Reaching Out

Chapter 12: A Nemesis Reappears

By Grant Bentley

“Call Ms. Reynolds,” Pete said into the phone. “She can tell Evan what to say. Just keep the guy on the line. Don’t let him hang up.” Pete looked like he’d seen a ghost as he hung up and glanced around the room at the other boys.

“What’s going on?” Jason asked.

“That was Scott; we have a suicide caller,” he replied. “It’s only our first night, for God’s sake, and we get a suicide caller. What happens if they can’t talk him out of it?”

Just then, his phone rang again. This time it was Cary. He told him that Scott had Ms. Reynolds on the phone and she was telling him what to say to keep the caller on the line and to calm the caller down in the hope of defusing the situation. Scott was relaying that to Evan.

As Cary was talking to Pete, Evan accidentally hit the speaker button on the phone he was talking into.

Before he could turn it off again, Pete, who was listening to Cary, heard the voice of the caller.

“That’s Paulson!” he suddenly exclaimed as he hung up his phone. “I’ve gotta get over there!”

Before anyone could stop him, he headed out the door and was gone. Of course, that panicked all the boys, especially Ross.

“What if he’s got a gun?” John asked, which was just about the last thing Ross needed to hear.

“I’ve got to stop him,” Ross cried and, like Pete, was gone before anyone could move.

As it happened, the Paulsons only lived four blocks from my condo complex. Unfortunately, they lived on the fifteenth floor of another complex. There was no way I was going to be able to stop the boys, so I ran out and down the block with them. I only hoped that I would be able to keep them calm and hopefully get to Pete and stop him.

As we approached the complex, we could see someone on one of the balconies of the fifteenth floor. When we got closer, we could see Ross in the entrance to the building, but there was no sign of Pete.

Suddenly, two police cars came flying up to the front of the building. Neither of them had lights or sirens going. As the police officers entered the building, a man came running up to unlock the door for them. Ross tried to push his way in with them, but they held him back and told him to stay where he was. They were in the building and into the elevator in a flash.

In all the excitement of the police arriving, we had forgotten about the person on the balcony. When we looked up, the person was gone. Just then, the other elevator opened and out came Pete with his arm around Trevor Paulson. Trevor had the phone still in his hand and was sobbing uncontrollably. Ross looked ready to tear the door off its hinges to get to Pete when he saw them.

As soon as Pete opened the door, he was in Ross’s arms as Ross began to cry. The other boys surrounded Trevor and enveloped him in a group hug. Within a few seconds, two of the police officers appeared out of the elevator. They headed straight for the boys. The boys got into a very animated discussion with the officers, who seemed to be very good with them. They managed to calm everyone down, except for Ross who still had a death grip on Pete and didn’t appear to want to let go any time soon.

Once they felt they had everything figured out, they explained to the boys that they were going to take Trevor to the Mountview hospital, where he would be admitted to the psychiatric ward’s suicide watch. One of the officers put his arm around Trevor and asked him if he was ready to go. He looked at the officer and nodded. The two officers led him to their car. One got in the back with Trevor and the other drove the car away.

A minute or so later, the other two police officers came down and explained to the boys that they had received a call from Mr. Reynolds. He had explained the situation his wife was involved in and they were dispatched immediately to the Paulsons’ address. They took down the boys’ names and asked them to come down to the police station the next day to make a statement. They also wanted to see the boys who had been on duty on the help line. I guessed that Cary had let Ms. Reynolds know who it was and that Pete was on his way over here.

After the police left, it was at least ten minutes before I was able to get the boys calmed down enough to head back to my condo, and another ten minutes or more after that to get them calmed down enough to talk to each other and make sense. Once I had accomplished that, we let Pete go first.

“I got to the front door and some guy was coming out. I pushed past him and ran to the elevator before it could close. The guy yelled that he was going to call the cops, but I ignored him. When I got to their door, I tried the handle and it wasn’t locked. I opened the door as quietly as I could and peeked in. I could see Trevor standing on the balcony talking on the phone, so I listened for a few seconds. He had his back to me and was staring down at the street. I guess you guys and the police must have distracted him. I snuck across their living room as quietly and as quickly as I could. The balcony door was open, so I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into the apartment before he had time to react. He wrapped his arms around me and started crying. I told him everything would be okay, and that he was with friends. I led him to the elevator and you guys know the rest,” he told us.

