The Truth About Life

-Chase: Chapter Two-

I look in the bathroom mirror at my swollen lip. The split is scabbed over and, thank goodness, the swelling has gone down a bit.

Two days later I'm still in shock at my dad punching me. I'm surprised at the words that came out of my mouth, too. I don't know why the freaking hell I can't get myself together. Ever since my dad left, there's this darkness, this grey heaviness hanging over me. Over everything in my life.

Before the divorce my life, I felt, was pretty perfect. Yeah, there were times my parents and my sister annoyed me (I'm sure I annoyed them, too) but it was just kind of this great life. I had so many cool friends, we would hang out together, eat junk food, (my mom's a great cook and she's great about letting me pig out on junk food and snacks, too) play pool, camp, swim.

My best friend, Brody Dean, (I've known him since my preschool days) one scorching summer day when we were about 12, we were messing around at the local junkyard that the Crazy Old Man Milton owns.

We were digging through what we thought was a pile of scrap metal, when we uncovered a couple of dirt bikes. We didn't know anything about motorcycles, but that didn't deter Brody and I from wanting them so bad! I'm not gonna lie, our plan was to sneak them off the property that night!

But while we were messing around, pulling the bikes from the pile of junk, Old Man Milton snuck up behind us. I'm not embarrassed to say that Brody and I both almost peed ourselves a little for how scared we were with, one: trespassing and two: the theft of the bikes on our minds.

Crazy Milton yelled and hollered at us for coming on his property without permission, yanked us both up by our arms and dragged us to his old, dumpy office. The smells of grease, dust and stale cigarettes hit me as Milton sat us in the hard-plastic chairs against the wall.

Brody looked over at me and whispered, "Let's make a run for it!"

Before I can respond I hear, "I wouldn't try that if I were you." Milton's voice carried loud and clear from the counter, where he was picking up the telephone. An old black rotary phone. "I know who your parents are Chase Parker and Brody Dean."

I'm actually shocked that he even knows our names. He's the town recluse, Crazy Old Man Milton. We've passed around stories since grade school about him killing his wife and kid, hiding their bodies in the walls of his house. Brody and I both were kind of sweating sitting there, and it wasn't from the intense summer heat.

Milton calls our parents and when all was said and done, Brody and I both had to come in every morning during summer break and help out around the junkyard. I guess to pay our debt to society or whatever. It honestly turned out to be the best summer Brody and I had ever had!

I learned so much about cars and their working parts. Milton taught me how to take an engine apart and put it back together. How to rotate tires, to install a stereo system.

I also learned that Crazy Old Man Milton really wasn't that crazy. He was just lonely for company and conversation.

Milton's a heavy smoker and drank coffee like it was water. He loved car magazines and we found out he used to race motorcycles as a teenager. Which led Brody and I to ask him about those bikes still buried in that junk pile.

A couple days later, when we got to the junkyard, Milton had both bikes out in front waiting for us. Brody just stood there in shock. I think I shocked Milton (and myself) when I ran over and bear-hugged him! That was the coolest thing that anyone had ever done for me.

For the rest of that summer, Brody and I worked off our community service in the morning, then stayed the rest of the day working on our bikes. Milton let us use any parts we needed from his junkyard. Any old spray paint he had lying around was used to repaint and refinish.