She breathed in my ear, so close her tongue flicked my earlobe more than once.  “You don’t even know it, Steve, but they are both falling for you.  I can fucken
read
it in their minds!”

“What - ?” I started to say when little Martín came running into the room - full tilt.

“Effy, Effy, Effy!”

“What, big guy, what’s the deal?” I asked try
ing to get him to calm down.  He came right up to me, little chest heaving.

He was breathing so heavily from running.  It took him a few minutes to get in a word edgewise.

“I-I-I went to Flavia’s room to get, umm… to get her to fix my parachute guy, because… well, he got all tangled, and I saw Johan kissing a
GIRL!!!  Yuck and gross, dude!”

I laughed out loud.  The swings in our conversations couldn’t have been more dramatic, even if I
’d planned them.  The twists and turns so unexpected, all I could do was act out of instinct.  The whole shit was fucking crazy.

Martín stared at me wide-eyed for a few moments, trying with all of his six
-year-old intellect to understand why I was laughing at something that, to him, was so intrinsically disgusting.  I should be barffing out my guts, not laughing like a hyena.

I reached over and mussed his straight, jet-black hair.  For some reason, my mom had always cut in a bowl-like shape, except for his bangs, which were usually an inch
shorter than the rest of his mop.  He was a beautiful little boy.  I’m not saying that because he was my half-brother.  No, he was adorable.  He had big, dimpled cheeks and pale skin, dark eyes to match his very dark hair.  He was not skinny or over weight, but proportioned somewhere right in the middle.  He was solid, but not husky, and he was the keenest little guy I have ever known.

When I look back through the many, many, many years – and I am not exaggerating, I have lived for a long, long time.  Every time I’d gone to the Doctor’s office, to watch him administer a sonogram, so he could tell me the sex of one of my many unborn children.  Every time it was male, secretly, I have wished to see a face like Martín’s upon his b
irth.  I never have though.  I’m still looking for him, even in crowds or on the public Starliners.  The nostalgic, old-school part of me still looks for him. 
I miss you, Marty.  I wish I could see you one more time…

On that day, when he had come up to me horrified over Johan’s descent into ultimate betrayal, I merely asked what Flavia was doing.  For a second, he seemed mad, outraged that I hadn’t taken him seriously.  Hi
s eyes narrowed, because it didn’t seem to bother me that Johan was putting his lips upon a
female
, that he was putting his tongue into her mouth.  Then, he got it.  The light bulb went on and he understood.  His entire demeanor changed.  He became more like a mad scientist than the cherubic six-year-old boy he had been at the time.

“She’s mad, Effy… watching TV, but I can tell she’s mad.”

I could see it clearly in my mind, Johan and Jolene frolicking upon Flavia’s bed, making out like crazy, while she’s forced to watch TV.  She would hear everything as they jostled and annoyed her with each and every smacking, slurping sound.  I chuckled again.

“Why don’t you go ask her to fix our toy and maybe that’ll stop Johan from kissing that ugly… nasty… creepy girl!” I supplied a big smile for him
and reached out to tickle him.

He easily evaded me, more than used to my tactics.
  He bounded a few step away, made to leave.  He stopped suddenly, a grin on his face, so wide it appeared about to split his skull in twain.  “I don’t think she’s creepy, Effy!  SHE’S CUTE!!!”

Before I could so much as move, he was gone.

“Oh my god, Estefan, is every single one of the males in your family a fucking chick magnet!  He’s adorable!” gushed Sandy.

It’s in the blood, baby doll…

“They are all like that, girl,” concluded my girlfriend.  “These boys are dangerous…”

“Yup,” added K
atie, secretly pinching my side, which tickled like a bitch.

That was when my cell twitched alongside my thigh and I moved to read the incoming text.  The specificity of the notification decried what sort of message it was.

“Hey Dick, gonna call the house in like 10.  No cells today, hardline only!”

