Rashomon Effect - 3. Timothy

Timothy’s morning started just like every other. He woke up just before his alarm went off and prepared to get dressed so he could leave his condo to begin his work day. Still in his early thirties, he wanted to look his very best and took his time to find the perfect outfit.

After checking himself in the mirror one last time, Timothy walked outside and took the elevator to the indoor parking lot, where his brand new black Lexus, his very first new car, was waiting for him. He got inside, turned on the radio to his favorite station and drove off.

When he arrived outside the school parking lot, class had already started. For that reason, he entered what seemed like a deserted building, with the hallways empty of people.

Timothy saw his job as the perfect opportunity for him. He liked being around and helping teenagers. He loved the energy that filled the high school, which was always buzzing with activity. He enjoyed helping the teens organize social events and the students saw him as ‘cool Mr. Johnson.’ He never failed to lend an ear when a teenager had a problem, no matter how big or small the issue, and he looked forward to whatever challenges his job would bring him each day. That’s why he took the position after finishing his degree five years ago.

Over the years, Timothy had seen it all, from girls who had pregnancy scares, to the death of a student with whom he had become close friends. That’s not even mentioning all the petty fights, bad break-ups and others mundane things he dealt with every day.

Timothy had no appointments on his agenda this morning, so he expected the first few hours to be fairly quiet. For that reason, he didn’t think it was such a big deal that he was a little late. He used the free time to do some research on internet and read the latest news.

He then began walking up and down the hall during the break before the third period. It was in his habit to wander outside his office during these moments as he realized pretty early on that it was the best time for him to bond with the kids in a casual way, chatting with them about their weekend plans and learning who was holding the next big party because their parents were out of town. He felt that by talking to students outside of his office, it made it easier for them to confide in him when they were having a really big problem.

Thanks to his fraternizing, he could easily tell anyone who asked about the clans in the school. He knew who hung out with whom, who bullied the weaker ones, who had fallen on hard times and the like.

He didn’t like to remember what kind of student he was in high school, because he had been the bully in his day. But these days, he routinely stopped teasing when he saw it went too far, even though he knew he couldn’t be there every time it happened.

That morning was no exception, as the noise of someone being rammed into the lockers interrupted Timothy from a conversation he was having with a couple of students.

“Sorry, I have to go,” he told them as he walked toward the ongoing clash.

When Timothy arrived at the scene of the fight, he saw that Shawn had cornered Damien, while Damien’s friend Noa stood by helplessly. Although Shawn, a small blond teen, was probably half the size of his opponent, he still managed to get the upper hand over Damien and had him pinned up against a locker. Timothy believed that Shawn was possibly the biggest and most annoying bastard in the entire school, even though as the school psychologist he wasn’t supposed to have those thoughts, but he was only human.

As Timothy got closer, he could see and hear the interaction between the teens.

Noa had finally had enough of Shawn and began to shout at him, wagging his finger in Shawn’s face. “Just shove off and stay out of our business and we won’t be on your case,” Noa said as he stepped up to Shawn, seemingly unafraid of the bully.

Nancy, who was always longing to be around strong guys, heard the comment and smiled at Noa and laughed at Shawn, making the young guy feel even smaller.

“Oh look at that, it seems like fag boy here got a protector!” Shawn snickered at the small slight boy who dared to interfere with his fun.

Shawn turned his eyes away from his victim for a few moments to look at Noa and laughed at him. “Please, who are you kidding? You look as if you’re about to pass out on us at any moment, I don’t think you gonna do me much damage.”

If Damien was annoyed by Shawn’s actions before, he was downright enraged after Shawn started belitting his friend. What hurt him the most was that he knew how that remark could possibly effect his best friend.

While Shawn was distracted, Damien quickly took the opportunity to deliver an uppercut to Shawn’s chin making Shawn stumble and nearly fall onto the floor. “How does it feel to be struck by a ‘fag’?” Damien said, taunting Shawn. “Now fuck off!”

