CHAPTER NINE: Family Reunion, Part 1



No, my arm has not gotten better. Yes, Tiffany has sewn me a new Spider-Man costume. No, my father did not find out about the incident. Yes, the police are searching for Spider-Man right now. No, I did not want to go back to school the following Monday. Yes, I did go back to school the following Monday.

Looking back, I can see why I wouldn't have been able to talk my dad into letting me stay home from school. I mean, I couldn't exactly tell him that I had been shot by the police, you know? And if I had even attempted to ask him if I could stay home, then I would have to hear another one of his speeches about the importance of education. And so, I just decided to shut my mouth and go to school.

You know what really sucks? I had to sit the day out in gym, and you know how much I love to play football. As a result of my not playing in the day's game, Brian was completely annihilated by the opposition, because I was not there to save his butt. Oh well, watcha gonna do, right?

Things were pretty uneventful until lunch that day. I was at the table with Brian, while Angel was at the opposite side of the lunchroom with Andre. Ever since the Electro incident, Andre had been playing the role of tough guy, claiming that it didn't even hurt when Jason sent him hurtling a good thirty feet through the air. Of course, his dick-riding friends were all backin' him up. I just wished that Jason had succeeded in frying him.

Brian and I were eating and talking, when out of seemingly nowhere Tiffany came to the table and sat beside me.

"Rob, you gotta get out of here," Tiffany said quickly.

"Why?" I asked her.

"Because Mark is here with like twenty guys lookin' for you," she replied.

"Are you serious?"

"I just saw them coming in through the auditorium entrance and they're on their way here. I just got done running here to tell you."

I wanted to curse aloud at that moment, but I didn't. I had to think of something. Putting on the costume was not an option, and I didn't want to fight with Mark, especially if he had twenty guys with him and I was in the lunchroom in front of a bunch of my classmates. Before I could come up with a solution, my danger sense went on high alert, and I could hear the marching of twenty sets of feet moving toward the lunchroom. I stood up from my seat and looked to the entrance, and sure enough, in came Mark and his merry band of assholes. They all did a quick search of the room before Mark's eyes fell upon me. They all started walking towards me. With little time left, I turned to Tiffany and Brian.

"Get moving. Both of you," I said to them.

Tiffany and Brian hesitantly moved away from me, leaving me to stand against Mark and his boys alone.

"You thought I wasn't gonna get you back, pussy?" Mark screamed at me before swinging and connecting with my jaw.

This was quite possibly the hardest decision I ever had to make: I had to stand and let somebody kick my ass. Trust me, the decision did not sit well with me. I probably could have dismantled all of them, but how would I explain that to everybody in the school? Almost immediately, all of his boys converged upon me. Do you realize that when you're gettin' your ass kicked by twenty people, it's actually pretty hard to distinguish a fist from a foot? Don't believe me? Then go outside and provoke twenty people and get them to jump you and then I'll say, "I told you so".

The really fucked up thing was that my danger sense was going in about twenty directions at once, but what was I really gonna do? Here's the worst part: I could actually envision a knife in my mind, and it was being aimed toward me. I tried to move and avoid the blade, and it ended up grazing me on my right arm, not far from where I had been shot. Immediately after that, I found my head being stomped into the ground not once, not twice, not thrice, but...well, whatever the word for four times is. After my attackers had decided that I had received a severe enough beating, they all backed off of me, except for Mark.

"I told you to stay out of this, didn't I? I warned you, didn't I? But it ain't over. You better believe that we're gonna get your bitch, too. And your pretty little friend Angel, and your boy Brian. But before that, we already set up a little somethin' for you," said Mark.

"What are you talking about?" I managed to ask him.

"See, I had to look up some information on you, hero. And I think I know who really means the most to you, whether you wanna admit it or not. And we got her, too."

"Who?"

"We got your mom, bitch," he said as he stomped my head into the floor once more.

"What...my mom...?"

"Yeah, you know, that whore that gave birth to you. You wanna know where the slut is right now? She's fuckin' my brother for some crack right now. Now I'm gonna say this to you once, and if you don't get it, tough. If you ever fuck with me or any of my boys again, I'm gonna kill your mom. I'm gonna slit the bitch's throat and cut out her heart and mail it to you. Understand?"

I tried to rise to my feet, but I was dizzy as hell and in intense pain. I made it to a foot and a knee and grabbed him by his shirt.

