Chapter Six - "Life Around The Chikamori House"
Outside the Chikamori Residence
Haruo and River looked at each other; finally thanked Yasunobu and were on their way down to the art-shop that she wanted to go to downtown.
Another thing that had changed was the fact that they walked together arm-in-arm, as close together as they possibly could without making it impossible to walk without tangling up their stride. There was nothing to hide. Haruo didn't care what others thought. He knew River was his sweetheart and that was all that was needed to be known.
"I think we may need to take a taxi back if I get the easel today." River looked thoughtful. "It's going to be large and heavy. What I might do though is pick a sketchbook." She looked at him.
"Will you have enough to cover your stuff you're getting if you buy the sketchbook and whatever else today?" Haruo asked.
"I think so. We should check and see what time they close then maybe I can pay for the easel in advance and pick it up before the store closes. That way..." she stroked his arm gently, "We can maximize the amount of time we have to do other things."
"...and if you run across an interesting subject you can sketch it." Haruo said. "I've seen your pencil sketches, they're incredible."
"Thanks..." River snuggled up to Haruo as they walked down past the Bistro. It was about ten-thirty in the morning and things would probably be nuts in there getting ready for lunch rush. "...so what are you planning to do?"
"I don't know. Writing holds some passion for me. Though I can't afford a computer right now, maybe being able to write by pen and paper then maybe transcribe it onto computer at the library." he mused out loud.
The art store was not too far away and finally they were able to peruse the art supplies. This was certainly an art store. Haruo thought There were racks and racks of canvases, shelves with different sets of oils, watercolors, charcoal pencils and sticks, brushes, coloured pencils and other drawing implements that would help in making memorable drawings that others would buy.
Haruo was actually starting to enjoy the shopping for artist's supplies too. River asked sales staff about the quality of easels and was directed to a nice wood easel that to Haruo's impression of it was that it was built like a tank. It was definitely one where if they bought it, it would have to be brought home via taxi. That would tack about eleven to twelve simoleons. The easel she was directed to was worth §300.
After purchasing a lot of materials for drawing, painting and sketching, about ten canvases as well as the easel and an artist's portfolio carry case. Considering that the store was open till nine that night they decided to come back at eight-fifteen and then call a cab to get the materials back home. But at the moment, she opted to bring with her for the moment a sketchbook and a set of sketching pencils. The rest; she informed them that she would pick them up after eight pm. The store staff agreed to store all the materials until their return placing SOLD tags on all the merchandise purchased.
With that, Haruo and an ebullient River left the store. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this." River exclaimed as they walked along the sidewalk past the hospital towards the beach.
Haruo had suggested doing some sketching down by the water where as he'd mentioned there could be some interesting subjects to sketch and she could try out the different sketching pencils. River was eager to try them out, especially on a nice beach amidst the warm sand and moist salt-laden air with very few clouds floating in the sky. And River was more than happy to go down and see what she could sketch while Haruo sat beside her watching the waves rolling into.
To start off her art career she wanted to develop a good set of sketches from where she could take inspiration when it came to painting. "...after all..." she informed her boyfriend, "if I can draw inspiration from this and paint a painting that brings in at least §2400 it will go a long way to paying for some travel to some exotic destinations to paint. After all. One of our goals was to travel the world."
River enjoyed the feel of the new writing implements in her possession and as she delved into her creative imagination to see the world; her pencil in hand, started to make impressions of the world around her. Delving deep, her subconscious directing the movement of pencil along paper, her hand drawing broad lines back and forth across the page appearing as with no apparent focus in mind, the lines which at first not appearing much like a drawing, but eventually started to take cohesive shape as more and more details were added. River had always been a prolific doodler, her assignment books told the tale of a mind preoccupied with creative interpretation of the task-at-hand, her doodles marking the fact that those art shapes though random, were jogging her mind into a thought process leading to completion of her assigned work.
Haruo, on the other hand, had no such lofty ambitions. His whole goal that day was to enjoy the time spent with River by his side, his contentment was watching his girlfriend as she had a smile on her face, her pencil held in hand moving back and forth across the page drawing the scene of the beach around them, an idyllic summer midday at the beach; a few sailboats on the water, children running to and fro on the warmth of the sand squishing between their toes, running into the waves. He smiled again as his contentment increased seeing River smile as she started getting even more focussed on her drawing; to make it a source of inspiration for a painting that she was able to create as her skills in painting grew.
"I think this is a good start, what do you think?" River's sudden question startled him as he'd just settled into the beach lounger gazing out at the water and was rapidly getting sleepy with the warmth playing on his torso clothed as it was in t-shirt and shorts. He looked over to see her holding out the sketchbook which now showed a well illustrated scene of the beach, proportioned exactly in miniature, the curve of the landscape showing in the careful pencil-strokes on the sketchbook page, the people pictured showing a level of activity that seemed to jump out from the page and take a life of its own.
His eyes widened in absolute amazement as he stared at the absolutely beautiful monotoned black sketch-marks on the page which had culminated in a landscape image that was absolutely second to none that he'd ever seen. His girlfriend had a talent to be reckoned with and he was certain that she was destined for great things in the art world.
"So...what do you think?" River asked again wondering why her boyfriend was silent and looked so dumbfounded.
