The Auditor's Family

Chapter 22

    In the fall of 1964 Paul entered West High School as a freshman. Johnny was a sophomore. Jenny was only age nine. I knew that she had a very close friend named Patricia living three blocks away on Tokay Boulevard. Her mother was divorced and often indiscriminately fraternized with male friends. The environment was questionable. 
    What I did not know was that the affect of this negative situation influenced a desire for Patty to run away from home. She needed the help of Jenny to do it. When Jenny did not come home for supper it caused a stir and Chris went to look for her at the friend’s house where Jenny was supposed to be. The mother did not know where her daughter was. This was not like Jenny to go somewhere without notifying her mother. 
    When Chris returned home I suddenly got involved. My first reaction was to contact my two boys to see if they could give me a clue about where they thought Jenny could have gone. Paul said, “Well, Jenny said that Patty has always been angry with her mother seeing these guys all the time and planned to run away from home.”
    “Why didn’t you tell us about it?”
    “That would be snitching dad.”
    I gritted my teeth and decided to take a more constructive approach. “Where do you think Patty might go if she planned to run away from home?”
    Paul thought a moment, frowned at the floor and raised his eyes to mine. “Well, there is a place on Langdon Street where some run-away kids sometimes go.”
    “How do you know about that?”
    Johnny said, “We all know about that dad. All the kids at school know about the Halfway House on Langdon Street.”
    I tried not to lose my cool and swallowed a mouthful of saliva. I was afraid to ask, “What kind of a place is it?”
    Johnny looked up at Chris standing in the kitchen doorway and frowned at me. “We do not really know. Paul thinks that it is a very bad place for little girls to go to and I do not have the least idea, except I do not want my sister to go there.”
    I noticed that Paul was looking at me with forlorn eyes.
    I said, “Son, would you take me to that Halfway House?”
    He looked at Johnny who nodded at him and said, “Sure dad, but I do not want any of the kids at West to know I snitched about that place.”
    Johnny said, “We’ll both take you there dad.”
 I went to the corner of Paul’s room, picked up a baseball bat and returned to the living room. “Okay then, let’s go.”
    Chris stepped between me and the door. “You probably will need much more than a bat, don’t you think?” She moved her head suggestively in the direction of our bedroom. I knew why she did that, because I knew what was hidden on the top shelf of the closet. 
    I said, “Those days are gone forever, honey. I do not have the same legal protections I had back then. The baseball bat will have to suffice.”
    Paul’s voice held excitement. “Those guys at the Halfway House are going to look at the bat and think you are looking for trouble.”
    I patted him on the head. “Good, because that is exactly what I am looking for, so let’s get on with it.”
    We left. As I backed out of the driveway Chris and Lori were standing on the front patio with Chris’ expression of terror and Lori’s face of a little girl wondering what was going to happen. It was a good thing that Lori did not know about some of her father’s aggressive past.