Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2012 00:31:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Roberson <rtbrno65@yahoo.com>
Subject: Quincy and that unusual friend of his chapter 12

All the usual disclaimers and caveats apply. This story is complete
fiction, and it's characters and story line or not based on any sort of
reality.

		  "Quincy And That Unusual Friend Of His"

				Chapter 12

Quincy came riding out of his garage on his bike, plunged down the
driveway, and began pedaling his way towards Chesterbrook shopping center
in the warm late afternoon sunshine. He was still mad at Erik, but he was
also feeling badly that he had spoken to him so harshly. After all, Erik
had saved his life, made him laugh harder than he ever had, and had been a
terrific pal up to that point. He was also equally furious at how Erik had
acted while Timothy was over, as well as his unintentionally causing
turmoil between his parents, and indirectly causing that whole Spook
Stalkers fiasco which culminated in an armed man barging into his
bedroom. As he pedaled down the road, these conflicting emotions turned
into an internal argument, with points and counterpoints being bandied
about back and forth through his head.

Quincy arrived at the shopping center. His plan was to spend his allowance
on a couple of candy bars and a Super Big Gulp at the 7-11 in order to
drown the sorrows his fight with Erik had caused. As he rode towards the
7-11, he passed the DVD store, and he could see Aaron behind the counter
through the window. He then turned around and parked his bike in front of
the store and walked in.

As he walked into the store, Quincy saw Aaron waiting on two customers
behind the counter. He got behind the customers in the line, and stepped
forward to the front of the counter once they had left.

"Phone number please." Aaron said.

"I'm not here to rent anything. You're Aaron Bailey, right?"

Aaron looked at Quincy. "Yes..." He said.

"I live in Erik's old house on Forest Lane." Quincy said.

Aaron froze and seemed to draw in his breath a little."Well..." He finally
said. "I don't really remember that address, you'll need to give it to
me..."

"I'm not here to rent anything." Quincy said again. Quincy's parents
actually didn't let him watch movies. They said that Hollywood was a bunch
of homosexuals and liberals, so movies were banned from the house.

"Then how can I help you?" Aaron said, sounding irritated.

"I kind of have some questions about Erik." Quincy said.

Aaron then waited on a customer who had come into line behind Quincy. After
he was done he turned his attention back to Quincy.

"I'm guessing that Mr. Williams next door told you about Erik, right?"

"Well...sort of..."

"Does he still sneak cigarettes behind the house?"

"Yeah..."

Aaron smiled. "I guess some things never change!" Some customers came up
and Aaron checked them all out.

"So you were there when the accident happened, right?" Quincy said after
all the customers had left.

Aaron's face crinkled up in pain. "I really don't want to talk about
this. Why are you bothering me?"

"Because Erik is still in the house. I've seen him." Quincy said.

"Still in the house? That kid died 33 years ago! You weren't even a gleam
in your daddy's eye yet! How could you have seen him?"

"Because he's still there." Quincy mumbled while looking at the floor.

Another customer came up and Aaron quickly checked him out.

"Kid, this isn't funny." Aaron said quietly. "I think you'd better go."

"But..."

"I SAID...I think you'd better go."

Quincy sighed and turned to leave the store. He had lost his desire to go
to the 7-11 so he simply went home. What Quincy didn't see is that after he
had left, Aaron went to his manager, asked to be let go early, went out to
his car, and briefly burst into tears behind the wheel. He then went into
Corky's Restaurant next door, and did beer after beer, and shot after shot.

Quincy rode home in a depressed mood. When he arrived, he found his mother
setting the table, and he sat down for a supper of roast beef, sweet
potatoes, and green beans, After dinner he went up to his room, but Erik
was nowhere to be found. He checked up in the attic but he wasn't anywhere
up there either. He went downstairs and checked the basement, but still, no
sign. After he checked the basement, Quincy went to the den and sat next to
his dad on the couch. Steve put his arm around his son, who nestled his
head on Steve's chest, and the two of them watched TV for two hours. Quincy
then went upstairs, saw that Erik still wasn't anywhere to be seen, and
went to bed.

The next morning Quincy awakened, saw that Erik was still nowhere around,
ate a big breakfast downstairs with his family, and went to church. After
church and Sunday school, Quincy returned home and still saw no sign of
Erik. Quincy's first day of school was the next day, so he occupied himself
by sorting out his school clothes. Afterwords, he went down to the creek by
himself, but it wasn't the same without Erik being there. He returned to
his house, and decided to go to the shopping center again to get the candy
bars and Super Big Gulp that he had failed to obtain the previous day.

As he rode through the shopping center, he decided to stop at the DVD store
again to see if Aaron was there. He still had questions that he felt needed
to be answered, so he parked his bike in front of the store again and
walked in. A squat, brown haired woman who was behind the counter said that
Aaron didn't work on Sundays, but that there was a pretty good chance he
was next door at Corky's like he usually was when he wasn't working. Quincy
went outside and chained his bike to the bench, and then went to the
entrance to Corky's. He went through the door and found a divey, seedy
little restaurant with dim lighting and a small bar with three people
sitting at it. A couple were at a table towards the back with a pitcher of
beer and a couple of plates of food on the table. Aside from that, no one
else was in there. Music was playing and a recorded voice was issuing forth
out of the video golf game in the corner. Quincy didn't see Aaron so he was
about
 to turn around and leave. Just as he was about to, he saw the men's room
door open, and Aaron come stepping out and taking a seat at the bar. He
downed his draft beer and called to the female bartender to bring him
another one. Quincy walked over to Aaron and stood next to where he was
sitting. Aaron turned and stared at Quincy in disbelief.

