As president, I made the final call. Silvia couldn’t come before my crew, who’d been on the road with few stops on the run. I needed to trust my girl would be safe with Quino and the others until I got home.
Our last stop arrived. Finally, I could take a leak and call my girl. I had no doubt she would be furious that I hadn’t called. I didn’t have a good excuse, other than, we’d gotten on the road before she was awake.
After relieving myself, I dialed. It would be a short call so we could get back on the road. I just needed to hear her voice.
“Andy!” she answered, happy to hear from me.
“Hi, Chiquita. How are you?”
“Better now that I’m hearing your voice. What took you so long to call? I’ve been worried about you.”
“Sorry, baby. We got an early start. Should get home in around four hours.”
“Really? That’s terrific. I gotta tell you, it’s been stressful here. What is going on with everybody?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Mama Virgie has been in the kitchen all day cooking enough food to feed hundreds of people.”
“She does that sometimes.” Like when we were going on lockdown.
“Okay. Then the girls are gathering piles of blankets and toiletry bags.”
“I don’t see the problem.”
“Of course you don’t. Everyone is busy and nobody will tell me why. They won’t even let me help. I don’t know why I’m even here. I’m hated around here.” Her feelings were hurt, and rightly so. I wished I could be there to keep the peace, but she would have to hold on a little longer.
“You’re there because I need you.”
“That’s sweet but it’s not enough.”
“It better be enough, baby. I’d lose my mind without you. Don’t worry about what everyone is doing. You just take care of yourself until I get there.”
Another call was coming in. I pulled my phone away from my ear to see who it was, then I flagged Slay down. “Mija, hold on for a second.”
“Okay.”
“What’s up?” Slay asked.
“Quino just tried calling me but I’m on the phone with Silvia. Find out what he wanted.”
“Yeah.” He stalked back to his hog and took out his phone.
“I’m back,” I told Silvia.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, all good. How’d your tattoos turn out? Did you cry?” I’d gotten Dom to work on the sleeve Silvia wanted. It was a big job, but she only wanted black ink, so I was curious how much had gotten done.
“I love it, and I didn’t cry.”
“Didn’t cry that much, am I right?”
She laughed. “Yeah, I cried a little. Some spots were more sensitive, but overall, it wasn’t bad.” She sounded pleased with the experience, and that made me happy. Dom was an excellent tattoo artist. I knew he’d be good with her.
“Can’t wait to see it.” I caught movement on my left. Slay was coming back over with his phone pointing toward me.
“You’ll see it soon. Four hours, right?”
