Peak (3 page)

My mom held me.

CIRCLING THE DRAIN

I COULD TIE A BACHMAN,
bowline, butterfly, figure eight, double fisherman, and a half dozen other knots with one hand in the dark, but I couldn't get the tie knotted properly around my neck. The few times I'd worn one, Rolf had done the honors. The guard assigned to escort me to the courtroom finally came to my rescue. Between us, we figured it out, then he led me into the courtroom.

Sitting at a table to the left of the bench were the prosecuting attorneys (a man and a woman) shuffling papers, barely looking up at the person whose life they were about to ruin.

At the table to the right were my attorneys (another man and a woman). They too were shuffling papers, but they stopped when the guard passed me off to them, smiling, shaking my hand, introducing themselves....

I didn't quite catch their names. I was too busy staring at the five people sitting behind them. Rolf, looking dapper and professional with a perfectly knotted tie. Next to him were Patrice and Paula. They were a little teary-eyed, but excited to see me, wearing their favorite dresses. (Matching of course.) They waved and tried to stifle giggles when I mouthed "Pea-Pea" at them. (Don't get me wrong: I wasn't in a joking mood at that moment, but I felt the twins could use a boost. They had been through enough the past few days.)

Next to the twins was my mom, looking worried, but distinctly more relaxed than she had been at JDC the day before. Maybe this was because of the guy sitting next to her. (Although I doubted it.)

His name was Joshua Wood—arguably the greatest mountaineer in the world. He was also my father.

I hadn't seen him in seven years and he looked about as comfortable in his suit as I felt in mine. He had shaved his trademark beard. (Recently, by the looks of it.) The skin beneath was pale compared to the upper part of his handsome face, which was windburned and sunburned. His lips were chapped and his nose was peeling, giving him the overall look of someone who had just been dug out from under an avalanche.

His eyes were the same pale blue as my mother's. He gave me a nod and a smile, which I was too stunned to return.

"All rise," the bailiff said, startling me out of my stupor.

One of the attorneys turned me around and gave me a dazzling smile. I expected her to say, "Love the tie." But what she said instead was, "Don't say one word unless I tell you to. Act remorseful."

She was obviously my lead attorney. I thought her name was Traci.

The judge—a tough-looking guy with a white crew cut—took his seat behind the bench and made us stand for a few seconds more before nodding at the bailiff.

"Be seated," the bailiff said with a slight quiver in his voice.

My mom was right: The judge was going to eat me up and spit me out. He put on a pair of glasses and went over some notes, then started reading the charges aloud. "Criminal trespass, vandalism, reckless endangerment..."

It went on and on.

Finally reaching the end of the list, he pushed his glasses to the end of his nose and looked over the top of them directly at me. "How do you plead?"

Traci pulled me to my feet and whispered the answer in my ear. I wasn't sure I had heard her right. She whispered it again with the same smile plastered on her face from before.

I took a deep breath.

"Not guilty," I said.

"To all charges?" the judge asked incredulously.

"That's right, Your Honor," Traci answered, her smile unwavering.

"You've gotta be kidding me. The state has videotape of him climbing the Woolworth Building. There were twenty-three cops on the roof that saw him being pulled over the railing. He signed a statement attesting to the facts."

"Duress," Traci said. "He was exhausted, injured, and half frozen at the time."

"Oh please. This kid has received absolutely every consideration the system can offer, including delaying this arraignment. Now, what's this all about?"

"We want to go to trial," Traci answered.

The arteries in the judge's neck looked like they were about to burst. He glared over at the prosecutors' table. "Do you two know anything about this?"

The prosecutors shook their heads, vigorously.

"Perhaps we should retire to your chambers," one of them suggested.

"Yes," Traci agreed cheerfully.

"The four of you crammed into my office," the judge said. "Forget it. There's no one here but..." He noticed Patrice and Paula sitting between my mom and Rolf.

