Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 05:32:31 -0700 From: fritz@nehalemtel.net Subject: I Love Corey, Chapter Eighty-seven Once again it is time to waste a bunch of words on a useless warning and disclaimer. I promise to use reject and cheap words, so there isn't much actual cost except for time and my time isn't all that valuable. All you young sprouts listen up. There are laws to protect you from evil people like me and this story, and in order to take advantage of them you need to leave this site immediately. That means no skimming to see if there are any dirty words or descriptions to get you aroused and excited. What's that you say? You want to be aroused and excited? Well just don't let anyone know you didn't leave, and I won't tell either. This warning clears my conscience, but you have to deal with your own. Now we come to the part about there sometimes being descriptions of gay sex acts in the story. Well, what did you expect on this site? Okay, so you stumbled on it accidentally by running a search for gay male stories or something like that, but to think there wouldn't be something about gay sex on this site is a little hard to believe. I'm pretty gullible, but even I can't swallow that you didn't expect to find such things in this story so don't blame me if such things upset you. Of course, by leaving immediately you will save yourself the shock of reading what I wrote. Should you be unfortunate enough to live where the reading of this and similar stories is against the law, all I can say is please don't get caught reading this. Also remember to clean up your history and all those other files that let people know where you have been while on the net or you'll get in trouble. One night when I was my usual mindless self I hatched the whole idea for this story up. That should give you some idea what goes on in the depths of my mind, but anyhow, that means the whole thing isn't true. So don't believe a word of it. Now if you have some perverted need to quote something from the story please be sure to credit me or I'll be upset. Then there is sharing all the riches you make from the commercial use of this story, and by that I mean with me. Just remember that if you don't make any money, you don't have to send me part of it. I just sent another chapter off to Don so he has his work cut out for him trying to make sense of it. Anyhow, he deserves your thanks for his efforts to make the story readable. Send the usual complaints, suggestions, comments, or questions to the same old address of fritz@nehalemtel.net and don't forget to put "I Love Corey" in the subject line. I might even get around to answering you. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the chapter. Fritz ********************************************************** I Love Corey, Chapter Eighty-seven Outside of Kyle, who was his usual sleepy self, the rest of the crew seemed pretty alert. Kath was still going on about her house and I tuned her out as I threw together a few things for breakfast and soon the bus was there to take Kyle to school. A few minutes later it was down to Kath's house to get back to cleaning and painting. The living room was the only room left to scrub and it had wallpaper. She would need to see how it looked after scrubbing before making any further plans. I was amazed at how fast boy power can paint. Of course there was a certain amount of paint on everything, but that was why I had insisted on lots of drop cloths. By noon Kath and I had the living room scrubbed and the boys had the walls covered with the first coat of paint in the three bedrooms. Mark had a gob of paint right on the end of his nose and looked cute with a yellow nose. We tried to kid him about being Rudolph the yellow nosed reindeer, but there were too many syllables in yellow to make the song come out right. He tried to rub the paint off and that only smeared it worse. There didn't appear to be much paint in any of their hair, but I could see that their clothes were destined for the rag supply. No one was in the mood to cook, so we went over to Downie's to see what the deli offered. A gallon of soup and a couple of those sandwiches made with whole loaves of French bread looked like it would fill the crew up. While the sandwiches were being made I wandered around and picked up some things for dinner, like a couple of nice-looking pot roasts. Right in the middle of that Ellen captured me. "Hi Sam, I heard the trial ended," I heard her say as she walked up behind me. "Yeah, after more or less admitting he was responsible for the bomb, he changed his plea," I replied. "It got a little ugly with him shouting and that's when he slipped and said he was sorry his bomb had missed. I guess even he figured out it wasn't much use to continue the trial after that. I just don't understand why some people are so filled with hate. None of us ever did anything to him, and wouldn't. In a lot of ways he reminds me of Fred Phelps and his irrational hatred of gays except that he hasn't got as big a following or as much money. I will say this though, most of his followers cleared out after that. I even had one lady come up after it was over and apologize for believing him. Anyhow, I don't think we'll have to worry about him for a while." "I heard he said some pretty ugly things," Ellen almost asked, you know, when someone says something and you can tell they want you to supply more information. Here it was, and suddenly I was nervous, almost afraid. I'd told myself that I would use any talk of the trial to tell people whom I thought needed to know about my orientation, but that was then and this was now. I knew she was well aware of it, but suddenly I was almost paralyzed with fear. "Well, uhh, well, ah, he said some pretty ugly things about gays and, err, ah, I know I shouldn't let that bother me, but the fact that some people think that way scares me," I said, all the while looking down. I just couldn't meet her gaze. "Why, ah, well why my being gay is such a threat to them I don't know," I finished in a rush. There I'd done it. My heart was pounding and I knew my voice had become strained. Every muscle in my body was tight as a drum, and I was so afraid I still couldn't look at her. Yet for some reason there was a kind of exhilaration running through me. I couldn't figure out just how I felt. I almost jumped clear out of my skin when I felt her hand on my shoulder, but she pulled me into a hug and I heard her say, "Don't worry about them. Your friends know what kind of a person you are and they like you the way you are. Thank you for telling me." I don't think it was so much her words that helped me, but the hug seemed to be the best thing I'd ever felt. It was warm and loving, and I could feel