Ivan has shown up in two of my books, already, and is also in one of tales of my third short story collection, due out in a few days. Vlad is new to me. I found it a little interesting that their older step-sister, Tay, did not take part in this meeting. I enjoy how Ivan forces his kid sister to “show it all” to her Intended, nearly killing him. Again. I also wonder just what Pai saw in Graf. I cannot imaging a child of Reina to be scared.

With some help from an important friend and colleague, I was able to get some words down for Part 2. However, I’ve some “real work” to do in putting together an anthology of like-minded writers, due for release by the end of this year.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

Stretching and yawning, I don’t recall getting up, Graf looked about.  Nice restaurant.  Every booth was in hand-carved wood, fine china plates.  I bet that’s real silverware, not just flatware.  Some people were smoking but it wasn’t cloying.  A mostly male clientele, they were all talking just out of my hearing, and in Russian, anyway, but no one was arguing.

“Nice, isn’t it?” Alix said, just to his left.

“Whoa… and, that’s a nice dress, Alix,” he complimented her.

“Huh?” she looked down at the white dress with green leaves embroidered across the shoulders and down her flat chest.  She looked back up.  “Goes with your suit, handsome.”

A similar look to himself saw him in the only slacks, jacket, and tie he’d ever worn.  I wonder what Pai is up to…

“Hey, there!”

Late twenties, off-white slacks, red polo shirt.  His short, white hair matched his shiny teeth.

“I’d shake hands, but that might kill you.  I’m Ivan, Pai’s older brother,” he explained, still smiling.  “This is one of mom’s special places, but you two are special, too.  Let’s sit.  My kid bro will be alone in a moment.  Pai’s making some adjustments, but will also join us.  Come on, do!”

He led them to a table off to their left and waved for them to sit opposite him.

“This is a construct?” Alix asked.  A what?  Oh, one of those made-up places?

“Yes,” Ivan replied.  Three crystal glasses of some kind of juice appeared before them.  He picked one up and drank from it.  “Don’t mind me, just drawing more power from a nearby fission reactor.  It’s not really juice, but I, well, we, think it will make you feel better.”

The two humans picked theirs up, and with a look, took a sip.  “It’s like cranberry juice,” Graf said.

“So Mom approves you marrying my kid sister,” Ivan launched right into the fray.  “Even if you know nothing about her and you two are very, very different.  Right?”

“That is correct,” Graf said, setting the glass down before he dropped it.  “I cannot say I understand a tenth of any of this, but I do know what I feel for Pai.”

“You don’t know what you don’t know,” Ivan said, leaning forward across the table.  Still smiling, but there was something else.  “Even if it kills you, you must touch her.  Here.”

“Being stupid and doing that with your mother stopped my heart once,” Graf demurred.

“Still. We can talk about it once…  Hey!  Little Brother!” Ivan said, standing.

Graf and Alix did, too.  Taller than all three of them, but with thinning hair and a grim look on his face over his typical businessman’s suit, another was next to their table.

“I am Vlad,” he said in a low, slow voice.  “Son of Reina and Pavel, tribe Mendrovovitch.”

This is uncomfortable.  Graf indicated the seat next to Ivan.  “Please join us.  It may be that I am your brother-in-law, soon.”

“Oh, God,” Alix muttered.

As he sat, Alix introduced herself.  Vlad’s eyes seemed brighter when she said she was a spacer.

“I would like to be older about off-world matters,” he said, so low as to be hard to hear.  “My older brother has called me ‘a dull dog.’”

“All families,” Graf said with a laugh, starting to know these people didn’t, “have their own way.  My kid sis, not in those words, has said the same about me.  Until your sister nearly fell on me, I just farmed and fished.  I am as boring as you can imagine.”

“You are not boring at all, Graf,” Alix contradicted him, finishing her crystal of juice.  It was full again as she set it down.  “Consider where you are and who you are speaking to.”

“Confident young lady!” Ivan laughed.  “Why not take her over my sister?”

“She certainly wants me to,” Graf admitted.

“So why our sister?” Vlad asked slowly.

“I…” Graf looked away, then back.  “I don’t know.  I fell in love with her.  I’ve met your mother and had this out with her.  Pai will live hundreds or thousands of years.  I’ve got maybe another sixty.  May I have that time with your sister?”

The two young men looked at one another.  It was if the air about them was charged with electricity. 

“What’s all this, then?” Pai suddenly asked, standing where Vlad had been just a moment ago.  “Why so serious for such a joyous occasion?”

“Joyous?” Alix asked with another sip.  “And with the rest of us dressed up, why are you in a blue one-piece swimsuit?”

“To irritate you, mostly.  Big brother wants me to touch my Intended.  He may die, but if so, it will be in communion with me.  An Orthodox Church ceremony will just be for show, after that.” She leaned her face to inches from his.  “An important show, but still.  Do you want to watch, Rival?”

“Just what are you…” Alix began.

“You know how to use that AED, right?” Pai asked.

“Yes.”

“I will send you out in less than a second if need be.  Brothers?  Any objections?” she asked.

Vlad shook his head.  Ivan smiled.

“We go.” Pai put her hands onto both sides of Graf’s face.

He rolled out of bed, determined to not get sick on his fiancée again.  Coughing and spitting onto the floor, he heard Pai’s voice.  “You lift him.  See if you can, little human.”

“Effing toaster…” was Alix’s mutter into his ear.  Arms about his chest, someone pulled him up and over, I rolled over whoever did that, and back into the bed.  He was still gulping for air.  What did I see?  It was all white and so bright. A man with a lance on horseback.  But the horse was Pai.  Was that other…me?  And, a lance?

There were only two low lights on their guest room.  A motion on the bed.  Graf looked left.  Alix was right there.  She kissed him.  “I’m happy you’re not dead.”  He looked right.

“I am happy you saw me,” Pai said, also kissing him.  “Do you remember?”

“There…” I am so tired.  “There was…you touched me?  But I saw…  You are so beautiful.”

“Did he just die again?” Alix asked.

“No.  Exhausted.  I really need to treat him better,” Pai admitted to her rival.

“I’m not going to ask what happened, as I’d get it no more than he would,” the human said, pushing herself up onto her right elbow.  “But I’m staying here tonight.”

“Had you not demanded,” Pai smiled, “I would have insisted.  This is all very odd, isn’t it?”

“Yes.  Can you have my stuff brought from my room to here?”

“In process.  Rival?”

“Yes?”

“What if we are making a mistake?”

“I don’t understand,” Alix said, sitting up.

“Just now, when Graf saw me, the real me, I saw him, too.  We might be making a mistake.”

“What in the hell does that mean?  He’s a handsome young farmboy I want to marry and take to Mars.  You start with all this cryptic bullshit…”

“I don’t know.” Pai lowered her head to Graf’s pillow.  “I don’t know.  I’m scared.”