Technomancer 21: Mother in Law

Beneath the darkening sky, Leron walked alongside Masa through the parking lot of Alejandro’s Cabana. The hot air began to cool, and the grasshoppers bounded everywhere while cicadas filled the air with their hum. Leron glanced down and smiled. Her tiny hand felt like it belonged in his. He wished they could run away and leave it all behind them.

“We need to tell them about the war,” Masa said; her hand tightening in his. “They have a right to know.”

Leron couldn’t manage anything more than a nod. He swallowed back the nervousness and did his best to ignore the dryness in the back of his throat. Both were easily ignored compared to the deep pit forming in the depths of his stomach. He reminded himself that Masa’s mother couldn’t be all that bad, but he glanced toward the child Masa was carrying and thought again. It didn’t matter if she was or not. He was every mother’s worst nightmare - The boy who got her daughter pregnant.

“What does your mother think of me?” he asked, distracting himself from his emotions by cycling through the drone footage at the edge of his vision.

“I don’t really care,” Masa said, turning to face him as her hand rested on the stair railing.

Forced to return to reality, Leron managed to stop before walking into her.

“You look like a deer in headlights,” Masa snorted and began to laugh. “Wait, are you nervous?”

The teasing smile on her face caused him to feel immediately embarrassed, and his gaze fell. He began to feel dizzy. The pit in his stomach was in the process of becoming a gaping hole. Once again, he was the boy Masa had pointed a gun at. If he didn’t sit down, he would throw up.

“Yes, I need to sit for a moment,” he said, taking a spot on one of the lower steps. He rested his head in his hands, fighting to calm himself as he tapped his foot on the gravel. Masa’s mother wasn’t some monster he needed to be afraid of. She was the mother of the woman he loved. And if Masa didn’t care about her opinion, why should he?

“You’ll be fine,” Masa said, sitting beside him. She rested her head on his shoulder, wrapping her arm around him. He looked up to face her. The sideways glance she gave him with her warm smile reminded him of what he was fighting for. No, he needed to face his problems. For her.

“I’m sure she’s not happy, but we are going to get married. We’re just doing things out of order.” She whispered in his ear. “And I intend to make it official while I still have you.”

Leron had forgotten about the marriage part. He had proposed to her. With the war coming, everything had come to pass all at once. It was all so quick. Too quick. “Wouldn’t you rather wait? I wish Manuel could be here, but he’s gone,” Leron struggled to say, almost choking on his words as he thought of the man who had taught him so much. “Don’t you want Loretta to be there? It was what we had planned.”

“I do wish she could be here, but…I don’t want to wait,” she said, touching her belly. “Not any longer.”

Leron stared at her, struggling for words. Earlier this afternoon, he had been about to ask Cassie out, and now he was a father and going to get married. He clasped his hands, resting them on his shaking knee, staring out into the parking lot. And what of Cassie, would she be upset? “No pressure, right?” he said, swallowing back the feelings trying to resurface.

“Leron, look at me. You still want to get married, right?”

Leron gazed at her, drawn into her dark eyes. He smiled, taking her hand in his. “Of course. More than anything. It's just all so sudden. I was giving up. I thought you were gone.”

“I was beginning to think that, too. I don’t want to lose you again. We have to take our opportunities while we can. If anything, I have learned that. The day you were taken, I was devastated. I have regretted that we waited back then, and I won’t make that mistake twice.”

She had a point. Sighing, he climbed to his feet, dragging her onto hers. “Let’s get this over with.”

The moment they entered the restaurant, Leron’s stomach growled. The air was filled with the smell of tamales and Mexican spices. He breathed deeply as he collected his brief from the floor beside the door and his army jacket, which someone had hung over a chair at a nearby table.

“It’s about time you two came back,” Arion smirked. He stood, putting down his fork, and clasped Leron’s arm while he returned the favor. With a laugh, he said, “I’m glad to see you’re still alive.” He paused when his eyes rested on the brace covering his arm that held his brief. “Is that a prosthetic? Did you lose your arm?”

“No, just a brace. My arm is still in there.”

“I’m sorry. I did all that I could.”

“I know and I’m grateful.”

Arion frowned, staring at the stripes on his coat. “Just…don’t get yourself killed, okay? You’re not exactly soldier material.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Arion gave him a nod and busied himself moving chairs. Before Leron could help, an older woman much like Masa rounded the table and approached them, along with the priest who sat beside her. Masa was tough, but somehow her mother had a rougher edge that made him think she wasn’t above killing her enemies and never thinking twice about it.

“I’m Jeanine,” she said in fluent English with an icy tone. The look of disapproval in her eyes spoke clearly of her disdain, and he began to feel guilty. His own parents would have given him that look.

