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Sunlight trickles through the window and onto Dewey's face. Dewey rolls over, waking up and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He sighs. The night wasn't long enough and morning came way too quickly. He looks at the clock, then at his brothers' bed across from him. It's early, but Huey and Louie aren't in the camper van. Reluctantly, Dewey gets out of bed, wanders to the fridge and grabs an apple, then sits down at his computer to email Uncle Donald.
'Change of plans. We're going to Duck Valley before we come home. We're okay, don't worry. We're just on an adventure'.
He clicks send and yawns, waiting for a reply, even though he doesn't expect one right away. After his apple is done and there's no response from Uncle Donald, Dewey gets up, stretches his arms above his head, and leaves the camper van.
Their fridge is almost empty. Luckily, they have money (Uncle Donald made sure they took plenty) and Dewey saw a grocery store in town.
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"I can't tell you what he's like now," says Bennie, tinkering with... something in his pile of scraps, and metal, and contraptions, "but I can tell you what he was like at 14."
Louie's sitting on the sofa, watching him. Bennie's hands are bony and calloused, and a little shaky. Louie doesn't think he ate anything that morning. Louie didn't see him eat yesterday either.
"He was a nice kid. We lived in a small town, everyone knew each other. Your father always lent a helping hand to anybody who needed one," Bennie continues.
Louie sinks against the sofa's lean. The sun is only just rising and his mind's not quite awake yet. Bennie's voice is soft, almost like a lullaby. Watching him work is like watching Dewey work on one of his inventions. His hair keeps falling in his face, but he doesn't notice. The only thing that's different is that Bennie's leg is bouncing like he's restless, something Louie knows that he himself does when he's trying to focus on his homework.
"He changed after our parents died," Bennie says quietly.
"Your parents died?" Louie asks, a wave of empathy washing over him for this meek, skinny man.
Bennie nods. "Train accident," he answers just as quietly. "It changed all of us. Made us drift apart."
Louie puts himself in Bennie's shoes; thinks about Uncle Donald passing away and he and his brothers drifting apart. It makes his chest ache.
"We tried to run the house ourselves. Jack and Marlene both got jobs. I wanted to help, but they told me to focus on school." Bennie smiles a little, but it doesn’t stay for very long. Louie’s noticed that all of Bennie’s smiles are tiny and short-lasting.
“Sounds like something Huey and Dewey would say to me,” Louie says with a smile of his own.
Bennie chuckles. “Big brothers, huh?”
Louie grins. “Yeah.”
“I know what that’s like. In a way, big sisters are even worse.”
“I can’t imagine.”
“Good.”
Suddenly, Louie sees Huey in Bennie, but only briefly. It’s only in the way he speaks. Short and sweet and straight to the point.
“We were okay. But not for very long,” Bennie continues his story, grabbing a different tool. Louie tried to figure out what he’s making, or fixing, or doing, or whatever, but he couldn’t even tell what shape it is. “We ran out of money. That’s when Jack and Marlene started fighting. Really fighting. The kind of fighting your parents do on the verge of divorce.”
Louie remembers Donald and Daisy having a fight like that once. Vaguely. It was so long ago. He doesn’t even remember how old he was.
Huey and Dewey have had countless arguments and fist fights over the entirety of their lives. Louie’s been in them too. But they fixed them every time. Nothing made them not speak to each other for more than a decade.
“I tried to mediate,” Bennie says, and Louie thinks his voice has gotten even softer, “but I usually just ended up crying. I was an angry crier. Sometimes I’d just cry because their yelling would give me a migraine. It got them to stop. But never permanently.”
It’s then Louie realizes that Bennie has scars around his fingers, stretching across his palms and crawling under his sleeves. In the light, they look accidental. At a certain angle, they don’t.
“Then one day, Marlene packed a suitcase and left us. Said there was nothing left for her there. And that we should leave too. I tried to stop her. Your dad didn’t.”
Louie frowns. “Why not?”
Bennie shrugs. “Don’t know. Maybe Jack agreed with her. He ended up leaving town too.”
Louie’s heart drops. “So you were all alone?”
“Yup. In a cold, empty house. Not even 15.”
Louie is sixteen and he can’t imagine being on his own.
“What did you do?”
“Burned it down.”
Louie blinks. “What?”
“I burned our house down,” Bennie repeats, “Then I left town too.”
Louie gapes. “What did you—what did you do after that?” he asks, although he’s not sure if he wants to hear the answer.
Bennie clenches his jaw, a thoughtful look on his face like he’s trying to choose his words carefully. “I got a place,” he eventually replies, “got a job. Got fired. Got kicked out. Repeat. That went on for awhile.” He sighs, and Louie can see a younger version of him doing the same thing. “I almost got engaged once. But then she cheated. Then I came here. And haven’t left since.”
“I can’t...” Louie shakes his head, “I can’t even picture...”
“Times were different back then,” Bennie smiles. “Glad you boys aren’t living it.”
