Thunder and Lightening: Chapter 32Home « Thunder and Lightening Index « Previous

- Chapter 32

Posted: March 08, 2005 - 11:45:55 am



Jerry stepped out of his car and headed up to the door of the house. The clear

laughter of Bill and Abe sounded from the backyard. It sounded almost

hysterical. Curious as to why the boys were laughing so hard, he changed course

and walked around the house. Bill was literally rolling on the ground holding

his side. Abe had collapsed against the side of the house, tears coming down his

face.

A black girl wearing a large grin was standing by the side of the yard that

hadn't been straightened up. She looked familiar but Jerry couldn't place her

name. She took one look at him and the grin dropped from her face to be replaced

by fear. Without saying a word, she ran off disappearing between the houses

behind his.

"What's so funny?"

Abe, hardly able to answer, managed to say, "Shauna... she... Melissa..."

A sinking feeling crept into Jerry's stomach as he imagined what had happened.

He asked, "Did Melissa say something to Shauna that she shouldn't have said?"

"Yes," replied Bill who managed to keep a straight face for a whole ten seconds

before bursting out in laughter.

He had a very clear picture of what happened. Now that he had the name, he knew

that the girl that had run off when he came into the backyard was Shauna. The

girl might be young, but she was strong. If she got into a fight with Melissa,

then his daughter would be in pretty bad shape. He hoped that it wouldn't

require a trip to the hospital. Worried about his daughter, he asked, "How's

Melissa?"

Abe, struggling to talk while laughing, said, "Green."

His answer caused Bill to start laughing even harder. Unconcerned about the

angry look from his father, he rolled onto his side trying to get control of

himself. His laughter was beginning to hurt and he wanted to stop, but couldn't

help himself. He calmed a little and lay there gasping for breath.

Deciding that he would return to punish Bill for laughing at Melissa's

misfortune rather than helping her with her wounds, Jerry went into the house to

tend to Melissa. He froze on seeing his daughter crying on the futon. Shocked by

what he saw, he exclaimed, "You're green!"

Melissa sat up and looked at her father, tears running down her face. Half of

her hair and just about every inch of exposed skin was green - dark green. She

looked like a gecko lizard in misery. She whimpered, "They sprayed me with green

dye. I can't wash it off."

Putting a hand over his mouth, Jerry said, "Let me go talk to someone. I'll be

back."

As she sat in the chair with tears running down her face, Jerry bolted out of

the house and ran halfway up the block. Satisfied that he had put enough

distance from his daughter that she wouldn't hear him, he stopped running and

started laughing uncontrollably. He couldn't help it. The fact of the matter was

that he was relieved she had been uninjured, but she looked so funny sitting

there. He wondered how much of her they had managed to cover.

It took twenty minutes for him to control himself enough to even consider

heading back to the house. He turned and looked in the direction of the house. A

grin split his face and, out of fear of losing it again, he couldn't make

himself return to Melissa. She would have to wait a few minutes more.

One of the neighbor kids, after watching him carefully for five minutes, got up

enough courage to walk over to him. Seeing that Jerry wasn't about to hit him,

he said, "Hello, sir."

"Do you know what Shauna did?" asked Jerry deciding that the kid's manner

suggested that the boy knew more about what happened with Melissa than he did.

"Shauna didn't do it alone. We held a trial and decided that she had to suffer.

Every one in the neighborhood was in on the decision and contributed money to

buy the supplies."

"Are you worried that I'll get Shauna in trouble?"

"Yes, sir."

The look on the kid's face suggested that he really was worried about Shauna

getting in trouble. Another bout of laughter tried to capture him in its grip.

After a couple of minutes, he managed to bring the urge to laugh under control.

He said, "It's too funny. I can't get angry. Let her know that I won't do

anything this time."

The boy grinned and said, "It was funny, sir."

"What's your name?"

"Benson," replied the kid wondering why Jerry would want to know his name.

"Nice to meet you, Benson. You're a good kid to stand up for your friends like

that," said Jerry. Judging by the way that the kid held himself, Jerry was sure

that the boy was going to be one of the leaders of the community. It took nerve

for the kid to approach him and he had done it meaning to protect others from

Jerry's wrath. He wondered what Henry and Mr. Atkins knew about the boy.

The kid, grinning at the praise, left to tell everyone else what Jerry said

about the dye job. Watching him run off, Jerry pulled out his cell phone and

called Jenny. When she answered, Jerry said, "Melissa has been dyed green by the

kids in the neighborhood."

Not sure that she had understood him correctly, Jenny said, "What?"

"The kids in the neighborhood dyed Melissa green."