"It...it's beautiful," he stammered. "I mean it's stunning. The figures look as though they're just about ready to jump off the page and the detail in this sketch..." he stopped looking at River with an amazed expression "You have got..." he searched for a descriptive adjective, "incredible talent..." River's face brightened as he continued to look appreciatively at her work.
"You really mean that?" She asked softly looking over at Haruo with eyes gleaming at the praise, "You really think I have the talent to make it?"
Haruo leaned over, carefully, to make sure that he didn't jostle the sketchbook or mar any details as River tilted her head up. The book was closed without even glancing at it as their lips met in a passionate kiss. When they separated, more due to lack of oxygen than by mutual agreement, both of them, eyes glazed over with desire, whispered, "I love you...".
River reached out cupping the palm of her hand against Haruo's cheek, "...thank you for believing in me..."
"I always will, Sweetheart..." Haruo said softly, "You've always been there for me..." and she had. Any time he'd been frustrated by his mother's apparent abusive behavior, River had always been his sounding board and she'd kept him on an even keel. He was just starting to realize just how much River was an integral part in his life and how much she meant to him. What that also meant: his decision of that morning was borne out; that the ring that was now in his dresser drawer was rightfully bound for River's left hand ring finger when he found the right opportunity.
On the Sidewalk
Walking past the beach, Parker Langerak looked over and saw a sight that cut him to the core. His gaze had often drifted to River McIrish; she was the smart girl, a bit on the nerdy side but really cute. She often wore stuff that really didn't flatter her figure and she only recently started wearing make-up in high-school to attract guys or in particular, one guy which Parker realized...wasn't him.
He really had wanted to get to know her but she was always hanging around with Haruo, the Asian guy, who himself was a bit of a geek. Haruo was a loner and thus had always been fun to pick on.
Parker wouldn't dare to pick on Haruo now after seeing just exactly how Haruo went off on Jared Frio. He knew that Haruo was a blue belt in kung fu and he had pretty much made Jared eat pavement, not to mention Jared still suffered headaches and nightmares that had him waking up screaming according to Claire Ursine who lived across the street from the Frio Brothers.
He could not take his eyes off River reaching up to Haruo's face with the palm of her hand and seeing both of them fall into a passionate kiss which made his stomach churn and his heart fall to pieces. For Parker had an unrequited crush on River McIrish. She was the girl he knew that was head and shoulders above everyone else; the girl he had always aspired to have on his arm; the smart pretty girl.
But cruel fate had intervened and ended up taking away any chance of him ever having that opportunity of doing so. Three words burned into his psyche at that moment. River was Haruo's - they were destined for each other and nothing of this earth would separate the two. Parker sighed deeply, almost mournfully as he walked away not wanting to continue to look upon that painful scene.
Back on the Beach
"So did you want to head over to Hogan's now? Feeling kinda hungry?" Haruo asked.
River looked at her watch on her wrist, It was almost one in the afternoon and she started to hear the first rumbles of complaint from her stomach that it just might be a tad annoyed at her. She nodded as she looked over at Haruo. Had she been sketching for over an hour and a half since they'd left the art shop and walked down to the beach. Getting up off the beach chair, she said to Haruo, "I'm hungry, let's go eat out."
Haruo grinned back at her. "Hogan's or the Central Park Festival Food Kiosks?"
River narrowed her eyes and said archly, "I don't care which...I'm hungry!" She smirked at him. "Feed me." She took his arm after placing her sketch book and pencils back in the bag and they both walked towards the exit from the beach.
The walk back up the hill was a major pain as the road was, at least calculating rise over run, a 36% grade. Normally the town planners would have dealt with the potential problems it could cause. It was evident they were asleep on that day.
Haruo and River were definitely relieved to walk past EverFresh Delights Supermarket as the hill was quite steep coming back up from the beach. In fact Haruo thought the hill was steeper than Oxford Street in White Rock though it could be that the latter had far more distance needing to be covered in order to climb it. Hell, it could even be steeper than 100th Avenue rising from 272nd Street in Whonnock. Haruo thought, having walked that hill once or twice when Mayumi got the bright idea that her son should get some exercise; the sadistic bat.
He would much rather enjoy his afternoon and appease his rather famished stomach.
"You know what?" River advised him. Haruo looked at her in response and River continued, "why don't we just make it easier on ourselves and get a meal at the food kiosks? That hike up the hill made me hungry and I'm not sure if I'm up to heading all the way down to Hogans."
Haruo was perfectly fine with that idea. He was all for eating sooner. When they got to the kiosk, they each ordered onion rings, a pulled pork sandwich and a Pepsi-Cola. After all, they were famished and hot. The cola would cool them down. And they would figure out how to spend the rest of the day.
The rest of the day was spent in the park with River pulling out her sketch book again and sketching scenes that she would later commit to canvas with daubs of paint. Around eight o'clock in the evening, River packed up her sketch book and they headed off to the art store to pick up the items that she'd bought and the store called them a cab.
It would mean waiting, amidst the closing procedures of the store, at least fifteen minutes for the cab to arrive before they would be able to be on their way home.
Haruo brought the easel into River's side of the duplex they would set it up tomorrow. All the canvases were stacked in the corner of her room and she had brought the rest of her other purchases. "Thank you for coming with me..." River murmured as she moved in close to her boyfriend who smiled at her.
"It was worth it to spend time with you." Haruo said. Every moment that he had with her was a moment that he would cherish.
