Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2003 11:53:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: vealskye <vealskye@yahoo.com>
Subject: JT Part 5

Disclaimer:  The characters in this story are not
real.  I made them up.  Some of them are gay.  Some of
them might have sex.  If you are not allowed to read
this type of material, or if you will be offended by
it, leave now.


Josh couldn't believe it.  He was not only out of the
hell he had lived in for the past 15 years, but he was
sitting beside an outright hunk.  And Tom had some
sort of secret past, "just like me," he thought.  But
he was gay -- Tim had said so.

"What happened to your face, dude?" Tom asked.

Josh didn't know how to answer.  He was scared.  He
also trusted Tim and Tim had said he should tell Tommy
"his story."

"Well... My dad hit me."

"Oh man, why did he do that?"

"He found out I'm gay."

"How'd he find out?"

"I don't know.  I just came home and he knocked me out
the front door. ..."

"Damn!"

"... I think my little brother told him."

"Your little brother?  How did he know?"

"I don't know."

They drove in silence for a few minutes, Josh
remembering Thursday evening's events, Tom thinking of
his own demons.

"I remember landing on the ground and looking up at
him.  He looked like he had won the lottery or
something.  He had a silly grin on his face."

More silence.  Neither boy knowing exactly what to
say, they pulled into the mall.

Tom said, "I have a brother, too."


Tom really did a number on Josh at the mall -- I hardly
recognized him when I walked into Tom's studio.  The
hair had been cut and the clothes changed.  He didn't
look like a shaggy refugee anymore and the clothes
were top of the line.  I wasn't worried about paying
the credit card bill the next month but thought it
would be interesting to see how much had actually been
spent.

Josh was talking to Nanna as I walked up.  I reached
out to give his hair a ruffle but Nanna hollered,

"Don't you dare!  You know better than to mess with a
young man's hair!"

"Yes ma'am," I said, grinning at Tom's elderly
grandmother.  She was one of the few people I had
found that truly deserved respect.  But maybe I was
cynical.

Tom walked up and grabbed JT away from his grandmother
and me.

"Come on!  The beginner's class is about to start!"

"It looks like my boy has made a friend," said Nanna.

"I think so.  They hit it off as soon as they saw each
other today."

Nanna got up and, leaning on me, pulled me toward the
backrooms of the studio.

"How did that poor boy get that bruise on his face?"

"That's a long story, Char."  Nanna's given name was
Charlotte.  I only called her that to get a rise out
of her.  I knew she couldn't stand anyone 50 years her
junior not to call her Nanna.

"That will be enough out of you, young man!  You sit
down here and tell this old lady what happened!"  She
may have been scolding me but she at least gave me a
grin as she did it.  As she sat down, I noticed, for
the first time, that she truly did look her age.

I spent the next half hour recounting the events of
the past two days.  Nanna sat in silence until the
end.

"Tim, you can raise that boy if you put your mind to
it.  I know you can.  But you said you never wanted
kids ..."

I sighed, "Well I have never wanted an infant but
thought I could do a good job with someone older.
Josh always seemed like an adult to me, anyway, he was
one of the few small children I ever liked.  We have
always gotten along.  I never gave kids much thought,
really.   Being gay, I always thought it would never
happen."

Nanna was staring across the room and I was beginning
to think that she was in the middle of some senior
moment when she turned, and said,

"Would you mind missing your class?  Could you take me
back to my house?  I think I need to talk to you."

"Sure."  I was hoping that I wasn't going to get a
real scolding as I walked her back out the front of
the studio.

Sitting at Nanna's kitchen table, I noticed she did
not look old so much as tired.  I thought about trying
to get her to go to bed, but before I could open my
mouth she said,

"Tim, I'm dying."

"What!?"

"I only have a few months.  It's cancer, of course.
At my age the doctors think treatments would do more
harm than good.  I don't want them anyway.  My dear
husband died of cancer; I think I told you that?  I
saw what the treatments did to him and I vowed I would
never go through that myself."

"I don't know what to say, Nanna."

"Say yes."

"Yes?  Yes to what?"  This woman had the uncanny knack
of confusing me, I thought, perhaps I knew how I made
JT feel sometimes.

"To my question."

"Er...what question?"

"The one I haven't asked yet."

