Published: 7 Feb 2022
TOM & DREW
Drew
We had just gotten home and had Tom’s room sorted out, having added the items from his dorm room to the items we had picked out at Sears for him last weekend, when Billy called to talk to Tom and the boys began an animated discussion about what had happened when I went to his dorm to sign him out. Billy was excited that now Tom was now fully moved into our house and was another step further toward being my son forever.
We spent about two hours in the pool after Tom just had to go see the inhabitants of the barn. While Tom visited with all the animals, Ollie and I talked about another riding lesson the next afternoon when Aaron and Billy would be with us after our planned lunch out at Quabbin. He thought that was a good idea and it fitted in with his plans for tomorrow. He had spent the first two nights of the week sleeping in the efficiency apartment in the loft of the barn and he had reported that the unit was very quiet and comfortable.
He also told us he had another showing that evening at his own property for sale, and this would be the second time this particular couple were looking at his place. He was reminded that the efficiency was his if he needed it.
We worked together to get our dinner ready, actually a beef stew had been started in the slow cooker right after lunch and all we needed now was some heated French bread and a salad. It sure was a good meal. Tom was turning out to be a big help in the kitchen and the talk between us never lagged, unless we were chewing our food. Tom brought up the possibility of visiting his old home tomorrow, and I suggested that we do that on our way home from Quabbin. Aaron and Billy would be with us and if it got too emotional for Tom, Billy would be there for him, and Aaron and me also, of course.
In the morning we made up our picnic lunch right after breakfast. About 9 the Porters arrived and Billy and Aaron both congratulated us for my early permanent guardianship of Tom and our fun began. We explained how our day was laid out and they were completely in tune for what we wanted to accomplish.
Our excursion to Quabbin was a lot of fun. This time the boys sat on the two middle seats of the long canoe we hired and Aaron took the bow and I took the stern seat. I loved looking at Aaron’s back muscles as he paddled with his T-shirt off. I was dying to explore his body, but for now I was content to just perv on him. Our picnic lunch was on the third island, as the first two had families and we didn’t want to intrude. We finished eating and Tom and Billy went off a bit to find a tree that needed watering, and when they returned it was our turn. Aaron and I stood side by side in front of a tree and neither one of us was disappointed by what we each saw as we pissed, but before either of us could say anything, we heard a great deal of honking behind us. We closed up and turned as one to see the sight before us. Billy and Tom had been cleaning up after our lunch and had scattered crumbs and crusts from the subs we had made that morning from the leftover loaves of the French bread and they had scattered the crumbs on the beach where our rented canoe was beached and that had attracted a whole flock of about thirty ducks.
The boys were jumping all around as the ducks squawked as they ran around the boys to peck at the breadcrumbs and the bigger pieces of the crusts. It was really funny to see and now some of the ducks were at the boys’ feet, almost begging for more. I had my cell out in seconds and was recording all this. I noticed some of the ones at the boys’ feet were starting to try and peck at their ankles and feet, so I stopped recording and nudged Aaron and we ran toward the boys, scaring the ducks away into the water.
The boys were unhurt, but they did say that the beaks of the ducks that had pecked at them were kind of hard. I had read in one of the brochures that are on a rack at the canoe rental counter, that interaction with the wildlife is discouraged, even feeding the birds scraps, because the rangers do not want the wildlife to become dependent on humans feeding them.
We had a fun paddle back to the docks, teasing the boys about their duck friends. We were back to the docks to return our canoe rental by 1:30 and on our way to the small two bedroom rented ranch style house Tom had lived in with his parents.
As we drove up in front of the house Tom said it looked a lot nicer than when he had lived here. The lawn and planting beds along the front of the house were well taken care of. There were two older cars in the driveway and soon Tom was out of our car and walking toward the house. I hopped out and caught up to him and I asked what was up, and he told me that he had to see if his stash was still there. I looked at him kind of funny I guess, but he chuckled and told me not that kind of stash, but some things he had hidden in the house, not drugs or anything, just some things his parents had left out and he had thought they were worth saving.
