Even after he returned to his room, Bubba couldn't help but repeat her words in his head. Creative, good stitch work--in spite of his feelings toward strangers, some positive words were good for him. God knows he doesn't get much from his family. With a head full of thoughts, he went to change clothes.
"Whoa, y'all got tunnels in Louisiana?" Choptop was saying in the hallway, his voice full of wonder. "What about the water? I heard if you dig next to a lake or something, you hit more water! My buddy in Nam said that, 'cause he's from Florida." As he continued to ramble right back at her. "Good kid--knew all kinds'a shit. One time he said if you get stung by a jellyfish, you gotta get someone to piss on you! Ha!" As he spoke, he gestured wildly with his hanger, still in his hands. "Ooh, come see the dining room," he interrupted himself suddenly, practically bouncing in place. "We just cleaned up, so--actually, wait here," he said, just as suddenly as before. They'd stopped just around the corner from the room. "Lemme move a few things, heh. It'll just take a sec!"
After leaving her in the in the hallway, Choptop hurried to the dining room. He'd forgotten to take down some of the most damning evidence! Grabbing blankets from the living room, he threw them over Nubbins, who sat propped up in one of the chairs. He collected all of the obviously human bones, and stashed them in the cabinets beneath the china case. Of course, most of the glass had been broken long ago, but they still used the shelves to keep the nice pieces. As well as other prized nick knacks -- a couple of well preserved fingers, a jar of tongues, and a drawing in the back. He smiled at it briefly, remembering when Bubba had given him the drawing for his eighteenth birthday. Good memories.
Pocketing the fingers, he glanced at the jar. It was inconveniently labeled "tongues," in Drayton's handwriting. After thinking for a moment, he looked around the room, until he spotted one of his permanent markers lying on the table. Perfect. In chicken scratch handwriting, he wrote "pig" in front of "tongues". Choptop thought he was surely a genius.
Hiding the objects, and doing a quick last scan, took a few minutes, but he eventually rushed back to Lou. "Hey! Thanks for waiting, right this way!" he said, in a mock service worker voice. With that, he turned on his heel and walked again into the dining room.
Though they had supposedly "just cleaned", the long table was still pretty cluttered. Candles, random pieces of silverware, glasses, and more, littered the eating space. One chair was now covered in a heap of three blankets. In another, sat a large trophy, reading "1975 MEAT FESTIVAL".
When Choptop glanced around again, his heart dropped into his balls. The face lampshade that his younger brother had made was still up. Shit. Shit--okay, he thought, he'll say it's rubber, and that Bubba had made it, too. But if she didn't notice it, maybe he could discreetly throw one of the blankets over it. But discretion was not his strong suit. He just had to wait and see.