ELEMENTARY VIRTUE: The Savior

by Sonja Wuthrich

  Gregory had noticed that she was freezing. He took off his shirt and pulled it around her shoulders. Unfortunately, it didn't help very much and her teeth were still chattering like castanets. They left the scooter at the station and locked it up, and then they went to the run-down looking motel. At least the guy at the front desk didn't ask any stupid questions, which was a good thing. Finally, they were obviously two teenagers who wanted to book a double room for one night. The bald-headed, greasy looking guy handed them the key, his eyes darting over them knowingly with a smug grin on his face, wishing them a fun night. Gregory had signed in with the name Gary Miller and the greasy guy obviously guessed that this was not his real name. They probably had to be thankful that he didn't call the cops. After all, they could have been two missing teenagers on the run. They paid cash for the room. There was no need to leave any traces. Leyla was still shaking like a leaf when they got to the room. The room was surprisingly lavish and comfortable. In the center of the room, there was a large king size bed. Normally, a double room used to have two such beds, but Leyla had no wish to complain about it. She was exhausted and hoped that there would be hot water for a long shower.

  She sighed in relief when she felt the hot water stream on her cold skin. She stayed under the hot water jet until she was able to feel her toes again. Then she pulled out some clean underwear out of her backpack. Unfortunately, she hadn't thought about bringing jeans and a t-shirt to change. She had originally planned only Gregory's escape and had not been thinking of her own needs. This had been no doubt a bit of a one-sided plan.

  Good thing there were huge towels in the bathroom. She stepped out of the bathroom, a small towel wrapped around her wet hair and a bigger one around her body. Gregory was sitting on the bed staring intently at the TV set.

  Leyla sat down beside him. There was a report on the news in which a visibly shocked Mrs. Benson was interviewed talking about an attack on Elmhirst Resort that had happened today. During the interview, she asserted that nothing had been stolen and that she had no idea what the intruders had been looking for.

  Apparently, two young men with a heavy southern European accent had emerged in the late afternoon, threatened Mrs. Benson, searched the place and then suddenly disappeared again. No one had been hurt, but the staff was in a state of shock. They were all standing in the background staring, appalled at Mrs. Benson and the News Lady.

  Leyla and Gregory looked aghast at each other in disbelief. The two guys with the baseball bats no doubt had somehow learned from Mrs. Benson where Gregory was and she obviously wasn’t telling what had really happened to the News Lady since it was much clear. Leyla started shivering, her teeth chattering again. Evidently, it was not just the cold that had this effect on her. She was close to collapse. Her nerves couldn’t stand the events of today anymore. It had been too much of adventure for one day. Gregory turned, peering at her. “Lela, you're white as a sheet. And with this turban, you look like you're a resurrected female pharaoh. Let me see what’s in the liquor bar. We really need to bring some color into those pale cheeks or else I’ll get the idea to be sleeping with a corpse.”

  He knelt in front of the mini-bar examining its contents.

  “Thank you very much for calling me a corpse and for the record, you certainly are not sleeping with me, but at the most next to me,” she said visibly offended.

  He didn’t seem to be particularly interested in her being upset. He came over to her, carrying two small bottles of brandy in his hands. Then he sat down beside her on the bed again. She had her arms crossed over her sarong and looked at him pouting.

  “Oh come on. You know you're always looking attractive and beautiful to me, even if you look like a corpse. You know that I’m into that zombie stuff, so you're gonna be my zombie bride. I kind of like the idea, kind of kinky.”

  He smiled at her and held out the open bottle of brandy. He made her laugh because she remembered only too well that he had always been a big zombie fan. She smelled the brandy and grimaced, “Ugh, that smells disgusting.”

  He kissed her on her cold lips and just said, “In one go on three. One, two, three.”

  She nodded clutching her nose with her thumb and index finger emptying the contents of the small bottle in a gulp. She shuddered, her whole throat seemed to be on fire, but she had to admit that a warm fuzzy feeling spread through her body. Exhausted but flushed with heat, she sank onto the bed and snuggled under the covers.

  “See? Now you're not a zombie bride anymore. You look like the Lela I know.”

  He lay down beside her on the blanket and looked at her.

  "Mrs. Benson was holding up pretty awesome. She was all messed up, but she didn’t tell them the truth about why these guys had shown up in the first place. I owe her big time for that. Then again, the truth would certainly have sounded a little crazy”

  When there was no answer coming from Leyla, he noticed that the brandy had done its purpose. She had fallen asleep and looked really relaxed and peaceful. Well, sometimes brandy could be used as a useful remedy as it seemed. He took a shower and felt more awake than before. He lay down beside Leyla and switched off the light hoping to be able to sleep sometime soon.

  Among Crocodiles

  Chayton Moonworthy was sitting in the stands of the sports field watching the basketball game of the Scarborough High team -The Mighty Crocodiles- against the Halifax tornadoes from a high school in Halifax and felt quite out of place. He had no idea about the rules of the game. And to be honest, he didn’t have the slightest interest in any kinds of sports.

