by JR Thompson
When the neighbor’s tongue eventually stopped wagging, Brock turned his attention to his son. “Scottie, why were you lurking about in the middlemost portion of the night?”
“I dunno.”
“You oughtta beat the answer out of him, mister.”
“Ma’am,” Brock said. “Thank you for delivering Scottie back to our residence. He will be dealt with — firmly. Why don’t you go back to your dwelling place and acquire some shut-eye?”
“Me? Shut-eye?” The lady gasped. “After having a prowler or a Peeping Tom on my property? That’s not likely.”
“He will not be disturbing you again, ma’am. Thank you,” Brock muttered, closing the door between them.
Motioning for Scottie to have a seat on the sofa, Brock asked, “How were you occupying your time, son?”
Scottie’s fear had escaped through the holes in his ears and had been replaced with a sense of all-out rebellion. “I, um… it’s none of your business.”
“It is now. Don’t converse with me in that tone again.”
“Or what?” Scottie asked.
Storming out of his bedroom, Titus warned, “Or I’ll deliver you the whippin’ the lady said you need.”
Brock ordered Titus back to bed.
“I’ll go, but if I hear any more lip… Scottie, you’re gonna get it and I don’t make threats.”
Victoria entered the living room, “Who was at the door? What’s all the commotion about?”
Scottie, speaking as quietly as he could in hopes of avoiding a beating from Titus, argued, “Everybody’s getting’ all bent out of shape cause I took a stroll and got some fresh air.”
Brock and Victoria questioned Scottie for hours. During that time his story consistently changed — he saw a deer and wanted to pet it, a pretty girl was calling his name, he had the notion Titus had sneaked out of the house and he was trying to see what he was up to.
“Stand up and reveal the contents of your pockets,” Brock eventually demanded.
“No.”
Titus opened his door and gave the boy an intimidating scowl.
“Fine,” Scottie mumbled, rising to his feet. Sticking his hands in his jeans pockets, he flipped them inside out.
“That’s a lighter!” Victoria gasped. “Why on earth do you have a lighter, young man?”
“Because I do.”
Brock and Victoria were beside themselves. Scottie had been behaving that way ever since the allegations had been made against Brock. It was like there was something inside of him that would not allow him to be polite, obedient, loving, or caring.
“Can I confer with him for a while?” Titus asked. “By myself?”
“I suppose. We’re not arriving anywhere with him. No brutality though, okay?” Brock insisted.
“Deal.”
“Where’d you put the gum?” Titus asked when the room cleared out.
“Gum? What gum?”
“You know, the gum you chewed to cover up the cigarette stench?”
Scottie had not been smoking — not that time anyway. However, he was not about to tell anyone what he had been doing. That was between him and God; nobody else needed to know. If he had his way, God wouldn’t be aware of it either.
“What were you doing, then?”
“None of your—.”
Titus cupped his hand over Scottie’s mouth. “Say the rest of that sentence and I’m gonna wear you out within an inch of your life. By the time your dad gets in here, it’ll be too late.”
Scottie closed his mouth and pondered for a second. “I’m not comfortable talkin’ about it,” he answered.
“That’s better, but it’s still not what I wanted to hear. That’s okay. I’m not gonna force it out of ya. But promise me you’re gonna stay in the house for the rest of the night. Will you do that?”
“Sure,” Scottie agreed. “But I’m tellin’ Dad you threatened me.”
“Tell him if you don’t wanna be able to sit down tomorrow. It’s your backside.”
“Did you threaten me again?”
“I’m telling you how it’s gonna be. If your dad isn’t gonna put you in check, somebody sure needs to.”
14: Parenting 101
The morning after their rude awakening, Victoria went grocery shopping and nearly came unglued when she bumped into Alayna. Seeing her wasn’t the problem. It had more to do with the first words that shot out of her mouth. “I heard you had a rough night.”
Somehow, Alayna always knew which buttons to push. What went on in the Pearson household was none of her business. Shouldn’t she be at home babysitting her paranoid hubby? Victoria asked herself. She bit her tongue, paused for a moment, and then softly spoke, “It was a long night indeed.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
Victoria sighed. “It’s okay. I’d rather not talk about it. How are things in your world?”
“To be honest, things have been going pretty well for us lately. Moving to Farmington was the best thing that could’ve happened to us. Collin’s shoe store is starting to pick up business, I’ve finally gotten the house arranged the way I want it, and Remington is growing closer to the Lord every day.”
Brag, brag, brag! Victoria thought. She was certain Alayna wasn’t making any of it up. Remington spent enough time helping on the building project that she knew he was doing well. It seemed every day Brock was coming home and sharing some little tidbit of information Remington had shown him in the scriptures. She had heard people from their church boast about the fantastic deals they were getting at Collin’s store. But still, was it necessary to rub it in her face like that?
Victoria donned a feigned smile and said, “I’m glad to hear it… I’ve got some shopping to do... See you later.”
