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Brady would have preferred to have continued his search of the now deserted Los Banos but had promised his adopted Lopez family that he would return to East McFarland for the End of the Century and New Century celebrations. Brady wasn’t sure whether there was much to celebrate. The Trad communities were set on using the occasion to boost their citizen’s morale, whereas the Green areas were excited to greet the new century and receive their new YellowSuits™, giving them unparalleled freedom of visual expression.
Lucian greeted him as he returned to the Mahone Ranch. He also noticed that Amie had spotted his return but raced back to the Lopez Ranch.
Lucky is my old friend, and yet he is younger than me. He looks about seventy, and even Mary-Lou is looking like a pensioner. He thought about Amie and tried to calculate her age. She must be about seventeen, but even she looks like she’s in her mid-twenties. She looks at me like I’m only about ten years older, but I’m forty years older than her.
Alicia’s interrogation, coupled with the Bear’s fish-tale, had played on his mind. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he had been played his whole life.
‘Hi, Lucky. Could you give us a hand to unload these? I hit the jackpot in Los Banos.’ Lucian hobbled over to the Hearse, and Brady realised the selfishness in his request for the first time. He’s turned old and frail, and yet I’m still in my prime, and I’m asking him to do the heavy lifting. ‘On second thoughts, leave it to me. I’ll do it later.’
‘Are you sure, Brady? I don’t want to be a shirker. You work so hard to keep us safe...’
‘No, my friend. I owe you my life - remember?’
Lucian smiled, ‘You’ve more than repaid any debt you may feel you owe me. You’ve been as good a friend as any man could dare to hope for.’ He added, ‘All I did was understand a bit of Spanish from my Dad’s side of the family.’
‘Enough for you to warn me that I was about to be shivved - and you tried to jump him.’
Lucian laughed, ‘If I remember rightly, he threw me off like a rag-doll.’
Brady laughed warmly, ‘True that - but you gave me the time to react.’ Brady could still remember the sickening crack as he slammed the head of Miguel Alvarez into the wall, killing him instantly. ‘He would have killed me. He was a hitman for the Cartel. If it wasn’t for you...’
‘Hey, Brady and Lucian - are you two going over your old war stories again?’ Mary-Lou said with good humour.
‘Hi, Mary-Lou, you’re looking well.’ He lied. ‘I’m guessing Little Amie told you I was here.’
Mary-Lou laughed, ‘I wouldn’t let Amie hear you calling her that anymore. She’s going through that troubled teenager phase and thinks she’s a full-grown woman ahead of her time.’
‘How are things on the road?’ Lucian asked.
‘Los Banos has gone. It’s all but deserted. The Greens have started their clean-up operations. It’s all a bit of a sorry state, but at least there are opportunities for Brady Mahone.’ He pulled out a bag from the Hearse, and the clinking gave away the contents. ‘Vintage alcohol. This should get us suitably shit-faced tonight.’
Lucian smiled, and Mary-Lou said in mocking formality, ‘Well, Mr Mahone, as you have brought the bottles, would you care to join us at the Lopez Ranch as our honoured guest?’
Brady laughed, ‘Why Mrs Lopez, I’d be honoured.’ He bowed and then kissed her hand. He spied Amie watching from a distance.
Mary-Lou peered into the Hearse and asked, ‘What’s in the boxes?’
‘Twenty-three thousand Blank Black Files.’
Lucian said, ‘Wow! What a haul.’
‘It was in a library stock room. I also had a load more CDs and DVDs from them and a ton of shelving which I dropped off to my contact in Hanford.’
Mary-Lou said, ‘That’s another reason to celebrate tonight.’
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BRADY SHOWERED AND put on some smart casual clothes to mark the importance of the party. He also used up some of the last of the aftershave he had from the haul from Libby Kane’s home. So many years ago. I hope it’s not gone off. He sniffed as the sweet aroma wafted up from his freshly shaved face. Still smells real good to me.
He strolled over to the Lopez Ranch. Amie greeted him. She had dressed up and was wearing makeup, which hadn’t been expertly applied. Brady was wary. Amie shook out her black hair and blushed, but then quickly reached up and kissed him on the cheek. Before he could react, she said breathlessly, ‘Happy New Year, Brady.’ She trembled as if her strength would fail her, but then rushed away.
