“Well, I do love swimming, but I have just been getting back into it. I don’t know if I am good enough to be on a school team,” Eric replied.
“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that? I know that you came over to swim in the Friesen’s fabulous pool, so why don’t you get changed?”
A few minutes later, Eric came back out.
“Go ahead and get used to the water,” Coach James said. “Then if you don’t mind I would like to time you on 50 and 100 meter laps in the pool.”
The coach took out a stopwatch. When Eric said he was ready, the coach explained what he wanted Eric to do. “First I want you do swim a single lap of 50 meters, and then swim a lap here and back of 100 meters. Make the turn as fast as you can.”
Eric got ready, and coach gave him a ready set go for the 50 meters. Eric did the lap in 29 seconds. When Coach James clicked the stopwatch he couldn’t believe his eyes. Keeping a straight face he told Eric, “Okay, that was pretty good, but I want you to really put out your best speed for the 100 meters. Do you think you can do that?”
“Sure, Coach. I’ll try to do my best.”
This time Eric came in at 57 seconds. The coach tried to keep cool, but it was difficult.
“Eric, come here.” When Eric swam over, Coach James leaned down and said, “I think I would like you to come out for the swim team and water polo. Are you all set for school this fall? Are you registered and everything?”
“I’m not sure. My aunt hasn’t done anything yet about it, but I assume that she will be getting me registered. I really want to go to school at Merriam High along with my friends like Jason and Daniel.”
“Tell you what, Eric. I will help you expedite things if you will commit to being on the swim team. What do you say?”
“If you think I’m good enough, I’d really like to try it, Coach.”
“Trust me, you are good enough! Welcome to the team! Now go have fun with your friends.”
Soon Laura, Jason, and Rebecca joined Eric in the pool and they swam around splashing and playing games together.
Edward James went to talk with Dorothy Friesen. “Where did you find that kid? He’s amazing! He is close to record times for his age group, and he says he is out of practice! Wow!”
“Eric has been through a really tough time the past couple of years,” Dorothy told the coach, “but Jason and his friend Daniel have made him their special project this summer. They have helped him get away from a dead end life of abuse and poverty, and now Eric is turning out to be a multi-talented and wonderful person. I’m sure he will be an asset to your swimming program.”
“Let me know if they have any other reclamation projects! Thank you so much for the tip, Dorothy. I owe you a huge favor for letting me know about Eric.”
THE K CLUB
(Friday Evening)
That Friday Bill and Edith Hunter were going out for dinner and a show that they wanted to see downtown at the performing arts center. Jason told them that he just wanted to stay at home and have a couple of friends over. Jason had called and asked Daniel and Eric to come over for a special meeting. Both Daniel and Eric asked him what the meeting was about, but Jason wouldn’t say other than it was very important. He had that sound in his voice that made Daniel realize that this was some sort of command performance.
Both Daniel and Eric arrived promptly at about 7:30. After they came in, Jason ushered them into the living room and had them sit down.
“Gentlemen,” he announced in a formal sounding voice, “you are now part of the K Club, K for kidnap.”
“Why on earth would you ever want to have such a club?” Eric asked somewhat astonished. “My kidnapping was another horrible and traumatic experience for me, after a year and a half of degrading abuse. I really thought that that asshole Rogelio was going torture and kill me, after, of course, he molested the shit out of me!”
“Yeah, you had a horrible initiation,” Jason replied in a matter-of-fact voice, “but you made it through, so you are a member, whether you like it or not!”
“My experience wasn’t nearly as traumatic as the ones you two had, although it was very scary and frustrating for four or five hours,” Daniel added. “The main thing it did for me was to make me mistrust cops and other uniformed authority figures, people that I had grown to respect based on your kidnapping experience, Jason. If it wasn’t for the help of our music teacher, no one would have even believed one word I said!”
“Very true, Daniel,” Jason said, “and don’t forget, without the intervention of Chauncey and the A list kids, you and I could have become food for worms after Frank Encino and Rudy Ruggiero slowly tortured us to death!”
“I still don’t get it, Jason,” Eric said with puzzlement in his voice. “I know that I was a little out of it when you told me the details of your kidnapping, when I was reeling from that horrible attack by my stepfather. But weren’t you brutalized and traumatized, to the point where Daniel had to almost bait you into wanting to solve the mystery behind your kidnapping?”
“You are correct and very perceptive, Eric. Deciding to become a detective to solve my own kidnapping was probably the most difficult decision I had to make in my life! But once that decision was made, I was committed to finding out the truth and bringing to justice the kidnappers who put me, my family, and my friends through that week of agony.”
“Are you saying that the point of this so-called Kidnap Club is to examine the bottom line of each case and make sure that justice was served?” Daniel asked. “If we do that, clearly justice was served in your case, as your kidnappers are serving forty year prison sentences. In Eric’s case the police shot and killed Eric’s evil stepfather, which turned out to be a blessing, sparing Eric from having to relive in court the horrors of the past two years and saving the world from a predator committed to enslaving young boys. In my case, those two sheriff’s deputies and their superior who kidnapped me and left me out to dry in that barn have been given five and ten year prison terms and have been removed from the sheriff’s department. Bottom line: isn’t that a score of three out of three?”
