Manny Needs a Nanny - 18. Return to School, and a Confrontation or Two

Tuesday

Manny sent Rocky to school with a note, stating that he missed due to a doctor’s appointment. Rocky didn’t want to go, but, once again, was not given a choice. He had no way of knowing at that time, but an unexpected, extended vacation would happen soon.

Kenny and Steve both asked where he had been the day before on the bus to school.

"I had a doctor's appointment."

Kenny continued first, "You're not sick, are you?"

"No. It was kind of a check-up."

'Check-up from the neck up' Rocky thought to himself.

Steve broke the not so good news, "That's good. Bruce was wondering where you were. If I didn't know any better, I'd think, he had a crush on you."

Rocky was shocked, "WHAT?"

"Hey, chill out. I was kidding."

"Sorry. Bruce and my brain aren't on good enough terms right now to associate with each other."

"Sorry. What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about him, okay, Steve?"

"Sure. No problem."

Rocky was quiet on the outside the rest of the way into school. On the inside, he was anxious over having to face Bruce. Fortunately, for Rocky, there wasn't any time for Bruce to say anything during their second period class together. Lunchtime, however, was quite a different story.

Bruce started in as soon as he saw Rocky at his usual table, "Where were you yesterday, some faggot's convention?"

"Couldn't have been, you weren't there."

"I ain't no faggot."

Rocky started the day pissed off, and it hadn't gotten any better. Unfortunately, it made him lose some control of his brain to mouth filter.

"I'm not the one who started things between us a couple years ago."

"What? What the fuck are you talking about? I never did anything before school started."

"No? Summer, two years ago, Grove River. In a tent? Sound familiar now, shithead?"

"Grove… Cub Scouts?"

"Yeah."

"Oh. Shit! That was you?"

"The fuck you didn't know. Leave. Now. Or I won't be responsible for what happens to you."

"I'm not afraid of some little pip-squeak that can't do shit if I'm ready for it."

"Are you ready right now?"

"Yeah. Start something."

Rocky started something. A quick combination of hits to the face, stomach, and groin and Bruce was down on the floor. Rocky got in three kicks to the face and head before Bobby and Steve pulled him away. Mr. Lamb, his second period history teacher, had lunch monitor duty that day. He quickly came over to try to break things up, although the fight was already over.

Looking at Bruce, bleeding from the nose and mouth on the floor, "Shit. Rocky. Sit down. NOW!"

Lamb called the nurse's office, "Mrs. Lattersly, you need to get to the cafeteria right away, I have an injured boy here."

His next call was to his backup, "Jim. You need to come to the cafeteria. I have an incident: I need to take a student to the office."

Two minutes later, Mr. Wells, coincidentally Rocky's geometry teacher, arrived to act as monitor.

"Come with me, Tanner."

Everyone in the cafeteria was watching as they walked away. About half of the boys, and not only a few of the girls, were watching Rocky with a look of admiration. Minutes later, Rocky was none too happy to see the sign on the door, 'Stanley Delber – Principal' when Mr. Lamb knocked.

"Come in."

"Mel, what's u… Rockland Tanner. This can't be good."

"No, Stan, it's not. I haven't found out why yet, but Mr. Tanner here attacked Bruce Wilmer again. I'm not sure, but I think he hurt him pretty badly this time."

"Mother fucker deserved it."

Delber was not amused, "That language is not necessary."

"Made me feel a little better, though."

"Alright, now that you're feeling better, care to tell me what happened?"

"No. I want to call my lawyer."

"This isn't a police station. You don't need a lawyer. Tell me what happened."

"No."

"Last chance. I'll ask one more time. What happened?"

"Fuck you!"

Delber picked up his phone, "Madeline, can you contact Mr. Talbot, Rockland Tanner's guardian, and have him come to the school as soon as he can? Rockland has been in another fight… Thanks."

"Take a seat, Rockland. You'll be here a while. I think I can handle it from here, Mel. If you could get me the names of anybody that witnessed the start of the fight, it would be appreciated. Thank you."

"Will do."

