18 Weeks of Twoey - 60. Week Nine Thursday, October 30, 2014: Anger

“Sometimes, you have to get angry to get things done.”

- Ang Lee

***

All there was drilling into my mind, was the thought of that slimy bastard in my room! I was still so pissed this morning I let Gary do all the talking on our run.

I got my Twoey naked call. But today I was all business. I had too much anger to do the usual joking.

“Erik will tutor you today and then Friday because I'll be getting ready for the dance. Gary and I are gonna pick up Lanni and Mel and grab something to eat at Kory's before the dance. Actually, Erik says he can tutor you every Friday in the stuff you share with him.” Twoey chuckled at that. I didn’t ask why.

I was eating breakfast, talking with Tommy, telling him I was going to the Halloween dance with Lanni on Friday when that woman sat down with her cup of coffee.

“You know Halloween is the Devil's holiday and you shouldn't celebrate it.”

I was so infuriated with her for letting that snake into my room, it took all my restraint to not thrust a fork into her eyes. I slowly turned my head to look at her changing my gaze into one of ICED-DEATH.

“You don't say.” Stretching out the don't. I stared right into her like I was sharpening a knife to cut out her liver.

I think she got the message and reconsidered because she didn't follow up.

In fact, she walked out of the kitchen soon after, and I was able to finish my breakfast in peace. As I was about to grab my backpack, Tommy came up and whispered in my ear. “Remind me never to make you angry with me.” He winked, then kissed me on my cheek as I turned to leave. He has no idea. I should probably warn him tonight. For all I know, they might be doing the same thing in his room.

“Sam, are you doing anything right after school today?” This was on the walk to school.

“No ...why? Need something?”

“I need to see you. It’s bad.”

“Sure David. I'll pick you up at your locker.”

I didn’t speak to anyone the rest of the way to school. I became angrier and angrier.

As soon as I got to school, I hit the cafeteria to finish my homework from last night. I broke two goddamn pencil points! I could hardly control myself. In my entire 15 years, I had never been so angry as I was right then. I was actually on the verge of losing control!

I was beyond angry during homeroom, thinking about those two in my bedroom.

I was furious during first period. English was the last thing on my mind.

I was becoming livid during second period. Martin even gave me a few questioning glances. It was probably because he could see me actually shaking or maybe it was cuz I stabbed the goddamn frog a couple times with my scalpel.

I was still seething in math class and didn't even bother to look at anyone. I don’t remember anything from the first half of the period until we got a pop quiz and, as usual, exchanged papers to correct them. I passed mine to the little irritating asshole fuck-head freshman genius who sits behind me and got the paper from Marsha Somethingorother who sits in front of me. It was only five problems of routine quadratic formula shit that I knocked off as fast as I could write them down. Elcher did the problems on the board and the papers got returned before we handed them in.

Mine was marked 80%.

I stared at it, not comprehending.

I looked at the answer blank for problem #4, which was checked wrong, and it said 40. That was the correct answer. I looked on the board to double check. Sure enough, it was 40.

This made my foul mood even worse as I swung around and stared at that little asshole, Chuck or Fuck or something was his damn name. Maybe today was his lucky day!!

He’s been building all semester for that smash in the face he was about to receive right now!

“What the hell is this?” I yelled at him. He just cringed in his seat. “Why did you mark this wrong?”

I may have slipped just a ...tad ...out of control.

He whimpered, “Your answer looks like 48 to me.”

I was shooting up out of my seat when I felt a strong hand on my shoulder pushing me back down. “Calm down, David!” It was Elcher. He had everyone pass the papers in and told me he'd recheck them, but he gave me a not-so-friendly look. In fact, I noticed the whole class was staring at me. The bell rang and I stormed out of the room. Fuckers!

I was stomping toward the cafeteria, still steamed, when I felt something tugging at my shirtsleeve. I swung around, now red with rage, ready to pound the shit out of whatever or whoever it was. Unbelievably, it was that fucking Chuck kid! He took one look at my face and immediately fell to the floor and wrapped himself into a fetal position, I guess for protection or something. Anyway ...the scene struck me as so funny and bizarre I started to crack up.

