Eyewitness News

by Aiden Vaughan

  As the realization of what had probably happened sunk in, it was like a dagger being plunged into Jonathan’s heart. His eyes filled with bitter tears and he cried out in agony, “No, no. This can’t be happening!” Jonathan plopped down on his bed face down and pounded the mattress with both fists. He felt real sadness because losing those instruments was like losing three friends. Now more than ever, Jonathan could see that any stability in his home life was gone, washed away in a sea of drugs and recklessness.

  Quickly his grief turned into dark anger. He felt betrayed and stabbed in the back by his mother, and a deep hatred toward Scott for encouraging her drug addiction and reckless spending of all their family assets to buy more drugs.

  Jonathan got up from his bed and began to express his anger in physical ways. He kicked his music stand over and sheets of music fell to the floor. He went into his mother’s room and kicked over a bed stand that contained some of her things. Next he went into the living room and knocked over the table that contained Scott’s television set. He turned over some of the chairs and the coffee table. Now that the living room was in disarray, he went into the kitchen and did the same thing to the kitchen table and chairs. But these destructive acts were really no consolation for Jonathan. Knocking over the furniture wasn’t going to bring his instruments back. Grief-stricken, Jonathan sank back down to the floor.

  About ten minutes later, the door from the kitchen to the garage opened, and in came Madeline and Scott. Madeline was carrying several bags of food and Scott had a bag of hardware.

  When Madeline looked around the kitchen at the disarray, she exclaimed, “What has happened here? It looks like a tornado just hit.” Then she saw Jonathan on the floor. “Jonathan! What have you been doing?”

  Jonathan looked up at her and in a very angry voice demanded to know, “Why did you take my instruments? They were the most important things in my life and you just took them without even asking me!”

  “I meant to, honey, but you weren’t around. We needed some money and I am a little short until my next disability check. We can get them back then.”

  “I can’t believe that you have gotten so low that drugs are more important to you than your own son! I thought you loved me, but I guess I was wrong. Apparently the only thing you love now is drugs and your loser boy friend. You could care less about me!”

  Stung by Jonathan’s words, Madeline answered, “But I do care about you! Look at the food I am bringing back here for you, and Scott got some parts to put up a better antenna for the television set so we can get more channels.”

  “Mom, I just got accepted into an awesome band,” Jonathan retorted, “with other musicians that can really play. I had a chance to do something really creative, to be someone, and even earn money playing my instruments. Now you have tossed that all in the trash! And for what — more meth for your habit and some trinkets for Scott!

  Scott then intervened, “Why you little piece of puke! What gives you the right to lecture us. There are more important things in life than your stupid little band and your loser friends! You need to learn how to do something useful in life beside being in a garage band anyway!”

  “Listen to who is talking!” Jonathan angrily replied, not backing down at all. “What is your idea of an important career — making illegal drugs and ruining people’s lives with them? The best thing you could do right now is just get the hell out of here! You are nothing but bad news!”

  “You little prick! I think that I am going to kick your ass and maybe you will get some respect back into your mealy mouth! I don’t have to hear a lecture from some wimpy baby like you!”

  “The two of you need to stop calling each other names!” Madeline said in a loud voice. “You need to both control your emotions! Both of you need to tone things down!”

  “Is that so that we can live a happy life together, Mother?” Jonathan continued with more anger in his voice. “In our happy drug-infested slum of a house with no music, no furniture, and no friends, but plenty of meth so we can pretend that everything is okay while our lives are rotting away?”

  While Madeline and Jonathan were continuing the argument, Scott had walked into the living room with his antenna kit. “Why you stupid little bastard!” he yelled. “Come here and look what this little piece of shit did to the tv!”

  Enraged by finding his television set knocked to the floor, Scott came charging back into the kitchen. He grabbed Jonathan by the arm and then punched him several times in the stomach and face. Jonathan tried to defend himself by hitting back, but was no match for the bigger and stronger Scott. Because Scott had rings including one with a gemstone on both hands, his punches created some bloody cuts and bruises on Jonathan’s face and body. “Take that you little dick!” Scott said with a mean voice. “You had better think twice before you mess with me again!”

  Horrified by what was happening, Madeline began pulling Scott off of her son. “Stop that, Scott!” she yelled. “You are really hurting him! He is just a boy!”

  “Your boy needs to learn some respect for adults if he is going to be around me! And he had better learn to respect my things!”

  “Just like the way you respected my things!” Jonathan angrily replied even though he was hurting from the punches and bruises on his body. A small rivulet of blood dripped down on the side of his face. “All you are is a bully! You bully Mom into pawning our things for drugs and now you want to bully me because I don’t like you ruining our lives!”

  Madeline became very stressed about what she was seeing. “Stop!” she yelled loudly and for a long time. “I can’t handle this any more! Stop!”

  “Just keep that puke away from me. I would just as soon wring his neck as listen to anything more he has to say!” Scott said, but he then backed away from Jonathan.

  “Jonathan, I want you to come with me to your room,” Madeline ordered. “Scott, you stay in here, fix the tv, and leave us alone for a while.”

