Amitola: The Making of a Tribe

by A. Grant Richard

  “How in the world did you two become friends?” she asked him.

  “Don’t tell her PopTart. That’s our secret,” Caleb chimed in, finally returning from the bathroom.

  “Heh, he just doesn’t want you to know he got his arse kicked.”

  “What?” Caleb was now fully involved in the conversation. “I won that fight! You just don’t know it.”

  “Did you just say arse?” Maia asked, perking up.

  Tye shook his finger at her and said, “It was an Irish pub, so arse is the proper term. And this mama’s boy here thought he could talk smack and get away with it because his daddy’s bodyguards were there to protect him.”

  “Okay. Okay. Okay,” Caleb admitted. “I may or may not have said something about him overcompensating because he drove a big truck. And I mean a wicked big truck,” he said stretching his arms out to show how big.

  Tye stood and stuck out his chest. “Son, I’m from Texas. Everything is bigger in Texas, not just my truck. Anyway, what is a tour bus and an entire security entourage if not overcompensating?”

  “Things are big in Boston too, cowboy.” He smirked and raised his eyebrows. “Where were we? Yeah, then my, uh,” Caleb was searching for the words and willing them to come to him by smacking his head.

  “Just say it. Your chiseled, centerfold date who was using you to get to your dad. That’s what you’re trying to say,” Tye corrected him.

  “Okay. I’ll go with that. Especially since she threw her drink, and mine, in your face, son!” Caleb said, driving his finger into Tye’s chest.

  “We were drunk okay. Let’s go back and start there.” Tye pointed back at Caleb, “And your girl kept insulting me, my wife, my friends, the waitress, the band, the drinks, the pub, I could go on. So, I may have said some un-nice…‘un-nice’ is that a word?” he asked Maia.

  “We’ll make it a word. You were un-nice and called her a bleep, bleep, bleepety, bleep. That’s the kid-friendly version,” Caleb slyly commented while looking over at the kids. Charlie had enthralled them with his colorful, historical tales. “So I had to show you what was up.” He grinned then looked at Maia. “And then he kicked my arse. And my bodyguards too.” He said, trailing off into full-fledged laughter.

  Caleb took a deep breath and continued, “He did all these kicks and blocks, and we landed maybe one punch. It was so freakin’ awesome!”

  Their camaraderie was something to envy. She sat back, smiled and took it all in, all the while thinking this is why she loves the male species so much. How he could believe it was awesome to have his butt kicked was incomprehensible to her. They were complete idiots at times, and it amused her like nothing else.

  Tye continued, “So these rent-a-cops show up at my house the next day, my wife is freaking out, and I’m thinking I’m going to prison, like for life. Right? Because this dude has money and I don’t. Instead, they sent them to bring me an apology and a check and ask me to go with them to meet him and his family. I’m dumbfounded, but I go.”

  “And that is when we got his history and background and did some test shoots with him. Then we took him to dinner so I could apologize for Bunny.” Caleb laughed.

  "Bunny?" Maia asked.

  Tye laughed. “He still does not remember that woman’s name, but I assure you it was not 'Bunny' regardless of whether or not she had a rabbit ears tattoo.”

  “Oh, she had the rabbit ears tattoo. I remember that” Caleb assured him stopping mid-thought because he remembered the kids were present, “Yeah, so we hired him to choreograph some fight scenes for the TV show we were producing. He’s been my best friend and go-to fight and stunt guy ever since. That was almost twenty years ago now.”

  Punching Tye in the chest and arm he concluded, “Like I said, I won that fight!”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Tye hit him back.

  “Did your dad hook her up with a role?” Maia asked.

  Tye shook his head. “Oh, she got a part all right. I doubt it’s what she wanted though.”

  Tye sat back down, and Caleb sat on the other side of her. “My dad gave her this 1.2 second part of a psychotic woman in a bathroom stall. All she had to do was pretend to be hiding from someone and cry. She was such a pain to everybody in costume and props that they dressed her up like this dirty, ugly woman and made the bathroom as real as possible; smell and all. She was livid. I never got to see the rabbit ears tattoo again after that.”

