chpt 1...part 3

what else was there to do? before the army ,he had found most of life incredibly boring. he enlisted after a year of pumping gasoline for minium wage after graduating highschool . it was a no brainer decision. handwriting on the wall type of thing . the town in general held slim prospects . his future there held even fewer. the army was a way out . an exit from the dna of littletown nothingness .an escape from the double helix spirals of the congenic 'rubedom' of 'smallville' .

he found the gas station work dirty and unchallenging , but not hard to put up with . his nostrils grew to tolerate the constant smell of gasoline . the burns to his hands from servicing hot engines .the demands of overheated customers spewing out frustrated fumes .

the difficult thing was simply passing the time . it was the envy he found hard to swallow . his envy of people in a hurry . travellers briefly venturing down the highway off-ramp . just passing through .going places he would never see. while he was stuck there . forced to grin and greet them. and then to watch them leave. taking with them the smile he was made to give . forced to eat their dust. wash it down with another coke . drunk more out of boredom than summer's thirst .tied like a backyard dog. chained down in nowhere .going nowhere. a no one in the midst of nobodies. not really even able to say he was going nowhere. because he was already there.

he had had one girl back then .already her hips were beginning to slowly spread . a warning of the danger contained within her nacent fertility. as if the extra pounds growing slowly on her already plump frame were eating away and eroding with each new ounce at his chances for escape. it wasn't much of a relationship to him . she was serious , he wasn't. it was more convenience for him than anything else. there wasn't much available . she was big boned, a healthy type . she played basketball her junior and senior years mainly for the fun of it . made the track team throwing discus and javelin . she was ok at it, he thought . but not good enough for it to take her anywhere .and he had to go somewhere. for him going somewhere was everything . she worked at seven eleven, saved her checks. bought a used ford mustang . took a course at night at the nearby junior college . hoped to learn data entry .or maybe she would switch to dental assistant . or maybe even veterinarian science .she felt comfortable enough with him to broach the subject of marriage. everyone figured they would one day . afterall , what else was there for them to do ? "highschool was through", she had reminded .