Unlikely

Chapter 1

School News

There were the outcries at the school board meeting when it was announced that the city trustees had decided during the spring to move sixth grade to the middle school next year.  To be in sync with the growing demands and pressure of the government which allowed small cities to run with little interference they had complied. There were people talking on top of each other.  

“Why were we not told this sooner?”

“No way!”

“Outrageous!”

“Do we even get a vote?”

“Please, let’s settle down so we all can hear what everyone has to say.”  One board member, the youngest trustee said into the mike.  One parent stood up.

 “My child is not ready to go to middle school” she said with a frightened look.  “Are we trying to keep up with the surrounding cities?”

 “I moved my family here because of the different ways this city was run, not a carbon copy of all the rest.”

The board members who consisted of seven members, four men and three women, all professionals. There was the Superintendent of the school district, a hair salon owner, professor at the local college, former governor, bank president, restaurant owner and an architect who all gave a weary look.  The spokeswoman, a woman in her mid-fifties spoke.

          “I know that this change may not be what everyone had in mind when you said in our annual survey to service the citizens of the city that change needed to occur but please be advised that it is in the best interest of the students. We have done our research and studies have found that children age 11 are very capable of adjusting to middle school and are prone to lean towards their older peers.”

          “Our children are not lab rats where you can just stick them under a microscope and come up with a theory on what is best” an angry man shouted out.  

The spokeswoman looked around the room.  She saw angry faces, confused and indifferent.  She looked to the other trustees as if to say anybody want to take this?  

They looked back at her as if to say, we are the decision makers but you are our mouthpiece. She turned back to the parents and other attendees attending the meeting. “I am deeply sorry some of you feel that way but we have to keep up with regulations otherwise we will not be able to manufacture the monetary expense it takes to stay a small city.”  

She sat down.  There was more scheduled on the docket but the noise in the room inhibited them from going any further that night.

“This meeting has now been adjourned” said a male trustee.  “Any further comments may be addressed by writing to one or all of us at our emails.  Have a good evening ladies and gentlemen.”

A woman at the back, who used to be a teacher but now works part time at one of the five local banks called Herrington’s as a financial analyst… just a fancy name for helping people who moved here adjust their life and finances to a smaller city.  She had sat through the meeting with her mini recording device…her phone and was scribbling furiously, taking numerous notes.  

She wanted to be a journalist and had taken a few courses in high school and college but her parents had said that journalism was a hard profession to break into and she had listened.  Now five years later, she was following her dream.

 Now back in school, having to find another job that allowed her the flexibility to return to school and pay for tuition, she had chosen the bank.

She had saved a small sum of money during her five years of teaching. But that would not last long giving the amount it cost to go back to school. Plus her living expenses. The school she graduated from had a loans forgiveness program that made it possible that after completing five consecutive years of teaching in a small community your loans would all be erased.  

Since she had taught at a smaller school in a small district, she was debt free.  One less thing to worry about, she thought as she turned and smiled sympathetically at a woman on her left.  They worked together and she came along only because this meeting affected one of her children.  

She could tell the other woman would have rather been at home with her three kids talking about their day but was too polite to leave.  She smiled back faintly.  The woman turned her attention back to the meeting that had come to a close watching as some parents tried to get a one on one with the trustees.  There was always something bubbling under the surface when it came to the city and projects thought to improve the cities atmosphere.  

Next item on the docket for next month would be what to do about the vacant building that has stood abandoned for years. There was a for sale sign out front that looked weathered.  She already knew what people thought.  She heard it all day. That building will attract riff raff or it is an antique, we need to preserve it to remind us of our roots.  

The building used to be an old-fashioned hotel some say and had caught on fire when someone overturned a gas lantern; others disagreed saying it was a swanky joint back in the day that had lost its appeal.  Either way, now it was just an old abandoned building, burnt out and mummified that had seen better days.  With no buyers for years, the building would probably be razed to the ground.  Then another issue would arise about what to do with the open space.  She pulled her coat tighter as she left the meeting house, looked up at the sky, looks like rain she thought, glad to have brought her umbrella.

Six months later

When the green wispy leaves blew, she knew autumn was here. Another year of business for teachers trying to maintain their sanity.  She was glad she had resigned. As she was collecting her stuff to return to work, after rushing home for a quick lunch she looked out her kitchen window and saw two former students, Zachary and Nate.  I’ll call them storytellers. The story is really about them, so she will let them retell it; as any good teacher will tell you it is better to let your students tell their tale.

Chapter 2

Hiccup and Pontmus

        “Look!”

 Nate pointed to a window where a lady was standing

 “Isn’t that our teacher from last year. “Ms., oh I forgot her name.”  

“Yeah,” Zachary responded and pulled the hood of his jacket further down.

“Well, what is eating you?”

I asked Zachary, Zach for short, my best friend since two years ago, when we both discovered our dislike for insects on a field trip.

 “We’re going to middle school, no more babies around.  We have arrived.”  

“True, true but I’m not sure whether I want to be at the bottom again.”

        “Hey Pontmus, Hiccup.”

A gang of our friends saw us and came over.  Now I know my name sounds peculiar and trust me I didn’t choose it. It was thrust upon me when I had an unfortunate accident. You may be wondering where both of these names came from, let me explain. Hiccup which is my sobriquet, alI got started in elementary school. My dad is a nut case, I mean scientist like Bill Nye, always trying to invent new things.  

He was tinkering down in the basement which I call the lair and yelled upstairs.          “Cathereine, Nate come try this”.  

My mom looked at me and said, “Nate dear do as your father says.”

She only said this because she has had her times of being dad’s guinea pig.  It was my turn; the basement door has double locks on both sides because my parents had a scare two years ago so I had to wait for my dad to unlock his side.      

When my sister was three, she went down into the basement when no one was looking and started messing with dad’s stuff. I was spending the night at Zachary’s and Mark my older brother was out with his friends.  They only noticed she was gone when they heard a crash.  They rushed downstairs and saw her with red stains around her mouth holding one of dad’s vials full of red liquid.  Dad rushed to her and swatted the liquid vial out of her hand which made her cry.  

They tried to make her drink lots of water as they rushed her to the emergency room.  That is what you are supposed to do if you suspect someone of drinking poison.  She was not having it. She threw a tantrum, throwing herself out of her car seat and onto the floor crying harder.

 At the emergency room when my parents told the receptionist what they thought had happened they were moved to the front of the waiting list.  Within minutes doctors had taken her and made her drink some thick sweet substance to make her throw up.  And throw up she did. She threw up so much the doctors thought she would become dehydrated.  

They tested the substance that had hurled from my sisters stomach and the findings were no poison, a lot of sweets though.  The red substance was Kool-Aid. My parents were beyond relieved. After they came home my dad immediately called somehow to create locks on both sides of the door and near the top.  By the look on the face of the man that came, I believe he thought my dad was crazy but he was getting paid so he did it.  That’s what I overheard my mom tell the neighbor.  

  I went down to the lair.   My dad had created this fizz drink and made me try it.  I couldn’t stop hiccupping for over a week; you can imagine the fun the kids at school had picking on me.  Thus the name hiccup occurred and remains.  My friend Zachary or Pontmus got his name from some TV show.  Personally, I do not know why anyone would want to nickname themselves Pontmus but he say it’s a cool name and the other kids seem to agree.  

“Hey, wat up.”

Pontmus responded to the group of kids that now tagged along.  

“Want to go to the twirl a whirl, a local creamery?”  

It was a place where all the kids went, I hesitated, wanting to go along but needed to get something for my dad.  Pontmus looked at me quizzically.

 “Are you coming?”

“Not right now, I have to go and do something for my dad.  I’ll try to catch up later.”  

“Suit yourself” was his response and he sauntered of with the gang alongside.

 Hmm, I thought to myself, I wonder if Mr. Snell is there, he is very funny. My dad had met him when he first joined the firm.  Mr. Snell had taken him under his tutelage and showed him the ropes.

Now retired, Mr. Snell had other projects to occupy his time.  He was a local photographer, who owned a couple of shops which sold an assortment of do-dads; vials, costume jewelry, film and of course a variety of the latest cameras. I had to cross the busy street where a lot of people almost get hit.  

Today, there were no cars to be seen.   I walked across the street and into a musty building. I took the creaky stairs, upstairs to room 5012, knocked and waited.  “Come in,” said the jovial voice on the other side of the door.

 “Hey, hey my young soul” said Mr. Snell, a short man, who resembles an elf with his long mustache and small eyes.  

“Hello, I need this.”

 “Huh?”

 I shoved a piece of paper under his nose.  

“What is this?”

“Oh, your dad has already finished it, well well, here is some more.  Heh, is that all?”

“Sure,”

I felt a tickle in my throat, cough, cough.

 “Thanks Mr. Snell.”

 Why am I nervous every time I come here?  

“Happy hunting, to you Nate”

 Is what I heard as I closed the door.   One of his common phrases… meaningless.

I ran to the twirl a whirl with a great smile and swung the door open.  I spied my friends in the corner laughing.

“Hey, Hiccup.”

A voice to my right.  I turned and my heart melted, Shelly, my first love…in the first grade was smiling at me and in her left hand was  large ice cream scoop, which she offered to me.

 “Thanks girl.”

I kissed her on the cheek and went to sit with my friends.  

“Whoa, whoa man, what was that?”

“Nothing.”

“Are you and Shelly rekindling your love” smirked Pontmus?

My cheeks flamed but I kept silent.  

“Alright, what have I missed?”  

“Not much.”

Shelly oblivious of the scene she created slid into a seat right across from me.  The restaurant was noisy as usual, lots of kids milling around trying to appear important.  Some ate at the counters slurping their ice cream or shakes others were waiting impatiently in line.

 There were sections, the high school and middle school. High schoolers got the corners booths and the middle schoolers the middle or side tables.  We did not know that…yet.  I saw Mark with a couple of his buddies.  They were trying to see who could balance their cones on their hands the longest.  

A group of girls were sitting in another corner on their phones while talking to each other. I spied at kid I had seen during the summer.  

“Hey Pontmus, who is that?”

 I pointed in the general direction?

“He is the new kid, he moved here from out of state.”  

The kid and I caught each other’s eyes and he shyly smiled.  His hair was jet black and hung a little past his shoulders, he had features that looked carved from a rock, eyes oval shaped slanting upwards modeled for the world.

“Hey you, new kid!”

 I yelled not knowing his name.  

I waved him over and his face lit up so fast I thought his face would crack. He came over and introduced himself.

 “I am Sam, I moved from California.”

 “Cool.”

 Pontmus and I said simultaneously.

I saw his outfit and asked what sport he played.  

“I play soccer my team was the jaguars.  Does this school have a soccer team?”  Without waiting for a reply…and I was going to, my mouth hanging halfway open as in the beginning of a laugh or sneeze Sam continued.  

“I just ran in here to call my father”…

Yes, father not dad.  He was fairly formal in his speech. Sam had a way of speaking that was smooth like a warm glass of milk after a hot chocolate chip cookie.  

He swiveled his head side to side in a fashion that made you think his head would fall off but in an incredibly awesome way.

“Well, maybe you could teach us some moves” Pontmus declared.  

“Huh?”

Sam, smooth wave…that was the name I had already given him said

“Sure, sure anytime.  I see my father, I will talk to you gentlemen later, bye.”

 He practically slid out the door.

 “Thank goodness for small favors.”

 Shelly, who had gone to the bathroom during our brief conversation with Sam sneered as she approached.

 “What a gleeb!”

 I replied.  

“What is a gleeb?”

“A giant dweeb.”  

“You do not even know him, he seemed real nice.”  

“Whatever, I see my parents, see ya around.”

“Hmm….wonder what got under her skin?”  I said while licking my ice cream that was really slopping over the side of my cone.  

“Who knows? She has been moody lately.”

 A couple of high schoolers had walked over to us and told us the rules of the creamery.

 “You boys are sitting in the High school section.”

He motioned with his hand for us to get up.  

The boy that spoke was slapped on his arm by a girl standing next to him.

 “Ow, what did I do? I was nice about it.”

 Zachary looking up at them and then around the room saw that there were no other tables available said to me “let’s go, this is boring”.

We left the noisy building with our friends only to run into Rufus, the school bully as he was entering.  

“Watch it hippopontumus and hickey hiccup” he screeched.  

We both glared wanting to say something but knew better.  Rufus looked like a linebacker and had the intellect and teeth of a gerbil, naw naw.  Nobody talked back to him, just avoided him if they could.

“What you want to do now?” I muttered.  

“Not sure but my dad is cooking dinner tonight and I don’t want to miss his spaghetti and macaroni delight” Zachary crooned.

“Okay, can I come?” It was always fun at his house.

 “Sure, man.”

 “Let me ask my dad for a ride over, later.”  

We high-fived, bumped chests and went our separate ways.

 Zachary to the left towards the abandoned building and me forward towards my house, humming a tune I had heard over the radio.

Chapter 3

Home Invasion

Slowly, the wind whirled around me accompanying me with their own tuneful melody.  The leaves were starting to turn a musty brownish red; time for a new season to end.  I watched captivated, almost hypnotized.  Blaring music whipped me out of my dream like state.  

Music from where?

 My house?  

Why would music and loud music be emanating from my home, the home where everyone walked on tiptoes as if walking across the top of empty egg shells?

The door opened like a boomerang and to my now wide opened eyes appeared a man unknown to me but apparently he knew me.  He flew down the three stairs that led the porch to the sidewalk and gripped me by the arms letting out a hearty laugh.

“Hey, my boy, it has been a long time since I have seen you.  You were a wee little one.”

 I barely managed to contain the calm demeanor on my face.  Inside I was boiling with bewilderment.

 I know this man my brain told me but I could not bring the name to my lips.  The two us began walking towards the house, this unknown hearty gorilla grinning and laughing.  Me, back in my trance but this time not by the beauty of the nature surrounding me but by this behemoth who to walked backwards towards the house up over the three steps. He went step, stop, step, stop, and step as I slowly followed.

         Letting go of me he opens the screen door that my mother insisted my father install  to give the house a sort of… what did she call it… a sense of debonair.  Whatever that meant.          

The noise coming from the inside could be compared to the noise of a hybrid dragon that has just discovered his gold is missing.  

The foyer of the house looked like a tornado had touched down.   Clothes were on several pieces of furniture that were moved in an odd fashion.  There were my sister’s toys all over, I almost stepped on one.   Plus, I saw an electric toy train running around in a large concentric circle around the couch under the coffee table that my dad had stained with one of his chemicals and back again.

Where was mom?  She would never allow her house to look this way…especially when there are guests.  Noise of laughter and joy flowed out from the kitchen, where I discovered my mom with my aunt Hilda.  Broom Hilda I called her when she was out of hearing.  

She turned and gave me a long look which meant I see the two of you have met.  “Hi, Nate, how was school?”

I arched an eyebrow the way I had seen detectives do in the movies.

“School? This is Saturday.”  

“Oops.”

My mom shook her head and smiled her way that says she knows but forgot for the moment.  The hairy gorilla took a seat, grabbing the plate of cookies, slid one over and popped the whole piece in his mouth, chewing and smiling.  

Aunt Hilda approached, eyes bright, liquid pools brimming on her lids. I thought Uh, Oh somehow she found out what I called her in secret and was going to confront me. But she surprised me with what came out of her mouth.

“Of course you know me but you might not remember Harry, my husband.”

She pointed  to the man sitting next to me.

  A light blew up in my mind. I did now remember him.  

He used to have a large beard like a mountain man but now clean shaven. I thought they had separated. They had dated for five years before getting married.  Hilda recognized the questions unspoken in my eyes.  “We both decided to give it another go and let the past go with all the smelly garbage.” I wanted to shrug but thought that rude so instead I spoke

 “Geez, wow.”

My answer seemed to satisfy because she turned back to her sister. I started to remember other things, like how heart- broken she was and how she cried to her sister, my mom for months.  Secretly, I also was sad but never let it show.  You see Broom Hilda…I mean Hilda is sort of mean, some say strict.  She is my mom’s younger sister by eight years and I never thought a fun thought or had fun when she was around. Harry had broken her broom sort to speak and now she had it back.

Reinforced

It was Hilda that had gotten my mom hooked on local plays and theatre.  I can remember my mom having me or my brother Mark call the library and me having to listen to the recording of the coordinator drone on about the upcoming plays, time and place.  She thought that if she spoke about it often enough and made one of us call we would become hooked.  It didn’t work.  My Dad and sister were of course next and she dragged them along every month or so to see some local talent.  

Aunt Hilda was telling my mom that her and Uncle Harry have been crisscrossing the country by train, starting in New York visiting all the museums and popular sites and would end their excursion in California.  She was talking with her hands.

“It is just like a cruise but only on land.”

They just stopped over for a day visit then had to catch the train.  They had gone on a hot air balloon ride in Michigan and scary Harry had said “what if one of those balloons popped?”  Aunt Hilda discouraged the thought.  

“Dear, I have never heard of anything like that happening.  You need to overcome your fears”.  

“I would have felt safer with my feet planted firmly on the solid ground.” Harry still munching said. 

She continued, “Horseback riding in the ocean in Texas.”  

“The water was clear and refreshing but I was afraid a shark, jelly fish or man of war might attack the horses” Harold said to my mom.  

“I told him that Sharks rarely attack and the probability that we would be attacked was slim but he said we might fall under that small percentage.”

 “Paragliding in Nebraska, rock climbing while in Colorado.”  Harry finished

I quickly grabbed a couple of cookies before Harry could ram the rest down his throat and asked my mom if I could eat dinner at Zachary’s.  Moms’ face got all squishy like she was about to sneeze or cry.

 “Let the boy go” Harry said wiping his mouth with a napkin.  “We have the next day to visit.”  

An audible sigh came from my mom similar to the sound balloons make when letting air out as they expire.

 “Sure Nate. Ask your Dad when he gets home in a few.”  

A slow rumble occurred in my stomach and I bit into a cookie to mask the sound.  I walked to my room, laid down my stuff, it was not much just my notepad, flopping down on the bed and putting my headphones on, I waited for my dad to arrive, floating away on the sounds of the symphony.

My eyes were beginning to close when I heard the familiar sound of my dad’s car; jumping up I scurried to the back door around the yard and stopped at the driveway just as my Dad turned off the engine.  

“Mom said I could go to Zachary’s for dinner tonight” I said in one breath.

 My dad, tall with a muscular frame spoke.

“Nate, please let my talk with your mother and rest for five minutes.”

 I consented and watched him go up the three steps… step, step, and step, open the door and disappear inside.  What a stroke of genius…he had not asked me to join him.

I paced the driveway, glancing quickly up and down to see if I could occupy my time before my dad said I had to join the family.  I selected some rocks from the concrete and busied myself studying them as if I was a geologist.  A hand brushed my shoulder and I jumped.  

“Whoa, buddy just me.”

 My dad smiled his slow caramel smile, I smiled back and we walked to the car.

 Funny thing about my dad, although he’s very busy… trying to win the Nobel peace prize or something, he always takes time to listen and help me out.  We slowly rolled down the drive, straight to the light swinging lonely from the pole and……red light.

“So, how do you think you are going to like middle school?”  

He glanced sideways at me waiting for a response.  

“It will be better than elementary I think, more freedom.”

Screech went brakes; wham crush crunch went this red jeep smashing into the light pole directly in front of us. The red jeep richoted like a gunshot following the initial crash, then came to its resting spot embedded in an enormous tree that could have been a cool treehouse except for some weird angled branches that resembled a Venus fly trap. The car was now stuck in the middle, a metal fly with a twisted accordion bumper, broad green covered moss branches embraced it shielding it for its fate. It was oddly appealing and I could not look away. Whoever was in that car was caught fast and wasn’t getting out very soon.  Then my dad was tugging me.  

“Earth to Nate.”

 My dad waved his hand in front of my face.  I zoned back into reality.

“Whoa that was a vivid daydream you were having, I have been calling your name for 30 seconds.”  

I shrugged.

 “Yes it was.”

“Must be all the video game you spend all night playing” my dad teased.  Cannot keep your eyes open.”

             By now we had pulled up into Zachary’s driveway. I opened the door, told my dad goodbye and did not give my daydream another thought.  What I had on my mind was macaroni madness and spaghetti with chocolate cheesecake for dessert.

Chapter 4

Zachary’s House

I just walked in. I was practically family by now and was immediately pummeled by Zachary’s two younger brothers. All three of us hit the carpet and rolled, them laughing hysterically, me trying to maintain my sense of composure.

“Hey, lay off him guys, he just got here.”  

Looking up I saw Zachary trying unsuccessfully to hide his smirk.  It was probably his idea to have the twins ambush me.

“Alright pip squeaks.”

 I glowered wiggling my ears.

 “Fun is over now, it’s time to eat.”  

They squealed and ran in to the kitchen.  Zachary and I followed. Zachary’s parents were already seated at the table.

 “Could not resist my macaroni, could you?” Zachary’s dad said with a proud smile.  

 “No, sir, best in the world.”  

I helped myself to a huge portion when the plate was passed to me.

 Now let me tell you a little about Zachary’s family.  Unlike mine they do not consider the table a place to discuss the day’s events, probably because they are too busy stuffing their mouths with all that delicious food.  After eating, I volunteered to wash the dishes.  Zachary’s mom said, “Go ahead.”

She was getting ready to clear the dishes and bring them into the kitchen Zachary’s mom liked to paint and sometimes sold her paintings online to art galleries.  

She was into abstract art sometimes painting an image that could be recognized. I have watched her paint exchanging one color for another dipping her brush, swirling one around.  She once told them that she lets the painting create itself    The painting in the kitchen appeared to be a Crayola box, 64 colors which had burst open and ran together making dots, swirls and dribbles on the canvas. As I washed, Zachary watched me not even offering to help.

“You never want to wash dishes at your house.”  

“It is different here?”

“How?”  

“Well, at home I have to wash, here I have a choice and that makes all the difference.”  

“Yeah, okay.”  

“Was that sarcasm I heard?”

I twisted my head to look at Zachary?  

“Of course not, Hiccup.”  

“I think it was.”  I threw the dish rag at him.  He deftly caught it and threw it back.   It landed in a plop in the dish water splashing me with dirty water.

  “You know you can use the dishwasher.”  

That is what he said to my back while I grabbed some paper towels from the kitchen counter to wipe my face.  

“I thought it was broken.”  

 “Nope, fixed yesterday.”  

“Thanks for telling me.”  It was my turn to answer sarcastically.  

I loaded the rest of the dishes into the dishwasher and turned the knob to soak and rinse. Then Zachary and I went to his room to digest and relax. We had to pass the twin’s room. They had their door open and I noticed that their room was painted in a cascade of different colors; Zachary told me the colors; Indigo, on one side Fuchsia, on the other Dijon mustard yellow, was the color of the floor and a Cerulean sky.  It was a color exhibit.  She left Zachary’s room alone allowing him the freedom to choose   His room is so ordinary it is cool, just a bed, dresser, closet, plain off white walls and one poster of some guy singing into a microphone.  Zachary told me that he was someone famous…somewhere. I felt my insides churning. I said out loud.  

“Does food really have to be swallowed?”  “Can we not just put it in our mouths, chew and receive nutrients?”

“That’s a neck.”  said Zachary.  I was rewarded with a thump on the head.

We both just lied in his room, me on the bed and him on the floor, quiet not speaking, not needing to, both lost in our own thoughts. I was going to tell him about the daydream I had on the way over when his mom knocked on the door.  

“Boys, Nate, your father called and said he will pick you up in twenty minutes.”  

“Thanks.”

“Thanks mom”  

 We both looked at each other.  

“Well, I’ll see you Monday, I guess.”

 “Sure you will and even if we do not have the same classes”, I was in A.P. for all my classes except Science. Zachary had regular classes.

 “I’ll see you at lunch”…all sixth grade ate together…”and we can catch up.”

 We tousled and sparred and played a board game requiring each person to guess what the other person was thinking based on their body movements for the remaining minutes until I heard the doorbell ring.

Chapter 5

Dealing with the family

Back at home, I took a quick shower. My brother had used all the hot water; said goodnight to my parents, well, I yelled it but my mom told me I should go to them instead of hollering. I found that ironic since she yelled at me to tell me not to yell.  I did a belly flop on my bed, pulled the covers over one leg while turning out the light and fell asleep dreaming of macaroni.

