Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 21:11:41 +0200 From: hadjo Subject: Harry-23 English is not my native language, so please have some consideration... Chapter 22 ended with: "Do you have something to eat dad? We are starved... and now we have a really good design. Wait until Jason shows up!" In no time the pile of sandwiches was gone and they marched off to BJ's house to get hold of Jason, Carl and Nicky. Half an hour later they were back, panting. "We helped Jason's dad clearing the garage and put the garbage away. He wanted to sell the house within a few months, but we convinced him to wait until Jason is eighteen years old so he can live there together with Carl. He promised us to think it over." Chapter 23. The bell rang and John went to the door. He came back with a big grin on his face, followed by BJ, Jason, Carl and Nicky. They all settled down around the kitchen table and I offered them something to drink. BJ looked, except of being rather big, also rather agitated. "May I have a private talk with you please?" "Yes of course. Let's go to the dining room." We took our coffee with us and sat down onto two armchairs, facing each other. BJ obviously suffered some pain and winced a little. "Your boy made me think... At first I wanted to sell our house and set up a fund for Jason and Nicky... and perhaps for Carl. But little Harry put forward another idea. He thought Jason and Carl could live together in our house after I passed away; looked after by you, John and himself as long as this would be necessary. Nicky could choose where he would live, together with you or in our house..." He took a sip of his coffee and stared into the distance. I patiently waited for him to go on. "I will be honest to you. The doctors offered me a treatment for my illness, but that implies going to a hospital for a very long time. At first I refused, for I didn't want to go on with my life as it was. But now everything seems to have changed for the best. Jason and Carl obviously love each other very much and they want to be together for the rest of their lives. I still regret being such an asshole to my eldest boy and to Carl, but perhaps I can make it up for them in another way. I want to adopt Carl..." He sniffled and wiped his eyes with a handkerchief. "Tomorrow I am going back to the doctor and I want to undergo that treatment. Without treatment I will die within a few months but since this morning I want to live for my boys. I want to see them grow up and be happy with each other. They can live together in our house and love each other as much as they want. And when it really is my time to go, they can inherit the house and everything in it. Do you happen to know a lawyer who can help me achieve all this within a reasonable time?" Of course I knew a good lawyer and BJ looked very relieved. "May I consider you as my friend? You did so much for me and for my two boys, and also for my third boy Carl." Now it was my time to sniffle and wipe my eyes with a Kleenex. We both stood up and embraced each other, looking into each others eyes. BJ nearly crunched me and started to cry. "I never had a real friend in my whole life, I always was that big bully... nobody ever liked me. And now it nearly is too late." "It never is too late BJ, you always can change yourself. And you really DID change! Now I consider you as my friend too." We both sat down again, me with some sore ribs, and discussed the pending adoption of Carl and me looking after his house and his boys for the time he had to spend in the hospital. The three boys would officially live in their own house and BJ would grant me shared custody for the time he couldn't be home himself. After a while we went back to the kitchen. The boys were in a heavy discussion regarding the tree house and deliberated all pro's and contra's of supporting beams and iron clamps. Little Harry had made a drawing on a piece of paper with all measurements in it while John talked more with his hands than with his mouth to depict what exactly he had in mind. After a while BJ asked for attention and explained to the boys what he had in mind. "Carl, do you really want to be my adopted son?" A cannonball jumped up and launched himself onto BJ, entangling him and crying and laughing at the same time. "Yes, yes sir, I really want you to be my dad! I love you daddy!" After a moment of silence everybody started to cheer and to gratulate Carl and BJ who still were in a big embrace, both crying with joy. Suddenly Carl looked at me with a hint of fear in his eyes. "Sorry pop, I know it was you who wanted to adopt me..." I smiled at him and ruffled his hair. "It's OK Carl, I just wanted to help you out of that prison you were in. But I think BJ will be a wonderful dad to you and I know you will always be my special friend. You have my blessings." Carl, Jason and Nicky went together with BJ to their house to prepare a room for Carl. Carl put all his belongings in a big box and would from now on live with his new dad. We embraced and promised he would always be welcome in our house. "How about our tree house? Can we plan it as we did two years ago and build it in our own backyard now?" Ten minutes later we were loading all wood onto our golden van and took it back to the old destination where we piled it up in BJ's backyard. Two hours later our backyard was empty again with exception of the big swimming pool. Carl and Jason both beamed and thanked us with their arms around each other and around Nicky while BJ threw his