Chapter 15
Spud left the hospital at mid-morning and started home.
Sobered by his experiences, he had many things on his mind. He almost chewed his tongue off thinking of Donna Overstreet. Spud didn't think Donna looked like a whore, the way people usually pictured one, with clown-red cheeks, hard eyes, heavy make-up, tight, flashy clothes. And, of course, a body that wouldn't quit.
His thoughts went to Jake Sears, and he felt a twinge of disgust. Jake's masculinity was a most vulnerable quality. "There's as much cunt in him as cock," Spud said to himself.
Oh, well, if Jake wanted to stay an adolescent all his life, it was none of Spud's business! He shrugged, feeling there was no hope for Jake.
He walked on several blocks. After a while, Frani came into his thoughts. Frani! Brave, honest, genuine - a real person! Just thinking of her calmed Spud down and made him feel that the whole world was right again. He visualized her smile and knew what real love was like.
It was like Frani.
And, God, he wished he was good enough for her!
A girl like Frani deserved the best.
Spud knew he had a long way to go to measure up with the best of men.
But a guy could try, couldn't he?
When Spud reached home, he found his mom wringing her hands in her apron and looking like she was going to faint.
"What's wrong, mom?" he asked. "Just listen!" Spud listened.
Something terrible was going on over at the Rankin house!
"They've been fighting for an hour!" his mom said.
Spud's mind had been on all his problems, and he hadn't heard the yelling and cursing as he'd come up the street. But now, he knew that Hazel and old Rankin were at each other's throats. You could have heard their hot words for a block, Spud guessed.
His mom began gasping for breath, and her face turned pasty white. Spud helped her to a chair.
In a small, weak voice, lonely and forlorn, Spud's mom said, "I don't know what's going to happen, and I'm scared stiff. I think Mr. Rankin's got a gun. Someone ought to go over there and see what's going on!"
That someone meant Spud. His head began to throb as fright flowed into him. He felt defenseless.
His mom continued to sob out the whole story. "Mrs. Rankin got arrested last night, along with those crazy teenagers! Mr. Rankin went her bond this morning, got her out of jail."
Spud did a strange thing then.
He laughed.
He didn't know why he laughed, and there was no humor in it. His fright thickened. Then a weariness overpowered him, more hurting than his fright.
He couldn't move as he recalled hearing those sirens last night. Now, he knew Donna's house had been raided. He listened in a sort of stupor as his mom filled in some of the details.
Miss Parks, it seemed, had gone to Editor Millhouse, after the local police had refused to investigate Donna's club. Together, they'd gone to the county officials.
They had surrounded the house and watched. But they had no warrant, no legal right to enter.
Then a fight had started inside the house.
"It was between two men, over Hazel Rankin. That's when the sheriff and his deputies broke in."
The noise over at the Rankin house was getting louder . . .
"Gilbert," Spud's mom begged, "Please go over there and see what's happening. I'm scared."
Just then, old Rankin screamed, "I'm going to shoot you!"
Spud ran out the back door, and through the hedge. He entered the Rankin house through the kitchen, without knocking.
Hell, who would have answered his knock, anyway?
He found old Rankin and Hazel in the living room, going at it with all they had, which was wild tiger fury. Rankin brandished a revolver. He kept telling Hazel, "I'm going to shoot you!"
But he didn't pull the trigger.
Spud figured he didn't have the guts to do it.
He wasn't too sure, however. You never knew what a madman would do, and old Rankin was insane! Spud knew he should get the revolver out of his hands.
He made a lunge for old Rankin.
The gun went off, and Hazel crumpled to the floor.
When Spud saw her sprawled there on the turquoise rug, lying in her own blood, he couldn't move.
Rankin did a strange thing then. With the revolver still smoking in his hand, he got down on his knees and bent over Hazel. He kissed her.
Hazel lay there with her hair fanned out around her head, her eyes closed. Spud thought she was dead.
Suddenly, he sprang into action and knocked the revolver from old Rankin's hand. It hit the wall in one corner of the room, bounced back, and lay there. Spud bent his ear to Hazel's chest. She was still breathing. He thought maybe old Rankin hadn't really wanted to kill her. He ought to call a doctor.
Soon, Hazel's eyes opened, and she moaned. She was in pain, Spud knew, but he figured she wasn't hurt very badly.
He tried to get to the telephone, but a weakness surged through him and his knees buckled. He knew he should get a doctor and report the shooting. He would rest a moment, then try to make it to the telephone again.
