Chance Encounters

The beginning

“I think that's enough work for today.” I mumbled sitting on my tailgate about to light a joint when he came walking up. “Sorry about earlier Mark.” He shrugged, “She's insane, hence the reason why we were arguing in the first place. She wanted more than a friendship,and I wasn’t into it.” I shrugged. What more could I say to him? It’s not like we would ever be a thing. Quickly gathering up my thoughts I responded,“Wouldn’t have been a problem if she didn't throw a punch at me first.” We sat on the tailgate, swapping stories about people watching when Larry came out to join us.

The three of us piled into my truck and just drove, to nowhere but anywhere other than the neighborhood. My King Crimson 8-track ended as we pulled into an abandoned barn. “Guys, I’m sorry for earlier, I get it if you don’t want to hang anymore,not like we were friends in the first place.” Passing the joint to Larry he hit it. I looked out my cracked windshield. The moonlight dancing off the broken glass. A sigh escaped Larry as he began to speak.“I think it's cool, that you wrench and hell can even fight, I wasn't expecting that out of you.” He laughed as Mark took the joint. “Neither was I,but it makes me want to get to know you better.” Larry looked like he was lost in thought as Mark spoke up. I was also lost in thought as I watched the moonlight dance off of Mark’s ocean blue eyes. Hitting the joint we talked about music and the bands we liked. “My favorite is definitely Creedence Clearwater Revival or King Crimson.” I told Larry and Mark. “Mine would have to be Grateful Dead.” Mark said, Larry added, “Mine is The Animals.” Larry said, exhaling a puff of the joint. Glancing at the time we decided that going home for the night would be the best option.

I dropped Larry off and Mark opted to walk home from my house. “I wanted to say I’m sorry, I didn’t think she would try and pull a stunt like that.” I shrugged, it honestly didn't bother me all that much, got into worse fights with country boys worse than that. I still had scars from some of the scraps I’ve gotten into. He grabbed my hand,my face heating up at his touch. “I would like to take you to homecoming, if you are into those things, if not I would like to do something that night with you regardless.” I shrugged, “I would like to,but because of my new job I want to prove myself, one day I’ll become a shipwright and work on the great lakes freighters.” My eyes gleamed thinking about it. He smiled, “Quite the ambition I like it, not too many have that ambition.I want to hang out with you though regardless if you are wrenching in your driveway or in class, or hell late at night.” My face was bright red as he took my face in his hands and kissed my cheek. “Goodnight Skye, I'll see you tomorrow.”

I snuck in my house. Mom was asleep as well as one of my aunts. The other aunt worked a graveyard shift so I didn’t have to worry too much. The window to my bedroom was left cracked and no screen so it was easy to open and jump in my room. I turned on the radio at a low interval hoping I would hear anything at all about vietnam. Unfortunately my head couldn’t be quiet as thoughts danced around me, laying here thinking about the day's events and everything else was insane. I knew it was going to be a sleepless night. Seeing as how I heard the radio, something wasn’t right. The Americans were supposed to have cut the vietcong off,but it sounded like they got ambushed. I sat upright listening to it, I could hear the panic in the news castors voice. I sat up as long as I could. The things the news castor described were pretty grim. Eventually the sound lulled me to sleep.

Same routine, different day. Get up, shower, make tea, grab my tool bag and joints then leave for school. It became a habit to park in the back and miss home room. Not like any teacher particularly cared. As long as I made an appearance in one class it was fine. Mark and Larry hopped in my truck to smoke as a morning ritual. It was our thing that we did together. Both of them made it a point that they were coming up to my work on saturday. Since I was the first one to get a job at a shop they wanted to check it out. “Look guys I don’t know if Frank will be cool with the two of you coming.” Larry laughed a little, “Then we’ll just pretend like we are buying something. He can’t kick us out especially if we might buy something.” Today was Friday and the night of homecoming was Saturday. I was still debating if I wanted to go, because Mark and Larry shouldn’t be seen with me at a formal event,because formal and I don’t necessarily blend well.

