Chapter 20: More Family Issues
"Well, we've searched the phone book with no success. What now?" Holly asked her companions.
Mark stretched his arms out in front of him. "Well, I for one am starving. Do you think that diner is any good?" He pointed down the street towards a building with a large front window, on which was plastered the image of a plate of 'smiling' bacon and eggs.
"It's incredibly likely. Those sorts of places are always better than chains, I've found."
"Let's go then. Mark, do you have any money? I'll pay you back later."
Mark checked his pockets, and shook his head. "I didn't think to bring any last night when you and Cas essentially kidnapped me."
"Well, then we'd better get inside soon or I feel like I'll freeze to death. It might take me awhile for my powers to return- I feel really, really torpid. Almost as much as I did in London."
"There will be no need to exercise your powers, Holly." Gabriel said kindly, leading the way to the diner, "I'll pay for our breakfasts."
Holly and Mark exchanged glances, shrugged in unison, and followed the angel into the diner.
It was extremely busy for such an early hour, and their waitress, a girl named Shelley, was hard-pressed to find an empty table for the three of them.
"Here you are," she said finally, leading them to a booth in the very back of the diner and passing out three menus. "Be back in a sec," she said, smiling, and vanished to take orders from other tables.
"What should we do now?" Mark asked quietly, leaning into the centre of the table in order to be heard only by Holly and Gabriel.
"First we have to eat. Afterwards we'll take a simple, logical searching of the city. If we don't find Alexander, then we'll try another approach and look at birth certificates." Gabriel said, calmly examining his menu.
Mark was skeptical. "And how are you going to be allowed to look at the birth certificates? They don't let just anyone see those, you know."
"I'm aware of that, Mark. However, you don't sound like someone who just watched me disappear and reappear over and over." Gabriel commented bluntly, raising his eyebrows but not looking up from the menu.
"Mark, just shut it." Holly ordered her brother. "I'm hungry, I'm tired, and not in the best of moods. I'd wager that you are also hungry, probably even more tired than I am, since you stayed awake throughout all of this, so I propose that we all have food and coffee before we discuss anything further."
Scowling, Mark stopped talking and looked down at his menu, searching for something that seemed appetizing. He still hadn't found anything when Shelley came back for their drink order.
"What can I get you three?" She asked cheerily.
"Coffee," Mark grumbled, not looking up.
"And how do you want that, hon?" Shelley asked, her pen poised over her pad of paper.
"He likes it black," Holly said, sensing that Mark was too disgruntled to reply himself. "As for me, I'd like my coffee with extra cream and sugar, please."
"Tea with lemon, please." Gabriel said pleasantly, and as though sensing that Shelley was going to ask what kind of tea, he added "It doesn't matter what brew, just give me whatever's your favourite."
Shelley nodded smilingly, and walked away to relay their order to the kitchen. Another tense silence ensued before Gabriel spoke again. "You know, Alexander's name was actually Alexandros. That's the name in the original Greek."
"So that's what those words you saw above the door meant for us to say? Not Alexander, but Alexandros?" Holly asked. Somewhere in the periphery of her consciousness, she heard a baby screaming and a rather loud smashing noise.
"It's likely. In some cultures, it's necessary to know the real name of a person in order to curse them, and it seemed logical that Kalefe would have used his enemy's name to curse him and him alone. Which leads me to the conclusion that one would have to speak the exact words Aléxandros ho Mégas in order to lead us directly to his lost soul."
The noise from just a booth away, directly behind Holly, became louder, and she was vaguely aware of a young woman speaking soothingly to the shrieking child. The screams lapsed momentarily, and Holly looked back down at her menu, wishing desperately for just a sip of hot coffee. She was quite taken aback when she felt a strong yet small hand tug at the back of her hijab and pull the silk cloth clean off of her head. Holly's head snapped in a ninety-degree angle, partly because of the pull of her hijab as she let out a cry of surprise.
