TRICK OR TREAT
"Actors are just wanted men using alias after
alias till they get caught."
-
Jimmy Cagney
Universal Studios
Hollywood, California
1971
"CUT!"
The word echoed around the
cavernous sound stage leaving a wake of oaths in its trail.
Tension was running high with
the pressure to get the episode in the can and keep to the nearly impossible
shooting schedule and patience was wearing thin.
The two men, the center of all
the activity, stood almost back to back in the mock saloon as if subconsciously
protecting one another from the masses that outnumbered them.
Neither one said a word, the
fair haired man moving through the motion of drawing the gun strapped to his
side determined to be ready, while his colleague closed his eyes and ran
through his next set of lines.
A make up girl hurried up and
brushed back the one man's dark hair and then frowned at the blue eyed man next
to him, finally touching up the make up on his forehead. He really didn't need much, his tan made it
easy, but the lights had melted what she had done earlier to keep off the
shine.
"I need a smoke," the
dark haired man said giving up and escaping before anyone could catch him.
His associate moved to stop him
and then thought better of it. They had
done this scene six times now and every time some technical glitch had halted
the scene. He was getting weary of
drawing the heavy weapon strapped to his side and stretched wishing he could
steal a nap in his trailer before lunch.
"All right places….where's
Peter?"
"Cigarette," the blond
man said innocently.
"Joe get him!" the
director yelled disgusted. It was clear
if he could film without actors he would have been a much happier man.
The dark haired man returned
with a smile to the crew that eased some of the tension and made a few smile
back.
"Once more?" he asked
his co-worker.
"Yea, and hopefully this is
the last I'm beginning to feel like "WE'LL never get out of
Wickenburg!"
The dark haired man laughed and
clapped him on the shoulder sympathetically.
"Look at it this way they
make you draw a few more times and you will be the fastest gun in the
west."
His friend said something rude,
but grinned and then realizing everyone was waiting they both coughed and found
their marks.
"Film, Scene 4, take
seven…ACTION!"
'Give me the cards."
And then the world stopped and
restarted…almost without notice…almost.
***************************
WICKENBERG, ARIZONA
1881
Hannibal Heyes frowned at his
partner. The room had gone deathly
quiet since he had drawn his gun and he had considered the matter finished, but
now he wasn't so sure.
"You all right?" he
said coming up and putting a hand on his shoulder.
Ben Murphy blinked and at first
he thought the lights had gone out.
Gone were the bright hot spots that usually bared down on them. Shaking his head he tried to clear the
fogginess he was feeling. That wasn't
the right line, he was suppose to ask for the cards.
"I'm sorry Pete, did you
feel that?" He turned and looked
into a face he knew, or thought he knew, but the concern in the dark eyes
surprised him. Turning almost
embarrassed he stopped. " Where did that wall come from!"
Hannibal Heyes frowned, but was
used to thinking on his feet and quickly confiscated the cards from the game his
partner had interrupted and with a look gave the room permission to once more
turn its attention back on itself.
Murphy missed none of this. It was Pete, the clothes, the walk, even the
mannerisms….but there was something more, an edge, an air, he couldn't put his
finger on it and it made his head hurt more than it all ready did.
"Come on you don't look too
good," Heyes said firmly directing the man over to a back table
confiscating a bottle and two glasses as he did.
But Murphy saw none of this; his
senses were too overloaded.
The only thing he was really
conscious of was the smell, smoke, stale whiskey and humanity without the
benefit of washing.
The set had seemed so real, but
compared to this piece of history it seemed fake and lifeless. He stared at the men laughing at the tables
and the grimy faded cards they played with.
The clothes were different, the texture, the way they didn't quite fit
like his tailored costume and he felt suddenly dizzy. This was wrong, this wasn't right…where were the lights?
"Drink this," Heyes
said firmly handing him a glass.
He took a gulp and nearly spit
it out," What is this stuff?" he gasped trying to breathe through the
burning in his throat.
