Cleats in Clay

by Jackson Cordd

  “Hey,” Klyve’s voice said. “He just left.”

  “I’ll be up in a minute. See ya,” Bobby replied before hanging up. He walked across to the patient area and peeked his head behind Odis’s curtain. “I’m going upstairs. I’ll come back if you don’t show up soon.”

  Odis nodded. “Okay. Later, then.”

  Odis settled back into the covers, marveling over Bobby. It was hard to believe he’d only been around eight days. The guy had turned his world upside-down and inside out in such a short amount of time. He’d never had a girlfriend or wife be so loyal and caring, even after years of being together. Odis smiled to himself. Bobby was such a pleasant surprise.

  BOBBY entered ICU room two and noticed right away the fancy-looking air-inflated plastic cast covering Tuck’s lower right arm. “Hey, Tuck,” he tried to say cheerfully.

  Tuck gazed back with a silly grin. “Hey, stud. I hadda new surgery,” he declared a bit loudly, holding up his right arm as if it were a trophy.

  “I heard,” Bobby said as he approached. “Did they give you drugs?”

  Tuck grinned and grabbed Bobby’s hip with his left hand and pulled him close. “I think maybe one or two, and a whole lotta buncha shots.”

  Bobby leaned down for a kiss, but Tuck’s mouth tasted like some kind of sour chemical factory, so he pulled back quickly.

  “Ya not happy to see me?” Tuck asked with an exaggerated frown.

  Bobby kissed his forehead. “Very happy, but your breath is kinda rank.”

  “Ya taste that too? Thought it was just me.” Tuck looked around. “Aww, and I didn’t bring a toothbrush. Not that I have me a bathroom anyway.”

  Backing up, Bobby retrieved the water cup from the tray table and handed it to Tuck. “Drink some of this. Swish it around inside your mouth and it should help. I’m going to run out for a second,” Bobby said as he went to the door.

  “Okeee.” Tuck grinned before he slurped up some water through the straw and swished it loudly between his teeth, his cheeks inflating and deflating like a puffer fish.

  Bobby stepped out and looked around for Klyve. He spotted the nurse leaving room four and met him at the ICU station. “So how was his surgery? He doesn’t seem coherent enough to give a good answer yet.”

  Klyve nodded. “They gave him nitrous. It should wear off pretty quick.”

  “What about the surgery?”

  “Oh.” Klyve pulled up some info on his computer screens and read over it. “Went well. They removed one of the pins and sensations returned. So doesn’t seem like there was any nerve damage from the injury. Can’t really tell for sure ’til his bones heal enough we can have him try moving the fingers around. But it all seems in order so far.”

  “Good.” Bobby nodded. “Oh, he was complaining about a bad taste in his mouth. Do you have a toothbrush or mouthwash or something?”

  “Sure, let me get a kit,” Klyve said as he bent down to one of the cabinets and got out a plastic zippered bag with basic toiletries in it. “Should have what ya need in there.” He handed the kit to Bobby.

  “Thanks.”

  After returning with the bag, Bobby opened it to find some kind of minty cotton swabs. “Smile wide,” he told Tuck, and then he ran the swabs over Tuck’s teeth, which seemed to clean his mouth without the foaming of normal toothpaste.

  Bobby had Tuck sparkly fresh in no time. Afterward, they enjoyed a much more pleasant kiss.

  “Thank ya, stud,” Tuck said when he pulled back, his voice sounding more like his normal tone. “Where’s Odie?”

  “He’s still downstairs,” Bobby told him. “He kinda fainted when we went down earlier, and they wanted to check him out.” He didn’t want to worry Tuck unnecessarily at the moment.

  “Fainted?” Tuck shook his head. “Odie doesn’t just run around faintin’. What happened? The truth this time.”

  Bobby took a breath. “He went cold turkey off his meds Monday, and his blood sugar is just a little screwy now. They’ll get it straightened out.”

  Tuck studied him closely. “Ya better not be blowin’ smoke.”

  “I’m not.” Bobby shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that to you, Tuck. He’ll be up here in no time, I’m sure. It’s really nothing to worry about.”

  “Okay, I’m trustin’ ya on that.”

  Bobby sat on the edge of the bed. “What did Fenton say?”

  “Not much.” Tuck frowned. “Just wanted to hear my side of things. Making sure Travie didn’t slip in past us. He was pretty close-lipped on everything else.”

