Bartender! Another Insult, Please! Part 9

Beckett Reed and Samiyo Datoru

Original Characters 

Written by Snarks 

Beginning March 2014

I was surprised when the phone rang again later that morning and smiled when I saw the number on the caller ID. I looked at my watch and frowned. Shouldn't the boy be in school by now? I wondered.  Shrugging the question off, for the time being, I picked up the phone.

"Hello again, Kanonu," I greeted cheerfully.

At first, I wondered at the silence on the other end, and that was when I heard the voice I most wanted to hear.  "Hello, Beck," Sam said quietly.

"Sami," I replied, feeling my heart race at the sound of his voice and worrying about what he was going to say.  I feared that I'd gone too far the night before and that Sam was only calling me to tell me he never wanted to see me again.

"Would... would you like to come over for coffee? If you're not too tired?" he asked tentatively.

"I'd love to, hon," I replied, feeling encouraged that he hadn't told me to bug off over the phone.  I hoped that he wasn't only being kind and planning to break up with me in person.

"I missed you last night," Sam said, in that same quiet tone.

"I missed you also.  I dreamed of you." I admitted.

"When can you be here?" he asked, "there's so much I want to talk to you about. So much..."

"I understand, Hon.  I'll be there as soon as I can." I said, snatching up my keys and preparing to head toward the door immediately. Since Kanonu had woken me up so early, I'd already showered and changed and had been watching television, hoping to either pass the time or fall asleep again.

I drove there in record time only to find my Sam standing outside, waiting for me.  I parked my car quickly and fairly ran toward him. He reached out his arms and wrapped them around me with such force I was nearly knocked over.

We stood on the front walkway hugging for several minutes, each of us apologizing softly until the next-door neighbor yelled 'Get a room!' from his upstairs window.

I looked up at him but didn't respond. A strange expression crossed his face and he shut the window, closed the curtains and seemingly disappeared.

I raised an eyebrow at Sam who laughed and then rested his forehead against my chest. "I think we should knock on his door and ask if he'd like to join us for some coffee. What do you think?"

"Do you want to talk about last night?"

"Not yet. Let's... let's talk about other things for now. Please?"

I kissed him on the top of his head and hugged him again. I couldn't help but smile when I saw the curtains in the neighbor's upstairs window close hurriedly.

"I'm sorry about 'Nu," he said as he served the coffee. "I had no idea that he'd been calling you." 

I knew he'd been upset when he heard his brother and I talking. I knew that Kanonu hadn't told his brother he had been calling, and I knew that no one else in the Datoru house had been awake at the time because neither of them would have allowed him to make a phone call at five in the morning. I'd been a bit disgruntled when the phone woke me up, and I'd been very disappointed to find the wrong Datoru on the other end of the line, but I was encouraged by what he'd said.

"He just doesn't have the shutoff valve that the rest of us have. Whatever is on his mind, he says, no matter how inappropriate or embarrassing it is," Samiyo explained. "and if I'd known he'd been calling you I would have put a stop to it. Why didn't you tell me?" He asked almost accusingly, "I could have stopped him."

"I liked his calls," I replied with a smile, "He's a great kid. He's charming and funny, and smart as a whip. He has a great mind for details. He seems to have a wonderful grasp of mechanics, and he's interested in so many things." 

"Yes!" Sam nearly yelled happily, "That is exactly what we see in him, Mama and I, and people who are open-minded enough to see Kanonu as he really is, and not just what they see on the outside! But people don't bother to get to know him. They just see what he acts like on the outside where he's nervous and feeling out of place."

"I can understand that. Just keep in mind that their refusal to get to know and understand him is their loss."

"I try to remind myself of that, but it's hard when I catch those cockroaches chasing him with sticks and calling him names," he said angrily. "And when you complain to the parents they say some bull !@#$ like 'Oh, they're just being boys.' Boy hyenas, maybe, but not human boys!" he growled. Then he took a breath and calmed himself down. "No use getting upset about it now, eh?"

"True enough. Tell me more about Kanonu." Except for his anger and upset when he spoke about the neighborhood kids and the way they treated his little brother, whenever he talked about his little brother his face lit up. The love he had for his mother and little brother was evident.

