The House Of Robles Ch. 21

They made their way back to Frankie's car, and were soon heading deeper into the residential sector and further away from the main highway.

Unable to stay in suspense any longer, Jen asked, "Well, what was the phone call about?"

"Oh, sorry." Frankie replied, as he'd been deep in thought. "My sister's name is Amanda. Her ex-boyfriend got out of jail recently. He's kind of a dick, and he won't get it through his fucked up head that Amanda doesn't want anything to do with him. We call him Malo, which is Bad Guy in English."

"He sounds like a real charmer." Jen cringed in her seat.

Frankie didn't seem to get the joke at first, but when he did he started laughing. "Yeah, he's always been a big shit, but he's from the neighborhood, you know? Anyway, it was my other sister Melinda that called. My family has been moving Amanda around from place to place to keep Malo from finding her. Well, I guess somebody snitched and told him that Amanda was at my parents' house today. So this asshole shows up and starts breaking windows. After that he got into a big fight with my brother."

Jen tried to absorb all this in, as outside her window, recycling centers, large liquor stores and tiny churches blurred by. The houses were all small and crowded together, she noticed. Not only did some of the streets look dirty, but more than a few of the people did too.

"Bedraggled." She said.

"What's that?"

"Bedraggled." Jen repeated. "That's what this place looks like. It means that this place looks messed up and dirty at the same time."

"You just made that up."

"I did not!" Jen snickered. "That's a real word!"

"Well, I've never heard of it, but if you say it's real I believe you. In fact, I'm going to start using that word from now on."

Jen leaned back in her seat. Most of the guys she knew stopped liking her when they found out she was smarter than they were.

"Maybe my brother is bedraggled now, if Malo beat the shit out of him." Frankie quipped. "Malo is a big bastard."

Jen started to giggle, until she noticed they were now driving past a very long stretch of cemetery. There were all sorts of little houses right across the street from it. She wondered who would want to walk out their front door to stare at a bunch of old headstones.

A couple of turns and a couple of blocks later, Frankie was driving down a dirt alleyway. In the center of that driveway, stood a statuesque and shapely woman with her hands set firmly and defiantly on her wide hips, and a wild, fiery look in her eyes.

"That's Melinda, my sister." Frankie said, as he pulled to one side of the alley and shut off the car.

Melinda gave Jen a glare that could melt ice. It reminded the nervous blonde too much of the look Carmela had given her that one night. Did all Latinas have bad tempers like that?

To her brother, Melinda asked, "Who's she?"

"Not Carmela." Frankie replied

This caused Melinda to give Jen a second and only slightly less venomous stare.

Basically, Jen had expected Frankie to turn his back on her and step away, but no, he walked over to her side of the car and like a gentleman he opened her door. She didn't think any man had ever opened a door for her except her dad, and that had been back when Jen was a little girl. The courteous action was not lost on Melinda, either.

"So, come out and meet the family." Frankie joked.

Jen stepped out. Together they went to stand before the woman with the thick hourglass figure and the look of a hellcat.

"Jen, this is my sister Melinda." Frankie introduced them. To Melinda he asked, "Who else is home?"

"Just me and Junior." Melinda replied. "Vicky came by and picked Amanda up just a few minutes ago. She took Amanda over to her new place."

"What about mom and dad? Do they know?"

Melinda huffed. "Dad's at work. I guess mom never came home from Aunt Cessy's house last night. It's almost like she's living there now!"

"Are we planning on telling dad?"

Melinda rolled her eyes. "What do you think will happen if we did that?"

"He'll go out and find Malo, tear his arms off, and stuff them up his ass."

"Exactly, so we're not telling dad anything until he comes home and sees the damage for himself. We'll figure out a way to calm him down then. In the meantime, we're going to think about what we're going to do with this asshole that keeps coming over here and starting his little shit. He's lucky I wasn't here when this shit happened!"

Despite her obvious beauty, Jen thought, Melinda looked plenty mean enough to try and take on this guy Malo all by herself.

"I got that part covered." A new voice called out.

The trio turned to see Junior trudging over to join them. He had a good shiner under his left eye, and he was holding an ice bag against his arm. The younger Robles sibling wore a white muscle shirt and denim shorts. Both items were dirtied up after the big fight he'd gotten into.

