Trying to make a joke I said, “That’s what I call fast food.”

However, Meek didn’t laugh. Instead, he said, “Not really. Andy had both of his consumed before we even got off the front porch and he doesn’t have ice put in his coffee like I did.”

“So how old is… I mean was Andy back then?”

“Nearly sixteen and he was better and faster at everything than I was.”

“Yeah, well duh!” I mocked, “That’s no surprise seeing how you were four years younger than him!”

“That’s true.” He agreed.

“So did the two of you get cold riding in the bed of the truck?” I asked.

“Uh, YEAH!” he said with a snort.

“Oh Alvin I’ve never been so cold in my life and you know what I’m saying seeing how we live in Maine.”

“Whoa!” I gasped sympathetically.

“We got cold enough that we decided to cover ourselves with an old, stiff, canvas tarp to try to stay warm. It smelled like gasoline and mildew and wasn’t big enough to go around us both, so Andy had me sit on his lap so we could both be covered by it.”

“He had asked me how I felt after we were covered by the heavy canvas and I told him I felt better even though I was still pretty cold. I didn’t have to tell him I was cold because he could tell by my chattering teeth.”

I interrupted Meek to ask, “Bet you wish you had saved that coffee until then huh?”

“Nah, we were bouncing around so much I would have ended up wearing it instead of drinking it.” Meek said with a chuckle.

“That would have still warmed you up.” I joked, “For a minute… then you probably would have turned into a Meek Popsicle.”

He began to laugh, and I knew it wasn’t because of my lame joke.

“Pepper calls me ‘HIS’ Meek Popsicle; but for totally different reasons.” Meek told me.

I started to laugh until it struck me what he meant.

“Um… Eew!! I didn’t need that picture in my head!” I joked again.

“Yeah well you are the one that called me a Meek Popsicle!” he said as he put another small bit of wood on our mini-fire.

“Andy then told me he had an idea and suddenly I could feel him wiggling beneath me. Between him wiggling and the truck bouncing, it was all I could do to stay on his lap. And just as he was settling down again I felt him lifting up the back of my sweatshirt.”

“Really?” I said with surprise and actually shivered at the idea of Meek having to go shirtless in the back of that truck.

“As you can guess, I was a bit alarmed and asked what he was doing.” Meek told me. “His reply was that I needed to relax and that if our bodies were touching we could share our heat better.”

“I’ve heard that before on the Discovery Channel.” I told Meek.

Meek nodded in agreement with me, “Me too, but back then I hadn’t. Actually back at that age I hardly watched TV unless it was the Powerpuff Girls.”

“You say that like you are soooo much older now.” I teased Meek.

“You know what I mean!” he said while pushing me over.

As he was pushing me, I realized that he’d just told me that he was a Powerpuff Girls fan.

I caught myself before I could fall all the way over and laughed because in his effort to topple me, he’d toppled himself.
“POWERPUFF GIRLS!” I howled.

Meek was laughing too, while trying to right himself but fell backward.

“Servers you right!” I laughed as he fell back from laughing so hard.

“I was wondering if you heard that part.” He said in a loud squealing laughter.