Ty pulled at a tall blade of wheatgrass and clenched the stem between his teeth while Lynx ran ahead and clambered to the top of Cragman's knoll.

The shadows cast from the Ponderosa pines stretched unendingly across the green fields as the sun rose into the sapphire backdrop of the rocky mountain horizon.

Lynx leaned against a pine and inhaled its bark's sweet smell of butterscotch. "It took you long enough to get up here, Ty. What were you doing back there?"

"Just thinking."

Lynx held his arms away from his sides and spun in place.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Absorbing the day. Come, spin with me, my beautiful, frosty-eyed friend! Come, spin with your best friend."

Ty shook his head and flopped back in the grass. "If you puke on me, Lynx, I'm going to kick your ass." Lynx dizzily fell backward beside him and blew out a long breath. He paused for a few seconds before he spoke.



"Brady and I used to come here all the time. I still can't believe he's dead."

"Yeah, I'm sorry, Lynx. He was a nice kid."

"Although, he was a handful for me with his drinking and whatnot. Old janitor Briggs used to bring me black coffee from the facility lounge after he cleaned it so I could sober Brady up before classes started." Lynx sighed. "Even with his drinking; the only time that kid disappointed me was the day he got on that motorcycle drunk. It all happened so fast, Ty. He was gone before I got out the door to stop him."

"You can't blame yourself."

"I loved him with every vessel of my heart. My world is so different without him."

Ty looked down and pulled at the grass, his words prolonged, his voice softened, "Yeah, I'm sure it is."

"You're so far away, Ty? What're you thinking about?"

He paused for a few seconds and pulled some more at the grass. "I'm sorry Lynx, I don't mean to change the subject; I know Brady was important to you."

"It's okay Ty, what's going on with you?"

"Au, it's my dad, all of a sudden he's had this weird personality change."

"Oh? for the better I hope?"

"Yeah, at first, I didn't think he was sincere, but it's been going on so long now that everyone's beginning to enjoy the change in him. Including himself. I can't explain it."

Lynx stood and looked away from Ty as he tried to beat down his bubbling magma of omniscience. He knew if Ty's father was a changed man, it was because he feared the truth. The unutterable truth.
***

Six foot, one hundred- and ninety-five-pound, Ty Wussar, walked down the empty school hallway; being late for homeroom was nothing new for him. He dropped his books on the floor and tucked in his football Jersey as his coach rounded the corner. "Hey, Dad."

"Ty... you headed for class?"

"Yes sir."

"Hey, Ty, you keep that Jersey tucked in all day you hear me? Don't forget you're representing the school. I'll see you later."

"Who do we play tonight, anyway?"

"Lincoln High. You guys had better beat them."

Ty picked up his books and moved across the hallway to the bathroom door where constant flushing echoed from inside. "Hey, is someone in here?" The stall door was ajar; Ty gave it a nudge and peeked in. Lynx Mercer's extremities and mouth were bound with industrial tape and his head was secured to the bottom of the toilet seat in the same fashion. Ty ripped at the tape bound around Lynx's head, and the toilet seat, and dragged him out of the stall.

In those seconds, janitor Briggs walked through the door. "What's going on in here, Ty? Hey, that's Lynx Mercer. What the hell happened? Who did this to him?"

"I don't know, Briggs, do you have something to cut him free? I'll call 911. He's not breathing very well."

The following afternoon Ty peeked around the door into Lynx's hospital room. "Oh, hi, Mrs. Mercer, how's he doing?"

"Hi, Ty, come in, please. He's doing okay in and out, they have him heavily sedated."

"I'm sorry this happened. There's a big investigation going on. They'll find the kids."

"Ty, before I tell you what I know. I'd like to thank you for doing what you did for him. He had it pretty rough before we moved out here. His stepdad abused him sexually. I had no idea, but I blame myself for that. My busy career always took precedence. I thought in my head everything was fine because he was with his stepdad." She paused and lowered her gaze. "Turns out we were both horrible people... Anyway, I'm sorry, I'm blabbering."

"No, it's okay, I didn't know all that, and you shouldn't blame yourself. You're here for him now."

"Thank you for that, Ty."

"Yeah, sure, I mean we don't hang out much, but he's a good kid and I'll come around more. You know, if he needs to talk or something like that."

