The 'Cousins'

Part Eighty-Nine Alpha: Meeting of the Remuda

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Jennifer, a talented writer and a most encouraging reader and friend. Life has a habit of throwing problems in one's path from time to time- challenges for us to overcome. Jennifer has put together a collection of stimulating and absorbing essays of some of those challenges that she has faced in her life so far in The Power of Rest . If they were fiction they would cover a multitude of genres and are a different and enjoyable read. Highly recommended.

                         http://www.wattpad.com/story/14643106-the-power-of-rest

                                                                   *   *   *

Meeting of the Remuda.

“Thought you weren’t coming,” Leon called out with some relief as Felix barged into the cabin at Grandma Grindlay’s motel; his face grim, foretelling the darkness of his mood. 

Leon and Billie-Jo sat on the bed watching Felix, waiting for him to speak, but Felix only grunted as he glanced at the boys, kicking a chair away from the wall. The boy’s blurted out questions simultaneously.

“What’s up! Feds give you a hard time?”

“Why you sore, we thought it all went good tonight?”

Instinctively, Felix’s hand dropped behind him to grasp the roll of banknotes nestling in his back pocket; the product of success for the evening’s carnal enterprises. The reassuring bulk he felt through the heavy woollen cloth brought a flicker of a smile to the corners of his mouth.

“It did,” he growled, “y’all did good tonight.” Just as quickly as the faint smile appeared, it disappeared, replaced by a scowl.

“Where the hell is Kyler? Don’t that dummie know the difference between nine and twenty after.” Felix bawled at the boys, stabbing his wristwatch angrily with a finger.

Leon stood up, talking softly and holding up his hands in a gesture to calm the man. “He’ll be along Felix. Kyler called in a while ago, he’s been held up takin’ Paloma back to her trailer...”

His words had the opposite to his intended effect. Felix jumped up as if he had received an electric charge, screeching, “Paloma? Paloma? What’s that mattress muncher doin’ with Paloma? She’s strictly fer business.” 

“Relax Felix,” Leon cajoled, placing his hands on the man’s shoulders to bring him down, “he’s just doin ’a chore she needed done fer her at the trailer.” 

Felix appeared to calm down, his shoulders sagging as he relieved his tensions in a long exhalation of breath.

Leon stood facing Felix, his voice adopting a harsher tone when he spoke. “Suppose you tell us why you crashed in here tonight behavin’ like a drink crazed Pawnee on the warpath when you should’ve bin floatin’ in on air after tonight’s dealin’s?”

Felix gritted his teeth, his eyes blazed as if the anger inside him was resurging, but he controlled it, his head drooped as he kicked the chair around and dropped his butt onto it, rubbing his neck with his hand as if searching for an answer to a problem.

“It ain’t you guys. Y’all did good tonight,” Felix spoke in a calmer voice, but then his head shot upright and his voice rose in a blistering crescendo. “Except for that faggot Kyler. He’s the one that cain’t do as he’s told, cain’t follow instructions and puts us all at risk...”

Leon’s hands went onto the man’s shoulders again. “Calm down fer Chrissake Felix. Kyler did good tonight. He organised the whole thing with no glitches. Spielberg couldn’t have done it better. ...Now s’pose you tell us what’s really eatin’ you up?”