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Chapter Thirty-seven

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Took me forty-five minutes just to reach the dinin’ room. Ma told me to be patient or she’d turn me over her knee. She’s never turned me over her knee and don’t think she’s gonna begin now, but I played the dutiful youngling and kept my attitude to myself.

Maybe Mama turned my brother ’cross her knee that time he started the fire in the neighbor’s barn. But my sister and I were told to find a highway to play on. So never got to see the tragedy unfold.

I accepted hugs. Shook hands. Said hey about fifty times. Not a sole of the cousins, aunts or uncles, up to eight times removed I think, even mentioned Zia. I got the sense they were disappointed the whole ogre-troll thin’ wasn’t causin’ more of a fuss after they’d gotten whipped into a lather of excitement.

Maybe it’s me they were disappointed in, ’cause I couldn’t remember ever meetin’ a lot of ’em. Ya can’t get too acquainted with everyone at a clan hoedown. There’s a lot of eatin’ and dancin’ goin’ on. The old bulls always disappear to discuss important matters around the host bull’s still. The alcoholic kind.

Maybe they expected more.

Why they had to attack me like vultures on a two-day carcass evaded comprehension. But then I don’t much understand folk on a regular day, so I don’t know why I’m startled about that today. And all these folks, nice and carin’ to a one, never much cared for me before. I’m the odd, weird one. No one can tell me I’m not.

I was marginally accepted ’cause Ike and I were always puttin’ a network together for one council business or another, buildin’ a server farm, writin’ the next viral app, or business front end.

We’d always been pretty busy. Precocious, I was once told. Ten and twelve-year-olds aren’t s’posed to be flippin businesses for millions of dollars every six weeks. Maybe a slight exaggeration. From the day we learned to read the word technology. Ike had gotten the lead on me, bein’ born two years earlier, but I caught up with him fast.

Finally I got past my last hen.

When the sweet orc hostess got me in a table toward the back, she must’ve gone to get Ezra, because she came out then and shooed everyone away who approached my table. Relief. She sat with me, growled at anyone who even thought about talkin’ to me.

Quiet with her hands in her lap, her eyes studied a spot on the table between us.

I waited for what needed to come, assumin’ somethin’ was comin’.

And waited.

Before she spoke, my favorite orc placed an Ogre Tray in front of us. Ezra buttered a biscuit and ate it.

“Well?” I prompted.

“Eat, fool,” she said.

That’s harsh. “Zia here?”

“I’m not lettin’ these idjits attack her,” she growled. Then growled louder when she met someone’s eyes headin’ our way.

I piled up a forkful of brisket, dipped it in sauce, and rushed it to my mouth. “Hmm. Ghddd,” I mumbled.

Expected her to tell me not to talk with my mouth full, but she didn’t. I continued waitin’. I’ve learned when folk are perplexed over somethin’ I’ve done, best to just give ’em time.

Sometimes throwin’ ’em out of my office works well too. All thin’s depend on somethin’. In baseball I think that’s called situational awareness. Fancy term for numskull athletes.

“Ya know I love ya, huh?” she asked.

That was the last first sentence I expected. I chewed down the biscuit in my mouth and washed it down with coffee that was too hot for the task.

Ouch.

“I do somethin’,” I asked, “to possibly hurt our relationship?”

She finally looked up, eye-to-eye. Hers glistened, and I hurried to look away. Uh oh. I guess I had. I must be in deep doo.

“Ike and I have been hard pressed to—”

I waited.

“I want to be honest with ya,” she said.

“Uh. Have ya ever not been?”

“Prolly,” she said. “Ya’re a hard person to—”

I waited.

I really wanted to keep eatin’ but considered maybe she was too stressed for me to. That maybe it would distract me from the important message she was composin’ in her head.

I waited.

Hope she understands that I have boundaries. And I’m here because I’m hungry.

“I guess,” she started slowly, “I shouldn’t be surprised ya’re the soul to push thin’s past—”

I waited.

“It’s gonna be hard for the two of ya.”

If this afternoon’s exemplar, maybe cause a bit of chatter.

“I’m always here for ya, first. But I don’t want my very best friend to get hurt.”

For some reason an anger grew in my chest, which of course initiated the ogre growl, which I didn’t intend. But there was no holdin’ it back. My head seemed to be expandin’ unnaturally, my skull doublin’ in weight.

“I sat on a couch with a new friend last night talkin’ until the eastern sky lightened a bit. I haven’t murdered nobody, stolen nothin’ from nobody. Spit in nobody’s coffee. Spoken aspersions. Run through the Hamlet naked.”

I found my finger pointin’ at her. Clasped my hand into a fist, and pressed it into my lap.

“This is no one’s business but me and Zia,” I managed over the growl. I took in a deep gulp of air. “Respect ya. But I’m at a loss to understand ya, which I’m sure ya can understand. The subject is closed, and if ya speak of it again, I’ll never speak to ya again in my life.”

I stood and stormed for the door. Didn’t fail to note the inn was as quiet as the moment I stepped inside. Maybe everyone in the place heard my words to my dearest cousin. If so, I would feel ashamed of myself, tomorrow, but I had other thoughts fillin’ my mind at the moment.

~

Nuel

~

Never expected to feel tears flowin’ down my cheeks, for Kriz. He slammed the door behind him and the chatter in the lobby almost overwhelmed me. These fools. What did they think they were up to? Playin’ games. Suckin’ up to the rich, infamous cousin, when all they wanted was a front seat for the skinnin’ and devourin’. The air of the lobby stank with insincerity. Through my tears I looked around me, at the smirks, and the lips flappin’ at cell phones.

This is a flippin’ circus.

I stood, glarin’. “Yar actin’ like fools,” I shouted. “All of yall. Do ya have no respect? Grow up.”

It quieted.