I reached down and pulled him up holding him in the air, his legs kicking. He’s so slight a kid it was like picking up an 8 year old. “Easy man, you're all right. Just because somebody is pissed off it doesn't mean they're gonna beat you up. I don't beat people.”

I was only trying to calm him down and, ya know, it calmed me down too. Except he said, “Yes you do. Everybody knows you beat people up!”

OMG.

I gently put him back on his feet and really looked at him for the first time ...ever. I didn't let go of him. He would have run away for sure. He was sort of a cute kid. I knew he was 14, but he looked a couple of years younger than Tommy even. He had sorta reddish hair but with a lot of a brown tinge. I'll bet he was a full red-head as a little kid. It was cut medium short, lying thickly over his head and just down covering the back of his neck. And green eyes, dammit! He had a face full of freckles, which immediately brought Danny to mind, especially the way he looked so young, and, of course, my heart went out to him.

“Where are you off to Chuck?”

“Lunch.”

“Good. Me too. Walk with me.” Then I softened a bit. “Please?”

Those green eyes got big, but he nodded and fell in with me as we headed toward the cafeteria.

“So Chuck, is it OK if you skip your table of friends to sit with me today?”

He looked at me for a minute and said, “I usually eat by myself. I don't have any friends.” That sort of surprised me. I would have figured he had lots of friends.

“Well that shit's over with. You sit with me from now on.” We went through the lunch line and then approached the table. I put my tray down then took his from him, reaching across and putting it down in Danny's old place next to Nels, across from Matty. I motioned for him to sit over there.

“Guys, this is Chuck. He saved me from being an asshole today. He'll be with us for the rest of the year.” I said it simply and forcefully and the guys just shrugged and accepted Chuck. I introduced him to everyone. “Erik and Matty are our token wrestlers and they sit here to keep me under control.” He shyly smiled, while everyone else laughed. “Next to you at 7 feet tall is Nels, who we're trying to lure back into soccer this year. And Chuck, he's got really good taste in girls. In fact, I'm going to the Halloween dance tomorrow with the twin of his girlfriend. So watch him carefully, and learn all about that kinda stuff.” Chuck's eyes got big as he looked way up at Nels, who, even seated, towered above him.

I pointed to the other side of Nels and said, “That's Gary. He's the bestest friend a guy can have, and I know cuz he's been my best friend since before I can even remember. He must have crawled into the crib with me. If you need something, ask Gary. He'll be there for ya.” I saw Gary give me a nice look.

“And finally, on my right, that Emo kid, is Sam.” Sam gave me a dirty look.

“But don't ever call him EMO because he really hates it. He just happens to look that way. Chuck ...now pay close attention to me, Sam knows every fucking thing there is to know. If you need to know where to go in the school to make out with a girl, or how to encrypt your cell phone, or who to ask for a date, or who the latest kick-ass band is, ask Sam. He'll know.” That got a gaping look from Chuck and put a smile back on Sam's face.

Now the gang wanted to know what I meant about Chuck saving me from being an asshole. I told them I needed some time to process everything and I'd tell them later. But I mentioned he was in my math class cuz he's too smart to hang around with freshmen anymore.

“So Chuck, I don't even know your last name or where you live.”

“My name is Stevens and I lived out near the falls.”

“So you bus here?”

“Yeah, but it sucks because I miss out on so much stuff happening in town and it’s hard to make friends.”

“Well, you've got six right here, and that's worth about 20 freshmen, so you're rich with friends right now.”

As we finished up, there were about ten minutes left and everyone was chatting, but Chuck looked a little isolated.

I started to get up. “Hey Chuck, will you walk with me to my locker? I want to ask you something.” He jumped right up and we dumped our trays, then started walking.

“So, why were you pulling on my sleeve earlier? Were you gonna tell me something or just punch my face?” He giggled a little, but then got serious.

“I ...I was just going to apologize for what I did to your quiz.”

“You couldn't read my number ...I write too fast anyway ...no big deal.”

He started blushing really red. His face matched his hair. He looked down at his shoes.

“I ...I knew you had the right answer. I saw your work.”

I stopped dead and looked at him. “I don't understand.”

