Apocalypsis 01 - Kahayatle

do something and now was trying to play it off.
    “Can I haff my hand back, please?   I don’t think it’s going to bend any more dan dat before it breaks.”
    I slowly let him go, watching him warily as he stood, shaking his hand a little and massaging it with the other.
    He was smiling his stupid head off.   “I love dis.   You are halff my size and probably no more dan fifty-fife kilos … but den you take me down like Triple H in da ring.   You are one hell of a woman, you know dat?   I loff American girls.”
    Peter came walking up and put his arm around me.   “Yeah, Bryn is one hell of an American girl, I can agree with you there.”
    I nudged him in the ribs and he flinched, but he didn’t let me go and he didn’t shut up.
    “But she’s not tough all the time.   Inside she’s like a … marshmallow.   All soft and sweet.”
    “Oh, really?   Iss dat so?” said Bodo, smiling conspiratorially with Peter.   “What doess your boyfriend think about you spending all dis time with Peter, eh?”   He pointed to the ring on the necklace around my neck.
    I wiggled out of Peter’s grasp and moved away.   “You guys are a couple of idiots, you know that?   And I don’t have a boyfriend.   The ring was my dad’s.”   I bent down by the bike and turned to look up at Bodo.   “Touch me again and I’ll break your wrist next time.   Or kick you in the nuts so hard, you won’t feel them for a month.   Now hand me the adjustable wrench.”
    Bodo’s eyes widened and he slowly reached down to cup his sensitive parts, speaking to Peter but looking at me.   “Wow.   She doesn’t mess around.”
    “No.   She doesn’t,” agreed Peter, handing me the wrench.   “Just try to stay on her good side, would you?   She can get cranky sometimes.”
    I worked at getting the small nut off that was holding the flag in place.   “If you guys don’t stop talking about me, I’m going to leave you both behind and go to the Everglades by myself.   With Buster.”
    “Oh, we’re going to da Everglades?” asked Bodo.   “Did choo know dare are alligators dare?   And lots of snakes?”
    “Yeah,” said Peter wryly.   “We’re aware.”
    “Okay, well if dat’s not a problem for you, den it’s not a problem for me.”
    I couldn’t help but giggle at that, my anger over his need to test my skills evaporating.   I wondered if I went to Germany and learned some German whether I would say one stupid phrase over and over like that.   I’d have to get Bodo to teach me one so I could use it and make him crazy with it.
    I finally got the nut off and wiggled the flag off the back wheel.   “Done.”   I threw it over to the edge of the highway.
    “Can’t we keep it?” asked Bodo.
    “Why would we do that?”
    He shrugged.   “I don’t know.   I chust kind of like it.”
    “Well if you want to figure out how to hide it in the trailer so no one can see it, I don’t care.”
    “Good!” he said, jogging over to pick it up.   He came back and rummaged around in the trailer to bend it around the inside walls, and managed to get it in there without too much trouble.   “Dare.   You see?   Not a problem.”
    I went to climb on my bike, and Bodo came up next to me, making me instantly wary.  
    “You want to trade bikes with me?   I swear, it’s not because of your butt.”
    I rolled my eyes.   “Yes.   I’ll trade bikes with you.   Just wait a minute.”
    I went to the trailer and reached down for Buster.   “Come on, Buster, come ride with me.”   He hopped out and I took the Hello Kitty backpack to put it in the basket of the bike, lifting Buster up to sit on top of it.   He rested his chin on the edge, his eyebrows moving as he watched me only with his eyes.   It was pretty comical, how he just settled in so easily like that.   He was as goofy as the rest of us.
    “Okay.   Now I’m ready.”
    Bodo got up on my bike and Peter got on his, and we pedaled down the highway.   My butt felt a hundred times better.
    ***
    “So, how far do we go today?” asked Bodo.   We’d been going for about an hour, making small talk along the way in places and sometimes just riding in quiet companionship.
    “Our goal is fifty miles, but it’s not set in stone,” answered Peter.   “We want to get there as soon as we can.”
    “But we want to avoid the canners.”
    “Canners.   You use dis word for da cannibals?”
    “It’s Peter’s word.”
    “It means something else