"You're a good man, Ty." She took Lynx's hand and rested her elbows on the bed beside him.
"Ty, Lynx mumbled in his sleep earlier and pulled at the upper part of his hospital gown. If he hadn't mentioned a number, I wouldn't have thought twice about it. I put two and two together. He was talking about a jersey number. You kids all wear your jerseys before a game, right?"

"Yes, what was the number?"

"He said, fifty-two."

Ty's face reddened, and he sat back in his chair.

"You obviously know who this kid is."

"Yes, he's trouble, one of my father's star players."

"Not anymore, the police picked him up a few hours ago along with two other teammates."
***

Lynx spent the following three weeks in the hospital with minor fractures to his trachea and various contusions and lacerations. Ty would visit two or three times a week and Lynx's mom and he would carpool from the hospital to the nightly trial proceedings which were no doubt going to end with three hate crime convictions.
***

The day after Ty's last visit. Lynx and his mother pulled into their driveway shortly after his eleven 'o'clock discharge from the hospital. Ty was there waiting. "I thought I'd take you for lunch if you feel up to it."

Lynx's mother spoke up, "I don't know, Ty..."

"It's okay mom, I feel pretty good."

"Well, it's against my better judgment, but if you're feeling up to it."

Lynx slid into the front seat of Ty's classic 1970 ford pickup. Ty jumped in the driver's seat and turned the key.

"Purrs like a little kitty," Lynx said.

Ty shook his head and pulled out into the street.

"Hey, Ty?"

"Yep!"

"Is this a date?"

"Nope, I'm buying you lunch, no more no less."

"Damn it!"

"So, how are you feeling, Lynx?"

"I'm tons better." Lynx paused for a few seconds. "I'm sorry about your teammates."

"Hey, they deserve whatever they get." Ty tapped his finger on his temple. "There's something sick upstairs, that kind of shit isn't normal, Lynx."

As soon as they entered the diner, Ty noticed his mother and father sitting in the corner near one of the large glass windows. Ty's mother noticed them at the same time and waved them over. His father pushed her arm down and shook his head. She pulled away from him and glanced at him a bit surprised. "Come sit with us boys. How are you feeling Lynx?" Ty's father jeered at both his wife's invitation and her inquiry into Lynx's health.

"I'm doing okay, Mrs. Wusser, but maybe we should find another table. I don't want to mess up your or Mr. Wusser's lunch."

Ty spoke up with a sarcastic tone. "What do you think, Dad? Would Lynx be messing up your lunch?"

His father wiped his mouth and threw his napkin onto his plate of food. "I'll meet you in the car, Katie."

"Bill! What's gotten into you?"

"I said, I'll be in the car!"

"I'm so embarrassed," Katie put her palms down on each side of her plate and took in a deep breath. "I have an idea what that was all about, but I don't want to believe it. I'm just so sorry, Lynx, I'm sorry about everything that's happened to you."

"Mrs. Wusser, please don't cry, believe it or not after all this I've become numb. He didn't bother me."

"That's all he's thinking about is the star players he lost, mom. Well, guess what, he just lost another one."

Lynx tried to convince Ty not to quit the team, but Ty dropped him at home with no answer one way or the other.

The following morning before homeroom Ty walked into the locker room office and threw his equipment on his father's desk. "I'm out!"

His father leaned back in his chair with an open grin and clicked a pencil tip against his teeth. "I've been expecting you." He stood up and pushed the gear off his desk onto the floor at Ty's feet. "Suit up, sissy."

"Is that what this is about? You think I'm gay?"

"Suit up! And meet me on the field in ten."
***

"I've renamed this field in your honor, Ty. It's now the field of the forbidden. Please, look around, touch the grass, Ty; feel the ground under your feet for the last time. My field is for real men who love to play the game of football. Are you either one of those, son?"

Ty looked downfield and there stood six foot four, two hundred- and eighty-pound, Sammy Johnson, suited up in the middle of the field. Sammy was by far one of the meanest most egotistical eighteen-year-old kids that had ever attended Eaglecrest high, not to mention probably one of the biggest.

"What's Sammy doing out there?"

"He's going to help me figure out who you are, Ty, because I have no idea."

He sent the boys to opposite goal posts and on his signal instructed them to sprint and hit full-on; one of his signature punishments for players that exhibited bad behavior and one that was supposedly banned by the school A.D.

