Burning Second Street Park

A Novel

by Tom Bessette

Copyright 2009 BessetteBooks

Chapter 15
Bobby Nolette

Holy cow!  I never seen anything like this!

It was like a big battle had just been fought right here in Second Street Park.  People were screaming. Some were hurt, and some looked like they were even dead.  A cop, even!  I never heard of such a thing.  Cops didn’t get killed!

My stupid brother came over to me and grabbed me all rough by the arm and tried to push me towards the Apache Trail. 

“Get home!” he said, in his tough guy voice. “Mom will kill you if she finds you out here!”

He gave me a shove and then right away turned around to stare at where Yoder fell.  I moved away a bit and kind of hid behind some people, so he wouldn’t see me.  I think he should of said that mom would kill him if she found me out here!

It was all just so crazy and cool at the same time.  I saw the cop, lying still on the ground, smoke coming up off him, a circle of kids and grown ups just staring down at him.

Mr. Patrick was standing there with Shawn and Timmy.  They were staring like they were hypnotized, or at the circus, or something.  I almost expected to see them start eating popcorn or cotton candy, or something.  Like they was watching a show.

“Is he dead?” I asked.

“Looks it,” said Mr. Patrick. “Don’t look like he’ll be getting up anytime soon.” He laughed and a few other grown-ups and kids laughed, too, then, like, remembered that this was an actual dead guy, and they all looked down at their shoes.

One big kid, I think his name was Myers, nudged the cop with his foot, like trying to see if he’d wake up.  The cop’s body didn’t move, except because of Myers’ foot nudging him. 

“Yup, still dead,” said Mr. Patrick.  He laughed again.  I saw Timmy look over at me, like he was all embarrassed, and all.  Then he walked away from his father and headed on home. 

Another grown up came over and used his foot to roll the cop over on his back.  His eyes were open and his face was beet red, like he had gotten a real bad sunburn.  His hands flopped down and they had these big black char marks on them, like he had grabbed something burning. He just wasn’t moving.  I just couldn’t get it in my head for real that I was looking at a dead body, and a cop, even.

There were people crying and whining everywhere.  The wires that had fallen were still sparkling and crackling, and some people were telling other people and kids to “stay away from them, they’re live.”  One of the wires was kind of doing a snake dance. It would sparkle and then curl around like a snake that you stepped on, flapping down to a new spot.  Like it was looking for people to wrap around, or something.  One guy said it was a good thing the ground wasn’t wet.  I remembered from school last year that water conducted electricity.  I guess if it had been wet we’d all be dead. Wow!

Some of the weeds were burning, where a live wire had fallen on dry grass and stuff.  I heard sirens coming.  The firemen were on their way again.  They were probably sick of coming around here this weekend.  Maybe they’d stop coming if everything didn’t stop burning all the time. Probably there would be police and ambulances, too.  If there were dead people here, like that cop, I wondered if they took them in the ambulance or what.  I was pretty sure they wouldn’t just leave them here.  And, they maybe had families and stuff that would want them to be buried in the cemetery, and stuff.

Still, most everybody was still standing around like nobody knew what to do, which they probably didn’t.  Like me.  I looked around.  Over near the Sandbox was Gilly and his parents.  They were all on the ground, all crying, even Gilly.  I had never seen him cry before. I wonder what was wrong.

Yoder’s parents were fighting.  Well, maybe not Mr. Yoder, but Mrs. Yoder looked like she wanted to scratch and kick Mr. Yoder to death.  Yoder’s body looked pretty bad. All burned up and smelly. He was for sure dead.  I don’t think anybody could be deader.  Frecks would be glad, and so would Nutso. Me, I don’t know.  Yoder was pretty mean and tough acting, and it really surprised me that he was a big kid and we didn’t know it, but I didn’t know I wanted him dead or not. If he burned the fort with Slug in it, like Nutso said, then I guess it was alright.  But Nutso was pretty wacky.  You just couldn’t believe what he said, ever, even if he wasn’t being crazy playing army at the time.

