chapter twenty one

Chapter Twenty One

          "What's going on, Christopher?"  His mother walked into her son's room and sat down on his bed.  She saw his bookbag on the floor.  It was covered in filth and slightly unzipped, and she could barely see a flashlight popping its head out of the opening.  "Why are all your clothes in the laundry room caked with mud, and why is there a flashlight in your book bag?  What are you doing going around in the dark with a flashlight anyway?  We need to have a talk about what you've been up to, young man."

            Maxwell wasn't sure what to think.  Only a second ago, or so it seemed, he'd been deep inside the cave with Tom.  He was sitting quietly in the apartment taking deep breaths, trying to 'feel' what Tom had been calling ‘Prana,’ when he remembered falling deeper and deeper until, ... and that was it.            

            Suddenly here he was, and now he had some explaining to do.  Lucy in The Sky with Diamonds was playing on the radio.  Maxwell’s mind tried really hard to think of what he could say, "Mom, I found this cave out in the woods behind our house." 

He knew he'd better handle the situation delicately.  Don't give away too much information,' he thought, "It's the most amazing thing, mom!  I was out exploring one day and just so happened to find it, and I wanted to see what it was all about, you know?" 

            "Spelunking?"

            "What?"

            "What you've been doing is called spelunking.  It's a term used for people who go caving."

            "Oh, okay.  I guess I was spelunking then."

            "Why didn't you tell me about this cave until now?"  Her face began to reveal her motherly concern, and then she continued. 

 "Oh, I don't know if I even want you going back there at all sweetheart, that cave could be dangerous!  What would happen if you fell and broke your leg?  How would you get out?  What would happen if you got stuck in there and couldn't move?  You'd starve to death eventually!  I don't want any of those things to happen to you, do you understand me?"

            Maxwell understood his mother's concern as completely valid.  Afterall, he'd stared death in the face a couple of times now in the past week or so, and of course he'd never want to give his mother any more reason to grieve, "Mom, the reason I didn't tell you was because I didn't want you to have to worry.  I've gone through the cave a few times now, and I really think I know it inside and out.  You don't have to worry about me when I go in there, okay?  It's just something I like to do.  Really, if you must know the truth, it's about the only thing I do like to do!"

            “You've been there more than once!?  Oh dear, I need to watch you more closely!  Chris' gosh darn it, it's not safe, and its not healthy to obsess about one thing and for your life to revolve around the cave is no good!  It's just not healthy!  You could really hurt yourself, and God knows I couldn't bear to lose you.”

            Maxwell didn’t really know what to say.  He saw that his mother was really starting to worry about him, and he simply couldn’t stand it.  Up until now he'd been keeping her in the dark.  He had pretty much kept everyone in the dark. He never communicated with her anymore, and now that she was finding things out, he felt like a big secret part of his life was slowly becoming exposed.  Not knowing what to think or in which direction to go, Maxwell started to talk.

 "The cave is what I believe in, mom.” He paused before gathering a head full of steam.  He knew she would have trouble understanding, so he was going to have talk in a manner in which his mother understood.  
"Before that, I didn't think there was anything magical about my world at all.  I certainly didn’t think special things happen to me, and honestly, I didn’t even believe in God.  Every day was the same.  Every single day was the exact same in fact!  Go to school, come home, go to church, go to sleep, go back to school.  There's something really special about that cave!  I don't know what it is exactly, but it felt like I was filled with the Holy Spirit or whatever it's called, and I actually physically believe that I really talked to Jesus.  Do you believe me, mom?  The world as I knew it disappeared before me in that cave and I had some sort of mystical experience, I blacked out, I ended up back in bed, and ever since then I've been remembering bits and pieces of it.  The last thing I remember was talking to Jesus.  I never believed he was the son of God before, I thought he was just a man.  What is just a man, anyway?  Mrs. House-key?  That is beside the point, I know but what makes a man? Jesus died and was a messenger and now he's sending another message, and I'm receiving that message inside this cave!"

            His mother looked at him, mouth agape.  She'd never heard such words in all her life, such nonsense.  There was no way she was going to buy any of this rubbish, and she tried her best not to be offended or disturbed by her clearly demented son.  

            "Maxwell, what's going on with you?  Are you doing drugs?"

            "No, I'm not doing drugs!  Why would you think I'm doing drugs!?"

            "Because you're acting incredibly strange and you're saying some very strange things!"

            "Like what?"

            "Like you said you talked to Jesus Christ.  Jesus is dead and in Heaven.  You can't talk to dead people!"

            "You talk to him every time you pray, mom.  Does he ever talk back to you, or is he just your imaginary friend?  Jesus is either real or he isn't!"

