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I remember drowning in a sea of blue, surrounded by darkness and
light.
This was the only
thing that Eiji could remember from his dream, a boy submerged
in a clear sea of blue, his face buried under the surface of the
water, floating quietly, calmly, the light shining on somewhere.
"Eiji Nakamura! This is the police! We've got the place
surrounded!"
The screams from the loudspeakers outside woke Eiji out of his
thoughts.
"I repeat, we have the place surrounded! Let the hostages go and
surrender yourself!"
He looked outside as the other two people did, and saw nothing
but the sunlight pouring in from the skies outside.
The rice tasted weird with the clam sauce that covered the
mongolian beef.
The husband and wife looked horrified outside the window.
"The hell?" Eiji looked puzzled as the loudspeaker continued on
with its screams.
"The sniper has already aimed at your head and ready to fire
now! Surrender, and we promise to figure out a deal that will
benefit the both of us."
"Are the cops here always this unfriendly?" Eiji asked as he
pointed the chopsticks towards the husband.
"I-I don't know..."
"I mean, from your standpoint, what do you think of the cops."
"I-I think they're good..."
"Hmm..." Eiji dabbed another clump of rice into his mouth and
accompanied it with some of the vegetable tofu dish, pointing
then at the wife, who was still looking outside with shock. "How
about you, Missus..."
She didn't seem to hear him.
"What's her name again?" Eiji asked the husband, who looked kind
of disgrunted in Eiji's view. "I'm sorry, I'm not really good
with names."
"Leyla."
"Oh, yeah, Leyla." A pause. "And yours was?"
"Ron."
"Ron Fikensburg?"
"No, Ron Leven."
"I thought it was Fikensburg." Eiji thought about it as he ate
some more. "Where the hell did I get Fikensburg?"
"Are you listening to us, Eiji! We're here to negotiate a
peaceful way out of this!" The loudspeaker again and again. "I
know neither you or me wants this to end in a bloodbath."
"Did I ever mention that I knew someone named Ron when I was in
High School?" Eiji ignored the cops and went on.
Ron just looked at him in silence. Not knowing whether he should
be responding or not.
Eiji just looked at him expecting a response.
"Anyway," He continued again, kind of annoyed for not getting
that response. "We went out to eat one day..." He chuckled as he
thought of something else. "Damn, what am I doing? This is so
rude."
"Excuse me?" Ron looked puzzled.
"Speaking while we're eating, you know? This is like the rudest
thing to do! I mean, speaking with your mouth still chewing,
spewing out blah-blahs along with pieces of chewed up food. Man,
that's so disgusting."
Ron once again didn't know if he was supposed to respond or not.
"Anyway, I apologize with the sincerest of my hearts. Yet I hope
you understand that I really don't mean to be rude at all, I'm
just talking while eating because this may be the only time I
ever get to talk to you both, you know? So I gotta take the best
of the time we have together and just share what I want to
share, ya know?"
Ron looked at him puzzled again.
"Ya know?" Eiji repeated again, waving his hand to incite some
kind of response.
"Y-Yes..." Ron replied weakly.
"So anyway," Eiji picked up his chopsticks and started eating
again. "This Ron I knew in High School, right? Used to pick on
this girl at my class, over and over again, like almost every
hour we spent together. Morning, evening, noon. It wouldn't
matter, the dude would just freaking even get out of his way to
throw water ballons at her. But the deal is," The wife finally
turned towards them. "Oh, hi, welcome to the tabletop again,"
Eiji said in a mock high girl voice. "Eat, eat." He gestured
towards the dishes. "There's plenty of food around, and we
wouldn't want it to get cold now, would we?"
"I-I'm not hungry." She replied.
"Nonsense, aren't you pregnant and all?" By the worried look on
Ron's face, Eiji could tell that that fact wasn't a lie. "We
don't want the baby to be born all unhealthy now, would we? I
say you should at least try some of this tofu." He picked up a
piece of it and placed in on the girl's rice. "It's really
freaking awesome. But then again, you made it, right? So I'm
sure you already know that it's awesome and all."
"T-thanks, but I'm really not that hungry."
"I didn't say you might be hungry, I was thinking that the baby
would probably appreciate this tofu and all."
"I don't think we should force her to eat..." Ron started,
before Eiji interrupted him.
"Dude, do you want your baby to be born with all kinds of
disease or something? No, right? So ya gotta make sure your
wifey is all healthy and all, alright?"
Ron didn't say anything back. |
