Huey woke up to some dizzying rap song blaring from the radio. He sucked in a breath, prying his eyes open against the bright rays of the rising sun. His back burned from the curled positions he had slept in all night. Sitting up straight, he twisted and blinked a few times to ward off the drowsiness.
He scrubbed his face and fell back into the seat, looking to his left to see Dewey bopping and tapping his fingers against the steering wheel. Huey leaned on the armrest, his chin in his hand. It is way too early for this.
"Hey, Hue-man! You're awake!" Dewey snapped his fingers to the beat as a new song came on.
Huey spotted the can of Pep Energy in the cupholder. Ah, that explains it. "How long have we been on the road?"
"All night." Dewey swayed back and forth, whacking the wheel.
He blinked, stretching his eyelids. "All night? You've got to be kidding me. You've been driving for over six hours?" Wow, that Pep Energy must be really something if Dewey looks this perky at 6am.
"Nerp, Louie was driving until two hours ago."
Huey groaned and rubbed his temples with his thumb and forefinger. Louie was driving when I fell asleep, that means he was driving for way longer than four hours. And without his mid-day nap, no less. I shouldn't have fallen asleep. I just never imagined he'd be the one I'd have to keep from driving. He never passes up a chance to sleep in the car.
Dewey grabbed his beak before he could say anything. "Ahp, don't worry about it. I woke up around 3 and forced him to go to bed. He was hopped up on five cans of Pep and cranky as ever but I got him to sleep." He put his hand back on the wheel.
Huey lifted his head, staring at him. "Wow, Dew. Great job. Thanks for doing all that."
Dewey shrugged, barely taking his eyes off the road to smile at him. "Louie's my brother too. Who else is going to take care of him when he's being an idiot but you and me? Besides, he was beyond the reasoning stage and you don't handle anything beyond that well."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Huey raised his eyebrow. "What'd you do?"
"Bah! It doesn't matter. He's asleep, isn't he? And you stayed asleep during the whole thing, so how bad could it really have been?"
"That's not at all comforting." Huey sat back, folding his hands on his stomach.
"Let's just say… it didn't lack Dewey-pizzaz," he winked.
"Greeeeaaat. Well, the less I know, the better." Huey nudged him in the knee with his foot. "I really can't argue with your results, though. You did good, Dew."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm everyone's savior. You may want to check on him though." Dewey's smile faded and his voice lowered to almost a whisper. "He's seemed off since we left the bank and he had a weird manic episode last night."
"What do you mean?" Huey peeked through the curtain. Their little brother was still passed out in the bed at the back of the RV.
Dewey's voice got quieter and turned his rap music down. "He wouldn't sleep until I got behind the wheel and promised to drive us the rest of the way to LA."
Huey watched Louie's stomach rise and fall with snores. An empty glass slid across the floor of the RV with every tilt of the road, hitting each wall as it rolled. That didn't wake him up and neither did Dewey's rap music. He must really be out of it.
"Then he started raving about how we were in danger if we didn't stay on the road. I mean, more in danger than Captain Lost, the caffeinated insomniac, swerving all over the road? Yeah no. I'm not buying that."
Huey sighed and closed the curtain. "I'm worried about him too. At first I thought it might be the idea of finding our dad that had him in a funk. But now I'm starting to wonder if it's something else."
"Like what?"
"Well, you're leaving for college soon, I'll be around for him, but maybe he's just frustrated that he doesn't have more going for him." Huey glanced out the window. I'm trying to help him but maybe it's just not working.
"I will be seven hours away. Do you think he was trying to prove that he can make the drive? Pffft." Dewey shook his head. "No, that's ridiculous. Louie could go without seeing me for months and be totally fine."
"You don't know that. The three of us haven't been apart for that long in…" Huey tallied on his fingers. "In… well, forever. Dew, this will be the first time we'll be apart for that long in our lives. That has to mean something to him too." He smirked. "Even if you do drive him a little crazy sometimes."
Dewey went quiet.
Dewey never went that quiet for that long. Huey was about to say something, but thought better of it. If Dewey Duck was going to stay solemn and quiet for that long, he must be thinking something through. I'd be an idiot to get in the way of that.
Dewey reached over and turned the radio completely off. "Sometimes I don't want to go."
Huey gripped the seams of his red overshirt, holding back the urge to tumble into an encouraging lecture.
"I hate the idea of leaving you guys. Especially with Louie getting all weird and all this finding dad stuff. I mean, I could go off to flight school next year. It wouldn't be the end of the world. You could go off to archaeologist camp, or whatever. That's always what we were expecting would happen anyway. It makes more sense for you to be the first to leave."
