milliways_bar | (no subject)

Hey, kids! Remember the '90s? You know, back when everyone wore boots and flannel all the time; mobile phones and home computers were not yet ubiquitous; and the powers that be tried to revitalize the sagging Japanese Beetle! franchise (and grab precious merchandising dollars) by reframing it as the eternal struggle of jocks vs. geeks in a suburban high school, far from its epic WWII origins?

...no? Well, you're just too young to remember. It totally happened that way.

Anyway, in swaggers eighteen-year-old Squirrel, in jeans and his Skyline High Rockets letter jacket (apparently if you're big enough and fast enough, a five-foot-long squirrel tail isn't too much of a liability on the football field; who knew?) and with a real Cheshire grin. It felt good to stuff Beetle in a locker today, better than usual even, and he figures he deserves a treat for it.

Up to the bar he goes, for some deep-dish eggplant parmesan pizza and a double-chocolate malt. Highly botherable.

[open until it scrolls]

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"Oh, right, not usin' trains anymore."

"Yeah. Well, some people still do, but then you're limited as to where you can go, and when you can go, and we like the freedom. Course, you're still stuck at the mercy of your parents' wanting to keep to a schedule, and your little sister's need for a bathroom."

"Doesn't sound fun."

"Depends on how you feel about your family. I like mine, but I prefer them in small doses."

"Don't mind mine. Spend lots of time with Mark cause we have to get the work done and Ma's always there waitin' for us."

"Oh, you have to do chores?"

His parents don't make him do anything, besides sometimes wash his dad's car. He used to have to mow the lawn, but he got out of that when he started playing sports. If he's not home, he can't be expected to do anything, right?

"Yeah, my Pa was killed about a year ago so I have to take care of things."

"Sorry to hear that," he says.

And then, since he can't leave well enough alone, "What happened?"

"Its sort of complicated, but he was doing somethin' good just ended up kind of goin' wrong."

"Oh," he says, and takes a sip of his malt.

"Like, started out good and went bad, or what he was trying to do just didn't work?"

"He was takin' an outlaw to get on a train to go to prison and got shot."

"He was a cop?" he asks. "That's a dangerous business. They're always getting shot at, in Skyline City. But I guess somebody's gotta do it."

"No, he was doing it cause the Pinks were going to pay him. Wade's gang had everyone scared. I snuck along to go with him."

"Oh," he says.

And takes another bite of pizza, while he thinks about that.

"Wow, that must've been rough. Being there for it, and all. My old man's an architect, nothing exciting or dangerous about that. But we live in the city."

"Yeah, it was hard. What kind of things does he build?"

"Houses, mostly," he says. "You drive out into the suburbs and you see dozens of big, boring-looking houses in developments there, that's the kind of things he does. Boring houses for rich people who don't have any taste."

"Don't sound like much of a job. Guess it must pay well enough."

"It seems to," he says with a shrug. "I mean, it's not what I'd want to do with my life, but he seems to like it. Don't know what I want to do yet. You?"

"Have to take care of my family and keep charge of the family land, ain't much choice about it."

"Farming?" he asks. "Or... is it more ranching, out where you are? Do you get some other kind of work too?"

"We have a herd of cattle. Don't really do anything else. I try and get to school when I can."

"...oh, that's right, they don't make you go to school, do they? Wish I didn't have to go every day--well, but without having to work either."

He has made laziness an art form.

"My Ma would like it if I could go to school more but just ain't that much time. Better if my brother goes."

"Mine's a teacher, so I'd be out of luck either way," Squirrel says. "Your brother's younger than you, then?"

"Yeah, not much younger but enough."

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theflyingsquirl - 2011-01-13 03:00 (UTC) - Expand

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