The Misbegotten

“So… Tirza, I can see, at some point, by some means, you’ve made up Estefan. Now though, I am sitting here and I see my son’s newest squeeze sitting across the very same table as you. This compels me to ask, why are you here, my dear?” It was my mother as she pushed away her plate, dotted with crumbs. All inclining’s of the eggs and bacon, waffles and hash browns she’d eaten were long gone.

She had changed out of her robe and was wearing a burgundy-colored sweat suit. This one though, consisted of shorts instead of pant-length bottoms and the top didn’t have sleeves. I guess you could say it was for working out at the gym.

She had combed her coarse, black hair away from her face, parting it right of center. It cascaded from her head to just pass her shoulders, blanketing them in thick, lustrous locks. She had grown into a beautiful, middle-aged woman. This after she’d given birth to a few more kids later in life.

I recall though, when I was little, my mother was an absolute knockout. She’d been big breasted, thin around the waist with flaring hips. And, she had the same perky, bubble-butt I’d inherited from her. Since she stood no higher than five-foot-one and weighed no more than ninety-eight pounds, she was what men at the time called “a spinner”. This was a sexy, petite beauty that a man could spin on his cock with little effort.

(Not that I ever tried to imagine this or anything. It was just a figure of speech that qualified what my mother looked like back then. To me, it was fitting. True, there’s no doubt I’m a Perv. I’m just not of the oedipal sort).

Now, her skin bore more of the wear typical of a woman her age, but only a little -.

Wait a second. You know what? Now that I’m looking back, thinking about her on that day, she was still a knockout, even at forty. Yes, almost a quarter-ton of high-grade pussy surrounded me. But by no means did this mean my mother didn’t belong in the same category as the teens surrounding me on that day. Hell no, she was just as beautiful, and much more elegant.

I know so, because of what I see when I place under a microscope, dissected it. I can see why I was never afraid to approach a beautiful woman. I grew up with one hugging and kissing me since birth. I was at home in the arms of a gorgeous female.

Tirza’s cheeks went pink, but her embarrassment was nowhere near as strong as her longing for her lost family. These were her loved ones, people she would never get back, would never see again. This seemed to make her brave. She glanced at me.

I nodded, though not before I peered around the room making sure the little ones weren’t within hearing distance. Good thing they were still recovering from their Muto sickness in the TV room with Flavia.

She’d gone to check on them a few minutes ago at my mother’s behest.

Tirza cleared her throat. “Well, Pat,” she began, then her esophagus clenched on her and she choked. She had to clear her throat for a second time. “I always feel so weird calling you by your first name.” She breathed a laugh.

“It’s okay, sweetie,” prompted my mom.

“I couldn’t think of anywhere else I could go without endangering any more of my family members. Your house seemed like the last place the police or anyone else would look for me. That’s why I came here as fast as I could after it all happened.” She stopped to wipe at the corners of her eyes, blinking back more tears.

“Would you care to tell me what happened?” spoke my mother in low, measured tones as sweet as sugarcane.

“If it’s okay, Pat, can I go sit with Flavia and the little ones?” said Jolene, standing in haste. She pushed back her chair with her knees, making a loud drubbing sound along the wooden floor.

My mom frowned at the noise and the odd request in concert. “Sure, my dear, go ahead. We’re done here by the looks of it. If you’d be so kind and put your plate in the sink on your way, I’d appreciate it.”

Jolene nodded with fast, jerking motions, bending at the knees, giving my mom what looked like a curtsy.

What the hell was that?

Even Johan seemed bemused by his girlfriend’s behavior. But he stayed put, not wanting to tip his hat to our mother that he liked the girl.

We watched her go in silence, and when she left the room, my mother turned to me. “Why did she leave, Effy?”

Tirza answered for me though. “Because, Pat, what I’m about to tell you happened to Jolene’s family a few nights ago.”

“Oh!” started my mom, her eyes wide, mouth slack.

So, for the next fifteen minutes, Tirza repeated what she had told Katie, Ramona and me the night she had stumbled into the Loft. That was when she saw Katie deep throating me, while Ramona and I kissed.

During the entire tale, my mom didn’t interrupt or comment. She sat there was still as stone, her dark brown eyes never once leaving Tirza’s visage.

My ex-girlfriend recounted the horror and the pain she had endured the night the NIA murdered her parents.

Whenever Tirza stopped to compose herself, my mother would smile with warmth. She let her know all was well, telling her she could continue when she was ready. She didn’t hurry her or appear impatient. She sat, stoic, through the whole telling of the deaths of the Cardenas’s.

The rest of us around the table did not move as well, though, we’d all heard Tirza’s story. We’d been accomplices in keeping her presence in the house unknown to my mom and dad. For us, silence was the best policy until my mother was more acquainted with our rationale.

