Caleb Loved His Mother: Short Story by Julianna Rowe

 Caleb Loved His Mother:  by Julianna Rowe

15-year-old boy hiking with friends goes ahead of them like all competitive young men might do. Who can get to the top the fastest, and he did.  The other two kids were not as interested in the fast jaunt to the top so they could do the “Rocky” dance while displaying their man boy muscles not yet developed.  Not to mention the knobby knees of an underdeveloped young man. 

Caleb was always an overachiever, a smart boy moved onto the gifted classes at school. No one knew that underneath his desire to achieve was a human being who had been told he wasn’t good enough all his life. His mother was a frightened anxiety ridden woman who couldn’t stand up for herself much less her son.  Caleb’s father was a perfectionist making life unable to live for most who inhabited their home on the side of Bear Mountain.  An unbelievable to most log home with a stream or should I say river running under it.  Caleb’s father designed the water embellishments against the county’s orders stating the dangers that could develop over the years and weather conditions.  But Cecil never did what pleased anyone or did what anyone else wanted.  He did what he wanted. And so, he hired some fancy attorney’s who found Cecil a loophole in the law giving him the rights to have a river running under and around his magnificent log home.  Caleb’s mother had a fear of the river but Cecil could have cared less what she thought or felt.  Only Caleb cared about his mother. 

The logs had been shipped in from Montana and while its construction took place Cecil became known as a Czar in the area.  Nothing could be done to please his perfectionism.  Some of the workers quit midway through the job due to his arrogance and lack of knowledge as to how to build a three story log house on the side of a mountain with a river running under and around it.  Engineers from around the world had to be called in to assure the safety of not only the home, but the workers and the townspeople at ground level.  But Cecil didn’t care.  Hell, he had more money than God.  Why he had just won the lottery in small town USA Colorado.  That alone added to his belief that he was God and not just believed in him.  No, Cecil was a man hard to reckon with.  Caleb and his mother tried to stay out of Cecil’s way. Nevertheless, the sounds of that damn river would keep a person awake most nights just from the fear of the power of it.  It was useless.  You couldn’t swim in it.  You couldn’t drink the water from it.  You couldn’t fish in it, well you could but who would want to fish from the cement border walls that kept the rushing water from taking the house from its foundation down the side of the mountain and everyone and everything in its path.  Cecil didn’t want to swim or fish or bother to look at it.  Cecil wanted to show everyone he could do what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it and how he wanted to do it.  That was Cecil. 

The boys always let Caleb win because they knew what his life was like at home.  Not many teenagers would do that but those young men did.   And so, there was Caleb doing his Rocky dance atop the mountain his father would imminently destroy.

Caleb was so far ahead of the others he decided to do some new trailblazing in the area.  He had left his cell phone behind which was rare.  But what no one knew is Caleb had a plan that day to save he and his mother from the wiles of Cecil D. Crumbsworthy II.  You see there was a reason Caleb jaunted to the top of the mountain ahead of his friends.  Caleb needed time to put his plan into action and he did just that.  He had also looked ahead and left a note in a fireproof bag for the people of Huntington Glen to know the truth about his father. 

Caleb brought with him several rounds of dynamite in hopes of changing the course of the river away from their home.  His father Cecil had built a two-story office adjacent to the house where he stayed most of the time.  He left Caleb and his Mother to the darkness of the river and its fear.  He was a mean person who used unkind words and deeds to maintain his control over his family and anyone who chose to be around him making him a target for hatred by many.  Caleb knew this and had planned to use it.

When his friends made it to the crescendo, he entertained them for a time and then as dusk fell upon the day, he shared with the guys he wished to stay up top the mountain for the night, that he had come prepared.  Michael and Shawn, his buddies, had never heard of him doing this before but he convinced them with what he had inherited from Cecil in terms of the positive side of manipulation. And so, after a time of playful nonsense the boys trekked back down Bear Mountain to the safety of their homes in Huntington Glen leaving Caleb to spend a peaceful night under the stars with no worries at all.  Little did they know what Caleb had in mind.

Caleb being an honor student thought he had figured it all out. He had checked out books on engineering and how to but he was not a water resource engineer, nor was he a structural bridge engineer, nor was he a civil engineer, but boys who want their father dead will claim to be one of the above or whatever works to attain the outcome. 

And so, Celeb set out to kill his Father.   The man who didn’t care a bit about his mother or him.  Only his stupid loud mean dark river that would frighten even the fish that had to enter a house outside their main habitat, swim through mazes of concrete and trap doors that held back the force of the river maintaining it so the house remained steadfast on its foundation.  Everyday was insecure for him knowing what he knew. 

Caleb only shared his secret inside that fireproof bag in hopes someone would find it and tell the world the truth.  The truth about the man he hated to call father. Cecil D. Crumbsworthy.  Interesting how sometimes a name means more than it should and in this case it fit.

And so, Caleb set about his plan to change the course of the river to bypass their home and furiously move to the West and demolish his father and his fathers two story office building he so kindly built for himself leaving the furious river to someday their demise.  Little did he know his son had the simple skills of an engineer without training.  A kid good at physics and fireworks and that is all that was needed. Not a large group of hired men from all over the world could save his mother but he could. And so, he set forth placing the dynamite he got online for a fake rocket project of which he embellished to fit his needs.  Over the past few days, he had strategically placed dynamite with remote control devices attached, in various areas to change the flow of the river his father had developed to kill he and his mother.  Caleb had found his father’s little black book with numerous additions of proof his father was a sex trafficker as well as having multiple affairs. 

Sadly, Crumbsworthy’s reverse plan was in place. 

Of course, Caleb didn’t realize his father knew of his plan because he intervened in his computer and had already devised a way around it.  He had removed Caleb’s dynamite and reversed the process meaning the river would take out the house, his mother, and Caleb in the process.

`That evening Caleb removed his shoes, clothes, all but his undershorts. His thinking was he could find his way down the river to his mother and safety but his plan failed. He forgot one important factor, his father’s evil ways. Always backing up every plan more than once.  Caleb had not backed up his plan at all. And when he pushed the remote control to change the course of the river it blew up likened a mushroom cloud taking Caleb downstream ramming him into his childhood coffin along with his mother. Caleb knew what had transpired as he cascaded downward to his death.  Oddly he and his mother were found at the base of the mountain near Huntington Glen at the cemetery where his grandparents lay at rest.  Odd but fact. Sometimes our loved ones help us at the end and this time was one of those. 

Caleb’s father did not go free because the contents of the firesafe waterproof bag were found by a local who turned them in to the Sheriff.  Cecil was arrested for sex trafficking and attempted murder of his wife and son.  The local University renamed one of its Buildings Caleb Hall, University of Huntington Glen. Forever remembered as a hero.

There was a sister, Corina, who lived with her mother’s aunt due to Cecil’s unhealthy lifestyle.  She came to the funerals and to veiw the walls of Caleb Hall. She also visited the mountain where her brother passed away.  She had heard he placed his basketball shoes on posts at the top of the mountain so everyone knew he had been there no matter what happened.  The Chamber of Commerce showed Corina where more than one thousand pair of shoes were placed along the river on posts as well as around campus.  Kids were placing their shoes on posts everywhere in honor of Caleb’s love for his mother and for taking his evil father out of the world’s way.