by J. Naomi Ay
“Okay?”
“And Berk. I'm putting you to work now. I'm going to bring one of my associates with me. He will explain what we want to do and how we are going to do it. In the meantime, I need you to scope out some land in New Mishnah. Find me about fifty acres to build a complex of office and manufacturing. We can tear down existing if need be, yes?”
“Okay? Sir.”
“Good man. Come by my flat tomorrow and let me know what you have found.”
“Yes, Sir. I will.” The vid went dark.
“Who was that?” Luci demanded. “Who wants an audience with Yokaa and Merakoma? As if we all go about referring to kings by their first names. I want an audience with Yokaa, Berkie. Get me an audience too while you are at it.” She giggled and beckoned me back to bed.
“I've got a job,” I replied, looking at the blank vid with stunned amazement. “I'm going back to work!”
“Are you serious?”
“You heard him! He said he's putting me to work. I've got a job Luci!” I raced over to the bed and threw myself on her. “And things are going to get better now. Things are going to be a whole lot better for everybody.”
She started laughing. “How do you know? Who was that Berkie?”
“That was my best friend Senya,” I said and felt like crying.
“Senya?” She frowned and shook her wild red curls. “You’ve never told me about anybody named Senya. And what kind of best friend could he have been if he let you think he had died. Wait a minute here…” Her mouth fell open. “Wasn’t Senya the MaKennah’s nickname?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “You know that old pinup you have of the MaKennah giving the bear to the girl. The one that’s hanging on the wall in the baby’s room?”
“Yes?”
“I was the one who told him to give the bear to a girl. I'm the little boy right behind him, the boy wearing the blue baseball cap.”
“Really?” she gasped and jumped out of bed, pulling the blanket with her. She raced into the bedroom next door and stared at the pinup hanging above the empty crib.
“That’s me, Luci.” I gazed up at my twelve year old self, half hidden by Taner. “I was his best friend. I lived in the Palace with him for almost a year.”
Luci started to cry. “I can’t believe I never realized that was you. How many times did I look at this pinup and never saw you?” She turned suddenly, her eyes wide open, her nose as red as her hair. “What kind of job is he going to give you, Berkie?”
“I don’t know!”
“Blessed Saint,” she squealed and danced round. “He's really alive! You really know him! Is he going to pay you a lot?”
“I don’t know but I’ve got to call my dad. He wants his apartments ready tomorrow.”
We raced back to our bedroom and the vid.
“Berkie,” Luci cried. “Why didn't you tell me any of this before?”
“He was supposed to be dead, honey. Up until right now, it wouldn't have mattered.” I swallowed my excitement and lowered my voice as I rang my dad’s office at the Palace. I was working for the MaKennah now. I was back on Senya’s roller coaster and it was about to take me to heights I couldn’t even begin to imagine.
The next day I scouted out New Mishnah for property. There was a lot available, too much. Our country had been in a deep depression for more than ten years now. Unemployment was at more than fifty percent. Shops and restaurants had long since closed as food and consumer goods were scarce. Nearly every city looked like Old Mishnah.
I found exactly the property Senya was looking for and in a cruel twist of fate; it was the old Clock Tower Mall. The water and amusement parks were decrepit, twisted and rusted versions of their former selves. The mall had closed at least five years ago and was now inhabited by a city of homeless living in cardboard boxes in the former parking lots. The property had gone into foreclosure and then the bank holding the paper on it had also gone under. It was one of the many, many properties now owned by the bankrupt city of New Mishnah, acquired due to lack of payment on property taxes. Senya could probably buy the whole city if he wanted.
I spoke quietly to the City Manager and not mentioning my buyer, discussed the price the city was willing to take. Happy to get it off their hands and get it back on to taxpayer rolls, the city was willing to throw in an adjacent office building as well as the mall property.
“How many people do you think you will employ there?” the City Manager asked hopefully.
I had no idea but if Senya wanted fifty acres, probably a lot.