Mr. Lamb left. Mr. Delber stared at Rocky, hoping he could intimidate him into talking. Rocky was having no trouble, staring quietly back at the man. Twenty minutes into that staring contest later, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

Manny opened the door and immediately saw Rocky sitting on the chair, his anger evident.

"Mr. Talbot?"

"Yes. Hello Mr. Delber. You can call me ‘Manny’."

"Yes, I believe, we're going to become quite close. Call me ‘Stan’."

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"At this point, all I know is that Rockland here attacked Bruce Wilmer again."

"Oh, God. Rocky, why?"

"Because he's a fucking asshole and he deserves to be dead. He would be if Bobby and Steve didn't pull me away."

Manny ignored the cursing for the time being.

"Stan, Rocky and Bruce have a history, Bruce…"

"NO! You said you wouldn't tell anybody."

"You've kind of made that impossible, Rocky. I won't share the details, but Stan, Bruce molested Rocky two years ago. Rocky seems to have to blacked it out until this weekend."

"Oh, no."

"Yes. We were at a psychiatrist's office yesterday after Rocky had a nightmare about it Sunday night."

"That does complicate things, but I can't have students fighting, regardless of the reason. Rockland needs some time away. I would love to suspend him longer, but beyond five days, I need to involve the school board. I'm afraid this is going to get ugly for the two of you. Mr. Lamb, who was the cafeteria monitor today, said, it looked like Rockland hurt Bruce badly. You can take him home now. I will call you next Monday to discuss the terms of his return."

"I'm not coming back if that motherfucker is here."

"Rocky, you don't need to use that language."

"Fine. Take me home then, Manny."

"I'm sorry, Stan. If I had any idea..."

"I understand. Have a good day." 'I know, I won't.'

***********************************

Back in the cafeteria, other than Mr. Lamb taking names, everyone was talking about Rocky and Bruce. Sticking with his closest friends, we'll listen in on their conversation.

Bobby was astonished, "Damn, something set Rocky off good."

"Yeah, but did you see Bruce? His nose and mouth were bleeding," Paul added his two cents, shocked.

Steve added, "His ear, too."

"Shit, I didn't notice that! It's a good thing, you guys pulled him away. He probably would have killed him if you didn't."

This triggered a debate about how hard someone would need to be hit or kicked in the head to get killed. Being thirteen-year-old boys, the thought of witnessing something like that excited them. Of course, if they ever did, ‘excited’ wouldn’t be the word any of them used. ‘Scared the shit out of them’ would be more appropriate.

Mark expanded on that thought, "I can’t imagine what it was that Bruce did to make Rocky that angry."

Paul was curious, "If he did do something, why didn't Rocky nearly kill him the first day of school?"

The four of them tossed about a few ideas, but couldn’t come to a consensus. None of their ideas were even close to the truth.

Bobby voiced his thoughts, "It had to be something bad, but maybe he blocked it out or something. Every time he saw Bruce, it came closer to the surface, and today; Boom!"

Paul had a suggestion, "Steve, you're on his bus. Maybe you can get Kenny to find out what happened in that tent."

Steve replied, "I'll try."

That ended up being a wasted question when Steve asked him later. Kenny had no idea.

Mark was confused, "They said ‘Cub Scouts’, and ‘Grove River’—shit, I was there too! I don't remember anything happening. Hell, I didn't even remember Rocky."

Just then, Mr. Lamb walked up, asked all their names, although he knew Bobby, and wrote them down on a pad. Lunch ended shortly thereafter.

***********************************

Rocky sat in the back seat, sulking, on the way home. Manny only shared with Patrick that Rocky got into another fight. Once they got home, Manny took Rocky into the study.

"Have a seat, Rocky."

Dejected, "Okay."

"I don't even know what to say, other than ‘I'm very disappointed with you’. You knew if you got into trouble again, it would be worse. Now you're out of school for a week. I'll have to call the school back to see about getting your assignments while you're out. I have to think long and hard what kind of punishment to give you. What exactly did Bruce do today to cause you to attack him?"

"Same shit. Calling me names, saying, he wasn't going to be afraid of a little pip-squeak if he was ready for him. It's not like I blind-sided him the first two times. I hit him straight on. That, and him just being alive was enough, today."

