by Matt Rogers
Chapter 20
The next morning began with my usual fare of coffee and more coffee. I’d never been a big breakfast eater even after the breakfast people kept repeating their unending mantra of it being the most important meal of the day. Why?
BECAUSE IT GIVES YOU ENERGY.
If we’ve got an obesity problem in this country wouldn’t it make sense to skip the easiest skippable meal?
NOT REALLY, YOU SEE…
Besides, I like to sleep after meals and I hate to cook. Why would I wake up and do the one event which makes me want to turn around and hit the sack again?
WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO HIT A SACK?
But it didn’t mean I would ignore a meal if it were available.
“Foods up!” yelled the scrumptious red-haired Vampire.
“Thank God! I’m starving” said George.
“Yummy! Pancakes!” cheered Vivian.
“Good” said I.
Phillip said nothing because he’d been sitting at the card table with a fork in hand salivating like Pavlov’s dog for the previous ten minutes. Vivian and Trudy had awoken at the unimaginable hour of five to run up to the local supermarket and pick up the ingredients necessary to make the golden-brown fluffy circles of everything good. The fact they had to purchase not only the ingredients but also the cookware and utensils necessary to make and eat said ingredients did nothing to stop their enthusiasm for doing the job and getting it done right. I love Vampires! And I love maple syrup! Who would’ve thought tree sap would be so tasty?
BEARS, BEES, SQUIRRELS, BIRDS…
Shut up.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked with enthusiasm because the emotion is very contagious.
“The same as before” replied George.
“Oh” I replied as my enthusiasm died.
“It’s going to work, Johnny” Phillip said.
“I know, it’s just…”
“It’s just what?” asked Vivian.
“It’s just, well, I haven’t done anything like this before and I hope I don’t let you all down.”
“Oh, Sweetie, don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine; and if you fail we’ll all be dead so it won’t matter anyway” she replied with a smile.
That pep talk did not help one bit.
We finished eating and cleaned our plates which consisted of throwing them away because they were plastic. If plastic is made from petroleum and petroleum is where we get gas then wouldn’t it make sense not to make things out of plastic so gas would cost like, what, ten cents a gallon?
SOUNDS REASONABLE.
Unless plastic is just a byproduct in the production of gas. If that’s the case those guys are making some serious coin!
“Okay, were heading out” said George as he and Vivian made for the door.
“Tell Nat I said ‘Hi’” said Trudy.
“Okay, we should be back in a couple of hours, call us you need anything” said Vivian.
They left to meet up with the Detective and find out more of what they could about the land deal involving Peter North, Bob Simpson and Steve What’s-his-name. They couldn’t do it at my place because I had none of the equipment necessary for information gathering such as a computer, home phone or even a telephone book. I, like the rest of my generation, no longer used anything other than a cellphone because, quite frankly, home phones became nothing more than an inconvenient annoyance about a decade before. The home phone companies messed it up and they’ve got no one to blame but themselves. If your product does nothing more than allow total strangers the opportunity to bug your customers at the most inappropriate times then the product is destined for the junk heap. Maybe it’s because they saw the future and realized they would no longer be necessary so they made the most money they could in the time they had left. Maybe it’s because they didn’t judge Human reaction correctly. Either way, once they let the telemarketers in, they were out.
“Okay, Johnny, come with me” the red-headed, green-eyed Aphrodite said.
“Aw, do I have to?” I replied like a thirteen year old spoiled brat.
“No, Johnny, you don’t have to, it’s up to you” she replied.
Now, we all know it was not up to me. Okay, intellectually one could say it was up to me but the reality of the situation was the opposite. There was absolutely no way I was going to tell a women who looked like Trudy I was not going into a room with her and let her do whatever it was she wanted with me. I wasn’t made that way. I was made in the image of Average Man and Average Man will do exactly as Beautiful Woman wants even if Average Man thinks Beautiful Woman is a complete lunatic.
“Okay, let’s get this over with” I said and saw out of the corner of my eye Phillip grinning because he knew exactly what the reality of the situation was.
“Okay, sit right here” Trudy said and I complied.
She pulled out her necessary equipment and began working on me.
