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Chapter One: Life in This World is Bound to Encounter Hardships

At five in the evening, Tommy Hawk fished out his key, unlocked the door, and strolled into his old, rented apartment. The moment he stepped in, he spotted his twenty-seven-year-old Aunt Melonie lounging on the living room sofa, an ice pack on her cheek, glued to the TV. The Providence station was airing its usual freebie, some ancient documentary.

Hearing the door creak open, Melonie glanced back and saw Tommy. She quickly turned away, ditched the ice pack, and tried to play it cool, snapping in a sharp tone:

"Aren't you supposed to be at the laundromat? You still owe me two weeks' rent."

Tommy shut the door and walked over to Melonie, eyeing her slightly swollen cheek:

"What happened?"

"Nothing, just a beauty hack. Ice packs tighten the skin." Melonie got up from the sofa, clearly not wanting to dive into the topic with Tommy.

Tommy grabbed Melonie's cheap Kimberly cigarettes from the coffee table, lit one up, and glanced at the TV, which was showing "The Great American Cowboy" for the umpteenth time: "Right, and I guess your ex-boyfriend used cowboy moves to prep you for that beauty treatment?"

"You can't smoke! At least not until you hit eighteen in two weeks!" Melonie scowled as she saw Tommy light up.

Tommy blew out a puff of smoke: "If you snitch to the school, I'll say you, the adult, gave them to me. Come on, Aunt Melonie, no one at our high school gives a damn if minors smoke or drink."

"So, you ditched your part-time job just to come back and smoke?" Melonie glared at Tommy: "What happened?"

"I heard some jerks trashed the laundromat this afternoon. By the time I got there after school, poor Sonny, the Chinese owner, had already hightailed it to Boston with his family. I need a new gig." Tommy said, annoyed.

Melonie covered her swollen cheek and nodded slightly: "Well, compared to Sonny, my situation seems like small potatoes."

Tommy plopped down on the sofa, cigarette dangling from his lips: "Don't those idiots get that Asians aren't the same as Japanese? If they think the Japanese caused their unemployment, they should ask the U.S. military to drop a few more atomic bombs on Japan."

There was a knock on the door.

Melonie started to get up, but Tommy beat her to it: "If it's your damn ex, I'll handle it. Let me blow off some steam."

"If you get into a fight, it'll be big trouble, Tommy." Melonie warned, not showing any gratitude.

Tommy opened the door, and there stood his older brother, Tony Hawk, just a year older. Tony flashed a friendly smile:

"Your face when you opened the door wasn't exactly welcoming, Tommy. Hi, Aunt Melonie."

"Hi, Tony." Melonie sighed in relief and forced a smile.

Tony took the cigarette from Tommy's mouth, took a drag, and walked into the living room:

"Long time no see."

"Only two weeks. I doubt you came just to visit, especially since I said I didn't want to see you before my SATs." Tommy said, frowning.

"I know, I know you don't want anyone messing with your dream of becoming a big-shot scholar or Einstein, but we're family, and we need you now." Tony looked at Tommy and shrugged with a smile.

Tommy eyed Tony: "Did you rent out the house to those jerks for another ethanol party? Need me to play waiter?"

"No, it's Dad. Our dear father is at the police station. A bail bond company can help, but we need two hundred bucks for the down payment. I only scraped together one hundred and ten, so..." Tony pursed his lips, put away his smile, and looked seriously at Tommy: "Ninety bucks."

"What did that idiot do?" Tommy sighed, closed his eyes, and turned away, not wanting to deal with it.

Tony blew out a puff of smoke: "Nothing major. Dad and a bunch of other pissed-off unemployed guys trashed a laundromat they thought was owned by a Japanese dude. Turns out, the owner wasn't even Japanese."

"Shit! That's the funniest thing I've heard all day. Dad wrecks the place where his son works and then needs his underage kid to bail him out. Hilarious." Tommy laughed:

"A month ago, I moved out and rented a room at Aunt Melonie's. I work part-time, four hours a day, making less than thirteen bucks. My rent's thirty a week, living expenses are twenty, AP exam fees are a hundred, and the SAT fee is twenty. I also want to save up for summer camps and extracurriculars to boost my college app. Know how much I've saved this month? Not a damn penny."

He walked into his tiny bedroom, grabbed a wad of crumpled bills, and handed them to Tony: "No need to count, it's exactly ninety-three bucks. That's my two weeks' rent to Aunt Melonie and my saved exam fees."

Tony took the money and asked, puzzled: "Why not just drop out like me? Get a decent job. What’s college gonna teach you? Besides racking up high tuition and loans that take forever to pay off, what else? You can learn one thing: never let our kids get suckered by the American government into taking on huge college loans. I can hook you up with a good-paying job..."

"Getting into a good college is my ticket out of being bottom-tier trash like Dad and you! It's my way to change my fate!" Tommy snapped at Tony.

The intensity in his voice made Melonie, standing in the corner, shrink back a bit.

"Sorry, bro." Tony saw Tommy's angry face and nodded: "No problem, of course, no problem. Don't end up like us. I wish you the best at Rhode Island State Lincoln High, ranked 7,431st out of 21,000 high schools in the U.S."

Then he suddenly shoved Tommy, his face twisting with anger: "You should show some respect to our dad and me!"

"If you two didn't just know how to mooch off your poor brother or son's savings, maybe I'd show you a bit more respect." Tommy sneered.

Tony's face twitched. He nodded slightly, spread his arms, and backed off: "Okay, go ahead and mock me and Dad, but remember, if you ever fail, I'll only comfort you, not mock you, 'cause you're my brother, we're family. Also, Dad didn't trash the laundromat just 'cause he's a jerk, though he is in your eyes. The union's gonna give him five hundred bucks for it. When he gets it, I'll make sure he pays you back."

With that, Tony clutched the wad of bills and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

The slam was so hard it knocked down the New Testament "Bible" calendar hanging on the door.

Tommy leaned against the wall and punched it hard, cursing: "Fuck! Fuck you, America!"

"If you need the exam fees, I... I might get some substitute teaching money soon." Melonie stood in the corner, looking at Tommy with his eyes closed and a face full of anger, speaking coldly.

Before she could finish, Tommy opened his eyes and shook his head: "I got this. I can definitely sort out this shitty life."

He straightened up, looked at the calendar on the floor, picked it up, and hung it back on the door. He stared silently at today's date.

"What are you thinking?" Melonie asked, noticing Tommy's long silence.

Tommy pulled his gaze away and gave Melonie a gentle smile: "Nothing. Can you call the school tomorrow and ask for a day off for me? I need to sort out my food and drink situation before I can fully prep for college."

Melonie took a few steps forward, curious, and looked at where Tommy had been staring.

The calendar read May 6, 1982, with a verse from the "Bible":

"Yet man is born to trouble, As the sparks fly upward."

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