Chapter 34: Caught

Dennis walked into his house through the kitchen door, wearing the face of the freshly fucked. It didn’t last. His parents were seated at the kitchen table, obviously furious.

“Where were you?” from his father.

“I just got back from the movies; why?”

“Because the multiplex caught fire tonight, the local news interrupted the regular shows with video of the burning building. So, I’ll ask again. Where were you?”

Caught with his pants down, figuratively, he knew he couldn’t get away with a lie.

“I was with Cosette.”

“I told you to stay away from that SLUT,” raged his mother.

“She is NOT a slut. And I will go out with whoever I want to.”

The discussion deteriorated rapidly.

Suddenly, Dennis seemed to shake himself, and he stopped talking. He pulled out his keychain and placed it on the laminate table with a small click. It was the car keys and his house key.

“Good bye.”

He was gone, the door closing quietly behind him.

Half a block away, he pulled out his phone and called Cosette, explaining that he was on his way back over and why. Hearing her cry out, Nate insisted that Sette tell him what was going on, and then took the phone from her.

“Dennis, you cannot come here, not tonight. You’ll get us all arrested. Turn right and walk to the corner of Magnolia and Shepard. Sette and I will pick you up there. Magnolia and Shepard, 5 minutes. Good.”

He got everybody together and spoke in a grim and hurried tone.

“Dennis is fleeing his parents. He CANNOT be found on our property because of our living arrangements. Sette and I are going to take him to a motel and have him stay there for a few nights while we figure this out. The POLICE might be coming here. We need to cooperate with them fully and invite them to search. Julie and Syl, please make the beds. Theo, make some coffee; it’s going to be a long night. Remember, we know NOTHING about Dennis other than that he visited with Sette for a couple of hours and then went home at, Sette?”

“9:45”

“Sette, let’s go. Get your coat on!”

Things happened about as Nate predicted. They found him at the intersection, where they dropped his phone into a storm drain. Then, they drove him to the Red Roof Inn (a motel) and paid cash for four nights.

Nate lectured him about not using ATMs or his Debit card and to stay inconspicuous while they figured out what to do.

“Here’s $170, which is all the cash I’ve got. I’ll send Julie or Pam with more if necessary. But try to make this last.”

Nate watched as Sette gave Dennis a scorching kiss. On the way home, they dashed into a supermarket for a couple of flavors of ice cream. They returned to the kind of shitstorm that Nate had foreseen.

Dennis would have been embarrassed by the spectacle his mother was creating. Laurene Hastings started screeching louder when she caught sight of Cosette.

“There’s the Jezebel who took my son, with HIS help!” she screeched, indicating Nate. Calmly, Nate pointed to the ice cream.

“We were just at the supermarket. Is she talking about Dennis Hastings?”

“Yeah. She says you kidnapped her son, so I have to ask,” said the officer.

“Let’s go inside where the light is better, and I can show you the date and time on the receipt. Also, to put this stuff in the freezer.”

Fairly quickly, the officers closed the call as a meritless accusation, and they warned Laurene that further false calls would result in HER being arrested. Meanwhile, Nate quietly slipped one of his business cards to Warren Hastings, asking him to call the next day.

Warren Hastings turned out to be far more reasonable and understanding than his wife. He determined very quickly that Nate was taking steps to protect his family and also to keep Dennis safe.

They came to a short-term agreement where Dennis would be staying with Sette and Warren would thwart any attempt by his wife to make trouble.

That plan lasted only a week.

Laurene barged into an 11th grade math classroom looking for Dennis. Two things happened at the same time. She spotted her son at his desk in the last row of the classroom, and Mrs. Lancashire (all 93 lbs. of her) reached out and touched Laurene’s elbow. She whirled around and decked the 58-year-old educator with enough force to break her jawbone.

It was at this point that Warren “threw in the towel.” Dennis was soon to be moving out due to his age. Laurene could not be anywhere near her son without exacerbating her mental illness. For the foreseeable future, Dennis needed somewhere else to live.

That was, inevitably, with Cosette.