A Lesson In Trust

The little boy woke suddenly. He desperately needed to pee. He quietly got out of the bed so he wouldn’t wake his friend Mikey. He went into the hall and suddenly couldn’t remember where the bathroom was.

“Please God, help me remember.” the boy prayed, “if I have an accident Daddy will never let me sleep over ever again.” That thought was worse than all the teasing he would get from the kids at school. How would he ever get away from his dad when his father was drunk if he messed up at his first sleepover? Even at six years old the boy had learned that it wasn’t good to be around when his father was drinking the grown-up drinks. The little boy took a deep breath, and then went to a room and opened the door.

The boy only opened the door slightly; just enough to peek in, in case he got the wrong room. He had gotten the wrong room. It was the room of Mikey’s older sister, Katie. The boy looked in and saw Mikey’s father in the room. The boy didn’t really understand what he was seeing, but an instinct told the boy that it was very, very bad. Then he heard Katie crying. The boy wanted to make Mikey’s father stop, but the boy was scared. He closed the door and went back to Mikey’s room. He didn’t have to pee anymore. Suddenly afraid of Mikey’s father, the boy lay awake the rest of the night.

The next morning the boy went home as quickly as he could without arousing suspicion. He hoped he could get home before his father went to work. He didn’t. The boy got home in time to see his father’s car turn the corner at the end of the block. The boy stayed close to home all day in the hopes that his father would come home for lunch or just get off work on time. He wanted to tell his father about what he had seen. In the end his father came home late. The boy should have been asleep when his father finally got home. The boy ran downstairs when he heard his father come in.

“Daddy! You’re home!” the boy cried trying to give his father a hug. The boy’s father pushed the boy away but not before the boy smelled the alcohol on his father. The boy became nervous but pushed on. There was something wrong with Katie; he had to help her.

“Why are you up?” the boy’s father slurred. “Go to bed.”

“Daddy, I have to tell you something. I waited all day. Please!” the boy begged.

“All right. What is it?”

“Daddy, last night at Mikey’s I woke up in the middle of the night and I had to go to the bathroom. But I couldn’t remember which room it was…”

“You didn’t piss yourself did you?” The boy’s father growled.

“No Daddy. But I accidentally went to Katie’s room. Her father was there. They both didn’t have any clothes on and he was laying on top of her and she was crying. Daddy,” the boy whispered, “I think Katie’s father was trying to stick his private thing in her private place.”

“You little pervert!” the boy’s father bellowed smacking the boy across the face hard enough to send the boy half way across the room. “How dare you make up disgusting stories like that?” The man grabbed his son by the arms and shook him violently. He sent the boy to bed and the next morning would whip the boy ferociously for the tale.

The boy was devastated. He knew what he had seen was bad. He was just trying to help the girl. That was why he had told his father. His father was a policeman. He was supposed to make people stop doing bad things. Why wouldn’t his daddy make Mikey’s father stop hurting Katie?

For the next few days all the boy could think about was Katie. He wanted so badly to help her, but he didn’t know how. The boy thought Katie’s father might be hurting her every night. He asked his sister who was the same age as Katie, to ask Katie for a sleepover. If Katie was at the boy’s house, then Katie’s father couldn’t hurt her for one night. The boy’s sister laughed at the boy. She said that the boy liked Katie and wanted Katie to be his girlfriend. Then she made fun of Katie and said that Katie was weird. The boy knew his sister wouldn’t help.

The boy kept trying. When he said his prayers at night he said a silent prayer for God to help Katie. At Sunday school the next weekend he got an idea. God helped people. And preachers worked for God. So maybe if he told his preacher, his preacher could help Katie. The boy was afraid to say something to his preacher that day. The boy’s father was there and the boy did not want to get another beating. On Monday, the boy told his mother that he was riding his bike to his friend Jack’s house. It was three blocks down and around the corner, but the boy was allowed to go there without supervision. When the boy turned the corner, he did not stop and his friend’s house. Instead the boy rode his bike all the way to the church his family went to. It was a very long way. Much farther than the boy thought it was, and for a while the boy thought he was lost, but then he saw it. He parked his bike and went inside.

The boy looked around the empty church. It looked like no one was there. They boy sat down in the front pew and tried to think of what to do. He didn’t think that he could find his way home, but he wasn’t sure if he should wait. He had just decided that he would peek behind the 

altar and see if anyone was there when a man came in a side door. The boy remembered seeing his preacher speaking to the man on Sunday. The man came over to the boy.

“May I help you?” the man asked.

