Missy's Gentle Giant (5 page)

“Thanks.”  He forced a smile.

“Need to get more beer Pop. 
I’ll be right back.”

“Here.”  Ben quickly pulled
out his billfold and handed him a couple of bills.  Pedro hesitated. 
“I insist, since your mother’s going to give me dinner.”

“How much?”

“Whatever you can get with it. 
Do you need more?”

“No this is plenty.”  Pedro
glanced at his father, shrugged and walked out.

“I’d better be getting home,
Pop.”  Tony rose.  “Nice meeting you Spinelli.”

“Yes, you too.”  Ben watched
Tony leave.  Feeling totally out of place and noticing some pictures on
the mantle, he walked over and looked closer.  “Is this Missy?”  He
saw a bright little thing about three with a pug nose.

“She don’t like to be called Missy
since—”

Gonzalo cut in.  “I know you
heard me call her Missy, but never to her face.”

“I see.”  Ben smiled when he
saw a picture of himself with Gonzalo and a couple of other guys.  But his
smile didn’t take away a deep sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. 
Every time they mentioned her accident, he felt sick for some reason.  He
shook his head.

“What’s wrong?”  Gonzalo
asked.

“You’ve got so many brothers I’m
thoroughly confused.”  Ben lied and then grinned.  “Your mother sure
can handle you though.”  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Missy slip
downstairs and go to the kitchen.  Her father rose and followed her. 
Ben felt more uncomfortable than ever.  He glanced to his right and saw
Eduardo still staring at him with cold eyes.  Ricardo was lost in some
program on television.  “The guys said they were going, to work on a
truck.  Serious problems?”

“Seems like all of them are having
serious problems.  I tell you ‘lady luck’ sure hasn’t been around this
family lately.”

“Why don’t we go look.”

“Do you even know now to change a
tire?”  Eduardo sneered.

“I’ve changed a couple.  I’m
pretty good with my fists too.”  Ben glared.  How could Missy like
some guy like him?  She didn’t need his kind.

“Stay away from Melissa. 
She’s mine.”

“Oh.  I wasn’t aware her
father had said so.”  Ben couldn’t still his anger.

“Come on Charger.”  Gonzalo
pulled him out the door.  “Man what’s wrong with you?  Do you always
go around begging for fights?”

“I don’t like him.  Missy
doesn’t need the likes of him.” 

“I don’t like him either, but he’s
the only guy coming around and the only one to ask Pop if he could marry
her.”  Gonzalo looked back toward the house.  “Not too many guys want
a girl who’s different.”

“Deaf, not different and very
beautiful.”  Ben corrected.

“Yeah, man.”  Gonzalo shook
his head.  “If I didn’t know you better I’d think you were interested in
Missy.”

“What do you mean if you didn’t
know me better?”

“Playboy Charger?  Different
girl every night?  The I’ll never marry anyone Charger?”

“Yeah, all right already.”  He
swallowed the rest of his beer.  “You made your point.”

“Pop almost had you on what you’d
been doing the past four years.”

“For the record, I was getting a
masters degree in architectural engineering and doing various jobs for DEA.”

“Engineering huh?  I’m getting
mine in business.”

“Don’t they have colleges for the
deaf?  I mean, she could teach the deaf; couldn’t she?”

“Yeah well, Missy hasn’t said
anything about wanting to go to school.  Pop forced her to go to the one
in Austin.  She’s like a wall-flower since everything happened.”

The two fell silent as they
approached the others working under a truck.  Ben didn’t know much about
repairing trucks, but he checked around another one, touched this and that and
noticed some wires had been cut.  He checked a little further and saw a
large cut in one of the belts.  Motioning for Gonzalo to come and see, he
silently pointed them out.  They looked at belts, rubber hoses and wires
and saw several nicks here and there.

Gonzalo walked away from the truck
and motioned for Ben to follow.  Once out of earshot of his brothers
Gonzalo stopped Ben.  “Lets go to the shop and check the other trucks.”

Ben nodded and followed.  Sure
looked like someone wanted them out of business.

“Mom, we’ll be right back.” 
Gonzalo followed Ben to the car.  “You think someone’s rigging our
trucks?”  Gonzalo drove to the shop.

“Sure looks like it.”

Half an hour later they had checked
out the other four trucks and found similar cuts and parts tampered with.

“Looks like someone’s sabotaged all
your trucks.”

“But who?  Man, I can hardly
get work right now thanks to those coke busts.”

