THE TRUTH ABOUT HENRY (part 1)

this is a 100 percent NONFICTION TRUE STORY, all of these events took place, nothing was lied about, names were changed to protect those depicted in the story.....it is a set up for part two ......

Based on the truth about the lies……

 

Introduction

So what brings you here? You want to know the truth, don’t you?  The whole truth and nothing but the truth. You want to know the truth about Henry.  Well to fully understand the truth, it is very important to always start from the beginning.  Why is the beginning so important? That is truly how you know someone, as they are developing.  What makes them who they are, their ticks, what makes them tick, how their body changes when they lie, their facial structure changes when they lie, or how their body language changes or translates when they lie. 

 

“ A TRUE CHILDHOOD FRIEND KNOWS WHEN THEIR BEST FRIEND IS LYING”

 

Its kind of like a parent that know when their child did something bad and right away can tell how their face changes since they got caught.  Even if the child says they do not have to go to the bathroom but parent can just instinctually tell, even if the child is not wiggling all over the place.

Instincts, your inner gut.  How much do you trust it?  How accurate is your inner gut?  How many times has your instincts been right?   How many times have you not followed your inner self and after the fact, said to your self, if only I had listen to my instincts?

 

That instinct, intuition, inner gut, inner feeling is a gift, you have to listen to it, its that voice in your head that is screaming DON T DO IT. Or when you meet a stranger and something is just off but you just cant tell, and the inner voice is screaming but you cant hear it, but you know something is off but cant put your finger on it.

 

When a child meets a stranger, they can instinctually sense if that person is good or not, they can just tell if they feel comfortable around another individual.  Same thing like a dog or cat knows if a human stranger is safe and kind or someone that may harm them or mean to animals. Within just a few seconds they know.

 

We know right away if someone might be dangerous, trouble, and when someone is genuine or truly kind and honest.  We may not always know right away but something in our inner gut, we feel oh this person is okay I can trust them, or UH OH GET OUT OF THIS SITATUION RIGHT NOW, THIS GUY IS TRYING TO HUSTLE YOU, THIS PERSON IS DANERGEROUS, SOMETHING BAD IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN, MAJAH DANHA RUN AWAY RIGHT NOW!!!!!

 

Always listen to that inner voice, do not ignore it, because most times than not, it is right, it is correct.  That same voice is what can tell you if your best friend from childhood is lying.  You can tell right away if the friend changes their body language or shifting body a certain way, or twitching, or stuttering, or not making eye contact, you can say right then and there, that person is lying.  And when you watched someone since childhood, you know exactly how that body and face changes when they lie.

 

Versus someone that may have just met him in highschool, and only became their best friend in that last a year or two of highschool.  You might not know that you just met a liar, a manipulator, a masterful liar, someone that does it with such charm, ease, poise, and grace. 

 

Oh I’m sorry you are here to know the truth about henry, well I guess it is only appropriate to discuss him now.  I apologize if earlier I got off topic, my brain does that a lot, it goes off in crazy tangents and thought loops.  However, there is sense to my nonsense.  I was telling you about how do you know someone is lying, how can you trust someone, how do you know if a stranger is dangerous or safe, how do you know if your own childhood best friend is lying or not. THESE ARE ALL INNATE GIFTS OF inner gut, inner subconscious, inner self , intuition, instincts, all that we were given to help us make right decisions. 

 

If someone seems unsafe and they might harm you or take advantage of your kindness, RUN, RUN AWAY.

 

If someone you know that is not a stranger, someone you are close to or even have been intimate with, and now they seem sneaky or about to do utilize your trust to do harm to you, RUN, RUN, GET OUT OF THERE.

 

That is your gut, your instinct, your inner ability to identify the truth.

 

So that is what brings me to the whole reason I am even doing this story, what is the truth about henry.  Do I truly know? Can I honestly say that 100 percent he did it, without a reasonable doubt? What does my gut tell me, what does my instincts tell me, do I know when he is lying…..of course I do!!!!

We are childhood friends.

 

It all started out in preschool.  We went to the same preschool in the church.  Such a bright and happy place.  One of my first days, before I was even enrolled.  I remember my mom told me it was time to go, and I threw a toy cup across the room, I was in the kitchen make believe session of the playschool and I did not want to go.  I still remember the toy cup hurling across the room and sliding across the floor. You could hear it, in a room that was so pleasantly silent and serenely quiet. 

               

I wasn’t a child that misbehaved but that is how much I loved being there. 

 

He was my classmate and I do not remember interacting with him much during the actual preschool.  I believe he may have been afternoon session and I was morning session.  Either way, our paths would cross when his mother would sometimes drop me off to my house, which was right across the street. 

 

I specifically remember one time that I wanted to go to his house and hang out.  So I lied and said my mother was at the mall and she was not home and that my mom told me to go to the house with henry and his mother. This was a big lie, but I wanted to go to Henrys house. 