“Maybe you are calling in the marker you and Daniel have for saving my life!” Eric responded. “There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t thank God for what you and Daniel did for me. I’m truly in your debt.”
“Eric, you are our greatest success story so far, and total proof that placing those millions of dollars into a foundation to help teenage crime victims was the right thing to do. Just seeing you here alert and alive, no longer the cowering boy we found in Springdale, but a new friend who everybody likes and who contributes to our quality of life — that alone is more than enough justification for starting the Whatever Foundation!” Jason put up his hand and gave Eric a high five. “But a scorecard of successes is not what the Kidnap Club is about.
“Out of all of my friends,” Jason went on, “you two are the only ones that share with me a unique and troubling insight: You know what it means to be a kidnapping victim! While eventually we will all recover from the physical and mental toll that every victim must deal with, we will never forget the pain and suffering we endured, or the humiliation of being held in such contempt by our captors that our personal needs, thoughts, or freedom didn’t matter. And we all have been targeted by predators! You know that predators are the worst kind of criminal because they seek to take away our normalcy, our freedom, and our innocence as they impose their perverted sexual desires or their wish to slowly torture and kill us. They want to dominate the very being of their victims, before they callously and cruelly dispose of them! Of all of my family and friends, the two of you are the only people I know beside myself who truly understand this and whose lives have been radically changed this summer because of contact with predators.
“Predators are very hard to defeat, as we all have found out this summer. And we all know what close calls we had in our battles against them! Some day a predator may come into one of our lives who is so clever and ruthless that he can
not be brought to justice by normal means. That is what the Kidnap Club is for. It is a secret agreement between the three of us to drop what we are doing, no matter how important it is, and come together to figure a way to defeat that predator. This cannot be a normal case, or something that can be handled conventionally by the authorities. You are pledging with your life and with your mind to meet this obligation for the good of society. You know that the three of us cannot go in somewhere like a SWAT team. We have to use our resourcefulness, our brainpower, our determination, and our desire to see a ruthless predator taken down if this obligation is ever called in. If you agree to this you are pledging a sacred trust to do whatever it takes to bring that predator to justice!”
After a dramatic pause in which Jason looked at each of his friends squarely in the eyes, he then said, “So, my friends, are you in?”
“I’m in!” Eric said without hesitation. “How could I not be after what has gone down in my life! But I truly hope that this Kidnap Club never has to meet again! I don’t want to ever run into another person like my stepfather.”
“And what do you say, Daniel?” Jason asked.
“Jason, you know me too well!” Daniel replied. “You have cleverly turned the tables on me like what I did to you after your kidnapping. But I’m going to surprise you and not hem and haw or even think about it overnight. The most troubling and vivid images that still haunt me are the description you gave of your kidnapping ordeal, Jason, and the story of your abuse, Eric, at the hands of your stepfather. I still get angry thinking about what those predators did to each of you. Now I know what it feels like after I got some of the same treatment from those rogue cops. And just like I said to you earlier this summer, deep down inside I know it is the right thing to do, as much as it troubles me to think of what it could involve. A predator never gives his victim a fair shot. That is why I am willing to go outside the normal channels of the law to return the favor.”
“So we are agreed, my friends?” Jason quizzed them one last time.
“Yes!” Daniel and Eric said simultaneously.
“This is a serious obligation we are taking on,” Jason said in a solemn voice, “and it calls for a little ceremony that involves both pain and pleasure. First of all we each need two calling cards to send to the others should the obligation need to be called in. I have removed the kings from this pinochle deck. I will keep the two kings of diamonds, code named Julius Caesar, me the man of one hundred diamonds and the axe to grind. Daniel, your call sign will be the kings of hearts, Charlemagne, for your loyalty and for your artistic abilities. And Eric, your call sign will be the king of clubs, as you come from simple stock and now are conquering the world like Alexander the Great. The king of spades will be saved in case we ever want to add another member to this exclusive club.” Jason then placed the six king cards face up on the table in front of him.
“To show our true commitment, each of us will place our thumbprints in blood on each of the six cards. Using a little lancet, you will each prick your finger or thumb and place a drop of blood on each card. Then place a fingerprint in each drop of blood to as a sign of your obligation. To show you both what to do, I will go first.”
Jason took one of the lancets and pricked his left index finger. After placing a drop of blood on each card, he then made a mark with his right index finger. Then Daniel and Eric followed suit. He then gave each friend a gauze swab dipped in alcohol so everyone could wipe off the blood and make sure that the little wound stopped bleeding. Jason then presented each of his friends with a small leather case to keep their cards in. “Be sure to keep this in a safe place that no one else knows about!”
Next Jason brought out three brandy snifters and a bottle of cognac. “Now my friends, for a toast to the formation of our club.” He poured a about a finger of the cognac in each glass. “Gentlemen, take your glass and join me in a toast.”
Eric and Daniel picked up their glasses and raised them toward Jason.
