The Cold Days of Summer - Episode 10
Drew meets a new friend and he realizes that lessons you fail to learn often come back around for reinforcement.
Previously in The Cold Days of Summer: Drew fails to learn a lesson from his sixth grade teacher and another woman is murdered in west Texas. For all of the details see: Episode 9 - The Cold Days of Summer.
An encounter in the alley
It was the first day of school at Bonham Junior High. In one short summer we had all gone from being sixth grade kings and queen of Dowling Elementary to scum, no, not even scum, seventh graders at Bonham. There we would roam the hallways with eighth and ninth graders. The rumors of the hazings and initiations at Bonham led to many a sleepless night.
Jack Blessing was the only person I knew who was already at Bonham and he seemed to revel in telling stories of beating, bullying and intimidation that occurred in the bathrooms and behind the gym. I don't know how much of it he was making up, but if only a bit was true, well, I was going to have an interesting first year at Bonham. He did say he would keep an eye out for me and do what he could to protect me.
I ended up walking to school alone that first day of school. I left a few minutes earlier than Jack and Kate. No real reason for leaving early, I was just ready to go and decided to start walking.
It was a good day to walk, the September morning sun had warmed the morning.
I was about four blocks away from school when I came across a situation. A couple of junior high hoods were giving a kid I hadn't seen before the shakedown and the kid was refusing to give them anything, which was a brave but a foolish thing when you are out numbered two to one. I had heard their voices first so I had been moving stealthily down the alley for the last thirty yards, darting between Dempsey Dumpsters and tumbleweeds. I was already too far in the alley to get by the hoods without coughing up my lunch money and who knows what else so I figured I might as well get as close as I could before they knew I was there. The closest I could get without being out into the open was about ten yards away, where a rusting Dempsey Dumpster lay on its side and trash sprawled out of it and into the alley. I crouched beside it and listened to my heart, the hoods and the kid. Crouching beside the dumpster, I was thinking how "hoods" always said the same thing the same way. Made me wonder if they took classes on intimidation at reform school.
"You think you're a tuff sonuvabitch, don't you kid? Well, tell you what, kid, you hand over some money and perhaps do a favor for us we'll let you go to school and get educated."
"Fuck you!" Hmm, this kid was brave, but foolish was the thought that ran through my head.
"Hey, the kid knows how to swear, I think we better teach him to respect his elders, then we'll see if he has any cash. What do you say, Jake?"
"Kill the fucker."
Well, I knew I was in trouble now. They were going to beat the shit out of the kid, take his money, maybe even rape him and I would be right here hearing all of it. By the time they would be finished they would be all worked up, ready to do it again, and there I would be, ten yards away ripe for the picking. I had no choice but to try to take them on, at least that way, even if I lost, I might be able to cause them some pain first.
You must realize that I am no hero, just that I was in a situation that had no good ending. The hoods weren't much older than me, probably eighth graders, if they were still in school, one of them was a little taller than me, but he was thin. Jake was the short and stubby one and for some reason he scared me the most. He would have to be the one I aimed for when I made my move. The only piece of luck I had going for me was the fact they both had their backs to me, which meant I would have some chance of striking them before they saw me. I looked around the dumpster for anything I could use to help the odds even out to my favor.
That's when the second stroke of luck came my way. Laying a couple of feet away was a three feet length of 1" steel pipe, threaded on both ends. I took a deep breath, hoping that I would calm down and took one last look at the scene I would soon be busting in on.
At that point I knew why I had reason to fear Jake as he had pulled a switch blade out and was toying with it and the new kid. The other hood had grabbed the new kid by the shoulders and was holding him from behind. Great, now one of the hoods was facing me, my element of surprise would be gone. Hopefully he would have his hands full with the new kid when I came out. I ducked down behind the cover of the dumpster, and placed my brand new notebook on a large flat rock. I picked up the pipe, hefted it in my left hand, took a breath, took a strong two handed grip on the pipe, jumped out of the cover of the dumpster and ran like hell toward the hoods.
Naturally, the skinny hood saw me right from the start but I guess he wasn't used to seeing anyone foolish enough to attack him and Jake, so all he did was first was make the whites of his eyes grow nice and bright against his dirt streaked face. Then he found his voice and said shakily "Jaaaake, beeehind you, shiiit!" just as Jake started turning the long sleeves of the new kids shirt into short sleeves. Jake turned slowly toward me and when he saw me running toward him with the pipe in the air over my head he just smiled. I nearly died right there, the son of a bitch smiled at me! This guy enjoyed pain, he enjoyed fighting and he was going to really enjoy tearing me apart limb from limb.
