Giggy Smile

"Barth." (Joe.)

Barth blushed and smiled as he stumbled in the door.

Joe and Barth had their own name for it, the giggy smile, for that smile they got when a gig was about to start (Joe on banjo, Barth on synths) and they had no idea what they were doing and people always loved their concerts and they never knew why and they were shaking inside and had no idea how they would start and they needed to put on a good face because there was an audience out there!

"Barth, the last time I saw you was just before the Towers fell. Now we're in *Iraq*. Where have you BEEN motherfucker?!" Tearing up, Joe hugged Barth.

"He got me."

"No way." Joe let go, arms limp, deadly serious now. "And you're alive and you look like this? Normal, I mean?"

"I... think I'm OK. I lied to him a lot. He certainly gave me time enough. It's been weeks, right?"

"You're not OK, Barth, it's been months, lots of months! Uhh... what did you lie to him?"

"Every... every flavor of the rainbow. He was so *pissed*. If anybody ever grills him for information on me, he'll be so confused. *They'll* be so confused.

"Like what? Like what?"

"Like, uhh... Like, he really wanted to know how you and I met, right? And I told him we met on a hunting trip a few years back. And I told him that we met when we were eleven. And I told him that he introduced you to me, and I was really disappointed in him for forgetting. I got beat a *lot* for that one."

Barth briefly lifted up his shirt in back. ("Holy shit. No shit," thought Joe.)

"And I told him that I didn't know a guy named Joe and I didn't know what he was talking about. And I told him that I'm a tranny and you picked me up because that was your fetish. I had my own special personality set up for that one and everything. And three or four more. And that was just for that question. I had just as many for every other question too. The hard part was keeping the rotation as random as I wanted. It's a good thing he never swept my cell... lots of dirt and twigs to scratch out the order with."

Calmer again, full of relief and wonder - "But why are you smiling your giggy smile?"

"Joe... you know... I'm always performing for you. I'm always performing for all my friends. For Katryn too. Damn she's gonna be so mad I visited you first... And especially no. I feel like whatever I say, it'll be another lie..."

"I'm the same, Bart, I'm the same. In all of it." He was crying now, hugging again. "But you know our audiences have always loved us."

They both smiled, and both they knew it without needing to see it.