"You're kidding!" replied his girlfriend trying to keep from laughing. She knew

that it could have been worse, they could have beaten her to a bloody pulp.

As the laughter threatened to reclaim him, Jerry replied, "Nope. I'm serious.

Can you come over here and help?"

"I'll be over in about an hour."

Surprised that it would take her so long to come over, Jerry asked, "Why so

long?"

"It's gonna take me that long to stop laughing."

The click over the phone indicated that she had hung up. Jerry understood and

burst out laughing again. Holding his side, he finally quieted down. He talked

to himself as he walked home. "Controlling laughter is even harder than

controlling rage. Damn, even I have to admit that's ironic as hell."

Arriving at home, he chose to deal with Bill and Abe rather than his daughter

since he really didn't know what to say to her. When he went in the backyard, he

saw that Abe and Bill had managed to get some control over their laughter. Jerry

asked, "What happened?"

Bill, seated on the ground and leaning against the house, answered, "Melissa

caught Shauna and I kissing. She called Shauna a slut, but that didn't really

bother Shauna. When I told Melissa to fuck off, she asked how much the... well,

you know what she called her. She asked how much Shauna was charging me."

"The one thing you don't call Shauna is a nigger. Shit, even the other blacks

won't call her that," commented Abe shaking his head. It bothered him when other

blacks called each other that word, but he didn't make a big deal out of it.

Shauna, on the other hand, would rip the person a new asshole.

"So what happened next?"

Abe shook his head before he answered, "It was real weird. Shauna asked Melissa

if orange was her favorite color. Melissa answered that her favorite color was

green. After that, Shauna told Melissa that she would never forget what happens

when you call a black person a nigger."

"I thought for sure that Shauna was going to come back with a gun and blow

Melissa away. I even told Melissa that she should stay in the house until Shauna

cooled down, but Melissa wouldn't listen. She came out here in her bikini to

work on her tan," said Bill continuing the story.

"We were in the house when everyone came over and, I mean, everyone was here. We

knew the shit was about to hit the fan and came out. They had her surrounded and

I was sure that Shauna was going to start beating Melissa up."

Jerry had to know and asked, "So what did you do?"

"We went over to make sure that things didn't get too far out of control. I

might hate the bitch, but I wouldn't want her to get killed," answered Bill with

a shrug.

At least that was better than Jerry had expected, but his lack of concern for

his sister's welfare was still troubling. However, now was not the time to

address that problem. He said, "You and I are going to have to have a long talk

about your attitude towards Melissa. So what happened next?"

Grinning, Abe held up an empty plastic bottle. The label said that it had once

contained soda water. He answered, "They all pulled out these bottles. Each one

was filled with green dye and carbonated water. They fucking sprayed her."

"Hell, I was half tempted to join them," commented Bill starting to laugh at the

memory. Melissa had stood there attempting to stare down the other kids, not

quite realizing what they had in mind. When they started to shake the bottles

with a thumb over the mouth of the bottle, she started to understand. When they

sprayed, she had shrunk to the ground like the wicked witch of the west in the

Oz story.

"Did you?"

Bill held up his hands to show the pads of his thumbs and said, "No green on

me!"

Abe winked as he made a motion that looked like someone holding a thumb over the

mouth of a bottle and shaking it. He held up his thumb and Jerry could see that

there wasn't any green on it either. Abe said, "Shit, he lives with her and I

live next door to her. Ain't no way we're pissing that bitch off. She's fucking

mean."

Jerry looked over Abe and considered his language. Summer spent hanging around

with the neighborhood kids had added a little more color to his language.

Shaking his head, he asked, "Why didn't the other kids in the neighborhood ask

you to join in?"

Abe glanced over at Bill and then answered, "I guess they figured that with Bill

being her brother, that he'd catch hell if he was involved. Everyone knew that

Henry would skin me alive if I pissed you off at the family. Shauna was telling

us about that when you came home from work."

Jerry went into the house to talk to Melissa. She was still seated on the futon,

but had stopped crying. Taking a seat beside her on the futon, he said, "I found

out what happened."

Melissa sniffed and ran her hands under her eyes. The skin on her hands were

dark green that contrasted sharply with her bright red fingernails. She said,

"They sprayed me with bottles of green dye."

"Do you know why they did it?"

The young girl looked at her father for a minute before answering, "I called

that girl a nigger."

Jerry nodded and said, "One of the kids in the neighborhood said they had a

trial and decided that you had to be punished for doing that."

"Aren't you going to call the police to have them arrested?"