The only thought in my head (besides raw naked fear) was to aim for the middle when I swung the pipe, I figured he could try to jump over the pipe if I swung low or he'd duck if I went for his head, but I had a good chance of hitting something if I aimed for the middle. I went for the fences with my swing and struck nothing but Jake's rib cage. The impact stung my hands but I didn't let go of the pipe and got ready to swing again. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that the new kid and the skinny hood were rolling on the ground trading punches with the new kid delivering the most.
After the shot to his rib cage Jake dropped his switch blade and had his hands on his ribs. For a second I almost had a feeling of mercy but I knew Jake wouldn't appreciate such a feeling so I swung again, this time at his head. I hit him pretty solid right below his right ear and across his cheek and I watched the blood spurt from his mouth. He was out of it, he fell to the ground holding his head with one hand and his ribs with the other. As I walked by him toward the new kid and the skinny hood I gave Jake a good solid kick to the ribs, just for good measure. Maybe he might learn something by being on the receiving end of pain. By this time the tide had turned toward the skinny hood as he was sitting on top of the new kid, holding him down, laughing. He didn't see me coming; one quick swing was all it took, right across the back. He screamed, rolled on to the ground and looked up at me with the same look of fear he had in his eyes when he first saw me running toward them with the pipe just a minute or two before. I stood there and felt the same sense of mercy I had felt toward Jake. The new kid didn't as he jumped to his feet and delivered a nice kick to the skinny hood's ribs, then a hard, vicious kick to the groin and then to his head. It was over, we both stood there, heaving hard from the exertion and the fear. I looked back at Jake, who didn't look too well and said to the skinny hood, "Pick your friend up and get the hell out of here."
Amazingly enough, he still had his nerve as he said "Fuck you, you little sonuv...". That was all as the new kid kicked him in the ribs, hard. He then knelt down by the skinny hood and said, "I think what my friend meant to say was 'Get the fuck out of here before we tear your god damn heads off and give them to the alley cats so they can dig your fucking eyes out of the sockets and eat them.'”
I was impressed by that, he sounded like he meant it. The skinny hood's eyes showed fear as he drug himself to his feet and moved toward Jake. Somehow he got Jake to his feet and the two of them limped off down the alley. The new kid and I stood there and watched them until they had walked out of sight.
"Shit, you came along at a good time."
"Welcome to Odessa." was all I could say.
"Yeh, thanks, lovely town."
My senses finally came back to me, I dropped the pipe and held out my hand, tried to put a smile on my face and introduced myself. "Hey, my name's Drew Remington.
He smiled back and grabbed my hand. "Hello, Drew, I'm Rick Anders, and you've got a new friend!"
"Good, because I don't feel like going to school today and need someone to hang around with. What do you say?"
He laughed, made a bow. "Lead the way, somehow I don't feel like doing any math today myself."
I walked back to the dumpster and picked up my notebook, then started walking back towards my house.
"Hey, don't forget this, you may need it again" and as he spoke, Rick picked up my pipe and followed me home. Home was the best place to go as both my mom and dad were working this year. Mom wanted to be able to get us a few little extras so she had had been working at a small office downtown and wouldn't be back until 6:00 that evening. Elizabeth would be in school till 12:00, then she would be staying over at a friend's house (whose mother did not work) until Mom picked her up on her way home from the office. As for Dad, well, he never got home from the oil fields until after dark. We would have the house to ourselves for the day.
As we walked along in the alley we talked about ourselves. Rick told me that his family had moved to Odessa from East Texas just this past month. Turns out they lived on East 11th street too, just a few blocks away at 1715 East 11th. His father was the new manager of the estimation group at Sivall's tank a week after they got to town. Rick was the younger of two boys; his brother was 15 and a sophomore at Permian. His mother spent her days at home keeping the house clean for them and his dad. I told him about my family and what Odessa was like and what school was like and on and on, till we walked up to the gate of my backyard. We walked into my back yard and I whistled. Kaiser came bounding up from one of his many resting places, wagging the little stump of his tail. He was glad to see us. I gave him a quick scratching behind his ears and Rick gave him a couple of pats on his gray coat. We went in the house and as we entered the kitchen I opened the refrigerator door and grabbed two Coors beers and handed one to Rick. "After what we went through, I think we need this." He laughed and we went into the den. I turned on the TV just in time for the Beverly Hillbillies.
First grade déjà vu
We missed the first day of seventh grade at Bonham, but I don’t think we missed too much. Most of the teachers insisted the students sit in alphabetical order and since Rick and I were already registered for school, our assigned seats were waiting for us on the second day.
