Published: 20 Dec 2018

Bobby was reclining on his side as we entered the examining room and a male nurse was applying some ointment to his body, actually massaging it into the scalded areas, but those were so plentiful he had just coated the goop all over and, avoiding the areas that had blistered, he had almost finished coating Bobby from head to toe. Bobby had a most contented look on his face which brightened even more when he saw us both come into the exam room. That look turned into one of worry as he looked up to the male nurse. The nurse asked which of them wanted to tell us and Bobby pointed to him. The nurse explained that when he had applied the goop to Bobby’s front, Bobby had achieved an erection, and that was normal. When the ointment was massaged onto the groin and testicles Bobby had achieved a very respectable orgasm, which was again quite normal under the circumstances. Bobby was looking mortified, and big mouth Brian blurted out that it wasn’t unusual, he always achieved an orgasm when I massaged him also. Bobby looked so surprised, but very pleased. The nurse smiled and told Bobby that he was now sure he was going to like living with us and he also told him he didn’t think there was going to be anything to worry about.

After a stronger ointment had been applied to the blisters a gauze wrap was placed on Bobby from head to toe, the nurse explaining that this was just to keep the areas clean but to let the skin breathe. It would promote healing. He said in two days time the only areas we would have to cover would be the blistered areas and he would give us some of the antibiotic ointment for those areas. He also had some of the gooey skin cream like he had massaged into the skin that we could use on him for the next two days, after two days Bobby should look a little sunburned and an over the counter skin cream for sunburn would work well for him. As he prepared to go Bobby thanked him and the nurse winked at him and told him it was his pleasure. They both chuckled as he left, leaving us the big roll of gauze as he did.

We then sat in the two chairs in the curtained off area and I asked Bobby if he’d like to come live with us on our farm. It looked like he was having another orgasm, and Brian piped up and asked if that was a “yes” and Bobby was thrilled. He told us he was worried about that and the doctor and then the nurse had told him that they thought that was what we were trying to arrange. He made like he was going to hug us, and I asked if he was going to hurt himself if he did, and the little trooper said he didn’t care if he did, he had wanted that more and more as the semester went on and things were getting worse at home. We each gave him a gentle hug and I asked if there was anything at his old place he wanted and he said he would like his clothes and some games, but that he really wanted his books. Brian went out and called the town’s police station and he was assured that they had a key to the house and an officer would meet us at the house so Bobby could get his belongings either tonight or the next afternoon after classes were out. I told Brian to call him back and tell him that I’d meet them there with the pick up truck this evening at 6:30, that would give us time to get Bobby settled in and for all of us to have dinner.

We all met with the doctor and he went over the care instructions the nurse had imparted to us earlier and he told us that if anything looked odd, or the blisters seemed to be oozing pus we were to call him immediately. He shook our hands, calling me Mr. Blackmer, and Brian, Mr. Harris and Bobby was chuckling. The doctor asked him what was so funny and Bobby told him that both Brian and I were doctors too. The doctor looked at us and I told him that the kids at the school where we taught had found out that we had just achieved our Doctorates degrees last Spring and that we were known in school as Doc A and Doc B, for Archie and Brian. He chuckled and congratulated us, saying that at home we could now be Dad A and Dad B. He was still chuckling as he left us to see his next patient.

We got Bobby dressed and took him out to our car, Sheila having left as soon as Brian had arrived and he had told her his news. She had implored him to call if we needed anything at all. We drove back to our town and along the way we stopped and picked up a whole bunch of the Colonel’s best chicken and a mess of sides to make sure we were providing a decent meal for Bobby. We showed him around the downstairs and we helped him with his dinner when we three sat for our first meal together. He was finding it a bit awkward eating with his hands wrapped up, but we assured him that we would monitor his healing closely and as soon as possible we would remove the hand wrappings.

