The Freshman

Copyright 2005 by EC

Chapter 18 - Jason's Ghosts

There was no question that Cecilia needed to talk to Jason about Heather Jones. 
However, that would not be until she had some time alone with him, which 
wouldn't be until after Thanksgiving dinner at the earliest. Thanksgiving dinner 
was the next hurdle everyone had to get past. 

Cecilia prepared herself psychologically to face the upcoming ordeal. She no 
longer was concerned about another fight with Jason's father. She knew that at 
least it was possible to talk to him in a civilized manner, presumably as long as 
the topics of Mega-Town Associates and Vladim Dukov were kept out of the 
conversation. Instead, she would have to worry about Mrs. Schmidt, and possibly 
Cassie. Cecilia's nemesis during the dinner would not be Jason's father, but 
Jason's mother.

Having failed to get that nasty little Dominican expelled from the house, Mrs. 
Schmidt spent the day thinking about the various slights and embarrassing 
questions she could pose to make her unwelcome guest as uncomfortable as 
possible. She would show her, once and for all, that she was where she did not 
belong. Jason knew his mother well enough to know what was coming, and knew 
his girlfriend enough to know what was coming. He would be trapped, sitting 
helplessly at the table, while the two women went to war. Cecila also knew what 
was coming, but refused to let him talk about it.

"Jason, just try studyin'. We got next week to think about and we're both gonna be 
busy, so worry about that instead of some stupid turkey dinner."

Mr. Schmidt anticipated the dinner with glee. His cynicism and secret contempt 
for everyone in his life came out full force in his mind as he looked forward 
having a meal with a bunch of people whom he couldn't stand and watching them 
fight. This was going to be good, watching the two bitches go at it while the wimp 
sat and cringed. He encouraged Cassie to invite her boyfriend...might as well get 
those two losers in on the action as well. And the Old Lady...she always liked the 
wimp...well, maybe she'd feel a bit differently after dinner. 

A few minutes later Cassie and her boyfriend returned to the house with Jason's 
grandmother. She seemed nice enough, quietly shaking Cecilia's hand while Jason 
introduced her. She made a couple of pleasant comments about how well Jason 
was doing in college and that she hoped Cecilia felt at home in the Schmidts' 
house. Cecilia realized the older woman was actually being sincere; apparently 
she was too naïve to understand what was happening.

The two Salvadoran maids were ready to serve the dinner, which had been 
special-ordered by Mrs. Schmidt. The turkey, as expected, was impressive and 
perfectly cooked. Cecilia looked longingly at the meal and planned to eat to her 
heart's content. Jason sat quietly with sweat running down his face while his sister 
and her boyfriend glanced at Cecilia with blatant curiosity. Mr. Schmidt gave a 
brief prayer and then directed the two maids to cut up and serve the meal.

The opening salvo from Mrs. Schmidt came as soon as Cecilia's plate was set in 
front of her. In a tone of sweet sarcasm she asked:

“I suppose a nice turkey dinner is something new to you, so I hope you enjoy. 
Have you ever seen turkey before?”

“Yes Mrs. Schmidt. We used to go over to the YMCA and have turkey roll for 
Thanksgiving, along with all the homeless people. Mmm… I'll tell you, there ain't 
nothin' as good as hot turkey roll when you're starvin', 'cause, as you know, we 
don’t have no Christmas dinners, ‘cause we ain't got no supermarkets in New 
Jersey.”

Mr. Schmidt smiled to himself while Cassie was trying to figure out if Cecilia was 
being serious. Cecilia stared right at Mrs. Schmidt, ready to fight. Her expression 
clearly stated: “There’s a lot more where that came from, rich-bitch, so you 
wanna hear it?” Jason began sweating all that much more.

Mrs. Schmidt's eyes filled up with pure loathing. She glanced furiously at her 
husband, who just sat there with a smug look on his face. So that's it, she thought 
to herself, no support, huh? Fine, I'll take her on myself if you're not going to help 
me out. She stood up, tightened her lips, and slammed her fork down on the table. 
Suddenly Jason jumped up.

