Vook: You're not the first person to bring this up. I agree wholeheartedly with you that this is not like Rick as we know him. However, there is an explanation for that. It takes place a few years later, when he is more mature (and besides, in prison, he read a lot of books to pass the time, which increased his vocabulary significantly) and later on in the story, he begins to read almost obsessively at the Library to get his mind off Popuri. Hope that makes everything slightly more logical. Thank you for your review and I'm glad you're enjoying the story.
kelley28: Hahahaha thanks very much. I'm glad to be back as well! Enjoy your game.
StarrNight: Thanks very much. Yes, Rick is fairly violent in nature, although not necessarily physically, but he is definitely unstable and people who cross him may end up harmed. Thanks and I must definitely review your fine work very soon!
gothangel12345: Welcome, it's always nice to have a new reviewer. Thanks for reading and I totally agree with you about Rick's sanity slowly escaping. In answer to your question, Rick is in his early twenties (20-22, not exactly sure yet) when he is in prison and he is currently 17 at this point.
Rachism17: Thank you very much. Hopefully this chapter will be nice and long enough for you!
VarekaiSoleil: Thank you most kindly. Sorry it's taken so long, but I had writer's block.
Niraak: It's wonderful to have your support my friend. Hopefully you enjoy this next instalment.
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Chapter 10: The Fourth of July Beach Party
I lay there, shrouded in darkness, waiting with Mother for the thermometer to give its results. Next door the radio suddenly blared into life; Popuri was up.
"Well folks," crackled the host of some show or other, "It's the Fourth of July again and God bless America on its two-hundred and twenty-seventh birthday. I think we can all say…"
"Good Lord, Rick," gasped Mother as she pulled out the thermometer and examined it, "You've got such a fever! You're definitely not going anywhere today."
"Oh rats," I complained, quite effectively, trying to hold back a great grin, "I guess I can't go to the rally."
"No sir," agreed my deceived mother, standing up and leaving the room, turning only to add, "You get some rest and perhaps you'll feel well enough later to go to the beach party. You know, they'll be having a really big fireworks event in Virginia Beach and we'll probably be able to see it from here."
"That's great." I replied weakly, "Let's just hope I'm well by then."
Mother smiled and then left, shutting the door behind her. I pulled out the steaming hot-water bottle and threw it as far away from the bed as I could. That rubber fiend had burned me badly! But it had been worth it. Now I could keep an eye on that rogue who had snatched my sister.
As I lay back and plotted to separate the two during the party, I could hear the patriotic chants of, "U-S-A! U-S-A!" from some overgrown boys outside; most likely the cheerfully aggressive triumvirate of Freddy, Duke and Doug, who barely said anything else every Fourth of July. Saibara was usually part of this patriotic band, but I had heard that he had taken on an apprentice and had not ventured out as much.
Laughing at the youthful loyalty of these men, I fell asleep and dreamed of a grand rescue of Popuri, ridding the town, nay, the world, of Kai forever. But I must not say too much.
Popuri of all people awoke me in the late afternoon, around four or five pm. The window was open and the hot, sticky wind, smelling of barbecue and nationalism, blew the curtains lazily. It was a glorious sunset that shone upon us, anticipating the night of celebration ahead.
"Are you feeling better Ricky?" asked Popuri and without waiting for an answer, pressed her lips against my forehead. My soul fluttered within me.
"Hmm," she mused, partly to herself, "Your fever's gone. That's good!"
She skipped out of the room and down the stairs, leaving me admiring her innocence, and yet cursing it at the same time. Her naivety was most frustrating when it came to the scurvy seaman. How could she not see him for what he truly was? Never mind, for that night all would change; or at least that's what I believed.
I got out of bed, my joints, stiff thanks to my long nap, creaking terribly. I paced out of the room and down the stairs, not bothering to change. Mother was finishing her latest batch of grilled corn on the cob and placing it next to her six other trays, while Popuri was gazing at them hungrily. I smiled. Popuri had always loved her corn on the cob.
As I slipped into a chair, Popuri began whining hungrily, "Mom, can I pleeeeeeease just have one?"
"No Popuri," replied our mother, pulling off her browned oven gloves and opening the fridge door, "Once you eat one, you can't stop yourself!"
I chuckled. How true it was. Turning around, presumably because she heard my laugh, Mother looked at me and said, "Oh Rick, you're up. Are you feeling better now?"
"Much better," I replied, both truthfully and falsely at the same time, "Does that mean I can go to the beach party?"
"Of course!" she laughed, "I said so, didn't I? Popuri, leave those alone!" She slapped at my sister's naughty hand as she cunningly leapt for some corn-on-the-cob whilst the guardian had slipped momentarily. After being discovered, the ravishing rascal escaped upstairs, giggling fit to burst.
After a light breakfast, I washed and dressed. After this, I decided to go out and see how the preparations for the beach party were going. However, before I had even begun striding towards the door, a knock on it brought me over for a very different reason.
When I answered the door, I found that it was none other than Ann, Doug's daughter, who was calling at our abode.
"Um," she began hesitantly, "Hi."
