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The Energy of Sun Rays

Joe: Redux

He was glad that Carrie had called ahead. Otherwise, Joe would have been hard put to keep his voice from rising to its full volume. "What happened to you?"

Jamie stared at his toes. "Nothin'."

"Nothing? You tore your shirt and scratched your face and — why are you cradling your wrist like that if it's nothing?"

"I don't want to talk about it!" He turned toward the upstairs, only to see that Carrie had sidled around to block his way. "Aw, come on, Carrie, I need to change clothes before I head over to Mom and Lee's."

"I think," she said mildly, "I'm going to call them and ask them to come over here instead. It's been a while since we all had dinner together anyway."

"Aren't we supposed to do that next week for Christmas?"

"There's no reason we can't do both."

"You're changing the subject," snapped Joe. "What happened to you?"

"I told you! Nothing!"

"Don't lie to me!"

Jamie didn't answer, but Carrie gave him a sharp look, so Joe forced himself to take several deep breaths and unclench his fists before continuing. "Okay. Did you fall? Is that how you got hurt?"

No response.

"James, it doesn't make any sense for you to keep on claiming that 'nothing' happened to you. Not when you look like this. And I'd like to see that wrist."

"It's no big deal."

"That wasn't a request."

With a scowl, he came over and presented it. There didn't seem to be much swelling, and nothing looked out of place. There were some bruises, but they seemed minor. When Joe pushed the fingers open from where they'd been fisted, though, Jamie yelped and yanked his hand back, his eyes tearing up.

"Hurts, does it? Can you use the hand?"

Jamie shook his head.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Carrie had gotten the first-aid kit out. "Okay," he continued. "What about your shirt and your face?" He brushed the scabbed-over scratches lightly, which didn't seem to elicit much reaction, and they certainly looked as though they were superficial. "Did you fall?"

"Yeah. Kind of."

"Kind of? How do you 'kind of' fall?"

Jamie shrugged again, dropping his eyes.

"Did someone push you? Is that how you fell?"

At that, Jamie's eyes closed. "Yeah."

Carrie returned to the living room with a wet cloth and an elastic bandage, drawing Jamie over to the love seat. "You're going to have to open your hand back out so I can do this, little man. But I'll go as fast as I can."

Nodding, Jamie did so, although he paled again, a few tears spilling out onto his cheeks. "You think it's broken?" asked Joe.

"I'm not sure," she answered him. "It could just be sprained. By the time he got to the school the doctor's office had already closed for the weekend and the nurse had gone home. That's why we came back here instead, since I couldn't get into her office to get any supplies. You're doing great, Jamie." She had already finished cleaning the area and had begun to wind the bandage. "Just a bit longer."

"I know," he gasped.

"Who pushed you, son? Did they say why?"

Jamie's eyes were screwed shut and his mouth was puckered in pain, but he was able to shake his head.

"All right," he conceded. "I'll call over to Amanda's. Were their cars in front of their townhouse?"

"Amanda's minivan was. I didn't see Lee's car." She finished winding the bandage and secured it with two safety pins. "But I was paying more attention to getting here than I was to what I passed. Besides, he sometimes parks out at the far edge of the lot." He'd claimed he did that to keep the Corvette from being scratched, but Joe privately suspected it was to make it less visible from the road. "Jamie, you can go upstairs and clean up. But come right back down afterward. We're going to have to finish talking about this."

"Do we have to?"

"Yes," Joe heard her say as he began dialing.

"Oh my gosh!" Amanda ran straight to Jamie, pulling him into a hug before she knelt down to take a look at him. "What happened?"

"That's what we're still trying to find out," said Joe, bringing a tray in from the kitchen. He'd extracted a beer from the fridge for himself, but had juice and aspirin for Jamie, along with tea for the ladies. "All I know is he got pushed. You ready to add to that yet?"

Jamie flopped down onto the love seat, favoring his bandaged wrist. "No."

"Well, you're going to have to tell us something. Take the aspirin, sweetheart. It'll make you feel better. Although I guess if you're wrapping it up here instead of going to the doctor, it means it's not broken. It isn't, is it? You can't always tell when it's the wrist, you know. It's real easy to mistake a sprain for a break and vice-versa. I mean, Mo —" she cut herself off for a second. "Mother did that once, and it wasn't until two months later when it was still hurting that she finally went to the doctor and it turned out she'd had a broken wrist the whole time. By then it had healed wrong and they had to go in and do surgery. Have you called the d —"

"I wasn't able to reach them," interrupted Carrie. "I'll probably try again on Monday."

