literature

Lourdes of Loki part 23 - Loki

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"Dad!" I stopped right in the middle of the side walk, the suite dude behind us cursing as he almost walked into me, busy as he was talking on his phone.
"Yes, cupcake!" my father made a hundred megawatt grin as I turned to face him.
"What are you doing here?"
"Came to listen to you, my dear. And your friend. You did fine both of you."

"Oh," my face turned long. "The trial! I never expected..." I composed myself. "However I'm grateful, dad. Thanks for coming!"
"Oh, certainly! How could I miss not coming and giving my daughter some support? And it was mighty fun as well, you gave that stuck-up and arrogant lawyer the chew up he needed. The chew-up most of his kind need to be true."

At that he reached for me and took me in his arms, and for a long time we hugged, blocking the side walk for people wanting to pass. Hugging back, I inhaled his particular smell, the leather jacket, the after-shave, those Turkish cigarettes, a faint trace of coffee and of banana. And most of the entire dad smell.
"Well, I couldn't stand him," I said. "And the way he mistrusted me."
"Yeah and you told him so as well. Not everyone does. Now, that's my girl!"

When he let go he turned to Gaetania.
"I have to excuse myself milady, for not being able to contain myself when it comes to greeting my daughter. You must be Miss Sendari, right?"
"Yes," Gaetania blushed as she took the offered hand. "Gaetania Sendari."
"Loki LeGrand," dad shook my best friend's hand. "I'm acquainted with your father."
"Well, everyone is," Gaetania replied, somewhat with her guards up.

"Don't worry, Gae," I told her. "My dad knows very well who Don Enrico is. What kind of business he's doing. In a way you can say my father does the same."
"I thought you were in oil," Gaetania shifted her gaze from me to dad.
"Among other things," dad explained. "I delight in diversity. Oil, gas, nuclear, construction, chemistry, arms, mining, automobiles, entertainment, cell phones, computers, software, shipping. Whatever investment which can be exciting and profitable. Now, I guess we shan't stand here the whole day and block the street for those poor Californians. They sure need some room for their little lives as well. And I definitely want to see how you girls live, and then, how about I take you out for dinner? It'll be on me, to celebrate how great the two of you did in that court house."

"It's not over yet," I said as we walked over to the limo, where a pudgy little driver in livery were opening the doors to the back seat, and we all slipped in, both me and Gaetania gasping at the fact that we were actually stepping inside a Lincoln Stretch Limousine and that the people in the street were turning their heads like Linda Blair after us.
"That's just a question of time before it'll be," dad replied as he made sure we got comfortable in the large back seat.

Because of the non-transparent windows it was dusky inside of the vehicle and the compartment was lit up with stripes of blue and orange light, somehow mimicking a sunset, and there were Vegas-inspired neon decorating the bar, all of those lamps shining off from mirrors in the ceiling and on the sides, some of them bent so our reflections came to look funny. From hidden speakers soft music was streaming out, the record of that crispy-voiced Swedish girl who had won the Eurovision Song Contest this spring.

"I've never been inside of one of these things before," Gaetania exclaimed, voice filled with awe. "It's like being in a space ship."
"Beam me up, Scotty," Dad replied, as he opened up the bar. "What do you drink, girls?"
"We were talking about cosmopolitans before you showed up, Mr. LeGrand."
"Call me Loki," dad offered my friend before he began to busy himself with bottles, glasses and ice. "Cosmos on their way," he added.
"Not so much ice, Loki," Gaetania said. And I leaned over to her, whispering in her ear (and in Italian to be on the safe side.)
"I lost my virginity in one of these."
"Not your dad's car, I hope?"

"No, belonged to Pamino Pelleron, you remember that guy from Monaco."
"Oh dear, that one! Mr. Spoilt brat in a Fedora hat! Didn't he get a Ferrari from his dad when he graduated?"
"Don't ask me, I was kicked out before that graduation took place."

