Expansionism (Unfolding Saga, Pt. 3)

"There's eggs and sausage in the pan in the kitchen, tortillas, cheese. . .just help yourself"

Ryan and I walked into the kitchen and he grabbed a plate and the spatula and began digging at the pan as Steve walked in, hair pressed to the side and sticking up in the back, wearing a t-shirt and soccer shorts. Dawn was in the backyard. The sun was coming through the window and the kitchen smelled like dog. On the floor near the door was a dog dish full of dog food and another with water in it and you could see stray dog hairs floating in the water. The eggs immediately made me think of Michelle's famous scrambled eggs as the sausage had been mixed into them during cooking. Ryan scooped them with the spatula onto his tortilla, threw in some cheese, and maybe some sour cream too (I don't remember) and then folded a burrito and handed the spatula to me. I did the same. Steve did the same, after me, and the three of us sat down at the dining room table and began eating while Dawn tarried outside.

"So you went to Boyztown last night?" Ryan asked Steve.

"Ugghh. . ." he responded and went on to recount the events of the evening, that it was a late night. All through the telling his right nostril furled and he intermittently brought his index finger up to it, not placing it in, but rather what looked as though to push it back down into place or to be sure that it was still there.

I munched on my burrito and listened to stories from the night before, all the while watching the nostril and the tuft of hair that was sticking up in back. The two talked about coworkers and who had said what, and who had done what, and how it had related to how they knew their coworkers, and what had been said in the previous week leading up to the dramatic events of last night. All the while I wondered about what wasn't being said and my eyes darted between Steve and Ryan (who from time to time would lean forward covering his mouth with his hand and laughing through his nose with his mouth full of food).

Eventually Dawn came through the kitchen door and fixed herself an egg and sausage and cheese burrito and sat down at the table with us. "So you guys went to Boyztown last night?" she asked to which Steve and Ryan responded with severely truncated versions of the same stories and soon the three of them were laughing and talking about Steve and Ryan's coworkers while Dawn's senile dog (not Jeff) that had been laying on the living room floor for the whole ordeal licked it's chops and stretched out on it's side and closed it's eyes.

"So, do you guys know where you're going?" Steve asked.