Page 50 of Stoker's Serenity

“I need to know how you did it, I mean do it, you know, with Faith.”

He raised an eyebrow and said, “Well, I imagine it’s the same way you do it with the hot little number from your show. I know you ain’t unfamiliar with the birds and the bees, mate.”

“I mean the trauma.” I rolled my eyes from behind my mirrored aviators, glad he probably couldn’t see it.

“She trafficked?” he asked, getting suddenly serious.

“Nah, man. This is a horse of a different color entirely.” I told him what was up.

“Seriously? ‘Murder Whore’, that’s what they got?”

“Yeah,” I took another swallow of beer. “Let’s hope these fucksticks keep it at just that. It’s like a mob mentality that just won’t fuckin’ die.”

“So the first thing, is when something trips her trigger like that, is to be the calm one,” he said. “You seem to have that part down. You’re cool-headed, unlike a lot of the rest of this crew. You do things from the heart, sure, but you think about it first. That’s a point in your favor.”

“Okay,” I said evenly. “What else?”

“Everybody, every situation like this, is something different, man.” He shook his head. “A lot of it is intuition, reading signals and staying in your lane. She rages and fumes, you let her. She pushes you away? You really gotta decide if it’s the real deal or if you need to stay the course. Sometimes, you gotta lay off the throttle just for a little bit, back off and wait out the storm under an overpass or something, you feel me?”

I nodded. “So far, so good.”

“I know you two are only a couple of weeks in, and I know those couple of weeks have been kind of intense… everything good?” he asked.

“Yeah, as far as I know,” I said. “I mean, I don’t know how anyone could think anything bad about my little orchid. She’s – she’s quiet, keeps to herself, doesn’t bother no one. All she does is work and home. She reads, she cooks; she gardens out back of her place. She’s crafty as hell, and a queen of thrift. One of those handy types that turns old things new.”

“Sounds like an old soul,” Marlin observed.

“I don’t know about all that,” I said. “I do know she hasn’t gotten a fair shake and it’s a damn shame.”

“Lost soul?”

I nodded. “Like me. Like any of us.”

“Citizens, man. You never know. You sure she’d be able to take the rough and tumble of a life like ours?”

“I think she’s both stronger than she looks, and stronger than she thinks. I mean, unlike most citizens, she’s still here. She hasn’t gone bat-crap crazy, she hasn’t tried to off herself, or tried to fight back.”

“Yeah, you sure about either of those?”

“She’s coming for the weekend, she’ll be here Friday night,” I said.

“Don’t try and deep-dive her issues too soon.”

“That your official recommendation?”

“Yeah, that and don’t think you can handle this kind of shit on your own. Soon as you can ? or are in a position to – get her some professional help.”

I nodded slowly. “Might be hard to convince her she needs it.”

“Eh, only if for whatever reason she’s not ready for it. I think she might be, though.”

“Yeah?”

“She didn’t pitch a bitch, didn’t kick you out or turn you away after the meltdown Sunday, did she?”

“No. No, she did not.”

“Well, there you have it.”

---