Reaching Out

Chapter 7: Hate Strikes Again

By Grant Bentley

“Our house is on fire!” John cried into the phone. “Someone threw a gasoline bomb through the kitchen window.”

“We’re on our way,” Jason told him. “We’ll be there as fast as we can.”

As soon as Jason told me what was happening, we dropped everything and ran out to the car. Within five minutes we were driving down their street. We were stopped by the police and told we could go no further. Jason was out of the car almost before it stopped and was running as fast as he could. John was just standing there, staring at the flames as they consumed the only home he had ever known. Jason ran up to him and put his arm around him. John immediately spun around, wrapped his arms around Jason and began sobbing. I ran over and put an arm around both of them and just stood there staring at the flames.

As I was standing there, I glanced up the street and I noticed someone standing between two trucks that were parked a few houses down. He was grinning like he had just won the lottery. I thought that was a really strange reaction, so I slowly made my way over to a police officer that was standing close by. I told him that I thought the person who threw the gas bomb was standing down the street. He looked over to where I had indicated and replied that the guy did look a little too happy about the fire. He thanked me and a few minutes later I saw four police officers slowly moving down the street. The guy must have seen them too, because he suddenly took off running. He didn’t get very far before one of the officers caught up to him and slammed him down face first into the snow. ‘Too bad it wasn’t the sidewalk,’ I thought. They handcuffed him and led him to a police cruiser.

Jason happened to look up at that moment and saw them putting the guy into the cruiser.

“No!” he shouted.

John immediately looked over and saw the guy.

“You bastard!” he shouted. “You fuckin’ bastard!” He tried to pull away, but Jason held on tight.

When he heard John shout, Ian was there in an instant. He looked in the direction we were looking and started towards the guy, but a police officer stopped him.

“We’ve got it,” he said to Ian.

In the mean time, the officer I had spoken to had made his way back over to us. “Thanks,” he said to me.

He looked at the boys, put his hand on John’s shoulder and said, “We got him and he’ll be dealt with.”

“That’s my stepfather,” Jason told the officer.

“Excuse me?” the officer asked.

“That’s my stepfather,” Jason repeated.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You’ve got to be joking,” I said.

“He was trying to kill us,” Jason responded as tears welled up in his eyes. “He figured I’d be at John’s and he tried to kill us.”

John wrapped his arms tighter around Jason and started to comfort him. I realized then the extent of his love for Jason. John was standing in front of his burning home, but he was comforting Jason.

The officer looked shocked and asked Jason to explain what he was talking about. We gave him a quick overview of the events of the past few days. He wrote most of it down, but he asked us to come into the police station later to give complete statements. We agreed to be there the next morning.

I stepped over to Ian and gave him a hug, then put my hand on his shoulder and stood with him and the boys as we watched the firemen bring the fire under control. As we stood there, I felt some arms wrap around me. I looked down and found it was Pete, with tears in his eyes. It was then that I noticed he was not alone; Ross had his arm around Ian, and Cary, Scott, Evan, and Theo had Jason and John wrapped up in a group hug.

Eventually, we decided that there was no point in standing around. The fire was out and there was nothing we could do, anyway. I told Ian and John that they would be staying with us for the foreseeable future. I didn’t get an argument. I invited the others to come over to the house with us. I thought that it would be good for John and Jason to have some company for a while. The four of us headed over to my car and I drove us home. The others followed in their cars. Ian and I went to the kitchen and I poured us each a coffee. The kids all went to Jason’s room. Everyone was pretty quiet. I don’t think anyone knew quite what to say. About midnight, the kids left, each one giving John a hug as they went and letting him know they were there for him, whatever he needed. Soon afterwards, Jason came out and said that he and John were going to bed. Ian got up and went to make sure John was okay, and to give him a hug. Jason came over to me and gave me a hug. As soon as he did, the tears started.

“Why?” was all he said as he pulled away and returned to his room to comfort John.

Ian came back into the kitchen and sat down again. He just looked at me with a totally lost look in his eyes. I reached over and put my hand on his and gave it a little squeeze. He asked the same question Jason had as his eyes filled with tears.

“Come on,” I said. “It’s late and we should try to get some sleep.”

“There’s no way I could sleep right now,” he said.

“I understand,” I said, “but at least come and lie down. Even if you don’t sleep, at least you’ll rest.”

“Okay, you’re right. I guess should try to rest, at least,” he replied as he slowly got up and followed me to my room.

