The Witness
Chapter 26
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Well, it was a new week, the beginning of the week. The day that Cole was to start school. He'd met Emily over the weekend and she was okay. Cole could tell that she was being forced by Mrs. Yokas to be friendly with him. He'd let her know as soon as they got to school that she could ditch him if she wanted; that he'd be okay on his own.
"Ready?" Bosco asked him as there was a knock on the front door. "That must be Faith and Emily."
"Um, yeah," Cole answered, the butterflies in his stomach intensifying. Bosco opened the door and Faith and Emily came in.
"Hey, Cole," Emily said with a smile.
"Hey, Emily," he answered.
"You ready?"
"Yup. Let me grab my book bag," Cole said, standing up and grabbing his stuff.
"Have a great day," Bosco said to the two as they opened the door. "Don't forget Rose is gonna pick you up at school and bring you over to the center. If you need anything, I've always got my cell phone with me and I'll be home right after work."
"Okay. See you later," Cole said, somewhat embarrassed at Bosco's hovering over him. He was annoyed by it, but he was amused too. Bosco wasn't sure what HE was supposed to do and Cole wasn't sure what HE was supposed to do, so it was kind of comical. He had to hide his smirk as he saw Faith reach out and grab his arm, pulling him away from the door so Cole could leave with some dignity.
"Bye, Em," Faith called after her daughter.
"Bye, Mom," she said without looking back. Faith thought she saw the two kids roll their eyes as they closed the door.
"What was that for?" Bosco asked her, referring to her pulling his arm.
"You were smothering him," Faith said. "Kids that age don't want to have their parents hovering so much. He'll be fine. Emily will make sure," she assured him.
"Yeah, well. I'm still new at this," Bosco said in his own defense.
"No problem. I'm not and I still don't have all the answers," she said, winking at him. "Okay, so I'll see you at work later, right?"
"Right. Thanks Faith, for all your help," Bosco said as he walked her to the door.
"Anytime, Bos. Don't hesitate. You're doing a great thing. How's Katy doing?" Faith asked.
"Pretty good, actually. She's gonna go back to work today. She's still a little sore, but the bruising is all gone so she feels better about going outside," he told her.
"Good. No more problems on the gang front?" she asked.
"Not so far. The detectives are still trying to track down that girl from the hospital parking lot. They still think she's the one that called Cole at the rehab center Upstate," he told her.
"Cole's still not talking about that?"
"No. I think he's afraid whoever it was will pay the price from Raven's boys if he finds out about it," Bosco explained.
"Okay. We'll I'll see you later then," Faith said, walking out the door.
Bosco closed the door behind her and took a deep breath. "Finally, some alone time," he thought to himself. This was going to take some getting used to.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Cole made it through the day, getting the usual stares from the kids for being the "new kid." He told Emily she could ditch him if she wanted, but she said she didn't want to - that he was cool. Luckily, hey had lunch scheduled at the same time so he had someone to sit with and she introduced him to a bunch of her friends. They didn't give him the look like they knew what had happened to him, and for that he was grateful. If he became good friends with any of them, he was sure he'd eventually tell them, but for right now it was no one's business.
He walked out the front door of the school and saw Rose Boscorelli standing there waiting for him. Bosco was right - she was eccentric and a little cooky, but she was cool. He walked over to her.
"Hi, Mrs. Boscorelli," he said to her.
"What? Who's that?" she teased him. "What'd I tell you to call me," she said with a smirk.
"Oh, uh, sorry. Rose," he answered.
"Alright then. Are you ready to go?" she asked leading him over to her car. He nodded and she stopped and turned. "So, did school go okay today?"
"Yeah, it did. Not as bad as I thought it was gonna be," he answered. "She's easy to talk to," Cole thought to himself.
"Good. Okay, I'd let you drive, but Maurice told me that he was the only one that could teach you - or at least that I couldn't," she said, tapping the fender of her car where the large dent was. "He thinks I could learn a thing or two about driving, apparently," she joked, making Cole chuckle.
Rose drove to the center and parked the car. "I'm gonna come in with you, okay?" she asked him.
"Uh, I guess so," he replied.
"Just for the first time at least. In case they need anything signed and to find out exactly where you need to go. Then, if you don't want me to, I'll just drop you off after that, okay?" she said.
