Published: 14 Feb 2022
Drew
Friday of that week finally came and Tom and I spent the morning cleaning. I was moving things around to make room for Aaron to share my room, and Tom had taken it upon himself to give Billy’s room a good wiping down and a through vacuuming, he had even made up Billy’s bed with clean bed linens. The three-quarter bath attached to his bedroom had fresh towels and a new roll of toilet paper in the dispenser. I had moved all my hanging clothes to one side of the walk-in closet and made sure that half the bureau had empty drawers in it. All was ready for Billy and Aaron to move in with us, and Aaron had insisted that they would load up their car and be here for dinner time, they were bringing pizzas from Angelo’s.
They arrived by 4 and the pizzas were placed in one of the ovens to remain hot until needed. We used the next hour to get the hanging clothes hung in the correct closet, and the folded clothes from the suitcases in the right bureau. Their bathroom items we tried to help with, but Aaron laughed and told Tom and me to go ahead and set the table for dinner and they would be down shortly to join us for dinner, which we did. Our meal was festive, even though our new housemates were a bit tired from all their exertions that day, but it was nothing like the next two days, I’m sure.
Saturday and part of Sunday were spent with all four of us packing clothes, TVs, bookcases and books, a few lamps, framed pictures and paintings, and some neat end tables and a few rugs. Once the pickup’s bed was full we began loading boxes and smaller items in Aaron’s car, which was a minivan, a three seater no less. With the middle bench seat and the third one folded down, there was actually a lot of cargo space created. Originally we hadn’t expected to move their washer and dryer, but on Sunday, after getting all their belongings settled, we decided to take the truck and get them. That set we could either put in the barn, or in the basement of the house. The pair on the second floor was great for bath towels and bedding and our clothing, but the added pair could be used for our riding clothes as well as for stuff we used outdoors that had gotten too dirty to put in with a regular wash. I thought they would come in handy at some point.
We now had just short of a week before our nuptials on Friday at noon. On Sunday afternoon, after getting the washer and dryer connected down in the basement, we took the boys shopping for suits they would be wearing during our wedding. They were so excited, it was infectious. Aaron and I had a ball with the boys, helping them choose what turned out to be matching suits, and when that was accomplished, there were new shirts and ties to choose, both boys had newer dress shoes, but the boys insisted on more new items, new underwear. Since Aaron and I had let each other choose new undies for each other, we let the boys choose their own, but when they saw that what they were both looking at came in packs of 5, they only chose 2 packs to share.
That shopping trip was fun and went well and we were home and had everything purchased put in their proper place in their rooms. The rest of the day was spent riding until we all admitted we were hungry and we groomed our rides and went to the house to throw together an evening meal consisting of leftovers from both our refrigerators. We spent a few hours as a family, watching and commenting about a mix of game shows and sitcoms on TV until the boys went to bed. After we had them settled in for the night, Aaron and I made a beeline for our bedroom after locking up the house for the night.
We teased each other that we were practicing for our wedding night, but to be honest there wasn’t much talking going on, our mouths were way too busy.
Tom
I was so happy, I couldn’t believe the huge turn my life had taken in only about a month. I thought I had it good living at the dorm and not being subjected to the rants of my parents any more. And then that fateful evening when Mr. Clark (Drew) came to the meet and greet. My life was just about perfect now. I had a great adult caring for me, I mean REALLY caring for me. He made sure I had everything I needed, from clean clothes and good food, to a pony I could ride, now that Drew and Ollie had teamed up and taught me to ride, and now there was Billy. Well, Billy and his neat uncle Aaron. They were becoming more and more important to me, and from what I saw, and heard, to Drew as well.
Then there was last week, when Drew and Aaron announced that they were in love and were going to marry. And two other very important things, Billy and Aaron were going to move in with us, and that Drew was also going to adopt Billy, and Aaron was also going to Adopt me. That would give Billy and me two parents each! But really great parents, not exactly what I was used to. But there was a third reason I was really happy, and that was that after the adoptions were finalized, I’d also have a brother, something I’d always wanted, but the same goes for Billy. He had a great childhood with his single mother, he had been wanted and loved by her and his uncle Aaron, but he was a boy alone and I think that was why we both hit it off so well at school, we were “alone” but we didn’t want to be.
