Chapter 4- Mischance
Tim Johnson lived in Columbus, Ohio and served as hair and makeup coordinator for a local television station.
He was the first cousin of the Technician known as Yield, a close personal friend of Yunior Delgado.
Tim, as well as Mr. Yield, were two of the few people outside of family that the cartel allowed to visit and stay in the home of Eduardo Delgado.
The visit made by Tim had been to outfit Yunior's assistant, and the man shopped and purchased items for the entire family.
He'd also give his big brother a sense of style.
Yunior trusted Tim's eye; therefore, Micah would as well.
He sat at the table, his back to Tim as he talked and measured Alita, asking her to extend her arms while he made notes.
When he measured her bust, Tim made a point of speaking loudly to let Micah know the young woman was holding the measuring tape, and Tim was not touching her body.
He did measure her waist but handed the tape to Alita as he took her hip measurement.
Tim spoke, “I didn't plan meals for four days. I need to go grocery shopping for food for us. Do you guys want to come and see how it's done?”
Micah, without turning around, said, “That is a task I have no interest in doing today.”
“Okay, fine. Alita can come with me to see how I'm going to put together meals while I learn what you like and don't like to eat,” Tim said.
This time, Micah turned around, “Tim the Johnson, do you know how to make the tail of the oxen with potatoes, slowly braising the green leaves of the turnips, and the iron skillet corny bread? I would very much like that meal for supper.”
Tim blinked several times. “You want oxtails and potatoes, turnip greens, and cornbread for dinner?”
“Sí, please. And the gooey cheese with the curled-up pasta,” he said, nodding his head.
“Macaroni and cheese?” Tim asked.
“Sí, can you prepare this meal for us?”
“Sure, but I thought you would want steaks with baked potatoes and endive salads or some shit.”
“My grandfather is a cattle baron,” Micah explained. “We have those meals all the time. As college students, we will not be feasting on such elaborate meals but basics that we can prepare and eat on for a day or more.”
“Okay, Alita, you can come to the store with me,” Tim said.
“I cannot leave his side when we are out of our own country,” Alita explained.
“He will be here at the house; ain't nobody breaking in my home,” Tim said.
“To leave his side is a termination offense,” Alita clarified.
Tim placed a hand on his narrow hip, “So, are you saying you go to the bathroom with him too?”
“If we are in a public space, yes, but he rarely will use a public bathroom unless there is no other choice,” Alita said.
“And what about you? Does he stand guard when you wee, or do you stand guard while he wees as well?”
“My back is to him as he does his business, but I am there,” she said. “Made things at school weird, but we were allowed to use the janitor's bathroom since I had to always be with him.”
“Such an odd way of life,” Tim said, completing his measurements and working on Micah next.
He noticed when the young man disrobed, she too turned her body away from him.
To think of people so young having to live such a life.
..then he thought of Tonda being at Fer de Lance's side as well as Gunther being at Yunior’s.
Over the next four days, Tim's respect for Micah expanded as he understood the man's logic and reasoning and how he managed living with Asperger’s.
****
AT THREE A.M., TIM heard a rustling in the kitchen and arrived to find Micah warming milk and looking for honey.
“Please forgive me for riffling through your pantry. I am looking for honey to go in my milk,” Micah said.
“You can't sleep?”
“Sheets,” he said. “New sounds. New smells. But mainly the sheets. I can hear the hairs on my legs when I move.”
Tim frowned at him, “Excuse me?”
“The fabric is not a good grade of cotton,” Micah said.
“Well, pardon the hell out of me. Did you also feel the pea between the mattress and box spring?” Tim asked.
“There is urine in the bedding? Why would you keep such a thing? Did my family not pay you enough to replace soiled bedding?” Micah asked, seemingly frustrated at the news.
“No, child,” Tim said. “The fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea, they put a pea, like a bean, between a stack of ...never mind. I have some jersey knit sheets, which feel like a tee shirt. I also have some silk sheets if you want me to put those on the bed for you.”
Micah cut his eye at Tim. “Silk sheets? Like the ones you use for your sexy times?”
His eyes raked up and down Tim as if the man were spending his evening with a gerbil and a large linebacker. The imagination of things done on those silk sheets resonated on his face as he stared at Tim. “I would not like to use the silk ones,” Micah said.
“You're funny,” Tim replied. “I saw every thought in your head about the things I could have possibly done on those sheets, and you're probably right.”
Micah didn't want to laugh, but he did. “I don't mean to be rude about the sheets, but it is a sensory thing. My Asperger’s...life can be overwhelming and overstimulating for me at times.”
“You seem to handle it well.”
“Not as well as I should, but we all have good days and bad days,” Micah said. “Being the son of the Fer de Lance and the grandson of Eleon Fernandez, my window for failure extends a little, considering what my grandmother calls an affliction.”
“Not to be rude myself, but can you feel love, or do you understand how to express love?”
“Of course, I feel love,” he said. “My issue is that I feel everything. I see everything. I calculate every odd and possibility over and over until at times, I feel as if I am going mad.”
“And Alita?”
“What about her?”
