Goon - 14. Chapter 14

The red and blue lights reflected off of the falling snow, bringing a bright smile to Micah’s face. Four weeks after school had begun, four weeks after he should have been in Alabama instead of this freezing winter wonderland, the first rays of hope blinked in red and blue from the tops of two sheriff cars parked in the church parking lot.

His cherry red F-350 with oversized all-weather tires and all the accouterments possible had no problem keeping traction as he maneuvered through the parking lot and stopped just short of the police vehicles. He knew very well why they were here, but he pretended innocence as he parked within the white lines of the parking spot, shut off the truck’s massive, gas-guzzling engine and proceeded to climb down. Mrs. Howard had gone overboard with this truck, but he loved it the first time he got on the freeway and was able to look a big-rig trucker in the eye as he passed him.

The sheriff deputies were just inside the door, and the sheriff’s detective was nowhere to be seen. That meant he was probably interviewing Al or Jake off in another room since they were not here either. Chance walked up to him as he entered and had a big smile on his face. Micah had fully expected Matt to not be here and so was not surprised by his absence.

“You better watch out.” Chance said in a whisper when he’d passed the deputies who just nodded at him. “Reverend Maxwell is looking for you. He blames you.”

“Blames me for what?” Micah asked innocently, in case anyone was listening.

“We all know you gave Matt a ride home last week because his car wouldn’t start.” Chance said with a glare. “Then this week we come in and Brother Beaumont’s being arrested by the deputies for child molestation. Matt and you are the only two who aren’t here. Why were you late? I thought you’d have been here to see the show.”

“I got held up by an accident.” Micah admitted with a frown. “Had to help pull the car out of the ditch. All the tow trucks are busy up on the freeway with that pile-up.”

“Lucky you.” Chance laughed. “Serves you right, getting Brother Beaumont arrested. Rev. Maxwell says you’re to blame, just like you’re to blame for what happened with Greta and Mrs. Beaumont. He says we’re supposed to tell him when you get here so he can kick you out himself.”

“Aren’t you just full of brotherly love tonight?” Micah said sarcastically. “I actually had nothing to do with Mrs. Beaumont taking Greta out of the state as soon as she turned eighteen and them shacking up together.”

“But you don’t deny having something to do with tonight’s fireworks.” Chance noted.

“Matt told me he had been sucking off Mr. Beaumont for the past year, and that makes it child molestation.” Micah said. “Legal age is eighteen in this here state and there’s more than twenty years age difference between them.”

“Yes, there is.” Chance noted. “Al’s in there talking to the detective about what was going on between him and Reverend Maxwell right now too. I bet you’ll get to see Maxwell hauled out of here right soon.”

“Now that I didn’t know about.” Micah said with a grin. Maxwell was the Youth Pastor of the church. They had about six associate pastors besides the head pastor, who was the biggest anti-gay bigot Micah had ever met. Just about every week since school started Micah had been dragged down to the front of the big church and had ‘hands laid’ on him to pray out the demons. It looked like maybe some other people should have been the focus of all that attention besides him.

“You are making a mistake!” Reverend Maxwell’s familiar voice rang out as he appeared at the end of the hallway, his hands cuffed behind his back. When he saw Micah his face went nearly purple as he screamed. “Spawn of Satan! You have done this! You are tearing down the Lord’s House in service to your master, Lucifer. Get thee behind me, Satan!”

“Good bye.” Micah said smugly as the man was carried past him by two more uniformed deputies. He wasn’t expecting the man to spit at him, and the spittle landed on his face. Luckily he had a handkerchief to use to wipe it off. The detective that was walking behind him frowned as he stopped next to Micah.

“It seems you’ve made a lot of friends here.” Detective Corner said with a slight grin. “I have to wait here for Al Marken’s parents to get here, but you two should probably leave. The snow’s not letting up and there are no adults here besides the police. I’m afraid your little group won’t be meeting today with both Reverend Maxwell and Mr. Beaumont in jail.”

“What a shame.” Micah said and turned to Chance. “Do you need a ride home?”

“Yeah, and so does Jake.” Chance said as he nodded down the hallway towards where Jake was watching them. “I don’t think either of us want to wait for our parents to show up and besides, we all want a ride in that truck.”

“It is fairly distinctive.” Detective Corner laughed. “Which reminds me, Mr. Jericho, you need to be more careful about observing the speed limit in these parts. As distinctive as that truck is, everyone knows when you break the speed limit and they are all flooding the dispatch office with calls. It seems you’re not the most favorite person in town right now.”

