The Teacher

The Teacher: Part I Unchained, Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

I WAS ADMITTEDLY DISTRACTED and twice slipped off the balance beam during a dismount I usually always nailed, and it really hurt—I mean inside, where it counts, where it can shake your confidence. On that beam was where I could control my world. No matter what else was going on, if I could get through my routines I felt secure—not tonight.

Lydia and Blaire came into the gym after their volleyball practice to watch the end of my workout. I caught up with them on the bleachers at the end of my last session.

"Hey, I got your text! They went for it!"

"I laid out our plan, my mom agreed, called Pastor Ben, and they approved $100 for the lessons!" Lydia was delighted to share.

"Fallon, let's get going...we'd better head over to Holden's and see what's what," Blaire pragmatically declared.

I showered quickly and we piled into my vintage military Jeep, an M170, complete with desert camouflage paint, a canvas-covered cab, and an add-on roll bar—all of which I inherited when my Vietnam veteran grandfather passed during the summer before my junior year.

"Okay now, when we get there, Lydia, you tell them all about the Snow Retreat job offer from destiNATION and we'll back you up. Hopefully, his aunt and uncle will nudge Holden to go with us. That's the plan. What do you think?" I opened.

"What'll we do if Holden still refuses?" Blaire had to ask, just to cover our bases even though she was hopeful as well.

"Let's see...I know...tell him we've already told some of the kids that he'd be giving lessons," Lydia suggested.

"Okay, then, that's Plan B. I'll fudge the truth, but only because you and Blaire qualify as 'some of the kids'...kind of. Let's do this," I said while pulling into their driveway while Blaire closed out her iPhone Google Maps screen for the directions to his house.

Their home was impressive. Set on a spacious wooded lot in an obviously affluent neighborhood, we were a little intimidated about meeting his aunt and uncle, and not at all sure what would happen. I got things going by ringing the doorbell.

"Yes, what can I do for you girls?" Holden's aunt politely asked.

"We're friends of Holden's from school. Is he home?" I replied.

"Well, yes, but he doesn't come down from his room much. Is this important?" she questioned.

"Yes it is, we have a job to offer him," Lydia contributed.

"Oh, and what might that be?"

"My mother is the chair of our church youth group board. She spoke with our youth pastor and he authorized $100 for Holden to give snowboarding lessons this weekend at Iron Mountain," Lydia clarified.

"And, of course we'll cover all of his other trip expenses, so you won't have to pay anything for him to go with us," Blaire added.

"Well, I know he must be good, I've seen his trophies. We put them up in his room when he moved in with us, so I can see why you thought of him," his aunt said reflectively as she was forced to remember the trying circumstances the led to his living there.

By this time, Holden's uncle joined his wife in the living room where we'd all gathered after overhearing our conversation.

"It's fine with me if Holden goes with you this weekend, and, in fact it will solve a problem for us. Let's get Holden down here and we'll ask him how he feels about it," his uncle suggested.