Chereads / Herogenation / Chapter 10 - Love Is Laying As A Carpet Of Leaves On The Ground

Chapter 10 - Love Is Laying As A Carpet Of Leaves On The Ground

The next morning, the fantasies would start again, encouraged by the daily motivational quote that popped up on Borislav's cellphone; "Chase the negativity, go out into the world and prove your superiority" this day's quote proclaimed. It was Friday already, the end of the second week of work. He rose from the couch, feeling his back and legs ache as they did every morning, probably because of him not sleeping on an actual bed. The morning ritual repeated itself: one coffee, two slices of bread with ham in between them, and dog snacks to be thrown onto Flabby's luxury bowl.

He tried forgetting all about yesterday's incident; it was an innocent mistake. Detective Azurfin would never resign himself to abandoning this case, what kind of neighbor would he be if he did? As he crossed FCP's doors again that morning, he had found a perfect way to execute the plan; call from the Fast Food's telephone line. The stars were perfectly aligned as Mary, who had been in charge of handling the distance orders, had her arm *mysteriously* covered in flames and was dispensed from work for a couple of days. Her shift wasn't given to Borislav but to his partner-in-seduction Edfone Jack.

During their daily cult meeting in the staff lounge, aside from Edfone talking about his plan to visit Mary at the hospital, Borislav's *need* to use the phone was mentioned. Ed was startled, immediately asking why he would need to use this phone in particular. As a justification, Borislav invented a two-sentence-long fiction; " I forgot my cellphone. At home" was the exact tale. "Is the call that urgent?" Edfone asked, "Extremely urgent." Borislav retorted, "What's going on?" Edfone just wouldn't be satisfied with so little information. And so, Bo had to lie a second time to his best (and only) friend: "My grandmother is very sick. She's about to die."

Ed's face displayed sincere empathy, as he simply responded: "Oh, I'm sorry man. Of course, you can make the call. Be quick though," Ed looked at his watch as the break came to an end. Borislav thanked him, not losing any time and heading to the small phone booth next to the kitchen. While looking at his cellphone to dial the number he had saved as "Jannet Sweemey" in his notes, he coughed once, then as hard as he could tried to adopt an "anonymous" voice. While waiting for Jannet to pick up, Borislav was emitting a growl that would fit any fantasy creature's.

A woman's raspy voice was heard from the other end of the line. The transcript in the "Blobfishin' In Lotus Street" notes has recorded the conversation as follows:

J: "Hello, who is this?"

DA: "Thiiiisss iiiiisssssss Deeee-Aa."

Note: The Detective, while speaking from the bottom of his throat, sought to anonymize his voice further by stressing syllables in an unusual manner. The jury shall understand this was done to protect him, and his family

J: "Is this a prank call?"

DA: "NOoO."

J: "Please tell me who you are. I have no time to waste."

DA: "I aaam Deeeee-Aa"

J: "District Attorney?"

DA: "NOoO. Detective Aa"

J: *sigh* "Why are you calling? You have 2 seconds to give me one good reason not to hang up."

DA: "I knooOw whoOo is yoUurrr sEEcrRet pOoOet."

J: "What secret poet? What are you talking about?"

DA: "TheEe oOne whhhooo leaaaaves youUu lEtters evErydAyyy undeEerr the doorRr."

J: "What letters?"

Detective Azurfin's brain drowned in complex theorems as he tried to understand how come she didn't know about the letters. She could have been lying, of course, but her intonation sounded the most sincere. The image of her son getting into the bus thus came back to him; he had cracked the problem. As she was widowed, her son was wary of any other man replacing his defunct father, and thus he burned all the letters that were addressed to his mother. What a twist!

DA: "On MondAyy MoOoRning, DoO AsS UsUal. GOoO onN YoUrr JogGiNng Then"

The detective throat burned like a barbecue fest, he couldn't take it anymore. He switched to a bastardized version of his normal voice.