We all went to get haircuts on Wednesday, and it was there that Billy said that we two should get the same haircut, that we’d look more like brothers if we did,.So with the barber’s help and a copy of one of his styling magazines we picked out a new style for each of us. The sides were cut real close and the top was left kind of long and it tapered in the back so that it formed a V down the back of our heads and the point of the V ended on our necks. It was a pretty cool look on both of us, even Aaron and Drew liked them.
Drew and Aaron stuck with their same style, but they both looked good when the barber was finished. On Thursday the Justice of the Peace came to not only see the spot he’d be performing the ceremony at, but to get to meet us all, and he ran through the service a few times with us so we wouldn’t make a complete mess of tomorrow’s service. He was as nice as he had sounded over the phone. His husband came just to meet us, and they told us he was the DJ that would be playing the tapes during the reception. He also wanted Aaron and Drew to pick out the first few numbers they wanted him to play at the reception. They both picked a few Steve Grand numbers to dance to. Billy and I thought that was odd, but then we saw them practicing to waltz together after dinner and we both thought that was cool, so we started trying to do it too.
The first song they had picked was a slow one, but the second had some more life to it and it definitely wasn’t a slow dance, it was hips swinging, arms waving, and feet leaving the floor. While slow dancing Billy seemed to have two left feet, but when the faster song came on, man could that kid move, it was hard for me to keep up with him! Drew and Aaron seemed to be enjoying themselves and they didn’t look too bad out there dancing in the hallway where there were no rugs on the wooden floor. The four of us had a snack before bedtime, but there were a lot of hugs when they came in our rooms to tuck us in that night.
I woke up about 7 in the morning, which wasn’t anything unusual, but as I became fully awake it dawned on me that this was that special day, maybe one of the most special days in my life so far.
It was the day that would make Drew and Aaron legally married which, as Drew and Becca had explained to me, made them both possible to adopt Billy and me. This was the official day our family would start. If I was happy before, I was ecstatic now (Drew taught me that word).
We had a French Toast breakfast, Billy and I could handle the prep, it took Drew and Aaron to cook it, so we all had a hand in our morning meal. After the cleanup Billy and I went to the barn to help Ollie with the morning chores and we ended up doing the feedings as Ollie mucked out the stalls. Once food had been put out for all the animals we fooled around a bit, playing with the dogs for a while and since we were told not to ride today we talked a lot as we walked back to the house to get our showers taken and get dressed in our new suits.
I kind of knew how happy Billy was, but he just gushed about us finally getting to be brothers and us having two dads. Now I should tell you that in our town, having two dads, or two moms, was nothing new. There were a lot of same sex couples, and singles, in our town, it was not something new or out of the ordinary. Being adopted in our town wasn’t odd either. Billy and I knew of at least fifteen other kids that attended our school that had been adopted and there were three same sex couples who all taught at our school, and more at the Middle School and the High School.
So all told, Billy was just as happy as I was. We split up to shower and change into our new clothing. We didn’t need help with our neckties, the ones we had picked out were clip ons, but both Drew and Aaron came to our rooms to see if we needed any help. They both told us how handsome we were once we were all dressed up, and to be honest, Drew and Aaron looked like those model guys in those ads in the magazines, we were as proud of them as they were of us.
As we were dressing there was activity outside. The caterer had arrived and had set up the really big tent (Drew called it the pavilion) and the tables and chairs were all set up and another set of folding chairs were set up on the front lawn facing the arbor in front of the front porch, which now had a whole bunch of flowers peeking out of the vines, which didn’t have a whole lot of flowers blooming on them. Billy and I walked around the tent looking at everything in there and the JP was in the house with Drew and Aaron and his husband was setting up his equipment and speakers out in the tent.
We weren’t going to have lunch, that would be served in the tent after the wedding ceremony, well, not exactly served, it was going to be a buffet. Billy and I got along with the DJ, James, and he showed us his equipment and even let us play one of his discs. We were having fun and had lost track of the time when my cell phone rang and it was Drew, telling me that things were getting to the point where we should all be together as the guests started to arrive. In other words, get our asses back to the house now. I chuckled at how diplomatically he had stated his request, but told him we’d be right over to the house, we were with James, the DJ. We told James we’d see him later and we scooted up to the house, making sure we didn’t dirty our new suits.
