Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2002 14:43:05 EDT From: Bwstories8@aol.com Subject: The Castaway Hotel - book 5, chapter 20 Legal Notice: The following story contains descriptions of graphic sexual acts. The story is a work of fiction and has no basis in reality. Don't read this story if: **You're not 18 or over, **If it is illegal to read this type of material where you live, **Or if you don't want to read about gay/bi people in love or having sex. The author retains copyright to this story. Placing this story on a website or reproducing this story for distribution without the author's permission is a violation of that copyright. Legal action will be taken against violators. I wish to extend my thank you to Ed for his editorial assistance with this chapter. If you have enjoyed reading this story, you will find other stories by me at http://members.tripod.de/wolfslair, in the 'Other Stories' section. E-mail responses to the stories, story suggestions, or other 'constructive' comments or advice may be sent to: bwstories8@aol.com. * * * * * * * * Although the boys in these stories have unprotected sex, I strongly urge all of you out there to be smart and protect yourselves from various sexually transmitted diseases by using condoms when having intercourse. * * * * * * * * The Castaway Hotel-Book 5-by BW (Young-Friends). Copyright 2002 by billwstories Chapter 20 - Wrapping things up. March 2002 Mark was also with us for the summer now, working at the bank with his mentor and the girl he had a fling with last summer. From what he had told me, he and that girl had kept in contact after he left, getting even closer than they were while he was here. Even though he was living at the house with us, we weren't seeing all that much of him, as he was at work a lot and then with this girl at other times. He did take me up on the offer I had made him over the phone, and took advantage of the opportunity soon after he arrived. One Saturday morning I saw him and some of the older boys heading out to the pool, to swim in the buff. I thought Danny and Brandon might pass out from the excitement, even before they got in the water. Mark was older and a bit hairier than most of my boys, but no one seemed to mind that fact. He was still a very handsome guy, with a great body and some nice assets, even if he was totally straight. Shortly after Mark had arrived, I saw my friend, his mentor, one day, and he told me that Mark was doing extremely well with his responsibilities and he was catching on to things much more quickly than his mentor assumed he would. My friend told me that the foundation's funds and my personal accounts were in good hands with Mark taking care of them. He also tried to fill me in a little about Mark's girlfriend, telling me she was a sweet, intelligent girl, who came from a good home, and he thought they made a nice couple. I thanked him for his interest and input, and then I thanked him for working with Mark. I told him I was sure that he had had a great deal to do with Mark's growth and success, and that all of his help, both for the foundation and for Mark personally, was greatly appreciated. He then spoke to me about the superintendent's position and asked how the search was coming. I explained the situation to him, and that's when he suggested that he thought I should just accept the position full-time. He told me that he has spoken with others from the community, who felt the same way, and they all hoped that eventually I'd reconsider and just take the job. I told him I appreciated his support, and that of the others, but that my family had to come first. That's when he said that he hadn't seen that as a problem in the past, so he didn't see why that should influence the future either. He said he saw no reason why I couldn't still be effective at both, just as I had in the past. I thanked him again, told him I'd consider that, and then I went on my way. It was only a few days more before we received another email from Ricky, with more tales of what he had been up to. Hey Dad, Thinks are really going great over here. School has been interesting, it's kind of different from what I'm used to, so it's really kind of neat, and I love listening to everyone's accent. The way they talk is just soooo cool, and I could listen to them for hours. Well, I guess I do. hehehe Peter has been really great and he's introduced me to most of his friends and he includes me in on everything, even if I don't know what I'm doing. We've played a little soccer here, and yes they do call it soccer, but Peter is trying to teach me about footy right now, that's Australian Football, or what we call rugby. It's kind of strange, at least to me, but he's working hard to making me understand and like it. His favorite team is something called the Parramatta Eels, and he said they got their name cuz the players are as slippery as eels and can't be tackled. I don't think that's it though, as I was thinking it might have something to do with the eels they hid in their shorts. hehehe Peter's parents took us on another short trip this past weekend, and we had a really great time. I tried to pay for as much as I could, but they wouldn't really let me. That made me feel kind of bad, cuz I know they don't