Thread: Billy and The Kid

Originally Posted by Wannabe...

Crap, I wrote 23, but apparently never posted it. Look for a bonus installment this pm.


Wannabe...

Sweet!! 23 is gonna be pullin cranks, right???

Good stuff Chris 3

Ok ok, so I got off on the numbering. Chapter 24 above is actually chapter 23. Re-read it and it might just feel like the bonus I promised this am.

Wb get it all together and post what you have done.There are too many pages to go through.Post it all together and i will get the thread locked.Hurry up slacker gewber.

Can't. There's a character limit. Will do something like that when I get it done though.

Wannabe...

Originally Posted by Wannabe...

Can't. There's a character limit. Will do something like that when I get it done though.

Wannabe...

Chris....Slab is going to put it all together for you when you get through and put it up here for all time.....good job, great story.

Good job. Keep it coming.

Chapter 24

Work and a wife of only 4 years saw to it that Billy didn’t have much free time. Especially in the summer with all the projects he had to keep up with for the highway department. Billy and Mr. Baker only managed 3 trips all summer, but two of them were good ones. But things were slowing down at work now and his schedule was clearing some. Billy and Mr. Baker were looking forward to the next few short months and had made many plans.

Fall was coming and the ground had given up it’s heat 2 weeks before. The water temps had been dropping slowly for the last month, but with this cool snap, they’d be ticking down quicker now putting the fish in a hungry mood. It was the worst time of year to bury Mr. Baker and Mrs. Ann. Billy was sick he had had to cancel the fishing trip the Saturday before, but he’d put off painting the dining room for Karen the two weekends before so he and Mr. Baker could fish and there just wasn’t any more patience left in her. Mr. Baker understood, of course, but Billy still hated it. The worst part was remembering the last conversation he’d had with Mr. Baker that Friday. “Don’t worry about it Billy, fall’s coming and we’ve got plenty of time to catch ‘em this year”.

Two days later, a 26 year old “boy” ran a red light and plowed into the Baker’s driver’s side door. Mr. Baker died instantly and Mrs. Ann before they ambulance got there without ever regaining consciousness, is what they said. Of course, the kid that ran into them walked away with just a broken leg. It seemed to Billy that drunks never get hurt in wrecks like that. And what in the world was he doing drunk at 7 PM on a Monday anyway. He’d never understand it, but never really hated the kid for what had happened. He actually felt sorry for him. If it wasn’t for the Baker’s he might had ended up in a similar situation.

The funeral was awful. Relatives of the Bakers he really didn’t know and most of them didn’t understand why this “neighbor” was taking it so hard. Mr. Baker’s son understood, but Billy didn’t really know him that well. And besides, he had his own grief to deal with. The best he could manage was to tell Robert that his Dad was a great man and meant the world to him. Robert, for his part, managed to say thank you through choked back tears.

The funeral was bad enough, but the gathering at the Baker’s home was even worse. More awkward and more depressing. The pleasant conversations going on around him and the occasional laughter was more than he could take. If it weren’t for Karen and his Mom, he would have bolted, but they understood what the Baker’s meant to him. He was able to keep it together long enough to stay an acceptable amount of time before heading back home.

It was a month later when he got the call from Robert. “Billy, this is Robert Baker” “Uh, yes Robert, how are you doing” Robert cleared his throat “Ok, I guess. I still miss him and I know you do too.” The pause made Billy almost tear up. “Billy, my Dad had a will and in it he left you his boat…..I guess he wanted to say thank you for you taking him fishing these past years. He left you a letter as well.” “Robert, I can’t accept that”. Robert chuckled, “It’s funny you said that, in his will it said that you would not want to accept it and instructed me that if you didn’t, I should haul it to your house and leave it unhooked on your curb with the title in the glove box. Billy, don’t make me do that. I understand you didn’t want anything from him, but you know fishing isn’t my thing and he really wanted you to have it. Susan and I don’t need anything and we both want you to have it.” Billy couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t hold the tears back now, but he squeaked out, “OK Robert. Thank you”. Robert took over the conversation and gave Billy the particulars on when they could meet at the Baker’s so he could pick it up.

