Page 21 of Night Blind

“Let’s face it head-on and together,” he said, coming around the truck. He opened the door and lifted Cherry in his arms, being aware of the foot, but also noticing that she was wincingand had bruising on her face. “Yeah, you hurt more than just your foot.”

He climbed the stairs of the front porch and reached for the handle to find his father standing there, the door wide. His eyes were on Cherry. His eyes went to his son. Questions rose in his expression, and then there was a look of relief. Instinctually, Mark Neary embraced them both, squeezing Cherry between them, and providing a fatherly kiss on her cheek.

“Dad,” Slow said, moving around his father but pausing to hear the words his dad had been holding until his arrival.

“Hey, people started arriving. I knew something was wrong when the Doc came through the door followed by the very scary lady,” Mark said.

“Azreal.”

“Oh, just fucking dandy, the Angel of Death—why does that not surprise me in the least,” Mark said with his eyes wide. “She nearly scared the truck nuts off of me. Then the Doc, and that wife of his…wow, those two, I have questions.”

“Wife?” Slow said, turning his body with Cherry still in his arms to spot Mrs. Hump, the former femme fatale of their team. “Hmmph.”

He carried Cherry to the sofa where the Doctor came over to check her status. Small feet were heard running down the hall, and Slow sighed deeply. He was tired, too tired tonight to handle what would come from his daughter’s tiny mouth, plus he was hungry. He spotted the boy child. The child was holding one of the trucks given to Naomi by the people in his office. Michelle followed behind the boy holding a doll in her hand. His own daughter stood silently, looking at all the people in her home. Her little face showed relief at seeing her parents had returned.

“Doc,” Slow said to the man. It was the handle the Technicians called him, who bent to check Cherry’s foot. No one knew what kind of doctor he was or if he in fact even held amedical license, but the Archangel found him, and The Company employed him, therefore he was their physician for the business.

Doc spoke, looking at Cherry’s foot. “Compound break, but I will need to X-ray it for chips, fractures, and the like. Are you pregnant or think you might be expecting?”

Everyone in the room turned to Cherry, staring at her. She blushed furiously at being put on the spot. She replied, “Not to my knowledge, but let’s play it safe, just in case.” She looked at her boss in embarrassment.

Naomi, hearing the p-word, stood in front of her parents, concerned at seeing her mother’s foot and also balked at seeing the blood. “Pregnant? Is Mommy pregnant like Michelle’s Mommy? Daddy! Did you put a baby in Mommy’s vagina?”

The boy stepped forward, and he looked at Slow. “Hey Mister, remember me? I am Bud. Bud Thomas. My daddy is the doctor, and you know what he told me? He told me that you have to place your penis in a vagina to make babies. I’m keeping my penis to myself. I don’t want to make any babies.”

“Dear Lord, be merciful with me,” he said, looking at the little boy mutherfuckingly before going to the dining table and taking a seat. He simply wanted food and sleep and for the day to come to a quiet close. “Good to see you, Bud.”

“I smell better too Mister, so you don’t have to give me a bath again,” Bud said to Slow.

Hump joined him at the table, followed by Naomi, who wanted to sit on his lap. Helen, figuring Slow would be hungry when he returned home, removed the plate she’d saved for him from the warming drawer of the oven and placed it in front of him on the table, along with a bottle of hand sanitizer. She also brought over a small bowl of coleslaw and a slice of pound cake. When the Doc finished with Cherry, she would feed her too.

“Thank you, Helen,” he said, saying a quick prayer, not looking up.

Hump was smiling at Slow, which made Naomi squint her eyes, staring at this new pretty woman mutherfuckingly. Hump didn’t miss the connection, saying, “Ah, she is your biological. A lot has changed since we last saw each other.”

“For you as well,” he said, nodding to her hand and the rock that glimmered on her left ring finger. Bud had come to the table to see what people were eating, and he wanted a moment of reassurance from his mother, Ms. Hump, who provided him a hug and a kiss.

“I never did get a chance to say thank you, for saving my life…for coming for me when I needed you most,” she told Slow.

“Hump, I knew you’d fight with everything you had in you, knowing I was coming. You knew I would come for you,” he said, looking at the plate of food he desperately needed to sustain himself.

“Doc, whom I did marry, as if you didn’t already know that, he told me, while I was down, you kept watch,” she said, blushing. “He also added, when speaking on my initial wounds and care, you never left me alone with him, not even to change my bandages. I appreciate that more than you know.”

“You were defenseless. I wouldn’t leave you to anyone’s mercy in that state,” he told her. “Not even him.”

Helen was always watching the interaction between Slow and Hump. Her cousin’s husband had a rapport with the woman, but there wasn’t any sexual tension between the two. She didn’t come across as a friend to Slow, however, there was something there. Cherry glanced at them several times as well, finally dismissing Hump as a threat to her happy family, focusing on the pain in her foot. Hump didn’t miss any of it.

She held up the hand, giving him a better view of the ring he nodded acknowledging, before asking him, “Are both of the ladies yours?”

“Just the one I carried inside,” he said. “The other one is her cousin.”

“Interesting,” Hump said, arching a brow. She instructed her son to either take a seat or return to the room to play. The boy, however, was fixed on Noami. He was not budging until the girl moved. Slow continued to eat, then answered Hump.

“Not interesting at all,” Slow said in a lowered tone. “When The Collector failed to acquire you, he stumbled upon her. It took nearly two weeks to find her.”

Naomi, also fixed on Bud, was now staring at the boy. “Why do you keep looking at me like that? If you try and kiss me, I will bop you in the mouth.”

Bud answered, “I don’t want to kiss you. I want to go and play in your room. I can’t just go and play in there without you. So, I’m waiting.”

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