Finishing The Past(Chase Hunt) I was half asleep when I passed the sign that read: Welcome to Duco Montana Population: 2565. Some body had gotten a can of spray paint and crossed out the five and added a six so it read 2566... Good old home. This is where I had been born and raised and I had finally left due to boredom. I was 18 and there were no jobs that paid well, and no near by collages or universities. It was time to move and this was the first time I had been back in a while.

I got off the freeway exit 243 and pulled up to the stop sign and stopped. There he was. Jacob. We had grown up together. His eyes were closed. He looked like he hadn’t shaved or showered in about a year. He was sitting down. He didn’t have a sign asking for money. Just a blue and white striped coffee mug filled with miscellaneous coins. He had no home, no job and no life.

**********

“Come on Blake, just do it.” Josh said to me. The smell of smoke lingered on his clothes, and his yellow teeth staring at me. Everybody was watching me, huddled in a group. Josh was holding a box, a horrible box. The contents of the box were cigarettes. I knew that these were bad for me but this was my time. No “popular” kid had ever even considered talking to me. I was usually the laughing stock of the whole school. But I had a chance to be cool. I had a chance to fit in. All I had to do was put one of those silly white sticks in my mouth. Light it and it would be over. Harmless.

I gulped. I had been taught, like all the other boys in the group, that drugs were bad. But were they really that bad? I could be somebody now. I wouldn’t have to hang out with the chess club, or the book club. I could be the coolest kid in town, and nothing could stop me.

I was nervous and I knew it was wrong. But I had to do it. I picked up one of the sticks and put it in my mouth. The taste was horrible. I opened my eyes. There he was. Jacob. Jacob was the best kid in all of Lasson middle school. He had the highest grades. He was on the football team. He was in every club that the school had to offer, on top of all that he volunteered. If there was a service project he was there. If somebody was sick he was mowing their lawn, or fixing their fence. Every mom in Duco was always saying to their children, “Why can’t you act like Jacob?” My mom had said it. And rumor had it that my friends mom had said it.

I looked into Jacob’s eyes. They were filled with sadness. He didn’t look like he was going to say anything. He didn’t say anything. He reminded me of my self-worth. I took death out of my mouth and threw it on the floor. Josh’s face was unforgettable. His face was shocked and quickly flashed to anger. To push him farther I stomped on death again and squished it.

“Don’t you ever talk to me again.” I whispered to Josh. Then I left. Jacob looked happier and from then on out we were friends. Our friendship grew and I only wanted to be more like Jacob. I was happy.

**********

That flash back scarred me. I had tried to forget how self-absorbed I was. Now look. I had gone through one semester at collage. I had a good job. I looked at Jacob again. I didn’t know if he saw me. Then I knew why he looked like this. How he got this way. I never realized it and I should of. It was something that haunted me the whole time I was at school. Something I could of, should of stopped. It all started to unravel to me on the last day of high school.

**********

“Hey, Jacob!” I said, “Want to hang out later today?” I asked.

“Uh… yah sure whatever…” he didn’t seem mentally aware of what I was asking him. His voice wasn’t as sure as usual. He was staring at Josh. Ugh… Josh was such a creep. He was standing there in his usual dress code of all black and looking pale. This made me feel warm inside knowing that I had turned down his invitation to join his club in eighth grade. His health had failed a couple of times. Jacob had talked to him a few times but I never asked him to see what they had talked about.

Jacob got up and walked over to Josh and talked to him. I got up and got a drink before the bell rang.

“Blake! Come here” somebody called. I was way more popular then I had been when I attended Lasson Middle school. There are two reasons for that. One: I am a Senior now and about to graduate and everybody had to like the seniors. It was something that we had earned. Second, people respected me for standing up to Josh and becoming friends with Jacob.

I started walking over to the people that called me. I sat down at their table and started talking but we couldn’t get into a good conversation because the bell rang and I had to go to my next class, Government II. We had already taken our final and we were just waiting to graduate. The class went by so slow but the bell did finally ring. I jumped up and bolted out of the class room. Jacob was already out of class.

“So… come over to my house today?” Jacob asked. His voice seemed happier, well not happier just more relaxed, not so uptight and stressed.

“Yah! I’ll be there” I said.

Jacob smiled then slapped me on the shoulder and left. I drove home without any music playing. What had he talked to Josh about that made him happier, or what ever he was. I tried to shrug it off but for some reason the thought of him doing something wrong kept coming back to me. Jacob hadn’t changed much from when he saved me. He was still a stellar student, he volunteered as often as physically possible, and was on the football team, and he occasionally trained with the swim team.

