Page 15 of Finding Love in the Clouds

Sophie reached over the divider and grasped Fernando’s hand. “Just like a roller coaster, remember? Sip some of your drink so it doesn’t spill, and I would hold onto your glass if you don’t want to wear it,” she suggested.

Fernando did as told and quickly gulped his orange juice down and took a large sip of coffee, burning his tongue in the process. He had just sat the ceramic coffee cup back down on his table when the plane began to shake minutely.

“A bit like a massage chair, right?” Sophie asked, trying to lighten the situation.

“I have never been in a massage chair that rattled the cutlery,” Fernando quipped but was doing okay even if his heart had picked up speed.

As the turbulence increased and the plane shook more intensely, the grip on Sophie’s hand increased as well. He was doing well andmentally congratulating himself on keeping his composure until the plane suddenly dropped, and he let out a yelp of surprise. If his brothers were present, he would blame it on the hot coffee that spilled on his hand, but Sophie felt the fear in his grasp and would never buy that excuse.

Within moments, the plane was back in calmer air and once again flying smoothly.

“Sorry about that, folks. That was a little rougher than we anticipated. Not to worry, we are above it now and should have a smooth flight all the way to Rome,” the captain announced. “Just to be safe, we will keep the fasten seatbelt sign on and would appreciate it if you would keep travel about the aircraft to a minimum for the remainder of the flight. Thank you.”

“Well, now you know what turbulence feels like, and we are all still in one piece. To be honest, the little shakes that happened first are totally normal, and you get a little of that just about every flight, just like the captain said about bumpy roads. Once you fly a few times, you don’t even really think about it, much like in a car. The big drop... I have only experienced that one other time. Still, the pilot was in control. My fingers are a little mashed but not broken, so I think you did okay. What do you think? Do you think you can handle more flights?”

“Let’s just say I’m not as terrified as I was when we boarded. The flight has been good up until just now. I’m willing to try the return flight. Then we will see how often you are going to get me on a plane once we return to California,” he admitted.

“Do you think you can at least consider a few flights a year home to see your family?” Sophie asked hopefully.

“Definitely. And I will be sure to give Julio a great, big hug the next time I see him for forcing me to face this fear. I can’t believe I havebeen such a baby about this all these years. My brothers must be totally flabbergasted by my stubbornness,” Fernando said ruefully.

“Perhaps, but as you said, they all have fears they have been allowing to hold them back. This challenge wasn’t just for you. So tell me, how did your New Year’s Eve brotherhood pact tradition get started anyway? It’s rather unusual but cool.”

Fernando finished his meal and handed his dirty dishes to the stewardess before pushing his table out of the way and turning in his seat the best he could to face Sophie.

“It was my idea, actually, and pretty ingenious if I do say so myself,” he blew on his fingernails and rubbed them on the front of his shirt in a snobbish congratulatory move that made her chuckle at his feigned arrogance.

“Enrique arrived at the boy’s home Julio, Gabe, and I were in when he was ten. He was tough as nails and mean. He kept getting into trouble—I mean, big trouble. One day, he got a particularly bad beating from the other boys. The whole situation had been escalating for months. The three of us had been talking about whether or not to intervene since our little brotherhood had the biggest kid, Gabe, the meanest kid, Julio, and the smartest kid, me, in the home. After that incident, when they nearly killed him, we voted to make him one of our brothers and took him in. He didn’t make it easy; he didn’t want any part of our merry little band of misfits, but the nuns and priest saw the benefit to the situation and happily handed him over to us.”

Chapter Fifteen

Fernando paused as the stewardess removed Sophie’s breakfast items and she turned in her seat to mirror him.

“How did that lead to the pacts?”

“It took us months to get him to see there were other options than fighting everyone all the time. Revenge and retribution were the only languages he spoke. He was constantly pushing Julio’s buttons and scrapping with him. This one time, I let them go, thinking they would get it out of their system once and for all, but then Gabe and I realized they were like caged animals and were going to fight to the death. Gabe broke them up, and Julio was able to walk away, but Enrique just kept swinging. Gabe had to literally sit on him to keep him down, and he stayed there for over an hour. By this point, the staff was trying to get me to give him up and walk away. ‘He is bad through and through,’they said. ‘He is going to ruin your reputation and make you even more unadoptable.’ Yada, yada. I wasn’t going to do it. Once you’re in my family, you’re in. But, by this point, the boys and I had been picked up and questioned by the police at least three times in association withlocal robberies they assumed Enrique had pulled, and as his found brothers, we had to be accomplices. Things were tough.”

“Did he do it? Did he rob the locals?” Sophie asked, astonished at the young man the Enrique she knew had been.

“Maybe when he first arrived, though I personally doubt it. He was too busy getting the lay of the land, and he got his first whipping for theft after only a week in the home. He is more careful than that. I know he didn’t pull any jobs after we took him into the family. He was never alone for that very reason. We told him we had his back, and we meant it. That meant protecting him from the darkness outside and within.”

Fernando ran his hands through his hair several times, then leaned back, staring off, getting lost in the memories.

