Life - Message From The Past

1-Pumpkin & The Kids

Pumpkin

Pete Riddell watched his best friend enter the dusty office. Clearly the guys thought the dust was an acceptable accent to the rustic decor. "Hey boss, the Carter boys called. They need an extra week before we can set up the scaffolding. Byron landscaping needs the scaffolding off the Plager's lot or he will tear it down himself!"

"Anything else, Pumpkin?" Jeremy pulled his faded ball cap from his head, placing it on the folders of completed jobs.

"Yeah. Why'd you give the tickets to Saturday's game to the Doc?" Pete walked to Jeremy's desk. "I love the Yankees! You know I love the Yankees! Still, you crushed me by giving the tickets away." He looked at his boss.

Jeremy looked back at his lifelong buddy. "Pumpkin, you would take the Thompson twins and their cousin, Pansy."

"Mandy!"

"Mandy to the game so you could have better odds of scoring with one or more of them." Jeremy shook his head.

"Yeah, you already know this. That's my M.O. baby!" Pete sandwiched his hands together and began to rub. "I have a lot to offer."

"Pfft!" Jeremy shook his head yet again then rolled his eyes. "Yeah, the great plan! Too bad, I need you to work Saturday."

In his best New York accent, Pete grabbed his Yankees baseball cap. "Forget about it! I don't do Saturdays." He proudly described his weekend. "If it's not the game ~ it's the cottage. If it's not the cottage ~ it's Lopez's pool party."

"I get it. I get it!" Jeremy paused. "Saturday morning or I have to let you go." He raised his eyebrows. The boss played tried to motivate his friend.

"Ah really man! The 'let-you-go' card with your buddy?" Pete fell to his knees and ripped his cap from his balding head.

"Get off the fucking floor! You look like the Wicked Witch of the East, 'I'm melting, I'm melting'!" Jeremy held firm. "Get the fuck up, Pete."

Pete gave his boss a serious look. He only called him Pete once since grade six and that was to tell him his girlfriend took off with the town drunk and they were killed in a fiery accident. "What is it, Jeremy?"

"Sit your ass down." Jeremy looked at his friend as Pete scrambled to roll his office chair under his butt.

"Fuck me!" Pete connected the dots. "What did Francis tell you?"

Jeremy twitched, looked away then back to his friend. "Ahh..." He didn't know how to say it so he just spit it out as he shrugged. "It's cancer. It's fucking lung cancer, okay?"

Pete bolted from his chair. "What the hell do you mean, okay? Of course, it's not okay! Getting herpes is okay. Finding out a girlfriend is pregnant is okay." Pete winced at that suggestion. "I am even okay if you want to horn dog your way in with the twins. But I am not okay with you having cancer!"

Jeremy stood face-to-face with his friend. "Well, I don't get that option, Pete! It's not like I can say, 'Francis, I'm gonna pass on this lung cancer thing. Pete can't do Saturdays and I really need to get out of this fucking town!"

"You are like the guy who saved me from David Franken after I slept with his sister."

"His girlfriend." Jeremy shook his head.

"No, you slept with his girlfriend, I slept with his sister." Pete corrected his friend.

"I never slept with his girlfriend."

"You didn't?" Pete looked confused.

"No, I didn't. Wait. We are talking about grade eleven, the first school dance you asked to borrow my truck."