Mariange Benoit was waiting in the bus station. Her nephew had sent a picture of himself, along with what bus he was coming in on.
Mariange didn’t text a picture of herself, not believing in the whole idea of “selfies”. She never looked good in them anyway. She was nothing like her brother, who was long, lean and muscular. She was short, stocky, and always felt like she was adopted because she didn’t look like her mother or her father. Her grandmother, however, was of her height and weight, though she lost it all in the last years of her life, and she was just a skeleton with hanging flesh. Mariange didn’t want to end up like that, so she tried to eat healthy, tried to walk and exercise – but always fell off the wagon whenever cake, cookies, or donuts showed up.
She was trying not to go to the Dunkin’ Donuts in the bus station, where she could smell the onion from the bagels being toasted. She moved as far away from that spot as she could, but still she could smell it sometimes, and her mouth would water.
Where is he, she wondered, as she turned her back yet again on the donut shop, looking up at the arrivals. She saw that he had arrived, so she got up, and walked over to the platform where the bus let off the people. She stood waiting inside, in the air conditioning – it was too hot outside for her.
Then she saw him. She smiled, waved. God, Tommy looks like his father, she thought. His skin was dark like hers, and his hair was cut short as opposed to straightened like her own. He was muscular, but a stocky muscular, like he worked out. He saw her and waved, and then pointed to the curb. He waited for his bag to get unloaded, and gathered up the red and white duffel that was tossed to the curb. He stepped into the bus station, dropped his bag and hugged Mariange tightly. He smelled of Axe and air conditioning.
“It’s been too long, Tommy, how’s everybody doing?” She kissed his cheek as he pulled away.
“Okay, Auntie. I’m really glad you’re letting me stay with you for a little while.”
“As long as you want to. I know how your father is.”
He picked up his duffel and followed her, talking all the while. “I’m going to get a job out here, I think.”
“Lots of jobs in MC for a young man of your stripes,” she said. “Did you want to get something to eat before going to meet the rest of the brood?”
“Yeah, I’m starving.”
“You want food your pappy eats or…?”
“Whatever’s closest.”
She laughed. “A man after my own heart.” Closest was a Chinese restaurant that was within walking distance of the bus station. Mariange left her car in the bus station parking lot and they walked the couple of blocks. “So how’s your pappy? He’s still sheriff?”
“Yeah.” Tommy said it disgustedly.
“Wants you to go into the family business.”
“I don’t want to, Auntie. There’s so much more I can do.”
Mariange didn’t want to lecture the boy, and she most certainly had felt the same way he did. However, she knew he was the only one in the family that could change, and that his father was expecting him to be a steward of the land just like he had been to his father, and his father before that, all the way down the line to when the Blackfoot were put on that reservation. Yet, she remembered vaguely that there were many stewards of the land: Crow, Rabbit, Raccoon, Bear. Wolf wasn’t necessary, but he was The Steward.
They went into the restaurant and he ordered off the combination plate. She ordered some wontons with duck sauce for an appetizer. She asked after the family, details about them, what grade the three other kids were in, how his mom was doing after her cancer scare. She asked what kind of work he wanted to be involved with, and she went mentally through her contacts to see who she could point him to.
A lot more industrious than my own son, she thought. But, James was like his father, born lazy. The only thing that got them interested and passionate was major league basketball and boxing. Carl, her other son, was on the lacrosse team, and that left Tamisha and LaToya, who were both at the boy-crazy age. They would moon over Tommy, and so over General Tso’s chicken, she warned him of that. LaToya had huge breasts – taking after her mother – but a small waist and all the boys followed her with their tongues hanging out. Tommy laughed and said that he wasn’t interested in girls.
Mariange hesitated just a half second. Was there another reason Tommy came to Millennium City?
After lunch/dinner, they went back to the car and she drove the half-hour to Westside, where she and her family lived in a three-bedroom apartment. As she expected, James and her husband were in the living room watching Mad Max. “I’m home,” she called. “I got Tommy.”
“Hi Tommy,” her husband called from the other room.
She waited. When he didn’t get up to at least come into the kitchen to say hi, she shrugged at Tommy. “Happens,” she said.
“Did you get milk, mom?”
“Shit,” she muttered.
Tommy said, “I’ll go get it. You have a convenience store around here?”
“Two doors down. But I’ll go get it.”
“No, let me.”
She put her hand on his arm. “There’s gangs. They jump the boys. They don’t jump me – I don’t have anything they want.”
Tommy grinned, and she could see his eye teeth were longer than normal. “Let them.”
She gave him a five dollar bill, but he waved it away and left the apartment. She bit her lip as she watched him go, forcing herself to not cry with pride.