One of the common complaints teenagers have about most small towns is, “There’s nothing to do!” Often enough they’re right, and Spearfish Lake is no different than most anywhere else. In the summer, kids tended to hang around the Frostee Freeze, a drive-in that had somehow managed to survive the demise of most of them, but the place closed up in the winter and the owner went to Florida. With it gone, there was really no particular place outside of school where kids could go to hang out. About the best that could be done was for kids to get together in one another’s homes and gripe about how there was nothing to do.

Having spent several years living in Spearfish Lake and going to school there, Shay Archer was as well aware of that fact as anyone. Things were actually a little bit worse now, since he was no longer in school here and lacked that common interface with others, and four months of being away at college had just added to the distance.

Since Shay had been an athlete and a fairly social person, he knew several of the guys who were currently seniors and even a few current juniors, Cody and Janice’s class. However, he wasn’t friends enough with any of them to call up and say, “Hey, you want to come over and hang out?” That was especially true since it would involve their hanging out at the Archer home with Cody and Janice around.

Shay knew that the two were going to be facing all sorts of trouble from their classmates, and from kids he could name in the current senior class. Kids will be kids, and they can be very cruel, much more so than they might be as adults. Since Shay was out of high school and now usually out of town, there seemed to be little that he could do directly to ease some of those problems. But Shay also knew that often the best thing to do with a lemon was to turn it into lemonade. It was no surprise that there were rumors going around about his brother and Janice, plus the spinoff tales of the series of incidents back in the last days of school before Christmas. The best thing that he figured could be done was to put his own twist on the stories going around.

The first really good opportunity he had came a few days after Christmas, when there was a basketball tournament over at the school, mostly with the idea of keeping the kids in practice with an eye toward school starting again. The boys’ teams from Spearfish Lake, Albany River, Warsaw and Walsenberg were playing a round-robin that would go all day, and not surprisingly a lot of kids showed up to watch – after all, it was something to do, some place to go and hang out with friends. Bethany wasn’t all that keen on basketball, but even she agreed that it was a good place to go and make some connections with people she’d known, some for most of her life.

Needless to say, the two hadn’t been seated on the bleachers for thirty seconds when a couple of their former classmates slid down next to them. “Hey, Shay!” one of them said. “How’s it going?”

“Could be better, could be worse,” he replied neutrally.

“Hey, man,” the other said, “wasn’t that something about your brother shooting those two guys? I didn’t think he had it in him.”

“Not real surprising to me,” Shay admitted. “I’ve always known he has a dark side and can be pushed too far. I’ve tried to walk real careful around him since he got to doing that competitive shooting.”

“I guess I knew about that, but I didn’t believe he was that good.”

“Oh, he’s that good, no question about it,” Shay smiled. “I’ve tried shooting that nine he uses, but I can’t hit the broad side of a barn with it. He can literally kill a fly at thirty paces with one, I’ve seen him do it. Offing those two turds was an easy shot for him.”

“Yeah, but over Janice Lufkin, of all people! I mean, who would have believed it?”

“With Cody, you never know,” Shay replied seriously. “He’s gotten to be very protective of her. If someone tried to push him around he might let them get away with it, but if they tried something with Janice . . . well, I sure wouldn’t want to be the one to try it. He could be pretty easily provoked into protecting her again.”

“I still don’t get it,” Bethany put in. Shay hadn’t let her in on his plan, but she’d been a serious gossip all the way through high school and could be depended on to spread around any story that she heard. “I mean, Janice Lufkin? Who was she? A real nobody! I guess I must have seen her around high school but I never took notice of her until I was over at Shay’s house the other day.”

“They’ve gotten real close since that all came down,” Shay added. “I mean real close.”

“It’s obvious she had a bad time and is still hurting real bad,” Bethany told the two. “But Cody has been taking real good care of her. She’s very quiet, but seems like a nice kid. Still, I’m surprised that Cody would go for her.”

“You don’t know,” Shay shook his head. Nothing but the truth, he thought, at least the truth with a little spin put on it. “You never know. I’ll admit she is kind of, well, not very spectacular but I sure as hell wouldn’t dare to say it around him. After all, he’s the one who keeps a nine millimeter on the bedside stand, not me.” He let out a sigh and added, “I’ll tell you what, I sure don’t want to cross either of them while I’m here.”

