Chapter 191 - Silly and sapa Tadpole! - Fars
Arnold
"Old hag!"
Being at the boss’s house had always been something I enjoyed; it was the only version of a family I knew. I don’t want to remember my childhood. Inés, my beautiful black woman, was the image of a mother I wanted to keep. It was true that life didn’t give her children, but we had given her that role since we were little.
"Old hag, my foot!"
She pinched me and sat me on the stool at the kitchen island of the ranch. It was an abstract scene, a woman so short subduing a man of my height, five feet two inches versus six feet six inches, but that’s how it was. She’s always been the only woman who gives me noogies, pinches, and slaps when I mess up.
I don’t consider myself a man who expresses his feelings, although everyone knew how I was and understood me. I show my loyalty through actions, but I’ve always made an exception for my beautiful black woman.
"You and I have several conversations pending. I accept being called old when it’s said with affection, but what’s with the ‘old hag’?"
Mrs. Consuelo entered the kitchen, holding hands and smiling with Mrs. Veronica’s father. Although I now addressed her informally, I would always respect her in my mind. Gustavo always spoke of angels and demons on earth. I must concede that since her arrival in Roland’s life, she was and would continue to be an angel.
I remember when we met her, that afternoon when the monumental orgy happened at one of the boss’s estates. That time, the Black man commented that she was the same woman who had insulted him for calling her a whore.
That same day, Gustavo said something about the light of our path. Thanks to that earthly angel, we would all achieve true happiness and our hidden desires would be granted. I laughed at his prophecy then, but now every time he opens his mouth, I see it as an omen. The shaman has been right about everything that comes out of his mouth.
"Why are you scolding the young man?" asked Mr. Fausto.
"Because he’s a child and needs to be reprimanded." She looked at me and pointed her finger.
"Inés," it was Mrs. Consuelo’s voice, "have you raised all of Roland’s friends?"
"Yes, although this one," she kept pointing at me, "I’m still changing his diapers." I rolled my eyes, and they laughed.
"I love you too."
"This time, Arnold, you will listen to me! First, have breakfast, and this is for you to take to the clinic. It’s for Vero." She handed me four thermoses in a portable cooler. "One is sugarcane water with milk, the other is cooked oatmeal with vanilla, another oatmeal with cola, and the last one is oatmeal with chocolate."
"Is that why you asked me to bring all that from Colombia?"
"Exactly. This will be for fifteen or twenty days. Veronica needs to take this; it’s essential, and she needs to nourish herself well and the quadruplets. I don’t want her to get weak. Each of you will bring the supply to Vero. Every half hour, she must take one. I’ve left everything prepared in the fridge for the day. You know, Arnold, before going to the clinic, each one will pass by the reserve on their shifts."
"Hi, my old lady." Rata entered the kitchen, and I pointed at him.
"Aren’t you going to pinch him?"
"He called me ‘my old lady.’ It sounded tender. He didn’t shout ‘old hag’ as if I were already wrinkled." We laughed at her expression, and I lifted her, covering her with kisses. "I’m not falling for it this time."
"You know I love you." She had already forgiven me. "Rata, how are things at the clinic? My shift is next."
"Yeah, Cebolla and Gustavo are there. Vero looks exhausted."
"Simón," Inés intervened, "I’m terrible at sending messages in the group you created for the family. Please, urgently inform everyone that each shift must come to pick this up." She showed him the portable cooler. "I only have three coolers, so keep that in mind and return them."
"Isn’t that too much? Will my poor daughter be able to drink all those beverages?"
"With how much Dante, Enrique, and Liam eat, for these fifteen days, they’re going to drain poor Vero."
"Have you seen my daughter?"
"Mr. Fausto, she looks happily exhausted, in pain, but she hasn’t complained."
"And Roland?" Mrs. Consuelo now asked.
"There won’t be any power on earth that can get him out of the clinic. I came here so this troglodyte can take him a change of clothes. He’s staying at the clinic, tomorrow too. As soon as Veronica is discharged, they’ll come home to sleep.