Tirza finally finished, she shuddered.

(She had left out how she got into the Loft. And, she did not speak of the taboo sex act she had walked in on when she had done so).

She clasped her hands before her upon the table.

I could see how tight a grip she had on herself, fighting against the urge to cry out and weep.

By then, Flavia had walked into the Dining Room. When she saw Tirza’s state, she tip-toed out like a gazelle and returned within seconds. Now, there was a box of Kleenex¹ in her hands. She had been holding it, waiting for my ex- to stop talking. Now that she had, my step-sister leaned over the table and scooted the box of tissue toward her.

Tirza gazed up at Flavia, thankful, and yanked two sheets of the thin, fluffy paper from the box. She began to tend to her face and nose at once.

My mother watched the exchange without speaking. It was her eyes though that reflected the pride she felt for her step-daughter. Internally, she praised the young girl’s thoughtfulness and kind manners.

“You okay, Teezee?” I asked. I couldn’t help myself any longer. I hated to see her ache like someone had ripped her heart from her body.

She nodded and her face filled with even more gratitude.

“How long ago was this, Tirza?” asked my mom, making the rest of us look back and forth between the two of them.

Tirza seemed peevish as she spoke. “I’ve been here for exactly two weeks.” She tried to hide her head in her shoulders and cringed. She was waiting for what she hoped wouldn’t be a violent outburst from my mom.

“Estefan, you have been hiding a girl in my house for two weeks?!?” she exclaimed at the audacity of our actions.

“Mom, I had no choice, those troopers were going to kill her if they got anywhere near her. What was I going to do, let them blast her away?”

My mother was just staring at me, one eyebrow raised, because I had raised my voice.

“Sure, Tirza and I have had our differences, but it doesn’t mean in any way, shape or fashion, I’m going to allow someone to kill her. I don’t care how many rules I have to break. I will always stay by her side.”

My mom’s face cracked and broke into a huge smile, her eyes welling with satisfaction. “You are such a beautiful boy, Estefan. Now, I know why all these girls like you so much.”

That made more than one of them squirm on their chairs.

If she only knew just how much they did like me, what they wanted to do with me, she’d keel over from an aneurism right then and there.

“Tirza, you are welcome to stay here for as long as you want, my dear.” She looked over at Flavia. “Make sure you tell Jolene the same thing I’ve said here, okay?”

My step-sister said she would.

My mother peered about the dining room. “And that goes for the rest of you, if you need to stay, then you may. But, if your parents call about you or come over, I will have to tell them you have been staying here. Understood?”

There were “Imm-hmm’s” all around.

“We will tell my husband that Estefan, Johan and Flavia will be having a lot of visitors. I will say now there are groups of parents who are having their kids moved from location to location out of fear of what is happening in the neighborhood. I will tell him it’s a safety thing and he won’t question anyone’s presence. You all should be fine.”

I think we all look relieved. Things had definitely gone better than I expected.

Then she went on. “That said I know how kids your age act. I was once much like you. So, I’m telling you girls up front, keep your knees together when my son is around. And, Estefan, you keep your hands to yourself. Now that I know what’s going on, I’ll be watching. No funny business. I have no problem with you all sleeping in the Loft as long as I have your promise to keep your clothes on, okay?”

“Mom!” I exclaimed with teenage dignity. I couldn’t have been more discombobulated if I’d shown up to school butt-ass naked. Well, now that I think about it, I would’ve felt better walking around school with my dick lolling to and fro. Even having toilet paper hanging out the crack of my ass wouldn’t have been all that bad compared to this. Yes, that would’ve been better than having to endure my mother right then and there.

She pointed for me to shut my trap, and then, “Ramona?”

“Yes, Pat, I promise,” said my girlfriend like a preschooler.

“Tirza?”

“You will have no problems with me. I’m just glad you’ll have me.”

My mother smiled.

“Sandra?”

She went around the room, making sure we understood her rules and wouldn’t break them. She even went as far as having Flavia bring in Jolene from the TV room, so she could promise as well. She told the girl that she knew she liked Johan through arched eyebrows.

Jolene, beat-red and twisting at the waist, promised alongside the rest of us.

“Good, I’m glad we all understand each other,” she said satisfied. Then her face wrinkled with another thought. “This brings me to the next issue at hand. We are going to need much more food if all you growing teenagers are going to be spending extended time with our family.” She went quiet, rubbing her hand along her chin. “That could get expensive,” she murmured the thought.

“Ma, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that,” I offered at once.

“How’s that, Effy?” she asked scratching at the side of her head.

“I have money,” I said, making the topic look simple.

She shook her head the way grown-ups do when they think someone much younger and inexperienced doesn’t know what the fuck they’re talking about. “Estefan, I’m talking hundreds of dollars not your allowance.”

