Casey McBadbat's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Casey stood in the doorway while his other three sons talked over each other about the trailer. One wanted a bigger kitchen. Another wanted separate rooms. The third kept saying they should add a porch. Chester wasn't here yet, and Casey needed him to be. The youngest pulled out a blueprint he'd drawn on graph paper. It showed the trailer with three stories and lights shaped like the letter D running along the roof. Casey squinted at it. The thing looked more like a tour bus than a home. The middle boy jabbed his finger at the paper and said they should start with an outhouse for meetings. Serious business only. The oldest laughed and said that was the shed out back, and it was already falling apart. Casey felt his grin starting before he could stop it. They were working angles against each other, same as he'd taught them without meaning to. Each one had a pitch. Each one wanted to win. But none of them were asking what the trailer should become — they were deciding what they could get from it. He stepped outside and let the door bang shut behind him. Chester would show up or he wouldn't. But Casey knew now that fixing the trailer meant picking one son's dream over the others. That was the part he hadn't let himself think about until right this second.