  Madeline then escorted her son to his room and shut the door. Once inside she said, “I know things are difficult for you right now, but things will get better. I promise you they will!”

  “The only way things are going to get better is if you give up drugs and get rid of the drug dealers in your life!” Jonathan insisted. “Why did you agree to pawn my musical instruments, Mom?”

  “It is just a temporary setback, Jonathan. I know they are important to you, and as soon as I get a new check, I will get them back for you!”

  “And then what will we live on?” Jonathan said with a heavy sigh.

  “Scott said he will help out with our food needs for the next month. Somehow the two of you need to figure out how to get along!”

  “He just tried to beat the crap out of me, Mom! I can’t take this any more!”

  “I am so sorry he hit you. He has no right to do that. I will talk to him about that later. Right now you need some help with those bruises.”

  Madeline went to the bathroom and got a washcloth and towel. She then had Jonathan take his shirt off, wiped off the blood on his face, and carefully washed and patted dry his bruises caused by Scott’s fists. Next she put antiseptic on all of the bruises.

  “Is that better, Jonathan?” Madeline asked in a concerned voice. “Are you still in any pain?”

  “The main pain I feel is that any sense of a normal life together has gone down the drain! I want us to stay together, Mom, but I can’t take this much longer. What do I tell people when they ask me how things are going? ‘My mother is a drug addict and her redneck meth dealer boy friend beats me up when I object to their life style. I can’t play the saxophone anymore because it’s in the pawn shop!’ What do I tell my friends who are expecting me to show up tomorrow for rehearsal?”

  “Again, Jonathan, I am sorry about your instruments! I realize you are sacrificing a lot, but times are tough right now. Maybe you could tell them that they are in the shop being repaired.”

  “That answer would go over big. What kind of responsible ban
d member would send his instruments into the shop the day before an important rehearsal? And how could three instruments that were all working perfectly last week all suddenly go bad?”

  “I don’t know what else to tell you,” Madeline responded with frustration in her voice. “Maybe you could tell them that you are sick and don’t want to spread the germs around.”

  “The only think I am sick of, Mom, is living this lie that we have a happy family life and that everything is okay! I can’t stand living this way any more!”

  “I know things are rough on you, Jonathan, but somehow you just have to deal with it! You always have managed to so far!” Madeline then left the room.

  Jonathan then plopped on the bed. He felt very depressed and sad. He stayed in his room for the rest of the day, alternately dozing and reading a book. He refused to come out for the rest of the day, even for dinner. Finally Madeline brought a plate of food to his room and told him he needed to have some dinner, but he wasn’t interested in eating either.

  Jonathan’s life was at its worst low point ever. Bruised and bloodied from the beating he took, his musical instruments taken away, his mother in denial of her horrible addiction to methamphetamines and spending her time with drug dealers like Scott, and his father long gone and not providing any paternal or financial support, his choices for living kept getting narrowed down to two equally bad choices: Do I stay in this abusive home life filled with drugs, lies, and watching my mom destroy her life or do I go to the authorities and end up in some foster home or with some distant relative and lose all of my friends and musical contacts here? He tossed and turned on his bed mulling over his run of bad luck.

  Eventually Jonathan decided to stop feeling sorry for himself and try to do something about it tomorrow. He decided to take a chance on confiding things to his new band mates. Of course they would know anyway, when he showed up to rehearsal with no instruments. He also figured that he had better keep his strength up for the trying days ahead. Later he picked through some of the food on the plate before he dozed off into a dreamless sleep.

  Chapter 21

  The Band Rallies

  (Tuesday)

  The next day, Jonathan was up by eight o’clock, showered, and got dressed. Quietly he went into the kitchen to see if there was anything he could eat for breakfast. His mother had bought some cereal and milk at the store yesterday so Jonathan poured himself a bowl. He found a banana in the fruit bowl, which he sliced up and placed on top of the cereal. After finishing his breakfast, he brought his bowl to the sink, and left it there. After rinsing his mouth and brushing his teeth in the bathroom, Jonathan was ready to go over to Timothy’s house.

  Jonathan had decided to go over to Tim’s house way before the rehearsal so that he could see what Tim’s reaction would be to Jonathan’s predicament. That way he could gauge how the other band members, who he didn’t know very well, would react. But unknown to Jonathan, Daniel was over at Tim’s house already, because they were discussing the details about some studio equipment the band was planning to acquire.

  It was about 9:30 in the morning when Jonathan knocked on Tim’s door.

  Tim came to answer the door, and when he saw Jonathan standing there a big smile came to his face. “Jonathan!” he said in greeting. “It’s great to see you. Come on in! Daniel is here already.”

  Jonathan came in the door and sat in a seat at the table where Tim and Daniel had been working. Daniel looked up from his writing and when he saw Jonathan’s face, he became very concerned. “Jonathan, what has happened to you? Why are there bruises all over your face?”

  “I’m fine, Daniel, I tripped and fell yesterday,” Jonathan said averting his eyes.

  As Jonathan was answering Daniel looked at Tim with a look that said, “We have to get to the bottom of this!”