myself start to relax. I finally pulled back and I could feel myself grinning like a fool. "Th-th-thank you f-f-for accepting me," I managed to stammer out. Ellen just grinned back at me. I suddenly felt like I could fly and that the weight of the world was gone from my back. I couldn't say anything, but I could feel some tears trickle down my cheeks. "You better get going. I saw some starving boys hanging around the deli and if you don't hurry they may kill and eat my crew," Ellen laughingly told me. I just pulled her close and kissed her cheek. I didn't have any words to tell her how I felt. I just hoped the rest of my friends took it the same way. Ellen stepped back and then slapped my behind. "If you don't get going some boys are going to come looking for you," she giggled. With that she turned and left. I just wanted to run around singing, but I wasn't sure anyone wanted to hear me. I grabbed some mushrooms and some baby carrots to go with the pot roasts and headed off to find the boys. I knew I looked like an idiot, but I couldn't get rid of my grin. When I came into sight of the boys, they rushed over and put the sandwiches and cartons of soup in the shopping cart and quickly steered me to the check out line, all the while telling me to hurry up. Maybe Ellen was right and they actually would kill and eat the deli crew. I couldn't help it, I started laughing. "What's funny?" LT asked. "Ellen said you were about ready to kill and eat the deli crew, and I think she's right." "Eww, gross," JJ said. "The one guy is kind of cute," LT shot back. The boys then went into a fit of giggles and I joined them. JJ tried to glare at LT, but he was giggling too hard to be very effective at it. I paid and we headed home with the boys trading wisecracks about eating the deli crew, or at least one of them. It was a really gross conversation, and I was thankful when we got home as I was laughing so hard it was difficult to drive. Things calmed down a little during lunch. I'm not sure if it was because they were so busy concentrating on food or if it was because Kath was at the table, but the crude jokes about the deli guy got left somewhere. They put away the bean soup and hunks of sandwiches like they had been starved for days, if not weeks, and by the time they gave up there wasn't even enough left for a good snack. Their normally flat bellies stuck out like balloons ready to pop. We had been talking about where to fish and I got to wondering if Uncle Matt and Aunt Sandy had plenty of fishing gear and since I wasn't at school I decided to call and check. When Aunt Sandy answered the phone I started with my usual. "Hi, it's just me." "Hello just you, what's up?" Aunt Sandy laughed when she replied. "The forecast calls for nice weather and I wondered if you guys had plenty of fishing gear or if I needed to round some more up." "Oh God, don't do that," she answered. Matt's got the whole place so covered in poles and gear that we may have to rent a trailer to haul it all. I swear I didn't have any idea he'd bought so much fishing stuff. By the way, what are you doing calling me in the middle of the day? Did the school fire your lazy ass?" "Nope, there was a fire in the electrical panels and no school until they get it repaired." "When will that be?" "Last I heard things should be fixed by Monday they hope, but Jerry thinks probably Tuesday. He's foaming at the mouth because we need to get all the days in and there aren't that many places to stick them unless we go a few days past the closing date. I know the school board doesn't want to do that because that would mean running the busses for just the middle school kids, but we may have to do that." There was a pause while I waited for a reply. "You mean your home right now?" "Yup, have been since Monday night. I've kept the kids busy painting and cleaning Kath's house. I don't know if there's more paint on them or the walls, but so far it seems about equally divided." I could hear some boy bitching in the background over that comment, and Mark saying he did not have that much paint on his nose, followed by some giggles. "Just hang on a minute," Aunt Sandy said. There was silence for a couple of minutes and I wondered what was going on. When there was again noise, it was Uncle Matt. "Hey Sammy, what's up?" "Do you really want to know?" I asked and he started laughing. "I think I'll pass on that. That would be way too much information. Anyhow, how about we leave this afternoon and we can make a long weekend out of it. It won't kill the kids to miss school and I'm bored and it's raining up here." "Just a second," I told him and covered the mouthpiece up. "You want the giggle boxes to come down tonight?" I asked the boys. That seemed to meet with their approval, so I told him to get his ass moving and we'd see them later. A few more minutes of conversation and he told me he had to get going or Sandy would kill him. We said goodbye and hung up. Kath suddenly looked like she had lost her best friend. When I tried to find out what was wrong, I kept getting nothing for an answer. It was the way she said it that convinced me that the answer was a lie and that there was a whole bunch wrong but she just wouldn't tell me what it was. I told the boys to get themselves back to work, but that we would knock off early to go pick up some more gear. I needed another spinning rig and I was going to check and see if there were any flies for sale. I'd had fun trying to fly-fish even if I hadn't done very well at it. When I said that, Kath looked even more depressed. It wasn't long before we came up against the problem of paint needing to dry more before we could apply the second coat. Fortunately it looked like only the walls would need a second coat, but there was no getting around the fact that while the paint came close to covering, there were places where it didn't quite make it. The interior had been in better shape than I realized and our scrubbing and painting had progressed much faster than I had ever imagined it would. However, Kath seemed even more depressed when I said we would have to wait for the paint to dry before we could go any further. It was time to insist on finding out what her problem was. We cleaned up the painting equipment and walked back up to my house where I started on the pot roasts. While they were browning I turned to Kath and tried to find out what was going on. It was normally easier to get information out of the boys than it was with Kath. I kept getting the nothing was the matter answer until I was blue in the face. I was about to drop the whole subject when she finally said she needed to get settled into her house as soon as possible. "Why, don't you like living with us?" I asked. "It isn't that, only I need