Henrys mother knew I was lying but still took me to her house.  When we went home and called my house my mother said she was at my house and she never went to the mall.  I know I had been caught and Henrys mother smiled at me after confirming that I lied and I just wanted to hang out with Henry.

 

Sadly enough I did not feel guilt, remorse, or sadness from this lie.  I did feel a bit scared when the lie was revealed and that I let my own mother down and Henry’s mother down.  It is strange how our internally our own bodies could change when we lie.

 

Some people sweat, some people pace the room, some people fidget with their hands and some people just break down and tell the truth since they can’t handle it the feeling of lying internally. 

But if you are a masterful liar you don’t even flinch, you don’t blink, and you are emotionless since you don’t feel remorse or guilt for the lying.  Being able to detach yourself from the wrongdoing or feeling of wrong by lying is how to become the masterful liar.  If you can remove yourself from the guilt or shame of lying, then your heart rate may not rise, your palms may not sweat, you are able to look the person in the face and instead of wandering eyes.

 

Some people when they lie, their voice changes, it can go to higher octane or more of a baby voice or softer voice out of shame or wanting to hide for the lie.  Some people can stutter or slur their words, some people that already have a stutter, it can get worse for them. Some voices can become quivering or shaky because they are so scared to lie or don’t feel comfortable with the lie. 

But not Henry, nope not him, lying was so natural and a part of his everyday life.  I don’t think it was like this from the beginning, I don’t think he was always like that.  I know firsthand it was when he got older, that is when he was able to lie like a champ.  He lied with such ease, precision, and no emotion, you would think it was an Olympic sport and he had established the perfect form.

Now you must be thinking, why I am going through so much detail and agony into the concept of truth, lying, ability to lie, etc.  That is because that is the heart of the case, the case I will be telling you about later.  It was his ability to lie that got him free from so many situations in the past, could it get him out of this one.  For many, many, many years I ignored and forgotten about what had happened, but when it was resurrected for the whole world to see, that is when I knew, that his ability to lie, cheat, steal, manipulate was stronger than ever.

 

He had perfected the art of charm, charisma, and manipulation to get what he wanted when he wanted.  It is a regular characteristic commonly found in those individuals who have narcissistic personality disorder. I think what makes psychiatrists/psychologists/forensic scientists/and society nervous, is when this ability is transferred to or innately born within a sociopath or antisocial personality disorder.  That is when we panic and freak out.

 

Okay, okay, I know I just hopped from lying and truth to antisocial personal disorder.  I am extremely sorry if I am all over the place that is just how my jumbled brain works.  And in all this chaos and jumbled thoughts in my head, I have to make sense of this all, sense of what Henry has done, and the lies and manipulation that got him there.

The older Henry and I had gotten, the further our friendship had become.  A lot of it was I was picking up on how much he was able to lie and manipulate and play these people, and they all ate up his charisma and charm and good looks and they wouldn’t see the truth of the villain underneath.

You might think villain is a harsh word to use, but if you only knew the path lying and manipulation build for him and how he got there and how he survived the system, he never changed, he always stayed the same, if not got much better at it.

I could see a confused look on your face while you are all reading this, I promise you it will all fall into place. I am getting my thoughts together, this story will flow, and you will be blown away once you find out the TRUTH ABOUT HENRY.

 

Chapter 1 :  St. John

“IT IS GREAT WISDOM TO KNOW HOW TO BE SILENCED AND TO LOOK AT NEITHER THE REMARKS, NOR THE DEEDS, NOR THE LIVES OF OTHERS” St. John

                It was dark, black night but it wasn’t pitch black.  There were no stars out and the sky was clear.  The parking lot had tall lights that lit up the parking lot and the front entrance of the church.  The school was off to the side. Both building made a letter L next to each other.  It was darker around the windows, so we were well hidden.  We were on a roof area that allowed us to get to the highest floor of the school.  Henry opened the window with such ease, he was not scared at all. He enters first, our friend Frisbee is next, and I follow, at the end, the caboose, completely shaken and stirred.

                We are in a classroom.  It is completely dark but we can make out the arrangement of students desks.  Up front is a large teacher’s desk with a smaller student sized desk with a projector on it.  It is what teachers put transparencies on and can write things that children see as bigger on the wall, a real modern day chalkboard of us back in the day.  You know before computers took over everything.

                I saw Henry taking permanent markers that were used to write on the transparencies.  Then I see him make his way to the side of the room where a smaller medium sized desk was placed close to the front of the room.  I believe this was more of the teacher’s private desk.  He stuck his hands in and started to fill his pockets.  He didn’t hesitate, not even one shudder of nervousness or fear.  I couldn’t believe how he could remain calm, I kept thinking about the consequences of what will happen if we get caught.  I kept thinking someone would know we broke into the school and a security guard would be patrolling the hallways with a flashlight. 

