by Tony C. Skye
* * *
“Hi! Glad you could make it!”
Julianna looks upward. Alexandria is standing at the edge of the high dive.
Julianna holds up her Crown Royal bag and a shot glass.
“Let’s see it,” Julianna hollers back.
“Show her, babe!”
Julianna looks into the pool as she lowers her arms. David is watching his girlfriend with a knowing anticipation. Julianna looks back up. Alexandria closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She exhales slowly. When she opens her eyes again, Julianna can see that Alexandria is all business.
Alexandria looks at the water and then straight ahead. She bounces once and then pops the board as she springs into the air. Julianna’s mouth opens in disbelief as Alexandria acrobats her way into the water. As her arms come together, the blond parts the water with the upmost graceful of intrusions.
Alexandria’s head surfaces in front of her boyfriend. Her arms wrap around his thick neck.
“Damn woman,” David adores, “You’re a badass.”
Julianna walks around the backside of the diving boards to join Gale and Jason lounging in their chairs. She pulls her prize from the pesky purple bag, tosses the bag on the ground, pulls the cap, pours a shot, and downs it before sitting on a lawn chair.
“Rough day?”, Gale teases.
“Ready to party,” Julianna informs while sitting her supply on the table by her chair.
“I second that,” Jason holds up his beer and guzzles the bottle dry.
Julianna smiles and looks over at Alexandria, “What was that dive?”
Alexandria wraps her right arm around her boyfriend’s neck and repositions herself so she can see Julianna better.
“It was a forward two and a half somersault, one twist in the pike position,” Alexandria informs.
“I have no idea what you just said,” Julianna admits, “But I’ll pay you to train me.”
Alexandria glances at Gale before looking at Julianna with a slight smile, “Let me think about it.”
Julianna nods. She watches as Alexandria maneuvers herself behind her boyfriend and gently kicks on his back, “Your turn.”
David laughs as his body is gently nudged forward by his girlfriend. He looks at the diving boards, “You people haven’t seen nothing like me.”
“He’s got that right,” Gale quietly comments.
Julianna pours another shot as David swims for the ladder by the diving boards.
Alexandria swims to the opposite end of the pool and lifts herself out. She turns and sits her buttocks on the concrete pool’s edge. The woman makes brief eye contact with Julianna before looking at her boyfriend.
When Gale sees an opening – whenever Alexandria’s attention is on her boyfriend – she leans over and speaks quietly to Julianna.
“She was all-state in high school our freshman year. She was geared for competition diving, but then had that aneurism. The damage made her a liability. They wanted to keep her on as a trainer, but she couldn’t handle it. Said it always reminded her of what could have been, but will never be.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have asked. I didn’t know,” Julianna says with a regretful tone, “Should I go over and talk to her?”
“No,” Gale confirms, “She’ll let you know. Just let it ride. I haven’t seen her enjoy herself like this in a long time; at least, not with her true love – the pool. It’s a nice change.”
Julianna nods her compliance on the matter before throwing back another shot. She sits the shot glass on the stand between her and Gale. Julianna leans back and watches as David climbs the top most diving board.
Gale looks around the pool area and notices someone is missing from their little party, “Where’s Eric?”
“He’s in the washroom freaking out about how ugly I am,” Julianna blatantly says.
Gale sits up, “What? What did he say?”
Julianna looks over at Gale. The nurse seems like she’s ready for war.
“Relax,” Julianna says calmly, “It’s no biggie. We’re just not meshing. It’s all good.”
“It’s not good if he said something like that,” Gale counters.
“No worries” Julianna says, “It happens sometimes. No chemistry.”
“Chemistry?”, Gale questions with a slightly calmer tone, “Is that all it is?”
“Yep. That’s it. We don’t have it.”
Gale looks over to the washroom area as Eric makes his debut into the entrance way.
“You sure?”, she questions while trying to stare a hole through Eric.
Julianna glances from Gale to Eric. She looks up at the diving board where David is.
“I’m sure. He’s done nothing wrong. I’d rather have an honest answer than to believe a lie.”
“So he told you that you were ugly?”
“It was an intuition thing. He never said anything like that. Just a chemistry thing.”
“He better not have said anything like that,” Gale answers. She grabs her Long Island Ice Tea and takes a few sips from her straw.
“Now here’s how it’s done!”
Julianna watches as David makes his boastful proclamation to announce his forthcoming dive. She finds it difficult to believe that he could top what she seen from Alexandria. She waits patiently as the man mimics Alexandria’s deep breath and exhales. David jumps, pops the board, and flies into the air. He enters into a cannonball formation as his body begins rotating in reverse. Julianna covers her mouth with her left hand. David extends his body. The hostess glances at Alexandria. The blond partially covers her eyes with her right hand.
Pop!
David lands a perfect belly flop into the water.
“Serves you right!”, Gale yells out.
Alexandria immediately jumps in the water after him.
