Three Brood Instigators

27. It's Your Call

Chapter 3: Life is a Stinkin' Rotten Onion

"So," Clayne started.

"So?" Ben asked, as he started eating his breakfast.

"We got the cars?" Clayne asked.

"Uhm, yeah?" Ben said.

"Three, cars?" Clayne asked.

"Bro, why are you asking so much?"' Ben asked.

"I don't know," Clayne said, looking at the fire. "I am bored."

Ben agreed, "Yeah... me too... somehow."

"Well... how are they?" Clayne asked.

"They who?" Ben asked again.

"You know, the underground, this stinkin' rotten onion of a town," Clayne mentioned.

"Well...it is horrible if you ask me, way horrible," Ben said. "But, if this is the only choice we have to survive, then I guess there is no way out of it, is there?"

"We were always desperate, weren't we?" Clayne asked.

"Yeah," Ben said.

Clayne then got himself thinking, "You know, I never asked but... do you know your parents?"

"Yeah... Cutter is, he treated all of us well and equal," Ben mentioned, finishing his breakfast.

"Ok, be serious, your uhm... biological parents, of your color?" Clayne mentioned.

"Well... I don't know, that's why," Ben revealed. "Cutter said he found me walking in the middle of nowhere, he said he asked where my parents are, and you know... it was years ago man, I wouldn't know."

"Did you?" Clayne asked.

"Yeah well, I am glad I was stuck with him, even if I only knew him like... a few months or something," Ben said.

"Yeah, you were like Robert," Clayne mentioned.

"Except I did the work, and adapted faster," Ben showed himself.

"Oh you are not even grown up yet. You are still a toddler for all I care, smartass," Clayne called.

"Yeah yeah," Ben said. Then Ben got himself thinking, "Well, what happened to your parents?"

"Nah, I don't know," Clayne countered.

"Do ya? It seems to me nearly everyone in the crew never knew who there parents were... and didn't even go to an orphanage, or a foundation or a foster care to begin with," Ben said.

Clayne revealed what he knew. "Well... I remembered how my parents looked like," Clayne said. "I remember three things, a car, a bench, and then... the river, those waters, I guess."

"What do you mean?" Ben asked.

"Yeah well, those are the three memories about my parents in those three places, I remembered their faces... kinda. I remember some man, a police man, bringing me to a building somewhere. I roamed around, and Cutter found me, and he lifted me and washed me away from... the orphanage as far as I can tell," Clayne recalled.

"What, and you don't know the state of your parents?" Ben asked.

"Well I wouldn't know... they might be dead... or they might have abandoned me," Clayne said. "Cutter taught me one time that the world will always be different than you ever want toe expect, maybe that is the life we are in now."

"Guess it is sad being a thief who lost some things, isn't it?" Ben said.

"Yeah," Clayne said, lying down. "To tell you Ben, I wish I was up to the top, so that I can see the skies, see Cutter, see the... world, I guess."