Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 08:26:23 -0800 From: fritz@nehalemtel.net Subject: I Love Corey, Chapter Seventy Once again it is time for the usual bulls@@t. Most of you already know what I'm talking about, but in case someone new is reading this, that means that anyone under lawful age should leave immediately, like right now. For those unfamiliar with the term lawful age, it varies but is generally eighteen years of age, although some areas require you to be twenty-one years of age to be reading material such as this story. Then there are those people who might become offended at reading a story which sometimes contains descriptions of gay sex. For you, I suggest that you also leave quickly. That will prevent you from reading such despicable things, which I sometimes remember to include in the story. I find I am able to offend far too many people without adding you to the list. Now I'm down to warning those people who live in an area in which the reading of this story is illegal. While I feel very sorry for you, all I can do is suggest you leave. Sorry I don't have a better suggestion, but I fear you will have little luck getting the law changed so you can read stories of this type. Even suggesting a change in such a law will probably get you ostracized by all the `Good' folks in your area. For those who are curious, the characters and events in the story never existed or happened. That makes it fiction. Fiction is not true! Always remember that. That means that any resemblance, you might think you see, to any persons, living or dead, or any events that have taken place within your knowledge, are erroneous. The characters and events are figments of my imagination. While I freely grant you permission to read and enjoy the story, please respect my rights as an author. That means crediting me for any quotes you might use from the story, and not using it in a commercial manner. However, if you happen upon some commercial manner in which to use the story, please contact me. I'm sure we can work something out. And no, I wasn't talking about that. I was referring to sharing any financial rewards from the story. Once again Don has graciously contributed his time and effort to make this a better story. His editing finds so many errors that I am sometimes am forced to wonder where my mind was. Then again, there are those who would say "what mind?" The worst part about it is that I'm inclined to agree with them. Anyhow, he has my thanks for his work and should also have yours. Cheer up, I'm almost done with the warning and disclaimer. All I have left to say is feel free to write with any suggestions, questions, comments or criticisms you have regarding the story. I try to respond to any such emails. Don't forget to put "I Love Corey" in the subject line of your email. You can reach me at fritz@nehalemtel.net I hope you enjoy the following chapter. Fritz **************************************************************************** I Love Corey, Chapter Seventy So there I sat, paralyzed with fear, while Jerry thumbed through the pile of papers on his desk. He wouldn't even look at me. After what seemed like forever, although it was probably only a few seconds, he found the one he was looking for. All I could hope for was that I would at least have a chance to say goodbye to Corey and tell him how much I loved him. "I know you'll be happy to learn that the board is thrilled with the results of the counselor program. In fact, they want to extend it to the high school. However, they want you to do it." Jerry finally looked up at me. "That presents a problem because I've heard you say that you really loved teaching in middle school." He chuckled and continued, "In fact, you've been a little outspoken on the subject." He then looked back at the paper he had withdrawn from the pile. "Here's what they decided. Since you're more than qualified to teach at the high school level, they want you to split your time, teaching half a day at this school, and half a day at the high school. I told them I didn't know if you would accept such an idea, but said I'd talk to you and find out." Jerry again looked up at me. "I'll tell you I really fought against this idea, but lost. They wanted to just transfer you to the high school because they thought that the high school students needed you more than the middle school one's. So, as it now stands, you can go for this split school deal or transfer to the high school. I know I'm selfish, but I really wanted you to stay here and this was the best I could come up with." With that he paused, waiting for some kind of answer. I was totally speechless. One minute I had been preparing myself for jail and here was Jerry, wanting to know if I'd accept a change in my teaching duties. I was still trying to get my breathing to start again and he wanted answers about something I'd never given a thought to. About that time the coffee mug slipped through my hands and hot coffee spilled all over a very tender and private part of me. "Ooooow," I howled, jumping to my feet. The mug continued on down to the floor but at least it didn't break. It wouldn't have made any difference if it had because I was too busy trying to pull my now very hot pants away from my body, especially that tender and private place. At least I was no longer feeling paralyzed. "Damn that's hot!" Jerry jumped up and asked, "Are you okay?" I was still dancing around, trying to get my scalding hot pants away from some tender places. However, it was getting a little better. I couldn't figure out if my pants were getting cooler, or poor Junior