Ken Davison sits in the car, driving North on the I-95 corridor, heading to Philadelphia… again. This time he was accompanied by Kyra and Adina. The tone is so much different than the last time Ken was in Philadelphia, but the reason was going to be, Ken had hoped, going to be a much more positive one. Ken looks at the clock on his dashboard and it’s 10:44 AM. They were making excellent time. Ken adjusts the rear view mirror so he can see Adina. She sees his smile in the mirror and waves, giggling to herself, apparently amused by the brief interaction. Ken readjusts the mirror and returns his hand to where it belongs, in Kyra’s grip.

“Where we goin’, Daddy?” Adina asks inquisitively.

“Somewhere fun,” Ken says with a smirk. “I promise.”

“Last time you said that you took me to the park and it was closed.”

“Come on, now. It’s not like I broke the sprinkler park.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Adina dismisses Ken who despite the disrespect could not help but think ‘She definitely is her mother’s daughter.’

Ken’s baby, his old 89’ Grand Am, rolls up the Philadelphia waterfront.

“Almost there.”

“So… where exactly are we going?” Kyra asks. She knows the why, but not the where.

“Knowing what we’re trying to pull off here, I chose somewhere that I thought would be disarming.”

“Disarming? The fuck is this? A bank heist?”

“Yeah! What the brown word?!” Adina yells from the back. Both Ken and Kyra turn around and give Adina a look. Ken quickly turns back to the road while Kyra holds her stare.

“You clever little….Brown word.”

To her credit, Kyra holds her stare, completely serious while Ken does his best to stifle his snickering.

“Definitely yours,” he says to Kyra, reinforcing his previous thought.

The Pontiac slows as it gets to the parking garage. As he turns in, the orange and blue “Dave and Buster’s” sign hangs overhead.

“What’s this?”

“Don’t worry, baby girl. You’re going to like this. I promise”

Ken gets his ticket and manages to get a spot right next to the entrance. Adina is in awe as the walk in, staring up and the series of fans that seem to be connected by a large serpentine belt which caused them all to cool the area below. Adina grabs Ken and Kyra’s hands, letting them guide her as she takes in the sheer enormity of the space. They get to the podium and Kyra gently pulls Adina to sit down next to her. A staff member sees them and dutifully walks up to seat them.

“Hi! How are you?” the overly enthusiastic blonde asks. She doesn’t allow Ken a chance to answer. “Three today?”

“Four, please.” 

“Four?” Adina interjects.

“Yes. Four. We’re waiting for someone.”

“Who?”

“Surprise” says Chloe Hawkhurst with a small smile reminiscent of ‘Hide the Pain Harold.’ Adina is ecstatic, jumping up and into Chloe’s arms. Her smile gets bigger, perhaps her first genuine smile since her father died. “Hey, midget.”

“Thanks for coming, Chloe. We wanted to just meet up, see how you’re doing.”

“Do you want the honest truth or a happy lie?”

Just as you could tell who Adina’s mother is, you could also tell who Chloe’s teacher was.

“The truth. We’re worried about you.” Ken’s tone is gentle, but matter of fact. “Everyone is worried about you. Zach, Mia, Tax, even the Shadow came out from whatever dark hole he’s been hiding in. All of them reached out to me. The only one who didn’t was Jimmy because I reached out to him and told him to help with his situation at home. We love you, Chloe.”

“I’m fine.”

“Bullshit.” Ken is smart enough to know anytime a woman says “I’m fine,” it never means they are fine, even in a woman as young as 19. “I lost my father last September. You are never ‘fine’ after something like that. My dad has been gone nine months and I’m not ‘fine.’ Sunday is Father’s Day, for fuck’s sake. You think you’re going to be fine? I know I’m not.”

“Yeah. I guess.”

“Look, I’m not trying to go all Dr. Phil and be like,” Ken changes his tone of voice to do his best (incredibly bad) Dr. Phil impression. “You must make yourself emotionally available.” His tone returns to normal. “What I’m trying to do is check in and maybe, just maybe have a little fun.”

“I know you’ve heard it about three hundred thousand times by now, but we really mean it.. We’re here for you.”

“And I wanna play skee ball with you,” Adina says while bouncing in place.

“Let’s just let loose a little, have a nice lunch, and then there’s something I…” Ken looks over and smiles at Kyra. “We have to talk to you about. How’s that sound?”

