Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 (31 page)

Solomon nodded.

“
Did you go?” Bumpy
asked.

“
Don’ have time,” Solomon
shook his head. “Have to help the library and my team needs
me.”

“
I threw up when I saw
it,” Dallon said. “Twice. I couldn’t sleep for a week after the
second video.”

“
Me too,” a young man in
the corner said. “I like the girl in the video I got. Wanted to
take her out but now . . .”

“
Now what?” Bumpy
asked.

“
She’s not in school
anymore,” the young man said.

“
Happened to me too,” a
boy near the back said. “There’s this girl in my math class. She
was out for a month or whatever. When she came back, she wouldn’t
even look at me. Come to find out, she’s in one of these
videos.”

“
So they’re beating and
violating your women,” Bumpy said. “I don’t think I need to tell
you what I’d do to anyone who hurt Dionne or LaTonya.”

The threat in Bumpy’s words hung in the room
like a sword.

“
Real men don’t watch crap
like this,” Bumpy said. “They don’t hurt, rape, maim, or beat on
their women.”

“
Lots of men beat their
women,” a middle school boy near the wall said.

“
Those aren’t men,” Bumpy
said. “They’re cowards who never learned to deal with their own
demons. Think about it—they’d rather take their anger out on
someone they love than deal with their own darkness. That’s no man
in my book.”

Bumpy saw the boys heads move slightly up
and down.

“
How ‘bout you all?” Bumpy
asked. “You going to be cowards or are you going to start acting
like men?”

The boys stared at the ground.

“
What’s the hold up here?”
Bumpy asked. “Your big fat egos in the way?”

“
I don’t want to go to
jail,” a handsome boy sitting against the wall said. “I’ve worked
my ass off to get into college. Momma and I . . . we
have a plan. I’m going into the Army so they’ll pay for medical
school. I already signed a contract. I’ve got two months
and . . .”

“
You’d rather be a
coward?” Bumpy asked.

“
I’m no coward,
I . . .” The boy looked up at him. “It would kill my
mom.”

“
She’s going to kill you
now,” Bumpy said.

“
What do they want from
us?” a tall boy sitting near Bumpy asked.

“
They need you to get over
your ego to see that you screwed up by not reporting this,” Bumpy
said.

“
Who we gonna tell?” a boy
with an orange mohawk asked. “I tried to tell my counselor. I
thought he was cool, but he . . . Uh uh, no
way.”

“
They got everyone on the
payroll. We talk and we go down,” the tall boy sitting near Bumpy
said. “You should see what they’re planning for this kid they call
On-Line.”

Bumpy swallowed hard.

“
I heard they going to do
his sister,” another boy said. The boys nodded.

“
That’s my friend Sissy!”
Solomon said. “She’s on my team at work. They can’t do that, can
they Dr. Wilson? Are they going to hurt my friend?”

“
And make you take the
fall for it,” Bumpy said. He looked at the boys in the room. “Are
you going to let that happen?”

“
I ain’t going to sign my
sisters and mom up for getting raped because I squealed,” said a
large football player taking up an entire corner of the room. “No
way, no how.”

“
But you’ll consign other
girls to this fate?” Bumpy asked.

“
Who we gonna tell?” the
boy with the orange mohawk asked again. “They got to
everyone.”

“
I can take care of the
who,” Bumpy said. “My question is: are you the type of men who own
up to your mistakes and take what’s coming to you? Because this
moment, this very one, is the moment when your entire life will be
decided. Own up to your mistakes, take your lumps, you’ll be just
fine. But lie about it? Cover it up? Let this poor boy take the
rap?”

Bumpy shook his head.

