Dakota Sky

Justin sat on his front porch watching the sun sink. His father was inside watching a ball game on an old twenty-four inch television and drinking a beer. Justin had never been into sports. They were either boring or just plan silly and he would rather go out fishing or do something outside that didn't require chasing after an object until your breath grew hot and your body collapsed.

He wasn't out of shape but he rarely cared what he looked like unless a girl happened to be passing. He had inherited his dirty blonde hair from his father but the rest of his traits came from his late mother, who had passed away six years ago.

The distinct sound of a car without a muffler echoed before it could be seen and a white hatchback kicked up a whirlwind of dust as it sped down the dirt road. Katherine’s long blonde hair danced about as she zoomed by, tapping the horn when she saw him and Justin waved as she vanished.

Katherine was his closest neighbor. They had grown up together and  he had helped her father out on their farm tending horses but this summer Justin was unemployed.

Taking the last swig bit of warm beer, Justin opened the screen door to see what his father was doing. He had fallen asleep on the recliner and his snoring overpowered the announcers of the ball-game. Justin went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door. He spotted the Polaroid picture of his mother on the freezer held there by a Mickey Mouse magnet.

He did miss missed her but more than that the house missed her more. It was different now. Things didn't work like they used to. The well-oiled machine sputtered along, occasionally needing a jumpstart.

There were chores that Justin he could do. He named a few in his head: dishes, lawn, maybe dinner, maybe laundry. Justin wasn't a heavy reader but he did like losing himself in a book for a few minutes. But instead of chores, he took up the phone and called Frenchy. He waited for it to ring and stared at the calendar tumbtacked tacked to the wall.

Interesting, today's date is circled. Justin couldn't remember why.

"Hello?" answered a woman’s voice.

"Hi. Is Frank there?"

"Sure, hold on. FRANK!!"

"Hello?" came Frenchy's crackled voice over the telephone. "I got it."

"Hey, Frenchy. What ya up to today?"

"I'm playing a videogame and waiting for dinner. Why?"

"Thinking we could go to the ballpark, maybe drink some."

"Alright. Meet me here by nine."

Justin put the phone down and stared out the kitchen window into the fenced in backyard. He noticed that the weeds had sprung along the edges of the fence. It was time to work on that yard, so he opened the screen door and headed over to an eroded tin shed in the far corner of the yard. When he opened the sliding door, the smell of gas tickled his nose . Jumbles of miscelanous spare parts were stacked upon each other, so Justin grabbed the handles of the mower and gave two good tugs to pry the machine from the grasp of a transmission. The mower had rust holes in it and looked older then it was, but with one pull of the cord she sputtered into life.

Justin daydreamed as he walked around the yard. He passed the dead garden that his mother had once made beautiful. In the middle of the garden a ripe tomato caught his eye. It seemed so odd among the dead plants and weeds. He let the mower die and he walked over to it. He stepped carefully, keeping an eye out for snakes hidden in the tall weeds. It was the largest tomato that he had ever seen and it was almost fully covered by the grass.

"What are you looking at?" shouted a voice from the kitchen window. Justin turned to see his father's head poking out .

"There's a huge tomato growing in mom's garden. Should I pick it?" asked Justin.

His father ducked his head back in and came outside, heading right over to the garden with a beer in hand. When he got to the edge of the garden he stopped. Justin, on one knee, held the tomato in his two hands. "Should I pluck it?'”

"Naw, just leave it," he said and then he took a look at the rest of the garden. "This place is a real mess. Mom would of been pissed if she saw it this way but she knew I was all thumbs when it came to gardening," he said, as he took a swig from his beer.

"Yea. Remember when you sprayed two cans of Off on her plants to stop the bugs from killing 'em."

"Oh shit. She nearly got the gun out on me that time." He seemed to want to change the subject and started looking around the yard. "I'll get the weed-whacker and hit the edges while you mow."

"Sure." Justin stumbled out of the garden and started the mower back up. The sun was setting and the sky began to turn purple.

By the time he had finished, Justin was covered in a layer of sweat that made his white tee shirt transparent. His father was already in the house. Justin could see him through the kitchen window cooking and when he had put the mower away his stomach rumbled.

As he opened the screen door, he saw the kitchen table was set and the smell of hamburger filled the kitchen. His father passed him a plate with two cheeseburgers with mayonnaise dripping off a soggy bun.

"Who won the game?" asked Justin before biting half the burger.

"Don't think it ended yet. Did you ever get a call back from that quarry job? I haven't heard you talk about it for a week now."

"I don't think they want me. Besides, I don't think I want it. The job seems a little boring for my tastes. I'm thinking about looking into something in Semersville at the mall there."

"That's a half hour drive from here. The quarry is ten minutes away."