“Well you know I sit right behind you. I can tell you finish all the quizzes and tests way early. Most of the time you look around and when you see nobody's done yet, you dick around with your test or quiz so it looks like it takes you as long as everyone else. I see you do that. You're really smart in math David. Smarter than me and they accelerated me. I bet they wanted to do it to you too, but you wouldn't let them ...right?” We started walking again, and soon arrived at my locker.

I motioned for him to sit on the floor with me next to my locker. There was something going on in that freckled head of his. “That's right Chuck. You're pretty bright yourself if you figured it all out from merely sitting behind me.”

“Well, I sort of look up to you. You handle things so well and you're really smart but really cool at the same time. I was just ...um ...I was just trying to get your attention. You never notice me. I mean I know sophomores don't usually notice freshmen, and I don't even look old enough to be a freshman, I know that. But you like look right through me like I don't exist, and I wanted you to sort of see me, if just for a minute. But I never expected you to freak. I almost shit myself, especially with your reputation for beating up football players!”

I started to chuckle ...then really laughed. Chuck had a big smile too. I told him, “You know, you picked the wrong day, that's all. I'm so upset today with something having nothing to do with you and nothing to do with school. It's something in my personal life. As the day went on, I got angrier and angrier and then when you marked that answer wrong, and with a lame excuse too, I lost it. I'm really sorry for that. But look on the bright side. I gained a great new friend and got rid of my attitude too!”

“Thanks David.”

“Wait. All that irritating foot scraping on my desk. Were you trying to get my attention then too?”

He blushed again. “Yeah, sorry.” The kid’s got the cutest blush I’ve ever seen.

“Look up to me, huh? I don't think I've ever been looked up to before. I sorta like it. Oh ...there's one more friend of mine you're going to meet, but he's out of school for a while.”

“Twoey.”

“You know him?”

“Duh ...he sits right next to you! And he always looks at you ...did you know that?”

It was then the bell rang. I told him I'd see him tomorrow, and left to finish my day.

In PhysEd Matty was changing next to me and said, “Hey, where did you pick up that freshman? He idolizes you, you know.”

I laughed and said, “Well it started when I almost smashed his head off. Why do you say he idolizes me?”

“The way he kept looking at you all through lunch. I know what that look is.”

I snorted, “Matty, I think that look is please don't pound me, sir.”

Matty chuckled too.

At the end of classes, I met Sam and walked home with him. On the way, I explained what I saw in the laptop cam pics.

“She let that crazy pastor search your room? Jesus David, now I know why you were so pissed off today.”

“Yeah, that poor freshman Chuck stumbled right into the path of my rage and almost met my fists. But we're OK now, and in fact he's pretty cool. Once you get to know him, you'll really like him.”

“You realize he subconsciously reminds you of Danny, don't you? I mean he probably is a cool kid but even if he wasn't you'd have a soft spot for him. I think everybody at the table did too.”

“You're probably right again Sam, but I've had the chance to talk with him a bit and he has a little more grit than you'd expect. He marked an answer on my math quiz wrong on purpose, just so I'd notice him!”

“No shit! A wrong answer on your math paper? He really is a little reckless ...hehe.”

As we were nearing his house, I couldn’t help but notice each time he looked at me in our conversation, Sam’s eyes glanced behind us for an instant. This happened several times. Finally when we turned to walk up to the porch, he looked right past me. I turned, but didn’t see anyone, just a white van going down the street.

When we entered, Sam asked his mom to make us a snack, and then we took a plate of sandwiches to his room.

“You know, you don't have to do this. I'm eating again …just not at my house.”

“I only believe what I see you eat!”

We began to discuss my privacy situation. While we were tossing some stuff around, Sam giggled and said, “You know, you should toy with them by leaving something in your room they’ll find to really piss them off.” We were working on that when he suddenly said, “Shit ...they won't open your laptop if they think they can't get in. Then we won't be able to get any pictures!”

“But I don't want them snooping around in my computer.”

“That's no problem. Watch this.” He showed me how I could use the same encryption program I now have to take a piece of my hard drive, like 50 gigs, so I can put enough music and shit in there idiots like them would think it's my whole computer.

