Jen Air: Chapter One

This is just an excerpt from the first chapter of a story I’m writing, just introducing one of the main characters as an adult.

Chapter One

Kaya Cade didn’t believe in fate or destiny or in any form of confectionary with messages printed on, and yet some things she knew were just inevitable.  It was just down to who she was, who her parents were, her environment – some combination of all those things meant she really had no choice in the decisions she made and so there was nothing anyone could have done to prevent her punching that smug idiot in the face and ending up in the back of a police car.  It was a pity she couldn’t afford a lawyer.

It was a somewhat grey and murky day.  Outside, across the street, Sergeant Delainy was arguing with a floppy haired blond twit holding a handkerchief over his nose, outside the musical instrument store ‘B Naturals’ that Kaya was now a former employee of.  Inside the car, Sergeant Daramy was eating nuggets.  Kaya couldn’t do anything but sit.  Well, she could fix her hair.  She caught sight of herself in the mirror, with her brown eyes and hair with various differently coloured streaks.  One of the bands to the tail on the left side of her head had come loose.  As she fixed that, she noticed her necklace, an ancient stone arrowhead that she had drilled a hole into.  She didn’t know why she held onto it… she supposed it was a reminder that life wasn’t always so crappy.

“What is that?” Sergeant Daramy asked, obviously checking on her.

Kaya explained, “just something I’ve had since I was a kid.”

“Ah.  Like a good-luck charm?”

“I wouldn’t say that.  I mean, if it is, it hasn’t been working very well, has it?  It does calm me down, sometimes.”

“Of course, it could also be used as weapon.  You wouldn’t be thinking about stabbing me now, would you Cade?”

“If I am, I promise you’ll be the first to know.”

“Fair enough,” he kept eating his nuggets.

In the absence of anything else to do, Kaya decided she might as well make conversation.  “So… how’s the family?”

“My cousin is getting married, again.  They’ve been ringing up all week, planning the wedding.  Just can’t decide on what music to have at the reception,” Daramy rolled his head back, a thought obviously occurring to him.  “What was the name of your band?”

“The Killer Aqua Bunnies.”

“Oh.  I don’t suppose you play show tunes?”

“We did do a punk rock version of Annie once, but… no, we’re probably not what you’re looking for.”

“Pity.  We pulled over a school bandleader last week for drink driving. Could have had him owe me a favour, but… just was not thinking ahead.”

“Right,” Kaya wasn’t sure if that was opportunism or corruption, or… actually, she didn’t care.  She leant forward and asked, “you’re not really arresting me for this are you? I mean, I hardly touched the guy.”

“He says you tried to make him swallow a trombone.”

“Only up to the second slide.  I’m telling you this whole thing has been blown way out of proportion,” she sat back, frustrated. “Anyway… he only came in to harass Sarah.  I had to do something. He was being a jerk.”

“He is a jerk. I’ve met him. But you cannot keep going around picking fights with every jerk you see.  Think about has happened because you lost your temper.  Now you have lost your job and might go to jail. You might have broken his nose, but he will just get a new one.”

“I get it,” Kaya grimaced, “I’ll never try to stand up for anyone or do the right thing ever again.”

Daramy rolled his eyes and sighed, “that is not what I…”

Before he could elaborate further on what he meant, a door clicked open and Kaya was pulled out of the vehicle.  Sergeant Delainy had evidently finished his discussion with the aggrieved.

“Mister McCall has decided not to press charges,” the unshaven officer explained, “lucky you. Now get out of here.”

“Okay,” Kaya shrugged and started walking away.  Ahead of her she saw that creep Kyle McCall with his arms around Sarah, no doubt whispering more lies in her ear about how much he loved and cared about her and how he only got angry because of how passionate he was, and she was sappy and trusting enough to actually believe it all…

“No, no, no,” Delainy said, stopping and turning the punkette around by her shoulders.  “Other way.  I don’t want to see you again today.”

“You know that guy’s a creep, right?”

“I know. But unless she comes forward there’s nothing we can do about it,” he explained. Kaya inclined her head, disappointed.  “Don’t look at me like that. Someone will look into it, okay?  But you need to stay out of trouble.”

Kaya took a deep breath.  She supposed he was right.  There really didn’t to be a whole lot she could do, short of killing Kyle.  As entertaining as that was to think about, it just wasn’t her. “Sure thing, dibble.”

“It’s Delainy.”

“Whatever.”

As they were talking, the other dibble, Daramy, wound down his window to inform his partner that they had a call.

“All right,” Delainy immediately rushed round to get in.  “I mean it, Cade. Stay out of trouble.”

She smiled and gently waved them off.  Unfortunately, now that she had the rest of the day free, staying out of trouble might prove difficult.