Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 20:31:16 EST From: Sidg0714@cs.com Subject: Mall Punk: What Happened? This is not a traditional Mall Punk chapter. In fact no character you've met so far appears on the story. It does take place in Longston, NJ and the main characters may appear in future, more traditional Mall Punk stories. The story is 100% fiction, while there is no sex there is talk about gay sex between two 14 year old identical twin brothers. So if that's not to your taste please leave. This is also a tale about a murder which takes place before the story starts. Enjoy and let me know what you think. All comments to SidG0714@cs.com What Happened? By Sid G, copyright 1998, 2004 "Hello Jimmy, I'm Dr. Wilson and." "Where's Joey?" "He's in another room here, safe and all right. Now as I" "I want to talk to him." I stared at the man in the white coat, trying to will him to let me see my identical twin brother. "That's all anybody's told me for the last week and I want to see and talk to him now." "Look, if I get some cooperation son." "Don't call me that." "OK Jimmy, is that OK?" I nodded and gave him a little grin, which he returned. "That's better, now as I started to say I'm Dr. Wilson, the psychiatrist appointed by the court to talk to you and your brother about your older brother's murder. If you help me out here I'll try and get the two of you together." "How much more can I help? I've already confessed to pulling the trigger and Joey wasn't even there." "Joey says he did it and you were sleeping the whole time." "He's lying." "He says the same thing about you and I think you're both protecting each other, holding something back. From what everybody's told me or the police I can't believe either one of you shot Aaron for the fun of it." I stood up and walked over to the window and looked out over a large lawn. The doctor was right but I didn't know what to do. Hell, I'm only fourteen and my life's destroyed. Either my brother or I, or probably both of us, will end up in prison and being barely five foot and ninety pounds end up being sex toys. I know he won't tell me what Joey said but I think I can figure it out. What to do? "You're working for the police," I said without turning. "How can I trust you? You'll just take anything I say and use it to get us worse sentences, probably even keep us apart for the rest of our lives." Damn, I felt tears flowing. Not exactly the cold-blooded killer image. "Didn't your lawyer, Mr. Atkins, explain that he agreed to go along with my report?" I walked over to the nightstand and pulled an envelope out of the drawer. "Tell us? Here's my copy of the letter he sent. I've seen the idiot once and all he said was he'd do the best he could. Best he could do. Couldn't even arrange for us to see each other. I don't think he'll show up for the trial." "I'll talk to him about coming to talk to you, explain what's happening. When we met he asked the right questions, he is concerned about you two. He's read all the reports and even talked to your parents, principal and teachers. He's young but I think he'll do right by you." "But what about you? This is really about how I feel about you. Can I trust you to do the right thing?" "I'm here to try and understand you and why you did what you say you did. If I believe your story then yes it will have an impact on what happens to you after the trial." "See, you'll get me and Joey executed." "Or get you probation and placed in a group home for problem kids." "We're not problem kids," I snapped back. "Well to most people murder is a problem." "It wasn't murder, it was self-defense." "He was sleeping on his stomach when you claim to have put two bullets in his head." "Then, what's the term, justifiable homicide." "You know, I could buy that. But you'll have to tell me everything. And it has to be the truth." I returned to the window. Past the parking lot I could see a park with a lake in the middle. It looked so peaceful, kids playing on the fields. I'd never play on another field that wasn't surrounded by hundred foot high electrified barbed wire fences. But maybe, just maybe I could free Joey. I turned and scanned the room for the hundredth time since I'd been brought here from the police station. "Are we being watched or taped? The truth please if we're going to work this out." "The only tape recorder is the one I have." He took it out of his pocket and opened the cassette holder. "I won't turn it on until you say OK." "They say the truth shall set you free. Now I know that's not going to be true here." "Depends on what it is, if you had a good enough reason maybe we can avoid prison for you and your brother. I can't promise but^" his voice trailed off. "Promise me this, if I tell you the truth you'll back my confession over Joey's." "Did you really pull the trigger? On your honor." "Yes I did. Where do you want me to start?" "At the beginning would be helpful." "Start the tape," I waited. "This is Dr. Richard Wilson. I am interviewing James Henry Singleton regarding the murder of his brother Aaron Singleton. The interview is being conducted in Mr. Singleton's hospital room without anyone else present. Mr. Singleton, do you voluntarily consent to this interview. You can say no and you can have your lawyer present if you choose." "Can I have my brother here?" "I'm sorry no. Do you consent to the interview?" "Yes I do." "Do you understand you can pause or end this interview at any time?" "Can we just get started?" "Jimmy, I need this on the record. This is the last question." "I understand and consent." "Then please start at the beginning." "The trouble started fourteen years ago as of