chapter 143

word count: 1483

“holy shit!!” adam exclaimed, as soon as his dad and that lady, whoever she was, stormed out of the bedroom. 

“what are we gonna do now?? you don’t know my dad when he gets mad!” he said as he looked to erik hoping he could come up with a way to get them all  out of this..

elliot quickly joined the two boys in their room.. “what the hell was that all about?”  he asked as he plopped himself down on his bed.. although he had done his best to overhear what was going on,, he really hadn’t caught any of the details,, all he had really been able to hear for sure was adam’s dad yelling at erik about something.. 

“my dad knows, “ adam said, with a little quiver in his voice “i don’t know how he knows,, but he knows about the ring.. and oh my god is he pissed!!”

“hold on you guys,, i’m thinkin,, i’m thinkin..'” erik nearly stammered,, his mind racing as he tried to come up with a plausible story..  

‘something shiny, something shiny.’ erik continued prodding his brain trying to come up with something, anything, shiny that they could have extracted from the dump,, something other than the ring,, something that would explain away whatever had caused adam’s dad to barge in here tonight trying to take away the only thing that had ever really brought them all together.. 

“well, first of all,, we have to get our story straight.” erik admonished the two bewildered younger boys.. 

“ok.. let’s see.. we were at the dump,, digging through some stuff, and i found,, a,, a what?? what do we have that would look shiny?? something my mom and john wouldn’t have seen,, or wouldn’t know that we already had.."

“what about my knife??” elliot offered up his first thought.. after all only he and adam knew about that.. they hadn’t even let erik in on that secret.. there hadn’t been any need to as even elliot had backed off on the cutting since he had moved in with john and lisa.. 

“yeah, but, well, you guys,,” adam interjected in an almost pleading voice, “i kinda well, ugh,, i already told my dad erik found a ring,, and i told him it was big and looked like it had a diamond in it.. i’m sorry. i’m sorry but i was afraid he was gonna hit me,, so i just.. well i just spilled it!!”

adam looked as if he was about to break out in tears.. 

“well that’s it!!” erik looked as if he finally had a plan.. “you just tell john and my mom that you were so afraid of your dad,, that you said that just so he wouldn’t hit you,, and i’ll just tell them i found elliot’s knife in there,, that will totally explain why we didn’t tell them about it!! after all what were we supposed to do,, come home and say,, hey!! like the knife we found?? they woulda’ never let us keep it!!”

“sounds good to me!!” elliot piped up just the boys heard the front door slam, hard.. 

“well he hasn’t changed a bit!!” lisa proclaimed with more than an air of disgust in her voice as the door slammed closed behind buzz and this new priscilla woman.. 

“and one would think after over a month of zero contact with adam, he could have at least  come over here by himself,, who on earth was that woman,, and why did he have to bring her here and confront adam in her presence?? i mean hasn’t adam been through enough of the women traipsing in and out of his dad’s life without this?? and so soon after his mother’s death, too!! ” lisa continued,  clearly enraged. 

“i feel as if a tornado has just run through the place!!! what the heck was that all about??” john shot lisa a bewildered look,, as the two of them headed for the boys room.. 

john knocked respectfully on the door.. 

“hey guys!! can we come in??” he asked through the door,, and only after they had received an affirmative response did he and lisa enter the boys room.. 

“what on earth was that all about?” lisa could barely contain herself.

erik spoke up first,, he wanted to be sure the story came out right the first time.  “well, it’s like this.. even though we know you told us not to,, we went back to the dump today,, you know, just like looking for something to do..”

lisa started to jump in with a reprimand,, but john cut her off at the pass with a finger to his lips.. lisa took the hint,, and sighed aloud,, but didn’t say a word..

“we all know you guys are not supposed to be in the dump, but we’ll talk about that when the dust settles..” john said calmly.” now go ahead erik. so you were at the dump..”

“yeah so we were at the dump,” erik reiterated as he continued on with the story hoping the younger boys were paying attention so they could back up him up..

“and, well, oh well,, i might as well just tell ya since it appears somehow or another adam’s dad already knows,, well, we found a knife.”

lisa could no longer hold back, “you found a what? you guys know you have no business having a knife!! oh my god!!”

“hold on lisa, hold on,, let’s hear the whole story before we pass judgment here.. ok so go on erik.. “ said john, forever the peacemaker, as he put his arm around lisa in an effort to calm her.. 

“well,, that’s kind of it.” erik started, “well, i mean that would have been it if adam’s dad hadn’t come over here and accused us of finding like some diamond ring or something.. he had adam so shook up, barging in her like that , that adam just told him what he wanted to hear, cuz, well, cuz he thought his dad was gonna like,  hit him or something..”

“yeah,” adam said to add credence to that part of the story, “you guys don’t know what my dad can be like when he is mad,, and he was mad!! i thought he was gonna..”

john stepped in to reassure adam who looked like he was ready to cry.. “you are safe here adam,, you know that don’t you??” 

adam nodded as if to say he understood,, but john could tell, he definitely still had a look of fear in his eyes.. 

“we are a family now,, and no one is gonna come in our home and hurt you.. i would never let that happen.. you know that right?” john continued to try and reassure adam..

“i know, but..” adam squeaked,, still  seemingly on the verge of tears, not so much out of fear of his dad,, like john and lisa thought,, but more out of a feeling he had disgraced himself in front of his brothers,, having given up erik , and their secret up to his dad without even really trying to protect it.. 

“so where is this knife??” john asked as he made eye contact with each of the boys individually..  

“it’s right here.” elliot responded by jumping up from his bed and going directly to his desk drawer.. he had to dig it out from way in the back of the drawer where it had remained safely hidden away this past few months.

as he  handed the knife over to john, he said sheepishly. “we knew if we told you  would never let us keep it.. so we , well, we just..”

“while it doesn’t make it right,, i just want you to know lisa and i understand.. we were kids once too you know,, and well,, i just want you all to know,, that we both know what it feels like to want to keep a secret..”

as adam and elliot just looked on in disbelief at the degree of calm with which john was handling the situation, erik piped in, “i’m sorry mom, john,, it’s just that..”

“i know,,” a softer, more collected lisa cut in as she put her arm around erik’s shoulders and reached out to adam and elliot as well, “i had more than my share of secrets from my parents too when i was a kid.. johns right,, we do know how it feels.. that doesn’t make it right but..”

“well, at least we have the whole story now,, and don’t you guys worry,, we will handle this with adam’s dad.. we are not going to allow him to just push his way in here and intimidate any of you again!! he is gonna have to deal with me on this now..” john said in effort to put an amicable close to an already angst ridden conversation.. 

yes, there was much more to be said,, but john felt all of that would be best left to another moment in time.. the boys had surely been through enough tonight already..