Chapter 2 - Royal Woods, August 2021
"Come in, Nose Bleeder, Road Tripper here."
A short silence. Lincoln used it to stare at the ceiling of his room. He was laying on his bed in his white undies, like every afternoon since he could remember.
Lincoln was a fourteen year old boy, struggling with puberty. In the last year he had had an incredible growth spurt that left him feeling lanky and awkward. A month ago he noticed a few hairs on his upper lip and to nobodies surprise, just like the hair on his head, they were white. Life comes at you fast.
Lincoln positioned his Walkie-Talkie to his face again. "Come in, Nose Bleed-"
"I haven't had a nosebleed since we started Middle school, you know." Came the Clyde's voice with static cracking out of the old Radio. After a short pause he added. "Over."
"I know." Lincoln hesitated. "How is Operation Red-Leaf going? Over." Lincoln asked. He could feel the melancholy in his own voice.
"Fine", A statically distorted sigh. "My dads have everything planned into perfection. Timetables have been made. Over."
"Is any time planned for…" me? "A final Clincoln McCloud. Over"
"You know buddy, it isn't final. I am right on the other side of the lake. Over."
"I know, its just… I don't think we can afford hauling Vanzilla over the border that often. Not after… Over" Lincoln got up into a sitting position staring at his bare feet.
Clyde picked up on the unspoken words. "Dr. Lopez always tells me that… I don't know anymore. I almost didn't see her in two months, can you believe that? Over."
"Well, one more reason for you to come back every month." Lincoln laughed half-heartedly. "Over."
"I don't know Lincoln, when Summer break ends I will be pretty busy with school, you know how bad I am at Math. Last year I almost failed. My dads are still worried and… Over."
"Maybe I should move to Canada too. Over" Like that is gonna happen, Lincoln. You know we can't afford it.
"Oh, hey, Lincoln? My dads are calling me. We are leaving at 4 p.m. You are coming? Over."
"Roger, Over."
"Okay see you. Over and Out."
Lincoln switched the Walkie Talkie off and let himself slowly fall onto his back. Staring at the ceiling again. He had an empty pit in his stomach at that wasn't just because this month was tight. High school would start in a month. He'd be alone, well he'd still have Liam and Zack and Rusty, but hanging around with those dorks was probably going to become a huge headache. The constant teasing in middle school had already been headache enough. Clyde being a black adoptive son of two homosexuals made him a great target for bullies, Hah! Your dad gay!, but at least they stood up to the bullies together. You're the man with the the plan! Come on! But there was really nothing he could do about it.
A hollow bonking noise above let his eyes immediately dart to the vent in his ceiling. Was Lucy spying again? She was really getting to big for those vents. Everyday now the Vent System could come crashing down and reveal all the stuff that his younger sister hid up in there.
Somebody knocked on his door and without asking for a answer his sister Lynn pushed the door open. She was two years older than Lincoln but only a bit taller. She was wearing her auburn hair in a ponytail and a number 1 Jersey like she always did. She had a baseball glove on her right hand and she also had an awkward-sad look on her freckled face.
"Did Lucy just tell you too…" Lincoln started, placing the Walkie-Talkie on his bedside table.
"No", Lynn interrupted him, throwing a once upon a time white baseball from one hand to the other. "Well, yeah. But I thought maybe we could…" She waved around with her glove, the baseball clutched in it. Sports, of course. What else?
Lincoln sighed. "I really don't have any-" His voice cracked. Stupid puberty. "-Any time. I have to get ready." He stood up, wen't to his closet and started clawing through his clothes.
"Well, you know can, you know… always come talk with me, Linc?"
Three U-Haul trucks where standing around in front of Clyde's house. Old house. A few days prior the McBrides had already moved some stuff into their new house in Toronto.
Lincoln was wearing a grey hoodie and his washed out jeans. The mental note: Do Laundry, was still floating around in his head.
"Lincoln!" Clyde stepped out behind one of the U-Haul trucks, a heavy looking brown cardboard box in his hands. Clyde had written 'Video Games' with black marker on it in his neat and tidy handwriting. "Wait a sec!", Clyde called and moved to lift the box into the van. "Uff!"
Clyde and Lincoln hand developed a special handshake that would put the 'Seven Miles Bloods' to shame. "Clincoln McCloud!", they both called at the end of the handshake.
"And, how is it going?" Lincoln asked.
"You know, my dads. They have endless amounts of stuff standing around the house."
"Oh my God! Lincoln!" Howard McBride, a pale and skinny, tall redhead who was always on the edge gave Lincoln a sudden hug. "I am really so sorry!" He grabbed Lincoln and Clyde by their shoulders constantly looking with his sad eyes from one of the other.
