Chapter 25
Trouble Times Two
Sparky and our other pets would be completely safe as well as royally pampered while we had some fun. It was one relief I had as I got on the bus. But something told me I couldn't hide forever. It was a long two-hour drive or more to an amusement park. The lines were long as I looked over at the ticket booth, mostly it because it was Labor Day weekend. The other was that Lagoon would be closing for the winter, so it was the last hurrah.
Unlike today, they didn't have Frightmares. Where they would be open throughout the month of September and October, mostly on the weekends, with a Halloween theme compared to normal days. This meant the hours they were open today would be shorter than it would be during the summer, which meant they would close at seven p.m. instead of nine or10 p.m. By that time, we would have had our fill of all the rides and all the attractions.
Like I said, the difference between Six Flags and here was this amusement park was on a smaller scale, but not less fun by any means. Plus, it was the only place that we didn't need a parent's supervision for those that were fifteen and older, as we broke up into groups of six or more once we left the starting gate with a time and place, we would all meet back.
Our goal was as we left everyone in our dust was to ride as many rides as possible and as many times as we could until we were dizzy or vomiting. I didn't have to worry about anything other than having lots of fun with my friends and family, and it was nice being a normal kid again.
The only part I had to worry about was not having fun, and what kid would turn down the scariest ride in the park? Time flies when you are having fun, and we are having fun. Sometimes we would ride the same ride over and over with our friends and family once we had made the loop at least three or four times. Then choosing the best rides to ride until we had to leave, or we couldn't walk straight.
It was nearly 4 p.m. when I ran into Dad with Mom and our two troublemakers. Shawn growled "freak" when he saw me. Mom slapped him across the face, telling him this was his 1st warning. I didn't ask what happened when he reaches three. Knowing from experience that you don't want to make the third one.
Mom asked calmly, as if it was normal if we were having fun, and I said yes, thinking what a dumb question, but I was saved by the ride that I was headed for from answering any more questions. Mom yelled back, reminding me to meet at the gate at six thirty. I waved as the ride took off.
When they mean 7 p.m., they mean 7 p.m. as the rides shut down while they usher us like cattle out of the gate with smiles on our faces. We hated to leave the amusement park, but some of us had a long ride back home, but before we did Stringham had arranged a barbecue so we would be able to dine one last time together as family and friends, nothing to elaborate, just a simple dinner with all the trimmings.
As always, I hated goodbyes as I watched everyone who wasn't going back to Stringham's get on one of the three buses. It hurt seeing my mother and brother, along with my sisters, get on the bus, but I didn't belong with them. I belonged to the Rothwells. My mother promised me next time we had a visit, there would be no problems. A promise I knew would be impossible to keep as long as my father and my sister were in the house.
Once more I tried to feel numb and lost as I quickly took my seat, sobbing as Mom put her arm around me. Shawn grinned, seeing me called me a crybaby. Dad got up and moved Arthur to an empty seat and sat right next to Shawn. I cringed as Dad let the monster out of his cage. Hearing Shawn wailing as he covered his nose, which was bleeding. I didn't even see Dad hit him with his seat behind me and Mom holding me close to her chest. Telling me everything is going to be alright like she and Dad do every time I say goodbye, and they tell me this is better than feeling numb. Trust me, it's not.
One might assume that with time, I would grow accustomed to such situations or reach an age where bidding farewell to loved ones becomes easier to bear. There was a time in the past when saying goodbye seemed easier, especially when you walked out that door with just a few new bruises and considered it a successful home-visit. The part that made saying goodbye the hardest was having to say goodbye to my baby brother. With my mother's return to my life and her genuine display of love towards me, it became even more arduous to say those words. Yet in a few short years, saying goodbye didn't tear me apart anymore when it came to my mother and my brother. The roles would change, and I wouldn't be shedding any more tears for my mother or my brother. Fate hates me, or God does … or are they the same?
It had seemed I had just closed my eyes when I had woken when we pulled up to the Rothwell's house. I was surprised by it because I had thought we were heading back to Stringham's, and no one said differently. I didn't ask questions, just simply got off the bus and followed everyone else, watching the bus drive off with the remainder of my friends just as confused as me.
It wasn't until I got into my room that Mom and Dad told me what was going on. It seemed logical that it would be easier if we were home instead of making the long trek from Stringham's to and from school. Yet that wasn't entirely the entire plan as Mom and Dad closed the door.
Apparently, they had a different plan involved using us boys as bait to draw out the people who have been vandalizing the neighborhood. The plan was to find out who were the ones giving out our locations and the ones responsible for all the vandalism. I prayed it was none of my friends. Something told me it was, but I didn't know who and the reason why.