My first period class was Reading/English and within fifteen minutes I knew something was wrong. The teacher handed me my text books, a reading text and an English text that mixed grammar with a little bit of literature. While she talked about today’s assignment I skimmed through both texts. I would either make a 100 or be so bored that I would fail. I knew a few of the kids in the class from Dowling. James Peterson was one of them. He sat in front of me. He leaned back and whispered “What the hell are you doing in this class, Drew? You’re too smart for our group.” I shrugged my shoulders like I didn’t know, which wasn’t a lie, I didn’t know what I was doing in this class. I had an idea that it had something to do with my sixth grade teacher Mr. Hastings, but that was just a guess.
Towards the end of the class the teacher gave the homework reading assignment and said that in tomorrow’s class she would begin testing each of us to determine our current skill level in reading and writing.
Math, my second class of the day, was about the same. I was in with a group of students that I had always sat in front of at Dowling, but at Bonham it looked like I was going to sit with them. As the day went on my suspicion of Mr. Hastings turned into complete belief. I had somehow really annoyed Mr. Hastings and maybe these class assignments were his way of getting even with me.
Rick and I had two classes together, PE and Art, the last class of the day. When the final bell rang we walked out the door and Rick said “Well, this day really sucked.” I had to agree.
We walked home down Royalty down towards 11th street. We skipped the alleys this day and reached his house first, at 1715 E. 11th. He invited me in and I took him up on it. His Mom greeted us at the front door and said there were cookies and milk waiting for us in the kitchen.
Everything seemed nice and neat, too nice and neat in fact. Everything, the house, the yard, the cookies, the milk, the mom, seemed just too nice to be real. But it didn’t stay that way for long.
We heard a car pull up in front of the house. Deep Purple boomed out of the car speakers. Rick mumbled under his breath. I didn’t understand what he said so I asked him. Rick looked at me with a flash of anger and said quietly so his mother wouldn’t hear him “Shit, I said shit. That’s my brother Robert. Damn, second day at a new school and he’s already stoned.”
Robert walked, well, no, stumbled in the front door, laughing his head off. The car squealed away from the curb and down the street. Then all became quiet. Rick got up from the kitchen table, walked over to his brother. Before Rick could say a thing Robert reached out with his hand and tousled Rick's hair. Rick stood stock still, then reached up and pulled his brother’s hand away from his head. Both were quiet. Their mother walked over to both of them, put her arms around them both and said quietly “Both of my boys are home.”
Robert pulled away, stumbled a bit, turned around and walked off to his room without saying a word. The look on his mother’s face told me how much that hurt her. Rick looked at his brother walking away. He looked at his mom a moment then put both of his arms around her and said “You got any more of those delicious cookies for Drew and me?” It was the right thing to do, you could tell by the relieved smile on her face. Just like Robert, she tousled Rick’s hair. He didn’t seem to mind this time.
“Sure, Rick honey, sure, I’ve got more cookies.” She walked over to the kitchen counter, reached into the cookie jar and pulled out four more cookies. She handed them to Rick as she said “Why don’t you two go outside? I’m sure you’re tired of hanging around an old woman like me.”
We weren’t, but we got her message. It was time for us to head outside. We went out to the back yard. Like most back yards in Odessa it had a couple of small trees, a bunch of grass that hadn’t been green in quite awhile and enough dirt and sand to be a private desert.
A few minutes passed before either one of us said anything. Rick broke the silence.
“He started about two years ago. I guess I noticed it first. The smell, new friends, new music, new grades. Robert was always the smart one. I have to work hard for good grades, they just seemed to come Robert’s way. I don’t think I ever remember him making anything but A’s until two years ago. Then it all slid away. My Mom and Dad tried to deny it, but it was all right there. My brother Robert was having a grand old time being stoned. Since then we’ve all aged, Mom and Dad the most, but Robert, man, it’s like I’m the big brother now.”
I couldn’t think of anything intelligent to say. I didn’t say a thing.
Rick again broke the silence, this time by laughing. “Hell, you gotta laugh sometimes and one thing Robert is, he’s a running joke. Everything’s funny to him, and he never seems to realize that I’m not laughing with him, I’ve been laughing at him. Shit, by the time I get to Permian, man, my reputation will be set. Everyone will think I’m just like him. I’m not, you know, I’m not. I don’t know what or who I am, but I know I’m not him. I won’t ever be him.”
I just nodded my head in agreement. I really didn’t know what to say. Looking back I realized that Rick was right. He never was Robert. And he was wrong, there was a lot more Robert in him than Rick liked to admit.
The next day was Wednesday. I spent most of the day trying to stay awake. Academically, I had been grossly mis-identified as one of the struggling ones, just like I had been in the first grade. It wasn’t all that bad. I was burning through the homework assignments in slack time during class. The reading testing was going slow, by alphabetical order and I estimated it would be a week or two before I would be tested. As for the math class, there were rumors about some form of assessment testing, but no one had an idea of when or if it would ever happen.
Episode 11 is now available: The hoods get even… but Rick has a plan.