Who are the Real Monsters? by: Elsbeth Ken Umeki will learn that not all monsters come out at night.

Chapter 2
“You know it smells.”

“It so does not.” Rebecca Shisaa punched me in the arm. I hadn’t seen her in over five years since my family dragged me to Skogshaven for a wedding when I was twelve. At least she was willing to show me around town, unlike her brother Ren who wouldn’t even give me the time of day. Well, Rebecca was fourteen, still plenty of time to hate me later. “What, you’ve never been on a bus before?”

“Well, no not really, does an airport shuttle count?”

“No.”

“Oh.” I grinned; to be truthful I had been on a few larger ones in Europe and Skogshaven buses were not that bad. They were less bus and more like the shuttles I had seen roaming around the University of Hawaii but a little bigger.

“So there’s the Library.” She pointed at an old stone structure off the commons. Most of the older structures in town were made of wood this one was stone. Rebecca said that at one time it was used as the town armory.

“Nice, must be a couple of hundred years old.”

“Something like that and of course there’s the park. Did Aunt Rika warn you about not wandering around the woods?”

“Yea about that, so if you get lost in them no one at all will come look for you. I mean, isn’t that a bit strange?”

She rolled her eyes. “Just don’t go in there, trust me; people won’t come looking for you if you get lost.”

“Weird.”

I thought I heard her say you have no idea. Skogshaven, I assumed was like the dozen other New England towns we passed while driving from the Springfield Airport except for maybe the freaky woods. Now that was a change, I flew over in a Learjet 60XR with all of the amenities including a cute fight attendant and my Uncle picked me up in a Dodge 4x4.

“Do you have your list?”

I held up the list we downloaded from the internet. The Massachusetts Board of Education had quite the tally of items for a senior in High school. I really wasn’t sure what I was going to do with half of it.

“I think we can get most of it from Carole’s, if not we’ll have to go to the Mall.” The closet mega shopping was about twenty miles south of town. Carole’s was apparently the town’s one stop shopping center, including a drugstore. I mentioned that there did seem to be a lack of the usual mega chains and Rebecca explained that the city council kept them away. The one store that they had allowed some years back; a discount foodmart, had failed in its first year and had stood abandoned for sometime. Since then the council decided that such stores took away from the picturesque beauty of the town. There was still plenty of shopping possibilities in town but the shopaholic’s would drive to the Outlets around Springfield. The true fanatics would make shopping weekends to Boston or New York.

I missed the rest of what Rebecca said as the bus pulled in front of a large Victorian home. Standing at the bus stop was one of the most striking women I have ever seen. White hair, white sun hat, short green sundress with high-end sunglasses on her face she seemed to be out of place in this small New England town. Paris or Milan yes, Skogshaven no.

“Ouch”

“You’re staring.” Rebecca said unhappily.

“What.” I rub my shoulder Rebecca has quite the punch. “Who is that?”

“Sile Martin, she’s the new town historian.” My cousin grumbled.” She already has quite the following.” That wasn’t hard to believe as I watched the white haired goddess take a seat and start to talk to the other bus riders. I had problems keeping my eyes off this beautiful woman as we rode into town.

“Come on.” Rebecca grabbed my arm. I didn’t even realize that the bus had come to a stop.

Stepping off the bus, I felt a figure pass behind me. “Do you know how to dance?” Turning around I found a number of others stepping off the bus but I’m pretty sure they aren’t the ones who spoke to me. “Rebecca, did you say something.”

“Yes I said hurry up let’s eat first, I’m pretty hungry.”

Kosta’s Pizza took up an entire corner lot and I could tell even before we entered that it was a big teen hang out place. Kind of made sense; at home everyone went to the beach, what else was there to do if you lived in Skogshaven.

“Ken...Ken Umek?” A hulking figure of a guy welcomed me as Rebecca and I walked into the restaurant.

“Mal...what the hell...how did you get to be so huge? Malcolm Kincade all six feet and a half of him stood in front of me. How in the world in five years did he outgrow me by well over a foot? In the scheme of things, it didn’t really seem fair.

Mal laughed and we shook hands. The last time I had seen him was at my cousin’s wedding. It was an auspicious meeting. Mal, Ren and I shared a bottle of Sour Apple Schnapps before the rehearsal dinner. The three of us got totally trashed, embarrassed our parents, though thankfully didn’t ruin the wedding. Not that I remembered much of the wedding, as I had a pretty good hangover. I really thought my father was going to have an aneurism on the spot but it was a fond memory.

