The Nonconformist
by Ken Cohen
Chapter 8
Homosexuals
"What?" asked the detective.
"You said homosexuals?"
"Yes, I thought you knew about this. We were trying to understand the motive for the attack. Darrell Gruenrath told us Danny is a homosexual. They were teasing him about it all summer. He said that's all there was to it—teasing. They claim Danny turned it violent by striking Darrell's girlfriend. Darrell didn't say so, but revenge against Danny for that attack would explain the knife fight in the school.
"He said Danny didn't even react to them for most of the summer so they figured their impressions must be correct. Apparently, as is common, they don't like homosexuals. He said Danny was an easy type to spot from the way he behaved, in that he kept to himself, hadn't many friends. They were just having fun.
"You know how boys will be boys when on their own, bored, looking for something to do. So they used Danny for entertainment until for some reason Danny struck Darrell's girlfriend during an argument and then allegedly threatened another boy with a knife. I don't believe that last part, by the way.
"Most kids just forget about nonsense like this once it's over and they go home. But Darrell seemed intent on continuing it after he discovered Danny was a student at King High where he had just transferred. He was thrown out of his last school for fighting but was able to transfer to King. He claimed Danny was hostile to him when they encountered each other in the cafeteria. I think he's still angry because Danny assaulted his girlfriend. That would seem to be the motive. Revenge and probably a continuing dislike of people like your son."
Danny was getting angry. "Sir, I slapped his girlfriend after she slapped me, I didn't not start that. And I'm not a homo. And I never threatened anyone with a knife, not ever, he's lying. Those guys bullied me for two months because I was younger and smaller than them, an easy target. That's all there was to it. I wouldn't fight with them because I just had my teeth fixed and the braces removed before we left. I know what my mother would've said if I came home with broken teeth."
"Young man, teasing and bullying are common among young people, most shrug off things like that. Holding a grudge will not do you any good. Nor will taking the law into your own hands. I suggest you just forget about it. Put it behind you and get on with your life.
"Now, I'm afraid I have to leave, I have another call to make before I'm finished for the day. I wanted to bring you folks up to date. We'll need your son as a witness at the trial, and until then, again, Danny, you're not to discuss this with anyone except the police, the Crown attorney, and your lawyer. I'm sure we'll be in touch again at some point."
"Who's my lawyer? Why do I need a lawyer?"
The detective walked to the front door where he put his shoes on.
"That'll be up to you. You might want to speak to a lawyer."
"And excuse me, but I'm not the one who held a grudge or took the law into my own hands here. I'm the victim. The victim of something that began almost a year and a half ago."
The detective opened the door to leave. The rain had stopped. He shook hands with Alex and Barbara and said goodbye. "Danny, will you come out with me for a moment, I want to tell you something."
Danny's parents returned to the living room, whispering. Danny walked outside with the detective and closed the door behind them. They walked down the front steps toward the police car, then the detective stopped and turned to him again. Before he could say anything, Danny asked him, "What are you talking about, sir? Who said I'm holding a grudge?"
"Young man, I'm going to tell you something that applies generally to crimes like this one. If there has to be a trial, all of this stuff will come out in public and might even end up in the newspapers. So in cases like this, the prosecutor will probably agree to reduce the charges in exchange for guilty pleas so that you will not have to testify and the facts will be less likely to become public knowledge.
"They're doing you a favour by doing that. You don't want this story in the newspapers, on the radio, on TV. A knife attack in a high school will be newsworthy if the news becomes public. A trial will have that effect. I spoke to the prosecutor after we filed the charges. They'll consider reducing the charges to common assault and releasing both boys on probation in return for guilty pleas, rather than putting you through a trial and sending them to prison where they are likely to be badly mistreated to put it mildly, and maybe end up as career criminals. It's unlikely to be of interest to the media when handled that way. So if you were worried about having to give evidence at a trial, relax, a full trial might never take place.
