Chapter 3. Convincing Tony

Monday September 23, 2008

On Monday afternoon after lunch, Tony was summoned to the Patron’s presence in what he called the “throne room.” It was not considered a throne by anybody in the Colony, but we all understood the term.

The Patron was on a chair that seemed like a throne, facing the room on a dais. Mer was there, she and Per often alternated between the Mountain and the Colony. Her chair was one step below the Patron’s, at his right hand and facing forward, implying she spoke with some authority. Ximena was sitting at the side of the room on a chair against the wall, observing. I was also on the side, behind a screen, I was listening but was not visible. I did not expect to show my face since the talk was about getting Tony into my kitty.

Despite the rows of chairs Tony figured out he was supposed to stand before the Patron. He mentally reviewed his recent sins, and concluded that it was a short list under LA rules. Here in the Amazon he was not so confident about the rules, these folks had unusual habits. The “no advocate, no appeal” thing bugged him, he watched too many TV shows where lazy writers made facts make all the difference. He also understood that someday soon a few people would be asked to take a short step off a high cliff, it was something to do with condors and the local folks were excited and cheering for the buzzards over the bastards. Who cheered for vultures? He wondered at the increments between ‘a stern talking to’ and the condor cliff. Kwool explained once that for the Tribe, there was nothing in between except banishment. He thought she was kidding, but Brisk confirmed it. “Our justice system has worked for us for a thousand years, why change it?” he asked. “Repeat offenders, who needs them?”

He wondered if being the “Hero of the Yucatan” would buy him some positive consideration. He even wondered if this might be a good thing. One of the things he heard hinted at was the Patron sometimes assigned females to special guys. He knew the Patron picked his heir’s bride, and that on the mountain ALL matches were made by the woman’s council, but was not really clear on how that worked around here for normal folks. But he was hopeful.

When Tony showed up - he was early but everyone else was there so he felt like he kept them waiting, the Patron got right to the point. “We called you here to see if we could persuade you to think about helping with young Cynthia sometime. She has expressed her desire for some very friendly contact of a certain type with somebody younger than me. I admit I have enjoyed those pleasures, but I am an old man with many duties and limited endurance. She would appreciate more attentions and she is of the opinion that you might have skills. Something about sharing a shower and seeing Nia...”

The direct approach as well as the underlying issue caught Tony by surprise, the Patron was the great-grandfather of my child, so he could not be suggesting what it sounded like he was suggesting. Tony answered as best he could. “I admit I do not understand all the aspects of such things here. I appreciate Cynthia but I wasn’t aware that ... er, uh ... shared showers were prudent. Cynthia has hinted some interest in time together, but I thought she was kidding. Where I come from ... well, in my world all women tease, but it is not a healthy choice to intercede when a woman is with child and expects to live with the father of that child. Not if the guy plans to live. I am personally aware that her ... er the child’s father is very effective at making people very dead, either by giving an order or by very direct action. I saw the machete cuts on the butchered Black Kings ... those were clean powerful cuts, they were well beyond poor Cosmo. Also, when he and his troops took down those bloodthirsty sicarios alive in front of my own eyes, I was ready to sign a peace treaty with whatever terms he dictated. They are some tough hombres and he made it look easy.”

The others were all familiar with the photos and what happened.

“Yes, but we are not in your civilized world,” the Patron observed. “Your world and the rules you refer to were formed long ago by men of power: royal men, wealthy men, men proud of small holdings and men who simply wanted to act like assholes just because they could. The common factor in forming those rules was their women: wives, daughters, unmarried sisters, even widowed mothers. ‘Their women,’ these men treated their women as property and sought to insure, even from beyond the grave, that they maintained some control over their possessions, especially their women. They did it with social norms that pervaded society. It was a clever idea, giving the lowest in society a standing that was equal to the most powerful by having all men mutually agree to treat their women as private property. All men, rich and poor, righteous and despicable, were united and on guard against a common enemy: the knave, the charmer, the despoiler who could charm their women to helplessness and thereby enjoy the hard-working man’s property without the blessing of church or state or the responsible male who claimed the property. All the enemy needed was a chance to capture a weak woman’s heart at a weak moment to plant their seed, cuckolding the poor husband or spoiling the daughter for later sale, and leaving the hard-working husband to labor even more raising a bastard of lesser blood, the combination of the weak-willed mother and the worthless charmer. There are examples in nature, a species of bird that leaves it’s egg in the nest of a mated pair of another species. It seems birds cannot count their eggs or judge their size and do not understand the process. The invader’s chick is larger at birth and will demand the greater share of the food brought by the parents, starving the legitimate offspring to death, thus promoting the survival of the predator species. It is a lesson civilized men have taken to heart, an unwritten law of the land.”