A World Apart The Jake Thomas Trilogy - By Steven A. Tolle Page 0,8

had become a different man since. He was sober now and had married his wife Mary, a nurse who he met while in the hospital. He worked hard running his farm, attended church regularly and was active in civic matters, but his dangerous reputation remained. His face radiated that danger now.

"You can't touch me. My father will…" Donald began, trying not to look weak and back down.

"Your father will do nothing." Mr. Madison said flatly. "You tell him to come see me if he has a problem with what I am apparently going to have to do." Mr. Madison continued to approach, stretching his arms, his knuckles cracking as he curled them into tight fists, muscles cording under his hairy forearms.

John reached out and grabbed Donald's arm. "Let's go, man. This dude's crazy. I'm not messing with him." He said nervously. Robert nodded in agreement, eyes glancing around.

"Your friends have some sense, Drake. Do you?" Mr. Madison's face seemed carved of stone, eyes hard as they stared at Donald.

"Alright, we're leaving." Donald stated, holding his hands up and moving back toward his car. He glanced down at Jake. "You got off easy, dick." He snarled. "Stay away from my girlfriend." He and his friends got in the car, all anxiously watching Mr. Madison; Donald threw it into reverse and spun it around. He gunned the accelerator and sped off back towards town.

"You ok, Jake?" Mr. Madison asked as he knelt next to Jake. Jake nodded and tried to stand up, wincing at the pain in his ribs, feeling a bit light-headed.

"Here, let me help you." Jake felt Mr. Madison's strong left hand grab his left arm as the other arm wrapped around his back, hand gripping Jake's right shoulder. Mr. Madison, surprisingly gentle, lifted Jake to his feet and helped him back to his truck and assisted him getting into the passenger side.

"You look a little worse for wear. You want me to call your folks?" Mr. Madison asked. Jake shook his head no.

"Ok, I'll take you home." He closed Jake's door gently, went around and climbed into the driver's side, started up the truck and turned around.

"You want to tell me about it?" Mr. Madison asked quietly. "I can remember a few scrapes I got into when I was your age…over stupid things, mostly."

Jake, suddenly aware of the tears on his checks, wiped them with the back of his hands, embarrassed, imagining Mr. Madison must think him a baby. "I asked his girlfriend to the prom." Jake replied. "I didn't know they were seeing each other and he took offense. He tried to start something earlier at school, but someone stopped him." Fresh blood began trickling out of his lip as he spoke.

"Here,…" Mr. Madison said, handing Jake some tissues. "…use the tissues and put some pressure on the lip. When you get home, put an ice compress on it and your eye." He paused for a moment as he turned down the lane to Jake's house. "You want me to speak with your dad about this?"

"No. I'll talk to him later. I guess I won't be able to hide this."

"Alright, if that is how you want it." He pulled into the driveway and stopped. "Listen, Jake, there is no shame in what happened to you. You got jumped by three guys and did what you could. Don't let it get into your head."

"I'll try. Thanks for your help, Mr. Madison." Jake said as he opened the door and got out gingerly, pain radiating from his ribcage.

"You sure you're ok? You need any help to get into the house?"

"No. I'm ok, Mr. Madison. Thanks again."

"If you say so, Jake. Look, if you ever need to talk about things that you don't think you can tell your father, like fighting or some such, you can come see me." Mr. Madison offered. He backed out of the driveway, gave Jake a wave and left.

Jake slowly walked to the front door, unlocked it and went inside. He had an hour or so before his mom got home with Russ and Jane, his younger brother and sister. He headed through the living room, dining room and kitchen, turned down the hallway next to the bathroom and went straight to his bedroom.

He pulled his phone out of his pants and saw that he had a message from Sean. He opened it and saw that Sean had asked - "You get home ok?" He did not feel like discussing what happened yet, so he sent