Chapter 76: Wee Willie and the Stooges

Saturday, June 5, 1971

“What was that about an airliner?” Ileana asked after Rosemary Wilson had led her husband away.

I didn’t answer, aware that Amy Patterson was still with us.

“Later?” I thought to Ileana.

She smiled, nodding slightly to indicate she heard.

“Did everyone meet Amy?” I asked the girls. “She’s a relative.”

“Hi,” Amy said meekly to the crowd of girls.

They all welcomed her warmly, chatting away and getting to know her. Nothing else was said about the airliner. I noticed that Jason was taking turns dancing not only with Julie and Jennifer, but Mandy and Randi as well.

Finally Amy couldn’t contain her curiosity any longer. “So, my cousin Michael is now a Prince?” she asked the Princesses. “And he’s married to both of you?”

““Well, yes and no, Miss Patterson,” Kalani answered for her daughters.

“They are joined by Tapatoan custom, but it is not officially recognized as marriage by your custom. Technically, the princesses, and any children they may produce, will have no official claim on the Prince, or his estate.”

“Which means that while he is mated to us, Michael is still free to marry anyone else he chooses,” Mikeya added.

“So you both share him?” she asked in confusion. “At the same time ... Oh my god! I can’t believe I asked that!” she blushed.

The girls just laughed.

“Is it okay to tell her, Michael?” Nicky asked. “After all, she IS family.”

“Well...” I said as I stalled for time while I scanned her. Her emotions were reeling at the news and the unusual revelations. “How old are you Amy?”

“I’m eighteen, why?” she asked. “Tell me what?” she added.

I nodded to Nicky, as I connected Catherine and the other adults into what we were talking about.

“Amy, our family decided a few weeks ago, not to keep any secrets concerning sex from us,” Nicky explained. “That means that they agreed to answer ANY questions we have, and allow us to experiment as we desired. They were careful to explain that this freedom to experiment comes with great responsibility. As a result, we all,” she indicated all her cousins, “have had the opportunity to question and explore our own sexual natures.”

“It’s not something we share with everyone, but you are a part of the family,” I added.

“So what are you telling me? That you all share him?” she laughed nervously as she said it.

The girls just looked at her and smiled.

“Ohmygod! You do!” Amy exclaimed.

As the girls all began talking at the same time, I simply walked away. Some things are better left alone. I’d ask Nicky why she wanted to tell Amy about us later. I headed over to the tent with the buffet tables to see if there was anything left to eat.

I had just finished filling my plate when three men approached me. I scanned them quickly.

“This ought to be interesting!”I thought to myself.

The three of them crowded around me, trapping me against the buffet table.

“So you’re the kid who going to run Wagner,” the smallest one stated.

“Well, well. If it isn’t Little Willie,” I replied. Catherine had told me about Wilbert Markingham and his all-too-transparent attempts to get his hands on Wagner Industries.

His two goons crowded me a little more, at the obvious slur against their employer.

“What do you want, shrimp?” I baited him.

One of his guys grabbed my upper arm. It was what I was waiting on. I floored them both in less than two seconds by tweaking their primary motor cortices.

As they lay there unmoving, I heard a shriek in the background. Little Willie just stood looking from me to his men and back.

As I stepped over one of his men, I released the hold I had on them, and walked away. I went to the table where Uncle Harry was talking to a couple of older gentlemen.

“Mr. Beauregard?” a voice said a few minutes later.

“Yes, Mr. Markingham. What can I do for you?” he replied.

“Your boy there, he don’t play so nice. I was just gonna to introduce myself and he got all nasty-like with my friends,” Little Willie whined.

Uncle Harry looked at the two large men standing behind Willie and then at me. With a sly grin, he said, “What did you do to Moe and Larry, Michael?”

“I was going to kill them, but I changed my mind,” I replied flatly.

Moe and Larry stepped back a step. Willie just got angry.

“That’s pretty rash, Michael. Why would you say a thing like that?” Harry asked.

“They’re pretty rash guys,” I answered. “Last week, they burned down an apartment building on Meltzer Street in Yonkers, because the owner wouldn’t sell it to Willie. They didn’t care that one elderly man almost died and now four families are homeless. They beat up a guy on the docks because he couldn’t pay off his loan on time. And they’re planning on forcibly evicting a shopkeeper in Brooklyn next week, because he won’t pay for their ‘protective services’. They’re nothing but thugs, working for a small-time crook.”

“Oh. Well why didn’t you just kill them, then?” Harry asked conversationally.

“Like I said, I was going to. But then I realized that Willie, there, is going to have them killed when his nephew comes to work for him in a couple of weeks,” I replied.

“Huh?” Larry and Moe said at the same time. Willie just cringed.

“So’s you’s gonna hire that punk nephew of yours and get rid of us, huh?” Moe said. “Well, I think we may just have something to say about that. C’mon, Larry, let’s ditch this joint.”