Burn Scars by Eddie Generous

Author:Eddie Generous [Generous, Eddie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unnerving
Published: 2021-04-07T22:00:00+00:00

14

Christine sat crossed-legged on Rusty’s bedding, still in her work clothes, and forked yellowy noodles into her mouth. Her father had brought home a huge trey of pasta in red meat sauce from a day conference he’d attended concerning online safety and using the internet to its full potential when it came to building cases and sharing information with other departments around the country.

Christine had taken the trey with her when she left the house without asking; her father only ever brought food like that home to lighten her duty load anyway. Rusty sat on the chair with a plate on his pinched together knees. A cigarette he’d stubbed out as she fixed him a plate remained smoldering in an ashtray. On the TV was The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air; one from the second season with the original Vivian.

Christine swallowed a mouthful and then said, “Jim didn’t show up to work this morning, but he rolled up in a Cadillac around lunch. Not a new one, though. But not so old either. He told Dwayne to shove his job up his ass because he didn’t need it anymore.”

Rusty paused, his fork of noodles floating just below his chin like a hummingbird considering all the items on the feeder’s sugar menu. “Man, that’s…that can’t be good.”

“He called Dwayne Fat Bastard, like from the Austin Powers movies, and told him to eat another mystery fish sandwich and have a heart attack. He looked high.”

“How?”

“Not like weed high. His eyes were bugged and he kept licking his teeth. He looked like a junkie, just not all sick yet.”

“Christ, most of us call Dwayne Fat Bastard, but never where he might hear it.” Rusty took the bite and chewed. “Linda’s not going to be happy.”

“She didn’t say anything. Didn’t even look at Jim after he said what he said.”

“What did Dwayne say?”

“He screamed like a girl. It was weird. His voice went high and he started chasing Jim, but Dwayne’s too fat to catch anybody.”

“Jim’s lucky Dwayne wasn’t driving, ever hear about what’s his name?”

Christine nodded. “Yeah, everybody knows that story. It was a little bit funny, with Jim, I mean.”

An image came to Rusty’s mind and he shivered: Dwayne chasing him in a company van, thumping over him like he was a stick in the road. “This is all bad for the plan.”

Christine laughed then and dropped her fork to cover her mouth. “Dwayne’s shirt opened and his tit was hanging out and he was huffing and oh my god.”

Rusty wished he could share in the humor.

—

Rusty was alone and halfway watching the Canucks against the Coyotes and halfway thinking about what kind of bullshit homework he might have to do in order to graduate. Mrs. Betts was a complicated woman and it really did Rusty no favors. He then thought about Mr. Beaman and the envelope.

The game was close, but Rusty didn’t care enough to see it through and hit the button on the remote. He rolled and kicked, brain too busy for sleep.

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