really, I don't mind," Bobby interrupted. "I don't mind at all. It's good to get these things out in the open - identifying
the problem makes it that much more avoidable, don't you agree? Well, my mom's boyfriend, I burned his house down. The whole
thing. Actually, I burned down his house, and I burned down his garage, and also his car, which all should probably count
separately since the garage was detached and the car was parked three blocks away at the time. He did something that upset
me, not that that's an excuse though. Neither he nor my mother speaks to me now, but that's penance, right? Penance is important,"
Bobby offered, eyebrows raised and head bobbing like it was a novelty they should try.
"What'd you do hard man? What'd they stick on your ass?" Horus didn't ask Snowden the question, he pushed it into him, shooting
his thick arm forward and slamming his open palm into Snowden's shoulder. Caught off guard, Snowden fought to keep his body
rigid and balanced, worked even harder to make this look like no struggle at all.
"I killed a man," Snowden said back to him. It sounded hard. It was supposed to sound hard. Snowden didn't say it was his
father, that it was a mistake, or that it was one punch and the man's drunken fall had been more responsible for the hemorrhage
than his son's initial action. Immediately overwhelmed by the guilt of act and omission, Snowden turned directly to Bobby
and said in a different tone, "It was an accident."
"That's good when they can't prove it was premeditated or nothing," Horus mused behind him. "That's what got me out early.
There was four of them and just me, so wasn't no way they could prove I started shit. Could have gotten self-defense too,
but I got a little carried away, y'know, with that blunt instrument and all." Horus paused, inspected his shoes as he waited
for a question that never came. When the back door finally opened, Lester stepping aside to let them in and instructing the
men to climb the stairs all the way to the roof's access door, Horus waited until they were two flights up before continuing.
"I would tell you what that blunt instrument was," Horus said like someone had pleaded with him to share this information,
"but when people find out it tends to get all sensationalistic. Me, I'm more the subtle type."
There was a hedgehog floating ten yards above them, dropping greetings below.
Not really. It wasn't a hedgehog, it was a man. It was the man who brought them here, the one whose name was his former office.
He was floating, though, up there in the air in the round basket of the hot-air balloon he'd rented for the occasion. Men
with shirts and hats that said ROSEDALE AMUSEMENTS surrounded a crane, working it around to pull the air monster down by its
cabled tether. Slowly, the balloon dipped to the roof the recruits stood on, bringing former Congressman Cyrus Marks down
with it.
Snowden looked to his side in disbelief as Bobby joined Lester in waving joyously in the air, as if something great and improbable
had been accomplished by this entrance. Next to them, Horus wasn't even looking up, stretching his arms behind his back and
pulling his knees to his chest like he was going to jump the remaining distance to their new boss.
"Boys. Neophytes. I was just like you once," Marks began yelling over the edge of his hot-air balloon's basket. "I too did
careless, destructive things like you have done. The only difference was that I was smarter than you ever were. I didn't get
caught. You are nothing now and you know it, but follow me where I say to go, do what I say to do, and I'll make you something!
You have my word, and that's like gold."
"It's like solid gold!" Lester repeated on the ground next to them.
Even standing far below, looking straight up into the air at the man, the congressman appeared squat to Snowden. Compressed,
crushed, as if gravity had taken it upon itself to push this full-grown man into as
the problem makes it that much more avoidable, don't you agree? Well, my mom's boyfriend, I burned his house down. The whole
thing. Actually, I burned down his house, and I burned down his garage, and also his car, which all should probably count
separately since the garage was detached and the car was parked three blocks away at the time. He did something that upset
me, not that that's an excuse though. Neither he nor my mother speaks to me now, but that's penance, right? Penance is important,"
Bobby offered, eyebrows raised and head bobbing like it was a novelty they should try.
"What'd you do hard man? What'd they stick on your ass?" Horus didn't ask Snowden the question, he pushed it into him, shooting
his thick arm forward and slamming his open palm into Snowden's shoulder. Caught off guard, Snowden fought to keep his body
rigid and balanced, worked even harder to make this look like no struggle at all.
"I killed a man," Snowden said back to him. It sounded hard. It was supposed to sound hard. Snowden didn't say it was his
father, that it was a mistake, or that it was one punch and the man's drunken fall had been more responsible for the hemorrhage
than his son's initial action. Immediately overwhelmed by the guilt of act and omission, Snowden turned directly to Bobby
and said in a different tone, "It was an accident."
"That's good when they can't prove it was premeditated or nothing," Horus mused behind him. "That's what got me out early.
There was four of them and just me, so wasn't no way they could prove I started shit. Could have gotten self-defense too,
but I got a little carried away, y'know, with that blunt instrument and all." Horus paused, inspected his shoes as he waited
for a question that never came. When the back door finally opened, Lester stepping aside to let them in and instructing the
men to climb the stairs all the way to the roof's access door, Horus waited until they were two flights up before continuing.
"I would tell you what that blunt instrument was," Horus said like someone had pleaded with him to share this information,
"but when people find out it tends to get all sensationalistic. Me, I'm more the subtle type."
There was a hedgehog floating ten yards above them, dropping greetings below.
Not really. It wasn't a hedgehog, it was a man. It was the man who brought them here, the one whose name was his former office.
He was floating, though, up there in the air in the round basket of the hot-air balloon he'd rented for the occasion. Men
with shirts and hats that said ROSEDALE AMUSEMENTS surrounded a crane, working it around to pull the air monster down by its
cabled tether. Slowly, the balloon dipped to the roof the recruits stood on, bringing former Congressman Cyrus Marks down
with it.
Snowden looked to his side in disbelief as Bobby joined Lester in waving joyously in the air, as if something great and improbable
had been accomplished by this entrance. Next to them, Horus wasn't even looking up, stretching his arms behind his back and
pulling his knees to his chest like he was going to jump the remaining distance to their new boss.
"Boys. Neophytes. I was just like you once," Marks began yelling over the edge of his hot-air balloon's basket. "I too did
careless, destructive things like you have done. The only difference was that I was smarter than you ever were. I didn't get
caught. You are nothing now and you know it, but follow me where I say to go, do what I say to do, and I'll make you something!
You have my word, and that's like gold."
"It's like solid gold!" Lester repeated on the ground next to them.
Even standing far below, looking straight up into the air at the man, the congressman appeared squat to Snowden. Compressed,
crushed, as if gravity had taken it upon itself to push this full-grown man into as
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