“
God have mercy on your
soul,” Bumpy said. “Because this train is coming and one way or
another, it’s going to run you down.”

~~~~~~~~

Thursday night—10:15 p.m.

“
What are you doing up?”
Aden asked Nash as he entered the apartment.

Nash was sitting on the couch staring off
into space. His laptop was closed and sitting next to him on the
couch. Nash looked up at Aden, shook his head, and went back to
staring into space. Aden picked up the computer, set it on the
coffee table, and sat down next to Nash. He waited to see if Nash
would respond.

“
Are you okay?” Aden
asked.

Nash shook his head. Aden felt woefully
unprepared. He wished Sandy were here, because she always knew the
right thing to say, or Jacob, who seemed to connect so easily with
the kids. Nash glanced up at him.

“
What’s going on?” Aden
put his arm around Nash. They sat like that for a few minutes
before Nash leaned into his father.

“
Couldn’t sleep,” Nash
said.

“
Usually when you can’t
sleep, you’re up playing games with your friends on Facebook,” Aden
said.

Nash looked at the laptop and back at his
father. Aden pulled on his tie and slipped off his shoes.

“
Hard day?” Nash
asked.

“
Long,” Aden said.
“Confusing.”

Nash nodded.

“
Sandy told me what
happened with Melinda,” Aden said.

“
Really?” Nash shrugged.
“I don’t have any idea what happened with Melinda. What did she
say?”

Aden smiled.

“
I really don’t need the
‘relationships are hard’ speech,” Nash said. “I need to know what
happened.”

“
Sandy said Melinda saw
you on the Fifteenth Street Bridge the night you were out with
everyone,” Aden said. “She said that Melinda didn’t know why you
were there and that made her feel uncomfortable. She’d talked to
you earlier that night and you hadn’t mentioned it.”

“
Didn’t know we were
going,” Nash said. “I was going to tell her all about it when I saw
her today.”

Aden nodded.

“
She told me she never
wants to see me again, or something like that,” Nash said. “She and
all of my friends unfriended me on Facebook. Every single person
who knows me and knows her unfriended me. She’s blocked me so I
can’t even see what she said to make everyone hate me.”

Unsure what all the unfriending meant, Aden
looked at Nash. His son’s eyes held the stunned look of someone
who’d experienced something horrible.

“
So you’re right, Dad,”
Nash said. “I’d play games but I don’t have any friends
anymore.”

“
Not even Teddy?” Aden
asked.

“
Teddy doesn’t count,”
Nash said.

“
Why?”

“
He’s like a brother,”
Nash said. “I mean, she wouldn’t even listen to me. It’s like her
mind was already made up and she knew everything.”

“
She’s been invited to a
dance by another boy,” Aden said.

“
Why didn’t she just say
that?” Nash’s voice was angry and loud. Sandy peeked out of their
bedroom. Seeing Aden, she smiled and closed the door.

“
Maybe she didn’t know
how,” Aden said.

Nash sniffed. Aden looked over to see a tear
roll down Nash’s face.

“
I felt so connected,
popular. For the first time in my life, I was popular,” Nash said.
“I mean, these kids are cool, rich,
and . . .”

Aden waited to see if Nash would say
more.

“
Before you ask, I don’t
want to be like them,” Nash said. “But when I think about it, I
have been like them. I’ve spent so much time on the computer that I
haven’t really been here and . . . Ms. Valerie left
today and I haven’t seen her in months. Mike too. And Charlie’s
going through this big thing. You heard that Bumpy said that
Sissy’s going to get attacked.”

“
I don’t think that’s a
big surprise to anyone that they might try to hurt Sissy,” Aden
said.

“
It was to me.” Nash’s
head bobbed in a nod. “It was to me.”

Aden waited again. When Nash didn’t say
anything, he said, “It sounds like a drug.”

“
The popular drug,” Nash
said. “Suddenly, I’m not loser Nash Norsen anymore. I’m cool Nash
with cool friends and . . .”

Nash turned to look at his father.

“
I didn’t like cool Nash
very much,” Nash said. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a
butt.”

“
I’m sorry I didn’t
realize what was going on,” Aden said. “It sounds like you’ve had a
tough time.”

“
The whole thing,” Nash
said. “It’s hard to pretend to be someone I’m not, and it’s hard
now not to be friends with the people I pretended to be like, and
it’s hard to find out that the people you love are struggling, and
you don’t have a clue, and . . .”

“
That’s a lot of
ands
,” Aden
said.

Nash nodded.

“
What did Sandy say?” Aden
asked.

“
She said that she loved
me,” Nash said. “That’s it. Sissy and Noelle too. They said they
weren’t mad at me and that they understood. Noelle said we all go
through it and said that Nuala had the same trouble. And she’s
right. I’ve been just like my jerk of a mother.”

“
I think Sandy would
really hate it if you called her a jerk,” Aden said.

When Nash didn’t respond, Aden looked down.
The boy was crying. Aden pulled his head to him and the boy cried
against him. Aden heard a sound and looked up as Sissy and Noelle
crept into the living room. Noelle squished in between Nash and the
arm of the couch. Sissy sat next to Aden. Buster the ugly dog flew
out of the hallway and launched himself onto the couch. He landed
on Aden and Sissy’s laps. Charlie was not far behind. He sat at
Nash’s feet.

“
You can come out too,”
Nash said in a tearful voice.

Sandy came out of the bedroom with Rachel.
She set the baby on Nash’s lap and ruffled his hair. He looked up
at her.

“
Sorry for calling you a
jerk,” Nash said.

Sandy kissed his wet cheek and sat down on
the arm of the couch. The little family leaned in together in a
kind of hug. Nash tickled Rachel and the baby giggled.

“
I think the point of
having a family is to have a place to fall back on,” Aden said.
“You have to go out in the world and try new things. Even though we
seem really far away, we’re still right here. We’re your
roots—whether it works out or it doesn’t, we’re here.”

Charlie looked up at Aden, and Aden smiled
at him.

“
That seems like a good
cue to make something yummy,” Sandy said. “What’s a yummy root?
Beets? Turnips?”

The kids groaned and Aden laughed.

“
How about we start with
some hot chocolate?” Sandy asked. She got up to move to the
kitchen. “Welcome home, Nash.”

“
Now you can be Ivy’s
girlfriend,” Noelle said.

Sissy gave a little clap. Nash scowled at
them.

“
What about the rest of my
friends?” Nash asked.

“
They don’t seem much like
friends,” Charlie said. “They just made you feel stupid and
insecure all the time. You were always watching to see if someone
unfriended you or whatever. Who needs that? I’d rather be alone
than have to deal with that.”

Nash scowled at him.

“
Sweet potato pie!” Sandy
yelled from the kitchen. “That’s rooty and yummy!”

The family turned to look at the
kitchen.

“
She’s
really . . .” Nash started and everyone
laughed.

