Thalatta!

Once they were out on the water and the ride was underway did Susan drop the bomb on him.

"My parents had to cancel on us."

Really? Then what the hell were they doing on the ferry going to the mainland? "You tell me this now?"

"Oh, but I have something even better planned."

"Like what?"

"Oh, and it's probably just as important. It'll fix everything."

"I don't know."

"You'll see. Just watch. You'll see."

Once they were in the city they took a cab to a busy shopping street which had so many people that Mike was actually very uncomfortable. Susan pulled him by the hand and she brought him to a Chinese restaurant. There outside the place were several people waiting but Susan brought Mike up to one specific person and introduced him to a woman with a recently done pink hair dye job. She was wearing relatively conservative clothing with a turtle neck sweater but it was loose enough around her neck to allow Mike to see just a bit of some tattoo that looked like the tip of a knife. Mike felt that she was familiar somehow but he couldn't place her.

"This is Courtney. Courtney, this is Michael."

Of course even though Mike couldn't remember where he'd seen this girl before he wasn't stupid and quickly figured out the likely reason he was being introduced to her. The facial cue of the woman instantly told Mike that his assumption had to be right. Both Mike and Courtney looked at Susan with expressions that revealed that they both thought this was a bad idea.

"Shake hands. Come on. We're not savages."

"I can't." Mike said, beating Courtney to it.

"Why not?" Susan challenged.

"You got something against lesbians? You don't want to touch me?"

"I was taught growing up that any unwanted physical contact between a man and a woman was rape by definition. I'm going to keep my hands to myself." Mike said and then he put his hands in his pockets.

"You do not believe that." Courtney said, and then she added with all the inflection of a racial slur "Male."

"Michael, you can touch her hand. It's fine. Courtney, come on. Shake his hand. Stop acting like children."

"It was your idea to meet here, wasn't it." Courtney accused Mike. "You just had to bring an Asian girl to a Chinese restaurant so she could order in Chinese for you."

Mike looked puzzled. "You're Asian?" he asked Courtney.

"Don't play dumb. Susan, duh."

Mike turned to Susan. "You're Asian?"

"You've met my father."

"I thought your father was American."

"He is but he's Asian."

"How can you tell?"

"Oh my God, white boy, stop with the fake pretending to be color blind bit. We're not buying it." Courtney said.

"I'm not white." Mike objected.

"Yes you are. You're a fucking white male." Courtney said with all the hate and venom she could put into her words.

"Courtney!"

"That is not written on any of my government records. My last name is Freedman so actually there's a good chance that I'm black. Though in the grand scheme of things, aren't we all just part of the same human family? Where's your spirit of Ubuntu?"

Courtney threw her hands up and turned to Susan. "I'm sorry, honey, I can't. I can't do this. Not with him. No." she said with disgust crossing her face.

Courtney started to storm off and Susan went after her. Mike was left standing there in line but he wasn't going to eat in a place like this by himself so he stepped out of line and walked over to a vending machine outside of a pizza place. He took out his phone to see where he was on the map and how long it would take him to walk back to the ferry because there was no way he was paying for a taxi. Damn, he should have brought his bike. Oh, well. He looked at the time and mentally counted up the minutes he had in order to catch the final ferry back to the island.

Susan dragged Courtney back and tried again to get Courtney and Mike to talk to each other. Mike just stood there and refused to say anything. When Susan asked him to come back to the Chinese restaurant he just shook his head and refused all while Courtney tried to goad him into arguing.

"Ok. Never mind. Pizza. We'll all have pizza. Let me see if I can get us in." Susan said. She went into the pizza shop and that left Mike there with Courtney.

"Why can't you just go away?" she asked him.

Mike just shrugged.

"I practically gave you Helen on a silver platter. All the pussy a gorilla like you could want. Why are you still going after my girl?"

"You're responsible for Helen? Wow. Please tell her to stop. I'm not interested."

"What's it going to take for you to leave Susan alone?"

"I could ask you the same damn thing."

"I love Susan. We belong together. You're nobody."

