Chapter 34

“It was the most awesome moment of my life,” Bree reported to her friends a few days later. “I mean, I could look out one side of the cockpit, and it was five miles down to the ground. And I looked out the other side, and it was five miles down there, too. And it was so smooth and silent, it was like I was in another world.”

“If you get into the Academy,” Jared said, “it probably won’t be the last time.”

“Yeah, but it probably won’t be like that,” Bree smiled. “The neat thing came when we were on our way back here. The pilot of the airliner came on and said we were flying at thirty thousand feet, and we were about an hour out of Chicago. I turned to Uncle Mark and said, ‘Big deal. I flew higher than that a couple days ago without an engine.’”

“So did you get to the Academy?”

“Oh, yes,” she grinned. “We’d already had the tour set up, but it turned out it was scheduled to be pretty mild. But General Bankston went along, and we got the inside show.”

“General Bankston?”

“I didn’t know it till someone called him that on the tour. He’s retired, though. And it was Colonel Flusser who towed me. I didn’t know that, either. Like I say, they know a lot of people around the Academy. I wanted to go there pretty bad before, now it’s really bad. When I was right near the top of the wave, out in front of the lennie, I looked down at the Academy, and it seemed like I knew that was where I was supposed to be. Now it’s going to come down to getting the Congressional nomination and then the appointment from the Academy.”

“I sure hope it works out for you,” Jared shook his head, thinking it would be a real disappointment if it didn’t. She was going to be a really bummed out kid if she didn’t get it.

“I hope so too,” she nodded, a little less exuberantly. Apparently she realized that not getting the appointment was a real possibility. “So what happened around here while I was gone?”

“Not much,” Jared said. “I had a meet Thursday, and one Saturday. I won both of them, so I’m all set for team regionals next weekend, and individual regionals the weekend after that. I doubt the team is going to win much of anything, and while I don’t want to say I’m a lock on the individual regional championships, I feel pretty good about them.”

“I’m sorry I missed your meets,” Bree replied, even more shyly. “But I promise I’ll make the next ones.”

“That’s all right,” he smiled. “You had other things to do, and you did them. That was just plain cool. We’re all proud of you, Bree.”

It was a little hard for Bree to go back to school on Monday. She’d accomplished a big goal, one of the things she really wanted to do, and something that not very many people had done, ever, at least when you looked at the big picture. But she couldn’t say much of anything to her classmates, since none of them would understand it. Even her close friends really didn’t understand it and couldn’t share just what the height of her accomplishment had been. She had a gold pin now, with two diamonds to go with it. It was something that not very many glider pilots had managed, probably only a few hundred around the world in the most of a century it had been since the awards were established. But, to all but a handful of people who knew her, it was just another pin and meant nothing. At least she’d have respect from other glider pilots who knew about the awards, and that counted for a lot.

It was good to have friends, she thought, even if they didn’t really understand. Her goals were still her own, and they were far different from those of anyone she knew in school, so at least in her own mind she was set apart more than a little. But at least someone cared, at least a little; there had been a long time that only her family had even half-understood what she wanted to do with her life.

The week went quickly. On Saturday, she joined her friends, Jared’s parents, and some others in the stands at the regional team wrestling meet, held down at Moffatt Eastern. As Jared had said, the team didn’t do well, but better than expected, missing a trip to the state team finals by only a few points. Jared won his matches, though; he was still unbeaten for the season.

The following weekend, they made the trek down to Coldwater for the individual finals. Jared had to wrestle in three different matches, winning all of them to win his weight class and qualify him for the state individual meet two weeks off – the second year he’d qualified for it. Only one other Spearfish Lake kid qualified for the state meet, and then only barely.

In the two weeks that followed, Jared worked out and trained a lot. He really wanted to title at state; it would, in a little bit of a way, make up for the failure of the football team last fall. Finally, the time came to leave for the meet, there were several people who left Spearfish Lake for the far-away Palace at Auburn Hills, where the championship meet was traditionally held.

The coach, the other kid who qualified, and his parents were in one car, but Mr. Wooten had managed to borrow a big full-sized passenger van, and it was full. He, Rachel, and Jared were aboard, of course, but so were Howie, Autumn, and Bree, along with Jared’s uncle Randy, who had been a state medalist years before. Jared wasn’t going to be lacking for a cheering section.

It was a long drive, nearly a day’s worth with some stops along the way, and they were tired when they pulled into a nearby motel. The kids worked out some of the road kinks by using the motel’s pool and hot tubs – for once the girls weren’t wearing their butt-floss bikinis, and the boys weren’t wearing their Speedos – and tried to help Jared where they could.

