A meeting by chance

[Elam Vos]

The quiet man sat calmly in the back of a small diner his plain white clothes and head band designed for comfort and cleanliness. He had taken a simple job as even warriors needed to eat but had not had a customer in hours.

His shape knife slid through the outer layer of a carrot and effortlessly over it's length to remove the peel. In a hour or so the diner would be a hole in the wall pub and he may as well get ready now. Slice after slice peelings fell into the compost container as he sat upon his stool. The soft tones of a zarbrak viol played over the small speakers and he began to hum. He wiped a bit of carrot juice from his cheek as he thought about life and his future. What a day.

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

As was usual, Zandra herself had taken a small part time job at the diner as well. She was entertainment on weekends, singing in the corner with the local band, but on the week days, she worked in the kitchen too, sometimes taking up the job of a waitress when they were short on staff. Today, she chopped meat on a cutting board. Raw, juicy, bloody. Reminded her of home. Zandra was hardly the cook her daughter was, but she wasn't bad. No complaints so far.

"'Ey," she called to the person slicing carrots across the kitchen, "Don't think I've seen you here before. You new?"

[member="Gaijin"]

 

[Elam Vos]

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

He looked up from his work at the blond haired woman with the slender face and long limbs. She was lovely, too much so to be wasting her time here he was sure. They had never met, in truth it was the third day if his first week and he'd met very few people.

He wiped his knife on his apron as he dropped a peeled carrot into a pot for later cooking and nodded before picking up another.

"Yes." he said in a thick accent, "Tis me Thir-ed day. "

He kept his eyes on his knife as he worked at another carrot. He was still suffering amnesia and had a great many areas in which he was uncertain how to behave. Talking to women with hair like silken rays of sun and skin like alabaster was most certainly on his list.

"Dry hire me to cewk." he said not looking up "and clean Afta Oww'ers."

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Ah. A new one. Zandra worked here on and off for the past few months. Coming in to work when she had time. The owner was a very old friend. Very old. He always made time to schedule her when he could. She smiled, slicing the meat into long strips.

"Welcome aboard. I'm Zandra," she said, picking up the entire cutting board and taking it over the the stove top, "What's yer native language? If I know it, might be easier for you that way."

Zandra knew many languages in this Galaxy. She picked them up here and there. Useful in her trade. Piracy brought her everywhere and put her into business dealings with people of all races and walks of life. Of course, her daughter was the one with the real talent for tongues. Much of an introvert as she was, she studied language as a hobby, and she could pick a language up fast and speak it as if it were her native tongue. Zandra... was a good bit less talented.

[member="Gaijin"]

 

[Elam Vos]

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

He shook his head and dropped another carrot. He didn't remember much but his native language, Chi'sani, was one of the few things that stuck. However, the closest thing to his language he had encountered was known as Atrisian but it was close. He looked up at her and smiled politely at her kindness in offering to speak his own language.

"My tongue is called Chi'sani. It is close to Atrisian or so I'm told." he said pleased that it was rather clearly spoken for once.

He tore his storm-cloud grey eyes from hers and placed them back to his work.

"I am glahd to meet yew Zandra." he said making quick work of another carrot before moving quickly on to potatoes. She was too pretty. It made his hands sweat and his throat dry. It was the strangest thing.

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Sizzling from the burner almost made it hard to hear. She let the meat cook, occasionally turning it to cook through. She wondered what sort of meat this was. Not Uxi, surely. She'd recognize the scent of bloody uxi. Rawnie brought one home every time she went out hunting. The girl could track anything. Zandra was much less skilled.

"Sorry," she sighed, "I don't think I know that one after all. Do you know anything else? Huttese maybe?"

That was another common one, and the language that Zandra herself had become very familiar with over the years. It was comfortable on her tongue.

[member="Gaijin"]

 

[Elam Vos]

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]


"Ah" he said wiping his cheek with the back of his hand, "I know some of dat one. "

He switched to gutted which he knew a little better than basic although he some times said the wrong word from time to time.

"Where are you from? " he asked trying his hand at small talk and hoping not to ask inappropriate things. He slid his knife around a potato carefully removing the skin with strong calloused hands. His fingers were beginning to wrinkle from the juices in the carrots and now potatoes. This was not a prestigious job but it was sufficient for him to live on and the company was nice to talk to...not bad to look at either.

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Good. A common language. She turned the meat again, smiling at the boiling blood.

"Originally? A long way from here. Home of the Echani. Now I live..."

She paused, biting her lip. Where exactly? Her ship, mostly. Not Mandalor. That was where...

"Well, my family lives on Mandalor. My late husbands home. And you?"

[member="Gaijin"]

 

[Elam Vos]

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

Echani? Mandalore? He knew nothing of either or perhaps he had just forgotten. The starchy smell of uncooked potatoes mixed with the smell of cooked meat and gave him a feeling of calm along with a sense of home.

"I am sorry for your loss. " he remarked as she said her husband was no longer among the living and he meant it. His storm cloud grey eyes seemed to emulate the thunderheads they resembled as he looked up and tried to think of where he was from. He could remember nothing before he found himself in the blood fields of the nether regions. He had come through a gate and ended up on a world he didn't recognize and then began to wander. What could he say to make that sound less crazy?

"I...I have no home and I can't remember where I came from." he said plainly without telling his wild tale. "You are maybe the third person I've talked too since getting off the public transport. Do you miss your family. " too forward perhaps, like a curious child but he was ignorant of customs and wouldn't know he asked a personal question to a stranger.

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Sorry for your loss. Zandra hated hearing that. It had taken her nine years just to accept that he was gone for good. Now that she'd finally come to accept it, it stung all over again, the mourning. She bit her lip and sprinkled some herbs into the pan.

"I miss my son and my daughter," she answered, purposefully avoiding his eye, "I miss my husbands brothers and sisters. I even miss my damn son-in-law. But I can see them any time I want. It's just a few days trip back to Mandalore."

She turned down the heat and let the meat sizzle for a moment.

"I don't think I caught your name."

[member="Gaijin"]