  Daniel started by trying to get Jonathan at ease. He talked about some of their band plans and what they were looking at purchasing. Jonathan made mechanical answers to the questions they asked him, and finally Daniel decided that a more direct approach was needed.

  “Jonathan, those bruises don’t look like they are from a fall! I thought we had agreed to level with each other about things at our last meeting. I thought we were going to discuss things openly.”

  “Yeah, Jonathan,” Tim added. “I am really concerned about what has happened to you. Did that bastard Scott hit you?”

  Jonathan squirmed in his chair, uncomfortable with his situation, but he didn’t risk lying to his best friend. “You are right, Tim,” he said in a low voice. “He really gave me the old one-two!”

  “I knew it!” Tim exclaimed. “We have got to get you away from that loser. He should be arrested for beating you up. It’s not like it was a fair fight or anything!”

  “Tim’s right, you know,” Daniel added. “Unless he has some sort of legal custody of you, he has no right to lay a hand on you! Assault and battery is a crime!”

  Tim went over to Jonathan and looked him in the eye. “Are you in any sort of pain? Did your injuries get treated?”

  “Yes, I am fine now. My mom was there and she helped me to clean up and attended to all of my cuts and bruises.”

  “You mom was there when he beat you up?” Daniel asked with some disbelief in his voice.

  “She was there, and eventually was able to pull Scott off of me. She said that he had no right to do that and that she would talk about it with Scott later.”

  “Why is this Scott character is even allowed to get close to you, Jonathan?” Daniel said angrily. “I think he needs a visit from one of our friends on the police force!”

  “I second that idea,” Tim added. “It’s time Brewster got a taste of his own medicine.”

  “That’s something we should get Jason on,” Daniel went on. “But let’s get into something more fun and something to take your mind off of Brewster. Let’s jam for a little while to relieve the tension and get our minds focused on music again.”

  “Yeah, that sounds like a great idea!” Tim said enthusiastically.

  Jonathan’s reaction was not what they expected at all. He just sat at the table and cradled his head into his hands.

  “What’s wrong, buddy?” Tim said as he came over to Jonathan and put his arm around his shoulder. Jonathan seemed very shaken and close to tears.

  “All my instruments are gone! My mother took them to the pawn shop yesterday without even telling me. Now I have nothing! I won’t be able to play in the band for the time being. She promised to redeem the pawn shop ticket after she gets her next check, but that won’t be until the first of the month.”

  “That totally sucks!” Tim exclaimed. “I can’t believe that your mom would do that to you! She had to know how important music is to you.”

  “The problem is that she is totally under the influence of that drug and under the control of Scott Brewster as a result,” Jonathan replied with frustration in his voice.

  Daniel was pacing around the room, furious about what he had just heard. As he thought about what happened with Jonathan’s instruments, and the bruises on Jonathan’s face and arms, he realized that Jonathan was in some real danger. He took out his cell phone, dialed Jason’s number and asked him to come over right away so that they could brainstorm a solution.

  About fifteen minutes later, Jason arrived and soon was in an animated discussion with Jonathan about what needed to be done.

  “Jonathan, I want you to be completely honest about what is going on in your life. I would like to help you with your problems through my foundation and through the authorities. Just like you did the other day, you need to continue leveling with us about your family situation. Are you willing to do that?”

  Jonathan then nodded his head ‘yes’. “At this point I don’t know who else I can trust or level with! I am really scared for my mother and for myself.”

  Jonathan then spent over fifteen minutes bringing Jason and the others up to date about all of his family problems. He explained that he was deathly afraid
that if he actually contacted the authorities, they would come and take him away to some foster care home, youth facility, or send him to live with some distant relative. “I just can’t handle the thought of being cut off from all my friends and school which right now is my only lifeline keeping me afloat. And I don’t want to be separated from my mother, despite her horrible addiction. I have no idea how to proceed any more. I am angry, frustrated, and scared shitless about what is going to happen to me and my mom!”

  Daniel and the others were quite moved by Jonathan’s confession. Jason was the first to respond.

  “Jonathan,” Jason told him, “the beating you took is nothing more than assault and battery. Scott Brewster should be arrested and hauled off to jail for beating you up! I could call Captain Garcia right now, explain the situation, and I am positive he would send someone out to take care of this right away. There is no reason for you to put up with that type of abuse!”

  Again Jonathan expressed his fear to act because he didn’t want his mother to be dragged through the court system and the social welfare people. “I am so fearful that they will take custody away from her and make me a ward of the state. As bad as things have been lately, she still is the only real family I have! I just can’t handle leaving Mom right now!”

  “I understand what you are saying,” Jason replied, “but right now your mom is part of the problem. Her drug addiction is only going to get worse until she agrees to get some help. From what you have been describing, it sounds like she would need a full rehabilitation program. Tell me more about your father, Jonathan. Are the two of you totally estranged? Did he ever communicate to you why he just abandoned you?”

  “I think he just couldn’t handle what Mom was doing, the drugs, and reckless life style. Also he didn’t approve of my ambitions to become a musician. That drove us apart because music is so important to my life. Eventually he just bailed on us!”