Vacant MC

by Bella Knight

  “How long will it take for her juju or mojo; or whatever you call it, to come back?”

  Bao laughed so hard she had to drop her fork onto her plate. “Mojo,” she said, in an Austin Powers voice. “My mother has lost her mojo.”

  Nico laughed. “Her face,” he said.

  “I have no idea,” said Bao. “I’ve never lost so much face that an entire community was totally pissed at me.”

  “Well, keep it up,” said Nico. “And keep me posted.”

  “And how are things going with you?” asked Bao.

  Nico snorted, and cut his ravioli. “In construction, in summer…”

  “Nobody sleeps,” finished Bao. She caressed his hand. “I miss you.”

  He groaned. “Don’t make me think of that now. I’ll be unable to stand up in this restaurant.” She laughed. “Or, I’ll do you right here, under the table, and get arrested.” Bao’s bright peals of laughter made everyone else in the restaurant smile.

  After lunch, Bao put in more time on the business side of things at home, putting in an hour on marketing. Not that much of it needed to happen in China or Taiwan. The Chinese market was hungry for new books that could be printed on demand, or that were available for the laptops and tablets of the students. But, social media had to be updated, and blog posts also had to be written.

  Kurt’s mother came to see Bao that afternoon at the ranch. She met Becky Walsh on the porch, and invited her in for soda, coffee, or tea. “Cola,” said Becky, a tall woman with a graceful gait, kind of like a human giraffe, complete with a largish nose, blonde hair cut in a brush cut, and super-long arms and legs.

  She wore a tank top and board shorts. Bao was thankful she had forgotten to put on her palazzo pants and that she was in shorts as well. Bao got herself a cola and leaned on the breakfast bar. Becky leaned back into her stool, rather than hopping up as Bao did.

  “I’ll get to the point,” said Becky, after taking a deep drink and sighing. “Kurt and Hu have a business together, where Kurt draws pictures and Hu paints them, and Hu designed a website to sell them. Henry explained about the Wolfpack, about all the training and job rotation and requirements to pass all the parts of the Nevada High School Proficiency Exams. Kurt came to me and made a presentation that included the presentation software, Prezi. Made me dizzy.” Becky laughed.

  Bao laughed too. “He’s a very intelligent young man,” she said.

  “He is,” said Becky. “The ‘young man’ part gives me pause, but he just turned twelve, and he’s determined to start making his own decisions. I’m a single mom, and the homeschool was affordable, and he has learned so much. But, he wants to stretch his wings, start earning money.” Becky tightened her grip on the cola. “Money is tight, and there is no way in hell I can afford to send him to college. I was hoping for scholarships. But, this ranch program was aimed for high school students at risk of dropping out. From what I understand, some of the res schools didn’t teach bilingually, and this school allows the students to retain their native languages. And, they needed skills to find a job to pay for college. Kurt is a little different. I just… how has it worked out for Hu?”

  Bao laughed. “She’s happy. She’s fine. She’s amazing. My little dynamo moves from subject to subject, job to job. They can only work two hours total, per day. Her painting counts as work, and so would Kurt’s drawings, since Hu is splitting her profits with him, so it’s a paid gig. Hu does household chores here as part of her work. They also grow, pick, and pack veggies, create sandwiches and soups and pack them, and make animal feed with Alo. They can take care of the rabbits and harvest angora by brushing the rabbits —they shed four times a year. They can card wool or fur, run a spinning wheel to create yarn, and make candles and goat cheeses with the Goat Girls on the res. The older ones fourteen to sixteen can work three hours a day, and they learn to clean houses and do childcare, and Robert teaches bike maintenance, repair, and rebuilding, and Tito teaches them all about building houses. The over-sixteen ones can work for up to four hours a day. Both Kurt and Hu will be taking CPR and learning the childcare aspect of the business. Damia, Inola, and Robert have the horses and ponies covered, but if Kurt wants to, he can learn animal husbandry on a bigger level than the rabbits. Inola rescues ponies and horses, trains them, and sells them to farms where they will be treated right.”

  “Wow,” said Becky, stunned.

