Chapter 30

On my way home from the hospital with Dad, he explained why Mom was mad at me. “Tommy, I knew why you took that big swing at Vinnie. It was poor technique on your part, but you knew he wouldn’t duck, cover up or block your punch. You wanted to end it right then, didn’t you?”

“Yes, Sir,” I said feeling a tear starting to well in my eye.

“What you don’t understand son was how brutal that punch looked. The expression of rage on your face ... I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so angry.”

I sighed. “He used Mr. Seiling as a shield and tackled me. He tried to punch me on the ground.”

Dad nodded. “I know. I almost pulled him off you, but Jeff stopped me. I suppose that he knew that you could handle the situation and you did.”

I just nodded, as the tear ran down my face. I bit my lip to stop any more.

Dad continued. “You scared your mother, Tommy. As a nurse, she really cares about people. She also thinks violence is barbaric, as she’s had to treat many people who have been victims of violence. It’s one of the reasons I gave up boxing. As a way of trying to annoy my parents, I considered turning pro. Your mother brought me to my back senses. She said it was boxing or her and the choice was an easy one. I decided to do my fighting in court instead.”

“Why was she okay with you teaching me how to box and Uncle Steve and Uncle Bo teaching me to wrestle?” I asked.

“She wasn’t happy about that. Your grandparents and I convinced her that because of your small stature, you would be an easy victim for bullies. She made us promise to teach you how to defuse bad situations with your mouth first. That’s why she was so upset tonight. She feels you had other options than this fight.”

“I couldn’t see any,” I said shaking my head.

“You may be right there, Son. I guess we’ll never know. I’ll talk to your mom and get her to see it from your side. Either way, tonight, you’re no longer her little boy in her mind. That will be hard on both of you.”

That was it. The tears that I had held back were now flowing freely. When we got to the farm, my dad stopped the car and pulled me into a rare embrace. The Johannssons were more demonstrative of their feelings than my dad, but he knew what I needed.

“Your mother and I love you, Tommy. Never doubt that for a moment. There will be times when you disappoint one or both of us. ‘To err is human and forgive divine.’ said Alexander Pope. Tonight, I’m not sure if you erred or not. The lesson I want you to take away from this experience is that sometimes there are no good choices. Sometimes, you just need to make the best choice you can see, and hope that you can live with it.”

I nodded and hugged Dad back. We went in, I washed up and went to bed. It took a long time before I could sleep.

When I woke up, I was intercepted by Grandma before I could get to the barn.

“Your dad took care of the eggs before he went to work. Your grandfather is milking the cows. Your mother and I are going to have a long talk today,” she said with a frown.

“It’s okay, Grandma. Mom is the way she is. It’s not her fault. She wouldn’t be Mom if she were any different. Whatever happens, please let us figure it out.”

Grandma sighed and hugged me. “You’re a good boy, Tommy.”

“I’m lucky to have an amazing family. I love you!”

Then I heard a voice behind us. “Do you love me, Tommy?”

I pulled out of my grasp with Grandma and flung my arms around my mom and we hugged the stuffing out each other and both wept.

“I’m so sorry, Tommy ... I...”

“It’s okay, Mom. Dad explained everything to me. I’ll try to do better next time, Mom! I promise!”

“Oh, Tommy ... I saw him lying there and I thought what if it was you lying there?”

“I’m okay, Mom. I’m sorry you had to see that. I promise I’ll do better, really!”

Mom smiled at me through her tears. “I’m not sure how much better you can be, Son. Just promise me that you’ll be careful and that you will always try to avoid violence whenever it’s possible. If you can’t, defend yourself in any way that you can, you hear me?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” I said drying my tears.

“Now go wash your face and eat your breakfast. I’ll drive you to school today.”

I nodded and did what she said.

On the way to school, Mom told me what happened after I left.

“Vincent will be okay. They diagnosed him with a mild concussion. I had a long talk with his parents and his mother read his father the riot act. Apparently Mr. Cappelli works long hours as a plumber and doesn’t spend as much time with his son as he should. That means that Vincent is lacking a strong male role model. Your father and I decided to sponsor him at Mr. Seiling’s dojo. This way, he’ll learn some discipline.”

I nodded. Maybe Vinnie would turn out okay after all.

I was glad to avoid the bus and Jacob’s wild accusations. I walked to the office and Mr. Seiling pulled me aside.

“You don’t need to report to the office anymore. I think the problem has been resolved.”

“I hope so. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I was tired of his cheating and figured if he kept it up, I might get hurt.”

“So that’s why you threw that wild haymaker?”

“It wasn’t that wild. I aimed it and hit him pretty much exactly where I wanted to. It was poor strategy though. If he knew what he was doing he could have blocked it or ducked and counter-punched. I could have been in real trouble then. But I knew that wouldn’t happen,” I explained.

