Ezzy's Education (Part 5: The Master Communicator (cont'd))
The Master Communicator (cont’d)
At the party, a bonfire lit the parts of people that faced it. Music blasted from asound system worth more than the truck it was installed in. Standing between the bonfire and Trunk’s truck stood Trendon Bravissimo in shorts and a t-shirt. At 5’7”, Trendon’s arms we no thicker than a harvest-ready cucumber, his legs the diameter of a grocery store-size zucchini.
Trendon hollered, “Get Trunk’s song playing! Loud!” In seconds, the sound system blasted “We Dem Boyz.”
Trunk grabbed his water bottle, exited the truck, and walked toward the bonfire. He looked proud. Empty beer cans and bottles speckled the ground. Many of the girls looked happy or curious; many of the boys had a rowdy gleam in their eyes.
Trendon grabbed students and pointed at Trunk, who kept tugging the bottom of his Ebbing Football t-shirt, making it snug to his shoulders. Trunk inhaled deeply and strode, gentlemanlike, toward the students. Chanting ensued.
We Love Trunk!
We Love Trunk!
Trendon spun round and round as he chanted to see who was chanting and who was not. In the bonfire light, his body resembled a black and bronze twisted rope.
Trunk made his first InstaTok post of the night.
Trendon hollered, “Speech! Speech!”
Trunk smiled and flashed an “okay” sign with his right hand.
Sheila Bernhart, Kayla Jennings, and Emma Davis stood together off to the side, appearing amused (or at least interested) in their own ways. Sheila yelled in her powerful, soccer captain voice, “Speech!” Her blonde hair looked gold in the bonfire glow. “Trunk entertains me,” she said.
Kayla, captain of the field hockey team who was in the running to be Ebbing High’s first Black homecoming queen, rolled her eyes and did not reply to Sheila.
“Trunk entertains Emma in the woods and in that old truck of his,” Sheila added.
The three girls laughed. Emma, with a look of guilty pride on her fair face, said, “I just get bored at these stupid parties.” She looked at her friends through her sandy bangs.
“Ha!” Kayla and Sheila laughed together. “Bored, or do you mean drunk?” Kayla asked.
Emma grinned at Kayla and raised her beer can into the air. Kayla raised her Fierce Green Apple Gatorade bottle. When Trunk had strode within twenty feet of the girls, they looked at him.
“Quiet down now, kiddos,” Trunk said in a thunderous growl. His lips stretched side to side, ear to ear. He stuck his nose in the air, forcing his chin to point at his audience. “I have to tell you, fellas.” About a third of the students at the party were paying attention to him.
Trunk bit his lip and glared at students not looking at him. “There is a devil amongst us.” Making another “okay” sign with his right hand and moving it like “Lucinda’s karate chop,” he said, “She is the single worst, most rotten creature you have ever seen. You know?”
A boy yelled, “Who is it?”
”It’s Lucinda Barron!” Trendon yelled in response.
Trunk rolled his eyes and looked at Trendon, who was downing a beer.
“Has anyone ever heard of—” Trunk tucked his chin into his chest, then he faced straight ahead, looking at his small audience. He jutted his face forward and said, “Loo-sin-dah Barron?” He looked left. He looked right.
“We must stop her!” Trendon yelled.
A dozen or so boys cheered and hollered. One yelled, “Fuck Lucinda!” Chanting commenced.
Fuck Lu-Sin-Dah!
Fuck Lu-Sin-Dah!
Loud as the chanting was, most students in the crowd were not chanting, not cheering, not even clapping. Many were not even looking at Trunk. Looking at those not adoringhim, Trunk’s body tightened.
“Why must Lucinda be stopped?” Kayla Jennings asked. Her voice was measured but strong and it silenced the chanters, leaving only the sound of wood crackling in the bonfire.
The wind had just shifted and the smoke now blew toward Trunk as his eyes honed in onKayla. He began pointing at her but stopped.
“Honest question, Trunk,” Kayla said. “Why must Lucinda Barron be stopped?”
Trunk’s chanters glared at Kayla, while many of the remaining boys stared at her, theirteenage desire for the homecoming queen nominee obvious to any sober observer.Kayla looked around, smiling at people.
