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“I recall you having to jog to catch up.”
“Suit yourself,” he tells me. “But if you change your mind, we can take my car.”
My car is fast. But it’s not as fast, nor as new, as Liam’s. I don’t particularly fancy myself to be the kind of man who is distracted by shiny things. But I’m a man, nonetheless. And I envy that car. This, and, I’d rather not leave him here alone with my wife.
The sun reflects off the pavement in hazy waves. Even before noon it has turned out to be a stifling hot day. “You want to drive?” Liam asks, pretending to toss his keys in my direction.
“Better not,” I answer with a nod toward my foot. As I slowly make my way around the Audi, I reflect that Liam is right, I probably wouldn’t get far if left to my own devices. My foot is noticeably sorer than it was yesterday. Stopping to breathe into the pain, I notice a long scratch and a large dent on the passenger side of the car. Liam notices me looking, concern written on his face.
“You gonna make it?”
“Yeah,” I say, bracing myself against the hood of the car. “What happened?”
“Hit a deer the other day.” He shakes his head from side to side. “Bastard darted right out in front of me.”
When I don’t say anything he waves a hand in the air, “Ah well, you know. That’s what insurance is for.”
Once we get out on the road, it’s easy to see how Liam could damage his car. He’s a terrible driver. Not only is he reckless, he appears to have zero qualms about getting us killed.
“Slow down!” I shout. He has the top down, music blaring. It takes me repeating myself twice and slugging him in the shoulder
before he hears me.
Squinting, I think I see something up ahead. Although, because Liam is driving like a bat out of hell, whatever I thought I saw is suddenly behind us, fading fast in the passenger side mirror. “Turn around,” I tell him, waving my hands.
He turns the music down. “Huh?”
“Turn the car around,” I say at the top of my lungs.
He slows and then does a spin, going far too fast. When the car is facing the opposite direction, he laughs and says, “You mean like that?”
He’s a goddamned child. If he doesn’t crash the car, I may die of a heart attack.
“What are we doing?” He stares at me quizzically. “Did you forget your wallet?”
I point. “Slowly,” I say. “Take it about twenty. Then two hundred yards that-a-way stop.”
He does as I ask, coming to a slow stop not far from the boy who is sitting on the side of the road, squatted down in the grass.
“There,” I say to Liam. “That’s what we’re doing.”
His eyes shift. “What the fuck? That’s a kid.”
Opening the door, I extend my hand. The boy is hesitant. He doesn’t know me in this context. He’s used to seeing me on foot. He backs away. “Come on,” I wave. “It’s me, George.”
He doesn’t budge. “You want to go home?”
To my surprise, he shakes his head. I can’t blame him. I don’t want to go there either. Liam holds out a bottle of Tic Tacs. He shakes some into my palm. I offer them to the boy. His little hand reaches out from the brush. I start to refuse him, to tell him to get in the car and then he can have them, but I think better of it at the last second. I’m sure he’s scared enough as it is. At the same time, I know I can’t walk him home. Not with my foot in this condition.
“Ask him if he wants ice cream,” Liam says with a nudge.
“Have you got any ice cream?” I ask, glancing around the interior of the car, intending to look as ridiculous as he sounds.
“No. I don’t know…I’ve seen it in the movies. Isn’t that how you get kids in the car?”
“How should I know?”
His brow knits together. “I just assumed this isn’t the first time you’ve found him on the side of the road.”
