“I’m never volunteering for Den Mother duty again,” she muttered as she pushed open the swinging door to the kitchen.
~**~
“Whaddya bring him for, Spence?”
“It’s my cousin,” Spence shrugged “he wants in.”
“We don’t need no kids messin’ things up.”
“I won’t…” the kid in question piped up only to be interrupted abruptly by a slap on the back of the head.
“Lesson number one, Stupid, don’t talk unless I say you can.”
The kid nodded obediently, resisting the urge to rub the back of his head.
“What’s your name, kid?”
“Hal Reid…and I promise I won’t be…”
Whack! The slap was harder and Hal couldn’t stop himself from rubbing the back of his head tenderly.
“I tole you to keep your trap shut.”
“Look, Vinnie, the kid’s sixteen and he has his license.”
“His license, huh? Well maybe we could use you after all,” Vinnie eyed Hal with more interest. “You like to drive, kid?”
Hal nodded eagerly, afraid to say anything, still smarting from the previous two smacks on the head.
“And you want to be part of our gang?” he continued.
Again, Hal silently signaled his fervor.
“Great, then here’s what you gotta do. You see we got this, you might call it an adventure, planned for tonight and we need you to…”
~**~
“Oh come on,” Felix begged. “We never have any fun.”
“You think that’s fun,” Mick’s lips twisted sardonically.
“Well, it’s better than sitting around here watching you mess with your stupid motorcycle all the time.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Mick replied quietly. “I didn’t realize you thought spending time with me was so boring.”
Mick stood up and closing his small toolbox, left the garage without another word.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Felix called after him “Aw, man…Mick…come back…I’m sorry…”
His words faded as Mick entered the kitchen of the old ranch house.
“Did you figure out what was wrong with your motorcycle?” the middle-aged woman sitting at the table peeling potatoes asked curiously.
“Nah, I’ll have another look at it tomorrow,” Mick bent down and planted a kiss on the woman’s forehead. “I’ll go get cleaned up. Do you need any help?”
“I’m fine. You’re a good boy, Mick, I just wish Felix…” she trailed off unhappily.
“He’s alright, Ma, just feeling his oats.”
“I don’t know,” his mother replied worriedly “I used to think so, but ever since he started hanging out with that Reid kid he’s been getting into trouble at school.”
“Well, I’m home now, so maybe that’ll help.”
“But you’ll be starting college after Christmas…”
“Yeah, about that, I thought maybe I should stay around here and start at the community college in town…you know, get my basics in. I’ve been gone a long time and I’ve missed you and Felix.”
“You don’t have to do that, you know,” his mother smiled tremulously.
“I want to,” Mick assured her. “Since Uncle Sam will be paying for school, I’ll be able to get a job and help with the bills and things.”
“Mick, I don’t want to take anymore of your money…”
“You’re not taking…I’m giving,” Mick interrupted firmly.
His mother sighed heavily as she stood up and moved to the sink to rinse the potatoes.
“Where’s Felix?” she asked changing the subject.
“He’s still out in the garage…he wanted me to borrow your car and take him to the drive-in, but…”
“You’re welcome to go, there’s plenty of gas.”
“Yeah, but it’s such a waste of…”
“That’s great Mom,” Felix enthused as he joined them, allowing the back screen door to slam shut “See Mick, Mom even wants us to go. Please…it’ll be fun…I promise.”
“Mom almost has supper ready,” Mick objected.
“We can pick up hot dogs at the movie,” Felix countered.
“Go, Mick, enjoy yourself for once,” she insisted. “I’ll feed you meatloaf tomorrow night. It’ll keep. Please…for me.”
“Alright, but I have to clean up first,” Mick grumbled.
~**~
“Mom, I’m leaving now,” Lucy called as soon as she hit the foyer, eager to be gone.
There was no answer. Peering curiously into the living room, Lucy saw that her mother was fast asleep on the couch, a half-empty shot glass on the coffee table in front of the sofa.