Once there they were still talking to Paul, the JP, but when we came in the three of them went through the physical movements of the civil ceremony with us as their best men and ring bearers. It was then that Aaron placed a ring in the outer breast pocket of our suits, Billy had the ring Aaron would place on Drew’s ring finger, and I had the ring Drew would present to Aaron’s ring finger in my pocket. These were the same bands as their engagement rings, but these didn’t have the multicolored stones on them, they were solid gold.
Drew
When Paul and James turned up it all came to a head in my mind, I was getting married today, to Aaron, someone who I was falling more and more in love with every day. The man that was going to make us a real family of 4, the man that makes going to bed at night an hour or two early seem like heaven. The man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, and now we were getting wed and in about a month we were both going to be fathers, officially. My life at that moment was perfect and I had no doubt in my mind that from this day forward it would continue to be, I think that all made me just about the happiest man on earth at that point, but when I looked at Aaron, and he looked back at me, I could see the same expression on his face, the same dreamy look in his eyes that I saw in the mirror hanging over the couch in the family room.
He walked up to me and held me close. I returned his hug and then the inevitable happened, we kissed. It was slow at first but we started to get kind of heated and then we heard the boys giggling in the kitchen area at the end of the family room. Billy and Tom both said that we should cool it for now, and wait until after the ceremony to get all wrinkled up. Tom piped up and told Billy that he was glad we hadn’t put the jackets to our suits on yet. Our kiss turned into chuckles and we mock chased the boys around the big kitchen area island, and once they were caught we unashamedly tickled them, all to the amusement of Paul, the JP who had run through the ceremony with us all again.
We watched as people showed up for our wedding, not many of them coming to the door, but the caterer’s staff kept them occupied, setting out a small bar on the lawn between the pavilion and the front of the porch, that certainly kept them occupied for the half hour before the ceremony was to start. Paul was good about sending the 4 teachers who came to the door out to the free bar, thus leaving us 4 alone before the service, with the exception of three people. Ollie came in to ask if we needed help with anything, and he took over the front door duty, the other two were expected guests, but they were here to lend us some support, and to give us a heads up. It was Becca and her husband. It turned out that Becca’s husband, Brian, was Aaron’s lawyer. They wanted us to know that everything looked good for our adoptions, in fact, so good that they had a summons to deliver to us, our back to back adoption hearings had been moved to the very next Monday at noon.
They wanted us to know that as soon as our JP signed off on our marriage certificate we needed to have about four copies run off to go in our court hearing file before the hearing on Monday. It was just about the best present I ever got, and Aaron was grinning so big I thought he was about to orgasm. Yes, this was a day for happiness, and then Paul told us that all the chairs on the lawn were nearly full and it was time to get our show on the road. Once we had our suit coats on and Becca and her husband had given us good luck hugs they went out the side door to find seats out front. We asked the boys if they were ready, and they both nodded, both with huge grins on their faces which stayed there until just after our vows were exchanged and then they were both a bit teary eyed as we all hugged before walking down the aisle formed by the folding chairs, leading our guests to the pavilion.
Although we had requested no gifts, there on a small table inside the tent were about 20 or 25 envelopes that we found out later were receipts for donations made in our names to local and national charities.
Our reception was wonderful, everyone seemed to have a great time. Aaron got to meet several of the teachers he would be sharing the building with when he started pre-semester meetings along with us returning teachers in August, and I met his friends from Springfield, but actually the most fun we had was during the kick-off dances. Yes, the first one was for Aaron and I, meant to start off the reception, but the second song, as planned, was faster than our wedding waltz. This was the one intended to get people on their feet and dancing, and you should have seen Billy and Tom out there, they were jiving, and bopping around and having a ball. They told us that they had watched some couples dancing on YouTube.
Lunch was a buffet, but no one would go through the lines until the wedding party did, so we did as the caterer suggested and we went through the lines, followed by our JP and his DJ. All the other guests followed them. There was an assortment of barbecued ribs, grilled sausages, and cheeseburgers or hamburgers. There were plenty of side dishes and there was an open bar for the adults, soft drinks for the kids. The party went on until around 6 and then it felt like the air had been let out of the balloon and we four retreated to the house, where a ton of leftovers had been stored in the kitchen and laundry room fridges.