big arms around his flock. "Now everything is as it was before... but we still want all of you to help building our tree house!" Little Harry, John and Davey agreed to help and finally we went home with our golden car. Suddenly our house felt very empty. We all sat down in the living room and felt glad for Carl but also a little bit sad for losing him. "Now it's only John and me living here dad... just like it was before." John nodded and melted further into me while Davey on my other side threw his arm around me and little Harry on my lap. "Do we have to cook this evening or shall we order pizza's? I am rather tired from carrying all that lumber." "I have to be home before six o'clock for mom and me have to go to a birthday party this evening." Davey went home to dress for the party and John ordered pizza's for the three of us. "I don't know what feels better, a house full of friends or just us. Six boys here was fun, but just us feels very nice too..." The pizza's came and were devoured. We were all stuffed and again sat down on the couch, leaning into each other and enjoying each others company. After a while the phone rang. John went to the desk and answered the call with a very happy voice. "It's my mom. She is home again and wants to visit us." "Of course she is very welcome! Tell her the coffee is ready..." Two minutes later the bell rang and Trudy entered the living room, her arm around a beaming John and followed by Mark and Marrie, giggling and pushing each other. They all sat down and John and Harry went into the kitchen to fetch some drinks. We sipped our drinks and John settled himself down onto his mothers lap while little Harry climbed onto my lap. Marrie and Mark both leaned into their mother. "I went home this afternoon for I really felt homesick. First I cleared the place and bought some flowers to bring it back to life. I have decided to stay home from now on and to be here for my children. The divorce is pending and Eric will never again enter our house. Thank you very much for caring for John but I want him to be home with me from now on. Of course he is always allowed to be with you and with little Harry and spend here the night on a regular base, but not every night. I hope you can understand..." "Of course I understand. You are his mother and I never can take that place. But thank you very much for trusting me and allowing your son to be with us so much. I really enjoyed his company!" We talked a lot and the boys told Trudy everything about our big and small adventures. After a while Trudy started to yawn. "I am rather tired and think it's time for us to go home. Thank you for everything! Would you like to have dinner with us tomorrow?" "I really appeciate that! What do you think about that invitation Harry?" Harry looked at me with very naughty eyes. "Of course we accept! That dismisses me from the duty of cooking tomorrow." I smiled, tickled his ribs and ruffled his hair. "Yeah, we were really misusing you!" John promised to be back some time during the next day for he first had to do a lot of chores, and they all went home. Suddenly the house felt really very empty. Little Harry and I looked at each other and we embraced. We understood each other without words. Silently we went upstairs and entered my bedroom where he threw himself onto the waterbed. "Dad, will you pamper me tonight?" First his question surprised me a little bit, but after that I understood. He always had to be brave, he was our chief cook, he was a gypsy prince and his folks waited for him, he was very brilliant, but he also was a very small boy with scars on his body and on his soul. After all he was only eight years old! I smiled at him and silently sent him my love. He beamed his love back and contently sighed. I kneeled beside the bed and slowly started to undress him. First I threw his socks into a corner and kissed his toes. He squirmed and tried to escape the tickling sensation until I took a toe into my mouth. Suddenly he went mushy and I saw tears welling in his eyes. "What is it my little soul mate? What are you crying for?" "I don't know. I just feel too happy dad... My mother always sucked my toes after she washed them. But you do it before you wash them, so you really are a dirty old man." I tickled his feet and again he tried to escape, but in vain. He squirmed and roared with laughter. "Let me go you dirty old man. Rape!" "What did you tell me I am?" "My dirty old dad, and I love you! But please stop tickling..." The only thing I could do now was hold him very close, with tears in my eyes. After a while I laid him back onto the waterbed and lazily he looked up to me. "I thought you would pamper me? Come on silly, what's next..." I smiled and unbuttoned his trousers. He lifted his hips and I sled them down his legs and threw them somewhere into a corner. After that his t-shirt came off and helpfully he lifted his arms into the air. I tugged at his Snoopy briefs and again he lifted his hips to help me. Now he was naked and in my eyes he was beautiful. Of course I did see the scars and the colored wild flesh, but I also saw the beauty of his soul and his love clearly shining through. I lifted him off the bed into my arms and he threw his small arms around my neck. I took him with me to the shower with his little pecker proudly poking into my belly. He kissed my cheek and softly sighed. I adjusted the temperature of the water beam and carefully put him down. First I undressed and threw my clothes somewhere into a corner, after that