The very reason I suspected them was that my three best friends Ron, Stan, and Charlie's homes haven't been hit by vandalism, only my new recent friends Adams, Jake's as well as my own home and the Rothwell home, plus no one had mentioned them when they came hunting for us. The only ones they were looking for were me, Jake, Billy, and Adam. Well, as far as I knew at the time.
Mom and Dad quickly had us pick out the clothes Jake, Adam, and I were going to wear. Folding them neatly into our backpacks and telling us to tell no one where we would be staying. While everyone else thought we were here and had decided to come home where we belong. Adam and his sisters left first in clear view of the entire family, including Shawn and Arthur as our friends hugged us and thanked us for letting them stay here until their home was finished being repaired, and got into their car as we waved to them that we will see them all in school tomorrow. Our parents had us get ready for bed after taking a quick shower, just in case it was someone inside our home who was giving out the information. Which was unlikely, considering like me, we were thinking it was one of my friends.
So, after family prayer, Jake, Billy, and I went to bed. Well, more like waiting for the signal when it was our turn to leave the house. I was on pins and needles praying it wasn't any of my friends because of how tight we were as best friends for life thing. Man, I hoped it wasn't one of them. When the clock struck nine-thirty, we left my room, passing the open bedroom of my three brothers and Shawn and Arthur sitting at the table doing homework, still in our boxers as if we were just going to watch some TV until bedtime.
The phone rang as planned as Mom picked it up and said. "Well, hello Mrs. Strous, I think that's a great idea. All send the boys right over. Say in about 15 minutes." Mom hung up the phone and said to us that Mrs. Strous and her husband had been called away at the last minute for an emergency. Regarding their grandfather, he had been sent to the hospital over the weekend because of a heart attack. And I was wondering if Ron and his sister could stay here overnight. Well, that knocked Ron off the list for now, anyway. We waited for Ron and his sister to show up before our plan went into action. Once they arrived, we waited for our bedtime, which was eleven o'clock, being a school night.
When the time arrived, we all went to bed watching the clock until it reached midnight and instead of going to bed we quickly dressed. When the clock struck twelve, that was our queue to leave. Mom and Dad had instructed us to go out the backdoor through the garage, pick up our backpacks that were waiting for us and go to Mr. Nile's house.
Where would there be a car waiting for us to take us to our actual destination? The only one that knew about the car waiting for us was me. For that very reason, we didn't know who the informant was. Man, I hoped it wasn't any of my friends.
Mr. Nile's quickly let us in and apologized for the mess, seeing all the boxes stacked neatly against the wall. I simply told him no apologies were needed. He was my best adult friend, and he was the person who I was going to miss the most. We both had been through a lot over the years and inside it was tearing me apart, but we know it was for the best being with his family.
I, for one, knew what that was like wanting to be with the Downings and my little brother Aaron. It seemed God or fate didn't want me to be happy always taking the people I love from me. I had until Friday before. I really had to say goodbye, not that it would be any easier, as I watched the car pull up to the house. Watching Bishop Sakes come up to the door and greet us taking us to the next phase of our journey. Not even I knew where we would end up.
After three false trials, my little group of friends, which comprised Billy, Jake, and Ron, and his sister, we were told to put on blindfolds. We did so without questions and got into the car and were soon guided inside to where we would be spending the night, or so we thought.
At first, the room seemed small and cramped, and it seemed odd that they wanted us to strip down to our skin blindfolded as I listened to them, searched my backpack and my clothing for what, I could only guess at the time. Then placing the robes we had taken with us and a pair of boxers. Telling us not to ask any questions as they each whispered in our ears.
Once we had given the nod, we were told to take the person's arm and let them guide us to where we would be spending the night. Again, the room seemed small, as if the walls were close and tight. We walked for at least fifteen minutes before we were back outside, feeling the cold ground under my bare feet and the cold outdoor air.
My senses were going crazy to where they were taking us or me. I wasn't sure how many of my friends were with me anymore. It became more confusing as we seemed to get back onto a bus and were guided to a seat. Unable to ask any questions, unable to take the blindfold off. I listened for anything that gave me a clue, but all I could hear, and sense was the moving bus and listening to the person next to me breathing.
It seemed like forever as the bus kept stopping and hearing shuffling of feet and people taking seats, which told me I wasn't alone. I was asked several times if I was alright, or if I was scared. Finding out the very person who was guiding me was Coach Brady. Once I knew who it was, I felt the fear leave me. I trusted him with my life, having felt that same feeling that I felt let me know that this person could be trusted. It was when I heard a loud buzzer go off then hearing something like a motorized gate I got concerned. After the bus pulled forward and came to a complete stop was when we were told to remove the blindfold.