"Now what are you two conferring about," Dad smirked.
"If this is your car or not?" I sort of told the truth.
"No, it's a rental," Dad confirmed. "Complete with chauffeur. Why should I bring my own car over here just for this short visit?"
"So you're not staying any long?" I almost felt disappointed.
"Just a few days. Merging business with pleasure."

"What kind of business?" I asked.
"I'm buying a movie studio?"
"Why?" Gaetania wanted to know. "They are all bleeding money these days."
"Yes, and I need to show the French tax authorities some losses. Besides I have a few ideas on how to turn that ship around."
"Like what?" my friend asked as she retrieved her drink.
"Business secrets," dad smirked and Gaetania made a pouting expression as I received my drink.

"Cheers," dad raised his glass and we toasted in the back of the car, which had started to roll.
"Don't you take us home first?" I asked since we were going in the wrong direction. I really felt that I wanted to switch clothes before I went out to dine. And hopefully have a shower as well, as I felt sticky and still a bit as if I was smelling of court room.
"Yes, I do," dad replied. "But since it's not every day one gets to ride in one of these and especially since Gaetania had not been in one earlier I thought a roundabout was called for. So I told Mr. Meltian, the driver that is, to cruise around for some half an hour before driving you home. So we can have at least have one drink more. What do you say, girls?"

"How can we not love it," Gaetania was beaming and I smiled as well.
"So roundabout it is," dad said, and then he toasted again, this time to Mr. Tiwal 'Asgardian mummy' Eustatos' future home behind the bars."
"You think he's going to be found guilty?" I asked.
"Of course," daddy smirked. "Or I'd lose all my faith in the American legal system."
"Which wasn't there from the start anyway," I mocked him.

"Touché, Cupcake!"
"I hate that nickname!"
"And I love it! It's so delightful!"
"Why? Why must you make up corny nicknames for me?" I asked as I watched Gaetania laugh at us.
"I'm your father, Lourdes!"
"Puhlease, can you not do this Darth Vader impersonation now!"

Gaetania laughed a bit more and then she wanted to know why dad was so sure that Eustatos the mummy would be found guilty.
"I consider that a clear case," dad replied. "Whatever that law wringing mumbo jumbo defender tried to make it sound like. None of his arguments made any sense after all. That Mr. Eustatus should have been switched for someone else by your father's people, Gaetania? Major Thom to ground control! That's simply not a believable story. Anyone trying to stew up something like that is insulting the intelligence of the rest of the court. So I hope they lock this ugly fellow up in an itty bitty cell and play Gangnam Style on repeat."

"Gangnam Style on repeat?" Gaetania tittered. "Forget that, Loki. Cruel and unjust punishment is not allowed in the USA."
"Well at least not outside Guantanamo," dad shrugged.
"You really hate that song," I stated and dad only grinned. "I've heard worse," he simply said.
"Like what?" my friend turned curious.
"Don't get me started on the Iglesias dynasty," dad huffed. "Or the complete disco era. Still makes me cringe."
"Wasn't it more the clothes and less the music?" I asked.
"You have a point," Dad confessed. "Just look at those panties, you could fit in three people down there!"

"Now this Asgardian," I backtracked the conversation, "This Tiwal Eustatos. Who was he really?"
"A nobody. I've never heard of him at least," dad replied with a shrug. "Some poor sod who got caught in the middle of something and was at the wrong place and the wrong time."
"But did you see his face?"
"Yes I did."
"What could have caused it to look like that?" I asked.
"Acid?" Gaetania guessed and sipped from her drink. "I've seen women like that in the Middle East backwaters. Women who got acid poured over themselves because they want a divorce or something. Turns even this ultra conservative Italian lady into a hard core feminist."

"I know," Loki responded. "I've seen those poor ladies too. And it sickens me down to the bones. Where is law enforcement when you need it? Yes, bothering people like me because I want to do better things with my money than to pay taxes and parking tickets. But no, that face on poor Tiwal Eustatos has not been damaged with acid. But with eguatic magic."
"Say what?" I faced dad.
"Eguatic magic breaks down the cellular structure of the bodies of most beings. A dangerous weapon."
"Did you use this against that poor fellow?"
"No I did not. But I was part of a research team developing these. And I know they became in quite extensive use during the Irismin Upheaval in Asgard 200 years ago."