                And then for a moment fear left, and the adrenaline of doing something we were not supposed to kicked in.  I stuck my hands in a student’s desk and I felt around.  I didn’t want regular pencils or erasers or crayons, which I could feel in the dark.  I was cautious as I felt around, making sure I don’t stick my finger with the sharp point of a compass.  And then I feel these four miniature sized markers.  I had never seen this size before and it was something new and unique.  I instantly put them in my pocket chalked down in my mind as a rare and exciting find.  And then immediately I felt guilt.  This could be some students markers, they don’t belong to me, they are not mine, this is wrong.  What we were doing was wrong, breaking and entering, and stealing from a school, when the school was closed, at night.

                My morals returned with a strong aggressive wave, fear settled back in and I was certain we were going to get caught.  I started shivering thinking of how would I ever explain to my family why I broke into a school.  I get scared for handing in homework late, which I never did since I was obsessed with handing in my assignments and papers and getting good grades. And here I am now, doing something so wrong.

                Within seconds of my realization of guilt, I realized Henry and Frisbee had opened the door to the hallway of the school and wandering the halls.  They were relaxed, singing and happy going up and down the halls.  I joined and followed and ran up and down singing.  It was exciting to be in a school with the lights out running down the halls. We were breaking the rules of school while school was not even in session.  And then I see Frisbee and Henry grabbing a fire extinguisher.  Instantly, I panic and beg them to put it back on the wall.  I did not know how one worked and did not think it was a good idea to play around with one.  Henry started spraying the fire extinguisher really far into the hallway.  The white bubbles and suds sprayed across the hallways and made a huge mess.  And I started to beg them let us leave, please.  Now I know they were in the destructive mode, they had no regard for public property and were on the brink of doing some serious damage.  I could see both of them ruining entire classrooms and hallways unloading the fire extinguisher.

                I begged them until I got annoying and they finally agreed it was time leave. Please let us leave now, I demanded. I ran back into the first classroom that we snuck through the window.  I could see them still spraying as much as they could from the fire extinguisher.  I saw the damage it had done already, it was really bad, and the contents of the fire extinguisher covered that hallway.  I thought about who would clean it, how much damage it was, I thought how sad the teachers and students and principal and janitors and maintenance would be the next morning when they would come into school.  I thought about how they might feel scared that someone would burglarize and vandalize their school. 

                We exited the classroom through the window back onto the roof section.  The classroom looked much darker than before.  I couldn’t really see the arrangement of the desks or teachers projector as clearly as I had before.  Right before we exited, I wanted to make sure we didn’t damage the classroom.  I asked them did they spray the first extinguisher in the classrooms, they didn’t answer but urged me to get through the window.  I let them go first.  I was last, the caboose, as always.  I looked back one last time, and I couldn’t help but feeling sad for what I had done.  I felt bad for breaking in and doing harm and damage to a school.  I love learning, I love school, I was a good boy, I was a nerd that loved to learn and go to school every day.  Why was I here, what had I just done?

                We climbed back down to the main floor, our feet firmly planted on the ground.  We across to the church entrance and enter the community party like nothing happened. We had to act normal, mix in with the crowd and blend in. Henry embedded in our head not to tell anyone, ever that we did this.  And I did, I kept it in for many many many years, well until now, now that I just told you.  In fact I am going to tell you everything, everything I know about Henry.  I am going to tell you the truth about Henry.

 

Chapter 2: Love Thy Neighbor

“Love thy neighbor as thyself”  Matthew 22:39

                We had known Ned and Sherry for the longest time, I mean since I have been living there, Ned and Sherry were our neighbors.  They were the sweetest nicest, most caring, and up front neighbors you could ask for.  They were very polite and always made sure our family was okay.  They trusted us and we trusted them.  My favorite memories growing up was go to their house as children for Christmas.  We would buy them a gift, a crystal bowl or glass tray for food arrangement.  I would help to wrap it and put a bright red bow.  And we walk to our neighbor’s house.  We would sit there in their cozy beautifully decorated Christmas décor.  The tree was breathtaking.  They had stockings put up for each other and even their two Siamese cats.  The Christmas light radiated joy, love, warm cozy family atmosphere. I loved it and to this day when I see the mall decorated in Christmas decorations or even someone’s house, I automatically think about those times as a kid when I was sincerely happy and enveloped by pure joy.

                Ms. Sherry would have egg nog and Christmas cookies out for us to eat at the table and they were delicious. As Mr. Ned played the clarinet we would all sit quietly and smile and celebrate the glow and happiness that we felt in that home.  I will always cherish that feeling for the rest of my life.  It is very hard to capture that moment again and I don’t think I have ever felt it again, especially not as a grown up. 

                The trust you have with a neighbor should always be valued, appreciated, acknowledged and never broken.  It always followed this mantra and have always followed it.  Only one time I broke it.  It was the first and last time I broke this mantra.  It never should have happened.  Only person was able to convince me to break my inner set of morals and values. Was it because he never had any or didn’t feel remorse for breaking these values.  