“So, been drinking any more Sour Apple Schnapps?”

Mal made a face. “I’ll skip, thanks.” We both laughed and caught up a bit about what was going on with our lives. He was surprised that I was going to school in Skogshaven for the rest of the year. I was still surprised myself. At least the school wouldn’t be totally full of strangers besides Mal there was Miki, who he introduced to me standing behind the counter making pizzas. The delivery of Mal’s pizza order interrupted our conversation.

“You don’t seem the double mushroom and cheese pizza sort of guy Mal.”

He actually looked embarrassed. “Well a friend of mine doesn’t really eat a lot of meat. We’re going to have lunch together.”

“I am going to assume this friend of yours is a she...so not a girlfriend?”

“No not really, she’s just a friend.”

I could tell he would like it to be more. “Good luck.”

I treated Rebecca to lunch of course and she introduced me to as many people as possible. The Shisaa and St. Hill’s weren’t talking to one another still, which had never really been explained to me. The pair of us spent the rest of the afternoon in town gathering supplies and hanging out. Over all it wasn’t too bad a day but I really wasn’t looking forward to going to school the next day.

The Shisaa residence was also out of place, much like Sile Martin. One would expect to see such a residence in Japan, not Skogshaven. The large rectangular Japanese walled enclosure contained the dojo but also a number of family dwellings. It was a bit like communal living but my cousins in the Hawaii enclosure lived pretty much same way. There was even a small Shrine on top of a man-made hill.

Much to my discomfort, I got Ren as a roommate for the rest of the year. I half expected him to pull out a piece of chalk and split the room in half. Thankfully, it turned into the silent treatment, which I could live with. He and I would just pretend each other doesn’t exist. Rebecca offered to share her room, I knew it was a joke mostly but I politely declined after getting a good look at Uncle Masanori’s face.

Having spent enough time with my Hawaiian cousins I knew the next morning would be controlled chaos. Eventually we were all thrown out the door. One of his friends picked up Ren, leaving me with Rebecca and some of my younger cousins at the bus stop. I wasn’t in a particularly happy mood by the time I got to school. Rebecca’s nice enough but the thought of having to spend an entire school year with her friends on the bus was disheartening.

The day looked like it wasn’t going to improve any as the registrar tossed me out of the school office once I was given my schedule. I guess since I was seventeen years old I could figure it out, but still. For someone who disliked the water I was really missing the beach.

No one in home room was familiar and passed without anyone saying hello. It’s a blast being the new guy at school. First period seemed to pick up as I ended up sitting next to one of the St. Hills girls. She was dressed in this Caribbean print dress, which reminded me of what Olina used to wear. Maybe I was missing my old girlfriend but it wouldn’t hurt to be friendly.

“Hi, I’m Ken Umeki.”

She gave me an unfriendly look but it turned to surprise when she found out I wasn’t an Shisaa.

“I’m Agwe St. Hill. Didn’t I see you hanging out with Rebecca yesterday?”

“She is sort of my cousin.”

“Sort of?”

“Well we are not directly related but I have always called them my cousins. My parents kind of forced me on them for the rest of the school year.”

“I see.” Agwe then turned around as class started. Well it was a start, normally we would be throwing things at one another. I always thought both families were crazy but Agwe was pretty cute. Cute and crazy wasn’t all that bad of a combination. I would regret that statement soon enough.

The next two classes went by quickly other than I almost got into a fistfight with Ren. Apparently being friendly to Agwe was a traitorous offence in his eyes. Luckily, I’m agile, not graceful and left him cradling his hand. Punching a metal locker seemed to be somewhat painful.

During lunch, I found myself climbing a old stone wall that separated the front of the school and playing fields. Settling down to eat I got a great view of the sociology of High School life. Most of my classmates didn’t leave the cafeteria but a number of them decided it was a nice enough day to eat outside. When a rather large football player made his way towards a group of cheerleader types, I was tempted to start narrating the mating habits of football jocks. While sitting high above everyone else I caught Agwe’s eye as she spoke to a small red haired girl and a guy I found out later was her boyfriend. She gave me a funny look then a friendly half wave.

Advanced Chemistry was going to be my favorite class, Mrs. Berg was cool and she quickly made sure I wasn’t lost. What was better everyone my age that I knew ended up in the class as well. Agwe sat behind me and the first thing she did was bang her desk into mine. She gave me a grin when I turned around. Mal sat in front of me and as I was curious how the pizza lunch turned out I asked him about his date.

“How’s Morgan.” Agwe asked Mal.

