by J. Naomi Ay
“Come on,” he yelled at me. He was always yelling at me. I was innocently sitting in my room playing a game on the vid, and for no reason at all he came in and yelled at me to come on.
“Where?” I responded. I'm sure I said that belligerently but at the time I was sure any belligerence I felt was more than justified.
My father placed his hands on his hips.
“You don't deserve this.”
“Whatever, dude,” I shrugged killing at least three alien ships and damaging shields on a fourth.
“I said come on,” my father repeated and turned the power off on my vid.
“What the fuck!?!” I demanded.
“Put on some clean clothes and brush your hair,” my father ordered. I could see my mother peering at me from around his fat bulk. “Now!”
“Please Berkie,” she said.
I slammed the door in their faces and dug through the pile of clothes on the floor for something resembling clean. I dragged a brush through my unwashed, uncut hair and examined my face.
“Dude, you need a shave,” I said to the mirror.
“Do you think I need to shave?” I asked my parents when next I opened the door.
“Shave what?” My dad smirked. “Come on.”
There were two limos out front.
“Cool!” I said as we climbed in one of them. “Where are we going?”
“Karupatani,” my dad replied, opening one of his favorite candy bars and getting himself a drink from the car's bar.
“Oh awesome, dude!” I nearly screamed. “Hey can I have a drink too? Okay, how about a candy bar?”
We landed in Karupatani which looked just like this primitive forest village and the guys in the limo behind us got out too. I remembered two of them used to be our security guards way back when I lived at the Palace with Senya. The other guys were carrying cameras. This guy who looked like one of those Karupta princes met my dad, and we followed him down this hill and walked into the village.
“Awesome,” I said. There was fire pits and little houses and shops, and the girls were all wearing these tight leather dresses with shells and sparkly things on them, and they all had this really thick beautiful straight black hair and junior Mr. Berkan was enjoying the show immensely, so I was like totally glad that my pants were really baggy because otherwise that bugger would have been leading the way.
“I'm going to go speak to King Merakoma,” my dad told me.
“You may go find the MaKennah,” the prince guy said. He spoke the Noble Mishnese, but he had a weird accent. “He is in the meadow over there. The boys are practicing sword play.”
“Cool.”
The photographers and I headed over to the meadow and no shit, all these Karut dudes were riding horses and racing around swinging swords at each other and targets and stuff. These little dudes were using like old fashion iron swords or something, but the bigger dudes were all swinging light swords.
“Fucking A!” I cried. “These dudes know how to use light swords!”
The dudes went racing up to the targets and blasted them into smithereens. The Karut dudes screamed and laughed when they did all this, and I for one couldn’t understand a word they were saying. Then some big dude rode forward, and he was swinging like no tomorrow, and all of a sudden out of nowhere this other dude came on this giant black horse, and he pulled out this light sword and bam, the first dude lost his sword and fell off the horse. The Karuts went crazy cheering for the dude on the black horse, and the photogs next to me started snapping pics like they were going crazy too.
I realized then that the dude on the black horse was Senya. He was as big as the other Karut prince guy, and he had really long hair, but it wasn’t straight like the other Karuts, but all wild and curly. Man, if I didn't know I was his best friend from way back I'd be scared shitless of him because he was one dangerous looking dude.
The big black horse stood up on his hind legs and practically flew across the field. All the other dudes, little and big, came racing across the field, and some big dude who looked like maybe he was a few years older than us because he really did need a shave, pulled one of the cameras away from the photogs and another guy tackled the other photog on the ground.
They started yelling at us in Karut and Senya was just sitting on that horse which was panting and snorting. Senya was watching this whole thing and then he started to laugh, and all the Karuts looked at him like he was fucking crazy or something.
Senya jumped off the horse and came over and smacked me across the back which sent me flying onto the grass.
“Berkie!”
“Fuck Senya,” I said. “You gonna kill me, and I just got here.” Then I thought that maybe that was the wrong thing to say because he was like, you know, the Crown Prince and all, and maybe I shouldn't be swearing at him.
I guess he didn't care because he reached down and yanked me up. He was taller than me and obviously a lot stronger, and the photogs were saying that they wanted to take pics of our reunion and would His Royal Highness be so kind as to tell the dudes to let them go.
The older dude called off the younger ones, and the photogs got up and dusted off and started snapping their pics. Senya introduced me to a bunch of the Karut dudes or at least I thought that's what he did and they kind of nodded and looked at me like I was from another planet or something. I guess he told one of the little dudes to take his horse because the kid did and then he and I walked back to the village.
