Chapter One

Law watched Eustess Kidd fill his lawnmower with a special mixture of gas outside his garage, metal busting out his speakers. His younger neighbor was dressed in a tee with the sleeves cut off and some ripped jeans and black sneakers, yet had taken the time to tie a bandanna around his head like some 80's hair band prop. Occasionally, Kidd would straighten up to add his own air guitar riff to the verse squealing through the air, looking like a freak as he did so. His red hair was near mullet style, so he'd swing that around when he could. Law was both fascinated and repulsed at the same time just watching him from his front porch. It was an early Saturday, so the whole neighborhood was cutting their lawn at the same time. The air rumbled with the sound of multiple lawn mowers in motion, the smell of freshly cut grass thick and sweet in the air.

His father had reminded him all day yesterday that it was his turn to do it, and had woken Law up just minutes earlier to get his ass up and out there. Law was still in his pjs, his hair wild around his face and a thick ski sweater on over a stained tank. He was unshaven and his eye bags were horrendous. He smelled like hemp and sleep, and could taste last night's dinner left behind on his teeth. His bare toes were gripping the front steps. He yawned noisily, knocking over his energy drink as he leaned side to side to pop his back. It caught Kidd's attention, the redhead looking over with a start.

"Trafalgar! Well lookit here - he lives!" he cackled noisily, gesturing at Law with approval. He raised his surprisingly well endowed arms up in a Frankenstein gesture. "You look like something that just crawled out their parents' basement!"

He laughed snidely, amused at his own joke.

Law frowned at him, hugging his bony knees. It was too much effort to think of a catty retort so he flipped him off. Kidd returned it with both hands, followed by a loud suck-it gesture. Law rose from the step, looking at the lawnmower that his father had rolled out before waking him up. He'd then left it near the front gate, muttering about how filthy Law allowed himself to be as he'd left the basement. Law looked it over and reached down to yank the cord, the lawnmower roaring to life. He winced but noticed Kidd scrambling to cap the tank and start his. Looking over, Law watched the other man glare at him - revving the machine. Law looked at his, but couldn't imagine revving a lawnmower engine. Kidd was cutting grass with a determination that seemed pointless; glancing over every so often to see if Law was doing his yard. Law pushed the machine onto the lawn then realized he wasn't wearing shoes. He killed the gas, grabbed his energy drink and headed around the garage to the door located at the back of the house.

He headed down the basement stairs and scanned the large area for any sign of his shoes.

His life was a mess.

The car accident – a drunk driver fleeing the cops - had totaled the car. Law received only nicks and scratches, walking nearly unscathed from the scene; it was a miracle. But things collapsed from there. He developed a severe anxiety from it - cars filled him with utter dread and it wasn't the accident's fault; it was losing his Girlfriend to a high schooler. Who wanted to live her life outside the book they'd planned on creating together. She'd visited him at home later that day, wondering why he wasn't picking up the phone.

Then broke up with him when he had a panic attack during the drive to her house.

A lot of things happened since then. He lost his scholarship, he lost his ambition, he discovered that prescription pills didn't do anything to slow his anxiety but weed did; he lost his lease, fell into debt because of it, gained twenty pounds, and became less of the light of his family's eye and became that annoying eye lash trapped in the recesses they couldn't reach.

Moving back home had been difficult – his parents tried, and Lamie lost her patience. He slept during the day and was awake at night. Because of his breakup, he'd avoided public places to avoid running into her, and developed an anxiety because of that. He rarely left the house, but he could walk up the street to the fast food areas and order clumsily to feed the emptiness. He found it difficult to speak, but when he did, he just never had anything nice to say. It felt like everything he'd held in for the sake of propriety was pent up and overflowing, and needed this release.

But he still had feelings for her. Damn those feelings, they lingered like a gas that wouldn't lift from his clothes no matter what he did.

The basement was once his mother's favorite place to retreat to – there was a television atop of the extra freezer, a brilliant combination of washer and dryer with organized shelves upon one wall and extra storage space for the things she needed for the household. Canned foods, reuseable grocery bags…the rest of the area was a twin sized bed his feet hung off of, loosely packed tubs of his things and a floor he rarely saw because it was covered with books, newspapers, clothes, fast food wrappers, cans and full ashtrays. The television was only showing static after the Friends marathon he was partaking in for the past twelve weeks. He watched each disk three to four times, always remembering at the end that he'd already seen it.

