It was in the midst of all this activity that Lucas Henry Martin Jr. found himself driving into, having to stop and ask one of the workers which home was Sylvia's, it was hard to spot buried behind trucks and equipment. Her lawn was history for the time being, now a temporary parking lot for many at the building site. As for the lot of land Deidre purchased, a row of 5 port-a-potti stalls were lined up, as well two shower stalls for safety reasons, and a temp break area - all done at the break of dawn.
After parking down from Sylvia's house, in what he hoped was a safe place, fearing for his BMW - Lucas looked around him, wondering what in the world was going on, and was his sister connected to any of it? Considering how many vehicles were parked up and down the road and on her land, off to the side of her home and elsewhere, he figured it had to be. In his mind, it all immediately translated into dollars, money, big money, he was a bit surprised by that. He made his way to her front door and knocked, standing with his hands in his pockets looking around him in rapt wonder trying to make heads or tails of what was happening when he heard her ask, "Who is it?"
Smiling, he turned, "Your brother - Lucas." He answered, now facing the opening door.
Sylvia stood with her eyes wide in disbelief, "Lucas? Oh my goodness?! Lucas!"
"Hey sis - long time no see huh? Don't just stand there, do I get a hug?" He asked.
"Oh my goodness of course!" She stepped forward hugging him, too stunned to think straight, happy to see him, while blown away by his sudden presence. "Where've you been, how'd you find me? Oh my goodness Lucas, come in!" She invited him. "Excuse my home, things are a little upside down right now."
"I see, all this going on out there - that all you?"
She nodded and then, "Well, yes - mainly my husband's doing - I'm uh - married again. Shoot, well - not sure if you know, Armundo died a few years ago, in a car accident."
"So I heard, by the looks of things, you've recovered pretty well - landed on your feet, didn't you girl." He looked down at her softly protruding mid-section, while she wasn't big, it was easy to tell that she was pregnant. "What's up with that?" He nodded towards her growing mound.
Sylvia blushed, was still a bit self-conscience about being pregnant, after all, she had two adult children, "I'm having a baby, isn't it obvious?" She asked, and was immediately put on her guard. It was like that with her brother Lucas, he had always been arrogant, judgemental, with strong opinions about women, especially the black woman - one of the reasons he and their mother hadn't gotten along so well.
"Definitely obvious - what's up with that? One would think you'd be ready to move onto something else, I mean, you've done the domestic thing, isn't it time for a more planned out professional life? What happened to your singing? I always thought you'd stand up one day, fill a concert hall with that voice."
Sylvia scratched behind her ear, a nervous gesture and sighed, not sure what to say when, Angela and Sasha made their way out of the bedroom; Angela moving slow to assist her cousin if she needed it. Because everything was so hectic that morning, Sylvia hadn't finished breakfast and it was already close to afternoon, when lunch in fact was closest to the meal needed. Her eyes were on them as well her brother's, standing beside her.
"We cleaned our room, we're going downstairs." Angela spoke softly, she was still down, not smiling, clearly depressed about Crystal.
"I'll be down in just a minute to fix breakfast, okay?"
They both nodded, looking up at Lucas. Sylvia turned to her brother, "Lucas, this is Angela, my husband's daughter, my daughter," She emphasized the my, "... and her cousin, Sasha." She pointed them out.
Lucas took special note of both, little white girls, especially focusing on Angela, "Pretty girls, nice to meet you." He politely greeted them, in his mind, unsettled by their whiteness, even though the cousin looked more Hispanic to him.
They both smiled, nodded to him as Sylvia explained who he was, "This is my oldest brother, Lucas, - we'll be down in a minute okay?"
"Sylvia I can fix us toast and cereal, that'll be fine." Angela volunteered.
"No cereal please, but there's plenty of fruit, yogurt - will you fix that instead? I've been meaning to get rid of that cereal."
"Okay, we can handle it, can't we Sasha?"
