Hutch was restless in his sleep. Dreams twisted into nightmares and forced Hutch back to the waking world repeatedly. The unfamiliar nature of his surroundings made it difficult enough, but the unrelenting dreams made it miserable.
The sun had only just begun to rise when he abandoned his bed, in lieu of a familiar routine. Bundling up, he strapped on his sandals and headed outside. It didn't matter to him where he went or how fast he got there, he just didn't want to be still. He knew well, how far he was capable of going on Illimev, but his current form was far from what he knew.
Stepping out onto the road in front of his trailer, he stopped and closed his eyes, taking a moment to think back to those first mornings, being woken early by Ghan'dono to go outside to see so many others, stretching out or jogging by.
"Don't look so scared, Hutch," Ghan'dono remarked, setting his hand on to his shoulder. "One of these days you will find yourself able to keep up without struggle."
"Prefer sooner over later," he grumbled in reply.
"You'd prefer still being in bed if given the option," Kahlala remarked, playfully running in reverse, sticking her tongue out at him. "At your age you should be able to outrun us both! Stop being so lazy!" she would shout at him before turning around and heading down the road, leaving him to catch up.
"So would you, if you had any sense," Hutch replied, opening his eyes to the silent, empty road in front of him. "I nearly forgot how brutal you were when we first met."
With a deep breath and a bit of a hop, he started down the road, despite his uncertainty of how far he was able to go. When he started feeling tired, the expectation of his abilities severely lacking, he slowed to a walk and completed a single lap of the trailer park.
By the time he had returned home, Hutch was thirsty and in desperate need of a shower. Guzzling back the remains of the pitcher of water, he set a pot on the stove and filled it from the tap. Turning on the burner, he would leave the water to boil, as he opted to try and eat a bowl of cereal, choosing the healthiest in appearance from the boxes in the cupboard. The grain-based squares, which he settled on, were still overly sweet, but more tolerable than the salty monstrosity from the day before.
When the water had boiled long enough, he removed the pot from the burner and finished his meal. Grabbing a shower, which was an oddly welcome luxury he had dreamed about enjoying for a long while, after vanishing from Earth, he changed into clean clothes and refilled the water pitcher with the boiled water, placing it into the fridge to cool. He then proceeded to wash, dry, and put away the dishes, before looking around the house, finding himself at a loss for what to do next. On Illimev, there were animals to feed, exercise, and groom, gardening to tend to, things to build or repair, or things to gather for whatever the village was up to on that particular day.
"I suppose this is slightly better than being waste deep in cold water cutting reeds," he muttered as he moved to the couch and sat down. After of couple of minutes of looking around and then staring at the ceiling, Hutch stood up and headed towards the door, concluding, "Nope, not better at all."
There was something he found miserable about not knowing what to do next. However, his current issue was in seeing all that needed to be done and knowing he had to wait to get started.
With it being light enough, and being motivated to try, Hutch ventured back to the spot he had gone to the day before, by the decrepit fence, spending several more minutes searching around for any fragments of the amulet he may have missed. But when the search yielded no results, he hopped the fence and ventured into the wooded area behind the trailer park.
The woods were a mix of deciduous and coniferous trees, with a healthy population of white paper birch. Given the time of year, they were completely bare and reminded him of the silver forest of Kushbahu, which grew to the far west of their village, marking the boundary between their country Qur'loam, and Jeq, stretching for miles across the foothills, covering them like a blanket. While reminiscent, the birch before him were a meager representation in comparison. Although, he suspected Kahlala would have preferred hiking through this forest instead. The nature of the landscape was far less harsh, and the piles of pine needles made the ground feel softer; more forgiving on the feet.
The majority of the area, Hutch was now standing in, could be viewed from where he had entered the woods, and game trails were well worn and simple to follow. Dried up mudpuddles informed him that there was more than just squirrels, rabbit, and racoon in the area, but a healthy population of deer, and bird, which he assumed to be turkey, along with a few other footprints he didn't recognize.
