Sons of the Mesa.

[Soapy]

Season 2, Episode 1
The clippers caught on a patch of stubble behind his jaw and Delvin tilted his chin up to get at it.

Through the open bathroom door he could hear Kayla at the kitchen table, a conveyor belt of sounds coming from her phone. He ran the clippers up the side of his head and watched the hair fall into the sink in clumps.

From the bedroom down the hall, Arianna’s voice. Micah’s voice answered.

He rinsed the clippers under the tap and set them on the edge of the sink. The mirror showed him his face without the beard. He dried his hands on the towel and stepped out into the hallway.

Kayla didn’t look up from her phone.

“I don’t feel good,” Arianna said.

“Where doesn’t feel good?”

“My stomach.”

Delvin leaned against the doorframe. Arianna was standing near the closet door with her arms crossed over her chest. She had one shoe on. The other was in Micah’s hand.

Micah crouched down in front of her. He set the shoe on the floor between them and looked at her face. He didn’t reach for her.

“You don’t have to feel good to go,” he said.

Arianna’s lower lip pushed out.

“Sometimes we do things that are hard,” Micah said. “That’s okay.”

“I don’t want to.”

“I know.”

She looked at the floor. Micah waited. The house was quiet except for the sound from Kayla’s phone in the kitchen.

“Being scared doesn’t mean you can’t do something,” he said.

Arianna didn’t answer. She uncrossed her arms and let them hang at her sides. Micah picked up the shoe and held it out. She lifted her foot and he put it on her. He tied the laces in two loops and tucked the ends in.

Delvin pushed off the doorframe. “Let’s get going."

Micah stood up. He put his hand on top of Arianna’s head and then let it drop. She didn’t move from the spot by the closet door but she didn’t say anything else either.

The house was the same as it had been the last time. White stucco, a chain-link fence. Kelvin’s blue truck was parked out front.

Delvin pulled in behind it and cut the engine. The truck ticked.

Arianna took her thumb out of her mouth. She didn’t move.

“Come on,” Micah said.

She unbuckled herself and slid across the seat. Micah opened the door and stepped down and she followed, one hand on his belt loop. Kayla got out on the other side. Delvin was already at the gate.

The front door opened before they reached it. Lena’s mother stood in the doorway. She was small and her hair was pulled back. She smiled and held the screen door open with her hip.

“Come in, come in,” she said.

The house was cool inside. The living room had a couch and two armchairs and a coffee table with a bowl of fruit on it. Kelvin was sitting in one of the armchairs with Lena’s father. He stood when they came in.

“Ari,” he said.

Arianna let go of Micah’s belt loop and went to him. Kelvin crouched and she walked into his arms and he picked her up and held her against his chest. She put her face in his neck.

Lena’s mother touched Micah’s arm. “Look at you,” she said. “You got so big.”

He nodded.

A woman came in from the kitchen. Micah recognized her as Lena’s sister. She looked at him and her eyes went wide.

“Micah? That’s Micah? Oh my God.”

He smiled.

“You were this tall last time,” she said, holding her hand at her chest. “Now you’re—” She looked up at him.

He smiled.

Delvin stood beside him.

Arianna was still in Kelvin’s arms. Lena’s mother reached for her and Arianna turned her face further into Kelvin’s neck. Kelvin said something quiet to her and she shook her head.

“She’s shy today,” Kelvin said.

“That’s okay,” Lena’s mother said. “She can take her time.”

Lena’s sister was still looking at Micah. “How old are you now? Sixteen?”

“Turned seventeen last month.”

“Seventeen. You’re going to be a giant.”

He nodded again. The moment passed. She turned to Kayla and asked her something about school and Kayla answered in a low voice.

Delvin looked at Micah. Micah looked back. Delvin tilted his head toward the hallway.

They went together. Kelvin carried Arianna. Kayla followed. Lena’s mother walked ahead of them and opened the door at the end of the hall.

The room was small. The bed was against the far wall, the kind that could be raised and lowered. A wheelchair was folded near the window. A television was on low on a shelf, showing something with no sound. On the dresser there were photographs in frames. One of them was Arianna as a baby, held in someone’s arms.

Lena was in the bed. Her head was turned toward the wall. When the door opened she turned it toward them.

Something moved in her face. Not a smile. Her eyes found the door and held there. Her mouth opened and closed.

