*Singing, SISTERS!*
Gail was looking back, yelling, leaning out the window of her mom’s car, ‘I’m going to Fanuiel Hall! I’m going to Fanuiel Hall!’
Jeff watched Karen’s face getting redder and redder as they stood in the airport baggage drop off area watching the family’s car drive away and Gail’s voice become merely an echo caught in the background noise outside the airport.
Karen’s face was as red as a stroke victim as she stood perfectly still in her old tennis shoes, blue jeans, and YA SAVES t-shirt.
Making her friends jump a little with her sudden movements out from being totally still, Karen grabbed her bags and stormed off into the airport leaving Jeff and Fox looking at each other.
‘You’ve traveled with her more than me. Should we quickly follow after her?’ Fox
‘Ah, no. Surprise, surprise, I would rather walk through the after wake of her anger carnage than be caught up in the path of it.’ Jeff
‘That was stupid speech. Stupid speech on a Pope level.’
‘John Paul or Youth Nazi Guy?’
‘Oh, most definitely YNG. John Paul was a batshit paper wolf in sheeps clothing as most all Popes have been but he had a little hugablity about him.’
Karen had marched through several groups of people, shoving the young, the snowbird, the ill, and old to the side, before suddenly noticing that Jeff and Fox weren’t right behind her. This worried her because no one was around to hear her whine that mattered to her.
She looked around for about twenty minutes before spotting them buying sodas. They were easy to spot with Fox wearing motorcycle boots, plaid long shorts, and a SUSHI GOD t-shirt. They are a t-shirt wearing group.
And Jeff stands out even more standing next to Fox with his hillbilly trucker choices of old work boots, jeans, and a t-shirt he made with a Goodwill shirt purchase and a can of black spray paint.
For those nosy his t-shirt read in small letters- GEORGE R. R. MAN THERE’S A LOT OF TITS ON THIS SHOW.
Karen raced over to their location as they were exiting the store. They stopped dead seeing her, she stopped dead in front of them, And then she turned and marched off again, this time they were following close to her steps.
Adults can be spoiled brats sometimes. Sometimes in way bigger levels than any child could manage. For example to this see Washington D.C.
‘I wanna go to Fanuiel Hall,’ Karen said with a put on sad face as they walked. That’s the first sign of verbal emotion she has shown since they started their trek within the airport.
The airport scenery here is the same as what you would get from most airport scenes. There are the Osip owned stores, the Ryan Industry outlets, the Disney Marvel money makers, a candy store for addicts, and some kid screaming about leaving- It’s A Small World, behind.
‘If no one heard me, I wanna go to Fanuiel Hall.’
‘Quite your tits, we’re going to the Smokey Mountains.’ Fox
‘But Fanuiel Hall.’ Karen
‘Jeff says the Smokey Mountains are cool.’
‘Jeff thinks The Tomorrow People is cool.’
Later our traveling threesome was standing with shoes in hand waiting to go through security.
With nothing else to do they tried a bit of bantering.
‘Is foot odor a matter of National Security?’ Fox
‘Karen’s should be.’ Jeff
‘My getaway, shut it bitches.’ Karen
That was some short weak banter. Its lack of luster was probably because Fox didn’t get her chance to have her standard morning breakfast of pills, coffee, and Kahlua, and she’s normally a banter master.
I know not everyone can banter or write good banter but there can be reasons learned.
Like stupidity.
And lack of chemical intake.
Maybe it should just be left to the experts and so we move on.
The Valentine’s Day crowd was cramming their way in, through, and around the airport. Jeff didn’t want to be caught up among all these balloon hearts and kissing moments, he wanted to fly out of the smaller Melbourne Airport to Knoxville, but the trips last minute planning put a stop to that idea.
That would have doubled the cost of the trip.
He ant that good at any video game.
And doubled the size of that paragraph.
Even I can’t run on a sentence for that long.
Another thing, he didn’t want Ms. Busiek to have to drive them nor did he want to listen to Karen and Gail argue all the way on the drive to Orlando, but that’s how fate got a hold of them.
Fox and him are still recovering.
Karen and Jeff passed through security pretty quick but Fox was chosen for a random “?” search. The security guards pulled her to the side with worried looks on their faces, which Jeff noticed, but what he noticed even more was the totally without any worry look on Fox’s face.
After a quick less than thorough body pat down and a few questions Fox joined Karen and Jeff at a bench just outside of the security scanning area. But even from there Jeff could notice the security guards chatting with each other and looking their way.
