chapter one

word count: 503

with just four months to go on his year and a day sentence... jason was psyched when the trustees had suggested him for the open position on the road crew... shit.. it was summer... he wanted to be outside....

he had no intention of running,, or getting in any trouble... he just wanted to breathe the clean, fresh, non institutionalized, air for more than an hour a day... he wanted to feel the sun on his back,, the breeze in his hair... he wanted to have the freedom to leave this place five days a week... even if it was only to board the county department of corrections bus.. and drive to whatever section of the highway they were scheduled to clean up that day....

other than being the tuesday after a holiday weekend,, which meant there would be a shit load more trash on the side of the road,, and they would have to work harder than usual to cover the same amount of ground,, today had begun just like any other day... talking shit with the guys... eating cold stale cereal.. picking up his sack lunch,, if you could call warm sweaty bologna stuck between two pieces of day old white bread,, and grainy apple lunch...

whatever... he only had three and a half more months of this... and then he was back on the street... back in the street was more like it... as he had really screwed up this time,, and had pretty much no home to go to when he got out....

jessa hadn't accepted a single one of his calls.. she hadn't written. put any money in his commissary... nothing.. for all he knew she had moved on,, found some other guy,, and was long gone by now...

just as that thought was evaporating into the rush of hot air coming off that westbound eighteen wheeler,, he spied every road crews dream... six white plastic five gallon buckets,, laying in the gully just before the fence... yes... that would mean,, he and another crew member would be able to grab the buckets, and carry them to the berm... and wait for the truck to come pick them up... sweet...hanging on the side of the highway, leisurely like,, takin' a sit down for a smoke... watchin' the pretty girls go by... oh yeah... this day was looking up....

"martinez,, check it out,, man,,, looks like we are gonna have to mule all these buckets up here and wait for the truck,, bummer.... " jason said in his sing songy best imitation of bill and teds great adventure voice... "dude..."

as martinez was walking toward him,, he caught a whiff of whatever was in the buckets,,, man... the fun was fast going out of this haul... as he righted the buckets one by one,, he noticed one of the lids wasn't all the way tamped down... something smelled funky,, he grabbed the lid, and yanked it the rest of the way off...

"what the fu... martinez!! get over here man,, theres a freakin' baby in this bucket!!!!!"