Men, Women & Children (20 page)

chapter

thirteen

P
rincipal Ligorski began his Monday morning announcements by congratulating the Goodrich Odyssey of the Mind team on its second-place showing at a competition that weekend. And he ended them by encouraging the Goodrich football team to remain enthusiastic about the rest of the season and to prepare for their game against the Scott Shining Stars the following Friday, adding that the entire school should come out to show support for their team at the next game.

Most members of the team had used the weekend to reconcile themselves to their loss. Tanner Hodge had not. Instead, he obsessively thought about why they hadn’t been able to overcome the Irving Aardvarks in a game he felt they should easily have won. Tanner convinced himself that all blame for the loss was to be placed with Tim Mooney and his decision not to play in the eighth-grade season. Having to deal with an entire morning of his classmates consoling him and telling him they were sure the following Friday would produce a win that would get the Olympians back on track only made Tanner angrier with Tim Mooney. By the time he found himself sitting across the cafeteria from Tim during his lunch period, Tanner could no longer suppress his rage.

He waited until Mrs. Rector, who was the only faculty member lunch monitor that day, was on the other side of the room, and then he took the orange he had sitting on his lunch tray and threw it toward Tim Mooney as he said, “Faggot.” Instead of hitting the intended target, the orange struck Brandy Beltmeyer, who was sitting next to Tim, in the shoulder. Tim followed the orange’s trajectory back to Tanner Hodge, who was walking away from his own table toward Tim, saying, “We lost because of you, homo.”

Tim looked back to Brandy and said, “You okay?” She said, “Yeah. Don’t get into it with him.” Although up to that point Tim had found the anger of some of his classmates amusing, he no longer found any levity in it once it manifested itself in violence toward Brandy. Tim stood from his own table, bringing himself face-to-face with Tanner Hodge as he said, “You realize it couldn’t have been my fault because I wasn’t there, you idiot.”

Tanner said, “Yeah, that’s why it
was
your fault, fuckface. And if we don’t make it to district it’ll be because of this game.”

Tim said, “Who cares?”

Tanner said, “I do, faggot,” and then pushed Tim backward, causing him to fall over the bench part of his table onto the ground. Tanner took the opportunity to jump on top of Tim, swinging wildly. A crowd of students, Brandy included, immediately surrounded them. Some were screaming, some clapping, some silent in shock, having seen nothing like this in their lifetimes. The ruckus eventually gained the attention of Mrs. Rector. She had been a teacher in some capacity for almost fifteen years, and although she had seen her fair share of disagreements, arguing matches, and on occasion even a shove, she had never seen an altercation of this magnitude. Each of the boys involved was easily stronger than she was, and she knew it. In a minor panic, she reflexively did the only thing that came to mind, which is what she had been trained to do.

The year Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed twelve students and one teacher at Columbine High School, the school district that governed Goodrich Junior High School made mandatory the installation of panic buttons in locations throughout each of the schools in the district. The buttons were to be pressed in any situations of violence. Faculty members were made to undergo training each semester in order to ensure that they were knowledgeable about the locations of each of these buttons in their individual schools as well as properly refreshed on the protocol necessary to operate the buttons if a scenario should arise in which they might be needed. In addition to these panic buttons, each school was to employ a full-time armed security guard.

Mrs. Rector ran to the nearest of these panic buttons, entered her faculty code, which armed the button, and then pressed the button itself. The Goodrich PA system emitted an alarm, causing most of the students surrounding the fight to disperse, but the fight itself continued. Mrs. Rector did as she’d been trained to do and remained by the button she pressed. She recalled the exact phrase from her Emergency Violence Scenario course: “Remain near the emergency indicator and wait for armed security to arrive. Never attempt to approach the situation of violence.”

