BEARTH

-Harv-

Chapter 1

An alarm clock sounds for half a second before a hand stops the damaged buzzer. 10:30am; inside an old vintage room Summit pulls back his hand and sits up from a squeaky mattress. His age is more apparent in the morning as he is forced to cough his throat to awake. Summit puts on his shoes and slowly begins for the door. The poorly lit room is instantly flooded with blinding sun light as he holds the door wide to allow the disturbance.

"It's time Harv, get up." He tells his son, Harvey, still lying on the rollaway bed. Harvey mutters some words while using his pillow to hide from the morning.

"I'm up, just close the door, Dad." He rolls over to again sleep. Summit leaves him to rest and makes his way out the door through a domed covered walkway made of glass. Looking newer than any part of the rest stop, the glass walkway hugs the side of the building and follows the walk path to the lunch area in front. As Summit steadily makes his way to the front, he looks outside through the tinted glass to see the miles of desert surrounding the rest stop. Remembering how far from home they really are, Summit shakes his thoughts and hurries his pace.

________

Summit enters the lunch area; an almost abandon facility that welcomes any customer with the smell of sweat and mildew. The squeaky fan on the counter indicates life as the teller hides quietly behind his register. Summit passes him and walks to the merch isle where he grabs two tubes of paste. He walks back to the teller and as if he had many options, Summit looks up at the food menu. The majority of the menu is of dried food; toast and jam the most expensive. He places the tubes on the counter and hands the cashier his identifying cash card.

"I'll take two of these and a plate of your finest bacon flavored jerky, please." Summit asks politely.

"Yes sir, mister?" The teller grabs the cash card from Summit's hand and smiles as he reads the name on the metallic card. "Summit? Wait, you Harvey Summit?!" The teller swipes the card without taking his eyes off of him."Oh man, what an honor! I'm such a fan of your work. I didn't believe it when they told me you were trucking!" Un fazed and now reviled to be of higher stature, Summit reaches back for his card.

"How about that plate of jerky? I'm on a bit of a tight schedule." Summit rushes as the register makes an error sound. The teller looks at the register then slowly back up at Summit with an apologetic face.

"I'm sorry sir, It must be an error... you have another card maybe?" Before Summit can answer, footsteps catch his ears causing him to face towards the entrance and notice Harvey, wandering into the lunch area half awake. Harvey wears short messy dark hair that hasn't seen water in days; a sleeveless white T-shirt with an incredible farmers tan and brown kaki board shorts though miles from any beach or lake. Summit looks at the cashier and pulls a single tube of paste aside to discard from the purchase.

"Just charge me for one tube, and the jerky... I should have enough for that." Summit assures as he looks towards Harvey to grab his attention. "Harvey! I'm over here." He says as the cashier finishes the transaction. Harvey sees his dad by the register and slowly waddles towards him while looking at his wrist watch in question.

"Why are we up so early, it's not even noon yet?" Summit grabs the single tube and jerky from the counter and moves closer to Harvey.

"Well I thought we'd make good time if you ate your breakfast and put on your body paste in the truck."