Dog Days

Chapter 3
Chapter 3

The fluorescent diner glowed like a bug lamp in the night. It had been a long walk, but the monotony of oscillating between his home and the Callaghans’ and the agony of enduring Ayla and her friends had grown too much for Trevor to bear. He needed to go somewhere, a familiar nook where he could relax and chill. A hard rain was beginning to fall, and he ducked in thru the doors just in time.

The place smelled of coffee and home fries and was steaming with the bustle of the waitresses. Rain whapped at the windows, and a college football game hovered on the screen over the cash register. He grabbed the free newspaper and settled down at the counter. The waitress came and he nearly ordered a beer, before catching himself and asking for a milkshake instead, which arrived in a frosted glass with a neon pink straw.

The doors heaved open, and to his horror, a pair of his old schoolmates shuffled in and sat down in the booth behind him. He propped up his newspaper and tried to hide, and then his heart sank as he felt a hand fall on his shoulder.

“Trevor, would you like to join us?”

It was Ken Clausen, one of those pizza-faced geeks with coke-bottle glasses and Rubik-cube keychains sprouting off oversized backpacks, the type of kid he routinely bowled over and cuffed for lunch money. Ken used to sit in the school lunchroom by the trash cans with a quartet of other weirdos who read science fiction novels and drew manga, while Trevor, as tennis captain, naturally sat at the deluxe table by the window with the rest of school royalty.

“Sure.” he said with reluctance as he slid into the booth while Ken eased in beside him. The sweaty pair had just hit a few rounds after work at the Shoreline Tennis Club. “Because my girlfriend complains that I’m getting fat,” Ken said as he turned to Trevor. “Why don’t you come with us next time? I could use a few pointers.”

More like he needed a boy to pick up balls for him, Trevor thought sullenly. He peered across the table at Evan Yang, the kid with the funny accent who smelled like socks dipped in milk and looked like he cut his own hair with safety scissors. Both Ken and Evan had gone to medical school, and now presumably spent their days reattaching severed limbs, restarting clogged hearts, and vanquishing deadly cancers, while he was reliving his adolescence in the company of a slobbering puppy because two rich crazies decreed it should be so. He felt like shrinking into his seat.

“I thought it was so noble of you to take that job so your Mum could get the medical care she needed.” Ken said. “The Callaghans told everyone at church about it.”

Trevor sat up, stunned. He had been accused of many things before, and nobility most certainly wasn’t amongst them.

“I used to think you were a self-centered jerk.” Evan said. “But I suppose I was wrong. Would you like something to eat?”

Trevor ordered a slice of cherry pie and the trio bantered about their classmates; new jobs, hook-ups, overseas exploits.

“So what about you? What are your plans?” Evan asked.

“I was thinking that after I grow up again, I’ll go back to college and finish my degree.”

Evan paused, and then put the forkful of sausage back down onto his plate.

“What you mean by ‘after you grow up again’? You’re the same age as us, you just have… a temporary physical encumbrance. If you want to go back to school, you can enroll yourself tomorrow. Shoreline College offers night classes for working adults.”

“But it’s too far away and I can’t drive…”

“Why on earth are you behaving like a kid? That youthening drug you took only affects your body, it has no impact whatsoever on your knowledge and skills. Which is why I know you’ll still trash us at tennis, even if we played you two-on-one. And I see no reason why you can’t drive. My grandma is even shorter than you and she has absolutely no problem getting around…”

“Hey, hey, cool your jets.” Ken said. “Can’t you see he’s still adjusting to his new body? How would you feel if you were zapped back into a kid?” He placed his arm around Trevor’s shoulder and turned to face him. “If you’ll like, you can drive my car after we’re done. I need to give Evan a lift home anyway.”

The rain had stopped. Trevor gripped hard at the steering wheel as the Explorer shot down the highway. His heart was pounding, he knew he would finally complete that veterinary degree so he would never be caught short on cash again. And he knew the comedy clubs in town where he would perform on the weekends, where the novelty of being a cute kid would reboot his career. He could already picture the new future he would create for himself, the raucous laughter of the audience drowning out Ken’s pleas to slow down, and the strobes of the passing streetlamps bathing him in a golden halo, as if he was up onstage, gilded in light.