A Brother's Influence (A Daryl Dixon Story)

Kwik Stop

Time in Bartow is more like doing prison time so nothing changes for Merle when he goes back and forth between the two places.  But for someone like Daryl, the edge of town feels like bars on a cell. Daryl left the house this morning with Merle still past out on the couch and the "new" rims in the back of his truck. Merle gave him someone's name that maybe would be interested. The man lived between Bartow and Midville, about a twenty minute drive from his house. First, Daryl needed to stop at the Kwik Stop gas station for a Coke and some gas. 

Amber was working the counter at the Kwik Stop as usual. Daryl was in her class until he dropped out of high school in the 11th grade but sometimes she was part of the group that hung out at the creek on Friday and Saturday nights. She seemed to always have a sweet word or two for Daryl, always seemed a little sweet on him. Daryl didn't know if it was his akwardness from a lack of not having a mother around or just not meeting the right one yet but Daryl could never come around to Amber's flirting, though she would gladly accept if he thought to offer it back.

"Hey Daryl, what's up?" Amber almost purred, making her seem more wild than she actually was. 

"Nuthin, just headed to Midville to try to sell some rims." Pretty much everyone in Bartow knew what the main source of Daryl's income was, so it came as no surprise to Amber what he was doing. In fact, most everyone that hung out in Daryl's group shared the same occupation. 

"Cool, you headed to the Creek Saturday? My cousin's coming to visit and I was thinking of bringing her out to meet the gang. She's from Savanah so she's been a little "over-protected" (Amber holds up two fingers on both hands) by her parents if you know what I mean." Amber informed him.

"And you're going to take her out to that group of people, good luck, she'll probably go into shock or something."

"Maybe, it's not like there's any other place to take her that I don't I have to drive 40 miles to get to. Unless you wanted to come with us?"

Here we go Daryl thought, the subtle invitation that he wished he could take her up on but knew there wouldn't be no feeling behind it, and if there was ever one thing that Daryl knew, he was not like his brother Merle. No, he'd wait, he'd wait as long as it would take. For some reason, Daryl knew there was someone out there who would get him, get his ways and his quietness and be alright with it. Then of course it had to be someone strong who wouldn't be scared away by Merle. 

"No, I'm gonna stay close Saturday, but I'll be at the Creek though, maybe I'll see ya'll there." Daryl said hoping she would be okay with that and not question him any further. To his surprise, she didn't and rang up his Coke and gas and he was on his way.

 Nothing was better for Daryl than him being in his truck and driving. He loved to go on rides by himself down long, country roads with the windows down and music blaring, belting out some CCR and Daryl singing along with the words. No worries, no run down shack, no drug addict brother, no possibilites, no chance at a decent life, no chance period. The bad thing about going for rides out of town, a person always had to drive back.

Sometimes on these rides, Daryl would think of his mom. He was only eight when she died, and when she went, she took any chance for a normal childhood away from Daryl. Merle had already started getting in trouble, though it was nothing too big and so far their momma had helped keep him out of jail. For Daryl though, his life centered on Earlene Mae Dixon. Earlene was one of the finest women around these parts. Daryl remembered people always asked him how on earth did someone like his daddy end up with someone like Earlene. What most people didn't know though is that before Earlene had past away, Earnest was kinda of a good guy. He was by no means a country club contender, but Earnest was a solid, honest guy who worked hard for his family. Daryl could count on one hand the number of times he got whooped by his dad while his mom was alive. Life wasn't perfect but it was good because Earlene was a loving, caring mom and wife. She must have seen something in Earnest that most folks didn't. She seemed happy before she got sick and once she past, everything went to shit.

Once Earlene was gone Daryl's daddy took to drinking to ease the pain of his loss, after all, he really did love Earlene. She made him a better man and when she died, all the dreams that Earnest had broke apart and then so did he. He became frustrated with everything Merle and Daryl did and started using the sharpening strap to them. With Merle, who was 17 at the time, it only took a few times with the strap before he stopped coming home.

By the time Daryl reached 16, the beatings and the mental abuse occurred on a daily basis. Daryl use to wish Merle would come home and take Daryl with him or come put a stop to his dad's activities. But it wasn't Merle who saved Daryl, it was alcohol that saved him. Earnest had drunk so much in eight years that his liver gave out and he died. I guess moonshine could hurry a condition like cirrhosis and Daryl was glad. There was nothing about that old man that he would miss.

 Once his dad was gone, Daryl didn't see the need to continue school even though the counselor pleaded for him to stay in. "There's nothing out there for a man with no education" Mr. Johnson tried to tell him, He didn't listen obviously. Knowing now the things he did, would he have stayed in school? Probably, though he would have heard some shit from Merle and his pals. After his dad's death, Merle and his friends were the only figures Daryl had to look up to. If that's what you could call it. They were all Daryl had no matter how worthless they were.

Daryl had four friends, Jay, Beau, Bud and Bussy Jr and you had to call him Bussy Jr. or just Jr. because there was no way in hell he was going to go by BJ. He had enough of that over years and still occassionally when his friends started up with the moonshine. Daryl liked Bussy Jr. the best out of them all because his dad raised him with some good manners even though Merle has tried his best to ruin him. Bussy went to college and has an office job at one of them merchantile plants, doing what Daryl didn't know but he was the best out of the four, which in this case wasn't very hard to do.

Yeah, life hadn't given Daryl too many opportunities but he hadn't worked too hard to find any either. He thought about it a lot and he always said one day but then he'd wake up and find himself on his way to the Kwik Stop again.

Does Daryl find love anytime soon? Keep reading to find out! And yes zombies are on their way!! If you like the chapter, please vote and comment what you would like to happen!!!

Stay tuned for A Set of Rims and Memories