I called Luci and told her I would be home late as I needed to go to the Palace first. I wanted to make sure Senya's apartments were ready. Luci was still in a state of shock after my revelation last night.
“Can I come?” she begged.
“Not this time,” I said. “But if he's coming back to stay, I promise you will get a chance to meet him.”
“Oh Berkie, I love you, I love you.”
I wasn’t sure if she loved me as much as she loved the idea that I knew Senya.
The next morning, a limo came and took me to meet Senya's associate Thad at the property. We walked the campus and discussed what Senya wanted to do through a Universal Translator clipped to Thad’s belt.
“I can't believe what shambles this country is in,” Thad remarked, gazing up at the pitiful wreck of the Clock Tower Mall. “But I suppose we'll be able to hire people really cheap, get our labor costs down.”
“What exactly are we building?” I asked.
“I'll show you.” Thad pulled out a tablet and called up a website of SdK Corporation based in Kalika-hahr, Rozari. “A subsidiary of this.”
I was impressed. Senya's company was very large and had several divisions. Many people were employed by it. The hospitals were state of the art, the equipment very advanced. I could see why he wanted to bring all this to us but I was not sure if I was the one who would be able to do it.
I reflected on this as the limo pulled up in front of us. Since I had been unemployed for several years, I had no speeder. My father granted me the use of a limo to chauffeur Senya's friend and while at the Palace I had a new suit made which I was wearing now. Thad couldn’t tell I was living in near poverty.
“So you'll be able to do this. Right, Berkan?” Thad said, climbing into the back seat. “Gosh this is really nice.” He palmed the soft leather.
“Yes, of course I'll be able to do it,” I boasted, though I had no idea how.
“I'll be working closely with you on it. You can call me anytime and I think I'll be able to come over here if you need me.”
He must have sensed my hesitancy. “Ron trusts you, right?”
“Right.” I nodded and looked out the window at the rain splattering against the pane.
We approached the Palace from the north, soaring over the forest and into the courtyard.
“Wow, this place is something else,” Thad exclaimed. “What is it anyway? Like a Ritz-Carlton resort or something?”
“Pardon?”
“This hotel. It's really grand.”
The limo taxied to a stop and the door opened for us. I was anxious to see Senya again after all this time, to discuss all this with him and to be reassured by him that this was something I was capable of doing. After all these years of thinking he was dead, I had instantly reverted back to being dependent upon him and upon his opinion. How quickly I had become once again his servant.
“Hey, Berkan?” Thad stepped toward the door. “Isn't this where we are staying? Shouldn’t we get out here?”
“Yes, yes,” I said, pulling myself to my feet. We headed out across the courtyard to the Big House, the royal residence building and Senya's apartments. Last night, for the first time in nearly twenty years, I had come back here. It was both an odd and heady feeling.
“So how long have you known Ron?” Thad asked as we entered the marble foyer at the base of the building. He whistled through his teeth. “Is this real gold?”
“Everything is
real,” I said, leading him up the staircase. “I have known Senya since we were twelve. I lived here with him for almost a year.”
“You lived here, in this hotel?” Thad gasped.
We continued on to the third floor. A guard stood outside Senya's suite.
“Is His Royal Highness in?” I asked.
“Yes, Mr. Berkan. You are expected.”
“I don't think that translated right,” Thad mumbled, looking at his Universal Translator. “Whose room is this?”
“Come on, Thad.” I stood aside as the guard pushed open the great door and then I waved for Thad to follow me through.
The French doors leading out to the balcony were open and the wind and rain were blowing into the suite leaving puddles on the marble floors and soaking the ornate handmade wool rugs.
“What fool left the doors open?” I cried to no one in particular, racing over to slam the doors shut.
“This fool,” Senya replied bitterly. He was sitting out on the steps that led down to the beach. Dressed in an elegant blue uniform with an abundance of gold braid and trim, he sat there unbuttoned and soaked through to the skin. His hair was long and dripping wet, held back in a simple pony tail by a diamond studded barrette at the base of his neck. Of course he had no shoes on and a sweet smelling cigarette hung off his lip.
