Target Practice
As much as I love my brother, I didn’t think he’d understand. It’s alright though. He didn’t need to this time.
“Trevor, what are you doing?”
“Shootin’ bottles.”
“Why?”
“Target practice.”
“I understand that, but you’ve been at it all night. If Nod hadn’t bought this block, I would imagine that the authorities would be expressing some sort of concern. Besides, I didn’t think we had that many extras bottles lying around. Rebecca usually walks them to the corner for recycling.”
“They weren’t empty.”
“They weren’t?”
“Nope. Been drinkin’ em that way. Figger ah’ll stop drinkin’ when ah can stop hittin’ mah target.”
“Is that what’s this is about? Drinking away your sorrows? What sorrows do you even have Trevor?”
“Don’t have any Jon. Thass not why ah’m shootin’. Ah’m proving a point.”
“What point is that?”
“That ah cain’t miss if ah’m aiming at anything.”
He grew quiet for a moment. I could hear him stewing under his top hat, furrowing his brow.
“That’s absurd.”
“Ah don’t thin so. Tell me, Jon, ah know you’ve missed before, but have you evah failed to cut somethin’?”
“I’m certain I have. Why, when we were facing Abraham, I…”
“You what? You might’ve missed him, but ah’ll wager everytime you hit him, you cut him. Right? What about Adam’s skull? Do razors normally cut through bronze and steel? The one’s ah shave mah pink skin face with can barely cut mah stubble.”
“I never thought about it.”
“Ah know you didn’t. You’ve got more important things to think about. S’why ah’m headin’ out for awhile. Figger ah’ll play Aussie for a bit instead of cowboy; go on a walkabout.”
“You can’t leave yet. We haven’t gotten security set up here or anything. Nod may need you for an assignment in the near future.”
“With the landfall we just landed? Doubt it, even if he bought all the blocks around us. We’re set for a little while brother. Nothing we can be too lazy about, of course. But ah thought a short trip wouldn’t have me bein’ missed too badly.”
“Trevor… no.”
“Not even to figger out why we’re perfect at our jobs? Not even to find out that after Nod made us real, we’re not really real?”
“Trev, listen to yourself. Come back into the house. Rebecca’s making tea.”
“Awright. Awright, you win. Get in there and fix me a cup. I’ve got two more bottles to kill and I’ll be in.”
“Don’t keep me waiting.”
As soon as the back door closed behind him, I was bolting down the alleyway. He knew I would. He had to have. Jonathan may not have understood my motives, but he knew what he had to say. This would be my trip, not anyone else’s. I wanted it that way.
I snatched my duster from the garbage can I had stuffed it in at the end of the alley for just this occasion and slipped it on. The black leather hung nicely over the twins holsters, keeping them out of sight. I pulled my fedora out of the cardboard box next to it, dusted it off, and set it in place.
That was better. Now just to figure out where to go. This district had gotten quiet, what with Abraham and Nod splitting who would be watching which half. The nearest excitement would be a couple districts over.
Yeah, there was a bar. The Dreamtime. Sounded like a winner for the first stop on any walkabout.
“Where’s Jonathan?”
“He’s gone out for awhile.”
“How long?”
“Good question. Maybe a week or three?”
Nod threw his cup of tea at me. I stepped out of the way and let it crash against the wall. Rebecca winced. It was the seventh cup to meet such a fate in a week.
“What do you mean a week or three?”
“He’s going on a walkabout. He has things he wants to know.”
“And he can’t be arsed to take us with him? You two are a damned nuisance with this trying to run away garbage.”
“It would defeat the purpose Nod. What he’s trying to determine has everything to do with being by himself.”
Nod stamped off, grumbling to himself. Rebecca came over, sighing sadly.
“He certainly does know how to ruin a good evening’s tea, doesn’t he?”
“My brother or Nod?”
“Does it really matter?”
“I suppose not.”
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