"Mom! Let it go! Just let it go! Can't you say something, just once, without 
insulting someone?"

Mrs. Schmidt stared at Jason, shocked at his sudden display of temper. She 
calmed down slightly and reluctantly sat down, disconcerted by the fact Jason was 
willing to stand up to her over Cecilia. She still planned to attack her son's guest, 
but with no support from her husband and facing the defiance of her son, she 
would have to think much harder about what she wanted to say and how she 
wanted to say it.

Cecilia was grateful that Jason was willing to stand up to his mother, but at the 
same time felt guilty. This was not his fight, it was hers, and she really did not 
want him to confront his parents.

Mrs. Schmidt changed tactics, making some disparaging comments about the 
maids and then slipping a dig at Mr. Schmidt by criticizing men who slept with 
the hired help. Then there were some more digs at Cecilia, and finally additional 
questions about her family and background. The questions were not so much out 
of curiosity as intended to force the guest to discuss the more unsavory details of 
her life before college.

At that moment something rather strange happened inside Cecilia. A 
transformation took place within her as she faced her hostile audience. She had 
never wanted to talk about her past before, but suddenly the deep-seated fear she 
had about her prior life being exposed evaporated. This woman wants to know 
who I am. Fine, I'll let her know. I'll give her the facts, and then she's the one 
who'll have to deal with 'em.

Cecilia spent the rest of the dinner talking about her life. She left out very little, 
talking at length and in detail about the conditions at the housing project, her own 
struggles in school, her brothers' gang activities and arrests, her mother's 
boyfriends, her irresponsible cousin, and her neglected nephew. She talked about 
used needles and empty spray-paint cans littering the stairwells of her building, 
open drug dealing on the streets, and deadly turf fights between rival gang 
members who were not any older than Cassie. 

She went on, describing the formidable struggle she endured to get her high 
school diploma and her naps in the public library just to be somewhere she didn't 
have to listen to her mother's television. Finally she described her escape and her 
personal indebtedness to Dr. Ruth Burnside. As she thought about all the barriers 
she had to overcome, she became rather proud of her accomplishments so far. She 
had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing at all.

The dinner ended with Mrs. Schmidt not saying anything. She hated Cecilia more 
than ever, but that no longer mattered. As badly as she may have wanted to get rid 
of her, it simply wasn't going to happen. The girl had planted herself in her son's 
life, was quite capable of defending herself, and obviously wasn't going 
anywhere.

Mr. Schmidt did not like Cecilia either, but knew that he had to take her seriously 
and grudgingly respect her. The respect he had for her was conditional and 
somewhat hostile, similar to the respect he might have for a talented and 
successful business rival. However, considering the man's overall contempt for 
humanity in general and for women in particular, for him the opinion he had of 
Cecilia was comparatively positive.

Jason's grandmother finished the meal actually liking Cecilia. She had truly 
enjoyed watching the dinner guest match wits and temper against her son's 
odious, snobbish wife. Jason's girlfriend endured a battle she had not picked, but 
came out the winner. It was refreshing to see a girl with so much spunk and 
combativeness in her, one who was intelligent, worked hard, and could hold up in 
a good fight. Yes, she was just what Jason needed.

----------

Later that night the family dispersed, leaving the huge empty house to Jason and 
Cecilia. Mr. Schmidt took off in his BMW to get together and drink with some 
business partners, Mrs. Schmidt left to hang out with some of her friends and 
relay the horror of what happened at the table over Thanksgiving Dinner, and 
Cassie left with her boyfriend to take her grandmother back home. 

With the family members gone, Jason decided to take advantage of their absence 
to go skinny-dipping in the family pool. He invited Cecilia to join him, which she 
did with some reservations. She barely knew how to swim and never had gone 
into a swimming pool without a swimsuit. It was strange to see the empty pool, its 
smooth clean water beckoning from under the cavernous tent. The pool itself was 
quite large, almost as big as the crowded public swimming pool she visited 
occasionally while growing up. It felt very weird to be alone in such a large pool, 
and even stranger not to be wearing a swimsuit.

