my first ride

growing up on the farm was a lot of fun there was me and my younger brother and sister. 14 was how old I was when canned food really caught on in popularity in the grocery stores causing great hardship on my family, food was way to accessible to the masses causing my father to miss payments on the farm. My father is a vein man and would not let the family farm leave our family I mean how could he its been in my family back since the early 1800s. Talking to my uncle (my mother's brother) he suggested my father go help build buildings up north "At least for a little while until things get back to normal." My father couldn't say no and my uncle who owned a metal supply company set him up to work on the Empire State Building (you know where they unload people from the blimps) we didn't see much of father in the next few months he worked and lived up there, I mean he came home on the weekends "So we wouldn't forget his face." While doing so I took care of the family farm and went to school. It sounds a lot harder than it really was considering the fact that as I said earlier NO ONE WAS BUYING FRESH FOOD. Then I guess 5 months into working there so it must have been October we got a letter from the building company my dad was crushed by a load of beams when a cable snapped delivering them 20 stories up. Times got rough but we worked through it, I had to quit school to work on the farm full time now and to raise my brother and sister. My uncle helped out when he could but with his business he couldn't I also think the guilt just got to him. Well it wasn't easy but we scrapped by I was 17 my brother and sister were in middle school, and we converted a large part of our farm to horse racing. All of my friends at the time were zooming around in their brand new rides, I tried to hide my jealousy from my mom but she could just see it in my eye. See in my off time I became a mechanic of sorts, Bob our pasture from church took me under his wing and we would spend hours working on his ride. "It runs in your blood." He said, my father and him were close friends and used to build racers out of pretty much nothing. One spring morning after a night if heavy drinking my mom woke me up to tell me to go and milk the cows. Now, this was my sister's job, she liked doing it which was fine with me, just not that morning. Now as much as I wasn't in the mood to milk the cows, I was less in the mood to argue so off I went.
There I saw it, a rusty, old, ship. It needed work to say the less, but I wasn't going to argue because to me, knowing it was mine, it felt like I got one of those brand new Smith Galidexator Ships. I knew I was going to need help. Later that day I recruited one of my friends' grand fathers who had an old manual of a later but not to much later model in his garage. So off to work we went most pieces they just didn't make any more. For those we went to my uncle, being as how he was the only game in town for metal fabrication he had all the best stuff, and because I was related I got GREAT deals.
This thing was old, all the ships I worked on were nuclear powered this thing was burning #2 oil, hey at least 2's cheep right? So we got to working on it. An all new air tank for the fuel, a potential overload relay, some tubes on the boiler, so ro water for the boiler, and a couple other odds and ends. Most of the stuff was easy my uncle even gave us a copper bottom steel top 25 gallon air tank for the combustion chamber and can I just say IT LOOKS SOOO COOL. With a little help from well everybody we got the thing running it ran like a dream. I promised my mom we would start out slow just taking it outside the atmosphere, and the every once in a while date to the dark side of the moon.
After 3 months of doing nothing but basic relays back and forth too and from outer space things got old, I needed more I mean theirs only so many times you can go to the asteroid belt before it gets really really old. At the same time a friend of mine just lost his job and suggested we take a vacation on Neptune. As soon as we enter the atmosphere almost things get a little out of control the smoke from the boiler went from clear to black the flame kept sputtering, something was wrong. So we killed the engines only to power them up for the thrusters just to make for an easier impact even then the flames were all weird. So I checked it out and I personally couldn't find anything wrong so we went and explored all there was to see at Neptune city, the place was awesome, the culture, the music, the food. So of coarse my friend gets plastered and we have to leave now. The thing wont start, I try everything nothing will work, I really don't understand I checked this thing inside and out. I begin to sweat and my helmet shield begins to fog up so while inside the craft I open up my visor jut to wipe the fog off. As soon as I crack it I realize whats wrong ammonia is corrosive to copper. I immediately run down, unbolt the air tank, and look at the bottom. Well there it is a 3' hole in my 9' expansion tank . . . wonderful. So now what? Well, I tried calling my uncle, no answer and I knew my mom couldn't help me and all she would do is get upset, not to mention I was only supposed to use the thing for transportation NOT JOY RIDING!
So I guess we were on our own. I got a blue pages and found a junk yard not to far from me. When we got there the place was closed, and I could tell he really didn't have much for me any way. Now, its dark, cold, we're all alone, and running out of air. So we go back to the ship to sleep. The next morning we stop by a gas station for some gas so we wouldn't suffocate, and when we came back THE SHIP WAS GONE. Well it turns out that on Neptune they have alternate side of the street parking every other week. So we make it down to the impound and there she was in all of her ancient beauty. I talked to the woman and she said that it was 75$ per day, but she would cut me a break considering I wasn't to familiar with the area and the first day would be 25 and 75 after that. I had 35 on me and the ship was broken. So I asked to speak to her manager after telling her that it wasn't about her.
This was an older guy who looked like he'd been through the ringer a few to many times (smelled like it to). So i explained the situation and he told me he might be able to help. In the back of his yard was this old, beaten down ship that was there so old it was sinking down into the soil, I mean this thing was in bad shape. "Its been here as long as I can remember, and if you boys are clean and efficient you can have its air expansion tank if you leave that lovely copper one here." What were we to do? We had to say yes I mean free easy cheep fix! So we agreed and went to work, the swap took about 5 minuets and we were back in business just a change of air (that air couldn't have been still good after all of these years) and we were in business.
So I flew home, got the beating of my life time, but was still just happy to be there. A few years later I joined the galactic army just to see the universe and my brother now old enough was zipping around in my old busted #2 oil burning rocket.

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