Briiing!  Huh, what is that sound?  Bring, Bring, it was the phone. Someone’s slippers shuffled to the phone and I heard a sleepy voice.

 “Hello”

 A gasp and…”I’m on my way.”

 I slowly dozed back into slumber contemplating how many more hours until I had to return my conscious body to the land of wakefulness.  

Sunday flew by, I could not even tell you what I did except bits and pieces. I watched Harry eat constantly, played video games with Uncle Harry. I gave him first choice.  He chose Final Fantasy X, one of my favorites.  It is an excellent game where enemies become allies to fight a common enemy.  He was quite good.  Listened to my mom and Aunt Hilda discuss any plays that they would like to see.  There were none upcoming at the moment. Thank goodness.  All I can say is by bedtime, sleep was a welcome relief.

I was rudely awakened by my bratty five year old sister giggling and singing.  “First day of school, this is my first day of school…yay!”

 “Good for you,” I thought then rolled out of bed to greet the day with a frown.  Where was dad? He was the one that usually woke me and in a normal quiet manner.  I went through my routine.

First, I made sure that Mark was not hiding in our shared jack and Jill bathroom by slowly opening the door and checking behind the shower curtain with a long control stick handle. Then I went in and brushed my hair, brushed teeth went out and put on my clothes.  Then went back to the bathroom to check myself in the full length mirror to make sure my clothes were put on the right way.

  I made that mistake in third grade, not to be repeated.

  I have always had an appetite for big words.  My friends found me odd saying hiccup talk plainly.  I was I thought, they just needed to elevate their vocabulary.

When I was in the third grade I was in a spelling bee and went all the way to the nationals.  On the final day of the competition I wanted to be alone so that I that could collect my thoughts.  The last contestants had to wear a spelling bee shirt and in my haste I put it on inside out and backwards with the tag showing. I didn’t win first prize. I came in second but I did win a trophy, had my picture taken and it was put in the local newspaper.  

My classmates made fun of me when they saw the picture. When I told my mom she told me to tell them that that was just my strategy to stay calm and throw off the other competitors.  It worked but I don’t want another mishap again because this time I won’t have any reason to give.

 I asked my mom on several occasions why I couldn’t share the bathroom with Cassy and give Mark his own separate bathroom, thinking I solved a major problem. Or to use the  saying, from the book written by J Morgan Ghent killing two birds with one stone which Mark had to read over the summer and write an essay about the meaning and compare it to a modern  day phrase of similarity.

He kept asking mom and dad what they thought but was told in return that it was his paper and he needed to figure it out.  I heard him on the phone muttering to one of his friends that it was going to be a cinch.  Uh huh, that is why he was in summer school because he could not master Language Arts during the regular school year. We had chores and one of mine, ours Mark’s and mine was to clean the bathroom.  He never did so I was stuck with it but if I shared with Cassy not only would I not have to worry about being scared out of my wits.  I wouldn’t have to clean.  

Mom always cleaned Cass. At first, I got no reply then, “Cassy is a girl” was my mom’s answer.  Like that made a lot sense.  I believe my mom did not have an answer and would have said anything to make shut me up. I tried my dad.

“Whatever your mom says.”

Typical they stuck together like glue even when the solution was smack dab in their face.

Mark had also stopped cutting the lawn and the neighbors’ lawn so he could devote more time to his studies was the excuse he used. I was not thrilled about taking on another chore.  Dad made me a deal.  He said,

 “If you cut ours, “I’ll pay you twice as much as I paid Mark.”

 He sweetened the deal by adding that I would only have to cut it every other week instead of each week.

 “Okay, dad, I’ll do it.”

 Cassy chore was to clean her room and empty everyone’s trash once a week.  She rarely remembered, so I took on that duty.  I walked to the kitchen where my mom was humming a tune.  

Everyone except my older brother was there.  He went to school at a later time. “Hi Nate,”

My dad tousled my hair that I styled to look like bed hair.

“Hey sweetie, glad you joined us, you have ten minutes to eat your breakfast, eggs and toast with lots of butter.”  

“Nate, will you walk me to school?”  

My sister was chewing on a bunny shaped pancake covered in appley syrup.  The head was already gone.  

“I at the brains first so I can get smart in Math.”

She smiled at me exposing bits of food mashed around her mouth.

“Gross don’t talk with food in your mouth Cass.”

I told her while I finished eating trying not to blow chunks after seeing Cass’s partially digested food.  

“No, honey, remember Nate is going to a different school but mommy will walk you up there.”  

“Thank goodness for small favors,” I mumbled or thought I did.

 Mom gave me a look. Cassy or Cass for short looked ready to cry, face all scrunched up like an overripe prune. Her body hunched over resembling a lower case r. “I am sorry Cass, I didn’t mean it.”

 I quickly finished eating, practically ran from the kitchen, grabbing my backpack which I filled with all the essentials the night before and bolted for the door.      

My mom said to my back as I was closing the front door…

“Do not talk to strangers!”

Chapter 6

Middle School

I was to meet Zachary and a couple of friends at the corner while we waited for the bus to take us to school.  Everyone arrived at almost the same time, Zachary and I stood together. One of our friends didn’t go to school with us but joined us at the bus stop sometimes.  When the bus arrived our one friend said goodbye and walked off to his house.  On the bus we talked about random things, how it would be different, how we could fit in.

“Join a club.” One of our friends suggested

  I decided to tell Zachary about my daydream the other night.  “Well, that was a scary dream” was all I got in response before the bus pulled in to school parking lot.

 Counselors were outside helping and directing all those that looked confused or lost.  Kids’ were pulling in on their bikes, half the rack was already full Zachary and I scooted around them, backpacks slung onto one shoulder we walked into the cafeteria, sat down and waited to be dismissed.  “This place is huge.”

 I had to agree. There were vending machines on three of the walls.  Two fountains for soda or healthy drinks, a salad bar and five separate lunch lines.

A man took the stage; he had on a jade sports jacket, underneath a plain white one buttoned shirt and a pair of slacks.  He didn’t resemble a principal I had ever seen.  At first I thought he might be one of the counselors or a teacher.  He had a full head of hair reddish brown and was probably in his late thirties early forties.  I saw a couple of teachers giving him the eye.

 He looked around the room that was now packed, students lining the walls three feet deep, some on the floors and others sitting on the tables when the teachers were not looking.  An audible silence started from the eighth graders and finally reached us.

“I want to welcome you back and to all the first timers I say welcome.  I am Mr. McNichol, the principal.  We have a few rules.  First, the hallways are only one way they have arrows, follow them and you will not have any trouble.  Second, we do not allow students to share lockers and advise that you do not give out your combination; too many items have been reported missing.  And finally…”

  He paused looked around the room.  

“School is a place for learning but you can also enjoy yourself.”  

He smiled a huge planet eating smile.  There were very loud long groans, sounded like a bunch of bag pipes being put to rest. Those teachers who were close and had the tenacity to reach those students, tried to quickly squelch the sound but it still echoed in our heads even after it was stopped

“You are dismissed.”  

He pointed his arms towards the door like he was a traffic officer.                                           Everyone got up and was herded towards the two double doors leading into the school.  I saw very few people obeying the one way hallway rule. The halls were wide enough for two way traffic.

 Teachers were constantly blowing their whistles telling students to turn around which caused kids to be bumped into lockers or their books knocked out of their hands.  Zachary and I chose not to try and locate our lockers, just find our classes.  

“I’ll see you later Nate.”  Zachary said when he saw an opening in the crowd and zipped through. He was quickly swallowed up.

Walking to class, I saw several posters, some welcoming all sixth graders. Others were  advertising about a particular club and asking for sign- ups. One had audition sign- up sheets for plays held in the not so far future.  One in particular was about a summer camp for middle school students ages 11-13 to study robotics and electronics.  It caught my eye because of the graphic designs on the poster.  I went closer to read the qualifications.  It read:

Nominate a student that you feel would benefit from this program.

Write a one to three page essay describing what characteristics this student

displays which would make them a good candidate.  The nominee must be an

outstanding student, financially unable to afford camp and the list went on,    

submit by this date.          

There were few clocks in the classrooms except for those who had them on their wrists. Some checked their phones but had to do it stealthily otherwise the teacher would rush by and ask for it; for either the remainder of the class period if nice or you could pick it up at the end of school if they were feeling extra nice.  

Kids tried to pile next to the door before the bell rang to be the first ones out.  I never understood why.  Those teachers who held little authority just sat back and hollered themselves hoarse while the students ignored.  Other teachers who held a stronger reign made students afraid to even cough or blow their nose without permission.  

Instead of a loud harsh bell dismissing each class the sound of a grandfather’s clock low ominous bass toll could be heard.  The rush of students flowing into the hallway could be compare to birds in flight heading south for the winter; that was the formation. The important people in front and those of lesser status in back.

“Well, how was your first half of the day?”

 I inquired when I met Zachary in the cafeteria. I had taken my tray and placed it on the rack waiting for the serving ladies to suggest which items I could choose. Everyone was pushing for a position in line.  

I soon found out why, as the line progress the ones in front got the hotter meals.  The food sitting under the warmer got less warm and more disgustingly appetizing less worthy.

“Booring, all my teachers look like the rather be somewhere else.”  

“Wow, tough break.”

  As we moved down the line, the selection was between pizza that looked as if someone had sat on it or sloppy joes.  I took my chance with the sloppy joes, Zachary took the smashed pizza, and we both picked the Jell-O.  It looked healthier than the wilted salad that had brown spots.  

We took our trays to the designated sixth grade tables and sat with our friends and others we had met during the day.

 “Mine was ok.  My first period teacher made us all get up, introduce ourselves and say one thing that we thought was interesting about ourselves.” You can imagine the responses.  

“What’d you say?”  

“By the time the teacher said Nate, it is your turn to share the bell had rung.”  “Saved by the bell,” Zachary laughed and everyone else did too.  

“Hey, someone said isn’t that Sam over there?” We all turned to where he was pointing and saw Sam, the new kid siting with a bunch of 7th graders.

 “Hmm, I wonder how he managed to eat with them Nate.”  I shrugged not really caring, then Sam turned and I caught his eye, he waved and then turned back to his own table.  Cool guy was the general response from our group.  I made it through the rest of the day without making any major mistakes.  I even remembered to bring deodorant for after gym class.

Chapter 7

Encounter with Sam

After school, for some reason I decided to wait for Sam.  We had seen him on the bus walking so I knew he lived close.  We had only briefly spoken a couple days ago but I already felt a bond.  I saw him come out the front doors and start walking.  Zachary had asked me what I was going to do and I had told him, so he could relay the message to my mom.  

“Hey, Sam” I shouted.  “Wait want company?”

 He turned then turned back around, I barley heard him say,

 “Sure come along.”

”His stride slowly decreased until I caught up with him.  “What can I do for you Nate?”  

Now that I was walking with Sam, I was unsure why I chose to go, unsure of what to say. So, I mumbled something incoherently.

“Excuse me?”

I repeated, “we saw you walking to school. At lunch, you ate with the 7th graders.”

I let the unasked question hang in the air.

“I was sitting with my peers from class, I take mostly G.T. advance placement classes, and I have one before lunch which mainly consists of seventh graders. Instead of me waiting until sixth grade lunch starts my teacher just told me and a few other sixth graders in the class to go along with the seventh graders.”

 “Oh,” was all I could think to say.  

Sam stopped in front of a house and looked at me, I looked back waiting.

“I would invite you in but I am only allowed visitors who my parents feel are a good fit for me and they have not met you so I apologize for the inconvenience.”  

“No problem, I understand”….weird is what I was thinking.  

“Maybe we can start hanging out you, me Zachary and some friends and play some video games or soccer.

 “Do you play video games?  

“I rarely play those mind numbing games but soccer is something I definitely know something about.”  

Sam’s face was like a flower in bloom, radiantly glowing.

“Great! “

 “Let me take down your information so I can give to my parents.  I will let you know what they say.”

 “See you around, Sam,” I hollered walking the same way back to school.

When I returned, I saw Zachary’s car. He and his dad were just sitting there, when they saw me they honked.

 “Hey you, I thought you might return so I told my dad to wait a moment.”  

“Wow that was nice of you I was just going to call my mom from the schools phone.”

 “No problem, we already spoke to her, hop in back.”  Zachary was just telling me about his day, I will drop you two off then I am off to a last minute meeting at work.”

 Zachary’s dad worked at the same firm as my dad just in a different department, sales and marketing.  That is how they met.  A frown, triple wrinkles creased his forehead then suddenly disappeared.  He turned to Zachary,

“No worries I will be back for dinner, you can count on it.”

  All three of us laughed and twenty minutes later I was in the backyard with Zachary watching him toss a ball to his brothers.

I told Zachary about what Sam had said about not inviting me in and Zachary thought that made sense.  

“Sure it does” I wisecracked, unsuccessfully catching a ball Zachary had thrown to me.  

“But why did you suggest playing soccer?”  

Zachary who has played every major sport since he was five asked.

         “You know you’re physically challenged when it comes to sports.”

 I did my eyebrow lift.

“I had to say something.”

“True, let’s have your mom call his house and introduce us.”

 “He already has my information and I didn’t think to get his so we’ll just have to wait.”

Chapter 8

Abandoned building

We walked to my house to get away from his younger brothers. I didn’t want to stay at my house long, my brother Mark would be coming home soon and it is generally not in my favor to be here when he arrives, he likes to boss me around.  Last month, he turned 16 and has been begging our parents for his own car. His grades for summer school had improved so, last week, he was given our Uncle Harry’s old jeep. Now he had to get a job to afford the gas. My parents sat down with him.  

“How are you going to pay for the gas?”  

“I can go back to mowing lawns and selling candy to the kids at school.” Mark could be an entrepreneur when he put his mind to a task.  

“That will not be enough” my parents said.  

“You need to get a regular job.”

 He decided to work at a dry cleaners.  

“Easy hours and more pay than a regular fast food joint will pay” he said.

 I had suggested working as a waiter.  

“Who asked you?”  He snarled.  “Besides waiters tips fluctuate, I need steady money and I don’t want to smell like food.”

 “Just trying to be helpful dummy,” I breathed under my breath and had to quickly duck before his hand could strike me.

 “I think Mark should be coming home by now, I’ll walk you home.”

As we walked, we spoke about how we could change things in we had super powers. Zachary said with super strength he could stop all the criminals. I mentioned super knowledge which he said was not a power. I disagreed. We always walk past a vacant lot.  

For some reason, I chose to glace towards it and what I saw made me stop. Zachary kept walking a few steps until he noticed I was not with him.  

“Huh?”  “What’s wrong?”

 “I thought I saw a shadow in that building”, I pointed to the second floor.  

“You probably saw some strays they are always going there for shelter or probably to eat mice.”  

“No!

 “I mean, a human shadow, come with me Zachary let’s check it out.”

 To amuse me he came along.  I am the more adventurous.  As we got closer we saw broken glass.  

“See, someone is in here this proves it” I gloated.

“It proves nothing, anyone could have thrown a rock, vandals”  

 “Vandals?  Here? No way, we live in no crime city.”

 At that moment we both heard voices, whispers carried on the wind coming from inside the house.  I gave a triumphant glance.  Suddenly Zachary looked nervous…”maybe we should call the police.”  

“What would we say to them?

That we saw broken glass and heard some people talking?” “They would laugh at us, we need evidence, hard core and the only way to get it is to see who is talking, to who and what it is about.”

“What if they are dangerous?”

 Really…we were wasting time and not getting any closer to solving this…I called it a mystery.  

“Didn’t you take karate Zachary?”  

“Yes, yes I did but that was two years ago.”  

“You must remember something. Use your other skills, boxing?”  

“That lasted one week it was a trial session” he moaned.  

“I do not plan on being seen, we will stay hidden, if we are seen, you use your karate and I’ll yell.”  

“Does not sound like a good idea but I know you’ll go in alone if I refuse and I can’t let you do that” he admitted.”  

“Then it’s settled.”  

We slowly tried the door, when it didn’t budge…thinking it was locked we snaked our arms through the hole in the window to find the lock.  Still the door held.

 “We have to go through the broken window, this may be tricky,” I whispered. “Lets’ just hurry, so I can go home.”  

“Fine, one leg at a time.”

 I placed my leg on the inside sill and had Zachary give me a boost.  Once inside, I did the same for Zachary except I balanced him instead of boosting.

It was semi-dark inside.

“Did you bring a flashlight Nate?”

“Flashlight? Why would I? I did not know that we would be searching an abandoned building for alleged criminals.”

  “Stay close, keep your eyes and ears open” I said.

 We slowly made our way to the stairs. Half were broken and others looked questionable.

 “We cannot go up that way” Zachary hissed, “they will hear us.”

 “Do you have any other ideas?”  

I barely saw his head shake, glancing around I noticed something I had not.  A fireplace.  A fireplace is a great conduit for listening.  Both of us crept to the fireplace and knelt, we stuck our head in the opening and listened.  We heard;

“You broke the glass, why not use the door?”

“It was stuck when I tried.”  

“Quiet you two!” A female voice rasped, “we need to stay alert, the plan is almost in place.”  “We just need someone to carry it out.  Any suggestions?”

“We need to use a kid.”  

“Everyone knows everyone in this city,” the first voice spoke.

 “Everyone except one family another voice sounded in the darkness. “They just moved here this summer, keep mostly to themselves.”  

“Aaaaah, they might do” the female voice said. “Lets’ meet here tomorrow to formulate a plan.   I have to go.  I have an engagement that I cannot miss with my sis...ter.”  Something made her pause.  

“Did you hear that?”  

           “Hear what?” first voice spoke.  I looked to Zachary, instead of kneeling on the balls of his feet he had repositioned himself knees on the floor.  He shook his head.        “Couldn’t stand the pressure” this from guy who plays sports year round, yikes.  

Second voice “there are all kinds of noises in here could you be more specific?”  His voice had a grating sound to it like he was grinding his teeth.

 “Never mind, I‘m just being overly cautious.”  “Wait for a few minutes then leave.”  We should not be “seen leaving together.”  We saw the shadow of one person on the wall walk downstairs and across the hall. She must have gone out another way no creaky door noises then the voices resumed.  

           “How are we going to establish a connection?”  

“Not sure but we need to keep a low profile, maybe change our appearance again” first voice spoke.  

Second voice

           “Nobody knows us here.  We will discuss this with the boss tomorrow.”  We heard footsteps coming down the hall and then descending the stairs.  Zachary and I had our backs to the stairs and we froze not daring to move lest our movement give us away.   The stairs creaked mercilessly.

 I am surprised the whole block did not hear the noise and come running to see what the ruckus was.  Zachary’s breath was hot in my ears. I could hear my own heart thumping in my chest.  At last, we sensed the two people walk to the door, next to the smashed window, open it and walk out.  We waited for several minutes afraid of them returning.  Once I could no longer hear my heart beat nor taste the salty saliva that indicates that I’m going to throw up, I chanced a move.

Although, I was no longer afraid, my body still was and as I stood my legs were wobbly like a toddler learning to walk.  I said “let’s go” but Zachary had already scurried around me to the door. He can move pretty quickly.  I had not even seen him move.  He was waiting for me by the door.

 “Should we go out the window or try the door?”

He stammered.  “Let’s try the door, much easier.”

It took both our strengths, me holding the knob and him with his arms around my waist tugging.

 Finally, the door creaked slowly open, inch by excruciatingly slow inch.  When it was halfway open I squeezed through and Zachary followed.  We both looked eerie in the now descending sunlight or maybe fear makes you look different.  Zachary just wanted to hurry home, so did I but I told him that we needed to come back to find out more, like exactly what they were planning and who was the boss.  He did not reply and I knew when I had pushed him to his limit so I just walked besides him until we reached his house.

Chapter 9

Lively conversation

On my way back home I deliberately choose to walk close to the vacant lot, hoping to spot any clues left behind.  I would have appeared strange to anyone looking, me stooping every few steps to see if any identifying items were dropped.  I soon realized I wasn’t going to discover any incriminating evidence and I was hungry.

 I ran the last few blocks to my house, up the three steps and walked inside.  “Nate is that you?” My dad bellowed.

“Yes, dad.”

“Where have you been?”

“Walking Zachary home” I meekly replied.  

“Well, walk faster next time, we almost ate without you” my brother angrily spoke.  Ignoring him, I sat down and was handed a plate of leftovers, meatloaf, mashed potatoes corn, garbanzo beans and of course salad.  My dad wanted to hear all about my first day of school.  There was not much to tell but I tried to make it sound exciting.  

          “Anyone bully you hiccup?”  My brother sneered.  

           “No.”  

I had not seen Rufus or anyone else I would consider menacing.  Mom talked about her day at work, customers, filing papers her boss Carol, who everyone seemed to love and any upcoming plays if there were any.  My brother, slouching in his seat was asked about his day.  

He did not say a lot just, “it is school.”  

That is his typical response unless he needs money or wants to go somewhere he knows my parents wouldn’t approve then he is quite the lively character.

 My dad mentioned that Sam’s parents had called to ask them questions.

“WelI, what did they think of us, me?”  

He said I should ask Sam tomorrow about the outcome.  Just like my dad, never just saying what I want to hear, always wanting me to discover for myself. I wanted to ask my dad where he was Sunday morning but did not get a chance.  

Cass my sister wanted to share her day and mom and dad encouraged her to talk and boy did she. It was like she was in Congress trying to filibuster.  I had to endure which kid tattled, who peed during nap time, picked his nose, how to stand in line, which bathroom to use and the list goes one.  I finished eating and asked to be excused. “Sure, honey” was my mom’s absent minded response, she was still listening to Cass rattle on.  

Now do not get me wrong, I love my family but sometimes the can be overwhelming and over the top with let’ share everything about our day.  I need some secrets and boy did I have one.  

Up in my room, I started planning.  What to bring when Zachary and I went back to investigate.  Could I borrow my brothers’ phone? Unlikely.  Maybe I could bring my laptop that I was given as a birthday present.  I had asked for a cell phone since most of my friends had one.  They decided against it and I believe it is because they had given one to my brother a few years ago and had seen how much he was on his... all the time.  You would have thought it was another appendage.  Realizing their mistake they did not want me following the same path.  

I crossed the laptop off of my list, I did not even know if it was loaded with a record button and if I asked, I would be bombarded with questions I might not know how to answer. Plus, it was too big to be inconspicuous.

We already had a “family” computer but my dad was always on it.  It used to be that if anyone needed to use it they had to give him a reason then he would go get it from the basement and lovingly carry it to us warning us about going to unsecure sites. I believe he was afraid we would unlock one of his codes or a virus would contaminate and erase all his data.  I once told him to save his information on a USB then he would have back up if the computer crashed.  He told me that it is safer on the computer.

I kept making a list and crossing out each item until my hand cramped.  I heard my mom call telling me I had about five minutes before lights out.

Chapter 10

Conversations on randomness

The next morning, I woke up ready to tackle school and my…our investigation.  I ate the usual bread, lots of butter and eggs, added some bacon.  Walking out the house I saw Mr. Snell drive by in his red jeep, music blaring.  He was tapping his fingers on his steering wheel to the blues.  For an old man he knows how to jam, I thought.  He waved, so I did also.

 At the school bus stop Zachary was already there rummaging through his backpack.

          “Hey”, I said.         

          “Hey”, he replied.  I leaned in closer.

           “Want to check out the lot after school today?”  

His eyes told me his answer then he spoke, “are you crazy?”  

           “No, not crazy but I am curious.”  “Aren’t you a little curious?”  He was pondering the thought when the bus arrived.  We boarded and sat together in the back.

           “Well, are you?”  

            “A little but let’s not discuss this with so many people around.”  I agreed and we spoke about what would have for lunch in the cafeteria, latest video games, why we hadn’t seen Rufus, not that I wanted to see him.  He mentioned that I needed to practice playing soccer since I invited Sam to play with the gang.  I had completely forgotten.                  A kid in front of us turned around.

 “I could give you some pointers” he offered. He had deep brown spikey hair with blond highlights which had a slightly greenish hue probably from swimming in the neighborhoods pool.  Parents had already complained about how much chlorine was being poured in it every week and threatened to boycott. I knew him by face not name. I had seen him around the neighborhood kicking a ball.  