  Yet Quinn, a boy from his math class had invited him and Chayton had been so surprised that someone actually wanted him to come to any kind of event that he had said yes out of pure sheer astonishment. Now he sat here and Quinn had waved at him several times apparently enjoying having him here.

  It actually seemed to be the case that Quinn kind of liked him. Although he himself most of the time did not even happened to like himself, this boy had to be some kind of saint. Or even just a nerd with no friends and family, said an angry little voice in the back of his mind.

  The crocodiles were hoops behind. The scoreboard looked pretty bad, and his presence had apparently not helped so far. Maybe he was even the reason that the Crocodiles didn’t score. An eerie smile lit up his features. It was even possible that the other guys of the team had been frightened that much when they had caught sight of him that they had experienced an acute drop in performance. Whatsoever, Chayton thought, he was feeling kind of hungry all of a sudden watching those kids running around and decided to treat himself with a hot dog. He adjusted his black cap and grabbed his black bomber leather jacket. Actually, it was still too warm for a jacket, but he felt quite defenseless, even naked without his jacket, especially at such an event. He strolled down the aisle towards the entrance where the food court was located. Suddenly he heard an apparently angry voice from the left where the dressing rooms of the cheerleaders were. He heard that voice loud and clear, speaking Italian and swearing like a fishwife. Curious, his eyes followed that voice. He moved to the side to be in position to see to whom the high-pitched angry voice belonged.

  It was Angela di Benedetto, a very conceited girl from the second math class. Although he did not quite understand all of the nagging. He had spent a few months while studying in Sicily and he understood the Sicilian dialect quite well. The rest was probably some peculiar dialect and all sorts of profanities. The otherwise elegant, and as it seemed to him, sneaky girl seemed to have in any case a pronounced repertoire of swear words. He took from the conversation that she was terribly upset that a woman had seen her conversation partner and if he had understood correctly that someone should have been captured, but not killed. But since it made no sense, he thought that he had probably misheard. She said that her daddy would be terribly angry when someone was lying to him and because of the sloppy work, there would be only half of the agreed-upon sum or something like that. Then suddenly, she seemed to hear some soo
thing news and her voice was pure sugar all of a sudden. She said something about an existing problem that was at least out of the way for now. One would wait and see if the story would be confirmed before the money would be transferred. When she half-turned to him, she looked like a cat that had just eaten a fat mouse.

  A tall boy from the basketball team got out of the dressing room holding her back and grabbing her arm.

  “What’s the problem that's been eliminated, Angel?”

  She did not seem to be enthusiastic about his appearance.

  “Let go of me Greyson. It is none of your business. Go in there and play your ass off. The Crocodiles are far behind. I have to call Gabe now. I have to arrange a meeting,” she turned and left without any further comment.

  When she saw Chayton Moonworthy, her face changed. She smiled at him coquettishly as she walked past him. Strange girl, he thought, shaking his head and went on to the hot dog stand. On the other side of the hot dog stand, there was some fighting going on. One of the older boys, a blond guy with a no nonsense haircut was insulting a black-haired girl in a black rivets jacket badly. The girl was a dazzling appearance in her own way. She had long black hair with blue streaks that surrounded her head like a dark cloud. She reminded him instantly of his long lost love, Clare Hastings.

  Chayton Moonworthy ordered his hot dog watching the two of them. The fight seemed to get out of control; the boy was visible a choleric losing his temper and was close to getting stark raving mad.

  His insults became louder. He started to call her a whore and other quite unflattering stuff. In addition, he started to hit her. Moonworthy looked around, but apparently no one tried to intervene. Everyone looked away pretending they hadn’t even noticed what was going on. No one made the slightest attempts to help the girl in any way.

  Chayton sighed, he hated to interfere, but he could not stand and watch as a guy in the truest sense of the word beat a young girl. He wrapped his hot dog in a couple of paper napkins and walked over to them.

  "Hey, you. Where do you think you are? This is not a boxing ring and we are not in some dark back street. No one gets beaten up around here and most certainly, no girl. Am I being clear enough?"

  His voice had taken a sharp tone and he sounded quite stern and determined. At least, it seemed the boy had heard him and he stopped hitting her turning around. Yet his face didn’t have a guilty look. No, on the contrary, he looked defiantly at Chayton Moonworthy with clenched fist. With his other hand, he was still holding the wrist of the struggling girl with an iron grip.

  "It’s none of your business! I can treat my girlfriend the way I want to. The bitch deserves it; she was practically asking for it.”

  He looked challenging at the teacher with his bloodshot watery blue eyes. Chayton Moonworthy didn’t go for the challenge. He stood there in front of Jason just looking at him. He was only some inches away looking him straight in the eye.

  “Oh yes, my dear boy Jason. It actually is kind of my business as I am teaching at the Scarborough High and I've been watching you several times bullying others brutally around. By the way, one doesn’t need to be clairvoyant to see that you're stoned and drunk at this time during daytime on a school event. Have you ever thought about the consequences?”

  Jason seemed a bit confused for a moment, but then he grinned at Moonworthy.