He didn’t seem to be having as much pain as before, but we had him take a pill before we all went upstairs and let the 12 year old choose his own bedroom. He said he really liked the big one at the end of the hall, but he also liked the one near the front stairs that had a connecting door to the bathroom nearest that bedroom, so that was where I left them when I went to meet a policeman at Bobby’s former home. I took several boxes we had in the barn and some bags in the bed of the truck and was there in five minutes. The officer was the same one that had met us at the school, and who had assisted Brian and the lawyer this afternoon. He had a key for the little house that we had learned was rented. He helped me in gathering the clothing from Bobby’s room and while making a trip out to the truck with two boxes in my arms a man grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me around to face him. He was obviously drunk, and demanding to know where Mrs. Williams was. I told him she was in jail for child abuse and he became enraged, bellowing that he had a date with her tonight and then he tried to attack me. I assumed a defensive stance and when he came after me I was able to deflect him into the side of the truck.

He hadn’t hit the truck hard enough to knock himself out and he shook himself and tried to come after me in a tackle position and I was able to lay him out again, and again the drunk was able to rise again, enraged, and this time, as I flipped him on his back, I applied pressure to his neck and assured myself he was out cold before turning and seeing the officer running over to make sure I was alright. Several neighbors had gathered in the road and applauded me as the officer handcuffed the drunk and put him in the back of his unmarked cruiser. There were a few of the middle school students who were cheering for Doc A and once the bad guy was safely in the cruiser they rushed over to me, asking if I was alright, how did I do all that, why was I at Bobby’s house, was Bobby alright? I tried to explain to them and the adults in the street everything, and that I was moving Bobby’s stuff to my house because he had been hurt and his mother was no longer his parent, so Doc B and I were going to be his new dads and I was just getting his things because he was so wrapped in bandages that he couldn’t help, but we all hoped he be well enough to come to school next week. There were a lot of comments from the kids and the adults, but none of it negative, unless they were talking about Mrs. Williams and her boyfriends.

The kids almost sounded jealous when it sunk in that Bobby would be living with Brian and I, but some of them actually pitched in and helped the officer and I finish packing up the remaining things in Bobby’s room and lugging it out to the truck. I walked around the house and secured more of Bobby’s books and I also took some photos and his childhood album. I made sure there were several photos of his dad packed as well, and a few of them all as a family before his death. The officer took the drunk to the station to book him for drunkenness and assault and I thanked the kids for helping out and they all asked to be remembered to Bobby. Once at home Brian helped me take the boxes and bags up to Bobby’s room, where he was having a snooze on his new bed. We finished lugging stuff upstairs and I moved the truck down to the barn, thinking I would call Mr. McMasters and bring him up to date and to call in for tomorrow and Friday so some one would be home to tend to our little patient.

After discussing this with Brian he made us flip a coin to see who would get to stay home with Bobby and of course I won. I called Mr. McMasters and told him how everything worked out, and that the doctor had recommended that Bobby be ointment-ed and swaddled in gauze for the next two days and I felt one of us should be home for him, at least until the bandages were removed, but we all thought he could return to school on Monday. He praised us for standing up for Bobby and he too told us to call if we needed anything. It was at that point I realized our families didn’t know anything about what had happened and as I was about to call my parent’s house the phone rang and it was my mother. I had totally forgotten that she and Sheila were friends and that both of them were school nurses in their respective towns. Sheila had told her just about everything and she had waited as long as she could for me to call and tell her our news. She said she was proud of the two of us taking in an abused child, and she said that she and my dad were anxious to meet him.

I told her that I thought that Sunday would be a good day for that, and maybe they could all come to meet Bobby then, as I was sure the majority of the bandages would be all removed by then, and he would be more settled into his new home by then. She agreed and offered to do a roast and all the fixings and the whole family would drive out after the late mass on Sunday and should be here in time for lunch. She told me it was a big roast, so I should invite John and David and Captain Harris and Carl as well. I laughed and told her I was going to do that right now. We said our good nights and then I had Brian call his dad and fill in him and Carl about the days events and to invite them for a family lunch on Sunday. He was proud as a peacock as he did just that and his dad was ecstatic to be getting a grandson out of the whole mess. The next call was the one I made to David and John.

