There Is No Fear by Michael J. Bowler

Author:Michael J. Bowler [Bowler, Michael J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Michael Bowler
Published: 2014-07-15T23:00:00+00:00

Lance awoke at six a.m. on the dot and his first thought was, “Why hasn’t staff opened my door yet?” Then he remembered. He felt the soft bed beneath him, saw bits of early morning light peaking in through the heavy drapes, saw his beloved Ricky slumbering peacefully on the other side of the bed.

I’m home. I’m really home.

He took a moment to pray and give thanks for all his blessings, especially family and freedom. Then he simply lay there, unable to go back to sleep from all the thoughts and feelings coursing through him, but relishing the comfort and security of his own bed, his own room, his own home.

He thought of Joey, Hector, Angel and his other friends from juvy, and a darkness pulled itself over his heart. He had to help them. He had to! What they were going through was simply wrong. They had to win this election so those kids would have at least have a jury of their peers.

But then he recalled the men on the county bus, and in the holding tank. They wore shackles too. He wondered what happened to the man he’d prayed for. The whole system was screwed up, he realized, whether you were a kid or an adult.

And then a thought hit him, one he’d had before, but dismissed because he’d already gone so far in this campaign – might it be better if no kid could be part of that system, at least at the adult level? If all could be treated as kids, like Hector when he’d been released from The Compound, rather than like violent animals as Lance and Angel had been?

But that would mean a ‘No’ vote on their prop. Only then would kids remain kids until the age of eighteen. He’d been so certain all along that giving kids the right to vote and help make the laws was best for them. But was it? Or might a win for their prop give adults even more excuses not to parent, not to mentor, not to give second chances?

He didn’t know the answer, but he knew what his father always did when undecided on an issue, and so he did the same. He asked God for insight. Then he rose quietly so as not to wake Ricky and went into his bathroom by himself, and took the longest shower of his entire life. It felt liberating.

When Lance stepped out of his bathroom to get some clothes, his hair was a frizzled mop from towel drying, and he sported a big, soft towel wrapped tightly around his waist.

Ricky sat up in bed gazing at him with a huge grin on his face.

Lance stopped and looked down at himself like maybe the towel had fallen. When he looked back up, Ricky was still grinning.

“What?”

Ricky just laughed. “You, fool. It’s really you.”

Lance understood, and smiled “Yeah, it’s really me.”

“And you look like the skinniest-ass drowned rat I ever seen.”

Lance laughed, but then mockingly flexed his right bicep. “Watch your mouth, fool, or this skinny-ass rat’ll take your flabby ass down for the count.

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