by Dynah Zale
Inside the locker room a group of rambunctious boys walked around with nothing, but towels tied around their waists. A few played around by popping one another with wet towels, triggering towels to fall to the ground exposing their nakedness.
“Listen, up guys.” Richard set the video camera down on the bench. The boys gathered around. “Where’s K’mar?”
Dontayé spoke up. “Coach I think he left. I tried talking to him, but he said he didn’t want to talk.”
“Alright. I’ll stop by his house later tonight, but I need for the rest of you guys to listen closely because this is serious. Last week we won our first swim meet.” The fellas cheered. “In order to swim you have to keep your grades up and come to practice. I taped today’s practice, and once I go over the tape, I’ll sit with each one of you individually and assess your strengths and weaknesses. There are certain things we need to accomplish to make this a championship team.” The guys cheered again.
“Now hurry up and get dressed. I’ll be in my office.” Richard walked with Garrett and Blair in tow. He gestured for his guests to have a seat.
“Well what brings you down here today?” Richard said to Garrett. “I know you’ve been campaigning hard, but the only person around here who can vote is me and you already have my vote.”
As the two men talked, Blair watched Dontayé pick up the video camera Richard left in the locker room and start videotaping the boys taking showers and getting dressed. The boys seemed to be having a good time clowning around in the nude.
“Excuse me.” Blair spoke towards Richard, “Is there a bathroom around here?”
“It sure is.” Richard pointed him out into the hall. He waited until Blair was out of view to ask. “What’s up with the kid?”
Richard knew Garrett pretty well. They had been friends since elementary school and it wasn’t like Garrett to take time out of his busy schedule to deal with just any kid from off the street. There was something special about this boy.
“That’s my son.” Garrett couldn’t keep a secret like this from his best friend. He was probably the only other person in the world who would understand what a miracle it was for Blair to be alive. “You remember Reneé Kendricks.” Richard nodded his head yes. “Remember me telling you she was pregnant.”
“Yes, but I thought—”
“She never lost the baby. Blair is our son.” Garrett told his friend the entire story and afterwards Richard was speechless. “That brings us to why we’re here. Blair is in the fifth grade and I wanted to make sure he got the best teacher in the school district. Do you think you could make sure he’s in your class?”
Richard smiled broadly, “Sure, that shouldn’t be a problem. You know I’m going to take care of him.”
Blair stepped back in the room with horror in his eyes. He looked deeply disturbed. He tapped Garrett on the shoulder. Richard noticed that he look flustered.
“What is it?” Richard asked. “Did somebody do something to you?” Richard was concerned.
Blair shook his head no and pointed towards the bathroom.
They went in the direction Blair came from and walked into a chilling scene.
Written across the bathroom walls were messages that said, ‘Life is too hard. I hurt. Stop the pain.’ And ‘Why me?’ All these messages were written in blood.
"Good grief! Who could have done this?" Garrett asked.
Richard walked closer to a mirror covered in blood. He quickly spun around, “We have to call the police."
Garrett pulled out his cell phone to dial 9-1-1. While Garrett explained to the operator in detail what they had found, Blair and Richard walked further into the bathroom.
“Blair, are you sure you didn’t see anybody else when you came in here?” Richard was checking ever bathroom stall on the right side and Blair was checking the left.
“No, sir. When I saw all this blood I…” Blair’s silence caught Richard’s attention. Blair stood in front of one stall staring at K’mar sprawled out across the floor, passed out with his wrists slashed.
Richard rushed to his aid, “Garrett in here!” Garrett ran to them. He took off his tie and tied a knot around the boys arm trying to slow the amount of blood he was losing. A huge puddle of blood gathered under him.
Richard placed two fingers against K’mar’s neck. “I feel a pulse, but it’s weak. Where is the ambulance?” He shouted.
***
Three towering demons surrounded K’mar on the linoleum floor. They held hands and chanted over him, seducing K’mar’s spirit to come to them.
