The M.I.L.F. Man

A body can only stand so much

I started pacing back and forth like a zoo animal gone stir crazy. "Chastain, what are you—wait!"

I ran to shut the parlor door so his father, Clemmie and Madame Claire couldn't eavesdrop—the in-laws were the big surprise she'd sprung on me.

But the real surprise was that Chas hadn't flown up with them.

I leaned back against the door I'd closed and said, "Okay, talk to me! What's going on?"

"I'm in Nogales," he said. "There was a huge swarm of asylum seekers at the crossing. So the university sent out a distress call to all the students who'd previously--"

"I know! Guy told me. But I mean--look, hang up! I'm gonna Duo you."

"Cielo, I don't have--"

I screamed, "Do it," in this wild, "at the end of my rope" voice that probably scared him into doing what I said.

But seeing that cover boy face on the screen sent me off in so many directions emotionally that I covered my eyes and moaned, "Ohhh my God..."

And his anxious, "What's happening? Are you all right?" almost killed me.

I sputtered out something like, "Don't--it's nothing. I'm fine." And forced myself to look at him again...

His eyes took a quick scan; he wasn't buying "fine." "We want you to see a doctor, Cielo. You lost a lot of bl--"

"Why does your voice sound—I don't know this voice."

He turned and started walking suddenly--he was outside. Lots of traffic noise and voices...

"It's just such an unholy mess here. We've got hordes of people on the Mexican side trying to fight their way through—they detoured from another crossing where they'd called out the National Guard or something. May have been more rumor than fact, but they veered this way and now there are all these cops and Border Patrol agents—militia people, too. Lots of camo and guns and 'Build the Wall' banners. Powder keg situation, this."

"Why are you there?!"

"Why are you there?"

I shuddered when he snapped right back at me. His eyes were hard, relentless...

So I slumped down onto the big Persian rug and sat there for a long time, biting the inside of my mouth, watching him stare off into the distance like he wanted to be anywhere but there, talking to me...

And then he gave me those blues full on. No mercy. "Don't be angry with Madame Claire. She wanted us to know you were--are you listening?"

"Yes! I hear you."

"Well, they'll take turns driving on the way back so you can just...rest."

"Your mother's still pissed at me, right?"

"She's very volatile, Ma Mere. You know that."

"And she thinks, what? That I abandoned you?"

"I think everyone felt that to some degree. That you'd—"

"Is Lupita all pissed off, too?"

"Cielo, I can't...I really should go back. This is...they're swamped down there."

I fell backwards onto the carpet, forgetting it was covering a hardwood floor that would hurt when I hit. But when I croaked "God, everything's just...falling apart," he sighed and said, "Don't say that," in a better voice. A softer voice that let me breathe a little easier.