She got up, telling me to stay put.  She returned a
few minutes later with a couple large envelopes.

"I have been thinking on this for weeks now.  I know
of no one else who I would want to raise my boy.
Certainly not his parents!  I was never close to my
son but what he did to that boy!"  Nanna was getting
riled up again.  She always did when she talked about
her son and daughter-in-law.  They had never wanted
kids and when Tom came along they were incensed.  They
would have aborted the child had Nanna not talked them
out of it.  She had raised Tom as if he were her own.
She had told her friends more than once that he was
more hers than her own son.

"I can only thank the Good Lord that they never had
another child!"

I knew that was coming.  She always ended a tirade
about her son with that statement.  And now I had to
break her heart.

"Nanna ... I don't know how to say this, exactly ... but
..."

"Just spit it out!  At my age I don't have time to
wait around!"

"You know how Tom has been chatting with his friend in
Texas?  Online?"

"Yes, he told me about that.  They became friends
because Michael is from the same town Tom was born
in."

I sighed, wishing I had never agreed to Tom's request
that I be the one to break the news to Nanna.

"Michael's parents made him abide by rules about
online chatting just like we make Tom.  They would not
let him give out his last name or address or even
telephone number.  Just like we warned Tom when I set
him up with the computer."

"That's why we got the post office box for him when
Michael wanted to send him a birthday card.  It never
showed up."

"Yes it did.  A day late.  He got it Thursday.
Michael's parents even let him include a picture of
the family in the card -- and they put their name on
the return address."

I pulled the picture from my pocket and handed it
across the table to Nanna, as I said,

"Their name is Greentree."

She looked at me in shock, then looked at the picture.
 The picture of her son and daughter-in-law, and her
second grandson.

"But how?  Why?  Oh God, my poor boy!"


After Nanna stopped crying she wanted to know why Tom
hadn't told her about the card an picture himself.  I
explained that he didn't know how to tell her.

She may have been in her early eighties but she didn't
miss anything.

"Bullshit.  My boy and I never had any problems
talking to each other!"

I arched my brow and looked at her.

"Well, until lately."

"I've heard.  Why do you think that is?"

She hesitated, "probably because he doesn't know how I
will react if he tells me he is gay."

"How long have you known?"

"I suspected for a couple years.  He has been so busy
with the studio and school that I was never sure why
he didn't date."

"But now you are sure?"

"When I saw him with Josh I knew."

"He told me a few months ago but wouldn't tell you.  I
have been trying to point out that you knew I was gay
and didn't have a problem with it.  He kept telling me
that it was different because it was him."

"Do you think I should tell him I know?"

"If he doesn't tell you soon I would say go for it."

We sat in silence for a while, pondering our own
thoughts.

"What did you want to ask me?" I said, pointing to the
envelopes still on the table.

"To sign the adoption papers."

"You want me to adopt Tom?"  The way the last 48 hours
had gone I didn't have any capacity left for surprise.

"He loves you, he trusts you and he is in love with
your son!"

"I've been thinking that all afternoon -- that it was
love at first sight.  Do you think that that could be
real?  Love at first sight?"

"I knew as soon as I met my Ralph that we would be
married.  He asked me to marry him that same night."

I sighed again, wondering when I would meet my Ralph,
or Tom.

"Of course I'll adopt him!"

"It's a good thing Stanley lives next door," she said
as she picked up the phone.


I walked back into Tom's studio a very happy man.  A
very happy man that was wondering when the weight of
the past two days would catch up with him.

I had another son and Nanna was on a quest.  She had
set Stanley to work on finding everything she could
about her newly discovered grandson after the lawyer
and his wife had witnessed our signatures.

Tom was dismissing his classes and Josh was nowhere to
be seen as I walked up.

"JT is in the back laying down.  I think we wore him
out in class tonight."

"I can't imagine," I said, remembering going home sore
after my first night in one of Tom's beginner classes.

He rolled his eyes at me as he closed the studio doors
after letting out the last student.

"Did you talk to Nanna?"

"She already has Stanley working on getting all the
information he can.  She is revitalized!  The woman is
on a mission!"

"Wow.  I hope she can help Michael.  He always seems
so sad.  Hell, they didn't want me -- I can't imagine
what they feel about my brother."  He said it without
bitterness for himself, only for his little bro.

