Week 7 - Take #2

Middle school halls are typically crowded with milling students between classes, with one group or another wandering through the masses.  Each group is defined by, and defines its members by status and popularity.  One group, the popular boys - all athletic, funny, handsome, and quick witted - commanded the young girls' attention.  Tommy Mason was part of that elite group.  He had the typical wavy blond hair with shaggy bangs, sky blue eyes, and a wide smile that glinted in the sun (it actually did, braces weren't clear back then).  He was the starting pitcher and co-captain for the baseball team.  As with most young men his age, he created an air of superiority when among the girls his age, and all but ignored them until he was sure she liked him first - he had the pick of the girls for any dance.

The bruise that appeared around one of Tommy's blue eyes near Christmas0time, drew significant attention in school.  All the young girls rallied that he had protected his younger sister from some jerk who was mouthing off.  The jocks all supposed that it must have been someone from out of town, an opposing team most likely, it couldn't have been someone from our school.  It eventually turned into a story of some poor sop could only have gotten in a lucky punch before getting the stuffing knocked out of him, and justly so.  Tommy never said, just smiled at the jokes and pulled menacing faces at anyone who asked him directly.

Tommy didn't play basketball his eighth grade year, as he had in sixth and seventh grades.  The starting line would miss his fast breaks up the lane due to the broken wrist he had gotten.  He said his bike had lost a wheel while going down the long hill of his driveway, and he had landed on his arm when he fell.  You couldn't see the white of his cast for all of the get well wishes and signatures from his classmates.  A few daring girls even left lipstick kisses.  As the anticipation of spring and the baseball season reached it's peak early in April, Tommy Mason could be found hanging out with other veteran players talking about tryouts and new prospects. 

One weekend sirens were heard all through town, piercing the silence of a sunny day.  Ambulances and police cars ripped down Main Street, turning to head toward the outskirts of town.  Monday morning a special assembly was called and it was announced that Tommy Mason had had an accident and was killed over the weekend. 

The real story, as it came out later that week, was that Tommy Mason had committed suicide.  The thirteen year old boy, still wearing fresh bruises from another encounter with his drunken father, had taken a shotgun to the closet and shot himself.  He was pronounced dead upon arrival by the authorities.  The town was rocked with the news of the tragedy.
August 31, 1987 - In one small Maine town, the school year began with 63 eighth grade students, but ended with only 62. 

Eight children out of a million commited suicide in the late 1980's.  It was, and still is, the third highest cause of death for children under 18 years old.