Adina hops down and grab’s Chloe’s hand.

“Looks like I don’t have a choice.”

“No, I don’t think you do.”

Chloe looks down and Adina gives her hand a squeeze.

“Alright, midget. You win. Skee ball it is.”

Ken turns to the server at the podium and lets her know the plan. He gets two game cards loaded up, giving one to Chloe and Adina and keeping one for Kyra and himself. They all played games together; skee ball, Pac-man, this horse racing game where you have to roll a ball into a hole to see how far your horse will move. Fun was had by all. It was like Chloe had found her Mini-me. Much in the way that she had been with her father.

Ken turns to Kyra, leaning in real close and whispering in her ear.

“Are you sure about this? This is a big deal.”

“Absolutely.”

“Then it’s settled.” Ken leans in and kisses Kyra on the cheek. She grabs him on both sides of his face and turns and kisses him back passionately. That gave Ken more of an affirmation than any words could.

“Gee-rosssssss…” Adina calls out from behind them. The three adults all start laughing boisterously. “Can we eat yet? I’m hungry and we’re never gonna get enough tickets for that teddy bear.”

She was right about that. The teddy bear was twice as tall as she was and took thousands of tickets to purchase. Ken made a mental note to come back to earn enough tickets to get Adina that bear.

“Yeah. I haven’t eaten in days. I could use something in my stomach.”

“Days? Why in the hell haven’t you eaten?” As Ken had a much deeper bond with Chloe, normally she wouldn’t have reacted, but her motherly instincts took over.

“Just haven’t been hungry since dad died. Do you know how many “I’m sorry for your loss” casseroles I’ve thrown away? Probably about 20.”

Kyra reaches over and pulls Chloe in. “I’m so sorry.”

“Could you, maybe, not? I’m not what you would call the touchy feely type.”

“Sorry,” Kyra says awkwardly as she backs away, a bit of red rising to her cheeks. “Uh… Maybe eating is a good idea.”

The quartet make their way back to the podium and request to be seated. Ken takes his place next to Kyra as Adina scrambles to the other side and Chloe sits beside her. They get situated, place their orders, with Ken ordering a Sam Adams Boston Lager. Kyra takes notice.

“You don’t drink. What’s up with that?”

“Just taking the edge off,” Ken shrugs.

Their appetizers arrive and Ken nurses the beer, taking his time with it.

“So… uh… Chloe… I have to admit that I didn’t tell you everything about why we asked you to come out with us today.”

Chloe cocks an eyebrow. “Go on…”

“It’s not anything bad. I promise.”

“Someone’s doin’ a lot of promisin’ today.”

“Now isn’t the time, baby girl.”

“Kyra and I have been thinking a lot about what you’ve been going through and how you’re dealing with things.”

“I’m dealing,” Chloe interrupts with a tone of consternation.

“I know you are. It’s one thing that your father was amazing at. He would deal with whatever the world threw at him and handle it. I would expect you to do the same.”

“Yeah. I am.” Chloe is now on the defensive, which is exactly what Ken didn’t want.

“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. I’m not saying you can’t. I’m saying that you shouldn’t have to do it alone. No one should have to do it alone. I told you, I’ve been down this road, but when I walked in those shoes, I had Kyra, Adina, my brother Sean, and all of my friends to help me make my way. I’m not saying you can’t deal. I’m saying you shouldn’t have to do it alone.”

Adina looks back and forth between Ken and Chloe. Even at five years old, she can feel the tension. Kyra looks tentatively at Ken, not sure if she should put herself in the middle of this. It would seem that she decided that this was the moment to do that.

“Momma and Daddy help me all the time!” Adina chimes in.

“I don’t have a mother and father,” Chloe says drying. The tone is cold enough to chill the bones.

“We have a room, Chloe! You can come stay with us! They can be your mommy and daddy, too!”

“That’s not the way it works, midget.”

“No, it doesn’t. But, the kid is right. We’ve got the room. We’re not trying to be your mother and father. That’s not our place. What we can do is give you a place to live, three square meals, and a support system.”

“Not to mention one little shit that would love to annoy the piss out of you.”

‘Annoyance doesn’t exactly sweeten the deal,” Ken says before turning back to Chloe. “I just want you to know you don’t have to…”

“I’m down,” Chloe says, cutting Ken off.

“Wait. What?”

