Spoiled Rice, a sneak peek into the next story, book 2 of the real inky trails is coming soon. #ep027

Spoiled Rice is a sneak peek into the next story in the Real Inky Trails series, book 2 is called, Casting Shadow on the tattooed trail, coming soon

 

Here, this is it! This is chapter 19 of the Shad story. Well, just a peak in on ch. 19. 

Spoiled Rice

…He ought to be at a much higher place than this, but here he is.

Author of the Real Inky Trails series

Old soldiers like him never die, they just plan the war and sends young soldiers, or younger soldiers like Jay, for instance, send them to the battlefield to suffer, to bleed and to die. 

Not him though. No, he won’t die, this old soldier won’t let him die. He likes the guy, that’s actually the reasons why, why he had was to bother.

He is an old man now, have seen quite a bit in his lives, and in his times. Yes, I know. Some of you might be found to have issues with those terms, -lives and times. But as far as this old man is concerned, he has had many, very many, many a-lives and times.

The old man is sitting there in the corner and stroking his long whitebeard, stroking it with his slightly shaking right hand.

The overgrown fingernails every now and then would have hitched on a strand or two invoking more efforts into the rhythmic glide of his hand over the silvery-white woolly strands. 

In the left hand, he held a lit cigar

Across the dimly lit room, the other man, maybe 20 years or so his junior and the proprietor of the business was busily making himself look busy.

Jay is a hard worker and the chief cornerstone of the village, and maybe the whole region.

Every now and then he would have shot the old man a menacing look as he carried on doing yet more nothing.

Theirs had become a strained relationship in recent times, well, not really “theirs,” the old man has nothing against him.

In fact, he liked the guy. Like his daughter too, his whole family in fact.

That was actually what had gotten him in this mess in the first place.

He was looking out for his interest, and for that of his friends, and of the kingdom. He was looking out for the greater good of all.

Jay is the man around those parts, it is he who gets things done, throughout the whole region, they depended on him for any and everything.

The old man was a very wise man, had seen and done a lot in his time. He was a well-decorated veteran of the thousand-year war. Lost almost everything and everyone. Well, so said he. But.

He would have struck up a friendship with Mister Jay at the depot, and whenever he was not at the veteran’s office and service center, one would be more than likely to find him there at the depot, sitting, chatting and just wasting the time away.

The relationship would have become strained when the captain, that was what they all called him, “captain.” Or Capo. 

If he had any other name, few would have been those who would have known it. But the captain would have spoiled it. The relationship.

It was a rather busy day there at the depot, Jay was really busy that time, not just acting the part making himself look busy.

He had just received fresh supplies and was in the middle of stacking and re-stacking.

Jay was cleaning out the bins, tossing out the old and spoiled residues and putting the new ones in, in the proper places.

Captain had been watching, and lending a hand whenever and wherever it was needed.

And then, he would have ventured to offer a bit more than just a hand, -he would have offered up some advice. Wrong call? Or was it wrong timing? Same voice. That’s all.

Jay was into preparing the rice barrel, cleaning and making it ready for the new supply.

The old supply was old indeed, the remaining pound or two of rice there at the bottom of the barrel was dark and moldy, sure wasn’t any longer fit for human consumption.

So, Jay had ventured to throw it out. That was when and where the captain had was to step in.

“No,” he said, “you shouldn’t do that. You can’t just throw your money away like that.” “What are you talking about Capo?”

He didn’t bother to answer, not verbally anyway. The captain would have stepped up and taken the container with the spoiled rice, walked over to the place where the new supplies were, and then proceeded to toss handful after handful of the spoiled rice into the bin with the new.

“Are you out of your cotton-picking mind?” Jay would have lunged at him, pushing him aside, and taking the remainder of the spoiled rice out of the old man’s hand. And then he would have tossed it away.

He, the old man just sat there where he had fallen, leaned his back up against the wall n, looking at Jay and stroking his silvery beard.

Meanwhile, Jay would have been trying his best at picking out grain after grain of the spoiled rice from among the good ones in the bag while sulking and turning to cast menacing looks at the old man periodically.

He just sat there stroking still, and staring back at him. “I think you’d better go, just leave,” he said, to the old man, “go please.”

And that was what he did, he left, he’ll be back though, not many days hence.

He’s an old man, the time cards are stacked against him. Unlike the old saying which goes: you’ve got the watch but we’ve got the time.

No, the old man hasn’t, he hasn’t got that much time, so he has got to do what he has got to do he knows very well, and quickly.

He is back there on the following day, and Jay is at it again, busily making himself looks busy.

And casting menacing glances at the old man, who is sitting there again in his usual place and doing his usual things, or his nothings, and stroking his beard, smoking a cigar, and looking at him, looking at Jay. Looking back at him. 

