Ogreness, Black Lake-book5

Chapter 4
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Turnin’ around to head home, my heart cramped, or something. Silva and her runnin’ partner were comin’ back, via the southern spur, joggin’ up the middle of the street.

We met at the intersection. Silva jogged in place next to me, a smile huein’ her face. The ogre hen dropped into a stride matchin’ mine.

“Still locked out?” Silva asked.

I nodded, keepin’ my eyes on the asphalt in front of us.

“This must be what an embarrassed ogre bull looks like.” Silva only kept half of the humor out of her voice. On the bright side, she introduced me to her friend. Nuel. A college sorority sister visitin’ on vacation. I’d never heard of an ogre being part of the Greek community. Must be a Northern thing I never got into? But then, I was either studyin’ or buildin’ business portals for my papa’s cronies. Or playin’ basketball.

“Yeah, there weren’t many of us,” she said. Clearly a mind reader.

She shook my hand in a human fashion, leavin’ my knuckles uncracked.

My eyes knew enough not to stare at the hen’s loftier attributes, but still wanted to flick down at the runnin’ tights she wore, and frankly, I looked forward to her walkin’ in front of me. She wasn’t my grandpa’s generation ogre hen. Yeah, she could chuck a pickup truck if she wanted to, but she didn’t have the shoulders and hips of yesterday’s ogre hens. Now it’s all about fittin’ in. Being proud to be a mountain-sized ogre is out of fashion.

I would never fit anywhere. True, I don’t swath wheat, or chop trees with an axe as a livelihood, but competin’ athletically has always been one of my thrills. Even the most aerobic exercise bulks my muscles into knots. Not like I get many opportunities to fight a troll or daemon for the right to—anything. My mind was going in strange directions.

“Couldn’t raise Ralph?” Silva asked.

I shook my head. Nuel said my arms looked like they’d gone through a shredder. I grunted.

“Ike has always been a talker,” Silva mumbled, and broke her artificial jog, joinin’ our walkin’ pace. “Nuel’s a big software architect,” she continued.

I ripped my head up to take a closer look at her. Whoa. She didn’t hurt the eyes. Lovely tusks, smooth as silk. The new sun glinted off of them hard enough to stab ya in the eye.

“Fancy name for a software geek,” she said.

Software. My steps didn’t quite fall right, and I yanked a harder look at her. If I’d seen her in the building, I would have remembered her. Not like I meet every new hire. I took in the golden-red hues in her dreads.

“You run Ogreware, don’t you?” Silva asked. I was actually surprised she even knew anything about me. Maybe I’d mentioned to Ralph I was part of the company.

“Hardly.” My voice rasped. “Just one of many.” Yeah, just ask Kriz.

“Ralph said you’re on the board of OI too,” Silva pressed. I didn't comment. Don’t know why I was tryin’ to be humble. Not usually my thing.

I closed my eyes tightly for a moment. Time to change the topic. “Did ya see all the stuff stacked up the street?”

“The whole neighborhood was out there watching the stacking last night,” Nuel answered for Silva.

We neared Silva’s place. She told me to come in. Said she was already cookin’ for one ogre, I might as well stay for breakfast. I was taken by surprise by the invitation. The hen gave her friend a hard glance.

Silva and Ralph had never acted very excited to be livin’ next door to an ogre. We’d done little more than mention the weather in passin’, which we didn’t do much of. I certainly couldn’t remember talkin’ to Ralph about Ogreware. He must have heard about me from someone else.

Tel-ephone. Tel-egraph. Tel-a-neighbor.

My old hood was even worse. A lot more ogre and troll hens to keep the whisperin’ at a force-4 level.

Uh, I had a breakfast offer on the table. Oops. “Don’t wish to intrude.”

“I’ll just slaughter another cow,” Silva said.

“Oh. Really funny,” Nuel rasped, irritated like. But her lips curled up on her tusks.

She was cute. But I needed my mind workin’ on who to call. Maybe have to take a taxi downtown to get my cardkey from Dave. Be tough without my wallet. Could the security company help me?

“Uh,” I hmmed. “I’d love a cup of coffee.”

“Wouldn’t expect ya to be a coffee drinker,” Nuel said. What a quaint accent. Clearly not from the Range.

I’m no ogre traditionalist. Even Grandpa drinks coffee. Must have come from my namesake. He was known to spend a lot of time with humans back in his day. Less and less of that these days.

We ogres are the enemy. Again.

A big surprise Nuel is vacationin’ with a human. The hen reached Silva’s door first and used her own cardkey to let us in. I must have reacted, considerin’ the look Silva gave me.

“If Ralph and I ever get around to having kids,” Silva said softly, “Nuel will be their godmother.”

A bit of heat rushed to my face. Silva must have read my mind. Maybe I was a bit startled by her strong statement, in as many words sayin’, “We aren’t racists.” Maybe. Easy to assume everyone is these days, if ya spend too much time watchin’ the news.

Silva gave me another look before we lengthened into a single line through the entry. Nuel led us to the kitchen. Gave me the briefest glimpse of those runnin’ tights. They fit nice. Really nice.

Ralph sat at a breakfast counter, in a sweat-streaked tee, readin’ his tablet. He tossed me a, hey, but rose and shook my hand. I could see in his face he tried to give me an ogre grip. A human just can’t do it. I gave his knuckles a break. Meanin’, I didn’t break ’em.

Silva, explainin’ I was locked out, reached into a cabinet to retrieve a cup to go with the two settin’ near the coffee machine.

“Locked out?” Ralph chuckled. “How’d you do that?”

How many times am I gonna hear that?

“So you fall in love with Nuel yet?” Ralph continued.

Both females shouted, “Ralph,” at him.

“Well. Everyone does.” The man gave me a knowin’ look and a half smirk. “If I was a foot taller with shoulders as wide as yours, Ike, I would have stalked her for another year, but Silva caught my eye, in between.”

“Ya didn’t stalk me.” Nuel filled the three waitin’ cups.

“I was very subtle,” Ralph said. “Maybe a little cowardish.”

His smile implied he was serious about his youthful lustin’. But the few interracial relationships I’ve ever seen never went very far. There’s a lot between us beside the physical differences. I had to be seein’ a flirtatious side of Ralph, one I didn’t expect. Nor really wished to see, for that matter.

“What do you think about the junk pile?” Ralph said to me, smile fadin’.

Silva rolled her whole head, not just her eyes.

~ Nuel ~

This bull has the personality of an ear of corn.

~