“Drugs are illegal.” Micah said with a frown. “All I did was report a drug deal that I witnessed between a school teacher and two students.”

“One of the most popular teachers in the high school, with a twenty-two year history at the school, the son of a city council member, and the nephew of the owner of the biggest car dealership in town are not people to single out for a small-time drug deal.” The Detective suggested. “Even if it did lead to an even bigger drug bust. Drug abusers are supposed to be the white trash at the edge of town, on the other side of the tracks, not some of the most respected people in the community. Something like that could cost your father his job, and you know word will get out that it was you who reported the abuse to our office.”

“Isn’t it the law that if you know of a minor being abused you must report it?” Micah asked.

“For people in positions of authority, not for sixteen-year-old children.” The Detective said with a smirk. “For you it’s optional.”

“But it was the right thing to do.” Micah said with a frown as Jake approached them. He was playing innocent here, but it was all he could do not to smirk.

“Can you give us a ride?” Jake asked, pointing with his head towards Chance.

“Fine, let’s go.” Micah said with a sigh and a nod to the detective. When everyone was belted into the seats of his truck, Micah had the heater going full blast and pulled carefully out of the parking lot. He knew where both Chance and Jake lived by now, and was not in the least surprised to see them holding hands in his truck.

“Wow, the view from up here is the best.” Chance said as Micah carefully pulled onto the road. He recognized the head pastor’s SUV pulling into the church as he was leaving and let the smile grow on his face.

“You’ve been doing this on purpose, haven’t you?” Jake asked. He was probably one of the most observant people Micah had met. “You’ve been looking for people breaking the law that you can report and get a bad name. I bet it’s how you plan on getting out of town, back to your boyfriend.”

“You’ve got your boyfriend sitting right next to you.” Micah said with a shrug. “I don’t.”

“Did you even think of the people whose lives you are ruining?” Jake accused him.

“You mean the forty-plus year old guy stuffing his dick into a seventeen-year-old kid’s mouth while trying to teach him to pretend he’s straight?” Micah asked. “How about the teacher dealing drugs to kids when the teacher’s responsible for teaching kids to not use drugs? What about the preacher supporting an anti-gay ministry while having sex with a guy a third his age? I didn’t influence any of those people to make those choices. The worst I’ve done is expose them and be responsible for stopping the harm from continuing.”

“But you only did it so you could get out of here.” Jake stated.

“Yeah, your point is?” Micah demanded. “If they hadn’t been doing those things, I wouldn’t have been able to use them.”

“So you put the blame on them, but you didn’t have to expose them the way you did.” Jake pointed out. “You could have done it quietly so no one knew, but you made sure you were known to be the cause of it and things get pushed out in the open. Do you have any idea of what it’s like to have your whole life put on display like that?”

“More than you can imagine.” Micah said, thinking of that damn trial after Afghanistan and the horror of seeing himself, as a child, on video stealing things. What was worse was seeing CNN play that and hearing commentators using it to tear him apart for what he’d done in Afghanistan. His hands shook and he had to concentrate. “Yeah, I know what it’s like.”

“Then why did you do it?” Chance asked.

“Why did you put up with those stupid meetings every damn week, hearing them say being gay is evil and you’ll burn in hell if you’re gay when the two of you have been screwing like bunny rabbits?” Micah asked and he could see both of them wince.

“We’re in love.” Jake said instantly. “We’re not hurting others. We’re just doing this until we’re both eighteen and then we can be on our own, together. If they knew what was really going on, they’d split us up.”

“Which is why I made sure none of this came down on the two of you.” Micah said and Jake’s mouth dropped open.

“You knew?” Jake asked in a weak voice.

“It was a little obvious.” Micah chuckled. “It looked like the two of you practiced what you were going to say each week. When one of you was getting to the good parts, the other one would look like they couldn’t wait to hear the punch line. I figured it out after the third meeting.”

“Well, darn.” Jake said with a chuckle. “Maybe you’re not as mean as I thought.”

“I’m in love too, guys.” Micah said with a hearty sigh. “I want to get back to him. If I have to ruin the lives of people who are doing bad things in order to do that, it’s not something I’m going to feel guilty about all that much.”

“It’s your life.” Jake said with a shake of his head. “You’re the one who has to live with what you’ve done.”

