Putting his wonderment firmly on hold for a moment, Ghishu quickly dries himself off. Flinging on his clothing, he grabs whatever items he thinks he might need for his upcoming sortie into Al Amarja and dashes out the door, only to find himself on a direct collision course with a large gentleman coming out the door on the opposite side of the hallway! His normal grace and agility fails him utterly and the two go down in a heap! Fortunately, Ghishu's finely honed instincts do kick in at the instant informing him that the gentleman isn't trying to attack him (yet).
***
Ben is back on Al Amarja at last! The years away have changed the island, and have changed him, but his past troubles are all (hopefully) behind him now. Knowing how rapidly the power structure on the island can shift, how yesterdays friends can become tomorrow's enemies today, and how many people there are out there on the streets who would put a knife in his back just to get ahold of one of his shoes, Ben has chosen to arrive back on Al Amarja as a burger, and to work his way rather slowly back into his old contacts. Burgers are relatively well protected on Al Amarja - Her Exaltedness Monique D'Aubainne sees to that (Burgers bring in money). Taking on the role of a Burger ought to get him enough protection to give him a secure base of operations until he can get back into the swing of things. The sort of predatory street maggots that ply this area aren't the sort that will give him much trouble, and not more than once.
And, truthfully, much as he hates to admit it, Ben IS a Burger once again. Those who he knew before are suspect now, or dead, or fit somehow into a power structure that Ben doesn't know. On Al Amarja, everyone is suspect, and given his past, everyone is even more suspect than usual. But worries about that sort of thing can wait for later. For now it is time to hit the streets again, to get a feel for the pulse of the Edge. Full of anticipation (for in truth, he has missed the Edge more than he knew until this moment) Ben steps out of the door of his hotel room, only to collide with the hurtling form of a young man rushing out the door on the other side of the hall. His normally acute instinct for danger and great strength momentarily fail him and the two go down in a heap. Fortunately for all concerned Ben's instincts do kick in at the last instant, letting him know that a) this isn't an attack on his person, and b) this is a Burger area, so pounding people isn't a good idea. Besides, the young man looks like a decent enough sort - just in a hurry is all.
Picking himself up from the carpet, Ghishu takes another look at the silly scene he's gotten himself into. "I'm so sorry, sir. I guess I was in such a hurry that I didn't see you coming," he apologizes while offering the big gentleman his hand in order to help him get on his feet.
Ben sits in the hallway a moment or two gazing up at Ghishu trying to decide whether or not he should be pissed off. Finally, he reaches up, takes the offered hand, and hauls himself to his feet. "Forget about it, kid. Shit happens."
Ghishu takes another look at the gentleman standing before him, trying to battle some confusion that has taken over him. Then, hesitantly, he says "Ben? Is that you?" Not waiting for Ben to answer, Ghishu continues with more confidence that the person standing before him is really Ben, "What are the odds of us meeting again? And not only that, but of all the places in the world we happen to meet on this strange island."
***
Before Ghishu arrived to Al Amarja he made a stop in Venice, Italy. When he got to Italy, he crashed in a cheap hotel in the suburbs. He met Ben in a coffee shop he used to visit in the evenings. Both used to visit the place almost every night and kind of got connected. This continued for about a week or two.
Ben and Ghishu were walking home one evening when three men stepped out of an alley in front of them. "I hear you've been nosing around, asking questions about me," said one of the men to Ben.
"Why don't you take off kid, I can handle this," Ben said to Ghishu before turning back to the three. "Two damn weeks! That's how long I've been waiting for you to make an appearance," said Ben as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a foot and a half long piece of pipe. "I have a message to you from Miragliano. He says there's no where you can hide."
Two of the toughs tried to flank Ben, while the third man decided that he really didn't like leaving Ghishu as a witness. A few short and brutal moments later, though, Ben and Ghishu had convinced the three would-be toughs to lie down and bleed for awhile.
After the little fight Ghishu wanted to ask Ben about those men, but the other man shook his head. "You really should take off," said Ben, seeing Ghishu still standing nearby. "In fact I think I'll be leaving myself," he said, cocking his head to one side, listening to the approaching sirens. Ben and Ghishu headed off in opposite directions.
He came back to look for Ben but to no avail. After searching
the streets for a couple of hours he simply gave up and hoped to meet him
tomorrow in the coffee shop. But he never showed up. Frustrated,
Ghishu decided that he shouldn't stay at this place and started to look
for another destination. This took him to Al Amarja.
***
"Ghishu?" Ben leans forward to take a closer look. "It is you. Glad to see you made it out of Venice. So, what the hell are you doing on Al Amarja?"