"Let me see your arm." Frankie stepped onto the property's dirt driveway.

Jen followed, and first off she saw the house. It was colored a faded blue, and she could see two shattered windows and the disrupted curtains behind them. She noticed that Melinda stayed in the alleyway like an angry sentry. To put some space between them, Jen hurried over to Frankie's side.

"Hey, you found yourself a white girl." Junior looked amused. "You fucking copycat!"

"Shut up." Frankie said. "Let me see your arm."

Junior removed the bag of ice. Now visible was a huge red welt that stretched from the shoulder down to the elbow.

"What did he hit you with?" Frankie asked. "I know Malo's fists aren't that big!"

Junior pointed over at an edge of the driveway. "Dad's shovel over there."

"Okay, from the beginning, what happened?"

"First of all, why don't you introduce me to your lady?"

"Oh, right." Frankie said. "Jen, this is my brother Junior."

"Hi." Jen said nervously.

"Hi." Junior grinned, as he set the ice back on his bruise. "You just had to go and find yourself a white girl, didn't you, bro?"

"For your information, I called him." Jen cut in.

"Yeah, right." Junior nodded knowingly. "Frankie's been wanting a white girl ever since he found out my girlfriend is white. Say it ain't so, bro?"

"Okay, fine. I've been jealous of you ever since the day you were born. Now will you tell me what happened?"

Melinda came over to stand beside them.

"Well, I was in the rec. room taking a nap." Junior explained. "When I heard all this bullshit going on outside. I guess Malo showed up and started shouting for Amanda to come outside. When she didn't, he got all pissed off and broke the windows with rocks. I came outside all groggy and shit. I told Malo to get the fuck out the yard, and then he comes over and starts talking shit to me." He paused to shake his head. "He got me hot pretty quick. We were about to start going at it, except dumb ass Amanda ran out here and got in between us. You know how long Malo's arms are. That fucker sucker-punched me. I swear, that's the only good hit he got. I pushed Amanda out the way, and I was going to light him up, too. When Malo saw me square up, he knew I wasn't scared of him. That's when he went over and got dad's shovel. I still gave him three or four good licks, before he nailed me with the fucking shovel. Then Amanda told him she was calling the cops and ran inside. Malo took off because he's still on probation. He'll be right back in the joint if they catch him fucking around."

"You said you had that part covered?" Melinda reminded him.

"Yeah, I was making some phone calls while I was in the house." Junior nodded. "I called up some of the homies to make sure it'll be legit. I called Malo out, one on one."

Melinda looked over at Frankie, a grim look on her face.

"What does that mean?" Jen asked.

She found out soon enough.

The four of them loaded up Frankie's car, and Frankie drove them over to the nearest liquor store. He bought a six-pack and they set off down the road again. This time, they ended up parked on a secluded dead-end street. It was there that they all got off and both brothers and their sister started drinking. Sitting on the trunk of Frankie's car, Jen watched the scene with growing interest and fascination. It seemed that some kind of primitive ritual was about to take place before her eyes.

In a short time, another car pulled up and parked alongside theirs. This one had a nice paint job, hydraulics and sported wire wheels. A big Chicano thug wearing a huge white shirt exited from the driver's side, followed by a couple of other, much smaller menaces.

"What's up, Frankie?" The big man called out. "Where you been at, fool?"

The big guy was soon introduced as Bear. He went over to scrutinize Jen next.

"I know I ain't never seen you around here, girl!" He teased her, but the truth was that the little blonde found the big man intimidating.

Bear went over to Junior and studied his black eye. "You got clocked good, fool. I thought you knew how to box?"

"I do know how to box." Junior countered. "And I'm gonna show you when this fool steps in front of me again. You know how big Malo is. He still had to use a fucking shovel on me!"

Bear shook his head, before he went over to flirt with Melinda.

A second car pulled up, releasing two more hoodlums. It eventually got around to Jen that one of these was Malo's big brother. Most of the young men present conferred with each other. After they came to some sort of agreement, Malo's brother nodded and drove away.

Melinda was leaning against Frankie's car with her arms crossed, while Jen had taken a seat on its trunk, but neither woman spoke.

"He's going out to find Malo." Frankie said when he came back, as he glanced at the time on his phone. "Shit, it's almost one! I have to call off from work."

