CJ
“Hey,” Rebel greeted, her sleepy eyes lighting up when she saw them.
Fuck his life, she was still awake. “Hey, bae.” He pointed to the space between the two beds. “Go there,” he instructed the Triplets, expecting an argument but receiving meek compliance.
So far, so good.
“You got to sound old,” Axel complained, “instead of a sick fucking frog.”
“How else do old people sound, Ax?” Ransom asked, the director who’d thankfully dropped his hideous accent. “Especially old ladies.”
“Little old grandmas,” Ryder clarified, hooking his thumbs in his belt loops. “Weak enough to get eaten by a wolf.”
“Most motherfuckers not strong enough not to get ate by a wolf,” Axel said in exasperation. “Diesel wouldn’t. He’s real strong.”
“You would think that,” CJ sneered.
Axel glared at him. “Shut up, green weirdo. Rebel don’t need your mood.”
“I’m not fucking jealous,” CJ snapped, understanding what Axel meant by green, the actual play going much the same as the rehearsal. He wasn’t sure why Axel called him a weirdo and he wouldn’t ask. “I’m never jealous.”
“I might not be the brightest kettle on the fucking stove, but I’m brighter than you if you believe that fucking lie,” Axel clapped back, having an answer for every goddamn thing.
“Burn, CJ,” Ryder crowed, then laid a hand on Axel’s shoulder. “Ease up. That fucking lie helps CJ to sleep at night. We can reason with him later. Let’s do the play now.”
“I’ll take your advice for Rebel,” Axel declared.
CJ gritted his teeth, on the verge of leaving or slamming their heads together and knocking them the fuck out. “You still want us to do the play, Rebel?” he grouched.
She nodded.
Hearing his little sister’s grogginess reminded him of what she’d endured and made him feel like an asshole.
Axel glanced from CJ to her, fear replacing his brattiness. “You’re okay. Reb?”
“I’m fine, Ax,” she croaked.
CJ cleared his throat, suspecting she was in pain. He knew how it felt to ache while trying to project normalcy to protect the family. “Let’s begin.”
Hesitation crossed Axel’s features.
“I’m fine,” Rebel swore, sounding a little livelier, lifting the top portion of her bed. “I want to see the production.”
“Zee Blonde Veeper hath speaken,” Ransom announced, reverting to how he believed a famous director talked.
Axel slapped his palm against his forehead. “Oh, brother.”
“Once upon a time,” CJ dove in, over their fucking foolishness, “a boy named Red walked into the deep dark woods.”
“Here.” Ransom shoved a wash pan in Axel’s arms. “Zee Red’s baskeets.”
Glowering at Ransom, he snatched the plastic yellow pan and begin walking in place super slow. “If these woods wasn’t a tiny fucking space with no woods or nothing, they would be so fucking creepy.”
“Zat ees nut in zee play!” Ransom cried.
Axel held up the pan. “I am delivering food to Grandma.” Looking pointedly at CJ, he continued walking in slow motion.
“Red carried a highly valuable basket of baked goods.”
“Vait!” Ransom rushed to Axel and filled the pan with sample sized tissue, lotion, toothpaste, and mouthwash. “Zoo may conteenue.”
“I got stuffs that no motherfucker can ever eat,” Axel said, somehow walking slower. “But Grandma is gonna love it. The wolf might not even got to kill her.”
Ryder snapped the privacy curtain closed, then leaped around it. “Meow!”
Axel rolled his eyes. “A wolf’s like a dog, stupid. They bark.”
Rebel giggled. “Actually, wolves howl.”
“Okay,” Ryder agreed. “Hoooo—”
“Foul! That a fucking owl,” Axel yelled.
“Nuh-uh! I was getting to the owwwllll.” He tipped his head back to impart that. “It was a great build up that you ruined.”
“Cut,” Ransom inserted, clapping his hands. “I mean coot. Cute—”
“Jesus Christ, why?” CJ asked, ready to walk the fuck out, over those three.
“See-lahnce!” Ransom ordered. “Zee great Vransom Vraldrell needs un momentito weeth zee ack-tors.”
Ignoring CJ, they walked to the other side of the privacy curtain.
“They’re having fun,” Rebel said, breaking through CJ’s annoyance with those three.
Fuck, he didn’t think he’d recovered from earlier yet and holed up in a room with those three argumentative brats hadn’t helped one bit.
“Ease up, brother. They’re acting normal. It’s better than them realizing how bad…Let them be themselves.
Little boys who didn’t understand pain and uncertainty.
The real cost of life. Eventually, death came and stole it all away.
Fame. Infamy. Money. Love. It just didn’t matter.
A life well lived or one hard fought ended the same motherfucking way.
As just a goddamn memory, a tear, and a broken heart. And the world just moved the fuck on.
“They can,” CJ said bitterly. “They don’t understand life’s meaningless. They don’t know we’ll just be gone and things will just go on.”
“Life’s beautiful, CJ,” Rebel reminded him. “Daddy said how we live makes the difference. You’ve always been so kind, my ray of sunshine. I admire you. I’m angry this happened to me. And scared. And tired. But this is our world and we matter to each other. We survive and thrive for each other.”
