First Estate

The Child of Destiny

First Estate

By blackrandl1958

"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Jude 6, the Bible.

Chapter One

I've always been very careful. I had an idea when I was a child that I was different; I just didn't know how different. I came to realize quickly that I was taller, stronger, faster and smarter than the kids I went to school with, but some people are. Others here and there seemed physically similar, so I just thought I was like them. It stood me in good stead throughout school. I could play sports better than most and that alone made life easier.

I never liked football. I injured a kid in the sixth grade and that made me sort of queasy about unleashing my full strength. Basketball and track were a different story. I dominated teams at basketball. Basketball is a bit of a political game in many schools. Mom moved me to a new school when I was a junior. I was all-state my sophomore year for my old team, but the new coach cared more about making sure the principal's kid started than he did about winning. He kept me on the bench unless the principal's kid got in foul trouble. Everyone knew it was a douche move, but what could I do? After the second game, Mom cornered him and words flew. He stuck his finger in her chest and she nearly broke it off. He tried to file charges, but there were too many witnesses and he wound up being charged with assault. She paid tuition for me to go across town to another school. We played his team in the finals of the Christmas tournament and I got 63 points against them. We played them twice more, and I never got less than 50. I was all-state and all-American that year. I was interviewed a dozen times and when they asked me what gave me motivation I always told the reporters I remembered I wasn't good enough to play for Cleo Elbert. My old school fired him at the end of the year, and he never got a job coaching again. They tried to get me to come back after he was gone, but that bridge was burned, as far as I was concerned. Very few could compete with my speed or strength in track. I quit running in high school and concentrated on the shot put.

My mother was always very proud of me. I never knew my father and Mom didn't talk about him. I gathered that it was a one-night stand in her indiscrete youth, and I never questioned her about it. She was a really relaxed and cool Mom, and I thought she was probably a hippie type when she was younger. I really didn't want to know. Mommy issues were complicated enough, and I had no time for Daddy issues. She was a very complex person and I loved her with all my heart.

Brawn was natural to me and I reveled in it. Brain was another story. I could read when I started kindergarten. I knew some other kids couldn't, but it didn't seem like a big deal until Mrs. Vincent told my mom she wanted to test me to see if I was gifted. Mom wasn't happy about that, at all. She got out a toy and showed it to me. I remembered it from when I was very young. It had four wooden pegs that you hammered on with a wooden mallet until they went through the holes and stuck out on the other side. Then you turned it over and drove them back through to the other side. She hammered three of the pegs down about an inch and handed me the hammer. One was still sticking up.

"Now, Parker; which one of the pegs will you hammer?"

I chose the one that was sticking up and drove it down to the level of the others.

"Why did you choose that one?" she asked.

"It was different and I made it like the others."

"That's right. I'm teaching you a lesson here about life. The lesson is that you don't want to stick up. You don't want to be the peg that's different. If you do and someone has a hammer, which one of you will they use it on?"