brayan vrs sumanguru II

he glared at his hands with intense focus of chi energy as he had been instructed to do . this was the old senoi technique he had been trained in for gaining control of these types of situation .

now it was a matter of stretching his wings --catching the breeze and riding the wave as far as it would take him .

to where --he could not yet know .

brayan walked through the room's portal , his eyes quickly merged into the warm , almost lush green and cranberry hues filtering through the room's lighting . the slight tinkling of glass and silverware could be heard along with divergent strands of pleasant conversations and the occasional light tickles of laughter bubbled into the air . the hint of an intimate , but humorous ambiance penetrated the experience .

brayan smirked as one of the waiters , an oddly familiar looking , tall , but slouched man with languid eyes , sad wrinkled expression and large protruding ears , removed the cork from a rare boujoulais and before pouring , graciously presented it for inspection to the impeccably dressed rabbit seated next to the spitting image of marilyn monroe .

Sir rabbit sniffed at the cork , and with eyelids drifting low , nodded his approval in as blase a bourgeois manner as someone named "buggs" could , with a straight face , muster .

suddenly popping the cork into his mouth , the rabbit loudly crunched it up and swallowed it down . the look on his face , like that of having savored a fresh carrot delicacy .

the waiter , whom brayan now recognized as lyndon baines johnson --36th president of the Us , smiled approvingly at the rabbit . then he turned and from the height of his vantage point , absorbing in one eyeful , the excessively ample cleavage almost bursting from the confines of her low cut gown , winked seductively at marilyn as he filled her glass with wine .

beneath the table , sir buggs slid his gray furry hand up the slit in marilyn's gown , caressing the inner side of her smooth thighs . while she , ignoring them both , gazed hungrily at brayan and in a breathless , exaggeration of deep southern belle's accent , whispered , "i jes luv you darkies ."

two tables away was a cigar puffing jack kennedy sitting between a pouty lipped molly ringwald and another redhead starlet resembling rita hayworth .

napoleon bonaparte and julius caesar sat down at jack's table , with bonaparte eyeing rita , while julius' eyes , as if unable to decide , danced eagerly , to and fro , between molly and jack .

as brayan was led to his table , he could easily over hear bonaparte brag to kennedy , " like you and caesar , i too was assassinated by my enemies --the english slowly poisoned me with arsenic while they held me in exile .

"yes , but i was betrayed by one of my dearest , closest friends and then stabbed to death by a mob , reminded caesar .

"well , why do you think lyndon's waiting tables here ? replied kennedy's boston staccato , nodding with a self-satisfied grin towards the tall , slouched faced waiter .

" we have reserved a special table for you , sir . just this way--follow me , sir " , brayan's waiter , short and stocky , explained as they walked past the studied glances of molly and rita .

"hail caesar " , the waiter blandly announced from habit , as an unforgiving julius immediately turned his head away , with a patrician sneer , once again ignoring the presence of his old 'friend' .

"sic semper tyrannus" , brayan heard the waiter mumble .

they walked further , past the table where sigmund freud , cigar hanging from ill-fitting dentures , sat with cups of after-dinner coffee , cognac and lines of cocaine , probing the childhood memories of lee harvey oswald , "vhen did you first notice that you felt like a ' potsy ' , lee ?"

the waiter curiously led brayan past table after table of dining patrons , until they reached the kitchen . as they walked through the swinging doors , the texture of the floor's linoleum turned greasy and the presence of stoves and ovens made it feel noticeably hotter .

as they trekked all the way to the kitchen 's end , brayan spied a pale dark haired dishwasher with a comical mustache , agitatedly marching back and forth , grumbling in german , gesturing vehemently and spitting into huge pots of soups simmering on a back stove . "Die windet Schläge ab Abendland zu Ost und ICH Wille erdrücken Sie alle. ICH Wille erdrücken Sie alle!"

three men in busboy uniforms that brayan instantly recognized as george w. bush , his father george hw bush and grandfather prescott bush stood nearby , eagerly taking turns at playing yes-men to the chaplin-esque figure .

" ja , mein Leiter." answered dubya

"nur bloss erst Sie können Befehl uns. Sie wart geboren zu Vorschrift " replied hw

"ihrer Schicksal und die Welt bist man. " added prescott


brayan turned to his waiter leading the way and asked ," what was that all about?"

'dolphie was entertaining his court again , answered the waiter , "he's like that all the time "

"what were they saying ?" brayan asked .

