Note:  This piece is not betaed so all mistakes are mine.

Disclaimer:   I still don’t own them, still want two of them, still no profit made.  I am seriously thinking about not letting go of the younger, brunet son.  I hear competition for him is very fierce, so….anyway, hope you enjoy. 

Note #2:  Just a quick piece for Mother’s Day.

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“What do you want me to say?”

“Don’t say anything, Old Man, just get out of my way.”

“Johnny, wait…I….”

“You what?  You’re ashamed of me.  You probably never wanted me.  Maybe Momma didn’t lie to me when she said you threw us out.  You already got the perfect son when Scott came here.”

Johnny stormed past his father as anger got the better of him.  He’d made it as far as the kitchen when a hand grabbed his arm and he found himself being turned around.  He’d expected to see Scott or Murdoch, not the tanned, lined face of Cipriano.

The Segundo spoke to Johnny as he would to one of his own children who needed to be chastised.

“You should not be so disrespectful to your PaPa!  What you need is to have the seat of your pants warmed.”

Johnny only bowed his head.  He respected the older man and it pained him to know that he’d made Cipriano cross with him.

“He never takes my word for anything and all he ever does is bark orders at me.  If I say something is white, he says he knows it’s black cause I said different.  How can you expect me to not lose my temper with him?”

“To lose your temper is one thing, but do not say such hurtful things to him as you just did. 

“Juanito, your mother lied about Murdoch throwing you out.  You were his pride and joy.  This I know – there was a day that made him happier than the day you signed the partnership agreement and he knew you were staying.”

“What day was that?” Johnny couldn’t help but ask – if he told the truth, he feared hearing the answer, but was too curious not voice the question.

“The day you were born.”

Johnny toyed with a concho on the side of his pants, “Yeah, but I bet when Momma told him she was pregnant with me he was none too happy.  That meant he had to marry her.”

“No, son, we were already married by then.”

Johnny started.  He had not noticed that Murdoch had made it to the kitchen and had been standing in the doorway.

“Your mother wasn’t pregnant before we married, John.  I don’t know nor do I care why she told you she was.  Oh, I had asked her to..., but she told me she wouldn’t.  She was adamant about it, in fact.  She was flirty and wild, but on that matter she put her foot down.

“I returned to Matamoras and asked her to marry me because she’d stolen my heart, NOT because she was with child.”

“She told me she’d begged you to marry her, that her family disowned her because she was carrying a bastard child.  She told me that you questioned that I was yours and that’s why when you threw her out you sent me with her.” 

“You weren’t illegitimate and if she were pregnant before we married, then that was the longest pregnancy I’ve heard of. 

“We were married about five months when I came in for supper to find your mother crying.  When I asked her what was wrong, she pushed me away and said it was my fault.  I asked her what I’d done and all she’d tell me was that she hoped I would be happy with a fat ugly wife.

“I wasn’t sure what to tell her, and with her temper already simmering, I knew that nothing I said would be right anyway.”

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“Just tell me what I’ve done, Maria, please.  I’d like to know what I can do to make this right.”

“Make it right!  You want to make it right!  There is nothing you can do to ‘make it right’ now.  I’m going to be fat and bloated and ugly, then I’ll be too tired taking care of the nino and you’ll lose interest.  You go looking for a new wife to take my place and send me back to Mexico….”

“Wait, what did you say?  Did you say ‘nino’?”

“Si, I said ‘nino.’ And I said you would want to send me back to Mexico because I would be tired and fat and ugly.”

“Darling, are you pregnant, are we going to have a child?”

“Si, my husband, I am carrying your son or daughter.  That is what I’ve been trying to tell you, but you do not listen.”

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“When she finally told me that she was with child, I couldn’t restrain myself, I swept her up in my arms and danced around the great room with her.  She beat her fists against my chest and asked if I’d gone crazy.  I told her I had, crazy in love with my wife – the woman who would soon be the mother of my child.

“She laughed -- she had such a wonderful laugh -- and hugged me saying she had worried that I would not love her or want her if she was no longer slender and if she was tired from caring for a child all day. 

“When you were born and the doctor finally let me in the room, and I saw her laying there with you in her arms, I told her I had never before beheld such a beautiful sight.”

“That sounds like Momma, worried about losing her looks.  You know, she was still slender, still pretty….

“I’m sorry I told those things, Murdoch.  I guess what you said that first day, that I had my mother’s temper, was true.”

“I know that we butt head’s a lot, but I think perhaps I was wrong that day.  I think you have your mother and your father’s temper.

“Come back to the great room and let’s discuss the reason I said you can’t go to San Francisco with Scott and me,” Murdoch said as he put his arm around his son’s shoulder and gently steered him toward the great room.

End

Paula R

05/09/2010