Strong Enough
by Nico Grey
XV
Caleb was disappointed when he and Tyler didn't spend the night together again. But Nicole and Grace had been firm. Sunday night was a school night, even if their sons wouldn't be in school the following day.
They did still spend Monday together. It was a beautiful mid-winter day. Tyler appeared at Caleb's front door well before nine o'clock. And while he kept a careful eye on Caleb throughout the day, he didn't object when Caleb decided that he wanted them to spend their time together outdoors.
Nicole had apparently anticipated their plans. When they returned to the Bradford home for lunch, Caleb found a casserole dish full of stuffed shells that was ready to go straight from refrigerator to oven.
Caleb also noticed a tray of apple streusel muffins on the counter next to the refrigerator. Since there was a 'help yourself' note attached, they seemed the perfect inducement to return home for a mid-afternoon break. He brewed coffee for Tyler and they settled down on the living room sofa to rest.
When Caleb awoke, he noticed that the light coming through the picture window was fading, he and Tyler were wrapped in the comforter from his bed, and his lower lip was trapped between Tyler's lips.
He waited for Tyler to move. Nothing happened. Then he noticed a feeling of dampness where Tyler's cheek was pressed against his own. It took a few moments for the pieces to add up for Caleb.
While he was still doing his mental math, Tyler stirred. His eyes flickered open and he noticed Caleb watching him.
"What?" he wondered.
Then he noticed that they were joined at the lips. He started laughing.
"I think we fell asleep like this," Tyler giggled. "You dozed off. I watched you sleep for a while. Then I couldn't help myself."
He reddened slightly.
"We really should wake up like this all of the time."
Caleb moaned involuntarily. It really had been a very nice way to wake up.
"I wonder if we could talk our mothers into sharing a house," he suggested.
"That would save money," Tyler agreed. "All we'd need is something a little bigger than what we already have."
"We could even stay here," Caleb decided. "Your mom could have my room. You and I could fix up a space down in the cellar for ourselves."
"That would sure be convenient now," Tyler sighed. He noticed the fading light. "I'm going to have to call my mother for a ride, I think."
"Or you could stay for dinner and my mom will drive you home," Caleb suggested.
In the end, their mothers arrived at a similar conclusion.
They were anticipating Jonathan West's call. When Nicole arrived home and found Tyler stranded, she called Grace and invited her to join them for dinner. After they finished eating, they could visit until Jonathan called.
The news wasn't unexpected. Vice Principal Callahan didn't give Jonathan the opportunity to impeach his version of events with Abby's recording of his conversation with Caleb. But it was obvious to his superiors that he hadn't handled the situation well.
The school decided that the day of suspension that Tyler and Caleb had served was sufficient for their offenses. And it was agreed that the incident would be removed immediately from their permanent records.
The only disappointment was that nothing more was said about Benjer Frye; the school insisting that discipline of another student was a private matter that didn't concern Caleb, Tyler, or their families.
"Caleb does have the option of filing a criminal complaint against the Frye boy for assault," Jonathan informed everyone. "He could also file a civil action for damages he suffered. I'll help with either course of action, if that's what you want."
"What should I do?" Caleb asked the room.
When no one answered, Jonathan offered his opinion.
"It's not a satisfying outcome," he acknowledged, "but the best course might be to accept the school's decision and move on."
He paused to consider additional options.
"You could also sue the school district for failing to keep you safe and for the careless way they addressed your injury. It's possible that you could receive some modest compensation for their failure to treat your injury properly. The safety issue is probably something they couldn't have reasonably foreseen.
"The school really dealt with this situation poorly. But they didn't step so far out of line that a jury would likely punish them severely for what they did. I'm sorry."
"There's no need to apologize, Mr. West," Nicole assured him. "Everything has been resolved with as little harm to Caleb and Tyler as possible. I quite disliked that creepy vice principal, but I'm not vengeful. As long as he leaves my boys alone, I'll leave him alone."
Jonathan's tone grew more serious.
