Unbridled

He gave his parent his best surprised expression. “Not me!” He wasn’t about to let on that he already knew about the shooting, from his new friend. “Isn’t Los Serpientes a Houston gang?” he asked. “They were on the news...” He trailed off, letting his dad think that was how he knew about the serpents.

It seemed to work. His father’s face relaxed. “They used to be a Houston gang. Now they’re in a lot of places. They’ve been in San Antonio for several years, that I know of. It seems that the serpents are encroaching more heavily on the wolves’ lucrative drug territory, so they’re setting an example,” came the sad reply. John shook his head. “God, I’m tired of dead kids!”

Tonio was certain that Rado knew about the shooting. He wondered what David knew about it. Or if he knew anything.

“You stay out of gangs,” John said shortly. “I’m not going to any more autopsies on boys. You hear me?”

Tonio forced a smile. “I don’t do gangs. Really, Dad,” he added, because they both remembered that he’d been willing to join a gang when he ran away from home.

John searched the eyes that were so much like his own. He smiled gently. “Okay.”

“You’re gonna get whoever killed him, right?”

John chuckled. “I always get my man. Or boy. Or woman.” He shrugged. “Whatever.” He finished the sandwich. “How’s school?” he asked.

“You know, it’s not so bad,” Tonio said surprisingly. “They have a really good soccer program. I thought... I might go out for it?”

John was hesitant. Tonio had been militant about joining before. It was an olive branch. “Tell you what. You bring your grades up and keep out of trouble until spring, and I’ll make sure you’re properly outfitted. How about that?”

Tonio’s heart lifted. “Deal!”

John smiled. He sipped his coffee. “This is sort of nice,” he said after a minute. “We don’t talk enough.”

“Well, that’s because—”

Before he could get the whole sentence out, the alert went off. John grimaced as he pulled out his cell phone. “Ruiz. Yeah? Oh, hell! Not another one?! Yeah, I’ll be right there. Twenty minutes.” He hung up.

“I gotta go.” He got up from the table and went to swing his coat off the rack and top his head with the cream-colored John B. Stetson hat he favored. “Don’t stay up too late, okay?”

“Okay. You said ‘not another one,’” Tonio ventured. “Another gang shooting?”

John nodded curtly. “You keep away from any boys with ties to Los Lobitos, you hear me? I’m not burying you!”

“I meant it. I don’t do gangs,” Tonio promised. “They know who got shot?”

“Not yet. We still haven’t even identified the other victim, the Serpiente who was killed. Now this! Keep the doors locked.”

“I will,” Tonio said.

And with a wave, his father was off to the wars again. Tonio sat back in his chair. It was a shame. Just when they started to talk, to really talk, the job came barreling in to put another wall between them.

But now, Tonio had a new friend. That nurse, at the hospital. She was sweet and kind and she listened. He hoped he’d see her again. She made life seem hopeful.

* * *

Sunny had barely slept. She’d had nightmares the night before, probably a result of the conflict with Rado and the gang near the hospital. She’d relived her own tragedy, the one that Rado was part of. It had been a sad and terrifying dream. She woke sweating, crying. Not the best start to the day. Or what was left of it. She worked nights, so she slept late usually. Not today, though.

She made herself a sandwich and some black coffee and finished it before she dressed in her comfortable scrubs, picked up her purse and walked to work, a half hour early, again. She was going to work a double shift tonight, too, because she was covering for a woman with a sick baby. She didn’t mind. It was just that she’d be asleep on her feet by the time she got off the next morning. At least she wouldn’t have to get a cab home after work.

She always took a cab home when it was dark, despite the proximity of her apartment to her job. She had a real fear of being assaulted by one of Rado’s goons. But in the daytime, there were a lot of people on the streets. She felt fairly safe.

She walked in the front door and there was her new young friend, sitting in the canteen with his eyes on the door.

He spotted Sunny and his whole face lit up. She smiled, too. There was the oddest bond between them. He was young enough to be the son she’d always wanted and never had. Perhaps she reminded him of his mother, who had been a nurse, too. Whatever the reason, he made her feel happier than she’d felt in a long time.

She walked into the canteen. “Got time for a snack?” she asked him.

He laughed. “Always.” He studied her, frowning. “You don’t look so good.”

“Bad night.” She laughed. “Bad day,” she corrected. “I have nightmares, sometimes,” she confessed. “How’s the hot chocolate?”

“Great. I think they cleaned the machine,” he teased.

She got her own, and an energy bar, and sat down to eat it. “How was school?” she asked.

“Great! I may get to go out for soccer in the spring!”

“You like soccer?” she asked. “It’s my favorite sport! What’s your team?”

“Madrid Real,” he said at once.

She grinned. “Mine’s Mexico. The World Cup comes up next year. I can hardly wait! We’re going all the way this time, idiot referees notwithstanding. Last World Cup, we got penalties we never should have had, because one of the referees made bad calls.”

“I saw that,” Tonio confessed. He cocked his head. “You don’t root for the American team?”

“Well, it’s like this,” she said. “My great-great grandmother was one of Pancho Villa’s band during the Mexican War, back in the early part of the twentieth century.”

“Really?!”

She laughed. “I know, I don’t look it, do I?”

He shook his head. “No. You don’t.”

“Well, there are lots of blonde women in northern Spain. That’s where my ancestor came from. She married an American and they lived in Mexico. She was a character. She flew planes, drove race cars, they even said she was a spy for a while.”

“Gosh.” He was impressed. “Our people came from Spain originally, too,” he confessed. “But our family came to America from Argentina.”

She caught her breath. “Argentina,” she said with a sigh. “I’ve read about it for years. The gauchos. The pampas. The dances!”

“Dances?”

“The tango. It was almost invented in Argentina,” she said. “It’s the most beautiful dance I’ve ever seen.”

Tonio almost blurted out that his dad was a past master of that dance, and many others. But he didn’t want to talk about his dad. Very often, when people knew his father was in law enforcement, they started backing away. He didn’t want to lose Sunny when he’d only just found her.

“When I grow up, I’ll learn it, just so I can dance with you,” Tonio teased.

“Gee, by the time you’re grown, I’ll be walking with a cane,” she teased back.