Heaving and panting down the country road Kevin and Robert kicked up as much dust as a whole mess of hounds. Delbert brought up the rear, choking on dust and attempting to halt the other two.

“You idgits!” Delbert rasped, “You dag-gum…idgits!”

“Not…now,” Robert hollered back.

“Yes now…idgit!” Delbert yelled back.

Robert, younger and perhaps thus more lighthearted, fell into a fit of giggles such that he couldn’t keep up the run. Kevin was forced to come to a trotting stop several feet further. He eyed the bridge ahead and the intersection with Poplar Lane beyond it. His glare back at the other two bespoke his urgent need to keep going; the hands on his hips told of an equally urgent need to stop for a moment.

Red faced and panting too hard to speak, Delbert raised a hand.

“Nuh-uh,” Kevin shot, “Spit it out, if it’s so damned important.”

“I gots to tell ya’,” their friend wheezed, “the story…how yo’ sister really come to wake up at Evan’s place. It ain’t…well, it ain’t that bad.”