Kiel swooped down from heaven and stepped in front of K’mar to guard him. “What are you doing here?” Kiel drew a silver plated sword that glimmered at every angle. He pointed it at the demons.
“We’re here for the boy.” The demons shouted simultaneously making them even more powerful.
“You have no dominion over this boy.” Kiel pushed the tip of his sword in their direction. “Be gone before I strike you down with the blood of the Redeemer.”
“You are so pathetic.” The demon sneered at Kiel. “Why do you care so much about these humans? They are useless and worthless.”
“No soul is worthless to God. The Father sends no one to earth without a purpose.”
He pointed towards K’mar. “We’ll what was his purpose.” He pointed at Kiel. “Huh? Tell me? Tell me, what did the Almighty have planned for him that he would slit his wrists and toss away the gift of life he was given? Why don’t you step aside and allow me to take him out of his misery.”
“Go!” Kiel shouted.
“We’ll leave when we get what we came for.” The demons attempted to form a circle around K’mar, but an army of heavenly angels appeared behind Kiel.
“We’ll be back.” The demons declared before evaporating into thin air.
***
“They should be here any minute.” Garrett wasn’t sure what more he could do to help K’mar. The boy looked like he was already dead. His skin started to lose color and his lips were turning purple. Soon the entire swim team migrated into the bathroom and watched as K’mar lay on the bathroom floor, slowly dying.
"You kids get out of here." Richard yelled. The boys lingered around trying to get a glimpse of what was going on. Dontayé had the video camera and videotaped the entire scene.
“K’mar, can you hear me?” Richard screamed at him. “If you can hear me, open your eyes.” K’mar never responded.
Finally the paramedics arrived. Richard stepped back. The EMT’s immediately placed bandages over K’mar’s wrists to stop the bleeding, they gave him an oxygen mask and took his blood pressure.
“We have to get him to the hospital.” One of the EMT’s spoke to a police officer that had just arrived. They quickly hoisted K’mar up onto a stretcher and wheeled him out to the ambulance.
Richard followed behind them, "Garrett, I’m going to ride with them to the hospital. Can you make sure all the boys get home?”
"Sure, don't worry about it." Garrett hugged Blair.
"Is he going to be okay?" Blair asked.
"I sure hope so."
Chapter 26
Mecca checked the time. It was way past midnight. She paced her bedroom floor worrying about Garrett. Hours had passed since she last spoke to him. When Mecca received a frantic call from Garrett telling her to pick up Blair from the rec center, she prayed that God would keep her family safe.
She couldn’t help but listen to the various news reports concerning another child’s suicide attempt at the rec center. It was being broadcasted on every news channel. She couldn’t wait for Garrett to get home so she could find out from him what really happened.
Finally, she heard his key turn in the front door. Mecca ran to meet him at the stairs. Garrett had aged ten years in a matter of hours. Huge black circles surrounded his eyes, worry lines filled his forehead and his legs looked like they were barely carrying him.
“Garrett.” Mecca wrapped her arms around him. She helped him into
their bedroom, “Would you like for me to run you a warm bath.”
Too tired to speak, Garrett simply nodded his head yes.
***
“What’s that floating over my head?” Garrett squinted closely at a huge black object floating over his head on the screen.
“What you see is the beginning stages of a storm brewing in your life.” Kiel pointed to the screen. “Those are storm clouds suspended above your head.” Kiel made a circular motion with his finger.
“I don’t understand.” Garrett realized the spirit world operated so differently than the way he was accustomed to. The thought of spirits and demons and warnings from heaven was becoming a bit much for his brain to sustain.
“Right now you have veered way off the God given path for your life; chaos and danger are headed your way.”
“How can I stop it?” Garrett crawled to the Father on hands and knees pleading for an answer.
“This is now out of my hands.” God’s words were final. “This is an At Will Storm. A storm you chose to handle on your own. Simply calling out My name would have carried you over the storm; you chose your own way.” God explained.
