A Life Worth Celebrating

By Bandy Naef

Despite the drama, this is a feel good, warm-hearted story about a young boy named Rick.

When Rick was in highschool, life was great. Everything was perfect until his life started to fall apart. He suddenly found himself alone and homeless and when he felt things couldn't get worse, they just started to get better. Life was going great for Rick. Follow Rick on many fun adventures, through mystery, drama and romance and find yourself breathless with the surprise ending.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookRix
• Release date: Jul 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9783743875289

Book preview

Chapter 1

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In a small town in the middle of nowhere, there was never much excitement. It was a small farming town full of narrow roads and narrow minds. Everyone felt they had the perfect family. Every family tried keeping up with the next family to prove they were the best. Righteous and pure and no one ever did any wrong. Families would never work on Sundays; they would get up and go to church every week dressed in their very best. They were polite and sweet to each other at church only to go home and prepare their Sunday dinners and gossip about everyone in their church congregation.

It seemed like the perfect place to raise a family, no drugs, no crime, no violence but for teenagers in this town, it was boring and mind numbing. Kids couldn't wait to grow up and get away from this town where the only thing to do was gossip about one another. Many teens would spend their summers working on the farms or the one fast food restaurant in town so they save money, so as soon as they graduated school, they could move away to start a new life. Thye could pay to go to college, or just have enough money to move away and find new jobs; anything to get away from this place.

One summer, a young beautiful blond haired girl just getting ready to start her junior year in high school got a job at the fast food restaurant so she could start saving money for college. She was one of the many that couldn't wait to get out of this judgmental town. There was a boy one year older than her working at the restaurant. She knew him from school but because of the age difference, she had never talked to him before, until this summer working together. They found they both had the same hopes and dreams of getting out this town and having lives of their own.

It didn't take long working together that these two young kids started to fall in love, they began meeting after work so they could talk more and show their feeling for each other out of the public eye. Things between the two started to heat up more and more every time they would meet after work, until one night parked under the moonlight on an old dirt road they decided to lie down together in the bed of his old worn out truck and take their feelings to the next level. It was beautiful and magical and they felt no shame in their actions for they felt this was true love and they felt complete in each other's arms. This wouldn't be the last time the couple laid together. Every chance they got, they would find themselves in each other's arms, lying together in the bed of his truck.

The time had come for the couple to confess their love for each other to their parents; after all, they were young, they were scared, but most importantly they were expecting a baby. No surprise to the two, their parents did not take the news well. The neighbors were going to talk; they would get disrespectful looks and stares at church and on the streets. Their illusion of having a perfect family would be shattered. Their parents could not let this happen and insisted that this baby had no place in their lives, in this town or even in this world. Adoption was out of the question; the parents did not want anyone in town finding out about this and did not want an unwed, pregnant daughter ruining their reputation.

On a moonless night, the young man turned off the headlights to his truck as he drove down the gravel driveway to the young girl's home where she was waiting outside under the willow tree in the front yard. Two suitcases in hand, he helped her put them in the bed of his truck, and away they drove. She had left a letter on her pillow explaining why she and her boyfriend left and told her family goodbye forever. So with the money they had saved and a full tank of gas in the truck, they left the town with hearts full of love and leaving their families with their own shame and regret and to never see or talk to them again. Their families, yet heartbroken and sad about their children leaving, felt this was best and would find excuses for their children's absence when people would ask.

Of course, the couple had their struggles trying to make it on their own, but they had found an apartment in a town many, many miles away from their hometown. They were now in a town where no one knew them, and they didn't have to live up to the expectations of anyone. They both found jobs and were free to live their own lives and do as they pleased as her belly grew and grew with a new life that they couldn't wait to meet. They were both so excited and were now doing well enough to raise a baby on their own despite their parent's expectations of how two young kids could handle raising a child on their own.

They both worked hard in preparation for their new arrival and each night they would come home from work exhausted. The couple still found the strength to make dinner together then after their meal they would sit on the couch side by side with their feet up on the coffee table and watch old reruns of I Love Lucy. This time was the couple's special time together and they found that watching this show could make them laugh and bring joy to their busy lives. They even started calling each other Lucy and Ricky as cute little nicknames for each other.