To say they were surprised would be an understatement. They too were very proud of us for taking on the responsibility and they insisted they bring desert out with them when they came to Sunday’s lunch. I told them they would be two more uncles for Bobby and John started to cry and I knew David was getting choked up as well, we told each other goodnight and then Brian and Bobby came down to watch TV before Bobby had to go to bed for the night. He told me that he and Brian had gotten his room all set up and he loved it, and thanked me for retrieving all his stuff, giving me a soft hug and I told him he was worth it and how all his friends from the neighborhood had helped load the truck. I told him I thought he had some good friends there and he said there was one really good friend and I told him that after he healed some he could have him over after school and we could drive him home, or we could pick him up on the weekend and drive him home after their visit. He was excited about that, but I had to tell him that next week would be better, because we were being invaded on Sunday. He looked at me funny and Brian just laughed at him, so we told him about who was coming and that he would have 9 new aunts and uncles, and four new grandparents to meet that day and that a lot of food was coming with them. I told him that the next day I’d dig out pictures of them all and if he felt good and was a bit more mobile I’d take him for a walk down to the barn and the cottage so he’d know his way around and be able to show his younger aunts and uncles around.

You’d have thought we’d won the lottery the next day. Bobby had his dressings changed and yes, he did spring a cute little boner as I massaged the ointment onto his entire body. I had saved his groin area for the last section and after rubbing the ointment on him I left him on the big towels spread on his bed and told him to go to town on his boner and have fun, I’d be back in about 15 minutes. I’d seen Brian off to school and started to bathe Bobby in his tub(I thought the shower might be too harsh on his healing skin) and had gotten him mostly dry and spread out on a few towels I’d laid out on his bed. It was then I did the ointment and now he had some time to pleasure himself in private and I was fixing him some home made pancakes and crispy bacon. The load of wash Brian had put in the washing machine when he got up was now ready for the dryer so I went down to shift the load and when I reached the first floor again there was a knocking on the front door. It was the nice officer from the day before and he had a large sealed envelope in his hands, a delivery from the family court in Northampton, our county seat. He asked how Bobby’s night had gone and I explained that the wrappings go on pretty tight and with the stronger pain pill at night he didn’t experience any discomfort and that Bobby had asked me to personally thank the officer for his help in getting his possessions out of his mother’s house. He got a little grin and said it had been his pleasure. I asked if he meant helping a young boy out or watching a teen taking out a bully. He was smart enough to say both. He did say he had asked a few people about Brian and I and he said he was proud to have met us and he wished us a lot of luck. I then looked at what was in the envelope and it was the approved decree of parental rights transfer, which gave full guardianship to Brian and therefore, me too. I was so relieved, I had been afraid that because of our age, or because we had only been in our jobs for one semester we would be denied guardianship. There was a note from the judge attached to the paperwork which said that when Brian and I reached the age of 21 that should we wish it, we could apply to adopt Bobby, that would be in three and a half years and Bobby would be fifteen and a half. The officer congratulated me and asked me to pass his sentiments on to the other two men in my family. He left right after and I went up to show the decree to Bobby.

Once the new wrappings were in place we went and I finished preparing our breakfast. We ate at the big table in the kitchen and I told Bobby about us purchasing the farm from Mrs. Flynn just before school had started and I told him about Brian and I growing up in the next town. We chatted as I cleaned up the kitchen and then I pulled out my photo albums and introduced him to the images there of his grandparents and uncles and aunts. He was excited now to meet them all in person on Sunday.

We talked a lot as we strolled around the barn and Bobby asked why we didn’t have any animals on the farm and I explained that Mrs. Flynn had inherited the farm from her older brothers who had farmed here for over 55 years, that they had lived here alone all that time, as neither man had married and that when the two men had died Mrs. Flynn had sold off all the cows and other animals because no one came forth to offer to purchase the entire operation. He asked what was to become of the fields and I told him that Brian and I had been tossing around some ideas, but the most logical one was to rent the fields to neighboring farmers, ones who needed more land to grow bigger crops, but who could not afford to actually buy the land. Bobby agreed that made sense.