“Nate needs all the help he can get” my friend laughed.

 I lightly punched him in the arm.  

“Let me think about it.”

 “Okay, let me know” and he turned back around.

At school, we saw Rufus he was down the hall standing near some lockers.  He didn’t see us and we turned down another hallway.  “See you at lunch, Nate.”  “Uh, huh,” I had spotted Sam walking and I walked towards him wanting to know the outcome of his parents questioning.  Were his parents going to acknowledge me as a responsible visitor…friend.  “Hey, Nate,” Sam smiled as I walked up to him.  “Did your parents approve?” I blurted.  Not even acknowledging the others in the group.

         “My father was highly pleased with the answers your parents gave and I have been given permission to request your friendship.”  

           “Alright,”

I fist pumped the air.

           “I cordially invite you to visit my house anytime, would today suit your plans?”

“Uh, yes, no…I don’t know.  I might be doing something, I need to check.  I will take you up on your offer soon.”  

Wow, I was talking like him now.    I had to get to class before I was tardy, Sam and his friends seemed in no hurry to leave so I just said goodbye, remembering to acknowledge all of them and just barely set foot in the classroom before the bell rang.  

Where was my seat?  Right, third desk from the door, I sat.  My teacher barely glanced in my direction.  “Alright, where did we leave off yesterday” inquired Mr. Thomas.  No one said a word.  He looked around.

“No one knows…pause, then turn to page”…and I zoned out.

 Mr. Thomas was teaching about finding the number of protons, neutrons and electrons.  As a bonus, as he called it anyone who could find the atomic mass and the number of valence electrons in oxygen they would get extra points. I already knew this from my geeky…I mean genius dad.  Not sure what was said but I must have done a good job of pretending to listen because I didn’t receive any verbal reprimands nor was my desk hit to get my attention. The first half of school flew by.

In the cafeteria, Zachary and I discussed with our friends at the table what we had overheard in the vacant building. The responses were mixed;

 “You guys are crazy.

“Wow.”

“You’re the boss.”  Secretly, I was pleased but didn’t let it show.

 “We are thinking about going back to discover more information.”

 “We!” Zachary spluttered spewing milk down his shirt.”

“Yes, you and me buddy.”  

“I never agreed to that!”  

“You never said no either.  Anyone else want to join us? You are more than welcome.”

 There were no takers.

Chapter 11

Rufus and Sam

There is some commotion going on at the 7th grade table someone said. We all turned as one as if we were all tied by some invisible string which created our movements.  Rufus and Sam were standing, facing each other.  Sam’s face was a mask of calm while Rufus’s looked like a tomato ready to burst.  

“What did you just say to me?”  Rufus shouted.  

“I said, please take yourself away from us or I will be forced to call an administrator.”  

I could not believe it. Sam was standing up to Rufus.  I had seen some of Rufus’ fights and thought Sam might be in trouble.  Rufus sometimes fought like a girl, eye gouging, hair pulling.

 I can remember one incident where he fought this guy with long hair and he had his hair twisted around his arm like a candy cane black, white, black. We all held our breaths, waiting to see what would happen next.  Rufus swung and hit air.  Sam had chosen at that exact moment to turn and sit down.  

Everyone started laughing, clapping and cheering.  Bewildered Rufus did not know what to do.  He would not hit someone not facing him, it was fighting code.  He did the only thing he could.

         “I will see you later punk, watch your back.”

  He did see Sam later….in the principals’ office.  Someone had reported the incident and after viewing the cameras in the cafeteria both of them were called to the office to make a statement.  Rufus was placed on a three day in school suspension.  

“We do not tolerate violence” is what the principal had said before handing out the sentence.   Zachary and I listened to Shelly’s account of what led up to the event in the cafeteria while sitting at the table outside of school waiting for our bus. Sam was walking down the hall and Rufus was coming the other way, the wrong way, apparently they ran into each other.  Rufus accused him of not looking where he was going, Sam corrected him by telling him that he had stopped at his locker and Rufus should watch where he was going. 

Of course, Rufus did not like being told he was a liar and told what to do but there were too many teachers about so he just left.

 Shelly occasionally rode our bus # 617 then caught the local bus when she went to visit her aunt, who she didn’t talk much about except to say that she enjoyed visiting her and that she held a vast knowledge on many subjects.  

“For a dweeb, he sure made Rufus look like a fool” she commented.

“What do you have against him?” Zachary said.

 I thought I knew but kept silent.  Shelly didn’t have a response just rolled her eyes. She saw some of her friends nearby and left us.  Zachary shrugged his shoulders as if to say, no big deal but I knew it was to him.  Zachary was the type that wanted all human beings to get along.  I told him many times that it wasn’t possible.

Chapter 12

Detective Duty

Back at his house, we were in the living room eating healthy snacks his mom had cooked.  I finally brought up the subject of going back to the vacant building.  

“We do not even know if they will be there tonight” Zachary argued.

 “That’s why we need to go and find out their meeting times.”

 I could tell Zachary wanted to go but at the same time was afraid.

 “Look we will do what we did the first time, stay by the fireplace and keep real still.”

Zachary slowly bobbed his head.

 “Ok” he whispered.

We went a little earlier this time because I wanted to get some faces with the voices.  Zachary had received a phone for his birthday so we took that along.  The broken window was now covered by some broken boards and rusty nails.  We listened before trying to open the door and when silence met our ears we tried the door. It opened halfway and we squeezed through.  We sat exactly as we had the day before and waited, fifteen, thirty minutes.  I was getting restless thinking nobody was going to show.  Right when I was about to give up, we heard some voices right outside.  Zachary pushed record.

First voice

 “We should meet somewhere else, like the local creamery or the library.”

Second voice

“Yeah, so people can recognize us and overhear our conversation?”

First voice

“Well this looks suspicious going into an abandoned building.”

 I was listening intently trying to place the voices with anyone I had seen but no one spoke like them, at least not around here.  

They opened the door easily like it had been greased.  This time instead of going upstairs they remained downstairs near the kitchen. They stopped and I heard,

 “She said to be here.  We need to wait a while to see if she comes….we really need to talk to the boss about this.”

Then they went into the kitchen.    We heard incoherent sound now and again but nothing concrete.  

We had to get a closer but dared not give away our position.  Female voice did not show.  After a while, both men came out of the kitchen, went straight past us to the door. The phone rang breaking the silence causing both men to jump.  Gingerbread man answered it and they both put their heads to the receiver. This time the sun was beginning to set and a streak of light had snuck past the broken boards.

 I saw part of the men’s faces when they walked past.  One looked young, maybe mid - twenties with a scar down his cheek kind of like a pistachio nut. Even though, I never did see his body the image I got in my mind from his face made me think he was lumpy.  The other, older fuller face, high cheek bones with a ski slope nose, he was kissed by the sun giving him a gingerbread cookie complexion.

 Scar face spoke.

“You heard what the boss said, get the kid involved. It would be easy to find out where he lives, habits, so that one of us can make a connection.  It should be me. I am closer to his age. No one will suspect.”

“Yes, I know the older man said, we need to wait for the right time.”  

 After they left, we waited awhile when we were sure that they had really left we crept out of our hiding place and left the building.

 I was so excited, I couldn’t stay in one place so I paced.

 “I can’t believe we saw them and they are planning to use Sam,”

“I know, now we have to go to the police.”

 I stopped pacing…..”and tell them what?”  

“We have suspicious behavior here, Nate.  Two strange men meeting in an abandoned building talking about using our…your friend, that is enough for the police to start investigating.”  

I knew he was right but didn’t want to turn the matter over to the police.  My dad had always taught me to discover things for myself.

         Call me stubborn.  

“You go to the police Zachary!” I pointed at him as if I was accusing him of a crime.  

“I cannot I did not see them. I had my eyes closed the whole time.”  

“What?”

         “I was scared, I do that sometimes,  and it helps me to stay calm.”

“Well, since I am the only one that saw them, I am the only one that could identify them to the police and I’m not ready to do so…yet.”

 I felt triumphant.

“Ok, next best thing is you need to keep a watch over Sam.”  Zachary said this knowing that the police matter had failed.

 “Good idea, and you can give him your information so his parents can call and check you out and then we both can watch him.”  

“Sounds fair.  Now can we go home?”  

“Sure, see you tomorrow at school.”

 We shook hands.  Why? I am unsure but we definitely were not going to hug.

I arrived at my house minutes before my dad arrived.   I stayed in the living room determined to ask him about the phone call days earlier.  

“Hi champ” was his response when he saw me. “

Hi, Dad, I want to ask you something.”  

“Ok, go ahead, let me take off my shoes and sit down.”  

I waited while he methodically untied each of his shoelaces and placed them inside each shoe.  He walked to his favorite reclining chair and sat with his eyes closed.  

“Dad?”

 “I am listening.”  

 “I am wondering why you didn’t wake me for my first day of school and you were not there at breakfast on Sunday.”  

“Oh, is that it…well, hiccup.”  

He only calls me that when he thinks I am being pretentious.

“Cassy was so excited about her first day of school that she wanted to share the news.  I did not want to curb her enthusiasm so I left for work.  

Sunday morning, I had an important phone call during the night, my company or the company that I work for made a discovery and I wanted to be there.”  “

A discovery?”  “What was it?”   Dad smiled his caramel smile.

“That Nate I cannot reveal.”  

 “Oh.”  

He must have heard the disappointment in my voice because he opened his eyes, looked at me and said, “we all had to sign confidentiality papers.”  

“Ok, Dad makes sense.

“ Now what I will tell you he continued rubbing his hands together in an evil scientist way is that if we can patent this idea it will make a lot of peoples’ lives easier.” “Michael honey, Nate, time to eat.”  

He slowly arose, walked towards me, place his arms around my shoulders, mine was around his waist and we went into the kitchen.

Chapter 13

                                                        School business

Days then weeks flew by. There were theatrical plays needing all kinds of accoutrements and there were school dances which were separated by grade levels.  Kids could bring any music they wanted as long as it was approved first by the administrator.  

I thought about bringing symphony music but my friends talked me out of it. I wanted to show up early for our first school dance.  

“It makes a good impression” I told my friends at lunch. “

Who is with me? Show your hands.”

  No one raised their hands.   Mine was the only one in the air and I kept waving it around hoping someone would join me.  

I looked like one of those Arabian belly dancers moving their hands like a snake.  “No need to ask but who is against him?” Zachary said.

 All hands went up like they were doing the wave.  I was outvoted.

 “It only makes a good impression on adults” Zachary told me shaking his head in astonishment.  

After we arrived…late the lights were already extinguished.  The music was playing and boys who had girlfriends danced with them.  All the rest danced together.  We joined the rest.  

There were people by the wall huddled together looking envious, probably too embarrassed to dance but not wanting to miss out on a social event or were sitting out a song.  You could tell the ones sitting out by the perspiration forming on their foreheads.   One of these was Sam until Zachary noticed him and dragged him over.

The songs ranged from current music to songs from my parents era.  When the first oldie song played, I believe it was called the twist, nobody moved.  Then I saw the kid that had offered to teach me some soccer moves walk to the middle of the dance floor.  He had a soccer ball in his hand, he started twisting his hips while bouncing the ball.  The ball hit one hip then flipped to the other hip.  The kid slid, hit the ball with his hip, turned, the ball bounced of his head, slid down his back and he hit it with the back of his heel.  He kept twisting sliding and turning, keeping the ball afloat.  

One by one people started joining grabbing whatever they could find, paper cups, napkins, which were crumpled up, pencils, I even saw a shoe being thrown.  This antic of kicking, throwing and bouncing items continued until the song finished.  

Then one of the committee members responsible for maintain order went to the microphone on stage.  He gave an announcement.  

“I am glad you all enjoyed this song but we will not have any more items being thrown, kicked or bounced during this dance otherwise you will have to sit out and your parents will be notified.”  

Now, whenever a song was played that was not recognized all the kids mimed throwing or kicking, until an adult volunteer demonstrated the proper dance moves.

I decided to join the chess club. We met every other Friday after school and on Wednesday morning.  I practiced everyday sometimes with my Dad or whoever I could find.  I got so good I stopped playing video games for a while.  Zachary played sports. Zachary and I kept going to the vacant building, occasionally missing days because either one of us was busy or afraid.  Give you one guess who.

My mom said one day,

 “you’re spending a lot of time at Zachary’s.”

 She was speaking to my back  I was grabbing a snack, an apple on my way out.  “I’m helping him…I mean we’re helping each other with work.”

  That wasn’t exactly a lie, I knew she would think I was talking about school work but I didn’t say school, just work.

 “Okay but I want you home on time for dinner.”

 I rode my hand me down bike to Zachary’s instead of walking.  I had already used my calorie burning energy in gym class. None of the three people ever returned.

 Zachary became “official” friends with Sam and we invited him to sit with us during lunch he extended the invitation.  So, sometimes we sat with the 6th graders and sometimes with the 7th.  

Slowly, the dynamics of who should sit where started changing.  We, Zachary and I sometimes Shelly or another person would enter the cafeteria and see a mixed group sitting at the same table.  It was definitely cool not having to sit in a particular spot.  

Eventually Shelly started joining us each time we sat with Sam.  She never said a lot but made small talk.  

Sam was not much of a talker either he only spoke when he felt that there was something important to say. Not like the rest us who would say random things or joke around, so when he spoke I listened. After school, he began,

“There is a soccer game, want to come?”  

“Sure, my schedule is empty.”

“What about you Zachary?  Shelly?”

 Shelly said that she would be delighted.  She never spoke like that, it was either yes, no or silence.  Zachary declined stating that he had tons of homework to do.

All three of us met after school and waited until the game started. I had ask my chess teacher if I could borrow a chess set to play after school since we had about  30 minutes to burn before they started letting people in.  I asked Sam to play.  He chose white. I tried to get Sam to talk about his life but Shelly kept saying oh, no, not that move and Sam would hesitate before moving his piece.  The game was being spoiled by a side liner.   Finally my bishop and knight cornered his queen.

 “Check and check mate.”  I already knew he had two parents because of me being his “official’ friend and soccer but that was about it.  The game started before I thought up any good questions to ask. I hurried to return the game to the room, the lights were off so I thought the door would be locked but it wasn’t.  I tossed the game in the general direction of where they are usually put and hurried back to stand in line with Shelly and Sam.  

At the game, which started promptly at 4:30, I saw another side to him.  He jumped, yelled, whistled anytime anyone made a goal or a good shot.  Shelly was right beside him screaming and clapping.  

I was also enjoying myself until I saw scar face and gingerbread man coming right towards us.  They took their seats two rows behind us.  I knew this because I quickly glanced back when they walked by.  My stomach was in knots.  Why were they here?  Were they trying to talk to Sam at the soccer game?  Good luck with that, he was engrossed completely…only giving Shelly’s questions a quick yes or nod before he became transfixed on the field and the players.  One hour and 15 minutes, it was over.  I could not tell you who had won.

  I was so worried about the two men two rows behind us.  Afterwards, I looked around for the two men but they had disappeared in the crowd.

 I said goodbye to Shelly and Sam, mind on other things until I realized that Shelly had offered me a ride home.  She was visiting her aunt.  I had never met her aunt.  I said sure.  We waited maybe three or four minutes and a car drove up.  Shelly Shelly….hello aunt, I cannot recall hearing Shelly say her aunt’s name even though I know she did.  

I was struck by the familiarity of her voice.  I had heard it before and I knew where…the vacant building. I tried to get out of the ride but Shelly insisted saying it would be silly to have to call my parents again to pick me up.  Shelly’s aunt said,

 “it is no problem, do not worry, I do not bite.”

  Being bitten was the least of my worries. Here I was face to face with the third voice and I was acting like a chicken.  

I mustered up my courage and sat in the back...way back, she had six seats.  Shelly just followed along probably thinking that I did not want to be seen, the back windows were tinted but the aunt gave me a quizzical look.  

While she drove me home, Shelly kept up a steady chatter of what unfolded at the game.  Shelly’s aunt kept trying to get me to answer but I mumbled or just shook my head.  That was the longest twenty minutes ever.  I quickly said thank you and sped walk up my steps into the house and locked the door.

 I peeked through the blinds to see if they were still there but they had already left.  My sister, Cass caught me peeking.

 “What are you doing Nate?”  

“Nothing Cass just looking outside.”  

“How was the game?”  My mom who had heard the door emerged, waiting for a reply.  

“It was fun, I have never experienced anything like it.”  

“Glad you had fun, maybe you should try out for sports.”  

We both knew she was joking. I wasn’t the sports type unless you count playing video games as a sport.  

“I left a plate for you wrapped in tin foil in the refrigerator.”

“Thanks mom.  I’m going to call Zachary before I go to eat, is that okay?”  

“Sure honey” and she disappeared back from wherever she had emerged, probably the lair judging by the apron she wore and the smudge on her face.  

I went to my room uber excited and saw my camera that I won at a school raffle which is usually by my bedside table, on the dresser.  I went to look at it and saw a huge crack.  It was broken.  A note lay beside it which read: “Sory Nate Cassy.”  I was too pumped up to care.  

I went to take a bath first before calling Zachary because I had the jitters thinking the hot water would soothe away any anxiety.  It didn’t, I was still jumpy, and the water was making little waves by my constant movement.    I got out and Mark chose to walk in.  “Hey I yelled I am still in here” and whipped my towel around me.  Ignoring me he raised the lid on the toilet, I was tempted to towel whip him in the back but turned away going in my room. I did what I was forbidden to do many times: I slid down the banister while going downstairs falling off halfway down and  continued my out of control fall until I hit the back of the couch which knocked my breath out.  My eyes bulged with the pain but I was no longer riding the high of having discovered who was behind the third voice. Rubbing my chest, I hugged Cass, who was waiting for me and witnessed the whole scene telling her that it was okay, I was okay, no need to tell our parents. Walking into the kitchen stomach rumbling, I found the plate left for me and placed it in the microwave for 5 minutes, and then I called Zachary.    

“Hello, may I speak to Zachary? This is Nate.”

 “Sure Nate hold on, Zachary?”  

“Yes, mom.”

 “Nate is on the phone.”

 “Hello, Nate why are you calling the home phone and how was the game?”  

“I saw scar face and gingerbread man there and I believe Shelly’s aunt is the female voice we heard in the abandoned building” I breathed out.  Silence was the only sound I heard.  

“Zachary, are you there?”  

“Yes, yes.  You actually saw them?”  

“Yes, and they sat two rows behind me.”  

“Wow, then what happened?”

         “Nothing we or I, not sure what they were doing I kept watching the game.”  

 “Why did you not..do…say something to them?”  

 “When?  

 “At the game?”

          “They came late and what was I supposed to say?  Hello, who are you rooting for and by the way I saw you in an abandoned building planning something sinister.”  

         “I don’t know, perhaps.  You come up with all the clever ideas.”  

“Not this time.”  

“Shelly’s aunt is the female voice, who’d of thought.”  

“Yeah, I know and she gave me and Shelly a ride in her car.  Now, she knows where I live.”

“Are you sure it is Shelly’s aunt?”  

“Well not 100% because I never saw her face but the voice sounded like her.”

         “Some people sound alike Nate, let’s not jump to any conclusions.”  

“I know people can sound alike you, you arrg.”  

“Sorry Nate.”

         “What are the chances that I meet all three at the same event around the same time huh?”  Silence.  “It cannot be a coincidence, there must be a connection.”  

“What are you going to do?”  Now, I was silent.

“Not sure maybe stick a little closer to Sam since they want to use him.”  

“Okay, Nate I have to go but keep me update, I want to help.”  

“Sure thing bye.”

 My nerves were settling but not yet normal so I decided to watch TV. Slipping through the channels I saw one that looked interesting, it was a show about spies on the SNS channel…Spy Network Special.  The show had originally been made into a movie; it had already begun so I tried to pick up what was going on without hitting the menu key using deductive reasoning.  

All I could figure is that some villagers in a foreign country, maybe England or Australia…based on the way the spoke were having their loot taken and bodies of chicken went missing.  They sent for the spy guards trained at the governing house.  No one knew who the spies were.  People came and left every day in the fly ridden village.

The people of the village mostly carried fans or paddles that they used to wave away the flies. The children sometimes made music by tapping or hit balls back and forth with the paddles. All they had to confirm that the spies where there is a sign burned in a house.  The sign of the spies. The spies would tap out codes quickly using their nails to signal other spies.

 It was so random anybody would have thought it was a nervous twitch, it was called Morse code.

 A different spy mark was uncovered later on in the movie which meant that the spies the villagers sent for were not the only spies in the camp.  Only the governing house knew who the spies were and the swore on a blood oath not to tell.

Finally switched it off, It was too weird and confusing.  I played my video games but my mind was not in it, I was trampled, killed and blocked on levels that I normally pass with ease. I put on my music listening quietly in the darkness to the tunes ebbing my thoughts into tranquility. It was definitely hard for me to sleep that night but somewhere between midnight and 1 a.m. my body won the battle over my mind and I succumbed into slumber.  

The next day was Friday, the last one before the holidays.  I was to meet Sam after school and go to his house and I was going to drill him about his life.  That was the plan I woke up with this morning and asked Zachary on the bus what he thought.

 “Can I come along” was his only reply.  

“Sure, you are partners with me on this.  You have the muscles, I have the brains.”  

“The brain is a muscle” he retorted.

 “But you can’t fight with it…..physically.”  

“Maybe we’ll not have to fight.”

 “Hopefully not.”  

Zachary and I cornered Sam right after school.  He was enthusiastic that we wanted to join him at his home…his exact words.  So were we.

Chapter 14

Sam’s house

We walked the short walk to his home, this was the second time I had seen it.  From the outside it looked out of place not like regular homes built around here.  It was supersized.  It had colonnades in the front like a colonial home all white.  

What greeted us inside when we stepped in the foyer were two massive marble statues.  High ceilings fans slowly turning sprinkled us with a breath of wind.  How do they clean them? Mother father I have brought home some visitors.

“Hello Samuel, who have you brought into our gracious home?”  

Now, I knew where Sam’s formal speech originated.

 “This is Zachary and Nate Father.”

 “Please to meet you sir.”  I said.  

Sam’s father took both our hands in turn and turned them palms side up then flipped them over before he shook our hands in a firm but brief handshake. He told Zachary “you must play sports.”  

When he looked at me next he said,” you must be a writer or play video games.”  Wow, he surmised all that just by looking at our hands.  I noticed his hands were well manicured but I was unable to place his profession.

 Sam’s mother greeted us from the stairwell.  She seemed to glide down the stairs with a grace only a trained ballerina would possess and stood by her husband.  She was not as tall as her husband but neither was she petite.  

She had a lithe figure.  She smiled at Sam and it was an infectious one because soon everyone was smiling.  

“How wonderful that you brought visitors into our home.”

  I kept gazing up at her wanting her to continue speaking. She turns to us,

“boys are you hungry.

 “Yes,” I say.

 “Yes, Mrs”… pause.  

“Claudia” she says it simply but it sounds like a symphony of melody. Her voice was neither high nor low.  I can only compare it to a string of Stradivarius violins accompanied by harps playing softly. His family was not very touch feely but you could sense the warmth of their affection through their tones and body language.

“Samuel, please show your friends into the kitchen and cook them a meal.”  

“Yes, mother.”  He hugs her as he passes by and she returns the hug, head barely resting on his head and gently touches his cheek with her hand, then goes into the next room. Zachary and I turn to follow Sam.

We sat around the porcelain table which we were able to see through and sat down in high backed chestnut colored chairs while he cooked up some food.  

I probed, “Uh, Sam besides soccer what else do you like to do?”  “

I enjoy cuisine and spending time with relatives although I do not see them often.”  He laid out a bowl of steaming delicious looking goulash and grilled sliced tomatoes covered in a parmesan sauce along with a pitcher of orange juice and iced tea.    While we ate he continued to talk.

“I am into theatre, I tried out for the play at school and was selected   my father and I want me to be multi-faceted.”  I had seen fliers on lockers and was handed fliers while walking in the hall announcing the next theatrical performance but it never tantalized my interests enough to read them.  I just heard about it from the other students or Zachary.  

“Is it Pluto, Planet, Planet of dwarfs or dog?” Zachary asked.

 “That is good alliteration but no, it is not. That is the next play.