‘What was that all about?’ Jeff asked Fox
‘She’s officially half Canadian so she ant enough American. They had to be sure she wasn’t going to launch some sort of Trailer Park Boys attack.’ Karen
Fox puts her arms around the necks of Karen and Jeff, ‘People just like touching me, that’s all it was.’
The three of them turned in time to face another security agent giving them the stink eye, ‘Please move along briskly folks.’
The threesome walk “briskly”, mockingly briskly, to a close by smoothie shop carrying their shoes and carryon bags in fear of a quick strip search from some old lady with a John McCain complex and a monogrammed reusable pair of rubber gloves.
Fox stopped for a second so she could fix the remaining straps of her motorcycle boots, ‘Our flights in twenty minutes. Anyone want a snack or drink?’
‘Nope.’
‘Nope.’
‘Well fuck you two, I need some caffeine.’
As Fox walked away from the two of them Karen looked across the airport seeing something that caught her eyes, squinting a bit because she needs glasses she wonders if she is seeing who she thinks she is seeing.
She made a face at Jeff who was watching Fox walk away. He noticed her squinting after braking eye to butt contact and as he always does he tells her she needs to have her eyes checked.
‘Airports mess with my eyes.’ Karen
‘Right, it’s the airport that makes you turn a little Japanese when you try to read something from far away.’
‘Not cool Jeff, not cool. And because you say such things I think we should change the subject.’
Everyone was still stuffing some of their stuff back into their bags when they found a bench to claim of their own for a few minutes so they can try to get back into pre-security shape. It seems sometimes going through an airport is an eternal stop and start and stop journey.
Jeff thought he saw someone he knew walk pass them, ‘I think the place is messing with my eyes also.’
Karen claps her hands together as they stand up and to head out in the direction of their terminal, ‘See, it’s the airport. Your attempt at edgy racist comedy was for nothing.’
‘No, you still need glasses. I’ll admit the joke was weak but I’m a bit insane which is probably why I’m seeing things.’
‘What the Hell are you two talking about?’
As usual with all air travelers your terminal is the very last one, the farthest away, at the ass end of the airport. It’s that way for everyone. Makes you think about the theory that airports are a sort of Escher dimensional boggle game.
That’s my theory.
Fox was admiring a young attractive woman in athletic sweats sleeping across from their terminal seats. She elbowed Karen in the ribs to get her to look.
‘Yes, I see her’ Karen eyes the fact that the sle
eping woman has an old Orlando Miracle bag laying at her feet, ‘But the last time I dated a baller I was bruised after one great night.’
Fox shrugged her shoulders, ‘Just spotting for my friend,’ big smile, ‘I like fishing when I don’t have to net.’
Both of the ladies give each other smiles. They are really enjoying these moments with each other.
Jeff stretched his arms upwards, ‘This is going to be interesting trip.’
Karen, ‘The hairs on my nipples are telling me the same thing.’
Fox bends over and looked as if looking through Karen’s shirt, ‘Yours do that too?’
‘I’m going to have to chaperone you two the whole time.’ Jeff
‘He is the oldest.’ Fox
‘And dad always says he’s mature beyond his years.’ Karen
‘He says that?’ Jeff
‘Don’t get your ego up. My dad has to be super nice being in a house full of grouches.’
Fox relaxed in her seat taking in how much she likes this. Friendships.
‘Still like your dad.’ Jeff
‘Everyone likes my…HOLYSHIT that’s Lisa Rowe over there.’ Karen was pointing their attention to a young woman standing near their terminal gate talking on a cell phone.
‘I thought I saw her earlier.’ Jeff
‘She wouldn’t be flying on an economy airline?’ Karen
See for those that didn’t read The Past Forward, Lisa Rowe, and you should read The Past Forward, Lisa Rowe goes to F.K.H.S. along with Karen, Jeff, Fox, and Gail.
Gail’s computer like brain has her in high school a little early.
In case I hadn’t mentioned that previously.
Back to Lisa, she’s the underling of the schools queen bee Joanna Osip of the famous and very wealthy Osip family, who are the owners of tons of stuff including an airline.
‘Wait, doesn’t Joanna’s family own an airline?’ Karen
See, I told you.
‘Joanna probably wouldn’t get her a discount ticket. Think we should wave?’ Jeff
‘NO.’ Karen/Fox
‘Let’s hope she doesn’t see us.’ Karen
Fox slaps Karen across the chest, ‘She’s probably on a trip to foreclose on some Virginia families.’
