The Boy Who Couldn't Fly Straight (The Broom Closet Stories)

by Jeff Jacobson

  When he saw Randall staring at him too, stopped laughing, looked chagrined. “Rand, Rand, I’m sorry. I’m trying not to…it’s just…‘suck a duck?’” And he turned and doubled over.

  Beverly responded for her husband. “He was trying not to drop the F-bomb in front of our teenager,” she said.

  But the tension seemed to have lessened.

  “How did you all get here, anyway?” asked Randall, looking around. “It’s not like Beverly called you all. There hasn’t been that much time.”

  “The cats,” said Rita. “The neighborhood network knew something was going on, and it looks like we all got alerted.”

  “I’ll explain later,” Beverly said to Charlie, who had looked at her with eyebrows raised. “There are more important things to talk about right now.”

  “I think we should call for a general meeting,” said Emory. “If Julia is right, there could be serious “wayshun” or whatever she called it.”

  The others nodded.

  “I think we also need to get Malcolm back home, and quick,” said Beverly, looking over at Charlie.

  “What for?” Joan asked.

  “Because. Right now we have anywhere between ten and twelve unpopped kids in our community. They could be leaking just like Charlie is. Sorry, honey. The reason we all got a little excited back there was that it sounded like you had the kind of dream you can have when you’re in prime need of popping. Things leak out. Like it did in the kitchen in California. When a lot of leaking like that happens, it’s best to be popped. The longer you wait, the harder it might be to do.

  “Anyway, these kids are at their prime, and yet unprotected. They’re probably giving off some sort of signal to Grace and her people. If we pop them…”

  “Then we’re just asking for trouble,” Joan interrupted. “It’s like giving kids a loaded gun. They won’t know how to use it.”

  “Joan, you and I have been over this. Thousands of times! They already are loaded guns. With the safety lock on. Who’s to say that something can’t come along and knock off the safety? We’ve got to pop these kids and teach them how to defend themselves.”

  “It’s too dangerous rushing in to it like this. You know how wild it can be to have a few popped kids all at once. But twelve? Do we have the capacity to handle it?” Joan asked, rubbing her hands together in worry.

  “I don’t know,” said his aunt. “I honestly don’t. But Grace is forcing our hand. If we don’t act now, the whole community could be in jeopardy.”

  Chapter 37

  Charlie had a hard time staying awake in school the next day. Chen Laoshi’s class was the easiest, since it was the first period of the day, and also because several students kept patting him on the back and calling him a foosball star.

  “Chen Laoshi, Chen Laoshi, you should have seen him! Hen hao, hen hao!” they said. She simply smiled before turning everyone’s attention back to their newest chapter dealing with Chinese measure words. Charlie had wondered if Chen Laoshi would seem different this morning, but she was her usual self, insisting that the students pronounce the strange words and use correct tones.

  By the time he went to Biology, he was exhausted.

  His lab partner, a thin, quiet boy named Jarrod, had to nudge him a few times in the side to wake him up.

  “Sorry,” Charlie whispered to the other boy. “Slept badly last night.”

  “I hear ya dude, I hear ya,” Jarrod said, sounding more like a worldly old man than a fifteen-year old science geek.

  Each time the bell rang and he walked from the classroom out into the hallway, he half-hoped and half-worried that he’d see Diego waiting for him. But the boy never showed up. Charlie was torn. He felt very awkward about what happened the night before in the car, and wasn’t looking forward to facing Diego again. But he was afraid that their short friendship had come to an end due to a misunderstanding. The more he thought about it, the more he realized how unhappy he’d be if they weren’t friends anymore.

  Beverly had asked him to text her a few times during the day at school, just to make sure he was all right. She said that Chen Laoshi would be watching out for things, and that there were a few others at the school who were community members and could keep an eye out for anyone unwelcome entering the school’s premises. When he asked her who the others were, she just smiled and said he’d learn over time.

  “But text me anyway, okay? It’ll make your old aunt relax a bit.”

  He thought about how she’d single-handedly taken care of the two intruders the night before. “Old Aunt” certainly wasn’t the description that came to mind. Tony’s “Ninja witch” seemed more accurate.

