Of all the major supporting characters of Senta and the Steel Dragon, I really think I like Eamon Shrubb the best. He’s just a big lovable guy, with a strong moral compass and a stiff upper lip. I just came up with him, because I needed another constable to work with Saba and his personality just appeared.
At that moment, Eamon opened the office door. He paused about halfway inside, looking at his wife the way a munitions expert looks at a bomb that didn’t go off as intended. She looked at the floor. After a moment, the constable stepped inside.
“You nesh berk,” said Saba. Eamon looked at him in surprise. “You take your wife home and see to her. I may not have two and a half months experience being married, but even I know you don’t fight with a woman who’s expecting.”
“She wanted to name the baby Yadira.”
“What’s wrong with that?” demanded Saba.
“Come on! That’s the worst name in the world.”
“My mother’s name,” said Dot.
“That happens to be my mother’s name, too,” said Saba.
“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that,” said Eamon.
“It’s not like Eamon’s a brilliant name.”
“I don’t want to name it Eamon either. If it’s a boy I want to name it Darsham, and if it’s a girl I want to name it Daria.”
“Darsham Shrubb? Why don’t you just name it ‘kick my ass on the way to school’ and have done with it.”
Eamon ballooned his cheeks out and rolled his eyes back to think for a moment. “It doesn’t sound that good when you put it all together, does it?”
“Here’s my advice, Mr. I’ve-been-married-two-and-a-half-months. Take the rest of the day off and take your wife home. Make her a cup of tea and rub her feet. Then let her decide what to name the baby. You can go get a kitten from Mrs. Gyffington, and name it Darsham, or Daria, or whatever the bloody hell you want to name it.”
“That’s right,” said Dot, taking Eamon by the arm. Then she said, “Rub my feet,” leading Saba to believe that she had missed most of what he had said.
“You don’t mind if I take the afternoon?” asked Eamon. He turned his head slightly, so that his lips were not visible to his wife. “If I rub her feet, she’ll be all rumpy-pumpy.”
“Go!”
The two left the office, arm in arm. As soon as they were gone, Saba stepped back through the supply room and into cell number one. Setting his helmet beside the cot, he lay down and took a nap.
I was really cruising through Astrid Maxxim and her Undersea Dome earlier this year and fully expected to have the first draft done before summer, but as so often is the case, my day job (school teacher) sort of squashed the enthusiasm I was experiencing. Those of you who haven’t been in a classroom in 15+ years might not understand, but the job is extremely stressful. My cardiologist once asked me if I was under a lot of stress and I said, “You have no idea. You’re only a heart surgeon.”
City of Amathar 