Page 19 of Baiting Kong
“I feel the same,” Mr. Martinez said. “What I will do is put cameras inside the store and monitors in the office so I can help keep an eye on things when I’m working back there. Had I been doing that today, I’d have been able to call for help before Sofia ran back to tell me about the men in the masks. Thank you for sending her out of harm's way. Your quick thinking protected her.”
“You guys have been like grandparents to me,” Axel admitted. “I would never let her get hurt.”
Mr. Martinez squeezed his shoulder. “I know. I remember the way you stood between her and Gary Reid with your little fists balled up the day he called her a name I truly wish would be stricken from all languages. Here was a grown man who’d forgotten whatever manners he’d been taught, and there you were, not even ten, schooling him on the proper way to speak to a woman. You showed your heart that day. I hope you never let anyone steal that away from you, especially not the one who taught you those values. They are good ones to have, Axel, even if he’s forgotten that.”
Nodding, Axel struggled to meet his gaze as the subject of his father came up.
“See you tomorrow, Mr. Martinez,” Axel said as he stepped through the door and waited for Mr. Martinez to lock it behind him and pull the security gate down before locking it too.
He waved, and Axel waved back before turning to make his way home, reminded of the way his father had always stood on the deck of the trailer, sipping his morning coffee as he watched Axel and his friends take off on their bikes on the way to school.
Now he just hurled obscenities, and the occasional beer can after him.
The man had turned into a bully, and not just around the house. All those lessons he’d taught Axel when he was little had been tossed out the window by the time he was twelve. Little by little, in the years following his mother’s death, he’d watch the old man unravel, morphing from the man who’d helped coach his peewee football games and taken him camping and fishing at every opportunity to one who could barely stand the sight of him. Worse was the way he cracked open a bottle before he rolled out of bed and never stopped opening them, one after the other, until he wound up face down on the floor or in someone’s flower bed. He’d lost every job he’d had, including this latest one he’d been fired from last night, for being drunk on the job, which meant all the bills were on him again, until the old man got a new job.
Shit. He’d forgotten the milk. Son of a bitch. Now he’d have to detour two blocks out of the way to get to the grocery store, so his old man didn’t lose his shit over Axel forgetting the milk again. As exhausted as he was, it was better to just stop and get it than have his old man storm down to pick it up and manage to get himself kicked out of the grocery store again. The last time had been for fighting with a man over the last can of chunky cheeseburger soup. In the ensuing melee, they’d caused over a hundred dollars in damages, not that his old man had cared, as he’d stomped into the trailer bellowing triumphantly about having secured the soup. He hadn’t been as happy when the cops showed up, but at least they’d hauled him away with a full belly; it had soaked up enough of the alcohol that they hadn’t been ableto add an intoxication charge on top of the one they’d hit him with for public brawling and damaging property.
It was just never-ending with him. At his worst, he racked up fines and charges before they’d finished paying off the previous ones. They still owed restitution to three different individuals for damages the old man had caused back when he’d had a license. Axel was just glad he’d totaled the car against the stone wall at City Park before he could actually hurt someone, though a part of him really wished the cops had locked him up for that little stunt. Maybe it would have gotten him sober and back to being the man Axel had always looked up to as a kid.
Or maybe it would have made him meaner, and he’d have started hurting other people the way he’d started taking his fury out on Axel.
Yeah, that kinda sucked as an option too.
All of it sucked, but the worst part was that he didn’t even have anyone to talk to anymore, now that Shawn had taken off across the country and Micha had gotten married and never came around the trailer park anymore. Being on his own was no fun, not that anything in his life had been fun for years. Sometimes, he just wished his old man would come out and tell him what he’d done to make him hate him, when he used to tell Axel all the time that he loved him and how Axel was one of the best things that had happened in his life. Had that all been a lie? Was he angry that Axel hadn’t gone to community college or picked up a trade after graduation? He was okay with the job he had, and he never asked the old man for anything. What was so wrong with taking the time to figure shit out and make sure that whatever he committed to was something he’d want to stick with for the long run?
Alright, what else was he supposed to grab besides the milk?
His mind felt fuzzy as he wandered the aisles of the only grocery store in the area that was still open until midnight,adding eggs, cheese, and bread to the basket he carried, trying to remember what the hell else had been on the whiteboard before the beer his old man had thrown all over it had washed half the list away. Oh shit, yeah, pancake mix and syrup, so they didn’t have to eat them dry this time. He grabbed chocolate syrup too, for milk and for squeezing into the pancake mix to make them more interesting, and a couple of containers of frozen juice, because he was tired of drinking water all the time.
He was halfway to the checkout counter when it dawned on him that with all the chaos at the gas station, they’d all forgotten it was supposed to be payday.
Son of a bitch.
Now what the fuck was he supposed to do?
Was no use opening his wallet in the hopes that something had magically appeared. All he’d find were the same two one-dollar bills that had been in there that morning. Exhaustion warred with utter defeat as he turned and began to put things back where he’d found them.
“Well, that’s a new way of getting exercise,” A voice interrupted as he searched for the spot where the syrup was supposed to go. “Do you always fill a basket just so you can carry everything around the store before putting it back?”
“Only when I forget to get paid,” Axel remarked as he stared over his shoulder at Scout.
“Awe, shit, man, you’re just having a fucked-up day from start to finish.”
“No shit.”
“Let me take care of the groceries for you,” Scout offered. “It’s the least I can do after what happened this afternoon.”
“Wait, seriously?”
“Yeah, man, seriously,” Scout said. “You didn’t have to back my story, but I appreciate that you did.”
“Figured you had a good reason for not saying anything about, well, you know.”
“Yeah, I did. So let me say thank you by helping out,” Scout said. “It still doesn’t make us even. I owe you way more of a debt than a basket of food.”
“Do you mind if I add the pancake mix back?” Axel asked, since the syrup would be pointless without it.
“Go for it,” Scout said, the basket hanging from his arm containing nothing but energy drinks and cereal bars.