                It was Henry who convinced me we should break into the Ned and Sherry’s house.  I was dead against it, but he said he only wanted to see inside and wanted to see if the key works.  He convinced me with such ease and grace.  Why did I give in to him so quick?  Was I trying to get his approval, did I want him to like me as a friend.  I did not understand.  I don’t think I wanted to get his approval since I already knew I was friends with him.  Maybe if I didn’t do it, he wouldn’t think I was cool enough, dangerous enough, and bad enough to hang out with anymore.  But why would I care about that? I liked being the good kid, I loved being the teacher’s pet and I had pride in being a nerd and excited about school.  I never was embarrassed about myself or looked down on myself.  I did need approval from friends since I had so many friends and family around me all the time.  It wasn’t like I was a loner and that Henry was the only person that accepted me and became my friend. 

                I had tons of friends, I didn’t Henry or his approval.  Yet somehow, henry found a way to enter my mind and convince me to engage in these bad things.  I wasn’t young and gullible like I was in the church and school incident.  This was few years later and this was when we were in senior year of high school. In fact, just a little while before we moved away from this neighborhood.

                Why did I let Henry get so close to me?  Why did I stay friends with him as we got older even after noticing how much he has changed, for the worse?

                So we leave my house and walk over.  It is me, Henry and Frisbee.  I unlock the door and henry enters with no fear, no remorse, he didn’t care.  He walked in there like he had no fear of breaking the law, breaking the rules.  I am thinking how often does he do this, that it is so normal for him.

                We are in the house, I am scared of the two Siamese cat, they look worried and start to meow since they did not recognize us.  Henry did not care at all and he ran upstairs right away.  I am downstairs waiting for him and Frisbee to hurry up and finish.  Why would Henry pick the upstairs, looking back, it seems that is where someone stores their most prized possessions, also most expensive. I got really nervous and begged for Frisbee and Henry to leave immediately.  I was scared and worried that Sherri would come early from work. 

                They were only up there a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity.  Finally Frisbee runs down first and says let us get out of here.  He was giggling since he found something private and embarrassing for a woman.  He couldn’t stop laughing.  I didn’t know what it was.  A few more minutes later, Henry comes downstairs.  He wasn’t running, he was slow and calm coming down.  Henry might have injured his leg a few years prior, but I don’t think he was wearing a cast or limping at this time. Either way, he took his time.  Henry wore a big brown leather coat, it was not puffy or overbearing, it perfectly followed the leanness and tallness of his body, like a fitted leather coat. It had pockets, multiple, many hidden pockets throughout this leather jacket.  So many compartments.

                As I lock the door and hurry back to my house, Henry decides to leave.  That is when Frisbee tells me that Henry stole a golden necklace, locket with chain from Sherri’s dresser.  He also stole all of Ned’s Star Trek The Next Generation toy collection.  They were all collectors’ items.  Neatly perfectly packaged, never ever opened not even once.  From the first one release, most probably General Piccard to the new most recent characters like Data or even the other series like Start Trek Deep Space Nine.  It saddened me that henry took these items, these items belonged to people I care about.  These neighbors were very sweet caring trustworthy and trusting individuals.  In one singe act, it destroyed their lives.

                A few days later maybe even weeks, when they start to notice items were missing.  They started to blame each other and accuse each other.  They had gotten into an argument which led to a heated fight which resulted in an altercation where cops had to come to their house.  I could hear them screaming in their night gown and pajamas.  I looked out the window and found out they started hitting each other because they could not explain where the other person’s stuff was.  Within weeks of this incident, they got a divorce.  This beautiful couple that used to invite us to their house for Christmas every year.  They were so happy and shared their love and joy with my family. Done, gone, divorced, and Ms. Sherri had moved out.  It happened so quickly.

                The ironic thing is I did not even know Henry had taken these things until much later on.  Henry taking their belongings resulted in their divorce. Henry ruined a perfectly innocent couple and their marriage and lives forever and he didn’t care, didn’t even care about the consequences.  How do you not care about the consequences?

                How do you not have any regard for another individual and what could happen to them.  How do you not feel anything when something you did has negatively affected or influenced someone else?

                To this day I feel guilt, regret, and sadness about my neighbors. And it has been well over 16 to 18 years.  I am saddened and so upset this happened, and would do anything to go back in time and redo, reverse it, I would never had told Henry that I had the keys to the house.

                How was I ever supposed to know that Henry did not care enough about another person’s life and henry was going to do what he wanted to do, regardless of human emotions, consequences, or negative results that my perspire.

                The saddest thing is as we got older and moved away, we didn’t keep in touch with Mr. Ned .  I remember just before we moved.  He was swinging on the tree that both of yards shared.  He said he needed to start looking for a new wife.  He pretended to sound excited as if he was this newly free man ready to party and mingle.  I saw sadness in his face.  I knew he missed Sherry.  I knew he was sad that he didn’t have that bond, that beautiful friendship they shared, that level of comfortability. I believe they must have met right after he got out of navy/army.

