Chapter 8

Tuesday, October 12, 1976

I am going to enjoy this. I now have only one class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. After next Monday I won't have any. Even now it is enjoyable. It gives me more time to mentally harass Beth and Sharon. Finally they told me to cool it as I was going to get them in trouble with their teachers.

When Sharon came into the lunchroom, she surprised me by throwing her arms around my neck and giving me a three alarm kiss. She let me go and when I finally got my breath back I asked, "What was that all about?"

"That was for making life fun. When you were talking to me, you had me so distracted, my teacher asked me if I was feeling okay. I told him I had never felt better, then he said if that was the case maybe I should try to get the flu or something so I'd pay attention."

I laughed and gave her a hug before we started through the line. "In three more weeks, I won't be having to come in to school. Beth will be here for a while, but I think we need to talk to Bonnie about getting the home schooling started."

"I'd like that, but that would leave Beth here all by herself. Let's talk to Beth and Bonnie and see how they feel about it."

"Anything you say, my love. This stuff looks like crap, but I'm hungry enough to eat a bear. Hide and all. Maybe I can even get this down."

We found our table and sat side by side. I hadn't more than picked up my fork when Josh walked by. He stopped, pointed his finger at me, then crooked his finger as if he were pulling a trigger. Then he laughed and walked away.

Sharon saw Josh's act and I could feel her hand trembling where it lay on my thigh. "Don't worry about him, Honey. He's trying to scare us, but he has no idea what he's getting into."

I put my arm around her waist and pulled her a little closer. <We told you what we did to the three guys who kidnaped Beth, didn't we?>

<Yes, Mike, and it didn't bother me a bit. It's like Bonnie was saying last night, though. I love you and want to protect you.>

<I know that love, but I think you'd better be protecting Josh in this case.>

Sharon giggled and turned her pretty face to me. <Are you going to turn him into a pretzel, Sweety?>

<No, but if he keeps it up, he may drive his car into a telephone pole going ninety miles an hour.>

Sharon shivered then said, <I hope we don't have to do that, Mike, but if we do, I'll help in any way I can.>

<I hope we don't have to do that either, Sweetheart, but I'm not going to let a Flatliner ruin the life I have planned for us.>

"So, Ms. Richards, what can you tell me about this Michael Green? Specifically, what can you tell me about his dramatic increase in IQ?" the man asked after he had introduced himself as Dr. Cunningham, a colleague of Dr. Franks.

"I really can't give out that type of information, Dr. Cunningham," Ms. Richards told him.

"I have Mr. Andrews permission to talk with you Ms. Richards. He assured me you would supply me with the information I need."

"I'm sorry doctor, but that would be a breach of confidentiality and an invasion of privacy. If you will get a signed document from Mrs. Green giving her permission to release the information, I will talk with our school lawyer and see if we can release it."

"I'm afraid that won't be good enough, Ms. Richards. I need the information now."

"Again, doctor, I'm sorry, but that just isn't going to happen."

"I will bring Mr. Andrews down here. He will order you to give me the information."

"And I will tell him the same thing I told you."

Dr. Cunningham kept his cool, but Ms. Richards could see the anger in his eyes as he left her office.

After he was gone, Ms. Richards removed the files for both of the Green children from the filing cabinet. She took them into the storage cabinet in the testing room and put them in the bottom of a box of new file folders.

Since I had tested out of Chemistry, I was free for the rest of the day. I decided to go home until track practice, so I could hang out with Bonnie for a while. I found her on the patio getting a full body tan.

<You have to be the sexiest looking woman I've ever seen, > I told Bonnie just before I gave her a tender loving kiss. <I knew I wanted to come home for a reason.>

<Flattery will get you nowhere, my love. I'm on my period.>

<Ahhh, so you have a little white tail hanging down from that sweet little pussy?>

Bonnie laughed and blushed. <As a matter of fact, I do, so don't get fresh.>

<Just for future reference, Bonnie me love, that sort of thing has never put me off. Most women I've ever met have been far hornier during their period than during other times of the month.>

<Oh I know that. It's just that the mess turns most men off.>

<It doesn't turn me off at all, so any time you're feeling the urge, just let me know.>

<You know, sometimes I'm glad you have a fifty-eight year old mind.>

<Thank you, Bonnie. I love you too.>

We talked about investing for a while. I knew Intel would be coming out with their 8086 and 8088 chips next year and I wanted Bonnie to have our broker check out what Intel's stock was doing. I also knew one of the companies that was big in computer graphics was founded in 1976. I couldn't remember the name of the company, but I knew it started with an 'M'.

<Bonnie, I think we should get Sharon on birth control pills. Do you agree?>

<Yes. We definitely don't want her pregnant until she wants to be pregnant. I'll talk with her tonight.>

Track practice was as grueling as the coach had told us it would be. We were practicing for the mile run, specifically the sprint at the end, so we ran sprints almost the entire hour. My lungs were burning, my chest was burning and my legs were burning when we finished. The only good things about the practice were that Beth was encouraging me mentally as I ran, and Sharon was waiting when we finished.

On our way back home, Sharon told us about another meeting with Josh just before her last class. "He did the finger pointing and trigger pulling at me," she told us.

"What did you do?" Beth asked.

"I pretended I was shooting him with a bow and arrow. He looked at me really funny, then he laughed and took off."

"We need to talk to Bonnie about this. To threaten me is one thing, but I'll be God Damned if he's going to threaten you. If he comes near you, I will definitely kill his sorry ass."

