Posted by The Bastard at 64.210.7.34 on July 08, 2002 at 09:52:16:
This was actually on of my favorites, and I'm happy it scored this well. It was written by none other than Pixies Chick
Just bout Bob
Silent Bob pulled the screendoor again, trying to latch it, then felt the hinge
pull away as the door fell off. Home sweet home. He sighed and set down the bag
of groceries he had carried in, and walked over to the phone to see if he had
any calls. No, none.
Bob pulled the casserole out of the freezer and set it on the counter before
seeing the mail that Jay had put there. Condensation soaked the paper and the
ink smeared when he tried to pull it off. As if he didn’t have enough of that at
his printing job. He pushed the bag of groceries aside, set the cassarole in the
sink, and sorted through the mail, trying to see if anything had value.
“What happened with the door, dad?” Jay asked.
Bob shrugged and smiled. Jay set his books on the counter and turned on the
oven. Jay was about thirteen and skinny as a rail. Must have been something
about that age that made it seem impossible to contain the energy he possessed
in such a narrow space. Sometimes it seemed to leak right out of him, as if he
actually could be in two places at once. To Bob’s mind, he often was – one part
of him seated with his books, the other floating above the world. Bob often
felt in awe of this young man.
“Your friend called again,” Jay said, “The one you were with when you met mom.
He says he’s in town for this convention and he wants us to go. Have you talked
to him?”
Bob shook his head, shrugged, and turned back to the sink. He really couldn’t
explain why he hadn’t talked with Jay, or why he hadn’t given him the address
right away when they had moved this last time. Jay, the other Jay, had been his
best friend, “hetero-lifemate,” until this change in their circumstances. It had
been a dozen years since he had seen him. Maybe a dozen years is enough.
Bob pulled the folder close in under his jacket and focused on the bobbing head
of the young teen walking ahead of him into the crowd. The tables were thick
with comics and it seemed the jostling crowd didn’t care about the cargo Bob was
guarding.
“So that guy with the beard, he knew you a long time ago?” Jay asked.
Bob smiled and nodded.
“What?” Jay asked. “He knew you before?”
“Yes,” Bob coughed. He cleared his throat, “Banky knew me and Jay from before I
met your mom.”
Jay smiled wryly, “So that’s the Jay I’m named after? He’s kinda… uh… Dad, is he
kinda different than when you knew him?”
Bob suppressed a laugh. “No, not at all.”
“And you went across country with him and mom? Didn’t he make you crazy? He’s so
loud,” Jay said.
Bob did laugh this time. “I used to like that a lot. Uh, Jay did a lot of the
talking for me. Jay… had ideas. I followed him around a lot.”
“YOU followed HIM?” Jay’s jaw dropped. “Dad, that guy couldn’t find his way
around this arena, and this place is ROUND. How did you manage to keep from…. I
mean, how did you get stuff done?”
“There just wasn’t that much to do,” Bob replied. “You think a lot. Bethany read
to you a lot. Maybe that’s why. We just didn’t. Jay and I just didn’t.”
Bob saw the shadows in the young man’s eye and regretted mentioning Bethany.
Four weeks this time, and they hadn’t heard a word yet.
“Dad, that Daredevil you got signed – what did you have him write? You didn’t
want me to hear what you said to him. What’s up?”
They’d reached the outside of the arena, and Bob pulled the book from his coat.
He paused and leaned against the car.
“I don’t get everything you read. I don’t get a lot of the heavy stuff you talk
about. Since that …”
Bob paused and looked up, composing himself. Why was it always so hard to talk
about this? About anything?
He started again, “Since that group targeted your mom for working in that
clinic, I know you got a bum deal. Your life is just too different from what it
was. I don’t know what to say about it. Maybe your mom can talk with you
sometime about all that.
“I wanted to tell you one thing, though. When she asked me if I could watch you
for a while, I didn’t get it at first. I didn’t know what all that would mean.
Uh, what, what I mean...
“I got this book though. The guy in this book, he can’t see. He has problems,
too.”
Bob cleared his throat. “Uh, but he gets this thing that happens to him. He gets
a kid. He’s a superhero and he gets to raise this kid that somebody leaves him.
That’s the story.
“I guess, uh… I guess I feel like that. I guess I feel like I got lucky like
that, too.”