Red Mountain Read Online Free PDF

student union, engaged in exciting conversations.
    Life seemed so ripe with possibilities, eager to let him pass through its great doors.
    And then everything changed…
    One night during his second fall semester, after he’d kissed a pretty girl on the library steps and made a date to see her again, his mother called, hysterical. Father was in the hospital. He’d had a stroke. The family desperately needed him to come home and manage the garage. Only Robert understood the way things had to be done.
    Unlike some of the snobby rich kids who never had to worry about issues like money, Robert knew he had no choice but to drop out and return home. He’d felt humiliated, suicidal. On the plane home he flashed some fake i.d. at the stewardess and proceeded to drink heavily while staring vacantly at the landscape below. In a hopeful haze he convinced himself he’d return as soon as possible. He even made a promise to himself, that every spare moment he had alone he’d do something to keep his mind alive.
    One or two years won’t matter, he’d convinced himself. You’re still young. You’ll show them all you can beat this crappy luck.
    Fast-forward twenty years.
    Still waiting to show them, pal?
    To Robert, those two years back in New York seemed more like something he’d dreamed up one day while putting in long hours at the garage. By the time his father returned to work, the idea of going back to college had become one of many dead fantasies still clinging to the margins of his mind. He’d changed so much by then…
     
    ****
     
    Nugget was still curled up asleep when Robert slowed down and pulled into the parking lot of Crain’s Body Repair. He was surprised, since she usually got excited when he took her to the shop, for there was always a dependable supply of Milk Bones in his office. A dog always remembers these things, if she remembers anything at all.
    Ben, who was hunched over a badly crunched Honda, glanced up and waved at Robert as he rolled into his usual spot. Ben had worked for the Crain family since before Robert was born, and he lived in a small trailer behind the garage. Both of his parents had died in a tragic car crash on Christmas Eve. A teenager at the time, Ben had been riding in the back seat and had suffered some brain damage due to a severe head injury. He’d been working part time for the garage for almost a year when the accident had occurred. Regardless of the many painful months it took for him to regain his skills, Robert’s father stood behind him, for Ben had shown great talent for resurrecting damaged car bodies.
    It was probably the one act Robert’s father was most proud of. Keeping Ben got him a lot of mileage in the community. But on the day that tank went dry, Frank Crain’s house of cards finally began to collapse piece by illusory piece, until he no longer resembled the man he wanted everyone to believe he was.
    Nugget snapped awake and was now panting anxiously to be let out of the cab, her eyes darting in every direction.
    “Hey Ben,” Robert said as he and Nugget climbed out of the truck. Ben stared at him for a moment, and Robert could tell he sensed something deeper was wrong, that it didn’t have anything to do with his recent car accident. Ben might have been slow at many things, but very little ever escaped his gaze when it came to damaged cars or hidden emotions.
    Robert simply stared back, not knowing what to say. He was relieved when Nugget wandered over to greet Ben, her tail swooshing happily back and forth.
    “Jesus, Bobby. What happened to your face?”
    “I got it from the car accident last night. Doctor says it’s going to be really ugly for awhile, may even get worse.”
    Ben wiped his hands with a greasy rag before reaching out and patting Nugget on the head. “You better put ice on it.”
    “I will.”
    “How’s the shoulder?”
    “Still hurts.”
    “Well if I was your boss I’d tell you to stay home. You shouldn’t be out running around in your