In the parking lot, Officer Blidd, Goodrich Junior High School’s armed security guard, was enjoying a Newport cigarette when he heard the alarm sound and received the accompanying signal on his two-way radio. This was the first time he had ever been called into action in his ten years as an armed security guard. Not knowing what to expect as he entered the building, but assuming it would be something akin to a Columbine massacre if a member of the faculty saw fit to press a panic button, he drew his gun and, being a religious man, said a quick prayer asking his god to aid him and to keep him safe.

By the time Officer Blidd arrived in the cafeteria, Tim had used his advantage in both size and general athletic ability to turn the momentum of the fight in his favor. He was kneeling on Tanner Hodge’s chest, striking him in the face repeatedly.

Not sure if either of the students was armed, Officer Blidd approached them cautiously, allowing Tim to land several more punches than he would have otherwise, knocking Tanner Hodge into unconsciousness. Once he was close enough to assess the situation as a standard fight between two male students, Officer Blidd holstered his gun, said, “Break it up,” and pulled Tim off Tanner Hodge, who remained unconscious on the ground.

Brandy Beltmeyer watched the event unfold. Although she had no taste for violence, being protected by Tim, and watching his brutal victory over Tanner Hodge, made him seem much more attractive than he already was to her. She hoped that he wouldn’t get into any serious trouble over this, because she found herself wanting to see him again as soon as possible.

Officer Blidd found it slightly absurd that he had to handcuff both of the boys involved before taking them to the principal’s office, but that was the protocol his training dictated for any kind of violent altercation. He valued his job and didn’t want to be held responsible for any wrongdoing that could result in his losing it. So he removed two pairs of handcuffs from his belt and said, “Can you put your hands behind your back, please?” The students watched as Tim complied, none of them having seen anything like this before. With Tim handcuffed, Officer Blidd moved to Tanner Hodge to find that he was regaining consciousness. Officer Blidd said, “Sorry, kid, I have to cuff you.”

Tanner said, “What?”

Officer Blidd could tell he was more than shaken from the beating he’d sustained. He said, “You were in a fight. I have to cuff you and take you to Principal Ligorski.”

Tanner said, “Are you serious?”

Officer Blidd said, “Yeah, sorry. I have to.”

Tanner Hodge offered no resistance as Officer Blidd handcuffed him, stood him up, and then walked both him and Tim down the hallway to Mr. Ligorski’s office, with Mrs. Rector following them to give her account of the event for the official record—which was that she hadn’t seen the initial moments of the episode, but it was her opinion, judging from the aftermath, that Tim was clearly the aggressor. She added that she knew nothing about the nature of the brawl, or the reason for its occurrence, before going back to her classroom, slightly shaken and hoping that she wouldn’t be further involved.

Mr. Ligorski brought each student in individually to hear his account of the interaction. Tim’s recounting of the incident was the more accurate of the two, allowing for some embellishment only in the description of the damage caused to Brandy Beltmeyer from the orange thrown by Tanner. Tanner’s account was much less truthful, taking any opportunity he could to paint Tim as the initial assailant and provoker of the entire event. After hearing both of their renditions, Principal Ligorski came to the conclusion that they were both to receive punishment in the form of three-day suspensions, which, for Tanner, also carried with it the added punishment of ineligibility for the upcoming game against the Scott Shining Stars. Both Tanner and Tim were then made to undergo individual, hour-long counseling sessions with Ms. Perinot, the school counselor.

Tim’s father was in his office, reading reviews of restaurants in neighboring cities that might serve as possible romantic settings for his second date with Dawn Clint, when he received a phone call from Laurie Fenner, Principal Ligorski’s receptionist, informing him that his son, Tim, had been involved in behavior that required disciplinary action. That action, Kent was further informed, involved Tim being held in the principal’s office until a parent or guardian could pick him up from school. Kent told his supervisor that he had a family emergency that required immediate attention and took the rest of the day off. He used his drive to Goodrich Junior High School to calm himself, to defuse the anger that ignited almost instantaneously in him. He thought that he and his son had been doing well the past week or so, certainly better than they had been since Lydia Mooney moved to California. He couldn’t help thinking that, if Tim had still been playing football, everything would be fine, none of this would have happened.

