Suzie’s House 247: Finding a Story

Ben sat in front of his laptop and stared at a blank screen. A few month ago this would have freaked him out, but now he was used to it. Mrs. Audrey said that staring into space is part of writing too. So it was ok if the screen stayed blank for a while. Knowing that made it easier to write.

Yeah, like anything could actually make this business easy. And when he talked about how much better everything would be once he’d finished his first book she got this odd little smile that wasn’t happy at all and changed the subject.

But that didn’t matter right now. He promised to bring her another story, but so far all he’d come up with were boring stories about how Mom made curtains for all the rooms downstairs right before Tracy tried to use them like vines to play Tarzan, which was true, but the part where she hung tied them from a chandler was fiction, so it wasn’t a memoir or anything.

He could write about how all the girls in school loving Gene, but he couldn’t think of any details, and Mrs. Audrey was always going on about how important details are. He wanted to have something written before dinner, but he couldn’t think of anything. Maybe Vin could help him. He’d had good ideas before. Besides, being a private-eye, he’d have tons of good stories. Right?

He found Vin in the bathroom with a razor in his hand and shaving cream on half his face. He looked tired. Tired? If he said that to Mrs. Audrey, she’d probably ask him why he thought that, and then say something about showing not telling and that thing about details again. So Ben looked a little closer.

Eyes. Vin had tired eyes. Kind of wrinkled, but that wasn’t it. Dark circles. Right. Vin had dark circles under his eyes. Kind of puffy too. Bags. That’s what people called it, right? Mrs. Audrey also said he needed to expand his vocabulary.

“Hey,” Ben said.

“What’s up, kid?” Vin smiled that way grown ups do when they fell like being nice to a kid.

“So… um… you been gone a lot lately. Working a big case?”

The razor jumped, totally out of control.

“You’re bleeding!” Ben stepped forward, not at all sure what he was going to do, but wanting to stop the blood. He didn’t know what he did wrong, but he felt like maybe the cut was his fault.

“Relax.” Vin quick grabbed a towel and squished it up against his face. “It’s only a flesh wound.” He said it just like that movie he liked. Monty something or another and a Holy Grail, or something. He pulled the towel back so it hung over his hands while he looked in the mirror. “Guess I lost control for a minute there,” he muttered.

Ben was afraid to say anything else. For an uncomfortable minute he stood there, hoping Vin would explain, but expecting to get sent away.

“So… What have I been doing?” Vin glanced at Ben

Ben couldn’t tell if he was mad, or annoyed, or just tired. It was the kind of look that made Ben uncomfortable, like Vin was trying to read is mind.

“I’ve been looking for Drew.”

“Oh. Right. You went to New Mexico to talk to him, right?” Ben “So when is he coming home?”

Vin didn’t answer write away. He finished shaving, but looked kind of moody doing it.

“He could turn up any minute now. Any minute.” He splashed water on his face, dried it, then turned toward Ben like he wanted to say something really important. “When he gets here, you need to treat him just like you used to.”

“Well, yeah. Of course.”

“Even if he isn’t anything like he used to be.”

“What do you mean?” Ben started to get a bad feeling about this. Was something wrong with Drew? Was he going to show up in a wheel chair or something?

“Things went wrong with the case he’s working. It’s… it’s messed him up. The last time I went to Albuquerque, he’d already left. I tracked him a Las Cruces, then lost him. He told one truck driver that he was coming here by way of Yellowstone. So, looks like he decided to take a little vacation on his way back.”

“Vacation.” What a weird idea. Who wanted to go see Yellowstone when there was so much snow out?

“Yeah. So… if you see some strange man on the front porch someday… say ‘Hi’. It might be him.”

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