"From five in the morning until nine at night, they’ll be with the babies. They need to reach the necessary weight, and even then, they’ll have to continue with the kangaroo plan for another two months. Until they’re two months old, we need to help them."
"You know that this week I'll be here, then I travel to Colombia, I return Wednesday night, I scheduled my in-person hours for Thursday and Friday at the university, and Saturday is a full day for the specialization. Count on me in the afternoons of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and on Sunday until four."
"Thanks, Mojón. By the way, Gustavo told me he's taking ten days off."
I raised my eyebrows; last night he mentioned something about leaving in two days after handling the clinic paperwork. Meanwhile, I started working on advertising campaigns and improving the image. Advertising was the career I was going to pursue.
"Did something happen with Rasca culo?"
"Can you not use those nicknames?" Roland's mother asked us. We nodded.
"What happened with Gustavo?"
"Gladis..."
Inés's sigh and the adults' bewildered expressions were noticeable. Gladis was a very good woman, serious, honest, attractive, slim; she had her charms. I love older women, but she was only three years older than me and was my friend's woman. I liked more mature women, anyway.
She drove Gustavo crazy and was extremely distrustful. I called her the sexy grump. Clarisa was my sweet little thing, that woman was a sugar cube, and Aníbal's fiancée... I still don't understand how that guy managed to win over such a beauty.
She had everything I liked except for the age. I called her the white Yayita. Regardless, my friends' women were sacred, plus they had all taken on the serious role of being my mothers because they all nagged.
"I think our friend has already thrown in the towel."
"I really liked Gladis, I've grown very fond of her during this time, but if she doesn't realize the man who has put the world at her feet, then she doesn't deserve Gustavo. You are all my children, I thank life for the change in each of you, I keep you all in my prayers, all of you."
"Gustavo has already proven his love. If she continues to be blind and doesn't want to see it, that's her problem. Let her stay with the past and ruin her present." Simón and I were left with our mouths open when we heard Inés say a curse word. "Don't look at me that way. I no longer suffer for Roland, Miguel, or Simón. They are on the right path. I don't include Daniel and Aníbal either. The fiancée of my dear one is beautiful, and not to mention Clarisa. My worry is Gustavo and you." She pointed at me again. "Especially you."
"I haven't done anything!"
"No! It turns out that pale thing between your legs is going into every hole you come across. Don't think I don't know!"
Stupid tadpole! I lowered my gaze. It was one thing for my friends to know about it, another for Inés to find out. I respected her in a way, and her opinion mattered. The laughter of those present increased my discomfort.
"Pale thing?"
Simón commented. Now who would put up with him? I couldn't help but smile. My old lady was heated. I looked at the former boss, and he fell silent upon seeing my expression, though he still wanted to mock.
"I think it's good that Gustavo stops insisting on Gladis. If she loves him, it's time to show it. And you, it's time to settle down, find a woman, so I can die peacefully."
"You're not going to die!" Simón and I said at the same time. A message arrived on the cell phone.
"Even though they did what they did when they were a cartel," Don Fausto commented, "you did a good job, Inés, with these young men." We looked at him. "They are men who I can't imagine how many they have killed, but they fall silent at the scolding of the woman they consider their mother. That is called respect."
"We didn't respect the lives we took back then," I said.
"They were worse men than us, never women or children," Simón justified.
"God will judge them, not me. You have protected my daughter, and that is enough for me."
"And we will continue to do so, Don Fausto," Simón commented, and I nodded.
"You should have received a message with the new instructions for Inés's drinks for Vero."
I looked at the message. It said I had a two-hour schedule starting at nine in the morning, then from seven to nine in the evening starting tomorrow. Today, I had a schedule from eleven in the morning to one in the afternoon. I was responsible for delivering the drinks, and in the afternoon, Guadalupe would do it... I raised an eyebrow.
"Do I share the same schedule as the Tadpole?"