chapter 35

word count: 1423

as closely as little simon learnagle could make out, the man on the phone who asked to speak to his mother,,  had called about his brother steve.. nothing new there.. someone was always calling to complain about one of his older brothers.. the youngest of six boys being raised by an over worked, underpaid, thoroughly stressed out single mother, simon had come to not only accept his older brothers numerous bouts with criminal mischief as normal,, but to expect them.. 

what simon hadn’t expected was his mother’s response.. ordinarily his mom would just promise the caller she would take care of it,, cuss under her breath as she hung up the phone,, and go back to watching TV.. but tonight had been different.. as soon as she hung up the phone,, she had bounded up the steps, two or three at a time,, and commenced to beating profusely on the door to the bedroom that belonged to his three oldest brothers,, screaming like a banshee at his brother sean .. and sean, who continued to refuse to open the door, was screaming back at her..

simon had been able to catch a few words,, most of them swears,, but growing up around five older brothers and a mother who possessed the language skills of a long haul trucker,, simon had learned long ago that those so called ‘bad words’ were just normal parts of speech in the learnagle household..  all swearing aside,, the next most popular word that was being tossed around was gun.. now that one bothered him.

sure, simon knew his brother sean had a gun.. if the truth be told he knew his brothers sid and stan had guns too. he knew this because ever since the high and middle schools had placed metal detectors at all entrances,, (as a result of what his mother called a hostage situation) his brothers had been forced to leave their beloved side arms at home on the days they actually planned on going to school.. 

one of the perks of being the only learnagle that was not yet of school age, was being left home alone all day with a babysitter that was more interested in talking and texting on her cell phone than she was with anything he was doing,, thus allowing him plenty of time to dig through his older brothers stuff looking for candy money while they were at school.. it was during one such excursion that he had come across the guns,, safely tucked in between the older boys respective mattresses and box springs.. 

simon had confided in his brother steve following this discovery,, and steve had made him pinky swear that not only would he never touch the guns,, but he would never tell anyone else he had even seen them..  although simon had upheld his part of the bargain, something about the screaming match that was going on between his mom and his brother sean made simon think that steve had not.. 

at the tender age of five, simon already knew that when such a friction arose between his family members,, the best thing to do was just disappear.. and so he did.. he slipped unnoticed out the back door,, and was last seen alone,  headed toward the playground at wildwood creek park..

***

as jake disappeared into the queue of fellow travelers on the footpaths of wildwood creek park,, his red, white, and blue backpack slung carelessly over one shoulder,, it occurred to him  that he had become all but invisible.. freshly shaved, shorn, and dressed in a tucked in blue polo and smooth pressed khakis, jake had become just another face in the crowd..  as he made his way nonchalantly through the park he couldn’t help but notice,, that unlike the old jake who was seemingly confronted at every turn by disapproving stares,, no one even bothered to look at the new jake.. no one, at all..  

he carefully selected a bench not far from the single arched wooden bridge that connected east and west new albany along a wooded section of widwood creek.. there he unpacked the shiny red 4x4 and grabbed a couple of red twizzlers.. as he munched on the twizzlers,, he powered up the red 4x4 and ran it down the length of the sidewalk toward the bridge..  

the park was full of children.. children of all shapes and sizes.. as always, jake found himself drawn to the younger children that more often than not, played under the watchful eyes of their parents or older siblings on the playground equipment.. from his vantage point he could observe them without being observed.. that way,  he had time to connect the dots as it were,, figure out who was with whom,, make mental notes and narrow down his field of vision as he crossed the children with supervision silently off his list of possibilities.. 

through his astute powers of deduction, jake narrowed the crowd of children down to three that seemed to be playing together,, but lacking any parental units.. two of them were plump and dark haired.. a brother and his younger sister he surmised.. the other was a small blonde headed boy,, very possibly a sibling,, but equally as possible not..  he decided to move in for a closer look.. 

grabbing a handful of twizzlers,, jake started off toward the bridge,, the remote truck a fair distance ahead of him.. he carefully guided the vehicle through the maze of footfalls on the bridge and over the grass toward the playground..  jake stood purposefully with his back to the setting sun so as to obscure any possibility of anyone on the playground getting a good look at his face..  he knew that in so doing, any future description of him would be limited to the type of clothing he was wearing..  

the first of the three children to notice the shiny red truck cutting its way swiftly through the grass was the dark haired boy. “hey look!” he called out to the other two,, as the truck jumped over a protruding tree root and into the air.. “let’s go check it out!”

the two smaller children followed him and all three ran across the grass toward the remote control truck.. jake steered it expertly thru the grass and then back in the direction of the tree root.. the truck struck the root from this direction and was caught up,, so jake backed it up and quickly spun it around in the direction of the three on coming children.. they squealed with delight as they turned and ran from the fast approaching truck, as it “chased” them back and forth in the grass between the playground and the creek.. 

just as jake decided to slow the truck down in hopes that the children would try to catch it,, a plump dark haired woman appeared on the edge of the playground. “jason!! carley!!” she called out over the grass.. “time to go!!” you could tell by the disappointed looks on the plump dark haired children’s faces,, they were being summoned.. 

shoulders slumped,, they said their good-byes and  trudged off in the direction of the plump dark haired woman who was hastily making her way toward the parking lot.. the little blonde boy watched dejectedly as his playmates filed off behind their mother.. 

jake sprung into action,, firing up the truck and careening it around toward him.. the little blonde haired boy broke into a sprint and followed it,, any short lived look of dejection swiftly replaced by wide eyes and smiles.. 

“hey mister,, can i try that?? can i do the remote??” he called out, wide blue eyes shining out from underneath his little boy hand as he held it up to block out the slowly setting sun and get a closer look at jake.. 

“well,” chuckled jake.. “i guess that depends..”

“on what?” the little boy queried,,  eager to get his hands on the remote control.. 

“on whether or not you can stop calling me mister,, and just call me jake.”

“sure jake!! no problem!!” the little guy exclaimed, thrilled it had been so easy to win his new friend over and get control of the remote.

jake cupped the little boys eager hand in his,, as he slipped the remote into it and said, “and what will I call you??”

“simon.” the little boy answered, as he thrust the joy stick on the remote control forward,,  and watched the shiny red dodge 4x4 take off like a shot.