“Here’s your house, Jake.” Micah said as he pulled to a stop. “Kiss your boyfriend goodbye and I’ll see you at school, if I’m still here on Monday.”

“Good luck.” Jake said, and he did kiss Chance goodbye before climbing out of the truck. Micah shivered at the cold air, and had to drive slower before they reached Chance’s house, four blocks away.

“Thanks.” Chance said with a frown and then he stopped right before opening the door. There was a thoughtful look on his face, and his eyes met Micah’s. “If it was me and Jake that was separated, I’d have done the same thing.”

“Thanks, Chance.” Micah said and they nodded at each other before the door was opened and Chance climbed down. The roads were getting very slippery as he drove the five miles to his house, and he shivered at having to park at the end of the block. There was no room in the driveway, or in front of the house because of all the cars parked there. It looked like he had quite a welcoming party waiting for him inside and he wondered why his phone had not rung yet. After parking and shutting his engine off, he took out his cell and sent Corey a text. It was past lights out back there, but Corey would see it in the morning, even if he didn’t send anything else.

“Where have you been?” His mother demanded as soon as he came in the door, shrugging off the heavy parka she had bought him. Sure enough the house was full of disapproving, pinch-faced women from the church. He even recognized Reverend Maxwell’s wife sitting near the fireplace where a fire was happily burning and popping away.

“The roads are getting bad out there.” Micah said loud enough for his voice to be heard in the living room. “It won’t be long before everything gets shut down. I took Chance and Jake home so their parents wouldn’t have to worry about driving in the snow. You know my truck’s big enough that I could plow through anything but a blizzard.”

“We better be going before the roads get too iced.” Mrs. Maxwell said quickly, and the house was suddenly a flurry of women getting their coats and leaving. He got several nasty stares, and everyone refused his offer of help out to their cars, or back to their homes.

“I hope you’re happy with yourself.” His mother said angrily, wiping away at tears as she began to pick up half-empty tea cups. Micah moved in to help her without speaking and wasn’t surprised when she stopped to glare at him. “Oh leave that stuff. As if you care anyway.”

“You’re the one who brought all this about, mother.” Micah said with a shrug. “If you’d sent me back to Huntsville, I’d not have witnessed a drug deal, or found out that leaders at your church were molesting children.”

“That’s just you talking those poor kids into lying.” His mother spat angrily. “Betty-Jean is sure her husband wouldn’t touch a boy. He hasn’t had a homosexual thought in twenty years! Their own son is fifteen and goes to your school!”

“Weird kid.” Micah noted, remembering the sophomore trying to sleep his way through the female population. “Too bad his last girlfriend had to sneak over the state line for an abortion.”

“How dare you!” She screeched and he was surprised at how strong her slap was as she hit his cheek squarely. His mother was stronger than she looked, and there was fire in her eyes. “You are just set to destroy my life here because I won’t let you go screw around with your little boyfriend!”

“Yes.” Micah said. “What’s that old testament saying your preacher was spouting on about last week? Oh yes, ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’ You’ve done your best to destroy my life when I finally achieve some happiness. Turnabout is fair play.”

“I’m your mother!” She screeched and Micah wondered if John was home. Probably not or he’d have already been out here. He had heard little John’s footsteps at the top of the stairs though, and kept that in mind.

“You are my mother, but you’ve never exactly been happy to have me around.” Micah said calmly, lowering his voice to make it harder for little John to listen in. The boy idolized him, and he knew that. Whatever the outcome of this night, it would be important to not push the boy into one camp or another. If the boy lost respect for their mother, it would be bad for all of them. Likewise he didn’t want the little brother he’d never gotten to know before to totally shun him either. “I get it, Mom, and I get why you were so skittish with me early on. You know, I’ve seen the pictures of my father, and I get why you made sure I never had a single zit, much less the acne that scarred his cheeks. The thing is, Mom, you decided to be a part of my life too late. If you’d been this active in my life when I was younger, things might have been different.”

“You might have been straight.” His mother groused.

“I doubt that.” Micah laughed. “I had the biggest crush on Percy Fuller before I left here. What happened to him, by the way?”

“His family moved a year ago.” His mother said sourly. “Micah, what am I going to do with you? There’s no way you’ll be able to set foot in that church again, and the Principal called me on Friday to warn me that you’re not too popular at school right now. My job could even be on the line. One of those kids at your school is well-connected to some of the big clients at the spa.”

