Small town Indiana, USA 

August 2004

 It was a hot summer morning and the sun was already rising brightly over the trees. The air was muggy from overnight thunderstorms with a gentle breeze flowing through with open windows of the house, providing comfort. 

Mom and I were sitting at the kitchen table while I ate before starting the day. She always made me a bowl of hot oatmeal with sugar, butter and milk pooled on top. I scraped the sides of my bowl with my spoon, eating little,  too nervous about the day to eat much. Mom was drinking coffee and looking over the newspaper. “ Why can’t I ride my bike to school?” the first day of school and it was already too hot to stand outside and deal with the school bus, “ I’m almost sixteen years old, why should I ride the bus like a kindergartener?” 

She hummed, not looking up from her paper “ Regardless of your age, it’s because it's not street legal, it’s a dirt bike. I don’t want you getting hurt out there on the road. ” I rolled my eyes just when she looked up, she smiled and poked me in the shoulder with her finger playfully.  “ And… the school is too far away, so get yourself ready to hop on the bus Mister.”

“ Please, can’t you drive me? I don’t want to ride the bus. Please” I whined while getting up, dumping the uneaten portion of my breakfast into the trash and putting my bowl away in the sink. 

Mom wouldn’t hear it, she shook her head without a word, while taking her travel mug in hand and grabbing her purse off the counter. She pulled a lock of her black hair behind her ears, as long as I’d ever known she had long straight black hair, we looked so much alike with our Black Irish descent, the same jet black hair and dark brown eyes, no DNA test needed you could tell I was her baby boy. “ Raleigh, you know I have an appointment in Indianapolis with the lawyers about the adoption. I’m taking off in a few minutes myself. Now remember you are still grounded so don’t make any new girl friends and after school go straight to the store and help your dad.”  I grabbed my new backpack and hung it over one shoulder. Mom came over and smoothed out my wrinkled red t-shirt and fussed with my hair the way moms like to do. “ You’re my special boy, I love you, I just don’t want you getting hurt. You are not replaceable.” 

“I know...” I didn’t like being reminded about the adoption.. The lawyers, being grounded. It stung my ears and my face went hot every time I had to remember how bad I screwed up and I’ll never be allowed to forget it. I kissed mom on the cheek, she meant well and while she was my biggest supporter  I know she was a little sad that I’d made this kind of mistake so early in life.

“ You know, Mom,  I’ll be at the store faster if I can use my bike. Please! I promise I’ll cut through the woods.” 

“Nope! Go on, Rah out the door, the bus will be here soon.” She herded me out the door while grabbing her keys. We stood on the porch as she locked up the house, she went to the station wagon and I went to the road to wait like an idiot for the school bus. My luck was so bad that if I even attempted to go back and take my bike Mom would find out, and I don't want to be grounded for two years, one year is enough. I stood there by the road, kicking rocks and dust dirting my new shoes while waiting at the edge of the road under a canopy of trees. I heard the bus trip was supposed to be longer now because the bus route was larger. A bunch of kids from a small town up the road had to go to the public high school, they were picked up first, I was in the middle of the route. This put me in a spot of having to get up early to wait around, man I hated living in the country! It was fun only when I wanted to camp, or ride my bike around but not when I had to be on the bus an extra hour.

After what felt like an agonizingly long time the bus pulled up and I boarded. Same driver as last year, Ms Daughtry and some of the same faces of kids I knew however in the back of the bus where I liked to sit was  a couple of rows of strangers, had to be the kids from the town up the road, they were dressed all bizarrely like Little house on the prairie characters, in bonnets and straw hats, but also not like the local Amish folks either, they did not wear black, but a kind of meddled gray-blue color, their clothing looked coarse and uncomfortable. Their faces were icy -white pale and their eyes darted around as if in sheer terror of their surroundings and frightened of me coming closer to them, I made it midway through the bus and sat down in an empty seat by a guy I sort of knew. A kid by the name of Tim, he played on the football team last year. Big guy, his face is always ruddy, wore a crew-cut like it was 1956, his hair style hadn’t changed since I’d known him growing up as bus mates. “What’s with the Amish back there?” I asked. 

“ The new kids from that Cult down the road.” He shrugged.

“Cult? No Way! What? You’re joking, right?” I tried not to stare. 

“No, they are some sort of holy roller, snake handler cult. It was on tv and everything!  That's how they got busted and their school was shut down. I heard they, like can’t read or anything, and they weren’t being fed a normal diet either. My folks watched it on Sixty Minutes last month.  Those kids have to have special classes at the high school, they are all teenagers but don’t look it do they? Little blue mushrooms.” I glanced back again. “Look at them, I think they think you’re the devil.” Tim laughed. 

I turned back to him and his stupid smirk. “Why? What’d I do to them?” 

He jabbed a chubby finger at my head. “Because you have natural black hair, they didn’t look as frightened until you got on the bus!” He made devil horns on the top of his head and stuck his tongue out, making a hissing noise, then laughing at me.  

“That’s stupid, I’m going to go talk to them.” The bus stopped to pick up more kids. I took the opportunity to move to a seat in front of the new weird  kids. 

“ Hey Matson, don’t let them invite you to Church!” Tim shouted at me while laughing.  