Timothy could see perfectly well the humiliation in Shawn’s face and knew the teen wouldn’t miss the chance to get back at Damien. Therefore he ran up behind the bully to stop the fight before Shawn could continue to harass Damien and Noa .

“Do you have a problem Shawn?” Timothy inquired.

Shawn quickly turned around to see who was asking the question before answering. His anger quickly faded when he realized it was the school psychologist. “None that I can think of sir,” Shawn said in a suddenly meek voice.

“Then maybe you are lost, because from what I know, your locker is nowhere near here,” Timothy added.

“Oh, no, I was just having a talk with them,” Shawn said gesturing toward Damien and Noa. “Isn’t that right?”

Timothy obviously knew that wasn’t the case but decided not to call Damien on it right away and looked to Noa for an answer.

“Ya, he was,” Noa confirmed.

“Perfect then, next class will start in a couple of minutes, I strongly advise you two get going now,” he said staring at Shawn.

Shawn didn’t need to be told twice as he immediately walked away leaving the two boys and Nancy standing there.

Timothy waited a few seconds before calling to Shawn one last time. “Oh ya, Shawn? We do have a zero harassment policy here, it’s a shame that you’re gonna miss the start of tonight’s party, because you’ll be wanted in detention. I don’t advise you get caught acting like that again.”

Shawn sighed and lowered his head and then turned around and left for his next class. Timothy looked at Nancy who was still gasping over what she had just seen. “Well, seems like you still have a few hours left to get friendly with another guy in order to get a lift back home tonight Miss.” Timothy said, pausing for effect. “Class is not gonna wait for you. Now go!”

Nancy feigned offense at Timothy’s comment but he wasn’t about to feel sorry for her no matter how cruel his words had seemed.

Timothy was standing there watching the kids going off to class and knowing Noa, and wanting to be sure that he hadn’t been particularly affected by the taunting he had received from Shawn, he decided to talk to him. “Noa, can I see you for a moment?”

Noa said a few words to his friend before leaving him and walking toward Timothy. The psychologist knew the younger teen well because they had spoken often together after the boy had been diagnosed with a small round cell tumor the year before.

The hallway was nearly empty, therefore Timothy didn’t ask Noa to follow him in his office.

“Noa, are you alright?” He inquired.

“Ya, I’m alright, Tim, thanks, but really, I’m alright,” Noa answered.

As Timothy was still concerned, he pushed the matter further. “Are you sure?” After receiving an approving nod, he continued. “How are you feeling this morning?”

“Not too bad, I still got some nausea, but overall I’m doing fine,” the teen replied.

Timothy was really impressed by the strength that seventeen year old boy showed despite everything that had happened to him. It was particularly true since Timothy knew Noa’s chances of survival weren’t that great. Even so, Noa didn’t miss more class than necessary and showed up to school every day with a smile on his face and was always laughing with his friends.

About halfway through the third period, Timothy left his office and went to eat in the teacher’s lounge. It was his habit to eat a little before the students so that he could be more available for them during their lunch time. Today was no exception, a little after the start of the lunch period, he went to go and help some students organize an upcoming after school event.

Going upstairs for the meeting with the students, he overheard some student talk about some guy who had run away in tears after being tripped in the cafeteria.

Even if Timothy loved his work at school and enjoyed being around ‘his’ students as he called them, sometimes when incidents like that occurred, especially when they happened on regular basis, he wasn’t so proud of them.

“Yeah, very interesting, don’t you guys have better things to do than talk about your fellow students? How would you feel if it had happened to you?” Timothy told the group of gossiping students. “Don’t forget next time, it could easily be you,” he added. His words quieted them for good, at least that’s what he hoped.

Once at the student committee meeting, he spent the entire lunch period talking with the teens and drawing up driver’s authorization forms in preparation for the movie night so the students would have permission from their parents to drive after dark. They were done with the basics when it was time for the students to leave for their classes. As their ‘guardian,’ Timothy told them that he’d go to the school principal and get approval for the work that they had already agreed upon.