One night as the couple sat watching their show, the well overdue pregnant girl went into labor. She let out a cry of pain and knew that it was time to go to the hospital. Their exhaustion was quickly turned to excitement and panic as they rushed to get ready to head to the hospital. Once there, the baby came quickly. Only a couple of hours after she had gone into labor, she was holding her brand new perfect baby boy. Well, what do you think we should name him, Ricky? She asked the new father. Oh, Lucy! He's our little Ricky. He said. She agreed that the name was perfect and with that, they had their Little Ricky.

After a couple of years, things were just getting better and better for the happy family. Little Ricky's dad had moved up in the company he was working for and now made enough money that Ricky's mom could quit her job and stay at home to take care of him. The couple knew they had the perfect family and didn't feel they needed any more children, In their eyes, they had the perfect child. The couple finally bought their forever home where they would be happy and content. After all this time, they finally decided to make their family official and finally became husband and wife.

Up until the time Little Ricky was fifteen years old, his life seemed great. He didn't have any real friends and not much of a social life, but he had everything he wanted at home. His parents loved him and gave him more than he ever wanted, that is until one day, things started to change completely. He no longer felt that he had a connection with his dad. His dad just seemed to ignore him and was very cold toward him. Not knowing why, he didn't ask any questions and with each day grew more and more depressed. His mom still showed how much she loved him, and he was grateful for that, but he couldn't help but wonder why he seemed like such a disappointment to his dad.

On Ricky's sixteenth birthday, he came home from school and his mom had baked him a cake and greeted him with a big hug and a happy birthday. Rick was really enjoying spending the time with his mom until his dad came home and didn't even acknowledge Rick or that it was his birthday. Feeling hurt and sad, Rick decided to go for a walk. Down the street a ways, he sat on a bench along the side of the sidewalk and put his face in the palm of his hands and began to cry. After crying for a few minutes, he felt a hand slowly massaging his back. He looked up to find an old lady sitting beside him trying to comfort him. She said, I don't mean to scare you but I want to talk to you for a moment. I know you'll think that I'm crazy and that is okay but please just hear what I have to say. I know you are going through a hard time right now and I will tell you that things are going to get extremely worse. When things get bad, you must not give up, keep on going. There will be a light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes we have to go through an extreme amount of pain and suffering to get to the good things in life. I promise you that if you get through these bad times, you are going to find all the happiness that you could ever dream of, in fact, more happiness than you could ever dream of. When you find that happiness and the pain and suffering starts to end, nothing is going to make sense. You will wonder how you got to where you are and how such amazing things could happen but when you are given a gift of a happy life, don't ask questions, just learn to accept it and be thankful for it and enjoy it. Remember the pain will end and a new life will begin. You will be blessed with happiness for enduring the pain that you are going to go through. I wish you didn't have to go through the pain but I can't change it, I can only tell you how it will be and hope that you'll listen to my advice. Bless you, child. As Rick sat there listening to the old lady's words, he was in shock and confused and couldn't even speak. He heard a car horn honk behind him and startled, he quickly turned his head to see what was going on. Realizing it was nothing to be concerned about, he turned his head back to look at the woman only to find that she was gone. Still confused by what had just happened, he wiped his tears away and headed back home.

Chapter 2

6:30 am, Rick's alarm clock started beeping. He reaches over and presses the snooze button and drifts off back to sleep for another 9 minutes. Beep! Beep! Beep! Again he reaches over and turns off the alarm. Eyes still closed in his dark room, his hand fumbled around on the nightstand until he finally feels his cell phone, he feels his way down to the bottom of the phone and unplugs the charger. Still lying in bed, he looks at his phone and unlocks the screen. The bright light from the phone makes him immediately shut his eyes. Slowly he starts to open his eyes, squinting so his eyes can adjust to the light. He finds his Facebook app and opens it. Forgetting what day it was, he quickly was reminded by some notifications from a couple of family members and some online friends that it was his 17th birthday. Even though the posts on his page were pretty short and straight to the point, saying happy birthday, he still smiled a bit knowing that people still took time out of their morning to wish him a happy birthday. Remembering now that it was his birthday, that gave him the motivation that he needed to get out of bed.