“Leron Richards,” he responded, taking hold of Masa’s hand.

“So, I’ve heard,” Masa’s mother continued. “Come and sit. We have much to discuss.”

“And I’m Father Ambrose,” the priest said in Spanish, gently nudging Masa’s mother out of the way and shaking Leron’s hand.

“Masa has spoken so much of you. What is it you are doing with the military anyway?”

“She has?” Leron asked, struggling to hide his smile. He looked toward Masa and was met with a fierce blush. Turning to face them, he continued, “I’m with the drone corps. I…I help pilot the drones over the city.”

“You pilot those awful things?” Masa asked.

“I do.” Leron frowned, shifting his weight from foot to foot, feeling like he was under judgment from everyone in the room. He considered saying more, but hesitated, unsure exactly what his clearance prevented him from talking about. He wanted to tell her more - all of it, so that she might understand.

Arion pulled up another table while Cassie helped him rearrange the chairs. Something about the way the two moved together made it seem like they had done this before. Close friends? A glance between the two dispelled that thought, and Leron struggled to hold back the smile forming at the corners of his mouth. The two kissed before Arion sat, and Cassie disappeared to the kitchen.

Leron pulled out a chair, and Masa sat down. He seated himself between her and Arion, while Jeanine somehow maintained her disdain-filled gaze even when she retook her seat across the table along with Father Ambrose. Cassie reappeared with two plates of tamales, placing them before him and Masa, and taking her place beside Arion.

“Ketchup?” Leron asked. His stomach was so empty it hurt.

Jeanine picked up the bottle and passed it to him. He thanked her and grinned as he covered his tamales with it.

Cassie groaned and rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you did that,” she said. “Those are for the fries.”

Arion laughed. “Relax. Let the American do his thing.”

And so, the conversation began – mostly directed at him and in judgment of all the things he had done, or in the case of the tamales, was doing. He wolfed them down, answering questions on his family, his values, and his faith. Jeanine's questions grew more and more heated, and were devolving into the most ridiculous things. It didn’t seem to matter how he responded; it was not good enough for her little girl.

“You don’t like men very much, do you?” he asked Jeanine when she was beginning to look like she would scream at him because his favorite colour was orange.

“No, it's just….” She paled and excused herself from the table.

“My father stole me and left her behind,” Masa said when her mother had gone. “She…she’s never been the easiest person to get along with. I have no idea how they came together in the first place.”

“You did say that earlier,” he observed.

“No, but it doesn’t give her the right to take it out on you, either,” she said.

“Not exactly, but…” Leron was about to say something else when Jeanine returned to her seat at the table. He pushed back what he was going to say and gave her a warm smile. “Why don’t you tell me about yourself, instead? How did you find Masa after all this time?”

“I heard a group crossed the bridge from Monterrey. I tracked them down, hoping she was with them, and she was.”

Leron wrapped his arm around Masa like Arion was with Cassie. “You really do care about her. Just so you know, I would have done the same.”

“So, why didn’t you?” Jeanine demanded.

“I…” It was his turn to look the fool. He had chosen to stay when he could have left, and now he was trapped.

“There is something Leron needs to tell you,” Masa said, cutting him off before the argument heated up again. The conversation at the other end of the table came to an abrupt stop, and all eyes were immediately focused on him.

So, it was to be now, was it? No doubt he would be breaking his clearance to tell them. The war was supposed to be kept quiet, and the civilians were not supposed to know until martial law was declared and the people were vaccinated. The last thing General Baxter wanted was panic and looting in the streets. If he didn’t, they would not believe him and would argue about why Masa needed to go south.

Leron leaned forward, his eyes darting around them to see who was listening. He kept his voice low. “There is a war coming. It could happen any day now.” He then began to tell them what was going on. As he finished, he realized that others had been listening and they quickly averted their gazes, gathering their things and rushing for the door.

“And that is why we need to go back to Laredo,” Masa said. “We need to warn the Monterrey group and get them to safety.”

“I won’t be going,” Arion said, holding Cassie tightly. Arion really had fallen hard for her. “I’m staying here. We’ll do what we can here.”

Cassie pulled free from Arion and turned to face him. “You should go. They were like a family to you. I’ll be safe here with Papi.”

“No.”

“I’m much the same,” said Father Ambrose. “This city is my calling. It is my responsibility to the people here to do what I can when the war does come. If I am to be here for the last days, then I will do what I can.”

Jeanine scoffed. “The last days? These are not the last days. Stop talking mumbo jumbo. And the rest of you? You would all abandon my daughter? And you!” she pointed at Arion. “I thought better of you than to leave my daughter stranded.”

