Augustus Chapter One Intro

The day my father died, I graduated from High School. I remember the smile on his face when I walked up to receive my diploma. I remember he was wearing his old brown suit that my mother had bought for him before she died. He was so proud of me.
My father raised me all by himself. He was a simple man that didn't rely on too much to get by. He came from three generations of Irish farmers. The land we farmed and lived on was the same farmland that was passed down from each generation. The only thing that remained from the original was a big red barn. It is still holding up just fine but it takes constant renovation to keep it from falling apart. If my father wasn't working with the livestock, he was working on that old red barn.

We went to lunch to celebrate at an old diner that we have been going to since I was born. It was one of those joints you see on television where the same old regulars show up every morning for coffee. Me and my pop were some of those regulars. He sat down across from me and said "I am so proud of you son, I am sure your mother is proud of you too".
After we had finished eating. My father starting fidgeting with the inside of his jacket. He pulled out an envelope and layed it across the table with my name facing up in his messy handwriting. I picked it up and slid the contents into my open hand, I had a feeling that I knew what it was and my intuition was right. A set of keys landed in the palm of my hand. It was the keys to my pops old truck. I had thought that he had gotten rid of it when he got the new one just the year before.

"Your giving me Betsy?"

"She is at home in the barn with a full tank waiting for ya."

My father and I parted ways. Some buddies of mine were going to crash a couple of graduation parties and I wanted to go along. If I knew then what I know now, I would have stayed home with my dad.