The Ties That Bind

by T. Starnes

  The two most popular games were the basketball shoot and the milk bottle toss. These were the games most kids gravitated to, mainly because while they might not have tossed a ring at a target, thrown a dart, or tried to pull ducks out of a tub; they had thrown a baseball or basketball before. This gave the players a false sense of ability that was more than counteracted by the changes made to the games by the carnival.

  In the basketball shoot, they use smaller than average rims and make them oval shaped, not round. It is hard to see the shape and size difference from where the player stands, but the changes mean you have to make a perfect high-arcing swish or the ball just bounces off. It's not possible to have the ball bounce off the rim and into the net. The balls themselves are also over-inflated so they have extra bounce, increasing the likelihood that the ball will ricochet off rather than go in.

  And then there was the milk bottle pyramid, where they stacked a bunch of metal or plastic milk bottles together and you had to knock them all down with a softball. I always wondered why we still called them milk bottles, since they were made of metal or hard plastic but made to resemble glass milk bottles that are no longer seen in stores. My only guess is the carnival games back in the times when milk bottles were common must have used the glass variety, although then it seems you would end up with a bunch of broken glass.

  Either way, they way this game usually went was the bottom bottles were filled with sand or lead making them weigh almost 10 pounds. Unless you aimed for the bottom bottles themselves, you would just knock down the top two rows while the bottom row only wobbles. The ball is also rigged. They fill the center of the ball with cork making it much lighter than normal softballs, and keeping the thrower from getting the kind of velocity they would otherwise achieve. Lastly, they almost always stack the bottles in front of a very heavy curtain. While it doesn't touch the bottles, it does allow a bottle that's leaning to be propped back in place.

  Not that all these tricks bothered me. Most people who come out to a carnival midway come expecting the games to be rigged, and don't really expect to win all that much. Between the people around you cheering and the person working the booth doing his or her spiel, it was still pretty exciting.

  The only one I was interested in was the milk bottle toss, but there was already a line at it, so I chose balloon pop. Seeing me looking at the booth the attendant came to life.

  "Step right up young man and try your luck. Pop just one balloon and win one of your ladies a prize. Don't be shy, come play the game and take home a prize.”

  I stepped up to the booth and, after taking an opportunity to leer at the girls behind, he continued with his script.

  "For one dollar you get three darts. Pop one balloon and get a small prize, pop two and get the medium, and pop all three and win big Dumbo up there.”

  I handed him a dollar and he set three darts on the counter in front of me.

  "Care for a demonstration of how the game is played?”

  "Sure.”

  He picked up a dart that was separated off to its side, aimed and nailed the balloon in the middle, popping it. I had noticed that balloon seemed more full than it's friends, and if that dart was the same as mine I would be shocked. I decided I should bobble my first go through. I figured that if I played enough games to win each girl with me a prize, and I did them all on the first try, it might get me a few more looks than I was comfortable with.

  I threw each dart just a little bit away from a balloon, trying to make them wobble but not pop. My first dart actually hit a balloon since I wasn't used to the strange lightweight feel of it, but I had seriously underpowered the throw, so it bounced off harmlessly. My two follow up throws were just as ineffectual.

  "Good try, but no luck. I can see your friends still want the prize though. How about another round?”

  "Sure," I said, handing over another dollar.

  The good thing was that I had time in my first round to adjust to the feel of the darts. This time I put power behind each throw, driving each dart through the under-inflated balloon. I took time in between each, to make it seem like I was really aiming, and one by one my three darts found their mark.

  "Holy crap, kid," the attendant said before switching back to his show persona. "Winner, winner. We have a winner. Here's one large elephant for one of the lovely ladies."

  At this point, he handed out the elephant and started paying attention to the people behind me who had been watching.

  "Don't be shy. You saw how easy this young man made it. You, too, can step up and win a prize.”

  I couldn't help but laugh to myself. Even though he hadn't expected me to win so easily, he still found a way to turn my good fortune to his advantage.

  I handed the elephant over to Tami, who thought elephants were cute. I was rewarded by a fairly long kiss, and the hooting and hollering from the crowd still around the booth.

  The rest of the morning and early afternoon went about the same as we made our way along the midway, winning a prize for each of the girls. We punctuated this by stopping and eating junk food a bunch of times. So much so, that Vicki stopped several times to say how happy she was that her body was enhanced, otherwise she was afraid she would look like a beach ball by the time we left. Of course, she said that after polishing off a giant turkey leg, two ice cream cones, and a funnel cake!

  By the end, we looked a little ridiculous with all the big, fluffy animals being carried. It was getting into mid-afternoon and I knew we needed to start heading back. But first, we had to find Tina and her friends. Most of our time had been spent on or near the midway, so I knew she wasn't there. We started wandering around looking for her until we came to a crowd next to the tilt-a-whirl that was blocking our path.

  I was a little annoyed when we came across a large group of people stopped in the pathway, blocking what was more or less the only way through to the next area of the carnival, the only area we hadn't checked yet. As politely, but forcibly as I could, I pushed my way through the crowd with the girls trailing behind me. What I saw when I got to the end of the people gathered around shocked and infuriated me.