We were touring the cottage when he asked who was going to live there. I told him we had thought of renting it out, but we hadn’t had the time to really think about that yet, as with coming up with a plan for the fields, and getting settled into teaching at the school, we just hadn’t had the time to really do our homework and make a final decision. He pondered that as we looked from room to room in the cottage and as I was locking the door as we left he softly said he knew someone who we could rent the cottage to. He told me, as we strolled back up to the main house, that his friend from his old neighborhood, Mike, and his dad lived in a camper at the end of his old street. He said his dad had been laid off from his last job, and he and Mike had to leave their old apartment and now they lived in the camper and there wasn’t any water or electricity, they were camping out there in the middle of winter. I asked if he knew Mike’s last name and he told me it was Sanders. I pondered this as we got our outer gear off and I checked Bobby’s bandages over to make sure all were in place before he went in the living room to watch some show, as I prepared to go to my desk in the sunroom and prepare some lesson plans for after the holidays which reminded me that Christmas was only two weeks away. I had just sat down when I had an awful thought; what if Mike’s dad was the guy at Bobby’s old house looking for Mrs. Williams? After all, that guy hadn’t driven there, he had walked.

I called the police station and asked for Officer Myers, the officer that had been so much help to us the past couple of days, and I was connected to him right away. I introduced myself and he asked what he could do for Dad A. I told him I had a question and I asked him if he remembered the name of the guy he had arrested at the William’s house and he told me it was Jack Sanders, who had given them an address for an apartment he no longer lived in, in fact he had been evicted from it a year ago. I then told Officer Myers my suspicions about there being another of our students in jeopardy, that Mr. Sanders had a 13 year old son and they had been living in a camper trailer at the end of Bobby’s old street, and I was afraid that he might still be in the trailer, alone with no electricity or water. The end of that road was pretty isolated and desolate. I told him I had to make a call and check something and I’d call him back right away. He agreed, knowing what I was thinking, that Mike could be in school.

When I called the school I got the secretary in the office on the line and I asked her if Mike Sanders was marked as present that day and she told me he was absent. I apologized for my shortness and said I’d fill her in later, but I had a very important call to make. In the mean time Officer Myers had checked on their prisoner and found out he was finally sober
(they suspected he was more than drunk the other night) and he went and spoke with him. He asked if he had a son and the guy at first denied it and then said he was a worthless piece of shit and it was because of him he had lost his job because he hadn’t paid his health insurance and Mike had broken his arm in the Spring and he had taken money from the business to pay the doctor and the company found out before he could repay it and they let him go. Officer Myers told me all this when I called him to ask for his assistance at the camper, as Mike had not reported to school that morning. He agreed and I made one more call and left to meet the officer at the camper, I took a bundled up Bobby with me.

I explained what I had learned from Officer Myers and the school secretary, and Bobby was worried, because, as he told me, Mike would always get to school early to get really clean before home room and at the school he usually got free breakfast and lunch, his big meals for the day. He admitted that while his former parent was at work or out on a date he would let Mike shower and eat at his old house before his mother came home. He said Mike was not stupid, he just didn’t want to get sent to a juvenile group home in Springfield. By now we were at the end of the street with woods on each side and Officer Myers pulled in right behind us. When we got out of the vehicles Bobby went over and gave Myers a gentle hug and his thanks for helping to find his friend Mike. We followed Bobby a little distance into the woods and there we saw the old pull along pop up camper, with no signs of activity around it. Bobby went to the door and pushed it open, calling for Mike as he went in with me right on his heels.

