Chapter 396 - The saplings are profiled - mdfour
Miguel
I woke all my friends up, something in my chest told me my kids were at the illegal races.
"Rata, help me put the image of where my kids are on the TV. Here, this is the access to their tracker." I handed him my watch. "Please, give me the location." While he started tracking my kids, I called Roland.
"Is something wrong?" Rata handed me the address.
"I already sent it to the Boss on his cell."
"My kids just sneaked out of the house with my race car. Please, don't pull them out. I can't stop Augusto from racing, it would be disloyal given who I am, because I was the same, and he has the knack for it. Plus, Isaac is his co-driver. But we know what that world is like, full of drugs, women, and a lot of money. It's not an environment for them without the right guidance. He wants to race, he'll do it professionally, not in that dangerous world. Besides, they're just kids."
"Got it, I'm on my way to find them."
"Is the Boss going to stop the race?" I shook my head.
Everyone shouted, and within minutes Rata had connected the satellite to the TV, and we began to see the racers arriving. There were my kids. The beers arrived, and everyone settled into a couch.
"You know how long it's been since I watched an illegal race?" Simón said.
"Since the Nameless stopped running them," Gustavo commented. I smiled.
"Do you think the offspring of that man will live up to the reputation?" I shrugged at the head of security's comment.
"I have no freaking idea, but right now I'm scared shitless just thinking about what could happen to them. As the saying goes, you are a child and you will be a parent."
Twenty minutes later, Roland texted that he was there, the race was about to start. The phone rang, it was him.
"Tell me."
"Put it on speaker."
"Go ahead."
"Not only are your kids here. I'm just curious to know how my two eldest sons bypassed the security I set up every night." We smiled. "Don't laugh, from my privileged spot I can see the representatives of each one. Except for Rino, because he's still a baby, but the rest are all here.
"There are a lot of underage kids in this place, and ours are part of it. The only adults in our clan are Sebas and Ezequiel. Now if they're going to get punished, I'm going to find out a couple of things. We'll talk soon. The race is about to start." We all fell silent, Roland hung up.
"Gregorio is thirteen and Cristofer is only twelve!" Kevin shouted. "How did they bypass security?"
"Milena," Rata said. "Do you know what's happening here?"
"What?" Zombi said. Arnold remained silent.
"We don't have the moral ground to reprimand them, their mothers should. How can I tell my daughter not to hack the security systems of your uncles' houses when I do the same?"
The race began. Rata had connected to the race commentator's frequency. My nerves were about to get the best of me. Gustavo handed me another beer. From the commentator, we learned that a lot of money was at stake and that there were two races. A scoreboard showed the next racers, and it was the adult category. Sebastián Bermúdez, alias "Cherry," was in that one. We looked at Cherry.
"Does it say Cherry?" his father commented with a hint of pride.
"Then the one racing is Little Onion." We all burst out laughing at Aníbal's comment.
"Arnold, what's wrong?"
"Dayana is in that place, and in a few months, she'll be fourteen. She's just a kid! Milena is about to turn seventeen, but Dayana... She's delicate. Demetrio! He's going to hear from me."
"We'll scold them later, now look who's leading."
My heart was pounding out of my chest. Augusto was leading the race, two cars trying to box him in, and with just one touch, they could send him flying. I gripped the arm of the couch. If I were driving, I’d floor it and switch to the left lane so they’d crash into each other... but that’s what I would do. My son barely manages his adrenaline, and maybe... I couldn't finish the thought because my son did exactly what I had just thought. My friends stood up, and the announcer simply said,
"I never thought I’d see magic in speed again. Many years ago, there was a man capable of doing just that, it was a spectacle to watch the Nameless race, and now a kid seems to be the incarnation of that mysterious figure."
I didn't know whether to cry or laugh, I had no idea how to express the feeling that overwhelmed me at that moment, seeing my son perform those feats. The other two cars crashed, leaving the competition, and he continued as if nothing had happened. I downed my entire beer in one gulp.
"You need to train him, Onion," said Arnold. "Just like Rat has to with Milena. All of our kids need to be trained, except my princess."
"Stop holding Dayana back."
Rino retorted. The race had ended, and the adult category was getting ready. Now we’d see Cherry with Ezekiel as her co-pilot.
"Why do you say that about my daughter? She wants to be a doctor."
"Do you want to know? If I tell you, don’t even think about laying a hand on me, because I’ll break your face."
"What are you going to say about my daughter?"
"That she’s a beautiful girl, full of a tenderness that didn’t come from you, but you’ve refused to see that for years she’s been orbiting around Dante. The problem or the relief is that he doesn’t pay her any attention at all.
"Have you not noticed? It took me a month as her first aid instructor to figure out which girls are swooning over whom."
Rino spoke, and my mind raced. Ines, Ines, no, not my little tadpole, my mermaid princess is still a baby, she hasn’t taken the first aid course. Saved by the bell.
"They’ve been raised like cousins."
Kevin said. We stopped talking to watch the race, which was now getting very interesting. Sebas was in second, but his car hadn’t shown its full potential.
"He’s waiting... What are you waiting for, son?" A third car approached, according to the veteran commentator, because if he knows about me, he must be a veteran.
"And it’s a repeat of what happened eight days ago."
More than one eyebrow raised. So these kids have been at this for a week and had us fooled.
"Let’s see what Cherry does because the delay is in that damned kid accelerating to leave his opponents behind. We’re almost at the finish line; this will change in no time, folks! Don’t blink, or you’ll miss the split second when the magic happens through Sebas Bermudez."
The commentator spoke, and we followed his lead, staring at the screen without blinking to see our nephew triumph. Indeed, Sebas shifted gears just when the first driver thought he had won, and our nephew accelerated dramatically. Leaving them behind, he crossed the finish line first. We all found ourselves celebrating our kids' feats when we should have been calling them to scold them. Instead, we were here, hugging and smiling, proud of our children.
"Everything was great, except the comment about my Dayana," said Arnold. We burst into laughter again.
"Relax, it could be just a youthful crush," commented Freddy. "Besides, Dante sees and cares for her like a little cousin. He likes someone from his school."
"That puts me at ease," he exclaimed theatrically.
"They’d make a good match," Anibal said, and Kevin agreed.
"No one is worthy of my little mermaid." We burst into laughter again.
"We agree on that," said Rat. "No one is worthy of our daughters."