Trouble(d)
Trouble(d)
a piece on Harold James Trombley
Harold James Trombley had a completely supportive family; absolutely lovely folks. Nobody understood how such a lovely couple could have had such a troubled boy.
He was born in the summer with no complications. A perfectly healthy boy. They brought him home two days later, and the neighbors adored him for the first year. His parents were overjoyed until he started moving around on his own.
The baby would hit his head over and over against the crib. It would make this terribly loud sound, could a baby really have that much strength?, they wondered. When they took him to the doctor, he waved it off, saying it was generally normal behavior and not to worry unless the baby wasn’t developing.
No matter how gently the doctor tried to put this, the Harold’s mother was upset by the action and would sit by the crib all night to watch over him. Even if her husband offered to watch the baby, she would lie awake in bed, listening for the thumping noise.
The moment she’d hear a single sound, she would throw the covers off and rush to the baby’s room. The look she would give her husband stung more than any words could. The baby’s growth continued normally, and his mother took such pride in her instinct to protect her son that she stopped going to the doctor completely.
Despite this, the child developed properly with only a few scares, like when Harold caught the flu two months after his first birthday.
When he turned three, Harold’s parents took him to Disney World. He began crying when the fireworks went off, and his mother carried him back to their hotel. Cradled in her arms, he dozed off while watching his father carry their bags and push the stroller several paces behind them.
On his first day of school, his mother was hysterical. She gripped his arms too tightly when she hugged him goodbye in the classroom. His father was outside waiting in the car, just like all the other parents. At the end of the day, only his father came to pick him up. His mother had spent all day at home pacing and nearly going to pick him up again, until she had accidentally fallen asleep. On the way home, they stopped by the convenience store and bought him Charms.
---
His dad gets bitten by a dog when he is about nine years old. Harold and his father had been walking the bike trails near their home when the stray had come up to them. His father took a quick step in front of the boy, and the dog lurched forward.
Harold didn’t see exactly what happened, only that his father’s towering form crumpled, and the dog yelped before scampering away. There was blood all over his father’s arm. His father slowly gathered himself up and offered his unharmed hand to his son. Together they walked home.
His mother is reading a book when they get back home. It’s a romance novel. His father plainly states that he needs to be driven to the hospital. His mother puts the book down, marking her place. She looks at her boy, then back at her husband.
“You can’t drive yourself?”
His father shakes his head. She sighs, then gets up to fetch the keys. She leads her husband to the door, Trombley following them both until his father turns around and crouches down to face him.
“Stay here for now.”
Trombley’s mother begins to protest, but his father gently shakes his head.
“He doesn’t need to see this.”
She pauses and finally seems to take notice of her husband’s state. She nods grimly and they both leave without a word.
He stands perfectly still in the foyer until they return. His father’s hand and arm is bandaged, and he uses his good hand to ruffle his son’s hair. He murmurs something Harold doesn’t hear, but likes to imagine was something to the extent of “good boy.”
His mother carries him to bed and puts him to sleep. He wakes up early the next morning, before the sun is up, and certainly before his parents are up. He creeps down the stairs and to the kitchen, where he grabs a cleaver and leftover meat. He goes outside and he finds the dog. He comes back and cleans the knife, carefully puts it back in its place, and returns to bed.
---
Harold is a completely average student, and all the parent-teacher conferences are the same, with only small requests to go over the multiplication table with him, encourage him to make friends, nothing to worry about.
The first and last time he gets in a fight is in 6th grade. Apparently a kid talks about his dad, so Trombley breaks his nose. He gets a one-week suspension from school. The kid gets the same punishment but stays out for two weeks because he need reconstructive surgery.
The parents threaten to press assault charges, but the family lawyers settle out of court. During one of the conferences Harold attended, the kid’s lawyer listed off all the possible punishments. One of the compromises discussed was Trombley attending a marine military academy. His parents balked, which Trombley could not understand, and it was finally decided he would simply transfer to another public school.
Privately, he researched military schools, reading through pamphlets and articles in the public library’s newspapers. He sees the uniforms and buzz cuts, and something stirs inside of him. He doesn’t mention his interest to parents.
In his new school, there are plenty of rumors surrounding him. Thankfully, no one bothers him again, but no one speaks much to him either.
---
Trombley meets his girlfriend in high school. She had just transferred from California in the middle of his sophomore year. They were both taking Honors Chemistry, and she naturally became his lap partner because everyone else had paired up.
He introduces himself as Harold Trombley and she shakes his hand before excitedly throwing herself into the class, making sure that she is as far along in the class as the other students.
Harold doesn’t even bother to ask her name until he is in the hallway one day and he realizes as he passes her by he doesn’t know what to call out. Andy. It’s actually Andrea, but she prefers Andy.
Harold is extremely conscious of how others treat him. They tend to think that he is idiotic. Andy listens to his musings and responds to them, which is more than he ever got from anybody else.
Andy helps him realize that he may not be completely normal because she listens to him. When he tells her the story of the dog she states very seriously that sort of behavior could be considered disturbing.
