Chapter 13
Just as the girl was about to slam the door on their faces, Edward grabbed it with his gloved right hand. "Please," he said, "All we want is a room."
While the girl was struggling with Edward to close the door, a very large man with a full, bushy beard (possibly to compensate for the lack of hair on the top of his head) stepped into view to see who was at the door. When he saw Meryl, his face broke out into a craggy grin.
"Meryl!" he cried, pulling open the solid-oak door as easily as if it were cardboard, knocking the girl to the ground in the process. She got up and glared at his back, then ran into a nearby room and shut the door. The man didn't seem to notice as he wrapped Meryl in a huge bear hug.
"Macks- Macks! I can't breathe!" she croaked. Realizing his error, the huge bear of a man stepped back a pace and allowed her to catch her breath. "Sorry, Meryl," he said, "You know how I always forget."
Once Meryl had regained the ability to breathe (and surreptitiously checked for any broken ribs) she said, "Macks, I'd like you to meet Al. Al, meet Mackey Norman, an old friend of mine, and owner/patron of the Atlantis and the bar beside it, the Soused Pearl."
"Call me Macks," he said, shaking Edward's hand. For one of the many times in his life, Edward was glad his hand was metal- otherwise he was sure that there wouldn't be one left when Mack was finished shaking it. "Meryl here got me out of a real jam a few years ago." Macks stated. "She gave me a roof over my head and enough money for the down payment on this place."
"Could we come in, please?" Meryl asked, blushing at the show of gratitude. Macks led them to his office/quarters, a large room with its own small kitchen and bathroom adjoined. Meryl and Edward sat down at a table in front of the main portion of the room. "You guys hungry?" he asked. At their enthusiastic nods, he went into the kitchen.
After they had devoured the bacon, eggs and hash browns he had whipped up for them and were sipping coffee, he sat down across from Meryl. "All right," he said, "One of the things about an 'establishment' like this place that keeps it on its feet- the 'No-tell' part is as important as the 'motel'. But in this case I gotta break policy and ask: Meryl, ya know I love ya and am always happy to see you- but what the hell happened to land you on my doorstep in at prime Café business time?"
And so Meryl told him- about 'Al' rescuing her from the hands of Damien, about how they had hid in the storage room, how they'd been smoked out and had taken cover in the dunes. Meryl had left out the part of Edward chasing the girl down the alleyways for her own reasons, but Edward was glad. After excusing himself to go to the washroom he crept down the hall till he got to the room the girl had fled into. He knocked quietly.
"Just a minute," he heard her call, and he was shocked by the hoarseness of her voice- she sounded closer to ninety than the eight- or nineteen she looked. When she opened the door a thick cloud of smoke blew into his face and he bent over, coughing. When he regained composure he stood back up again and the cigarette dangled precariously from her mouth as it dropped open in recognition of the guy who'd chased her through the streets earlier in the day. Before she could close the door on him, he held up some money that Vash had given him. "Please, I just want to talk."
She eyed him warily. Then, shrugging as if to say, 'You can't do anything worse to me than what's already been done,' she stepped aside and allowed him to enter the room, closing the door behind him. It was a small room, big enough for a cot and a small desk. She mumbled something.
"Sorry?" Edward asked.
"I said, fifty will get you an hour," she repeated, holding up the money in her hand, "and an extra fifty will get you the entire night. I'll do anything you want, but anything past the usual will be extra." She stated in a business-like tone. She tucked the money into her pants and sat down on the bed. "So, what do you want to start off?"
Edward's face turned red as he realized she was asking what sexual act he wanted in the same tone one would associate with discussing the discount on a bushel of apples. "Uh, nothing- I just came to talk." Again, the shrug. Edward was beginning to realize that this was going to be tough.
"So… what's your name?" he asked.
She gave him a cold look before replying, "Lina."
Edward mentally swallowed. He looked around the room. "Nice place you got here." Lina snorted. This was getting him nowhere.
"So, how long have you been… working?" he asked.
"What, as a hooker? Why do you want to know?" she asked him. He merely shrugged. After studying him intently for a moment, she said, "About two years, now." Then, softly, "I was an orphan, and my Grandma Sheryl took me in and raised me in Bleu, the next town over. Life was hard, sure, but somehow we always got by."
For a moment the last two years melted away from her face and Edward glimpsed the girl she had been- tough, yes, but one who could laugh and sing and play. It was in this moment, even more so than when he had first seen her that she was the girl he'd lost all those years ago, the certainty that sent him chasing her down the streets and alleyways.
Then the cynical look returned to her face and the gleam died from her eye. The professional was back in the driver's seat. "When Grandm Sheryl died I had no place to go, so when a guy offered to pay me to spend the night with him, I figured, why not?" She eyed her customer. "So, now you know. Now lemme ask you a question, Blondie: do you get off on hearing sob stories or something? Why did you want to know?"
Edward knew if he was going to succeed here, he'd have to risk alienating her. ''Equivalent exchange,' he thought. 'Oh, the irony.' He took off his coat, the long-sleeved white shirt and black vest overtop of it remaining- for the moment. Lina snorted.
"'All I want to do is talk,' he says," she muttered, rolling her eyes. Edward took off the open black vest and began to unbutton his shirt until. "All you men are the sa-" However, her attitude dropped once he removed the shirt. She gasped as she ran a hand over the automail arm. "Its beautiful," she breathed as she ran a hand along the smooth metal. "May I?" she asked, looking up and Edward nodded , a bit embarrassed. With a strength that belied her small form, she lifted the heavy arm up to examine it better. "It's all cogs and gears- his was cybernetics, but still… Did you make it yourself?" She asked in wonder. He nodded.
"Does it look familiar? You said something about someone else having an arm like mine."
"Yeah. One day when Grandma Sheryl was still alive, I guess I was around twelve at the time, a stranger came from out of nowhere to stay with us as a hired hand. He could make us laugh until our sides split with his- I guess you'd call it dorkyness, the way he always seemed to make things harder for himself. He'd do anything for Grandma Sheryl and me… Then one day he up and left, saying it was for our safety cause he had some bad men after him…I never forgave him for it." She smiled sadly at him. "I'm sorry, I'm just turning into a babbling fool."
He grinned. "It's all right- evidently I get off on this kinda stuff, right?" She laughed. The silence afterwards was awkward, but at least she was no longer openly hostile. Edward thought this would be a good time to pop the question.
"Tell me," he said, turning so his left shoulder faced her, "Do you know what this is?" Tattooed on his shoulder was a curious symbol. It consisted of two circles, one within the other, with three equilateral triangles arranged so that all three pointed straight down, the points- the bottom one of the bottom triangle, the left one of the top-right triangle and the right of the top-left one- overlapped the sides of the larger circle so that, even though each triangle only had one point outside the circle, together they created a larger triangle that transcended the circles, both large and small.
As if seeing the tattoo had flipped a switch, Lina suddenly looked angry. She furiously shoved Edward's clothes back at him. "Get out!" she yelled.
Edward was taken aback by the sudden change in behaviour. "Huh? What-"
"OUT, I said! Out out out!" she screamed. She seemed angry enough to kill, so Edward leapt for the door and got safely outside of it into the darkened hallway. He pulled the door shut behind him. That's where 'safe' ended.
Immediately he heard a click! behind him. "Don't move, just put your hands up nice and slow, then turn around." He heard a rough voice say. He complied and saw Meryl bound and gagged on the floor of the gunman's feet. She didn't appear to be harmed, just upset. And Edward could see why.
For the man holding the gun was Macks.
