It had only been a few weeks since graduation. Billy was busy enjoying his summer. He had gotten a job at a local hardware store. To him it was a lot better than bagging groceries- but he didn't dare say that to his sister, after all she had done that to help him get through high school. She was putting money back for him to go on to college as well. She cared a lot about her little brother and wanted to see him succeed. Billy had also continued to see Jenny. She was going to be attending Columbia University in the fall and so she wasn't going to be going far away for school. As for his own college, he planned to go to a Community College, he wasn't sure if the college thing was for him so he wanted to play it safe. Get good grades there and transfer to a four-year school was the plan. Plus he didn't want to place a burden on his family to pay for him to go away to school.

Tonight he had planned to pick Jenny up and take her to dinner and a movie. It was unofficially their one-month anniversary and she meant a lot to him. He enjoyed spending time with her. He was supposed to pick her up at 5, but he was running a little behind. She had been waiting by the window for him to arrive and when he pulled up she ran out and met him on the sidewalk. She gave him a hug and a kiss.

"Good evening Billy Walsh, you are late." She smiles

"Why good evening Jenny Finley." He smiles back as he picks her up and takes her to the car.

He opens the car door and she gets in, he closes the door behind her. Billy makes his way to the driver's door and then into the car and away they went. They decided to go to Mac's Diner to grab a burger before they headed for the movies.

They walk up to the box office.

"May I help you?" The attendant asks

"Yes, can I get two tickets for Silver Streak please?" Billy asks

"That'll be $4.50." The attendant says

Billy hands over a five and gets two quarters back with his movie tickets.

"Enjoy the show." The attendant says

Billy and Jenny head into the theater. They get a large popcorn and two sodas and then find their way to their movie. They find a couple of seats near the top, it was darker up there, so the make their way up to them. The movie begins just after they are seated. It doesn't take long before Jenny rests her head on Billy's shoulder. She looks up and smiles, then snuggles a little closer. After a while the movie ends, but Billy and Jenny sit still in the theater.

"Well what did you think?" Billy asks

"I liked it." Jenny says

"Me too." Billy replies

"Billy" Jenny begins

"Yes?" he asks

"Do you love me?" she asks

Billy doesn't take long before he says, "Yes."

"Then why don't you say it to me?" Jenny questions

"I…" He stumbles over the words at first, "I love you."

With this Jenny is satisfied and she snuggles closer to him. They continue to sit in the theater as patrons of the next show enter. Finally Billy takes Jenny by the hand and they leave the theater. He takes her home, but they sit in the car outside of her house. Billy just watches Jenny, he loved to watch her. He then leans in and kisses her passionately before he tells her goodnight.

The next morning Billy begins his day with breakfast. He has to be at the hardware store by 8, so he finishes his food, puts his plate and glass in the sink and heads out the door. He already knew what his task for today would be to clean all of the shelves and restock them. That's what he did every Saturday morning. It usually took him a few hours, and then he would tinker around the store for the remainder of his shift.

He walked in the door and grabbed his apron. The he immediately sets to work cleaning the area around the tools. He made sure that each tool rack was clean and that every tool was free from dust. He moved on to clean around the storage supplies, and then over to the seed counter. He swept some stray seeds up off of the floor and put them in the garbage can. Then he continued about his cleaning.

"Billy." His boss says to him

"Yes Boss?" Billy replies

"Take a break and get some lunch." His boss tells him, Billy had a habit of working straight through his lunch. The kid had a great work ethic and his boss appreciated it.

"Okay." Billy agrees

"Oh and while you are out, can you do me a favor and make a delivery?" His boss asks

"Sure thing boss." Billy responds as he takes a brown paper bag from his boss.

"It's Mrs. Jones's summer seeds. She's expecting them." His boss smiles

"I'll get them to her." Billy takes the small piece of paper that the address was scribbled on and heads out of the shop.

He walks the few blocks that it takes to find Mrs. Jones's home. She had a beautiful array of flowers blooming around the stoop. Billy rang the bell and she came to the door.

