Chapter 24

Goody Two-Shoes (Part V)

And finally, part five of our semi-epic little Snapshot II concludes this tale of what happens when a little boy's conscience finally catches up with him.


"Jamison Henry Reagan!" Erin hissed as she pinned him up behind the closed door in the pantry before dinner. "I saw you outside with Joey before! What did you tell him? Did you snitch on me, little boy?"

"Let m'm go!" Jamie muffled underneath the hand over his mouth again. "Joey said you're not 'lowed to do that!" he insisted in a fierce whisper after he pushed her away. "He said it was co… co-something a witness, and it's bad too! I don't want Momma to get in trouble with the 'surance man! That's not fair!"

"You did snitch, you little weasel! You want me to get in trouble?"

"No, but Momma shouldn't either!"

"She's not gonna. It's a little dent and Mom and Dad pay for the insurance. They should get to use it once in awhile. Don't forget you're going to be in big trouble too, and then I won't help you get your shoe back!"

"I don't care! I don't wanna lie anymore by not saying all the truth. And 'sides Joey said he won't tell, but I gotta do the right thing!"

"Erin! Where are you, dear?" Mary called from her seat at the table in the kitchen where she was doing her best to help prepare the dinner by quartering the green beans for Grandma Betty's famous casserole which was nearly ready to go in the oven. "I asked you to bring those crackers in here to crumble over the dish. We need to get it baking now so it will get done in time to eat."

"Yes, Mom," Erin replied back nervously before turning to lay down one last threat on her youngest brother. "You just remember how mad Tyler was," she warned. "He'll know exactly who tattled if he gets in trouble with dad, and he said he would come back and look for you!" she emphasized with a pointed finger shove to the shoulder of the little boy. "You'll be the one thrown in a tree and left up there, or worse!" she warned before grabbing the requested box of crackers and opening the door to make her way out into the kitchen. "Here you go," she added with a nervous glance over her shoulder at Jamie who slipped back out of the pantry unnoticed and went into the den to curl up with a pillow on the couch as his stomach started to turn again.

Tyler Bonshak was very big and scary when he was angry, and Jamie fretted about what Erin had just said… about him coming back to finish the job as promised if he tattled. A sudden flash of light at the window soon drew his attention though and the almost immediate following clap of thunder left his heart sinking as the sound of rain hitting the window intensified. A strong afternoon thunderstorm had rolled in with the rain and heavy winds lashing the house, and of course his poor Bobby Bonilla cleat that was outside alone and hopelessly tangled at the top of the tree where God would no doubt strike it down with a bolt of lightning for his role in all this mess. The loss was felt anew, and he covered his head under the pillow to hide his tears away.

The stress of those new worries combined with the lack of rest he had suffered in an effort not to look guilty like a perp in front of his father, plus the multiple missing meals soon added up though, and Jamie finally fell into an exhausted deep sleep there which is where Frank found him when his normally eager face failed to show up at the table after the call for dinner went out.

"He's sound asleep on the couch in the back," he informed the number of worried eyes that looked up as he returned without the little boy. "He's so tired, I didn't have the heart to wake him. We'll warm a plate up afterwards."

"Francis, if that child is not better by tomorrow morning, you must have him looked at!" Grandma Betty insisted vehemently with a worried frown. The tired, pinched expression on Jamie's face coupled with the fatigue, loss of appetite, stomach pains and already apparent weight loss haunted her as she recalled those very symptoms with dread from a terribly painful time in the past… a truth about the loss of her first-born son, Peter Christopher, who had passed from leukemia at the age of eighteen months and which she herself had never shared within the family… a secret she had sworn her husband to keep as well. Henry gave her a tight look and a small, almost imperceptible shake of his head as he could read her thoughts at that moment. This was exactly how it had started with Peter. He had gone from a happy little boy one day to being diagnosed as deathly ill the next. He knew his own wife would not rest easy until their youngest grandson was given the all clear health-wise and returned to his normal buoyant self.