It was Jacob.  His message meant he had news.  In fact, new serious enough, he didn’t want anyone else to hear, but me.

“Hey, guys,” I announced over the general din of the girls still immersed in conversation about us Ernando boys.

One at a time they stopped.

“Jacob’s got some cheese on what happened to Tirza’s sister.”

That got their attention and the room was deadly silent in an instant.

~~~~~~~~~~~~♦~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Summer – 2018)

An Ugly Discovery

“You know, Eff, we gotta talk about Tirza,” declared Ramona a second or two after I announced my cousin had news.

“Yeah, I know,” I began thoughtfully.  “I think all of you are pretty much in agreement when it comes to me meeting her.  To be honest, I really don’t want meet her myself.”  That got Ramona’s attention, but not in the fashion I had intended.  She was thinking I thought Tirza was lying about her true intentions.  I had to remedy that, quickly.  “I’m not saying I don’t believe her when she says it has nothing to do with her and me.  About that, I have no doubt, she doesn’t think of me in that way anymore, and neither do I.  I just don’t see the value of meeting with her under any circumstances.  I don’t know, so much has happened between the two of us, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“What I don’t like about the whole thing is, she won’t tell you why she needs to talk with you.  And
, why is she
so
desperate in the first place?” Katie speculated, moving from me to sit on her knees.  She was still perched upon the couch.  “All the cloak and dagger shit is a little tedious.”

“Yeah, I feel you on that,” agreed Ramona.  “I just don’t want you guys to be alone.  I don’t care what the topic is, I just don’t want that,
especially
after what Estefan’s demonstration upstairs.  He is too strong and he still hasn’t gained full control over what he can do.”  She looked at me more squarely in the face.  “Sorry, Babes, I don’t think I could deal with
that
right now.”

I nodded, trying to express
that I felt the same.  She was correct as far as I was concerned.  My eyes inadvertently wondered over to Leda, who wasn’t looking at any of us.  She seemed to be staring at the coffee table with overly enthusiastic scrutiny.  She was as still as a statue.  I recall wondering what she was thinking about.  If what Ramona had said was true.  The notion began to creep into my brain, maybe she was thinking about what she had done up in the Loft.  Maybe the idea of it was no longer embarrassing her as much as it had hours ago…

“Whatever you do, Effy, just don’t go alone like Ramona said,” echoed Sandy, then turned to look forward.  “What you did to us, to me, was powerful… I have never felt such compulsion like that before…”

“Tell me about it,” joked Leda, but her tone was snide.  Incredibly, it seemed to be directed more toward herself than any of us, or the situation at hand. 
My, my, wasn’t she full of surprises today…

“I wonder what she has to talk to you about, though.  What would get her so riled up that she’d put herself out there like that, you know?  She has totally opened herself to such a degree that she is an easy target.  Why would she do that?  And why come to you of all people?”  It was Katie.  I was a glad for the change of topic.  I really didn’t want to risk a rehashing of Leda begging me to fuck her just yet.  As intriguing as it seemed upon the surface, what rested below was too weird to think about, in depth, at the time.  It was too soon for my taste.

“She said she wanted to talk to
me
, because it would be the last thing anyone would expect… or maybe she had said ‘suspect’.  I can’t remember,” I offered, but even that really didn’t answer any of my cousin’s questions.

“And that’s what makes it all the more weird, Estefan.  Who the fuck is she hiding from and why?”  Katie slapped
her knees in frustration.

“You know, that’s a pretty god damned good question now that you mention it,” said Leda, appearing to realize the problem from a different vantage.

“You don’t think this is all more Muto bullshit, do you?”

We all turned to look at Sandy, remembering Leda’s rough treatment of her mere minutes ago
over the very same subject.

“You think she’s been sick?” I asked of the group, but my query was more for my girlfriend.