Kelvin set Arianna down. He went to the bed first. He took Lena’s hand and sat on the edge of the mattress. He leaned close to her ear and said something Micah couldn’t hear.

Lena made a sound. It was low and rough. It might have been his name. Her fingers moved against his.

Arianna stopped in the doorway. She looked at the bed and her body went still. Her shoulders went up near her ears. She turned her head to the side and looked at the wall.

Micah stood behind her. He put his hands on her shoulders. They were small under his palms. He turned her gently back toward the room. She didn’t resist. She let him turn her.

Kayla stepped forward. She took Arianna’s hand. Arianna looked up at her and Kayla nodded once. They walked together to the side of the bed. Micah followed and stood behind them.

Lena’s eyes found Arianna. They held. Her mouth moved. Then her eyes drifted past her, toward the window, toward the folded wheelchair, toward nothing.

The room was quiet. The television flickered without sound. Kelvin held Lena’s hand and didn’t speak. Arianna stood at the edge of the bed with Kayla’s hand in hers and looked at her mother’s face and didn’t move.

Micah stood behind them and watched the room and didn’t say anything either.

The music was loud enough to feel in the floorboards. Jace stood in the kitchen with a beer in his hand and watched Marissa laugh at something Carlos said.

“Pass me one,” he said.

Carlos reached into the cooler and handed him a second beer without looking. The kitchen was crowded.

Marissa caught his eye and held it for a beat longer than she needed to. He took a drink.

“Good week,” Carlos said.

“Great week.”

"How’d you do on the practical?"

“This shit ain’t too hard. Not really. Not once you get used to it."

They tapped bottles. Carlos moved past him toward the living room where someone was telling a story with their hands. Jace leaned against the counter and let the noise move around him.

Marissa was still in the kitchen. She was talking to someone he didn’t know. She glanced at him again and this time she smiled.

He smiled back.

The party had started around eight. One of the trainees’ parents had a house in Winslow and they’d made plans, mid-week, to end the week with a little get-together off the res. The backyard was full now. People were sitting on the steps and on the hood of someone’s car and someone had lit a fire in a barrel.

Jace finished his beer and set the bottle on the counter. Marissa was watching him.

“Want another?” she said.

“Sure.”

She opened the cooler and pulled out two. She handed him one and kept one for herself. Their fingers touched on the bottle and she didn’t pull hers back right away.

“Good job on the practical,” she said.

“You too. I was telling Carlos that this shit ain’t that hard once you get used to it.”

“I guess you could say that about anything."

"I do."

She laughed. The sound was close to his ear because the kitchen was crowded and she’d stepped in to be heard.

She leaned close enough that he could hear her over the music. "Come on," she said, and turned without waiting for an answer.

He followed her through the living room, past the people dancing, down a hallway where someone had left a jacket on the floor. She opened a door. Bathroom. Small. A towel on the rack, a toothbrush in a cup.

She pulled him in and pushed the door shut behind them. The music dropped to a muffled thud through the wall.

She set her beer on the edge of the sink. He set his next to it. He put his hands on her waist. She stepped into him and his back hit the door.

She laughed.

"Quiet," he said.

"You hit the door."

"The door was there."

She kissed him. He pulled her closer. She reached back without looking and turned the lock. The click was small under the music.

The highway was black ahead of them. Micah kept his hands at ten and two and watched the headlights cut a narrow path through the dark. The truck ran steady under him. The radio was off. The only sound was the road and the engine.

Arianna was asleep in the back seat with her head against the window. Her mouth was open a little. Kayla slept beside her with her chin on her chest, her phone still in her hand, the screen dark.

Delvin hadn’t spoken in a while. He sat with his elbow on the door and his hand near his jaw.

“When’s the last time you were at your mother’s house?” Delvin asked.

Micah shrugged. The steering wheel turned a degree and came back.

"Didn’t she want you to come over for dinner or something? I remember you asking me."

"Yeah," Micah scoffed, "That was like two years ago."

"I had told you that you could go."

Micah stayed quiet.

"Said you could take the truck."

"I don’t know," he shrugged again, "I guess nothing came of it."

Delvin was quiet again. The highway ran straight for a stretch and then curved gently to the left. Micah eased the wheel. The tires whispered on the asphalt.

“That’s still your mother,” Delvin said.

The words sat in the cab between them and the truck kept moving and Micah didn’t answer.