The one I was selected for is called ‘The wisdom of Aahs’.  It was written by some students in the creative writing class, they are being given a chance to showcase their ability in this debut play. It is a parody for” …

“The Wizard of Oz,” I said aloud. I got it.  “Let me guess, you tried out for the part of Aahs?”  I couldn’t see him playing any other part. He nodded.

 “Yes and you should join theatre, both of you.”

If he only knew how much my mom tried to get me into theatre, he would know that it was not to be.

“Acting is not my thing”

Zachary slurping his orange juice was telling Sam while I slipped away to use the bathroom. “Not only actors are needed but prop managers, set designers, people who make sure that the lighting is cast correctly.”

Excuse me Zachary, “I need to use the facilities.”  He got up placed his napkin directly in front of his bowl and turning to the left went out the swinging side doors at the same time I was coming in.  I almost smacked him in the face with the door.

“This is another way we can watch Sam”, Zachary said when Sam was out of hearing range.  

“There is no need to watch him at school.  Those men are not going to get involved there. They would be too exposed.  Plus, they run background checks and I seriously doubt these two miscreants could pass.

 Let’s just say you are correct and they choose to appear here, how would they communicate with him?  What excuses could they give? He would be too wrapped up in playing his part.”  

“You never know. He might need a last minute mentor and they might meet in the back room to talk about his part.” If I had known sooner that he was trying out I would have tried out for the part of the languidly lazy lion.  I’m going to see if I can still get a small part in this play.”  If not, definitely will try out for the next one.”

 “Eat your heart out.” I returned to my food dismissing the idea…….I definitely was not joining

Sam returned and Zachary told him that he changed his mind and wanted to try out for this play.  “Is there still time?”  

“All the actors have been selected.  You might be able to get a substitute actor positon, you never know with the theatre” he said that with a dramatic flourish.

“Even so, if you get the part you will really have to cram to memorize your lines.”  “What do I do first?”

 “You first need to get a script from the director.  He can be found in room B112.  Then next Wednesday all the students trying out for the next play need to be in costume and will read a few lines.”  I side glanced at Zachary, not sure he was up to the challenge.  

The only play I saw him perform was last year. A selection of students from fifth grade were told...I mean volunteered to play a part in the production of “Oliver.  I was absent that day due to a dentist appointment, thank goodness for small favors.  Zachary was one of the orphans.  All he had to do was hold his bowl up each time the school master entered; shoving it forward waiting for his food and have a saddened expression on his face when it was not filled.  No talking involved.

Sam continued talking about his hobbies.

“I work every other weekend at the green house my parents own, watering plants, pulling weeds.”  

“I wouldn’t call that fun Zachary said.  

“Sometimes it is not but you meet interesting people and that is the fun part.”  

            A nudge made me ask  “Who have you met that was interesting?”

“A couple of weeks ago I met this man who asked a lot of questions about the plants.  I did not know half the answers so I got my Dad.  He bought a few items saying he would be back.”  

“Did he come back?”  I asked.

 “Sure did, thanks for asking and he brought his older brother.”  

Zachary and I exchanged glances. What did his older brother want, I wanted to ask but did not need to because Sam was still speaking and volunteered what they wanted.

  “The older brother introduced himself as Jeffrey and said

 “you have already met Paul” pointing to the other man I spoke to weeks previous.  He continued.

 “Paul told me he liked the way you spoke, very professional and I trust his judgement. He asked whether I wanted another job as a courier.”  I inquired further.  “He said I would carry packages to be mailed and send messages via fax machine.”  “Why can you not do this yourself?”  The younger brother, Paul laughed.  

“He used to make me do it he said pointing to his brother but we have gotten so busy we do not have the time.”

 “I have to ask my parents’ permission.”

 “Of course”, Jeffrey said.

 “My parents sat down with them, and asked about their business.  I was not there.  

 They said they used to live here and were renting a home on the other side of town and were trying to set up permanent residence.  

They were running a gift wrapping company and set up web seminars and went to out of town quite frequently to different community events to advertise their business.  The mail center was right in the middle which would make it easier for them to retrieve their mail instead of going all the way in to the city.

 My parents asked them why they could not have the mail delivered to their address.”

 “The items are too bulky and would not fit in the mailbox and the mail man will not leave it outside.”  

“They were satisfied with the answers because they said I could do it.  My father wants me to go into business when I get older and this is just another taste of how some businesses are run.”

“Wow,” was my reply.  

“It is only a couple days after school, Tuesday and Thursday around 4pm to 6pm and sometimes on Saturdays 10am to 11am.”

 I wanted to ask for a description of the two men but that would sound suspicious maybe I could pretend to want a job to see if the men were the same ones I saw in the abandoned building and at the soccer game because I was sure they were the same ones.

I came to understand Sam a little better that day, he was like every other kid wanting to fit in and have people like him for who he was not what he had or could give him.  I invited Sam to a game of Soccer on Sunday with a few people.  He agreed.  

Chapter 15

Stolen

After leaving Sam’s house, my dad picked us up and dropped Zachary back at home.  Dad surprised me with asking me if I would like to see what he was working on in the basement.  I was always curious but knew not to ask or go down there without permission too many breakable items.

 “Absolutely Dad.”  

He grinned.  

 After dinner, the usual dose of how was your day?  Mark giving his monosyllabic responses and Cass talking up a storm, I descended with my dad into the basement.  He showed me his collection of bottles with … some were behind locked cages, others out in the open waiting for a thirsty mouth… all sorts of liquid and started rattling off scientific names for each.  I was just glad to be able to come down here without having to drink some weird liquid that could make me blow up like the girl in Charlie and the Chocolate factory or turn green.

That happened to Mark once. He had gone downstairs for some reason and had sprayed something he thought was cologne all over his body.  He stayed home from school until his normal hue returned, so no nickname for him.

“Between you and me champ and of course your mom somebody has been leaking our ideas to other companies and they try to patent our ideas.  I am clueless to who it could be, everyone who works here seems loyal. They would have nothing to gain from telling our secrets.  

We have received messages from our sister company to be on the alert for a company that names itself S.F.A.  They say it is a fraud company that lures naïve companies into believing that they can patent their ideas quicker. They get them to give the company codes and then someone hacks into other files containing confidential documents and bar codes.”   I had a clue, just an inkling of who that could be but I did not have enough proof.

 “Really, Dad, I am sorry to hear about it.”

 “You and me both, but we will catch them, they have made some mistakes and our team is alert.”  

I just sat there listening to my dad speak until he  told me to go upstairs which is his way of signaling me the he is working on something secret and does not want me to see what he is doing.

 “Thanks for sharing” I said as I climbed the stairs.

Chapter 16

Just kicking it

  A few of us showed up for a friendly game of soccer Sunday afternoon.  Me, Sam, Shelly, Bernard, our friend who waits occasionally at the bus stop, Courteney, the boy who had offered to teach me some soccer plays on the bus.  

I learned his name at the dance and we became friends although he never showed me any soccer moves, Zachary and his two brothers… He had to bring them along or he could not come.  

His mom was painting and needed quiet to let the canvas speak.  Shelly was a goalie, so was Zachary. Goalies chose the players.  The twins wanted to be on Shelly’s team so she picked them.  

Bernard an old friend, who is homeschooled had just come back from vacation, his family traveled often, we rarely saw him was also chosen to be on Shelly’s team.  That left me, Sam and Courteney.  Before the game started we were stretching our hamstrings and quads out on the soccer field.  I was next to Bernard so I struck up a conversation.  

“Where did you visit this time?”

  “Not where, who.  We went to Australia to see the indigenous people and their way of life.  I read up on them so I would not seem like a dolt.”

 Bernard always had his face in a book.  He was not athletic but was in shape probably from all the traveling he does to off the wall places that rarely have modern transportation.

The goalies walked to the middle of the field.  A coin was taken from Zachary’s pocket. “Heads or tails?”

 “Heads,” I shouted.

 “Then you’re dead,” the twins yelled.  

It was tails.  Bernard had the ball and started towards our goal.  He side kicked it to one of the twins, who kicked it all the way to the goal line then backed kicked it to his brother, who drove the ball into the net.  For seven years olds, they were quite good.  I was impressed until I thought about it and decided that Zachary must have let them get a point.  Our ball.  

I decided to lag behind so it was mostly Sam and Courteney playing.

 “Come on Nate,  catch up you can do it” Shelly cheered.

They would kick it back and forth while running zig zag towards the goal.  At the last minute Courteney kicked the ball in the air.  I thought he had made a mistake until Sam came in, jumped up and smacked the ball with his shin and it sailed over Shelly’s head into the net.  

“Nice work, Sam, Courteney” Shelly said as she tossed the ball towards one of the twins.  I feebly blocked it and for a split second thought about trying to make a goal.

 I could not be out done by seven year olds that had just learned to tie their shoe last year. Instead, I kicked it towards Sam.  It went in the general direction but before it could reach him, the twins both dove for it.

“We are playing soccer not football” Zachary called out laughing.

 “We know.

 We were going too fast and didn’t want to bump into each other so we decided to fall down.”  It was still our ball.  Sam retrieved it and did some fancy foot work running and then jumping with the ball between his feet.  When he reached the goal line, he slid to one side as if he was falling extended one leg backwards then kicked with the other.  And I thought Courteney was good.  

When I looked over I saw by his expression that he had never seen that move before.  

“My father taught me that Sam explained after all the hoopla died.”

  “He plays?”  His hands had looked delicate when I shook it not at all like Zachary’s.

 “Not anymore but he used to play when he was my age.  Got so good he almost went pro.”

 “What happened?”  

We all wanted to know the answer to Shelly’s question.

 “He met my mother.”

  Zachary threw the ball to Bernard.

Chapter 17

Holiday

Each of our holidays got waaay out of hand. We wrote so many notes on love, thanks, gratitude peace and safety we probably depleted a whole forest, destroying a natural habitat for all those animals living there, plus causing another crack in the ozone layer.  I usually made duplicates of my notes using the family computer.

Our normal talkative family overnight came in the running for a talkathon marathon. I couldn’t record my words and replay it that would have looked odd.

One holiday, I got an inspiration, I just used my abundant vocabulary to convey my sentiments, I meant every word, waiting for my brother and Cass’ eyes to cloud with doubt…didn’t take long

My parents were more difficult, indulging me, thinking I was fooled but never once did they interrupt my flow except once when my dad couldn’t handle anymore. ““Hiccup, I believe we’ve had enough of this farce.”

His smile said it all he was also tired of the long winded speeches.  That ended the talk until you drop speech each holiday.

Our “little” gifts of love, meaning food and sweets could have rivaled the girl scouts while supplying several impoverished countries with nutrients.

My personal favorite one was where multiple extended family members got together and gifts of monetary value were exchanged.

Besides what my mom and dad buy us everyone in the family makes a list of three items they want and we are supposed to buy one item on the list.  Mom wanted tickets to a play, perfume and gift cards, Cass, dolls, a dollhouse and some makeup.  I seriously doubt she will get the last item.  Mark, money and clothes; I had several items on my list: Greco Chessboard set, video games, but at the top in bold letters and underlined twice was a cell phone.

That particular holiday came and with it came Aunt Hilda and Uncle Harry.

“They are going to spend a few days with us” mom explained and would stay in my room so I had to stay in Marks.

 “When were you going to tell us?”

 Mark who was definitely unhappy blurted.  Neither of us wanted that arrangement.

 “It is only for a few days” she repeated.

 Mark gave me an  angry look and stormed off.  

I knew I would be in for it being in such close proximity to Mark and invading his space.   The first night Mark told me to sleep on the floor and he tossed me a pillow and an item that barely resembled a blanket, it was barely there; a blue blanket that he used to use when he was ten.  It felt rough and looked itchy. Mom would not let him throw it away saying when you get married someday and on your wedding day and your bride wants something blue you can give her a patch of your blanket.  

“Why not cut a patch out now?”

She looked disapprovingly at him.  

“It is the memories”.

 Mark used to use his blanket for everything, cleaning, climbing out windows pretending to scale the walls or pretending he could fly, playing, sleeping.  It even helped him with his bladder control.  He did not want to use the bathroom during the night, but the blanket kept him safe. So he took it with him. I made myself lie on the hard floor with the blanket wrapped around me like a cocoon, thinking the tighter it was the more warmth I would get from it and the less I would itch.

 I was barely resting my eyes when mom entered the room.

“Why are you on the floor Nate?” Her voice was still. No one spoke.

 “Nate please get into bed.”

“I am okay down here.”

 “You will get into the bed.”

 I knew that tone and that I better comply. Mark had not said a word and as I climbed onto one side of the bed he looked up at our mom.  She gave him a look and he quickly looked down.

“Goodnight boys. I will check on you later.”

  She turned and left forgetting to turn out the light.

“Get out of bed and turn it off Nate.”

“No.”

 “Look, I am sharing my bed with you.”

 “Ha, that is only because mom is making you.”  

Grumbling he pulled himself up and went to turn the light off.  On the way back, I heard him hit something.  I was about to ask if he was okay when he fell… right on top of me.  Oomph was all I could get out. He rolled to his side.  

“Sorry.”  

I knew he was not because he continued,

“you better not snore.”  I could not let him get the last word.

 “Better not wet the bed.”

 I was promptly kicked.  The thick covers took most of the blow but I knew better than to keep irritating him, so I said,

“goodnight Mark” and tried to get some sleep.

I woke up shivering.  Sometime during the night Mark had pulled most of the covers to his side.  I just lay there, wondering if I could sleep on the couch downstairs then tugged on the blanket.  It was like trying to move a human boulder.  The tips of my fingernails bent backwards with that first tug.  Then, I got angry and pulled harder.

 I managed to get half of my covers.  Mark sleepily said to

 “stop.”

  I did stop, to reposition my hands. Then I pulled again.  Now I had the rest of the covers and Mark was lying on the floor.  I pulled the covers over my head and pretend to fall back asleep.  Mark sat up, said something inaudible then his alarm rang.  It was time for him to get up for work.

Mom received one of her gifts… play tickets early… Mark and I looked at each other. We knew there was no way of getting out of this one. On the eve, the plan was for all of us to see a play, Aunt Hilda, Harry, mom, dad, Mark, Cassy and me downtown.

 All of us had to dress up.  I wore a suit, well just the shirt and tie. My dad wore one of his suits that he sometimes wears for special occasions.  Mom and Cass wore identical dresses. Prim rose with a sash on the side.  

When they came downstairs my Aunt Hilda said to Cass

I remember when I used to dress up like your mom. I wanted to be just like her.”  Cassy looked up at our mom.  

“It is true honey”, mom said.  I did not like it though.   “I would go to Goodwill and buy ugly clothes and she would have our mom buy her the same clothes so she could copy me.”   If we were going somewhere, I would wait until the very last minute then go into the bedroom when she was not looking and change.  I was a mean older sister.”

 All three of them laughed.  

“As I got older I realized that her copying me was a compliment.  She liked my style.”

  Aunt ilda had on a plain white skirt and a blue-green blouse and a winter white shawl.  Uncle Harry wore a dark gray monkey suit that seemed to accentuate his large arms and muscles.

When it was time to go, Mark was nowhere to be found.  He had snuck out in his jeep.  

“I will deal with that boy when I get home” dad said brusquely.  

I wondered how I could get out of going.  Could I feign sickness?  No, mom would see right through it.  Maybe throw a tantrum like Cassy when she does not get her way. Not that either.  I would just get my video game privileges revoked.  How had Mark gotten away and in his jeep? It sounded like an eighteen wheeler truck when it ran.  Maybe if I begged really hard.  No, that would upset mom which would make dad upset.

We all had to fit in one vehicle so Uncle Harry’s Miata was out of the question and so was dad’s Mazda 6.  We all piled into the family’s minivan. Cassy who sits in a car seat was sitting in the middle between Uncle Harry and dad.  Mom and Aunt Hilda were in the front and I had the back.  We arrived late and mom had to circle several times before finding a spot.  “

Why do we not try valet?”  Uncle Harry suggested on our second trip around.  “You have to pay in advance for it honey.”

  “Well, that is what we get for not leaving sooner, might as well turn around.”

 I received a sharp “Be Quiet” from mom and a “Nate” spoken angrily by my dad.  He looked like he wanted to hit me but I have never been spanked….ever, my mom’s rule.  

She said she was never spanked and she turned out fine.  My dad argued that a good whipping would not harm a child especially if they deserve one.  He had been whipped.  My mom won the argument.  We finally found a spot.  Someone had double parked and was being towed.  

We all piled out of the car, mom holding Cassy’s hand, dad holding moms.  Uncle Harry and Aunt Hilda with their arms wrapped around each other waists.  I was sulking in the back, hoping for a chance to sneak back into the car.  No chance of that, mom not only locked the door but had put on the alarm.  We had to wait in line, there were other latecomers.  When we got to the front, our tickets were checked, stamped and a rope sectioning off the bottom from the top was lifted.  

My mom started heading towards the bottom but my dad stopped her by laying a finger on her arm.  She looked at him questioningly.  He gestured with his eyes upward.  Her smile was huge and she kissed my dad full on the lips.  I wanted to hide.  Cassy giggled.  Then we all turned to go upstairs to the balcony section.  The attendant had to check our tickets again and he removed the correct cord this time.  

My dad took the lead, mom followed with Cassy, me then Aunt Hilda and Uncle Harry.  To look at us you would have thought we were in some type of parade. Parade of nuts, mom with a lopsided goofy smile, Cass’s mouth hanging open and her head tilted back in attempts to catch the sparks of light that seemed to fall from the ceiling.  A trick of the eye created by the semi darkness, me a resigned look and Aunt Hilda a spaced out look being watched by our wardens.  

Consequently, the name of the play we were going to see was called just that Nuts.  The longer version being ‘The Nutcracker’.  The seats upstairs were bigger and more spaced out similar to what you would get when you pay for a first class plane ticket. They even served snacks during long plays when there are interludes.  We all sat down in a row and mom placed her head on dad’s shoulder and he put his arm on her leg.  

As the light were already fading, I thought I heard a smack.  I did not want to turn my head to look.  I didn’t need to, Cassy told the story. “Mommy and daddy k i s s i n g.”  I thought I was going to be sick.  Not in public please.  

The play was not all that bad, mostly because I zoned out.  I was awakened by applause. The performers received two standing ovations and probably would have received more had the lights not begun to illuminate the place.   I stood up and stretched grabbing as many snacks as I could stuff in my pocket on our way out.  I had survived and we were on our way home, an hour’s drive away.

 I thought it would take a longer time than it did to get out of the parking lot but there were lots of attendants and lots of exits.  We were able to move fairly quickly.  My mom had not turned on her beans while we were exiting; there was enough lights in the lot to signal to any U.F.O’s with space aliens who might be hovering in the sky of our presence.  When she did a car honked.  

“Oops, high beams” she laughed and switched to the low beams.

My mom and Aunt Hilda wanted to relive the moment so they started talking about each part of the play when we got back into the car.

Cassy joined the conversation.  

“I like the mouses even though the king was mean.”

“Mice” my mom corrected.  

“The costumes were magnificent”

 “I know said my mom” and they both giggled.  

The sounded like two school girls talking out their crushes.

 “I wonder who designs them.” Mom asked?  

“Definitely someone of European background” Aunt Hilda said.

 “Why so?”  Her husband asked her.  

“The details were so exquisite and completely like the actual dresses made in that era.  It would take someone from Europe of European background to recreate it with such authenticity”.  

“Or someone who have lived or studied abroad” my dad said from the middle seat.  

“Yes, that too.”  I actually saw some people crying when the nutcracker defeated the mouse.  

“Really?”

 My mom with a look of wonder said “I am not surprised that was ingenious how he did it.”

Everyone was trying to get on the highway and only one lane was open due to construction.  Mom slowed the car down to almost a standstill moving at a snail’s pace.  There was a slight snoring sound coming from the middle seats. It was Cassy.

 Mom turned to look at her and smiled then turned back to her sister.  

“Cassy seemed to like all the ballerinas in their pretty outfits.  She kept pointing each one out to me as if I could not see them” mom laughed.  “I think she might want to try out for ballet; she has been bugging me about wearing leotard and things.  I think she gets it from the kids at school.  I had her try gymnastics but she just cried when put on the balance beam.”  

“What do you think Michael?”  

“I think Cassy will do well in whatever she wants to do.”  “She is just like her mother.”  

“Good answer,” Uncle Harry said. Mom responded glancing in the front view mirror to look at my dad with a smile.

When we arrived back home around 11p.m. Mark’s jeep was parked outside and Dad went into his room and closed it. I knew what that meant.  Cass was asleep in Uncle Harry’s arms.  He passed her to my mom and she put her to bed.  Uncle Harry and Aunt Hilda retired to my room while I had to wait for my dad to finish his talk with Mark.  Not sure what transpired but there was definite tension when I entered his room.  “You sleep on the floor.”

 He grouchily said and threw me a pillow which I caught with my face.    

       The next day, early in the morning there were no wisecracks coming from Mark about everyone’s presents.    I noticed while walking downstairs, down the hall to the living room that there was a space on the key rack where Mark’s car keys usually hung.  

     Cassy squealed when she opened her gifts.  She did receive a makeup container that had four tubes of lipstick from Uncle Harry and Aunt Hilda.   My mom gave Hilda an exasperated look.

 “Do not worry” Uncle Harry said seeing the look mom gave his wife.  

“It is candy.”

  And it was each tube had a different flavor; red was cherry, purple, grape, pink, cotton candy and green was lime.  

My sister kept putting each flavor on and licking it off.  Soon her lips would look like cracked asphalt.  Hope someone got her some chap stick.

My dad was into mystery novels, the more mysterious the better.  He had hinted at some books he would like when I went with him to the bookstore located next to a Chinese restaurant.  I got him one called, Dark Nation.  Title sounded good.  Mark, of course got some clothes.  

“No money?”

 “You have a job” was my parents reply when he asked.  

He looked like he wanted to say something but refrained.  Uncle Harry and Aunt Hilda received plane tickets to Europe.  It was a gift from Uncle Harry’s parents.  Note read; for your honeymoon.  They never took one and both wanted to go overseas to experience how life was structured.  My aunt Hilda wanted to see the French and German plays Les Miserable and The Trapp Family in the original country.  

My nerves were tensing and releasing in expectation for the one item I have desired and been denied.  I searched my gifts for a cell phone sized package.  There was one that looked like it might hold a cell phone.  I ripped the wrapping paper.  No cell phone.  Instead, it was a camera.

“To replace the one that was broken” my mother informed me when I looked up at her.

After opening all the presents, it was time to call the in-laws.  We were making a long distance call and it can get expensive especially around the holidays so each one of us spoke briefly.  Then our parents got on the line and chit chatted.  My mom always suggested that we should get the friends and family plan but my dad vetoed that idea saying that there is always a catch.  Once everyone had finished speaking we all gathered in the kitchen to eat an enormous meal.

There was a ham the size of a small dog, croissants, split peas and other number of vegetables unknown to me and two types of desserts.  I noticed that there was double the amount of food on the table, probably because Uncle Harry was here.

I finally got my room back after two days, Mark still did not get his car keys which made him extra mean and bossy but only when dad was not around so I spent a lot of time at Zachary’s or one of my other friends.

Chapter 18

Rufus

The first week back from the holidays, I told Zachary about my conversation with my dad.  “Could it be the same people we saw in the vacant building and who I saw at the game are the same ones using Sam?”

“It looks that way” Zachary chimed into my thoughts that I had spoken aloud while we were walking from our third period class to a mandatory assembly.

 That is how our teachers told us after they had taken attendance.  Our principal was up on stage with a couple of other teachers probably to keep order.  I had not seen Rufus since that incident with Sam over two months ago but there he was up on stage.  He looked different; I could not place my finger on what it was.  Happy.  Shelly found the word I was searching for and he did look happy.  After all the sixth graders had entered and were quiet the principal began.  

“I am glad all of you have joined us today.  We have a special announcement, one of our students has been nominated to receive a full time paid scholarship to the national robotics and electronics camp this summer. We would like to honor that student.”  Rufus came to the side of the principal when he was named the recipient.  I could not believe it, Rufus, the bully, intelligence the size of a gerbil was getting an all-expense paid trip to some Brainiac camp?  

There was polite applause and a man in front was taking pictures of Rufus and the principal.  I was too far away to tell who it was but the form looked like Mr. Snell.  

