Side Story #1 - Colt - Page 4

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Colt could hardly believe his ears. The twins had said their first words a while ago, but this was the first time that he could recall where they had strung two words together in a way that made sense.

Though, he didn't particularly want to admit that those words had made sense.

"Daddy is not scared," he said through a begrudging laugh. "And Daddy doesn't appreciate being laughed at, either."

"Daddy scared," repeated Thomas.

"Oh yeah? What is Daddy scared of, huh?

Silence arrived in the car, and Colt wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad about that. Oh well. Even just hearing them say that much was enough cause for excitement. He shouldn't have expected--

"Pretty lady," said Thomas.

Colt barked a laugh so suddenly that he accidentally spat a little.

"Pretty lady!" affirmed Stephanie.

Colt stifled himself, shook his head, and rubbed his face in disbelief. "You rascals..."

In spite of himself, he could not have been more pleased. He wanted to do something to reward their accomplishments, but he wasn't sure how. And maybe he was also a bit hesitant to positively reinforce their teasing of him.

As he looked at their happy faces, though, he felt his reluctance melting. "How about a snack, huh? You two hungry?" He patted their heads and poked their cheeks a little, but they didn't have anything else to say apparently, aside from more giggles. He got the car moving again.

He didn't want to waste money on a restaurant, but he supposed it might be a good place to meet more of the locals. That was why he had come to town today, after all. Somehow, he'd nearly forgotten that. Going out of his way to talk to strangers was not something he was accustomed to doing in his free time.

He had done it plenty of times as a cop on duty, though. Sure, it was in the context of rooting out information about potential criminals, but he remembered being fairly good at it, now that he was thinking back.

Damn, that felt like a lifetime ago. Was he even the same person, still? Could he still put on that sort of act? If so, then he hadn't been doing a very good job of it so far, in retrospect.

He took a deliberate breath as he pulled into a local restaurant, making sure to choose one with cars in the parking lot. He just had to concentrate. He could act like a friendly and harmless tool, if he really wanted to. It was just a matter of relaxing and not overthinking things. And if all else failed, he could try to recall some of the things said by the various dumbasses he'd met throughout his life. That might help.

The restaurant he'd chosen was a little mom-and-pop diner which seemed to have just opened for the day. It was simply called Sam & Jenny's, and he didn't know much else about the place. In his scouting, he hadn't bothered to investigate restaurants very much, but maybe he should have.

That was enough to give him a paranoid pause as he stood in front of the frosted glass door with the twins in his arms.

Agh. He had to relax. It was just a plain old restaurant. No one was going to try to steal his kids here. And if they did, he'd murder them. Simple.

Hmm. Maybe that wasn't the best way to comfort himself.

Then he noticed that it was a pull door and scowled. He set the kids down in order to open it, and sure enough, Thomas tried to bolt on him. Thankfully, his stubby legs didn't let him get very far before Colt caught him.

This was why Colt still wanted that stroller, even though the kids didn't technically need it. It probably wouldn't be that long before they grew too big to ride in it, but even so, if he was planning to make more trips into Orden like this, he figured he could still get his money's worth out of it.

By the time he made it back to the still-closed door, it was opening from the inside, and an older woman poked her head out.

"You look like you could use a hand there, sir," she said with a smile.

This was one of the citizens whom Colt didn't already know the name of, but given the name of the diner, her apparent age, and the fact that she wasn't exiting the restaurant herself, he was guessing that it was Jenny. "Yeah, I'd appreciate it," he said with both twins in hand again.

"Welcome," she said. "I'm Jenny. My husband and I run this little joint."

Yep.

"Haven't seen you or these little darlings around before," she went on.

The conversation continued about as expected, and Colt suffered through it with a smile on his face. She was a perfectly warm and pleasant woman, chock full of questions that he'd already answered once or even twice today, as well as a few that he hadn't but that he nonetheless still found mildly annoying.

"What can we get for you today?" was the question that he'd actually been waiting for.

At a booth with the twins sitting across from him, he took his time ordering and was thankful when she left him alone to deliberate. It seemed to surprise her that he didn't know what he wanted, perhaps because all her customers already knew the menu by heart.

He took note of the handful of other people in the diner. It wasn't a very large establishment, so he could overhear a conversation between a pair of old men who were sitting at the small bar behind him.

"You're loony. It'll be a cold day in hell when anything even remotely out of the ordinary happens in this town."

Alright. Now that was what Colt wanted to hear. The more boring and peaceful this town was, the better.

"I'm tellin' ya, man, it's true," the other was saying. "It's a conspiracy. The government doesn't want us discoverin' where they hid the bodies, so they've disappearin' people who might leak their location. It's the only explanation. I mean, just think, we haven't seen Jeff around lately, have we?"

"I saw him this morning. Walking his dog."

"Oh. Uh. Well, what about Bernice, huh?"

