Shine - Part Three
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here.
“Okay, gather round, numbskulls!” Noah says loudly, clipping his tool belt into place. “Let me break down the plan for you.”
Aiden, Ripley, and I were all still getting our things out of Raj’s truck, but now we slam the doors and cluster around Noah and Raj.
The drenched, cold week of spring showers has given way to a bright, crystalline day, full of air. A peachy morning, gradually turning to endless turquoise sky. All the plant life is saturated with color, rich from the rain. Bird feathers scatter the vividly green grass, little blustering coatings of softness. The moon hasn’t left the morning sky, although it’s pale, half-hidden in a soft blue hue.
We’re all gathered outside of an unfamiliar house. Raj is strapping on his leather tool belt. Noah already has his in place, and he’s scrolling through his phone to pull something up.
I don’t know why, but both Raj and Noah seem fired up. They’re moving fast, bursting with energy and determination.
“Thanks for doing this for us, boys,” Raj says gratefully, straightening up. “Giving us your whole day.”
“No problem,” I answer brightly. “What are we doing, though?”
“Yeah, that text was pretty vague,” Aiden pins on.
Noah pauses, narrowing his grey eyes at us. “Wait, where are your tools? I told all of you to bring your tools, didn’t I?”
Everyone nods, holding out what we brought. At the same moment, we all seem to realize that we’ve each brought something completely different.
Ripley’s got a few paintbrushes and a slim set of charcoal pencils. I brought my gardening gloves, secateurs, and spade. Aiden has his archivist gloves, along with a leather fold of tools for handling delicate documents.
Noah and Raj stare blankly at the three of us for a moment. Then Noah lets out a sputtering laugh, drops his face into his hands.
“Oh, uh,” Raj says, obviously suppressing a laugh of his own. “Good effort, boys. I see now how the instructions weren’t clear.”
“We meant tools,” Noah groan-laughs, tossing his head at Raj’s tool belt, which has hammers and screwdrivers and wrenches.
Aiden, Ripley, and I all blink as the realization dawns on us.
“Well - you’re the tool, dude!” I tell Noah indignantly. “What sort of vague-ass instructions-?”
“We’re the tool,” Raj reassures Noah, taking his hand.
“Okay, for fuck’s sake!” Noah groans. “Come on, we have to start on time! Just leave that stuff in the pickup.”
Aiden and Ripley put their tools back in the truck. I stuff mine in the back pocket of my jeans, then follow Raj and Noah as they lead the way up to the house. Noah opens one arm when he gets there, and Aiden - old soccer teammate of Noah’s that he is - automatically slides under it, then puts his arm around Noah’s shoulders. The two of them draw the rest of us into a huddle in front of the doorstep.
Aiden, Ripley, and I exchange a glance. All of us are vaguely excited, if a little bewildered.
“Okay,” Raj begins, speaking quickly. “We only have time to give you guys the explanation once before we’re in business. And once we’re in business, we can’t stop.”
“Yeah, so pay attention.” Noah slips one arm free from the huddle, then holds up his phone to show us a picture of Mel. “This is Melanie. The closest thing to perfection that will ever walk this earth. I think we can all agree that anyone here would gladly die for her one thousand times over.”
“Um,” Ripley laughs.
“We know who Mellie is, dude,” Aiden informs Noah.
“And this-” Noah scrolls to the next picture on his phone, then holds it up to show us. “Is a drawing that Melanie made when she was thirteen. It’s her dream wedding cake, which she’s always wanted from a very specific bakery.”
“That’s elaborate,” Ripley observes, his eyes on Noah’s phone.
“Yeah, brah, and expensive.” Raj winces, rubbing his temple. “Way more expensive than you would think. Plus shipping, because the bakery would have to overnight it to us from out of town the night before the wedding. Me, Noah, and Mel have all been working less to be with Niki more. And babies are expensive, so basically - even if we stretch the wedding budget-”
“We’re not gonna have enough in time to get the cake,” Noah finishes.
