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Episode
166
“I’m standing on a bridge,
Roland knocked on the light green townhouse door, not expecting it
to spread open as he struck it. He blinked for a moment at the open
entrance, then stepped into the apartment that was filled with clutter and
junk. “Sydney?” He called.
“Yeah.”
Came a shout from inside the living room. “Come on in.” Roland trotted
down the short, but narrow hallway past the kitchen to end up in
Sydney’s usually spacious living room. At the moment, however, all of
the dame’s furniture was pulled out from the walls and all her
possessions stacked up onto the assorted stands like islands in the
Pacific.
“What
the hell are you doing?” Roland asked.
Sydney
looked around at her living room for a moment, taking a second to breath.
She looked back at Roland, smiling as a thick lock of her blonde hair fell
down in front of her face. “Playing Tetris?” She tried. She laughed
and shrugged her shoulders to resettle the black tank top she was wearing
as she moved some books out of a chair. “Have a seat.”
Roland
moved into the chair as the blonde dame jumped up onto a chest of drawers
and sat on the top, mindless of the magazines she sat on. “I never
figured you for a magazine girl.” He said, taking a magazine off the top
of the stack near him.
“I
like to read.” Sydney shrugged as a defense. “And besides, I get a lot
of magazines. Popular Science, Martial Arts Training . . .”
“Cosmopolitan.”
“I
do not.” Sydney yelled at Roland.
The
knight held up the most recent issue of the magazine. “You do too.”
“Well,
I,” She tried. “I like the quizzes.”
“’Does
your man have a dirty mind?’” Roland read off the cover. “Answer?
Yes.”
“Did
you hear what Morgan did to Marilyn?” Sydney asked, opening a water
bottle and taking a healthy gulp from it.
“About
the two-girls thing and how every guy thinks about it? Yeah.” Roland
chuckled. “That was the best prank ever.”
“Roland.
It’s true.”
“Yeah,
but just because it’s real doesn’t keep it from being a prank.”
Roland laughed. Sydney just shrugged and drank more water. “You know,
we’re leaving to go off to war in like thirty-six hours. What the hell
possessed you to do this?”
“When
I get nervous, I clean.” She said. “I started cleaning, realized I
didn’t like the way my apartment was set up, so I decided to
reorganize.”
“Uh-huh.”
Roland nodded. “And what are you nervous about?” Sydney gave Roland a
hard look. “It wouldn’t happen to be Morgan, would it?”
“Morgan
and I are spoken for, Roland.” Sydney said, hopping down from the chest
of drawers. “We pretty much were before we met.”
“You
know, he may not think so.” Roland called after as she went into the
kitchen.
“I’m
having enough trouble fitting all my furniture into my apartment,
Roland.” Sydney called from the refrigerator. “I don’t have room for
emotional baggage.”
Armand held his brand up to his face, checking the edge of the
sword as the light gleamed off of it. Sliding down the razor’s edge like
water falling off a dream, the sword’s blade was flawless.
The
young knight held the sword out from him, the long weapon heavy in his
hands. The full-tang wooden was comfortable to his grip while the
blade’s weight was just a bit heavier than the handle’s. And as Armand
closed his eyes and breathed in, the smell of metal shavings, honing oil,
and metal polish filled his senses.
Armand
opened his eyes again, to find his and Everett’s room around him. It had
been cleaned impeccably while outside the window; the early Monday morning
waned on. Armand took a deep breath, then tossed his brand onto the bed.
“I
think this is it, Ulysses.” He said to the sword. “I think that the
legendary battle that the knights have been waiting for is coming. And I
think Ev’s right. It is going to be against the Brotherhood.”
Armand
turned from the sword and paced thoughtfully in the room that barely
afforded him more than five steps. “I wonder what it’s going to be
like after the battle?” Armand thought aloud, addressing his words to
his sword. “I mean, after it’s all over, we’ll come back. Everett
will go back to working on his grants and trying to finish up his on-line
classes. Edgar and Sydney will teach. Roland and Ledger will keep going to
college, being goof-offs. Morgan will keep being a dick.”
“How
can you live a life like this?” Armand asked. “Tomorrow night, we’re
going to prepare to launch a massive offensive against a military cult the
size of an international corporation.” He laughed nervously. “How do
you go back to normal, everyday life after that? How do I spend Tuesday
night and Wednesday morning killing people, saving the world, and then on
Thursday morning, go grocery shopping and have to deal with chicken
breasts being fifty cents more than usual. How?”
Armand
turned back to his sword, smiling a trite, but strong smile of acceptance.
“In the end, I guess it’s all going to come down to simply taking it
one breath at a time. Won’t it?”
The
sword that stared back at him said nothing. Sydney
sat down across from Roland in the late evening restaurant. She was
dressed in a summer dress, while Roland sat across from her in a white
tank top and floral Hawaiian shirt. Even looking like a typical frat boy,
the knight seemed to bring some dignity to the clothes.
“You
ready?” She asked, looking at Roland. He nodded. “I don’t know if I
will be or not.” The dame confided. “I mean, this is big. Really
big.” She looked out the window into the corner of the place. “I
guess, I guess when it all comes down to it, I imagine we’re all pretty
scared.”
“A
little bit, yeah.” Roland admitted. “But hey.” He said after a
moment, his usual carefree grin appearing. “We’re trained. We’re
ready. We’re locked, cocked and . . .”
“Roland.”
Sydney said, stopping him. “By this time Wednesday, chances are, at
least three of us are going to be dead. If not all of us.”
“Well,
then I plan on haunting Jericho like it’s going out of style.” Roland
smiled, persevering against Sydney’s melancholy. “That boy ain’t
ever gonna sleep again.” Sydney
just laughed. “You’re really not worried, are you?” She asked. “Worried?
Sure.” He said. “Scared? More than a little. Frightened? Of course.
But I’m not even going to think about it. It’s not worth my time.”
“How
can you be so cool about it?” She asked.
“Because
I am that damn cool.” Roland said, grinning suddenly. Sydney threw a
napkin at him, his grin infectious. “But seriously.” He said, his
demeanor dropping a bit. “It’s really simply. It’s ninja philosophy
for me. Accomplish the large task by doing the small task. This isn’t
going to be anything big. It’s big because you choose to make it big.”
“Roland,
we’re fighting for the fate of the world.” Sydney argued.
“But
we’re not.” He said. “Or we don’t have to be. To me, this isn’t
about the fate of the world. It might be on Wednesday, but not right now.
Right now, it’s just a plane trip and some fighting and an obstacle
course.”
“Sydney,”
Roland said. “We’re going to get there and it’s just a set of tasks,
like exercising. It’s nothing more. Run over this spot of ground as
quietly as you can. Climb this wall. Kill this guy. Fight this guy.
Repeat.” He shrugged. “No big deal.”
“But
you could get killed.” She said. “And if you do, if we all do, then
we’ll fail and the Brotherhood will win and they’ll attack the
Illuminati through any and all means they can.”
“And
worrying about it is going to make it easier?” Roland asked
rhetorically. “There’s nothing I can do about a guy with a gun
that’s fifty yards away. And I can’t dodge bullets. But I can do what
I can to make myself as hard to hit as possible. The point is, you can’t
control what’s out of your control, so it’s not even worth worrying
about. What you can control, do your best. Everything else, just don’t
bother with it.”
“That
seems careless and idiotic.” Sydney said.
“Yeah.”
Roland nodded. “Maybe. Maybe not. Who is to say? But the point is,
you’re worried and I’m not.” He picked up his menu and started to
look it over. “And I am not going to let my ordeals affect myself
tonight.” |