After wandering around until his toes were thoroughly chilled, and having found no sign of shoes or clothing, Hutch decided to return home, hoping to find his mother now awake. Making his way back over the fence, he rounded the corner of their home just in time to catch sight of someone he used to know, riding passed on a bike. Bundled in a coat with gloves and earmuffs, his shaggy brown hair being blown about, even after the decades he'd been gone, Hutch recognized the friend he had grown up with.
"Ren," he gasped, wanting to wave and yell out, only to stop and lower his hand, an old memory popping into his head. "Right, we weren't friends anymore. Dammit, I was such an ass." With a heavy sigh, he shook his head and continued to mutter to himself, "one problem at a time," as he headed back inside.
"Morning, Jules. Dare I ask what you were up to?" Cherry questioned as she stood in the kitchen, robe hanging open, lit cigarette in one hand, mug of coffee in the other.
"Morning. And I only went out for a bit of a hike. Nothing to be concerned about."
"Considering how you ended up the other night, I beg to differ. You want coffee?"
"No, thank you."
With a shrug, Cherry grabbed an ashtray from the counter and moved into the living room, plopping herself onto the couch. "You still want to hang out with me today?"
"I do, but give yourself a few minutes to wake up first."
"As if I'd move from here before my coffee's gone," she replied with a hefty scoff. "Now come sit down. I got some news I want to share."
"Give me one minute," he replied, setting his sandals by the door, before heading into his bedroom. Uncertain of what she wished to speak about, he quickly changed out of his socks, soaked through by the dew on the grass, and into a dry, warmer pair, before joining her as she had requested. "Alright, I'm listening."
"Okay, so, with Melanie quitting, I've been asked to take over her weekend shifts!" she remarked with enthusiasm. "I can finally quit working at the gas station! I can't remember the last time I had two days off in a row. Now, Sundays and Mondays are ours to enjoy."
"That's great, mom. Congratulations."
"I'm thinking, since we're already spending the day together, we can grab take-out for dinner from Walking Garden. Still hoping it's your favorite. Maybe even grab one of those cakes from the actual bakery this time. Just a small one though."
"Let's not go too overboard now," he replied, finding some modicum of happiness in seeing his mother smile.
"I know it's going to be a change, but I can easily make twice in those shifts what I make at the station. Even more during the summer. Now, with all that being said, and I promise this is the last time I'm going to ask, will you please consider going back and finishing school?"
"Bit of an odd segway, but yes, I will consider it," he replied, knowing he'd have to think on the matter, as he wasn't even entirely certain of the last time he'd been to school or when it would be possible for him to start again. School had never been anything of importance to him as a kid. It had always just been where he had to go and if it hadn't been for Ren, he probably wouldn't have done as well as he did up until high school.
Thinking back, that was when everything had gone off the rails. Hutch was one of the poor kids in a high school for rich snobs. An unfortunate side effect of the trailer park's location. Until he made it into high school, he had no idea he was from the wrong side of the city. He had no concept of how poor he truly was. That was when he started asking questions, and discovered the fractured nature of his family, the distain and the barriers between his grandparents and his mom, his mom and Brett and his family, and the devasting nature of what his mom did to make ends meet. All that he came to understand, had turned him into a mess of a teenager. Angry at everything and everyone. And looking back on those memories, he regretted plenty of what he did and how he handled himself.
"You will?" she asked, sounding thrilled by his willingness alone to think over the matter.
"Yes. I will. I'm going to need a new pair of shoes though first. And perhaps a quick overview of how that might work."
"I'll call the school tomorrow and find out for certain, but I'm almost completely positive that you'll have to wait until next semester to start back. Plenty of time for you to consider going again. I just really don't want you to turn out like me, Jules. It's taken me years to get to this point, to be able to work a single job and know that the bills will be paid. I don't want this for you. I'll understand if you never go off to college, but a diploma will make life a lot easier. For now, though, I'm going to finish my coffee and watch the news. Then we can talk about tackling what's behind door number one, before we head out to get some shopping done."