"Hi, Mr. McBride."
"I feel it is my fault for breaking you two apart! But the situation it is just… Ah, I am welling up!"
"Howie, breath.", The other Mr. McB, Harold, a short, stocky black man said, getting a handkerchief and handing it to his husband, who took and and dabbed the tears from his eyes. "Remember what Dr. Lopez said."
"I know, its just… "
"We are all not happy that this is happening", Harold said turning to Lincoln. "Trust me we would all rather stay in this lovely neighbourhood, and after all that you did for Clyde…"
"Ohm, heh… that really…", Lincoln mumbled slightly embarrassed.
Clyde sighed.
"We are really sorry to break, up your friendship like this… but we can still visit!" Harold tried his best to sound positive about it.
"Yes, Toronto is really nice, you should definitely visit. And if Clyde gets to tiered of the city we can always come back for a weekend!"
"Yes, that sounds great!", Lincoln said trying to sound confident.
"Ahh! Cleopawtra!" Harold yelled. Running to the porch.
"Can I help with the moving?", Lincoln asked.
"You would?", Howard asked putting away the handkerchief.
An hour later Lincoln was dripping with sweat. He really put it all into it, moving boxes and lamps and whatnot into the trucks, until even the burly movers told him to go slow. Now he felt silly. Like any effort of his could change anything.
The U-Haul trucks were already taking off and Howard and Harold were trying to fit the two cats, Cleopawtra and Nepurrtiti, inside of their pet carriers, into their grey-blue Volvo, leaving Lincoln and Clyde alone at the kerb.
"You know, you can still call me. And you have me on Discord.", Clyde said looking over to his dads struggling with the cats.
"Yes, its just, starting high school without you, buddy…", Lincoln replied.
"Yeah, that'd be fun."
A long pause. Both boys listened to Cleopawtra making a ruckus in her pet carrier.
"You know, I don't think we are coming back.", Clyde started, turning to Lincoln who squatted down on the kerb. "You - know how things have been going around here lately." He sat down besides Lincoln.
"I still have your copy of Anthem 3, you know."
"Anthem 3 is shit.", Clyde chuckled. "Why don't you bring it with you when you visit?"
"Yeah.", Lincoln sighed.
"Cylde, Lincoln! I really don't wanna do this, but we have to catch up with the moving trucks!", Harold called from the car.
Lincoln and Clyde stood up, patting the dirt of their asses.
"Yesterday, was great you know." Lincoln said. They had went to the arcade, afterwards to Spunk E. Pigeon's Pizza Palooza Paradise. Played some games at Clyde's. Almost the same day, as every day. But to Lincoln it was especially nice, because days like this wouldn't be the same again, ever.
"Clincoln McCloud?", Clyde asked offering his hand, ready to shake it down.
"Clincoln McCloud.", Lincoln said, ignoring the hand and taking his best friend into a hug. Clyde's fro was rough against his temple. "I am gonna miss you man."
"Same.", Clyde returned the hug.
"Ohoho! I can't take it." Howard sobbed from the car, his handkerchief back at his eyes.
The boys let go of each other.
"Take care."
"Yeah, take care." Clyde replied.
"Ohh, Lincoln! Take care of yourself!"
Clyde got in the car but not before waving at Lincoln one last time. And then they took off. It was so fast. Suddenly the McBride car was just a dot in the distance then the dot vanished.
Lincoln took a seat on the kerb again.
"Catch bro!"
Lincoln did. Having a sister like Lynn was sometimes a pain in the ass, and if you didn't want to get slammed by her or her sport equipment every other second, you had to git gud.
Grow, adapt, overcome, Lincoln thought, taking a look at the worn-out baseball in his hand. Thinking about what it would be like not having Clyde around. The sudden realisation hit him, that he would wake up tomorrow and Clyde just wouldn't be there. What should I do? Grow, adapt, overcome. He let out a depressed chuckle and tossed the ball back to Lynn who was standing in their front yard under the tree. It looked like she had been waiting for him.
"Hey, sis."
Lynn didn't give him a rest and immediately swung the baseball back at him. Lincoln managed to catch the ball again, before it hit him dead in the face.
"Lynn!", he exclaimed. Taking another look at the raggedy ball, he said teasingly: "I think i am keeping it."
"No you wouldn't!" Lynn took a few steps towards her younger brother.
"Oh, yes I would!" Lincoln tried to make a run for the front door of their run-down house, but to no avail, Lynn darting sideways and cutting him off.
