Re: [Meat and Greet: Atticus and PJ]
Love to help local businesses prosper. [Sarcastic. Clothes lining wasn't a good idea, but she got the point.] Could always string cans up between our places. Never did that as a kid, but it features in a great deal of Americana literature. [Did. Wouldn't mind reliving Tom Sawyer without the racism.]
Did hide behind a pile of barbecue. Speaking of which. [He leaned back after she took the smoke, his own cigarette in his mouth. Approved of the music, even the one she shut off. He looked toward the radio.] That your emo ice cream music? [Asked, even as he pulled forward a container of barbecue and set it between them. Atticus was careful about his cars. Almost as careful as he was about important books and letters, but today was a special occassion.] Can help you get the smell of ribs out later. [And he was starved. Didn't wait for her to grab something before digging in.] Pack in Nebraska were assholes.
[Chewed too eagerly. Man, could really eat a horse right now.] Went to Chicago. Met Stephen. Was a member of the pack here, under the old alpha, and relocated there. Lives in a big old house in a dead neighborhood. [Smiled fondly.] Bunch of bohemian wolves. Don't go to the forest. Think they don't have a pack. Live with this old wolf in this thirty-room house. Writers, musicians, artists, itinerant philosophers. Was like living in the '20s. [As if it wasn't obvious:] Liked it. Suited me.