Tales of Henwa Island
The Return of the Duke of Henwa Island II
The Book of the Family Zhao
"I visited the family hole," Azula pulled on the bars of Karo's hospital room window, "what happened to the old man in the other bed with the bad appendix I met yesterday?"
"I heard they operated on him and he's in the recovery ward," Karo said sadly, "I take an arrow and they sentence me to a week. I have been in this despairing dungeon pit for five days and I have found out two crucial facts: first – the vending machines have none of my favorite sodas or candy and second - the gift shop charges twice as much as the grocery store for junk food."
"Why do they have bars on the windows?" Azula grabbed the bars.
"They don't want you jumping out of a third story window when you get the bill." Karo grunted as he sat up in his bed. "When will my mother arrive?"
Azula let go of the bars and mulled the answer to her question for a moment, "in three days – you'll be home so she can dote over you."
A nurse in the ugly teal scrubs came into the room, checked Karo's chart and rolled in a cart with lunch trays on it. She placed a lunch tray in front of Karo and then examined the chart and asked a rather strange question, "did you know you have only one testicle?"
"I named it 'lefty'." Azula delivered the line with emotionless wit but great comedic timing, "if you leave him in a field blindfolded, he will start turning to the left because he's slightly off balance."
Karo looked uncomfortable as he answered, "I had been made aware of it since I was a little boy and my mom gave me a lecture on the nasty sorts of things that happen when you misplace things. I guess losing my testicle is somewhat more serious than losing my keys - but there you go."
Azula snickered as she enjoyed the socially awkward moment she had help create.
The nurse left quickly to wheel meals to other inmates of the hospital which left Karo to complain about the food.
"Yum," Azula sneered, "how do they get corn to look like yellow milk?"
Karo dragged the fork through the fluid called corn, "much time and effort with a pressure cooker."
"We used to have that spiced ham in the navy," Azula poked a gelatinous pink cube of meat, "but we never ate it."
"Any food item you approve of?" Karo stabbed at the meat, "delicious spiced ham today – yesterday they served round slices of chicken which had no bones and they used lard to keep it shaped. How do you make a round chicken?
"You take a live chick and one of those large glass cylinders used in chemistry labs and it grows into a tube shape," Azula ate the pineapple slice on the spiced ham. "Or you take an adult chicken and push it into a tube – it will fit if you push hard enough."
"How did they remove the bones?" Karo picked at the corn.
"The chickens live on a space station in orbit and the bones atrophy in zero gravity," Azula sat next to Karo and poked at his food. "When you return home in two days we will have to send out for some real deep fried food."
Two long days later Karo entered the front door of the cottage they had rented and found himself wading into the large mess Azula had created there. "I see they fixed the door and we had a major seismic event."
Azula followed Karo quietly as he negotiated the piles of papers, clothes and other detritus that Azula had managed to spread through the house in under a week. A pressure cooker sat on the stove and the contents – a noodle dish of some sort – had adhered to the plaster of the kitchen ceiling.
Karo looked up at the ceiling of the kitchen then at the pot, "I didn't even know we had a pressure cooker."
"I bought one to make cooking faster but evidently the latch that holds down the lid is not an option," Azula said as she hastily shoved a heap of dishes into the sink which already had a heap of dishes.
Karo stared at the kitchen, "geologists have a technical term fort this – the epicenter."
Azula walked behind Karo as he toured the kitchen, "I worried so much about you I had no time for any housework but you will find your room as you left it." Azula hesitated, "including the lemur hair and you have a pet gecko – a really nice green one with blue spots."
Mitsumi jumped on Karo's shoulders and began to preen his long hair in spite of the delicate Fire Nation hair decoration that kept it in a tight queue. Mitsumi chattered and caressed Karo's face with licks. Karo felt the pain from the weight of the limber primate on his shoulder but chose not to complain as he scratched Mitsumi's head.
"My mom will flip when she sees the kitchen," Karo quietly reminded Azula, "and the repair will come out of our damage deposit."
Azula seemed to pay attention to Karo in much the same way a pet cat seemed to pay attention – utterly ignoring his concern, "you did say Katara was accompanying your mother? She will enjoy cleaning all of this up - I spend my week worrying and visiting you and the house kind of got away from me. By the way do you know I can stick fridge magnets to your shoulder?"
"Azula?"
"Yes?" Azula held a small porcelain duck fridge magnet and let it stick to Karo's shoulder.
"Why did we get porcelain fridge magnets?" Karo asked calmly, "we don't have a fridge."
"I bought them from the Hospital Giftshop and we have an icebox which is a big metal box with ice in it and so you could call them icebox magnets but - I don't have a say in these things." Azula pulled the magnet off Karo's shoulder. Karo felt no pain from this but Azula found it a trifle amusing and it had the added benefit of allowing her to post notes to Karo by sticking them to his shoulder.
