the Season of Leo - 5. Sagittarius’ Arrow of Fate

Sagittarius’ Arrow of Fate

The time of Sagittarius runs from the last week of November to the third week in December. Given a choice, I might have skipped some of the drama.

Jeb had been in denial about his mother’s situation all along. When it became real for him, it hit him like a truck. Dr. Price gave him something to take some of the edge off.

Jeb and I were invited to spend Thanksgiving with the Crenshaw’s but I wasn’t sure he would be up to it. In the days just before I did my best to support him but funny, mischievous Jeb was missing. He was replaced with really scared kid that just had his world pulled out from under him. It turned out that the Crenshaw’s were the best medicine possible.

We arrived late Wednesday afternoon and were greeted by the whole family. Mr. and Mrs. Crenshaw, their college aged son Doug, their daughter Sarah and Ben and Ken a pair of twins a year younger than Jeb. The twins spirited Jeb away to play video games. Doug, Sarah and I helped Mrs. Crenshaw set the table for supper. As it was a modest sized family it was a big meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and it was all so good. I noticed that it was the first time since he got the bad news about his Mom that Jeb didn’t just push the food around on his plate.

We had a lot of fun with the Crenshaw’s that night. I enjoyed hanging out with Doug and Jeb had his fill of video games with the twins. We stayed in the guest room with the most comfortable bed that Jeb or I had ever seen. Before we went to sleep Jeb hugged me and said he wouldn’t have made it through the last few days without me.

The next morning we had a breakfast that spoiled me after the cafeteria at the center. The boys played video games and I watched football with Mr. Crenshaw and Doug. The preparation of the Thanksgiving feast filled the house with all sorts of enticing aromas. I had never been a part of traditions like this. I doubt Jeb had either but, I could easily get used to it.

The feast was awesome. So were the leftovers that night. We stayed through Friday and went back to the Center on Saturday. The visit with the Crenshaw family did Jeb a lot of good and seeing him much improved made me feel a lot better. That, and gaining five pounds after discovering pecan pie.

The Monday after Thanksgiving, I sat down with Dr. Price and an investigator with the Forrest Country Sheriff’s Office. I was able to talk a little more about exactly what had happened to me. Whenever it would happen, they would call me into the big house, give me sweet wine to drink and then things would go all fuzzy. I remembered part of what happened but it was hazy and confused. I told him that I was sure that I had over-heard the name Brent. I suspected that Jeb and my cases might be connected because we had both heard that name and were both of a specific “type”.

The investigator put five pictures on the desk and asked if I could identify any of them. Sure enough, I pointed him out. The detective thanked me and said he had more work to do. He shook my hand and got back to work.

Sunday Jeb and I went to Pastor Thompson’s church. During lunch, Jeb had a long talk with the Pastor. I’m not sure what was said but I think Jeb let him know what was going on with him. When the Pastor dropped us off, I noticed the Pastor give Jeb a hug and speak softly in his ear. Jeb nodded and hugged him back.

I’m not sure what that exchange was about but it sure helped Jeb’s morale. His mood went from up and down to steady Jeb again. He was improved enough to him to get frisky after lights-out again.

Thankfully, we were given a quiet week with no more big shocks. As they say on the radio— the hits just keep coming.

Just as things were getting back to abnormal, it was a junior league nut house after all, Jeb and I were in for our next shock. I was on my way to her office for a session, when I heard Dr. Price roar Jesus, Mary and Joseph, you have got to be kidding me! Having never heard Dr. Price roar, I was intrigued.

I knocked on her open door and found Dr. Price with a pile of disordered papers on her desk. She beckoned for me to come in. She asked how was Jeb doing and I told her he was OK but I didn’t think he needed any more bad news for a while.

She sighed, closed her door and asked, when people left the Children of the Son, what did they tell you about it? I said that I don’t remember anyone just leaving. People would get sick and die but no one ever just left.

Would it come as a big shock to you that was just another lie? I thought about it and remembered that some of the people who died were in trouble with the Prophet or were disgruntled in some way. My answer was No, I wouldn’t.