"Hello Ann," I replied crisply, "I'll go and get Popuri for you."
"No!" she said quickly, placing her hand sharply on my wrist, which was holding the door open, "Actually Rick…it's you I've come to see."
"Oh?" I inquired, intrigued, "Well, what can I do for you Ann?"
"Weeeeell," she began slowly, looking sheepishly at her feet and rubbing her lace-white and boy-red trainer-clad left foot into the ground, trying to wipe out her embarrassment, "I was just wondering…since Karen isn't here and, uh, neither is Cliff… I was, uh, just wondering you know, if – if you'd like to go to the beach party with me? Just as a friend of course," she added hastily. I smiled. I barely knew Ann, and she knew very little of me also.
I quickly summarised the benefits of such a partnership. I would be able to keep an eye on Popuri and her brutish suitor from close quarters, especially during the dance that took place during each and every annual beach party. Ann would also talk a lot with Popuri, seeing as how they were best friends, and it would not be unusual for their partners to be with them during the conversation, allowing me to further survey any would-be advances by Kai. Finally, Ann was a fairly fun person to be around and it would be no punishment on myself to take her as my lady for the night.
"Yeah, that'd be cool," I replied nonchalantly, "Shall we meet here at six o'clock?"
"Y-yeah, sure thing," Ann replied, stuttering, but cheerful; she then ran off, presumably back to the Inn, where she lived, leaving me to my thoughts and plans.
At five past six, Ann arrived for our would-be date. She was wearing her jeans and a Stars and Stripes t-shirt that was far too long for her. I too had given into my patriotic side and was sporting a black t-shirt portraying the Statue of Liberty with the blue, red and white words 1776 FOREVER emblazoned on it in loud, American font. However, I was not feeling very loyal to America that day, as I was more concerned with defending the more vital independence of my sister from a foreign invader.
Ann didn't bother waiting for Popuri and our mother, but, laughing, pulled me by the hand, yanking me off to the beach. I sighed inwardly. Perhaps it was a mistake to ally myself with such a buoyant lady.
The sun rained its rays down upon America like a blessing and the breeze caressed the summer leaves lovingly, as we walked down towards the beach. Ann was chattering about some other beach party she had attended in Boston the previous year and how it couldn't compare to this, but it was still worth going because everyone would be there, having fun and watching the fireworks and laughing and dancing and cheering and oh gosh, I hope I'm not boring you?
I smiled and waved dismissively. I informed the talkative redhead that she was at least not boring herself. She got the subtlety, to my surprise.
"You're funny Rick!" she laughed, before observing that we had reached Barley's farm, saying, "Nearly there now. That was a quick ten minutes, don't you think?"
Perhaps at this juncture, I ought to give a geographical representation of Mineral Island. The land lies some twenty-three miles off the coast of Virginia, according to my trusty, yet battered and well-read mental atlas. It is about eight miles long and three miles wide, if the wide aspect can be considered the region from north to south. It has a population of approximately one thousand, with a small majority concentrated in the only town, but with several isolated hamlets scattered throughout. The Poultry Farm, my own good household, was a fifteen-minute walk from the beach and was on the outskirts of Mineral Town.
Five minutes of a one-sided conversation later, we reached the beach. I noticed to my initial bemusement that there were less than a hundred people on the vast expanse of beach. This may not have seemed such a small number, but the Fourth of July annual Beach Party always attracted in excess of nine hundred people and even that was considered a low count. Mineral Town was a very patriotic place. I respectfully inquired of my lady why these few were the only people there.
"Don't you know anything!?" she snapped, although it was without anger or intended rudeness, "It's far too early for the fireworks yet. Look," she pointed to the sky, "The sun is still high in the sky."
"Oh yeah," I replied, with a tinge of embarrassment at such a foolish mistake, "Of course." I wiped my brow with a handkerchief, glowing in the heat of the July sun.
I scanned the beach. No sign of Popuri or, more importantly, Kai. My love had set out with Mother behind us, but no doubt by now she had rejoined with Kai and was now frolicking somewhere with him, frighteningly in perhaps more ways than one.
Thankfully my fears were soon dispelled by the rapid appearance of the pair, who came over the grassy embankment and slid down onto the scorching sand. Meanwhile, Ann had gone off to help her father, who was steering the first part of a large barbeque further down the beach, leaving me to meet the two alone.
"Hey Rick!" squealed Popuri as she bounded over to me, "Happy Fourth of July!" She waved a plastic flag rather enthusiastically as Kai ran lithely up to join us.
"Hey man, happy Fourth of July," he grinned, firmly shaking my hand and giving a great big grin. I'll admit this, he was a charming rogue.
Being somewhat lenient, I decided to retreat from my hostile standpoint and refortify my previous stance of neutrality towards Kai. After all, apart from that embrace, which may have been vilified in my suspicious mind, there was no other reason to suggest that Kai was plotting infidelity. Unless there was more evidence, I could refrain and relax.