Rick sat up and sat on the side of the bed. He yawned and stretched his arms up above his head, rubbed his eyes and proceeded to stand up. Stumbling through the somewhat still dark room, he worked his way to the bedroom door and walked out into the hallway. He walked to the edge of the stairs and could smell his birthday pancakes that his mom was cooking for him downstairs. His birthday was the only time his mom had cooked for him before he went to school. No cold cereal, no oatmeal, no toast or bagels, none of the boring stuff that he usually eats before school. He turned around and walked back into the bathroom to take his morning shower. While showering, Rick was starting to wake up a little more and quietly started singing the happy birthday song to himself. After he turned off the shower and stepped out and dried off, he wiped the steam from the mirror to see his handsome reflection. Looking at his dark brown hair and his brown eyes in the mirror, he gave himself a wink and a little smile and said Happy birthday, handsome! Rick wasn't conceded and didn't have a lot of self-confidence, but it was his birthday and thought he deserved a little bit of a self-boost of confidence for the day.

Wrapped in his towel, Rick walked back to his room and opened the closet door to pick out a shirt. He went to the dresser and picked out his socks, underwear and pants, dropped the towel and began to get dressed. Rick sat on the edge of the bed and reached down to put on his shoes. He walked to the full-length mirror hanging on the back of his bedroom door to make sure he looked alright. He softly whispered to his reflection, Looking good. It's going to be a great day! He walked out of the room and down the hall to the edge of the stairs and took a deep breath and started down the stairs.

There's my little man! happy birthday! Rick's mom said as he walked into the kitchen. Thank you! Rick said with a smile on his face as he sat down at the table. His mom brought a plate of pancakes to the table and sat them down in front of him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. As Rick was pouring syrup over his pancakes, he looked across the table to see his dad sitting there with his nose in the morning paper and a cup of coffee sitting there on the table in front of him. Good morning dad, Rick said. Not even looking away from the paper, he just let out a little groan. Don't you have something to say to your son this morning? Rick's mom asked. Should I have something to say? Rick's dad asked. How about a happy birthday? she replied. You already told him, why should I have to also? Rick's dad said with an annoyed look on his face. Never mind, happy birthday from both of us. Rick's mom said as she stood behind Rick with her hands on his shoulders softly rubbing them. Thank you, MOM! Rick said, making it clear that he was only thanking her. His mom walked over to the sink, looked back and gave Rick a little smile. The morning light was shining through the kitchen window and lit up her blond hair and gave off a light glow around her. Rick thought to himself that his mom truly was his angel. His dad hadn't been a very caring man for awhile now and didn't seem to care if Rick existed at all. Rick felt very blessed that he had his mom.

After finishing his pancakes, Rick placed his dishes in the sink and gave his mom a hug and a kiss on the cheek and thanked her again. She told him to have a happy birthday, a great day at school and she would see him after school and she would make him a great birthday dinner and they would have cake and ice cream for dessert. He smiled and thanked her again. He grabbed his backpack sitting next to the couch in the living room and headed out the door to walk to school.

Rick was a quiet kid in school. He got along with everyone. He didn't have any enemies, but he really didn't have any friends either. No one had any problems with him, in fact, people liked him, but he was careful not to get too close to anyone, he was nervous about making friends. As he got to school and walked down the hallway toward his locker, a couple of kids that he was only friends with online wished him a happy birthday, and he just thanked them as he walked alone to his locker. Rick opened his locker and placed his backpack inside and took his science book out of the backpack and shut his locker. He stopped by the drinking fountain and got a drink before heading to class. When he walked into the classroom, one of the girls on the front row smiled at Rick and said happy birthday. He thanked her and smiled back and disappeared to his seat in the back of the room.

Although Rick was happy with the attention that he had gotten from the few people that wished him a happy birthday, he knew that they were just being friendly and only knew that it was his birthday because of social media, none the less, it still made his heart a little happy. During the class, Rick just sat and listened and took notes from the lesson that the teacher was giving, never participating in answering any questions the teacher asked the class. Rick was a good student; he got all A's, and B's in his classes but like always never liked drawing too much attention to himself, he just kept to himself and did his work like he was supposed to. The teacher's never picked him out to answer any questions or solve any problems in front of the class. They knew that he was paying attention and got good grades, so there was never any need to give him any extra attention which worked out perfect for Rick.

At lunch time, Rick did as he always did. He would go to the lunch room and get his food. He would find a table with a few of the other loner kids. There never was much conversation among these kids other than the occasional small talk about the weather, sports, current events or just any small talk that someone would bring up just to break up the awkward silence at the table. When he would finish, he would quietly get up and return his lunch tray and head to his locker to get his algebra book for his next class. Not having any close friends to hang out with for the rest of the lunch period, he would go to the classroom and sit there alone catching up on homework until the class started. It seems so sad for a kid to be alone like this during school but it is the way that he wanted it and liked it. Rick was likeable and friendly and could have lots of friends if he wanted, and he was handsome enough that he could have just about any girlfriend that he wanted if he would ask one of them. The girls always seemed to smile at him and give him looks as if they were interested in him but everyone knew that he kept to himself so no one would make the first move to talk to him; again, it worked for Rick. No need for anyone to get too close to him.

