Chapter 7-Power
There were times in a man's life when he longed for his younger days of being carefree and able to do as he pleased.
A man, with a vast amount of power, often felt the freedom to come and go as he wished, answering to few, if anyone, but days like those vanished when in a leadership position.
Eduardo Delgado missed those days of freedom.
Currently, he was sitting in a large church, barely full, watching his idiot baby brother, Carlos, get married.
She was a sweet woman with dancing eyes, naturally full pouty lips, and an extra pinky finger on her left hand.
It dangled when she spoke, and she talked a great deal with her hands.
Twice, Eduardo had to hit Micah, who seemed fixated on the dangly piece of flesh as it jangled and wiggled like a wattle on a rooster.
There were also times he despised the cartel, pairing people up like props, but in this case, it was a good match for his brother.
Role Bolsonaro, The Golden Lancehead of Brazil, was a deadly viper with a den of equally deadly offspring.
He had fathered eight children with his wife: six sons and two daughters.
One daughter had been violated by Eduardo’s brother-in-law, forcing Eleon Fernandez to take drastic steps against his son.
The other daughter, married a cousin of the Czar of Uruguay.
The six sons of The Golden Lancehead of Brazil, ran the Brazilian cartel along with Role’s five, very mean, tattoo-emblazoned brothers.
Carlos, like Micah, was a tattooed member of the cartel, but he didn't manage any territories, run any crews, or handle any products. Educated in the States at Stanford and obtaining a Juris Doctorate in International Law, Carlos served as council for the cartel whenever legal advice was needed. His marriage wasn't to one of Role's children, but to the Czar’s niece, Role’s fourth brother’s daughter; the brother, Heitor, oversaw Fortaleza in Ceara, Brazil.
It was Heitor's daughter that Carlos was marrying.
The entire family did not come for her wedding.
There was no train of bridesmaids, and Eduardo and Tonda served as Carlos's groomsmen.
A small reception was held afterward at the familial home, and a house had been built for Carlos and Alessandra in Maracanaú, where they would live for the better part of the year when not in Colombia.
Carlos was happy with his bride. She listened to him with reverence as he spoke, touching him frequently and smiling often.
The match seemed to be a good pairing, and once Carlos met Alessandra, he didn't balk at the union, but rather embraced it, as if the work he needed to do in the world suddenly made sense.
What didn't make sense to Eduardo was his third-born, a man with a scientific mind and passions he didn't quite understand.
He watched Micah on the dance floor with his new Aunt by marriage, polite in the distance and dance, but he also watched him on the dance floor with Alita, polite in his distance, but the touch and way he held her rang of familiarity.
As Carlos and the bride departed for their honeymoon, Eduardo loaded his family on a plane, and then made his way home via his underground networks. Angel, as his newly appointed guard, traveled along with him, armed with darts loaded with dart frog venom and knives laced with the poison as well.
“Angel, how are things going?” Eduardo asked.
“Okay, I guess,” Angel said, looking at the people on the bus. “Why are we on this stinky bus, Papa?”
“We are of the people, we live by the people, and we are one with our culture,” Eduardo corrected.
“I'd rather be one with the private plane, eating shrimp,” Angel said. “The lady next to me smells like shrimp. Maybe fish. Papa, do you think that is her cuca smelling like that?”
“Angel, be quiet,” Eduardo said.
“I had a paramour that had a smelly cuca,” he said. “I told Yunior to send her back. Her cuca had gone bad.”
“Ay dios mio,” Eduardo mumbled. “Are you ready to return to school in September without Micah?”
“No,” he said, looking at his father. “Save your money. Most of the time in class they make us color with crayons. I am a man. I have animals to care for and chores on the farm. I don't need to go back there.”
“You don't wish to return to school?”
“For what?” he asked, looking at his father.
“School is to get a job. I have a job. I work for you. Lady Bird, the mare, is going to foal soon. It is going to be hard for her. She is too old to still bear foals. The caretaker failed her allowing the stallion to get in her corral. My job, I work for you.”