Heyes leaned back truly worried
now.
"Whiskey, the good stuff,
Kid what's wrong with you? Are you
sick?" He moved to touch the
younger man's forehead in a motion both casual and natural and born of a
familiarity time and friendship brings.
Murphy pulled back suddenly
wary.
"What did you call
me?"
"No one can hear us, but
Thaddeus are you all right, like that better?"
"Peter what is going
on?"
"Joshua, remember and you
tell me?" Heyes said trying to sound annoyed, but his eyes gave away how
worried he was.
“Pete will you stop it and tell me what is going on?”
Heyes frowned for the first time
seriously studying the man beside him and feeling a cold chill run up his
spine. The hair cut was too neat, the
clothes too new. The gun strapped to
his side ‘wrong’, but it was his hands that convinced him. They were not the hands of a man who lived
on the trail and had seen their share of life and injury.
Pushing his chair back he took
in a deep breath.
“You aren’t my
cousin." Saying it made him feel
sick because it meant he believed it.
"Your what?"
Carefully and most deliberately Hannibal Heyes pulled
out his six gun and clicked back the trigger.
“And I want to know what you've done with him…… now."
***********************
Kid Curry blinked at the bright
lights suddenly shining in his eyes and for a split second forgot the man about
to draw on him over the marked deck.
And then as his eyes adjusted he saw the row of men beyond the lights
watching him all with guns turned on his partner.
His gun cleared leather even as
he pushed 'Heyes' down firing off 4 shots and sending the weapons flying and
people screaming and diving for cover.
And then he lay there protecting
the dark haired man gun ready, waiting for returning fire.
In the distance someone was
frantically yelling they had been cut, and he presumed there had been a knife
out there as well. He looked down at
the man he was protecting and realized he was laughing. It was no small amused sound, but a deep
full laugh that caused the man to fall back on his back and laugh till tears
formed in his eyes.
“Murphy what the hell are you
doing?” he heard someone yell
“Who taught him to shoot? Hell who gave him real bullets?”
“Look this ain’t props fault,
nobody can shoot like that, did you see him?
He cleared leather faster than the camera could pick up.”
“I don’t know how you did that
Ben, but thank you,” the dark haired man laughed. “I owe you lunch for that.”
He offered his hand and hesitantly Kid pulled the man to his feet his
mind racing.
That wasn’t Heyes. He didn’t know how he knew or why, maybe you
spend your whole with only one person to depend on you just know.
“Murphy you ever try a stunt
like that again and so help me!” the director said storming up and growling
from behind his cigar. He was a thin,
balding man with too much caffeine running through him in competition for
dominance with his ego.
"Mr. Murphy!" a small,
nervous little man said adjusting his tie and rolling his eyes as if just
having to talk to an actor contaminated him.
"As the studio's representative I must seriously reprimand you for
this…
“Ah Ben better give me that gun
before something happens,” a slender man dressed similar to himself asked.
“Give him the gun Ben,” the
Director snapped.
Pete watched in amazement as the
young fair-haired man raised his eyes to meet theirs and the glance quelled
them all.
“I don’t think so,” he replied
and twirling the gun back into the holster with a flourish that made his stunt
man gasp he turned and walked for the door.
"Where is he going? He can't do that!" the studio rep turned on the director. "Tell him he can't do that! He has a contract!"
“What the hell is…Duel if you
put him up to this I will have both your hides," the Director growled.
"Was that Ben?" an
older man said hurrying up pushing his glasses up excited. "He shot those guns out of their
hands?"
"Mr. Huggins!" the
studio rep snarled. "You do not
need to be encouraging such outrageous behavior!"
"I wonder if I can work
that in somewhere?" Huggins muttered to himself happily walking away.
"Duel!" the Director
barked.
“Hang on, hang on,” Peter said
suddenly excited and afraid and then excited again. “Let me talk to him.”