Mike shrugged. "I guess cause your eyes are messed up and you think I'm white you expect me to be able to order in Italian so I better look up how to do that." he said to change the subject. "And and FYI, I've never spoken Italian before. They don't cover that in state's custody."

"Oh, boo hoo. Don't look to me to get sympathy for your poor orphan boy story. As far as I'm concerned instead of spending any money on you mongrels we should just offload you into the ocean and be done with you. Abortion is legal so why should society be put on the hook to take care of you until you're 18 just because your breeder mom couldn't find a clinic before you fell out of her and ruined her life?"

Upon hearing this Mike put away his phone. He steadied himself and controlled his breathing. Let it go, he said in his mind. There was no arguing with someone espousing final solution type rhetoric. There was no reasoning with someone like this. It wouldn't matter if Mike came and told her that he was 100% in agreement with everything she wanted and stood for. It would never matter. She only saw him as the enemy and would interpret all of his words and all of his actions as him being evil. There was only one solution when confronted with a person like this. Mike zipped up his jacket, turned his back to her, and walked away.

"That's right. Run! Coward! You better hope I never see your ugly face again!"

Mike ignored it and just kept walking. He had gotten some good distance but he still wasn't that far away when Susan called him. He refused the call. She tried to call him again. He refused again and went into the settings to block her.

As Mike walked he felt his feet begin to hurt but then he saw the ocean. "Thalatta." he said. Mike got to the ferry, bought a ticket, and then waited in a non obvious spot. From his position he could see a cab pull up and Susan got out. She started to look around for Mike but wasn't finding him. He could see her debate with herself about whether to stay and wait for Mike to show up or look for him somewhere else.

Mike's phone buzzed and it was Officer O'Neill. "Hello." he answered quietly.

"Mr Freedman, are you in some kind of trouble?"

"No. Why do you ask?"

"Your girlfriend says you went missing."

"I'm waiting for the ferry to come back so I can take it home. Oh, and she's not my girlfriend. Oh, and please don't tell her where I am. I really don't want to talk to her."

"Michael, you can not ditch a girl once you've started going on a date with her."

"She's not on a date with me. She's on a date with Courtney and she wanted me to tag along."

"You still can't ditch her. Be a man."

"I am a man and as a man I am not going to sit there and listen to them talk about killing off all the foster kids in the world. They think we should all be drowned in the ocean to save tax payers some money."

"I do not believe that either one of them would have said something like that."

"I heard it with my own ears. So I'm sorry. Chivalry be damned. I'm not putting up with it. She might as well have been calling me the N word."

"Ok. Go home. I'll make sure no one stops you."

...

Mike got off the ferry and went to parking where his bike was. The rain was just starting to come down and he saw Officer O'Neill poorly parked there as well.

"Get in. I'll take you home." she called out to him.

He went up to her car but then shook his head. "I need my bike for tomorrow morning."

"I can come get you."

Mike shook his head again. "I've ridden in the rain before. I'll go slow and be careful."

Instead of just letting him go she followed him with her siren lights on as he went through town. The rain started to come down harder and Mike was absolutely drenched when he finally got to the house. As he was parking the bike under the bit of cover he'd had built for just these kinds of days Officer O'Neill got out of her car and came up to him. There in the rain she hugged him not caring at all if she got wet herself.

No words needed to be spoken. She brought his head down and kissed him on the forehead. Then she ended with patting him on the shoulder. Mike remained out there in the rain as the cop got back in her car and drove away. He turned to the house and saw his two roommates out on the porch looking puzzled.

"Don't even ask." he said as he came up the steps. Carmen offered him a towel and he dried off what he could and handed her his jacket. Once in the house he immediately went to the shower. Wet clothes off, hot shower on, refresh and put Nazi girl out of his mind. Didn't she know that the damn Nazis had tried to kill off gays as well as Jews? But that was how it was once a group was finally accepted by the mainstream, they instantly forget about everyone left behind and they give up on championing the plight of the down trodden. Once they become winners they start to actively try to keep anyone else out of the winners circle.

