The Girl Behind the Counter

Chapter 18

"So how fucked up is she?" John asked from the driver's seat. "She looks like a doll someone tore apart and then sewed back together." Liyana answered. She had a bitter tone in her voice. Finn, who had opted to sit in the back with Ana, wondered if he should reach out and try and comfort her. From the review mirror John and Finn made eye contact. John saw the look of contemplation on his brother's face and slowly shook his head no. Finn knew he was right. Liyana was angry and she wouldn't want a Shelby to comfort her. "So erm..." Finn cleared his throat. "What do you do?" He tried to make casual conversation. "Until very recently I worked in a flower shop." She quipped back. John stifled a grown from the front seat at his brother's rookie mistake. "Oh God, right, I'm so sorry!" Finn stammered. "I was also a student, but just finished school. Now I don't know what I do." Liyana looked away from Finn and out the window. The following silence was too awkward for Ana to bear so she broke it. "And what do you do Finn?" She turned to him. He physically froze as his mind raced about how she was looking at him and how she looked so pretty looking at him and how the puffiness of her eyes from crying didn't matter at all. John cleared his throat and defrosted Finn. "Me? I erm... Well I do whatever the hell these arsehole cocks tell me." He answered. "Oi! I'm your brother!" John complained from the front seat. "Yeah! My arsehole cock of a brother." Finn replied. He glanced over an Liyana who was giggling at the exchange. "And what's so funny with you then girlie?" John asked. "I'm just relieved to know that someone else knows you're all arseholes and cocks!" She smiled at Finn and his whole body grew warm. His pale cheeks gave away how pleased he was by blushing deeply. This made Liyana blush too, but not as noticeably. No white man had ever looked at her with anything but disdain before. "So what's it like in Swaziland? Do you have, like, zebras and medicine men and like a king that wears a lion's head as a crown?" John asked. Whether he was deliberately trying to provoke her or if his ignorance made it an accident wasn't certain. "Our King's name is George." Liyana replied. "What do you know! So's ours!" John laughed. "No you twat. It's the same King George." Finn groaned. This endeared him more to Liyana. "Oh it's a colony." John realized. "Swaziland is a British protectorate. The real king there is called Sobhuza." Liyana explained.

Once back at the hospital the trio entered the room to find a still sleeping Maxie. "Bloody hell." Finn whispered. "It looks like France." John solemnly stated. "Liyana!" A black man and woman rushed the girl and covered her in a large embrace. They spoke in a language neither Michael, Finn, or John understood. They rightly assumed that they were her parents. "How is she mate?" John addressed Michael. "They say she''ll be okay." He gloomily returned. "I've seen men bounce back from far worse." John tried to reassure his cousin. "That rumer about Falco having barrels of gunpowder was true. That means the rumor that he had an explosive expert on his pay roll is also true. I want him found and identified. I want him dead within the month." Michael said without a trance of any emotion whatsoever in his voice. "Man like that won't be easy to track mate." John replied. Very suddenly and violently Michael stood from his chair to grab his cousin's collar and throw him against the wall. "LOOK AT HER! LOOK AT WHAT HE DID! I WANT THE BASTARD FOUND!" Michael yelled. "Easy mate!" Finn pulled Michael away. "These are the people you associate with? Come Liyana, we are going home." Her father grabbed her wrist and started to lead his daughter to the door, but she pulled away. "No! I will not leave Maxie! Or have you forgotten all she has done for us? You go, but I stay here where I belong." Ana stood her ground. Her father said one last thing in the language the Shelbys couldn't understand, and then left. "Here, take a seat." Michael pulled up an extra chair next to Maxie's bed. "I'll just keep watch outside the door then." John said to no one who was listening. "Finn?" He looked at his little brother. "No. No, I'm alright in here." He replied. John rolled his eyes, but went to his post at the door. "You're no good for her, you know?" Liyana said to Michael. "Yeah, I know. I know." He whispered.