Chapter One

Chapter One
Jeff Haunt

Jeff Haunt’s wife is hearing voices.

Still, the seventh grade science teacher at Springfield Middle School in Paterson, New Jersey, should be standing at his classroom door while homeroom 715 walks in. In last week’s teachers’ meeting, Principal Jaffe talked to 70 plus teachers in the auditorium without the need of a microphone. He made it clear that every teacher of 715 had to stand at the door with a clipboard to check off students’ names as soon as they walked in the classroom. This mandatory procedure was enacted after the district cracked down on the school when one of the girl students, Deenesha Benticore, was supposed to be in Mr. Haunt’s class, but was let out of the class with a bathroom pass and never returned. Haunt never called down to the office to report it. In her absence, she snuck out of the school from the side door and was gang raped in an alley by four boys from Springfield High School just three blocks away.

The principal, of course, took the heat, and in turn, he gave it back to Haunt.

The day after the incident, Principal Jaffe slammed his fist on his desk and said, “Jeff, I swear to God, if there’s another problem in your classroom, you’re out of a job.”

But Jeff Haunt, 5’6 and 130 lbs. soaking wet with a back so rigid that it reveals a whole column of vertebrae, isn’t standing at the front door of his room, even after getting chewed out last week.

Instead, he’s sitting at his computer and clicking through Google trying to find out if schizophrenia is somehow linked with pregnancy. He scrolls down the page, the light glaring off his glasses. He finds articles about pregnant women who have schizophrenia, but nothing about older mothers who had become schizophrenic because of their pregnancies. Haunt takes off his glasses and wipes his eyes with the back of his sleeve and stares at the screen. He’s been looking online all day and hasn’t come up with anything. He doesn’t know what to do.

“I can’t take it anymore, Jeff,” he can remember his wife, Marigold, saying to him for the first time last night in bed. Her voice is even louder in his head than the din of the teenagers who are entering the room, “I hear it every day now. It’s the reason I had to quit my job.”

#

“Yo, say that again, ma’fucker,” a voice shouts, pulling Haunt out of his trance and bringing him back into the classroom, which has spitballs, spread open textbooks, and gum wrappers all over the floor from last period.

“Jaylon!” Haunt says, standing up from his computer, and pointing down to the floor, “Sit—down.”

The boy, Jaylon Taylor, stands even skinnier than Haunt, with wiry muscles and skinny legs. Still, he is both feared and revered in Springfield Middle School, and he stands over his peer, Maurice Kasper, with his fists balled up, ready for action. The boy he stands over is at least 50 lbs. heavier than him and has a neck like a bulldog’s.

“Yeah, sit yo’ bitch ass down like Mr. Haunt says,” Maurice says in his baritone voice, still sitting in his desk and swiping the air with his large hand, “You act like you really gonna do somethin’ wit’ your punk ass.”

“Maurice, stop provoking him,” Haunt says, moving from behind his desk to the side of it but not getting a step closer, as he’s fearful that he might be punched in the face again like last time when he took away a girl’s test because he caught her cheating.

He had heard from his only friend at the school, Steve Covington, that many of the teachers had laughed at him in the teacher’s lounge following that incident. And upon hearing that, it stung him almost as much as the punch itself, as the idea of people laughing at him takes him back to his childhood with the neighborhood bullies.

“Son, say that again,” Jaylon says, and another boy stands up in the right hand corner of the room and points at Jaylon, his fat body heaving.

“Yo, Maurice, you gon’ take that shit sittin’ down, my nigga?” the student, Jordan Romain says, sweat pouring down his face and dreadlocks, “He called you a pussy on the basketball court, too, man. He think he better than you.”

“Yo, son, stay outta this,” Jaylon says, turning his head to Jordan. But it’s at that moment that Haunt sees everything happen in slow motion. Maurice’s fist crashes into Jaylon’s stomach and makes him collapse into the desk next to him, causing him to bang his head on the metal bar by the bottom of the seat. The girl in the desk he falls into is already out of her seat exclaiming, “Fight, fight, fight!”

Before Haunt even has a chance to think, Jaylon is already up off the ground, throwing a punch at Maurice, who is out of his seat and already pushing his desk into Jaylon’s midsection. The other students in the desks next to his move out of the way and join in with the chant: “Fight, fight, fight!”

“Maurice! Jaylon, Stop it!” Haunt yells, running towards them as the crowd around the two of them closes in.

