Before And After the Divorce - 22. Munchkins and Monkeys, Zach's Troubles

Wednesday - Mercer County Jail

The first Public Defender assigned to [1] Zach's case had a child close to Dominic's age and begged off the case. Knowing he wouldn't give his all, his supervisor agreed, handing the defense an immediate appeal. The second PD knew what his job was, and although Zach's actions revolted him, he agreed to take the case. He's led to the visitor's room, where he waits for Zach.

Zach arrives and immediately has questions. "Where's the other guy? Pissoff or whatever."

The PD cringed. "Pittsoff. He has a young son. He wouldn't have fought hard for you."

With a jerk of his chin, Zach scoffed. "So, who are you?"

"Trevor Shiffhed, also with the Public Defender's office."

Zach thought to himself, I get all the bodily functions, piss off, shithead. Who's this guy's assistant, E. Jack Ulate?

"Okay. I guess I can't be picky. Where's Jackson?"

"You haven't heard?"

"Heard what?"

"Mr. Trevon hanged himself last night. He won't be joining us, ever."

Zach’s eyebrows shot up. "Shit! So, I can't even rat on him for a better deal?"

"Not unless there's someone else involved. Is there?"

Dejectedly, Zach hung his head. "No, just us."

"Why don't you give me the story behind what you did."

"What, I'm already guilty in your eyes?"

Mr. Shiffhed sighed. Already, he wasn’t a fan of his client. "Mr. Washington. They found photos and videos on your computer. They found still more in your email. They found hard copies of photos. I would have to be an idiot not to think---no---to not KNOW you're guilty. Our best recourse is getting you the lightest sentence possible, and even that will be a challenge. So, I ask again, what's the story?"

"I started dating Jackson about a year ago. It didn't take us long to realize we had some common interests."

"Young boys."

"Yeah. He'd already started recording kids in his classroom, but he was always on the lookout for new talent, as he called it. I met Dylan Pastore through work, discovered he was gay, and had a young son. The kid was cute. I mean, really cute."

Shiffhed tried not to show any disgust. He failed, but Zach also failed to notice.

"I told Jackson about him, and we decided I should try to get close to Dylan. We went out a couple times, but he didn't seem too into it. I moved on to another potential target's father, and let Dylan see him with me, trying to make him jealous. He blew me off. Of course, this pissed me off. I told Jackson, who reached out to the kid's teacher, to offer to tutor him.

“That worked. Then Jackson decided to avenge my experience with Dylan, so he started dating him. Finally, when they were ready to fu... have sex, Jackson pissed him off by barebacking him. It almost lost us the kid, but there's this school play coming up, so Jackson invites the kid to try on a costume. This ploy had worked in the past. This time around, the kid's grandfather walks in on them with the kid partially undressed. The kid had just discovered the video camera. The old man sent the kid to rat Jackson out, and the cops took the memory chip . Here we are."

"We can position Jackson as the ringleader. Since they found more evidence in his possession, that should be believable. If there was any hint of coercion by Jackson toward you, that could help, too. There was some, right?"

Zach read between the lines and nodded. "Yeah, there was."

Zach went into that agreement happily. He would take advantage of anything to shorten his sentence. Little did he know how short his stay in jail would be.

"Anything else you think you need to add?"

"No, that's about it."

"Okay. Try to remember those instances of coercion, and I'll be back soon to talk again. I have a lot of discovery to look through. I'll be honest with you---I'm not looking forward to that, but I'm going to do the best I can for you, regardless of how I feel about it."

Shiffhed didn't say it, but he felt like he needed a day-long shower after meeting with Washington. "I'll be in touch."

***

Jackson's sixth-grade class had a short-term substitute on Monday and Tuesday. The permanent replacement arrived Wednesday to a roomful of confused eleven- and twelve-year-olds.

"Good morning, kids. I'm Mrs. Hampton, and I'll be your teacher for the rest of the year."

Immediately, a dozen hands go up. Fortunately, the principal had prepared Mrs. Hampton by informing her of Trevon's situation, although she already knew what was in the news.

"One moment. I'm sure most of your questions concern the newspaper article this morning about Mr. Trevon. It's true that he has died, but nothing was ever proven about the allegations."

One smart-ass twelve-year-old boy couldn't resist. "I knew he was a pervert."

Glaring at the boy, she said sternly, "There will be no more comments like that. Do you understand me, young man?"

The boy in question lowered his head. "Yes, Mrs. Hampton."

"The subject is closed. If you want to talk about it among yourselves outside of school, I can't stop you. However, it will not be a topic discussed any further in this classroom. Does everybody understand?"

They did.

***

At lunch, Mrs. Patrick took Dominic and Mark aside.

"I know you boys were interested in the school play. I don't know if you heard, but Mr. Trevon is no longer with us. Ms. Maston will be taking his place as the director. I've already let her know you two were interested. She will come by near the end of our lunch break to give you the permission forms to take to your parents. Bring them back, signed, to me, and I will get them to her. Starting Monday, if you return the permission forms by Friday, you'll meet her in the auditorium during lunch to deal with the play."

"Will we have to try on the costumes?"