was so damaged it couldn't feel anymore. About then my pants slipped out of my grasp and once again came in contact. Nope, there was certainly no lack of feeling in Junior. I got my pants pulled away again and could tell they were finally cooling off. Shortly my pants had cooled sufficiently to let go of them. Outside of being wet, I appeared to be alright. "I guess I'll live," I told Jerry. "Do you want to see the nurse and get some salve or something for it?" Now Nurse Kostic was about sixty years old, never married, was at least a hundred pounds overweight, and her name accurately described her demeanor around adults. She had retired and moved to the area a few years before I came to the district, but had been bored. So she had looked around, decided that she liked kids, and had talked the school board into giving her a part-time job, which meant she didn't get much money. Her idea of a part-time job was that she sat in the nurse's area and read romance novels and stayed at the school most of the day. It worked out well for everyone because it gave her a feeling of importance and normally meant that there was someone on campus to take care of all the little scrapes and bruises kids get. She had been almost sick over the fact that she had not been available when Justin got hurt, but had been at her mother's funeral. She was surprisingly gentle with the kids and they all liked her. However, something about the thought of having Nurse Kostic smear salve on my somewhat scalded penis just tickled my funny bone. I started laughing. "I don't think so. I wouldn't want to excite her," I told him. It took Jerry a few seconds to process that comment, and when he did, he joined me in laughter. "You're right, we don't need an excited Nurse Kostic," he snickered. The hot coffee, and thinking about an excited Nurse Kostic had taken my mind off going to jail, so I was able to look at the school boards' proposal in a better frame of mind. I wasn't very happy with it, but told Jerry that I would think about it and get back to him next week. We talked about how it might work and finally I headed for the locker room to change clothes and start practice. We didn't have many days left to get ready for the season. Practice went pretty well. I was pleased to see the glasses had helped Billy and Charlie. It wasn't that they were hitting the ball any better, but their swings looked a lot better. They were no longer just wildly flailing away, but instead looked like they were actually trying to hit the ball. I was sure it would take them a while to really adapt to being able to see better, but at least they now had a better chance at both sports and school. Sure, there had been a few cracks about the glasses, but it hadn't taken me long to take care of that. A few words, with those making such cracks, had soon taken root and the comments had dried up. Of course Mrs. Downey nailed me when we stopped for groceries. If I had thought Jerry was putting pressure on me to accept the school boards offer, I didn't know what pressure was. I just wanted to go home and fix dinner, but Mrs. Downey was having none of that. I kept trying to explain that I really wanted to think it over, and maybe even talk it over with the boys, but she just wouldn't leave me alone. After a while the boys were standing around, looking pitiful, but she paid no attention to them. I finally agreed. It was either that or starve. Besides, it was either agree or she would never let me go and the boys were about ready to eat anything in sight. Walt had left a note saying the downstairs bedrooms were finished and that a bill would soon be mailed. Since I'd advanced him most of his estimate, the remaining amount shouldn't be much. The boys decided they could wait on dinner long enough to take a quick look at the finished bedrooms. We all agreed that things looked great, but the boys didn't want to get involved with curtains. While the downstairs' windows were small and high up, they still needed curtains. For that matter, the boys' rooms also needed new curtains. The boys all groaned when I told them we would make a quick trip to Redding to pick out new curtains in the morning. You would have thought I was going to torture them by those groans and the bitching that accompanied them. There was one other reason I wanted to go to Redding, and that was LT's birthday was rapidly approaching. In fact, the next month was going to produce three birthdays, LT, JJ, and me. I wasn't really sure what to get LT, but hoped he might see something he wanted. So far the only idea I had was an iPod. LT, JJ, and Corey had really eyeballed those while we were back east and the boys still talked about how neat they were. Maybe that and a few clothes would be sufficient. So far he hadn't progressed far enough in his shooting to warrant a shotgun and I wasn't sure he really wanted one. Also, Redding wouldn't be the proper place to find one anyway. Maybe we could take a look while we were at Disneyland over spring vacation, or break, or whatever you wanted to call it. I know I was looking forward to the time off. Maybe I could just relax a little and get myself charged up again. The boys didn't have much homework, so it didn't take long to do that after dinner. I talked them into doing it tonight rather than wait until Sunday by pointing out they weren't doing anything this evening, and we probably would spend a lot of Sunday evening with the Sterretts, talking about the ideas for helping kids with no one to talk to. I'd already promised to take them to a movie Saturday night so that one was filled up. Bob would be over