"I hope he'll leave the guys alone," he agreed. "But I do know Regan Callahan. We go all the way back to grade school together. I'd suggest that Caleb and Tyler keep a low profile around him. He'll take the superintendent's decision today as a personal loss. And he's not likely to forget that."
"How can he do that?" Grace demanded. "He's an educator. We pay him to teach our children and to keep them safe."
"Regan has never been a very decent person," Jonathan sighed. "I was hoping to catch him in a serious breach of conduct today. It would be in character.
" Our high school class celebrates our thirtieth reunion in June," he chuckled. "I had hopes of Snapper returning for the reunion as a defrocked school administrator, and me returning with his scalp— such as it is these days— dangling from my belt.
"That's personal business. An old score I still haven't settled," he explained. "But I would never let my personal grudges affect how I represent Caleb and Tyler," his sincerity was palpable across the telephone connection.
Nicole and Grace thanked Jonathan for his efforts and the conversation concluded a few minutes later.
"I wonder what he meant about personal business with Mr. Callahan," Tyler wondered.
"Abby mentioned something to me today," Caleb said. "I'll ask her for the whole story. Hey! Maybe we can even help Mr. West even his score if we know what it's about!"
Grace and Nicole brought Caleb up short.
"This is politics," Nicole explained. "It's adult business. Interfering in something like that could turn pretty nasty for you. You might not even see the danger coming before it's too late."
"That goes for you, too," Grace informed Tyler sternly. "We don't want anything happening to either of you. Remember, with something between adults, especially something serious like this, you just stay out of it."
Tyler promised that he would never even consider the idea.
Caleb pretended to go along with their mothers' demands, too.
Regan Callahan read the e-mail from his IT contact at the superintendant's office again. The man had identified the hacker that had broken into the high school server Saturday night. The hacker had been careless and the IT expert skilled. He had even left a trail back to his IP Address.
Callahan read through the message a third time. Evander Cross. A junior. A bit of a knucklehead who appeared to hold a high opinion of himself. But he didn't make the sort of trouble around school that often came to the Dean of Discipline's attention.
He could land on Cross like the proverbial ton of bricks. Hacking the school server would even justify a criminal referral. But it didn't appear that any real harm had been done. Aside from the tampering he had done with Caleb Bradford's records, it didn't appear that Cross had spent much time at all on the server.
Callahan wondered what Cross had against Bradford. Not that it really mattered. He and Cross had something in common. What they didn't both have was some very damaging knowledge about Bradford's history before he arrived at Silver River. . .that an administrator in the Keene school district had shared unofficially with him.
'I wonder what would happen if I shared that with Cross?' the vice principal pondered. 'I'd just have to be very careful about how he gets the information. Cover my tracks well.'
Evander Cross really was a bit of an idiot. But he could prove a useful idiot.
Tyler and his mother hadn't been gone more than five minutes before Caleb started to feel a sensation of emptiness. He had spent almost all of the weekend with Tyler. Now Tyler was gone. For almost twelve hours!
Tuesday morning felt a long way away.
"Dr. Fingers!" he greeted her when Abby answered her phone.
"I knew you'd come around eventually!" she crowed. "They really are magic, aren't they?"
"'Magic' is one word for it," Caleb laughed. "I was hoping they'd make me disappear Saturday."
"That was the result of your own poor decision," she informed him. "I didn't even mention the idea. But now that we've broken the ice, I was thinking that we need to do more work on your core next weekend."
"No way, Abs!" Caleb shrieked. "I am not rolling over for Dr. Fingers again!"
"Oh, you'll come around," she cackled. "I'd hate to think of what might happen to your boy toy if you don't!"
"If I'm not wearing anything," he hyperventilated, "then I'm not rolling over. Tyler will be on his own!"
"Anyway," Caleb continued, "the reason I'm calling is to thank you for getting your father to help us. Tyler and I will be back in school tomorrow."
"Oh, I knew that," she said. "We had Rogaine dead to rights. And my father is one of the best lawyers in Vermont!"