We all changed out of our suits and after kissing Aaron I went to our home office and ran off a half dozen copies of out now signed marriage license, the copies going into the file folder of papers we would need for our adoption hearings in just two days, then it was back to our bedroom to see Aaron pulling up a pair of shorts, I guessed it wasn’t our bedtime yet. We all met back in the family room to sit and relax, but we all ended up re-hashing the day and speaking about what the others might have missed. The boys were telling us about their talks with some of the teachers and we told them about Aaron’s friends from Springfield, and how some of them had never been on a farm before.
We talked, we laughed, we shed buckets of happy tears, and then it was bedtime already. I was going to suggest a movie or something on TV, but the boys were knackered by then, they could hardly keep their eyes open so it was off to bed for them. Aaron and I closed up the first floor, then practically ran to our bedroom to put in action all we had been practicing for the last month, twice. The night never seemed to end, and we put a sign on our door that said:”Do Not Disturb-Unless It’s An Emergency”.
The boys had breakfast ready for us when we came downstairs about 10 in the morning. They had made scrambled eggs with grated cheese in them, toast and those small breakfast sausages, and our big helpings were being kept warm in the smaller of our two ovens. They served us our breakfasts, giggling once in a while, and soon Aaron and I were too. As we ate we had a few questions to answer about why we two old coots had slept in that morning, and outside the catering crew was dismantling the pavilion and loading all the chairs and tables in a really big truck.
We knew they were there, after all the alarm for the front gate had sounded just after we had finished round three at 8:30 AM. Yes we were knackered ourselves, but there was a certain amount of energy coursing through our bodies, giving us a sort of alert energy. And that came into play as soon as the truck and crew were finished and were about to drive off. Ollie was opening the gate for them, using the remote control device when a rather snazzy convertible drove through the open gate. Ollie walked toward it as Aaron and I were still looking over where the pavilion had been set up, the area now looking like a huge tent had never been set up there and around fifty people had not been partying there just the day before. We heard angry voices coming from the lane and we turned to see a very fat man struggling to get out of the convertible, and Ollie telling the man to leave the property, the caterer’s having departed and the boys coming out of the barn after hearing the rising commotion out in the lane. Aaron and I started walking toward the two arguing men when I realized who the fat man was, it was the landlord for the property Tom’s parents had rented, rented to own. The guy we were about to sue for the entire property, for Tom. Becca had mentioned that he had been indicted and arrested by the DA, but he had posted bail and was now out until his trial, scheduled to begin at the end of the month.
The fat man was hollering now, demanding that the boy who used to live with his parents in “his” house be brought out to him. I asked him rather loudly what he wanted him for, as Aaron continued on to the barn on the other side of the lane, where the boys were standing in the doorway to the barn. It looked to me that Tom was talking to someone on his cell phone. Fat man sputtered and then yelled that that miserable brat had caused him a lot of trouble and he wanted to beat some sense into him. I told him that would not be happening and told him to leave my property or I would have him arrested for trespassing. I thought I saw him sizing me up, at 6’5” I towered above him and with my lean and muscular build I was sure I was giving him second thoughts about continuing with his errand. He was seething, his face brick red, beads of sweat popping out on his piggish face. He was bellowing as he tried to tell Ollie and me that no one was going to stop him, when a police cruiser pulled in the open gate, and we heard a lot of laughing from over by the front of the barn.
The officers were two of the same ones we had met over at Tom’s old house, when this same man was giving his tenants, Tony and Bert, such a hard time about being gay in his property. Fat man tried to tell the officers he was only stopping by to visit when Tom ran up to me and handed his cell phone to me, telling me he had everything on video and the sound was turned up. Once the police saw and heard Tom’s video that cooked fat man’s goose, he was arrested for trespassing, threatening behavior, and threatening a minor with violence, and drunk and disorderly and driving under the influence. All while out on bail, so automatically the bail was revoked and he was again arrested and hauled off to jail, one of the officers driving behind the cruiser in the man’s convertible, the police showed Tom how to send the video to one of the officer’s cell phone before they took off, and both policemen telling Tom he had done a real good job today.
We all thanked Ollie for helping out, and he just shrugged it off, telling us the man had been a bully all his life and it felt good to see the police haul him off to jail, he had been glad to help. He asked how our honeymoon was going and we both told him that this little incident was almost the high point of the honeymoon, and Ollie laughed and told us that he had heard differently, as the boys had told him how they had to wait 3 whole hours for us to get up and have breakfast with them!! He was chuckling as he went back in the barn to complete his chores.