for dinner and an art lesson on Saturday also so that pretty well filled the weekend up. It was getting pretty close to bedtime when the phone rang. It was Uncle Matt and we started out on the speakerphone with the boys all listening and joining in. On the other end Kevin and Kristen dominated for a while, but soon Aunt Sandy took them off to bed. Uncle Matt finally suggested that just the two of us talk and switched back over to the regular handset. Sometimes I just think it would be easier to get rid of all the money. Uncle Matt had some ideas he wanted me to think about, well actually invest money in. Before the conversation was over, I had a couple of pages of notes and the boys had given up and gone to bed an hour ago. However I did bring up the subject of investing in some property, specifically the building that housed the restaurant in the Castro district. Uncle Matt told me he had a friend in San Francisco that he would talk with and let me know. He had also done some investigating and thought the plan, organized by Russ Young, my attorney, for scholarships was excellent. He had some suggestions about the investments, but told me to tell Russ to get started. He also warned me he was sending a fax with all the information about how my investments were doing, and they were doing pretty well. They'd done so well last year I about had a heart attack when I got my income tax form from my accountant. Paying that much money to the government seemed obscene. What had really scared me was some of the things the accountant had deducted. I sure hoped that accountant knew what he was doing or else I'd be in jail. We finally said goodnight and I headed off for bed. Saturday morning was much like normal. I finally got the bottomless pits temporarily filled up and the laundry started. Both were losing causes, but I kept working away at them, hoping that someday I would get caught up. When I finished moving a load of clothes from the washer to the dryer, I got to thinking. There was plenty of room and maybe another washer and dryer would speed things up a little. As it now was, it seemed like I ran up and down the steps all the time doing wash, and that didn't include what the boys did. A little thinking and the number of loads of wash staggered me. There were always at least four loads of bedding a week, five or six loads of jeans, four or five loads of white things, and several loads of miscellaneous colored wash. To add to it, there always seemed to be some whining, from various boys, about this wasn't clean, or that was still in the wash. While I usually managed to get one load done each evening, that still left a lot for the weekends. In fact, the washer and dryer seemed to run all weekend, from morning to night. The washer and dryer had been Mom and Dad's and had many loads under their belts. I really needed to think about the subject. If I had two of each, I should be able to cut the time in half. When we went somewhere it was even worse because the laundry really piled up then. I threw another load in the washer and headed back upstairs. It was time to head for Redding. Needless to say I wasn't the most popular person when I drug the boys in to look at curtains. I was even less popular when I made them actually look at them and asked them which ones they wanted. Somehow curtains and boys don't seem to go together. The sales lady had a wicked sense of humor and suggested pink. That at least got their attention, and after that they showed a little interest. Only Corey really paid any attention to how things might look, and the rest were happy as long as the curtains weren't pink. I had all the measurements and as luck would have it, all were in stock so at least we could take them home with us. I will say I was somewhat shocked over the price. My popularity went down even further when I decided to check the appliance store that was right next to the place where we got the curtains. You would have thought I was torturing them from all the rolled eyes and groans I received. Even the statement that it might cut down on the laundry time didn't seem to help so I just ignored them and started looking. A real nice salesman came up and asked what I was interested in. I explained about the number of loads of washing I was doing and even joked that sometimes I felt like just going to the Laundromat so I could get it all done at once, and before I knew it he suggested a commercial washer and dryer. I'd never thought along those lines before, but it sounded interesting. Of course it wasn't interesting to the boys, but I was still ignoring them. When he told me how many sheets I could put in some models at once, I became very interested. Holy lightening, that would really cut down on the laundry time. However, when he got to the price, that really cooled me off. My God, some cars cost less than some of those washer and dryer sets. My trusty salesman wasn't done yet. It just so happened that he had taken a set in on consignment that was only ten months old. The motel it had come out of was being torn down so a bigger and better one could be built. In fact, it had only been used for about five months before the motel closed down. It still had most of the three-year warranty left on it and he could make me a super deal. I still wasn't happy with the price, but the thoughts of only doing one load of sheets per week sounded pretty good. Then that sneaky salesman pointed out that it wasn't all that much more than two washers and dryers. Well, that's what he said. I think almost twice as much is quite a bit more. When that sneaky salesman saw my eyebrows