Running the actor followed the
other man out the door of the sound stage and found him staring around
bewildered. Around him other costumed
actors hurried by, but oddly this man looked out of place in the studio back
lot while they did not.
“Hey Ben…” he said touching his
shoulder.
The man whirled, “Where is it?”
“Where’s what?”
“Out of here,” Kid said
frustrated throwing his arms up.
The excitement in him growing,
Pete pushed his hair back and wet his lips trying to think.
“You look like him, but you
aren’t him,” Kid said watching the action with stone cold blue eyes that made
the actor take a step back. “So while
your thinking up an answer you can throw in where my partner is.”
“Your partner?” Peter asked
voice a bit hoarse. “And he would be?”
“Hannibal Heyes.”
**********************************
"Its cold,” Kid said taking
the bottle of beer surprised.
“Yea we found out it tastes
better,” Peter said falling onto the small sofa across from the man he had
persuaded to enter his trailer and taking a slug of his own desperately. “You really think your Kid Curry huh?”
Kid looked at him and Pete set
down the bottle. No he knew this man
was Kid Curry. He had seen it in the
way he had fired and protected him and faced down the director, hell the entire
crew. Ben was good, Ben had begun to
shape Curry in just a few episodes, but this was different, this man breathed
the word outlaw.
“How did you get here?”
“I was hoping you could explain
that,” Kid said finally sitting down and taking a sip of the beer suddenly
looking very young and vulnerable and Peter watched fascinated. This was what Ben was always talking about,
trying to bridge the two men, the legend and the all too human man.
Kid looked up and for a moment
the smiling face across from him gave him comfort. He looked so much like Heyes, for a moment he tried to convince
himself this was Heyes. Heyes would
know what to do; Heyes would figure it all out.
“You sure look like my cousin.”
“Cousin? How did you know Huggins was going to work
that…” Peter stopped. “I really look
like him?”
“Yea, 'cept the eyes, you tell
too much with yours,” Kid said taking another swig of beer. “Wouldn’t last your first bluff in a poker
game.”
Peter grinned; Roy had said the
same thing.
“But how can it be? Where did you come from?”
“Wickenburg,” Kid said absently.
Peter looked up sharply. “You were in Wickenburg…Mary Cunningham’s
saloon?”
It was Curry’s turn to look up
suspicious,” How did you know that?”
“That’s the episode were
filming.”
“I don’t understand.”
Peter sighed not knowing where
to start. From outside a yell came
saying they were wanted on the set.
“Look you gotta trust me until
we can figure this out.”
“Trust you? Mister I don’t even know you.”
“Look I’m an actor, I play your
partner. My friend Ben plays you.”
The man straightened this
obviously didn’t appeal to him.
“Where is he?”
Pete slumped back. “I don’t know, but I got real bad
suspicion…”
*************************
"Pete!" Ben said
laughing at the man's serious expression and slowly let it die as he felt the
man's resolve. "Peter if this is a
joke it's gone too far."
"I was thinking the same
thing and why don't we just stick with Smith for the moment," Heyes said.
"That's it!" Ben said getting up annoyed and he had to
confess a little scared. "I don't know what is going on, but the studio
does not pay me enough for this trip through wonderland, you want me I'll be in
my trailer."
Getting up he brushed past the
man who paused not sure what to do.
That was not his cousin, but he looked so much like him that to do
anything to restrain him seemed wrong.
Finally muttering an oath he got
up and followed the man who had reached the outside door.
Ben, meanwhile was beginning to
appreciate Kid Curry's reputation as the room parted for him respectfully and a
terrifying thought kept nagging at him as he stepped outside and stopped
surprised. "Night? What happened to lunch?"
The two men sprung at him from
nowhere and he turned to protect himself as the first blow hit.
It grazed his head and he went
down on one knee in pain and completely missed the dark haired man flying
through the door and pitching his two attackers into the street and with two
quick punches dropping them both.
