It Started With a Coke
by: E Walk
(© 2009-2011 by the Author)
 

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Chapter 2  

No Cokes I Say

When we walked down the stairs, my father pushed in front of us, “Where do you think your taking the heathen?”

The Coach stood in front of me, “I’m taking Seth out of this hell hole.  It’s obvious to me that you were never meant to have children.  He was correct when he said that he received the genes that make him gay, if he is gay, from the two of you.  I’m sure that you won’t accept that fact, and all of a sudden, you’ll be telling everyone that Seth was adopted.  We’re leaving, and if you call the authorities, you will have a lot of questions to answer.”

Dad’s face was getting red.  He disappeared and we could hear him talking on the phone, “This is Reverend Morrison I’d like to report the attempted kidnapping of Seth Morrison by Coach Marv Richmond.  He's taking our son against my wife’s and my wishes.”

Dad handed the phone toward the Coach. ”It‘s Mrs. James.’’

Coach took the phone , “Mrs. James, Seth is being keep captive in his home. …. For three days they have locked his room, from the outside world when they weren’t present.  The tales of the meals would be something that you and your colleague could evaluate.  Believe me, there is much more going on here at the Morrisons than is apparent.”

“Mrs. James, if Seth doesn’t show up for school and tennis practice tomorrow, the Morrison have been warned that they'd better have a good excuse.  I’ll go through school channels, since you obviously aren't going to take the initiative to take action.”

“I don’t care how busy your department is; you know me well enough to know that I wouldn’t come and cry wolf.  In this case, Pastor and Mrs. Morrison are dressed in sheep’s clothes as far as I’m concerned.”

Coach Richmond said a downright cold goodbye to Mrs. James.  He looked at me, “Let’s go see what your mother fixed for dinner and get you something to eat before you get the scraps.”

My parents were like statues standing with their fingers in places they shouldn’t have been as Coach took me into the kitchen and fixed me a meal, making sure that I had the piece of chicken that was meant for my father.  The Coach was standing there watching me eat, when my parents entered the kitchen.

The look on my parents’ faces was priceless.  My Mother whimpered, “Bill, the heathen is eating the piece of chicken I made for you.  I know how hungry you get from working so hard.  You probably didn’t even have time for lunch.”

The Coach started to laugh, “Mrs. Morrison, boy does the pastor have you buffaloed.  I had to take some papers to the church over lunch, and the pastor was sitting eating lunch with one of the circles who was having their monthly luncheon meeting.  If he’s hungry after eating the amount of food on his plate, then he has an overactive tapeworm, or he went to the bathroom and threw up the food that he ate.  No wonder he’s getting fat.”

Dad pointed to the door, “Mr. Richman, please leave immediately.  You were not invited here, so please leave.”

Coach Richmond started to the door but turned back, “I’m going to be checking in the morning to make sure that Seth is in school.  He also had better be at tennis practice, or I’ll be calling a special meeting of the church’s executive board.”

“You don’t have the right to call a meeting.  I’m the moderator of the board, and only I have the right to call meetings and set the agenda.”

Coach Richmond shook his finger, “You’ve had your way too long, Pastor Morrison.  You forget that I am the clerk of session who has been elected by the other members of the board, and I have the right to act in your stead, should you be deemed unfit to serve in your leadership capacity.  The ball is in your court, and you'd best get it rolling at tonight’s meeting.  Seth, eat your meal and don’t move until you’re finished.  I’ll talk to you tomorrow.  I don’t want you to even think about taking your own life.  I‘ll get you out of this place, even if I do get charged with kidnapping.  I can not believe this fiasco all started with Seth drinking a can of Coke.”

My Mom interrupted, “It caused him to tell us he was gay, didn’t it?”

“Mrs. Morrison, that is idiotic.  It wasn’t the Coke that caused him to tell you that he thought he was gay.  It happened because you and your husband had belittled and berated him so much that he felt completely unloved and unwanted.  His self-worth hit bottom and he was striking back in a way that he knew would upset you.  He figured that he had nothing more to lose, so he told you something he had been too afraid to tell you.”

Mother sputtered, “Well, I never!  Our other four children are normal.  They are all happily married and have children.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Morrison, Seth isn’t his brothers and sisters.  He is a unique individual whom God created.  I feel so sorry for the two of you.  You need help.  I’ll say this one last time.  If Seth is not in school in the morning, and at tennis practice tomorrow, I’m going to call the legal and church authorities and report what is happening here at this house.”

