Teaching Lessons.

"What's the problem officer?" I asked as he looked over my licence.

"It's about time you retired this heap of junk to the wreckers yard ain't it?"

"It's still legal to be on the road no matter how rough it looks and it's insurance is all up to date."

"That's not the point. This is a well respected town with well respected people living in it. Last thing we like seeing is a heap of junk like yours roaming our streets."

"Well I hope to remedy that situation as soon as I start my new job."

"And where would that happen to be?"

"At the local high school." I replied.

"You don't look, like a school teacher."

"Never said I was. I've been given the job of the new caretaker and grounds man for the school."

"Where are you staying while you're in town?" He inquired.

"My sister owns a place in town."

"And what's her name?"

"Sherry Standford."

"The widow Sherry Standford?"

"Yes."

"How did an attractive lookin' woman like that end up with an ugly lookin' ape like you for a brother?" He laughed. "Your mother must have jumped the fence."

"Dunno sir. But rumor has it that your father used to come sniffing around our mother a lot.

"I'd watch my mouth if I was you boy."

He returned my licence and insurance papers.

"I'd fix those tail lights if I was you too." He said after handing me an infringement notice for driving with unsafe tail lights.

I heard the tinkling of the glass falling onto the road when he headed back to his cruiser after putting the butt of his pistol through my trucks tail lights.

"Psychotic bastard," I said under my breath as I pulled back onto the street. What I noticed as I drove through town was how much it had changed since I left it as a rebellious seventeen year old. This community had become a mostly upper middle class yuppy town with a smattering of very wealthy families going by the later model BMW's, Mercedes and even Lamborghinis that occasionally went past me.

My sister let me use her late husband's SUV to go to work in until I got paid so I could get my tail lights repaired and paid the fine I had incurred for pissing off a traffic officer.

It didn't take me long to figure out who really ran the high school now days. It certainly wasn't the principal nor the teachers, but a group of entitled spoilt teenagers whose parents were powerful leaders of the community. No one wanted to mess with them as it could either cost them their jobs, jail time or both.

I kept my head down and eyes open. I made friends with some of the teachers who happened to be on the lower echelons of the school hierarchy. Those on the upper echelons are the ones who sucked up the most to the sons and daughters of the powerful of the town.

One young student that attended that school was a girl by the name of Michelle Hunt, whose parents weren't that well off but had managed to scrape together enough to buy their daughter a second hand metallic green Camaro. The car was nearly fifteen years old but was in pretty good shape for its age and had purred like a cougar. Michelle loved it to bits.

Until the "chosen ones" bullied her into letting them use it in a drag race which left it with a nasty scrape down one side of it after hitting a steel median strip divider and burning its rings out causing it to burn black smoke out of the exhaust when ever it was running. I felt for her as the tears ran down her cheeks knowing that her parents couldn't afford to pay to get it repaired nor would the insurance cover the reckless driving of an un-nominated driver. To the students involved in damaging her pride and joy it was all a big joke that they took joy in talking and laughing about for days later.

This is how I became friends with Michelle. While I was away I had learnt in a motor shop how to do engine repairs and a little bit about how to get body work straightened out. With some help from a school tutor, Jim, who I had befriended and who ran the school motor shop, I was able to get her car a new paint job as part of that week's lesson.

"Maybe next week we can get your old jalopy in class for my students to practice on next?" Jim laughed.

"We'll see." I answered.

I watched helplessly as they bullied the other kids mercilessly. I knew what kinds of trouble that these kids parents could bring into my life or my sister's if they turned out to be as nasty as their children. Everything was a joke to them even the tears that they inevitably brought on to those around them.

Complaining to the principal or teachers was an exercise in hopelessness. Teachers who didn't suck up to them but just tried to mind their own business was as much fair game as the other students when it came to being bullied. That included myself, they had a thing about kicking my bucket of water over or leaving a disgusting mess in the toilets for me to clean up.

Then one day the inevitable happens as I arrive to work. I had to jump out of my truck because I could see the daughter of the local judge trying to mow down another student by chasing her with the schools ride on mower. She had already run over her school bag which was in tatters and the books were now a long streak of confetti. The other poor girl was screaming for her life as the others of that vile group stood around laughing.