Karo felt the cold metal clang as the magnet locked onto the metal in his shoulder and spoke with his usual calm. "Do you know that magnetizing me might have unanticipated effects? I might end up sleeping in line with the Earth's magnetic field or the next ship we travel on might end up crashing into an iceberg because I threw the compass off."
Or you could develop a magnetic sense like messenger hawks and have a strong navigational sense." Azula followed Karo as he began to sort out the mess in the house. "You should rest and relax, I can clean up."
"Give it your best shot." Karo lay back on the couch after shoving several editions of the Komatsu Post and Times off of it. He shifted until he found a position laying on his side that allowed him to rest without too much pain. Mitsumi lay at his feet and chattered contentedly and the green gecko with blue spots walked across the ceiling and stuck its tongue out looking to eat a fly or two. Karo reached around and found a pink pig fridge magnet stuck to his shoulder – a possible reason he had shooting pain on that side. He tossed it onto the coffee table and let his eyes close and his body relax while remaining alert to any sounds that signaled Azula had damaged the house.
"Congratulations," Karo had spent the night on the rust red couch and woke up long after Azula and Mitsumi had begun to putter around the house. He found himself staring at a large pile of what once comprised the mess rather than seeing it distributed all over the floor. He cracked his shoulder as he sat up. "You have invented the heap."
"A mess in one place beats a mess all over – we physicists call it containment," Azula took up a seat next to Karo on the couch.
"Have you got any plans for this heap?"
Azula put her arms on her legs with a hearty slap as if she had reached a decision on the matter, "We could push it into the backyard and hide it under a tarp?"
"I fear most physicists do take that kind of an approach to their messes." Karo felt he needed a shower and a change of clothes and rose slowly off the couch making oof and ouch noises.
Karo took a long shower in the cramped bathroom of the cottage. He hated dusty pink as a color but this bathroom had olive green as a dominant theme for the fixtures and in the sunlight of the frosted window the color looked hideous – as if someone had tried to imitate the color of bile in a ceramic glaze.
Azula had circled the heap in the living room, then circled it in the other direction. She had to obey the statutes of the City of Komatsu which meant no open burning since the warm climate and semi arid climate made wildfires a possibility. She tried to work out a way of burying it but she knew of no earth benders she could contact and Mitsumi had no useful suggestions. As she pondered this problem and Karo showered and sang a long, pointless song about someone named Chiquatita – a banana Goddess or something; a heavy knock came at the door.
"Chiquatita blah!"
"Karo! Karo!" Azula knocked on the wooden door to the bathroom.
"What!" Karo yelled back after he had turned off the tap to the shower. "What? You sound panicked; the heap start threatening to send a landslide over the tropical village? Call in the army engineers to handle the heap – maybe you have some pull."
"Your dad wants to speak with you." Azula opened the door a slight amount.
"My dad!" Karo placed an ugly olive green towel around his waist and used another green towel to dry himself off. "Can you tell him I will see him in a few minutes – serve him some tea and explain that I don't wish to face him without a neat uniform and a gun. I will slip into something more comfortable - I call it Omashu."
Admiral Zhao looked older and more ragged than the man Azula remembered and he had managed to rise from the dead which made Azula nervous but she served him a concoction of her best tea and a special ingredient. Admiral Zhao accepted the tea, took a sip and then as he sat on the rusty red couch he wrinkled his nose and placed the cup and saucer down.
"Imagine a woman who can't make a decent cup of tea!" Zhao huffed with contempt and then he promptly rolled his eyes and fell sideways on the couch. Azula sprang into action and with a few skilled motions had Zhao hogtied and bound to the heavy couch with a heavy extension cord.
Karo came into the room and winced as his shoulder ached, "you didn't kill him did you!"
"I gave him a bear sized dose of your pain medication." Azula kicked Zhao to demonstrate that fact.
"Which one?" Karo checked the wrist of the hogtied man for a pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when he found one.
"The morphine – the blue liquid." Azula answered calmly, "the aspirin wouldn't knock out a fly."
Karo considered this for a second, "oh dear...now what do we do?"
"You go out and call the police and then work out some easily understood falsehood to explain why we have Admiral Zhao unconscious on our couch," Azula offered.
Karo walked out into the sunlight of a tropical day looking for a police officer or a police box or a public phone. Telephones had not yet become common and like automobiles, only the wealthiest households had one. If one lacked a phone, they had to summon the police from a public phone or from a red police box in public areas around the city. Karo had only the vaguest idea of the layout of the neighborhood. The city did not make finding things easy: it lay on the sprawling hills that lay north to south along the harbor and the streets did not have a grid pattern. He decided to head downhill – toward the downtown core and tourist area in hope of finding a telephone.
