The Life and Times of Rick the Red

“Rick! I told you to give that to your sister. She’s smart and deserves it.”

“But Mom, I worked for it. It’s mine.”

“You do as I say! Give it to her!”

Rick turned to get away with his new hero book. His sister wouldn’t even like it. But his mom grabbed him and hit his head against the wall. “Give it to her.”

“Give me what?” Sally asked as she walked into the room.

“Give it to her NOW!!” His mother hit his arm so he dropped the book.

“Give me that?” Sally asked. “I don’t want that book. Besides, Ricky earned that book.”

“Now, Sally, Rick needs to learn to obey me. And so do you. Pick up that book and take it to your room.”

Sally leaned down by her brother and picked up the book. As she straightened up she whispered to him, “I’ll give it back.”

“I heard that, Sally! You had better not give it to him or I’ll beat you blue.”

Sally turned and left the room, carrying Rick’s book. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she angrily wiped them away. Their mother was so mean, especially to Ricky because he didn’t get as good grades as she did. In her room she threw the book on the floor and kicked it under her bed. Then she fell across her bed and cried.

Their mother left the room so Rick went to his room. He was fighting tears but thought he shouldn’t cry or he’d get into more trouble. ‘I was going to read my new book. Now Sally has it and doesn’t dare give it to me.’ He just sat, thinking about how, some day, he’d be more powerful than his mother and she wouldn’t be able to hurt him anymore.

He got an idea and, very quietly, went to Sally’s room. “Hey, Sally, do you think I could just sit here on your floor and read that book?”

“Yes! That would work. I kicked it under the bed.”

Retrieving the book, Rick backed up against the wall and started reading his newest book. He got half way through with the story before he heard his mother coming up the stairs. He handed Sally the book and raced for his room.

“So, Rick. I see you running into your room. Where were you? Getting into more trouble, I’m sure.”

“No. I was just c c oming from the bathr r r oom.” Rick stammered.

“Well, then, I guess I’d better check the bathroom and see what mischief you’ve gotten into. What about homework?”

“We’re doing those stupid tests the whole week so we don’t have any homework.”

“A likely story! I’ll call the school tomorrow. If you’re lying you will get a beating.”

She left and walked over to Sally’s room only to find her engrossed in a book of her own. “So, is Rick bothering you?”

“No. Not at all. Did we tell you we’re taking those tests again this week?”

“So Rick wasn’t lying about that.”

“That’s what we’re doing all week. It’s kind of nice not to have homework this week. Leaves more time to read my books.”

Her mother just nodded her head and left. Both kids could hear her going down the stairs. After a few minutes, Rick came back to Sally’s room and picked up the book.

Both kids were avid readers and could get through books fairly quickly. This was true for Rick with this book. He finished it before his mother called him to come and peel potatoes for supper.

The next morning Rick had a hard time waking up. He still had the headache from having his head banged against the wall. Again. When he got downstairs his mother was mad. “You’re late!” She slapped him. “Sit down and eat your cereal before the bus gets here.”

As he was eating she was still talking to him. “Stupid kid! Can’t even get up to eat. I suppose you stayed awake until midnight reading some stupid book!

“No,” he said between bites. “I went to sleep about ten.”

“Liar! I know that’s not true. I saw your light on about eleven.”

“Yes. I was trying to read but I feel asleep. I woke up about two and turned the light off.”

“Like I’m supposed to believe that wild story!”

The bus pulled up and honked. Both kid put their dishes in the dishwasher, grabbed their backpacks and ran out the door.

As they neared the bus, they said to one another, “boy, was I glad to get out of there!”

Rick was in seventh grade and Sally was in eighth. The eighth grade boys liked to pick on the younger classmates, especially Rick. He was a short redhead so they badgered him all the time.

“So, there he is! That big, brave man who’s going to save the world!”

“No. I think he’ll probably destroy the world.”

“You guys! Just leave me alone.” Rick always tried to talk them down.

“Oh. Look! He actually thinks we’ll go away.” This was from Jerry, who was almost six feet tall and thought he owned the school.

The bell rang and everyone scattered to their classes.

At noon Rick got his lunch and looked for a place to sit where there wouldn’t be room for any of his tormentors. A friend from math class, Zack, motioned to him to sit at his table and Rick gladly accepted.

