“Micah?”Eduardo said.
“He has some nerve talking about honor and duty,” Micah said before inhaling a deep breath.“He is using your guilt for his crazy ass daughter and knuckle-brained son to try to take your sons away from you, like he raised us.He didn’t raise us to be the men we are.Eduardo Delgado is responsible for the men we turned out to be, not him, and he wants to surround himself in his old age with his grandchildren and great grandchildren.But you know what?Eduardo Delgado wants to be surrounded by his grandkids, too!That man doesn't dictate shit in my life.He had the audacity, the gall to tell me that I should respect him because he is my Czar.No, the fuck he's not!Eduardo Delgado is my Czar.I told him that shit to his fat, swollen face too.”
He paced the floor, sweat beading on his forehead, his hands fisting and unfitting.The anger building with each step.
“You know he actually said to me that I need to honor my mother and sign the contract,” Micah said.“I told him that woman was no mother to me.I wanted to rub it in his face that Ryanne Delgado was the only woman to mother me and show me an ounce of love and affection, and his daughter was the reason my brain ran hot on most days.That defunct son of his slobbering on himself in a dark room, masturbating to the maids when they come to change his shitty bed linens is disgusting.AndAbuelawants to talk to Angel as if he doesn't understand and comprehend.Fuck her too.”
Eduardo reached for him but changed his mind.This was on Micah’s chest and he wanted it off.It was best to allow him the space to finish.
“And those girls!That's what they were, girls!”Micah ranted.“The one from Suriname barely spoke English and no Spanish.How do you live on a continent whose primary language is Spanish, and you speak none?Even the most chuckle-headed cowboy hat-wearer can at least order two beers in Spanish.No Spanish at all.Pray tell, what language does she plan to teach my children to speak in our home?Dutch?Get the klompen-wearing, wooden shoe-wearing, fuck out of here!”
He inhaled and wiped the sweat away that had begun to pour down the sides of his face.“The second one from Paraguay, her hobby was shopping.That's it.Oh, and she thought I was fine as hell.She wanted to fuck me but not live on a farm.Hell, she wanted to fuck Andres too, pretty much said it while Roxana was standing there next to Andres.She asked Roxana, who lives on a farm, if she was okay marrying a man who lived on a farm.Roxana lives on a farm that produces coca and coffee just like us.Perona de la Mar is a farm with a lot of fucking cows.Bitch, we are farmers!Where does she think we're going to live?”
Eduardo was trying not to laugh, but he was listening.His son's chest was heaving as if he was going into a full-blown panic attack.Angel walked in and saw his brother on a tear and bolted for the back door.He knew something Eduardo didn't, but this, this is what Eduardo wanted to see.
He knew Angel was going for Alita.
“The last one, that last girl, she was born and bred for me like some automaton who speaks my chemistry language but only wants to have my children,” Micah snapped.“I asked, ‘Don't you want to travel and go to Uni?’No.She said no!She wanted to get married right away and start making our family.She told me she would be fulfilled by the children.Wait, bitch how many children?She stood there, looking at me with those blank ass eyes, opening her vapid mouth to say, as many as I could afford or her body could bear.Who said I wanted a house full of fucking kids?Igotsshit to do, mountains to climb, research to complete.I'm not going to be up at three a.m.changing a bunch of pissy diapers every few hours for Ramon, Peri, Luis, Martín, Lauri, and Rebecka.I like that name.If I have a girl, I want her to be named Rebecka.The other names, I just made up, but I don't want a house full of kids.She has no hobbies, no interests, no ability for a side hustle to create a slush fund for vacations in the Falkland Islands where I want to take pictures of penguins and shit.No, she wants to pop out babies and ride me like a stallion.Well, I am a stallion, but I'm not her personal baby batter pump.What is wrong with her?”
Alita came through the back door with a few tomatoes and a cucumbers in a basket.She yelled out, “Think fast, Boss!”Tossing a tomato at him that he avoided, followed by another, and another, then the cucumber, followed by another cucumber.Red tomatoes littered the floor from his blows, but Alita came at him.
“You have to be faster than that,” she called, executing a perfect aerial spin kick, coming close to his face.
Micah blocked the kick, returning the assault with his own perfectly executed roundhouse.
“Angel,” Alita yelled.“UpEmberá Chocó!”
“Emberá Chocó!”Angel yelled back.
Angel locked in, making a pocket with his hands as Alita charged at him, her right foot stepping into Angel's cupped hands, as he provided heft to her, and she landed behind Micah.She swept the floor with her leg as Micah jumped, swinging at her.They exchanged blows, swinging missing, ducking, parrying, darting, turning, swiping.Finally, at an impasse, she looked at him.
“Back-to-back, lower to the floor,” she told Micah.
With their backs to each other, knees bending, their bodies lowered to a seated position, ending, legs folded lotus-style.Ryanne and Mara came from her office to see what was happening after hearing the commotion.Ryanne took a seat on the couch next to her husband, unclear on what she was seeing.
“Breathe deep,” Alita said.“From your center, feel the invisible line pulling you up, count it out: 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, three seven seven.”
Micah spoke, “Six ten, 987, 1597, 2584, 4181, 6765, 10946, 17711.”
“Perfect, let’s find your center and hum with me,” Alita said.“Hoy cobré y hoy mismo lo voy' a explotar...”
Micah continued the lyrics, rapping in his lower register.He began to sing the remainder of the song.She asked him to switch to ‘Underneath Your Clothes’,a ballad by Shakira, which he began to sing.Eduardo sat listening to his son belt out the notes, in perfect key.Angel joined in, tapping lightly on the table to provide background percussion as they sat on the floor, Alita singing along with him.He hadn't heard Micah sing like this before, finding himself doubly impressed with the young woman's ability to bring him down so quickly.The song ended, and she had him turn to face her.
She stared him in the eyes, her head slightly tilted, knowing it would irk him for her to not look at him headlong, making him focus on her face.“Are you ready to talk about it?”
“Nothing to talk about,” Micah said reaching over with his finger, bringing her head to a centered position.“I'm not marrying that insipid girl.”
“Okay, so now your grandfather and your Czar are aware,” Alita said.“Does your Czar know what your plan is, and do you?”
“My plan is to marry you?”
She straightened her back, “And why would you want to do that?Have you even asked me if that is what I want?”
“I want to marry you because I love you,” he said, looking at her.“You love me too, so I'm asking.You're wearing the ring.I wanted to make the request official, but that baboon of a man wants everything to be about him.What about my father?He doesn't get to co-opt my father's sons as if they were his own.He screwed up his kids.That doesn't give him rights to my father's.He demands to be surrounded by his grandkids as if my father doesn't get that right as well.Who is going to look after Papa when he breaks his hip and can't get around?”
Eduardo leaned forward.“How did I get into this?My hips are fine.Wait, a damned minute!”
Alita held up her hand to Eduardo, trying to keep Micah centered in the moment.She tapped on his thigh three times, and he once more, focused on her face.
