9. Singer on his High Horse

Harvi’s face flushed with anger. Hadn’t that one slap been enough? Why was this fellow still stalking him? And how had he found him here? Mynakos pre-empted the numerous other questions that would have arisen in his head.

“I know what you must be thinking. But don’t judge me hastily. Listen to what I have to say.”

Harvi could see where this has heading. Once again patience, heaven and all that! He rued the day he took the seat next to this fellow at the theater.

“I am not Mynakos. I am his twin brother Santos. I came to apologize for my brother’s behavior. At times he is not able to control his feelings. But I gave him a good piece of my mind when he told me what transpired between you both. He feels very ashamed about his behavior now.”

Harvi was not sure what to make of this. The story seemed a wee too cinematic to be true. But then it was not completely implausible either. So he decided to give Santos a benefit of doubt. Soon they were talking. Santos was a very good listener and Harvi poured out his entire story to him. If singing was his first love, talking was his second. For days he had not been able to talk to anyone. Now at last he was getting an opportunity. He grabbed it with both hands. He narrated all his adventures taking some creative license here and there to make himself seem more heroic.

Santos seemed clearly impressed. “You are a hero indeed. I wish I could also have such adventures. Will you take me on as your apprentice?”

Harvi was not much of a team player and was not really too inclined to have a companion. But when he saw Santos’ sincere pleading expression, his heart melted. Also having a sidekick made one feel more like a real hero.

Now they had to start thinking about the two remaining quests. He was still not sure whether he should go after the mares or the cows. These damn aliens seemed to be well versed in all the management tricks! This was a popular management trick when you wanted someone to fail: to give multiple tasks at the same time. The person would end up wasting most of his time deciding which one to start on and would have precious little left for the task itself. It was easy for him to decide on the first task as he knew the location where the bull could be found. But he had only names of the owners of the cows and mares. Google did not throw up any useful results on Diomedes or Geryon. The Wikipedia entries on them were just stubs. He got an ominous feeling about the whole thing. Did it mean that so far none who met them had returned alive to update the Wikpedia entry?

Probably the best idea was to not even go anywhere. He could quickly but some Trojan mares and cows, fill them with snake oil and bull shit and be done. But that would be pushing the aliens too far. They had been quite liberal with him so far. But after the bashing he had got them at the hands of the Gauls, he was not too sure.Also he was running out of both snake oil and bullshit. He was also short on money to pay the Trojan. These Trojans knew how to extract every last pound of Flesh.  Last but not the least, Santos' enthusiasm was another reason. Santos had got all excited about the adventure and was being too proactive. Harvi did not like it at all. He had never liked proactive people. They were a pain in the ass. They also worked and made you also work. But he could not afford to appear un-hero like in front of Santos. So he had to play along.

Santos knew where both these guys were and he also made the decision for him. First stop was going to be Diomedes. Santos also had lot of information to share about the mares.

“They are known to be very dangerous, hot tempered and breathe fire.”

“That sounds like my boss at the IT Company I used to work for.”

Santos had either not heard of or not interested in what happened inside IT companies. He was more intent on the task at hand. “Diomedes loves his mares too much. He will never willingly part with them no matter what we offer him in return. We will have to steal them.”

“Ok, we will steal them then,” replied Harvi in a matter of fact manner. He was not the one for any of those minor moral compunctions at a micro level. They were for lesser mortals. He was a big picture man.

“But were you even listening to what I was saying earlier on? The mares are bad tempered and dangerous.”

Once again his thoughts returned to his former boss. She was one of the reasons he had been forced to quit his job and go for a MBA. Otherwise he was not the one to take unnecessary initiatives. He believed in the law of conservation of energy. His thoughts lingered about his ex-boss. He recollected what some of his colleagues used to say about her. They said her bitchiness was was a result of failed relationships and her not having a boy friend or a family to temper her. He wondered if it was the same with the mares as well.

Thinking on these lines, he remarked to Santos, “A philosopher in my world has said most human behavior is a result of their underlying sexual tendencies. Maybe it is the same with horses as well. So if we resolve their sexual conflicts, maybe they will get placated and may become easier to handle.”

Santos’ ears had perked up at the mention of the word ‘sex’ and he was listening keenly.

“So we need to find mates for the mares and I know the right place to find them,” Harvi concluded looking fondly at his mobile phone.

They logged on to simplymarey.com, horsemaretimony.com, horsymareysaathi.com and various other matrimonial sites and browsed through profiles of thousands of stallions. Finally they shortlisted three of the most eligible candidates. Harvi however had his own doubts.

“Should we have backup candidates ready in case the mares do not like our selections?”

“Don’t worry. I am sure they will love the ones we have chosen.”

There was a strange kind of confidence and finality in Santos’ manner that reassured Harvi. Anyway they did not have all the time in the world to line up candidates for the mares to interview and select. So without harboring any further doubts, he set out to pick up the stallions.

Next Part of the Story       : Singer the Cowboy
Previous Part of the Story  : Singer takes the Bull by its Horns
First Part of the Story        : Singer on the Roof

Picture credit : Horse Picture