Spenser for hire: What are friends for?
By Antti Luode
[The story breaks the Robert B. Parker storyline by establishing
the mother of Spenser as someone who is still alive and making his
father a cop who died while on duty.]
--
Me and Susan were following the route of Henry Knox, just backwards,
to my mothers place in Berkshires. But instead of ox drawn sleds pulling
cannons we were driving on my 1965 Mustang through what seemed to be
a ticker tape parade made of leaves.
"It is so beautiful", Susan said to me, smiling happily and drinking
the double espresso we had bought from Starbucks a while back.
"Sometimes I wonder why I ever left to Boston..", I said and changed
gears as the engine roared and the mustang shot forward, leaves flying
in our wake.
--
When I finally pulled onto the driveway of my mothers,
the moon had risen and the ground was covered by rustling hardwood tree leaves
waiting for the first snow.
"It is so beautiful Spenser", Susan said, watching the early nineteen
hundreds brick mansion that I had grown in.
"That it is, that it is..", I said and got up to open a door for her.
--
That night we went to sleep in my room that looked just like I had left it
20 years before.
"I did not know you liked Terminator", Susan said and laughed as she
was watching at the poster for Terminator 2.
"What can I say?, I did not start reading until I went to college.", I
said and pulled the sheets over us.
--
Thanksgiving was on Friday, we ended up finishing the meal on the porch,
with a bottle of wine and crecent moon shining above the lake like silver
dollar someone had taken a bite out of.
"I am stuffed.", I said as my mother was offering me some leftovers.
"If I eat another bite, I am going to burst", Susan declined the offer too.
It was time to go to bed.
--
The next morning I was cooking eggs and bacon as Susan got up.
"Wake up sleepyhead, Ive got a whole day planned for us.", I said.
"Unless if you have other ideas of course.", winking.
"No, I would like to see where you grew up!" Susan said and started
tickling me. I tickled her back.
--
We ended up at the Gordon park where I used to play baseball with my friends