Haunt grabs a student by the shoulder and gets pushed to the floor, making him hit the back of his head on the top of a desk. He gets up and sees floating dots like gnats in front of his eyes and stumbles over to the gray box on the wall by his desk, pushing the red button on it as fast as he can. Behind him, he can hear boys yelling in Haitian and girls squealing with delight as fists crash into body parts behind him. As soon as he hears the click over to the main office, Haunt is already babbling.

“Michelle, you have to send up security quick, there’s a—”

CRASH!

Haunt winces as if he’s preparing for a car crash when he hears the sound of glass shattering behind him. He stops hitting the button and an image of his wife appears in his head, getting dimmer and dimmer as if she’s drifting off into nothingness.
He turns his head from the button and looks at the now silent crowd that spreads apart to reveal the sole student computer in the room on the scuffed up floor. It lies face down with its blue backside pointing up like a capsized ship as glass pieces are scattered all around it.

“Hello!” Principal Jaffe’s gruff voice says from the speaker above him, making Haunt jump. He wasn’t expecting the principal’s heavy voice to come out of the speaker.
All of the students pick up their overturned desks and sit in them quietly at the sound of the principal’s voice, Jaylon and Maurice included.

“Mr. Haunt, are you there?” Principal Jaffe asks, his voice gruff and surly.
Haunt stays silent. (Jeff, I swear to God if there’s another problem in your classroom, you’re out of a job). His heart is pounding, making his brain feel light and fuzzy. He needs this job. Now that Marigold quit her job, she’s depending on him.

“I’m sending a security guard up there,” Principal Jaffe says, and the sound in the room clicks off. All at once, Haunt’s whole body slumps down. He feels like he’s 100 years old.

The kids don’t let out so much as a peep as Haunt drags himself back to his desk. When he sits down, Principal Jaffe’s voice rumbles through the P.A. system.

“I want the nearest security guard in Mr. Haunt’s room immediately,” Mr. Jaffe says, his voice hard and demanding like a jackhammer dislocating cement.

Haunt watches the newly reformed students take out other teachers’ assignments from their bags as he crosses his arms on his desk and rests his chin atop them. He looks at the students from behind a cup full of pencils and a tape dispenser and thinks about his wife showing him the greeting card messages she had written the past few months. The wording on them was disturbing and scribbled as if they were written by a child. He thinks about those papers and the tear stains left on them as Mr. Lawson walks in the room without even knocking, his large, light skinned frame commanding every single eyeball in the room.

Haunt looks up from his crossed arms and sees the cold, hard man’s brown eyes zero in on the downed computer in the corner and then down at Haunt, who doesn’t make a move.
Mr. Lawson takes his walkie talkie off his belt and says, “I’m here, Mr. Jaffe, over.”

“What’s it look like in there?” Mr. Jaffe says in bits and pieces on the other end of the walkie talkie.

“Worse than usual,” Mr. Lawson says, his eyes not leaving Haunt, “There’s a busted computer screen face down on the floor with glass all over the place.”

“And what about the kids, how do they look?” Mr. Jaffe says.

“Well, I see one knucklehead trying to hide that his shirt’s been ripped, and another with a bloody nose, so you know the two of them must have been goin’ at it,” Mr. Lawson says, and Haunt looks down but can still feel Mr. Lawson looking at him, as his nape begins to burn from his gaze.

“Tell Mr. Haunt to come down to my office immediately,” Mr. Jaffe says, “And watch his class while he comes down here. I want a written report if any one of them causes you a problem.”

“Will do, boss, over,” Lawson says, and he throws his thumb back to the door to Haunt. “Boss says he want to see you.”

Haunt gets up and walks past Lawson and doesn’t look back as he leaves the room.
In all his 47 years, two of those being a teacher, he’s never been more certain of anything in his life than the fact that he’s going to lose his job today. In the back of his mind, he sees Marigold reaching out for him, submerged in impenetrable darkness.

Once Upon a Table in Chester offers a fresh take on signature fare

A gem of a restaurant almost hidden in Chester has been offering fresh, quality food on Main Street for the past 11 years.

And, after customers delight in one of its scrumptious quiches du jour or one of the eatery's signature sandwiches — such as oven-roasted fresh roast beef with Istara cheese, chipotle mayonnaise, red ripe tomatoes and arugula on Ciabatta bread — they can then walk around and look at some beautiful furniture.