"Do you really think we need to worry? See, I told you so, Frank," Mary fussed. "Maybe we should go get him checked now…"

"I think he's just tired, Mom," Joey assured as he hated to see everyone so unduly concerned, especially because he knew now why his little brother was suffering. Maybe it had been a bad idea to advise him to wait to spill the beans until later tonight given the look on Erin's face which told him clearly that she knew of the little talk he'd had with Jamie and had likely applied more pressure to the kid in an effort to get him to keep his silence. "I'm sure he'll be better later after he gets some rest. Danny and I sort of wore him out with the baseball practice earlier. We thought the fresh air would do him good; it's our fault," he added with a firm look at his brother that dared him to back him up on that story or suffer the fate of needing to admit to everyone that he had pegged the kid on purpose to make him cry earlier.

"Yeah, Joey's got a good point," Danny affirmed with a small huff. Despite it being his idea and the fact that they were sworn partners in the good cop, bad cop deal, his brother had refused to reveal exactly what intel he had gathered on their op and it had left the oldest sibling a bit miffed and more curious than ever, but not enough to go against Joe in front of the family now with that look he had just received.

"I'm sure he's fine," Erin cut in quickly as she attempted to ward off the inevitable, while it garnered an evil eye from her middle brother who was on to her scam and furious that she'd let this go further and have Jamie poked and prodded at the doctor's office. Never one to quit, she figured her last chance was maybe to get that damn shoe back somehow and hold it for blackmail. "Maybe he'll even sleep until tomorrow," she added optimistically.

"If he's not better I'll bang in and drive him to the pediatrician myself, Mom," Frank promised as his concern was also now prompted by the tone of his own mother's voice, not to mention the fact that the actions of everyone else at the table were starting to raise his suspicions once more. There seemed to be a lot of warning glances and innuendo going on, even between his own parents, and it irked him to no end that he was still in the dark and wasn't able to put his finger on what was behind it all. "Danny will have Mary's car tomorrow morning. He needs to go over to the high school for his history test makeup. Isn't that so, Daniel?" he added with a distinct bit of a growl with his continued dissatisfaction over that situation. "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it," he tested with a knowing look.

"Martin Luther King?" Danny guessed with great hesitation as he was distracted by being put on the hot seat himself.

"Edmund Burke," Frank sighed at the relative softball he had thrown out there for another swing and a miss. The odds on a substantial family discount for aluminum siding being available were going up by the hour it seemed.

Meanwhile in the den, Jamie's closed eyes began to dance rapidly side-to-side as he entered a deep stage of much-needed REM "rebound" sleep while a vivid dream descended. His breathing became more rapid and irregular, and his heart began to pound as he visualized himself being dragged down a long dark hall by two people, one on either side, but he was unable to call out or run away. It wasn't until the heavy wooden doors at the end were thrown open and the bright light from within bathed him that he realized it was Danny and Joe dressed in soldier uniforms who had him by either arm which were handcuffed behind his back.

"Bring the defendant in," a gruff-faced bailiff who looked suspiciously like the young Italian officer from the local precinct Jamie had seen on and off the last few years; one that his grandfather had said was named Renzulli and turning into a good cop who was being transferred soon with his partner to the 3-5 in Midtown. Chains began to rattle as his brothers pushed him inside, and it was then that Jamie realized he was also shackled around the waist and ankles while dressed in some sort of orange plaid… gasp! It was that pair of Miami Dolphins footie jammies that Momma's friend Carol had bought for him last Christmas after a trip south and which had promptly been stuffed in the back of his closet never to see the light of day again until now. He hung his head in shame at the big teal smiling fish adorning his chest. On top of everything else, now he was also a traitor to the beloved Jets… everyone knew the Reagan family bled green, but what was going on and why was this happening?!

Jamie had little time to think about that while being unceremoniously stuffed in a chair behind a big, heavy wood table before a stone-faced pair of brothers moved off to the side to stand guard with big super-soaker water pistols strapped to their hips. "W-why am I here?" he finally found his voice while people filing into the room ignored his pleas. Suddenly the seat next to him was filled as Erin appeared dressed in one of his mommy's business skirt sets complete with heels that she tripped over as she sat down and put Danny's history book on the table. "Erin!" he cried. "What's happening? They won't let me go!" he added as he struggled against his bonds.

