Rhett McLaughlin - The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek

“But…” Janine looked to Donna to gauge if she had any opinion on this, but she’d walked off to some other part of the restaurant. “Sounds like it was just an accident. Why was the girl sent to reform school for that?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Big Gary said, “maybe because she was out of control ! Same with those boys, letting their dog run wild while the pastors were tryin’ to say the blessing. If you ask me, all three of ’em should be sent away to that school. They shape kids up quick over there, quite an operation.” Big Gary hitched up his pants. “Tell you one thing: If those boys try a stunt like yesterday in here, they’re gonna be in for quite a surprise. That’s for damn sure. Now, where were we?”

Janine had the sudden realization that continuing to film Big Gary would be far less satisfying than actively messing with him.

“Actually,” she said, “I think I may want to interview those boys.”

Big Gary stared at her as if he’d been whacked in the face with a flyswatter. “For the…for the movie?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Janine tried hard to look serious. “Their story seems really interesting.”

“Are you kiddin’ me? I doubt those boys have passed a single stone!”

“Oh, good point,” Janine said, seeing how relieved Big Gary was to have convinced her and letting that moment sink in before saying, “but maybe that makes them perfect for the movie. You know, provides a really nice contrast to your super-impressive stone collection.”

Big Gary opened and closed his mouth, unsure how to argue with that.

“Can you point them out to me?”

—

“HEY REX. HEY Leif,” Tommy Dowd said, looking particularly uncool in his Li’l Dino’s shirt as they walked through the doors of the restaurant.

“Hey, Tommy,” Rex said. He wanted to keep the small talk to a minimum, both because he and Leif were incredibly hungry and because conversations with Tommy were incredibly dull.

“Nice day, huh?” Tommy asked.

“I guess,” Rex said, eyebrows furrowed.

Tommy took the hint and bent behind the welcome podium to get menus. “Just the two of you?”

Leif visibly flinched. He hadn’t wanted to come here, and had tried to persuade Rex that getting a snack at the Short Stop made more sense, but Rex had been emphatic. “I gotta get protein to feed my scooter leg,” he’d said. “Plus, I haven’t touched my allowance this week, so it’s on me.” It was hard to refuse once Rex was paying, but Leif hadn’t articulated what was actually bothering him, something that hadn’t seemed to dawn on Rex: Nearly every time they’d gone to Li’l Dino’s in the past year, it had been with Alicia. He knew Tommy hadn’t been trying to dig a knife in the wound, but that’s the effect his question had.

“Uh, yeah,” Rex said. “Just the two of us.”

“Great,” Tommy said. “Follow me.”

It was a busy day at Li’l Dino’s, four or five tables already occupied, mostly by high school kids Rex and Leif recognized but didn’t know. As Tommy led the boys to the orange booth in the back corner, the one they usually sat at, Rex could feel people staring, and he realized the whole town probably knew about Alicia.

Leif didn’t take in any of the glares, as seeing their usual table had triggered a deluge of Alicia memories: her reaching across the booth to repeatedly flick at his ear, her insisting that he order a personal supreme pizza with black olives so she could pick them off individually, her cackling in Rex’s face when he revealed he didn’t realize that Shock G and Humpty Hump were the same person. Leif didn’t know if he’d be able to get through this meal.

“Um,” Tommy said, placing the menus on the table. “I heard about Alicia.”

“Yeah,” Rex said as Leif sat down and stared at the table. “Hey…what’s it like in there?”

Leif looked up. He’d been so consumed by his thoughts that he’d forgotten Tommy had once gone to the Whitewood School. And here he was, standing in front of them, a regular guy. Leif felt a little lighter, remembering he would see Alicia again, that all of this might turn out okay.

“Oh,” Tommy said, thinking hard. “It’s…Well, it’s not, like, fun . But it was good for me. I was really out of control, you know? And now I stay outta trouble, I’ve got good grades, this job,” he said, gesturing to the Li’l Dino’s logo on his shirt, which featured a stereotypical plump Italian chef who had an accidental resemblance to Big Gary. “Sometimes I think everybody should go to Whitewood. I’m sure it’ll be great for Alicia.”

Rex nodded. “Thanks, Tommy. That’s good to hear.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Leif said. He desperately wanted to believe Tommy, but he still felt unsettled.

“No prob,” Tommy said, walking away. “I’ll be back to take your orders.”

Rex leaned in. “Okay, so when are we taking that tree guy Ben the stuff he asked for?”

“What?” Leif said, slamming his menu shut. He had really hoped that Rex wouldn’t bring this up. “How can we even be sure he’s actually got information about the school?”

“Well, we can’t. But what if he does?”

“He probably just said he did because he heard us talking about Alicia being at Whitewood and he knew it would be a good way to use us to get him some stuff.”

“Okay. What if he is using us? Worst-case scenario, he was lying. All we lose is the time it takes to get what he asked for and take it to him.”

“No, actually…worst-case scenario is he uses that spear—”

“What can I get you fellas?” Big Gary was suddenly looming over their table. Neither Rex nor Leif had ever seen him take an order.

“Um, I’d like a pepperoni personal pizza, please,” Rex squeaked.

Big Gary focused his attention on Leif.

“I’ll just do a turkey sub,” he said. “No tomatoes, please.”

Big Gary glared at Rex and Leif for a few moments before speaking. “Behave yourself, boys. You understand?”

As Big Gary stared at them, Rex and Leif began to instinctively nod, even though they did not, in fact, understand.

“Good.” Big Gary turned away and shouted to Tommy, who was standing near the entrance to the kitchen. “Tell Ron I need a PPP and a turkey sub, extra tomatoes.” He shot Leif a cold look.

“Yessir,” Tommy said, disappearing into the kitchen, Big Gary following moments later.

“That was weird,” Rex said. “Why couldn’t Tommy just take our order?”

“There’s no way that wasn’t intentional, right?” Leif asked. “I asked for no tomatoes. Maybe he’s really proud of his tomatoes and I just insulted him?”

“I’d find it hard to believe a man would be that defensive about his tomatoes. No, that seemed personal.” Rex rubbed his chin the way he’d seen cops do on TV.

“I feel like I need to go up there and tell him to hold the tomatoes.”

“Wait!” Rex said, grabbing Leif’s wrist to stop him from getting up, even though Leif had made no moves to do so. “I figured it out. He’s sizing us up. Because of what happened with Alicia.”

“Really?” Leif looked down at himself, as if to assess whether or not he seemed like trouble. “We don’t even have our camera with us. Or Tucker. Does he think we’re gonna push him into his oven or something?”

“Maybe!” Rex was excited. “I’m not used to people thinking I’m a bad kid. It’s kind of exhilarating.”

“I don’t think it is at all,” Leif said. “I feel like I’m being judged. And punished with tomatoes.”

“Just take the tomatoes off.”

“But they’ll contaminate whatever they touch.”

“With what?”

“Tomato…ness.”

Rex rolled his eyes.