"Why thank you young man." She says

Mrs. Jones was in her 60s and she didn't go out anymore than she had to. But she was proud of her flowers. She had been having trouble with her knees so she couldn't get down to take the weeds out of the flowerbed. Billy noticed a dandelion growing at the edge of one of the beds. He bent down and pulled it out.

"Thank you, I haven't been able to get down on my knees to do it." Mrs. Jones says

"It's okay Mrs. Jones, it was really no trouble." Billy says

"How would you like to make a few extra dollars helping me out around here?" Mrs. Jones proposes. "I don't have anyone who can help me and I sure would appreciate the help."

Billy thinks for a moment, it was summer and the days were still long. He had 2 days off a week; he didn't take long to provide her an answer.

"Why yes Ma'am I could use the extra money and I would love to help you out." Billy says. He now knew why his boss had him come out to Mrs. Jones's. She was thrilled with his willingness to take the job. She handed him a five-dollar bill and they made arrangements for him to come out on Wednesday. After a short time he finally made his way back to work. He takes his apron back down off of the hook and began cleaning up around the paints.

He unloaded the shelves and cleaned each can. He wiped down the shelves and put the cans back on them. Then he moved to the paint thinners. He hadn't noticed the nail on the bottom shelf and when he put the can back down, he hadn't noticed that it punctured the can. He moved onto work on the putty and caulk shelving. He moved on to organize the putty knives, paintbrushes, sand paper and everything else you could ever need to do any painting around your house. He then returned to the front of the store to help with customers, not noticing the pool of liquid forming on the floor.

His boss, Mr. Chaney was back in his office. He was going over the paperwork for the week. He also had the money out to count the deposit he would have for the week. No one seemed to notice the two men who walked into the shop and began to look at the tools. They checked the back office. These men had come in every Saturday this month. They always looked but never bought anything. Billy went back to the nuts and bolts to match up a bolt for a customer. He noticed the men and thought that he should go and check on them.

"Can I help you find anything?" Billy asks

"No, we're just looking to see what we need to repair our roof." One of the men says

"I can help you with that." Billy says

He wasn't expecting what happened next. One of the men pulled a sawed off shotgun out of his pants. It had been hidden by his shirt. He held the gun to Billy's chest. The other man drew a pistol and headed for the office. They had to work quickly or they were not going to succeed.

"This is a hold up!" The one man says as he pushes the shotgun hard into Billy's chest.

Billy had his hands up in the air. He didn't want to make any sudden moves. The man pushed Billy towards the front counter. It made the cash register an easy target when you have a shotgun in the chest of an employee. The other man burst into the office and caught Mr. Chaney by surprise.

"Give me all the money." The second man demanded.

Mr. Chaney scrambled to put the money in a bag. He didn't want this to have a horrible ending. The second robber now approached the back of the store with Billy in tow. Billy now looked down and noticed the puddle of liquid. The men had the money they wanted and so they threw Billy to the side into the shelving of paints. He crumpled to the floor and looked up as Mr. Chaney came out of the office with his own shotgun aimed at the robbers.

"Wait!" Billy yelled but it was too late. Mr. Chaney had already pulled the trigger. The spark from the shot ignited the fumes of paint thinner and caused a huge explosion. Smoke and flames filled the room quickly.

The flash of the explosion was bright. It was loud too. Billy's ears were ringing. He was numb. I felt absolutely no pain though he knew that he was hurt. He saw the flames and he remembered that his boss had been standing near the force of the explosion. A thick black smoke was quickly filling the room. He coughed and now he hurt. He struggled to his feet and he staggered over to where Mr. Chaney had been. Reaching through the black smoke he searched for him. He found the shelving, and then followed it to the office door. And in the doorway he found Mr. Chaney. He wasn't moving. Billy grabbed his shirt and started to pull him out but the shirt tore. Billy struggled to get up under Mr. Chaney's arms. He was determined to get his boss out of that store.

He got to the front of the tool aisle and he was too exhausted to go any further. He could hear the sound of sirens coming closer but he couldn't see past the smoke. Billy paused, he was in excruciating pain and he was coughing, he couldn't breathe. He closed his eyes and slid down to the floor.