"Sure," Cole replied as they both got out of the car and walked into the building.
They room was full of kids the same age as Cole and he looked around to see if he knew anyone - hoping that he didn't. So far, no one looked familiar. Rose walked over to the desk and spoke with the man sitting there. After a moment, she called Cole over.
"Hi, Cole. I'm Joseph. Good to meet you," replied the man, extending his hand for Cole to shake. Cole shook his hand and said, "Hi. I'm Cole Taylor."
Joseph held up his hand and said, "From now on, first names only. We have your full name in the file, but there's no reason for everyone to know - unless you want them to. Why don't you come with me and I'll show you around and explain a few things. I'll be your counselor here at the center, so if there's anything you need or if you have questions, or if you just want to talk - about anything - I'm here for you. Okay?"
Cole shook his head and looked over at Rose. "I'll pick you up at 8:00, okay?" Cole nodded and said goodbye.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Rose was back at work and her phone rang. "Hello?"
"Hi, Ma. How'd it go?" Bosco asked her.
"Hi Maurice. It went okay. He said he had a good day at school and I went into the center with him to make sure that he got settled okay. His counselor's name is Joseph and he seems like a nice guy. He was being introduced to some of the other kids his age as I was leaving. I have to pick him up at 8:00," she reported.
"Great. He seemed okay? Not depressed or nervous or anything?" Bosco asked her.
"He seemed good, Maurice. We talked a little bit on the way over. He said that he liked his school so far. None of the kids gave him a hard time and that Emily's friends were nice."
"Good. Faith will be glad to hear that," Bosco said and Rose heard Faith in the background say, "Faith will be glad to hear what?"
"That Emily has nice friends," Bosco told Faith. "Oh," Rose heard Faith say.
"So, are you sure you don't mind picking him up every night?" Bosco asked, worried that he was making life difficult for his mother who was trying to run a business - primarily a nighttime business.
"Not at all. Things don't really get hopping around here until 11:30 anyway and you'll be home by then. Carrie can keep things under control between 8:00 and then," Rose said, referring to one of her best bartenders.
"Thanks, Ma. It won't be forever. As he makes progress in the program, he'll be able to do more stuff at school after hours and then he can hang out at your apartment upstairs until I get off work," Bosco told her.
"Don't worry about it, Maurice. He seems like a great kid, but I'll just bring him to your place every time. That way he'll get a better sense of being 'home,'" she said, looking at her watch. "Well, I better head over there. I don't want to be late picking him up.
"Okay. Ask him to give me a call later so I can talk to him before he goes to sleep. That's the only thing I hate - getting home after he's asleep in case he needs to talk about something," Bosco said.
"Well, you're there every morning for him and the nights you're off work. He'll be fine. He's got a good network of support between you, Faith, Me, the center and the friends he'll be making at school," Rose said. "I'll see you when you get home tonight," she said, hanging up the phone.
"Carrie. I'm gonna go pick up Cole. I'll be at Maurice's if you need me," she called to the bartender.
"Okay, Rose. Don't worry. I'll hold the fort," Carrie called to her.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Rose picked Cole up and he seemed a little quiet. "How'd everything go tonight?" she asked him cautiously, trying not to push. "Only if you want to tell me, though," she quickly added.
"It went okay. There's a lot of kids there that were in the same boat as me. It's pretty sad," he said, somewhat subdued.
"Yeah. But they're getting the help they need - just like you. So, what d'you want for a snack? I'm gonna stop at the grocery on the corner because I need some milk, coffee and bread at home. You ate dinner at the center, right?" she asked.
Cole nodded. "I'm not really hungry. I've got some homework left and then I'm gonna go to bed, I think. I'm really beat," he said.
"Well, that's not surprising. You had a pretty full day," Rose said as she looked for a parking space near the store, without luck.
"I'll go in for you if you want to just circle the block," Cole offered.
"Okay. If you don't mind," she said. She fished into her purse and handed him a twenty dollar bill. "Half a gallon of skim milk, a can of coffee - not decaf - and a loaf of wheat bread, okay?"
"Got it," he said, getting out of the car and heading into the store.
