Family Reunion - 0.5

Family Reunion – 0.5

The connection toned three times before someone answered.  “Hau (1)” a sleepy female voice answered on the other end without video.

“Haha kon'nichiwa, watashi wa anata to sofu no tasuke o hitsuyō to shite imasu (2,3)”, Rain replied as politely as possible.

“Erurainon?!? (4)”, the woman replied in a surprised voice on the other end.

“Yes, i am sorry to wake you. (5)”, he replied respectfully once again.

“You have a lot of nerve calling here! (5)”

“Yes ma’am (5)” he replied.

“If it were not for my husband, we would not still be having this conversation. (5)”

“I understand mother.  Is he there? Grandfather? May I speak to him? (5)”

“He is an old man now.  You always were insolent Erurainon.” The woman replied.  “Why should I bother him at this hour? (5)”

His former foster mother’s words stung deep, but he knew them to be true.  The last time he was in their home, it did not end well.

“I’m sorry mother.  There is a man badly injured up here on I-90.  I’ve done everything I can, but he is going to need grandfather’s skill to survive. (5) “

The woman sighed heavily, but she didn’t say anything more to him.  Rain could hear indistinct talking over the line, but couldn’t make anything out.  A moment later a man’s voice came across the line.

“Erurainon?!?” he said.  “It’s good to hear your voice again. (6)”

Rain’s heart sank some more.  He foster father had always been so polite… even when he was chastising him for failing at some task, or when Rain had disappointed him… again.

“Thank you grandfather (7).  I happened to come upon a man being attacked up here on the highway.”

“Erurainon, you know how I feel about happenstance. (6)”

“Yes sir. Um… well, I have done what you taught me, but… he is still in really bad shape… and… well, I just don’t have the ability to care for him like you do. (6)”

It was the man’s turn to sigh this time.  The line remained quiet, but Rain did not want to interrupt his elder.  Finally there was some discussion on the other end, and then the man spoke up again.

“We’re coming.  Keep him safe until we can get there (6)”, and then the connection dropped.

Rain sighed, dried the Commlink, and returned it to its proper place within his pack.  Next, he double checked on his patient.  He was stable.  He did a double tap of his finger against the finger-tip clamp attached to the man’s left pointer finger, and then to the side of his thin line goggles. The display moved to an augmented readout within his field of view.  Lastly, he laid the man out on the wet ground.  He used an arm rest that had broken free as a make shift pillow, his backpack as an interim foot rest, and then removed his long coat to cover him up.  “It would not be good for shock to finish what the helicopter had started, while waiting for the ambulance”, he thought to himself.

For the next hour, Rain paced between pieces of wreckage, keeping an eye out for the helicopter that had attacked the man, and the bear that the wounded man had told him about.  He searched for tracks of the beast, but, this was a skill that he had never really studied.  He laughed at himself in a self-defacing way.   All his life he would begin something, but then his mind would wander, and he would never take the time to truly master it. 

By the time his foster, ahem, former foster parents, arrived, the storm had moved on to the east.  The lightning display was still impressive, even at this distance.  The old pickup truck was immaculate.  Rain shook his head.  Nothing changes with them.  He walked up to the passenger side to greet ‘Grandfather’, but the old man that stepped out from the truck caught him off guard… and the look on his face reflected his reaction (8).

The old man chuckled.  “You apparently keep track of time as well as you study Erurainon” he said.  “You on the other hand… time seems to have avoided you all together (6).”

Rain stammered, “I’m sorry…  (6)”

“For what”, the old man interrupted.  “Being born an elf?” he said almost cackling.  “You could no more choose what race you were born as, than you could have asked to born a woman!”  The old man had to pause and catch his breath.  (6)

Rain remained respectively quiet.

“Let’s see how you’ve done with your patient.” (6)

The pair walked over to where Rain had made the mystery driver as comfortable as possible.  The older man checked over the younger’s work, and nodded.  “Why didn’t you take him into town yourself Erurainon?”

The young elf motioned to his Yamaha Growler Scout.  “I can’t hold him upright, and drive”, he said slightly ashamed.

“Do you know that those in town refer to you as the ‘old religious nut’ that lives in the old abandoned missionary?  No one wants to come near the place.”  The old man looked at his former charge, and just shook his head.  “Prolonged youth… and what have you done with it?”

Rain continued to remain quite.

“Come on, I need your help to get him up in the bed of the truck.  Not as young as I used to be.”

Rain solemnly helped the old man.  “It had only been… wait…” he thought to himself, “wow… it had been forty years…”  He hung his head in shame, as he followed the man back to the cab of the truck.

“You did good Erurainon” the old man said, patting his arm.  “We’ll see him through.”

Rain nodded, and verbalized his thanks.  He glanced hopefully across to woman who had once taught him the ways of her family from back in Japan.  She never took her eyes off of the road in front of the truck.  Once the door was shut, the truck headed back the way it had come.

He watched it disappear over a slight hill, and then gathered up the rest of his belongings to head home.

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Part 6

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            (1)     (hah-ue) // hello – in Lakota

(2)     Japanese Language test [Intuition (4) + English (1) = DP 5] – [5,3,4,1,5 – 2 hits]

(3)     母こんにちは、私はあなたと祖父の助けを必要としています。// Hello mother, I need yours, and grandfather's help. – in Japanese

(4)     (Air-oo-rye-nonn) –  God is gracious – ‘Elvish’ word, based on the works of Tolkien, who it turns out, did not ‘invent’ the Elvish language, but actually discovered it… leading up to the events re: the awakening – (note: an ‘in-game’ interpretation, NOT the truth, obviously)

(5)     The characters are speaking in Japanese

(6)     The characters are speaking in Lakota

(7)     A term of respect for a tribal elder, or another man, older than the speaker.

(8)     Composure test (Cha (3)+Will (5) = 8 DP) – (2,1,2,4,4,1,1,4 = 0 hits)

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