Chapter 15 Blood Brothers #2
Tommy peeked through his one good eye at the gang and offered a wide, blood-filled smile.
“So, you guys missed me or what?” he asked, before they all approached him, each giving him a warm but painful bro-hug or tussle.
Nicki ran inside to get ice.
“I missed my wingman, buddy! The girls have gone way down around the Compound!” Jake teased.
“Yeah, I’ll fix that,” Tommy replied.
“It wasn’t the same without you, bro,” Vinnie said, and directed Tommy over to the chair to sit down.
Nicki returned with water, a towel and a pack of frozen peas.
“This will have to do for now,” she said, pouring the water over Tommy’s face. The dry grass absorbed the bloody water.
Tommy pressed the frozen peas onto the destroyed left side of his face happily.
Tyler approached Nicki and kissed her, hard, to the oooh’s of the crew.
“Your punishment will be later,” he whispered into her ear.
Marge and Ron opened the screen door to the back porch and came outside.
Marge placed both of her hands over her cheeks seeing the amount of blood that was coming out of Tommy and slathered all over Nicki and her dress. It looked like a horror movie.
“What the… what the hell happened out here?” she shouted.
“Tyler happened,” Tommy blurted out halfway from behind the peas.
“Aunt Marge!” Tyler exclaimed, now sporting a big smile, coming in to hug her. “So good to see you!”
“Tyler? Is that you? So big?” Marge asked.
He leaned down and kissed her cheek.
She wobbled happily in his embrace.
“You boys hungry? We got a whole big box of pastries!” Marge shouted, smiling over at Nicki.
She winked back.
“That sounds lovely, sweetheart!” Jake said.
“Let me get my first aid kit for your face, there, son,” Ron offered.
“Come on,” Nicki said to Tommy. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Tommy followed Nicki and Ron inside the house.
Tyler sat down at the plastic patio table and shook out his right hand.
“Looks like you need something cold for that too! Let me see what else I got in the freezer,” Marge said on her way into the house.
Jake helped himself to the horse.
“Yeeeehaaaaw!” he yelled out as he rode Wolf around the ranch.
The rest of the guys gathered around the table, feasting on the pastries that Marge had brought out.
“Coffee is brewin’! Here, this will have to do for your hand!” Marge said, passing Tyler a frozen pork chop wrapped in plastic.
“Ha, thanks, Margie.”
She sat down beside him.
“Not much has changed, you still beat on him.”
“He deserved it.”
Marge rolled her eyes and looked out onto the ranch.
Tyler motioned over to Trevor, who handed him a thick yellow envelope.
Tyler handed it to Marge with his good hand.
“That’s for your trouble. For taking care of him,” Tyler said.
“I don’t want it. Tommy gave me an envelope that looked just like that when he arrived. It’ll cover all our bills until the end of next year, so really, I cannot take any more from you boys,” she replied.
“Take it, Margie. Fix up the house, get a new truck, do whatever you need.”
He slid the envelope closer to her and looked back out onto the golden hour ranch.
His pork chop hand rested on the table.
Vinnie and Luca were mouthfuls into the pastries.
Marge came back out of the house with a fresh pot of coffee. “Here. Have some coffee to go with those, boys.”
“Thank you, Miss,” Luca said politely.
The boys indulged in the sweet pastries and country ambiance.
Peace had finally settled into the air.
“So? Have you heard from her?” Tyler asked Marge.
She looked over at him and her smile faded quickly.
“Uh, I guess Tommy didn’t get around to tellin’ you yet?”
“Tell me what?”
Marge pushed her coffee cup further away from her while she collected her words.
“I’m sorry, Tyler, but your mother is dead,” Marge whispered.
Tyler looked back out onto the ranch.
Trevor, Vinnie and Luca stood up.
“Shit, man, I’m sorry, brother,” Vinnie said. The three headed over to the wooden fence. It was just Tyler and Marge at the table now.
“When?” Tyler asked, keeping his eyes looking far out.
“Four years ago. Overdose. I’m sorry, I thought you boys knew,” Marge said, her eyes misting.
Tyler’s plastic chair grumbled beneath him as he abruptly stood up and walked off toward the far end of the ranch where he could be alone. There was nowhere else to go.
“Oh, poor dear,” Marge whispered.
Trevor, Luca and Vinnie approached Tyler cautiously, giving him a pat on the back.
“You need stitches on that thing, Tommy!” Ron said sternly.
“Ron! I’m not going to any fucking hospital, so just drop it! OK?” Tommy shouted back.
“OK, relax, Tommy! Stop moving!” Nicki shouted.
She continued dabbing his cuts and wounds with Povidone-iodine and gauze, cleaning them and containing the bleeding as much as she could.
“Alright, well then, you need glue!” Ron offered. “You can’t walk around with that thing open like that, you crazy fool!”
“Yeah, fuck it, glue it shut! Anything but the hospital!” Tommy agreed.
“Alright, I guess we’re gluing it!” Nicki exclaimed.
Ron walked out to the garage.
Nicki remained standing in front of one-eyed Tommy, sitting in front of her, wincing his face up to her gentle touch and cleaning of his injuries.
The country kitchen coo-coo clock ticked loudly in the silent breaks.
“Is the pain killer kicking in yet?” she asked.
“Honey, I don’t even know the difference anymore between pain and being numb.”
She patted his brow with the cold wet compress. More blood came out.
“Hey,” Tommy whispered to Nicki.
Her eyes moved from the ever-gushing cut above his brow to his amber eyes.