Chapter 38 : Finger Lickin' Good

[pascal_curious]

“Damn girl,” fumed Loki Beaker as he paced across the parking lot of the Kentucky Fried Chicken. “She’s never on time.”

 

 

Loki walked across the parking lot and back one more time before giving up. He had been pacing anxiously for almost ten minutes.

He fished in his pocket for some coins, and when he came up with the necessary number of quarters, he made his way to the block of newspaper vending machines in front of the restaurant.

He dropped his quarters into the coin slot, and grabbed himself a copy of the Strangetown Examiner.

Loki took his newspaper inside the restaurant and chose a seat near the window. He wanted to be able to see down the road in the direction the girl would be coming from. He knew seeing her coming down the road would not make her get there any quicker, but at least he would be able to tell if she was being followed.

After a few minutes thought, he realized that he had no idea what kind of car she was driving these days. He sincerely hoped it wasn’t anything like the rusty, dented Smoogo he had found it necessary to park next to. He loathed the idea of parking next to the old hatchback. He knew that people who had very little regard for their own possessions weren’t likely to have any regard for anyone else’s. He fully expected to go out and find a dent and yellow paint on the passenger side door of his Chrysler.

 

Loki opened his newspaper and shook the creases out of it. The front page story was about a recent murder. Murders didn’t occur in Strangetown very often, so when one did, it was all that anyone in the small town could talk about. “Wife is Person of Interest in Boob Investigation”, was the headline. Boob. What an idiotic surname, Loki thought. Loki wondered who in their right mind would not change their surname from Boob to anything else. As far as Loki was concerned, “Badassmotherfucker” was a better surname than Boob. Loki skimmed the article and didn’t learn anything new about the murder investigation. He turned the page and looked for something a little more interesting and newsworthy. He checked out the window every few seconds to see if anyone familiar was heading toward the restaurant.

 

Loki turned to the sports page. Keeping one eye on the paper, and one on the road outside, he read about the highlights of the previous night’s High School Basketball game. The Strangetown Invaders trampled the Riverblossom Hornets 67 to 47 and were going to move on to the District Championships. Loki generally saw organized sports as a waste of time. He never considered his reason for disliking organized sports, though. It could have been due to his own lack of athletic abilities, or due to the fact that his wife once dated the captain of their high school football team. The only exception to Loki’s disdain for sporting events was a passing interest he had developed for the performance of his high school Alma Mater’s basketball team. Nervous had played on the team when he was in school, and Loki had developed a habit of checking the scores in the newspaper. Loki had always feigned disinterest regarding Nervous’ basketball career, but secretly he felt something that may have been described as pride (by someone who didn’t know Loki that well,) when the boy got mentioned in the paper for making a three-point shot, or being a game’s highest scorer. He had even once remarked to Circe that at least Nervous wasn’t a total waste (although it was unfortunate that the boy was too stupid to make use of any college scholarship he might receive for basketball). He forever after denied making such a comment. He continued checking the scores in the paper out of habit, even though Nervous had graduated from high school the previous year. Loki skimmed the article, and satisfied that there was no one outperforming Nervous’ records, he turned to the financial section while keeping a watchful eye on the traffic passing outside.

 

“Excuse me, sir?”

 

Loki looked up from his paper to see the boy who had been working behind the cash register addressing him.

 

“What?” he asked irritably. He didn’t want to take his attention away from what was going on outside.

 

“Would you like to order something, sir? I’d be happy to ring up a meal for you, or maybe a cup of coffee?”

 

“I don’t want anything. Go away.”

 

Loki made a motion to shoo the cashier away like the young man was an insect that had been annoying him.

 

The boy took a deep breath and steeled himself for the outburst he felt was sure to come.

“Sir, these tables are reserved for paying customers only. I’ll be happy to ring up a drink or something for you.”

 

Loki, now completely distracted from the fact he had been watching outside for a stalker, looked around him. There was one other customer in the restaurant, a lonely old man sitting by himself eating a chicken pot pie. Loki then looked at the boy. The young man had deflated somewhat and was looking like he wished he could crawl behind the counter and hide. The female cashier standing at the counter was hiding her face with her hand, to shield her from the embarrassing spectacle that was about to occur, or to avoid being identified as someone who could be associated in any way with her co-worker.

