Steve’s Escape: Chapter 1

I thought I would start giving everyone a sneak peak at my newest work. This is a short story based on the Out of Gas series. In chapter 9 of The Farm, Mark’s brother Steve arrives at the farm and tells a quick blurb on how his family escape Corpus Christi. This is my attempt at filling in his story. Chapter 1 of 7.

Chapter 1

Steve said his final goodbyes and climbed into his car. “I’ll miss everyone,” he said to his wife as they started their long drive home. Steve’s kids plugged into headphones and tuned out their parents after getting into the car for the ride home. Like kids everywhere, all three of them would be asleep before they even left the Madill area after waking up at six for the all-day drive back home.

“We can probably arrange it so we come up here at least once a year if you want. We always do Christmas with my family, but we can make an exception this year and come back for Christmas. I can’t take the week off like I did for Thanksgiving, but with both of us driving we make the drive in one day. Leave on Wednesday and come home on Saturday.”

“We’ll see,” Steve said. “I’m not too sure I can handle Mark so soon.

What was up with his end-of-the-world crap? He drove me crazy.”

“I don’t know. Kelly was the same way. They weren’t like this the last time we came up here, were they? I don’t remember either of them talking about anything other than their jobs.”

“No. I’ve never known Mark to be like that. Usually all you have to put up with is his bragging on his new Beamer or talking about some fancy vacation they just took.”

“From Beamers to chickens.” Steve and Maria broke out laughing with her reference to Mark and Kelly talking about the economic meltdown. Mark and Kelly had invited everyone up to the farm in Madill for a family Thanksgiving. Mark and Kelly took the opportunity to show off the farm and the work they had done to get ready for an economic collapse.

“Your parents are brainwashed as well. They talked about the collapse and everything everyone was doing on the farm to prepare just like Mark and Kelly. It was like going to a doomsday cult meeting.”

“I’ll worry more when they start wearing robes and shave their heads,” Steve said.

After another round of laughing at the people living on the farm, Maria turned to Steve. “You don’t think there will be anything to worry about do you? Your brother and his wife are smart and successful. If they say something is going to happen—“

“No. Mark’s just going through some phase. I’m sure he’s just overreacting to the thing at his job. He’ll settle down in a few months and they will get tired of living like hippies and move back to town. Those two were always prima donnas and want make it as someone who has to get their hands dirty for very long.”

“You’re probably right. My job at the hospital is safe for the recession and as long as you guys work on those oil rig service boats, nothing will go wrong.”

Maria had spent the last ten years as a floor nurse at a large hospital. The All Saints hospital was a joint venture by the city of Corpus Christi and the Nueces, Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. During all earlier recessions, the hospital’s business increased as more people lost insurance coverage and had to seek lower cost health care. The U.S. Government and the State of Texas had always provided large grants to keep the hospital running to serve the large population of South Texas.

Steve had always been a mechanical tinker. While Mark spent his time in front of computers, Steve spent his youth working on one engine after another. It did not surprise anyone when Steve decided to become a mechanic after high school. A short time going to a school for marine mechanics, Steve found himself moving to Corpus Christi to work with a large marine mechanical repair company. The company’s main business revenue came from servicing the hundreds of boats working the thousands of oil rigs in the gulf.

“Right, we’ve had a small drop off in business, but not much,” Steve responded. “I’ve spent more time decommissioning boats lately I used too.”

“That should change after the recession ends. Things will pick up again and you’ll need to refurbish all those boats setting idle. I can see the overtime now.”

“Thanks a lot,” he chuckled.

“What else would you have to do? Raise a flock of chickens for eggs that only cost $1 at the store?”

“Ok. Ok. Enough about my weird brother.”

“Ok. I’ll stop. I’m a little tired and going to take a nap. Wake me up before you get to the stop in Waco.”

“Fine. Leave me all alone. What if I’m tired?”

“Shut up you big baby. When’s the last time you slept past six?”

