Portrait of Words

Here is my second Portrait of Words. For this months story by Jeff, the one who started this challenge, go to Portrait of Words. To see the rules and prompts, check this out.


Choosing A New Life

Joey Cooper stepped off the city bus, into his new life. He knew he never had fit in where he had lived up until now. It hadn't been easy to walk away from his old life and into a new one, but staying stuck where he was had not been easy either and he'd had to make a choice.

Joey was born to Joe & Janette Cooper, in Small Town, USA. Yes, it was the typical small town, just like all other small towns everywhere else where everyone knows everyone else's business... and judges them on it. A place where everyone is pretty much the same as everyone else... except Joey. Joey never fit in, he just never belonged, not only in the town, but in his family either. That is why he ended up making that choice to leave.

The Coopers lived in, and opperated the Town Bowling Alley, at the North end of Main Street. It was a good family business for the most part, giving the Coopers a steady income and enabling Joe to quit his job at the sawmill. He had liked that job well enough, but once he was injured on the job it became clear that it was time for him to find something new.

At one time, there was a dentist that rented the room on the West side of the building. When he moved out and moved on, the loss of that income was hard for the family, so Joe Cooper took a correspondence course ib barbering. He practiced on his wife and on little Joey, and after a time actually got to be not too bad at the job. Since there was no other barber in the town, no one was really picky about the job he'd do. Joe was able to open a second business there in his bowling alley. Now not only was he able to support his family well, but he also became an important business man in this town. He was a 'big man around town

"Joey! Can't you ever do anything right? You sure as hell can't be any kid of mine, you're just so stupid!!" Joe often yelled such things at Joey, and Janette was too meak to stand up and defend her son. Oh, she had tried a few times when he was still just a toddler, but it hadn't work and she had just given up. When Joe was yelling at Joey, it gave Janette the chance to slip under his radar, to be invisible to him. Joe believed that the man should rule the family and that every member of his family had darn well better submit to him and his ideas.

Janette always made sure the home in back of the bowling alley was always spotless, as was the bowling alley and the barber shop. All bowling shoes had to be cleaned at the end of each day. Joe Cooper would never have anyone saying they'd gotten some foot disease from shoes in his bowling shoes. Of course, all this cleaning was done by Janette and by Joey as he grew up. Janette ran the alley, and she ran the home, just as Joe told her to do. Meals had to be on the table at the exact perfect time, set of course by Joe.

"You freeking idiot! Where did you get those stupid clothes from? You look like some druggy freak that gets his clothes from the rag bag!"

"You are a looser and you'll always be a looser!"

Joey was so tired of hearing his father's tiraids, so fed up with living in fear, of never being good enough. He was also very tired of hearing his father beraiting his mother, of seeing her beat further and further down each year. He was fed up with the abuse.

Joey had never even been alowd to have his own things. Oh, there were a couple of toys when he was a baby, but it didn't take long for Joe to decide Joey was old enough to not need toys any longer. In a basic human need to have his own things, Joey started to collect all sorts of bolts and screws. He picked them up here and there where he found them on the ground, putting them in old cans he also found laying around, cast off and forgotten. None of these things had any value to anyone but Joey, but they meant the world to him. He gathered these everywhere he went, and stashed them in a tumble down shack in the woods back of the bowling alley.

The day came when Joe was sitting in his barber shop, waiting for a customer to come along, just looking out the window at nothing in particular, when something caught his eye. He saw that stupid kid of his, dressed as always in that ugly striped sweater, headed into the woods... and decided to find out where he was going, what he was up to. He followed the lad to his special place, his tumble down shack in the woods where the precious collection of screws and bolts was hidden away, safely until now. Joey didn't even see it coming until he felt the fist connect with the back of his head.

Later, looking back on it, Joey remembered nothing after that. The sudden blow, the stars, then nothing until he came to in a bed of leaves. The shack was a pile of ashes now, and sifting through the ashes he found no sign of his collection. He knew his father either had them now or they were in the bottom of the swamp not far away. Either way, he'd never have them back.

Joey knew his mother would have missed him hours ago now, and would be wondering where he was. She would be worried about him. He couldn't let her see him like this. He walked to the swamp and did his best to clean himself up in the water, in the dark of night, then he started to walk slowly homeward. When he was nearly to where the trail left the woods behind the bowling alley, he stopped. He stood there for half an hour... or was it an hour? He never knew for sure, time just seemed to stand still. He knew he just couldn't do it, he just couldn't step out of the woods and back into that life... back into that death of his heart. Suddenly he said, "I'll always love you, Mom," he turned around and started to walk back into the woods. After a time, he came out onto a road just out of town. He turned left and began to walk.

Just before morning a car was driving down the road, the driver saw this young man, about 15 or 16 years of age, walking alone, and stopped to offer him a ride. While driving over the next couple hours, the man found that the boy, badly beaten, had no money. He had been on a bus, so he said, and got off at a stop where he was mugged and robbed. His money and bus ticket were gone and he was trying to get home to his mother, but couldn't phone to ask her to send money as she didn't have any to send. It was a sad story that tugged at the mans heart strings. He would have given the boy a ride all the way to the city he was headed for, but he was not going that far and couldn't spare the time to make the trip. However, what he could afford was some money. After all, if this was his son, he'd want someone to help the boy. He gave this boy enough money to take a bus from the next town to the city, enough to buy food, and then to take a city bus from the bus station to his home.

When Joey got out of the car, he thanked the man for his help and as the car drove off, he waved, feeling sad he'd had to lie to such a nice man, yet knowing if he hadn't, he would likely have been returned to where he'd come from. He vowed then that the day would come when he would be able to help someone else as a way to make this all right. Then he turned and boarded the bus.

When Joey got off the bus at the depot in the big city, he had no idea where he was going or what life would bring now. Oh well, he'd figure it out somehow. He decided that he'd get onto the first city bus that came along, take it to the end of its run, and then start to figure out what came next. Whatever it was, he knew it would be better than what he had left behind.