Sunday, Monday...


The Chat


"You took Richard to the Y?" Marion exclaimed, pausing mid-pass of the green beans.

"It was fine, mom," Richie told her. "Fonzie was really careful to make sure I didn't get hurt. We just hung out in the shallow end."

"I'm glad you were so careful, but I wish you'd discussed it with us first," said Howard.

"I understand, Mr. C, and I promise if I take him out again, I'll let you know where we're going. Now... could I have those veggies, Mrs. C?"

"Oh yes, I'm sorry." Marion handed the beans to Fonzie.

Fonzie scooped a generous helping onto his plate. "So, Richie shared a little news with me today," he prompted.

"Yeah," Richie said. "It's not much, but I can kind of see light a little bit now... enough to tell where it's coming from."

"That's wonderful!" Howard exclaimed. "How long were you gonna sit on that news?"

"Yeah, sit on it," Joanie muttered.

Richie elbowed her.

"I just knew you were going to get better," Marion claimed. "You know, you came through your chicken pox the fastest, and..."

"What does chicken pox have to do with this?" Howard demanded.

"Well... you just never know."

"Like I said, it's not very much," Richie repeated. "It really doesn't do me any good, except I can kind of tell when it's daylight and when it's night. That's about it."

"There's no telling with this kind of injury," said Howard. "Maybe your head just needs to recover some more. Time will tell."

"Jenny says there's a blind school in town," said Joanie. "Blind kids go there to learn how to walk with a cane and stuff."

"What does Jenny Piccolo know about something like that for?"

"She used to date a blind guy. She said he really liked her when she told him how pretty she was."

"Lying to a blind man," Fonzie said scornfully. "She oughtta be ashamed."

"Well, she is pretty."

"Fair to middling." Fonzie saw that Richie was smiling. "Richie, you ready for some more schoolwork after dessert?"

"Sure," said Richie.

"That reminds me," said Howard, "I got some plywood and nails for you, Fonzie."

"Great. I'll take 'em to work tomorrow... got a new kid coming in for observation. I can let him put the nails in for me."

"What's that mean?" asked Joanie. "'Coming in for observation.'"

"Means I'm gonna let him watch me work."

"Boy, I know girls who would pay for that show. Jenny, for one. You should sell tickets."

Fonzie shook his head. "No can do. I made up my mind a long time ago that chicks and my work would not mix except on very special occasions."

"Sounds like a good policy," said Howard.

Marion fetched dessert from the kitchen. "Whoever will help with the dishes gets served first," she declared. Silence. "My, my, all too polite to cut each other off, eh?"

"I'll do it," Fonzie and Richie said together.

Marion beamed. "You boys are so sweet. Arthur, you can wash, Richie can dry, and I'll put them away. We'll have them done in no time."

"Suck-ups," Joanie said under her breath.

Richie elbowed her again.


That night they finished chapter eight of Deerslayer after working on some of Richie's other subjects.

"There's still a lot to do, but at least I'm almost caught up in literature," Richie said.

"Yeah." Fonzie flipped ahead a little to see how much of the story was left. "Only a few more chapters. Then we'll have to find a copy of the book."

"Dad said he had one. I'll get him to look for it before he opens the store tomorrow."

"Cool. So, how are you feeling?"

"Pain killer's working."

"How are you feeling about what happened today?"

"Okay. Still a little weird."

"Anything you want to discuss?"

Richie licked his lips.

"I'll take that as a yes." Fonzie set the book aside. "What's bothering you?"

"Well... the whole idea, really. I mean, say you know this guy, and you're friends—good friends. You want him to know how much you like him and care about him, but you can't show it the way you would to a girl. That's where Adam went wrong... right?"

"Where Adam went wrong was avoiding the real issue. When you have a problem with someone, you don't involve a third party until you've tried everything else."

"Okay, but supposing he hadn't avoided it. What if he'd just told you straight out what his problem was, away from other people?"

