Clarke and Ceci
Clarke
The police officer who showed up spoke only Japanese. It took some effort, but finally they were able to locate enough people who could speak more than one language to form a chain of communication.
Clarke told the man who spoke English what happened. Luckily so did some bystanders, who made it clear that the other guy had started it and Clarke had simply defended himself.
Once the story was translated to Spanish, Italian, German, and finally Japanese, the officer dismissed the complaint, and the drunk and his friends left.
Clarke sighed.Okay, that’s the end of that.
But then the officer said something. What he’d said finally made it to the guy who spoke English.
“He wants to know if you’re a couple.”
Clarke hesitated.
Ceci glared at him. “Aren’t you going to answer him?”
“I don’t know what I should say. If you know, why don’t you answer him?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Because he asked you.”
“You’ve never hesitated to jump in before when something had nothing to do with you.”
“Nothing to do with me?”
“Okay, poor choice of words. I just meant, he asked me the question, not you.”
“And he and I are still waiting to hearyouranswer.”
Clarke’s heart was pounding. The heat radiating up his neck to his cheeks was going to have to come out of his ears, or his mouth when he spoke otherwise his head would explode.
Finally, he held out his arm indicating Ceci. “Do you know what this woman has done?”
The men quickly translated.
“Let’s see,” Clarke said, crossing his arms, “she gave me a black eye after I discovered her in the men’s room at a hotel.”
He waited while this information was translated.
“On our first date, she gave me another black eye. The next date, I got a split lip. After that a cut on my cheek, another split lip, a busted nose, a cut on my jaw that required stitches, and a bucket of water thrown over my head.” Clarke opened his mouth to continue, but the first man waved his hands.
“Hold on, you’re going too fast.” He then turned to the man next to him, and the entire story was translated down the line.
The men glanced at Ceci, shaking their heads and casting sympathetic looks at Clarke.
“This woman is dangerous, hazardous to my health. She should have some kind of warning emblazoned on her forehead, like a skull and crossbones.”
When this was translated, the men nodded, murmuring sounds of agreement.
“You tell me,” Ceci said, stepping forward. “If it were you and you were with a woman you really cared about, wouldn’t you do anything you could to keep her out of harm’s way, even if sometimes it meant getting a black eye or a bucket of water thrown in your face?”
Once translated, this appeared to impress the men. They puffed out their chests, extending their spines to stand at least one inch taller and shot disapproving looks at Clarke.
“Alter.”
“Tizio.”
