Small Tales

I do this because I can... Funny thing how all of my protagonists, heroines and evil doers are women, is it not? Quake - continually even.

They sat around the shabby table in the club and reveled in their new found camaraderie. Karl was not much for making new friends but he had to admit that he liked the new guy. A good ten years younger than him, the young man possessed a poise and sense of humor that Karl couldn’t help but warm to. Maybe it was that or the fact that in the elevator ride leaving work, Karl realized he was completely entranced with the newcomer’s sister who had come to meet them for the impromptu dinner. He had watched her intently from the corner of his eyes as the quartet walked to the café not far from their job.

She was a tiny but elegant creature with a strange name. He rolled it around on his tongue, Omega, and wondered again what kind of parents they had who had chosen to name their children after long dead Greek Gods and ideas. The kid’s name was Ares and he spoke often of his twin brother Adonis as if he too were present in the small jazz cafe. John laughed beside Karl, a hearty affair, as Ares related his newest mishap as a novice at the job. Karl thought to himself that if he be forced to have friends it certainly helped to share drinks with men of like mind.

Mid-sentence Ares paused, a quick, worried look flashing across his face. Both Karl and John turned, following his stare across the room. Omega stood like stone as a man held one of her arms firmly in his grip as he leaned down intimately close to her ear.

“Shit,” Ares muttered around the half chewed chicken in his mouth. Karl and John made as if to rise but he held out his hand to stop them. ”Don’t. She’ll be fine. Give me your knives.” Seeing their looks of confusion he simply smiled, “you don’t know Omega. Give me your knives.” Stunned, they complied however hesitatingly.

They watched the drama unfold silently. Karl wished he could be cavalier and race to Omega’s rescue but Ares’ command and unconcerned attitude befuddled him. He was sure that if the woman gave sign of need, her brother would race to her side but Ares seemed more concerned with the food in front of him than the plight of his sister. She attempted to walk away once then twice and each time the man pulled back on her arm with a slack-jawed grin. She was stoic and stood as if nothing were amiss. Finally one of the man’s ape-like friends punched him playfully in the shoulder and he let go of Omega’s arm, attempting to swat her ample behind as she swayed gracefully away.

She made her way to the table and calmly put down the drinks she held in each hand.

“Annik ain shev,” she addressed her brother in an almost jovial manner. Karl’s blood began to race as their mother tongue left her lips like spun silk. She stretched her arms and twirled her lustrous heritage into a tight bun above her head. Wisps of hair escaped their prison and fell against the sharp, high planes of her cheekbones. Karl longed to reach out and tuck the unruly tresses behind her ears but was unsure if the rush of unbidden tenderness would be misconstrued as another unwanted advance.

“Oh-mey-gah…” Ares drew out her name the way a mother would call to a petulant child.

“Shev. Kinu.” No more a request, now a command. Heaving a great sigh, Ares conceded and handed her his steak knife, handle first. He stood as she spun on her heel and strode back towards the table of her would-be tormenter. He made no move to follow her and John stood flushed at his side, seemingly dazed at what was fast becoming an unpleasant turn of events.

Karl’s decision was already made and he followed fast on her trail as she moved towards the table of boisterous drinking men. He was willing to protect her even if it cost him a severe beating at the hands of beer-soaked rowdies, but somewhere deep inside he knew that it was not a price he would have to pay. Not tonight. The table quieted as she stood before it and in a moment’s breath, her hand flashed. With unholy venom she drove the knife deep into the already scarred wood in front of the man who had vainly sought to beguile her. She opened her lush, full lips and when the words came forth, they fell like chips of broken ice into the already frozen silence. No one breathed.

“Should you have the misfortune to ever cross my path again and I so much as think you have touched a woman without her leave I will cut off your hands and feed them to you.” She smiled sweetly. “You gentlemen have a nice evening.”

With that she turned and walked sedately away leaving Karl gaping along with the other awestruck men at the table. Karl closed his mouth slowly, looked at the knife, the blade buried nearly half-way into the table and started to laugh. He turned his back and followed Omega’s path. As he neared their own seats, his laugh had progressed into a gut clenching roar that was echoed by the two men standing there.

Omega sat serenely; her drink in hand staring at the three men as if they had lost their collective minds. Innocently she looked up at Karl batting her long black eyelashes coyly.

“Was it something I said?”

Fin