Wednesday, February 12th, 2020, Morning

The alarm woke Baxter at 7:00 a.m. This was 45 minutes later than usual; it meant he got 45 minutes more sleep because he wouldn’t be riding to school with Vincent. His pop had to pick up Elizabeth after school and take her to her semi-annual doctor’s exam and checkup. That meant Baxter would ride his bike to school and back. He could have ridden to school with his pop then walk home, but it looked like it might rain, and riding his bike home would be much faster than walking so he wouldn’t get as wet.

As he got ready for school, for some reason he thought back to the Carol Brown trial. It seemed to Baxter that it took much too long to determine the penalties for her.

The district attorney didn’t find that her crimes were felonies. Instead, Carol Brown was charged with several misdemeanors: 1. She’d collected records from confidential CPS student’s files for the names of foster kids who had identified themselves as gay or bisexual; 2. She’d grabbed and injured Baster’s arm (it helped that he had asked his teacher to photograph the bruise), 3. She’d claimed that she was from CPS when she was not since she’d been fired before she accosted Baxter at school.

Unfortunately, CPS didn’t want the embarrassment of having originally hired Carol Brown without adequately checking her background. These lapses in searching the background of candidates for employment were not released to the public — but steps were taken to help prevent future issues in order to prevent access to private CPS information.

As a result, the attempted kidnapping charge wasn’t included on Carol Brown’s arrest warrant. That was a bummer! This was the most important charge, in Baxter’s opinion. But Baxter understood why it wasn’t included. There was insufficient evidence to arrest her as a kidnapper.

All that Carol Brown received was a fine for each misdemeanor. The court hadn’t divulged the amount; it was to be made public once she paid the fines or submitted a petition for a rehearing of the charges.

Baxter didn’t have to appear. That was the only good thing that resulted from the trial. He hadn’t wanted to appear as a victim or a witness. He hadn’t wanted to appear at all, and his wish was granted.

Baxter assumed the Carol Brown incident was over and done with. He should be able to forget about it. Sometimes, like this morning, that was easier to say than to do.

Wednesday, February 12th, 2020, Breakfast

So, instead, Baxter made himself recall all of the days off and the holidays, and he did so with a big smile.

It started in November and Thanksgiving had been wonderful. Baxter met most of his relatives for the first time, and they had a great time and a fantastic dinner. The cousins get-together were fun and interesting and he got to know the other kids.

December had been perfect. They had almost a week for finals, then a week off for Christmas break. There was a tree, decorations, and gifts.

In January there had been a week for winter break, plus an extra day off because there was a teacher’s meeting.

Now, in mid-February, schools would have two days off for Presidents’ Day. Like most kids, Baxter was looking forward to this four-day break which included the two weekend days. Never the less, it was still four consecutive days with no school. It would allow him to concentrate on hobbies.

There were two hobbies that changed for Baxter and Elizabeth — though it was more accurate to say that their activities had been exchanged. Baxter enjoyed cooking and had been active in the kitchen based on his experience when he lived with his mother. Elizabeth was a writer, always adding paragraphs and pages to her life story.

But these had turned around, resulting in new directions for each of them.

Baxter discovered writing in his English 1 class. He became an active, non-stop writer, and could always be found at his keyboard writing another short story. He joked about it, saying it was a hobby. He submitted his stories to an on-line website but wasn’t eager to share them with his parents yet. Maybe he’d be less constrained once he’d taken a more professional class, like the creative writing class that Vincent would teach again next year. There were tools that he could use to check his stories. For the time being, he used the on-line spelling and grammar checkers built into Microsoft Word. The advantage was cost: they were included for no charge.

Elizabeth, who had joked that her cooking skills were limited to burning water, had discovered cooking at Thanksgiving. She found this was a better way to reflect her interests than writing; it became her primary activity, though she occasionally updated the book she’d been writing. Her favorite reading material changed to books about cooking. Not cookbooks, but books about the art of cooking. She became a pastry chef. She discovered baking and found it diverse and personally pleasurable. Cooking and baking were something she was eager to share with her family. She found it had to be shared for her to succeed at her new craft.

