Crossing Swords
OK This is one of the stories I have written. Thanks to Felina for the title idea!
Falcon was in trouble. The stormtroopers had sealed all the exits, and he was running out of places to hide. He had already lost his lightsaber, and the troopers were closing in.
"Falcon, look out!"
Falcon spun around. One of the troopers had sneaked up behind him, and within seconds, he was surrounded.
The troop commander raised his weapon. "Ready, aim-"
"Wait!" Falcon cried desperately.
"Fire!"
The screen went blank. After a moment, the Emperor appeared, chuckling at Falcon's demise.
Growling, Falcon shut off the Nintendo. "That is the most annoying enemy I can think of," he fumed. "That laugh of his makes me want to punch his face off!"
"Chill out," his friend Peter told him, laughing. "He's just a fictional character."
Falcon threw a pillow that had fallen from the couch at him.
"Right," Falcon said, giving Peter an evil smile. "I'll remind you of that the next time you can't even get past the TIE fighter level. You swear at those fictional TIE pilots like there was no tomorrow!"
Storm spoke from where he lay on the couch. "At least Falcon can get to this level."
Peter hurled the pillow at Storm. Grinning, Storm threw it back, and within two seconds, they were engaged in a full-fledged pillow fight.
At that moment, Alain, the fourth member of their group of friends walked in. "Hey!" she protested, as a stray pillow hit her in the face. "OK, that's it!" Laughing, she joined in the fray. Alain was a man's name, but her mother had wanted a boy but got a girl, so she called her daughter Alain Thomas. She didn't mind; she loved the name.
They finally had to stop when Falcon's mother yelled that if they didn't hold it down, she would kick all their butts.
Alain spoke from where she lay sprawled on the floor. "That was fun," she said. "I love entering a room full of fight."
"Me, too," Peter agreed. He and Alain were both fifteen. They were born on the same day, year, and at the same time. They even found out that they were born in the same hospital, a few rooms apart, and were next to each other in the nursery. They were born in Phoenix, Arizona. They were so close in appearance, that they were often mistaken for twins, or at least brothers, as Alain was usually thought to be a boy. They were both 5'3", and had brown hair and eyes. They both loved adventure, but Peter preferred the Treasure Island type, and Alain liked action, like Star Wars an other movies.
"Me, too," Storm said, faking a collapse on the floor. Storm Rider was seventeen, with long, black hair and dark green eyes. He was an only child, and he liked it that way. "How about you, Red?"
Falcon was also seventeen, three months older than Storm but only 5'1", which he hated. He also hated to be called Red. He had come to terms with his bright red hair and ice-blue eyes, but didn't like to be reminded of it. "Sure, Stormy." Falcon knew that Storm hated that, and, so, got his revenge. That earned him a pillow in the face.
Falcon's mom came downstairs then. "I'm going to the store. Be back in a few."
"Okay," Falcon said.
"What do you want to do?" Peter asked when she left.
"Let's go to the karate school and watch them beat each other up," Falcon suggested.
"They don't let females in there, remember?" Alain said disgustedly. She had wanted to join when she moved in, but they had said, with sneers on their faces, that they didn't even let females in the building. Alain was not well-liked by all the men who thought that women should be subservient to men. Several had tried to rough her up, but she knew how to fight.
"You want to go down to the country club and throw things at the tennis players?" Alain asked.
"We ended up in the ditch last time," Storm said.
"Oh, yeah." They had been on their bikes that time, and the players had chased them until they all had fallen in the mud on the side of the road. The four were considered misfits in the town, and were not well-liked. That was okay with them, they wouldn't want jerks like them to like them. It was hard, though, when the kids surrounded them and ridiculed them, or when even the adults said things like, "Tell your father that we all just love his little birdhouses." Falcon's father was a wood carver, and had been branded a fairy by all the red-neck, obnoxious men in the town whose favorite pass time was to beat up on their wives.
"Well, there's nothing to do." Falcon griped.
"Well, let's go outside," Peter said. "We'll find something to do."
The four friends decided to go to the playground. The older kids in their town often ridiculed them for playing at the playground, or playing "baby games" like tag and hide-and-seek, but they figured that if you like something, why stop doing it because someone else wanted you to? The park was deserted, and that was good. If there had been anybody there, they would have just driven them off, anyway. Not every person in the town hated them, but most did. They had a few friends in the town, though, which made the place somewhat bearable.
"Hey, look at me!" Peter cried, running to the slide. He ran up the ladder and jumped onto the slide, standing up, and surfed down.
Alain grinned. "I could do that," she said, and did so, waving cockily at Peter as she did.
Falcon and Storm glanced at each other. "Shall we?" Falcon asked.
"Yeah, let's do it." The two repeated the minor stunt in perfect tandem. They jumped from the bottom of the slide, their arms spread in a cocky gesture.
Peter looked at them critically. "You guys looked like the Monkees," he said. Then, as an afterthought, added, "The band, not the animal."
Alain grinned. "Hey, we could all do that! You wanna try?"
Storm shrugged. "Sure."
It took a few tries, but they managed to run up the ladder, and slid down together, as smoothly as a performed act. "Yeah!" Alain shouted.