Karo had no idea the neighborhood he lived in had the name Queensland Heights and had not yet fully mapped out that sector of suburbia. After running downhill frantically he found a tidy little grocery store called the Queensland Heights Grocers about a block and a half down the hill from the house. He found a heavy red telephone made of cast iron just inside the open door of the market past the displays of fresh fruit. The telephone advertised the fact one could summon the police and so Karo now half out of breath picked up the receiver and waited.
Admiral Zhao came to consciousness and it took several moments for the world to focus. He tried to free himself from the cord but whoever had knocked him out had done a very good job of tying him down.
"Karo has gone to fetch the authorities," Azula stood over Admiral Zhao, "he had wished to challenge you to an Agni Kai but had to refuse."
"Why would he behave so dishonorably?" Zhao hissed as he struggled against the electric cord.
Azula understood how much of a symbol the Agni Kai held for the old traditionalists among the Fire Nation but history had obliterated much of that. Azula decided to explain because she could make it boring and pedantic and it would buy time for Karo to find the police. "As the former Duke of Henwa Island, you must know it has a long dry season and so the Provincial Legislature has decreed no one shall conduct open burning. Karo would have fought an Agni Kai but since he is very cheap and the fines are so steep; he does not wish to pay the costs."
Azula knew the sound of a grapple gun when triggered and the next moment the door fell away in a large shower of fragments and the SWAT team in red and black uniforms similar to Fire Nation army flooded into the living room.
"I have him subdued," Azula said as she looked at her nails, "but I know who to call if I want a door ripped off its hinges." Azula let her voice become gravelly as an expression of her irritation.
The commander of the SWAT team took no chances and his men formed a cover of crossbows around the hogtied Admiral Zhao. He signed the 'all clear' and the message passed down through the ranks of the SWAT team.
The officer wrestled Admiral Zhao to his feet, "My good Admiral Zhao, if only you knew how many countries would want a piece of you. The authorities here want you for the attempted murder of your son, for embezzling and your involvement in the prison camps during the war. The Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom want you for Crimes against Humanity such as torture, murder and war crimes. You have made my career."
The police handled him like a deadly psychopath and Azula watched as they shackled him with heavy handcuffs and menaced him with crossbows and as far as she could judge, some of the police moved like they were Fire Nation trained fire benders.
Karo stood outside the house holding his shoulder in some pain as he had exhorted himself trying to find a police box. He stood next to several tall police officers next to a large Jacaranda that grew by the front walk that led into the house and wrestled with conflicting emotions. The sun beat down on him as he watched his father leaving under heavy police escort. 'Could it really be over' he thought to himself as he watched his father. He kicked at the brown grass nervously and hoped his father would simply ignore him.
"I have no son!" Admiral Zhao said in a low deliberate voice as he passed Karo – the man who would possibly seal his fate and see him spend a lifetime in prison. Zhao didn't know he had the good fortune to fall into custody in Henwa Island. Henwa lacked the death penalty and he would end up in prison for life. The Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom wanted to execute him.
"I swear," Azula griped to Karo, "you put your robes after your father was arrested and you have not left this couch since yesterday evening."
Karo pointed in the air drawing a map in the air of his travels as he described them, "I went from the couch to the bathroom, back to the couch, read the newspaper and then went to sleep."
"You will be happy to know the police will pay to repair the door." Azula sat on the couch next to Karo who lay in fetal position with Mitsumi preening his hair. "The screen door worked but we need a more solid defense against the elements."
"My shoulder hurts – that is all." Karo complained. "Nothing at all major; I need a little rest after this week."
Azula motioned for Karo to sit up, "I want to take a look - maybe we should have the good doctor take another look."
Karo sat up slowly and Azula took a careful look at the bandaged shoulder. She mulled things over in her mind for a moment and then made a quick decision. "We can carry you off that couch a dead man, have the surgeon lop off your arm or have it checked out. You keep bleeding like the wounds are fresh."
"Okay...I will get ready," Karo walked toward the bathroom.
Azula held him by the shoulder with a tenderness no one could have expected from her. "I will pile you in the car and take you there now. I don't know much about this kind of thing but my best judgment says we need to get you back to the hospital."
Azula tried to drive gently to avoid making the situation worse. She didn't panic but she had a sense the precision cuts of the surgeon had fixed the damage but Karo had not begun to heal and his eight old day wounds had begun to bleed again. Karo had grown listless and she suspected an infection might have also set in – in spite of the carbolic acid used on the bandages.