to have a place..." she trailed off. "But you're going to have a place in a few days. What's so important about getting it right away? You should be moved in by the end of next week or next weekend." "That isn't soon enough," she almost whimpered. "Judy can't wait that long." With that she quickly left to go downstairs to her room. Shortly, I heard the downstairs shower start. I stood there thinking about it and it started to make some sense. The only question was what to do about it. I picked up the phone and called Judy's house. I knew that Judy wouldn't be home, but I needed some information. Debbie answered and a few questions later I was talking to Andrea. When I finished talking with Andrea, I knew that two girls would love to go fishing. Now I had to decide if I wanted to get involved in the whole mess. I sat there thinking and trying to decide. It was time to call Judy. Judy sounded upset, almost like she couldn't talk. I asked if the girls could go fishing in the morning and it was almost like she didn't hear me, and then remembered what I'd said. I could tell the girls were the furthest thing from her mind. It was a jerky conversation, but I told her when we would pick them up and to have Art call and tell me what fishing gear they needed, if any. By that time I had the liquid added and the pot roasts in the oven. A quick check of my watch told me I had plenty of time to go get some more fishing gear. It took longer than I thought it would to pick out three more spinning outfits and get the line on the reels and gather up everything else we might need that I could think of. While I was driving to Downie's I called and when Corey answered, told him to put the carrots and boiling onions in with the pot roasts and I would be home as soon as I picked up some things for lunch tomorrow. By the time I had that done and made it home, it was time for the potatoes and mushrooms to be added to the pot roasts and I still had a salad to make. The boys were getting hungry and so they made quick work of washing the greens and dicing up the other stuff like tomatoes and radishes and green onions. If I'd have thought the boys could have lasted I would have waited until Uncle Matt and family arrived so they could have dinner with us, but I figured they would be late and so planned on them eating later, that is if they hadn't stopped for dinner. When we were all around the table eating I mentioned that Debbie and Andrea were joining us tomorrow and the boys started grinning. Not so with Kath as she burst into tears and quickly left the table leaving the boys in shock and with their mouths open. I left them at the table and hurried after Kath. It was time to talk and she and I needed to settle a few things. I was pretty sure she wanted Andrea as a foster child and as I saw it the only problem was getting her to just tell Judy and get it over with. "Kath, we need to talk. What's the problem?" I got a sigh and the tears never slowed. She was limping, so it wasn't any trouble to keep up with her, but I wondered if she was going to slam her bedroom door in my face. "I'm sorry," she sobbed. I waited and when she didn't say any more, I was forced to again try to draw her out on the subject. "What have you got to be sorry for?" Talk about turn on the water works. Where some tears had been trickling down her face before, now it almost looked like a torrent. It took a while, like about ten minutes, but I finally found out what she thought the problem was. She thought that she wasn't doing enough and that I wouldn't allow her to invite someone to stay in my home, plus with Uncle Matt and family headed here it left no place, at least in her mind, for Andrea even if she had managed to ask me. Judy had told her that if she couldn't find a place for Andrea by the end of the week she was going to send her to a group home in Sacramento because the Smellings were going on a trip and while Debbie was going to stay with some friends, they didn't have room for Andrea and that was why she was trying so hard to get her house ready. We had been sitting on the edge of her bed for the last fifteen minutes or so while I had my arm across her shoulders before I finally got the truth out of her. The sad thing was I could have saved her a lot of anguish had she just asked, but instead she had been worrying and had not been able to come up with any answers. I was left wondering if a lot of problems might be solved if only people would talk about them. "So the big problem is you need a bed for Andrea, right?" I didn't get an answer, but she did slightly nod her head. "I don't see any problem. Kevin and Kristin will probably sleep with Corey and me, at least that's what they normally do, and Matt and Sandy can have Corey's room. You can put Andrea in the other downstairs bedroom for now." "You mean that?" "Sure, why not. It's not like she won't be around most of the time if you foster her. If she stays a few days in this house before we get your house ready makes no difference to me. My question is have you talked to Andrea and how does she feel about it?" "No," Kath replied in what had to be the littlest voice I ever heard an adult use. She sounded like a shy two year old who knows he has done something and is not sure if he is in trouble, but is afraid to find out. "Well, have you talked to Judy?" I asked. "Oh yes," she replied. "Judy says it isn't a problem, but I'll have to take some classes." "Why don't you wash your face and we'll finish our dinner. Then maybe we can call Judy and get things moving," I told her. Suddenly I was grabbed in a big hug and kissed soundly on the cheek. I was so surprised I took me a few seconds to respond and hug back, but when I did Kath smiled and released me and headed for the bathroom. Jeez, it was easier to get things out of the boys and deal with their problems than it was adults. When I got back to the table all eyes were on me. Finally Danny broke the silence. "Is Mom okay?" "I think so," I told him as I took a bite of pot roast. "What's wrong with her Coach?" he asked. All the boys normally called me coach and it seemed to work for them. In fact a good share of the students did so and I liked it because it seemed less formal than Mr. Lofton, yet was slightly more respectful than calling me Sam. I suppose that form of addressing me had gotten started when I told the football team to call me coach and it had just spread throughout most of the student body at school. Anymore I even had a lot of adults call me coach including several of my colleagues. In one sense it was a little strange as I thought of myself as a teacher and not a coach, but it seemed to make other people more comfortable to have some less formal way to address me. I swallowed my bite of pot