River leaned up and kissed him slowly wrapping her arms around him and drawing her body close to him, letting him smell her light perfume that she was wearing...just for him.
Reluctantly they parted for the pretense of his mother and father and having to take precautions to not be caught when they were sleeping in the same bed together at night.
Outside Hogan’s
"Look, Parker, Mom told me that you were out here moping instead of going to business school like you’re supposed to, What’s going on, what gives?" His dad looked sympathetic, but aggravated at the lack of motivation that his son was putting out in terms of trying to do what was needed to get ahead in life.
Parker let out a deep breath. His dad already had someone; tied down and happily married, while Parker didn’t have anyone. Yeah, sure, Parker could have anyone he chose, he was one of the popular kids in the school and girls were lining up, nearly tripping over themselves to date him, but the one he wanted was River and she was the one whom he couldn’t obtain. River was so easy-going however she knew what she wanted and where she was going and lately she'd made it clear that she was interested in no-one other than Haruo and when Parker had made some advances towards her, she had shut him down as kindly as she could. Look, Parker, you’re a nice guy...but you’re not the one that’s right for me. I really do hope that you find someone who’s good to you. And to top it all off, Haruo wasn’t someone he wanted to get on the wrong side of especially after hearing what happened to the older Frio brother.
And as much as he'd tried to make it seem as though he wasn't interested in who River McIrish dated, he was heartbroken. She was graduating this year and he still had an year to go, since he hadn’t buckled down and failed a grade. That made it so much tougher to swallow. He wasn’t graduating with his peers and he’d fallen an year behind not to mention losing the girl he had the biggest crush on.
“Son, you need to knock off with the moping. Losing a girl isn’t the end of the world, but it will be if you neglect your studies.” Dustin stated with some annoyance. “You need to find out what’s important in life and losing your future because of a girl isn’t the smartest move to make, is it?”
“Dad, you don’t understand...” Parker stated.
“Look, Parker, there’s plenty of fish in the sea. Look hard enough, and you’ll be bound to catch one.” Easy for his dad to say when he was married to someone, even if the marriage was on rocky ground. Lately Iliana had been straying with her eyes, if not her body and there was plenty of people who were talking about her dissatisfaction with the status quo of her husband just being a lowly education assistant, essentially someone who sat on the stairs outside and minded the kids. Diana was a toddler, Kaelynn was in elementary school and Parker was in high-school.
“What’s the point?” Parker asked morosely, “When you let the 15 pounder get away, you’ve lost it all...” he muttered, “If only she’d..."
Dustin interrupted Parker before he could really get going in his misery, "You’re not going to get anywhere by sitting on your rear-end and moping about it. What about that Hart kid?" he asked, not giving Parker any time to respond to the castigation.
"Bebe?"
"That's Gus and Dorie's kid, right?" Dustin looked up at the sky crinkling his brow for a long moment and scratching his chin, then gave Parker a contemplative look.
"...yeah..." Parker replied with a tone of non-committal. He wasn't interested. Bebe was a nice girl, but she had this weird thing about technology that he didn't really understand. He wished his father would drop the subject; plus she was already interested in the other Chikamori kid, Torao and he’d seen them walking hand in hand yesterday at school. Too late on that prospect too. “No...she’s hooked up with Torao...so she’s gone too...and she’s older than Torao...so...”
“Look, Parker, someone will come along...”
Parker snorted skeptically. His father was entirely too positive for his station in life after seventeen years. If he’d applied himself to what he had to do, his dad would have been the principal of that school and not that evil witch, Mrs. M. Chikamori who was constantly in the hallways castigating those whom she considered miscreants.
Chikamori Triplex
Before River and Haruo went home, from hanging out at the park after finishing their homework, Haruo and River decided that it was in their best interests to consign all the croaking amphibians they’d managed to hook on the line at Central Park to the Elixir Shop. Mr Joseph, first name Moses, ran the shop and was a portly gentleman with unruly hair who had a ready smile for his customers as they came in to dispose of their wares.
He had a merry “Hello, Haruo; Hello River...” his booming voice carried clear to the door.
“Hello, Mr. Joseph, we’ve got some more toads.” River cheerily grinned at him.
“Oh...wonderful...” he rubbed his hands, “I’ll add them to the collection of toads we have on consignment.” He casually looked over the toads that Haruo and River had caught and nodded, “They seem to be quite the specimens.” Examining their size, the number of warts, the colour and the moistness of the flesh of the toad. River and Haruo had placed the catch in a cooler with pond water. “I’m very certain Mistress Matilda will like this one...” He didn’t elaborate as to who this particular person was and why she was collecting toads. No matter. If it improved Haruo and River’s fishing skill and kept them in fish, so much the better.
“All caught today...” Haruo informed him.
“Spectacular...” Mr. Joseph stated as he looked over the specimens. “They’ll be in the perfect state for the clients that wish them.”
Haruo nodded. “Great, then. We’ll see you tomorrow...with some more fresh ones.”
“Stupendous, I’ll be looking forward to it. You two have a good evening now...”
Haruo was startled looking at his watch. It was almost seven thirty in the evening. But at least their homework was done and they were headed back across the street to their house.
“River,” Haruo said to her as they both crossed the street heading towards the gate, “I know you’re probably gonna want to paint something, so...” He trailed off.