“Bobby!”  Somebody called me.  I turned around. It was Moose and Doodles, back towards the Indian Trail, waving me over.  Their father was with them, looking like he tasted something pretty bad, or something.

I walked over.  “Hi, guys,” I said. “Hi, Mr. B.”

Mr. Boulerice said, “I want to get you boys home.  This is no place for you to be.”

“Aw, come on, dad,” said Moose.  “We want to see what happens.”

Doodles didn’t look so sure. He never was into adventures.  Stuff scared him.  He had tears in his eyes and looked like he could bust out crying any minute.

“You OK, Dicky?” I asked him.

“I can’t believe Matty,” he said. “No wonder Nutso was being so crazy.  He must have known, huh?”

We all looked over to the Horsie Swings where Nutso was still standing.

“What’s this,” asked Mr. B?.

“Yoder lit the Fort fire yesterday when Matty Kozinski was in it,” said Moose.  “Nutso saw his body this morning, and so did Nicky Molinari, and the police,”

“I didn’t hear anything about this,” said Mr. B.  “Are you sure?”

“Well, I think so. It’s what they said.” 

“Who?” asked Mr. B. “The police?”

“Well,” said Moose, “I don’t know. I guess. But, Nicky and the cops saw a body that Nicky thought was Matty and Nutso ran away, we thought, to go get Yoder.  We didn’t stay to see the police.”

“So,” said Mr. B., “this is like when you saw Mr. Yoder get ‘killed’, huh? Come on, boys!  You have great imaginations, don’t you?”

“Well, they saw somebody!” said Moose.

“You kids watch way too much TV!” said Mr. B.  “Time to cut that back!”

“Aw, dad,” said Moose, “it isn’t TV, its real life!”

“Hey, look,” I said.  “There’s Nosal and them guys.”  They were sitting over at the ball diamond.  Nosal looked like he had been crying.  My brother was walking over to him and stopped and patted his shoulder.  I barely heard him say through all the voices, “It’s not your fault, Nosal; ya didn’t know this would happen.  Who knew?”

Mr. B. heard him, too.  “What’s your brother talking about, Bobby?”

“It was Nosal that found Yoder and dragged him to the park.”

“What?” he said.  “He was looking for him, you mean?”

“Yeah,” said Doodles. “And we caught Nutso!”

“You what?” asked Mr. B., in a way that showed he had really heard him but wanted him to say it again, to be sure.

Doodles put his hand to his mouth.  Moose said, “Uh, oh!”

Mr. B. put on his meanest face, even though I don’t think he was ever really mean.  “So!” he said. “After I told you to go home earlier, you went on a manhunt instead, huh? Why?  What were you thinking?”

Moose and Doodles couldn’t say anything.  Neither could I.

Mr. B. said, “Who else was doing this?  Tell me, or else.” None of us wanted to really know what ‘or else’ was.

“Well,” I said, “it was my brother Billy and Nosal and Harvey and Clark and Gilly and a bunch of the guys. Nutso and Yoder were killing everything and we figured if we stopped them, we’d be heroes.”  It sure sounded stupid now that I was saying it to a grown up!  Geezum!

Mr. B. was holding his face in his hand and shaking it back and forth. “I can’t believe this!” he said.

There were lots of police and firemen, now, crawling all over the place, like my dad would say.  Niagara Mohawk power guys were there, with their trucks right in the park, and were clearing people away from the whole area.  What if we wanted to play in the Sandbox or the Merry-Go-Round?  Geezum!  There were ambulance guys putting people on stretchers that had foamy stuff on them, and I saw a couple of big, long, black bags with shut zippers laying around looking like stuffed sausages.

The power guys were talking on walkie-talkies and alova sudden the snake wire stopped sizzling.  They started to pull at the wires and other guys were climbing the towers at either end; I don’t know what they were doing.

My parents came out of the Indian Trail.  My mother saw me and ran over to me and slumped down, grabbing me all up in her arms, saying, “Oh, my God, thank God, thank God!”  I looked up at my father and he had a dark cloud look on his face.  He said, “Where’s your brother?”