Peter looked at the other three. "Okay, can you do this?" He went to the swings, swung until he was swinging high, then threw himself backwards, flipping of the swing, and landing on his feet.
The other three took up his challenge, and completed it successfully. They spent about 45 minutes in the park, creating new challenges to complete. It was the only amusement that there was in the crummy little town, unless you wanted to go to the school's football games and watch people beat on each other in the parking lot afterward, or go around toilet papering houses. That actually, was something that they had done once, but they didn't make a religion out of it. They weren't that ignorant.
"Hey!" called a new voice, that of a woman. They turned to see two angry-looking women with their children in tow, three in all. The littlest one stuck his tongue out at them, and Peter returned the gesture, unseen by the mother.
"Yeah?" Alain asked warily.
The other woman spoke. "You punks need to go home. Our children want to play in the park."
With a courtesy that he did not feel, Falcon replied, "We won't bother them."
Peter, not so concerned with etiquette, said, "Yeah, this is a public park, and we can be here if we want."
A hand tapped him on the shoulder. Peter turned, and immediately ducked, a fist swung at him. "Hey!" he cried indignantly. The other three also turned to confront the owner of the fist.
Five teenagers stood there, members of the karate school that Alain had been banned from. "I think that you little acrobats should listen to the lady," the one in the front said derisively. Peter finally recognized him as the older brother of the brat who had stuck his tongue at them.
The foursome looked warily at the five boys. They knew that they were outnumbered, and that the bullies were trained in martial arts. Storm saw that one of them was carrying what looked for all the world like a nightstick, and another had a length of chain in his hand. They often cruised the neighborhood, causing trouble, and intimidating people.
"What if we don't?" Alain asked. Her words weren't meant as a challenge, but was true curiosity.
The kid with the nightstick slapped it into his palm. "The freaks want an explanation," he said.
The leader smiled. "Then let's give it to them."
With no more warning, the five boys attacked. Falcon and his friends had been ready for it, and they bolted. It hurt their pride, but they knew that the bullies would likely put them in the hospital if they got a hold of them.
The lead knucklehead hooted, "Let's get 'em!" The fleeing teens heard a mixture of threats and battle cries from the goons, and Peter turned back in time to see the mothers looking at them smugly, and the brat laughing at them. Fuming, he flipped the kid off, and then turned his attention to running. The goons were strong, but their quarry was fast, and managed to keep a safe distance between them and their pursuers.
Panting for breath, Peter gasped, "We're almost there," he said, pointing to Falcon's house.
Storm, who was the tallest, heaved the door open for the others, then went in himself, locking the door, the deadbolt, and the chain. Warily, he looked out of the window to see the goons sprinting down the street toward them. The one with the chain arrived first, and started hammering on the door. He then saw Storm in the window, and, grinning evilly, started to swing for it. Something, however, stopped him short, and Storm saw, with relief, that Officer Dan Hudson was across the street, and had called to the thug. Hudson was one of the few friendly. With a snarl of anger, Thug Boy yelled through the window, "Next time!" then he left.
Storm slumped against the door, extremely relieved.
"What happened?" Alain said.
Storm told them, and Peter laughed. "That ought to stop them!"
Alain was not so happy. "My pride has been squashed," she said angrily.
Falcon nodded. "I know what you mean.
They sat in silence for about ten minutes, when came a knock at the door. They all looked at each other. Storm got up and looked out the peephole. "It's some guy I've never seen," he reported. "Should I open it?" Though the goons were gone, they were still leery of strangers. There were too many hostile people in the town.
"Is he a big, hairy, mean-looking guy?" Alain asked.
"No."
She shrugged. "Open it."
Storm opened the door. "May I help you?"
Many adults in the town would have taken this polite greeting as smarting off, but this man didn't look like he belonged in the town, and Storm didn't recognize him.
"I was told that Falcon Jacobson lived here," the man said. He was of medium height, with reddish-brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard and mustache.
"Uncle Daniel!" Falcon cried, and ran to hug the man. "Come in! I thought you were in Scotland!"
"I was. Listen," Daniel said, as Storm closed and locked the door, "What is it with the people in this town? It's like something out of Deliverance."
He looked somewhat peeved, and Falcon suspected that he had had a run-in with one of the inhabitants of their lovely town. "Why, what happened?"
"Well, for one thing, nobody ever smiles around here. Some small towns are like that, but when people found out I was your relative, they became downright hostile! One guy told me that if I didn't get out of his bar, he'd beat me up. I don't even know the man! I finally was able to get directions from a youth who said that you and your friends were faggots. What's with that?"
Falcon rolled his eyes. Daniel wasn't shy of saying things like that in front of strangers. "We're all fairies, Uncle Daniel, because we hang out with a female. You'll find one girl in this town who wouldn't be caught dead in a dress. The others are too scared."
"Good for her! Who is this unique young lady?"
"She's no lady!" Peter piped up.
"You can say that again," Alain agreed, barely concealing a smile.
Daniel looked closely at Alain, and then grinned. "You're her, aren't you?"
Alain grinned, too. "Yeah."
"So, what are you doing here?" Falcon asked his uncle.