  Over the next two days, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Beverly told him that Malcolm was cutting his trip short and would be back soon. She and some of the others had gone from home to home, making new wards to protect the members of their community. Other than that, there was nothing else they could do.

  “I know they say that the best defense is a good offense,” she said over dinner one night, “but we wouldn’t even know where to begin to strike.”

  “Well, from what you all say about her, Grace will probably be giving plenty of opportunities for more points of contact soon,” added Randall. They finished the rest of their meal in silence.

  On Thursday after school, two days after the Tanners’ party and the attempted kidnapping, Charlie heard a familiar voice as he gathered his things from his locker and got ready to walk home.

  “Hi Charlie.”

  He turned to see Diego standing next to his locker. Fear mixed with excitement, worry blended with anticipation, all of it flashed through his chest before he could even register any of it. But the simple pleasure of seeing the other boy won out, and he felt his mouth curve into a smile.

  “Diego. Hi.”

  “How ya doing?”

  “Good, good. Um, hey, it’s good to see you,” Charlie said. “Really good.”

  “Yeah? Well, likewise, my friend. Likewise. Look, sorry about the other night. I shouldn’t have…”

  “You shouldn’t have apologized, and you don’t need to now,” Charlie said.

  “No, wait, that’s not what I mean. I shouldn’t have…um, can we go outside, maybe talk somewhere else?”

  “Yeah, yeah, sure.”

  They left through the main door and down the side walkway, which led to the rear of the school and the large sports field. The girls’ soccer team was warming up at the far end.

  They sat down on the side of a hill above the field. Charlie could see the Olympic mountain range in the distance. He had begun to look at it every day. Unlike Mt. Rainier, which was often invisible due to cloud cover, the peaks of the Olympics were clear nearly every day. He liked the regularity of the view.

  A massive maple tree towered over the street corner. Charlie noticed that several of its leaves had begun to shed their summer green, their edges showing yellow and red. It was hard to imagine fall colors among all the green in the area. He wondered if things would look very different.

  “What I wanted to say,” Diego continued, “was that I’m sorry for not being around the last few days.”

  “There’s no need to…”

  “Just hear me out, okay? I got scared, Charlie. And I felt stupid. I should have told you directly that I was gay. I chickened out, and instead said what I did about being president of the GSA. That was pretty bogus of me. Anybody can be president. It doesn’t mean you’re straight, gay, or whatever. I was kind of speaking in code, because I was worried.

  “The fact that you didn’t know isn’t your fault. I should have been up front about it.”

  A crow squawked in the tree above them, and both boys looked up.

  “Then I felt really stupid about what happened Tuesday night, and too embarrassed to see you after that. But I’ve talked to Tawny about it these last few days, and she said I should just tell you, instead of avoiding you.”

  “Oh. I’m glad you did, Diego. I felt stupid
about the other night too. And then I thought I’d been, you know, a total jerk, and pissed you off or something, and you didn’t want to be friends anymore.”

  Diego laughed. “And here I thought you didn’t want to be friends with me.”

  “I guess we both got kind of worried, huh?”

  A soccer ball came flying through the air toward the hill where they sat.

  “Block those balls, Melissa!” Diego yelled as he jumped up, grabbed the ball, and threw it back.

  “Thanks, guapo,” said a girl in the goal box.

  “She’s a senior this year, and’ll probably get a scholarship anywhere she wants for soccer,” he told Charlie as he sat down again. “She’s the best girls’ goalie this school has ever seen, and has turned everybody at PA into fans. The games are packed!”

  They didn’t say anything for a long time. They watched the girls practice and listened to the coach yelling at them.

  Charlie had a feeling Diego was used to talking more than being silent.

  “You want to go for a hike sometime?” he asked Diego.

  “Yeah. Where?”

  “Well, it’s not very big, but I’ve been taking Amos, my aunt and uncle’s dog, down to Carson Park.”

  “Cool. I haven’t been there in a long time. Have you been to Lincoln Park yet?”

  “No, where’s that?”

