"Gee Whiz! Go on you stupid thing!" Adam Kramer said as he was working under the hood of his 1970's Trans Am. He was in the process of restoring the blue car. He was exceptional proud of the matching Firebird emblem on the hood that his eighteen-year-old brother, Jason, had got him. "I just don't understand why you have to be so difficult!"

He stopped and sat down in the driver's seat of the car. Auto mechanical stuff came easy to him, but he just could not get his fingers to cooperate. He had been going faithfully to physical therapy to improve the motor skills that he lost due to a car accident, but things were just not progressing fast enough for him. He knew that he would be facing new obstacles because of his learning disabilities due to the brain damage he suffered, but he was learning to deal with it day by day. Adam still, however, found it frustrating.

"At least I can still walk," he thought, referring to his girlfriend, Alyssa, who was left paralyzed after the same accident. Adam's best friend Chuck was a passenger as well, but he came out of it with just a scar. Adam knew that he had to calm his nerves, so he turned the ignition over to power the cassette player. He put Quiet Riot's "Mental Health". As he cranked up the music of one of his favorite heavy rock groups, he sank back into the driver's seat to clear his thoughts.

Adam indeed had to lot to think about. Their last case was very emotionally draining for all of the family. Alyssa's uncle had tried to kill her in a car accident to gain insurance money, but will end up serving life without in prison. Adam and Chuck were victims of the same brutal accident. But that was in the past, Adam thought to himself. Alyssa now lived with Clara, a friend who took her and her older brother Jacob in. Adam, himself, was the younger of two sons of Carl and Laura Kramer. Laura was an archeology teacher at the University of California at San Diego. She was currently away on a dig in Arizona. Carl Kramer was an investigator for the state of California and it seemed that his sons were following in his footsteps. They had solved a few cases on their own. It was amazing to Adam that the brothers worked so well together. They were as different as their appearances. Adam was a seventeen-year-old with medium length blonde hair and Jason, a year older, was dark-haired with brown eyes. Adam was a football player, while Jason prided himself with debate, chess and computers. He did however, play baseball. Both boys attended high school in the small town of Emerald Beach, California. Jason was an honor roll student, while Adam chose to not be as studious even though he was a very intelligent person. The Kramer's home was located in the country along the coast, which made it the perfect place for Adam to crank up his favorite music without disturbing anyone. That is except for the rest of the family.

He decided to give it another try. He took the wrench and tried to tighten up the hose, but he just could not steady his hands. In frustration, he threw the wrench down barely missing the 1970 GMC van that the brothers both shared and his older brother Jason.

"What is the problem?" Jason asked, noting his brother's frustration. It really bothered him to see his brother struggle with things that used to be easy to him. "Can I help?"

Adam just looked at his brother in disbelief. Everyone knew that Jason lacked mechanical abilities.

"Come on, give me a chance," Jason said picking up the wrench. "Besides how can you even concentrate with that noise blaring in your ears!"

"Like listening to people who drown in their sorrows in their pick-up trucks with their dog in the back is going to make me feel better," Adam said referring to Jason's preference to country music.

"At least I can make out the words," Jason said, sarcastically. The boys always had differed on their musical preferences. "Thank God, we have our own rooms now. So what do I do?"

"Just tighten up this hose," Adam pointed out. He steadied Jason's hand into the right position and let his brother tighten up the hose clamp. "Thanks, Jas."

"Anytime. It looks like it is almost ready to go," Jason said marveling at his brother's project for the last six months. "At least you will have four days to work on it with the Sea Festival in town."

"Thank goodness for the Sea Festival! Anything that closes school has my vote. All I have to do is adjust the carburetor and she will be on the road," Adam said proudly. "I can finish that tonight."

"Does that mean that the van is totally mine?" Jason said with a grin.

"Give up Ol' Blue? Never!" affectionately referring to the brother's van. "But at least we won't have to double date!" Adam said jabbing his brother in the shoulder. "This car is gong to win next year's car show though."

Jason had to smile at that. He was glad that Adam was not letting his limitations stop him. Jason had been working with him in his subjects over the past few weeks that had passed since the accident. It took a lot of constant drill and rehearsing the facts, but Adam was doing okay despite the fact that he really disliked school. The hospital suggested that he writes his notes using blue and red ink plus use differently colored highlighters to help foster his photogenic memory. This strategy was working out very well, but it was very time consuming. This also increased Adam's frustration as well as Jason's level of patience. However, Jason was going to do anything to keep his brother out of the special classes. The sound of the portable phone ringing brought Jason out of his thoughts. He turned to tell Adam to turn the music or "noise" down as Jason would refer to it as, but Adam was deep into his work again. He reached the phone and went inside to be able to hear the person. It was Kara Dobbins, Jason's steady girlfriend.

"I have been waiting for you to call back. Didn't Adam give you the message?" her voice boomed over the phone. He could tell she was a little irritated.

"No, I have been out mowing the lawn. I just came in and started to rearrange my closet," Jason said apologetically. "I am really sorry."

"Since when have you became so into housekeeping?" Kara asked in amazement.

"There is this force that governs the house and SHE said that both of our rooms had better be in order when she came back," Jason said referring to his mother. "I don't think Adam is taking her seriously though. But again, he has truly never cleaned that room."

"I know. That is probably why his bedroom is the last one down the hallway so no one has to walk past it," Kara said with a laugh. She truly liked Adam, but they were complete opposites and sometimes that caused problems. "Anyway, I called to tell you that I have to go out of town this weekend with my parents. We have to go to Sacramento to check on my aunt. She fell and broke her hip. I have not seen her for awhile so I thought that I should visit with her."