The mesas were out there somewhere in the dark on either side. He couldn’t see them but he knew they were there. The headlights didn’t reach that far. They only reached what was directly ahead, and what was directly ahead was the road, and the road kept going.

[Captain Canada]

Jace getting caught up in some cat perfectly aligns with his trajectory at the moment.

Micah seems primed for an implosion dealing with all this pressure from the get-go.

[Caesar]

Arianna stood at the edge of the bed with Kayla’s hand in hers and looked at her mother’s face and didn’t move.

This why I name every character because I'm confused if Lena was looking at "Lena's mother" or Arianna was looking at Lena So Lena is Arianna's mother? Making her Micah and them's cousin?

Jace a dirty fella.

[redsox907]

Jace stay fiending. Got a feeling he gonna get into some problems eventually

Micah one of them strong silent types eh. Until S3 when he crying in some pussy

[Soapy]

Jace getting caught up in some cat perfectly aligns with his trajectory at the moment.

Micah seems primed for an implosion dealing with all this pressure from the get-go.

nothing wrong with some milk and cookies

Arianna stood at the edge of the bed with Kayla’s hand in hers and looked at her mother’s face and didn’t move.

This why I name every character because I'm confused if Lena was looking at "Lena's mother" or Arianna was looking at Lena So Lena is Arianna's mother? Making her Micah and them's cousin?

Jace a dirty fella.

my bad yeah, Lena is Arianna's mom

Jace stay fiending. Got a feeling he gonna get into some problems eventually

Micah one of them strong silent types eh. Until S3 when he crying in some pussy

#thecaesardeluxe

[Soapy]

Season 2, Episode 2
Micah was not last.

That was the whole of it. He crossed the line and put his hands on his knees and let his lungs do what they needed to do. Darius was still running. So was Big T. Micah straightened up and wiped his forehead with the back of his wrist and watched them finish.

The sun was straight overhead and the track surface held the heat and sent it back up. He could feel it through the soles of his cleats.

Coach blew the whistle twice.

Micah walked to the infield and found his water bottle in the grass and drank from it without stopping. He’d run with the mids group for the third week running.

He capped the bottle and fell in with the group moving toward the building.

The weight room was cool compared to outside. Kele was already standing at the front when they came in, a towel around his neck. He waited until they were all in and then he looked around the room.

“Bring it in,” he said.

They gathered. Micah stood near the back. The room smelled like rubber and dried sweat.

Kele kept it short. He talked about finishing. He talked about what six weeks of this looked like in the fall. He said a few things about the kind of team they wanted to be and then he put his fist out and they broke it down and the sound bounced off the cinder block walls and was gone.

Micah was pulling his shirt away from his chest when Coach Sau stepped beside him.

“Stay back a minute,” Sau said. He was already moving toward the hallway.

Micah followed him.

Sau’s office was small. A desk, two chairs, a whiteboard on the wall with roster notations that had been partially erased. Sau closed the door behind them and went around the desk and sat. He didn’t gesture to the other chair so Micah stood.

“Semester starts in six weeks,” Sau said.

“Yes sir.”

“Contact period starts September 1st. Coaches can come out here. See you in person.” He put both hands flat on the desk. “When they do, the first thing they’re going to ask me about is what they already saw on film. You know what the second thing is.”

Micah waited.

“Grades. Test scores. Whether you’re going to be eligible and whether you’re going to qualify.” Sau looked at him. “You need to have that in order.”

“Yes sir.”

“You need to take the ACT.”

Micah nodded.

“I’m telling you again,” Sau said. “You need to take the ACT. There’s no way around it so there’s no point in delaying it.”

The room was quiet.

“I know testing can be hard for you,” Sau said. “You’re not the first kid I’ve had in here who’s a poor test taker. You won’t be the last. But there are resources. Alright? There are people and programs and things out there that can help you prepare for this. I need you to exhaust all of them.”

He paused. “Every single one.”

Micah looked at the whiteboard. His name was on it, up near the top of one of the columns.

“You hear me?”

“Yes sir.”

“Don’t nod at me and then go home and do nothing about it for three weeks.”

“I won’t.”

Sau studied him for a moment. Then he leaned back in his chair. “That’s all I’ve got.”

Micah took that as the end of it. He reached for the door handle.

“Micah.”

He stopped.

“You had a good day out there.”

He nodded once. “Thank you, Coach.”