I sprinted over and manhandled the girl driving the mower to one side then pulled on the break as I turned the motor off. Just in time to stop the mower from running over the legs of the girl being pursued who had tripped and fallen to the ground just in front of us. Only to be met with abuse and accusations from the girl I had pushed from the driving seat. She started yelling and hitting me, accusing me of sexual assault?

"We have it all on video," one of her cronies added as he held a mobile phone up towards me whilst I had my hands on the wild cats arms in an attempt to stop her from continuing to hit me.

"Attempted rape you pedophile." Another of the maggots called.

I knew it was a waste of time explaining how incorrect they were. They knew what they were doing and they knew very well that they were lying.

They walked away saying that they were going to let the principle know all about it, showing just the part in the video where I had to man handle the girl away from the controls no doubt. I checked on the girl still crying on the ground.

"Are you okay?"

She whimpered a yes to me.

"You saw what happened. You will back my story won't you?"

She looked up at me with tears in her eyes, "I can't Mr. Thompson."

"Why not?"

"They will come down on me even worse if I say anything. Like they did to Judy."

"Why? What did they do to Judy?"

"I'm sorry I can't tell you."

"Why not? What happened to Judy?"

Next minute a voice called, "Sarah! He's a pedophile, Get away from him if you know what's good for you."

"I'm sorry Mr. Thompson, I'd better go."

No amount of explaining seemed to get through to the school principal. I was put on suspension while an investigation was undertaken the least of which was negligence allowing the students access to the keys to the lawn mower as well as the charge of the sexual assault accusation.

That evening I got a visitor turn up just after dark to my sister's house.

"Michelle, good to see you. Is everything alright?"

"With me? Yes, so far."

I invited her inside for a hot drink.

"So what brings you over here?"

"I know that you didn't do any of those things that you are accused of. The keys they used were the principals copy. They stole them from his office not from your workshop. As for the other thing I can vouch for you, that is not the sort of thing you would do. Heck, I've spent a lot of time with you while you repaired my car and never once did you try that crap on me."

"Thank you Michelle, at least someone believes me."

"But I am scared that they will do to me what they did to Judy."

"What exactly did they do to Judy?" I asked her.

"They forced her to commit suicide."

"Forced her to commit suicide? How?"

"They made her jump off the iron arch bridge with a noose around her neck. Judy and I were out walking and talking when that lot pulled up. I ran off thinking that Judy was right behind me, but she wasn't. When I got home I called your sister who told me what the police found."

Shock ran through my nerves when I heard that. I had to look down as the tears filled my eyes.

"Are you okay Mr. Thompson?"

I didn't look up when I answered her, "yes I'm okay Michelle, thank you for letting me know."

"My dad is a lawyer, an honest lawyer I will talk to him about taking your case if you like?"

"We'll see Michelle, thank you for your kind offer."

Michelle left not long after that. My clouded mind had its own ideas.

During the time I had off I allowed Jim to take my truck into the work shop class telling him he can do what ever his students want to change its look. In the meantime I used my borrowed SUV to find out the habits of these bullies parents. After all it is their fault why their kids turned out the way they are. One of the bullies father is a local sports star who visited the gym every Tues and Thursday. He went jogging every other day.

The judge spent Wednesdays at the golf course. The golf course was having some landscaping and renovations being done at the moment but still allowed it's patrons to use the course. Since the renovations caused the kitchen to be closed for awhile the Judge had to go into town to grab a bite to eat at lunchtime.

The local cop liked to go drinking on his Saturday night off straight after work at a bar just out of town where clients are serviced by topless waitresses. He liked to use his uniform to try and impress the waitressing staff and to intimidate the other patrons. Then he would spend Sundays at the gun club.

The principal spent his Friday nights at the same bar feeding the poker machines when he wasn't trying to paw the waitresses. Every hour or so he would go into the garden bar alone for a cigarette.

The town Mayor whose delinquent son liked to take videos and twist the truth with them liked to eat out at expensive restaurants with his wife during the day. But had a habit of visiting a certain fast food drive through late at night to fill his ever expanding waistline.