  “We went out that night instead of him and Bunny,” Tye added while the two of them high-fived.

  “Awe. That is the most bromantic story I’ve ever heard. It was like, love at first fight!” She teased them.

  Tye hit her with a sofa pillow, and Caleb grabbed her and started tickling her, “Don’t be jealous. There’s plenty of us to go around,” Caleb said.

  Chapter Eleven

  There wasn’t much to do trapped inside the shoebox. They played Bourré, charades, arranged the books in alphabetical order, made some repairs, color-coded supplies, watched Charlie’s rendition of Antique Roadshow, counted the tiles, and their favorite, making up new lyrics to the music of their favorite songs. The kids got the biggest kick out of that.

  “Sadie! Look what I found,” Maia said holding up some nail polish. “You want me to paint your nails?”

  She smiled and shook her head yes. Plopping herself on the floor in front of Maia, she held out her hands.

  Charlie looked over at them and smiled. “I️ found that at the beauty supply store for you. I figured you’d like it. They cleaned out almost everything else, but I found that on the desk in the back.”

  “Thank you, Charlie,” she said while winking at him and wondering why in the world he had been in a beauty supply store to begin with. She’d been wanting to spend some time with Sadie, and this was an excellent way to do it.

  Nearly thirty minutes and twenty orange, shimmering nails later, they moved onto hair. Sadie insisted on braiding her hair for her. Maia’s reddish brown locks were long and unruly. The thick mess was coarse, curly, wavy, kinky, and even straight in some places. She could never get it to do the things she wanted.

  She felt sorry for her when she started fooling with it. The poor girl didn’t know what she was getting into when she offered. It took her a while. So long, in fact, Maia lost track of time, but when she finished and announced for everyone to look, the reactions were well worth it. Everyone genuinely loved it.

  She went to the bathroom to have a look.

  “Oh, my goodness, it’s beautiful. Thank you,” she said giving her a big hug. “How in the world did you do this?”

  Maia stood in the mirror touching it as though it would all come undone at any moment. Sadie called it a Dutch braid, but she wouldn’t know a Dutch braid from a French twist. She studied it. The braid started just past her natural part on the top of her head and followed the hairline and kept going past her ear then tucked into a high ponytail. A few pieces of hair were pulled free to frame her face.

  She could tell Sadie was glad she liked it. “All I did was braid it and put it in a pony.”

  Maia touched the art piece that was now hers. “I just always figured my hair was too wild for something like this. It used to take me forever just to straighten it every three days.”

  “I have lots of practice with hair like this,” she said, touching Maia’s hair then pulling her own out of the bun it had been in. “See. Mine’s a lot like yours.”

  She looked, and sure enough, the girl had hair much like her own. Touching it, she realized she’d never noticed that before. Of course, each time she’d seen her it was up in a ponytail or braid. There were a few occasions when she wore her hair down and curled. It was always beautiful. Now, suddenly, she regretted not learning more about how to fool with her hair. She wished there was something she could share with her.

  “I can show you some more stuff if you want,” Sadie said putting her hair back in a bun.

  “I would love that,” she said hugging her again.


  By seven o’clock that evening everyone was bored with finding things to do so that they weren’t bored. Junior and Caleb were on the bottom bunks tossing a rolled up shirt back and forth while Elex attempted to intercept it. He almost did a couple of times. He was quick, but the boy couldn’t grasp the concept of catching. It would tip his fingers and bounce off or fly right past them.

  Sadie decided she wanted her toenails painted too so while she made her feet pretty, the rest of the crew got high off the fumes. Charlie had to stop making his timeline of Trojan Horse tactics to amp up the air purifier.

  Maia felt cramped from being secluded in the shelter for so long. She dropped to the floor and stretched out her muscles. Tye noticed she wasn’t as flexible as she used to be. He sat down behind her and began massaging her neck, back, and shoulders to loosen them up. “Why’d you quit going to Krav Maga?”