"of course my german's not as good as my latin , but i think he said , 'the wind blows from west to east ., and i will crush them all .' "

"and to that , dubya said his usual , 'yes , my leader' . "

"then afterwards , poppy said something like 'only you can command us. you were born to rule .' "

"and finally prescott said , 'your destiny and the world's are one. ' "

brayan and even the waiter , were both forced to shake their heads in incredulity and snicker at the scene of the ' regal ' dishwasher and his sycophant busboys .

when they reached a thick wooden door at the end of the kitchen , the waiter stopped and gesturing towards the portal , announced to brayan " your table is this way sir ."

nonchalantly , loabe tipped him a five dollar bill and walked through the doorway into the darkness of night.

no sooner than he did , the door slammed shut and the pitch black of late evening was instantaneously transformed into the bright sky of mid day / early afternoon .

sunlight beamed down hot --almost as if through the magnifying lens of a playful child .

as brayan's eyes took a moment to adjust to the daylight , they noticed to the right , near his feet , a bright glimmering object that recognition immediately told him was money .




as the coin's small silvery glint caught his eye , the rifle shot's impact ripped small chunks of brick from the building wall --precisely in line where brayan's head had been , only a split second before .

the dragunov's slug had slammed like a meteor into decrepit red brick -- in the alley way --just as brayan loabe began to quickly stoop , almost as gleefully as a child discovering a treasure , to pick up the dirt-smeared quarter from the littered ground , .

loabe reflexively leaped down , shoulder rolled out from his landing and took cover behind the restaurant dumpster . he was now directly across from where the small russian-made meteor had scattered red cinders and left its crater . the smell of rotting vegetables and the buzzing of flies were all that his now straining senses could detect .

his eyes tilted upwards and scanned back and forth across the line of windows and rooftops framed in an expanse of blue .

loabe's eyes were defocussed and seaching like the hunter for any telltale sign of movement in the brush from the hidden prey . but the prey this time , was brayan loabe , and the eyes guiding the dragunov sniper's rifle , the hunter.

"where'd it come from ? "
"window ?"
"maybe roof ?"
"am i covered here ? "
"can he hit me ? "
"can't see a damn thing from here !"

his mind raced faster than his eyes flicking back and forth scanning for any differences to stand out between scans that would indicate any motion and possible whereabouts of the shooter.

he slowed his breathing to calm himself and snatched the pistol from the snugness of its holster . "breathing relaxed -- effortless . heartbeat calm -- regular ." his training , self-activated by stress began sending familiar waves of warmth and feelings of heaviness throughout arms , legs and abdomen .

his forehead , though moist with sweat , felt cool , almost cold as his autogenic training --for decades , a key component to the many successes of eastern european sports medicine , automatically activated itself . the training delivering a calm , ready , single-minded focus . "blood circulating fully , completely" , the voice programmed into his head told him .

he felt warm , heavy , almost sleepy , yet his mind was relaxed and alert , coiled like a sprinter ready to explode from the starting blocks .

his eyes , continuing their scanning , noticed something out of place -a roofing tile loosened and slightly out of alignment with the rest .

" shooter knock it loose climbing into position ?" he wondered .

As the feelings of heaviness and warmth melted over him and through him like a thick , warm liquid , hidden in the mixture of shadow and light , in a line almost directly above the loosened roofing shingle --he thought he saw what could be IT -- the muzzle of the dragunov . "is that it ?"

his eyes strained as he remained perfectly still yet focused , hoping the intensity of his chi would trigger some movement on the sniper's part -- reveal some clue to the shooter's location .

a sudden , powerful , but almost imperceptible flick of loabe's wrist flipped the quarter in his hand across the alleyway , bouncing it off the brick wall . it hit the wall with a loud "clinking" sound as loabe's eye's , still unglued from the place on the rooftop where he suspected the sniper to be , watched.

a slight move of the gun barrel in correspondence to the noise of the flung coin revealed the position of the assassin's nest . "sumnumabitch , i got you now !" loabe announced to himself .

as carefully as possible , he aimed at what he believed to be the rifle's muzzle itself and squeezed five quick rounds from the browning nine millimeter pistol .

following the roar of the browning , he instantly leaped to a crouch position and scurried across the alley to the back doorway of the restaurant .

in rapid succession , loabe fired nine more shots into the hinges of the dingy green door and pushed his way inside the restaurant kitchen as the unhinged door gave way beneath his weight and fell to the floor .


he loaded a full clip into the pistol as his eyes adjusted themselves to the dimmer light . still crouched low and avoiding windows , he made his way across the greasy linoleum , through the kitchen and into the empty dining area with its flowered , olive drab wallpaper .

loabe knew that more than likely , the sniper would have recovered by now from the surprise of loabe's diversionary attack and anticipating his exit from the restaurant's front door , would probably have the rifle trained there , waiting to cut him down .

retracing his steps from the kitchen , he examined the shared wall connecting the restaurant to its neighboring building . the thump from his fist revealed the wall to be hollow . " builder tried to save money on the drywall in the kitchen ."

he found a large meat cleaver and used it like a hatchet to chop through the walls and the wooden skeleton beneath it . squeezing himself through the narrow opening he had made , he saw that he was now into the office of the Sure Auto Insurance agency next door.

from there , using the cleaver , it was a simple task to locate which was the cheap connecting wall and cut his way through the Mason Electronics and Tv Repair shop and finally into Hank's Hardware and Sporting Goods store that occupied the last building on that block .

loabe quickly made his way to the small rack of previously owned long guns and ammunition in the case on the far end of the shop . using a hacksaw he cut through the padlocks that secured the weapons and selected and loaded a used remmington 30.06 bolt action deer rifle .

looking out of the inexpensive burglar bars on the side window-- facing an alleyway serving as channel between this portion of the strip mall that brayan was in , and the rest of it all -- he saw , and just as quickly ignored , the fact that if he wished , he could more than likely hack through the bars and now make his escape without the sniper's notice .