One evening Jim pulled in my sisters driveway and surprised me with my truck which was now sporting a brand new dark shiny paint job. Under his expert tutoring, his class had straightened any small dents in it and put a new canopy over the back tray. It was hardly recognisable as being the same vehicle when he brought it back.

"Well my friend, how much do I owe you for that?"

"Nothing, my class learned a lot and picked up some new tips while working on it, that is enough."

"Are you sure? Buddy I don't know what to say?"

Jim smiled, "Just look after it."

My sister brought us a can of beer each and looked impressed at the job Jim and his class had done on my truck. I noticed that Jim looked just as impressed at her. We sat chatting on the porch to my sisters house for about an hour or so, my sister had re-joined us soon afterwards with some snacks that she had hustled together. She later ran Jim home in her car since she hadn't been drinking.

Thoughts went through my mind while they were gone. Thoughts of things that only my sister knew about me. Like how I had spent most of my time away locked up in a federal prison. This is where I had learned the skills that I had used to fix Michelle's Camaro. That Judy wasn't just any student, she was my daughter who was under the care of my sister whilst I served my time. All this time I had blamed myself for her suicide I thought she had done it because she was ashamed of me. Now I raged inside to find out that it was really a murder perpetrated by the children of this towns leading citizens more than likely made to look like a suicide.

No matter how prim and proper a town paints itself there will always be that underlying hidden element of rebelliousness. I grew up in this town and I knew exactly who that element was which would help me acquire what ever I needed to carry out my plan of vengeance.

Going to prison no longer scared me, I had been there before. I know I can handle it again if I ever had to go back.

The next morning I went to the golf course and asked for work. They gave me a mundane job unloading bricks from a pallet after the fork lift driver got them from off the back of a truck. They had given me a pair of gloves to protect my hands. After a couple of days doing this, I noticed that the judge had his own parking spot parallel to a lake that made up one of the water hazards at the golf course. This is situated at the bottom of a hill that we are currently working on top of. I also noticed that around lunch time the forklift driver had a habit of just parking his forklift up on the road since no one else was using the road and headed off with the other guys to eat lunch in a garden area.

"You coming hombre?" I heard him call me.

"Yep I'll be along in a minute. I just need to wash up a bit. I'll catch you around the back later."

I saw the Judge head towards his vehicle then I walked over to the forklift, lifted the forks up and let the brake off. The forklift started trundling down the hill towards the judges car. I was in the garden area eating my lunch when we all heard the commotion.

"The brakes on the forklift must have given and ran down the hill straight into the judges car which is now at the bottom of the lake with the forklift on top of it and the judge still inside it." Someone explained.

"By time we get a crane here to lift that fork lift off his car it will be far too late for him," another replied.

I acted sick, forcing myself to vomit my lunch back up and asked if I could go home. They will understand if I don't ever show up to work there again.

This was the judge that too quickly ruled Judy's death as a suicide and therefore closed the case which saved his own daughter from any further investigation.

I got word back from one of my underworld contacts about a police revolver that I had asked to acquire for me. It was the same make and model as the one that I had seen the cop use to break my tail lights. Once it was in my hands I took it home to make a small adjustment to it. I removed a bullet from its shell casing and crimped the end closed so that the powder wouldn't spill from it. I then jammed the shell down the barrel backwards being careful not to hit the firing pin followed by a tight plug of metal to hold it there. Then wiped it clean.

The next Saturday afternoon I headed off to the topless bar.

"Well if it isn't Sam Thompson."

"Hello Delores."

"I haven't seen you since we were at school together. How long have you been back in town?"

"A few weeks now."

"Allow me to buy you a drink."

"Don't say it too loud that cop staring this way is looking a bit jealous."

"Oh him. Don't worry about him. Tries to use his position to get what he wants from us girls but it ain't working. He's a sleazy bastard, pulls us over expecting us to do him favours to let us off having to pay his bogus traffic fines. He has threatened to arrest us, but if he expects to be allowed to come here and drink he had better get that idea out of his head."

"I've met him before, but not in a good way," I told her.

"I can imagine."

Delores brought me a drink back and sat herself down at my table.

"His son is just as arrogant as his father. Goes to the high school that I was working at."

"What, our old high school? I never thought that you'd ever go back there again?" she smiled.

"Oh it wasn't too bad, while we were there that is. Its a bit of a circus now."