“I’m looking for Rev’rnd Pierce” the boy said.

“He’s on vacation. I’m Reverend Davenport. I’m filling in for him this week. Is there something I can help you with?”

The boy hesitated. He did not know this preacher, but Katie needed help now. The boy thought for another minute.

“You’re a preacher too. So you work for God, like Rev’rnd Pierce?”

“Yes, I guess you could say that.” The man was amused by the boy’s analogy.

The boy took a deep breath and decided to trust the man. He told the man about spending the night at Mikey’s and what he had seen Mikey’s father do to Katie. The boy braced himself to be yelled at, but the man did not yell. Instead he took the boy’s hand, and the boy relaxed.

“Did you like what you saw?” the man asked.

“What?” the boy asked confused.

“Did you like what you saw? When you saw your friend’s father with his sister?” The man took the boy’s hand and placed it on the bottom of his lap. The boy felt something move underneath the man’s pants. The boy became scared. He balled up his fist and hit the man in the crotch. For a boy so small and slight the punch was surprisingly strong. The man doubled over howling in pain as the boy ran from the church.

The boy ran down the sidewalk as fast as he could, completely forgetting his bicycle. He wanted to get as far away from the church and the bad man as he could before the man could come after him. The boy ran blindly tears running down his cheeks. He didn’t know anyone was around until an arm reached down and scooped the boy into the air.

“Where are you going in such a hurry little man?” a voice asked.

The boy struggled to get away as he looked up into the face of a large black policeman. When the boy saw the uniform all the fight the boy had in him evaporated. He knew that he couldn’t fight against a policeman.

“Please don’t take me back there.” The boy begged weakly. “I don’t want to go back to the church.”

“Why don’t you want to back there?” the officer asked but the boy didn’t answer. “Are you supposed to be there?”

The boy looked down at the ground and silently shook his head.

“Then why were you there?” the officer asked. The boy would not answer. The officer walked the boy to a bench and they sat down. “I bet your parents told you that you shouldn’t talk to strangers, and they are right. But it’s ok. I’m a police officer. I help people.”

The boy thought of his father and looked at the officer dubiously.

“Don’t trust cops? That’s ok. I didn’t either when I was a kid. My name is Eddie by the way Officer Eddie Robertson. What’s your name?”

The boy remained silent.

“Stubborn are ya’? That’s ok too. How about we just sit here for a while and you can get used to me. Then when you’re ready you can tell me why you don’t want to go back to that church and maybe why you were there in the first place.”

The boy thought for a long time. Officer Robertson was right. Policemen were supposed to help people. And this man seemed like he wanted to help, but so did the man in the church. The boy was tired and wanted to go home. He looked at the people walking by on the street. Maybe it will be alright because there are other people around, the boy thought.

“I wanted to help Katie,” the boy said softly. “But the filling in preacher made me touch him on his lap.”

Officer Robertson’s eyes darkened with anger. “Son that man will never hurt you of any other child again, I promise you. Now who is Katie and why does she need help?”

And the boy told the officer everything; what he had seen, what had happened when he told his father, why he went to the church. When the boy was finished, he looked up at Officer Robertson. To the boy’s astonishment Officer Robertson did not look angry.

“You did the right thing telling me what happened to your friend’s sister. I’ll make sure Katie is protected. Now how about I take you home?”

The boy was stunned that the policeman believed him, but he nodded his assent to the ride home.

The next Sunday Reverend Pierce was back at church. After church Reverend Pierce greeted parishioners along with Reverend Davenport who was in a wheelchair his face covered with bruises. The boy’s father approached the two ministers.

“Thought you were taking a vacation Reverend Pierce.”

“I was. But I was called back early because Reverend Davenport had an accident and was unable to fill in as planned.”

“An accident huh?” The boy’s father replied skeptically. “What happened to you Rev?”

“I…I fell…down some stairs…” Reverend Davenport stammered, nervously looking away from the boy.

“Looks more like you took a beating to me. You should come down to the precinct, file a report. We don’t take kindly to people that beat up clergy.” The boy’s father said.

“Oh no! I fell down the stairs” Reverend Davenport exclaimed, fear giving his voice more conviction

“Well, if you say so, but if you change your mind”

“I won’t.”

The boy’s family walked away. The boy glanced back once. His eyes met Reverend Davenport’s and the boy saw fear in the man’s eyes. He thought about Officer Robertson and how the officer had promised the boy that he would take care of the Reverend without telling anyone what the Reverend had done to the boy. He wondered if the reverend being hurt was what the policeman had meant.