River smiled softly at him, “Yeah...I’ve been antsy all day thinking about the easel and I want to try it out. You don’t mind do you?” she looked at him searching for any annoyance at not being together for that evening. “I’ll see you at bedtime...” she looked at him, extending a hand to caress his forearm.
Haruo grinned at her, “I plan to do some writing tonight...so it’s a deal, see you at bedtime.” Kissing each other at the gate, they went their separate ways to their respective suites.
Haruo slid into his room, grabbed a blank notebook and started back downstairs. His dad was still in the kitchen finishing reading a gardening skill book, looked up from his chair as Haruo sat down beside him and said quietly, "Yūshoku wa reizōko ni aru. Tabete ne. (Your dinner is in the fridge. Make sure you eat, ok?)
"I will, Dad, Thanks." Haruo gave his father a smile to which his father nodded in acquiesence; his son was nearly a young adult, he could do as he needed. "Nerumae ni hon no sukoshi kaki hajimeru. (I'm going to start writing my book before bed)" he informed his dad.
"Haruo-kun, osokumade amari okinaide ne. Nemuri ga hitsuyō ne. (Haruo, son, Don't stay up too late, OK? Sleep is important)." his dad stated as he turned to go to the elevator to wait.
"Yes, Dad..." Haruo nodded as he headed downstairs to the kitchen. Eating his meal and then opening up his notebook he pored over his plan of what to write. He really needed a computer for this to be able to do what he needed to do quickly and efficiently. But he didn't have the money to buy some fancy new computer; his dad was working in the gardening career and that didn’t bring in much and he wasn’t about to ask his dad to buy him a computer. Nor would his mother even bother lifting a hand to help him. She’d probably tell him to find some other occupation that would bring in money even if it didn’t suit him at all.
So after eating sushi, he decided to plan out his book. That way he could make some head-way on what he would formulate the outline for what he wanted to do with the direction of what his book was going to t: was he going to write a controversial novel or spill-all or keep it tame and for general audiences? What would he title it? Would it be something that people would want to read? All of these questions were hard to answer but he decided to sit and ponder the whole situation very carefully. If he wasn't careful on how he presented his first entry into the hallowed halls of literary prowess, his first foray would quickly become his last and his career as a writer would be dead in the water.
So what could he write about? It certainly wasn't-something that was going to be easy to put pen to paper and have a decent amount of stuff to publish if he could not find a subject to wax eloquent.
In the end, he was no further ahead then when he started.
Outside the Chikamori Home
Meanwhile during the time that Haruo was trying to figure out what subject his first ever book was going to be about; Mayumi was abducted by aliens; your stereotypical green-skinned, pointy eared variety. Couldn't have happened to a nicer person. ~sarcasm~. Watcher: I'm sure the aliens won't be abducting her again.
When she was returned to her home planet, the aliens left her in haste, so hastily in fact, they forgot one of their own, one Qedef Qomiphash, the poor green guy stuck planet-side with a psychotic human female. Qedef: "Where the hell are you going? You a******s!!!!"
Qedef: "Come back here, you green pieces of slime!!! Oh man, I’m royally screwed."
They were not going to make the mistake of taking a blood sample - the likelihood of them all getting skewered by their own needles and being turned into green pin-cushions was very high. The sooner they got rid of that sleep-wear-adorned, deranged harridan even if it meant leaving one of their own to be poked, prodded and surgically experimented on , the happier those aliens were going to be. King Zlar'keyd'yoop of Galaxsima would not get overthrown, at least on their watch. Their ship made two points past light-speed and it was pedal to the metal all the way home. That encounter with a human was frightening. Was this true of all Canadians? Were they all psycho underneath that polite mask? If the Canadians found out that aliens existed would they get beaten to death with hockey sticks and pummelled with hockey pucks?
Maybe it was safer to just stick to ol'Jud Pickins off Route 66 in New Mexico. He may be an alcoholic hallucinating ol'coot but at least he wasn't as crazy as that old maple-leaf bat they'd just tried to pick up.
Mayumi was confused and agitated; a typical response for an alien abduction. After all when you are wandering around in your sleep-clothes, do you worry about alien abduction replete with alien probes in places unmentionable? It would be an unpleasant surprise. Maybe it might put her in a better disposition. Maybe it might cause her to re-evaluate how she was behaving and cause her to have a change of heart; maybe even treat people better.
Mayumi: "If I get my hands on that no-good-for-nothing slimy green alien I'm going to make sure he doesn't reproduce again!!!"
Qedem Qomiphash: ~gulp~ "oh...oh..." Qedem Qomiphash felt a slight trickle of moisture south of his midsection – That was going to make life difficult, did these humans know how to clean alien effluent from alien fabrics. It certainly wasn’t going to come out with Tide...they tried after robbing a AM PM on Hallowe’en the last visit.
Qedem: "I want to go home..." He looked over at the enraged woman, Maybe I can sneak past her...and get away...
Mayumi was incandescent, practically tap-dancing with rage. How dare those presumptuous alien creeps violate her, the esteemed educator in such heinous fashion. Did they even know who they were dealing with? She was going to do horrific things to them as soon as she revived from her stupor.
When she regained her wits enough to turn around, she realized that the majority of the greens were gone. Long gone and beyond the reach of her pitiful attempts at reprisal. She was disappointed until she cast her eyes upon a lone alien who was right behind her. Practically defenceless.
