Skate Freak by Lesley Choyce Read Free Book Online

for work. He was sitting in the kitchen with his hands wrapped around a mug of coffee, staring at the refrigerator.
    â€œDad, you okay?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWhat is it?”
    â€œI lost the job.”
    I’d never seen him look so down.
    â€œThey were a little slow getting around to that background check. The criminal record thing.”
    â€œBut you never committed any crimes.”
    He scratched his unshaved jaw and put his hands in the air. “When I was twenty-one, I got into a fight with this older man, Harve Boyle. He’d been beating his cat with a stick. I made him stop, and the cat ran off. Then he took a punch at me. I fought back. Not much came of it, except that he called me all kinds of names and we got a couple of swipes in at each other.
    â€œBut later, the police came, and I was charged with assault. I had to go to court. Harve told the judge that I had threatened him and tried to injure him. His wife claimed to have seen the whole thing.”
    â€œBut that’s not fair.”
    â€œWho ever said life was fair?”
    â€œYou did. And so did Mom, that’s who.”
    He nodded. “Yeah. I forgot. I guess we wanted life to be fair. Anyway, I was foundguilty, but the judge knew that Harve had a reputation as a nasty character. So I just got a slap on the wrist.”
    â€œAnd a criminal record?”
    â€œBingo.”
    â€œCan’t you explain that to them at the police station?”
    â€œI have an appeal in, but it doesn’t look good.”
    â€œNow what?” I asked.
    â€œI don’t know,” my father said, looking totally defeated. “I just don’t know.”
    I heard him on the phone that night. It was the first time he had called her. He was in his bedroom with the door closed, so I guess he didn’t want me to hear. They talked for a really long time.
    I was trying to study for a history test, but I was getting all those nineteenth-century wars mixed up. I couldn’t figure out who was fighting who over what. I’d read a page and then not remember a single thing. All I could tell you is that theWar of 1812 probably took place in 1812.
    I’d read about at least a dozen wars before the phone call was over. Then there was a tap at my door. My dad walked in.
    â€œI’ve been talking to your mother,” he said in a low voice.
    â€œHow is she?”
    â€œShe’s good.”
    â€œYou told her you lost the job?”
    â€œYep.”
    â€œHow did that go?”
    â€œShe said that she feels bad about that. Then she said she still loves me. And you too.”
    â€œI knew that,” I said. “On both counts.”
    â€œAnd so we talked.” He was stalling. The room was deathly silent.
    I closed my history book. “Yeah?”
    â€œWell, your mother and I think it might be best if we move out there to join her.”
    I had not seen that coming. “You want us to move out west?”
    â€œFor now, yes. She says I’ll have no problem getting a job. Maybe even trainin the same course she’s taking. She’ll be finished in a couple of weeks and working. I’ll go to that school, work a little on the side, and pretty soon, we’ll both have good jobs. We’ll be able to buy a nice house.”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œWherever,” he said, looking at the floor.
    I almost blurted it out.
No way. I refuse to move
. But I didn’t. I knew what my father was going through, and I’d cut him a tiny bit of slack for now.
    â€œBut I’m happy here now. Things are looking good,” I said.
    â€œI know. You’ve got a girlfriend.”
    â€œAnd I’m starting to feel like I belong here.”
    â€œI know that too. Just think about it for now, okay?” And he left.
    I wanted to scream. The walls were closing in. I had to get out of there. I put on my jacket and shoes, grabbed my board and went outside.
    It was dark, chilly and damp. Thestreets