The Post Road Diner was a 1950's themed diner. Old posters hung on the walls depicting Tom and Jerry, Grease and original coca-cola ads. All the waitresses wore black and pink styled uniforms with their names written in curly letters. The best part about the diner was it served everything! Salads, burgers, omelets, milk shakes, clubs, pancakes, chicken wings, pizza, gyros... it was one of the few places that Mattie could get pancakes and Alfred could get a burger at the same time. Therefore, it was the Bonnefoy-Kirkland's favorite restaurant.
On Sunday morning, when other families were at church or sleeping in the Bonnefoy-Kirklands were sitting at their usual booth in the back of the Post Road Diner. Arthur had tea, Francis had coffee, Matthew had a Maple soda and Alfred had a chocolate shake.
Alfred pointed a long spoon at his brother, "I don't understand how you can drink that stuff!" he teased.
Mattie just smiled around his straw. It was heaven in a glass that's how. Vanilla ice cream, club soda and real maple syrup blended into one delicious Beverage of Amazement.
"Alfred, lay off your brother," Dad said from across the table.
"But Dad," Alfred whined.
"Please listen to your father petit," Papa repeated. Alfred crossed his arms and pouted. He stared up at a neon 7-Up poster. Matthew just shifted in his seat, focusing on his drink.
"So what is everyone having for breakfast?" Dad broke the silence.
The table next to them was digging into heaping plates of pancakes, Mattie's favorite. But their perfect golden brown pancakes had dark purple smudges on them. An old man cut into it, put a piece in his mouth and moaned. Mattie's mouth watered. He had to try those pancakes! Mattie blinked and turned his attention back to his table.
"I'm having blueberry pancakes!" He declared.
There came a series of 'oohs' from around the table. A girl sitting at a booth across from theirs turned to look at them.
Alfred let his spoon fall back into his shake with a metallic thunk, "You're changing your order?" he gasped.
Matthew nodded, "yup!"
"I'm not!" Alfred exclaimed, "We don't have to right?"
"No, you don't have to," Dad chuckled, "I'm not."
"Maybe I should try something new as well?" Papa murmured, looking down at the unopened menu.
"Nooo Papaaa!" Alfred cried, "Don't do it!"
"Go for it!" Matthew cheered.
Papa plucked up the menu and flipped through the pages quickly, "Yes, I believe I will have the cinnamon raisin French toast."
Alfred groaned and turned to Dad, "We've lost them. They've gone over to the dark side."
The table burst into laughter and when Mandy, their usual waitress, came she was equally stunned not to hear "the usual" coming from all of their mouths.
After their orders had been given Papa and Dad turned to them with serious looks on their faces. Alfred gulped and Mattie wiped his palms across his jeans. Had the report cards come? Had the hockey coach finally told them about the fighting? Had Alfred saran wrapped the toilet again?
"We have something we need to talk to you about," Dad said. Mattie could feel his heart in his throat. April break was coming up soon. He didn't want to be grounded!
Both men stared at them for a moment before a grin broke across Papa's face.
"We're going to Mexico!" Papa gushed.
First a whoosh of relief went through him and then excitement. They were going on vacation!
"That's awesome! Boo-yah!" Mattie exclaimed. They hadn't really gone on any big vacations since Alfred had come to live with them. Sure they'd gone to the Carolinas and Florida but nothing international. He turned to his brother to see his reaction.
Alfred was biting his lip, "so we're leaving the country?"
Papa nodded, "Oui, we'll be staying at a resort in Cancun. Just imagine Florida, but with Mayan ruins to explore."
Alfred put on a wobbly smile that didn't fool anyone, "Awesome! That'll be great."
"It will be love, I promise." Dad reached across the table for Alfred's hand. The younger boy blushed but didn't pull away. Matthew chewed on his lip. For all of Alfred's bravo he really was... delicate about certain things
Dad continued on, "And they'll be lots of pools and you can go snorkeling in the ocean. Plus, there are fourteen waterslides."
"Really? Fourteen?" Alfred puzzled. His head tilted like a confused puppy. It made Mattie giggle under his breath.
Dad nodded.
"And there is a bar in the pool where you can get all the drinks you want to," Papa added, "For free."
"No way," Alfred breathed as a smile began to stretch across his face.
"Oui way," Papa said and it was so silly that Alfred cracked a grin.
"Ok," Alfred smiled, "it might be cool."
Mandy arrived with her arms full of plates. A warm stack of melty, delicious pancakes were set down in front of him. He was in the middle of slathering maple syrup on them when he realized that Alfred was only playing with his French fries instead of devouring them.
Mattie kicked his foot under the table. When the other boy looked up at him he quietly muttered, "waterslides."