“Unbelievable,” Shelly and Zachary said together.  All this time Rufus was hiding his hidden talents.  

“Good for him” I heard another student say.

 “Now can we go back to class?”  

I inwardly groaned; while this assembly was boring, it did get us out of class and that is always a welcome break.  

“I don’t think it was his brain that got him the scholarship, I said to those still sitting in their seats.  The poster said to nominate someone who is an outstanding citizen and explain why they are deserving of this prestigious award.”

 “Why would Rufus be nominated?” Shelly asked.  

“Maybe someone saw something in him that no one else saw, said Zachary.” “Apparently.”  A kid sitting close enough to hear and who was also bullied by Rufus replied.

“Outstanding at being a dummy and a bully” another kid sitting close to use remarked.  

There were snickers all around after that comment.  

 “Some bullies are smart and try to hide it or they want to learn but people are too busy focusing on their bad behavior to notice.”

I turned to Zachary.

 “That is the absolute truth, Zach.”

The assembly ran long and there were other announcements given by other faculty members.  By the time we were let out, it was only had fifteen minutes before lunch.  Everyone returned to their third period class.   My teacher just gave a brief review for the test tomorrow and then let us out five minutes early.  Cool teacher.  I wanted to wait for Zachary by his class but some teacher asked what I was doing and told me to go to class, so I went to lunch instead.

I looked around for Sam he was usually in the cafeteria before me since seventh grade lunch ran into half of sixth grade.  He was not in his usual place.  He was not here at all. I was not overly concerned. Sam could take care of himself.  I had seen him do it with Rufus.  

I went through the cafeteria line and sat at a table near the window.  Zachary joined me five minutes later.  

“You got here quick.”

  “My teacher let us out early.”

  Our usual group of friends quickly joined us and there were some general comments about the assembly.  I stopped listening.  I whispered into Zachary’s ear.

 “I need to find out what is in those packages Sam delivers.”

 “I know Zach said between bits but how?”

 “That’s what I need to figure out.”

“Hey, no whispering you guys.”  

“Sorry” I said.

After school, I still saw no signs of Sam.  Zachary and I rode the bus home, we wanted to hang out at my house but Zach’s parents, predecessors had arrived and he needed to spend time with them.  As we sat he said, “I enjoy my grandparents and they tell wonderful stories about my parents when they were little but I wish I could spend time with others when they are around.”

My mom says that they will not be here much longer and my friends will so I can sacrifice some time to be with them. The progenitors of my parents lived far away and rarely visited but we do talk on the phone for holidays and birthdays.  Only my aunt, my mom’s sister comes around regularly.

Chapter 19

Keeping busy

It was a good thing Zachary was made to stay home to visit.  The next day, Zachary told me about his visit with the parents forbearers.  “They noticed while driving into town something peculiar.  They have always had a fascination for small cities.

 While talking to my parents my grandpa said

 “we saw some homes built on the outskirts of town. Soon this will no longer be a small city.”  

“Yes they started building those in the summer” muttered my mom.

I must have had a puzzled look on my face since my parents asked me what was wrong. My grand pa turned to me.  

“Zachary there were a lot of kids your age, you must have seen them at school.”  “Zachary goes to middle school now” my mom patiently explained.

 “Talking about middle school” contributed my dad.  

“Those kids must be bussed in to attend school here that would explain the new bus system that was passed last year.”  

Zachary looked intently at me all the while he was retelling me the conversation. “How do we know it is Sam that the two men are using and not one of these other kids?”  I was dumbfounded.  I was so sure it was Sam, now I had been thrown a loop and had no idea.  

“Either way,” I said.

 “Something illegal is happening and someone is being used. We need to get to the bottom of it.”

It had been several school days before either of us had seen or spoken to Sam.  One day he just appeared by Zachary’s house.  We were in the back yard.  Zach was kicking a ball I was trying to block.  Zachary saw Sam first.  

“Well hello… stranger danger” Zachary said trying to be funny.

 “Hello” replied Sam not getting the joke.  

“May I come back?”  

“Sure.” Zachary said with a smirk as I missed another ball

“Why not?” was my response as I acted nonchalant about the miss.  

“We were just playing a little kick the ball.”

 “Looked like you were trying to play soccer.”

 “Yes, we were but Nate is no good at sports.”

 “You should not say that.”  

“Well, it is the truth” I replied.  “

My specialty is video games.”  

“Oh, well if you are okay with your lack of talent.”  

“We have not seen you around lately” Zachary said.

 “Where have you been?”  I chimed in.

“Been busy” was his reply.

 First time I had heard him speak in a non-formal way.

“I need someone to take over my deliveries temporarily” Sam said to me and Zachary.  “Why?” Zach asked.  

Sam blushed.  

“I must confess, I have found other means to occupy my time.  I have been spending my afternoon with Shelly, spending lunch with her in the other cafeteria.”  We had two; one main one and another one that had been converted into one since we had a surplus of students register for school.  Zachary looked non-plus.  I wasn’t surprised, I thought that she liked him from the first time she saw him in the local creamery.  “She is a fascinating girl” he said.  

“Yes she is I suppose.  She used to be my girlfriend.”

I saw Sam’s face harden like cement.  

“When?”

His voice was cool.

 I shrugged, “in first grade.”  

Sam visibly relaxed and laughed.  “Well that must have been a serious relationship.”

“Will one of you take my route?”  

“How can we?  We look nothing like you.  They would think that we were stealing.”  

“No, no, Zachary” Sam explained.  

“The packages are left in a mail room. All I do is pick them up, look at where they need to be delivered and drop them off.  Anyone can do it.”

This was my chance to see what was in those packages Sam delivered.  Thank goodness for small favors.  I might not even have to open one, just look at the label to see if S.F.A. was written.

“I’ll take it.”  

“Good, I will tell my father.  He was none too pleased when I requested to stop being a courier.  

He told me that it was not a good business decision to drop an occupation just so I could visit with the opposite gender and I needed to manage my time more wisely.”  Neither Zachary nor I knew how to respond so we remained quiet.  Same went over the basic requirements of the job.   I was to wear a Windsor hat, tie buttoned shirt. I could wear jeans if they were fashionable.  No sneakers, earrings….like I would even wear one anyway… and promptness was a must.  This seemed like a fairly easy job.  He told me the location of where all the packages were left.  

It was at another mailroom, I was unfamiliar with, across town.

“It is fairly small,” Sam volunteered seeing the question in my eyes.  

“It is not manned but you have to have a key and a code to enter and it is optional to sign the ledger.”

“How do they keep people from stealing other peoples’ packages?”  Zachary inquired.  

“There are security cameras and scanners. You scan your code and it identifies your packages.  Only those belonging to the proper owner will not set off the alarm and lock the doors.  

 I learned that the hard was when I accidentally forgot to scan a package. I waited thirty minutes for another person to come and unlock the doors.  I was too embarrassed to call my father and tell him I made a serious error my first week.”  

Thirty minutes? 

“Why did it take so long for someone to arrive?”  

“I asked the same question when the security personnel arrived.  They told me that the alarm goes off all the time and they are sometimes backed up with more serious issues.  Scans change every day and you can only scan the package twice so you have to be careful.”

 Well, I definitely was not going to set off any alarm and have to wait for slow-jo’s to arrive.  This job did not seem so easy after all but I still chose to do it…on a trial basis.  Sam said once he and Shelly had worked out a suitable time for them to meet, he would resume his duties.  Sam had soccer practice on the days he did not do the deliveries but soccer season was almost over and Shelly had piano lessons plus she babysat her younger brother.  I already knew about Shelly’s life.  We had practically grown up together.

My first day of work began two days from today.  Gave me enough time to purchase a proper hat, I already had the shirt shoes and tie.

During those two day I busied myself with school work, finished my project early that was due for History; wrote a persuasive letter in Language Arts.  Actually listen to my sister rattle on about her day; anything to keep my mind occupied and off of what I was planning on doing in approximately 48 hours.

Zachary convinced me to go see the play Sam was in.  I was reluctant until Zachary reminded me that those two men might show just like they showed for the soccer game.  So Monday evening at 7:00 pm Zachary and I went to see Sam perform in the Wisdom of Aah’s.  

The lights were dimming when we walked into the high school auditorium.  It was decided that the middle school did not hold enough space for all the people wanting to come. “What a waste of money” I grumbled as I handed over 7 dollars to get my entrance ticket.  We showed the man our school I.D. saying we go to the middle school hosting the play and should get the half of discount.  

“Sorry, kids that was only if you bought the tickets in advance.  Next person in line please.”  

We were bumped in back and out of line by a couple of high schoolers.

 “Hey no need for that.”

 The ticket attendant said refusing to take their money until they apologized to us.  Zachary just wanted to leave.  

“I apologize.”  

Their voices melted into one. They paid for their tickets and then walked off back the way they came.  It must have been for the extra credits I told Zachary as we walked inside the auditorium.  My brother had told me about in a non-monosyllabic moment during dinner.  

We ate in the dining room.  Dad had dozens of unwashed vials on the kitchen counter, sink and table; plus his books pertaining to a better life through Science. I told parents where I was going that night with Zachary and that his Dad would drive us and pick us up.

Mark looked up. He scoffed.

 “I heard about that play.”  

He told me the high school teachers were trying to come up with new ways to boost grades and gets students involved in extracurricular activities besides sports.

If you went and could show your ticket you would earn extra credit to your help out with your lowest grade.  

“Why do you not go with Nate and Zachary to get extra credits?”

“I have all the credits I need.”

 “A little more would not hurt” mom probed.

  “No, thanks.”

 “Speaking of helping out, I know that Nate has been cleaning the bathroom each week and washing and folding” my dad was addressing Mark. “Very little escapes me in this house.”

 It was not a big deal to me about the washing as long as the clothes were clean but Dad was big on responsibility.  He has told Mark many times the he should be setting an example since he is the oldest. Dad and Mark went into the other room to discuss it further

“Ah, Dad, Nate knows what to do and he doesn’t mind.”  He was only half right.  “That is not the point. You will start doing your fair share.”  

 Mark and Dad were at an impasse neither one of them wanting to give ground.  Ultimately dad won because Mark truly wanted his approval but was on the verge of manhood, that is what I overheard when I was sort of spying.

“I’ll do my share.”  

He glared at me when he returned like it was my fault he had to share. He got up to the table, took his plate and went into the kitchen to finish his meal.

 “Daddy?”  

“What is it Cassy?”  

“I’ll take out everyone’s trash.”

 “Good.”

The play was mainly put on to raise awareness and showcase the creative ability of young people and to raise money so they could go to Colombia University for a weekend and listen to Pulitzer prize winners speak on how to enhance your craft.  The stands were quickly filling up and people started being led to the chairs on the auditorium floor.  Our shadows cast an unearthly pallor on the walls as we took our sets on the floor in the middle aisle.  We wanted to catch all the action on stage and off but at the same time not be blown away by the loud speakers situated on the sides.  

Trumpets playing announced the first scene.  The play was not consistent with a parody and had nothing to do with the real movie; only thing similar is that they used the same character’s name. There was Dorothy with her dog triumphant.

 They actually used a real dog. There were a lot of aah’s when the dog came on stage.  He was sepia brown, fluffy with floppy ears and eyes that looked at you innocuously.   Dorothy was running away from the dog catchers.  I started to zone in and out as the play proceeded but Zachary nudged me awake.  Sam’s part is here.  I sat up straight, leaned forward.  

There stood Dorothy, triumphant, the languidly lazy lion, aluminum man and scarecrow.  I guess they could not come up with a better name… sharecropper Jo sounded good to me…before the throne of Aahs.

 We saw Sam slowly rise. He must be on some lift. He stood in royal regalia before all and spoke to each character in turn.  He told Dorothy you need to keep triumphant on a leash and make sure he got his annual shots.  The lazy lion was told to get off his rear…. this caused a laugh…. throughout the play he was either carried by another cast member or was pushed in a wheel barrow… and to learn how to roar.  He mewled like a baby kitten.  

Aluminum’s value came from his shiny armor Aah’s spoke and that as long as he kept his armor shiny that would be a reflection and protection of the hearts of all mankind.  Aluminum man was so excited that he spun around and a dazzling light pierced the eyes of all those in the audience.  It turned out the scarecrow did not need a brain after all.  

“I came all this way for nothing.”  

“Your brain got you here” Aahs’ replied.

      After Aah’s bequeathed his wisdom to each character, they would say something sounding similar to aah then touch their hand to their chest as a symbol of respect and walk off.  An hour and forty five minutes after the play began it was all over.

 As we exited, I heard,

“That was pretty bad”

“Other than the dog, who stole the show the play was a flop” another adult, a woman had spoken.  

I thought that was a harsh statement since one of the actors was her child.  Although, I believed the play needed some work, maybe next time have an expert write the script, there were some funny scenes.

Chapter 20

Days of clues

Then it was the day.  I was expecting something unusual to happen throughout the day to announce my intended purpose.  Nothing. I ate breakfast, met Zachary and my other friends at the bus, went to school, and barely stayed awake through another one of Mr. Thomas’s lectures in first period Science.  Actually there was a substitute.  Saw Shelly with a group of her friends at lunch, she waved, I nodded and kept going.  Ate lunch, which tasted rather bland, not like it is very favorable on other days but there are times lunch is passable.  Approximately 3:25, the middle school bell rang.

I had just enough time and money to take the local bus down to the mail center, change clothes and pick up any packages or messages.  I arrived at 3:55, raced across the street into the men’s room located in a gas station.

 Surprisingly the bathroom was large.  I changed in record speed; I had built up my speed during gym class since some 8th grade boys sometimes had the habit of sneaking in taking other peoples’ clothes while they were in the shower or bathroom and hiding them.

I crossed back over the street; looking both ways, even though there was no need and used the code I was given.  I heard a beep then a lock opening.  I pushed open the door.  I saw a bathroom immediately upon entering the mail center.  I should have checked before running across the street.  Better yet, I should have asked Sam more questions.  I was a little annoyed with myself and thought.  How convenient, you can use the facility after you are locked in for who knows how long.  Not a pleasant thought but at least it was something.

There were several packages lying on the counter or in little cubbies by the wall.  I looked for the one that had Sam’s name on it. Saw one, picked it up and looked at the address.  It read S.F.F. or was that last letter and A.  The package label had been put on haphazardly and the last letter was not fully visible. I tried to smooth at the package with my finger but still could not clearly see. I had hoped that I could just look at the name, now I would have to tear open the package to see the full address.   If it read S.F.F. it would mean that it was from the Standardized Farm Fertilizer.  They sold all kinds of fertilizer made from cow and sheep dung.

I knew from all the time I was sent to get the mail that tampering with other people’s mail was a crime punishable by a 500 fine and up to two years in jail.  I decided to wait until I was outside to tear open a tiny hole, too many security cameras.  I almost forgot to scan the package on my way out but at the last Nano second I remembered.  

Outside I tore a hole underneath where the label had been placed.  A piece of paper fell out.  I put my eyes close to the hole and peeked inside just like I do sometimes on my birthday when I want to know beforehand what my parents have given me.

 I completely forgot to look at the label.  Must have been my nerves.  I could not see through the tear so I used my nose, smelled nothing so it could not be fertilizer.

     I picked up the paper that had fallen and it had the address where my dad worked plus one sentence.  We need more info on your company’s ideas.  Could you give us a detailed outline of what you are planning and what it is supposed to accomplish?    There would be my dad’s, our dads’ company’s address.

I finally looked at the label which was now fully visible and it read S.F.A.  These were the people stealing ideas from my dad’s company.  I had done it.  I had the hard core evidence I needed.  Now what?  I didn’t have a phone.  Zachary did but I forgot to ask him if I could borrow it. If I delivered the package I would be giving away my proof but if I took it home to take a picture with my camera which was sitting on my dresser that I foolishly forgot to take with me I would be late on my delivery and I knew that I could not arouse suspicion. Plus, I only had enough money for one trip.  

I tucked the torn packaging paper back in the hole as best as I could.  Hardly noticeable.  I delivered the package to the address.  I had a few minutes before the bus came so I looked around.

 There was not much to see, just one lonely mail center and the gas station across the street.  Nobody lives out here why would there be a need to build a mail center I wondered aloud.  We were not a farm city; the nearest farm that I knew of was over 90 miles away traveling down I-shadow 45.  I saw the mountains way off in the distance their peaks jutting out of the clouds like fat candles on a cake, the clouds covering being the vanilla frosting the snow underneath sliding down the sides in patches  looked like…well snow  but to keep with the theme of the cake it made a gooey gumdrop substance.

I had heard somewhere that there was a Native American apache reservation up there.  They had resided in those mountains for eras but I assumed that to be a myth to attract people to our neighboring cities.  Hikers, mountain climbers, antique dealers hunting up and down the forested mountain looking for any genuine artifact that could be worth money. I caught the local bus home, phoned Sam to tell him that I had made the delivery.

 He knew I would.

 He said I was a reliable friend.

When I went up to my room to collect my camera to place it in my backpack so I would not forget, the camera was not there.  I searched every crack and cranny of my room starting with my dresser.  I pulled out each drawer and searched under my clothes.  I did the same thing in my closet. Checked under the bed.  Not there.  I checked in the bathroom under the sink. Nope.  Cabinet above the sink. No.   I walked down the hall to Cassy’s room and asked if she had messed with my phone.  She smiled sweetly and said yes pointing to where she had her dolls lined up in a row.  She told me she was taking pictures for her fashion show.  I went over and grabbed the camera. There was no more film and film was expensive.

I told mom what Cassy had done and she made her apologize again.  Told her she would not get dessert after dinner and sent her to her timeout spot.  Cass was crying the whole time but I felt no sympathy.  She needed to learn not to touch other people’s stuff.  Mom then told me that she would go get some more film for my camera next week.  Next week?  I needed my camera now but I kept silent and just nodded.

The following day I told Zachary about my discovery, hoping he would let me borrow his phone.  He wanted to come along just in case I needed protection.  

“Protection from what?”  I remarked.

“There is no one in the building only cameras.  I thought you had baseball practice after school.”  

“Coach cancelled.  One of his kids got sick and the babysitter is out of town.”  “Alright meet me after school no later than 3:25 and bring your phone.”  

Sometimes he forgot his phone at home or in the classroom.  I am surprised it has not been stolen.  

“We have to catch the express to our destination.”  

Zachary had grown more adventurous since our last encounter.  I guess he did not believe that there was any real danger in delivering a package with nobody around.

We met after school on Thursday, caught the bus. It was very crowded on the bus, babies crying, an older gentleman was arguing with the bus driver about his fare saying that the fare was 65 cents for seniors.  

“Sorry sir” the bus driver replied

 “The fare has gone up.  It is now 70 cents.”  

“It is only one nickel” someone groaned.

 “Just pay the fare.”

The man dug into his wallet, then stuck his hand in his front shirt pocket and pulled out some coins.  There was a sign that clearly said no pennies please. He selected five pennies and smugly put them in the slot.   The man said he needed to have a seat because he could not hold onto a pole because of his arthritis.

 The bus driver ignored him and waited for him to find a seat before driving which took a while since no one was willing to give up there seat to a cantankerous old man.  Finally, the one person that told the man to pay the nickel got fed up and stood up and left saying on his way out that this was ridiculous and he would report this to the stations director.  We had wasted five minutes.

 “I hope the machine does not jam because of what he did” I told Zachary.

 That would cause further delays when the bus picked up more passengers.

I went into the mailroom, Zachary stayed outside, keeping a lookout.  I was back in a few. I showed him the label which could be clearly read.

 “Yep, it says S.F.A. alright.”  

He took a snapshot with his phone.  I tore open a corner of another package, another paper was there, it was poking out and I pulled it out.  It read, keep sending ideas to patent, it was signed from…. and my dad’s company address was on it.

Zachary had been videotaping me opening the package and pulling out the note.  I held the note up to his phone for closer examination.  As a second precaution, he snapped a picture of the note.  I checked the delivery address.  

“Oh, it says the local creamery.”  

Aha, ok maybe the man selling ice cream and soda is part of the plot.”

 I did not believe so but I did not reply.  We caught the local bus back to our side of town and walked the few blocks to the creamery.  

It was delivery day so a few men were handling large crates with ice cream or soda labels.  Some had this side up written on it.  When I asked the person behind the counter were packages were to be left we were directed towards the warehouse side of the creamery.  We went over there but saw no where to place the package.  Just a bunch of empty boxes and packaging material was strewn or piled up.  Definite fire hazard.    “I guess I just leave it, that’s what I did last time.”  

“Oh, okay Zachary exhaled but how are we going to find out with you just picking up packages and delivering them?”

 That thought had already occurred to me and I did not know. “

Let’s try the fax number.  We can write to them to get them to give us the name of the boss?”  

“We are just going to ask them to tell us the name”  

I sighed.

“No.  We’ll write a letter asking for clarification on what they need us to give them and when they return the fax they should have the name of the person who sent the idea on it, somewhere…I hope.   After the delivery On Saturday, if nothing more happens we will go to my dad and explain everything.  Then he can call the police and let them handle it.  Deal?”

 “Deal.”  

Afterwards, Zachary and I enjoyed a big scoop of ice cream.  I got strawberry and chocolate with caramel syrup.  Zachary went with pineapple raspberry with walnut toppings.  We ate our ice cream this time in the correct spot.

Chapter 21

Chores

Today I had brought my laptop to school and carried it with me to each class.  I was afraid to leave it in the lockers; there had been some thefts, students picking locks. It became such an epidemic that we were told to carry our books.

 Parents complained so the school decided to issue a statement that only combination locks were allowed. If they saw any others they would be cut off with a bolt cutter.   I went home with Zachary.   What greeted us when we walked through his door was “Zachary do not forget to do your chore.”

“Hi Nate.”  

“Hello.”  His mom was swirling her brush in some paint.  Zachary’s chore was to clean the living room floor.

 Unlike my siblings Zachary’s twin brothers insisted on helping.  They were at an age where they still thought cleaning was fun.  Zachary took one brother and I took the other and we had vacuum cleaner races.  We were holding them under their armpits while they had their feet placed on micro fiber clothes.  We zoomed around the room up and down.  The twins laughing and urging us to go faster.  That was exhausting Zachary said as we fell on the couch, resting.

 “What is next on the agenda?”  I asked.  

“Towel folding” they yelled and ran to the laundry bringing a basket full of towels.  Each holding one side pretending to struggle.  The twins also had a chore and since they helped Zachary with his he thought it only fair he help them with theirs.

 “How are we going to make this fun” he whispered out the side of his mouth?  “Your mouth looks funny” Zachary the twins said and copied his face giggling. He looked at me.

 “Any ideas?”  

“Sumo towel wrestling.”

 “Sumo?” All three of them said as one.

 “Yes, Zachary and I will demonstrate.”  

Zachary had no idea what I was talking about…neither did I.  I was making it up as I went along.  I looked around the room trying to find something I could use.  The twins, who are normally bouncing around like Mexican jumping beans were waiting expectantly.  

“Nate?”  Zachary called my name.  

“We are waiting” the twins said in a sing song voice.  

I got it and ran to the bedroom, Zachary and the twins right behind me like a trail of smoke.

I grabbed both pillows off Zachary’s bed and had the twins get theirs.

          We all gathered in the living room.  

“Here are the rules; each person grabs one side of the towel.”  

They both grabbed it.  It was twisted.

  “You have to unfold it.”  

Zachary took a towel and modeled how it should look, like this…ta da, and then he let it fall back into a crumpled heap.  

“Have any tape?”  I turned to ask Zachary.

 “Preferably masking tape.”

 He went into the garage and back with a whole roll.  I started taping the pillow to his back and chest.  I told him to do the same for me.

 “Now, again watch closely.”  

We both grabbed the end of the towel and unfolded it, each hand holding a corner.

 “The object is to run at your opponent, knocking him down while grabbing his end.”

We…Zachary and I practiced in slow motion.  I signaled and he grabbed my end.  “See the towel is folded in half.  The winner then folds the towel again earning two points one for winning and an extra point for the extra fold making It difficult in the next round for the other person to grab his end.   You keep doing it until you have finished folding.”

 “Maybe we should get our helmets” one twin suggested.  

Wow, this idea is working; I smiled as they ran to their room to grab their head gear.