  “Wait, there’s more,” said Bao, in an announcer’s voice, making both women laugh. “There’s my business, and the students get paid for telling stories in their native languages. They can choose to record them. Since the older boys’ voices often break, the girls do most of it. Kurt could be an illustrator; he’s got that gift.”

  “I… can I…”

  “Tour,” said Bao. “Let’s get some more Cokes, and see the entire farm, why don’t we?”

  “That would be good,” said a dazed Becky.

  “Great!” added Bao, excited to show her.

  Becky got the full tour, then collapsed into a deck chair. “I… I never dreamed it was so…” said Becky.

  “Awesome?” asked Bao. They were by the pool. Mike had figured out how to grow fat watermelons, so they sipped on watermelon shakes and munched on stuffed mushrooms. “Kurt can use the pool with Hu for their physical exercise.”

  “We don’t live anywhere near here,” said Becky.

  “What do you do for a living?” asked Bao.

  “Media relations, for a little casino. To be truthful, the job and pay suck, but it pays for a little apartment. Kurt has been very good about sleeping on the couch, but he’s growing into a little man now, and I need to find a two-bedroom that doesn’t cost an arm, a leg, and several feet. First and last month’s deposit can run me to a thousand dollars or more, and I just don’t have that much saved up.”

  Bao narrowed her eyes. “We’re running out of room here, but I have an idea.” She called Henry and asked him about the little two-bedroom she knew Nico had finished at the Harley school. She got a quote, asked for a contract, and hung up. “I think I can get you a job in media relations. You’ll have to learn fluent Mandarin Chinese, be very respectful toward Native Americans, enjoy spending your day on Facebook and Twitter, and learn to write blog posts. I’ll do the Mandarin stuff for the time being. The salary will be a little low at first, until we get everything nailed down, but it includes rent and utilities on a two-bedroom apartment on the top floor, above the classrooms, of Henry’s Harley school. He was going to use it for the occasional visiting instructor, but he’s agreed to use a hotel instead, and is delighted to get rent and utilities from me.”

  “Stop talking,” said Becky. “What do you want me to sign?”

  Bao took the rest of the day off to ride down to see the apartment with Becky. It had an entryway, a good-sized kitchen with all the latest appliances, a good-sized living room, and two bedrooms with small walk-in closets.

  “It has a real bathtub!” squealed Becky. She turned to Henry. “We’ll be at the farm all day, so the classes won’t bother us, then we’ll come home, and the classes will be gone, so we won’t bother them.”

  “I thought of that,” said Henry. “Your weekends may suck, though, so I suggest taking Sunday and Monday off. We do.”

  “Done,” said Bao. “Where do I sign? I’m paying, she’s living here with Kurt.”

  “Got that part,” said Henry, showing them where to sign.

  “Okay, Lily already has you on payroll,” Bao said to Becky. “Want to give two weeks’ notice?”

  “I’ll do that tonight,” said Becky. “I work graves and get to sleep while Kurt’s in school.”

  “You can set your own hours,” said Bao. “As long as the work gets done. You can even do it from here, if a Nighthawks member wants to take Kurt up in the mornings. Or even afternoons; some of the teens do better on kind of a swing schedule.”

  Becky wiped away tears. “Thank you so much.” The two women hugged.

  Gregory came into the apartment, lo
oking for Henry, ready for his next class, and saw Becky crying. “There’s no crying in baseball!” he said, doing his best Tom Hanks impression. Everybody laughed.

  Bao went home and ate dinner in the main house. The chicken was amazing, a rosemary-basted rotisserie chicken, with a side of honey mustard sauce, salad greens, brown sugar-basted carrots, and stewed apples. Hu and Grace joked quietly. Damia sat at the other end of the table from them, with Henry and David. Ryder ate like a pig, squealing with joy. Everyone smiled at her.

  Ivy and Bella were at work. Inola was relaxed, tired after a day of working with the new pony, who was coming along nicely. Callie talked with her about the horses, and about Ryder and Damia. Robert and Mike got into a serious discussion about Sigrun’s 3D printing project, and at what times they wanted to go to the lab and print 3D arms and blades for kids. Hu heard them talking and demanded an explanation. The men explained the project, and Hu and Grace pulled up schedules to find out when they could volunteer, and what classes they would have to take to qualify.

