Chapter 8 - The Good Mother

Disclaimer: Idon't own Static Shock. It belongs to Mister Dwayne McDuffie,Milestone, DC Comics and WB. But a girl can dream.Warning: Willcontain slash, drugs, violence and one sided relationships. This willbe a bit riskier than my average fics. Knowing me it'll be okay but Ionly thought it fair to place a warning. I hope everyone enjoys therendition of Shiv by a third author. I want to be original and hopethis is.A/N: Okay,this is really quite an anti-drug chapter. I hope its accurate. Alsoa bit of a sad chapter. Joe is getting ready to run away. I hope youlike it though.Alsoso sorry. It took so long.TakenLightlyChapter 8: The Good MotherRichiehad found the address of Solada Chen in almost no time at all. Shewas living in an upper middle class neighborhood on the west side ofDakota. Virgil hadn't bothered to wear his Static costume as he wasafraid he'd scare her off. The house had a fence, garden, and doghouse with no dog. A skateboard sat up against the side of the flowerbed. Richie looked around the yard. He found it, eery. It was sodeserted in mood. Virgilknocked on the door. Richie quickly removed himself from hisexamination and placed himself behind Virgil on the landing."Remember, we're doing an article for school on missingchildren.""Verysympathetic, Virgil.""BestI could think of."Thedoor opened. Standing in the entrance was an Asian woman around herlate forties with her hair tied back. She looked tired and oddly sad.She wore a long skirt and a white blouse. However, she certainly hada resemblance to Shiv. Her eyes curved the same way his did and herskin was the same pale bronze. However, she was built far portlierand shorter in height. She looked at the boys for a moment. She wasjust shorter than Richie and came up to Virgil's chin. "Hi."Virgil said with a wave. "Are you Mrs. Chen?"Herexpression did not change. "Yes. What is it?""I'mVirgil Hawkins and this is Richie Foley. We're doing a report onmissing children for the Community Center where my pops works. Wewere wondering if you wouldn't mind answering a few questions."Shesighed irriatiably. "Come in. My husband isn't home. He hasn'tcome home before ten p.m. since Jomei ran away. He used to come homeall the time to help him study. You aren't the first one's to comeand ask me about this. It has been a while though."Virgilfollowed her down the hallway. He saw a door half open and lookedinside. It was a teenager's room. It was dusty and needed desperatelyto be cleaned. Clothes were scattered across the floor, CDs sat onthe dresser, a video game controller was sitting on the floor and thebed was unmade. It looked so lived in and so dead at the same time. "Thatwas Jomei's room." she said, walking back toward them. "Ican't brought myself to clean it. I don't want to touch his things."she said and shut the door to the room. "We still hope he mightturn up." She looked tired. Virgiland Richie looked at one another as they continued into the livingroom. "What happened, Mrs. Chen?"Shesighed to herself. "So many things. I had a hard trouble havinga child. We tried for years and it never worked out. We thought itwasn't meant to be, but Tadashi, that's my husband Tadashi, wouldn'tgive up on it. He told me it was only a matter of time. He never gaveup on the idea and gave me hope." Solada smiled briefly, but itfaded quickly. "I went to a doctor to ask about why it wastaking so long for us to have our baby. I had some tests and therewas a fertility defect. However, we decided to try one last time andJomei was born." she paused for a moment. She was solemn butonly superficially. "He was born three and a half weeks early.Some things weren't quite right with him. But we didn't mind it, hewas our baby."Virgillooked at her sympathetically. He hadn't expected this. He hadexpected her to be different, colder. "Did you have any problemswith Joe?""Icouldn't bond with him. I had wanted the baby for so long. It causeda lot of trouble but my husband understood and we worked through it."she stuttered for a moment and stood up. "Would you two likeanything?"Virgil and Richie looked at each other. Neither were very hungryafter that declaration. It was something about it that create a knotin your stomach. "No, thank you." Richie said, holding hisnotepad. "What was wrong with Joe?"Her expression did not change as she sat back down. "He wasADHD from this premature birth. He couldn't sit still well. Videogames were only things that could keep him in one place.""When did he run away?" Virgil said sympathetically."It was the night of the big bang. April 23rd.""Could you tell us what you think lead up to him runningaway?" Richie said seriously.She sighed. "Joe was never a bad kid. But he had trouble inschool."