Chapter 8

6

The air conditioning blasted from the old car’s vents, sending particles flurrying around his face like a dust storm. Austin leaned back in the driver seat and enjoyed the lack of traffic. When Mom had been hired at the doctor’s office, they’d used a credit card to fix Dad’s old Honda. The final bill covered a new transmission, new tires, and an overall tune up. Of course, Austin rarely got to drive it, and Kadyn didn’t seem to mind driving him to school.

But the summer had been different. Austin had found creative ways to get to his job at the fruit stand. Kadyn had been sweet enough to take him a few times already, and it was only the third week of summer. When she was off from work, Mom let him have the car. Twice, he had to get a ride from one of his coworkers. He struggled for a job paying minimum wage, but they needed the money. Every penny went into his college fund.

He felt his stomach twist.

Every time the subject of college came up in conversation or inside his mind, Austin fought a wave of nausea. Josh had been gone six months and communication with him had slowed to a trickle. The previous email was short: Josh would not be coming back this summer due to the school’s relief trips. Mom said yesterday he would have to take the minimum number of classes to remain a full-time student to lower the cost of books and give him time to get a job closer to school. College would take forever.

He stared at the coffee shop as he sat idling in the parking lot, listening to the last song on the radio. Kadyn waited for him inside, but he lingered in the car. He turned off the engine and strolled across the parking lot, marveling at the crowd. Even on a hot June afternoon, people still wanted their coffee.

The powerful smell of coffee and sweets bombarded him as he entered the shop. Music played over the buzzing crowd, but he couldn’t make out the tune. A girl behind the counter looked up and smiled as he entered. She looked familiar. It took a moment, but he realized she was in the class behind him in high school.

Kadyn sat at a table near the black and white Marilyn Monroe photo, flipping through the pages of a tattered paperback. She wore a light blue T-shirt and well-worn jeans. She pulled her brown hair back into a ponytail as she bit down on her lip.

He towered over Kadyn’s table before she glanced up from her book.

“It must be a good one,” he said and sat down.

Kadyn grinned and placed the book on the table. “It is. You aren’t getting anything?”

“I have to go to work after this, unfortunately,” he said with a sigh. “I get tired of peeing in the woods behind the fruit stand.”

“I don’t blame you.”

An awkward silence fell over the table. Austin popped his knuckles and nodded to the music even though he had never heard the song before. Kadyn brought her hand to her lips and fidgeted.

“You excited about leaving today?” he asked.

“I guess. Have you heard from Josh?”

“Not recently. Got an e-mail saying he was going on another relief mission to help starving people or build a school. I get them all mixed up.”

“It’s good he’s trying to make a difference.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, I know.”

He glanced up at Marilyn, the thought of Josh drooling at the photo the last time the three of them hung out in the coffee shop flashing through his mind. He smiled.

“I’ve been thinking about something,” Kadyn said as she tore apart a napkin on the table. Her almond eyes shot back to his. “Would you like to come down to visit me this summer?”

He stared at the napkin as she tore it into strips. “To Savannah?”

“Yeah.”

Austin swallowed. “I don’t know if I could afford it, honestly, but I would love to save up to come visit.”

“That would be great. I’m going to miss you.”

“I’m going to miss you, too.” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. “I can’t believe this is all over.”

“Over?”

“High school, graduation. All of it. It doesn’t seem real.” He gazed out the window and watched the traffic. “I thought it would be different.”

“Lots of people start off at a community college before transferring,” she said, her voice lowering as if someone else would hear. “There is nothing wrong with that.”

“Yeah, but no one tells you that you’re going to be the only one left in the town when you start at the community college.”

“There will be lots of people you know there.”

“People I know doesn’t mean it’s people I want to be around.”

She laughed. “Yeah, that’s true.”

He glanced at his watch. “I have to get going to work. Travel safe and be careful once you’re down there.”

“I will.”

They embraced. She squeezed him hard, and she sniffled. He eased his hug, but she squeezed harder, so they held one another as other patrons pretended not to look. Austin glanced around the room and noticed the staff staring. Kadyn wrapped her hands around his neck. She brought her mouth to his ear.

“Don’t forget me,” she whispered.

“How could I forget you?”

She breathed in his ear for a moment and then kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll miss you.”