It was the first time in years that Bree had been in a big city; she found she could hardly remember her younger days in Decatur, and it was more or less a first for the rest of the kids. The Palace was huge, and there were a lot of kids from around the state there, both wrestlers and as fans.

The competition was spread over two days, with two rounds of matches on Friday, and three on Saturday. Jared had an easy time of it in his first match, pinning his opponent in the first few seconds of the match. The other one was tougher and he only managed to win on points toward the end of the match – but it was against the previous year’s state champion, a heavy favorite. That meant there was hope for the next day.

In truth, it had been a long day, and except for the few minutes of Jared’s matches, rather dull, although Mike Dale, the other kid from Spearfish Lake, also won his first- and second-round matches. The group from Spearfish Lake had dinner together and then used the pool and the hot tub again.

The Palace was pretty full the next morning when Jared wrestled his first challenger of the day. It was not an easy match; everyone thought Jared’s opponent had him on points toward the end of the match, but then something happened, Jared happened to catch him unaware, and all of a sudden he won by a pin. That meant he’d be in the final four in his weight class.

After getting his sweats back on, Jared joined his family and friends in the stands to watch Dale wrestle a little later. “Good going, Jared,” Randy told him with pride. “That round was as far as I ever got, and I lost it. From here on, you’re in unexplored territory for a Spearfish Lake kid. There may have been someone else get that far a long time ago, but if so I don’t remember it.”

Unfortunately, Dale lost his match on points. It was nothing to be ashamed of; it was where Jared had lost the year before, and Dale still had two years of high school ahead of him and a lot of potential.

It was late in the morning before Jared had his second match of the day, in the fourth round. After the struggle of the last two rounds, this one proved to be quite a bit easier; Jared was clearly ahead on points when he managed to pin his opponent. That meant Jared was in the finals.

In spite of watching quite a bit of wrestling the past two years, Bree really didn’t know much about it as she sat in the stands. This didn’t exactly equate to winning her second diamond a couple weeks before, but was about as close as Jared could come. It seemed as if the afternoon dragged on forever until the finals started, and the longer it took, the more nervous she was. She tried to stay cool; she didn’t want her nervousness to show.

At last Jared’s final match was called. The kid he was going up against was awful good, but then, so was Jared – he’d pretty well proved that already. His opponent was from some school down near the Ohio line with a well-known wrestling program. Their team had won the state team championships the weekend before by a wide margin, for the fourth year in a row, and on the strength of that he had to be considered the favorite; like Jared, he’d been unbeaten all season.

Again, Jared fell behind on points early, as far as they could tell, but pulled even, and then ahead of the opponent. In the final seconds something happened too quickly for Bree to tell, but Jared had his opponent pinned!

“By God,” Howie exulted as the referee put a ribbon with a medal around Jared’s neck, and held his arm high. “There’s at least one state championship going back to Spearfish Lake this year!”

“It still bothers you, doesn’t it?” Autumn asked quietly as the excitement among the small group of Spearfish Lake fans died down.

“It’ll always bother me,” Howie sighed, “but maybe not quite as bad as now.”

Because it was late and still a long way home, they stayed in the motel one final night, then got on the road the next morning. It took them most of the day to get back to Spearfish Lake. Spring was coming early this year, not that they’d had much of a winter by Spearfish Lake standards, and it was an almost balmy day, carrying with it the promise of an early summer as they watched the woods with all the naked trees pass in the windows.

“Well, one good thing about it,” Howie said, “maybe we won’t be freezing our butts most of the way through track season.”

“Don’t depend on Michigan weather,” Jared’s uncle Randy told them. “We’re getting an early breakup, but we still stand the chance of getting a pot load of snow.”

In spite of the lengthening days, it was getting dark by the time they got back to Spearfish Lake. One by one Jared’s father dropped everyone off at their homes, picked up Jared’s younger brother and sister from his aunt Nicole when they dropped off uncle Randy, then left the family at home while he went to return the van. “Does it feel different?” his mother asked as they got inside.

“Yeah, a little,” Jared said. “Mom, I’m glad you could go with us. Things have sure changed around us the last few years, haven’t they?”

“Unbelievably,” she nodded, knowing exactly what he was talking about. “I could never have dreamed any of this when we were out in California years ago. Those were bad days, and best forgotten about.”

