Dynamics of Chuck

“You destroyed our house!” Mike was in Kyle’s face yelling.  This was the third time he yelled that same thing.  Kyle held firm with a pained, constipated expression on his face.  He found himself holding his breath, waiting for Mike to quit raging.

Kyle had climbed from the vehicle seeing no easy way to back up and out of the alley without Mike and Kevin raising a ruckus.  Christine had leaned in to look at Kyle after he screamed when Mike had bang on the hood with questions in her eyebrows.  Kyle’d returned the look with wry guilt on his lips.

“These guys helped me out last night,” he’d said apologetically.

Christine had sat back.  She looked at first at Mike, then Kevin then around at the alley.  ”You know these guys?”  Kyle nodded.  ”How did you wind up here?”

“I haven’t the foggiest idea,” he’d shrugged.  ”But,” he’d sighed, “I have to do something.”

“What do you mean?” She’d looked at the two bums again, “Why?”

Kyle never liked that question.  Somehow trying to answer it was the most challenging when having to explain his own actions.  Did he really need a reason?   And yet, once asked he couldn’t escape it.  Why, indeed.  Maybe it was just the luck that brought him back here.  If he were to simply throw the car in reverse and drive away, there wasn’t really anything they could do to stop him.  Although he hadn’t looked directly at Mike or Kevin, he could almost picture them saying, “Not cool,” as he departed.  And it burned.  It burned just like Amy-Jennifer’s hand did slapping his desk.  Not that he would have told her there.  Except he was out here.  Out here was bare and honest. He hadn’t been assigned a seat behind Mike or Kevin.  And they hadn’t been assigned to help him in the alley.

“Because what I do matters,” he’d said to Christine as he stepped out of the car.  He’d felt stupid saying it after it was out there, but he couldn’t take it back.  So he’d quickly closed the door without looking at her.  His embarrassment was quickly replaced by fear as Mike had leapt at him yelling, “You destroyed our house!”

“Okay, duder, chill.”  Kyle put his hands up defensively.  Mike halted breathing heavily through his mouth and look hard into Kyle’s face.  Kyle continued, placatingly, “I’m sorry, okay.  Don’t kill me, man.”

Mike closed his mouth and breathed through his nose a few times.  ”I’m not going to kill you, brother.”

“I might,” Kevin said, poking his head over Mike’s shoulder.  And then he turned his head away laughing.  Mike and Kyle watched as he put his hands to his temples and started dancing in that same way Kyle had seen before.

Mike shook his head, “No, he won’t,” and then exhaled loudly, “You really test my patience, Kyle.  You know that?” He adjusted his glasses on his nose and absent-mindedly pushed one of the curls behind his ear.  It immediately fell back into place at the side of his head.  ”But I guess you could have just ran off.”  His eyes narrowed keenly, “Like you did last night.”  Kyle took a breath to speak, but Mike cut into it, “You didn’t.  That’s my point.  You came out and let me yell at you.  We’re square as far as that goes.”

“Okay, duder, thanks,” Kyle said and started rocking back and forth toward the door of his car.  A motion intended to let him try to push past the conversation and get moving again.

Mike smiled, cocking his head, “I’m not quite done, brother.”  Kyle stopped rocking and instead started playing with the fingers of both hands while glancing around the alley.  ”Listen,” Mike asked, “Where are you headed?”

“Colorado,” Christine said.  She was leaning on the roof of the passenger side looking at both of them with amusement glittering in her eyes.

Mike looked at her for a long time without saying a word.  Kyle’s agitation was growing to full body proportions as he felt himself trapped by an inescapable awkwardness.  Christine simply stared back. Finally, he turned and looked back at Kyle.  ”Not bad, brother.  Not bad.”  He guffawed and ended it in that high pitch giggle before continuing.  ”We’d like to join you.”

“Yeah,” said Kevin bobbing his head to the silent music, “Colorado is cool.”

“Definitely,” Mike half glanced over his shoulder at Kevin, and then turning back to Kyle, said, “What do you say?”

Kyle swallowed and glanced at Christine.  She shrugged a bit at him and disappeared down into the car to pet the dog.  ”Yeah, I guess, duder,”  Kyle said, “But you realize that backseat is small, right?”

“We’ve been through worse, brother.  Trust me.”  Mike turned, “So cool, we’ll get packed,” he said and walked away releasing Kyle to hurry to the car door and open it.  Realizing that he was going to need to let them in first, Kyle turned back to wait on Mike and Kevin.  They had both grabbed hold of old looking backpacks from somewhere within the pile of things.

Kyle turned to Christine while they waited, “How far is it to Denver anyway?” he asked.

She pursed her lips and stared up at the sky for a moment thinking.  Kyle’s eyes followed her lips like a dog’s follows a treat.  He licked his lips, and she turned and squinted at him, “I think we’ll make it by 7 or 8 tonight,” she said.  Kyle peeked out of the alley at the still morning sun and turned back in.  ”Okay, so far,” he said. They both turned back to see Mike and Kevin rummaging through their pile, putting various bits of what looked like old garbage into their bags.  Finally, the two started walking back.  Mike crawled in behind Kyle and Kevin behind Christine.  Then Kyle and Christine climbed in.

Kyle reversed out of the alley and on to the road.