roast as I debated the best way to answer him. "I think she's just having labor pains," I said while grinning at him. Danny got the blankest look on his face and about that time Corey started giggling. He was the only one who got it as the rest of the boys just sat there with open mouths. About that time I noticed that there was still food on the boys' plates, which meant they had quit eating while Kath and I were downstairs, so I told them they better get started before they starved. I could see Danny was still trying to figure out what I'd told him, but he dutifully took a bite and the others followed suit. "When is she going to be here?" Corey asked. "Not sure," I replied. "We need to call Judy and get things organized. Andrea's going fishing with us tomorrow and maybe we can get it all straightened out after that. So is Debbie." I waited a few seconds and then turned to Danny. "How does it feel to have a new sister?" Everyone except Danny was now grinning and in a few more seconds he put things together and replied, "I've never had a sister before." When he said that, LT's face froze and then was covered with a look of pain. LT jumped up and headed for his and JJ's room with me right behind him. He beat me there and was face down on the bed and crying by the time I got to him. It was not my night for a leisurely dinner. LT was much too big for it, but I managed to get him sitting up and then on my lap. This was the first time in a long time that he had broken down. There wasn't much I could do except hold him and let him know I cared. I had no answer when he asked why couldn't his father just love him. When he started to calm down a little I happened to glance towards the door and there was the whole bunch, Dog included, looking in with worried looks on their faces. Well Dog didn't really have a worried look, but his tail wasn't wagging like it usually did. Dog couldn't stand it and came over and jumped up on the bed. LT had part of his face against my shoulder and his forehead was above it. Dog started licking LT's forehead and whining. One of his boys was upset and that upset Dog. LT had only broken down a couple of times and never as much as this. I managed to chase the others back from the doorway and just sat there holding LT and patting his back. He was a little old to burp, but for some reason such actions seemed to help people. Maybe it took them back to when they were young and their mothers loved them. I just kept holding LT and telling him we all loved him and that we would be there for him anytime he needed us. He just kept crying and I gently kept trying to find out if there was something more wrong than what I knew about. Finally it came out. Monday his sister had told him his family was moving to Montana and the reason was his father couldn't stand to be in the same town with him. I knew he talked with his sister Brittany every day at school and that those conversations made him feel like he was still part of his family so I could understand how that news would have left him feeling adrift. He didn't talk with his other sister that much since she was now a freshman in college, but they had managed to get together over the Christmas holidays, although only once due to the other things which had gone on. I wanted to go kill Mr. Riggins for the way he was treating LT. He was going out of his way to hurt not only his son, but the rest of his family. While Mrs. Riggins still didn't accept LT, she would at least speak to him and his sisters acted like there was no problem. I'd sometimes see the two of them in the halls laughing and giggling and Brittany was always filling him in on what his oldest sister was doing. Now even that part of his family was being taken away all because of sheer stupidity. When LT's father hadn't known, he'd acted proud of him, but as soon as he'd learned of LT's orientation everything had changed. Yet I couldn't see what had really changed. After all, LT was the same boy he had always been and if you liked him a year ago, there was no reason not to like him now. So while I wanted to kill Mr. Riggins, there was also sadness in my heart because he was missing out on watching his son grow up. I knew that if he ever accepted LT, he would then regret his actions. In the meantime he was tearing his family apart. It was so bad that LT couldn't even call his sisters and they couldn't call him from home. That meant that when they moved it was going to be very difficult for any contact to take place since I was sure that letters would not be very well accepted. If I'd thought I could get away with it I would have gotten the girls cell phones, but I doubted Mr. Riggins would allow that. So there I was, trying to help LT and not coming up with any good answers. The crying finally stopped, but when I asked him if he was ready to finish dinner, his answer was he wanted to sleep. Maybe a nap would help him and he could always have some more to eat later. I pulled JJ aside when I got back to the kitchen and asked if he had known about the Riggins move, and he said it was news to him. I was left wishing that LT had told us so we could try to help him, but he hadn't. I was much like LT and food no longer sounded good. I'd managed to get part of my dinner eaten before everything fell apart and just gave up and put my dirty dishes in the dishwasher. JJ headed off to try to comfort his boyfriend and the rest of us just moped around. I got started on the potato salad I was going to fix for lunch tomorrow and sent Corey, along with Mark and Kyle, out to finish loading all the gear. When the doorbell rang I was surprised since Uncle Matt, well actually Kevin and Kristin, normally barged right in like they owned the place. When I opened the door, it was Judy standing there. I glanced around, but there was no one with her that I could see. "Sam, could I ask a favor?" she started. "Sure, come on in and explain what you need," I replied. She walked right past me and headed for my office/computer room, and I was left to follow. The way she was marching along I wondered what else had gone wrong since it wasn't like my day hadn't been filled with enough problems. Besides, the look on her face could only be described as grim and that left me wondering what was wrong. When the door to the office was closed, Judy wasted no time in getting right to the subject. "Sam, I need to ask if you would try to talk to a boy for me. You always seem to be able to communicate with young people and after better than a week of trying I'm at my wits end." "I'd be happy to, but I doubt that I can do any better than you do. I've seen you in action and I always wished I could do as well," I replied. Judy snorted. "I haven't gotten anywhere in a week so if you can even get