Ben's mouth dropped open. The man was a quick, efficient, dirty
fighter and he fought like didn't expect to lose. Swallowing Ben tried to stand and felt the man take his arm and
swing it around his shoulders when he began to topple over.
"Well you may not be him,
but you sure get into trouble like him," Heyes muttered moving him towards
the back stairs.
"What happened to
lunch?" Ben said slightly dazed.
"And there's that as well,
come on let's take a look at you," Heyes sighed and opened the door to
their room.
Ben stared at the small room
furnished with only a bed and a dresser and a chair. It was smaller than the sets of their rooms he was used to
working on, but he had to smile when he noticed the window looked over the main
street, they would choose that.
"Sit down," Heyes
ordered and he obeyed leaning back against the bed headboard and closing his
eyes hoping the room would stop spinning.
"Kid would have
ducked," Heyes said grumpily checking the bruise.
"Yea well it wasn't in the
script that Kid Curry got jumped leaving the saloon," Ben said annoyed
pulling away.
"Script?"
Sighing Ben pulled a folded
piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to the man the exertion making
him since.
"What's this?" Heyes
said suspicious. CURRY: Let me have the cards.?"
"It's my lines."
"You sure talk
strange," Heyes said tossing the paper down on the nightstand and filling
the bowl there with water from the pitcher.
"Kid would know better than to walk outside right after facing down
a man, bound to be waiting or have friends waiting. He'd at least of gotten me to back him up," Heyes said
annoyed.
Ben considered this and realized
he was right.
"You think your partner's a
smart man," he said surprised as the man handed him a wet cloth.
"My partner is a smart man,
smarter than you," Heyes said defensively.
His loyalty made Murphy
smile. "I thought Heyes was the
brains of this partnership."
Heyes turned at stared at him
like he was an idiot.
"Mister I don't know where
you get your information, but my partner can outthink rings around any law man
and twice that many bounty hunters and I don't take too kindly to you bad
mouthing…"
Ben grinned, "Sorry! Sorry!
No offense really, actually Pete thinks the same way, were just trying
to convince Roy, thank you. Your
partner is lucky to have a friend that stands up for him like that."
"Yea well if you tell him I
said that I'll shoot you," Heyes mumbled dropping into a chair and running
his hands through his hair trying to make sense of what was happening.
"I don't know how I got
here, really," Ben said affected by the man's distress in a way he
couldn't explain. "I was
pretending to be your partner…in a play a hundred years from now and suddenly
we….I guess we changed places."
"Oh and Kid said those
Verne books were gonna affect me," Heyes groaned head in hands.
"Look its gonna…" Ben got up to walk over to him and stopped
the room starting to swirl again.
He felt the other man reach him
before he fell and gently lay him back on the bed with a strength that his
slender frame disguised.
"Take it easy, blow to the
head like that tends to throw you off," Heyes said in a soothing voice and
Ben realized he was getting the comfort his partner would have because of how
similar they looked.
"Thank you," he
whispered and felt darkness closing.
"Rest, I gotta check
downstairs, close up and then we'll talk."
Ben nodded and drifted off into
grateful unconsciousness.
************************
"What do they want me to
do?" Kid Curry said visibly nervous as Duel encouraged him outside to the
waiting cameras. Suddenly the outlaw
stopped having seen something. Walking
back he peered behind the 'building' they had just passed. "They know this building is missing
parts?"
"It's called a
façade," Peter said trying to get him moving again.
"It's only got a front."
"They build them like that
on purpose."
"And people don't
complain? I'd have thought the first
winter night…"
"It's all pretend."
"Yea pretending they can
build a house," Kid said stubbornly.
"Will you come on?"
Kid stared at him.
"Please?"
Kid let out a long sigh and
shook his head. The man was too much
like Heyes and it was hard to refuse him anything when he looked that worried.
"The scene has you
practicing your fast draw," Peter said softly and then adding with a roll
of his eyes. "Like that's a
problem. I'm sitting over there
figuring out how they are cheating Mary," he continued getting him to his
mark and indicating the can he was to aim at.