                It was as if high school sweethearts had ended their beautiful love saga 20 years later, and the cause was Henry. Damn Henry, how careless and ruthless can you be?

I guess we were all going to find out later…….but yet all too soon….

Chapter 3: Firewall

“So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set a blaze by such a small fire!”  James 3:5

                It was a dark night. We were supposed to be inside the church for night prayer, all of us were, all the young boys.  Somehow Henry convinced all of us, his ‘lord of the flies’ gang of misguided youth, to venture off into the construction of the new church extension.  I had heard from the other boys they used to sneak in there and play hide and go seek and tag.  We were younger, but either way I never went as I saw a construction site a far too dangerous place even enter let alone play silly kids games like hide and seek and tag.

                Yet for some irresponsible reason on my part, I decided to join Henry and his crew of misfits to the construction site for mischief in the night.  I mean it couldn’t be anything good, could it.  I was nervous and shaking, first because I knew the area could be dangerous with tools, holes in the walls and floor, ladders, nails, electric wires, all the signs of danger were staring at me in the face.  And normally the super “scared-y” cat that I am, would never ever ever go with them in that situation.  I went.

                It was dark inside and you could not really tell where you were going, but you could see that it was a huge hall with big grey cement block walls.  I stayed as close to the entrance we came into as possible.  Which for the record was not a real entrance, just some random unfinished hole they were patching up during the construction work.  We went in and I was scared.  Scared of the danger and then of course the community, if they found out we were playing in here and making a raucous, they would be upset and look down on us and we would disappointment them.

                Approval and not letting elderly down, or parents, or parents of my friends, or high ranked individuals in the community has been very important to me.  It is not so much I need approval for confidence or self-esteem, I just don’t want to let others down.  I felt in the community I had established myself as one of the goodie tushoos, someone who abided by the rules, was polite, kind, and respectful.  I never started a fight, I never started trouble.  I always listened the first time someone asked me to do something.  I never caused harm problems or pain to my friends, my parents, my siblings, my teachers, my coaches, my community. 

                I have maintained these characteristics of myself throughout my childhood and youth.  I held these attributes about myself in the highest regard and tried my best to never shy away or astray from them.  For some reason, Henry had this magical method of making me falter on my own values and slowly guide me away from who I was.  He was devilishly lure me in and tempt me into doing misbehaving acts, things I wouldn’t normally think to do on my own. 

                And so here I was, in the dark, facing this huge tall grey wall of cylinder blocks in a restricted construction site at night.  Henry walks over with a lighter and flares.  I asked him what a flare was, I never seen one before in my life.  It looked like a stick of dynamite from a looney tunes show that coyote calamity would be carrying from ACME TNT to attack the roadrunner! 

                First he lights the flare and it give a beautiful pink hue and glare into the air, illuminating the entire hall.  I panic that the adults that were at the church would see us. He didn’t seem nervous or scared and was in no fear of getting caught.  He said he has played here a bunch of times and that it was no big deal.  Next, Henry takes out a bunch of spray can canisters.  He starts to spray the wall in very different lines, shapes, and circles.  He looks at me and says back up a bit and says he is going to create the same color on the wall that was radiating from the flares.  He takes the lighter and lights up the places on the wall that he sprayed the can.  In an instant, a beautiful romantically ethereal pink hue dances on the wall following the pattern of the spray paint.  It makes the most beautiful shapes and colors and held me in a trance.  Henry smiled that he was able to keep me in awe when normally I would be freaking out and begging for us to leave. 

                For that small moment I was so captivated by his trick, his magic, his ability to create an artistic glow that I forgot about the fear of breaking into the church construction site. The rest of the kids were screaming and getting impatient as everyone wanted a turn with the spray paint and flares and lighters. 

                Was this a form of pyromaniac, feeling that seductive temptation of the fire’s flame as it slowly lures you in?  Whatever it maybe it was one of the prettiest colors I have seen.  I still remember it to this day.  It reminds me sometimes when the sun sets and the sky can turn the bright orange and pink colors, and many times you get such a beautiful pink hue. 

                Nevertheless, I knew it was time for me to go.  The kids started to play tag in the dark and before anyone could get hurt I left.  I walked out of the small hole in the wall and looked once last time.  Henry was spraying the wall one more time, he lit it on fire, and a huge bright pink flame with blue at the bottom flew up the sky and light up the wall.

                I loved the beauty of the art, but I knew what Henry was doing was wrong.  I knew that Henry stealing the flares from a school bus was wrong.  What if the school bus ever broke down and it needed the flares to put on the side of the road for protection from cars that would see the flare and know that the school bus was in danger.

                The last thing I saw was evil in Henry’s eyes.  He was way too happy to be able to create fire like that.  He looked proud of his creating of pink flames.  He looked way to happy to enjoy that type of power.  I thought of Henry like the devil being able to create something as beautiful and seductive like fire but at the same so destructive, dangerous, and harmful. 

