by Roy Bright
She looks across the table at her friends and stares at them.
Danny nudges her with his elbow and, smiling, asks, “Penny for them.”
“What?” she replies, turning toward him and frowning.
“Your thoughts – a penny for your thoughts, babe.”
The left corner of her mouth rises a little as she shakes her head and stares at the table.
Concerned, he lifts her head back up with his right thumb and index finger and stares into her eyes. “Babe, what is it? What’s the matter?”
She snorts a tiny laugh and puts both her hands around his. “It’s nothing important, sweetie, I am just a little anxious about tonight’s training session is all. No need for you to be concerned.” Regaining her composure and not wanting to engage in this conversation further she switches her demeanor from dour to that of charming and playful. Smirking, she adds, “Don’t you worry your gorgeous big fat head about it baby, your girlfriend is fine.”
He gives her a playful look, pretending to be offended. “Excuse me young lady, my big fat head? I’ll have you know my head is anything but fat. Large, inflated, and egotistical it may be, but fat? Absolutely not you cheeky thing.” He laughs, and Charlotte laughs back and leans into him, kissing him on the lips.
He smiles while kissing her back, “Now this is more like it. How does my big fat head taste?”
They laugh while still locked in their embrace.
Chanelle raises a hand to her mouth and coughs into it. “Some of us are, like, eating, here.”
Her playful and sarcastic interruption causes them to giggle and over-exaggerate their embrace.
“Oh please,” Chanelle, says, rolling her eyes, “will you two just get a goddamn room?”
Amber pipes up, adding to the conversation with her mimicked southern-belle accent, “And if you would be so kind, child, as to let me know when you do get your room, that would be just divine – I so would like to keep your purddy father company in ma own special way.” She winks lasciviously.
“Amber, not again!” Charlotte says, “Enough now!”
Amber sticks her tongue out between her teeth and giggles, “He is just so fine girl.”
Amy squeals with laughter from her position next to Amber, while at the same time banging the table with her hand. Most of the diner’s occupants to turn their attention toward her, curious.
Charlotte rolls her eyes and sighs, “Yeah, but he is too much crazy for you to handle missy-madam so I wouldn’t go barking up that particular tree.” She winks at Amber.
This only serves to encourage her further as she repeats over and over, “Oh Mr Hope,” while running her hands over her body in a provocative manner.
“Oh my God!” Charlotte says, shaking her head. She turns to her right and spies the large clock on the wall just above where Seamus now stands, yet again grumbling to a customer. “Oh my god!” she screams, standing up, nudging the table as she does causing the crockery to rattle and tinkle, her eyes never leaving the clock on the wall. “I am so late and so dead. My dad’s gonna kill me.”
Danny reaches out for her hand, “It’s okay babe, I’ll drive you hom—”
He is unable to finish his sentence when the door to O’Malley’s opens with such a crash, that it causes most of the occupants to turn and stare.
Judas stands in the doorway. He looks angry, his gaze fixed on Charlotte. He says nothing. He just raises his right hand and jabs his thumb backward.
She winces and looks down at Danny, then at her other friends around the table and back to Danny again. She smiles and purses her lips. “It’s okay, my dad will take me. Assuming he doesn’t kill me on the way, that is.” She laughs a small nervous chuckle and then smiles once more, a small tear beading in the corner of her eye. “I am gonna miss you, all of you.” She bends down, kisses a confused Danny, and walks away briskly, her gaze lowered.
Chanelle stares at Danny, and then raises her hands. “What the hell was that? What does she mean she will miss us all? What the hell’s going on, Danny?”
“As if I have a fucking clue, Chanelle. That has just knocked me for a home run also. Is she going somewhere guys?”
Amy rises to her feet and jabs a finger at him. “Well, go after her and find out what the hell is going on.”
“Fuck that!” he says, shaking his head, “I ain’t chasing after her with her dad there, no way.”
“Well we can’t just leave it like this, Danny,” Amy says, “I have a really bad feeling about how she just said goodbye to us.”
“Agreed,” says Amber, getting to her feet, “we have to go after her, all of us.”
They argue among themselves, the girls trying to convince Danny to go with them and see Charlotte at her home; him arguing back that it would be a bad idea to upset what seems like an already infuriated Mr Hope. As they squabble, Jonny returns from his bathroom visit, stuffing a piece of pie into his mouth. He shakes his head and, while still gorging on the dessert, declares, “What the fuck is going on? I leave you gimps for five minutes and you all lose your collective shit.”
Five
Charlotte sits in quiet contemplation in the passenger seat of Judas’ car, staring out of the window and lost in her own world as mid-west farmland scenery rolls by. Her thoughts wander to the first time she met the man she would come to call her father and how she had done the very same thing on that day – stared out of the window as he had tried to find them a place to hunker down for the night, running from the demons Kento and Masakai. The memory makes her smile and she laughs a little.
He looks to his right. “What’s so funny, little lady?”