"You all ready figured that
out…" Kid stopped looking a little lost.
"I mean Heyes did."
"I know we shoot out of
sequence. Look if we can get this scene
done then we'll break for lunch and you and I can try and figure this out. We've only got a picture shoot for a book
cover and a meeting with the author this afternoon and some crazy teen magazine
contest. Just shoot the stupid can and
we'll bluff the lines, not like Ben and I don't do that anyway," he
grinned. "Just try and talk to me like you would Heyes, answer what I ask
like you would him."
He turned to walk away and Kid's
words stopped him.
"You and this Ben, you
partners?"
Peter turned surprised at the
question and considered the younger actor he had only known less than a year
and finally grinned, "Yea, I guess we are."
"I'll try to back you up
until he gets back," Kid said uncomfortable, but earnest.
The statement produced a soft
smile from Peter who nodded his thanks and took his place on a box at the end
of the alley.
"All right places, look you
two I expect this in one take after that little shenanigan this morning
understand?" the director yelled.
"I want both you gentlemen
to know you are on report!" the studio rep said stiffly.
"What's that mean?"
Kid whispered.
"Ben's gonna kill me,"
Pete sighed.
"You want me to speak to
that fella?" Kid asked quietly.
Pete somehow managed to swallow
a smile, "No, no it's okay, but thanks."
He looked at the man with
genuine affection as the scene started and watched in amazement as he easily
shot the target into the air. Around
him he heard people whistle in amazement and felt an odd sense of pride.
"Do you have to do that
here?"
"Gotta keep my hand in
it," Kid said looking at him.
"I keep telling you this
keeps up you aren't gonna need to use that anymore."
"You keep saying that and I
keep believing you, but somehow it just doesn't work out that way."
"Sir! That is not the lines," the script
girl whispered. "Ben hasn’t' hit one of them."
"Shut up, let it
roll," the director said fascinated as was the rest of the crew. Something magical was happening and everyone
there could feel it.
Kid turned as Mary and her two
children entered and part of him relaxed at the familiar faces.
"I bet your fast?"
"I've had to make that bet
a few times."
"Your not faster than the
sheriff, no one is faster than the sheriff."
"He pretty good is
he?"
For the second time that day the
crew watched in amazement as Kid Curry drew his gun. Some said they missed it a second time he was so quick. The stunt men just gasped and groaned in
appreciation and genuine awe and the director said something under his breath
and promised the cameraman he would kill him several times over if he stopped
filming.
"He's not that fast no one
is that fast. Will you teach me?"
"I could, but I'm not
gonna. You saw how fast I am, well
there is someone faster than me out there, there always is and you'll find that
out too if I teach you to fast draw."
"Thank you," Mary
smiled turning the children away.
"I thought you were just
telling me how good it was to know how to use one of those things," Pete
said his face in a grin that made the other man feel homesick.
"By the time he's grown
people won't be wearing these things let alone using them, but right now people
are going around doing both so I guess I'll just continue carrying my life
around in my holster."
The cut rang out in the air, but
no one said a word.
Kid merely flipped his gun back
into his holster and looked at the dark haired man, "We done
playing?"
Peter laughed and slapped him on
the back; "We're done playing."
"Mr. Murphy!"
For a moment the smile on
Peter's face froze and a flicker of annoyance and something more crossed his
face as he turned with Kid to face the studio Rep.
"That is the second time
you have discharged a weapon on this set."
"Man said hit the can, I
hit the can," Kid said reloading his gun slowly, but in such a way that
Peter felt his stomach start to churn.
"Listen here you
troublemaker. I can make you and I can
break you…."
"And you listen,"
Peter said stepping between the two.
"Were a team, you got a problem with him, you got a problem with
me. Now the studio likes the initial
numbers and they like they way we work.
