Love and Honor

Chapter 6

Where There's a Will, There's a Way

Helen walked slowly up the stairs, feeling terrible. This ought to have been one of the proudest days of Joan's life: praised by the judge, and with a possible career open to her. Instead it ended up with the girl being sent to her room like a little brat.

Helen made up her mind not to mention the acting-up and punishment to Luke when he got home from vacation Monday, only the news about the judge. Let him be proud of his sister.

Joan was lying on the bed, staring up into space. Helen wished she knew what was going through her mind.

"You can come down now," said Helen. "Lily persuaded me to forgive you."

"Whatever," Joan said. "What I really want is to know about Adam and Bonnie."

"All right." She sat down on the edge of the bed. "I got an Email a few days ago from Adam, wanting to know about that arts contest in Baltimore. I decided to drop the brochure by his house today."

"Why?" asked Joan. "I thought you agreed that he had been a jerk."

"I've got many obligations, Joan. I'm your mother, but I'm also Adam's teacher, his mentor in artistic matters. He made me a reasonable request, I felt honor-bound to carry it out."

"Okay," said Joan sulkily. "Then what?"

"Bonnie answered the door. I found out a few minutes later that she was pregnant, and that her family had thrown her out because she wouldn't agree to an abortion. I agreed to send Lily, in her capacity as a counselor--"

"Because your Bonnie's mentor too," said Joan in the same sour voice.

"Not just that. I know you hate Bonnie, Joan, but there's an innocent baby to think of. Lots of things can go wrong in the womb, if the mother isn't careful or doesn't get proper medical attention. And personally, I admire Bonnie for standing up to her parents, risking everything for her child. But if it makes you feel any better, I can turn everything over to Lily now and you don't have to ever think about Adam again." She got up and started to the door. Suddenly Joan called out:

"None of this would have happened if I'd just agreed to go all the way with him last February. I really screwed up, by not letting myself get scr---"

"Don't say that, Joan," said Helen hastily, before she could get that last naughty word out. "You made the right decision, when you decided that you weren't ready for sex. You're only 17. I wish that a lot of your friends were as mature in judgement as you were."

"But it didn't get me anywhere," mourned Joan.

"Just put Adam out of your head, dear. You'll find a more decent boy."

"I'm trying. Unfortunately the only decent unattached boy I can think of right now is Luke, and brothers don't count."

Helena laughed at that, and slipped out.

A few hours later she was having another long conversation in a bedroom. This time it was with Will, and they were in the bed together.

"I don't understand why Joan was so upset," said Will. "Didn't they split up months ago?"

"It's complicated, Will."

"So? Tomorrow is Saturday. We can sleep late, and that gives us time to talk now."

Helen took a deep breath. "Okay. The first thing you need to know is that, last February, Joan and Adam went on an overnight trip out of town, without telling us."

"Did they--?" said Will, shocked.

"No, but it was a close thing. I got the full story from Joan afterward. It seems that they got in bed together, and engaged in some foreplay, but Joan panicked at the last minute and asked Adam to refrain. He respected that and didn't touch her, even thought they still had to share the bed for the rest of the night. Joan also mentioned that he had brought a condom, so that even if they did have sex, they would have been safe."

"For kids doing a stupid thing, they did show a lot of intelligence in the end," observed Will.

"Yeah. But the catch was, that Adam was very frustrated afterward."

"I can imagine. When I was his age --- umm, never mind. Go on."

"Then Bonnie came along. She was sexually experienced, and figured out Adam's problem with Joan, and she persuaded him to sleep with her instead. When Joan found out, she went ballistic."

"I remember. But why she is upset now, four months later?"

"Because she just found out that Bonnie is carrying Adam's baby. I suppose that she loves Adam in a way. An act of infidelity is one thing, but having a baby is a life-changing event. Now Adam's REALLY lost to her."

"Yeah. Poor kids. I wish I could help."

"The only thing I can think of is to pull out of that contest and give Adam a better chance to win. He could use the money."

"Hmm, don't pull out quite yet. Maybe we'll think of something."