The hospital looked like a typical hospital in any industrialized nation. The hospital had once served as a military hospital and a few old Fire Nation barracks – long single story buildings with red tile roofs sat on the grounds. A square concrete building that looked like a prison cell block rose four stories over the grounds – Lord Azulon had expanded the hospital: in his quest to conquer the world he had found new and creative ways to injure unlucky soldiers. A new concrete and steel tower attached to it rose eight stories and formed a T shape with the older part forming the top of the tee.
Azula parked in the huge lot set aside for visitors and it had a mixed crowd of carriages with ostrich horses and primitive cars. The sign stated as much and a long border of ornamental shrubbery surrounded it. Karo opened the door and walked out only to have Azula pick him up in her arms and through determined grit, carry him to the large overhang that led to the Emergency ward where a male nurse met them with a wheelchair and wheeled Karo inside.
"I see you have healed nicely," Doctor Leng said as he held up a large semi transparent X – Ray to the light of the window. "We found no infection and no complications."
Karo felt like death as he lay back on a hospital bed and saw fit to ask the expert the question on his mind. "Why do I feel like death warmed over and then reheated twice for leftovers?"
"You have a long term illness called hemophilia that gets worse when you experience stress." The doctor placed the X -Ray on the bed, "we know almost nothing about it and we have no treatment except to advise you to take it easy and avoid stress."
Karo gave that thought a good mulling over, "and so I'm a dead man then? Azula is my fiance and my dad keeps escaping custody and trying to kill me. You can see my dilemma – on one hand my father is nuts and on the other I am due to wed a mad scientist."
Azula wandered in the room casually eating what passed for a hospital food equivalent of a vegetarian taquito and stood at the foot of Karo's bed with a wicked looking smile on her face, "you have a pint of my blood in you now – lucky for you you have the same blood type – bloody unlucky for me. If I weren't around they'd give you the cheap hobo blood that the Henwa Island medical plan covers. If we paid cash, you'd get the classy blood taken from the mental patients in the other wing of the hospital."
"Mouthwash drinking hobos?" Karo asked, "or the ones that drink the same stuff the hospital disinfects the surgeries with?"
The doctor seemed uncomfortable but when Azula finished speaking he broke in. "I know you have some issues in your life young Karo so I have recommended relaxation and a course of therapy with one of our eminent psychiatrists – Doctor Jung."
"I have a blood disease," Karo said flatly.
"You have depression," the doctor said firmly, "and I don't blame you but if you want to stay healthy then you have to learn how to take care of your physical and mental health."
"What do you think?" Karo asked Azula as she looked at the X – Ray the doctor had placed on the bed.
Azula held up the X – Ray to the light and issued her verdict in her blunt manner, "in recent weeks you have been less happy than my brother. You have a mad, homicidal maniac of a father – welcome to the club. Given both of our lives and the way life throws manure from the stinkiest barnyard animals in our path we should both be members of the drool and carry your lunch pail to lunch after art therapy class. Will the medical plan cover therapy or does an hour on the couch of the good Doctor Jung cost a mint?" She held up the X Ray to the light, "you would think the alien probe would show up on this."
"Medical insurance will cover it," the good doctor said as he stood up and grabbed the X – Ray out of Azula's hand. "I will set up the appointments and let you know the schedule before you leave the hospital. Now your friend needs his rest - I will discharge him in two days. You should go home and rest too." He left the room quickly as if finding the Princess a bit of a strange duck and as if he had better things to do than talk to her.
"Alien probe?" Karo dared to ask.
Azula patted his head, "somewhere in the vast universe, reality makes sense and a civilization has advanced to the point where it can travel to other stars. They come to our world and tag the inhabitants to study them. Kind of like the tags we put on cattle," She wiggled her hands, "but much more advanced – even able to modify our minds."
Karo shook his head, "wouldn't the sign of a truly intelligent race be that it wouldn't bother with us? I mean when you can travel between stars wouldn't you spend your time playing with black holes or using quantum effects to cheat at dice games. Coming to our messed up world is kind of like having a chance to go on a safari but booking a stay at the asylum instead."
Azula crossed her arms, "well you explain where all those dirty jokes come from! Can you explain how we all have heard the same hooters joke but never find the author? Aliens put them into our minds and study how they circulate."
"He got sick again but he's resting at home on the couch." Azula dispensed with formal greetings as she met Katara and Lady Zhao as they walked off the gangway onto the cruise ship dock dragging a palette of luggage and steamer trunks behind them. "You read the telegrams and know his father returned to kill him but the authorities have him in custody."
Lady Zhao rushed up and hugged Azula, "I have worried so much about both of you!"
Azula put her arms around Lady Zhao as Katara watched.