"You're being tried in Reagan family court for the very terrible crime of not telling all the truth and hiding missing evidence, namely one black and blue Robert Bonilla signature cleat-type shoe, plus assault with said deadly weapon. You have the right to remain silent, you little snitch. Use it. I'll handle this," she advised as she opened the book to the page Danny had been reading about Civil War prisoner punishments. When the back doors opened once more, Jamie heard the now familiar sound of a clop-patter coming down the aisle.

"Momma! Help me!" he begged as he turned his head to see Mary walking to the opposite side with her favorite cookbook in hand, but she wasn't dressed in her housecoat as she had been the past few days, instead she was fully decked out in pirate garb including a suggestive dress with off-the shoulder sleeves adorned with lace cuffs and neckline, complete with a panne vest with gold brocade front, brass buttons and a skirt with matching trim, red and gold striped overlay, a big embossed black belt, red waist sash and headscarf with fishnet stockings and, gulp… a peg leg.

"Mary Margaret Reagan, for the prosecution," she announced with a hand on her hip and an emphatic stomp of the wooden appendage, while Jamie could see Grandma Betty and Grandpa Henry sitting in the jury box behind her with their arms crossed and stern faces staring at him.

"All rise for the honorable Judge Francis Xavier Reagan," Renzulli announced as Joe and Danny stepped forward once more to drag Jamie to his feet in compliance.

"Show some respect, kid," Danny snapped as he jerked his arm hard while their father entered the room from the doorway behind the massive ornate bench dressed ominously in a black robe and sat down with a heavy frown on his face as he stared at his youngest son from high above.

"Proceed," he barked before pausing to tip his head and look over his glasses to the left. "But first may I add you're looking particularly lovely today Mrs. Reagan," he offered as his eyebrow raised at his unusually bedecked wife. "Perhaps we can meet for drinks later. I'd like to see a little more of that outfit… before I see a little less."

"Anytime after the kids go to bed, handsome," she replied suggestively with a wink.

"Alright, take 'yer seats," Renzulli griped. "Let's get this over with. Case of the good people versus one very bad little dweeb named Jamison Henry Reagan. Come to order."

"What say the good people?" Judge Reagan asked.

"The people contend we are all very disappointed in the behavior of Mr. Reagan. He lied by not telling all the truth; assaulted one Tyler Bonshak by bopping him on the nose with a new shoe; hid that evidence in a tree and made his momma feel bad and cry about getting a dent in her car."

An audible gasp radiated through the room at that last revelation.

"Those are very serious charges. Making your momma cry is the worst of the worst," Frank revealed with an angry glower. "What's your defense?"

"Mr. Reagan refuses to testify and takes the fifth," Erin answered quickly and covered his mouth once more before Jamie could explain.

"Very well," Judge Reagan acknowledged. "What say the jury?"

"Guilty!" Grandma Betty and Grandpa Henry exclaimed in unison. "Throw the book at him, Francis! He's not worthy of being a real Reagan!" Henry added.

"Agreed! Guilty as charged then!" Frank banged the gavel down so hard Jamie jumped in his sleep. "The people on punishment?"

"Pirate code says he walks the plank to be eaten by sharks," Mary asserted.

"Very well. You two," he indicated to Danny and Joe. "Take him and throw him off the Williamsburg Bridge. May God have no mercy on your soul and send a lightning bolt to destroy your shoe," he added as the brothers began to drag Jamie away.

Back in reality, a few minutes had passed without incident in the dining room as the family concentrated on their dinner while the lights flickered a few times as the storm continued to rage outside before another close strike had them all jumping in their seats and a shrill voice resonated from the den.

"NOOOOO! STOP! Please don't take me 'way!" Jamie screamed in his sleep and was thrashing hard as Joe was the first to reach him; his track star speed seeing him out of the blocks and away from the table almost before anyone else could budge.

"Hey, Jay… hey buddy… it's me, okay? I'm right here," he tried to soothe as he gathered the fighting boy in his lap and held on with his arms crossed over his chest, just as he had done countless times before whenever his little brother had a nightmare like this. "I think he's having one of those night terrors again," he informed the rest of the concerned family as they gathered around. "He won't wake up."