Maybe Mike could understand now why most black people didn't date white people. Maybe it wasn't really a racist thing but more just the fact that white people couldn't understand what most black people had to go through and so a deeper relationship just couldn't be reached. Mike had seen the statistics. Most former foster kids had extreme difficulty getting married or staying married. They had a lot of other difficulties as well but that was also one of them. So maybe it meant he wasn't supposed to be dating girls from outside the system. Maybe instead of scattering to the four winds the moment they get out former foster kids should stick together and build their own community. Only those who'd been in the system would ever really understand each other. They were their own race but not one based on skin color or anything else so obvious to outsiders. It was deeper like the bond that soldiers shared when they'd been to war together. Mike thought about Officer O'Neill and realized she was a lot like an xman. She protected this town even though it was full of people who hated and feared her simply because no one could understand her. He himself had been guilty of that he realized.

Once he turned the water off he realized that he had neglected to bring any fresh clothes but then as he was drying off Michelle brought some to him. He got dressed and then just went up to his room. For a while he was there by himself, alone as he tried to just empty his mind and not think about anything.

Tap, tap.

Mike looked up and Michelle and Carmen were there at his door. Mike shrugged. "What?"

They both came to him, Michelle sitting on his right and Carmen sitting on his left. They both leaned in to sideways hug him. Mike was going to object and tell them that he was fine but instead he allowed it. The three of them settled in like that but it didn't last very long. It seemed that the girls had actually planned on tricking him. They each grabbed an arm firmly and then started getting to their feet off the bed and pulling him with them.

"Hey, what's the deal."

"The house chores aren't done." Carmen said.

"Yeah, you don't pay any rent at all and then you leave all the work to us."

"I own the house." Mike objected.

"That's no excuse." Carmen said.

"I said I wouldn't charge you guys any rent. What is this?"

"Chores still have to get done." Michelle countered.

They got him down the stairs and then they brought him over to the kitchen.

"Wait up. You made the rule that I wasn't allowed in the kitchen."

"Just get over here." Michelle commanded as they brought him to the sink. "Now wash your hands."

"I just took a shower."

"I don't care. Wash your hands! You're helping me cook dinner and I do NOT want to get sick again."

Grumble. He complied and a couple of minutes into it Michelle was ordering this and that and keeping him busy. He found it oddly comforting to have something to do that he could put his attention to. Chop, chop, chop. Stir, stir, stir. Check, check, check. Mike found that he could actually crack a smile as the three of them worked together getting everything ready. They were putting so much production into this meal that Mike started to wonder if a special guest was supposed to be coming over or something.

Just before dinner was finished being made Michelle told Mike to get changed.

"Why?" he asked.

"Look at the meal we've made. You can't eat it dressed like that."

"My good clothes are all soaked."

"Those can't be the only good clothes you have. Go find something to wear or you can go to sleep hungry."

Mike didn't know what she was playing at but it was less effort to just go along with what she wanted so he went up to his room, found his runner up best clothes and got dressed. When he came back downstairs he found that Carmen was wearing a very pretty dress, she had her hair pinned up, and she was wearing makeup while she was setting the table that had a new table cloth put on it and actual candles were lit though they were the short wide kind instead of long thin ones you might expect from seeing movies.

"How do I look?" Carmen asked when she noticed him.

"Uh, better than me."

"That's all?"

"Amazing."

"Come, sit down."

Mike was just taking his chair when the door to the girls room opened and Mike got a look at Michelle. She had done something to her hair and like Carmen she was wearing a very nice evening gown.

"Ok, someone is going to have to tell me what's going on."

"You see me like this and that's all you can say?"

"What I mean is, ..."

"How do I look?"

"Beautiful. Stunning."

"That's more like it. I think I'm starting to see why you have girl problems."

"Did someone put you guys up to this?"

"It's Friday night. I don't have a date and Carmen doesn't have a date so that means you have to pamper us."

"It's true." Carmen agreed. "It's a rule."

Mike just shrugged and accepted it. Mike sat down at the circular table but then the two ladies both just stood by their chairs.

"What's wrong now?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm just a weak little girl. I couldn't possibly move this chair all by myself." Carmen said.

"Huh?"

"Get up and be a gentleman." Michelle said.

"Oh." Mike said as he realized. He went to Michelle's chair and pulled it out for her. She took his hand so he could help her get seated in it.

