Chapter Thirteen
Henry was in shock. He didn’t know if he could move. He had only heard that Tony could take the bullies down and Tony was somewhat his friend. But Michael was his closest friend and to see what his best friend did to the town’s bully was amazing. He hoped Michael would still want to be his friend. With a friend like Michael, he would never have to worry about bullies. “Come on, Henry, lets go somewhere else.” ”Ok,” Henry agreed and followed him out of the restaurant. They walked across the street to his brother’s gas station and went to his car. Michael turned to Henry, “Let’s go to Bellevue where we can get something to eat.” “Ok, Michael,” Henry said as he went around to the passenger side of the car. Soon they were driving out of Fireside. At first, Michael didn’t say a word and Henry was afraid to say anything either. Half way to Bellevue, Michael broke the silence. “Henry, you act like maybe you’re scared of me. You were one of my best friends in school and I hope you don’t look at me any different than you did before. I didn’t mean for that to happen today. If I hadn’t gotten so angry, I might not have looked so stupid.” Henry was surprised at how Michael was acting. He blurted out, “You didn’t act stupid. What else could you do? Nobody in that restaurant would think you acted stupidly. Joe is a bully and has hurt a lot of people in town. You’re a hero, just like Tony.” “You think so, Henry, I acted pretty brutal.” “Like I said, Joe has hurt a lot of people in this town and a lot of them were in that restaurant. You’re a hero, Michael. A Hero!” “So I’m a hero. I never thought I’d be that in Fireside. All I’ve ever thought of Fireside is the pain it had caused me.” Michael paused for a few moments, then continued. “Henry, does Joe pick on you a lot?” Henry wanted to act cool and say he had it under control, but that would be a lie. He wanted to act like he was a macho man and nobody bothered him, but that would be a lie. Instead, he was this scared man, who was afraid of his own shadow. His life was nothing but misery and pain. But this was Michael. They always told each other their innermost feelings and desires when they were kids. “Maybe he will understand and not make fun for the way I feel,” Henry thought. “You don’t have to tell me. That’s OK, Henry.” “Can I trust you like I did before when we were kids?” “What a stupid question! he’s going to think I’m a stupid jerk.” Henry thought to himself. “Sure, Henry, just like before,” Michael replied. “What we say between us doesn’t go any further. I have faced a lot of pain in my life and I lived a miserable life for a long time. The pain we faced in school and with our fathers was horrible.” Michael knew that Henry had the same kind of father he had. He also wanted him to continue opening up to him because he could see and feel the pain his old friend had. “The result of how my father raised me affected me for a long time,” Michael continued. “I was miserable and I always tried to act strong, but I always failed. Even after I built my body up and was learning karate, I still felt I was a weakling. After I got my feet wet a couple of times, my confidence grew. You see, I was trained by a secret unit in the Army to fight and kill. In a way, I faced the same action as Tony, only I wasn’t a soldier in Nam.” “So you know karate and everything just like Tony?” “Yes. I wanted to be part of that secret unit. I wanted to learn how to kick butt. My biggest dream was to come home and beat up all the guys who pushed us around. But when I got out of the Army, I had seen so much horror, I lost that desire.” “Then why didn’t you come home?” “Because I didn’t want anything to do with my past life. I especially didn’t want to be around my father. Even if I could have shown him how big and strong I was, I still didn’t think he would accept me. So I tried to start a new life. I had learned a skill from Uncle Al as a body man and I learned to be a mechanic from my father. So getting a job wouldn’t be a problem. But the reason I decided to be a body man was that I had good memories from the way Uncle Al taught me. Memories of my father weren’t pleasant.”
“After I was settled on a job and a place to live, I started feeling guilty that I never wrote or called anybody back home where I was. So I wrote a letter home, telling them where I was and what I was doing. Well, I got a letter from my father telling me what a rotten son I was, and never come back to Fireside.”
“Really, but nobody knew that. I would ask Randy once in a while if he heard from you, and he would always tell me no.”
“Yes, I found out yesterday, that he didn’t tell anybody.”
“You mean to tell me your father lied to everybody in town?”
“I guess so. When I saw my family they hadn’t known where I was.”
“Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know, Henry. I guess he hates me that much.” He shook his head. “I guess I’m just a big disappointment to him.”
Henry knew how that felt. His father acted the same way toward him. “Did he write any more letters back to you after that first one?”
“No, I wrote more letters to him and I always got the same response. I was also told nobody from my family wanted anything to do with me. So I quit writing them. I believed what he wrote, and thought I was done with Fireside, forever.”
“What made you come back?”
“God changed me. He has been working on me for the last year. I finally gave in to Him and here I am.”
“Are you going to live here now?”
Michael said he didn’t know and explained how his situation was set up in Texas. By the time he finished explaining they were in Bellevue, so Henry directed him to the middle part of the downtown business area on Main Street. On the south side was a restaurant named the Amsden House. Michael parked his car on the street and they went into the restaurant.