  “Did you know that Travie guy very well?”

  “Not really. He’d just started. I’d never worked with him or hung out with him. He was so young, I kinda didn’t know how to relate to him.”

  Bobby nodded. “I know what you mean. It’s like these younger kids grew up on a different planet or something.”

  “Well, they kinda did. Computers and microwaves in the house from the day they were babies, thousands of channels on the TV, cell phones and texting practically from the minute they could read. Grew up with whole different ideas of how the world works.”

  “Never thought of it that way,” Bobby admitted.

  “Instant grat is the worst of it, though. Had ya gotten around to dating again?”

  “No, I barely got around to leaving the house before I came to Texas. And what do you mean by instant grat?”

  “The whole instant gratification thing. Hafta have whatever I want, right now. It’s completely changed dating. Or should I say, it’s killed dating.”

  “What?”

  “Well, the whole idea of getting to know someone has gotten passé, I guess. Ya meet online or through friends or whatever. First they google ya to decide if they wanna meet up for coffee. Once ya do meet, if there’s not an instant click in, like, the first five minutes, it’s ‘so long to ya’. No time allotted for actually talking, getting to know each other.”

  “That sounds harsh,” Bobby said with a frown.

  “Sure is, but the worst part is, if there is a click, it’s expected ya’ll have sex within the next five minutes, or at least within thirty minutes. Then, if the sex is satisfying enough, you might go out to dinner after.”

  “How long has it been like that?”

  Tuck shrugged. “The new rules have been slowly creepin’ in over the last ten years or so, but it’s really noticeable now.” Tuck clasped his hand. “Yer lucky ya don’t hafta go through it.”

  “Who says I won’t?” Bobby said flippantly, but he regretted the tease when he saw the hurt look flash on Tuck’s face.

  “I hope ya don’t mean that.”

  “It was a joke, Tuck,” Bobby tried to reassure him with a hand squeeze.

  “I still mean what I said in the car. If this three-way thing don’t work out, ya better at least stick with Odie, or I’ll kick your ass.”

  Bobby leaned in and kissed him, sharing their sparks until Tuck nudged him away. With a smile, Bobby said, “I don’t think we have to worry about that.”

  Tuck smirked at him. “And no more kisses like that. I’ve still got the damn catheter.”

  The door opened and Klyve poked his head in. “Can ya help me real quick?”

  “Sure,” Bobby said, guessing he wanted to move the TV inside. Bobby held the door open and helped Klyve navigate the cart into the room. After lining it up against the wall, Klyve set to work connecting all the cords.

  “Cool, my TV,” Tuck cheered.

  Klyve finished the connections and turned it on. “Yep. They wanna keep you one more night because of the anesthesia.” Klyve smiled over at Tuck. “They wanted to move ya to another room downstairs, but I told ’em no point in shufflin’ ya around. So ya get to stay.”

  Tuck shrugged. “Might be nice to have a bathroom.”

  Walking over and handing the remote control to Tuck, Klyve said, “But I know who’s on duty tonight. Trust me, yer better off here. Besides, they’ll prob’ly kick ya out tomorrow anyway.”

&nbs
p; “Okay, then,” Tuck said with a grin.

  “Not too loud,” Klyve warned on his way out the door.

  Bobby grinned back at Tuck. “Kicked out tomorrow.”

  “Maybe, the man said,” Tuck emphasized.

  The door opened again and Odis strolled in. He rushed up and ruffled Tuck’s hair.

  Tuck smirked at him. “Have a nice nap, bonehead?”

  “I dunno if I like having all these boyfriends. Ya guys gossip as bad as the church ladies. I’ll never be able ta keep anything secret.”

  “Us?” Bobby asked, trying to sound wounded. He turned to Tuck. “He called us old church ladies.”

  “I am so offended,” Tuck whined.

  “I never said ‘old’, ya drama queens.”

  Bobby stepped behind Odis and put his arm around his neck. “Straight boy’s just full of insults today. I don’t think we should even tell him, since we’re such bad gossips and all.”

  “Tell me what?”

  “Nah, don’t wanna be accused of gossip,” Tuck agreed with a headshake.

  “Tell me what?” Odis repeated.

  Lowering his arm, Bobby gave an affectionate squeeze to Odis’s chest. “Klyve said Tuck will prob’ly go home tomorrow.”