Uttering a caackle of malicious glee that nearly chilled Qedem to the bone, she cackled, "Oh...look what we have here...a little green far away from home..."
Qedem felt more moisture trickling into his undergarments. Perhaps that caf wasn't something that he should have drunk before joining his team on the surface. "Oh...no..." he muttered under his breath. Wasting no time in stripping off his armoured spacesuit, he stripped to his undergarments.
"Better start running, green..." her glare was malevolent.
The rhino’s charge made Qedem let out a small scream of terror and he whirled, running away as quickly as he could, which was a minor trot with all the snorting and wheezing coming from behind him, there was no way that she could catch up...if he let out his top speed. As it was he would prefer to conserve energy. And somehow he managed to get away from that Canuck harridan.
The fact that she couldn’t catch that green-pointy-eared alien infuriated Mayumi so much that she stomped back into the house ignoring a grateful Haruo and went up to bed still incensed by the fact that she had been so rudely violated by those whom she'd deemed so unworthy of her.
Haruo finally finished his planning of his book and went to bed, only to be woken up again not more than three hours later when Mayumi started screaming about the fact that there were dusty footprints on the floor of the kitchen. Apparently she had forgotten that she was the last person outside that day. And thus annoyed he told Mayumi to fix the problem herself, slammed the door in her face and went back to bed for another two hours
.Oh, that incensed Mayumi to no end.
Central Park, Summer Festival - Next Morning
Bebe looked for her friend, Holly, at the park, she was by the Weather-stone; and she looked miserable. “Spill...” was the first word that came out of Bebe’s mouth.
“It’s Parker’s damned moping over River. It started when Haruo formalized his relationship with River and it snowballed from there.” Holly said, “I don’t know whether to kick Parker's ass or just break up with him over it. I just want to put him out of my misery.” she muttered acidly, “I thought we had something together, but with his pining over River McIrish...” she spat out the two words of the name like something unpleasant. “I don’t know if I can take it any more. To him, she’s Ms. Perfect and I’m getting sick of it. I like River, but when she’s the invisble third wheel in my relationship with Parker...it’s annoying.”
“We need to take care of this once and for all...” Bebe agreed. “Look, let’s go talk with Parker...if all else fails we can just pound some sense into him.”
Holly snorted, “Ethan’s about ready to do it...”
Bebe smirked at her, “The more the merrier...” The two young women stalked over to Parker "Hey, Parker, a word with you. Look, you need to knock off the pining over River, Look, Parker, you hardly looked at her for the entirety of high school." Bebe looked at him with an expression of utter disbelief as she stared at him after he'd stated his case, "You treated her as if she wasn't even there. What did you think she was going to do? Fall into your arms willingly and go 'oh Parker, you're the most wonderful thing that's ever happened to me. Take me away and ravish me.'?"
By this time to Parker's annoyance Ethan Bunch was rolling on the ground at Bebe's sarcastic comment. And Bebe just had to rub salt in the wound. Parker's mouth twisted into a sour expression.
"Yeah, Parker, I'm sure she'd have an opinion about that." Holly looked over at Parker, her clipped tone telling Parker that she wasn’t impressed by his pining in the slightest, "I'm really sure that she'd want to be Miss. Ravishing Debutante hanging off your arm as a walking accessory and not have an opinion about any topics whatsoever."
"Who says I'd do that?" Parker sounded aggrieved. "Why would I do that?"
Ethan Bunch looked at him, "Hey, Hoser, you do that already in class, you always block out whoever is talking and try to talk over them."
"Do not..."
"Do too, you douche"
"You ever stop, bender?" Parker asked.
"Hey, at least I get off the bench, duster. They need to get the pan and broom and take some of those cobwebs off'ya, eh?" Ethan snickered.
"Shut up, hosehead. Good try last game in April? Eh, did a celly on an own-goal, ya goof!" Parker sniped,"Other team's goal is that way. Need a seeing eye-dog, eh? Next time, use your stick for a cane. Maybe you might find the right net. Gettin' chirped so hard, it's gotta burn, man..."
"Kinda hard when the goalie's blocking glove side, ya loser." Ethan gave back as good as he got, "I've heard better chirps out of a dead bird, eh."
"Bite me!" Parker gave Ethan the middle finger. "You on the other hand were going 'what the hell, ref, every time he blew when you stumbled off-side with the puck." Parker pantomimed flipping through a book. "Might wanna look up off-side in the rule book? Bunch, Doesn't mean what you think it does. It doesn't mean you can skate past the other team's icing-line before you get a whistle, hoser."
"The upshot is..." Bebe interrupted the hockey talk, "You weren't going to get anywhere with River and you're not going to get anywhere with her now, that she's dating. So like it or not, Parker, you're gonna have to deal with it."
Parker heaved a big sigh and muttered more to himself than anyone else, "I know, it just doesn't make it any easier."
At this Bebe looked away from him rolling her eyes skyward muttering "Watcher help me, I'm about two seconds from ripping him a new cavity on his posterior end.
Holly took a deep breath, paused for a long moment counting to ten before opening her mouth again affixing him with a serious stare that Parker realized had daggers behind it, "And Parker..." she gave him an aggrieved look, "...and what do you think I have to say about it? I thought we were dating?" She glared at him, "I think we should take a serious look at our relationship if you keep pining over Ms. Perfect!"
Ethan, by this time, was nearly rolling on the ground in stitches.