She looks at him for a moment and then smiles. “First off, tell me you’re no longer mad at me and that you forgive me for being late.”
He wobbles his jaw from side to side and tries to stifle a smile, then looks back at the road ahead. “When have I ever been able to stay mad at you, baby-girl?” He glances at her and laughs.
She laughs back, reaching down, and grabbing his hand. “Never daddy, you have never been able to stay mad at me.” She smiles at him once again. “I am sorry for being late though, I just lost track of time. I was having the… internal ethical dilemma thing again.”
He sighs, “We have been through this a hundred times sweetie—”
“I know, I know,” she interrupts. “They are not real, they’re just game characters or whatever,” she says, her face doleful, “but I’m gonna miss them anyway.”
Tears well up in her eyes. She lets go of his hand and goes back to looking out of the window.
He reaches out to her and places a hand on her shoulder, his attention switching between her and the road. “I know, sweetie, I know, but you are more important to the world than this little distraction we created for you. It’s time to help real people now sweetie.”
“I know, dad,” she glances at him. “I know.”
He curls up his bottom lip and goes back to concentrating on the road ahead.
For the rest of the journey, neither speaks.
Six
Still having trouble with Charlotte’s parting statement, Danny runs her words through his mind, trying to make sense of them. What the hell did she mean by that, ‘I am gonna miss you, all of you’? Where the hell is she going? She never mentioned anything about going anywhere, what the fuck is going on?
Chanelle snaps her fingers in front of his face. “Hey Mr-bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed, snap out of it. We need to go see her because I for one am feeling very anxious about this. So get your goddamn keys, Fitzpatrick, and drive us out to the farm.”
He looks at her vacant and expressionless, still locked in his internal monologue.
“Now Danny!” she snaps, slapping his forehead.
He stands quickly, glaring at her.
“Hey, don’t do that, okay? I heard you the first time. Why don’t you take your own car?”
“What’s the point?” she replies, “I gotta come back into town for my evening shift at
the bowling alley, and you live at this end of town, so… look, let’s just get into your truck and get out there and see what is going on with the girl. I know you want to know as much as we do.”
“I can’t fit us all in Chanelle,” he says.
Amber shakes her head, an apologetic smile across her face, “Jonny and I can’t come with you guys, I am so sorry. We have to babysit my little brother as my mom and dad are going to the theater tonight.” She shrugs to reinforce the lack of choice she has in the matter.
“Yeah man,” Jonny says, smiling and winking at Danny, “we have to stay in and… babysit.”
Danny shakes his head, “Dude, you can be such a fucking tool at times.” He looks at Amy.
“Hey, I’m in,” she says, grabbing her things.
Danny rubs the top of his head, “Okay you lot, let’s go.”
They walk out of the door leaving a stunned Jonny at the table, stung by Danny’s chastisement.
Amber turns to give him a withering look. “He’s right,” she says softly, “you really are a fucking tool sometimes.”
Seven
The sun starts its slow descent and a gentle breeze works its way across the fields surrounding Hope Farm as birds chatter, ready to nest at the end of the warm June day. Grinding heavy metal music erupts, shattering the peace and tranquility as Judas walks out of the house carrying a large CD player and heads into a field where Charlotte is completing her stretches. He sets the sound system down on the ground and smiles, and then points to a pair of katanas embedded in a tree stump, swaying slightly in the light wind. “Okay, pick ’em up, it’s time to do this.”
Charlotte completes the leg stretch that she is midway through and grabs the black handles, twirling the swords forward in each hand. They swish through the air and she then brings them down to her side, drawing in a deep breath.
The heavy metal music’s aggression subsides, having settled into the song’s opening verse, its dynamics serving as the perfect lull for him to converse with her.
“Okay,” he says, “this is all-out, no holding back and no daddy–daughter shit. You fight to kill me, and I will be doing the same to you. This is the final test, your final chance to show me you have what it takes to not only heal the world but also defend it.”
“I hear ya old man,” she says, mocking him “I hope you’ve brought your A-Game.”
He smirks, “Yeah, we’ll see.”
The songs opening verse is almost over, the band ready to erupt into the chorus and it’s the moment he has been waiting for. He holds out his hands and the Katanas of Destiny appear, forming handle to tip as though being drawn by an invisible artist. He grins. “Are you ready?”
She grins back, “Are you?”
The song explodes into the chorus and they do likewise, running at each other.
He is the first to strike, being the faster of the two. He slices at her head with his right sword, forcing her to bend backward, the blade just missing her nose.
She returns to an upright position and counters, swinging her right sword at him. However, her blade meets his, metal resounding against metal as he spins 180 degrees, the right blade vertical against his back.
With no effort to himself, he flicks the sword upward with such force that it causes her to stagger back and strikes with his left-hand blade.
Anticipating the move, she blocks with her right sword and then twists her wrist to the right and pushes down, bringing both hers and Judas’ swords to the ground.