“To the K Club,” Jason swore. “May it never have to meet again, but if it ever does, I solemnly swear to not stop until the predator is defeated! Now Daniel and Eric, I want you each to repeat the toast and pledge.”
After the other two did, the three of them clinked glasses and swallowed the cognac. It went down with a warm burning sensation.
“Where did you get this cognac, Jason?” Daniel asked.
“I borrowed it from my dad’s liquor cabinet,” Jason answered. “He hardly ever uses it, so I don’t think he will even notice.”
“It sure was smooth,” Eric said.
“It should be. It’s V.S.O.P. Now how about a glass of ice water or cola to wash it down?”
With their ceremony out of the way, the three friends soon reverted to carefree banter and joking conversation typical of teenagers their age. But underneath the fun, there was a new bond of friendship that had been forged that evening and would remain with them for the rest of their lives.
DINNER AT THE FERREIRAS
(Sunday Evening)
The next Sunday there was a barbeque and party at the Ferreira house. Marilyn and Jorge wanted to formally thank all the people who had helped Eric in his transition from abused kid in Springdale to thriving teenager in the Silicon Valley. Marilyn’s original plan had been to invite Jason and Daniel along with their parents, and Mr. Connor. Then Eric asked if he could invite Rebecca as well, and when she agreed he asked if they could invite Laura and Diana also.
“Diana went out of her way to prepare that wonderful song performance at Mom’s funeral service, and Laura introduced me to the school swim coach and now I have been recruited for the team. Plus they are Daniel and Jason’s girlfriends. I think it would be a better party balance if we could add the girls. Don’t you think so too, Aunt Marilyn?”
Aunt Marilyn laughed. “You sure have come a long way in a few weeks, from shy, friendless loner to having so many new friends. What you are saying makes sense. Where did you learn to be such a party planner?”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to make this work, Aunt Marilyn!” Eric replied eagerly. “I’ll do extra chores and help set everything up. And while I’m asking for special favors, could we also invite Dr. Agoura and his new wife Linda. He has been so helpful to me. I really think we need to offer him our thanks as well. Please?”
“There will be a lot more to do, Eric. We will have to have extra chairs and tables to accommodate fifteen people, instead of ten!”
“Just tell me what to do and I will do it,” Eric replied eagerly. “I’ll help in the kitchen or with the set up and house cleaning, you name it!”
Marilyn turned to look at Eric. “This is really important to you, isn’t it?”
“Yes, of course it is! These are my new friends and they have done so much for me!”
“All right, Eric, let’s get to work on it!”
They sat down and planned everything out. The first thing was to telephone everyone on their guest list right away to make sure everyone could be there. Then Eric and Jorge agreed to work on the yards and get the back yard all set up with tables and chairs, which they got from a party rental place. Eric went shopping with Marilyn to get the food and some special gifts they wanted to present at the party. Eric helped to clean the house the day of the party, and helped Marilyn with some of the food preparation and setup.
The actual party started at five that afternoon and was a big success. Everyone was able to attend. Jorge prepared barbequed chicken pieces, portabella mushrooms, and vegetables on his grill. Marilyn had made up a large pot of chili with linguiça sausage, bowls of potato salad and green salad, and a large fruit platter. For dessert she had made one of her great chocolate cakes, which was served with ice cream.
They had arranged three long tables in a U shape on their patio in the back yard, so everyone could sit together. After the guests socialized for a while, dinner was announced, and everyone circulated through a food buffet Marilyn had set up just inside the house. After filling their plates, they
then sat down outside. Just as people were finishing eating, Marilyn stood up and got everyone’s attention.
“I would like to thank you all for coming tonight. You have all been important to Eric and have been so wonderful to him and to us. You have helped him to get through a very difficult transition in his life. Now we are here to celebrate the success of that transition, thanks to all of you! Several of you need special acknowledgement for what you have done, and so we have some presentations to make. Eric, would you do the honors?”
“Sure, Aunt Marilyn.” Eric took out a large shopping bag filled with gifts from underneath the table. “My first presentation is to Mr. Joseph Connor. Without his assistance, I wouldn’t be here today. He dropped everything he was doing and drove Jason and Daniel down to Springdale, first to intervene when I was dropping out from life in general, and later when I was kidnapped by Rogelio Fernandes. I know that he has given and continues to give wonderful advice to Jason and Daniel. He was like a father to me on that horrible day when I found out what Fernandes’ real intentions were for me, and also that my mother was dead, most likely killed by him. What Mr. Connor said was not only comforting but helped me to start dealing with what I had been through. You are a remarkable person, Joe! Please accept this small gift with my thanks!”
He handed Mr. Connor a rectangular package. When Joe opened it, inside was a framed picture of Eric, with the inscription, “I will always remember what you did to help me out. Thank you for your part in saving my life! Your friend, Eric.”
After everyone cheered and applauded, Joe said, “Thank you for this photo and your expressions of friendship. At my age, I have every possible thing I could want, but there is nothing more satisfying than knowing that I could help a young person get his life back together!”
Double Fugue Page 26