Frankie walked away to make his phone call. This gave Bear the chance to step over and scrutinize Jen once again. The lean blonde was starting to feel very nervous from the thug's leering attention.

"She don't look right, out here with the rest of us." Bear announced. "Not dressed like that."

"So do something about it." Melinda seemed to be daring him.

"All right." Bear nodded, as he stepped over to his car. He came back with a black and red, checkered flannel shirt. "Here, put this on, girl, and take off that sweater of yours."

Jen glanced toward Frankie, but he was still on the phone.

"Just try it." Melinda shrugged.

Jen removed her hoodie and put on the big shirt. She hoped that would be the end of it, but no, Bear was still staring at her and rubbing his chin. One of the other guys handed him a pair of black shades.

Bear grinned as he took them. He said, "Yeah, now you'll be crackin'."

The big thug passed the sunglasses over to Jen. She quickly donned them, if only to make all the attention on her go away.

"Now, button up your shirt, all the way to the top."

"Okay." Jen said, timidly. She was going to have one hell of a story to tell her friend Kate, she thought, when she got home later.

"What'chu think of that, Melinda?" Bear asked.

Melinda shrugged, not looking quite as evil as before.

Frankie walked back. "What are you guys doing to her?"

"Just fixin' her up a little." Bear grinned.

"Bro, give me your phone." Junior held out his hand. Once he had it, he motioned at Frankie. "Now, go stand in front of your white girl."

Frankie thought, what the hell. He faced forward and leaned back against Jen's legs. Jen wrapped her arms around Frankie's neck, and Junior took the shot.

"You know who you're sending this picture to, right?" Junior joked.

"That's right." Frankie nodded.

He reached out to take his phone back. As he was shoving it into his pocket, Jen decided she was going to kiss him on the cheek. Since Frankie was in front of his boys, he didn't turn around and return the favor, but this didn't bother Jen too much. He wasn't stopping her and he didn't complain about it. That was just as satisfying, she thought.

Some time later, two more cars drove up and parked, releasing a small band of seven hoodlums. From the way Frankie and Junior straightened up, she knew right away that one of them was Malo. As she studied the crew, she picked out the biggest of the latest arrivals. A second later, this very thug took a step forward.

Malo pointed at Junior and said, "I'm going to roll you up, fool!"

This seemed to faze Junior not at all. As a response, he too stepped forward and started stretching his arms.

In Jen's view, Malo was a very scary guy. He stood at maybe five-ten. As the big brute removed his shirt, she saw several scattered gang tattoos staining his thick arms. His hands were nearly as big as boxing gloves.

Junior threw a quick punch with his injured arm, and immediately winced.

Frankie caught this and pulled away from Jen. "What's wrong, bro?"

"I'm just a little stiff." Junior tried to stretch that same arm, only to wince again. "I just gotta loosen up, that's all."

Jen caught the look Melinda gave Frankie. It was the first time that day that she'd seen Melinda look worried.

Frankie seemed to be looking far away for a moment, before he took off his shirt.

"Junior, why don't you take a step back?" He said.

Junior stared at him. "What do you think you're doing, bro?"

"Step back. You can't do this."

"You sure?"

Frankie nodded.

"Fuck it, bro." Junior said, before he came back and whispered into his brother's ear. "He's big and he punches like a brick, but he swings out all over the place. Try to make him over-swing and set him up for a good uppercut. Don't let him get you on the ground, bro. If he straddles you, you're done."

"I got it."

"And let me get your phone too, so I can tell Amanda what's going on."

Frankie gave it up.

Jen could hardly believe what she was watching. A minute later, Frankie went up to where Malo was standing. The two of them stood there glowering at each other.

"Last minute sub?" Bear asked.

"Yup." Frankie nodded. "I'm in it to win it."

"This fucking beef is going to be squashed today." Malo's older brother told his unruly sibling. "No matter what happens after this, you ain't going over and starting shit at Frankie's house, and you ain't going out with his sister anymore. If she wants you, she's going to have to go out and find you."

"You make sure you get that through your fucking head, too." Bear threatened him further. "Otherwise you ain't gonna be liking any of us, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I got it." Malo nodded.

The others moved away.