"Well then do you know why your father hates Callahan as much as he does?" Caleb asked. "He seemed kind of pissed off that he couldn't get the guy fired."
The line became quiet for a while.
"Abs?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry. I was just thinking about something, Caleb."
Abby drew a deep breath.
"It's family business, Caleb. It's really pretty serious stuff," she added. "I'll tell you and Tyler about it if you both promise to keep it secret. Maybe at lunch tomorrow."
Caleb waited. It sounded like Abby might have a secret as serious as his own.
"It's about my Uncle David. He's my father's little brother. That's really all I can tell you tonight," Abby concluded. "My father doesn't even know that I've heard the whole story. And I don't want him to catch me talking about it."
Caleb had been ambivalent about returning to school on Tuesday. His morning classes did nothing to change his outlook, even if his history class was chill, as usual. But he found himself looking forward to his lunch period.
Lunch proved a disappointment. It had nothing to do with the turkey tetrazzini that was slopped onto Caleb's tray as he passed through the serving line, although that didn't help.
The attention that he and Tyler were getting from Lexxi's table also had little to do with Caleb's disappointment. It didn't help that Benjer Frye was still sitting with Lexxi and her crew, although Lexxi did appear to have kept him strategically separated from her. But he didn't expect Lexxi or Benjer to make a move so soon after a recent confrontation.
The main source of Caleb's disappointment was Abby.
"I don't think it would be a good idea to explain about my dad and Rogaine here," she informed them. "It's pretty sensitive. Kind of a deep family secret. I wouldn't want anyone to overhear it."
"So when?" Caleb was sensing a completely wasted day.
"Nobody will be around when you two see me on Saturday," Abby informed him coyly.
Caleb couldn't contain his frustration.
" That's like. . . four days from now!" He counted again on his fingers to be sure.
"Maybe even seven or eight." Tyler didn't understand Caleb's frustration, but he was trying to be supportive.
"I thought you were good at math," Abby snickered.
"Some math," Tyler admitted. He blushed again.
"We might not even be able to see you on Saturday," Caleb tried another tack.
"And now you have incentive to make sure that you do!" Abby explained triumphantly. "You two have an appointment with Dr. Fingers. Don't miss it!
"Besides," her tone was more serious. "There's absolutely no chance of anyone overhearing us at my house. And it really is a major family secret."
"We can walk, if you prefer," Tyler suggested. "It's less than two miles. But your mother signed permission for you to ride my bus. We'll be home that much sooner. We could even get our homework done, rather than having to rush after we get home from Brattleboro."
Caleb started to laugh before he realized that Tyler was serious. He recovered quickly.
"I guess that makes sense," he admitted. "I was beat after jiu-jitsu last week. I didn't want to do more than come home, shower, and go to bed."
"I like the sound of that," Tyler grinned. "I'm already looking forward to Saturday."
"Seven or eight more days," Caleb laughed at him. "You know, it's too bad you couldn't stay with me tonight. It might even make sense on the weeks when my mother drives us. We could both be at home and in bed five minutes sooner!"
It was Tyler's turn to laugh.
"You just want to have sex!"
Caleb glanced around carefully to make sure no one could overhear them.
"That's really not the reason, you know," he said. "I like sex. But I really love holding you in my arms all night. I can't think of a better feeling."
Tyler moaned his agreement.
Van Cross was frustrated. The information he had found in Caleb Bradford's school file hadn't provided any useful leads. There were indications of some sort of issues in the records that had transferred from Keene— vague allusions to some sort of disciplinary matters and a few extended absences from school during eighth and ninth grade— but there wasn't anything that provided actual dirt on his quarry.
After three frustrating days spent trying to follow up on what he had found after hacking the school server, Van was starting to run out of ideas. He was certain that there had to be something useful in Caleb's background. There was something hinted at in his Keene school records. The parents had divorced at the end of that period and mother and son moved to the Silver River Union School District. There had to be something there. Van was irritated that he couldn't find it.