While they were there, Zachary and I took the tape off the pillows. I was about to throw mine away.  “

Wait.  Save it for the twins.”

 I placed my tape hanging on the end of the wooden banister.  One twin ran back into the room.

 “We can only find one helmet.”

 “Dilemmas.”  Zachary scratching his chin pretending to be in deep in thought.  “We can use Dad’s old hockey mask.”

 “I found it” the other twin held up his helmet as he raced into the living room. “Understand the rules?  

Yes, Zachary.”  

We both taped one twin and let them wrestle.  

The first few times no one was able to grab the others end or they both fell down dropping the towel.

 “It is a draw but keep trying” I encouraged them.  

We split their work. They taking half and Zachary and I the other half. They were really competing, bumping into each other until finally one grabbed the ends.  

“Yes,” he yelled both hands in the air.

 “We have a victor” Zachary said.

 “Keep going” and they did.

 When we were all finished and the towels were placed in the cabinets Zachary and I took his pillows and went to his room.

The twins went…well I am not sure where they went, probably the kitchen from all the noise I heard coming from that direction.

 “Ingenious idea Nate.”  

“You too.”

 “Now what?”

 “We should try faxing that company.”

 I dug out my laptop.  Zachary’s dad had a fax machine.  We tried to sound professional; looking up how to phrase an inquiry on my laptop and made sure we spell checked.  We sent several faxes Thursday.  Never received a reply.  

“Maybe they are busy or maybe the machine is jammed with so many faxes.”  Maybe I thought unsure.

I saw Sam and Shelly in the school café on Friday; they were sitting side by side.  They both smiled at me and I grinned back going into the cafeteria. I had brought a sack lunch which is not necessarily against the rules but is frowned upon. I thought about going through the line just so I could keep up appearances but the line was too long.   So I just sat somewhere inconspicuous, pulled my lunch stealthily out of my backpack and ate.

I did not see Zachary until after school.

 “I have another package to deliver on Saturday.  Want to come?”  

“Sure but don’t we have enough evidence to go to the police.”

 “No,” was my answer.  “We know someone from the company where Sam is delivering packages is stealing ideas from my dad’s company but we do not know exactly who. Also, who are the brains or boss behind this operation and who is the perpetrator leaking the ideas to the boss.”

 “You said Shelly’s aunt was the boss.”

“I am pretty sure she is but I need to be 100% positive.  I…we need tangible proof.”

We met at my house on Saturday around 9:30.  My dad was down in the lair, mom was busy with Cass getting her ready to take her to some mother and daughter event and Mark slept in on Saturdays.  I told my parents I was going to hang out with Zachary for a few hours.  Be back by noon.  Actually, I just wrote them a note.  

Then Zachary and I walked to the bus station, caught the express, rode for approximately forty-five minutes talking about what we would do after this was over. Occasionally glancing out the window, placing I spy or slug bug.  He won slug bug but I won I spy and got off without any incidents.

 “Well, this is it.  One last try to find more evidence and catch the criminals.”  

I went again in to the mail room while Zachary kept watch outside. Rain started to fall gently while I was inside getting the package.  I was not worried; it usual sprinkled a little then cleared up.  I had heard about sudden train storms in other parts of the area where it would be sunny one minute and pouring rain the next but it had never happened here.  

Still inside, I looked out the window and saw that the sky was still clear full of fluffy cumulous clouds and the sun could still be seen racing across the horizon.  Zachary had stood under the ledge until I reappeared.

 When I returned we both looked at the delivery address.  It was a warehouse owned by a former colleague of my dad’s.  

“Let’s go,” Zachary was already walking towards the bus stop.  

“Wait!”  Zachary stopped and turned around with an unreadable expression.  

“What?”

         “I need to tie my shoe.”  

“Well, hurry up.”

I quickly stooped, tied and caught up with Zachary.   We had to wait a few minutes and in the short time we heard a rumbling and the skies started to get darker clouds gathering.

 “Uh, oh... we might get rained on.”

“Maybe we should run back inside” Zachary said.

I stood staring at the sky, telling it to hold off for a few moments that the bus would be coming any minute.  

“I cannot.  Remember the codes change every day and I can only use it twice, one going in and then one going out.”  

The clouds looked like warring warriors getting ready for battle racing across the sky towards each other to see who would reach us first; each making a thunderous noise louder than the other. Posturing one would strike out with lightning daring the other. In response, the other would have two lightning strikes.  

I must not have been heard because a down pour that we could see coming hit us in full force.    Zachary looked to the left and me to my right.

 “Uh oh.”

“Oh no” we said. Their roars become as one as they converged upon us.  

The rain from Zachary’s side hit us first and poured straight down as if it was rushing over the edge of a waterfall trying to drown us.  On my side, the rain was slicing sideways striking out as if it was mad in retaliation for having been beaten.  In seconds we were soaked to the skin.     I saw our reflections in the bus’s mirror.  We looked bedraggled.  Hair stuck to our face.  Fine lines of water flowing down like spider webs.  “We should try to dry off and try to dry the package before we deliver it” Zachary said. The package now had the appearance of toilet paper if dropped in a bucket of water and left to sink.  

“It’s too late for that Zachary.  We need to just deliver it and I will have to deal with the consequences.”

 We rode the express all the way back in silence.

“I guess we’ll drop it off as before then go to your house and tell your dad.”

 I agreed. When we got to the delivery spot there was a sign that read; all deliveries to be placed on inside counter.  We knocked on the door, when no one responded Zachary took the lead and opened the door; pushing it fully open with his foot.  The room looked empty.  We walked inside, me slightly in front of Zachary.

Chapter 22

Scar face and Gingerbread man

At the counter, we saw the designated place where deliveries were to be held.  I put the package down and that is when two people seem to virtually step out of the wall.  There stood scar face and gingerbread man. They just stood angry expressions on their face.

“Hello” stammered Zachary.

         “How are you? We did not see you.  We were just delivering a package.”  

He did not recognize the men.  I did.  Zachary looked to me for a clue and he must have figured out that something was wrong when I did not say anything.

Where did they come from? How did they get in front of us without either of us noticing?  We had seen no one when we approached the counter.  My mind was firing all the thoughts rapidly.

I hit Zachary’s record button the moment I saw them.

 “Kids, you better come with us”, olive man said.  

“Uh, ok.”  Zachary so compliant  

“No way!”  I shouted.  

Funny thing, at that exact moment in a tense situation I recalled my mom’s saying: Do not talk to strangers, honey.

Scar face spoke.

“You know Nate, opening other people’s mail is a federal offense”.  

“So is stealing other people’s ideas” I shot back.

Not too smart.

“How did you know that I opened it”?

Gingerbread man smiled.

 “I noticed the tear in the corner. “ We are very meticulous, Sam should have told you.  It made me suspicious so I checked the cameras and noticed it was not Sam but you.  I told the boss”.

 “Who is your boss?”  

“Ha, nice try kid…think that I would tell you who.”

 He knew who you were and where you hung out so he set up this ruse to find out how much you knew. I should have kept my mouth shut.

By then they had come a lot closer.  Zachary and I started backing up towards the exit, always keeping an eye on the two men.    

“We need to take them with us.  Keep them from going to the police.”  

“Whoa, kidnapping was not in the deal” said scar face.

 “We cannot have them spoiling this for the boss” said Gingerbread man.

 These two bumbling bandits are arguing in front of us...thought came to mind, this time I did not express it. I was unsure what to do but needed to take advantage.

“If you touch us, I will yell and you will get caught.”  

I was bluffing and they knew it.  I needed more time to think our way out of this situation.  Jeffrey reached for me and that is when Zachary moved into action.

He was like poetry in motion, if you consider poetry and out of his mind scared kid looking like he is trying to combine old school dance styles; the twist, bump, slide, soda jerk and any other jerky dance with martial arts.  He performed side leg kicks, front kicks, back kicks, spinning round house kicks.  All the while his arms were flapping.  

I could not even hold up my end of the bargain.  Yell, my brain screamed but no sound protruded.  Zachary held both of them off for a while.  I think they were stunned into stillness but then they attacked.  My adrenaline went into overdrive and I started running around the room looking for anything to throw.  Nothing.  Sounds began to come from my mouth it resembled a cross between a horse whinnying and a rooster crowing, not exactly fear inspiring. I started to see spots form in front of my eyes. I felt darkness creeping over my mind.  

When I awoke and was lucid, Zachary told me that I had fainted, fell into him, which caused him to lose his balance and hit my head.  We both had our backs towards each other and our hands tied together.  

“Where are we?”  

“I don’t know” Zachary sounded like he wanted to cry.  

“Did you get a look at the vehicle we are in?”  

“No, it was too dark,” he started to cry.  

“Ok, first thing is to stay calm.”  I smelled oil and asked Zachary if he did too. He did.  

“We must be in some sort of car factory or transportation vehicle.  We need to try and untie these knots.”

 “I have been trying but it has been difficult with you passed out.”  

“Maybe if we both tried,” I suggested.

“I’ll hold one side and you pull.”  

We tried this method but when one side came loose the other became tighter.  
       Conversation drifted through the open vent in the back of the van.

 “We were only supposed to scare them.”  “

Well had you kept your mouth shut, that is exactly how it would have gone.”

A sound one after another that could have been a slap was almost masked by car doors slamming but no echoing cries of pain.

We both jumped when we heard a sound outside, it sounded like a motor being started.  Then we started moving.

“Hold on” is all I said.

 Inside I was freaking out. Where were they taking us?  We drove for what seemed like hours judging by how numb my butt and legs were.  Our wrists were being chaffed by all the jostling we endured.

We tried coming up with different plans on how to escape, none seemed plausible. I could pretend to still be knocked out. I felt a knot growing on my head where I had hit it in my fall.  It would be feasible to believe I was still unconscious.  They might go easier on me seeing I was not awake then when their backs were turned I could…I could what?  I was tied to Zachary.  

Zachary wanted to pretend that he was unconscious too for lack of oxygen but the vehicle we rode in was way too ventilated. I knew there was an Amber alert but didn’t know how long it would take for it to be put into effect.  With each passing hour the window for anyone finding us would be closing. Every time the car slowed or stopped we yelled, “Help!” “Help” us and banged our legs against the floor.  

The last time we did this we heard something bang against the side.  An angry voice shouted.  

“You continue that noise and you will get worse that just a bump on the head.”  We immediately fell silent.

 “Why had no one heard us yelling?”  I hissed.

 Zachary answered.  “We must be traveling down a deserted street.”  There were a few.  I tried to wrack my brain thinking of all the ways out of the city.  I only knew of two and they were very congested.

The trucks’ engine slowly hummed, cooling down as we got off the back. I noticed that were surrounded by dense forest. We could hear water flowing and see the peaks of mountains in the distance.  

We could see Douglas fir trees and Bristol cone pines stretch for miles in each direction glowering down on us for disturbing their rest; cones dropping with the whip of the wind, little grenades causing an explosion of leaves and small animals to scatter.  We had no defense and had to choose our spots carefully.  

We took a forgotten trail and walked up hill until I thought we were making a trek across country, stopping periodically to drink from a winding stream.

 “This water is dirty.”

 “No, it isn’t, drink upstream not down.”  Jeffrey said.

Taunting us with his water bottle and taking a big swig and then handing it to his brother.  I caved to my knees.  “Mountain water is some of the purest” I told Zachary.  “I have no choice” and he crouched down and drank.  I put my whole face in the water then took huge gulping swallows trying to fill my empty stomach.

 That night, we slept under the stars.  Paul started to create a bonfire to warm us while we slept.

 “What are you doing?”  

“I am cold.”  

“Deal with it.  A fire will attract attention.”  

 In the morning there was dew covering our bodies and the ground. I needed to use the bathroom but told myself to wait.  

The cabin, I had heard Paul and Jeffrey talking about when they thought we were asleep was around the corner. They also spoke about some bounty hunters searching for anybody trespassing on the reservation. Zachary said in his sleep and started laughing.  

 “Bounty the picker of the quackiest, wackiest people.”

 That got Jeffrey and Paul to be quiet.

         There are Native Americans up here, it’s not a myth...maybe they will see us.  I was filled with encouragement.  

After we drank again from the spring, noticing with some satisfaction that Jeffrey filled the water bottle from the spring water and Paul just slurped it.  

“Why did you not bring more?” Jeffrey hissed, shaking the bottle.

 “I did not know we were going all the way up here otherwise I would have.”  

“So, what’s your plan?  You can’t just have us keep walking and drinking mountain water.”

 My brain was too foggy from lack of sleep and food to register what I had spoken.  “Here have some berries,” Jeffrey shoved some towards Zachary. Who instantly recoiled.  

“You are trying to poison us.”

“These are edible boys” and to prove it he popped a handful in his mouth and chewed.  Reluctantly Zachary took some and nibbled the ends.  I threw my share all in my mouth and chewed frantically.

 “Not bad.  Where did you get these?”  I asked thinking I could grab some on last leg up the mountain.  

“Down by the river, they grow this time of year.”  

“Shut up Paul!”  

“What is the problem?”  

“This is not a social event.  Stop running at the mouth, soon this kid will get you to say something that will endanger us further.”  

Paul gave me a withering look. I had not even been thinking about that, I just wanted food.  We came around the corner side by side, lifting one leg slowly after the other our movements so slow it would have made sloths seem fast.  Where was the cabin?  I know that I wasn’t dreaming when I heard them.  

“Nate, look up.” Zachary elbowed me.  

I looked and could not see anything at first then my eyes told my brain to believe what my eyes were seeing.  It was a house built in the trees.

 “A treehouse!”  Zachary’s voice sounded dull and hollow.

 It was so clearly hidden you had to stare at it awhile to see all the contours of the house.  

There were footholds built from the earth to the base of the tree, stairs made from the gnarled roots that resembled human knuckles leading to the main floor. The tree was hollow at the base with a squirrel size hole, if the squirrel was the size of a full grown man. That is how we entered.  

We entered one at a time.  They had to untie us unless the wanted to carry us up the almost vertical stairs into the tree.  Jeffrey held Zachary while Paul untied one of my hands in front and tied it to Zachary’s opposite hand in back freeing one of his hands.  We climbed.

 As we went up the tree which seemed to grow and expand, making room for its occupants I wanted to stomp either on Paul’s hand or head but he must have seen a look in my eyes when I looked down and told me he would pull me down if I tried anything and I was still attached to Zachary so I did nothing.

They could not keep us from talking; there was no one to hear us anyway so I started talking to Zachary.  “Someone must have wanted to relive their childhood.”  “This tree house is so cool.”  he said, forgetting for a moment how we got here as he gazed and walked around the room.

The supple bark on the inside of the tree acted as a cushion for our feet leaving faint impressions  There were branches entangled that had an uncanny similarity to chairs.  In parts of the tree flaps of bark had been peeled away upwards and when you lifted it, you unveiled hidden cabinets made by holes bored in the crooks and elbows of the tree. Branches hung down over large openings which created a curtain like quality.  

The first level had a lift with a pulley. I dared not try my weight.  No need, Paul saw where I was looking and read my mind.

 “That lift only holds twenty-five pound it was used to haul food and water.”  

At the back of the tree was a man sized opening that went back into the tree three to four feet. It had triangular holes spaced out at the bottom. If you looked up there was no covering except for the moss and the sky above could be seen through the moss.

         “This must be where they took a shower” I said to Zachary.  

“How?” His voice sounded hollow again.

He was still staring at the sky.

 I took on the same hollowness when I replied.

“Probably by the pulley, they hauled the water up and somehow poured the water over the moss which acted as a faucet of some sort.”  

“You are guessing.”  

“Of course, I am but that is what it looks like to me.”

 “Well, there is not water close by so they must not have used this very often.”    

There were another set of stairs, where chunks of the tree had been split open to create a spiral to another level.

 “You boys will sleep up there” Jeffrey pointed to the unexplored upper chamber.  “Paul, I need to get us some provisions then inform the boss of our predicament.  We need to know what to do next.  Sit tight and make sure these boys stay tied together.   Do not speak to them unless absolutely necessary.”

 He climbed partway down, slipped on the moss then fell, falling sideways, at the last moment putting his hand to catch himself, slid to the ground.  I wanted to laugh. “Serves him right” Paul said “bossing me around.”  

Zachary and I looked at each other.  Problems in the camp we both were thinking.  This could work in our favor if they became enemies.

  “The enemy of your enemy is your friend” I mouthed to Zachary.

 We both edged towards the stairs.

 “Where are you two going?”  He demanded.

  “To our room,” I said wide eyed hoping to look innocent.

 “Not without me” and he tied himself to Zachary.  

The second level was plain.  I guess the people who wanted to build this house ran out of ideas or money.  One side was completely open.  

“I hope you boys do not roll in your sleep.”

 We went to look, right underneath was a hammock.  

All one had to do is slide over on our stomach, legs dangling to touch.  

“Not sure how reliable that is boys, this house has stood here for years.”  

I kept silent.  Keep talking I urged him in my mind.

 “I am hungry,” my stomach grumbled its sentiments.  

“We both stink,” Zachary raised his arm and smelled his pit.

 “The only bath is the river and it is too late to go now.”

 “I need to pee.”  

Richard just ignored us and climbed down.  We were able to take care of the pee problem ourselves.  I went over one side then we switched places and Zachary went.  Afterwards, we used the moist moss from the outside to clean our hands.  We lay back to back listening.  We could hear Paul messing around with the curtains branches, hitting them back and forth.

 “Do you think we can get on the hammock and jump down?”

 “Let’s look again.”

I did not want to disappoint him by instantly saying no, let him figure it out.  “Maybe, but I think it’s too high” he told me and we went back to the other side leaning one shoulder against the bark.  It had a soft quality to it, slightly moving in with our weight.  We dozed leaning against it, our legs sprawled out.  A  noise woke Zachary and he flinched which woke me up.

 “Hear that Nate?”

 “Yes, that’s just the animals prowling.”

 “No.  Listen.”

This time I heard it.

             A Helicopter.  

That was the sound of a very large helicopter.  It seemed to be circling based on the noise that faded in and out. The noise it made was similar to white noise, a constant throbbing in our pulse. We saw a bright light hit a patch of the trees and move over.                                        “Keep moving” we whispered.

 The light finally rested on where we were hidden.  We both looked up, hoping they could see us through the thick foliage.  Apparently not because a few minutes later the light moved away and the noise faded away.  We fell into despair.  I felt cold and numb.  Zachary looked stunned.  

“How did they not see us?”  He cried.  

I didn’t have an answer.  We both cried ourselves to sleep.    

 We awoke again to sounds of someone snoring. We both got up and tiptoed to the entrance hole and looked down.  Richard was lying in one of the chairs, head lolled to one side, mouth hanging open.  This was our chance.  Together, me slightly behind Zachary crept down the staircase.  We stooped and saw the Paul was still in dreamland.  “What if he wakes up?”  

I told Zachary do not think about it.

 “How are we going to get to the bottom?” This one was trickier we could not just walk down.

“Let’s slide over until our feet touch one of the steps.”

 “Great, Zachary, you go first.”  We both got on our stomachs and slowly pushed our way to the stairs then Zachary stopped.  “This is just like lowering yourself down from window to sit on the porch roof.”  We sometimes did that at Zachary’s house when playing hide and seek from his brothers until his mom found out and told us not to do it because of the danger of falling also the twins might want to copy us.  

 He moved again so I knew I got through.

 “My feet are off the tree” he told me.  

“A little further. More.  Got it.”

 “When you feel the pull then you can start coming.”  

It took 5 seconds for me to feel something then I slid over and place my foot on the top step.  We went step Zachary, then step for me.  It was like this for three steps.  “Why do we not go down together that would make it faster?”  He said, “when your right hand is tugged step down.”

We made it to the bottom a lot slower than we had climbed. Out the squirrel hole we went and headed in the general direction we had come.  There were a lot of pine cones and rocks around, it was hard to mask our sound.  Paul must have heard something because we heard a yell behind us. “

Stop!”  

Not sure if he saw us or was just yelling into the air hoping to scare us into giving away our position.

 We took off, Zachary in the lead. The wind was blowing downhill aiding our escape.  It was difficult with all the rocks, cones and small branches sticking out tripping us as we ran. I tried not to run on his heel.   What came to mind as we were running is why had our walking on the ground awoke him but not the thwock thwock of the helicopter.  Weird.  

We looked around for a hide away.  I saw it first.

 “Zachary, look over there.”  

“I’m not going in there spooky underground rail tunnel, all kinds of creepy crawlies would be in there.”  

“This is the only way to escape Paul; he won’t be able to fit.”

So I hoped.  We climbed unsteadily on the rocks.  On the other side the rocks were smaller hardly rocks at all, pebbles, we lid partway down and fell to our knees.  

We scooted backwards into the rubble hoping the darkness would disguise our forms.  Paul made a lot of noise climbing up and down.

  “I know you kids are in here, there is no escape.”  He was walking searching with his arms stretched out.  He walked right by, inches form Zachary’s left foot.  We heard his footsteps go further into the tunnel.

“Let’s go, he is gone.”

Zachary tried to stand.  I was so nervous me knees locked up.  The Zachary crouched in the tunnel light, all Paul had to do was turn around and we would be caught.

Finally, I relaxed and we climbed back up the rocks carefully stepping on each rock making sure it would hold our weight and balanced on it until we were both stable.  One rock came loose as we stood on it.  Zachary saves us both from face planting.  He surfed the rocks! He has never surfed in his life. He is more of a land sports person.  How he knew when to lean and which rocks to choose is sheer genius.

 I would have chosen the big rocks which would have probably thrown us in the air and we would have had to frog jump the rest of the way down to keep from splatting. “Lean left, right, forward.”

He yelled out commands and I was quick to follow.  It was a 30 second rush I never want to experience again.  

Pauls’ ankles and toes would have been eaten and crushed had he been there.

He must have found another way our or retraced his steps because we soon saw his dirt covered face and took off again.   We got around the bend and a weight hit my body which caused me to fall into Zachary.  All three of us collapsed in the brush on the forest floor, my head hitting the back of Zachary’s in the same place I did when I fell in the warehouse.  

Things were poking me and moving all around me and on my body.  I didn’t want to think about what it could be. I was getting the heebie jeebies.

 “Aha, got you, thought you could escape well… there is no escape boys.”

 He was about to yank us to our feet both hands on Zachary and my wrists when we all heard a woofing sound.  

“What is that?”  Zachary said.

 “Shush.”  Paul told us.  

“Lie still and do not move even a finger.”

 The woofing sound came closer along with a stench similar to expired food.  I  knew that smell.  I had smelled it when I went to the zoo and looked at the animals.  One animal in particular.  It was the smell of a bear.  Zachary started to shake, he recognized the smell also.  

The sound was gone; I heard Paul make a tiny yelp in his throat and knew the bear was still there.  I was scared brave.

 “If it attacks, at least it will eat you first.  I hear bears  like to go for the neck, tearing the flesh then you are shaken like a rag doll, your bones clicking together.”  “Nate, please” Zachary moaned.

 It was his tone, not his words that stopped me from continuing.  Miraculously the bear either did not hear us or care and lumbered off.  We stayed on the floor quite some time until Paul felt safe and his faculties returned.

Even though, I did not want to return to the treehouse, it was safer in the tree.  This time, Richard made us stay on the first level and tied our hands to the curtains.  I tried using all my weight to break the branches, pulling my knees up and hanging when Paul’s head was turned.  Those branches may have looked tiny and brittle but they were very strong.  That is how we slept, arms stretched above our heads to heaven as in prayer.  

Next morning, I really needed to pee and woke Zachary who woke Paul.  Jeffrey hadn’t come back which put Paul in a foul mood.  I made the universal pee motion and Richard took one of my hands down.

I climbed awkwardly up on the side of the tree that served as a window ledge, got on my knees and went.  Richard tied my hand again when I got down.  He headed for the door.  

“Where are you going?  You cannot leave us here!”  Zachary was close to hysterics.  

“I am going to get breakfast.  Do not go anywhere” was his smart reply as he disappeared down the hole.

 I ran my tongue over my teeth, they felt gritty my tongue felt coated with slime.   I am sure my breath stank worse than a komodo dragon after having eaten a skunk.  Talk about a lethal weapon, killer breath.  I had heard from Sam about certain leaves found in plants that can be used to freshen the breath.