It was Saturday, and the weekend, but Aaron and I thought tonight we should all go out to eat, we could start on the leftovers tomorrow. We did spend a few hours riding before getting cleaned up again and we went to a seafood restaurant over in Chicopee where we each ordered the twin lobster specials. No, they were not two whole lobsters on each of our plates, but it was two Maine lobster tails and a lot of side dishes, and yes, all four of us were stuffed after eating all that, but it was only the boys who had room for the small ice cream sundaes for desert, Aaron and I stuck with our coffees. The boys each thought it was a great treat as neither one had ever had lobster before, and they loved their meals that night.
Sunday was another hot summer day and we decided to go to the Quabbin again, Aaron said he needed to work out his upper body paddling a canoe, and I almost said out loud that the lower half of his body was as tight and toned as I loved it, but caught myself before making a fool of myself and embarrassing my husband in front of the boys, but it was a good idea and everyone helped pack a picnic lunch that we made from some of the reception leftovers, so everyone packed something a little bit different.
At the canoe rental dock we again chose a 4 seater, rather than two smaller ones. We also all wore our lifejackets. Now that we were a family we just were not going to take any chances. And that is how we explained it to the boys when they tried to get away without renting the jackets again. They both protested that they were much better swimmers now and didn’t need the life jackets. We explained to them that if we somehow overturned, maybe by hitting some of the outcropping rocks near the shore, and two of us were knocked out, say one of the boys and one of us adults, then who did the other two try to help first, and by the time one of the injured ones was helped, would the other one still be able to be saved? I think they saw the reasoning, and also it made them more aware that there was definitely some danger involved in what we were doing, going for a fun paddle in this huge lake.
It made for a bit more somber cast off from the dock, but within a half hour they were pointing out some deer on one of the shores, the herd mostly taking a drink from the lake water, while a few nibbled on some plants near the shore and a big antlered buck watched over his herd. Aaron pointed that out to the boys, that the largest adult was acting as the lookout for the whole herd, and that was all we adults were doing, looking out for our herd of buffaloes. That brought about a bunch of giggles from the boys as they had been told a few times already that as they ran in the house or up or down the stairs, that sounded to us adults like a herd of buffalo running loose in the house.
Our picnic on one of the larger islands went well and again the talk was mostly about the people at the reception, but then turned to the incident the day before with our intruder on the property. We assured the boys that he was definitely in jail and he would be for at least the rest of the month, and most likely for some years to come after his trial. Once their concerns were dealt with, Aaron and I decided to do a little prep for the next day, their adoption hearings. Becca had offered to do this, but we felt that the boys might be embarrassed if she did this. As their guardians and as their fathers to be, we felt that this talk should come from us. So I started it off, telling the boys about my own adoption, and how at the beginning of my adoption hearing I was asked to go into the judge’s office and have a private talk with him.
I told them about the general questions, like how did my foster parents treat me, did they hit me, did they feed me and clothe me. And then there were the weird questions, like who bathed me, did they bathe me all over, or did they rub me “down there” or try to play with my penis, some very embarrassing questions for a young boy, but that was their job, to make sure the child was going into a safe home. The boys were obviously embarrassed, but they were both really smart boys and they said they understood what to expect, and were looking forward to telling the judge that they really wanted to have us for their fathers, and each other as brothers.
This time the cleanup was done without a flock of ducks involved, and we were soon paddling around the island we had eaten our lunch on and exploring further into the big reservoir. About 3:00 we decided we had had enough of being on top of the water, we wanted to get in it, so we headed back to the rental dock and returned the canoe and the life jackets and drove home to our pool, where we spent the rest of the afternoon until dinner, relaxing and after dinner we went for a trail ride and were having so much fun we actually just finished grooming the ponies and horses by the boys’ bedtime. We double checked that they had clean shirts for the hearings at noon tomorrow before tucking them in and after closing up downstairs we headed for our bedroom for some honeymoon time for ourselves.
We made it to the county courthouse with a half hour to spare, all of us dressed in our wedding suits. I had my file on Tom with me and Aaron had his for Billy. We were set and prepared and just as we entered the hallway Becca came out of a room down the hall, her husband walking with her. Hands were shaken all around and they thanked us for inviting them to our ceremony. They had run into another client and her spouse there and they told us they had a great time. By now we were walking toward what looked like a big meeting room, not a courtroom. There was a long table running down the middle of the room and a stenographer was set up to the left of the room, her machine set up on a small desk and she was on a wooden chair behind it, and in front of a door was a security guard.
