Page 14 of Half Blind

Micah held up his palms to show off the callouses he’d earned living on a working farm. “Rich men’s hands don’t look like mine.”

Ayanna asked, “Is she your girlfriend. I see how she’s always sitting between us and you.”

“She is my friend,” he answered.

“Does she know that?” Ayanna replied. Helen, hearing the conversation, was pleased to announce dinner was ready. Micah rose first, allowing the ladies to enter the dining area ahead of him. He intentionally placed himself between Alita and Lemon at the dinner table, his eyes directly on Jared.

It was Helen who began to notice the twitching movements of the young man. Each time he moved, the subtle shifts soon became not so subtle as his face showed discomfort. She arched an eyebrow, which he acknowledged.

“Nighttime is the worst,” he said in the Texas accent. “I have,the itchy.”

“Are you allergic to something I cooked? I’m so sorry I didn’t ask since you requested the meal,” she told him.

“No, not the food,” Micah said. “My tattoo is fresh. The pigments in the dyes are intense. The color is deep in the dermis of the skin to ensure the saturation is lifelong. It isthe itchy.”

Helen asked, “Do you have something to put on it?”

“I do,si,” he said, losing the Texas accent in the bout of his discomfort. “It is,the stinky. I do not wish to use it, to smell up the house.”

Lemon replied, “I may have something to help if you want it.”

“Por favor, this isthe misery,” he said, looking at her with the eyes of a child wanting help.

Ayanna, who seemed totally enamored of all things Micah Delgado, asked, “Can I see your tattoo?”

“It would be inappropriate,” he said. “I would have to partially disrobe.”

Ayanna wasn’t ready to let go, “You have to disrobe anyway to put on the cream she’s going to give you. Are you putting it on yourself?”

“Alita will apply the cream,” he said, closing his eyes as he moved his shoulders.

Bria spoke up, “I want to see it too. Can you show us, please?”

Lemon returned with a large jar of a mixture she’d made herself in the lab for eczema. She passed it to Micah, who looked at Jared, who held out his hands as if he were saying, why the hell not. Quickly, Micah yanked the shirt out of the neatly buckled pants, passing to cream to Alita. He unbuttoned his shirt in haste, exposing the brown skin as the head of the serpent began to appear. The more the snake appeared with the removal of clothing, the larger Jared’s eyes became.

“Is that a Fer de Lance?” Jared asked, drawing back in shock.

“No, it is the Colombian Bushmaster,” Micah replied, maintaining eye contact as he said the next words. “The Fer de Lance is my father.”

The cup Jared was holding eased its way onto the table. Jared’s eyes went to Lemon, who sat almost in shock at the revelation of who was in her home eating dinner with her wards and talking about colleges. Helen did not know who or what had entered Lemon’s home, but based on the tattoo, he was dangerous. She looked up as Ayanna’s fingers were reaching to touch Micah’s skin. Helen grabbed her hand.

“Baby, they look like regular teens, but that tattoo says otherwise. If you touch him, his friend will more than likely cut off your fingers,” Helen said.

Alita, who carefully measured her words thus far spoke softly, “I would not hurt her; however, I would not allow her to physically make contact with his person.”

“So, you’re what, like his bodyguard or something?” Ayanna asked, adding attitude and sounding like a smartass.

Alita, with a spark in her eyes, replied in her normal voice, dropping the Texas accent, “No, I am his personal assassin. You touch; I kill. Heno likeyou, I kill. If dinner makes him ill... you get the picture.”

“Hey, you have an accent!” Bria said noticing the change in Alita’s speech, but making no comment on Micah’s loss of the Texas twang.

Jared didn’t like the girl’s sense of humor. “Not funny Alita, but are we safe with you being here?”

Micah, in a bit of nirvana with the cream being lathered on his body, sighed. “No, for this cream, I shall be forever in the lady’s debt. She has made a friend in me.”

The uneasiness Jared felt with the young man didn’t leave him. He had sisters. A potentially deadly creature had entered the house creating a potential situation which would be costly. “That’s not what I meant. Are the girls...I hate to ask, but I must.”

Micah looked up and made eye contact with him. “I have no interest in children and do not desire one in my bed; to me, they are children.”

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