"However, if you go looking for revenge, you're only asking for trouble. No vendettas. Keep yourself out of trouble. They tell me at the school that you're a smart young man and doing well in school. Keep it that way.
"One other thing. Homosexuality, having sexual relations of any kind with another man, is a crime. If you're caught, you'll be arrested, you can expect to go to prison, or reform school if you're under age, and you'll have a criminal record for the rest of your life.
"So think twice before you do it. There are better ways to live your life. It may seem like fun right now, but there's nothing good down that road for you. You'll get to the end of the road and find a dead end with no way back. A lot of doors will get slammed in your face as your proclivities become widely known.
"I suggest you stick to women, you'll find them a lot more fun. With a little luck you'll fall in love, get married, have children and live a decent life. You have your whole life ahead of you, don't throw it away. Once you get a criminal record, or a bad reputation, it will be with you forever."
Danny stood there listening to what he said. Bullshit, he thought. He felt angry. But there was nothing he could say. Proclivities? What's that?
He had one more thing on his mind. "What about those other guys that live in Toronto? The other bullies. What if Darrell tells them what's happened and one of them comes after me? What am I supposed to do? You expect me to just sit back and take it?"
"You've given me their names." He withdrew his notes and looked through them. "They were, let's see here, Byron and Mac you said. Also there were others not from Toronto. Yes, I remember, you mentioned them before. I have contact information for the two boys in Toronto. I'll speak with their parents to make sure they know that if they try anything similar, they will be in trouble. Anyway, I have to go. Good night, Danny. Follow my advice, you seem to be a smart young man with a good future ahead of you. Stay out of trouble."
He watched Middleton get into the bright yellow police car. Prison, he thought. A criminal record? He was so nice to me in the hospital. How does he know I'm a homo? He didn't have the right to say all that stuff. Maybe he thinks I deserve it. Maybe I do. I should have stood up to them. So what if my teeth had been busted. Fuck it all. I hate people. I hate the whole world. Criminal record. Shit.
He turned back toward the house. At least the cop hadn't said all the rest of that stuff in front of his parents. Danny had enough problems without them getting on his back any more than they already were. Maybe what Middleton said was good advice. He was right, he thought, doors will get slammed, I won't have friends, no one will want to have anything to do with me. I'll end up in the gutter with winos and drug addicts.
What about me and Kenny? Is what we're doing a crime? Of course it is. Gross indecency. Yummy.
He went to his bedroom and closed the door. He found his dictionary. Proclivity. Hmm. 'An inclination or predisposition to something on an ongoing basis. A preference.' Of course, that Latin word proclivis that we learned, it means "prone to." He had a sense that some adults like to use fancy words to deal with subjects they didn't want to discuss in detail. I'm aware of your predispositions. I know about your inclinations. There was something wrong here. The detective doesn't like me very much. It's like he's talking down to me with big words to demonstrate his intellectual superiority. I don't think I can trust him or count on him. Who in this world will stand up for me if the police won't?
I must be crazy, he thought, after all this shit I'm sitting here looking up a word in the dictionary and wondering about its Latin roots? I must be losing my fucking mind. Why do I find this so funny? It's ludicrous. The whole thing. These people, they're the ones who are nuts, living in their cloistered worlds full of stupid useless rules, trying to run other people's lives. Over what? Some idiotic 3,000 year old law in the old testament?
Barbara wasn't through. The next day she called the detective with more questions. He went through the story with her again and confirmed some of her suspicions.
So when Danny got home on Thursday after football practice, she was waiting for him. She sat him down in the kitchen, stood over him as though he were still a child, and began talking in her teary voice. "The police tell me you're a homosexual."
"That's not true!"
"It has to end right now. There's to be no more talk about that. Where did you get such perverted ideas? Only someone who is mental would behave like that. You're not going to grow up as one of those perverts. We will see Dr. Churchill about getting you treatment. I'll do everything necessary to get this filth out of your head for once and for all. I'm so…" She began crying and stomped out of the room.
