Chapter 1: The fire pit

I noticed how some people stopped coming to school and some of the teachers were also absent. In a few weeks, there were more substitutes than actual teachers. My history and math teachers were substitutes and even the lady who made the morning and afternoon announcements was a substitute. During those last few weeks, the traffic was getting better and lighter, but the gas prices were steadily rising. The people on the news were talking about it nonstop but it really didn’t affect my world, until the day they closed school in late October.

As soon as we were dismissed by the bell, I threw a hand full of graded papers in the air, littering half empty the classroom. I made my way to my car and all I could think about was how the end of school was bittersweet. I didn’t enjoy school much, but I knew when everything got better I’d have to start my senior year all over again. My parents are going to be mad because they will have to get new class-of-whatever-year party supplies whenever I do eventually graduate.

“Ahh whatever,” I said out loud as I threw my backpack into the back seat of my car. I enjoyed the ride home and listened to my favorite tunes.

When I opened the door to my home, I heard my dad coughing from the living room. “I’m home dad!”

No response.

I walked towards the living room and saw my dad laying on the couch with a blanket covering him. My dad’s blonde hair looked even brighter in the sun, as was facing away from me. Whenever he laid toward the inside of the couch I understood that he didn’t want to talk. My dad tends to talk more with body language than his voice.

I hope he gets better soon; I want my happy dad back.

I could hear the TV coming from my mom’s room. I walked to my parent’s room and I know she is going to say no, but I’m going to ask her always.

“Hey mom.”

She didn’t take her eyes off the TV. She knew I knew that she hated it when I interrupted her favorite TV show.

“Mom, I was wondering, Can I have my friends come over and have a bonfire in the backyard?”

She made eye contact with me and I was expecting her to say no, I smiled and hoped for the best and waited for her answer. With her thick Asian accent, she responded, “No, how are you going to have a bonfire when we don’t have a fire pit? What are you going to do? Catch your tree house on fire again?”

Embarrassed, I looked down at the floor and responded, “Mom, that was ten years ago. And I’ll make a fire pit. I’ll be safe!”

My mom’s eyes were locked back on the TV and she said, “Fine, but if you get too loud, and disturb your dad’s rest I’ll come out there and kick your a*s.”

“Thanks mom!” I turned around quickly and walked away.

“Wait!”

I stopped and looked my mom in the eyes.

“Are you inviting any girls?”

“Umm, maybe one of my friend’s girlfriends, but no, not really.”

“Why not? Don’t you like girls?”

“Mom, I’m going to wait until after college for all of that.”

She gave me a disappointed look, then she locked her eyes back on the TV.

I went outside. I looked up at the empty blue sky and it was odd not seeing the vapor trails in the sky. Perhaps they are fewer flights to the international airport nowadays. I looked for a shovel, then I remembered the pile of scrap construction junk that we left behind the shed when my dad renovated the kitchen.  I grinned and dug the old rusty steel kitchen sink out of a pile of broken concrete blocks. I dragged the sink, and four intact cinder blocks to the center of the back yard. I stood the blocks up like pillars and placed the sink on top. My satisfaction of the completion of the fire pit was fire was interrupted by the lights of an ambulance that pulled into my neighbor’s driveway. I watched as the paramedics unload a stretcher and carried it into the house.

 

“Kind of scary, huh?”

 

I flinched from fear but I recognized the voice. It was just Maykayla Kennington, the skinny white girl from a few houses down. Her hair was frizzy and out of control as always, and she was wearing her typical clothes you’d always find her wearing any other day. She gave me a hug and said, “Hi Steve.”

“May, you finally scared me. About time you got me for once. So what are you doing here?” She was still holding on to me so I gently pushed her off of me.

Maykayla smiled and said, “Well, your mom, called my mom, and said that you were having a little party tonight.”

I sighed and said sarcastically, “Well remind me to thank my mom for taking the imitative in inviting you over because I was just about to tell her to invite you.”

“That’s funny, because my mom made me come here because she said she felt sorry for you because nobody comes to your parties.”

I smiled and grinned then said, “Bullshit you nerd! Your mom just wants you to get out of the house so you can stop reading that porn you call romance novels!”

“It’s not porn you asshat!”

I chuckled and patted May on her shoulder, “I’m just messing with you May. I’m just butt hurt that you actually snuck up and scared me. Come help me out with this ghetto fire pit.”

Maykayla looked at me with a disappointed expression, then she followed me to the stack of firewood. Before I could grab the first log, she grabbed my left arm and said in a worried tone, “Oh my God, them too?”

I looked at my neighbor’s house and saw a crying woman watching the paramedics load a few stretchers into the ambulance. I took my arm away from Maykayla and thought of something to say that would get her to stop touching me all the time. “Good,” I said cheerfully, “I always hated those guys anyway.”

Maykayla hit my arm and said, “Don’t say that asshat! They just died!”

“They were probably a bunch of terrorists anyway.” I joked.

