The Miseducation of Riley Pranger

Chapter 5

Riley didn't say anything as he absorbed the news. Pete didn't like him all that much—a lot of people didn't. They'd gotten into it once before and Riley had called him Pedro. Pedro was, in fact, his real name but Riley had spat it out as if it was a curse word and Pete had looked at him differently afterwards, the way some people in town looked at him. It didn't make him no never mind if Pete looked down on him. Riley didn't need to break bread with the man. They just shared a place to work.

"Wow, that's a shame." Riley said slowly. And he meant it. He knew the man had a woman and a little boy. He suddenly thought about all the cars out back that needed working on. Bodie was going to have to hire someone quick and he hoped that he wouldn't think he would take on double shifts. He wouldn't mind doing a little extra but the sign said Bodie's Garage, not Riley's-

"Did you have anything to do with immigration going after him?"

Riley's attention jerked back to Bodie. Wait--? What did Bodie just say? Was he honestly asking him if he'd gotten Pete deported?

Bodie continued, "Because I know your cousin and the people you hang with, Riley-"

"What the f**k, man?" Riley said incredulously.

"You and Pete got into a shoving match-"

"That was nearly a year ago!"

"Look Riley," Bodie growled. "Pete is a good person and he doesn't deserve to be ripped from his home. There's no reason for immigration to be up here sniffing around unless someone said something. Maybe you said something to Sully or one of the others-"

"I don't have to say anything. Everybody knows he's an illegal! He got caught, that's all. Don't make it my fault!"

Bodie looked away. His face had taken on a steely expression. When he met Riley's eyes again they were blank of emotion.

"You're going to have to get up out of here-"

"What?" Riley gave him an incredulous look. "Are you f*****g firing me?"

"I don't trust you!" Bodie yelled. "I don't want a sympathizer around me and my family. And after this…I don't trust you." He gave him a final look. "Get your stuff. I'll be fair and give you a week's pay on top of what you earned."

Riley's face turned red in rage. "f**k you Bodie! f**k your week's pay! f**k this job and f**k your family!"

Bodie's expression fluctuated between something that looked like regret and resolution.

Riley stormed back to his truck. When he realized that he was still holding his coveralls he threw them to the graveled ground. He glared at his former boss before climbing into his truck and abruptly starting the engine.

"Sorry son of a w***e…" he muttered before ripping out of the parking space with his lunch box still in the refrigerator.

~*~

Riley drove mindlessly until he ended up in front of the little trailer that belonged to his cousin.

Sully came out dressed in just partially zipped jeans and Riley suddenly remembered that it wasn't even nine o'clock in the morning.

"Riley. That you, boy?" Sully called while standing on a rickety porch that held a mix matched set of rusted metal chairs amidst several crushed beer cans.

"Yep." Riley slammed the door of the truck and headed up the porch stairs. Sully stepped aside to let him in. A window air conditioning unit was burring noisily, and along with an oscillating fan situated right next a rickety, second hand armchair the interior was surprisingly cool.

"Ain't you supposed to be at work?" Sully asked curiously. He retrieved two beers from the fridge and thrust one at Riley before opening the other for himself.

Riley felt slightly better with the cold brew and the knowledge that he hadn't gotten his cousin out of bed since the television was turned to ESPN.

"That son of a b***h Bodie Matthews just up and fired me!" Riley exclaimed. He sat down on a couch, which was haphazardly covered with an old blanket. The trailer was filthy, but he was used to it. Unless Sully was hooked up with one of his meth headed girlfriends who might take a notion to pick up a little, the trailer stayed in a perpetual state of disgusting.

Sully stopped in the middle of scratching his scrawny chest.

"Fired? What you do? Look at the ass on his black b***h one time too many?" Sully grinned. He didn't cotton to race mixing but since Bodie wasn't completely white it didn't much matter that he'd taken up with the black girl that he'd knocked up--although it did perplex him as to why he'd up and married her since she was already giving up the goodies.

Riley was scowling. "Get this," and then he recounted the entire story about Pete getting deported and how Bodie had blamed him for it. Sully's expression darkened when his name was brought up.

"That n****r-loving mother fucker brought my name into it?" Sully asked incredulously. Not that he cared whether he was given the credit for having an illegal deported. They could all go back to Mexico for all he cared—illegal or not. But he just didn't like Bodie acting hoity-toity.

Riley swallowed back his beer and felt a little better although he rarely drank except on Saturdays when he met up with his cousin and his cousin's buddies at Stubby's. It too was part of his routine—but only in small amounts. He'd seen how drinking had wrecked the lives of so many people that he knew, including his cousin, which is why he didn't make much time for it.

"He's blaming everybody but the person that should be blamed for getting into this country illegally in the first place," Riley spat bitterly.

Sully went back into the kitchen for another brew. "You can't expect anything different. They stick together--as they should. But that don't mean it's right for him to leave you without a paycheck." Sully returned to the living room and took up his seat in the rickety armchair. "I told you not to trust that asshole Bodie."