It was an interesting change of activities. Both Rob and Vincent accepted the switch that Baxter and Elizabeth made to explore their new passions. They didn’t make a big deal of the change in interests unless it was brought up by the kids themselves. Since writing was personal, Baxter didn’t share or talk about his writing. Elizabeth was eager to talk about what she was doing because while cooking and baking were personal, they needed to be shared with the other family members to be appreciated, . This was another switch in perspective the kids had made, each on their own.

But today was again another school day for both Baxter and his sister.

Since it was Wednesday, Baxter had three subjects. The first was English 1 with Ms. Carpenter. This was an easy subject for Baxter, and he looked forward to the class. He knew there’d be a writing assignment due at the end of class. That’s how things usually worked. Regardless, there were a lot of groans and grumbling about the assignment. It had been discussed in class last Thursday and on Monday. So what were people groaning about? Baxter didn’t understand.

Wednesday, February 12th, 2020, Lunch

It rained during lunch. That meant it wasn’t possible to eat outside, so the cafeteria was jammed with about twice as many kids as usual. Baxter wasn’t surprised that happened; it was one way the Weather Gods arranged things so they could have a good laugh at the students. However, because building 200 where he had his fifth period Digital Arts class was just before lunch and was adjacent to the quad and the cafeteria, he arrived before all the tables were full. He grabbed the table where he and his friends usually ate lunch, and he was soon joined by Mike and their other friends.

“What’s the weather supposed to be when we get out of school?” Mike asked.

Baxter pulled out his cellphone; lunch was the only time that kids could use their cellphones at Las Lomas High without approval of a teacher or administrator. He read the weather forecast. “The weather is expected to be cloudy with occasional light showers until two o’clock,” he reported.

“Good,” Mike said. “I ride my bike to and from school every day, so not having to ride home in the rain is excellent.” Baxter agreed with the part about not riding home in the rain.

After a long lecture in his sixth period Living Earth class, Baxter almost headed for Vince’s AP English Literature classroom. Then he remembered he was riding his bike home. It wasn’t raining, though it was cloudy and looked like it might rain later. He sent a text to his pop to remind him that he would be riding his bike home today.

Wednesday, February 12th, 2020, After School

When he got to his house, he had a strange feeling that someone was watching him. It made him feel creepy, and he decided not to look around. He stopped in the driveway and pulled his keys out of his pocket. He had a fob for opening the garage door, so he pressed the button, and as soon as he got inside, he pressed it again to close the door. He hung his bike on the rack against the wall and unlocked the door into the house. The alarm beeped continuously, so he keyed in the code to disarm it. Then, still feeling uncomfortable, he set the house alarm to Stay mode. That made him feel more secure. He’d have to remember not to open any windows or exterior doors without disabling the alarm first. He sent a text to his pop to let him know that he was home, and that Stay mode was on. He didn’t mention the feeling he had.

He went to his room and changed into more comfortable clothes, then went to the kitchen and checked the refrigerator to see what he could find for a snack. He picked two Fuji apples and cored and quartered them. He put them on a dish, grabbed a napkin, and returned to his room to get started on his homework. He wanted to finish it so he’d have the rest of the afternoon and evening to do whatever he wanted, including completing his latest short story.

Mr. Cooperman had covered the next two chapters in the Geometry Honors class. There were a large number of problems to solve at the end of each chapter. Ugh! Whatever, he finished them all, then checked to make sure his answers were correct.

Next, he worked on his Photoshop project for his Digital Design class. He wondered if he was overworking his design, going back and making small changes he realized didn’t improve on — or detract from — his original graphics. He stopped and thought for a few seconds. ‘That’s enough. No more changes!’

He opened his Living Earth textbook, and checked his notes about the chapters he needed to study for an exam on Friday.

After about forty-five minutes, he heard the doorbell. He opened the security system app on his laptop and displayed the views from the three cameras on the front porch. He clicked on the one in the door itself; that camera had replaced the peep-hole but looked almost the same from the outside.

Baxter growled. It was Keith Jackman, the tall young guy from the court who’d objected to his adoption. He’d been with Carol Brown and the fat preacher. He remembered the preacher’s last name was Wentworth. He switched to the cameras that faced the street. The black SUV those two had been in when it left from school the other day was parked in front of neighbor’s house, and the fat guy was in the driver’s seat. Carol Brown was standing on the other side of the car with the passenger door open.

