Chapter 3 (Joe)
I eventually found my way to Chapman's office and rapped on the door. A voice from inside told me to come in so I did, very slowly. Chapman was sitting at his desk looking up from some papers he had apparently been reading when I knocked.
"Joseph?"
"Yes sir." Lee's words were ringing in my ears. Be careful. No problem. He gave me the creeps anyway.
"Well sit down."
I did so. It was like I was walking on eggshells. None of the headmasters at my other schools had welcomed me so personally. And why didn't he want to see me before he had seen my word on the blackboard? Freaky.
"Welcome to the school Joseph." I nodded my acknowledgement. "I was in your English class earlier. What was that word on the blackboard? Was it yours?"
"Yes sir."
"Interesting. What does it mean?"
"I'm not sure sir. I made it up."
"Come on Joseph. It must have meant something." Why was he acting so interested in that word? What did it mean? Everyone wanted to know about that damned word.
I asked a question. "Why is it so important?"
"It's not particularly. It's just very imaginative."
"It's only five letters long. A string of five letters. What's so imaginative about that?"
"It has a certain ring to it. Yeerk." He tried the word out. There was a look on his face that I couldn't quite place. A look between contempt and curiosity. Like he knew something I didn't. I hate not knowing things. Maybe I'm nosy; I'll admit it. I just hate somebody else knowing more about something than I do.
There was a pause, before Chapman tried a different tack. "Have you heard about the Sharing?"
"Umm, no. I just moved in yesterday. I haven't had a chance to explore much yet."
"You should look it up. It may interest you." He glanced absently at his watch and then started. "I've kept you here ten minutes. You should get to your next lesson. If you hurry you shouldn't be late."
I got up to leave. Just as I was about to open the door Chapman spoke. "Joseph?"
I turned to face him. "You have any problems you should come to me all right?"
I nodded. What else was I supposed to do? Tell him no? I thankfully slid out of his office and headed in the direction which, I hoped, my next lesson was.
Having no homework to do, I occupied myself at home by playing on my computer. BAM! BAM! An alien's head popped off and I got into the control room. Input information from the main computer into the laptop. A few seconds. I turned to leave and this huge alien was blocking the way. I brought up my inventory and found I didn't have a rocket launcher. Damn!
"Joey!"
"What Mom?" I was sitting wondering how I was going top pop the alien's head off now. My best chance would be the three grenades I still had from the last boss. The alien glared at me from the pause screen. One minute Mr. Alien. Then I'll splatter your guts across this control room, I promised him. Mom still hadn't shouted back to me. "Mom?"
"Joe? Could you come down here a minute?"
"But Mom," I whined. "I'm busy!"
"Joseph!" Argh! My full name! "Get your rear in gear and down these stairs little man! Now!"
Sighing, I put the control pad on my bed. I glanced at the paused computer screen. I'll have you later. I promised the green thing on the screen. Then I trudged down the stairs.
"What have I done now?" I asked. When I turned the corner at the bottom of the staircase, I found out.
Two policemen were standing with my Mom. Their badges read Jones and Smith. Mom put her hands on her hips. "That's what I'd like to know."
I gulped. This was bad. This was very bad. I hadn't even been here a day and already I had the police force down my neck.
Jones turned to me. If it he hadn't been a policeman I would have laughed at him. He wasn't any taller than me and his neck had disappeared under a roll of flab coming down from his chin. He was balding and what hair he had left was grey – or white. "Do you know what we're here for Joseph?"
I shook my head and answered truthfully. "No idea."
Smith spoke next. He was in better shape than Jones, tall a little skinny and a bush of blond hair. "There's a little newsagent in the mall. Do you know it?"
I nodded. I had to pass through on my way home this evening. I'd even stopped in to buy a bar of chocolate.
"Someone shoplifted that shop this evening Joseph. Did you go in at all?"
"Yeah. In, got a bar of chocolate, out again. No more than five minutes at most."
"They caught a boy, like yourself, on the security camera taking a few bars of chocolate. We think that was you."
Mom's cry of Joe! And my yelp of I didn't do it! Came simultaneously. Mom looked disgusted. At the policemen or me I couldn't really tell.
"I didn't do it Mom," I repeated quietly. I'm not sure if she actually believed me. But the words Uh-oh passed through my mind as she turned her gaze from me towards the policemen. They'd better be good at avoiding plates.
"How dare you," she seethed quietly, "come into my home and accuse my son of something you have no proof of." Her cheeks were red, almost matching her hair. I don't have my mother's hair, mine's a mousy brown colour, like my Dad. I've got my mother's blue eyes though. And right now, her eyes were an insanely intense blue.
"We aren't accusing anybody yet ma'am." Jones tipped his hat to Mom. "We just want Joe to come…"
"Joseph," I growled. If they wanted to pin a crime on me they could at least call me by my name.
"Okay. We want Joseph to come down to the station for questioning. Nothing serious, just where he was and so on."
"Well he can't. I've got to wait in for my son."
Chance, the brat in training, had been living here for a while longer than I had. Dad had moved up here while Mom and me stayed put. House hunting had been going on apparently. Chance was already enrolled in school when I got here, and today had been his class field trip. Dad was out and Mom was waiting in for him.
"I'm sure Joseph will be fine on his own. We won't keep him for long." I could have sworn I saw a glint in Smith's eyes when he said that. 'Why' was the key question.
"You'll be okay Joe?"
I shrugged. "I guess. If it lets me clear this thing up." The truth was, I was terrified of going anywhere with these cops. I just didn't trust them.
Mom nodded her assent, and I walked out to the squad car with Smith on my left and Jones on my right. As though they were guarding me. As though they didn't want me getting away.
As I stooped to get into the back, Jones put a hand to guide my head into the car. Like they did with convicts. I sat in the car. A leathery smell rose up to greet me. There were bars separating me from them. I definitely felt like a prisoner now. There was no way out, and I was at the complete mercy of these cops.
So we drove off, me in the back feeling like a prisoner.