"Hey...shut up, asshole!" Parker snapped at him.
“Seriously, buttmunch, you need to take a serious look at what you’re doing to what you have with Holly...” Ethan said, not a trace of humour in his voice. “You hurt Holly and I’m gonna hurt you.”
Parker looked at the ground then over at Torao... “Hey... you got an opinion? Seems like everyone else volunteered theirs.”
Torao shrugged his shoulders. “My cousin’s got River. You muck up things with Holly, you’re an idiot and I’ll be helping Ethan beat the living tar out of you. So why don’t you go apologize to Holly for making her feel like shit?” Torao looked over at Holly who looked like she wanted a piece out of Parker already. "Look you got a great girl in Holly, don't screw it up."
Chikamori Side of the Triplex
"OH FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD!" Satoshi exclaimed. Fluent enough in English unlike his older brother, Yasunobu, from all his travels, exclamations in English were more prevalent for him. After all some exclamations of exasperation had no equal in Japanese. The sink geysered and Satoshi had to fix the leak before it flooded the entire main floor of the Triplex. Grabbing a wrench he went to work on shutting off the water main connection to the house then he had to get in with the nitty-gritty and start replacing pipe underneath the sink. This was going to be a royal pain in the posterior end. The hardware store had a p-trap connector of 1 1/2"
Satoshi knew that he would have to get the sink fixed before heading off to work. And it was going to be a chore and a half to complete; it would probably take a good three to five hours of scrambling to different hardware shops, trying to find the proper sized PVC fittings as well as the appropriate welding glue. The various pipe joins had to be estimated. He grumbled to himself,"This is supposed to be a brand new house!" Already there were problems; things were amiss like duct-work not giving proper ventilation which Mayumi conveniently pawned off on Satoshi to repair despite the fact that he had a job; sometimes electrical didn't work and that necessitated rewiring.
He wondered if he should just get himself ticketed as an all-around electrician/plumber/carpenter. Then he could at least be paid handsomely for the jobs he did because he wasn't making all that much as a stagehand in the music career and that was pretty much all he was doing:fixing electrical work, putting up staging (carpentry) and plumbing,- installing waterworks for the section of stage that needed it.
Frankly, Satoshi was disgusted, not only had the sink geysered thanks to corroded washers due to the fact that they had been installed incorrectly making a slow leak until the washer had snapped causing the resultant Old Faithful shower he'd received that morning., the PVC pipe had fractured at the bottom causing the resultant deluge of food remnants, smelly old dish water and other assorted detritus that had been originally trapped in the P-trap causing a backlog which was one of the reasons why the sink wasn't draining as fast as it should be. Normally all this stuff would have been shoved along the pipe out to the requisite sewer system in place by the township of Sunset Valley, however the logjam in the P-trap was caused by a defect in the pipe causing a logjam backing up the entire drainage system right at the P-trap.
Oh, Satoshi was having a really great day; he was so happy to learn this. They should actually be calling the guy who had originally done the plumbing at the time of build to do it but Mayumi was the type that expected every one else to suffer; not those directly responsible for the foul-up in the first place. After all, why inconvenience a certified trades-person whom she might have to call on for work needing to be done up to code when the inspectors were planning on doing an inspection, when her family was there and could be put to use. Otherwise they would just be eating her out of house and home with nothing to show for her hard efforts.
From eight to just before eleven in the morning, Satoshi laboured to fix the sink and finally got everything working. Finally he had time to breathe and partake in some brunch that he'd sorely missed that morning and this was just a grilled sandwich; not much of a brunch and a steaming hot cup of coffee, but at least something to take the edge off the hunger. "At least the damned fuse didn't go on the stove".he muttered to himself as he munched on the sandwich. Since his shift started at four in the afternoon, he had the opportunity to clean his plate and put it away. Otherwise Mayumi would have a complete conniption fit over a single dish left in the sink. Silly cow. He opted after to just get changed into work clothes and spend the hours before work over at the Central Park watching the goings-on at the Summer Festival.
McIrish Side of the Triplex
River was upstairs in her room along with Haruo as she was testing out the artists supplies. Together they had assembled her new easel and got it to function the way it was meant to. She planned to use her sketch done yesterday at the beach as a reference image for a beach scene done in oils that she hoped would look as alive as she'd managed to make it in sketch-form. The nice thing about pencil sketches was that not only were they good reference sources drawn from one's own artistic vision but also, as pencils, could be erased to correct a flaw. When she had to do the oil painting, she would get one chance to get a flawless painting.
River was certainly enjoying the new tools of her artistic career choice. She looked over at Haruo who had his head buried in a notebook busily scrawling away. "You look busy, sweetheart." River commented.
"Yup", Haruo replied, a bit preoccupied with his task at hand, scribbling industriously, "I have an idea for a book..." he trailed off as he continued the movements of his pen on paper. Every so often, he'd pause, look as though he was cogitating a thought, then go back to scribbling more lines of prose. River grinned in response. Haruo had always been an A-student in English 12. His creative writing had always earned him in the high nineties if not a perfect score of one hundred percent of any graded creative writing assignment. His acumen for the written phrase was second to none. Evidently Haruo was serious about a writing career and doing everything that he could do to make it a reality.
