by James Ross
“This might be more excitement than I wanted tonight,” Justin said. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Let’s hit it.” The two boys exited the garage and headed into the summer night. “Let’s stay off the sidewalk,” Keith urged. “The street lights will bring too much attention to us.”
“And you don’t think the full moon won’t?” Justin asked. “There’s no place to hide out here tonight.”
“Come on. We’ll stay between houses until we get to the old man’s place.” The two boys jumped in and out of bushes. “ . . . And stay low. Don’t get caught peeping through any windows.”
“I hope that some neighbor doesn’t see us carrying these paint ball guns,” Justin whispered. “It would be easy to be mistaken for a burglar right now.”
“Stay away from the yards that have dogs,” Keith urged. “There’s nobody out here right now. We’ll get over to the creek and come in from the back.” Keith’s confidence seemed to rub off on Justin. “Once we get down there, no one will be able to know what we’re up to.”
With a couple of quick moves and a fast sprint the boys made for the woods and the safe haven of the creek line. The trees shielded them from the bright moonlight and a ditch provided the opportunity to progress freely. They didn’t have to worry about being detected. “Now we should be home free,” Keith stated.
The two teenagers dodged their way through the darkness. The sounds of the crickets and locusts broke the silence. Occasionally a dog barked in the distance tearing into the nighttime air. Justin walked into a spider web strategically woven between two trees. The silk caused an anxious moment when it contacted his face, but he quickly disabled the trap.
“This creek runs behind the old guy’s house,” Keith said. “We’re almost there. Then we’ll be able to do some damage under the cover of these trees.”
“Then let’s get the job done in a hurry and get back to your place. My mom will really scream at me if I don’t get home at a decent time.”
“Quit your whining about your mommy,” Keith mimicked a female voice. He came up out of the ditch and made his way to several bushes that hid his movement. With a hand gesture he motioned for Justin to join him. “He probably isn’t even home,” Keith commented as they viewed the back of the house. No lights came from the windows.
“Maybe he just went to bed early,” Justin suggested, his mind thinking it wasn’t too early to back out of this adventure.
“Quit worrying about things. We can’t miss the back of the house for anything. A few pop-pops against the siding and maybe we’ll paint our own Pistachio.”
“You mean Picasso,” Justin corrected. He wasn’t an art scholar but even he knew this much.
“Whatever.” Keith loaded the paint pellets into the chamber. In an instant he raised the gun up and took aim. Rat-ta-tat-tat rang out as paint pellets sprayed the back of the old man’s house.
“Darn!” Justin snapped. “Now we’re really in too deep,” he said as he realized that this adventure might have become more than what he had bargained for. “I’m not so sure I want to be a sniper.”
“Hurry up!” Keith whispered back. “Let’s do the damage and get out of here.” He reloaded more paint pellets, took aim once again, and blasted the back of the house a second time.
“Be careful,” Justin said, “you might put a window out.”
“I hope I do,” Keith snapped back. “That’ll cost him a few bucks then.”
Oh God, now what am I going to do? Justin thought. The point of no return had been reached. He loaded some paint pellets into his own paint gun, pointed the gun at the back of the house and pulled the trigger.
Rat-ta-tat-tat. Rat-ta-tat-tat. The capsules exploded against the rear of the building. A rush of energy enveloped him. He loaded more pellets into the gun and fired again. Bang! The sound exploded in the night air. A rear window exploded when one of the frozen pellets blasted against it, sending shattered glass everywhere.
Justin looked at Keith with a mixed look of awe and fright. The boys giggled together as they reveled in their success. “I can’t believe that just happened,” Justin blurted.
“That was cool!” Keith exclaimed as he thrust his fist toward Justin to offer kudos for a job well done. Justin returned the gesture. Keith reloaded his paint gun and sprayed the back wall of the home as a new wave of courage spread through him. “That’s nothing compared to the shot that you just landed!” Time after time after time the boys restocked their guns and blasted the rear of McCormick’s house. “This ought to teach the old guy a lesson.”
“Yeah, but we better not press our luck,” Justin said. “We did what we set out to do.” A feeling of apprehension was starting to creep into his conscience. His lucky shot had actually created a bit of uneasiness.
“Just a few more and we can get out of here,” Keith urged, lost to the thrill of it and lost to the passage of time. The bursting paint pellets against a passive target reverberated against the nighttime calm. Rat-ta-tat-tat. Rat-ta-tat-tat. “Just a few more rounds and we’re out of here.”
“I wish you wouldn’t press our luck,” Justin cried. “We’ve done enough.”
Keith reloaded more paint pellets. He steadied the gun and took aim at the back of the house. The bright light from the full moon illuminated the target and provided him with an opportunity to zero in on the glass sliding door on the patio.
Suddenly, before Keith could get a final shot off, a bright spotlight lit up the entire back yard and tree line. “Drop your weapons and put your hands above your head,” a voice blared from a police loudspeaker.
“Dammit!” Keith cried.
“What are we going to do now?” Justin cried.
“I’m going to get the hell down the road,” Keith answered. He turned and moved quickly through the trees and underbrush. “I’m out of here.”