a name out of him it will be a lot better than I've done." "You don't even know who he is?" I blurted out. Judy sighed. "The police found him in a house outside of Redding and took him to the hospital. He was in pretty bad shape, but even when he started feeling a little better he won't talk to anyone. He just tells us to leave him alone and let him die. He won't watch TV or talk to anyone. He refuses to eat and we've got his hands tied so he can't pull the IV's out. If someone doesn't get some answers from him I guess I'll have to see if a judge will give us power to drug him and try to find out, but I hate to do that and judges hate to issue those kinds of orders. So far we've had three child psychologists try with zero results and I know all three of them and they're good. He just tells them he wants to die and then refuses to say more. I doubt you'll get more out of him, but the way you get along with kids it's worth a shot." I wondered what was going on. Children's Services had a lot more experience dealing with kids than I did so there had to be a lot she wasn't telling me. "Can you tell me anything about him?" I asked. "Not much. He appears somewhere around fourteen or fifteen years old and when we found him he was badly beaten. He had a severe infection from a compound fracture of his wrist and the doctor had to cut his hand off to save his life. He looks like he's been starved for years. He's also been sexually abused. He's from some other part of the country judging from his accent, probably Texas or somewhere in that area. We can't get anything out of him and he just lays there staring at the wall." I knew there was more to it than met the eye. Was Judy trying to set me up with another kid? I didn't have enough time for the ones I had so I hoped that wasn't what was on her mind. "You aren't trying to get me to take another kid, are you?" I asked, deciding to force the issue. "Oh no, I just don't know where to turn with him and the hospital thinks he's about well enough to be released if they could get him to eat. I'm supposed to attend a workshop next week and Art and I were going to take a few extra days for ourselves, but I hate to leave everything up in the air." Judy seemed sincere in not trying to get me to take him in and so I was forced to accept what she had told me at face value. I still couldn't think I would be anymore successful than she or the rest of Children's Services had been, but if she wanted me to try talking with him I was willing to give it a shot. "When would you like me to talk with him?" "Tonight, if you could. I know that isn't much warning, but I would really appreciate it." I thought about that for a few seconds. Kath could finish the potato salad, and we had already loaded the rest of the gear in the back of the pickup. Glancing at my watch I saw it was only ten till seven so while Uncle Matt and family would soon be here, the boys and Kath could entertain them for one evening. I still had a bunch of doubts about the whole idea, but agreed to give it a try. Judy was eager to take off for the hospital and the next thing I knew I was in her car still in my paint-stained jeans. They didn't look too bad, but there definitely were several blobs of paint on them. A fashion plate I was not. As far as that went I still had some paint under my fingernails from washing rollers and brushes. No one would mistake me for a professional type person in my jeans and worn-out sneakers. On the way to the hospital I probed some more on how the various Children's Services people had gone about trying to talk with the boy. All the while I was trying to come up with a way to break the ice and get him to say something. From what Judy had said, it was apparent that direct questioning didn't work. As we were walking into Shasta Regional a thought went through my mind. "Judy, why don't you just let me walk in by myself? Maybe the fact that all the people he's seen are from Children's Services is scaring him." We discussed that a little more as Judy led me to his room, and when we got to the door she agreed and told me she would be down the hall and to come get her if I needed her or when I was done. That left me with nothing to do but walk in. I stood at the door for a couple more minutes trying to think of some way to break the ice and get him to talk, but nothing came to me, so I knocked on the door and walked in. I looked him over and decided to see if I could get him to say something first so I sat down in the chair and silently gazed at him. It was hard to tell just how tall he was, but probably around the size of Corey, in other words small for his age provided Judy was right. There was still some faded bruising on his face, but he looked to be pretty much normal in looks, not the most handsome boy I had ever seen, but certainly not unattractive. From what I could tell he might even be cute if he would only smile. He had brown, somewhat curly hair that definitely needed cutting and probably had for a couple of months. The two things that made the biggest impression on me were how sad he looked and how thin he was. The next thing I noticed was that his left arm was tied to the bedrail and had an IV in it. I could see the bandages on his right arm and it looked like it had been amputated a few inches above the wrist. He looked me over and then turned his head towards the wall. I glanced at my watch and it was seven thirty-five. I leaned back in the chair and waited. I didn't know if this approach would work, but nothing else had worked with him so far, and it was worth a try. At four minutes after eight I heard his voice for the first time. Judy was right, he had an accent, but I didn't think it was Texan. More like Oklahoma. "What are you doing here?" "A friend asked me to talk with you," I replied. "Since you don't want to talk that doesn't leave me much to say, but since I promised her I would try I guess I'm stuck here for a while." "I don't want to talk!" "I'm not forcing you to say anything," I replied. "Why don't you just leave?" "Sorry, I can't do that. I gave my word and so I have to sit here for a while. If you answer a few questions, then I can leave, but if you don't answer them, you're stuck with me for the evening." He turned his head and looked at me again. "Just go leave me alone and tell them to let me die. I don't deserve to live." I wasn't sure how to answer that, but decided to try. "If the truth were known, most of us probably don't deserve to live. However, I find it hard to believe that you've done anything so bad as to need to die for it." After I said that we sat there for another fifteen minutes without saying anything and he was once again refusing to look at me. "Are you gonna sit there all night?" he broke his