The Summer Job - 38. Seth and David's Revenge

Phillip took his notes from the furnishings he had moved to renovate the 2^nd floor locker rooms and composed an email detailing what had gone where. That little chore took some time.

As he worked, he kept an eye on the monitor to keep track of anything going on the 2^nd floor. It was a quiet afternoon as the kids were busy playing basketball, soccer or swimming.

Once he was done, he took a clipboard and went downstairs to take a look at the locker rooms used by the swimming team and the one by the basketball courts. They both smelled like sweaty boys and Pine Sol. Phillip made notes of what was needed in both locker rooms.

All the Green brothers already had some friends. Scotty and Tanner were no surprise, but they had been joined by Skyler and Stevie, and they were playing a credible game of half-court three on three.

Stevie, Jon-Jon and Tanner were shirtless and sweaty against Luke, Skyler and Scotty in sweaty shirts. The little guys had some serious ball handling skills and moved quick and lithe like cats. Stevie was the biggest kid on the court, but that advantage was largely negated by the speed of the other team. It was nip and tuck in the sort of game that could go on all day.

In the pool, the swimmers admired James and Marcus in their new Jammers. Phillip could see that Jeffry, Billy, Seth and Timmy were teaching the two brothers how to swim. It had not occurred to Phillip that the Green brothers might not know how to swim. For Phillip, whose earliest memories involved floating in a pool, such an idea was just... silly. He was swimming before he could walk, according to family legend.

Phillip headed downstairs to “the dungeon” and made note of what furnishing were going where. Once done, he locked up and went back upstairs.

As he passed through the pool area, David followed and when they were out of earshot he said, “Mikie told me to tell you something about Vice Principle Chuckles Seth and I figured out.”

Phillip said, “Follow me to my office. Be cautious to not let anyone outside our circle know we’re looking into the stuff that happened at Grayson Middle. I’m told there was a lot of intimidation and people got pushed around.”

David replied sarcastically, “Tell me about it. There was one asshat named Jeremy that would smack me once a week out of the blue. I always had bruises.”

They got in the office, Phillip clicked the latch for privacy and sat beside David on the couch and asked, “So, what do you know about Chuckles?”

David grinned at Phillip’s use of the hated Vice Principals nickname. It lit up the angelic looking little blond boy’s face for a moment, and then he got serious again.

He looked pensive and said, “This comes from one of the older members of the Gentleman’s club. Do you know what cruising is?”

Phillip sat back and said, “I know the term but, I’m surprised you know it.”

David said, “Don’t be. Things were shitty when Seth and I lived with our parents. We both learned many things kids shouldn’t know about. We’ll talk about that later. The reason there are boys Chuckles let’s get away with anything short of murder is they know he cruises. If they get sent to him, they go to his office for a few minutes, and it’s over.”

Phillip asked, “Do you know where?”

David said, “Pull up Google Earth, zoom in on Grissom Park, and I’ll show you.”

They moved to Phillip’s computer and David sat in Phillip’s lap— just to get a convenient look at the screen, of course. Grissom Park was a large, wooded green almost two miles square with jogging trails, picnic tables, baseball, soccer fields and a lake in the middle of the suburbs. It was bordered by the YMCA on its eastern side and the YWCA on the west.

Grissom Park was surrounded by a rather porous cyclone fence all the way around its perimeter. It was cut into quarters by a road that ran north-south and another than ran east-west. The roads met at a place called Park Center, where there was a pair of big parking lots to access the amenities of the park.

The park, the YMCA and the YWCA had been gifted to the city by a 19^th century railroad tycoon, still bore his name and was supported by a trust fund. An antique coal-fired railroad engine and several types of antiquated railroad cars graced Park Center for kids to play on. The park closed at ten every night and opened again early in the morning but, every kid in town knew at least three different ways into the park after hours when they would go hang out and do things that would give their parents coronaries.

David pointed at a house on the south side of the park, uncomfortably close to Mikie and Phillip’s house. In fact, Phillip’s own house abutted the park in back and had a gate on the back fence that opened into the park. David said, “Chuckles lives here.”

He pointed at Park Center and said, “Cruising happens here and on the jogging trails at dusk or just after dark. Even when they close the park at ten, it continues. People just go through any one of umpteen different private gates or holes in the fence.”

Phillip asked, “Do you know if he's actually having sex with any of the boys?”

David grinned and said, “Not sure enough to swear to it, but... what’s that word... there’s plenty of circumscribed evidence.”

“I think the word you are looking for is circumstantial evidence”, Phillip corrected.

David said, “That’s it: circumstantial evidence. The word is that when they get sent to his office, instead of a paddling, they have to blow Chuckles, or he blows them. Or he just gives them a pass. Who knows? It’s fucked up. Anyway, that is what Karl told me and Seth last year about why Doug Lambert’s thugs could do anything they wanted and never got in any real trouble over it.”

David said, “Now: open a new tab. I’ll show you something else that’s very intriguing.”

Phillip did and watched with amazement as David entered the address for a proxy server in Bulgaria. He grinned and said, “This isn’t the first filter I’ve had to beat.”

David pulled up a gay cruising site the YMCA’s net filter would have never allowed without the proxy. When it came up, David entered Grissom Park in the search bar and the listing popped right up. It told where and when to cruise the park and had notes about local foibles and customs.

David said, “Scroll through the comments and read the handles.”

Phillip did as David suggested and immediately saw “ChucklesTheClown”, “HornDog2008”, “SpankMeDaddy’, “BlowMeImHigh” and “BadBoy4Daddy” were all saying different variations of “I’ll be out tonight” or “let’s party”. In this case, it was quite literal, as in tonight or tomorrow. Phillip scrolled the comments back as far as they would go, apparently they cut off at six months, and the same players appeared on a consistent basis on the weekends.

Phillip said, “Holy shit! They’re doing this in plain sight.”

David said, “Only if you know what to look for and where. They don’t know that anyone has put the pieces together. Seth and I have been looking for a little pay back after last year, so we've been listening closely to the rumor mill. As far as I’m concerned, and I’m sure I speak for Seth and a lot of other Grayson kids, Chuckles and his buddies can burn.”