Runner

There’s no Mercedes or people in formal clothes outside the utility room. Chance tries to convince himself he’s paranoid, but he thinks people might murder him. He hurries down the ramp and closes the Pier B security gate, which is almost 15 feet high. If someone wanted to break in, they’d need a ladder or a sledgehammer, and that’d attract attention.

Chance leaves the boat and searches the bars for his dad but can’t find him. Returning to the boat, he spots the back of someone’s head inside—he doesn’t know who this person is. Chance notices the boat is clean. In the cabin is a clean man in nice clothes.

Chance tells his dad that he looks good, and the dad says Melissa’s dad got him a job as a janitor for his office building downtown. He’ll work nights and weekends and get medical, dental, vacation, and sick days.

Chance tells his dad he’s enlisting in the Army. His dad warns him about getting a “pretty girl” pregnant and starting a family before he’s ready. Chance’s dad doesn’t want his son to make the same mistakes he did.

Chance asks why his dad got kicked out of the army.