What can I say? he thought. She won't listen to me. She thinks I can change my sexual feelings like changing my shirt. She's in a panic. Maybe she needs the psychiatrist.
Then he gave it some further thought. What she really wants is for me to disregard my feelings, my natural attractions, and force myself to be celibate or only go out with women. Of course, if I go after a woman, she'll lecture me that the church says and God says I can only do that if I'm married.
So here I am, 16 years old, long past puberty, still expected to obey my mother's wishes.
This is the way she thinks. My feelings and needs are of no concern to her.
Ten minutes later she returned to his bedroom. "On Monday you will take a bus right after school to Dr. Churchill's office where you have an appointment at 4 o'clock. I will meet you there."
He was 16 and she was still giving him orders.
"That's not possible." He managed to remain calm. "I have football practice after school every day. You know this, I've told you. The appointment has to be a different time."
"You are not playing football. The doctor said no football. If you hadn't gotten into this fight, all this wouldn't have happened. You're finished with football. You'll be at the doctor's office." She started to leave the room.
"No I won't!" He slammed the door closed behind her.
He was resolved. She won't push me around, he thought. I won't take orders from her. I've reached my limit, I've been respecting her my whole life, it's time she begins to respect me.
He quietly phoned the doctor's office and said he needed to change the time. Yes he could come in Tuesday morning at 8:30. The time was changed. He thanked the receptionist.
There she was, back and now sitting on his bed. This time she tried using some kindness. "Danny, you have to go. You can't miss this appointment. The rest of your life depends on it. We'll get help for you." She waited for him to respond. He wouldn't say a word, instead went back to his homework. After a few minutes she left the room.
His relationship with his mother had reached the point where he said as little as possible to her. And since his father wasn't home much and in any case rarely spoke to him, the lingering cool silence between Danny and his parents, which had long been sporadic, was becoming more noticeable as it settled in.
That night, after dinner, though, his father came to his bedroom.
"Danny, I want to talk to you about everything that's happened. Why didn't you ever tell me about this problem you have? We could've gotten help for you."
Danny thought he knew what he was talking about but wanted to hear it from him. "Mom must've sent you. What problem?"
"You know, about you thinking you're a homosexual."
"What makes you think that?"
"That's what the policeman said," he said with some exasperation. "He told all of us, remember? When he found out Darrell Gruenrath might be involved, he met with the boy and his parents and lawyer. His parents are wealthy people, well known, important in the community. He said Darrell denied having anything to do with the attack at school.
"He also said you had a lot of trouble at the camp in Greece. You were antisocial. Word got around that you were a homosexual. You didn't deny it.
"And then there was some trouble with you hitting Darrell's girlfriend at one point? It sounds like you became violent and unsociable."
"Dad! You believe all that? You haven't heard a word about it from me. You never even talk to me. You haven't said a single meaningful thing to me since I came home over a year ago. You never used to talk to me before that either. Yet you believe every word that cop and that bully say about it. Is that right?"
"I don't think the boy would lie to a policeman. It's a crime to lie to the police, it would get him in a lot of trouble. And lie to his parents and his lawyer? I think it's safe to say most of what he told the police about you must have been true. How much debate can there be about such a simple thing?"
"I never told anyone I'm a homosexual. As far as I'm concerned, my feelings are mine and mine alone. Why would you or anyone else care about it as long as what I feel is not doing anyone any harm? This is literally the first time in my life you've asked about my feelings. The first time! I never told anyone any such thing. Why would I? To bring all this shit on myself? I'd have to be nuts.
"You don't seem to care that I was bullied all summer by a gang of kids who thought they'd pick a likely target to cure their boredom with. You won't talk about that. Because I told you before I went that I didn't want to go, but you said I had to go!
"You're too scared of their parents to stand up for me! I had a bad feeling before the trip, I told you. You ignored me, you both insisted I go because of the money. Now you feel guilty, don't you.