***Joesat the desk by the window in his Geometry class. He hated the class.Actually, he disliked a lot about his school. He was forced to wear auniform: jacket and tie, listen to boring lectures, sit still, andworst of all, with no entertainment. He sat looking out the window.He wasn't really thinking about anything. He was just watching thingsgo by when his afternoon activity was rudely interrupted. "MisterChen!"Joesnapped out of the trance. "Yeah."Theclass giggled. The woman at the front of the class was a thin,elderly woman. Her hair was a mix of grey and black tied into a tightbun. She appeared annoyed. Though, when wasn't she? "Do you knowthe answer, Mister Chen?"Joesmiled and leaned back with his hands behind his head. "And whatwas the question?"Theclass giggled again. Joe relaxed further. This was his idealenvironment: surrounded by laughter. The teacher was angry. She gavehim a stern look and pointed at the board. "The area of anequilateral triangle inscribed inside a circle, Mister Chen.""Ihave no idea." he said, smugly. He turned. A girl two seats awayfrom him had her hand up and appeared as though she was about to jumpout of her skin. "I think she knows, though." Theclass ended within an hour. They had reframed from usual disciplinewith Joe. He was in the office so often it was getting ridiculous.However, despite his behavior problems, he was well liked by theschool. The secretaries found his boyish charm and humorentertaining. Even the senile old janitor, who hated all of thestudents, enjoyed his company and would occasionally allow him toskateboard in the halls after hours. Hewalked outside the school. He unlocked his skateboard from thebicycle rack and jumped on. He skated down a hill leading from theschool and turned into a small alley. He jumped off and lookedaround. It was dank, dark and hidden out of sight. He had been toldby a classmate that he could get drugs here. The location was perfectfor drug dealing. It was far out of sight and close enough to aprivate school that no one would suspect. It was also far easier tocoax naïve private school students than those in public school.Joe was unfortunately very naïve. His logic was that marijuanawas used as medicine and that he was ill. He hated to think of itthat way but he was. His medicine wasn't working. It made him sickhalf the time and if not then had no effect at all. He held hisskateboard under his arm and looking around. He didn't see anyone.Joe sighed, it must have been a joke. He never did like Andrew. Joedropped his skateboard and jumped on. "You, Joe?"Joestopped sharply and turned. It was a very deep voice and commanding."Yeah.. I'm Joe. Joe Chen."Aman in his early twenties walked out from the back of the alley. Hewas African American with very dark skin and cornrows lined his head.He was wearing a vest, loose pants and a tight shirt. It was thetoughest person Joe had ever seen outside of one of his video games. "You'reIvan Evans." Joe said surprised. He was staring, in betweenfeelings aw and absolute curiosity. He had expected some named Ivanto be well... Russian and white and smaller. "Yeah.So you're Joe Chan. So... Chan.""Chen.""Chun,whatever." "Chen.""SoChang, you got some type of problem." Ivan said, removing thecontents of his pockets and vest. It was a variety of powders, pillsand plants inside small plastic bags. "If you need painkillers,I got over the counter, script pill and morphine."Joesquinted a little trying to act seriously. "I don't need thoseand its Chen.""Right.Chung. I got red devils if you can't sleep, crank, if you sleep toomuch, pot if you care about too much, acid if you just want to go ona trip..." Ivanlagged on but it was lost to Joe. He looked over the drugs trying topick up any information he could. He was never good at payingattention. "Its Chen. I just need something to mellow me out."Ivanquickly put most of the small bags away into his pockets. "Okay,Lee. You want this then. How much did you bring?"Joepulled off his backpack and pulled out a small wallet. Ivan snatchedit and took whatever was inside and handed Joe a plastic bag of abright green plant. Ivan stood there counting the money as he putback Joe's wallet. Joe didn't know exactly what to make of thetransaction. He didn't know what to do at all really. He stood for amoment. "Youwant somethin' else?"Joejumped a little. He was surprised by the reaction. "No.Nothing.""Thenget out, Chun."Joedropped his skateboard and pushed himself out of the alley. "ItsJomei "Joe" Chen!""Joe-MayJoe Chung...Chan... whatever." Ivan muttered to himself as Joesped away.Joespent the next few days experimenting with the new drug, buying morefrom Ivan, and acting like a sloth. He was far mellower than before.He got up in the morning and ate breakfast without jumping on thingsand getting distracted. Tadashi smiled from his newspaper as Joepicked up his skateboard and books and walked out the door.Soladawas washing dishes as Tadashi began to gather his briefcase. "Youdon't think its odd?"Tadashistopped for a moment. "What do you mean? With Jomei?""Yes.He doesn't seem himself. He's tired.""He'scalm." Tadashi said with a grin. "We're just not used toit.""That'snot it. He's too quiet and he does... He just isn't right."Tadashooturned to his wife for a moment. He broke away from his grin and intoa comforting look. "He's fine, Solada. I haven't heard thosevideo games in days. He's upstairs doing his homework half the time.He's getting better, Solada. Getting a handle on this. Its a goodthing, Solada." He said, kissed Solada goodbye and walked outthe door.Shereturned to the dishes. "Then, why are his eyes so red now?"Joesat in his desk at school. He was silent without even a smile. A fewhad asked why his eyes were so red. He said it was allergies, anallergenic