Welcome to Once Upon a Table, which has both great homemade food and name-brand furniture all under one big roof.

The restaurant is co-owned by Charles Wasser, who worked as an attorney in New York City before he followed his passion into cooking, and his wife, Kimberly Carluccio-Wasser, who was a New York City fashion designer.

The couple at first had designs for a space as grand as their food, with a large seating area, an outdoor gazebo, a French bistro look and cool jazz on weekends. They were forced to scale back that plan, however, because the town wouldn't allow a change of use for the building.

"We share space with my mother-in-law's business, which is called Bizzy Lizzy, and we were going to kind of just share the building," Charles Wasser says.

An agreement was worked out so that they would be able to keep the cafe and still be able to sell furniture there, too, with guidelines such as only being able to serve food on paper plates and not being able to hire any waitresses. But don't be fooled by the humble serveware. The food here is high-end enough to be served on silver platters.

"Our number-one sandwich is our fresh roasted turkey (with) sliced Granny Smith apples, walnuts, and cranberry chutney, which is similar to cranberry sauce, but chutney is more of a European kind of condiment," Wasser says. 'We have fresh cranberries and we put it on a Ciabatta bread . . . people call it a 'Thanksgiving.' "

Wasser is all about fresh ingredients and he takes offense at other places that load their products with preservatives and byproducts that he feels aren't healthy.

"We roast our own meats, and we make everything from scratch," Carluccio-Wasser says.

"You know, it's amazing," Charles Wasser adds, "When people bite into real roast beef, they'll say 'What is this?' because they're so used to the other stuff that tastes like cardboard."

Even as a child, Wasser always felt that food should both be made and taste fresh.

"Even as a kid I read labels and didn't eat margarine because I didn't understand half the things that were on the label," Wasser recalls.

And that's why he and his wife only want the best for their customers, whether it's fine food at the cafe or fine furniture on the other end of the store.

"It used to be called, Once Upon a Table: An Epicurean Fantasy. That was the original tagline," Wasser says about the cafe.

"We moved away from that because a lot of people associate epicurean just with food, which it's not. It's more than just food," Wasser explains. "It's a love of good things, finer things in life. So, the whole feel of the store is this sort of fairy tale realm where (we want you to) enjoy life, to slow down, and really stop and smell the roses."

Local Hero: Chester boy's effort aims to help birds in the Gulf oil spill

A 9-year-old Chester boy was so affected by what he saw on television about the Gulf oil spill that he decided to do something about it.

Jack Wimmershoff is raising money for the National Audubon Society, which conserves and restores natural ecosystems, focusing mainly on birds and other wildlife.

"He came in one night I was in the kitchen, and he drew this picture,'' his mother, Dru Wimmershoff says. "He showed it to me and he asked if he could sell copies for a dollar and raise money for this particular Audubon Society.''

The picture is of a pelican standing in oil-slicked water with oil staining its wings.

Jack's been selling his drawing around town and it turns out people are so affected by it that they are giving him a dollar apiece for it, and sometimes even more.

"We've been very pleasantly surprised about the outpouring of support and everybody that we've approached has wanted to get involved in some way,'' Dru Wimmershoff says. "Everybody's been very impressed that Jack's a young kid, and I think people feel very moved that he's so excited about being able to help, even if it's in his own way. I think he kind of inspires everybody else.''

It's inspired everybody else to the tune of around $400 so far.

Jack and his mom have been standing outside of a local Shoprite selling the drawing to customers when they walk in and out of the store. He also received help from Nelson Hassan, owner of the Krauszer's in Chester, who put out a coffee can with Jack's drawing on it right by his cash register on the store counter, where people also have been donating.

"My goal right now is to raise a thousand dollars,'' Jack says.

Besides trying to help the Audubon Society, the socially conscious boy also wants to see an end to the oil problem in the Gulf.

"My thoughts are that I think we really need to get a plug soon to make sure that it can restore the ecosystem for the birds down in the Gulf,'' Jack says.

As to why he felt the urge to get involved, the answer is simple.

"I like to draw and I thought it would just be a great way to help the birds because I really like the environment and it would help raise money,'' he says.

Those interested in helping Jack in his cause can make checks payable to the National Audubon Society and send them: care of Jack Wimmershoff, 12 Highland Drive, Chester NJ, 07930. Donations also can be made directly to the National Audubon Society at: National Audubon Society, 225 Varick St. NY, 10014 attention: Gulf Coast Oil Spill Disaster.