  She hesitated before she responded. “Because I’m a girl, that’s why.”

  Tye stopped. “Because you’re a girl? What does that mean?”

  “Oh, you can’t stop now. Massage this,” she said reaching back and pointing to her back.

  “Not until you tell me,” he said flashing that half grin of his.

  “Come on,” she whined. He didn’t budge.

  “Fine,” she reluctantly said while turning around to face him. “Lance was offered a desk job with higher rank and pay, and he turned it down.”

  “Ooookay,” he said, slightly perplexed.

  She sighed, “I told him I was over being alone. He’d promised me the next time he was offered a position back home he’d take it. Twice, he turned it down. While he was out fighting for everyone else I was learning to defend myself because he wasn’t there. So, yeah I quit. I didn’t want to do it anymore.”

  “Ahh…” he replied.

  She took note of the disappointed look on his face, “I know it was stupid. Quitting something I loved to make a point. I understood his reasoning, but—” She dropped her head. “I just wanted him to fight for us the way he fought for them.”

  She picked a piece of fuzz off of his t-shirt. “When he finally left last year it was because I threatened to leave him. I didn’t want a civilian life, but I didn’t feel like we had a life at all. Why do you look like you’re disappointed?”

  “I’m not. Not in you anyway,” he said, nudging her to turn back around. He tilted her head down and massaged her shoulders. He leaned in towards her ear, “I hope you know how much he loved you. You and the boys were everything to him. He was always telling us how proud he was of you and how he couldn’t ask for a better wife. Believe me, all of us were jealous by the time he’d quit talking.”

  Hearing that made her long for him again. She missed him so much.

  Tye continued, “He was a good man. He just lost his way. The guilt drove him to think he didn’t deserve you and the boys. That’s why he couldn’t do it.”

  She turned around to face him again, “What? What do you mean?”

  “Your boy got hammered one night during the Saints game. One of the guys mentioned his son was enlisting and asked if there were things he’d do differently in his career. That was it. Lance went off. He went on and on about Fallujah; told us how some of his guys died there.”

  She knew what he was talking about. All she could do was hang her head. “Yeah…”

  Tye scratched his beard, “Look, we don’t think the same way women do. In his mind, because he gave the orders for them to be in the building, he felt responsible. He said every time he looked at you and the boys or that you told him you loved him, it reminded him that five other families didn’t have that anymore. He wasn’t avoiding you. He was trying to be worthy of having you by making sure more guys made it home. It was his way of balancing the scales.”

  Maia laid down on her back, and he stretched out her leg muscles. Tye put her leg on his shoulder and rubbed her calves. He could feel how tense she’d been. He worked her muscles until she nearly fell asleep on the floor. He knew he needed to help her get back in shape if they had any chance of surviving all of this and he intended to do just that. She was getting enough exercise, but she wasn’t eating well, or enough. Her muscles were breaking down. He made the decision right then that he was going to change that. He couldn’t lose her too.

  The weather continued to rage through the night; even when the rain would take a brief respite, the lightning would linger. Sometime around midnight, an explosion rocked the ground. Caleb and Charlie rushed to see what happened. Tye stayed behind to hold down the fort. He paced up and down the shelter waiting for them to return. They had reason to be concerned. There had been several incidents since Judgement Day, and there was always the fear of another earthquake or flood.

  A few minutes later Charlie stumbled in rambling about the silo and fire. He frantically searched for his gun. When he finally found it, he told Tye to stay put since the fire could attract attention. He asked Junior to help them outside.

  They were going to wait until it died down to be sure nothing else caught fire. Although it was a reasonable distance from the main structure, engulfed pieces of it were being carried by the wind. Rainwater saturated their shelter, but he didn’t want to take a chance.

  Tye walked over to the bunks to check on Sadie and Elex. After tucking them back in, he turned to Maia. She stretched her hand up to him, he grabbed it and sat on the bed beside her.

