The continuation of Chapter 1 of Surreal-Life Stories because Angelfire wouldn't let me have the whole file in one swell foop- er, fell swoop.
A few minutes later, two cycles were parked at the mall. Mallory smiled. "Mall crawl time," she purred, her eyes lighting up with an unholy glee. "I’ll see you guys sometime tonight, okay?" Before either of them had time to answer, she was gone, running through the doors.
"You’re going to Serendip, right, Grinster?" Upon Grin’s nod, Nosedive continued, "All right, I’ll be at the card shop, then I’m swinging by Captain Comics to see Thrash and Mook. See ya!" It was Nosedive’s turn to rush off. Grin sighed. He would never understand why his teammates were always in such a rush. Sedately, he strolled into the mall.
He didn’t even look where he was going, as his feet took him where he wanted to be. Only at the door of the shop called Serendip did he pause. A banner hanging over the door proclaimed new ownership of the store. Nothing else seemed different, though, so he opened the door, listening to the sound of the chimes that it hit.
"Good afternoon," someone said. He looked over to the counter. A young woman was sitting there. She had reddish-brown hair that went down as far as he could see. Her skin was a very light tan. She was wearing a light green T-shirt. She had dark glasses, and as she rose from her seat, she gripped a red-tipped white cane. Her voice was melodious as she added, "How may I help you?"
"My soul is troubled. I seek serenity and the way."
"And how would you like to seek such?"
"Well, I was hoping I could find a peaceful wall hanging for my room so I could look at it and meditate."
"Hmmm… Teresa! No, she’s at lunch. Follow me then." She lifted the panel and tapped her way over to him, then to the aisles in the back. She ran her fingers across the newly written Braille headings at the beginning of each aisle until she found the one she was looking for. She followed her fingers along the wall, running into a piece of fabric. "This is the section you’re looking for, I believe, unless this is not what you seek."
"No, this is exactly what I need. Would you have any recommendations?" As soon as he spoke, he realized how stupid the question sounded- he was asking a blind woman to help him pick a decoration.
She was somewhat offended by the question, but in a different way. "If you are a frequent visitor here, you know that it is not for me to decide what would give you peace. How would I know precisely what causes your inner turmoil?" She shrugged. "But since you do ask, I find that the thick one with the raised image of a mountain provides me with a deep sense of tranquility whenever I touch it. If that does not help, then I’m sorry."
He ran his hands lightly over the blue tapestry with its image of Mount Fuji. "Yes, it’s perfect. Thank you."
"Noemi-san brought it with her the last time she came back from Tokyo," the woman said. "In case you happen to be wondering, Noemi and Yamato sold the shop to me last week when they finalized their plan to move to New York. They thought that it would be hard to feel the vibes long-distance." She extended her hand, which he took quickly. "I’m Andy. Yes, it is short for something. I just don’t like the long version."
"My name is Grin." They headed back to the counter, where the transaction was completed.
As he opened the door to go, Andy said, "Would you want to stay a little while? At least until Teresa comes back from her lunch break? It’s frightening being alone here with just my thoughts and the silence." She stopped. "I’ve been through a lot of things that I’d rather not think about. Having someone else here protects me."
He glanced at her in puzzlement, although he knew she couldn’t see the expression on his face. Somehow, she sensed his confusion. "I know what you’re about to say: that I should embrace my pain and not ignore it. Believe me when I say that I’ve had enough of it to last me a lifetime and more."
Grin looked at the watch he wore next to his com. It wasn’t even one in the afternoon. "All right," he agreed. "There is one thing I need to tell you, though. I may be called away at any time. Things might come up that I have to take care of. I hope you’ll understand in case it comes up."
"Of course," Andy said soothingly. "Would you like some tea? There’s always a pot up in the back room. Teresa knows not to move it from its usual place, so I guarantee that I’ll bring it quickly." She leaped up out of her seat and worked her way to the back room. Several minutes later, she came out with a tray delicately balanced on her hands. The aroma was heavenly. Andy poured them each a cup with the ease and grace of long practice.
For what seemed like hours, they sat and talked about everything yet nothing at all. They posed heavy questions to each other and made each other think in ways they never had before. A confidence was forged during that intense conversation. Yet they only had an hour and change before the door hit the chimes again. A slender Hispanic girl came into the store, lugging a large stereo along with her. "Sorry I’m late, Andy, but I went to bring the stereo back from the shop- and oh my God I take back everything I have ever said about you being not cool oh my God this is so awesome and why can’t I find a pen right when I need one?"
