Jack_ Secret Vengeance - F. Paul Wilson [13]
Had to be a way.
Carson Toliver, looked up to and admired by all. The guy must love to come to school every day; walking through those doors had to make him feel like a king entering his court.
But what would happen if the king lost his crown? What if things changed to make him afraid to go to school?
That would be cool.
Yeah, but how? How to change the hallway buzz from Easy Weezy to Creepy Carson … or Cowardly Carson? And all without even a hint that it had anything to do with Weezy.
Tall order. This would take some thought.
Jack wasn’t going to let this ride. One way or another, Carson Toliver was going down.
And if Jack worked it right, maybe, just maybe the creep would end up wishing someone had busted his knees instead.
TUESDAY
1
“What the hell is going on in this world?”
Jack was lying in bed, semi-awake, when he heard his father’s raised voice.
He hopped out and padded down the hall to find him standing before the TV.
“Dad?”
His father turned to him, his expression distraught. “We’ve just invaded Grenada. What the hell?”
Jack looked at the TV—nothing but talking heads there. He’d heard of Grenada but had no idea where it was.
“Is that in the Middle East?”
Dad gave him a look. “The Caribbean—near Venezuela. Apparently some commies took over and executed the prime minister and a bunch of others.”
“So we’re peacekeeping again?”
Dad shook his head. “Not this time. There’s a bunch of American kids in the medical school there. It looked like they were in danger—at least that’s the reason given—so the troops hit the beach this morning.”
“Everything okay?”
“Don’t know. They’re still fighting.” He shook his head. “What’s going on in the world these days? You never know what you’re going to find when you wake up. Bombings, invasions … what a world. What a world.”
2
Jack figured it best to play dumb.
“Where’s Weezy?” he asked when Eddie showed up at the bus stop without her.
His red Izod was tight on his overweight bod. He turned off his Walkman and pulled his headphones off his ears to let them rest on his neck.
“Not coming.” He looked uncomfortable.
“She’s still sick?”
He kept his eyes pointed north on 206, the way the bus would come. “Sort of.”
Jack didn’t know how hard to push. Weezy was his best friend and he craved information on how she was doing, but he didn’t want to step on her privacy. She obviously didn’t want anyone to know about her psychiatrist.
“‘Sort of’ how? Is she running a fever, is she contagious, what?”
Eddie turned and looked Jack in the eye. “Don’t say I told you this, but she says she’s never going to school again.”
Jack faked shock. “What? Why not?”
“She won’t say. But she locked herself in her bedroom this morning and wouldn’t come out.”
Jack shook his head. “I don’t get it.”
“Neither do I. All I know is—and after hanging around her all these years, you’ve gotta know it too—she takes some things real hard.”
Jack nodded. He’d seen it before, but never this hard.
“Well,” Eddie continued, “something must have happened in school—probably something minor that she’s blown up into something majorly hellacious.”
Obviously he hadn’t heard the Easy Weezy remarks. Jack didn’t think Eddie would consider them minor. He and Weezy didn’t always get along, but Jack sensed he’d turn tiger if he thought anyone was hurting her. Might go for Toliver and wind up hurt.
Better he didn’t know.
“She going to be all right?”
Eddie smiled. “Sure. You know her—up and down, up and down. She’ll get over it and things will go back to normal.” He shook his head. “At least as normal as things can get with Weezy.”
Jack hoped so. What if she got so low she couldn’t bounce back?
Eddie was slipping his headphones over his ears again.
“What’s on?” Jack said.
“SRV.”
“Texas Flood?”
He smiled as he clicked his Walkman back on. “He’s the greatest.”
As Eddie started nodding his head in time with the music, Jack tried to guess which song.
“‘Pride and Joy,’ right?”
Eddie shook his head. “‘I’m Cryin’.’”
Jack grinned. “Same thing.”
He too liked Stevie