Kurt twisted his left hand to stretch out the kinks in the tired muscles. Not being able to use his right hand was starting to get frustrating. He tried to adjust the sling, but it continued to pull on his neck. Kurt could feel a headache coming on. He squinted at the "Accounts Payable" screen, but it seemed to blur before his eyes. It was definitely time to give up on updating the garage's books.
"Jake," Kurt called.
A wrench clattered onto a work bench and Jake mosied around the edge of a beat-up station wagon. "What's up, kid?"
"I think I'm going to head out. Is there anything else you need me to take care of before I leave?" He shut down the computer and pushed in his stool.
"Nah. Although I did want to float something by you." Jake moved to block Kurt's exit. "Now, before you get to excited, hear me out." He glanced at Kurt as if he expected him to make a run for it. "The missus and I, we've been talking about my hours lately and it wasn't so bad when you were here. But now that I'm trying to run things and do inventory and cover the evening shifts, it's been some long hours. The guys try to help, but most of them are better at working on cars than working on books and most of them have kids to get home to at night. I was thinking, if you're okay with this, that we could maybe hire somebody part-time to help out."
"Can we afford it?"
Jake shuffled his hand around in his hands. "I think so. We've been doing pretty well, all told. I think we could swing it."
Kurt mentally reviewed the figures he had just finished calculating. "I think so too. Let me look at things once more, before you hire anybody."
"Can do, boss," Jake gave a sloppy salute and a grin before heading back to his work. "Have a good night!"
"You too, Jake," Kurt called back, even as he was headed to the back office. "Sam?"
Sam was seated at the desk, struggling through another ten pages of To Kill a Mockingbird. He seemed glad for an excuse to put the book down. "You ready to head out?"
"As soon as you are." Kurt moved around Sam and began gathering up his own school things. "Thanks again, for coming with me. It was nice to finally get back to this place."
"No problem, dude. I needed a little quiet time to tackle the beast," he held up his tattered copy of Lee's opus. "Maybe you could explain why the author takes fifty pages to describe some crazy, poor family. And what exactly is a 'chiffarobe'?"
"It's a wardrobe," Kurt reached out to rescue the book, stroking a fond hand over its well-worn cover. "I always liked that about her."
"You liked this book?" Sam opened the door back out into the garage, then followed Kurt outside.
"Yeah. I know it's somewhat long, but that's because she doesn't take any shortcuts. Every character has a reason for acting the way they do, they come from somewhere. It's not like they are prejudiced because they are evil or because they're ignorant. It takes a deeper look at racism than just the normal binary view. My aunt always called it the book that tried to explain the South to the North." He huffed a laugh at the thought of Aunt Camilla reading with him in the backyard hammock. She was probably in Tibet by now, if she was holding true to her itinerary. He should be getting a postcard soon.
Sam stopped then and turned back to him. "Then why doesn't she just say that?"
"Because it's fiction? You can't make the message too hard or no one will read it. "A spoonful of sugar," and all that." He tugged on Sam's sleeve to get him moving again.
"Man, it's too bad Atticus isn't real. He seems like a cool guy. I bet he would have Karofsky behind bars in like no time at all." Sam helped Kurt open the door and then climbed in the other side. Kurt still hadn't told anyone the name of his attacker , but Sam knew Karofsky had broken Kurt's arm and bruised his ribs. Sam also liked to voice his suspicions loudly and in front of school principals and teachers.
Kurt shook his head even as he was trying to fasten his seatbelt. "I don't know. Mr. Finch was always gentle with what's her face."
"What does that have to do with anything? Karofsky's not a girl and nobody's calling him a rapist. He's just a bully." Sam threw the car into reverse.
"Yeah," Kurt outwardly agreed. "But still…We don't know what's going on in Karofsky's head. Maybe he has a reason for what he does."
"No, Kurt, no." He knew he had pissed Sam off by the speed at which he took the next corner. "I remember what you looked like last week. I've also seen what he's been doing to the new kid in Glee. You know Blaine, right?"
"Yes. Is he okay?"
"I don't know. He disappeared from his grandparents' house and now Mercedes and Mr. Schue are calling everyone, trying to find him." Sam slowed down a bit, finally, once they were nearly home. "Have you seen him?"
"I saw him before the meeting, but that was it. What happened?"
"Don't know. I guess we'll find out tomorrow."
"No, I mean with him and Karofsky. He isn't hurt is he?" Kurt pulled a suddenly tight seat belt away from his body.
"He seemed fine, despite Karofsky's loving attentions." Another jerk of the wheel, and they were a few blocks from Sam's house. "I'm sure he's okay, Kurt."
"Blaine needs to be more careful. He shouldn't mess with Karofsky."
"Why Kurt?"
"He just shouldn't."
"He seems to be handling himself okay."
"Karofsky is too big for him to handle on his own."
"Seems like he's too big for you to handle on your own, too."
"Stop it, Sam. Don't make things worse."
"I'm trying to make things better. I mean, if you won't think about yourself, think about Blaine. Or who knows how many other kids like you and him out there. You can't keep protecting Karofsky, Kurt." Sam pulled into the driveway, slamming the gear into neutral.
Kurt had to concentrate on his breathing then. "He wouldn't… he doesn't…Karofsky wouldn't."
"Kurt, man up, seriously. Karofsky is exactly like that and would do everything he has done to you to somebody else. Can you live with that fact? Can you let him hurt somebody else without saying anything?" Neither of them made any move to leave the quiet confines of the parked car.
"You mean like you did. Watching me get beat up everyday and not doing a thing to help. I should be brave like that?" Kurt shot back.
"I pulled myself together and did the right thing eventually. Can you say the same?"
"Sam, just leave it. There's no point."
"Kurt, silence gets you nowhere."
'You don't know what it's like."
"No," Sam agreed. "I don't. But you do. You know what Blaine and all of the other outcasts are going through. All I know is that you have a way to stop it and you won't."
"It isn't that simple."
"Maybe. Maybe we just need to take a sword to this Gordian knot," Sam swished an imaginary samurai sword through the air. "How cool would that be? A swish and all of your problems are solved."
"Yeah," Kurt laughed with him. "Just imagine."
Sam finally opened his door. "Let's go inside. Maybe Mom will make us some hot chocolate, huh?"
"That sounds lovely," Kurt followed behind. He wished things were really that simple. He could tell on Karofsky for some of what he had done, get him suspended at most, and then have him come back madder than ever. He could explain everything that had happened and get Karofsky expelled, but that would mean outing him, and that wasn't something Kurt wanted to do. If only there was some way to cut through this tangle.
