Page 9 of A Little Campfire Blues

“No, maybe. You have got to share the rest of that,” he insisted. “Including what the hell inspired it, who put him up to it, and how the hell he managed to sit for that.”

“Poorly,” I said, as I shoved the door to the jeep closed so the dinging would stop. “The tattoo artist had to stop every ten to fifteen minutes while Duce got himself together so he didn’t pass out.”

“Do I even want to know how long it took?”

“Almost three hours, and thank the gods it wasn’t bigger, because I think he’d have walked out with it unfinished if the artist hadn’t been done by that point.”

“Color or shaded?”

“Ohh, he opted for color but then cut down on the number of colors after the first one had been applied. Told him he should have opted for red 'cause green made it look like his junk was about to fall off. He’s got the forked tongue going around the slit and everything. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to touch it for like, a month afterward. Should have heard him yowl every time he had to take a piss.”

“I bet, holy shit.”

“There’s gotta be more to it though,” he said. “Why do it in the first place?”

“If you wanna hear that part of the story, why don’t you help me drag the inflatable island and air pump out of the back? We can blow it up, float on the lake, and I’ll tell you all about why our badass drummer decided he needed to do something so outrageous just to try and prove something we already knew.”

“That he was a glutton for punishment?”

“Mmm, I wouldn’t exactly say a glutton for it.”

“But….”

Raising an eyebrow, I deliberately stepped up to the back door of the jeep and opened it rather than answer.

“You’re seriously going to make me wait until we’re on the lake before telling me the rest of the story?” He said, shaking his head even as he held out his hands for the raft once I’d extracted it.

“It’ll be worth it, I promise.”

“In that case, we’d better bring the rest of your things in so whatever you’ve got in the cooler won’t wind up floating in melted ice, if it isn’t already.”

“It isn’t. I stopped at a gas station about an hour ago to drain out what little water there was and pack more ice on top.”

“Good to know, but that doesn’t mean we should leave it out here. Neither one of us has much time awareness when we’re on the water.”

Okay, so maybe he did have a point there, and I’d picked up steaks, burgers, chicken, and several bags of shrimp and scallops to cook on the grill. Each cabin had one and a full kitchen inside, so I’d gone shopping, grateful for the opportunity to enjoy a few homemade meals that I wouldn’t have to eat alone.

“Fine, but as soon as we unpack, we get wet, deal?”

“Deal.”

While he set the inflatable island on the porch, I retrieved the cooler and carried it into the wood-paneled interior. Rustic, but homey. The slanted roof and exposed beams were cool, but the thing I loved the most was the sofa and two loveseats I spotted in front of a flat-screen television mounted on the wall. I’d brought my PlayStation and a bunch of games and couldn’t wait to break them out later tonight. I immediately clocked the Xbox and games on the coffee table and grinned, pleased to see that he’d had the same idea.

It was the same thing when I reached the kitchen and opened the fridge to put away the things I’d brought. He’d filled a shelf with fruit and vegetables that I added to as I started unpacking the cooler. Looked like we were pretty stocked up, which was good, because I was still on the fence about the whole dining hall and chuckwagon meal options. While I knew there would be plenty of people here to meet and interact with, I’d come for him and hoped for as much one-on-one time as possible.

“Have you checked out the rooms yet?” He asked as he carried in my duffle bag and guitar case.

“Nope, just finishing up in the kitchen. I want to dump the ice and let the cooler sit open on the porch to dry so it doesn’t start to smell.”

“I’ll just set this stuff here then and go back for the last of it while you look around,” he replied.

“You don’t have to do that; I can get it.”

“I know you can, but I’ve already had a chance to look around, so you look, and then we can figure out which rooms we want.”

“One is just as good as the other.”

“There are three.”

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