Erich - Sixteen

Erich

“Bleeding Christ! Erich, do you know what any of these bloody graphs mean?”

I looked up to see from my notebook to see Gabe waving his Economics textbook at me. He was sprawled on the floor and I was hunched over my notebook at the desk. It was Sunday afternoon and the four of us were holed up in the dorm with our noses in books. It was already May. That meant final exams were in three weeks and we were the furthest from prepared that we could possibly be.

I didn’t know what the graphs meant. Not to mention I was ears-deep in my notes from Brit History. So I didn’t want to help Gabe. “Ich spreche kein Englisch,” I muttered only half jokingly.

Gabe scowled at me from the ground. “Useless f**k,” he grumbled. Normally, I would have thrown him through the floor for talking like that. But we were running low on cigarettes. We all had to cut down to a half a pack a day if we wanted to stash to last another month. And that was with Jim all but quitting. He barely smoked anyway and he could get cigs from Rebecca when he needed them. He was up there every goddamn night now anyway. But Gabe was the heaviest smoker of the four of us and he had been in an awful mood since Wednesday. I didn’t have the heart to bully him when I knew how badly he missed his cigs.

Hersch put down his pencil and laughed. “Take it easy, Moretti. Why don’t you have a smoke before we have to peel you off the wall?”

I snorted. Gabe let out a frustrated groan and slammed the book shut. “Argh! I hate this class!” He tossed the book on the floor and it went skidding under his bunk.

“Well what are you asking me for? Ask the smart one.” I was talking about Jim of course. He was buried in a fort of blankets and pillows up in his bunk. His long legs stuck out of the covers like two stalks of corn. I grabbed a book off the desk and tossed it at him. It landed on his back with a thud and Jim’s head poked out of the covers.

“Oh good,” Jim groaned sarcastically, “You can still throw. Good thing you still have that left hand, right?”

“Piss off.” I was lucky I was left handed. Either Jim’s stitching or the cut itself had wrecked my hand. My fingers wouldn’t straighten out all the way anymore. Jim said I had a damaged tendon. He said it might heal someday. It wasn’t too noticeable. But it would probably be deformed for a long time. Don’t think I didn’t blame both Jim and Gabe for that. “Hey, worthless! Give Moretti a hand, would you?”

“I’m not even taking Economics!” he whined sarcastically with a smile. He had been in a great mood all week. For me and Gabe it was no secret why. Jim had snuck out every night since Thursday to go f**k Rebecca. It’s a good thing she had condoms. I might have had to chain him to the boiler if he was going to keep being stupid about it. If there was one thing I wanted, it was to make sure he didn’t make the same mistakes I did. For his sake and for Hersch’s. And Rebecca’s too. She seemed like a good enough girl. It would be as bad to see her end up like Brigitte as it would to see Jim end up like me.

“Well you’re not studying to be a priest either, so why the hell are you reading the Bible?” I didn’t know he had a Bible under there. Sometimes I thought Hersch could literally see everything.

“Piss off!” Gabe interjected even though he wasn’t part of the conversation. No one talked down Catholics around Gabe. Especially not Gabe after three hours without a smoke.

Jim pulled the book out of the blankets and thumbed through it without looking at us. “Just something I’ve got to do,” he muttered. I smiled into my notebook. I was the only one who knew that he had prayed for condoms.

“Anything interesting?”

Jim swung his legs off the bed and dangled them there like noodles. Was he getting taller? Hell, they just about touched the bottom bunk! “Right here,” he pointed, “this is my favorite part.”

“You have a favorite part of the Bible?” Hersch asked sarcastically.

 “Yeah, I do. I always end up reading it when I mean to read something else. Right here, when Jesus decides that for some reason all of his disciples need new names.”

Hersch looked confused. “Why?” He didn’t have a great grasp of the uselessness of the Bible.

Jim rolled his eyes. “Do I ask you stupid questions about the Jew Bible?”

“You’re an idiot.” Even I knew that wasn’t what it was called.

 “Just shut up and listen.” He found his place on the page and read: “‘James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John, to them he gave the name Boa… Boang…’” Jim struggled over the word for a minute before giving up, “f**k, I can’t read that. Anyway, he gives those two this name that means Sons of Thunder.”

All three of us gave him a look like he was crazy. Even Gabe. Hersch screwed up his face and shook his head. “What are you speaking, Japanese? What the hell does that mean?”

            Jim laughed and looked a embarrassed “I don’t really know. My parents used to read it to me. When I was a kid, my mom used to say it was good she named me after James, because he was the one who was always in trouble or something. Those two, they were close to Jesus like Peter was, but they were really angry and proud all the time too. They were always shooting off their mouths and getting in fights, is what my mom used to tell me.”