“Those guys bugging you again?” Zack asked.

Rick nodded his head as he took a bite of his lunch.

“Why do they pick on you, do you know?”

“I have no idea. They saw me the first day of school and haven’t let me alone since. It really gets tiresome. At least today it was just words. Sometimes it’s fists.”

“Wow! I didn’t know they actually hit you.”

“Yeah. Once they gave me a black eye and a bloody nose. Another time they jerked my arm so hard it dislocated my shoulder.”

“Hasn’t your mom reported this?”

“No. She says I’m so stupid I probably deserved it.”

“Well, she had to take you to the doctor for your shoulder, didn’t she?”

“Yeah. She was really mad.”

“How did you, or she, explain the injury?”

“She said I was hanging from the monkey bars and someone yanked me down.”

“And the doctor believed that?”

“Guess so.”

By the time Rick got to high school he was getting good grades and looking pretty good. The girls seemed to like the red hair and that made him feel good. He tried out for the basketball team and made the junior varsity team. Practice was after school every day and usually the games were Friday nights. Sometimes they had an away game that was on Saturdays.

All of this kept him from home many hours and he was grateful. Sally was doing well at school and starting to date a little. Rick wasn’t terribly interested in dating and his schedule made it difficult so he didn’t even bother.

After a game, where he scored 20 points, he came home to a very disruptive situation. His parents were fighting, and actually hitting each other.

“You’ve made life miserable for our boy and I didn’t know how bad it had gotten until the doctor told me of all the visits for injuries. He was sure you had inflicted them and couldn’t understand why I didn’t get involved. I told him I worked out of town and you were very good at hiding it from me.”

“You’re out of your mind. Just because the boy’s a klutz and manages to get hurt all the time, you got no reason to blame it on me.”

“I went to the school and talked to the principal and then the coach. They both assured me that he’s a good boy, has excellent grades and is a talented basketball player. Not the klutz you claim.”

“Fine! Believe what you want. I know the truth. I’ve always known the truth.”

They became aware of Rick just inside the door.

“See! Standing there spying on us!”

“Don’t be ridicules! The boy just came home and stopped to avoid walking between us.”

“Yeah. You always take his side. He’s no good and you’ll have to face that truth sooner than later.”

“Rick, come on in. You can just go through to your room if you want.”

As Rick walked past his dad, his father patted him on the back and said, “Rick you are a good boy and a great son and I’m very proud of you.”

After that fight, their dad got a different job and was home every night and on weekends. So their mother had to get sneaky about picking on Rick. She’d slug him on the back or in his stomach at every opportunity. Once she tripped him and made him fall down the stairs and he ended up in the hospital with injuries from that. She blamed him, of course.

Once she put a bit of rat poison in his pancakes. He was really sick and the doctor figured out what the problem was and told his dad. His dad threatened his mother and promised to report that to the authorities. He didn’t tell her that the doctor had done so already and they were watching the situation to try to catch her at something. No proof with the rat poison so they couldn’t do anything about that.

Rick continued doing well at school. He still had his tormentors but many other students had become his friends and always seemed to show up with the nasty students started in on him. At one point they locked him in his locker and he was trapped until the next period when he banged on the door and someone heard him and got the principal.

“Yeah. The star basketball player! Wonder how good he will play when we break his arms.” The larger of the boys pulled his arms behind him and started hitting on them but other kids managed to pull him off. One had run to the office and brought the principal and he got there in time to see what they were doing to him. The student hurting him was expelled from school. His friends blamed Rick and the harassment got worse.

They started calling him Rick the Red. Rick didn’t like it at first but then decided that was a good name for him.

Midway through his junior year of school the police interrupted basketball practice and took Rick out.

“We’re sorry, Rick, but there’s bad news at your house.”

As they pulled up to his house, the officer said, “Rick, it seems that your mother has killed your father.”

“What! Let me out!”

“Rick! Wait for them to clean up the scene a bit!”

“No! I’ve got to see my dad.”

Running into the house he was stopped by an officer who wouldn’t let him into the living room and the bloody scene. Rick tried to push past him but they held him tight.

