Chapter Five: Part One

 

CHAPTER FIVE

Oregon City, OR

July 12, 2003

 

Nicholas and Matthew were the most unlikely of brothers.  Both took after their father, but neither was aware of it.  Nicholas was a hard-driven, frequently unkind young man with an intense energy that was difficult to lasso.  In his younger years, he played endlessly in the fields behind his house, where apple trees and pear trees now thrived.  He spent his time climbing those trees where he could watch everything that went on around him, out of the watchful eye of his mother. 

Matthew, now age ten, loved helping his mother.  He took an interest in how things worked and was able to make small repairs for her in their large home.  Matthew had a protective nature and seemed to take pleasure in helping even the smallest living creatures.  One day, as he was carrying a spider outside to set it free, Nick ran up and knocked the spider out of Matthew’s hands.  Then he crushed it with his foot.

“Oh, shut up,” snickered Nick, as his younger brother started to yell at him.  “It was just a stupid little spider, you freak.”

“Why’d you do that?” demanded Matthew.  “What did that spider ever do to you?  Why do you like killing things so much?  You shoot at birds, mice, snakes, anything you can find.  None of them ever hurt you!”

Nick got an icy look in his eyes.  “What does that have to do with anything?  Do you think that we’re supposed to be nice to everything in the world that doesn’t hurt us?” he asked.  “Do you think Dad is nice to everyone in the world as long as they don’t hurt him?  Is Dad always nice to us?  You’re an idiot.  He told me that it’s men’s place to be on top of the world, no matter what.”

“I don’t believe you!” said Matthew.  “Dad wouldn’t say something like that.  Look at everything that he’s given us.  You’ve got your own recording studio out back!  Who do you think paid for that?   Besides,  Mom wouldn’t love him if he was a monster like you seem to believe!”

“You’re kidding, right?” asked Nick, sneering.  “You really think that Mom loves him?”

Matthew looked astonished..  “Of course, she does.  Why wouldn’t she?”

“Because,” began Nick coldly, “Dad doesn’t really go on business trips.  He already has more money than he can ever spend.  He travels around to meet women and have SEX with them!!!  He just doesn’t want Mom to know.  Shit!  You’re really stupid if you haven’t figured that out by now.  How old are you?  Ten?”

“That isn’t true!” yelled Matthew as he tried to punch Nick in the face.

Nick responded by knocking Matthew to the ground and kneeling on his chest, with his face hunkered a mere three or four inches above Matthew’s.  “Let me tell you something else, you stupid little frog, Mom does know.  She’s known for years.  And she already got Dad back good.  She’s been having an affair with old Father Olson for years!  I saw them kissing one time when Dad was gone.  They didn’t know I saw them, and I never told them.  I was only little – maybe four years old.  But I remember!  And now it’s your secret to keep!!  If Dad ever finds out, he’ll kill Mom, and don’t think he won’t.  I found a grave up in the field that has bones in it.  How do you think they got there?  That’s the nice world we live in!  You and your spider.  What a joke!”

Matthew pulled himself up out of the dirt, and ran into the house, trying to get away from Nick.

“What’s the matter, Mattie?” Rosita asked.  “Why are you so dirty?  Did your brother do something to you?”

“No, Mom,” fibbed Matthew.  While he didn’t much like Nick, he wasn’t going to rat him out.  He didn’t want to be a snitch.  “I fell and landed in the dirt.  I’m fine.”

Rosita looked at him quizzically.  Matthew was the son she considered an angel put on earth just for her.  Right now, though, he looked surprisingly sad.  She knew that Nicholas probably did something to hurt him.  She’d spent years trying to figure out how the two boys had ended up being so different.  She’d always treated them the same, even though one was much easier to love than the other.

Matthew was a warm and loving boy.  He had lots of friends at school.  It seemed that the Benson mansion was overrun by fifth graders, who liked to come over and hang out with Matthew.  They’d fashioned a baseball diamond in the big field behind the house.  Even though the Bensons were wealthy, Rosita never had enough money for frivolous things like bases for a baseball field, so she’d sewn bases for them out of old flour sacks and rags.

Nicholas, on the other hand, didn’t make friends easily.  He didn’t know how to be a friend, so the other kids largely avoided him.  He thought that being rich and living in a mansion should be enough to make other students at his school want to befriend him.  His method only ever worked for a short time, though.  Sometimes, the new kids he met did come over to visit.  He liked to show off all of the stereo and recording equipment that he had in his sound proof studio.  Music seemed to be the one thing that Nick had truly gravitated towards.  When Nick was younger, Rosita had put her foot down, and insisted that Daniel give Nick a place to play his loud music where it didn’t bother the rest of the family.  Nick loved that building.  He could yell, scream, play thunderous music, and nobody else could hear a thing.  It was his private sanctuary.  He noticed that his mother had paid for it with a broken arm and bruises on her neck and face, but he didn’t care. When he walked into his recording studio, the rest of the world ceased to exist.  This was where he learned how to put together a recipe for his music.  Get the beat, add a hook, add some musical riffs and vocals, and you’ve got your own music.  Nick loved the craft of producing music. 

What few friends he’d garnered had learned quickly that when Nick went into the recording studio, they may as well go downstairs to the basement pool.  Living in rainy Oregon, it didn’t make sense to have a pool outside, so Daniel had one built for himself in the basement.  It was getting more difficult for Daniel to keep up the physique that he prided himself on, so he used the pool whenever he was home.  As Nick’s friends used the pool, though, they became aware that there was something odd happening in the basement.  Their clothes were sometimes moved while they were swimming.  Their towels seemed to disappear.  There was something wrong with the electrical system, and the lights would go off and on.  It scared the young people, and eventually they stopped visiting.  Knowing that Nick didn’t really care if they were there, it didn’t seem worth it to spend time in such a frightening place.

After Mass on the Sunday following his argument with Nicholas, as Matthew and Rosita were leaving the church, Matthew watched closely as Father Olson took Rosita’s hand.  It didn’t seem like much, but he could tell that his mom really liked the good natured Catholic cleric.  Rosita always seemed happiest after her conversations with the priest.  Matthew spoke up and said “Father Olson, would you like to come to our house for dinner?  Dad’s gone again, and I know Mom would like the company.”

Father Olson grinned.  “Well, Matthew, that’s the nicest invitation I’ve had in a long time.  I’d love to come over if that’s alright with your mother.  Rosita?”

Rosita looked pleased and embarrassed at the same time.  She responded “Well of course.  What kind of parishioner would I be if I didn’t feed our priest now and then?  Right, Mattie?”   

“Right, Mom,” he said, feeling rather pleased with himself.  “This’ll prove what a liar Nick is,” thought Matthew.  “Nick may think he’s God’s gift to the world, but he’ll see.”  Some lies just can’t go unanswered.