35. Brakkus #2
The feast was spread across the island, ready to be dished up.
The carne guisada was in a big enameled pot at one end, dark and thick, the beef soft enough to break with a spoon.
Beside it the tamales, stacked in their husks in a covered pan.
Calabacita with squash and corn and green chile.
Charro beans with bacon in them. A pan of red rice.
A bowl of queso. And a basket of flour tortillas under a folded linen cloth to hold the warmth in.
“Plates are at that end,” Lola said.
Megan got to the tamales first and dished them onto her plate.
Theron worked his way down the island, taking a little of each dish.
Denis came behind him and put three tamales on his plate without breaking stride.
Orsala came through last with Otto still on her hip, taking what she could reach one-handed until Hannah lifted him off her and put him in the high chair.
We ate at the big table with the rain pattering on the windows and the tree lit up in the next room. I sat at the end with Hannah on my right and my son beside her. I got up twice for more of the guisada. I stopped pretending after the second trip and brought the pot to the table.
“Good idea,” Trey said.
Otto ate rice with both hands.
“How long do the tamales take?” Orsala asked.
“Two days, the way I do them,” Lola said. “But that’s for a hundred. You can do a dozen in an afternoon if you have help.”
“I’d like to learn.”
Lola looked at her for a second. “Then I’ll teach you.”
Denis was on his fifth tamale. Megan had gotten up to get more queso and never sat back down.
She was standing at the island with the bowl.
Kyle was telling Trey about the refrigeration job.
Hannah leaned over and put her forehead on my shoulder for a second, then straightened up and went back to her plate.
When the plates were cleared, I went and got the cake out of the refrigerator.
Chocolate, two layers, with green frosting. I lit two candles at the counter with my back to the table so he wouldn’t see, and then I turned around. Megan started the song before I’d taken a step. The whole table joined in “Happy Birthday to You”.
I carried the cake down to the head of the table and set it on the tray of his high chair. My son looked at those two little flames like he’d never seen fire before in his life. Then his hand came up. Hannah caught his wrist about four inches short of the frosting.
“Hold on, big man.”
“Cake.”
“I know.” She kept a hand on his arm and looked over at me. “Fast, Brakkus.”
I got down on one knee beside the high chair so my face was level with his.
“Otto. Look here.” I put my mouth in an O and blew a long slow breath at the candles from a foot away, not hard enough to put them out. “Like that. You do it.”
He watched my mouth.
“Blow,” I said.
He blew a wet raspberry that went nowhere near the cake. Trey laughed. I did it again, slower, and Otto pursed up his whole face and gave it everything he had, and one candle went out.
“That’s it. One more.”
He hit the second one on his own.
The room erupted. Megan had both hands over her head. Denis was clapping. Kyle put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loud enough that Otto froze, looked around at all of them, and then started clapping too, delighted by it all.
“Two years old,” Lola said, her eyes shining.
Hannah let go of his wrist and he smooshed one side of the frosting. Lola cut the cake and Megan handed the plates down the table. When everybody had a piece in front of them I cleared my throat.
“We’ve got a special announcement,” I said.
I looked over at Hannah for confirmation, and she nodded. I put my hand on her stomach.
“We’re having a baby. First week of July.”
For about a second nobody moved.
Then Megan gasped and put both hands over her mouth, and one tear slid down her cheek. Denis pressed one hand flat on his chest.
“I’m going to be a grandfather,” he said. “I’m going to be a grandfather.”
Kyle whooped. Trey came out of his chair and got an arm around my neck and thumped me on the back.
Lola had known since October, because she saw Hannah turn green at the smell of coffee.
Across the table, Orsala had gone very still. “A brother or a sister,” she said. “For Otto.”
“Yes.”
She reached over and took Hannah’s hand in both of hers. “Congratulations. Truly.” Hannah smiled.
“That’s very good news,” Theron said. “That’s very good news indeed.”
“July,” Megan said. “You’re going to be nine months pregnant. In Texas. In July?—”
“I’ve thought about that.” Hannah chuckled.
“I’m buying you one of those neck fans.”
Otto had chocolate to both elbows and no idea what was happening, and he banged his tray twice because everybody else was loud. I sat back down and put my arm along the back of Hannah’s chair and kissed her on the cheek.
Everybody I had was in this room. My son was two and covered in frosting. My wife was carrying our baby. I could not think of one single thing left in the world that I wanted.
The presents took an hour to open, mostly because Otto wanted to play with each thing as it came out of the paper and had to be talked into opening the next one.
The Vossics had brought him a rocking horse, a set of carved wooden animals, four books, a wool coat, and a drum.
Kyle’s toolbox went over better than anything else on the floor, and by the end of it my son was going around the room hitting the leg of every piece of furniture in the house with a plastic wrench.
The guests started leaving at six. It was dark by then and the rain was still coming down.
Lola had containers stacked on the counter and sent everyone out with something.
Denis stood in the doorway holding his tamales while Kyle got the truck turned around.
Megan hugged Hannah for a long time and said something in her ear that made her laugh.
Orsala got down and put her hand on the side of Otto’s face and said his name, and then she and Theron went out under one umbrella and got into their car. I stood in the door and watched their taillights go down the drive. Then it was quiet.
Hannah took Otto down and had him asleep in about ten minutes. She came back and the house was empty and there was wrapping paper everywhere.
She stopped in front of the large painting Megan had done of the three of us and looked down at it.
Otto was on my arm with his hand up on my tusk.
Hannah was against my other side with her head just touching my shoulder.
Megan had painted gold light behind us, casting a halo around our heads. She’d gotten my son’s eyes just right.
Hannah looked up at the fireplace. “Can you hold the painting over the mantel for me?” she said. “I want to see it.”
I picked it up, carried it over, and held it flat against the stone above the mantel. She backed up to the couch and stood there with her arms folded.
“It looks perfect there,” she said.
“It does.”
Later, we sat together on the couch drinking hot cocoa while the Christmas tree lights twinkled.
“Did you ever tell Trey what we thought of the documentary?” she asked.
“I did before everyone else got here.”
Forty minutes of the quarry, Breakstone’s main street, the first Brute Squad gym, and the orcs who had known me before anybody called me the Brute.
They talked about the limestone pits, the early fights, and the years when walking around in true form still drew a crowd.
“It’s good,” I said. “Better than good.”
I’d made a fortune giving people the Brute. I wasn’t ashamed of him. But Northstar had made room for the real me.
A year ago, I couldn’t get my son to look at me.
Now there was a woman beside me who chose me twice, and a boy asleep down the hall who loved her, and another one coming in July. Everybody I loved was at my home today. They came in the rain, ate at my table, and sang to my son.
I kissed the top of Hannah’s head and breathed her in.
“I love you,” I said. “And I love your life.”
She looked up at me and smiled. She didn’t have to say anything. I already knew she felt it too.