            I snorted. “Sounds like us.”

            That made Hersch laugh out loud. “It does!” he hooted. “We’re the goddamn apostles. Hell, we’re the Sons of Thunder!”

            It really was funny. Since clearly the four of us were about the farthest you could get from being apostles. Even Gabe cracked a smile from the shadow of his bunk. Jim laughed too and bowed his head back to his book. “My dad would say I shouldn’t be like them,” he laughed, “and I would always wonder why I couldn’t do it if the apostles could.”

            “That’s Christians for you,” Hersch remarked.

            “I’m Lutheran!” Jim protested.

            “That’s Catholics for you,” I corrected him.

            Gabe growled. “For the last time, piss off!”

            “For f**k sake, have a cigarette already!” Jim groaned. “Here, have one of mine if you’re going to bite our heads off.”

            Gabe got up angrily and pulled an envelope out of his coat. “I’m going to the mailbox,” he muttered bitterly. “A******s,” he added under his breath

            “Don’t forget to stop off at confession for that foul language!” Jim called as Gabe slammed the door behind him. “Like any of us are scared of him, right?” Banhart joked once he was out of the room.

            Hersch pulled himself out of his bunk once Gabe was gone. “F**k, Amery. He’s turning into you.”

            “If you would just let him smoke he would go back to himself,” I argued.

            Jim rolled his eyes and hopped down from his bunk. “You think taking away his cigs cured him of being a fairy?”

            “Don’t call him that.”

            “You’re mental. Of course he’s a…”

            “Don’t call him that!” I stood up and shoved my chair aside.

            “Banhart, let it go!” Hersch ordered urgently. He stepped sturdily between us.

             Jim extended his hands in sarcastic defense. “Fine, whatever you say.”

Hersch stooped down next to Gabe’s bunk. “He had better learn to fight if he’s going to abuse his books like this. Professor Nelson will flay him alive if he breaks the binding.” He emerged from under the bed with the Economics book in one hand and Gabe’s violin case in the other.

Jim and I both looked at him like he was an idiot. “What are you doing with that?” Jim asked. “He’ll be using you for knife practice if you touch his violin.”

            “I’m just leaving him a pack so he stops being such an a*s.” Hersch sounded exasperated and I decided not to argue with him about it. He knelt down and unlatched the case. Then he didn’t say anything for a long couple of seconds. I turned around to see Hersch reading a piece of paper he had found in the case.

            “What have you got there?”

            Hersch didn’t take his eyes off the paper. “You’re not going to believe this,” he said disbelievingly, “Guys, Gabe inherited his family estate. He’s going to Yorkshire when the term ends.”

            “What? Give me that.” That couldn’t be right. It couldn’t possibly. Gabe didn’t have any money or estate. He was a goddamn orphan! “I would know if Gabe inherited. He tells me everything. Hell, he’s my best…” I had to stop myself. I hadn’t admitted that out loud to anyone, especially not Jim and Hersch. Especially not Gabe. I snatched the letter out of Hersch’s hands and read the first few lines.

            It was true. Every word. Gabe had a hundred acre estate and loads of money to his name now. When the end of the term came he wouldn’t be thrown on the train with the rest of the kids in England. I should have been happy for him. If I was really his best frfiend I would have been happy for him. But the thought of him living in goddamn mansion while I rotted back in Germany made me want to throw up.  Gabe would not only be thousands of miles away from me where I would never ever see him again, but he would be fine without me. His life would play out just fine while mine was still absolute s**t. He didn’t need me for anything.

            I took a few deep breaths before I could give the letter back to Hersch. “Yeah, I guess it’s true.”

            We were all just quiet for a minute. Then Jim added in his own true fashion: “Hey, where’s Yorkshire?” Hersch whacked him on the back of the head with the Econ book and we didn’t talk about it again for three days.

Author's Note

Edited now

PS: The Sons of Thunder reference is a real verse of the bible. I'm the agnostic daughter of a pastor, so it's important to me that I portray a variety of realistic faiths. This is by no means a Christian book. I just really think that knowing where the characters stand spiritually is really important to understanding them.

Reviews

[Arianna]

OH MY YEAYS! I FINALY KNOW WHY ITS CALLED SONS OF THUNDER!!!! happy dance! that was awesome. im in love with your brain! and the things it comes up with. just amazing :) my little gabe...being a bad a*s..wieeerd :) but lovely and awesome. i really liked this chapter it was awesome and i love me my gabe :) he is so adorable. i was wondering if he would tell the other guys, and maybe they will realize its not ALL cause he is smoke deprived. anyway good chapter. :) more...pweeeeeeeeeeeeeeese :)novelists.elite.info.
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