reaction, it was infected, pink eye and that it was aparasitic worm. He didn't think anyone believed any of the excusesbut were far too taken aback to ask anything else about the subject.He sat silently staring straight ahead. He wasn't thinking aboutanything or looking at anything. He was just staring. He couldremember if he had done his homework or even breakfast. It was aweird feeling, not knowing things that you really should.Theteacher was walking up and down the rows of small desks handingsomething out. He couldn't remember what class this was. It waseither Study Hall or History or something. The teacher placed severalpieces of paper on his desk. They were tests from the last fourweeks. Joe groaned it'd be a C to D+. It always was. He failedanything. He looked down at the oldest. It was a 78, a C+. He lookedat the next it was a D, then a D-, then an E. Joe stared inconfusion. This can't be right. He was calm. He better this had to bewrong. Joewas sitting with his head in his hands. His classmates filed out ashe sat. It was almost shock. He was failing. He didn't fail. He wasthe obnoxious, cocky class crown who always squeaked by with a C-.The teacher walked looked up from his desk. He saw Joe sitting there,head in hands. He got up and walked down the aisle by the window andsat down in the chair in front of him. Joe didn't notice. The man wasin his late fifties with glasses and a beard. He had been teaching atthe school for almost thirty years. "Is there any reason you'retests turned out like this?"Joelooked up. "I guess I didn't study.""Areyou sure you don't know any other reasons?""Yeah."he said and got up leaving the classroom.Heskated home and walked in through the gate. Spike barked happily."Shut up, Spike." Joe said irritably and walked inside thehouse.Joeleft his tests on a small end table in the living room and went intothe backyard to smoke. Solada was standing on the floor above andlooked outside. She felt the pit of her stomach give out. She knew itall along. It was obvious really. She knew she should get down thereand yell her lungs out at him. She knew that she should get rid ofthat horrible stuff but she couldn't. She couldn't stand to be thatclose to him. It would mean being near him and she couldn't. It wastoo much for her.Tadashiarrived home shortly. Joe was sitting on the couch. Tadashi picked upthe tests and shot Joe an angry look. The yelling began instantly.Tadashi's flurry of anger and disappointment continued for almost twohours. Joe sat without flinching. He was in complete apathy. Hedidn't care, and if he did, he wasn't showing it. Solada should afair distance. She was silent as she always was. She looked at herson. He sat tired and careless. She hadn't seem his in him before. Hewas so still and it scared her.Afterthe lecture, he lay on his bed in his room curled in on himself,trying to sleep off some of the more negative effects. He hadn'texpected the sore throats, tiredness, and worst of all generalapathy. He had stopped caring about beating his growing number ofgames, trying in school, and even skateboarding seemed pointless. Hepulled the heavy blanket over his head and coughed slightly. Hisfather now suspected something and excuses were harder and harder tomake up. He couldn't think straight anymore. He pushed his face intohis mattress. Spikestood in the doorway to Joe's bedroom. He stood and pushed the dooropen with his nose. He peered into the small darkened room. He hatedseeing Joe like this. He didn't know what made him act this way butit wasn't natural. It was altered and strange. He didn't jump or yellanymore. He didn't run to greet him after school or play with him.Spike walked across the room and crawled onto Joe's bed. Joeturned, seeing the old dog crawling onto the elevated mattress. Spikegroaned as he began to lick Joe's face. He scratched behind Spike'sears. "Sorry, boy. I've been awful to you." he said,rubbing his eyes. "You didn't do this." He felt horrible.Worse than ever now. His fathers outburst still stung and his motherwho just stood there. Even though, he was insulted, disgraced andmentally dismantled by his father. He felt it burn in the pit of hisstomach. He grabbed Spike around the neck and fell asleep tightlywrapped in his heavy blanket. Spike lay beside him trying his best tohelp him with merely with his existence. He knew he could do solittle but he could only hope this would help his master. The boy didnot deserve more complexity in his life. So, he simply lay on the bedas a loyal friend.Outsidethe door, Solada looked in at her son crawled up into his dog fastasleep. She knew was in pain and exactly what was going on. Shewished she could go into the room and make things so much easier. Shewished that she could tell Tadashi that he was trying and that notall people are perfect. However, she could not. She felt disgusted byhis very existence and feared so greatly that she may hurt him. Shewished that she could only love the young man in that dark room. Butthat wasn't the reality and she could only apologize. "I'msorry, Joe. I know this isn't nearly enough for all I have done.Standing out in a hall apologizing but I am so sorry."Sadchapter. Please Review.

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