When The Chips Are Down

by Aiden Vaughan

  “So what you are proposing is that we exchange information when one of us needs it. You are also requesting that we informally help each other out when it is possible.”

  “Yes, Jason, and it is important that we keep our relationship and the information that we find out and exchange confidential. Many times the situations are sensitive and we are better off if others don’t know we are collaborating. Luckily we both have public positions where it would be normal for us to communicate on a superficial basis.”

  “I suppose it is flattering for me, a young teenager, to be asked to be part of your network. I must say I am still hesitant about it, because it just seems that I would have one more complication in my life, one more thing to keep me away from just having a normal life with my family and friends.”

  “That is an admirable attitude that you have about life, and one that I find very unusual, given the way that most people fawn over the media. But look at things realistically, Jason. If you continue to help people out through your detective work or the activities of your foundation, you know that there will continue to be times when the media will need to be informed about what is going on. The fact that you already have a publicist is testimony to that. And like it or not, you have already achieved some celebrity status. So consider our proposed arrangement to be one of the perks of being a local hero. Remember that our arrangement would be a two way street.”

  “You are persuasive, Jaime. But how do we keep this under cover?”

  “What I would suggest is that we have two types of communication. If the information that either one of us is seeking is normal, above board kind of stuff, we could just call each other and talk, just like you would do with your friends and acquaintances. For sensitive situations we would have code words or phrases that we use to set up a private conversation, either personally or on the telephone.”

  “That sounds like a good plan,” Jason said with a positive tone to his voice. “It seems like you have things well thought out.”

  “Thank you, Jason. I think we could be very helpful to each other in the future. Are you willing to go ahead with this arrangement?”

  Jason said “yes”, and they shook hands on their agreement. They double checked the cell phone numbers that they would use for contacts and set up a confidential communication method for sensitive situations.

  For Jason it was “I am scheduling another chucks giveaway for the Whatever Foundation. Would you like to cover it on the news?”

  For Jaime, it was “Jason, we would like to do a story on you for our Weekend Lifestyles feature. Are you available for an interview?”

  Jason and Jaime finished up their meeting with some more informational small talk. Jaime asked Jason about the methods he used to brainstorm when working on a case, and Jason asked Jaime how he was able to become a television news reporter at such a young age. Soon it was time for them to leave. “It’s been a pleasure to meet you, Jason,” Jaime said shaking hands, “and I look forward to collaborating with you in the future.”

  “Thanks for the cola, Jaime. I’ve enjoyed meeting you as well, and will look forward to working with you also. Take care.” Outside the restaurant, Jason got back on his bicycle and rode home.

  Chapter 10.

  A Day in Tim’s Life

  (Friday Evening and Saturday Morning)

  Laura’s get together after school turned out to be a lot of fun. Jason had stopped by his house on the way over to drop off his school backpack and pick up his swim trunks and a towel. Then he quickly biked over to Laura’s house. By the time he arrived, the gathering was well under way. It was great to have a social occasion with his friends that wasn’t a school activity. Jason took a quick swim, visited with Daniel, Diana, Laura and some of his other friends that were there. Laura had laid out a buffet of snack items, including chicken wings, and little sandwiches. This ended up being Jason’s dinner, as he had that appointment at the Wilkinson house later. Both of Jason’s parents were working late, so Laura’s party worked out great for him, food-wise.

  Around seven o’clock, Jason left Laura’s party and biked over to the Wilkinson’s home. When he knocked on the door, Grace answered and let him in. She brought him into the living room and introduced him to her mother, Shirley, and her stepfather, Frederick. Laura’s suggestion for a personal visit worked out perfectly. Shirley had actually heard a lot about Jason from the news stories and his network special, so she was pleased to meet him. Jason broke the ice by telling her a little about the Ethan Savage case he had worked on with Daniel last summer, and some of the things he was doing to help teenagers with his foundation.

  Jason then steered the conversation around to the activities of the Wilkinson family. Shirley seemed pleased that he would ask, and responded by talking about Grace’s many activities and how well she was doing in school, and how having Frederick in her life was making a positive difference for her. “I am so happy that Frederick and I got married. He has been such a stabilizing factor in my life, after the turbulent past few years.”

  “That sounds great, Mrs. Wilkinson,” Jason replied. “Tell me how Tim is doing. Some of his other friends and I were wondering how he was getting along. We had heard that he had been sent to some sort of boot camp after he left Merriam High.”

  “Yes, that is true, Jason. Timothy did not adjust well to all of the changes in our family life. We had gotten to such a crisis point in our family relations that we had to do something, so we ended up sending Timothy to Camp Chinquapin. From what we have been hearing, Tim is doing well at the camp.”

  “Have you been to visit him lately?”

  “No, we haven’t actually. We were going to go to visit Timothy on the next visiting day, which is Wednesday of next week, but then we received a postcard from him telling us that he is going to a special camp that specializes in group therapy to help him work out his anger problems.”

  “Have you talked with him on the phone about this?”