***
Mecca helped Garrett get out of his clothes and into their huge garden style bathtub. It felt like they sat in silence for hours before Garrett said anything.
“I can’t believe this is happening again.” Garrett mumbled.
“I know. It’s unfortunate that this had to happen the very first time you and Blair go out together. Mecca rubbed his back with a soft sponge.
“Did he tell you that he’s the one who saw the blood first?” Garrett asked.
“Yes.”
“Was he traumatized?” Garrett was concerned.
“I think he was a bit shaken, but he was more worried about you.” Mecca replied.
“Poor kid. Can he ever catch a break?”
“What about the other children?” Mecca asked.
“You know,” he turned towards Mecca. “I thought the kids would be really upset after seeing K’mar lying in a pool of blood but when they were in the car with me they were joking and laughing like nothing happened.”
“It’s a shame. They’ve probably seen this kind of tragedy before. They’re immune to it.”
Garrett sighed heavily. “After I took the children home, I swung by the hospital.”
“How is Richard dealing with all of this?”
“Not well. By the time I got there Richard was sitting on the curb with his head in his hands.”
“It’s a shame. He does so much for those kids.” Mecca washed suds off her husband’s back.
“He said that K’mar was in stable condition, but the nurse said she they wouldn’t know more until morning. So I convinced him to go home and get some rest.”
Mecca massaged his shoulders to relieve a lot of the stress. Tired of talking about Camden’s endless mound of problems, Mecca subtly changed the subject, “I made up the guest room for Blair, but I was thinking maybe we could redecorate Imani’s nursery and let him have that room.”
“Okay; anything would be better than the room he had at Raquel’s house.” Garrett thought for a moment. “I hope you’re gonna strip those walls first?” he asked.
She laughed. ”Of course, I wouldn’t make that boy sleep in a room with pink walls and white frilly curtains.” They laughed together at the thought. “As a matter of fact I was going to suggest that we paint the room ourselves. I think it would be a good way for the entire family to bond with him.”
“I like that idea. What about if we paint the room a dark blue with basketball paraphernalia? We can put Nerf basketball rims around the room and the 76ers logos…” Mecca held up her finger to cut him off.
“What is up with you and the basketball theme? This is the same theme you envisioned when we found out that ‘Lil Garrett was a boy.” Garrett grinned from guilt. “Stop trying to make this room about you. This room is for Blair not Garrett.”
“Sorry. I just get so excited.” Garrett started laughing.
“Since I know you have a lot of things to do tomorrow. I’ll take Blair to the paint store and allow him to choose any color he likes. We’ll start painting and you can join us when you get home.”
They kissed. “That’s why I love you. You’re an awesome wife.”
Chapter 27
After a series of morning meetings Garrett found a moment to slip away from his normal routine to check in on his best friend. When he left Richard the night before he looked really down.
Garrett rang the doorbell to a modest two bedroom detached house. He listened at the front door before pounding to get in, “Come on Richard! Open up! I know you’re in there.”
After a few minutes of rigorous knocking Richard reluctantly opened the door. He collapsed on his sofa with a huge bottle of Remy Martin in his hand. He took a swig straight from the bottle. “Whewww” He hollered.
“Man, where did you get this from?” Garret snatched the bottle away from him.
“I took it away from one of my students a couple of years ago.” By his slurred speech, Richard was obviously drunk. “I never found a need to open it until now.”
Garrett marched into the kitchen and poured it down the drain. When Garrett returned to the living room, Richard had his face buried in the couch cushions. “Garrett, I can’t get those images out of my head. Those white bathroom walls covered in blood. I should have realized something was seriously wrong with that kid. All the signs were there and I missed them.”
“I knew you were going to try to blame yourself. This is not your fault. There was nothing you could have done to change the outcome.”