“Well your brothers sure as hell
wouldn’t do it.”  Ben chewed his thumb.  “Better not say anything for
a while though.”

Dinner was out of this world. 
Ben had never eaten true Mexican food, and he thoroughly enjoyed it once he got
the hang of how to handle the tortillas with his hands rather than use flat
ware.  He ate nothing while he watched Missy and her mother tear off a piece
of tortilla and use it to scoop up some rice or beans and pop it in their
mouths.  Then he tried and did very well. 

Ben had been placed between Mrs.
Sanchez and Missy and enjoyed being close to Missy.  Eduardo sat across
from them and glared at Ben the whole time.  Gonzalo noticed Ben gently
touch Missy’s shoulder without being obvious when he wanted her to look up and
watch him speak.  As far as he knew no one including Missy was aware Ben
had caught on to her deafness.

Marco offered Ben a jalapeño pepper
with a gleam in his eyes.  Ben took a big bite, choked, grabbed for a
glass of water and laughed while tears rolled down cheeks.  Missy laughed
too, but her cheeks turned crimson when Ben smiled at her.  Eduardo glared
more.

After dinner, Ben insisted on
helping Missy and Mrs. Sanchez clear the table and clean up.  Eduardo
would have lost his manhood doing such a thing.  In fact, all the Sanchez
men frowned because it was very “non-macho.”  Gonzalo glanced from his
father to Eduardo’s frigid, angry glare and shrugged.  Some men like Ben
didn’t need to prove they were macho.

After a few minutes, Mrs. Sanchez
came in the living room and sat down with a smile.

“Your Charger friend certainly is
nice.”  Ben had won her over.

“He looks like a womanizer to me.” 
Eduardo said angrily.

“Well if he is, he knows how to
fool people. Does he come from a large family?”

“Never heard him mention brothers
or sisters, only child I think.”  Yeah, he sure knows how to fool people
Gonzalo thought.  “He said his parents didn’t have time for kids because
it messed up their social lives.  He grew up in boarding schools mostly.”

“It’s too bad, but he certainly has
a nice personality.”

“He could be fearless when he’s out
there doing girls’ stuff?”  Ricardo laughed.

Gonzalo chuckled.  “You’d be
surprised little brother.  Charger was one of the bravest men I
know.  I’m here today because he hopped through a gun fight to pull me
away from the line of fire.  He got shot then too.”

“He was injured saving you?” 
Mr. Sanchez’s eyes opened in shock.

“Yeah, plus a couple of other
times.  Never seemed to phase him.”  Tears came to Gonzalo’s
eyes.  “One time I saw him growling like a wild animal, grab a rebel and
choke him to death with his bare hands.  He snarled and threw the man down
just as we got there.  Then he bent down and carefully dismantled a bomb
near this screaming baby.  He threw the bomb away just in time, picked up
the baby and soothed it until it stopped crying.  The kid’s mother was
already dead, so he carried the kid with him and took care of it until we got
to an orphanage.  Never saw a guy change personalities so quickly.”

“I thought you said he was a rough-houser.” 
Ricardo prompted.

“Oh he was, never fear.  Man
he liked to get in fights—usually over women—excuse me Mom.  He loved to
drink too.  Only guy I know who could drink straight scotch all day long
and still go party at night.  He was crazy too.  The night I met him
he was playing Russian Roulette.”  Gonzalo glanced down at the
floor.  It hit Gonzalo how Ben was still playing Russian roulette with the
DEA.  “He used to love getting Missy’s letters though.  She was the
only one who wrote to him.  Didn’t have any real girlfriends.  Said
his dad was mad he went to Iraq.”

“His mother?”  Mrs. Sanchez’s
forehead furrowed.

“Said she was too busy flitting
around in her social world.”

“How terrible!  And you let Melissa
write to his kind of—”  Eduardo interrupted.

“One thing about Charger, I noticed
right off the bat, Eduardo.”  Gonzalo glared at him.  “He sizes up a
situation and knows how to act no matter where he is.”  Gonzalo tried to
bury his anger, but his mother and father noticed it.

In the kitchen Ben quietly dried
dishes as Missy rinsed them.  Even though his body wanted to do more, he
knew he could do nothing but help with dishes since the windows shined right
out onto those of another house.  He couldn’t even talk to her much, as it
would be too obvious if he kept tapping her shoulder to get her to look at
him.  So he stood as close as he could to her and enjoyed her spring fresh
smell as he dried dishes and stacked them.