“You can’t do that,” Justin said. “We’re in this together.”
“Not anymore. You’re on your own.”
What am I going to do now? Justin thought. He glanced over his shoulder and looked as his friend disappeared into the night. The bright spotlight captured his image in the trees. There was no point in trying to escape. Realizing that he was caught, Justin dropped his paint gun and stretched his arms to the sky. Having arrived safely and relatively untainted into his thirteenth year, Justin Ventimiglia was a few seconds away from his first brush with the law.
CHAPTER THREE
The holdover cell at the local police department wasn’t anything like the Hilton or Marriott, or Best Western for that matter. Concrete floors and gray cinder block walls weren’t exactly the images that Justin wanted etched in his mind as his summer vacation began. Neither was the two-inch thick single mattress that had been thrown onto a metal frame bracketed to the wall, or the stainless steel sink and toilet that looked as icy and impersonal as a pc screen.
The cops had noticed a second figure in the trees after the spotlight was turned on. Justin didn’t want to spill the beans on his friend, but when one of the detectives threatened him with possible obstruction of justice charges to go along with the vandalism allegations, he felt like he had no choice but to sing. Keith smirked as two policemen, one on each elbow, led him past Justin’s cell.
To make matters worse, Dave and Tina decided to let Justin spend the night in jail. Whatever was going to happen would have to wait until the morning. His heart was pounding out of his chest cavity. As Justin crawled into bed, the anxiety of what was going to happen next gnawed at him. He lay motionless on his back and stared at the ceiling. This was the last place he wanted to be on a warm summer night. What was to be would have to wait until the a. m. hours he knew, but the apprehension of it caused him to toss and turn for a few hours before he finally drifted off.
Tina Ventimiglia appeared at the police department around nine o’clock that Saturday morning. She did the necessary paperwork at the front desk and paid a couple hundred bucks to bail her son out of jail. As Justin wa
s led into the waiting area he glanced into his mother’s eyes. The glare she returned was a clear indication that she was pissed. Justin buried his face into his hands and waited until she received the release papers
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Tina yelled before the front door to the police station closed behind them. Her Italian heritage automatically ignited an emotional verbal assault before she could stop and think things through.
“I don’t know,” Justin murmured. “It sounded like fun.”
“You’re my model child . . . my baby!” Tina cried. “You were the last one that I would expect this out of.” Just as the last words were uttered, the automatic sprinklers popped up along the sidewalk and propelled a stream of water that scored a direct hit on her purse. “Dammit!”
Justin winced as he opened the passenger-side door of the SUV. When his mother talked like this it was always a sure sign that something unpleasant was around the corner. Justin gingerly climbed into the passenger seat and carefully closed the door. He wrinkled his nose and placed his hand up to his left temple. If nothing else, it would serve as a barrier to the oral onslaught that he was about to receive.
“I want an explanation for what happened last night!” Tina shouted as she slammed the car door. She turned another glare at her youngest son and fumbled through her purse for the car keys. “Look at this purse! It’s drenched! There’s got to be an inch of water in the bottom of it.” Tina’s frustration was reaching a new crescendo. “Where are my keys?”
One by one Tina took items out of her purse. She handed her pocketbook to Justin. Next, her checkbook and then, her charge cards. Tina handed her make-up kit to him and a bottle of prescription drugs. “Where are those keys?” she shouted.
“Mom . . .”
“What?” Tina yelled back.
“They’re already in the ignition,” Justin replied meekly.
Tina glanced at the steering wheel column and saw that her car keys were dangling, already in place. “How did they get there?”
“You had them in your hand and put them there before you shut the door,” Justin said in his most controlled and docile voice.
“See what you make me do!” Tina screamed. “It’s all your fault!”
Justin placed his right hand on his forehead. He worked his fingers across his brow and then pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. This is going to be a rough day, and there’s not a whole heckuva lot I can do about it.
“Now you listen to me, young man.” Justin cringed at what might come next. Whenever she called him a young man it usually meant that he was going to get grounded for a long time. “If you think for a minute that we’re going to push this little episode under the table and everything is going to be alright, then you’ve got another thing coming.”
“I didn’t hardly sleep last night, Mom. I know I messed things up.”
“Messed things up?” Tina hollered back incredulously. Justin cowered. “We don’t even have a damage report yet. The police have put up crime-scene tape. They were going to go over to Mr. McCormick’s house during the daylight hours and try to get an estimate for what the total amount of vandalism is to the house,” Tina squealed. “And that’s before the insurance adjuster gets to the scene.”
“Is Dave mad?” Justin knew the answer to the question. He just thought that he’d throw it out with the hopes that his new step-dad would be understanding.
“What do you think?” Tina answered a question with a question. She noticed Justin squirm at her response. Her anger at him eased a bit. She knew that what was waiting for Justin at home was going to be far worse than any punishment the law could administer.
“Come on, Mom. Don’t do this to me. Drive around some,” Justin urged. “Let’s go shopping or something.” Even though he despised the shopping malls he figured that was a better alternative than going immediately home and facing Dave’s wrath.
“You’re lucky that I talked him into not going down to the station with me,” Tina said.
