Denny cracked a grin even though his eyes felt ready to spill over with tears. “No, it’s okay. Let’s go in.” Billy pulled open the door and a set of chimes hanging on the door announced their arrival to the mostly-empty shop. May, who owned the shop with her husband Teddy, greeted them with a sad smile when she recognized Denny. They sat at the red, round, plastic-covered stools at the counter and ordered honey-dipped doughnuts. Billy started spinning his stool around as May walked over to get their doughnuts.
“Oh, shit.” He muttered.
Before Denny could ask what was wrong, he was surrounded by Dale and his gang. They had been hanging out at a back table of the Spa when Denny and Billy arrived.
“Well, well, are you boys skipping church, or have you decided to become Jews?” As always, Buddy, Chuck and Tony giggled at Dale’s wit.
Denny glanced nervously at Billy, not seeing a way out of this without a beating. “Why don’t you guys just leave us alone?” he offered.
“Why don’t you guys just leave us alone…” Tony mimicked in a girlie voice. Tony Costa was the youngest of Dale’s gang, and the smallest, but he thrived on having muscle behind him and was always mouthing off. “Why don’t you make us?” He stepped closer and Denny saw how much he enjoyed playing the bully.
Billy slid off his stool. “How about just you, Tony? How about Dale lets you off your leash for a while, and just you, me and Denny go outside?”
The rest of the gang started hooting and hollering. Denny was at once amazed at both the balls Billy had, and the glimmer of doubt in Tony’s eyes. Denny thought again of his brother and how he would never allow anyone to hassle him like this, on or off a playing field. Without thinking about it, he slid off his stool so he was face-to-face with Tony. “Yeah, Costa. How about it?”
The moment dragged on. Then a door banged behind them and Teddy stormed around the counter. “What is going on here?”
Teddy Stavros was a hulking Greek who looked like he ate more doughnuts than he sold. But everyone in Haven knew that beneath his girth there was a lot of muscle. Teddy was the winner of the Haven Day Strongest Man contest for five straight years, and last summer he had put on a charity event where he wrestled a bear. Everybody said the bear was toothless and declawed, but Denny didn’t know too many people who would step in the cage with it regardless.
Costa was looking back and forth between Denny and Billy, the doubt in his eyes edging closer to fear. He finally turned to Crawford for help, but none was there.
It was Denny that spoke. “Teddy, Dale and his friends don’t believe you wrestled a bear. We tried to tell them the story, but you always tell it best, and Billy and I have to go meet Father McCarthy. Would you mind if they hung out for a few minutes while you told them about it?”
Teddy was no dummy and he played along smoothly. “Of course, of course, gather around boys!” He put a pair of meaty arms around Costa and Crawford and herded the four of them back toward the booth. He turned and winked at Denny, and he and Billy gave him a thumbs-up and silently mouthed their thanks. May handed them a bag with their doughnuts and offered a smile as well.
Out on the sidewalk, they agreed that a visit to McCarthy now would be too risky since Crawford knew that’s where they were supposed to go. “Billy, that was pretty ballsy of you to face down Costa like that.”
Billy just shrugged as he got on his bike. “I’m tired of those guys; besides, I knew you’d have my back. Did you see him? He was actually scared of us!”
Denny grinned, “Yeah, and I think Crawford is a big enough shit that he would have let us kick Tony’s ass.”
Billy nodded, “Probably, but then the rest of them would have killed us. Let’s go to my house and eat those doughnuts.” They both rode away into the darkening day as Teddy animatedly told his tale and Crawford stared after them with murder in his eyes.
(21)
The heat did break that day, beaten into submission by a wild thunderstorm. The boys barely beat it home from town before the wind picked up and distant rumblings of thunder began. Soon after, flashes of lightning cut through the dark afternoon and the rain began to fall. Once it started, it looked like it might never end. For two weeks the spring rains ranged from a cold, miserable drizzle to drops the size of grapes to viscous wind-driven thunderstorms. The most talked-about storm brought golf ball-sized hail with it.
Denny spent those endless two weeks avoiding Crawford’s gang at school and moping around the house. The only good times were spent on Billy’s front porch playing games of Risk or Monopoly and hoping to get a glance of Julie. He had resigned himself to the fact that Bear was gone and this made being a prisoner in his own house even worse. His mother drifted in and out of lucidity and seemed to be withdrawing even during the times she was herself. The worst of the two weeks was Mother’s Day when Denny gave his mom a card and a plant and she barely noticed. The plant was already wilting, the card unopened still. On Sunday, two weeks to the day he and Billy had gone into town to talk to Father McCarthy, Denny decided to try again.
After lunch, he called Billy but there was no answer. He remembered Billy saying something about visiting relatives. The rain had tapered off to a misty drizzle and the day was warming up. Haven had exploded into color with all of the rain. Trees were filling out, grass was greening up, and flowers were growing. Denny got on his bike and started the ride to town alone. He saw no sign of Crawford or any of his gang, and by the time he arrived in town, the sky was actually starting to clear. The gray clouds were thinning, parting for the blue sky to make an appearance. Denny’s mood lifted as he took a deep breath and knocked on the rectory door.
For some reason, Denny felt the urge to jump on his bike and pedal furiously home, or anywhere else. Suddenly this felt like a bad idea and Denny didn’t want to have the difficult conversation he knew was ahead. If Father McCarthy hadn’t opened the door when he did, Denny might just have bolted. But as soon as Denny saw him, his doubt melted away and he felt a faint hope that things might just work out.
The old priest was sipping a cup of tea when he opened the door and Denny saw surprise register in his eyes. “Dennis, is everything okay? What brings you here? Is your mother with you?”
“Everything is fine, Father… well actually it’s not. My mother isn’t here; she’s why I’m here…” Denny felt his face flush, unable to articulate everything that had been pent up inside him for so long.
“Please, come in. Can I get you a drink?”
Denny hesitated. The rectory seemed sacred, not a place for a sweaty kid. Plus, he’d been trapped inside for two weeks and needed to be outside. “I could use a drink, but I… could we talk outside?”
McCarthy smiled. “Sure, I’m tired of being indoors myself. I’ll mix up some lemonade and meet you around the side of the house; there’s a picnic table there.”
Denny nodded, feeling oddly like McCarthy had read his mind about the weather. He made his way around the side of the house and sat at the picnic table which was in the shade of a massive old oak. Good thing, because once the sun finally broke through the cloud cover, the heat began to rise. The ground was steaming as the rain dried. McCarthy came out carrying his tea and a huge, ice-filled glass of lemonade. He seated himself across from Denny and sipped his tea.
Finally, Denny spoke. It began in fits and starts but he quickly felt at ease and the whole story came out, interrupted only by gulps from his lemonade and an occasional comment or question from McCarthy. By the time he finished, his glass was empty and the ice was melting quickly. Tears were streaming from Denny and the last part, when Denny told McCarthy of his fear that his mother might just disappear into her own mind, came out in choking sobs.