Rose circled the block a couple of times and came back around again to find Cole standing outside waiting for her with the bag of groceries in his hand. She pulled up and he got in.
"Get everything?" she said.
"Yup. You said NOT decaf right?"
"Definitely. You don't survive working all night on decaf," she joked.
"Here's you change," he said, handing her the wadded up change and watching as she shoved it into her pocket without checking how much was there.
They got home and Rose made him a sandwich despite him saying that he wasn't very hungry. He ate half and Rose at the other half.
He'd finished up the last of his homework and was watching television when Rose called to him from the kitchen. "Cole, I forgot. Maurice wants you to call him on his cell. He wants to talk to you before you turn in," she told him.
"Okay," he said, getting up and getting the phone. He dialed Bosco's number and it was answered on the third ring.
"Boscorelli," Bosco answered.
"Hey Bosco. It's Cole. You wanted me to call you?" he said, hearing the sound of the siren in the background.
"Cole. Hi. How was your day?" Bosco asked over the sound of the siren.
"It was okay. Shouldn't you be keeping both hands on the wheel if you're driving with the siren on?" he said into the phone.
"Faith's driving - and like an old lady I might add," he said, loud enough that Faith could hear him.
"I heard that!" Cole heard Faith say in the background and laughed.
"I just wanted to talk to you before you turned in. Everything okay?" Bosco asked him.
"Yeah. Everything went pretty good today," Cole said.
"Okay. I'll talk to you in the morning then. I'll check in on you when I get home," he said. "I've gotta go for now," he said, hanging up the phone.
"Oka...," Cole was cut off by the dial tone in his ear. He hung up the phone and stretched. "I'm gonna take a shower and go to bed," he told Rose.
"Okay. G'night, Cole," she said to him.
"Thanks, Rose," he said to her with a smile and then walked down the hallway.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Cole walked into his room and started to get undressed. He took off his shirt and noticed the item that he'd bought with Rose's money still tucked into his waistband of his pants. He pulled out the small bottle of vodka and held it up. He started to unscrew the cap, but stopped. He took a deep breath and shoved the bottle in the bottom of his top drawer, out of sight - winning out over the urge for now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TBC...
Chapter 26
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, it was a new week, the beginning of the week. The day that Cole was to start school. He'd met Emily over the weekend and she was okay. Cole could tell that she was being forced by Mrs. Yokas to be friendly with him. He'd let her know as soon as they got to school that she could ditch him if she wanted; that he'd be okay on his own.
"Ready?" Bosco asked him as there was a knock on the front door. "That must be Faith and Emily."
"Um, yeah," Cole answered, the butterflies in his stomach intensifying. Bosco opened the door and Faith and Emily came in.
"Hey, Cole," Emily said with a smile.
"Hey, Emily," he answered.
"You ready?"
"Yup. Let me grab my book bag," Cole said, standing up and grabbing his stuff.
"Have a great day," Bosco said to the two as they opened the door. "Don't forget Rose is gonna pick you up at school and bring you over to the center. If you need anything, I've always got my cell phone with me and I'll be home right after work."
"Okay. See you later," Cole said, somewhat embarrassed at Bosco's hovering over him. He was annoyed by it, but he was amused too. Bosco wasn't sure what HE was supposed to do and Cole wasn't sure what HE was supposed to do, so it was kind of comical. He had to hide his smirk as he saw Faith reach out and grab his arm, pulling him away from the door so Cole could leave with some dignity.
"Bye, Em," Faith called after her daughter.
"Bye, Mom," she said without looking back. Faith thought she saw the two kids roll their eyes as they closed the door.
"What was that for?" Bosco asked her, referring to her pulling his arm.
"You were smothering him," Faith said. "Kids that age don't want to have their parents hovering so much. He'll be fine. Emily will make sure," she assured him.
"Yeah, well. I'm still new at this," Bosco said in his own defense.
"No problem. I'm not and I still don't have all the answers," she said, winking at him. "Okay, so I'll see you at work later, right?"
"Right. Thanks Faith, for all your help," Bosco said as he walked her to the door.
"Anytime, Bos. Don't hesitate. You're doing a great thing. How's Katy doing?" Faith asked.
"Pretty good, actually. She's gonna go back to work today. She's still a little sore, but the bruising is all gone so she feels better about going outside," he told her.
