Page 72 of Tito

“Sure,” I replied. “I know new things that would make your hair curl and your toes bleed.”

“My hair…” Rocky shook his head, then he asked, “Toes bleed?”

Again, Valencia cracked up.

I glanced over at her and then shrugged. “Maybe it's,make your nose bleed?” I looked up at my brother and said, “I forget what that saying is. But I know the secrets of the universe now.”

Rocky scoffed. “I don’t care about that cosmic shit. I just want to know things like how you got Mrs. Jackson to change her mind about suspending us in junior high.”

I laughed.

“What did you guys do?” Valencia asked.

“I’m not sure you wanna know,” I told her.

“Oh, yes. Definitely.” She nodded her head. “I wanna know.”

“We pulled the fire alarm.” I shrugged.

Valencia paused and said, “That happens a lot in school.”

“Not the way we did it,” Rocky replied.

I nodded. “Yeah, we pulled it then waited for everyone to get on the front lawn.”

“Then we turned the sprinklers on,” Rocky added with a regretful shake of his head.

Valencia stared at him then she laughed.

“I mean I’m not sure why they were mad,” I mused innocently. “The students were laughing, slipping and sliding. It was like a summer swim party. Without the bathing suits, of course.”

“It was November at the time and most of the teachers were not happy,” Rocky reminded me.

“The cool ones were.” I nodded.

“We had like what? Three of those.” Rocky scoffed. “But I will never forget Ms. Madisons’ laughter. She thought it was awesome. She kept trying to get up then she would fall. So she just sat there in the grass, soaking wet. Now that lady knew how to live.”

“She was like all of twenty five,” I reminded him. “And what you liked was what happened to her white blouse after it got wet.”

He whistled. “Whoo-hoo! Did I ever!”

We all laughed.

“You two are so funny together,” Valencia noted with a giggle.

Me and my brother looked at each other and nodded. In our business, we’d better be good together. It literally could mean life or death. There had been times when we were so in sync, we were like one large protective wall of muscle. People on the Council asked Stephano to allow us to protect them exclusively. Like a prestigious Mademan, Wiseguy level of success. He told us about it and what salary we would get. The money was astronomical for bodyguards, but we didn’t want that. We’d rather protect our own family. Uncle Stephano gladly told them no.

“So, we good, bro?” Rocky asked me.

I nodded. “Yes, I can see why you never told me.”

“And now we don’t have to ask Stephano about who and why,” Valencia said with relief in her voice. “I don’t wanna ask that man about anything.”

“Yeah, not a good idea,” Rocky said. “Unless there is no other choice.”

“There is one more thing though,” I told Rocky. “But I’m not sure if you can answer this one.”

“What is it?”