I Gotta Get Some Work!
I hopped into the long, low sedan that Kurt had been driving when he’d taken me “for a ride” before. I finally understood that this was Fish’s car.
This time Kurt was out cruising with Fish and another friend. As we squealed away from the gas station, I looked at the dark-skinned, rail-thin guy in the passenger seat.
“That’s Chip,” Kurt said. He didn’t bother telling Chip my name. I wasn’t sure Kurt knew it.
Chip turned around and grinned, revealing a broken front tooth in his wide, yellow-toothed smile. “‘Sup,” he said. Then he turned back to Fish and started talking so fast, I couldn’t understand what he said.
Kurt, as usual, said nothing. I was okay with his silence. It made him mysterious.
After a few minutes, with Chip still rattling on to Fish at breakneck speed, I leaned over and whispered to Kurt. “Did they do that on purpose?”
Kurt lifted his chin at me and said. “Do what?”
“Fish and Chip,” I said. “Did they come up with those nicknames on purpose because they hang out together?”
Kurt, who obviously had never considered this, laughed out loud. “Yo,” he said to the front seat.
Chip stopped talking and turned around, since Kurt never said anything. “Yo!” Chip said.
“She said you’re Fish and Chip. Like the food!”
Fish and Chip roared with laughter. I wasn’t trying to be funny, but I laughed, too.
Mid-laugh, Chip started rambling again, about foods he wanted. We stopped at a CoGo’s and he bought beef jerky. He offered it to all of us and, when we all turned him down, Chip ate the rest of it himself. The whole car smelled like beef jerky.
We passed around pipes, drank warm beers. Everybody chain-smoked. We tossed our cigarettes out the window without a thought.
Fish drove with one forearm on the steering wheel, taking the turns ultra-wide, like we were in a school bus. Sometimes he swerved wildly in the middle of the road, or hit the brakes hard for no reason. We were moving very, very slowly compared to the other traffic.
I didn’t think about how wasted they must be; I guessed we were safe.
We drove around and around and around. We were in the suburbs, in the country, in the city. We really were just going for a ride.
Fish and Chip were yelling back and forth at one another, making no sense to me in the back seat, but I didn’t have anything to add. Kurt stared out the window, glanced at the guys once in awhile, smiled once in awhile. Once, he even put his hand on my leg and squeezed, but not for any apparent reason.
It melted my heart. I stared at him, at the side of his face, watching his dark eyes gleam. He never even glanced at me. I was pretty sure I was in love.
We passed a girl on the street and Chip leaned half-out the window and yelled: “I gotta get some work!” He sat back down and yelled louder: “Gotta get me some WORK!” It went on for half an hour.
We passed another girl, then a group of girls. Chip never stopped. “I GOTS to get some WORK!”
Finally he said, “Some WORK, ya know what I mean?!” Fish chuckled; Kurt snickered.
I had no idea what Chip was talking about. Why didn’t he just get a job? I was completely befuddled.
Eventually they dropped me off at the gas station and I walked the mile home.
Almost immediately, I wondered when I’d see Kurt again.