“I’m right here,” said Billy. “Bobby’s OK. I’ve been watching him the whole time, mom.” 

She let me go and looked hard at Billy, but didn’t say nothing.  She went over to Mr. B. to say something that I couldn’t hear, because we suddenly started hearing a screechy voice, like dragging your fingernails on a blackboard at school, like Stupo Bergeron liked to do.

There was this orange haired old lady walking like a penguin towards the sandbox, followed by a real soft looking fat guy in greasy clothes.  He had about the biggest belly I had ever seen on anybody and the lady looked like her face was painted white right on top of her skin.

She yelled in that screechy voice, “Emil Rainville!  Emil Rainville!  Where is that dirty boy?”

I was thinking that I saw him dripping poop water from the ravine a few minutes ago.  He was probably a lot dirtier than she thought, I bet!

The orange hair lady and the fat guy had split up on either side of the Sandbox and then I saw Frecks try to run into the burning weeds away from the lady, but the fat guy caught him, having snuck up behind him.

“Lemme go!  Lemme Go!” yelled Frecks, wiggling around to try to get away.

The fat guy said, “It’s OK, lovie, Gramma just wants ta talk to you.”

So, I was figuring that the orange lady was Gramma and the fat guy must have been Uncle Pete.  Gramma who never made Frecks food and Uncle Pete who always made Frecks go in his bed.

Gramma waddled over to Frecks and grabbed his ear just like the nuns at school did.

“Gotcha, ya dirty little boy, ya snively runt!”  She talked with a real mean voice and it still sounded like fingernails scratching, like I said.

“Ow, Ow!  I didn’t do nothin’,” said Frecks, trying to get her to let his ear go.

Gramma said, “Why I even bother with ya, sinful child.  If I wasn’t a good Christian woman, I’d a given ya to the orphanage years ago, like I shoulda when yer sinner mama brought ya forth in shame an’ misery.  We uns is gonna go right off ta see father Archambeault, ta see if he can get ya shipped up ta St. Coleman’s Home afore ya do any more sinnin’, see how ya like them apples.”

This didn’t seem right to me.  Frecks was just a kid, like me, and I couldn’t never see me doing stuff so bad that my parents would want to send me to St. Coleman’s.  That was where all the kids whose parents died or maybe just didn’t want them any more were sent.  Everybody said they only gave you bread and water and you had to be chained to your bed all the time, except when visitors came, and then they’d let you play outside for a while and you better never say nothing to the visitors about how it really was, either, if you knew what was good for you.  They say the nuns there were even worse than the ones at St. James were, if you could believe that!  I don’t know, geezum.

Uncle Pete put his hand on Frecks shoulder and kinda rubbed it, and said to Gramma, “Maybe we oughta give him another chance, huh?  I could watch him for ya and take care of ‘im an’ keep ‘im outa trouble.  He could even sleep in my room with me an’ I’d keep him all cleaned up an’ all, too. It’d be the Christian thing ta do.”

Gramma said, in a softer voice with less screech, “Oh, son, you are a good man to offer to look out for this Godless boy, but I couldn’t put you to the trouble.  God knows we’ve suffered enough because a him already, an’ no Christian person could say different.”

Pete said, “Really, ma, it wouldn’t be no trouble.  I know jus’ what ta do ta keep ‘im on the straight an’ narrow.  I think it’d be the best fer ever’ body, you’ll see.”

Frecks had got all quiet and was standing there, his ear still crunched in Gramma’s hand, and was looking at me like he was about to start begging for something.  I looked over at my Mom and saw she was looking at Frecks and his family too, and was thinking hard about something.  I hoped she remembered all what Frecks had said about Uncle Pete.  Maybe she’d say something.