“You mean he might really do something to you?”

“I doubt it,” Shay shook his head, trying to look a little apprehensive, “but then, like I just said, you never know, especially since he got involved with Janice.”

“God! Are they really going to let him come back to school?”

“As far as I know. That’s the plan, anyway. I mean, he’s not getting prosecuted or anything, so I guess there’s no reason not to let him come back. I have to admit, I’m not going to mind getting back to Lake State before I push either one of them a little too much. It’s probably far enough away, after all.”

“Yeah, maybe,” one of the guys replied. “So are you liking it there?”

It’s probably a good time to change the subject, Shay thought, and this is as good an excuse as any. He’d planted enough on these guys, anyway, and there would be more people wanting to talk to him about the rumors going around. “Not bad at all,” he said. “One of the nice things is that all you have to do is drive across the river and you can get all the beer you want at age nineteen. Good Canadian stuff too, Labatt and Molson and like that, not that Budweiser crap. It’s a little tough getting it back across the river since you have to go through Customs, but you can still get yourself drunk on your ass.”

“Hey, I hadn’t realized that! Thanks for the tip!”

Sure enough, the subject came up again and again while Shay and Bethany sat, at least theoretically watching the game. Shay was paying little attention to it, anyway, and Bethany was hanging on every word Shay said, obviously refilling a gossip tank that had gotten pretty dry of Spearfish Lake news in her months at Grand Valley University.

Of course, Shay didn’t tell exactly the same story exactly the same way every time – he added a few new details and twists with everyone he talked to. When one mouthy senior with a reputation as a bully said, “I don’t believe that shit. Maybe I’ll just have to slap him around a bit to see,” Shay turned up the bullshit level a bit.

“You might want to think about it before you tried it,” he told the bully. “Yeah, he most likely wouldn’t do anything, but then again, he might, and you’ll never be able to be sure if he won’t. I think he’s a little more easily provoked these days. Hell, you might find yourself walking down the street someday when your head explodes.”

“He wouldn’t do anything like that,” the bully sneered. “He doesn’t have the guts.”

“Don’t be so damn sure,” Shay replied. “I mean, go ask Jack and Bobby Lufkin if they thought Cody didn’t have the guts to do anything like that. I’m pretty sure they could tell you if you can find which landfill they’re in. And if he wants to do anything, he doesn’t even have to get close. I mean, the nice thing about a rifle is that you can really reach out and touch someone, and with a full metal jacket it’d go right through your head and they might never find the bullet.”

All the time that Shay was laying out his stories, he was careful to never quote Cody, but just give his own opinion, not that it might account for anything the way rumors got passed around in Spearfish Lake. Still, Bethany heard most of what Shay was saying, and after a while it started to get her a little concerned about how much off the rails Cody really was. “Shay,” she asked quietly. “You hear all these stories about kids taking guns to school and starting to shoot. Do you think . . . ”

“Naw, probably won’t happen,” Shay brushed it off. “Cody really isn’t that kind of guy. Most of those stories you hear are about kids who get pushed around too much by bullies and finally blow up. Cody is really a little too self-controlled to do something like that. Now, if someone really pisses him off he might get a little personal, but he’s not going to just walk into the school and start shooting. At least I don’t think so.”

By the time it got down to the finals, Spearfish Lake was blowing Walsenberg away two to one in the first quarter, and it seemed likely to get worse before it was over with. The bleacher seats were getting awful hard by now, and Shay could see that Bethany was getting antsy – mostly to get her hands on a phone, he suspected. “I’m getting bored with this,” he announced. “You want to go somewhere and do something?”

“I’m getting bored, too,” she agreed. “I could stand to get out of here, and it’s getting to be time that I got home for dinner, anyway.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Shay agreed. “Maybe we can hang out at my place tomorrow. Cody and Janice were making sounds about heading down to Camden again, so we might be able to be alone for a bit.”

“God, Shay! After what you’ve been saying I don’t know that I’d feel safe going over to your house.”

“Oh, no problem,” he smiled. “After all, you haven’t done anything to piss either of them off, especially Cody. He really is a nice guy and he’s very devoted to Janice. The thing is, you always have to remember that it takes some pushing, but he can be pushed too far.”

