What We See - Chapter 41

by Jim Wile

Background
A high school teacher wrongly accused of sexual assault reinvents his life.

Recap of Chapter 40: With his rifle pointed at Alan, Warren leads him back behind his house, where he intends to shoot him after having him dig his own grave. Constantly thinking of ways to escape, Alan uncovers a round stone while digging and makes sure he can easily grab it. When he stops to stretch, he turns around and distracts Warren by saying hi to his brother, Dennis, who isn’t there. While Warren is distracted, Alan picks up the stone and hurls it at him, striking him in the head and knocking him out. He then hogties him using two belts.

Once inside the house, he searches for the hard drive and finds it in an upstairs bedroom. As he is enjoying his find, he is confronted by Dennis, who has returned early from the bluegrass show, and is now holding a shotgun on him. Alan hurls the hard drive at him, pulls the blank gun from his waistband, and starts firing. Startled, Dennis backs up out of the room but falls down the stairs, breaking his leg and arm. Alan gives him the phone, tells him to summon help, and informs him Warren is tied up behind the house. He then leaves.

Chapter 41

On the way back to the motel, I grabbed some fast food for dinner and brought it back to the room to eat. I felt like crashing after that, even though it was still pretty early. The 10-hour drive, followed by the adrenaline surge of meeting the Meyers brothers and getting that hard drive back, served to wipe me out. I promised Ginnie I would call her, and I’m sure she was anxiously awaiting the call.

She picked up after one ring. “Alan?”

“Hi sweetie. I got the hard drive, and everything’s cool. I’ll be coming home tomorrow.”

I could hear it in her voice when she said, “I’m so relieved. I just had a bad feeling that something could go wrong. Did it?”

“Well, not wrong enough that I didn’t get the hard drive back unscathed.”

“What does that mean, ‘not wrong enough?’ Did something bad happen?”

“I’ll tell you the whole story when I get home. Right now, it’s all I can do to stay awake. Only hearing your lovely voice is what’s doing it.”

“Okay, but you’d better tell me everything when you get home.”

“I promise I will. I love you. Tell Tommy I’ll see him tomorrow evening.”

“I love you too. Get a good night’s sleep so you can drive safely tomorrow.”

We said our goodbyes, and I got ready for bed.

All the way back, I debated what to tell her about yesterday. Should I let her know how much danger I had really been in? I remember what problems we’d had when I hadn’t told her everything about myself soon after we first met, although for a good reason then. But I couldn’t think of a good reason not to tell her now, so I just decided to lay it all out for her. No more secrets.

I called her once from a rest stop and told her I’d be home around 7:00 PM, and she said we would have dinner then.

Over dinner, she and Tommy got the whole story out of me. They peppered me with questions. It came to such a rapid, shocking conclusion that they both just stared at me in awe for a few seconds.

Then Tommy said, “Man, Dad. You are one badass!”

Ginnie got up, came over to my chair, and put her arms around me. I stood up then and held her as she buried her face in my chest. I could feel her trembling, and her tears were wetting my shirt. Tommy also came over and put his arms around both of us, and we just stood there a while as we all thought about how close a call it had been.

When Ginnie regained her composure, she said, “I know with that last part with Dennis, you were acting on pure instinct, but Warren had his gun on you for a long time, and you were digging your own grave. Weren’t you scared? It didn’t seem like you were.”

“You bet I was. As soon as I turned around and saw him with that gun, I was scared. But I never felt panicked. I was always thinking of how to escape and what his weaknesses might have been. I never gave up hope that I would think of something to get out of it. It’s a good thing I’d been a pitcher, though, or it might have ended differently. But at the very least, if I’d missed and he’d killed me, he would have had to dig the damn grave himself. There’s that.”

She gaped at me then, but she couldn’t hold it in and began laughing. Tommy laughed too, and then I did, and the tension seemed to melt away as the laughter grew and grew, well out of proportion to the actual joke, until our sides began to hurt.

When we finally settled down to normal, I stood there looking at my wonderful new family, and I flashed back to where I had been just a couple of years ago. I had lost my job and my reputation, had a sick father in a memory care unit, and had to sell my house and move away. It was hard to envision starting over after all that, and for a while, the future had been looking grim for me. But you can only wallow in self-pity for so long before deciding to take action and make an attempt to dig yourself out.

And then I met Tommy, and soon after, Ginnie, and my life took an immediate turn for the better. I consider myself very lucky to have come to this place where the future now looks bright. With my loving wife and son at my side, what I see now are good things ahead. There will be problems to solve, new goals, and new challenges, but I am in a much better place to face them with people who I love supporting me and urging me on.

(The final chapter coming Friday)

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Recognized

CHARACTERS

Alan Phelps: The narrator of the story. He is a 28-year-old high school physics and natural science teacher in Grantham, Indiana in 1985.

Archie: David's orange tabby cat

Tommy Boardman: Alan's 12-year-old next door neighbor. He is dyslexic like Alan.

Ginnie Boardman: Tommy's mother. She is 30 years old and is an ICU nurse.

Artie Intintoli: Tommy's friend who also lives on Loser St.

Ida Beeman: Alan's first customer. She is a nice old lady who lives on Loser Street.

Leroy Beeman: Miss Ida's grandson and Tommy's friend.

Mrs. Dunbar: Tommy's 7th grade English teacher.

Callie Lyons: A nice girl in Tommy's class at school.

Trent Lyons: Callie's father, who is a lawyer.

Warren Meyers: Alan's assistant in the repair shop.

Abby St. Claire: Callie's cousin who is a math major with an engineering minor at Penn State University.

Harold Carmody: A patent and infringement attorney.

Wilson Fraleigh: The owner and president of the company that bought the patent from Warren.

Samuel Dvorak: Warren's former employer.

Elizabeth Meyers: Warren's mother.

Dennis Meyers: Warren's brother.

Andrew Olafsen: Alan's new assistant at the store.

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The return home

A chapter in the book What We See

What We See - Chapter 41

by Jim Wile

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