Maria closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Steve spent the next few hours driving through Fort Worth to a little store they always stopped at after visiting his parents. About ten minutes from the store, Steve reached over and shook Maria to wake her.

“We’re almost to Waco. Do you want to get the kids up and get their shoes on before we get there?”

Maria spent the next few minutes waking sleepy kids and arguing with them to put their shoes back on so they could go to the restroom.

“Looks like the place is closed,” Steve said.

“What? It’s never closed.”

“I’ll drive up closer to make sure.”

They both could tell all the lights were off. A big sign on the front door stated the place closed down and would not reopen.

“Damn. Are they just closed for the holiday?” Maria asked.

“I don’t think so. It’s empty. I guess another family business has bitten the dust. I was looking forward to their home-made jerky. Always makes my day.”

“Wonder why they closed. You’d think being on the freeway and with a large college in town would keep them in business. Look for another place up the road. Even if they don’t sell jerky.”

They drove a few miles up the interstate and found another place to stop. It wasn’t the same as they had been stopping at the earlier place each time they made the trip to his parents for over a decade.

After getting back in the car, Steve looked at Maria. “You know, my brother would have said it was just another sign of the collapse.”

“You mean meltdown. That’s what they called it. Meltdown.”

“Right. Meltdown.”

The family continued on with their trip back home but Steve and Maria both became more aware of the situations in the small towns they drove through during the day. Neither one commented out loud but to both of them it seemed there were a lot of small businesses closed in those towns. Things they hadn’t noticed before jumped out at them. Not one business was open in some of the towns on the freeway. Usually, there were a scattering of small stores, gas stations, truck stops, and restaurants. Today, there seemed to be a fraction of the services available to those driving through town.

Steve was jolted from his observations when Maria said, “I thought today was supposed to be a busy travel day?”

“What?”

“The news said more people were traveling today than any other day of the year. Everyone was supposed to be going home after Thanksgiving.”

“I remember that. Why do you ask?”

“There are no cars on the road. I bet we haven’t seen thirty cars in the last hour.”

She was right. He hadn’t had to worry about traffic since leaving early this morning.

“Another thing,” Maria continued, “I haven’t seen a cop all day. Last year, the road was just crawling with them.”

“Come to think of it, neither have I. These small towns just live to pull over freeway speeders and give them a big ticket. I swear some of them base their town budget on it.”

“Yeah,” she smiled. “We’ve supported a few of them over the years, lead foot.”

“Huh.”

“Do you want to stop at the restaurant we always go to? That is, if it’s not closed.”

“Sure. We’ll be there in about thirty minutes. Want to get the kids stirring again?”

This time they had better luck and the restaurant was open for business. Steve pulled up and parked right by the front door.

“Not too many people in here today. I guess we are just lucky it was opened.”

After ordering their meals, Maria struck up a conversation with the waitress, “Not many people in here today. Slow day?”

“Slow month. If all the other places haven’t close down and left us the only place in town, we would be closed.”

“ Really, that bad? This place used to be packed.”

“This year has been horrible. The manager’s fired almost everyone but me and two others. I keep trying to find another job, but no one’s hiring. This whole town’s drying up and I’m stuck here.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Nothing I guess. Most of the locals can’t afford to eat out much and the traffic on the freeway has died off to nothing because of the price of gas. Prices in these small towns are a lot higher than in the city and many people don’t make enough to pay for it. We’ve even had days when the gas stations are closed because they don’t gas. Deliveries aren’t coming as often as they used to. The town’s even let a few cops go because they can’t afford the gas for their cars. A few other places laid off cops over the summer. Probably didn’t see too many on the road, did you?” she said as she walked away to get their order.

Everyone ate and said thanks to the waitress and left her a big tip. The rest of the trip home went smoothly and Steve and Maria kept looking the signs of the recession that seemed to be everywhere. “Why don’t we see the same problems at home we saw on the freeway?” Maria asked as they pulled into Corpus Christi.