go up, he led me over to the normal household washers and dryers. Now you have to understand, I never really paid much attention before and the price of new washers was a lot more than those ads you see. Sure, he had some of those inexpensive washers and dryers, but the savings between the cost of operation in a front loader and a top loader would soon make up for the difference in the price of the washers. The next thing I knew, I was back in the warehouse area looking at the set. They looked brand new. I mean you couldn't tell they had ever been used. The dryer was even propane fired and that was great for me. About that time the owner of the store came wandering by and stopped to visit. I'd bought my big commercial range from him and he remembered me. The next thing I knew, the price came down some and I was the proud owner of a new, to me, washer and dryer. They promised to deliver them on Monday and even bring their own people to hook them up. I had a propane line already in the laundry area and the plumbing was adequate, according to the store's owner, so it looked like everything was a go on this project. They were the same brand that the school had so I was familiar with them, and the ones in the school had never missed a beat that I knew of. We decided to leave the old washer and dryer in place for small loads. I did have to draw a diagram of where the water shutoffs were, but they assured me they could handle everything else. Since the breaker panel was in the laundry area that made it easy to hook up the wiring. By now the boys were about ready to kill me, but they cheered right up when I suggested lunch. We cruised over to the Red Robin and filled up on their burgers. Even the boys were full when they finished theirs. They should have been because they ate my fries and had dessert. Where they put it I have no idea. Even Mark managed to eat his share. Poor LT, I made him sit in the pickup while the rest of us stood behind it and talked over our strategy. We couldn't come up with much he really wanted, so I just gave the boys some money and told them to take him with them and let him pick out what he wanted and I would pick up an iPod for him. The mention of the iPod and I could just see all of them drooling. We agreed to meet at 2:30 and compare notes on how it was going. They headed into the mall and I took off to buy the iPod. It went even better than I expected and I was back at the mall long before I was supposed to meet them, so I just wandered around for a while, looking to see if I could come up with any other ideas. The rest of the boys were going to buy him some more new clothes and when we met up, I would take him and they wound then pick out some CDs and maybe a video game or two. The clothes wouldn't be a surprise, but the rest of it should be. I figured it was better to let LT have the final say on the clothes because that way he wouldn't get anything he didn't like. We met at the food court and the boys just had to have ice cream. I should have expected that because it had been almost an hour and a half since lunch. JJ managed to get me aside while LT was getting his ice cream and asked me if I could look at something with him. It seemed he had an idea for LT and wanted my opinion, and if you believe that, I have a bunch of bridges I'll sell you. It only took me about half a second to figure out he needed money and my opinion was only an excuse to try to talk me out of some. I might have ribbed him a little, but LT showed up with his ice cream and that put an end to the conversation. It didn't take long until the ice cream was only a memory and it was time to get back to shopping. I thought I saw most of the boys take a longing look at the counter where the ice cream was sold, but they seemed to accept the fact it was time to finish the shopping. JJ, LT, and I went one direction and the rest of the boys went the other direction. Soon we found a store where I told LT he had to stay until JJ and I returned for him. I even threatened him with no presents if I caught him so much as peeking out the door and into the mall. With that, JJ took off, leading me to what he had found. What he had found was a display of turquoise bracelets. He'd seen them while walking past, but hadn't had time to actually pick one out. When we went into the store, there were many more for sale, and only part of them were Indian designs. There were also lots of gold bracelets for sale. Now the fun could really start. "Well Jason, how much were you figuring on spending?" I asked him. "Idono." Typical answer. In other words he had no idea because he'd never thought that far ahead. "You don't know?" I replied. "That makes it pretty hard to pick one out if you've no idea of how much money you're willing to spend." About that time a clerk showed up and JJ had to pay attention to him. "May I help you with something?" the clerk asked, looking at me. "I'm not the one buying, you'll have to help Jason," I replied. It didn't take long for the clerk to extract a little information from JJ. Once he had done that, he started showing him bracelets. He showed him Indian made bracelets, identity bracelets, and chain style bracelets. JJ kept coming back to the Indian made bracelets, but most of them were rather cheap and looked pretty fragile. Then the clerk got out another tray and that tray had cuff bracelets. The quality looked a lot better and the clerk told us they were by known artists. The quality really jumped, as did the price, however the price was still pretty reasonable. Still I could tell JJ wasn't finding just what he was looking for. The