Inside, a young hostess greeted him, and he asked to be seated at one of the high tables close to the bar. She led him to a table at the center of the area. As he sat facing the large windows, in order to watch the people outside, she handed him a menu, a pencil, and a piece of paper printed with a list of items. It was his first time at a sushi joint, so he looked a little puzzled when she gave him the pencil. She smiled at him, and he tried to smile back. Then before he could ask a question, she said, “Dancy will be serving you today, and she’ll be right with you.” Immediately, she walked back to her podium.
He didn’t want to think about the pencil yet. So, he reached for what looked like a wine list standing at the center of the small table. At the back page was a list of sake, and at the front was a list of sushi. He focused his attention at the back. Again, he was a bit puzzled. There were different sizes of sake bottles, hot and cold sake, and different types of sweetness and dryness. Breathing a sigh of defeat, he set the list down to look at the pencil.
Approaching his table, and then standing next to him, Dancy greeted him and leaned her arm on the table, “Hey, rock star, how are ya today?” She seemed very friendly and upbeat.
With a quick glance, but because of her beauty, he noticed quite a bit of detail about her. He saw her long straight hair that reached below her shoulders: it looked naturally black, but it had reddish and light brown highlights. Her face was tanned as the rest of her body, a handful of small light-colored freckles dotted her cheeks, and she had a narrow nose and slightly full lips. To him, she looked like someone of Hawaiian, Japanese, or Pacific Island descent or, more likely, a mix of those backgrounds. Though, someone else could attribute some of her features to be somewhat middle-eastern. In any case, he couldn’t decide which.
“Just fine, thanks,” he said with a smile, noticing that she stood maybe two or three inches shorter than he. The petite white t-shirt she wore ended just above her waist, and below her bellybutton, her blue jeans rested. She was slender and gorgeous, and he was instantly attracted to her.
“Can I get you a drink?”
“Well, I was looking at this thing,” he pointed at the list of sake and lightly chuckled, “and I can’t figure out. It’s my first time ordering the sake. Got a suggestion?” He gazed directly into her eyes and noticed their deep brown color.
The first sake suggestion she gave him had a long Japanese name, and it immediately passed through his ears without registering in his brain. With the second, he heard “Pure Sake brand.” The third had another long Japanese name, as incomprehensible as the first.
He smiled, “I’ll take the Pure Sake thingy.” Then he followed with, “And a glass of water, please.”
She smiled back at him, “Comin’ right up, sweetie pie.” She did a quick turn and made her way to the bar.
His eyes followed her as she walked away from him. Wow, he thought to himself as he raised his eyebrows.
After fiddling with the pencil in front of him, he then examined the printed paper with its several columns. The first column had a heading with the word “Sushi,” the next “Sashimi,” and the next “Lunch Specials.” There were more columns, but he wasn’t willing to look any further. He looked down the list of Sushi. Next to each sushi name was a small square box.
“Got it,” he thought. “So, you check the box next to the thing you want to order. That’s what the pencil is for.”
At the corner of his eye, something was happening outside in the street. He turned to look. A group of maybe seven people had made their way directly in front of the restaurant, passing out flyers. Each of them was wearing a different costume: one angel, one clown on stilts, one mime, and the rest in other costumes. They were moving with energy, spinning, bowing to people, raising their arms, and jumping. He enjoyed the scene.
He thought, “They’re probably performers putting on a show at the theater down the street.” He was so amused that he wanted to take a picture of them with his cell phone.
As he stood up to reach for the phone in his jeans, he glanced to his side to see Dancy chatting with customers at the next table. She stood facing his direction with a smile on her face, while she told them an amusing story. The three guests laughed in response. When finished talking, Dancy glanced at him.
He made a half-hearted smile, slightly lifting the edges of his mouth.
Tilting her head to the side, Dancy playfully stuck her tongue out at him.
He grinned and shook his head at her, not believing what she had just done.