"Teresa, take a deep breath and try to explain yourself again. But first, please put down that stereo. The thought of you standing there with that scares me." As Teresa gently put the large piece of electronics on the counter, her outfit was revealed. She was wearing a Mighty Ducks replica jersey with Mallory’s number 15 on it. The extra-large hung down to her knees. Beyond that, she wore light green jeans and the most battered sneakers on the planet. Her curly dark brown hair was tamed by a scrunchie with the team logo on it. Her brown eyes were wide with awe as she stared at Grin.
"You mean you don’t know who you’ve been sitting here and drinking tea with? Oh my God, Andy, you’ve been hanging out with one of the Mighty Ducks! You’re so cool!"
Andy didn’t look at Grin. She didn’t need to. "I didn’t feel the need to mention it," he admitted. "I was afraid that you might react to that instead of treating me as you would any other customer who came in."
She snorted. "Would I be working here if I did that? Noemi would have never sold the shop to me if she knew I was like that. Now, Tisa, would you please stop looming over here? I can feel your presence. There’s a new shipment of fish that need to be put in tanks, and you’re the only one of us who knows which ones aren’t going to kill each other. Now scoot. If you’re still here in five seconds, I’ll cane you, got it?"
Reluctantly, Teresa went into the back room, casting glances back at Grin with every step. Andy said, "I’m so sorry. I didn’t know-"
"You had no reason to know, and you had no way of knowing." He rose to leave. Andy caught his arm.
"I know this time I don’t have the excuse of being lonely to ask you to stay here- but I’d like it very much if you did. Besides-" she suddenly smiled. "There’s a half-full pot of tea here that I’m certainly not going to be able to finish by myself. And Tisa can’t stand the stuff."
"I would be glad to stay," he said in his deep voice. So he sat back down and their conversation began again. This time a few hours passed, and the next interruption was via his com. "Team, everyone back to base. We’ve got a game in two days, and we need to be extra ready for them in case Duke isn’t cleared to play."
The door opened, and Nosedive said, "What, you’re still here? You’ve been here all this time? Man, you need to get a life. Come on, you heard my bro. Mal-mal’s waiting outside with the cycles."
"I’m sorry, Andy, but-"
"You warned me, remember? I suppose we should all be grateful that nothing else came up. Get going then, since you have to go. Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow?"
"If it is fated to be," he agreed, taking his leave of her with a little bow. Teresa ran out of the back room just in time to see the door closing. As she dashed for the door, Andy tripped her up with the cane. "Teresa, how many times do I have to tell you, we do not harass the paying customers? Now, you can take care of the shop from now until closing time, right? Of course you can. I have to leave."
Teresa glared at her, but it was ineffective. Andy smiled, raised a hand in farewell, and departed as quickly as she could.
"How quickly can you learn to play hockey?" Wildwing asked Dreva desperately. "I don’t want to have to forfeit this game- it just feels wrong."
Dreva shrugged. "I guess I can learn." Tanya had given them the status report- it would be a miracle if Duke were up and about in time to play the Portland Pioneers on Tuesday night. "And I’m not, ah, really sure about Thursday against the Cosmos, either. Probably yeah, but I wouldn’t really want to risk it, y’know?" she had added.
"Hey, Tani, can you whip up something that could teach Dreva the skills in ten seconds flat?" Nosedive teased.
"Do we even have ten seconds?" Dreva countered. But there was a smile in her eyes as she spoke. It had been such a long time since she had felt this happy…
"Let’s hit the ice and practice," Wildwing ordered.
The five other healthy ducks were waiting on the ice. "Let’s see what you’ve got, girly girl," Nosedive challenged as Dreva skated slowly out onto the ice, garbed in a practice jersey and the rest of the usual hockey gear. The stick she clutched had a faint glow to it, but that just might have been a trick of the light. Wildwing nodded for her to take her position.
Two hours later, her skills had been discovered and honed. "I thought you said you didn’t play hockey," Mallory gasped. "For someone who doesn’t play, you sure know how to handle yourself- and everyone else- on the ice."
"All ducks have the ability somewhere inside them. Dreva just didn’t search for it until now," Grin explained.