When Billy brought it home, he backed it in using the skills he’d been taught by Mr. Baker, but he couldn’t deal with it for another few weeks. Finally when he thought he was ready, he climbed into the boat he’d been in many times and opened the glove box and pulled the letter out that Mr. Baker had left him.

“Billy, I know you didn’t want this boat, but I wanted you to have it. You may have started out as just the kid next door, but over the years, you’ve grown in to quite the man and my best friend. I was proud to have known you and thank you for the memories. Don’t let her sit and waste away. Take her out when you can and think of me when you’re fishing and don’t be sad about it because I’ll be smiling and looking down on your adventures. And if you can, find you a kid that needs some attention and take him with you. You will not regret it. I know I never did.

Your Friend,

William Baker”

The note was so short that Billy flipped it over to see if there was more, but there wasn’t. It was brief, but it hurt. Billy hung his head and sobbed for a bit. Once the sadness passed, he lifted his head and surveyed the boat. She was old now, but still in fine shape. Mr. Baker and Billy had broken and repaired just about everything that they could on the boat over the years. He slid into the driver’s seat and slumped forward on the steering wheel and stared past the bow remembering the trip this past summer with Mr. Baker and caught himself with just a little smile. His daydream was interrupted by the sound of a backup alarm on a truck across the street.

Billy climbed out of the boat and walked to the garage door and leaned against the opening. That’s when he noticed the rental van that had backed into the Adams’ driveway across and down one house. Two men had already opened the back and were getting things from the truck. Next a car pulled up and a woman got out and walked towards them. As Billy started to turn to go back in the house, the car door opened and out popped a little boy that couldn’t have been 12.

The end.






Epilogue


I looked back and I posted the first chapter 6/9/10. Truth be told, I had worked on it for about a month before that. I’ve always fancied myself as a published author…it’s just that I’d never written anything and really have no clue about how to go about publishing something if I ever did. So…with that “non-plan” in mind, I sat down one day and wrote down a simple outline from a story I had been rolling around in my little mind. It consisted of an outline to be 10 chapters long and would fit on a post it note. In that month leading up to June, I wrote 5 chapters with the plan of getting far enough ahead that I could post one a week and by the 10th week, I’d have the story finished. Well…..that didn’t work out so well seeing as how I went to 24 chapters and 17 months.

Which leads me to an explanation. The story is an amalgamation based on people I’ve known, but centrally, my Dad. His name was Billy and just like Mr. Baker, he had a propensity to adopt kids over the years and get them into the outdoors one way or another. I started that story in May of ’10 and he passed, if you’ll remember in December ‘ 10. For a long time after that, I just didn’t want to re-visit the story, besides not having the time for it. Therefore, I ask your forgiveness in its delay.

I started back on this thing a couple of months back with the idea that I’d publish the final chapter on 12-21-12, which would be the 2 year anniversary of my Dad’s death, but yesterday, I attended a funeral of a friend of my Dad’s and mine. One of the old guard from town that has been in and around my life and that of my Dad’s all these years. So, it made me think I need to get off my duff and do it as none of us are promised tomorrow and y’all deserved an ending after all this time.

In any event, thank you for waiting….somewhat patiently for me to finish. I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I posted the first chapter as I didn’t explain it or preface it in any way. Also, to many, many of you for your calls, emails, thoughts and prayers and even a few that made it to my Dad’s funeral, thank you. Your words of encouragement really meant a lot to me those days, weeks and months following his death. I know from being on the side of trying to give comfort it feels awkward and useless, but being on the side of being comforted for the first time, I can tell you that it really does help. I didn’t realize that before then.

Dedicated to the memory of William Kent “Billy”Savage 10/8/1940 – 12/21/2010. Every trip, a keeper.

Wannabe...