silence, once again looking at me. "Nope, I'm going to go get a cup of coffee and then sit here. You want a can of pop or some juice?" I asked. "Why can't you just leave me alone?" he whined. "Cause I promised a friend and I keep my promises. Besides, I've never seen anyone who wanted to die and I'm curious about why you would feel that way." When he didn't reply I got up and left the room. I hurried to where Judy was and told her it would be a while yet and to keep the nurses from bothering us if she could. I grabbed a cup of coffee from the vending machine and walked back to his room. I went back in and once again sat in the chair, not saying anything. After another ten minutes of silence he turned to me again. "How long are you gonna sit there?" "Another couple hours, unless you decide to talk. If you don't talk, then I'll come back tomorrow evening and the next evening and the next evening. I've got lots of time." That wasn't exactly true since I had Uncle Matt and the giggle boxes to entertain, but as the old saying goes, in for a penny, in for a pound. The fact that he'd whined before I got my coffee felt like progress to me. I wondered if I was reading more into the comment about not deserving to live and the fact that he whined than was merited, but so far no one else had gotten through to him. So I sat there and slowly drank my coffee. It was poor coffee, but it gave me something to do with my hands. Several times he looked at me and almost acted like he was going to say something, but then he would again turn away and his silence just hung there. At a quarter of ten I stood up and told him I'd see him tomorrow night. I got an exasperated look from him as I left. As soon as I was out of the room, a nurse went in to do whatever it was she was supposed to do so I decided that Judy had convinced them to leave us alone. "Did he tell you anything?" Judy asked as I walked into the waiting area. "No, but I'll try again tomorrow and maybe things will go better. I think he almost said something a couple of times, but each time he stopped." "Sam, I didn't expect you to spend all your time. I thought maybe he would talk to you, but you don't have to come back." "Sorry, but you've got me curious. The only thing I got out of him is he doesn't think he deserves to live and I'd like to know why," I told her as we were stepping out of the elevator. "I'd like you to tell the nurses to leave us alone tomorrow night like they did tonight. I think he'll crack tomorrow or the next day," I continued as we made our way out to the building. We didn't talk much on the way home. My mind was filled with the boy in the hospital and what a strange week it had been. Everything kept going wrong, but somehow it managed to get better each time I encountered a problem. I was more comfortable with myself since the trial, and while I still needed to talk with LT, I had managed to get Kath calmed down and we had even made some progress on her house. It looked like the problem of Andrea was going to be solved in a way that made people happy or at least as happy as such a situation could be. Now if I could figure out a way to get through to the boy the week might actually turn out pretty well. As we approached my house I even came up with an idea to help LT a little. I could give his sisters some prepaid phone cards and they could call him whenever they could find a phone where they couldn't be overheard. I knew that wasn't perfect, but it was the best I could come up with. Aunt Sandy and Corey were getting the giggle boxes ready for bed when I got home. They had slept on the ride down and so had been allowed to stay up later than normal. I was attacked by two giggling kids and the tickle war was on. I lost. Four hands against two is not a fair fight. I finally just grabbed them and hugged them to me. Of course Dog was right in the middle of it and he proceeded to give the three of us a tongue bath. Somehow holding the two of them while trying to dodge Dog's tongue relaxed me and by the time I packed them in and dropped them in the middle of my bed I was in a good mood. I got them in the middle and all covered up and Dog hopped up and lay down at their feet as if to guard them. Aunt Sandy and Uncle Matt didn't stay up much longer, and the boys had all gone to bed shortly after I put Kevin and Kristin to bed, so I was in bed by eleven thirty. It had been a long day and I had a hunch keeping up with the little ones would take all the energy I had, so some sleep sounded good. I don't think my head had more than touched the pillow and I was out like a light. The alarm clock beat the giggle boxes which was a real switch. Normally they were awake long before anyone else was even thinking of waking up, but they had gotten to bed late and so they slept right through the night and never even stirred when that hated machine made its assault on my sleep. I could have used another hour's sleep, but all in all I didn't feel bad. Dog hopped down and left the room as I was trying to get my body to cooperate and get myself into a vertical position, so I figured he needed to relieve himself just the same as I did. I'd just stepped out of the shower when Kevin dashed in and made a beeline for the toilet. It looked like the morning was officially underway. Normally I liked to leave early to go fishing, but since Kyle had to go to school we had decided to leave about the time I normally left for work. I hadn't even started my morning cup of coffee before I had two helpers in the kitchen, and believe me, it would have been a lot easier to fix breakfast without them. I spent more time keeping little hands busy than it would have taken to do it myself. Kath took one look at the mess they were making and quickly got a cup of coffee and got out of sight, I think to the family room, but I didn't have time to check. Kevin only dropped one egg on the floor as he and Kristin were preparing French toast batter, but I really hate cleaning up raw eggs. They just don't like to wipe-up very well. My poor kitchen looked like a battle zone by the time the griddle was hot enough to start cooking, but the giggle boxes were having a ball. Aunt Sandy was smart, and after taking one look had just ignored us while Uncle Matt buried his nose in the morning paper. We weren't ready to leave by my normal departing time, but we did manage to get on the road about the time Kyle got on the bus. He was grousing about having to go to school, but cheered up slightly when I said he might be done with his school year a few days earlier than the other boys. I also promised him we would all go fishing again on Saturday and he could get his fishing in then. He was still kind of grumpy, but much better than he had been. I was thrilled because he