The Word of a Liar (20 page)

“You have no one listed on the release form, so I can’t legally allow anyone but you to take JD out of school.”

Ellen rolled her eyes in disbelief. “I’m not going to sue the school, Megan. The man’s name is Mason Hackett. He has long black hair, a beard, tall…. Believe me, you’ll know who he is when you see him. Please see if JD will come to the phone.”

“All right,” Megan Lucas replied with reluctance in her voice.

“Mommy, is that you?”

“Yes, JD, it’s me. Miss Lucas says you’re having a hard time today.”

“Yeah.”

“What happened?”

“I wanted to go to the library. Friday is library day.”

“But today is a special Friday. Remember we talked about it this morning. All week we’ve been talking about how today is Halloween and you get to wear your knight costume.”

“I broke Miss Lucas’ timer, Mommy. I’m sorry. Is that rude?”

“JD, if I send Mason to the school, would that make you feel better?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ll call him, okay?”

“Okay. Mommy, please don’t hang up.”

“JD, put Miss Lucas back on the phone.”

Megan’s voice broke in. “Yes, Ellen?”

“I’ll try to get in touch with Mason. If he can’t go to the school, I will come.”

“We’ll be here.”

She felt awkward asking Mason, but she hated to leave school when everyone was working to set up the gym. A month ago Ellen had approached Spider about establishing a scholarship fund for her school. Since Spider’s daughter Mandy was the school’s star student, it was easy to convince him that the Sons of Thunder should sponsor the first annual Brookfield Alternative High Halloween Carnival. Selling the idea to the teachers had been much more difficult. She texted Mason.

***

A disgruntled Mason pulled open the entrance door of the Whitman Elementary School. He hadn’t been in an elementary school since he’d been enrolled in one.
Why does Ellen think I can be of any help here?
Checking in at the school office, he stood at a counter and examined the posters littering the wall. A middle-aged woman looked up from her desk. “Can I help you?”

She smiled, but her eyes slanted with suspicion.

“Yes. The school called my girlfriend Ellen Abrams about her son JD. She told the teacher I would be coming to help out. The kid has autism.”

“Do you happen to know the teacher’s name?”

“Yes, it’s Megan Lucas.”

“Miss Lucas’ classroom is right at the top of the stairs to your right. Sign in.”

She handed him a pen and a clipboard.

“I’ll let her know you’re on your way.” She glanced at the sheet. “Mr. Hackett.”

He smiled his most charming smile. “Thank you, ma’am.”

He sauntered out of the office to the staircase across the hall. Several children were running down the opposite side of the stairs. They slowed when they saw Mason, their eyes wide with curiosity. A young woman followed. Blonde with dark, large eyes, she wore a skirt that fit nicely around her hips.  He sighed and continued up the stairs, wishing she had been his teacher.
A young woman Mason guessed to be in her twenties stood at the top. “Mr. Hackett?” she asked.

Mason nodded.

Despite her astonished look, she smiled. “I’m JD’s teacher Miss Lucas. JD is in here.”

Mason followed her across the hall to a classroom.

“I’m afraid his conversation with his mother didn’t help much.”

The short chubby woman ushered Mason inside. In the middle of the room, JD sprawled on the floor. Flipped over desks, papers, cards, and other bric-a-brac littered the floor. Mason ran his fingers through his hair as Miss Lucas took a seat behind her desk and watched. Stunned by the condition of the room, he had no idea what to do. He knelt down on one knee next to JD.

JD looked up.

“Mason, is that you? JD is dead,” JD groaned and then rolled his head to the side and stuck his tongue out. He looked like a dying character in a melodrama.

A smile pulled at Mason’s mouth. If the situation hadn’t been so serious, he would’ve laughed. “Did you do all this, JD?”

Mason’s eyes scanned the room again and then he looked up at the teacher. She didn’t attempt to intervene.

“Yes,” JD moaned, turning to face Mason. “I broke the timer.”

“Why did you do that?”