Justin picked up his second burger and decided to let the conversation die. His dad must have noticed his aprehension and switched subjects.

"What you doing tonight?"

"Going out with Frenchy. Probably shoot some pool."

"If you get a chance, pick up a newspaper."

“Sure.” Justin got up and put his empty dish in the sink and rinsed off his greasy hands.

"I'm gonna take a shower."

The warm shower felt good and seemed to wake up his senses. He began to anticipate leaving and doing something, no matter what it was.

Twenty minutes later, Justin jumped into his car, a small green Geo. It used to be his mother's and the interior hadn't changed since she died, the same yellow tree dangled from the rearview mirror and the same amount of change was in the arm rest arm-rest conpartment. The only thing that had been added was a small picture of his mother that he taped next to the speedometer.

The way to Frenchy's house was all back roads, but everywhere in this town would be considered back roads like all the roads here. Frenchy’s house was gigantic and looked new like it was still wrapped in cellophane. There wasn't a house in town that looked like it. Frenchy's parents were originaly from New Hampshire and they couldn't part with all the stuff they had there.

As soon as Justin knocked on the door, two small dogs started barking. Frenchy's mother opened the door and they ran out the door and tangled themselves in his feet.

"Hi, Justin. Frenchy is upstairs. Just go right up."

"Thanks, Mrs. Patterson."

Justin found Frenchy in his room in front of a television playing a videogame.

"Come on, Frenchy. Don't you get sick of that thing?"

"What's up? Justin. I'm just getting through this level, hold on."

Justin looked around Frenchy's room. It reflected something a ten year old would have.

"You need to redecorate this room. It's like your little brother's room."

"I'm gonna move out soon, and my little brother wants this room when I do, so it would be just a waste of time to do anything to it."

"How could you bring a girl up here and lay her down in on your Transformers bed sheets, Mr. Casanova. Hurry up." Justin threw a pillow at Frenchy's head, causing him to drop the joystick.
"Okay, let's go." Frenchy grabbed a gray hooded jacket and walked out before Justin could get off he bed.

They drove downtown, which consisted of four stores and a gas station. Justin parked the car in front of a large wooden shack. A wooden sign nailed above the door read: Milford's General Store.

Mr. Milford was a gentle old man who always wore overalls and a plaid shirt. He was frail and creeped around the store with a sloth's gait. Justin loved the man and some of his fondest memories were of Justin and his friends riding their bikes to the general store to buy candy with their spare change. Old Milford would sometimes come out and talk to his friends, often times handing out candy to the ones who didn't have any money.

Inside, the lights were dim and the air was damp. The floor boards creaked under Justin’s feet as he approached the counter where Mr. Milford stared at his inventory list.

"Hello, Mr. Milford. Dad wants me to buy him a 12 pack of beer and a newspaper."

Milford stared up, noticing a customer. "Oh, hello Justin. What's that....beer....sure, hold on." He turned, around and went opened a walk in refrigerator door and entered. A minute later he placed the twelve pack of beer on the counter. "How's your pop doing? He working yet?"

"Nope. He's still looking. He got a few calls from Sherryville but it was too much of a trek for him." Justin paid for the beer. "Take it easy."

"You to. Tell your pop that I said to stop by."

"Alright, Mr. Milford." Justin headed to the car.

Once in the car, Frenchy pulled out a beer. "Want one?"

"Naw," Justin said as he sped down the road.

"I'm gonna miss school. Everyone is about to go back in a couple of weeks but I never thought I would say that I miss it. What about you?"

"Yeah, I'll miss it but I'm not gonna miss the work, not one bit. But the socializing and the girls, that's what I'm gonna miss."

"Yeah, the girls." Frenchy pulled back the longneck bottle.

The long curvy roads were lined by stretches of barbed wire fences and vast open fields and the car's headlights sprayed a glow on the tall grass. They pulled into a park and Justin killed the engine, then reached into the twelve pack and took out a beer, grabbed the box and placed it underneath his armpit. They both walked in silence onto the field, as crickets cheered like fans in the darkness of left center field.

Justin proceeded to the home dugout and sat on the bench. While he taking a swig, Justin saw Frenchy toss a baseball into the air. Frenchy launched the ball so high that it disappeared and then caught it as it came careening back like a shooting star.

"My Dad's been giving me a really hard time lately," said Frenchy, throwing the ball back into the air and then taking a sip of beer before it came back down. "He wants me to either go to college or join the army. I ain't for the army. Look at me." Frenchy was skinny, tall and lanky, but his father was the same built and he’d went into the army.

"Then go to college and get out of this town." Justin stepped out of the dug out and reached his hand out, calling for the ball. Frenchy tossed it in a high arch and it landed over Justin's head.
"What are you gonna do? I wish I had your dad. He isn't forcing anything on you."