Ty knew his father was going to be relentless with this drill until one of them was knocked out of commission. He also knew there was only one way to take down Sammy Johnson quickly and that was with a shoulder block under the pads and into the ribcage.

After it was over Sammy was left on the turf moaning and rolling. Ty took off his helmet and slammed it into his father's stomach. "That's who I am... and I suggest you start recruiting some real men and get rid of these sissies." Ty caught his father's expression of mixed admiration and anger as Ty stripped off his pads and dropped them on the sidelines.
***

A few days passed and Lynx stood at the coach's office doorway and cleared his throat. "Mr. Wusser?"

Bill Wusser pushed back in his chair and flopped his arms on the rests. "What'd you want Mercer?"

"We need to talk."

"I have nothing to say to you."

"I think you might be interested in what I have to say to you."

"I doubt it."

"Have you been to visit your players at the jail, yet Mr. Wusser?"

"They're dead to me."

"Yeah, that's kind of what they said about you."

"Mercer, what are you getting at, I'm busy here."

"I've spent a few afternoons visiting with them... to ask them, why?"

"You have a big set of brass balls for a sissy, Mercer."

"Yeah, they've been a pretty big part of my survival, but here's the thing, I ended up learning some very interesting information."

"Yeah, what's that?"

"You knew about this; you knew what they were going to do to me, and you didn't stop them."

"You can't prove that Mercer."

Lynx took out his phone and laid it on the desk. "It's all here, Mr. Wusser. I have all three of them on video confessing that you knew."

"It won't stand up, Mercer, they'll argue it was all rehearsed."

"No, I didn't talk to them as a group. I talked to them individually and they all had identical stories. I want you to know I haven't sent this to anyone, yet, but my list of people would frighten you... if not ruin you."

Bill stood and slammed his hands on the desk. "You're bluffing."

"Am I?" Lynx pressed the record feature on his phone.

"You blackmailing little son of a bitch." Bill flopped back in his chair. "What'd you want, Mercer?"

"Well, you can start with putting Ty back on the team, and you need to treat him with the dignity and respect he deserves as one of your players, but more than that... as your son. Then, you're going to openly announce in the parent newsletter your yearly sponsorship of the LGBTQs student picnic which you will attend faithfully every year."

"Is that all, Mercer?"

"Not quite." Lynx pulled an overstuffed envelope out of his book bag and threw it on the desk.

"What's this?"

"Those are all our medical bills and attorney fees. I want five hundred a month sent anonymously to my mom's bank account. The transfer code is in the envelope. You'll have to work out the rest."

Bill repeatedly tapped the envelope on the edge of his desk, poised in thought. "Bravo, Mercer, I didn't think you had this in you."

Lynx walked out of the office into the hallway and then leaned back in. "Never underestimate us sissies, Mr. Wusser."
***

"Hey, Ty? Would you do me a small favor? Brady and I had a favorite thing we'd do here."

"Yeah, where is this going, Lynx?"

"No, nothing like that. We used to roll down Cragmans' to the bottom and then out into the field. He used to love that...Anyway, would you do it with me? As a friend..."

"Au, Lynx, I don't know."

"Please, Ty. It would make me so happy and you might enjoy the roll."

Ty swung around and stared at Lynx.

Lynx raised his palm to Ty. "Sorry."

"Au, for Christ's sakes, Lynx, what do I have to do?"

Lynx sat at the edge of the hill. "Okay, now get on top of me."

"What? I'm not going to mount you, Lynx."

Lynx gestured to him with a backward wave. "Come on, come on. It's going to look gayer than it is."

"Whatever; I just get on top of you? Au, I'm going to crush you."

"I'll take that chance, come on," Lynx gestured again.

"Okay, now I want you to wrap your arms around my upper back. No, go under my arms, silly man. Now, I'm going to wrap my legs around your waist."

"This is so gay, Lynx. I feel stupid."

"Now, do you see how together we're round like a barrel? Ty, you have to stop laughing, I can't keep my legs in position if you're jiggling around."

"Alright, alright, what now?"

"Now, rock and roll." Ty broke away and sent Lynx careening down the hill. Lynx picked himself up at the bottom and laughed uncontrollably. "I hate you! Ty Wusser.