"You really believe I'm antisocial? I had friends there, there were some kids my age and I got along with them fine. It was the bullies, a few older kids, that went after me all summer even though I never said a word to any of them. But you're taking their side. You won't even consider the possibility I'm the innocent one. Because if you did take my side, you'd have to take responsibility for sending me there against my will.
"That summer was the worst thing ever happened to me. It started with one big 18-year-old from Brooklyn who shouldn't even have been there, calling me queer because he was bored and looking for someone to push around. I'm shy, you must know that, it's always been hard for me to make friends, I've been like this since I was a little kid. The guy from Brooklyn found friends from Toronto, they became like a gang, calling me names, pushing me around. Not just me either, other kids my age too. This went on for weeks. I slapped Darrell's girlfriend about one second after she slapped me. I didn't start that, I was minding my own business. She was bored, so she joined in with the bullies calling me names and stuff. So I called her a bitch. She slapped me. I never touched her until then. But I slapped her back because I couldn't take it any more.
"And if Darrell denied he had anything to do with me being attacked, why have the police charged him? They have evidence he paid that guy John Payne a lot of money before I was stabbed.
"So it's obvious he's lying, and yet you sit here and ask me why he would lie to the police? He's lying because he doesn't want to admit he tried to have me killed. The police don't believe what he told them, they charged him with attempted murder. He could go to prison. And you, instead of being angry, you're the same old timid man hiding in a corner wishing everything would go away.
"Do you have any idea what I went through? Every day for two months, ganged up on, called a fairy or faggot or queer, hitting me, tripping me, pushing me around all the time. Like I had no right to be there. And now you blame me for all of it?
"It's your fault and mom's that this happened. You do know that! I told you weeks before the trip, I didn't want to go! I had a bad feeling about it. You remember? Maybe you conveniently forgot. You wouldn't listen. You remember, don't you? All you could think about was the money you spent. You didn't like being with those rich people at the meeting before the trip, did you? You felt out of place there, talking about all their big shiny cars and other stuff, how it made you feel.
"You're supposed to be my father. You're supposed to stand up for me. But you sent me away for two months with a bunch of rich spoiled kids who I had nothing in common with. You wanted to get rid of me for the summer. You must've been blind, you threw me in the water with a bunch of sharks and told me to sink or swim.
"Well I almost drowned. It's like you forgot I'm your son, I was 14 years old, didn't you ever think about protecting me? I couldn't avoid them even when I wanted to. I couldn't avoid them, morning to night, every day was a nightmare."
Alex looked at him, saying nothing.
"None of this had to happen, dad!" He spat 'dad' as though the word were poison. "If you had listened to me, I wouldn't have gone on the trip and none of this would've happened.
"You promised I would learn new things and come home a different person. You, dad, you said it would be a learning experience, the trip of a lifetime, it would change my life. But that's not what it was. It didn't make my dreams come true, and your dreams about it were wrong, they were fantasies, you fooled yourself into believing that stuff. It was a living nightmare every single day, not a dream come true.
"Those people who went with us, Mr. Koflakos and his wife, they spent all their time with their children, they practically led separate lives from the rest of us. They had a little house to live in with their kids, not like the rest of us with the straw mattresses and dingy lightbulbs and dusty board floors and millions of flies.
"There were no adults with us most of the time. The older kids spent their time smoking, drinking booze, getting into trouble and having sex with the girls. The camp people took us around the country in worn out army trucks to see stuff that wasn't explained properly and was usually boring. Most of the kids didn't care where we were going or what we were seeing. The ones who wanted to learn, like me, we were mostly teased and bullied and unhappy, we used to eat together and complain to each other about how bad the trip was turning out.
"One boy they bullied got so upset after they broke his nose that he was sent home early, and the adults blamed it on that boy. Some of us wished it was us going home early."
He was angry. "I wish you'd get out of here and leave me alone. Every time I remember all that stuff, I get really upset again."
