Chapter Six
Brian changed and within twenty minutes we were outside in a sea of paint cans with brushes in our pockets and rags draped over our shoulders. He was wearing an honest-to-God pair of farmer jeans, with the Osh-Kosh-b'Gosh style button-flap top and everything. He'd kept on the blue baseball cap with the K, though. He rubbed his hands together, staring at the trailer. "Well this looks like entirely too much work to be doing one week before I go on tour," he commented, shaking his head.
"Tour?" I asked, bending and using a screw driver to open a paint can.
"Yeah," he said, without offering any additional details. He knelt and opened a can, too. "Good Lord," he muttered, as he pulled the lid off to reveal the brighter of the two purples, "What in San Jose is she thinking? This monstrosity's gonna look like the one-eyed-one-horned-flying-purple-people-eater!"
"It is a bright color," I commented.
Brian sighed, "She's gonna like this color for like an hour before she wants to paint it back to black." He looked over at me and tapped the side of his head. "Women are fickle in the head, remember that." He paused, "Are you married?"
"I don't think so," I answered.
He laughed, "Well, if you ever get married, remember they're fickle, and they're always right."
"What if they said they weren't fickle?"
Brian paused. "Then they're wrong."
"But they're always right."
He shook his head, "Then it's an enigma."
We poured paint into trays and got rollers out and Brian held his, staring at the trailer for a moment. "We spent like a week gutting this thing," he commented, "And painting it the first time. It was crazy. Like a week before we left on tour with the New Kids on the Block."
"Step by step, oh baby," I sang.
"Yeah them." Brian paused, "Hey you aren't half bad," he laughed.
"At singing?" I asked. I chuckled, "Right."
"No seriously," he said, "You actually remind me of a friend of mine."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Seen him lately?"
Brian laughed, "Not really. But then again we had a fight and he tends to disappear when we fight."
"Oh." I felt like it would be over kill to ask how long ago said fight had been.
We got to work painting the trailer, chatting about goofy stuff, Brian doing impressions of all kinds of different cartoon characters including - but not limited to - Donald Duck, Marvin the Martian, Johnny Bravo, and Ace Ventura. He had a great sense of humor and a lot of energy and the ability to keep me entertained enough that I barly felt like we'd done much work when Leighanne came out with a tray with more sweet tea and some cookies on it.
"She's looking good boys," Leighanne announced.
Brian grabbed three cookies off the tray, quickly shoving one in his mouth, "Yeah," he agreed with Leighanne, crumbs falling out and landing on his chest, "Old Betsy never looked so fancy."
"Betsy?" I took one of the glasses of tea.
Brian shoved another cookie into his mouth, "The trailer," he said.
"Brian, seriously," Leighanne scolded him, reaching over and brushing the crumbs off his chest. "You act like you're four sometimes." She put the tray down on a small table on the grass by the water fountain. "You boys want anything else?"
Brian held up a cookie, "More of these?"
"Share some with Ben," she commanded, and went back inside.
Brian looked at the tray, "They're good, I promise, I'm not exaggerating at all." He picked one up and shoved it at me.
"Thanks," I answered. They were coconut macaroons and he was right, they were good. I only got two though before he'd consumed the others and evidently Leighanne thought he was kidding when he'd requested more of them because she didn't return.
After swallowing the last of the cookies and his sweet tea, Brian wiped his mouth with the back of his fist. "We're not doing half bad," he commented, looking at the trailer. "And it's drying darker at least." Not by much, but at least it was losing its painful to look at status. It looked less like a purple people eater and more like a certain dinosaur...
"Maybe y'all should rename it Barney," I commented.
Brian laughed, "Maybe."
A few hours later, Brian and I had completely covered the trailer with purple paint and he'd stood back to analyze our work and announced that it looked like a giant purple jellybean. We'd gone inside and told Leighanne we'd finished the first layer of paint and she'd rewarded us with more cookies - which Brian consumed most of again. He grinned stupidly at her as he munched them down.
"So when can you visit us again Ben?" Leighanne asked, wetting a paper towel with warm water and reaching across the counter to daub off a big purple splotch on Brian's cheek while he chewed.
"I dunno, maybe Wednesday?"
"Wednesday works," Brian chimed in.
We all agreed that I'd come back the following Wednesday to help apply a second coat of the purple paint to the trailer. "See ya," Brian said, disappearing off somewhere into the depths of the house, with four coconut macaroons piled up in his fists. Then Leighanne drove me back to the bus stop.
"Thanks for the ride," I said as I climbed out. "And also the job."
"Thank you for agreeing to do it, and putting up with Husband all day," she added, "He can get kinda rammy when he's around new people."
"Rammy?"
"Rambunctious," she clarified.
"Got it."
"See you Wednesday, then," she said, smiling.
"Yeah, Wednesday. Thanks." I watched the Volvo drive away before climbing up the platform to the bus. I sat on a bench to wait, my mind wandering over everything that had happened in the last twelve hours. It'd felt strangely right to be hanging out at the Littrell house, drinking sweet tea and eating macroons.
After Self by Pengi