  “Thank you, for what you said earlier,” she whispered. “I can’t even tell you how much I needed to hear that.”

  “I know. I wish I could hear something, anything from Beth or Troy.”

  “What happened to them?” she asked, unsure of how he’d respond.

  “Beth, she uh,” Tye’s voice cracked, and tears welled up in his eyes, but he only allowed it to linger for a moment before continuing. “We were stuck on Airline when the water came through. I couldn’t go anywhere. When it hit us, it picked up a garbage truck and rammed it into us. It crushed the top of the car.”

  He chose his words carefully, “I think she died instantly. I hope anyway. I got knocked out. She was gone when I came to.”

  Maia saw the pain in his eyes. He continued, “Her head, it was messed up. Her legs…the car was so mangled I couldn’t even see one of them. Troy was behind her in the backseat. His arm was barely attached. Caleb found us. He said he heard me screaming. I hardly remember any of it. He got us to Celtic Studios, but even with all of the pull Shelton had, we couldn’t get any medical treatment to come. I carried him to a triage center they set up, but all they could do is try to make him comfortable. He died a few hours later.”

  Tears filled his eyes, but he refused to let them fall, “And then Lanie. I’ve got to find her.”

  Maia tapped the pillow. He laid down on his back beside her in the tiny bed. She moved closer to the wall making more room for him to get comfortable. He did. He turned to face her and put his head on her chest.

  The last time they’d been this close, he was teaching the class a new escape tactic. He asked Maia to come up and be the victim while he would be the attacker. He got her down, pinned her to the mat, and hovered over her. Just as she started feeling awkward about it, he jumped up. The two of them had never been really close confidants or even hung out together, but strangely, they were always like close friends; nearly family.

  The long stray hairs in his beard pierced through the thin t-shirt she wore. They poked her sensitive skin, but she didn’t care. She felt the warmth of his breath pulsing heat on her breast. It would have been uncomfortable if she didn’t feel so close to him already. Maybe it was the trust between the two, or perhaps it was hearing all the personal stories about him over the years. She played with his untamed locks while his finger circled the tiger on her shirt. She couldn’t figure it out, but whatever it was, it was nice to be in the presence of a man again.

  She comforted him, wishing there was something she could say or do to ease his pain, his guilt, his feelings of inadequacy, anything. Then she remem
bered.

  “Beth thought the world of you. You said the guys were jealous of Lance, well, me and the real housewives were jealous of her by the time she’d quit talking.”

  He perked up. “What’d she say?”

  “I remember one day they asked her why some Latinas call their man, Papi Chulo. They heard it on TV or something. She told them the term meant different things for different cultures but to her, it was a term of endearment for a man who not only took care of his woman but spoiled her rotten; that he was a man who made his woman feel like he couldn’t possibly love any other woman the way he loved her. And she was smiling from ear to ear talking about how you would bring her flowers for no reason and take her on shopping sprees and actually sit outside of the dressing room for hours while she tried on clothes. Or the way you were affectionate with her in public, always opened doors for her, and how you wouldn’t let her walk on the side of the road near the traffic,” She laughed but tried to hold it in.

  Looking at her, he inhaled deep trying to clear his nose. “What’s so funny?”

  She shook her head, “Nothing.”

  He tickled her. “Oh, you’re gonna tell me.”

  She pulled an escape tactic on him, scooted over and said, “Fine.” Her face flushed over and exposed the pink hue. “She said you weren’t always a gentleman though…that you were a beast in the sheets.”

  His face lit up. “I knew women talked about sex.”

  They both laughed, and after he had gloated a bit, she grabbed his hand and looked him in the eye. “She repeatedly mentioned how blessed she was to have you and she said if ever a man was Papi Chulo it was you. I know the two of you had your issues, but that woman loved you so much. You were her world.” Her voice started to break. “Don’t ever forget that.”

  They held each other in silence for a long time before either of them said anything. It was Maia who finally spoke. “Do you think we’ll ever have a somewhat normal life again?”