By now we had Aaron and Billy behind us and the front door was open and those two young men I had seen there before were in the doorway. Tom went right up to them and told them that he was Tom and he used to live here with his parents and would it be OK if he could see if something he had hidden in his old room was still there.
I introduced myself and our friends and in turn they introduced themselves, Tony and Bert, college seniors in August, majoring in land and farm management at UMASS in Amherst. They turned to Tom and told him that he must have hidden his stuff real good because they hadn’t come across anything from the previous occupants yet, and they had been renting the place for a year now. Tom just smiled at them and said he’d show them his hiding place. Tony went inside with Tom and Bert came out of the house and we began telling him about Tom’s circumstances and why I thought this was important for him to have something from his past.
Tony and Tom soon returned with a couple of shoe boxes that Tom had retrieved from his old room’s closet. There was a bump out in the corner in there that covered a heating duct that ended in the next room, his parents’ old bedroom. Tom had found a loose board covering the duct and it was there he hid things that he thought were important to him. He thanked Tony and Bert for letting him see his old house and getting his “stuff” from its hiding place. We talked more about Tony and Bert as we rode across town to have a snack at home before our riding lesson with Ollie. On the way Tom talked about the changes in the house we had just left and he related that Tony and Bert had been the ones hired by the owner to clean out the place and repaint it after Tom’s parents had died.
While we snacked Tom asked me to look through the stuff in the boxes with him tonight, and I told him that we could do that either after our lesson with Ollie, or after our guests left after dinner, whenever he thought we’d have enough time to go through them. He did that satisfied grin again, and said, “Thanks Dad”.
We changed out of our shorts and switched to our jeans and we all went down to join Ollie at the barn. Our first chore was a test, he asked us to prepare our chosen mounts for riding. He sat back and watched each of us preparing our horses or ponies for the next part of our lesson. Surprisingly the boys had remembered to bring their notes with them and they had no trouble outfitting the ponies, I had one question about the cinch on the saddle seeming to be too loose, and Aaron thought the bridle on his horse was much too loose as well. Ollie told us that he had changed the settings to give us a bit of a challenge for our first test, and he was very pleased we had not only noticed, but brought the changes to his attention, we had passed our test. He reminded all of us to double check all the items used to ride the animals, for damage, and that the items fit, otherwise it could end up causing us, or the horse or pony harm.
He was very pleased with how we rode that afternoon and by four we were currying and settling our mounts in their stalls, giving them a treat, and then making sure their gear was all wiped down and stored properly. Ollie told us that he did receive a good offer on his little farm and he had accepted that offer today, his closing date would be the first week of August, so he would only need the use of the barn efficiency for three weeks until the end of August.
The boys voted for some pool time before dinner, and Aaron and I agreed, so everyone changed into their swimsuits and we relaxed for an hour before going out to Antonio’s for our 6 PM reservations. The restaurant was busy but the host on duty remembered us from the previous weekend and seated us almost right away. Our meals were very good and while the boys kept themselves occupied with their own conversations, I told Aaron that I thought a date between the two of us was in order soon. He smiled and blushed a bit and he nodded and told me that he felt the same and that maybe some evening during the week we could find a movie for the boys to see at the movie complex and we could find something to do for those two hours. I agreed.
We said our goodnights to our friends and Tom and I went to our home. Once inside Tom asked if we could look through the boxes he had retrieved from his old home today. I agreed, since we had a few hours before bedtime, and Tom went to his room to get the boxes and we sat at the kitchen table to go through them. Tom opened the first box and told me that these were some papers and photos his parents had left lying around and about three months before their deaths he had begun just picking them up and putting them in the 1st box. We went through the pictures, mostly of the parents and some of their friends, only in 1 of them could you see Tom, and he was carrying a tray with beer cans on it, he said it was his father’s birthday party.
The papers he had collected were something else entirely. Some were just monthly bank statements, but others were monthly stock and bonds statements from the investment division of a big national branch bank in Springfield. Both parents were not named on these accounts, like they both were on the regular bank statements from the local bank, these investment accounts had only Tom’s mother’s name on them. What was surprising to me was that these statements from the investment bankers totaled many hundreds of thousands of dollars, all in his mother’s maiden name and starting on the earliest date just before his parents married seventeen years ago.