"Oh," he said, then looked over at the guard who had brought me down in the elevator.

"Do you think you can take these young ladies out and find them some ice cream?"

"What about the prisoner?" the guard asked.

"I think he'll hang around for this." He looked at the twins. "Do you like ice cream?"

"Chocolate," Paula said.

"Vanilla," Patrice said.

"I think that can be arranged."

"Do you want us to bring you back some, Peak?" Paula asked.

"I bet they have strawberry," Patrice said (my favorite), but it sounded like "awe-berry" because she had recently lost her front teeth.

"Nah," I said. "I had a big bowl for breakfast."

"You did not!" they said in unison, giggling, as the guard took them out.

The judge waited for the door to swing completely closed before continuing the proceedings. He nodded at the court reporter. "We're off the record."

She turned off her recorder and stopped typing.

"It's just us now," the judge continued, looking at Traci. "You know as well as I do that we don't want to go to trial with this. It's turned into a media circus. A boy was killed two days ago. I'm sure you and Peak and his parents don't want that to happen again."

"Of course not," Traci said. "But by the same token I can't let my client be unfairly incarcerated because the media is out of control. This whole thing has not been handled well by the police department or the mayor's office."

The judge looked at her for a moment, then looked over at the prosecutors. "She makes a good point. What do you think?"

The older of the two prosecutors (the woman) stood. "Prior to the arraignment we offered a plea bargain of two years with six months off for good behavior. Eighteen months is a pretty good deal considering the charges."

Not if you're serving it,
I thought. But it was better than three years. Traci picked up a sheet of paper from the table.

"In the last five years, fifteen adults have been arrested for climbing skyscrapers in New York City. The longest sentence has been six months, and several of these climbers served no time at all." She looked at the prosecutor. "We can beat this in court. We're going to trial."

The prosecutor gave her a sour look.

I felt the drain being plugged, but it wasn't watertight yet.

"What's your bottom line?" the judge asked.

"A fine with probation," Traci answered. "And no time served."

"Forget it," the judge said gruffly.

"What if we could arrange for Peak to leave New York today?" Traci asked. "Out of sight, out of mind, out of the newspaper. No interviews. The story dies because the story is gone. Poof!"

The judge almost smiled. "A disappearing act, huh? Explain."

"Peak's biological father has offered to take custody of him."

I whipped around so fast I hurt my neck.

My father had gotten to his feet.

"I take it you're the father?"

"Yes, sir. Joshua Wood."

"The climber?"

"Yes, sir."

The judge glanced at Rolf and Mom, then looked back at Joshua. "Mr. Wood, how much time have you spent with your son lately?"

"Not much the past few years," he admitted.

Not any for the last seven years to be exact,
I thought.

"When Teri and Rolf got married," he continued, "we decided it would be best for Peak if I kept a low profile."

This was the first time I'd heard of this. In fact, I wasn't sure my father knew that Rolf and my mother had married until he stepped into the courtroom. Maybe she had sent him a postcard or something. He certainly hadn't been invited to the wedding.

"Why do you want to do this?" the judge asked.

"Peak is my son. It's time I stepped forward and took some responsibility."

I looked at my mother and Rolf. They were both staring straight ahead, expressionless.

"What do you think?" the judge asked.

Traci elbowed me in the side and I turned back around.

"Me?"

The judge nodded.

"Uh ... that would be great ... uh ... Your Honor."

The judge turned his attention back to my father. "Do you have the wherewithal to support and raise a fourteen-year-old boy?"

"We've prepared a complete financial statement," Traci said. She grabbed a sheaf of papers from the desk and took it up to the bench.

The judge flipped through the pages.

"As you can see, Mr. Wood is a very successful businessman."

"On paper," the judge said begrudgingly. He looked at my father again. "Where do you live, Mr. Wood?"

"Chiang Mai," my father answered.

"What state's that in?"

"It's in Thailand."

