Finally the sun came up and my world was about to change. After they got cleaned up we were ready to go. We went outside and my father said to leave the bike and he would have but my uncle convinced him not to. My father got a small piece of garden hose out of the trunk of the car. He said that I was going to syphon the gas out of the bike. I had never done that before so my uncle explained how to do it. I put one end in the motorcycle tank and the other end in my mouth and sucked on it, crap! Gas filled my mouth, I choked. They were really laughing at me, gas went all over my clothes. I finally got the tank emptied. The next task was to load the bike into the trunk of the car. Olds-mobiles had really big trunks. I tried to lift it on my own, my father called me a pussy and pushed me out of the way. He and Jude put it in and tied it down.
Before we left they took all of my money, told me to get in the back seat and that they didn’t want to hear from me all the way home. They bought lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken and didn’t share any. No lunch for me. I sat there and looked out the window. All I could see for many miles was poor broken down shacks at the edges of cotton fields. My heart went out to those people. I kept thinking of how bad they had it. I thought that I had it bad. I ran from my living conditions. Why can’t these people just get up and go? Go find a better life. Go find a better way to live. It wasn’t until I was older that I understood about these people. I know that I was lucky to have been born to the family that I had. Still at that age all I could think of was how I was going to get away. Far away!
Supper time came and went as I watched my father and uncle eat a couple burgers and fries. Still nothing for me. As we drove down the highway we came upon a convoy, similar to the one I saw days earlier. I made a comment that I couldn’t wait to join the service. My dad had told me for years that he was going to stick me in the Navy. Thats where I would learn to become a man. He had been in the Navy and he seemed proud that he had been. He honestly thought that the Navy would be good for me. We argued a bit and then I guess I had had enough. I told my father that sailors were a bunch of pussies. I wasn’t going to join up with a bunch of queers. That did it! He started to reach back at me and tried to hit me. The car swerved and I laughed at him. Then came the rest stop. I guess he had to pee more than he wanted to hit me. I was glad, my father had been a Golden Gloves boxer in the Navy. The Christmas the year before he got me a set of boxing gloves. He said anytime I feel man enough that I should put them on and come for him. A few weeks later I did and I paid the price. He put on his gloves and in about a minute he came at me like I was a speed bag and put me out cold right there on the kitchen floor.
The rest of the way home I kept quite and slept some. My uncle Jude must have thought that I was really asleep. He and my father was cutting up about me. They got a real kick out of me getting a mouthful of gas when I syphoned the tank on the bike. I was trying to think of a way to get back at them. I started to day dream. Maybe I’d screw with my dads precious Olds-mobile. Maybe I set Jude up with some ugly chick for a date. My imagination was spinning away. It was dark now and we were somewhere in Kentucky when I finally drifted of to sleep.