Karen was rubbing the slap from her breasts, ‘I like you better somber and without humor. They’re going to kick you out of the Goth club.’
Don’t worry, you will find out what happens with Lisa later in a story called DUM DUM DUM- Going Home For Snakes.
The “Dum Dum Dum” isn’t part of the title. It’s just- Going Home For Snakes.
I was trying for… forget it, let’s move on.
The flight from Orlando to Knoxville was quick and smooth. Time passed for Karen and Jeff with reading. Karen was reading the latest great piece of dramatic realistic YA literature by a grand Canadian writer; while Jeff was dug into a stack of graphic novels Gail shoved into his mailbag when he wasn’t looking. Fox listened to an audio book the whole trip with songs thrown in here and there for like commercial breaks.
Even in the today of transportable high technology there are only a few things people do on plane flights besides reading or listening to something- music, books, podcasts.
There’s also sleeping but that’s really boring.
You can’t do everything you would normally be able to do at home. You know the moment someone pulls out a laptop and starts watching porn there would be at least one person complaining.
Killjoys are always there to ruin the fun.
On long flights you can get stinking drunk and even sober up a bit. You could undergo heart surgery if someone wanted to make the news on a middle length flight. You could read a short story or watch the complete series of The Guild on a pound jumper.
Also on short flights you could eat a pack of pretzels because your airline is trying to be cute by not serving peanuts. What’s up with that?! Peanuts go with air travel like the FFWD button goes with porn. They allow you to get through the boring stuff.
You could finish a crossword on a short flight. You could wonder what short of people actually enjoy doing a crosswords and if they should be shot on sight on the same length flight.
You could develop a healthy hate for Lost viewing it for the first time over the shoulder of the person sitting in front of you. True story.
If you are reading this book on a long or short flight you should volunteer to sit by the emergency exit and then leave your e-reader zoomed in, propped up on your down tray so your neighbor sitting beside you can read it.
Do so especially if you are seated beside some old fart who if they haven’t already inserted themselves as a pain in the ass, you know will in time. Make sure you are zoomed in to make the text large enough so you can scroll down to hid this paragraph but show the following paragraph in whole. Now let’s all have fun.
Hi citizen, Home Land Security here. Before we get started let me say thanks for being extremely nosey and reading your neighbors book. Everyone American needs to be a vigil as you. See your neighbor here is a very disturbed person and volunteered to sit by the emergency exit because their life is in the shits. You should keep a close eye on them because they really want to try and force open the door when it levels off up in the sky. Because of liberal communist laws we can’t intervene but you citizen can. If you think your highly disturbed neighbor is going to go through with their death wish alert the nearest stewardess but be careful. I warn you be careful. If you are caught out you should be informed that they are armed. That or do nothing knowing you’ve outlived your welcome on planet Earth you old fucking twat. God speed and know surviving to a long age only puts you on level with a cockroach. Respect comes from action not age.
‘So you’re not even curious why Lisa Rowe is in Tennessee?’ Fox
‘Nope, but I am curious why Tennessee smells like rock candy?’ Karen
‘I’ve always thought it had more of a Hardees’s Chicken scent to it.’ Jeff
‘Ok then. I guess I’m off to get our rental.’ Fox
And yes Jeff watches as she walks away. How could he not her wearing those long shorts.
So sexy, so hot.
The Knoxville Airport was also an airport. Description done.
Oh, Wait! They have a Long Johns there. That’s cool.
Otherwise, just another airport, description done.
Karen and Jeff made their way to the car pickup area where they were waiting as Fox was off renting a cost-cutting class vehicle for them to drive all over Tennessee and possibly Virginia if they find the time.
‘This is your plan. What’s the events for day one?’ Karen
‘Once we find our hotel in Gatlinburg and check in I say we get something to eat and locate the two nearby National Park Visitor Centers.’
‘I’m going to relax in with natures?’
‘Even if we have to pummel the calm into you.’
Gatlinburg is a small town with a tourism focus located about five miles from Pigeon Forge. The official underscore of Gatlinburg pitched to families is-Where Great Adventures Are Waiting To Be Discovered.
One wasn’t about to be discovered but delivered like a blow from a hammer.
You will find a number of country music related restaurants and themed stores in the area. Not counting a large amount of hotels and fast food restaurants it’s kind of a hogpog of quick let’s see what’s the hot cheap thing to sale is.
