Chapter 16
Jason turned to his attorney. “I’m going to be sick. I gotta go.”
His stomach rolled despite the fact that he hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday. He pushed himself to stand and was immediately surrounded by guards.
“Please,” Ms. Spencer spoke up. “My client isn’t well. Give him some space.”
Jason’s mouth was so dry, he had trouble croaking out, “Can I have some water?”
One of the guards poured him a small paper cup from a bottle of water. He sipped it, took a few deep breaths, took a few more sips, and then whispered to his attorney. “Okay, I’m a little better.”
Ms. Spencer announced to the room, “We can proceed.”
Mr. Ramsey signaled Noah, who nodded. “Insert Noah’s actual words. They’re important here.”
Jason couldn’t believe what he heard. His brain couldn’t absorb the jumbled kaleidoscope as the words fell from Mr. Smith’s lips.
Ms. Spencer squeezed his arm, a smile on her face as he sat in shock. Is this real?
The room began to clear as Captain Adams and the detectives left the room, but not before shaking their heads at Noah. Jason felt their searing glare.
He turned to his attorney in confusion. “What. Just. Happened?”
Ms. Spenser looked across the table where Noah and Ashley were holding hands. Their eyes shone with compassion.
“Mr. Smith has dropped all charges. You’re free to go.”
“Free to go? Where? Back to my cell?”
“No Jason. You’re free to go back to the Hendricks’s home. They’re out in the lobby waiting for you.”
“Why? I don’t understand. I confessed that I was the hit-and-run driver.”
Ms. Spencer turned to face Jason squarely. “That man just gave you a tremendous gift and opportunity. Don’t waste it.”
She gathered her pad and pen and patted his back. “Good luck, Jason. I hope you make the most of this and pay it forward someday.”
Through a thinning veil of brain fog, Jason’s gaze floated across the room as two of the three guards exited the room. The two attorneys shook hands and left as well. It was just him, the remaining guard, and the Smiths.
He stepped around the side of the table and stood in front of them. He felt small. Gathering what courage was left, he raised his eyes.
With a strangled voice he croaked, “I don’t understand what just happened, or why, but thank you.”
Pure compassion and forgiveness reflected back at him.
No one—except for his short time with the Hendricks—had looked at him like that.
A new sensation flooded through his body.
Something strange and unfamiliar. Like he was lighter.
Uncomfortable being on the spot, he dropped his eyes and hid behind his hair.
The words of his attorney came back to him. You’ve been given a tremendous gift and opportunity. Don’t waste it. He stood for several moments, unsure of what to do. A strong hand clenched his. He looked up to see Noah’s soft smile.
“I know this is a lot to take in. But I want you to know, Ashley and I forgive you. More importantly, God forgives you. It was an accident. You were scared and ran. It wasn’t the right thing to do, but I understand why you did it.”
Ashley spoke up. “Jason, when Noah first told me he wanted to do this, I didn’t agree.
” The harshness in her tone didn’t match her expression.
“He almost died. I would have been a widow and lost the love of my life, and our girls would have been without their father—their hero.” Her eyes welled with tears.
Jason covered his mouth with his hand and lowered his head again. “I am so sorry, Mrs. Smith.” His voice broke with unshed tears. “I don’t deserve your forgiveness.”
Noah placed his hand on hers, and her voice softened. “Jason, someday, hopefully soon, when we’ve all had a chance to sift through our emotions and process, Noah and I would like you to come to our house for dinner and meet our family.”
He swiped the hair out of his eyes and stared at her. “Oh, no… I couldn’t do that. You don’t want your family around me. I’m not worth your time. No one wants to be around me—not even my mom.”
Noah nodded at his wife. “Ashley and I believe you’ve never been given a real chance. We want to give you that… and an opportunity. I would still like to mentor you.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means we would get together on a regular basis and talk, or go fishing, work on cars, whatever you like to do. Hang out together. From what the Hendricks told me, you had a tough life—on your own without anyone to help you. I’d like to help… if you’ll let me.”