But Alex wasn't finished. "Danny, I don't know what you're talking about. I wasn't there. Mr. Koflakos sent all the parents a letter halfway through the trip, after the first month, describing what a wonderful time everyone was having, and another at the end telling us what a great success it was. So a whole bunch of people are telling me the trip was a success, and now over a year later you're suddenly telling me something else. Who do you think I should believe? What I'm suddenly finding out about you now is the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to me. But most of all, I can't understand why you would want to be one of those, uhh … men."
"Mr. Koflakos isn't a bunch of people, dad! He's one man and of course he was going to tell you it was a success. First, he hardly knew what was going on because he was never around. Second, what did you think, he would tell you it was a failure? That would have reflected terribly on him. He was lying to you."
"Look, your mother and I love you, we want the best for you. We've always had high hopes for you, you've done well in school and it looks like you have a great future ahead of you if you want it. But no one wants homosexuals as friends. No one wants to hire them or work with them or do business with them. Good schools don't want them as students either. They belong in prisons and hospitals and that's where they all end up. And it's where you're going to end up.
"So get this infatuation out of your head. Behave yourself and stay out of trouble from now on. Your job is to finish school, go to university, get a degree, get a profession, find yourself a wife, settle down and have children. Forget all the rest, forget about whatever happened, ignore the nonsense. That's how to live your life. We've been telling you these things since you were a child.
"I don't want to hear further about any of this stuff. It's all in the past. Leave it there where it belongs and live your life properly from now on. You have all the opportunities in the world to do that and to make your mother and me proud. Now get your homework done and go to bed."
"Stop! You know what? You really want to know the truth? Okay, I'll tell you. I am attracted to boys. Physically and emotionally. I do not feel any attraction to girls. It's not a decision I made. It's not something I want. It's how I am, what I feel. I can't decide what my feelings will be. They are what they are. There's no way for me to change them. It's how I was born.
"Do you imagine I can somehow escape being who I am? I should spend my life pretending to be something I'm not? To fit within your idea of normal? Is that your idea of how I should live? A life lived not for me but for you? It doesn't work that way. You brought a different human being into this world, someone with a mind and a body and feelings that are his, not yours.
"I'm the son you made, the son you brought into this world. I've never told you because I knew you would react this way. But I'm sick of hiding, I'm tired of the secrets and the lies and the pretending. You'll just have to get used to it.
"As for my mother, she cursed me when I was a child by teaching me that people like me are disgusting, mentally ill, ugly, and a threat to little children. That's what she taught me. So I hate myself, I've grown up that way, and now I'm fighting for my life because I can't live with that image of myself. That's why I think about suicide. That's right, I do that. The fact I have to fight my parents, my own parents, the people who are supposed to love me, that just makes it harder."
Alex began to leave. Danny shouted after him, "I'm 16 years old, I'm not your little kid to order around any more. You're arguing for the sake of arguing, trying to rationalize it all away in your own mind because you know it's your fault. That's it, run away and leave me! You think I made this stuff up? You've never been on my side. You've never been a father to me. You're just a, a, a kind of fixture in this house."
Alex slammed the door closed behind him.
Danny was exhausted and close to tears again.
He opened the door, his heart pounding, he needed to pee. He happened to glance down the hall and saw Mary peeking out from her bedroom, looking frightened. She closed her door when she saw Danny.
He peed, returned to his room, turned off his light, lay on his bed crying. He was awake a long time, eventually calmed himself, fell asleep with his clothes on in the early morning hours. When he opened his eyes, the sun was up. His homework was waiting.
That Friday, he went to the hospital for a follow up appointment. The wound was healed and wasn't infected. No contact sports for at least three more weeks. The doctor would phone Coach Taylor again to explain this to him.
Mary noticed Danny's icy silences when he returned from overseas. Initially the darkening atmosphere at home came and went in shallow waves. Now, though, the hostility and absence of communication in their home felt as though the walls of the house were coated in half an inch of solid ice.