clerk put that tray back and we moving down the counter to look at some more when something caught JJ's eye. It was a link bracelet, not an Indian design but rather an identity bracelet and appeared to be done in silver and gold. The links had a substantial look to them and the whole thing was nicely proportioned. It was just heavy enough to be very masculine without looking overpowering. JJ asked to see it. As soon as it was out of the display case I could see it wasn't silver and gold, but rather white and yellow gold. It was mainly white gold with tiny strips of yellow gold on each of the links, almost like a shadow line to accent the squarish shape of each link. It really was nice, and I could see that JJ thought it was also. Then he learned the price. Actually, I didn't think the price was bad. It was only four hundred dollars and was a lot more attractive than the average identity bracelet. However JJ just seemed to kind of freeze up when he heard the price. He looked at a few more bracelets, but you could tell his heart was no longer in it. I finally asked the clerk to give us a couple of minutes alone so we could talk things over. "You really liked that one bracelet, didn't you?" I started out. "Yeah, it was nice," he said in a somewhat dejected voice. "But I don't have that much money with me." "How much money did you bring with you?" I asked. JJ immediately started digging through his pocket and brought out his money. There was the fifty-dollar bill I had given him to shop with, and some other bills. When he added it up, he had $193.00. That meant he had brought about every dimes worth the cash he had with him to buy LT a birthday present. Now I was faced with a problem. Should I offer to give him the necessary money to buy the bracelet, or should I offer to loan it to him. I also knew he didn't have much in his savings account because the boys had moved most of their savings into their investment accounts a couple of weeks ago. Damn, I wasn't old enough to be a parent and had no idea how to handle it. It wasn't like I didn't have plenty of money, but would giving it to him be the right or the wrong thing to do? I sure didn't want the boys to think money grew on trees. I really don't know why I was even worrying about it because his slumped shoulders and sad face had won me over before I ever even considered the problem. I just got out my billfold, removed three one-hundred dollar bills and handed them to him. "Here, go buy your boy his birthday present." JJ's face lit up in a huge grin and that grin was worth far more than the three hundred dollars I'd just handed him. It made his dimples stand out and he looked so cute I just couldn't resist. I pulled him to me and gave him a big hug. That hug was returned. He started to say something just as I released him, but I just pushed him gently in the direction of the counter with the bracelet and the still waiting clerk, telling him, "Hurry up, LT's waiting for us and he's probably bored to tears by now. You take care of it and I'll go calm him down. Meet you there in a few minutes." As I left I glanced at my watch and was surprised to see the amount of time that picking out the bracelet had taken. As I hurried towards the store LT was waiting in, I had that warm fuzzy feeling inside me that's hard to describe. Something about JJ's grin just made me feel great. All I could think of was how great it was to have a happy boy, and JJ was certainly happy when I left him. I was also right in that LT was pacing at the front of the store where we'd left him. He looked like he needed calming down, just like I'd told JJ. Now I didn't have any idea what to do. Sure, I had LT in tow, but I had no idea where Corey, Mark, and Kyle were, and as far as that went, I didn't know how long it would take JJ to show up because I suddenly realized there was the little matter of engraving. The Lord only knew if JJ would wait for it, or just give the clerk the information and leave. There's an old saying that the devil finds things for idle hands to do, and it just so happened that there was a cell phone kiosk right there in front of me. If the boys had cell phones, I could find out where they were, and I could also learn if JJ was going to wait for the engraving, or not. Hmmmm, should I or shouldn't I? It wouldn't hurt to look, would it? Maybe JJ would show up before I learned anything. The kiosk might have been small, but it sure had a lot of phones to look at. While I was kind of a gadget freak, phones had never interested me. I'd had the same old cell phone for several years, and it was just a basic phone. I mean really, what is a phone supposed to be? It's an instrument to talk on, right? Well I was sure wrong about that. The new phones had little screens that showed pictures and could display text. Not only that, there was even a camera in some of them so you could take pictures and send them to your friends. Besides, they weren't really very expensive. Then we got into a discussion about the various types of service. I kind of lost track of the time and pretty soon Corey, Kyle, and Mark showed up. Of course they were just eating up all those high tech phones and somewhere along the way it went from just looking at phones in general, to which ones would the boys like. The girl running the kiosk explained the advantages of the various types of service. Then my present phone came up. She glanced at it and told me several of the new phones would work well with my current plan. I'm glad she knew because I didn't even know there were other types of service. Well actually, I seemed to remember something