Pressing his lips together, CJ nodded.
“It’s okay,” Rebel said, comforting him, when he was supposed to cheer her up.
His head was hurting as much as his heart, though.
She opened her arms and the silence in the room hit him. There were no arguments or Axel throwing his scrawny weight around or Ransom pretending he was a great director. How much had the boys heard?
CJ hugged his little sister, allowed himself to remember when they’d been younger, she four and he six. Rule dogged her steps and Harley had been his shadow. None of them knew what death meant. Or pain. Or fear.
Axel ran to the side of the bed, tears streaking his cheeks. He’d heard enough to be upset. “You don’t want to hear the play no more, Reb?” he asked, sniffling.
Rebel smiled, then pointed at Axel. “Stop right there, traveler! The Big Bad Wolf will see you.”
Licking his lips, Axel grinned, then hugged CJ.
“Wait!” Ryder leaped from behind the privacy curtain. “I am the Big Bad Wolf.”
“Damn, wolf,” Axel said, wiping his wet cheeks and looking the wolf up and down. “You look like you just woke up from a fucking nap.”
“Hand over that basket, Red!”
Ransom slid the basket underneath the privacy curtain. It bounced against Ryder’s sneakers. Grinning, he picked it up, but before he ran with it, Axel rushed to him and snatched it.
“You not fucking eating this. I ain’t got no food in here for wolves, only Grandmas. If you want food, Grandma’s house right over there.” He pointed to Rebel. “It’s 36719635 Fluffy Lane. She’s the one in the comfy bed.”
“How am I supposed to remember that long fucking address, Red?”
“You’re a fucking wolf. How do you know any numbers?” Axel countered.
“Make it shorter.”
“No, Wolf. You can’t read no fucking way.”
“Fuck, enough!” CJ ordered. “It’s 420 Fluffy Lane.”
“My birthday!” Axel said happily.
“Yup,” CJ agreed.
“Fucking ‘a’.” Ryder shuffled his feet quickly while staying in one spot, pretending to run. “Hoooowwwwlllll. I’m the meanie Big Bad Wolf.
“The Wolf arrived at Grandma’s house,” CJ narrated. “He realized Grandma didn’t have food. She was chilling and watching TV.”
Ransom pounded on the rolling cart. “Zose are zee knocks.”
Ryder turned to Rebel. “I am here to devour you.”
“Take a number, Wolfie boy. They already poked me for an IV. You’re not scary.”
Grinning, Ryder sat on the edge of the vacant bed.
“Grandma?” Axel called, lifting a brow at Ransom. “Where’s my fucking knocks.”
“Zee sound effect ees only gouda fer once time.”
“It’s Red, Grandma,” Axel called, flipping off Ransom and turning to Rebel. “Wow, Grandma!” His eyes rounded. “What big ears you have.”
“I’m the wolf, Ax,” Ryder called.
“Oh, right.” Axel skipped to Ryder. “You actually got little fucking ears, Ry.”
“They’re cute,” Ryder countered. “Francine Meyers told me so.”
“Doo nut eenterfere wid zee art!” Ransom cried. “Steek to zee screept.”
“’Kay. Let me repeat the ear part,” Axel said. “Grandma! What big ears you have.”
“The better to hear your orders through the woods, up the stairs and all the way to our rooms, my dear,” Ryder said, cupping his ears.
“Those motherfuckers might be small but they got good hearing,” Axel complimented.
“They do, bro,” Ryder said.
At Rebel’s snicker, CJ winked at her.
“Grandma, what…what big blue saucer eyes you got.”
“The better to roll these big blue saucer motherfuckers at your terrible jokes, my dear.”
Axel scowled. “Grandma, what a big nose you have. And that’s the truth, Ry. That motherfucker covers your whole fucking face.”
“At least it isn’t so small, I wonder how you get any oxygen,” Ryder replied.
“Me, too, since your big fucking nostrils suck all the fucking air,” Axel said darkly.
“I eempose a vine!” Ransom said. “Buck to zee play. ‘Tis working.” He pointed at Rebel. She was laughing, her eyes bright and happy. “Zee Blonde Veeper ees happy!”
“Yay!” Axel grinned at Ryder. “Grandma, what big teeth you have!”
Ryder held up his hands and extended his fingers. “All the better to eat you, my dear.”
“Wolf! Help! Wolf!”
CJ yanked his cell phone from his pocket and wielded it like a sword. “Halt! I am the Woodsman! Here to save the day.”
Ryder and CJ started a slow-motion, goofy fucking wrestling match that made him feel like a fucking idiot until he heard his little sister’s laughter and her claps. Seeing her happiness made it all worth it.
“And, now, we will leave you, so you can rest,” CJ announced, still acting as the Woodsman. “We love you.”
“I love you, big sis,” Axel said, hugging her. “Did you like our play.”
“Very much,” Rebel promised, accepting hugs from Ransom and Ryder.
“Time to leave, men! Reb needs her rest.”
The little hooligans marched out.
“G’night, little sister,” CJ said, starting for the door.
“You’re the best big brother ever, CJ,” Rebel told him.
CJ smiled at her and walked out of the room, those words ringing in his ears.