I sat down and took him onto my lap with my pecker poking between his legs. He softly giggled and melted into me. I took the soap and started to lather him up from head to toes. I carefully washed him, turned him around and washed his back. I rinsed him off, took him into my arms and carefully dried him everywhere. I took him back to our waterbed and laid him down, nearly asleep. I climbed next to him and put the lights off. He immediately turned around and climbed onto my belly with a content sigh and with his little distorted nose in my left armpit. I nearly could hear him purr. "Thank you daddy, that was nice. I am really glad we are with each other and I really, really, really do love you very much!" I couldn't help it: again I got tears in my eyes. My son, my little soul mate... Next thing I knew was the sun peeking through a crack in the curtains and my little soul mate softly snoring on my belly, still with his nose in my left armpit. Gently I pushed him off my body what immediately caused a struggle and a deep grunt. He opened his eyes. "What are you doing?" "Sorry, but I have to go to the toilet." "Ok, coming with you." He jumped off the bed, bright and shiny, with a proudly pointing pecker leading the way. Together we descended the stairs and emptied our bladders into the ceramic god, trying to cross our beams. We washed our hands in the kitchen and little Harry started to make us breakfast with scrambled eggs and some of his famous verbs from the backyard while I sipped my first cup of coffee. "What are we going to do this morning?" "I don't know. What do you want to do?" "Can we do something together today, just the two of us?" "Yes, of course we can. Do you have any idea?" "I hope you don't be mad at me dad, but I want to visit the graveyard where my real mum and dad are buried..." I looked at him and saw sincerity in his eyes. In my selfishness I never had thought about this... "Do you know where your parents are buried?" "No, I never went there before... but I am sure they are buried somewhere under the ground." "OK, let's have a look in the telephone book." We found the address, at the borderline of our small village and next to a small church. I looked on a map where the church was and made a few notations. We went upstairs to shower and neatly dress. We went to our golden van and drove off, little Harry proudly seated on the front seat and craning his neck to look around. "There dad, there is the church! Turn around here and drive into that small street over there." He was right and we approached a small graveyard surrounded by old and skewed weeping willows. I had to drive back and turn the car around to find a parking place in the neighborhood and we started to walk towards the church again. Little Harry put his hand into mine and together we walked through the meadows towards the graveyard. It felt as if nature itself was respectful here. Even the birds sounded less selfish. The sun was shining less intrusive and even the wind blew softer. The graveyard was secluded by a fence and the gate was closed. Little Harry pushed the gate and fortunately it opened, slowly and with a lot of squeaking. We entered the yard and at first we both were overwhelmed by the absolute quietness of the surroundings. Even little Harry didn't dare to speak loudly here. He pulled at my arm and whispered: "Where do you think they have buried them?" "Well, let's first read the grave stones. Perhaps we can find them..." Harry nodded and we started to look at the first row of stones. Soon we were totally absorbed by the diversity of people who were buried here. Young, old, babies, really old, and everyone else in between. We looked everywhere and searched for a sign of what could be the grave of little Harry's parents, but in vain. After nearly two hours of searching and looking around we didn't find anything except a couple of graves without a stone or further indications. Perhaps Harry's parents were buried in one of those anonymous graves? Unhappy we sat down together onto a big marble stone, with our head in our hands. Suddenly I got an idea. "You know, we could adopt one of the graves here and pretend your parents are buried there." Little Harry slowly nodded while his eyes filled with tears. "I rather would adopt one of those big trees over there and pretend they are buried under those roots." "I think that's a wonderful idea son! And I'm sure your parents wouldn't mind..." We went to a couple of majestical old oak trees and little Harry without hesitance went to one of the trees. He sat down with his back against the tree and beckoned me to join him. Hesitantly I sat down with my back against the same tree and I really could feel that tree comforting us and giving us his strength. After some time a man slowly approached us and nodded in our direction. "Morning gentlemen, I am the sacristan of our small church over there. It's a wonderful day today isn't it?" "Yeah, it really is a wonderful day. Perhaps you could help us out? We are looking for the parents of little Harry over here. They perished in a fire two years ago. Perhaps you could help us looking for their grave?" The man looked at little Harry and slowly nodded. "I already saw you looking at all those grave stones so I supposed you couldn't find somebody. Please follow me. We will have to look into the register and I am sure we will find your parents there." We followed him to the small church and he unlocked the door. We went in and again followed him to a small room filled