The second box had another pile of rolled up paper. Tom explained that these papers all had something to do with the house they had lived in. I sorted through the documents and put them in order by the dates on them and began to scan each sheet. The very first by date was the rental agreement for the house, but it was not an ordinary rental agreement, it was a rent to own agreement, originating almost 6 years before Tom was even born, it was signed by both his parents. There was a receipt acknowledging their monthly payment for each month since, with the final receipt showing the agreed on price of the house had finally been met and a note to arrange for a closing on the house to transfer the title into the parents’ names.
I was totally stunned for several minutes as I contemplated what we had here on the kitchen table. For some reason investigators had not determined that Tom’s parents legally (as far as I could see) owned the house, and secondly, Tom’s mother had inherited a lot of stocks and bonds that were now valued at several hundred thousand dollars, and the investigators had not located those accounts either. I finally came to the conclusion that Becca, my lawyer, should look over all these statements and documents.
Tom was looking at me with a look that made me think he had a question to ask, and he wasn’t too sure how to ask it. I smiled at him and told him that I thought I had a pretty smart son sitting next to me. I told him that even if he didn’t know exactly what all these documents were, he instinctively did the right thing by keeping them safe. I also told him that I didn’t know exactly what they all meant, but we would find out, in fact I knew just the person to help us figure out just what all these papers were all about. He now had a very satisfied look on his face as he tried to put his arm around me and he gave me a sideways hug as we sat next to each other on the kitchen chairs.
I ruffled his hair and suggested he get ready for bed, as by now it was after 9:30 and we had a few things, like grocery shopping, to do tomorrow, Sunday. He got up and moved to pick up our glasses and I told him I’d get those while he got ready and I’d come tuck him in soon. I carefully gathered the two batches of papers, planning to call Becca on Monday. I placed all the documents in my desk drawer in my home office on my way to do our goodnight routine in Tom’s bedroom.
As we said our goodnights, I wondered if it was too late to call Becca tonight, after all, it wasn’t even ten, but decided that I’d wait until Sunday. It wasn’t exactly a life or death situation after all. I wished Tom pleasant dreams and went back downstairs to watch the evening news before hitting the hay myself. Sunday morning after breakfast we went down to the barn and Ollie was there, having finished his morning routine of cleaning the stalls and performing the morning feeds for all the animals. Tom and I saddled up our mounts and took a slow trail ride so he could see the full extent of the farm and all the fields Ollie had rented out.
It was a peaceful ride, and Tom had a bunch of questions as you probably guessed already. We didn’t return to the barn until about 10:30, and after tending to our mounts and their tack, we headed back to the house. Tom said he wanted to call Billy so I went to my home office to call Becca. She asked right away what was wrong, and I told her that we were fine, it was something that Tom showed me last night that I thought needed some attention, so I began to tell her about the documents and statements Tom had stored in those shoe boxes.
She seemed intrigued as I described the stock and bond statements from the big bank in Springfield and even more animated when I read to her the rent to buy agreement with the parents’ former landlord. She was silent for a moment, and asked me just how rich I wanted my son to be, because she saw the possibility for numerous lawsuits to be filed and all of them would produce some cash settlements for Tom’s future use.
I told her that gaining some unexpected wealth hadn’t hurt me, and I didn’t anticipate it would hurt Tom either. She told me that she’d really like to see us and the documents at her office, and that although she had some appointments in the morning, she was going to set aside some time for us in the afternoon, how about we come to her office at about 2 PM. I agreed and we said our goodbyes.
Now I had to explain this all to Tom in ways he would understand. I went out into the family room where I saw he was totally engrossed in the book he was currently reading, but put the book aside when I sat next to him on the couch with some of the papers in my hand. I explained the investment statements to him in terms I thought an eleven year old could understand and he was really surprised that his mother had a lot of money invested, since occasionally his parents would argue for hours about money, usually sending him to his room if he happened to be out of it for some reason.
