Chapter Twelve: The Social Club — Part 5

Teri and Jon rush by with what look like field surgery kits on their backs, walking at a pace that ChoCho can’t hope to match. Their shoes tapping the concrete build in speed, build in measure, and both the volume of the sound as well as its frequency seems to shift as the medics approach the boys. ChoCho doesn’t look back after he assess that they’re coming, but Kevin is darting his head back every ten or so seconds, trying to decide when the best time to say hello will be. Fortunately, Jon beats him to it.

“Hey boys, I guess you heard the news about us all having warrants out for our arrest.” Teri sounds about to laugh, but the sound isn’t anything like a comfort.

“Uh, yeah.” Kevin says with that tone that tells ChoCho that if he were standing still, he would be shuffling his feet. “You are heading straight for the Sheriff, who wants to put us in jail. Why?”

“Hypocritical Oath.” Jon sounds completely deadpan, adding something to help things make more sense. “Somebody’s going to have to put Arpie back together once this whole thing blows up. Between Daria and Jynx, I don’t think the old man will know what hit him.”

“Somebody kicked Gryphon.” ChoCho blurts out suddenly. “Do any of you know anything about dogs?”

“Oh hey ChoCho.” Teri says as he comes by ChoCho’s side, not actually having heard what ChoCho said, apparently, because he doesn’t even slow down in his pacing.

Jon slows down momentarily, her eyes meeting with ChoCho, and she can see what most people can’t — the concern and weight of everything that sits solidly on ChoCho’s shoulders, at least in the moment. She checks out Gryphon with a quick pat on the rump, right over the shoe mark. Gryphon doesn’t yelp, but he stops panting, and starts looking at her nervously. She didn’t feel any swelling, and Gryphon didn’t make an effort to bite her, but she doesn’t want ChoCho to get too worried.

“I’m sorry kid, but you’re already bringing him where we’re headed. I promise to look at him as soon as it’s safe to do so.”

Teri and Jon are off again, heading fast enough to pass by the big guy with the sign. The big guy is about to round the corner of the park out of sight. Jon and Teri don’t even seem worried about the sign, and it makes ChoCho wonder about the values of the people around him. Meeting with Jon and Teri has Kevin even more fired up to do something, anything, and he’s now pacing forward and back, either a step ahead or a step behind ChoCho. Still, he’s doing his best to keep his cool, and ChoCho can appreciate this. Kevin’s broken a hard sweat from his power walk.

ChoCho and Kevin are a little different in the way they perceive the world, despite the proximity of their ages. Kevin’s inner sense seems to come from directly over his head, like he’s watching himself go through life as a player in a game. He can’t see the monster around the next corner, but he’s either dreading the claws or hoping they’re there, depending on whether he’s with friends or not. ChoCho has a habit of self-limitation in his perspective. He doesn’t trust his own perceptions enough to feel part of them, and so he tries to stay quiet and watch. He tends to trust older people like Jon and Teri. He knows they’re older, and that they’ve read the situation far better than he can, given his limited experience, or at least he’s hoping so. He knows that Kevin is using a lot of energy, probably walking over twice the distance despite the fact that he’s walking with him. He understands the pacing that the feeling of helplessness is causing.

“You want to run ahead?” ChoCho says, hoping Kevin will say no, but not wanting to keep him pinned to his side.

“Jynx and Daria would kill me if I left you alone at a time like this.” Kevin says. “If you got hurt, I don’t think I’d try to stop them.”

ChoCho smiles, says nothing. The two move on, as fast as ChoCho can manage, and in ten more minutes they are in front of the house. They’ve arrived just in time to see the big guy pounding a nail into the brick wall with a rock poised rather skillfully in his meaty hand. He then places Daria’s sign on it and shouts out rather loudly for Arpie, who, despite all of Kevin’s fears to the contrary, has all of his teeth, fingers, toes, and other various body parts in place. There can be no way he hasn’t confronted Jynx, Daria, and the others in the time it has taken the two of them to get back.

“All Right Arpie, it’s done.” He says, as Arpie comes around the corner, Daria and Jynx moving along with him.

ChoCho and Kevin stand still for a moment, as neither of them could have expected to find Arpie in one piece or Jynx and Daria so utterly calm. While it is true that neither Daria nor Jynx is in handcuffs, it is also true that Arpie has all his teeth and digits still intact. Kevin scans the Sheriff with his eyes, unable to find any sign of a scuffle. All he keeps doing is coming back to the full, gentle smile that is Arpie’s one personal contrition.

Arpie keeps that catlike smile in place when he raises his hand in greeting. “Hellow again boys.” He says. “Great, you found the dog. Jon will probably want to give him a once over.”

At which point Jon takes the dog from ChoCho and heads off with him to do a physical examination.

“You didn’t come all the way down here because George got you upset, did you?”

“Well, yeah. He said you put Jude in jail for obstructing justice, and that we all had warrants out for our arrest.” Kevin says. “We just wanted to get here before Daria and Jynx, uh, well we didn’t want you to get hurt.”

“You boys are so sweet.” Arpie says. “Who is it do you think issues and acts on warrants?”

“Uh, you?” Kevin says this in surprise.

“So who do you think knows where the federal contracted land begins and Quick Fox Glenn’s corporate boundaries end?”

“I’m guessing you would be keenly familiar on this matter.” ChoCho says.

“I think I need to take a rest up.” Arpie leans against the wall, which puts him in its shadow, then settles slowly to the concrete sidewalk facing off of the parkette wall. He pats the wall on his left, and the giant of a man next to him leans in against the brick, causing it to shake ever so slightly on its foundations as he settles down. It’s the kind of determination and surrender that only the very big and powerful can experience when experiencing deep contact with massive products of modified earth. Everybody else leans against the wall, just like Arpie, ChoCho sitting down with the help of Jynx and his cane. Arpie’s smile returns, and he points to the fading yellow sign with the word Sheriff, a seven-pointed star, and an arrow pointing toward Arpie’s offices in the Glenn.

“This story, my new friends, is over a decade in the making, and until recently it had so many conspirators that even I didn’t know the depths of it. But now, in the quiet after the Storm, the faces that live aren’t conspiring, so much as grasping, and desperate to hold on to everything that’s been lost. I’m sorry George called you in. He really thought the extra hands would be wanted, if only because the hands were so badly needed.” Arpie pauses, takes a deep breath. “I don’t want any interruptions now. Yall need the whole story, and I’ve got some time to tell it. So please, keep quiet until the telling is done.”

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