"Yep, we can handle it. Bye Lucas, nice to meet you." Sasha lifted a hand from her crutches to wave at him.
He nodded at her, his eyes rolling to Angela, "Me too, nice meeting you - Sylvia you want me to do enough for you and Uncle Lucas?" Angela asked.
"Ah, you can call me Lucas young lady, that'll be fine, just Lucas." He immediately corrected her.
Sylvia's eyes went to him, widening and then back to Angela, "No baby, just enough for you all, don't worry about us."
"Okay." She gave them one last smile and followed her cousin into the basement, her mind on anything but Lucas' correcting her on what to call him. When the door closed, the brother and sister turned back to each other, and of course, he was the first to speak.
"Damn, you playing nanny, nursemaid, maid and babymaker to'im huh? When we gone let white folks raise they own damn kids?" He couldn't believe it, shaking his head, "What has happened to you? I can't believe you this deep into this? A white man Sylvia? All the men in the world, you had to hook up with a white one."
"Is this why you came here? To check up on my martial status? This deep into exactly what, Lucas? My family? Yes, I am deep into my family!" She defended immediately.
He leaned in close to her as if someone else might hear, "That - them - they - ain't yo'family - white folks - geez girl! You still a beautiful, talented, blessed black woman - incredible voice - what in the heck you doing up in this white man's world? Playing nursemaid to his - an' havin' his baby - woman I can't believe you - my lil'sister," He shook his head, "You do not belong here - this don't even look right."
Sylvia stood with her head buzzing, thinking, 'Lord - I do not need this right now, not now.' Because she was so caught off guard by his sudden appearance, she was trying to think before she spoke, and could only come up with, "So you know about my husband? Shawn? Who told you?"
"Mama!"
"Oh, I see - how long were you there, to see mama? Did you also see that our father is back?"
"Yes, I saw'im - I'm not interested in discussing him - he took off."
"Em, yeah, he did - and if my memory serves me correctly, you followed suit - taking off."
"Can you blame me? Was there any reason to stay?"
"I guess not Lucas, you left after all - so no; with that in view, why are you back now?"
"I came to see about you?"
Sylvia turned away with a sarcastic chuckle, "To see about me huh? Em, well, as you can see, I'm doing just fine - though, not to your satisfaction." She lead the way to the sofa, choosing not to take him downstairs amidst the kids, he'd already made his stand obvious by correcting Angela on calling him uncle, which wasn't sitting well with her at all. He sat on the sofa next to her, trying to think, "Look - I came on the scene, because I thought, by now, surely you were ready for a change - to do something worthwhile with your life - besides having babies - and now I see, with whom, I cannot believe it."
Before she could come back on that; timing was perfect, speaking of - the devil - the white man walked in; Mundo and Ben right behind him.
The sudden sound of the front door coming open brought both Lucas' and Sylvia's eyes to it. Sylvia was both relieved, and dreaded that he was home. Today was really not a good day for her brother to show up on their doorstep. She stood, "Shawn... you're home." Was all that came out of her mouth.
The only thing on Shawn's mind when he walked in the door, was getting a hold of Crystal, talking to her. Therefore, seeing a black man, his age or older, sitting on the sofa with features similar to Sylvia's mother and father - stopped him dead in his tracks.
Lucas Henry Martin Jr.
'Jesus! Not now!'
While his eyes were dead set on Lucas's, so was the gesture being returned
.
Lucas slowly came to his feet, his eyes flitting to Mundo and then to Ben and back to Shawn again.
Ben couldn't have stood giving small talk at that moment if his life depended on it, his stomach hurt, his chest was feeling tight, and he was fighting with emotions he had no experience with - his entire body felt weak, the urge was uncontrollable to find somewhere to lie down. He nodded to Sylvia and Lucas and immediately made his way to the basement door, closing it behind him.
