A Fiction Contest: Better Late Than Never.

This is my entry for the fiction contest-Better late than never hosted by @kiwideb. I apologize my entry is late. So she gave the first part of the story and we are supposed to give it a finishing touch. So here goes.

Here is the first part written by @kiwideb

Terence was late for school again. To be honest, Terence was late for school every day. But this was late even for him. His teacher had long since accepted that Terence ran to atimetable that nobody else could fathom, and that no amount of detentions, canings or extra homework would make the slightest bit of difference. But Mr Green liked to think of himself as a progressive. So it suited his image of himself to find a way to teach Terence, despite the obvious difficulties. The facts that Terence was a genius, and his father was on the PTA, had nothing to do with Mr Green’s attitude at all. Or so he had persuaded himself. One of his tactics was to tell Terence what classwork he had missed and ask him to research it himself, and present it to Mr Green after school the next day. Terence was usually able to do this in a matter of minutes, and since he liked Mr Green well enough, he usually humoured the teacher. But today, it had all gone wrong, in ways that neither of them could have foreseen.

Now the concluding part

"Mr Green was sure to act differently today," Terence thought. "I wonder what excuse i would give...he won't believe me anyway. I would just keep quiet today. I sure can't let out the secret, they would all be in danger." All too soon, he got to the classroom door. He entered the room and silence greeted him and he had no idea how to break it.

Mr Green watched him with resigned eyes. At last he broke the silence.

"So what is the excuse today? It must be so unusual for you to show up so close to school closing hour. I am eager to hear your excuse"

Silence greeted his query.

"Could it be that fire razed down your house? Or was it the barn, and you had to save those poor helpless animals?"

"Oh...i know, you were caught hacking. Afterall, the main reason you come late is because of your obsession with your computer. You are indeed lucky to have such a brain. You should use it for something productive...build something with it instead of causing trouble."

Terence was miserable. Should he confide in his teacher who had always been there for him when all others have given up on him? Even his father had abandoned him believing he would never change.

He had been a good student despite being a genius. He did schoolwork to keep up appearances. He wanted no public recognition as he was pretty shy and preferred to be invisible. He had the best parents a child could ever have that suffered his pretended stupidity. His mother would always call him her 'smart angel'. Right now, he wished for one of her sweet comforting hugs. He remembered he used to avoid them sometimes when she wore too much perfume. He smiled at that memory but it disappeared as quickly as it came. She had been killed, shot in the chest...all because of him.

It had all started two years ago on a sunny summer afternoon that showed such promise. He had been playing around the neighbourhood as usual...just roaming about looking for something to interest his active curious brain. Chasing after a wierd looking squirrel has landed him in trouble. He came across suspicious well dressed individuals at old Willie's cabin deep in the woods. It had been abandoned since the old man died.

The cabin had been renovated and was looking different. His curiousity led him right up to them. They claimed to be secret agents and poor Terence was not reality smart. It was a secret dream of his to work with secret government agents and contribute his knowledge for the country. So he automatically became a hacker for criminals, a fact he would discover later. His mother died because he refused to work for criminals upon discovery. He had threatened to report to the authorities.

That night, his mother had been shot on her way back from the supermarket by unknown men but he knew them. His father, sister, friends, neighbours and just anybody in town would be killed if he refuse to comply.
He could tell no one. The last person he had told had ended up dead...a policeman at that. It had happened last night. He had been picked out of bed early this morning and had been under punishment. The threat of discovery if he didn't report to school was his only saving grace.

Should he tell Mr Green about his situation? It wasn't his intention to disrespect his teachers and go late to school but the life of others depended on him. He resolved to keep quiet. No one could help him now, he was on his own. A million punishments and detention cannnot be compared to having the death of a person on his conscience.

Mr Green's voice cut into his thoughts.

"You know you can tell me anything. Just let me in...let me know how to help you." He had such an honest look on his face that Terence resolved to let the cat out of the bag.

It may be late...his mother was dead. His father was not the same anymore, a policeman was dead but then...its better late than never. That was his first step towards salvation.