Cecilia admired Jason's bare body as he stood on the diving board. Yes, he did 
indeed make a lovely sight, his athletic body strangely lit by the pool lights and 
reflected on the water. Cecilia thought that it was only proper that such a body 
always remain uncovered. It was really too bad Jason couldn't always be like 
this...

As her boyfriend gracefully dove into the deep end, Cecilia waded out into 
shallow end. She went in far enough to allow the water to come up to her 
shoulders. She began enjoying herself...yes it really did feel better not to have to 
wear a swimsuit. Now she was quite glad to have forgotten to bring the garment 
because it had forced her to step away from her inhibitions. She enjoyed the 
feeling of the smooth cool water flowing over her body as she waded around and 
lightly splashed her arms in the water.

Noticing her reluctance to take her feet off the bottom of the pool, Jason stepped 
out and got a training board Cassie had used years before when learning how to 
swim. He handed the board to Cecilia and gently coaxed her to take her feet off 
the floor. She followed his lead, learning how to kick as he guided her around the 
shallow end of the pool by pulling on the board. At first she splashed very 
clumsily, but within a few minutes she had the hang of it.

A very strange sensation swept over Cecilia as her boyfriend gave her the 
impromptu swimming lesson. She felt almost like a child, splashing naked in the 
water and dependent on him for guidance and safety. He continued to gently 
guide her around as she improved the control over her legs. Eventually she 
splashed somewhat less and was able to propel herself forward. The test of the 
evening came when Jason suggested she flutter-kick herself to the deep end and 
back again, holding onto the board. Cecilia was terrified at the thought of not 
having the bottom of the pool close to her feet, but she trusted Jason enough to 
follow his suggestion. He swam alongside her as she slowly and nervously 
propelled herself across the pool. She gained some confidence as she made her 
way back to the shallow end, knowing he was there to rescue her if anything went 
wrong.

Cecilia then sat on the edge of the pool resting, as she watched Jason dive a 
couple more times. From the diving board he admired her bare figure as she sat 
dipping her feet in the water. She really was quite pretty, he thought to himself. 
He swam up to her and began kissing the insides of her thighs. She reacted in her 
usual manner, the stimulation making her lie back and spread her legs, her 
uncovered vagina begging him to bring pleasure to it with his mouth.

At first the only thing Jason could taste was the chlorine, but as she became more 
excited the familiar salty flavor of her body filled his mouth. She climaxed, and 
then slid into the water to join him. For a very long time they embraced and 
kissed. He stiffened and she became aroused again. They were just about 
to...when she remembered:

"Jason, you don't have a condom on."

"No."

"And you don't have one with you either?"

He shook his head. She backed away.

"Cecilia, please..."

"I can't. I can't risk it."

"Please...it's almost the end of your month...Can't we...?

"I can't, Jason. I'm not gonna risk it. I'm not gonna go through that again..."

"Go through what again?"

Cecilia's eyes filled with apprehension, as though she had just told him a dark 
secret she had not wanted him to know. She hesitated, then pushed him to the 
edge of the pool.

"Get up. Sit up on the edge."

When he obeyed, she pushed his thighs apart and began licking his penis. She 
gently encircled him with her lips and fingers while stimulated the tip with her 
tongue. It felt very good, but Jason knew that she did not much care for 
performing oral sex on a guy. What she was doing was changing the subject and 
diverting his attention from his last question.

He quickly came, squirting semen into her mouth and onto the lower part of her 
face. She continued licking the tip of his penis, but he could tell she was disgusted 
by what she was doing. Still, it felt very good and relieved him tremendously. He 
could tell she was relieved as well, having safely disposed of his dangerous 
erection.

She dipped her face into the water to rinse off and pulled him back into the pool. 
For a very long time the couple held onto each other, silently standing under the 
quiet tent as the pool lights gently reflected the moving water off the canopy 
above their heads. Cecilia placed her head against his chest, hugged him hard, and 
said nothing more. 