Super Mario Bros. Crossover Is The Greatest Thing Since M.U.G.E.N.

I recently went to a birthday party over the weekend, and the birthday boy asked me a serious question—He said, “Have you played ‘Super Mario Crossover’ yet? Well, um, no, I said, what the hell is that?

And what he told me blew my mind. He told me about a version of the original Super Mario Bros. that features characters like Bill from Contra, Mega Man from, well, Mega Man, Samus from Metroid, Simon Belmont from Castlevania, Link from The Legend of Zelda and Ryu from Ninja Gaiden, all in just one game. All that was missing was ‘Lil Mac from Punch-Out!! in his description of the title. I mean, if this was true, then this was going to be even better than The Expendables with all my favorite 80s stars in it. This would be the greatest free crossover game ever.

Well, I must say that it is true and it can be found right here. It’s a free game created by this genius named Jay Pavlina of Exploding Rabbit. Yeah, I never heard of him, either. But after this game, I hope we’ll be hearing from him a lot more, as seriously, this is the greatest thing since M.U.G.E.N., and it’s much easier, too.

There’s none of that downloading business to get certain specific rosters, and the game is right there on the site, so you can go and play it right now. Did you just hear me? You can go and play it right now. So why the hell are you still even reading this article? Go pick yourself some Bill from Contra and use the spread gun on some Goombas. You know you’ve always wanted to.

Review: Arc Rise Fantasia

I’m going to be straight right off the bat with you, people: I have not been a fan of JRPG’s since, I want to say, Final Fantasy X. So to be playing a true-blue JPRG like Arc Rise Fantasia, which has all the trappings of what you would expect from a game of this genre—big, silly hair, even sillier storyline taken super seriously, turn-based combat—I might not be the best critic in the world to be reviewing this game. But after playing through it, I must say that it’s not bad at all. And if this was, say, the late-90s, when I was really getting into RPGs (As there were no real Western RPGs back then like Fallout 3, say), then I think I would have actually loved this game. But as it stands right now for 2010, it seems a little bit dated in this market, which I guess could be some of its charm, but it’s definitely not for everybody, especially if you’re young and never experienced the JRPGs of the mid 90s that this title is certainly harkening back to.

The story is about L’Arc Bright Lagoon (Come again) who is a mercenary and legionnaire of the Meridian Empire. Well, after falling from a ship and stabbing a dragon in the heart in mid-air (In like, the first five minutes of the game), he comes across Ryfia, “A young Diva” who is like your typical, nondescript female character who doesn’t know anything at all and is basically the sponge that all the information is told to so that you learn the game yourself, too. She’s your healer type character who isn’t all that strong but can fix the other characters up with her magical abilities. It’s all pretty standard stuff that you’d expect from any ‘ol JRPG.

Until it’s not. Now, since I don’t play every JRPG under the rising sun, the story might actually be pretty common-place, but for me, I found myself to actually be pretty surprised by some of the events that happen later in the game, so much so that I was even willing to suffer through some pretty bad voice-acting. And when I say bad, I don’t mean like, “You were almost a Jill Sandwich” bad, or “What is a man? A miserable pile of secrets,” bad, but bad, bad, like, the localization for this game sucks. It’s so sucky, in fact, that I even wanted to put the game on mute a lot of the time as there’s a lot of exposition with appalling voiceovers going on here, but I didn’t because I liked the music so much, which I’m actually surprised was so good. It has a certain quality to it that really engrosses you like only a good RPG can, and it almost makes up for the crummy visuals, which, as expected from a Wii title, are subpar almost to a last gen level.

Also pretty good aside from the music is the combat system. Sure, you can just tap, tap, tap your way to most victories, but what’s interesting is that you can choose which member of your party does all the work, so if you wanted to, you could make one particular character strong and not even deal with the other characters if you don’t want to, which might bite you in the ass later (Especially at some of the hard as nails bosses), but it’s at least nice to have the option. It definitely makes the battles more interesting if you’re willing to fool around with it. The characters are pretty interesting, too, with many of them not being exactly what they seem, but I’ll leave it at that, as the story, silly as it is, is definitely the best thing going for this game as there are a lot of twists. Really, it messed with my head.

So, overall, if you can deal with really bad voice-work, last gen graphics, and a twisty storyline that might mess with your head (But is still too serious for its own good when it’s talking about things like “Lord Knights” and “Feldragons”) then pick this game up. It’s certainly not the worst game to come out for the Wii, and it’s actually a pretty solid RPG. I recommend it.

