Page 20 of Pen Me

Sauce glared at my choice of moniker for him.

“Sorry. Old habits.” I winked.

“Yeah, well… If I ever find Corporal Bill Parker, I’m gonna show him exactly how little I’m not. Bet that.” Sauce grumped.

I slapped the table a little more forcefully than I had the first time.

“You’re talking too much… Brother.”

Sauce cleared his throat and nodded, taking a moment to compose himself.

“Sorry. I just… Sammy and I were closest. Not that I’m overly close with any of my siblings, but– You know.”

I nodded, totally getting that part. It was how things were with me and Henny.

“I get it,” I assured him, before trying to steer the conversation toward her health. “What did he give her though? I mean she probably just needs some antibiotics, right? She ain’t gonna die or nothing, yeah?”

Sauce jerked on the stool abruptly, his body turning toward the door and his hand coming up. The side of it faced me, betraying the tremble that ran through him.

Shit.

“Hey,” I whispered, leaning across the table abruptly and placing a comforting hand on his forearm.

“Inmate,” the guard barked from near the door.

I lifted my hand and held it up to appease the uniforms.

“I don’t know,” Sauce whispered, his voice cracking with emotion. “I guess the guy’s wife worked at the clinic on base. Sammy didn’t feel comfortable going back there.”

“Well, get her to a fuckin’ doctor here, bud!” I advised him in a firm but hushed tone.

Sometimes these younger kids killed me. Their lack of direction when shit hit the fan was terrifying.

He sniffled and I’d never felt more stuck. I was the one people came to for help, but shit– I couldn’t help nobody in this place.

“I didn’t know you could give somebody cancer with your dick, man… What the fuck?” His voice ebbed with emotion and restrained tears.

“What?” The word sounded like a shout, but I barely even found my normal voice for the first time in the visit. I didn’t know what the fuck he was on about, but if he was serious, this was definitely something Zig needed to be aware of.

Cancer wasn’t something you hid from your parents.

“I– If Sammy has cancer you have to tell your dad, Sauce. You can’t let a thing like this just– She needs support, and he deserves to know if his daughter is sick like that.”

Zig had put me out bad with the club, but that didn’t change anything. He was a brother. Family. I hated hearing that all of this was coming his way.

Chapter Nine

Forced Disclosures

Sammy

It’d been a while since I woke myself up by hurling my body from a bed before I was even conscious enough to realize what I was doing. The sensation that comes when you’re freefalling as you rip from your dreams is terrifying and something you never get used to. The last time it happened was because our base had been targeted. The sound of that incoming siren always made me flop like a damn fish. Apparently, violent door knocking in the civilian world had the same effect. The first burst of it made me flop and arch so hard it hurt!

Whoever it was had the patience of a gnat, because a second burst followed it before I could pick my ass up from the floor.

A solid kick landed to the lower part of the door just as I arrived in front of it, and I gasped at the boldness.

I jerked the door open, ready to let someone have it!

---