The second set of paperwork was about the house and I explained how at times it was possible to rent a house and most of the rent, if not all, could be applied to the agreed upon price of the house. I explained that on Monday afternoon we were going to visit my friend and lawyer and she would look through all these papers and let us know what to do next. I told him that she was also the lawyer that was going to represent us for his adoption. That brought out that big smile of his.
We watched another movie before bed and in the morning Tom asked me to show him again how to make French Toast. We not only had time for a great breakfast, which Tom basically made, only asking a few questions along the way, and after the clean up, we each used our own bathrooms to shower and get ready to be away from home for a few hours.
We first stopped at the mall in Hadley, the closest one to the campuses of UMASS, Amherst. I bought a good laptop for Tom and while in the mall we got him a basic cell phone. I told him that this was primarily for emergencies, but he could use it to call Billy, or other classmates after school. It was never to be used in school unless the caller was me, or he had to answer a text from me. He was proud I thought he was ready for these items, and he did promise to use them responsibly.
By then it was time for us to drive into downtown Northampton to Becca’s office which was right around the corner from the county courthouse. We placed our purchases in the trunk of the car after I parked in the parking garage near the courthouse, and we walked around the corner to Becca’s law office. We were right on time and after introducing Tom to Becca, I handed her the file folder I had placed the two sets of documents in. I asked her if she wanted to take a few minutes to go through them by herself and she asked if we could give her twenty minutes to a half hour and I told her to take her time and we’d be back in a half hour.
Tom and I left and I took him for a walk out on the street. We wandered a couple of blocks and Tom got to see a lot of neat shops, everything from Art Galleries to both new and vintage clothing shops. He was amused by a lot of the T shirts in some store windows, since we were in a city that had the reputation for being Gay friendly and it had a respectable population of the lesbian community, most of the displayed T shirts had funny slogans on them.
We meandered back on the opposite side of the street to look in more store windows and at the half hour mark we were back at Becca’s office. She greeted us again and said she had some questions for Tom. She asked him why he had saved these particular papers and had hidden them. He told her about growing up with his abusive parents and he was the one responsible for cleaning up the house. If he came home from school and his mother had left stuff laying around, if he didn’t clean them up, his father would smack him, or his mother would if he hadn’t cleaned the place up before he got home, it was his mother who would slap his face hard, as a form of punishment.
He just figured that if they were needed one of them would ask where he had put them, and he didn’t want to get them mad at him. Becca had come over to him and rubbed his shoulder and told him she was sorry for bringing up bad memories, but one day she thought he would thank her. While we were out for our walk she had the time to call the trust department of the big national bank in Springfield and she reported that the stocks and bonds and a few other investments were all part of an inheritance she had received when both her parents had passed, just before she had met Tom’s father. Now Becca needed another copy of Tom’s parents death certificates and she would have those funds transferred into a trust account in Tom’s name and they would be turned over to him when he was 18. In the meantime, someone would be named the conservator of this legacy, most likely me, at his adoption hearing, or possibly before, but not likely.
Tom was very surprised and asked if she knew what the value of the stocks and bonds were, and Becca told him that at today’s market rate the stocks and bonds and the other investments were worth about $780,000.00, but she expected that figure to increase by the time he reached 18. He looked stunned. I spoke up and asked about the papers that dealt with the house, and she said she thought that our best bet was to inform the District Attorney about those as she thought there would be legal action taken against the former landlord, and a jury settlement awarded to Tom. She said she would assign one of her investigators to the case, at least for the first week, and once she had his report she would know which way to handle the case, either a direct interview with the landlord or his lawyer, or both, or a review of the documents and her investigator’s report would be sent to the D.A..
Tom asked what all that meant, and when I reminded him about what I told him about rent to own he nodded, and I explained that his parents had that kind of agreement with their landlord, but the landlord had never turned over the ownership of the house to his parents, and that we wanted to find out why. That seemed to satisfy Tom for now.