We talked for a while of this and that as the beach slowly filled up with people, drawn by the anticipation of fireworks following the rapidly setting sun. About an hour after Ann and I had arrived, Mayor Thomas strutted to the top of the sandy embankment and announced that the party was to begin.
I don't know what to say about old Mayor Thomas. I knew him as our reasonably benevolent overlord, a man who was king in all but name of this isolated part of a country that had shaken off the shackles of the monarchy. His ancestors had come over on the Mayflower and he never let the townsfolk forget it. His father had been mayor before him and his father before him, stretching back all the way to the Revolution, a dynasty of men whose raison d'être had been the accumulation of wealth. There were dark whispers that Mayor Thomas was in contact with the higher echelons of the Republican Party and would run for President in 2008. Even blacker rumours suggested that if he was elected, America's governance would go the same way as that of Mineral Island and we could expect a king in Washington by 2010. But I would not care. Over the next few years, Mayor Thomas would, without ever knowing it, become one of my greatest friends and allies.
To get back to the party, it began in a slow way. Burgers sizzled on blackened grills and ranks of hot dogs stood ready to unite with floury buns for the satisfaction of American taste buds. Hollering men stood around in groups and drank imported beer (oh the irony!) and children played in the sand as half-attentive mothers chattered to each other.
As for me, I walked from one end of the party to the other, with my would-be date by my side. She seemed very cheerful; no, let me restate that, she seemed even more cheerful than usual, gabbing away whilst I maintained a reserved silence and listened deafly to her.
"You know what I like about you Rick?" she interjected into her monologue, "You're a good listener."
"Thank you Ann," I replied automatically, scanning the beach for the troublesome twosome that was preying on my mind.
"Rick!" she exclaimed, lightly hitting my shoulder, "You weren't listening to me?"
I shook my head and turned back to her. "Sorry," I apologised meekly, "I'm just wondering about Popuri and Kai…"
"They make such a cute couple, don't they?" grinned Ann.
"What!?" I exclaimed, "They are a couple?"
"Well, no," she admitted quickly, taken aback by my response, "but I think they would."
"That is a vast difference," I replied, "and one that I don't particularly like because, believe it or not Ann, I consider-"
"Yee-haw!"
I did not need to turn around. Uncle Freddy had arrived. He always did take the Fourth of July seriously, in his own whimsical way.
"Freddy!" squealed Ann, rushing past me and towards the island's favourite farmer. I sighed. A potential ally, for Ann was Popuri's closest friend and had great influence on her, had been lost thanks to a seventy-eight-year-old wearing a cowboy hat.
Sighing, I strolled onto the pier and carefully stepped along it, the deep wooden booms of every step echoing in my frustrated mind, until I reached the end and stared out across an endless sea.
Why? Why? That was the question on my mind. Why had I fallen so deeply in love with my own sister? It was sickening and yet so wonderful at the same time. It was so incarcerating and yet so liberating. I did not want to and yet I wanted nothing else. It was ugly and it was beautiful; it was awful and yet perfect; it was nothing and everything.
It was the way it was.
Seemingly as if by magic, the instant I realised this truth, the sun disappeared below the dreamy western horizon and a single flame of fire rose from the occidental land of Virginia and exploded, a beacon of celebration. It was followed by many more fireworks and cheers erupted from the beach behind me as I stood on my wooden island of solitude and sorrow, reflecting on my curse.
I walked back to the beach and met up with Ann, who was holding two cans of root beer. She cheerfully grinned and made me a gift of one. I accepted silently, but reciprocating the smile and we walked off together towards the beach.
She held my hand, just for a moment.
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I kept staring at Kai and Popuri, going everywhere together, watching them laugh and talk and cheer, their moments of silence, sound, solemnity and searing joy. I kept searching their souls for any possible romantic intent, but I did not find it, until, by chance, I sat on a bench with Ann, talking of this and that, when I suddenly caught the tinkling voice of my sister behind us. Pausing only for a second, I kept one ear open on the conversation of the pair, who were sat on a bunker of sand staring out at the heavens.
"I can't leave Kai, I just can't," protested my princess.
"But why?" asked the swinish seaman, "What is there for you here?"
"I have Mother to take care of," she replied promptly, "and Rick can't do all the work by himself. He needs someone to help him."
I smiled inwardly.
"But say it again, please," Kai requested, "Please say it. I love you, you know."
"I love you too," Popuri finally replied, "I do."
"So that's why I go for a walk everyday," concluded Ann, "You should try it Rick, it's good for you. We can go together and – hey, where are you going?"
I walked angrily off into the dark, being chased by the redhead. When she caught up with me, I made some excuse that I had been struck by a recurring bout of cramp, and I needed to walk it off. Ann seemed to accept it, adding reluctantly, "Well, do you still want to go for that walk, or have I upset you?"
I replied hastily that it wasn't her and apologized for being so rude. She then smiled cheerily again. By this time, people were beginning to disperse (we had been there for seven hours, by God!) back home, to gain a few hours of sleep before the new dawn broke. I said goodnight to Ann and we shook hands.
Her hand lingered in mine for just a few seconds afterwards. Ah, the mystery that a summer night brings.