----------

The following day Mr. Schmidt broke the news that he would not be available to 
take Jason and Cecilia back to Chicago until Saturday at the earliest. He justified 
the delay by claiming he had critical projects to take care of at work. 

That statement was only partially true. He did have work to take care of, but 
certainly nothing that couldn't wait until the following week. The truth was that he 
wanted to leave Cecilia in the house another day with the hope an open fight 
would break out between her and his wife. He wanted to give the two women 
every opportunity to make each other as miserable as possible. 

He also loved the idea of forcing his wife to deal with a rival who was capable of 
matching her jibes and hidden insults with sarcasm and jibes of her own. Cecilia 
never directly insulted Mrs. Schmidt nor said anything that could be construed as 
a direct insult, but her sarcastic responses to the older woman's constant 
comments drove her into despair. By the third day Mrs. Schmidt's insults were 
becoming more open, but Cecilia kept her cool and calmly continued answering 
by mocking her rival's most outrageous statements with irony. Sometimes she 
delighted in telling a short story or antidote that sounded straightforward enough, 
until the very end when she added a sarcastic conclusion. 

Another detail that drove Mrs. Schmidt to despair was the girl's bad grammar. 
Cecilia picked up on that and, whenever she was around Jason's mother, 
purposely spoke worse than normal. She even started highlighting her accent and 
inserting a few Spanish words into her speech, especially whenever the Tennis 
Queen made her disparaging comments about the maids or about Hispanics in 
general.

Friday morning Mrs. Schmidt simply gave up, fleeing to her country club to get 
away from the odious trespasser who had so thoroughly contaminated her house. 
She couldn't handle dealing with the girl's hostile sarcastic behavior, listening to 
her grating accent, and hearing her constant use of "ain't". She would have the 
place fumigated and cleaned as soon as that Sanchez girl was gone. Undoubtedly 
she was unclean and probably had brought disease into the house. Yes, the place 
needed a good cleaning once that horrible deviant was taken out.

As soon as Jason's mother left, Cecilia decided to spend the day finishing up a 
term paper and reviewing for finals, which were just three weeks away. Obviously 
Jason would have to study as well. However, there was a surprise coming to the 
young couple, a phone call from Jason's grandmother telling him that she had sent 
a friend to pick them up to have lunch with her.

Shortly afterwards a jovial man about 65 years old came by and rang the doorbell. 
He was driving an old Chevy, just like the one Cecilia's mother had but in much 
better condition. The car either had been restored or had been properly taken care 
of, and it was interesting to see what her own family's car would have looked like 
when it was new.

Jason invited his grandmother's friend to come in, but he refused. Instead, he said 
something Cecilia found very interesting.

"You really think I'd want to go in there? Come-on, now. Your grandma says I'm 
crazy, but I'm not that crazy. Now, let's get you two out of here."

A few minutes later they were speeding out of the neighborhood and onto a public 
road. Cecilia breathed a huge sigh of relief at the thought of getting out of that 
oppressive place for a few hours and seeing something normal. Jason, too, for the 
first time in his life, also felt relieved to be getting out of his parents' house. He 
felt quite upbeat, but at first couldn't understand why.

The trip took them through a couple of small rural towns to a condominium 
development. It was 20 minutes and a world away from the area they had left, 
condos occupied by older and middle-aged residents. The units were nice and 
kept up, but there was nothing ostentatious about them.

As soon as they entered her condominium, the reason for the invitation from 
Jason's grandmother became clear. She was interested in getting to know Cecilia 
better and that interest was genuine. She was fascinated by the young woman who 
had matched wits with her obnoxious daughter-in-law the day before. Cecilia 
knew right away that, with Jason's grandmother, she could let down her guard and 
enjoy a normal conversation.

Two generations separated the two couples at the table, but they were able to 
converse freely and casually. There was talk about how their university had 
changed over the years, some talk about cars, and finally some talk about the 
Schmidts' neighborhood. Jason and his grandmother's friend then decided to 
watch part of a college football game while the two women continued talking in 
the kitchen. With the two males now out of the room, the topic of conversation 
shifted to Jason's parents and the unpleasant experience at their dinner table the 
day before. What her hostess had to say about Jason's mother surprised Cecilia.