 

“It’s not exactly standing room only, is it?” Loki snarled.

 

“I’m sorry sir,” the boy said. “It is company policy that tables in the dining room are for paying customers only.” The young man seemed to have regained some of his confidence. Apparently having company policy to back him up made all the difference in the world.

Loki scowled and rose from his seat. He checked the kid’s name badge.

“Okay, Enrique,” he growled as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket. He pulled a five dollar bill from his wallet and threw it at the cashier. The bill danced in the air in front of Enrique’s eyes and fluttered to the floor. “I don’t have time to be bothered by a miserable chicken pusher. Go buy yourself a fucking bucket of chicken and leave me alone.”


Enrique took a few steps back. While Loki was not at all physically imposing, His highly arched brows, posture, and air of superiority made him seem quite menacing.

Loki went back to his chair, but had a second thought. He again pulled out his billfold and took out another fiver. He tossed this one at Enrique as well. Loki sneered down his nose at Enrique and added, “just in case I have to take a shit while I’m here, too.”

Enrique, finally cowed, picked up the ten dollars from the floor and slunk back to his counter. Hi didn’t put the money into the till, but sat it on the counter, unsure of what to do with it.

 

Loki returned to his seat and shook the wrinkles out of his newspaper again. He looked out the window and caught his reflection before focusing on the sidewalk outside. The appearance of his furrowed brows and snarled lips pleased him. His scowl softened into a sly grin. There was nothing like ripping someone a new asshole for cheering him up. He returned his attention to the traffic passing outside the window. He hoped that chicken boy had not distracted him long enough that he had missed something important.

“Excuse me, sir,” beckoned a feminine voice behind him.

 Loki groaned and contemplated banging his head against the tabletop.

 "What!?” Loki roared impatiently. He rose to address whoever it was who was addressing him now. She was a homely girl with dark hair and thick eyebrows. She was dressed in a black pantsuit that did nothing to flatter her figure. Enrique was hovering next to her like a satellite, the two five dollar bills gripped tightly in his hand.

“I just wanted to apologize,” she said. “I’m the shift manager this afternoon, and I think Enrique was a little confused about our company’s policy. He has only been working here a couple of weeks and I don’t think he realized that the ‘paying customers only’ policy only applies when business is very heavy.” Enrique handed Loki back his ten dollars. They were damp from being clutched in Enrique’s sweaty palms.

 “Sorry, sir,” Enrique mumbled, eyes firmly fixed on the floor.

 

“I’m sorry than Enrique interrupted you, and I would like to offer you a free meal and drink to try to make it up to you,” the woman proposed.

 “I don’t think I want anything prepared by flaming morons, thank you.”

 

The manageress tried to shrug off Loki’s insult with a nervous laugh. “Enrique is very bright,” she explained. “Maybe he is a little over enthusiastic, but he is a very hard worker. I wish you would allow me to compensate you for all of this frustration.” Enrique gave his manager an appreciative smile before returning his gaze to the tops of his shoes.

Loki looked up from his paper. “If it means you will leave me alone to read my damn paper, then by all means.”

 The girl laughed nervously again. “Is there anything you would like to drink?” she asked.

“Coffee,” grumbled Loki.

Loki returned to his seat and his newspaper. After a few seconds of quiet he looked up from his paper to see the homely girl’s wide rear end swinging as she walked toward the kitchen. Enrique had slunk back to his station and was wiping down the counter.

 

A free chicken dinner was starting to sound good to Loki. The aromas of freshly baked biscuits and deep fried chicken were beginning to get to him. His stomach growled loudly as he thought of warm biscuits with honey and butter. It wouldn’t hurt him to have a well cooked meal for once. Compared to Circe’s home cooking, a cold can of pork-n-beans was a well cooked meal. His mother had once told him the reason he was so angry all of the time was because Circe wasn’t feeding him properly.

 

A few minutes later the manageress returned with a large cup of coffee and a foam plate loaded with chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw and biscuits. She sat the plate and cup in front of Loki.

 

“Here you are, sir. I hope you enjoy it. If there is anything else you would like to have, please let me know.”

 

“I would like to be left alone, if you don’t mind.” He said angrily as he folded up his newspaper.

 

“Of course,” she said as she reached into her jacket pocket. She produced a few gift certificates and placed them on the table next to the coffee. “Enjoy your meal.” She walked back to the kitchen and sighed audibly as she pushed through the swinging door.