He had searched public records for Caleb and members of his family. Aside from a couple of newspaper accounts that mentioned Caleb as a minor contributor on schoolboy soccer clubs, his name never appeared. His mother, Nicole, apparently worked as some sort of professional in the Brattleboro area. The father, Donald, was an owner in a family-run agricultural supply business in Keene.
As far as Van could determine, no member of the family had any court involvement, outside of the parents' divorce. None of them had done anything particularly controversial. They weren't prominent members of their community. They were very ordinary people. But there was something about their son that Van Cross couldn't get out of his mind. It was driving him crazy.
Van closed his internet browser. He couldn't motivate himself to open any gaming software. He was considering powering down his computer when he noticed an alert advising that he had received a new e-mail.
Van opened his e-mailer program. He was disappointed. He didn't recognize the address of the sender. It appeared to originate from somewhere outside of the country.
The subject, "You Need to Know This!" screamed 'SPAM'! Van wondered why the message hadn't ended up in his SPAM folder. He considered dragging the message there.
But curiosity stayed his hand. He opened his virus application to scan the message file. It appeared to be safe. He double-clicked tentatively on the message, prepared to close the window immediately if he sensed trouble. Nothing unusual happened.
The body of the message repeated the subject line. There were three links included in the message. There was no other information, and certainly no signature.
Van noted the links scornfully. Again, he considered trashing the document. But he noticed that one of the links appeared to belong to the Keene Sentinel. That was the local newspaper in Keene, New Hampshire. Van was pretty sure he had seen that name before.
Curiosity almost got the best of him. But it was late. Van was tired. He had school in the morning.
He made sure to save the e-mail file for later inspection. Then he closed his e-mail program and powered down his computer.
Caleb was happy to see Friday arrive. He had spent an exhausting four days watching over his shoulder to see if Lexxi and her crew were up to anything. He had kept an eye open for the vice principal, with every intention of following Jonathan West's advice to keep a low profile around the man.
Friday was the end of the marking period. It was the end of the second quarter and the first semester of the school year. He had survived the first half of the first year of his three-year exile in Judah.
All-in-all, he concluded, it had actually gone fairly well. He had done reasonably well in all of his classes. He had made a reliable and interesting friend in Abby. He had fallen in love. More important, the person he loved also loved him back.
His life wasn't perfect. But it was hard for Caleb to believe how far he had come in five months. Before school started, he really hadn't seen much point to his life. He had planned to endure the pain and loneliness of abandonment by everyone in his life except his mother, until he just couldn't endure it any longer. He had no clear mental image of what would have followed, but he knew that it wouldn't have been good.
He didn't imagine that very many of his classmates at Silver River would have traded their lives for his, at that moment. But he understood that he was much better off than he had been. He was finding the strength to survive; mostly because he had found people that made his life worth living.
He shared some of his observations during his regular telephone conversation with Abby that evening.
"You couldn't have done it without me," she boasted. "I saw you sitting timidly on the bus that first day of school, afraid of your own shadow, and I thought to myself 'there's something in that pathetic little wreck of a boy, if only he could just believe in himself enough to bring it out'. I just knew that I could find that value, even if I had to beat it out of you."
"Abby!" Caleb sighed. "Why do you do these things to me?"
"Because I can!" she chortled. "Admit it. You life is infinitely better because of me. And I have the heart and soul of Mother Teresa."
"I heard that Mother Teresa used to abuse and torture boys unfortunate enough to fall into her clutches," Caleb contributed darkly.
"That reminds me," Abby interrupted brightly, "What time are you and your boy toy planning to drop by tomorrow? I'm planning something very special. I just need to have enough time to get ready for you."
Caleb groaned.
"What is it this time, Abs?"
"Of course. All of the core muscles. But the rest is going to be a surprise," she insisted. "I just know that I'm going to love it!"
"Leave your clothes here and line up outside the bathroom door," Abby directed Caleb and Tyler.
"Abby!" they protested in unison.
