In the last part T.J. and Anthony both plotted to commit mayhem. Some of the Bible club members saw T.J. apparently casing the movie theater. Christian kids of the community were planning to attend the showing of a film on Nevember 10th. They didn’t see Anthony case the same theater.

T.J. Adams was leaving the Sonic Drive-In to take a smoke break in his car just as Anthony opened his car door into him. Not expecting doors to open at the drive-up stall, T.J. was caught off guard and knocked to the ground.

“Sorry, Dude. I like to sit at the table.” Anthony helped T.J. up. “Make everybody look at me.”

Sensing a kindred spirit, T.J. responded. “I know you from school. I mean I don’t know you, but …”

“Yeah. I’ve seen you there. Got picked on a lot. I remember.”

“Never by you, though,” T.J. said.

“Nah, man. I’m not into that.”

“I heard a rumor about you,” T.J. said. His father asked about the Gothic kid a couple weeks earlier, asking if T.J. knew him. His father, working City Fire and Rescue, had heard from one of the city policemen that the kid might be a potential bomber.

Not bothering to ask the nature of the rumor, Anthony replied, “Yeah, well you can believe some rumors.” His winking smirk confirmed T.J.’s affinity.

“May fifteenth,” T.J. said.

Anthony broke into a full smile, his first in memory. “We need to talk, Dude. Soon.”

“I’m here, man. Get off at about two every afternoon but Monday and Wednesday, my off days.”

“I’ll be here later, then … at two,” Anthony replied.

+++

Once certain of their similar interests and goals, Anthony laid out his plan. “I can detonate them with my phone. It’s simple. The internet shows you how to do it like it’s remotely turning on the TV. Hah! A moron could switch the door lock for a detonator. We put one bomb a third of the way back, and one two thirds. I can see over a hundred dead or maimed. We sit in the very front and duck real low. With the rise in the floor, it’ll be the safest place. Then we wait for the first responders, especially the cops. Then it’s heads and kneecaps. We shoot ‘til we’re out of shells. Might even get out alive through the fire exits toward the stage.”

T’J.’s nod didn’t quit, calculating how he could ensure his father would be a responder. “It don’t matter about getting out,” T.J. said.

They would later settle on November tenth, knowing what movie would be playing, unaware of the Bible Club’s date.

+++

“Look I know you said it’ll work, but before I sit in front of 500 people and only bullets enough for a handful, I wanna see it blow up, at least a small sampler one.”

They agreed to build a small, one inch PVC bomb with thumb tacks as shrapnel. Set under a plastic storage tub, they should be able to see every surface blown to smithereens.

They did, blowing on command of Anthony’s cell phone virtually the same way as ISIS IEDs blew up American troops.

The only modification to Anthony’s plan was to rebuild the devices into backpack containable lengths, four backpacks instead of two, multiplying the casualties by at least half again. To fool the public, both young men began wearing backpacks about town with 2-liter soda bottles in each.

“The first thing we do, once in the actual theater room,” Anthony said, “is check my phone. Make sure I have signal inside and I can actually make a call. I had one bar when I went in last time, but I wanna check it again.”

T.J. nodded agreement.

+++

James Pentecost was going to college a hundred miles away from home. In early August he began preparing. His budget allowing for the one meal per day option at the dorm, he experimented with healthy and fast choices for his evening meal, figuring his main meal to be midday. He wasn’t aware that B worked in the store he frequented. On this day he decided to try store brand tortilla chips, Delcheata cheese and potted meat. The checker, not finding a tag on the cheese box called over the intercom, “Price check on aisle nine, Delcheata cheese, twelve-ounce, please.”

Within a moment B approached, stopping short as she recognized James.

“Oh, hi B,” James said as she reached around him to give the checker a box that she could scan.

Taking a second too long to respond, B finally acknowledged James with as friendly a smile as she could muster. Very well she remembered May fifteenth, the way she felt seeing him about-face and leave the school after she greeted him. She remembered every word she’d said, and the very inflections to her words: Jesus loves you, James. God loves you. And your family loves you. And I love you. Why did she say all that? She’d never figured it out. Of course, she’d learned that he and Amy had broken up. That was all over the entire school and the whole town. So why say that she loved him. Especially since she’d not said the same to anyone else. She’d known James since grade school, but no more than anyone else that didn’t live on her street, or go to her church, or play women’s volleyball or basketball. Some years he was in her class, some not. In the higher grades they’d shared some classes, but not very many. Normally, passing in the hallway resulted in nothing more than a nod. And then she announced undying love! Well, in her hyperbolic mind, anyway.

“So, are you?” she heard James ask.

Her head and eye movement told him that she’d missed something.

“Going with anyone?”

B blushed, thinking that they were within a half an inch of one another’s height, the height issue always foremost whenever she considered whether a boy was cute. She being just short of six feet tall made the matter important to her.

“Uh, no. UC Tech is all.” She blushed the redder, realizing that she hadn’t really answered the question properly. Glancing about, her eyes refusing to land on James’, she noticed that the checker, a lady nearly old enough to be her grandmother was grinning like Curious George.

“So am I,” James replied with an air of excitement, like he’d just discovered a lost twenty-dollar bill. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could share rides back home once or twice a month!”

“Uh, no. I mean yes. Uh, no. I’m not seeing anyone, and yes, whenever we don’t have weekend games, or practices. It’d be great.”

“So, you’ll go to dinner this Friday night?”

“Not if we’re having that,” she said, pointing at the Delcheata. With a smiling flip of her pony tail, she wheeled around to hurry back to work, letting James figure out how to contact her and set up the date.

+++

“Hello, John?” B asked, calling him as soon as she got off work.

“Of course it’s okay to date him. Why wouldn’t you?”

“Well, you know I told you he turned and left school after I greeted him … on May 15th.”

“Yeah, I remember. Wasn’t that right after the breakup?”

“Not right after. But what I’ve never said to anyone was what I saw sticking out of his backpack. I didn’t really put it together until I looked on the internet later on.”

“Uh, oh. Do I know where this is going?”

“Probably.”

“Guess you have some praying to do,” John offered. “I’ll help.” And he did, there on the phone as well as that evening.

+++

“Hello, James?” B got James’ number from Amy, who she’d had the temerity to call. Amy belabored the point that she hadn’t meant to break up, at least until after the summer, and that they might get back together next year and that James was a gentleman. B thought of the snooze and loose maxim. After a quick greeting, B got to the point of her call to James. “Look, the big Baptist church opens their gym every afternoon all summer. How about tomorrow at one?”

After James’ enthusiastic acceptance of the offer, and B’s admonition to wear shorts and be ready for a workout, B thanked Jesus for the peace she felt in her spirit.

James spent the next several minutes wondering what church kids did for fun, how different church ball might be from regular basketball. He shook his head at the reality that in all the years he’d been with Amy, they hadn’t once done anything to raise a sweat, but here he was prepared to open every sweat gland and possibly offend the world on a first date. He again shook his head in wonder.