Loki dug in to his free chicken dinner with gusto. He had forgotten how good fried chicken was. It was not on Circe’s “heart healthy” menu. He made a mental note to start coming here on his dinner break from the lab. Those gift certificates were going to come in handy.

 

He watched the goings on through the window as he ate. There was still no sign of her anywhere. His annoyance at her lack of punctuality was turning into concern. There was no telling what someone, who was hell bent on extorting as much money out of Loki as he could, would do to get what he wanted. Ever since Loki had gotten the letter with serpent on it he hadn’t had a peaceful night’s sleep. Every little noise, real and imagined, shocked him out of his sleep and sent him creeping about the house with an aluminum baseball bat. Loki was so worried the man who had sent him the cryptic message a couple of weeks ago would, someday, get to his family. Loki had given the bastard everything he asked for, but Loki had since been seeing the man all around town. He hadn’t left Strangetown as Loki had asked. Loki feared that by giving in to the demands he had opened himself up to further extortion. The guy knew Loki had money and how eager Loki was to keep things quiet. It was only a matter of time before the man would demand more money. Loki knew he had to keep a close eye on his family. He had too much to lose. Loki’s biggest fear was that the extortionist would get to Nervous, and the whole thing would be blown wide open. Loki knew that Nervous hated him, and that Nervous would not hesitate to tell Circe. If that happened, Loki might as well kiss life as he knew it goodbye.

Loki was interrupted from his worries and window watching by a hand on his shoulder.

“Hi,” said a familiar voice from behind him. “I’m so sorry I’m late. A couple of my students had detention this afternoon and the parents of one of them forgot to pick her up. I had to take her home, and she lives all the way at the other end of town. I should have called,” she explained as she sat down next to Loki. She was a very pretty girl, despite the fact that she had inherited the wild Beaker eyebrows. Her hair was pulled up in the back, and ringlets of gold hair framed her pale face. She had the same aquiline nose as her brother, and her mouth turned down in the corners the same as his.

Somehow she managed to make her unique features give her the appearance of the sweet and innocent girl next door, while Loki always looked like the madman next door.

Loki smiled. Erin was the only person in the world who had the power to make Loki smile.

 “Yes, you should have called,” he told her, “But I am glad you are okay.”

 “I know,” she apologized again. “I’ll remember next time.”

 “Do you want something to eat?” Loki asked. He handed her one of the gift certificates.

 

“You know very well that there is no way fried chicken is coming anywhere near these lips,” she said. “I know the only reason you asked to meet here is to annoy me.”

Loki grinned at her. Of course she was right. Big brothers all over the world took every opportunity to torment their baby sisters. It was only natural.

 “Have a biscuit,” he said, pushing a warm, greasy biscuit in her direction. Erin relented and took the biscuit.

 

“So, what’s up?” Erin asked. “It’s not very often you invite your vegetarian sister out to dinner at a chicken place, so I know something must be going on.”

 

“I’m hurt!” Loki cried. He clutched his chest with both hands. “Since when is a dinner invitation from your beloved brother something to be suspicious of?”

 

“Since the day you were born, darling brother,” She told him. “I think you’ve forgotten how well I know your MO.”

 

“You are entirely too smart for someone so pretty.” Loki took a bite of his chicken leg making an extra effort to pull off all the skin with the first bite. The greasy chunk of skin hung from his lips as he pulled it into his mouth like a snake eating a mouse. There was only one thing he loved more than ripping people new assholes, and that was goading his baby sister. He wiped his chin clean with a paper napkin. “I have always suspected that you aren’t human.”

 

“And, you’re disgusting,” she told him with a grimace. She picked at her biscuit and waited for her brother to finish making a pig of himself.

 

Loki took a gulp of his coffee before speaking. “Circe and I want you to come stay with us for the summer,” he announced.

 

Whatever Erin had expected from her brother, it wasn’t this.

 

“Really?” she asked.

 

“School is over in a couple of weeks and you won’t be working, so I thought you could come and spend some time with us,” Loki explained between mouthfuls of mashed potato.

“Now I know something’s going on.” While she and and Loki had always been close, this is the first time he had asked her to spend an overnight at his home. And it wasn’t just an overnight. It was a few months of overnights. “Both of you came up with this idea?”