about that when I got my phone, but had just brushed it off. I'd been more concerned with coverage and had ignored about everything else. We'd narrowed it down to a couple by the time JJ showed up. The boys were looking at one from Motorola and one from Samsung, while I kind of liked the Ericsson. I was also still trying to decide what to upgrade my plan to. I figured the boys would burn up a lot of minutes until things kind of calmed down. It took another hour until we finally all had a phone, and were ready to leave. What a mess. I had thought it would be a rather simple little project, but that wasn't the way it had turned out. At least I got to keep my old number, and that was nice. The new phone was even a little smaller than the old one. Still, I was out twelve hundred dollars, and that didn't cover the one phone that came with the new plan I'd upgraded to. I hoped the boys enjoyed them as much as they thought they would. They might not have enjoyed the morning shopping, but the afternoon had been right down their alley. I just wish that toys for boys were a little cheaper. Of course there was the little problem of getting to the pickup. We had to go past the food court again, with predictable results. I would have had to blind them and cover their noses to get them past it and on to the pickup. I was beginning to think that the designers of the mall had known about the boys and plotted against me. No matter where I parked, and which door we entered by, we always seemed to get hung up at the food court. I had thought I might sneak them past it because they were all so busy jabbering about their cell phones, but alas, the smell of food made the cell phones a forgotten subject. I did manage to hold them down to a donut and soft drink, but just barely. The worst part of it was that the donuts smelled so good I had to have one and my waistline didn't really need it. Still, the coffee wasn't bad, and the donut was even better. I really like raised donuts. I had to put a stop to it. I mean after all, they didn't need to call each other while sitting side by side in the pickup. Kyle and Mark were doing pretty well, but the other three were just like two-year olds with a box of candy. In fact, I think Kyle and Mark actually listened to what I said about using the new phones. The others just seemed to ignore me. It was time to really lay down the law. "Look guys, you better listen to me. Each of you has three hundred anytime minutes a month. That means just about ten minutes a day, on average. If you go over that, I'll take your phone away for a month. If you go over it a second time, I'll take it away for two months. Plus, I'll hold the cost of those extra minutes out of your allowances, and those minutes cost forty cents a minute. Also, text messaging costs ten cents for both incoming and outgoing messages, so that means if you send a text message to each other, that costs twenty cents for each message, ten cents to each phone and you have to pay for that." Sudden silence. I appeared to have gotten their attention. "What are anytime minutes?" Corey asked. "This plan says that those are for minutes used between the hours of seven in the morning and nine in the evening, Monday through Friday. Basically the weekends are free and you can use the phones all you want. Of course the text messaging fees still apply on the weekends." "You mean we can only use the phones ten minutes a day?" LT whined. "Not quite. You can use them up to three hundred minutes a month. That's five hours. You can use all your minutes on one day if you want to. However, I'd suggest that you use the house phones as much as possible and just use the cell phones when you really need them. Also remember that if your friends call you, that counts against your minutes, unless they call after nine or on the weekends." "That sucks," LT muttered. "What, you don't want the phone? I can take it back tomorrow," I snapped. Needless to say, LT didn't want his phone to go back. I explained a little more about how the plan worked and I was just about done when we got home. Hopefully I had gotten through to them and the phone bill would be within reason. If not, I could always take the phones away. In the meantime I needed to get started on dinner. Bob would be joining us so he could give Corey another art lesson. I had some steaks that would taste good off of the barbecue and all I had to do was come up with the rest of the meal. I quick look in the fridge and I decided some asparagus would taste good. It was the time of year that the asparagus was really tasty and I had purchased some yesterday. The boys weren't big on it so maybe I should see what else I could find. Nothing looked good, so I was down to green beans for them. I could dice up a little bacon and some onion to go in the beans. That left me wondering what to serve as a starch. I had decided to fix a carrot and apple salad, so I really would prefer something with some color in it. I decided on twice-baked potatoes because I had a bunch of them in the freezer. They were the ones fixed with pimiento so they were pink in color. All in all, a simple but filling dinner, even for my bottomless pits. I diced up some onion, added some olive oil, red wine, some garlic, and some spices for a marinade and put the steaks in it. I also got out the twice-baked potatoes, noting that I only had two left. What the hell, there really wasn't any reason to have two in the freezer, so I took them out also. Then it was on to the salad. It seemed like I peeled carrots forever before I had enough to make the salad. I ran them through the