Rankin had fallen limply into a chair. He sat there, looking as if he didn't care about anything, anymore.
Spud managed to call a doctor.
Then he dialed the police. It wasn't any time at all until an ambulance screamed up to the driveway. It was followed by a squad car with two policemen in it.
Spud watched the two ambulance men load Hazel in the ambulance. He answered the policemen's questions.
Then he went home.
Spud had started for the stairs, when his pop burst through the front door. He was throwing his arms around wildly and acting pretty excited.
"Didn't I tell you? Didn't I warn you that Hazel Rankin is no good?" He was shaking his finger at Spud, acting pleased for being right, acting smug.
Then he demanded, "Why ain't you locked up with the rest of them teenage hoodlums?"
Spud wasn't going to answer his old man.
But the look on his pop's face made him confess, "Because I was with Frani Cravens, over at Coach's house!"
His pop respected Frani, and for a minute, he acted human. Then the Coach bit must have got to him, making his anger rise.
He cursed Coach a while, and when he got through, Spud said that Mrs. Nichols had had her baby.
His mom pressed him for some of the details, so he told her.
"Oh, dear God!" she cried, twisting her hands in her apron.
Recalling the whole experience, Spud felt humbled. He wanted to explain to his mom how terrible it was and how it had affected him. He felt changed deep down inside, but he didn't know how to explain it.
Looking weepily at her husband, Spud's mom said, "I'm glad Gilbert didn't do nothing wrong this time."
Spud's pop, however, wouldn't give him any credit for anything. "Them kids, along with some grown-ups, are in real trouble!" The smug look on his face said he was pleased. "They're going to be questioned this afternoon!"
The blood rushed to Spud's face. He went hot and cold all over. His one thought was that others could get involved - Jake - Coach! "Even me!" he said to himself, trembling.
If anybody questioned Frani, Coach's reputation would probably depend on what she'd say. Spud wasn't as much concerned over Coach as he was about his poor wife. He figured she'd taken enough punishment, and he would spare her taking any more if it was in his power.
He wanted to see Frani, talk to her!
His pop had turned to his mom, still raving. Spud watched his chance and slipped out the back door. He hurried back to Coach's house.
Frani was in the kitchen, washing dishes.
"Spud!" she cried.
Not caring that she had sudsy water up to her elbows, he grabbed her and kissed her, getting the foamy stuff all over his shirt.
Frani said, "Spud, I want to ask a favor."
"Anything you want, Frani. Just name it!"
"Take me down to the hearing this afternoon, will you?"
Spud hesitated.
"Please, Spud."
At last, he said he would.
The inquiry was being held in the same big room where Spud had been questioned for speeding. The place was jammed.
Frani and Spud arrived just as Donna and her club members were being led in. Gawking spectators watched goggle-eyed as boys and girls, men and women, took their places on the front benches reserved for them. Many of them were red-eyed from weeping.
One of the teenage boys immediately began boasting that his old man had enough political power around town to get him out of the jam he was in. He was defiant toward the white-haired judge behind the desk, who only shrugged, then eyed him like he thought he was insane.
Donna tried to act defiant at first, too. But Spud could tell she was just plain scared.
Spud was pretty scared, too, when the questioning began in earnest. The white-haired judge, a stranger to Spud, looked kind and sympathetic. But he was also firm. When he started talking, at first, to no one in particular, but to everyone, Spud leaned forward.
What the man was saying made sense.
"Many of our teenagers demand adult rights, but, at the same time, refuse adult responsibilities -" He was interrupted when two cops brought Hazel Rankin in, bandaged and weeping. Rankin followed down the aisle, looking a hundred years old.
Spud had to force himself to look at Hazel. She wore a black dress that made her face look even whiter than it was.
The judge went on talking to the entire assembly. Then he got down to the individuals. He called on several of the teenagers briefly.
Then it was Donna's turn.
"Remember," he said to her, kindly, "this is just a preliminary hearing. Nobody is on trial. Now, Miss Overstreet, may we hear your testimony?"
Donna rose unsteadily and moved a few steps closer to the judge. She had her back turned to the group, but her shoulders drooped, and Spud had never seen anyone as shook up as she was.
"Just tell us what went on at your house last night," the judge encouraged.
"Sir, I - I can't," Donna faltered, her voice so low she could hardly be heard. She started crying. "I - I don't have any statement." The judge looked sad. He gave her a kind and reassuring look, and his eyes showed he was sympathetic. "Don't be afraid, my child. Just tell us what happened in your own words."