Austin drove to work, his thoughts on Kadyn. He left the radio off and became lost in his thoughts. He nearly missed the turn to work. The gravel of the parking lot rattled against the base of his car as he brought it to a stop. The Georgia heat surrounded him as he walked to the fruit stand. The thick air stuck to his skin as if he could move it with his hands. Sweat formed on his skin the moment he exited the car.

“All right, Austin,” Rick Snell, the owner of the fruit stand, called. “Let’s get to work. Gotta truckload of ‘maters back there that need unloading.”

“Yes, sir.”

Rick wore baseball hats with fishnet backings and strange logos on the front Austin never recognized. His twenty-year-old T-shirts always needed to be washed. The ragged blue jeans topped off his work “uniform.” Austin had turned fourteen the week before Rick hired him, and he was always paid in cash. Dad got him the job even though Austin would rather have been playing Star Runners online with Josh. Over the years, Rick had been a tough and fair boss. He’d even given Austin a raise after he’d been there a year.

“I’d like this done before you leave today,” Rick said in his thick Southern accent.

“Yes, sir.” Austin lifted the back door of the truck. Rick used this same truck to transport thousands of pumpkins for Halloween and hundreds of Christmas trees. Like Rick’s baseball hats, this truck could have been decades old.

“You all right, son?”

He frowned as he walked back into the truck. “Yes, sir. Why?”

“You don’t seem like yourself.”

Austin sighed and slipped on his work gloves. “Lot going on right now.”

“Well, your birthday’s coming up, ain’t it?”

“Yes, sir, July 13th.”

“I reckon you’re going to want some time off then.”

“Hadn’t thought about it.”

Rick laughed. “Sure you have. Nineteen, right?”

“That’s right.”

Leaning against the back of the truck, Rick gazed off at the bales of hay behind the fruit stand. “I’ve been thinking about something.”

Austin stopped moving. The last time Rick started a sentence like this, Austin had received a raise.

“You’ve been working for me for about five years now. You’re always on time, and you’ve managed to never miss a day except for ballgames and school stuff. I’d like to give you some more responsibilities. Maybe make you the assistant manager here.”

Austin looked down. Being an assistant manager of a fruit stand in the middle of suburbia with all of its modern day mega grocery stores seemed like joining the Pony Express while telegraph lines ascended on your route. He didn’t plan on living around here for the rest of his life. Did he?

Again, Austin thought of all his friends now gone. Kadyn was traveling to Savannah. Josh attended an elite college and saved poor countries from whatever. He had no baseball team to look forward to playing on and he could never go back to high school.

“I am taking a few classes this fall,” he said.

“Yeah, I know. A man needs to earn a living, though. Right?” Rick shrugged. “Besides, how long is this college thing going to last anyway?”

“Four years, I hope,” he said through his teeth.

“Come on. Get real. Those fancy degrees don’t mean as much as they used to. You’d be better off staying here and not wasting your mama’s money.”

Shaking his head, Austin grabbed the next box of tomatoes. “We’ll see, sir.”

“Great!”

And with that, Rick left Austin with a truckload of tomatoes.

Maybe he was right. Maybe college didn’t mean much or maybe it just wasn’t for someone like him. He had no savings and no real money on hand. The cash he earned from Rick went to his savings and paid his car insurance, gas, and little else. But managing fruits and vegetables every day and looking forward to the arrival of pumpkins and Christmas trees did not sound like an appealing way to spend his life.

He ignored the clock ticking in his mind.

Austin went to his room after work. He turned on his computer and his inbox had a message waiting for him.

Austin,

Hey, man! Hope all is well. Looks like I’m not coming home for the 4th. Sorry about that. Still holding out hope for Labor Day.

Gotta go. Just wanted to check in. Talk soon.

Josh

Austin closed his e-mail. Stretching his arms and legs, he felt every box of tomatoes he had lifted. He didn’t have to go into work until ten tomorrow morning. He thought about asking for the day off but knew a day off meant no pay.

He logged into Star Runners, planning to take out a few poor souls who wandered onto the elite server. Once he logged in, the messages on his account topped two hundred. Two hundred? What’s going on?

More players asked for pointers since everyone on the server knew ““Rock took down Scorpion.”“ He smiled at the thought. While his real world spun tires, his online persona lifted off.