  “It’s down by the Fauntleroy ferry dock. Carson Park has more windy trails and stuff. Lincoln Park is much bigger. It runs along the Sound. Anyway, yeah, cool, I’d love to go to Carson Park. When?”

  They decided on a hike after school the next day, as long as Diego wasn’t busy. Apparently his uncle came over from Yakima on a weekly basis, and Diego would help him out at a few of the farmers markets in the area. His uncle hadn’t told him yet whether or not he’d need the help.

  “That reminds me, about Lincoln Park, going on hikes and stuff. There’s something else I want to tell you, since I’m just outing myself anyway,” said Diego, then smiled and looked shy at the same time. “I’m a witch, Charlie, and I thought you should know.”

  Chapter 38

  Charlie felt his jaw drop. How hadn’t he known? Why hadn’t Beverly told him? Was this one of those surprises he had to figure out on his own at school? It didn’t make any sense. Why wouldn’t she have told him? Maybe it was the same way nobody had said anything about Chen Laoshi.

  Diego laughed hard. “You look shocked, Charlie. Don’t be so surprised. It’s not like it’s a creepy, black-hat-and-broomstick kind of thing. Have you ever heard of Wicca? It’s an earth-based religion. I became a witch a few years ago.”

  Charlie was having trouble keeping up with the conversation. “Is your mom a witch too?” he whispered, looking over his shoulder.

  “You don’t have to whisper, Charlie. People at school know. We even have Wicca meetings once a month.

  “Anyway, no, my mom isn’t. She’s Catholic. Like everyone else in our family. I was raised that way. But I didn’t want to go to Mass anymore. Tawny got into Wicca in middle school, just to piss off her parents, and then she really started to enjoy it. She explained it to me one day, and it just made sense. We started doing outdoor rituals, and I really liked it.”

  “What kind of rituals?” Charlie asked, beginning to wonder if Diego’s concept of “witch” was different from his own.

  “You know, nature stuff. The four elements, asking the gods for help with stuff like our parents, or school. We also ask for help to be the best people we can be.

  “It’s not black magic, Charlie, so you don’t have to worry about that. There’s this law in Wicca called the Three-fold Way, or the Law of Three. It says that whatever you put out into the world comes back at you three-fold, so if you wish something bad on someone, it comes back to you three times as bad. So we just concentrate on good stuff. Stuff for our friends, our family, the world, you know.

  “Am I creeping you out?” he asked.

  Charlie looked at his face. He had a square chin with a dimple in the middle of it. The rule at PA was that the boys had to shave everyday. Diego’s beard was thick enough that by the end of the day, his jawline and sideburns, as well as the skin above his upper lip, grew dark. Charlie barely even had peach fuzz, and felt like a little boy sitting next to Diego.

  After a moment Charlie laughed. “No, no,” he said, shaking his head. He was glad he hadn’t said anything about Beverly and his mother, or his own legacy. “Um, it sounds pretty cool.”

  “Yeah, it is. If you want to, you could come to a ritual some time. But I’m not trying to get you to join, k? It’s not like a church where we go around trying to recruit members.”

  Three upperclassmen were walking up the sidewalk back toward school.

  “Hey Ramirez, ¿Quién está contigo? ¿Tu novia? ¿Tu pareja?” one of the boys yelled.

  “Just ignore them, okay Charlie?” Diego whispered, looking angry and turning his face away from the boys.

  “What did he say?”

  “Just forget it. He’s being stupid is all.”

  “¡Qué maricones! Bésa le, Diego. ¡Dale un besito!” The three boys started walking toward them.

  A sharp whistle cracked through the air. Charlie looked down the hill and saw the soccer coach walking up toward them, whistle in her mouth, a stern look on her face.

  “Diego, everything all right? Is Julio giving you trouble?”

  The upperclassmen stared at Diego and Charlie. One of them smiled.

  “Naw, we’re not bothering them. Just saying ‘hi’ is all.”

  “Diego, is that true?” Asked the coach, her eyes narrowing.

  “Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Just saying ‘hi’.”

