Higher Ground – Ten Year Reunion
Chapter 1 – The Scary One
"You never figured it out, did you," asked Josh. In all the years Peter had been at Horizon no student had been harder to reach than Josh. The nine years he'd had Josh were the oddest of his life. The counselors and teachers would call him "the scary one" behind his back. When he was four, Josh had walked into the kitchen during dinner to get more water, he came back to the table with a filleting knife which he stabbed into his older sister's throat right in front of his parents. He had walked right up behind her, pulled her chair and her along with it and stabbed her in one side of her neck and out the other. After that, they never wanted anything to do with him.
The court system wasn't sure what to do to him either. You can't give a lengthy sentence to a four year old, but the nature of his action was so atypical that a psychiatrist was called in to do an evaluation. Her diagnosis was that Josh was highly intelligent, with an IQ of 200+ and a photographic memory to boot, had markers indicative of sociopathy (though the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM claimed that sociopathy was not applicable to children) and that he killed his sister because she was, based on the description given by him, likely cursed with the same tendencies.
The problem became what to do with him. At first they tried juvenile detention, which proved to be the worst place for him to be. He put two teenagers who were the rival leaders of his wing in the hospital by getting to them in their beds while they slept on the same night. They tried to put him in a psychiatric hospital where he stayed until he was seven. He broke out three times in the two years of his hospitalization.
His schooling had been put on hold in his years at the hospital and when the doctors pronounced him unfit for the hospital, the court decided to call Horizon. At seven, he was the youngest student by far, but he went from what would best be described as Kindergarten to Sixth Grade by the time he was eleven. At fifteen he had graduated, but as a minor, he was stuck there. Peter always thought he could get to Josh, but Josh always got to him. He'd been the first person to tell him that he and Sophie should get together. When he was sixteen he left. Peter knew he needed structure and discipline. He had been hiking through the woods for almost nine years when he left. The Marines seemed like a good fit for him at the time, but were scary for what they would teach him.
When he left, Sophie was gone and Kat, Shelby and Auggie were there, the rest of the people he was meeting at the tenth anniversary of his wedding Sophie were new to him. Peter always had to be aware of this when he spoke to Josh in the cabin by the fireplace in the quasi-group atmosphere the adults had.
"What didn't I figure out," asked Peter knowing that the only times you learned things about how Josh thought were when he waxed philosophical, which always bordered on showing off. What side of the border he was on always depended on his mood, or in his case, his adrenal level.
"There are no innocent here, not in this place. There never have been. You look at everyone as an innocent child who was broken and can be fixed. Whatever innocence we all had was gone long before we got to you. You seek to restore that which is broken and you will never achieve that. You can glue the vase back together again, but it always will have been broken. Even the children here, the ones you see outside, brought by some of the people at this gathering are not pure. They carry within them our legacy. All organisms are imperfect, so too are their offspring," says Josh.
"You're saying you were broken," says Shelby with incredulity.
"You never understood me did you Shel. I'll tell you what Peter never truly wanted to grasp. I was never broken. I was warped. I was born warped, and I will die warped. I was never innocent, not in the way the rest of you were. I do not seek nor ask forgiveness for what I have done, nor what I am doing or will do. I feel nothing because I've always felt nothing. That's what you never understood. I've always mimicked people back to people and they mistake me for one of them. That's why those of you who know me were always surprised by my insights. I read you as if you were the alphabet. You pose no problems for my understanding. That's why the first day I met you I knew what was wrong with you Shel," says Josh.
"What did he say to you," asks Scott, his left hand reaching over to hers with the matching wedding bands.
"The first day he ever met me, he asked me if the abuse was physical, sexual or both," she says.
"Don't talk to my wife like that," says Scott almost standing up but hesitating in a slightly crouched position.
"What have you been up to Josh," asks Peter.
"You know where I went Peter. I've been with the same employer in a different branch for the last few years. I like it. I get to work alone a lot these days. My bosses send me out to troubleshoot mostly," says Josh.
"What do you mean," asks Peter.
"I mostly go out and track down problems at their source and put an end to them," says Josh.
"A little bit more vague please," says Daisy.
"I didn't come here to talk about me or celebrate an anniversary or sit in this makeshift group for the last several hours. Also, Daisy, more vague is grammatically incorrect. Use vaguer next time," says Josh.
"Then why are you here," asks Peter.
"Taxes, when last I checked, you turned this place into a non-profit foundation Peter. I'm here about giving you money," says Josh.
"Why is that," asks Peter.
"You took me in when you didn't have to and kept me longer than you needed. You'll provide me with a good tax write-off this year and after that if I need it. If I should happen to pass on, you get the lot. It's hardly a bad deal," says Josh.
"I'm sensing a catch Josh. With you there's always a catch," says Peter.
"There is actually. I'd like to take the opportunity to improve your students' language skills. You have to add an instructor of a foreign language of my choosing. Nothing too radical, I was thinking Latin or Classical Greek. That's my caveat for getting the lot," says Josh.
"Do I have to decide now," asks Peter.
"No. I put it in my will, so the decision doesn't have to be made until I die," says Josh.
"How much am I getting this year. Just so I know," asks Peter.
"It's in the tens-of-thousands. I actually have the check with me," says Josh.
"How do you need to write-off that much," asks Peter knowing enough about Josh's employer to know he wasn't making that kind of money on his own.
"I've saved and more importantly invested very wisely," says Josh.
"Perhaps we should go to my office," says Peter. He stands, turns to walk off, but cocks his head back at the group and says, "I think this group's at an end. Why don't we bring the rest of your guests and the students who are here for the summer in and make this more casual." Judging by his tone, everyone present knew it was the signal their makeshift group was at an end.
Josh gets up and follows. As everyone watches, Sophie waits until they both make it out of the room and says,
"I know what you're all going to ask. Don't even try. Josh is best compared to Nietzsche's abyss. You stare at him and he stares back at you. Trust me, you don't want that."
"What if we do," asks Scott.
"Then you are making a mistake. Scott, you think football made you tough. Your years in the NFL were enough for you and Shelby to have a nice future. Don't blow it by making that man your enemy. Peter is the closest thing to family he has and he just shows up out of the blue after twelve years with no contact," says Sophie.
"Let's bring in the families. I could use something more cheerful after that," says Juliet. The group assents and goes to get their significant others.
Chapter 2 – Where Everyone's Been