Viper

The Capt'n and Ramba

As they walked out, the warm afternoon sun felt good on David's face. It had been just a few days since the fight but David had been indoors too long for his liking. He also had many questions on his mind. Just who were his attackers, and why did they say he was just practice? Why Clyde had confided in him so much and still not ventured to seek him out yet? Also how was T.J. related to all this and what this all meant for Liz? This was the man reason he wanted to get out, for answers.

They walked outside through the same streets they did a few weeks back after his father's funeral. The same streets he walked as a kid with Cheeto only the problems were much more different. The street didn't look the same as they did then either. They looked dirty, and much smaller than he remembered. It was as if they were dying. They resembled a chained dog slowly starving.

"Ese (That) Rocky! You up and walking already. Looks like you can take a good beating," suddenly shouted off someone in the distance. It wasn't a threatening voice though. It sounded old and worn. David thought for moment that it was Clyde but once he found the source he realized it wasn't.

"Ese (That) Capt'n!" replied Cheeto to the person.

Capt'n was one of the local vagrants. An old Mexican-American veteran that had been roaming the streets since David was a small boy. Having served during the 80's in the marines, he was one of the many veterans lost in the system. He served in a time when there was little to no support from the public. The horrors he lived in conflicts that were lost in the public's consciousness, since they were not associated with wars, were left for him to carry alone. The pain, physical and mental, he carried were what drove him to the streets. Time is what kept him there.

"You won the war yet?" asked inappropriately Cheeto as he met his friend.

"What would you know about it? You wouldn't know 'bout being a man aside from squeezing your balls in the morning son," replied the Capt'n jokingly as if for the thousand time to his young friend.

"I've seen you around. I remember you from when I was a kid," said David. It was the first time he recalled speaking to the Capt'n given his mother always forbade it.

"I remember your skinny ass running home every time your momma called for you," replied Capt'n. David nodded in agreement.

"Uhhh she would be tripping if she saw what you let those boys do to you. Ha!" continued the Capt'n.

"Eeeh man, see! I told you. Why you let those fools get a jump on you like that. Even the bums heard about yo ass-kicking," chimed in Cheeto again, slapping Capt'n on the back as good acquaintances do.

"I'm a bum by choice, not some little bitch that gets kicked out of the house," taunted back the Capt'n as he playfully slapped Cheeto in the back as well.

"Ahh Orale (hey), orale (hey). You know I only be leaving to avoid the man tell me what to do," said Cheeto in the smoothest way possible.

"Chingao (Fuck), it's your own momma that is kicking you out most the time!" replied Capt'n letting out a vociferous laugh as he continued to tease Cheeto.

"Moms can be a difficult woman sometimes," replied Cheeto coyly.

"Hahaha that's why I haven't lived with one in twenty-five years," replied Capt'n in a thick accent, even though he had been born and raised in the U.S. A thick beard and mustache cover his gapped mouth with missing teeth that made his accent more pronounced. He smelled heavily of beer and other strong odors that life on the street leave on a man. David realized Capt'n was a veteran but still wanted to confirm it.