Mundo stood by Shawn's side, eyeing his uncle, then looking to his mother, she looked nervous to him. The room crackled in awkward silence until Shawn was the first to look at his mother, stepping towards her, "Yeah, I wanted to get back here right away." He murmured, pulling her to his side, his hand on her back, his eyes on Lucas.
Mundo closed the front door, moving further into the room as well.
Lucas took his eyes off of Shawn to gaze at Mundo again, he looked so much like his brother David, it was mind blowing.
"Ah, Shawn, this is my brother Lucas; Lucas... this is my husband, Shawn." Sylvia introduced them trying to work through the tension that was there.
Once more, the men's eyes met, Shawn decided to be the first to extend a hand, "Nice to finally meet you, Lucas."
Lucas looked down at his hand, deciding to be decent at the very least, taking it for a very brief, very quick shake and releasing it as if he couldn't stand to hold it a moment beyond that brief touch.
"Yeah, it's certainly a surprise, meeting you - I was ah, talking to my sister when you walked in the door, mind if we, continue where we left off?"
Sylvia couldn't believe he was dismissing Shawn within moments of him walking in the door, his views were one thing, but he was after all, in Shawn's home. Taking them both by surprise, Shawn cleared his throat saying, "So, you're excusing me from the room in my own home? Is that right? And uh, if I came into your home where you pay the bills and the cost to be the boss - doing to you, what you just pulled with me, what would your reply then be?" He confronted him on it boldly.
Sylvia's mouth dropped open for the second time until she saw the look on her brother's face. It was clear, he hadn't expected this from Shawn - to have the nerve to come back at him in such a way. In truth, she was a bit stunned herself, she hadn't been sure how he would handle a black family member of hers, treating him as Lucas was, disrespectfully. As for her brother, it was apparent he let the fact that he was white fool him into believing he was easy prey to be disrespected in such a way. Moving away from her brother's side, she positioned herself to stand next to her husband, saying, "Ah, Lucas, while you try to find an appropriate answer for my husband - this young man is my son - Armundo Jr. -or- Mundo as we all call him. Mundo, this is your Uncle Lucas." She introduced them.
"Em - yeah - right, I've heard of'em." Mundo eyed him up and down, turned and left the room, his disdain of him clear. He had no choice but to leave, because the man was his mother's brother, his elder, family, but for his actions towards Shawn, rather than disrespect him and get ugly, his choice was to leave the room. He didn't know his "uncle" Lucas from Adam, this would be his first time meeting him, seeing him in real life. Before this, only on pictures. The only uncle he'd ever known was his uncle David, and besides him, Dennis. But this man, - no, he wasn't about to just now step into his home and dis the only man who'd ever been a real father to him, in the true sense of the word, for the reason of him being white. To leave the room was best, besides, as far as he was concerned, he was a light-weight, as Shawn's words had shown, he could handle him just fine on his own.
Lucas stood burning in embarrassment, his assumptions about how he was going to handle things once facing the white man his sister married seemed to fall at his feet. In most cases he'd known of, where there were white males trying to be with a black woman and fit into her world, any confrontations from present black males, they folded - backed up, excused themselves trying to keep the peace; especially if confronted by black males of her family. It was automatically expected that they would let their wives deal with them and step aside, he'd assumed that would be the case with this one. Instead, he, her husband, this Shawn, stood his ground, staring him down, not budging from an obvious full blown confrontation.
Lucas took a deep breath, looked Shawn in the eyes, "I see, it's like that huh?"
"I'm not sure what you mean? It's like what?" Shawn returned right away.
Making her decision, Sylvia backed away saying, "I have kids to see about, you've been introduced, I'll let you two work the rest out."
Lucas couldn't believe her, "Hang on, you gone just walk off?" He asked stunned.
"You're a grown man Lucas, you don't need me, your little sister to hold your hand do you? After all, you set the theme, you created the temperature in this room, now you deal with it." And from him she asked Shawn, "Baby you need me to fix you something to eat?"