That and a ton of t-shirt shops.
Dollywood is nearby for a shits and giggles mention but today so is a life with great power within his control and he’s standing on the roof of a large abandoned funeral home. Anyone driving by and spotting him just thinks it’s some sort of tourist distraction, an ad stunt for this or that.
Here’s a story.
And what better place for a story than another story.
It’s an old myth. A legend many do not know about, that says the Eastern Mountains of North America have had a protector since their creation. But
this is the first time in a very long time that the protector has taken human form.
For thousands of years this protector was a naturally formed animalistic elemental force until it joined with a human near the point of death.
Some people believe this to be an “Only for tourists” created fiction in the age of Beyond Humans but when you gather all the variations of the myth this is what you get.
When “pioneers” were creating the Wilderness Trail and settling what would become Kentucky most Native Americans in the area agreed to a peace treaty but one young Brave leader would not sign away his name along with his lands.
With a small group of similar minded young Braves he lead several attacks against settlers. One day his Braves were finally outnumbered, most died or surrendered on that day but their leader disappeared to wonder the mountains of what now are Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky, until he was joined with the elemental force and together they became the spirit of vengeance and remembrance for these mountains.
Cades is standing on a roof brewing the winds of the Smokey Mountains for his touch of death.
Sitting on the porch of her small home in Greenville Tennessee, which sits only minutes from the burial place of Andrew Johnson, and across the tracks from many dead businesses and dying dreams, is the spirit of peace and protection.
Currently in the form of an old woman who if seen from a distance you wouldn’t think anymore about her other than she looked frail and helpless. But anyone who is near her can feel a power about her that they cannot explain. It’s a feeling that is so strong that some people who can’t handle such things they cannot explain have been known to kill themselves over this feeling.
She was called Cintron by her last birthed child and former lover and that is what she is called during these modern times also, though she has adapted a human last name of Roberts.
The locals know Cintron Roberts as the old woman who makes a once a week trip to the supermarket and donates to a lot of local charities. There are a couple of weird stories about robbers having accidents when they tried to rob her. The part of the human mind which should have told people these events weren’t normal just doesn’t seem to work locally.
A long stretch of empty train cars pass by. Standing on the other side of the tracks is the father of all of Cintron’s other children, all of which are dead now by his hand.
He is Balsam of the Blood of Thor and he is also her first born.
Those darn mythology folk sure love fucking their mothers don’t they.
So silly.
He hasn’t seen his mother in a long time. It has been ages since he walked the worlds outside human lives. He has spent decades trying to blend in and understand humanity, with very little success, but now the other realms are calling once again- the realms of enchantment and vagueness.
Now as events in the hands of fate are pulling him away to the footsteps he was born to walk he knows it is time to create new songs to be sung starting with the ten creatures in human appearance which have just formed themselves right in front of him.
They are the Faroe, an ancient primal Norse force also called The Rape Demons Of Grid. Said to be have been around even before the forces of creation came to be. An old enemy of the Norse Gods who most think died at the hands of Thor before the Old Gods left but they have been hidden, biding their time and gaining strength to strike back in revenge.
Thor tried to wipe the Faroe away forever, not wishing to leave them to hunt those he once swore to protect but he failed.
Since the last encounter with the Thunder God, The Faroe has been waiting in particles of air keeping themselves near the locations of Cintron. Far enough away so she couldn’t sense them but waiting for Balsam to return to her so they could seek their revenge on the Bloodline Of Thunder And Lightning.
The Faroe form themselves into a living shape by taking the remains of living things that exist in the air we breathe. Basically all those who breathe take in the remains of dead with breath. The dead give us life. The dead is in our skin, our blood, and our minds.
There aren’t that many people in town, more vacant buildings than people, but those who are in come out to see the sight of ten human like beings surrounding a young man dressed like a truck driver with a backpack thrown over one shoulder.
All ten Faroe spoke as one, ‘Blood of Thor, We Faroe have waited and now is the time for us to clean your ancestral whiff from Midgard.’
Balsam dropped his backpack to his feet and it landed with a thud, its contact with the pavement created a crack in the pavement that circled around him.
The Faroe look at the bag, ‘Do you not wish to fight with your fathers weapon?’
‘I retrieved it from the remains of The Tree to hide it away, not to use it. I have my own ways in the world.’
‘Then ready for Death’s approach.’