"We aren't taking our clothes off until we're inside the bathroom!" Caleb informed her sternly.
"Alone!" Tyler added.
"That's so ungrateful of you," Abby pouted. She flexed her fingers. "I give so much and ask for so little in return."
Caleb and Tyler exchanged a look.
"Should we?" Caleb wondered.
Tyler shrugged.
When Abby started hyperventilating, they quickly dashed into the bathroom and locked the door behind them.
"I'll get you my pretty," Abby chortled gleefully, "and you're little friend, too!"
"Get 'em off and get up on the bed," Abby instructed, when Caleb and Tyler cautiously peered out of the bathroom. "I've got a lot of work to do on you today."
Caleb considered the thin protection of his briefs.
"I'm not letting you work on my core if I'm naked," Caleb insisted. "There's no way that's going to happen!"
"Why not? Your boy toy could throw himself across your. . . lap," she leered, "again. Provided that he's naked, too!"
Caleb didn't even have to look at Tyler to notice his rising panic.
"Not a chance, Abby. You're going to play nice today."
"It isn't like you guys haven't done it before," she insisted. "Once you get into it, you'll barely even notice that I'm here."
"We have not done 'it' before!" Caleb corrected her firmly. "Before your 'spa' treatments started, we hadn't even seen each other with our clothes off."
"See! I've been good for you!" Abby boasted. "Without my help, you'd still be gazing longingly at each other while you drew incredibly detailed pictures of Tyler's butt!" Abby couldn't contain her amusement.
"Now get your butt over here," she emphasized. Abby patted her bed firmly.
Caleb took a deep breath. There was truth to her claim. He took another breath. And another. He slipped the garment down his legs as he approached the bed. He handed it to Abby.
"Go easy on Tyler today," he pleaded.
"Tell us about Mr. Callahan and your uncle," Caleb encouraged Abby.
Almost every inch of his body felt completely relaxed. He sat down next to Tyler on Abby's bed. Abby had just finished mauling Tyler's body and had finally released him from her clutches.
Abby eyed Caleb curiously.
"Why does it do that?" she wondered.
"Jeez, Abby! I don't know! I'm a guy. It does it a lot!" He shrugged. "I guess it likes sitting next to Tyler now."
Tyler reached to cover it.
"It's okay," Caleb assured him. "Abby's been staring at it for the past hour. There's nothing left to hide now."
Caleb considered his predicament. He felt awkward. But nowhere near as awkward as he once would have felt. There had been a time in his life when even the idea of being seen by others would have triggered an uncontrollable bout of anxiety. In the present moment, he felt weird. Really weird. But he still felt safe.
Caleb didn't fully understand his decision. He just knew that Abby was enjoying it. And he owed Abby. It had also distracted her and helped to protect Tyler. And Abby had information he wanted. He thought it might get her talking, then keep her talking for a while.
"You said your uncle's name is David?" Caleb asked.
"Oh. Uncle David." Abby was still deeply distracted. "He's my father's little brother. By two years, I think. They were in school together."
Abby couldn't stay focused.
"It looks really stiff," she observed. "Maybe a little massage. . ."
Caleb didn't flinch or attempt to cover himself.
"No massage, Abs," Caleb was firm. "Tyler is the only person allowed to massage it."
"You can, too," Tyler whispered.
Abby jumped.
"Do you?"
Caleb blushed. He was starting to reconsider his decision.
"I'm a guy, Abby. I've been known to do it."
"Can I watch?" Abby was nearly jumping out of her skin.
"No, Abby!" Caleb felt his excitement starting to flag. "No watching. But you can look. The longer you drag out this story, the longer you can look, I guess. But your father probably won't handle it well if he comes home and finds us like this."
"We do need to leave before it starts to get dark, anyway." Tyler was the voice of reason. "It's going to take us thirty or forty minutes to ski to Caleb's house."
In a darkened basement in Antioch, Van Cross dragged his mouse over his e-mailer icon. He double-clicked. Several seconds later, he selected a saved message and opened it.
