Chap 2 An Improvisational Conversation

by Shin

 

 

 

“ How are you doing?” Matthias called as he approached.

“ I'm fine,” she replied but caught herself, as he quickly finished whatever he was doing on his cell.

“Is the invitation still open?” he asked.

She waved him to the chair.

“It has to be quick,” she replied. “ I'm due back at the college.”

He ordered a whiskey and turned to her.

“ It occurred to me as we got to the station that you were trying to tell us something. And this might be the right place for it. Dang foreigners...they're got everybody edgy.”

They clinked their glasses in a cheer and sipped on their drinks. Sara felt an instinctive sense that it's not too hard to get along with him. He was unpretentious and beneath the straight Hemingway eyebrows, she thought she saw understanding in his eyes.

But she realized that she was nursing a feel about the way she charged out with the invitation. Matthias took the initiative.

“Are you from here?”

“No,” she answered quickly, “ Willard....about 100 miles north-west. Yourself?”

“A few places,” he replied, “ Originally from Pennsylvania.”

“Your name is …...,” she trailed off tentatively.

“ German. My great grandfather....” he answered and warmed up slowly, “ worked on the first locomotive factory in Pennsylvania, during the civil war.....” he kept going, '” didn't go to school or college....these guys learned engineering by themselves and eventually grew to be one of the largest locomotive companies in the world.” He paused. “ And your folks in Willard?”

“ It's like the history of Willard....my great grandfather founded the town and my father runs his medical practice there today.”

They ordered another round of drinks.

“ So where did you learn to pick up girls?” she asked suddenly.

It threw him off momentarily but he found his balance again.

“ In the marines,” he replied. “ Over in Iraq.”

“Been back a while?” she asked.

He leaned back in his chair and took a moment to find the words for the reply.

“ Well, back and forth. Finished my tour, then joined up with Blackwater and did another two years.”

“ You sound like you liked it?”

“ I liked the idea of keeping busy....doing something.....seemed like the right thing to do.”

“ I'm going to mention something completely off the wall here....”

He waved her on and added,

“ You've picked up quite a knack for it.”

She smiled in response.

“ I'm glad you changed your mind about the invitation.”

He leaned forward again.

“ I might be trying to prove that blondes are fashionable again.”

“ That might be a little hard to do,” she replied, “ but don't let me discourage you.”

“Another off the wall?” she appealed.

“ It's what I came back from the war for,” he quipped.

“ How did you and Krish meet?”

He leaned back again.

“It was after 7/11. We were checking on all flight schools and foreign businesses. We had no idea that yoga was Indian.....so we got in there, made some pointed inquiries and then realized what it was. But this guy took no offense whatsoever. We chatted a little and he put me onto a bunch things I didn't know before. He tells me about the different sects in Islam, the objectives of their learning and got me to realize that while we are after some very dangerous people.....they are....also making mistakes in what they know about us.....and he made me feel for a moment that we are all like kids fooling around with danger and looking to score.”

He paused and smiled.

“ I had never seen it that way before....so we got to chatting and meeting for drinks.”

“ He has a very disarming manner,” she replied, then added “ So it's not a gay thing?”

He leaned forward.

“ Well, if I was marooned on a deserted island with him, I think maybe....like being in prison....but no I don't think it goes that far.” Then he added, “ He has a curious explanation about intimacy with the same sex which he says is important for the mind but that doesn't include what he calls, ' expressing your passions in reverse.' “

She laughed.

“ And you?” he asked quickly. “ Are you seeing someone special?”

“ No,” she replied....then trawled herself into saying, “ I can't say I haven't been curious. About same sex I mean. There's something tender....in that...”

“Well, Krish engages yoga to explain it, so you might come to understand that before I do.”

“So you don't do yoga?”

“Never did and I'm not sure if I ever will. Its the gym for me.”

Sara leaned back.

“ I think I may have something on the Vietnamese murders,” she announced. “ What we have come to see regarding these non-verbal experiences and blood feuds....the word is Karma.....is that they still leave a physical trail or impact.”

Matthias nodded in anticipation.

“ You're working on the assumption that he hated the people he killed. Turn that around and lead him to a sense of killing them because he loved them.”

Matthias squinted in response.

“ Did you check to see if there was a gay relationship involved?”

“ We couldn't get him to say.”

“ Switch it around....something to do with age-old Asian honor among men and the impact of our new liberalism on the gay issue....it's a hard mix to sustain. Somebody here tried it and didn't like it.”

Matthias nodded.

“ You have an advantage,” he declared, “ your great grandfather founded a town.”

 

“ And you have the advantage of the improvisational,” she replied.

They paid for their drinks and left.

Reviews

[Marie]

I don't do books, but I find myself reading this one.You're a pretty good writer. You poetry is obscure (on purpose, I think), but this is straightforward. It's written on a fairly sophisticated level, but not hard to understand.