The last seven months in Africa had gotten Eric used to waking up early. He was sure that he was downstairs before Red was this morning. Years of having breakfast ready by the time he hit the kitchen had been erased over just a few month. He popped a couple pieces of bread into the toaster and pulled some jam and orange juice out of the fridge. There was an odd kind of piece about being up before the rest of the house.

He stood there at the counter staring out the sliding door. Staring across the driveway the way he had for so much of his teenage years thinking about the girl on the other side of the hedge. This time he wasn't fantasizing or daydreaming about her. He was just trying to figure out how this was going to resolve itself.

Behind Eric, the door to the kitchen swung open and his father walked in with the paper under his arm. "Eric?" Red sounded shocked. "It's six in the morning. Did you not go to sleep last night?"

"No, Dad." Eric spread the jam over his toast. "In the village I was working in, everyone was up before the sun. I just learned how to be."

"Well, good!" Red cheered sarcastically. "Now the early bird won't have to put his foot in your ass."

Eric just started laughing. He didn't really know why. Ever since he hit high school, Red's seemingly constant threats to somehow drive his foot into his ass inspired terror. But it felt like it had just been so long that hearing it this morning created a strange, warm, comforting feeling.

"What's so damn funny?" Red stood over the coffee maker.

"It's just," Eric paused. "Do you realize how long it's been since you threatened to put your foot in my ass?"

"Yeah." Even Red had to smile fondly at that. "You even miss weird things, don't you?"

"You know, Dad, when they evacuate you from the country, it's not like they just call you up and tell you to go to an airport." Eric took a seat at the kitchen table. "The Marines came in and evacuated us. We were literally airlifted from the embassy to an aircraft carrier and then taken to Germany. From there, the State Department got us to the Frankfort airport."

"Sounds like you've finally got a story to tell." Red tipped the pot and poured himself a cup of coffee. "Bet that gave you some thinking to do."

"Actually, it made me think of you." Eric took a bite. "Those Marines weren't messing around when they came and got us. It really gave me a new appreciation for what you did in the War."

"Well, that's nice, Eric." Red settled into his chair and unfurled his paper. "Except I was dodging Japanese machine gun fire not rescuing a bunch of lost tourists." He stared up from the paper. "I assume you still plan on becoming a teacher. What are you going to do until you go to school next year?"

"I'm going to find a job." Eric's answer was simple. "Africa only covered my tuition. I'm still going to need money. I know it's a recession but hopefully with Christmas coming up, there'll be a few places hiring."

His son seemed a little calmer than he had when he left. Less twitchy. "Well, if I need you for a few hours here and there at the muffler shop, I hope I can count on you."

"Absolutely, yeah." Eric nodded as he finished his breakfast.

"Good." Red dove back into his paper. These were the kind of conversations that he had with his father. There were times when he wondered why Red didn't try to talk more. When he felt that a father's guidance, something a little more empathetic than a grunt and a sarcastic comment, might actually be helpful.

"Dad, about Donna," Eric decided to test Red just a little before his Mom came downstairs and involved herself in every sentence. Red folded his paper and with a slightly irritated expression looked over the table at Eric. "Dad, what do I do?"

Rather than answer immediately, Red let a hard exhale out through his nose and stared down into the coffee cup. "I don't know. I used to hit guys that so much as looked at your mother. If I'd walked in on what you did yesterday…At the same time, you did the dumbass thing and broke up with her, so I don't know what you want. This is the third time you've walked away from Donna. I wouldn't have walked away from your mother more than once."

Red dove back into his paper. That was the most profound Eric had heard his father sound in quite a while. There was more going on with Donna than Red had dealt with but it was typical of Red only to deal with the stuff he saw. Mostly to avoid getting into the mushy stuff. The mushy stuff was Kitty's department. Eric took his plate over to the sink and rinsed it off. He caught himself staring out the window again at the driveway, just as the sun started to peak over the garage.

He thought about his conversation with Hyde last night. Sure, there was probably going to be an awkward conversation at Grooves today when Randy showed up at work. He had no idea where Donna or the rest of the gang would be. Hanging out at Grooves seemed like a bad idea until later in the day, maybe after he'd going around looking at some of the "Help Wanted" signs that would be up for the Christmas season. Maybe if he busted his hump, he could turn one of those gigs into something that could carry him through the spring.