DA: "Then ReEturn to your house and check inside for the letter."

He hung up.

Detective Azurfin sighed, the call hadn't gone as smoothly as he had imagined it, but still. That was one task off his back. Speaking of his back, upon turning it he met Edfone's utterly confused face. The phone started ringing from hungry clients as the two friends silently looked at each other, wishing to turn back time and erase the last five minutes from existence. It took a desperate "What the fuck was that?" from Edfone to break the stand-still. "Uhm." Borislav interjected, trying to get back up from his brutal landing back from 'Detective Azurfin: Blobfishin in Lotus street' to planet earth.

"Is that how you flirt with that girl you talked about?" Edfone asked, not waiting for Borislav to cook up another lie. "No- Not at all. It's not her." Bo replied. "Then who was it?" Edfone pushed. Borislav looked down and tried to find a way to formulate the situation in the best way possible. What came of it was; "Uhm. So my neighbor's very ugly and he has been- he has been stalking a girl and leaving her love letters. But he'll never- show his face to her on his own. So I have to force a meeting between them so that he can have a chance."

Surprisingly, Edfone wasn't angry or estranged even more by this explanation. Instead, he found it quite sweet and noble. He looked as Borislav and saw a very good friend, that is ready to be sent to jail for harassment in order to get his neighbor laid. Ed chuckled, "Well. I find it unusual, but I understand.", relieving Borislav of *most* of his anxiety, as something else stayed on the young detective's mind. "How long have you been listening?" he asked, scratching his shoulder.

Ed looked away, as he replied; "Someone in the kitchen called me because they said a guy was doing weird noises near the phone during my shift. I came right away." Borislav looked around, noticing a few people turning back to avoid meeting his eyes. "So, everyone could hear me?" he asked, receiving a "Yes" in response. Nothing more was added, except a need for Borislav to get lost in his corner and not face any of his co-workers. The second part was unfortunately impossible.

Borislav's acceptance of the situation increased with time, eventually he barely thought of self-inflected humiliation he had just been through. He was looking forward to the week-end, he had no plans except laying down all day and go out with Flabby, and that was exactly why he was excited about it. Fast-Food job and Detective case both on hold, leaving him some peace to enjoy the asocial lifestyle.

In his head, it was already weekend, as few minutes remained before his shift's end. Life, however, just had to torture him a bit more today. Again, something just *had* to happen.

Showing up to the drive-out was a douched-up sports car with its sunroof opened. Its driver, adorned with an equally douched-up held back hairline, spoke up to Borislav from behind his sunglasses; "Three Imperial Guards, One Koku Kolu, Two Shakemates, One Giant BuzzBucket". No forms of politeness were apparently needed for this knight, who simply because of the presence of two women on his back seat thought he owned the world. Borislav spitefully transmitted the order, finding the client's presence unbearable. He was however, somewhat intimidated. He knew not where to look at except at his feet, not wanting to spark any trouble with a customer.

But he couldn't keep his eyes down there somehow, and inspected the back seat. Of course, he wasn't looking at the women in the eyes, simply briefly inspecting their items. Among those that caught his eyes was a copy of White Night On Sveta's bed, and their matching basic handbags. Borislav's eyes had nothing but jealousy and contempt in them, yet they changed as he handed over the order. He recognized the "basic" girl at the back, with her fresh copy of Ivan Lockal's work. It was none other than Nomia.

Borislav had a mere three seconds to gasp, before the douche mobile disappeared from view along with its iconic douche-motor's sound. Borislav could have made Detective Azurfin resurface, drawing from the book's presence the conclusion that Nomia was sending him a secret message to impregnate her, kill the Prince Of Night ( the douche ) and take his throne on the driver's seat of the douche mobile. Yet he was done for today, truly. He simply went home with the comforting assumption that she wasn't in that car because of the douche overlord, but perhaps because of her friend.

Borislav soon arrived home with his meager pay, ready to enjoy his weekend.