She closed her eyes and got very still.  The rest of us frowned in confusion. 
What the hell was she doing?
was the silent group inquiry.

The silence continued for a few more heartbeats and I was about to say something when Ramona spoke.

“She’s too far away, I can’t tell.”

“What?” I asked her.

“Ramona, what are you talking about?”

My girlfriend gazed at Sandy with a small smile dancing across her lips.

Then it hit me… it’s her “power”!  She can access her ability to see into others at will now! 
Holy fuck that was fast!

The house phone rang suddenly and scared the fucking crap out of each and every one of us.

Jacob!
I thought and made a dash for the phone at the corner of the room closest to portal that led to the staircase.

“
Jeya
,” I answered in my deepest tone, already knowing who it was.

“No deeeeck, you’re not a gansta from the hood.  You’re just a skinny pendejo with the world’s most sexy fine cousin, bitch!”
  It was Jacob alright.

“Yeah Katie is indeed a knockout,” I reposted knowing what he really meant.

He laughed for a second or two, then stopped abruptly. 
“Hell ya, cuz, that girl is tight everywhere – tits, ass, face…  Hey, when you gonna put in a good word for me, so I can sample that pussy!”

Whoop-dee-doo
, it was Jake alright – stupid, dipshit Jake.

“Aaaah, let’s see… probably never.”

“Ah shit, man that’s cold blooded.”

“No, it’s more like common sense.”  I turned back toward the girls, seeing looks that varied from resignation to indignation.  They all knew Jacob.  They all knew
precisely
what he was talking about.  I shrugged.  More than one of them glanced away, revolted.

“So, fucknuts, what did you find out?” I asked
, certain if I didn’t hurry the conversation along, the girls were going to snatch the phone from me and take matters into their own hands.

“About what?”

“Fuck Jake, have you been hitting the bong hard already?”

“Naw, man, I haven’t been high since you sent me on this fucking wild goose chase…”
  He trailed off as he slowly but surely began to recall why he had called in the first place.  Then he chuckled like a tween. 
“Ah fuck, man, sorry about that.”

Tool!

“So… what did you find out?”

“Yeah man, this shit is pretty fucked up,”
began my recalcitrant cousin.
“It seems that the nice and helpful yard monitor at Lisa’s school has a bit of habit.”

I frowned.  “Why do you mean by that?”

“Well, I went to the same dealer I went to when I went to buy the shit for you and Katie the other day.  He and I go way back.  Anyhow, I asked him if he would do me a solid and snoop around to see if there was anyone out there buying up drugs that usually doesn’t.  He looked at me all suspicious at first, and asked me what the fuck for.  Which I had already figured he’d ask, so I told him that someone close to me got pinched by some stoolie and that my family wanted a little payback.”

Jacob paused to take a breath, then:
“He smiled real big, because he liked what I said.  He mumbled something about just making sure and how he hated all the fucking NIA finks around the neighborhood.  He says they’re fucking up his business.

“So, I asked him if he was cool with looking under a few rocks
for me.  He said he didn’t have to, because just a few hours before, one of his regulars had bought a whole slew of shit from him – weed, “x”, acid, even some old school ‘ludes.  When I asked him why that was such a big deal, he said because… and these are his words, Eff… he said,
‘that lunch lady barely has enough money to buy a nickel bag and now she’s got enough cash to buy $3,000 worth of shit, come on.

“I said, ‘lunch lady, why do you call her that?’

“And he’s like,
‘cuz that’s what she does, man.  She works at the school for retards they got on Aldama Street.’

“I was quiet for a while and he seems to notice.  He asks me if that’s who my family is looking for.  I looked up at him and his expression changes and shit, and he’s like,
‘you guys are going fuck her up, huh?’

“I just nodded.  I guess I was pretty mad, Eff.  I mean, Lisa is a little hard to be around sometimes, you know, but she’s never hurt anyone, man.  She doesn’t deserve what happened to her,”
he finished, almost apologetically, like he’d done something wrong by showing too much emotion to his drug-dealing acquaintance.