As we all got seated on one side of the table, we filled in Becca about what had happened out at our place the day before, and about the police arresting the landlord again. She seemed pleased about the fact that Tom had caught it all on video with his cell phone. By now three people had entered the room, Miss Lyons, Tom’s caseworker from the DCFS, and the other two were introduced as the lawyers that were representing the DCFS in Tom’s adoption, actually only the man was the acting lawyer, the woman was introduced as a member of his staff who was only there as an observer, to learn the procedures involved for the day when she would be handling such an adoption on her own.
The judge entered about then, and Aaron leaned into me and whispered that she was the mother of Becca’s husband, the guy handling his and my adoption of Billy, the guy sitting on his other side. We all rose as the court was called to attention and the judge sat and smiled at those of us gathered, including her son and daughter-in-law, Becca. She announced she would first be hearing the Porter case and then she invited Billy to come sit in her office with her for a few moments. They left the room and Brian, Becca’s husband and Aaron’s lawyer, leaned over to tell us that there was nothing standing in the way of Aaron’s and my adoption of Billy, and soon enough the door opened and then Billy and the judge came back to the table, all grins.
Across the table the two DCFS lawyers were having a discussion, and Miss Lyons, who was sitting between them, soon moved to another chair, one removed from the other two, and once seated she looked across at us and gave us a weak smile. The judge must have excellent hearing, because she asked the two lawyers across from us if everyone was ready to proceed, and she wasn’t very nice about it, in fact, the boys, who were seated between Aaron and me, were snickering a bit until I placed my hand on Tom’s shoulder as Aaron was doing the same to Billy.
The DCFS lawyer started to stand, but his trainee beat him to it and began to spout off about how can any court allow two gay men to adopt a boy, let alone two, and she was ranting something about the bible and God’s plan for mankind and all sorts of foolish shit until the Judge herself stood and told her that the court had not recognized her and invited her to speak, so she was being held in contempt of court and being fined five thousand dollars and until she raised the bail she was going to be detained in the county jail until then, and she motioned for the guard to step forward and take the woman into custody. As she was still ranting about all things queer and not right in her world the room was silent, and as soon as the door was shut again the judge apologized to the room and informed the DCFS lawyer that his apprentice would no longer be allowed in the courthouse building, and he replied, apologizing to the court that he had no idea she had those views about gays, or about gays adopting. The judge looked at Billy and asked if he had changed his mind and Billy giggled again and said yes, he had, he was even more convinced that Drew and Aaron were the fathers he wanted, and he definitely wanted Tom as his brother.
When he had first started talking my heart was in my throat, but as he went on speaking my eyes watered and I realized just how much I loved this little guy, this kid that helped make my Tom so happy. The judge declared that our adoption of Billy was a done deal and he got hugs and cheek kisses from us and Tom, and then the judge asked Tom to join her in her chambers. They were in there about ten minutes and they were back and she handed Tom her gavel and she declared our adoption of Tom another done deal and then Tom banged the gavel and it was his turn next for hugs and kisses. That was two very excited and happy boys we drove home with. They kept calling each other by their new names, William (Billy) Porter Clark, and Thomas (Tom) Wilson Clark and then they started in on Aaron, who had applied to have his name changed and the judge had handled that for him and she told him that he was right to do that, making his name Aaron Porter Clark, because now everything he signed now would match his marriage certificate. It wasn’t my idea, they had all talked about this with me not knowing anything about it, but they made me proud of all of them, my FAMILY made me proud of all of them.
Tom
Well we did it!! Billy and I were brothers, and we both had Drew and Aaron for our fathers, I mean how lucky were we? We were a little choked up and it was really hard to express how happy we were, but it looked to us like Drew and Aaron were having the same problem as they both had happy tears rolling down their cheeks at times as we all went home after all our paperwork was finished and the judge’s secretary had congratulated us once again as she handed the documents to Drew and he placed them in his folder. Becca and her husband, Brian, also sent us off with more hugs and told us they would see us later, around dinner time. Drew and Aaron had invited them for a private celebration at our home tonight and Billy and I wanted to know who else was coming.