“Because Miss Lucas wouldn’t let me go to the library. Miss Lucas is a bully.”

Again, Mason wanted to laugh. “What do you say we clean up this place and then you and I can go for a walk. You can show me around your school.”

“I’m hungry.”

“Come on, kiddo. Let’s clean up this mess. Maybe then you can have your lunch.” Mason glanced at the teacher. She nodded.

Mason rose and offered his hand to JD.  He helped JD right the desks, and then they began to pick up the things littering the floor. JD seemed sincerely upset for the damage he had caused. Mason noticed how carefully he put everything back in its proper place. Small pieces of colored plastic lay on the carpet where JD had smashed a clock beyond repair. Gathering them up, JD vainly tried to put it back together. He retrieved a glue bottle from his desk and then squirted white droplets of glue over the piece he held in his hand.

“I can fix it.”

JD picked up another bit of plastic.

Mason shook his head. “I don’t think so, bud. You’re going to have to buy Miss Lucas a new one.”

“Ah, barnacles!” he cried.

Mason laughed.

JD threw the shattered clock in the garbage can and then wandered around the room, talking movie talk. Suddenly he stopped and grabbed Mason’s face. “What’s wrong with me?”

JD looked directly at him. It was as if Mason were looking into Ellen’s eyes.

“JD is a bully!” the boy stormed, throwing himself back down on the floor.

Mason wasn’t sure how JD wanted him to respond, or even if he expected him to. Feeling useless and baffled, he looked over at the teacher for help, but she only shrugged.

“Come on. Get up, JD. We’re almost done.”

Mason stood over the boy. Droplets of perspiration rolled down his back and along his hairline. “If you get up and finish cleaning the room, I’ll take you for a motorcycle ride after school. What do you say?”

“Okay! At three-fifteen, you’ll give me a ride.”

“Whatever time you get home.”

“No, just say ‘three-fifteen’,” JD insisted.

“If that’s the time you get home.”

“Say ‘three-fifteen’!”

“Okay, three-fifteen.”

When they finished, Miss Lucas told JD to get his lunch. JD went to the coat room and retrieved his lunch bag. Sitting down at one of the desks, he opened his lunch bag and then began to eat, ignoring Mason and the teacher.

Miss Lucas approached Mason. “It looks as if he’s settled down.”

“Do you think I should take him for a walk?  Ellen said she’s done that before.”

“Why don’t you tell him you’re going to leave and see how he reacts? When he’s finished eating, he can go out to recess with the other kids. JD usually likes recess.”

“Who doesn’t?” Mason grinned.

He sidled up to JD, his knees lifting the desk off the floor. He remembered desks similar to those when he was a kid, but they seemed so much bigger then. “JD, I’m going now.  Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah.” JD looked past Mason to the dinosaur poster on the opposite wall. “The Field Museum is in Chicago?”

“Yes, it is. I’ll see you later, buddy. Remember we’re going to your mom’s school for the Halloween Carnival tonight?”

“I remember.” JD continued to eat his lunch.

“Okay, I’ll see you later.”

“You’ll give me a ride at three-fifteen?”

“Right. Three-fifteen.”

Mason stood, nodded to the teacher, and then walked out. The startling sound of a school bell caused a horde of small children to burst from the doors lining the hallway. Their young voices reverberated throughout the corridor. Mason thought he had landed in Munchkin Land. Some giggled and stared. A young boy, barely reaching Mason’s waist, tugged on the back of his jacket. Mason turned.

“Are you a rock star?” The boy’s awe-filled eyes searched Mason’s face.

“No,” Mason laughed. “I’m a biker.”

“A biker!  You have a motorcycle?” The little boy’s eyes grew even bigger.

“Yes. I ride a motorcycle.”

“Wow! JD’s lucky to have a daddy with a motorcycle. JD is naughty, you know.”

“Is he?”

“Yes.” The little boy became somber. “He yelled at Mr. Johnson yesterday in the lunchroom.”