"You will, Dominic, but she has many sizes, and you'll go into the boys’ room near the auditorium to change into them."

"Okay."

A similar discussion happened in a few other classrooms for the younger children who had volunteered, primarily Gary's classroom. Not coincidentally, Gary asked the same question as Dominic.

Monday

Thirteen children between first and fourth grades arrived in the auditorium with their lunches in hand. Six boys and six girls were chosen to play flying monkeys and munchkins. One additional first-grade boy was asked to play Toto. Ms. Maston and her assistant director, Mr. Changlers, escorted each set of children to the appropriate bathroom. They waited outside but gave the children directions to call for them if they needed help. At least three of the boys were happy about that. Another three of the boys would have been if they had known anything about what Mr. Trevon did.

***

Tuesday - Shower room at Mercer County Jail

Word had finally gotten around about one of the new prisoners, Zach Washington. The abuse started slow. Being hit in the biceps by fifteen other inmates left Zach's arms almost useless. Zach was thinking he got off easy. But it was only the beginning.

*****************Graphic Violence Warning*****************

Each day, the abuse escalated. The second day, Zach found himself the recipient of multiple punches to his thighs and calves. He barely managed to stumble back to his cell. On day three, he received the first punch to the groin while still standing under his own power. The remaining fourteen blows hit their mark, rupturing both his balls. He spent the night writhing in pain. The guards ignored his cries.

He got a break on day four, if you could call it that. The other prisoners drew lots, to see who the lucky two would be. They had the pleasure of sticking it to Zach, quite literally. The dull throbbing in his testicles escalated to white-hot, searing pain when the winners punctured what remained of them. The next day, Zach begged the guards to let him skip the shower. They knew exactly what was going on and deliberately chose to ignore it. However, to extend Zach’s misery, they allowed him to stay in his cell. Every breath was agony, and the guards wouldn’t allow so much as an ice pack to ease his pain.

Their bogus solicitude disappeared on day six. This day, only one prisoner approached Zach, who was too weak to protest. He used the shank to push it down into Zach's urethra. That night, the guards finally took him to the infirmary.

His stay in the infirmary wasn't peaceful. The trustee told Zach he needed to draw some blood to test for any infections. Unfortunately, the man couldn't find a vein in either arm even after multiple attempts---not that he tried very hard. Poked and bruised, Zach barely had enough strength to shift his weight, otherwise, he would’ve tossed and turned due to so much pain. He finally managed to doze off a few times.

In the next morning, a sharp pain in his left eye woke him. The morning trustee was supposedly preparing to give Zach an antibiotic shot and 'accidentally' stumbled into Zach, releasing the medication into his eye. With this new injury, he was relegated to staying in the infirmary another night. Zach tried to stay awake to prevent further injury, but lack of sleep the night before prevented him from remaining awake all night. Once the nighttime attendant saw that Zach was asleep, he injected him with a sedative so his next action would not immediately wake Zach. He placed Zach's left hand at the pivot point of the handrails, then lifted the handrail as forcefully as he could. Zack's hand was partially crushed and held in place by the metal of the handrail.

Once the sedative wore off, Zach's screams could be heard throughout the prison.

In the morning, the prison doctor set and bandaged his hand. The doctor didn’t question how the injury happened. He knew better than to delve into the nature of any prison injury. A crushed hand should warrant a trip to the local hospital, but he kept quiet. He valued his own health too much.

Zach spent one last night in the infirmary. His water glass broke, and he rubbed his wrist against a broken shard and bled to death before anyone noticed.

Wednesday

News of Zach's death went through the prison like wildfire. Score one for correctional institution justice.

Thursday

MERCER, PA - An inmate died at Mercer County Jail early Wednesday morning, November 1. Zach Washington, twenty-nine, was found dead in his bed in the prison's infirmary after an apparent suicide. Washington was incarcerated on Tuesday, October 17. This was the second suicide at the prison in fifteen days. Jackson Trevon was found dead while awaiting trial on child pornography charges. The prison commission is investigating any possible links between the two suicides. The two men were alleged partners in a child pornography photo and video enterprise.

***

Aside from reading the news about Zach, life went on quietly for the Pastore and Madison families. The three boys enjoyed taking part in the play practice. It was still new enough for them not to be bored. Dylan was seeing Doctor Aslers twice a week. Although he was outwardly happy about what happened to Jackson and Zach, he did have an attachment to each of them and was confused by the mixture of emotions. Guilt, grief, and anger each took their turns at making his life difficult. After a few weeks, Doctor Aslers had found a combination of medications that kept Dylan more on an even keel. He felt well enough to venture out one or two nights a week. Usually, he would bowl a few games and hang out in the alley's bar. Other nights he started at the local batting cages before ending up at another bar. Dylan hit quite a few different bars during his nights out before finding a reason to return to the same one, Casey's.

Casey's wasn't a gay bar per se, although a large percentage of the clientele was gay. A group of men would regularly stop there on Thursday evenings to have a few drinks, some conversation, and fellowship. After talking to the group on several occasions, they invited Dylan to join them on a regular basis. He happily accepted.