was finally starting to assert himself a little and it appeared to me he was finally settling in and accepting his new home and the rest of us. Up till now he hadn't even complained about anything, so to hear him grumping about not being able to go fishing was music to my ears. If he would just make a few friends I thought he would be well on the way to turning into a happy, healthy young man. We headed for Two-Lakes where we had fished before because it required less walking and I knew Kath needed to take it somewhat easy and rest her leg. The doctors had told her it would never work as well as it had, but she was determined to get her house done as soon as possible and had overdone it. She should have stayed home and taken a day off, but I knew she would never consent to taking it easy all day and at least this way she would not be able to work on her house all day. It was a tight fit, but with the giggle boxes in front with Corey and me, and Mark, JJ, and LT in the back, that meant that the rest could fit in the Gator. There was a steady stream of chatter from Kevin and Kristin all the way to Two-Lakes. I was practically worn out from just answering questions by the time we got there. They must have put too much syrup on their French toast and were on sugar highs. Dog was the one who should have been on a sugar high since he had eaten most of their French toast, however he was pretty calm and only stuck his head through the sliding rear window a couple of times to check on his kids. I had the windows in the back of the pickup and the front of the canopy open for him and he seemed contented riding in back. Then again, maybe he was too full to get excited since Kevin and Kristin had given him at least half of their breakfasts. We spread out in groups along the lower lake, much like last time. Uncle Matt, Corey, and I gathered up the giggle boxes and a bunch of gear and headed towards the head of the lake after I had pointed out several good places for the rest of the crew to try their luck. Teaching JJ to fish was a snap compared to the giggle boxes. While I had thought Mark was somewhat wild with his casting, Kevin had him beat so far there was no comparison. Kevin hooked me twice, himself three times, and Dog once, all in the first hour. It was only good luck that all except one time it was only clothes or fur he caught, but I must say on that other one the hook really smarted. He nailed me right in the middle of my right ass cheek on a back swing and did a pretty good job of it. I was confident there would be a blood stain in my shorts from that. Kristin was a lot calmer and of course she managed to hook the first fish. In fact she hooked four before she managed to land one. I never got a chance to net it because she was still pretty excited and dragged it up on the bank. The poor fish was flopping all over, and Dog was barking at it, and Kristin was screaming and giggling. Happiness is seeing a child catch his or her first fish. Corey and I both got pictures of her and her fifteen-inch rainbow trout. I was starting to get Kevin calmed down enough to where he was starting to come close to where he was trying to cast and soon he had a nice strike, but missed setting the hook. Then he had another strike. Pretty soon I could hear Kristin in the background and I was sure she had another fish on when Kevin hooked his first one. Judging by the way the pole bent it was a big one. I think that fish wanted to commit suicide or else the Lord was smiling on Kevin because he did almost everything wrong. When the fish made a run towards us, Kevin let lots of slack get in the line, and then when the fish decided to go the other way, he jerked on the line. If I were to make a film on how not to catch fish, Kevin would be my star actor because he really knew how to play that part. I was trying to get a few pictures and still tell Kevin what to do when he slipped and into the lake he went. Before I could even start for him Dog jumped in and grabbed him and was dragging him out. I'll say this for Kevin though, he never lost sight of the goal and that was to catch a fish, so he hung onto the rod and just keep trying to get the fish to the bank. I got one shot that showed Kevin sitting in the water with Dog trying to drag him out and Kevin busy trying to keep the rod tip in the air. All the time this was going on Kevin kept screaming, "I got one, I got one, I got one!" I'm not sure he ever heard anything I said because he was so excited over having hooked a fish. Uncle Matt ambled over to see about his now soaked son. The water where Kevin fell in was only about fourteen inches deep, but Kevin had managed to get wet from the top of his head to the tip of his toes. A couple more minutes and he finally got the trout close enough to net. Man, it was a beauty. It had to be twenty-four inches long and was about as fat a brown trout as I'd ever seen. Kevin was just beaming with delight over catching his first trout and I wasn't sure he even realized he was soaked he was so excited. Dog was still worried though and kept trying to give Kevin a tongue bath to show he loved him. When Uncle Matt got the fish out of the net and laid it on the bank it gave a couple of flops and Dog growled at it as if to say `stay away from my boy.' Knowing kids and water, I fully expected the little ones to get wet, but I hadn't expected this early or quite as wet. Both Corey and I shot a couple of pictures of a bedraggled Kevin and a much neater Kristin, both holding their fish up like trophies, before I took Kevin behind a bush and helped him into the dry clothes I had suggested we bring along. Kevin was now all charged up and if anything was more excited than he had been to start with. He cast like he was beating the water to a froth and about once ever six or seven tries it went out in the lake far enough to where there might be a fish. After about ten minutes he started to calm down and do better. He missed a couple more strikes and then managed to set the hook on another trout. It was a small one and he reeled it right in and we released it. I don't think it would have gone six inches and was way too small to be a keeper. Kristin now had three fish, one of about ten inches, one just slightly bigger and her first one. Kevin was disappointed she had more than he did so he wasn't willing to quit, but Kristin had had enough fishing so Uncle Matt got to try his luck. About then Kevin made his best cast of the day and his lure landed right where I thought there was a good chance of there being some fish. I managed to get him to let the lure sink enough to where he had a chance of catching something and he started his retrieve. I was right and there were trout there because about a third of the way into