After a few seconds feinting left and right, Lincoln gave up. "Here you can have it!" He tossed it in the direction of the backyard.
As always he had underestimated Lynn, the athletic teen catching the ball mid-air with her glove, coming down on her knees holding up her hand, like in some cheesy sports flick or like a 80's pop star after a performance.
"Ohhh, yeah! That was incredible!", Lynn exclaimed. "Number #1 baby!" She got up on her feet and was doing some very flamboyant poses from various anime. "You have nothing on me Stinkoln!" Despite her age, Lynn still acted like a hyperactive kid on sugar.
Lincoln just sighed and put his ass down at the base of the old oak that dominated their front yard. He watched Lynn pat herself on the back, his mind elsewhere. High school, a new frontier, trusting that Clyde would stand by his side while they made their way through it really made the thought of more boring and longer school days spiced with bullying bearable.
Lynn quickly noticed her brother being down. She planted herself next to him against the tree, interrupting Lincolns day-dreaming. Taking off her glove and tossing the baseball from one hand to the other, producing an irritating smacking noise, Lynn just sat there for a minute.
"So." Lynn started. "Clyde is gone.", she still didn't stop throwing her ball around.
"Yup.", Lincoln replied following the baseball with his eyes.
"Sucks, huh?"
Instead of answering Lincoln quickly snatched the ball away from his sister. Lynn let it happen. Lincoln just held the ball with a firm grasp by his side.
"Can't believe summer break is almost over." Lynn said, putting her head back into her neck.
"Can't wait to play with your team again?"
"Uhu.", Lynn murmured, not very enthusiastically.
That is unusual, Lincoln thought, Normally she wouldn't be shutting up about finally getting to play for the high school league again.
"You don't sound very happy.", Lincoln stated.
Lynn was quiet for a while, before finally answering: "Remember, that fight we had? I don't even know what it was about… you said… that I'd peak in high school."
"What, I never said…" Lincoln carefully scooted a bit away from his elder sister. Did I really say that? Must be ages ago, I have a pretty good memory. "Well, sorry. I didn't mean that."
"I start my last year of high school in two weeks.", Lynn continued ignoring Lincolns replies. "I don't know, I think you were right. That I am a, you know… one of those local high school athletes who get forgotten and work at, McDonalds or Burgerking. I…"
"Come on Lynn!", Lincoln said, despite feeling that here little breakdown rang quite close to home. Uncertainty, is scary. A terrible vision of uncertainty, all those possibilities, so many missteps to happen. "You still have your family! I mean, everything just half-bad." Thats right, family stays. He understand her concerns, however, thinking of his older sister Luna, how she didn't become a rockstar selling records all over the world, instead she jumped from one part time job to the other, jumping at the possibilities of a gig in even the most seediest of clubs. Dreams don't always come true.
Awkward silence. Talking with Lynn about feelings, about insecurity, was really strange. And that she initiated it, was even weirder.
A grey car was coming down the street. When it was almost at their house, Lynn suddenly spoke up: "Wanna play a game?"
Lincoln immediately knew what was up. "No! No!", he said moving away from his older sister.
"Auto attack!", Lynn exclaimed. The car passed and Lincoln got two very hard punches to his right shoulder. The tissue should be dead by know, living his whole live together with Lynn, but he still felt it. "Two for flinching!"
"Ahh! Lynn!"
"Hey, guys. Dinner is ready." Luan, Lincolns and Lynns 17 year old sister, called form the porch, interrupting the fun game of 'Auto Attack' She was wearing her brown hair in a large ponytail, and still had her little yellow clown hat on. Since she finished school this year, she had been entertaining as a clown at children birthday parties all over town, much like she did while still in school, while also growing her comedy YouTube channel. "Lettuce get a move on!", She laughed like it was funny, showing her enormous teeth, that looked even bigger without her braces. Suddenly turning dead serious she added: "No, seriously, I am starving." She disappeared inside of the house again.
Lynn and Lincoln slowly got up. Lynn collected her baseball glove and Lincoln gave her the ball. The made a move for the house.
"You know," Lincoln started, feeling really courageous today. "After Trannies are now allowed in the woman's league, they'd have no use for you anyway." Without even waiting for a reaction he ran for the porch as fast as he could. If Lynn catches him before he was in sight range of his parents, he was a dead man.
Something hard hit him in the back of his head, it was like somebody had thrown a right hook from just behind him. Lincoln let out a surprised cry and stumbled down to his knees a step away from the porch. A baseball rolled to the ground next to him. I am a dead man.