As we prepared to leave, Becca told us that she thought we might get on the family court docket sometime in August regarding my adoption of Tom, we both thanked her for all her help. We both left her office smiling. We had a snack once we arrived home and then we began to set up Tom’s new cell phone and his new laptop. He watched closely as I got the laptop set up and when he tried using it himself, it was like he had always had one. He explained that in the school he had attended in Springfield there were computers available for the students to use in a section of the school library, and they had a semester of twice a week computer usage classes. We had set the laptop up on the desk in his room, but the battery when fully charged would allow him to be able to use it when out of his room, as the house had a strong WiFi signal that even extended as far as the barn.
We went riding again that afternoon and Ollie went riding with us. He told me that his closing was scheduled for Friday and everything looked good. Most of the furnishings of the house were included in the sale and a lot of what he wouldn’t need for the rest of the summer was already packed for the movers to store, and then deliver to him in Florida once he got down there, late in August.
He asked me why Tom was so chipper today, and I reminded him that Tom was now permanently here, that permanent custody was given to me on Friday, and that he had gotten his first computer and cell phone today. I told him a little about some documents that had come to light about the house Tom and his parents had lived in and Ollie told me that the owner of that house was not very well thought of in town. I, in turn, told Ollie that there would soon be an investigation into that guy and we might want to let the dogs run free on the grounds a little more until the matter was resolved. I suggested adding one of those automated entry gates to the end of our drive into the property. I had heard that they could be operated by a remote control unit or a sensor on the front bumper of a car or truck that was authorized to be on the property.
He said he’d look into that for me, as he knew what I was talking about. He thought we could use one at the end of the hard packed dirt road that wound its way through all the fields and ended at a farm road that led to other properties in the area, but was a good way to move farming equipment without using the public roads. He said he could arrange for the field renters to have a sensor on their vehicles as well. While Tom was on his phone talking to Billy I confided in Ollie and explained that I thought we should have the gates as some added security for Tom, because we had just turned in some incriminating evidence against the former landlord to our lawyer who had stated she was going to initiate an investigation which would then be turned in to the District Attorney. He assured me that the gates would be installed sometime this week.
Tom stopped his pony until we caught up to him and then he asked if Aaron and Billy could come out on Wednesday for swimming in the afternoon and I gave my assent, and Ollie spoke up and said he could give us another supervised riding lesson before we all went swimming, and I told Tom to pass that on to our guests, this way they would have their jeans on instead of shorts. I’d learned as a kid that you can get a bad chafing on your legs if you rode for any length of time wearing shorts.
I was thinking that a lot had happened in both our lives in a short period of time, but on reflection, I didn’t feel stressed, and Tom sure didn’t, he actually seemed more upbeat. He was communicating, not holding anything in and letting it fester in him. I thought he was handling everything very well and I was proud of him for doing so.
Dinner that night was fun as Tom asked if Ollie could have dinner with us and Ollie agreed, so the three of us shared dinner and had a lot of fun talking about the school and a bunch of things that had occurred there while Ollie had worked as the head custodian of the building. Once Ollie had returned to his soon to be sold home Tom and I settled in on the big couch in the family room area to watch some TV before bed time. With the month coming to an end, I thought it was time to begin thinking about the upcoming 4th of July holiday. During one of those long commercial breaks I asked Tom if Billy had said anything about the upcoming holiday and he told me that neither of them had ever said anything to each other about it. Why, could we have a cookout and go watch the fireworks? He asked me, telling me had never seen fireworks before, except on the TV if his parents were not home.
I told him that sounded like a good idea, was it OK if I contacted Aaron and invited them, or did he need another excuse to call Billy today? And he gave out one of those chuckles that always makes me chuckle. He told me it was OK if I called, so I did, I called Aaron right after we had groomed our rides and we had started walking back to the house. I didn’t tell Tom this right away, but I invited them to stay the night on the fourth as well as for dinner and going to see the fireworks. I felt almost as good about that as Tom would when he found out his best friend was going to have a sleepover with him.