"Where is she?" I demanded of him. He responded by punching me in the face and sending me back to the floor.

"Let's go," he said to his boys.

I could hear them assaulting a few school police officers on their way out. Tiffany, Angel, and Brian ran to me and tried to help me up. They were all talking to me, but I couldn't hear a word they were saying. I was still trying to comprehend what I had just heard. Was Mark telling the truth? What if my mother was really with him? Had he kidnapped her, or was she with him on purpose, just trying to get another hit? What was I going to do? I made it to my feet and stumbled out of the lunchroom, past my classmates, past the security guards, past everybody. I had to be alone to organize my thoughts. I ended up in the bathroom, running water into my hands and trying to wash away the blood on my face, as well as the blood from the knife wound on my arm.

Much of the day had been spent in the nurse's office, although I didn't feel as though I really needed to go. I was more focused upon what Mark said, and what I would do. The school wanted to call my dad and tell him what happened, but I told them that he was still on a business trip, thus preventing them from calling. He really didn't need to know the details of what was going on. At the end of the day, I headed to my locker to get my stuff. Tiffany was already waiting for me when I got there.

"Rob, I was so worried..." Tiffany said to me.

I didn't say anything back. I just opened my locker and started taking my stuff out.

"Rob? What's wrong?" she asked.

"My mom," I said without turning to look at her. "He has my mom."

"Oh my God...what are you going to do?"

I looked her in the eye at that moment, as if to tell her that she already knew the answer. I then turned back to my locker.

"Oh no...Rob, you're not gonna do what I think you're gonna do..."

I said nothing back.

"Rob, please, just call the police or something."

"And what if she's there of her own free will? You and I both know Mark sells crack, something that my mom has been addicted to for years. She's probably there just to get high. That's no cause for a kidnapping case."

"Well, then tell the cops that he's selling crack! They'll still arrest him!"

"They'll do nothing," I said as I closed my locker. I slung my bag over my arm and walked away. "But Spider-Man will put an end to this..."

*********

I was already in costume and waiting for my moment. The problem was, I had to wait about two hours for the school personnel to vacate the main office. As the janitors cleaned various areas of the school, I found myself having to find new hiding spots. At about five that evening, the principal and secretary were just exiting the office. I was perched on the ceiling, watching them both. Just as the principal was closing the office door, I managed to slip inside undetected. I heard her lock the door, and then she and the secretary walked away. I dropped to the floor and started searching through the cabinets for student records. Once I found them, I started shifting through them. I went straight for the "W" section, for "Wilkins, Mark", and his file was indeed there. The address was on his index card. I slipped the card into my bag and exited through the window.

*********

Mark lived in North Philly, where a lot of crack dealers operated. The problem was, he wasn't home. I snuck into his house through a window and looked around, but there was nobody home. I paused in thought, trying to figure out where I might be able to find him. That's when I felt the tingle on my neck. The knob on the door was turning. I instinctively leapt to the ceiling and aimed my hand toward the door, ready to engulf his head in webbing and suffocate him. But it was not him. Instead, a dark-skinned, middle-aged woman walked in, carrying groceries. It was most likely his mother. Odds were, she wouldn't know where I could find him. I would have to look elsewhere. As quietly as possible, I moved toward the window and slinked out of it.

I was running along the rooftops of North Philly for about an hour, just checking for suspicious behavior. It was getting dark, and I had found no sign of Mark. However, I had no intention of giving up. I leapt to the edge of a building and stared down at the street. Down below, barely concealed by the shadows of a building, I could see a man and a woman. The woman was on her knees, performing oral sex on the man. The woman looked vaguely familiar. My heart skipped a beat at the thought of who it might be. The woman pulled her head back momentarily, and it was just long enough for me to get a good look at her face.

"Mom..." I said aloud in disbelief.

I leapt straight down and let myself fall to the ground. Even after I landed, I found myself staring in disbelief. It had been years since I had actually seen my mother, and to see her like this after all this time was devastating. I was so distracted that I had barely reacted in time to my danger sense. I turned around, but I was too late. I felt a baseball bat crack me in the side of the head. My body hit the ground immediately.

"Well, how about that? They said that you been tryin' to bust some dealers around here. I'm glad I listened. Now I get to be the one to kill you."

I recognized the sound of his voice. Slowly, I looked up at my attacker and tried to focus upon him to make out his face. It was exactly who I thought it was...Mark.



TO BE CONTINUED...