Patreon or PayPal Me keeps this site and its author alive. Thank you. |
Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 83: Brown 311
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Takano 110
Three days later it was Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve Hannah told Derek the restaurant would be closed for Christmas because everyone would be at church, and indeed that afternoon the other band members said they would be at church for Christmas. Derek asked where. As he had guessed, Pierre was Roman Catholic, Maurice Baptist. Lei was Presbyterian. They asked where Derek and Vashti would be going, and he explained that there wouldn’t be a church for his faith in the city. That surprised them, but they didn’t pursue it.
He again had some explaining to do about his size change at Yule, but by now the band understood that he wasn’t quite normal, having been sent from another world to protect New Orleans, so although it made him seem more strange, he was already strange.
After playing at the restaurant on Boxing Day, Derek told the others that he and Vashti had an errand to run. Stopping in the kitchen he picked up a few carrots and a couple apples, and then they headed back past the shack into the countryside outside the city. It took a bit of work to get completely oriented, but he soon found the barn in which they had slept the first night. He approached the fenced yard around it, and saw the bull outside. The creature was a full ton if it was an ounce, and its smooth black hide shone in the afternoon light. It truly was a grand beast with sharp horns and huge muscles and the look of a lord. It looked over at him, and he reached out telepathically to find its mind.
Remember us? he asked.
Are you back? it replied.
We never had the opportunity to thank you properly; things have been a bit crazy fighting the devil.
That can happen, I suppose.
Anyway, I hope you had a good Christmas, and we brought you these; where should I put them? He held up a couple carrots and an apple.
That’s quite kind of you, it replied. Just drop them over the fence. I’m afraid I didn’t get you anything.
You had no way to suspect that we were coming.
True, but I feel bad all the same. Tell you what, there’s the henhouse. You help yourselves to a few eggs, and if anyone comes I’ll keep them away from you.
Are you sure? Derek wasn’t entirely persuaded that the farmer would agree that the bull owned those eggs, but the bull was quite settled on the matter in its own mind, and Derek didn’t want to give offense. Passing through the gate into the yard he made his way to the henhouse, released the latch, and slipped inside. It only took him a minute to find half a dozen eggs, various sizes but all good. Still not entirely happy about it, he drew a dime from his pocket and left it on the edge of one of the shelves on which the nests were positioned. He was soon out again.
Thank you very much, he sent.
No, thank you, the bull replied, and slipping back out through the gate Derek handed some of the eggs to Vashti so as not to break them, and they returned home.
They had the eggs for supper that night.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #509: Character Challenges. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
