He slowly picked his sweet angelic head up out of my private area and smiled the biggest smile I had ever seen up to that point and said "that was great!"

"Thank you," I said to him. "It was fantastic and I should be thanking you."

He couldn't have been more than 11 or 12 at the time and it was to say the least, a time never to be forgotten. That was the last I saw of the lad. I got myself put back together and started to head back to my seat from the hiding place we had found in a back room of this musty old theater I had known about since spending hours upon hours playing inside with my friends over the years. You see this place was just remodeled recently and reopened this night for the first time in about 10 years.

We sat for the final half of the show and left quietly, my mind still spinning from what happened earlier in the evening. I barely remembered what I just finished watching in front of me. My date looked at me curiously and wondered out loud what was going on as we walked out the front door of the huge palatial theater and I tripped over a step that I knew was there from my earlier years; this of course brought me back to earth from the dream land I was in. That was how it began for me I had just finishing up my final year of college in a suburban part of New York where I had grown up as a middle classed well behaved young lad who respected everything around himself from the land to the people of my small neighborhood. I had never been with a child before that night but many times with a woman and almost with a child of my own for being stupid once in my teens. It was obvious that would be the beginning of something new but still unsure because I had to protect the reputation of what I had become. My schooling had brought me a degree in counseling and most of that was directly with the police in the surrounding towns and some extended area's outside of here. This job included calls at all hours of the night and many upset parents, fights, and even occasional battering and abuse of all sorts but mostly crying boys and girls of all ages for some odd reason. My girlfriend whom was the girl that I was with this night of my first new experience was soon to be my wife and had just told me hours before that she is pregnant with my child. That is partially why we went to attend this gala opening the other reason was that not many exciting things happen in this town so almost everybody who was somebody was there. My name is Tyler, I am now 24 that "new" experience was three years ago. I will get back to how I met my little friend at another point in this story.

The town that we lived in was small, about 1500 people at best and surrounded by a few other towns of which all but one were the same size. Prichartville was our biggest local city about 5000 people. I was a well know kid because I helped out around town and many local officials such as police and firemen were friends and knew me well especially since I made headlines when I was 15 and saved a couples children from a burning house one winter night. God I thought I wasn't going to make it once I flew into that house. This had benefited me in getting to where I am now and although I never really got in trouble, as any kid does I had an occasional small beef with one or two of the local police, none of which was even close to being serious. So here I am debating what to do with my newfound interest and a child on the way.

Chapter 2

The call came at 3 o'clock in the morning, this one was different for some reason the police dispatcher sounded upset and I had known from past conversations with her that this was either very bad or just another case that somehow upset her a little bit more that usual. I figured I would get back to her later to see why she sounded so bad. The address was nothing that stood out in my mind as some have in the past. I arrived half asleep just barely able to keep my mind on what was about to happen. One of my school friends a local cop approached me to fill me in on the situation.

"Hi Billy what going on?" I asked. "Did you at least have the decency to have a cup of coffee waiting for me this time?" I chuckled but only for a moment as his face was like stone and didn't change. Bill and I kidded around quite a bit but this time I saw the face of a cop that was extremely upset and didn't have the usual cheerfulness in it.

"Come on in," he said, "and brace yourself." Quite a few things shot through my head after he said that but none of them were what I expected.

In front of me was the usual living room which we walked through but instead of going toward the bedroom as I had expected he turned into the bathroom and I saw a quivering, semi-nude young boy with a towel wrapped around his bottom half and dry tear stains running down the side of his face. His head was lowered into his chest so I wasn't able to see much beyond that. He was sitting on the edge of an empty tub feet inside it and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why this was happening in this room and hadn't been moved to a couch or bedroom.

The child a young boy was about 12 but it was hard to tell from his current state and the way he was seated. I was just about to approach the boy and look at him when Bill gently grabbed my arm and nodded for me to come into the next room. As I did he started to explain the current situation so I could finally make sense of what the Hell was going on. I wanted to listen to him but interrupted Bill for a second to say something about the location of the child but he shushed me and told me to listen to him for a minute. I gladly obliged.

"Now listen Ty," he said. I gave him my full attention. "We are till trying to piece this thing together but I need you to talk to this kid and get his side of the story. The reason he is still in the bathroom and has a towel rapped around him is that he most likely has been sexually abused or raped. We still aren't sure." He motioned for me to come into the bedroom and there I saw the horror that probably caused the dispatcher to be so upset. The sheets were messed up violently and blood stained just a little bit in the middle. I turned to Bill and he continued to explain. "The best we can tell this kid let somebody in
earlier tonight that he may have known but we can't seem to get more than two words out of him at a time." I asked where his parents were and he said that was still a mystery. I asked how they got the call. "It came in anonymously through a pay phone over on fifth street."