Luckily Rick's last class of the day was swimming. He was always the first one to get to the locker room and change into his swimsuit as fast as he could and be the first one in the pool. Once everyone was in the pool, they got ten minutes of free time to play around in the water before the blow of the coach's whistle. When the coach would blow his whistle, everyone would get out of the pool and line up at the edge before jumping back into the water to take their turn swimming laps. At the end of laps, if there was any time left, it would be free time again. Rick would swim to the corner of the pool farthest away from the locker room entrance and just hang out there, usually with his back against the edge of the pool, arms up on the sides and gently kicking his legs in the water to keep himself afloat. When the coach would blow his whistle for everyone to get out, everyone would hurry to the showers. Rick slowly took his time swimming across the pool and be the last one into the locker room and the showers. Rick had nothing to be ashamed of and wasn't embarrassed of his body but still he chose to shower while wearing his swimsuit. He made sure that he was slow to be the last one out of the shower and to get dressed, after all, it was the last class of the day. Rick was in no hurry to get to another class, and he walked home from school, and he didn't have to rush to catch a bus like a lot of the other kids had to. Once the noise from all the kids in the locker room started to die down, Rick knew that everyone was gone, that's when he would turn off the water, dry off and get dressed.

After getting dressed, Rick wrapped up his swimsuit in his towel and locked it up in his locker. As he walked out into the hallway of the school, it was already quiet except for a few straggling students that hadn't left yet. Rick went to his locker, placed his books in his backpack, threw it over his right shoulder, shut his locker door and headed toward the door. As he was approaching the door to go home, Sara, a cute blond girl was standing against the wall watching Rick walk down the hall toward her. Happy birthday, Rick! Sara said. Thank you! Rick said with a smile on his face. How come you haven't gone home yet? Rick asked. I was hoping that I would see you before you left. I wanted to wish you a happy birthday and ask if you would want to go out with me sometime? Sara asked. I appreciate the offer, Rick said. I'm really not interested right now. You really are a cute girl and seem very sweet, but I really don't have the time right now. Sara said, It doesn't have to be right now, just some time. Rick replied, I know, I just don't think it's a good time. My life is too busy these days. Thank you again, though. I'll see you later. Even though Rick had plenty of extra time, he wasn't interested and didn't want to hurt her feelings. Rick walked away from Sara, and when he got to the door, he turned around and pushed the door open with his backpack that was hanging from his shoulder and noticed Sara still standing against the wall watching him. He just smiled and waved and turned back around and out the door.

As Rick got home from school, he walked into the house expecting to see his mom. It was kind of strange to him that she wasn't home. He expected to smell the fresh birthday cake that she always bakes every year as he walked through the door. He walked into the kitchen and there on the counter was a cake pan and ingredients to make a cake but nothing had been mixed together yet. Rick put his backpack on the table and dug in the side pocket to find his cell phone. He sent his mom a text message asking where she was. Rick went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water then sat down at the table to start on his homework. After about 20 minutes, his mom still hadn't replied to his text message so he thought he would just try to call her. Rick's mom's cell phone went straight to voicemail which was weird. She always has her phone turned on and charged. He tried a couple more times and still the same thing, straight to voice mail. He started to dial his dad's number on his phone. Maybe he would know where she was but Rick thought that his dad probably wouldn't know and probably wouldn't even care, so there was really no point in bothering him. He just put his phone back down and continued with his homework.

Chapter 3

6:30 pm. Rick woke up on the couch. After he had got done doing his homework, he decided he would close his eyes for a few minutes on the couch while he waited for his mom to get home. Rick didn't realize how tired he was until he decided to rest on the couch. He had been asleep for about an hour and a half when he finally woke up. After getting his mind together, he rubbed his eyes and sat up on the couch immediately reaching for his phone lying on the coffee table. He looked at his phone, still no response to his text message from earlier and no missed calls. He tried calling his mom again and the same as earlier, it just went straight to her voice mail. He got up from the couch and walked into the kitchen and found everything just the same as it was when he had got home from school. He wandered through the house slowly looking around for any signs of where she might have gone. As he was looking around the house, it came