"Easy Mike. This is a family problem. We'll take care of it. It's not up to you. it's up to all of us," Beth soothed.

To say Bonnie was upset would have been the understatement of the year. She might have the body of an eighteen year old now, but inside she was a mother bear who's cub was in danger.

"Why do these cocksuckers keep doing this to us. All I want is to be left alone. I don't want to hurt anyone, I just want my kids to be safe," she ranted.

"I don't think it's that serious, Bonnie," I told her.

"Not serious? First the three motherfuckers kidnap Beth and we had to take them out. Now this jerkoff is threatening two of my kids."

"Mom, please don't call anyone a motherfucker. It hits too close to home," I kidded.

Beth laughed and Bonnie shot her a dirty look. "Michael Allen Green, I've had about enough of your sass. I don't care if your mind is fifty fucking eight years old, you're still my son and I can still slap you silly."

"Bonnie, just settle down and think rationally. I think Josh is just trying to scare us."

"Well, he has sure as shit scared me. If I have to kill his sorry ass, I will. He damned near killed you once and he's not going to get another chance. Threatening you and Sharon may be the last thing he ever does. We have to take this seriously."

"We are taking it seriously," Sharon told her quietly. "That's why we came to you. We need to work out some way to get rid of Josh without having to kill him."

"I know you're taking it seriously, Sherry, and I know Mike is too. I'm sorry guys. I just get so angry that assholes can't just leave us alone. Sometimes I wish we lived on an island somewhere and didn't have to come in contact with anyone."

"I know, Bonnie. I'm sorry I was flip. It is serious, but I agree with Sherry. I think we need to come up with a solution to remove Josh from the picture without having to turn him off completely."

We all sat and thought for a few minutes. I went to the kitchen and brought sodas back for all of us.

"Mom, how would you feel about Josh having to go to jail, or a mental institution for a while?" Beth asked.

"I could live with that," Bonnie said.

"So could I," I agreed. "There has to be something a little wrong for him to be tied up in this flatliner stuff."

"What were you thinking about, Beth?" Sharon asked.

"Well, you know how you read about serial killers and other mental patients who have the compulsions to do things? I know of at least one who said he just felt like he had to kill people then eat parts of them for him to live. Others say they have voices that tell them to do things. What if we took over Josh's body and forced it to do something really outrageous at school. When they asked him why he did it, he'd say he didn't want to but his body just did it anyway. Do you think they'd believe him, or would they think he was crazy?"

"One crazy act wouldn't be enough," Bonnie said. "But I think you have a good idea. If he did something and was punished for it, then he did something else that was just as bad or worse, and kept doing things, I think they'd eventually put him away."

"Oh, this is going to be fun," Beth said as she rubbed her hands together. "I have the perfect idea for what to have him do first."

"What's that, Sweety?" Bonnie asked.

"Mike, he has History with Mrs. Alford doesn't he?"

When I nodded she went on. "Okay, right in the middle of her class, while she's lecturing, we have him get up and go to her desk. We make him unzip his fly, take out his cock, and pee in the trash can she keeps by her desk. Then we have him go back to his desk as if nothing had happened."

We all lost it. Even Bonnie. "Mrs. Alford will have a cow," Sharon giggled.

"I think if we had him do a few things like that he might be put away," Bonnie laughed.

"Remind me not to get you mad at me," I told Beth.

Wednesday, October 13, 1976

We put our plan into operation this morning. I followed Josh after home room and found him going into government class. I told Beth mentally where he was and she said she'd be waiting outside to follow him at the end of the period.

Josh went from government to history. Beth peeked in the door and saw Mrs. Alford at front of the room with a map of Europe pulled down to lecture on.

Beth, Sharon and I linked and gave Josh the commands to have him carry out the actions Beth had described the night before. We watched through Mrs. Alford's eyes as Josh did his thing.

He had been fidgeting for a while, and Mrs. Alford asked him if he was alright. He told her he was and she went back to teaching. About mid way through the class, Josh got up and walked to the front of the room. Mrs. Alford asked what he was doing, and he ignored her.

When he was beside her desk, Josh unzipped, whipped it out, and pissed an incredible load into Mrs. Alford's trash can. Mrs. Alford was screaming at him, but he ignored that as well.

When he was finished, he calmly shook it off, put it away, and returned to his seat. The girls in the class were giggling behind their hands and the boys were cracking up. Josh ignored them all.

Mrs. Alford sent one of the boys to get the principal. "Tell him it's an emergency," she told the young man.

Within minutes, Mr. Andrews was in the room. When Mrs. Alford told him what had happened, he took one look in the trash can and then went to Josh. "Why did you do that?" he demanded.

Josh was red faced and looked totally confused. "I don't know sir. All of a sudden I had to go. I tried to stop myself, but it was like I just couldn't help it."

"Come with me, young man. We need to get your parents in here."

"Do you have to tell them, sir. My mother is going to freak."

"Yes, they have to be told. I don't know if you realize just how serious this is. You are definitely going to be suspended, and you may even go to jail. Now get on your feet and come with me."

Reluctantly, Josh followed him out of the room. The rest of the class was shot for Mrs. Alford. She tried to pick up where she'd left off, but the kids were basically ignoring her, talking about what had happened. Mrs. Alford couldn't figure out what she'd been trying to say anyway.

Lunch was a blast. Sharon and I exchanged our customary kisses, then went through the line. We sat at our normal table, but saw no sign of Josh. There had to be at least six different kids stop to tell us the story of Josh peeing in the trash can, all of them telling things differently. Some of them were so far out, we wondered where they had heard them.