Part 2
The following day, all four would-be rapists were arrested. They'd gone home thinking it was all going to get brushed aside. After all, it was their word against that of the girl and the weird old black janitor. Who would believe them over the word of four upstanding fine young citizens whose only crime was to talk and flirt with a pretty girl. Everybody at the ball game had seen and heard them. They'd done nothing wrong.
Darnell's HD video changed everything though. They were arrested and charged with kidnapping and sexual assault. The dark-haired one was also charged with assault and attempted murder.
Darnell spent a week at the hospital recovering from minor surgery, but got all the details from Heather who came to visit him every day.
She wanted to spend every waking moment with him when she wasn't at school or at home. She rode the bus to the hospital then got a ride home from her mother, Dawn, every evening.
Neither Darnell nor her mom let her get away with not doing her homework so while Darnell watched TV or read a book, she did her homework.
Every day they learned more about each other.
Darnell discovered Dawn was a single mother and Heather had two older sisters, one was married and the other went to college out of state. Their small family was well off though. When Heather's father died, more than ten years ago, he'd left them a substantial bit of money which Dawn used to start what was now a very successful business.
It also meant that she was out of town quite a bit so Heather spent a lot of time alone. But she was a good girl, she didn't disobey her mother and didn't throw any crazy parties or go out every night to hang out with her friends. She actually didn't have many friends and boys never asked her out on dates or to parties. She didn't quite understand why this was so, which is why she had gone against her instincts and taken off with those boys right after the game.
Most of the popular girls who wanted to be friends with her, she considered shallow and conceited so she always made excuses and they eventually stopped asking her hang out. The few friends she did have tended to be homebodies like her.
She did enjoy being a cheerleader and playing soccer though, so game days and pep rallies were the events when she socialized and for the most part, really enjoyed.
But now here she was, spending every waking moment with fat old janitor and there was no way he was going to complain. He was the complete focus of her attention. She ate with him, laughed with him, talked for hours with him, and on several occasions even fell asleep with her head pillowed on his thigh, her long blonde hair draped over them both like a golden blanket. And, most importantly for him, when they talked she seemed to be genuinely interested in what he had to say.
It had been years since he'd spent any time with anyone on a personal level, let alone a beautiful young white girl, and he reveled in it.
This whole scenario was surreal, mainly because she spent so much time holding his hand and looking at him, really looking at him when they talked. He knew he wasn't much to look at and yet she couldn't seem to keep her eyes off him. When she was reading or distracted she would hold his hand with long graceful fingers.
Surreal. And since most of the hospital staff knew what he had done they just smiled and gave them whatever they wanted, mainly privacy. It was strange for them also, the short, fat black man made a weird contrast with the slender and incredibly beautiful blonde girl. The hospital staff could tell they got along great, though they didn't have much in common. The nurses smiled at their unusual friendship, at how they were constantly smiling, cracking jokes and becoming fast friends.
Heather had never really noticed Darnell at school but when she thought about it, she recalled seeing him doing his job unobtrusively ... sweeping, moping, cleaning the restrooms, taking out the trash... all the things janitors do.
She remembered some of the stories and rumors about him, though, about him helping out kids who were getting bullied. She hadn't paid much attention or thought much of it. It was just something cool the old janitor may or may not have done. The bullies got in big trouble but as it turned out, Darnell had stood up on their behalf as well and, after appropriate punishment, the former bullies were given another chance.
I guess it's just his way to stand up for the underdog, she thought.
Heather learned Darnell has been the high school janitor for more than 45 years. He'd taken over his father's job after he died when Darnell was 22, right after he'd graduated from Duke University with a degree in English Literature ... back then he'd planned on taking the world by storm. His goal at the time was to write fiction, to become a Pulitzer-winning author.
But his mother's ailing health and the fact that he was black kept him from finding a better job. So he stayed on as the high school janitor and one year led to another. His mother passed away more than a decade before and he hadn't kept in touch with his older brother and sister.
She also discovered he'd never been married and that he'd lived at the high school for years. There was a basement area which he had converted into a living space many years ago. It was a large space and he'd spent a long time making it comfortable, making it into his home. He had a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom with a shower. It was all well ventilated, cool in the summer and warm in the winter but it had no windows.
He had a fairly large TV and a very up-to-date surround sound system since one of his favorite pastimes was to watch movies. He was a walking encyclopedia of movie trivia dating back to the 1920s. He had a pretty extensive Blu-ray and DVD movie library which filled a hand-made book case taking up an entire wall. A slightly smaller book case housed hundreds of dog-eared paperbacks he'd collected and the stacks of manuscripts of stories and short stories he'd written over the years.
He had everything he needed, he just didn't know how he was going to manage some of his regular work with his injured belly. Hell, he didn't even know how he was going to get home when it was time to leave the hospital. He didn't tell Heather any of this though. It wasn't her concern. He didn't want to take her away from her life and he knew she'd stopped going to cheer-leading and soccer practice to come to the hospital every day.
It's time to get back to reality, he thought unhappily. She'll go back to her life and I'll go back to mine. I'll miss that pretty smile for sure.
He was scheduled to leave first thing in the morning on Saturday. He did a little research and found the bus schedule and locations and, after a few inquiries, he knew what he needed to do to get home.
All of which came to nothing since Heather had talked her mother into taking him home and getting him comfortable once there.
Heather had taken his keys and stolen down to his place after school one day during the week he'd been in the hospital and had restocked his pantry and refrigerator. She didn't want him to want for anything when he got home.