Yawning again, he lightly kicked aside some trash from the floor, wondering when he'd last worn his shoes. He set aside his can on top of a shelf and fell onto the messy bed, the mattress top gleaming up at him while the fitted dinosaur sheet – his when he was a kid – tangled with the zebra print throw blanket and last night's cookie demolition. There was even a full can of soda hiding in there. It banged against his nose as he laid there, scanning the floor with heavy lidded eyes.

He must've fell asleep because the basement door from the kitchen banged open and his dad's heavy footfalls caused him to jolt. Law looked at the clock nearby – he'd slept for at least two hours.

"Law," Larry said with a sigh, swiping a hand through his hair as he looked around the clutter with a sort of panicked expression. Law wiped drool from his mouth and sat up sluggishly – his back ached, so he reached back and rubbed it with a frown. "I asked you to do one thing this morning. What happened?"

Exhaling lightly, Law observed the same clutter from his line of vision. He shrugged. "I guess I didn't want to do it. Thinking about how I'd have to do the same thing next week was just tiresome – it's a pointless chore."

"It's a chore, and it's what adults do," Larry said firmly, looking at him. He winced. "Son…Lamie was looking for her cookies. You have anything to say about it?"

"Yeah. They weren't the diet cookies that she thought they were. I got rid of them for her."

"Law, please."

"Just tell her her school uniform has been a little too tight for her lately, and big brother stepped in for her."

Larry sighed noisily as Law rubbed at one eye. "Are you going to look for a job this week? Have you filled out those applications like I'd asked?"

"I'm not working at those places. I'm an old man. I'm overqualified, I'd be stealing from the hands of hard working teenagers, and I couldn't let that guilt settle in. They've got their own children to provide for, families to support."

"They're jobs, and they're accepting all persons from all walks of life, Law. That sounds like a flimsy excuse."

"I'd rather support them with my continued services, not work for them. It's demeaning for a man like me, pops. I'm a man."

Larry stared at him in silence, then asked, "What happened to you, Law? You used to be so…"

"Head trauma from the car accident. Knocked some sense into me. I've been living my life by the book and haven't had the chance to actually live."

Larry gestured at his room with an incredulous expression. "Do you call this living? How is this living?'

Law exhaled again, looking at everything with wide-eyed shock. "When did this happen? I was just here, were we burglarized? They didn't find my stash, did they…?"

Larry frowned at him as Law leaned over and looked underneath his bed. Law made a sound of victory as he pulled out a few magazines from the grocery store – of homey women smiling big over meals and clean kitchens. He gave a relieved smile, showing them off to his exasperated father.

"Awesome. My porn stash is still here. The covers are still wet - "

"This cannot continue, Law," Larry interrupted him, slicing a hand through the air. He snatched the magazines away, then held them with two fingers. "You cannot keep living like this. You are twenty four years old, that car accident happened years ago – you cannot keep yourself in this place, wasting your life away because something unfortunate happen! You need to get back on your feet and get back out there, son!"

"I can't." Law set aside the magazines, folding his hands atop of his lap. He gave Larry a pleading look. "Didn't you hear? There are people out there."

"Law!"

"These are dangerous times, what with all the climate change and advancement of technology – if I remain here, I'm safe."

"Now you're just deliberately making me angry, hoping I'll leave you alone. Get out there, mow that lawn, and unload the dishwasher. Those are easy things to do."

"How do I unload my own mother?"

Larry glared at him, then whirled away, stomping back up the stairs. Law cringed at the sound of the slamming door. But he pulled at his ski sweater, feeling exhausted from the conversation. He reached underneath his bed once more, finding the tin box that was always within reach. It was supposed to hold Pokemon trading cards, but it hid something more valuable than that. He lit one, spying his shoes underneath some books. Getting up, he stuffed his feet into them, then clomped up the stairs to the back yard.

The sunlight made him wince, recoiling away from the bright sun with a hiss. The sounds of the neighborhood was incredibly carefree – children laughing from two yards away, someone's sound system at full blast with a blockbuster playing, a couple of lawn mowers moving, people swimming in a pool, dogs barking and cats meowing from windows. Birds fluttered from tree to tree, and the air was thick with spring blooming flowers and freshly cut grass.

He stumbled just standing there.

"Look at you! Isn't it a little too early for vampires to emerge from their coffins?"

Law scowled, working his jaw at the cheery voice coming from next door. Sure enough, his neighbor was perched up on his second floor deck, watering his potted flowers with a duck and sunflower watering can. He was dressed for his restaurant job, so every part of him was clean cut and sharp. Sanji was the second sun, and a dull thorn to his urethra.