My eyes flit from Noah’s phone to his face. “Oh, no!”
Noah and Raj both grimace at me in agreement.
“Mel said that it’s totally fine, and that we’ll just get something simple.” Noah flinches, like the thought hurts him. “Which, obviously, I mean - fuck, no.”
“Can’t let that happen, boys, you understand?” Raj presses a solemn hand to his heart. “One of our sacred missions in life is to make her happy, so. Here we are.”
Aiden, Ripley, and I glance up at the house none of us recognize.
“Okay, so - what are we doing, exactly?” Ripley asks.
“We know the wedding’s not for a little bit,” Noah explains, “But the bakery wants the order placed and paid for a certain number of days in advance for wedding cakes. And for our wedding, that day is - tomorrow.”
“Yeah, so.” Raj gestures at the house behind us. “Noah and I picked up pretty much every job that anyone has asked us to do recently, and we lined all of them up for today. Back to back. We’re gonna do a marathon, and by the end - we should have enough to order the cake. Depending on if people tip us.”
Aiden, Ripley, and I share a warm, surprised smile before Noah starts talking again.
“But that means we’ve got seriously limited amounts of time to get everything done. We have to go mad fast if we’re gonna stay on schedule, which we have to. And we’ve still gotta do an im- im- Raj, what did you say?”
“Impeccable.”
“An impeccable job on each thing, because Raj and I got a reputation to uphold, and nobody’s gonna hire us back if we fuck things up. So…” Noah looks pleadingly around at all of us. “We need help.”
“We’re sorry,” Raj pins on, cringing. “I know we’re asking you guys to rush around doing work all day, but Noah and I can’t think of what else to do. We already tried to make the cake ourselves-”
“You did?” Ripley lets out a sharp laugh, staring down at the complicated display of Melanie’s drawing. “Wish I could have seen that.”
“Trust me, bro, it’s good you weren’t there,” Noah grumbles, faintly embarrassed. “Kitchen looking like a war zone, I nearly burned my hands off, smoke alarms blaring, and I’m still finding flour in the randomest goddamn places-”
Raj shudders at the memory. “Even Noah wouldn’t sample the thing that eventually came out of the oven.”
Aiden lets out a low whistle as Ripley and I twist to stare at Noah in disbelief.
“That’s saying something,” he rumbles, blue eyes wide with alarm.
“Right, so - we need to do it this way.” Raj looks at us anxiously. “You guys in?”
Aiden, Ripley, and I look at each other, then turn as one to Noah and Raj and give them an enthusiastic, eager nod.
They’re both blazing with energy, Noah even bouncing a little on his work boots, and it’s starting to get the rest of us geed up, too.
But even if it wasn’t, any of us would happily do this for them.
Noah and Raj both sag with relief. Noah checks his watch.
“First job starts in one minute. We scheduled half an hour for this, so remember, be fast.”
“Okay, ready?” Raj puts one hand out into the huddle, and the rest of us each slap a hand on top of his. “On three! Let’s go nail Mission Earn Enough Cheddar To Get Mel The Cake She’s Wanted Since She Was A Kid Or Raj And Noah Will Never Forgive Themselves!”
“Dude, what?” Noah draws his hand back, indignant. “I thought we agreed that was too long, and not badass. Didn’t we land on calling the mission Project Midnight Panther?”
“One minute,” Ripley reminds them warningly.
“Right, right - on three!”
We all let out a confused jumble of words. Aiden and I try to repeat everything that Raj said, while Ripley and Noah go with a loud, simultaneous - “Project Midnight Panther!”
We all look at each other, and then Noah tosses his hands up. “Forget it, let’s just go!”
“Just out of curiosity, what are your other sacred missions in life?” Ripley asks, as Noah steps up to the door to ring the bell.
“Protecting Niki, for one,” Noah answers, knotting his hair into a bun. “From, like-”
“Bears,” I say knowingly, right as Raj says - “Being bitten by a goat.”