All of a sudden there was a loud banging on the front door. “Now who could that be?” Jared said, not liking the sound of it; somehow it smelled like trouble to him. “Maybe I’d better get this.”

“I don’t know, Jared,” his mother said, “Maybe . . .”

There was more banging, and then the door burst open, with the man Jared had hoped he’d never see again standing there. “Where the hell have you been?” his birth father, Joel Lancaster demanded. “I’ve been looking for you all damn weekend.”

“We had things to do,” Jared said quietly, hoping against hope that he could avoid what he was sure was going to come, what he’d feared would come for years.

“Well, fuck that,” Lancaster said. “Get your shit, you’re coming with me. I’m getting you the hell out of this goddamn town and into a place where you can learn something.”

“No way,” Jared said heatedly, turning to face the man; even at a distance he could smell he’d been drinking. “No way in hell.”

“This is his home,” his mother said. “You have no reason to come crashing in here like this.”

“Fuck you too, you treacherous bitch. And what’s this Wooten shit? His name is Jared Lancaster!”

“Jim Wooten is my father,” Jared replied. “I just have the misfortune that you’re my sperm donor. I learned what a father is from him, not from you.”

“Fuck you, Jared Lancaster,” the older man said. “I’m gonna fucking teach you not to badmouth me like that.” He took couple steps forward, and reared back to swing a fist at him.

For nearly seven years Jared had trained at martial arts in anticipation of this moment, and had a brand-new state individual wrestling championship medal he’d picked up along the way. Really, it was easy; he stood back waiting for the punch, and when it came he just grabbed Lancaster’s arm. Much quicker than it takes to say it, he had the bigger man in a hammerlock and was bearing down on it. “Now, you just shut up or I’ll rip your fucking arm off,” he said in a level tone. “I wouldn’t mind talking to you if you were civil, but you were never civil to me in your life.”

“You’re hurting me, you fucker. Where do you get off treating me like that?”

“Oh, begging for mercy, huh,” Jared said, now with more than a little heat in his voice. “Where was the mercy when you were beating on me when I was a little kid? Begging for mercy didn’t do me much good, did it?” He pushed harder on the hammerlock, and got a cry of pain for a result.

“You needed to learn not to mouth off to me,” Lancaster groaned. “Now let me go.”

“Mom, call the cops,” Jared said flatly, as he loosened the hammerlock, then tightened it again, bringing another cry of pain. “I can take care of this useless sack of shit while you do.”

“You fucker,” Lancaster said. “Let me go!”

“I might let you go but only if I take your arm out of its socket first, and then I’ll really have to kick the shit out of you.” Jared said. “Don’t think for an instant I can’t. I’m not some damn nine-year-old kid you can slap around anymore. You’re out of our lives and you’re going to stay there.”

“Rachel, why are you letting him do this shit to me?”

“Because he can,” she replied, with the phone in her hand. “And because you deserve it, for when you were slapping me around like you did him. Jared, maybe you’d better let him go, just so you can remind him of it.”

“All right,” Jared said. “But if you say one thing out of line, make one move toward Mom or me, you’re going to regret it.” He was pretty damn sure his remaining quiet and calm wouldn’t happen, but right at the moment he really wanted to hurt the man, and he knew he could do it – after all, he wasn’t a little kid anymore! Mentally readying himself for what he was sure was going to come, he relaxed on the hammerlock a bit, and then let go.

Lancaster dropped his arm, let it hang – it was clear he’d been hurt, but his attitude hadn’t changed a bit. “You’re not going to fucking trick me with that shit again,” he said. “Now get your fucking stuff and come with me,” he said, fumbling in his pants with his good arm, which was on the wrong side of what he was reaching for.

Jared could now see he had a gun in his belt – not a big one, a .32 or something like that, but big enough to cause damage. He didn’t say anything, but beat Lancaster to the gun, ripped it out of his pants, and threw it across the room. “Lied to me, didn’t you,” he said viciously. “I don’t like liars.”

“You fucker! You . . .” Lancaster cut loose with a blood-curdling scream as Jared’s right boot hit him in the nuts, powered by a leg that could kick a forty-five yard field goal. It doubled Lancaster over, still swearing but not able to do much to defend himself.

What followed for the next thirty seconds didn’t have much to do with either wrestling or football, and not even that much to do with martial arts. Jared was being savage now; he didn’t want to kill the man, or even knock him out; knowing that he really had the situation under control, he just wanted to hurt him, and let him know that he was being hurt. In seconds there was blood flowing, and Lancaster was obviously in severe pain.