He hadn't considered his sister when he started it. Mary had grown frightened, anxious and withdrawn since he came home. He loved her and worried about how his behaviour affected her.
He had no face-saving way to end it. He hadn't anticipated that his "scatter-gun" approach to his parents would in the end encompass the whole family. He couldn't just one day turn on a happy face to end it; and he was sure that if he in effect asked for a truce, he would quickly get return fire from his mother.
It was a mixed up mess. His mother's rules about sex, his own sexuality that he barely understood, being bullied all summer on the so-called trip of his life, the anger at his parents, the terrible fears of more troubled waters ahead—and now every day the home he once felt safe and happy in had become a place of cold antagonism of his own making.
The message to his parents through his silence, that he needed help, didn't have the result he hoped for. But he saw no way back from it. He felt too hostile to Alex and Barbara to give up or surrender.
In these weeks, Kenny was becoming his saviour. Once, twice, three times a week, he could find love in Kenny's welcome arms. Kenny was his escape.
The reality seemed to be that his parents had accepted his challenge and decided to wait him out. Let him take care of his own problems because that seemed the simplest solution and would involve them the least. They told themselves they were good parents who had done their job, and their son had become a troublemaker and pervert who would have to sort out his own problems or "suffer the consequences."
Mary was the collateral damage. She had done nothing wrong. Yet as far as her parents were concerned, she and Danny were still children to be routinely ordered around. They didn't seem to care how she felt. They'd apparently decided that her reticence and Danny's silences were stages teenagers went through and would pass.
Hence, they were washing their hands of him. They had their own lives to live and wanted to begin enjoying themselves as they got older. Alex had received a promotion and was earning more money. Barbara had started teacher's college and hoped to be teaching next year. In the long term they had plans to travel and leave their children to take care of themselves.
It was Tuesday morning. He went with Barbara to Dr. Churchill. She dropped Danny off. He was to take the bus from the doctor's office to school afterward.
Danny felt nervous. Dr. Churchill first checked the healing of the wound and was satisfied with it. Then Danny spoke about his experiences in Greece two summer earlier.
When he finished, Dr. Churchill asked, "Danny, please tell me, are you at all attracted to girls?"
"I'm attracted to boys."
"But what about girls?"
"Not really."
"How do you feel about that?"
"Well, until recently, I wished it wasn't so. But things have happened and I'm okay with it now."
"What happened?"
"I have a boyfriend."
"I guess that's good news?"
"To be honest, I have to say I'm in love with him. And he seems to be in love with me. We've been friends for over a year, and I knew about him. Now we've fallen in love. I've told him everything I told you and more. He doesn't criticize me or look down at me, he accepts me and he actually seems to love me. So yes, having a boyfriend is very good news, except that I have to keep it secret. Good news loses something, somehow, if you can't share it with the people closest to you."
"You sounded a little doubtful about your boyfriend loving you."
"I just have trouble understanding how anyone can love me. But he says he does and I trust him. I know I love him, that's for sure."
"Have you ever been in love before?"
"Not like this. Nothing even close to this. I've had crushes on a couple of boys in the past. But nothing like this."
"How has your mood been?"
"Since this began, I mean having a boyfriend, it's been a lot better. I'm feeling a lot better. I just wish I could share it. Never mind my parents, I can't talk about it with my sister or my friends. You're the first person I've told."
"What about your feelings about the bullying? Is that still bothering you?"
"It's there and not going away. It goes through my head every day. I still sometimes have bad dreams about it."
"The bullying is really a different issue from your feelings about your boyfriend."
"I guess it is. The fact I found a boy who loves me, it really makes me feel good. But the bad memories, I think they affect the way I approach people I don't know. It's always been hard for me to trust people, and it's still that way."
"Alright, Danny. It's clear you've been psychologically traumatized, first by your mother, and then by those who bullied you. I'm going to leave that for a psychiatrist to look at.