He opened the door and went out into the hallway.

The classroom had about twenty chairs in it and most of them were still empty. People stood in loose groups near the windows and along the back wall, coffee cups and phones in hand, not quite ready to sit down yet.

“You’re saying it wrong,” Carlos said.

“I’m saying it exactly right,” Jace said.

“Say it again.”

“Subcutaneous.”

Carlos shook his head slowly. Two of the others laughed.

Across the room Marissa was talking to a woman named Deb, who was older and had been a CRNA somewhere before this. Marissa was nodding at whatever Deb was saying but her eyes moved to Jace for a second and then back to Deb.

Jace looked at Carlos. “Am I saying it wrong?”

“You’re saying it confidently wrong, which is worse.”

“I’ll take confident over correct any day.”

He glanced back across the room. Marissa wasn’t looking at him now. She had her head tilted toward Deb and was asking something.

He drifted over toward the window where a guy named Terrence was standing with his arms crossed, looking at his phone.

“You study the chapter?” Jace asked.

“Some of it.”

“What that mean?"

“Enough to know I should’ve studied more.”

Terrence laughed and put his phone in his pocket. They talked for a minute about the practicals, about the one coming up at the end of the month. Jace had his coffee cup in one hand and he leaned against the wall.

Marissa came over. She stepped past Terrence to get to the window and glanced at Jace on the way.

“Subcutaneous,” she said.

Jace pointed at Carlos across the room. “Tell him.”

She smiled. “You’re both wrong.”

“Now wait a minute.”

She said the word again, slower, with the emphasis in a different place. Terrence nodded. Jace watched her say it.

“I stand corrected,” he finally said, holding his hands up, "This is like an historic moment in time honestly."

She laughed.

At the front of the room, the instructor set a folder on the table and pulled the whiteboard around. People started finding chairs.

Marissa looked at the front of the room and then at the chair beside him.

He pulled it out slightly with his foot.

She sat down. He sat next to her. She opened her notebook to a fresh page and uncapped her pen. He took out his folder and found a blank sheet inside it.

The instructor said good afternoon and the room settled and class began.

Micah set the plates in the sink and ran the water. Behind him he could hear the scrape of Jace’s fork.

“Kele told me about an ACT prep course,” Micah said. He kept his eyes on the water filling the basin. “At the school. Said he took it earlier this year.”

Delvin took a sip of his coffee.

“They got two sessions during the week. Before school and after. Six in the morning before, and then one after.” He picked up the first plate and worked the sponge around it. “With practice I’d have to do the morning one. They also got Saturdays.”

Delvin nodded.

"I was thinking of going. Coach was saying how I need to take my ACT before any coaches really start talking to me."

Delvin shrugged, "Take care of your business then."

Micah nodded at the sink.

“Miss Cordova still teach that?” Jace chimed in.

“Yeah.”

Jace laughed. "I’d be at all three classes then."

Micah almost said something. He let it go.

The kitchen was quiet for a stretch. Water ran over the plates and Micah stacked them on the rack.

“DeLuca talked to me today,” Delvin said.

Jace’s fork stopped. “I already gave him my training schedule last week. He knew I was out today, I sent that to him before—”

“It’s not about that.”

Micah set the last plate on the rack and turned the water down but didn’t turn it off.

“Site’s closing,” Delvin said. “End of September.”

The fork moved again. Jace picked up his glass and drank from it and set it back down. The ice shifted.

“Free from your shackles soon,” Delvin said with a wry chuckle.

Jace kept eating. He didn’t look up from his plate. His jaw worked and he reached for a piece of bread on the side and tore it without looking at it and didn’t say anything at all.

Micah turned the water off. He dried his hands on the dish towel and hung it back on the oven handle and went down the hall toward his room.

[Captain Canada]

Don't tell me Micah one of them folks that has to count with his fingers, gang

[Caesar]

“I know testing can be hard for you,” Sau said. “You’re not the first kid I’ve had in here who’s a poor test taker. You won’t be the last. But there are resources. Alright? There are people and programs and things out there that can help you prepare for this. I need you to exhaust all of them.”

Micah:

They all better learn some new skills, fn

[redsox907]

Caes writes autistic people and soapy writes dumb ones? First Brice, now Micah?

surprised pops is so easy going with the boys wanting to branch out. But seems like he understands the life isn't for everyone. hm