  “No, kids enrolled in the camp are not allowed to have access to cell phones, computers, or television. But they are encouraged to write us every week, and I have been writing him back regularly. In fact I have a stack of his postcards and letters telling us about how he is getting along in camp, and how he is being sent to the anger management training which takes place at another camp location back east. Let me show you!” Shirley went over to a desk in the corner of the room and pulled out a stack of recent correspondence. “Here, Jason, look at these,” she said handing the cards and letters to him.

  Jason looked through a couple of the cards. They were written in a small cursive script. They seemed like typical “I’m here at camp having a good time” type of postcards that a kid would send from summer camp. Jason asked, “Would it be possible for me to borrow this mail to show some of Tim’s friends who are concerned about him?”

  “Sure, why not,” Shirley replied. “I know his going to the camp occurred suddenly and we had no time to prepare for it or tell any of his friends. He was also starting to hang out with a bad group of kids. We didn’t want him to be associating with that crowd anymore. We weren’t really sure who we should let know, because his behavior had been alienating a lot people. I’m sure you would know who the good kids are!”

  * * * * *

  The next day, Jason returned to the foster home where Teresa lived. Jason showed the cards and letters to Teresa to see what she thought about them. Teresa started reading through the mail.

  “These cards and letters don’t make any sense at all,” Teresa stated after looking at a couple of cards. “Maybe they have already brainwashed Tim or something, because he would never say or do the things described in them.

  “Here are some examples of what I mean,” Teresa continued. “This one describes how much fun Tim has been having playing on the camp baseball team.

  “He absolutely hates playing baseball, because when he was a kid on a Little League team, he got hit in his head with a baseball and had to be treated for a concussion. Eve
r since then he has totally avoided the game. And this card talks about one of the camp social events where he enjoyed being with the other kids and listening to his favorite songs like ‘Achy Breaky Heart’, and ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today’. Tim absolutely despises country music, and hates forced social events.

  “Look at this letter!” Teresa was now getting quite upset. “Tim talks about how one of the counselors is exactly like his favorite teacher at school, Miss Lindeman. In reality Miss Lindeman and Tim never got along on even a basic level. He would be disruptive in her classroom and she would constantly write referrals about him to the administration.

  “These postcards aren’t like Tim at all! They have to be a cry out for help! Please, Jason, please. I am begging you! Check this out and help Tim. I think he is in desperate trouble!” Teresa seemed visibly upset after her outburst. There were tears in her eyes.

  Jason looked her in the eyes and asked, “You really have a lot of feeling for Timothy. How long have you two had a serious relationship? What else can you tell me about him?”

  Teresa continued in a very emotional voice. “We have known each other for a little over a year now. Timothy and I are a lot alike. We are the outcasts. Me, because I was abandoned by my mother and never knew my father. Now I am a ward of the state and sent from one foster home to another. And Tim, because he has a lot of problems with adult authority, and felt abandoned by his parents after their divorce. I know most of the kids think that Tim is a real jerk, because of his bad attitude all the time, but I know his other side, his true character. I am one of the few people who understand him and he is one of the few persons who has actually cared for me! When he was taken away to that boot camp, I was devastated. Now I fear that something really bad has happened to Tim! I know I am asking a lot of you, and it’s probably way out of line, because we only met yesterday, but I am desperate. I don’t know who else to go to!”

  “Your concerns seem justified, based on what you have told me about Tim. I remember from the few experiences we had together in school that for him to write what he did in those postcards, he would have had to completely change his attitude about a lot of things. I am surprised that his mother didn’t notice that some of the things he said were totally against the grain of his personality.”

  “I think that his mother doesn’t want to really know what is happening to Tim. I believe that she must have some guilt inside for what she did. Tim was such a thorn in her side that she was happy to get rid of him for a while. I don’t think that she wants to dig too deeply into anything regarding Tim! For her, it is better not to know what is going on with her son.”

  “My friend Daniel and I are going up to the Yosemite area next week, and could stop by Camp Chinquapin. We could use the visitor passes that were enclosed with one of the letters for the open house. But I am not exactly sure how we can help him. From what you have said and what was written in the last postcard, Tim is no longer at that camp. He has been sent elsewhere for anger management training.”

  “Jason, I really believe that ‘anger management training’ is some sort of solitary confinement or extreme prison. Why would they go to all the expense of sending Tim away to another camp back east when they could just run the training right there. I am sure that a good portion of the camp inmates have serious anger issues. And why does going to anger management training mean that Tim is suddenly cut off from all contact with the outside world?”

  “Those are serious charges you are making, Teresa. Do you have any other proof than what you interpret from the letters I just showed you?”

  “Yes, in the very last letter I received from Tim, he wrote, ‘I have been thinking about things, and I wish that I could be more like George Washington. But unfortunately life conspires against me in that regard.’ Sometimes when we would talk over things, Tim would bring up the story of George Washington and the legend of the cherry tree, and how the conclusion of the story was Washington saying, ‘I cannot tell a lie.’ He would laugh about the story because it seemed so phony to him. By writing that ‘life conspires against me in that regard’ he was telling me that he was being forced to tell a lot of lies! I am positive that this anger management camp is one of those lies!”