“ Hi, I’m Raleigh, you guys are new here?”  They lowered their heads, keeping quiet. “Look, I’m not the devil or anything, but it helps to know me, I can help you meet, you know, the other kids in school. People like me, and I use it to help under dogs. What’s your names?” 

One girl lifted her head and quietly said “ Jennifer.” The boy next to her elbowed her in the ribs and the girl beside her shook her head. 

“ Hello, Jennifer.” I stuck my hand out to shake her hand. She timidly accepted and shook my hand lightly, hardly touching me. The girl beside her pulled our hands apart and slapped Jennifer’s hand hard as if she did something wrong. “Hey, don’t hit her, that’s not cool! We don’t do that!” I chastised her. 

“Raleigh!” The bus driver bellowed. 

“Sorry Miss Daughtry!” I replied, then turned back to the kids. “ I-” 

“ Go away!” The older girl hissed. “ Just go back where you came from and leave us alone!”

“Fine, I’m just trying to be nice.” I snarled and left the seat, went back to sit by Tim. “ That was weird.” 

“Told you!” Tim laughed. The bus stopped a few minutes later, and another unfamiliar face came on board. It’s August and this kid was wearing a sweater! He climbed on board and sat behind the driver. “ Don’t do it.” Tim warned me. 

“ Do what?” 

“ Rah, man,  you’re going to befriend all the weirdos on the bus, I swear to God.” 

“ I’m just being friendly, Tim.” Again once the bus stopped to pick up a few more kids I hopped seats to  sit across from the sweater kid. He was small and pale, like the mushroom kids in the back, like them he seemed a little frail. He wore glasses, and his hair was curly on top but closely cut on the sides. His sweater was gray and had a fancy crest stitched on the front, he had a white dress shirt and red tie, he wore gray slacks as well, I realized it appeared to be some sort of school uniform. “Hey, I’m Raleigh, what’s your name?” I stuck out my hand out for him to shake. He turned to me, those glasses were a bit thick, making his blue eyes appear huge. 

 “ Malachy.” He said in this fancy foreign accent like someone on the tv during PBS telethons. “Pleasure to meet you.”  He shook my hand, and then went back to staring straight ahead. 

“Malachy, can I call you Mal? Where are you from?”  

He turned and gave me a dismissive look. “Do you insist on continuing to talk to me? I don’t even know you.” He replied. 

“Come on now, isn’t that how friends are made?” I replied. 

“If you must know, I’m from the South of England.  I’m staying here with my.. Uncle, I wasn’t supposed to go to this school, I was supposed to go to the Catholic Parochial school. However, once we arrived they didn’t have room for me. ” He complained a bit and as he spoke more I caught a slight lispy sound with his accent, and noticed he had a pair of buck teeth like a jackrabbit. 

“This school isn’t so bad, it’s my second year here. I’m the guy to know too, I know everyone and they know me. Stick with me and you’ll have friends in no time.”

“ I don’t want friends.” He grumbled. “My friends are home, not here.” 

“How long are you staying?” I asked, noticing he was a little more upset than complaining, this must have been super overwhelming to go to a foreign school. 

“ As long as my Uncle says we are staying. My Uncle is employed temporarily by the Archdioceses of the area to work with St Margaret Mary’s Church, once he has completed the work we will move on, I should think we won’t be here long.” He explained. 

“ Mal,  I can show you the ropes of life here, make it easier for you, I honestly don’t mind.” The bus jolted to a stop and more kids came through. “ We are all the new kid from time to time, right?” 

“Alright, if you must, I’ll accept your kindness, Raleigh. You can call me Malie, it’s what my friends back home called me.” 

“ Sweet, Malie it is, you can call me ‘Rah’, it’s what they call me, especially my mom. Does it bother you to be away from your Mom and Dad?” I asked. 

“ Not really, but I do miss my siblings Simon and Andy. Do you have any siblings, Raleigh?”

“I’m a soon- to- be - big brother, my folks are adopting a baby in April or May. My mom is thrilled but my Dad isn’t, he wasn’t expecting fatherhood again since I’m kind of  almost an adult, you know? I guess I’ll learn about having  a baby brother or sister soon.” I rambled, I realized I was rambling on because I was lying, I wasn’t a big brother I was a father, the baby was mine and the mother was a girl I met at Church camp this summer. My folks were adopting the baby. I just couldn’t stop nervously rambling. 

 “Well I can tell you  little brothers can be the worst  pests. But, I do miss that. It’s lonely at my Uncle’s house, it’s big and drafty, and I can hear some kind of animals in the wall chattering all night.”

“Oh, sounds like bats, they won’t hurt you as long as they don’t get into the house. You only got to worry because some carry rabies, you don’t want to get bit. Where do you live?” 

 “ It’s the rectory of the Old Saint Margaret Mary's, the site of the original church and graveyard property.” 

“Spooky! Can I go out there on Halloween? I’ve always wanted to run around a cemetery on halloween. My dad when he was a teenager he and his friends would run around there scaring each other . ” 

“ Old churchyards and graves are frightening! You should be scared of that. They can be dangerous.” He warned. 

“Why? It’s just old bones and dirt.” I shrugged. 

“Not always.” He replied cryptically with a finger wag. 

To be continued.