4

4

“Peacock Parlor, how can I help you?” Annie Elliot picked up the phone while tucking a bundle of straws into her pocket.

“Hi, Annie! It’s Darius’ Mee Maw, is he around?”

Annie turned both shoulders, but didn't see Darius.

“I'm sorry, I can't see him anywhere, I can let you know if he comes by though.”

“Oh, poor Darry!  Ok, Ok, thank you.”

“Of course! Bye!”

“Bye Bye, Darling.”

Annie’s face, innocent with delicate and caring eyes, lit up at the thought of the childlike nurturing Darius received from his Mee Maw.  Memories sprang up from as far back as third grade of the attachment she has to her grandson. Annie was fortunate enough (depending who you ask) to withstand Mee Maw’s scrutiny and make the selective list of approved females for Darius’ company.  Perhaps it was the similarity of their pure, mother-like natures that drew Mee Maw to Annie. Darius and Annie were inseparable in their youth, that is until around twelve years old when Darius withdrew into himself and Annie stumbled her way into the politics of popularity in school.  She did, however, never cease looking at Darius with admiration, a sort of hero-worship. More than keeping up with appearances and reputation, she wanted the bewilderment of Darius’ company, but could never bring herself to action.

“Who was that?” A voice came from behind the bar.  The voice belonged to Luke, a well built man with prominent features, of around the same age as Annie and Darius.  

“Darius’ Grandma was wondering where he is.”

“Not here, luckily, right? Ha-Ha.”

Annie shook her head and smiled, letting out two short breaths from her nose.

“Busy night tonight, huh?” Both the restaurant and the bar were nearly empty, but his nervousness prompted the remark.

“Yeah, it’s not too bad.” Annie rubbed her arm and the two stood without much to say.

A faint resemblance to the second movement of the 40th was becoming less and less faint.  

“Is that an accordian I hear?” Luke broke the silence.

The the door slammed open and Darius burst through with Mozart.  Darius, who had somehow acquired a cane between his grandparents’ and the Peacock, reached into his pocket to pause his music.  He was visibly angry.

“Luke, Annie, G’d evening, I trust you are well.”  He did a sort of curtsy with the cane. “Certainly more so than myself!” He slammed the cane on the ground and threw his

head back.

Annie was giddy at seeing Darius.  Him saving her from an awkward encounter wasn't the only reason.

“Your grandma was asking about you.  What’s the matter?” Annie was genuinely concerned.

Luke rolled his eyes and wondered why she was entertaining him.

“Amazing that she should ask for me, when my misery is suffered at her hand!” Darius slammed the cane again.

“Ok, why do you have a cane?”  Luke spotted one of several elephants.

“I haven't time to explain that, I haven't time to explain anything, I have only to think now.  Leave me be!” He grabbed a basket of popcorn from beside the host stand and his wood bottomed shoes clacked with the cane against the tile floor until he found his way to his preferred table.  Luke, Annie, and the two others in the kitchen watched Darius take his seat, unsurprised by anything that had just occurred.

“I should talk to him.”

“No, you’ll only feed into him.  Besides, he needs to ‘think’” Luke was annoyed that she would even consider talking to him.

“I’ll let him cool off.”  The two watched him shovel popcorn into his maliciously mumbling mouth.

“The nerve.  The nerve of that woman.  I am her grandson for 24 years and she repays me with this? This?”  The mumbling went on for ten minutes or so until Annie saw that his popcorn had run out.

“Here ya go, ” She set down a fresh basket of popcorn in front of Darius.

“Thank you, I’ve only just run out.”

“I know I saw, ha-ha” She’s almost always nervous around him at first.

“Well, sit if you’d like, I can tell you of my problem now.” Darius motioned to the chair across from him.

Annie sat down and her eyes gleamed at Darius with full presence.

“Before I begin this most epic of tragedies, I will say that I refuse to have my spirits dampened by this set of circumstances.”

She was listening.

“I had just returned to my home from a long, heroic day of study, when Mee Maw forced me into the living room, without any warning, any hint, any softening measures, for the abuse that was about to occur.”

She enjoyed how he could tell a story of the smallest event with such a grandiose tone, though she knew, at least slightly, that he was prone to exaggeration.

“I sit down on the couch of that dungen, and her words come bulleting through my eardrums, wreaking havoc, waging war on every organic material between them and the processing center of my brain.  What did she tell me you ask? ‘Darius, I’m kicking you out of your beloved room for a woman I’ve only just met! And I hope you are as good as starving on the street, cast from the civilized world!’ She says: ‘Darius, you are banished to the basement! And I smite thee!’  I told her I would find a new home, but I cannot possibly find the space in my heart to forgive such a wretched and vile act!”

“Wait, why is a woman staying in your house?”

“She’s a supposed medical professional, hell-bent on hospice care for my grandfather.”

Annie was one of the few who knew about Winnie.

“Darius, your grandpa needs it.”

“If your intent is in making know the obvious, please find a new table to occupy.”

“Well, what do you plan on doing?”

“That’s precisely what I’ve been trying to figure out.  I have a few preliminary ideas, but no concrete plan.” He uncrossed his arms “My initial thought was to increase time spent at the enlightenment emporium for studying the workings of the brain, such that I could invent a cure for brain deterioration, but it would take, by my estimation, a minimum of four months to formulate such a cure.”

She typically can't help being taken by his confidence, but when it goes too far, she's the first to check him.

“Don't you think that's a bit much anyway, like there could be an easier way?”

“Yes, four months is a bit much.” He missed the check.

“No, I mean trying to cur-”

He cut her off and stood up to speak, pacing back and forth.

“Yes, see that’s why I have formulated a second Idea, I shall make public my philosophical ideas and be famed and revered for my insight and intellect.”

She thought it was a bit much again, but didn't know enough about philosophy or writing communities to know how realistic his idea was.

“Or you could get a job.  We need a busser on the weeknights here, that would be a nice start.”

“Ha! I assume in good faith that you make such suggestions in jest!” He let out an unnaturally baritone laugh.

“Seriously!”

“Thank you very much, but I do not need your handouts, especially if they require that I reduce myself to such humiliation.  Once a caterpillar emerges its cocoon a butterfly, it never returns to worm, I refuse to return to worm!”

“Ok, but you should try to make up with your grandma, she's worried about you.  Oh and speaking of her, call and make sure she knows you're alright.”

“No, I refuse to speak with her, for she has laid the stones, slathered the concrete, and thickened the wall between my heart and her.”

“I’ll call her,” Annie rolled her eyes playfully and got up to walk to the phone.

She got through and explained that Darius had arrived not long ago.  Darius sat at the table, eavesdropping and picking his fingernails to show discontent.

“She said please come home tonight, she wants you to be ok.” She held the phone back to avoid shouting in Mee Maw’s ear.

“I find such a request to be absurd!  Confound my safety! I shall prefer the cold, hard concrete, to that unloving crypt of a home that has betrayed me and all for which I stand!  I shall prefer my name to be sullied as a vagabond wanderer without fixed location or nesting, than to subject myself to but one more minute of those tortures!  People will look at me and say ‘why are you without home?’ and I shall respond: ‘Oh I have made all the earth my home and have become but one with this land, because my home was swiped from under my feet and grinded through an assembly line of vicious machinery, ending in a pit of molten steel!”

“She said she has donuts.” Annie held the phone back again.

“I suppose, that perhaps, I shall venture to forgive, as a sign of my strong will, that is.”