Chapter 2Cain Roderick had a normal life. Or so he thought. Having grown up in the typical small town farm setting, he thought himself to be the average guy. Going to apprenticeship for automotive mechanics once he graduated high school, he lived the dream in a small city auto body shop, until the news of his father's untimely death in a car accident. Going home to mourn, it wasn't long after his mother was diagnosed with Cancer and he lost her too. The farm was left to him, his sister not wanting the responsibility. So, turning the feilds into a junk yard, he set up his own mechanic shop, helping the farmers in the area and the rare unfortunate tourist in need. A simple life, but one he loved.
The day started out as usual, waking up early to feed his pets and make a good breakfast. His cat, a pixie-bob names Elizabeth, was quite taken with his new black Russian terrier pup, Balthazar. She had adopted the pup as her own, and it was quite often he found them together. Like this morning, the two were sleeping in the dog bed and Elizabeth perked up when he walked past. Putting out wet food for both of them, he hums softly as he begins to make a breakfast of toast and eggs, with pan fried ham. His favorite.
The animals kept him company, the only thing around for a few miles being the wild animals and themselves. The radio kept things lively, but all in all, it was quite and peaceful here. His backyard was a forested area, great for camping, with a small pond that had once been used for livestock. It now served as a place for his pup to play and discover frogs and the like. Sitting to eat, he planned out his day. With no cars or machines to fix, he would free to tinker the day away. He loved days off like this, never truly closed as he lived here.
Tinkering was usually him playing around with scraps from the junked cars and the like in his fields, putting together some unusual inventions. For example, he had made a pair of motorized roller blades, though there wasn't any road smooth enough here to effectively use them. He had thoroughly enjoyed the skate parks in the cities though. The motors made many tricks and stunts so much more fancy and smooth. Other was a pretty advances CD player. Having mashed together some car CD players, he had made a pretty sweet stereo for his shop. Hooked up to some bass speakers, the music was just lovely while he worked.
He was currently working on some cellphones. A couple he had donated to him, when folks in town upgraded their old phones to something better. He had put a box in the store, with permission, for any donated cell phones. He had three to work with, very excited to see what he could do with an Iphone 3, a blackberry curve, and a blackberry touch. The touchscreens would be something new to fiddle with, never brave enough to take apart his own Android phone. He doubted he would get it back together.
Cain finished clean up his breakfast, smiling and reaching down to pet his eating pets, the pup always happy for attention. He was so big already, and he knew Balthazar would just get bigger. Black Russian Terriers were huge dogs. He would love the yard to run around in. Heading to his shop, which was just an extended garage with three bay doors, He sets to work on his tinkering table as he liked to call it. It was just a work counter, with about 3 toolboxes of very fine working tools. Much different then the standard mechanic bench.
It was a pleasant temperature that day, summer slowly giving way to fall, the wind blowing in nice and keeping the shop relatively cool. He was only interrupted once, one of the local farmers bringing a tractor in for a tune up. With only a couple hours of work it was ready to go again, Cain happy for any work his way. Lunch rolled around, so he took the time to make a few sandwiches, deciding to play with his pets a bit before it got too late. Elizabeth liked to chase the moving mouse toys he had made her, and Balthazar liked any attention, mostly gnawing on small bones in his lap. The pup was just so cute, he couldn't get enough. Cain liked to talk to his animals, it kept the feeling of loneliness away, the pain of his parents gone always there. Especially as he lived on the farm he grew up in, with nothing to remember them by but old furniture and photo albums.
The quite days he liked though, no angry customers or teasing town folk. No awkward flirting from girls waaaay to young to be perusing him, or jealous males scoping him out. It was nice. The afternoon bled into evening, Cain bringing his companions inside for the night, taking some time to just cuddle on the couch with some good TV. His life couldn't have been more mundane if he tried. Too bad he didn't realize that in a few hours, that would all change. The news was reporting about a small asteroid that would land nearby, mostly just for the space nerds to chase after since it wouldn't really do any damage past maybe set some woods on fire.
So, Cain headed to bed that night, not knowing that at 2:07am, his life would change forever.