THE REAL LIVEJOURNAL IDOL SEASON 10, WEEK 17: "NEVERMIND"
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
When I was a young child my father stressed the importance of the family to me and all my siblings. He would tell us over and over: “'Friends' will only be your friend as long as you're of use to them... but when things get tough, your family will always be there for you... and you should always be ready to do whatever is necessary to help another member of your family.”
Although my father passed away over 30 years ago, I think he would be proud of how our family has held together and helped each other down through the years. When it looked like I had wrecked my career, my family was there to help me in my time of trouble, and though it hasn't always been easy I've done my best to help other members of my family whenever things looked bad...
April 27, 1999
The ringing of the phone woke me out of a sound sleep; I don't recall the exact time but it was definitely after midnight. I picked up up the receiver and groggily said “Hello?”
“Paul, you have to *DO* something!” My sister Nancy was in hysterics; I couldn't ever remember hearing her so upset before, even during the worst phases of her divorce proceedings. “William's going to be classified as being 'developmentally disabled', I just know it! THEY'RE GOING TO THROW HIM IN WITH THE HOPELESS CASES AND COMPLETELY SCREW UP HIS LIFE!”
I bolted upright at this: I was godfather to my sister's only child, and ever since his biological father left the state I had taken up the role of mentor and protector to the child. I peppered my sister with questions: “What are you talking about?! What happened?!”
Nancy explained in a rush: “The local school board sent a woman to assess William in his Kindergarten class this afternoon. William was having a particularly bad day; his ADHD was making him run all around the room, despite the woman's repeated requests for him to sit down. Hell, he couldn't even carry on a conversation because he literally couldn't concentrate for more than 5 seconds at a time!”
My guts started tying themselves in knots at this news; William had only very recently been diagnosed as suffering from ADHD, and his current doctor was still trying to determine the appropriate medication regimen to treat his condition. William's previous doctor, after seeing the boy's physical antics and memory issues, had classified my nephew as being autistic and had told my sister there was “absolutely no hope” of the boy ever leading a productive life. Fortunately my sister went out and got a second medical opinion, and the new doctor concluded that William was extremely bright and 'merely' suffered from a severe case of ADHD... but if William had been “bouncing off the walls” when the school board's assessor had interviewed the lad, I could understand why my sister feared that the assessor was going to classify William as being a 'hopeless case'.
As these facts assembled themselves in my head, I heard my sister continue speaking: “I've been worrying myself sick over this ever since the interview; I haven't been able to get any sleep at all! I keep trying to think of a way of prevent this woman from assigning William to a 'Special Education' class with all the other hopeless cases, but I just can't think of anything that will work!”
I spoke calmly and reasonably. “You could hire a lawyer to prevent the school board from putting William in such a program-”
Nancy cut me off. “I CAN'T AFFORD A LAWYER! MY DIVORCE PROCEEDING WENT ON SO LONG THAT I'M ALREADY DEEP IN DEBT! AND MY COUNTY COURTS HAVE THROWN OUT THE LAST THREE CHALLENGES TO SCHOOL BOARD RULINGS, SAYING THAT THE BOARD KNOWS WHAT'S BEST FOR THE CHILDREN!” My sister started sobbing again. “This bitch of an assessor is going to ruin my boy's life, and there's nothing I can do to stop her!”
I frowned at this... but an idea began to form in the back of my mind. “What is the name of the assessor?”
My sister managed to blubber through her tears. “Ms. Banks! Ms. Marjory Banks!”
I made a note of the name. “All right, I'll take care of it. You just try to relax and leave everything to me.”
My sister started hiccuping, but sounded a bit calmer. “You'll... take care of it? How?”
I smiled. “Just trust me. Have I ever let you down?”
“Well, no... but...”
“'But', nothing! We're family... and you remember what Dad said about family, right?”
“... Yes...”
I nodded to myself as I worked out the details in my head. “You just leave it all to me. I promise you, everything will be fine. OK?”
