Chapter 6
The restaurant was referred to as Grub, a little breakfast cafe where the less-than-fortunate could go to pay very little for enough food to keep them full for the entire day if needbe. There were some twenty booths, a few tables, and a bar which never closed. It was quite common to find anyone from laborers to factory workers to farmers there at all hours of the day.
Between the hat and the bright dress and nice teeth, Ivory stuck out amongst the crowd like a sore thumb, sitting across the table from Joshua.
At almost every moment, he or she would catch someone glancing at them or even turning around entirely from the bar to get a look at the high class interruption seated before them. Joshua nor Ivory had done much talking since leaving his barn, as the walk over provided an all-eyes-on-deck experience for the young woman; Joshua repeated himself the entire way over in saying nobody meant her any harm, they just didn’t see many folks from out of town.
Joshua lifted his eyes from the menu, noticing that Ivory hadn’t looked down at hers yet as it was still on the tablespace beside her. “You gonna eat?” he asked, “not very fancy like you know, but it’s good. I promise.”
Her fingers wrapped into little balls in her lap. Fancy like you know. “Everyone’s watching me and I don’t know what to do.” Her voice was somewhere between angry and desperate.
Joshua took one last glance at his menu, using his finger for a placeholder. His eyes grew gentle, warm. “I don’t think it’s your first time around a group of people.”
“No, of course not.” Her eyes darted from his to the curious pair of children at the table behind who were smiling at her.
“Alright, so it’s not social. Everyone’s just new to you, and you’re new to them, so you’re both in the same boat. Do your best to be natural and without even trying those nerves will go away.” When Ivory asked him if he was a doctor he said, “No, but I know what it’s like to be surrounded by people that are different than you. I bounce around a lot for work, and most of the time I’d never have anything to do with them if I didn’t have to.”
“You mean people like me?”
“Yes, people like you.”
Ivory had a splash of red over her face and asked him why he hated her people so much. Joshua told her it was just the way the world worked; he told her that her people hated him, Ivory thought of her father, and said that’s the way it’s always been and the way it’ll always be. He said people with money will always look to keep people without money where they are so they don’t lose control of their luxury.
Ivory kept quiet a while, flipping open her menu to scan through it. She went back and forth between the pages multiple times before closing it. “I’ll have eggs with ham, and a coffee,” she said. Joshua nodded and smiled.
Joshua got up and walked to the bar, giving their order to the girllman. While his back was turned, Ivory waved and smiled to the curious children from before, who smiled back before dropping into the booth beside their parents. By the time Joshua sat back down, Ivory knew exactly what she wanted to talk about:
His family; she asked him about his mother and father and if he had any siblings.
Joshua sighed, looking around the busy establishment before landing on the excitement slapped every which way across Ivory’s face. He started from the beginning, telling that he and his older brother, Joseph, were dropped off with their aunt when they were still young and their parents never returned. Ivory’s face gave away that she’d never heard such an interesting story before. He continued, telling of them often running away from home as a result of the uncle who liked to get drunk and punch things, eventually escaping for good when they were both young teenagers.
Their coffee was brought over, they each took a sip. “Does your brother live in town?” Ivory asked.
“No, Joseph doesn’t live around here,” Joshua said, “truth be told I have no idea where he lives. Haven’t seen him in four or five years, he just packed his things one morning and took off, said he had to see the rest of the world because he wasn’t willing to die here.” Joseph laughed and sipped again, “He always was the wild one, hated the idea of doing the same thing every day, think maybe he was scared of safety.”
“And you prefer safety?” Ivory drank from her steamy cup.
“I prefer knowing there’s a good chance I’ll wake up in the morning.”
The silence between them was cut by the sound of rustling plates being set on their table, to which they each thanked the little girl who brought them over. Joshua let Ivory take the first bite, who thought it was excellent, and then he attacked his sausage, biscuits, and gravy. The silence between them resumed, each busy working through their meals a bit. Joshua wiped his mouth with a cloth and cleared his throat.