last August 8th." "The day you were born?" I nodded. "Aaron was four and never accepted us. A couple of years ago we found the videotape of our third birthday party and Aaron's on it saying, `Well the things made it another year, with any luck they wont make another.'" "Could you hear any reaction from your parents?" "Yeah, mom reminds him he promised to be nice and dad's laughing. But what do you expect considering they've deserted us now." "And Aaron's attitude never improved?" "Let me show you something." I took off the T-shirt I was wearing and stood and pointed to a four-inch scar along my left side. The doctor described the scar. "This was his tenth birthday present to himself. If the carving knife had gone in an inch deeper I might not be standing here. They told the emergency room I'd fallen through my window and grounded him for a week." I turned around and pointed to a faint scar on my back. "That's where he `accidentally' hit me with his bicycle chain last year. The insults, punches, abuse never stopped, for either one of us. `Very good Jimmy." "'Very good'," I screamed. "Very good! Get out of here you bastard." I continued screaming as the outer door opened and a burly aide started coming in but Dr. Wilson waved him out as he grabbed my shoulders. He held me till I stopped shaking. "No, no Jimmy. I'm sorry. I don't mean what he did was very good but that the long pattern of abuse is very good for your case, especially your folks' indifference to it. Now do you want to take a break or are you ready to get to the heart of the manner?" I took a couple of deep breaths. "You know what I'd really like?" "What?" "A whole cold can of Coke for my self. I promise I won't throw it at you or through the window or anything stupid like that." Dr. Wilson smiled, turned the tape off and walked out the door. I looked at my shirt and decided against putting it back on. It was warm in the room and I liked the feel of the breeze from the air conditioner on my bare skin. The idea of finally telling someone the truth felt good, but had me nervous. Could I really trust the man? Did I have much choice if I was going to save Joey? It was taking longer than I had expected for Dr. Wilson to return and I was getting nervous when the door opened and he walked in with two cans on a tray. "Sorry it took so long but all they had up here was some generic crap so I went to the lobby and picked up some chips and stuff to go with our sodas. Take your pick." He put the tray down on the table by my bed and took one can. He must have spent at least five dollars on snack food. I was beginning to like this guy. I grabbed a bag of Reese's Pieces and the soda and went through about a quarter of each before saying I was ready to resume. Dr. Wilson turned the tape back on. "Joey and I are totally identical. The only differences in our bodies are marks from outside influences. Our grades are almost the same in every subject; we like the same sports, bands. Mom and Dad started taking us clothes shopping not only separately but simultaneously so we wouldn't pick out the same things and that didn't even work." I took another sip. I knew my next sentence, but also knew his reaction to it was critical. His feelings might determine our destiny. I wondered if I could skip it, but it would come out later anyway. I took a deep breath and spit it out. "And we're both gay and we're lovers." I waited for a reaction but he just nodded and took another pretzel. "How do you feel about that? If you've got a thing against gays then let's end it here." "This is Dr. Wilson I'm going to pause the tape for a moment." The room fell silent while he reached over to the tape and hit the stop button. "Do you think there's anything wrong about being gay Jimmy? He asked. "No, but I know a lot of people do and that if you're one of them it could hurt me and Joey. If I'm going to keep trusting you I need to know the truth." "Fair enough," Dr. Wilson said as he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out his wallet. He flipped it open and handed it to me. I was looking at a picture of a cute guy, probably about twenty. "Look at the next picture." I flipped the picture and there was Dr. Wilson with his arm around the boy. Dr. Wilson's tee shirt said, "I'm the proud parent of a gay son." The boy was wearing a matching shirt that said, "I'm the son." "Does that answer you question? Craig came out to us when he was sixteen. Not that it was a surprise to his mother, brother or me. It didn't change how much we loved him. Not one bit." "You know, if my parents had been a tenth this supportive we probably wouldn't be here. Start the tape." He clicked it on. "This is Dr. Wilson. James Singleton has consented to continue the interview. Whenever your ready Jimmy." I nodded. "We'd always horsed around in our room, wrestled in the nude, stuff like that when we were little." "Why in the nude?" "A couple of times we ripped our clothes and mom got so mad it was a natural step to avoid the problem. A year or so ago when we started reaching puberty things started taking an added dimension. It started innocently enough, comparing our bodies as each change came along. Then as time went on things progressed and we did more and more sexual things together. You don't need the details do you? "Did the two of you go all the way?" "Yes, but please?" "Fine, I understand," Dr. Wilson said. I picked the soda back up and took a long drink. "Just give me a minute Doc. This is harder than I figured on." "No problem, you take all the time you need. I know this has been a rough experience for you, and you're handling it well." "Thanks, but the hardest part is