The front door slammed and my parents disappeared so I enjoyed my meal.  They finally returned as I was putting my dishes in the dishwasher.  I could tell that Dad was livid, “Meg, we have to be very careful.  Richmond is the one person who can cause us trouble.  He not only is the Clerk of the Board, but he is the President of the Church Corporation.”

I wanted to hear more of their conversation, but I went to my room because I sure didn’t want them to start yelling at me again.

The next morning, my mother opened the door, “Get up and come eat your breakfast.  I’ll be taking you to school in thirty minutes.”

I pulled some clean clothes from the closet and put them on.  That was simple, since they all looked alike.  I gulped down a bowl of cereal and Mother was standing berating me, “You need to get yourself out of bed earlier.  If you’re late for school, tell busybody Richmond that you overslept.”

I mumbled, “If you’d buy me an alarm clock, I could wake myself but then you wouldn’t get a chance to check to make sure that I wasn’t doing what you don’t want me to do.”

“Be careful what you say, or you may not be going to school.”

I was so relieved to get out of the house.  The only thing that was said was, “Your father will be picking you up immediately after school and going to tennis practice with you.”

Coach Richmond met me as I was entering the school, “Good, you’re here.  Where is your tennis racquet?  Where‘s your lunch?”

“I assume my father will be bringing he tennis racquet, since he is picking me up after school, according to my mother.  As for lunch, I didn’t have time to make one, since my mother woke thirty minutes before we had to be here.”

“Why didn’t you set the alarm?”

“First, I didn’t know that I was going to be coming to school, and secondly my parents have never allowed me to have an alarm clock.  I think my parents use the excuse of waking me up to make sure that I’m not doing things that they don’t approve of.”

“Surely your parents aren’t that depraved.  Here, take this money and buy lunch.”

“Coach, I don’t know what to do when you buy lunch, I’ve never done it.”

“Just do what the person ahead of you in line does.  It’s easy.”

It was nearly eleven o’clock when the Public Address system was activated, “Would Seth Morrison please stop by the office on his way to lunch?”

Alan leaned over to his friend and said so those around them could hear, “It looks like Little Seth forgot his shortening bread.  Mommy’s little baby loves shortening bread, don’t you know?”

There was a bunch of giggles.  The teacher looked around, “Alan, what’s so funny that you’re disrupting class?”

Alan looked so innocent, “I was commenting that Mrs. Morrison was probably bringing her little baby some shortening bread.  She probably had to dress him this morning to make sure his tie was tied correctly.”

That caused the entire class to laugh and even the teacher had the trace of a smile on his face.

I was so embarrassed that I wanted to smack Alan on the mouth and then I thought to myself, ‘If I did something like that, my parents would pull me out of school and send me to a private church school.’

After eight years of church schooling, I sure didn’t want to have to endure any more.

I stopped at the office on the way to lunch and sure enough my Mother had brought me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a pop tart  with nothing to drink.  I decided to throw the sandwich in the trash can in the office, which turned out to be a mistake that I would pay for later.

When I went to the cashier, she was someone from church, “Good to see you, Seth.  I don’t believe you’ve eaten with us before; you usually brown bag it.”

“Mrs. Cash, I was running late this morning and didn’t have time to pack my lunch.”

I went to a table where there was no one seated since most of the few friends I had ate at one of the other two lunch periods.  Finally a couple of guys came and sat down with me.  They turned out to be football players, about which I knew squat.  I explained that I was a tennis player and knew very little about contact sports because my parents felt that they should be banned from high school.”

One of the guys, Ted, was really interested in what I said about contact sports being banned from high schools.  “What would your parents have us do in place of sports?  Since there is some contact in nearly all sports programs, there wouldn’t be much left to do except jumping rope or rolling dice.”

“Dice are out since they’re included in games where dice is used to represent money.”

“We need to eat because our lunch period is almost over.  Any food is better than none.”  

I went to my afternoon classes,  Just before the dismissal bell rang, there was message. “Mr. Seth Morrison there’s an adult awaiting you in the office.

I went to the office and sure enough my father was waiting for me with my tennis racquet.  We walked to the tennis courts behind the school without a word being said.  The other guys on the team had changed into shorts and tee shirts and sneakers.  When Coach Richmond saw me still dressed as I would be for school, he remarked. “Pastor Morrison, there is no way Seth can improve his game wearing those clothes.  He needs loose clothes to enable him to stretch and even fall to the ground.”