The first two games passed with ease. Austin never took a hit and earned the highest number of kills in both contests. The third game opened the same way. Sixteen fighters spawned at different locations throughout the space. The battle took place in the orbit of a blue-green planet like Earth. The other fighters splintered off to take on nearby enemies, but one took a different path. This bogey bore down directly on his position.

He allowed his Trident to drift to the right while the sensors obtained an identification.

Scorpion.

Austin shifted power into the forward shields. Scorpion must have taken their last meeting personally. The guy was heading straight for him. He keyed for a missile’s activation. The crosshairs blinked yellow as the sensors tried to achieve a lock.

A high-pitched wail screeched in his headset. Another fighter had come in behind him while he was focused on Scorpion. He killed the engines, pitched the craft up from his current position, and gave all the power he had back into the primary drive.

Too late.

Sparks flew from the dashboard and around his cockpit. Pieces of electronics and sensors dangled from multi-colored wires on his display. While he was trying to evade the two enemies, he had neglected to toss power back into his rear shields. The incoming missile ripped away all his energy to the weapons and shields. Austin powered the Trident away from danger and keyed for a rear view. Scorpion was closing in. The other fighter, the one who had fired a lucky shot, disappeared from the sensor. Scorpion must have taken him out.

Austin yanked the joystick back and launched into evasive action. Scorpion pursued with lethal precision and destroyed him with spitting laser fire.

You Are Dead!

It had been a long time since he had seen that on his screen. The red lettering covered the free camera showing the rest of the match. Austin remained logged in so he could see the results. Scorpion made short work of the remaining pilots.

If he’d had a wingman, this third match of the day would have been different. He sipped on a soda and watched Scorpion cutting through the rest of the competition with ease. Sure would like to have him as a wingman.

Austin blinked.

He’d never thought about it before, but Scorpion always flew alone. In all the games and contests in the past years, Scorpion always played alone. No other player so highly ranked flew alone every single time.

Austin placed the can on the desk and keyed for an instant message to Scorpion. He wouldn’t receive it during the match, but would be notified afterward. When the game had first come out, sending IMs to pilots during a match was considered a cheap but extremely widespread tactic for throwing your enemy off their game. Recent patches prevented this from being possible.

ROCK: Nice one out there today. I’d love to get some pointers from you on what I did wrong. Also, let me know if you ever need a wingman. Nobody should fly alone all the time.

After he had sent the message, Austin stood and stretched while Scorpion mopped up the remaining enemy fighters. He was considering raiding the kitchen for another soda and some snacks when the computer beeped. The match had ended, and Scorpion had written him back.

SCORPION: Thx. I fly alone. Pointer would be to not get in the habit of trusting someone to watch your back. Razor used to cover you. Don’t get caught sleeping out there. Stay unfocused if you want to die.

Austin laughed. Somebody took this too seriously.

He sat back at the keyboard.

ROCK: Let me know if you change your mind. I would love to fly with you. Appreciate the tips. I’ll keep it in mind next time. Just trying not to fall off the leaderboard.

Austin thought Scorpion had logged off until a beeping caught his attention.

SCORPION: Fall off? Go check the leader board. See you soon.

Austin clicked on the leader board when the game screen popped up. He swallowed hard and placed the soda back on his desk. It took a moment for the image on the screen to register.

He had surpassed Josh on the server’s leaders. He hadn’t paid attention to his statistics this summer although he knew he had been improving. He didn’t know he had improved this much, however. He smiled and lingered on the screen. He’d earned a spot at the top of the elite server in Star Runners. Any minute, Austin would receive an e-mail promising a scholarship to a real university. He hoped Josh hadn’t just been lucky. He hoped the scholarship deal still existed. After all, he had been the only pilot to take down Scorpion in a dogfight.

Austin leaned back after a few minutes. He hit refresh on the screen and watched his in-game messages. Two messages from other pilots came across the screen. Both asked for detailed tips on how to take down Scorpion. Every time Scorpion took down a pilot, the victims would look up his statistics page and see that Rock had been the only pilot to beat the legend.

But Austin didn’t care about his momentary fame. After ten minutes, no other message arrived in his inbox. He’d never given it much thought before, but he knew now why he had been obsessed with Star Runners all summer. With Josh receiving a scholarship by excelling at the game, Austin figured he would be able to do the same.

The dream, it seemed, was not going to happen tonight.