One particular Thursday, which happened to be the Thursday before Christmas, Dylan noticed one of the guys watching him closely across the table. Curious, Dylan got up to sit next to him.

"Colton, right?"

"Yes. How are you, Dylan?"

"I'm doing well. How are you?"

"Doing great. Thanks."

"I couldn't help but notice you watching me. Can I ask why?"

"You remind me of someone I knew seven or eight years ago. Perhaps it's just the hair and eyes. I'm sorry I was staring, but, um, I was a little afraid to just come up and say hi."

Dylan grinned. "Well, now you don't have to. Hi."

Colton broke out a big smile and chuckled. "No, I suppose not. Hi."

"I can't say you look familiar, but you do look good. Care to find a little quieter spot in here and talk?" Colton was handsome with classic Asian features. There was something super sexy about chiseled cheekbones.

"Yeah, I'd like that."

We to a corner table where we hoped it would be a little quieter.

Colton nipped his bottom lip with his teeth. It was endearingly cute. "I'm not really good at talking to someone I just met, so forgive me if I get too boring."

"That's okay. Why don't we start with telling each other a few things about ourselves."

"Sounds good. Would you mind going first, Dylan?"

"You are the shy one. No problem. Well, I'm Dylan Pastore. I'm twenty-seven, almost twenty-eight, and a carpenter by trade. My boss calls me the team foreman, but in reality, I’m a glorified tradesman who knows how to smack a nail with a hammer. I've been married, divorced, and I guess you'd call it widowed, although we were divorced at the time of her passing. I have a son who will be eight in about three months. Let's see. Oh, I've had horrible luck with boyfriends, so you're probably either a serial killer or a member of the Chinese mafia. Oooh. Sorry, that wasn't cool, I guess."

Colton chuckled, "Sorry about your ex-wife. And you will be happy to know I am neither of those. But had you said Korean mafia, you would have, how do you say---nailed it."

My jaw dropped. It had to be dragging on the floor.

That elicited a hearty laugh. "No, I am just kidding. I don't even know if there IS a Korean mafia. Let me see, I am Colton Kang. I am a pharmacist, thirty-one, also widowed. I lost Anakin a little over two years ago. I have an adopted son, Jiho, who just turned nine. We, um, I call him Joe."

"I'm sorry for your loss as well. Anakin?"

"His parents were Star Wars freaks. Well, still are."

"Do you also have a Korean name, or just Colton?"

"Yes, it is Chung-Hee."

"That's nice. Does it have an English meaning?"

"Yes, righteous or dutiful. What about Dylan? Where does that originate?"

"It's Welsh, meaning son of the sea."

"That is pretty nice too."

"Thanks. My dad is Italian, and my mother was, too, so a Welsh name doesn't make a lot of sense. But they just liked the name. My older brother is David. Maybe it's just the D they liked."

"But it is also you who likes the D."

I snorted. "Ohhhhhh, that was bad. Don’t quit your day job."

"Aw, shucks..."

Colton had an easy humor that I liked. "By the way, you're not boring. I think you're doing just fine."

"Yes, well, you are easy to talk to."

"I try. Have any hobbies?"

"Mostly just reading and watching sports with Joe."

"Yeah, I'm into a few sports too. Don't read much. Mostly because, well, being a single father takes up a lot of time. Dominic, my son, loves to read."

"That is good. I do not think that many kids read a lot these days."

"I don't want to seem too forward, but my dad's watching my son, and I can't stay out much later. He works early. Would you like to come back to my apartment? We could have another drink there, or a coffee if you want. Unless you need to get home for your son."

"I could go for a little while, maybe have a coffee and talk some more. My parents live on the other side of my duplex, so I do not have an early curfew."

"Cool. Let me settle the bill, and we'll go."

I went to the bar, paid for my and Colton's drinks, and we headed out to my truck. It was a small place, so he wasn't parked too far away. We traded numbers, and I texted him my address, in case we got separated.

When we got to my apartment complex, I pointed out the closest visitor's spot and waited while he parked his car before leading the way to my place.

"Hey, Dad."

"Hi, Dylan. Hi, Dylan's friend."

"This is Colton. He goes to Casey's on Thursdays, too."

"Nice meeting you. I've seen you at the pharmacy. Well, I'll leave you two alone. Dominic's reading a bit before he goes lights out. I told him ten o'clock, so you have a few minutes to say goodnight."

Colton bowed his head respectfully. "Yes, I thought Dylan's last name sounded familiar. Nice meeting you, too."

Dad says quietly to me, "Good catch, a pharmacist."

I just give him the evil eye. "Goodnight, Dad."

After Dad left,Dominic poked his head out of his room. Seeing me, he padded barefoot out to the kitchen and gave me a hug.

A massive yawn split his face in two. "Goodnight, Dad." He rubbed his eyes and then noticed we had company.

"This is my new friend, Mr. Kang.

"Hello, and goodnight, Mr. Kang."

Colton smiled. "Hello, and goodnight to you as well."

I gave him a kiss, and as he headed back to his room, he shot me a thumb's up that only I could see.

Next up - "Moving On and Peaceful Living - For a Bit"