Dad, Mom and Paul go to the Senior Awards Night early because Erik has to be there early. And, Erik goes there in Arthur Bauers Land Cruiser.
Preparations for the event are still being made. The tree that is to be dedicated to Mike Costello is brought into the gym. In the process, dirt is spilled on the gym floor. Joey helps Paul clean up the dirt spill.
As they are led into Coach Warners office to clean themselves up, Joey asks Paul if he and Kerri need a ride to the Costello home later. Paul says that they do.
The crowd settles down and the proceedings begin. After a song by the chorus and band, Mr. Donnelly talks about sportsmanship and about Mike Costello. He ends with some lines from a poem.
Mr. Donnelly calls on the president of the Student Council for a statement. About this time, Paul spots Tino and Victor at the east entrance to the gym.
After the Student Council president is finished, Mr. Donnelly begins introducing the senior football players alphabetically. As Mr. Donnelly says Erik Fishers name, Tino and Victor head toward the group.
Tino gives Erik a karate kick that knocks the wind out of him. This is followed immediately by Tinos knee hitting Eriks face. With much emotion, Tino makes a comment about doing Luis light work similar to the comment that Erik made about Arthur doing his light work after Arthur hit Luis.
Almost everyone in the gym is frozen in place. Arthur, however, starts to move toward Erik. Victor stops him short by putting his head into Arthurs stomach. This is followed by Victor pummeling Arthur.
At this point, Coach Warners voice is heard telling his players to get a hold of Victor and Tino. The players do grab Victor. The coach grabs Tino. Victor manages to get away and escapes through an emergency exit.
Coach Warner twists Tinos arm into a hammerlock and heads toward his office with him. They pass by Paul, who jumps on the coachs back. This causes the coach to lose his grip on his captive who, like Victor, heads out the door and out of sight.
Coach Warner demands to know who the two are. Paul only stares back at the coach. Dad joins in on the coachs side. Paul stares him down, too. Finally, Dad tells the coach that his wife thinks that the guys are Pauls teammates.
Now, it is Pauls turn to exit the building. Once out of the building, he keeps running. He doesnt stop until he reaches the wall behind his house. At the wall, in pain from his exertion, he looks at the place where Seagulls suck is now only faintly visible.
After some time passes, the Land Cruiser pulls up. Arthur and Erik get out of the vehicle, leaving the powerful headlight on and the motor running. Even though the two are not in the light, Paul can see that Erik has a metal baseball bat.
Paul knows that they expect him to be afraid, but, instead, he acts as he has seen Luis do.
Arthur now has the blackjack in his hand.
Pauls new attitude helps him to see Eriks threats and Arthurs echoes of those threats as lame, not terrifying.
Paul tells Erik and Arthur that he saw Arthur kill Luis Cruz. Erik says that Paul is blind and, therefore, not believable. Paul replies that he was not the only witness. Arthur just wants to leave.
Erik smashes a headlight on the Land Cruiser. Then he shouts at Arthur Shut up, Castor. Shortly after that the two drive away, leaving Paul with the word, Castor, out of the past, hanging there.
That name is a key that unlocks Pauls memory of another wall in another housing development. Castor is the name of a boy who filled the role in Eriks life that Arthur Bauer now fills.
As memory comes back to him, Paul knows that his eyes were injured when, with Eriks help, Castor sprayed paint into them in retaliation for something that Paul hadnt even done.
Paul goes into the house and confronts Mom and Dad. He wants to know if they remember Vincent Castor. He can tell by their reaction that they do. Dad tries to change the subject to what happened tonight. Paul insists on getting answers to his questions.
Mom tries to focus on how happy she had been that Paul would not be blind. Paul wants to know if she had seen the paint on Eriks hands. She says that she saw it. And, she did know what happened.
Dad explains that they had wanted to keep him from hating Erik. Then, Dad cries.
After Paul goes upstairs, Joey calls to find out if Paul is all right.
Paul is better than that.
This morning Joey calls again. He tells Paul that Betty Brights yellow Mustang is at the Donnelly house. Paul rides his bicycle over there and finds Shandra Thomas in the passenger seat of the Mustang. Shandra tells Paul that Coach Bright and Shandras brother, Antoine, are inside the house, talking to Mr. Donnelly.
Shandra says that Antoine is upset, more than usual.
When the front door opens, Antoine walks to the car and tells Shandra that, from now on, they will tell the truth. Betty Bright introduces Antoine and Paul. Antoine asks Paul if he is Eriks brother. When he finds out that he is, he also tells Paul that it is time to tell the truth. At first, Paul doesnt understand exactly what Antoine means, but, when Antoine says something about hiding under bleachers, he knows exactly what he means.
As Coach Bright, Shandra, and Antoine leave in the Mustang, Antoine tells Paul that they are on their way to tell someone else the truth now.
As Mr. Donnelly pulls out of his garage, he stops and asks Paul if the coach told him what the meeting was about. Mr. Donnelly decides not to tell him either. Everyone will find out at the same time, tomorrow morning.
Later, over pizza, Mom and Dad tell Paul that they are going to have
an important meeting at their house tomorrow.
Pauls household receives their Sunday morning newspaper at the same time the rest of the area receives theirs. Not long after that, the Fisher phone rings with the first of many calls from people who have read the big story. The story is about Antoines confession that he went to Lake Windsor High School while living in the Tangerine district. And, it is about what followed the admission, the nullification of all Lake Windsor High School football victories since Antoine started playing on the team. That was three years ago.
Mr. Donnelly has an article in the paper saying that Antoine Thomas is the greatest quarterback in the county. But, most people, including Dad, want to concentrate on blaming Antoine and only Antoine. Finally, Paul manages to get Dad to see the obvious.
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Cite this page:
Johnson, Jane. "TheBestNotes on Tangerine".
TheBestNotes.com.
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