Twelve Feet Up by John Penteros

Author:John Penteros [Peterson, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Penteros
Published: 2022-05-15T16:22:12+00:00

56

Transforming Bananas

When Joe returned with a package of Oreos, two glasses of milk and a glass of water, Sam and Praveen were hanging their heads like garbage dogs. Joe set down his milk and handed the other to Sam.

What’s up?” Joe said.

Praveen pointed a finger at Joe’s laptop and yelled.

“I don’t care what you think, Jun, those are stupid ideas, and you are one of the ugliest chicks I’ve ever seen.”

The water flew straight at him, but Praveen ducked away fast enough to only be splashed by what ricocheted off the headboard.

Praveen held up one hand in surrender and pointed the other at the screen.

“Dude, she was gone before you came in the room.”

“She was,” Sam nodded and turned to Praveen. “You’re lucky he didn’t beat you with that guitar.”

Joe slumped. “Why’d she leave?”

“Umm,” Sam said. He and Praveen exchanged quick glances.

“She just had to go.” Praveen wiped water off the guitar with a corner of Joe’s bedspread. “Guess it was dinnertime.”

“What did you say to her?” Joe was still holding a glass of milk. Praveen eyeballed it, probably thinking he should choose his words more carefully now.

Sam raised a hand. “It was both of us.”

Joe set down his milk. “Okay, what did you both say?”

“We told her about what happened with Marcus.”

“You didn’t!” Joe threw up his arms. “Why’d you do that?”

“It was a little slip.” Sam held up his thumb and index fin­ger to show how little. “And you know how sharp she is.”

“Yeah, nothing gets by her,” Praveen said.

“So then we ended up having to explain the whole thing,” Sam said.

Joe felt his face going flush.

“And then she got mad and left?”

“No, no,” Sam said. “She wasn’t mad. She was just … overcome with emotion.”

“Emotion,” Praveen nodded, “that’s a good thing. Didn’t I tell you before, this would earn you points?”

“Didn’t I tell you I don’t care?” Joe’s volume increased. “Dude, she’s … she’s fragile right now. We have to be careful what we say to her.”

“That’s considerate,” Sam said. “But she’s tougher than you think. If you treat her like a, a … what’s something frag­ile?”

Praveen began listing, “A flower. A feather. A wounded butterfly. Stained glass. A snowflake—”

“Yes,” Sam said, “if we treat her like a snowflake, she’ll just melt and …”

“Right, she’ll just become a puddle of water.” Praveen slid a decrescendo down the neck of the guitar.

Joe closed his eyes and shook his head.

“You don’t know what she’s been through.” His throat closed off on the last word.

“I know what you’ve been through,” Sam said. “And look at you.”

“Yeah,” Praveen said. “The two of you are, like … the tough couple.”

Joe glanced from one to the other, then hung his head.

“What a rotten first meeting.”

“What did you expect?” Sam said.

“To get something done? That we’d at least all be together when the meeting ended?”

“But we did get something done. In the short time Jun was here, we got to know her and she got to know us.”

Joe sat on the chest and took a small bite of his Oreo.

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