Brady shook his head and cracked his shoulders as if he was trying to reset himself. He then went into the lounge where Lucian and Mary-Lou were cuddled up on the sofa. Brady assessed that they had already drunk heavily. What the hell. It is supposed to be the party of the century. Mary-Lou jumped up, she hugged and kissed Brady on the cheek. ‘You smell gorgeous. Happy New Year!’
Lucian shook Brady firmly by the hand, ‘Happy New Year!’
Brady laughed, ‘I’ve been reliably informed that this is the best party in town.’
Mary-Lou turned the music up loud, and brought Brady over a tumbler full of brandy, ‘You heard right mister, now let’s dance.’ Brady drained the glass and then joined Mary-Lou and Lucian in dancing the night away. He watched Amie helping herself to the alcohol on offer, but as the night wore on, this didn’t seem to trouble her parents, so he concluded that he shouldn’t worry about her either.
They danced and drank into the early hours until they couldn’t drink anymore. Brady watched Lucian and Mary-Lou become ever more amorous together until they hardly seemed aware that anyone else was there. The scene looked odd to Brady, as he was felt as if he was watching a couple of pensioners making out, even though he was older than both of them.
Brady staggered out of the Lopez Ranch ready to walk home to his own homestead, but he had to stop for a second as the fresh, biting wind assaulted his senses. His head reeled, and he grabbed a porch rail to steady himself. He looked in the direction of West McFarland and he caught sight of the saffron shimmer of the protective Shell™. He remembered that they were having their Yellow™ Ceremony from the stroke of midnight to celebrate the New Century.
He pointed himself in the right direction to home and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, in the hope of finding his way home on autopilot. He made it. He crashed through the door, taking his clothes off as he staggered, and leaving them strewn across the floor, until he was naked, and arrived at his destination. He flopped unceremoniously onto his bed and began to snore heavily.
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AMIE HAD ALSO HAD TOO much to drink. She had danced with her family and had tried too hard to impress Brady with her moves. She watched with disgust, at first, the semi-public groping of her Moms and Lucian, but this turned to fascination, as she studied Lucian’s hand slide up her Mom’s dress. As they headed to the bedroom - giggling as they propped up each other, she followed them stealthily.
They pushed the door to the bedroom shut, but Amie edged it open millimetres at a time until she could observe them through a crack in the door. She watched as they pulled each other’s clothes off until she saw them entirely naked for the first time in her life. She watched them kiss passionately, and then she watched their hands explore every intimate part of each other’s body. In the semi-darkness, she believed she caught a glimpse of Lucian’s arousal before he entered into her Moms. She listened, as they both grunted and moaned in pleasure, and then she was aware of her own breathlessness and feared she might get caught.
Amie rushed away. She went onto the porch. She looked over at the Mahone Ranch, and all she could think of was Brady.
She walked over, all the time thinking of being in the strong arms of Brady Mahone. I don’t know what to do - but I want him, and I know he loves me. He brought me a dog.
When she got to Brady’s door, she pushed at it gently and was almost giddy when it opened before her. She followed the trail of discarded clothing that led her to Brady’s room. She picked up the white T shirt and breathed in the aroma of him. She edged into the room with a mixture of intense trepidation and excitement. On the first day of the New Century, the first rays of dawn cast a golden glow on the deep-honey-coloured naked body of Brady Mahone. Oh, my word, this is so beautiful.
Brady was lying face down on the bed. He was completely naked and still snoring heavily in his drunken stupor.
Amie crept over. The floorboards creaked, and she felt as if she was going to faint at every sound. She couldn’t take her eyes off him as she moved. Her eyes swept over every square inch of him. She didn’t want him to wake him - not yet. She wasn’t ready. She toyed with the idea of getting undressed right there. She was excited about the thought of him waking and finding her there - waiting and prepared for him to take her - but she was too shy to do that. Her Moms was the only person on the planet who had ever seen her nude. She began to wonder if he might not find her attractive enough. She stood, helplessly, for moments which seemed like forever. All the while, she still gazed at Brady’s body, trying to decide whether it was better to avoid the inevitable embarrassment or whether to let him take her.
Images of her Moms and Lucian’s ecstasy began to crowd her mind until she finally dared to make her next move.
She tiptoed slowly around the bed. Brady stopped snoring, almost as if he had sensed a potential threat. Amie swooned. Her head was reeling from the alcohol. Brady shuffled around but appeared to go back to sleep. Amie waited. And then Brady began to snore quietly.