Gramma said, “Pete, we uns ’ll see father Archambeault and decide what ta do.  I think I don’t want this sinner in my good house no more.  Maybe it wouldn’t happen, but what if his sin started wearing off on us. What then? We shouldn’t have ta suffer that temptation, God knows, and any good Christian would agree.  The St, Coleman’s is where he should be, so he can corrupt his own kind an’ all.  Father Archambeault already said as much and any good Christian would know that, too.  Anyone who would argue is a black hearted spawn a the devil.”

At that, my mom got her drill sergeant look on her face and walked right over to Gramma like she’d run her over if she didn’t stop in time.

“Well, Ida Rainville, I guess I must be the black hearted spawn of the devil, then.”

My mom knew Freck’s Gramma?  Oh, sure, from church probably.

Gramma looked at my mom like she was all shocked, or something, and started sputtering her mouth, like she was trying to get some words out, maybe, but couldn’t.  When she was finally able to say something, she screeched louder than before.

“Mary Nolette, this is a abomination afore God.  I done already talked ta Father Archambeault about this very thing an’ ‘e agreed that somethin’ needed ta be done.  A good Christian woman would agree and mind ‘er own P’s an’ Q’s.”

My mom said in her strongest voice, “Well I do believe that we have very different ideas about what it is to be a good Christian!  In my book, we take care of our children and love them and guide them.  We don’t throw them to the wolves and hide behind God or Father Archambeault when we do it!”

Gramma screeched her loudest screech and went at my mom with her fingernails stretched out like claws.  I was thinking that she wanted to dig mom’s eyes out, or something!  Uncle Pete looked on with his finger up his nose and a weird look on his face, like he wanted to see Gramma kill my mom, or something.  Mr. B. caught Gramma and held her, and my dad pulled my mom away.  My mom was quiet but looked like she had decided something.  Gramma was saying a whole bunch of the worst stuff I ever heard, about how my mom was the Whore a Babylon, and other stuff that I didn’t think I knew what she meant.  She screamed that Father Archambeault would kick my mom outa St. James Church and the whole parish would shun her and she would burn in hell forever and ever.  I started thinking that if she was a Christian, I sure hoped we weren’t, because I sure didn’t want to be like her.

Two police had come over and were talking to Mr. B., who had let go of Gramma by then.  Gramma was still screeching all her stuff about my mom and Frecks and all, and the cops said if she didn’t shut up, they’d take her in for a public nuisance or whatever.  Then, Gramma started screeching at them and sure enough, they walked her over to their cop car and shoved her in the back seat.  Uncle Pete just watched like he was all confused, or something.

My mom and dad and Mr. B. went over and talked to the police for a few minutes, but we couldn’t hear about what. 

Moose cuffed me on the shoulder and said, “Was that cool or what?  Boy, Bobby, your mom sure ain’t afraid of nobody, huh?”

My brother was still there, too, and said, “Toughest mom around!”  He said it like he was all proud of her, or something.  Which I guess he was.

In a couple minutes, my parents and Mr. B. came back, and they had Frecks with them.

My mom said, “Boys, Emil is coming home with us tonight.  The Police are taking his grandmother and uncle home and everybody felt that it would be best if Emil stayed with us for a short while until it is decided where he will live from now on.”

“Mom,” I said, “do the cops know about everything?  You know?  What we talked about?  About Frecks?”

“Don’t you worry about any of that, Bobby. It will all be taken care of.  Want to come home with us for tonight, Emil?”

He looked up all happy like and said, “Sure!  Can we have some supper?”

My parents and Mr. B. laughed like this was the funniest thing.

“All you can eat!” said my mom.

I heard Nutso’s voice screaming, now.

“Annnhhh!  I never did nothin’ like that, Janie.  Yer lyin’!”

We all looked over and there was Nutso being held by two other police.  Janie Stoltz and her dad were there, too. So was Mrs. Kozinski, Nutso’s mom.

Janie’s dad said, “Jesus Christ, kid, people saw you do it!  Lots of people!  They saw you knock Janie down and punch her face!  Just look at her!  How can you stand there and tell me you didn’t touch her!”

One of the cops said, “And you have to answer for what you did at the Yoder house, too!  Breaking in and beating them all up like that, and setting fires.”