Josh was asleep on the old couch in the back room.  He
seemed to be having I nightmare.  He was tossing and
turning and would have landed himself in the floor if
Tom hadn't jumped to his side.  It looked like Josh
quieted down as soon as he felt his boyfriend's touch.

I sighed.  I was jealous as hell.


A nasty odor greeted me as I walked into the kitchen
Monday morning.  Josh hadn't taken the garbage out
like I had told him to the night before.  I had given
it to him as one of his chores.

I didn't want his nasty garbage stinking up my kitchen
so I tiptoed it down the hallway and into his bedroom.

It wasn't long before I saw a brief-clad Josh, morning
tent preceding him, taking the trash out the backdoor.

He came into the kitchen, clothed this time, as I was
starting breakfast.

"I thought I had to go to school this morning."

"We will be going in together.  I have to talk to the
principal and who knows who else to get your scrawny
butt enrolled.  I am tempted not to bother since there
is only 2 weeks left before it is out for the summer
anyway."

"Cool!"

"Oh?  Really?  You want to spend all that time away
from your boyfriend?  At least in you'd get to see him
a bit during the day if you were in school.  You won't
be seeing him at all if you are here or with me at
work."

"Oh."

I snickered.  "I love making teenaged boys blush.
They are just So cute!" I did manage to ruffle his
hair this time, and was sorry for it as it took
forever to wash the hair gel off my hand.

"You look good in the new clothes, kiddo.  Remind me
to get my card back from Tom."

"I've got it."  He pulled it out of a new wallet and
handed it to me across the eggs and sausage.

"How much did he spend?"

"He told me not to tell."

"Joshua, it doesn't matter, we can afford your new
wardrobe, I was just curious."  I shrugged.  "It
doesn't matter, I'll find out when the bill gets
here."

"He paid cash, Tim."

"What?  Why?"

"He said he wanted to.  He said it he owed you because
you had been so good to him."

"Hmmm."

"Hmmm, what?"

"I think he just wanted to buy his bf some clothes."

"Bf?"

"Bf.  Boyfriend.  You gotta learn to speak gay if you
are going to have bf!  Remind me to get you a gay to
English dictionary sometime."


The meeting with the school went well, but not to
Josh's liking.  They had decided not to bother
enrolling him until fall, saying it would give him
time to adjust and them time to retrieve his paperwork
from his old school.

I had brought him to work with me and he was sitting
in a corner of my office as I was being chewed out by
my boss for being late.

I finally had enough and cut him off, saying, "Shut
the fuck up, Robbie!  I had to take my new son into
school this morning and was late.  Get over it!"

He was fuming but only managed to get out, "You
worthless faggot!" when the college president walked
in.  The president followed by a gorgeous man that I
assumed was my new intern.

"What is going on here?  Robert, please explain
yourself!  Why are you addressing Tim that way?

The president was a severe man at the best of times,
but when he was pissed he could hurt you with a
glance.

"Two reasons, sir."  I said, cutting off whatever
response Robbie was trying get out.  "One, I Was late
-- I had to take my new son to school this morning.
And two -- Robbie is still pissed that I would never
let him fuck me without a rubber when we dated last
summer."

Josh was trying not to laugh, the new intern was ghost
white and my boss was turning purple.

"You are fa^×gay?  Both of you?"

I didn't like where this was going.

"Yes.  I am gay.  Robbie is gay."

"I'm gay too."  I glanced at JT and was quite proud.

"Me too."  This from Mr. gorgeous.  He was still white
as a sheet but he didn't seem to be cowering.  Somehow
I knew this was the first time he had said that out
loud, even to himself, probably, much less a room full
of strangers.

The president was apoplectic.  A myriad of emotions
crossed his face but rage and disgust seemed to set up
shop there.

"You!  And You!" He pointed to me and Robbie.
"Fired!"

"You!"  He turned on the intern.  "You are no son of
mine!"

As he stormed to the door, I yelled after him, "You
can't fire me!  I am under outside contract, asshole."

He didn't seem to hear me.  "I think I'll quit," I
muttered under my breath.

Robbie was scurrying out the door after him as I
turned to Mr. Gorgeous and said, "Hi, I'm Tim."

"Jess."


End of Part 5.  If you like it, let me know.  Writers
tend not to write without encouragement.  vealskye@yahoo.com