Amie was away from the potential gaze of Brady. She stood next to his bed. Brady shifted over onto his side - he was still facing away from her. From his tattooed shoulders of black-inked South-sea designs, she followed the line of his body, through the line of his back to his buttocks and then down his muscular legs.
She slowly undressed. She held her breath as she silently dropped her underwear to the floor. She then lay on the bed next to him, but not touching him. Again, she waited, as if she had reached the next level of her bravery. And then she moved her hand slowly to trace out the tattoos on his shoulder. She was a hairs breath away from touching him and the tension of her intake and the slow outpouring of her breath as she exhaled caused waves of pleasure to shudder through her. She closed the gap, and her fingertip touched his skin. She slid her fingers over him and then more fingers joined in caressing his back.
Brady was barely conscious. He was more than usually drunk. Even if Brady had been aware of a woman’s presence next to him, he would not have been alarmed. He had taken many women as lovers in his life, and the post-coital caresses of a woman in his bed would be something to savour and required no further response than his simple allowance of it to continue. Amie needn’t have been worried about Brady waking up from this night - he was dead to the world.
Amie traced her fingers slowly down the length of Brady’s body all the way down to his ankles. As she reached out, she felt her whole body come into contact with him. Amie was past the point of no return so she pressed her breasts onto Brady’s back, as this was the most erotic thing she could contemplate doing, and she wanted to cry out in exaltation at her own fearlessness. But as Brady moved decisively over in his bed to face her, she returned to the trembling shy girl she was, except now she was naked and in bed with this hulk of a man - a much older and experienced man.
She looked into his face. She wondered why he hadn’t thrown her out of bed. She wondered why he hadn’t taken her into his strong arms and taken her. She was a virgin, she wouldn’t be expected to know what to do, even if she had dreamt of a time like this. This was real, he was a physical presence, not a figment of her imagination, this time. But Brady was still asleep.
She was still trembling. She couldn’t stop herself from breathing out heavily, she put her face into the pillow to bury the noise of her breathing. She found her courage and desire again. She kissed him while barely touching his lips, she pulled slightly away again and then saw his unimpressive and flaccid manhood out of the corner of her eye. She instinctively looked away, but then she really wanted to look at it. She examined it. She then touched it. Something deep within the lost and loaded Brady responded. She felt it move. She watched in utter fascination, as she couldn’t help but touch it again, and it began to grow in her hand, and Brady stirred.
‘What the fuck is going on here. How dare you? How could you do this to my daughter? You monster - you fucking pervert!’ Brady drunkenly woke up. He was startled to find Mary-Lou standing over him. He couldn’t think of what he’d done to make her call him these things - and why was she grabbing at Amie? He watched in dumbstruck amazement at Amie attempting to cover up her nakedness. She continued to shout, ‘And you, young lady, get dressed, now. I’ll talk with you later.’
Amie was flustered as she tried to get dressed too quickly, and her clothes didn’t go on correctly at the first attempts and all the while like a spider in free fall she slung out her silken web of lies to hide her shame, ‘But Brady loves me...we will always be together...we made love, and we are so right together...’
Brady was hungover, if not still not utterly drunk. He wondered at one point whether he was dreaming this. He went over the events of the evening, but the last thing he could vaguely recall was the world spinning and the Yellow-ish glow over West McFarland. The criminal within him wanted to check for evidence, so he moved his hand to his penis to see if he could determine if he had actually had sex with Amie. It was dry to the touch, so Brady took this as meaning that he hadn’t. At that moment, he hadn’t thought about other people in the room.
Mary-Lou erupted, ‘And now you are fondling yourself. In front of both of us. You Mahone’s are all alike - like father like son. You stay away from us. Do you hear me?’ She rushed out of the house, dragging Amie behind her before Brady could answer.
He pulled on his trousers and ran outside after them. He saw Lucian coming out to see what all the commotion was about. Mary-Lou shouted ‘I don’t want you to have anything to do with that monster. He raped my daughter - our daughter.’
Amie protested, ‘He loved me. He didn’t rape me.’
‘Young lady - you are seventeen years old, and he is what...nearly sixty...Oh God, it gets worse. That certainly would have been statutory rape back in my day.’
Lucian looked over at Brady and smiled ruefully before joining his family as they headed back to the Lopez Ranch to continue the inquisition.
Brady just stood there, with the sun coming up over the horizon. Brady felt that even the sun was mocking him with its New Century greetings. He began to feel cold. He went back inside to put the rest of his clothes on to add to the jeans.