Stuck in the Driveway Part VI

It is Fiction Friday again. We are going to continue with our story from two weeks ago. 

Enjoy!

Stuck in the Driveway Part V

Eddie sat back and looked at the tattoo on his forearm and was taken back to a different time and a different place. He and Stan had gotten matching tattoos the day after graduating high school. It was their way of honoring each other and proving to themselves, at least, that they were men. Even though they wouldn't reach true manhood until later that year.

Stan's girlfriend, Mary Ann, was about give birth to their first child, and Eddie was getting ready to leave for Boot Camp. By the end of the summer Stan would be a father learning how to change diapers and warm milk, and Eddie would be a Marine and shortly after, unbeknownst to Eddie, a Persian Gulf War Veteran.

Bev started to stir and tore Eddie from his reverie. He looked over at her and was taken back to the same period in time. There was a time when he and Bev were a couple. Bev thought Stan and Eddie were silly getting matching tattoos. "Macho Boys" is what she called them mostly out of jealousy. Eddie and Stan spent a great deal of time together in the weeks leading up to Eddie's departure for Boot Camp, time she felt he should have been spending with her. Eddie supposed that deep down they knew that their lives would never be the same - even if they swore fatherhood nor the military would change who they were at their core. Eddie and Stan had been friends since they were little boys, and they wanted to hang on to how things had been their entire lives as long as they could. Bev couldn't understand it at the time, and she began to pull away from Eddie.

"I remember when you idiots got those tattoos - Dragons curled around a sword," Bev said. Somehow she had awoken without Eddie knowing. I must be slipping, he thought. "That was the same night I asked you not join the Marines. I wanted you to run off to Canada with me. We were going to go live in Montreal - the Paris of North America."

"I remember Bev," Eddie sighed. "I remember."

"Eddie, where am I? And what I am doing here with you?"

"You don't remember the thug in the dark suit who cracked you over the head?" Eddie asked.

"No."

"You don't remember me carrying you through the woods? You regained consciousness for a brief moment."

"No."

"Yet, you wake up in a strange basement sitting next to me and you aren't the least bit concern. How is that?"

"It's because I know that I am always safe when I am with Eddie," Bev said as she turned away from him. "So what is going on?"

Eddie retold the story of how the dark sedan pull into 'Brogan's', how he saw Mr. Darksuit carrying her out of the office, and the lucky hit that knocked out Mr. Darksuit's driver. But he didn't tell her that he recognized Mr. Darksuit. Now wasn't the time for that. He was still always trying to protect her.

"Why would they be after you Bev? Did that husband of yours finally gamble away all of the money? Is the buffoon in some kind of trouble again?"

Bev looked at him. "Eddie, I am not going to fight with you about Tom.  He takes care of me the best he can. Better than you did when you left that summer." Bev wished she hadn't said it as soon as it left her lips. She saw him wince. Really, it wasn't fair to keep bringing it up. Eddie had gone off to serve his country. He didn't know when he signed up the first George Bush was going to send him off to war in Kuwait. "Eddie, I'm sorry..."

"You are right. I did leave. What about Mr. Darksuit back there?"

"I don't know why anyone would be after me. It's possible Tom got himself into trouble.  Maybe you're right, and his gambling has finally caught up with him. But, why would they be after me?"

"If they take him out, they aren't going to get their money. But, if they have you, it may give Tom the motivation he needs to pay them back. God knows he needs to be motivated."

"He tries his best, Eddie."

"Yeah," Eddie responded dryly.

"We need to get a hold of Stan," Bev said changing the subject. "That place was totally trashed on the inside."

"We do," Eddie agreed. "But, we ought to wait a bit. We are not going anywhere near 'Brogan's' for a while. Those guys won't be able to find us down here."

"I'll just call him on my cell phone," Bev said as she looked around for her purse. "Where's my purse Eddie?"

"You must have dropped in the office. You didn't have it when I grabbed you. I certainly don't have one of those damned things."

"Yeah, I know. Good old Eddie the Wanderer."

"Be glad I live in the woods across from 'Brogan's.' Otherwise, you would be Mr. Darksuit's trunk right now head for destinations unknown."

"Why do you keep calling him that?" Bev asked.

"Because he was wearing a Darksuit. What else should I call him?"

Bev just looked at him in the dim light of the basement and laughed. "You always were a master of the obvious." Eddie joined in the laughter. "We need to get a hold of Stan," Bev said again.

"Soon. Let's just stay here for a while."

"Where is here anyways?"

"You remember the old mill?" Eddie asked.

"Sure, I do. We spent a lot of time there," Bev smiled remembering a time long ago.

"You mean here," Eddie said.

"Did you bring me here to try and get fresh Eddie? Really?"

"No, I brought you hear because townies know how to get into this basement. Remember? The only entrance is in the side of the hill, and the hill is covered by wild bushes. You cannot get down here from the inside of the mill-." As Eddie was finishing, they heard a gun shot from upstairs followed by a thud. Somehow Bev stifled her shout.

"What was that?" Bev asked, but she already knew the answer. She had grown up around guns. As the only child of a hunter, she learned how to shoot before she learned to ride a bike.

Eddie just looked at her knowing that she knew the answer to her question. "Looks like somebody knows about the upstairs entrance to the mill."

To be continued...


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