"You again?" He said. Quincy just stood and stared at him. "I'm off duty
now so I don't have to talk to you, so beat it, Kid!" Aaron slurred as he
took a big chug of the draft Budweiser that the bartender had just placed
in front of him. Quincy continued to stare at him. "I said scram!" Aaron
repeated.

"Hey Aaron!" A redneck looking guy on the other end of the bar yelled with
a grin. "Is this your nephew or are you running a babysitter service!"

"He's a kid from the store who's about to get his butt whipped!" Aaron
responded.

"Aaron, please. I have questions about Erik. Can't we talk for just a
minute?"

"I told you already that I don't want to talk about Erik!" Aaron said. He
appeared to be more than a little bit drunk.

"I know that you saw the accident, I know that you were there. I know about
the Three Musketeers. I know about your dad kicking you out."

Aaron said nothing for a few seconds. "Well you and Mr. Williams seemed to
have had quite a conversation."

"Please. I just have a few questions and then I won't ever bother you
again. Please."

Aaron said nothing at first, and then got up off his bar stool. "I need to
smoke a cigarette anyway." He muttered. He walked out with Quincy following
behind.

Aaron walked out into the sunshine with Quincy behind him, took a pack of
Marlboro Reds out of his pocket, tapped one out of the pack and lit it up.

"So what were you guys doing when Erik got hit?" Quincy asked after
watching Aaron take a couple of drags while he blankly stared out into the
parking lot.

"We were kicking around a soccer ball in the front yard, if you must know."

"So why did he get hit by a car?"

Aaron paused. "He chased the ball into the street and got hit. Why?"

"So what happened then?"

Aaron took a deep drag and blew out a cloud of smoke. "He chased the ball
out into the street and he got hit, that's all. What are you morbid or
something?"

"It was almost his birthday, right?"

Aaron appeared to be reliving the events in his mind, and he began to speak
with a softer tone. "Yeah, and his first day of school, too."

"That must have been really sad."

"I remember that his mother had just called for him to go in, just before
he got hit." Aaron said, almost inaudibly. "After he got hit, while he was
lying in the street with his head smashed open, she came out and just sat
on the landing. She didn't say or do anything, she just sat. She sat there
the whole time. When the police came, when the ambulance came, when the
neighbors were coming over to try to comfort her, all she did was sit and
stare at the spot where he had been lying. I could hear Erik's dad
screaming inside of the house at the top of his lungs, but all she did the
whole time was just sit there and hum this song over and over again. She
was still sitting there when my dad came and got me. I remember the whole
front of the house was filled with police cars and the ambulance with the
lights all flashing, and it had gotten dark, and all she did was sit
there." Quincy noticed that Aaron's cigarette had burned down into a small
rope of ash.

"You must have really been scared."

"I kicked it..."

"What?"

"I kicked the soccer ball. I kicked it and it went to the right of
him... and he chased it into the street... when he got hit."

To Quincy's shock, Aaron put his hand over his face and began to sob
loudly. Quincy didn't know what to do. He had never seen a grown man cry
before, except on TV. Aaron quickly got himself under control and wiped his
tears away. "Why are you making me bring all of this up?" He sniffled as he
turned and faced Quincy.

Quincy didn't know what to say, so he told Aaron the truth. "Because I need
to figure out why Erik is still here, and what I need to do to help him."

"Spencer told me that he had seen Erik in that house, and that he had
talked to him. I didn't believe him," Aaron wiped his eyes again with his
sleeve and turned back towards the parking lot. "So if he's there why don't
you ask him yourself ?"

"Because he won't answer, or he'll get mad."

"Well, I'm sorry, I can't help you. If you think that you saw Erik in that
house, then that's your issue. Erik is dead, dead and buried, and has been
for a long time." Aaron then turned around and walked back into
Corky's. Quincy had once again lost his desire for a snack from the 7-11,
so he unlocked his bike and rode back to his house in an even gloomier mood
than he had already been in.

Quincy had to turn in early in order to be ready for the first day at his
new school. Before he turned in he called out to Erik again, but got no
response. He put on his pajamas, said his prayers, and soon drifted into a
troubled sleep as he lay in his bed.

The next morning, Quincy dressed himself up in the school clothes that he
and his mom had bought at the mall. He gathered his fresh, new school
supplies into his book bag, and after a hasty breakfast of cinnamon
oatmeal, rushed out the door to the car with his mother behind him. As the
car pulled out of the driveway, he glanced up into his parents bedroom
window where Erik would usually be, but all he saw were curtains.

Chesterbrook Academy was a short distance from Quincy's house on Old
Dominion Drive. In fact, it was right across the street from the shopping
center. Carol pulled into the front driveway and let Quincy off with all of
the usual words of encouragement and statements of expectations. Quincy
winced in embarrassment as she kissed him on his cheek, and he got out of
the car and joined the crowd of kids who were filing into the front
entrance. As Quincy walked into the building, he gazed wide eyed at his new
surroundings, so he completely failed to notice Erik following several
steps behind, amidst the chattering gaggle of kids on their first day of
school.


			     End of chapter 12