                I saw danger and evil in Henry’s eyes, but how was I supposed to know, maybe it was the reflection of the fire, flame, or flare.  Whatever it was, it was my early sign of knowing that evil was in Henry and it was growing and slowly culminating.  How was I supposed to know these were the early sparks growing inside of him that eventually would spiral out of control and create the manipulative lying monster he would turn out to be. 

                Hindsight is 20 20 when you look back at life.  Foreshadowing is very damaging to the eye when you already blind.

 

 

 

Chapter 4: Cash Under Cast

if our lord was tempted, it was in order to show us that we must be also. It follows, therefore, that we must expect temptation.  If you ask me what is the cause of our temptations, I shall tell you that it is the beauty and the great worth and importance of our souls which the Devil values which he loves so much that he would consent to suffer two Hells, if necessary, if by so doing he could drag our souls into Hell.

quote st. john VIANNEY

I know at least 12 real life, truth, honest filled actual events that occurred, that I know did happen with Henry.  Many of these I was present, others may have been hearsay, but I know that they did happen.

When we were in bible study, and he didn’t really finish memorizing his assignment, he would charm the teacher with speaking kindly and easily lie to get out of it.  He was very intelligent and could have used that same brain power to memorizing the whole bible if he wanted to, but instead he became lazy about the studying aspect, and used his energy in charming, cunning, conniving, and getting out of the assignments.

I know he was stealing from the donation box at church, ever since sixth grade.  From sixth grade until senior year of high school. That is seven years straight he was stealing from the church, every Sunday, one day a week.  How many Sundays are there in a year? Times that bye seven year. Times that by more than a hundred dollars a Sunday.  Okay I will do it for you then, there are 52 Sundays in year.  He was stealing 100 dollars a Sunday, and that is a very small amount compared to the true amount.  100 times 52 equals = 5,200 x 7 years. Wait wait, I think he was easily getting 200 a Sunday.

Here comes the math, 52 X 200 = 10,400, times that by 7 years, and that equals 72,800 dollars that a kid could have saved up in 7 years.  That is if you are stingy frugal and don’t spend a single dime.

Henry was not selfish with his money at all.  Well it wasn’t really his money I guess. It was the church community money.  Henry was so very kind with this money.  He bought everyone McDonalds , Burger King, every Sunday he was treat 5 or 6 of us.  All the time.  He was so friendly and nice and caring.  If we went to the movies he would pay for everyone.  He was never stingy or selfish with the money. 

And this went on for many many years.  However, once I saw him actually take the money from the church myself with my own eyes.  It changed.  i knew before where the money was coming from but I didn’t feel guilt from it, my justification was that I didn’t have anything to do with where the money came from, yet I was enjoying the fruits of the labor, or the fruits of the lies.

He taught me how to sneak into buildings and break into other people property.

He taught me to change the grades in the teacher’s grade book.

I saw him do both of these things.

He started learning how to ride a car at a very young age and would sneak out the car multiple times at night when his parents went to bed.  He would put the car in neutral and let the car roll down the driveway and down the hill and then he would start the car later down the street and would drive around town.  He knew this at a very very young age.  He knew how to drive into the city. Henry would get prostitutes at a very young age.  Henry became aware, street smart, and familiar with the city life and the ways of the street very early on.  He was not afraid of it, but enthralled with the glam and glitz of the hustlers that would wear the name brand clothes, the jewelry, the nice cars, and the beautiful women that would surround these successful men. 

I always saw him as confident and never considered him as insecure or the desire of trying to become these men.  However as we got older I know he craved the attention and wanted to emulate the lives of these richer men, with the name brand clothes.

Maybe having these name brand clothes is what motivated him to start stealing from the donation box in the first place.

I remember seeing it first hand when he placed a wad of twenty dollars bills, given as charity by hardworking individuals, and he nonchalantly placed it under his cast.  He had just hurt his leg riding his bike down a hill and flipped over and damage his knee. 

Why did he go down that hill, when everyone knew it was dangerous, I think he wanted to prove how tough, rough, and bad he was. Bad to the bone.  Bad enough to break his bones. 

He had surgery and was on a cast for a long time.

You would think with a life death experience like that he would change his ways.  It only gave him a more look of sympathy and no one would expect a boy with a broken leg to steal from the church.

He took the wad of twenty dollar bills and put it under his cast.

Chapter 5: ACE OF SPADES, KING OF HEARTS, SUICIDE JACK, AND A FULL DECK OF CARDS

                It was a sleepover at the Fennergans house.  The Fennergans were a family that had moved away for some time but then returned back to our community.  Everything was going fine, all the friends were together, laughing and happy and together. We decided to play cards.  I am terrible at cards.  You have to have a level of skill and a level of being able to lie without others knowing you are lying.

                Poker face means that ability to deceive, to lie, and to have cover that is hiding your truth.  You do not want the opponent know what card you have.

