Published: 15 Aug 2019

The wait was just over an hour and a half, and my pacing up and down had both Josh and Alex laughing. We had all pitched in and made the beds in the two remaining bedrooms and I had run a dust cloth over the tops of the furniture in both rooms. Josh had a lot of questions we couldn’t answer at that time and we told him that all we knew was that Mr. Young had a couple of boys that needed our help and we were waiting for him to bring them to us.

What he brought us was a teenaged boy (14) and his younger brother (9). They had been orphaned when a bad car crash on the highway had taken their parent’s lives. They had been staying in the boy’s dorm at the shelter for the last three months, but for some reason they had just not fit in with the others in their dorm. Their case finally fell to Mr. Young and he had suggested a couple of therapy sessions for the two brothers and it turned out that they had been raised in the far outskirts of the county and were having some trouble fitting in with the mostly city boys at their dorm.

Steven and Barry seemed pleased to be out here in the country with us, but they let us know that they were used to not having such close neighbors, if you could call at least two football fields distance between our house and my parents’ house close. We had this exchange as I helped get their bags out of Mr. Young’s car and I explained that the neighbors were my dad’s and uncle’s house and that my office and Alex’s were the low one-story buildings after the first big barn over there. They could see the backside of the buildings from where we stood. We brought in their stuff and took it upstairs where Josh watched as each choose a different bedroom and they began to settle in, unpacking their things into their dressers and closets. Meanwhile Alex and I were getting the pertinent information from Mr. Young about why the boys were being brought out to us like this.

Mr. Young explained that the two brothers were getting more and more morose at the dorm and that after just a few therapy sessions it was apparent that they were resigned to their parents’ deaths, but they had had no experience living in a city environment, and they found the hardened city boys at the dorm intimidating, thus Steven, the older brother, became very defensive and over protective of his shyer and meeker younger brother. Before any serious problems arose, he felt it imperative to remove the brothers from the dorm as soon as possible. That was the reason for today’s drop off, he wanted to help the boys, and he wondered if actually living somewhat out in the country would help the brothers. He admitted that where they had come from was quite a bit more isolated than even our property was, but even more than that, he thought that the boys would learn that even kids raised on a farm could have successful careers off the farm.

When our little conference with Mr. Young had finished and the paperwork was done, we called all the boys down to say their goodbyes to Mr. Young and after that was done we had a little sit down with all the boys, mostly to find out their food preferences, and so Josh could get to know them a bit, and after the food portion of our talk, the new boys had a lot of questions for us. Alex and I were busy putting some chicken pieces in a roasting pan and into the oven and then peeling and cutting up potatoes for the pan on top of the stove for mashed potatoes. We answered their questions, telling them more about us and our work, and Josh told them about coming to live with us and getting adopted. We told them that the next day, after breakfast, we would take them next door to my fathers and uncles and then they would see a working farm, and their milk and horse breeding program at work. That was the real working farm. Since it was a Saturday, we all would go and most likely they could see our offices and then we could all go riding, that is if they wanted to.

Both their eyes lit up when we mentioned horseback riding so we knew we had a good ice breaker activity for tomorrow morning. Dinner conversation was lively, the new boys relaxing a bit more with each bite it seemed, and Josh and Barry seemed to be hitting it off pretty well, even with the 3-year age difference. Both boys were amazed when Josh told them about his mother throwing him out of the car and how he was picked up by me and then how Alex and I had taken him to the hospital and then took him home. He told them how much he liked it here, and about his pony and the big uncles and his granddads.

They all went upstairs after helping to clear the table. The three boys were going to show each other their rooms. Alex and I finished up in the kitchen and went up to see how things were going. When we had seen which room each of the two brothers had chosen, we explained that they had their own bathroom to share, as Josh had a shower bath attached to his bedroom, but the two brothers had a full bath with a shower in the bathtub to share. They brought their grooming stuff to the door between the two bedrooms and there they got to see that this big bathroom not only had a toilet but a urinal as well, just like the bathroom in the master suite which we showed them after their combs, toothbrushes, etc. had been stowed where they wanted in their bathroom.

