TCOTNK Season 4.4
TCOTNK Season 4.4
Yeshe is shadowing Michael and Thalia. But her narrative has other plans. Will she ever get to the last festival?
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back to chapter 4.3 (last weeks episode)
Chapter 6
Yeshe was still on the roof and could hear them coming. A tiny engine working overtime. The whining sound cascading through the empty streets of the sleeping city accompanied the moving dot on her screen. Three minutes later the scooter drove into the parking lot, and approached Daardaar. Thalia was driving with Es sitting on the back. Yeshe could breathe again when she recognised the two women.
Es got off before they even had stopped and looked up at Yeshe.
"Is Kay still up there with you?"
Yeshe nodded.
“Put him in your bed, will you, and close the hatch. We have to get away.”
Thalia raised her hand as Yeshe climbed out of the cabin. She looked younger in the uniform.
"I didn't know what to do."
A small voice as she pulled the scooter on the stand. They stood facing each other for a second but Thalia looked out at sea. Her eyes scanning and restless.
“Michael has disappeared. Without a trace. I don't know where he is...”
Behind them, Daardaar started with a deep growl.
"…I suspected you would be waiting for us but…"
Es interrupted them.
“We can go. Keep talking while we drive.”
They climbed aboard. Es backed up on the mirrors like an accomplished truck driver. The regular beeping cut through the silence.
“Well, where are we going? The day is still young?”
She put the fire truck in gear, let the brakes hiss, pulled away smoothly. Exiting the parking lot she turned the big steering wheel to the left and then hit the brakes. Es had to gave way to a passing fire truck. Yeshe felt Thalia stiffen as they received a siren flash from the next one who allowed them passage. Es responded relaxed while she pulled up and slid the checkered Daardaar between the two younger sisters.
“I wonder where those fire extinguishers would take us. It's only…. they're trained to put out fires as quickly as possible. In that regard, I'd rather look for a bunch of arsonists. Set up a meeting. On a rug in front of the crackling flames. Or some open fire, to huddle around as a group and sing fire-ballads To follow or not to follow, that is the question, right girls?”
She stroked the steering wheel. Knocked on the dashboard and pretended to listen intently. Meanwhile, she cast a mischievous look at Yeshe and Thalia.
The next moment the triple turn signals of their predecessor started flashing brightly, the red brake lights came on and the fat red butt sorted to take a left.
“Well, that's clear, they put on the brakes first, not me. I guess we're moving on and the men stay at home.”
They got a short honk as they drove away.
It was quiet in the city. The women were silent for a while. Each was looking for how much they wanted or could say. Es drove slowly. The traffic lights were still off and the streets empty. They moved between the dark buildings in a dreamlike slow motion.
Yeshe was full of questions about Michael but secretly enjoyed the ride. There was something very natural about the three of them. Also how they sat. Thalia in the middle. Like a triad. A chord. As if something had come together. Like the strands of a braid. Or a superhero trio, a bunch of flowers, two parts and some glue, a choreography for three dancers, fat, flour and sugar. No, delete that last set, she thought cheerfully. She wondered if the others felt similar and looked at Thalia sideways. Her face was tense like a mask.
The young woman suddenly took a breath to say something but then didn't. Both Yeshe and Es looked at her for a moment, exchanged a glance but didn't speak. Thalia sighed. A high squeak of frustration.
“Stop, I have to get out. I can't just drive away with you guys while Michael...”
Es let off the gas and the truck slowed down even further.
Yeshe waited. There was more to come.
Thalia breathed in and out through her nose. Clawing the dashboard with both hands. Staring straight ahead. Yeshe could hear the soft tissue inside the blond head crackle.
Daardaar stopped with groaning brakes. Es let the engine run idle and leaned over the steering wheel. Lips pursed. Waiting mode.
Thalia ruffled her short hair with both her claws and groaned.
“I don't know what to do. I just wanted to get off of that shit-ship. Lose the feeling of being watched from, like everywhere. Yes, I am a thief, I have stolen a bicycle and went digging through a suspicious fire trespassing police lines at night but now I'm also a wanted terrorist!"
Es burst out laughing. A kind of grnuumpff escaped through her nose that she held back with difficulty. She mumbled a sorry.
“Yes, you just laugh, but I tinkered a pretty convincing bomb with the coiled cord of a hairdryer, taped it with stuff from the kitchen drawer to ten kilos of stolen ground coffee in those unprinted silver vacuum packs and let it half stick out a stolen handbag and hung the thing on the doorknob to the engine compartment. Then all I had to do was point suggestively at the bag. And I did. The whole fucking fear monster woke up! It's sick how easy that was. Within ten minutes the boat was stationary.”
Es was looking at her with a restrained giggle. Barely holding it together. Ready to die from laughter.
“What now!?”
Es deflated holding her stomach.
"With your hairdryer?"
Thalia raised her hands, sought support from Yeshe.
“It is slightly funny. But she's exaggerating.”
Behind Thalia the little hatch opened, Kay's sleepy head came out and hissed very loudly. Baring his incomplete teeth. With a slam he closed the wooden door again. A bewildered, and shocked Thalia sat reversed on the dashboard, her back pressed to the windscreen. Now Yeshe started to chuckle too. Thalia turned to Yeshe like a canon-head aiming
“You too?”
"That was Kay."
"That blond screeching rat?"
“Hey, you be careful now,” Es objected, “otherwise I must throw you overboard.”
Thalia slumped. Shrunk back into her despair.
“Maybe Michael has jumped. He was nowhere. I turned the whole ship upside down with Cynth. And then I made her an accomplice by sending her off in that borrowed car. Now she probably has the Secret Service on her heels and when Jen returns from her holiday her car has been seized and she is suspected of assisting a bombing attempt of a ferry-company her former best friend has worked for, while that same former best friend travelled on a rustled ticket.”
Es was shaking her head, then nodding.
“I do hope it was Italian slow roasted, that you plugged that hairdryer into? Otherwise no one will take you seriously these days.”
Thalia sighed.
Yeshe smiled a little crookedly.
"Is Michael still on board? Or have you agreed to meet somewhere?'
Thalia was sitting back down.
“How so? Why do you ask?”
"Because he had the key to the rally car."
Thalia remained silent.
Yeshe continued.
“He can't go back to your attic room. And he no longer has a camper. They already know where you live. So you can leave the keys in the scooter we have just abandoned, but he will soon drive straight into the arms of his pursuers.”
Thalia looked at Yeshe in surprise.
"How do you know all that?"
“I cobbled that together just now. When you made that mistake with that car key that I don't think you can have.”
Thalia was chewing on her bottom lip.
“That wasn't a mistake. He slept in Cynth's room, or at least he's been there. We found his clothes. With the keys I gave him. Of both my home and the borrowed car. Everything was there. Even his underwear. But he was nowhere. It was so scary. Would he have jumped? He's lost everything, you know.”
Yeshe nodded in understanding and then shook her head.
“He doesn't jump. He is too driven for that. The trail he is following is far too intense to let go now. He's so close. He can let go of his stuff.”
Thalia was looking at Yeshe with growing amazement.
“Who are you really?”
“I am Yeshe, Michael's guardian. And that there is Es, my stubborn squire.”
Now Es also looked bewildered.
“Hey, I'm still very much a girl, and what you just said doesn't make any sense what so ever.”