CHAPTER 199: LITTLE SICILY MEETS BIG TROUBLE

Willie looked at the ground and quietly spoke. "Yes, Sir, I let him in me and yes, I am carrying his son. Harming him won’t bring anything back nor will it help anything. Grandfather has already made arrangements for me to share a home with another young Genmen who is in the same situation I am. Single, expecting a child and it wasn’t planned either. But at least this child will be a hybrid like uncle Tim and he does have a damn good-looking father."

Robbie let go of Vincent and stood up, placing his arms around his son in comfort.

Vincent started to move when Tim whispered to him. "Don’t move, stay right where you are and let things take a course. Trying to run wouldn’t get you very far and Robbie—he would beat the hell out of you."

"Well Jake, let’s go next door and get a little bit of light lunch," Jake suggested. "These two young ones here need to get to know each other a little bit better than they know one another."

Willie spoke up. "Can we have lunch together next door so we can sit and talk about the baby and what there is to be done about him?"

"It is almost lunchtime, don’t seem like the two of you can get in much more trouble plus your dad can keep an eye on you," Jake replied.

The six men walked into the diner and took some seats—Zack, Jake, Tim and Robbie at one table, then Willie and Vincent sat at another by themselves.

Constantine walked up and looked at Robbie. "You better keep a close watch on that one over there, Mr. Hot Hands Vincent. Don’t need him getting too friendly with Willie."

"Why would you say that Constantine? What’s up?" Robbie asked.

"Every Friday after payday comes in here all dressed up trying to pick up any stray Genmen that might be available. But so far, he’s struck out every weekend."

Tim rolled his eyes at Constantine. "Not every time did he strikeout. About 3½ months ago he hit a home run and now the two of them need to talk about it."

"Oh no, not Willie. You mean Vincent got Willie in the family way?"

"That’s one way of saying it, Constantine, but it was more like he just knocked him up and didn’t think anything about his actions because he’s too stupid to know how Genmen reproduction works," Robbie remarked. "They have a lot of talking to do, and Mr. Vincent will be taking responsibility for his actions or I will rip his testicles right off of him barehanded with no pain killers."

Zack looked over at Robbie. "You do know that it takes two to tango, and from what Willie said there was plenty of that going on in that motel room between the two of them. Let’s be supportive and give them every chance we can to help them along."

"I know Mr. Zack, but it doesn’t make it any easier. He’s my last, and I just wanted better for him than his father did for me."

Vincent and Willie were talking when a friend of Vincent’s walked up.

"Hey Vinny, I see that you lowered your standards a little bit here. Maybe you will finally get one in the sack—seems like a pretty easy target here."

Something struck Vinny wrong about Jeremiah’s attitude toward Willie and he stood up to his so-called friend. "Apologize right now, Jeremiah. William does not deserve what you just said about him."

"Come on Vinny, got to admit he ain’t too hot, but if you take to slumming, I guess this is what you get."

Before he knew what he did, Vinny stood up and punched his so-called friend right in his mouth, sending the man flying over the table and on his ass. The whole place went silent as Vinny walked around and grabbed Jeremiah by his collar. "Now get off of your ass and apologize to William about what you said, and you better make it convincing or I’m going to take out the trash all the way to the dumpster."

Jeremiah wasn’t a little man, but he also knew that Vinny had a hell of a temper. He was more surprised and startled than anything—at least his two front teeth were still there.

William got up and excused himself and went to the bathroom.

As Jeremiah saw William walking away from him toward the bathroom—correction, waddling toward the bathroom—it all made sense.

Lucky the table was empty that he flew over, because he made a mess.

"Sit your ass there, you better be there when I get back," Vinny shoved Jeremiah into the booth where William had been sitting. "Don’t make me come look for you because you won’t like the results, my so-called friend."

Vinny made a beeline to the bathroom that William had entered.

Zack took the opportunity to introduce himself to this new young man. He walked over and sat in Vinny’s seat and told the young man to remain there—they had plenty to talk about.

"My name is Zachary Spinelli. I suppose you work for Jake Traylor, you know the man sitting right over there."

Jeremiah shook his head and squeaked out a yes.

"Young man, I’ll let you know exactly who I am. I own the Z1 ranch and have an interest in the Hawthorne ranch next to me as a partner. This place, Constantine’s, is owned by one of my residents, Constantine Traylor, as in Jake’s partner. The young man that you just insulted was my grandson and I don’t put up with that out of anyone. You will not insult one of the residents of the Z1 in my presence or behind my back without me finding out about it. At the Z1 we’re like one big family—we watch out for each other and boy, you just stepped over the line. If you look behind you, you’ll see two very nice good-looking young men. The dark headed one is Tim, my son William’s uncle, and next to him is his dad Robbie. One word from me and there won’t be no more of you. Now when Vincent comes back here with William, you better figure out what the hell you’re going to say because your safety does depend upon it. And as far as Vincent is concerned, he’s alright in my books—he stood up for what was his because you protect your family members."

