Hometown Favorite: A Novel

by BILL BARTON

  "She never mentioned seeing you," Sabrina said.

  "We talked about not bringing up any bad vibes from the past;" he said. "I wanted a fresh start"

  That was all it took to convince Sabrina now was the time. So before Tyler left to return to Los Angeles for a juvie checkin and a major Web design presentation of two new artists to the marketing department of his company, he made Sabrina promise to discuss the possibility of reentry into the family. She had finally decided on her approach.

  "It happened in the Bible all the time," Sabrina said, running her fork through the pile of peas on her plate like a blind mole. "You know, God changing people"

  "Yeah, well, so it can happen" Rosella shoveled a spoonful of pureed carrots in Robert's mouth. "You're talking about your mother?"

  "Yeah, her, but anybody," Sabrina said. "God can change anybody, right?"

  "What's impossible for man is possible for God," Dewayne said. "Or something like that"

  "And if they changed, we'd have to forgive them and love them, right?"

  "Of course, we would;" Rosella said. She gave Sabrina an inquisitive frown, her hand suspended in the air with another spoonful of pureed carrots. "Where are you going with this, girl?"

  Sabrina was smart enough not to tell the whole truth. Telling about meeting Tyler at church on Sundays was all the information they needed to know at this point. Rosella's hostile and Dewayne's skeptical reactions to the news that Tyler had appeared on the scene bore out the wisdom of her choice not to tell them about their clandestine rendezvous. She spent the rest of the evening fielding the same questions she had asked Tyler, and where Sabrina had been satisfied with his answers, her aunt and uncle reserved their judgment.

  Dewayne seemed a little more receptive than Rosella to the idea of a new Tyler, and Sabrina saw a reason for hope and a confirmation in her own ability to size up a person. Her uncle treated her like an adult. Her aunt was much more protective ... overbearing. She appreciated both reactions and knew that in the not-too-distant future she would be able to tell them all about their relationship. A meeting at church could be arranged, just a chance to talk to him, hear in his own words what new life he had embraced, and from there the family would know how to proceed.

  It was Bruce who shut down the discussion at the dinner table with an "I don't want to ever see him again." What followed was a prolonged silence as the family quietly but hastily finished their supper. The matter had to be settled later that night in Bruce's bedroom. Sabrina was kind. She did not try to force the issue or give her brother an ultimatum. After all, his attack on Tyler and his gang had been out of love for her and their mother, and under the circumstances, it felt justified.

  "It took a lot of guts to do what you did," Sabrina said. She leaned on the door frame into his bedroom, hesitant to enter without permission. "You stood up. You were a man, and I didn't appreciate it at the time"

  Bruce had been silent while he listened to his sister, his face buried in his pillow. He now rolled his head over to look at her. "You never said that before."

  Sabrina took that as an invitation and sat on the edge of the bed. "I wouldn't let anything or anybody drive a wedge between us."

  She patted his back gently, knowing it was her brother who had suffered the most because of Tyler; it was her brother who had been the innocent one and endured the corporal pain and mental distress of a punishing defeat at the hands of a monster allowed into his life by a wayward mother and a delinquent sister. But could not this onetime monster be regenerated by God? Does he not deserve another chance? Was he completely unlovable?

  Bruce raised his head off the pillow. "Do you really love Tyler?"

  Sabrina did not have an immediate answer. She was wading into deeper water. Both of their lives had been lived in extremes ... extreme chaos and destruction, extreme peace and blessing. Tyler had been a major contributor to the former; her uncle, the provider of the latter. They were the only two men she had known. In the examination of her heart inspired by her brother's question, she expressed all she understood to this point in her young life.

  "Our mama didn't teach me anything about being a woman. Tyler did, and even though he was mean sometimes, he always said he loved me and he always was around. I guess I'm like those baby animals that love the first thing they see once they open their eyes. Tyler was the first person I saw who acted like I was somebody that had value. I guess I loved him for that."

