About the time the humidity in my shirt hit 100%, they seemed to get over it, and we pretty much broke up by mutual accord, heading into the house. With the happy spirit gone, the girls seemed to lose interest in things, and collected their stuff, calling for their parents to pick them up.
I was in the den, listening to some music, as they started leaving. Much to my surprise, all of them stopped in to thank me, and Susan even dared give me a kiss on the cheek and a hug before heading out the door.
When the last one was gone, Jan came into the den, and sat on the fireplace hearth looking at me. I ignored it for as long as I could, but finally had to turn to her, and raise an eyebrow in question.
'I didn't know you knew that stuff.', she said.
'Didn't seem important, until today.'
'Yeah, but why haven't you ever said anything about it?'
'Like I said, it didn't seem important. If it had come up earlier, I'd have said or done something earlier, when it was needed.'
She gave me the Goober look.
'Look, Jan, the way I figure it, the folks that yap about how they studied this and that are just making so much noise – they're talkers, trying to bullshit people into not bothering them. The ones that really have enough of an idea of what they're doing don't need to talk – they can DO if they have to. It's kind of like Kelly: she doesn't tell everyone she's smart, she just IS, when it matters. Like last night, I deliberately threw in that business about judging the nighties and not the girls in them to see if I could squash the program; I really didn't think any of you would figure a way out of it that I couldn't argue against. But Kelly really threw me – she not only found a solution, but a damn good solution. I really was serious when I told her that I'd have a job for her when she's old enough. I don't want somebody with those kinds of smarts working for my competition!', I laughed.
Jan answered me by saying 'Yeah, I figured you were, and I told her that. She didn't want to believe me. But she might take you up on it, anyway.'
'Good. I'll look forward to it.'
'But that still doesn't do anything about what happened.'
'But it's already happened, and been taken care of. Phil and his two dipshit buddies are gone, and won't be around to bother anyone for a while. And if they do start to get feisty again, then we can call the cops on them as soon as they show up, because they have shown that they're trouble.'
'But what if they try to start something at school?'
'I kinda suspect that will solve itself: do you really think that not one of those eight girls is going to keep quiet about how an old fart like me dropped Phil and his pals? You think Phil will start anything serious with that hanging over him? I don't.'
'No, he won't do anything that way, but he might try something sneaky, like having someone else do it for him, like one of his other friends.'
'I'll bet that when word gets out, he won't have that many 'friends' – who wants to be buddies with a loser like him? As for trying something sneaky, you and the others can put the word out that I've given you my
About that time, the phone rang, and Jan went to answer it. She talked with the caller for a little bit, and then brought me the cordless phone, telling me 'It's Susan's parents. They saw she was upset, and finally got the story from her. They want to talk to you.'
Crud.
When I answered, I found out that it was Susan's dad on the line. He asked me what had happened, and I gave him the condensed version. He wasn't satisfied with that, and kept asking me to go back over it in more detail until I finally told him the whole thing, start to end, with full detail. He thanked me, and said that he appreciated my attempt to downplay the incident. I tried my best humble-and-modest routine on him, but he wasn't going for it. He thanked me again, and said that if I had any trouble with anyone about it, I should call him, and he'd deal with it. I asked how he'd do that, and he admitted that he was a criminal lawyer in town. I thanked him, and said that I didn't think there would be anything of consequence. He repeated the offer, thanked me again for my efforts, and that ended the call.
Jan had been sitting next to me, with her ear close enough to the phone to be able to hear both sides of the conversation. When I shut off the phone, she was staring at me.
'What?' I asked.
'Do you know that Susan's dad is one of the most expensive lawyers in town? And that he doesn't do any legal stuff for anybody for free?'
'Nope. Didn't know, doesn't much matter.'
'What do you mean?'
'If I'm right, I won't be needing his help, though it's nice to know it's there if I'm wrong. Either way, there isn't much*I* can do about it, so there's no sense worrying about what might or might not happen.'
'Oh! You are so exasperating, sometimes!'
I grinned, and said 'Yeah. Ain't it great?' – and got her laughing.
The rest of the weekend went by just fine, though Jan did make sure that I got better – and longer – than usual peeks at her at different times.
When Paul got back, he asked if everything went okay, and I just told him that some boy had wanted to take one of the girls that didn't want to go, but had finally left after we called the cops. Paul looked worried at that, but Jan took her cue from me, and downplayed it, explaining – in loose terms – the Phil/Susan situation.
A couple of days later, I stopped by to talk to Paul, and Jan ambushed me in the living room before I got to him.
'You'll never guess!'
'Okay, I give up.'
'What?'
'Whatever it was you were talking about. You said I'd never guess, so I gave up.'
She gave me a dirty look, the told me 'At school Monday, they announced that Phil was being bounced off the wrestling team, because of how he acted here Saturday. Then, Tuesday, we all found out that when you broke his leg, it was bad enough that he isn't going to be able to wrestle for at least a couple of years, if ever. I mean, they kicked him off the team before they found out he couldn't wrestle! And you're right -nobody wants anything to do with the people that usually hung out with him, you know, his little gang or club or whatever. Phil's still in the hospital, but the other two were back in school Monday afternoon. Every time one of them saw one of us, they'd walk in another direction! And Tuesday morning, Father Thomas suspended them for a week.'
'That's good news. Now the only worry is whether one of the parents decides to get feisty.'
She frowned at that, but let me continue, 'I think if they're going to try anything, it will happen by the end of the week. After that, they'll just look like idiots if they say something.'
That brightened her up a bit, so when Paul called out my name, I was able to leave her in good conscience.
When he saw me, Paul jumped right out with 'So, what really happened Saturday?'
'Like I said, some kid wanted to take one of the girls without her permission. He left without her after we called the cops.'
'But you kind of left out some of the detail – like that there were two cop cars. And an ambulance.'
'Okay, so he wasn't happy about leaving. I encouraged him a little.'
'Encouraged him how?'
'Uh, do you really want to know?'
'Yes, dammit! It happened on my property, remember? What happens if the little bastards parents sue, or something?'
'I don't think they're going to do that – he was drunk or stoned at the time.'
'Yeah, fine, but what did you do to him that required an ambulance?'
'I kinda broke his leg. Well, his knee.'
'Oh, jeezus. And what about the other two that got hauled off?'