Dr. Price said if I were an adult patient, now would be the time that she might suggest a strong drink.

She said has taken us a while and some help from the police to put this together but, this is what we think happened. Your mother joined the Children of the Son sixteen years ago after the death of her first husband. She had you after a liaison with the Prophet. After she had you she got pregnant again and figured out that she needed to get out of there. Somehow she left the Children of the Son and ended up in Hattiesburg. She went to a woman’s shelter and had your little brother.

I instantly saw where this was going. There was a reason why Jeb and I looked so much alike. I always tried to be modest with my language but the only thing I could think of to say was holy shit— Jeb really is my little brother! My second thought was why did she leave me with that psycho?

Dr. Price said she tried to get me out but the Prophet had money and lawyers and your mother didn’t. She became a nurse, she was trained to be one before she got involved with the Prophet, and took take care of Jeb but she couldn’t get you out. I don’t even think she told Jeb.

Now it was my turn to sink into the couch. This was so twisted it made my head hurt. Then I sat up furious and said that has to be how they knew to target Jeb.

Dr. Price nodded sadly.

I asked her are situations like this why they invented whiskey?

We called for Jeb and we went through the whole thing. He was delighted. He got the big brother he always wanted and, since we really were blood family, no one could split us up.

Best of all, I wasn’t alone anymore. Having Jeb as blood family was great but, I had serious misgivings about my mother. That was going to be one of the most awkward conversations since Henry the Eighth spoke to his marriage counselor. OK, that was weird.

My education was proceeding and I found my brain making weird connections like that. My one regret is there were so many books I want to read and so little time. Apparently my pals at Southern Miss that designed my courseware thought I was slow. I was burning through their CDs as quickly as they could turn them around. Dr. Price was delighted with my progress and I was trouncing junior high school.

I’m loving history- England is particularly fascinating. Those rascally Victorian Imperialists busily spreading civilization and exploitation in equal parts— I can’t help but be amazed. They would have sucked but they had Kipling, a knack of innovation and an amazing series of monarchs that just kept getting it right. I’m reading A History of the English Speaking People by Churchill and staying up way too late.

Then there’s Shakespeare. I talked them out of Romeo and Juliet and am reading Henry the Fifth. Henry’s Saint Crispin’s day speech made me want to go out and pound the French. I guess that’s the sort of speech that occurs during half time.

Another strange ritual I’m learning about is college football. I may have been raised around religious fanatics but in their zeal, football fans make the Prophet look like a dilatant. Jeb and I were at the Crenshaw household enjoying the South Eastern Conference Championship game. The game is interesting, if not conspicuously violent, but the real fun is watching the fans. This is a big deal for them with traditions that go back over generations. There’s never been a preacher that could stir as much real passion as an untimely fumble by Alabama. Even if you lose, the food is great. Part of that tradition is to eat lots of really good food that’s bad for you.

After the game we gathered in Mr. Crenshaw’s office with Doug, Jeb and Mrs. Crenshaw. We had discovered that Mr. Crenshaw is a lawyer. Good lawyers are good know despite all the jokes.

The Crenshaw’s were not up to speed on our latest news. They were just as shocked as we were but they rolled with it. Mr. Crenshaw told us that he had an attorney friend looking into helping our Mom but things didn’t look good for her. She was already on probation for a previous drug charge and it looked like she had been shorting patients. There was no way around it: there was going to be jail time.

I asked Mr. Crenshaw why he hadn’t looked into it himself and he told me that might turn out to be a conflict of interest. If we had no objections, he was going to start proceedings to be our foster parents.

Jeb and I were both stunned speechless until I figured out I was supposed to say something at that point. All I could think of to say was something like— murrghelburh. Jeb laughed and said, I think he means yes, you’ve been really good to us.

Mrs. Crenshaw jumped in at this point and said before you say yes, we are planning to move to Biloxi this summer. If you don’t want to move away from Hattiesburg…

I finally found my voice and said I think a fresh start in a new place would be good for us. That’s when it happened. There were lots of hugs and Mrs. Crenshaw invited us to spend Christmas with their family.