Dad Drew said that it was going to be a surprise, but now that we were all family we shouldn’t be keeping secrets from each other, so he told us that Ollie was coming for dinner and that he had talked to the parents of our four friends from school that we had run into on the 4th of July and those boys wanted to come so they were invited, and two of Aaron’s friends we had met at the wedding were supposed to come as well as a couple of teacher friends of Drew. Not a really huge family party, but it would be a lot of fun for everyone.
It was. Drew and Aaron had told the people invited that it was to be a pool party and before the entire group had arrived our friends from school arrived and Ollie had all our ponies saddled and in the big pasture and with them were a few other ponies that he told us were rented for the day. He went over some basic instructions for our friends and when satisfied they could at least control their pony, he led all six of us on a trail ride. It was so cool being one of the leaders of the group, but we knew the trails and Billy and I made sure our guests had a lot of fun on the ride, and more fun after the ride when we showed them how to groom the ponies. We entertained them by telling them a little about the crazy landlord that had trespassed on the farm the other day and about how we all now had the same last name now. Then it was pool time. We all had a lot of fun that day.
Drew
During the party Becca and Brian came up to us and told us that just that afternoon she had heard from the District Attorney and that the trial for the errant landlord was on the court docket for the last Tuesday in the month, unless he took a plea bargain he was offering, which was fifteen years in prison, the house and land that Tom’s parents had rented to buy to be transferred to Tom and the sum of $136,000 to his current tenants of the property, and the same amount to Tom which represented triple damages which was common when the accused was found guilty. There was no big indication that he would take the deal, but he had until the end of the week to consult with his lawyer about the offer.
Tom
As I said, everyone had a great time at our celebration and Billy and I even got to show off our home to our classmates. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing on the first floor and they were also suitably impressed with our bedrooms on the second. They did have a lot of questions about the occupants of our barn and we had to tell them that the four ponies they had ridden had been rented for the day, but the other horses and ponies were ours, so if they visited again we could always take turns on the pony’s. We knew that at least two of them would be in our 5th grade class and we made sure that Aaron had met the two that would be in his 5th grade class in the fall semester.
We had just a bit over a month and a half before school started again, but we all agreed that we’d all see each other before school started at the end of August. Their parents began to arrive so we waited with them so we could open and close the gate with the remote and we waved to them as they pulled out. They in turn shouted back their congrats, it was a good visit and we all had fun hanging with each other.
Back up at the house we helped with the clean-up, Billy taking care of the trash by the pool and patio, and me lugging the full trash bags to the bins in the back of the garage. Our Dads (that sounds so cool!!) were cleaning up the kitchen, separating leftovers from scraps and doing loads of washing in the dishwasher, or hand washing big pots or trays in the big kitchen sink. None of us was complaining, no, this was our first function given as a family and I guess we were all a little proud of ourselves that it had gone so well, and basically effortless, we had all had a good time at our own party.
Drew
So far, our lives were meshing perfectly. It had only been two weeks, but everything was just fine in our household. Aaron and I spent as much time with the boys as we could, without smothering them. And we had something in the works for them and their friends. The riding center we had rented the four extra ponies from for the adoption party, had let Ollie know that those four and a few more horses were going to be sold and Aaron and I had put a reserve on those four ponies and two more horses, more horses and ponies, more riders, and our circle of friends could widen.
Ollie was starting to have Tony and Bert working a few days a week with him, getting them up to speed on the day to day workings of the farm and the care and feeding of the animals in the barn, and the upkeep of the grounds, those around the house and the access to the fields, the care of the pastures and a lot of other things, things that didn’t need everyday attention, but maybe a monthly sprucing up or maintenance. The college boys were thrilled to have the part time jobs, to learn what they could before their full time positions would start in August, so they would be ready to take over for Ollie when he retired at the end of August.
The new livestock would be delivered at the end of July, but before that could happen we received a call from Becca, telling us that the plea bargain had been accepted by the former landlord of Tom’s birth family residence, and Tony and Bret’s current landlord. The two college seniors would stay in the house until Ollie was retired and ready to go to Florida, then the house would be gone through and maybe spruced up a bit and put on the market, or rented out if the market was slow for sales then. All the proceeds from that property would be placed in a trust fund for Tom, just as the proceeds for the sale of Billy and Aaron’s homestead would go into a trust for Billy.
The boys were quite happy to have two college aged friends working around the place and our college aged employees seemed to like to have two younger friends to ride the trails with and to splash around in the pool on those hot summer days.
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