| Sears and Oz by Jim Correale For most of the summer after my freshman year at UNH I was on the road. One of the guys I was friends with lived not too far from me in Maine and he had a Jeep Wrangler and so about three or four days after classes ended�just when I was starting to get really bored back home�we set out across the country, stopping in Texas to pick up another guy, his roommate, and then continuing on to LA and up the coast, spending time in northern California and then coming back on a more northerly route, through the Badlands, stopping in a town outside of Chicago where this girl who lived in the same building as us lived. She let us camp out in her backyard and her mom was really cool, though her dad wasn�t as friendly. Richie, the kid with the Jeep, then did a straight shot to New York City, where his dad lived. We spent almost a week there, sleeping on the floor of his condo. By the time I made it back to Biddeford it was mid-August. After all that driving�and all that drinking and occasionally getting high�I didn�t feel like doing much, so I slept into the afternoon most days, spent some time reading and then watched TV late into the night. My dad wasn�t too happy about this. He made a comment here and there, but mostly I could see in the way he looked at me that he didn�t approve of my slothful habits. He had approved of my cross country drive�said it was something he always wished he could do and that it would be �a learning experience to see America.� And it was�it was very cool. But I think he thought I�d be gone for just a couple weeks, maybe three, and then I�d come back home and work for the rest of the summer. Well, I was only home for two weeks, so getting a job didn�t make much sense. Plus, I just wanted to rest. It wasn�t like I stayed in my room smoking weed all day. That�d be out of the question anyway, my dad being the Chief of Police in Biddeford. And I wouldn�t do that even if he wasn�t. My dad is a good guy and he did his best to raise us after my mom died and I�d say that his best was pretty damn good. My sisters, twins, are bright girls and very motivated and I see them going far, doing whatever they want with their lives. As for me, well, I don�t quite know what I want, but I�m not worried about it. My concerns are less long-range. This summer I wanted to drive cross country and I did. After that I would go back to UNH for my sophomore year. And in between, I was happy just hanging out�sleeping, reading, watching TV. The weekend before I was to go back to school, I decided I�d get up early on Saturday morning and take a ride with my dad to Sears. The battery in his Ford Explorer was going and when he brought it over to Luther�s Garage they told him to get a DieHard. My dad mentioned it on Friday and said he was going the next morning and did I want to come. I�m pretty sure he thought I�d say no, but I was feeling kind of guilty because I hadn�t spent much time with him that summer. We had watched some TV together and we usually ate together�the girls or him putting something together, and I admit I really did like the home-cooked meals�but we really didn�t do anything together. Now I admit that taking a ride to Sears Auto Center isn�t very exciting and it isn�t great family entertainment, but I was leaving on Monday and I thought it�d be good if we went together. There�s a Sears at the mall in Portland, twenty minutes north of Biddeford, and in a separate building in the parking lot there is a Sears Auto Center. My dad wanted to beat the ridiculous weekend rush, so we left at 7:45 and we were there not long after the doors opened with about six people in front of us. I was yawning, still half-asleep, as we were standing there in line. My dad, in jeans and a polo shirt, pointed to a sign on the wall over the heads of the two guys at the counter. Need a battery? Pull your car right into the bay marked Sears DieHard Express �That means we don�t have to wait here, right?� he asked me. �That�s what it says,� I responded. Still we waited there in line until one of the men from the counter walked by with a customer on their way to look at her tires. My dad asked if he should just pull in to the appropriate bay and he was told yes. �Well,� he said as we went back out to the car, seeing there was no one in the DieHard Express bay ahead of us, �looks like we may get out of here pretty quickly.� |