"My dad made me do it," he muttered.

"Your dad makes you do a lot of things, huh?" Sanji returned with a sympathetic look.

"Enough, I have a migraine."

"Ugh, look at you – you're so sloppy it hurts. It's like you deliberately miss garbage day so those guys can toss you into the back of their truck. Self-preservation, eh?"

Law glared up at him, shielding his eyes to do it. Sanji leaned against the railing to grin down at him, cigarette caught in his own mouth. Law couldn't look at him anymore. Sanji hurt his ears and his eyes.

"When you're done mowing the lawn, I have a few tasks for you to complete. I'm assuming you used your allowance to buy last night's Taco Bell, right?"

"I'm not doing anything for you. I got my own family to take care of. Look at this place. I'll be busy for…months…" Law scanned the backyard – the gazebo with all his mother's treasured flowers in matching pots, the blooming fruit trees, the sturdy pines that stretched towards the sky. Birds meandered from limb to limb, soaring over full nests. A cat watched him from the other neighbor's yard, bushy tail flicking as hooded eyes turned lazy.

"Yes, you're carrying every member of your family on your slouchy shoulders. I saw Lamie leaving earlier with a boy – was that her boyfriend?"

Law looked annoyed, removing the joint from his mouth at the topic. His sister was old enough to have a boyfriend, but it was apparent she was ignoring all of her older brother's warnings.

Sanji lifted his visible eyebrow. "You didn't know? Wow. You both live in the same shitty house and everything. I bet you had no idea what happened to her cookies, did you?"

Law gave him a puzzled look. Larry wasn't the type of man that shouted, so how did Sanji know about that? "It's my own parents fault for failing their jobs. I'll be so unhappy if there's a baby in the house. I'm the only baby they should be feeding and napping."

"Kidd finished mowing the lawn," Sanji said, straightening away from the railing to resume watering his marigolds and day lilies. "He's now working on his motorcycle. Checking your house every few minutes to see where you're at. Apparently, you had a date you missed."

"This neighborhood is full of overachievers…I truly wish for a Purge…"

"My job requires me to work at least ten hours on my feet. Meanwhile, I've got those tasks. So if you want that anus burning tonight…" Sanji snapped his fingers twice, then walked back through the sliding glass door. Law rolled his eyes, then looked at his joint. He carefully put it out on the edge of a flowerbox, mashing the ashes into the wood.

"I'm not your slave," Law muttered bitterly, slipping what was left of his mood changer into his picket. "Ordering me around like I give a flying fuck. I've got my own shit to do around here. I'm over loaded as it is."

He meandered back to the lawnmower still sitting in front, waiting for him. He stared down at it with bitterness, then reached for the pull cord.

"Where'd you go, Trafalgar?" Kidd shouted from across the street. "Your mommy cook you breakfast, and you had to sleep it off?"

Law straightened up to glare at him. "I'm not shouting back at you," he said, causing Kidd to squint before cupping an ear in his direction. "Eat my dirty, unwashed ass, you ass."

"What was that?"

Law waved at him with fake cheer, Kidd looking puzzled. He reached out to turn down his music.

"I finished mowing in five point two seconds, today," Kidd then announced, wiping his hands on his ripped jeans. "And my yard's a little bigger than yours. So, what you got?"

"I can probably do a quarter in twice that," Law figured, overlooking the rock garden in the right corner and the smaller flower trees the picket fence was constructed around. The flower beds and immaculate grass rows promised him some precision trouble. He leaned against the lawnmower, exhaling shortly.

"Damn, you really let yourself go," Kidd continued, wincing. "Oh, you ever find out what happened with Lamie's cookies?"

Law glanced over at him with bewilderment, straightening up from the lawnmower. "How does everyone on this street know about her damn cookies?"

"I heard it from the mailman. Y'know? Bart?"

"Mailmen have names…?"

Kidd shook at a finger at him with warning. "Better watch that one. Lamie's getting pretty. I bet he's got piercings in places us men don't want to know about."

Law pictured his little sister – pigtails, round face, glutton for sugar. When was the last time he'd seen her? She was always in bed by the time he came back with his food. Maybe he should text her. Tag her in memes – something.

"Weren't you supposed to be a doctor?"

Law frowned at him once more, then looked down at the lawnmower. He reached for the pull cord and noticed he exhaled with a heavy grunt. In that stooped position, he patted his stomach then straightened once more with a wince.

Definitely not diet cookies.