“We can mimic the folder as a drive and set it as the default, so when someone first signs on, that's where they go. They'd have to switch users, entering a new password, to access the real stuff. We’d be giving them like a fake computer to snoop around in. You can put anything in there you want them to find.”

He continued. “OK now we have to make them discover the password for the bogus computer.” Sam was thinking. “We can't make it too easy, or they'll be suspicious. We can't make it too hard, cuz they're idiots.” He was really cranking the cranium when he got a flash of inspiration. “I got it! Those religious types like Johnson might not be too smart, but they have like the whole Bible memorized. That's all their little minds are filled up with. So we make them think you're hiding the password as a Bible verse. You know, like Job 39:5 or something. Wait here a minute."

He went out and a few minutes later returned with a Bible. “This was my grandmother's. Let me quick check on Job 39:5, just for kicks.” He thumbed through it and said “Nah ...no good ...just some shit about letting wild asses go free.” We both started cracking up.

I was laughing so hard I was crying.

“STOP IT,” he chuckled and thumbed around for about 5 minutes when he said, “I think this will work: The dull man cannot know, the stupid man cannot understand. It's Psalms 92:6 and that'll be the password: psalms926, and you only need them to find that verse and a Bible near the computer. He'll play around with it until he figures it out. And when he does, we have to shock the shit right out of him. Let me work on that. You go home and create that bogus encrypted drive and put a ton of music and other crap from your regular drive, so it looks legit. But leave some space. I've got the perfect video that'll make them shit when they open the drive and we’ll have it begin automatically. It'll take me a little time to edit together what I’m thinking of. I'll bring it over on a flash drive in a couple days.”

It was right then the enormity of my isolation rose in my mind to throw a shadow of hopelessness over me. “Sam, I can't tell you how much this means to me.” I started to tear up and he came right over and pulled me into a hug. “I feel so alone and vulnerable at home with these idiots nipping at my heels. They’re surrounding me. They’re closing in on me. You've been by me like a true friend, I ...I don't know what to say.” I sobbed.

It had been such an emotional day. It all came out at that very moment! I broke down in my buddy's arms and cried. He held me tight until I finally settled down and started to pull away. He put his right hand on the side of my face and wiped the tears off with his left. I stared into those big black eyes, one partially covered by his hair, as usual. We looked at each other for a long time and then ...gently kissed.

I think a horrified look must have come over my face. Sam smiled. I think his smile calmed me a little.

“It’s OK David. I’m not in love with you, but I do love you. I thought you might have needed that little kiss. I didn’t mean to freak you out.

“It ...it’s OK Sam. You have no idea how much I needed that right now.” We smiled and I left.

As I was walking the two blocks to Twoey's it suddenly hit me. Sam didn’t kiss me. I kissed Sam! But honestly, it felt like the natural thing to do, a kiss of friendship. And he didn't freak out, so I shouldn't. We'll never do it again, but he seemed to know I needed intimate contact right then. Sam is such a special friend. But I think I'll have to tell Dr. Keating about the kiss anyway.

Erik was going strong with Twoey when I got there. I peeked in to said hello (no kiss) then entered the kitchen to cook with Ginny. Today was exceedingly different. What I saw pulled me out of my gloomy mood pretty fast. First, I had no idea what was going on, or what we were preparing! On the work counter was a kind of big cup with a funny pole like thing sticking out of it. When I lifted it, it was heavy! It was like a big hollowed out piece of shiny stone. Ginny said it was made of marble. I believed her!

Next to it were bunches of two different kinds of leaves that looked like weeds. Ginny asked me to smell them. They had quite a strong aroma. The bigger leaves smelled sort of minty, but not really mint. I don’t think I had ever encountered the smell before. The other, smaller, leaves also had a strong aroma which was vaguely familiar. Ginny said the first was fresh basil and the second was parsley. It sure didn’t look like parsley. It was all flat, without any curls at all, like parsley has.

Then it got weirder.

Ginny had me put both these bunches of leaves into the marble cup. She showed me a small dish with salt in it. But I never saw salt like that before. It was rough and coarse looking. I had to put a pinch on top of those leaves. Now comes the strange part. I had to take that little pole, which was also made of marble, and mash up all the leaves. Well, I certainly didn’t expect it could even happen. But it did! They pounded down real easy into a sort of thick green paste.

