Don't Hold Your Breath

Chapter 9

There was a brief lull in our conversation, and I took advantage of it to ask a question of my own that had been on my mind.

"What are you going to do about Dex?"

Zeke sighed heavily. The question seemed to have been weighing on him as well. "I'm still thinking that over."

"Who were those guys anyways?"

Zeke glanced over at me and his voice held a warning when he responded. "If I tell you, they'll take that to mean you're fully involved. That would be it."

His words made me pause for a second. The cautious part of my brain was trying to shout my voice down before I could do anything I'd regret, but I found myself not really caring. "I'm already involved, I might as well know everything."

He seemed a little resigned as he nodded at my response. "I guess that's only fair. Do you need a break at all?"

He gestured towards a sign indicating a rest stop, but I shook my head. I honestly would 've loved to stop at a gas station to stock up on some pain meds and let my body stretch out. My shoulder was throbbing, and the seatbelt strap wasn't helping things, but I was also eager to get to our destination as quickly as possible.

"Alright. Well for my story we're going to have to go back a few years too. I had graduated from high school and gone straight into a carpentry trade school."

"Carpentry?" I said, surprised. This was the first time I had heard of any of his interests and it wasn't what I had expected.

"Yeah," he chuckled slightly. "Carpentry to thieving. Not a great trajectory, I know, but building things was a hobby I had done since entering shop class in high school. My dad and I used to work on projects in the garage, most of the wood furniture in our house was built by us when I was a teenager."

"That's amazing!" I was in awe of his admission. I had thought his hands were calloused from thieving, but they had apparently been developed with his wood working skills a while ago.

He smiled a little out my outburst. "That's actually where we're heading now. I'll point them out to you when we get there."

"I'd love that." I felt a little shy admitting it.

"My story was mostly a happy one." He went on with a shrug. "I grew up in a loving home and my parents made enough money for us to get by, although not enough to set some aside for things like savings or insurance. About three years ago, my sister was diagnosed with leukemia. She was fourteen."

My stomach lurched slightly at his words, I couldn't even imagine what that must have felt like.

"She's fine now." Zeke added when he saw the look on my face. "She's currently in remission with no signs that it'll come back and is in her senior year of high school, happy as ever. But it was scary for a few years there. She was so sick and our family felt strained at times trying to cope with everything, especially when the medical bills started coming in."

"Oh." I said softly, suddenly understanding the point in his life where his trajectory changed. It was starting to make sense.

"Yeah." He sighed, although he was still smiling a little. He seemed to guess where my thoughts had led me too. "My mom spent her days taking care of Georgia and her nights working as a hotel maid. Pretty soon her health started to deteriorate, and she ended up having to go to the hospital. She wasn't there long, she just needed some fluids and rest, but it was enough to add even more to our medical expenses. Even with talking with the hospitals to negotiate adjustments, it was still too much. I had just graduated and couldn't find a job anywhere until a car shop took me in."