Entering the cereal aisle, Victoria kept reflecting on their conversation about Remington. He really was a sweet kid. Yes, the boy was whiny, but he was exceedingly well-mannered. Remmy was always polite — maybe not always, but at least most of the time. He rarely back-talked, almost never got in trouble at school, and had a fantastic work ethic. She wished she could somehow instill his character into Scottie. But how?
A couple of aisles over, she bumped into Alayna again. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, what do you need?”
“Well, how do you do it? How do you get Remington to behave so well?”
Alayna nearly giggled, being wholly taken off guard by that question. “It took a lot of training, a lot of patience, and a lot of consistency.”
Victoria gripped the handle on her cart a bit more firmly. “I’ve heard things like that before, but to be perfectly honest I don’t think we’re first-rate parents.”
Alayna tried to console her. “Sure you are. Scottie just didn’t have the same foundation Remmy had. I mean, Collin and I were both saved before we had him. Our boy grew up in church, hearing the Word of God. We raised him according to Biblical principles.”
“So you and Collin did everything right while Brock and I failed miserably? Is that what you’re saying?”
“No, honey. Stop being so hard on yourself. I’m not judging you at all… I’m trying to get you to realize—"
Not needing an explanation, Victoria cut her off. “Would you and Collin be willing to teach us how to improve our parenting skills?”
Victoria tried to ignore the funny looks a couple of teenage girls gave her as they passed by.
“Like a Parenting 101 class?” Alayna asked.
“Something like that.”
Alayna smiled, shrugged her shoulders, and agreed she would mention it to Collin and they would see what they could work out.
All was quiet at Collin’s Shoe Store. With no customers coming in for the past twenty minutes, Collin was keeping himself busy doing a bit of reorganizing, while praying aloud, “…and You saw that guy that came in here earlier, Lord. I don’t know what it was about him, but I just got the feeling he was up to no good. Please protect my family. Don’t let us ever go through—”
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Ding. Ding. The bell on the front door announced someone’s entrance. “Gotta go God. We’ll wrap up this conversation later,” Collin said quietly as he hollered, “BE RIGHT THERE,” and headed toward the front of the store.
By the time he got there, Alayna was sitting on the counter with her legs crossed. “There’s my hunk of love,” she said with her face aglow.
Collin couldn’t help but smile. “To what do I owe the privilege of this visit?”
Alayna stood up, looked deep into his eyes, and took a few slow steps toward him with a huge smile on her face. “I love you, baby. Isn’t that reason enough?”
Collin chuckled. “It’s reason enough, alright. But something tells me you didn’t stop in just because you love me.”
“Well, Mr. Know-It-All, why don’t you tell me why I stopped in then.”
“Hmm…,” Collin snickered. “To ask me how much money we have in the bank because you just found a fabulous deal on something?”
Alayna lightly smacked his arm. “No!... Not even close.”
Ding. Ding. Another customer entered the store. “Good afternoon, how can I help you?” Collin asked.
“Just browsing,” the customer replied.
“No problem.”
Once the customer was out of earshot, Collin said, “Okay, now my time’s going to be somewhat limited. What’s up?”
Alayna eagerly shared the news of her encounter with Victoria and told him it looked like God was going to answer their prayers about helping them rebuild their relationship with the Pearsons.
Collin listened to her account with great interest. “Wow! God is good… but we must not forget that the devil sometimes has a way of making things look like they’re from God when they’re not.”
“You’re doubting this is God’s answer to our prayers? Collin, where’s your faith?”
Collin snickered. “I agree. The Pearsons are in need of some intense spiritual training — especially in the area of childrearing.”
“But?” Alayna questioned.
“But… if we agree to train them on parenting, we’re going to be dealing with some touchy situations and we’re going to have to exercise extreme caution in our wording of things.”
Collin went on to say he was willing to work with the Pearsons but he was certain hard feelings would arise. Still, he promised to hope and pray for God to prevent misunderstandings and to use their Parenting Class 101, as Alayna referred to it, in a compelling manner.
Later that evening Collin phoned Brock to see if he was on board with the idea or if it was one of those little impulsive things Victoria had rattled off in the heat of the moment. The last thing he wanted to do was meddle in Brock’s family affairs. Brock had already made it crystal clear he wanted to be a man and stand on his own two feet without having someone else breathe down his neck.
“We actually just finished discussing the idea before you called,” Brock said. “Collin, we do require collaboration — not only with Scottie but even with Titus. Titus isn’t technically a child. He’s practically developed into adulthood, but he has the potential to be somewhat garrulous at times, and he relishes in tormenting Scottie by bombarding him with invectives. My wife is correct; we are shoddy parents. What can you do to aid us?”
“Well,” Collin answered, “this whole idea of training someone on how to parent is new to me too. I’ve been giving it some heavy consideration throughout the afternoon and I do have a few ideas of how it could work. So I decided I’d run some different options by you and then leave the final decision up to you. If you have an idea that’s different than mine, share that with me too. We’ll do whatever we can.”