He called it sweet breath leaves but the actual name was fresh mint or peppermint leaves.  If any could be found around here I would not want to chew on the leaves without washing it since they probably had been showered with bug and animal feces and urine.

“Let’s try pulling the branches with both our weight on the same branch” Zachary suggested.

 Why had I not thought of that.  Out loud I said “at least one of us is thinking.”  I tried first holding onto Zachary’s branches, both of us swinging in the air.  They creaked but held.  Then we did it with mine.  Nothing.  

“Let’s keep trying” Zachary encouragingly said.  

We kept trying thinking we could eventually weaken the branches.  Paul came back so we had to stop.  He had a cup full of berries.  My mouth started salivating.

          “First thing first” he says standing as far away as he could from us and holding his nose.  “You boys stink.  You need to wash before eating.”

         “Like you do not smell?” I retorted.  

“I do, but I can stand my own funk.”  He cut our hands down and told us to undress.  

“What?”  

“What if we refuse?”

 I was still being defiant.

 “Then no berries.”  

He knew he had us and so did we.  

“Can we at least undress at the bottom?”

I refused to have Zachary’s bare bottom sitting above my head.  He didn’t respond but walked over to the hole so I took that as a yes.  

He hesitated looking at us then went first jumping down, afraid one or both of us would get the idea to kick him.  Zachary and I did the same thing as before, slid on our stomachs over the side but this time since our hands were tied together and not to each other as a second precaution I held Zachary’s out stretched hands until he could feel the first step then lowered his hands to grab it.

 He held onto my feet, steadying me until I also grabbed the first step.  We went faster than yesterday.  One reason, we were hungry.  We started unclothing.  It was impossible to get our shirts off without help, so Zachary and I helped each other. We knew Richard would not, he just stared looking bored. Both Zachary and I refused to go completely naked, keeping our underwear on. We laid our clothes in a heap, No, give them to me.  I do not want you running away only to return for them.”  Paul held out his hands and we lay our clothes on them. He followed us out and directed us uphill.

 We walked under a dam with big fans.  

“Turbines.”  

That is what Zachary told me while we whispered. “They turn to generate electricity by the water.  I looked around.

 “Where is the water?”

 “Must have dried up or the engineers found a way to engineer it to another part of the mountain.”  

We traveled to another part of the dam.  There was a fence surrounding the water and a lot of ‘keep out’ ‘no trespassing’ signs.  

We stood a far off waiting for the water but no water was coming through the turbines except a tiny tickle. The turbines that were connected to the generators were rusted shut, so we had to take another voyage to get our blessed bath.  I was so cold my teeth were clacking together like Morse code.  

“I thought the river was that way” I said and pointed backwards.  

“I never said that keep quiet and keep walking.”  

He kept sucking his teeth like he had something stuck between them.

The bugs were having a banquet on our skins. I did not want to even imagine what type of bacteria they might carry.  We bared all when we got to a small pool of water with a tinkling fountain.  

           “Jump in boys.”

 Zachary walked over to check the depth and see if any living creatures were waiting.

 “Looks clear and shallow” he called to me.

He paced one foot in and hopped back.

“Cold.”  

“Let’s get this over with, the water is not going to get any warmer with you two standing there.”

“Let’s try running and splashing that way we can exert energy to get us warm” I told Zachary.  Zachary counted and on three we both ran and yelled, splashing water.

 I felt chilled to the bones initially then warmth spread over my body.  I looked over at Zachary and he was smiling.  He must have felt it too.  We waded in deeper, rubbing our hands over our bodies.  We sat down and used the rock, sand or whatever was at the bottom to scrub the back side of our legs.  Zachary tried holding his breath, go underwater and scrub his back.  He kept floating up.  When that failed, we decided to rub each other’s…sitting down first in the water.  

If someone would have seen us they wouldn’t have thought we needed help except for the ropes around our wrists…just two boys not having enough sense to wear clothes.  

           “Get out!”

 We sloshed our way to the bank.  Paul had been watching us the whole time like a jewel thief would watch a diamond during a heist.  Not sure what he thought we were going to do.  I was not about to run off without my clothes and neither was Zachary.  Our rear ends greeting everyone we met.  

He brought the berries, so after we dress, we both took two handfuls.  The cup was half full.  Paul had been munching while we bathed, probably hadn’t washed his hands.  Disgusting, but we were too hungry to care.  We walked back down this time tied together back to back.  Needless to say, the going was extremely slow.  

We passed the place where the treehouse was hidden and kept going down. I slipped a couple of times and fell into Zachary’s back.  After an hour or so trek, judging by the sun we made it back to the truck.  It was parked in a different spot.  He opened the back and we sidestepped inside after we were blindfolded and just stood.  “Better sit down before I start or you will sit down after” cackling to himself he closed the hatch and locked it.  We sat in total darkness.  

“Where are we going now?”

I thought.

 It had been two days since we had been taken.

After thirty minutes had passed.  I was counting in my head to pass the time…

“I have to pee,” Zachary whined.

 “You have to hold it.”

 “I know I don’t want to sit in a puddle of urine.”

Neither did I.  

“But I can’t.”

 I was afraid if he went some of it would touch me or at the very least I would have to smell it. We started hollering again and kicking our legs on the floor.  

At first, nothing happened then we felt the car slow then stop. Scarface opened the back.

 “I told you boys”….

“I have to pee” Zachary interrupted him.  Scarface mad a disgusted sound. “Alright.”

 We heard him pull himself into the car and helped Zachary up.  I was tugged along.  Zachary stumbled along, leaning on scar face and me.  He fell twice.  

          “Walk!”

           “It is hard when I cannot see.”  

I started insulting Paul.

 “Man, you stink.”  “You smell worse than a pig ruminating and eating is own manure, worse than the sewage drains.”  

Zachary joined.  “Worse than brie cheese stuck in a pile of vomit, a pair of old gym socks thrown in a dump.”

We were feeding off of each other, more for lifting our morale than to irritate him.

           “Fine, you can just wet your pants.”  

He started to pull away; Zachary fell into him and was automatically caught, he held on.

           “I will start peeing.”

           “You better not pee on me” was all scar face said as he removed the blindfold.

             “Why do I have to come along? It would be easier to leave me here.”

 My mind was still swirling trying to come up with a plan.  He untied my hands from Zachary’s.

         “You better not try anything or”…

I quickly turned to where I heard his voice.  I was going to rush him.  I started kicking and he must have put Zachary in front of him because I heard Zachary yell,

“Ow stop Nate.”

 I stopped. My foot suspended in air and put in down not going for the third kick.  

           “Sorry Zachary.”  

“Nice try.  Sit down or I will throw you down.”

I sat.

 “If you try anything again, either of you, you will regret it.”

  His voice was shaky so I knew he was unsure of what he would do.  

I heard him lead Zachary down the step and the door was slammed shut.  I turned over on my stomach and tried to use the grooves in the floor bed to remove my blindfold. That way I could stand by the back door when it was raised and kick scar face in the face.  Good plan, I thought and smiled.  It was not to be, my blindfold was too tight. So, I tried to find something in the van that could either cut the ropes or the blind folds.  

I counted how many grooves I went over using my body to measure the distance.  Bending my knees and pulling with my feet I went forward two grooves.  I probed with my hands as much as I could, found nothing and repeated the action further down.  I slid over a body length but could not find anything.  I slid my body backwards went back over the grooves, positioned myself back in what I thought was the same position and waited for them to return.

Outside, it was twilight, Zachary was led a little ways into the rocky terrain with sparse trees that were stripped of any leaves.  The blindfold was put back. The rope was taken off one of his hands.   Scarface held the other rope.  

           “I cannot see.”  

           “You do not need to see to pee.  Hurry up.”  

Zachary clumsily unbuckled his belt and unbuttoned his pants.

          “I cannot go with you looking.”  

           “How do you know that I am looking?  Just go.”  

So he did.  Afterwards, Zachary wanted to wash his hands.  He is fastidious about certain things and cleanliness is one of them.

            “There are no bathrooms in the forest kid, sorry.”  

Zachary refused to budge instead he ripped off his blindfold and stared at scar face…defiant.  

           “I am going to give you one chance to put your blindfold back on or?”  

         “Or what” challenged Zachary.  

Scar face slowly pulled a small rectangular object out of his back pocket.  

“What are you going to do with that? Flash me in the eye?”  

 Zachary knew when he was beat but he still looked angry.  

He put the blindfold back on and allowed his other hand to be tied…taking note that scar face did not touch that hand.  They walked the short way back to the vehicle. The door was raised.  I was sitting in the same position.  Before getting in, something was poured over Zachary’s hands.  

           A lemon scented alcohol wipe.

“I am not heartless kid.”  

Then Zachary climbed back in stumbled and sat with his back to me and scar face tied us back together.  He put Zachary’s blindfold back on.      

“Comfy?”

 I would have kicked him if I was facing the right direction.  We heard him jump down, pull the door closed and heard the latch click shut.  No escape…yet.

 Once we started moving, I told Zachary that I heard the whole conversation.  He filled me in on what I did not see.

 “He had a weapon. It looked like a cell phone.”

 “Weapon!  What kind?”

“I saw a blue and white flash go across the top, electricity”  

 “A Taser.”  

The plan of escape was becoming increasingly more difficult.

“That was brave of you to stand up to him” I said.

 “I’m tired of being scared” was his reply.  “If we do nothing they will get away with whatever they are planning to do with us and I am not going down without a fight.”  

I could hear the tension in his voice.  

 My stomach started grumbling.

“It must be close to noon or a little after.” No response.  

“Zachary?”  

“Yes” was the angry response.  

“What are you thinking about?”  

“Doing something crazy to get us out of here.  I don’t care if he carries a weapon.”

I thought who he is getting reaaally brave but aloud all I said,

 “Let’s think smart and not do anything rash.”  

 Zachary started talking about what he would do the next time he saw scar face.

 “ I will head butt him or kick in the groin.”  

“Good idea.  Why did you not do that when you were outside with him?”

“I was not thinking about it and by the time I did it was too late.”

 I told him what I tried to do when he was outside.  

“Good thinking, too bad it did not work” and he leaned his head towards mine.  

A thought popped into my heads.  

“Hey Zachary, why don’t we try removing the blindfolds with our heads?  You lean in and scrunch down and I’ll lean forward.”  

There was enough slack in the rope for me to bend my upper body down as if I was doing a crunch, getting my head in the right position.

 “On a count of three we will both push...you up, me down.”

 We tried this a couple of times bumping heads not having fully coordinated our moves then finally Zachary leaned in while my head was slightly bowed down, felt the blindfold and we pushed. The blindfold moved.  

“Keep going.” I was encouraging both of us.  

Slowly the blindfold slid of my face.  I did the same for him.

 “Now what?”

 “Let’s look to see if there is anything in here that we can use to cut these ropes.” We had to wait for our eyes to adjust to the darkness then we both slid around, doing a 360 with our bodies but there was nothing in the van except us, some oily rags and some dust.

Chapter 23

Truck station

The truck stopped again.  We heard steps coming our way the moving off.  We waited, hearing occasional horns beep.   Footsteps returned.  He thought we had jammed the door somehow because we could hear him telling us to move whatever we had placed by the door.  

We kept silent and heard him grunting trying to pull the door open.  Eventually, he got it open.  His hair was wet.  He must have taken a shower at the station.

 I had heard about these places from my Aunt Hilda when she was telling my mom about their trip. She told my mom that before the trip started they read about what to expect in the brochure.  One of the notes left by the conductor was that the train would make two stops to refuel and during that time everything is shut of; water, lights, electricity for 6 hours.  They either could wait on the train or get off and find other accommodations.  

While In Nebraska they drove to a little hotel while the train refueled.  They passed a trucker station.  Her husband had wanted to stop there.  She had asked him why.

 “They have showers and vending machines with pre-cooked food that you can heat in a microwave that is holed in the wall.  Then we can go back to the train, no need to pay extra money or a hotel.”  

My aunt was not having it.  

“It will save us money.”  He tried bargaining with her saying if she agreed he would go paragliding with her.  

“No amount of money saved is worth bathing in a gas station” she replied as she drove on. He threw two bags.  The went sailing over our heads and hit the back.

         “Eat up.”  

“How can we?”  I practically spat.

  “Our hands are tied.”

“Your problem not mine.  Use your mouth.”

I went ballistic.  I started screaming.  Scar face jumped into the van and ran towards me.  Zachary head-butted him in the knee and he jumped back.  I got my legs underneath me and I do not know how I did it but the rage surging through my body must have given me extra energy.  

I pulled myself up and Zachary and we both side ran at him.  He jumped back out of the vehicle falling on his rear a nervous surprised look covered his face.  We could not get out of the vehicle without losing our leverage, so we just glared at him.

 “Do not even try it” I said when I saw him reach in to his back pocket.

 “You cannot stand there all day boys.”

 “Neither can you and eventually someone is going to come to this filling station and see us tied together.”  I gave him a I got you now stare.  

“Alright.”

 He held his hands up as in surrender.  I didn’t know what else to do.  We had the upper hand but I couldn’t ask him to please untie us or throw down his Taser.

 My rage was subsiding along with my strength.

 He must have seen my resolve dissolving because he moved towards us quicker that I thought he could and grabbed one of my legs and one of Zachary’s and pulled.  We fell with a thud.  My breath whooshed out of me.  He literally straddled us and sat down pressing our rib cages into the uneven floor.  

He untied my hands and told me to put them front.

 “I can’t I am lying on one.”  I groaned.  

“You better try.”

 I felt a hard object touch my side.  I managed to pull my other hand around with all that weight on me and he tied my wrists together.  He did the same for Zachary.  He told us to face each other and then tied us back together.  He hopped quickly up and out and slammed the door so hard he had to do it twice because it popped back open and sped off.  

“At least now we can eat.”  

Zachary trying to find the bright light in the situation. We groped for the bags in the darkness.  Zachary found them.  We had to eat by me leaning my body and hands towards Zachary’s face so he could get a bite then vice versa.  

I was unable to identify what we were eating by the taste but I kept eating.  My anger making me gag and choke.  All I knew is that it would need to conserve my strength for another go at scar face.  I knew it would be more difficult because now he would be on the alert.

“Hello.”

  “Where are you?”  

“Sounds like someone is on the phone.”  

“Shush Zachary, I am trying to listen.”

 Zachary and I only heard part of the conversation.  

“You did not come back!” Pause.  

“Held up!”  

“Doing what?” Longer pause. 

 “Of course we left we could not survive on only berries.”

 “Okay I will be there but you better show up…leaving me alone to handle everything.”

Chapter 24

Rescued

The motor stopped humming and we heard footsteps approaching.  Sunlight hit our faces, I tried to pretend to be knocked out, head hanging…It was possible to believe that I had over exerted myself and had passed out.. a bad plan is better than no plan. I tried to keep my eyes from fluttering.

“Open your eyes kid I know you are not asleep.”  

 I felt someone try to grab Zachary but he kicked at him and started yelling.  “Shut up” someone said.

 An oily gag was placed over his mouth and nose.

 “Take it off his nose. I am not going to have him suffocate.”

 A female voice said.  Shelly’s Aunt!  I tried to swivel my head without giving myself away to look at her but scar face was in the way.  

Both Zachary and I had blindfolds put on before I got a chance to look.  Before mine was placed on I felt breath close to my face. I turned my face and bit.  Scar face pulled away in unbelief and I was satisfied to see that I had caused him some pain.  I started spitting. He got behind Zachary so I had to stop. Coward.

The female voice commanded.  

 “Now kids, no more of this nastiness. We are going to help you out of this car and you are going to walk.”

I made myself go limp and felt Zachary do the same.  We slumped over onto our sides.  I was not doing them any favors, if they wanted to move us they were going to do it the hard way.

 I heard female voice fume.  

“There was supposed to be two of you.  Where is he?”  

“He said he was making sure he was not followed and would be here. He told me you said to meet him here at the rendezvous point…left me all alone with these two kids.”

 “Unbelievable” was her sarcastic tone.

 “I am not a babysitter.”  

“Stop whining.”  

He continued, “He was sure I could handle driving two young kids alone.”

         “It seems that he was incorrect” the woman laughed cynically. “Why did you bring them along in the first place?”  

“They saw our faces.  Fainting boy here recognized us and knew too much.”  We had no other choice.”

         “Carry them!”

         “I cannot carry both of them and they are tied together.”

 I felt small hands tie my feet and felt the binding on my hand loosen from Zachary’s and hit the floor of the van.

         “Now you can carry them one at a time.”  

“I just told you I cannot carry both of them.”

 “Well, how did you get them in here?”  

“One initially fainted and was carried by our partner and the other followed his friend.”  “After coming down from the mountain they willingly got in.”  

“Yeah right” I rasped.  

“Like we had a choice” Zachary added.

         “That is just terrific” her words came out quick and snappish.

Both of us had been silent, listening until that moment then Zachary spoke.

 “I know who you are.  You’re Shelly’s aunt and you” he swiveled his head in the general direction of the other voice and you are Paul.”  

He was shaking angry, I could feel it even though I had a blindfold put on.

 “I can’t believe Shelly has a monster for an aunt.”  There was palpable silence.  Then an explosion of sound hit our ears.  

“What is going on?”

 A loud male voice shouted echoing. Then a long thunderous boom reverberated that shook us down to our bones.  A female voice screaming and footsteps rapidly retreating was all we heard for several minutes.  We were alone but not for long.

A deep voice asked

“Hey, boys are you alright?”   We felt hands helping us up and out and our blindfolds being removed. Our legs ached from sitting in the same position. I blinked repeatedly and Zachary was squinting.  We had been in the car in the dark for what seemed like hours and the afternoon sun was very high in the sky.

 “Yes, yes sir we are thanks.”  “Those people were trying to kidnap us.”  “What would we have done if you hadn’t come along?”  He turned to me.

 “What would we have done Nate?”  “None of our plans were working.”

 Zachary was rambling in rapid speech.  

 “Slow down son” one of the gentlemen said.  

“You are safe now.”  

When our eyes were no longer watering we noticed that we were in a canyon with a river flowing placidly.  

The cliff walls had miniature trails that even a mountain goat would not be able to climb.  There was tall sweet grass all around.

         “Where are we?”  I asked.  

“Baldy Mountain” one of the men said placing his hands on Zachary’s shoulder.  One of the men asked whether we wanted to stretch our legs.  Zachary said yes and followed him down to the river. I guess to look at the fish. It was trout season.  

I said no I wanted to stay near the truck.    I do not know why but this vehicle was the only constant thing since we were taken and I felt sort of safe near it.   I was given an ice pack to place on my head where a walnut size bump was growing.  Zachary used his phone to call his parents and I used one of the gentlemen’s.

During our ordeal, at home, everyone was sitting down for lunch.  My dad came back upstairs.  Mark awoke from his hibernation and was sitting on a stool talking on his phone.  Mom and Cass were setting out plates to serve the takeout steam and fried rice with chicken with egg rolls.  

“Is Nate home yet?”

 She looked to her husband then at Mark.  Michael said no and Mark just shrugged.

 “Let’s give him a few minutes dad said.”  It was now 12:15.  Mark got himself a plate and went into the living room.

 Cass was whining so my mom served her and sent and sent her out the room.  “Where is he?”  

My mom asked again after another 15 minutes had gone by.

  “Cathereine the boy probably just lost track of time.”  

“Nathaniel is a punctual kid.”  

Her voice rising in pitch with each word.  My mom only uses my full name when she is angry at something I did or worried.  

After one hour both my parents knew something was wrong.  I would never be that late without calling.  They called Zachary’s parents to see if I was there or if Zachary knew where I was.   They had no clue saying Zachary was not there and they were also worried.  

Both my and Zachary’s parents decided to call everyone we knew.  They split up the list of names.  With each phone call and no definite answer my mom was in a panic. Zachary’s mom had already lain on the couch with an eye bag on her head from the stress of worrying about her son.  

Finally, my parents called Sam’s house.  It was Sam that told my parents what we were really doing…delivering packages.  And another of our friends told them what we thought we had discovered.  My parents called Zachary’s parents to fill them in.  The decision was made to notify the authorities of two missing boys after two hours had passed with no word from either of us.  

The police report read; Two boys one 5’5, russet brown hair, hazel eyes, tawny complexion last seen at 9:15 wearing blue jeans and a Chelsea soccer jersey.  The other 5’2, sandy brown hair, brown eyes, honey milk white skin last seen at 9:15 wearing blue jeans and a black, white and red t shirt.   My mom tried to call her sister but the line would not go through.  Uncle Harry and Aunt Hilda were in Europe and their carrier was out of range.  She then called her parents and got their answering machine. She sat down on the kitchen floor crying.  Cassy came in to inspect and my mom held her.

My dad went to find Mark.  Mark was zoned out, in the living room listening to tunes on his phone when my dad yanked the head phones off.   He looked up annoyed. “Your brother is missing!”

 That got Mark’s attention.

 It was decided that he and dad would get in their cars and comb the neighborhood reconvening back at the house in 20 minutes.   Mark drove around yelling my name until Dad saw what he was doing.

 “Stop, calling Nate as if he is some type of dog.”  Dad barked.

  “Drive around, stop, ask the neighbors if they have seen either of them.”

 He went around to all the neighbors were he used to cut grass.  

All the neighbors had said that they had not recently seen us but they would keep a lookout.  Then they drove to the other side of town.  First checking the mail center and the attendant at the gas station giving him a description of us.  The gas attendant said he had seen us earlier that day but said I was wearing a different outfit.  My dad quickly reached over and phoned the police giving them an updated version on my clothes.

The police went in their cars, sirens silent to the house where Sam’s parents said Paul and Jeffery had rented a house.  There was no one there.  

By nightfall, the police decided to bring out the helicopter instead of the dogs. They told Zachary and my parents that this would be a better way because it would cover more area and dogs only go mainly on scent. The sudden downpour that occurred and the surrounding area which held a lot of water would make it hard for the dogs to be effective at picking up our scent.

My mom’s parents telephoned once they got the message and they told my mom not to worry and go about things as usual.

 “Fretting isn’t going to help honey” my grandmother said.  “Keep busy it will get your mind off it.”

 I believe she meant well but that was horrible advice.  

My mom did go to work on Monday but left early.  She was so distraught all the people giving her sympathetic looks and patting her hand. Several times during a transaction she didn’t give the customer the money or had given too much.  Her boss seeing all of this finally walked over and told her to go home. The advice her boss gave her as she gave her a teary big hug.  

 “Take it easy, lie down and drink some herbal tea”

Not great advice but better than grandma’s.

Zachary’s parents were in a state of shock, they did everything to help the police discover clues and recover us the first 24 hours even going as far as driving out to the outskirts of town searching and even further to the train station.  

They called their parents and Zachary’s grandpa wanted to bring out the fire brigade. Not a bad idea. After that, neighbors had to come to make sure that they were feeding themselves and the twins; they had just shut down after the first day.

She finally reached Hilda on the second day and started sobbing.

 “We cannot find Nathaniel and it has been over two days.”

 Aunt Hilda tried to calm her down.  Aunt Hilda was unsuccessfully in trying to comfort mom.  She was telling her…

 “Nate is a resourceful kid.  Remember the time he got lost in a national park when he was 8?  He looked at the sun to tell him which way to go or the time when he was 6 he got stuck in the dryer after he wanted to see if he could fit.  He used his arms and legs to create friction.”  

We used to have a dryer where if it got too hot the door would open.  My mom was still sobbing. Then she heard my voice on the recording machine.  

“Mom, Dad, Mark anyone please someone pick up.”

 She hung up the phone on Hilda and dashed to the phone.

She was sobbing and laughing.  I kept telling her I, we were alright. She got my dad on three way and they told me that they would meet us at the station. My mom wanted to keep talking to me until we reached the station but her phone was dying and in her haste she forgot to bring her charger.  Plus, I had to give the man back his phone.

Meanwhile, one of the men who had rescued us had called the police telling them our location.  He was told that they police had already been called and two squad cars pulled up within fifteen minutes.  

They noticed that one of our rescuers had a gun.  So while one police officer took us aside, the other three asked the two men for identification.  They identified themselves as Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Tuner, former F.B.I. agents.  How cool is that?   Once identified, they brought us back together.  Mr. Hoffman said he and Mr. Turner were on a fishing trip.  

