Black Creek Crossing

Chapter 15

ETH BAKER STOPPED SHORT AS HE TURNED THE corner onto Elm Street. A quarter of the way down the block Chad Jackson and Jared Woods were throwing a football back and forth across the street between the Jacksons’ and the Woodses’ front yards. Chad and Jared had been best friends for as long as Seth had known them, which was ever since kindergarten, but he hadn’t paid much attention to them until the day eight years ago when his parents bought the house on Elm Street — and suddenly Chad and Jared’s favorite thing to do had become the torturing of Seth Baker.

Or that was the way it seemed to Seth.

He’d tried to be friends with them, or at least tried to get along with them, even though the two things they seemed to like best — baseball and football — were the things Seth hated most. Still, he’d done his best, knowing better than to argue the first time his father had sent him out into the street to join in the softball game Chad and Jared had organized. They’d let him play just long enough to find out he wasn’t any good at it, and then, when it got too dark to play any longer and everyone but Chad and Jared had gone home, they’d “pantsed” him and thrown his jeans up into the big oak tree in front of the Jacksons’ house. He’d tried to climb the tree, but only succeeded in skinning his legs, and finally went home in his underwear and T-shirt.

His father only wanted to know why he’d let it happen, and told him that the next time they tried it, he should fight back.

Seth had tried that only once, and all he’d gotten for his trouble was a black eye to go with the pantsing. After that, he’d decided it was better not to tell his father what Chad and Jared did to him and just do his best to avoid the two of them, especially when they were alone. Now, as he watched Chad toss the football to Jared, he wondered if he shouldn’t just go around the block and get to his house from the opposite direction.

He was just about to turn away when Chad called out to him. “Hey, Beth! Want to throw a few?” Beth! The nickname stung just as badly now as it had the day they’d thought it up.

The day they’d pantsed him for the first time.

“Come on, Beth,” Jared chimed in. “Don’t you want to come and play with us?” It was too late to turn away. It was better just to ignore them.

Steeling himself, Seth started down the sidewalk.

Chad Jackson began making sucking noises.

Jared Woods grabbed his crotch. “Come on, Beth — isn’t this what you want?” Seth felt his face begin to burn, but he kept on walking, moving steadily down the sidewalk.

The taunts grew louder, then Jared darted off his front lawn to stand directly in front of him, his hand still on his crotch, his lips twisted into a cruel sneer. “You want it, Beth? Huh?” Seth kept walking, staring straight ahead, and finally Jared Woods turned away, laughing loudly.

Then the football slammed into Seth’s back.

He’d been expecting it — even braced himself for it — but when it happened, it still almost knocked him off his feet.

“Jeez, Beth!” Chad Jackson yelled. “Can’t you catch anything?”

Seth clenched his jaw, resisted the almost overpowering urge to break into a run, and kept walking at exactly the pace he’d set when he decided to face Chad and Jared rather than go around the block.

Slowly, the taunts died away behind him.

Safe.

Then, as he cut across the lawn toward his own house, he saw his father framed in the open front door, and the notion of safety — along with the feeling of victory that had swelled inside him — faded away.

“Where were you?” Blake Baker asked as his son stepped onto the porch.

For a moment Seth’s mind went blank, but then it came back to him.

Golf.

This was the afternoon his father was going to pick him up after school so they could practice for the golf tournament.

He’d completely forgotten.

But he could tell from the look in his father’s eyes and the coldness in his voice that he wouldn’t forget what was going to happen next.

“Go upstairs and wait in your room,” his father said. “I’ll be up in a minute.” As he began climbing the stairs, Seth could almost feel the sting of his father’s belt.