Page 52 of The Seducer
“Khan, will you tell your brother to let me talk to Finn? He’s being difficult.”
“You haven’t seen difficult,” Magni muttered but it was Pearl’s face that came up, so he must have moved over a bit.
“Finn, what is going on between you and Athena?” she asked.
“Nothing. She needs time to undo the curse and has asked that I stay here for five days.”
“How many times must I tell you that there is no such thing as a curse, Finn?”
“Yeah, well, Athena says there is and she’s working to lift it.”
“And what is this curse supposed to do that is so bad?” Pearl asked.
“That’s personal,” I said and changed the subject. “How about the other men, have you had reports from them?”
“Yes, and they are exceeding my expectation. I’m very proud of all of them, and according to my mother the Motlanders are really impressed with them.”
I could hear deep laughter, and Magni reclaimed the connection with a sound of protest from Pearl. “They made Bruce Lee do some kind of balancing act on a toy.”
“It’s not a toy, it’s a bicycle,” Pearl commented behind him.
“Yeah, whatever it is, it was hilarious and the idiot kept falling on that stupid thing.” Magni was shaking his head and laughing. “Did you see them humiliate him on the news?”
“No.”
“First they showed him falling on his ass and then they interviewed him with a bloody nose. I’m telling you, Momsies might appear all sweet and fussy, but they are experts at emasculating a man.”
“We are not!” Pearl protested in the background.
“Hey, butt out of my conversation with Finn,” Magni said over his shoulder. “And don’t think I didn’t hear you ask Khan to hold your purse the other day. You might as well have cut off his balls.”
“I didn’t hold her purse,” Khan muttered loud enough for me to hear.
“But you considered it, and that’s weakness enough. I’m telling you, Finn, Momsies are a dangerous species and if you don’t watch out, man, one of them is going to suck out whatever masculine pride you have.”
“I’m not holding any purses,” I promised.
“Damn right you aren’t. And neither are you, Khan. Got it?”
“I wasn’t intending to,” Khan confirmed. “And Finn…”
“Yes sir, what is it?”
“I want you to stay away from dance classes. Bruce Lee made a fool out of himself on that bicycle and Richard was tricked into taking a dance lesson. It was a shameful moment in our country’s history.”
“I wish I could have seen it,” I said and chuckled.
“Yeah, well, the rest of us wish we could un-see it.”
“That’s not fair,” Pearl interjected. “Richard did his best and I thought he looked good.”
Magni rolled his eyes. “No six-foot-three, muscled man will ever do well in a ballet class. The man looked retarded the way he jumped around. It was a disgrace, and I don’t care what you say but there’s no way the Council didn’t plan this, just so they could humiliate us all.”
“They are trying to share our culture with you, and ballet is very popular in the Motherlands,” Pearl piped up.
“It’s guerilla war, is what it is,” Magni told her. “Don’t think I don’t see how Richard was ambushed.”
“You’ve got war on your mind, Magni,” Pearl complained. “Khan, will you say something, please?”