Neither one of us felt like undressing, so we just lay back on the bed. After about fifteen minutes, Ian slowly rolled over, wrapped his arms around me, rested his head on my shoulder and began to cry. I just held him, stroked his hair and let him cry himself out. At some point during the night, we both fell asleep. It was about 9:30 when we woke up to find ourselves wrapped in each other’s arms. I’m not sure who woke up first, but neither of us moved. Finally, Ian said, “Morning.”

“Morning,” I replied.

We still didn’t move.

But we knew that, like every morning, nature would call, and sooner or later, we would have to get up. We looked in on the boys and found them still fast asleep, lying the way we had been, wrapped in each other’s arms. We made our way to the kitchen and I put the coffee on. Dinner was still on the table from the night before, so I cleared everything up and just put it in the sink. I asked Ian if he was as hungry as I was and he nodded. The two of us then started to hunt for something to have for breakfast. I assumed the boys would also be starving when they got up as they hadn’t eaten since lunchtime yesterday either.

The boys eventually came dragging down the hallway at about 11:00. Ian and I had already eaten by then. I asked them if they were hungry and got a grunt from John and a nod from Jason. I had been keeping everything warm in the oven, so I set the food out for them. Once they started to eat, it didn’t take long for them to wake up fully. They didn’t talk much, though; they just shoveled food into their mouths as fast as they could without choking.

Once they were finished and we were all sitting back finishing our coffees, John looked at Ian and the first thing he said was, ”Mom’s portrait.”

Ian looked at him and smiled. “That, the picture of you and Jason, and the photo albums were the first things I grabbed after I knew you were safe,” he said. “They’re in the car, which is parked in the yard, out of the danger zone.”

At that, John burst into tears and jumped up to hug his father. He looked Ian in the eyes and said, “Have I told you lately how much I love you?” Ian just grinned and gave him a squeeze.

As we were finishing our coffees, I called the school. As soon as I told the secretary who it was, she put me through to Mr. Thiessen. He immediately wanted to know how Ian and John were, and then asked how Jason and I were doing. I told him we were all fine, considering the circumstances. I told him that we would probably being keeping the boys out of school for the rest of the day, and possibly the next day as well. He said that he understood, and that we didn’t have to worry. He also told me that everyone in the school was aware of what happened, as many of them were there, and they were anxiously waiting for some news. He asked me if I would mind if he made an announcement letting the students and teachers know that we were doing well, and that John and Jason would be back on Thursday. I told him I thought that was probably a good idea. He asked me to give everyone his best and we said goodbye.

After breakfast, John wanted to go over to the house to see if there was anything he could salvage. We knew he wouldn’t be happy otherwise, so we agreed and decided to go over after we gave our statements to the police. We got to the station and each one of us was asked to give a statement separately. We did so and within an hour we were on our way.

As we drove up, we noticed that there was police tape around the whole house as it was considered a crime scene. There was also a police cruiser and a forensics unit parked in front of the house. When we got out, the officer told us that we couldn’t cross the line until the investigation was over. He also told us that there was no way anyone would be allowed back into the house at any time because it was considered unsafe. He said that, because of the fire, the floors could give way under the weight of a person, who would fall through into the basement. The kitchen floor was already gone. The house would be boarded up and secured until a wrecking crew took it down. After the forensics unit left, we were allowed to look in through the windows with the officer, but it was obvious there was nothing left to be salvaged anyway.

“I shouldn’t be telling you this,” the officer began, “but if you promise not to say anything, I’ll tell you what we know so far.”

After promising not to pass the information on, he told us what he knew about the situation. He said they found Jason’s stepfather’s truck half a block away from the house. There were five more gas bombs in a box in the back. On the seat of the truck there was a list of six names. Jason, Ian and John were on the top of the list, followed by Mr. Thiessen, the school board chairman and the Chief of Police. The officer told us that so far, he had been charged with arson, possibly three counts of attempted murder–or at least intent to commit murder, but that could be very hard to prove–threatening a police officer, endangering a police officer and evading the police.

We looked at the burned-out ruins for a few more minutes and then decided to leave. Ian didn’t want to leave his car parked in the back yard for another night. He also had to go over to his insurance company and run a few other errands, so he needed it anyway. As none of us were in the mood to cook anything, we decided to stop at a restaurant and eat before going back to the condo. Jason and John decided to ride with Ian, since they would be deciding where we were going to eat. Ian and the boys piled into his car, then led the way as I followed them.

Chapter 8