It would behoove them to get computers, River thought, when they had enough money to do so, and Haruo would need a large capacity hard drive in order to have enough space for all his research. But as far as MS-DOS was concerned that would be a problem. Frankly Wordperfect was starting to take market-share from WordStar and thus would dominate in a world that was starting to make the switch to IBM PC. River figured that would probably be the wise route to go.
River smiled again to herself; already she was thinking as if they were together as a couple long-since married; that they were pooling their money together: it's not his money or my money; it's OUR money she thought. She looked at her finger surreptitiously so that Haruo wouldn't notice and wishing that there was a ring on that finger already. It was a pleasant thought to think of herself as already spoken for. Come to think of it, River had pondered that Haruo had been a bit cagey about his reasons for going downtown so early in the morning yesterday. Did he have something in his pocket? Well she'd just have to wait and not ruin his surprise. She wasn't certain for sure, but it had to be something.
She had looked deep within herself to see if she could picture spending the rest of her life with him and her answer was a resounding YES with no hesitation at all. When he would pop the question; despite the witch of a mother in the background, he was worth it. And she would say "yes" wholeheartedly to linking her life with Haruo. He'd always been by her side; her constant friend for the past fifteen years so it was a natural progression from boyfriend/girlfriend to engaged-to-be-married and she was looking forward to moving along that path in their relationship.
Haruo, on the other hand, was working his way through a rather tough part of his story, completely unaware of the conjugal thoughts trickling through the synapses of River's head. Furrowing his brow, he followed the outline that he'd so painstakingly prepared the night before. With the direction of the plot in place it was a matter of writing connect-the-dots and having his characters work towards the ending while he, as the author, got to throw in red-herrings, plot-twists and other malodorous situations to forestall the eventual demise of the villains in the story as well as a few of the protagonist's sidekicks along the way. Making sure to milk the suspense for as long as possible but to not have the plot course affected to the point where the plot got thrown out the window was certainly a problematic situation but that came with the territory of being a writer.
River hoped that Haruo would have a successful career as a writer and she believed in him. After all, their family would need two incomes to make ends meet. They would work together as a team to make that a reality. River looked over with affection as she saw Haruo writing copious amounts of text in his notebook as he made progress through the novel he was penning. She thought that certainly was an industrious level of activity that he was exhibiting. She smiled again as she turned back to her own painting and continued to transfer details from her sketch at the beachside to the canvas in preparation for application of oils.
By the time that they were hungry enough to take a break for a late brunch around two in the afternoon, River had managed to get the details and start to arrange the oil paint tubes in preparation for the palette. Her selection of paint that she chose was a selection of sand, blue, grey, greens and other selections of colours that would compliment the landscape she was planning on painting. The individual colours would line the edges while the center would be where the colours would mix in order to achieve gradient of colours to signify shadow or light on the surface of the object. A must for the palette was white since that would inevitably be mixed to create lighter solutions for a certain colour while black would darken the shade. And that was the constant difficulty with paints as you had to know what colour would mix with another to make a certain shade of purple or pink or whatever colour.
River sighed; she'd insist that when they built their dream home that they have a dedicated studio so that they could keep all their crafts in that one area. Haruo would have his office where he could do his writing while she would have a cupboard in her space to store paints, thinners, canvases and other artist's items. To the side she would have a tablesaw and a router table so that she could custom frame her paintings. The thought of having such a place was appealing.
Chikamori's Side of the Triplex
At 6:30 in the afternoon, Mayumi stomped into the house, out of sorts and looking for a fight. Even though school was out Teacher Development Days were still in effect until the end of the month before she would be allowed to take her own summer holidays. If that wasn't irritating enough she had to contend with teacher evaluations that would determine if the faculty would retain the services of teachers who they found their teaching capabilities less than effective. To be called into the office of the district supervisor for Education and be told that they would be re-evaluating her performance as an educator this coming year if deciding to retain her services once her contract with that school was up was absolutely infuriating. Spot checks, as the age group of her students was too young to assign them evaluations of their own to complete as these would go beyond the "Did you like your teacher?" "Do you feel you learned something in her class?" All they'd get out of students barely past the age of preschool would be a wide-eyed nod and a " uh-huh" which would prove to be completely useless in any objective evaluation of a teacher's teaching abilities.
But of course to a narcissist like Mayumi, this kind of thorough evaluation of her ability or lack of was abjectly humiliating and infuriating. What right did the foul-up of a school board administrator think he was doing subjecting her to humiliation like that? He was a lesser being than her. He should be grovelling at her feet in abject obeisance begging her to continue to teach those snivelling little toe-lickers. How dare he think he had the right to cast judgement upon her perfection; her flawless performance. Frankly they should all be begging her for pointers on how to keep their classrooms in check, considering the rabble that pervaded their classes. One could hear the cacophony three hall ways over. She'd shut them up in an instant and then they would all cower in fear. Oh she would remember this, District Supervisor Don Mahoney, just you wait you bloviated sack of excrement. You will rue the day you crossed Mayumi the Great and Powerful.
She stomped into the living-room, heavy steps shaking the house, looking for her favourite scapegoat to persecute. She nearly screamed in outrage. Her miserable excuse for a kid had disappeared somewhere and was nowhere to be found for Mayumi to make his life an absolute misery. Thus she had no-one to take out her frustrations on which only served to put Mayumi in an even worse mood.