Sam laughed and shook his head. "'Nu's name was actually a joke."

"A joke?" I wondered why anyone would make a joke of their child's name.

"Well, Mama was in the hospital, in the delivery room, and according to her, the doctor kept telling her to push! Push!" He related the story animatedly, "So Mama gave one almighty push and out came 'Nu like a shot with almost enough force to knock the doctor over. According to Joseph, the doctor nearly dropped him. So as a joke they named him Kanonu... it means canon." he laughed. I loved the sound of his laugh and had missed it the night before. "Joseph wanted to give him the middle name of Rogodo but Mama said absolutely not."

At my expression of inquiry, he explained, "It would have made his legal name Cannon Ball."

"When did you move to America?" I asked after we'd done laughing.

"I was just two years old at the time. There were no jobs to be had for a single mother, and she had no one to help take care of me while she worked at the hotel. One woman was so impressed with how thoroughly Mama would clean her room, how honest and sweet she was, that she asked if Mama would like to go to the United States and work in her house."

"It was a good job, much better money, a place to live, so she said yes. Miss Leila found a wonderful daycare for me, and by the time I got home Mama would be done working and she would make dinner. She and I, and Miss Leila would sit in the kitchen and eat, talk about our day. Miss Leila was like the grandmother I never had," he said fondly.

"But then she died. Heart failure. Mama and I were heartbroken, but then the most amazing thing came out of the tragedy. Miss Leila had no children or other family to leave her money to, so she left most of it to Mama, and some in trust for me. Miss Leila's only condition was that Mama use some of the money to go to nursing school. And so she did."

"Mama is a nurse! I should I have known." I laughed. 

"Her patients call her The Angel, and have given her many angel figurines over the years," he said, "Mama keeps them in her room to keep them safe from accidents." Suddenly shy he said, "Come with me a moment," and led me upstairs by the hand.

When we arrived at the top of the stairs he turned right into the first bedroom. 

"This is the bedroom that 'Nu and I share. Sit, please," He said, motioning to the full-sized bed. A twin bed took up the opposite side of the room. I nearly laughed. It looked as though there was an invisible barrier in the center of the room. Sam's side was almost militarily neat and clean while Kanonu's side looked as though a tornado had gone through it.

"I keep this in the closet because I'm afraid that 'Nu will accidentally knock it over," he continued, taking a box out. He pulled out an angel. Cream colored robes were edged in gold, it's pale blond hair fell to its shoulders in soft waves, it's blue eyes looked lovingly down at the child whose hands it held. Gently curved wings nearly enfolded the child as though to keep him from harm.

"When Joseph was sick, he asked Mama to buy me something special. That last day in the hospital, he gave this to me. He said that he would always be with us." Sam stopped speaking for a few moments, swallowing against the tears that threatened. 

"He said he would always be watching over us. He said that he was proud of me. He said that he knew things would be difficult for me, now that I would be the man of the house but that he also knew that I would do a good job and that I would grow into a man that he would be proud of. He apologized that he hadn't adopted me and given me his last name, but that in his heart I would always be as much a blood son to him as Kanonu was."

Sam took a deep breath and looked down at the angel in his hands. "He said that one day, when things seemed at their bleakest, my guardian angel would come to me and make himself known... and that he would take care of me just as I take care of 'Nu and Mama."

He looked up at me, his amber eyes searching my pale blue ones. "When I got home that night, when you wouldn't take no for an answer, Mama was home having a cup of tea. Someone had given her a pin in the shape of an angel, and she was wearing it on her collar. It made me think of this, and this... made me think of you." He said softly, one finger stroked the angel's porcelain cheek. "The first time you hugged me... when you wrapped your arms around me, it made me think of the angel's wings, and I felt... safe."

"But I was afraid. Afraid that you would get to know me and decide you didn't like me as much as you'd first thought. I was afraid you'd leave me. I was afraid that my sarcasm would eventually drive you off..."

"Which is why you tried to drive me off last night," I stated. "I had the feeling that you were testing me."

He looked down at the angel, I could see that he was upset and uncomfortable, and feeling a little guilty.

