Escape
He was running. Running down
his driveway. Running for his life. For freedom. Then there
was an excruciating pain in his back. He was on the ground.
Rolling. Rolling.
Looking up at the starry night a dark figure stepped over
him.
***
He woke with a film of sweat over his head and gasping for air. Judging by his surroundings he surmised that he had just had another one of his realistic nightmares. What made it even more disturbing was that his dreams had a tendency to foretell events to come.
Rolling over in bed he reached for his alarm clock. Turning the clock towards himself the greed display revealed that it was only eight thirty-two in the morning.
Sitting up in bed readjusting himself with the easiest possible route to exit his bedroom without breaking a leg.
His bedroom was that of a typical teenager bedroom. clothes scattered throughout the room, posters on the wall and a stereo in the corner with a television next to it.
Getting out of bed, hearing the delicious popping of his joints, he crossed his room, careful not to step on anything, to his bureau.
After dressing in his usual attire - black - he went downstairs into the kitchen. Looking at the counter he found a note from his mother:
Jeff,
Be home late. Was called in for an emergency.
Mom
PS MOW THE LAWN!
His mother was a surgeon at the Boulder Community Hospital across town. She was called in nearly everyday. The overtime pay was good, but it left her with rarely much time for her son or personal time.
He fixed himself what he ate everyday for breakfast since he was four, fried eggs and toast. He was taught to cook from his father. He was a culinary arts major and had owned his own restaurant until his death seven years earlier, after which the restaurant was sold. His father had made this particular breakfast everyday for his son, and as a tribute to his father's memory he continued this tradition.
Jeff was not a terrible student, but not the best either. He averaged about a C+ throughout his whole school year. He didn't like school but he managed and if only Summer lasted a little longer. It always appeared as if i began one week and ended the very next.
He was a well built muscular kid with an otherwise average build. He lifted weights regularly, played football and wrestled on teams at the school. He had locks of jet black hair with blue eyes and a goatee that was slowly but surely getting thicker.
Knowing that his mother was going to be gone a while he decided to put off mowing the lawn for later that afternoon, so he decided on finding out what was on the tube.
He spent his morning channel surfing and finally landed on a episode of Jerry Springer which was a re-run of Attack of the Midgets-Part II. After learning that half of the midgets were homosexuals he got fed up with the show and decided to see how the Yankees were doing on Sport Center.
"...today the Vietnam Veterans were recognized at the local VFW after they single handedly prevented an armed robbery there," spoke the female broadcast journalist, "In other news today the Department of Agriculture issued a statement today regarding the use of cancer causing pesticides being used on tobacco plants, stating that if you are willing to smoke a little bit of pesticides isn't the problem, you are.
"And in Boulder early this morning two inmates where captured after four were reported as escapees. Randle Philbrook and John Splaynok were captured after a violent escape from the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in which the four inmates allegedly attacked a guard. Two more are still at large."
After learning that the Red Sox lost to the Yankees he went outside to the far end of the yard to discover that the grass was relatively dry on this glorious sunny, warm day. The wind was rustling the leaves in the trees and the sun was beaming down on the yard out of the bright blue sky.
They lived off of a dirt road in a part of the Colorado Rockies. They owned five acres of woodland pace in which their two story Tudor style home rested. Surrounding the house and gravel driveway was an acre and a half of flat grass and then trees as the mountains gradually reached higher and higher into the clouds. Maple, Oak, Birch and Pine Trees all throughout the mountains made it a beautiful piece of heaven year round.
He stepped into the shed to check on their self-propelled John Deere lawn mower and brush cutter. Ideal piece of equipment for his part of the world. Check the gas he discovered that he hadn't refilled it and then remembered it was the first mowing of the year.
Checking the lawnmower he decided to give it a good tuning for it had been a few years. Grabbing the empty gas canister he placed it in the back of his Ford Explorer and headed for town.
Driving down the dirt road he saw some of the neighbors. The Smith's on their daily walk. The Jones's biking toward town and then two men hiking up the mountain.
He pulled into the Citgo and gassed up the Explorer and the can as well. He went in and purchased some oil for the mower and some two stroke oil for the weed-whacker. He drove to the hardware store where he then bought a new blade for the lawn mower and a spark plug as well.
Driving back toward home he saw the same people as well as some new bikers and joggers.
Pulling into his drive-way and backing the vehicle towards the drive-way, he got out and began to unload the contents of the gas station and hardware store onto the deck.
After placing the contents of the Explorer onto the deck he went into the shed, removed two saw horses and placed them on the ground next to the deck. He then placed the mower on the saw horses and proceeded to tune the mower.
When he finished replacing the blade, spark plug, changing the oil and gassing it up he put it back on the ground and brought it to the gravel driveway. He did the same with the weed-whacker, changing the spark pluck and mixing up the right amounts with the gasoline and the oil for the fuel. After this, to see if he did everything right, he pulled the cord.
He spent the late morning and early afternoon grooming and shaping the yard very happy with himself with the end result.
He brought the weed whacker and hung it in the shed. He left and returned a minute later with the lawn mower. After closing the door he turned around to discover two men standing behind him. Before he had a chance to speak he was struck over the head with a thick branch.