“Jesse, would you stop your Goddamn brooding for a moment and help me?” Logan muttered as he shuffled through a series of papers. We sat in the busy police station, signing off on the scientist bounty we bagged a few days ago. Some sort of bureaucratic nonsense about us having to confirm it with both the feds and the local government when we were on Dualis.
Logan slid a letter to me, and I began signing it at the bottom. After what happened earlier, I was in a real sour mood. Not the kind of mood that made paperwork any more enjoyable than it always was.
Once my signature was scribbled on the document, I sat it back on the desk and slid it toward the sheriff. The old man looked at me with confusion and fear. “What’s wrong with him?”
Logan sighed “Nothing’s wrong with him. Just sign the papers.”.
The sheriff’s mustache furled as he glanced at the papers and signed his own name on it. He put the document into a folder as he stared. “This is the first time I have ever seen you two and calming silence in the same place… I didn’t like him when he was loud, but this… This concerns me…”
“He’ll be fine, I assure you. Are we done?” Logan was stoic as ever, but even he was ready to get done with busywork and take a moment to breathe.
The sheriff was curious, but he could tell we didn’t care for any more talk. “One last thing, and you’re free to go.” I was already lifting myself out of my seat, expecting to be let out, but the sheriff continued to yap. “As you both know, there was plenty of collateral damage. You aren’t held accountable for the losses the bounty caused of course, but we have been getting several complaints from an antique shop owner that you unnecessarily destroyed a vintage mirror from her collection. I thought it’d be best if I just send you two to talk to her personally instead of us having to get involved. Saves everyone some time.”
I groaned. “If it weren’t for us her entire shop would be rubble. The way I see it we saved her money.”
The sheriff stowed his folder in the desk he sat at and replied, “Well, unless you want to take this Granny to court, you’ll have to tell her that yourself.”
Logan sighed as he continued to walk out. I followed, more pissed than ever. Out of all the people in the square to not get fried up, the stingiest person imaginable had to be one of them. You know what though, that was fine. No one was stingier than I was, especially on a crappy day like this one.
The doors to the sheriff’s office jingled as we stepped back out on the street. Although Long Soir city might always be dusk, with the way it had turned so overcast, it felt like the middle of the night. Kerosine lamps and lit up shop windows made sure people knew the city was just as hospitable as ever, though…
Well, at least most of the city.
Logan ducked into the drizzle and started heading down the street. Workers were already piecing the city back together, but it’d be a few more weeks until everything was like before. “Alright, let’s go talk to this old lady.”
I stepped into the rain and followed. It was a real balmy night out, and the rain felt like it just stuck to you and refused to let go. Everything seemed to make my mood worse. “You know what, maybe we don’t go and talk. How long has it been since we were up to some good ol’ mischief?”
“Come on, Jesse. Let’s hear her out before we do anything rash.” Logan murmured, obviously trying to keep his own bad mood in check.
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In the distance was the broken fountain and crumbled brick walls we had our fight at the days prior. The broken antique shop window was replaced by several wooden boards shoddily nailed down, with ‘STILL OPEN’ painted over them.
We pushed open the door, which was barely held on by the hinges, and made our way into the place. The entire room smelled like soot, burnt hair, and old people.
Logan walked up to the half-burnt counter and knocked on the wood. Sure enough, an old woman hobbled out from the back and looked at us expectantly. He was the first to pipe up. “Hello…” To which she gave no response. “…Alright. Well, we’re here because you put in a complaint to the police about us.”
The disgruntle woman went from expectant to offended once she realized who we were. She looked back to the door she popped out of and yelled in Mandarin “Jing! It’s the men who broke the mirror! Get in here!” to which a sedated old man waddled in. After that, she finally turned back to the counter and addressed the two of us in English. “You broke my mirror. My mirror cost two hundred dollars. Pay for the mirror.”
My legs felt weak. I knew we’d try to get scalped, but Goddamn. After paying our debt to Doc we had only four hundred dollars of spending money, and it’d be close to eighty dollars less after we fueled and supplied Fat Tuesday. Even Logan was losing his composure. “Look… I don’t think… Hmm…” Was all my brother mustered.
I, on the other hand, had many, many, many choice words come to mind. “Look, if not for us and that mirror you’d both be dead and your shop would be demolished. Two hundred dollars for your lives and your livelihoods. Pretty damn good deal if I do say so myself.”
The old lady was unfazed. She stared at me dead in the eyes with a scowl that could make any mother’s son flinch. “Two hundred dollars or I get police…”
As I had mentioned many times previously, that day was not my happiest of days. Negotiations were nowhere on my mind, and Logan himself had accidentally fallen too far into the back seat to take control of the conversation. I spoke again with a tone that only barely held back anger. “Look. We saved your careers for two hundred dollars. If not for us you’d be bankrupt, do you understand?..” I waited for a response, but the she gave me nothing. “Ok… What I’m saying boils down to… We aint giving you jack shit. You got that?”
The old lady frowned and turned back to her husband. She growled in Mandarin. “You try to talk to the short one. I don’t have the temperament for him.”
I leaned against the counter and held out a finger to the woman. She turned around as I spoke sharply. “I am not short!”
The old lady looked very surprised, which made me remember that up until then she had no clue I spoke Mandarin. Every federation pilot had to know English, Russian, Mandarin, French, along with Neo-Iranic, and that made for many surprised faces in a place like the Clementine system where most people barely knew how to speak one language properly.
We stood there in silence for a minute. I also realized I was pointing at her with my prosthetic arm, which most people were deterred by looking at. Everything about my demeanor was probably a smidge more intimidating than I meant to be. I eased back as the old woman spoke to me in her native language. “You were not supposed to hear that. No offense was intended.” Even though I was a lot more aggressive than I should have been, for whatever reason the old lady seemed to be more respectful and understanding once she knew I could speak her language.
I cleared my throat. “Sorry about that…” Finally, I started to mentally pull myself from the ick I was in. If nothing else, then for the fact that it didn’t suit me to not be the charming and optimistic one of us two brothers.
Logan then spoke up, finally taking things back into his own hands. “Look. Our finances have been really tight. Maybe we can meet in the middle somehow?”
The grandma looked conflicted and still mildly irritated. While I hated to ever backpedal, Logan was most likely right about a compromise being our best route forward.
The old lady continued to mull it over as her husband Jing moved to the counter. Since at that point the entirety of the conversation was in Mandarin, he whispered in his wife’s ear for privacy. Whatever he said, she didn’t like it, but she didn’t stop him from speaking up. “If you catch me a crayfish your debt will be paid.”
Logan and I looked at each other in confusion, then back to the old man. “We catch you a crawdad, and we don’t have to pay for the mirror?”
He nodded his head. “Yes.”
I answered immediately. “You’ve got yourself a deal, mister.”
Both me and my brother were confused with the whole situation, but there was no way in hell catching a crawdaddy would be more difficult than getting that two hundred dollars back.
It was going to be a piece of cake, most certainly….