"What do you mean?"

"Clowns run it now. Spoilt clowns. That cops kid is one of them."

"That doesn't surprise me."

We heard him yell out across the bar, "Hey Delores! There are other patrons in this bar waiting for a drink too. I'd like my glass refilled sometime tonight."

"Okay Chuck. I'll be with you in a minute."

"Well hurry it up will ya bitch!"

"How would you like to play a little trick on him?"

"What kinda trick?"

"I have something that'll loosen his tight ass up a bit. You know, make him act like the clown that he is. Get yourself some photo's so that next time he tries to make you do something that you don't want to do you'll have some embarrassing photos to show him."

"You got a mickey on you?"

"You got it darlin."

"Pass it here, I'll put it into that fools drink."

She winked at me and headed off to go and get his drink.

Before long the cop was dancing around acting stupider than his usual self. But things started to get out of hand when he pulled his weapon and started to shoot the bars lights out. While yelling and singing to the music being played. Everyone hit the floor and hid under tables.

"Chuck! Knock it off and put that gun away!" The barman shouted.

Chuck then started to wobble a bit, he swayed as he looked down at the floor then collapsed down upon it. His revolver skidding across the floor.

I rushed over to grab up his weapon. Whilst the barman and the two security men went to pick up the unconscious policeman.

"Take him to sleep it off in his cruiser." The barman told the security men. I followed them out carrying his service revolver. This gave me the opportunity I needed to exchange the weapon for the one hidden in my jacket pocket. After he was placed into the squad car to sleep it off, I reached in to put the weapon into his gun holster being careful to hold the weapon only by its handle and clipped it shut to stop it from falling out. Then one of the security men slammed the door shut before we headed back inside.

It was sometime after midnight when I left the bar to find the police vehicle gone. I figured that he must have woken up and gone home.

The following day the local News on T.V spoke of a gun accident at the shooting range involving a local policeman which left him fighting for his life. It is alleged that his weapon somehow exploded as he went to fire it causing him to lose most of his hand and the fingers off his other hand. The steel fragmentation from the revolver tearing half his face off with smaller shards embedding themselves into his brain.

Jim came around for a visit the following evening.

"Did you hear about the judge and that cop?" he asked.

"Yeah, I watched the news." I told him.

"The Judges daughter has had to sell her new BMW to help her mother out to pay some bills rumours at school have it. She's taking the death of her father pretty hard. But I suppose you would if your cash supply suddenly runs dry. The Judge was well known for taking bribes and extorting money from members of the community."

"Doesn't surprise me."

"Chucks son has not been back to school considering what happened to his father. I hear he's under protective custody in case his fathers incident turns out to be something other than an accident?"

"That must have him worried as fuck wondering if he is next on the list. Considering he was just as bad as his dad." I contemplated aloud.

"I'd heard that Chuck was at the topless bar the night before and started shooting the place up a bit?"

"I was there when he went off the rails. We all had to duck for cover, bullets were flying everywhere. He eventually had to be carried out by the security men who threw him into his squad car to sleep it off."

"I wonder if maybe he had done something that might have compromised the workings of his gun that night?" Jim asked.

"Sounds probable." I answered,"it did go skidding across the floor at one stage."

"I know that it sounds a bit mean. But in a way I think they got what they had coming to them," Jim admitted.

In my mind I was thinking, 'This was the cop who refused to do any further investigations into my daughters death to hide the involvement of his own flesh and blood in her death. In fact he even publicly insulted her dead body for doing such a stupid thing, in a self grandiosing attempt to make an example out of her remains.'

A few nights later I waited in the shadows for the mayor to make his midnight run to the fast food outlet. The night was slow the number of workers manning the outlet was less than usual. I was able to slip out of my vehicle wearing black trousers, a black hoodie, black medical mask. and dark glasses which were not very dark but allowed me to see out more than people looking in.

