Meeting the Families

Part 3

Radditz was carefully avoiding Drinkin' Lincoln. The man seemed to be everywhere, talking to unwilling listeners, interupting people that weren't even talking to him, and all in all sharing his amazing ability to make people want to kill him.

Backing out of a bush he had leapt into to avoid the talking fiend, Radditz bumped into someone. He slowly stood up, fearing that if he turned around he would come face to face with Dayna's overbearing brother. He was wrong. It was someone scarier.

The woman he had bumped into was huge. Taller than him, and every inch just as muscular. She had a genial smile, placed in a towering face with butch cut hair and high cheeckbones.

"Hi!" said the giant, "I'm Dayna's mother. You must be Radditz."

The two shook hands, and Radditz felt that if he were anything other than Saiyan the woman's grip would have crushed every bone in his hand.

"Um.....so you're Dayna's mom, huh?" Radditz asked, feeling a strange sense of fear and intimidation, "Um.....what should I call ya?"

"Hah hah hah the names Glenda," the giant woman's laugh boomed, "Just call me Mrs. Feeple."

"Feeple?"

"Ya mean you and Dayna have been together this long and you don't know eachother's last name?!" Everything Mrs. Feeple said seemed to come out as a yell. Radditz's ears flinched.

"Well, what's your last name, sonny?"

"I.......don't have one."

"Oooho! What a unique guy!"

Radditz wondered if the woman even could use a quiet tone.

"Anyway," Mrs. Feeple said loud and happily, "You should also meet my husband, Eli Feeple."

She gestured to her immidiate left.

Radditz turned and saw no one.

"Where?"

"Down here," the little voice said. Looking down, Radditz saw a man that rivaled Krillan in shortness. He wore a long trenchcoat that made him look suspicously like a drug dealer or someone who might try to sell you watches in an alley. He was hardly above Glenda Feeple's knee.

"YOU'RE Mr. Feeple?!"

"Yes, what's wrong with that?" The little man said irritated. He tugged at his trenchcoat.

"You're like....two feet tall!!"

"I'm a giant." the little man stated.

"......" Radditz couldn't only stare in bafflment.

"Yep. I'm the shortest giant in the world."

Radditz blinked.

"Heh heh heh, ain't he cute?" Mrs. Feeple said booming and cheerful, patting the little man on the back so hard he stumbled forward a few feet. Radditz continued to stare at her huge, muscle toned body.

"Do you uh......work out or someting?" the Saiyan asked.

"Every day of my life since I can remember!" the woman stated proudly.

"Isn't she a work of art?" Eli said, looking adoringly at his wife.

"Don't start saying things like that, now!" the woman snapped, "I don't want you to start looking at me like one of your pieces!"

"Pieces?" Radditz asked.

"I'm a taxadermist," the little man said, "I love my work."

"What's a taxa.....taxa-whats-it?" the Saiyan asked.

"Taxadermist. A guy who takes dead bodies, stuffs em, and makes em look like their alive." The tall woman looked gruffly at Mr. Feeple, "If ya ask me, they're all hexed!"

"Please, pet," Eli pleaded, "Don't speak that way about my passion."

"Why do you want to make corpses look alive?" Radditz wondered aloud.

"Exactly my point," Mrs. Feeple said.

"Pet, please! Hush!" Eli said meekly, then turned to Radditz to answer his question, "People who hunt like to put their catches on display. Some people whose beloved pet dies also like to have them around on the mantle."

"But.....but.....why would someone want a dead body sitting on the mantle!" Radditz eyebrows were scrunched in puzzlement, "I though Kakarotto said you people didn't like dead things!"

"See? The lad agrees with me!" Glenda Feeple said happily and slapped the Saiyan on the back, "Atta boy!"

Radditz continued to try to grasp the concept of holding a dead animal corpse as something to be charished.

"Perhaps I should explain what all goes into my work!" Mr. Feeple said enthusiastically.

"Oh boy, here he goes.........," Mrs. Feeple mumbled.

And suddenly Eli Feeple's eyes seemed to come to life as he went into step by step descriptions of gutting, skinning, fitting and posing the to-be-stuffed animal body. Radditz pictured each detail with his vivid imagination, all the while trying to imagine this little creepy man as the one doing them.

Radditz felt creeped out.

Once Eli Feeple got done, Radditz was still looking at him in total and complete confused horror.

"See? You went and scared him! Just like the last guy Dayna dragged here!" Glenda Feeple barked, poking the little man in the shoulder. Mr. Feeple seemed to shrink, the excitement in his eyes shriveled.

"Sorry, guess you just have to be there," he said, and was led away by Mrs. Feeple.

"Bye, Radditz!" The giant woman said.

Radditz stared in comfusion after them.

"Dead bodies on the mantle?"

****

Dayna, after failing in attempt to squeeze into the food table, reclined against a tree, head back, eyes closed. Her feet hurt from all this walking around, her stomach hurt from what she was sure to be starvation, and her head hurt from talking to the Son family. She hurt.

And didn't like it.

She was also feeling an intense rage towards Son Gohan, the child abuser. He had seemed like such a nice guy when she talked to him, but maybe all those years of being kidnapped must have warped his mind, causing him to lash out at other children. Besides, isn't it always the nice guy that turns out to be the bad guy?

"Well, you certainly look unhappy."

The red haired woman opened her eyes to see Kakarotto/Goku standing before her, a hunk of hamberger meat in his hand. He was wearing a different gi than the one he was wearing earlier.

"Oh, Goku! You changed your clothes, I see," Dayna said tiredly.

"I'm not Goku," the man snorted, "I'm Turles."

Kakarotto...........Goku..........Turles............ Eeeee, Dayna thought, he must have multiple personalities.

"Okay," she smiled, "Turles then."

The man snorted.

"Are you still Radditz brother?" she asked, head cocked to the side.

"Nope," he said simply, "I have no brother."

Hmmm, Dayna surmised, this persona must be an only child.

"Why did you change your clothes?" She asked.

"I didn't! What are you talking about?" Turles barked. This woman was getting on his nerves.

"Nevermind," Dayna said, "Forget it."

"Oooookay, then," and with that, the Saiyan walked away.

Dayna wondered if Kakarotto/Goku/Turles had any more personalities living under that wild mass of hair and handsome face. She would talk to Radditz over it once she found him.

To be continued...............