have that much money either, so if we go again, I'm going to tell them that I'll only go with them if they will let me pay for things this time. I think that's only fair. Well, they took me to Sydney Saturday, because they said they had some things to do there. I think it was just so I could see some of the city. It was really neat, especially when they let Peter and me do the bridge climb. I bet you didn't know that they actually let people climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge here. It was so kewl. Peter's parents didn't go with us, cuz they said they had done it when they were younger and they were too old to do it again. I think it was just because it cost so much. I paid for both Peter and me, so they could go if they wanted to, but they still didn't do it. Well, Peter and I had to take a breath test before we could climb, kinda like the blood-alcohol tests the police give people back home, but it is just to see if we had the lung strength for the climb. Then we had to do a practice climb on the Climb Simulator, just to make sure we could do it okay. Once that was done, they had a guy tell us what we were going to do and show us a video, to make sure we still wanted to do this. After that they gave us fleece jackets, hats, and gloves to wear, cuz it's winter here, and then they gave us these special clothes to put over what we were wearing. We also got things to communicate with and safety harnesses, so we couldn't fall off. Well, we started by crossing this catwalk to the archway, and then we climbed up to the top of the Eastern Arch. From there we climbed up the outside of the bridge, to the very top. It was really awesome up there. You could see all around, in every direction. It was a clear day and you could see way far. It was amazing. After that we had to cross to the other side of the bridge and then we climbed back down to the Western Arch. Man, that was way kewl. After that they took me on a tour of the Sydney Opera House. It's a interesting looking building from the outside, and it's the one they show on TV every time they bring up Australia, other than showing the outback or kangaroos. The outside almost looks like the a replica of a 50's space alien costume from the movies, but it does seem to fit in better than I thought it would. Well, we took a tour of the inside too, and there is a concert hall AND an opera hall there. I didn't know that until then. Well, we had a good time and then we went out to eat. They've been really great to me and I appreciate all of it, but I want to be able to do more for them too. Let me know if you have any suggestions about that. Say hi to everyone for me, and I'll send each of them a short email too. I love you all. Ricky I sent Ricky an email back, asking him to call me, so I could get his bank account numbers from over there. Once I had those, I'd wire transfer him some more money, so he could do more for his host family. Ricky has never asked for much, and this was a special time for him, so it wouldn't hurt to give him a bit more right now. I told him that I wanted him to enjoy his time there and to do nice things for his host family, seeing they were going out of their way to take good care of him. I knew I didn't have to tell him that, but it was my way of letting him know that I agreed with what he wanted to do. Oh, yes. Jake and I made some joint decisions during this time too. First of all, it had to do with our wills. We had talked about amending them to make each other guardian of our son(s), should anything happen to us. We also made a commitment to stay together as partners, of sort. We weren't going to go as far as getting married, or anything like that, but we both knew that we enjoyed each other's company, shared many interests together, and we enjoyed our time alone too. We did call the boys together one afternoon, to discuss this fully with them, before making any kind of announcement, and it was quite an interesting meeting. "Boys, we wanted you here so we can discuss something that will affect all of you. Uncle Jake and I have talked this over and we are going to make each other legal guardian for you, should something happen to the other one." "Nothing is wrong with either of you, is there?" Kevin asked. "No, there's is nothing wrong, we are just taking precautions." "You wouldn't be trying to protect us, by not telling us if there were, would you?" Danny followed. "No, you older boys are old enough now not to have to be protected from the truth. If there was something you should know, we would tell you." "I think you called us here for more than that, didn't you?" Pat wanted to know. "Well, yes, there were other things." "Like what?" Sammy interrupted, not giving me enough time to continue. "Well, I think Uncle Jake and I are going to be staying together, for more than just now, if you know what I mean." "Great!" shouted Shannon, as he leaped up from his chair. "I knew it was going to happen." "You knew what was going to happen?" his father asked him. Shannon blushed, but answered. "That you two would fall in love and stay together," he said with a grin. "Are you going to get married?" Andrew asked us. "No, Andrew, we're not getting married, but we will stay together. We did discuss it, but neither