Jeremiah was about three shades of white when Vincent and William returned to the booth. Zack had already left and was sitting across the room keeping an eagle eye on Jeremiah.

Vincent sat down first, then William slid in next to him. Vincent placed his arm around William’s shoulders. Vinny looked at Jeremiah and cleared his throat.

Jeremiah looked at the table then back up to William. "I would like to start by apologizing to you for the rude and insensitive things that I said to and about you. I had no right to do it and I really don’t know why I did it, other than maybe I was a little jealous because Vincent was sitting with someone else—you two seem to be getting along."

"It’s okay Jeremiah. I just told Vincent that he was going to be a father. I’m 3½ months into my pregnancy and I was terrified to tell him. It wasn’t until my grandfather discovered that I was expecting that the shit hit the fan at the ranch. There’s a lot to be done in the next 5½ months before I deliver. Vincent needs to decide if he’s going to be a full-time or part-time father, or no father at all and he decides to walk away. This is my first child to carry, and I’m sure I’m going to make a lot of mistakes but hey, I’m only a dumb Genmen and we make mistakes just like humans do, but the child will never suffer. I have a strong family and they will make sure the child is taken care of and loved by all."

Jeremiah took a deep breath. "You think your family’s strong? Wait to you meet Vincent’s mother, Celeste Pirillo—she’s one hell of a lady. She’s the reason we’re both here. We grew up together, got in trouble together and she sent us out here. I’ve got my own little room, Vincent has his room also. I guess really and truly he’s lucky—he’s got a good job right now, has more than he’s ever had in his life, grown up in the projects of the city in little Sicily. What has the big lug told you about himself or even growing up? I can fill you in on this one, tell you some of the other sides of stories if he makes them too vanilla, because we raised a little hell. Maybe too much because Mama packed our bags, put us on the bus, told us she had better not see our ugly mugs again until she comes for a visit."

Willie looked at Vinny. "And what did you do that was so bad that your mama packed your bags and sent you and your co-conspirator with you?"

It was Vinny’s time to blush a little bit. "Well, we might have busted up a few things, broke some windows, stole a couple speeders—just little things like every Sicilian young man does that doesn’t have a future or place to go."

Jeremiah started to laugh. "You should’ve seen the two of us sitting there in lock-up and who walks up but mama Celeste. Of course the whole Police Department knows her and us. She walks in with her low heel black shoes, knee length skirt, signature white blouse, big black purse and in that purse her wooden spatula. The cops, they didn’t play fair—they put her in the cage with us and she beat the crap out of us with that wooden spatula. We were released into her care. She grabbed up the paper and showed us the ad for laborers needed. We had never heard of the Township much less any place like the Z-1. We’ve been working at remote locations so we haven’t been to the main ranch yet, but I heard it’s great."

"Yes, Jeremiah, it is a nice place. I grew up at the Z-1—it’s all I’ve ever known and all I need and it’s all this young man here that I carry will need. I’m a little tired so after grandfather Zach gets through talking with Vincent, why don’t the two of you plan on being my guest at the celebration this weekend? They’re getting ready to open up the center and it’s going to be a great time. There’s plenty of food and baseball games, soccer matches plus you get to see a side of Genmen that humans normally don’t ever see—we do like to let our hair down and have a good time. I’ll tell grandfather that I invited the two of you so you better show up or uncle Tim might just come look for the two of you."

"Vincent, if you’ll let me go, I’m going back to my family and we can talk a whole lot more on Friday while you’re visiting. I promise that the two of you are safe—we’re not going to eat you or make slaves out of you."

Willie stood up and walked over toward his grandfather. He hugged his grandfather’s neck and thanked him for what he did and informed everyone at the table that the two humans were going to be at the Coming Home Festivities Friday, Saturday and Sunday—they were to be treated nicely by everyone or there might be hell to pay. He looked directly at his uncle Tim and his dad and cleared his throat. "Do you two understand me?"

Tim looked up. "Who me? I would never do anything to harm a human, especially not one that knocked up my nephew. And the other guy that he belted a while ago—why are you inviting them?"

"Because Vincent and Jeremiah are just the kind of people that we need to educate about Genmen and Hybrids. What we really are in life, what we’re all about, who we really are here on this planet."

Robbie shook his head. "Son, we will be on our best behavior and will tell everyone there to treat the boys nicely, and not to play plug the human."

"These two are impossible, really totally impossible," Willie looked at his grandfather. He walked away from the table headed to the kitchen to find Constantine.