Chapter 1

Alonzo Juarez arrived by train; his lungs were still not strong enough to chance airplane travel. He was met at the station by Matilda, Carmen, and me (Mary). My first reaction at seeing him as he was helped from the train was "My God, he is a real hunk! Do all SEALs look like that?"

We had been told to have a wheelchair ready for him, because his torn up left lung was barely functional. That IED (Improvised Explosive Device) had really made a mess when it threw the shrapnel through the left side of Alonzo's chest. He was now released from the SEALs and on a pension as a wounded veteran of Afghanistan. Sure, one can live with only part of one lung still in operation, but that did not mean that the person did not have difficulty breathing under many circumstances. Certainly, Alonzo was not going to walk very far in the heat, humidity, and smog of Los Angeles in August. QED, he needed the wheelchair, as much as he despised the damned thing.

We rolled him to the parking lot and got him loaded into the pickup beside the window. Matilda sat beside him and fussed over him like the proverbial mother hen. I was driving, but I could see in the mirror that Alonzo must love his mother very much because he hated the way she was fussing over every little thing trying to make him comfortable, yet he never said a word of complaint.

Meanwhile, Matilda chattered away in Spanish. She asked a string of questions, but never waited for Alonzo to answer. It was just that she was so happy to see her son alive and, yet, was so concerned about his health, that she was a nervous wreck. I interrupted the blather to tell Alonzo in English that we would have him home as quickly as possible, but it was probably going to take nearly an hour because of the heavy traffic. Hell, he could see the near grid-lock on the freeways, and that was why I was sticking to the city streets. The traffic here was bad, but nothing like on the freeways.

I almost laughed at the way his eyes bulged at the sight of our home. It was a mansion behind a fence on a large plot of land overlooking the ocean. It was paradise compared to where he had been living before he enlisted in the Navy. He asked, "This is were you live?" The question was obviously aimed at me because he asked it in totally unaccented English.

"Yeah, this is the place. I sure hope that you are going to like it here."

He starred in open-mouthed disbelief as I drove into the large garage. I said, "As soon as you are well enough to handle it, we hope that you will become our chauffeur. The rest of the family is waiting inside to meet you. Don't worry, you will be in your private bedroom very soon. It is air conditioned, so you can escape this beastly weather."

Even the garage was air conditioned, so Alonzo did not suffer as he exited the pickup. Billy was there, and he effortlessly picked up Alonzo and set him into the wheelchair. Jenny did the pushing as he was rolled into the kitchen and on through to the elevator. He was rolled into the room next to the one occupied by his sister, so he could probably have more attention than he wanted. The temperature was set for 70° F, and Alonzo was relieved at that.

Jenny, Billy, and I left the Juarez family in his room and went back to the kitchen for some coffee while we waited for Matilda and Carmen to join us. We figured that Alonzo would be tired and want a few hours of sleep after he spent a little time in private with his mother and sister.

Eventually, Matilda and Carmen returned to the kitchen. Matilda started immediately to fix supper, but Carmen sat with us. She told us what had happened at soon as we left Alonzo's bedroom. He wanted to know what was going on and exactly who we were. Matilda told him that we were the owners of the mansion and she and Carmen worked as mansion staff. Alonzo said that he could not believe that people rich enough to own this mansion were so nice to penniless emigrants like them.

Matilda explained who we were and how she came to be employed by Billy and Jenny. It was probably just as well that she did not tell Alonzo exactly how Carmen had been cured of her diabetes, just that it had happened. They left Alonzo to catch up on his sleep, but they figured that he would be ready to eat by the time supper was ready.

When the time came, I went to fetch Alonzo while everybody else was getting the table ready and moving the food to the table. We were eating in the breakfast room as we usually did because of the convenience. That way, Matilda could eat with us while she still maintained a close watch on HER kitchen.

I knocked on Alonzo's bedroom door and entered when he answered. Obviously, he had been expecting his mother or his sister because he was only wearing his pants and socks; he had slept in them with the sheet pulled up to cover his bare chest. Anyway, that was when I got a good look at his chest, and I was impressed by the massive scar left behind by the shrapnel and the surgery to repair the damage. Even with the scars, I couldn't help thinking that he looked like a modern Adonis or some other Greek god. Yep, he was a hunk if there ever was one!

Anyway, he acted embarrassed that "one of the rich people" had seen him half naked and tried to hurry to get his shirt on. Unfortunately, his lung failed him in his hurry, and he couldn't manage to get the tee-shirt over his head. I had to help him, and that only compounded the embarrassment.

I said, "Alonzo, stop worrying about the impression that you will make on us. We are ordinary folks who are grateful for your sacrifice to protect us. Please, just relax and go with the flow. Your mother and Carmen have come to accept us as close friends and practically family, and that is what we want to be to you. You can stay here as long as you wish, and you will never be treated as a servant—only as a friend. Now, you are completely dressed as far as we are concerned. You don't need your shoes unless you want them.

"Let me help you into the wheelchair because supper is almost on the table, and Matilda has gone out of her way to fix what she remembers as your favorite foods."

"Oh, dammit! Oops, excuse me, Miss Mary. That slipped out when I found that I could not get up by myself."

"Okay, let me help you. And, Alonzo, forget that 'Miss' stuff. Remember we are friends and family, and we don't waste time on formalities when it is just us around. Also, you will hear swear words at one time or another from all of us, so just be yourself. We'll let you know if it ever gets to be too much, but I am sure that it never will be."

Alonzo was sitting on the side of the bed, so I bent over and slipped one arm behind his back and one arm under his legs. I lifted his 185 pounds or so easily and set him into the wheelchair. We skipped the unnecessary shoes, and I pushed the wheelchair to the elevator and into the breakfast room. Alonzo sat at the end of the table where it was easiest to maneuver the wheelchair. Billy sat at the other end, and we women sat around the sides. Matilda was next to Alonzo on one side and Carmen was next to him on the other side of the table.

The food was excellent, and Matilda had made it in two versions. One version had the usual Mexican type and quantity of spices, and the other version was toned down to fit American tastes. I noticed that Matilda and Carmen ate the strictly Mexican style food, but Alonzo mixed the two styles. He apologized to his mother and explained that he had gotten used to the lower spice level while he was in the Navy. Matilda laughed and admitted that she was getting used to American levels of spices and would not fix the highly spiced stuff any more. Carmen looked a little relieved at that.

We got to talking about a variety of subjects, but tried to stay on things that would interest Alonzo. He didn't want to talk about Afghanistan, but wanted to know what was going on in America, and especially in Los Angeles. Eventually, he asked if the gangs were as much of a problem as they had been before he left for overseas.