“I’m not stranding her,” Arion argued, “You can take her there yourself, and she is more than capable of standing before the council on her own. Leron will be going with you two as well, right?”

“I would if I could,” Leron said, and he explained to them how the tracking nanites in his blood worked. “I wish I could be there,” he said, wrapping his arm around Masa. “Nothing would make me prouder than to see you standing in front of the council to argue for going out west. You should have done it a long time ago.”

“I should have?” Masa asked.

Leron nodded. “You know the way best and what it's like living within a community of preppers.”

“Wait. It will only be Masa and me?” Jeanine demanded.

“Mom, it will be fine,” Masa argued. Her hand tightened on Leron’s knee, and he could see the false smile she was giving her mother. “We can spend some quality time together and catch up.”

Jeanine appeared to forget her anger and folded her arms, leaning back in her chair with a satisfied grin. She began talking about all the different places they could stop on the way back to Laredo.

Arion leaned towards Leron. “You’d better find a way to escape,” he whispered. “Or you will have her to deal with. I wish you both the best. I'm glad I’m not in your position.”

Leron stared at Jeanine. The woman was one of the least pleasant people he had met, but she wasn’t as bad as the others. Part of her still imagined Masa as a little girl, and struggled to see the grown woman before her.

They left the restaurant, leaving Cassie and Arion behind. It surprised Leron that things had gone so far between the two already. But then, it had not taken him and Masa long either, once they acknowledged their feelings. She lay against him while the car moved past the lights, causing them to flicker in the window, highlighting her face. He ran his hand over her belly, feeling the baby kick, and his thoughts lost in the future.

Father Ambrose turned to face them when they pulled into the church parking lot. “I have loosened up a lot, but I won’t let sin happen beneath the church roof. When we enter, we are going to the altar. You two need to make this right.”

“I was going to speak to you about it once we got inside,” Leron said. “We want to get married before we part ways tomorrow.”

“Good.”

“You can’t marry them. They are too young,” Jeanine argued. “She has her whole life ahead of her.”

“Mom, don’t.”

“If the war is going to happen, he’s just a kid. He’s going to die, and then where will she be? She'll be alone again and with a child. His child,” Jeanine complained. “You should have taken Arion when you had the chance. Now, he’s with that other girl, and you’ve got….well….him. Look at him. His arm is all messed up, and he's...he's not even one of us. He's black.”

“How dare you!” Masa hissed.

"Calm down, ladies," Father Ambrose pleaded, his voice wavering.

“It’s true.”

Masa screamed at her, beating her mother from the backseat. She began pulling on her mother’s hair.

“Let her go,” Leron yelled, trying to free Jeanine's hair. He and Father Ambrose succeeded in separating the women. Masa continued to struggle against him in the backseat of the car. "You need to calm down. We can talk this through," he pleaded, hearing Father Ambrose having a similar conversation with her mother.

When Masa finally stopped, she pulled away and turned her angry eyes upon him. “How could you? You heard what she said!” Masa shook her head. The tears flowing down her cheeks made him want to protect her. He tried to hold her. “No, we’re not doing this. I'll take myself to Laredo if I have to. I got here on my own; I can go back on my own.” She climbed out of the car, slamming the door behind her.

Father Ambrose released Jeanine and looked extremely uncomfortable, having been dragged into what could only be called a mess. Jeanine laughed, lighting a cigarette. She inhaled and breathed out the window before dropping the ash free.

“See what you’ve done?” Leron growled.

The look of disgust Jeanine turned on him from the front seat caused Leron to shrink back. It was a shock to realize she really had a problem with his skin colour. He had thought such things were long in the past, but apparently not.

A rage similar to Masa’s grew within him, eating away at his resolve. He longed to lash out at her like Masa had, but he bit his tongue, focusing instead on cold determination. “You have no right to make that call,” he seethed. “And if you ever talk like that to me or Masa or our children, I will make sure you have nothing to do with us.”

Jeanine looked taken aback and looked away. “Fine by me.”

"Is it?" he asked, climbing out of the car and leaving her behind to think on her actions.

The front passenger door slammed behind him. “Well, that didn't go according to plan, did it?” asked Father Ambrose. “I’ll show you where Masa's room is, and you can come to the altar when you’re ready.”

“Thanks. I appreciate everything you've done for her. Masa told me she sees this place as home." He frowned at the car. Jeanine was visibly weeping against the steering wheel; her face hidden in her hands while she shook with great sobs. He had every right to be angry with her. To hate her, but all he wanted was for her to be there for Masa on her wedding day. And to be the mother she so desperately wanted to be. "Can you go back and talk to her once you show me where to go?” he asked the priest.

"I can."