with ancient looking books. He took a somewhat newer looking book from a shelf and beckoned us over. "Do you know the date your parents were buried my little friend?" "No sir, I only know the date they deceased in the fire." "Ok, let's look from that date on... what's the name of your parents?" "Romany, but I don't think the authorities knew their names at that moment..." "Well, let's have a look together. Perhaps you could find them yourself." They started to look into all names and suddenly little Harry jumped. "There they are! A man and a woman of unknown age and unknown origin, burnt together in a fire. I found them dad!" He threw himself at me and started to cry. I caressed him until his sobs lessened and he pulled himself together. "Can we have a look at their grave now?" The man nodded and led the way back to the graveyard. He stopped at a grave next to little Harry's big oak tree. "Do you realize you sat with your back against that oak and with your feet touching the grave of your parents? What a coincidence..." The man respectfully retreated and little Harry again sat down in the same position with his back against the oak tree. "I am sure my parents showed me the way dad! They pointed me to this tree next to where they are buried. I am so happy..." Again he started to sob and I heard him mumble and talk to his parents in a soft voice. Suddenly I thought I heard a voice somewhere in my head thanking me for all good things I did to their little boy. Or did I make that up myself? "My parents wish to thank you for all good things you do to me dad. They both love you very much." I bowed my head and started to sob sitting next to little Harry. For a while we comforted each other. After a long time we both felt everything was ok now. We looked at each other without words and together we left the tree. Harry put his small hand into mine and slowly we walked back to the gate. "I want to put a nice grave stone on their grave dad so I always can find them in the future." "I think that's a wonderful idea son. Let's ask the sacristan." We went to the small church and the sacristan handed us an address where we could order nice grave stones. Within ten minutes we were there and little Harry went straight to a beautiful brownish marble stone. "This one dad! I want this one on their grave." A man approached us and we ordered the stone with a nice text and their names chiseled into it. I was really shocked by the price of the stone but decided not to deliberate. My boy's happiness was worth a multiplicity of that sum! The stone would be delivered within two weeks and with very happy smiles on our faces we both went home. It really was a wonderful day! ------- Chapter 24 will follow in a while... Again I am overwhelmed by all your best wishes and wonderful comments. I like my fanmail, even the smallest! A few excerpts: * Thanks so much for the new chapter. What I really love is the kids being able to trust the "adult" figure. Lately, many of the stories on the net focus on kids and teens not trusting the adults in their lives and instead go into this "brain screw" mode that more often than not leads to worse consequences. It is truly refreshing to see a story where kids trust that adult figure to do the right thing and not hurt them. As always, I'm really looking forward to more "HARRY" and especially the outcome of his surgeries. * That was beautiful. Thank you once again for a heart felt and wonderful chapter. I can't wait to see what happens and see how things turn out. It looks like little Harry and Nicky are going to be boyfriends, along with Jason and Carl. So that makes me wonder is John going to end up with Davey hehe?? You have written a great chapter and have shown love can help over come problems if you let it. Please keep up the great work. * Your story is beautiful & very well written. It's hard to believe that English is only a 2nd language for you... Of course it's unduly imaginative - life in truth is not that understanding - but hey - just the fact that you put it out there says a lot. I'm sure your own experiences growing up & coming out were not always received with such positive energy. But it's really good that you can be so optimistic in your imaginative private world... Bravo! * Dear Friend, Thank you for this wonderful series about Harry and his "Dad" Jack. Your English language skills are better than you think considering the skills of many American writers. The story line is excellent. Again, thank you for my pleasure reading this great story. * Good chapter. Your grasp of English is phenomenal. Words like "forlorn" are not that common even to English speakers. I didn't find anything misused in 22. Another A++. * I just read 22, and your right that was VERY short BUT I also understand that your busy. I think I told you that I to right so I know about being busy. Even though it was short I liked it, and you did excellent in writing it. * I would like to tell all of you that your writings are GREAT. I am disabled and cannot do much. Your stories keep me going and I have been keeping up with your stories. I have almost read all of your work. Keep up all the GREAT work and please do not stop writing. Thanks again for all your wonderful comments. I really like your mails, even the smallest! Please send your comments (or hints how to go on) to my mailbox: mailto:harry@hadjo.nl and thank you very much for reading my first story in the English language. My native language is Dutch (Nederlands) and I am living in The Netherlands.