"I didn't know him before today. I'd probably tell him to snap out of it and get a life."

"What if you had known him before? What if you were friends?"

"Good friends?"

"The best. This guy would die for you. You'd cancel dates for him."

"Whoa." Fonzie thought it over. "I guess I'd tell him that, uh... things might not be able to go just how he wants, but he's important to me, so... we'd try to figure out something we could both live with. Ground rules, you know?"

"That seems fair."

"Cause I wouldn't want to lose a friend like that. But there are some lines you can't cross."

"So, I guess he'd have to talk to you to know where those lines are."

"Yeah, he would." Fonzie waited, not wanting to cut Richie off if he wanted to say more, but really not wanting to hear more. After a while, he asked, "Anything else you wanted to know?"

"Not right now... thanks."

Fonzie got up and stacked Richie's books as usual. "I'll come back when I get done at the garage tomorrow. In time for lunch, if things go well. If there's a lot to do, it might be later."

"Okay. Thanks for the help. You're a good friend."

"Ayy." Fonzie tossed his jacket over his shoulder and headed out. "Night, Rich." He saw that Joanie's light was on and poked his head into her room. "Night, Shortcake."

"Good night, Fonzie," Joanie answered, not taking her eyes off her nail-painting.

"You're doing your nails at this hour?"

"I'm always in a hurry in the morning. This way, I won't have to wait for them to dry."

"Very good idea. Don't stay up too late."

"It's Friday."

"I know. On school nights, you know better." He snapped his fingers as he turned away. The hall light went out. "Whoa, what a sensitive circuit." He thumped the wall with his elbow and the lights came back on.

"What was that?" Howard's muffled voice came from his and Marion's room.

"Just me leaving, Mr. C."

"Good night, Arthur," Marion called.

"Sweet dreams, Mrs. C." He thought he heard Howard grumble something. He decided to leave well enough alone and went downstairs. He made sure the house was locked up before he left. "Good night, Cunninghams."


Fonzie was under a car when Adam arrived. He saw the brown-haired boy crouched on the floor and set his tools down.

"Look out, I'll come out."

"Or I could grab one of those things and come under with you."

"I'm coming out," Fonzie said firmly.

Adam backed away and Fonzie slid out from under the car. He got up and went to the workbench where he had left the nails and square of plywood. "I got a job for you."

"Okay."

"I want these nails in this piece of plywood, one inch apart, this way and this way. Got it?"

"One inch apart. Okay. Got a tape measure?"

Fonzie banged the side of the workbench with his fist and a tape measure fell off the shelf above. "Knock yourself out."

"How far should I pound them in?"

"Far enough so they won't pull out easy, but don't go all the way through."

"All right."

Fonzie got back on his creeper and slid under the car again.

"What's this for, anyway?"

"That's gonna be a graph for Richie, so he can learn about parabolas an' stuff in geometry. Graphing number sequences."

"Oh. He'll be coming back to Jefferson, then?"

"That's the plan. I think if he shows his teachers he can do the work, he's got a good shot. Now get pounding."

For about half an hour, Fonzie worked without interruption. The banging of the hammer was annoying, but he pressed on in spite of it. Then the noise stopped.

"You finished?"

"My arm's getting tired," Adam said sheepishly. "Is it okay if I take a break?"

"Sure. Get under the hood and we can talk through the engine."

Adam did as he was told, and soon Fonzie saw the younger boy looking down at him.

"I keep thinking about yesterday," Adam said. "I feel like I could just die."

"That wouldn't help anything, would it?"

"I don't know. I guess not. Is Richie doing okay?"

"He'll live." Fonzie swapped out tools from his toolbox and continued working. "I want you to know you're not the first guy who's come on to me."

"Really? ...Are the others dead?"

"Nope. One moved away, one avoids me, and one pretends it never happened."

"Did you beat them up?"

"One of 'em. Wouldn't take no for an answer. He took a fist in his gut for an answer, though. That's the one that moved away. I just hope the guys in Buffalo can take care of themselves."