  “Because remember, PA has a zero-tolerance policy. All you have to do is…”

  “Thanks, Mrs. Raymond. It’s cool,” said Diego, looking up at her with a neutral expression.

  “All right then. Just keep it peaceful, boys. And there won’t be any trouble.”

  Charlie watched her as she walked back down the hill.

  “You his little boy toy, kid?” said one of the other guys.

  “More like butt toy,” said Julio, and they all laughed.

  “Or maybe…?” said the other guy, making a gesture with his hand and his mouth that Charlie didn’t understand.

  “Come on Charlie, let’s get out of here,” said Diego, standing up.

  “Oh ‘Charlie,’ is it? Don’t you mean ‘Charlie Darling’”?

  “Dude, come on,” Diego insisted, and started walking off.

  “Better watch yourself, boy,” said the third guy, as Charlie turned to go. “Faggots like you don’t last long around here.”

  Chapter 39

  Diego squeezed the steering wheel until the blood faded from his knuckles.

  “That Law of Three is hard to follow sometimes. I know I’m just supposed to take a deep breath, listen to the air outside, feel my feet on the ground, all that crap. But I want to smack those guys. They don’t have to take deep breaths. They get away with whatever they want.”

  There was a crack in the boy’s voice, and Charlie wondered if Diego was going to start crying.

  The two boys sat in the school parking lot, in Diego’s car, a compact blue Honda stick shift with pamphlets and fliers and other pieces of paper covering the floor and the backseat.

  Faggots like you don’t last long around here.

  Charlie could still hear the threat behind those words. His mind filled with the familiar image of Ted Jones’s face. Imagining the football player’s high school photo was becoming a habit. He wished he’d never seen the news story that day.

  Charlie was scared. Were those guys talking about him behind his back, telling everyone that he was Diego’s boyfriend? Would they cause him trouble too?

  He thought about getting popped. He wanted it to happen fast. If he could do to those boys what his aunt had done…Well, maybe he wouldn’t, since he needed to keep things a secret. But still. He wouldn’t be as afraid th
en. And maybe he could help Diego too.

  “Charlie, look,” Diego said, “I don’t want you to have trouble here at school. You’re new and you’re just trying to figure everything out. Most of the people here are cool, but there are some idiots, like Julio and Dave Giraldi. They’ve made it hard for me at times, but always on the side, you know? So no one else really ever sees?

  “Anyway, maybe you shouldn’t be seen with me. Those guys’ll just bother you and…I don’t want you to have trouble, is all.”

  Charlie, who saw himself as a shy person, afraid to express his opinion, who always wanted to hide out and not be noticed by anyone, surprised himself by what he said next.

  “No way, Diego. I’ll be friends with whoever (“whomever,” he heard his mother’s voice correcting his English) I want to be, and be seen with anybody I want to. I didn’t come all this way to Seattle just to hide out.”

  He couldn’t believe he’d said that. He had come to Seattle to hide out.

  No, that wasn’t exactly true. His mother had brought him here to hide out. It hadn’t been his decision.

  He thought about how he’d always hidden from things: hoping adults wouldn’t talk to him or ask him questions, hoping he wouldn’t become the center of attention. And then, his mother just continued it by dragging him off to some city where he’d never been before and hiding him away, like some stupid witness protection program.

  Wait. Shouldn’t he be more cautious? Look at what happened Tuesday night. Shouldn’t he lay low, and make sure people couldn’t find him?

  But trying to hide hadn’t worked. The Dog Man found them in California. The witches broke into Beverly and Randall’s home. People seemed to know where he was. So he might as well accept the fact that hiding didn’t work, and figure something else out instead.

  Charlie wasn’t used to such blunt self talks. It felt strange, and strangely invigorating. They seemed to be happening more often these days, and often times when he was hanging out with Diego.

  “I want to be friends with you. That’s my decision, not Julio’s, not anybody else’s,” he said, looking at Diego, surprised by the fierceness in his voice.

  The other boy stared at him, his mouth open. Then he smiled. “Dude! You are so, like, righteous right now. Wow! I didn’t know you were that tough!”