"Well, I've got a surprise for you. And for your friends, if they're interested."
Falcon eyed his uncle suspiciously. "Is this surprise good or bad?"
He had reason to be suspicious. One of his uncle's surprises had been when he and Falcon's mom were teenagers, and Daniel had enlisted the help of his friend, who was an animal handler. This friend brought a tiger to the house and put it in her bedroom. The tiger was tame, but she didn't know it. The neighbors three houses down had heard her screaming, and they called the police. Daniel spent a long time convincing them that no one was being murdered, and the cops had left, after warning him and his friend never to do anything like that again. Another of those little surprises had involved his mom's underwear. His last surprise, however, had been, Faron, Falcon's spotted hyena. Daniel had gotten him from the same friend who had helped him with the tiger. Faron was a spotted hyena cub who could not be returned to the wild because his eyes often crossed, and he couldn't hunt well or defend himself, and he was the smartest, most loyal pet he had ever had. The two were inseparable.
Daniel had a sly smile on his face. "You weren't thinking of a certain tiger, were you?"
"Whatever made you think that?" Falcon asked innocently.
Falcon had told his friends about these little surprises, and Alain now made the connection. "Wait a minute," she said, "Weren't you the one who strung Falcon's mom's underwear on the high school's flagpole with a sign that said 'My regards to the class of '89'?"
At this, Daniel absolutely roared with laughter. "My reputation precedes me!" he cried through his laughter.
Everyone was laughing at this point. When Falcon's mom came back from the store, she had to clear her throat to be noticed. "What's so funny?" she asked. Then she saw her brother. "Daniel!"
"Roberta! I missed you!" He caught his sister in a bear hug.
She punched him on the shoulder. "You said you'd write every month, you rat! It's been over a year!" She looked at the kids, none of which dared to return here gaze. "So what was so funny?" she asked again.
When nobody answered, she became worried. She turned to her brother. "Daniel?"
"Now, Roberta, you have a sense of humor, don't you?" he said placatingly.
Roberta turned to her son. "What did he tell you?" she demanded.
"Well," Falcon said, "We were kind of talking about when Uncle Daniel put your, um, your underwear on the flagpole."
There was not a hint of emotion on his mother's face. It was, Falcon knew, the calm before the storm. "What?" she asked, very quietly.
Oh, crap, Falcon thought. As she turned slowly toward her brother, Falcon motioned frantically for him and his friends to execute a hasty retreat. They beat it out the door and peered in through the open window. They were just in time to see Falcon's mom jump on his uncle, who was on the couch, and start beating him with the pillow. "You louse!" she cried, laughing, "You never did deserve a wonderful sister like me!"
Daniel grabbed her, and they fell on the floor, wrestling. Falcon grinned, happy that his family was not afraid to have fun, even if it looked ridiculous. And it did.
Later that evening, they all gathered at Falcon's house. His dad had come home, as had everyone else's parents. They were all sitting in the living room, listening to Daniel talk of his various adventures. He was a man who could not live without adventure, and he had been to many places, including Africa, Australia, and many places in Europe and Asia. He had his pilot's license, as well as one for motorcycle and truck driving. He told of the time he had gotten lost in the Australian outback, and had to be rescued by the rangers, and the time he got captured by the Nazis in East Berlin before the wall had come down. He was Jewish, but they didn't even realize this. They planned to shoot him as a spy, but he had managed to convince them that he was an big-time American tycoon, and that killing him would start an international incident. This wasn't so, but he was a good bluffer. He was banned from the city.
Finally, his narrative came to a interlude. "And now I come to my surprise."
Everyone was silent as they waited for him to continue.
"I have a friend in Scotland-"
"To hear you say it, you have friends everywhere," his sister muttered.
Giving her the evil eye, Daniel continued. "His name is Jerry Inners. This friend owns a castle in Scotland, and he is going abroad for the summer. He has asked me if I would be willing to live in this castle and take care of it while he's away. I agreed. I also asked him if I could bring some family, and he said I could. He also said to bring some friends if I wanted. He doesn't care." He looked at his nephew. "I want to know if you and your friends would like to stay with me for the summer in my friend's castle."
Peter and Alain looked at each other excitedly. A castle! Storm's mouth dropped open and stayed there a while, and Falcon looked to his mother for a decision."
"Any parents who wish to come are welcome, of course," Daniel added.
Storm's father looked at his son's eager face. "Well, I have to work, but I have no objection to Storm going. Do you want to, Storm?"
"Are you kidding? An opportunity to get out of this cruddy little town?"
Storm's father laughed. "I take that as a yes."
"I have work, too," said Peter's mother. "But Peter can go."
Daniel looked at Falcon's parents. "I'd like you to come, Roberta. You too, Sid."
Falcon's dad shook his head. "I have work, as well." He had a look of regret on his face. "Wish I could."
Roberta, however, was a teacher, and had no summer job. "I'd love to."
"When do we leave?" Peter asked.
"Five days."
"Five days!?" Roberta exclaimed. "Only five days to plan for this?"
"He only asked me last week," Daniel said apologetically.
Falcon's mom sighed. "We'd better get started."