David's visit to Clara 👀
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It had been a long time since the two of them had had so much fun. They had both eaten, played chess, and laughed a lot.
Now soft music played in the background, accompanying their deep conversations.
"You should show Ric the tattoos. He might be shocked for a second, but he's much too stubborn and much too much in love to let that stop him. He won't let you down, just like I never would. Get your courage up and just do it."
The more serious conversation made David leave his comfortable position on the sofa cushion and sit up. "Maybe you're right. It's not like playing hide-and-seek is going to work for much longer. At some point, the nosy little prick will certainly bump into the light switch, completely by accident, of course. But even if it's inevitable, it's so hard to put it all on the line and take the plunge."
"You know I'm here for you if anything goes wrong, right? I'll always be there for you, David."
"I know you will. Thank you, dear. But first we have to take care of the Hollow Ground invitation. That thing makes my stomach hurt, I'll be glad when that's behind me. After that, I'll deal with Ric." Lost in thought, David leaned back against the large pillow.
"I guess that's the sensible thing to do. I guess one of us has to go. They already know my face anyway, we risk a lot less if I go.
I could scan what it's about and then promise a meeting with you. That might be a little flat, but we're not in business long, we can play dumb and pretend we don't know how this works." The confidence that her plan would work made Clara's eyes light up, she sipped her drink before leaning back comfortably.
"They want Camouflage personally, not a henchman. What if they get angry when I send you? It's much too dangerous for you, you'd be completely defenseless. I can defend myself better even without the armor. Forget it, Clara, I'll go myself."
"Don't always underestimate me, I can take care of myself and I know Aikido. Besides, I have a much more inviting smile and a more impressive cleavage than you." Clara took a quick look at her charming smile and enticing cleavage in the mirror on the wall before moving back to the sofa.
"You think you can flirt your way out of an emergency?" David laughs in amusement before taking on a much more serious tone. "Seriously, Clara. I have to go myself. That's what they want. There's no way I'm going to risk your life." David's hand began to shake slightly as he picked up his whiskey glass and took a sip.
Clara waited patiently until he relaxed a bit before continuing. Her expression became more serious, and her usually cheerful tone was tinged with an incongruous sadness. "If we're going to talk about this seriously, then you should know why I have to go. You are too important, David, far too important for both of us. More than me, you know that. David, please! Let me go to the meeting."
"Stop it!" The words shot out of his mouth as sharp as a military order. But the harshness of his words was not reflected in his face, whose cheeks glistened with unstoppable tears.
He went to the mirror, hating the weakness he saw there, and without looking at Clara, he continued to speak. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you. Please don't say that I'm more important than you. What would I be without you? I can't put you in danger."
He emptied the whiskey glass in his trembling hand with a single pull. "And don't give me that 'Ric would be there for you' crap. I can't count on that. The opposite is more likely, and then what? Then I will have no one at all."
David sat down in the armchair, needing a little more distance than the sofa could provide. They were both silent for a while. David refilled his glass and took another sip of the peaty liquid. With a deep sigh he leaned back before Clara spoke again.
Clara was upset and worried, nothing kept her on the sofa, so she moved around the living room again. As she passed by, she stroked through David's curls before ending up in front of the mirror again, thinking about how she could change his mind. "Even if it makes you angry, you know exactly that what I'm saying is true. You have other options than me, I'm …. expendable."
Her voice grew louder and sharper as she worked herself into a frenzy. "Come on, David, you have to realize that! Hell, I'm not even a real human!" She turned toward him in one swift motion, and a spasmodic movement sent her arm crashing into the mirror.
Shards slipped through the flesh of her arm and she stared spellbound at the fine lines that didn't hurt and seemed to refuse to bleed. Unable to take her eyes off them, she watched as small dark drops fought their way to the surface until the last of the skin's tension gave way and streams of red ran down her entire arm. She didn't feel nauseous, but unconsciousness quickly caused her to slump to the floor.
David jumped out of his chair and rushed to his friend's side. "Damn it Clara, what the hell are you doing?" He carefully laid her on her back in a relaxed position before quickly grabbing the first aid kit and starting to treat the injured arm.
"At least we can stop arguing now. You're not going anywhere tomorrow with an injury like that." With practiced fingers, David cleaned the wounds, applied stapled patches to the smaller ones, and stitched up the deepest one.
As David disappeared into the bathroom, Clara regained consciousness. Now she realized the pain in her arm and the slight dizziness she felt when she stood up. She lay down on the sofa and put her arm in a gentle position. "Thanks for patching me up." She called into the bathroom. "Promise me you'll be careful tomorrow. I'm nothing without you."
It took a moment to wash the blood from David's hands before he reopened the bathroom door. When he entered the living room, Clara was already asleep on the sofa. He carefully sat down beside her and caressed her cheek. "You are everything and so much more human than I could ever be. See you soon Clara, sleep well my dear friend."
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If my mom sees a significant amount of blood she gets lightheaded, and has fainted on some occasions. Once it happened when we were kids, I wasn't there to witness it but I heard the story from my dad. Basically my brothers, around 7 or 8 at the time, were playing outside while my mom was making their lunch, and she accidentally cut her finger. It wasn't anything serious, but it drew a fair bit of blood and she passed out. My dad saw this and rushed over, but he didn't really know what to do so he just sort of started slapping her to wake her up (not recommended, but he had no idea and panicked)
At that exact moment my brothers both came in from playing, and all they saw was our mom unconscious on the floor and our dad slapping her. So, like, without even saying a word to each other they both just INSTANTLY start whaling on him, like, full blown attack mode to defend our mom. Which obviously didn't help the situation, but she did wake up and everything was fine.
Now our dad says that he's actually really glad they attacked him over what they thought was going on, because it means he raised good boys. And I still think that's true, they're very good boys.
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I was at a Palestinian solidarity gig last night & the one Palestinian artist who was going to perform had COVID so the organisers asked around to see if there were any Palestinians who'd like to say a few words instead.
A local guy who was born & raised in Gaza offered to speak. He started with "I'm an engineer. i'm not a poet or a politician. I don't... do public speaking… I had no idea what to say when I came up here. So i'm just going to tell you about the street I grew up on."
And then he did! He went down the street building by building. He told us about the ice cream shop on the corner, the grocery shop, the charity that supports people with intellectual disabilities. He told us about the people who he knew growing up, the families who still live in the different houses. He told us about the university buildings and about his friends who quit being accountants to start a band together. All on that street.
All of which is gone now, by the way. Bombed to dust.
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