of us thought that people are quite ready for that yet, though I hope they will be by the time any of you decide to make a commitment of that nature. We were afraid that if we did that, someone might question our fitness as parents, and it is more important to be here for you right now, than for each other." "Well, I hope you do it some day," Brandon added. "You both deserve to be happy." "Thank you, that was very sweet of you," Jake told him, "but the reason we waanted to bring this up was to see if any of you had any objections to this." "I don't see any problems with it," Trey announced. "Yeah, as long as we don't have to start calling one of you Mom," Frankie announced, with a grin. "Well, I think we can avoid that," I told him. There was some murmuring in the room, as the boys talked this over, and then Dustin spoke up. "Then I think I can safely speak for all my brothers and say, GO FOR IT!" Some of the boys began to repeat this phrase, while the others just let us know we had their approval. I did this while Mark was at work, as I wasn't exactly sure how he'd feel about all of this, but I was sure he'd hear eventually. Then I'd let him make up his own mind about our situation, but I wouldn't force the issue. Time has flown by quickly. Here we are, now at the end of June, and the family is involved in many things. First of all, we are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of Nigel and his boys in two weeks, and we've been busy firming up all the arrangements for our mini-trips with them, plus our special little surprise. The only things Nigel's boys have been told is that they will be coming here, staying with us, and we will take them on several short trips while they're here. Of course, they know that they will be spending a great deal of time around my boys too, and after our trip to England, I think most of them suspect that might include some sexual escapades. Even though they know that Nigel and I will be keeping it to a minimum and making sure it's protected, I'm sure they are looking forward to whatever might be allowed. On the personal front, I was very involved with the selection of the new superintendent and running the school district in the meantime. The search committee and I have continued to be slightly disappointed with the quality of the applicants to this juncture, but we are hoping that more qualified candidates would emerge now, seeing we had extended our original deadline. I will continue to run the district and prepare for the reopening of school in the fall, because I doubt very much that we'll have anyone in place in time to perform those functions. With some luck, we'll have selected a candidate and have him onboard early in the school year, and then I can go back to focusing on my boys. Speaking of the boys, Nick and Brandon would be leaving to spend some time with their parents, but they have both talked their parents into letting them come back by the very beginning of August, so they'll be able to spend at least two weeks with Nigel's group. Everyone is so anxious about their coming that the pair had convinced their parents into letting them return a little earlier than originally planned. I'm sure their parents weren't thrilled by these requests, but they did give in, knowing that the boys wouldn't be much fun to have around during that extra two weeks, if they thought they were missing out on something fun. Then there is Ricky, who is now an exchange student in Australia. He seems to be enjoying himself and doing well there, and it even sounds like he might have met a girl that he might be interested in. I'll take a wait and see approach about that, however, as this was only the end of first month of his eight-month stay there. I know he will do well, but his being so far away still gives me some concern about his welfare. I'm sure he'll be fine, but I won't be able to rest again until he is safely home with us. We did send out a package with the things he requested, plus a couple of surprises for his birthday, and we all look forward to hearing from him soon. Trey also has some interesting times ahead of him too. His English teacher has submitted his play and video to two different competitions, one for writing and the other for novice filmmakers. I don't think Trey has any hopes for the competitions, but I think he was pleased when his teacher asked his permission to submit them. I think that was honor enough for him. But that is not all Trey is involved with, as he is also part of the new driving group, with Nick and Vinnie. I think they are hoping to have their licenses by fall, so they can take their turns as drivers in our daily caravan to school, even though I've told them that I probably won't let them take their road tests until next spring. I think they're hoping to sweet talk me into moving this up, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick to my guns on this one. I want to do that so they can practice their winter weather driving skills, before they actually have their licenses and begin to think they already know it all. We are also getting ready to send three more boys off to college at the end of the summer, as Danny, Brandon, and Kevin will be leaving for their freshman year. I know Frankie and Dustin will