“Have a heart. I’ll do anything to keep from going home right now.”
“You’ll have to face him sooner or later. You might as well walk through the door and get it over with.”
“Tell him that I’ll pay for all the damage even if it means that I’ll have to work all summer for nothing,” Justin pleaded.
“You can tell him yourself,” Tina shot back.
“Don’t let him hit me, Mom.” Justin knew that Dave’s anger flared at the smallest thing.
“He won’t do that. But don’t be surprised if you’re going to be grounded for a long time,” Tina stressed.
“That’s just going to make a bad situation worse.” The last thing that Justin wanted was to have his summer vacation start off inside the confines of his bedroom.
“Hey, you were the one that put yourself in this jam,” Tina replied. She could sense the remorse from her youngest son and softened further.
“I’ll get things fixed, Mom. Just help me through this mess. Let Dave know that I’m truly sorry for what happened and I want to fix what I did wrong,” Justin begged. He could see their driveway coming into view.
Tina looked across the front seat of the vehicle into her son’s face and saw his sincerity. She reached over and grabbed his hand. “We’ll figure something out, Honey.”
“More than anything else, I’m really sorry I let you down, Mom,” Justin said as he covered the welling tears with his free hand.
“You and I both know how much we’ve helped each other. Maybe there is a solution to get around this jam we’re in. Every little boy is entitled to one mistake growing up I guess,” Tina said calmly. As the SUV pulled into their driveway her mind was hard at work trying to figure out a fitting resolution to this predicament.
CHAPTER FOUR
Dave Galati was a bull of a man with the barrel chest to prove it. His domineering personality had been developed through the school of hard knocks on the south side of St. Louis. That, and his blue-collar mentality from years of work at the world’s largest brewery, defined the essence of his existence. There was no gray area in Dave’s world. It was all black and white.
Why Tina had become so smitten with Dave a few years earlier was a mystery that even the shrewdest detective couldn’t figure out. It seemed as if he had met the woman of his dreams and pulled off the biggest con job since the Cardinals stole Lou Brock from the Cubs for Ernie Broglio. He told her that he loved her, loved her kids, and couldn’t live without her. Tina bought every word. After a whirlwind courtship that lasted three months, the two of them marched down the aisle. It was his third marriage and her second.
Following the trip down the red carpet everything changed. So much so that Tina had second thoughts about whether she had done the right thing. Dave moved into her home and quickly set up a strict set of rules for the household. That didn’t set well with Tina’s sons, but it was too late to annul the marriage so the group agreed to co-exist more than anything else.
What really crawled under the boys’ nails was the favoritism that Dave gave to his biological son, Ryan. Every other weekend Ryan invaded their turf. The two boys were forced to share what they had only shared with their mom for the better part of a decade. Not only did Tina’s boys have to alter their living arrangement to accommodate their step-brother Ryan, but they had to listen to the accolades that his father showered upon him.
As Tina and Justin exited the SUV and headed toward the front door Justin turned toward his mom. “It’s Ryan’s weekend with us, isn’t it?”
Tina nodded her head. “I’m afraid so.”
“That’s so not right. Now I’m going to get yelled at in front of Wonder Boy.”
“It won’t be that bad.”
“Yes it will. I know it will,” Justin frowned. “I don’t know why you married him in the first place!”
Guilt spread like wild fire through Tina’s body. For years she had raised her two boys in a loving and happy household. And no
w, with the addition of Dave and Ryan, the animosity between the males ran rampant through the home. Justin knew exactly which buttons to push to get his mom to feel sorry for him. He had confided in her many times that, in his opinion, all the problems that they had been experiencing were all her fault. “Justin, don’t start that all over again.”
“Then you help me in there! I mean it,” he wailed.
Tina muttered under her breath. In milliseconds her youngest son had manipulated her so adeptly that she actually was on his side in spite of the happenings of the night before. Not only had Justin managed to have her feel sorry for him, but he had maneuvered his point of view so delicately that she now felt guilty at what she had done a few years before. “Why do you do this to me Justin?” Tears dribbled down Tina’s cheeks. As they entered the front door she reached for a Kleenex to blow her nose.
Justin headed straight through the door and toward the hallway. Ryan was playing video games on the television. “Hi, Ryan,” Justin said cordially. Ryan raised his head and tilted it in Justin’s direction to acknowledge him. The look on his face signaled that trouble was brewing. Justin was hoping that he could get past the kitchen undetected and into the safe haven of his bedroom.
“Where do you think you’re going?” bellowed a voice from the kitchen. Justin stopped in his tracks, fearful of what might happen if he continued. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
I guess it’s time to face the music. He walked sheepishly into the kitchen. “I shouldn’t have done what I did, Sir.” Dave had told his step-sons to address him with respect after he had moved into their home.
Tina, still sniffling, followed her son into the kitchen. “Don’t be too hard on him, Dave. He knows he messed up last night.”
“ . . . To the tune of several thousand dollars. Who’s going to pay for that?” Dave’s voice boomed throughout the kitchen.
“I’ll take care of it before the summer is over,” Justin volunteered. He bowed his head, bit his lip, and stared at the floor.