Page 13 of Property of Thrasher
“You’re right, ma. I don’t even let the bitches I fuck get a free stay or meal either.”
Then without another word, he strutted behind the counter to an office in the back while his mom, Nancy, did indeed hand us a room key and never once asked for a payment or a damn credit card.
“He’s a little rough around the edges. But most of his brothers are. You’ll see, you do good work, and stay outta trouble, you’ll like it here.”
Lyric asked, “brothers? How many kids do you have Ms. Nancy? You look amazing”
Ms. Nancy smiled, “I don’t know the Kings numbers, but I consider them all my boys because they are family. Kings of Anarchy is a motorcycle club. Local fellas. They keep things in order. They’re everything to Brax. After Neil died when Braxton was still a teenager, he was a bit wild. With the Kings he found order in his life. They saved my boy.”
The fatigue catching up to us both, we yawned and all other questions and thoughts of Kings were dismissed for the night.
I didn’t have a plan. But I wasn’t about to turn this gift away. I guessed someone was looking out for us and South Carolina could be home, at least for now.
3
THRASHER
The room was filled as was my pride. The gavel felt heavy in my hand, not because of the weight, but the authority behind it. I patched in to the Kings of Anarchy MC after my medical retirement from the Army eleven years ago. I had twelve years, just shy of thirteen in service, with a plan for the full twenty. Life doesn’t go according to plans, it was a lesson I learned that day for sure.
On deployment, we were ambushed. In the firefight, my head gear came off, without earplugs in, my hearing was damaged beyond anything medical intervention could fix. Bombs going off around me while shots were being fired in all directions didn’t leave me very focused on safety gear versus staying the fuck alive. I tried hearing aids, even did an implant. I couldn’t maintain the minimum hearing requirements to remain in active duty. It killed me to lose that part of who I was. Wandering soul was the only way to describe how I felt after learning I couldn’t finish out as planned.
Enlisting at eighteen, fresh out of high school, I was a boy. A child. The Army made me a man. One with integrity. It gave me the discipline and patience I lacked before signing up.
My girlfriend came to my boot camp graduation holding a pair of baby shoes and sporting a curve to her belly she didn’t have when I left. Stunned was the only word that came to mind. The kid who wanted the freedom to roam couldn’t imagine being tied down. But the Army afforded me a way to provide for them and still give me the opportunities outside of the small town in South Carolina I came from. It was a perfect match, me and the Army that was.
As for my girlfriend, that was doomed from the start. We never married. Providing benefits for my daughter and paying for her mother to be able to live at home comfortably and not work, that was easy. Keeping my dick in my pants … that simply didn’t happen. This left things complicated between us to put it mildly.
The greatest gift shared between us was Elaina. At twenty-three, she has her own life, but doesn’t hesitate to call and check in with her Pops on the regular. As for her mother, our lives didn’t align to see each other often, but when it happened we were good.
It wasn’t always like that, especially early in our breakup. Maturity came with age. In time, we found a way to co-parent and be friends. When I finally grew up enough to be a man Elaina’s mother could trust, it was too late. Another one filled that role.
At first it bothered me to think of my daughter calling another man daddy. After meeting him, though, and the way he never once excluded me from anything, I came to terms with he was actually the better man to fill my boots. There were times I wished I could go back and do things different for Elaina’s sake. Hindsight and all that business.
I had lost the girl, and my career. It was a hard spot to be in for a man like me.
Until it wasn’t.
I learned I could have brotherhood without the uniforms, duty stations, and boots. I learned I had a life without hearing the birds chirp like before. Losing my hearing didn’t have to define me. I learned I had a place without the Army.
While I didn’t hear like I used to I could still lead. That was the gift the Kings gave me.
My Army mentor retired before the deployment that robbed me. He had found his place with the Kings of Anarchy MC down in Alabama. When I got out, he was my first phone call. He gave me a place to stay and rebuild my life. Being there in his world, I learned about club life. I learned what brotherhood meant when combat wasn’t on the forefront. The Kings gave me a freedom I never had in the service. I did my time, earned my rockers.
When the need to move back to Florence, South Carolina arose eight years ago, I took the opportunity to have a meet with the National Chapter in California. Big Daddy was hesitant to give me my own charter being new and not having held an officer position down in Bama. The Alabama club took my back, though, and my officers gave Big Daddy their word to support me. If I didn’t have to be here for my daughter, I would have stayed in Bama, but life was life. I didn’t want to give up the brotherhood, but my daughter was in a situation where she needed me like never before. Her step-dad died from pancreatic cancer. It happened rapidly, he was diagnosed and poof a month later he was gone. Elaina’s mom was overcome by grief. My daughter and her mother were hurting. Elaina needed embracing and support from everyone in her life. I wouldn’t let her down. All in all, it worked out and I built this club from the ground up.
Being here, at the head of this table, meant everything to me.
Order.
Discipline.
Leadership.
Loyalty.
Brotherhood.
Everything the Army gave me along with so much more.
