Concrete Summonings

THURSDAY

Maybelline was in the diner by her hotel and had a coffee in front of her and had only taken a few sips from it. It was about 11 am. She slept in today. And she was out like a rock in her hotel bed once Arnold brought her back. She was kind of hungry but was waiting to eat. She was waiting for someone and made the choice to be there before they were. She looked at the reflection of herself in the coffee and kind of zoned out for a minute looking at her reflection. Maybe she was more tired than she thought.

"Hey, May'b." She heard a gruff man's voice say. She looked up. It was Micah, her brother. She smiled and got up to say hello. She was happy to see him. It felt like she was reaching out some bygone part of her life that she loved a hundred years ago that realistically she only had left three or four days ago.

"Ah geez," He said. "You didn't have to get up, with your ankle and everything."

"Oh, it's fine." She said. "They healed it last night at the hospital. It's a little sore, but I can still walk and stuff, geez. How are you doing? Thank you for coming over."

They sat down. With the sun on his face from the window he really looked like they shared the same DNA in some minor cross-species way, but they didn't. But still, it was good to see him.

"I'm OK." He said. "Thanks for letting me crash at the house, but it's boring without you around. I thought about going back yesterday, but I guess I was just too lazy to really do it, so I guess this is a vacation. I'm glad I didn't though because it only would have gotten me farther away from here. You know I wouldn't pass up the chance to see my snotty ex-little sister."

"Yeah, of course. Thank you- it's always nice to see your big wide butt amble in any where I'm around." She said with a smirk, then it faded when she had to ask, "you talk to momma at all?"

"Eh, she called once my first day in. I could barely hear her; I think she was calling from a boat or something it sounded like. She asked about you, like if we had any plans. I didn't say anything."

"You didn't?" She asked. "For real?"

"Naw. All I said was, 'oh yeah!' and that was it. She didn't press the issue. She seems... like really preoccupied or something lately? She asked if my Dad was okay after that bulldozer accident and that was like, two years ago." Micah laughed. "I mean- did she forget he's a troll? She was only married to him for a few years. I mean, he grew that arm back in a month."

Maybelline rolled her eyes and took a sip of her coffee.

"Mmm- I dunno, midlife crisis or something. You know how she is. Every year I get older, I see her less and less, and then she goes out and does something crazier and crazier. Right now, she's seeing some... competitive hydromancer or summoner or some crap. I don't even know. I barely even met him. He was cool, I guess. Seemed nice for some male bimbo in a tropical shirt who takes a shower in cologne every morning. You know."

"Yeah, unfortunately I do. Like half the guys I share a dorm with. Pfff. Well, whatever- more power to her. At least she's having fun. Not like my dad on the other hand, all he does is work... and then makes me work. He wraps himself in work and ignores everything else. I wish he would find his own male bimbo, honestly."

Maybelline laughed. "Yeah, might loosen him up a bit." Said Maybelline. "But listen, for real, thank you for not saying anything to her, though. I really do appreciate it."

"Yeah..." He said. He looked down at the table, then up at her. She could tell he had some sort of concern for her, but not in the sense that he thought she was doing something totally stupid. He was always like that. He got some of her proclivities, and just left it at that. And she knew him pretty well too, and knew that down inside himself somewhere, he thought that her doing what she was doing right now was pretty cool.