“MAXWELL!!”

Duo jumped up and tipped over, landing in a rather undignified heap on the hard ground. He never could get used to sleeping in a hammock but he was determined to learn.

Brushing himself off, he responded to Wufei’s rather unpleasant “greeting.”

“Well, you’re in a good mood,” he observed grumpily as he entered Wufei’s rather small trailer, which was barely built for one. “Bad day at work?”

“That thing!” Wufei rubbed his bruised foot. “What kind of junk did you buy now?”

“That?” Duo responded brightly, looking as though he had discovered a long lost treasure. “That’s a dummy bomb from the Great War. Isn’t it cool? The shop I bought it from delivered it this afternoon.”

“More useless stuff,” Wufei grumbled. “I don’t know how Hilde puts up with you.”

Duo winced inside but he didn’t let it show on his face. “Hilde’s away at college, remember?” He missed her more than he liked to admit, even to himself.

“Yeah, well she’s gonna be shocked when she sees all of the junk you’ve collected when she gets back.”

“Well, that won’t be for a few years yet so I’m not worried,” Duo said lightheartedly. “There’s plenty of time for me to organize it all.”

“Yeah, right,” Wufei said sarcastically. “Like you could get yourself organized.”

“Well, at least I’m not a fuss-budget like you,” Duo parried. “Anyway, what do you want me to grill for supper?”

“We’re just having sandwiches tonight,” Wufei informed him, tossing the bag from the deli to Duo.

"How come?" Duo looked approvingly into the bag of roast beef and Swiss cheese.

“My sister-in-law sent me a note saying she’ll be here tomorrow for a visit so we’ve got to clean this place up!”

“Sister-in-law?” Duo puzzled. “What sister-in-law? You’ve gotta be married to have one of those or else have a brother or sister who’s married. And you’ve got neither.”

“It was a long time ago and was a custom of my clan,” Wufei glossed over the details of his short, stormy marriage to Meilan.

“So you’re divorced then?”

“She died.”

“Oh,” was all Duo could say to that. He couldn’t imagine Wufei as a married man, and then realized that he must have been a married kid.

“So anyway, make some sandwiches while I try to do something about this disaster area,” Wufei said shortly and started in on the project in earnest. “Then you’ve got to get rid of that thing,” he pointed to the cause of the painful bruise on his foot.

“Why should I hafta get rid of it? It’s a piece of history!” Duo argued as he admired the bullet-shaped bomb.

“I don’t care what it is--there’s no way you’re going to keep it here,” Wufei insisted. “There’s no room for it except in the middle of the floor. And you can’t keep it under the trailer, either. They’re real strict here about leaving junk lying around.”

“It’s not junk,” Duo said defensively. “And I can just put it in your truck.”

“It’s in the shop, remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” Duo said, recalling that it was his fault that the front end of Wufei’s pickup needed bodywork. “Well, I can’t exactly take it anywhere on my motorcycle.”

“That’s your problem, not mine,” Wufei stated. “And go easy on the mustard.”

“Me-me-me-me-me-me-me,” Duo turned his back and mimicked Wufei’s instruction about the sandwiches under his breath.

“I heard that!” Wufei called from the bedroom.

So Duo sulked as he prepared sandwiches--light on the mustard, unhappy that his “cool find” would have to be gotten rid of somehow. He looked out of the kitchen window at the pleasant spring day with the plowed fields ready for planting. Wufei lived on the outskirts of a trailer park on the edge of town. Duo wasn’t used to seeing so much land so he often took the scenic route on his motorcycle when the scavenger in him felt like meandering through junk shops like the one at which he’d found the controversial dummy bomb. Wufei’s lack of a truck at the moment was the reason Duo had paid to have it delivered.

“MAXWELL!”

Duo sat up and gripped the sides of the hammock to balance it, which he was pretty proud of accomplishing in spite of his sleep being interrupted so rudely.

“What now?” Duo answered crankily.

“What did you do with that bomb?”

“What?”

“The BOMB.”

A pretty, young Chinese girl poked her head out of the trailer door. “Wufei, it’s on television too! On all stations!” Then she disappeared.

“Who’s that?” Duo asked with a yawn.

“That’s Ming, my sister-in-law. I told you about her yesterday.” Wufei dropped the two motorcycle helmets he was holding onto the ground and hurried to the trailer to see what Ming was talking about.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot.” Duo stretched. The hammock wobbled but Duo shifted his weight and managed to keep it from tipping over.

Wufei was back outside in an instant. “WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THAT BOMB? Did you bury it in that farmer’s field?”

“Well, there was nowhere else I could put it. It was too heavy to carry any farther. I’ll dig it up when I go back home.”

“Yeah, right, you'll never get it back--it’s now in the custody of the bomb squad. The police from three cities are over there and the fire department is ready in case anything happens. There are reporters from three news stations there and a helicopter from CNN is circling the area. How could you sleep through all of that?”

“And the poor farmer is in shock,” Ming added.

Duo chuckled. “Aw, there’s nothin’ to worry about—it’s a dummy,” he said carelessly and turned to settle back down to continue his nap.

Thud!