We went outside to sweep. We got our brooms, with much difficulty. We sent Kinnison to get them but he didn't know where it was, but didn't come back empty handed so he stayed looking for them for awhile, then we sent Klaus, who probably didn't even know what a broom looked like, and then eventually we had to have Apple find both of them AND get the brooms. All of this took quite awhile, but finally we were underway. We started sweeping and then we noticed Klaus wasn't doing anything. He was sitting on his broom on the ground. Apple stopped.
"Klaus…" she took a long pause before speaking again. "What ARE you doing?"
"I'm simply trying to make this object work. It's not lifting into the air like it's supposed to. I saw Sierra doing this once. She says she never really ever uses a broom, but …"
"Stop Klaus…you said it…that's what this is." Apple said.
"What…a Sierra?" A smack of a hand to a forehead is heard in the background. Apple nearly knocked herself out she hit herself so hard.
"No no no, a BROOM," Apple groaned.
"Oh…I see. I saw mother using this once. I never did housework, I kept to my books."
"So we've NOTICED. I assume you don't know how to use this 'broom' either," Shu said.
"No, I guess not," Klaus replied.
"Here, I'll show you," Kinnison said. He stepped forward. He showed Klaus how to work the mechanism for cleaning floors. "Is that better?"
"Yes, thank you." Klaus said. He took a few stiff sweeps with his elbows locked.
"He'll…he'll get into it I'm sure," Hero said. We started sweeping. Every once in awhile we'd turn around to see how Klaus was faring. He looked well intrigued by his work and sometimes it was funny to see him sweeping. I turned to Kinnison to ask him a question.
"What did you say?" he asked politely. He whipped around to face me, but unfortunately his broom was still out. The result: a direct hit in the abdomen. I stumbled backward.
"Owwwww…" I said.
"Oh! Milord! I'm SO SORRY!!! I didn't realize that you were so close behind me I…" he started.
"It's okay, really. I shouldn't have been…Owwwww…standing there in the first place. Go on with your work," Hero said. He bent over leaning on the tree.
"Are you alright milord?" Apple asked.
"Yes…I'm fine. Seriously, I can get back to sweeping I said. I had just resumed sweeping when Klaus wailed, "FLYING COCKROACH!" he turned around and swiped his broom in the air. It caught me on the side of the head and sent me sprawling. I ended up a few paces down the walkway.
"Oh my god…milord!!! I'm entirely sorry!!! Once again, I had no idea you were standing behind me I…" Klaus began apologizing profusely. I was able to stand up, which was an accomplishment. I leaned on a tree and started waving my free hand as if I was going to SAY something. Of course it took me several minutes just for my brain to get the words into my mouth. For those other few painful minutes, my friends thought that Klaus had hit me just a little TOO hard.
"Do you think something's wrong with him?" Kinnison asked.
"IT'S ALL MY FAULT!!! IT'S ALL MY FAULT!!!" Klaus wailed. I still started waving my hands. Finally I had gathered the words in my mouth.
"Okay, for one thing…I am NOT crazy…you all just think I am. I AM fine, I can take a few broom swipes to the head once in awhile, and one hit is not going to do wonders. Klaus, you can stop sniffling. You didn't do anything that would warrant that. I'm not mad or anything," the hero said. Klaus stops staring at the ground and looks up.
"Really?" he asks.
"Really." The young leader answers. "But as far as I'm concerned, I think somebody up there is telling me to stay away from broom sweeping, at least for today. I'll bet its Grandpa Genkaku playing a trick on me again," he said. "I expect to see you all in the Great Hall after lunch to report on how you did," he said. With that, he walked off.
"I hope he's going to be okay…" Shu said.
"A few hits to the head…I think he'll make it alright," Apple said.
"He could have lost a few brain cells…it might make him more lethargic," Shu said.
"Well…with our lord we may notice THAT, but I'd say if it happened to Viktor…we'd never be able to tell the difference. Even if he got nailed on the head with 10 brooms," Kinnison said laughing. They all sat on the ground laughing for a few minutes. Our young lord went into the castle to check to see how Miklotov and Camus were faring with the restaurant clients.
"No WAY Camus, I'm not serving THAT table again. You know how many giddy girls are over there? There's a WHOLE TABLE FULL of them, and they keep on ordering more and more food just so…" Miklotov started.
"You HAVE to, come on. We promised we'd alternate. I just served that table for the 26th time. You have to go there. I hope they can foot the bill," Camus replied.
"I hope so TOO…or they'll be washing dishes here…every single one of them." Hai-Yo said with an playful glint in his eye.
"Well…if they can't foot the bill, we'll HELP them foot the bill. Isn't there something around here that says they can't hang around here for more than 2 hours or something?" Miklotov blurted out.
"Well…I hope you do have enough to help them foot the bill if they can't pay it. They've ordered up quite a sum," Hai-Yo said.
"We'll dig into our next YEAR'S pay if we have to…I NEVER want to do this AGAIN. Next time Shu tells the help to take a vacation, I'll make sure we hire a secondary group." Miklotov said.
"I'll second that vote," Camus replied.
"The order of fried noodles is ready, which one of you gets it?" Hai-Yo asked.
"It's his turn," Camus pointed to his friend.
"No, how about you do it milord? You'd be doing us a great favor. Okay? Here, go knock em' dead," Miklotov said.
"Literally please," Camus added. Without waiting for an answer they handed me the plate of noodles and shoved me out of the kitchen. I ended up in the middle of the restaurant and looking around I noticed the table of 'giddy' girls.
"Hey, look, HE'S not Miklotov OR Camus," a girl said.
"Yeah, but he's just as cute," another replied.
"But I was sure it was going to be Sir Miklotov this time," another said.
"Well, this one looks like the young master of the castle, hero of the State," another girl answered.
"It's HIM!!!" they all shouted. I put the plate down on their table and ran out the door tripping and knocking over some tables along the way. I made a beeline for the exit.
"See Mallory? You SCARED him," one girl accused.
"You'd all scare ANYBODY…" Miklotov sighed. It was back to the serving tables for them. It was only a few more hours. After I had made it out of the restaurant safely I decided to forget the troubles of the men I had recently run across and go to see how the laundry was coming along.