Timothy went back to his office to finish up a some paper work that needed to be done before seeing the big boss. Shortly thereafter, he went to the principal to talk. After having some small talk, Timothy explained what the students’ plans for the evening were. It was some basic regular stuff, but before the principal would agree to the proposal Timothy had to run the documents by the principal first. Also, the principal had to approve the wording of the parental consent form for the evening. There wasn’t any problem as the form was pretty standard. The proceeds of that evening were to be donated in the students’ names to the foundation of the nearby children’s hospital.

As Timothy was about to get out of his boss’ office, he heard two loud bangs, one right after the other, coming from downstairs, which interrupted their discussion.

“What was that?” Principal Mike Palmer said out loud what both of them had been thinking at the same time.

“Could be some fire crackers, although it was much louder than you’d expect them to be,” Timothy replied.

“Ya but anyhow, we still need to check that out,” the principal said.

“I’ll go check,” said Timothy said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Timothy left his paperwork in the office as he walked toward the nearest staircase. Once downstairs, he saw that nothing looked out of the ordinary. It seemed deserted just as it was supposed to be at this time of the afternoon. He stared at the lockers on both sides of the hallway and noticed that nothing was out of place and then proceeded to walk to the end of the hall without seeing any problems.

As he was about to turn the corner, he heard a door close. Knowing the school by heart, he knew that it could only be the back staircase doors. No teachers would be around here at this time of the day, so he figured that he was getting warm and had a sinking feeling that something was very wrong.

As he approached the back door stairwell, his suspicions were horribly realized. He stumbled upon a surreal scene as he saw a student lying in a pool of his own blood.

Timothy rushed to the injured student and tried to speak to him, asking him if he was okay, but the teen was unconscious. He checked for a pulse, but only found a very faint one. He tore off his dress shirt to put pressure on the student’s wounds to try to stop the bleeding. His hands became covered in blood and he tried to clean them by wiping them on his plain white t-shirt, staining it with blood. As he attempted to revive the student, he looked at boy’s face and realized it was Jake.

Quickly he pulled out his cellphone and dialed 911. “This is Timothy Johnson at Wolverine High School. We have one student shot and critically wounded at the school, the shooter is still at large. We need an ambulance and police here immediately.”

“Is there anyone else hurt sir?” the female 911 operator asked calmly.

Timothy quickly looked around to see if there was someone that he overlooked. “Not that I can see,”he responded

“Do you need me to stay on the line?” the operator asked.

“No I have to contact the principal now,” Timothy said.

Timothy quickly hung up with the emergency operator, and then used his two-way pager on his cell phone to alert the principal. “Sir, one of our students have been shot. The shooter is still at large, the police and ambulances are on their way. We gotta close down the school and put the emergency plan into effect immediately.”

“Right away,” the principal replied.

Almost instantaneously he heard the principal make an announcement on the PA system. “Your attention please. There’s been a shooting in the hallway. The police are on their way. Please stay in your classroom and wait for further instructions. You will be allowed to leave only when we know the school is safe. Teachers, please account for all your students and follow the school emergency plan.”

The next hour went really fast for Timothy. First a pair of paramedics joined him in the hallway and began to work on Jake. Not long after they arrived, they put Jake on the gurney and raced out of the building.

A police officer approached Timothy after the paramedics left with Jake and interviewed him to find out what he had seen. While Timothy told what he knew, while the other officers conducted a search of the rest of the building.

When Timothy got back inside his office, he collapsed in his chair and realized his t-shirt was covered in blood. That day he was glad that he had always kept an extra shirt in his desk. He took off his t-shirt and tossed it aside and put on his clean shirt.

The principal came into his office. “Well, they’re almost done with the search. They did find the weapon in a trash can on the first floor, near an exit, but they didn’t find the shooter. They’re watching the security tapes as we speak.”

