“There is no way I’m getting undressed in front of her,” Barrett said to me.
“It’s only fair,” I said, turning around to face Fannie Mae. “She did it for us.”
Fannie Mae looked at both of us innocently, with a little smile on her face. She must have seen something when she looked at me as her smile got even bigger and she settled back with her arms crossed on her chest.
“You first then,” Barrett said.
“Um, that’s probably not a good idea. You go first, Barrett.”
He looked at me and opened his mouth to protest again and then looked at me harder and got a huge grin on his face. He looked at Fannie Mae and then looked at me again. Laughed a little. “All right, then. Fine.”
Barrett stripped down and I did a quick inspection of him. He was as clean as Fannie Mae. And looking at him took care of my little problem.
It was my turn then and I took my pants off with a wince. Though the swelling had gone down significantly it still hurt like a bitch. I looked off into the distance, not looking either one of them in the face, as I stood there for my inspection.
“It’s hard to tell,” Barrett said.
“What?”
“You got pretty beat to hell last night. You’ve got scratches on your face from Tamara, your knee is pretty banged up and your thigh looks like crap. That knot is huge. And you’ve got various scratches all over your body.” He shrugged. “I don’t really know, Duke. I think most of these are just from the fight, but it’s impossible to tell.”
Fannie Mae was on her knees looking at my leg. She leaned in closer to look at my thigh and that put her face perilously close to, um, areas. Private areas, you know what I mean. I backed up a step, “All right, that’s good enough, Fannie Mae.”
She rose to her feet with another grin.
I sighed and turned my back on them, getting dressed. “You guys have my word that I haven’t been scratched or bitten or anything like that. If that helps.”
“They all say that,” Barrett said. “Right until they eat their friend’s faces off in the movies. I wouldn’t be concerned, Duke, except you were alone with Tamara’s dad for a few seconds there. Anything could have happened.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “You have my word that nothing happened. But if you don’t believe me,” I pointed at the door, “you have my permission to go find somewhere else to be.”
He looked at me sourly and finally shrugged. “Okay. Just know that I’m keeping my eye on you.”
“Good. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
I sent them off to bed shortly after that. Barrett was giving me the stink eye, but he went, too. He’d had a couple hours of sleep and I’d had that extra hour or so in the tub but Fannie Mae hadn’t even had a wink. They both swore there was no way they could sleep with what was going on but I told them they had to try. We had to get our rest where we could.
I spent the rest of the morning camped in front of the window. I decided to use the milk from the fridge before it went sour, so scrounged a bowl of cereal from the almost-empty box. Mom’s body on the couch began to stink. Or it seemed to, anyway. She’d only been dead about 12 hours so there was no way she could really be stinking yet, but it was still weird to be sitting not five feet from my dead mom.
Not much out of the norm was happening out in the Acres that I could see. There were more people out and about than usual and kids were out yelling and screaming and horsing around. I wanted to go open the door and scream at them all to get back inside and barricade themselves in, but I knew I’d look like a madman if I did. I guess the power being out was forcing more people out of their trailers. When there’s no power there’s no TV, no videogames, nothing much to do but sit around and talk. The folks around here weren’t exactly known for fascinating conversation so it didn’t surprise me that they were outside.
It seemed like people were having fun. Around lunchtime a few of the guys pulled their grills together and started cooking meat for everybody. Nobody wanted it all to go to waste. I had the window cracked so that I could try to hear conversations. And to air the front room out if I’m going to be honest. Mom really was starting to smell. I heard a few people talking about the fire and how the police had found Tamara’s parents dead. It sounded like they were considering it an accident right now. The fire truck and the cops took off somewhere around mid- morning. I’m sure they’d be back at some point but I guess they’d done all they could at this point.
I had visions of her parents sitting up on the slab at the morgue and shuddered, pushing that thought away. That was the last thing I needed to think about.
Every so often I thought I heard
I checked on Barrett and Fannie Mae a couple times to make sure they were okay and sleeping. Barrett was passed out in my parent’s room and snoring away peacefully. Fannie Mae was sleeping in my bed. She was in a different position every time I checked on her but she was always sleeping, too, at least. I hoped they got their rest as I didn’t think the time for it would last much longer.
It just felt like we were in the eye of the storm. That forces were building and building and reaching higher and that soon the bubble would burst and everything would come crashing down on us.
So I was restless and fidgety and kept my vigil at the front window.
Fannie Mae was the first to come out, around noon. I heard her get up and take a quick shower and she came to the front room about 15 minutes later wearing one of my sweatshirts and her pants from the night before.