She flashed a smile back, and then quickly turned to walk back to the bar.
With the phone in his hand, he pressed a button to enable the camera. Pointing it out the window, he tried to capture the scene. But before he could take a picture, the image lost focus and froze. When he pressed the button to take the picture, nothing happened.
“Oh, crap,” he mumbled. He pressed other buttons on the phone, but the image remained frozen. Then, the phone no longer responded.
Dancy returned with a bottle of cold sake and a shot glass, and she noticed that he was fiddling with the phone. She twisted off the top of the bottle and poured the sake into the shot glass. “Hey, you’ve got the same phone as me!” she exclaimed.
“Well, does the camera on it still work? Because mine just froze up on me.”
“Yeah, mine works. What’s wrong with yours?” She stood close to him to look at the phone, almost touching him.
“See, I keep touching buttons, but the image on the display doesn’t change, and I can’t take a picture.” He brought the phone closer to her, and as he did, he leaned his arm against hers. They both looked down at the phone.
She didn’t move and let him lean on her.
He said, “Maybe if I take out the battery and put it back in, it’ll reset and start working again.” He did so, and they separated a bit as they watched the phone start up.
After the phone restarted, Dancy said, “Here, let me see it, honey.” She lightly cupped his hand as she took the phone from him.
She put the phone in camera mode and walked outside the restaurant, standing where the performers used to be. Then, she lifted the phone above her head, fully extending her arm. She pointed the camera out, and then began to spin around, hopping in place as she turned.
He laughed, “That’s just too cool.” As he kept watching her do her little dance, he added, “She’s a spunky one.”
She stopped, brought down the phone to her face, and looked at the display. Once again she raised the phone, spun and hopped, stopped, and looked at the display. As she made her way back inside, she continued to stare at the phone. When she reached him, she handed it back to him and said, “Well, rock star, it didn’t work.” The display was again frozen.
“Huh!” he said in a bit of a huff, disappointed.
“Did you drop it or something?” she asked.
“No. Other than listening to music, I hardly use it. I’m gonna have to get a replacement.”
She stepped back and asked, “Well…were you thinking about getting something from the menu?”
“About that…” He sat back down on his chair, and picked up the printed paper. As Dancy stood by, he began to feel a comfort and settling within him. But it was strange for him, because he hadn’t felt any sort of easiness with anyone for many years. It seemed that Dancy was the cause of it. Loosening up, he admitted, “It’s another first for me today. I’ve never had sushi, but if you can suggest something, I’m pretty adventurous.”
She pointed at an item on the sheet of paper. “A lot of people order that one. I like it too.”
“Alright, I’ll take one of those. And…” The longhaired man was almost ashamed to ask, but as he continued to talk to her, he began to feel as if the last few years of his life, and the emotions that built up from them, were becoming a distant blur. He started to actually feel and act like a normal human being. So now, wanting to find some way to get more of her attention, he said, “I wanna learn how to use these th
ings instead of using a fork.” He picked up the pair of chopsticks sitting on the table. “I’ll pay you twenty-five cents an hour to be my tutor.”
“Twenty-five cents? That’s it?!” She feigned being appalled and put her hands at her hips. Then, she smiled and said, “But for you, I’ll do it for free. Seeing that there’s not that many customers here right now, I can spend more time with the dumb and needy ones.” She gave him a big smile.
“Gee, thanks for telling me where I stand.” He looked down, and then back up to smile at her, a little embarrassed but enjoying her sense of humor.
She tapped his hand and tilted her head to the side, saying, “I’ll be back, sweetie.” After entering his order on the computer behind the bar, she then went off to tend to the other guests. He watched her as she talked to them. She was quite friendly and energetic. He had never seen a waitress, or anyone for that matter, who had such liveliness in her interaction with people.
