Into the Fire

My name is Brett Dukes. 20 years old, and a shift worker at a factory in a small town in the southern United States. My weeks were typically monotonous with only an evening of beer and sports at the local dive, The Grapevine, to break things up. My favorite day being Saturday so I could cheer on Sandy River Tech's football team. Only problem right now was that it was spring time, so I had a little while to wait for next football season.

This week at work had been a long and dull at the Goldfront factory, a local branch of a moderately sized furniture manufacturer. But today had been worth the effort. After a little over half of a year of school, my best friend Twan had come back into town for a few days to catch up. We'd been inseparable in high school. Shooting hoops after school, spending weekends watching sports together, and best of all we were a dynamic duo on the school football team. Me as the star quarterback and Twan as the ace running back, we led the team to two state championships in our sophomore and junior years. This gave Twan a sure ticket into college with a scholarship, but fate had different plans for me. Halfway through our senior year I had a season ending injury where I tore my ACL and MCL in my left knee on a run play, and that proved to be a knell for my chance at a scholarship. With no real career plans, I decided against college without a full ride, and stayed home to work at Goldfront. Twan on the other hand had taken his all-star abilities to Sandy River Tech where he led the league in rushing yards. Hence why I always had to tune in during football season.

Today we were finishing off the day splitting some nachos over a couple of beers at The Grapevine on one of my off days. That's when I got the news from a fellow co-worker that I couldn't ignore. Saying a quick goodbye to Twan, I ducked out to settle some business at work.