David glares as he forces his way towards the pool’s edge. Alexandria helps him over, climbs out, and positions herself to help him out of the water. David takes hold of her hands, smiles, and pulls. Alexandria falls into the pool. She resurfaces and quickly shoves her boyfriend’s head under the water. His arms flail instinctively as she takes him by surprise. When Julianna sees his arms disappear into the water, a moment later, Alexandria is yanked under the water’s surface. When she emerges, her arms are wrapped around her boyfriend’s neck. They look into each other’s eyes before kissing.
“Some might say that there’s a certain amount of unhealthiness to that relationship,” Gale quietly teases.
Julianna smiles as she reaches for her liquor. She pours herself a shot and looks over at Eric. He is sitting at the pool’s edge where Alexandria attempted to help David out of the pool.
“Where’s your glass?”, Julianna loudly calls out.
Eric looks at her and forces a faked smile. He gets up, walks into the washroom, and returns again – glass in hand. Julianna motions him over. As he arrives, he holds out his glass. Julianna fills it, sits the bottle down, and picks up her shot glass. She clinks his glass.
“Friends?”
Eric smiles, “Friends.” He puts the glass to his lips and downs the liquid. His eyes do not water. His throat doesn’t burn, and his recent anxiety has slipped away. He sits the glass on the table.
“I didn’t know you had it in you,” Justin admires his younger brother’s handling of the liquor.
Eric looks over. His alcohol induced stupor causes him to sport an awkward grin.
Justin laughs.
Gale’s boyfriend holds up his bottle of beer, “Cheers.”
Julianna notices that Eric’s eyes are reflecting a strange new respect that he has been given by his older brother. His brown eyes are appreciative and proud.
“How about taking an ugly girl swimming?”
Eric’s newfound pride quickly vanishes as he looks at the lawn chair housing Julianna. She stands. He opens his mouth to explain, but is silenced by her left hand as it covers his lips.
“If I wanted to hear lies, I would ask you to tell me the why
s.”
He stares into her green eyes as her hand leaves his lips, “Friends don’t lie to one another.”
“But…”
Julianna grabs Eric’s right hand. He silences once more as she escorts him to the diving boards. Julianna releases his hand and points at the ascension ladder leading to the mid-range board.
“Penance.”
Eric grins. He nods and begins climbing. Julianna watches as he makes the climb.
Justin leans over and speaks quietly in Gale’s left ear, “I don’t think he should do the dive. He’s not a very good swimmer.”
“Shhh…”, Gale pushes her boyfriend’s face away.
Eric finishes his climb and edges himself to the board’s edge. It’s not as wobbly as he had envisioned. He looks into the water. The height seems different up here than it appears from the ground looking up. His heart begins racing. He is finding it hard to breathe. He shakes his head and turns around. Julianna is standing on the ladder preventing any retreat.
“You back out on this,” Julianna playfully threatens, “You back out on our friendship.”
“Don’t be a wuss!”
Julianna recognizes the voice as belonging to David. She watches as Eric nervously turns and looks back into the pool. She can see the intensity in his legs as he struggles to fight his fleeting urge.
“I’ve got you if something happens.”
Eric looks at the woman next to David. He has heard of her skills from his brother. She has reassuring confidence about her. He looks into her eyes and nods. Eric looks directly below the board. He doesn’t bounce the board; instead, he elects to fall forward with his arms outstretched above his head like he has seen in diving photos. He closes his eyes as his body falls prey to the gravity around him. His scrawny body begins rotating. He opens his eyes and screams.
Pop!
Eric grunts as the water feels like a brick smashing into his back. He can’t breathe.
“Dammit,” Justin panics. He jumps up from his lounging chair and rushes to the pool with Gale close behind. David and Alexandria are already at his brother’s side by the time her gets to the pool’s edge. He waits as they escort his younger brother. Justin lifts him out and lays him on the concrete edge. Gale kneels down and begins examining him. A few moments later, Gale stands up and smiles.
“His fine,” she explains, “Had the wind knocked out of him.”
Eric sits up. He notices a large hand and looks up. His brother Justin is staring down at him. He takes hold of his brother’s hand and is pulled to his feet effortlessly. Justin pats him on the back.
“The things we do for chicks.”
Eric grins knowingly as his brother’s hand playfully rubs the top of his head.
“You go girl. I’m here for you.”
Everyone turns their attention to the mid-range diving board. Julianna looks at Alexandria.
“You better be,” Julianna says with a follow-up smile.
Julianna puts her arms out in front of her. Alexandria pushes on her boyfriend’s left shoulder in anticipation. She knows good form when she sees it. She watches as Julianna lowers her arms, springs the board, and pops it.
Julianna flies into the air. Her body forms a ninety-degree angle as it begins rotating in reverse. A moment later, Julianna’s body extends with her hands outstretched over her head. The water barely notices her intrusion as she head dives into its existence. When she surfaces, she hears clapping and cheering. She looks at Alexandria.
“Okay,” Alexandria says with a big smile, “I’ll train you. Free if you let me swim here whenever I want.”
Julianna happily agrees.