The two of them headed out of the game, and Shay drove Bethany on home. They sat in the car and talked a little bit about other things, and did a little making out before she headed on into the house, and presumably straight to the phone. I might have overdone it a little, Shay thought as he started the Escort to head back home, but the rumors are out there anyway, and I can’t do anything about them. No one would believe the truth anyway, which was that the only way Cody could be pushed that far was in the defense of himself or someone else with their life at risk – which was what had actually happened at the Lufkin house.

But with any kind of luck, people around the school might walk a little lightly around Cody and Jan for the next year and a half. If that was how it worked out, it would have been worth the effort.

Because of the holidays, Janice’s next appointment with Dr. Metarie was early in the week. He gave her a fairly simple checking over and announced that she was improving. She’d managed to put on a few pounds over the nearly two weeks since he’d last seen her, although she still had a ways to go. He also announced that the only STD that the lab had turned up was miraculously a mild one, easily and permanently treatable, so that was a huge relief all around.

“We’ll want to continue with the dressing changes,” he announced, “and since Heather will be seeing her regularly, she’ll get vitals and so forth, just to keep an eye on things. If something crops up, Heather can probably catch it and tell me if I need to get involved. I’ve really come to trust her.”

“I like her,” Janice smiled. “She’s so nice to me all the time.”

“She is pretty nice, and she’s also pretty sharp. I’ve really come to respect her and depend on her. Janice, you ought to take the time to talk to her sometime, because she’s a person who got handed a lemon when she was younger than you are, and she didn’t let it define her. She overcame it, and maybe is a better person because of it.”

“What’s that all about?”

“I really shouldn’t say,” he smiled. “But you can ask her about it if you like. I’m pretty sure she’ll tell you, and I suspect it’ll give you something to think about. Now, since you’re already here, I might as well have her do your dressing change now so she won’t have to come over this afternoon.”

Heather, a slender redhead about Janice’s size, came into the examining room a couple minutes later, carrying the things that would be needed for her wound dressings. Since Janice had been healing up, it wasn’t as extensive as it had to be a couple weeks before. Of course, Janice quickly asked what the doctor had been talking about.

“I don’t mind talking about it,” Heather said, “and I especially don’t mind talking about it to you. I had a baby when I was fourteen, and, well, things were tough there for a while. The guy was older than me, and when he found out I was pregnant, he blew town and I never saw him again. Actually, in a way I don’t blame him since he’d probably have gone to jail.”

“Heather, you know what happened to me,” Janice sighed. “I’m just a little surprised that I didn’t get pregnant.”

“Just lucky,” Heather smiled as she got started on removing the old dressing, “but then, I was just lucky, too. Like I said, it was hard having a baby, and then going back to school hearing all the kids talking behind my back. It’s going to happen to you, so you might as well be prepared for it.”

“They’ve always talked behind my back. I’m used to it.”

“It’ll be worse. It was for me, but I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to let all the small talk and the small minds keep me from being the best person I could be. It was really a struggle to go to college and become a LPN. It took me three years instead of two to make it through the program, what with having to work to pay for it, study, go to class, and take care of Lee, but I made it. The best part about it is that while I was going to college I met a nice guy, not a jerk like the guy who left me, and he didn’t care that I already had a kid. We’ve had two more since we got married. They’re still pretty little. I worked as a home health care nurse for years while I was working on my RN certification. I really hated to have to quit home health care because I met a lot of interesting people who were often very grateful that I’d come to help them, but with three kids it was nice to be a little more available at home.”

“You’re really good at being a nurse,” Janice said. “I mean, not that I have a lot of experience with nurses, just you and in the hospital, but everybody I met seemed pretty nice.”

“Most nurses care about helping people or they wouldn’t be doing the job,” Heather told her. “Are you thinking about becoming a nurse?”

“I don’t know,” Janice said honestly. “To tell you the truth, it’s only been the last few days that I’ve come to realize that I could be anything better than I was, but it’s something to think about. What’s involved in becoming a nurse?”

“Well, you have to go to college,” Heather told her. “Like I said, getting my LPN was a two-year program that I had to stretch out over three years because of Lee and everything. Becoming an RN is usually a four-year program if you start right from scratch, but it’s worth it because you get paid more and have more responsibility.”

“It’s something to think about,” Janice admitted. “Cody wants me to go to college, but I have no idea of what to do and he doesn’t want to tell me. But he’s probably going to be in college for four years, and if I’m with him it’s something I could do. Do you think I would be a good nurse?”