Van Halen’s You Really Got Me began to play on the restaurant’s speaker system. Dancy began to energetically sing it as she walked about, making facial expressions and briskly shaking her head as she got into the song. When she made her way to his table with his plate of sushi in hand, she continued to sing the song. She looked directly at him as if she performed it just for him. When she reached his table she immediately stopped, set down the plate, smiled, and put her hands on the table. She was ready to teach him how to use the chopsticks.
After figuring out whether he was left-or right-handed, she stood near him at his left. She leaned on his side, helping him hold his fingers into position with the chopsticks. The closeness was very comfortable for both of them.
He wasn’t getting the concept, and it was a struggle for him to pick up his first sushi with the sticks. He either crushed the sushi, or it slipped from the sticks as he raised it to his mouth. Then, his fingers were beginning to cramp. After several minutes of unsuccessful attempts, he teased, “What kind of teacher are you anyway? I’m not even getting this.”
She slapped his shoulder. “I’m doing my best here! You just don’t have any coordination. And you get what you pay for, by the way.” She pulled away.
He lightly laid his hand on her forearm and slid it down to her hand as he spoke. “I’m sorry,” he admitted. “I suck…rescue me?” He put on his best pout and his best “I’m sorry” eyes.
“Fine! But you better get it this time.” Dancy came in again, held his left hand in both of hers, and helped his fingers squeeze the chopsticks together to pick up the sushi.
It was a game he hadn’t played in a long time, but he was remarkably sharp, and she was a willing participant. The sake certainly helped to loosen him up, preventing him from thinking and analyzing too much. More importantly, it allowed him to act on instinct.
Dancy stayed with him until he finished his meal. A couple of times, she parted from him to give her attention to the other customers, but she always came back to him.
When he finished his sake, Dancy sat on the seat next to him. Their ensuing conversation was effortless.
It was 3:30 in the afternoon.
“I gotta go,” he said with a smile, looking straight into her eyes.
“Where ya headed off to, honey?”
“Nowhere really,” he smiled sheepishly.
“Well, stay. I’ll get you some edamame - on me. Try to fatten you up so you can’t go away.” She giggled.
He didn’t quite know what “edamame” was, but he nodded and smiled to look amused. “Sure, that sounds good.”
She came back with a small bowl of steamed green soybeans still in their pod, lightly sprinkled with salt. After seeing them, he understood her fatten you up joke.
“Here you go, and I’ll be back,” she said. As she walked away, she softly ran her hand across his back, starting from one side of his waist, then up his back, and then down the other side.
As he turned and watched her walk, he thought, Dude, I think that’s a sign.
She returned, and they chatted for a little while longer.
It was inevitable; he asked her for a date. The question came out effortlessly. There was no awkwardness either from him, as he said it, or from her, as she answered. It was a natural progression to their conversation and growing closeness. There was no doubt in his mind that she would agree. And she did.
Chapter 3
Something small fluttered a circuitous path through the air, landing on a long waving twig of a bush shaking in the dusk air. Its black-dot eyes followed a dark form - a dark entity - gliding quickly and gracefully above the ground.
The entity’s shape was as a dense black smoke, but it was composed of millions of tiny sand-like dark particles. It moved gracefully, with a hissing sound like that of rapidly shifting sand. With its ability to leap through time and jump into eras of human history, the dark entity reached its destination: a particular night in Berlin, Germany.
The tiny fluttering observer followed close behind.
The summer evening was aflame with enormous platform torches extending high into the sky. Their brilliant red and yellow flames burned the air and lit an expansive, sprawling plaza teeming with thousands upon thousands of people standing in livewire excitement. They waited for the speaker to arrive at the center podium. Flags waved high on poles over the crowds, briskly snapping the air as the wind dictated their dance.
Behind a flowing, thick curtain separating Germany’s leader from his admiring crowd, the dark entity completely engulfed him within its smoke-like form. It communed with Hitler, as he stood alone before he spoke.