"You know, she wasn't always like that. She was a really nice girl when I first met 
her, and even when they got married. I liked her a lot. What you're seeing now, 
that didn't happen until later. I hate to say this, but the truth is, it was my son who 
ruined her."

Noting Cecilia's surprised expression, Jason's grandmother continued.

"My son...I just don't know about him. I never really figured him out, 'cause he 
was always so different from me and Bob (that's my late husband). I guess he's 
always had this...'gotta win' personality. For him it's all about competing and 
winning. There isn't anything else. He can't be happy unless he's on top, and it's 
been that way ever since he was little. He's always had to be Mr. Big Shot...you 
know...never happy unless he was stomping on someone else. Everyone's afraid 
of him, and that's what he likes, everybody to be afraid of him. And my daughter-
in-law became that way too. I guess she had to, if she wanted to keep her sanity 
around him. That part I can understand, but still, it was kind of sad to see it 
happen. She's become so obnoxious, she's now worse than he is. I honestly can't 
put up with being around her anymore."

The conversation turned to Cecilia's life and interests. She talked at length about 
her research and preparing for the upcoming visit of the Danubian Prime Minister 
Vladim Dukov, and finally mentioned her correspondence with Kimberly Lee of 
"Socrates' Mistresses".

"I love that group! But I haven't seen their music for nearly a year. So they're still 
around?"

Cecilia explained about the breach of contract suit and the fact the band's music 
could only be purchased in Upper Danubia. Jason's grandmother responded by 
asking if Cecilia could get her a copy of the group's latest music.

"I 'spose so, Mrs. Schmidt. I'll see if I can get Kim Lee to send you the band's 
CD's. They're pretty good about helpin' out fans who can't get their music."

As the afternoon progressed, the two women found out they had a lot in common, 
in spite of their very different backgrounds. Jason's grandmother was deeply 
impressed by her guest and clearly signaled her approval of the relationship. 

"You're a good kid, and it's pretty obvious you're going far. I can see that in you. 
And I want to thank you for all the help you've given Jason this semester. I don't 
know if you realize how much it's helped him, and I, for one, am very grateful for 
the time you've spent with him. It makes me really happy to see it, because, as 
you know, his father was convinced he'd flop in college. I'm glad to see my son 
proved wrong. It's nice to see Jason straightening himself up and putting his life 
back together."

The words "straightening himself up and putting his life back together" stuck in 
Cecilia's thoughts. She wondered if that comment had anything to do with Mr. 
Schmidt's "Heather Jones" remark from the day before. It became obvious there 
was something in his past that Jason had not wanted to tell her.

----------

Later that night Cecilia and Jason could feel the oppressive neighborhood close in 
on them as the older couple took them back. Jason's grandmother decided to 
accompany them back to her son's house, using the need to pick up a couple of 
dishes as justification for going. The truth was she felt it would be a good idea to 
go in with them and make sure everything was calm at least for the first few 
minutes they were settling in. She also wanted to signal her approval of Cecilia, 
and in doing so offset her daughter-in-law's vehement opposition.

Fortunately it was quite late and Jason's mother already had locked herself in the 
Master bedroom. Jason's father was watching a football game in the living room. 
Seeing his mother walk in with Cecilia silenced whatever comment he might have 
wanted to make to either of them. He didn't have that much to say to her, but got 
up to retrieve the dishes she wanted. As soon as the older couple was out the door, 
he announced that he was planning to take Jason and Cecilia back early the next 
morning, so he expected them to be packed up and ready to leave as soon as he 
was awake.

The next morning they left in the pre-dawn cold of a late fall morning. The reason 
for the early departure became evident as soon as Jason's father turned on the car 
radio, a big snowstorm was expected later that afternoon and it was very likely 
roads would start closing by sunset. Mr. Schmidt would drop off the two students 
at the university, and then head over to a studio apartment he rented near his 
downtown office and weather the storm there. 