"I've just arrived here a few days ago" Ghishu replies "and I am just hanging around. Actually I'm heading to the local dojo to look for a job. Want to join me?"
"Sure, I'll come along," says Ben, falling in along side Ghishu. "You teach martial arts? I noticed you handled yourself ok in that scuffle we had back on the mainland. You know, if your looking for a job, I just might be able to find somethin' for the both of us. That is, if you can stomach the work."
Ghishu and Ben head on down to the lobby. All seems quiet down there, but Ghishu can spot several of the individuals who rode the jitney out of the Terminal with him. Nigel Timmons and Marda are sitting in chairs, apparently deep in conversation of some sort. Charlie Kennedy is at the front desk speaking with the concierge. Francois is pacing back and forth, glancing at his watch occasionally. Of Leo and Kitty there is no sign whatsoever.
As Ghishu and Ben approach the lobby, Ghishu turns to Ben and says "Ben, I've met these people at the airport and shared the Jitney to the hotel with them. We also share the hotel room." Turning around trying to locate Leo and Kitty, Ghishu says "I was going to accompany a couple of them to the dojo, but it looks like they already headed out without me".
Looking at the others at the lobby Ghishu asks "Where are Leo and Kitty?
Have they already went to the dojo?"
Turning to Ben, he explains "We were supposed to go to the dojo together, but I guess our little encounter at the hall took a little more time than they could wait and they left without me."
"Ben," he continues, "you mentioned something about a job you can get for us. What exactly did you have in mind?"
"Well, I was about to try and look up some old contacts I had on the island a few years ago," says Ben. "I figure, if any of 'em are still around, they might be inclined to pass along a job or two." Ben puts on a serious face as he looks down at Ghishu. "Your welcome to partner up with me kid, but I gotta ask you if your really gonna be up for this kind of work?"
Ghishu ponders at what Ben is trying to tell him, but finally gives up. "What do you mean by 'this kind of work'?"
"Well, I sure as hell ain't no brain surgeon," replies Ben. "I'm a thug, hired muscle, a leg breaker. I just assumed you would have figured that out by now. I know it don't sound like a glamorous job but the work week's short and it pays well if your good, and I am good."
"So it's up to you kid. I'd understand if this sort of work didn't agree with your delicate nature."
"Hmmm..." Ghishu says "this is not quite what I imagined myself doing here. Maybe if things really get desperate..."
After reevaluating his possibilities, he decides that it would be best if he'd just go with his original plan to go to the dojo. Informing Ben of his decision, he starts to walk outside.
Walking slowly, waiting for Ben to follow, he asks, "From what I understand, you must have been here before. Do you know how to get to the dojo?"
"If you mean Kuan's Black Belt Academy, I think it's across town," says
Ben, falling in along side Ghishu. "You better be damn good if you expect
to get a job there. Unless you just plan on sweeping floors."
Sitting at the taxi stand is a large, black limousine. Only the small light atop the roof with the words "Total Taxi" neatly printed indicates that it is a cab. Standing by the rear trunk, buffing the paint with a cloth, is a large man in a chauffeur's uniform and sunglasses. When the two emerge he steps to the passenger's side door and waits, though he doesn't open the door.
After spotting Leo and Kitty in the disappearing cab, he says half to himself, half to Ben, "Looks like we just missed them."
Looking a little disappointed at the available options they have for transportation, he turns to Ben with a questioning look that says 'do we board that limousine?'
The driver waits patiently for an answer, glancing once between Ben and Ghishu (and dismissing Ghishu as not having the cash to spend on a Total Taxi).
Suddenly, with a screech of tires, a big plymouth Thunderbird, complete with the big wings on the back fenders, lurches out of traffic and caroms to a halt just behind the Total Taxi with one front tire resting on the sidewalk next to the "Taxi Stand" sign. The Thunderbird and the limo couldn't be much more dissimilar - where the limo is sleek and elegant, the Thunderbird is garish (metallic purple, and yes, there are fuzzy dice hanging from the windshield), well- worn (numerous dings in the body and some scratches to the paint) and loud (dual carbs and no muffler). In place of the small light atop the Total Taxi, the Thunderbird has a placard on the door which reads "Giovani's Cabs".
The passenger side door opens, allowing several Styrofoam drink cups, some sandwich wrappings, a tomato wedge, and a chicken bone to fall out onto the sidewalk. From the interior the face of a very black woman in her early twenties pokes out. She has very intense eyes, and her cheeks and forehead are marred by what appear to be smallpox scars. She is leaning over from the driver's side of the car.
"Hey burger!" she calls, "You want a ride?"