Justin ran to get the ball and threw it back to Frenchy but he dropped it. "He's not gonna tell me what to do if he can't even figure out what he's gonna do. I kinda wish he would put a foot down, or at least show some sort of interest."

"Yeah but my dad said he'd kick me out of the house if I didn't get my shit straight."

"You could live with us if that happens."

"Right that‘ll happen. Are you gonna go to school?" asked Frenchy, searching for the ball.

"It's to your right," directed Justin. "I don't think so. I'm no doctor and I ain't no biologist. I don't know what I'm gonna do. It's only been three months since we graduated."

All of a sudden headlights flashed over the baseball field. Justin’s first instincts screamed Cop! But he could hear a radio cranking out rock and roll. the headlights beemed directly at them and blinded him, so Justin so he couldn't make out who it was.

"Hey, Justin. What you doing?" said a girl's voice he recognized as Katherine’s.

"Nothing. Turn those lights out. I can't see a damn thing," yelled Justin, shading his eyes with his arm.

The lights died out and Justin could see that Katherine had two other people with them her, Daisy and George. They had all hopped out of the dirty white hatchback and started to stroll onto the baseball field. George staggered and needed Daisy's help to keep upright. Daisy, Katherine's best friend, was dating George.

Katherine approached Justin with a bottle hidden in a paperbag. She extended it to Justin.
"Want some?" Before Justin could respond, Frenchy grabbed the bottle and took a sip. His face gave a convulsion and he gave the bottle to Justin.

Justin took a sniff and the odor of Bacardi 151 overpowered his lungs as if he had taken a shot. He took a sip and gave the half empty bottle back to Katherine.

"What are you guys up to?" asked Justin, who headed back to the dugout to get a beer from his stash.

Katherine followed him and plopped down at the end of the bench. She watched George and Daisy fall to the ground near the pitchers mound and they both just stared at the sky. Frenchy had sat indian style on top of the mound.

"We’re just driving around, bored off our asses. There was a party at Trinkle's field but it got boring, so we took off."

Justin opened his beer and washed the taste of the 151 off his pallet. "Trinkle had a party?"

"Yeah, a sort of end of summer party."

"Didn't he graduate with us?"

"Nah, he failed English, and so he has to take it again. He said that he's gonna quit school and go to work butchering cattle."

"Sounds like Trinkle."

Katherine laughed. She looked like a dark shadow from where Justin sat, but a pretty one at that with her high cheek bones and a her round face. Katherine and Justin were very close when they were little, but by the time they entered adolescence, things changed. Suddenly they had found each other attractive. This scared Justin a little and he began to avoid Katherine as much as possible. One time when he had worked on her father’s farm they had made love in one of the barns. It was their first and only time it had ever happened and ever since then he was very nervous around her. Even now.

George had struggled to his feet and waddled to the dugout. "Hey Kathy. Why don't we go swimming at the pond up the road."

She hopped up off the dug out "Sure that sounds like fun. You gonna come, Frenchy?"

"Hell, yeah." And with that Justin was going.

They all piled into their cars before Justin could get the rest of his beer. Frenchy had a huge grin on his face when Justin pulled out of the parking lot.

"Why the hell do you have that huge grin on your face?" asked Justin, turning down the radio.

"I think Kathy likes me. What do you think? She's not the hottest chick around but she's cute. Right Justin?"

"Why don't you ask her out or something?" Justin began felt jealousy rise within him. He didn't know why, he had always avoided Katherine even when he knew that she really liked him.

"I just might." Frenchy beamed with confidence.

The two cars pulled into a dirt road just opposite a large cemetery. The road wiggled up to a small pond. Katherine’s passengers stumbled out of the ride and made their way to the edge of the pond, sitting down and taking off their shoes.

Justin wore pants and didn't want to jump in, so he found a comfortable log and sat down and opened a beer. Katherine was taking off her shoes and he noticed that she hadn't changed physically in the past year. She had always looked older than seventeen. She wore bright blue soccer shorts and a white tee-shirt. She didn't play sports but she looked like she had worked out on the farm all summer.

She waded into the pond and then dove under. Frenchy jumped in right away, splashing Daisy and George, who were almost done undressing. They stood up, hand in hand, and charged in. Frenchy swam after Kate, trying to grab her feet as she tried to sped away.

"Why don't you come in, Justin?" begged Katherine, splashing Frenchy in the face.

"I don't want to get my jeans wet. It'll take forever to dry."

Justin watched Frenchy and Katherine play in the water for a minute or two until he couldn't take it any longer. He stood and went for a walk up the dirt road.

By the time he came to the end of the road, he had finished his beer. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out another. He could see the old cemetery across the street and was drawn to it, heading up the small slope and over the knee high guardrail.