Jason wasn’t sure what he thought about that. It sounded a little weird. Again, he thought about his attorney’s words. “Make the most of this… and pay it forward.”
Noah grunted as he rose from the chair and reached for his cane. Jason winced. Whether he wanted to or not, he owed this to the Smith family. He could never repay this debt. He might as well make the most of it.
The guard unlocked the door and led them down the corridor. He was taken to the room where he had been initially booked. His social worker was waiting with a huge smile on her face.
She slipped an arm across his shoulder and gave him a quick side hug. “I’m ecstatic for you.” Jason responded with a slight smile, still feeling like he was in a dream.
They walked through the process of receiving his meager belongings and signing documents.
“The Hendricks have already completed their paperwork and are waiting for you in the visitor’s room. Still in shock, Jason stumbled into the room where Sue and Jeff Hendricks sat in plastic chairs. Felix stood and hugged him around his waist.
“Ready to come home, Jason?”
Home. The word sounded surreal. He had a home… and a family who were waiting for him.
As Sue gathered him into her arms, the tears that had been threatening to escape for the past hour released in a torrent.
His rail thin body shook as she held him tightly.
“It’s okay, let it out. You’re safe now.
” Leading him to a plastic waiting chair she whispered reassurance as the years of anguish of his mom leaving, his cruel dad and lack of love or caring in his life bubbled up and flowed out of his body.
The sleepless nights, the lack of nourishment to his soul and body, the harsh words of his dad and classmates, the breakup of the only girl who had ever shown him even a morsel of affection.
The flashpoint was the night of the accident.
His shoulders heaved harder as the pain he had caused overwhelmed him.
He felt like a small child wrapped in a loving mothers’ arms as Sue rocked him back and forth rubbing his back and encouraging him to release all the lock up pain and memories.
Tod and Felix looked on as Jason’s sobs shifted to a hiccupping gasp of breath. Spent, he turned to them all with unashamed eyes and a slight smile. “Thank you. You and the Smith family are the best people I’ve ever known.”
Later that evening, Jason fell back on his bed at the Hendricks’s house. His stomach was completely full after wolfing down one of Mrs. Hendricks’s delicious home-cooked meals. He lay on his back and stared at the ceiling.
His thoughts flashed back to their dinner prayer. Mr. Hendricks had thanked God for Noah and Ashley’s decision to forgive Jason and allow him to be released. He had sat at the dinner table, unsure of how to respond as Mr. Hendricks continued to praise God and pray over Jason’s future.
It made him squirm, but at the same time, it was a nice feeling to hear that people cared about him…
and maybe their God did too. Before attending church with the Hendricks, he had never stepped inside a church or read the Bible.
The only time he had heard the name Jesus Christ was when his dad was upset about something.
He rolled to the side, and his hand searched under the mattress, already knowing the scissors wouldn’t be there. The cut marks on his arms were slowly turning into white scars. The hurt and darkness that engulfed him when he was cutting though, were still fresh.
But something different had happened. He no longer had the compulsion to slash himself, to bury his feelings and punish himself. The lightness in his heart that he first felt when talking to Noah rose above the darkness which had ensnared his soul for so long.
People cared about him. They actually cared. And they kept telling him that God loved him too—enough to send his only Son to die for his sins.
Squeezing his waist tightly, Felix exclaimed. “Jason, you’re my big brother.” Max had leaped up on him and covered his face with doggy kisses. Jason had grinned—a foreign expression. He felt a change in himself, a shifting. It was confusing but comforting at the same time.
Soft snores rose from across the room. Jason rolled back on his pillow.
He was safe and secure for the first time in a long time.
The words don’t waste this gift swirled in his head.
He remembered the sincerity on Noah’s face when he offered to mentor him.
He wasn’t going to waste this opportunity.
A faint smile formed on his lips as he drifted into a deep, restful sleep.