I didn't know where we were, but what it looked like was some army compound and housing. We were told this was where we would be staying until the coast was clear for us to go home and still only be within a thirty-minute drive time to and from school. No phone calls will be allowed period unless supervised until the person or persons are caught telling them of our location.
Even our parents and the rest of our families have been relocated or are in the process of being relocated. We were also had been explained that people who had vandalized our homes have not been found and the names they had been given are being questioned by the police and only a portion of those have been found guilty.
We soon ordered to get off the bus, noticing it was an army bus that I had seen in movies or at a base in Provo, sitting in the compound. I would have been a little excited, because of how cool it was living the life of a movie star, but it was more real than cool. We were given our backpacks as we walked to our housing unit, the beds small but comfortable. It reminded me how much I hated small twin beds. We were told lights out in ten and we would be awakened at zero six hundred. I looked at my watch and cringed.
Noting if I was lucky, I would get five hours of sleep if that, even my friends seemed to cringe as we each were told to stand in line in the order, they put us in wearing nothing but our Army boxers as if we had been enlisted into the army. Giving us ten minutes to unpack our backpacks and hang up our clothes we had brought with us from home and schoolbooks and homework that had been searched for whatever they were looking for.
Stringham's house seemed like a dream as we climbed into our beds. I was in the middle with Jake on one side and Adam on the other. While my three friends Ron, Stan, and Charlie were sleeping across from me with the girls in a different building. Coach Brady was sleeping at the door and would walk down the rows of our beds, making sure we were sleeping and not talking or whispering to each other, for good reasons.
One we didn't know who the traitor was, and two nobody was telling each other how they got here regarding their false trails and the fact we were supposed to be sleeping.
As promised, at zero six hundred hours we were awakened with loud whistles blowing and the lights blinding us as we were told to get our lazy butts out of those beds and shown how to make them until a quarter bounced on them. It reminded me of when I lived with the Frys when I learned that method and it also stated I had gotten lazy over the years.
I don't know why we bothered to bring our own clothes from home when they insisted on us wearing an army tee shirt and pants, socks, and the boxers. The only thing we could wear that was ours was our sneakers. Then told to line up in the order given to us and follow in Army platoon style to the mess hall where we would eat and be given our orders.
I could have killed Stringham for enlisting me and my friends into the Army life instead of spending our day's incomplete comfort, but there was nothing I could do about it, so I followed my friends and obeyed like a good boy. It was either that or doing one hundred push-ups.
Once I had taken my seat with my tray in my hand, following my assigned buddies Jake and Adam, waiting for the rest of my friends to take their seats in the order they were given. I watched the rest of our group take their seats. Again, we were told not to talk or think about talking to each other. Unless we absolutely had to, which better be for a very good reason. If not, then be penalized.
Coach Brady looked pleased as punch to see us sitting uncomfortably and not having a single clue on what in the hell was going on. He waited, giving us time to squirm, yelled. "Ladies and Boys. The cheese has been placed in the trap and some mice have been caught. At this moment, we have narrowed down our suspects. The people inside this tent are the cheese. The mice our traitors are not in here, that we know of or haven't had the time to betray us as the cat is looking for their prizes.
"So far two more homes have been vandalized not severely last night. A few broken windows and little spray paint, which says they know that you're home now and where they think you are.
"We have no doubt that you are being watched. The question is who and who has told them that you were home in the first place? When none of you inside this tent knew about where you were going, by laying false trails and blindfolding you so you would not know where each of you was picked up from or how you have gotten here.
"You have been searched and will be each day before coming here and there will be a surprise inspection whenever we feel the need. I am sorry, but life is unfair and complicated. The only person you can trust is yourself.
"Before you get on the bus, you will be introduced to your new buddy who will see to it that you're a safe untouched, unharmed, but only if you need them. They will not help you if you get into a fight of your own making. Knowing you are able to take care of it yourself. Which many of you are, and they will not help you cheat on your tests or help you with your homework. They are only there if those rats come after you while you're in school or at home.
"You must be on the bus by fifteen hundred hours each day and blindfolded and in the compound by eighteen hundred hours ready for bed and homework done, showered by twenty-two hundred hours. Lights out at twenty-three hundred hours. Do I make myself clear?" He waited for us to say yes sir and then said. "Good. The bus leaves at zero seven hundred. Make sure you are on it." It was an excellent thing I knew how to read military time all because of Mr. Fry. It also meant we had thirty minutes to finish breakfast and get ourselves on the bus.