“What about you?” Joshua asked, “any family?”
Ivory smiled a smile that led Joshua to believe she’d never once been asked about her personal life by someone who actually cared about the answer. She made sure to chew and swallow every last chunk in her mouth before speaking, wiping at the corners of her lips and smiling.
“I am an only child,” Ivory began, “I live with my father and the family is full of aunts and uncles who live out of state, thank god.” She paused, looking up. “We have a number of people who live at the house to help out and they’re as good as family in my book, so yeah.” She was still smiling, eagerly awaiting Joshua’s input.
“And your mother?”
“Ahh, I forgot. She died when I was young. T.B.”
Joshua felt himself turn blue. “I’m sorry.”
Ivory hadn’t stopped smiling. “My father says I’m so much like her, which I hope is a good thing for him.”
“Do you ever miss your parents?”
Joshua continued eating. “No. I don’t have any memories of them so there’s nothing for me to miss or think about. I don’t miss my aunt and uncle, that’s for sure,” he laughed. “I shouldn’t say that, my aunt was fair enough.”
“Do you miss her?”
“I miss her cookies,” again he laughed.
Ivory looked away a moment before saying he sounded like her father just then, with his ability to compartmentalize everything, including human existence. Joshua told her he didn’t mean anything by it, but it’s just the cycle of life and pondering it won’t bring them back. The pair finished their meal in silence.
Within an instant, Joshua was a kid in a candystore. “Hey, wanna shoot a gun?”
Ivory was no stranger to guns. For as long as she could remember, there were guns around her. She knew every gun in their house, inside and out, the process from start to finish, her father was the mogul of the region for gun manufacturing and loved hunting. Despite all of this, never once had she held a gun, let alone shoot one.
But there she was at a little range, surrounded by everybody that didn’t look or talk or dress like her in the middle of a nice warm day.
She and Joshua stepped up to the line as instructed, Joshua playing coach as he handed over the revolver which sunk in her hand a bit.
“Don’t be afraid of it, they all have a little weight to them,” Joshua said, “it’s just a tool, like a hammer or a shovel.”
He spoke as he took hold over her waist, getting her feet lined up with her shoulders. She was smiling, even giggling, for most of the time. He’s so strong. Then, with Joshua’s assistance, she extended her arms, revolver locked in her grasp, pointing towards the target.
Joshua was behind her, speaking into her ear now. “I want you to aim down the barrel, line it up with that target.” The target was a glass bottle some ten yards away. “Trigger needs a little squeeze. Once you do there’s gonna be a loud pop and a kick on the gun, don’t be afraid of it, it’ll always be there. I’m going to take my hands away now.”
And so he did, allowing Ivory to hold the gun all on her own, but he kept his mouth close to her ear. “Finger on the trigger,” he instructed and she followed, “now begin to squeeze until it surprises you.” The pull was immediately harder than she thought, but she continued to squeeze until…
Bang!
Ivory gasped, mouth open with eyes full of bliss. She looked back to Joshua who was smiling with a nod. He stepped up beside her and pushed down on her arms to get the gun pointed at the dirt.
“Next time we’ll work on hitting the bottle,” Joshua said with a hand on her hip.
Ivory looked at the tall glass structure in front of her and laughed. “Next time. But oh my word, Joshua, I’ve never felt anything like that before. The power!”
“That really was your first time shooting a gun, daughter of an arms manufacturer?”
“Yes. And suddenly I regret never having done it before now!” She raised her arms to shoot once more and Joshua stepped behind her. Finger on the trigger she took in a series of deep breaths, suddenly everything around her ceased to exist; the onlookers hoping to see another girl that couldn’t shoot, the wind howling across her face, even Joshua was gone. I hope this is what dying feels like. She squeezed the trigger, bang!
There was a symphony of shattered glass.
Not a moment before Ivory Irons hit her very first target did her father walk into her bedroom to find it completely empty.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone