As much as I'd like to respond to Mick's post of yesterday, today is Friday and that means novel installment. So, perhaps Monday. Or maybe I'll be nice instead, in honor of the holiday season. And yes, I do realize that this installment, and a few others, seem to kind of meander around pointlessly. And do you realize that this is a rough draft? Yes? It shows? Well, I'll try to work on that.
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I awoke feeling very disoriented and like I was being watched.
I was. I jumped when I realized that Loki was sitting on the fiber behind me, watching me and Jaimie. He chuckled at my discomfort, but said nothing.
“Jaimie, wake up, we have company.”
“Hmmm?”
“Come on, wake up, we have company,” I said urgently. I just didn’t know how to take this Loki character. I’d worked with him a few times, but he spent so much time playing the enigmatic guru-type that I just didn’t know what was real and what was contrived. Most of it was contrived, I suspected. The guy always answered a question with a question. I also didn’t know if he could be trusted or not.
“Don’t wake her up on my account,” he said. “But it’s almost 10:00 break, so I thought you might want to be warned before the wrong person stumbled over you. Want to get a little work done, just in case Bill checks on you soon? Now, it’s unlikely, but better to be prepared.”
“Uh, sure.” I kicked Jaimie awake and she got up with a scowl, then looked mildly apprehensive when she saw Loki.
“So,” he said, “what were you girls supposed to be doing?”
“We’re supposed to sort all this fiber,” I gestured around the room, “by size and then when done with that, make up a bunch of 50-pound boxes.”
“Hmmm,” Loki said as he looked around. “Most of this right here seems to be 50-pounders. Why don’t I make up a bunch of boxes and you two try to straighten up the piles. It’s mostly just two sizes, so it should be easy. If you’d got straight to it, it would never have lasted you even till break time, but I think Bill’s too messed up to realize that. Ok. Let’s bust some of this out.”
Jaimie and I both looked disoriented, but did as Loki suggested and sure enough, the mess really wasn’t that unorganized. It was just falling over. So we straightened. He built boxes and within twenty minutes we’d finished almost half the upstairs.
“There’s the bell. See you, ladies,” and Loki touched his hand to his forehead in salute and ambled down the stairs.
We met Clark at the bottom of the stairs as he was coming out of the processing room.
“Hey,” I said.
“What did he want?” Clark asked. He looked disgruntled.
“Well, I’m not sure. He just showed up upstairs and helped us for a few minutes.”
“Let’s sit outside.”
“See you, “Jaimie called as she headed toward the bunkhouse. Great, she’d continue to be useless and drowsy after break.
“So what’s up?” I asked Clark. It wasn’t raining so we sat and hung our legs over the side of the fuel dock.
“Something’s not right about that guy. I can’t believe I’m having to work with him. Give me Enrico any day.”
“Ah, come on, Loki isn’t that bad, is he?”
“A complete phony. I detest him.”
I examined Clark’s profile and noticed that his jaw was clenched and set. He looked grim and that made me realize that Clark never looked grim. Superior, mischievous, disgusted, bored, mocking, yes, all those qualities were normal for Clark, but not grim.
“Loki really got to you,” I remarked. “Just what did he do?”
Clark shook his head and starred out at the water. “Nothing overt. But he’s up to something. I’m not sure what it is with him, but he isn’t what he tries to appear to be.”
I said nothing, but I felt chilled and Steven Kane popped unbidden into my brain. Crap. Didn’t need to obsess about him. “Do you think he’s using an alias?”
Clark gave me the ultimate look of disgust and reluctant humor. “Petra.” He deadpanned. “Petra. The guy calls himself Loki. Loki. Do you really think his mom named him Loki?”
I hit him with an impatient sigh and eye-rolling. Two could play at this.
“Clark. Clark. Don’t be deliberately obtuse. Yes, I’m pretty sure his mom didn’t name him Loki, but you never know. People name their kids all kinds of weird stuff. I meant do you think that this whole persona he’s presenting, do you think that he’s hiding who he really is?”
“First, he’s too old to have a hippie mom who would have named him Loki. But he’s old enough to be an old hippie and named himself that. God, he’s so pretentious.” The contempt just dripped from each syllable. “I don’t know if he has a criminal past or not. With the missing eye he might have. Then again, there might be an eye under that eye patch, pretentious ass that he is. Personally, I think he’s just really lame and mediocre and all this Loki crap is his attempt to make himself interesting. Phony!”
“Hmmmm.” I replied. I really didn’t know what to make of Clark’s reaction.
“Promise me,” Clark said, looking all serious, “I mean it, promise me you won’t sleep with Loki.”
My mouth dropped open in horror.
“I mean it, Petra. I want you to promise me you won’t sleep with that phony.”
I should have blasted him and told him to mind his own business, but I was too repulsed at the thought of his fear and horrified that he had so little faith in me.
“Don’t worry! Not that it’s any of your business, but that just would never happen.”
“Good.” Clark nodded, still looking grim, but satisfied. “I’d rather you slept with Tim than with that two-bit hustler.”
That made me laugh. “Two-bit hustler. What crap have you been reading lately?”
Clark smiled and didn’t answer. “Come on, you lazy wench. Back to the salt mines.”
Clark helped me up and we moseyed back into the Crab Plant, no sign of Creepy Bill anywhere.
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