Page 63 of Tank

“Sure can! How can I help you, Miss Jovie?” I ask her seriously.

Before she can answer Cove butts in, “Her teacher told her that she needs to change the ending of her story, but her teacher doesn’t know anything.”

“Cove!” Blanche growls.

“But she doesn’t, Mommy! Jovie’s story is perfect the way it is,” she harrumphs.

“Well, why don’t you tell me about your story and what the teacher wanted you to change?” I say, looking at Jovie.

Cove opens her mouth and Blanche slaps her hand over it, muzzling her.

“Well, it’s about a man who eats way too much chocolate. He eats it every day. Then he eats so much chocolate that he gets diabetes and he has to have his foot cut off, but it doesn’t stop the spread of the infection and he dies.” I blink at her once, then twice, her large eyes staring back at me, waiting for feedback.

“Wow, what an imaginative story, sweetie.” I exclaim, darting my eyes toward a smirking Pops. “I, um, I think if you like it and are happy with it then it’s perfect just the way it is.” Good work Mira, nice solid advice and age appropriate.

“It’s not an imaginary story. It happens in real life,” Elio says, not looking up from his game of chess.

“That’s right, it does,” I answer, “My nana had a friend, Patsy. Patsy took her sock off one day and her toe fell off.” I tell the children. And then realize that maybe I shouldn’t have said that because kids this age probably don’t need to know about old folks’ body parts falling off.

“What happened after that?” Cove asks, edging closer. Even the Bigs and Landrys look up from their phones or petting my traitorous fat orange cat.

“Well, they had a cup of tea and then my nana, ah, tried to sew it back on.” I widen my eyes at Blanche in the hopes that she will distract the kids away from my story.

“Did it work?” Sage asks, looking incredibly interested. “I’m going to be a nurse. This is good research for me.”

“Well, no, it just kinda got more infected, and then they had to amputate two more of her toes.” I shudder. Patsy was a huge fan of sandals and I could never look away when her exposed two toes would come to visit.

“Happens to old folks all the time. Not me though, I like to keep myself fit. I bet you kids didn’t know I power walk 5 miles every morning, huh? And I go for an evening digestion walk,” Pops says to, well, everyone. “Even lift weights. Not to be some kind of gym bro, but to keep things working well. Did you know the main cause of erectile dysfunction is lack of blood flow? You know what keeps blood flowing? Exercise.” He nods at his sage advice, ignoring the fact that we have kids in the room.

“Thanks for the advice Pops,” Gus says drily, from his spot on the couch.

The Landry brothers are bright red and snorting, and Takoda at the bar is also trying hard not to lose it over Pops’ pecker advice.

“And another thing, never skimp on moisturizing. Good skin is important. Elio, why is skin important?”

“Because it’s the largest organ in the human body,” he replies, Pops nodding proudly. “And it’s home to 100 billion nerve endings. Which means any part of the human body can be treated in lots of different ways to bring excruciating pain to the victim making them spill information like a singing canary.”

The room goes silent and we all stare at the dark-haired little boy.

“Huh, now where on earth did you learn that?” Pops says sidling over to Elio and giving him a large-eyed stare. Which would work if Elio was actually looking at Pops.

“Sidney Carver Tombs! You better-”

“Shit, I forgot to take my evening fart walk. I better do that now. Don’t want to get trapped gas. I’ll check the perimeter while I’m out.” Pops pulls up his chino’s another half inch and hot foots it out of the common room as fast as his Skechers can take him. We all stare for a beat and then burst into laughter.

Blanche cuddles her youngest child and gently explains to him that perhaps using any of the body’s 100 million nerveendings would be very painful and a terrible idea and maybe we could just love the other person until we’ve gained enough of their trust for them to open up to us, instead of hurting them. Elio gives her a funny look and shrugs, packing up his chess set and heading down the hall, followed by the other two Littles.

“We got this Mom,” Niko says, he and Sage following after their baby brother.

“I need to see this,” Vic says, looking at his brothers. “That kid is going to run rings around Niko’s reasoning. It’s going to be the funniest thing we’ve seen since Pops ran away.” All three brothers grin and leave, following in the younger Landrys wake.

“Well, can I Just say that was really good parenting Blanche. Very good advice,” Remy says, smiling.

“And it’s all bullshit. The very best way to get someone to talk is definitely torturing all 100 billion nerve endings.”

Hmm, maybe my female character needs to dig deep into her inner Blanche? How great would that be? She hasn’t been a total weenie, but perhaps being locked in a dark basement will be enough to bring out her inner tough gal. I look around at the women dotted around the common room, all of them are wily and tough. I have a spark of an idea and get settled, fingers on my keyboard ready to bring my idea to life.

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