The cruise ship dock was not the best place to carry on a conversation as it lay next to the large cargo docks and at the moment Lady Zhao hugged Azula a large shipment of iron ore crashed into the hold of a large steam powered freighter making the sound of a thousand cannonballs being dropped off a conveyor belt. The group and the luggage made their way to the place where Azula had illegally parked the car and where a policeman on horseback had dropped a ticket and his horse had dropped a mound.
Katara sat in the front seat of the car while Lady Zhao rode in the back with the luggage. Katara found Komatsu an attractive but overly modern city with square buildings and the look of a city that had fallen to Earth and landed in place as a splotch over the hills. The car rolled past blocks of shops, a public school and a row of dull flat roofed four story apartment buildings as Azula drove further up the rolling hills. The city looked pleasant to Katara with the palms and delicate tropical hardwood trees although she did worry Azula might slam into a sturdy tree at a high rate of speed. Katara found the climate to her disliking – humid and overly warm even in mid winter. The houses spread up and into the hills and Azula drove past countless low lying bungalows built to keep cool in the murderous heat of the summer.
Azula pulled to one side as a tram rumbled by. The Queensland #17 tram stopped, then a bell struck and a red sign stuck out and commanded motorists and carriage drivers to stop. A few passengers tromped across the paved street and on to their own destination.
"Oh crap!" Azula growled, "I hate this stupid city. I forgot how to get home from here."
Katara looked at Azula in disbelief. "Don't you have a map?"
""Why would I have one of those?" Azula pulled over to the side of the road. "The tram runs along..." She snapped her fingers to jog her memory, "see we live in a low lying area between hills near a swamp and have gators so this is Firth Street." Azula began to drive forward and turned off a badly paved side street that lead down a steep hill. Azula knew the sad fact that no one could make sense of Komatsu since it lacked a grid system for the streets and unlike Ba Sing Se lacked any kind of ring system to organize neighborhoods. Komatsu had begun as a village with roads designed for animals of burden. Time went by and they widened for carriages and the city paved them with stone to prevent the yearly monsoon mud bog which caused tanks to get stuck. The city grew out and the roads curved around hills and thus created a city of roads where five or six streets met at an intersection. "Bloody city is laid out like one of those fence mazes they use to guide cattle into slaughterhouses!"
Azula didn't as much drive the car as aim it between the rows of palm trees and telegraph poles lining the street. Katara thought a rational legal system would limit the speed allows down narrow roads and realized they did have speed limits when Azula blew past the sign heading downhill past an elementary school. Katara breathed a huge sigh of relief when Azula stopped in front of a brick bungalow and missed the shabby Jacaranda tree by inches.
She parked on the brick driveway and stated the obvious, "we've arrived! Not quite the huge home a duke deserves but you may see a gator or if the local rumors are correct a vampire stalking the night."
"You have to be kidding!" Lady Zhao said incredulously as she stepped out of the car into the dead purple flowers the Jacaranda tree took such pleasure in dropping when it sensed people. She brushed the flowers off her fine robes and tucked a box under her arm.
Azula rubbed her arm, "well a thin, pale, little guy has taken two of my best pints."
"Hey sweetie!" Lady Zhao said as she opened the front door and found Karo in his best red night robe reading the paper. "I hear you haven't been very well." She ran her hands through her son's hair and then hugged him.
Karo felt like he had fallen into some kind of industrial machine that made lumber. He hugged his mother and genuinely enjoyed seeing her but the hug hurt and he had almost no energy to do much but lay on the reddish orange dusty couch that had become his close friend.
"I will show you two to your room, you can rest up from your trip." Azula said as Katara knelt down and attended to Karo.
Katara had a sense for the special energy of the body and could tell at a touch that the crossbow bolt had damaged Karo's shoulder severely. The surgeon had exercised great skill in fitting the bones back together but to Katara the metal pins seemed unnatural and made holes in the pattern of life energy flowing through Karo.
Azula watched all of Katara's gentle examination and decided to pry, "what has gone wrong with Karo this time? The tetanus shot they gave him worked – he has lockjaw? I might get jealous if I see you touching him."
Katara ignored Azula and a blue glow emanated from Katara's hands and Karo felt an exhilaration and a tingling like electricity but pleasant and revitalizing. The warmth of Katara's touch seemed to grow through his shoulder and in a tide the pain seemed to wash away. Karo felt motion return and the odd warmth lingered when Katara lifted her hands.
"Well," Azula seemed taken aback by the demonstration of Katara's healing power but as was her way she made an oblique comment, "I guess we can drop the medical plan?"
"He will have a scar and his right shoulder will always be weak but I do what I can." Katara spoke like a physician. "Among the Water Tribes we have gifted healers who cure our injuries and diseases. Of course Karo had a skilled surgeon who made my work a lot easier."
