An Unlikely Hero

CHAPTER 1
On the Scene with Pull Itzer

Pull Itzer, a man of distinction in the news business, sat at his desk in his crowded, office cubicle trying to contain knots of frustration-driven anger in his gut. He had just gotten another story thrown back in his face with a caustic note reminding him that management’s agenda must be supported.
Pull responded, “BALONEY,” written in bold red ink. “I am not a propagandist. This story accurately reports who, what, when, where, and why. I refuse to change or delete the facts to support the Party line.”
“Come on, Pull. You don’t get it, my job is on the line, as well as yours. You have got to conform,” pleaded his immediate superior. Pull would not capitulate, thus ending his award winning career with the paper that prints “all the news that fits.”
Pull adapted quickly to his new role as a freelance reporter/blogger. He loved the independence and had plenty of contacts to make a go of it. Over the years of working for, or with, media giants that monopolized the business, he developed a valuable list of friends “in the know” and did not hesitate to use them.
Returning to his first love of unfettered, investigative reporting, he noticed a provocative story unfolding on the Internet that had not yet been fully, or objectively, covered. It was a story about an autistic kid doing inexplicable things. Since the action had been happening on an elementary school campus in the hometown of an old friend, Captain Jim Studly of the Moreville Police Department, he sent an e-mail inquiring about the truth of the wild stories. Captain Studly’s response about the goings-on at Moreville Elementary School intrigued him. The e-mail read, “I don’t know what you have read, but we do have a skinny, little kid who seems to be single-handedly decimating the bad guy population hereabouts, much to the chagrin of local ACLA supporters. I have never seen anything like it; he is sort of a hero to his fellow students. You really should check it out.”
Pull and Captain Studly, a straight-shooting, straight-talking cop, became close friends when they both worked in Megacity, the big city down the freeway from Moreville. Their friendship was based on mutual respect. Pull knew if Studly said something was true, it was true. Studly’s verification that an autistic kid had been doing extraordinary things on a calm, elementary school campus in an upscale neighborhood motivated Pull to drop everything and book a flight west.
Pull Itzer could not have imagined the good fortune that awaited him when he boarded a red-eye flight from the big, East Coast city some called the nation’s armpit.
As he entered Moreville, “The Health Food Capital of the World” according to a huge sign on a stylish, glass-covered office building adjacent to the freeway, he got an instant message from his policeman friend. “Another incident involving the kid just occurred at the school. Advise quick response,” the message read. He was elated to get this message since he was only minutes away, and soon would be at the scene along with the first responders. “What a break. I really owe Studly for this tip,” he thought.
It was a beautiful morning in the land of perpetual spring and summer. “What’s not to like about this place?” he mused as he pushed the speed limit while wheeling down the neat, palm tree-lined streets of Moreville in his rental car. He had just gulped down his last swallow of stale coffee after the red-eye flight. Tired but excited, he was running on pure adrenalin. As he pondered what might lie ahead, there it was. He did not have to read the pricy sign on the well-manicured lawn to know he had reached his destination, Moreville Elementary School.
He knew the place would soon look like the media circus he had seen many times before when something unusual happens. He also knew a little aggressive driving would be required to get close to the scene of the incident, which he instinctively knew was in the middle of a rapidly gathering crowd. Grateful for the first time that his rental car was dinky, he skillfully maneuvered it in between an ambulance and a police car as a fire truck and TV broadcast van raced toward the same spot. Jumping from the car with the keys still in the ignition—in case first responders wanted to move it—he entered the schoolyard through a gated fence separating the street from the school. From his vantage point, he could see a hapless-looking man sprawled across the hood of a car parked curbside. On the schoolyard side of the fence was an unassuming-looking kid with gangly legs sitting next to a mother hen-like lady at one of the umbrella covered tables; which reminded him more of a food court in an upscale mall than that of a schoolyard. Judging from the peculiar look on the kid’s face and his general demeanor, Pull concluded he was the kid Studly mentioned. “There is something wrong with this picture, that kid looks like the most unlikely hero imaginable,” Pull thought. The fence separating the schoolyard from the sidewalk had a smooth hole in it, as if a torpedo had been fired through it. There was no doubt that this was the scene of the incident, and there was also no doubt about who was in charge. Captain Studly moved quickly to bring order to the tense situation, Moreville police personnel cordoned off both sides of the fence including the parked car with the guy on the hood, the entrance gate, and the food court. Reporters and curious by-standers alike rushed about in a frenzy trying to find out what happened.
Pull had an enormous advantage over his competitors because he was already inside the cordoned off “crime scene” area. As a yellow tape-bearing policeman challenged his presence, Captain Studly approached shouting, “Hey, Pull, how did you get here so fast?” Pull’s quick wit and good humor flashed through the circumstance, smiling broadly he responded, “You pick up three hours when flying from the armpit to paradise.” They both laughed as they warmly greeted each other with a hearty handshake.
Then it was back to business as Pull asked, “Is that kid at the table the “perp,” as he has been called by some on the Internet? Can I talk to him?”
“Yes, that is the boy. The lady next to him is his teacher, Mary Gonzales; rumor has it she doesn’t let any of her kids stray far from sight once they step on campus.”
“Sounds like a handy person to have around. Makes your job easier, eh?” Pull responded.
Studly said, “Yep, she is a good gal. You definitely want to talk to her, even though she may not want to talk to you. She does a good job of keeping out of the news.”
Studly surveyed the entire area as he talked, “Hang on for a minute, Pull, I’m going to do a quick briefing for the press to set the ground rules. By the way, the only thing I can say is good luck; the boy is not much of a talker.” A sly grin overcame his face, “Whatever you do, don’t tick him off.”
“Hey, come on Studly, how could I tick him off? And what could he do?”
“Look Pull,” Studly responded. “I don’t know what ticks him off, and you do not personally want to know what he can do. That much I know.”
Seeing Pull in what appeared to be a private conversation with Studly, other reporters and information seekers grew impatient—and perhaps jealous. The more aggressive ones attempted to slip under the yellow tape only to be stopped cold by a cadre of heavy-duty Moreville police.
The captain—standing in front of the gathering crowd like a giant in full uniform, comforting to ordinary citizens but intimidating to bad guys and members of the Americans for Criminal Legal Assistance (ACLA)—stated in a firm but calm voice, “Listen up, people, I have a brief statement to make.”