Then she had me add what she called pine nuts, but they looked like seeds. On top of that, I had to put a clove of garlic and more of that salt. Then I pounded it all into the green paste. She gave me a spatula and I had to scrape the green stuff out of the marble cup and into a large bowl. She gave me a cheese grater and two kinds of cheese. I had to grate a whole bunch of each into the bowl. One cheese was called Locatelli and the other was Parmigiano. I guess they’re both grown in Italy, or however cheese comes about. After using the spatula to mix it all in, I had to add a big half-stick of soft butter. When the butter was mixed in, everything lightened and softened up. The last thing was to add a some olive oil. Ginny reached in the back of her cupboard and brought out a small dark bottle. When I poured a little in, the oil was green! Ginny told me to put a drop on my finger to taste. It was really fruity, but had a bite.

“Does olive oil have pepper in it?”

“No. The finest olive oil is always a little peppery. But you have to keep it in a cool dark place or you waste your money.” I never asked how much money she was talking about.

So I’m looking at this pretty bowl of green pudding stuff that smells sorta good. I began to wonder how we were going to eat it. Like pudding? But it wouldn’t be nearly enough for the four of us. Ginny could see my confusion.

“OK David. The last step. Put water in that big pan and bring it to a boil for pasta.”

Well, I certainly knew how to do that by now ...hehe. When it was finally boiling I put the pasta in. It looked like flat spaghetti. The box calls it Fettuccini. I set the timer for ten minutes, and helped Ginny set the table. She uncorked a bottle of wine from a place called Friuli. I’ll have to Google it. I have no fucking idea where on Earth it is. When the pasta was done and drained, we added it to a big bowl and tossed the green stuff with it.

I now know the dish is called Pesto Genovese because it comes from Genoa, same as that Christopher ColumbusGuy.

We put everything together on the table with some great bread. Erik stayed to eat and said he wanted to marry me. Twoey said he had first dibs. They were having so much fun embarrassing me! But I was a little cautious approaching my own plate. I couldn’t imagine this stuff tasting any good at all. I mean, it was only made of leaves!

I’m not ashamed to admit I was wrong. Was I ever wrong! I don’t think I’d tasted anything so fantastic in my entire life. I even ate the leftover from the big bowl. If there had been any more of that ‘Pesto’ around, I definitely would have cooked more pasta! Maybe the only thing that moved me out that night was realizing I had a task to do at home.

When I did get home, I created the bogus hard drive and encrypted it with psalms926 as the password. Then I wrote “The dull man cannot know, the stupid man cannot understand” on a small slip of paper and left it under my laptop but sticking out so they could see it. I transferred several music folders of various bands and also some pictures of pretty scenes I downloaded from Tumblr. Now I only have to bide my time and see what Sam comes up with. And I can't wait! He'll be too clever! I'm smiling already.

Tommy rapped on my door and came in, asking what I was smiling about. I locked the door and had him sit near me on the bed so I could talk to him quietly.

“Your mother and pastor Johnson were snooping around in my room.”

“How do you know that?”

“When this is over I'll tell you how. For now just know they were in here yesterday between about 10:30 to 11:00 in the morning. They looked at my computer and through my drawers. I'd recommend you delete your computer history every day from now on.”

He smiled. “I already do.”

Then he said, “What do you mean when this is all over?”

“With Sam’s help, I'm going to set a trap that'll keep them far away from me forever ...I hope.”

“Oh that sounds exciting, I can't wait! Oh yeah, you gotta promise me something.”

“Sure Tommy, anything. You know I'd do anything for you.”

“Please brother ...Never. Ever. Look at me like you looked at her this morning. EVER.”

I hugged him tight and kissed him on the cheek. “Goodnight brother.”

I stripped, slipped between the sheets and thought about what a rollercoaster day it was. My emotions went from sadness to hate to anger to love and everything in between. My phone chirped and I didn't even look at the ID, just picked it up and heard “I didn't get my kisses today.”

So we talked for an hour or so until we were both yawning. I kissed him goodnight over the phone.