EIGHTY-SIX

I pulled Rose closer by the waist as we slowly swayed to the beat, when the tempo was suddenly turned up.

Lucille had to place the overly excited Junior on the floor as he bounced to the beat.

Losing her dance partner, she watched her little sister as she tried to hide behind her.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, saw the scared little girl as Lucille knelt to her level then said,"Lucinda, what's wrong?"

"...I don't know how to dance."She blurted out.

"Lucy, I've seen you dance before and you're amazing."Lucy number two said, it's surprising to think of how broad the semantic field of a single name could be.

"Really?!"Lucinda said with the sun, moon, planets, natural and artificial satellites and basically the entire solar system in her eyes,"As amazing as you are?!"

"Ehe, not that good yet, but you're getting there...and I would have already advanced past there by then so, keep practicing."

Lucille gently nudged her forward and she slowly moved her shivering feet forward, then heard someone chant her name and looked back to see her mother, then father, then soon, everyone in the entire restaurant was cheering with their hands in the air like they just don't care.

A wide space was cleared out for her as Lucille gave the DJ a specific song to play, then being given the microphone, she began to sing, while Lucinda danced...and I was like, what?!

Her dance was something straight out of a futuristic movie, with ballet, flamingo, guara guara, shaku shaku, and even... breakdancing within her form.

The entire hall went into a roar of cheers as the seven year old child started making the professional dancers jealous.

When she was done, she came to the six of us, a lot bolder as Lucille walked Junior towards us, Lucy squealed and talked about how proud she was, while squeezing the life out of her, when Luis spoke with unfathomable impression and surprise, saying,"You were awesome kid!"

"She learned from the best."Lucille said, right before Lucinda hugged her legs tightly, as that was as high as she could get.

I then asked,"I thought you only watched her in secret, how did you teach her?"

"I watch her dance videos on Tik tok."Lucinda said.

I squinted my eyes and disappeared into the crowd, yanking out my phone and searching all the possible spellings of that made up word like lightning, and the moment I found it, Ruby calmly snatched my phone and flung it over the balcony.

I was about to open my mouth when she simply raised her fist and I fell silent.

After the day was over, we dropped off Ruby and Mack back at the hospital with supplies, then left.

Looking at their first baby, Ruby couldn't hide her tears, seeing that in a few months, her baby will be in her arms.

"Blair Rose."Ruby spoke.

"What?"

"That's what I want to name her, Clancy Blair Rose Song."

"What does Clancy mean?"

"Red, Red Blair Rose."

He smiled then said,"Clancy Blair Rose Song it is in that case."

Back at my home, I hugged Rose and carried her from the back as she laughed then plopped her on the couch, then began to unclip my belt.

I came closer to her then crawled over her as she smiled, then kissed me on the lips.

We crashed on the wall as her held her hands and kissed her passionately on her soft and kissable lips, as I savoured every moment of it.

She held my head then pulled back and looked into my eyes with her beautiful, almost tear filled eyes as I said,"I love you Rose, more than anyone or anything."

"Now I know for sure that you do."

I slowly kissed her again and swept her off her feet as she giggled then carried her up the stairs.

Putting her on the bed, I tried to clarify something,"Could we wait a little longer?"

She had a strange expression on her face as I waved my hands and said,"No, no, no, I don't mean in anyway that I don't want sex, I mean, why did I marry you in that case?!"

She arched a brow, already knowing I was nervous and I immediately realized what I just said then replied,"No, no, no, I married you because I loved you, I mean, I wouldn't marry you if I wasn't ready for the tango I just...ugh, I don't want any kids yet."

"Okay."She shrugged.

"I know, I know, you want to go through the rose hip stage and...wait, you're okay with it?"

"I'm fine, I already have all the man I need."She said, lining my chest.

I smirked then kissed her again...

I wasn't able to sleep that night after all that excitement, adrenaline coursing through my veins, I looked at Rose, who was fast asleep, knowing she was a relatively light sleeper, I silently got off the bed and put on some clothes, then went into the empty closet in the next room, what I liked to call my ' inner room '.

I then went on my knees and began to pray, for Rose, for Ruby, Mack and their baby, for Lucy, Luis and their family, for the church leader, president, mayor, everyone, including and with great emphasis –Mr Welshes.

I prayed twelve times, with that man's name dominant on my lips and the last three prayers being only about him, after, I got up and went back to bed, feeling a peace and tranquility I didn't have before, one which gave me the power to sleep soundly...

A few minutes earlier...

Mr Welshes lay on his bed, then his perfect face grimaced and cringed, as he turned and groaned.

In a few seconds, he began sweating profusely and and veins were popping up all over his neck and face.

He immediately yelled in anguish and woke up, holding his head in pain, he yelled as a black vapour coursed through his veins and poured out of his orifices.

He immediately shut his jaws, hard enough for a loud click to be heard.

He crashed around the room, breaking everything in his path as Anput came closer and asked what was wrong, he then yelled,"Get out!"

"Jonathan..."

"I said get out!!"He yelled again.

She looked at him, hurt and confused, then left.

Mr Welshes yelled again,"Leave me alone, it's not yet time!"

His voice morphed into a mixture of high and low pitched moans as he banged his head, hard on the wall, cracking it.

He kept bashing his head, yelling for someone to stay back, then finally stopped and fell backwards.

Wiping blood from his nostrils, he frowned and got up, then said,"So you want to fight dirty..."

***

"Ugh, come on!"Thomasina yelled.

She kept screaming at the miniscule, multicoloured cube in her hand till Luis asked,"May I give it a try?"

"Sure, knock yourself out."She said sarcastically.

He took it and there were quick clicks lasting barely five seconds before he poked it on her cheeks.

She looked back at him and dropped her jaw, frowned and said,"You just reassembled it."

"Then that would take even longer, this is what I used to train my gun slinging skills."

Her eyes widened by thirty percent as she screamed and yelled,"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Markella! I won the bet!!"

Luis looked at her as she stretched her arm and her sister, surprised and suspicious, but defeated just the same, placed a fifty dollar bill in her hand, Luis having no idea where she got that kind of money.

Thomasina happily skipped away and Luis took the box from Markella, disassembled it and reassembled it in seven seconds then gave it back to her.

She gasped then said,"You did it for her!"

"Yup, and keep this between us friends, okay?"He said, slipping a five hundred dollar bill into her pocket.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Lou."

He frowned at her as she skipped away, not because she called him by his first name, but because she called him by such a demeaning one.