"That is fine, Kara. Don't worry about it," Jason said they had made plans to attend the Sea Festival, but he could keep his father company instead. His father always entered the fishing contest off of the pier. He also always lost. "I can help Dad with his annual fishing conquest. At least I will not have to go to the car show with Adam if I go with Dad."

"I will make it up to you when I get back," Kara said with a chuckle. Every year she had to rescue Jason from the car show. Adam always spent a day at the show, especially because people from San Diego and Los Angeles attended the show.

After Jason hung up with Kara, he checked the notebook that he put next to the phone for Adam to write messages down on. The therapist thought that since his short-term memory was damaged, he should write messages down when taking phone calls. Adam had not written down Kara's message. He walked out to his brother was and turned the music off. Adam immediately looked up at Jason for an explanation.

"Kara just called. She said she left a message with you, but I never saw anything written down by the phone," Jason said, crossing his arms with his usual investigative stance. Adam knew he was in trouble whenever Jason crossed his arms. Adam just stood there with a blank look.

"Adam, you have to write down the messages. What if it was an important message for Dad or Mom?" Jason said. His tone was more like a scolding parent. "If you can't remember to do that, then maybe you should not answer the phone anymore."

Adam just stared down at the car. He kept his hands on the fender to keep his anger. He knew deep down he should have written the message down, but he honestly forgot to do that even. He was still getting used to his new way of life and he often retreated back to his old ways. He did not feel like explaining himself so he simply said, "You are right Jason. I am sorry for not getting your precious message to you."

At this point, Jason could tell that Adam was getting angry. But he felt like he had to push his brother to help him regain his old self. "Also, Mom wants our closets ridded out. Don't forget to do that."

"Yes, Jason. Whatever you say, Jason. I bow to you feet, Jason!" Adam said angrily. He felt like he was being scolded and he was definitely not in the mood for it. He was already frustrated due to his problems with fixing his car. He laid the wrench down by the car, slammed the hood down, and proceeded to go to his room to start on his closet. "Maybe stupid me could do that job right," Adam muttered as he went up the steps to his room. Jason had followed him at a distance and heard the remark. He instantly felt bad about the situation. Kara's message was not important enough to hurt his brother over.

Jason at first went to his room to collect his thoughts. He heard his brother banging things around in his room. Adam was rightfully mad. He continued to dig out the boxes of things that he had collected over the years. After waiting for about fifteen minutes, Jason walked down to Adam's room. He peeked into Adam's room. Adam was pulling boxes out of his closet as well. When the younger Kramer turned to look over his new mess, he noticed Jason standing in the doorway. He turned away from him and continued his work.

"Adam? I need to talk to you," Jason said softly. At first Adam ignored him, but then he let out a sigh and turned to face Jason. "I am sorry. I should not have talked to you like that."

Adam looked at him, "I am sorry I did not write the message down, but I think I am just not used to doing it that. It slipped my mind."

"Just try to get in the practice of it, okay?" Jason replied. Adam nodded and turned to finish his work. He was having a hard time steadying the weight of the boxes at times so Jason started to help him.

"You don't have to help out, you know," Adam said, but Jason just continued on. Just then the bottom of one of the boxes that Adam was lifting fell through, spilling a bunch of notebooks all over he already cluttered floor. Adam recognized them as his old journals from school. From first grade on to his eighth grade year, the elementary required that each student write in a private journal. Adam hated writing, but did it to pass the class. Jason started to look through some of the journals and started chuckling at one of the entries.

"This was written your sixth grade year when you had that enormous crush on Daisy Duke," Jason said with a chuckle. Daisy Duke was a gorgeous character off of the television series "Dukes of Hazzard". Adam always rushed into see the TV show, even though the series was into syndication at the time. "I really would like to meet Daisy Duke. She has a cool jeep and really short shorts. She would make a great girlfriend to take to the beach and surf in the cove. Oh, and the things that I could do with the jeep. We could really go places in it."

"Very funny," Adam said with a smirk. "At least she was better to look at than the girls that you drooled for back then."

"The girls I mentioned actually were my age and lived in our area!" Jason said defensively. He started to look through the notebook even more. "I sure am glad your writing skill have improved since then. Miss Meade would have to have a whole set of red ink pens to grade this journal. Thank goodness for the fact that the teachers only read the parts that you picked out."

Adam kept trying to clear things up from the floor. Jason continued to read through some of his writing and laughing as se read aloud certain parts that referred to fights and the good times that the brothers had. Then he got to Adam's seventh grade notebook and he found a disturbing passage.

"What is this?" he asked. "The most horrible thing that happened to me is when I saw someone do something really bad to someone that I loved. I have to keep it secret and it is very hard at night sometimes. I really hate him. How...."

Adam, while hearing his brother read the passage, got up and grabbed it away from Jason. Jason just sat there with a bewildered look on his face. "What was that?" Jason asked with concern. But Adam did not answer right away. He was about to make up an excuse when the phone rang. Jason ran to answer the phone in the hallway. Adam was relieved for the break and quickly gathered up the notebooks and put them under his bed. He did not want Jason to read the rest of the notebook. Adam had never kept a secret from Jason, but this was different. It was just too painful. While Jason was on the phone he heard his father come in the door with his usual call of, "Where is everyone?"

Before Adam could answer, Jason said that the phone call was for Mr. Kramer.

"Who is it?" Mr. Kramer said as he came up the steps to take the call in his office.

"It is Uncle Bill! He said that he really needs to talk to you," Jason said cheerfully. He had not heard from his uncle in two years and had not seen him for at least eight years. Jason loved Uncle Bill, while Adam did not get along with him. Bill was actually Carl's cousin, but he was raised from thirteen on with Carl's parents. So the boys always called him "Uncle Bill".