“On a school night?” Sandra asked incredulously.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m just Skyping with someone,” Ryan said.
“He’s got a new girl,” Jack teased. “You can bet he’s already written a song about her.”
“Do I know her?” Sandra asked, suddenly curious.
“No, I don’t think so,” Ryan said, looking away.
“What’s her name?”
Ryan paused.
“He won’t tell me either,” Jack said.
“I just don’t want you all to make a big deal about it. It probably won’t last, so I’d rather not talk about it yet,” Ryan said. “So can we just drop the twenty questions?”
Sandra threw her hands up in surrender. “Fine. I’ll mind my own business and go heat up the meat loaf.”
She started to walk out of the bedroom but then turned back around. “By the way . . . I spoke to your father.”
The boys looked at her expectantly.
“You can ignore what that Dirty Laundry site is claiming. Your father told me the story has no basis in fact. It’s all lies.”
“We know, Mom,” Jack said.
“I just wanted to make it clear,” Sandra said.
“Got it,” Ryan said.
As she left Jack’s bedroom and headed back down the stairs, Sandra knew the boys wouldn’t be sucked in by a ridiculous rumor. They loved their dad and trusted him and would always give him the benefit of the doubt.
She just wished she could do the same.
Later, as her sons scarfed down the meat loaf and two helpings of a homemade peanut butter pie she had bought at a bake sale the previous weekend, the boys recounted the highlights of their day, as was dinner tradition: Jack’s makeup test for failing a bio exam, Ryan’s new creative writing teacher who was encouraging him to start a novel, the upcoming football schedule, Ryan’s intention to try out for the fall musical. They successfully managed to ignore the pandemonium outside.
At one point, Sandra got up and closed the blinds so she didn’t have to look at a gaggle of nosy reporters staring at them while they ate. She always worked hard to keep up a sense of normalcy. Once they were done and clearing the plates from the table, Ryan excused himself to dash upstairs for his call with his new girlfriend. Jack hung around to help his mother load the dishwasher. They were just about done when Jack received a text on his phone. Sandra noticed his worried face as he stared at it.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I just got a text from Dale. He heard Kevin Metcalf was just rushed to the hospital in an ambulance,” Jack said quietly.
“What for?”
Jack frantically texted back his friend who had delivered the news. He instantly got a reply. “He doesn’t know.”
Kevin was a close friend of Jack’s, a running back on the team, and the first of his teammates to publicly support him for coming out. So he was held in high regard by the whole Wallage family.
“Mom, we have to go . . . ,” Jack pleaded.
Sandra didn’t even let him finish. She called upstairs to Ryan to hold down the fort, marched to the foyer, and grabbed her bag off the side table. Despite the challenge of maneuvering their way through the circus on their front lawn, they were going to the hospital.
CHAPTER FOUR
Sandra and Jack spotted Joel Metcalf in the waiting area as they emerged from the elevator on the second floor of the South Portland hospital. He looked pale and stricken as he sat slumped over in a chair, a cup of coffee in his hand, staring straight ahead as if in a trance. He was a tall man, well over six feet, lanky build, head shaven, and he sported a brown goatee punctuated with specks of gray. Sitting next to Joel, with a hand around his shoulder, was Coach Vinnie Cooper, about a foot shorter, with a buzz cut, stout and bulky with a big belly, and wearing a nylon jacket with the high school team’s insignia.
As Sandra and Jack approached, Joel’s eyes flickered toward them, and he attempted a smile, but he just couldn’t get there.
Joel stood up to greet them. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Sandra hugged him. “How is he?”
Joel shrugged. “I don’t know. They’re still working on him.”
Joel fought hard not to cry. The usually tough, sturdy, resilient construction worker was on the verge of a breakdown.
Sandra nodded to Coach Cooper, who remained seated and offered her a grim nod. She turned back to Joel. “Was he at home when it happened?”
Joel shook his head. “No. He was at school. In the locker room. Luckily Coach Cooper was still in his office doing paperwork at the time. He found him passed out on the floor as he was leaving for the day and called the ambulance.”
Jack finally stepped forward and stood next to his mother. “What is it? What’s wrong with him?”
Joel stared down at the floor and shrugged, unable to answer.
Coach Cooper stood up and patted Joel on the back. “They suspect it might be a drug overdose.”
Sandra’s eyes widened. “Drugs?”
Coach Cooper nodded solemnly. “They found opioids in his backpack.”
“Oh dear God . . .” Sandra whispered.
Joel’s eyes welled up with tears. He was losing the battle to stay strong and stoic.
Sandra grabbed his hand.
“I . . . I had no idea he was taking drugs . . . ,” Joel stammered. “I never saw any evidence of it.... But I should have seen the signs . . . don’t know . . . with Stacy gone and me working all the time . . . I try to be a good father, but maybe I’m just not around enough to keep an eye on him. . . .”
Sandra squeezed Joel’s hand. “Do not beat yourself up. This is not your fault. Don’t you watch the news? This is a national epidemic.”
“I’ve been trying to tell him the same thing,” Coach Cooper said quietly, clasping Joel’s shoulder with his pudgy hand in a show of support.
“Listen, I’d appreciate it if you and Jack kept mum about all this. I don’t want it getting out that Kevin was mixed up with drugs. He’s been struggling a lot lately, especially since his mom died, and . . . well, he’s been applying to colleges, and I really don’t want this destroying his reputation,” Joel said in a desperate tone.
“Of course,” Sandra said.
Jack nodded in agreement, not quite knowing what
