The Canavar

Chapter 1 - Johnny

Trouble always seemed to follow Johnny like a wolf followed the scent of the wounded deer. He had always stayed clean, never broken the law, and he had always managed to stay a step away from gangs and drugs. It was not like he were cursed; it was more like his whole life he had been tested.

If it had been up to him, he would have stayed in Ames. But his mother had a new job at a power plant located somewhere between the small town of Hell's Center and the only slightly bigger small town of Delgarde. Those towns could have been in Australia as far Johnny knew until his mother pointed out them out along the northeastern edge on a map of Iowa. Only half a state away.

She beamed as she explained how all her hard work and sacrifices in getting her degree were finally paying off. Johnny didn't share her enthusiasm. While it was great for her, it was not so much for him. The new place could have just as well have been in Australia as far as he was concerned. He begged to stay at his old school at least until the end of the semester – maybe stay at D'Quan's place. She said no. She wanted her boy close to her and out of trouble, and she believed a small town was the answer. He somehow doubted a move out into the sticks was going to change his relationship with trouble. He never sought it out. It always found him.

"Babe, you're a good kid," his mother said. "But you staying here would be like taking a perfectly good apple and setting it in a box full of rotten ones."

"Are you saying all my friends are rotten?" Johnny protested.

"I'm saying you're going to do what your momma tells you to do, and there'll be no sassing back," she said, making it abundantly clear there would be no more discussion over her decision.

It was the end of April when Johnny first came to Hell's Center where his mother had arranged for him to finish the school year. Who the heck would name a town Hell's Center? His friends had teased him about how he better be good, or he was going straight to Hell. Whoops! Too late. It didn't seem so funny to him at the time. Still, he wished he were with his friends rather than in the new and unfamiliar town that seemed to be in the middle of the country and on the edge of nowhere.

Now he was enrolled in a new school with new kids, and he would bet anything he had less than nothing in common with any of them. His mother drove him to school, and she would then return to their apartment to get some sleep since she had just put in a hard 12-hour shift. The rest of what was left of the school year, he would be biking or walking which he would have preferred over being dropped off on his first day.

"Listen, Baby," she said before he could escape out of the car. "I got your grades from your old school."

"How the flap? The school year's not done."

"You watch that language, young man!" She took in a deep breath before answering his question. "They can't transfer your grades from one school to another. So, your grades are already set back in Ames, and I had your teachers send them to me."

"Great! I suppose you're going to lecture me on them now."

"Don't sass me," she said. "You're really pushing it this morning."

"Sorry!"

"You got mostly Bs. But also one C."

"There's nothing wrong with Bs, Momma."

"Uh-huh. If that's the best you can do. But I know you. You can do better."

"But it's good enough."

"Listen to me, Baby," his mother said. "You're like me. Look out there." She nodded at the kids who strolled past on the sidewalk. "Them folks were born with a free pass. Most of 'em don't even know they have it 'cause they never had a door slam in their face just because of their skin. People like us, we have to earn everything."