Finally, the Medical Examiner allowed him in to see his dad before they took him away. Rick was shocked to see how much blood there still was on his dad.

“Sorry, Rick. I tried to clean him up some for you but there was just so much blood. He was stabbed right in the heart.”

“And my mother did this?”

“Yes. She has admitted that she did.”

“So, she should go to prison, right?”

“I would guess that’s what will happen. I’m sorry, Rick. That will leave you and Sally with no one here for you.”

“Well, we won’t miss our mother, that’s for sure. But we will miss our dad so very much.”

They covered him up and took him out to the waiting ambulance.

“Rick?”

Rick turned to see Sally curled up over on the couch. He hadn’t even noticed she was there until she called his name. He went to her immediately.

She had obviously been crying quite a lot. Rick sat down and put his arms around her and they cried together.

“Rick, I came home and found her still stabbing him. I called the police and they came right away but it was too late to save him.”

“Did he know you were here?”

“He said my name. Then he said yours. Then he said ‘what great kids.’”

“What did our wonderful mother say to you?”

“She said it had to be done.”

“I hope I never have to see her again.” Rick said angrily. “How could she kill our dad?”

“I just don’t understand, Rick. Our dad was a great dad. How are we going to get by without him?”

An officer came in and introduced them to Henry Livermore, an officer from Child Welfare.

“Rick and Sally, I’m so sorry for your loss. I cannot imagine how you are feeling. You are both minors so cannot stay here without an adult present. I will take you down to our office and we will find a foster home for you temporarily. The court will have to decide your living situations soon.”

They were allowed to get some clothes, books, etc. and then escorted to his car.

The third day they were at Mr. and Mrs. Wade Raley’s home they were taken to the church for their father’s funeral. They also went to the cemetery so they knew where he was being buried.

The fifth day, they were taken to court for the judge to decide where they would live now. Sally was a senior in high school but wouldn’t turn eighteen until early fall. Rick was a junior and a year younger than Sally.

The judge spent some time reviewing the paper work he had on them then addressed them.

“Sally and Rick, you have my sympathy for the situation you find yourselves in and for the loss of both parents. I have located a foster home that will take both of you. Sally, once you turn eighteen you will no longer be under my jurisdiction nor can you still stay in the foster home.”

Sally just nodded her head. “I hope to be in college by then.”

The judge smiled. “Exactly what I hoped to hear.”

“Rick, you will be able to stay in the foster home until you graduate even though that’s a couple of weeks past your eighteenth birthday.”

The judge continued. “Your home will be sold and that money along with any insurance money will be held in an account for the two of you. Should finance college for both of you.”

They were then taken to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Gary Young. The Youngs had two other foster kids but they were younger than Sally and Rick. They were very friendly and the kids both got rooms of their own.

As time went on, their home was cleaned up and sold. Before it went on the market the kids were allowed to go through the house and save anything they wanted. The Youngs had a storage unit that was nearly empty and they allowed the kids to store everything they wanted there.

Back in school, Rick found his tormentors still waiting to pick on him. The two who were still in school worked on him at school and they got with their expelled friend to harass him after school. Now, of course, they didn’t know where he lived so that helped Rick out quite a bit.

“Yup, there got Rick the Red. His mother’s a murderer. She’ll go to prison and he’ll join her there before long.”

Because of the loss of his father, the words hurt more than just annoying him. He simmered all the way to his next class. He found that women, any woman, really made him crazy. The desire to strangle each of them was so strong he had to get off by himself until he could control it.

The girls in school didn’t bother him, it was mature women that got in his craw. The desire got so strong he stopped going to classes with a woman teacher. His grades in the male taught classes remained top notch but he was failing the other classes.

One day, after running into a woman teacher in the hall, he just walked out of school and never went back. He ran away from the foster home and lost contact with Sally.

He found an abandoned building across town and stayed there. By day he scrounged for food and got some sleep. By night he started roaming neighborhoods looking for women who were out and about by themselves. Many never made it home. He would feel a release and could then sleep soundly.

He never got caught and started to get a little cocky about it. He took a classified ad and bragged that they would never catch Rick the Red. Guys from school recognized the name and told the police who it was but no one had the slightest idea where to look for him.

Rick the Red had developed into the only thing life would allow him to be.

The End