by Carrie Shaffer

Created on: March 13, 2010

Chapter 1 Living and Leaving Amerika

John jumped in his truck to run an old junk refrigerator over to the transfer station. “Going to the dump Mary” he shouts to his wife who is cooking bacon for their breakfast.   Through her open kitchen window she yells “Hurry back, we’ve got to have breakfast then take the kids to the park” Their Northern Seattle home is in a bit of disarray from last nights beer drinking. While the bacon is cooking Mary goes around picking up all the empty beer cans.

As John gets to the dump he has to pull his sun visor down on the old truck, because there’s no point in carrying sunglasses around Seattle, it’s always raining and cloudy. He thinks to himself that if they just had more weather like this it wouldn’t be too bad. Then something catches his gaze: two Bald Eagles on top of a pile of garbage that had been recently dumped. Bald Eagles were a common sight around the Pacific Northwest but not at a dump. Shrugging his shoulders he got out to unload the refrigerator. When he has finished he looked at the eagles again. Better take a piss while I’m here, the thought crosses his mind as he unzips his Carhardts.

Back at the house the kids have woken up and are chasing each other around and demanding to have the cartoons turned on the tv. Mary feels hung over and not in the mood to deal with them so she gives into their wishes. Mary is a strong believer in the importance of breakfast so she puts bowls of Co Co Puffs in the mesmerized kids’  laps. A burning smell emanates from the kitchen. ‘Ah shit, the bacon’ and she rushes into the kitchen to see if it is ruined. Sure enough, the charred shriveled bits of bacon looked completely inedible so she dumps the whole pan full into the trash. She realizes the only other bacon went bad last week. She contemplates cooking it anyway, since it’s so full of nitrates maybe it lasts longer, but reconsiders. John will have to have Pop Tarts or something else for breakfast she concludes.

John’s blue eyes are having trouble with the bright morning sunshine so he’s squinting as he drives eastward towards home. “Damn sun” he mutters. As he’s driving along he notices all the campaign picket signs stuck in people’s yards. He thinks to himself ‘Ah crap, the tv is going to be full of all those ads again.’ He would rather watch football than political commercials. He’s

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