He also notices he has a disproportionate interest in wars when compared to his classmates. The time he doesn’t spend in school is generally spent in the library, reading biographies and renting VHS tapes documenting WWII or Vietnam. He frequently skips pages or fast forwards until he gets to the fighting, and he feels his fingers tingle with something incomprehensible.
He mentions his interest to Andy once. Her father is a veteran and she doesn’t care much for war. She notes the excitement on his face before shifting uncomfortably and suggesting that maybe he could be a historian one day.
Harold wonders if she finds him disturbing. He never asks her, but assumes she doesn’t because she continues to be his lab partner.
---
Harold knows that boys think Andy is beautiful. He notices them sidle up to her or call her ‘Andrea’ like it was a secret only they knew. He also knows Andy has no interest in them. At the same time, he feels only the very barest hints of interest toward her.
Despite this, when Andy asks him out to junior prom, he agrees. She picks him up because he doesn’t have a car. Harold’s mom is fixing his tie when the doorbell rings. Andy grins beatifically and his mother stiffens. His father comes down the steps and sets a hand on Harold’s shoulder.
His father wishes them both well before he opens the door for them. They step outside and walk to the car. Trombley looks back and sees his mother is illuminated by the light of the house. She seems to take a step out of the foyer, but his father is there to give her a quiet word, and she simply waves to him.
They drive to the hotel where prom is being held, and stay for nearly two hours. They only dance to the slow songs. Andy kisses him and he thinks of Disney World.
He pays for the hotel room where they stay the night. He loses his virginity. He isn’t sure if Andy loses hers. Before they leave, he takes a soap bar that has the hotel’s name engraved on it.
Andy drops him off at his house in time for breakfast. His mother is ashen-faced and the food is slightly overcooked.
---
Trombley proposes to Andy the same day he tells her he is going to Iraq. She doesn’t seem surprised when he drops to one knee and pulls out a ring box. He doesn’t open it, simply presses it into her palm.
“Keep this until I come back. When I get back, I’ll get you whatever kinda ring you want.”
She asks if he’s told his parents yet. He had. His mother did not cry, but his father had. His strong father was the one to have his hand held by his mother as he silently cried.
Harold had written a letter to give to his mother, but they had all been sitting down for lunch and his father had asked him to pass the salt and Harold had passed the salt and then Harold said he was leaving. The letter was only slightly more delicate.
Andy smiles sagely as he tells the story. It’s the last time he sees her smile until he gets back home, because despite protests from his mother, he ships off alone.
a piece on Harold James Trombley
Harold James Trombley had a completely supportive family; absolutely lovely folks. Nobody understood how such a lovely couple could have had such a troubled boy.
He was born in the summer with no complications. A perfectly healthy boy. They brought him home two days later, and the neighbors adored him for the first year. His parents were overjoyed until he started moving around on his own.
The baby would hit his head over and over against the crib. It would make this terribly loud sound, could a baby really have that much strength?, they wondered. When they took him to the doctor, he waved it off, saying it was generally normal behavior and not to worry unless the baby wasn’t developing.
No matter how gently the doctor tried to put this, the Harold’s mother was upset by the action and would sit by the crib all night to watch over him. Even if her husband offered to watch the baby, she would lie awake in bed, listening for the thumping noise.
The moment she’d hear a single sound, she would throw the covers off and rush to the baby’s room. The look she would give her husband stung more than any words could. The baby’s growth continued normally, and his mother took such pride in her instinct to protect her son that she stopped going to the doctor completely.
Despite this, the child developed properly with only a few scares, like when Harold caught the flu two months after his first birthday.
When he turned three, Harold’s parents took him to Disney World. He began crying when the fireworks went off, and his mother carried him back to their hotel. Cradled in her arms, he dozed off while watching his father carry their bags and push the stroller several paces behind them.
On his first day of school, his mother was hysterical. She gripped his arms too tightly when she hugged him goodbye in the classroom. His father was outside waiting in the car, just like all the other parents. At the end of the day, only his father came to pick him up. His mother had spent all day at home pacing and nearly going to pick him up again, until she had accidentally fallen asleep. On the way home, they stopped by the convenience store and bought him Charms.
---
His dad gets bitten by a dog when he is about nine years old. Harold and his father had been walking the bike trails near their home when the stray had come up to them. His father took a quick step in front of the boy, and the dog lurched forward.
Harold didn’t see exactly what happened, only that his father’s towering form crumpled, and the dog yelped before scampering away. There was blood all over his father’s arm. His father slowly gathered himself up and offered his unharmed hand to his son. Together they walked home.
His mother is reading a book when they get back home. It’s a romance novel. His father plainly states that he needs to be driven to the hospital. His mother puts the book down, marking her place. She looks at her boy, then back at her husband.
“You can’t drive yourself?”
His father shakes his head. She sighs, then gets up to fetch the keys. She leads her husband to the door, Trombley following them both until his father turns around and crouches down to face him.
“Stay here for now.”
