Chapter 4 Second day of School

THE SECOND DAY OF SCHOOL
Chapter 4

         Lillian called again, "Joey come on. You'll be late; besides I need to talk to you," The child sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Come on Joey up and at em."
         "Did Jess come home?" Joey asked, looking worried.
         "No. Don't worry about him; he's all right."
         "Where is he? Do you know where he is?"
         "Yes, I know. I'm going to go get him after you go to school."
         "He never stayed out all night before."
         Lillian told him to go brush his teeth. He padded into the bathroom. "He didn't come in and say goodnight to me," Joey said. Jesse might have gone out and stayed later than Lillian liked, but he had never before failed his nightly ritual with Joey.
         Joey spit out toothpaste and reached for his glass. "You said you know where he is. Where?"
         Lillian knew of course there was no way to keep it from him, since the whole town knew and someone was going tell him if she didn't. She helped him get dressed. "Where?" he asked again.
         She thought ‘Joey isn't going to like this.’ She looked at the five year old and said, "Honey, Jesse got into a lot of trouble yesterday."
         Joey's eyes went wide. "What happened?"
         No point in lying. She knew there were plenty of witnesses to the whole thing and everybody knew about it. So Joey had to know, too.
         "He got in another fight." Then she got the words out, "He's in jail."
         Joey jumped up. "Don't say that! Jess can’t be in jail!"
         "Well he is. Mr. Treacher called me this morning and said I could go get him."
         "He gets in lots of fights," Joey admitted, "And he’s been in trouble before, but he never got put in jail before. What happened?"
         Lillian tied his shoes. "He hit someone really hard and hurt him very bad and that's against the law, Honey, and Mr. Treacher had to stop him ~~ ”
         "I don't want to go to school. I want to go get him with you. Can I?"
         "No, Sweetie, not this time. Come have your breakfast."
         "Am I going on the bus by myself?"
         "Yes. Now listen, Honey, the other kids might talk to you about this and they might say things you don't like, but just keep quiet all right? We have to wait until Jesse tells us about it himself." She was thinking it was not going to be easy for him to talk to the child about this. And she did not intend to make anything easy for him either; he had to learn a lesson this time!
         She was thinking that if she had anyone to leave him with she would keep Joey home from school today because of what he was almost surely going to hear on the bus. The people in Carthage talked about everything and they weren't always too careful about talking in front of the children.
         "Did Jess get hurt in the fight?" Joey asked.
         "No, that's just the trouble. He never gets hurt. He always wins."
         "He told me nobody wins fighting, but he keeps on doing it. Why?"
         She started to say, "Because he is hell-bent on ruining his life," but she thought better of it and said she didn't know and that was the truth. Jesse himself didn't know; how could she?
         "Who did he fight this time?"
         "The Kagan boy."
         “The Bull? Jess fought the Bull?"
         "That's what they tell me."
         "The Bull is bigger than he is!"
         "Well at least this time he picked on somebody his own size."
         "Did the Bull hurt him?"
         "No but he hurt the Bull. He broke his nose."
         Joey of course wasn't understanding this at all. "Who started it?"
         “Knowing Jesse, he did."
         "The Bull must of made him mad. I wish he wouldn't get mad like that; it scares me."
         "Well, Honey, you tell him that when you talk to him. Tell him it scares you. Maybe that'll give him a reason to stop it."
         She hurried Joey out to the school bus. She didn’t like sending him off by himself. He had never gone anywhere by himself before. Now she had to get ready and walk to Carthage. She wanted to wait until people got to work and after school started so there would be fewer people around. This was going to be embarrassing enough for him without having to walk out of there with a crowd looking on! She wasn't looking forward to this.
         She began washing up the breakfast dishes. Jesse really took it seriously, this nonsense that Cecily gave him Joey, that Joey was his. Actually as young as he was he was doing a good job with the child. He talked to him and listened to him. He had really taken good care of him up to now. Maybe Joey was going to be the motivation for him to try to stop the destruction. Paul had told her there was a very real possibility he could even kill someone, which was why he was making a big thing out of this and trying to teach him a lesson.
         "God how am I going to help him?" she asked. There seemed to be no answer. She set out to walk to town.
         Paul greeted her as she came into the office. "Sorry I had to do this to him, Lil. It's for his own good."
         "I know."
         "I had a talk with him. I hope he listened."
         "The Kagan boy ~~ "
         "Well he needed a lesson, too, and he got it. The trouble is Jesse probably didn't get a lesson even yet. We have to work on him Lil, we have to get through to him!"
         There was something hopeful in this because he said "we" and not "you." This meant Paul was going to help.
         Paul said, "He's in there. I want him to have the experience of you seeing him in there. He needs to really get hurt by this so he'll remember how it felt."
         She looked up at him. "Paul I love him so much!"