"Can you fix polio?" Azula said sarcastically but she hugged Katara and kissed her right cheek, "or smallpox, rabies or malaria? I like the climate on Henwa Island but we have to take malaria pills and they always make my stomach queasy."
"I need to rest," Katara said calmly, "so can you please can you show us to our room?"
"Oh yes." Azula motioned for Lady Zhao who gave her son another hug and Katara to follow her. "I will mention that the room lacks a few amenities usually found in bedrooms – like beds. We have sleeping bags and will try to make you as comfortable as possible. We don't have a telephone yet but Komatsu Telephone and Telegraph has promised to install it next Thursday afternoon. We do have a phone number which is Hector 6768 – go figure."
The room had mustard yellow walls although Azula had a ruder name for the colors. It had red hardwood floors and nothing else except for a tall box with the words Old Sports Illustrated Magazines in Karo's draftsman like handwriting.
Katara didn't mind sleeping on the floor – far less so than Azula. She decided to explore the kitchen. It was a small room with bright orange painted cabinets and cupboards, a gas range, an actual icebox and a large and growing mass of take out food containers made of metal foil from a half dozen restaurants. Azula had definitely made her mark on the kitchen through the mess while Karo had made his mark with a sleek bullet shaped chrome toaster dubbed the BreadMaster 2000.
Karo walked into the kitchen in his red night robe, "I wanted to thank you for helping with my shoulder. I admire modern medicine with the X – Ray machines and the mind altering drugs and the large buildings and bad food but – my shoulder feels a lot better."
"I am glad to help," Katara answered sweetly, "but I really need some master junk bending to make this kitchen look civilized." Katara patted Karo's head and then picked up a strange pole sitting against the cabinets in the corner. "What on earth does this do?"
"The Azula Gator prod – we have gators – no one told me this at the time we rented the place and we had one in the back yard and so Azula the mad scientist made that out of some parts. It sends electricity through the ground or into the gator to discourage them from setting up home." Karo cracked his shoulder for the sheer joy of having movement.
A day later Katara had the kitchen back into order and had even removed the mess from the pressure cooker from the ceiling. Karo had woken up, showered and dressed before ten in the morning for the first time in days. He had an appointment with Doctor Jung at two in the afternoon and having never visited a shrink had no real idea what to expect and by asking Katara discovered she had no idea what to expect. Azula walked into the kitchen as Katara fussed making tea and cleaning.
A knock came at the door and Karo answered the two to find two police officers anda man in formal Fire Nation dress stood on the front stoop.
"May we see Karo Zhao?" The tall, formally dressed elderly man with the gray but surprising complete long head of hair spoke politely. He had a delicately made bag slung over his left shoulder and had Karo known Henwa Island better; he would have recognized the man as one of Komatsu's district attorneys.
"I am Karo Zhao. What may I do for you?" Karo bowed.
"I am Lao Tsing, the leading District Barrister and I have come to present you with a summons to appear." He held out a legal sized sheaf of papers for Karo. "We have charged him with your attempted murder, several counts of murder and the Fire Nation Crown has placed charges of treason and crimes against humanity." He cleared his throat. "We have to prepare the trial. We have set bail at twenty million gold."
Karo looked down at the sheaf of papers which included the usual legal set of documents for summons which had a schedule of appointments with the barrister and a set of sheets explaining his role as a witness and the legal obligations. Karo looked at the man and bowed, "I have to testify against my father? I will try my best."
The barrister bowed and then spoke, "very well – and we will help you to prepare for your court appearance. You will find much in that packet to explain the legal process. Have a nice day and if you have any questions you may consult our office during office hours. The address is included but our office is in the courthouse on the second floor."
Karo entered the house, sat on the couch and looked at the papers for a long time.
Azula placed a cup of tea for Karo on the table and read over Karo's shoulder. "The witness as summoned by the Province: Karo Zhao? What does that mean?"
Karo shoved the papers onto the coffee table and spoke in a tired voice, "nothing unexpected or unforeseen. My father or his henchmen shot me in the shoulder and the Province has charged him with attempted murder."
Azula mulled for a moment. "When my father ruled the Fire Nation; no province would attempt to charge a member of the nobility with a crime and any attorney that tried to convict a noble of something would find themselves very suddenly dead. If a noble did something wrong we hid the crime or blamed a lackey – servants didn't just serve. They call lawyers barristers in this country and Henwa Island seems very determined to conduct this trial independent of the Fire Nation."
Karo stepped off the tram after his hour with Doctor Jung. Doctor Jung looked like a psychiatrist with a graying beard and a balding head of hair. The two had discussed basic things about Karo's life and the psychiatrist talked about the talking therapy he planned to use on Karo to ease him through his depression. Doctor Jung had gained his experience and his lofty offices on the top floor of the Mental Health Wing of the hospital through his work with shell shocked soldiers.
