Death Over Dinner

Had a family dinner with Candace's family last night. What a torturous experience that was. Her niece that survived the blast turned fifteen and wanted a family dinner at Kobayashi Grill. I thought it kind of odd that a child would want Japanese for their birthday until I realized it was one of those grills where the cook speaks in broken English and does a ridiculous floor show while cooking. About 5 minutes into to the chopping and flipping and cutting I wanted to slice and dice chunks of the cook's body with his chef's knife. The girl seemed to be enjoying herself. She smiled brightly and laughed at the culinary acrobatics. Her joyous smiled starkly contrasted the fading scars on her face and body. Every time I looked at her I could feel a deranged, maniacal outburst of laughter welling behind my "human mask". The girl's absentee father showed up half drunk and late for festivities. Candace had filled me in on the back story of her sister's divorce. I didn't really care, but I listened intently for her sake. The father sat at the end of the table near it's daughter. It drank heavily and shot it's mouth off wildly, casting offhand insults at his former in-laws and the service staff. It made a few outlandish promises to the girl with no intention of ever keeping them. It looked down the table at me a few times, glaring and trying to be intimidating. After summoning up some more liquid courage it started to hurl insults at Candace and me. Candace and her family were prepared to deal with this outlandish behavior for the sake of her niece. Not being of the family and not tolerating cattle that don't know their place, I had no qualms about silencing the piece of shit. I excused myself walked towards it and broke a beer bottle across it's face. As it fell back I started to pummel it with a flurry of punches. Responding to the shouting and cries of fear around me I composed myself. I threw a handful of twenties on the table, wished the girl a happy birthday and walked out. I checked my phone when I got home to see several missed calls from Candace. I'm not ready to talk to her just yet. She'll need time to digest what she witnessed. After the incident the genie maybe out of the bottle so to speak. She's very smart. She might be able to connect the various murderous around the city to me.