“How about we sit down?” Micah suggested, going for the armchair across from the sofa where his mother was standing. She nodded wearily and sat down.

“Where did I go wrong with you?” She asked sadly when they were both seated and Micah didn’t like the way those words made him feel.

“Are you talking about the gay thing?” Micah asked.

“That, and the rest of it.” She sighed. “You always were such a handful as a kid, and we couldn’t seem to deal with you. Sending you away seemed like such a good idea.”

“It was the best thing you ever did for me.” Micah said honestly and saw the look of confusion on her face.

“I thought you hated it there.” She said. “Last summer, you came back and spent all your time in your room, or doing those exercises out back, running. You never saw any of your old friends. Have you even seen any of them this year?”

“I didn’t have friends before I went to Huntsville.” Micah said flatly. “I had people who used me, or who were afraid of me. That’s it. At Huntsville I have friends, and more than just Corey. There’s a couple of guys I get along with real well, especially on the baseball team.”

“You never talk about them, and I never hear you call them.” She said with a frown.

“I don’t talk to you about a lot of things.” Micah said. “As for Tim, Calvin, and Trevor, well I email them mostly. Until recently I didn’t have a phone and I don’t have their numbers. Last summer we kept in touch because I’d email them from the computers at the library.”

“Oh.” She said with a frown. “Did you keep in touch with them this summer?”

“Yes.” Micah said. “Tim’s big brother gave him his old car after he got his license. Cal thinks he’s going to be scouted for a college team this year because he’s good at second base, and Trevor had the worst summer ever. He lives in Florida and their house got shredded by Robert. He’s back at school though, and his family should have their new house finished by the time he goes home next summer.”

“You really do keep in touch with them.” She said with surprise. Micah sighed and nodded.

“Why don’t you ever talk to me about them?” His mother asked. “You never even sent me emails when you were at that school. I had no idea what was going on in your life until that man called and said you were invited to spend the summer with him. Do you have any idea how that made me feel, and then to find out you were in a coma for weeks and I’d never been told a thing?”

“Things were pretty hectic there for a while.” Micah admitted with a frown. “What happened, it wasn’t their fault.”

“How can you be so sure of that?” She demanded.

“It was my mistakes that caused it.” Micah said uncomfortably, shifting in the armchair and trying to be honest without telling too much. His mother was trying, and that meant he had to meet her at least halfway. “I can’t tell you more than that, but they had nothing to do with it besides make sure I had good medical care that kept me alive. If I’d been here, the same thing would have happened and I might have died.”

“I’m just supposed to believe that?” She said angrily.

“Have I lied to you before about stuff like this?” Micah asked and she frowned.

“That doesn’t mean you’re not lying now.” She said.

“Then I might as well go to my room.” Micah said as he stood up.

“Sit down!” She snapped and he stared at her for a moment.

“Why?” Micah asked. “If you’re not going to believe what I have to say, why should I waste my breath talking to you?”

“Don’t be like. “ She said testily. “I am still your mother and you will talk to me with respect. Now sit down.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Micah said, sitting back down, but not looking at her. Instead he looked over her head at a spot on the far wall. There was now a lone, single picture of him up there amidst all the others.

“You’ve made a mess of things, you know that.” She said. “We try to give you a real home, with your real family and you keep flaunting things in our faces, like with that truck, and you do things like get good people arrested.”

“Good people don’t sell drugs to kids, or have sex with kids for that matter.” Micah said flatly.

“Stop that!” She snapped. “Stop trying to contradict me every time I say something!”

“Yes ma’am.” Micah said as flatly as before.

“Don’t do that!” She snapped again. “You do that and it makes me think you’re just doing that to be polite and you’re not really listening to me.”

“I listen to you, ma’am.” Micah said. “You are wrong in many of the things you say, and you obviously don’t want to learn the truth, so the only thing I have left is to be polite to you.”

“Why do you hate me so much?” She practically wailed and Micah gave her a very direct look while keeping his mouth shut. “Well, aren’t you going to answer that?”

“I figured it was rhetorical because you’ve never shown any interest in hearing an honest answer to that.” Micah said with a shrug.

“Why do you hate me?” She asked through gritted teeth. “I do expect an answer.”

“You made yourself my enemy when you decided to keep me here against my wishes.” Micah said. “I’m a prisoner in this house, and you are the jailer.”