Wildwing was doing some mental arrangements in his head, trying to figure out how best to arrange the lineup. "Dreva, you’re better on defense than offense, so you’ll be on the defensive line with Grin. Tanya, you’ll play right wing tomorrow night, and Mallory, you’ll slide over to center. I’d better go tell Phil to rewrite the lineup for tomorrow night."
Nosedive suddenly laughed. "How much you wanna bet that Phil doesn’t remember until face-off?"
Several hours later, the TV was on in the ready room, and the nightly battle for the remote control ensued. In the wild and random pressing of the channel buttons, they somehow found their way to a hockey game on one of the minor sports networks. The scuffle immediately stopped as all six ducks scrambled for seats with a good view. "Popcorn… need popcorn…" Nosedive moaned.
"It’s timeout! Run for the chips! I’ll take care of the popcorn!" Mallory yelled. The youngest members of the team took off into the kitchen. Seconds before play resumed, they dashed back in. Nosedive was clutching a bag of chips in each hand, and Mallory had a super-size container of microwave popcorn. Somehow, they got everything opened with a minimum of noise.
Some time later, at the first intermission, Tanya picked up the phone. "Pizza, Mexican, or Chinese? I vote Chinese."
"Second that," Grin agreed.
"Tacos! Tacos!" Nosedive yelled.
"Pizza!" Mallory said.
"Second on the pizza," Wildwing concurred.
"I say Chinese," Dreva countered.
Tanya opened up a comlink with the infirmary. "Hey, Duke, do you want Italian, Mexican, or Chinese?"
"We had pizza the last three takeout nights, and tacos the four ‘fore that, so let’s go Chinese."
Tanya whooped and asked, "Orders, everyone?"
"What’s on the vegetarian menu?" Grin asked. Tanya passed him one of the multiplying handouts that had found their way to the Pond, and continued taking requests. After everyone had ordered, she dialed.
"Three Lucky Star, may I take your order?" a woman’s voice asked with a heavy Chinese accent.
"Ah, yeah, a large wonton soup… two orders of steamed dumplings… a small spareribs… two spring rolls… a beef with broccoli combo… a shrimp with lobster sauce combo… a General Tso’s chicken combo… the sautéed Chinese vegetables… a double order of moo shu pork… a large house lo mein… and a large house fried rice, please." Tanya waited while the woman at the other end scribbled down the characters for their order.
"Pick up or deliver?"
Dreva said, "I’ll pick it up." Tanya relayed that information, added several cans of the uncola to their stock, and hung up.
"You know how to get there?" she asked the brunette duck.
"Sure, I found it while I was walking around earlier. I think I’m going to need to take one of the cycles, though. Carrying Chinese for seven just doesn’t sound like a good idea, especially since the place is a half-mile away. I’ll be back five minutes after they have it ready, ‘kay?" As she turned to leave, she asked, "Do we need anything else while I’m out? I should have a whole heap of time before the food’s even ready."
"Yes!" Mallory exulted. "I don’t have to go grocery shopping!" She ran to the refrigerator door and yanked a piece of paper off it. "Thanks very much for saving me from that horrible fate."
Dreva gave it a once-over as she walked out the door. She put it neatly in her pocket, mounted the cycle, and took off. In the shadows, she relaxed slightly, even as she went full speed down the road. Sometimes it’s hard to get time to yourself… and you, more than anyone else, need some of that… just to be yourself.
She smiled bitterly to herself, wishing that she could tell the truth to the team, but the way things were she had to keep her secrets. Lightly, she drummed her fingers against the hilt of Ahi, her sword of light. The bitter memory of the fight she had won to earn Ahi and its mate Hal came to mind. She brushed it away angrily as she made a sharp turn to enter the parking lot of the supermarket.
She double-checked the list as she searched the aisles, wondering precisely how they went through such disparate items as small plastic bags and hairspray. After picking up the groceries, she headed on to Three Lucky Star. When she saw the woman working behind the counter, she winced visibly. This then would be her first real test in Anaheim.
"Hello, welcome to Three Lucky Star," the woman said. Her nametag read ‘Chan Suyuan’.