Alex had been closely looking to make sure both new boys had a good mix of school and play clothes, and that they had sneakers and dress shoes as well as at least a pair of boots for riding and walking on the unpaved paths on the two farm properties. Since they seemed to have the basics, we then asked if everything fit well, and Alex emphasized both clothing and footwear, we could always go shopping for those things that didn’t fit tomorrow or Sunday after church. Both boys hemmed and hawed a bit, but we assured them we were going to buy them things, whether they needed them or not, but if something they had now wasn’t right, we wanted to replace it right away, before it caused them some discomfort.

It was then they told us that their footwear didn’t fit so good any more, and Steven told us that a lot of his clothes didn’t fit anymore either, he was a growing boy. Our nighttime routine didn’t change much, we just had two more to tuck in and wish sweet dreams to, or did we? I mean Steven was 14, would he think we were treating him like a little kid by just going into his room and tucking him in? After we did Josh and Barry, who giggled and thanked us, we moved to the door to Steven’s room and knocked. He actually answered the door, obviously having gotten out of his bed to answer the door. I told him about our nighttime routine, and asked if he was too old to be tucked in. He said that his mother used to do that, but not his father, but if we wanted to come in, we could try it, he seemed to really miss the nightly routine he had shared with his mother. He hopped back into bed and we both tucked him in, wishing him sweet dreams, and then, I don’t know what instigated it, but then both Alex and I leaned over to give him a kiss on the forehead. We didn’t exactly bump heads, but Steven seemed not only surprised but happy we had done it. He too thanked us and wished us good dreams too.

The next morning, we took all three boys shopping to the farm supply store in the area. New boots were bought for all three, as Josh and Barry were growing boys too, at least they told us they were, and we knew Josh was. We got them all a couple of pairs of jeans and a couple of packages of T shirts to last out the summer. Bathing suits for the two brothers was next and we found them there at the farm store also. Alex wanted a new western style belt, and we got the boys all a different color cap to wear outside too. Nearer to the time school started we’d take them all school clothes shopping, but what all three had now was enough for church and the few times during the summer they would need better clothing. The afternoon was spent with the granddads and uncles, and a few more horses to join our “posse” as we rode some of the trails on both properties so our newcomers could get to know our properties. We did stop at the offices so Steven and Barry could see our offices and then I think they had a better idea of what we did for a living. Before we had mounted the horses again, we walked over to the big barn where the milking operation was, and the new boys got to meet some of the workers there and actually see some of the process our milk went through before going to market. We also stopped by the chicken coop to show them the egg side of our farm, not that it was a commercial operation, but it did keep both our houses supplied and plenty of our employees also. When Steven asked about the horses and the breeding operation the granddads told him that mostly happened in the spring and they had three stallions they bred out. These were thoroughbred horses and each successful breeding earned them five thousand a pop. The mares to be bred were boarded here until the pregnancy was deemed successful and then the mare’s owners would come and collect the pregnant mare.

The ride onto our home property ended at the orchard Alex’s mother had maintained and which Alex and I maintained now. Steven was very interested in this as he had helped his father with theirs growing up and he seemed keen to help in the orchard, and we told him that starting next spring he could start to take over the operation, if it didn’t interfere with his studies. He could even, with the younger boys help if he wanted, run a roadside stand in the summer and sell whatever both properties didn’t use. The orchard mostly had apples and pears, and Alex and the uncles told him they would help him in getting a field of corn planted so he could sell ears of corn too. He seemed really excited about this.

The three boys seemed to gel into a family unit pretty fast, as it became apparent that Josh looked up to the older two, and the older two seemed to like having a little shadow with them when they were all out riding or when we went to one of the local swimming holes. Steven began to join us adults in the workout room we all had in the small barn, the equipment barn, next to the barn our riding horses were housed in. Although Alex and I only went to work out about three times a week, the uncles and my dads’ often went five or six times a week, so by the end of the summer our growing teen had grown in more ways than one. He was actually filling out nicely and you could see that his self-confidence was improving almost daily. Mr. Young teased us once during one of his visits, which would happen a couple of times a month, by asking what we had done to the skinny kid he had dropped off here.