He considered the contents carefully. The link to the Keene Sentinel seemed safe. But he was drawn to another link. He had researched the site. It was safe. Sort of. He recognized that the link would take him to the dark web.
He positioned the mouse's cursor over the link. He studied it carefully. And carefully, very carefully, he clicked the left button on his mouse.
"You have to promise that you won't repeat what I'm going to tell you to anyone," Abby insisted to Tyler and Caleb, although she was really only addressing an audience of one. "In the first place, my father doesn't know for certain that it's true. Uncle David never told anyone what happened."
The facts were clear. They pointed to a likely conclusion. But there was no proof.
"My Uncle David is gay. He never hid that from his family. When he started high school at Silver River," she explained, "he was kind of small. And even though he's my uncle, I'm not ashamed to say that he was hot. He got noticed. And that meant that eventually other people started to figure out that he wasn't very interested in girls."
Regan Callahan had been a junior when David West arrived at the high school. David's older brother, Jonathan, was in that same junior class. Jonathan didn't like Regan because he was a bully. And Callahan thought he was better than everybody else. He was entitled.
Regan and a few of his cohorts, including Peter Frye— the same Peter Frye who was on the school board and father of Benjer Frye— used to enjoy picking on the younger boys. One of Regan's favorite games involved snapping towels at bare bottoms— and other bare body parts— of the younger boys in the shower after gym class. Abby explained that was why her father referred to Callahan as "Snapper" — although she had heard him whisper another explanation to her mother when he thought Abby long in bed.
David West became a target for Callahan's snapping. But Jonathan West thought that David had become a target for another, far more sinister Snapper game.
David didn't want to appear to be a sissy or a pansy, so he hid the bullying from his older brother. Jonathan only found out about it because Callahan couldn't help boasting about his 'accomplishments'. But David still wouldn't complain when Jonathan confronted his younger brother about what he had heard.
As David's freshman year wore on, he became far more reserved than he had once been. Months of abuse started to wear on him. Then, in May, he and a friend had arranged to attend their first high school party. They were young and innocent. They weren't prepared for the experience.
Regan Callahan attended the same party. Friends told Jonathan they had seen him there. Somewhere during the course of the evening, David, along with Regan and a couple of his buddies, had disappeared. David hadn't come home for two days.
David had never explained what happened. His parents and his older brother had pleaded with him, but David remained silent about the events of that night. And as his high school years rolled on, he became increasingly silent and isolated from everyone.
He graduated in 1998. He had managed good grades. He went on to college. He never returned home.
No one had ever been able to prove anything. David had never revealed his secret to anyone in Antioch. He had just disappeared one night from a party that both he and Regan Callahan had attended. He didn't come home. And in the end, he never came home.
Caleb and Tyler looked at each other warily. They were disturbed by the direction in which Abby's story pointed. They were alarmed that they had inadvertently crossed the villain of that story. They were deeply concerned that same villain would have so much power over their lives for the next two-and-a-half years.
"Be careful around Rogaine," Abby advised as she reluctantly returned Caleb's briefs. "He's not a good person. And he isn't going to play fair if he gets angry. My father will help protect you guys. But Rogaine can still hurt you if you don't see the threat coming."
She made a production of hugging and kissing them both— to keep them safe— before they skied away into the fading afternoon sunlight.
Evander Cross was shocked. Stunned, really. He had viewed the video three times and still couldn't believe what he had seen. He recognized the star of the video. It eventually occurred to him to read the linked news item in the Keene Sentinel that explained the incident, even if it did protect the identities of the involved minors. He had even followed the third link to a clandestine site that featured a police report where the names weren't redacted.
He simply couldn't believe that what he had seen was possible in the twenty-first century; especially in a country like his own. Did people actually do such things? And why was the boy in that video even allowed to attend his own high school? Authorities must not have known about his past.
One thing Van knew for sure. There was no way that someone like Abby West should want to be associated with a kid like that!
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