Chapter One
With a hop, skip and thump Micky Dolenz bounced down the back stairs to the sand, pulling his shirt off and tossing it aside.
“How long you gonna be gone?” Peter called from the back door. “Breakfast’s in thirty!”
“I’ll be back by then!” Micky called. He kicked off his shoes and jogged out to the beach, falling into a steady, even rhythm, kicking his way through the surf that lapped at his ankles.
Though the day was bright and sunny, the beach was deserted, except for a lone figure sitting cross-legged at the top of a dune, dressed in a simple red tunic that looked out of place at the beach. He tilted his head back as Micky jogged by, his eyes narrowing behind his spectacles.
“Interesting,” he murmured. Rising smoothly, he headed down to the water’s edge as Micky jogged in a slow circle and came back. He slowed to a walk and stopped next to the man. “Something I can help you with?”
“Actually, you can. How would you like a discount on a personalized training reigimen at Sha-ku’s Health and Strength? Taught, I might add, by the great Sha-ku himself. Namely me.”
Micky just smiled. “No, thanks. I kinda got my own training program. Works just fine for me.”
Sha-ku’s eyes narrowed. “Really? One can hardly tell to look at you.”
Micky stiffened at the snide remark. “Yeah, well . . . I’m stronger than I look.”
“In that case you’ll definitely need my training program,” Sha-ku said, handing Micky a card. “If you’ll agree to endorse my facility, I can provide my services for nearly nothing.”
Micky calmly stuffed the card into his pocket. “Thanks again, but no thanks. This wind blows with his own.” He turned and jogged off, leaving a very perplexed Sha-ku behind to decipher the cryptic statement.
~~~~~
“I’m telling you, Bulk. He’s perfect! Skinny, awkward . . . if I’d stuck my foot out he would have tripped for sure! He’s a scarecrow—I must have him!”
The enormous, muscled blond—whose muscles had earned him the nickname Bulk—leaned on the vaulting horse, giving his boss a very bored look. “So? Can’t you just find someone else who’s skinny? Maybe someone with glasses.”
Sha-ku stopped his pacing long enough to give Bulk a very sour look. “No one else will do. You should see him—even his face screams weakling. It’s all eyes and chin. With him as our weakling mascot we’ll have to fend customers off with a stick. Now all we have to do is get him.”
“Yeah, but how? He already told you no.”
Sha-ku’s lips thinned. “Simple. Brenda.”
Bulk frowned. “How’s Brenda gonna—”
“You are Brenda are going to lure him in. She’ll attract him to her, and then you will ‘take her’ away. Insult his honor and his physique. His body,” Sha-ku clarified as Bulk’s vapid expression turned to outright confusion. “Kick sand on him, call him a shrimp. I don’t care. His desire for her and his own pride will lead him to me.”
The confusion disappeared and Bulk’s dull, brutish face creased into a wide grin.
~~~~~
“So lemme get this straight. He offered you a free training program if you’d endorse his gym?” Davy leaned on the counter, scraping up the last of his eggs with a piece of bread. “And you didn’t take it?”
“It wasn’t free,” Micky said. “He said he’d give me a discount if I endorsed his gym. And from the way he was talking to me I think he wanted me to be the before picture.”
“What did he say to you, exactly?” Mike asked, leaning back in his chair. Peter, sitting across the table, leaned forward.
Micky’s cheeks flushed. “When I told him that I had my own way of training, he said ‘one can hardly tell to look at you.’ And then when I said I was stronger than I looked he said ‘you’ll definitely need my training program,’ like I was . . . I dunno.” He shrugged, looking down at the table.
“He insulted you, Mick,” Mike said, laying a hand on his shoulder. “I’m proud of you for not losin’ your temper.”
“Not me,” Davy said. “I’m bloody amazed you didn’t.”
Micky stuck out his tongue. “I’m not like that anymore.”
“We know, Micky,” Peter said. “Just forget about it. You told the guy off, and with luck—you’ll never see him again.”
Davy sighed. “Which means we’ll probably see a lot of him.”
“With our luck . . . I think you can count on it,” Mike sighed.
On to Chapter Two
Back to Secrets and Lies Index