  Tina was on the ground, holding the side of her face and her friends were moving back toward the crowd, except for Judy who was at Tina's side, half covering her in a protective manner. In a half circle around her, stood Steven Mertz and what I could only assume were some of his cronies.

  "You don't leave me, bitch. I put up with your whiny ass for months, and you just up and walk away when your pussy brother comes calling. I don't think so.”

  He started to move forward aggressively towards Tina and Judy. I was too far from him to do anything physical so I decided I had to go another route.

  "Hey!" I yelled as loudly as I could. "What the hell do you think you're doing?”

  He flinched a little when he noticed me. I am almost certain he didn't expect me to show up out of the crowd. But he had his buddies to worry about, and with guys like this, the last thing they want to do is look like a coward.

  "Get lost. I don't know what you said to her, but Tina is coming back to me.”

  I had distracted him enough to give myself time to stand over Tina and Judy, protecting them with my body. I noticed the girls had dropped their stuffed animals, and were spreading out to watch his friends. I was about to move to intercept him physically when I saw a uniform push its way through the other side of the crowd, behind Mertz, causing me to alter my tactics.

  "Big man hitting a girl. Too afraid to go after someone your own size?”

  "Bitch had it coming. I didn't hurt her; just let her know what a real man is.”

  I laughed in his face. The cops were getting closer and I wanted him to make a move.

  "A real man?" was all I got out before laughing again.

  My girls had all stopped their movement and were looking at me confused. I know they were wondering why I hadn't taken this punk down yet.

  My laughing in his face did the trick, and he took a swing at me. Even for regu
lar people it was telegraphed and slow. With my reactions, it was no trouble at all to shift backwards and let it whiff by me. He was just recovering, and getting ready to try again when a hand grabbed him from behind.

  "Hold it," the officer shouted.

  She grabbing his hand while her partner corralled the other kids standing around. I recognized my old friend Officer Jawarski.

  "Hey, ok, ok," Mertz said as he was pulled back by Jawarski. "I didn't do nothin.”

  She looked up and glared at me, but I had kept my hands by my side the entire time and was already moving to help my sister up, while brushing her off. I was nearly positive she'd seen the whole thing, but my past history with her told me that didn't mean she wouldn't find a way to pin this on me.

  "Yeah, I saw you not doing anything. Let’s take a walk," she snapped at him before handing him over to her partner.

  "You and your friends get out of here. Go home and stop causing trouble," she said, turning around and walking off with Mertz.

  While I wasn't happy about being told to get lost, that conversation went a lot different than it could have otherwise gone, so I took it as a win.

  "You, ok?" I asked Tina as I pulled her off the ground.

  She was rubbing her face but said, "I think so.”

  "What happened," I asked both Tina and Judy. I saw my girls picking up their now slightly dirty stuffed animals and coming over to join us.

  "Steven came out of nowhere, yelled at Tina for leaving him, and then slapped her," Judy offered while Tina was still rubbing her face.

  I bent down to have a closer look and saw her eye starting to swell a little, "You're gonna have a little bit of a shiner in the morning.”

  She started to cry softly.

  "Hey, it's ok. He's gone. Let's get you home, ok?”

  She had her head pressed against my chest, and nodded as her body shook from her quiet sobbing.

  "Is she ok?" Zoe asked as she fell in alongside me.

  "Yeah, she'll be fine. I think, mostly, she just got scared.”

  Her friends were all quiet as we piled into our vehicles. It wasn't time for Mom to pick us up yet, so we just jammed everyone in the two we had, and made it work. Thank God, there wasn't an accident on the way home, or it could have been bad.

  With the mood the way it was, the birthday party was more or less over. Megan promised to get all of Tina's friends home, although Judy stayed since her sister was still there. I sat on the couch and let Tina cuddle up with me. She was still pretty upset.

  "What do we do about Margaret?" Mom asked once we explained to her everything that had happened.

  I thought for a moment and asked, "About the black eye?”

  "Yes," Mom continued. "With what we were told about how she has been acting, I am concerned she will see it and …”

  "Flip out?" I supplied.

  "Yes.”

  "I'll go home with Tina," Judy said from where she stood in the doorway. "I had already planned on spending the night with her. We can tell her mom about Steven. It's the truth after all. With both of us, maybe she won't take it so bad.”

  Tina finally sat up and wiped her eyes.

  "Are you ok?" I asked.

  "Yeah," she said. "I think so. I was just scared, then embarrassed, then mad, then embarrassed again.”

  "There's nothing to be embarrassed about," I told her. "You didn't do anything wrong.”

  She shrugged, "I guess. I just felt so weak lying there on the ground.”

  "You aren't weak," I said, trying to give her as meaningful of a look as I could. "He is bigger than you. If you tried to go at him, he would have hurt you. You didn't have a lot of choices.”

  "I guess," she said again.

  I lifted her chin up to look at me, "Hey, seriously, you were never in that much trouble. You were in a public place, surrounded by friends and witnesses, and the cops would have been there before anything happened regardless of whether I showed up or not.”