For a moment, it seemed that Donna was gaining courage. Suddenly, she became hysterical and cried out, "I can't! I can't! I don't know any nice words to describe all the ugly things we did!"
"Try," the judge insisted firmly.
In that same weak, scared voice, Donna managed to relate some facts about her home life, and some of her most intimate feelings. "I'm not blaming my mom. It was my fault. But I was always lonely, and I've done things with boys just to feel close to somebody - even for a minute."
At that point, Donna broke down. Anyone should have understood how lonely and mixed-up she was.
"I know I've done wrong," she managed to sob out.
The judge excused her, and she went back and sat down.
Hazel was called up next. The very sight of her frightened Spud. He wanted to grab Frani and beat it out of there. There was no telling what Hazel was going to confess!
Hazel had dressed for the occasion in a simple black dress. She didn't look sexy. Her blonde hair was done up severely in a bun at the back of her neck. Through the cigarette smoke which hovered over the big room, she looked innocent and demure.
"She knows what she's doing!" Spud whispered to Frani. "I bet she's been in a jam like this before!"
She hadn't fooled Spud. And it soon became evident that she hadn't fooled the old judge, either.
While Hazel was being questioned, Spud looked around the room. He located Coach and Jake Sears sitting together near the back of the room. He thought he read sorrow and regret on Coach's face, then wondered if it was just because he wanted it that way. Jake's face, on the other hand, showed no emotion. Spud wondered why he'd ever thought Jake Sears was handsome.
He hadn't realized that the judge had finished with Hazel, that somebody else was standing before him.
Then he heard the judge ask, "You're a neighbor of the Rankins?"
Spud looked. He hadn't known his pop was in the courtroom until that instant.
"Yes, Sir!" his pop said.
"Please give us your observations."
"Well, Mrs. Rankin didn't exactly street-walk, I don't reckon," he began.
Laughter exploded over the room.
The judge rapped to restore order.
"Go on."
"But she sure had a lot of men callers - that is, when her husband was away."
"Can you be more definite? Can you give us some names?"
Spud went weak. He braced himself for his execution, sure his pop would involve him.
"I never made her callers my business. I couldn't say!"
Spud began breathing normally again.
Once more, Donna, a picture of utter dejection, was called up. This time, she lifted her shoulders and looked the judge straight in the face. She didn't whine or beg for mercy, or try to place the blame on somebody else, like Hazel Rankin had. She just told it all as it was, straight from the shoulder.
Spud got the shock of his life when Miss Parks jumped up in Donna's defense. Staring at the judge through her funny glasses, she asked permission to say a few words.
"Permission granted."
Spud could tell that the judge respected Miss Parks.
You could have knocked Spud over with a feather when she declared that Donna was truthful and sweet. She placed the blame for Donna's actions on her mother, on the school, on the entire town. Then she pleaded with the judge, saying she was sure Donna would profit by her mistakes, if given the chance.
And did she impress everybody!
Spud just couldn't believe what followed, when the judge asked, "Provided I can make proper arrangements, would you consent to having this girl put in your custody?"
"Indeed, I would!" Miss Parks said.
A sort of subdued noise went over the courtroom. It sounded like cheering.
Spud stole a glance to see how Donna was taking all this. She was so miserable that Spud figured she didn't care what was happening. Then, all at once, her whole face lit up, and her gaze searched out Miss Parks. Her eyes gave thanks more clearly than words could have.
Miss Parks still had the floor. And, being Miss Parks, she couldn't pass up the opportunity to say something more. "I've been pressured to follow loose school policies, to go against my honest convictions, everything-" she went on.
Now, she glanced at old Rankin, hunkered in his seat. With a weak note of apology, she continued, "A school unit isn't any stronger than its principal, no matter how hard the teachers fry. Oh, I know Mr. Rankin has had many things to contend with, and everybody to please. But you can't head a school by ignoring its problems, or refusing to admit they exist! I believe that much of this nasty scandal had its beginning right in high school!"
Finally, Miss Parks finished. Spud felt she hadn't left a stone unturned, as the saying went. When the meeting was dismissed, he tugged on Frani's arm.
"Frani," he said, "I'd just like to let Miss Parks know I'm on her side!"
"Me, too," Frani answered.
Holding hands, they pushed up the crowded aisle to find Miss Parks.