“You work for me?”
“When you travel, I protect you,” Angel said. “When at home, I take care of the animals.”
“Will you miss your Abuela in Argentina?”
“No, I don't like her. She thinks I'm stupid,” Angel said. “She talks to me like I am stupid. I'm not stupid.”
“No, you're not,” Eduardo said, taking a breather. “Do you feel like I treat you any differently that my other children?”
“Yes,” Angel said. “You give hugs and kisses to Isabella and Catarina. I don't get hugs and kisses.”
“You're my son.”
“I still need hugs and kisses,” Angel said, “especially when I do good. I like that. Mama gives me hugs and kisses all the time. I like it. I feel warm in my tummy when she gives me hugs. She gives kisses to Micah too, but he pretends like he doesn't like it. He does.”
Eduardo mentally chastised himself for his next question. “Does Micah give kisses to Alita too?'
“Eww, no,” Angel said. “I think he wants to though. A boy at our school said something mean about Alita, and Micah, I dunno Papa, he was mad. Micah is hardly ever mad, but that dude was gonna get a stomp from my brother.”
The bus came to a stop, and they unloaded in Tucunduba.
They would take a charter plane into Medellin; from there, Eduardo would fly his helicopter to Las Tierras.
It made for an extremely long travel day, but Angel kept him occupied.
Seldom did he get this much time with his youngest son, and he began to think having the boys closer by might not be a bad idea.
“Angel, did you enjoy the wedding?”
“It was boring,” Angel said. “Yunior's wedding was fun. Diadra looked so pretty and she danced with me. Tio Carlos's wife didn't dance with me. She looked at me funny. I know she wasn't trying to make fun of me with that extra finger hanging on her hand like a little baby wee-wee.”
“Angel!”
“What Papa? It looked like a little penis,” he said. “It kept wiggling. I wanted to take my knife and slice it off and say fixed it!”
“Mary, Mother of Jesus, save me from my children,” Eduardo mumbled as they reached the airfield.
Once they had loaded onto the plane, Angel sat next to him, preparing to take a nap. Eduardo wasn't worried since he and Angel were the only two on the plane, but it didn't bode well for his personal guard to be asleep. He sighed loudly.
“I'm not asleep, Papa; just resting my eyes,” Angel said.
Eduardo paused and said, “Since we have a minute, Andres's engagement is this coming weekend. Plus, I have matches coming for Micah. Do you want me to start looking for matches for you?”
Angel popped up in the seat. “Me? Are you mad at me, Papa?”
“No. Why would you think I was mad at you?”
“You're trying to get me a wife. I don't want to get married! What if she has a wee-wee finger like Tio Carlos' wife? Or wait, are you going to find me a woman who has Down's Syndrome too? I don't want that,” Angel said. “I'm going to be single forever and love the ladies.”
“What?”
“Yeah, the girls at the school thought I was retarded,” Angel said. “One of them pulled me into a closet with her friend. They were going to make fun of me and get my wee-wee all hard.”
“Dear God,” Eduardo said, “what happened?”
“They found out I had a big one and knew how to use it,” Angel said. “I knew how to use my fingers too. They came out of the closet happy.”
“Heaven help me,” Eduardo said lowering his head.
“I'm a lover. I can't help myself. So no, no wife for me,” Angel said. “Papa, you know that same girl kept trying to get me back in the closet with her every week. She was the stalker. I had to say bitch, back up off my junk. I don’t like to use that word for women, but sometimes, you know. Women. No. No wife for me.”
Eduardo didn't want to laugh, but he had to. The mental image of his son in the hallway checking a young woman who was trying to have sex with him was almost too much. He closed his eyes and thought of Micah.
He’d spotted the joy on Micah’s face at seeing Alita in the knee-length dress and ribbons and bows in her hair. The heels she wore were the perfect height to stand next to Micah, and the emerald green dress with ombre gold transitions went well with his suit. Together, they looked good.
He would have a conversation with Micah when he reached Las Tierras.