The sound of a key turning inside a lock jolted Justin out of his head. The front door to the apartment swung open and a high-pitched female voice thundered.
“Justin, I’m home!”
“Damn!” Justin whispered, his face decomposing noticeably. “It’s my mom…Hurry guys; we’ve got to lose all this crap!”
He jumped to where the adult magazines were bulked up on the floor, and with Tobey and Stephen’s help, began hurling them under the bed with mad haste. Kane fumbled for the one he’d dropped on Justin’s bed. It was shrouded in the blanket. Flinging the blanket off, he got to the magazine and ditched it under the bed with the others.
By the time Mrs. Delacroix appeared in the doorway to Justin’s bedroom, all the adult materials, hard evidence of the boys’ guilt trip, were out of sight. And once again, the veil of innocence had crept back over their faces. How could anyone doubt their purity of mind?
“There you are –– Oh…” Mrs. Delacroix said, standing in the door. She gave a warm smile to her son’s company, “How do you guys do?”
Save for Justin, they all replied at the same time, putting on their most respectable and well-mannered guises. Then, Stephen felt compelled to add, “You really look great, ma’ am!”
To be exact, he was thinking how sexy Mrs. Delacroix was in her nice patterned warp dress, with her shoulder-length hair and her jade-hued eyes. He was definitely looking forward to a wife like her when he grew old.
“Oh,” Mrs. Delacroix blushed, running her fingers through her hair. “That’s very sweet of you.”
“What’s up, Mom?” Justin broke in. He was rather irritated to see his mother accept a compliment from his two-bit friend, after the latter had compared her to a slut.
“I have a number of grocery bags in the car. I could use a hand.” Looking at the visitors’ faces, she added, “You boys mind helping out?”
“It’ll be a pleasure,” Tobey said, finally getting to his feet.
He needed some exercise since he’d virtually sat in the same position throughout their whole conversation.
Damn it! Justin thought, clenching his teeth. He was the first to notice and immediately felt a knot in his stomach. Tobey had forgotten to toss under the bed the magazine he’d been sitting on. So when he stood completely up, Justin along with Kane and Stephen, realized the blunder.
“What’s that?” Mrs. Delacroix asked, her eyes squinting.
The obscene photo on the magazine cover was showy. It amply showcased its adult-oriented content. On her left temple, two or three veins began to throb as she started realizing what the boys had been doing.
Her discovery was disconcerting, though it didn’t come off as a shocker. Her son and his friends were of that age when boys gradually become self-learned on all matters of taboo topics, mostly to satisfy their curiosity, but truly because their minds and bodies demanded it. Mrs. Delacroix reached down for the erotic magazine, opened it up, and sighed heavily.
During the strained silence that ensued, the boys’ eyes actively sent distress signals to one another. Apparently, the general decoded consensus was for Justin to do something. But what could he do?
“Which one of you little devils desecrated my house with this nonsense?” Mrs. Delacroix finally asked.
They all looked down silently, their mouths nipped shut. They all knew the score. No squealer was allowed in their rank. Ratting out a comrade was punishable with a penalty of temporary social banishment. That was the rule.
“Well?” Mrs. Delacroix stuck her long fingers around her waist, waiting for an answer that would likely never come. “Alright… if no one’s gonna own up, you can all kiss it good-bye then. Now go get the bags!”
The boys began filing out of the bedroom like unruly students coming out of the principal’s office on their way to serve a long detention. Justin was closing the march.
“Justin,” Mrs. Delacroix called.
The others stopped the march halfway across the little hallway, but Justin signaled them to continue on. He then forced himself to look directly into his mother’s eyes. They were not really mad, only baleful.
Mrs. Delacroix stepped closer to him, leaned forward, and held up the magazine in front of him.
“I am very disappointed!” She said earnestly. There was no change in her usual, chiming tone. “This –– This is not good for you. This will only distort the way you view certain things, you understand?”
Justin gave her a poor little-boy nod. He just wanted to get the lecture over with. His mother said again, “Listen, I know you’re –– ahem –– you’ve grown. Your sensibility is changing. You’re starting to maybe feel things, desires and stuff that boys your age usually tend to feel. And it’s totally okay. But I just don’t want you to fill your head with this kind of stuff, alright?”
She straightened back up, rolling her eyes to the ceiling.
“It’s really with your father that you should be having this conversation.”
She sighed again, and all dimples of scolding melted away from her face. She was his gentle, lovely mother again. She looked at him and sort of smiled.
“Please don’t change too much, okay?” she said, tousling his hair. “Can’t you stay my little boy for a little while longer, hmm? Can you do that for mommy?”
He didn’t like it when she talked down to him like that; as if he was still three years old.
He said just above a whisper, “Yes, Mom…” Whether he meant it or not, he didn’t know.
“Then, promise me you’ll stay away from these things,” she was holding up the erotic magazine again. “At least until you’re – I don’t know – fifty years old…”
“I promise.”
She gave him a kiss on the forehead. “Alright… Now go.”
And he went. As he crossed the living room to the front door, Justin promised himself to find a better hiding place (maybe outside the apartment) to secure the rest of the magazines. He also felt sorry that his mother had to find out about his vice like that. It must have been very embarrassing for her. And because he couldn’t help it, Justin found that amusing. Yeah – very amusing…
As Justin was heading downstairs and out to his mom’s car, I broke away from him and slid along the banister up the stairs. I was going to see about the young couple occupying apartment 306: Greco Barnett and Suzy McCorkle.
However, something interesting was going down downtown. Something that would impact significantly (and in an unforeseen way) on the course of the day.
Chapter VI
PANIC IN A CAB…
A SHOCK FOR THE EYES TO BEAR