“Is this going to hurt?”
“No, it’s not going to hurt.”
“Is it going to take a long time?”
“Probably.”
“Then can you tell me more about Yin and Yang while you’re doing it?”
“Sure, where was I?”
“Yin met Merry Li.”
“Oh, yeah right. Well, this is actually kind of the good part of the story because… do you believe in love at first sight?”
“I believe it can happen, sure.”
“Well, it happened with Yin and Merri Li. From what I hear it was a remarkable set of circumstances which set up what was to be the greatest retribution my kind has ever witnessed because Merri Li wasn’t originally a member of Second Clan, Johnny, she was actually born Merry of First Clan, an illegitimate twin Vampire of the Elder Wolf and a Vamp looking to make her way up the hierarchy.”
“An illegitimate twin?”
“Yes, she was one of the daughters of a Wolf and Vampire who were not mated. The Vampire in question was named Joan and she was extremely ambitious but she had no wish to bide her time and work her way up the ladder to Matriarch so she chose a different route; a root she would later regret but a route nonetheless.”
“What route did she choose?”
“She chose to take a Wolf who was already mated and conspired to remove the other Vampire and take her place at the top of the clan. This was before the Division and single family rule was still imposed. Nat told you about that right?
“What, the Division?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, he told me.”
“Well this was right before then and Joan tried to speed up her plans to be Matriarch but, unfortunately for her, she misjudged the Werewolf’s motives and got herself killed.”
“How did she get killed?”
“She was burned at the stake.”
“Hold on! Are we talking Joan of Arc here?”
“Yes, have you heard of her?”
“Of course I’ve heard of her, everyone’s heard of her. Why would you think…? Hold on. Have you been talking to Phillip?”
“Of course, Johnny, we’re mated, we always talk.”
“And he told you…?”
“Yes, and if it’s any consolation I didn’t think a Liberal Arts degree would become worthless either.”
“Thank you. You know, they really should explain it to incoming freshman.”
“I agree, it’s only the correct thing to do. So anyway, Joan had Merry and went to challenge for the Alpha’s hand in mate-hood…”
“The Alpha?”
“The Werewolf who impregnated Joan; Merry’s father.”
“Okay, go ahead.”
“So anyway, Joan went to challenge the Alpha’s mate but was rebuffed when she arrived.”
“Excuse me?”
“Yes?”
“I thought you said Werewolves and Vampires mated for life?”
“I did.”
“Then what’s with this ‘challenging the Alpha’s mate for his hand’ thing?”
“We
are mated for life but it doesn’t mean we cannot take another mate if our mated dies.”
“Huh?”
“If a Werewolf sires two young from two different Vampires he may choose to be mated with one or the other, or he may choose to mate with neither, either way he has to choose to be mated. Now, since our society is Matriarchal in nature a Werewolf would be a fool not to choose a mate because then he would find himself a Beta and never work his way up the hierarchy. The same is true of a Vampire.”
“Why? It’s a Matriarchy isn’t it? Doesn’t that mean Vampires rule?”
“Yes, it does, but remember the Matriarch of a family is the mate of the Alpha Wolf, a Wolf who is chosen by the other Wolves in the family so, in essence, the Matriarch is chosen by the Wolves.”
“Okay.”
“So, when Joan came up to challenge for the Alpha’s matehood two things could have happened; he could have accepted Joan or he could have kept his mate.”
“Why didn’t his mate just kick the cheater out?”
“Who, the Alpha?”
“Of course, the Alpha. Why didn’t his mate just kick him out or get the other Wolves to kill him or something? She was the Matriarch after all.”
“She could’ve but then she would’ve been giving up what he had to offer.”
“What did he have to offer?”
“A family and the Matriarch itself. Remember, the Matriarch is the mate of the Alpha Wolf so if she chose to kick him out she would no longer be mated to the Alpha, an Alpha which led the family in power at the time. So, in essence, if she chose to rid herself of him she would be giving up her position of power, something she did not wish to do.”
“So the Alpha held all the cards?”
“Yes and no. You see, he was still mated so he could not pick Joan unless his mate died.”
“What?”