  "And you want to give him another chance?" Bruce asked.

  "He's different now. I know that. I can see it in his eyes and by the way he treats me. Don't tell Aunt Rosella, but we've been seeing each other besides at church, and he's changed. He's really changed. He is really trying to start his life over, make something of himself. I'm not saying we're gonna get married or anything. I'm just saying he's sweet to me, and I want to give him another chance."

  Bruce laid his head back on the pillow, but this time not facedown as if hiding from past shame and future uncertainty. He laid his head on its side, which Sabrina took as a hopeful sign. It was not an outright rejection of what she was proposing.

  Bruce did not want to hurt or disappoint his sister, but he wondered whether he could trust her. Was she about to invite a demon back into their lives, or had Tyler become a real miracle story of God's intervention? Was Sabrina insightful enough to discern Tyler's nature? Was she safe with him? Was any of the family safe with him? He looked at her.

  "If he hurts you, he won't take the bat away from me next time;" he whispered.

  Sabrina smiled and pinched Bruce's cheek.

  "We'll both have us some bats"

  Dewayne and Rosella never thought they would see Tyler again, but if they did, they knew it would be on the evening news, some correspondent reporting about his latest crime spree and his arrest. They never expected to see him in church, sans dreadlocks and T-shirt, dressed in a three-piece suit.

  He was not just in church, but also in front of the whole church, introduced by an associate minister as one of the newest members of the community to join, and not just any pewwarming member, but one who would be contributing his talents to help promote the music ministry of the church. There was even the possibility of signing the church's worship band to the record division of the company that employed Tyler.

  Would that all new members follow this young man's example, the associate minister admonished. Amens and hallelujahs popped into the air like verbal popcorn as the minister gave a brief and sanitized history of Tyler's former ghetto life and how God had done his Damascus Road thing on Tyler while in juvenile detention.

  Here was a bona fide testament to the power of God, the minister said, and all God's children said amen, all God's children except Bruce. He withheld his judgment. Rosella and Dewayne shook their heads in disbelief as they added their amens. Sabrina beamed as she enthusiastically said her amen.

  And so the experiment began. The rebuilding of trust was the first order of business, and Tyler was very careful not to force his way into the family. Life remained normal in the Jobe house, except there was a new addition to the dynamic. Even though he was a frequent topic of conversation, Tyler did not receive any invitations to dinner nor was he invited to accompany them on any family outings.

  In the initial weeks, discussion of Tyler still caused tension; no one was able to altogether shake the memories of a sullen Tyler slouched over the sofa in Bonita's apartment, the knowledge of his drug business, and the horror of seeing his handiwork on Bruce's body. Rosella and Dewayne wanted to observe Tyler, and they were not willing to push Bruce into a relationship in which he did not yet feel comfortable. To help buy this new image of Tyler, Bruce needed time.

  In the beginning he was allowed to sit with Sabrina and the family at church, and they could date, so the sneaking around ended-much to Sabrina's relief. But Bruce always sat on the opposite end of the pew and made sure Dewayne was between them.

  Once while Dewayne was out of town for a weekend shooting another commerc
ial, Bruce bumped into Tyler coming down a hallway at church. The fight-or-flight syndrome began to pump up Bruce's heart rate.

  Before he dropped his head, Bruce saw Tyler tuck his Bible under his arm while he spoke to a couple in the worship band of the church. Bruce inched his way along the wall, eyes cast down, listening to Tyler spout off some of his promotional ideas for the band. As Bruce walked by, the couple thanked Tyler, took one of his business cards, and departed. Bruce could hear Tyler's footsteps coming up behind him, and he froze.

  "You don't need your big bad uncle to protect you, little brother," Tyler said. "Why you always hiding behind him?"

  "I don't hide behind him."

  It was just the two of them in the hall.

  Bruce had no bluster of confidence. He pressed his body into the wall.