"NO! JOEY HELP ME! YOU SAID I COULD TELL THE TRUTH NOW AND IT WAS OKAY! MAKE 'EM LET ME GO!"

"Oh, cripes! He hasn't had one of these in years, wasn't he supposed to grow out of them?" Danny questioned as it pained him to see the kid going through that again although they were all well-versed in the fact that they needed to let him ride through this until it was over.

"OW DANNY! THAT HURT! YOU HIT ME ON PURPOSE! I WANNA TELL ALL THE TRUTH! GET 'WAY!"

"ME? No way, nuh-uh!" the oldest Reagan sibling defended immediately as all eyes fell on him. "I've got nothing to do with this! I was stuck in the house with Mom studying all day yesterday! Well, okay I beaned him a little with a baseball, but he was messed up before that!" he protested. "Ask Joe!"

"I CAN'T TAKE THE FIFTH, ERIN! I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS AND I'M ALREADY EIGHT! JUDGE DADDY, I'M NOT GUILTY! I WANNA TELL ALL WHAT HAPPENED!"

"The fifth? What's this he's crying about Erin Reagan?" Frank demanded as he looked at his daughter who had just gone three shades closer to transparent as she realized a very big secret was about to be spilled involuntarily by a little boy's overloaded subconscious.

"IT WAS TYLER'S FAULT! HE WAS HURTING HER SO I HIT HIM WITH MY CLEAT! BUT I WANT IT BACK! AND MOMMY PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME WALK THE PLANK AND GET EATEN BY SHARKS!"

"What on earth?!" Mary gasped. "He hit someone with his shoe? WHO WAS HURTING WHO?! The plank and sharks? What would he think I would make him do that? AND TYLER BONSHAK?! What does he have to do with all this? ERIN MARIE REAGAN! I better hear an explanation now!"

"Hey, Jay… c'mon calm down, buddy, please," Joey tried whispering in his little brother's ear again, hoping to reach him in some fashion even as he had Jamie pinned up against himself and he could feel the little boy's heart beating out of his chest. "I'm right here. No one's gonna hurt you, you're safe… okay, bud? I promise. You did it, you told all the truth and Erin's gonna make the rest of it right now, aren't you?" he hissed at his sister with a glare reserved for very few occasions by her normally mild-mannered middle brother.

"JOSEPH! YOU TOO? WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS?" Frank thundered with frustration, causing Jamie to go rigid once more. Everyone it seemed had gotten ahead of him and Mary on this one, and honestly he prided himself on his ability to see through this kind of nonsense, not to mention the fact that Tyler's name had set his blood to boiling once more.

"Dad, please… he's really shaking. Just… just don't yell in front of him now," Joe begged before explaining in a calm voice. "Jamie's been upset about all this and talked to me earlier. He was going to come to you tonight right after dinner and tell you everything that happened at his practice yesterday, but I think somebody's been threatening him to keep quiet again," he revealed with another pointed frown at his sister. "I guess he was so tired he fell asleep and all of this came out in one of his nightmares instead. Please don't be angry at him, Mom... Dad. He's scared, and he tried to do the right thing by standing up to Tyler when he saw him hurting his sister. None of this was his fault."

"Betty, I think maybe we should leave and let them work this out in private," Henry interjected as he took his stunned wife's arm. "I have a feeling everyone needs to breathe, and this is going to take them some time to sort through. Thank God in heaven it's something like this and not…. well, anything else, right?"

"Yes, of course, Henry," Betty stuttered as she allowed herself to be let away after laying a gentle kiss on Jamie's forehead as his struggles had quieted in no small part from Joe's attention, her indomitable Irish spirit at an uncharacteristic loss for words in this instance as relief won out over anger, at least in her mind. It was evident that Frank and Mary were just starting to wind up though and Erin was wishing she could melt away into the woodwork before the explosion came.

"My advice, send her up to her room and take a few minutes to cool off, Francis," Henry offered his son with a sympathetic pat on the way out of the room. "Deal with Jamie first and get Mary calmed down. Remember nothing's been done that can't be fixed. You were no angel at this age either, and I've got a dent in the fender of the Studebaker to prove it."