“You are not a prisoner.” She said. “I let you drive that damn fancy truck all over the place!”

“A prisoner gets all sorts of perks for his good behavior.” Micah said with a shrug. “I am no different in that respect.”

“Fine, I’ll just have to take away all your perks.” She snapped at him and he smiled.

“So you acknowledge I am your prisoner here.” Micah said in satisfaction.

“Damn it, you are my son!” She nearly shouted. “It’s not like you’re a real prisoner here!”

“I am until I am eighteen.” Micah said. “Then I can walk out those doors and never look back again.”

“Are you still on about that?” She demanded. “Fine, you can walk out those doors whenever you want and never look back!”

“Thank you.” Micah said and stood up.

“Damn it, not right now!” She snapped. “It’s snowing out there!”

“I need to pack first, and then I will go stay in a hotel.” Micah said.

“You’re too young to get your own hotel room.” She said in a defeated tone.

“I’ll have an adult to reserve it for me.” Micah said. “That’s all I need.”

“So you’ll just go back to them, huh?” She asked and he stared at her.

“Don’t toy with me, mother.” Micah said. “Either let me go or not.”

“If you leave now will you ever come back?” She asked in a lost voice and he sighed before sitting back down.

“Do you want to discuss this as a family, Mother, or as jailer and prisoner?” Micah asked and she frowned.

“We are a family, no matter what you think.” She said in a testy, but subdued voice.

“Mom, I’d like to go back to Huntsville Academy, please.” Micah said. “It’s a really good school, I’ve gotten good grades, and I think it’s better for me than the school here, especially since I’ve seen this school over the last few weeks.”

“I don’t want you rooming with that Howard boy.” His mother said in a much more reasonable, if bitter tone. “He’s a bad influence on you.”

“He’s a large part of the reason I’ve improved as much as I have.” Micah said. “You do think the person I am now is a better person than I was before Huntsville, don’t you?”

“You’re not the same person.” She admitted and then sighed. “Oh, alright, you’re better than you were before, if no less irritating.”

“Thank you.” Micah said. “Corey is a part of that change for the better. I love him, mother, and I plan to spend the rest of my life with him.”

“I want you home for the holidays.” She said and Micah did his best to not shout in victory. He couldn’t keep his happiness from his voice.

“Thanksgiving would be good, but what about Christmas?” Micah asked. “I’m here for the first half of winter break and then I go to Georgia the day after Christmas? Would that work?”

“What about Spring Break?” She asked and Micah sighed. She was meeting him more than halfway so he’d respond in kind.

“Here of course.” Micah said. “Little John will be in Little League and I want to see him play, so maybe for the first half of summer I’ll be here and then spend the last half in Georgia? That way I can see my friends here, and watch Little John play Little League. They don’t have a team for kids my age here, so I’ll just miss that season in Georgia. It’s not that big of a deal. I’m not like really good or anything, I’d rather watch my little brother play.”

“I think he’d like that too.” She said with a little smile. “He adores you. You have to explain to him why you’re leaving.”

“That’s fair.” Micah said with a sigh.

“Yes it is.” She stated and then she sighed. “I do love you, Micah.”

“I love you too, Mother.” Micah said. “We could have saved a lot of heartache by having this conversation a few weeks ago.”

“Yeah, but then there’d be two men at my church having sex with minors, and a drug dealing teacher.” She said with a snort. “God Micah, how do you do it?”

“I watch, and I keep my eyes open.” Micah said. “There are patterns everywhere you look. I find those patterns and solve them.”

“Patterns.” She said with disbelief. “I don’t think I understand that, but I’ll take your word for it.”

“Thank you.” Micah said.

“Will you at least call me?” His mother asked in a sigh.

“I will.” He promised and got up to give her a hug. He took a deep breath as they hugged, and the smell of ‘mother’ filled his nostrils, bringing tears to his eyes. Something in his heart that had been broken for a long, long time began to heal, and it felt good. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too.” She said with a sigh. “Do you need me to handle any phone calls?”

“Can you call Huntsville in the morning?” He asked. “I’ll handle all the others, but they’ll need you to confirm it.”

“I don’t know how we’re going to afford it, but we’ll find a way.” She said.

“Don’t worry about that.” Micah promised her and she frowned, but then nodded. He bounded up the stairs at that, his phone already out in his hand. It was too late to call anyone, but he could send text messages, and start to get packed. He was going home!