give them a few words of advice about this over the summer, and that all three are more than ready to go, but it will leave another hole in my heart, as three more of them depart. I guess the fall might prove to be a quiet time, with six of them away at various places, but I'm sure that the others will more that make up for their being gone. It sure isn't easy watching your kids grow up. Speaking of kids, I have Vinnie, who has been here for a while now, and I guess it's getting near the time when I should probably sit down and have a talk with him, about whether he wants to be adopted or not. I mean, I know he loves living here and all, but I'm not sure if he'd see the adoption as a betrayal to his parents. Besides, I also wasn't sure he would want to use the Currie name or if he would prefer to use his own, even if he did want to be adopted. Well, I'll have to have this chat sometime soon, just to see what his thoughts are concerning all of this. I wouldn't even think of initiating the adoption process without his input and approval. And finally there is Nick's new ambition, about becoming an exchange student himself. I'm sure we'll be spending time together to prepare for this, as long as he doesn't change his mind in between, but I have the feeling that he won't. I don't think I've seen Nick this serious about anything before, so I'm sure he has thought this through, and I think this is a very positive sign about his increasing maturity. We'll see if this continues, once school begins. No matter how much has happened over the past year and how much our lives have changed or improved, I still have to cope with doubts that I am doing the right things for the boys. I guess I've always dealt with these doubts, from the day I first took Ricky in, but I guess my brush with mortality has made me take these doubts more seriously now. I think about how my actions affect the boys, directly or indirectly, and what might happen to them once I'm gone. Sure I know that Jake has promised to be there for them and they won't have to worry about financial woes, but am I really doing what's best for them? How will I ever know the answer to that question? Well, that's the point where Graham came to my rescue. I have been worrying about all of this since my heart attack, and after losing Brent the way we did. Suddenly I began to doubt all I was doing, wondering whether I might be doing more harm than good, no matter how well intentioned I was. Then the other night Graham came to me, telling me he had a message to deliver. "A message? From whom?" "The other side. Brent is bringing a lot of people through." "Really, and who would that be?" "Well, it's a lot of different people, but mostly ones we have heard from before." "Like whom?" "Well, I see Vinnie's, Trey's, and Sammy and Andrew's parents there, and Dion's grandmother, and a woman that I don't recognize, but she's standing in front of our house." I had my suspicions, but I wanted to confirm them, before I jumped to conclusions. "What does she look like?" After he told me, I was sure I knew who that was. "I think that's my wife, Graham. I've been wondering if I was ever going to hear from her again." "She's a very nice looking lady," Graham told me, "and she has a bouquet of pink roses, so I think they are for you." Now I could feel a tear break loose, from the inside corner of my left eye, and that was followed closely by one escaping from the other eye. "You said they had a message for me," I questioned him, trying to get to the point of all this. "Well, Brent did let me know this was for you and only you." "Okay, but what's the message?" "I'm not sure, but they're all standing in front of our house, and they are smiling and giving you a thumbs-up sign." I didn't think I had to enquire as to what this was all about, but I did have one more question for him. "Even my wife?" "Well, she's doing something a little different from the others," he began, and I was worried that she didn't approve of what I had been doing with these boys or my relationship with Jake. That's when Graham continued. "She's giving a double thumbs-up sign." Now the tears started to really flow down my cheeks, after hearing this. I guess if I had any doubts about what I had been doing, they were now laid to rest, as the other side came through to let me know that they approved of what I had been up to. I guess now I can put my worries behind me and focus on taking care of business as usual. THE END OF BOOK 5. * * * * * * * * AUTHOR'S NOTE: First of all, I'd like to thank all of you who took the time to write, telling me you were interested in having this series continue. Because it takes so much time to write each chapter, I just wanted to make sure there was enough of a following to justify the effort, and I do see the support is still there. I will write a book 6, but it may be a while before the first chapter appears here, as it has been very difficult to find the time to write. It will be posted, however, just be patient and I will try to make it worth the wait. Sincerely, Bill * * * * * * * * If you have enjoyed reading this story, you will find other stories by me at http://members.tripod.de/wolfslair, in the 'Other Stories' section. E-mails may be sent to: bwstories8@aol.com.