"Waterslides," Alfred repeated slowly. The thought of free soda and over a dozen waterslides finally seemed to sink into his head, "Dude, we're going to Mexico!" Alfred cheered.
His brother threw his arms around Matthew and all the breath was wrung out of him as Alfred frantically jerked him back and forth. He's such a spazz Mattie thought as he rolled his eyes in his brother's grip.
When Alfred released him he dug into his food with gusto. Matthew took a deep breath and picked up his utensils. The grin was stuck to his face. They were going to Mexico for vacation. Trying not to bounce in his seat, Matthew dug in to his food.
Fridays were Alfred and Kiku's weekly video game smash. They'd play as many games as they could before they passed out in the living room surrounded by soda cans and chip bags.
Papa and Dad only let caffeine-free soda and baked chips in the house, but as far as Alfred was concerned that was better than nothing. The two friends laid on their stomachs on the floor in front of the television. They were shooting zombies and talking about Alfred's trip to Mexico.
"I'd worry about sun burn," Kiku said as he blew a zombie apart, "Put on sun tan lotion even if you feel stupid."
Alfred moaned, "I'd rather burn."
Kiku hurled a pillow at his head.
"Well that escalated quickly," Alfred quipped. His character beheaded an old man zombie. The zombie had a long beard that got chopped in half when Alfred took his head off. The blond boy made a face and took a swing of soda one handed. He let out a loud burp. Kiku snorted.
"What?" Alfred asked, fingers flying across the buttons.
The dark haired boy peered over at him, took a breath and opened his mouth... out was a monstrous burp! The deep sound lasted several seconds and once it was ended the sound seemed to echo.
Both boys stared at each other for a moment, "Oh my god!" Alfred cackled in hysterics, "Dude! Have you been holding that in for years or something? Where did all that come from?!"
Alfred clutched at his side. An explosion lit up the screen but neither boy noticed. Alfred was pounding the floor in laughter and Kiku was silently laughing, breathless with tears streaming down his face.
Mattie wandered in to, "make sure you're not going to choke yourself from laughing so much," which sent them off into hysterics again.
When Alfred could breathe again he said, "You rock man."
"Thank you," Kiku grinned, "I try."
With an occasion snort of laughter, they started playing again. Both boys were grinning at the screen as they battled zombies in a forest.
Alfred spoke up suddenly, "Man, it'd just suck if the plane went down half way there! Or if I got lost and couldn't speak to anyone 'cause they all speak Spanish." Alfred whined as he slashed a zombie and kept running.
Fog rolled across the screen making it difficult for the boys to see their enemies. Kiku got mauled by one before he took a flame thrower out.
"Yeah that'd be unfortunate, but the chances of your plane going down are nine million to one. So I wouldn't worry. You're more likely to get in a car crash."
The orange glow of Kiku torching the rotting people blazed on his half of the screen.
"Gee thanks man," Alfred laughed. He copied the other boy's weapon change. The zombies weren't dropping dead, like they were when they were beheaded, but at least their characters weren't being eaten.
"I could get some movies about travel if you'd like," the Japanese boy suggested. His character jumped into a tree to avoid a zombie.
"If you want to then I would," Alfred replied, shrugged, "movie marathons are always fun."
The two characters were slashing and burning following the compass in the upper right corner pointing them north. North was safety. It was too cold for the zombies to live there.
"I'll bring them over this weekend then," Kiku said.
Alfred nodded as his fingers pressed several keys frantically.
The fog lifted and the big dipper shone brilliantly on the screen. Alfred and Kiku had made it out of the forest and into the next level. Alfred punched the air and whooped.
Matthew sighed. It was Alfred's movie marathon night. Kiku had come over with a backpack filled with dvds and junk food. Matthew didn't know how he'd gotten dragged into this event, but he was less than excited.
He wasn't worried about going to Mexico like Alfred was. He didn't need to spend his Saturday watching travel themed movies. He rolled his eyes, the things he did for his brother...
He sighed again; at least he could work on his badges while watching.
"Movie marathon!" Alfred yelled jumping around the room. Mattie stared at him from his spot on the stairs.
Kiku was kneeling next to the coffee table. Matthew peered in between the banisters. Spread out on the coffee table was Up, all the James Bond movies, all the Indiana Jones movies, The Bucket List, and one he'd never heard of called The Motorcycle Diaries. He didn't think Alfred and Kiku would try to watch all of them, but even if they got through half... that meant it was going to be a long night.
"Come down Mattie! Movies, movies, movies!" Alfred yipped, prancing back and forth between the kitchen and living room. He'd stocked up a bunch of contraband junk food for the movie night. Doritos, cheetos, twizzlers and kit-kats appeared and were torn open hastily.
