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[Leus – Part 1]
November 1st, 2007Leus – Part 1
I decided to start writing a story. Actually, a 50,000 word novel as part of NaNoWriMo.I’ll post it in sections here, as I write it. This content is exclusively mine and may not be used, copied, or whatever. Feel free to link people here, though. Also, this isn’t edited at all. That’s for December.
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Day 1
Emorto-Leus. That’s my name. I’m kidding. It’s the name of my rock band. Okay, I’m kidding again. I make a lot of jokes to myself that no one else would understand. As a matter of fact, I live a life that no one else would understand.
–A humble home, almost looking like a small barn, it’s far wider than deep. A large roof, brown in color, sits on the top of a slightly-lighter brown rectangular establishment. A small door on the right, which someone would almost have to look for to find, leads to the equally-as-humble inside of the home. Walking inside there’s a few doors on the right, with an open living room to the left. From there you can see over the half-wall into the small kitchen, and a small door to the back of the house. However, walking this far one would definitely have seen the man in his mid-twenties sitting, staring at a television. Between the man and the television sits a coffee table, sporting a glass top, with nothing but an open notebook on it. The television is rather large, but of the cathode ray tube variety, so is humble in its own right. Just looking at the man sitting on the couch isn’t particularly breathtaking either. Wearing what would be considered business-casual attire he seems well-groomed, but comfortable.”The name is Leus, you idiot! Lay-us,” the man yells at the television which is apparently on some sort of news program.
A deep sigh, “At least they didn’t show my picture, nor give my last name, not that my first name isn’t identifiable enough.” Laying back in his couch, Leus turns the television off. Sliding to the middle of the couch, he kicks his feet up, lays his head on the end of the suede couch and takes a nap.
“Come this way, Louis, and we’ll get a few more tests started.” A doctor in the standard white coat says over his shoulder.
“It’s Leus. Lay-us.” Leus says to the doctor walking briskly in front of him.
“My apologies, Leus. If you step into examination room two, here, we’ll get started with some of the preliminary tests for today. It’s mostly like a physical with some blood work that we’ll look into. Much more involving than a physical on our end, but it should be rather run-of-the-mill to you.”
“Fantastic. All of you doctors always pretend like I haven’t gone through this before. You should really read those charts more thoroughly,” Leus says with a sigh.
“I’ve read your file extensively, Leus.” He repeats his name a few times to himself, like he’s trying it out. “We are about as excited as you are, you know. This is a big deal to us.”
Leus raises his pitch a little, “fair enough.” Hoping it should end the conversation.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, bang.
Leus slams his hand on the alarm clock next to his couch. Looking around dazed, he wipes his eyes.
“Five o’clock already.” He sighs out the words as he reaches for the phone, typing away at a number he knows well. The telephone rings a few times.
“Hello?” A faint, timid voice.
“Hey, Ali, it’s Leus. You ready to go?” There is a slight air of anxiety in his voice.
“Oh, yeah, I guess. It’s that time already?”
“Yep. See you in a bit?”
“Yeah, I’ll come pick you up right now; do we have time to get something to eat first?”
“Yeah, probably. I don’t mind keeping them waiting a few minutes.”
“Awesome, I’ll be there in less than a half an hour.”
“Alright, bye.” And Leus hangs up the phone, not awaiting a response. Just another quirk of his, figuring that if you’re just waiting for them to give you a farewell back, there isn’t information being transferred, it’s just another waste of time.
Walking back to his bedroom he picks up the notebook from the coffee table and stops in the bathroom. Taking out his razor he sufficiently foams up his face, and shaves slowly, methodically, and with a very steady hand. After putting on some deodorant, he completes his journey to his often-disregarded bedroom. He chooses some khaki pants and a button down shirt, setting the notebook on the top of his dresser.
“Casual enough for comfort, boring enough so that I won’t get any questions or comments.” He decides for himself. After dressing and returning to catch a few minutes of some television show, he’s interrupted by a car horn outside.
“That didn’t take long,” he says to Ali as he enters the car. Ali is a rather good looking girl, also in her mid twenties. She met Leus in high school and went to the same college as him. They have a friendly relationship that never escalated without any particular reason. They fell apart a bit after college, but recently began spending time together again.