Fifth street was a bit of the shady part of town where the towns only murder in over 100 years happened about eight years ago. I remember that well because I stumble upon the action just as the police arrived. It's the edge of our baseball and football fields of all things and since that time has always been avoided after dark by all the local kids. The fields run north from there and take up a huge part of the middle of our town. Matter of fact they were used on a regular basis but this was winter and nobody hung around this time of year. It was just the old Thompson's barn with the broken windows and a street light with one of our few pay phones under it. It was really the perfect place to make any private phone call. Anyhow Bill said, "It's all we have to go on right now and a detective was over there dusting for any identification or evidence."

Bill left me to my job as I went back to the bathroom and he went to find out if anything had been found over at the payphone. I was lone in the house now with our young man now because it was late, and beside the detective and Bill, there was only one other cop on duty and he was watching the town. I walked into the bathroom and knelt down on the throw rug and gently put my had on his bare back to get his attention. He jumped slightly and began balling as I had startled him because he had his back to me. I grabbed his shoulder and turned him so I could finally see his face and stared for a few seconds and then...

The voice... I didn't recognize him with his messed up blonde hair and streaky face. He looked at me with those deep baby blue eyes and had a shocked look on his face he spoke softly and said, "Don't you know who I am?" I brushed his hair out of his face and like a ton of bricks it hit me.

"You.. you're the.. I know.." I was speechless and thanked the Lord that I was lone at this moment. It was the young lad that satisfied me earlier that night. I didn't even know his name.

He jumped up as best as he could and clung to my neck practically squeezing the life and breath out of me. He held me for what seemed like hours but were actually a few
seconds. He climbed out of the tub and asked me what I was doing there. I explained to him that I was a counselor and I get called out on these things. I asked him his name and how badly he was hurt and if he could explain what happen to him earlier. It was apparent that it wasn't too bad or I would have met up with everyone at the hospital instead of
here. Shyly he said in that low tone I heard earlier in the night that his name was Joshua and he was 12 just last week. He went on to say that somebody he met online somehow had gotten his address and came bye to see him. He only knew him by his screen name which he told me was skylark. I asked him what happened to him and whose blood was on the bed and he said it was the guys blood and that "when he forced himself on me I reacted by biting him on his dick to try to fight back." Luckily that was more than enough to scare him off.

Joshua said he was shaken up a lot and scared by a quick grope and a finger in his butt, however nothing more happened. I asked him if it would be alright if I left him alone for a minute that I wanted to talk to the officer outside and I would be right back. He said okay but please hurry. I went outside to grab Bill and fill him in on our turn of events. He was happy to hear that the bastard got what he deserved but he was more confused now more than ever who placed the phone call from fifth street. I told him that we may never know and check the local hospitals for a prick with is prick bleeding. After what seemed like hours I finally got a smile from Bill with that comment and he told me that process was already under way, but nobody had stopped by the local hospital yet. Apparently Josh didn't bite too hard. I laughed to myself at that thinking what I had received from the same mouth hours before. I told Bill that I would take care of the situation inside and find out about his parents right away but I asked him to stay outside for now because I didn't want to put more pressure on this kid then there already was. But of course, I had my own personal reasons, which Bill didn't need to know. He said it was fine and asked me what else he could do. I said, "Nothing for now and as soon as I have more information I will tell you."

He told me it was fine anyway and would I mind waiting around for somebody to come home that there was some small emergency across town and he was needed right away. I yelled to go ahead we will be fine. I walked back into the house and approached Josh to see what was going on and ask him if his butt was okay. He jokingly said yes and would I like to see for myself. I told him some other time and tousled that beautiful blonde mop.

I asked him to get dressed and he ran into his room across the hall from me and dropped the towel right in front of me. His smooth butt cheeks, stood out as a sight for sore eyes to behold. I know he did that on purpose, because he turned his shoulders and head to see if I was looking but I turned away just quick enough so that he didn't know if I caught the show or not.

He bounced back out of the room. "Where are your parents?" I finally asked.

"I don't have a father and my mom works late nights at a local security firm plus a normal 9-5 job during the week," he said. I had no idea how she did both but I just shook it off and asked him for the phone number but he said she didn't have a phone on at job site just a beeper number for emergencies. We paged her and a few minutes passed by and the phone rang. I picked it up and identified myself and filled her in on what had happened. I really didn't want to do this over the phone but she told me she couldn't leave her post without some kind of backup and Sunday nights were the only time she was completely alone.

I said "don't worry too much I will bring Josh to you and we will talk some more when we arrive."