It was at church, a few weeks before school started, that Steven asked if one of the kids he had met during the first couple of weeks we had taken them to church with us could come out and ride with us that afternoon. His eyes were sparkling, and he seemed so eager for a positive response that he was literally dancing from one foot to the other as he asked and then waited for our response. I was expecting a young girl, but Alex had asked who this friend was, and he pointed behind him, into the cluster of young teens behind him and said it was John, the blond-haired guy. Alex asked if John needed a ride to the farm and Steven said they lived on a street across the road from us and he could ride his bike over and back, he also said we knew his parent, his mother was Amy, my office manager.

That sealed the deal, so to speak. If Steven was going to be friends with, and hang out with John we had no reservations about that at all, in fact we were surprised, but happy they wanted to spend time together. Amy had introduced us to John almost as soon as she had started working at the new office building, and John was her out and proud fifteen-year-old who liked to hang out in the modeling room with Glenn. We of course told Steven he could ask John over to ride, and after he went back to talk to John before the service started, we both said at the same time that at least we knew now. We had wondered of course about Steven’s orientation but just hadn’t had the guts to ask him, but we were hoping eventually he would trust us with this bit of information. I guess he just had.

John actually stayed over at our house for dinner that night. The two teens had spent the afternoon riding, and from their conversation at dinner they had spent some of that time at the orchard, it seems the boys were going to team up to take care of the orchard and run a roadside stand next summer. This fall after school they would do the trimming of the trees and plot out what could be harvested from each of them and what supplies they would need for the orchard and the plot of land the corn would be raised on.

The younger boys had had an exciting day with the uncles, as they took the boys to the afternoon milking at the cow barn and the boys were taught how to milk a cow by hand and got to see the milk processed from teat to pasteurization and bottling (actually containerizing, the bottling plant did the actual bottling). By dinner time they had told us at least twice about the exciting time they had had. They seemed to like John also, but they had met him before in the modeling room at my office.

A week before school started, it was time for another shopping trip but this time it was for school clothes and we took our boys, and John to the big mall in Holyoke, across the river. John’s mother had made sure he had some cash, and one of her credit cards for his purchases and neither Alex or I was surprised when both teens bought similar items. Steven had talked John into working out with him and even in the short time John had been working out he was beginning to fill out and would soon be Steven’s equal in the gym. They ran on the paths between the fields, sometimes twice a day, and sometimes with us and sometimes with the uncles and granddads, who still remained four of the fittest men I had ever known.

One day after school had started again Amy asked me what I thought about Steven and her John being friends. I must have looked at her in an odd way, because just then she started blushing and told me she was sorry, she had forgotten that I too was gay and also married to the town hunk. I laughed then and I told her that Alex and I thought they were great for each other and we hoped that their friendship would continue to grow, and that maybe one day we would end up as her in-laws.

She graciously said that she hoped for that herself. She saw how the boys interacted around each other when they spent time at her house, and she liked that Steven had gotten John interested in doing more than just studying. She told me that John just seemed more comfortable in his life and she had Steven to thank for that. John was still a bit nerdy, more bookish than athletic, but now he had a friend, Steven, who was learning better study habits from John, while getting John to exercise and get more involved in things other than schoolwork. Both boys, we thought, were really good for each other. It came as no surprise then when both boys tried out for the high school track team that spring and both got placed on the Cross-Country Team, a running group that ran from the cinder track, through the wooded trails and back, encountering various running surfaces and terrain along the way.

The corn had been planted during the summer and the teens, with the help of Barry and some from Josh too, were able to harvest enough for their first weekend of the road side stand they had set up. The apples and pears they had help with from the younger boys, and after the first weekend they had the stand open they happily paid their young helpers for their assistance. The boys had enough produce to run the stand until the second weekend of October. The bulk of their earnings we encouraged them to put into their educational account at our bank, but we let Steven keep some in his savings account for expenses, and we knew Amy had John do the same.

They had big plans for the next year’s stand and wanted to include some things they could grow that some of their customers had asked for, like lettuce, and pumpkins or squash, maybe even green or yellow beans. All in all, the teens had a great time doing their first stand, and were constantly making notes on things they wanted to research for the next one. They continued to train and workout also, looking more and more fit every month.

