Calling All David Ryans

Chapter 19

                                                                                                      XIX.

Due to the fight I had with my sister, my movements became slower.  Despite my lack of help, progress was made, and the upstairs Dave's gallery was finished.  Dave lead us down a set of stairs into a dark basement.  A deadened click rebated in the darkness. Feet scuffed against the pavement as someone inched towards me. Nervousness ticked in my heart.  I grabbed my chest.  "Leave me alone." I mumbled. 

"Oh, sorry."  An orange flicker of light started to grow as Rob stepped away.

"No, no.  Not you.  I was just talking to myself."

"Oh, okay."  An intensity was unveiled in Rob's hazel eyes as the light started to cover the room.  Dave's voice saved me from replying to questions prompted by Rob's stare.  "Um, yeah, well, the place was a lot messier than I thought.  Okay, well, basically I want to make this place a storage area."

"Um, excuse me?" Logen chirped.  "If its your storage space then why clear this stuff out?  Are you already using it for a storage place?"

A smile crossed Dave's face.  He found humor in the stupidity of her statement.  "Well, if your closet is just a storage place then why do clean it out every spring?"

"What does that have to with anything?  And how do you know about my personal habits?"

Maggie touched Logen's, and with a flick of her wrist, she beckoned Dave to continue.  "Ignore her.  She's just having an off day."

Dave laughed and then continued.  "Alrightie then, I just want to thank you all for coming out here.  It mean a lot to me.  As it has been said, 'many hands make for light work', or something like that.  I know personally, that that is true, so I thank you."

I heard a shuffle against the concrete floor.  Robert inched towards me.  "Why are you talking to yourself."  He leaned in close so he could whisper into my ear.

I knew that translation of Robert's phrase.  He wanted ask what was wrong, but I did not want confide.  "Oh you know, it relaxes my nerves."

Dave continued to rattle on.

"Do you know that I talk to myself too?"  Robert drew closer.

"Oh?"

"But, I only talk to myself when nobody's around." 

My bottom lip folded in.  The soft buzz of the old light sounded above us.  Perhaps to an outsider the conversation seemed a bit odd, but my conversations with Rob tended to drift to the peculiar.  "You see, I would have to disagree.  I think it is the opposite."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you see when talking to yourself in public then you can feign talking to someone else and it will not look as strange."

"But, there is no one around to think you are strange when you are alone!"

"Eh, let me finish, Robert.  If you talk to yourself in private, then if someone walk is you, then you will have a lot questions to answer.  They will joke about for awhile.  Trust me, I would know."

"You seem to have put a lot of thought into this."

I gave a small shake to the head.  "I came up with in just now."

Furrowing his brow, Robert appeared to be in deep contemplation.  "Hm, I guess you do not seem like the type of person that ponders random things like that."