We heard him before we saw him, he was in the sleeping berth on the right, under all the blankets he could find. He was almost blue in color and his eyes had a glassy stare. When he heard Bobby talking to him he started to weep, but didn’t seem to move at all. Officer Myers said we had to slowly warm him up and get fluids into him, Mike was going into hypothermia. I grabbed his thin form up, with many of the blankets still around him and took him out to our car, which was the old Toyota hatchback we had gotten for a graduation present. Officer Myers rushed ahead and we, together, laid him out on the back seat and I turned the car back on to get the heater on. Bobby came up with a bottled water he had found in a cooler in the camper. As that was done Mr Winters, the lawyer from the other night, pulled up and he had his big clunky car phone in his hand as he asked for a quick assessment as he stood as far out of his car as the cord would allow. Myers told him it looked like hypothermia and dehydration. Mr. Winters told us to take him to the hospital in Holyoke, they were used to this as there was a ski area on the outskirts of the city, so with Bobby sitting with Mike’s legs in his lap I drove the 15 minutes to the hospital, leaving Mr. Winters and Officer Myers there. This was a hospital I knew. My Mom had worked there until she became the school nurse in my home town and when we pulled into the emergency room someone must have called ahead, as a trauma team was waiting for us. While they wheeled Mike away Bobby and I were left to fill out the admittance information.

We were about done with what information Bobby and I could provide when our lawyer, Mr. Winters, arrived. He said he had conferred with Brian and his office which had gotten permission for us to act as parents in an emergency placement, but he had also talked with the police chief in our town and he had spoken to Mike’s father in the lockup and gotten permission for our lawyer to file the same paperwork as we had for Bobby if we wanted. He told me that Brian was all for it, if I agreed. Mr. Winters said that again, this would all be done outside the purview of the DCFS. That we would not receive funding for either boy from the state, and I didn’t hesitate to tell him that Brian and I had been banking one whole paycheck every pay day so far and we could afford both boys and would still be able to do that.

It turned out that Mike was only hours away from full on hypothermia and possibly frostbite as well when we found him and he was so happy to see Bobby come into the exam room after they had gently gotten his body temp. up to a normal range. We had waited in the reception room and a number of the employees came over and spoke with me, a lot of them asking how my Mom was doing. Bobby was suitable impressed, but we spent a lot of time talking about what would happen to Mike, especially after I told Mr. Winters to go to the Granby police lock up and see if Brian and I could add a Son 2 to our family before Christmas. After two hours he returned with a copy of the request to the family court and a copy of the witnessed transfer of guardianship he had had Mike’s father sign. There were no other relatives who wanted to take either boy in.

We visited with Mike for an hour before the emergency room said he was now fully hydrated and ready to be released, so we all bundled up again and I drove us to the camper and we removed what little Mike had and we went home. We moved all his clothing and school supplies inside to the front hall and then Bobby gave him a tour of the first floor before we all went up and let Mike pick out a bedroom for himself. Not surprisingly he picked one on the other side of Bobby’s, the one with another connecting door to the bathroom separating the two bedrooms. Mike was told to take it easy so it wasn’t until I had prepared the veggies for our dinner and checked on the chicken I had put in to roast that we tackled getting his belongings up to his room. Before most of his clothing went up I suggested they be run through the washer and dryer in the basement beforehand. This started, I helped him move the rest up to his room and Bobby and he got him settled in just before Brian arrived home from school. He had picked up more milk and juice on the way home and he put a lottery ticket for Saturday’s drawing on the fridge. I smiled at him when he did that, and he said he was at the checkout when he impulsively bought it with the change from the milk and juice. I gave him a big kiss and told him that we’d have to have someone else cash it in if we won. He looked at me and then it must have hit him that you had to be 21 to cash in a winning ticket. He said we could pick someone Sunday when the “adults” would be there for lunch, just before he said he wanted a proper welcome home from his co-daddy. We were kissing when the boys arrived at the kitchen door, their lips red and a tad swollen. Bobby nudged Mike and said, “See I told you they were just like us!”. We were laughing as we tried to hold the kiss, but our chuckles got in the way.