Mrs. Kozinski said, “My Ricky never done none of that.  Everybody’s telling lies.  He was home with me all the time. It was all that Yoder kid’s fault.  He killed my little Matty!  He told lies about my Ricky!”

She was screaming so loud that Yoder’s parents were getting all riled up over there where old Yoder was still laying, smoking.  The cops was holding Mrs. Yoder and Mrs. Kozinski, like they were afraid they’d kill each other if they got loose.  Which maybe they would.  They all looked nuts to me.

Nutso was looking all wild and all, and started whipping his head back and forth like he was in super fast mode, or something.  Like he was all juiced up, like my father would say.

All of a sudden, he whipped out of the cop’s hold and yelled “Escape, Escape! The mission must go on,” and took off like a bat out of hell down the towpath, with the cops chasing after him.

Janie just sat down on the ground and started shaking her head.  Her dad stared at her a second and then took off down the towpath after the cops and Nutso.  The other cops had to hold on extra tight to keep Mrs. Yoder and Mrs. Kozinski from chasing down the path after everybody. Mrs. Kozinski was yelling to not hurt her boy. Everything was always weird when Nutso was around.

Mr. B. watched Nutso and them until they were out of sight, and then turned and looked hard at me and Moose and Doodles. I wondered if he was going to tell on us about all of us manhunting for Yoder and Nutso.  He looked at my mom and dad for a second but all he said was, “Well, folks, lots of excitement here today.  We should get our kids home, safe.”

“Let’s do just that,” said my mom, in her drill sergeant voice, the one everybody always listened to. “Get home, you two,” she said to me and Billy. “You, too, Mr. Emil. You’ve all seen enough for this day.”  She looked over at where Yoder was. “That poor lost soul,” she said. They hadn’t taken him yet, but they were sliding him into one of those big zipper bags I saw.  I guess those other ones had bodies in them too, then. Geezum that give me the shivers! Yoder’s parents were looking at the guys that were zipping him up. Cops were leading Mrs. Kozinski over to a cop car. I wondered what they all were thinking.

We all headed back down the Indian Trail towards home.  The Boulerice’s came, too. It was easier for grown ups to cut through our yard and walk up Main Street, rather than climb up Whitney’s Hill.

My sister and stupid Mike were in the yard behind our house.  Mike said, “Did they catch that Kozinski whack job yet?”

My mom said to him, “Don’t you worry yourself about any of that Mister.  We’ve spent more than enough time poking our noses into other people’s business.  We’re stopping all this nonsense now.”

I think she never liked Mike.

Mike said, “He come up through the ravine this morning, all dirty and smelling to high heaven.  Saying real nut job stuff.  Jumped me, like a stupid little f.., uh, sorry. Trampled some tomatoes. Ran off into the weeds yelling crazy stuff.  A total loony for sure!”

“Well,” said Mr. B., “the police will know what to do with him.”

“What happened in the park, there?” asked stupid Mike.

“Kid named Yoder climbed up and fell off into the high tension wires,” said my dad. “Wires snapped and burned him all to hell.  Sorry, Annie.  Cop that was trying to get him down bought it, too.  Couple of other people got burned pretty bad, one or two I don’t think made it.  Pretty big mess over there.  Paul?”

“Yeah, pretty bad,” said Mr. B.  “Lot of screaming and crying and everybody blaming everybody else.  Word is the kid was trying to get away from his old man.  They say the guy was pretty tough on him. Mother was blaming him.”

“Stop it, you two!” said my mom. “You’re scaring the kids, and you don’t either of you know enough to say what really happened.  Just leave it alone. Be happy more people didn’t get hurt.  I’ve been saying for years that they were stupid to put a playground under those high tension lines. It was an accident just waiting to happen.  I’ve said it all along.”

Mr. B. and my dad just shook their heads and didn’t say any more.

Billy said, “Ma, what’s for supper?” Sure, the stupe!  Everybody was dying and he was worried about supper.