  “And what are you going to do about it? You're just a pathetic substitute teacher. Nobody gives a shit about what you have to say. No one will believe you! Have a look at yourself! You don’t look exactly trustworthy looking like some freaking vampire and all. You are some kind of an old freak.”

  He pointed at Moonworthy’s dark black appearance. Chayton Moonworthy’s expression became rigid and his eyes were as cold as ice. Any previous understanding of adolescent drug abuse followed by crazy behavior had disappeared from his mind. Jason noticed the change, and even in his dazed state, he realized that it would probably be best to shut up now.

  The freaky substitute teacher grabbed his mobile phone dialing a number.

  “Oh hi Mr. Forster, Moonworthy here. Thanks for asking. No. Unfortunately, our team is far behind in points. The reason I am calling you Mr. Forster is because I would like to talk to you on Monday about the expulsion of a student who has assaulted a girl outside the stadium. Yes, it is really sad. It happened here during the game and I just happened to come across the situation. Yes, he was clearly drunk and I'm afraid not only drunk. His name is Jason Henderson and there were other drugs involved as it appears to me. Of course, sir, I'll keep an eye on him from now on. I didn’t know that he has been cautioned before, that's really bad. You can leave it to me. I'll take care of the matter. I wish you a nice weekend.”

  He hung up, watching Jason closely.

  Jason has released Natalie's arm and was standing there stock still an ashen-faced. He hadn't moved an inch and had apparently become quite sober at a stroke.

  "So my friend, from next week, there will be blowing a new kind of wind around your ears. You'll meet with me three times over lunch and we will talk about the measures to be taken. That means if anything like this little action comes to my attention you are out and Scarborough high will be history for you. This is your final warning. Besides, you’ll keep away from her. Is that clear?"

  Jason apparently wanted to protest.

  “But…,” he said indignantly.

  “No buts. You do not speak with her and you do not even look at her, otherwise you're out of here and I will press charges against you for assault and you‘ll have to appear in front of the juvenile court judge.”

  Jason looked at him defiantly, but then he nodded and looked down at his Nike Airmax.

  “Do not forget Jason, this is your very last chance. Or to put it differently, I am the pathetic substitute teacher as well as your last chance, so do not waste it. Now go home and sleep it off.”

  Jason had no other choice than to do as he was told and to walk away followed by the assenting murmur of other students who had stood still and visibly enjoyed the conflict. Jason felt totally exhausted and he didn’t even feel the urge of revenge within in this humiliating situation. He felt as if someone has just woken him from a long dream and it was not such a bad feeling after all that someone was interested in him. And although he had screwed things up pretty badly, he still had gotten a chance. He looked back over his shoulder to Natalie; she lowered her head and sobbed softly, but Jason could not go back. He felt Moonworthy’s stare on his back. Looked as if he had probably dealt with the wrong guy this time.

  Chayton Moonworthy took the napkin in which his now cooled off hot dog was wrapped and handed it to Natalie who was still softly weeping. Her head turned the other way, and accepted the napkin gratefully blowing her nose noisily. She wiped the tears from her face. The makeup of her black-rimmed eyes had left a trail of destruction down her cheeks. Chayton realized that the napkin would not be enough for this type of disaster and addressed himself to the hot dog vendor, who had been quite impressed with his previous crackdown at Jason. He gave him a whole stack of napkins.

  She cleaned her face and looked reasonable again.

  Chayton Moonworthy looked at her searchingly, “Tell me, since when is this brutal story going on with you and Jason?”

  She shrugged. “Sometimes he is very nice to me and I live with him and his dad, as I can’t go back to my mom.”

  Moonworthy was surprised since there seemed to be a lot more behind this story as he had thought initially.

  "No one has the right to beat or oppress you no matter how nice he is sometimes. We will surely find a friend who can accommodate you temporarily. Do you know someone with whom you could stay until we have found a good solution?”

  She nodded.

  “Leyla has asked me to move in with her. Now that Gregory is back in Italy, there is a spare room, she said.”

  "Is Gregory her brother, who is now in college?”

  “No, he is her stepcousin, but he had some problems here and t
hen he suddenly disappeared after the night of the summer festival.”

  Moonworthy’s ears prickled alerted.

  “After the night Sebastian di Santo and his family have been murdered?”

  Natalie nodded and Moonworthy said thoughtfully.

  “Do you want me to bring you to Leyla's house then?"

  "No, they are not at home this weekend.”

  "Then we get your stuff from Jason's father and you're coming to stay with me until Monday. I can’t let you stay on the street till Monday. So, what’s your name?"

  "My name is Natalie Hastings.”

  His expression darkened and he looked puzzled for a moment. Natalie was wondering why, but maybe it had just been her imagination.

  "Are you related to a certain Clare Hastings?”

  Natalie looked startled, “You know my mother? How come that you know my mother?” Moonworthy was in state of shock.

  "She's your mother? We were schoolmates, but then one day, she suddenly moved away without notice. She must have been about your age when I last saw her.”

  He thought about her moving so suddenly away. He hadn’t even been able to say goodbye. It had been more of a disappearing than a moving away.