‘Come at me!’ Balsam screamed
And they did. The Faroe as one moved towards Balsam. Within a second he recalled everything he was every told about them. That when they are formed into shape they swarm against prey, they are very tough to kill, and you have to strike at them and strike at them and strike at them until they fall.
He moved like lightening against each one. He knows he has to measure every bit of effort because he doesn’t know how long this battle will last. The details are a blur of action.
Balsam runs at a group of Faroe at 13 miles per hour and jumps into the air and outreaches 15 feet into the hair and pulls down a traffic light. On the way down he kicks away two Faroe and smashes another in the head with the light.
This unexpected method of attack confuses the Faroe who now start attacking not as one but in different single and group attacks.
Balsam shifts direction four times making his way through a crowd of Faroe to make his way to his target. The nearest any attack gets to him is 3 inches as he moves. At the end of his trek he punches one of them taking him down.
Next up attack was a Faroe throwing a mass of rock pulled from the ground at Balsam at 40 miles per hour but uses 3 tenths of a second to see, catch, and decide what to do with the rock; which he uses to bring down twice upon the head of a Faroe to the point where the creature no longer had a head.
The remaining Faroe move back a few steps as Balsam now walks into their reforming circle letting them surround him once again. They maybe all around him but he is the one in control.
Two of them run at him, he catches the fist of one attacker. The punch was swung at 40 miles per hour and Balsam catches the fist with only his fingers but that was enough to stop the attack instantly and that gives him time to spin around and catch the other attacker with a punch to the chest that leaves a hole where the punch made contact.
Another attacker misses him by only 4 inches but two others pile on his back. Balsam uses this though, shifting his weight he flips them over slamming them onto one of their brethren.
Balsam screams again, ‘Come at me!’
One of the Faroe picks up a motorcycle and throws it at Balsam who steps to the side and lets it fly through the window of what once was a barber shop.
A charging attacker is kicked into the chest sending him flying 100 years down the street. He gets up but then he runs away.
The hive mind is completely broken and one of the big advantages the Faroe have in battle is gone.
The three remaining Faroe stand back up from previous injuries to face down Balsam, a son of Thor, Bloodline Of Odin.
In this instant if there had been someone around who had ever meet the Thunder God they would see the father in the son as Balsam starts to laugh, ‘Thanks, a sweat up was needed.’
‘You dishonor us with your glee.’
‘You are a scum of creation. You are not warriors. Scum can’t gain honor.’
The three move to attack and he takes them down quick since they are weaker now. He knocks one off balance with a punch to the shoulder, grabs another and breaks his neck. Balsam takes a punch to the face but counters th
at opening through pain with a down thrust under the arms killing.
The last Faroe grabs Balsam from behind around the neck, ‘It’s time to die bastard God.’
Balsam spins around grabs the Faroe by the throat and rips it out. The body slowly falls with the victor in this battle standing over it, ‘All Gods are bastards scum.’
Even though Fox was the one who rented the car they were cruising down US-129 in, Jeff was at the wheel having been in this part of Tennessee before.
Karen was programming the satellite radio stations as Fox played navigator checking the maps, plural, which Karen printed off from somewhere online.
Jeff calls her a, “Map Dink” all the time, which she takes with a smile.
‘What does the map say?’ Jeff asked with more than a little hint of teasing in the use of the word “map”
‘Take US-129 until we hit the Maryville exit, then cut up 411 until we get to Sevierville and it’s a short jump to Gatlinburg.’
‘I thought you knew this place..,’ Karen got distracted, ‘Hey there’s a Playboy station!’
‘I do but I haven’t been here in years. This is why you printed out maps. Well, besides being a snob in a way I can’t describe.’
‘What’s Gatlinburg like?’ Karen asked totally ignoring his half hearted attempted dig at her.
‘Sort of like Orlando but less death and despair.’
‘Then it sucks,’ Karen/Fox
‘But we aren’t here for that bullshit. We’re here to Park Karen.’ Jeff
‘Like an overheating Dodge Viper.’ Fox
‘Yeah, before her stress gravitational pull kills us all.’ Jeff
‘National Parks seem to calm her down from what her mom told me.’ Fox
‘But I’m still pissed Gail is going to Boston.’ Karen
‘SHUT UP ABOUT BOSTON!’ Jeff/Fox
There shall be cheerleaders in the next part of this story, just warning you, but there will also be a lot of action, death, destruction, and rain.