“Your Royal Highness.” I knelt on the wet marble.
“Ach fuck it, Berkie.” Senya waved his cigarette at me. “Get up or sit down. Go get yourself something to eat and get Thad a beer.”
“Could we at least go back inside? Come on now it's pouring down rain.”
“Yeah, alright,” Senya said and dragged himself to his feet. He had a near empty bottle of vodka with him. “Fuck it,” he swore again and smashed it against the side of the building.
We went inside and I headed to the fridge, picking up some bottles of beer for all of us. Thad stood by the door with a stunned expression on his face.
“Um, Ron,” he ventured and glanced quickly at me. “Um, what are you wearing?”
Senya let loose a string of obscenities and pulling off his jacket and sash, dropped them in a heap on the floor.
“Are those real diamonds on that?” Thad pointed at the back of Senya’s head.
“I told you, Thad,” I reminded him as I handed him a bottle of beer. “Everything here is real.”
Thad studied the bottle in his hand. “What brand is this?” He pointed at the label which bore the Eagle Coat of Arms. Everything that Senya touched had to bear his crest.
“MaKennah Beer,” I smirked and picked up Senya's jacket and sash from the floor. I took them into the wardrobe, placing them in the worn clothing pile and fetched Senya a clean, dry blouse. When I returned, Senya was sitting on a sofa with his feet up on the table.
“Did your audience not go well?” I held out the fresh silk blouse for him. He slipped off the wet one and gave it to me. Thad stared at the markings on Senya's arm, the scars on his back.
“What the heck happened to you?” Thad pointed.
“Fuck off,” Senya swore yet again and took a long pull on his bottle of beer. “Sit!” He pointed at the couch. Thad and I immediately sat.
“Do you want to tell me what happened, Sir?”
“Ach, Berk,” he said and started to rant in Karupta which neither Thad's translator nor I could process.
“Come again?” I asked when he ceased his tirade and settled down, lying on the sofa, his eyes shining on the ceiling, his feet dangling over the arm rest. Thad looked at me with wide, curious eyes.
“Do you want to tell me now in Mishnese, Sir?”
“I just want to be left alone,” Senya muttered, drunkenly slurring his words. “I just want to do what I want to do.”
“What is that you want to do?”
He sighed heavily. “I've got one girl, Berk. That's all. I don't need two or twenty or forty-two. I don't need a fucking harem. I just want this one.”
“Okay,” I said. “Good. You’ve got a girl. May I ask, is she Mishnese or Karupta?”
“She's a bloody Human like Thad. But what the fuck difference does that make? She'll be a better Empress than any fucking Rehnorian especially when most of the Empire isn't even going to be Rehnorian.”
I glanced at Thad. His raised his eyebrows then looked from me to his translator and back again.
“Um, Sir? Senya? What Empire?”
“Forget it,” Senya mumbled, waving his hands around erratically.
“So what's going to happen?” I asked. “Are they going to let you marry her?”
“Sure, after I've stayed away from her for a whole bloody year. Fuck that!” He threw himself to his feet and stormed across the room, clenching his fists. Thunder clapped outside and the rain came down even harder. “Going to be living like a bloody fucking monk I am.” He reached back and then hurled forward as if he was throwing a javelin. A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky and out over the ocean.
“Why?” I ventured. “Do you have to stay away from everyone or just her?”
“Just her.” He threw whatever it was again and another lightning bolt lit up the beach as thunder roared overhead. The air smelled like carbon. “Got to prove something to them. I waited twenty fucking years for her but that wasn't enough. Got to wait more.”
“You waited twenty years?” I repeated. “Since you were…twelve?”
“Ay yah, Berkie,” he chortled, turning around to face us. In his left hand he tossed a glowing ball of something, juggling it up and down. “Don't tell me you didn't want to fuck that big ass maid when you were twelve?”
“Huh?”