Nope, that's it. "No, no, Dewey, you're going. You'll make an amazing pilot, maybe even better than mom. I've seen how you fly. You have to go. Louie and I will figure things out. You have a plan and you need to stick to it. Nothing that happens on this trip should change anything." He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, which he could already tell looked awful from sleeping how he did last night.
"I do want to go and you're right. I guess it just doesn't always feel right. I'm going miss you guys, you know?" Dewey's fingers gripped the wheel tighter as he turned off the interstate, headed into downtown LA.
I understand more than you could ever know, Dew. Huey smiled a little at him. "Yeah, I know. Nothing feels right when we're doing it apart. But maybe doing things apart will make us that much stronger when we come back together." At least, that's what I keep telling myself.
"Yeah, you're probably right."
Huey set his hand on his brother's shoulder. "You'll feel better about it when you're up there doing what you love. I'm sure you'll do great and Louie and I will be right here whenever you need us."
Dewey pulled up to a stop light and turned to smile at him, his eyes slightly glassy. "Promise?"
"You big ol' softy." Huey pushed his shoulder and fell back into his seat, smiling at him. "I promise we'll be there for you if you need us. Even if I have to drag Louie along by his hoodie. After all, we're going to miss your blinding personality and big mouth."
Dewey fell back into his usual, cheeky, loud self. "Well duh! Man, I feel bad for you guys. The house is going to be SUPER boring without me around. You're going to have to get a dog or something to lighten the mood." He laughed. "But only if you name him after me. Dewey Junior Junior, after me and my beloved tiger. Just don't get one of those ugly rat dogs. Get something majestic that really screams Dewey Junior Junior." He made a camera lens with his hands. "You know what, send me pictures or, better yet, let me pick him out for you and send him through the mail."
Huey rolled his eyes and smiled. Here we go, back into the Dewey-verse.
"You know what I mean? I'll see if they can even do that airdrop thing out of a helicopter. Or I can see if my flight instructor will let me do a fly by over the house. You'll wake up one morning to find Dewey Junior Junior in a big ol' crate outside Uncle D's. Probably in a tree or on the old trampoline, since I'll still be practicing my aim and stuff. Hopefully not through the roof of the attic, I'd still like a place to crash on my weeks off."
Huey pressed his cheek into his palm and stared at the map on his phone. I'm kinda hungry. A plate of pancakes sounds good right about now.
"I'm thinking like a really happy golden retriever to match my best-friend-energy or a doberman to really show off my brooding, handsome side. What do you think?"
"I think you're missing your turn." Huey pointed to the right as Dewey drove right past the road.
"I can fix that!" Dewey yanked the wheel around, barely missing the car in the other lane as he pulled them down the sidestreet.
Huey gripped his seat and pressed both feet to the floor like he had a brake pedal on his side. "Watch it! You want to get us all killed? You probably woke Louie up." Dewey Duck is going to be the death of someone one of these days, probably me.
"Big deal! He can take a nap this afternoon."
"Turn left here."
Dewey pulled the RV down the next street filled with big houses and fancy cars. "Boujee! I tell you what, when I'm a famous movie star, I'll be living on this very block. In that house. Actually, that one there. It has a pool. Wait, no. That one. Yerp, that's the one."
Huey ignored him for the most part, scanning the article he had read about their uncle.
"How far are we away from Uncle G's flat?"
"Well, according to this recent article, Uncle G won another lottery early this month and got a mansion next to Tom Kruse." Huey looked up to see a house that matched the picture in the article. "There, that white one on the left."
Dewey parked the car and clapped his hands together. "Wowee! Doing well for yourself, as usual, Fortune's Favorite Uncle."
They both stepped out of the RV and stretched.
"Good thing I always bring a swimsuit for special occasions like this." Dewey pointed at the massive pool to the side of the house. He tore his shirt off and made a run for it.
"You've been wearing those this whole time?!"
Dewey turned to laugh. "It's Gladstone! What did you expect? I came well-prepared!" He booked it for the pool.
"Yep, go right ahead. Jump into the pool without an invitation. This may not even be Uncle Gladstone's house, but who cares?" Huey sighed and pressed his fingers to his temple. He glanced back at the RV. Wake up Louie or keep track of Dewey? He looked back at Dewey who was scrambling towards the water slide. Seeing as Dewey could get sued if this isn't our uncle's pool… sorry, Lou. He ran to meet his brother at the pool.