“I’m a mentor.” He cried. “I was with that kid nearly every day and I couldn’t see his pain. What kind of mentor am I?” Tears fell from Richard’s eyes. “Do you know how many caskets I’ve carried with children in them? Too many.” He cried tears for the loss of his students. “In the past five years I’ve buried seventy nine of my students.”
Garrett looked twice at his friend because he was sure he had heard him wrong.
“You heard me right,” Richard said. “Seventy-nine children. For city kids it’s become a part of everyday life to lose a friend, neighbor or brother to violence, but when it gets to the point where our children lose all hope and they decide to end their own lives. That’s a hard pill to swallow.”
Garrett knew Richard would be upset, but he seemed to be in complete agony over K’mar’s suicide attempt. Richard was in such a depressed state Garrett was scared he may harm himself.
“The police came to see me this morning.” Richard said.
Garrett braced himself for the worst as Richard continued. “They said that K’mar was going to be all right, but when the kid was admitted into the hospital the doctor that examined him found a bunch of markings and bruises all over his body. It was determined that K’mar has been sexually abused.”
That news nearly knocked Garrett over. “Unbelievable?” Now he searched around for that bottle of Remy he poured out earlier. “The police don’t think you had anything to do with it, do they?”
“They have to interview all family members, teachers and coaches. It’s standard procedure in abuse cases.” Richard laid his head on a nearby pillow. “At least that’s what they told me. I can’t believe some sick joker has been having sex with a minor.”
“Yeah! That is pretty sick.” Garrett agreed.
“I have to do something. I can’t sit around here all day while our children are under attack. I have to find out who he is.” Richard attempted to get up, but stumbled; Garrett caught him before he hit the floor.
“No, let the police handle that. It’s their job. Your job is to go back to teaching and mentoring those kids. There could be other children this guy has hurt and we don’t want them to do what K’mar tried to do himself.”
“You’re right” Garrett’s pep talk seemed to sober Richard up a bit. He stood up straight on his own.
“That’s my
boy.” The two hugged, then Garrett pulled something out his pocket. “Man, I brought over your video camera. You left it at the rec center yesterday.”
“Oh yeah!” Richard walked towards the kitchen. “I’m going to put on a pot of coffee, why don’t you stick that tape in the VCR.”
Garrett laughed, “Man, you’re probably the only person on earth who still owns a VCR.”
“Sorry, I can’t be a big time councilman like you.” Richard hollered from the kitchen.
Garrett started the tape. What appeared on the television screen was an eye opener. “Yo Richard, what’s this?” Garrett couldn’t tear his eyes away from the screen.
Richard returned just in time to see a bunch of the boys from his swim team running around naked in the shower. “What is this?” The next scene showed boys sitting at their lockers getting dressed and most of them were being filmed in the nude.
Richard sighed. “Those kids must have gotten hold of my video camera and taped themselves naked.”
There was a tense awkwardness between Garrett and Richard that made them feel uneasy. “Man, you know how adolescent boys can be. They have nothing better to do.”
Richard grabbed the remote, turned the tape off then walked back into the kitchen. Richard’s explanation left Garrett a bit perturbed.
Chapter 28
The joyous sounds of laughter greeted Garrett when he stepped through his front door. He threw off his suit jacket and tie, then swiftly climbed up the stairs. He couldn’t wait to see how much progress they made painting Blair’s new room.
Garrett’s entrance was met with disappointment. He stood in the middle of Blair’s room staring at dark pink walls.
“Hey daddy.” Imani squealed. “We’re painting Blair’s room. Do you want to help?” Imani applied small strokes of paint against the far wall. Garret walked farther in the room. His shoes made a crunching sound against the newspaper covering the floor. He spun around bewildered. This was not what he expected. They hadn’t changed the room much. Instead of the walls being a light pink, they were now a dark pink. The color screamed out at him. If Imani hadn’t told them they were painting Blair’s room he would have thought they were painting the room for her.