Lisa the Lion

I have to admit, finding out where Alex’s parents lived was easy compared to finding out where the boy actually was. Searching a hundred churches, even three hundred churches, hell, even searching all of the churches in the state of New York itself would have been easier than what awaited me when I went to visit Alex’s parents. I hadn’t been expecting what I found there, after all, if they’d kicked him out, why the hell should they care what happened to him now? Easy, they shouldn’t. Logically, they should give me the information easily. But still, I didn’t want my baby Jason facing off against them, and I didn’t know that his other roommate, Terry, was ready to deal with them either, so I had Aaron take the boys out while I went to deal with them. I guess some part of me was aware of what was about to take place.

When I arrived at the address I’d been given, I could scarcely believe my eyes. It was a small house, in a nasty neighborhood. How could a boy who lived in a place like that afford to attend Telran? As a parent who was going to be paying two students tuition in the next year, I was fully aware of the cost of a year’s enrollment, and nobody that lived in such squalor could afford to send a child to Telran, even on a partial scholarship, which could only leave one thing. Jason’s third roommate was a genius. I hadn’t spent much time with the boy during our time with him while they were in the hospital on campus, I’d been too worried about dear Jason, but from what I knew of him, it certainly wasn’t out of the picture that he really was genius enough to win Telran’s full scholarship. It made me proud to know that my nephew was associating with someone of such mental prowess. I staunchly refused to think about what else he was likely doing with his two roommates. After all, it was none of my business what my darling Jason chose to do with his personal love life, so long as none of them ever hurt him.

I pulled myself from my thoughts and, steeling myself for whatever could possibly come next, marched up the small sidewalk to the front door of the decrepit house. I rapped sharply on the door, three times, and waited, resisting the urge to nervously smooth down my skirt. After all, I wasn’t wearing a skirt, I was wearing jeans. And my parents always taught me to never seem as nervous as I felt, because people, much like animals, could sense fear, and would always use that against you. And no matter what, I was not afraid of these heartless people. If push came to shove, I could always sue them for the information, and for custody of Jason’s darling little roommate. I could hardly imagine anybody kicking their child out after he’d nearly been killed, but then, I could hardly imagine anybody kicking their child out at all, and I could even less imagine it of a minister. But I guess it only proves that nobody really knows what’s happening behind closed doors.

I was wholly unprepared for the door to be opened, but when it was, I plastered what I hope was a believable smile onto my face and said as sweetly as I could manage, “This is the Johnson residence, is it not?” I resisted the urge to snarl at the woman who had answered the door, knowing that she had had a part in making my nephew cry, but also knowing that she could either make my life difficult or incredibly easy. I was praying for the incredibly easy option.

“Why, yes. May I help you?” She seemed pleasant enough, I have to admit, and enough like a minister’s wife that the alarm bells didn’t immediately go off in my head. Perhaps this would be as easy as I’d hoped it would.

“Yes, I’m looking for information about your son, Alexander Johnson. You see my nephew was his roommate at school and...” I could see instantly that I’d made a mistake as her face shuttered off and her eyes seemed to freeze inside. I wondered if there was any possible way to correct said mistake, however, from the growing fury in her eyes, I could see that things were about to slide downhill, and quickly.

“How dare you come to this house and ask for information about my son? Do you know what your nephew has done to my son? Your foul nephew has corrupted our innocent and God-fearing son, and turned him into a disobedient little faggot!” Mrs. Johnson’s eyes crackled in rage, even as mine widened in shock. Certainly, I’d suspected that the three boys were more than just friends, but to have such a thing thrown in my face like that...it was almost obscene, and certainly not something to be spoken of to a complete stranger, even if said stranger’s nephew was involved in the torrid affair.

“My dear Madame, perhaps you misunderstood me. I do not care what goes on behind closed doors with regards to my nephew, your son, and Terry Miller. What I do care about is that my nephew has been a nervous wreck all day for our inability to locate your son, and we have flown all the way from San Francisco simply to look for him. Now, we have tracked him down to this very house, and it would seem that I am at a dead end, unless you should care to provide me with his whereabouts. Now.” I allowed just a hint of steel to creep into my voice as I spoke, and I hoped that that would be enough. I didn’t want to have to call my lawyer only to find out just how shaky the legal ground I stood on was; for I knew that the ground I stood on was as solid as the sands of the desert, and should push come to shove, her push very well could have outweighed my shove.

“I will do no such thing, and I am offended by the very idea that you think you can simply show up here and demand my son’s location!” The indignation in her voice, combined with the fury in her eyes, and my own knowledge of what had happened just sparked something within me, and when she went to slam the door in my face, she found that she couldn’t, for my foot was in the way.

“Madame, I am afraid that you simply do not understand. I will not be leaving your residence tonight until you do one of two things. The first is the simpler option, and that would be the one where you tell me where Alexander went, and I leave. The second is the one where you call the police, and they arrest me for trespassing, and I drag your and your husband’s name through the mud with my extensive connections to the press, for being the sanctimonious assholes that you are.” I paused, taking a deep breath, before continuing. “As I understand it, Madame, you have seen fit to force Alexander from your home, and therefore, you shouldn’t really care where he goes from there. If you truly cared at all for your son, then you would want him to be someplace where he can be happy, and I can assure you that he would be nothing but should you give me his location.”

“Did you just threaten me?” Her eyes were wide with shock, and I could see that she was still stuck on the first half of my attempt at persuasion. I resented my persuasive attempt being called a threat, however, as I was a lady and ladies do not make threats.

“Madame, I would not call such a thing a threat; I would instead refer to it as a promise.” I continued to smile, as sweetly as was physically possible considering that all I really wanted to do was rip her tongue out, and hoped that I had successfully managed to convince her that to divulge her son’s whereabouts would be in both his and her best interests.

“He went to stay with his ex-best friend’s parents, the Robinsons. They can be found at this address.” She wrote something down on a napkin and handed it to me through the door. “I hope that he’s happy with you.” She smiled, and I could tell that it was far more forced than my own, and went to close the door once again. This time, I made no move to stop her, as I’d gotten what I’d gone there for in the first place.

As I walked away from the decrepit house in the rundown neighborhood, I wondered what exactly she’d meant by ‘ex-best friend’. After all, why would you ever go and stay with the parents of someone you were no longer friends with? It all seemed horribly awkward to me, but then, I never had been able to understand the actions of the younger generation. As I traveled down the small, beat up walkway back to the street, I passed what had to be Alexander’s father, just coming up the way.

“Can I help you, Miss?” He smiled kindly at me, and I could see instantly how a man like him could have made it as a minister. I resisted the urge to slap him across the face, as such an action would hardly be considered lady-like, and I was always as lady-like as possible.

“Why, no, sir, thank you. I have no need to speak with a self-righteous minister who cannot seem to live the sort of tolerance that he preaches. But thank you for the kind offer.” But just because I was always lady-like didn’t mean that I was always polite. I smiled sweetly at him and waved goodbye, both to him and the decrepit neighborhood, and slipped into the backseat of the waiting taxi, the napkin folded neatly in my pocket.

Tomorrow I would take my boys, all four of them, and we would go and find Alexander, and then we would go and return home, where I would not have to deal with sanctimonious fools like Alexander’s parents. I couldn’t wait.

Author’s Notes:

Due to the overwhelming demand to know what Lisa said to Alex’s parents, I figured that I’d post this little side story. It isn’t the anniversary special, and it isn’t the next chapter, but I’m working on both, so don’t worry. And since I’m on Spring Break, hopefully I’ll get the next chapter up soon, followed by perhaps the special. We’ll see, I guess.