Chapter 21: Suspicious Characters At The Door

You can always tell when a doctor or a nurse is lying to you. It's when they are approaching you with a wicked-looking instrument or needle in their hand, and they say, "Now, this won't hurt a bit."

About twenty minutes after hearing just those words, they were still trying to scrape me off the walls of the examination room. They had changed all my bandages, and cleaned and drained all my wounds, performing all these tortures with the cavalier indifference to my pain and discomfort that probably caused them to go into medicine in the first place.

It was just before lunchtime when Mom and I finally were on our way home.

"Would you like to stop at McDonald's or someplace for lunch?" my mother asked with artificial good cheer. She was in the room with me while they poked and prodded my lip and arm, after all.

"No," I snapped. "I just want to go home."

"All right, dear," she replied sympathetically.

Two hours later, I was feeling almost human again. I had wolfed down two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on spongy white bread, comfort food for the young, along with nearly a quart of milk, and I was cocooned on the couch in the family room, a thick quilt wrapped around me. The pain in my arm and my ribs was down to a dull throb, thanks in part to the painkillers I had taken with lunch, and I drowsily acknowledged my mom when she called out from the kitchen that she was leaving to go in to work for the afternoon, now that she had me back home, safe and reasonably sound.

It was just too easy to fall asleep that afternoon, and it was after three o'clock when I finally woke up. I got up creakily, and headed into the kitchen. I started rummaging through the cabinets, looking for cookies or crackers or something.

I was just in the process of fumbling open a bag of potato chips, trying to tear the bag open with my teeth without jarring my cut lip too much, when I heard a soft knock at the back door. Before I had a chance to see who it was, the door opened, and Jake and Kayla came in.

"Hungry, Porter?" asked Jake when he saw me struggling. He reached for the bag and tore it open for me.

"Hi, Sean, how are you feeling?" asked Kayla softly, her eyes glittering.

"Not bad," I replied. "I think I like taking naps in the afternoons." I stretched to emphasize the point, but I was a little too extravagant in my movements. I ended up pulling on my bruised ribs, which made me hunch down, clutching at my ribcage and grimacing in pain. Kayla came over and held my good arm solicitously.

"Did you hurt yourself?" she asked anxiously.

"It's okay, Kay," I assured her. "It only hurts when I move."

"And that's why he was taking a nap, Kay," said Jake, his big hand rummaging around in the bag of chips. "So he wouldn't move around and hurt himself any worse."

I gave him a look that he easily ignored. "What a pal," I muttered.

As we headed for the family room, it occurred to me that they were here too soon after school let out.

"Hey, Jake, why aren't you at football practice?" I asked.

"Oh, man, you missed the strangest day I've ever seen at school today," he said.

"Everybody was talking about the Homecoming dance," added Kayla. "And, of course, you and Jilly were the main topics of conversation," continued Jake.

"Of course," I said disgustedly. I could see already that it was going to be tough that first day back.

"You wouldn't believe some of the stories I heard today," said Jake. "You were dead, Jilly was on life support, Martians had landed. You name it, I heard it today."

"Was Molly at school? Surely she could have straightened everybody out."

"Shirley could have straightened it out? Who's Shirley?" I scowled at him, and Kayla stuck her tongue out at her brother. "Actually, Molly was there, but it's much more exciting to spread rumors about what might have happened than actually learn the truth. Besides, she could only talk to a few kids in one day between classes, and stories expand a lot faster. And the fact that both you and Del Toro were missing today only fueled the fire," he said.

"Okay, but why aren't you at football practice?"

"Practice for both the football team and the soccer team was another casualty of the weekend," he answered. "Counselors were at school all afternoon, trying to get to the bottom of it all. They were on the phone with the cops, and they called in half the football team and most of the soccer team for interviews. So many kids were cooling their heels in the counselor's office that they had to cancel practices."

"Jake had to talk to them, Sean," said Kayla. That news didn't surprise me.

"Yeah, me and Tiny and Josh and about 10 other suspicious characters had to talk to the principal and the counselor. I saw Eric and Trent and Mikey and Jorge there, too," said Jake.

"I suppose it'll be my turn when I go back," I said. "How about Amonte and Barnes and those guys? Any of the Bulls at school today?"

"No, not really," said Jake. "Remember last year, after Skip got killed? The Bulls kind of hid out for a few days, and then came back all spiffed up, as if they were giving up the gang life, you know? I think they might be doing the same thing now. Besides," he continued, "their leader and chief bully is fallen. They've got nobody to tell them what to do right now."

"Del Toro may be out of sight, but I'll bet he hasn't given up the reins of his little terror squad quite yet," I surmised.

"Yeah, he's in a little cubbyhole somewhere, some rat's nest, licking his wounds right about now," said Jake.

The sudden laughter burst from me in a painful cramp. Both Kayla and Jake looked at me as if I had lost my mind. Maybe I had. When I got myself back under control, moaning at the pain in my ribcage as the laughter subsided, I explained. "The mental image of Del Toro having to lick those particular wounds is kind of funny, isn't it?"

Jake looked surprised, and then he remembered that it wasn't just a separated shoulder that Del Toro was hurting from. In fact, that was his secondary injury, and Jake started laughing, sending me off again. Kayla giggled, all the while turning bright pink as she recalled where Jilly was hurting the most.

We finally settled down. Kayla went out into the kitchen and got sodas for us all, and Jake and I cleared off the coffee table so we could work. Kay had done as she promised, and picked up my homework assignments for the day. There wasn't much, because of the uproar in school all day, but I was certain that just meant the teachers would pile it on the next day.

And, as it turned out, it was a good thing there wasn't much work to do. There were so many visitors, my front door should have been a revolving door, each person coming in with a tale to tell about what had happened at school.

The first to drop by were Trent and Danielle, who just wanted to see how I was feeling. Dani looked stricken when she saw me all bandaged up, but I was able to reassure her that I was doing okay.

Trent sat down on the couch and helped himself to a handful of chips. "Coach is going to have a cow when he realizes you're out for a few weeks," he remarked.

"I hope it's not a few weeks," I said. "My arm shouldn't keep me out of the lineup. It's just a question of how fast my ribs will heal. As it is now, I'm having trouble taking deep breaths."

"Ribs can take a long time, buddy," said Jake. "Sometimes six or eight weeks, if they're cracked."

"I don't think they're cracked," I said. "I just had another x-ray today, but nobody seemed real concerned about my ribs." Six or eight weeks? Oh, man, say it ain't so, I thought to myself.

"That's because of your filleted arm, Sean. Ribs can heal themselves in time, but they've got to keep an eye on your cuts to make sure they don't get infected." Trent reached for the bag of chips again.

The doorbell rang again, and Kayla, playing hostess, hopped up to open the front door. Eric and Anthony came in and headed right for the bag of chips on the coffee table.

"How you doin'?" asked Eric. "Keisha wanted to come over with me, but she was afraid of how busted up you would look. I told her that maybe, if Del Toro rearranged your face a little, you'd turn out to be better looking."

"What a pal," I said disgustedly. "Here I am, in pain and needing a little sympathy, and instead I get a junior Richard Pryor."

Kayla jumped onto the couch next to me and snuggled up, putting her arms carefully around my neck. "Do you need some sympathy, Sean?" she cooed as she pressed herself in next to me. She gave me a quick kiss on my cheek, hopped back up, and declared, "Sorry, none to be found here!"

Everybody cracked up. I claimed I didn't see the humor in it, but I was lying, and they all knew it. I finally relented, and smiled along with them all. I knew, deep down inside, that just by being there, my friends were showing their sympathy and support, and I was grateful.