The Story of Samo: Flashback Story Two
Chapter Three turned out a little shorter than the first two, so here is the second of three flashback stories. Hopefully, they’ll provide a little more insight. Enjoy
—
Kia sped up as he tried to keep pace with Kiara, much to his chagrin. He was being beaten in a foot race by a girl. Granted, that girl was his sister and she did have longer legs than he did, but he was still being beaten by a girl. She was five yards ahead of him, and gaining. They did not usually race each other, mostly because he didn’t want to be seen getting beaten by a girl, which he would. In fact, they never raced just for the sake of racing. That wasn’t why they were running. Kia yelled out, “Kiara, wait for me! He’ll still be there!”
Kiara turned and said, “No, you’re just embarrassed you’re getting beaten by a girl.”
Pulling his face into a grimace, Kia huffed as he raced forward, gaining five yards on her. Then, as the ten-year-old ran, his foot struck a cobblestone and caused him to fall. He howled in pain when he landed, as his knee had struck a stone. Sitting on the stones, he sat there and cradled his knee. Kiara marched up to him and said, “Oh, get up. It’s not that bad.”
“Yes it is!” he answered. “My knee’s broken! I shattered my tibia. My kneecap is cracked.” Kiara crouched down and roughly jabbed a finger at his knee. He whimpered in pain and said, “See? It hurts to touch it.”
“If it was broken,” she said, as she put her arm under his and pulled him up. “You wouldn’t have whimpered like that when I touched it. You would have screamed louder than mom’s cat.”
He limped forward. “It still hurts.” When Kiara put her arm around his shoulder, he said, “Thanks for waiting, sis.”
“Oh, I didn’t want to. I just couldn’t leave the little baby on the ground like that.”
He backed away. “What did you call me?”
She gave a mischievous smirk and said, “Nothing. I called you absolutely nothing.”
“That’s more like it.” As they walked, with Kia limping on the knee he smacked on the stones,he said, “Why were you running, anyway? Going to meet your boyfriend?”
She smacked him on the shoulder and said, “He’s not my boyfriend! I just think he’s interesting.”
In response, he squawked a laugh. “Interesting? He’s an athlete, and a boring one at that!”
“Who are you talking about?” Kiara stopped and stared at him. She set her hands on her hips, something she had recently picked up from watching her mother and aunts, and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” As she tried to imitate the adults, even Kia could tell how far off and childish the imitation was. He chuckled as he watched her.
He said, “Weren’t you going to see Tarat?”
“No,” she said, glaring at him. “I mean, Tarat’s nice, and he’s cute, but he’s boring! I’m going to see Samo.”
“Oh.” Kia’s absolute lack of enthusiasm practically dripped to the ground as the word came from his lips. “That guy.”
Kiara turned and stalked away. “And what’s wrong with Samo?” she asked.
He followed after her. “I don’t know. I don’t think he likes me very much, and I got hit with one of the mud balls that his machine was throwing around.”
“Well, you deserved it!” She whirled on him and said, “You and your friends!”
“I didn’t do anything!” Now it was his turned to stalk away, causing his sister to giggle at him, which caused him only more consternation. “It’s not like I ever did anything.”
She followed him and put her arm around his shoulder. Gently leading him down a side street, she said, “That’s the problem. You’re friends were picking on him. You did nothing. Therefore, you were picking on him. That’s the way he sees it.”
“And how do you know the way he sees it?” He looked around the street at the houses. He had never been on this road before. It was narrower than most, but still wider than the paths of the Old City, where you could barely walk fifteen people shoulder to shoulder. “Where are we?”
She answered, “We’re going to see Samo.” Then, as if remembering that he had asked a question before that, she said, “Oh, and he told me that’s how he sees it.”
“He told you that?” Kia began to get nervous. “How often have you come here?”
“This is my third time coming. We’re almost there.”
Before he could ask anything else, Kia was shocked by a crashing noise coming down the street. It sounded like a young boy shouting and hooting as a forest of…something, followed after. He was shocked even more when, around the bend, came what looked like a young boy shouting and hooting as a forest followed after. Rather, he was on top of it. The thing that the boy rode was built of wood, with metal joints, and appeared to have six legs. Bars and axles hung between the legs, pulling them and making them walk. In the middle, where they were joined, it looked like a wood-built insect. The body was truly more like a spider’s body than and ant’s however. The boy in the carriage was small and blond. His face was covered in grease, and so was his blond hair, making him almost a brunette.
Kia and Kiara ran out of his way as he charged up them. Passing, he shouted, “Hey Kiara! Sorry I can’t stop. I forgot to add that part!” He turned around the next corner, shouting, “I’ll see you back at the garage!”
Kia gaped after him as Kiara giggled. He said, “What in the thrones was that?”
“That was Samo, silly. You know him.” She tugged at his arm, pulling him toward the garage. Just around the corner where Samo and his machine originated, they found the old mechanic, Gianan standing at the open door. He said, “Ah, Kiara. Good to see you again. Samo should be back soon.”
“I know. We just saw him.” Then, as if remembering something, she stopped and said, “Oh, this is my brother, Kia. Kia, this is Master Gianan.”
Kia bowed slightly and said, “Hello, sir.”
As Gianan was commenting on his politeness, Samo came careening down the road and pulled the machine into the garage, forcing the three bystanders to run out of the way. Then, for the next five minutes, he wrangled with the controls to try to slowly bring it down without completely crashing it. When he finally got it to the floor, he jumped out and shouted, “It works! It works! I knew it would work!”
“Yes, son,” Gianan said, indulgently and proudly. “You were right again. Now, we need to figure out how to make it so you don’t run people over.”
“Yeah, that’s kind of important,” Kia said.
Samo turned to him and glared. “Oh, you. I see you got the mud cleaned off.”
Kiara said, “That’s kind of why I wanted to bring him here.”
As Gianan walked to the back of the garage, Kia said, “Yeah, I don’t really want that to happen again.”
“Well, maybe you should pick your friends a little more wisely.” As Samo spoke, the three children heard Gianan snort with laughter. Samo beamed proudly and said, “Master Gianan tells me that a lot.”
Kia nodded. Stepping forward, he reached out his hand and said, “Truce?”
“Keep your friends away from my blueprints?” Samo stuck his hands in his pockets and said, “Do that and we can have a truce.”
He kept his hand out and said, “What friends? You just said to pick my friends wisely. I’m doing that right now.”
Samo smiled and pulled his hand out of his pocket. Clutching Kia’s hand, he said, “Stay away from them tomorrow. I’ve got a real stinker set up for them. You don’t want to get caught in it.”
Tales of the Inventor's War 