orangetoughguy | log post II

[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.]

[Napkin to clean off his face of anything then he gets out a smoke.]

Sure was. I didn't know what kind of a mess it made my clothes. Even dusting it off still had some shit on my knees.

[Not literal shit, he hopes the kid would know. Larry flicks his lighter a few times. Looks like it might need a refill.]

I was trying to be a good boy. I can't help if accidents happen.

[Meaning yes.]

Man, you are dirty.

[Freddy says this like he doesn't know but the shit eating smug look on his face says he does. Very very well.]

So what'd you spend it on?

Me?

[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.

The ferris wheel was the closest I could get to a skyscraper for a little while.

[He nods, still amused, still fucking charmed.] You win anything neat?

There was a roller coaster too, I had to make a choice between the ferris wheel or the coaster.

[He exhales to one side as a courtesy.]

I got a Snoopy dog.

[With his cigarette and open hand he shows how big this plush animal was....looks like about a foot and a half.]

They had those back then?

[He's totally kidding, Larry, honestly he is. But the old man can take a shot at the kid if he really wants to. Freddy can take it.]

Oh yeah. They were made out of woolly mammoth skin and stitched together with porcupine needles.

[On the exhale this time he lets it all roll out his nose giving the kid a look.]

Your mother must have been sprouting out of the cabbage patch then right?

[He can keep on goin' really.]

Oh yeah I heard they used Elvis Presley to get the crops ripe and ready.

[Only because it sounds like the old man could be ballsy enough to go there.]

All in the hips.

[His tongue slides from one side of his lower lip to the other.]

Though if that doesn't work, well...

[Larry lets that hang in the air awhile with his cigarette smoke. What's gonna stop him from going there.]

The man's gotta give all he got.

[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.]

[Ah so he is catching that. Larry finishes off his beer. As for his cigarette he'll grind the end of it in in his napkin.]

He hung around my cave awhile then I gave it to a girl.

[Shrug right on there.]

Because you liked her or because you wanted something out of it?

[He's not doubting Lawrence Dimick's gentlemanly behavior at all but boys will be boys and this one admitted to upskirt accidents.]

Because I liked her and I didn't know what to get her.

[He takes a look at his fingernails, then folds his hands like a gentleman.]

Didn't have much money again. Funny how that works out.

It was a joke.

[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.]

Did she like him? [And you?]

I think it was a few days before I got something out of it.

[Is he kidding? That's up to you to figure out Freddy.]

She loved him. Liked me enough.

[Right now he can't tell. Whether that's Larry's fault for being ambiguous, Freddy's fault for thinking too much, or both who really knows.]

What was her name?

Vickie Flagler.

[He leans back and crosses his arms.]

We went to the same school.

[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.]

Victoria Flagler. But she's absolutely a Vickie.

[It's amusing to hear him try it out.]

Flagler's not so weird.

[Not like Newendyke.]

Yeah it is.

[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.]

A Vickie is more rough around the edges. Her shoes aren't polished and her coat might not go with her skirt, but she knows her sport stats.

[Fourteen actually.]

Victorias wouldn't settle for anyone's secondhand Snoopy.

Okay I'll give you that.

[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.]

I'd take Woodstock.

She was pretty in her way. Her teeth were almost too big looking and she had long straight hair. Definitely a Vickie. Not like a Freddy though.

[Uh huh he's talking about you kid. Though to any eavesdropping ear that could be someone different.]

I'll keep my eyes peeled. How about that?

Okay.

[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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