  Vi finished serving and sat down at Henry’s end, prompting everyone to eat. The Owl Pack discussed beading, book creation, and about getting more angora rabbits, an idea Henry shot down, because their rabbits were multiplying just fine. They then turned their agile minds toward new sources of wool; the Navajo had excellent flocks but were not willing to sell their wool. This was because they made their truly amazing rugs with them. They decided to help the Goat Girls, which Hu insisted on changing to Goat Women, and suggested they buy more alpacas. Jake sent a text, and they moved to a discussion about baseball.

  The discussion prompted a small game outside; of kickball, rather than baseball, mostly because it was far easier to kick a big red ball than to hit a baseball thrown at one’s face. They created the diamond in the side yard. Bess, the Corgi, overlooked the proceedings, ready to protect people from… something. Henry rolled the ball for his team, Bao for hers. Grace was enthusiastic, Hu more precise. Damia stayed inside to help Vi clean up, avoiding the noise and the “yucky” dust.

  Bao was stunned when an exhausted Nico came over, plopped his ass down on a lawn chair, and popped a Coke that Mike passed to him. It was near the end of the game, and the Wolfpack members who weren’t studying or working rotated in when the “old folks” rotated out. She wanted to run to him, but she had a game to pitch. She rolled the ball to her daughter, who kicked it past Jake on third base. Nico stood and cheered his daughter on as she rounded the bases, resting on second. Bao rolled again, and Grace kicked it past first. She was out, but Hu made it to third. Alo came up and kicked it far past third. Both Alo and Hu made it to home base, to very-loud cheers. Bao pretended to weep in agony, and her teammates came up to console her. They decided that since they were down by two, to concede. The Blue Team jumped up and down with joy, and the other team congratulated them. Vi brought out towels for the people with their heads under the garden hose. They dried off, went back inside, and ate ice cream sundaes.

  Everyone walked back home. Bao was surprised when Hu asked to sleep over with Grace. She nodded and smiled. Hu ran out to be with Grace. “Glad to see those two getting along,” said Nico. He put his arms around his wife. “And now I have time with my two best girls.”

  Bao patted her burgeoning stomach. “The doctor might be wrong, you know.”

  “Doubtful,” said Nico.

  “Do you want a boy?” asked Bao.

  Nico let his jaw drop, making her laugh. He looked into her eyes. “No, absolutely not. I get my fill of the Wolfpack boys, and Nantan and Chayton’s boys. They are around the site all day, no matter which site. I’ve got three, if you can believe it. One of the old Wolfpack is a journeyman, and he designs and installs kitchens. Hired that lady for all our work. Amazingly talented. Her boyfriend does tile work so fast and perfect it would make you cry. He just got off journeyman status, is training others. Makes me look like I do nothing all day.” He snorted. “Tito’s on me to train new project managers, but who do I choose? I decided to give up and train three of them to do project management, made them all take courses. I paid half. When this baby’s born, I’m going to have actual time to spend with you both.”

  “Well,” said Bao. “That sounds lovely.”

  “Let’s practice with Kiya and Aiden,” said Nico. “We can give their mamas a break this weekend.”

  “I knew I loved you for a reason,” said Bao. She kissed him.

  They turned off the downstairs lights and went upstairs. Nico took a shower after he made his wife a hot bath, and helped her into the tub, got her a cherry water, and washed and conditioned her hair. He scrubbed the day off him, exhausted in places, sore in others. He let the jets bash into him.

  He found himself thinking about his wife. Her laugher, her ready smile. He laughed as he thought of her stalking her mother with generosity. He marveled at her kindness after the same woman had tried to destroy her own daughter’s wedding, angered that her daughter loved a man who was not Chinese. His own mother didn’t care if he married a Catholic (although Nico was, and so was his mom), or if he married an Italian. “Nico,” his mother had said to him when he was a little boy. “Italians are about family, food, and fun. The Catholic part isn’t anywhere near as important as those three. The traditions, that will come.”