Breakfast the next morning was even more disorganized than usual. Luke was still out of town visiting the cousins; Kevin and his wife now had an apartment of their own; Joan ate a couple of bites, mumbled that she wasn't hungry, and set out for her bookstore. That left Helen and Will, and even they were interrupted by a phone call, which Helen answered.

"It's Kevin. He says Lily is doing some counseling today, and asks if he can come work on the boat."

"Tell him thanks, but I've got an investigation."

"I thought you said your Saturday was free."

"Had a hunch on a case; I want to play it while it's hot."

Helen had been a policeman's wife for long enough to know that crime didn't limit itself to 9 to 5, nor did good crimefighting. Instead she organized the day around Will's absence. Kevin would work on the boat alone, and Helen was free to work on her picture, even though she hadn't decided whether to pull it or not.

A couple of weeks ago Grace, on vacation with Luke at Helen's cousins' farm, had seen a beautiful sunset which inspired her latent literary skills. She had described them in an Email to Joan, which the girl had shared. Helen had decided to paint the visual equivalent of the sunset. While working on it she decided that it represented a personal allegory. Another viewer wouldn't know it, but it made the painting more meaningful for her. The sun would represent her longing for God or religion, and the clouds surrounding the sun, illuminated from behind to various degrees, would represent the doubts that had impeded her search. But why, she wondered, was she so tempted to make the clouds so beautiful?

Dinner was far more organized than breakfast; it was a Girardi tradition. Only Joan, Helen, and Will were there, but that made it less noisy than usual, when Joan was tempted to argue with one of her brothers. As was also traditional, they discussed the events of their day.

"Well, I hope your investigation went well today," said Helen.

"Oh, quite well. I was looking into this business with Adam and Bonnie, and I came out with this." Will threw a check on the table. It was a $5,000 check made out to Bonnie McLean, and the signature read Don J. Tennerio.

"Who's this Tennerio guy?" asked Joan.

"The father of Bonnie's child."

"But I thought that was Adam!" Joan seemed stunned.

"No, Bonnie lied about that. In my profession you learn to get suspicious when inconsistencies appear in stories, and here was a crucial one. When Adam wanted you to sleep with him, he assured you that he had 'brought protection'."

Joan went red. "How did you know that?"

"I told him your story, Joan," said Helen.

"Now who's violating privacy?"

"Chill, Joan," Helen, who had wanted to use that particular bit of youth slang for years. "Let Will continue his account."

"The question," Will went on, "was: why didn't Adam take the same precautions with Bonnie as with Joan? And if he had, Bonnie wouldn't have gotten pregnant. So, being a detective, I went back to the source. I talked to Bonnie this morning and got her to tell me the real father's name. Don Tennerio, a college student about to start his sophomore year at the local college. He didn't tell her how to find him during the summer -- and I'm sure that was no accident -- but I knew how to get his home address out of government records. It was down in one of the Washington suburbs.

Then I paid Mr. Tennerio a visit and gave him a lecture on obligations. At first he would only put up enough money to pay for an abortion. I said that wouldn't cut it, and started dropping terms like 'statutory rape'."

Helen winced; any mention of rape probably revived her own tragedy. "Is he really guilty of that?"

"Statutory rape laws treat sexual contact between adults and minors. Of course what the lawmakers had in mind was a 'Lolita' situation -- a slick adult exploiting a child. Whether a jury would convict a nineteen-year-old for having sex with a seventeen-year-old who was already experienced is doubtful. But the prospect of being charged with a criminal count was enough to scare Mr. Tennerio into coughing up the money, which was the idea."

"Where did he get the money that fast?" asked Joan,

"Oh, his family is rich -- which may explain why he dazzled a poor kid like Bonnie in the first place. He was planning to set himself as a big man on campus in the sophomore year -- a car, lots of high-tech toys, maybe even a separate pad that would give him more privacy than a dorm. Now he's back to square one, but that's his problem."

"We need to get that check to Bonnie as soon as possible," said Helen.

"I want to go, too," said Joan.

"Right. We'll go right after dinner. You know what's so bizarre about this situation? So many well-meaning individuals trying to do the right thing, when society has laws to make protect the weak against the strong."

"As long as you apply them creatively," observed Joan. Everybody laughed, and made plans for the visit.

(to be continued)