The detail of the apartment added another mystery to the relationship between 
Jason and his father. Mr. Schmidt had not only his job, but also a second 
residence, in downtown Chicago, less then 20 miles from the university. 
However, Jason never mentioned anything about that. Had he even seen his 
father's apartment? Had he ever gone over there to visit?

As she watched the fields of southern Wisconsin transform into the suburbs of 
northern Illinois, she tried to comprehend all that she had learned that weekend. 
She had some of her questions answered, but now there were others she needed to 
resolve. Something just was not right. Like separate pieces of a puzzle, Cecilia 
began to ponder how the clues she had picked up about Jason and his relationship 
with his parents fit together. There was the Heather Jones comment and Mr. 
Schmidt's insistence that Jason had no character. There was his grandmother's 
comment about Jason "straightening himself up and putting his life back 
together". There was the fact that Jason's father treated him with absolute 
contempt. He paid Jason's bills, but otherwise ignored him. And there was the fact 
that Jason did not have a car, never drove in Wisconsin, and made no mention to 
his parents of driving Mike's car during his first dates with Cecilia. She began to 
wonder if he wasn't supposed to drive.

Cecilia had thought about asking Jason about Heather Jones, but decided not to. 
Mr. Schmidt had told her to ask, but she felt she couldn't trust anything Jason's 
father had to say. She decided to avoid his advice and not ask directly, but instead 
see if she could find out anything on her own. 

----------

When Mr. Schmidt dropped the two students off at the dorm, he brusquely said 
goodbye and sped off to his own refuge, that studio apartment downtown. He 
planned to spend the night with an employee of his firm's coffee shop. He needed 
to get both her and their dinner safely settled into the apartment before it started 
snowing. Sunday the city would be shut down and Monday traffic would be 
completely disrupted. Not that it mattered to Mr. Schmidt. His work was a five-
minute walk from his apartment. He would be at his desk on time Monday 
morning, ready to issue reprimands to employees who came in late due to the 
traffic problems. As he always put it: "The company's not paying you to sit in 
traffic. We're paying you to be at work on time." The fact that his subordinates 
didn't have money for an apartment close to work wasn't his problem.

----------

Words could not describe how happy Cecilia was to be back safely in her dorm 
room. She fought back the urge to get on her knees and kiss the floor. Oh...she 
would sleep well tonight, in her own bed, in her own small space on the planet, 
her own tiny, quiet refuge. Maybe it wasn't much, but it was hers. 

The first thing Cecilia did was get on the Internet. Four days of messages were 
waiting for her attention, including a couple of e-mails from Kimberly Lee. That 
reminded Cecilia to ask about CD's for Jason's grandmother. After she typed out 
her explanation about the need for the CD's, she decided to share her experience 
about the argument with Mr. Schmidt and his views about the Danubian Prime 
Minister. That led to an explanation of the complete difference between Mr. 
Schmidt and his mother and the entire dysfunctional nature of Jason's parents. She 
concluded with:

"I can't believe how much hatred there is in that family, and what's weird is that 
they hate each other for no reason. They don't have any of the problems my 
family had when I was growing up, but they're just as miserable, or maybe even 
more miserable. The members of my family in New Jersey all got on each other's 
nerves because we were jammed together in that small apartment. I don't think 
anyone in my family actually hated anyone else, at least not until I got ready to 
take off for Chicago. We just got on each other's nerves, and that wasn't the same 
as what's going on with the Schmidts."

----------

As soon as she sent the e-mail to Kimberly Lee, Cecilia decided to try to find out 
about Heather Jones. She began searching the name on the Internet by itself, but 
of course came up hundreds of responses. She began narrowing the search by 
typing the name with local county names and the names of the towns close to 
where Jason lived while in high school. Finally she found something, a news 
article from about a year before. She read:

Two teens charged after fatal crash

Carterville Daily Press - Dec 10 10:34 AM
The Carterville District Attorney's Office decided to press charges today against 
two teenagers involved in last week's fatal crash that resulted in the deaths of 
three local high school students. The teenagers, Matthew Fox, Heather Jones, and 
Kate Simpson were killed during a collision that local police believe was the 
result of drag racing. The two teenagers facing charges are William Davis and 
Jason Schmidt. 