"Well, for now, just go to your room. We'll discuss this more later."

"I'm sorry, I caused so much trouble."

"I know. We'll talk later."

Rocky went upstairs to his room. Manny looked for Bass, to fill him in. Manny had just started filling him in when the house phone rang.

Bass answered, "Hello?"

"I need to speak to Mr. Tanner."

"Who's calling?"

"Is this Tanner?"

"No. I need to know who this is, so I can determine who you need to talk to. Mr. Tanner is deceased."

"Well, then, I need to talk to whomever is in charge of his lunatic child. It's Jack Wilmer."

"Hold on, Mr. Wilmer. I'll put you on speaker with Manny Talbot, Rocky's guardian. I'm Sebastian Blank. Go ahead."

"Manny, is it?"

"Yes, Mr. Wilmer. I'm sure, I know why you're calling, but what can I do for you?"

"You can do something for yourself: Call your lawyer. My son's in the hospital, unconscious. At this point, the doctors aren't sure when, or even if, he'll wake up. That little lunatic, you're in charge of, is in a world of trouble, and someone's going to pay."

Manny mouthed 'Fuck' to Bass.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Mr. Wilmer, and I'm sure, you don't want to hear this right now, but your son is no angel either. He sexually assaulted my foster son on a Cub Scout camp-out two years ago."

"Bullshit! My son isn’t gay. You can add ‘libel’ to the list of things, we're suing you for. I have half a mind to come find you and do the same as your kid to you."

"If I just didn't lose my arm, I'd welcome the challenge. But I'd be happy to let Sebastian take the fight for me. If you've got nothing else to say besides threats, I think we're done."

"Fine. Give me your address if you're not a pussy, like your little foster son is, I'll be there right away. I'll take on this Sebastian and you with your one arm."

"Like I said. We're done. Goodbye."

Manny nodded to Bass, who disconnected.

The phone rang again.

"Same number."

"Just let it ring, Bass. We don't need to make the situation worse."

They didn't need to. Thirty-five minutes later, the gate indicator rang. Bass and Manny looked at the alarm panel's view of the front entrance. They didn't recognize the man, but by his attitude, it wasn't hard to guess it was Wilmer. Bass enabled the intercom.

"Yes?"

"You can't fucking hang up on me! Open this gate and come out and fight like a man."

"That's not going to happen, Mr. Wilmer. If you want to handle this through legal channels, I can't stop you. But neither I, nor Sebastian are coming out there to fight you."

Wilmer got out of his car and started shaking the gate and pressing buttons on the keypad.

Bass warned Wilmer, "I strongly suggest, you stop hitting the keypad. It contains a burglar deterrent."

Flipping the bird toward the camera, "Deter this."

Wilmer kept pressing buttons. Unfortunately, he encountered the star key, stiffened, and fell to the ground outside the gate.

"What do we do now, Bass?"

"I hit save, so we have that discussion saved to a file."

"And about him?"

"He'll wake up in a couple minutes, and either be stupid and provide us with an encore performance, or he'll get smart and leave."

Four minutes later, Bass had saved a second interaction, the warning, and the shock to a second file.

Bass said, "If he's stupid enough to do that again, I will go out there and make sure he leaves."

Four minutes later, Bass grabbed his keys and drove out to the front gate, remaining on the inside.

When Wilmer came to again, Bass attempted to verbally chase him away.

"Mr. Wilmer. You've been warned three times, and ignored that warning three times. If you refuse to leave, I'll be forced to call the police and have you arrested for harassment and trespassing. That is, unless you REALLY want me to come out there."

Wilmer was an average height, morbidly obese man. He was maybe five foot ten, and quite close to Bass' four hundred and ten pounds.

"Fine, have it your way. You'll hear from my lawyer."

He got into his car and drove away. Bass returned to the house.

"I don't think we'll be hearing from him again. Likely his lawyer, but he'll stay away."

They were in for a long wait for Wilmer's lawyer to call and would be disappointed if they actually waited.

Next up - "One Parent Full of Shit, and a Foster Parent Waits"