The girls from the village and the old ladies too were all watching us and either they thought I was something special or they spent every day looking at Senya with their tongues hanging out because that's sure what they were doing now and the photogs were snapping up pics of all of this.
“So you have a fine bunch of women here,” I said smiling at some of the girls. They laughed at me behind their hands.
“Are they?”
“Very. Maybe you could introduce me to some while I'm here?”
He shrugged. “Why are you here anyway?”
“My dad says that the King wants you back so you can start University in the fall. He wants you to go to the U of New Mishnah, and they've already made security arrangements. I guess he's delivering the news to your other grandfather.”
“You going to go to University too?”
“Not yet, dude,” I said. “I'm no brain like you, so I gotta stay in High School for a couple more years.”
We came to the little house my father went in and Senya sat down on the steps off the front porch. He was wearing some dark sunglasses even though the porch was shady. He lit a cig, but he didn’t offer me one even though I could really use one about now.
“What's with the glasses, dude?” I sat down next to him.
He lifted them up and showed me his eyes.
“Whoa, dude. Cover them back up!” His eyes were so bright now you can't even look back into them. It was like looking straight into the sun, and you’d go blind or something if you looked too long. “How'd that happen?”
Senya laughed. “Puberty.”
“Shit man, the rest of us just got zits and grew armpit hair.”
He laughed again. “You're a funny guy, Berk. Stay out of trouble, yes?”
“What d' you mean? My dad tell you something?”
“Haven't seen your dad in four years.” He breathed out a cloud of smoke right into my face. “Just listen to me, Berk. Don't be a screw up. Get your head out of your ass and start studying. Go to University and get a degree in business management.”
“Business management? What the fuck?”
“Just do what I say, Berk.”
I was getting pissed. Who was he to tell me what to do? Talk about being a screw up. He was the king of screw ups.
“What the hell do you know?” I said.
He smiled at me in a patronizing way.
“I know everything, Berk. Remember? I'm telling you right now, stop shooting Horkin. You
want to blow your brains out? I'll do it for you.”
“Dude, I'm not…” I shook my head.
“You've got a death wish? That's why you are doing Horkin? I'll kill you instead. Will that make you happy?”
“I don't …I don't have a death wish.”
“You're going to kill yourself on it, Berk. You can't handle it. You OD'd twice already. You're not going make it the third time. I can put my blade in your neck, and you'll be done. No worries.” He had a blade in his hand now. I jumped back. I forgot how he could make things come and go just by thinking about them.
“Senya…I…”
“Listen to me, Berk.” He put his hand around my neck, and it felt like he could just snap my head right off. “I can Berk. You want me to break your neck? That sound better?”
“No, no,” I gasped.
“You stop doing Horkin right now. You listen to your old man, and you clean yourself up. Then you go to University and do as I say. If you don't, I'll come after you.”
“Ok,” I whispered. He released me.
“You know what else, Berk? You know what I can do?” He took a long drag on his cig.
I shook my head.
“I can be here in Karupatani, and I can reach into your bedroom back in New Mishnah and crush your pathetic little throat.”
“No shit?” I squeaked.
“No shit,” he said with a shake of his head. He leaned back against a railing post and exhaled another cloud of grey cig smoke.
“Ok,” I said. “No more shit. I'm clean.”
“I'll know if you're not and I'll do it, Berk.” He blew smoke in my face. “You wouldn't be the first fucker I killed, nor the last.”
“I know, Senya.”
“Sir.”
“Huh?”
“I'm not Senya to you anymore. You do not deserve this privilege.” He stood up and tossed his cig into the air. The door opened and my father came out.
“Your Royal Highness.” My father bowed.
“Captain Loman.” Senya let my father kiss his hand.
“I convey to you His Majesty's greetings. He will be pleased to see you looking so well.”
“Please pass on my greetings as well,” my former friend said. “And thank you, you and Rucia. Thank you for what you have done for me.”
“My duty,” my father replied. “And my honor.”
My former friend went into the house, and my father and I and the other guys all left.
I guess I had to detox or something because the next week I was really jumpy and didn't sleep at all. After that I was okay. I started taking showers. I got my hair cut and I even wore clean clothes. Two years later I graduated high school with honors and started the University. My major, business management of course.
Chapter 16
Tuman