Choices You Make

The News

And here's chapter 2.

Outskirts of Hawkins, Indiana. May 30 1987.

It was Saturday and Mike found himself doing what he normally did every Saturday, working. Yup, working. He was just on the outskirts of town on one of the many farms out there. The owner Thomas Hartin or Tom as liked being called had been hiring him since the summer of his 14th birthday, helping him in the field or with the few livestock he had. He was an older man in his late 50s maybe 60s, he was tall over 6', slightly graying hair and he was a hard man with a tough exterior but a good heart once you've been around him for a while.(AN: think a younger Clint Eastwood from 'In the Line of Fire') All he asked was punctuality and respect while they worked, which is probably why he was still being employed. And the pay was more than decent which was nice and he was saving it for college and...some other things down the road. After a few weeks work had gotten low and Tom had told him to organize and clean the barn out. While he'd been cleaning he found a tarp covered car in the back. Being the ever curious 14 year old he pulled the cover off and was surprised by what he found under it.

It was a classic 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS396 Hardtop Coupe in fading Shadow Gray with the black racing stripe. He could tell it was sitting there awhile from the faded paint on it. Tom had found him standing next to it with wide eyes and had not been happy. He had grabbed the tarp out his hands and told him he was done for the day. When he had shown up the next day to work, he worked Saturday and Sunday during the school year, Tom didn't bring it up till they were done for the day. Tom had brought him into the barn and just asked him in his gruff voice if he liked to help him get it running again. He had eagerly agreed to help. Over the years when work ran low or he stayed late they would work on it. They had got it up and running smoothly again just a few weeks ago, Tom even gave him a smile and said he might let him take it for a drive when he got his license, which made him grin like an idiot. He loved working on the car, mechanics was one of his passions just behind computers. He enjoyed building and fixing things. It's one of the reasons he wanted to be a mechanical engineer or computer sciences major, he was still the same nerd.

Although you wouldn't be able to tell at first glance seeing as around his 15th birthday he had had a growth spurt out of nowhere. Now at 16 he was 6 foot even, he stood almost a head taller than Els 5''4' and with all the manual labor he did between the farm and other odd jobs, not including the electronic store he worked at some days after school, he had filled out quite nicely. He had muscles not overly grotesque like a bodybuilder but more like track runner or swimmer and he kept his hair shorter now around his ears to keep it out the way. And El seemed to like his new looks too if the pink cheeks when she sees him without a shirt on was any indication, which also made him blush when he thought about her words to describe his new physique.

But even with all the work he did he always made time for her. Huh, El, El always brightened his day or night no matter what. No matter how tired he was, one look at those sparkling eyes, her button nose, beautiful curls and smirk-smile she gave, never failed to wipe the tiredness and worry away.

And now back to what he was doing, Mike was shoveling another pile of manure into a wheelbarrow with his shirt off hanging on the fence, the 10 o'clock early summer sun beating down on him and Tom who was joining in the smell and heat, this summer was gonna be a hot one. He glanced up at Tom with his standard overalls and farmer hat, dirty white tee and cowboy boots when he heard his name being called only to see him looking up too and away from him.

"Mike!" he heard again quickly looking over to where Tom was looking and his name came from. Only to see his girlfriend walking towards them. She was wearing a nice summer dress that went to her knees, her socks sticking out of her cowgirl boots and what looked like one of his denim jackets over her shoulders. ( i don't know 80s fashion or any for that matter it sounds right.) All in all it looked good on her especially with her pixie cut blowing in the wind as she pushed her bike.