“How do you think we’ve been eating so far? You and Dad haven’t even realized the food around has been going like five times faster than normal. How have we been doing this?” I countered with a smug look of my own. I changed it to an innocent smile when her expression hardened.

She cocked her head to the side. “How much do you have then?”

“A lot, mom… thousands,” I blurted, before I’d thought the situation through.

She smacked the top of the table. “And how is it that you have thousands of dollars?”

“Uncle Roberto,” was my meek reply.

“God dammit, Estefan, your drug dealing, asshole of an uncle gave you money? Are you kidding me?” She was standing now, fuming. “You know favors from him always come at a price!” Then she wheeled on me, pointing. “He didn’t bring the rapist with him did he?”

She was speaking about my uncle Juan, who she loathed.

“No, mom, of course not! Do you think we’d let him around the girls? He’d go crazy,” I admonished her, but it had little effect.

“I don’t want those low-lives’ hanging around my house, do you hear me?” She was so mad, I thought steam would come pouring of her ears at any second.

“Okay,” I mumbled.

“Estefan!” she yelled, striking the top of the table once more.

“Okay, mom, I heard you!”

She sat back down in a huff, half-turned from the table, crossing her arms across her chest. “Sorry you girls had to see that. It’s just Estefan’s uncles and I have bad blood between us.”

“It’s alright, Pat,” consoled Leda, sitting to her immediate right.

“I don’t like them much either,” agreed Tirza, “the older one in particular.”

There was sorrow in my mother’s eyes in a flash. “I know, my dear, I’m so sorry that happened to you.”

I knew my mom felt terribly guilty over my uncle Juan feeling up on my ex-girlfriend’s tits.

“At least my husband and Johan straightened everything out afterward.” There was a wicked gleam in my mother’s stare.

I could count how many times I’d seen it on one hand, but when she flashed it – you better get the hell out of her way.

It shocked me to see Tirza mimicked her expression flawlessly. Wow!

“You know, now I’m thinking about it, I don’t mind spending their blood money when it’s going to a good cause,” my mom announced. Her demeanor changed one thousand percent. “Maybe it’ll help right the wrongs those nasty bastards did to get it.

“How much did they give you, Effy?”

“Fifty thousand dollars.”

“Sonofabitch! That’s a lot of money!” she bellowed before she could catch herself. She clamped her handover her mouth, her orbs bulging. She looked comical.

I couldn’t help it, I laughed.

Katie was on my heels.

Then the rest of the group started to giggle, my mom too.

“Here I am asking you all to be on your best behavior and I’m cussing like a sixty-year-old whore.”

The giggles turned to full-blown, raucous laughter.

My mother just sat there, wrestling with the fact she couldn’t stop cursing for some reason.

It was a couple minutes later until she dared to speak again. “So, now that you all know I have a dirty mouth, who’s going to go with me to the grocery store? We have to stock up on food.”

“Under any circumstances, Tirza, Jolene and Sandy cannot go, mama,” I retorted at once.

“Why?” asked my mom.

“Well, Tirza and Jolene are in hiding for obvious reasons. Last night Sandy’s mom told her to stay away, because government stiffs were hanging around their house. So, the three of them shouldn’t be on the street right now,” I replied.

My mother nodded. She agreed. “The more I understand of what you poor kids have had to endure these last few weeks, the more I am proud of how you handled yourselves. Tirza, Jolene, is there anything you’d like for me to get for you at the market? Maybe I could get your favorite food?”

Tirza smiled from ear to ear. “Oh my god, Pat, if you got me some Red Snapper, I’d be in heaven.”

Tirza was gaga for seafood, always had been and always will be.

My mom’s lips thinned, seeing a part of my ex-girlfriend she had yet to see.

“I like Pot Stickers!” gleamed Jolene.

A few moaned with delight at the thought of eating chicken and vegetables wrapped in pasta.

“And you Sandy, any requests?”

“I love homemade hamburgers made from real lean ground beef,” she said without skipping a beat.

“Oh god, you guys, you’re making me sooo hungry right now!” squawked Leda, which made us chortle, but she was right.

My mouth was watering.

In the end, Katie, Leda, Ramona and Johan left with my mother, while Sandy, Tirza, Flavia, the two little ones and I stayed behind.

To this day, I will never forget the look on my mommy’s face when I put fifteen, one hundred dollar bills in her hand. I told her: “No bargain hunting this time, mama, buy what you want and make sure it’s the best they have.”

“Don’t ever forget how much I love you, Estefan,” was what she had said.

[He has to say it in his own words.]

I never have, mama! I wish I could hold you one more time.

{ ¹Kleenex: a brand name for a variety of paper-based products such as facial tissue, bathroom tissue, paper towels, and diapers. This instance refers to facial tissue. }