Crazed and Defused - Part III

Since this is Part III, you might want to read Parts I and II, below, first...

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“What line is that, Toby?” asked Jake. He smiled. He knew that Toby was rolling now and the answer would be ludicrous. Mitch got the impression that Jake was amused by this group. It wasn’t that he shared their hate of everything that was ‘not them.’ It was that he thought it was funny and misguided. And he didn’t really care. You could sense that in Jake’s voice. He didn’t care one way or the other about any of this or these guys. He was going to get his full ride to college and take it. He was going to leave these fools in his wake and never look back. And they had no idea. He moved his big shoulders underneath the sweatshirt. Toby noticed.

“The line that separates pukes like him from us. The line that keeps dickwads like him from polluting the world with his offspring. That’s the line I mean.” Toby was working himself into a frenzy. He wasn’t really even speaking to anyone in particular. He was espousing his own personal brand of bullshit to whoever would listen. The funny part was he didn’t really care who (if anyone) listened. And it looked like nobody did. Mitch thought that perhaps he was working at convincing himself that whomever they were planning on “taking care of” was a bad guy, had somehow wronged him, whatever. Guys like Toby were always looking for a “them” to play against their “us.” They liked belonging to a team and fighting for that team. It gave them a sense of worth. Guys like him usually didn’t much like themselves.

Mitch decided to arrive early for the little outing. He got to Town Pizza at 10:30 and began scanning the area for a good spot to watch it all go down. The kid in question turned out to be Sam Harris. A good guy. Figures, thought Mitch. He knew it was Sam because the delivery guy arrived at about 10:40 in a maroon ’75 AMC Pacer and out crawled Sam. He was singing along with the chorus of “Proud Mary” by Creedence and smiling from ear to ear. The music stopped when he shut off the car, but he kept on singing. Kept on burning… Must’ve been a good tip at the last stop.

He watched as Sam entered the pizza shop and the loose screen door slammed behind him. He could hear loud, good-natured responses to Sam’s entry from his perch in a large tree just off the rear parking lot.

"Sammy!" bellowed Mr. Francesco, the owner of the Town Pizza. "From Alabammy!"

"Eggs and hammy!" screamed Jimmy Kline. "Toast and jammy!"

Then, in chorus, as though they'd rehearsed while he was out, "Sammy!"

Sam was well-liked at Town Pizza. Geez, as far as Mitch could recollect, everyone liked Sam… except Toby. Mitch surmised that was exactly why Toby didn’t like him.

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'til next time...