“Joan would need to kill the Alpha’s mate if she wished to take her place.”
“That’s barbaric!”
“Yes, it is.”
“Hold on, why didn’t The Alpha just kill his mate?”
“Because it’s forbidden. Vampires are too important for the survival of the species to allow Wolves the right to kill them. Every Wolf in the clan would’ve gone after the Alpha if he had attempted it.”
“So what happened?”
“The Alpha spurned Joan, Joan became furious and led an uprising against him, he retaliated by accusing Joan of being a witch and Joan was burned at the stake by the very peasants she’d been leading in the revolt.”
“What?”
“This was the beginning of the middle ages where every peasant was living hand to mouth in horrible situations so Joan, a little mad and justifiably so, took advantage of the situation and began leading a revolution to overthrow those in power which, unfortunately for her, consisted of quite a few Superiors who decided it was bad enough they were being attacked for their prosperity but it was even worse being attacked by one of their own. So they allowed her to win a couple of battles…”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.”
“Yes?”
“Why would they allow her to win a couple of battles?”
“To set the stage for her defeat. Understand the time we’re talking about; everyone was walking around looking for the boogeyman to blame for all their ills. Well, what’s better than a witch if you can’t find a boogeyman? And what better way to prove she’s a witch than to let her win some battles against impossible odds and then plant the seeds she did so with supernatural help? It didn’t help her cause she went transparent a couple of times so when it finally appeared as though she was actually going to pull it off and the peasants were happy because they’d proven to the mean old rich people they needed more food and were willing to do something about it the Superiors got together, gave the peasants what they wanted and planted the seeds of doubt the person leading their rabble was, in reality, a witch who’d achieved her glory through evil ways.”
“And the peasants bought it?”
“Yes, and burned Joan where she stood.”
“’That’s awful!”
“What?”
“That they would burn her for being a witch.”
“Well, she was a Vampire. They may have gotten the classification a bit wrong but they were right she was employing supernatural abilities.”
“Oh, yeah, I kind of forgot about the Vampire thing. So what happened to Merry and her twin?”
“They were sent off to Second Clan to be raised as their own?”
“Why?”
“Because they were Vampires and therefore forbidden to be killed”
“Who said anything about killing? Why didn’t they raise them in one of the other clan families living there?”
“Because Isabella forbid it.”
“What? Who? Hold on. Isabella Satan?”
“Yes, Johnny, Matriarch of First Clan.”
“Then the Alpha was…?”
“Lucifer Satan; Alpha Wolf and Elder of First Clan.”
Dallas has lived with a reputation it no longer resembles; a bunch of white cowboys walking around with six-shooters on their hips punching cattle. I myself have never seen cattle within the confines of Dallas but maybe I’ve been looking in the wrong places. Maybe they’re hiding low, biding their time, until they can sneak out and exact a little revenge on the men in the ten-gallon hats who apparently were using them as sparring partners. I also haven’t seen a lot of strapped-down firearms while wandering the great city. Maybe they too are in hiding, although why you’d need to hide if you’re carrying a loaded weapon is beyond me. Maybe they’re afraid of the cops, who probably don’t like to see cow-assaulting, ten-gallon-hat wearing men walking around their fair city looking like John Wayne in a spaghetti western. I don’t know. But I do know I’ve seen white men… and white women… and black, brown, yellow and whatever other color Humans can come up to differentiate themselves. Dallas is one of the most integrated cities in the world and it’s because of one very important thing; commerce. Dallas was built on the economy and if there is anything which is true it’s people of all races and genders like the color of money. So they come to Dallas because it offers what many other cities do not; a place where there is no inherent culture except for commerce. So if you produce commerce you are more than welcome to join in. Why does Dallas have the reputation it does?
PROBABLY BECAUSE OF THAT STUPID TELEVISION SHOW.
Because we were on the wrong side of a war and we lost. We chose the slavery side and have been living with the ignorant decision for generations. Do we have bigotry?
I HEAR YOU DO.
You’re dang poopin’ we do! What big city doesn’t?
GOOD POINT.
Doesn’t make everyone down there a moron.
“Wow! Looking good, Johnny!”