“I figured I’d hurry a bit, today might be rather exciting.” She says enthusiastically, looking to Leus for his approval.
“I suppose, we have to get something to eat first, though, I’m hungry.”
“Deal.” She says, rather delighted. “You know, I don’t have to sit in my car and honk the horn, I could come up to the door.”
“I like the car horn, it’s efficient. You don’t have to walk as much, and we don’t need to engage in any sort of thanks-for-answering-the-door conversations, followed by asking if I’m ready. I don’t need to hurry to answer the door to make sure you aren’t sitting on my porch waiting, which would follow with me having to finish whatever I was doing. Car honking is just efficient.” He trails off a bit as he talks, noticing that she isn’t paying as much attention in hearing it as he was formulating his reasoning in his head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to rant.”
“It’s fine, I like hearing you talk.” She replies almost chuckling. “So, where would you like to eat?”
“Let’s go to Key’s. It’s on the way.” He laughs to himself inaudibly, just another joke to himself that no one else would catch.
The car arrives at Key’s, a fantastically unremarkable diner. It seems slightly in need of maintenance, all of which has been done entirely from the love of the family owned diner. An almost ugly driftwood-looking exterior leads some false conclusions about the interior, which is rather clean and containing a rather smile-faced hostess ready to seat people.
“Just two?” The hostess says as the duo walk in the building.
“Yes, Carolyn.” Leus replies, making a note to read her name-tag to be more polite.
The two are sat at a small booth, comfortable only for two, near the window. Leus looks out the window, quietly, as the hostess hands them the menus and explains the daily specials.
“Thank you,” Leus says as she walks in the back of the restaurant. She arrives with their drinks and he thanks her again when she heads back to her outpost to vibrantly welcome the next visitors.
“So, are you nervous, anxious, or neither?” Ali says towards Leus, who has resumed looking out the window.
“Mostly tired, a little anxious,†he says, keeping his eyes focused out the window.
“Well, I’m anxious and very optimistic. I don’t think they’d have been as optimistic as they have been if they didn’t expect it to work. Just imagine you could live to eighty.”
“But I don’t particularly want to live to eighty. I’m just pleased living a rather full live for the next few years.”
Ali lowered her head, always hating to hear him point out his own mortality. They waited in silence until their waitress came to take their order. Having given their order, Leus looks to the waitress and thanks her by name, again checking her name tag.
“Sorry,†they both said, quietly and simultaneously, not even hearing the other say it.
“Anyway,†Leus continued, “I guess I’m just living life right now, doing things to rather just spend my time or to keep life exciting for a bit.†He reached into his pocket, pulling out a pack of cigarettes. He takes one, lights it, gets an ashtray and returns to the booth he was sat at.
“When did you start smoking?â€
“It’s a habit I started a few months ago. The way I figure it, it’s just another thing to do in a day with which I pack as much into as I can. I mean, it doesn’t allow me to spend my free time running up and down stairs,†he pauses to chuckle, “but it’s something to do in life’s little ten minute breaks.â€
Ali sighs, but doesn’t protest. The food arrives after a while and they eat in silence, get up, pay, and leave in a continued silence. Once in the car, Ali begins questioning, “So, do you still work?â€
“No. I quit a while back. I didn’t see much of a point in it. I didn’t have any sort of career to expect in the future and I didn’t need any money because of the settlement.â€
“You got a settlement?â€
“Yeah it wasn’t a ton, but enough to live off of comfortably on my own.†He pauses for a bit, “okay, I live pretty comfortably because my parents help out. They like to facilitate most of the entertainment I seek, leaving the settlement to cover my house payments and other random bills. Speaking of which, do you want to go sky diving with me sometime in the next few days?â€
“Sky diving!†Ali shrieks. “Not particularly. Sounds a little to intense for my tastes.â€
“Oh, come one. You only live once. What? Are you going to do it later in life? Maybe wait until I’m not around any more?†Leus giggled a bit to himself, to diffuse the rather morbid question he semi-hypothetically posed to his friend.
“Ugh! Fine, I’ll go with you. You pick a day, call me, and I’ll go, just not early in the morning because I have to work until four.â€
“Deal.â€
The conversation then came to a close until the clinic came into view.
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