grater on my mixer and set them aside. Then there were the apples to peel. If I thought it took a lot of carrots, the apples were even worse. I finally had enough peeled and switched grater cylinders and grated them. I mixed in the juice of a lemon with the apples and then added them to the carrots. I decided to add some pineapple because I had some fresh pineapple so I diced up some and added it. Some mayonnaise mixed in and the salad was done. I diced up several slices of bacon and started it cooking in the bottom of the sauce-pan. When it was pretty well rendered out, I added a couple cans of green beans and a small diced yellow onion. That could simmer for a while. Meanwhile, it was time to start the barbecue. A half of sack of briquettes later, the fire was started. I glanced at my watch and figured Bob would be here in about forty-five minutes. That meant I had a little spare time. All of a sudden, I had an idea for dessert. Peach cobbler. Now there are tons of recipes for peach or other kinds of cobblers, but I did it the easy way. In fact it was so easy I could do it in my sleep. I got out a baking dish and some cans of sliced peaches. I melted a little butter in the dish, put a nice layer of peaches in, about two slices thick; added some flour, a little nutmeg, and some cinnamon to the juice and added that. Then I made some buttermilk biscuits. They were just ordinary biscuits except I used a lot more sugar in them. I didn't need any sugar in the peaches because they had been packed in heavy syrup. The syrup level in the dish slightly covered the top of the sliced peaches. I didn't bother to make little round biscuits but just took a knife and cut the dough into little squares and put those squares on top of the peaches, leaving a little room between each square. I knew it wasn't exactly what most people made, but it was good and it was easy. I was just putting it in a 350 degree oven when Bob showed up. The boys just had to show poor Bob their phones. They had been busy programming in phone numbers ever since we got home and hadn't bothered me. I somehow doubted that Bob really cared whether of not they had cell phones, but he tried to act interested. I mixed a couple of drinks and finally chased the boys off so Bob and I could enjoy them. Finally, it was time to start dinner. The potatoes went into the microwave to be heated and I took the steaks out to the barbecue. The coals were nice and hot so everything was looking good. The boys were unbelievable. They even scarfed down those two extra potatoes. However, they decided to wait on the cobbler. There was a small bowl of salad left, and a few spears of asparagus, but the beans were gone also. I could see I was going to have to start using bigger potatoes when I fixed twice-baked potatoes. It was either that or prepare a lot more of them. Bob and Corey headed off for Corey's lesson, and I got all kinds of groans when I suggested the kitchen needed to be cleaned up. Apparently the big dinner had taken its toll, but the boys managed to pick up the dishes and get them in the dishwasher. After that they just crashed, kind of like a lion after it has eaten. The television was on but they didn't even appear to be watching it. I just sat there with another glass of the wine and quietly snickered to myself at their lack of energy. Bob and Corey finished up and I suggested it was time for dessert, but still got no takers. However, the boys were coming out of their torpor. Instead the conversation turned to the boys and their ideas about starting a chapter of the Mail Crew. Bob was certainly no dummy. He looked the information over and made several suggestions about how to handle certain situations. Finally everyone agreed to dessert, so I dished out the cobbler and poured a little heavy cream on it. I was stunned when Kyle got up and got seconds, although it was a small serving he took. Bob was just about ready to leave so we could go and catch the late show when the doorbell rang. When I answered it, I was surprised to see Hank Wrangle, a city policeman, and Judy standing there. They asked me to step outside so they could talk with me for a few seconds. I was shocked by the news. Mrs. Babcock had been severely beaten and wasn't expected to live. She was in intensive care in a hospital in Sacramento. The information had come to the City Police Department and Hank had gotten in touch with Judy to make sure where Corey lived. Well actually he wanted to make sure which Corey the Sacramento Police were talking about because he didn't remember my Corey's last name. When she heard what the problem was, Judy decided to accompany him. Anyhow, there I was, with bad news I had to give Corey, and I was really sick about it. One other bad thing about it, as far as I was concerned, was I didn't really like Mrs. Babcock. She hadn't followed through with the payments for the car, every time I turned around she was causing Corey pain, she was a drug addict, and she had almost gotten me killed. Add to that she was a poor mother. That didn't give me much to like about her. Still, Corey loved her and I loved him. I knew it was going to upset him but I had to tell him. I thanked Hank and Judy and went back into the house to tell him the bad news. Hank had given me a piece of paper with the hospital phone number and address on it and I was wondering if I should call before I talked to him, or just tell him and then check and see how she was. As it turned out, I didn't really have a choice. Bob must have seen something was wrong from the expression on my face. When he asked me what was wrong, I was left