“Wow, she must have one heck of a headache,” Lucy muttered eyeing the glass.
Shrugging, Lucy turned to leave, stopping suddenly as she hit the foyer as if changing her mind about something. Determinedly she returned to the living room and picking up the shot glass, sniffed the contents.
“Bottoms up,” she grinned wickedly to herself as she tipped the contents into her mouth and downed the whole thing in one swallow.
“Ugh…that is vile!” she exclaimed in disgust as she set the glass back down onto the table. “No wonder my parents don’t drink much.”
Her musings were interrupted by a soft moan and, after casting an anxious glance at her mother, she hastily left the house.
~**~
“You made it!” Eddie swept Lucy up in his arms and swung her around.
“Put me down you idiot!” Lucy hissed, pushing at his broad shoulders and glancing around to assure no one was watching. “I told you I would be able to talk my mom into it,” she continued haughtily as she smoothed her hair and clothing.
“Let’s go, the movie starts in ten minutes and we’re gonna be late,” he urged her towards the exit of the library.
“Fine…whatever,” Lucy yawned unconcernedly as she was hauled away.
~**~
“You didn’t tell me we were making this a threesome,” Mick growled. “I don’t know why you and your friend needed me along.”
“Hal doesn’t have a car and I don’t have my license yet,” Felix shrugged.
“So basically I’m just your glorified chauffeur…nice.”
“C’mon, Mick, give me a break. Mom’s been on my case all year, grounding me for everything.”
“I’m guessing you deserved it.”
“Here comes Hal…please cool it, okay Mick.”
“Fine,” Mick agreed irately as Hal opened the back door of the old sedan.
“Hey Mick, I’m Hal,” the tall, thin, red-headed teenager greeted him enthusiastically. “Thanks for giving us a ride.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m here for,” Mick replied sarcastically as he pulled away from the curb.
~**~
“I can’t find a parking place,” Eddie whined in frustration, “I told you we were gonna be late.”
“Park anywhere,” Lucy replied disinterestedly without opening her eyes. “We’ve already seen the movie.”
“True,” Eddie laughed, appeased “doesn’t matter where we make out.”
Lucy sighed and made herself more comfortable in her seat while Eddie found a dark empty corner of the drive-in by the restrooms where he could safely park.
After shutting off the engine, he moved over towards Lucy eagerly and began pulling her towards him, but the steering wheel kept hitting him in the side every time he turned and his companion didn’t appear to be actively participating, refusing to meet him halfway, not even willing to open her eyes.
“Hey, I’ve got an idea…” he hopped out and moved around the car to open Lucy’s door.
“What…?” Lucy asked, eyes widening in surprise. “Is the movie already over?”
“Nah,” Eddie replied confidently “we’re just getting started. Come on, Sleepyhead, let’s get in the back where there’s more room.”
“Okay,” Luc
y yawned allowing her self to be guided out of the front seat.
“Now that’s more like,” Eddie said in satisfaction as he put his arms around Lucy finding her lips with his.
“Hmm…” Eddie murmured, repeating “now that’s more like it. How long do we have?”
“I have to be home by ten,” Lucy answered more energetically hands eagerly exploring his broad chest and muscled arms.
As Eddie lips began nuzzling her neck and earlobes, Lucy’s passion seemed to cool and her body slackened until her arms fell away from him and her head lolled backwards limply.
“You smell so good,” Eddie murmured in her ear, oblivious of her lack of participation. “Do you want to…you know…go all the way?” he asked hopefully, his hungry hands moving over her lifeless body as he continued raining kisses on her. “We have plenty of time.”
At her non-response, he pulled back a bit and reassuringly offered “If it’s too soon, that’s okay…I just thought…since we been going together for a while…” he stopped abruptly finally noticing that her eyes were closed and she was not answering.
“Lucy…Lucy…?” he repeated laying her head gently on the seat. “What’s wrong? Lucy…?” he began to panic, shaking her in his alarm, his voice growing louder in proportion to his rising hysteria. “Lucy…wake up! Lucy…don’t be dead! Oh please don’t be dead. What do I do?”