“Would I be out of pocket to notice how much she cares for you, if not loves you, even more so for doing what you are doing?” Tim said.
Micah paused, pouring milk into a saucepan, drizzling in the honey and stirring slowly. He listened to what Tim was saying. He heard the unasked question. This would be a chance to speak with someone outside of his family to get feedback and clarity.
“I have witnessed and experienced the calming of the friendship and camaraderie between you and my brother. He trusts you,” Micah said. “Will you afford me the same grace?”
“Of course,” Tim said.
“Her teen years were forfeited to serve my family, or rather me, and to make money to send to her lazy father,” Micah explained.
“In return, she received a salary and a private education at a prestigious school. Men in the cartel would not hesitate to take advantage of an untouched maiden, but for me, it would dishonor my father and complicate our lives.”
“Understood, but do you want more with her?”
“I want a great number of things, Tim the Johnson,” Micah said softly.
“However, what kind of man would I be to bring her to my bed for the next few years, then marry another woman arranged by my father, then treat her as if our nights together meant nothing to me while she watches my wife bear my children?”
“Can you marry her?”
“The question is, do I want to?” Micah said.
“In my heart, it would be the ideal situation since she knows me better than my own father. The reverse in the same scenario is that she knows me better than my own father. I have no leeway to grow more as a man since we have grown into young adults together. But it could work, I guess.”
“What do you mean?”
“My grandmother was 18 when she married mi abuelo, and he was 21,” Micah said. “My mother was 17 when she married my father, but she ran away, got addicted to drugs, and ended up killed by militia men in the jungle.”
“Well, damn,” Tim said.
“I say that to say this, people get married all the time at a young age, and many stay married all their lives,” Micah said. “I do not know if her love for me is strong enough to spend a life caring for a man with my afflictions. To bear children who may be like me, is a gamble.”
“You've given this a great deal of thought.”
“I think of it often,” Micah said. “I think of the cost of being her first and the idea of being her only. To take such a gift from her that can be used to barter a better future for herself weighs heavily me. I also imagine taking the time to teach her the ways of love, how to please me as she learns the things which ignite her passions, has kept me awake at night.”
“How old are you again?”
“I shall be nineteen soon,” he said. “Keep in mind, I had my first lover at the age of 14, and until recently, a steady stream of them that were vetted by my father over the past four years. Some of the ladies were into some freaky shit. I liked a lot of it.” He started to laugh.
“I share too much,” Micah said.
“No, you are allowing me to see who you really are, and I respect that and you,” Tim said. “The question you are not asking, or the permission you seek, I can't give you, but what I can offer you, Micah, is this bit of advice.”
Micah poured the milk into the mug and stood facing Tim. His dark eyes bore into the man and to his surprise, Tim didn't flinch. This small act made Micah relax.
“In five years, can you see a life without Alita or a life of you potentially welcoming your first child with her?” Tim said.
“If she understands your Asperger’s and is willing to bear children which may or may not have the same condition, it is up to her.
You're removing her choice from the equation. A woman picks their first, their husband and the father to their children. Let her make the choice, that is, if you want a life with her or some woman your father has chosen.”
Micah stated, “I receive your words, but may I make one other request?”
“Why the hell not?”
“The peachy fruit,” Micah said, arching his eyebrows. “You said Yunior should use it to learn to please a woman with his mouth. I wish to learn this technique should she choose to gift me...with her love.”
“You mean to tell me after four years of lovers, you've never gone down on a woman?”
“Hell, no!” he replied vehemently.
“But for Alita?”
“I would be willing to give her every and anything she needs to gain her pleasure,” he said, finding himself blushing.
“You love her, don't you?”
“I also love the bones of the neck of the pig and collard greens with corny bread,” Micah said. “I need time to process how to proceed.”
Tim patted his shoulder. “My first lover took his time with me. Each interaction, we went a step further. First, was simple over the clothes action, then we moved on to hand releases, then oral, way before he actually got to penetration.”
Micah frowned at Tim. “That is entirely too much information, but I receive your words and feel violated in my mind with the potential visuals.”
“Whatever, let's go change the sheets so the young prince won't hear his leg hairs scraping against my cheap ass sheets,” Tim said, swishing his way down the hall.
Alita, awake in her room, stood at the bedroom door, having heard everything being said.
Her life was with Micah Delgado. He had a path to walk and her place was at his side, but before they could move forward, there was a college to choose, a wedding, a betrothal, the Regalia, and of course, the potential matches for him as a wife.
She prayed the clothes Tim chose for her would stand up next to the choices of women chosen by the Fer de Lance and daughters of Czars with budgets to shop which equaled her annual salary.
However, she had an ace up her sleeve. No one knew Micah Delgado better than she did—his quirks, preferences, and idiosyncrasies.
It wouldn't take her long to get rid of the potential brides he would meet at the wedding and the Regalia. In a way, she was looking forward to going to battle with those bitches and earning her man. Micah Delgado was hers. She planned to show him why she was the right and only choice for him.
She returned to the bed with the scratchy sheets. Tomorrow would begin the life she wanted with her guy.
“Two kids,” she said softly. “A boy and a girl would be ideal.”