“Do we have any news on Jake’s condition from the hospital?” Timothy asked, hoping to hear some good news.

Mike, the principal, became anxious and his eyes started to swell with tears. “I’m sorry to tell you. He died on the way to the hospital, they declared him dead when they arrived in the emergency room.”

Timothy felt back into his chair, at a loss for words.

Mike fell into the chair in front of Timothy’s desk. “I know. It’s bad. Can you track down his friends and break the news to them first? I still need to call Jake’s parents.”

Timothy worked his brain, but the stress of the moment made him unable to think of the names of Jake’s friends right away. He knew who Jake’s friends were, he just needed to put a name to their faces. Finally it came to him. “There’s Nathan Brian, he’s almost always with him and there’s also Miss Richard. I’ll check their schedules and pick them up from their classes,” Timothy said.

“Thank you,” Mike answered before leaving.

Timothy opened his laptop and the news webpage that was still open on his screen refreshed itself and now showed an alert about the ongoing situation at the school.

He didn’t take time to read the article before closing the browser and logged into the high school’s private portal. Searching by name, he quickly retrieved both Nathan’s and Sandra’s schedule and discovered which class they were in right now. It turned out that they were in rooms right next to each other.

Timothy first went to get Sandra out of her class. By the time he reached her room, he had decided that he’d break the news to the both of them at the same time. She asked where they were going but nothing else. He felt lucky that Sandra didn’t push to know more about what was going on, because he knew that he wouldn’t have been able to hide it well.

Both of them stopped at the classroom where Nathan was and Timothy knocked on the door. After a few seconds, the teacher opened the door slightly and looked at Timothy, hoping for some news or an explanation of what had just happened.

“I need to talk to Mr. Brian if he can come out,” Timothy politely requested.

“Yes, of course. Can you tell me more details about the situation?” The teacher finally asked.

Timothy took a quick look at Sandra, who seemed to be just as eager to hear the answer as the teacher was, before answering. “I’m afraid that I can’t say right now until the family is notified.”

His answer seemed to have satisfied his colleague as he closed the door, presumably to get Nathan. Timothy knew that he had hadn’t exactly told the truth but at least what he said made sense. He also wished that Sandra, who must have heard his answer, wouldn’t analyze the situation too much.

As opposed to Sandra, Nathan didn’t ask any questions when he got out of the class. It was as if he already knew what happened and was simply relieved to learn the truth.

“Nathan, follow us to my office, if you will. I need to talk to the both of you,” Timothy said, trying to stay professional.

The walk back to his office seemed to have taken twice as long as it should have. No one said a word as they walked in silence. Once in his office, he pulled his chair right next to them to make them feel closer.

Neither Nathan or Sandra made a move to talk, both waited for him to speak, for him to explain to them why he needed to get them out of their classes to talk to him. There was no easy way out for Timothy to do this. He absolutely needed to tell them the truth, they were going to find out one way or another. It was obviously better if they heard it from him and not from the news.

Timothy cleared his throat and looked for inspiration for what he was about to say so he wouldn’t fall apart as he said it. He needed to be strong for Nathan and Sandra. He was now ready to tell them what really happened.

“As you’ve been informed there has been an incident earlier,” Timothy said, pausing to collect his strength before he continued.

“I’m afraid there’s no easy way to say this. It appears that your friend, Jake, has been shot in front of his locker.”

Sandra was the first one to speak up after he dropped the news. “Oh my god! Is he alright? Is he injured badly?” she wondered aloud.

Timothy felt really bad, how could he possibly explain to them that by a twist of fate their best friend didn’t even make it all the way to the hospital. How could he tell them that, for the next few days, all the news will talk about will be the shooting and that every single time they do, they’ll mention Jake.

He knew that his current silence was, by itself, an answer but still he managed to speak again.

“I’m really sorry, I don’t know how to express my regrets to you, he died on the way to the hospital.”