The cemetery had an old horror movie feel to it. This was the biggest cemetery in town, and his mother was buried here.

Justin worked his way up the steep incline and his feet led him in the direction of his mother’s plot. He zig-zagged between tombstones and stood forty yards from the site when he noticed that someone was already theret of his mother's grave.

The figure was kneeling so that his face was level to the engraved words: ‘Sarah Martha McDurmount’. Justin tiptoed forward and ducked behind a large gray tombstone and peered over. He tried to hold his breath so he could make out the low sounds coming from the stranger.
Justin could only make out that it was a man and great sobs made his inaudible as they were swallowed back into him forcibly. The man held a rose in his hand and had placed it on the ground. As the stranger stood, Justin could see that it was his father.

What was he doing here?

Justin had never seen his father cry, until today, even when they were at his mother's funeral. Justin wanted to go over and comfort him but the idea felt foreign. He had never seen his father so vulnerable.

His father walked off and Justin saw the lights of his father's car exit the cemetery. Once it was dark, Justin went over to his mother’s grave. A long stemmed rose was placed at its base.

Emotions rose like a geyser, as he tried to swallow them back into his stomach, but they were unquenchable and he fell to his knees. To see his father so vulnerable destroyed Justin's shell. He hadn't felt this way since the news of his mother's passing.

Then after a few gulping breathes breaths, a calm consumed him. His tears dried up and Justin looked down at his mom's name.

He stood up and thought to himself, "It’s okay. I'll be okay."

He turned to go back to the pond, then threw his head and hands toward the stars and yelled. "We'll always love you."

When he got back, Frenchy had made a small fire. The swimmers were drying off.

"What got into you?" asked Frenchy, sitting down on a log, his hands extended over the flames.

"I needed to get some things out of my head," answered Justin. He squatted next to Frenchy and looked at Katherine across the fire. She was beautiful with her hair wet.

"Justin, what have you been up to this summer? I haven't seen you around. and you usually work on my Dad's farm," asked Katherine, as she circled the fire and stood to the right of him. "He wanted to know if everything was alright and if he could do anything for ya."

"I've been thinking about my options. I don't know if I should try college. I just don't think I could take another four years of school. I need a break."

"After this year, I want to travel the country in a van with George and Daisy," said Katherine.

"That sounds like fun, could I go?" Frenchy jumped in. Justin could only imagine what Frenchy's mother would say when he told her that.
"Sure," Katherine replied.

George had his arm draped over Daisy's shoulder and they shared the warmth of the fire. There was a few minutes of silence as the conversation died down. The three of them watched Daisy and George make out. Night slowly crept by and the group shifted closer and closer to their cars.

"Well, give me a call, Justin and maybe my dad can give you some hours."

"Alright right," said Justin as he opened his car door and got in.

"I'll call you too and see what you're up to," Frenchy said awkwardly.

Justin shut his door and waited for Frenchy to get in. As soon as he Frenchy shut the door, Justin floored the gas, kicking dirt into the air and they rocketed down the road.

"You might as well take me to your place, because I don't want my mom to wake up," said Frenchy.

Translation: I don't want to get yelled at by my uptight mother.

"Sure, but you've got to sleep on the fold out."

They cruised back to Justin's house and the night sky had grown dark blue. The first thing Justin noticed as he shut the engine off was that the living room light was still on and a shadow was moving back and forth inside.

They both walked up the porch stairs and sat down on a pair of rocking chairs, admiring the sky's dark shade of blue.

"Justin, is that you?" called his dad from inside.

"Yeah, it's me. What are you doing up so early?" Justin called back.

"Getting ready."

Getting ready? For what?

Justin let it go. He was busy thinking about what to do next month. He had to do something.
Then the screen door opened and his dad walked out, dressed in a business suit. Justin didn't even know his dad owned a business suit.

"Wow, Mr. McDurmount. Looking snazzy," said Frenchy.

"Thanks, Frenchy." Justin's dad handed both of them a bowl filled with salad. Now something is definitely strange. Salad. He never eats salad. Justin looked in the bowl and saw chopped lettuce and diced bright red tomatoes.

Where did he get the ingredients to make a salad from?

"This salad is awesome," said Frenchy, devouring the meal as if the fork and bowl were edible. "These tomatoes are delicious."

Justin looked at the tomato at the end of his fork and put it in his mouth. The taste seemed to explode. This was a great salad. Justin sat back and watched the sun rise, eating his bowl of salad.

Justin's Dad walked out to his car and waved good-bye.

"What you gonna do today?" asked Frenchy getting up to go inside.

"I'm gonna call the quarry and set up an interview," said Justin, as dawn crept its way over the Dakota sky line.