Robbie had gotten in early from their three-day weekend. He had gone home to visit some friends and let his mom see that he was, in fact, surviving the road. He sat on the steps of the project trailer, eating a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit while reading over something in his notebook. The boy was lost in thought and never heard Mitchell walk up.
Mitchell kicked his left boot, and Robbie looked away from his notes with a smile.
"Miss me?" Mitchell said with a chuckle.
"Hell no... you know it." Robbie smiled and handed Mitchell a porkchop biscuit, his current favorite.
"For me?" Mitchell took the breakfast and looked at the boy with genuine affection. It wasn't the same, but Robbie was growing on the rough-around-the-edges electrician. There had been a hole left in his soul after Winnie. The boy was filling that hole in ways he couldn't quite name, and Mitchell's life was better just for knowing the kid.
"What's my uncle going to have you doing today?" Robbie asked.
Mitchell shrugged his shoulders while he chewed a mouthful of porkchop and bread, the buttery biscuit crumbling from the corners of his mouth.
"I must have pissed him off. He has me working with the Maddox brothers this morning, running pipe," Robbie said with a tone of frustration.
Mitchell swallowed the last of his bite. He sat down beside Robbie, crumpling up the breakfast wrapper. He tossed it under the trailer in the weeds. Mitchell lit a Tahoe and took a drag. He turned his face away from the boy and exhaled smoke before speaking.
"Robbie, you know how David is, but I am beginning to think that Mike ain't no better." Mitchell nodded toward Robbie to give his statement extra weight.
"Why's that?" Robbie asked, studying Mitchell's face.
"Just a feeling, I reckon." Mitchell took a long drag on the Tahoe.
"My daddy always said that there are two things in this world you can't trust."
Robbie waited patiently for the rest.
Mitchell took the cigarette out of his mouth and rolled it between his fingers while he thought. He searched for words while he stared into the ribbons of smoke.
Finally, he continued, "...one is a man that would eat a nanner and mayonnaise sandwich, and the other is a wet fart."
Robbie looked down at his work boots, giving the statement serious consideration.
Mitchell finished his after-breakfast Tahoe and crushed it out on the project trailer steps.
Robbie didn't intend to be funny. He had no idea it would land as it did. "Well, I bet your dad really wouldn't have trusted a man eating a mayo and banana sandwich while cutting a wet fart."
There was a moment of silence between the friends.
Then Mitchell exploded in a thunderous burst of laughter that shook the wooden steps below the two.
Robbie laughed too, mostly just laughing because Mitchell's laughter was contagious.
They laughed until their sides hurt.
Robbie was still chuckling.
"Does Mike really eat mayonnaise and banana sandwiches?"
Mitchell wiped tears from his eyes.
"Oh hell, I don't know."
They laughed until neither one of them could breathe. Finally, Mitchell pushed himself to his feet.
His smile faded just a little.
"But really, Robbie..."
Robbie looked up.
"I don't trust him as far as I can throw him."
I hope that gave you a laugh. This one's a gift, plain and simple — for everyone who's stuck with Mitchell and Robbie this far.
Tell me in the comments if Mike really does eat mayonnaise and banana sandwiches, in your professional opinion. And if you've got a rating in you for the main story, I'd be grateful.