“Well,” mom said.  “The power’s out.  We’ll probably lose the meat I bought today unless they get it fixed pretty soon.  No lights, no stove-“

“No TV!” I said.

“Yes, no TV,” said mom.  “Whatever are we going to do with no TV, huh?”

Frecks looked like he was going to cry.

“Well,” said my dad, “what say we go out for Fish Fry’s over to Christie’s in Northside?”

“What about my father?” asked my mom.

“We can get him into the car. They have tables there.  No reason he can’t come.”

My mom looked at my dad like she was catching him at something.  “Should we stop and pick up Mrs. Beauchamp on our way?” she asked.  “I’m sure her husband won’t mind!”

“Stop it, now,” said my father. “I told you what I was doing. It’s up to her whether she stays with him or not.  Either way, it has nothing more to do with me.  I was just somebody to talk to, that’s all, and bringing her over to Frank’s house last night to discuss her legal options was just the neighborly thing to do.  I don’t want to hear any more about it.”  He sounded real stern, right then.

“You sure?” said my mom.

“Yes, I’m sure!” said my dad. “Come on, let’s go get your old man and get going.  I’m starved.  What about you kids?”

We were all hungry and told him so, even my stupid sister who hardly ever ate anything.  Mike, the stupe, would eat us out of house and home if they let him, he was always hungry.  Why didn’t he go eat at his own family, that’s what I wanted to know?

My mom and dad said goodbye to Mr. B. and walked up through the yard, my mom walking ahead like she was mad, or something. My stupid sister went with them to help.  The Boulerice’s left.  Dicky called out, “See you tomorrow, Bobby.”

As soon as they were gone, Mike turned on me and Billy and said, “You guys got some whacko friends, I’ll tell you that.”  He grabbed my arm in one hand and popped me one real hard on the shoulder with the other.  “Right, wussy?” he said.

Annie screamed from the porch, “Mike, leave him alone and come in here, I need you.”  He let me go and smirked at me and said, “Later, punk!” and went inside.

Me and Billy and Frecks walked up to the front of or house.  Mike was there looking all mean, like Annie hadn’t forgive him yet, or something.  Actually, he didn’t never need a reason to look mean.

My dad came out the front door and came over to us.

“Now, let’s go get them fish fry’s.  I think I can eat three of them, what do you say?”

“Can we get french fries, too?” I asked.

“And onion rings?” asked Billy.

“And ketchup?” asked Frecks.

“I think we can manage all of that, men!” my father said. “Let’s go get these women moving.”  He pointed to the house.  “They’re probably in there getting all fancied up to go out to a simple drive in, huh?  Just like women.”

We walked to the street where the car was parked.  Pip was already sitting in the front seat, looking all confused.

Billy said it. “Boy, it sure takes them forever to get ready, huh, dad? Not like us, who are always ready to go anytime, huh?”

“Yep, I guess, son.  But you know?  It seems like it’s always worth the wait.”

“Ya think?” said Billy.

“Yeah,” dad said. “You know, we men are always running off all cockamamie, chasing crazy ideas all over. Most of the time, it turns out we never knew what was going on, anyway.  We just get all tuckered out for nothing. It’s the women in our lives who stay the course, and calm us down. It’s our girls who keep the homes going in spite of us, and always give us something to come back to.  I think we should think of that once in a while.”

I think I could see what my dad was saying.  We all had spent the weekend having these crazy adventures, running every which way, and most all we thought we knew turned out to be wrong.  Then, at the end, I think maybe what we did caused a real serious bad thing to actually happen. It was scary to think about.  Dad was right!  We did all this stuff, and the women tried to keep everything normal.  I think it might make sense to just sit back and let them decide from now on.  No wonder they gave us such a hard time all the time.  We were all being Nutso’s.

Later, after the fish fries, and after dark when we got home, the power was still off.  Mom got out some candles and we played a game of Monopoly at the kitchen table.  I got to be the cannon, which was my favorite, although I could never seem to win the game, whenever we played.  I just couldn’t see spending the big money on the green or blue properties.  But then, as usual, I would have to pay so much rent to everybody that all the money I saved just piddled away.