without much choice except to tell Corey. Corey just acted stunned. I mean he didn't say anything or ask any questions, he just stood there. I decided to call and see what more I could find out. I swear to God I was ready to kill the lady that answered the telephone. I couldn't find out anything. It was a matter of patient privacy she told me. Even explaining that I was Mrs. Babcock's son's guardian didn't help. Fifteen minutes later I gave up on that approach. Then I tried another tack. I called my doctor, Vince Logan, and asked him if he could find out anything. He called back about ten minutes later and filled me in. Mrs. Babcock was unconscious and on life support and the prognosis wasn't good. While I'd been on the phone, Bob had told the boys to pack a few clothes. Well he was right. He took Dog home with him and I grabbed some clothes and away we went. It was 8:45 when we left the house and midnight when we got to the hospital. I would have made it a little sooner but I had to gas the Gator up. Thank God the CHP hadn't caught sight of me. Ever since I had given him the news about his mother, Corey had said little. In fact he had only asked me if we were going to the hospital to see her, and how long it would take. Since then he had remained silent. I knew he was hurting but couldn't do anything about it. Instead I drove and he just sat there in the passenger's seat, not saying anything, or even appearing to notice anything. As we got out of the Gator, I wondered what we would find when we got inside. I just hoped I could help Corey through it, no matter what it was. To be continued... Ah yes, peach cobbler, one of my favorites. It can be made with either fresh or canned peaches, and while there are differences between them, I like both. However, unless you have good fresh peaches, you are probably better off to make it with canned ones. Rarely do the peaches found in a supermarket make a good cobbler. For the most part they are tough and tasteless. Instead just buy good canned ones and go for it. In a 9 X 13 baking dish, melt a quarter pound of butter and then put the peaches in. If using sliced, they should be about 1-1/2 to 2 slices deep. If using halves, a tightly packed layer of peach halves will be about right. Be sure to save the liquid in the can. It will take about three 28 oz cans of sliced peaches. For each can of peach liquid, add three tablespoons of flour and a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg. So, for our recipe, that would be a scant teaspoon of nutmeg and nine tablespoons of flour. Then add half as much cinnamon as nutmeg. Therefore it would be a scant half-teaspoon of cinnamon. Mix the flour and spices into the liquid and add to the baking dish until the level of liquid is just slightly above the tops of the peaches. It is okay if there is an occasional bit of peach sticking up, but you want plenty of liquid in the dish. Next make the dough 2 cps flour 4 tbs. shortening 10 tbs sugar 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp soda 1-1/2 tsp baking powder 1 cup buttermilk Mix together dry ingredients and then cut in the shortening. Add buttermilk and mix. You should have a very sticky dough. On a floured surface, knead in enough flour to where you can just handle the dough without it sticking to your hands. Pat dough out until about 1/2 inch thick or slightly more. Cut into small squares, about one inch square. Place over fruit leaving a gap of 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch between each square. Bake in a 350-degree oven for about forty to forty-five minutes until the biscuits are nicely browned and the juice is bubbling. Let cool some and serve warm with a little heavy whipping cream poured over, or some ice cream. The biscuit recipe is my normal recipe except for the sugar. When just making biscuits, I only use 4 tbs of sugar in it. Then I brush the tops with melted butter and bake in a 425-degree oven for twenty minutes. If you are using fresh fruit, use about 1/2 cup of sugar for each two cups of fruit, depending on how sweet the peaches are, mixed with some water to replace the liquid from the canned peaches. For this sized cobbler, that will probably be around a cup, to one and one half cups of sugar. Just don't use quite as much liquid. The level should be just below the top of the fruit, if using fresh fruit. All else is about the same. Don't worry about how much liquid it will take. Just mix the sugar, flour and stuff with less water than you think you will need and pour it in. Then add enough water to bring it up to the level you want. To tell you the truth, it has been so many years since I used fresh peaches that I couldn't tell you how much fruit it takes. I just peeled peaches until I had enough and then went from there. As for the liquid, I've never measured it. When using canned, I just drain the peaches and put all the liquid in a bowl. I then add the flour and spices and use as much of it as it takes to get the level about right. Most of the time I have a little left to throw away, but sometimes it takes all of it. I suppose I could go make one and measure it out carefully so I could give you accurate measurements, but I'm too lazy to do that. Just go ahead and make it. It will turn out okay. Trust me on this. This isn't rocket science and you have to be way off to really foul it up. I just throw it together and put it in the oven. That works for me and will work for you. If you don't have quite enough squares of biscuit dough, place them further apart. If there isn't room for all of them, while leaving a gap, throw the extra dough away.