The doorbell rang again. He switched back to the front door camera and watched Keith Jackman turn around and shrug his shoulders. Probably to indicate to Carol Brown that no one was answering. She walked across the street to the Choi’s front door, then yelled and pounded on the door.

“We know you’re home and that you’re alone.” She screeched. “Open up, or we’ll break the door down. I have a gun.”

That was more than enough. Baxter picked up his cellphone and dialed 9-1-1.

“What is your emergency?”

“My name is Baxter Choi. I live at 116 Orchard Lane in Walnut Creek. I’m fourteen years old. We have a 300-yard restraining order against a woman named Carol Brown and two men named Keith Jackman and Desmond Wentworth. They are parked across the street from my house and are pounding on my front door trying to get in, and the woman just yelled that she has a gun. I’m home alone. Please send the police right away. I’m afraid they’ll break in and try to kidnap me.”

“I’ve dispatched two patrol cars. Your name is on our watch list. Are you in a safe place?”

“I think so. I’m in my bedroom, but our house is only one story so they could get in through the side yard by climbing over the fence and breaking a window.”

“Do you have an alarm system?”

“Yes. It’s one of those smart home alarms. Each of our cellphones and computers has the Smart Home app. Everything is recorded by each of our cameras, both video and sound.”

“Is there an emergency alarm button to make the alarm start ringing outside?”

“Yes.”

“First, please stay on the line with me. Second, I suggest that you press that alarm button right now. That should scare them away.”

“Okay, but then won’t they get away before the police arrive?”

“You said your alarm is taking both video and audio of the people on your front porch. We can always find and arrest them later. You’re better off with them gone.”

“Okay. I’ll turn on the emergency alarm from my laptop.”

“Have you enabled the emergency alarm?”

Baxter held down the Alt key and pressed the emergency button on his screen. The alarm was very loud and startled Mrs. Brown and Keith Jackman, and they stepped off the front porch. They both held their hands over their ears.

“I just enabled it. You can probably hear it through my phone.”

Baxter heard her laugh. “Yes, I definitely hear it through your phone.”

Carol Brown and Keith Jackman, with their fingers in their ears, returned to the front porch and kicked on the front door to break in. All it did was make a loud noise. Carol Brown removed her finger from her right ear then pulled a gun out of her purse. Baxter yelled to the dispatcher, “The woman, Carol Brown, just pulled out a gun!”

Keith Jackman ran to the sidewalk and turned around to look toward the house. Carol Brown backed up and pointed her gun at the front door and tried to fire it. She tried again, several times. Nothing happened. He told the dispatcher what Carol Brown tried to do; the dispatcher said that it could be that the gun wasn’t loaded, or it had jammed, or the safety was on. Whatever had happened, Carol Brown looked at the gun then put back into her purse.

At this point Desmond Wentworth yelled something from across the street. Because of the loud alarm, Baxter couldn’t hear what he was saying. This time Carol Brown ran to the sidewalk where Keith Jackman was standing. Desmond Wentworth stepped out of the SUV and again yelled something across the street to them. She and Keith Jackman ran across the street to the SUV, but before they could get in, two Walnut Creek police cars pulled up, blocking the SUV and preventing their escape.

“The police are here, and they’re arresting all three of them,” Baxter told the dispatcher.

“If you’re safe now, you can turn off your alarm. The police will appreciate having it silenced.”

“Okay, I disabled the alarm. All three have been shoved face-down on the street. Now all three are being searched. They found her gun. Now they are being handcuffed. Now they’re being shoved into the back seat of one of the police cars. One of the policemen is coming toward my front door, so I’ll go and talk to him. I guess we don’t have to stay on the line any longer. Thanks for your help!” Baxter said.

“Are you sure you’re alright? Should I phone one of your fathers?”

“No, I’m really fine now and my pop will be home in a little while. Thanks for helping me.”

“You stayed calm and in control, and helped prevent something serious from happening. Goodbye, Baxter.”

“Thanks, and goodbye.” He ended the call and went through the living room and opened the front door.