The driver of the limo opens his mouth to protest, pauses for a moment, then closes it again and simply stands next to his vehicle looking extremely competent.
After observing how Ben talked to the limo driver, Ghishu decides to try his luck with the taxi that just pulled in:
"Dear sir", he says to the driver, "how much would it cost us to get to the Plaza of Flowers?"
Knowing that it would probably be much less than the limo (judging by the looks of the cab), and seeing that no other option for transportation exists, Ghishu starts to walk towards the Thunderbird not actually waiting for the driver's answer.
The woman snorts, causing Ghishu to pull up short. "Don't call me 'Sir' you stupid Burger... I work for a living! Or is this some sort of oedipal transference. Do I remind you of some strong authority figure from your past? Was your father african? Did he have strong feelings about africans? Did he ever visit africa? Or perhaps you have a subconscious desire to screw me, which has been transferred by your id into a desire for your mother's milk, and then escaped through verbal expression, but modified by the ego into an altered form as a defense mechanism? Do I look like your mother? Did your mother ever ride in taxis? Did your mother ever drive a taxi? Did your mother give you a toy car when you were a child?"
Ghishu certainly didn't expect such a reaction. After reeling back, trying to fend off the verbal attack he has just been through, he tries to compose his self confidence and take another try at conversation with the driver.
"I'm terribly sorry, madam.", he says with a sincere apologetic look, "I guess the darkened interior of your cab made me mistake you for a man".
After a small pause he says with a sad look on his face, "And no, my mother didn't give me a toy car when I was young". He seems lost in a world far far away for a couple of seconds.
Switching back to reality, he turns to face the woman again. Smiling, he repeats his question "So how much is it to the Plaza of Flowers?"
"Don't be silly," the woman replies, staring with great intensity at Ghishu. "Thats just one of your defense mechanisms kicking in in an attempt to deny your subcounscious. You're just reverting to your younger, anal retentive id tendancies for fear of punishment by a strong, masculine figure - me. You need to break past these subconscious defenses in order to truly rid yourself of the burden of guilt that you aquired through your desire to kill and devour the flesh of your father. Clearly you harbor some sort of repressed feelings of conflict towards your mother - perhaps because of her withholding of that toy when you were young. Because of this strong, decisive action on her part you probably began to equate her in your mind with the strength and ferocity of your father, whom you undoubtedly feared for possessing that which you sought - your mother. This left you with insufficient nurturing to allow your id to develop in a safe environment, and may have led to those homosexual feelings that you sometimes experience. It's $20.00 to get to Flowers. You got an address?"
Ghishu, puzzled with the pseudo psychological mumbling of the driver, is actually thinking of taking the $75 driver in the limo. But taking a reality check he understands that $55 is a lot of money - money he doesn't have. He does, however, make a mental note to himself to look into why people actually pay $200 an hour each week to voluntarily submit themselves to such horrid experiences like he's just been through in the last couple of minutes.
Entering the cab, Ghishu says to the driver "I need to get to Kuan's Black Belt Academy". Preparing himself for the conversation that's about to happen with the driver, he asks (hoping for good): "How long does it take to get there?"
Ben watches the give and take between Ghishu and the cabbie. Turning back to the limo, he gives the driver an apologetic shrug before heading for the Thunderbird. "We can split the fare if you still want some company," he offers.
The woman looks in Ben's direction, then smiles. "Hi, Ben," she says pleasantly, "Long time, no spot. Heard you left the country due to repressed sexual tensions causing conflict with some of your coworkers as backlash from some long term subliminal attempt by your ego to repress your natural desires for procreation and rechannel the energy towards career building instead. Hop in. Where you headed?"
The cabbie is a long term Al Amarjan resident named Sally Undokku. She's originally from Nigeria, and she eats, drinks, sleeps, and breathes Freudian psychology. She's been driving for Giovanni's Cabs for years. Aside from being a rather strange individual (and who on Al Amarja isn't) she's harmless enough, and has a vast knowledge of the city of the Edge.
Though Giovanni Mancini is involved in the criminal side of Al Amarja, his cab company is not. His cab drivers are efficient and honest - they don't even accept tips! They have a reputation for being unbribable, and never do anything more dishonest than disobeying the occasional Al Amarjan traffic law (at least not while on duty). They can't usually be convinced to reveal information about clients by any sort of inducement (with one exception - we'll get to it in a minute). However, they are very free with their own opinions on any and every subject, and this has been known to include dropping the names of people who have been in their cab in passing. "Cesars? Still gives good service I hear, but the buffet has gone straight to hell. I was talking to Ben the other day, and he said that the bacon was soggy and the orange juice was warm." That sort of thing.
