Chapter 13-Cogency #2
His grandfather was waiting for them when they arrived, greeting both of his grandsons with big hugs, but it was Micah he wanted to speak with in private.
Micah respected his grandfather but didn’t actually like the man.
There were moments when the old man came across as a genial person, then other times, he was ruthless and calculating.
It was the calculating part that registered deeply with Micah's nervous system, but he had two guns and a couple of knives, and he was prepared to draw them all, start firing, and wait to see if the returning fire would end his life.
“Micah, would you care to join me for a ride this afternoon?” Eleon asked.
“No,” he said. “I just spent seven hours in a sardine can to get here. State what is on your mind, Abuelo.”
“Direct, I like,” Eleon said, pointing towards his office, but Micah stood his ground. He did not move from where he was standing. “Okay, fine. We have three potential matches for you this weekend. I am hopeful that of the three you shall select one.”
Micah turned to face his grandfather and looked him directly in the eyes when he spoke. “I am confident I shall choose none, but out of respect for you and the cartel, I am here.”
“What do you mean, you will choose none! I am your Czar!” Eleon said, raising his voice.
“No, you are my grandfather,” Micah corrected. “Eduardo Delgado is my Czar. My home is in Colombia, not here. Again, I am here out of respect, but I am not marrying anyone to secure your country or your borders.”
His grandfather puffed up his chest, ready to start the blustering that didn’t intimidate Micah in the least. Eleon added bass to his voice when he asked, “You refuse me?”
“Yes,” Micah stated, looking deeper into his grandfather's eyes.
“You have the heir and the spare. Now, since I have shown to have value, you suddenly want me as well, leaving my father with no sons but Angel to secure the borders of Colombia? My home is in Colombia. My loyalty is to my Czar, not you.”
“Did your father put you up to this to challenge me?” Eleon asked.
“Abuelo, for some reason, you and Abuela seem to think me being on the spectrum is a hindrance, especially given she has made of point of stating she is leaving nothing for me and Angel since we are defective,” Micah said.
“I shall take my defective ass home and live in peace in my country, watching my father grow old surrounded by my children.”
Eleon was not backing down, but attempting to poke the sores he thought he knew were soft spots on his grandson. “So, you are trying to be like your father, eh?”
“I am nothing like my father,” Micah said. “Eduardo Delgado, contrary to rumors and speculation, is a fair man, sometimes giving grace where none should be spared. I, on the other hand, am a mutherfucker that nurses a grudge until the tit is dry and spitting dust.”
“Language, Micah!”
“Abuelo, the child you watched run and play, who sat in the corner when his senses were overloaded, is not the man I have grown into,” Micah said.
“Pray and believe that I am the fucking Bushmaster, the third son of Eduardo Delgado, and a bad son of your bitch, by my own right.
I have my own money and don't need yours, and I will not bend or break to your demands.
You can parade as many women as you want in front of me and lie to as many Czars as you can to sell your cattle.
I don't care. I will come back to those same men and sell them my antivenins and organic pesticides and take their money. I am my own man, and I will marry whom I please.”
Anya Fernandez heard his voice and walked into the foyer. “Micah, I thought I heard you. Where is Angel?”
“He stayed home Abuela.”
“Home? Why?” Anya asked.
“My brother didn't feel like getting dressed up like an asshole, talking to the assholes you invited, while they ask him what kind of retard he is,” Micah said, trying not to smile as his grandmother blushed. “He did request that Abuelo send him a few steaks, the thick ones.”
“What? I am shocked by such language,” Anya said. “I am also surprised he didn’t want to be here this weekend.”
“Why? You don't like him, or me for that matter,” Micah said. “We don't like you either, but I wanted to see Yunior and the kids. Alita wanted to see her parents, so I will check the little boxes of your annual gala of rich people's nonsense and get back to my life.”
“You don't like me?” Anya said, genuinely shocked.
“Don't feel bad, I don't like him either,” Micah said, pointing at his grandfather, then looked towards the kitchen, “Chef knew I was arriving. Did he make me the shrimp that I like? I could eat something.”
“He did,” Anya said, “Well, I guess discussing the seating arrangements with you is not necessary.”
“Nope, Alita will be my plus one and seated on my left,” Micah said, staring into his grandmother's eyes, daring her to challenge him.
“And if I say no to your request?” Anya asked.
“My father's plane is on the tarmac, and I will get on it and go home,” Micah said. “My being here is a courtesy, not a requirement.”
Anya swallowed hard, looking at Micah with fresh eyes. “I assume Alita has the required attire for the gala?”
“She has been outfitted by the same person who dresses Diadra,” Micah said, grateful to Tim Johnson.
“There are stupid dresses to coordinate with my tuxedos, an unneeded shad belly to ride with me during the fox hunt, and a tea dress for the afternoon slurp fest with the braying cattle Abuelo is attempting to purchase for me to marry and breed with as well. Anything further from you two?”
“I guess not,” Anya said.
He walked away, knowing he'd gone too far, but his guns were loaded, and this weekend, he was shooting down all the clay pigeons. The fear he often felt coming here was replaced with a new sense of courage.
“2584, 4181, 6765,” he said, heading towards the kitchens. Perhaps the weekend wouldn't be so bad after all.
“What has gotten into him?” Anya asked.
“He's creating his own path,” Eleon said, watching Micah’s back walk away. “We underestimated that one. Totally underestimated him on all fronts.”
They stood in silence, uncertain what to say or how to proceed.