"Thank you."

Then Mike went to Carmen's chair and did the same for her only instead of a thank you at the end she commented that Mike must like Michelle more than her because he went to her first.

"It's not a competition." Mike said. "You're both lovely."

"Michael, you're going to have to get used to two women being jealous of how much you like the other one if you're going to date more than one at a time." Michelle said.

"That's very strange advice."

"We heard about Nikki and Susan." Carmen said.

"Heard what exactly?"

"That you're going to try to be boyfriend to both of them at the same time. Tsk, tsk, you are asking for a world of hurt if you try that." Michelle said.

"That's strange cause I very specifically told both of them that I wasn't going to be boyfriend to either one of them."

"Then you must be sending mixed signals cause they both think that you are. You should have seen the two of them arm in arm in the shop. I thought they were dating each other for a moment but they were planning out how they were going to share you."

"So, if you're going to date two girls then you better start getting some practice cause it's a skill most men don't have." Carmen added.

"I'm not dating two girls." Mike said.

"You told me you were dating five." Michelle said.

"That wasn't what I meant when I said that."

"Oh, I almost forgot." Carmen interrupted. "Stand up. Stand up."

Both Mike and Michelle were confused but Carmen was already to her feet and grabbing at Mike to stand. Mike followed and then Carmen made Mike and Michelle stand next to each other in front of the meal while she took pictures with her phone.

"It's amazing. You two are actually really cute together. I wish you had a tux. That outfit isn't really good enough for the dress she's wearing."

"It's the best I have."

"Then we're going to have to take you shopping."

"Can I sit back down now?" Michelle asked.

"Wait. One more thing." Carmen said as she bounced to the kitchen, grabbed the scissors and then proceeded to cut two flowers from one of the bouquets that she had had delivered to the house from the lone florist in town. "Ok so you have to pin this to my dress."

"Why?"

"Cause it's what people do. Now come on. And don't prick me. Be careful."

"Won't that ruin your dress?"

"No, they design them for this."

Mike thought that was odd but he just shrugged and went with it. He was biting his bottom lip as he concentrated on doing it right. Once he was done Carmen grabbed her pocket mirror and took a look.

"Great. Now her." she said as she handed him the second flower.

Mike went up to Michelle and she scowled at him. "If you draw blood I will too."

"Be nice." Carmen said.

Mike managed to get the flower pinned and then Carmen was going on and on about how amazing Michelle looked. She just had to take some pictures one more time and then it was time for Mike to pull out the chairs again and have them sit down.

Mike was going to dig in but Carmen stopped him.

"What is it now?' he asked.

"Grace."

"Who's that?" Michelle asked.

"Don't you say Grace before eating?"

Mike looked at Michelle and she looked back to him, both of them with the same puzzled expression.

"Dear Lord, We thank you for ..." Carmen started as she put her hands together in prayer. Mike and Michelle humored her and put their hands together as well. Carmen thanked God for the meal and for the house and for finding Mike and Michelle and letting them become a family.

"Amen." she finished and then made the sign of the cross.

Mike and Michelle both said "amen" together and then just released their hands and were about to eat but Carmen stopped them. "Come on guys. You have to do it or your Amen doesn't count. Forehead, belly button, shoulder, shoulder. Like this."

Mike's patience with all this was wearing thin but he did it and Michelle did as well and it was Carmen who took the first bite. They started to eat and Mike commented that the meal tasted exceptionally good that night.

"Oh, look at him trying to take credit cause we let him help cook." Michelle said.

"Don't turn everything so negative." Carmen said.

"I wasn't."

"He was complimenting you, not himself. Don't you see that?"

"Wow, I'm just going to keep my mouth shut from now on." Mike said.

"No, that is not how this works. In fact, here, give me your hand. No, your other hand. Put it here. Michelle, you put your left hand in his."

"What's this for?" Michelle asked.

"Just do it. Come on. You want to do it right, don't you? Good, now just like that you look into each other's eyes and ..."

"Ok, this is going too far for me." Michelle said.

"This is what you said you wanted." Carmen insisted. "Look at him and smile. Draw him in. Be cute for him."