“Are you Baxter Choi?” the officer asked.

“Yes. You can come in if you want.”

It looked like he planned to stay on the front porch. “Are you home alone?”

“Yes.”

“How old are you?”

“Fourteen.”

“When will your parents be home?”

“My pop took my sister to get her annual exam at the doctor’s office. They should be home in a few minutes. My dad works in Oakland. He should be home at about six o’clock. I go to Las Lomas High and I got home about an hour and a half ago. I started doing my homework, then Carol Brown and Keith Jackman tried to break in. I got it all on video and audio.”

“Alright. The dispatcher told me you did a very competent job working with her on the phone.

“Thanks. I’m glad she stayed on the line with me and walked me through what I should do.” Baxter said. “Is there anything that you need from me?”

The policeman introduced himself as Officer Davis Simmonds and gave him a business card. He told Baxter he needed some basic information. Baxter invited him in, and they sat across from each other in the living room.

The information the officer needed was his name, address, and phone number, his parents’ names, the house phone number, the names of the perpetrators, and a copy of the video and audio files from the home security system. “Everything from the security system is on a hard drive, both video and audio. I can ask my Dad to send it to you.” Then Baxter provided the other personal information the officer had asked for. Then he described what happened when Carol Brown and Keith Jackman arrived at his front door.

“My phone number and email address are on my card,” Officer Simmonds said. “Please have your dad email the video and audio files to me. If you have problems, you can contact me at my phone number.”

Wednesday, February 12th, 2020, Early Evening

When Vincent got home with Elizabeth, everything that happened with Carol Brown when she tried to break in to the Choi home were discussed for at least thirty minutes.

When Rob got home, Baxter had to repeat the story about what happened. Rob had ideas about installing more technical gadgetry to discourage Carol Brown and her henchmen if they got bailed out of jail and tried to get at Baxter. Vincent preferred non-technical solutions. He suggested until he was able to leave at the end of the school day, Baxter and Elizabeth could wait at their school and he’d pick them up and drive them home.

The kids had several reasonable objections to that suggestion, including the offices closed too early at Walnut Creek Intermediate on most days, and Baxter couldn’t start on his homework right away like he did every afternoon.

“How about a carpool?” Rob suggested.

“A carpool means several parents are sharing the driving of their kids and the kids of the others in the carpool to and from school. That wouldn’t work because we couldn’t act as drivers on our assigned days in a carpool,” Vincent replied. “Instead, how about scheduling a Lyft or Uber car to pick them up and drive to school and home?”

“Well, let’s think about all of these ideas and discuss them this weekend. Okay?” Rob suggested.

Vincent, Baxter, and Elizabeth agreed with the last suggestion. They’d wait and talk about the options together this weekend. ‘Or later in the future,’ Baxter thought.

Baxter still didn’t say anything about his feeling that someone had been watching him. It was too nebulous. ‘Hmm,’ he thought, ‘nebulous is a cool word that will work in the story I’m writing. I have to remember it.’ He repeated the word several times to himself. Then he realized he’d gone off-topic, and the other three were staring at him.

“Uh… sorry. I was thinking about something else.”

“We kind of figured that out,” Elizabeth said. Then she giggled.

Wednesday, February 12th, 2020, After Dinner

Baxter was sitting at his desk in his bedroom with his Living Earth textbook open. He was reviewing the chapter that Mr. Pressmoor had assigned for Friday’s exam. He always liked to work a week or two ahead in each of his classes. It made it easier when it was time to study for a test and to maintain his straight-A average in each class. It also meant that he’d cover the material in the textbook and be able to focus on the lectures during the week before the exam. That’s what he was doing tonight.

Baxter heard a knock on his door jamb and looked up. He’d left the door open, and Elizabeth was standing there, biting her lower lip. He’d learned that she had that habit when she had a serious question to ask him.

“Come on in,” he said.

“I don’t want to pull you away from studying for a test or something,” she said.

“I’m just reviewing material that will be covered in a test I’m having on Friday. So have a seat.” He pointed to his bed. “I need a break from reading my Living Earth textbook, anyway.”

He swung his desk chair around. She sat on the end of his bed, so they were facing each other.

Baxter smiled. “So, do you have something you want to talk about or to ask me?”

