Wired Bone: Chapter Twelve (Patreon)

Chapter Twelve

Michael sighed with relief.

Now that they had left arid sands behind in favor of dry dirt, the air was turning cooler. Soon, they would be surrounded and shadowed by flora. In his mind, it was worth the threat of fauna.

He’d missed seeing green in the horizon; the little trees that interrupted Third York’s sidewalks weren’t enough by a long shot. The area around El Paso had still been recovering from the new dust bowl when he’d left it, but there had been enough trees to form a nostalgic attachment to them.

Thinking about El Paso made his mouth dry and goosebumps to raise on his arms. He rubbed at one, keeping the other hand on the steering wheel.

Hitomi looked at him out of the corner of her eye, then she reached into the bag under her legs.

“What’re you lookin’ for?”

“Meds.”

“You feelin’ ill?”

“Not for me,” she said, finally pulling her hand out with a small plastic baggie and a small plastic statue of some fictional character that Mike knew contained a grinder.

Michael tried to glare without moving his eyes away from the road. There were bushes beside it, now.

“Don’t give me that look,” Hitomi chided him. “You’re stressed.”

“And Ah’ll deal with it like an adult,” Mike said. He smiled at her, “Ah appreciate your concern, sugar, but I don’t need no chemical comforts.”

“Why do you insist on this song and dance?” asked Hitomi, more amused than irritated. “You’ve smoked before.”

“Under duress. Ah’m a good ol’ boy, good ol’ boys don’t smoke drugs.”

Snorting at the words ‘smoke drugs’, she asked, “Unless under duress?”

“Precisely. Ah was under much duress.”

“Yes, Michael. How dare I hold a gun to your head and demand you smoke with me.”

“You peer pressured me!”

Hitomi started laughing, offending Michael.

“You did! You told me that they would lose respect for me if Ah didn’t!”

“And then I said I was joking, you clown.”

“But the others were noddin’ along!”

“The teenagers?!”

“Stop laughin’!”

Hitomi, cruelly, did not stop laughing.

Michael pouted and kept driving while she rolled a blunt with quick and efficient moves.

“Ah’m not smokin’ that.”

“Michael. Honey,” said Hitomi, smiling toothily at him. Mike sighed a little, getting ready to cave like an idiot before she finished her argument, “You got a lot of stuff dropped on your plate very suddenly. And I know that you made up your mind to go to El Paso because there’s cheap medication there.”

“Mrm.”

“So, here’s your options: you can get an ulcer and melt your brain worrying over shit that hasn’t even happened yet, or you can smoke a little, let things come as they may, and just talk with your best friend in the whole wide world.”

“Tall Larry’s busy right now, Ah think. Ah wouldn’t wanna bother him.”

“… I’m going to let that one slide because I know you’re having a hard time right now.”

“Ah appreciate it,” said Michael, nodding his head at the bullet that barely missed him. “And you.”

“Mm-hmm,” she said, nodding imperiously, before offering the blunt. “So?”

Michael sighed, then took the blunt and put it between his lips.

Hitomi lit it with a lighter, smiling kindly, then put her feet up on the dash as she crossed her hands over her stomach.

“… thanks.”

“Don’t mention it, chief.”

A good half hour later, they were well and truly buzzed.

The cassette tape that had gotten stuck there — and had somehow been beyond everyone’s ability to remove — had been rewound and allowed to play through an album of some band named Queen.

It wasn’t really Michael’s usual orchard of apples, but in the solid four months since the darned thing got stuck there he’d gotten used to it. Even grown to like it a bit. Hitomi liked it so much she loudly screamed along to the lyrics every time, accompanied with the occasional dance.[1]

“Guaranteed to blow your mind!” the stereo system called.

“ANYTIME!” Hitomi screamed back, throwing her hands up and whacking them on the ceiling, making her cuss and rub them together while Michael laughed.

Hitomi pouted a bit, or as much as she could, and grumbled at him to stop laughing or to stop hogging the blunt.

He passed what was left of it to her and hummed along to the music, sometimes muttering the lyrics, which did make Hitomi smile a bit as she accompanied him.

After a while, the song ended, and another started. Hitomi liked it less, so she just hummed along while Mike kept quiet.

His fingers started drumming on the wheel. Hitomi looked at them, then let him spin the matter around in his head before he sent it out into the world.

Indeed, after a few moments of doubt, he asked, “Do you think she’ll be mad at me?”

“Marinette?”

“No, the Queen of England,” said Michael, rolling his eyes.

“Do they still have a Queen?”

“They did last Ah heard.”

“Yeah, a hundred years ago,” Hitomi snorted.

“It’s unbecomin’ of a young lady to tease her elders, y’know.”

Smirking a bit, Hitomi got back on track and asked, “Why would Marinette be mad at you?”

“Ah… Ah don’t get why she didn’t trust me with this.”

Hitomi gave him a pitying look, which set him on edge, but he forced it down to listen to her as she explained, “It’s not a matter of trusting you, Mikey. This is a sensible matter, and… well, none of us is ignorant to the kind of strain a baby will add.”

“It’s not that much of a strain.”

“But a pregnancy we won’t be prepared for? One as risky as hers?”

Mike’s mouth twitched into a displeased grimace.

“Before you get any ideas, she didn’t think you were going to force her to do anything she wouldn’t want to, either,” Hitomi added. “We trust you more than that; you’re not an idiot.”

“Agree t’ disagree.”

“Okay, you’re an idiot. But you’re not that kind of idiot. You’d be just as helpful if she wanted it than if she didn’t.”

“But I can’t be helpful if I don’t know what happens in my own tribe.”

“Can’t be disappointed, either.”

“… that can’t be what this is about.”

“Afraid it most likely is,” Hitomi shrugged.

Michael groaned, “And what was the plan for when things went along too far for me not to notice?”

“Tell Aaron so he can tell you, evidently.”

“She didn’t tell him so he’d tell me. Aaron told me ‘cause there was an opportunity t’ make enough money to fix this.”

“But he told you, right? And we know he wouldn’t do that without permission, right? So, she must’ve told him he could if there was a good reason, right?”

“Right,” he sighed, leaning back.

There was a moment of silence.

Hitomi broke it by asking, “So?”

“So… Ah guess Ah’ll just try to be supportive and ask her not to be an idiot in the future.”

“She’s still in her teens, love. Not great chances of that.”

Michael made a face of disgust. “The more Ah learn about teenagers; the gladder Ah am that Ah never had to be one.”

“Eh, it has its moments,” said Hitomi. “Stealing, crashing, fixing, driving back and crashing again my dad’s car was fun.”

Michael snorted. Despite disliking the conversation, it was always a relief to speak with Hitomi. Especially when he allowed himself to be unguarded for once.

It was a pleasure to be known.

…

“Wait, was that all in one night?”

[1] She liked it so much, in fact, that she’d bribed quite a few people to pretend they couldn’t remove the tape whenever Mike asked. It didn’t take much effort, most of them thought it cute or amusing when he got frustrated.