“... OK.” Nancy didn't sound completely convinced... but she was calmer.
“All right. I've got to do some research to make sure I take care of this properly, so I've got to hang up, now... but you just relax and get some sleep. Love you, Sis!”
She sniffed back the last of her tears. “Love you, Bro!”
I nodded again. “Good Night, Nancy.” And with that, I hung up the phone and turned on my computer to get on the Internet. After I had acquired all the information I needed, I took appropriate measures to ensure that Ms. Marjory Banks would not ruin the life of my godchild...
It was about 7:30 AM later that morning when my phone rang again. Still quite tired, I picked it up on the third ring. “Hello?”
“Paul, it's Nancy!” She sounded confused, and was crying again. “I'm so sorry... about last night...”
I frowned at this. “Sorry? About what?”
She had trouble getting the words out. “Sorry to have woken you... over nothing...”
I shook my head. “You were worried over your son's well-being; I'd hardly call that 'nothing'.”
She continued crying. “But I was worried... over nothing... Ms. Banks... sent me an e-mail... late yesterday afternoon... saying that... she was... going to... recommend William... for the county's... Gifted Special Education Program...”
My mind went blank. “What?”
My sister continued weeping, but I now recognized they were tears of relief. “It's one of the best such programs... in the nation... and has counselors on staff... especially trained... to help students... with severe ADHD... It'll be... absolutely PERFECT for William!”
It took me a moment to collect my thoughts. “Then why were you in such a state of panic when you called me last night?”
“I didn't know! I was so upset after seeing William's behavior while Ms. Banks was interviewing him that I never checked my e-mail before this morning! But she said in the message that she saw the expression on my face and wanted to assure me that she knew how intelligent my son was... and that she had already filed the forms to get William into the Gifted Special Ed. Program!”
Utterly flabbergasted, mind numbed from lack of sleep, I stumbled to find the words. “Well... that's absolutely... fantastic.
“Yes! Yes, it is... and I'm sorry that I woke you in the dead of night over a problem that didn't exist. I'll make it up to you, somehow...”
I sighed. “Don't worry about it. We're family; that's all that matters.”
I could hear her smile over the phone. “Well... thank you. Love you, Bro!”
I smiled back. “Love you, Sis! You have a great day!” And with that I hung up the phone.
I took a deep breath and forced myself to relax. All that worry and effort over nothing; I hated to waste my time and energy needlessly, but was happy to know that my godson's academic future was safe. Still, it was disconcerting to me to discover that Ms. Banks had filed the paperwork on my godson's future education so quickly; it meant that if she had decided to declare my nephew a "hopeless case", then all my effort earlier that morning would have been for naught. But I still had one further issue on my mind... and so I turned on my radio to listen to the local news. After a few minutes, I heard the announcer read the story I was waiting to hear:
“Three people were killed in a fast-moving house fire on Wisteria Lane in Brentwood early this morning. The town fire marshal has commented that an electrical short appears to have started the blaze which killed all three members of the Banks family..."
I breathed a sigh of relief; there was no mention in the news story of the fire being of suspicious origin. While I was sure that my Internet research earlier that morning had found the home address of the Marjory Banks who worked for my sister's school district, I was less certain about the instructions I had found on how to short out a fuse box in such a fashion that the resulting fire would appear to have started naturally... and even if the instructions were correct I might have made a mistake, between feeling so stressed and the lateness of the hour. But I apparently had done the job properly, even though it turned out that Ms. Banks had actually helped my godson instead of harming him, and therefore she and her family didn't need to die.
I shrugged. Well, 'Better safe than sorry', as my father used to say... and with that, I groggily proceeded to prepare my breakfast. I still had to go into work, after all...
Ellakite would just like to state that there was no house fire in the town of Brentwood on the morning of April 27, 1999. However, it is entirely possible that he changed the date and/or the town name in order to be able to classify this piece as being 'fiction'...This post is an entry for The Real Livejournal Idol (therealljidol) Season 10, Week 17. It is based on the prompt "Nevermind".