"No. We tried to warn you that you don't go around saying things like that. It

bothers me that you even think things like that," answered Jerry knowing that

Melissa wasn't going to like what he said. The fact was that he wasn't sure that

spraying someone with dye was even a crime.

"Do you think that I deserved this?" asked Melissa knowing what his answer would

be before she even asked the question. Having plotted revenge on others many

times, she was amazed at the creativity Shauna had shown. She'd have never come

up with this as a means of getting even with someone.

"Yes, I do. You're lucky that they didn't do something worse than that. Mr.

Atkins promised me that they wouldn't maim or kill you. There's a lot of leeway

associated with that promise."

Melissa expected for him to feel like she deserved the punishment, but she was

stunned at the news about the promise. She couldn't believe it. Her father had

accepted a promise that they wouldn't main or kill her? Who was that Mr. Atkins

person that could make such a promise? Confused, she asked, "Why would you

accept that promise?"

"Because it was the only way to keep you alive," answered Jerry. He stood and

paced around the room trying to figure out a good way to explain the facts of

life to his daughter. There were times when he really hated his ex-wife. Seeing

once again what she had done to his daughter, this was one of those times.

"As much as I like the people around here, I do understand the reality of this

area. You have to understand that this can be a violent and dangerous place. One

of the people that shot me was the same age as Shauna. He shot me because I

threw him out of my house when he tried to rob it. I know that doesn't make

sense, but it doesn't have to make sense. You go around calling people names,

you're asking for trouble. That trouble can come out of the barrel of a gun,"

explained Jerry.

Melissa stared at him. Incredulous, she said, "You mean she might have killed me

for calling her a nigger?"

"Maybe not her, but some kids around here would kill you without giving it a

second thought. You were lucky. The only thing stopping them is that Mr. Atkins

gave his word that they wouldn't do that."

"Who's Mr. Atkins?"

Jerry paced as he answered, "Mr. Atkins is the old man across the street and he

is, for all intents and purposes, the law around here. To tell the truth, I'm

surprised that he made that promise."

"Why is that?"

A grim expression appeared on Jerry's face while he looked Melissa in the eye.

Even looking at the green girl couldn't diminish the seriousness of the subject.

In a tone of voice that conveyed the seriousness of the subject, he answered,

"His father was hung by the KKK. He was forced to watch his mother get raped by

a couple of white men. If you ever call him a nigger, there's no power on this

planet that could save you."

The image of having to watch your own mother getting raped crashed through

Melissa's mind. For the first time in her entire life, she thought about how

someone else might have felt. Her mouth flew open and she gasped, "Oh, that poor

man."

"Don't feel sorry for him. He has risen above the events that shaped his youth.

He's a far stronger man than I am." Noticing her raised eyebrows in response to

his comment, he added, "He was willing to spent the rest of his life in jail to

keep the kids in this neighborhood safe from drugs. I wasn't."

"They shot you."

Jerry glanced down at the cast that held his arm and shoulder blade. Grim, he

replied, "That wasn't in the plans."

A knock on the door interrupted the discussion. Pulling himself together, Jerry

answered the door expecting, and finding, Jenny. The laugh lines around her eyes

looked a little deeper and she grinned at him with a broad smile. Attempting to

look around him, she asked, "Where is she?"

Gesturing to the living room, Jerry let her in the house. On spotting Melissa,

Jenny immediately went over to her. The young woman seemed very happy to see

her. Jenny, after glancing over at Jerry, said, "Let's go into the bedroom so

that I can see how bad it is."

Once the women went into Melissa's bedroom, the tension that had been building

in his back dissipated. Jerry went to the back door and gestured for the two

boys to come into the house. He felt it was time to have a talk with them before

they turned even crueler towards his daughter.

As Bill and Abe sat down at the kitchen table with cokes, Jerry cleared his

throat and said, "I don't want any teasing out of the two of you."

"Aw, dad. She deserves everything they did to her," complained his son.

"And she has paid the price to the person that she insulted. Don't make her pay

more or you'll live to regret it."

Bill wasn't convinced that he'd regret any minute spent making his sister

miserable. She had made the first fourteen years of his life miserable and it

only seemed fair for him to make the next two years miserable for her. Sitting

back in his chair, he faced his father with arms crossed and a glare pasted on

his face. In a direct challenge to his father, he said, "Bull shit."

Jerry raised an eyebrow at his son's reaction. It wasn't the first time his son

had challenged his authority. Rather than get angry, he took a moment to

understand his son's attitude. Taking a seat at the table, he said, "I'm not

sure who was hurt more by your mother, you or Melissa."

"I can answer that. It was me," charged Bill furious that his father would think

that anything negative had happened to Melissa.

