Later that night as they got ready for bed, Bogg decided it was time to ask Jeff the questions he had thought of earlier. It proved that Jeff had thought of the same thing and had beatened him to the punch.
"Bogg, I've watched you women the last year and thought it was crazy how you fall for them. But, now with Helen..."
Phineas smiled at his partner. "Out with it, kid."
"Well, I've got strange feelings for her and I'm not sure if I wanna react to it,"
Jeff sat on his bed and Phineas stirred out the window in deep thought. So, this is being a father, huh?
He turned and faced the boy.
"Jeff, I don't know how much you all ready knew about this sort of thing before I came along. You may just feel infatuation or something. You're not ready for love, yet."
"How do you know that? How do you know how I feel?"
"I'm just saying you're too young to understand about women..."
"That's why I'm asking you, Bogg! I maybe only twelve, but I dooo know about love!"
Phineas brought up his hands in protest. "Jeff, I'm sure you KNOW about love, but to understand it is totally different. You could end up really hurt,"
Jeff looked at the floor, knowing that his partner was right. If Phineas knew anything, it was love and women. Phineas's heart went out to the kid. He knew the boy was hurting and aching to find something to fill that void.
"Okay, ready to find Richard?" he sighed, getting out the omni.
"Now? Shouldn't we tell them we're leaving?"
"They won't notice a thing, kid." Phineas smiled.
"Okay,"
In a flash, they were gone to 1958, Tennesee.
They landed hard on a soft ground, but it wasn't hay. It was dirt.
"You okay, kid?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Where are we?"
"1958, Tennesee."
"All right!" Jeff got up and ran down the dirt hill.
"Jeffrey!" Phineas ran after the boy and the both of them nearly tumbled in the process.
As they got to the bottom, Jeffrey laughed when they stopped rolling. He sat up and looked at his partner who was giving him a nasty look.
"C'mon, Bogg.Quit acting like such a grown up! This is time to have fun!"
Phineas stood up and helped his partner.
"I've done having fun over 500 years ago, kid. We've got work to do."
Jeff sighed. He was gonna have to show his partner what having fun was all about...whether he wanted it or not.
He brushed the soft dirt off his pants and looked towards the group of men looking at a car.
"Bogg, let's go over there, please."
"Okay, but stay with me."
"Awww, Bogg. That's Lee Petty! He's not gonna hurt us,"
"I said stay close to me. We don't know these people well enough,"
Phineas made his voice as stern as he could to make it clear to the kid he didn't want to get seperated.
He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at his young partner.
"Jeffrey..."
"Okay, okay. But, I get to talk to Richard."
"What!?"
"Listen, Bogg, Richard's only thirteen right now. I'm twelve. Think he'll listen to you?"
Phineas thought about it. The kid was right. "Okay, I'll handle Lee Petty. You just be careful,"
They went there seperate ways. Jeffrey found Richard filling up the tires on his father's car.
"Hi, ya." Jeff smiled. Richard, his future idle, looked up at him and returned the smile.
"Hi, ya. You lost?"
"Nope. Came to help you,"
"You're out of uniform," came the southern drool.
"Sorry. Guess they couldn't find any my size."
Richard looked up at him and nodded. "Yeah, you are kinda small. What they have you doin, anyway?"
Jeffrey shrugged. "Don't know yet. My father thought I'd be better off with you for now."
"Oh, so you came with your pop, huh? Where is he?"
Jeffrey looked around and saw that Phineas was talking to Lee Petty.
"Over there with your father,"
Richard stood up, over two inches taller than Jeffrey. That made Jeff feel like a shrimp, though his partner was taller than him. Course, Phineas was older, so that was natural. But, to have a kid only a year older than him being taller...he shrugged it off. After all, this was his idle he was thinking about!
"Ahhh, Pop's always ready to talk to new comers. Hey, you two have a place to stay?"
"Not sure yet," Jeff shrugged.