The Mayor was asked to park in the waiting area until his order was put together. I slinked over and waited low beside his back passenger door. Once his order arrived he opened his door to allow the tray full of food to be able to get into his vehicle past his oversized body. The same time the door opened I opened the back door and slipped inside unnoticed. The assistant and the mayor were too busy trying to get his food organised to notice me. In my hand I had a long wire which after the assistant went back to work, I dropped over the mayors neck slipped the noose tight and then hopped out of his vehicle. I came around and mentioned that I owed him for what his son did to cause my daughters death. In fear and shock he looked up at me and tried to speed out of the carpark. He took it that the wire around his neck was just some kind of warning, what he hadn't realised till far too late, was that the other end was tied to a pole near by.

His vehicle crashed into the fast food kiosk as his decapitated head fell out of the window. I slipped back into the shadows and eased my vehicle away without the lights on while the commotion and attention was centred around him. This was the man who had allowed the judge and the police to get away with their corrupt ways for so long.

For days I watched as the ring leader of that vile group's father went on his daily run. I parked at a point where he had to jog between a tree and the tail gate of my truck. The area was empty of other people, the motor was idling, the gear was already in reverse. I lifted my foot off the clutch and down hard onto the accelerator. I heard him scream as his knees gave way under the crunching force of my vehicle. I went around to the back of my truck to find that he was crying and squirming in far too much pain to even notice my number plate, so I used a large spanner between the eyes to knock him out.

I then made my way home to straighten and cover the small dent he left in the back of my truck. He had allowed his son to grow up to be an arrogant bastard who never took responsibilities for his own nasty actions, well then he can become one of the victims of it as well.

A few days later I got a call from the school telling me that under the circumstances they were not going to pursue the charges any further and that my job was still there for me if I wanted it. Which included any back pay that I had lost.

I accepted the position back but I still had a little message for the schools principle.

The coming Friday I headed back to the topless bar. Dolores and the other girls seemed to be in a much brighter mood than my last visit to the place.

"What's with all the big smiles?" I asked.

Delores leaned towards me. "Well I don't want to sound cruel. But its good knowing that Chuck won't be coming back here anymore. Even if he recovers from his wounds he will be banned for life for discharging his weapon in here. I wonder what he did to his gun that night that caused it to explode the next day? I don't really care anyway, serves him right."

I made my way outside where I knew the Principal would be having a cigarette.

"You knew all along that I was innocent didn't you?" I asked him when I saw him.

He looked at me sheepishly when he answered, "I had my hands tied. The parents of those students could have made my life hell if I didn't go along with them."

"Is that why you did nothing when they bullied my daughter into jumping off a bridge with a noose around her neck?"

"Judy Standford was your daughter?"

"I'm not in the habit of making things up."

"I didn't know, I'm so sorry."

"Even if you did know that she was my daughter, would it have made a difference you gutless worm? You allowed things to go the way they did by turning a blind eye to what was happening around you."

"So what are you going to do to me?"

"Nothing...Tomorrow you are going to hand in your notice. Or certain lawyers are going to find out how you have been receiving payments under the table from certain members of the public to look the other way to protect the shit that their offspring have been getting away with at school. How you have been embezzling the school to pay for your gambling debts. Do I need to say anymore?"

These accusations were just guesses that turned out to be good guesses, because he didn't deny any of it. People with no backbone like this gutless fool, will buy into anything to save their worthless skins.

"Okay, okay I'll do as you ask. How can I trust that you'll keep it under the table."

"You will just have to trust me..." then I looked him directly in the eyes so that I could show him how much I was fighting myself to keep from punching his face into the inside of the back of his skull. "I owe you nothing," I told him from between gritted teeth. What was this creep wanting? Me to 'promise' not to tell? Pft!

I flinched towards him, he jumped back in horror as though I was going to hit him with something large and heavy, then I walked away not interested in wasting anymore time nor energy on this human abomnation...unless he had a change of mind.

The following Monday I returned to work to find Jim in the Principals office?

"Jim? You're the new school principle?"

"Well it appears that the deputy principal didn't want to hang around either," Jim laughed, "Seems that they both are moving out of town? I don't get it? Totally out of the blue. One then the other handed their notices in? Must have got a better offer from someone else? So at the moment I am the new acting principle."

"Suits you."

Things at school have changed a lot. The bullies keep their heads down now that they no longer have the protection of their parents or their money to throw around. The school board is very happy with their new school principle there's talk of offering him the position permanently.

In turn, the acting principle has since offered my sister a permanent position by his side.