Jerry glanced over at Abe knowing that the discussion shouldn't include the

young man, but he didn't know how to ask him to leave without coming across

heavy handed. He sighed and said, "Bill, your mother hurt you, but she didn't

destroy the person inside. You have friends, real friends."

Abe nodded and said, "You do. Beside me, there's Woody, Sandy, and Larry. Shit,

I think you could include Shauna in that number."

At the nod of acceptance from Bill, Jerry continued, "I expect that some day

soon, you'll have a real girlfriend like I have in Jenny. Do you accept that?"

"Sure, I think that's true."

Jerry stared down at the center of the table and, in a tired tone of voice, he

said, "If we're not careful, Melissa will never have that. She'll never have a

true friend. She'll never have a real boyfriend. Your mother killed Melissa's

ability to really love anyone. She is a shallow woman who has no concept of what

it means to feel anything except selfishness. I don't know if she's ruined

beyond all chance of repair, but I have to hope. After all, she's my daughter.

All that we can do for now is to patch her up enough to get by in life."

"Fuck man, I wouldn't wish that on anyone," commented Abe.

"Big deal," replied Bill.

"Think about your grandmother, Bill. She died and there wasn't a single friend

who showed up at her funeral. The family that did show up didn't really care

about her. That's sad. I imagine that the day your mother is buried that neither

you or Melissa will show up at the funeral. I sure as hell won't. Your mother

has no friends."

Jerry paused to look at Bill. The look on his son's face was conflicted. On one

hand, Bill was pleased that his mother would suffer for her actions against him.

That was countered by the sentiment that no one deserved to be that alone. His

son understood loneliness and knew the price it took on the soul.

Bill frowned and asked, "So what has that got to do with Melissa?"

"She's starting to understand what her mother has done to her. The choice is up

to us. Shall we continue to destroy what little ability to love might remain in

Melissa or will we nurture it?" asked Jerry.

"Shit," swore Bill, "that's not fair. You're asking me to treat her like I care

for her."

Shaking his head while he considered the challenge ahead of Bill, Abe said,

"Shit, I'm lucky I'm not part of this."

"Not true, Abe. She's got to learn to respect people that are different from

her. She's a racist, but not in a position where she can ruin lives. A few years

from now, she'll be able to destroy people."

"Fuck!"

Jerry got out of his chair and picked up a coke out of the refrigerator.

Returning to the table, he sat down and popped the top. With a tentative smile,

he said, "I actually have to thank the kids that did this to her. They've given

her a very real lesson."

There was a noise behind Jerry, but he ignored it as he explained, "You can't

judge a person by the color of their skin. Of course, a lot of people are going

to be judging her because she's green."

Melissa overheard the last part of what Jerry had said. She screeched, "Judge me

because I'm green? What in the hell does that mean?"

"Sure, what kind of person dyes themselves green. Only a social misfit airhead,"

commented Abe with a laugh. He had tried to control it, but the sight of her

standing in her clothes with green arms, legs, and head was funny. He was

tempted to call her the Bitchy Green Giant, but resisted the temptation.

"That or some sort of extreme rock and roll punk," added Bill laughing at her

appearance. He didn't really know what people would think of someone who was

dyed green. There was one thing that he was sure of - a lot of people would be

laughing at her.

A stern look from his father caused Bill to sober a little, although it did not

keep the grin off his face. He didn't bother to hide the fact that he was

enjoying her humiliation.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere," challenged Melissa. There was no way that she

was going in public looking like a green version of a Smurf.

Jenny interrupted, "You're forgetting the wedding this weekend."

"I can't go," answered Melissa in horror.

Jerry asked, "Have you apologized to Sharon yet?"

The question took Melissa by surprise. She hadn't seen Sharon since the first

night that she had arrived. Recalling the two interactions with Henry, she knew

that she was going to have to do that sometime soon. She answered, "No."

"Are you going to apologize to my mother?" asked Abe, narrowing his eyes out of

anger. All of Jerry's comments about teaching her to view blacks as people fled

upon remembering what the bitch had said to his mother.

"Yes," replied Melissa taken aback by the raw anger in Abe's voice. She

remembered her father saying that some of the kids in this neighborhood would

kill her without a thought. Seeing the expression on Abe's face, she wondered if

he was one of them.

Jerry shifted in his chair to face Melissa more directly. His cast caught on the

bottom of the table and he struggled for a moment to unhook it. Jenny noticed

his problem and came over to him. Leaning down, she asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yes. I just want to get this damned thing off," complained Jerry giving voice

to his frustration.