Now unless you want me telling Roy that Ben and I are real unhappy I
think you better just back off and let us do our job, understand?"
The man swallowed at the actor
bearing down on him and snapping his organizer shut turned angrily and walked
away.
Peter turned and exhaled. He wasn’t sure where that had come from, but
he realized he would have easily decked the man and the thought startled him.
Kid grinned, "Maybe your
more like him than I thought, always did get riled when he thought someone was
picking on me, started when we were kids, still does it."
Peter found a smile forming,
"He must care for you a lot."
"Nah," Kid grinned
back. "Just wants to do it
himself!"
The two men grinned.
"How about lunch and we try
and figure this out. I got an
idea," Peter smiled.
Kid paused suddenly suspicious,
"You…actors…you eat normal?"
Peter laughed remembering the
health food lunches and tried to picture the muscular man with alfalfa. "How does steak, baked potato and pie
sound, I'll even throw in coffee."
"Your coffee as bad as
Heyes?"
Peter laughed, "His that
bad?"
"We once melted bars with it
to escape."
Laughing the two men walked
away.
Roy Huggins shook his head and
grinned and made a note in his bad, "Coffee, Heyes, lousy!"
******************************
Things were not going well for
Hannibal Heyes. He had managed to clear
out the saloon, get Mary home to her kids, even rouse the drunks from the porch
and move them along. And then he had
found the two guns pointed at his belly as he turned from the bar.
"Where's your
partner?" the young man from the card game said rage seeping from him as
he waved the gun.
Heyes tried to think fast. His real partner would take care of these
two in a heartbeat, but the stranger upstairs would be dead before he hit the
floor. He sighed never realizing more
how much he missed his cousin at his back.
"You boys looking for
me?"
All three pairs of eyes turned
to the stairway and for a moment Heyes's heart leapt, Kid was back! It certainly looked like Kid, gun drawn, the
cold resolve in his eyes.
"I don't like people
drawing a gun on my partner," he said quietly.
The two men shuffled.
"And now I got me a little
problem. If I kill you there I got all
that blood to clean up before morning so Mrs. Cunningham don't fuss. But if I take you outside and shoot you dead
I 'm gonna wake the town and annoy the neighbors. You boys are a real puzzle you are."
"We were, we were just
funning mister!" the man's friend said dropping his gun. "We were just trying to get his money
back!"
"Shut up Hank!" the
card cheat said disgusted at the man jumping ship.
"You shut up! I seen him draw, I ain't gonna let him show
me how good he shoots as well."
The card cheat turned to argue
and Heyes saw his chance and with one punch decked the man cold.
"Get him out of here, you
show your face in this town again I'll do worse than kill you," Heyes said
so coldly the man shook as he holstered his gun and pulled the unconscious man
from the room.
The outlaw watched them leave
and then locking the door turned to face the man on the steps who holstered his
gun and sat down unsteadily.
"Thank you," Heyes
said quietly.
"Your welcome, wasn't sure
if I could pull it off."
Heyes grinned, "You pulled
it off, had me scared."
"Why afraid I might try and
shoot this?"
Heyes grinned and sat next to
him, "Why'd you do it? You could
have got yourself killed."
Murphy considered this;
"Your right and that thought did cross my mind. I guess I'm more into this part than I realized."
"Listen I've been thinking
about that," Heyes said standing and walking over to the middle of the
room. "You were standing here when
it happened."
"I was in the same place
back, back there too."
"This fella Pete? He smart?" Heyes said worried.
Ben almost swallowed a smile
remembering his charming co-star; "Well he's sneaky."
"Might work. Kid might think to do it too."
"Do what?"
"Get you both back in the
same position."
"You think that will make
us switch back?" Ben asked hopeful getting up and coming over.
"I sure hope so or your
gonna be dead in a week, who taught you to draw a gun?"
Murphy looked slightly hurt,
"I'm doing the best I can, you don't pick up the skill overnight. I had to learn to ride and…" He stopped
seeing Heyes's grin and realized the man was teasing him and for some reason it
was comforting.
