The Trouble Way Read Online Free PDF

Wendell didn’t give a tinker’s damn who heard him. Jake’s grandmother was sitting in the truck when Uncle Wendell displayed that particular dramatic talent. Jake looked at a similar wrench at the hardware store and saw the price tag. It was darn near half the amount of what Uncle Wendell owed him.
    On the flip side, he ’d had lots of time to think of time and tides and a perpetual motion machines. Another plus, he packed on some muscle that summer in the woods.
    Guess I ’m officially enrolled in the school of hard knocks. This is what I learned so far: Lesson Number 1:  Avoid working for relatives. Lesson Number 2:  Never, ever work for your cheap-ass Uncle Wendell again. Lesson Number 3:  Same as Number 2; that’s an important one.
     
     
    Events going the “Trouble Way” slowed down for the first three years of high school and everything seemed to be going hunky-dory. Things were better when he got his driver’s license the first day they tested after his sixteenth birthday. The family was still poor as hell but he did snag a few jobs, like whacking weeds at the ol’ holly farm for one. He raked in a buck an hour for that gig. That gave him gas money. His mom let him drive the family ‘56 Chevy pretty-much anytime he liked. After all, he was the man of the family since his ol’ man checked off the last item he was ever going to cross off on his bucket list, complete or not.
    Priscilla showed up darn near on his doorstep one time shortly after Jake turned sixteen. She belonged to her school choir and was on a tour with her high school class and ended up in Portland, a hundred miles from where Jake lived. She had written him a note and they planned meeting at one of her choir events.
    “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. Please don’t cry.” Jake said when his first comment out of his mouth when he saw her was, “Boy, you sure did get tall.” He had caught up to her and passed her by two inches; she was six feet tall.
    “ Under the circumstances, I forgive you, Jake,” she said. “After all, it’s been years.” She wrapped her long arms around him and gave him the same tight squeeze he remembered from when he had last seen her eons ago. “I still really, really like you, Jake,” she whispered into his ear causing Jake’s freckle face to feel as though he had spent the day in an outdoor pool on a sunny day without lotion.
    “ I really, really like you too, Priscilla, more than ever. You are gorgeous.”
    They didn ’t have much time together. There were enough chaperones around to choke a good size herd of dairy cows so it was not in the cards for them to spend any serious alone time. So, after about an hour of talking about riding horses, picnicking by the creek under the alder trees, and getting caught up on their lost years, they parted once again.
    “ Keep in touch, Jake.”
    He leaned over to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek, chaperones be damned.
    “I will … you too.” He tucked her address into his wallet and walked up to her and gave her a hug. Then, on some weird impulse, he kissed his cousin on the lips and she didn’t shy away, she kissed him back.
    “ Oh, dear,” she said and then he turned and left her standing ten feet from the nearest chaperone on the steps of the high school the choir was to sing at that evening. He didn’t have the price of a ticket, so he couldn’t go to that. Probably just as well, Priscilla had a boyfriend, David. He was a Mormon so he was David, not Dave. David made a quick appearance but had to go practice for that night’s performance.
    “ Nice to meet you Buddy,” David said and gave Jake a noodle handshake. He almost made Jake puke. He nearly responded with, “My name’s Jake, you can call me Jacob,” but he resisted the temptation. He didn’t want Priscilla to start blubbering.
    Jake got into the ‘56 Chevy and headed home, thinking of Priscilla’s soft, luscious lips, kissing her in his mind a thousand