The 'Cousins'

Part Forty-Seven: A Summit At Ma Tooley's

 This chapter is dedicated to Wendy Nelson, a brilliant author with the rare knack of finding a unique twist to a generic story.  Call it Paranormal, Sci-Fi or Greek Mythology but her book 'God of My Dreams' is hilarious!   You just have to read it!

And thanks a million Wendy for your help and technical research for this chapter. I hope I got it right?

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Timeline: 0845, Friday 20th April at Ma Tooley’s Pancakes

Greg was surprised to see a parking space on the street outside Ma Tooley’s and swung the truck across the street in a wide U-turn in front of a white Chevrolet that also had designs on the space. He replied to its angry blast on the horn with a friendly wave and smile.

A gentle breeze blew across his face as he got out of the truck onto the sidewalk. The breeze had backed to the north and carried a slight taint of the Noble Breath with it. Greg sniffed several times. It was unpleasant, but not obnoxious today and it raised in him the thought. ‘P’raps Bronsky was right when he said you get used to it?’   

There were, however, more important things for Greg to address today and time was moving on. He called out to his two companions who had also climbed out of the truck. They didn’t respond and stood a pace or two away from him, sombre expressions on their faces. They did not seem to want to be seen in his company this morning.  Tiring of the effort to keep the atmosphere civil between the three of them Greg let the moment pass and called out to them with contrived bonhomie.

“OK guys, let’s go eat, I can eat a horse this morning.” Greg rubbed his hands together and gave his passengers his friendliest smile.

Only Tomas acknowledged and returned his warmth. “That very nice Mr. Mee-chell.” 

Ali stood with his arms crossed looking ahead and into space; his face had evolved a sour expression as its norm.  Greg decided to ignore him and led the way inside.

“Morning all,” he called out cheerily to the three men sitting at separate tables whom Greg had met in here before, breakfasting at this time. Only one of them looked up to nod and mumble “Morning” in reply and then dropped his head to study his near empty plate. The youngest of them, who sat nearest the door, stood up gulping his coffee before dropping a ten-dollar note on the table and pushing past Greg without speaking to him on his way out, calling out “See Ya Ma.”

Greg looked after him in some surprise. This man was normally the most talkative of the breakfast crew. Greg’s eye caught Ali’s face, still stern and disapproving and shifted his gaze over to Ma in the expectation of a welcoming smile and cackle.  She was frying eggs on her gas stove and looked at him without a smile gracing her lips either. 

The third man pulled himself further into his corner, keeping his back to Greg and said nothing. There was gloominess in the room adding to the silence of the diners, making the atmosphere more than usually glum and unwelcoming. 

‘What the hell’s going on in this town, now.’ Greg thought?

He looked around for explanations. The sun was on the rear side of the building at this hour. Greg noticed the room lights were out and supposed they were experiencing a power outage. That explained the dullness, but not the lack of welcome.   

“Over here,” Greg indicated the vacant window table to Tomas and Ali and turned to ask Ma what had happened to make the atmosphere so grim this morning. Ma had beaten him to it and came across to the table wiping her hands on a chequered cloth, nodding to the other two. “Y’all fer eggs?”