"Yeah, but you didn't have a girl," Frank muttered under his breath, knowing all the while that his father was right, and honestly he was getting a little alarmed himself at the look on Mary's face at the moment knowing that his wife and daughter could get into it like no one else. "Go," he growled with pursed lips at Erin as she stared at him like a deer in the headlights and she gratefully scampered away from her parents and up the steps at full speed with her heart still pounding in her throat.

"Frank…"

"One at a time, Mary… Pop's right. Let's just take a breath please and not make this worse…"

###

"So you really ran away that night to Grandpa Henry's house, Aunt Erin?" Sean asked, putting that card into his pocket in case the need ever arose.

"Yes, I did, Sean," Erin smirked as she looked down and smoothed out some wrinkles on her placemat. "By the time Jamie finally woke up hours later and Mom was done smothering him, I had practically worn a hole in my floor pacing and waiting for them to come up. Trust me, the worrying about what was coming was ten times worse than just taking it. If I had listened in the first place, none of that would have ever happened."

"Remember that, boys," Linda warned.

"And you too, Nicki," her mother added. "I sure learned the hard way, didn't I? Guess I forgot how important that was after all these years though," she admitted as she reached over and gave Jamie's arm a squeeze. "Thanks for reminding me again."

"Wait, what are you talking about… hours later?" Danny questioned as he remembered back to that night. "The kid was awake like twenty minutes after you ran upstairs. Joe stayed there and helped him explain everything. As soon as Mom and Dad talked to him for a couple of minutes and got him to eat something, they sat down and emptied a whole bottle of cabernet and waited for you to sweat it out upstairs for a while like you made him do. By the time they decided to make a move, you had already rabbited down the street in your pj's to hide out at Gramp's place."

"You did that?" Erin huffed as she looked over at her father. "I couldn't imagine what was keeping you downstairs so long, and I never saw a more fierce momma bear look than the one I ran away from. Thank goodness Mom was in that boot. I was afraid to make eye contact or sleep in my own bed for a week."

"That's just what Mary wanted," Frank reflected with a smile. "The two of you worked it out afterwards, it just took some time to get her trust back."

"Uncle Jamie, did you get in any trouble?" Jack wondered.

"No, Mom and Dad figured I could get off with time served," he chuckled. "I obviously learned my lesson about the truth and after all that they knew I wouldn't forget. I didn't," Jamie huffed with a grin at his father. "You can still sweat a guy without even trying, just like you knew something was up with me that whole time I was into the Blue Templar stuff."

"Well, that should have never happened either, but we covered all that already, and I was certainly not on my game that weekend," Frank admitted with a frown. "The whole family was putting one over on us."

"Danny, you didn't figure it out?" Eddie asked with a smile, knowing that must have annoyed her fiercely competitive detective brother-in-law to no end.

"Me? Hey, for once I was happy to be completely on the outside of all that. I would have run away from Mom with that look too."

"What about the test, Dad?" Sean prodded. "Did you pass? I'm confused. Grandpa Henry said you sold siding, but you became a police officer, anyway?"

"I passed," Danny insisted, "But my score wasn't quite high enough so I had to take the rest of the summer course for full credit. Mom and Dad made me work part-time with Uncle Al learning the ins and outs of the siding business too so I would make sure to apply myself and work hard at the Academy in the fall. Gramps pulled some strings and saved a spot for me."

"Not quite," Henry revealed to his oldest grandson for the first time. "Your score was high enough in the first place. I didn't have to call in any favors and your father would have never let me if that was the case. Francis just told the teachers to have you repeat the class so you actually learned your history and then forced you to work in Jersey to teach you a good lesson."

"Seriously, Frank? I hardly saw Danny for two months… he was always too busy with school or away. We almost broke up because of that!" Linda tutted.

"Geez, Grandpa!" Sean gasped. "You almost made Jack and me not be!"

"I'm sorry, Sean," Frank nodded in concession with a small smile. "But it all worked out in the end the way it was meant to."

"What about the dent in the car?" Nicki asked with interest since she was finding herself in the same pickle at the moment.