         "Whatever I can do for him you know I'll do but letting him off the hook for this is something he can't afford. Now Lil, one more thing: Doc Bowman is going to take care of the Kagan kid at no charge, but I think Jesse ought to work and earn the money to pay him anyway. Do you?"
         She thought that was a good idea. "His father would make him do that."
         "Right. Now Lil one more thing before you see him. I sentenced him yesterday and I am dead serious about this. I told him he doesn't have to serve any more time for this on condition he starts going to church, and bringing the little boy. I wish you'd come with him, Lil.
         "Maybe someday."
         "It's been sixteen years."
         "And it ruined my life and Cecily’s life and now look at Jesse. If you can explain to me why God did that to us, go ahead. Why would God let a young father get killed in a stupid accident for no reason?"
         "I don't know, Lil. I wish I was the genius who could answer that for you, for me, for that boy in there. I should have taken the boy in hand sooner than this but now I'm going to do everything I can to help him and you need to, too. Come with him Sunday, will you?"
         She said she would think about it. “What are you, Paul? A preacher or a cop?"
         "I can be both. Well, go in and say good morning to your son, and don't be too easy on him, hear?"
         She went inside. Jess stood up and came to the bars. “Mom I’m sorry."
         Treacher unlocked the door and let him out. She looked up at him. "Are you okay?" she asked and reached up and touched the bruise on his cheekbone.
         "I'm all right Mom." Jess had a speech rehearsed to give her but now he knew if he talked any more he was going to cry and he didn't want to do that so he stood there silent while his mother signed papers.
         It was a long walk home. Jess usually went crosslots but there was fence jumping on that route so they walked by the road. He kept his strides short so she could keep up, trying to think of anything at all he could say to her about it, but there was nothing.
         "What did you tell Joey?"
         "The truth. It isn't a secret. If I didn't tell him somebody else would."
         He figured that. "How did he take it?"
         "Not very well. He told me you scare him when you get mad like that."
         That hit him hard. "I don't want to scare him!"
         "It scares me, too," she said.
         "It scares me too. I'm afraid of myself, Mom."
         She had intended to rip him but all she could get out right then was "I love you." And that turned out to be the hardest thing for him to hear.
         Joey got home a little later. Lillian walked down the driveway to watch for the school bus. He asked, “Did Jess get home?”
         “Yes, he’s home.”
         “Is he all right?”
         “Yes, he’s fine."
         “People told me ~~ what happened. Everybody was talking about him. Where is he?”
         “He’s up in his room. This is not a good time for him.”
         “Should I stay away from him?”
         “No, go on up, Honey.”
         Joey went up the stairs and knocked on Jess’s door. Jess said, “Mom?”
         “No it’s me, can I come in?”
         Jess was about to send him away and then thought better of it. “Yes come in.” Joey climbed up on the bed beside him. “I’m glad you’re home, I was worried about you.”
         “I’m all right.”
         “Was it very bad in jail?”
         “No, but I didn’t like it very much. I never want to go there again.”
         “They said you beat up the Bull.”
         “That was a bad thing to do and I’m real sorry I did it.”
         “You got mad, didn’t you? I’m afraid of you when you get mad like that, it’s like you’re not really you.”
         Jess turned toward him and pulled him close. “Joey I’m so sorry, I never want you to be afraid of me! I don’t want that! I’m sorry!” Hearing Joey say that was worse than everything else that had happened to him so far in this whole experience.
         “Don’t cry, Jess.”
         “Joey I’m ashamed of myself, I feel rotten about everything that happened."
         Joey couldn't think of anything to say except “I love you.”
         “How can you say that after what I did?”
         Joey was perfectly honest. “Because. No matter what you do.”
         “Aren’t you ashamed of me?”
         “No, but I was sorry you got in trouble, I don’t want you to be in trouble.”
         “Mr. Treacher gave me orders what I have to do and you have to help me, okay?”
         “Sure, how can I help you?”
         “Well he says we have to go to church.”
         “To church! You mean like the Nevilles?”
         “Yeah. He thinks it’ll help me do better. And he says you have to go too.”
         “Why? I didn’t do anything."
         “I know you didn’t but you see this is what he said I’ve got to do. Will you come with me?”
         “If you want me to. I’ll do anything you want. What do we do in church?”
         Jess had no idea. “Watch what the others do and do it, I guess.”
         “Why do people go to church?”
         Jess didn’t know for sure. “I guess to learn good things.” He had heard somewhere that the church was God’s house, so he told him that.
         “So we go there to visit God?”
         “I tell you what, Little One, let’s go there a few times and learn something, then maybe I can answer you.”
         “Jess do you believe in God?”
         He was about to say of course he did but to be honest he had no clear idea of who God is and he had a feeling God was anything but pleased with him right then and for many good reasons.
         His father’s Bible was on his dresser and he had tried very hard to read it and make sense out of it, but very little of it got through to him. Looking through the pages he had read a verse in Psalms that his father had underlined: “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to the scriptures.”
         If ever a young man wanted to cleanse his way it was this one!