Ends of the Earth
The first memory Ash had of his life was his mother on the beach. Ash remembers that it was a cloudy day with a lot of air. His mother placed him on the sand, he did not remember her face. She pulled an old, rather rusty razor from her pocket and used it to cut herself. Blood dripped from her arms onto the wet sand. She did not look at her son again and began to walk towards the sea.
Ash doesn't know what happened next. Her father spoke little about her, but when he did, it was with affection. He told him how they met and that soon after they began to live together. When his mother got pregnant they were both happy, then Ashton was born and things couldn't go better. The bad thing came when his mother began to act strange and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she refused to take her medication and she ended up ending her own life.
Ash didn't know if he missed his mother, that might have been his first contact with death and mourning, but he didn't remember anything about her.
So the first time he had to mourn someone, for real, didn't come until Simon killed himself. Simon, his childhood friend, whom he had considered his soul mate and with whom he did everything.
Ashton found out about the death of his friend the day after it happened. They announced it over the high school's loudspeakers. Ash hadn't been surprised when he didn't see Simon in class, it was normal for the boy to be late. When the announcement was over, all of his classmates turned to look at him. Ash ran out of the classroom, he didn't listen to anyone trying to stop him and he ran home.
Anthony had already heard the news, as soon as he entered the house, Ash threw himself into his father's arms to cry. He gave her a tight hug as he moved his thumb lovingly on Ash's back.
- Let it out, my boy.- he placed a kiss on the head of his son- Everything will be fine, I promise you. I love you son.
Simon didn't leave a note, which made Ashton quite angry. He wanted an explanation, he knew that Simon had problems at home and that's why he spent most of his time at Ash's. Even so, the most selfish part of Ash couldn't understand how his friend hadn't come to him for help.
Everything became more real at the funeral, he realized that his friend was never coming back. He couldn't see the corpse, Simon had blown his brains out with his father's shotgun. His father who drank non-stop and hated his son. Ash would always hold a grudge against him.
After that, the next time he met with death was when some men who worked with his father had a fight in the living room of his house and one of them shot the other in the head. He slept in his father's bed for a week after that and whenever Anthony did business at home he would go out, in fear of coming back and finding his father dead.
—
Anthony Jacob Minyard had made a promise to himself years ago: his son would not end up like him, he would never be part of the business, and he would have an honest job and a secure life.
He had only served two years of his sentence and he had many more left inside that hole. He wasn't able to contact Ashton, social services had taken custody of him. Anthony dreamed every night that Ash came to visit him. The year before they put him in, they had distanced themselves a bit because of the business and partly because of himself. He couldn't bear to think that his son hated him.
He needed to make sure Ash was safe, he wasn't taking the social worker's word for it, he needed his son to tell him. So he started to work hard, he knew that what he did could have repercussions but he only thought of Ashton. He joined a gang, he had already worked with them while he was dealing drugs and began selling contraband inside the jail. They gave him some money that he hid as he could and finally he had enough. He paid the guard, who was part of his gang and with whom he trafficked, to buy him a phone.
The guard, Haku, who didn't look like he was part of a gang, gave him a funny look but within a week he brought him a small phone.
- It is the first time in two years that you use the network in which you participate. Why do you want a phone?-he asked.
"Why don't you mind your own business?" Anthony answered somewhat defensively.
-I'm just doing my job or do you want me to tell the big boss that you use a cell phone to communicate with other gangs?
Anthony snorted annoyed.
-I just want to be able to talk to my son, he's just a kid and he won't cause problems.
Arun just smiled at him, a teasing smile.
- Agg get lost.- Anthony said, giving him a little push. That only made Haku laugh more.
- How cute when you get angry. Do you want to hang out for a bit?- Haku said, while he squeezed Anthony's ass with his hands.
After “hanging out”, Anthony went to the bathroom where, hidden in a cubicle, he added to the phone Ashton's number, his great memory allowed him to remember it perfectly.