Carl

“Are you on your way?”

“Yeah, you called me twice Scott, I told you then that I was on my way. I’ll be there.”

“That was an hour ago Carl and your ass is still not here.”

“I had to take Bianca home.”

“Oh, well is she still with you because we are not going to have enough room in the truck?”

“No, I just dropped her off a few minutes ago.”

Scott knew that Bianca lived right down by my house and I figured that he would get what took so long and that’s why he was on my ass. He must be bitchy because he hadn’t gotten any this morning.

“Good, how long until you get here?”

“Five minutes or so.”

“We need to go get my sister from the airport, so hurry the hell up.”

“Your sister?”

“You remember Melanie, don’t you? It’s been a while since you’ve seen here huh?”

I hadn’t thought about little Mel in several years. She went off to boarding school when she was fifteen and I hadn’t seen her the last five or six years. Now she is on her second year of college. I hear about her from time to time from her proud brother, but I hadn’t seen her since I took him to drop her off at the airport that long ago. I hadn’t known that she was coming back.

“Oh yeah, of course. How is she doing?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Mom called me when I was at work and told me to go get her. I didn’t even know that she was coming home, but you know they don’t tell me anything when it comes to her.”

“Probably so but you don’t remember because you don’t listen.”

“Probably. Get over here already. Her plane has touched down already and it’s twenty minutes there. I don’t want to hear about it because you had to get laid this morning.”

I told him that I would be there soon and hung up. I didn’t get what he was so worried about. It wasn’t like she was a kid or anything, by now she was a woman. It was hard to see her as that since she’d been gone for so long, but time had not stood still.

It was better than going to work, so I got to Scott’s and honked, waiting for him to come out and get in so we could go. When I saw his mom Lily coming out, I said hi to her and apologized for honking. “He said something about being in a rush.”

“Yeah, he needs to go get his sister. I told him thirty minutes ago. I would have gone myself if I would have known that he was going to take so long.”

I just kind of smiled and agreed, knowing that it was Bianca’s tempting ass that had made him late in the first place. She knew I had to go and she made sure that it was hard for me to do so. She liked to fuck with me and this morning she was on double duty and there was nothing I could have done. I was a helpless victim in it all. She knew that certain things would get me going and then I had to play it out to completion. That was the problem this morning anyways.

“Well he said he was ready, so we will be there in no time at all.”

She smiled and thanked me. “I don’t know where Scott would be without you Carl. You always help keep him in line.”

It was another thing that she didn’t really get. I got him in trouble a bit more than I would admit and it was Scott that usually kept me in line. He was usually the reasoning one that didn’t think out of emotions and do stupid shit like I was known to do. We balanced each other out well most of the time.

“How is Ted doing?”

“He’s doing alright. Starting another round of chemo tomorrow and we are hoping that this one does it.”

I told her that I would be praying for her husband that was diagnosed the year before. It was hard for me to be around him like that, when I wanted to remember him the way he was before he got sick and started to decline. He was a shadow of the man that he’d once been.

I didn’t come in to their house much anymore, probably because I didn’t know what to say or how to act, but I still wanted them to know that I was  thinking about him and hoping him all of the best. He’d treated me like his own kid since I’d befriended his son when we were children and if the next round didn’t work, they wouldn’t be the only ones that were upset by it. Ted meant a lot, to a lot of different people.

Scott was coming out and kissed his mother on the cheek before bounding towards the truck and getting in. His red hair was about as bouncy as was the curls in a manic state around his head. He didn’t do much to achieve the look and it was the only way that I knew Scott. He always joked about cutting it off, but then we would never be able to find him in a crowd. Now he stood out so well that he was always easy to spot.

“Let’s go, she’s bitching.” He said the words under his breath without moving his mouth much.

I knew that he was talking about his mom. I waved and smiled at Mary and told her we would be back soon with her daughter. She thanked me again and I got out of the driveway. He was anxious to go and I could tell by the way he was fidgeting next to me.

“What’s going on?”

He shrugged a little. “I don’t know, but mom is on edge and she is driving me crazy. She has been on my ass for an hour, so I hope Bianca was worth it.”

“She always is. That girl can…”

He cut me off and told me to shut up. He didn’t want to hear it and he had a look on his face that told me he wasn’t seeing the humor in it all. I asked him if he was not getting in from Betty and he just gave me this look that told me that I needed to stop talking.

“Not cool. You know how my mom gets and she’s been on me for the last half an hour. Bianca could have waited. Bros before hoes, right?”

I agreed, but had to laugh. I hadn’t heard that saying since we were in high school and we’re both eying the same chick in school.

Mary was anxious by nature and I imagined she had shredded several napkins because of it. “Sorry, you didn’t say anything about your sister when you called, so how was I supposed to know? You know I don’t move very fast, unless I have to. I thought we were just driving to the hardware store to get that sealant and finish up the driveway for your dad.”

“Well things change and you need to move a little faster. I don’t know why, but I think something happened at Melanie’s school and she’s home for a reason. Mom isn’t usually this anxious, so I just want to get her home and mom off my back.”

Feeling guilty that I was so late and caused so much trouble, I pushed the gas pedal down and made the truck go a little bit faster. The city wasn’t too far, but we still had to get back and get the driveway done before it got too hot. It was going to be one of those summers if it was already getting so hot in the daytime.