  “Woo-hoo!” Odis called out, then dropped his head for being too loud. “Guess we’ll hafta celebrate tomorrow night,” he said with a mischievous grin.

  Tuck smiled at Odis’s enthusiasm. “So what about the house? What all needs done?”

  “Just two windows need replaced, but those are a bitch of a special order so may take a few days. Still need to check the roof for cracks, but didn’t see anything obvious.”

  Nodding, Tuck asked, “And what about the studio?”

  “Oh shit.” Odis’s eyes flew wide. “I fuckin’ forgot to check. Shit,” he spit out.

  “It’s probably okay,” Bobby said as he hugged Odis. “I didn’t see any damage on the east side of the house.”

  “I’m sure he’s right,” Tuck agreed. “So I guess we’ll all hafta hang out at my apartment tomorrow. If I do get out.”

  Odis glanced between the two men. “Whose turn is it tomorrow night?”

  “I don’t remember,” Bobby admitted. “And I don’t think we should worry about it. We’ll drive ourselves crazy trying to hold up to some kind of schedule. Let’s just play it out by ear for now and worry about a schedule if it seems like we need one.” Bobby held out his right hand, and Odis and Tuck reached out and made a three-way clasp.

  “Agreed,” Odis and Tuck chimed in.

  “Jackpot,” Tuck said, and they all shook on it. “Now, get back over to Gertie’s and let a man watch his TV in peace.” He flipped the TV channels around until he found the NASCAR race.

  “You heard him, Odie. Think we can talk Gertie into making some lunch?”

  Odis laughed. “I’m sure she’s done finished lunch and started on dinner by now. We’ll see you later, Tuck,” he said as he leaned in for a kiss.

  Tuck smiled. “Morning. See me in the morning,” he said with a look to Bobby.

  “He’s right,” Bobby agreed as he pulled Odis away. “Let’s let the bonehead rest for one night, or he won’t be worth a damn tomorrow.”

  Tuck smiled at Bobby as they left. With a quick nod, Bobby silently promised to look after Odis.

  “Oh wait,” Tuck called out. Bobby froze in the doorway. “Check with Klyve and see if ya can track down my keys and hit my apartment. Odie knows where it is. Bring me some clothes ta wear outta here tomorrow.”

  “Can do,” Bobby said with a smile before he turned and left.

  Once the guys were gone, Tuck nudged down the volume then flipped through the channels until he found Paula Deen. Not only did that lady crack him up, she also made some great recipes. Tuck hadn’t tried any real cooking in a while—it always seemed depressing to make a bunch of great food and be the only one sitting at the table to eat. But maybe now…. Yes, he decided. It wouldn’t hurt to spend some time in the kitchen again.

  Bumping the volume up one notch, Tuck settled back into the bed to watch Paula at work.

  IT DIDN’T take Klyve but a minute to retrieve Tuck’s keys from the personal items that had already been bagged up. When the guys got into the hallway, Bobby steered Odis to the elevator, saying, “Let’s ride this time.”

  “Okay,” Odis reluctantly agreed.

  After the short drive back to Brungess, Odis pulled into a rear parking lot behind one of the storefront brownstones on Main Street. He let Bobby in through a back door and led him up a flight of narrow stairs.

  “Here we are,” Odis said while unlocking the door and pushing it open.

  Bobby wasn’t sure what he had expected, but the small space they stepped into appeared very clean—nearly spotless and well organized. A huge flat screen, at least fifty inches or more, hung on the back wall facing a new-looking cream couch. Along the side wall, a long row of bookshelves, packed tightly with various volumes, warmly filled the space.

  Odis ducked into the first doorway. “You get the clothes while I pee,” he told Bobby.

  Bobby stepped around the cozy kitchenette to the other door. The bedroom held more of the smartly styled furnishings. He went to the closet and looked at shirts. He scanned them until one caught his eye: a short-sleeved western shirt of grassy green adorned with some kind of Navajo rug pattern in yellow and brown. He smiled, thinking how well it would go with Tuck’s eyes. When Bobby noticed it had snaps, he pulled it out and set it on the bed. With the cast on Tuck’s hand reaching all the way up to his fingertips, it was unlikely he would be able to successfully fiddle with any buttons.

