Timeline: Late Afternoon, Thursday, 19th April. We join Greg as he drives home from Larksville in the truck he's just bought from Al Yocum's garage.
Al Yocum and his team had made a good job of servicing the F-350, it ran and smelled as sweet as a mountain stream on its new tyres. They had not only serviced the vehicle, but cleaned it up inside and out. The throaty roar of the engine seemed to echo the truck's pleasure at its new lease on life. It was as if it felt good about itself again, like a horse after a careful grooming. Greg switched the radio to a country music station and the swish of the tyres accompanied Dolly Parton as she sang 'Jolene'. The truck seemed happy and with the sun lowering in the sky, casting longer shadows from the West, Greg too felt more at ease.
It had been a full and memorable day starting out with meeting the mayor in the morning and finishing up with Bill Elbury shocking him by revealing he was almost a dollar millionaire in the afternoon.
Greg felt a twinge of pique that Wayne Fisher felt he was being held back by their contract. Greg's mind could see himself again the day they signed. He had forced his own way on the deal, on the grounds that he was taking the biggest risk by putting his money into an unproven venture. Wayne was thereafter meant to stay beholden in gratitude to him forever, to jump when Greg said jump. After all said and done he, Greg Mitchell, was the big man; everybody else took a secondary place. It had been the way Greg was, and how he had always worked. He couldn't remember now why he had been in such a hurry to get this particular deal completed, but he had forced the pace on the final negotiations and not taken any 'No's' or 'Maybe's. Greg recalled he had dressed the part of a youthful business tycoon in a tailored summer suit with silk shirt, matching tie and Italian shoes. He relived the thrill of the kill remembering how he had twisted the last dime of benefit for himself out of the deal and screwed the operation down tight; to exercise a level of control his minimal investment in loans and shares did not truthfully warrant. Greg had put seventy-five grand into the business with another five grand spent in legal fees. Wayne had put everything he had including himself into it and turned Greg's investment into more than ten times that amount in only 2 years. Greg had not considered Wayne personally or for that matter any of the other people with whom he had conducted business before. For Greg, the deal alone was what mattered. His concern for any other parties involved was merely whether or not he considered them capable of delivering their part of the bargain. It was small wonder Wayne wanted out of their contract; it had to be stifling him.
'What a bloody pompous, self-indulgent cretin you were that day Mitchell.' Greg mumbled under his breath and cringed with embarrassment at the memory of the person he had been just a short time ago. Jess floated next into his thoughts and Greg wondered if meeting Jess had changed his views on life generally.
He definitely saw things differently now after his divorce. He had no inclination to make deals for their own sake anymore or only for the benefit people who did not deserve the rewards that followed his successful endeavours. The buzz wasn't with him any longer. Instead, he seemed drawn more towards fixing deals that knocked down the barriers that held people like Jess back in life; folks that deserved better fortune than fate or circumstance was handing them. He savoured the genuine pleasure he found he could bring to others now- like the big-eyed, grateful smiles that Jess gave him. Of course he would change the contract with Wayne. The thought that there was also a job for him at Fisher's was exciting- a big job, one that he could do. Living in Florida could be great; maybe he could take Jess down there with him and the boy could finish his education in the Sunshine State? It was a great idea.
Greg was getting carried away with himself and quickly dismissed these day dreams and flights of fancy as he approached the lines of chicken sheds on the northern outskirts of Bamptonville. Here he met up with a line of slow moving traffic and needed to concentrate on his driving.
The vehicle ahead of him was a dirty blue Buick that had to be Gleitner's. Instant anger erupted inside Greg . His first childish impulse was to ram the Buick and drive over its twisted steel and the broken remains of Felix Gleitner. Greg derived a brief moment of satisfying self-pity in the pipe dream, but dissipated his emotion by gripping the wheel tightly and settled in behind the Buick at twenty yards distance. Greg was convinced that Gleitner was the man behind the attack on the BMW. He couldn't prove it yet, and he wondered who else might be involved in Felix's dirty tricks chain? He knew that Kyler and his gang were in this Felix 'remuda', but what about the Sheriff? Could he be in it with them? Could Donovan be taking bribes? If so, he would not be the first or even the last lawman to fall to temptations. Having failed last time, will they try to get at him again, and if so how? These questions made Greg uncomfortable and took the shine off his day.
For about two seconds he thought about buying a gun, but here he was a foreigner and would have to buy it and hold it illegally. He couldn't walk around the town with it hidden under his coat. He dismissed the thought, but decided to buy a pepper spray and keep it on his person instead. If he was physically attacked it would be something with which he could defend himself.
Greg eased off the accelerator more as he entered the town limits and followed the slow moving stream of traffic going south until he turned off at Glover, and drove into his space outside 196. He was delighted to see Jess already there waiting for him. The boy was sat on the bench outside his room wiping a cloth over the air con unit .
