Suddenly...Gone

Chapter 1

2009

"Sumbitch!" Daryl cursed loudly as the wrench in his hand slipped and hit him in the head. He rolled out from under the old truck he was working under and sat up rubbing his forehead.

"Problem Dixon?" asked Mack, his boss. Daryl had been working part-time at the garage for about three weeks. Mack couldn't afford to hire anyone full-time, and Daryl was desperate for a job so he took whatever hours Mack could give him.

Mack was a wiry old grease monkey, with his thinning gray hair tied back into a ponytail. He knew everything there was to know about engines. Daryl had stumbled upon this run-down garage when he had been out searching for work. His job interview was done under the hood of an old Pontiac Trans Am that wasn't running. Mack simply told him to figure out what was wrong and fix it. Two hours later Daryl had the job.

"Yeah, every fuckin' screw on this piece of shit Ford is rusted. Gonna need a blow torch to get the damn exhaust off," he told him.

Mack looked over at his part-time mechanic," Just don't blow us up," he said in his laid back manner.

"Try not to," Daryl told him. He liked working at Mack's. Neither of them were big talkers, so the quiet suited them both just fine. Mack treated him fairly and let him work on his old pickup in his spare time. Now if he could only keep this job.

He got up and walked over to the sink and looked in the dirty mirror. That wretch had hit him good. A knot was already forming on his forehead. Just as he was turning back to give that screw another shot, he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pants. Daryl wiped his hands on a rag he had hanging out of his back pocket and checked his phone. It was a text from his brother, Merle.

Found us a place at Lakeview Trailer Park in Riverside. # 14.

Daryl texted back, Better not be a dump like last time. C U after work.

They had been looking for a place to live after getting thrown out of the last apartment they rented. Daryl had been living out of the back of his truck for the last four days, and it was getting old...really old. Merle simply couldn't get along with anyone. He either argued and picked fights or sexually harassed the women, so they tended to get kicked out...a lot. Daryl was so tired of Merle being a dick all the time. If he could just keep his mouth shut once in a while, or act like a normal person, they may stand a chance of staying somewhere more than a few months.

Daryl hated moving around all the time, but he stayed with his brother because he didn't have any other choice. Merle was all he had for family, and you didn't turn your back on family, no matter how much of a jackass they were. However, his father was an entirely different story. Daryl had left home, or the dump that he had been living in with his old man at sixteen and never looked back. The abuse he had received at the hands of his father was unforgivable. He hoped the drunken bastard was dead.

Now a little over twenty years later, Daryl was still stuck with Merle. His brother had cost him anyone that he ever got friendly with. No one wanted to put up with Merle as he made all their lives miserable. Daryl had no idea why Meryl said the crazy ass shit he did. It made him wonder if Merle was jealous that he had other people in his life at times, which was why his behavior would eventually drive everyone away. He turned Daryl into the loner he was.

He grabbed a spray can of lubricant before heading back under the truck he was working on. He was hoping that would help loosen up the rusted screws holding the old exhaust system on. Daryl slid back under the truck and tried again.