The D Class

By Stephen Douglas

At the park, Mike took Jenny into one of the dugouts beside the ball field. Here, for the first time she let him touch her. As the evening grew dark, they half sat and half lay on the bench in the dugout just kind of making out. Suddenly Jenny jumped to her feet.

“Shit, Mike, who’s that?” she let out in a loud whisper.

Mike stood just in time to see a man disappear into the tree line behind the ball field.

“Shit, Mike, that’s that man. He was just standing there, watching us.”

“C’mon, Jen, let’s get out of here.”

They ran through the park, adjusting their clothes on the way. Mike looked back several times as they ran. The stranger was gone. They stopped on the sidewalk outside the park.

“Holy shit, Jen, how long was he standing there?”

“I don’t know. Let’s just get outta here. I’m scared.”

“Hell, me too holy shit.”

“We should call the police.”

“Yeah right, and tell them we were making out in the dugout. Let’s just get outta here.”

Mike and Jenny walked away from the park, hand in hand, both looking back often. They stopped behind the Laundromat.

After a kiss and a hug, Mike headed down the alley. Jenny felt her heart pound as she rounded the side of the Laundromat. She stared down the street for any signs of a strange man, ran across, and in the front door of her house.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781648019654

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The D Class

Stephen Douglas

Copyright © 2020 Stephen Douglas

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2020

ISBN 978-1-64801-964-7 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64801-965-4 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

To Julia Rosetta Lombardo Wilson and all mothers like her

Prologue

In the early 1970s, there were American men and boys in uniform dying on foreign soil. There was new and radical music. Drugs, protests, and riots in the streets. There was political turmoil. The occasional national triumph or national tragedy. These things have always been there. And probably always will be. The news makers. This is about the 95 percent of the people who dwell in the shadows of history in towns you never heard of, whose names will never be known. Many of those people teeter on the fence, one paycheck away from poverty, just as the generation before them.

Susan sat on the worn green recliner and stared across the room at the old black-and-white console television. She pushed the renegade lock of long blond hair back behind her ear. Her tired icy blue eyes were fixed on the screen.

The wall clock chimed eleven times as the commercial showing a man smoking a cigarette on horseback blurred and refocused as the face of a newsman.

Hello, viewers, I’m James Beckman, and this is your nightly news. Tonight’s top story is new developments concerning a report we gave more than two months ago. Today, two hunters happened across a body in a heavily wooded area about ten miles south of West Bentley. Authorities say the body was partially covered with brush and is thought to be that of a young female in her early teens. It is also suspected to possibly be the remains of a fourteen-year-old girl who vanished on her way to school back in October. As a reminder, the girl was last seen by her parents as she left home to walk to school that fateful morning. After more than a week of extensive search, police called off the hunt for the missing girl and concentrated on following the few clues that lead to her disappearance. A person of interest was said to be a tall thin man wearing a long overcoat with the collar turned up, showing some facial hair. He was seen by several other students in the days leading up to her disappearance. Reports indicate he was loitering around in different areas within a few blocks of the West Bentley Middle School. No one fitting his description was located by authorities since this tragic event. Again, the body has not been positively identified but is thought to be that of the fourteen-year-old who vanished just over two months ago. We will bring you more on this as the investigation unfolds. In other news—

Susan stood, slid her stocking feet across the floor, and turned off the TV. She turned and pulled at the front doorknob to be sure it was locked, then looked down at her son sleeping on a blanket spread out in the middle of the wooden floor. C’mon, Mark, it’s time to go up for the night, Susan said as she used her foot to gently push against his shoulder. His short brown hair lay flat on one side as he stood. With eyes half closed, he led his mother up the steep, narrow steps to the second floor of the old row house, dragging his blue flannel blanket behind him. He staggered into the bedroom at the top of the steps. Susan carefully walked down the dark hallway, opened the door to the front bedroom, and looked in at her daughter sleeping. She then went back the hall into the small middle bedroom and sat on the bed. She wound the round white alarm clock on the nightstand, laid down, and softly cried until she fell asleep.

Three years later…

Jenny lay on her left side across the small twin-size bed with her head propped up on her hand. The paper blind on the window was raised just enough to allow a view down at the brick Laundromat across the street. A light snow began to fall and created a sparkling halo around the streetlight on the pole at the corner. Old Lady Johnson appeared from around the side of the building and went into the angled glass door of the Laundromat. Jenny could just make out the time on the clock on the wall through the large glass pane window facing her house, five of ten. She watched as Mrs. Johnson routinely wiped down the rows of machines. Then as every night, she would vanish down the short dark hallway in the back of the room and reappear with a mop and bucket. At ten thirty, the lights inside went dark, and Mrs. Johnson became a shadow as she came outside, locked the door, and faded around the corner of the building. A few minutes later, Jenny could see the outline of the old woman through the blind on the window of the second floor apartment above the laundry. As usual, a few teenage boys gathered under the streetlight. Jenny fell asleep to the occasional loud outburst of voices from the corner across the street.

Jenny, get up. It’s after six thirty.

She looked up to see her mother standing at the doorway to her room. She knew she lost the race this morning because she could hear her brother already in the bathroom down the hall.

You and Mark’s lunches are ready in the refrigerator. Come straight home after school before you go anywhere else. I’ll see you after work.

Her mother went down the steps, out the door, and climbed into the old red Chevy II just as it pulled up out front. She had to pull the door closed a second time to get it to latch, then the driver shifted into gear and drove off.

This was the first day back to school after the Christmas break and a new year, 1970. Jenny lazily pushed herself through the process of getting ready for school. She ate her bowl of puffed wheat, grabbed the two lunch bags from the refrigerator and herded Mark out the door. She checked the doorknob to make sure it was locked and handed her brother the lunch bag with the big M on the front.