By the third week of October we had something to celebrate in our family, we had finally gotten on the court docket at family court and our adoptions of Barry and Steven were actually finalized on the 25^th of October, making us a family of five, with two uncles and two grandfathers. Josh was thrilled, he had two older brothers he had been training for four months now, and the older two had a little brother they both doted on, and two dads they had learned to trust, respect, and eventually love. We had a great party at the house and many of the same friends, co-workers, and church parishioners were invited who had attended Josh’s adoption party, along with several of the boys’ friends from school. There was horseback riding, the granddads and uncles led tours through the milking operation, a great cookout, games and races held mostly for the younger crowd. A good time was had by all.

That night, after our guests had left and the boys were getting ready for bed, Alex and I were snuggled on the couch in the family room, chatting about the party and just reliving the day, waiting for the third toilet flush upstairs to signal that it was time for us to begin our tucking in routine, when Alex asked me if I thought our family was complete now. I wondered where that had come from, and turned to look him in the face, to try and judge what he meant by that question. I thought about his question for only a moment or two, and then looking in his eyes I told him that I wasn’t sure. I thought we had a really great group of boys now, but if a child was presented to us that needed our help, well, I would find it hard to say no. He leaned down and kissed me so tenderly that it bordered on the erotic and I knew with that kiss that he felt the same also. He said that we should get upstairs and say goodnight to our boys.

Josh was full of his day, he thought that it was an even better party than his own, he said it was better because he got the best presents; two brothers, and he was so happy that Steven and Barry were staying and would remain his big brothers. It was a happy camper we tucked in that night, his happy dreams assured. The next was Barry, and he was grinning like an opossum as we approached his bed. His grin turned into giggles as we tickle tucked him in, but he wrestled his arms out from his covers and we each got a hug as we took turns kissing his forehead. As we turned from his bed to exit his room, he called out to us, “Goodnight Dads, I love you!” We turned around and Barry got another kiss from each of us as we told our son to make sure he only had sweet dreams.

As we entered our eldest son’s room he was just getting into his bed, telling his buddy John ‘goodnight’ on his new cell phone. He was smiling as he did so, and he reached to his nightstand to plug the phone in to recharge it overnight as we approached his bed. He didn’t wait for us to tuck him in, he was too big for that now, but he knelt on his bed and reached out to hug us, getting his forehead kissed by each of us. He told us that being our son was something he had wished for from his first full day here with us, and he was so proud that we had followed through with the adoptions for his brother and himself, and that they both loved us, and Josh. We told him we loved him and his brother so much and he told us we showed them that every day, in ways small and big. He got a serious look on his face and asked if his friendship with John bothered us and we both told him that it didn’t, but if it turned into more than just friendship, we were available to ask questions of, no matter what the subject was, we would try to answer his questions as honestly as possible, we wanted him to be both happy and safe, John too I added. He said that made him love us even more. He got his forehead kissed again, but now we got our cheeks kissed by our oldest son.

Alex was so moved by our boys tonight that he wept happy tears that everyone was so happy here with us, and I made him even happier by showing him how much I loved him before we cuddled and fell asleep in each other’s arms.

The following week we both had somewhat of a dilemma at our businesses, and both were just about the same thing, both were closely related, we both needed to expand. Referrals from our company were causing Alex to add more employees and expand his business, and vice versa. Those in my office estimated that another three architects should take care of the increase in our business, at least one or two of those to be experienced, the other could be a recent graduate, or one who was just coming off an apprenticeship. Alex was advertising for framers and foundation people, who would then get new projects actually started so the finish crews would have something to start on as soon as the foundation and framing work was completed.

I was lucky in that an existing firm in nearby Amherst was soon to be on the market and I was able to not only hire additional staff for us, but I picked up a few contracts in the deal also, since the three established architects I had offered positions to had current and future projects that their clients wanted them to work on. It took Alex another month to hire on the additional crews he needed, but he did and he reported that the new crews knew what they were doing and his foremen on those crews had been part of his original workforce and were dependable and knowledgeable so he was very happy with his expanded workforce, especially as he had gotten contracts for four new houses to build just that month.

