Travis Luedke
Chapter One
Thursday, September 9th, 5:15 p.m.
Shit happens, life happens, but for some reason it
happens to me a lot.
I was kinda hoping life would give me a break –
maybe crap on somebody else for a while.
Yeah, right.
I mean, look at Justin Shelby. I’m sitting here in my
car, in the McDonald’s drive through, and what is he
doing? He’s climbing up the side of the damn
playcenter. Probably faded on prescription pills he
stole from his mom. This guy is begging for life to hit
him upside the head. But it never does.
And then there’s his buddy, Tommy Schroeder,
goading him on.
“Do it man! You’re almost there!”
One of the wrestling elite of Moses Lake High
School, Tommy’s mere presence inspired Justin to
new heights of idiocy. Justin scaled the side of the
outdoor playcenter like Tom Cruise in Mission
Impossible.
Justin skated religiously, a regular at the downtown
Moses Lake skatepark across from the Aquatic
Center. Like most of us skaters, he was thin,
moderately athletic, and had a strong sense of balance
from endless hours busting his ass on the concrete.
Climbing the playcenter wasn’t any more dangerous
than the skate tricks we recorded and posted to
YouTube.
He quickly reached the apex, damn spider monkey.
He stood exalted atop the dome of the airplaneshaped plastic toy. An elementary kid inside gawked
up at him from the Plexiglas window.
“This is classic!” Tommy whipped out his cell phone
and started recording.
Looked like a good idea to me, so I did the same.
You never know what folly you might catch on video.
I mean, this was live action stuff. I could be ten
seconds away from a viral Youtube video, Gangnam
Style.
Tommy encouraged Justin’s antics with loud catcalls.
Justin proclaimed his status as king of the hill, arms
held high.
“Yeah bitches, hell y