                We were at the Fennergans, a bunch of us spending a night.  We were in our early teens.  Well, whatever the age may have been, it was too old for me to being piing in my pants.  Yes, the fear a child goes through when they first stay at a friend’s place for a sleepover.  If they are someone that wets their bed that is.

                I never had a childhood problem of wetting the bed.  But I didn’t use to have accidents of urination on myself until I was 9 or even 10 years old.  I would always hold it in and never make it to the bathroom, or it would just come when it wanted to.  It would be most embarrassing when it would be light colored pants and people can completely see the pi pi stain.  There is only a number of times I can convince others that it is water!!

                Fast forward to we are 15 years or older and we are at a fun night at the Fennergans.  We are all playing card, sitting in a circle. I had a blanket wrapped around me since I was sleepy and ready to go to bed.  However, who actually goes to sleep at a slumber party.  The whole point, is that you stay up all night and hang out with friends.

                So here we are, in a circle, playing cards.  I believe the game was spades, 21, or maybe it was poker. Whatever it may be, Henry was a master of these card games from a very early age. He knew how to do card tricks really well.  He was able to lie with such ease and trick us or the audience or whoever it was he was doing the card trick to.  I don’t from whom he learned them from, but he knew a handful of them and was very good at tricking the mind.

                Does being good at card tricks, tricking the mind, assist one who is a liar in getting away with mischievous acts??  I know it is such a silly and illogical claim to make.  Yet I sincerely feel the fact he was able to so easily do these card tricks and lie and trick the mind and manipulate the audience is how he is able to get away with far more serious things such as stealing, cheating, robbery, sneaking out of the house, driving before the age, breaking and entering, changing tests in gradebooks, lying to teachers about assignments, lying to parents of whereabouts, lying to parents saying you are a good kid’s house and use them as an alibi to go and hang out with more rougher or misbehaved children.  Stealing from the charity box, sneaking into movie theaters and teaching others how to do it. Putting things on fire, breaking onto a school bus to steal flares, light up construction sites with spray paint lit on fire. 

                Lying to get out of trouble with teachers, parents, adults, and authorities. Lying about doing an entire research project that students were supposed to be completing the entire year. LYING that is what I am trying to get through to all of you about, HENRY WAS ABLE TO LIE, LIE ABOUT ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING, even if he got caught, Henry was able to lie about it!!!

                Does that he mean he could even lie about committing……….m……………….oh forget about it.   You are not ready to hear about that yet.  Let us get back to the story at hand.

                In a circle, we are all playing cards, poker I think it was.  The entire time, Henry was hiding cards under the carpet.  He was CHEATING THE ENTIRE TIME. He was laugh and giggle and point other places to distract the mind.  He was a master at distracting the mind and the person from what was going on.  He was the dealer and was cheating and I was watching all of it.  Even when he was not the dealer he was hiding cards under the rug.  We were sitting in a circle, and the run was by our knees, so we are all sitting up on the ground, when he would get cards he was switching them with another deck and would hide extra cards under the rug or in his sleeves. He did not spend a single second of that game in between friends truthfully or with skill.  Instead he used that entire time to cheat, lie, manipulate, and steal cards. We were not playing for money even though we did have poker chips, YES THE GAME WAS POKER.  It was not a serious game, but some people were playing very seriously. He didn’t care or did not value the game or the friends in the game.  To him, it was a little fun experiment to see how far he could go by scamming his own friends.

                As I continued to watch and saw some friends were getting agitated and angry that Henry was winning of a lot of the hands. I couldn’t stop laughing because there some people that really really believed him, that he was that good at Poker and was beating them because his skills were that good.  They were some friends that thought he was some master at the game and were looking up to him in awe, like “WOW how are you able to get these amazing cards!!!!”  THEY WERE ASSUMING HE WAS SOM REAL LIFE MAGICIAN.  I saw his fakeness and I saw all his lies.

                I started to laugh uncontrollably with each hand he won.  I was laughing because the reactions of the friends that were 100 percent believing he was able to pull these insane cards out of the deck.  They couldn’t fathom or comprehend how he was winning with such random perfect cards.  ALL ACES!!!!!!! And royal flush here and three of a kind there, he was consistently getting ridiculously amazing cards.  Everyone knows you eventually get a bad hand or a string of bad hands and luck changes in poker.  That is the whole adrenaline rush and excitement about gambling because of the chances of getting a good hand are so low, so unique, and so rare. And here was Henry, good hand after a few good cards, then another big win. 

                I couldn’t stop laughing.  I just couldn’t.  It was like watching a robber take all the money from the bank and the cops keep thinking it is disappearing into thin air.  I know that is not funny at all, but these friends really truly believed he was getting those cards.