He noticed his parents' cars in the driveway, along with Lamie's moped – the flowered helmet with butterflies on it. It was pink and custom painted, with a wire basket in front. As he was looking at that, a heavy duty truck pulled up to Sanji's driveway. Law froze, not hearing Kidd as he continued to speak.

From the driver's seat emerged a giant of a man. Wearing all black, with brilliant magenta hair cropped short around the skull. Sanji had funky looking brothers, but this one wasn't one of them. He was surely from a biker gang, wearing leather with an open vest that had some gang affiliation on the back. Probably hung out at biker bars and beat on old people for their social security debit cards and stole off with helpless women from bus stops. Law wasn't sure. He stared with apprehension because the man was so tall – all muscle and menacing, with eyes that seemed to look through everything with some type of x-ray vision.

He killed the engine to the truck, looking at Law with mild consideration. His eyes only narrowed at the sight of Law before he shut the door and disappeared around the hedges. Law listened to his heavy boots clomp up the front walkway, Sanji's doorbell ringing moments later.

"Don't come up to my door like you belong here! What the hell are you doing here, anyway? I don't need a damn ride, like I'd let some idiot drive me around like I'm helpless and stupid! I've got my own car, my own shit – stop coming around here like you belong here!" Law heard Sanji snap once the door opened, and Law tried not to make it obvious but he saw the younger man stride out of his house and stomp towards his own car – a Cadillac that should have been in the hands of an old man – ignoring the bigger one that looked after him with exasperation. But the truck blocked the Cadillac in, and Sanji couldn't go anywhere anyway.

Law tried not to get invested with his neighbors, but this one was mildly fascinating to him. Sanji cursed noisily, but made his way to the passenger side of the truck while the other man climbed into the driver's seat. He was still cursing up a storm once the doors closed, and the truck backed out of the driveway and drove on down the street with a rumble of its engine.

"Law!"

He turned at the sound of his name, given with such exasperation. His mother stood there on the front walkway, arms crossed tightly over her chest. She looked at him before gesturing at the lawnmower.

"Your father gave you a task to complete," Patty said with annoyance. "Is it that hard to mow the damn lawn?"

"I don't see any of you guys doing it," Law said in return. "So it must be."

"You are asked to do a few things around the house, and none of it is difficult to do! They're things children can complete, and you're not a child! Why do you expect to be treated like one?" Patty then winced, waving at the air around her face. "Have you been smoking weed in our house again?"

"No. Just the basement. I need it. For my anxiety."

"You don't have anxiety!" Patty said with a vexed expression. "You don't even have a prescription for that stuff – there's no need for you to do that! Your father was right – what is wrong with you?"

"Mowing the lawn is a dangerous task. What if I run over a rock and it ricochets off the house and kills me? What if I run over a family of bunnies? What if my foot gets caught in the rotor? It's not an easy task. There's plenty to think about."

Patty stared at him in silence, then shook her head. "I'm tired of this, Law. You're an adult. You're a capable adult, quite able to take care of yourself, and yet you don't. You choose to live like this! Why? I don't understand, why?"

"My eyes are open, mother. I no longer want to live by the book."

"What does that mean? Ugh, when was the last time you took a shower?"

"Tuesday. No, Thursday…"

"Did you take Lamie's cookies?"

"What is this obsession with her cookies? Were they made of gold?"

"Never mind, I see you did," Patty then said, gesturing at his face. "Why don't you go jogging? Take a long walk around the block a few times? Do something – it'll make you feel better. Get some sunshine, drink some water – I bet you pee pure brown from all those disgusting energy drinks you've been ingesting. I'm surprised you're not shooting up with it."

"Patty, I'd die."

"Don't call me that - !" Patty's face reddened before her hands settled to her hips. "Just do the lawn. Take a shower. You can do that, can't you? Bart dropped off the mail, you have something in it. It's in the kitchen."

"Did you look at it first? What if it's a letter bomb?"

Patty rolled her eyes as she turned and walked back to the house, slamming the door shut behind her. Law exhaled low, glancing around to see if anyone had heard the confrontation. Kidd was busy grunting over his motorcycle, and there was a father teaching his kid how to ride a bike. There was another man busy constructing new flower boxes for a pretty wife, who waved at him cheerfully.

Law flipped her off, and she looked startled. Her husband turned to see why she looked upset, so Law flipped him off, too. Both of them looked at him as if they hadn't seen him before, wearing expressions that clearly wondered what he was doing in this neighborhood.

Sometimes, Law wondered what he was doing here, too.