"Whether you act on your feelings with other boys, or girls for that matter, is up to you. Be sure whatever you do is done with the agreement of the other person. Don't ever force a sexual act on anyone. Make sure it's someone close to your own age who you can trust. And also, you both keep what you do private. Remember, having sex with another male is illegal in this country and many others."
"Is it wrong, against the law, to have sex before marriage? My mother says it's immoral and wrong. And that homosexuals are disgusting perverts. Are they really? Am I? I don't understand what my mother said about them going around looking for little kids to do things to, I've never felt anything like that. I'd never touch a little kid. Among other things, why would I be sexually interested in a child?"
The doctor stopped for a moment to think. "Your mother told you what she was told when she was growing up. She said these things when you were young, had little understanding of the world and were highly impressionable. What she thinks is wrong may be perfectly fine to some people. It's just her opinion, not based on facts. What she said is not a proper answer to a child.
"When you tell a child things like that, it can stick in his mind. The way I'd describe it, it becomes engrained in his brain cells, like dried ink on paper. You can't wash it out. The child grows up but doesn't forget. The words become echoes, sometimes subconscious ones, and stay there forever. If the child has children of their own, the same things get repeated to those children. The engrained information gets handed down from generation to generation as though it were inherited.
"The negative popular view is amplified by some religious and political leaders for their own benefit.
"You protect yourself. There are people who might want to harm you if they find out you're a homosexual, if that's what you are. Many are angry people who hate anyone different. Others are driven by extreme religious beliefs based on irrational fears and ignorance. Some may even be homosexuals trying to disguise their own feelings.
"So, only talk about this with people you know for sure you can trust. That includes adults as well as people your age. Figuring out who you can trust is hard and you have to be careful. I don't want you to get hurt again. You've seen what can happen. You've been badly hurt both emotionally and physically.
"I'll refer you to a psychiatrist. His office will call you to make an appointment. You can talk to me any time you like, just call and make an appointment. You're old enough now, you don't need your mother to do that for you.
"One other thing to think about. Consider trusting your sister. Feel her out first, see if she understands the seriousness of keeping something like your sexuality confidential. Do it carefully and slowly, maybe over a period of weeks. If you can find an ally in her, it might help."
"Okay, and thanks."
November 11. Remembrance Day, 1965. Public remembrance services were held in the morning.
In the afternoon, Danny went with Alex to a police station to see Detective Middleton at his request. The detective told them Darrell Gruenrath and John Payne had agreed to plead guilty to one charge each of common assault and would be sentenced to two years less one day in prison, with the sentences to be suspended. During that time they had to report to probation officers, couldn't go near Danny, his family, home or school. Each agreed to pay a fine of $2,000 within 30 days, or go to prison if it wasn't paid. It was a huge amount but their families were so wealthy it meant little to them. They were expelled from the Ontario school system. They'd have to get private tutoring and take the Ontario grade 13 examinations at their own expense.
When they appeared in court to be sentenced, he said the judge would warn them that if they breached the terms of their probation, they could expect to serve the rest of their sentences in real prisons.
Danny thanked the detective and hoped he would never lay eyes on him again.
Darrell and his friends disappeared from Danny's life. And he wouldn't have to go through a trial and the possibility of publicity. He had thought about it a lot, the possibility worried him. So he was thankful he wouldn't have to testify.
His dad drove home. They pulled into the driveway and Alex turned off the engine. Before Danny could get out of the car, Alex said, "Danny, you've been through a really hard time, you've shown a lot of courage, and I see how much all of this has hurt you. I think it's time for you to learn to drive. Is that something you would like to do?"
Danny was astonished. "Yes, sure I want to learn to drive, I'd love to." Alex reached down for a small bag on the floor and gave it to him. It contained the Ontario driver training manual, with the rules of the road he would have to read and know. Vision and written tests would be needed to get a learner's permit. He could start driving classes in the spring after the snow melted.
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