Chapter 3: Of Dreams, Pirates, and Chickens
Even after bagging some clothes into a suitcase and other various things Lance wanted to entertain him in a duffel bag, it seemed as if the grownups still wanted to talk about stuff. Lance and Keith found themselves leaning against the house staring at the barn and chicken coop.
"Want to check out the chickens?" Lance asked with boredom in his voice.
"Whatever," Keith replied. Looking at the birds would be better than nothing. Perhaps they would check the barn next.
Lance thought the chickens were fun. Granted, they ran from him most of the time, but when he got one he gave it to Keith to hold. Keith thought the chicken Lance handed to him looked funny. Its white and red feathers were everywhere, covering its feet in a flared shape and it had a cluster of them around its head like an afro, or maybe dreadlocks. "Her name is Disco Sue," Lance told him as he went after a spotted red hen. Keith wondered how she could see; he kept looking under the feathers on her head to see if she had eyes to begin with. Lance finally caught the red hen he was after when a loud hissing sound came from behind Keith.
Keith slowly looked behind him. Standing there was a large, scrawny red rooster.
"Oh shoot… Keith, drop Sue, we need to get out of here," Lance said as he put the red hen down.
As soon as the chickens hit the ground, the red rooster charged Lance and Keith. They quickly rushed to the door of the coop, hoping to close the door on the mad bird, but in their rush only wound up letting him out. The bird pecked at their feet as they ran. "Here! Climb the tree!" Lance screamed at Keith.
Henry stood there as he watched the two boys scramble up the small tree with an angry chicken behind them. Darn it, Lance and whoever his friend was had pissed off Chicken Joe. Walking into the house, he called out to his wife, "Sweetheart, where's the pail for the feed. Chicken Joe has Lance and a boy up a tree."
Amy popped her head out from the kitchen, "Really? Can you get a picture for your brother Charlie? That should be good for a laugh as he's to take care of those two for a week," she replied.
"What is this? Lance and Keith are what?" Charlie asked.
Amy shook her head, "Chicken Joe. The boys must have been in the coop. The old bird doesn't take well to any boys since Willy scared the poor thing with some fireworks. The pail is by the coop. Better go save the boys, Ol' Joe is going to be after them till he's lured back to the coop."
Charlie laughed as he followed his brother to the tree not far from the chicken coop. Sure enough, Lance and Keith were sitting up in its branches, while Chicken Joe was strutted under the two. "It's not funny, Charlie," Lance shouted. "We weren't doing anything wrong."
"It doesn't matter, son," his father yelled back. "You were in the coop. That was good enough reason for him."
Charlie reached out to Keith to help him down. He felt for the boy… with all that he'd through, the humor of a chicken chasing them up a tree was kind of lost on him. He held Keith as his brother lured the mean bird from the tree and back to the coop. Lance hopped down as the door to the coop closed. "Sorry, Keith, I forgot about Chicken Joe," said Lance. Keith just dug his face into Charlie's shoulder.
"I think Keith has had enough excitement for now. How about getting your stuff into the car, we'll be heading out soon," Charlie said, patting Lance's head. Turning his attention to Keith, he asked, "Are you okay, son?"
Keith mumbled something he couldn't understand. Charlie rubbed his back. "Too much excitement?" he whispered.
Pulling away from Charlie, Keith mumbled, "Yeah, too much." He wanted all this moving about to stop. He wanted everyone to stop calling him "son"; the only ones who could call him that were gone. He didn't want Lance to be poking into his life; he wanted his mother and father. Keith wanted to wake up from this nightmare. That was what this was, a nightmare.
The truth would be that he'd overslept in the car. His father would be complaining over the stuff his mother had bought on Ganelv, while she carried him into his bed. The small house between Austin and Dallas would jump back to life. Dad would complain how the deer had raided his well-tended garden while they were gone as Mom started to unpack and make a list of all the things they would need at the store to restock the house. Keith would be in HIS bed, not a smelly guest bed in some cop's house, dreaming of the flint-hooved horses running on his grandfather's ranch. Dad would have the fireplace in the house stocked up with wood, making the house smell so good.
Keith dragged himself into the backseat of the car. He could hear Lance shoving something big into the trunk… by the sounds, Keith was guessing a bike. "Why the hell is he bringing a bike," Keith thought, looking at the sky. The cold grey sky seemed to say snow and cold.