  "You're looking at the new Tyler. That old Tyler is gone. Ain't nothing to fear, little brother, but fear itself."

  "I'm not your little brother." Bruce looked up and down the hall for a friendlier face.

  "You're my little brother in Christ;" Tyler said. "Can we be friends?"

  Tyler extended his hand, but Bruce just stared at it as though it were an unrecognizable gesture. Tyler bobbed his hand up and down to indicate an urgent desire for a handshake that could be the representation of forgetfulness, to let bygones be bygones, to press on to a new future. Bruce was not buying it. A handshake was not enough to forget what it felt like being beaten with a baseball bat within an inch of his life, to forget the time in the hospital, to forget his battered image he observed in the mirror for months after the altercation. Sabrina got a confession and a request for pardon from Tyler.

  Where was his?

  "There you two are;" Sabrina said as she scooted down the hall. "Come on, church is about to start'

  Bruce sidled up beside his sister and put his arm around her waist, starting a forced march toward the sanctuary with Tyler trailing behind them. It would be weeks before the two of them would have another opportunity for a private conversation.

  Rosella had negotiated a new national endorsement deal with a power drink distributor for Dewayne during the off-season that netted him another signing bonus of $7 million and $1.5 million per commercial-six commercial commitments over the next two years-and an additional $1 million for print ads. Between his conditioning regime and workouts at the Stars' facility and his flying to film endorsement obligations, the kids in school, and Rosella running their business, there was little time for vacations.

  If the family was to see each other, Franklin and Joella had to come to Houston. They made a brief visit and brought encouraging reports of Bonita's recovery: she would soon be out on her own, she had gotten a job while still in the halfway house, and there was a picture proving positive signs of her upturn-weight gain, a new coiffure, clothes that appeared to be purchased for professional work, and a smile. As for Cherie, she preferred to come when football season was in full swing and the Houston temperature was not so severe.

  When the church announced back in the winter the intention to take a mission group to Dominical, Costa Rica, to work in remote jungle villages, no one in the Jobe clan thought much about it, even though the planned trip would occur during Sabrina and Bruce's spring break. But when Sabrina mentioned Tyler had signed on to go, she began to encourage the idea as an option for a family vacation. The group from church would spend the week building an orphanage during the days and holding a vacation Bible school in the evenings. In spite of Tyler's presence, Bruce took to the idea of having an adventure to some exotic place and being a part of a mission they could do as a family along with other kids and their families at church. Dewayne said he would be willing to take time from personal training, and Rosella agreed to go when Joella said she would come and take care of Robert Jr.

  What struck the group of short-term missionaries as they traveled three hours by bus from San Jose to Dominical were the extremes: extreme poverty, extreme wealth.

  They spent each day at the construction site in a jungle village working on the orphanage. It was part of a broader ministry outreach from the local church in a village not ten miles from this wealthy resort area in Dominical, with homes carrying million-dollar price tags-and much, much higher ones. Impoverished villagers lived in structures they made from scraps of plastic, tin, tree limbs, and discarded materials "borrowed" from the wealthier neighborhoods.

  Seeing such poverty was a first-time experience for most of the group. Dewayne and Rosella shared the conviction that the wealth they were accumulating could find a benevolent use. They discussed establishing a foundation to support similar mission programs on a year-round basis, and they dreamed of sponsoring events back home to raise people's awareness of the plight of these people.

  Bruce took to the work as though he were born to do it. He knew nothing about building a structure, but with minimal instruction from a team leader, he tackled his assignment and finished it before anyone else. Then he asked what else he might do. By the middle of the week, he was assisting the crew supervisors on the more difficult tasks of raising walls and installing windows. At night after vacation Bible school was over, he sketched ideas for different rooms within the orphanage that were modeled after his own room-a budding architectural skill straight from the bloodline-and began to dream of ways he could raise funds to equip the orphanage with the technology to which he had become accustomed in a short time. He understood the poverty of these Costa Rican kids, and if they were anything like him, most would excel, given half the advantages given him.