Mr. Seiling nodded. “Well, it looks like I’m going to get to work with both of you this summer. Mrs. Cappelli lit into Mr. Cappelli for letting Vinnie ‘run wild’, her words, not mine. I impressed upon her the importance that discipline plays in what I teach in my dojo and she was all for letting me work with Vinnie. His father, not so much.”

“But his mom will get the last word, right?” I laughed, thinking about my parents.

“Something like that,” he grinned.

I walked to homeroom, thinking what a great summer I was going to have. I would either make a new friend in Vinnie, or he would be my punching bag. Either way I would win.

As I sat in home room, I smiled to myself. Today was going to be an easy day in school, as we would be off for Good Friday and then get a week off for spring vacation. I would be spending a lot of time at my new companies, learning about them and the people who worked there. I also planned to spend some time with my girls and Lars and his friends as we tried to form a band. Last and not least, I was looking forward to meeting my newest grandmother and aunt, as well as spending time with my new foster brother, Monique’s brother, Willie. My family was amazing and the thought of adding three new members made me smile.

First period, Mrs. Douglas assigned us some poems to read and then asked us to find some poetry on our own that we liked. Unlike a lot of kids my age, I liked poetry. After all, when you think about it, what are poems except lyrics without music?

After class, Mrs. Douglas asked to talk to me.

“Tommy?”

“Yes, Ma’am?”

She sighed. “Am I really that old and ugly that you would call me Ma’am?”

I rapidly shook my head. Mrs. Douglas was probably the most beautiful teacher in the school. She probably wasn’t even thirty. “No ... I mean you’re gorgeous ... Uh...”

Mrs. Douglas grinned at me. “Tommy, is it really appropriate to call your teacher gorgeous?”

“No, Ma’am ... I mean Mrs. Douglas.”

She laughed. “Oh, Tommy, you’re so precious! I can see why all the girls fall in love with you.”

“Not all of the girls... “ I started.

“Just the ones you want, though. Right?”

“I’m lucky to have some wonderful ladies in my life, Mrs. Douglas. I count you among them.”

I saw a tear run down her cheek and I found myself engulfed in Mrs. Douglas’ impressive cleavage. She made Janie’s big breasts seem small.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“No ... not really. My whole life seems to be flushing down the toilet bowl,” she said, breaking the clinch. “I don’t really have time to go into details and it is inappropriate to even discuss them with a student, but I can’t help myself. I don’t have any close friends and really need to talk to someone,” she added, before scribbling something on a piece of paper. “Here is my phone number. I know this weekend will be hard because of the holiday, but could you call me next week?”

“Sure,” I smiled, trying to mask my apprehension, yet pride that my favorite teacher trusted me enough to want to confide in me.

“Could I have your number?”

I smiled as I wrote my phone number down on a pad of paper on her desk.

I looked in her eyes and saw heartbreak and despair. As I waved goodbye to her, I couldn’t imagine how this amazing woman could experience either.

I barely made it to Mr. Crane’s class as the late bell rang.

“Cutting it a little close, Mr. Matthews?” he frowned as I took my seat next to Janie.

“Sorry, Mr. Crane,” I murmured.

“Well, you’re just in time for my pop quiz,” my US History teacher grinned rubbing his hands together in his best evil genius pose.

Most of the class groaned, but I just smiled. I knew the material like the back of my hand.

“So, Monique and Willie are going to church with you tonight?” asked Jen, as Janie fed me a bite of her cold cut hoagie.”

I chewed and nodded and swallowed, before responding. “Yeah. Willie is spending the next week with us. He’ll be in one of the guest rooms. My Philly grandparents and my new aunt will be staying at the Days Inn. They are getting in Friday afternoon.” I then tried to take another bite, but Janie pulled the hoagie away. “Hey!” I complained.

“Ya snooze, ya lose,” grinned Janie, before taking a bite, while all of my friends laughed.

I pouted, but that only made everyone laugh harder.

“Aw ... how can you resist those cute, puppy dog eyes?” grinned Laura.

“Jennifer and I are immune,” grinned my hot blond.

“Speak for yourself, Mary Jane,” said my beautiful brunette, as she handed me half of her hoagie, while I grinned. “I will always take care of our man.”

I accepted with a grin of my own saying, “Thank you, my sweet Jenny, but this isn’t a contest between who my best girlfriend is,” before turning to Janie and adding, “It really is a contest.”

Everybody laughed except Janie, who gave me a playful slug in the arm before starting to laugh herself.

After the laughter died down, Billy got my attention. “So, the mess with Cappelli and Caputo is over?”

“Yeah. I think that Vinnie, in particular realized that he bit off more than he could chew,” I said before taking a bite of my own out of Jen’s hoagie.

“So, what really happened last night?” asked Billy

I went on to explain my fight with Vinnie Cappelli and the general aftermath.

“Is Vinnie okay?” asked Eva.

“Yeah. He got a mild concussion. It probably would have been worse if we hadn’t been wearing headgear and boxing gloves,” I explained.

“Well, him charging you and hitting you when you were down was a serious dick move,” added Johnny.