"Saw her yesterday in the park."

"Er--really? Huh. D-did she mention me?"

"No."

"Do ya think she's avoiding me?"

"I would if I were her."

Colt wasn't sure he had the patience to keep listening. The twins were getting antsy again, but at least they weren't trying to escape their booster seats. Instead, they seemed to be staring at him with the expectation that they would be getting a treat soon.

When Jenny returned to take his order, he decided on chocolate ice cream. She left him alone again, and in spite of himself, he got pulled into the conversation behind him again. They'd moved onto a new subject, apparently.

"Something's hinky," said the conspiratorial one. "One day, my tarp's there, the next, it ain't, then the next, it's back again. Why would someone do that if not for some nefarious purpose, eh?"

"Heh. I guess you could say... it's a cover-up, huh? Huh?"

"...Wha?"

"'Cuz you were talking about a tarp. So it's a cover-up. Get it?"

"Oh. Hey, man, this is serious. I think there's a thief on the loose."

"A thief who returns what they stole, huh? Scary."

"Max, my friend, if you knew your history, you'd know how terrifying thieves can be."

"Don't pretend to lecture me on history, you old fart. I went to college."

"Yeah? What, were you a paleontologist? Musta been real helpful, being able to just walk up and study them in person like that, eh?" He laughed heartily at his own joke, but Colt had to admit, he'd heard worse.

"Oh, we've got a wise guy over here. Hey, Denise, we've got a wise guy."

"Sorry," said the plump brunette behind the bar. The daughter of the owners, Colt guessed. "I can't pretend that didn't make me laugh."

"Yeah, yeah," said Max. "Hey, Denise, shouldn't you be in school, right now?"

"I'm thirty-seven, Max. And you've made that joke the last three days in a row, now. It stopped being funny after the first time."

"Hey, I'm not trying to be funny. I can't help it if I'm blinded by your youthful radiance."

"Yeah, okay," she said with a doubtful laugh. "How about you, Robby? Need a refill?"

"Oh, yes. Thank you, darlin'."

Colt found himself wondering if this was how normal people interacted with one another. It was tedious and exhausting, and yet...

Not wholly terrible, he supposed. He tried to imagine himself up at that bar, one day, old and crotchety. Would he be nearly as personable as those two? Hell, would he even be welcome in a place like this?

And Stephanie and Thomas? What would they be like when they were older? Would they hate being around him? Would they be able to have normal conversations with people?

He didn't know why he was getting so worked up about the future all of a sudden. Maybe Boh was right. Maybe he'd been spending too much time in the woods with no one but a grim reaper to talk to.

When the ice cream arrived, he was more than glad for the distraction. The twins seemed to appreciate the taste quite a bit, and he certainly didn't disagree with them. He couldn't even remember how long it had been since he'd last had ice cream.

He closed his eyes and tried to savor each bite for as long as he could.

"Hey, you two hear about that trouble in the capital yesterday?" said Denise.

"No," said Max. "Why, what happened?"

"The Rindol family was back in the news."

Colt opened his eyes.

"Not them again," said Max. "What did they do this time?"

"Well, nothing for certain," said Denise, "but a politician's daughter was kidnapped, and everyone suspects that the Rindols were behind it."

"I thought they were all in jail," said Robby.

"The old guard is," said Denise. "Been there for years. But they're saying this is the work of the new generation of Rindols. And there's no proof, of course."

"Great," said Max. "Just what this country needs. More criminals."

"The government should just exile the lot of them already," said Robby.

Colt's expression twisted a little as the chocolate flavor seemed to spoil in his mouth.

The Rindol family. He recognized the name. Of course he did. He'd learned of it years ago when he'd grown curious about his ancestry.

Rindol was his grandmother's maiden name. The same grandmother who had immigrated to Atreya from this little country called Snider.

"They've been causing problems since before I was born," said Max. "People like that'll never stop. And they raise their kids to be just as bad as them or worse."

Colt eyed Stephanie and Thomas another time.

Both of their faces were covered in melted brown ice cream, and they were staring right back at him. For a moment, he wondered why, before realizing it was simply because he hadn't yet finished eating his own ice cream.

Those big eyes full of longing were almost enough to make him give up his last few bites. Almost. They'd had enough sweets for one day. Anything more and they'd probably puke on him later.

The old men kept talking, but Colt had heard enough. He finished up, paid the bill, and hit the road again.

That pit stop hadn't exactly been the meet-and-greet that he'd hoped for, but his next destination was likely to prove more fruitful in that regard, he felt.

The main park was even busier than he expected it to be. He'd done all of his scouting of the town at night, so he'd only ever seen it when it was empty, but now there were so many people around that he began to wonder if it was some sort of special occasion or if it this was just normal.

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These Side Story pages are released each week on Sunday at 6 pm EST.
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