“I bit off more than I could chew with Enrique. He was a tougher nut to crack than Julio, and I thought Julio was nearly impossible after months of getting bullied by him. I was wrong. If Julio was a coconut and needed two hundred pounds of pressure applied strategically to his weak spot, then Enrique was a Brazil Nut with two layers of hard outer shell that was never going to be pounded into submission. Life had already tried, and he was still walking. If it hadn’t been for Dad McKenzie, I don’t know what I would have done. I don’t think Enrique would be a free man today, that’s for sure.”

“How did Colin help? I mean, I know about the Saturday sign-outs and the pancake breakfasts at the firehouse, but how did he help you save Enrique?”

“He gave me a safe space to vent. Encouraged me not to give up. He and the other firefighters offered us a safe place to go, away from the boy’s home, to see what real men were like. How they interacted with each other. I don’t think Enrique had ever seen men of genuine character until Colin and the guys started picking him up. The firefighterslaughed and joked, pushed and shoved but didn’t actually fight. They snuck each other’s food and played pranks on each other without real retribution. There was this one time when Greg, a skinny fireman, swapped out the sugar in the coffee station for salt. The captain of the squad came up and mixed his coffee with it. Everyone knew he had a massive sweet tooth and took a hint of coffee with his sugar. Enrique watched in rapt attention as he took that first sip and spewed it all over the floor. You could see it on his face that he thought there would be a fight and was totally confused when the captain laughed it off and mopped up the floor himself. Later that day, he said he would have busted some heads for that, but Colin said, “Nah, Cap. can take a joke. It was all in good fun. If you bust knuckles every time someone plays around with you, you won’t ever have any friends or fun. You have to know when to laugh, cry, and fight. Save the fighting for when you or your loved one is in danger, and life will be much more enjoyable.” He dropped that little nugget on his van full of orphans like it was a comment about the weather. He never lectured or yelled; he just dropped wisdom on us knowing that some would sink in, and some would bounce off. Anyway, one of those nuggets of wisdom was to observe Enrique as closely as he observed us and find his weakness. It didn’t take long to figure out it was backing down from a challenge. It was getting him and us into plenty of trouble, so we decided to use it in his favor. We started challenging him to do the right thing. It was my idea, but to be honest, I stunk at it. Julio, on the other hand, could push his buttons like no one else. Enrique looked up to him, sort of. If Julio challenged him not to fight a kid, Enrique walked away. He had to prove that he was just as strong as Julio, and if Julio wasn’t fighting a blockhead trying to stir up trouble, then Enrique was strong enough to walk away, too. It felt like years, but it was closer to six monthswhen he saw that the positive challenges we were posing were actually making him better, and he started to come around.”

“How did that lead to annual pacts to buy Rolex watches and face your fears while going on adventures?” Sophie asked, trying to see the bigger picture but still unable to connect the dots.

“When Enrique was twelve, he and I were headed off to middle school. It was a new school, new kids, a fresh start, and he wanted to make a good impression. The charity bins were pulled out for us to pick through and select our new clothes. It was a pretty poor selection that year. The firefighters usually chipped in to buy us a new set of clothes, but there had been some restructuring at the firehouse, and the new folks weren’t as invested as the older members of Dad McKenzie’s squad. And the number of my little family kept growing. By this point, there were five of us in the Bad Boys Club, ranging from eleven to sixteen. Gabe and Anthony had jobs at Chuckles Chicken, a fast-food restaurant in the town. But, the men would never have purchased something for just three of us and not all five, even though the older brothers would have been totally fine with it, and it would have saved us all a lot of heartache in the end. Three days before school starts, we ride the bus to the local mall and hang out. Anthony and Gabe pay for the fair and get us snacks from the food court. We walk through some of the stores, even try on some clothes just for kicks, but never buy anything because it is way out of our price range. We made plans to walk from the mall to the Goodwill a mile or so down the road to look for some clothes there. The boys and I have often wondered why we didn’t head straight there from the bus. God works in mysterious ways, I guess. Before we can collect Enrique and leave, he’s arrested for shoplifting an entire set of new clothes: a shirt, pants, socks, shoes, a belt, and even a flat-billed cap. The total for that outfit was almost seven hundred dollars. The authorities had beenwanting him for a while, so they threw the book at him—six months in juvenile detention and a year of probation. When he finally got out and rejoined the family, I posed the first pact: everyone promised to stop criminal activity, stay out of jail, and work to repair the family’s reputation. It was for everyone, but Enrique knew it was to help keep him straight. And just like that, the BBC pacts began. Sometimes, they seem trivial, but they are to help us grow and become better people. To show the world we are more than they thought we could be.”

The captain announced the final descent into Rome, so the conversation came to an end.

“Don’t think you are done telling me about this. I want the scoop on all the pacts. Especially the one that led you to the Rolex store and me,” Sophie said with a wink as she stowed her things and sat up straight in her seat, preparing for landing. To her surprise, Fernando reached over and held her hand, entwining their fingers.

“I don’t believe in luck, but holding your hand has kept me calm thus far, so why stop now? And I’m enjoying holding my girlfriend’s hand. How is it working for you, honestly?” Fernando’s heart was racing; he was going to blame it on the plane’s impending landing and not the possible rejection he had just set himself up for.

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