Exactly as he had expected, Sandra broke into tears instantly and collapsed into Nathan’s arms, sobbing loudly. Nathan still hadn’t said a word, looking as if he had seen a ghost, he wasn’t even crying.

“I shoulda been there with Jake when it happened,” Nathan finally said.

That comment took both Timothy and Sandra by surprise. Not really understanding why Nathan thought he should have been there, Timothy asked: him. “What makes you say that, Nathan?”

Sandra lifted her head from Nathan’s arms a little and tried to dry her puffy eyes long enough to allow Nathan explain himself.

“I was with him, I was with him,” he said, trying to compose himself. “We were coming from the restroom next to the auditorium. We were almost back to class when he realized that he had forgotten his math book and needed to go to his locker. I told him that I’d go with him. He said that he could do it alone. I shouldn’t have listened to him, I shoulda went with him.”

Now Timothy could understand it all better. It didn’t take long for him to realize that Nathan was starting to feel guilty and was having some kind of survivor’s remorse.

“What were you guys doing in the restroom during class?” Sandra managed to ask.

Timothy quickly understood why Nathan and Jake were in the bathroom together alone. The look in Nathan’s eyes told Timothy that Jake was more than just a friend to Nathan. He just hoped that Sandra wouldn’t pressure Nathan if he wasn’t not ready to share just yet.

“We were together, we were talking, we had some things to fix,” Nathan said.

“Oh my god, I get it! It makes more sense to me now!” Sandra declared.

Timothy just realized that Sandra wouldn’t let the subject drop right now. At that moment he thought that maybe it would be better for Nathan if he’d provided him with an exit .

“Sandra, maybe it’s not the best time to be questioning him right now,” Timothy said.

“It’s alright Mr. Johnson, we’ve been seeing each other for a few weeks now,” Nathan said.

“So, were you like boyfriends or something?” Sandra asked.

“Well, we never really got to define our relationship, but yeah, I’d say that we are... were,” Nathan said as his head sunk to his chest.

At that point, Timothy wasn’t sure who was crying the most, Nathan or Sandra, but soon, Sandra got up from her chair and pulled Nathan into an hug that seemed to last forever.

“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that Nate. It’s really sad for you. It’s so unfair,” Sandra said keeping her arms tightly wrapped around Nathan.

In the end, Nathan didn’t have any problem telling Sandra the truth. In fact, Timothy could swear that it was a relief for Nathan to talk about his relationship with Jake. As for Sandra, it seemed like she wasn’t all that surprised about the revelation. At least she wasn’t taking it badly.

In the end, Timothy was relieved to know that, as badly Nathan will be hurting from the loss of his lover, Nathan will always at least be able to seek comfort in the arms of his friend.

Eventually, the students were allowed to leave the school grounds, some were taken by their extremely relieved parents while others simply left on their own, either by foot or in their cars. The principal had each student check out before leaving, so he could keep track of everyone who left the building.

Both Nathan and Sandra stayed inside though, waiting for the media circus outside of the school to subside before leaving the psychologist’s office. They said little and just held each other, trying to make sense of what happened to Jake.

When Timothy finally got back to his condo, it was already late. Despite having not eaten anything for hours, he wasn’t really hungry. He simply undressed and put on some sweatpants and finally crashed onto the couch and flipped on the TV.

He turned on the news. Not surprisingly, the top story was about the school shooting. They had interviewed a few students to get their point of view. It seemed that more than few of them had sugar coated the reality of what had happened, but all of them were agreed that Jake was a great guy who didn’t have any real enemies at school. They were all at a loss to explain why would anyone would want to hurt him intentionally.

“Thank you Maureen,” the newscaster said after the reporter finished her segment on the school shooting. The newscaster continued speaking. “The authorities have yet to arrest the shooter, although they said that they had a photograph from a security camera. Earlier this evening they released the name of the suspected shooter. Police said they are hunting for another Wolverine student...”