NOT What I Was Expecting by Tallulah Anne Scott

entrepreneur
or something.  When he retired and sold all the boats, even he was surprised at
how much he made from them.  The old dude is living the good life, man.  He’s
always trying to buy things for Luke, but Luke won’t let him,” Fry laughed and
continued.  “Luke’s always been an independent cuss.”
    “Has Luke ever
been married?” CeCe asked.
    Oh yeah, she subtled
like nothing I ever wanted to see.
    “Noooo,” Fry
responded, looking over at me again.
    I needed a
distraction.  There must be a UFO in this night sky somewhere.  What was that
tune that calls them again?
    “He’s never been
married,” Fry maintained.  “I’m sure he must have met a lot of babes during his
travels with the Peace Corps, but I’ve never heard him mention anyone in particular. 
To hear him tell it, it was mostly him up to his knees in mud and bugs.  Well,
mud, bugs, and thugs of all kinds.  I would NOT want to have been in some of
the situations Luke’s been in.  Man, he’s turned into a tough guy.  Really
knows how to handle himself, you know.  He had to, I guess.  I really admire
the dude.  I don’t think I could’ve done it.”
    “But he seems so
nice and civilized,” I said without thinking.  Fry smiled at me as if I’d just
confirmed his suspicions.
    “He is,” Fry
assured me.  “I’m just saying he knows how to handle himself in uncivilized
situations, too.  You could definitely do worse.  You know what I’m saying?”
    Before I could
respond, I looked up and there on the porch was Luke.  It was one of those
moments where you blink your eyes a few times, because you know you can’t be
seeing what you think you’re seeing.  Yup, it’s really him.  I smiled, but this
time he didn’t smile back.  He quickly came down the steps with the sisters
following behind him.  We all stood up as they approached, because the look on
his face made it obvious something was wrong.
    We didn’t get the
chance to ask, because Mother blurted out, “Luke can’t find Barney.  Hasn’t
seen him since right after the funeral, and he’s very worried.”
    “I was hoping
maybe one of you might have seen him?” Luke asked tensely.
    The worried look
on his face was gut wrenching.  Without waiting for our response he continued.
    “Fry, can you come
help me look for him?” Luke wanted to know.
    “Sure, Luke, it’s no
problem,” Fry said and headed toward the porch.
    “Do you want me to
drive you, Fry?” CeCe offered.  “You know, you were drinking a lot earlier to
help my mother.”
    “Yeah, I pretty
much sobered up with all the lemonade I’ve been drinking,” Fry told us.
    “Thanks, CeCe, but
I’ll drive him to my neighborhood,” Luke told her as he and Fry started to
leave.  “Uncle Barney’s on foot, so I really need Fry to walk the
neighborhood.  We’ll cover more ground with the two of us going in different
directions.”
    “How can we help?”
I offered.
    Luke thought for minute.
“I wouldn’t want to send you running around this late, but if you could make
some phone calls, just to see if anyone’s seen him, that would be great.”
    “We’ll take care
of that,” my mother said.  “Don’t worry.  If anyone in this town has seen him,
we’ll find out.  He’ll turn up Luke.  Everything’s going to be fine.”
    “Thanks,” Luke said
but sounded unconvinced.  “I’d just like to find him now .”
    “Would you like to
stay for a drink while we make some phone calls?” I asked.
    “I’d like to, but
I better not,” he said.  “Fry and I need to get moving.  There are still some
areas I haven’t searched yet.”
    Luke and Fry left,
and the sisters immediately started their phone calls.  CeCe and I decided to
clean up in the kitchen instead of making phone calls.  We would no doubt be
duplicating the sisters’ calls.
    “Did you see how
upset he was?” I asked CeCe.
    “Yeah,” she agreed,
“and I could see how hard it hit you.  Now you can fully