Two

Chase was born on a quiet Saturday morning in early June of 1982. He was in birth the same as he was in life. Unassuming quiet and gentle. As a young child Chase often was lost in the background. Other boys would be running, playing tag or catch or the other games boys play, full of noise and clatter and energy, but Chase was happy to sit quietly and play with his trucks. Chase was an only child. His mother tried, in vain, for years to give him a younger brother or sister before she gave up.

She was a slight woman, timid and quiet, she was always happy to stay home, putter around and keep a quiet happy home for her husband and son. Her husband was a large man, in nearly every sense of the word. It seemed to Chase, that his father would fill the whole room when he entered it. He was a round, strong tall man, loud and powerful. He worked most of his life in a garage fixing rich peoples cars, and dreaming of one day owning one of those, fast, expensive cars, instead of his old practical one. He would sit his son on his lap in the late evening and tell him that one day when Chase was 16 they would rebuild an old car together.

For Chase home never seemed out of the ordinary. It never felt like there was anything wrong. As he grew up, and started going to school he never noticed the goings on at home. He studied hard, he never failed a class but he never stood out either. He never fought with any of the other boys at school and didn’t tease the girls. His father pushed him to play baseball, and for a while he did, just to make his father happy, but he realized that nobody noticed if he went or not, and eventually he just stopped going all together. He never noticed that his mother became more nervous, she had always been shy. He never saw the way her hands would shake when she spoke to his father. He never saw that his father would stay away later and later nights. It wasn’t odd that his father suddenly started to take trips for work on most weekends. As Chase began to become a tall skinny young man he never thought for a moment about his parents marriage. So when it ended in 1995 Chase was shocked. There could have been many ways for the marriage to end, that wouldn’t have been as hard on Chase. His mother, however, could not have done it any other way.

Chase and his parents lived in Phoenix Arizona. His parents had bought the house shortly after they were married and they never had a need to go anywhere else. His father used to say:
“A night out for dinner is as good as a week long getaway!” So they rarely vacationed. Chase could remember a few short camping trips, and his mother went to Denver once a year to visit her family, but she always went alone. Chase never had a deep desire to travel. He was content with the life he had been given, and so the afternoon when he came home from school to find suitcases in the front hall he was confused more than excited. His mother busily cleaned the house around him as she explained that he was going to go with her this year to Denver, and since there was a family reunion they were going early. Chase was excited but apprehensive.
“Why can’t Dad come?”
“Your Daddy has to work.”
“What about school?”
“I’ve called your teachers dear, they will excuse you from the homework.”

Now those are the words that every young boy dreams of hearing, so after she told him that, he began to get excited. He helped his mother load all the bags, suitcases and boxes into the car and, when he had finished, he never stopped to consider that they might be bringing everything they owned. This was his first real vacation, he didn’t know how much to bring or leave behind and so, as with most of his life, he didn’t ask any questions. Of course since his mother had packed his bags he knew she must be right. The drive was exciting for young Chase. He had never been on a road trip and had never seen so much of the country. It wasn’t long before they arrived in Denver and were engulfed in family. Chase had never lived near his mother’s family, or his fathers as a matter of fact, and he had never met any of them. He learned quickly that, that didn’t matter. “Family is family!” he was told again and again. Of course that didn’t make him feel any more at ease with these people. For him they were foreign and strangers, he felt at a loss when they hugged him and didn’t know what to say when they asked about his school, or his friends. It felt as if they all knew everything about him, and he knew nothing about them. His mother had never spoken of her family at home, but of course she told her mother, and sisters everything about her young son. So they knew him long before he knew them.

The first few days of his vacation were scary, exhilarating and uncomfortable. Chase often got the feeling that when his mother left, with one of her sisters, or her mother, they were talking about him. He often entered a room to everyone staring, silently at him. He worried, what could he have done wrong? He couldn’t think of anything. When four days of this had passed, his mother and grandmother sat him down at the dinner table. He felt guilt welling up in his throat as they sat quietly chatting about nothing in particular. The whole family had been over to dinner, and the smells of roast chicken and potatoes lingered in the air. Chase played with the tablecloth, tracing the floral patterns with his fingers and picking the crumbs and putting them into a small pile near his water glass. His stomach turned and he felt nauseated. He wasn’t sure anymore, if he was listening to what his mother was saying to him. He could feel himself drifting in and out of the conversation. Finally his grandmother began to rein the conversation in. She gently explained to Chase that his mother and father both loved him, but they would not live together anymore. She quietly explained that Chase would not be allowed to see his father again. His mother told him that she knew he was a strong boy and that he would be able to understand.

Chase did not understand. He felt himself drifting out of the conversation again. His head began to feel heavy, and stuffed with cotton. His ears rang loudly and he felt light and weak. Chase could hear the blood rushing in his ears and the whole room began to slow down. He watched his mother speak, but could not hear what she was saying. She reached out to touch his hand and as much as he tried to pull away from her he felt stuck, and couldn’t move. Their voices became distorted and started to sound foreign.

All at once Chase felt his world tilt sideways and the room spun around him for a second before everything vanished completely. He closed his eyes tightly and felt his heart, and stomach tense up as the world fell away from him. He felt himself hit the ground, hard, and he lay still on his back for a long time before he opened his eyes. The sounds around him became sharper and his head began clear. His heart stopped racing and his stomach slowly untied itself, he unclenched his fists and gently touched the ground around him. He grabbed hold of the grass and pulled slowly, to soothe himself, and as he did so shock shot through him again. His eyes shot open and he saw around him, clear blue sky, soft bright green grass, trees on a hill in the distance. He heard birds singing and the rush of water from a nearby stream. A moment of confusion and terror passed, before he gave in to the peace and serenity that surrounded him, confident in the fact that he must, be dreaming.

This is where all of Chase’s problems began.



So are you waiting for a chapter three? well I dont really care, its coming whether you like it or not. (some feedback might be cool though!)