  She pulled out of my grip and said, "It's not just that. It's my stupidity that got me into this. If I hadn't encouraged that jack-off in the first place, none of this would have happened.”

  "You don't really know what would have happened. Some guys don't need encouragement. Also, when it comes to giant, life-changing mistakes, you my friend are a rookie. You should take stock of all the things I screw up … on a daily basis!”

  That got a smile out of her so I continued, "Seriously, I would never let anything bad happen to you. I will have Jonathan sniff around and see if there is anything else that can be done. He attacked you in front of witnesses, so maybe we can get a restraining order or something against him. Or get his ass thrown in jail. Trust me, in there he will realize how little of a man he really is.”

  "Now that sounds like a plan," she said smiling.

  Chapter 18

  As soon as Tina and Judy headed out the door, I made my way to the phone. I knew the girls were as concerned about her as I was, since they all stood around and listened to me making my call.

  "You know, Caspian, you are starting to rack up quite the bill," Jonathan said with a laugh when he picked up the phone. He must have gotten caller ID and recognized my number, which wouldn't be surprising considering how often I seemed to be calling.

  "Probably, and it's all totally worth it," I responded.

  "So what is it I can do for you today?”

  "I am not sure if you can help me directly, but you can point me in the right direction. Tina was attacked today at the carnival by an ex-boyfriend. He got hauled off by the police right after, but I wanted to make sure he doesn't come after Tina again. What would she need to do to get assault charges filed on him and what about the possibility of a restraining order?”

  "On the assault charges, unless the arresting officer saw what happened, your sister would have to go down and fill out a complaint against him. Since she is a minor, her mother would have to be there also.”

  "That is going to be a problem. Margret has been acting unstable recently. I am a little concerned about how she would handle the situation.”

  "If that's the case then a restraining order is out also. As a minor pretty much everything has to go through her mother.”

  "Damn.”

  "If the police office was there right as it happened, there is a chance he saw everything and can be the person who files the report. They can't tell you directly, but we can make some inquires if the officer filed some kind of report through my contacts at the courthouse.”

  "That is where things get tricky. It was Officer Jawarski.”

  "And she saw you were involved also?”

  "I wasn't really involved, just there. But yeah, she saw me.”

  "Considering how things went in the past, that isn't good. Do you want me to see if I can talk to her and get a feeling for what is going to happen?”

  I thought for a moment before answering, "No. I'll do it.”

  "I don't know if that is a good idea Caspian.”

  "Yeah, me either. But she did haul him off and didn't try and blame anything on me, so that's a step in the right direction I guess. No, this is something I think I need to deal with.”

  "Ok. Well, call me back after you talk to her. If I don't hear back from you in a few hours, I'm gonna come and see if you wound up in lockup.”

  I knew he was joking and laughed along, but I also meant it when I said, "Good thinking.”

  Next of course, I had to find Officer Jawarski. After a short call, I was able to weasel the information out of Detective Casper, the detective who got me released after the scuffle with Tyler and his friends at the school. I hated to play on his guilt about the incident, but sometimes you have to use the tools available.

  I found out she was eating lunch at a small burger shack on Lincoln Street. I had Zoe drive me out but wait in the car ... with instructions on how to bail me out if things went sideways.

  I found the officer in the small dining area and stopped at the edge of her table.
/>   "Officer Jawarski?" I said tentatively.

  She looked up from her hamburger and glared, "What could you possibly want?”

  "I was hoping for a minute of your time. I am aware you don't like me, but I also believe you are a good police officer. I was hoping to appeal to your sense of justice.”

  "Make it quick," she said.

  "Thank you," I said sliding into the seat across from her. "Yesterday you arrested a kid who attacked my sister. She is terrified of coming to press charges on him, afraid he will retaliate on her again. I talked to some people and they said if an officer saw what happened, it was possible for you to file a report on him.”

  "Yeah," Was all she said. I was hoping she would see where I was going with this, but clearly, she didn't have any plan on making this easier on me.

  "So, did you see enough to know what happened? And are you planning on filing a report on him?”

  "I can't talk about ongoing cases," she said. Then she stopped and slammed down her food, "And who the hell do you think you are coming here and trying to pressure me into helping you with whatever plan you are hatching. Get the hell away from me!”

  I sighed as I stood up from the table. I hadn't been put in handcuffs, yet anyway, and decided to take a parting shot.

  "I wasn't trying to pressure you. I was just trying to get some peace of mind for a scared kid.”

  I started to walk off when I heard from behind me, "He won't bother her again.”

  I turned around but she was eating her food again and purposefully ignoring me. I wasn't even sure if what I heard was in my imagination or not. Either way, I had done what I could and now I had to wait and see what Jonathan found out from his friends at the courthouse.

  I pushed all the drama with Tami's family and with Steven Mertz aside, since plans had been made and things were in motion. Between schoolwork picking up before the school closed down for spring break, and the expected deadline of the larger contract being ready approaching, I had other things on my mind.