“Shut up, Phillip.”
“Did you do something with your hair, Johnny?”
“Shut up, George.”
“I think you look good, Sweetie.”
“I don’t know how to respond to that, Vivian.”
“Johnny?”
“Yes, Trudy?”
“Good luck.”
Vivian and I were trying out something new the great city of Dallas had recently begun to offer; public transportation. We were riding the rail-line which had opened near my apartment about six months before and were taking it to our downtown destination. We figured even if we missed our drop-off spot we would still be able to beat the time it would take for George to do so by truck and freeway so we paid our money, hopped aboard the light-rail train, sped away and sat back to watch the view as I peppered Vivian with about a thousand questions about what I should do or say if confronted with a question I had no ability whatsoever to answer.
“What if they ask my name?”
“Just smile.”
“What if they ask what I’m doing there?”
“Just smile and give them a card.”
“What if they threaten to shoot me?”
“Just smile, give them a card and run away.”
“Thanks for all the helpful advice there, Vivian.”
“You’re welcome, Sweetie.”
The light rail we were travelling on was a new concept for Dallas because the city had never really tried to do anything different than build more freeways in order to deal with the problem of urban congestion. Dallas’ population exploded around the same time the interstate highway system was being built so the city merely used what the federal government was providing for free and grew up around the confounded pathways of tourist torture. Now, the good thing about Dallas at the time was it was abundant in the one resource necessary for those concrete raceways; land. Dallas had land available for its expansion in any direction and, if it chose to do so, could easily have grown to be one of the largest cities in the world but about the same time the interstate highway system was being built another, somewhat related item came into play; suburbia. The interstates allowed people who wished to use the abundant resources of Dallas for their occupational and recreational pleasure the opportunity to do so without the added inconvenience of paying for it. Now they could travel to work at a central location where their productivity could remain high because they were surrounded by other businesses they either worked with or sought to learn from and return home at night to a community which didn’t need to burden itself with the costs associated with having businesses in their midst’s. They didn’t need a whole lot of roads, they didn’t need a large police force, they didn’t need a bunch of firemen and they sure didn’t need a hospital when they had one a mere twenty minutes away by freeway.
Okay, Dallas should’ve been forward thinking in their view of what the future would entail, but it wasn’t, so instead of annexing the land around it and paying the farmers and ranchers the blackmailingly large sums of money they demanded for their acres of dry grass and dirt, Dallas allowed some downright ingenious private developers to come along and give those farmers and ranchers just about anything they wanted because they knew the weary workers of Dallas would happily fork out a tidy sum of money for the privilege of living as far away as possible from the growing population of immigrants and laborers who were flowing into the city daily. Those suburban communities grew into towns and eventually cities and they are what make up the bulk of the population people imagine when they think of Dallas today. Now, please don’t think I look poorly on the people of suburbia for doing what they did for it was, after all, the intelligent thing to do. I mean, why pay for a hospital if you can use your neighbor’s for free?
I WOULDN’T.
I wouldn’t either. So the governing counsel of Dallas either couldn’t or wouldn’t pay for annexation so the outside suburbs grew and voted themselves cities with the ability to tax their citizens for the use of police, firemen and roadways. Uh-huh, the exact thing the people were running away from was following them there; other people.
“We’re here, Sweetie!”
“I hate this idea.”
“But it’ll work.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t still hate the idea.”
It is a vast and varied group who make up the population of Dallas but, by far, the largest growing sector comes from those of the Southern Hemisphere. It kind of makes sense since they share a southern border and all and, I’ve got to say, I’m looking forward to whatever culinary delights the new neighbors from down the way are bringing with them. But they don’t only have Mexicans and El Salvadorans and Venezuelans, no, they also have a wide variety of people from other parts of the world.
“Vivian?”
“Yes, Sweetie?”
“If this doesn’t work…?”
“It’ll work .”
“Yes, but if it doesn’t would you do me a favor?”
“Sure, Johnny, what?”
“Would you please look up whoever was my guidance counselor in college and punch them in the face for me?”
“You got it, Sweetie, now let’s get in there and catch us some bad guys.”