"But then why would this guy want to get back at Lourdes? For something you say you weren't even a part of?" Gaetania asked.
"Because Eguatic bombs were produced in factories owned by me. So whatever happened to this guy he blames me because I am a figurehead for Kalizir Industries where the Eguatic bomb were in production back then. Before these weapons were outlawed in Asgard."
"Do they still make these bombs somewhere?" Gaetania asked her eyes large.
"Not in Asgard, not here on Earth. Nor in Eltasia. I'm not sure about in any other realm. To be true, it wouldn't surprise me if there was some clandestine hole in Neiphelem making them. As well as nukes, chemical weapons and other things. However you guys can sleep well at night, because Eguatic bombs don't work here at Earth, because of the substring composition of this world."

"Now you lost me," Gaetania made a face. "And that's just after one cosmopolitan, mind you!"
"That's quantum physics," dad said. "Nobel price stuff, so I don't grasp it either. But from what I've heard at least, because of how the quantum things are structured in this world, such magic doesn't work here. Why I can't tell, other than if Al Qaeda would get hold on an Eguatic bomb, they would not be able to use it. I would've been more worried about it in Asgard or Eltasia."

Then dad was obviously done talking Eguatic bombs and Tiwal Eustatos, because he changed subject and asked me about my mother Destiny. So we spent the rest of the trip by drinking one more cosmopolitan each while I told the story about mine and Poseidon's trip to New York and how we had met my mother at that Manhattan law firm. And finally I told that I would be going there for Thanksgiving. I also told dad that if there was something he wanted to tell mother, I'd be delighted to forward it for him. Dad seemed to hesitate, then he said he would consider the matter. I guess he wasn't all that comfortable with trying to communicate something to Destiny, it had after all been almost 20 years since he had seen her the last time, and he had probably believed her to be dead for so many years.

Just a couple of minutes later we were outside our house and exited the car, Loki telling the chauffeur to wait for us outside. I saw neighbors giving the limousine looks as we stepped outside. All right, this might be Beverly Hills, but on our little street, limos wasn't that a common sight anyhow. Mercedes's and Audis were a common sight, and there were also one or another Hummer, however Poseidon's Ferrari did turn some heads as well.

And while I led the way up to our condo, I pointed out the one next to us, where the creepy Mr. Eustatos had lived, told about how he had spent days and days by spying upon Gaetania me behind those curtains which still hung there, however the flat had been empty and darks ever since they jailed the Asgardian up.
"First Gaetania and I believed him to be just any old dirty man," I said. "Then we we thought he might be some paparazzi misstaking us for celebs. However I cannot understand how he found out whom I was and that I lived here."   
"We need to find this out," dad said as he gazed at the darkened window.
"But does it really matter?" I asked. "He is busted now, and will most probably end up behind bars in a not so long time. Gangnam Style or no Gangnam Style."

"I have many enemies," dad said. "And if this Eustatos, who wasn't the most resourceful person in the world could find you, so might as well some others. I will have to think of something."
"Please no Frostgiant bodyguard," I pleaded as I opened the door.
"No Frostgiant," dad almost chuckled. "No worries, California is too hot for them. Now, I'll see what I can do, there are other resources as well. Including simple magic ward systems."
"Magic ward systems," Gaetania echoed. "Now, I sure feel like I fell down the wrong rabbit hole."
"Oh, don't worry about that," dad replied. "I'm quite convinced the daughter of Enrico Sendari can fence off a few rabbits."

Then we took him for the round, and as our condo isn't really that big, it was soon done, and after taht dad said he was going to make some phone calls while Gaetania and I went and showered and made us ready for a night on the town. And it felt almost as if the afternoon in court was forgotten. I was glad he was here, I had wanted to show him my place now for a while, convince him that I was doing fine and had a great life, even if it was interrupted by badasses from his past now and then.
Part 1 - 22 found in my gallery
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