The door to the kitchen open behind him but he didn't even hear it until it was too late. The first sign that he had that his mother was in the kitchen was her sneaking up behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist to give him a hug. "You're not allowed to leave, ever, ever again." Kitty insisted and Eric just smile and absent-mindedly tapped her hands with his own as a return gesture of affection. "Have you eaten already?"

"Just some toast and orange juice." Eric tried to wriggle out of Kitty's grasp.

"Oh, honey, you're already so thin." Kitty let him turn around to face her. Let me make you some pancakes or something. She was insistent but Eric just didn't feel that hungry.

"I think I'm just going to hit the pavement early and try and find some work." Eric slowly moved toward the door.

"No, honey." Kitty shook her head. "You just got home. You should take some time and rest. You haven't been home in seven months. Red, say something."

"I agree with Eric." Red set the paper on the table.

"What?!" Kitty almost sprang out of her slippers.

"Really?" Eric's eyebrows almost shot into his hairline.

"Kitty, he's not a kid anymore." Red explained. "He has to put the pieces of his life together. It seems like he wants to. Now, I think that if he wants to get out there early, he should. It'll be good for him mostly because if he thinks he's sleeping until noon anymore then my foot is going to be using his ass for a pillow."

Before his mom could protest, Eric was almost out the back door. Then everyone heard the soft padding of bare feet across the kitchen floor. Sam had come up from the basement wearing precious little and causing enough of a distraction for Red and Kitty for Eric to slip out quietly.

He hopped in the Cruiser, stuck they key in the ignition and fired the old boat up. He took the first song on WFPP as a good sign for the day. He was kicking things off with a little Styx.

Make me an offer that I can't refuse
Make me respectable, man
This is my last time in the unemployment line
So like it or not I'll take those

Long nights, impossible odds
Keeping my back to the wall
If it takes all that to be just what I am
Well, I'm gonna be a blue collar man

The teenagers didn't show up at Grooves until lunch. Seniors that were skipping out on afternoon classes usually found the record store to be a pretty popular haunt. Hyde always opened the store and most days just hoped that he didn't find Leo crashing on the couch when he did. Newest inventory had to go out on the shelves. As much as he hated selling out, selling the stuff that the teenage girls bought gave him the freedom to sell the stuff that he liked.

With Thanksgiving coming up next week, he was planning to have WFPP live in the store on the Friday to try and really drive traffic into the store. Both Donna and Vanessa from the radio station had agreed to do their shows live from Grooves which pretty much meant that he'd have the broadcast from 3pm on. It also meant that he was going to need people in here selling records.

So, dealing with the blowback from last night was going to be trickier than he thought, but he tried to channel his Zen. The first person through the door was Leo, looking his usual confused self. "Hey Leo, man, what did you get up to yesterday?"

"It was crazy, man." Leo stopped in front of the counter. "I was in Milwaukee and I saw this guy who looked just like your friend Eric. He was looking for a ride back here and I let him jump in with me, man."

"Wait a minute, you saw a guy who looked like Eric yesterday?" Hyde stopped counting the float in the till. "And you gave him a ride back to town?"

"Yeah, man. It was weird, too, because he knew my name." Leo tilted his head. "He told me not to tell anyone where was which was cool by me, man, because I didn't know where I was either."

Hyde started to laugh. "Go into the back and open up the shipment from yesterday, man. We gotta get that Aerosmith stuff on to the floor." W.B. was planning to spend Thanksgiving with him at the Forman's place. In fact, it promised to be kind of a full table this year. The Pinciottis always showed up at the Formans for dessert. He'd be there with W.B. and Sam. Eric was back. They weren't Norman Rockwell or anything, but that was boring anyway.

Randy walked into the store just then and Hyde had never seen the pretty boy look quite so defeated. His shoulders hung slumped, his hair looked like he hadn't showered and his clothes looked like they'd been slept in. "Hey, man." Randy sort of half-whispered.