Alfred waved two in his direction before chomping them up. Matthew's mouth watered. He loved twizzlers. Alfred wasn't the type to manipulate people, but Matthew was sure he was just doing this to get him to come downstairs.
His brother grabbed another handful. Mattie grimaced, at that rate the bag would be gone before the movie had even started.
"Fine!" Matthew exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. He stomped down the rest of the stairs. Alfred whooped and Kiku smiled. He grabbed the bag of twizzlers from Alfred as he plopped on the floor.
The doorbell chimed and Alfred went sliding across the hardwood floors to answer it. Kiku pulled Up from its case.
Alfred enthusiastically greeted the deliverer. Matthew couldn't help but stare at the guy. He thought most pizza delivery guys were in high school and had lots of acne. This dude was a middle-aged guy with way too much scruff. His face was pulled into a frown. It made the scar peeking out from under the left side his baseball hat making it pucker up.
Alfred quickly gave him the money and grabbed the pizza box. When the door slammed shut Matthew breathed a sigh of relief, not sure why the guy had given him the creeps so badly. Alfred ripped open the box and shoved half a piece in his mouth. The marinara sauce wafted around the room. It smelled delicious.
"Do Dad and Papa know you ordered pizza?" Matthew asked.
Alfred shook his head no and Matthew sighed. Dad and Papa had gone to the "grocery store." Matthew really knew that meant to have a quickie in the car and, maybe if they remember, to also stop at a gas station for milk.
Apparently, Alfred wasn't expecting them home anytime soon.
"If we're gonna get in trouble for order a pizza please tell me you at least get stuffed crust?" Matthew groaned.
Alfred grinned and waved half a piece at him, "yup," he popped the p sound.
Matthew smacked his leg as he walked past. When Alfred set the pie down, Matthew grabbed a slice and bit into it, crust side first. He had to eat dinner some time.
"Oh sweet!" He praised.
The three boys settled into their spots as a flood of colorful balloons floated on to the screen with the words UP in big letters. Kiku was curled up on one corner of the couch, Alfred sprawled out on the other, and Mattie in a pillow nest on the floor.
He pulled his biology book, notebook and colored pencils from his bag. He shook the dried plants from his book. He was in the middle of drawing Sweetfern. As he was sharpening his pencil, he watched the little girl and boy grow into teens then young adults then adults.
Matthew put pencil to paper. One eye on his drawing, the other on the film. Half way through the movie and two illustrations later, Papa and Dad walked through the door with a yellow plastic bag.
"Hello!" Dad called.
Matthew looked up to greet them. He wished he couldn't see that Dad's hair was more ruffled than usual and that Papa had a bruise on his neck.
Matthew's gazed returned to his paper, and he waved without looking. He felt Papa pressed a kiss to his head and heard him ruffle Alfred's hair. One good them about them being so post-sex happy out was neither one seemed to care about the pizza or junk food.
Once they had disappeared into the kitchen, he was able to get back in the zone and get through four more illustrations.
As the credits rolled, Alfred asked Kiku and Matthew questions about actually floating a house by balloons, the chances of getting abducted by old men with talking dogs and where the other boys wanted to travel too. Matthew grabbed another slice of, now cold, pizza as he answered.
When Alfred's curiosity was sedated, Kiku popped another disc in and Matthew continued sketching. Dark lines broke across the page. His thumb rubbed against the smooth paper. Pointed leaves forming the image of the plant. Occasionally he'd glace up and the movie would have progressed. An image of a South American road, a motorcycle all passed without notice because Matthew was in the zone.
"But how did they know he'd have lots of money!" Alfred demanded. Matthew glanced up to see Alfred waving his arms about. "He doesn't look like he'd have lots of money to me!"
Kiku was pointing at the screen, "It's the watch!" Kiku replied.
Matthew blinked and stilled his hand. Alfred seemed to know nothing about the rest of the world. He heard Kiku explain the difference between a wealthy first world person and a wealthy third world person in a daze. Alfred had wrapped a blanket around him at some point.
He'd started working on a sixth illustration, this one of poison ivy, with little more than a few thoughts. His hands were smudged and the pages were finished. He remembered drawing them but he'd been calm, quiet almost. This was why he loved art. It was like meditating with his hands.
The other two boys spoke about fitting into a place and dressing like the locals. Matthew half snorted when he realized Alfred was calling it poor people dress up. The sound of a motorcycle drifted behind his eyes and Mattie let his hands shade the vibrations into the poison ivy.
He couldn't wait to get these badges. He was going to know everything about plants and forestry after this. Who knows maybe when they were in Mexico he'd grab an extra illustration for the hell of it.