Moments later, the entity uncovered its celebrated disciple, and then stretched its form above him like an honoring banner. As the entity hovered in the air, expanding and contracting itself, its black sand-like particles hissed with a reverberating ring.
When Hitler stepped forward and separated the curtains to appear in front of the podium, the adoring crowd cheered and chanted with electric excitement. Their cumulative voices whipped through the flames of the surrounding torches and thundered into the heavens.
Two figures stood in the darkness at the front of the mass of people underneath the shadow of the vaulted platform and podium. At one end of the crowd, and at Hitler’s very left, a trusted military officer stood expressionless. This officer, with a spirit steadfastly focused upon saving sacred Germany for her people, would later betray his Fuhrer.
At the other end of the throng, directly opposite from the officer, and at Hitler’s very right, was an unshakeable SS Sturmbannfuhrer - an SS Major. Standing in the dark shadows, with his face unseen and dressed in black uniform, the SS Major’s eyes scanned each person among the masses, reading their movement, gauging their affectations. He would later receive the praise of his Fuhrer.
Pulling away from the scene, the entity rose into the air. Suddenly, it elongated itself and propelled high into the orange and red sky.
The tiny observer disappeared, and then reappeared following closely behind the dark entity. Soon, it was pulled into the entity’s speeding wake.
Faster and faster, they cut through the air. Wind and clouds whooshed past them. At greater speeds, the sound of the passing wind grew deafening. Just before the sound became completely unbearable, there was a thunderous burst, followed by a sudden silence. The wind and clouds dissolved into the great distance behind them. Then, engulfing them were flashing, spectacularly long beams of light of all colors of the spectrum. The light sped past at all angles, and surrounded them like a bright, narrow, kaleidoscopic tunnel. Faster and faster they catapulted, cutting through space. Soon, with a brilliant explosion of white light, they began to slice through time itself.
After a brief moment, the entity slowed, sensing its destination. Soon, the beams of light gave way to speeding winds. Then, the turbulent winds turned into the calmer air of clear blue skies.
They had traversed forward, through the centuries.
The dark entity glided effortlessly over the earth. It cruised over moun
tains and treetops, skimmed past valleys and lakes, and cut through the terrain of Asia.
Furthering its designs to align human history into its desired focal point, and to tempt the actions of men with its guile, the entity approached its next disciple.
Following the dark entity was the observer, in the unexpected and unnoticeable form of a tiny green mantis.
* * * * * * *
The longhaired goateed man hurriedly slammed closed the door of his Mustang and ran up the stairs of his apartment building. As his apartment door briskly opened, he rushed in.
“Cool! In time for kickoff.” He slammed the door behind him in an uncharacteristically lighthearted and excited mood.
Only the game of football allowed this transformation to happen.
Quickly pacing to the refrigerator, he said, “A beer. A beer. Gotta have a beer for the game.” Hurriedly, he opened the refrigerator door, and his eyes quickly scanned the items inside. “Beer, beer, beer. No beer…ah one beer! One left? Crap. I’ll get some later.”
After grabbing the can, he quickly walked to the coffee table. There, he stood just long enough to pop open the can, drink from it, and then set it down on the table with his keys.
“Remote. Remote. Where’s the TV remote?” The black TV remote was small and easy to lose. Looking for it, he turned his head left then right, glancing at the table, the stereo, the couch, and the floor, and then cycling his head around again. He dropped down on the floor and bent his head down over the carpet, peering underneath the couch. As his hair fell in front of his eyes, he brushed it away behind his ear.
No remote. He stood up.
Refusing to walk to the TV to turn it on, he blurted, “And no, I’m not gonna do manual labor.”
Hurriedly, he looked for it in the kitchen. Nothing. Nothing but frustration.
He was by nature a calm, cool, soft-spoken man, but these days, he could be quite indifferent and even cold. However, when it came to football, he threw all of that out the window and transformed into a completely different persona. Today was no different.
RB 01 Through Flesh & Bone Page 6