"Look you're doing it
wrong, here," Heyes good naturally began walking him through the tricks
his own partner had taught him. Moments
later Ben had shaved off several seconds and the motion was quicker and
smoother.
"Much better," Heyes
laughed.
Ben grinned back suddenly
feeling closer to this stranger.
"Thank you, for everything."
"Don't mention it, kinda
gotten use to looking after a partner that looks like you, comes second nature
now," Heyes said swinging up to sit on the bar.
"Must be a hard life,
running," Ben said for the first time getting a clue to what his
character's life must be like on the run.
"Can be, easier if you have
someone watching your back. Tell me
something, in this 'show' of yours, we ever get that amnesty?" He said it casually as if he really didn't
care what the answer was, but Ben was beginning to see through the calm
exterior.
Ben stared thoughtful, "I
guess that will depend on whether we get renewed."
"Whatever that means,"
Heyes said rolling his eyes. "Just
looking for a little hope."
"Your gonna get it,"
Ben said suddenly, "Both of you."
Heyes smiled at his genuine
concern, "Thank you, I appreciate your faith in us."
"Well I sort of have a
staked interest in Curry making it. I'm
not much like him am I?"
Heyes cocked his head, "No
actually you are. I mean physically
yes, but there's some other things, your reactions, and definitely your
appetite, for food and women!"
They both broke into grins and
the world once more tipped over.
***********************
"Look it started here and
you said you were in the exact same place Ben was so maybe if your partner
thinks to get him back there and we get you here, well maybe you'll slip
back," Peter said pleased with his reasoning.
"You as confusing as
Heyes," Kid sighed.
Peter grinned taking this as a
compliment as he jumped up onto the bar to sit.
"That the only thing?"
he laughed and then suddenly turned on him serious. "What would make me more…like him I mean?"
Kid Curry turned and stared at
the man.
"Hard to explain, Heyes is
more, well he's harder to get to know than you, but when you do your sure of
him. No offense intended, but I get the
feeling a body would never be sure if he really knows you."
Peter looked down considering this
and it made him look less self-assured and Kid realized more like his partner
than any other time.
"Actors lot, I guess,"
he said finally with that smile covering the pain in his eyes expertly.
"Couldn't get no other
work?" Kid asked sympathetically.
Peter burst out laughing,
"This may surprise you, but I'm considered very lucky, I'm a star."
"I just can't figure why
they would want to do a play…show about us, " he suddenly looked up the
expression young and hopeful. "The
amnesty…do you, we, get it in this show?"
Peter was about to shoot back
something sarcastic about ratings and getting cancelled, but something in the
young man's eyes stopped him.
"Yea, yea you do, road
isn't easy, but in the end you get it," he lied sincerely.
Kid grinned like a little boy
let in on a Christmas present, "Thanks, Heyes, he gets worried sometimes,
so do I. I get afraid maybe he'd be
better off going alone without me."
"No!" Peter said suddenly vehement, "No he
needs you, trust me."
Kid grinned and it lit up his
whole face and Peter stared at how much he looked like Ben and suddenly
realized he missed the crazy, often too serious lunatic.
"Your more like him than I
thought, you spin a tale like he does, makes a body want to believe," Kid
said thoughtfully.
"Him and you, get along
well?"
Kid let out a long-suffering
sigh, "Get along? Man is the most
stubborn, pig headed genius that ever walked."
Pete grinned, "But he is a
genius?"
Kid nodded affectionately as he
thought back, "Smartest man you ever met.
Not just knowing stuff, but figuring out problems and people. Never gives up either, harder things get the
more he digs in to find a way around the problem.
"And you miss him?"
Peter said understanding.
Kid shrugged; it wasn't
something a man admitted.
And then the world turned upside
down…again.
********************************
"I said how long do you
think we should wait Heyes?" Ben said turning to face the man sitting on
the bar.