The boat with all the fishing gear corroborated their story. He said that he always carried a pistol for self-defense and they sometimes saw bears on their trip.   Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Turner had come around a bend in the river looking for a good spot to start fishing.  He told the police officers when they saw our captors and us, tied and blindfolded.  Mr. Turner had shouted and Mr. Hoffman had fired his pistol in the air as a warning.  That explains the thunderous boom we heard.  Our ears were still ringing.

 Zachary and I told the police everything.  I gave them a description of the two thugs since I could identify them as the same ones in the vacant building and Zachary explained how we came to be kidnapped and what happened on our journey.  The police asked me why I had an ice pack.  I removed it to show them.  They asked if I wanted to go to the hospital first.  I could give a report at the station later.

 “No.”

 I wanted to be done with it.   Our two rescuers identified the woman who turned out to not be Shelly’s aunt.

The police took us to the station where both Zachary and my parents were waiting.  My mom could not stop hugging me.  When I looked over at Zachary, I saw that his mom was doing the same.  Both of our dad’s eyes were moist.  Cass was sucking her thumb and holding my hand.  My brother Mark was looking at me with astonishment.  Zachary’s siblings had similar expressions on their face.

Zachary’s mom went to the vending machine and came back, handed Zachary something which he pushed into my hands.

It was a stick of gum.

On the way to the hospital my mom kept wanting to touch my walnut maybe thinking she had the mom touch to make it better.  I told her that it hurt so she stopped trying.

 At the hospital, when they go to the emergency room and told the receptionist the issue I believe they thought that they would receive the same treatment as they had for Cass two years ago.  It was not to be that way.  We had to wait in the room for hours with everyone else that had broken bones, split lips and other forms of brokenness.  Mark wanted to go home and my dad told him to take Cassy with him.

 The look my mom shot my dad was one of horror.  

“We cannot trust Mark to drive Cassy home”  

“Why not?”

Mark and dad said together.  

Although, I knew Mark did not want to do it, he also didn’t want to indiscreetly be accused of being irresponsible.  My mom reluctantly relented when she couldn’t come up with any real reason for not wanting Cassy in the backseat of Mark’s jeep.  

When my name was finally called both my parents went with me down the hall that smelled of antiseptic and ammonia.  We entered a room that had one cylinder machine with lots of lights.  My dad sat down in the only chair available and my mom stood next the beeping machine.  They made me lie down so they go do a CT scan and my mom held my hand the whole time.  I was embarrassed.  I wanted to tell her I was okay but I believe she did it more for her benefit.  They discover a little swelling but nothing serious.  I was allowed to go home and was given a prescription for the swelling and the pain.

 A police investigation went under way. A week later, the female behind the voice was found.  Her name was Carol and she was in a beauty parlor about to change her hair color when the police walked in and arrested her.

 The community was shocked my mom couldn’t believe it. Even though the police had warrants put out with the descriptions of the two thugs whose real names turned out to be Harold and Richard and they were not brothers just small time thieves; if caught they would both be facing up to five years.  

Some anonymous caller had reported to the police that they had seen two individuals matching the description twenty miles away jumping on the train while it was moving….just like hobos.  Someone called the train and the conductor made a thorough search of each compartment looking for the suspects.  They were never caught.

News people came and invaded our city for a few days.  There were swarms of news reporters surrounding our homes.  Each time one of us left they would flash cameras and yell our names asking questions.  

Cassy was frightened of all the people.  Mark was loving, it even taking time to stop and talk to one reporter.  Saying, as the big brother he felt extremely bad for not watching out for me.  Yeah right.  He continued to answer questions until my dad walked over and placed his hand over the mike, saying no more interviews today and never.   My dad changed his tune when our former teacher who works with my mom asked if she could do an interview with Zachary and me. Since our parents felt comfortable with her, knowing something about her, they allowed her the opportunity.  It was an easy going interview in Zachary’s house. She asked basic questions. She started out with an ice breaker asking Zachary to demonstrate his karate moves that stunned our kidnappers.  

“Really?”  

“Sure.”  

He made a move called the round house kick and she snapped a picture of him. “Makes good writing when you have a picture to go along with it” she explained; then the serious questions.   “We will start with Nate and then you can answer.”   “What made us want to find the perpetrators instead of going to our parents?”

I told her.

 “My dad has always taught me to discover for myself.”

 Zachary said that he knew I would go in anyway and he could not allow his best friend to do this by himself.

“Where did you think the men were taking you when you were walking?”  

“I don’t know, I thought they were just trying to get as far away as possible from civilization.”  

Zachary said, “I thought they might have a hideout.”

 “When you saw the tree house what was your first impression.”

 “I was not expecting that, it was different.”  

She turned to Zachary.  “I was in awe.”  

 “How did we feel finally being rescued”?

 I thought it was a funny question.   I would feel happy and I said so.  Zachary went deep.  He said it was a surreal feeling like a dream.  I wanted to change my answer but didn’t want to sound as if I did not know what I meant the first time I answered.

 She then shook our hands in turn, got up to leave, paused and came back and hugged both of us.

 “Glad you boys are safe” she gushed.

Wow, I thought.  Teachers really do care.

Zachary’s parents handled it differently.  They wanted to be asked questions to make sure this never happened to their child or anyone else.  Zachary’s mom’s painting went through the roof when it was found out that she was the one that drew the likenesses of the criminals that were on the warrants.

The police were stationed around our house until the trial started, one main reason was they were afraid that Harold or Richard might return and try and do something to us.  My dad was skeptical.

“It is not like the boys discovered a plot made by the mafia.  Those men are long gone.”  

My mom appreciated the protection.  The other reason was to keep people at a distance.  

Before they were put there people would come to the door and ring or knock, try to peep through our windows and that was unnerving to everyone in the house.

Chapter 25

Trial days

The courthouse was an imposing domed shaped three stories monstrosity with large framed windows that looked up and out on each side.  We went through a high powered x- ray metal detector and saw our insides for a split second before the screen went blank on one side…only the technicians operating the machine could still view us.

The building used to be a museum until the curators thought it would be a better sell to move to a bigger city.  They packed up their Arts: pictures, statues, replicated inventions and star gazing telescopes except one.  It was on the roof.  People were still allowed on the roof to gaze but you had to set up a time.  The one refracting telescope was left mostly because of the way it was fitted.  It was bolted down with steel enforced metal and extremely heavy.  The two women running the museum said it was better left there than to spend the effort moving it with a machine that could snap and break it. Made in 1914, it was ancient.  

There were dedications in the sidewalk as we approached the courthouse. As we walked upon it I read the words: Museum dedicated in 1948 for the education of enthusiastic guests and amusement of the people living here and any other visitors.  Further up was another dedication.  It was rededicated in 1996 as a courthouse thinking that it would serve a better service as such to all the noble citizens of Wrightson.  All the cities trustees at that time had signed their name in the wet cement.

There was a lot of commotion during Carol’s trial since it came to light that she was the girlfriend of one C.E.O. from my both mine and Zachary dads company a huge embarrassment for them.  She declined a jury trial.    When it was trial day my family all went in Dad’s Mazda….tight fit.  Zachary’s family went in their car.  When we got to the court, there were tons of people waiting to snap our picture.  I saw our former teacher and she gave us a huge smile and a thumbs up.  Both our families went in together and the prosecution came over to us and told us not be worried. My moms’ boss, Carol not the one on trial, she was Caroline’s twin sister. Caroline came over and sat by us hugging each of us.

  When it was time for Carolina to testify she calmly walked to the witness stand.  She wore a crocodile colored suit with a cherry colored cami.  Her earrings were the color of jam and on her feet she simply wore peanut butter colored flats.  The defense attorney wore suspenders and had his thumbs underneath with his elbows jutting out in a pose.  He moved his arms back and forth when he talked that made him look like he was doing the chicken dance. He wore a shirt the color of Mac and cheese, his tie was the color of ketchup, buttery brown shoes laced his feet.  He had a loping gait similar to a giraffes and his head was balding in the shape of a cul de sac.

Defense

 “Carolina, can you tell the court what happened on that day?”  Carolina looked over the crowd that waited to see what she would say to clear her name.    “I was out for a hike;   I am an avid hiker and I like to explore areas around the city and beyond.  I do that on occasion. I noticed a large moving truck parked.  It seemed out of place so I went to investigate.”

Defense. “What did you see or do?”  

 “I saw a man who had a scar on his left cheek get out of the car and walk around to the back. He opened the door and a few seconds later I heard screaming.  I was concerned so I went over to see if I could offer any assistance.”  

Defense. “What did you see?”  

 “I saw the man inside the truck and two young boys tied together.  Then I thought to myself. These boys are being kidnapped I must do something.  I tried to talk to the man but he said he had gone too far and that is when I heard a loud sound and turned and saw Mr. Hoffman pointing his gun at me and I ran.”  “Thank you” said her lawyer.  

“Defense rests.”

“Prosecutor?”

 The prosecutor had long purposeful strides and wore a lemon yellow shirt with an eggplant tie.  On his feet were expensive camel leather shoes with a designer label.  His pants were a seamless charcoal.  He walked directly to the witness stand placing both hands on it.  “You said you heard a yell.  Why did you not call out asking whether the person was okay instead of walking over?”

 “I just acted on instinct.”

 He turned faced the crowd took a few steps then turned back to the witness.  “When you saw the boys tied together were you not in fear for your own safety?”

 Carolina hesitated, “well; I was but I needed to do something right away and thought I could talk him out of it.”  

“That seems highly unlikely.”  His face showed rigid concentration. “Do you have experience in dealing with negotiations in hostile situations?”

 “No?”

 “But you still felt that you could do it.” Silence.  “Most people seeing this type of situation or any suspicious activity would have immediately phoned the police.”

 “These boys did not.”  Her voice was shrill.

“They are children, you are an adult!”  He pointed to each of us as he spoke those words.

 “Objection!  Badgering the witness. We are not here to judge whether my clients actions was the best thing to do but whether any wrong doing was committed by her.”

 “Sustained.”  

“I have no further questions.”  

“Besides I am not most people “she said while stepping down.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Zachary mumbled under his breath.  I nudged him to be quiet.  There were general mumbles of disbelief.

 “Prosecution rests your honor.”

When I was called to testify, I wore a cocoa colored suit and noir tie. My shoes were a honey color.  I walked to the witness stand my mouth felt like sandpaper.  Both lawyers before the start of the trial were informed of our ages and what the law prohibited them from asking.  I guess so they would go easy with the questioning... During her trial her lawyer made it difficult to pinpoint her exact involvement in the case.  Defendant’s lawyer.

 “Did you actually see my client in the abandoned building?”

 “No, sir.”

 “Did you ever see her at all?”

 “No, sir.”

“So it is possible that the voice you heard may not belong to the defendant sitting here.”

 “I guess.”  

 “Defendant rests your honor.”

 “Prosecutor?”  “I have no questions for this witness.”  

The judge turned to me and kindly said “you may step down.”  My hands were clammy and I felt a little dizzy with all the people looking at me but I made it back to where my parents were sitting  behind the  prosecuting lawyer without tripping, fainting or any other embarrassing act that would had made the papers.  

The Former F.B.I. agents were witness for the prosecution.  The former F.B.I. agents were going to testify that they had seen her aiding Richard in kidnapping us.   When it was Mr. Turners’ turn to testify he wore a pin striped smoke Armani suit which made him look like a sophisticated business man. His hair was silver gray and on his feet he wore shoes the color of ash. The defense tried the age old trick of prove that you really saw my client.  He started off.

“How close were you to see my client?  You were on a moving boat in the middle of the river.  The sun was hot that day by your own account and the reflection of the light on your eyes could have made you see something that was not really there. The woman you saw could have been anyone.”

 Mr. Turner was not going to be patronized by some lawyer young enough to be his son.  He replied,

“I have had thirty five years as and F.B.I. agent taught all the tactical strategies of finding the correct people who commit crimes.  I had and still have 20/20 vision.  We saw your client, Carol 75 to 100 yards standing with Richard and these two boys.”

 He pointed to us. “It was not difficult to evaluate the situation given my extensive training.”  

“How do you know that she was not just an innocent passer by wanting to help the boys after seeing what was going on?”

 Mr. Turner snorted.  “She clearly was not trying to plead with him to let the boys go.  She was standing either behind him or side by side and not face to face which is what you would do if you were in negotiation.”

Mr. Hoffman was called and the look he shot at the defense would have frozen any warm blooded mammal.  His salt and pepper hair was cut short. He wore a checkered light and dark gray sweater, cinnamon colored tie, deep sky blue jeans and rattlesnake cowboy boots. This time the lawyer tried a different tactic.  He asked why Mr. Hoffman had shot his gun.

         “To scare them” was his reply.  

“Is that so or was it to inflict bodily harm?”  

Mr. Hoffman gave him a steely glare.  “The gun was pointed straight up. How much harm could that inflict?”  

“My client said she was scared for her life when you pointed the gun at her and that is why she ran.”

Mr. Hoffman did not say a word.  

“Defense rests.”  

 “Prosecutor?”

 “Mr. Hoffman, what type of gun do you carry on your trips?”  

“A .40 cal.”  

“Here is exhibit A” and he holds bag with a tiny metal object. “This is the bullet found in the river where Mr. Hoffman says he was trying to find a spot to fish. It matches the type that would be found in Mr. Hoffman’s gun.  

In your training as an F.B.I. agent did you train with fire arms?”

“Yes, Sir.”  

“How accurate did you have to be to pass the fire arm test?”

 “We had to be able to hit a target 200 yards away 8 out of 10 times.”

 “So if you wanted to hit a target… pause say 75 to 100 yards away, you would be able to?”

 “Absolutely.”  

“I have no more questions for this witness.”

Zachary was then called to the stand.  He wore a dark navy suit, berry colored tie and mud colored shoes.  The same questions were repeated to him that were asked me.  He said no to the first question and yes to the second one in a shaky voice.  The defendant’s lawyer thought this was an open and shut case disproving two boys testimony on his client’s whereabouts.  He was even walking away when he asked the second question.  When Zachary said yes, the defendants’ lawyer stood still and turned to face the judge and the stand.  

“Could you repeat that for the court?”  

“Yes, I saw her” said Zachary in a stronger voice.  

“When did you see her?”  He sounded dubious.  “When scar face… I mean Richard opened the door.”  

“How could you see her if your friend here” and he pointed to me “said Richard was blocking the view and that you had blindfold placed over your eyes?”

 Zachary hesitated; you could see the nervousness in his eyes but them something slowly changed in his expression.  His eyes cleared, posture straightened.  He looked right at the lawyer and said.  

“Sir, Richard was blocking Nate’s view not mine. She was fully visible for at least 30 seconds.”  

Go Zachary, I thought.

 He went on to give an account of what he saw.  “I saw a pretty auburn red haired woman about 5’7 with sapphire stud earrings and what looked like a plum colored birthmark on her left knee.”  

 “Are you sure the prosecuting lawyer did not coach you to say this?”

“Objection your honor! This boy has gone through a horrible ordeal and there is no evidence to substantiate that my witness would be telling a lie or that I had coached him.  To even suggest that is preposterous.”  

“Sustained.”

 The judge turned to the lawyer “you will refrain from making any more such allegations or I will be forced to throw out your client’s testimony.”

 “I apologize your honor.”  

The lawyer continued.   “By the F.B.I.’s account they did not see the birthmark and they are trained to notice the slightest detail?”  He left the question hanging.  

“As I said earlier.”  Zachary was gaining more confidence; “she was standing in front of us so they would not be able to see the birthmark on the front of her knee.  Why not have your client... Carolina roll up her pants so everyone can have a look.”  He never would use a grownups first name without putting a Mr. Ms. or Mrs. in front or speak so disrespectfully, his parents would have had a fit but when I looked over at them all I saw on their faces was admiration.  Probably over the fact that their son was not letting an over pompous lawyer try to make him look silly.

 “Defendant rest his case your honor” is all he said and went back to sit with his client.  

“Final words. Prosecutor?”

“The defense and her client say that Mr. Hoffman shot at her and that is why she ran but if that is so why is that when the river  and land was combed the only bullet that was  found was in the river none on the land?   Also the defense says that his client got the bruise while running away.  If that is so how did my witness see the bruise on her knee?  She ran because she knew she was guilty and did not want to be caught.  Prosecution rests.”

“Defense?”  

 “My client was just passing by and saw two boys in distress and stopped to render aid, she was then fired at by Mr. Hoffman and in her haste to get away fell and received a purplish mark on one of her knees.”

“We will have a fifteen minute recess then I will come back and give my verdict.”   During those fifteen minutes I felt drained.  I did not know what would be the verdict but I was glad it was finally over. I went down the hall to drink from the water fountain.   I saw Carol and he lawyer talking in a corner. When I was returning I saw Carols’ attorney walking over to the prosecutor and they had a brief talk Carolina felt that the evidence was beyond a shadow of a doubt stacked against her and she would be found guilty so she was willing to admit guilt and implicate the person behind the scam to steal ideas to reduce her sentence.  Both lawyers walked over to the judge’ chambers and went in.  Ten minutes later in the court room, Carol got back on the stand and it was discovered the Mr. Snell was the boss behind the operation.  Mr. Snell would send off his copied ideas to authentic patent companies.  The packages containing the notes were picked up at his home and on the inside was a self-addressed adhesive with the mail center’s address and the alias delivery address care of S.F.A.  She said he was trying to make it look like an outsider was sending these packages just in case someone got wind of it...  Then he would have Harold or Richard pick up the packages from the aliases so nothing could be linked back to him.  The packages were sometimes left at another business which was not uncommon to do in a small city. They had bounty hunters after them and Paul said he had seen one in town so they had to find someone else to deliver the packages until they left.  Since Carolina changed her plea the judge asked her some questions.

 “How did both of you meet Harold and Richard?”  

“I met them during one of my trips to the river, they said they were camping.  We stayed in contact and I introduced them to Mr. Snell.” Based on Carolinas’ own words and the testimony of Mr. Hoffman, Mr. Turner and Zachary’s she got five years in which she had to serve six months, which was further reduced to three and probation.  Meaning, if she was caught doing anything more than speeding they would toss her butt back in jail to serve out her remaining time.

As for Mr. Snell, it took longer for his case to come to court because he wanted a jury trial and he was too well known to the people in the city and the prosecutor claimed that they would be biased in favor of him, so other people had to be brought in.  Mr. Snell’s’ lawyer was some big name attorney up north in Michigan.  He spoke plainly, enunciating each word.  His voice had a low growling quality almost like he was threatening you when he talked.  He had strawberry blonde mustache with a hint of gray, golden brown hair that hung just below his ears. On his wrist a Timex that not only told the time on three continents but also the temperature in the room.  His shoes were a platinum gray which matched his shark suit…sharp.

The defense began.

 “Mr. Snell we know you are well known and respected in this community.”  

“Yes sir, I am.”  Mr. Snell looked even smaller like a little child on the stand barely his eyes and nose were showing.  Mr. Snell wore a latte shirt which went well with his skin tone, almond pants and Indian clay shoes. He denied even knowing about it. He claimed he was an innocent man being framed. “I would never try to harm those kids they are like my own grandkids.”

“Why would this hideous woman accuse you of this unspeakable act?”  

“I do not know” he sobbed.  “I wondered that myself.”   He stumbled on, “maybe she wanted to frame someone she thought would be easily overlooked.” “Thank you Mr. Snell. Your counsel.”  Same prosecutor for Carolina stood up.  

“Mr. Snell?”  

“Yes,” he was looking down but looked up when his name was called.  

“Isn’t it true that you worked for the firm?”  

“Yes, sir a while ago.”

 “How did you get along with the other employees?”

 “We got along great, even had cookouts and played football, well the younger man played, I mostly watched.”

 “Isn’t also true that there had been some major disagreement between you and the other employees on how things should be run?”  

“At times, we are all very assertive people and I believe all of us had good ideas but we could only implement or carry out those that would bring the company to the next level.”

 “And you believed that you had those ideas?”  

“Yes, no…I mean I believed I had a few not all.”  

“So I suppose it was disheartening when you were not chosen to represent the firm at the annual state conference to discuss the new plans.”  

“I did not give it a second thought when I was not chosen.”  

“Why not?”  

“That is business.”

“Counsel rests.”

 “Defense?”   

“I would like to call some key witnesses.”  Two women, one man took the stand and spoke highly favorable of Mr. Snell testifying that Mr. Snell was a dear friend and a kind neighbor.  

As his trial continued he denied ever knowing about any stolen patent ideas.  His lawyer objected when the recording on Zachary’s phone was played saying it could not implicate his client since his name was never mentioned.  The judge sustained the objection.  The prosecuting lawyer brought his evidence.  He showed the court the video on Zachary’s phone plus the documents of data found in Mr. Snell’s computer files which the police obtained a warrant to search. The findings on the computer held multiple e mails implicating Mr. Snell as the owner of the S.F.A. company. It was also discovered that out dad’s company was not the only company Mr. Snell was trying to steal ideas. When the prosecutor and defense spoke their final words there was not enough evidence to convince the jury that Mr. Snell had anything to do with the kidnappings but there was an abundance on his knowledge of the S.F.A. and him being in control of the company conspiring to steal from other businesses. He got three years for his part in stealing ideas.

Chapter 26

Back at home

Why had they done it?  Mr. Snell had met Carolina at a social event when he was still working for the company.  They concocted this plan according to Carolina after Mr. Snell was let go.  There had been rumors swirling about fresh faces, fresh ideas and he was let go in the downsizing.  A classic, first hired, first fired sort of thing.  You could say he held some resentment.  

He obviously got his info from Carolina, who was planning to use her money to try and convince Mr. Snell to run off with her since she was unable to get her boyfriend to marry her.  Mr. Snell was twice her age but “dastardly handsome” those were her words. She claims Mr. Snell knew nothing about her plans. But how did he get the rest of the potential patent codes?  

In digging around to find Mr. Snell’s background, our former teacher, whose name is Beth…Ms. Beth found out that he probably used his training that he had been taught while in college.  He went to school for computer electronics and later changed his major to the Sciences.  Needless to say he was a computer genius or hacker.  

Mr. Snell was also the guardian of Rufus.  He was placed in temporary foster care with Mr. Snell. Explains why he was there when Rufus got his award.

When the school found out about Mr. Snell it came to light that it had been he who had nominated Rufus for the robotics/electronics camp.  

“To get him to follow his footsteps,” I told Zachary…” but I am only speculating.” He lost his ability to foster care for life.  Not sure he really cared about that, Rufus was probably just being used to get extra income and as a distraction.

 When Shelly’s aunt heard about me thinking she was one of the criminals, I thought she would be upset.  Instead, she was sort of pleased.  

“To think that you thought I was some kind of mastermind” she beamed.  “Wow that would be different.”  

She worked at the local library downtown as one of the librarians.

It has been several weeks since Zachary and I discovered who was stealing ideas from our dad’s company.  It was almost summer two more months.  Life returned to the usual, get up, eat your breakfast, and go to school, except now Zachary and I were seen as heroes. “Stupid and crazy” is what Rufus said one day as he walked past us in the hallway.  

He has been shunned at school after everything came out which I think is basically unfairly but it’s hard to feel sorry for him He has moved back in with his parents and has gotten into several more altercations at school which may forfeit his scholarship for not being an outstanding citizen.  

I can no longer zone out in Mr. Thomas’ Science class because he now wants me to discover all the chemical elements found in the periodic table. Yuck. Shelly and Sam are no longer an item but the four of us do meet on occasion.  

Sam’s family felt really bad for what had happened and came over to express their regret in not being able to see through the guise.  I told Sam not to worry about it.  I told him.

“You can’t know everything”

But I would be willing to offer my expertise.  That produced a smile.  

“Alright, Nate thanks a bunch.”

 There’s hope for this guy.  

Sam has been trying to help me overcome my lack of talent when it comes to sports. It’s a lost cause.  On a positive note, I finally received a cell phone and my brother no longer bosses me around…as much.  

At the end of the year in my sixth grade year book, people wrote all kinds of crazy comments like…

 “I have suspicious activity around my house can you and Zachary check it out?”…  Or

 “I think someone has stolen some items from me” and they would name the item and ask if Zachary and I could investigate.  But most just wrote…

 “See you next year….Hiccup.”