  Tyler and Sabrina had not had so much concentrated time together since they parted company in Los Angeles. These new circumstances and the new life each had started in Houston had kindled something in each of them neither could define except to name it as an awakening of love for the other. Sabrina had been shrewd in questioning her aunt about how to know it was real when love came knocking, and Rosella gave a mysterious answer: "You know it's love because you never felt it before"

  It had never really been love before with Sabrina and Tyler. It had been lust, convenience, nothing better to do, status symbol, or all of the above. With the role models of her aunt and uncle, Sabrina saw what love could do for a person, and she began to believe there might be a real future with Tyler. The way Tyler and Sabrina had conducted themselves prior to this mission trip had achieved a level of trust from Rosella and Dewayne that had made Sabrina feel that she was gaining in maturity. Now working side by side with Tyler for the good of humanity, Sabrina felt strong romantic feelings rise to new levels.

  Although Tyler did not take to the backbreaking labor as readily as most of the others on the mission team, he responded to the attention he was getting from Sabrina and returned her affections with equal fervor. Each day the group was given free time in the early afternoon when the heat of the day was at its peak, and a couple of times Tyler would take the opportunity to go into Dominical on his own, telling Sabrina he was on scouting missions for future work projects. He returned with tales of poverty and ideas for extended mission trips that thrilled Sabrina's budding spiritual nature. Who would have thought this young man could make such a transition? Nothing was impossible with God.

  In the late afternoons when the local children went home after vacation Bible school and the mission group had had its evening devotional, most in the group went into the city on sightseeing tours and shopping sprees. Tyler and Sabrina went once, but then opted for the chance to be alone. With no transportation available and the beaches only a short distance from their compound, the option was clear.

  After a mile of amble under a moonless sky, Tyler and Sabrina lost connection from all human association, and with an additional twenty minutes of strolling in and out of the tide, they happened onto a lagoon that became their mystic hideaway for the rest of their missionary experience. After the city lights vanished behind the northern curvature of the beach and rocky outcroppings, how separated from human sight the couple felt. The touches began as gentle test
s and discoveries, lying prone on the soft sand, and grew with intensity. This was love, they protested against any hesitation or hint of guilt. It was not like the past, the destructive past so far behind them now, but the present with its new understanding, its new commitment to the new life that had dawned in each one's heart.

  Each night this sea and sand and forest enclave became an illusion of love, a hidden place that burned in their minds during the scorching hours of orphanage construction, on through the afternoons of teaching the children the virtues gleaned from Bible stories, and into the evenings of group devotions, until they could dash to this tropical finish line and consume themselves in the images they had conjured in their minds during the day.

  Two months later the consequences of their passion were evident. Sabrina called Tyler and asked him to meet her at the city park near his office. Couldn't it wait until tonight? he asked. His day was slammed. The response was an emphatic no. School had been out only a few weeks, and Sabrina was deep into her job at Jobe Enterprises, Inc. Because of a poor high school scholastic record while she lived in Los Angeles, she needed to go to summer school to fulfill her academic requirements in order to graduate and begin college in the fall. Her days were equally slammed with work and school, but this issue required immediate attention.

  Tyler was not waiting for her at the bench beside the fountain in the middle of the park where they had always met before he reentered the Jobe family picture. She spied a suit coat, shirt, and tie draped over a laptop on the bench, and after determining these clothes belonged to Tyler, she scanned the park for him. The sound and vibrations of the vocals coming from the street caught her attention, and she moved toward the metallic two-toned shades of a blue and gold low-riding, high-sheen chromed vehicle. A male form leaned on the outside of the car, his head in perfect synchronization with four other heads inside the car bobbing to the beat of the music pounding from the console. The passenger in the front seat had to point her out before Tyler noticed Sabrina standing behind him.