Merriton

“I heard you’re going to bury Zaunter.” Randy walked in on Roscoe’s Wednesday morning ranger meeting at Mt. Zen Cafe. Randy could see Curly’s face sticking out the kitchen pass-through window. The two of them met eyes for a second before Curly disappeared into the kitchen again.

Roscoe, Kevin, some guy with huge eyes and an elderly couple sat at a table in the empty cafe. Angie came over to Randy with an extra chair and placed it next to Kevin. “You want biscuits and gravy, Randy?” Randy nodded, but Roscoe interrupted him, “Last I looked, you wasn’t one o’ my rangers.” Randy looked at Roscoe. “Kevin has been avoiding Sierra and me. He’s trying to buy the Townsend house in Emigration and he thinks that we’re going to stop him. I don’t care about that, Kevin. All I want is to help you wipe Zaunter off the face of the planet.”

The guy with enormous eyes chimed in, “Is Zaunter the butthead who keeps puttin’ garbage in the outhouse up on Moose Hill. I wanna wipe that guy off the face of the planet, too.” Randy looked at the ranger. He looked like some anime character with his big eyes. Kevin finally spoke. “No, Moe. Zaunter is just some stupid computer company.” Roscoe looked at Kevin. “I think it’s those jokesters from Emigration that are puttin’ garbage in the outhouses. I haven’t been able to prove it, though. I was hopin’ you could watch out for ‘em, Kevin. You’ll have to hike up Moose Hill every coupla days, you up for that?” Kevin nodded. Roscoe continued, “Now we gotta figure out who’s vandalizing the signs all around the park. Somebody’s stickin’ up these.” Roscoe held up a piece of cardboard that with the word “Zen” scrawled on it.

Randy noticed Curly’s watchful eye and pulled on Kevin’s arm. “Listen to me. I found out that Jerry laid off all his coders about a month ago. We could hire them before someone else snatches them up and start our own data storage company. With your download algorithm, we would kick their butt.” Kevin pulled his arm away from Randy. “It was just a stupid thing I said.” Roscoe smacked the table, making the salt and pepper jump. “This is my ranger meetin’! I only getta talk to these guys once a week. I don’t want you buggin’ us.”

Randy ignored Roscoe and continued to needle Kevin, “You KNOW Jerry deserves this! After what he did to us last year, he deserved it, but not even giving your algorithm a chance is just ASKING to be taken down. Let’s do it! I’ll help you!” Kevin stood up so quickly his chair fell backward. “I don’t want your help!” Everyone at the table was shocked at the outburst. Randy saw Curly looking through his pass-through. Once again their eyes met. The guy had never looked Randy in the eye before and it felt uncomfortable to see the pain behind his large face. It felt like time stood still for a moment while Randy thought about all the things that Curly had never said to him.

“I’m gonna do this myself! I don’t need you! You’re always the one who everyone thinks is a god, well, it’s my turn to earn a little respect. Zaunter doesn’t want me. I can’t even get anyone at Amazon S3 to answer my emails. I’m the only one who wants me and I’m going to show them all how it’s done. You hear?!” Randy pleaded with Kevin. “But we’re a team, Kevin. You’re the coder and I’m the salesman. This time, we don’t need VC funding or a big company to buy us. We’ll do it right this time and no one will be able to take it away from us.”

“You’re NOT listening to me!” Then suddenly, Kevin stopped yelling. He ran his hands through his stiff, dark hair. “Are you saying that you’re invoking your right to buy my work?” Randy pulled away from the table and stood up. “No. It’s totally yours. I just… I thought…” He looked at the rangers at the table. “I haven’t been this excited about something since…” Plates of food sat on the pass-through window unnoticed by Angie. Curly was watching his every move. “I just thought it could be like old times. We could work together again. This time, we wouldn’t let anybody take it away from us.”

Kevin sat down. “I’m going to do it myself. I don’t need you. I’m working on a storage algorithm right now and I’m going to take Zaunter out all by myself.” Randy locked eyes with Curly again, but he left the cafe before they all could see how much it hurt.