not being with Joey. We've never been apart this long since we were conceived. Not to even talk to him." I found myself wiping a tear away. "I told you he's fine, I promise you'll see each other soon. We just have to settle this first." "But why?" "Because if the two of you are together you can work on your stories and then we might never find out the truth." I thought about that and nodded. "Is that enough background?" "For now, we may need to go back and fill in details later but you were great." "Thanks, that does mean a lot. My parents never gave us many complements. There are times I wonder why they kept us." "Did they abuse you?" "They never beat us and I don't remember having sex with my father or anything like that. They fed and clothed us, just didn't love us. I mean look at my father, he's leading the parade for our executions." "Quick question before you get back to the story," the Doctor said. "What?" "Do you know the combination of the safe in your father's den?" I shook my head. "Nope, Dad wouldn't give it to us, only Mom and he knew it. Why do you want to know?" "Not important. Are you ready to get back to the story?" I finished the soda and smiled. "Will you get me another when I'm finished?" He laughed and I felt a twinge of regret. Why couldn't my father have been a little bit like him? "That day," I started. "Last Wednesday, the day of the murder?" "Yes. It started like any normal school day. Up at six, shower, breakfast and out by seven-thirty. Joey and I have, had a fifteen-minute walk to school. Nothing unusual happened on the way there but once we crossed the street Mr. Hooligan, the principal, came and took us to the office and everything began to fall apart." I stopped, feeling tears beginning to fall. "I swear we didn't do it, Aaron put that picture on the school's web page. We never took pictures of ourselves having sex. Besides neither of us know how to change the home page like that." "Hold it, hold it. Take a deep breath and when you're ready take a step back and start again." I took a tissue, wipe my eyes and blew my nose. He handed me the rest of his soda and I finished it. "Thanks, but that doesn't count as the extra can." "I know," he smiled and I returned it. I had started talking to save Joey but was beginning to really trust the doctor. Maybe he could help both of us. "Without saying a word they sat us in an empty office until our parents arrived. We whispered while we waited but couldn't figure out what was going on. Teacher after teacher walked by the glass walls and stared, glared at us. Shaking their heads. "Finally our parents got there but walked into Mr. Hooligan's office without saying a word. Fifteen minutes later Mr. Hooligan's secretary got us and brought us into his office. She's always a bitch but I thought she was going to spit on us. The first thing we saw was the computer monitor. On the screen under the banner "Harding Middle School's Finest" was a color picture of the two of us fucking. On the bottom was, "If you want to join us just cum see us in the basement boy's room." I don't know what happened next but I think I fainted since the next thing I knew I was sitting on the floor with Joey kneeling over me. The adults didn't seem to care. They just started yelling at us, interrogating us. When they gave us a chance to say anything they just called us liars. Finally they suspended us indefinitely and sent us home. "When we got there Dad made us strip and whipped our asses with his belt." I had to stop at that point. The memories were just too painful. And the worst was yet to come. "When he was finished he locked us in our room. For the first few minutes we sat on our own beds tears flowing while we gave each other suspicious looks. " "I never took any pictures Jimmy. I swear on our love I had nothing to do with it," Joey broke the silence. "Neither did I, I swear on our love too." I got off the bed and walked over to Joey's. He took my hand and pulled me over and we kissed. When we finally broke we leaned back against the wall. "Then who did it?" I asked. "Had to be Aaron," Joey said, "but how?" We tried remembering the picture on the web site but it still took us almost two hours to find the small opening almost at the top of the wall we shared with Aaron's bedroom. We could see the lens coming almost all the way through. It had a perfect view of Joey's bed and most of the floor." "What did you do then?" "Started pounding on the door, yelling for our mother to come. Unfortunately our father came up and told us if we needed to piss we could do it in each others mouths and it was going to be a long time before we got out of there for any reason. We tried telling him but he just walked away. Unable to do anything else we lay down on my bed and held each other tight. I'd like to say it was comforting but we were both to wound up. Somehow we fell asleep and slept until we heard knocking on the door. It was after three in the afternoon." "Hey faggots, click click. How'd you like the picture?" "Aaron, you bastard, you fucking bastard." I screamed, or we both did I'm not really sure. The door opened and he came in laughing hysterically. "Now I'm finally going to be rid of you two scum. Dad won't let any faggots live in his house. The only pity is that I'm going to lose out on selling all that kiddy porn of the two of you. That camera's been there for six years." "We tried jumping him but he just hit us in our balls, laughed and locked the door behind him. When we couldn't keep from pissing any more we opened the window and did it. Didn't even care that our neighbors could see us. We closed the window and started making plans to