"Yeah, I’m here to pick up the really big order," Dreva said briskly. "Beef with broccoli, General Tso’s chicken, moo shu pork, sautéed vegetables-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know, is not ready yet, please wait." The Chinese woman looked at Dreva curiously as she turned back to the kitchen and continued to pack the finished items. A few tense minutes passed for the brunette; every second, she thought she would be caught out, trapped by her own arrogance and ill fortune. But the people in the eatery ignored her presence. Still, she couldn’t wait for the last entrée to be stuffed into its paper bag, so that she could pay the woman and get out of there.
That time finally came. She knew that she had been more grateful to get out of places, but at that moment, it didn’t seem like it. She quickly loaded the bags on the cycle and mounted it herself. Once she was sure that everything was secure, she kicked it up to highest gear and roared off to the Pond.
"Dinner’s ready!" Dreva announced as she lugged the four bags through the door with her. "Hey, Duke, it’s good to see you on your feet. I’m sorry that I couldn’t get there sooner."
"Don’t sweat it, kid. Ya couldn’t’a done much about it anyways. He got in a good one." Duke settled down at the big table on which Dreva had placed the Chinese food.
"Okay, we got dumplings for everyone, spareribs for whoever wants them, Duke’s soup, Grin’s spring rolls- and I want to try one of those- and house fried rice. Okay, the entrees are out. Moo shu… that’s yours, ‘Dive. Passel of veggies- Grin, take them. Who ordered the beef with broccoli? Okay, here you go, Wildwing. Mal, what did you order? Oh, you’re sharing with Dive? ‘Kay. So the lo mein’s Tanya’s, because I know I ordered the General Tso’s. No, Dive, get out of the fortune cookies! Those are for later! Mal, could you pass me the chopsticks? They’re still in the bag, and I can’t reach it from over here. Oh, thanks."
Dinner was quiet- it had been a very long time since they had had Chinese, and it was a pleasure to have it again. Wildwing finally broke the silence with the question that had been irritating the back of everyone’s mind since that morning. "What does Draguanus want with something from a toy warehouse?"
"Second childhood?" Duke asked sarcastically. "Maybe he’s feelin’ like a kid again."
"Or it’s early Christmas shopping for his family," Nosedive added as he squirted a packet of soy sauce on the rice piled on his plate. "I think it would be a hoot to see Draggy in a Santa suit."
"What have you been on?" Mallory demanded with mock sharpness. "Or have you been eating whatever you found under your bunk again? I swear, sometimes, you are the strangest guy."
"Nah, I’ve seen stranger," Dreva disagreed. "Trust me. I’ve seen way, way stranger." I used to live with way stranger, she continued to herself, remembering her youngest brother’s odd habits. She shook herself slightly to get her mind of things that were long past and reached for the white rice.
After dinner and the washing of the dishes, the team split up and headed for their own preferred activities- TV, video games, lab work, meditation, and a good book. Dreva headed to the bedroom she had improvised from an empty storage room, sat down on the pile of cloth she was using as a bed, and opened the deck of cards she had carried ever since… ever since that day that she never wanted to remember. She dealt them out on the cold metal floor, setting up the game of Clock, and hearing in her mind the merciless tick of the watch that her sister had worn the last time they had seen each other.
But she couldn’t think about that here and now… there would be too many questions if she made a slip, and this was one thing that tended to cause her to lose concentration on the task at hand. She sighed and bent her attention to the solitaire game she had dealt. As the late-night hours went on, each of the ducks headed off to sleep- or in Wildwing’s case, dozed off over the book. Dreva was the last to turn off her light and settle down for the night.
Sweet Spot: Well, what do you all think? Read and e-mail, please please please!
Coming up in the next chapter: Why did Draggy raid the toy warehouse? What’s up with Dreva’s swords? And just what does the rest of the team think about switching around their positions?
Shoutout: First and foremost, to the Lady Eagles, who spent the best part of this chapter "on the road to glory" in B-division volleyball, and without whose long, long journey from the quarterfinals I would never have sorted this story out.
Also, especially to T-T, the original, uncopyable, certified and sometimes certifiable. She wears #15 and is a shopping fanatic, like Mallory; she constantly wears the ponytail and looks completely different without it, like Tanya; and years ago when I knew her well, she provided the framework for Teresa.
Also, to the Chinese restaurant down the street for providing the menu for the dinner scene, and to the dragonboy who gave me the idea for the swords that Dreva carries.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters (although I wish I did). I don't make any money off them (although I wish I did). I just like 'em a lot. So please, don't sue me. BUT anyone strange you run across is mine, so don't get comfy with them.