Page 98 of Thick

It made me ache to hear it. I had no idea with modern medicines how much time he may have, but I hoped it was a decade or so.

“God damn.” I looked at the restaurants entrance, and shook my head in disbelief. “How much time does he have?”

“Doubt AIDS will kill him, Meat. It’s the complications with everything else. He ain’t doing too good.”

“How much time? Years, months?”

“Might be months. Might not.”

“Son-of-a-bitch. Does he know how he got it?”

“No. Don’t know that it matters. They said he could have had it for ten years, and not known.”

“Fucking scary.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Makes a man think about wrapping his junk, huh?”

“Suppose so.”

“You and Bobbi going at it yet?”

“I don’t know that’s much of your business, Boss.”

He chuckled. “Always been the weird fucker, haven’t ya?”

“It’s not weird to be a little respectful.”

“Suppose not.”

Stretch came outside, rubbing his stomach as he walked through the door. “Took about ten shits in there. That goat cheese tastes good as fuck, but my belly don’t like it.”

“You ready, old man?” Crip asked.

“Ready as I’m gonna get.”

I looked him over, trying to find something about him that gave hint to the fact that he was dying, but found nothing. He was still the six-foot-three-inch one-hundred-and-sixty-pound old man that he always was. Convinced he’d somehow pull through it, I slapped my hand against his back and gave him some advice.

“Blow the cobs out of that old Shovel, and it might run better.”

“Runs better than that Evo of yours.”

He sauntered to his bike, grabbed his helmet, and shot me a glare. “I say ‘prove it’.”

“Race is on, motherfucker,” I said.

“Won’t be much of a race.”

He coughed a few times and then shook his head. “Not if you’re on that piece of shit Evo, it sure won’t.”

“Stretch and me are racing,” I said. “You others can catch up once we get on the 5.”

“Can’t wait to see this,” Pee bee said.

“Place your bets, fellas.”

The group, entirely, bet on Stretch.

After we got geared up, and our bikes started, Stretch and I pulled out onto the two-lane highway that led to highway 5. While Crip and Pee Bee watched for cross traffic, Stretch and I tried to get side-by-side in a manner that wouldn’t give either of us the benefit.