Doug drove us back to the center that night. It was the best I had felt since… ever.

We went to church and lunch with the Crenshaw family the next day and more drama started. Youth Services got involved and I immediately disliked our caseworker. She was the sort that tried to make herself sound smart by using big words but failed miserably by mispronouncing the words and using them with reckless grammatical abandon (Yes, English is my best subject). She further failed to impress me because she was assigned my case as soon as I left the Prophet’s compound and this was the first I had seen of her. She didn’t know that Jeb was my brother, I didn’t want to explain it and hoped by the time she figured that out we would be living with the Crenshaw family.

I’m not sure why we had to meet with her but she used a lot of words that made me wary like ward of the state, child’s best interest and NGO (non-governmental organization). You didn’t have to be very perceptive to see that she didn’t like the churches taking such an active role in matters best left to her alleged competency. I was more than ready to pass on that. With her first interview five months after the fact, she might actually get around to doing something by the time I was thirty.

In another matter, Jeb had to go to his mother’s apartment to remove his things. We got some collapsible boxes at Office Depot and spent an hour at his mother’s apartment packing his things.

Jeb had a lot of stuff: lap-top, play station, TV, CDs, DVDs, mini-stereo, video games and gadgets. When we left, the minivan looked more like a moving van. We weren’t really supposed to have all that junk in our room but there was nowhere else to put it. Oh darn.

We set the stuff up and put Jeb’s clothes put away. I noticed just how neat and precise he was with it. He started teaching me a football game on the play station called Madden and beat me like a rug. Everybody has to start somewhere. At this rate I might be competitive by the time we had colonies on Mars.

I could tell that the staff at the center didn’t like it much but I think I saw Dr. Price’s hand in it. Maybe she was letting me get a glimpse at how a real boy lives.

Jeb shocked me with a few things. A lot of his loot was stuff that his old buddy Brent had given him. That made for some uncomfortable conversations after lights out. Brent was highly skilled with computers and would show Jeb how to do all sorts of things and most of them weren’t legal. Brent would show Jeb internet porn until he was hurting. When Jeb got ready for bed he came out of the bathroom wearing these red skin-tight shorts he called Speedos that left nothing to the imagination. He told me that Brent had him wear that whenever he was at Brent’s place.

I told him about how they would give me something to drink that would put me in the mood to perform and asked him if Brent ever did that. Jeb said that Brent had offered him all sorts of drugs but he never did anything but drink a little and try pot. He suspected that Brent might have slipped him something a few of times but all it seemed to do was make him sleepy.

As we sat there I’m not sure why I asked a rather big question: Jeb, are you gay? Jeb was quiet for a minute and then said maybe, I get hard for everything it seems. Girls, guys- maybe as I get a little older, I’ll get a better grip on that.

I laughed— you said grip. He slugged me with a pillow.

Then it was his turn: are you gay? My answer was the same. I went on to say that we got introduced to some sexual things much younger than most kids. What other kids would think of as yuck, we know it works and feels pretty darned good. To be honest that’s why I held back and didn’t want to do anything serious with you. I feel like I’m still figuring that out too.

Jeb asked if we turn out gay do you think the Crenshaw’s would still want us? That was a very good question. We had no idea. They were religious but, they were United Methodists and they were a pretty mellow denomination. I said I didn’t know the answer but I would have to find out. Thankfully Jeb ditched the speedos. That was just too distracting.

The next day Dr. Price let me know that she and the social worker were in a long protracted battle over me. Miss social worker had been upstaged by the initiative by area churches to take care of the kids released when the Children of the Son collapsed. There were at least a score of them and the social services people felt cheated out of the publicity that would have granted them. They had been assigned a caseworker to each of the kids and this one second guessed everything that Dr. Price had done. She told me that I needed to be careful because any misstep might land me in the State Hospital and that would suck. Dr. Price’s goal was to place me with a good family. Miss social worker’s goals were not so clear.

As Christmas approached, there was a blur of activity. It all culminated when the Crenshaw family picked up Jeb and me for Christmas with our prospective grandparents in Denton, Texas.