The tram trundled away leaving Karo in the sun of the afternoon. Karo felt depressed as he walked down the side street to his home. Karo wondered if this new kind of therapy would work or if he had an affliction like his fiance – Azula – where something in his mind had simply been overwhelmed by events and like a deep jagged gash would never fully heal. Azula worried about relapses (her sociopathic tendencies hardly bothered her but she feared losing her clarity of thought). Azula held the radical idea that disease of the mind came out of the biochemistry of the brain but the Victorian science of their era remained far to primitive to allow science to prove that idea. Karo had no idea how a mind could work on material principles – Azula imagined a kind of computing network using brain cells. Deep thoughts about the theory of mind eluded Karo and Azula had seen nothing more sophisticated than a telephone switchboard which used human operators to connect the calling parties.
Karo walked across the dead, brown lawn of their home. The denizens of Henwa under influence of Fire Nation culture had imported grass for lawns. The long nine month droughts always killed the lawn which saved mowing without constant watering – the city water works did not have the capacity to keep up. Karo entered the house and sat on the couch with a tired gasp and leaned back.
"Is anybody home?" Karo called out.
"How did it go?" Katara asked from the kitchen.
Karo let Mitsumi crawl onto his lap and then answered Katara, "I have no idea how the talking therapy is supposed to work. Doctor Jung asked me a bunch of questions about my background, my childhood and then our hour ran out."
Katara placed a teapot in the cheap looking coffee table, sat on the couch and offered a cup to Karo.
"Thank you," Karo sipped the tea, "Where did my mom and Azula go?"
Katara seemed hesitant to answer that question as if she feared Karo would not believe her answer or take her as one of those isolated old drunks who saw or got kidnapped by alien motherships but she paused and then spoke, "looking at wedding dresses."
Tea came out of Karo's nose as he coughed.
"Azula had much the same reaction when your mother suggested it," Katara patted Karo's back to help clear his airway, "but she doesn't want to wear a dress at the wedding and has problems with looking girly."
Karo straightened up and lovingly patted Mitsumi's head, "I don't know if I can get married - I have to appear in court so they can jail my father and I am in therapy for depression."
Katara played with the edges of her blue water tribe robes searching for the right words. "Your father tried to kill you and had you shot in the shoulder and should face justice. I would worry about you if you went through all of this and didn't need therapy. We all need help from time to time even the mightiest of water benders."
"You needed therapy?" Karo asked.
Katara fidgeted with her fingers as she sat on the sofa. "From time to time I have sought out counseling. I had my share of dreams crushed - I have never married and never found the right guy. I wanted a family. I fought for the Avatar and he married someone else although we were in love at one time - I think – so I have some regrets."
"Oh." Karo said quietly.
Azula opened the new door and gave it a quick boot to shove it out of her way. She held a large box about two foot square in her arms and she placed it somewhat loudly on the table. She smiled and asked, "can you guess what's in the box?"
"Even more boxes? That new detergent they say makes your clothes sparkle?" Karo answered somewhat unenthusiastically since he really didn't what Azula to have to wear a dress since such girly things were decidedly not her. Azula worked best when she dressed in her Fire Nation garb, had the freedom to use her cutting sarcasm and could tinker with the kinds of dangerous things in physics that either burned, electrocuted or caused cancer in the careless.
"Maybe if I turned it this way." Azula smiled wickedly.
Lady Zhao came in the door and closed it quietly but she showed signs of frustration, "I have never had a more difficult task in my life - I could get Azula in a nice wedding dress but I fear that would involve the kind of force and art of war only nations could exert."
"I won't wear white dress," Azula huffed, " because given my love affair with Ty Lee and the adventures with your son – and I hate dresses."
"A Supertone S450 Radio with programmable tuning?" Karo read off the side of the cardboard box. "wait – adventures? The shrink asked me about all of that too, and I kind of blushed like I am blushing now."
Azula laughed, "I have seen you with your face up against the radio and appliances shops downtown looking at all the things electric you could purchase and play with so we – your mom and me – decided to buy a radio."
Karo opened the brown cardboard box as if it contained a holy relic. The box contained the large detergent box sized radio, a well typeset stapled manual and a hundred feet of lamp cord. Katara looked on skeptically – it seemed to her the end of the War had unlocked some kind of hidden drive for progress and gadgets.
Azula picked up the roll of wire and headed for the backyard.
"Wait," Karo protested, "I haven't made sense of all the instructions yet!"
Azula unrolled the wire and yelled back, "only Water Tribe wienies have to read instructions! Put the radio on the dining room table and wait there!"