“Coach Richmond, I have him here at practice, but I will not have him dressed so that he is showing off his body advertising how he feels about sex especially in light of his recent confession.  Tennis stars didn‘t wear clothes that showed off their bodies when I was  growing up..”

“Pastor, all tennis players today, even professionals dress, so they can move about the court at top speed.  The first thing Seth needs is some good athletic shoes instead of hard soled shoes.”

“Coach, do you realize what you’re asking?  You want us to spend big money so Seth can play this silly game with no education or spiritual value.”

“Pastor, there is more strategy involved in tennis than most people realize and it makes the participant try to outwit the opponent.  As far as spiritual value, many competitors give thanks to the creator for giving them the skills to be able to make a living playing tennis.  It’s a shame that you seem to think that only people who read and follow what the Bible says are going to be saved.” 

One on the other team members yelled, “Coach, we came here to practice tennis.  We didn’t come here to listen to the deacon proselytize.”

It was obvious during practice that my clothes were a big hindrance to me but that didn’t bother my father.  Since it was Friday, there was no practice the next two days and I would never have been permitted to go to practice on Sunday even if it was scheduled.

The following week started a little differently.  I got up before anyone else, so I was dressed and had my lunch packed before I was dropped off as the tardy bell was ringing.  At least I was able to pack some lunches other than peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Of course, one or both of my parents met me for tennis practice.

There was a change of routine on Wednesday when I was called to the office right after lunch.  Dad signed me out and we walked to the car without a word. 

The next thing I knew was that I was talking to a psychiatrist, Doctor Harris  He had me describe my life to him.  I talked for an hour without him saying a thing.  He was sitting talking notes and didn’t say a thing until, “Seth, I’ll meet you next week at the same time.”

I was looking forward to my visit with Dr. Harris.  The week went by slowly.  When we arrived at Doctor Harris’ office, he took me into his private office, and no I wasn‘t lying on the couch, “Seth, I want you to describe your relationship with your parents.”

I had been talking about twenty minutes when Dr Harris stopped me, “I think I need to talk to your parents.  I’m going to take them into my other office.  I’ll have Marge bring you a coke while you’re waiting.”

He had departed and sure enough his secretary handed me a coke and a motorcycle magazine to read.  Just as I was finishing my Coke, Doctor Harris returned to the room, “Your parents are waiting for you in the lobby.”

I stood and he put his arms around me, “Seth, I wish you were my son.  Don’t let your parents cause you to do anything.  Remember, life is too important to just give up.  Call me if you ever need to talk.  Here’s my card with my phone numbers.

Believe it or not, this same routine continued until the end of my junior year.  I think I had been taken to see every mental health professional in the area.  I’d see a new person for two or three weeks and we would go to a new person.  Suddenly the visits stopped and I missed them.  They had been the only time I ever actually had a chance to talk to an adult without my parents being around.

My mother had left me alone after school one afternoon.   I decided to call Doctor Harris.  I had no sooner dialed the number than the phone was answered, “Doctor Harris speaking.”

“Doctor Harris, it’s been a long time.  It’s Seth Morrison.”

“Seth, you aren’t planning to do anything drastic are you?”

“No Doctor, I haven't talked to an adult other than Coach Richmond and one or both of my parents are there when I do.  Even in church, it is as if one of them is always within hearing range of me.  I think my parents have taken me to see every health professional, but it’s been almost a year since I’ve had a chance to talk to any adult by myself.”

“Seth, that is the health professionals doing.  Every time your parents would hear something from one of us that they didn’t like,  they would change to a new person.  The health professionals had a meeting about a year ago, and somehow you and your parents’ names came up, and we agreed that none of us would take your case, because your parents only wanted to hear how bad you were. When your parents weren’t being told what they wanted to hear, they would take you to see someone new.”

I heard my mother’s car drive up, “I have to go Doctor.  My mother’s car just drove up and she would have kittens if she thought I was talking on the phone.  Thanks for talking to me, Doctor.”

“Anytime, Seth.”

I quickly ran upstairs and was lying on bed with my history book when the front  door opened, “Seth, bring in the groceries.”

I went to do as I was told and I noticed Mrs. Martz was struggling to mow her lawn.  I put the last of the groceries on the counter and announced, “I'm going to help Mrs. Martz with her lawn.”

I didn’t give my mother a chance to say anything.  She came to the door and yelled, “No Cokes.”

To be continued...

Editor's Notes:  That "mother", and there should be another word following that one, is a real piece of work, along with that pastor.  I certainly hope that Seth can get out of that horrible situation and SOON!

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 12/31/10