Always a Brother by Michael Shenk

Author:Michael Shenk [Shenk, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction/Christian/Suspense
Publisher: Elm Hill
Published: 2020-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27

The Banks Mountain crew worked steadily through the winter. Pete had reoccurring headaches, and although he did his best, loud noises, such as the air-powered impact wrenches, and hammering stubborn steel parts, were almost unbearable. Along with this, he had dizzy spells, and when he slipped while working on a trailer, falling onto the snow-packed yard, Melissa made some quick changes.

She took Pete to the hospital and marched him into the emergency room, ignoring his protestations of feeling just fine. She waited with him, realizing how traumatic this could be for the older man. While waiting for the doctor, Pete admitted he had only been to the hospital a few times in his life, recently for stitches, and once to see his daughter’s newborn.

Melissa was a veteran, trips to labor and delivery, then the many return trips with the two boys for what Chet called “warranty work.” Daniel and Lance had broken, sprained, and cut just about everything on their bodies in their eventful young lives.

Pete and the others in the waiting room were distracted from their pain when Melissa related how one day when the kids were in school, she had taken a big wheel loader, with which she was unfamiliar, and destroyed the dirt bike track Chet had built for the kids on the property. The young Lance had broken his arm the previous weekend on one of the jumps, and she was sick of what she considered a clear and present danger lurking behind their house. By the time the destruction was complete an hour later, Melissa assured her wide-eyed audience she was a much better operator.

A young man in greasy coveralls, holding a bundle of bloody shop towels to his left arm, wanted to know what the boys’ reaction was.

“Well, they came home from school and after a snack, the boys went out to ride their dirt bikes. Well, Daniel was going to ride. Lance had his arm in a cast and was going to ‘just watch’. They came running back in the house, eyes wide. ‘Mom!’ they yelled, ‘some bonehead backed the loader over the garden shed!’”

She smiled ruefully and went on.

“The boys ran back out, and soon came back yelling! ‘Someone wrecked our dirt bike course, and that’s bad, but know what’s worse? Dad is going to kill whoever did this!’ Chet used to have a pretty bad temper.”

“The boys went on, ‘You’re going to have to do something, Mom! When Dad sees what someone ran over.’ At this point the boys started crying, and I won’t lie, I was getting pretty worried!”

She went on. Her audience, now including a nurse, was attentive.

“‘Mom, someone drove over Dad’s Harley! It was parked by the lilac bush! It’s wrecked!’”

Pete swore aloud, then covered his mouth, embarrassed.

The young man was not so polite. “Lady, you wrecked your husband’s Hog? What happened next?”

“Well, the boys took their pedal bikes and disappeared. They didn’t want to be around when their dad came home. That motorcycle was the first toy Chet had ever bought for himself, and he just loved it, found it in Nevada.

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