Aiden lets out a startled laugh. “Bitten by a goat?”
Noah seems caught by surprise by this answer, too. He twists to raise an eyebrow at Raj over his shoulder.
Raj casts Noah an anxious look. “I’ve been having second thoughts about taking her to the petting zoo next weekend, man. What if she’s too young for that?”
“Oh, my god, dude, we’ll talk about it later-”
Noah breaks off as the door abruptly opens with a loud shriek of rusted hinges, startling the hell out of all of us. Everyone lets out a gasp or a curse as we whip around to face the house.
The man who opened the door stares at us, equally startled. “Um - hello?”
We must be a strange sight, right now. We all instinctively threw ourselves behind Aiden at the unexpected sound, and now we’re all peeking out from around him.
“Hey,” Aiden begins awkwardly, then looks over his shoulder and finds Noah.
He gets a handful of Noah’s bomber jacket and drags him forward, pushes him up to the increasingly confused guy waiting in the doorway.
“Um - hey, boss, are you-?” Noah glances down at the clipboard in Raj’s hand, clearly still trying to recover his composure. “Zack?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s good, Z?” Noah exchanges a hand slap with him. “We’re here for the job you booked us for?”
“Oh, right,” Zack answers, puffing on the joint in his hand. “The door. It’s been squeaking.”
“Yeah, we noticed,” Raj stammers, pressing a hand over his heart.
Zack watches the rest of us step out from behind Aiden, his eyebrows arched. “Didn’t I hire two of you?”
“Yes.” Raj is already feeling around in his tool belt, taking a close look at the hinges on the door. “But we’re doing, um - a promotion. Hire two, get five.”
“Oh.” Zack blinks in surprise. “Hell of a deal. You guys sure you don’t mind doing the door, the water heater, and the broken step all in one go? We can book you guys back for another day to do the r-”
“Nope, no, we’ve got it,” Noah tells him urgently, rocking in his paint-splattered work boots. “Ready to get started.”
“Okay,” Zack says, and everyone reacts as if he just shot off a starter pistol.
Noah presses a button on his watch.
“Thirty minutes!” he shouts, startling Zack a few steps back from the door.
Raj instantly starts unscrewing the hinge of the door with the screwdriver he’s already got in his hand.
“Aiden, can you run to the truck and get the part for the water heater?” he asks, talking very fast. “Careful, it’s heavy!”
Ripley lets out a laugh. “You forget you’re talking to Aiden?”
“Shit, you’re right, let me amend that statement - don’t crush it by accident!”
Aiden sticks up a middle finger at Raj as he sets off in a rush for the truck.
Noah beckons with his head. “Ripples, Jamie, you’re with me!”
Ripley and I throw ourselves into the house after Noah, who gives Zack’s arm a friendly but urgent slap. “Where’s the broken step?”
Zack stares at us, bewildered, but turns and leads the way through the house, leaving a trail of smoke in his wake.
The interior is decorated with fractal-pattern tapestries and the occasional Grateful Dead poster. Another guy on the couch snags the joint from Zack as we go past, but Noah, Ripley, and I are moving too quickly to take in much more than that.
Zack lets us out through the back door, where there’s a set of steps that lead down to the grassy backyard. The bottom one is broken. We all go out onto the grass, carefully avoiding stepping on the damaged spot.
Noah drops to a crouch before it for a closer look, then starts hastily taking out a few tools.
“Nice yard,” I tell Zack, who smiles brightly and tips the joint at me. “That’s an invasive creeper you’ve got growing on the back wall, though.”
“Shit, really? We’ve been meaning to get rid of that, anyways.” Zack frames the wall with his fingers. “Thought it would be amazing if we got a mural there instead. Me and my roomies even started pooling some money, so we can get someone to do it.”
Ripley turns suddenly to look at Zack, tossing his green curls out of his eyes. “How much have you got pooled up?”
“Just about fifty bucks?”
