Life Changes

Chapter Five - Rock and A Hard Place

"Will do,"

Austin's POV
Ten Years Later
"I tell you, Austin, there's nothin' like goin' on a duck hunt and enjoying God's creation." my uncle Morgan says with a smile. I nod.

"Yeah. I don't know why my daddy doesn't like hunting, but I'm glad that you do, Uncle Morgan."

"Well, I'm glad that you want to go hunting with me because my kids don't really wanna hunt with me anymore." Uncle Morgan adds. I laugh.

"Well, you're welcome. I kinda feel bad that you're stuck out here by yourself,"

"I don't mind bein' out here by myself. It's much quieter though I enjoy having my nephew out here with me too," Uncle Morgan says. I smile.

"Thanks Uncle Morgan,"

"Of course. Don't tell Indi and Emerson that though,"

"I won't," I say with a laugh.

*

When I get home from hunting, my momma is cooking lunch. She smiles when Uncle Morgan and I come in.

"Hi Austin. Hi big bro. How did duck hunting go this morning?"

"Good. We got a couple ducks. What's for lunch? I'm starving," I say. My momma laughs.

"Chicken noodle soup. It's cold out right now, so I figured a nice bowl of soup would help warm the two of you up,"

"Sounds delicious, Harper, but I shouldn't stay long. I gotta get home and start packin' that duck meat," Uncle Morgan mutters. My momma shrugs.

"Okay. I guess I'll see you tomorrow then,"

"Yep. See ya tomorrow, sis." Uncle Morgan says, waving goodbye to my momma as he leaves.

"Bye Morgan!" My momma calls back with a smile.

I take off my camo hunting jacket and remove my waders as well. I go out to the garage to put my hunting gear in the hunting bin that's in the closet. I find my daddy in the garage, changing the oil in my momma's suv.

My daddy hears the door to the garage shut and looks up from the vehicle. He smiles on seeing me and wipes his oil covered hands on a rag.

"Hey buddy. How was your hunting trip with Uncle Morgan?"

"Pretty good. We got a couple ducks," I say as I toss my things into the bin.

"That's good," my daddy says with a nod. He tosses his rag to the side and looks down at the car. "You know, I'm almost finished changing the oil in your momma's truck. Once I'm done with it, I still need to do a little bit of maintenance on the truck. You wanna help?"

"Sure," I say with a smile.

I've been helping daddy with working on vehicles since I six years old. I love working on cars and I hope to own my own repair shop when I graduate from high school and get a few years of mechanical work under my belt.

"Boys, lunch!" momma calls. My daddy looks up and smiles.

"Fantastic. I'm starving,"

"Just make sure you wash your hands first, Bails. You've got oil all over your hands," momma says.

"Oh really? I hadn't noticed," daddy says somewhat sarcastically. He walks over to my mom and taps her nose with his pointer finger that was covered in oil. Momma scoffs.

"Bailey! Why did you do that?! If this dot of oil makes a black mark on my nose, you're gonna get in so much trouble!"

"You know you can't stay mad at me, Harper." daddy says with a smirk. Momma laughs.

"No. I can't,"

Momma leans in and kisses daddy on the lips. I wrinkle my nose in disgust. While I have already had one girlfriend and had kissed her once when we were together, I still think it's gross when my parents kiss. I have to say, though, I do want what they have when I get married one day.

We go inside and my momma cleans her nose, scrubbing it vigorously with a soapy rag. My momma sighs in relief when all the oil washes away.

My little brother, Landon, comes down the steps and inspects the soup momma made. He grabs a bowl and ladles out some soup for himself.

My brother and I are polar opposites. I only want to hunt and work on cars while Landon is super athletic and plays three sports as a thirteen year old. He plays football, basketball, and baseball just like our Uncle Morgan did when he was in school.

I used to play soccer when I was little and I do play baseball for the high school junior varsity team now, but I could never play three of them like Landon.

I guess that's how it is though. If siblings were all exactly the same, we'd be robots.

Landon's POV
"Here! Pass the ball! I'm open!" I call to my teammate.

My teammate passes me the basketball and dribble the ball across the court until I'm at the three point line. I shoot the ball and it falls through the net, getting us our winning points.

Everyone cheers and my team crowds me, hoisting me above their heads and cheering me on.

The team goes out for ice cream after the game to celebrate and, afterwards, my teammate's mom drops me off at home.

I go in through the garage and find my brother in the garage with my daddy. They're working on prepping the snow mobiles for our family trip up north next weekend.

"Hey buddy. Wanna help me and your brother work on the snow mobiles?" Daddy asks. I shake my head.

"Nah. I'm good. I've still got some homework to do tonight,"

"Alright. That's probably more important anyways," daddy says with a shrug.

I go upstairs to my room and begin working on my homework. I hear someone knock on my door frame and find my brother standing in the doorway.

"Hey," I mutter. Austin nods.

"Hey,"

"What's up?" I ask, setting down my pencil. My brother shrugs.

"Not much. You did pretty good at the game today,"

"How would you know? You didn't even come. You just stayed home and waited for dad to get home so you could work on the stupid snow mobiles," I snap. Austin frowns.

"I'm sorry, Landon. I don't like watch basketball and I wanted to finish my homework so daddy and I could work on the snow mobiles after he got home,"

"You still could have done your homework after we got back. I'm sure dad would have waited for you," I argue. Austin sighs.

"I don't why you always gotta get so bent out of shape when I don't show up to your games. I don't get mad at you if you don't watch my baseball games,"

"I do show up to pretty much all of your games, so I just don't get why you can't show up to a few of mine." I add.

"Whatever. I'm going back downstairs. If you wanna complain to someone, why don't you complain to momma. You've done that in the past anyways," Austin sneers, leaving my bedroom in a huff. I roll my eyes.

Sometimes I just can't stand my brother.