Jay was adamant in his resolve that he would not be speaking to him ever again.

Two hours later, he would have narrowed it down a notch. Well, maybe sometime in the future but not today. They are talking now.

Well, he is talking, or more like asking questions, many questions, rhetorically. “How could you? What in the name of the gods got into you? What got into you?

Have you completely lost your bloody mind?” Jay rant at him, while pressing a spiraling and pointy finger up against the side of his head. He didn’t respond.

The captain if he is nothing else, is a wise man. He knew enough to have known that, no matter how many questions where coming at him from Jay in his current state, no answer, none at all would have made one iota of sense to him, no matter how logical or reasonable it might have been so, Capo the captain just continued doing what he has been doing, stroking, smoking, and watching Jay, still there doing what he does.

“You are a big, big man around here you know,” he would have said just before closing time, and before leaving for home before he would have been booted out by the fierce anger of Jay’s wrath.

They both have got a whole other night ahead of them to think on some things, but tomorrow is coming, and everyone knows that “Capo” the captain will be back, sitting there again and smoking, and stroking, and…

It’s a big shopping day today, most of the village folks are early in getting the shopping done.

Capo would have seen it all, as usual. He was always there, had his lunch there too, as usual.

Had not exchanged a word with grumpy old Jay yet though. But that will change soon.

They are alone together there again, nothing strange from the norm, only that, they had not been on speaking terms over the past couple of days, and yet more. But now?

“What is to become of them? What is going to happen to them?” The old man would have asked, seemingly, rhetorically. 

But it wasn’t his rambling rhetoric at all, the question was pointed squarely at Mister grumpy, I mean, at Jay.

Jay though would have just turned and cast a grudging glance at him before carrying on doing the nothings which he has taken to be doing more and more of-of late.

“Why, why? Want to tell me why you would have done something like that? Why, why?”

“Well, welcome back Mister G.” Jay would have stopped in his walking away tracks and turned to face him,

“G? What the hell are you talking about now?”

G, as in "grumpy.”

He would have fanned him off with a wave of the hand. Ah, ah and aahing some more at him, “lunatic,” he said.

“What do you think would become of them if you weren’t around? Yeah, I know, you seemed to think that I’m crazy, outright mad perhaps, but I’m doing them all a favor here, more than you are they, any of them themselves even know.”

Jay is listening now, he is leaning across the counter on an elbow and staring at the old man sideways, probably still thinking that the lunatic asylum is on a day off but he is nonetheless, listening.

“Did you get all of it? The spoiled rice, did you get every lost grain out from among the good ones?

Can’t afford to sell spoil rice to your very loyal customers now, can you? You have to throw it away.

Yeah. Throw it out, your money, but you’ve got to make absolutely sure that your customers don’t throw theirs away, their money is good but yours is bad, so go right on, go ahead. Go throw yours away so that they don’t have to throw theirs away.

We’ll see what become of them and their money when you are done and gone, or even before that, we’ll see what become of them when you are done broke after having thrown your money away.”

The old man was done, for now, he would have raised himself up from where he was sitting there, brushed his backside with sharp hand strokes back and forth.

Then he would have puffed smoke from his cigar and walked out leaving Mr. Jay there watching as he goes, he was sure that Jay was watching him, but he never even turned around to look back.

He will have a lot to think about tonight, and if he is as wise a person as the old man has come to regard him as being, he will surely have a different perspective on a few things, come tomorrow.

He still wasn’t in a talking mood come the following day, he would have cast quite a bit more lingering stares the old man’s way while he goes about doing his pile of nothing though.

A full week would have passed before they would have exchanged words further, be it on that or on any other matter.

But the old man has got things to say, and he was aware that the time cards were yet stacked against him, he didn’t have the luxury of messing and pussy-footing around the issues.

So he would have spoken, and just like he had thought, Jay was ready to listen.

“You are a big man Jay,” he said, “a very important pillar of this community. If you and your business should go under, the whole community would suffer, you are too big to fail…

That’s it for this excerpt.

The rest as I say is coming soon, be on the lookout.

  

Here is the bonus, (brawta) we promised you. This is chapter 19 in the next story in the real inky trails book series. A story called, Casting Shadow on the tattooed trail. You don't want to miss this one, trust me. 

Casting Shadow on the Tattooed trail is coming soon. And Ep. #028, coming soon. Be on the lookout. Don't forget to subscribe to this website to be notified on posts and updates. and also, subscribe to the youtube channel, iis4inkytv, like and share it too, the youtube channel is at, I is 4 inky, where you get a visual perspective of the story and hear the author read it. look for vids such as this, thank you.   Go get the elk's books and others on my Amazon bookshelf.  

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