I was satisfied with Maykayla’s expression. I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to be touching me the rest of the night.  She started to yell at me, “Just because they’re Arab doesn’t mean they’re terrorists! Now I know why nobody comes to your parties.” Maykayla picked up a few small logs and walked over to the fire pit and threw them in.  I picked up all the logs I could carry and I set them down next to the fire pit. Then we heard a high pitched laugh off in the distance then I smiled and looked at Maykayla and said, “So nobody comes to my parties huh?

I recognized my friend Fonsi walking up the driveway. He stopped growing in 5th grade and he had a full beard by 7th grade, yet somehow he had all of the muscles like one of those guys you’d see on the front page of a body building magazine.

Holding his hand was Haley, his girlfriend for a couple months now. She was about a foot taller than Fonsi, she had pretty attractive feminine features, pale blue eyes and she always wore a lot of makeup to deepen the contrast around her light eyes.

Behind Fonsi was my old friend Milo. I knew him since before he could speak English. His parents immigrated from some south American country which I forgot the name of. He always wore at least three shirts for some reason, and today is no different. 

Next to Milo was Clint, he was showing some video to Milo on his phone. Clint was a tall lanky redneck kid. I remember when I first met him he bored me with naming his ancestors who’ve first arrived in American on the Mayflower ship.

Everyone greeted each other and I showed them my newest creation, the ghetto fire pit.  Fonsi laughed and asked with his squeaky voice, “What the crap is this garbage? You too lazy to dig a real fire pit?”

“Well it is garbage, but it’ll work.” I responded, “But the shovel is over there if you’d like to dig us a real one.”

Fonsi crossed his arms and inspected the rusty kitchen sink.

“Alright everyone!” I announced, “Since Fonsi doesn’t want to dig us a real pit, grab your chairs and let’s light this bad boy up!”

Maykayla and Haley stood far back, I bet they memories of someone getting hurt like last time at Clint’s was still fresh in their memory. After we stuffed a plastic bag down the drain of the sink, we filled stacked the small logs in a good formation we filled the sink up with used motor oil and gasoline.  Milo grabbed a pack of sparklers from his backpack and distributed them among the boys. Clint pulled out his fancy zippo lighter and lit it. Fonsi raised his sparkler in the air and said, “Let’s touch our sticks together, no homo.”

“Bro, that’s gay as AIDS,” I said as we lit all our sparklers with Clint’s zippo. We all stood back at a safe distance, counted to three and threw our sparklers into the sink. The fire pit lit up in a bright ball of fire and burned fiercely. The smoke was black and the air was fouled up by the smell.

“These infernos are constantly astonishing,” Milo said formally. He’s always spoken formally ever since I teased him about when he was learning English and I said he sounded like he was an in a Hispanic gang. 

Everyone pulled their chairs up to the fire as soon as the diesel was exhausted, and the smell of burning pine warmed the air. Maykayla sat down next to me again and I contemplated more mean things to say so that she would stay out of touch with me.  Milo took off his backpack and opened it. 

“What’s in the bag?” Maykayla asked.

Milo and Clint smiled, and Clint answered with his strong southern accent, “What Milo gots there in dat bag is beer and a lil som-tin from my uncle… Who passed away last week.”

“Sorry for your- “

“Don’t worry ‘bout it May, he was an a*****e, so forget him.” Clint interrupted.

Milo handed out the beer and moonshine, and everyone talked about who was sick and who had died. Haley complained that she didn’t get a car for her 16th birthday. Her dad’s company went out of business and now he was working at a fast food joint. Clint talked about some depressing memories of his dead uncle. Milo talked about his older brother, who he hated all of his life, finally started to love him the last week of his life. Well this party is quiet, my parents probably happy that we aren’t yelling and shouting like the rest of our parties. 

I noticed Maykayla looking at me, but when I looked at her she’d quickly look away and interrupt the conversation with something random.

“How are your parents Milo? Are they getting better?” Maykayla asked.

“No, not at all. Their conditions are worsening. They have gone to the hospital last night.” Milo answered.

“I’m sorry, I hope they get better soon.” Maykayla lightly hit Fonsi on his shoulder and asked, “So how’s your mom Fonsi?”

“She’s alright. But she got laid off It’s the first time she’s ever been home during the day so it’s weird.” Fonsi responded.

“Damn,” I said in surprise. “Same thing happened with my mom. It’s just a pneumonia, right? Why’s it killing everyone? Can’t you just take antibiotics for pneumonia?”

“It’s resistant to antibiotics,” Maykayla answered.

“So it’s just a virus?” Fonsi asked again.

Maykayla glanced away and down from the fire, “No, it’s bacterial, it’s really resistant to antibiotics.”

“Then why"”

“I don’t know Fonsi! Just because my parents are both medical doctors doesn’t mean I am.”

Milo handed the jar of moonshine to Maykayla, “Here, I have been told that high concentrations of alcohol kill bacteria. Consuming it has the potential to lighten your mood.”

Maykayla thanked Milo and she took a sip from the jar.