Karo excitedly stomped to the table and placed the wooden box on the table as if given the strictest orders by a military officer. As he set down the radio; Azula entered the dining room with the end of the wire and she placed it on two metal nuts and tightened them to the radio.
"If I have hooked up the antenna properly," Azula stood in front of the radio, "we will hear music or something sent out by the Royal Broadcasting Corporation of the Fire Nation."
"If you didn't hook it up properly?" Katara asked sternly as she stood near the couch with her hands on her hips.
Azula turned the volume knob and a tungsten yellow light came on as the set hummed. She smiled as she waited and felt fit to reply to Katara, "we will know if you have any metal plates in your head."
The radio was a rectangular wooden box polished with varnish and red stain and Azula gave it prime placement on the dining room table. The dial on the left side had a brown knob for tuning, selecting the band and volume along the bottom and five buttons that operated like the buttons on a car radio to shuttle between stations. The speaker sat on the right and the entire radio was about the size of a breadbox.
Karo sat on the couch next to his mother. Mitsumi scattered the cardboard and paper packing materials over both of them as he enjoyed destroying the box.
"Welcome to RBC1 Henwa!" A rich, deep baritone voice spoke out of the radio. "Greetings to all the Citizens of Henwa and all those listening in overseas!"
"What on earth could you find to listen to on the radio that would keep you up until one in the morning?" Azula grumbled as Karo entered the room.
"News and a catchy ad for soap that makes your clothes all sparkling and fresh." Karo tightened his night robe and Mitsumi greeted his human with the customary lick and chattering. "Don't you want me smelling all sparkling and fresh?"
Azula pulled the red blanket over to to stake her share. "I never smell you."
"You had to give my mother my futon?" Karo complained then elaborated, "you have forgotten why we don't share a bed – you snore!"
Azula held the blanket open, "nobody's perfect. Do I need to tell me what bothers me when I sleep with you? History will record your nickname – the drooling Duke Zhao. Your legs twitch and you boot me in the ass when you fall asleep – need I go on?"
Karo lay down and stretched his legs, "I do not drool."
"I sleep next to you and dream of drowning at sea on a sinking ship." Azula complained then changed topic, "do you know any dragons?"
Karo sighed as he tried to relax, "no - I think I will sleep on the couch given that blast off will take place in under a half hour. Dragons? Why do you ask?"
One is looking in the window – that is all." Azula turned on her side.
Holy hell!" Karo jumped out of bed and stared into an eye the size of a plate. Even to his surprise he had the presence of mind to slowly open the screen window and he cleared his throat. "Um – you a dragon?"
"I can't sneak any detail past you – young Zhao." A low voice rumbled.
Karo looked in the dim light to Azula, "I have gone insane, haven't I?"
"You have to have sanity to lose it," Azula sat up in bed. "I see the dragon too but I have no clue as to why he would pay us a visit – don't shell out five hundred gold for a vacuum cleaner."
Karo looked at the dragon, "you sell vacuums?"
"Botheration!" The dragon growled, "the Avatar praised your intelligence and I didn't think him a bad judge of character."
"We do need a vacuum," Karo said sincerely. "I will admit that the moment of awe at meeting a mythological beast has not hit me yet – maybe my psychiatrist did something to my mind. Why are you here?"
"The Avatar sent me."
Azula yawned and decided to speak up, "What! he doesn't have a mailbox? You do know it is..."
Azula and Karo heard a loud scream from the next room.
Katara ran into the room and yelled, "I thought all dragons were dead!"
"Yes," Azula dryly remarked, "this one is alive – the Avatar sent him because Aang couldn't scrape up a bronze piece or forty for a stamp and a letter?"
"Yeah..." Karo chimed in, "I hate the way they keep hiking the cost of posting a letter."
"If I may intrude!" The dragon intruded with a voice that held more of a threatening tone. "The Avatar sent me to fetch his fire bending friends Karo and Azula and Katara of the Water Tribe and bring them to the site of the Western Air Temple."
"Hold on!" Azula held out her hand. "Firstly – this is a time we call one fifteen in the morning. Avatar Ass – er Aang – can't expect us come at the drop of a hat and secondly Admiral Zhao nearly killed Karo and so did buggered genetics and we still don't know whether to pay his medical insurance or begin putting some cash aside for his cremation and the catering at his memorial service."
"I can cremate all of you effortlessly," Karo saw a hint of frustration cross the eyes of the dragon.
"A threat?" Azula asked.
"Indeed!"
"Okay...? Can you give us a few minutes to shower, put some clothes together, grab a toothbrush and meet you in the backyard." Azula said diplomatically.
"On Zeppelins they have these little bags of BBQ flavored peanuts," Karo began to ask as Azula and Katara both raced for the bathroom, "you wouldn't happen to have any of those? I really love those."