"Good. No more problems on the gang front?" she asked.
"Not so far. The detectives are still trying to track down that girl from the hospital parking lot. They still think she's the one that called Cole at the rehab center Upstate," he told her.
"Cole's still not talking about that?"
"No. I think he's afraid whoever it was will pay the price from Raven's boys if he finds out about it," Bosco explained.
"Okay. We'll I'll see you later then," Faith said, walking out the door.
Bosco closed the door behind her and took a deep breath. "Finally, some alone time," he thought to himself. This was going to take some getting used to.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Cole made it through the day, getting the usual stares from the kids for being the "new kid." He told Emily she could ditch him if she wanted, but she said she didn't want to - that he was cool. Luckily, hey had lunch scheduled at the same time so he had someone to sit with and she introduced him to a bunch of her friends. They didn't give him the look like they knew what had happened to him, and for that he was grateful. If he became good friends with any of them, he was sure he'd eventually tell them, but for right now it was no one's business.
He walked out the front door of the school and saw Rose Boscorelli standing there waiting for him. Bosco was right - she was eccentric and a little cooky, but she was cool. He walked over to her.
"Hi, Mrs. Boscorelli," he said to her.
"What? Who's that?" she teased him. "What'd I tell you to call me," she said with a smirk.
"Oh, uh, sorry. Rose," he answered.
"Alright then. Are you ready to go?" she asked leading him over to her car. He nodded and she stopped and turned. "So, did school go okay today?"
"Yeah, it did. Not as bad as I thought it was gonna be," he answered. "She's easy to talk to," Cole thought to himself.
"Good. Okay, I'd let you drive, but Maurice told me that he was the only one that could teach you - or at least that I couldn't," she said, tapping the fender of her car where the large dent was. "He thinks I could learn a thing or two about driving, apparently," she joked, making Cole chuckle.
Rose drove to the center and parked the car. "I'm gonna come in with you, okay?" she asked him.
"Uh, I guess so," he replied.
"Just for the first time at least. In case they need anything signed and to find out exactly where you need to go. Then, if you don't want me to, I'll just drop you off after that, okay?" she said.
"Sure," Cole replied as they both got out of the car and walked into the building.
They room was full of kids the same age as Cole and he looked around to see if he knew anyone - hoping that he didn't. So far, no one looked familiar. Rose walked over to the desk and spoke with the man sitting there. After a moment, she called Cole over.
"Hi, Cole. I'm Joseph. Good to meet you," replied the man, extending his hand for Cole to shake. Cole shook his hand and said, "Hi. I'm Cole Taylor."
Joseph held up his hand and said, "From now on, first names only. We have your full name in the file, but there's no reason for everyone to know - unless you want them to. Why don't you come with me and I'll show you around and explain a few things. I'll be your counselor here at the center, so if there's anything you need or if you have questions, or if you just want to talk - about anything - I'm here for you. Okay?"
Cole shook his head and looked over at Rose. "I'll pick you up at 8:00, okay?" Cole nodded and said goodbye.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Rose was back at work and her phone rang. "Hello?"
"Hi, Ma. How'd it go?" Bosco asked her.
"Hi Maurice. It went okay. He said he had a good day at school and I went into the center with him to make sure that he got settled okay. His counselor's name is Joseph and he seems like a nice guy. He was being introduced to some of the other kids his age as I was leaving. I have to pick him up at 8:00," she reported.
"Great. He seemed okay? Not depressed or nervous or anything?" Bosco asked her.
"He seemed good, Maurice. We talked a little bit on the way over. He said that he liked his school so far. None of the kids gave him a hard time and that Emily's friends were nice."
"Good. Faith will be glad to hear that," Bosco said and Rose heard Faith in the background say, "Faith will be glad to hear what?"
"That Emily has nice friends," Bosco told Faith. "Oh," Rose heard Faith say.
"So, are you sure you don't mind picking him up every night?" Bosco asked, worried that he was making life difficult for his mother who was trying to run a business - primarily a nighttime business.
"Not at all. Things don't really get hopping around here until 11:30 anyway and you'll be home by then. Carrie can keep things under control between 8:00 and then," Rose said, referring to one of her best bartenders.