When Kent Mooney arrived at Goodrich Junior High School, he was told that Ms. Perinot, the school counselor, wanted to speak with him. She told him that after talking with his son, Tim, for an hour or so about various things in his life that she felt led to his violent outburst, she came to the conclusion that he might be suffering from some form of clinical depression. She recommended that Kent take Tim to see a psychiatrist, due to the fact that she was not qualified to give a valid medical diagnosis.

Kent, deriving some hope from Ms. Perinot’s suggestion, asked her if she thought his depression might be the cause behind his decision to quit football. Ms. Perinot couldn’t be sure, but she told Kent Mooney that depression in teens, as well as in adults, can be the cause of erratic behavior or behavior that is highly abnormal for the person afflicted. She told Kent that he was, of course, free to take Tim to anyone he wished if he sought further help for his son, based on her suggestion, but she recommended Dr. Ray Fong specifically. She had known Ray for several years, since high school. They had engaged in a brief romantic relationship during their college years that ended amicably and, although Ray Fong was married and had children and Ms. Perinot had a boyfriend of four years, they still met once every few months for drinks or dinner that led to sexual intercourse. Ms. Perinot handed Kent Mooney Dr. Ray Fong’s business card and thought about the last time they had sex. She had asked him to ejaculate on her breasts, and he had obliged her. Sex with her boyfriend was never pornographic, and she used her encounters with Ray Fong to explore her more carnal desires. She thought that Ray probably used her for the same purpose.

Kent found his son waiting in Principal Ligorski’s office. He said, “Come on, let’s go home.” Nothing was said by either Kent or his father on the drive back to their house until Kent said, “Your counselor thinks you’re depressed. Do you?”

Tim said, “I don’t know. She told me the same thing.”

Kent said, “Do you want to see a shrink?”

Tim didn’t know if he was depressed or not. He felt that, if he had been, it had been fleeting. He had experienced a strange feeling of detachment from his own life after finding out that his mother was getting remarried, but he felt that detachment slipping away the more time he spent with Brandy Beltmeyer. Nonetheless, the prospect of having someone he could talk with about anything that might be happening in his life was interesting to him. Brandy was beginning to fill that role, but he still felt uncomfortable about bringing up anything regarding his mother with anyone. He said, “I don’t know. I guess.”

Kent said, “Okay, I’ll set it up.”

Tim went to his bedroom and logged on to
World of Warcraft
, looking forward to using his suspension as a time to do some valuable midday raiding and rep grinding. Kent called Dr. Ray Fong and set up an appointment for his son the following day. He hung up hoping that whatever psychological mending Tim needed to get back to his former self would happen soon enough for him to return to playing football before the end of the season.

Dr. Fong’s office was exactly what Tim expected: dark wood bookshelves, various diplomas on the wall, and a couch. As Tim came into his office, Dr. Fong said, “Hello, Tim. How are you doing today?”

Tim said, “Fine.”

Dr. Fong said, “Good. That’s good to hear. So why don’t you have a seat wherever you feel comfortable, and if you don’t mind, I’d like to use our first session to just get to know you a little bit and to give you a chance to tell me anything that you want to about you, or your father or your mother, or anything that might be going on at school. Just anything, really, that you feel you want to talk about. That okay?”

Tim said, “Yeah,” and sat down on Dr. Fong’s couch.

Dr. Fong took out a small notepad and a ballpoint pen, crossed one leg over the other in his chair, and said, “Okay, then, let’s begin.”

Tim was surprised by how clichéd the entire situation was, how much it seemed like a scene from any movie he had ever seen that involved a psychiatrist and a patient. He said, “Well, what do you want to know?”

Dr. Fong said, “I want to know what you think you should tell me, Tim. Whatever’s important in your life right now.”

Tim said, “Well, I guess, my dad thinks I should be playing football. That’s probably the most important thing to him right now.”