The next few weeks, the boy saw very little of Mikey. He was never at home. But he did see Katie. The boy’s sister started talking to Katie, and Katie even spent the night at the boy’s house once. Katie said that she and Mikey weren’t living with their mom and dad. They were living with a family called the Foster’s. Katie seemed very happy to be living with the Foster family. A few months later the boy heard his mother say that Mikey’s mother and father weren’t living together any more. Mikey and Katie stopped living with the Foster’s and began living with their mother again. Then Mikey and his family move to Idaho. The boy never saw Mikey or Katie again.

Tom Baldwin woke suddenly from the dream. He sat up and rubbed sleep from his face. He tried to shake the dream but couldn’t. He looked at his wife sleeping peacefully. He pulled the 

blanket up over her and brushed her hair from her face. Silently, he slipped from bed and walked down the hall to another bedroom. He entered the room and walked to the bed. For a moment he watched his child sleep. Then he gently lifted the child out of bed and walked to the rocking chair. He held child close as he rocked, thinking. It had been a very long time since he had dreamed about Mike and Katie Hoffman. He knew why he had dreamed about them tonight. He thought back to earlier in the day. His boss had sent him and his partner to the federal penitentiary. A prisoner, in on federal drug charges had attacked fellow inmates convicted on federal charges of child pornography and pedophilia. The prisoner had killed three pedophiles in front of a half a dozen guards. Tom and his partner were to investigate.

They had taken the inmate’s statement. Tom hadn’t caught the man’s name. He had been on the phone saying he wouldn’t make it for dinner. To the surprise of the agents the prisoner proudly confessed to not only the three killings, but to killing eight more pedophiles. He had snuck out of his cell and killed them at night when they were asleep. Until the inmate confessed the murders had been unsolved. As they were leaving, Tom’s partner said something to him and called him by his first name. The inmate looked up suddenly. Until then the prisoner had only known Tom as “Agent Baldwin”

“Tommy?” The inmate called out. “Tommy Baldwin? Tommy, it’s me Mikey. You lived two houses down from me when we were six. Tommy, please I have to talk to you.”

Tom had stopped and turned back. For the first time he really looked at the man that he had been interviewing. He recognized his old friend.

“Let me back in.” he told the guard. He sat down. “How’s Katie?” Tom asked.

Mikey looked down at the table for a minute. Then he looked up at Tom. “Katie’s dead.” And then Mikey proceeded to tell Tom what he didn’t know; that his parents splitting up had been a ruse to get Katie and Mikey back. His father had moved in again as soon as they had settled in Idaho. When Katie was fifteen she had seen their father looking at their three year old sister, and she knew what was going to happen. But Katie wasn’t going to let it happen.

One night when their mother was working a night shift, Katie called her father and asked him to come home. She locked her sister in the attic, and told her to only come out for a policeman or ambulance man. Mikey was in his room doing homework. Mikey heard his father’s car pull in the drive. Then he heard something click in his door, but didn’t think anything of it. Mikey heard his father’s voice, and then gunshots. He ran to the door and tried to open it, but Katie had locked him in. Then he heard Katie.

“You know what he did to me.” Katie had said. “He was going to do it to the baby. So I had to stop him. This isn’t your fault Mikey. He would have hurt you if you tried to stop him. It has to 

be this way.” She had paused for a long moment and then had quietly said “If you ever see your friend Tommy Baldwin again, tell I said ‘thanks’. Tell him I said ‘I know he tried’. He was really the only one who ever did. I love you Mikey. Tell the kid I love her too.” Then there had been one more gunshot.

“That was why I killed all those pedophiles.” Mikey said when he finished the story. “So they couldn’t get out and hurt another innocent kid. Then today, that first bastard that I killed, he got his hands on a picture of one of his victims and was showing it off to his pedophile buddies. The girl looked like my sister and I just lost it.”

“They may give you the death penalty for this.” Tom said.

“Good. Maybe then the nightmares will go away. Ya’ know I’m glad we moved away. It kept you out of all of this. So you could turn out ok. You’re the only one who knew who did.”

Tom came out of his reverie when the child in his arms shifted. Mike thought that Tom had escaped that summer unscathed, but he hadn’t. He wasn’t nearly as damaged as Mike or Katie had been, and he sent up silent prayer that the youngest sister was safe and happy somewhere. But Tom Baldwin had had his trust shattered that summer so long ago. His relationship with his father had been destroyed and his faith in organized religion was nonexistent. He had learned a lesson in trust that summer, and learned it well. Tom Baldwin trusted no one.