"Oh, I had to get a part-time job down at Mrs. Fetter's ice cream stand down across from Sunset Park to make the money to get it fixed," Erin admitted. "Hours and hours in the hot summertime making snow cones, sundaes and milkshakes for all the little dweebs and dweebettes playing baseball and softball with their sticky hands and faces," she shuddered. "I hardly got to do anything fun myself before school started again."

"Then whatever happened to Tyler Bonshak?" Jack asked. "Didn't he have to help pay for the car too?"

"Nah, Frank and Mary put that all on Erin. Bonshak works for the Department of Transportation now running an excavator on the road crew," Henry revealed. "Never did anything with that full-ride college scholarship he had. Got kicked out by the second semester."

"Terrific, so he digs ditches for a living now," Jamie muttered with a roll of his eyes. "I never so much as saw him again one time after that. Dad, did you get to him?"

"Oh, never had to. I heard through the grapevine he got a visit that night from a certain pair of gray hairs in a Studebaker and he moved across town to stay with his aunt in Chelsea until he left for school."

"Grandpa!" Erin exclaimed. "You went and threatened him? He never spoke to me again!"

"Wasn't my idea; it was Betty's," Henry revealed. "No one was going to lay a hand on her grandchildren and get away scott free. He was lucky she didn't take him by the ear and make him kneel down in her kitchen. Besides, she knew we had to keep Danny and Joe away from him."

"Heard he picked up a couple of DWI's late that summer from Renzulli and Jeffers when they were transferred up there to the 3-5 though," Frank added thoughtfully as he stroked his mustache. "Lost his license for a while and that car right before he turned eighteen. Funny how that happened."

"Those were legit stops," Henry growled. "Expired tags and a brake light out. Can't help it if Renzulli's got a nose on him and that Bonshak kid had a little weed and an open container in the car. Besides, he really turned things around after he agreed to enter my juvenile offender's program and got connected with the trade school out in Mahwah. He ended up being a decent guy and earns union wages for sitting on his can running equipment all day long. Last I heard he's got a wife and two kids, too."

"So everything worked out, like Frank said," Eddie sighed before sitting up straight and remembering one final detail that had been left out. "WAIT! What about the shoe? Did you ever get it back?"

"Of course he did," Danny scoffed. "How could we have called him little mister goody two-shoes otherwise? C'mon Janko. If you want to make detective this year you better pick it up."

"Joe rode along with Danny to the school the next morning when he went to take his test and found it laying there on the ground. The wind from the storm must have knocked it down the night before. It was a little wet, but we dried it out and I went on to use it to bat .354 that season and made the Borough All-Star Team," Jamie replied with pride. "See Nick?" he added as he looked pointedly at his niece. "Stuff works out when you own up to it. That's why I got upset when you blew it off that accident and wanted me to lie to your mom. That guy acted just like Tyler and if Annabel and I hadn't been there he would have kept going until he did God knows what. You got out of it lucky this time and I sure don't ever want to ride up behind you on another call and find you in worse shape."

"I know, I'm sorry Mom… Uncle Jamie. Guess I was acting like an immature brat," Nicki admitted. "What I did was wrong and I'll be asking for some extra hours at the campus bookstore to pay for it. Glad I didn't have to have a nightmare like that to realize it though. Can you imagine?" she laughed. "Grandma Mary dressed up like a pirate with a peg leg in fishnet stockings?!"

"Oh believe me, we don't have to imagine it," Erin revealed as both Jamie and Danny joined her in shaking their heads at the thought while Frank's eyes twinkled and his mustache twitched upwards with the memory of a very pleasant evening that followed. "What do you think her costume was that Halloween?"


So there you have it, the great Reagan lesson of goody two-shoes, in five parts nonetheless. Remember to always tell all the truth unless you care for the vision of your mother dressed up in fishnet stockings. This Snapshot is actually longer than my first story "He lets me call him Frank now," lol! Next up might be a closer (and much shorter) look at Danny and Linda's third date night and that play for second base in the back of Henry and Betty's Studebaker after meeting the family at her first Sunday dinner.

Oh and it looks like the site reviews are broken *again* but please continue to leave them, I can read them by email and will respond to those I can just as soon as they unstick whatever is stuck and they show up on the page again.