“Would you throw in fifty bucks for Raj and Noah if there’s artwork on that wall by the time we leave?”
Zack shrugs his shoulders, tucking the joint back into his mouth. “Uh - sure. If it’s good.”
Noah looks up at Ripley, blinking in surprise. “Ripples, we don’t have time-”
“My skateboard is in the truck, and my house is only a few blocks away…” I can almost see a plan swiftly forming in Ripley’s mind. “Kay, just need to grab some things, I’ll be right back - Jamie, can you get the creepers down?”
“No - Rip!” Noah tries and fails to catch him by the ankle as he flashes past. “We got no time to do a whole fucking piece of artwork-”
Ripley is already gone, and I’m already pulling on my gardening gloves, so Noah throws his hands up in surrender.
“We’ve got this, Zack, we’ll grab you when we’re done.”
Zack gives Noah a nod, then disappears into the house as Noah and I urgently and speedily get to work. We fall to it in focused silence for a few minutes.
Noah suddenly shoots me a look somehow both exasperated and deeply affectionate.
“Punk-ass kid has never done what anyone has ever told him to do,” he grumbles. “Not one time, in all his life.”
I laugh, glancing over my shoulder at the doorway where Ripley disappeared. Feeling full of fondness, myself. “No, he really hasn’t.”
Silence falls for another few minutes, until Noah abruptly breaks it again.
“That’s part of why I weirdly think Ripley and Ralph could get along. Got the same kinda spirit, in some ways.”
I pause for a second, stealing a startled glance at Noah. I’m surprised by what he said, and I picked up on a sudden thread of anxiety in his voice.
He keeps his face turned away from me as he works on the step, but he must sense my questioning eyes on him, because he adds -
“Just, you know. Raj and Mel promised to give Ralph a real chance. You and Aiden, I’m not worried about.” Noah lifts his nervous grey gaze to me, then tosses his head in the direction that Ripley ran off in. “That one, though.”
I’ve been thinking about the same thing, but I keep that to myself. “Well - are you gonna talk to Ripley about it? Before the wedding?”
Noah bites his lip uneasily. “Think I need to, yeah. Just not sure how it’s gonna go.”
I start snipping away with my secateurs again, thinking it over.
Out of all of us, Noah might be the most fiercely protective of Ripley. I think Ripley has started looking like a little brother to him, somewhere along the way.
But the fact that Ripley is younger doesn’t make that protective feeling one-sided.
Ripley doesn’t know the details of everything that’s gone down between Noah and Ralph. He’s got the idea, though. I remember the furious glare that he leveled on Ralph when we saw him at the movie theater. Even before Ralph came over and made everything worse.
All of this has clearly occurred to Noah, too.
“I’m basically asking Ripples to cross Ralph off his shit list, take it on faith that he’s different now.” Noah looks up from the step, glances over at me again. “Don’t know if Ripley’s willing to do something like that just because I asked him to.”
I hesitate for a moment before I answer, carefully gathering up all the clippings from the wall, choosing my words.
“I think he would only do it if you asked him to.”
Noah looks at me over his shoulder, but before he can answer, Raj pushes up one of the windows and leans out to check on us. He tosses his head to get his shiny black curls out of his eyes, and the sunlight catches on them.
Noah stops and sits back on his ankles, staring at Raj, then lets out a long whistle. Raj laughs, and Noah breaks into a wide grin.
“Work the construction muscles, dude!”
Raj beams at him, then braces his arms in the window frame and flexes them. “You guys want to come see how the buffest man on earth fixes a water heater?”
“You’re really gonna say that with Aiden standing right behind you?” I laugh, then instantly laugh again when Raj whips around to find Aiden looking down at him.
“Jesus, dude! Don’t sneak up on me like that!”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Aiden says, startled and alarmed. “I just thought you might want to know that the water heater is still leaking? More, actually.”
“What-? Uh oh.” Raj turns to us, taps his watch before he slips back inside. “Keep it pushing! Clock’s running out! We’re under five minutes!”
