[That phrasing doesn't go over the kid's head at all but Freddy doesn't really have any idea how to address it without wrecking the moment, this story. Maybe they can save it for later. He pushes his now empty plate aside to smoke and drink up the Corona.]
You were pickin' money off the floor? [He says with great amusement.] Were you looking up skirts too?
[Cause every stupid little boy knows that trick real well or something. Not that Freddy Newendyke ever did it. Really, he didn't.]
[He even turns his head to check if there is someone else Freddy would be talking to. No? Shrug. Though he knows that smile well. No disputing that he isn't dirty in his way.]
I bought tickets to go on the rides. The bumper cars and the ferris wheel were my favorites. I also got to play a few games.
[Oh he's riding the same wavelength. Fuck they're in public though and that big bird is still hanging in the air. Not the one right out the window, the other one.]
So where's Snoopy now?
[It's not a subject change, just reigning the hormones in. A little bit.]
[As if Larry didn't already know but maybe it was bad timing too or the fact that jokes are his go-to crutch. He puffs on his cigarette and sips again.]
[The snort that comes out of his regal roman nose can't be helped.]
Vickie Flagler. Vickie. Flagler.
[Yeah he's trying out her name on his tongue because it sounds a little funny. About as funny as Freddy Newendyke and that's not even the real name. Not quite real anyway.]
[Mr. Newendyke gives an insistent nod because seriously, Flagler. Sounds like a girl with glasses and a backbrace...the kind who probably would have found a boy like Freddy cute because she thought the other boys were out of her league. Then again this Victoria Flagler caught the interest of one Lawrence Dimick so maybe she compensated for her name by being a fox. At the tender age of thirteen or something.]
How do you tell a Vickie from a Victoria?
[Freddy has an idea he just wants to hear Larry's thoughts on the matter.]
[Because the old man looks more like a Larry than he'll ever look like a Lawrence, at least the old man the kid knows. Put him in a sharp suit, sunglasses, slick his hair, slip on a diamond ring, and let him loose in a high stakes casino though and yeah he'd look like a Lawrence. Or a Mr. White.]
[He smiles. The prospect of getting a plush yellow bird from Larry Dimick is amusing, even if it's the kind that types out words for a beagle not the big thing standing around over there. Now where Freddys are concerned...he can't help but arch a brow.]
What do you think's the alternative to a Freddy? [Everyone thinks it's Frederick. Little do they know.]
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