Chapter 1
It was cold.
Not just cold, but an I wish I had on a heavier coat sort of cold.
A some fucking lunatic dragged me out of a nice warm bed at four in the morning, at the end of Goddamn November in the motherfucking Catskills sort of cold. Shadrach stomped his feet trying to get some life back into his toes.
The stars stood out in a stark contrast against a matte black sky. His father was in the cab of a borrowed picker trying to coax the hydrogen cell to life. The method to bring the cell to life seemed to involve a lot of swearing, as well as carrying out a running narrative on what an unlucky man he was, adding at salient points that the added burden of an idiot son was only further proof of a cruel Universe against hard working men.
**
Shadrach wore a look of complete non-comprehension on his face. It was essentially his null state. When his father's attention turned back to him, he would then become the focus of the aforementioned narrative. In addition, appearing to be too stupid to know what was happening gave the narrator the least amount of material to work with.
**
"Hey, numb nuts! Yeah you, Shifty. Any chance you giving me a hand here?"Not being a cell tech or mechanic or even the least bit interested, he doubted it, but shuffled over to peer in the access. Yep, there was a cell in there.His father looked at him with an expression he usually saved for questionable dairy products.
"You really are useless, aren't you? What are you going to do? Who the hell is going to hire you?"
For the life of him Shadrach couldn't have cared less, as long as it got him away from here. In fact, he was willing to go as far away as he could get, without actually winding up on his way back. Shadrach's father shook his head sadly. He was a small intense man with close cropped dark hair. He seemed on the verge of nervous movement even when standing still, notoriously bad in checkout lines; often leaving the item, he intended to purchase because the line wasn't moving quickly enough. All in all a barrel of laughs.
Shadrach was an echo of his father. At fifteen, he was a little taller and broader through the shoulders, but carried the same dark intensity. He was looking at his feet when he noticed an opened coupling underneath the picker's frame. Bending down he snapped the two connections together.
"Now try it."
His father sneered as he reached inside the cab and hit the power tab. The Telltales flickered to life as the cell came online.
"Well," his father said, "even a stopped clock is right twice a day."
Shadrach looked back with bovine indifference.
His father climbed in the picker, put it in drive and moved toward the pile of alloy transmission pylons. The power company had pulled them down to make room for the microwave transmitter they were building. One of his father's friends who worked for the power company called him and said he could have them if he got them out before morning.
He could not imagine what he could use them for, but if they were for free, his old man was all for them. Case in point, all the blankets on the beds at home had burn marks on them. During a hospital fire the firefighters had been throwing them out the windows. To his father, they were manna from heaven.
**
The picker moved in articulated jerks as the hydraulics sluggishly came to life in the November cold. His father moved the boom over the heap of pylons. As he lowered the claw, the machine lifted a mass of pylons like a child grasping a pile of pick-up sticks. Lifting and swinging around, the picker placed the pylons in its rear payload area. As each new level of pylons was reached, Shadrach pushed a button activating the tethers which locked it down. This process went on for about fifteen minutes.
The old picker wheezed and clunked as his father loaded the last of the pylons. When the final one was in place Shadrach pushed tether activation button. The tether would connect, but not lock, due to the overload of pylons. His father, in no small state of agitation, made repeated stabbing motions with his thumb indicating Shadrach should get the tether locked. Shadrach held the button down hard; the servos whined and released a thin acrid smell into the cold air. He heard the clunk as the tether locked. He turned and smiled at his father. His father shrugged,unimpressed.