"Thanks, Ma. It won't be forever. As he makes progress in the program, he'll be able to do more stuff at school after hours and then he can hang out at your apartment upstairs until I get off work," Bosco told her.
"Don't worry about it, Maurice. He seems like a great kid, but I'll just bring him to your place every time. That way he'll get a better sense of being 'home,'" she said, looking at her watch. "Well, I better head over there. I don't want to be late picking him up.
"Okay. Ask him to give me a call later so I can talk to him before he goes to sleep. That's the only thing I hate - getting home after he's asleep in case he needs to talk about something," Bosco said.
"Well, you're there every morning for him and the nights you're off work. He'll be fine. He's got a good network of support between you, Faith, Me, the center and the friends he'll be making at school," Rose said. "I'll see you when you get home tonight," she said, hanging up the phone.
"Carrie. I'm gonna go pick up Cole. I'll be at Maurice's if you need me," she called to the bartender.
"Okay, Rose. Don't worry. I'll hold the fort," Carrie called to her.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Rose picked Cole up and he seemed a little quiet. "How'd everything go tonight?" she asked him cautiously, trying not to push. "Only if you want to tell me, though," she quickly added.
"It went okay. There's a lot of kids there that were in the same boat as me. It's pretty sad," he said, somewhat subdued.
"Yeah. But they're getting the help they need - just like you. So, what d'you want for a snack? I'm gonna stop at the grocery on the corner because I need some milk, coffee and bread at home. You ate dinner at the center, right?" she asked.
Cole nodded. "I'm not really hungry. I've got some homework left and then I'm gonna go to bed, I think. I'm really beat," he said.
"Well, that's not surprising. You had a pretty full day," Rose said as she looked for a parking space near the store, without luck.
"I'll go in for you if you want to just circle the block," Cole offered.
"Okay. If you don't mind," she said. She fished into her purse and handed him a twenty dollar bill. "Half a gallon of skim milk, a can of coffee - not decaf - and a loaf of wheat bread, okay?"
"Got it," he said, getting out of the car and heading into the store.
Rose circled the block a couple of times and came back around again to find Cole standing outside waiting for her with the bag of groceries in his hand. She pulled up and he got in.
"Get everything?" she said.
"Yup. You said NOT decaf right?"
"Definitely. You don't survive working all night on decaf," she joked.
"Here's you change," he said, handing her the wadded up change and watching as she shoved it into her pocket without checking how much was there.
They got home and Rose made him a sandwich despite him saying that he wasn't very hungry. He ate half and Rose at the other half.
He'd finished up the last of his homework and was watching television when Rose called to him from the kitchen. "Cole, I forgot. Maurice wants you to call him on his cell. He wants to talk to you before you turn in," she told him.
"Okay," he said, getting up and getting the phone. He dialed Bosco's number and it was answered on the third ring.
"Boscorelli," Bosco answered.
"Hey Bosco. It's Cole. You wanted me to call you?" he said, hearing the sound of the siren in the background.
"Cole. Hi. How was your day?" Bosco asked over the sound of the siren.
"It was okay. Shouldn't you be keeping both hands on the wheel if you're driving with the siren on?" he said into the phone.
"Faith's driving - and like an old lady I might add," he said, loud enough that Faith could hear him.
"I heard that!" Cole heard Faith say in the background and laughed.
"I just wanted to talk to you before you turned in. Everything okay?" Bosco asked him.
"Yeah. Everything went pretty good today," Cole said.
"Okay. I'll talk to you in the morning then. I'll check in on you when I get home," he said. "I've gotta go for now," he said, hanging up the phone.
"Oka...," Cole was cut off by the dial tone in his ear. He hung up the phone and stretched. "I'm gonna take a shower and go to bed," he told Rose.
"Okay. G'night, Cole," she said to him.
"Thanks, Rose," he said to her with a smile and then walked down the hallway.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Cole walked into his room and started to get undressed. He took off his shirt and noticed the item that he'd bought with Rose's money still tucked into his waistband of his pants. He pulled out the small bottle of vodka and held it up. He started to unscrew the cap, but stopped. He took a deep breath and shoved the bottle in the bottom of his top drawer, out of sight - winning out over the urge for now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TBC...