“Mike, just take this one man.” He said thrusting the canteen a little closer to my face.
“Don’t sweat it man. I’ll go get my own.”
“There’s some right here. Don’t be difficult.” BT said, his dander starting to get a little riled.
“BT I don’t want it. I’ll get my own.” I said a little more sternly.
“It’s because I’m black isn’t it!” He yelled.
Jen had stopped what she was doing to see how this potentially volatile situation panned out. Oh I knew how it would end up, my teeth in BT’s knuckles seemed the most likely scenario.
“BT, come on you know me better than that.”
“I don’t know shit.” He hissed. His bulk seemingly swelled in proportion to his anger. He was a second and a half from coming out of his chair.
All of the boys were now a few feet away, Brendon was coming to the forefront, trying his best to throw a wedge between me and BT. I didn’t think he would even qualify as a speed bump if BT got going.
Tracy had taken this, the most blessed of opportunities to emerge from our tent.
“BT.” She said with no small amount of force.
“My beef’s not with you Tracy.” BT said never taking his eyes off of me. “Is this how you want it Mike? You’re woman doing your battles for you.”
“BT!” My wife yelled.
“What WOMAN!” He shouted back.
“He wouldn’t take that canteen if I handed it to him.” Tracy said.
“Huh?” BT asked, confusion creasing his brow.
“BT, Mike is a germ-a-phobe. I swear to you as I stand here, he would not take that canteen from me if I had just taken a drink from it.”
“Really?” BT asked incredulously. He then turned back to me. “I guess I owe you an apology.” He said as he laughed. “Wait then how do you two kiss? Forget it I don’t want to know.” And then apparently this was the funniest thing in the world. In between swigs of the canteen BT would break out into spontaneous laughter. “Can’t…kiss.” He laughed. “You have cooties.” If the guy wasn’t such a solid block of granite he probably would have split his sides he ended up laughing so hard.
“No shit Mike? You can’t drink off someone else’s beverage?” Jen asked. “That’s funny.”
I forced an anemic smile. Neurosis number 22 had reared its ugly head.
“How’d you have kids? Artificial insemination?” BT said roaring with laughter. “Immaculate conception? Wait…wait…I know…stunt double!”
I got up and left BT to his own devises, at this pace it would be hours before he realized I was gone.
“Holy shit, Mike. That was close.” Brendon said, as we put a few feet between us and the tittering titan.
“Yeah about that Brendon, I appreciate the sentiment. But you’ve seen the propensity I have for getting into trouble.”
“In a hurry.” He added.
“In a hurry.” I conceded. “The point is Brendon, I don’t want to drag anyone else down with me.” He looked crestfallen. “Like I said Brendon, I do appreciate the help, I just couldn’t live with the guilt if anything happened to anyone of you, especially if it was to save my ass.” He looked like he was about to say something. I didn’t want to give him any room for maneuverability. “Besides can you imagine how bad Nicole would make it for me?” I looked at him questioningly.
“I suppose you’re right.” Brendon acknowledged.
I arched an eyebrow at him.
“No you’re definitely right.” He concluded.
BT had for the most part calmed down. Tracy, I guess wasn’t ready to let him off the hook, quite yet. “Yeah you should see what he has to do before he gets on a toilet.”
“Tracy!” I shouted, more than a smidgeon mortified.
“Oh that’s not even the worst of it, at…”
“Oh for the love of God.”
Justin, Travis and Tommy had resumed their dummy target practice. Now seemed as good a time as any to see how it was going. Two rows of seven dummies were lined up like advancing zombies. Errant arrows were strewn everywhere including the ceiling, but more than a proportionate amount had struck their targets with withering precision. As we came up to the ‘range’ Tommy was drawing the bow back, he let loose an arrow that created sparks as it plunged feet well short of its intended target.
“Good one, Tommy.” Travis said. “That’s your closest one yet.
Tommy was beaming. “You fink?” He asked as he handed the strawberry jelly coated bow to Justin.
“Uck.” Justin said as he pulled out a small box of baby wipes just for this occasion.
Brendon and I both looked quizzically at each other. Brendon broke the silence first.
“Mike this is about a third of the distance when he shot that guy from Durgan’s assault.”
I nodded, what words were there?
“And now he has a professional bow, not that piece of crap kid’s toy.
I nodded again. It was nice to know that someone else was seeing what I’d been seeing for a while.
“What’s up Hon?” Nicole said as she wrapped her arms around Brendon. “You look a little out of sorts.”
“Nothing babe.” Brendon said as he leaned down to kiss her.
I turned away slightly. I didn’t want to make anybody else uneasy. It was just that well dammit, I could not get the image of my daughter being anything other than that precocious seven year old, daddy’s little girl thing, out of my head. I know she’s an adult and she has her own life now. It’s just that in my reality she has chosen the realm of celibacy. It’s small measures like this that allow me to sleep at night. One of these days I know, sooner rather than later, my brain is just going to freeze up. It will be the human equivalent of the blue screen of death. Unfortunately I have yet to discover my reboot button.
Justin let loose his shot. Everyone laughed and cringed in equal measures as the arrow struck the dummies stones. I swear he looked right at me for half a heartbeat before he joined in the celebration with everyone else. A loud ‘twang’ up by the front of the store cut the revelry short. I should have taken charge and started delegating. Getting out of the store alive should have been my main objective. But I’ll admit, curiosity got the better of me. For one fleeting night since this whole shit storm started I had felt good, safe even. But it was all an illusion as I was about to painfully learn.
Travis was first to the front. “No biggie Dad, there’s only one.”
He didn’t have to add…zombie.
“Uh…Dad there’s more.” Travis said hesitantly.
“Well shit, there’s always more. They’re like fucking wolves, pack animals.” I said peevishly. I was more than a little pissed that my home away from home was no longer the safe haven I had deemed it to be.
Brendon and Nicole had reached the front and were standing next to Travis. Nicole had turned and was running back to our ‘campsite’. She said nothing as she brushed past.
“What’s the matter with her?” I asked. I was really hoping it was the overly dramatic part of Nicole coming out. It wasn’t.
“Mike you’re going to want to see this.” Brendon swallowed.
“Am I?” I asked. I was liking this less and less. And then someone punched the shit out of me. Figuratively, although literally would have been better. My old world nemesis stood less than 3 feet away from me separated only by a flimsy pane of glass no thicker than a coke bottle.
“Oh Jed. What did they do to you?” I wanted to cry. I fell to my knees, hampered somewhat by the new sport brace I had ‘acquired’ but to the ground I went. I buried my face in my hands, tears of true sorrow leaked through my clenched fingers. My body tensed each time Jed head butted the glass. His mouth snapping wildly at the air, drool ran viscously down the front of his tattered shirt. A broken tooth protruded at a slight angle from his top lip. Dirty, fingernail torn hands scratched at the glass. Cataract clouded eyes stared pitilessly at me. It wasn’t until I let my gaze travel lower that my resolve got steeled or more likely my innards got liquefied. “Brendon, take Justin and Travis and let’s start the evacuation process like we talked about last night.”
Brendon had learned quick enough to not question orders for that I was thankful. “One car or two Mike.” He shot back quickly.
“We’ll do two, but let’s make it really quick.”