Carterville County Sheriff's Department Spokesman Raymond Wright announced 
that the charges would include manslaughter, reckless driving, and driving under 
the influence. He added that the investigation was ongoing and additional charges 
were pending. He concluded that the Sheriff's office hopes to prosecute the two 
teenagers as adults.

"There's a lot more to this than a simple drag racing incident. Those kids were 
driving under the influence, and it wasn't alcohol. We can't go into details right 
now because we're still investigating. We're going to be interviewing kids at the 
school next week, and we're asking parents to tell their children they need to 
cooperate with us. There's some serious stuff going on here, and we need 
everyone's cooperation and support."

Detective Wright reminded the press that last week's tragedy was the third such 
incident resulting in a fatality since the beginning of the school year. "Let this be 
a lesson to the community, you've just got to watch your kids. A teenager is not 
an adult and..."

The rest of the article did not directly talk about Jason, so Cecilia quit reading. 
She highlighted the text to copy into a blank word processing document and saved 
it. She was not particularly surprised or shocked, because she had known that 
something terrible must have happened to her boyfriend last year. So this was it, 
reckless driving that resulted in a fatal crash. It explained a lot, but not everything.

Manslaughter, reckless driving, and driving under the influence. Pretty serious 
charges, and yet Jason was not sitting in jail. Just how did he get out of it? That 
was the next question she wanted to answer. She continued searching 

Within a few minutes she found a couple of articles about the wreck itself. Cecilia 
knew enough about life to realize the accident was the predictable result of rich 
kids with too much time on their hands and too little supervision. There was a 
group of teenagers who had taken over a back road to drag race, do wheelies in a 
nearby field, and play "chicken". The weather was relatively warm for that time of 
the year, so a group of about 20 students gathered to waste a Thursday night in the 
countryside. The teenagers did not have any alcohol, because they did not need it. 
Instead, they were using ecstasy. 

By midnight the group had expanded to about 40 students and already had 
wrecked one car. From that rollover there were no injuries, oddly enough 
considering the damage done to the car. But the dares were getting more 
outrageous. At about 1:30 Jason Schmidt and William Davis, at the urging of their 
respective girlfriends, decided to race. Both cars had sunroofs, so the two girls 
decided stand up through the openings, lit two flares, and held them up during the 
competition. So, two teenagers, high on ecstasy, with their two girlfriends, also 
high on ecstasy, barreled down the road. It was Matthew Fox who added the final 
touch to the impending disaster. He was coming down off his own high and had 
decided to head home after fighting with his girlfriend. He was unaware of the 
race as he incoherently turned out onto the road.

The disaster happened in an instant. The two racing vehicles rammed Matthew 
Fox's car on the driver's side, killing him instantly. Heather Jones and Kate 
Simpson were thrown from their respective cars, their bodies tumbling across the 
pavement as Fox's vehicle burst into flames. The airbags in the two racing cars 
deployed, saving Jason and William from serious injury. In fact, Jason was not 
injured at all, because he was wearing his seatbelt. 

Acting on nothing but instinct, the two dazed racers stumbled out of their cars and 
away from the fire, which was fortunate. Moments later the two colliding cars 
burst into flames as well. The combined fire lit up the entire area with ominous 
orange light as the combined smell of burning gasoline, burning rubber, and 
Matthew's burning flesh permeated the air.

There was nothing that could be done for either Heather or Kate. They were as 
dead as could be; their prostrate bodies lying horribly twisted and disfigured on 
the cold pavement. The girls' two flares continued to burn further down the road, 
having rolled a very long way from the crash-site. 

How fast it all had happened! There was nothing left to do except call Emergency 
Services. Many of the spectators panicked and fled, some of them nearly colliding 
with incoming fire trucks and ambulances. Jason and William, their minds addled 
with ecstasy, simply stood on the road watching the firemen douse the flames, 
wondering if this was real or just a bad trip. Shortly afterwards they were at the 
Carterville Community Hospital Emergency Room, being examined for injuries 
pending a trip to the police station.