  His mother had been right. Bao had converted in order to marry in the Church, and they went to mass once a week. She’d been seduced by the family, the food, and the fun, and the traditions would give meaning to their lives. Bao’s Dragon Mother would get seduced, too. He would just have to woo her. I’ll get her schedule from Bao and woo her. She can’t cut me down in front of all of her friends without losing any more face. He laughed to himself at his dastardly plan.

  He got out of the shower, dried himself, answered the last emails of the day, and waited for his wife to finish. She pulled the plug, so he put his tablet aside, helped her stand, gave her two towels, and helped her out of the tub. He worked on helping her massage lotion all over, especially her back, making her moan. She put on her face moisturizer, and he kissed at her neck.

  “Love,” she said. “At this rate, we’ll do it here instead of the bed.” He laughed, spread her legs, and began sucking her right breast while sliding his fingers inside her.

  She arched her back and moaned, then laid back as he used his fingers and tongue to make her come, again and again. He led her into the bedroom, laid her on her side, and slipped inside her. He moved slowly inside her, exhausted from the long day, and they came together on the great crest of pleasure they evoked in one another. He cleaned her off, helped her dress in her favorite, gold-silk nightie and her slinky, silken underwear, and slipped her under the sheets. He cleaned himself off and put on boxers. He slid in behind his wife and held her tight against the coming of the dawn.

  Nico found out his mother-in-law’s routine over banana nut muffins, coffee for him, and a cherry water for her. He hit the road and made it to the first site, right when the pipefitters arrived. He supervised them while sending a request to the Wolfpack job board —What do you want done? In what time frame? A cost would pop up, he was automatically charged upon clicking on the icon for Do it! and the job would get done.

  He called a Chinese florist his wife liked, and ordered flowers, heavy on the chrysanthemums, from where Dragon Mother loved to shop for flowers. She would come in to pick up her usual order, and then she would find an extra one for her. On the card he put, Your loving son-in-law. He paid for her hairdressing for one month plus the tips, a nice gold watch from her favorite jeweler where she liked to look for earrings, and for the yard around the triplex to be raked and watered (it was made up of very nice stone landscaping with some desert plants).

  Nico then attacked the Sundial duplex with a vengeance and pushed them a little ahead of schedule by pushing through his task list like a machine. He stopped at Sonic for chicken strips, a tiny salad, and a cherry Coke, and went off to hit the other duplex before making his way to the last of the jo
bs at the Harley school. He pushed his list, managed to get more drywall installed than expected (by stepping in to help), and ordered pulled-pork sandwiches, fries, and sodas for all the guys, with some salad for the two vegans.

  After his late lunch, he hit up Henry’s school. Once there, he found a welded rose online for his mother he thought she’d love, so he bought it and sent it to her. Then, he went up to check on Becky and Kurt. Neither one of them were home. He entered, took a look around, went over his punch list, and found everything in working order, except for a little leak in the kitchen faucet. The built-in shelves in the living room and bedrooms already had books and clothes, and the TV stand had a gaming console and a very old monitor for a computer. Nico whipped out his phone, and bought and ordered a medium, flat-screen TV for immediate delivery.

  He went to go check on the classrooms, and found Toni installing the audiovisual equipment. “Hey,” he said.

  “Hey,” she said. “Hand me that screwdriver.” He handed her the special screwdrivers they used for AV equipment.

  He helped her finish her task, then said, “How do you feel about setting up a TV and a gaming console? It’s for a single mom and her kid.”

  “Shut up and follow me to the next room then, after this job.” He grinned and followed orders. Women didn’t scare him. Pissing them off scared him. The TV arrived, and they installed it together, gaming console and all.

  “I’ve got an older model console, bought the latest,” said Toni, playing with the ring in her eyebrow. It’ll make him nervous. “I can finish here, bring it back by. How long you staying?”

  “Another hour,” said Nico.

  “Be half that time if you help me finish.”

  “On it,” said Nico.

  They finished up, then Nico checked out the rest of the building. Everything was fine. He then sat down and answered emails, then refined his schedule for the next day, since he had crossed off so many items that day. Toni showed back up. They hooked up the other system, left a “Welcome to the neighborhood!” note, and took off.