Poor Yasunobu after stopping outside to pay the bills after returning from outside after a day of hard work trying to harvest the plants and make sure that the fruits were ready to be sold, walked into a shit-storm of epic proportions at around seven exactly. There was no excuse for jumping a hard-working Yasunobu like that but Mayumi did not care and she went off on him like a tactical nuclear warhead. What transpired was an argument that lasted three hours, which Fiona upon returning overheard and knocked gently on River's door to let her know that Haruo and River should prepare the extra room upstairs so that Haruo could stay the night. Fiona wasn't going to allow him to go back to a home that night that was in the midst of an argument that threatened to get violent.
Yasunobu, by about the three and a half hour mark, had finally had enough. "Kusobaba!" He roared, "musuko zettai gomi ni atsukatte, boku ga anatanomikata naru to kitai sho-ka? Bakayaro ka? (Stupid woman, you treat our son like garbage, yet you expect me to back you? Are you stupid?)"
Mayumi sputtered in outrage. She'd never been spoken like that to by her husband. She'd extremely miscalculated the fact that she'd thought of him as a milquetoast always willing to do her bidding. She shrieked, "Dōshita sonani boku ni hanasu ka! (How dare you speak in that way to me!)"
"Aete, anata no musuko o jūbun gyakutai shita. Atama yokattanara, zutto mae ni anata to rikon surubeki ja, musuko o tsurete Nihon ni kairubeki ja ta.(I dare, you've abused your son enough. if I had been smart I'd have divorced you a long time ago and took my son with me back to Japan but that choice is no longer mine) Shikashi, sono sentaku mohaya boku no monode dewanai!"
Mayumi's look of hate was enough for Yasunobu,"aMohaya jibun jishin kappuru to minasanai koto saizandekin kara tabun, korekara wa betsu heya neru kata ii da ne. (It's better if we no longer consider ourselves a couple from now on and maybe it would be better if we slept in separate rooms)."
"Kore wa wasurenai yo! (I'm not going to forget this!)". She screeched.
"Kitai shinaide!" Yasunobu snapped, "(I wouldn't expect you to!)" and walked out of the living room and upstairs to pack his things in order to move his stuff out of the room that he formerly shared with Mayumi.
Mayumi shook with rage, seeing red, stomping outside, she let out a screeching howl of anger. How dare this pathetic worm of a husband stand up to her; Mayumi the Great. Did the pathetic little louse realize just what he was doing? How dare he tell Mayumi that he was going to split up with her. She had expected to do that to him if anything. She was outraged that he had taken the initiative to move out of her room and into a private room at the other end of the second floor. Mayumi would have the entire room, Yasunobu had just vacated, to herself but that didn't appease her any. Where did he learn to have the backbone to stand up to her like that? She needed to find out and stamp it out before everyone else got the bright idea of rebellion. Mayumi was so enraged, she vowed to make Yasunobu’s and everyone else’s life a living hell.
By the time that Yasunobu retreated upstairs, Satoshi had come home from work, noting that Yasunobu was not usually sitting at the dinner table, he headed upstairs to find out what was the matter. Hearing noise coming from the spare bedroom, he poked his nose in the room. Mayumi was already in what was now her room sulking.
"Nani ga okota node-ka? (Shpuld I ask what's going on?) Satoshi asked clearly rattled by the sight of his brother's now room and the possessions of his that he was slowly moving in to the room. He wondered what was going on as his brother looked rather angry and frustrated.
"Mayumi to bunru suru. (I'm separating from Mayumi)" Yasunobu said shortly, but then elaborated. "Suiteiru san-kai shinshitsu idō suru to, kanojo ni-kai ni tomaru. (I will move to the third floor; she will stay on the second) Kanojo musuko hihan suru hodo boku gaman shinai. (My wife criticises my son and I won't put up with it.)"
"Hihan suru? Karakatteru no. Tsuma anata no musuko o hihan shita dakedanai gyakutai shimashita, Yasukun! (Criticize? Are you kidding me? Your wife has been abusing your son, not just criticizing!)".
Yasunobu nodded, he knew that he had given Mayumi too much slack in her leash and in doing so; he'd created a monster who thought she was a goddess whodeserved to be exalted by all those around her and he was paying the price for his blindness.
"Bunri yoi daiippodeahou. Musuko hahaoya ni gyakutai sarenai yō ni suru hitsuyō ne (Separation is a good first step but you're also going to have to make sure your son no longer has to be abused by his mother.), "Satoshi pointed out to his brother.
"Watashi shiteiru, Satoshi, Haruo; kare saru koto ga dekiru jidai ni chikazuiteru. Umaku ikeba, kare wa shin'yū to shiawase mitsukeru koto ga dekiru. (I know, Satoshi, Haruo is getting to the age where he is able to leave the nest. Hopefully he can find happiness with a close friend.)" Yasunobu said smiling a slow grin. "Kimochi ga aru River to issho ni nareba totte yoi pātonā desho. (i have a feeling that River, if they get together, will be a good partner for him)" Yasunobu thought after letting Satoshi know that hopefully, Haruo and River would figure it out for themselves.
Satoshi was in agreement and he figured that Haruo and River were destined for each other. He'd seen how close the two of them were and that pairing was no coincidence. River had the strength and internal fortitude to stand up to anything Mayumi could dish out at them and that River would block any attempts of Mayumi's to get at her son. But it didn't stop him from wishing that Mayumi would meet her end in some painful fashion. It would be a fate for that evil hag that was richly deserved.
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