Amanda put her hand to her head and swayed slightly. Joe frowned. He'd never seen her get queasy over the boys' injuries before. "Why don't you sit down?"

"Thank you." She took a long drink. "I'll take Monday off so I can take Jamie to the doctor."

Carrie shook her head. "I'm on school break already. There's no need to —"

"Yeah, there is," said Joe. "Carrie can't sign the permission to treat." He paused, noticing that Amanda's color had improved. "Are you all right? Maybe you should go in yourself while you're at it."

"I'm fine. Now, Jamie," she continued, "your Dad says you got pushed. Who pushed you?"

He stared at his toes. "Didn't see."

"Was it an accident?"

"I doubt it," said Joe. "Look at his face. It happened outside, didn't it? And you landed on the sidewalk."

"Yeah," he mumbled, shoulders drooping. "We were outside."

"Who were you with?"

"No one. I was by myself, running to the bus."

"Did any teachers see it?"

He shook his head.

"Jamie," asked Amanda, "are we going to have a repeat of what we went through when you got into those fights?"

His face came up at that, eyes wide. "I wasn't fighting! I was walking away, the way you told me to! Well, okay, I was running, but that wasn't because I was afraid of them. It was because I thought I was gonna miss the bus."

"'Them,' who?" asked Joe. He could hear his voice getting tight again.

Jamie shook his head. "Not important."

"It's very important if someone was giving you a hard time. What were they hassling you about?"

He shrugged. "Same old, same old."

"About your Mom?"

No answer.

Amanda bit her lip. "Jamie, did Bobby Boyd or Tad or Katie Carlisle call me a whore again?"

"No!" The word burst out. "It wasn't them, 'cause they all walk home. It was some of the eighth graders saying that…" he trailed off. "Just that it was a shame Grandma hadn't left you enough life insurance, so you had to put our house up for sale and I had to ride the bus now. And that your new husband wasn't much of a man if he wasn't willing to help out. Nor were you, Dad, since you were too busy with your —" he stopped. "I'm not gonna say that, 'cause it's an ugly word."

Now the color in Amanda's face had actually risen, and Joe couldn't say he blamed her. It was taking more and more effort to stay calm himself. "Were they talking about Carrie's skin color? Was that the ugly word?"

"Yeah. But Dad, it was mostly about you and Mom, not Lee or Carrie, and I did what you said! I walked away 'cause it wasn't worth it! They're just all trying to prove that they're all grown up since they're gonna start high school next year. I told them that picking on a sixth grader didn't make 'em any more than bullies, and that's when they all got around me in a circle and I knew I was gonna get in big trouble if I stayed there. But I don't think they expected me to shove through and take off running."

He was already on his feet. "That does it. I'm calling the school."

"They won't be back until after New Year's," said Carrie.

"I want him transferred!"

"So do I," said Amanda. "Joe, sweetheart, please. Listen to me." She had climbed back to her feet to face him, though her hands were still a bit shaky. "I'll call the superintendent's office on Monday and get him transferred to — what zone are we in, anyway?"

"Swanson," murmured Carrie.

"Swanson!" cried Jamie. "What if I don't want to go to Swanson?"

"It's just for the rest of the school year," said Amanda. "Remember that Lee and I are going to look for a new house as soon as the old one sells? We've actually…" she trailed off, and her blush this time seemed different, somehow, from her earlier one. "He likes the area around Rockville, and it does have good schools and houses that work for us, in our price range."

"Rockville! All the way in Maryland? No, Mom, we can't move there!"

"Jamie," said Carrie, her voice still soft. "There's nothing wrong with Rockville."

"But I want to spend time with you and Dad even after I move back in with them! I can't do that if I'm so far away!"

At that, Carrie gave him a pleading expression, but Joe couldn't quite bring himself to meet either Jamie's eyes or hers. The official decision about their next assignment was supposed to come through by the end of the year, but while he'd been quietly assured that they had gotten the posting they'd requested, he hadn't yet seen anything in writing.

Fortunately, a knock on the door saved him from having to tell any lies.