Cabbies are, however, as pliable to threats of overt violence as most average people are, and they make no bones about it. In fact, its their major defense against being sucked into the various weird conspiracies that plague Al Amarja. Everyone knows that threatening them with violence will make them spill their guts, so nobody tells them anything of great importance if they can help it.
Roughing up a Giovanni's cabbie a bit is not looked down upon, and causes few problems other than a reluctance on the part of other cabbies to pick up the perpetrator in the future. It is, however, VERY well known that those who actually kill a cabbie meet with a horrible fate. Their bodies are usually found in dark alleys suffering from the sort of full body trauma that comes from being sucked into a very large industrial machine of some sort. It's ugly.
At that point a large man in an australian hat comes dashing out of the hotel and towards the cab, waving frantically. Pulling up in front of Ghishu he says "Strewth! Oi bludy well thought oid missed the lot of ya!" Glancing towards Ben, "Oos yer mite ere?" he says, then without waiting for an answer he sticks out a meaty hand, "Bruce Cooby - pleastameetcha!"
"Damn," swears Ben, glancing between the cabbie and Bruce. "I don't know who the hell's more incomprehensible." He reaches out and takes the offered hand in a steely grip, sizing up the big Australian as he does so. "Name's Ben Crutcher."
Ghishu, seeing that Ben and Bruce have already been through the formalities, turns to Bruce "We are heading to Kuan's Black Belt Academy. Would you like to join us?"
Introductions having been finished, the trio hops into the Thunderbird and - after a moment of shoveling half eaten sandwiches, disposable drink cups, and french fry containers out the doors - close the doors and begin the trip. The cabbie keeps up a mind-numbing dialogue of pseudo-Freudian interpretation of virtually everything that she sees or hears during the trip, which eventually induces the trio to just keep their mouths shut soas not to encourage her.
After a fifteen minute cab ride, the Thunderbird pulls up to the curb in an upper-lower class neighborhood with seedy but not completely hulked buildings. The building that the Thunderbird pulls up in front of is unremarkable, and looks like just about any martial arts studio that the trio ever seen - windows covered by bamboo, and brush stroke lettering on the door spelling out "Kuan Tun's Black Belt Academy". Parked in front is a Dodge Dart with the placard of Giovanni's Cabs on the side. There is a slight, disheveled looking oriental woman in the driver's seat reading a book. The driver of the Thunderbird honks and waves. The driver of the Dart waves back.
"All right, that'll be $21.75," the driver says, glancing at the meter. She reaches into the glove compartment, pulls out a large cigar, and lights it.
Still occupied with the driver's analysis of the human nature, Ghishu steps out of the car, not before paying his share of the cab fare.
"Here ya go Sal," says Ben handing over his part of the fare. "I don't know how long we're gonna be, but if ya can hang around a few we'll probably give ya some more business." That said, Ben steps out of the car and heads for the entrance.
The breath of fresh air (well - fresh relatively to the interior of the cab) has a waking effect on him and he wears a tranquil smile on his face. While waiting for his companions to get out of the cab he is trying to look inside the building and see if he can spot Kitty or Leo.
"Sure Ben, 'long as I don't get no other business in the meantime," Sally begins puffing contentedly on her cigar, staring out at passing traffic, and the trio heads off.
Kuan Tun's Black Belt Academy is rather quiet and unostentatious. There is the inevitable front desk and the inevitable area for removing one's shoes, and even a small unisex changing room off to one side. There are various martial arts weapons hanging from one wall, ranging from reasonably recognizable by anyone who has seen a martial arts movie (i.e. nunchuku, tonfas, etc.) to obscure (deerhook swords, flying guillotine, kusarigama). Hanging from the ceiling over the front desk are two small bamboo cages. One contains a praying mantis, the other a cricket. Ten dollars (a five $1.00 bills and a $5.00 bill, all crumpled) sit on the front counter.
Standing by the counter is an oriental woman in her forties. She is wearing a white lab coat and is holding in her hand a very large, live toad which has several acupuncture needles stuck in it.
Out on the practice mat Leo, rainbow suspenders and all, is kneeling next to Kitty, who is lying on the mat and breathing heavily. She has a bloody nose. Both look up as the trio enters.
Near the wall with the martial arts weapons is a man in his forties, wearing the remains of a very torn up red exercise suit. His arms and legs are covered with long scratches that are still bleeding. As the group enters, he is hanging two large crescent wrenches on the wall next to a pair of nunchuku.
"Can I help you?" the man asks
"Hey," the woman in the lab coat says, "first things first."
To Be Continued...