This was followed by a very long silence, and I felt the drain plug loosen.

"What about Peak's schooling?" the judge finally asked.

"There's an International School less than five miles from my house," my father answered. "I've already enrolled him. He'll begin in August."

"Peak is currently attending the Greene Street School," Traci said. "He only has one requirement left to complete this year. It should be easily accomplished in Thailand."

"The Greene Street School?" The judge smiled for the first time. "It just so happens that I went to GSS when I was a kid."

I didn't know they had legal prodigies.

The judge waved the prosecutor up to the bench, where they had a long whispered conversation. When it was over he looked at all of us one by one.

"All right," he said. "This is what we're going to do. Peak, you are on probation until you reach the age of eighteen. If, during that time, you break a law in the state of New York, thus violating your probation, you will immediately serve out the rest of your time in a juvenile detention facility. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Furthermore, the court fines you one hundred fifty thousand dollars..."

My shock must have shown, because the judge put up his hand for me to calm down.

"The money will be held in escrow by the state and returned if you fulfill the terms of your probation." He looked over at my three parents. "I assume you can scrape the money together."

"No problem, Your Honor," my father said. Mom and Rolf concurred.

"If I'm going to cut Peak loose, we have to make this look good," the judge continued. "I'm putting a gag order on all of you. You are not to discuss any aspect of this case with the media or anyone else. Especially the refundable fine. We want to discourage people from copying Peak's idiotic stunt. In other words, we want this to go away."

He looked at Traci and me.

"Poof!" he said.

THE TWINS

THE JUDGE TOLD US
there was a swarm of reporters waiting in front of JDC and we would have to leave the back way.

My father was the first to go. He said he had some errands to run and he would meet me at the airport. It occurred to me that I should thank him, but by then, he was halfway down the hallway, tearing the tie off his neck like it was an anaconda. I guessed I would have plenty of time to thank him later, since we were going to be spending the next three years together.

Mom gave me my passport and a small backpack stuffed with clothes. Rolf had gone off to find the twins.

"Are you coming to the airport?" I asked, still feeling a little numb.

"Of course," she said. "But we may not have time to wait for your flight to leave. Rolf has a trial."

I flipped through the pages of the passport. "So, you knew I was leaving?"

"Not really," she answered. "Josh got in late yesterday, and we spent the whole night trying to put this together."

"Are you okay with this?"

"I don't know," she said. "It would have been nice to plan it out a bit more, but Josh has to get back. It's probably just as well. I think the thing that tipped it for the judge was the fact that you would be gone today."

"Poof," I said.

She smiled. "And we can get you back as fast as you disappeared." She pulled out a credit card and an international calling card from her purse and gave them to me. "If things go sour, or you just want to come home, use these."

I slipped the cards into the pocket of one of the Moleskines in my backpack.

"Once you get there, we'll ship whatever clothes you want."

"How long?" I asked.

"That's up to you, I guess. If you make it to the end of summer, we'll reevaluate. But if you want to come back sooner all you have to do is call. The judge didn't put any restrictions on when you could come back."

"What about Dad?" I asked. "I mean—"

"I know exactly what you mean," she said. "Josh seems to have mellowed since the last time we saw him. He traveled a long way to help. I can't tell you how shocked I was when he stepped into Traci's office. At that point we were absolutely desperate. The best Traci thought she could do was get a reduced sentence. Josh listened to the situation, then proceeded to outline exactly what happened today in the courtroom. When you're at the end of your rope there's no one better than Joshua Wood. Unfortunately, he doesn't pay much attention until you're dangling." She laughed. "Rolf and Traci said he should have become an attorney instead of a mountain climber."

"I'd better go talk to the twins," I said.

AS SOON AS ROLF
and Mom left us alone, Patrice and Paula burst into tears.

"Who's going to walk us to school?"

"Who's going to walk us home?"

"Who's going to play with us at the park?"

"What about our birthday?"