Chapter 1

Untitled Story Chapter 1- (Part1)

He sat straight up in his bed. He reached across the bedside table to turn of his alarm for the third time. He had procrastinated long enough, it was time to face the fact that a new day had started, and if he didn't get moving he was sure to be late for work.  He crossed the room in the dark, headed for the bathroom, tripping over his boots he had discarded the night before. He cursed under his breath, wonderful, just a great way to start the day.  Five o'clock seemed to come earlier and earlier. 

This was the way that Mason started every day he was on duty. He jokingly said to friends that he didn't really join the human race until around 8am, after his morning coffee. Before then, he wasn't fit to be around.  He showered and shaved moving slowly at first, but gradually waking up. He had left his vest at the station the night before, so he threw on his pants, boots and a white t-shirt and headed out the door, just as the summer sun was beginning to rise. 

Mason had been a police officer for 3 years. Most days he loved his job, but like any profession, there were definantly days he would rather crawl underneath a rock and stay there. Today wasn't much different from the day before, same drive to work, same faces greeting him in the station. A tall, lanky red head with a goofy grin on his face met him at the door, 

"You here early." he said. 

" I know, I left my vest and shirt here last night so I have to finish getting ready. How was night shift?"

"Aww shucks," Jerry replied with that same goofy grin, "Nothin much more than a dog fight over on Church Street, and Mrs. Nancy's front window got a rock thrown through it by some no 'count kids, but othern that, not much."

Mason laughed as he tried to follow  Jerry's drawling account of the evening. Jerry always seemed to give him something to laugh at, though half the time it was unintentional.  " Well Jerry, you'll have that." Mason replied with a chuckle. Mason continued on into the locker room to finish dressing for the day. Bright blue lockers lined the walls of the little room, each with a different name on the door.  Mason's father had been an officer in this same town when he was not much older than Mason was now. As long ago as that had been, Mason was convinced not that much had been updated, and they certainly had not gotten new lockers. 

"814 to Central." Mason called over the radio. "Go ahead 814."  Emma, the dispatcher that was probably older than dirt replied with her raspy, chain smokers voice. "Central I'll be 10-41" Mason said, logging down his beginning time. "10-4" Emma drawled in her unenthusiastic way.

Mason put his gear in the trunk of one of the patrol cars dreading the heat of the day to come. So far this had been one of the hottest summers on record in Blair County. Some of the officers referred to it as being cooked from the inside out. Once the heat seeped past the polyester suit and the bullet proof vest, the heat seemed to be contained and there was no cooling back down till the end of the shift when it all came off. Well, he thought to himself, at least it looks like its going to be overcast.

Mason wasn't the easiest of people to get to know,  partly because he was pretty quiet in nature, and partly because he didn't like to make his personal business known. He kept to himself for the most part, living alone in a small white farm house on the outskirts of town. He was an only child and both of his parents had died not long after he graduated high school. They were killed one night by a drunk driver coming home from church. Mason was out of state in college at the time, but when he came home to handle his parents estate, he never went back.

"Central to 814" Emma came out over the radio. It was just about 8:15 as Mason was finishing up the elementary school crossing  on Elm Street.  " Go a head" Mason replied. The sun was just beginning to seep through the clouds. It was getting warmer by the minute. "814 respond to a signal 4 on Norwood drive, with possible injuries." 

"10-4 central, I'm in route."  Mason pulled into the road and turned on his lights. A wreck this early, wasn't a sign of a good day to come. 

The day continued on in pretty much the same manner. The only thing that seemed to change was the temperature, which steadily increased throughout the day landing at a scorching 102 by 2pm and staying there until the sun began the set.  By the time Jerry came in to relieve him at 7, Mason would have sworn he had sweated off about 10 lb. 

Normally he would have waited to shower when he got back to the house, but tonight was Tuesday, which meant that some of the guys would be spending the evening dissecting the worlds problems over beers at Ricky's bar and grille on the one way street just off the square. They were mostly guys he had gone to high school with, the ones who had never left this one horse town, or if they did, they, like Mason, had somehow found their way back.  A few of them were married, a couple even had kids, but somethings never changed, so Tuesday nights were their time to be the guys they had always been to each other. Before kids, wives and general responsibility of life happened.