The two walked down the street toward the elementary school a few blocks away. Once Mark turned off onto the walkway leading to the school, Jenny went past all the old row houses and over the railroad tracks. From there, she could see her friend, Karl Ann, waiting in the driveway of the brick ranch home. For a minute, Jenny thought about spending the day at the park they would pass on the way to the junior high school. She didn’t want to hear about all the Christmas presents the kids at school would talk about. Her Christmas was, as always, a few badly needed articles of clothing and, this year, a sweater. Walking with Karl Ann was sweet-and-sour. Jenny was envious of her friend, always dressed so nice, a fancy hairstyle, and money in her pocket. But yet being friends with Karl was the only thing she had going for her at school. Karl was popular with just about everyone. Jenny would sometimes get invited to do things with the other girls because of the association with Karl Ann.

The two girls started down the street side by side.

The contrast between them was obvious. Jenny had the thick straight blond hair of her mother’s youth and deep blue eyes that clearly stood out. She was of average height and a bit slim. Karl Ann was an inch or so taller. She had wavy auburn hair and eyes of green. She had more form and wore clothes that accentuated that. Karl Ann also had a much more ladylike stride than Jenny.

This is stupid, going back to school for one day, then the weekend. We shouldn’t have to go back until Monday, Jenny said.

I know, but would you rather start back on a Monday and have a whole week of school to look forward to?

We’re gonna get that next week anyway.

The school day revealed what Jenny expected, kids talking about all their Christmas presents. She tried to keep to herself; afraid people would ask what she got. At lunch, Jenny sat with Terri since she didn’t share the same lunch time with Karl Ann. Besides, Terri was more like her. They both had the bag lunch from home. They both lived among the blocks of old row houses across the tracks. They both were from a single parent family, mother only. But there was one difference. The popular girls always made fun of Terri, but not Jenny. Oh, they looked down on Jenny but would not tease her because of her friendship with Karl Ann.

After a long day of staring at clocks and dragging herself from class to class, Jenny was ready to go. She met Karl Ann out front of the school, and the two walked together past the park and stopped at the driveway leading to the brick ranch house.

What are you doing tonight? Jenny asked.

I have to babysit for the neighbor again. My mom always gets me into that without asking me first.

How about tomorrow?

I’m going bowling with some of the other girls from school, but not until later. Why don’t you come over tomorrow after lunch?

Okay, I’ll see you then.

Jenny went down the street, crossed the tracks, and found Mark waiting outside the elementary school.

How was school? she asked.

Boring.

Arriving at home, Jenny unlocked the door for her brother and then sat on the stoop. The concrete step was cold and hard, but there wasn’t anything to do inside. She sat there watching the occasional car go by and a woman in the Laundromat, folding her clothes. It would be another lonely boring Friday night ahead.

After Mom came home from work and a quick supper of hot dogs and beans, Jenny was back out on the stoop. Her mother was dosing off on the worn green chair just inside the door, and her brother was on the floor watching something on the old black-and-white television. Jenny watched the Laundromat and waited until no one was over there, then went to check the change slots on the pay phone, candy machine, and soap powder machine. This evening found her a dime in one of the slots. Jenny stayed out front until the dark brought the temperature down. She went in past her mother and brother, now both sleeping, up the steps to her room, where she lay on the bed, looking out the window at the Laundromat across the street.

Jenny really wished she had a record player. Even Terri had one. But then she wouldn’t have any money to buy records to play anyway. She stared out the window, thinking about all the things she could do if she was like Karl Ann. Karl’s mom would drop her off at the bowling alley some Saturday evenings to bowl with other school friends. Karl would ask Jenny to go along sometimes, but Jenny never had the money to bowl. She went along a few times just to watch. Karl owned a bowling ball and shoes, not like the other girls that had to rent shoes and use a ball off the rack. At least they had the money to bowl with and parents with a car to take them. Jenny took the dime out of her pocket and put it in the slot she cut into the lid of an empty jar. She could count the fifty-six cents inside. At this rate, it would be a long time before she had the money to do anything fun. As much as she didn’t like school, it was somewhere to go, and Karl Ann was around some weekends. Karl Ann would leave at the end of school year every June to spend the summer at her grandmother’s. Her grandparents lived on a farm about half a state away. They had horses. Karl could already ride a horse at age fourteen. Jenny never even saw a real one.

The sound of loud laughter brought Jenny back from her daydream. She looked out the window at the small group of boys gathering under the streetlight. The Laundromat was dark inside. She pulled her blanket up to her neck to shield her from the cold air coming in around the window. Her mother came up the steps and past her door. As Jenny lay quiet in the dark, she could faintly hear her mother crying from down the hall. She got up and pushed her door shut, lay back on the bed, and fell asleep to the occasional outburst of voices from the corner across the street.

By 9:00 Saturday morning, the routine was in motion. Mom was sorting dirty clothes for their weekly trip across the street. Jenny, Mark, and their mother went over to the Laundromat. Mark was fascinated with watching the clothes spin in circles inside the dryer. Most Saturdays, Mom would have enough change to allow for a Peppermint Patty for Jenny and Mark to share. Mom’s treat was a Tab from the coke machine out front. Another woman showed up with her son, and Mark spent the rest of the trip racing laundry carts around the room with him. Jenny sat on the bench in front of the large pane window and glanced through a few old magazines that had been left lying around.

Lunch was an egg sandwich, then off to Karl Ann’s house. The girls walked down to the park to play on the swing and jungle gym for a few hours. Today there was a man and woman there with two little boys. The man told the boys to turn around, and then he hid a nickel in the sandbox. Whichever boy found it first could keep it.

A light drizzle began to fall from the sky.

"Let’s go back