“Yeah. What you told Pop and Dad about that woman who tried to kidnap you scares me. What if she gets out of jail? How would we find out? I’m afraid that she might try to kidnap you. And me, too.”

“That’s a good question, Elizabeth. I don’t want to scare you, but this part is the truth. The woman’s name is Carol Brown, and she’s usually with her two henchmen. They are a skinny young guy named Keith Jackman and a fat older guy named Desmond Wentworth. Keith Jackman was the one in court who objected to my being adopted by two men who were married to each other.” He chucked. “As if that would make any difference to me.”

“Are they the ones that attacked you at school a few months ago?”

“Yes, but only Carol Brown and Desmond Wentworth were at Las Lomas High. She was the one who tried to drag me off-campus and caused the bruises on my arm. She was saying that my adoption papers were incomplete or had errors or something. If the court issued them, why did I have to go to the CPS office? That was the question in my mind when it was happening. She said that my caseworker was being transferred to Sacramento. But if Mrs. Taylor was switched to Sacramento, it wouldn’t have happened all of a sudden, like the same day. And, she would have let me and other kids she was responsible for know she was changing positions. What’s more important, I don’t have a caseworker at CPS. Since I’ve been adopted, I have a caseworker at CDSS instead. Same as you, Elizabeth.”

“I don’t think I have any kind of caseworker anymore at either CPS or CDSS,” she said. At least I haven’t been told who it would be.”

“It’s probably because you were adopted over a year ago. I still have a caseworker, but she’s from CDSS since I’ve been adopted, not from CPS which I had when I was being fostered. But it’s the same person who was my caseworker back then. Her name’s Betty Taylor.”

She giggled. “What’s CDSS?”

“It’s the California Department of Social Services,” he replied. “CPS is part of CDSS.”

“That’s confusing. Anyway, why would you still need a caseworker?”

“They want to know that my adoption is going okay. So CDSS assigned a caseworker to me. She’s going to talk to Rob and Vincent and to me, too, a few times this year.

“Anyway, you wanted to know about Carol Brown, right?”

“Uh-huh. What are they going to do about her and the two men with her?”

“I don’t know, and Dad and Pop are wondering about the same thing. We think that they are going to take her to trial because this was the second time. And because she had a handgun this time, they won’t have any problem finding her guilty at the trial. The D.A. told Dad and Pop they expect her to be arraigned in a couple weeks and the charges will be tripled because I’m a juvenile and she pulled out her gun, said she’d shoot me, and tried to fire it.”

“Yeah,” Elizabeth said, “I’m just worried that woman might get out of jail and come after you again. And maybe me, too.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Baxter responded, trying to calm her down. “I don’t think she’ll be able to make bail. The D.A. said they’d ask for a half-million for her and something less for Keith Jackman and for Desmond Wentworth. I don’t think their so-called church can afford any money for bail.”

“Will you have to go to court and be a witness?”

“Yup! This time I’m looking forward to the trial. I’ll be a witness and I intend to tell everything that she did or tried to do to me both times. Mr. Decker is coming to the trial from Sacramento. He’s the head of CDSS. He’ll tell about how she broke into the files and looked up kids who checked the boxes that identified themselves as gay or bi so they could try to kidnap them. Remember, I’d checked the gay box.”

“Are you sorry about doing that?” she asked.

“No, not at all.”

She grinned. “Good! I’m glad you checked it, too.”

After Elizabeth was finished questioning Baxter, she left to start on her homework. Baxter wondered why he and his fathers still hadn’t heard anything from the district attorney’s office about the Carol Brown case. His dad told him that was typical; they kept information about perpetrators from their victims until they had enough evidence to decide about the charges and set a date for an arraignment. He also said that her attorney claimed he would petition the court for a retrial on what she did to Baxter at Las Lomas High.

As if he’d wished it, the next day they received a letter from the district attorney’s office that the case had been scheduled to proceed on Monday, March 2nd in the superior court in Martinez. He made sure his dad and his pop would agree that he could attend the trial — or at least as much of the trial he could attend without missing too many school days. Any days he missed, his dad would use some of his vacation days so he could attend the trial and keep Baxter updated.