“Who is Mr. Johnson?”

“He’s the principal.”

Mason’s eyebrows arched. “That’s not good.”

The little boy shook his head. “I gotta go to lunch now.”

The boy darted down the hall. Mason watched him disappear into the sea of children heading down the staircase. Suddenly, Desi’s bewitching eyes came to mind and her words that had scared him half to death pinged his memory:
Wouldn’t you like to see a little Rambo running around
? Ironically, it didn’t sound so frightening, but then he thought of JD lying on the floor in the destroyed classroom and swallowed hard as fear choked him.

***

At exactly three-fifteen, Mason had pulled into Ellen’s driveway ready to give JD his promised ride. Now, forty-five minutes later, he still waited on the front porch for them to return home. A white sedan stopped at the intersection, and Mason recognized Ellen’s car. When she pulled into the driveway, she looked flustered.

“Thank God you are here,” she sighed, nudging the car door shut with her knee. “JD hasn’t stopped bugging me about you taking him for a ride at three-fifteen. I told him even though he gets out of school at that time, he has to take the bus over to my school and then we go home.”

Ellen shook her head and sighed as she unlocked the front door. “I don’t know what possessed me to host a Halloween Carnival when I know this day is always crazy for JD. My students were off the wall, and the superintendent wants a report by Monday.”

Ellen flopped down on the settee by Mason blowing a piece of stray hair from her eyes.

Mason put his arm around her and kissed her. “I think I need a remote control for you so I can press the pause button whenever you start talking so fast. Maybe then I could keep up with you.”

She frowned. “Once this night is over, I’ll be okay. Speaking of tonight, you’re going to love my costume. Guess what I’m going to dress up as?”

“A stripper?”

“I knew you were going to say that.” She swatted his shoulder. “I hardly think that would be appropriate for a school function. Besides, I would be thinking how good Desi looked the night of the rally and how I sooo don’t look like her. No, I’m going to be a biker chick. I even found tattoos. The kids are going to flip!  I didn’t realize how expensive it was to buy all that stuff. It better be worth it.”

She winked.

“What did you buy?”

“Oh, no! That’s a surprise. When you get to the school tonight with the rest of the brothers, you’ll see.”

“Oh, my little minx, you’re going to make me wait?  I like it!” He leaned in closer. “It adds mystery to the evening.”

“Mason can you take me for a ride now?” JD appeared at the end of the porch and then came over and sat in the chair next to them.

Mason groaned inwardly. Having a kid around all the time was truly annoying. “I’ve got to talk to your mom for a minute and then we will go.”

“Why don’t you go watch Sponge Bob, JD, and when it’s over Mason can take you for your ride.  Remember, it can’t be too long because we’ve got to go to my school for the carnival.”

JD reluctantly got up.

“Don’t go anywhere, Mason. I’ll be back.” He grabbed the doorknob. “I’ll be back.”

JD entered the house.

“What did you want to talk about?” Ellen’s dark eyes glistened. “Are we going to talk about how wonderful your life has been since you’ve met me and how you can’t wait to ravage every inch of my body?”

“Well, no, but we can always come back to that.” He smiled, pulling her closer. “I was going to tell you what happened at the school today.”

A look of worry and concern toppled Ellen’s smile. “I should have called Miss Lucas back, but I was so busy. By the time I thought about JD again, it was almost time for his bus to drop him off. Thank you for going. I assumed you were able to settle JD down because I never heard from the school again, or maybe Doris forgot to give me—’’

Mason brought his lips down on her mouth, swallowing her words with the gentle warmth of his caress. When he broke it off, he looked into her eyes. “Will you please settle down?  You’re going to self-destruct.”

“I’m sorry. Tell me what happened,” she murmured and then sucked in her lips.

Mason sighed, hugging her shoulders. “When I got there, JD was lying on the floor. The room looked like a cyclone had blown through it. I asked him if he had done all that. He admitted he had because he couldn’t go to the library. It was a weird experience, Ellen.”