Chris chambers once upon a body

Emotions, a train, and a thankful Gordie

As we walked I noticed that Chris was extremely angry. This was rare to see mainly because Chris prides himself on being a peaceful person. That was his thing. For Gordie his thing was storytelling, Teddy's was being a smart mouth, Vern was a funny little guy, and Chris was a peacemaker. So to see him so angry, well for one, it was hot, but second, I was a little concerned. I gently grabbed hold of his hand cupping our hands together and facing him. I decided not to say anything even when he turned to look at me. I knew that Teddy still needed our help emotionally even if he would never admit it.  

"He ranked my old man!" Teddy kept repeating quietly as we walked. I was surprised Chris hadn't said anything to Teddy. I think he was trying to not only figure out how to comfort Teddy but also gain some confidence in what he was going to say. Chris confirmed my thought when he grabbed hold of my hand a little tighter and spoke up. 

"What d'you care what a bad old pile of shit like him says about your dad?" 

"He still stormed the beach in Normandy right?" followed Gordie

"You think that pile of shit was at Normandy?" continued Vern 

"You think that pile of shit could have ever done what your dad did" I followed up after

"Just forget it" sighed Teddy quietly, so quiet that even I, who was walking right next to him, could barely hear him.

"He knows nothing about your old man, he's just dogshit," said Vern without hearing Teddy.

"Whatever is between you and your old man, he can't change that!" responded Chris

That's when Teddy lost it. It wasn't very uncommon for Teddy to lash out sometimes. We all knew he had a relatively short temper and he wasn't very good about expressing his feelings to us. There was only one other time I saw him cry and I found him sitting in the treehouse one day. I had gone to get a lighter I left and I thought I was going to be alone but instead I found Teddy curled up in a ball crying quietly to himself. I comforted him the best I could and he confessed to me that his dad had lost it and almost hit him and his mom. His mom stayed back with his dad to try and calm him down but she made Teddy leave just in case. He told me that he had never been so scared of his dad, even when he got his ear burned, this time he was afraid something worse would happen, but he was also afraid for his mom and what might happen to her. He made me promise to never tell anyone and I've kept that promise with me. He eventually told me that nothing had happened between his parents, his mom managed to calm down his dad and his dad listened. He is still very sensitive to the topic of his father though so it's only natural for anyone to lash out, even if they don't mean to. 

"Forget it, alright! Just forget it!" yelled Teddy

Naturally, the mature thing to do we be to keep a bit silent, even though it makes things awkward. However, some of us hadn't yet reached that level of emotional maturity. 

"Have gun, will travel reads the card of a man, a knight without armor in a savage... land" We all looked at Vern and internally told him to shut up. He had yet to learn the time and place for things. 

Teddy stopped walking and we all looked back at him. "I'm sorry if I'm spoiling everybody's good time." 

Softly Chris replied, "It's ok, it's ok man." 

That's when Gordie spoke, "I'm not sure it should be a good time," 

"You saying you wanna go back?" asked Chris from next to me

"No, we're going to see a dead kid, maybe it shouldn't be a party" responded Gordie

And once again Vern intercepted with, "Yeah, like if he's really bad like, all cut up with blood and shit all over him," he said starting to gain momentum, "I might have nightmares!" He said getting louder.