Since he’d arrived in McAllen,
she’d been on his mind, no since he’d picked her up.  Even before in a
dark recess somewhere, his dreams maybe.  Why had he still carried her
picture?  Just never thought to throw it out?  Or was it he felt he’d
had a part of her with him all these years?  Just like he carried a part
of Connie.  The idea sounded nice.  She’d been with him all through
graduate school.  She’d been with him while he was doing undercover work
with the DEA.  A smile crossed his lips.  Undercover and right in the
middle of the drug cartels were where Gonzalo thought he should be.  Ben’s
smile faded.  Missy wasn’t his type of girl.  She’d want a man like
Eduardo who’d settle down and do nice safe work, not some guy out looking for
drug dealers.  No wonder she liked Eduardo.  He stared at the towel
in his hands.  Maybe that was why he kept the picture.  Missy was
what he wanted to love but would lose, just like Connie.

Well he needed to think about work,
not Missy.  He damn sure needed to find a way to get the family back into
business because someone was trying to get to the Sanchez family.  Not
only were drugs planted but their trucks were being sabotaged.  What they
needed most right now was money.  He smiled a little when an idea hit
him.  There was more than one way to skin a family cat!

Missy glanced sideways every once
in a while unable to believe this beautiful giant was actually helping her with
dishes.  All the men in her family thought doing anything in the kitchen
was totally unmanly.  Italians certainly had different customs. 
Still, her mother wasn’t angry about Charger, no Ben, bringing her home. 
Her brothers and father had reacted normally hateful, but he’d not been beaten
up.  And yeah, the neighbors were bound to talk, especially Mrs. Garza
across the way who was probably peeking out her window right now and watching
them.

Charger, her Charger, the “when you
grow up I’ll marry you” man of her dreams.  Charger no doubt forgot even
writing it.  Tears came to her eyes.  He wouldn’t want her now, not
now.  No one except someone like Eduardo would want her.  She shook
her head and pushed the thought away.  She couldn’t think about the
past.  Charger was just visiting his good buddy Gonzalo and would be gone
in a day or two.  She glanced up when he touched her shoulder.

“Where do these go Missy?”  He
held a stack of plates.

“Up there.”  She pointed and
turned away.  “Please don’t—please call me Melissa.”

Ben put the plates away.  He
turned and reached out for her chin.  “Why?”  

She started shaking and turned
away.  “Missy died when I was hurt.”

Ben looked at the floor a moment,
then took her shoulders and pulled her around to face him.  “You’re
telling me the girl who kept me going in Iraq died?  Why?”

“B—because she’d never be able to
do the things she wanted.”  Missy shook more and swallowed hard.  It
upset her to be so close to Charger, no Ben.  Charger was gone too. 
She didn’t want to lie, but she couldn’t talk about what had happened, what was
wrong with her.

Ben could feel in his bones there
was more than Gonzalo had told him.  “All right Melissa, I won’t call you Missy,
and I won’t be Charger.”  He smiled.  “Anyhow, you’re very different
from the girl I knew.”  He touched two of his fingers to his lips, then
touched his fingers to her lips and then touched his lips again.  “Melissa
is a very beautiful woman.”  He laughed and shook his head.  “Tiny as
a mite, but very, very beautiful.”

“Thank you.”  Melissa’s eyes
shot to the floor as her face turned crimson.  Feeling as if he’d actually
kissed her, she swallowed hard, and her cheeks still showed a tinge of pink
when she and Ben walked into the living room.

“All cleaned up spic and
span!”  Ben smiled.  “It’s the only way I know to thank you for such
a wonderful meal.  Get tired of eating in restaurants.  Let me tell
you.  It sure was great.”

“Thank you.”  Mrs. Sanchez
grinned.

Ben stared at Eduardo’s angry
eyes.  The damn guy was still hanging around?  A jealous rage surged
through him.  He turned to Mr. Sanchez.  “Sir, would it be all right
with you if I walked Melissa around the block?”

Everyone in the room stiffened
except Melissa, for she hadn’t heard.

“It would not!”  Mr. Sanchez
jumped up.

Ben blinked.  Damn!  Her
father acted like he asked to take her to bed.  “Oops!”  Ben grinned
and shook his head.

“Oops?”  Gonzalo looked up
with a frown.

“Forgot your different customs.” 
Ben smiled and Gonzalo’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.