“So you thinking what I’m thinking, then?” I asked an edge to my tone as well.

“Yeah man, that fucking lunch lady sold out Lisa for the Discovery Cash.  Because she needed some liquid funds to satisfy her habit, bro, so she turned in Lisa, marked her as a suspected Muto…  That fucking pisses me off!”
  If Jacob was nothing more than an idiot at times, he was a loyal idiot.  He’d known Lisa since she was a little girl.  We all had, having grown up in the same neighborhood.

“I guess I will be meeting with Tirza then,” I mumbled my thoughts aloud.

Around me the girls all moved a bit closer; their curiosity peeked by my change of heart.

“What’s that?”
asked Jacob.

I quickly told him about all of Tirza’s messages and our
phone call and my thoughts on the matter – both before and after his call to my house.

“Fuck, cuz, you think that’s smart?  If she won’t tell you over the phone and now we have a fairly good idea that her sister was turned in as a Muto suspect.  You might
be getting yourself into even deeper shit than you ever have before.”
  Jacob was still mad, but I could hear genuine concern in his voice for me.

I guess there’s a deep seeded reason why I hung out with him so much, because in a pinch you could always count on him.  He was what we used to call back then, “cool people.”

“Jake, I’m already in deep shit, man,” I replied, looking over at the girls.

“How so, bro?”

“I’ll tell you when I see you.”  Like Tirza I wasn’t going to risk anything by talking over the phone about what had happened to me, to Katie, to Leda and to my girlfriend.  The NIA might suspect that Lisa was a Muto, but we were Mutos, and we all knew it.  “Are you coming over?”

He didn
’t hesitate in the least. 
“Naw, cuz… so far all of this shit is just hearsay.  I’m gonna stay on these streets a bit longer and see if I can turn some of it into fact.  We’ll meet up later, maybe tomorrow and see… what’s the haps…”

Wow,
I thought,
Jacob’s really fucking pissed! 
“What’s the haps” was our code for “dropping elbows”, which could be loosely translated from street-talk to kicking someone’s ass in a royal fashion… by whatever means available.

“We gonna take it that far, Jacob?” I asked, merely for clarity on the matter.

“If we have to… you know The Uncles will help, those crazy vatos are always down to fuck somebody up,”
was his subdued retort.

“Yeah, but that usually involves guns and shit, Jacob.  They might be related to us, but they always take shit to the head.”  I was doubtful whenever it cam
e to my father’s two surviving full-blooded brothers.  They’d been in and out of prison for more years than I had been alive and were still heavy hitters in the old
Barrio
.  So much so, when Jacob had mention that
“our family was looking for someone”,
we both knew his drug dealing contact would take that to mean The Uncles wanted to find someone.  We knew no one turned them away empty handed.  Their rule was simple - give up what you know and it’s all good.  The threat was there, though, it was merely never voiced out loud.

“Well, let me hammer more of this shit down and we’ll decide later, ok?”

“Ok, man, talk to you later.”

“Later,”
was all he said and the line went dead.  He hadn’t even called me a dick, which was his calling card.

Yeah, he was pissed.

“So what did he have to say, Effy?  Nothing good, I presume from the way you look,” wondered Katie, coming around the coffee table to stand before me.  Her hand reached to stroke my cheek before she could stop it.

Over her shoulder, I watched Leda frown slightly at that.  I knew she was beginning to realize how close Katie and I were.  I could see she knew boundaries had been crossed.  Katie was just too intimate with me sometimes.

I breathed explosively, pushing those thoughts aside, because as this day wore on that particular topic was becoming ever more irrelevant.  “He is fairly sure that Lisa was sold out for the Discovery Cash.”

“Fuck!” yelled Ramona.  I knew it wasn’t just outrage over Lisa being seized by the government, there was some real angst in there.  Because, now I would be dead set on meeting with Tirza, and that was something she definitely didn
’t want to happen.

“Damn,” muttered my cousin and half-turned from me.  Her thoughts making her go inside herself.