AN: I don't know if anyone besides the ever awesome .kid is reading this story, but just in case, I wanted to point out that I kind of fudged the summary and changed it from taking place five years after the summer of Stand By Me, to 15 years. When I started out, I wasn't really sure what I was doing with this story, but now I have a clear idea of where I'm going and the time change should make sense fairly quickly. Hope you enjoy
He traced his finger down the names in the phone book until he reached the one he was looking for. He quickly dialed the phone number and waited for someone on the other end to pick up.
"Hello?" A woman with a tired and weary voice asked. It was obvious that she was a woman who had been smoking for the better part of her life.
Ace cleared his throat, "Um..ma'am? Mrs. Chambers? This is A-John Merrill. Junior's boy. I was wondering if maybe I could talk to Richard."
His heart beat quickly in his chest. He was all strung up and hoped that Eyeball's mother would be able to provide him with a phone number, or at least an address, for her second eldest son. For a moment, she was silent. Then, "Rich hasn't lived in this house for a long time now, Johnny. Surely you must have known that?"
Ace tried to keep the contempt out of his voice when he responded. God how he hated to be called Johnny. No one had called him that since his own mother had finally stopped breathing three years ago. "Yes, ma'am. I was hoping that you could give me his phone number or address?"
Again, a few seconds clicked by with nothing being said. He could only hear her shallow breaths on the other line. "I think it'd be best if you stayed away from Richie, John. You were never anything but trouble. Your father was trouble for my husband, and you were trouble for my son. Richie has gotten into enough trouble on his own. He doesn't need any more help from you."
Ace clenched the hand that wasn't holding the phone into a fist. "Mrs. Chambers, I'm a grown man now. I left all those legal troubles in my youth. I've been holding down a straight job for quite a while now." He bit his lip as he said this last part. "I just wanted to catch up with an old pal. He was my best friend."
Eyeball's mother seemed to soften a bit. "Well, alright." She relented. "I'll give you the number, but I swear to the Lord and sonny Jesus, if the police come around here asking questions, I'm going to give them answers. I'm tired of sweeping up Richie's tracks. I just lost my boy, Johnny." She let out a shallow sob, and then regained control of herself. She was, of course, speaking of Christopher. Ace had seen the newspaper article, much like another man who had known Chris in another life. "I'm really sorry about that, ma'am." Ace answered hollowly, while thinking good riddance in his own head. Mrs. Chambers gave him the information he needed to find his old friend and they quickly hung up their respective lines.
Ace wasn't quite ready to phone Eyeball yet, though. First he needed something in his stomach. He walked downtown to a café to grab a bite to eat. He also sipped on the day's first beer. It was much too early to be drinking, but Ace had been a functioning alcoholic for more than ten years now. A taste of the spirits was just like coffee to him. He needed it as much as he needed to breathe. After he called Eyeball he knew that he would have another call to place. He would have to be care about it though. Very careful indeed. He didn't want anyone to remember him asking around for a particular writer that had been born out of this shithole of a town. A particular famous writer that had once pulled a gun on Ace. Gordon LaChance probably thought that he was all paid up to Ace Merrill, but he was wrong.