Room for One More

Part 4: Eavesdropping

After the encounter with Roman, Beckett needed to get away to clear his head. So, he went over to Little Larry's house the following day. He walked onto the front porch of the house and knocked on the door. When no one answered, he noticed that the fence gate was slightly open, so he walked through to get to the backyard. Beckett could hear voices coming from around the pool.

"You and Donnie been getting along? He seems disgruntled." said a woman's voice.

"Sorry. What you'd say?" Little Larry asked.

"Larry, when I say something and you don't listen, it makes me feel...I don't know, invisible." the woman's voice said.

Beckett walked to the edge of the pool to find his friend and a woman sitting in lounge chairs in the empty pool.

"You're the opposite of invisible." he said.

"What are you doing here?" Little Larry asked.

"I didn't have your cell phone number." Beckett said.

"Umm, this is-" Little Larry said, trying to start an introduction.

"Beckett." his friend finished.

"This is Miss Rose." Little Larry said, referring to the woman he was sitting with.

"It seems like most people in this world welcome company, but we aren't most people." she said as she put on her sunglasses.

"Who is this?" a man asked as he walked down to the pool.

"I'm here to clean the pool." Beckett said to him.

"He's just an old friend, Donnie. We were altar boys together." Little Larry said to the other visitor.

"You should go back to bring an altar boy because he did a crappy job with the pool. Why you boys head out, so I can focus on my Rosie here?" Donnie said as he sat down in the empty lounge chair beside Miss Rose.

"We were just having a conversation with my mom. All right, Mom, we're gonna head out." Little Larry said.

"It's nice to meet you, Miss Rose. Maybe we can take this up another time." Beckett said.

"I don't see that happening as I rarely think of the past." she responded.

Then, the two boys left the pool and walked out to the sidewalk.

"Hey, what happened to your left eye, man?" Beckett asked, noticing that his friend has a black eye.

"Nothing. So, what's up?" Little Larry said.

"Well, it's another time. Where'd you get the cash?" Beckett said.

"That was Monopoly money. I was just showing off." Little Larry said.

"It was real, come on." Beckett said.

"I got enough trouble." Little Larry said.

"We got all trouble. Hey, how come you didn't tell me that your mom looks like a movie star?" Beckett said.

"Because she's my mom and she's always looked like a movie star." Little Larry said.

The two of them walked around the neighborhood for a while, then decided to go to the local grocery store.

"Yeah. Hey, do you want to see a magic trick?" Little Larry asked.

"Why not?" Beckett exhaled.

Little Larry pulled something out of his pocket.

"Take this hundred, buy a pack of gum, and bring me back the change. Don't get that fruity crap, I hate fruit gum." he instructed.

With that, Beckett took the cash and went into the store. He picked out some chewing gum for his friend and headed to the checkout.