A Deal With God

Chapter 15: The Shadowlands

"The boys are in AV Club at the middle school and they thought they would have a crack at it, but that just resulted in wires and...things everywhere. Quinn put it back together as best as she could but it still doesn't work," Joyce explained.

"You did this?" Bob asked in surprise. He caught the way her brow creased as she silently turned to look at her aunt.

"This is very clean work, young lady. Is there a new AV Club at the high school that I haven't heard about?" He asked quickly, not having meant to cause offence.

"It looked like a puzzle that needed solving. I figured it couldn't get any worse than what the boys did to it," Quinn shrugged, her features falling back into a neutral expression.

"I see what the problem is. This circuit chip right here is completely fried. That's definitely faulty manufacturing," Bob said, working on disconnecting it from the bottom half of the controller. He missed the apologetic look the teen threw at her guardian at the sound of fried circuitry.

"See, this is what it should look like," he said, pulling a larger chip out of one of the many storage bins that were tucked away under the counter. He placed the fried one next to it, noticing the way Quinn leaned forward ever so slightly to get a better look.

"Everything else looks like it's in good order. Unfortunately I don't have any chips of this size in stock right now, but we've needed to order more anyway. Unless something comes up, your son will be back to playing the Atari with his friends next week," Bob said, filling up a work slip and placing the controller and all its parts in a plastic bin.

"That's great. How much do I owe you, Bob?" Joyce asked, reaching for her purse.

"On the house," Bob said, waving her purse away.

"Don't be silly, let me repay you for the trouble," Joyce insisted.

"How about dinner?" Quinn suggested nonchalantly.

"That's a great idea! We could catch up!" Joyce beamed. Bob was pretty much in a daze from that moment forward, but somewhere during that time, it was agreed that he was coming to dinner at the Byers' on Friday at 5pm.

On their way out, they passed one of Bob's regulars coming in. As it was snowing outside, the older teen had his hood pulled up, long messy hair sticking out of both sides. At the sight of the women making their way out, he dramatically pulled his hood back and held the door open for them. Even in his own daze, Bob couldn't help but notice the way the two teens locked eyes in crossing. Stepping outside though, Quinn turned her head and followed Joyce down the sidewalk. The teen left inside watched them go until they were out of sight.

"You, uh, you okay there, Eddie?" Bob asked, half amused, half sympathetic. The boy snapped out of his reverie and made his way over to Bob with a giant grin on his face.

"Never better, Mr. Newby," he replied, drumming his fingers on the counter, silver rings glistening in the light.

"With how regularly you need this amp fixed up, I think we can be on a first name basis," Bob said, pulling the amp in question off the shelf and placing it on the counter, just in time for another show at the local dive bar.

That dinner turned into many dinners, movie nights, packed lunch picnics, and much more. He'd just spent the night and then in the morning he'd driven Quinn and Will to school, and all of it felt like a dream. But Cloud 9 didn't last very long when he started to think back on the evening. Nervous that he had maybe overstepped when suggesting to move the whole family out of Hawkins and start over somewhere new, Bob swung by the General Store at noontime with packed lunches to surprise Joyce. They sat on the bench outside of Melvald's to keep an eye on the store and enjoy the autumn sun.