Long Valley restaurant is like a trip to the Iberian peninsula

Long Valley has a wealth of great foods, from fresh veggies at farm stands to pizza
parlors, to Chinese restaurants and even fresh seafood. Now you can add something else: Portuguese barbecue.

The restaurant is owned by Maria Graca who gets help from her daughter, Vania Guerrerio.

"Around here, there was nothing Portuguese,'' Guerrerio says, "so we figured it would be a good spot for the business to bring out the new culture into the town.''

The spot is Tina's Portuguese BBQ on East Mill Road, and it's named Tina's because of the owner's middle name.

"Everyone just calls her Tina,'' Guerrerio says of her mother, Maria Graca, "Her second name is Valentina. So it's just a short abbreviation for it.''

The meals at Tina's are aimed at meat lovers.

"The chicken and the pork ribs are pretty popular,'' Guerrerio says. "The combo,
half-chicken, half-ribs, is the most popular.''

Also topping the bill and sure to get customers salivating are the BBQ T-bone steak, a pork-cutlet sandwich and grilled pork chops, all of which are from recipes Tina brought here from Portugal.

There's also Portuguese sausage, and appetizers such as codfish pastries and shrimp cakes.

Great desserts also are featured at Tina's, made with recipes from Portugal and sitting in a display case ready for customers to choose.

"We have the pistachio pudding, a chocolate pudding with whipped cream, flan, rice pudding and custard cakes'' Guerrerio says. All of them are made from scratch.

Tina's is mostly a takeout place, with only a few tables and chairs on the patio. You can call ahead and expect your food to be ready when you get there.

"It wasn't big enough to have a sit-down place,'' Guerrerio say. "We figured we would do takeout, just put a couple of chairs out there for the summertime if people wanted to eat there.''

And the customers have certainly approved. The pickup process is fast here, and some customers can even be seen leaving their motors running as they rush into the store and rush back out, eager to bring their delicious food home.

"We've been getting a lot of positive comments,'' Guerrerio says, adding that people keep saying that they "needed something like this in the area.''

Tina's also prepares dishes for parties, bringing the food right to customers if the order is large enough to warrant the delivery service.

A look at history, a taste that's great

Devour some of The Black Horse Pub's delicious buffalo wings and crab cakes, enjoy its wide assortment of seafood, and daydream about the history of this charming restaurant.

"The Black Horse has been around since 1742," says manager Thomas Coyle.

The Pub, which stands across the courtyard from the award-winning Black Horse Tavern, was initially a stable and a stagecoach stop on the road to Scranton, Pa. There are 20 seats in what is now known as the Olde Pub, and there's another section built in the early 1980s that enlarged the dining area to include a full bar with more seating.

The pub and the tavern are owned by Villa Enterprises Inc. of Morristown.

As interesting as the history and architecture are here, what's even more fascinating is how delectable the food is and also how generous the portions are.

"We serve generous portions of food," Coyle agrees, adding that many people can't even finish some of the meals.

The Pub has an extensive menu. Appetizers include such popular standard fare as buffalo wings, nachos and french-fried zucchini, as well as cheese and wine-bubbly shrimp, which is served in a cheese and wine sauce; homemade potato pancakes, steamed shrimp and vegetable dumplings.

There's a list of hearty pub sandwiches including French dip, Maryland crabcake and North Carolina pulled pork. A broad range of entree salads feature steak, blackened chicken and others.

There also are country-style comfort foods such as chicken pot pie. There's char-broiled burgers with numerous toppings, sirloin steaks, filet mignon, BBQ baby-back ribs, sea scallops, sesame tuna, fresh lemon sole and more.

"We have our famous raw bar, which on Mondays through Thursdays, we have out front," Coyle says, "where you can see a chef shucking clams and oysters."

Desserts include fresh pies that are made on the premises.

The Black Horse Tavern and Pub are obviously very popular, and Coyle attributes this to the tutelage of his general manager, Michael Horty, who has been manning the pub for 15 years and who is always changing the menu and keeping everything fresh.

Having two restaurants on the same property affords their guests choices that most other restaurants don't have. The Black Horse Tavern and Pub allow customers to choose between a casual pub or the upscale fine dining restaurant known as the Tavern, and the motto at both is, "Only the best for our patrons — since 1742."