Empowered

Chapter two

            When I wake up, I slowly get out of my sleeping bag. I groggily head to the kitchen grabbing one of our travel cereal boxes. I slowly open the packaging and take a fruit loop. That's when I notice my father sitting at the kitchen table alone, my brother still snoring loudly. "Hey, how'd you sleep?" I ask groggily, the effects of sleeping still looming over me. "Wasn't much sleep going on" he responds, his tone emotionless. Mom is still heavily impacting him. "I guess we're leaving as soon as he's awake?" I change the subject. "Yea, when he wakes up we are gone."

            I get changed into some clean clothing and brush my teeth. When I see Jason still snoring loudly, sprawled out on the floor in his sleeping bag. I give him a good kick to the leg in an attempt to awake him, surprisingly it works on the first try. I normally kick him a few times to wake him up. He yawns and sits up "what time is it, the crack of dawn?" he asks grouchily. I laugh "it's 8am, Dad and I have been up since 6." I pause. "He wants to get out of here quickly so can you get ready quick, get your beauty rest in the truck." he nods and yawns as he crawls out of the sleeping bag. 

            When Jason is finally ready, it's about 9am and Dad has everything packed up now. Dad and Jason take the moving truck, I'm taking our truck.  

           When I hop behind the wheel it feels different, this is the first time I've drove since the accident. Dad didn't want me to drive because of that. I put the keys into the ignition and the engine roars, eventually it dies down into a purr that I missed oh so much. My corvette is totaled. The car is stuck in a scrap yard now, I worked on it for years and in seconds it's gone.  

          I shake my head as tears start blurring my vision. The music turns on and I crank it up, country music playing loudly. "I'd better get used to this stuff." I mutter to myself. My dad starts to drive off with a wave, I pull out immediately. The long journey finally starts.  

            The drive is just over, half a day and I'm not going to stop much. I also have to take a ferry to get there, obviously, it is an island. Deer Island itself doesn't even have 1,000 people. I consider that a hick town. After about four hours, I pull off the highway and take a stretch break, grab some lunch, and then go to the washroom as well. Nothing particularly interesting happened besides crappy service. I fill my tank up and start back onto the highway.  

            When I cross the border, taking the shorter route to this island, the officer on patrol pulls me over. I guess I'm the tenth car. A joke everyone makes when someone is pulled over at the border."Sir, why are you crossing the border today?" He asks, the darkness starting to set in. "I'm travelling to my family's new house. It's in Canada but this is the quickest route," I reply, turning my headlights on. "Why are you travelling by yourself then?" I shake my head frustrated. I'm tired and don't want to deal with patrol asking pointless questions. "My father and brother are driving the moving truck. My mom isn't with us anymore," I answer again. The frustration is apparent in my voice. "Sir, I need you to calm down. These are simple standard questions. You check out and are free to go, have a good night." He sounded sarcastic but, I'll take any chance to leave the boarder. I reignite my engine and drive off. 

            I lose the station I was listening to and I begin looking for the next country station I can find. When I find a station, it's playing a classical piano and I continue scanning. It stops on country music finally. The song was ending and unluckily the news portion decides to begin. I groan. "In breaking news, there have been many accounts of an 18 year old boy having the power to throw fireballs, have resistance to fire and can move things with his mind. Many don't believe this to be true but it's happening right here in Maine, Showhegan, where we are stationed. I conclude this announcement with a 'be careful'. The teen is considered extremely dangerous. Proceed with caution if you are near Showhegan." Then Luke Bryan starts playing on the radio. Shit, I'm in Maine, I don’t know where Showhegan is but I hope I'm far away from it.