Sitting up and away from her, terror in his eyes, he fumbled with the door handle and stumbled out of the car, slamming it shut behind him. Unsteadily, he made his way into the men’s bathroom and, bending over the toilet, he promptly lost his supper.
~**~
“I’ve gotta visit the head,” Mick informed the two teenage boys who were lying on the hood of the car.
“Hey, would you mind stopping by and grabbing us some more popcorn and cokes?” Hal asked casually.
“No problem,” Mick grumbled as he pocketed his car keys and strode away. “I’m made of money.”
As Mick stood in front of the urinal, he could hear what sounded like someone puking his guts out in one of the stalls. He hurriedly zipped up and moved over to the sink to wash his hands, eager to be out of there.
“Sorry,” a shaky voice from beside him apologized as the unfortunate guy liberally splashed his face with water.
“I’ve seen worse,” Mick shrugged, drying his hands.
He emerged from the bathroom just in time to see Hal and Felix hop into a strange car about fifty feet away.
“Hey! That’s my car!” the guy from the bathroom yelled at the two kids as Hal shoved the car in drive and spun out, heading towards the exit.
Mick immediately grabbed the previously puking guy, hauling him over towards his own car.
“Whaddya think you’re doing? Hey! Let go of me. I gotta go after…”
“That was your car,” Mick interrupted without breaking his stride or releasing his hold on the guy’s sleeve “and my brother was one of the idiots who took off in it.”
“Your brother!” he exploded.
“I’m Mick, by the way.”
“Eddie,” he answered distractedly.
“So, Eddie, I’m going after them. Are you coming with me or not?” Mick asked as he relinquished his hold and jumped into the driver’s seat of his mom’s car.
“Yeah, I’m coming,” he grumbled as he joined Mick in the car. “They mess up my paint job and I’ll mess up their faces.”
“We have to find them first,” Mick reminded him. “When Mom finds out that Felix is involved in Grand Theft Auto his butt is so grounded.”
“Grounded…oh no…Lucy…”
“You named your car Lucy?”
“No, my girlfriend Lucy, I think she’s dead.”
“You think she’s dead?”
“She seemed okay when we got in the back seat, but then she suddenly went limp and I couldn’t wake her.”
“Wait a minute…your girlfriend is in the back of your car…the one that just got stolen?” Mick asked incredulously.
“Yeah.”
“And you were concerned with your paint job?”
“Hey, I paid a lot of money for that striping.”
“Can you spell ‘idiot’?” Mick muttered as he turned onto the highway.
~**~
“Wait over there in those bushes.”
“Why can’t I go in with you? What’s going on?”
“Look, I’ll explain later, but right now I can’t let Vinnie or my cousin Spence see you…especially Vinnie,” Hal shuddered. “Hurry up…I’m late and I don’t think they’re gonna be happy about it. I can’t believe how anal your brother is that he would take his car keys to the bathroom with him and force me into finding another car.”
“Hal, I don’t like the way this is going,” Felix said doubtfully. “You said we were just gonna take it for a spin.”
“And we are…now get out,” Hal reached over and opened Felix’s door and shoved him out. “I’ll be back in a flash.
As soon as Hal honked, the huge warehouse door swung open and Hal drove in.
“Sweet ride,” Spence whistled through his teeth as Hal emerged from the car.
“Yeah…sweet…and conspicuous,” Vinnie frowned.
“It’ll be fine, Vinnie, we’ll be in and out before anyone knows what we’re doing,” Spence murmured to him.
“Here,” Vinnie handed Hal a small wad of bills, “now get lost.”
“But…”
“I told you to shut it. I don’t like ‘buts’. Your part is done now amscray before I change my mind and take back the dough.”
“How do you expect me to get home?” Hal whined.
“Do I look like I care?”
“But…”
“There’s that word again. If you’re still here in five seconds I’ll be kicking your butt.”