Collin suggested three options. The first consisted of Collin and Brock having one-on-one meetings while Alayna and Victoria did the same. During those meetings, they would discuss some of the behavioral issues they were dealing with and talk about effective ways of handling them. They would keep the Bible at the forefront of their discussions and apply as many scriptural principles as possible.
The second option would be for all four adults to sit down together for meetings. It would be somewhat of an open forum and everyone would have to agree to respect the opinions of everyone else in the room. Collin told Brock he wasn’t sure how well the group meeting would work because he feared tensions might arise when four different opinions were floating around the room.
His last proposition was the one he feared even to mention — that the Russells would spend one entire weekend per month at the Pearsons’ residence. During that time, the Russells would evaluate the Pearsons’ parenting methods and coach them on alternative ways of dealing with situations as they would arise.
“I am filled with uncertainty, Collin. I would not desire to be too much of an imposition.”
“It may be a slight imposition, but if it helps your family, I’m all for it,” Collin replied.
“Well, I’ll converse with my spouse. Even though that last alternative could potentially be awkward for all of us, I’m contemplating it might be the most advantageous.”
15: A Little Digging
Victoria had never ridden a town bus in her life, but there was a first time for everything. Nervously, she took a seat near the back of the bus. It seemed that everyone quieted down as she approached.
It was then she heard someone whisper, “I’m telling you, that’s the woman. I saw her coming out of the house just the other day.”
Victoria pretended not to hear a word as she casually looked out the window, awaiting an opportunity. She listened to more whispering, but couldn’t make out what was being said.
“Excuse me,” one of the women finally addressed her. “Didn’t I see you over by Central Baptist the other day?”
Victoria turned to face the short and dumpy woman whose face was decorated with frown lines. “Yes, ma’am. My family attends church there.”
“Really?” the woman asked. Victoria had no trouble recognizing her as someone who loved to meddle. “How long have you been attending?”
“Not very long. We’re new to town,” Victoria played along.
“Told you so,” the woman said, gently elbowing her friend who sat beside her speechless.
Victoria pretended she had no idea what they had been gossiping about. “Told you so, what?”
“Your family is taking over that ministry that’s building houses for folks, right?”
“We sure are,” Victoria said confidently.
The woman looked at her like she was a complete idiot. “Are you folks temporary or are you here for the long haul?”
“We hope to be here for a long time,” Victoria told her. This old lady’s a piece of work, she thought. I have got to find a way to drag some information out of her.
“Isn’t that nice?” the woman replied sarcastically, looking at her buddy.
Her friend jumped into the conversation. “Aren’t you afraid something horrible might happen to you or your family?”
Birds of a feather flock together, Victoria thought. Now we might be getting somewhere. “Why would I worry about something like that?”
“Well, that ministry doesn’t have a very solid reputation around here. I bet you’re having a hard time finding people to help out with the construction projects. Right?”
Victoria scratched her head. “We are struggling a bit, but God will provide the laborers in His time.”
“Another brainwashed soul,” the woman scoffed.
“What makes you say that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. It’d take some kind of religious nut to believe she’d be safe in a town where houses are burning to the ground all of the time and her husband is trying to be the hero.”
When the bus stopped, the ladies got off. Wow, Victoria thought. This is going to be tough. It seems everybody thinks the culprit is someone affiliated with Laborers for God. I’m just not convinced. It can’t be.
No more than a minute passed before a young man who appeared to be in his early twenties spok
e up. “So… um…,” he chuckled creepily, revealing a mouthful of blackening rotten teeth. “I couldn’t help but to overhear your conversation.”
Don’t let him scare you, Victoria. The only way you’re going to figure anything out is to talk to these people. Don’t be a respecter of persons. Cut right to the chase. See what you can find out. “Seems like there’s some hostility around here regarding Laborers for God. Do you know why that is by any chance?”
The eerie chuckle returned. “A little.”
Creepy, Victoria thought. “Could you maybe elaborate on that a little?”
“Elaborate? What’s that mean?”
Oh, my. No wonder the guy’s teeth are rotting out. He probably doesn’t know what the word ‘brush’ means either. No, Victoria. Stop being so judgmental. “In other words, why don’t people support the ministry?”
“Oh, gotcha,” the man grinned. “Cause of the fires I reckon.”
Where did this guy come from? Jupiter? Come on, Victoria. You can get something out of him. Don’t give up. “Any idea who the arsonist is?”
The man looked confused. “Arsonist?”
“Arsonist… you know, the person responsible for starting the fires?”
“Oh,” the guy replied. “Yeah, I have an idea who he is.”
“You don’t talk much, do you?” Victoria asked.
“I’m talkin’ right now, ain’t I?”
Is this guy all there? Victoria was beginning to have her doubts. Even if he’s not, he said he has an idea and I want to follow up on every lead I can get. “You sure are, buddy. What’s your name anyway?”
“Herbert.”
“Well, Herbert, my name is Victoria. It’s nice to meet you.”
Herbert chuckled, but not quite as creepily this time.
“Who do you think is behind the fires?”
“Right now, prolly nobody.”
“Nobody? I don’t understand.”
