Beth, Chapter Six

Jimmy finally talks to Danny Gregory about the boys problems at school and random acts of misbehavior.

“Have you decided where you are taking Danny for your little discussion?”  Beth asked as the man on the television blew up a building before running to a waiting car.  They were laying down on the couch.  She had her head  on his chest running her fingers in circles over his chest.  “He tried to set my house dad’s house on fire and poured water all over the documents in his safe while he was there over the other night.” “It would be nice if I knew you were wanting me to talk to him,” Jimmy said sarcastically with a smile.  “I mean, the last I heard on the subject was silence.” “Really now,” she said as she pushed herself up and looked down into his face.  “I am not going to say you were right.  I will say that it might be a good idea if you talk to him.  Just don’t flip him over and grab his neck like you do Peanut.”  The little dog raised it’s head at the mention of its name. “Don’t have to with a child that can communicate.  You simply don’t leave room for argument and trust in the instinct to obey one’s elders while a child,” he said in a matter of fact way before gently pushing her to the side and sitting up.  “I hate to say it but it is rather elementary, My Dear.” “Really now,”  she said sitting up on the couch beside him and nodding her head as she made the statement, a common practice of her that went hand in hand with the statement. “Yep,” he said as he kissed her forehead and stood up.  “Danny,” he said as he opened the twelve year old boy’s bedroom door.  “Get some shoes on and decide whether you want a cheeseburger or ice cream cone,” he said in the normal tone of voice that one used with a casual comment but a comment that was not open to dispute.  “We are going for a ride so I can talk to you,”  he explained as the boy shrugged his shoulders but continued to look puzzled as he got up and put his shoes on. “Where are you taking him?” Beth asked as the two walked into the living room and on into the kitchen to leave.  She was obviously amazed at the control the man had over the boy in such a short period.  Unlike with her, the boy not only obeyed him without being screamed at or repeatedly reminded but also acted like he had known the man and they had been friends for years.  She had noticed that the boy had come into the living room and spent more time with her and him lately, had began listening to her more often, started watching educational programming on television and had even begun sleeping with his bedroom light off.  Some of the changes she did not like.  She wanted his bedroom light left on at all times and she had gotten used to the boy staying in his room all the time playing video games. “Out to get some ice cream, right Danny?”  He replied. “Yeah,” the boy said with a restrained smile. “Give your mother a kiss good-bye and lets get going before it gets too late, Danny,”  Jimmy added as he opened the door for the him and the boy.  He waited for Danny to do as he was told, to his mother’s obvious surprise, and then lead the boy to the Cobalt parked in the driveway.  He waited until the boy had buckled his seat belt  before backing out of the drive and racing down the street toward Portage Trails.  “You know I am bringing you out to talk to you about what’s been going on, Danny?” “Yeah,” the boy replied suspiciously. “I want you to tell me what went on between you and your friend and what has been going on at school.  You mother told me that you told her that you and the other boy just had an argument over a video game.  Well…” he paused a moment for affect, drawing the word out.   “The fact is that I know better, Danny, so why don’t you tell me what really happened.” “It was like I told her,” the boy asserted as the car turned onto Portage Trails.  The boy tried to look sincere and honest as he spoke. Jimmy noticed that the boy was trying to seem sincere and honest and knew that usually meant that he was either lying or concealing an important fact.  “Danny, I was where you are once and I don’t forget my past.  I have been down the same roads you are on so I know when I am being lied to or all of the information is not being provided.  So you tell me what happened but don’t tell me what you told you mom or your school counselor because I already know that is a lie.  Been there…done that and I know you are lying. “You act like I have not been twelve year’s old.  For Christ’s sake you are growing hair on your balls now and getting hard-ons when you are just sitting in class doing a math problem,” Jimmy said with a knowing smile that relaxed the boy.  “I know for a fact you are starting to think about girls, jacking off and you just don’t know or understand what the Hell is going on, except that it feels good at times.  To be honest with you and straight forward, you are not going to talk to your mom about everything or even tell her the whole truth because she is a female and you have suddenly started caring about what girls think…including your mom and sister. “So you can tell them whatever you want and they will believe it because they do not know what it is like to be a boy and have your body waking up to manhood,”  he looked at the boy from the corner of his eye and saw that the boy was blushing and smiling.  “See?  You know I am telling the truth so come clean with what happened so I don’t have to get ice cream cones neither of us really want in the first place.” “We were playing video games when Tommy wanted to play with my dick,”  Danny began.  “I kept telling him I did not want to do anything like that and he told me either I would or he would tell all the kids in school that I was trying to play with his.” “How did his mother and little brother get involved?”  Jimmy asked as he drove past the ice cream stand. “He has his little brother dress up like a girl and act like he is having sex,”  Danny continued to explain. “You know that for a fact?” “Yeah.  He had him lay on the bed moaning and moving around like he was having someone stick their dick in his butt.” “Does your mother or his know this?”  Jimmy asked, making a mental note to bring it up to Beth.” “No.” “So, go on.” “Well, then when his mother heard us arguing she told us to go to sleep and the next day Tommy started telling our friends at school that I had tried to screw his little brother.  Now they are running around calling me a ‘fag’ and it’s all because of Tommy.” “Not exactly all because of Tommy,” Jimmy countered to the boy’s obvious shock.  “You knew things were going on at Tommy’s and you still went there and done nothing to correct them.  Whether you were or were no the one that initiated the incident or not is not an issue when you consider that you could have simply never gone to Tommy’s when you discovered what was going on there.  Nope!  Curiosity killed the cat, my boy and some times satisfaction with the knowledge did not bring it back.  In other words you stuck around because Tommy was your friend and you were curious and might even have thought it was fun.” “He was the best friend I had,”  Danny said in more a question than a statement of fact. “That does not make it right, if anything it makes it less right,”  Jimmy saw the boy look at him curiously.  “You cannot allow your friends to lead you into pretty dumb situations.  You need to tell your mom and counselor the truth…but let them know you don’t want any more problems from Tommy about it.  As for Tommy and his friends go…you cannot run off to a new school district to avoid them.  That does not solve anything and forcing the boy out of school wont really solve anything either.  Best you can do is ignore it, find some new friends and you will see in time it will all be forgotten as the kids picking on you find someone that they can get a response from.  Ain’t no fun picking on a rock, it just sets there.” He pulled into the drive and noticed that Danny was no longer blushing but sincerely smiling and laughing at what he was saying.  He had hoped the boy would find some humor in his words.  “Oh,” he said, stopping the boy from getting out of the car, “a few more things that need to be said and they stay between us.  That means you don’t need to tell anyone what we say to each other.  First thing is when you jack off in the bathroom, make sure you wipe up any messes.  Your mother found some the other day on the toilet seat. “Secondly, stop jacking off in the shower.  You are wasting water and tying up the bathroom.  If you want to jack off do it in your bedroom under the covers and use a rag or a sock or something so your mother and sister don’t have to encounter stains on your sheet or see you if they have to open your bedroom door.”  Jimmy could tell by the look on the boy’s face that  the boy was shocked that he knew so much about what boys try to keep secret. “Thirdly, stop playing with matches at your Grand-pa’s house.  If you get bored and want to play with fire do it in an open area of the garage or outside where nothing will catch fire.  I burned the Hell out of myself once playing with fire when I was a kid.  That is how I know what you were doing and why…duh!  I told you I don’t forget what it was like to be a kid.  As for pouring water on his documents, you really need to consider that some of the things you might damage could be your documents or stuff you will need when you get older. “Fourthly, get your grades up and remember that you can always talk to me if you have problems.  You cannot lie to me because I am one of the few people who remember their childhood in detail and am not afraid to let you know that I was a lot like you when I was your age.  Except I had four brothers and a younger sister that used to beat me up all the time.  Sort of like being at school even when you are at home. “Finally, I want you to realize I am not your father.  I am never going to be your father and I will never try to be your father,”  Jimmy noticed the look of shock on the boy’s face.  “You have a father, Danny, and I can never take his place.  All I can do is point out the way I see things and hope that you will understand them.  I only tell you to do things that I truly believe your mother would want.  She’s your mother and she’s your boss.  Don’t ever forget that and don’t ever think for a moment I could ever be your father.  I am just helping you, is all and some day I might be gone and I hope you will remember me as a positive influence rather than a negative.  You can see me as just your friend, your mother’s friend or that ass hole, but remember I will always be there if you need someone.” “Okay, I will,”  Danny said before opening the door and getting out of the car. “Is Heather here?” Jimmy asked when he walked into the living room where Beth was sitting on the couch. “She’s upstairs.  Why?” “Ask her to keep an eye on Danny for a while so we can go shopping or something,”  Jimmy explained in a tone that invoked no resistance.  It was based on the trust he earned and the trust he gave to those he spent any amount of time with whether male or female.  He watched Beth walk to the stairway door and go upstairs to talk to the teenager.  Some times it amazed him how people could obey him so easily when he believed there should be no discussion about what he was telling them.  He marked it up as a gift from his father. “That little mother fucker!  I am going to get him good!”  Beth finally exclaimed when Jimmy had finished informing her of what Danny had said to him earlier.  “Then I am going to call child services tomorrow and talk to the principle.” “Now before you go going off and doing the same shit they were doing lets realize that the other boy also has a side to the story…” “That doesn’t excuse Danny lying to me!  I am going to get that little motherfucker.” “What!  I told you that boy was not going to talk to you about anything sexual in nature.  The boy is growing up!  You are a woman and he is a male!  That means you are taboo in his culture right now.  More importantly you had best find out what that boy is doing on My-Space and other sites when you are not aware of it.  Somewhere they are getting some adult influences.  No one can tell me they got that little boy acting like a girl and no adult has been messing with them.” “How can you be so calm?  It doesn’t even bother you does it?”  Beth asked him as she sipped on her Diet Coke in the car beside him. “Look, I learned a long time ago that you do not jump to conclusions.  You deal with the facts first, then if you want you can get emotional.”  Jimmy explained as he sipped on his own drink, a large Pepsi.  “Getting emotional often just escalates things too far out of control.  Then you have to sit back and wonder how the fuck you ended up so far into a battle due to some reason you could not remember if someone paid you to.  I, for one, do not intend to look that stupid unless I have to because the other people refused to listen to reason.” “That’s my son, Jimmy!” “Then act like it and don’t blow something up that does not need blown up yet.  I do not, personally, like bringing my emotional responses into play because if I start I usually end up in over kill.”  Jimmy explained as best as he could.  He had been a legal clerk and paralegal while incarcerated and the hardest thing he ever found was trying to explain to someone that only the perception of the judge mattered and not there own opinions and perceptions.  You decide what you want to do, but I am just saying you need to hear both sides of the story first.” “What makes you so sure, anyway?” “Don’t forget, sweetheart I was a little boy before I was a man and I have been right so far.”  He said as he started the car and backed out of the parking spot of the Speedway.  “Troubled kid.  Stays in his room most of the time.  Plays video games and watches Sponge-Bob.  Stays at the home of friends regularly instead of at home.  Jacking off at night, in the shower and God knows where else.  Reminded me too much of one of my brothers.  In fact, I would not be surprised if the boys had not been experimenting and exploring their new found sexual responses when the argument started.” “What are you saying?” “Just do not go jumping into this half cocked until you heard both sides of the story and weighed them without emotional responses first.”

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