The Demons We Found

2.13 February 10 2007

"Ella, toss me that cord!"

I looked at a milk crate full of cords. I picked up one, "This one?"

"No, the one with the blue tape on it." Jaime said back.

I flipped through the bin until I found the one he was looking for. I untwisted it and tossed him one side. "Where are you running this to?"

"Plug it into my amp- on the right." He pointed. I saw the one that looked most familiar and put it in.

"Woah! Why are we going corded tonight?" Mike walked in with his drums, looking really displeased.

Jaime didn't look too pleased either."My wireless went missing."

"Wire up Tony, you'll kill everyone if you're corded." Mike shook his head. "Tone!"

"What?" He groaned, coming up onto the stage.

"You're corded tonight." Vic told him.

"Why?" He asked.

"Jaime lost his wireless connector and I don't want to be on my ass playing jump rope with him." Vic said bluntly.

"That's not my problem." He said simply, plugging his wireless in defiantly.

"Ella, go check my truck. Maybe I just missed it." Jaime said, throwing me his keys.

"I may have one out in my car." Vic muttered, following me out the back door to where they were all parked.

I unlocked the truck and started going through all of the junk in his car. There were bags of strings and picks on the seat and food wrappers all over the floorboard. There were scissors and pliers in the dash and a yo-yo that was so tangled it could never be used again. I found a stack of mail that included a light bill- that should be paid. I found one of his work shirts and a pair of my heels on the floorboard- I had been looking for those.

"I don't have one. Did you find it?" Vic came up behind me.

I looked around, "No, but I don't think I'd find anything in here."

"Do you need a trash bag?" Vic laughed, looking at the mess.

"If you have one lying around, I might not be opposed to that." I joked.

"I have a big bag from this decorating store." He offered, disappearing back into his car to pull it out. He opened the driver's side door and popped in from that side.

The bag was huge. "What was that for?"                                                      

"I bought my mom this picture thing." He picked up some of the trash and started piling it into the bag, leaving me to sort through everything else.

"What are you buying art for?" I asked skeptically. That didn't sound  much like Vic. He was always the kind of guy to make painting rather than buy one.

"Her birthday is coming up. It's Jesus with all these kids around him. I thought she might like it." He kept shifting around all the trash, eventually just using his arm to push in a huge pile of stuff.

I smiled at his sentiment. Jesus wasn't really his thing, but Vic always got the best gifts, he was able to figure out what someone else would like with ease. "I'm sure she will. If nothing else, it came from her son, so she'll at least pretend to like it."

He laughed deep in his throat, "I guess you're right. She's a good mom."

"She is." I agreed. I barely knew the woman but I'd heard a lot about her from her boys over the years. She didn't like me, but I didn't really expect her to at this point. Maybe in a few years with things with Vic and I are ancient history and Mike's sobriety (and previous lack thereof) becomes public knowledge.