Damn Good Reasons **DISCONTINUED - SEE NEW VER!**

Chapter 2 - The Chambers Kid

I look back at my time working at the Blue Point Diner with fond memories. It was run by 80-year-old twin sisters, Rose and Violet, the dearest little old ladies you'd ever meet. Rose was the oldest sister – the bossy one (no, I'm just kidding). She was the one who ran the business, did the books and managed the stock. Violet was the head cook and managed the menus, although both of their cooking was amazing. They'd been cooking since they were old enough to take a hot pan out of an oven, and with 70+ years of experience, they had it all down to a fine art. You could dine in for a meal or pick from the selection of fresh buns, rolls, cakes and slices. Violet's homemade pumpkin soup was our most famous dish. It was a deliciously rich and spicy stew which had even won interstate awards. People would come from all around just to try our food, and that's what made the Blue Point iconic to Castle Rock.

There was just one downside to the place - it was a cesspit for gossip.

Everybody knows just about everybody in the small town, and rumors used to waft through the diner as freely as the smell of Violet's best-baked bread. As I served customers, mopped floors and cleaned tables, I only had to open my ears to learn what people thought about Chris and his family.

White trash. Scum of society. Those were the terms I'd hear.

"I saw Mrs. Chambers in town the other day with her young ones," they'd whisper to each other. "The poor little dears in their tatty clothes and bare feet."

"All of those boys will end up alcoholics just like their father. Mark my words."

"Or they'll end up in jail like the eldest one."

"Both Richard and Christopher are already well on their way to that - the little thief."

"Who knows what will become of the small girl? Only two years old and no hope in life."

"She'll wind up pregnant before she's left high-school, you just wait and see."

OK... so, Richard aka "Eyeball" wholly fitted their views from what I had seen – but, I felt they were being grossly unfair on the young ones, and I had trouble believing the things they said about Chris.

One week after the incident in the alleyway, the sound of laughter from outside the diner caught my ear. I glanced up from the table I was wiping to see two boys in their early teens walking past the window. The blond one was holding his dark-haired friend in a headlock as he playfully rubbed his knuckles into his scalp.

I dropped my cloth and rushed out onto the street. The two skinny figures continued up the sidewalk, one with a dirty gray bedroll tucked under his arm and the other with a rucksack strapped to his back.

"Chris!" I called out.

They both stopped and turned around, their eyes squinting at the unfamiliar face striding towards them. Chris elbow-nudged his friend when he finally recognized me. "That's that girl," he mouthed before giving me a small congenial smile.

"How are you?" I asked him when I caught up with them. "I looked for you when those guys finally let me leave, but I couldn't find you."

"I'm fine. Are you OK?"

"Yeah," I shrugged.

"Thanks for the other day..."

"I'm just glad I was there to help." I wanted to find out more about Ace's secret but decided to err on the side of caution since his friend was there. "Listen... have you gone to the cops about that?"

"Are you kidding? No way."

"You could do him for assault, you know."

Chris gave a slender laugh. "If I went to the cops and Ace got put away, I'd get hided by the rest of them and Ace would kill me when he got out."