Graveyard Gossip - Cabin in the Swamp

"Yup. That ah do" he said pulling some out. "Want me ta' peel 'em?"

She shook her head with a smile.

"No, just wash them and dice them. We'll roast them if you've got a pan for the oven."

"Yup" he nodded while doing as she asked. "Ah used to be something of a cook in mah army days. C rats got old, and Chet liked to scavenge around. Tell ya what, them gooks make good food. Ah still make a mean pho"

She smiled and said probably the most shocking thing she could have:

"I've never tried it."

"Ah see, ya alls is gonna have to bring yer Tremere ass back here some night, and bring the enormous kitty cat, and Chet whip ya up a proper gook feed."

She smiled.

"You know, Chet, I might just take you up on that offer. When are you usually free?"

"Ever night near enough" he chuckled

She laughed and continued adding spices. Garlic, rosemary, thyme...

"Should I call first?"

"Eh, guess so? You do that teleportation thang yer kind does sometimes? Jest show up and knock iffun ya want. Bethy be outside, or with me, or in her cage."

She shook her head.

"No, I don't teleport. Car is easier."

Waitaminute. Blink, blink.

"Cage?"

"Yeah" he said with a shrug "Cage. Her choice, not mine. Makes her feel safe, Chet just nods and accepts it. She put that collar on herself too. She want to feel totally owned by me, ah let her. Makes her feel safe and secure, so be it."

She nodded slowly.

"Ah...okay...makes sense, I guess..."

"Only person ah ever done met who becomin' a Malk made saner"

She laughed.

"I don't think that's a measure of insanity. Normal people do it, too."

"Yah, that ah know. It be the other stuff. Maybe if ya all become friends you'll see. This is Bethy with some of the pieces put back, and ah think the madness helps, because yano... it be a madness that enlightens, not a madness that destroys"

She nodded.

"I've heard that about Malks."

He paused for a moment, as his eyes went distant and then came back normal, and he moved over into 'look, I actually read books and am educated' speech

"When I was embraced, I was laying in a hospital bed doped up on painkillers. My entire chest had caved in, and all my ribs broken. Two punctured lungs, and I had a concussion on top of it all, along with a broken arm, and cracked leg. Getting shot down by Charlie with a rocket does that to you. Day in and day out, I'd been flying ops; dropping men off, pulling them back out, flying fire support, and sometimes escorting medivac units. Watched my escort go down that day; I did all I could, but that didn't stop them from going down. But they were able to land more or less safely, which was something I guess. I staid up and kept Charlie off them; me and a couple of others. Another bird came and pulled the folks off the medivac, and we all high tailed it out; I was running low on fuel. Never saw the rocket coming. Door gunner got killed I found out later."

"Spent several weeks in and out of a coma, and not very lucid. I knew I'd been shipped back stateside, and I knew I wasn't going back to the hellhole of Vietnam. In between morphine shots, I started feeling guilt for still being alive, guilt for the medivac being shot down, for poor Pat dying. All my fault, and here I was still alive. That gnawed at me, as well as the effects of the trauma. Then one night, an orderly came in and made it all better. At the moment between death and rebirth, I saw it all Alexandria. The whole of creation, the entire meaning of life and the universe; and no I'm pretty sure it isn't 42. But I saw it all, felt it all, knew it all. For one brief shining moment, it was all laid out and apparent to me. Then my mind broke from the sheer magnitude of it all. That my dear Tremere ghoul is what it means to be Malkavian. To be forever chasing a shard of the enlightenment you once had, knowing that the madness you feel is what protects you from being destroyed, because you actually *understand* "

She smiled, even reaching over to put a hand gently on his arm.

"That makes perfect sense. And is very poetic."

He smiled back at the ghoul. "Thank ya. Ah try. And be rather well read. Ya ever read Robert W. Service? "

She shook her head.

"I can't say that I have."

"Hear ah go, always with the enlightening. Pho, proper poetry. Them Tremere actually takin' care of you?" he teased while heading over to a bookshelf that seemed rather out of place in the cabin, and pulled down a complete collection of Service's poems.

Thumbing through there, the Malk started to read a poem although he might have known it from heart. Once he finished, Chet handed the book to Alexandria.

"Read it, and bring it back whenever yer done"

She took the book from him and hugged it to her chest.

"I will. And I'll bring it back to you just as if it never left."

"Ain't no hurry" he smiled "What's yer favorite thing ta' read?"

She smiled.

"Charles Dickens."

"Dickens is good. Ah read Christmas Carol to Bethy every year"