Embedding his right sword into the soil, he uses it as leverage and kicks out at her chest, sending her sprawling.
Coupled with the force of his kick and her own agility, she back-flips away from him, her gymnastics training serving well in removing herself from the danger, nimble in escaping his threat as he chases, his swords circling in front of him.
He ceases and changes his attack just as she completes her last flip, bringing both swords down hard and fast toward her head.
Raising hers up and blocking the power attack, they lock in a quivering cross for a few seconds, him bearing down on her, his outright power causing her to slide her right leg back in an attempt to gain greater stability.
He breathes out hard and grins, pushing down with greater force, his strength overpowering her.
Knowing that she must react or he will gain the upper hand, she shifts her weight, falling onto her back and using both of her legs throws him over her. Following the move through, she rolls over and onto her feet, spinning around to face Judas who has himself rolled forward and onto his own feet.
The songs first chorus is over and the dynamic changes again, dropping down into a more restrained verse.
He turns around and smiles at her, nodding his head, his mouth tight lipped, indicating his pleasure with her last move to get out of danger. He rotates the blades through the air and takes a deep breath.
Neither speak. They circle one another, eyes locked, each trying to figure out the next move, their swords ready.
Judas breaks the silence. “You defend well and have a knack for escape. However, the demons sent to kill you will more often than not outmatch you in strength, so you must in turn outwit them with speed. This time, I want you to be on the offensive more and show me how fast I know you are.”
The verse is almost at an end and she raises her swords, readying to engage him again.
***
Danny stops his pick-up about 800 yards from Hope Farm. Taking a deep breath, he removes his keys from the ignition and starts to get out. Chanelle interrupts him.
“Er, hey! Why not just drive up to the house and save us all a walk?”
He looks at her while shaking his head. “What, and have her dad come racing out of the house to kick my ass? One, he doesn’t seem to like me, and two, he appears to be in one shitter of a mood. No thanks Chanelle, I would rather take the more tactful approach and sneak up to her room where I might – might – just get a chance to talk to her without getting a beating.”
“Don’t be stupid,” she replies, “Mr Hope wouldn’t beat you up, he’s more about the intimidation than actual violence.”
“Well, honey,” he says getting out of the car, “he seems to do that pretty damn well also, because he intimidates the shit outta’ me.”
“Ah baby,” Amy says, mocking him as she jumps out of the car.
Danny seems unimpressed. “Look, you’re girls and I’m a guy. The rules are different for how daddies treat their little girl’s girlfriends, and how they treat their little girl’s boyfriends. Two completely different scenarios – trust me.” He sets off through a small group of trees leading up to the farm, and the girls share a look and then trudge after him.
Amy groans. “Are we there yet?”
This causes Chanelle to burst into laughter, but the amusement’s not shared with Danny as he turns and scowls at her, and then forges ahead.
The girls chat as they walk, picking up flowers at random and forming them into small bunches. They giggle among themselves, bumping into each other and then stepping apart as they make their way through the small wooded area leading up to the backfield of Charlotte’s farm.
As they approach a break in the trees, allowing the farm to become visible, Danny drops to his knees and shushes them. He holds his right hand out behind him, motioning for them to drop down into cover.
They do, more out of surprise than the understanding of why and then creep toward him while keeping low.
“What the hell, man?” Chanelle says as she flicks a bug away from her ear. “What’s the problem?”
“There,” he says, pointing into the field ahead.
“What the fuck!” Amy says, her brow furrowed as she follows Danny’s finger.
All three look on as Charlotte and her dad engage in their aggressive swordplay.
Danny shakes his head, “Man, they are really going at it.” He turns around to face the girls. “Did you two know she did this?” They shake their heads at him in unison, the shock on
their faces convincing him that this is brand new information to them as well.
Turning his attention back to the field, he sees that they seem to be at a lull in the action and are pacing in a circle, staring at each other. He laughs. More nervous than amused. “This is nuts.” He shakes his head, “I would have never thought she could do this and damn she’s good at it.”
The girls join him in nervous laughter, both moving forward on their knees to get a better look.
“Man, that guy loves his heavy metal,” Danny says, laughing once again. Chanelle is about to say something as he cuts her short. “Oh, hang on – they’re going for it again.”
***
Taking his advice, Charlotte blazes into the round with speed.
Their blades clash and spark as she strikes at him, trying to work an opening in which to pierce his defenses. The ferocious tempo at which they fight serves to demonstrate the level of skill each of them possesses. As good a swordsman as he is, she is proving to be his equal, at least in terms of swordplay rather than brute strength, and that causes a swell of pride within him. He has spent the last ten years training her to be this good, knowing that in this period of humankind’s history, she must have more to offer than just words alone, just as Jesus had. In this time, in the Armageddon that humanity faces, she must become a beacon of strength as well as a tower of compassion. She must be one worthy of following in order for the evil to be defeated.
He feels his concentration waning as he admires her swordplay, and that lack of focus gets confirmed as she cuts him.