~~~~~~~~

Thursday night—11:15 p.m.

Jacob pulled their new, ready-for-the-twins
SUV up to an old house north and west of the airport. There were
two almost identical houses near this house. Jill looked at him and
turned around to check on Katy. She was sound asleep in her car
seat in the back.

Jacob nodded and started to get out of the
car. Jill touched his arm.

“
Why are we here?” Jill
asked.

“
I wanted to show you the
houses,” Jacob said. “The other two are rented, but this one’s
empty right now.”

“
Okay,” Jill said. “Why
are we here?”

Jacob settled back in his seat. He glanced
at Jill and she raised her eyebrows to repeat the question. He
sighed. With his sigh, he crumpled forward and put his head on the
steering wheel. She touched his back.

“
Tough meeting?” Jill
asked.

“
Stupid meeting,” Jacob
said. “Want to walk?”

“
What about Katy?” Jill
asked.

“
What
about
Katy?” the little girl asked
from the backseat.

“
What are you doing
awake?” Jill asked.

“
What are we doing here?”
Katy gave her big Katy-smarty-pants smile. Jill laughed. “I can
walk. I wore my
trainers—
that’s what Paddie’s
sort-of-uncle calls them.”

She lifted her feet to show her new exercise
shoes.

“
Walk?” Jacob
asked.