"I really appreciate this thank you Tyler," She said and hung up the phone.

A few seconds passed and I walked over to see what Josh was up to and he was just sitting and waiting for me to finish up on the phone. He asked, "are we going to see my mom now?"

I turned to him. "We will be leaving shortly I just need to contact officer Bill and tell him what we are doing," I said. I called dispatch and filled in Agnes with the story and asked her to radio Bill and let him know what was up and where I was going to.

"No problem Ty," she said, "if Bill needs you we know where you'll be."

Chapter 3

It had begun to rain as we left his home some snow was mixed in but not enough to matter so it went unnoticed. It was also close to morning but still dark and for one little boy still scary as could be. As we pulled away in my car. The ride wasn't that long but it sure was quiet. I though I would go deaf from the silence in that car the whole way there all I heard were the tires on the road and Josh's breathing. I grabbed his hand and gave it a gentile squeeze he responded by looking over at me and fainted a smile. That was all I needed to know he was going to be alright or so I hoped. We arrived at his mom's job about fifteen minutes after we pulled away from his house.

The rain had changed to all snow now, falling lightly; I felt cold, and I shivered as the chill hit my spine when I opened the door to get out. Josh walked around to meet me and grabbed my hand. I stopped and looked down at him, into those eyes of beauty and he once again began to sob. I knelt down next to him and wiped away his tears and we once again exchanged a hug. This one had felt stronger than the one I got earlier in his house but it definitely meant more to me. We walked towards the front door of his mom's work and before we could even get close, the doors flew open and out ran a very upset and almost crazed woman who scooped up her son in one big whoosh and embraced him like they hadn't seen each other in forty years. This time, however, Joshy held his composure. His mom put him down after a minute and turned to me for some answers.

I told her what I could and between the three of us we got things straightened out as much as we could, I guess. By now it was daybreak and his mom, who's name I finally learned is Jennifer, had now seemed a bit less worried and at least stopped shaking as her shift was coming to an end. Josh had fallen asleep on a couch near by and I was watching him like a bear over it's cub. It was 7am and Jen told me that she needed to run and get ready for her next job at 9am and although I didn't have time to comment on her busy schedule I did shake my head and ask her how she did it. It was a rhetorical question. I carried Josh to her car still asleep and gently placed him in the front seat as he stirred for only a second.

She looked at me and said "I don't know what to do with him Ty. He has to be in school in an hour and I need to be at work."

I suggested that he stay home which she said was probably best, but with whom??? Well I knew this was a mistake but I had to do something, so I told her that I make up my own hours at work and I guess I could stay with Josh for the day. She hugged me and thanked me for the next five minutes before I said, "I just need to run home quickly and get a few things together, and I will be back in fifteen minutes or so."

She smiled at me and said, "Fine, I will be waiting."

I flew home and filled in my honey, Lisa with a few of the details and she happily agreed, not that she wouldn't... I have known quite a few women in my days but none so sweet and understanding as my girl. That was part of the current dilemma in my mind, how much I cared for this boy and also how much I loved my soon to be wife. I arrived back at Jennifer's house just after 8am leaving her plenty of time to get to work. She went off to do her woman things in the bathroom after letting me in out of the snow and I peaked in on Josh who appeared to be stirring, looking like he was having a nightmare or something. I was going to get his mom when I heard the shower start and I figured everything would be okay the way it was. It wasn't! He suddenly got loud and sat up screaming, I thought for sure I would see a naked mother do a fifty yard dash into his room in record time but I guess she didn't hear the uproar. I ran over to Josh and sat on the edge of his bed to see if I could help any and once again was treated to a life threatening hug after he realized who I was.

"Where is my mom?" He asked me.

I told him she was showering, getting ready for work. I went on to tell him that everything would be okay and he will stay home and didn't have to worry about school for today. He shrugged a small smile and asked about who was going to care for him. I said I had agreed to do it after his mother asked me to and that, for some reason, brought him right out of his sadness.

A little bit later out popped Jen. She asked if everything was okay. I told her what just happened, filling her in on Josh's latest escapades. She look at me with some fear in her eyes wondering how long this was going to last. I told her that from previous knowledge of similar past situations like this it could go on anywhere from a day to a week, which really made her morning. I said: "look Jen I am going to be here all day and I will take good care of him, after all I am a counselor and have been thru this dozens of times. She begrudgingly agreed (like she had a choice) and set off for work, after, of course, a five-minute lecture about keeping her updated on his progress all day. I said "Go to work and if it gets out of hand I will gladly call you and we can take it from there". She reluctantly left. I now set my focus on the little love in the next room.