Hyenas

Twenty minutes of silent driving past since Eddie picked Bobby C up from the airport. To Eddie's ten o'clock, the sun was getting ready for its daily plunge into the cold, distant horizon. The sun was about 3 fingers above the ground: 45 minutes of daylight. The city of Somewhere, Kansas was about 50 more miles. They'd be home before nightfall. Eddie knew this and assumed Bobby C did as well.

The radio wasn't on and several of the dashboard labels were worn down to incomprehensible smudges, but Eddie knew what everything did and knew what worked and didn't. Bobby C didn't have much baggage in Eddie's car, but Eddie had a lot of his own baggage in the backseat, where it was yesterday, last week and last month. The car also had a cruise control feature that required a trick with the buttons--so in a way it worked, but only for Eddie.

Some parts of Kansas look like how non-Kansans would expect Kansas to look. Other parts of Kansas don't look like Kansas. In the early winter the hills are covered with rough, patchy field grass. Brown, tan and sometimes with a tint of red thanks to a lowering sun. The fields were sleeping hyenas and breathed in a subtle unison with Eddie.

Bobby C had a scar above his left eyebrow and a matching one on his left cheek. Eddie didn't know what had happened but also knew fifty people would ask Bobby C within his first day of being back in town so it didn't seem worth it to have Bobby C tell the origin story 51 times. Eddie assumed Bobby C had lots of things to talk to lots of people about.

Bobby C was wearing dark sunglasses so Eddie wasn't even fully convinced his oldest friend was even awake until Bobby C read a text message. Bobby C gave no reaction to the message and didn't respond back. Eddie didn't know who sent the message nor what it said, but knew it was somebody who respected Bobby C's musical ability and had no reason to ever have heard of Eddie.

Eddie knew Bobby C could do and had done anything Eddie could or had done--plus more. It was just a matter of time before Bobby C would be discovered talented. Eddie hadn't even discovered his own talent yet. Neither had become nationally famous, but Eddie hadn't even become famous within the city he had known for 20 years and performed in for 10.

Eddie kept his soft eyes forward. Bobby C kept his head tilted to his window. The mini-hills and valleys contained scattered naked trees. They drove past an old gas station that had been abandoned years ago. Some of the boards over the windows were covered with graffiti, others had been stripped away for interior access. Shingles were missing and most paint had been weathered off. The building was still standing but the inside had been hallowed out. Weeds and stray grass grew along the edges and where gas pumps once stood. Cracks in the parking lot pavement spoke volumes about the decaying roadside monument.