Trunk’s arms went tight to his sides as his fists clenched. “You’ve gotta be kidding me, Kayla,” he said. He stepped toward her, crushing a beer can on the ground. “Ezzy Bello asked me that same stupid question this week. What’s with you smart, pretty girls? You think you can say whatever you want.”
Kayla’s eyes locked into Trunk’s but she said nothing.
“Why does everyone always bring up Ezzy Bello?” Emma asked before frowning.
“Stop being jealous,” Sheila said. “She’s hot and smart and everyone respects her. Get over it.”
“All she does is study and work and go fishing,” Emma said.
Trunk took another step toward Kayla. “I don’t know why you’re attacking me, Kayla.”
Kayla laughed. “I’m not attacking you at all, Trunk. I’m just asking why Lucinda must be stopped.” She stood tall, her natural hair as firm as her confident demeanor.
Most of the kids now paid attention.
“Lucinda Barron,” Trunk said, lifting his chin, “is pure evil. People who don’t know that are either idiots, or they were sent here by Lucinda to prevent Ebbing from being great again. Were you sent here by Lucinda, Kayla?”
“What’s Trunk’s face going to do next?” Sheila asked. “This is too funny.” She took a sip of her Fruit Punch Gatorade.
Trunk looked down at Kayla, who, at 5’8” in her sneakers, was about seven inches shorter than Trunk. He stuck his nose into the air again and said, “I played pretty well tonight, didn’t I?” He puckered his lips and raised his arms out to his sides, his palms facing Kayla. Trendon and his boys cheered. The crowd began to disperse.
“Not bad, not bad,” Trunk said. He looked at the people walking away from him. “Where is everyone—Trunk loves you!”
The party resumed as if Trunk had never been there.
Sheila slapped her friend and fellow athlete Kayla on the back. “Kayla, you sure shut Trunk up,” she said.
“It was a simple question,” Kayla said.
Emma, grabbing a beer out of a nearby cooler, caught the attention of a few boys who pointed at her, noting her loose t-shirt hung low in the front when she bent over.
“As a Trunk supporter,” Sheila said, “I can’t say that was his best performance.”
“You’re really going to vote for Trunk?” Kayla asked.
“Are you voting for Lucinda?”
“I don’t know,” Kayla said. “That girl’s hella crazy.”
“I wonder who Ezzy Bello is supporting?”
Kayla shrugged. “Maybe Lucinda? Or neither of them? No idea, but it’s funny; you must be the tenth person this week I’ve heard asking about who Ezzy’s voting for.”
“You should have run for president.”
Kayla laughed. “No way. No time. Soon as field hockey ends it’s back to bussing tables and beginning the most intense cross-training program I’ve ever tried. Plus I have to keep my grades high to keep any scholarship I get.”
“Okay, okay,” Sheila said. “Just saying. Hey, did you see Link over there? Why don’t you say hi to him?”
Kayla looked at Ebbing senior Link Conary in the distance. She smiled. “I think he’s helping Trunk. Remember when he was Ebbing’s big Patriot until Trunk decided to be a Patriot? I’ve had two civics classes with him, he knows a—”
“Everyone knows he’s a big Patriot,” Sheila said. “Personally, I think he’s kind ofboring. Not my type. But I’ve seen you looking at him. Something’s going on in that head of yours, Kayla!”
“Well, I don’t know,” Kayla said. “I mean, on one hand he’s a smart guy, seems responsible, and he’s not hung up on some ex which is definitely a plus. But I justdon’t know why he’d help Trunk.” She slid her fingers through her hair.
“Probably just Patriot loyalty,” Sheila said. She held up her Gatorade bottle to Kayla’s.“Cheers to having shitty choices!”
Trunk, now over fifteen yards from Kayla and Sheila, watched the two girls talk. His face reddened. He looked at his phone. His face moved closer to it. His lips moved together toward his eyes, then toward his chin. His face moved even closer to his phone and mutated into a deformed rage and his mouth moved, like he was trying to talk.
“Lucinda!” Trunk roared. “That fucking bitch! Tree Trunk? Where the hell is Link Conary? Find Link!”