Surprisingly, Becca called about 11 in the morning Wednesday. She related that the required death certificates for Tom’s parents had arrived and she had stopped at the big bank headquarters to present them to the head of the financial investment department and with her signed contract with Tom (and me) those two documents had given her access to view the current status of those accounts that Tom’s mother had inherited before she had married Tom’s father. His name was not on any paperwork, but one of the sections of her contract with the bank named “any future children of her issue” as her beneficiary of the accounts
Becca told me that that day’s value of those investments was over $800,000.00. The manager of the investment division of the bank assured Becca that by the end of the year those accounts would be valued at a million dollars. He related to Becca that he had been the one to meet with her to set up the accounts almost 13 years ago and she had set up the beneficiary statement the way she did just incase things didn’t work out well between her and her fiance. The bank changed the client name from Tom’s mother’s name to Tom’s and the changes and copies of the death certificate and Tom’s current birth certificate were then made and those copies were entered into Tom’s account with the bank. Becca confided in the banker that Tom’s status and name might just change before the end of August, and he suggested that she again bring his new paperwork to him and he would make any changes needed at that time.
She told me that the investigator didn’t have anything definite to report yet, but it all looked like the landlord of the house must have known the couple had died and thought he was entitled to all that money paid under the rent to own agreement. She implied the man had a rude awakening ahead of him, since no effort had been made to contact whoever had custody of Tom at the time.
She promised to keep us informed and we wished each other a happy 4th of July next Monday. Later, after we had dinner, I sat Tom down and explained that when he graduated from high school he had the funds to be able to do whatever he wanted in life. He could go to any college he could get into, he could go to a trade school, and he would have enough funds to start his own company if he wanted. He started to ask something but stopped……and after a pause he looked up at me with those deep, green eyes and asked if he could go to where I went to college, because I always told him how I loved my classes there. I told him that he had a good start on that already, as his grades were really good, and if he kept those up, he quite possibly would be accepted wherever he wanted to go. I would be so proud of him wherever he went to college.
I told him that I had asked Aaron and Billy to spend the night after the fireworks on Monday and he said he was going to ask if Billy could, but he didn’t know how. I replied as I tucked him in, that any time he wondered about anything to just ask, and I told him that I might answer right away, but that sometimes I might have to get more information before I answered him.
Tom
So far living with Drew was absolutely wonderful. He never just told me to do a chore. There was always an explanation involved. Most of the time he was right there with me doing the same thing, or something totally different, but right there with me as we each worked on what we were doing. Most of the time it was doing prep work for our dinner, or fixing our lunches or breakfast meals.
Even in the barn, he made taking care of the animals fun, as did Ollie. These guys were nothing like my parents had been. On Friday, Drew and I helped Ollie move his personal items into the furnished efficiency apartment in the barn, and then we had him up to the house for dinner with us. Drew grilled steaks, I made a big salad, we baked potatoes, and for veggies we put together tiny carrots mixed with peas. We had a lot of fun during that meal and Ollie thanked us for making him feel right at home for his first night.
On Saturday we all had a riding lesson. Aaron and Billy came over just after lunch and we all had our jeans on for our lesson and the long ride we took out on the trails between the fields and among the trees between them. Ollie had cleared paths that had some sun, and some shade, in these lightly wooded areas. He told us that he might even get to clear some trails in the outlying wooded areas on the perimeter of the property if the weather was good for the rest of the summer. After our ride, Ollie had some chores to do so after grooming the horses and ponies we had ridden it was swim time.
As Billy and I played a bit of water volleyball in the low end, Drew and Aaron seemed to have a lot to talk about both in the deep end, and later as they used two lounge chairs close together on the patio surrounding the pool. I really hoped that they became good friends, like Billy and I were. I know that everyone needs a close friend, and after being separated for just over a year, Billy and I had already told each other we would never be separated again. We didn’t have that worry now that Drew had been officially designated as my permanent guardian by the DCFS, and had filed already to adopt me. I knew that while Drew was a caring and loving parent figure, once school started he would be surrounded by kids all day long. He’d have his class for the whole school day, then he’d have me all the rest of the day, and weekends too.