Somewhere inside Jared found the self-control to not overdo it. Once he felt Lancaster had learned his lesson, he grabbed the one arm the older man had that still was more or less good, and got him in a hammerlock again, swung him around, and pointed him toward the still-open door. “OK,” he said. “If you can stagger back to your car before the cops get here, you might not have to go to the state slammer again, even though it’s where you belong. But if I ever see you again, ever, I’m going to have to really hurt you. And if you ever come after Mom or Dad, I swear I’ll hunt you down and you’ll spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair. I don’t want to kill you, I’ll just want you to spend the rest of your life regretting that you ever fucked with me. Don’t ever think for one instant I can’t do it.”

He gave Lancaster a shove toward the porch and added, “Now get going!” He stood back as Lancaster stumbled across the porch, then tripped over his feet, missed the step, and tumbled down the porch stairs. Jared didn’t think the man was going to get much of anywhere; he’d obviously hurt himself in the fall, but he stood guard at the open door between Lancaster and his mother, just in case.

“Are you all right, Jared?” she asked, clearly upset at the turn of events.

“Yeah, sure,” he said. “I didn’t even work up a sweat. Even the easiest match I had this weekend was harder than this.”

“The cops are on the way,” she reported. “I don’t think it’ll take them long. I told them he had a gun.”

“That ought to send him back to prison by itself,” he sighed, remarkably casually, feeling a little bit of an adrenaline dump coming on – but it was something he was used to; he could handle it. “I really doubt he’s going to bother us again for a while.”

“I’m sorry, Jared,” she sighed. “He was such a nice guy when I first met him, I never realized he was the asshole he turned out to be.”

“Don’t worry about it, Mom,” he said, keeping an eye on Lancaster, who was trying to pick himself up off the sidewalk at the foot of the porch stairs. He wasn’t doing a very good job of it, since neither of his arms was working very well. Jared could see the man was in considerable pain, but that didn’t concern him any. “It wasn’t the payback he deserved, but it was about all I dared to do.”

“You know, the hell of it is,” she said, “if he hadn’t been such an asshole he might have had the chance to learn what a great kid you are.”

“Yeah, well, it didn’t happen. I don’t think I’d have come out anywhere near as good if Dad hadn’t gotten into the picture.” They heard sirens getting closer – two of them. “I don’t think he’s going to make it to his car in time,” he observed.

“Me, either,” his mother grinned.

Within seconds, a city police car pulled to a stop in front of the house. Spearfish Lake Police Chief Charlie Wexler got out of it, wearing a police jacket over his civilian clothes; he’d obviously been at home when the call came in. Jared knew Wexler slightly; he occasionally showed up at martial arts sessions. “What’s the problem?” Wexler called, his hand on his gun.

“That joker down on the sidewalk broke in here, pulled a gun, and tried to get me to go with him,” Jared reported. “I didn’t want to go. The gun is inside, and he’s not going anywhere.”

Wexler grinned at him. “He must not have known he was messing with a state wrestling champion, did he?”

“Nope,” Jared laughed. “He never took the time to find out, but I’m surprised you know already.”

“Word gets around,” Wexler replied, walking over to Lancaster, who was still struggling to get to his feet. “You done good, Jared. And I don’t mean just there.” He looked down at Lancaster. “Well,” he said, “it seems like we’ve had to deal with this guy before.”

Jared remembered that Wexler had been one of the cops who had come to Uncle Randy’s house when Lancaster had broken in there, only to have Uncle Randy do a somewhat similar number on him. That incident had put Lancaster into the state prison system for five years, and had given Jared time enough to grow up and develop his skills. “Yeah, seven years ago,” he told Wexler.

Wexler raised his portable radio. “Central, city one,” he called. “We’re going to need an ambulance here. Scene is secure.”

Almost an hour later, after the ambulance had hauled Lancaster away, after a wrecker had hauled his car to an impound yard, and after Wexler and Sheriff Stoneslinger, the backup, had interviewed everyone and taken the gun, Stoneslinger said quietly, “Hey, good going this weekend, Jared. You won a big one.”

“I sure did,” Jared replied thoughtfully. The thought of Lancaster showing up unexpectedly had hung over him for years, and had always been a frightening thing to contemplate. Now, that demon was behind him; he’d faced the dragon, stared it in the eye, and extracted his revenge. It felt good, although he hadn’t been able to process it all yet, he knew that would come in time. “I sure did,” he repeated.

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