CHAPTER TWENTY
When the other workers arrived by nine later that morning, Reno rounded up the family and Niyla and told them to get in the SUV. He had something to show them.
Trina, Sophia and the boys were already in the SUV when Reno came out of the diner with Niyla in tow.
Sophia shook her head. “Daddy’s suit was perfectly fine when he put it on this morning. How could he get it this wrinkled this early?”
“Because it’s not wrinkled,” said Carmine. “You’ve conditioned your mind to see wrinkles whenever you see Daddy wearing anything because that’s what you expect to see from him. But that suit is still perfectly fine.”
Sophia looked at Trina, who sat on the front passenger seat. “Am I lying, Ma? Isn’t Daddy’s suit wrinkled?”
“Yes, it is,” said Trina.
“Told you so,” said Sophia.
But Carmine was shaking his head. “Mother’s been conditioned too,” he said. “You and mother both see what you want to see.”
But when Dom saw Viyla walk out of the diner with his father, he saw something so gorgeous that it felt as if his heart was leaping. He and Jimmy had been stuck in that stockroom all morning and this was the first time he saw her. “Who’s that?” he asked Sophia.
“That’s Viola,” Sophia responded as if she had to sound it out for her brother. “But everybody calls her Viyla. She’s the manager. Why you wanna know?”
“Why you think?” Dom asked his kid sister as he stared at the beautiful, albeit older woman. She was impeccable to Dom.
But Sophia gave her brother a hard look. “So Mariah is old news already?”
“Nobody said nothing about Mariah.”
“Uh-hun,” said Sophia, knowing how her brother had been eyeballing the manager.
But she held her peace. Her marriage was brand new, and she wasn’t in any position to tell anybody what to do about their own relationships. She kept her thoughts to herself.
Trina introduced Viyla to Jimmy and Dom, they all spoke, and then Reno drove them to the factory near the outskirts of town. A big, shiny food truck was sitting just outside the gate.
“What’s this?” Trina asked.
“Our new food truck,” said Reno as they all got out of the SUV.
Trina looked at Reno. “When did you get this?”
Reno didn’t respond as if his motto, that nobody kept tabs on him, was in full effect. But Trina and the children knew it had to be when he went on his “drive” last night. It was the first time he had been away from all of them. Which made Trina smile and the children relax. At least he wasn’t off banging the hot manager, Sophia and Carmine happily and inwardly said to themselves. Because it had crossed their minds.
It had crossed Trina’s mind, too, before she saw Reno give Viyla the business about coming onto him. Now she felt like rejoicing even more because that truck was additional proof that Reno loved her. That Reno was all about business the way he claimed to be all about. He took care of business as only Reno could: any time of the day or night and with the task completely done when he was finished. She placed her arm in his arm, which surprised him. Trina was never the touchy-feely type.
“Viyla,” Reno said, “I want you to work the truck, and I emphasize work, with my two boys.”
Trina smiled. Viyla ignored his jab. “Yes, sur,” she said. “But I never worked on no food truck before.”
“No worries,” said a now smiling Dom. “When we were younger, Daddy had me and my brother working food trucks around his hote . . . I mean, we worked on food trucks before,” he said, catching himself. “I’ll show you the ropes.”
“Thank you,” Viyla said. “But the morning shift at the factory left already.”
“That’s why it’s fully stock to serve breakfast and lunch,” said Reno. “You will serve them lunch today. I’m going to go inside, speak with the manager, and see what kind of joker I’m dealing with. I’ll see if he’ll let me tell the workers that the truck is out here. Everything is free this week. After this week, they pay. Understand?”
“Yes, sir,” said Dom.
“Yes, sur,” said a thrilled Viyla. “Everybody’s gonna be happy to hear that.”
“Come on, Tree,” Reno said as they walked hand in hand into the factory. Sophia and Carmine hurried behind them, shocked by their parents’ show of affection. “What’s that about?” Carmine leaned over and asked his big sister. She could only hunch her shoulder.
Once inside the factory, however, they were all amazed. It seemed like the whole adult population was working in that plant. “Damn,” said Trina, “it’s big in here.”
“It’s hot as hell in here,” said Sophia. “How can they work in these conditions?”
The workers were all looking at them too. They were staring at them. Nell’s family had told them about the white man new in town with his black family. But other than Otis and the few that attended his crab boil, nobody else had seen them before now. Those were the ones staring hardest.
“May we help you?”
The Gabrinis turned to the sound of the voice and saw two white men approaching them. Which should have surprised them since every single face in that building, every worker, was black. But Otis had already told Reno how Koshay fired the black manager and turned the plant over to his cronies. “Who are you?” asked Reno.
“I’m the manager,” said the shorter one, “and he’s my assistant manager. How can we help you?”
“We’re the Gabri, the Blacks,” Reno said. “We’re new in town. We own the Washwater Eats diner over on the eastside.”
“Yeah, I heard about you. What y’all want?”
“You work for Arthur Koshay?”
Reno could see a definite change in their demeanor when he said that name. “What’s that to you?”
“I wanted to offer my condolences. I understand they gunned down a good man.”
“Yeah well, shit happens,” said the manager, showing absolutely no grief. “Now again, how can we help you?”
He was involved, Reno decided. Was probably in cahoots with those two gunmen so that they could cut out the middleman and split the shakedown money between themselves. They never expected anybody would have their own guns handy. They never expected any pushback. Reno only wondered what those two managers were going to do now.
“I have a food truck out front,” he said. “Not on factory property, but in front of the factory. I was wondering if I can let the workers know that we have a food truck set up outside during their lunch break, and for this week only the meals are free.”
“Ain’t gon’ be no lunch breaks today.”
Reno stared at the manager. “Oh yeah?”
“We behind on production. And ain’t nobody leaving until we catch up,” he said loudly so that the workers could hear him. “So thanks, Mister, but no thanks.”
“Let’s just go, Reno,” said Trina. This wasn’t the way to keep a low profile.
But Reno was still Reno. “You live around here?” he asked the manager.
“Here? In Washwater? Are you joking?”
Him, Reno didn’t like. “What’s your name?”
“What you need to know my name for? Get out of here. We’re busy.”
Sophia and Carmine looked at that manager as if he was nuts talking to their father that way. Nobody talked to him that way but their mother. And they fully expected Reno to go off the way he did whenever their own mother went off on him.
But to their surprise, Reno kept his cool. He continued to stare at the manager, to size him up, but he kept his cool. He’d be back, his eyes made clear.
Then he turned and walked out, with Trina, Soph, and Carmine hurrying behind him.