Sure, we got along great, but I also knew that at his age, only 27, he also didn’t have a lot of time to date, to form a “special” relationship, one he had already told me in so many words, he had tried for, and not found. I still thought that Billy’s Uncle Aaron would make a great boyfriend for Drew. After all, they both were teachers, they each had custody of a preteen boy, so they had a lot in common. Their education, their jobs, and their responsibilities. Plus their “responsibilities” were best friends!
The stage was set. Billy and I had talked a lot about this on the phone and while we were together, but out of earshot of our two adult minders, we both thought it made a lot of sense. Billy had admitted to me that he knew his uncle was gay, he had heard his mother and her brother talking enough to have figured it out, and Aaron moving out here to the country from the Springfield area after his mother had passed only confirmed in his mind that Aaron was not leaving anyone special behind.
Billy and I agreed that as much as possible we would leave our two adults together so that they could get to know each other better, and maybe that would do the trick, they’d become friends and then Billy and I would get to spend more time visiting each other, that would be awesome!
Billy and I talked with Ollie while we were grooming our ponies and he agreed to another supervised ride, with just us three, on Monday, early in the afternoon. That would give Drew and Aaron a couple of hours together before we all went to the fireworks at Forge Pond that night. Billy had suggested we all go to the big pond that day and swim and have a picnic dinner, but I asked if we could be alone there and he said that that was where hundreds went to view the fireworks, you could see just about everyone you knew there on the night of the 4th. I reminded him that Aaron and Drew were teachers at the elementary school and our goal was to let them develop a lasting friendship. Did we really want them in a big crowd for most of the evening? wouldn’t it be better if we had a family type dinner here at the house and go out for a few hours to see the fireworks before coming home to sleep?
Billy agreed after he thought about it for a few seconds and we did manage to get our way in the end. We all got together for another ride as Ollie was sure we were capable of riding our trails by ourselves as he opted to stay at the barn and finish the inventory of his feed stock, as he would be placing an order on Tuesday. Our ride was fine, with no mishaps, with Billy and me for the most part riding side by side, leaving our adults to do the same. They were riding along behind us and chatting the whole way, you’d think they hadn’t seen each other all week, but Drew and I had been invited to their home for dinner just the other night.
Billy and I were reading some of the Hardy Boys books that were on the suggested reading list for our 5th grade class that would start the last week of August. Yes, we were going to be in the same 5th grade classroom for the next school year, and because Billy was related to, and living with Aaron, he got assigned to the one other 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Wilkins, who Drew chose for me when my transcript for my last years schooling at the elementary school I had attended arrived and Drew took them into our school here to get me transferred. He told me later that he did that because Aaron was becoming a close family friend and he wanted me to have a totally impartial teacher, plus he knew Billy would be in her classroom, and he knew we would want to be together. That all sounded good to us.
Aaron did speak to us and told us that if we were having any difficulty to let him know. He wouldn’t do our work for us, but he would help us find the way to the correct answer. Drew also told the two of us that he was always available also, and like Aaron he wouldn’t just tell us the answers, he would help us to find them for ourselves. We were pleased with their answers. Billy and I, in our third grade class, were the highest graded pupils in the classroom that year.
We all ate together that night, deciding not to eat out that Saturday evening as we had been doing, Drew and Aaron thought the restaurant might just be a bit crowded over the weekend, with the holiday on Monday, so we ate out on the patio and Billy and I helped clean up after and then told the guys that we had a movie we wanted to watch, and since it was an animated one we would watch it together in my room, then we’d come down to say our goodnights, if that was agreeable with them.
Apparently so, as they agreed to our plan and they settled themselves on the big couch in the family room and as we went up the big open staircase, I swear I saw them moving closer as Billy and I went up to my room, where we ended up playing video games on my new laptop. Billy and I ended up sleeping together in my room and in the morning Billy washed up first and while I was using my bathroom I swear I heard Drew and Aaron fooling around in the shower in Drew’s bathroom. It’s amazing what you can hear from the plumbing, especially if that plumbing isn’t insulated.
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