Louie lays his cheek on his arm, heart heavy in his chest, and goes back to watching Bennie’s thin, shaking, scarred hands work.
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The sun seems slow rising today. Huey watches oranges and reds flood the sky, stars fading, and moon going down. It looks different in the countryside. Prettier.
“Smoking’s a filthy habit, you know.”
Huey jumps and looks behind him. Bennie is standing there, lighting up a cigarette.
Huey frowns at him. “You’re doing it.” Still, he drops the butt and crushes it with his foot. Truthfully, he’s tried it a few times now and he just doesn’t like it. He’d stop, but they do help with stress headaches and on his bad days.
“I’m old. I’m allowed to,” Bennie says.
Huey almost laughs, hearing Dewey’s snarky tone in Bennie’s voice. But he doesn’t because he’s not sure how he feels about Bennie yet.
“You’re a lot like Marlene,” Bennie says.
“Am I?” Huey asks, only half-listening. His eyes are on the sunrise.
“Marlene always had a scowl on her face too,” Bennie replies, taking a drag, “but you look like your dad.”
This gets Huey’s attention. “I do?”
Bennie looks at him. He stares wordlessly for a moment and Huey sees a swarm of emotions in his eyes. Then Bennie turns to watch the sun.
“You’re the best parts of him.”
Bennie’s voice sounds watery and it reminds Huey of Louie for some reason.
They’re quiet for awhile. It’s kinda nice. Then Huey remembers that Bennie had caught him smoking.
“Don’t tell my brothers.”
“Your secret’s safe with me.”
When the sun finally rises above the horizon, Huey decides he likes Bennie after all.
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When Dewey gets back from the store, Bennie helps him put the groceries in their camper van fridge. Dewey sees Huey and Louie in Bennie’s house through the window. Huey’s watching tv and Louie’s asleep against his shoulder.
Bennie trips several times in the van. It was amusing at first, but now Dewey’s a little concerned.
“My guess is you’re the middle triplet,” Bennie suddenly says, now sitting on Huey and Louie’s bed after Dewey told him to.
Dewey blinks, putting the milk away. “How’d you know?”
Bennie shrugs. “Triplet intuition.”
Dewey’s eyes widen. “You’re a triplet too?”
A small smile forms on Bennie’s beak and he nods.
“Impressive. But I bet you can’t guess which ones Louie and Huey are,” Dewey says playfully.
“Louie’s the youngest. Huey’s the oldest.”
Dewey’s quiet for a moment. Then, “Okay, you’re good.”
Bennie chuckles.
Dewey closes the fridge and looks out the window. So many flowers grow around here.
“You three are us in a different universe,” Bennie says, “you’re the us that didn’t abandon each other.”
Dewey swallows, suddenly feeling guilty. “It’s must’ve been hard seeing us in the door yesterday.”
Bennie doesn’t answer right aways. He looks at the fridge, then at the floor, then finally at Dewey. “It was,” he confirms, but then says, “And I’m glad I lived to see my brother’s children.”
A burst of affection swells in Dewey’s chest. He smiles and Bennie smiles back.
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Before they hit the road again, Louie accidentally spills soda on Dewey’s computer and wrecks it. There’s yelling, then Huey somehow involves himself, and then they’re fighting about Dewey’s sunglasses that Huey broke five years ago.
Meanwhile, Bennie watches them with a smile.
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After they’re done arguing over nonsense, they each hug Bennie goodbye. He hugs them back hesitantly, awkwardly, like he doesn’t know how to.
“We’ll visit again sometime,” Louie promises.
“Yeah. And we’ll bring Uncle Donald too,” says Huey.
Bennie smiles happily, wiping at his eyes.
They wave, but before they get in the van, Dewey looks back at him.
“Bye, Uncle Bennie.”
Bennie gasps and his shoulders shake. “Goodbye,” he says back, voice thick with emotion.
Then they’re closing the door, Huey’s getting in the driver’s seat, and they’re buckling their seatbelts. Dewey watches Bennie watching them drive off until he’s out of sight.
“To Duck Valley!” Louie exclaims, and Dewey groans because he’s way too loud and he was just about to fall asleep.
“To Duck Valley!” Huey exclaims as well just to annoy him.
“Shut up,” Dewey whines.
They don’t.
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The telephone rings once. Twice. Three, four times.
Bennie sighs. He’s about to give up.
But then there’s the answering machine. It beeps and Bennie gulps.
“It’s me, Jack,” he manages to utter, throat sore and weak. He doesn’t speak for a long time, unsure of what to say. He used to think about what he’d say if he ever saw Jack again (Marlene too). But now he has no idea what there is to say.
So he decides not to talk about the past.
“I met your sons,” he says quietly, the way he always speaks, “They’re good kids. And they want to see you.” He rubs at the scars on his hands. “See your kids, Jack. Don’t run away. They don’t deserve that.”
He puts down the phone. He sighs heavily. Then he gets back to work.