runaway that night." "Your bedroom is on the second floor and I didn't see anyway to climb down. How were you going to get out?" "Can't climb down but you can climb up if your limber enough. Wouldn't have been the first time we'd gotten up on the roof, over to the garage and down the tree when we were grounded." I could see Dr. Wilson running the scene through his head and then he chuckled. "Not bad, would have gotten you out of there but we'll discuss the consequences of that move another time." Yeah, like if we ever get out of here. We can't go home again. "Anyway, about seven Mom brought us some food and let us out long enough to go to the bathroom. We tried talking to her, but she wouldn't listen, barely even glanced over to where the camera was when we told her about it and Aaron's confession. She just told us to be quiet and pray to God for forgiveness for our wicked ways that had brought shame on the family. Somebody must have told her about our pissing out the window since she left the door unlocked, which we didn't even realize till much later. "About ten we took turns going to the john, set the alarm for three and went to sleep. Joey was crying in his sleep and it woke me up about one and I couldn't fall back to sleep. I got angrier and angrier until it hit me what I had to do. I sneaked downstairs to the den and got the gun from where my father hid it in the back of the top drawer of his filing cabinet. We all knew where he kept it and he'd shown us how to take the safety off. I crept back upstairs and into Aaron's room. He was sleeping on his stomach, snoring away. I picked up a thick pillow from the floor and put it over my gun hand. Brought them to the back of his head and fired twice. Wiped my hand and the gun off on a towel he'd left on the floor and ran downstairs, returned the gun and ran back up to my room. "Joey was sitting up on his bed when I entered. I started to tell him it was time to go but the police sirens started. Before we could get dressed they were in the house and we were under arrest." I took a deep breath. "That's the story, the whole truth. Now can I see Joey? You promised." "There's one problem with your story. One detail that doesn't fit the facts." "If my parents told you they were probably making it up to get us in even more trouble." "Remember I asked you if you knew the combination to the safe?" "Yes, I said we didn't." "In his statement your father swears the gun was locked in the safe. A safe he says you didn't know the combination for and he can't understand how you got it out." Everything had changed in one sentence. I must have passed out because when I opened my eyes two nurses had joined Dr. Wilson around the bed. "Are you OK Jimmy? You gave us a scare there," Dr. Wilson said. "Water something to drink please." I said as I barely nodded my head. "What happened?"" "You passed out and hit your head on the bed when you fell. No damage to that thick skull though." It was another half-hour before we were alone again and I felt up to talking. "Can I have the truth now Jimmy. For your and Joey's sake." "Problem is I don't know if it's for Joey's sake. But all right. Everything I said is true until one o'clock in the morning. I woke up not to find Joey crying but to find him gone. I knew he wouldn't leave without me and I figured he'd gone to the bathroom when I heard this loud bang from Aaron's room." "One?" "Yes, five minutes later Joey reentered the room white as a ghost and got under his covers without even looking at me. When I heard him sleeping again I got up and went next door and saw blood all over Aaron's head and the gun lying on the floor. I figured Joey had shot him and I didn't want him to take the fall, or at least take it alone, so I picked up the gun and shot him again. Ran downstairs, put the gun in the cabinet where the police found it and got back upstairs right before they arrived." There was a knock on the door and when it opened Joey ran right up to me and hugged me. As I was hugging him I saw Detective Johansson enter the room and signal to Dr. Wilson. In my excitement and joy I didn't think to ask my brother what had happened. "Jimmy, Joey, sit down and we can finish this up," Dr. Wilson said. We sat and Detective Johansson nodded at Joey. "Joey, tell them what happened when you went to the bathroom that morning." I looked over and shook my head but he just smiled. "I woke up having to piss bad and while it was going to be our last night in those beds I didn't want to wet it. I opened our door a crack and slipped through it and went into the bathroom. While I was on the john I heard this bang. I waited a couple of minutes and when I opened the bathroom door I looked into Aaron's room. There was blood all over him," he took a deep breath. "Then I saw Mom standing over him." "Mom!" I shouted. He nodded. "I shut the door before she saw me and when I heard her footsteps I went back to bed." "Joey finally told us this ninety minutes ago. We went to the house and confronted her. She confessed to the killing but said, well forget what she said boys," the detective said. "Why didn't you tell anybody this before?" Dr. Wilson asked. "Until I talked to you I didn't think anyone would listen to me. Then when Detective Johansson told me about Jimmy's fainting I decided it was time to trust someone," Joey said. I barely heard this. I knew what Mom had said. But as I looked at my brother, best friend and more I knew it didn't matter. I turned back to the men and smiled. "I think we'd like to be alone for a little bit, but can I have that soda now Dr. Wilson?" Dr. Wilson smiled, "I'll get two son." This time I smiled and nodded.