Let’s get into some background for Nick and Ben. I want them to be humans, not just the “bad guys.” No one really thinks of themselves as a bad guy.
I got into trouble with speeding tickets at one point in my life and decided to take the class to get it “taken off my record.” The teacher of the class had everyone raise their hand if they didn’t think they deserved their ticket. Most of the class raised their hand, showing us that most of us felt wronged.
Then he asked us to keep our hands raised if we had been speeding. We all kept our hands up. That was a small sample of how we didn’t believe ourselves to be law breakers, but we did, in fact, break the law. We had our reasons, but facts are facts.
Back to Story #1:
After Nick locked the doors, his stomach dropped. He could unlock them and say it was an accident. It had been pretty impulsive…he just knew he didn’t want Beth to get away.
Okay, he had to call Ben now. Beth didn’t seem to be reacting to the locked doors. Maybe she thought he had done it out of safety? Or maybe, she was in too much pain to care too much about it. Yeah, that was probably it.
Ben didn’t answer the first time, but when Nick called a second time, Ben Gunderson answered the phone. There was a lot of noise in the background and Ben yelled, “Yoyoyo, what’s up.” He giggled a little and Nick knew he must be smoking. Hilarious, Ben.
“Hey, yeah, I have a thing.” Nick didn’t know how to explain it now that he was thinking about it. He thought Ben was the person to call, but why was he really calling?
Ben had cleaned up some messes himself. Really, Ben’s ‘guy’ had disposed of the messes once Ben had…hacked them into smaller pieces. He wasn’t all that bright, but he knew how to butcher a mammal. He wasn’t in that kind of a situation now. For now, Nick corrected himself.
His stomach flipped again. His ‘oh shit’ meter was on hyper drive.
“Oh? What kind of a thing?” Ben seemed to have momentarily sobered up. The background noise also seemed to have gone away–the voices were getting quieter and Nick heard the slam of a door. “Is it like…a clean up job?” he asked slowly and seriously. Trying to concentrate even though he was high, Nick thought.
Ben wasn’t a bad guy, but he was a product of his environment. The Gunderson’s could kind of get away with anything. Much like Nick.
They both grew up in this town being the big fish. The Gunderson’s owned the biggest cattle farm–about 10,000 head. Nick Busey’s dad was the principal of the elementary school (one of only two schools in town) and their uncle owned the autoshop that employed a lot of the town’s citizens. Both families were essentially in charge of the majority of the jobs in Crystal Lake, Nebraska.
Bullying wasn’t looked down upon here like it was seemingly everywhere else in the country. It was almost encouraged. When Nick had gotten into fights and had to get picked up by his dad, Mr. Busey would pat him on the back and say, ‘way to show ’em who’s boss. Next time–don’t get caught.’
The next time, Nick didn’t get caught. He made sure of it. A lot of people suspected he beat the González kid to a pulp, four days after Ben’s fight with him, but no one could prove it. They may have even been too scared to suggest it.
Pedro González hadn’t come to school for a full week and even then, his face was bruised and he had a fat lip. Ben had tried to spread a rumor that Pedro’s dad beat him up, “Little Gonzo Bean’s Papa Bean didn’t like the look of his face,” Ben drawled, but people weren’t buying it. They just nodded and kept their mouths shut. It was best not to get involved.
Here’s the update on my August writing goal:
On a different note, how am I going to start getting up to be at work by 7am now that I’m used to a 1am bedtime? Oh, summer. Slash months of quarantining.