“I don’t know. Maybe it just hasn’t affected us here yet. I don’t see a near as many business closed down here. We might get more business than those small towns.”

“The mayor said spring break was horrible this year. Numbers were way down from last year and the year before. He’s worried the economy and price of gas has kept too many kids away and it will happen again next year. A couple of bad years in a row and some of those places on Padre will go out of business.”

“The recession will end before that happens. The president was pretty adamant the stimulus package would work. We just need to give it time. People will fill the beaches this summer.”

“Home,” Maria said as they pulled into their driveway. After the long trip home, everybody wanted to relax. The kids jumped into the pool, a benefit of living in South Texas was the ability to swim most of the winter. Maria sorted through their laundry and Steve cleaned up the yard and house the best he could. It always amazed him after only a few days, the place would look like no one lived in it for a year.

“Do you want to order pizza from Papa Joe’s?” Maria asked.

“Yeah. Sounds good.”

A few minutes later, she came back out. “It’s closed and the phone number is no longer working. I called China Town instead.”

“What? Didn’t we just order pizza a few days ago?”

“That’s what I remembered. I looked and it’s been over a two month’s since our last order. Last month we ate at home to save money for the trip.”

“I wonder how long it’s been closed.”

“And what else has been closed we haven’t realized until now,” Maria said as she went back into the kitchen.

The doorbell rang and the kids rushed to the grab their dinner. Steve asked the delivery boy if he knew how long ago the pizza place had been closed.

“About a month ago. We’ve been busy since it’s been closed, but still not as busy as we used to be. You’re only my third delivery tonight.”

“Really? Anything closed down lately?” Steve asked.

“The Burger Bar and a couple of hotels we used to deliver too shut down their doors as well. A few other things as well. You’ve been gone long?”

“What? No. Just seems we don’t pay as much attention to things as close as we should. I always hated watching the news with all the bad news it always covers.”

“Same here. I don’t like watching the news either. Usually Chen fills me in on anything I need to know. All he has been bitching about the last few days has been the mayor talking about some budget shortfall. Chen’s been gripping about the amount of taxes he pays and the lack of service he gets. Blames the mayor for not knowing how to run a city and wasting our money.”

“I haven’t seen anything about the budget shortfall. I guess I’ll need to watch the news and catch up,” Steve said. He gave the boy a large tip.

“Thanks. See you again.”

Steve and Maria went to bed with the events of the day on their minds. “Do you think Mark was right?” Maria asked Steve.

“I don’t know. It could all be just the recession and Mark is overreacting. They probably had a few places close on them and his research led him to believe something else was going on besides the recession. It’s not hard to research stuff on the internet and come up with an answer you want. There are all types of crazy sites out there that look legitimate. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“Kelly said things would probably go downhill fast. Didn’t you hear they both lost their jobs?”

“He told me. It made sense to me Kelly would lose her job. It seems most of the restaurants are having a hard time making it through the recession. Companies off-shore even in good times and Mark might have lost his job anytime. Like I said before, he’s probably overreacting because he lost the only job he’s ever had as an adult. On top of it, his wife loses hers the same time. He’ll bounce back and find something new when he’s ready. He’s too skilled not to be able to get a job somewhere. Kelly too. She’s probably only looking at restaurants chains. Once she figures out she has to start looking at other types of companies, she’ll find something.”

“What about the thing you heard from the delivery boy?”

“The mayor’s always threating something or the other. I think he gripes so much to stay in the news and look like he’s doing something. Without him bitching about something, we wouldn’t ever hear anything about him. Lord knows he doesn’t do anything good on his own.”

“I guess. I’ll ask the girls at work Monday. They usually have all the gossip. Today was just strange.”

“I know. A long day full of weird coincidences. Good night baby.”

“Good night.”

Please send comments and any corrections you may find.

Thanks for helping,

Randy