"Wow. What about the other two?"

"The one who avoids me... think I broke his little heart. But last I heard, he was going steady with a nice girl from the other side of town. Seems like he really likes her, so I leave him alone. As for the last one... he's the work-in-progress lookin' down at me right now."

Adam looked away. "So, you want me to pretend it never happened."

"Yeah, as far as anyone else is concerned, anyway. And eventually with me."

"If I can't handle that, are you gonna hit me?"

"I really don't think it'll come to that. You're gonna get over it. Now listen, while you're here, you may as well hand tools to me."

"Sure." Adam knelt beside the car and Fonzie shoved the toolbox out to him.

"Know what a socket wrench is?"

Adam dug in the toolbox. "This thing?"

"Yeah... that thing."

"Sorry. I'm pretty clueless about anything more complicated than a hammer or a screwdriver."

"That's okay. I'll teach you. By the time I get done, you'll know all the sizes, standard and metric."


Two cars later, Fonzie went to the washing station and scrubbed the grease and oil off his hands. "How's my hair?"

"Perfect."

"Same as usual, huh? You got that graph board done?"

"Yeah. I drew lines on it to make sure I put the nails in straight lines."

"Good idea. See, you're not so bad in a garage."

Fonzie dried his hands and went to admire Adam's work. "That's great. You saved me a lot of time."

"I'm sure you could have done it a lot faster."

"You're probably right. But you still saved me time, and this made a nice little detention activity for you."

"So, is it time to go?"

"Almost. First I want to settle something." Fonzie planted himself and worked up his resolve. "It's just you and me here, and no one else is coming in today. So no one besides us will ever know if you kiss me right now."

Adam looked shocked. His face slowly went from pale to pink to puce.

"What's the matter?"

"I... I thought you wanted me to just forget about it."

"I believe in letting a man get a thing out of his system."

"Really? It's not a trick or something?"

"Tricks are for dogs. You want it or not?"

Adam came toward him timidly.

Fonzie waited, determined not to move until Adam made up his mind. He could see that Adam was breathing hard. "Would it help if I closed my eyes?"

"No... I don't think it would. Fonzie, I can't kiss you."

"Why not?"

"Because you don't want me to."

"That's right."

"There wouldn't be anything good about it."

"That's right, too."

"Oh my gosh, I've been such an idiot..."

"That's probably also right."

"All this time, I've been imagining all these things... things I wanted to do with you..."

"You can keep those to yourself."

"...but none of that's ever going to happen. I've wasted so much time wishing for something that's not real."

"Come'ere."

Adam took the last step and Fonzie put his arms around him. "It's okay."

Adam let out a sigh that sounded like a lot of relief and surrender. "You're ten times the guy I thought you were... and I worshiped you."

"Lemme tell you something: When you make someone your idol, you put him in a box. You can admire him and dream about him and make up all these nice little stories... but you can't be his friend."

"You're right... are you always right?"

"Just about."

"I never tried just being your friend. I'm so sorry."

Fonzie moved back, but kept his arm around Adam's shoulders. "Well, look at it this way—you can't do any worse than this, right? Things'll get better."

"I hope so."

"I know so. Here's your homework assignment: I want you to make a new friend this week. Find a guy you have some stuff in common with. Make sure he's a good guy; the kind who brushes his teeth and takes care of his mom. Hang out with him and see how good a friend you can be. Leave your digits with me and I'll call you next Saturday to see how you're doing."

"What if I can't make any friends?"

"You get points for effort. Will you try?"

"Yeah, I will." Adam went back to the bench and wrote his number on a notepad. "Thanks. Hanging out here with you was better than anything I've thought up."

"Go on, get outta here."

"Yeah... see you 'round, Fonzie."

Fonzie watched him go. When he was sure he was alone again, he let his posture sag a little and let out his breath in a long sigh. Then he turned his gaze and his thumb upward. "Thanks."


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