When it was bed time, mom said that since we didn’t have hot water, I didn’t need to take a bath tonight, like most Sundays.  I went up and helped Pip off with his leg, and gave him his insulin. He still smelled pretty bad and when we took his pants off, his underwear came most of the way down, too.  I hope I never look that wrinkly when I get old.

In our room, Billy was already laying in his bed, reading.  I looked over at where I had left my army men, expecting that they’d be all messed up and all, but they were right as I left them.  Billy looked at me and smiled and went back to his book.

Frecks was set up on the floor like last night. Mom came in to tuck us in.

“Come on, little mouse, climb in,” she said. “Billy, don’t read too long, so your brother can get to sleep, OK?”

“I won’t, mom.”

“What ya reading?” I asked him.

He showed me the cover. “To Kill a Mockingbird, huh?” I said.  “It’s about birds, huh?”

“No,” he laughed, “it’s not about birds!”

My mom was kind of chuckling, too.  “What’s funny?” I asked.

“Oh, honey,” she said, with a smile. “One day you’ll realize that not everything is always what it at first seems, OK?”

“You mean, like you can’t judge a book by its cover, that what you mean?”

“Just like that,” she said. “Just like that.”

I got into bed and she tucked the covers in.  Then she sat there just looking at me.

“Pretty crazy weekend, huh?” she asked.

“Yup!” I said.

“It sure was,” Billy said.

“Are you two OK about it?  About everything? Anything you need to ask me about?”

“Are you and dad OK?” asked Billy.

She was quiet for a minute.  She looked sad for a bit, then got one of her serious looks.

“Yes, honey,” she said. “Sometimes your father and I misunderstand each other, and sometimes we do silly things.  But, we the three of you.  Both of us.  And, even more important, we love each other.  We all make mistakes.  We all have to forgive. We have to try not to jump to conclusions. It can be hard, but it’s all worth it in the end.  Do you understand any of that?”

“Like thinking dad was sweet on Gilly’s mom?” I asked.

She looked at me like she was surprised.  “Yes, honey.  You dad isn’t perfect and neither am I.  Sometimes he has too good a time with his friends after work, but he always comes home.  And, sometimes he does what he thinks is the right thing to do, no matter how hard it is.  And sometimes he is misunderstood when he does those things.  Gilly’s mom has a real hard life and he was just trying to help her, and I think maybe he did.  I just misunderstood at first.”

“But you’re OK, now?” I asked.

“Yes, honey, everything’s OK now.  Everything is back to normal.  We’re all safe, now.”

She didn’t really look like she believed it, but didn’t say any more.  She kissed me and turned out my light, and left the room. I waited to hear her walk downstairs but she must have stood outside our door a while.  In the quiet, I thought I could hear her crying a little bit, out there in the hall, but I wasn’t sure.

In a little while, I heard her go down.

Billy still had his light on, but in a minute, he turned it off.

“Bobby,” he said, “They fought pretty bad last night.  Annie said mom’s real mad at dad about Mrs. Beauchamp.  Don’t ask anymore about it, huh?  I don’t want to make it worse. Everything’s wobbly enough as it is. OK?”

“OK,” I said.  I sure didn’t want to make my parents fight and be mad at each another.

Frecks asked, all worried, “You think your dad will leave?  I want to stay here.  If he leaves, will your mom keep me?”

“You don’t worry about it, kid,” Billy said.  “None of your business. It’s our family and we’ll work it out our own way. Do whatever we have to do.”

“Sorry!”

“It’s OK,” said Billy.  “Don’t worry about it.  They’ll be OK.  We’ll all be OK, you’ll see.”

It got so quiet, I could hear Billy’s alarm clock ticking.  All of a sudden, I remembered something.

“Billy,” I said, “you didn’t wreck my army men yesterday!”

He laughed.  “Don’t worry, ya little creep, I’ll do it tomorrow. You can count on it!”