* * *
Chapter 15
Interlude
For the next few months, Julianna’s new friends make themselves known on a regular basis. Alexandria is the frequent in the equation with at least one visit every week. Julianna’s diving skills have improved tremendously with the blond nurse’s guidance. And with her friends making frequent visits, she has grown quite close to them with Alexandria and Gale at the top of the list.
Julianna experimented with Eric a little bit, but the feelings are not there. For him they are, but not for her. And this is a real problem. He is too nice. He keeps reminding her of the boyfriend she could have, but will never have because of an argument and a car wreck. He reminds her of Johnathan.
Instead of leading Eric on, however, she has elected to the maintenance of their friendship above the apparent disastrous romance looming overhead. Thankfully, Eric has taken this notion with both respect and stride. He has not forced the issue whatsoever. And because of this, they have become decent friends. In her opinion, a guy-friend like Eric is hard to find. Most guys can’t handle any sort of action that appeals to their ego as being some sort of demotion. But therein – inside of the cocoon spun to yield only destruction – is the problem. It isn’t a demotion, but a promotion – friendship over the loss of all communication due to the inevitable breakup. The absence of romantic chemistry is not some kind of evil which should be attacked; but rather, its absence is only a flag that points to the potential nature of a friendship.
On the other side of the two co-existing realms, things are moving much smoother for Julianna. Lilith has taught her how to fight. Not in the physical sense, but within the realm of mental warfare. This teaching is not only great for that side of the two realms, but within the physical place where she truly lives her life, her mind now seems stronger than ever.
Lilith has explained that any physical training would be pointless. Her spiritual body is tied to her physical body; since, she yet lives. This means her spiritual body will not have the muscle memory that is learned from those of the dead. That is, physical training is indeed a minute point for her.
Spirit-souls and demons, on the other hand, they do fight physically. But they are irrelevant to Julianna’s presence. The demons have been ordered to keep their disgusting claws off of her by their king. Spirit-souls are pre-occupied by the tormenting nature of the demons in which they must live. They, also, tend to fight among each other quite a bit. With this being noted, she has a fallback if anything does go wrong – the ability to appear at the earth-line by Lilith’s wall. In fact, she has become so adept at it she no longer must close her eyes in order to do so.
Within the area of her studies, Julianna has dived into her work completely. She has undertaken the painstaking process of going through the red books. Every single word is written within the language of Lilith. There are no interpretations for reference. But on the flip side, this has caused her to become a linguistic-juggernaut within the very complicated tongue.
As for her castle-like mansion of a home, she had upgrades ordered to her house months ago. And after those upgrades were finished, Julianna had the distinct privilege of observing her friend’s awe-inspired faces as they each explored each room and floor together. Since Gale and Alexandria were not alone, however, Julianna made sure to instruct the staff accordingly. They were instructed to avoid any references to the term ‘Mother’.
Julianna, also, kept her guests from the creepy dungeon area. The extensive labyrinth underneath her home, she has not even walked and mapped yet. She has, however, seen the macabre torture chamber down there. Her skin crawls whenever she thinks about how her employees used to be punished for any insubordination. Guilty or not, there is no room for such cruel behavior in her home. As such, she put a stop to that sick and twisted practice immediately.
The butler in whom she first met; actually, turned out to be a really good guy. He is not at all the evil tyrant she had first envisioned him to be. He was following tradition and teaching as much as the victims he had made. He knew no better. How could he? He didn’t know Julianna or what she would expect of those living within her home. He only knew that which had been taught to him – as they all did.
The butler with blond hair has a boyish nature to him. Better than his nature, however, the butler has a wonderful quality about him – naivet�
� of the world outside of the Network. Everything he knows is about the Network. Because of this, Julianna can manipulate him as needed. And since the butler is fully trained to an expert level of the art of Jeet-Kune-Do, he qualifies for her security team. He has minimal understanding, however, of the handling of firearms – a must have skill for all security team members.
This is why she has sent him away to learn this very thing. She has made it quite clear to Frank that her butler will be the leader of her personal guard, as it were. And to her delight, Frank is doing everything he can to ensure that the rules and regulations are both followed and met per Network standard. After all, this is the only way that Julianna gets to pick and choose who will be on her team.
Julianna could have allowed the current team to fall where the Network would have them, but she doesn’t operate like that. Instead, Julianna has promoted them to serve at her home. The current team leader will be in charge of her home’s security. His income will increase by seventy-five thousand per year with an annual raise of five-thousand dollars. This applies until the year he wishes to retire. All other current team members will undergo the same type of treatment; however, they will not be receiving the high standards that their team leader will be receiving.
As for the Network community in general, Julianna has been making herself well-known. After her father’s assassination, it hasn’t been all that difficult to do so. As some of the guys in the Network have expressed, she has the fortitude to both keep herself safe and to follow through with anything that might seem too difficult for any other normal girl. In other words, Julianna has a name for making the hard decisions and executing those decisions as needed. As for being normal, Julianna is just Julianna. She can’t help that there are so many females her age that still need to suck on a bottle. That’s not her problem. Executing the hard decisions is normal for her. It’s not that difficult. Make a decision and see it through. No wishy-washy crap to trudge through.
