Pool_2

enemy. They will circle and come in for the kill when their power allows. Criminal charges would be easy to find, or concoct, God knows. They stalk in law. The blood, the family's blood, would be let into their waters. The danger was not the other families, as Prio getting older repeated more and more, "Nino, don't let the pool rise." With the family muscle aging and THE connection, as it was called, long severed - though peacefully and fully honored - the pool's water WAS rising, dangerously. It was Jazz Man's work with the kids in the projects that only, surprisingly, late, caught Prio's attention. Jazz Man spent encountered a gang of very tough young boys who carved an exotic Greek letter into their chests as their symbol. They called themselves the Omega. Despite the ritual and symbolism, they were little else than teenaged thugs who beat and robbed. He had a talk with them. "You can be just another gang of bullies. Lord knows there's never enough bullies. But did you ever wonder why there is no justice?" the members did the usual whitey bashing tirades, "No!" he hollered, "There is no justice because YOU don't care!" Jazz Man nearly got beaten by these kids in their incensed response, but he pushed them more, "No. You kids bitch and moan and blame and scold but you don't CARE. I CARE. I'm HERE! CARING! CARING IS SOMETHING YOU DO, not what you say. Tell me, any of you, what justice have you asserted, performed, demanded, with your own sweat and blood? Carving your skin is easy. Standing up for justice, making justice, is for REAL MEN." There is something to be said about the age of men of chivalry and dragon slayers. It wasn't so much the era that was immature but a time when life was short. Adolescents were the men. It wasn't damsel saving brought on by a wave of new thinking or revelation, it was an age of adolescents in charge. How old were knights,