"Oh my word! I'm so sorry!" Holly was met by the contrite face of a thin, pale young woman who was twisted around in her seat, holding a small child in her arms. The most striking thing about her were her strange eyes: one was so dark, it almost seemed black, but the other couldn't be more different- it was pale blue that reminded Holly of a clear winter sky.
Tearing her gaze away from the woman's strange eyes, Holly looked lower to see the tiny thief. A chubby baby, only about a year old, he had the same strange eyes and the same dark hair as his mother, and had his tiny hand clasped around a corner of the red silk hijab.
"I'm so sorry," The woman repeated, biting her lower lip anxiously as though fearing that Holly's silence meant that she was too enraged to speak.
However, the opposite was true. Holly had merely been taken aback by the events. Finally, she burst into laughter. "It's fine, don't worry!" Holly waved the offense away, ignoring Mark who had begun to splutter something about indecency. Still smiling and chuckling a little, Holly began taking the pins out of her hair to allow her much-twisted plait to uncurl into a long braid that hung limply down her back. "He can keep it," Holly felt faintly disgusted when she noticed that the corner of the piece of silk was now in the baby's mouth, and he was sucking on both it and his fist with apparent relish.
"Ugh, Alexei! That's not for you to eat!" the woman scolded her son when she noticed Holly staring. After removing the cloth from little Alexei's mouth, the woman introduced herself. "I'm Xena Epira. That's X-E-N-A. Are you sure I can't reimburse you? Silk isn't cheap."
Holly thought for a moment, examining Alexei's round, pink face, particularly his mismatched eyes. "Actually, I think there is, Xena. You can let me pay for your breakfast, and Alexei's, if he's getting anything. And don't even think of changing what you're ordering. If anything, make it more expensive! I'm Holly, by the way. These two gentlemen are my brother, Mark, and my guardian, Gabriel." Holly gestured to Mark and Gabriel in turn, and each of them nodded politely, though both seemed a bit bored.
"And by saying that she will pay for your meal, she actually means that I'll do it," Gabriel said, returning to the menu. "And possibly pay me back later with some of her father's money."
Noticing Xena's odd expression, Holly explained in a half-lie. "When I was a baby, probably even younger than Alexei, my mother gave me up. Ever since then, Gabriel's been sort of like a guardian angel to me."
Holly was prevented from saying more immediately by the return of Shelley the waitress with their coffees and Gabriel's tea.
"Here you go, sir. I hope you like sweet tea, because that's what I picked for you." Gabriel smiled warmly.
"I thought you would. Excellent choice, Shelley." he praised. Shelley almost glowed as she took down their orders.
She was heading back down along the row of booths when she noticed Xena. "Oh, I'm sorry, Xene! How long have you been waiting there?"
"Not long, Shelley. Mags told me that she had a lot of tables to attend to, so I said that I'd wait." Xena replied quietly, deftly keeping Holly's hijab away from Alexei's mouth.
"Oh, gosh. She's probably forgotten all about you by now. You know how Mags is. What did you want?"
"Whatever it is, put it on our tab, would you Shelley?" Gabriel called over, in between sips of his sweet tea.
Xena's pale cheeks pinked slightly, but she ordered a coffee and some pancakes. Then she turned back to Holly, Mark, and Gabriel. "Thank you," she said earnestly, setting Alexei back in his high chair.
"Don't mention it," Gabriel waved his hand dismissively, sipping his tea absently.
Suddenly, he stood up, finished his sweet tea in a few large gulps, reached in his pocket and withdrew a leather wallet and handed it to Mark. "Tell Shelley to give my breakfast to old Mr. Jennings. That man could do with a square meal, but all he ever orders is coffee. Keep looking for Alexander. I'll find you two later."
"Where are you going?" Holly asked curiously as Gabriel began to sweep away from the booth.
He turned back to look at her grimly. "One of my... estranged brothers is in town." He said simply, and left the diner to vanish with the usual soft fluttering of wings just outside the front door.