I do love a dry lakebed!
Stuck Chronicle (Part 22 - Ballad of Slick Mick)
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Mick didn’t sleep long before he woke back up in the middle of the night. He couldn't stop thinking about how things used to be...
Before Mick was the tough guy he was now, he was the timid, chubby Mickey Smith. He was bullied for his appearance, and his timidity that others considered cowardice. His parents were the passive types, and told him that he was okay as he was and to ignore the bullies. He abided by that belief, until he met a guy who changed him for better (and worse).
A few months into his freshman year, Mickey became acquainted with a senior student named Jim. Jim was a vulgar, booted, muscular guy who owned a red Ford F-150. Every other week, he’d take Mickey for rides—all the while, he gave him pointers on how to deal with bullies, life, and the like by being assertive.
“What do you mean by ‘assertive’?” Mickey asked. He never knew that term.
“Are you serious? 🧐” Jim asked roughly. When he realized he was being serious, he softened up a little. “It’s kinda like...life’s gonna work against you. But in order to move forward, you gotta be
rough. Otherwise, you’ll never get anywhere
️“Mickey pondered that thought, and Jim could see the question marks floating from his head. This was something Jim could show better than tell...
“Hang on!” He shouted suddenly, as he turned the wheel and his truck lurched off the road. He headed straight for a muddy ditch, causing the Ford to jerk up and down before stopping.
“You okay?” he asked Mickey.
“Yeah. Nothing broken”, he replied. “But why did you—“
(Vroooooooom!)
Jim put his boot on the gas, but only a tap. The tires hardly turned, so they didn’t move from the ditch.
“Can it for a second, and listen”, Jim ordered. “Now, notice how I’m only giving my truck a tiny bit of gas. It’s not enough to break us outta this mud. I’m not givin’ enough effort toward escaping this situation. It’s no different from you just accepting peoples BS!”
Mickey got the picture, and it made him hang his head.
“Hey!” Jim revved his engine so Mickey would focus on him. “Now, watch THIS!” He hit the gas roughly this time, causing the tires to spin for about 15 seconds until the truck broke free.
“See how I got a little rough with my truck?” he asked with a smirk. “THAT’S assertiveness—not giving up, and at the same time putting in enough effort for it to makes some real progress”.
“Oh!” Mickey shouted out of the blue. “I think I get it now...kinda”
Jim raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?” he asked, still maintaining his smirk. “Then I’ll do it a few more times, until you FULLY get it!
”.To that end, he backed up into the ditch seven times—each time it took him longer and longer to break free. After a while, Mickey started to feel a “tingle”, and he could tell that Jim was enjoying his “advice” as well. It was something Mickey couldn’t comprehend, and that Jim wouldn’t admit to. After he was done, the air was filled with truck exhaust, and Jim’s red Ford was coated with brown mud.
“Get it...NOW?” Jim asked, panting from excitement.
Mickey nodded silently, and Jim responded with a thumbs up before taking him home.
After that day, Mickey practiced and exercised assertiveness. He worked out so that his stomach shrank some, and he slowly became more muscular to balance himself out. By the time Mickey was a sophomore, there was almost no sign of his former self.
One more thing Mickey realized by hanging out with Jim, was that he became curious about mudding. And he made it his goal to experience it first-hand. By the time Mickey hit 16, he got the chance to do just that using his dad’s old car—a black Buick Roadmaster. He snuck out at the break of dawn, and decided to look for a nice place to spin his tires for the first time.
He found a nice grassy verge, and drove through that. The soft ground caught the Buick’s back tires easily; Mickey hit the gas roughly, but he couldn’t break free. He revved so hard that the pedal was almost to the floor, but the Buick wouldn’t budge for anything!
“What the hell!” Mickey exclaimed, remembering what Jim had done.
He revved the engine and stomped the gas pedal in drive, then in reverse, but he couldn’t escape the mud hole he created. The only thing he succeeded in doing, was creating the same “tingle” from before. The car’s rough engine and the street tires spinning in soft mud soon became music to his ears, and at that point he closed his eyes and couldn’t stop himself from rubbing one out. Once he did, he took his foot off the gas and opened his eyes.
Across the street from where he was stuck, several people spotted him. Some were taken aback from what he’d just done, while others laughed or ridiculed his actions. Luckily for him, the cops weren’t called...but he was stuck too deep to leave without a tow.
In the end, his father tracked him down and towed him out of the mud with his truck, and after shouting his ears off for sneaking off, explained to him that cars like the Buick weren’t for playing in mud.
Meanwhile in at school, rumors spread in a matter of a week regarding Mickey, and he became infamously known in town as “Slick Mick”.
Rather than crying about it, Mick wore the moniker like a badge. Despite the many students who picked on or laughed at Mick, a few of them admired his boldness.
One student in particular—a shy freshman in a hoodie—approached Mick, hoping they could be friends...
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Some great writing to date! Looking forward to seeing how things develop between Joel & Lyle and Mickey. Nice work!