----------

Cecilia calmly copied the text from the articles and saved it into separate 
documents. There were some pictures as well, including yearbook photos and 
mugshots of Jason and William Davis, as well as a couple of police photos of the 
crash site taken the next day. She tried to disassociate herself from the horror 
Jason must have endured as a result of his stupidity. Right now she was collecting 
information. The reaction would set in later, once she had all the facts. She 
continued looking, trying to find out why Jason had not gone to jail. Finally she 
came across the following:

Drag racing teen indicted for drug dealing

Carterville Daily Press - Jan 29 11:57 AM
The Carterville District Attorney's Office announced indictments today against 
former Carterville Central High School student William Davis, 17 and his brother 
Mark Davis, 20, for their role in distributing ecstasy among students in two 
Carterville-area high schools. 

The District Attorney's Office announced that the charge of possession of ecstasy 
with intent to distribute against William Davis would be added to the charges of 
manslaughter, reckless driving, and driving under the influence, stemming from 
the crash last December that resulted in the deaths of three local teens. The DA's 
office also announced that Davis will be tried as an adult and prosecuted "to the 
fullest extent of the law."

Davis' co-defendant, Jason Schmidt, pled guilty to reckless driving and driving 
under the influence. In exchange for the plea and his testimony, the District 
Attorney agreed to drop the other charges pending against him, which included 
manslaughter. Schmidt will lose all driving privileges until he is 21, perform 200 
hours of community service, and receive counseling until he graduates from high 
school.

When asked about the difference between the treatment of the two defendants the 
DA responded. "I'm convinced the Schmidt kid was duped. He's basically a nice 
kid that just fell in with the wrong group, but he is going to need to think about 
where he's going with his life and get some counseling to get over this.

"As for Davis, that's a different story because the group was getting the ecstasy 
from him and his brother. We got him with 130 doses of ecstasy and 8 ounces of 
marijuana, and he was on probation for a prior. The brother who got him the stuff 
was out on parole, so we're going to nail them both.

"What gets to us in the DA's office is that these all kids are from good families. 
They're not a bunch of bums. But, you give 'em too much down time and throw in 
some drugs, and, well, you end up with a tragedy like what we had out on Miller 
Road..."

Once again the article diverged into a moralistic lecture to the county's parents. 
Apparently the local officials liked to do that, preach to the community, but 
unfortunately they were right. Indeed, what was Jason doing out on a country road 
at 1:30 on a Thursday night? Of course, Cecilia knew the answer, because she had 
met his parents.

Oddly enough, what angered Cecilia the most was not what happened, nor even 
the fact that Jason had kept it from her, but instead the detail about his driving. 
Throughout the semester he had placed both of them at risk by driving to their 
downtown dinner dates in Mike's car. The driving most definitely would stop, 
Cecilia would see to that. If it meant no more fancy dinners in downtown 
Chicago, well, that's the way it would have to be. Jason had no right to place them 
at risk like that, driving with no license, even if his goal simply was to make her 
happy.

She pondered what to do with the information. She now knew Jason's secret. Yes, 
it was a pretty bad secret, but she no longer was sure she wanted to confront him 
over it. She badly wanted him to come clean and confess to her. She knew it 
would be extremely important that he work up the courage to do it on his own, 
instead of her having to drag it out of him. She knew that would be vital for their 
future as a couple, he absolutely had to face up to what he did and admit it to her.

Cecilia Sanchez thoughts moved to her own dark secret, a horrid memory that 
came back to her when she was discussing her life with the Schmidts. There was 
one detail she left out, an incident that, more than anything else in her squalid life 
as a teenager, defined who she was and what she wanted from life. Her own secret 
was the second reason she was reluctant to confront Jason about the wreck. How 
could she attack Jason about trying to deceive her about his past, when she was 
doing the exact same thing to him?

She turned out the light and stared out the window while she waited for him to 
call. As she watched the snow build up on the ground outside she thought to 
herself:

I guess it's only fair that me and Jason end up together. Both of us got blood on 
our hands.