Abe was glaring at Melissa as he said, "You better do it soon."

Melissa looked at Abe and was tempted to say something, but a quick glance

around the room convinced her that it would be a mistake. She said, "I'll talk

to her when the dye is gone."

Shaking her head in disagreement, Jenny said, "You better go today, Melissa.

Remember what we talked about."

It seemed as all of Melissa's energy fled at the reminder. Jenny had told her

that the longer she allowed bad feelings against her to fester, the worse the

retaliation would become. Feeling completely defeated, she replied, "Okay, she

can come over now."

"No, you'll go over there," asserted Jerry.

Judging by the look on her face, Melissa was not wild about the idea of going

outside. At least she was smart enough not to argue, but nodded her head in

compliance. She frowned and said, "Let me put my shoes on."

Jerry looked around the room and realized that Sharon might need a little

warning before a dark green Melissa showed up at her door. He said, "Abe, why

don't you head home and let your mother know that she's coming over?"

"Sure," answered Abe as he stood to leave. He paused and asked, "Can Bill come

with me?"

"Sure," answered Jerry.

He watched the two boys run out of the house. Turning to Jenny, he said, "I

worry about those two sometimes."

"I know," replied Jenny running a hand along the back of his neck. The muscles

were tight with tension. She rubbed his muscles trying to work some of the

tension from them.

Melissa came out of her room wearing her shoes. She looked at the couple and

shook her head. She didn't understand what Jenny could see in her father. Jenny

was pretty enough to land a doctor or a lawyer. She called over to the pair,

"I'm going now."

"Okay," replied Jerry without looking back at her. He was enjoying the massage

that Jenny was giving him. When he heard the front door close, he asked, "So

what did you talk about?"

"We talked about letting wounds fester and how it wasn't good for the features.

Nothing makes a face uglier than hate. I reminded her of how her mother looked,"

answered Jenny as she kneaded his neck.

"Did you get a chance to say anything about the way she talks about blacks?"

Jenny stopped massaging his neck and moved to sit in one of the chairs. She

frowned as she recalled that portion of their conversation together. She sighed

and then said, "She knows that it isn't a proper thing to say even when angry.

She really believes that all other races are inferior to whites."

"That's her mother's influence. She was a racist of the worst sort," replied

Jerry.

"She can't live in this neighborhood if she feels that way. She's going to slip

and get hurt," countered Jenny.

"Her mother destroyed the other house. It's going to take me a year to fix it up

and that's once I have use of both arms. I just bought this place and I can't

sell it." Jerry felt trapped in this situation. He knew that he would have to

move back to the other house before long, but it had to be habitable before they

moved into it.

Her assessment of the situation was the same as his. She didn't know what to do

anymore than he did. There was one option, but she didn't want to mention it.

Looking at the misery written on his face, she gave in. "She could live with

me."

Jerry shook his head. That was the worst thing that could happen as far as he

was concerned. In tone of voice that allowed no argument, he said, "That's not

an option."

"Why?" Jenny asked. She was surprised at the resolute tone of voice he had used.

"Because she's poisoned inside," answered Jerry. He didn't want Melissa in a

position where her poison could affect Jenny. He had no idea how it would

emerge, but he knew that it would come out. He said, "It's better that it comes

out at me rather than at you."

Jenny nodded her head in agreement. She didn't believe that the girl was a

threat, but knew that Jerry believed it. There was no sense arguing the point,

so she replied, "If you say so."

The loud rumbling of his stomach broke the silence in the room. Jenny asked,

"What? Are you hungry?"

"Hey, I got home from work and had to deal with this little crisis. I haven't

had a chance to eat yet. In fact, none of us have had the chance to eat,"

answered Jerry with a grin. He asked, "Should we heat up some green beans picked

by the Jolly Green Giant?"

Jenny laughed for a full minute before she replied, "No. I think that you had

better pick up something from Poncho's or a Mickey D's."

Grinning, Jerry said, "You are ruining Bill's fun."

"Poor Bill."

The two of them sat around the table without talking. After five minutes, Jenny

said, "If you want to go get some food, I'll stay here until they come back."

"I might as well stay here and find out what they want to eat."

Jerry pushed his chair away from the table and winked at his girlfriend. With a

friendly leer, he asked, "Why don't you come here and sit on my lap until they

get back?"

"Don't mind if I do."

As soon as she sat down, Jerry kissed her. Even though the cast dug into her

side a little, she pressed tightly against him. He held her in his good arm and

wished that his other arm could run over her body. Everything about having his

arm in a cast was frustrating. After a minute of kissing her, even the cast

stopped bothering him.

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