Chapter Four – Consequences
For Travis Bagwell nothing had changed. He still wanted the best for his son, he still expected him to work hard and achieve the grandest of all ambitions. He did not see his occasional visits to Theodore's bedroom as wrong mainly because he didn't think about them too much. This was the absolute opposite to Theodore, of course, who found it difficult to think about anything else. The secret knowledge he had to carry around was like poison. Bit by bit it ate away at the good parts of him until he felt as if he was a coin with one side burnt black. He found it impossible to commit to his school work, all he saw when he looked at those words on the page was his father. As his grades plummeted, his behaviour outside of school worsened too. Thieving was added to his repertoire and he discovered he had quite a talent for making things disappear but the rush of adrenaline this provided did nothing to assuage his feelings of outrage and shame so he continued to seek new outlets.
The idea came to him when Rowdy, the neighbour's huge tabby cat, came sniffing around while Theodore was sitting out back. He was supposed to be at school but he had taken to playing truant. There didn't seem much point in going to school if he didn't intend to do the work once he got there, besides most of his friends had either given up entirely or missed so many classes that they might as well have dropped out. He hoped one of the teachers would ring home to report his absence, Audrey knew he wasn't where he was supposed to be but she was no use, he needed someone to tell his father that he was skipping school. When Travis was angry, and he would be furious, there was no chance he would be in the mood for anything more than slapping him around. Being hit he could take. Rowdy meiowed in a suspicious sort of way, his green eyes narrowed as if he could see what everyone else had missed. Theodore, who had always liked Rowdy, tempted the creature closer until he was within reach. Rowdy hated being held, he squirmed in Theodore's arms, claws ripping through his clothes, but Theodore did not let go. By the time he was finished with him, the cat was in pieces.
Travis couldn't understand it. Theodore was refusing to attend school, he was out until the early hours, he was often chased home by sirens and had twice been accompanied home by police escort. Pets were disappearing from the neighbourhood and the finger of blame had been pointed firmly in Theodore's direction. He denied all involvement, of course, if he bothered to speak at all. He had taken to collecting knives, Travis had found a whole stash of them under his bed, some of them with extravagant price labels still attached. Seeing his plan hanging by a thread, Travis shouted, he threatened, he got physical, but Theodore was frighteningly contained. Once Travis could have sworn that Theodore had been about to strike him back, the moment had passed but Travis had been so shaken that he had disappeared to the same bar his father had so often frequented to recover. He had returned to find Audrey crying and Theodore missing.
Mrs Fiona Ryan had seen it before. Talented, bright young things full of promise falling in with the wrong crowd and throwing it all away but it was always upsetting to witness. Theodore Bagwell had gone from a hardworking, high achieving student to a sullen, volatile truant almost overnight. He had taken to picking fights at every opportunity and he didn't seem to care whether he won or lost. Fiona had tried to talk to him but far from appreciating the effort Theodore had glared at her as if she was the enemy. Desperate to try and get through to him Fiona tried to schedule weekly meetings but Theodore refused to turn up. Her next step was to phone home and organise a meeting with his father. This turned out to be a mistake.
It turned out that the Bagwells' didn't have a phone line so the next day on her way home Fiona parked her car in the street and walked the short path to the front door. Her husband hated her working in such a rough neighbourhood. Periodically he would search for vacancies in schools in nicer areas and leave the results on her latest pile of marking but Fiona knew the situation at Grove High was precarious. Teachers rarely lasted a full year. There was only so much tyre slashing, bad mouthing and threats that people could take. Fiona felt she had a responsibility to stay, try and help.
The door was opened by a stooped woman with unwashed hair and wide staring eyes that alighted on her visitor only briefly. Fiona guessed that she was looking at Theodore's mother.
"Hello, I'm Fiona Ryan, Theodore's teacher. I was hoping to have a word about his…" Her voice trailed away. Audrey had moved aside slightly, her agitation painfully clear. Behind her stood Theodore, his features obscured by shadows but Fiona knew he was staring right at her. In his hand he held a six inch knife which glinted ominously in the light. Fiona backed down the path, her car keys already in her hand. The next day she handed in her resignation letter. Her husband cracked open a bottle of champagne.
As it happened, Mrs Ryan misinterpreted Theodore's chilling appearance. True, he had intended to use the knife but not on a person and certainly not on the teacher he had hoped would bring his father's wrath down upon him once more. He was angry though, she was right about that, angry that she had got the timing wrong and arrived before Travis got home from work, angry that once again someone who could have helped him had let him down, angry that he had to rely on other people at all. If it hadn't been Mrs Ryan it would have been someone else but it made sense for the police to consider it a deliberate, personal attack, that way he got the maximum possible sentence when he finally went to trial but that was later, several tortured pets and two rapes later.
Theodore decided he had to do something. There was something cathartic about planning something so destructive. He thought about involving his friends, or at least a select few of them, but as he got deeper into the planning he found he didn't want to share his moment with anyone. Besides, it would come to everyone's attention soon enough. Theodore never seriously considered the consequences of his actions. The only thing he cared about was ensuring that his father remained angry for long enough that he would be left the hell alone. And it was beautiful, those bright, orange flames climbing ever higher against the navy blue sky. Even when the sirens started shrieking towards him Theodore stayed watching his handiwork. He saw Mrs Ryan emerge from the house, one arm holding a baby to her chest, another clamped tightly around a toddler. She was screaming. Theodore wondered impassively whether someone was trapped inside but moments later a man he took to be Mr Ryan emerged shepherding two more children. Out of harms way, Mr Ryan put his arms around his family, enclosing them in a cage of his love. Only then did Theodore turn away.
Theodore became a hero and a villain on that day. The police had evidence enough to convict him promising him a none too brief stay in juvenile detention which instantly made him the leader of the petty crooks that he called friends but their respect and adulation could not touch him. There was only one person's reaction he cared about and Travis did not disappoint. Theodore actually thought Travis might kill him this time. He looked crazed, deranged in the way people were supposed to look before they set fire to someone's house or tortured someone's pet cat to death. Audrey saw the look too and threw herself in front of Theodore in an effort to protect him, the only truly motherly act Theodore could remember of her, but he didn't want her help, it was too late for that now. He glared at his father over Audrey's shoulder challenging him. Travis had stared back, fury turning to grief.
"How could you do this to me?" he asked, his voice shaking. Theodore might have asked him the same question.