Cold… why was it now that he was noticing he was getting cold? Keith almost jumped when he heard a rap on the door. "Here, I think you might be in need of this," Charlie said as he tossed a jacket to Keith.
"Thank you," Keith said meekly as he put it on.
Lance hopped in as Charlie moved out of the way, shoving a backpack between them. Keith couldn't help but snort at the expression Lance had on his face, like a cat with a bird in its mouth. His tongue was sticking out of a grin on the verge of laughter. "What are you smiling about?" Keith snorted.
Lance leaned toward Keith, "Got something cool, I'll show you later." he whispered.
As the car started to move, Keith could swear he could hear Lance's sister Jackie scream, "Lance! You f…" "I don't want to know," he told Lance before turning his face back to the window.
Charlie looked into the backseat at Lance. "Why do you have to be a thorn in Jackie's side, boy?" he said with a sigh.
"May be I wouldn't be if she wasn't such a pain in my butt." Lance shot back. "She always thinks I never do anything nice. When I do something nice for her, she never says 'thank you' or anything. It's like I don't exist," he sighed as he sank into the seat.
Charlie sighed as well. The trip to the store was quiet. Keith grabbed only what was needed despite the offers for other things. Lance took his boredom out on the women's undergarment department, grabbing items and asking Charlie what each one was. Charlie almost lost it when Lance joined him at the cash register with a pink thong wrapped around his head. "I thought it was an eye patch," Lance whined. "Just look at it, how can girls wear this?"
Keith tried to cover the laughter bubbling from the sight of Lance with the small amount of fabric over one eye. Charlie stood there shell-shocked as the little old lady behind the register chuckled. "They're only young once," she said with a smile. "If I don't kill him first," Charlie thought.
Back in the car, Keith was still trying to kill the chuckle stuck in his throat. Despite Charlie telling him to put the thong away, Lance went all "Pirates" with it. "Surrender your booty, mates. Shiver my timbers and whatever," he cried as he pranced about with the small pink underwear on his head. Even after he put them back, Lance kept the pirate-bit up. Charlie finally gave into Lance's madness, diving head long into "Pirate-speech" with him. "Come on Keith," Lance prodded. "Say it! I'm a Pirate!"
"You're a nut-job," he shot back, still laughing to himself.
"ARG, that he be," Charlie barked as they pulled up to the house. "And here be thy final stop for thy day. Now, off this ship you scurvy belly land-lovers, and grab your bags or they be cursed to the winds at ye," he cried as he popped the trunk. Charlie watched as the boys grabbed the bags, dragging half of them on the ground as he pulled the bike Lance crammed in out of the trunk. He made an easy night of it, pizza and TV. While Keith was not really up for anything that was on, Lance found a cheesy cartoon.
Later, after Keith and Lance were supposed to have turned in, Lance pulled out his backpack from the edge of the bed. "Hey, Keith," he whispered to his bunkmate. "Can you keep a secret?"
"…"
"I mean it," Lance pleaded, turning on a small lamp, "Can you?"
"Sure, what is it about?" Keith mumbled as he straightened himself in the bed.
"I swiped these mags from my brother," Lance said, handing him one. "I don't want Uncle Charlie to know about it. My brother Willy is always hogging them, won't let me read them, so I snagged a few. I've wanted to see what the deal is about them."
Keith looked at the magazine. It wasn't something he had seen himself nor heard of it. On the cover was a girl with shirt half open posing funny. Opening it, he found himself looking at several girls all naked posing in funny ways. "Geez, Lance, your brother is a perv," he said turning to Lance.
"Perhaps… "Lance agreed. "Still, check out Miss October." showing the centerfold in the magazine he was looking at. Lying across a blue bed sheet was a beautiful blonde wearing a witch's hat and holding a broomstick across her chest. The two boys seemed to stare at the image for some time before they were startled by Charlie's voice blaring behind the door. "Get to sleep, you two. Lights out now!" Keith shoved the magazine under the pillows as Lance turned the lights out.
Keith was trying to sleep now. He just wished Miss October wasn't riding the flint-hooves like that. It was making parts of him very uncomfortable.