Nobody was home when I get home. I grabbed something to eat and went up to my room to finish a college application and sent it in the mail. I had already got accepted to a college in southern Utah, but it was only for one semester and I didn’t plan on staying in Utah.

My room was small but seemed big because all of my things were packed up. My dad had already sold my dresser and my bed frame. I was sleeping on a mattress and using the clothes that were already packed for clothing for just a few more days. I was planned to leave the day of graduation because my semester started a week later and I had to get settled in a bit before classes started.

I got in my small, worn down car, with chipping red paint, and drove to Jacob’s house. It was about 15 minutes away from my house and was huge. Jacob’s dad was a multi-millionaire. He could afford anything but decided to settle down in Duco Montana, because it was a simple life, a good life for Jacob. I walked in. I didn’t need to knock. I was pretty much part of the family.

“Jacob!” I yelled as I walked in. The entryway was awesome. It had a chandelier that was gold and diamond. The rug had an intricate pattern with virtually every color imaginable. The smell was mouth-watering. Jacob ran down the stairs. There was something, something wrong with his eyes.

“Hey!”

“Hey!” I yelled, and we did our little hand shake. He messed up. Which was really strange because he never messed up, I was usually the one that messed up. It was pretty awkward but we quickly recovered.

“So what are you doing today?” I asked expecting him to say that we were going to help build a house for the Lewbrowski family, whose house just recently got burnt down. A whole bunch of locals were planning on helping out.

“Oh… I don’t know. Nothing.” This was weird, we always had something to do.

“So you want to go finish your homework or something?” He rolled his eyes.

“Yah right… like I could focus. So why did you come over here?”

“What?” I asked. “Okay well then I guess I will leave.”

He shrugged, “Whatever floats your boat.”

I walked out the front door. That was the last time I ever talked to Jacob. I saw him a few more times at school, and every time I saw him he was hanging around Josh.

**********

How had I not seen it? This wasn’t a complete surprise though. I had gotten a letter from his dad about a year ago, asking me, no begging me, to come home and talk some sense into Jacob. I couldn’t leave though. It was right in the middle of finals and if I skipped I would not pass the class that was a vital class to getting my degree. Jacob had gotten into drugs. He got several great scholarships but declined every one of them. His dad knew it was time to leave. He moved to New York leaving Jacob behind. New York would not be better for Jacob.

Here he was, my best friend since sixth grade. How could I just leave him out here all alone? He had dark hair and raggedy clothes. He looked like he hadn’t had a good meal in a while, nor a shave. I drove up next to him and opened my car door.

“Come on Jacob. Let’s go.”

He looked a little skeptical but got up and hopped in the car. There was complete silence and you could basically feel the awkwardness. I drove to my house without saying a word. My mom ran out to greet me and hugged me. I dropped my bags and hugged her. My dad squeezed my shoulder and smiled. Jacob stood in the back, left out. Once all the congratulating and greeting went on they looked at Jacob and my mom said, “Well this certainty won’t do. Let’s get you inside and clean you up.” Jacob smiled but didn’t say anything.

When I walked into the house the smell was overwhelming. The smell of Cinnamon Rolls baking in the oven and Lasagna cooling on the oven top made my mouth water. Jacob knew his way around the house as well as anybody so he went upstairs and headed in the direction of the bathroom. Probably to shower and shave for once.

He took a long shower. Long enough for my mom to put the clothes in the washing machine and dry them. When he got out he finished getting dressed and came downstairs. He still had said nothing, but he looked like somebody now. The same kid that I had known since sixth grade. When we sat down we blessed the food then started eating. Jacob started eating fast but slowed down fast. My mom was rambling on about how everything was so quiet without me, and my dad was trying to tell me a story. The dog was barking outside. This is how the person who penned the saying “Home Sweet Home” must have felt. Everything was how it used to be. I was smiling at my dad’s joke when I looked up. His eyes, he was staring at me, and I remembered the time when we became friends, in the very beginning. He had helped me. Where had I been to help him?

Here was my chance. I could help him. Finishing college could wait. That new job could wait. This was what I needed to do. I was going to be there for him. I was going to make things better.

**********

10 years later Jacob graduated from college with the best grades the school had ever seen. He successfully recovered and was making up for his lost life. He was involved in everything good. The old Jacob was back.

As for me, I had graduated from college and got the best job ever. In fact, I had graduated with better grades than I was getting, and got a better job than I would have got. Life has a funny way of working things out.

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