"Hey." Hyde stuck his thumbs in his belt loops.

"So, this is kind of awkward, huh?" Randy straightened up a little. "Do I even still work here?"

"Dude, I can't fire you for making out with Donna." Hyde didn't change the tone of his voice even a little. He didn't want to pretend he had a real plan for what was going to happen here. "If I could, I would have done that weeks ago."

"So, are we cool or not?" Randy sounded uneasy.

"You work here." Hyde clarified the situation. "And you will for a while. As for whether we're friends? I don't know, man. Forman's my best friend. Forman and his family, they've done things for me that my own parents never did. You weren't here the last time they broke up, man. Things got ugly. The kind of ugly you only see with fresh roadkill."

"But I can still pick up my shifts?" Randy just wanted to clear things up.

"Yeah, man." Hyde nodded. "Go help Leo unload the Aerosmith stuff that we got yesterday."

"You know, for what it's worth," Randy headed toward the back of the store before turning around. "They were broken up, man."

"Dude, I really don't want to have this conversation." Hyde shut the cash register drawer. "Let's just stick with the fact that you still work here and leave it at that. Whatever's between you and Donna and Forman is between you and Donna and Forman."

The door to the stock room swung open and Randy disappeared through it. That was cold, man. Not quite as cold as he thought it would be. He was almost sure last night that he was going to be firing Randy this morning but it was only when he actually took a look at things this morning that he decided to let him keep his job until whatever was going on actually blew up.

And eventually it would. It always did. Forman might seem a little different this time. He was. He held up a little bit. He was a little more reserved than before he'd left. Sure, when he stumbled on Donna and Randy last night, he'd wanted to kill him. But later, at The Hub, Forman seemed aloof. Like he had a bunch of things on his mind and this was just one of them.

But sooner or later, this was going to blow up. That was true whether Randy worked at Grooves or not.

Eric had made copies of his resume and dropped them off at a number of stores in the mall well before noon. He started debating whether it was worth heading home or heading over to the Muffler shop to see if his Dad needed some help. As he made a turn around the fountain and headed for the parking lot he heard a familiar, cheerful voice call his name over his shoulder. "Eric!"

He turned and came face to face with his old chemistry lab partner Shelly. "Hey Shelly, it's nice to see you." He forced a grin, not that he had to try too hard. It had been a couple years but she looked pretty much exactly as she had at 17.

"Nice to see you." She smiled at him. "I heard that you'd gone off to Africa on some kind of missionary work or something."

"Yeah, I was going to teach for a year." Eric answered. "I just got back yesterday."

"Well, what are you doing wandering around the mall?" Shelly tilted her head just so, like she was examining him.

"I don't head to school for almost a year and because my stay in Africa got cut short, I'm looking for work to make some money for school before I head off." Eric was never sure how to have these conversations with people he went to high school with.

"So, you're looking for work?" Her eyes went wide for a second and then her smile got very wide. It didn't take a genius to see the gears in her head turning. "I have an idea, it's a little unorthodox, though."

"At this point, if it doesn't involve donating blood and I can keep my clothes on, I'm willing to consider it." Eric tried for a joke and was rewarded with a little nervous laughter.

"No, my mom's the general manager at the Department Store and she put me in charge of the Holiday festivities." Shelly explained. "She wanted us to get a full time Santa this year and she doesn't want it to be one of the old guy volunteers who usually do it because she says too many of them come back from break smelling like bourbon. Also, when we had a few different old guy volunteers, the kids from divorced families would come back twice and see a Santa that was half a foot shorter than the one they met last week."

"You want me, a guy who's nineteen and like a hundred and fifty pounds soaking wet to play Santa Claus?" Eric couldn't believe the offer was real.

"Well, we have a belly pad, wig and beard. No one will ever know." She explained. "Besides, it'll pay alright and you'll get an employee discount on your Christmas presents if you buy them at the store." It was obvious from the way she spoke that she really wanted him to do it. "Come on, Eric. You'll get to work with me. In addition to running the store's Christmas activities, I'll also play Mrs. Claus at Santa's workshop once in a while."

"It's the best offer I've had all day." Eric answered. "When do I start?"