his retrieve he managed to hook another one and it appeared to be a nice sized one. This time he was a little more under control and didn't come close to falling in. He was still pretty excited, but soon he had a nice fourteen-incher to show for his efforts. We got the fish off the hook and danged if he didn't hit that same place again and had the same results except this time the fish was only twelve inches long. I sort of thought that now that he had equaled his sister he would give up, but that wasn't to be. Now he thought he was a fisherman and nothing would do but he would keep fishing. He kept missing a lot of his strikes, but before long he had not only his limit, but most of mine. I didn't care because it was more fun helping him fish than it would have been to catch a record fish. He was so happy and excited over his new-found skill that I was just happy to be with him and be part of it. By the time he ran down, it was time to get back to the others and get the fire started and the crusher screen set up to cook lunch. Uncle Matt and Corey had both done well and I was the only one who hadn't caught a fish. Kath and Andrea were fishing together and Aunt Sandy had limited out and was relaxing in one of the lawn chairs we had brought. It didn't take long to build the fire since I'd brought some of the wood for the fireplace, along with a bag of briquettes to make it easier to start and cook over. There was a place where some silt had washed up along the bank and the giggle boxes were soon trying to construct sand castles, but the silt wasn't working very well for that purpose. It was a little coarse and had almost all the dirt washed out of it, but it kept them busy while I got the fire started. Lunch was pretty simple. I had a big bunch of chicken drumsticks I'd marinated and a couple of packages of hot dogs for those who wanted them. The giggle boxes wanted hot dogs and the rest of us wanted trout. In the end I did cook the drumsticks, but mostly so we could snack on them later. There were the usual camp beans, meaning that I grabbed some cans of beans and added some things, this time some molasses and onion instead of barbecue sauce. I used about half pork and beans and half baked beans for the mixture and they turned out pretty well. Tomorrow, if we went fishing, I would add some browned Italian sausage to the mix, along with some more beans. With the potato salad that filled everyone up. The boys and girls, along with the giggle boxes, burned some marshmallows after lunch, but it didn't take long until the little ones crashed on a blanket and took a nap. The rest of us just sat around and batted the breeze. I finally had time to tell everyone about what I was doing last night and that I planned on trying again tonight. That brought up abuse and I stuck my foot in my mouth by asking Andrea if she thought she could cope with all the boys around my place, but Kath hadn't brought the subject up yet. Kath glared at me, but there was no turning back now and it didn't take long to hash that out. All that was left to do there was get Judy to fill out the papers and she had already told Kath she would. With that, Andrea perked right up and even Debbie appeared happy over it. The boys were all grinning and high-fiveing each other. The boys wandered off to see if they could catch a few more fish. They didn't need many more to fill their limits, but they had been trying for bigger ones than the rest of us. I liked 10 to 12-inchers for eating, but the boys wanted them in the 15-inch range. So far Kevin had the biggest fish and he wasn't letting anyone forget it. After a while the fire had pretty well burned down and the giggle boxes had managed to burn up most of a package of marshmallows, so we all agreed it was time to head home. It didn't take long to round up the boys and clean up the area and we were on our way home just after three with a nice mess of fish and some happy kids. Dog just collapsed on the bed I'd made for him in the back of the pickup. I think protecting his little ones was too much for him. Dog had fallen in love with the giggle boxes and they loved him also. He'd been dashing back and forth between them all morning and about wore a path in the rocks we were standing on, but he had been right there to help when Kevin fell in. It didn't take long to get home and since Uncle Matt and I had taken care of cleaning the fish before we left, all I had to do was package them up with the Food Saver and pop them in the freezer. Aunt Sandy made the little ones take a bath and clean up, something they needed after their sandcastle building spree. I was walking around while trying to get organized and I happened to come upon LT getting some pop out of the fridge. "I know it isn't much, but do you think if I bought some phone cards that your sisters could find a phone and call you?" I asked him. "I'd give them cell phones, but I doubt your dad would allow it, although maybe Andrea could get away with it since she's in college." "Yeah, Dad would freak with Britt. Andie might go for it." He paused, and then looked at me. "You'd do that for me?" "Of course I would," I replied. "While I love you, if I could I'd make it right with your folks so you could live with them. Since I can't do that, I'll do my best to take their place. I thought you understood that." Suddenly I had my arms full of LT and he started sniffling on my shoulder. "Yeah, I knew that, but it's nice to hear it again." "I'm sorry LT, but I can't fix all the problems in the world. All I can do is try to help. I love you son, and if I can help in any way, just ask me." That `Son' had just slipped out, but that was the way I felt about him. LT was such a nice young man and any parent should have been proud of him, so there were times I was so mad at his stiff-necked father that I wanted to track him down and punch his lights out for not seeing what a great kid he had. Since that wasn't acceptable behavior and I wasn't really a violent person, I was left trying to keep LT's spirits up by telling him that someday his father would understand and that they would get along. As long as it had gone on and now that his father had decided to move I wasn't very confident that would happen, but I didn't want LT to give up hope, and I especially didn't want LT to start hating his parents even if they did deserve it. "You think about it and give Andie a call tonight. Then next week in school you can talk to Brittany and give her the cards. She should be able to make some friends where we could mail new ones to her as soon as she gets settled in Montana," I told him. Our talk was broken up by the giggle boxes charging the fridge. It was time to figure out how to handle the rest of the evening. To be continued...