Rounding Third (24 page)

     “Hey,”
Rob answered, returning the smile.

     “Have
you seen Taylor and those guys today?”

    
“Thankfully, no.”

     “You
won’t. They each got two-week suspensions. Taylor is protesting his ‘cause he
didn’t actually lay a hand on you.”

     “A
technicality. He was just too slow,” Rob smiled. “At least we’ll have two weeks
of peace.”

     “Don’t
count on it. Those guys have lots of friends.”

     “Let’s
be optimistic.”

     Rob was
waiting to meet Meg after school when he saw Ryan Tattorelli coming toward him.
Since Buff Beechler had graduated, Ryan was the anchor of the offensive line
and unquestionably the biggest kid in school.

     Rob
looked around for an escape route. He could head back inside, but that meant
possibly being trapped. Where the hell was Meg? At least a witness might
discourage what was about to happen. Ryan was getting closer and Rob was trying
to get his fight-or-flight response to make a decision.

     “Hey,”
Ryan said with no threat at all in his voice. Ryan stopped at a safe distance
and looked up to where Rob stood a couple of steps above him. “I don’t expect
you to believe this, but I just wanted you to know not all of us on the
football team are assholes. I think what they did to Josh sucks. I’d have
stopped it if I’d have known.”

     Rob
nodded but was still too shocked to speak.

     Ryan
went on, “I can’t expect you to want to trust any football players, but we
aren’t all bad.” He turned, walked down two steps then turned back. “And for
the record, Josh wasn’t the only gay guy on the team.”

     He
turned and walked away. When Meg came up Rob was still staring at the space
Ryan Tattorelli had vacated.     Meg burst into the house
and Josh’s room ahead of Rob. Josh was watching TV, although from his posture
and the bleariness of his one good eye, it appeared that he wasn’t so much watching
it as staring at it. “Hi, Josh. How’s it going?” He shrugged. There was no good
answer to that. “I have something for you,” she continued. “I hope you don’t
mind, I already showed it to Bobby, er, Rob.” She handed a note to Josh. “Your
brother slipped me that in the hall today.”

Josh unfolded
the piece of notebook paper with the ragged torn-out edge. 

Josh—-I can’t believe how bad this sucks.
They told me I can’t see you, but I have to. If at all possible, please meet me
behind the football stadium at 1:10 tomorrow.

 With all my love, your brother,
Mathias.

     Josh
looked at Rob. Rob smiled and said, “He said on the phone he’d stay in touch.”

     “Will
you go with me?” Josh looked scared.

     “Sure.”

     “It’s
not that I don’t trust my brother, it’s just that the idea of going near the
football stadium or locker room...and...”

     “What,
Josh?” Rob was leaning forward. Josh hesitated. “Do you want Meg to leave?”

     Meg gave
her brother a look that said she didn’t want to leave, but turned to Josh, “I
can go, if you guys need to talk.”

     “No,
that’s okay, Meg, thanks.” Josh paused a little longer. The two Wardells
stared, waiting. “I, well, I know my parents, that is Mat would never willingly
be a part of anything, but God only knows what’s going on at that house.” There
was a long pause before the next sentence. “They had these friends. Their son
was gay. They sent him to a camp. To be deprogrammed. I’m just afraid that they
beat Mat into...”

     “Can I
take your car again tomorrow? I’ll park it nearby, out of sight, over on Clover
Street. And I’ll scout out the stadium before you get out of the car. I’ll come
home and get you during lunch.”

     “You’ll
miss English.”

     “I won’t
miss
it,” Rob smiled.

     “I don’t
want you getting in any trouble.”

     “I
won’t, I’ve skipped it before. Besides Coach Hudson said he’d help anyway he
can. He’ll give me a pass if I need it.”

     Josh
nodded and Rob noticed for the first time that Josh’s hands were shaking.
Another episode was coming on. Josh headed for the bathroom. 

     Rob
looked hard at his sister. “Mom’s at work, right?”

     “Yeah,
why?”

     Rob
quickly went to the gun cabinet, pulled out his keys and unlocked the top
drawer. He could feel her eyes upon him as he quickly slid the large .45 pistol
out of the drawer and slipped it into his backpack on top of his books. Once
done, he turned to face his sister. 

     She was
now shaking too, and a quiver was in her voice when she said, “Bobby, be careful.”

     “Do you
know what they do at those deprogramming places? I’ve read stuff on line about
them. He’s not going.”

     “Just be
careful, please.”

                  
32

Rob ran into the
house, “Hey, Josh, WTW?” he called as chipper as he could as he sprinted to the
bathroom. When he burst back out of the door, Josh was waiting nervously by the
front door. “It’ll be great to see Mat, won’t it?”

     Josh
mumbled something, but looked more scared than thrilled at the impending
meeting. 

     The
drive was tense silence. He always saw Josh as the big, strong one of their
relationship and now here he was prepared to die or, even more frighteningly,
kill to protect Josh. He tried to be as casual as possible as he drove, but
when Josh pointed out that Rob had completely ignored a red light as they cut
through town, his cover was blown and he gave up any attempt at acting
cool. 

     As
promised, Rob parked on a side street out of view of the school and any passing
traffic. He did a U-turn to have the car facing out of the street for a quick
getaway. He patted Josh’s arm, grabbed his backpack and got out of the car.

     “You’re
taking your books?” 

     Rob knew
he looked and felt guilty. “Uh, yeah. If someone sees me, I can say I was on my
way to class or something.” Rob knew Josh knew him well enough to see through
the lie, but Josh was too nervous to question it. 