"No I'm fine, but have you eaten this morning?" He asked with a lifted brow.
"I'm on my way now to." She admitted.
"Sylvia McPherson, you know better." He mildly scolded her.
Making a face, she returned at the basement door, "I know, I know - I'm going now." She grumbled back.
Lucas put his hands on his hips incredulous as they spoke to each other as if he wasn't in the room.
Shawn grinned, threw her a kiss with the pursing of his lips, ignoring Lucas for the moment. Grinning, Sylvia touched her lips throwing him one back and disappeared from the room.
Taking a deep breath, Shawn turned back to Lucas, "Now, where were we?"
Lucas did a, 'Hmph.' gesture, shaking his head. He looked up at the man before him again, realizing he had to come to him in a totally different way, or leave, it was one or the other. "You know what, can we rewind this tape, start over again?"
"All things considered, sounds like a pretty good idea to me. However, I would prefer it if we took this across the road into my studio, if you wouldn't mind?" Shawn asked, stepping back to the front door, opening it, with a clear show, the answer to his question was non-negotiable. Taking a deep breath, Lucas bolstered up his mandible, squared his shoulders and stepped to the door with unfazed bravado. Wondering as he followed Shawn, who this man was and how to best deal with him? He wasn't anything like he expected. He watched him stop quickly, briefly, speaking with the workers they passed, and then moved onward, leading the way to this new building. They entered, with Shawn holding the door for him as they passed through it, and then to his office.
"Must excuse my office, there are still things to be added, like an extra chair, have mine, I'll lean on the desk here."
"No thank you, I'll stand." Lucas informed him, not about to be positioned in a lower place, for him to look down at him, to hell with that psychology - he wasn't stupid, he knew the thinking of the white male, always trying to put the black man in the subservient position, below him.
"Suit yourself, mind if I sit?" Shawn asked, taking it himself, it was comfortable and he liked it, it was a perfect office chair.
"It's your office." Lucas returned, thrown by the move, which now placed him in a standing over position; once more, his mind went into trying to figure out this move, he didn't trust him as far as he could toss him.
Shawn wasn't about to waste anymore time, he had Crystal on his mind, agreeing with him saying, "That's a good start, my office. Across the road, my home. Inside, my wife, Sylvia Lucinda McPherson. As you are her brother, I'm going to give you the benefit of a doubt, that your arrival here is to see about her. As her husband, let me assure you, she is safe with me, unlike she was with the first asshole she was married to. You know - the one that treated her and the kids like shit - the one who abused her - as I've heard from various ones that knew him, and saw this. Where were you then, by the way? When she needed you more than ever? Just something I thought I'd ask."
That completely threw Lucas for a whirl, it was the last thing he expected to hear or be confronted with. "Man who the fuck are you, to ask me something
like that? That choice, by her, I might add, took place after I'd already left the scene." He defended himself.
"Fair enough, hey I left the scene as a young male too, can't fault you there. Even so, you had to have known what was happening to her, you weren't that far away at first, were you?"
"I don't have to answer that." Lucas returned, his resentment clear.
"Nope, you don't - so then, after all this time, why are you here now?"
"To see my goddamn sister! Seein' as how she's my sister, I do have that right, you know."
"Lucas, I have no problem with that, no problem at all. It's a shame that your first time here is wasted on this ideal and attitude you have against me, when you don't even know me."
"Hey man, I didn't ask you to waste your time! I came here to see my little sister, not you."
Shawn stood, "Okay, fine - you've already got it in your head not to like me, and I can't stop you from seeing Sylvia. So all I'm gonna ask is this, for her sake, that you keep it simple okay? Meaning, while visiting her, please avoid too deep a discussion surrounding your brother, David."
"Why?"
"Because he's missing. The idea of that - and the possibility of what it could mean, will be really upsetting to her. After all, they were close, so I've heard - regardless of what was going on with him, he did try to see about her-..."
BOMAW 10-12 Page 153