           

            His mother, feeling trapped and in a corner, quickly changed the subject, "Your principal called today."

            Maxwell rolled his eyes, 'Here we go again.'

            "He said you told your teacher that your name was Jesus Christ.  He also said that you called her a dirty word, ... I never said a dirty word before.  Where'd you learn to talk like that, Maxwell?  I didn't teach you to talk like that, did I?  I've never said those words!"

            "You just did."

            "Before right now, smarty pants,  and what's up with your attitude anyway?  Do you know that you're going to a conference tomorrow morning with your principal, Ms. Mooseknuckle, and Ms. Dick, because that's exactly what's going to happen.  They don't believe your mother is raising you in a suitable environment!"

            "Oh no,"

            "Oh yes indeed, son.  You better start talking because we're both on the hot seat right now, mister.  What is really going on?  I am going to get to the bottom of it.  I know you're a good kid.  I know you're stuggling with some difficult times, but really, what's really going on inside that head of yours?!"

            Maxwell took a really deep breath, "You remember the twitching eye-thing?  Well, as it turns out, I was receiving a message, but my eyelids don't speak English, they speak Greek, so I had to translate the message I was receiving.  Anyhow, it all worked out to me needing to know myself better, 'Know thyself', as Plato said, and Socrates, and a couple of other individuals said, and coincidentally, Plato also spoke of a cave when he was talking about understanding forms.  It's not like you can just look in a mirror and ask yourself questions, either.  Father Wimbly helped me understand this aspect of self awareness.  You need to go inside and do some really deep soul searching.  Well, as far as the cave goes, I just so happened to find it and I've been going there ever since.  Now that I'm trying to find myself, it just seems like more and more bull-shit is being put on my plate every day.  I don't remember saying I was Jesus Christ.  I don't remember calling Ms. Mooseknuckle a bad word, either.  I didn't even remember that dad died until about five months later.  What I do know is that I'm somehow experiencing the beast of a situation, and that's why all this weird stuff is happening to me, and just like what God did with Jesus, and with Muhammed, and Siddhartha Guatama, and Martin Luther King Jr., God is now doing with me."

            "Lord have mercy," was all his mother could say.

            "On all of us," Maxwell added.

            Maxwell's mother wasn't exactly convinced that her son was telling the truth.  She wasn't convinced at all, as a matter of fact, but she still made the decision that the best thing to do is to just let it go for now and not badger her son any longer knowing he was clearly in enough trouble already.  Maxwell was saying some very serious things, things that if he mentioned tomorrow at the meeting would surely cause quite a commotion.  She loved her son very much, no doubt, but he was going to end up making both of them look like fools if he kept this line of thinking up.  She really didn’t know what to do.

            "I never meant to make such a big mess of everything," Maxwell appeared, completely dejected.  He couldn't even look his mother in her eye.

            "Just try not to worry about it.  We'll just talk to them tomorrow and then see where we can go from there."

            "I wasn't talking about the meeting, I was talking about all the clothes I've ruined on the floor," Maxwell said, jokingly.  They both smiled, looking at the heap of filthy clothes that were scattered all about the floor.

            "Try to get some sleep, bucko, we'll get some breakfast in the morning before we go to the meeting, okay?"

            "Okay, mom."

            The next morning came all too quickly for Maxwell.  He didn't want to get out of bed at in the slightest, and he'd already promised his mother he'd eat breakfast with her before they left, so he decided to go ahead and get out of bed and got dressed.  

            They went to a local diner and enjoyed a real quality breakfast together.  Maxwell's mother had done some research the night before.  What she'd read about was called 'delusions of grandeur'.  It was yet another psychological condition she could attribute to Maxwell.  'This kid thinks he's the next Jesus Christ, he must be worse off than I originally imagined!,' she thought.

            "I didn't say I was Jesus Christ, mom," Maxwell blurted out of nowhere.  "I just said Jesus Christ in vain, mainly because my body was slowly being taken over by some other force, you know, like 'Jesus Christ, I can't move my extremities!'"

            She said nothing.  There wasn't anything to say, really.  Surely he didn't know what she'd been thinking about when Maxwell originally made this statement.  She felt like Maxwell was inside her head or something, and it was very off-putting.  "Don't say anything about what you said last night, okay?  The less you say, the better, are we clear about this?"  Maxwell didn't need to be told this, as he was already very aware of the severity of his situation.