“It wasn’t a date just lunch.” He insisted.

“I wasn’t asking about your date.” She laughed.

“So her name is Morgan.”

“Yeah, and Mal is hopelessly in love with her.”

Mal turned around. “Were just friends.”

“OK Mal, sorry, I’m just teasing you.” Mal looked at Agwe for a second then turned around.

“He’s got it bad.” Agwe whispered behind my head.

“Is she leading him on or something?” I whispered back. I was beginning not to like this Morgan girl.

“Oh no, she’s a sweetheart. Unfortunately, she has someone else.”

“That sucks.” I looked at Miki who took a seat a couple of rows over. He was pretty up beat yesterday today he looked like someone killed his dog. “What’s up with Miki?”

“I heard his girlfriend dumped him during lunch.”

“Nice, I can empathize, my girlfriend broke up with me just before I left Hawaii.”

“Sorry to hear that.” She patted my back softly in sympathy. I was beginning to like Agwe.

The rest of the day held no more teen angst. Sitting on the bus ride home as I tried to ignore my cousin and her friends I decided that spending a year here wasn’t going to be all that bad.

After dinner I quickly finished my home work. Luckily even starting a few weeks late my last school kept me ahead of most of my current classes. Now the problem was spending every evening with my cousins. Aya left me no choice but to work out at the dojo but if possible I needed a plan to keep me out of the house the rest of the time.

“I’m going for a run.”

It didn't take me long to get into the zone. I had already planned my run, which would take me around the woods. There were a number of good running trails, which would at least keep me from getting bored. Normally in a good week I would run a little over twenty miles, hopefully I could keep it up. The idea of running in the snow rather wigged me out. My body was used to Hawaiian winter's not New England's.

Half way through my run a vision of a certain woman who lived in a Victorian home nearby completely changed my running route. No one seemed to be on the trail and I wasn’t going to be cutting through a lot of the woods so I figured, who would it hurt? I was a big boy and if I could orienteer over lava fields, I could handle New England woods. A quick left and I found myself running through some heavy underbrush. So there might be a good reason why people not used to the woods could get lost but I didn’t see why it was such a big deal. Sure enough, I came out right near my target.

“So this is the Skogshaven History Center.”

The white haired goddess was busy sitting on the porch drinking a can of beer when I approached. Wearing skintight jeans and a low cut green blouse she gave me a disinterested look.

“It is, but we’re closed now.”

“Sorry to hear that, I’m Ken Umeki.”

Sile took a sip from a tall can of Murphy's Irish Stout. So she was beautiful and had good taste. Pausing for a second as if thinking it over she said. “Sile Martin.”

“So I was told. I'm sure you don't remember but we shared a bus the other day and I was curious if you might like to go out to dinner with me this Friday.” I couldn't believe I asked her on a date but then rationalized she couldn't be more than twenty two or so, all she could say was no.

She gave me a funny look. “I’m sorry I don’t go out with children.”

“It’s just dinner.” I had to smile, I was sure Mal would understand.

“I see, well I think I’ll have to pass.” Sile stood up to leave. “It was nice to meet you, Ken Umeki.”

Before she walked away, I asked. “Do you like to dance?”

She spun around and took a step forward. “What did you say?”

“I asked if you liked to dance. I thought maybe dinner and dancing. I’m sure we could find a club nearby.”

“You’ve done a lot of clubbing before?”

“I did a little last spring with my friends when I was in Europe.”

“Where?”

“Paris, went to Barrio Latino a few times.”

“I guess you watched the sun come up on the terrace?”

I smiled. “No not really they close at 2am.”

She returned my smile. “Alright Ken Umeki, I’ll go out to dinner with you. I also know a good place for dancing. I also expect something more than pizza for dinner.”

I laughed I had not intended to take Sile to Kosta’s. “I was thinking perhaps Reno’s.” Reno’s was a good steak house that catered to mostly doctors and others who have good-sized expense accounts. My parents claimed it was the only decent place to eat in Skogshaven.

“Good choice.” We quickly shared cell numbers. She then gave me another smile and turned away. “Good night, Ken.”

“Good night, Sile.” I watched her go and as soon as the door closed, I did the snoopy dance for a few seconds on the front lawn. Skogshaven was definitely going to be a lot more fun than I thought.

Authors Notes: A special thanks to djkauf for a little elvish editing. If you like the story please leave a Kudos, if you have the time I would love to hear from you. Thanks to all for reading! - Elsbeth

 © Copyright - Elsbeth2011/2012