More than a Memory

Chapter 1: Look at This Photograph

"C'mon Ben, you're gonna be late for school!" thirty-six year old Lisa Braeden yelled up to her  almost eighteen-year old son.

"Alright," Ben called back as he put his sneakers on. He stood up and looked at himself in the mirror, fixing his dark hair in front to have it stand up and swoop to the side all the same time. He grabbed an olive green shirt and put it on over top of his black Pink Floyd shirt and then left his room, grabbing his backpack on the way out.

He quickly ran down the steps and stopped at the front door to grab his car keys. His mom walked over to him and handed him a pack of pop tarts, "At least eat those in homeroom, please."

"Alright, Mom," Ben replied with a laugh and then grabbed his keys. He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek as she hugged him goodbye. "See ya tonight," he replied and then walked out the door to the driveway.

The late April day was sunny and warm, not a cloud in the sky to be found. He decided it would be a good day to go fishing and almost thought bout skipping school. If he knew his mom wasn't watching him from the window and would be until he turned right out of the driveway, he probably would have.

Ben Braeden was an average student in the book work subjects. If it was something he could do with his hands, he was golden and easily aced those classes. He was also known to skip classes on days like today in the past. Lisa didn't mind as much in the past, but now that Ben was a senior and just a few short weeks away from graduating, she kept a tighter leash on him. He didn't mind as much as he thought he would, but today he was.

Sighing to himself, he walked down the pathway to his 1985, black Ford bronco, that he bought with his own money. When he first got it for a little over $1000, the truck needed some work, new shocks a muffler and some rust spots. Within the course of the year, Ben was able to her up with the money he got from working part time at a local garage where he got the parts from at a discount.

This little garage, "Johnny's Service Center" was where he planned to get a full time job, but first he had to have his automotive technician certification to do so. So, after he graduated, that's where Ben was off too; a technical college. Lucky for him, he could still live at home and save money that way.

Ben knew at some point he would have to leave his mom, but that was something he wasn't looking forward to. Several years back, he had almost lost his mom when someone, possibly a drunk driver plowed into them. Remarkably, Ben had no scratches or bruises on him, but his mom suffered an almost fatal stomach wound and a pretty bad concussion that seemed to heal overnight. Ben vaguely remembered a light brown haired man walking into the room the night before his mom got discharged to apologize, clearly shaken up. If the man said his name, Ben couldn't recall.

Ben blinked and realized he had daydreamed the whole way to school. He parked his truck towards the back of the lot and headed into school,forcing himself to get his head out of the clouds. 

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The day dragged on and on. He thought about skipping his last class of the day, gym class, but all the damned doors had alarms on them. Even when they went outside to the track and fields, he thought about leaving then, too, but a teacher noticed this and pulled him back in, keeping a close eye on him for the rest of class. Ben was not a jock, but he was athletic, so gym class wasn't a complete waste of his time. Plus, it gave him an excuse to go shirtless in flag football, to impress the ladies by showing off his muscled and tanned skin, along with his secret tattoo, the logo for Avenged Sevenfold that was on his left shoulder blade. He was one of the few guys in school that had a tattoo, which just added to the mystique.

Getting that tattoo had been a fun story and a hell of a thing to keep covered from his mom. One of his buddies, Heath Montgomery had an older brother who was a really good tattoo artist and was looking for canvases to work on. After a few beers to convince him and calm his nerves, Ben had finally agreed, lying about his age. Surprisingly, the tattoo turned out awesome, but it took a few different trips back to get it outlined and shaded properly. By the third visit, Ben had ended up paying Heath's brother around $50 for his work. After that, Ben had decided tattoos weren't all that bad and vowed to come back when he was legal.