"another lucid dream" , he thought while staring fixedly at his hands . he knew also that it was the opportunity to gain more of the mystic powers he was driven to seek as a warrior . it was simply too much of an enticement to brayan loabe .

"she said you born in the wrong century " grandfather had told him "born in the wrong time"
grandfather's voice across the decades , once again spoke to his grandson brayan . lifting him up and floating his mind across the chasm at the edge of this world and into the memories .

he had that day , long ago , instead of taking the boy to school , taken his young grandson to a seer-women he knew . a mystic-woman who was rumored to tell the future , entering spirit-worlds to see ones destiny .

when she first met the boy , the old woman greeted the child with a smile and in her presence , he immediately felt a chill , raising the tiny hairs on the back of his hands and arms . he tried to return her mostly toothless grin , but something gripping him inside would not permit it.

grandfather dutifully removed from the brown paper sack , the cigars and the pint bottle of gin he had brought as a gift-price , an offering for her services and left them on the small wooden table.

if she saw him do this at all , from her demeanor it seemed as if she never noticed . not once did she even glance in the direction of the table .

she looked admiringly at the boy bringing to mind for little brayan the greedy witch in the story his mother had read him of hansel and grettle who lured little children lost in the forest into her cottage and into her baking oven .

he felt what he knew was fear , but could not avert his young eyes from hers . she stared and smiled at the handsome boy almost purring like a kitten as she admired him . " a pretty chile " , she offered as her wrinkled hand eased its way forward and caressed his hair . but as soon as her hand made contact , her purring stopped and the smile dropped from her face .

brayan at first felt cold from her touch , and it frightened him , but his fear for some reason would not show . the boy stood his ground despite the urge to run from her , and she was the one forced to pull away .

with a strange look in her eyes that young loabe recognized as uneasiness , the woman's hand slightly recoiled from his head as she instinctively lurched a little backwards .

"the woman your son marry , where she from ? who her people ?" the seer quickly asked grandfather .

"her grandma caddo people from down georgia" , grandfather replied . "carry bucket ah water on her head all day long and never spill a drop ."

" my stars ! lawdy , i knew somethin bout this chile soon as i seed him . caddo got powers ...strong powers ...this boy got powers from his mama's people and yo people too. "

"that's why i bring him to you ", the old man said . "you laid on hands ...what you see for my grandboy ?"

gathering herself , she inched forward again this time gingerly placing both her hands on the boy's head widening her stance almost as if bracing herself against a stiff march wind .

loabe felt no urge to retreat this time . they stood eye to eye for over a minute , the sound of water dripping over breakfast dishes the only thing heard besides the cawing of a crow and the wind through the trees outside . then she drew in a breath sharply as if pricked by a pin , and then she sighed a long exhale that left the stale smell of burnt tobacco in brayan's nose .

she let her hands fall to her sides as she closed her eyes . then without saying anything , she turned her back to her two guests and walked to the wall of the room as she stood looking into her own eyes in a scuffed , wooden framed , oval mirror .

she would not turn around at all to face them , choosing to speak to them only while watching their reflections from the mirror , "you go now , may-grace a little tired . i gonna sleep a bit . come back later an i tell you what THEY tell me bout yo grandboy ."


later that day , towards evening when they returned , the old man made the boy wait outside on the porch as the seer told him what THEY had told her about the boy .

although through the dried rain streaks of the window he could clearly see them talking , brayan showed little interest and paid more attention to a praying mantis chewing in the leaves than to the two elders .

after a few minutes , when boredom animated him , he got up and walked around , stepped off the porch and kicked at a stone .

not much later , grandfather finally came out and as they walked away , the overturned stone revealed an earthworm tunneling into the soil .


"she say you a great warrior born in the wrong time . a time when warriors are needed but never welcomed , never appreciated . she said you already got big power , but even more waiting for you . she said you got a lotta work ahead of you boy ...you gon be somethin . but you 'll never be like the rest and the rest'll never be like you ...they'll never like you ...because they'll never understand. "

"you'll be alone all yo life son , even when you get married and chillren , you'll still be alone . in a crowd of people you'll still stand alone. that'll be yo fate boy ...she said that's the price you'll pay for what you given ..." , grandfather paused and looking at the ground while they walked added , "she said to tell you she sorry."

"but why me grandpa ? did she say why me insteada somebody else ? "

"no she didn't say nothin bout that " grandfather answered .

"well , let's go back and ask her " , the boy suddenly pleaded .

" she said , don't ask her no more bout you" , replied the old man .