“There’s nothing here for me. The family I have either doesn’t know I’m alive or wishes I wasn’t. My own grandfather didn’t even go to his son’s funeral? Who does that? So, yeah. Let’s do this.”

“Just like that? I thought this was going to be some long drawn out thing. You haven’t even finished your mozzarella sticks yet.”

“I told you, I’ve got nothing here. I was going to sell the house and move anyway.”

“Then it’s settled,” Kyra says, shocked to say the least – but not in a bad way. 

“Then it’s settled,” Ken repeats with a sense of relief as their food arrives. Adina does some more of her hyperactive bouncing in place while Chloe smiles, feeling the first sense of comfort she’s had in her life since her father’s passing. Everything was going to be okay.

Kyra Johnson and Ken Davison stand side by side, taking advantage of the Philadelphia waterfront. Thankfully, even during the day, the view is nice and clean, the reflections of the buildings dancing on top of the water. It is the antithesis of what they expect from Phrixus; normalcy.

“Phrixus Deimos, we did this last week. We’ve done this with Donovan before, also. Last time with Dave Rydell. The moving parts may be different, but there is one constant here, and that is that Baltimore Elite are walking into this match as the UGWC Cooperative Champions and we will be walking out the UGWC Cooperative champions. Same name. Same game. Ain’t a damned thing changed.”

“I think it’s kinda cute, personally.. Watching Donovan doing the partner shuffle week after week.  Trying to find that right fit in order to take these belts off of us, huh?  But I guess the real question is why?  Why are you here, Donny?  Ever since you lost that world title, you’ve been trying to find some semblance of relevance, or what?   You’re barking up the wrong tree though, honey.  You can’t dream of finding chemistry like this…with any of your flavors of the week.  I can guarantee you that.”

“Donovan, I’ve been in your position, trying to find my way after losing a World Championship. Instead of playing partner roulette, I set a goal and I did everything in my power to achieve it. I didn’t make  excuses. I didn’t try to do something I simply couldn’t do. I set my mind to it and I busted my ass, week in, week out, across not one, but two separate companies and my only complaint was that I wanted more competition. Do you think that switching out Dave Rydell for that Dollar Store bootleg Astrocreep is really the solution? Look in the mirror, my friend. Realize that you cannot defeat the Baltimore Elite. But, hey, you know, you could always try to go after Tony Savage… or better yet, go after my sister-in-law when she takes the World Championship. I mean, you’ll still fall short, but at least you’ll only have yourself to blame.”

“That’s what it is, isn’t it? Donny doesn’t like having to look at himself in the mirror and take the heat for his failures. At least he could blame Dave when they failed the last time.. And in a few days, Good old Phrixus will be a pile of shit for costing him his chance at Coop gold. It’s a genius plan, honestly.. That is if everyone and their brother didn’t already see through your bullshit. Why do you put up with it, Phrixus? You’re surely a much smarter man than your partner.. So why lower yourself to his level?”

“There is no reason that you should do that. I spent the best moments of my life showing Kyra her worth. She, much like you, Phrixus, stood in the shadow of a World Champion. She should never have allowed that to happen. Just as you should never allow yourself to stand in Donovan’s shadow? Why are you even in his shadow? Because he has a better resume? Kyra knows her worth. She stands next to me, where she will never be in my shadow. We stand as equals, and that is why we will take out Donovan Hastings and friend. You need to listen to Kyra, Phrixus. You need to listen real good. She speaks from experience and we both know what you are truly capable of.”

“It’s obvious that you’re the star of your team.  But what’s done is done, and when the dust settles… I’ll be interested to see if you lay down and let Donny blame you for his own shortcomings.”

“I believe that it was Phrixus himself who referred to us as placeholders and, admittedly, I couldn’t agree more. We are all placeholders when we are champions. We will stand here until someone defeats us. We will stand and fight and scratch and claw to keep these championships. The difference between the Baltimore Elite and the team of Donovan Hastings and Phrixus Deimos is that while we are placeholders, the two of you will just be a footnote, listed as one of our numerous title defenses.”

Ken wraps his arm around Kyra’s waist pulling her close. He gives her a passionate kiss, which is once again interrupted.

“GEEEEE-ROSSSSSSSSSSSSSS”

“Kendamnit, stop recording.”

“We really need to leave her home when we do this.”

The screen cuts to black.