  Bobby saw some denim behind the pairs of brown uniform pants. He slid back the uniforms and found various pairs of jeans on hangers. He looked through, trying to find a pair with zipper and snap, but all Tuck’s jeans were of the button-fly style. He was about to give up before, toward the back of the closet, he found a pair of slate-gray jeans, which had the fasteners he was looking for. He pulled them from the closet and set them on the bed with the shirt.

  At the dresser, Bobby pulled out the top drawer and burst out laughing. Inside, he found five very neat vertical columns of stacked underwear, each composed of a different style. On the far right were long boxer-briefs, next to them a column of full briefs, then bikini briefs. Flanking those was a column of sexy mesh briefs, and lastly jockstraps.

  Stepping into the bedroom, Odis asked, “What’s so funny?”

  “Tuck,” Bobby replied. “He’s got everything so neat and organized, it’s like shopping at Lord & Taylor or something.”

  Odis chuckled when he peeked over and saw the underwear drawer. “Prob’ly ’cause his pa was such a slobby pig. When we were younger, he made me promise to threaten bodily harm if I ever caught him living like that. Used to cuss up a storm when he had to spend hours cleaning up after his old man. I don’t know if he’d have gone to the trouble if it weren’t for Hawk’s sake.”

  “How much younger is Hawk?”

  “Six years, or is it seven? Don’t recall exactly.” Odis picked up a pair of the sexy silk mesh underwear. “Think he actually wears these anywhere?”

  Bobby chuckled. “I bet he wears them under his uniform to feel secretly sexy.”

  Odis laughed. “Oh my God, I can’t get that out of my head now.” He slugged Bobby in the arm. “Thank ya so much,” he said sarcastically before chuckling again. “I really bet he does, though.” Odis let out another chuckle as he put the underwear back on its stack.

  “What should we take?” Bobby asked.

  “Yer askin’ me? I don’t know.”

  Bobby looked over the selection. “The boxer briefs have a large fly. Should be okay for one-handed operation,” he said as he chose a seafoam pair and closed the drawer.

  “One-handed?” Odis puzzled aloud briefly. “Oh right, stupid cast. I guess he kinda is one-handed now.”

  Bobby opened the next drawer and found neatly arrayed balls of socks. “What a
bout shoes?” he asked Odis.

  Odis looked over at the clothes laid out on the bed. “I know just the thing to go with that.” Odis went to the closet. “Pick out some long socks,” he told Bobby as he dug around in the shoe rack on the floor.

  Bobby found some socks and took them to the bed, and Odis stepped out of the walk-in closet, carrying a very fancy-looking pair of cowboy boots, their bumpy-looking leather dyed a grassy green. “His ostrich boots,” Odis declared. “He won’t hafta mess with laces this way.”

  “Brilliant,” Bobby agreed with a grin. Looking over the ensemble, Bobby said, “Only one thing missing.”

  “Oh no,” Odis warned. “He’ll shoot us if ya bring a cowboy hat. He hates bein’ stereotyped.”

  Bobby laughed. “Hey, we found all this shit right in his closet. What about a belt?”

  “Hates belts,” Odis told him. “He told me once a belt means yer too poor to afford pants that fit.”

  “Humph. Not snobby at all, is he.”

  Odis laughed. “He has his moments.”

  “I guess this is all we need, then.” Bobby picked up the shirt and jeans by the hangers, and they gathered up the rest of the clothes before locking up. Neither man spoke on the short drive to the B and B. They left Tuck’s clothes in the car and went inside.

  Heimdalla nearly tackled Bobby when they walked in the door. “Hey, girl, we’re back,” he said as she bounced around in unbounded excitement.

  Gertie greeted them from the living room. “Hey, boys. Didn’t expect ya back so soon.”

  Odis said, “Tuck wanted some rest, so we bugged out.”

  “Yeah,” Bobby agreed with a nod. “And we need some rest too, I think.”

  “Made up some rice with chicken livers for the dog,” Gertie said as she stood up. “She seemed to like it.”

  “I’ll bet,” Odis chuckled. “Prob’ly won’t get her to eat dried food now, after ya spoil her.”

  “I’m not the one who forgot her food,” Gertie scolded. “I’ve got some leftover lunch I could heat up, and some corn on the cob from last night.”

  “Okay,” Bobby said, following her into the dining room with Heim tagging along at his side. “I guess we could eat a bite first.”