Listening to Dust by Brandon Shire Page B

to.  
    “Mmm, ‘spect he knew that too,” Robbie replied. “He weren’t no fool. Well, in most ways anyway.”  
    “I... I’m sorry, Robbie. I didn’t mean to bark at you like that,” Stephen told him.  
    “Don’t expect you did,” Robbie said. “Most folks don’t never mean what comes out of their mouth in hurtin’ times. It’s the loving times that really speak the truth.”  
    Stephen thought the opposite to be true, but he said nothing. All the hurting times he had ever been through had always revolved around one truth or another, but it was usually one that had never been voiced and thereby caused the pain, intentional or otherwise. Or was it a fear of some truth that caused it? He wasn’t sure and it wasn’t really the time to be considering it.  
    Robbie looked at him and smirked as Stephen raised his eyebrows in inquiry.  
    “Dustin didn’t believe me either, at first,” he chuckled. “For all the learning you smart folks got you sure do make things complicated.” He laughed a little more and shook his head.  
    Dustin had that same mannerism, and watching it on Robbie made Stephen want to retreat into himself a little further until he could find a temporary sanctuary from all his immediate memories. Of all the dread he had dreamed up on his flight over here, Dustin’s death had never been among the possibilities.  
    “You live in France now?” Robbie shot out at him.  
    “Yes, but how did you..?”  
    “...the letters,” they said together.  
    “Jinx!” Robbie called out. “Can’t say nothing ‘till I say your name,” he added with a smirk and a bob of his head. “I used to get Dusty on this all the time,” he said with a childish clap of his hands.  
    His face got suddenly somber as he looked at Stephen. “Don’t mind me none. I get to foolishness now and again. Dusty said I was made like this to help people pull the black from their heart. He said that’s why God reached down and touched me like he did, to make the world a better place.”  
    Stephen reached his hand up and made a twisting motion in front of his face, locking his lips closed, and Robbie’s face broke into a wide grin.  
    “He really did say that. I wasn’t trying to get you to lose or nothing. You think he was right?” Robbie asked, his brow tinged with seriousness.  
    Stephen nodded and then waved a finger back and forth.  
    Robbie grinned again. “You’re pretty good; Dusty would’ve lost by now. He was pretty good at keeping his heart hushed, but never his mouth. Well, that ain’t really true neither, I guess. He was pretty good at keeping everything inside until he got riled enough.”  
    Suddenly Robbie scrunched his face up and knuckle-rapped the side of his head with his fist. “See what I mean, this noggin don’t always act right. We was talking about your new house, but I don’t know how to say that town,” Robbie said, looking at him expectantly.  
    Stephen couldn’t help but chuckle as he crossed his arms with a small shake of his head. Robbie had already spoken the name quite clearly in reciting one of Stephen’s letters, so this was just a playful ruse. But now Stephen was starting to understand Dustin’s adamant need to return to his brother. You couldn’t help but love him, and thinking that someone like Stewart might beat on him just because he allowed it and wouldn’t strike back was completely repulsive.  
    Robbie let out a boom of laughter that turned all eyes in the diner to them again. “I like you, Mr. Stephen.” He immediately slapped his hands over his mouth and hid another grin behind it.  
    “I like you too, Robbie,” Stephen answered. “And Dustin was right; you do make the world a better place.”  
    Robbie smiled and picked up his fork again. “Why do you call him Dustin all the time? We always called him Dusty.”  
    Stephen shrugged, feeling oddly defensive about it. “That’s how I knew him. He... liked that I called him by his