Cover Me

inglenookie:

For a friend. More Random Hannigram Conversations here.

“How about you? Any stories?”

“Bully stories?”

“Yes.”

“Not really. The kids mostly stayed away from me. Or I stayed away from them. Either way, I was pretty much invisible.”

“I find it hard to imagine you as invisible.”

“Yeah, well. You see things other people don’t.”

“That’s true.”

“Come to think of it. I do remember one kid. He used to come down to the boat yard. He never actually laid a hand on me, but he used to say things.”

“I see.”

“Talk shit about my dad. Make fun of me for working there.”

“Words are sharp. They can be powerful weapons.”

“I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of winding me up.”

“But it still hurt.”

“Sometimes.”

“Would that I had known you then.”

“You’d have bashed his head in with a rock.”

“Likely something a little more elegant. Even as a child I had aesthetic ambitions.”

“Pretenses.”

“Hm. Perhaps.”

“… You’re doing that thing.”

“What thing is that, Will?”

“Where you get all wistful.”

“I suppose I am.”

“Vengeance really does it for you.”

“Not vengeance. It’s just difficult to think of you … small, hurting.”

“I’m not small anymore.”

“No. Quite the opposite.”

“I can swing my own rock now.”

“Absolutely you can.”

“But you’re never going to stop trying to protect me, are you?”

“I hope that’s alright.”

“Even if said no, you’d still do it.”

“Yes.”

“… Hannibal.”

“Yes, Will?”

“Just … thank you.”