The Last of the Twenty: The Setting of the Board

Chapter 3

The sound of guns going off was deafening, there must have been at least thirty or so people in different groups shooting at the same time. Alex stood for a few moments searching the crowd until he finally picked Mark out at the back of the pit. He was leaning on the dropped tailgate of his truck with his usual blue cloud of cigar smoke floating around his head. He was built much heavier than Alex and stood a full head taller, he had a constant five ‘o clock shadow covering a heavy jaw and crooked smile. All in all he was almost the polar opposite of Alex; one would never think they were brothers just by looking. He worked the graveyard shift at a local company that made wood flooring out of pine, so the most time they got to spend together was in the afternoons, usually here shooting whatever targets they could pick out of the sand.

 Alex shook his head at the smoke cloud above Mark’s head; he didn’t like to see his brother smoking but knew he wasn’t going to change any time soon, so instead he settled for making comments here and there to tease Mark. Alex took a deep breath anticipating another painful walk and tried his best not to look like he was limping. While he slowly made his way across the pit trying to look normal Mark saw him coming and met him with a questioning look.

“I wish you’d stop smoking those things,” Alex said, trying to keep the subject off his limp.

Mark took the cigar out of his mouth and tapped an ash onto the ground, then scrutinized Alex with a crooked smile. “Looks to me like I’m still taking better care of myself than you boy, what the hell’d you do to your foot?”

Alex didn’t say anything for a moment, trying to think of something to tell Mark that wouldn’t involve him losing his temper and kicking his bed barefoot. Mark was a pretty easy guy to live with and treated Alex more like his kid brother than a father, a fact Alex was always thankful about. Unlike Alex however, Mark was even tempered and had an almost annoying habit of thinking things through for what seemed like days on end before he did anything. One of the things that Mark didn’t like and always called Alex out on was what he called “doin’ idiot things without thinking.”

“Got a little mad and kicked my bed barefoot,” Alex finally mumbled while looking at the ground.

Mark put the cigar back in his mouth and started loading his rifle, “Feel pretty stupid I bet. Look pretty stupid too, waddling down here like an old granny.” He said out of one side of his mouth.

Alex felt his face get hot again; he envied Mark’s even temper and tried his best to be like him in that regard. Unfortunately though, Alex failed at that more times than not and ended up embarrassing himself with stunts like this. Hopefully it wouldn’t result in spending the summer in a cast just because Ethan got to him; that would really give Mark something to go on about. 

When Mark finished loading he put his rifle on the tailgate and took the cigar back out of his mouth, he tried to shoot Alex a stern look but started laughing instead. “Bet you won’t do that again, will ya? Why’d the hell you get so bent up in the first place?” he asked.

“Ethan.” He said simply. “Hate the way he is with Nadia and hate how she can’t see it.”

Mark rolled his eyes and picked his rifle back up, looked down at the rifle to double check the safety, “way of the world buddy, way of the world.” He said as he sat on the tailgate and laid the rifle across his lap. “Just don’t you go startin’ anything stupid about it, now get your little girl’s gun out and let’s get to shootin’, I already got stuff setup down there and you’re lucky I haven’t shot it all already.”

Now it was Alex’s turn to roll his eyes, “you couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, and don’t be jealous when you have to reload and I’m still taking all your targets out before you can get going again.”