 

Loki shrugged. “Okay, I came up with it,” Loki told her. It was the only truth he would be telling her. “Circe has been acting really moody lately. I thought she could use some female company.” Loki did not look up from his plate of chicken. It was a lot easier to lie to his sister if he didn’t look her in the eye. She really did understand his MO. “And, I thought it would be a good chance for us to spend some more time together.” 
 
“And Nervous? What does he think of this idea?” she asked.
 
“He’s and idiot. Don’t worry about him,” Loki said dismissively.

 

Erin frowned at her brother. “I wish you weren’t so hard on him, Loki. He seems like such a sweetheart, and he has been through so much.” Erin liked Nervous, or at least she thought she did. It was hard to tell if you really liked someone if every time you saw him he avoided making eye contact and only spoke when spoken to.
 
Time to change subjects, Loki thought. He put his chicken wing down, put his greasy hand over Erin’s and patted her gently. “You know, since mom and dad are gone, we are all we have. I really don’t want to let our time slip away.”
 
Erin was touched by her brother’s sentiment, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to spend three months eating her sister-in-law’s cooking. Circe was always very good about cooking vegetarian dishes when Erin came to dinner, but, they never were very tasty vegetarian dishes.
 
“I don’t know, Loki. I’ll have to talk to Lo and see if she minds. I did promise her that I’d be renting my room for the whole year. She might not be able meet expenses without my share.”
 
“I’m sure she will manage,” Loki assured her. He had anticipated this excuse and had a contingency plan in the event that Erin tried to play the money card. “She probably has piles of money socked away. Almost forty and no husband or kids, I guarantee she’s got tons of cash tucked away.”
 
Erin sighed. She knew she was caught in her brother’s web. She was used to her brother’s conniving ways, but also knew that despite his deceit; he really did love her and wanted what was best for her. He truly was the best big brother she could ever ask for and she never had reason to doubt that. He might not be very nice to anyone else in his life, but he would put his life on the line for his baby sister.
 
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll go home and talk to Lo and see what she says.”
 
“And you will call me tomorrow?”
 
“Yes. I will call tomorrow and let you know.”
 
“Good,” Loki said with an air of satisfaction. His plate of fried chicken now looked like a voodoo ritual gone horribly wrong.” He opened the wet-nap the manageress had brought with the meal and cleaned the grease from his hands.
 
“I’m glad you’re going to stay with us for a while,” he told her. “It really means a lot to me.” He said the last earnestly, with his eyes firmly fixed on hers.
 
“You’re a dear, Loki, but I haven’t told you yes yet.”
 
“You will,” he said with an attempt at an endearing smile. “I have a good feeling about it.”
 
“I’m sure I will,” she told him with a half hearted smile, “but I really have to get going. I have a mountain of papers to grade tonight.
 
Loki tossed his wet-nap on to the pile of chicken bones. “Okay,” he said. “I should go too. Circe will have dinner ready and I have to get home and pretend I am hungry.”
 
Brother and sister rose to leave the restaurant together. The made it as far as the door when Erin stopped.
 
“Can you wait outside a minute?” she asked. “If Lo finds out I was here and didn’t bring her any biscuits she will be pissed.”
 
“Sure.”
 
Loki walked out the door and waited. He was very satisfied that he had accomplished what he had set out to do. With Erin staying at his house she was sure to be safe.
 
Erin finally emerged with her biscuits. The grease was already soaking through the white paper bag. She put her arm around her brother in a warm hug. He kissed her.
 
“I love you,” he said.
 
“Love you too,” she replied.
 
“You’ll call me tomorrow, right?” he reminded her.
 
“I promise.”
 
“Be safe,” he told her before they went their separate ways. He took his cell phone out of his pocket when he reached his car. He dialed Erin’s home number. He needed to be sure he got to talk to Lola Singleton before Erin did.
 

Comments

[pascal-curious.livejournal.com]

Thanks! For some reason I really struggle with writing evil people, but asshole I can do. Not quite sure what that means.

The boob thing might seem completely random because I was just doing it to amuse myself. There was a murder recently, in my hometown, where the victim's surname was Boob. It is a horrible thing, but every time I saw it on the news I would giggle. I have the sense of humor of your average 8 year old.