“You do know that you should never have done that,” I cautioned him.

“Yeah, what if he had a gun?” John asked. “He could have killed you and then himself.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Pete responded, “but I couldn’t just let him die. We’ve been on a lot of the same teams since junior high and he was a friend. Well, until he decided to go all homophobic on us.”

Just then, the intercom buzzed. It was Scott, Evan and Cary. Jason went to the door to let them in. When they came in the door, we could tell right away that Evan was very shaken up. Scott had his arm around him and his eyes were red from crying. Cary was still visibly shaking. The other boys immediately moved in to comfort them. I gave them some space and went into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. I really needed some caffeine about then.

As I was making the coffee, Ian arrived home. He walked into the kitchen, wrapped his arms around me and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “The boys are in a huddle in the living room and they’re so wired that they didn’t even notice me come in.”

“Well, we had some excitement this afternoon,” I told him.

“Excitement?” he asked.

“Oh yeah,” I replied. “Today was the first help line after school. Scott, Evan and Cary were on the phones when Evan got a suicide call.”

“Oh my God,” Ian exclaimed. “They weren’t trained for that. It was just supposed to be a way for kids to ask questions or get advice.”

“I know,” I responded. ”Not only that, but when they figured out who it was, Pete went to the kid’s home and rescued him. That’s a definite no-no in crisis intervention.”

“You’re kidding,” he said.

“Nope,” I replied as I went on to explain everything that had gone on in the past hour or so.

It was then that the intercom buzzed again. I answered it and it was Mr. and Ms. Reynolds and Scott Thiessen. I immediately buzzed them in and waited for them. When they arrived, I let them in. I was introduced to Mr. Reynolds, who explained he was a child psychologist, and to Ms. Reynolds who I knew was one of the counsellors at the school. Scott said he knew the boys would be here, so they had come over to talk to the boys and help them cope with what had happened. I thanked them for coming and ushered them into the living room where the boys were still huddled in a tight little group. I thought it best to leave them to it and went back to the kitchen.

As I entered the kitchen, I got a hug and a kiss from Ian before we sat down to drink our coffee. I decided to order pizza as I really didn’t feel like cooking, and it was almost 7:00. I ordered six extra-large, loaded pizzas. When they arrived, I just took them into the living room and set them out. I got a ‘thanks, I’m starving’ from several of the boys. I did save one of the pizzas for Ian and me, though.

By 10:00, everyone seemed much more relaxed and we could hear laughing coming from the living room. Scott Thiessen and the Reynolds came into the kitchen to let us know that they felt the boys were going to be fine. Evan was still a little shaky, but Scott—Evan’s boyfriend, not the principal—was going to stay with him for the night and keep an eye on him. Except for Pete’s little rescue, the boys had been remarkably calm and had done all the right things. Ms. Reynolds said she couldn’t have been more proud of them.

One thing that did come out of the night was the fact that there would have to be extensive training if the help line was to continue. It was never meant to have been a crisis line and had never been advertised as such, but if kids saw it as a peer group help line and they were thinking of suicide, it seemed likely that they would call it, as Trevor did. They would also have one of the school counsellors on with them every night as well, instead of just the kids on their own.

By 11:00, everyone was getting ready to leave. I made sure to give each of them a hug as they left. I also made sure Evan knew how proud I was of him for keeping Trevor on long enough to get him the help he needed. I told Pete, Scott and Cary that getting Ms. Reynolds involved and working with her was a very smart move and I was proud of them, too. I told Pete that I was proud of him for putting himself out there to help a friend, but I also promised I’d kick his ass if he ever did something like that again. He just smiled and kissed me on the cheek.

Once everyone else was gone and things had settled down, the four of us sat together at the kitchen table.

“What a night,” Jason stated with a long sigh.

“No kidding,” John responded. “I never thought we would be dealing with something like that.”

“Thank God its over,” Ian said. “The boys did an amazing job, though. They saved a life tonight.”

We talked things through for another half-hour or so before everyone was yawning and obviously ready for bed. We said our good-nights and retired for the night.

Chapter 13