Read The Day Steam Died for Free Online Page B

sleep.”
    “We’ll see in the morning. Now, get to bed before your daddy wakes up and wants to know what’s the matter with you.”
    Rick strained to keep his voice to a whisper in the library where they had study hall. “Ann, I’m worried about the way you’ve been missing school and avoiding me these last few weeks. Please tell me what the heck is wrong. Is it something I’ve done? I’ll do whatever it takes to get us back to the way we were, just don’t keep shutting me out. I’ll come over during Christmas break so we can talk this out, okay?”
    “It’s nothing you can fix. I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you and wish things could be different.” At the sound of the bell ending third period, Ann rushed into the crowded hallway before Rick could see her tears.
    She ducked into the girl’s bathroom seconds before throwing up. Missing her period wasn’t something Ann could talk to her mother about and she didn’t have any close girlfriends.
    The cold water she splashed on her face was soothing. When she looked up from the lavatory into the mirror, dark circles under her puffy red eyes stared back at her. Ann looked like a woman twice her age. She glanced around to see if she was alone then slipped into a stall, wrapped her arms around her waist, and sobbed. “Oh my God, what am I going to do?”

Chapter 7
    “The town of Bankstowne grew, established churches, schools, grocery stores, doctors, dentists, and a dozen other shops to take care of its citizens.”
    Holiday downer
    Christmas day at the Johnson’s house wasn’t the happy occasion Sam Johnson expected. They were supposed to be sitting on the fifty-yard line to watch his North Carolina Tar Heels play in the Orange Bowl.
    Tank had shaken Sam’s world to the core when he awkwardly confessed his stupid high school prank to get even with Rick for not giving him the star billing he deserved in the school paper. Even Tank was shaken to find out later Ann was pregnant.
    “Are you trying to screw up your chances to play football just for a roll in the hay with a drunken grease monkey’s daughter?
    “I didn’t think she’d get pregnant.”
    “Jesus, son, what’s the matter with you? If she goes to the police, we have a real problem.”
    Sam paced in front of a crackling fireplace of the finest home in Bankstowne. He almost bit in half the cigar stub protruding from the corner of his mouth. He hadn’t lit up since Dr. McCormick made him quit smoking five years ago. A childhood bout of pneumonia left his lungs weak, so now he only chewed the finest hand-rolled Havana’s shipped directly to him from Cuba.
    “I have big plans for your future, son, and I’m not just talking about playing football at Carolina. You keep your pecker in your pants and you can write your own ticket to the General Assembly, the governor’s mansion . . . Washington. There’s no limit to where you can go.”
    “But what about pro ball? I can make a whole lot more money in the NFL. Heck, I could make more than you even.” Tank smirked.
    “Listen to me, boy, I’m talking about more money than you can imagine, in the hundreds of millions. You can play maybe five or six years if you don’t blow a knee, then what?”
    “Then I’ll be old enough to run for governor.” Tank stood only inches from his father’s face. “Or congress. By then everybody in the country will know who I am.”
    “Don’t get smart with me. The plan is to get you elected to the General Assembly first. To learn your way around, how to make alliances and get legislation passed that will put your name in front of the voters.” Sam chewed his nub of a cigar. “Then when you’re thirty, move up to the governor’s mansion as the youngest governor in North Carolina’s history. As governor you can help turn our new S & T Distributing Company into an even bigger money machine.
    “Tobacco is the life blood of North Carolina. We have the lowest cigarette tax in the country and the best part is tax