                I should have spoken up and ratted him out and tell on him and tell all the friends that HE IS A LIAR, HE IS FAKING IT, HE IS STEALING CARDS AND LYING AND RIGGING THE GAME AND MAKING THINGS UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And he has been doing it since the beginning of the game, on each hand, each time he dealt the cards and so on…..but I didn’t say a word.  I just laughed at the reactions of the co-players, the spectators, and those friends that watched Henry work magic in front of them. 

                One of the greatest deceits of the world is magic.

                I laughed so hard and laughed for so long, I went pi pi all over my pants and all over the blanket that I was wrapped up in.  At 15 years old or older, at a slumber party, I laughed so hard I WET MY PANTS. I was so embarrassed. How could I even explain that the reason I urinated on myself was because Henry was playing everyone the entire time, the past six hours of cards, he was lying and hustling and cheating. 

                Luckily I met my uncle at morning prayers and went home with him.  I still remember Cecille came close the blanket and was telling everyone it smells like urine and was laughing with everyone else.  I felt bad I pi’d all over the Fennergans blanket, but I felt even more bad about myself that Cecille took it upon himself to come smell the blanket like he was getting from the sofa when he just came to rat me out for wetting myself. 

                Bottom line if Henry never played such a beautifully orchestrated system of being the masterful liar that he was, maybe I never would have went pi pi on myself at a slumber party.  I know this was such a terrible example of things Henry was capable of doing with lying.  I know it seems so innocent and just a childlike game.  It was the way he did it that wasn’t innocent or childlike. It was like an adult that was a crook, or a robber or mafia guy that was screwing over the other mafia family. 

                It reflected his morale compass as if he did not care at all about others and what they go through.  He was missing his morale compass, he never had fear of lying, no shame in lying, no regret and no remorse.

Chapter 6: Switch from a six inch to a sixteen inch blade

                Not even once have I ever seen Henry violent, act violent or aggressive.  I have never seen Henry hit another individual.  I never seen Henry hit another person or animal, harm an animal.  I don’t really remember Henry raising his voice angrily or getting into an altercation.  I never seen Henry use his fists ever to resolve a problem. 

                I know he used his tongue to make others feel bad about themselves to stop the situation from escalating.  He would use humor and comedy to put the other person down in front of big crowds so it would stop the situation right there.  He was witty and knew how to be condescending in a sneaky way.

                However if you really try to start up an argument with him, he would be blunt and say it to your face and make you feel lesser.  Then I realized something, he only did that do people that he knew were submissive.  Other Alpha males or aggressors he wouldn’t even try to stir up a situation with them.  Therefore at a very young age he already knew who are the ones he could manipulate, the ones he knew he could get away with lies, he knew the ones that were submissive and could keep under him through jokes in front of big crowds or groups of friends, he was not afraid to call someone out if they are wrong, but at the same time he knew the groups of boys that were more rowdy, dangerous, and were known to get aggressive or solve things with fist fighting.  He knew how to deal with all these different types of personalities. 

                He didn’t need any weapons, his weapon was his mind and his ability to camouflage himself in any group he would intertwine and swerve through.  He was a true chameleon and could easily change in between social groups and different age groups.  With the adults he would act a certain way and would be to stay the exact perfect thing.  When he was with kids that were a bit more religious and strict in their upbringing, he knew exactly what to say and do. 

                When he was with kids that were more street smart and used the more street lingo or language, his accent, tone of voice, and way of speaking would 100 percent mimic an match them.  How was he able to do this at such a young age?

                I mean everyone does it to a certain degree, you act more polite and holy when you are talking to the priest and maybe more relaxed and vulgar in your speech when talking with your football buddies. To this day it amazes how quickly Henry could go from voice change to another to another character and he doesn’t even shift or flinch or show any body reaction that he is able to change these voices, these dialects, and various types of language use. 

                Not a big deal, but I felt like he was lying each one of those characteristics the entire time.

                Around this time, when I started to notice his ability to interweave in and out of various social groups, I came to know he started hanging out at swap meats.  Specifically to hang out with a family knows as the Czartans. They were a wealthy family that sold knives and swords at these flea markets and they were very wealthy.  Their sons wore name brand clothes and drove really nice cars, and I think henry wanted to emulate that.  In our community, the Czartans were a symbol of financial prosperity and they were not shy from putting it on display, many times lining up three Mercedes and two lexuses in the Church parking lot.

                It was from one of these flea markets, Henry purchased a butterfly knife.  And from the minute he bought it, he played with it all the time.  It was in his hands and he learned the tricks and twists and it never left his hand.  He kept it in his pocket of brown leather coat and would take it out and twist and turn and open the butterfly knife and close it.  He would do it all day every day, I think it relaxed his tick and twitches. He was never violent and never showed aggressive activity towards another person.  He did not rally with the thug or hoodlum type of people then why was he carrying around this butterfly knife all the time. 

                Was he getting threats we did not know about, did he have to protect himself, he had no known enemies. None that we are aware of or even know. Did he make some enemies? Is there someone that became an enemy to him???

                We will find out……soon enough……………..