  “All right, Daniel and I will go and visit the camp and try to check things out,” Jason assured Teresa. “I can’t promise you anything more than that. Chances are that we won’t be able to find out very much. Maybe at least we can discover where this new camp is located.”

  “Thank you so much, Jason,” Teresa answered with relief in her voice. “I feel better about things already knowing that someone is at least going to check into what has happened to Tim.”

  Chapter 11

  The Band

  (Saturday)

  Saturday morning Daniel and Eric rode their bikes over to the YMCA and did a workout together. First they did warm-ups, and then spent some time on the treadmills. They did about twenty minutes of weight lifting on some of the machines in the work out room, and then finished their workout with a swim in the pool. During the past year, the two boys usually scheduled a workout together at least once a week.

  After the workout, they went over to Daniel’s house, got a couple of cold drinks from the refrigerator, then went to Daniel’s room to hang out and talk for a while. “You know, Daniel,” Eric said, “we need to get serious about forming a band. We have talked about it in the past, but we need to start putting something together. The summer is coming up soon, and we would have time to get started with some rehearsals.”

  “You are right, Eric. It is time to start getting our act together. There is so much to do, however, it seems overwhelming at first. Who is going to be in the band? What is the focus of the group? What kind of material will be performed? Where are we going to rehearse?”

  “I think that the band needs to be focused around your talents, Daniel. You are the one with the vocal talent. You also can play guitar, so already two key parts are there.”

  “And you know I want you to be the bass player, Eric. I have enjoyed working with you in the jazz band at school this year. Your hard work in that group shows me you have what it takes to succeed.”

  Eric smiled at the praise. “This has been such a great year for me. I still feel I owe you and Jason so much for what you have done to help me be successful here. And those bass lessons have really helped me improve my skills as a musician.”

  “Little did I know when Jason asked me to go with him down to Springdale that fateful day last summer that I would be finding the future bass player for my band! Now you have so much positive energy and such a good attitude about things that I know you will be an asset to any musical group.”

  Eric held up knuckles to Daniel after the compliment. “I know that we can work well together, but we need to think about other musicians for the band. How big do we want to go, and what other instruments do we need?”

  “I think that the material we chose is a big factor in that, and I think that a good drummer and keyboard player would be essential,” Daniel said. “But where do we find the right people?”

  “I would imagine that the best way would be to network to find people,” Eric replied. “And why not start with our friends at school and people we know that are happening musicians?”

  “That is a good idea, Eric. To get the right people we would need to have a direction and focus for the band. Are we going to focus on original material and making recordings, or do we want to be a party and club band, play a lot of covers, and concentrate on entertainment?”

  “I would think that the long term goal would have to be developing original material, writing songs and creating our own sound. I know that is the hardest thing to do, but when you look at the recordings of most big name groups, that is what you see, original songs and arrangements.”

  “But what style should we go for?” Daniel persisted.

  “I don’t know for sure, but doesn’t it make sense to just start doing music that we like and want to perform?” Er
ic responded. “You know, start jamming together on simple tunes, select the songs that work out the best, and put together some arrangements for performance.”

  “Eric, I think you have hit on exactly what we should start doing! Let’s agree to have regular weekly or twice a week rehearsals where we do just that: bring in material and jam on it, get it written down somehow so we can remember it and also copyright it if it is original. For my birthday, I talked my parents into buying music notation software so I can start writing out arrangements and compositions.”

  “That is a good idea, Daniel. If we have all of our ideas written down, then it is pretty easy to make arrangements and parts for other musicians. I also think we need to look at recording technologies for our work sessions. After we rehearse each week, we should record what we have accomplished that day on a digital recorder. You can get pretty good quality ones for two or three hundred dollars, and the recording media is very inexpensive.”

  “Another cost to absorb,” Daniel replied, “but obviously a very important one. That’s a very good idea you just had. We should be documenting our progress by regular recording sessions, even if they are very simple.”

  “We can start with simple digital recordings on data cards until we save up the money for better recording equipment. We also need to look at putting together a sound system for our performances. Again we are looking at some big expenses here to get quality equipment,” Eric added.

  “We should also look at the possibility of getting someone to run sound for us on a regular basis,” Daniel said, upping the stakes. “That person would need to have a good ear and know a lot about electronics.”

  “Wow, Daniel, this is starting to get complicated already, and we haven’t even started yet!”

  “Bringing a dream to reality always takes a lot of work, Eric. When Lieutenant Garcia, Jason and I were driving down to Monterey last summer to look for Ethan Savage, his back up guitar player Marlon Giunetti came with us. We were all so surprised to find out how much work was involved in a band tour. Everybody has this idea that working in a band and touring on the road is one non-stop party! Trust me, it’s not!”