           

            Then it came time to meet the council that would ultimately decide Maxwell's fate. Maxwell and his mother walked into the school building and into the principals office.  Dr. Schmidt looked very well put together this morning.  It was nice to finally see him in matching clothes for once.  He looked happy this morning for sure, a good sign.  Maxwell felt warmth radiating inside him, and when he focused, he could see a pattern of light around his body, another good sign.  He was starting to overcome his past, the nightmare was slowly being put to rest

            Ms. Mooseknuckle and Mrs. Dick walked into the conference room together and immediately Maxwell had a bad feeling in his gut.  He figured there wasn't much he could really do, but at least he could keep his composure and beg them to be merciful.

            "Let's please cut to the chase Christopher, do you know why you're here today?," Mrs. Dick asked him.

            "Yes ma'am," replied Maxwell, 'keep it short, simple, and polite.'  He could actually feel the darkness radiating off of both of the women before him.        

"Well then, you must be aware that we're very concerned about your behavior as of late.  It wasn't very long ago that you punched my son in the nose, am I correct?"

            "Yes ma'am, that's correct."  

            'Hold your tongue,' he thought to himself, ' no your son did not provoke me by insulting a girl who couldn't even defend herself.'  The darkness was the shadow from the dream, he had the feeling, the darkness inside himself now.

            "Also, my good friend Ms. Mooseknuckle tells me last night about your little episode in class yesterday.  Do you recall what happened?"

            "No ma'am, I can't say I do.  I was told after-the-fact that I'd acted pretty inappropriately, and for that I'm truly sorry."

            "You don't remember, then?  Oh, that's convenient."  Mrs. Dick stood up and looked very angry.  "Okay, if you want to go that route, we'll go that route.  Pleading insanity opens up a whole new can of worms young man."

            Maxwell felt extraordinarily anxious, and he felt like he was about to slip back into another spell.  Such a thing would most definitely be the worst possible scenario if it were to happen right now.  He had to concentrate very hard to make sure he stayed “inside” the office.

            "This is how it's going to be; you're going to urinate in this cup for me because we think you're on drugs.  If you pass the drug test, you won't be expelled from school.  We won't be able to get the results until after this week, so you'll be finishing out the year.  This will determine whether or not you come back next year, do you understand?" 

            "Yes ma'am." 

'Score Maxwell - one; evil wenches - zero; I'll pass the test no problem,' he thought to himself. 

He took the cup and looked up at Ms. Mooseknuckle.  She smiled at him and the look made him want to wretch, just as it had done in the classroom the day before.  'Oh no,' he quickly thought, 'keep your composure buddy, get to the bathroom at any cost!'  He looked into her eyes and what appeared to actually be miniature little flames flickered inside her pupils. 

In a flash of light, he saw Tom in his mind, and Tom was smiling.  Then he turned into some kind of horrendous creature.  It had to be the beast from his dream.  Panic slowly began to swell inside his chest.

            "You can go now to the boys room, we'll be waiting here."  Ms. Dick pointed to the door with a smile upon her face.  Maxwell snapped free and went to the restroom, then peed into his cup.  He just wasn't so sure he was going to be that safe for some reason.  He hadn't been taking any drugs, so he wasn't too worried about that, but he did know something was wrong.  Ms. Mooseknuckle and Ms. Dick where up to no good.

            He filled the cup up with warm yellow urine, capped it, washed his hands, and took his sample back to the Principal's office.

            "Okay, we'll be in touch.  No trouble this week, Christopher.  Ms. Mooseknuckle will be keeping an eye out for you." 

            "No trouble," he repeated.  Then he and his mother left.

 

            "Now Dr. Schmidt, are you happy, he can finish the school year."  Ms. Dick glanced over at Ms. Mooseknuckle and flashed a deviantly devilish grin, "but don't count on him coming back next year."

            "He hasn't failed the test yet, so we'll cross that bridge when the results come back."  Dr. Schmidt looked at the two women with disdain.

            "I don't think that's how we're going to play this one Dr. Schmidt," Ms. Mooseknuckle said as she took the cup and dumped the piss into a thermos, and some dribbled on the floor.  "Say anything about this, and the school board will examine your medical records.  We don't want them finding out about your little 'history' now do we, do I make myself clear?  I suggest you start cleaning up this mess unless you want it to stink up your office."

            Dr. Schmidt clearly saw the writing on the wall and he nodded. The two ladies let themselves out as he stayed behind cleaning up the puddle of urine on his floor.

 

            Maxwell and his mother drove home.

            "I guess that went a lot better than I expected.  It looks like you're going to be good to go," his mother said to him with a smile and a wink.

            "Yeah, it sure does," his voice didn't exactly convey a sense of confidence, and his mother caught onto this.

            "Is there something you really aren't telling me, son?"

            "I told you everything I know to say."  They pulled up to the house. He collected his gear and headed to the cave.  His mother had a pretty good idea where he'd be going, but she didn't say anything, the look on her face said it all, 'please be careful!'