“This is what I mean, dude,” Noah tells me, as soon as Raj shuts the window. “Ripley and Ralph, like - both of them, there’s no challenge too big. Ripples is honestly gonna try to cover that whole fucking wall with artwork in under five minutes, and knowing him, somehow he’s probably gonna actually find a w-”
Noah cuts himself off as Ripley comes flying out through the back door, skirting around Noah and the broken step.
He’s got a wide grin on his face, and a paintball gun in his hands. He swiftly pulls up the paintball mask hanging from his neck, then checks over his gun just as fast.
“Yo,” he says breathlessly, aiming it at the wall. “Get out of the way, dude!”
“What-?” I rush over to stand a few feet behind Ripley, stumbling over the bags of extra paintball pellets that he dropped on the grass. “Are you fucking serious?”
Noah leaps to his feet as Ripley fires off the first shot. “Ripples, what the f-?”
Ripley is already intently firing away, splatters of bright, colorful paint exploding on the bare wall.
“Finish the step, we’ve only got three fucking minutes!” he tells Noah urgently, over his shoulder.
Noah stands there opening and closing his mouth for a second, then shakes his head helplessly and drops to finish the step.
“Water heater’s done!” Raj calls, from inside. “I’m gonna get Zack to sign off!”
“Go, go!” Noah shouts back, gathering up all the tools he’d been using.
Ripley is burning through paintballs, giving the wall a look akin to the fractal tapestries hanging inside the house. Noah places a level on the step, lets out a sharp breath of relief. He surges to his feet right as Ripley lowers the paintball gun and I stuff the clippings in the green bin at the edge of the yard.
“Whoa,” Zack says, freezing in the doorway with Aiden, staring at Ripley’s wall. He gestures down to the joint in his hand, then at the artwork. “Is it just this, or is that fucking sick?”
Ripley grins, then rushes over to collect the pellet casings on the ground. Noah, Aiden, and I scramble to help him, and Raj accepts an envelope of cash from Zack, has him sign on the clipboard.
“Don’t use the step until it dries!” Noah tells Zack, then disappears into the house. “One fucking minute, let’s go, let’s go!”
We all rush after him. Zack trots in our wake, picking up speed. He seems excited, even though he’s clearly not sure why we’re all running.
“Jesus!” he sputters, as we flash through his house. “This might be the fastest service I’ve ever fuckin’ had!”
“Please mention that if you leave us a review!” Raj yells back, and then we’re all sprinting across the lawn for the truck. The door swings shut soundlessly behind us.
“Ripples, you’re up front with me!” Noah yells, and Ripley grins happily, bounding after him.
Aiden, Raj, and I swing ourselves up into the truck bed, which Aiden pulls closed with one swift tug. Noah opens the truck bed window. He and Ripley lean in together to look at us through it.
“How’d we do?” Noah asks, panting for breath.
Raj is thumbing through the envelope. “Yep, it’s all there, plus fifty for the art, and - there’s a tip!”
We all grin at each other triumphantly, and then the timer on Noah’s watch starts to beep.
“Fuck yeah, let’s go!” Noah shouts, then turns and starts the truck.
We all settle in for the drive to the next house. Raj told us that it’s gonna be a minute, even with Noah at the wheel.
The wind begins to roar as Noah gets the truck in motion, so I can’t hear what’s going on up front. But I see Noah and Ripley talking. Ripley laughing as Noah reaches over and affectionately shoves his shoulder.
Noah hesitates, then casts Ripley an anxious, sideways glance. Slowly begins to say something.
Ripley blinks hard, then looks over at him, suddenly serious.
I smile to myself in the truck bed, turn my back to the window, and settle myself comfortably against Aiden.
I’m not worried. Something tells me that everything is going to be fine.
I can think of very few things that Ripley wouldn’t do for Noah.
Want to leave a comment? I would love it if you did, and you can do so on the Tapas episode!