* * *
It had not been one of Jess's best days at school. Melissa had been spreading malicious gossip endlessly about him and Greg; gossip based on her own assumptions after he went off with Kyler yesterday. Jess mentally kicked himself for telling her they were taking him to Greg; it was stupid of him. Her twisted mind had put two with two to make five and had told the whole school throughout the day that Greg was sent by the Devil to corrupt Jess and was using Kyler and Felix to help him. And, it was already too late for Jess, because she was sure that English Devil's disciple had had his evil way with Jess last night.
Kyler and his crew helped spread this particularly juicy rumour even although they knew it was untrue, because it suited Felix's purposes to split Jess from Greg.
The story raised some whoops and hollers among the students. Jess had come in for some heavy teasing about it, but mostly the others couldn't care less what he and Greg might be doing as long as it didn't affect them. The teasing carried on throughout the day once the class saw how sensitive Jess was to their jibes. They were able to get a rise out of him whenever they brought it up. Melissa kept up her diatribe without let whenever she had an audience. Jess missed his lunch to avoid seeing her in the cafeteria and his stomach growled to remind him it needed food.
The best moments of the day for Jess were during class lectures when he could let his mind drift off to recall Greg's teachings about business and his ideas of them making deals together. Jess did some work on his pitch. He wrote down several times what he would say to Mr. Mackendrick later that night. He didn't find it an easy task. The words would not come readily and he ripped up several failed attempts before he found what he thought were the right things to say. He began feverishly writing them down in his workbook, oblivious to the fact that the teacher had stopped his lecture on North American History. Mr. Sloan had walked to stand poised over Jess like a vulture while the boy oblivious to the teacher's prescence, continued writing out his lines. Meanwhile, the class grinned and waited with relish for the action when the teacher would finally pounce on Jess.
Jess came to with a jerk when the teacher pulled his workbook away and said.
'Of course you know all about Farragut's attack on Mobile don't you Jess White so you can just sit there day dreaming through class.'
Before Jess could apologise, Ethan Cartwright had bawled out from the far side of the classroom
'He'll be dreaming about last night and his new boyfriend Sir.' Uproar in the class followed this revelation. It went on for some time. The teacher did not understand the joke, but had to leave Jess in order to stop the pandemonium and settle the class down. Fortunately for Jess the bell rang for the afternoon break and he ran out of the room, into the School House and up the stairs to the top landing above his dormitory. This was the roof space where the janitor kept tools and equipment behind a stout door, double locked with a chain and padlocks. There was a small open landing at the top of the stairs with a tall dormer window overlooking the yard. It had a wide, wooden window sill that made a convenient seat. Strictly speaking it was off limits to students, but Jess had lately got into the habit of hiding himself there whenever he needed privacy or wished to avoid meeting up with anybody.
Apart from Melissa and her constant rants, Jess also wanted to avoid seeing Kyler today. He knew Kyler would pester him for his decision about the Sunday photo shoot the moment they met up. Jess wasn't ready to make that decision and preferred to play for time. It was quite a day and one Jess was glad when it came to an end. He had felt constantly on edge. He became jumpy. His mind played tricks and he began to see Kyler or Melissa in groups when they were not even there.
He did not want to bump into Kyler or Melissa when school was over for the day either. In order to make a quick get away he excused himself ten minutes before the end of the last hour under the pretext of needing to go to the restroom. Jess's ears burned as he left the classroom with Ethan Cartwright's latest taunt ringing in them. 'He's really off to a hot date with his new English boyfriend!'
Jess ignored it and ran out of the class, stopping only at the locker room to lock away his satchel of books before he ran all the way to the Melody Inn to wait for Greg. He was sitting on the bench outside 196 feeling miserable, with a dry throat that he could not ease by repeated swallowing while his stomach growled for want of sustenance.
The uproar caused by the class when it burst out laughing as Jess left, angered this teacher. Mr. Marks, who took them for geography in the last hour, was a no-nonsense, strict disciplinarian. He held back Ethan Cartwright and two others once the bell rang for the end of the session. He questioned them under threat of report. What he heard, he didn't want to believe, but couldn't ignore. He dismissed the trio with a warning and walked briskly to the Principal's office, tapped on the door and walked in once he heard the invitation to 'Enter!'
Dr. Armstrong was sat in his armchair reading a report. He looked up with a smile at Marks's creased brow and anxious attitude as he came into the room.
'Mr. Marks, whatever has happened? You look most distressed. How can I be of assistance?"
Marks swallowed and fidgeted uncomfortably for several moments before replying.
'It might be nothing Dr. Armstrong, but I have reason to believe that Jesse White in the junior school is being corrupted into an homosexual affair by a British visitor to the town.'
Armstrong gaped at Marks in astonishment. The report in his hand fell to the floor beside his chair.
'Good God!,' he said in horror, 'Are you absolutely certain? This is extremely serious. You had best sit down and tell me all about this, and best close the door for privacy.'