“B…”
“Don’t push him,” Spence hissed furiously in his ear. “Get out of here while you still can,” he finished as he shoved him towards the door.
~**~
“Wonder where he’s going in such a hurry,” Eddie commented idly as he watched the police car in front of them hang a U-turn and speed back towards the downtown area.
“No telling,” Mick replied absently, craning forward over the steering wheel as his headlights picked up two figures by the side of the road.
“Isn’t that…?”
“Looks like it,” Mick sighed in resignation as he pulled over.
“Mick…!” Felix exclaimed in surprise as his brother emerged from the car. “What are you doing here?”
“I think there is a different, slightly more important question here.”
“I’m just gonna go now…” Hal began inching away.
“Oh no you don’t,” Eddie appeared next to Mick and grabbed a handful of Hal’s hair. “You jacked my ride…where is it?”
“I think you have me confused with someone else,” Hal whimpered.
“Where’s my car you…?”
“I’m telling you I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I saw you, you stupid punk…”
“Hal,” Mick interrupted calmly “there is a girl in the backseat who may or may not be injured…”
“Or dead,” Eddie put in.
“Or dead,” Mick conceded “and we need to find that car right away.”
“I didn’t see a girl,” Felix replied in alarm.
“Aha, so you admit you stole my car,” Eddie said triumphantly.
Ignoring him, Mick continued, “Where did you dump the car?”
“We didn’t dump it…”
“Shut up, Felix,” Hal ordered angrily. “There was no girl in the car; they’re just trying to trick us.”
“Felix, you know I don’t lie,” Mick reminded him sternly.
“He gave the car to Vinnie and his cousin Spence at an empty warehouse on the west side of town.”
“Felix, you wuss…”
“Shut up, Hal,??
? Felix retorted furiously. “You’ve gotten us in enough trouble. You said we were just taking it out for a spin. I didn’t know you were planning to actually steal it, much less sell it. If something happens to that girl…”
“You sold my car? Eddie asked incredulously.
“Why did they want it?” Mick redirected the conversation.
“I think they were going to use it for a getaway car or something.”
“My car!” Eddie wailed.
“That police car we passed…” Mick began speculatively then stopped abruptly and ordered, “Get in, both of you. Eddie, why don’t you ride in the back with our reluctant friend in order to keep him in line and Felix, you hop in the front. We have some things to discuss.”
“Aw…man,” Felix muttered as he collapsed into the front seat “I’m gonna be grounded for life.”
“Go ahead and try something, punk,” Eddie taunted as he shoved the hapless Hal into the back seat “then I’ll have an excuse to pound you into the dirt you scumbag.”
~**~
“Alright!” Spence crowed as he dumped the money out of the bag. “Not bad.”
“Don’t go spending it yet,” Vinnie warned “we still have a few more places to hit before we dump the car.”
“Where to next?”
“I was thinking about that hardware store a couple of blocks from here. The cops will be busy for a while with the five and dime so we should have plenty of time. Throw the money in the back seat. We’ll need the bag to empty the cash register again.”
“Think we’ll make enough to buy a ride like this?”
“Maybe we’ll just keep this one…change the license plate and repaint it. It drives nice.”
“Yeah, we could do that.”
“There it is. Everything’s closed and it looks dark and deserted. Let’s do this.”
As the doors slammed shut, the figure in the back moaned and turned over, falling onto the floorboards.
~**~
“You pig!”
“Give me a break, Valerie, I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“That’s what they all say,” Valerie folded her arms and averted her face.
“No, really….”
“Look, Stewart, I didn’t want to go on this date in the first place, but our mom’s insisted. I can’t wait to throw this in their faces. ‘Stewart claims he ran out of gas’. They won’t believe you any more than I do.”
“Fine,” Stewart huffed getting out of the car “switch with me and you get the stupid thing started. It’s not even my car. How was I to know the gage was broken. It says it’s still half full.”
Valerie got out and as they passed each other in the headlights, Stewart’s face was set angrily and Valerie’s was smug.