“Ach, come on. You remember her. The one who had to always pet little Berkie's head? Seems to me you thought quite a bit about her and had lots of practice jacking off every night when you thought I was asleep. 'Course she was busy petting other parts of Taner whilst we were in the school room.” He tossed the ball between his hands now. It grew bigger and shot out sparks.
Thad snickered nervously.
“Shut up, Thad,” I hissed feeling my face grow warm. "Could you please throw that thing outside instead of in here?”
Senya held it up and studied it for a moment as if he had forgotten what it was.
“So Ron, you don't have to live like a monk,” Thad offered. “You can just go back to what you were doing before, screwing every girl on Rozari. I think you still have a few hundred million or so to go.”
“Ay yah,” Senya sneered. “Except I promised her I wouldn't, otherwise I'm a bloody dickhead, you know?” He slammed the ball against the rug angrily and it erupted into flames and then disintegrated. The rug started smoking.
“What?” Thad asked, watching the rug shrivel and burn until it was reduced to ash.
“Dickhead, Thad. Dickhead. It's a fucking English word. You don't need a translator.” Senya held out his hand and another ball of fire and light appeared in it.
“Oh yeah, right.” Thad looked back at his translator. “Um, I wasn't serious, you know. How do you keep making those things? Why do you keep making those things?"
“You can handle that, Sir,” I offered, glaring at Thad. “Right?”
“Course,” Senya replied. “She's going to be bleeding mad at me if I can't even ring her or send her a bloody text for a whole fucking year. Shit Berkie, why can't they just let me do what I want for once?” Now he was bouncing the damn thing and the wooden floor underneath what had been the rug was starting to smoke. He was going to set this whole palace on fire. "Fuck. She told me to play basketball," he laughed crazily and then tossed the ball out the door and into the skyline where it became yet another bolt of lightning.
I got up and went back to the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water to extinguish the floor.
“Why don't I make you some coffee, Senya?” I suggested. “I think you've had a little too much to drink.”
“I don't want coffee,” he mumbled and frowned. “I want to kill something or break something, break something big.”
He waved both arms in a circle and a giant yellow funnel cloud appeared in the sky across the ocean. It began to move toward us, the sound of it like a spaceplane right over head.
“No tornados please, Senya?” I said quickly.
"Why not?" The cloud dipped into the ocean and sucked up the water, forming into a giant waterspout and then spewing the ocean out again in all directions.
“Oh come on! Turn it off, please!” I cried. “Go out and kill something other than us.”
“Good thinking, Berk. This isn't any fun anyway.” Senya pulled off his clean blouse and dropped it on the floor. The waterspout dissipated.
“Yes,” I agreed. “Throwing lightning bolts and conjuring up tornadoes is nothing to ripping apart some live creature with your claws.”
“Ay yah.” He nodded as if that was the most brilliant statement I had ever made and thankfully, he headed out the door, leaving them open to rain on us some more.
“Coffee, Thad?”
“No thanks,” Thad replied, staring at the open French doors. Slowly, he got up and stood in front of them, glancing down at the singed floor and the ash heap that was a rug. I made a mental note to call housekeeping and have them replace it. I wouldn’t tell them how the MaKennah ka Rehnor destroyed it by drunkenly bouncing a basketball made of fire upon it.
“I gotta tell you, Berkan,” Thad said, turning back to the door, the rain splattering on his face. “This is totally blowing my mind.”
I snorted out the coffee I was drinking.
“I suppose it would.” I laughed and rooted around the fridge until I found my favorite chocolate torte on a shelf in the back. I had missed living here in the Palace. “I guess you don't know him very well do you, Thad?”
“I guess not.” Thad shook his head. He shut the French doors. “And I thought all that telekinetics and telepathy was strange. What's with the fancy clothes?” He picked up the blouse that Senya left on the floor. “Is this real?” He fingered the thick gold embroidery.
“I told you.” I stuck a fork in the torte. “Everything is real. This isn't a hotel, Thad. This is the Palace of Mishnah and this is Senya's apartment.”