Brian greeted Mike warmly and told him he had no excuse for not having his homework done, now that he lived with his English teacher, just like Bobby. I teased him it would be the same next year because I would be their 8th grade English teacher next school year. Both boys groaned, but they were both good students and neither Brian or I could foresee any problems. During dinner I brought up Bobby’s comment about them being “just like us”. I told them it didn’t affect how we felt about them, or how we were going to treat them, but what happened at home stayed at home, just as whatever was said in this house stayed in this house. This was all our home, and home was where you were supposed to be safe, and that’s how we all wanted it to be. If they saw Brian and I kissing, that was our business, and if I spotted them kissing or cuddling, it was no one elses business but theirs, as long as no one was being hurt in any way, but it was to only happen at home, behind closed doors. If they had any questions they were to come to Bran and I and we would answer them the best we could, or find out the answer for them. We also told them there would be times friends or family were here visiting, and anything they saw or heard then was considered private also. The boys solemnly agreed and we moved on to another topic.

Brian brought up the subject Bobby and I had touched on while we were at the barn late in the morning. He said he had heard in the faculty lunchroom today that one of the teachers who had retired (thus making room for our hiring) was selling up and moving south after the holidays. He said he had looked at a notice the former teacher had put up and there were all kinds of animals he was selling, and Brian asked if any of us were ready for the added responsibilities of taking care of some of them. Bobby asked what kind of animals and Brian took a list out of his pocket and read some of them off to us 4 American quarter horses, two male, two female, approximately 7 years old. 4 dogs, all sheep dogs, again 2 of each sex and about 4 years old. 25 chickens and 3 roosters, about 4 to 5 years old, all Rhode Island Reds. 10 ducks about 3 years old and 8 new chicks, all the standard white. 4 cats, at least one tom in the group as there were 6 kittens that at least 2 of the cats were tending to. These were what was called Barn cats. There were others, but nothing Brian wanted to be around, like 2 llamas (he hated that they spit) and some pigs that he couldn’t stand the smell of.

I personally wanted the dogs and the horses, but I didn’t know the first thing about the care of the horses, and I didn’t think Brian did either. Bobby thought he would like to rebuild the old chicken coop at the back of the barn, but he hated roosters, he said that for some reason whenever he was around them they pecked him, Mike thought the dogs would be neat, but he didn’t think 4 would be good, he thought 2 was the right number, one of each, a male and a female. He said he would take care of them, if we could get only two of them. Bobby said he always did want a horse, but he didn’t know anything about them either. Brian spoke up then and said that on the notice was the fact that the person who took care of the livestock was looking for a similar position, and all he was asking was for a room and a thousand dollars a month.

I idly asked if he had any field experience and Brian told me that he did as a matter of fact, as the farm being sold was a hundred and fifty acres and a lot of that was corn and feed oats for the horses and the cattle that had already been sold off. He said the farm hand was a bachelor in his fifties and was native to the area. I also asked what they wanted for the animals and Bran said that was the great thing, they weren’t asking for money for the animals, they were hoping to adopt them out, as most of them had been rescue animals any way, and the owners didn’t want to make any money off them.

The boys looked at us, with a look of wanting in their eyes, and I did the same to Brian and he laughed and said he knew when he was outnumbered, but he told us all that he wasn’t mucking out horse manure every day. He got up from the dinner table and went to make a call. He came back and told us, as we three had stayed behind to clear the big table in the kitchen, that we got just about everything we had asked for and then some. I asked what he meant by that and he said we got the horses, two of the dogs, one of them pregnant, as both the females were, all the tack required for all four horses, and all the chickens and chicks, but he had to take all the roosters as well. When the retired teacher found out it was Brian calling for his new family he even threw in all the feed he had on hand and he and his farm hand would be here Saturday to deliver the dogs and their feed and they would look over everything to make sure we were ready for delivery of the other animals. I started to say something about the old chicken coop and Brian told us the farm hand would make the necessary repairs early next week while we were all in school and the fowl would be delivered after those repairs were completed. Everyone was really pleased by all this and the boys all hugged Brian and he got a big smooch from me after their attention was on the TV program they were watching.

Our Authors deserve to know if their works are being read. Let Art know, email him at: ArtWest at CastleRoland dot Net