The Road to Romeo's Triumph

It took a while for Deuce to catch up with his brother Romeo, but he managed to do so in the end after he had searched late into the night.

When Deuce caught up with his older brother, his sibling was standing in an open space next to a building and looking up yearningly at one of the balconies on the first floor of the apartment block.

Deuce recognized the look on Romeo’s face the moment he saw him. ‘Okay he’s got the “hots” for someone in that apartment’, Deuce giggled to himself as he settled himself close to where his brother was standing.

The younger brother took care to position himself in a concealed spot behind some bushes and under a clump of trees, so that it was impossible for anyone to see where he was. Deuce settled into his secluded spot, close by to where Romeo was standing, and from where he was hiding Deuce had a good vantage point of both his brother and the balcony above him.

“So, have you spoken to her yet?” Asked Deuce in a soft voice that only Romeo could hear.

“How do you know it’s a girl I’m looking out for?” Romeo replied without taking his eyes off the balcony to look in the direction of where Deuce was hiding.

“Because I can see from the stupid look on your face,” snorted Deuce, “and from that look I can bet good money that you’re not standing there waiting for a two-hundred-pound rugby player to appear on that balcony.”

“One of these days I could surprise you...who says I can’t be waiting for a well-developed rugby player.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” was Deuce’s impatient reply to his brother’s attempt at a witty repartee, “I know you so well that I am confident that I can describe the girl up there before she even makes an appearance on that balcony.”

“Alright, smart ass, you tell me what’s the girl is like.”

“She’s short, medium to heavy weight and size, and she’s bound to have a mop of long hair…probably blonde or redhead,” Deuce paused before asking, “how am I doing so far?”

Romeo did not answer his brother, he just kept his eyes upward on the balcony for a few moments before muttering softly to himself, “smartass.”

“So, how long have you been here staring at an empty balcony?”

“Not long, we started talking about ten minutes before she had to break off the conversation and go to her door…I think her mother heard us talking and came to investigate.”

“Have you gotten an invitation yet?”

“Would I be standing here if I had received an invitation already?” Romeo snorted, “you know little brother you must develop a bit more patience if you ever want to shake off the title “Deuce”.

This last remark irritated Deuce though he did his best not to show it. His nickname “Deuce” was the bane of his life, and as long as he could remember and he longed for the time he could shed this title, and at last be known by his true name of “Remus”. Just as Romeo was once known as “Deuce”, which was many years ago, but that was then and now Romeo was only referred by his own name because over time he had a proven record of getting ‘invitations’ from his solicitations.

Deuce was about to ask his brother more about the girl when he noticed that she had reappeared on the balcony above them. At first glance, Deuce could see he had been right about Romeo’s tastes. She was a short heavy-set girl about sixteen years old with a mop of long black hair. ‘A bit young’, Deuce said to himself when he first saw her, but then he recalled Juliet in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and had been described as being "just shy of her 14th birthday”, so Romeo was perhaps not acting so far beyond the pale after all.

The girl at first appeared to not see Romeo standing below where she was. She seemed to be looking around for Romeo, but it was dark where he stood and she didn’t look like she was sure if he was still present.

“Rapunzel! Rapunzel! Let down your hair,” Called out Romeo, “so that I may climb to you without a stair.”

“Well, that was corny,” Deuce whispered to himself, “but I’ll bet all the tea in China that it will work.” From experience, this sort of line had always worked for Romeo in the past.

The girl looked over to where Romeo's voice came from after a moment and said, "oh...you're still here."

This was a signal to Romeo to then launch off into what sounded like a cacophony of meaningless babble to Deuce. But as Deuce listened to Romeo talk, he noticed that as his brother was getting into his stride with an outlandish display of verbal virtuosity, he was failing in his objective. Because when Deuce looked up at the girl, he could instantly see Romeo was losing her.

As quietly as he could, Deuce said, "Romeo, you're losing her! Change tack quickly."

For a moment, his brother tried to ignore him, but then even Romeo noticed the growing lack of interest so he whispered back, "okay...okay...what do I do?"

Recalling his favourite author, Deuce whispered back a well-known misquote from Shakespeare, "vanity thy name is woman..."

Romeo paused then, he started making remarks, in a natural manner so slick that anyone would have assumed he had always meant to do so at this point about the girl's eyes, skin and hair and compared them collectively with the stars in the night sky above them.

Deuce could see the girl shake her head slightly as if she doubted the sincerity of what she was hearing, but she did not appear to stop listening as before. Deuce also noticed a slight smile appear on her face, and he took this as a sure sign of the effectiveness of Romeo's banter.

Presently, Romeo paused his litany of praise of the girl and tentatively presented his entry gambit, "if only I could be next to you and to gaze into your clear brown eyes as I hold your hands..."

The girl took what Romeo said with a blank expression for a few seconds, then for a fleeting instance, Deuce could see that she looked back over her shoulder into her room before saying, "well I don't know how you could climb up here because you can't come through the front door, my parents lock that at sunset."

The words the girl spoke struck Deuce like a bolt from the sky, but he noticed Romeo remained as still as a statue on hearing the same words.

"That sounded like an invitation to me," Deuce whispered.

"To me as well," replied his brother.

Then, as Deuce watched, his brother relaxed his will over his body and the boy's skin turned translucent, his facial features morphed into sharp, angular shapes, but most of all, his two canine teeth extended and now protruded beyond his closed lips.

"Remember to leave me something," Deuce said softly, "last time I waited, but you drained the body dry and you left me nothing."

Romeo smiled back, "Deuce, if you are worried about your share of the feed, you can always come with me on my visit to her chambers."

"Don't talk nonsense," Deuce uttered his annoyed reply, "you know full well the invitation was not extended to me, so I can't enter...only you can cross the threshold because she invited you to pay her a visit."

"Well, then in that case, you'll just have to wait here for me to drop her body off the balcony to you after I'm finished with her," smirked Romeo, "don't worry...you'll get enough from the 'seconds' that I'll leave you."

Then, with no more words or ceremony, Romeo started climbing the wall towards the balcony above.

Deuce watched as his brother began his upward climb. As he did so, Deuce retreated deeper into the dark space he was hiding in, and he waited with his predator's natural and innate patience.