Growing up Cody

Chapter 10 - Chair 5

After helping Craig put away the surfboards and being mad at the fact that his other siblings bailed on them at the beach, yet again. Thus forcing him and Craig to do all the grunt work. Deran decided he wanted to go ride along The Strand and chill out. He hated how everyone always made him and Craig do all the hard work so he got on his bike and left through the side gate. He loved riding and feeling the wind in his hair it was the closest thing to surfing on land. Unless you counted skating, which Deran didn't. He was riding down The Strand looking out at the ocean daydreaming when suddenly someone stumbled onto the sidewalk in front of him. He tried to avoid hitting him and failed, tumbling off his bike.

He stands up and realizes he knows the man who caused him to fall. It was Ray Blackwell, Baz's drunk father. He rolls over then sits up on the pavement, his forehead is bleeding from where he hit the pavement. He takes in Deran who is tending to his own scraped knees and hands.

He drunkly slurs, "watch where you're going asshole." Then his eyes brighten a bit with recognition "of course it's a fucking Cody, you trying to hurt me boy?" He stands up staggering towards him, "You Cody's just can't stay out of my life.. first you steal my boy..." he continues mumbling incoherently.

Deran fishes his phone out of his pocket and dials Craig's number, it goes straight to voicemail. He starts to dial again when suddenly he's knocked off his feet, as Ray tackles him to the ground still mumbling the smell of alcohol was overwhelming. Ray is on top of Deran. Deran is fighting to get out front under the drunken man, and reach his phone which fell several feet away. They continue struggling Deran thinking to himself, 'where are all the people, how can no one be on The Strand when he needs help.'

He can almost reach his phone when it dings that he received a text. He is edging closer dragging 200 pounds of dead drunken deadbeat dad along with him. It's possible Ray has passed out, he is definitely bleeding a lot from his head and it's dripping all over Deran. He wipes the blood from his eyes to see his text is from Julia, she's looking for him.

He texts back 'chair 5 Craig 911" hoping his sister would understand. Ray is back trying to pummel him yelling about "fucking Cody motherfucker" he is pulling Deran out onto the beach headed towards the waters edge. Deran can't even tell if Ray knows what he's doing but he does manage to get a few punches in before he hears brakes locking up and before he knows it he is laying in the sand free of his tormentor, Craig is by his side.

"What happened D?" He asks, the sounds of fighting come from behind Craig who is looking at his blood soaked brother "man where you hurt?"

Deran sits up, "I'm not that hurt it's all his blood, I skinned my knees and hands but I'm ok." He says pulling his shirt off to wipe the blood from his face.

Craig looks at him as he starts towards the water to better rinse off, "Dude what happened?"

Deran starts retelling what happened, "I wasn't looking then he stumbled onto the sidewalk and I wiped out, it took me a minute to realize who it was but once he saw me he came at me swinging, like outta control." Looking back towards the street where his brothers were still kicking at the drunken man, Deran shouts, "Stop guys it's fucking Ray."

Baz stops kicking immediately and pulls Pope back as Ray collapses in a lump on the beach.

Craig and Deran walk over to stand with their brothers, Craig starts, "did you even know he was back?" He asks Baz.

Baz sighs deeply, "no clue man, damn." He shakes his head.

Pope walks back to the truck, pulling it into a real parking place, from where they had stopped it in the middle of the road.

Craig and Deran look at Baz, "so what are we gonna do with him?" Craig asks, Deran pipes up, "leave him here to rot, like he deserves" he kicks the lifeless body laying in front of them, then spits on him. "Damn right I a fucking Cody, bitch." He goes to kick him again when Baz stops him. He looks Deran in the eye, "get your bike in the truck and get in, we're gonna drop him at the ER and go home, Craig help me get him in the truck."

They maneuver the dead weight of Baz's passed our father towards the truck, he's still bleeding from his head wound. Pope jumps back out of the truck "in the back, I'm not washing blood out of this truck, again." Pope says and helps lift him into the bed of the truck with Deran's bike.

They get in the truck and ride to the ER in silence, pulling up to the door. They quickly pull Ray out of the truck and leave him in a heap next to the door, and quickly drive off.

Baz is deep in thought in the passenger seat, when he is brought back to reality by Craig.

"So anyone think of what we are gonna tell Smurf?"

Baz turns to the backseat, "No a clue, but we sure can't tell her the truth, so let me think, Pope, slow down, we need more time to figure it out."

The sit in silence a few more when finally Baz starts "Ok, so Deran you got jumped, you don't know who but best guess is some stupid tourists. They knocked you off your bike and tried to steal it. Not great but I think it will work. But no matter what no one and I mean no one, Pope, tells Smurf Ray is in town. Ok?"

They all agree as they pull into their driveway and park.

They walk inside to find the dining table has been cleaned off and Smurf, Julia and Cath are sitting in the living room watching Tv.

"Everything all right babys?" Smurf asks getting up.

Baz takes the lead and steps down into the living room. "Yeah we're good, some tourist kids thought they could jack Deran's bike, but we showed them, he's a bit scraped up but no big deal."

Julia sits up, "here Deran, holding up the bong she had just finished hitting, sounds like you need this," he collapses on the couch next to her. Craig grabs a seat to, "I got next"

Smurf is looking at Deran, she steps to him, placing a kiss on the top of his head, "glad you are ok baby, you know I would die if anything ever happened to you baby." She steps over to Baz, "so what really happened?"

He looks at her in disbelief, "we told you Smurf Deran got jumped, we took care of it, end of story."

She touched his cheek, "ok baby, where's Pope?"

Baz turns to look, "He must have gone to his room, he was right behind us,"

Smurf leaves the room headed off in the direction of Popes bedroom.

Julia is inspecting Deran, "So you gonna tell us what really happened?"

Deran exhaled a lungful of smoke, hands Craig the bong and sighs "Ray's in town and I ran into him literally, it was a mess, but we can't tell Smurf, got it" looking to Catherine, "you too, not a word about this, ok?"

She nods and focuses back on the TV.

Julia looks at Baz, "You ok? Did you know he was back?"

He has his head down staring at the floor, he takes a deep breath "Not a clue, and I would rather not have this conversation, at least not here." He gets up and head off in the direction of his room.

**********************************
Vote and comment 🌈