"C'mon, I know Pop will allow you and your father to stay with us."
Jeff followed with high hopes. This was too much to be true! Getting to stay with the Pettys!!!!
They got to Phineas and Lee during their conversation of cars, which surprised Jeff. He knew Phineas didn't like the things.
"I'm not too fond of cars myself, but Jeff seems to be interested in them." he heard Phineas say.
"You're a good man to bring your son here, then. I don't know many men who would do that,"
"Well, Jeff isn't one to ask to go anywhere that much, so I thought this would be a good place for him."
"What kind of a uniform is that you have on? Are you part of the side show?"
That was when Jeff decided to chime in.
"Hey, Pop. Got a job, yet?" he asked and got a very strange look from Phineas.
"Pop???" Phineas asked, never hearing that phrase before.
Jeff gave him an appolgical look.
"Say, Pop, is it okay for Jeff here and his father to stay with us? That is, if they don't have a place all ready.."
Lee looked over at Phineas. "How about it, Phineas? We've got tons of room,"
"Where have I heard THAT before?" Phineas muttered to Jeff, who swatted him on the arm.
"Okay, we'll stay with ya," Phineas sighed.
"All right!" Jeff made a sound of triumph.
"Richard, have you got those tires all blown up?" Lee asked.
"All but one,"
"Well, then, best get them all finnished if we're going to race tomorrow."
"Okay if Jeff comes with me?"
"It's all right with me. We'll meet you two in an hour at the food stand,"
With that, Jeff went off with Richard. The two new friends chatted away as Richard finnished up filling the tires with air. It only took a few minutes, so afterwards, Richard showed Jeff the grounds.
Jeffrey felt so free without having Bogg with him. He loved the guy, but there came a time when he just wanted to be left alone.
Richard looked at his watch. "We'd better get going. Pop is really strict about the time,"
Jeff sighed. "Yeah, tell me about it. So's mine," But, Phineas had a much different reason.
They met up with the older men at the food station and the smell of hamburgers made Jeff's stomach grumble.
"Everyone ready for dinner?" Lee asked.
"Bogg?" Jeff asked. Phineas nodded, he was hungry, too. When was the last time he and the kid eat?
At the Kellers? That seemed like an awful long time.
Jeff got a hamburger, hot dog and fries and Phineas got the same. They sat with their new friends. Richard put a soda can infront of Jeff, who eyed it carefully. It had been a long time since he had a soda..dared he introduce Phineas to it? Would Phineas get hooked on soda like he did on hot dogs? Well, only one way to find out.
It was the hot dog that Phineas bit into first. It had been such a loong time since he had the delicious food and was glad that they were still around in '58. He wasn't sure about the hamburgers, though he and Jeff had them in London.
The fries he enjoyed, especailly with the ketchup on them. Phineas was once more engaged in a converstion with Lee. This time about women and that just happened to be right up his alley! Once in awhile, he'd hear Jeff's laughter and was glad of it. He hadn't heard that laughter while they were in the Keller's time zone. Perhaps coming here was a good idea after all.
That night, it was the first time he and Jeffrey had slept in seperate rooms in a long time. It was oddly quiet. He turned off the light and closed his eyes when he heard a tap at the door.
"Bogg?" came boy's sleepy voice.
"Come on in, kid." Phineas turned on the light as Jeff walked in.
"I'm sorry, Bogg. I'm just not used to sleeping in a room by myself."
"That's all right, Jeff. Climb on in." Phineas pulled the sheet back and allowed Jeffrey to scoot in.
He was glad that the bed was a king size bed. He moved over and gave Jeff a pillow. To tell the truth, he was feeling a little lonely without the kid being there.
"Can ya sleep?" he asked his boy.
"Yeah," Jeff nodded. He turned off the light and pulled the sheet and blanket up close to his chin.
"Night, Kid."
"Night, Bogg."
Phineas heard the heavy sigh from Jeff as he rolled over and closed his eyes once again for the night.