Sadness engulfed Eleon at the loss of his own only son and Anya's inability to give him more.
He'd hoped to build the rest of his empire with all of his grandsons, but Micah had let him know in a conversation laced with cogency, that he was building with his own father.
He went to his office and closed his door.
He needed a moment to process everything his grandson had said to him.
What stuck in his mind was the statement, ‘I am a mutherfucker that nurses a grudge until the tit is dry and spitting dust.’ It hit home, and for a moment, fear entered his heart because he'd seen Micah’s intense focus when he was trying to get a thing completed.
Eleon could not imagine that amount of focus aimed at a person he despised.
****
IN THE KITCHEN, MICAH came face to face with his big brother. “Hermano!” he shouted, embracing Yunior, who'd come to the kitchens to gather snacks for his kids. “How are you?”
“Tired,” Yunior said. “It seems there is no end to how much children eat and poop. In one end and out the other, then you spend the rest of the day changing little dirty socks and clothes. How are you, and where is Angel?”
“Lady Bird is foaling. New chicks. New ducks, plus he didn't want to be here eating food he couldn't pronounce off tiny crackers,” Micah said. “It will probably be my last visit as well.”
Yunior looked up. “Is there something wrong?”
“No, my life is in Colombia,” Micah said. “My goal is to complete Uni and stay on to take over for Papa. He worked hard to give us a solid, rich life. In his old age, I wish to surround him with my children and care for him.”
His brother looked at him. “Understood.”
“Hey, I got accepted to Uni in Bogotá and got a flat,” Micah said. “It has four bedrooms, so let me know what kind of toys to get for your kids so that when you and Diadra come for a visit, they will have stuff already there, lessening the number of things she’d need to pack.”
Yunior arched an eyebrow, “You'd do that for us?”
“Man, I know you get sick of being here,” Micah said.
“I hate this place, so I will have a place of my own, and you can come hang with me.
The flat has a covered patio so Papa can grill his sausages.
He likes the patio a lot. Mami is giving Alita some funds to furnish it since there are four bedrooms, but I don't like a lot a clutter, so she can put that foofy shit in her bedroom and bathroom.
I don't want my balls smelling like lemons and cinnamon.”
Yunior laughed. “I missed you, Micah.”
“I am here because I miss you and Diadra and my niece and nephew,” he said. “I did bring gifts for them.”
“Is there anything you will need for Uni?”
“If you’re asking ? a car,” Micah said. “Hell, I need two, one for Alita, but she keeps saying she wants a Vespa. That woman likes to vex me.”
“She is attending Uni as well?”
“Sí, she got a partial scholarship in digital storytelling,” Micah said.
“Now she is going to want to walk around with a camera recording nonsense to evoke emotions on the life of the coffee borer beetle or some shit.
I hope she can record it having a fast death with the cinnamon oil I'm adding to cut down on the little fuckers.”
“That mind of yours is a wondrous thing,” Yunior said. “Any kind of car in particular?”
“Non-descript, college-kid kind of thing suitable for life in Bogotá. We don't want to be targets,” he said. “I know I could buy my own, but I just bought an apartment, and you have more money than me, so help your brother out.”
“I got you; anything else I need to know?”
“Yes, I just told Abuelo I wasn't going to pick any of the breeding stock he is planning to parade in front of me to marry. I told Abuela I didn't like her and neither did Angel, but he wanted them to send him some steaks, and I'm in love with Alita and want to marry her,” Micah said.
Yunior stopped making peanut butter and jam sandwiches. “You know that probably hurt their feelings?”
“And you know that I don't give two fucks,” Micah said. “That man used Papa's guilt over his daughter’s death to steal his two healthy sons to take over for him herding cattle and selling shit as fertilizer. I made it clear he wasn’t getting his hands on me or taking me from our father.”
“There are times when you should pull back a little,” Yunior told him.
“And there are times when a man needs to pull back on the trigger and fire off a few rounds center mass, two in the chest and one in the head,” Micah said.
“He is done punishing my father by pawning off his daughter for a life she wasn't prepared to live.
The same can be said for the women he's trying to palm off on me. My life is in Colombia. Alita is meeting with her parents now and coming to that realization as well. When she makes up her mind, then I shall move forward.”
“Move forward with what?”
“We will live in that flat as man and wife,” Micah said. “I love her. I like the way she smells. I even kissed her and shared saliva.”
“What? Who are you, and where is my little brother?” Yunior said, laughing. His face turned serious when he asked, “Have you done anything else?”
“I can only do that as her husband,” he said. “I want to do that really badly. I really want to do that, so yeah, I'm marrying that girl. I was even considering maybe having some really smart babies with her.”
“Okay, then,” Yunior said shifting the conversation a bit, “Will your paramour be here this weekend?”
“Over that shit too,” he said. “The next and only woman in my bed is going to be Alita, so keep fuel in your plane in case I need you to fly home to be my best man.”
“I will, but don’t you think you are too young?”
“Not planning to have kids right away,” he said.
“We have college to finish and mountains to climb, and your place in Aruba is perfect for a quick honeymoon, if you’re okay with it.
She really wants to see a sunset on a beach in Aruba.
She mentioned that once. Can you help me make that happen, I mean, if you’re okay with it. ”
“I'm okay with it,” Yunior replied. “You seem determined.”
“If I can feel happiness, I do when I am with her. My nervous system isn't in flux, the anxiety isn’t taking over my brain, plus she is so smart,” Micah said, “and she understands me, and I understand her. Isn't that what a good relationship is about?”