     Rob
nervously slung the pack over one shoulder. Once he started walking, he spun it
around in front of him, unzipping it halfway. He started looking around,
checking for the Schlagels’ cars in the lot by the stadium or in the drive that
circled behind the west stands. He peeked under the stands and then stood back
to look down the long drive. Mat stood alone, shifting nervously under one of
the girders that supported the bleachers. Rob checked again behind him then
broke into a trot. At the sound of feet on gravel, Mat started running toward
him, but then slowed when he saw it wasn’t Josh. 

     “Hey,”
Rob smiled.

     “Where’s
Josh? Is he okay?” Rob noticed Mat also had a backpack. 

     “Yeah,
he’s okay. Are you alone?” Rob continued to look around to confirm this.

     “You
guys thought I’d...?”

     Rob
could see the hurt look in Mat’s eyes. “Not you. Your parents. Josh wouldn’t
put anything past them at this point. He wasn’t sure what they had forced you
to do.”

     Mat
nodded. “They’re crazy over this.”

     “C’mon,”
Rob started jogging toward the car. He checked the parking lot and the street
one last time before turning down Clover Street.

     When
Josh saw his brother he leapt from the car. His battered body caused Mat to
stop in his tracks. “He looked so bad when I found him in the bathroom, but all
the bandages...”

     Josh
came forward and gently gave a one-armed hug to his brother.

     “Oh,
God, Josh,” Mat blubbered. “You okay?”

     “I’m
going to be, yeah.”

     “Mom and
dad have been insane.”

     “I’m
sure they’re taking it out on you, bad.”

     Mat
smiled. “I can handle it.”

     “You
always did, better than I could.”

     “You had
something to hide, I didn’t.”

     “You
knew?”

     “Duh, I
figured you and Rob out the first time I saw you two together.” 

     “You
never said anything.”

     “What
was I supposed to say, ‘Hey, bro, you boinking Wardell?’” Mat was doing his
best to be nonchalant, but Rob noticed the tears never stopped streaming down
his cheeks. Josh bore matching wet tracks. “Hey, I brought you something.” Mat
headed toward the car and the other boys followed him. Mat opened his backpack
and dumped its contents into the open back window. Out tumbled shirts, a pair
of jeans, some underwear, socks and a couple of books. “I figured you could use
some stuff. I gotta keep my backpack, though.”

     “This is
awesome, thanks, Mat.”

     “No
prob. I laid dibs to all your stuff, so I can just sneak you a few things now
and then.”

     “Be
careful. I don’t want them to banish you.”

     “Fuck
them!” Rob was stunned, and the vehemence of Mat’s anger obviously startled
Josh as well. “I’m tempted to tell them to eat shit, and just leave.”

     “Where
would you go?”

     “The
streets of Cleveland would beat that psycho ward.”

     “You
can’t leave. You’re the only sanity left in that house. Who would protect
Jeremiah, Ruth, Sarah, Micah...”

     “I know.
I’m not going anywhere. I just said I want to.”

     “Thanks.
You were a good brother. And my protector, too. You saved my life and are still
risking trouble for me.”

     “What
are brothers for?”

     “I
should leave you guys alone,” Rob said.

     “Nah.”
Mat touched Rob’s arm. “I need to get back. I can’t get caught skipping.” Rob
nodded. “I guess it worked okay to slip a note to your sister? We pass each
other every day. So if you need to get a hold of me, have her get me a note.
And as soon as I can, I’ll try to meet you again. Is she okay with this, being
our messenger?”

     “Yeah,
she’d do anything for Josh. Sorry about the cloak and dagger shit, but we
didn’t want to take chances.”

“Now that I
think about it, I don’t blame you. I forgot about the Gibsons and Brandon.”

“I didn’t,” Josh
said, shuddering. “They told that story around me a lot as a warning,”

“What they left
out is what a mess that kid was after,” Mat said bitterly.    

“Hug the kids
for me,” Josh said.

     “I
can’t. I mean I can’t tell anyone I saw you.”

     Josh
grabbed his brother in a tearful hug. “So just hug them and don’t tell them
why.”

     “That I
can do. I love you, Josh.”

     Mat
finally pushed him away. “I gotta go. Hey, since you guys are so paranoid--not
that you don’t have reason to be--any notes from me will be addressed to Joshua
Lawrence. If you get a note or message from me that’s just to Josh, that means
they forced me to write it and don’t trust it. I’m on your side, and you know
I’d do anything for you, but God only knows what they might try to pull.” Josh
and Rob nodded. Mat turned and hugged Rob, “Take good care of him, please.”

     “I will.
I promise. Meg was all worried about how things would go. When you see her, can
you just give her a thumbs up or smile or something so she knows it’s all
good?”

     “Sure.
Tell Meg it’s nothing personal, but I can’t risk being seen talking to her. All
we need is for one of those Christian freaks to tell my parents...”

“I understand.
She understands.”

“I’ll see ya.
Bye.”

     Mat
turned and sprinted off toward the school, his empty backpack slapping him as
he ran. 

                       
33
 

As Rob drove,
Josh looked at him, “Your parents are being amazing about this.”

     “My dad
is still sort of freaked, but I think he’ll calm down.”

     “My
father would’ve killed us by now, so yours is a saint by comparison. You know
what I was saying to Mat about being my protector?” Rob nodded. “My father used
to beat us for anything.”

     “Yeah,
you’ve told me a few stories.”

     “Not a
tenth of what he did. I was a pretty good kid, so didn’t give him much cause,
for breaking the rules or whatever, the way Mat did and Jeremiah is starting
to. What I got most of my beatings for was ‘acting girlish.’”