Walking into the office I handed Frank’s note to the school and they gladly accepted it. “Makes sense why you never show past shop, alright we will mark you down as a work study and you will earn credits.” I thanked them and walked out. As if life had a funny way of kicking me in the teeth, May happened to be right there, along with her three cheerleading friends. All dressed up for tonight's game. “Look, I have zero interest in fighting or talking to any of you.” I said as I walked by. They let out a huffy sigh and continued to follow me. I turned around and looked at them, “What do you want?” I asked. One of them spoke up, “We want Mark and unfortunately for you he doesn’t want a country hick like you.” I shrugged, “Ok he's all yours, I really don't have any interest in anything other than work.” They all laughed at me. “Oh look, she's poor on top of it.” I shrugged, “All you guys are ever going to be is washed up sluts.” Apparently that was a direct insult as they all tried to fight me. I got in their faces “What are you going to do?” I growled. One who’s name I found out later was Dawn attempted to threaten back, “Nobody wants you, especially since you are a poor worker. You should have stayed at your old school.” I was just about to reach out and deck her when a teacher came up and stopped us mid argument, “WHAT SEEMS TO BE THE PROBLEM?” He asked all of us. Being a polite country kid had its charms as I remained quiet while they all screamed over each other. “You three office now, Skye, get to class and make it snappy.” I nodded, “Yes sir.” and off I went to shop class.

Mark and Larry had a teacher’s car on the hoist, it needed new ball joints and struts. Filling both of them in why I was late turned into a twenty minute conversation on why I was so quiet. Mark grumbled and groaned about how bad Michigan rust on cars are. I looked at the torch in the corner, lit it and got the bolt hot enough to break it loose. “Look, I have work in a few so I gotta go, good luck next hour.” Saying my goodbyes I left for work.

Frank, handed me a mtn dew, he knew, country kids love it. He handed me three work orders, most were easy,but one of them was changing a combine blade. “The last one I’ll show you how to do it,or at least guide you how to do it. I do not expect you to know farm equipment as well as I do.” I nodded and began to work. The fall sun beat down on us as I went into the field. The first work order was a simple oil inspection and change. I went underneath the Ford. It was a simple 2N tractor. Taking the drain plug out I watched as the oil came out looking like molasses. No milkiness whatsoever,which meant that the engine was in top condition. The second work order was fairly simple as it turned out to need more hydraulic fluid. The combine blade wasn’t too hard once Frank told me how to do it. About an hour was spent doing that just simply for the fact of rust covering the combine. It was a 1924 international harvester. A heavy lug that can definitely get field work done.

We ended the day right as the sun went down, “Good work today,you are one of the best apprentices I could ask for.” I shook his hand as I walked out the door. My truck smelled like a typical work truck, oil and grease stained my pants and shirt. My truck smelled like diesel and bearing grease. It was a sense of comfort as I drove down the back roads all the way home. While driving I dared to think about Mark. His beautiful eyes tempting me to do things. I shook my head at those thoughts, again I wasn’t his type. I slowly pulled into my driveway. Throwing the parking break on I leaned the seat back. Sparking up a joint relaxing before I went into the hell that was my house and home life.

My mom shook her head as I walked in full of grease. “You better not be tracking all that into my house!!” Rolling my eyes at her comment I threw my boots outside and headed for the shower. The smell of city water was something I had yet to get used to. Unlike the U.P. water that had a lot of minerals in it and ran a brown color; the city water was a clear color and had a lot of fluoride and chlorine in it. The shower was finally a suitable temperature as I hopped in. The welcoming smell of Irish spring mixed with the steam sending a warm feeling across me. A pinging off the shower window snapped me out of the steem coma I was in. Crouching and cracking the window I saw was Mark. “You have a while to hang out? I know you are probably tired.” I held my head out the window awkwardly bending my body as to not expose anything. “Mark.” I said in a somewhat hushed tone. “Be careful about which window you hit, but yes I will be out, just give me a few minutes.” He nodded and walked over to Larry’s house. I had to finish my shower and get out before my mother could interrogate me.