Trombley’s mother begins to protest, but his father gently shakes his head.
“He doesn’t need to see this.”
She pauses and finally seems to take notice of her husband’s state. She nods grimly and they both leave without a word.
He stands perfectly still in the foyer until they return. His father’s hand and arm is bandaged, and he uses his good hand to ruffle his son’s hair. He murmurs something Harold doesn’t hear, but likes to imagine was something to the extent of “good boy.”
His mother carries him to bed and puts him to sleep. He wakes up early the next morning, before the sun is up, and certainly before his parents are up. He creeps down the stairs and to the kitchen, where he grabs a cleaver and leftover meat. He goes outside and he finds the dog. He comes back and cleans the knife, carefully puts it back in its place, and returns to bed.
---
Harold is a completely average student, and all the parent-teacher conferences are the same, with only small requests to go over the multiplication table with him, encourage him to make friends, nothing to worry about.
The first and last time he gets in a fight is in 6th grade. Apparently a kid talks about his dad, so Trombley breaks his nose. He gets a one-week suspension from school. The kid gets the same punishment but stays out for two weeks because he need reconstructive surgery.
The parents threaten to press assault charges, but the family lawyers settle out of court. During one of the conferences Harold attended, the kid’s lawyer listed off all the possible punishments. One of the compromises discussed was Trombley attending a marine military academy. His parents balked, which Trombley could not understand, and it was finally decided he would simply transfer to another public school.
Privately, he researched military schools, reading through pamphlets and articles in the public library’s newspapers. He sees the uniforms and buzz cuts, and something stirs inside of him. He doesn’t mention his interest to parents.
In his new school, there are plenty of rumors surrounding him. Thankfully, no one bothers him again, but no one speaks much to him either.
---
Trombley meets his girlfriend in high school. She had just transferred from California in the middle of his sophomore year. They were both taking Honors Chemistry, and she naturally became his lap partner because everyone else had paired up.
He introduces himself as Harold Trombley and she shakes his hand before excitedly throwing herself into the class, making sure that she is as far along in the class as the other students.
Harold doesn’t even bother to ask her name until he is in the hallway one day and he realizes as he passes her by he doesn’t know what to call out. Andy. It’s actually Andrea, but she prefers Andy.
Harold is extremely conscious of how others treat him. They tend to think that he is idiotic. Andy listens to his musings and responds to them, which is more than he ever got from anybody else.
Andy helps him realize that he may not be completely normal because she listens to him. When he tells her the story of the dog she states very seriously that sort of behavior could be considered disturbing.
He also notices he has a disproportionate interest in wars when compared to his classmates. The time he doesn’t spend in school is generally spent in the library, reading biographies and renting VHS tapes documenting WWII or Vietnam. He frequently skips pages or fast forwards until he gets to the fighting, and he feels his fingers tingle with something incomprehensible.
He mentions his interest to Andy once. Her father is a veteran and she doesn’t care much for war. She notes the excitement on his face before shifting uncomfortably and suggesting that maybe he could be a historian one day.
Harold wonders if she finds him disturbing. He never asks her, but assumes she doesn’t because she continues to be his lab partner.
---
Harold knows that boys think Andy is beautiful. He notices them sidle up to her or call her ‘Andrea’ like it was a secret only they knew. He also knows Andy has no interest in them. At the same time, he feels only the very barest hints of interest toward her.
Despite this, when Andy asks him out to junior prom, he agrees. She picks him up because he doesn’t have a car. Harold’s mom is fixing his tie when the doorbell rings. Andy grins beatifically and his mother stiffens. His father comes down the steps and sets a hand on Harold’s shoulder.
His father wishes them both well before he opens the door for them. They step outside and walk to the car. Trombley looks back and sees his mother is illuminated by the light of the house. She seems to take a step out of the foyer, but his father is there to give her a quiet word, and she simply waves to him.
They drive to the hotel where prom is being held, and stay for nearly two hours. They only dance to the slow songs. Andy kisses him and he thinks of Disney World.
He pays for the hotel room where they stay the night. He loses his virginity. He isn’t sure if Andy loses hers. Before they leave, he takes a soap bar that has the hotel’s name engraved on it.
Andy drops him off at his house in time for breakfast. His mother is ashen-faced and the food is slightly overcooked.
---
Trombley proposes to Andy the same day he tells her he is going to Iraq. She doesn’t seem surprised when he drops to one knee and pulls out a ring box. He doesn’t open it, simply presses it into her palm.
“Keep this until I come back. When I get back, I’ll get you whatever kinda ring you want.”
She asks if he’s told his parents yet. He had. His mother did not cry, but his father had. His strong father was the one to have his hand held by his mother as he silently cried.
Harold had written a letter to give to his mother, but they had all been sitting down for lunch and his father had asked him to pass the salt and Harold had passed the salt and then Harold said he was leaving. The letter was only slightly more delicate.
Andy smiles sagely as he tells the story. It’s the last time he sees her smile until he gets back home, because despite protests from his mother, he ships off alone.