“Like I told you,” Heather smiled. “It’s mostly about caring for people, and you have to like doing that. I can’t really answer that for you. It’s something that you’re going to have to decide for yourself.”

“Well, I’ll think about it, and I’ll talk to Cody about it,” Janice replied.

“If you have any more questions, feel free to ask me,” Heather told her. “I’m going to be seeing you every day for a while yet, so I’ll be there to ask.”

Candice took the opportunity of having Heather working on Janice to catch up with the doctor out in the hall. “Gene,” she said, “what with the holidays and all I haven’t really had the time to think about it, but I’m a little concerned about both these kids. They’re, well, they’re really not acting normal, either Cody or Janice.”

“Well, post-traumatic stress is almost a given after something like they went through,” he replied. “They probably ought to have some counseling.”

“I think so too,” she said. “I kind of think that Janice’s problem is pretty straight forward. She’s a rape and abuse victim, but that happens all the time and I would think that a normal counselor ought to know how to deal with it. But Cody, well, his problem is different.”

“How so?”

“I don’t know how to say this. I think the thing is that he’s showing a little too much concern toward Janice. I mean, she’s very dependent on him, but he’s very caring toward her.”

“That’s bad?”

“I think he’s overdoing it a little,” Candice sighed. “Hell, I don’t know. I’m not a psychologist or anything, but I think that he’s having more trouble dealing with the fact that she’s a rape and abuse victim, and it’s made him a little overprotective of her. It’s complicated and I’m not sure I’m reading him right anyway.”

“How about the shooting itself? Any problems with that?”

“No, I think that he’s done pretty well in dealing with shooting those two. He’s not remorseful about it, but he’s not proud of it, either. It was something that had to be done and he did it. Gil Evachevski pretty much set us all straight the night it happened. I think the thing I’m most concerned about is that I don’t want to set him up with some bleeding heart counselor who will see everything in terms of remorse over the shooting, and ignore everything else more important.”

“Yeah, I see what you mean,” he nodded, “and God knows there’s a lot of them out there. Psychology tends to attract those types, anyway.”

“I always thought that, even before this came down,” she shook her head. “So how the hell do I find someone who can help these kids? I mean, I know I’m in over my head.”

“Good question,” he replied, thinking for a moment, “especially since we don’t have much of that talent locally. But given your concerns, let me get hold of Carole Hunt and have her come talk to you. This isn’t exactly her specialty, but if she can’t help you she’ll know who can.”

“Carole Hunt?” Candice frowned. “I don’t know her.”

“Carole Carter,” the doctor grinned. “I’m sure you know her by that name.”

Candice did; she’d met the slender blonde woman on several occasions but had never had reason to get to know her. Carole had a reputation, and rightly so: for several years before John and Candice had come to Spearfish Lake, Carole had worn handcuffs continually, never taking them off. The story about her was that she’d become obsessed with wearing the handcuffs because it helped her identify with her sister, who had become a quadriplegic in a jet ski accident. As a result, Carole was something of a legend around town.

From what little Candice knew, Carole specialized in addiction recovery, obsessive-compulsive behavior, and helping people recover mentally from disabling injuries and the like. She’d once heard the comment, “Takes one to know one,” about Carole and it seemed to ring true. But from what Candice had heard about Carole, she wasn’t likely to take a standard approach to a perplexing problem.

“Yeah,” Candice said after a moment. “I never thought of her.”

“She actually lives and practices down in Camden, but her husband is on the road a lot more than he’s home, and when he’s not at home she spends her free time up here, helping take care of her sister. Wendy has actually gotten to be pretty independent over the years, so Carole sometimes gets involved with cases around here, more on a personal basis than anything, mostly because her availability is irregular with all of the other things she has going on in her life. If you like, I can give her a call and see if she might be interested in talking to you, if for no more reason than to point you in the right direction.”

“You think she can help?”

“I’ll tell you what. Most people around here think that Carole is a little bit strange, and to tell you the truth, they’re right. But she’s a very likeable person, she knows her stuff, and she’s good at it. What’s more, she knows this town and has a realistic, rather than an idealistic approach to things. I wouldn’t be a darn bit surprised if she’s just exactly the person you need to talk to.”

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.