I took his chin gently in my hand and turned his face toward mine so that our eyes met again. "I meant what I said, Samiyo Datoru. I do love you. With all of my heart. I'm not an angel by any means but I do want to help if you need help. I want to protect you if you need protection. And I'm not going to leave you."

He gave me a somewhat watery looking smile but he didn't allow the tears to fall.

"I love you, Sam, and I even love your smart mouth, however," I said more sternly, "You will not use your sharp tongue on me."

He smiled, a combination of embarrassment and sheepishness which nearly made it impossible for me to say the words that came next.

"You've told me a lot about your family and about yourself, and I feel it's important that I tell you a few things about myself. I want to be with you, always, but there is a chance that you may choose not to be with me after I say what I need to say."

Samiyo looked up at me uncertainly.

"First of all, I'm nearly thirty years old, almost eight years older than you. Is that going to bother you?"

Sam nearly laughed and then shook his head. "Joseph was fifteen years older than Mama when he married her. Age means nothing, Beckett, it is merely a number. Now if you were, say, fifty years older than I am, I might have to think about it." He smiled to take the edge off of his words.

"Second, and this is important, Sam," I continued seriously, "I had a partner. He died eight years ago in a car accident."

"I'm very sorry to hear that," Sam replied, sorrow clear in his eyes. 

"We had an arrangement that some people might have found odd if it had been known, and if you and I are to be together... if you aren't frightened away and if you consent... we may have a similar arrangement."

"And that is?" Sam asked curiosity and a little wariness on his countenance.

"When my partner, Xavier, would say or do something inappropriate, or something dangerous, I would spank him," I said as gently as possible, looking for Sam's reactions.

Sam was quiet for a long moment. I half expected him to throw the angel at me and tell me to get out, rule of hospitality or not. Instead, he stared down at the angel as though it would speak and give him the answers he sought.

"You said if I consent?" he asked quietly.

"Yes."

"And if I don't?"

"Then we find what works for us and do that. I'm not going to demand that you do anything that you're not comfortable with. No matter what we decide, I respect you, and always will. What you want and what you feel are important to me."

"Beckett..." he began before trailing off.

"Talk to me, Sam. Tell me what's on your mind."

"Last night, you only took me off guard. I wasn't expecting you to do that. No one outside of my family has ever done that... but... it felt... right, somehow. That's why I had to get away. I had to think. I wondered if it were a onetime thing with you. But..."

"But..." I prompted.

"I loved Joseph very much, and Mama means the world to me, but I don't want another parent..." he said, looking worriedly up at me.

I smiled reassuringly at him. "We will not have a 'Daddy and Boy' relationship, although I may refer to you as my boy now and again, in an affectionate way. Is that all right?"

"Yes, I ... I'd like that, but... what about..." 

"You and I are equals, Sam. If there is a decision to be made then it's our decision, not just mine. But..." I continued seriously, "If you do agree to a discipline relationship, then where discipline is concerned, what I say goes. If you've done or said something completely out of line, I will spank you, and it will be more than one swat. If you decide that it feels natural and right, as you said before, you have to decide if this is something that you can live with."

"Will you use your hand? Mama uses a wooden spoon," he shivered. "How would you do it?"

"We would discuss that and decide what would work best for you."

"There was an old man in Nigeria before we left, he would chase me with a switch and use it if he caught me. Please don't ever use a switch on me, all right?" he asked earnestly.

"Never. I won't use anything that you don't agree to beforehand. Agreed?" I asked. It took some self-control on my part not to become angry at the man who would have taken a switch to a toddler.

Sam bit his full lower lip in thought. "I... I think that this is something I would like, Beckett," He replied, looking back up at me with just a hint of that wariness still in his eyes, "But if I decide that I don't like the arrangement after all...?"

"Then as I said, we find what does work for us. My love for you is unconditional. You don't have to submit to a spanking, and I don't have to spank you to love you." I smiled at him.

He smiled back. "Then yes, I agree."

At first, I felt more than a little guilt making love to Mama Emira's son in her home, but other feelings overwhelmed me and within minutes, I forgot where and even who we were, as our bodies ceased to be two individuals and seemed to meld into one energy filled with sensations I hadn't felt in eight years.