For Thanksgiving that year we had a combined feast with the granddads and uncles, and Amy and her son John. It was a fun day, there was lots of eating, lots of talking, and lots of horseback riding, especially after our one o’clock dinner. We had waited until two to saddle up, but by then everyone’s stomachs had settled from our big meal and even Amy joined in on the riding. She proved to be a good rider and she explained that as a schoolgirl she had taken lessons for quite a while at a riding stable near her childhood home. We were joined a bit later by Glenn and his boyfriend, the new owner of the fitness center in town, Ted. Glenn proudly showed us his engagement ring, Ted had proposed just that morning and they were thinking of a small ceremony in the Spring, maybe around Easter time. He privately asked me if he could ask Josh and Barry to be their ring bearers and if Steven and Paul would be good choices for their ushers. He asked Alex if they could get married out at the orchard, which made Alex happy and proud at the same time, as Steven and Paul had done such a great job clearing out the deadwood from the trees there and he just knew it would have made his mother proud to have an important event like a wedding there now that it was looking so good again.

We ended up riding out there, to the orchard, and Steven and Paul gathered the few remaining apples to give the horses a holiday treat. Glenn told us that with Ted he had been planning a small house for themselves and he asked if I’d go over their plan for them, before turning over the building job to Alex, and I asked him where they intended to build. He said they had not decided yet where, but they had some time, and it wasn’t a huge place, just the basics as they didn’t want to be slaves to a house, they just needed a comfortable place to call home for them, and a child or two, as both were going to start the same parenting online courses that Alex and I had taken.

That weekend Alex had been going over some paperwork his secretary had asked him to look over, and he pointed out to me a whole section of the property we lived on, showing me there was a fifteen-acre parcel that hadn’t been rented out in years, on the opposite corner of the acreage from the orchard. The parcel was reachable from either our drive into the property, or from the farm road that ran across the back of our property and the dad’s land. The land on the other side of this farm road was State owned and could never be built on, and since this parcel was closest to the farm road and very accessible, he wondered why none of the other farmers ever wanted to rent it. I told him I knew why, and pointed out to him that all the other fields were almost completely flat, as opposed to this particular corner, which was just like the adjoining corner of my dad’s property, hilly and very rolling, with great stands of trees scattered here and there, not exactly good planting conditions.

I looked at the map over his shoulder, and reminded him that there once had been another farm on the property, and when his father had bought this homestead, where we were right now, that the remnants of the older and dilapidated buildings on that particular piece of land had been torn down and the rubble hauled off. I remembered it, after all, I was three years older and I guess that Alex was a young child then. I called my dads’ to ask them about it, and they said I remembered right, that corner of the property had had a home on it at one time and because of the topography no one had ever farmed those acres, just like the adjoining acres on that corner of their own property. I thanked them, and after hanging up, I told Alex that we just might have found a place for Glenn and Ted to build.

Alex thought that might be a great idea, since for farming purposes that land wasn’t desirable, and he suggested we ride out there the next day to walk the property and see for ourselves the lay of the land, there might just be more than one suitable lot on that parcel. We did just that, and of course the boys wanted to go riding with us, so I packed a picnic lunch and we all rode out to look over the plot of land opposite the orchard. We rode the horses to the top of the first rise and from there we could see the rise and fall of the land almost all the way over to the fence that separated this big fifteen-acre parcel from my father’s land. You could almost see the locations that would make good building lots, with homes either on top of the hills or down in the flatter areas between the hills. As the five of us sat and looked you could see a big change in vegetation on this hill and there we determined was where the original farmhouse on this parcel had stood.

I have to admit that the views were fantastic up here, you could see off in the distance the mountain range at the North end of Holyoke, about 25 or 30 miles away, the sunsets from here would be fantastic as the sun moved behind the mountains. There was an old tractor path along the right side of the whole parcel, and Alex thought that might be reused and upgraded to a paved road to gain access to the building sites and then be finally finished into a totally paved street or lane for the homeowners. He wondered how many home sites could be developed here, and then told us all that he wouldn’t want to see the whole place developed, but he thought maybe five or seven nice sized lots could be created here. By keeping the number down would enable each building lot to be pretty private, and it would mean that the bulk of the trees would remain.

We ate lunch there as it really was nice out, still, but we knew that within a week the weather would take a turn and colder air was forecast for the next week. That weekend Alex was on the phone with a surveyor, and a perc and well testing guy, these men he knew from his contracting in the area. He told me we’d have some information from them by the next weekend. These tests were necessary as there wasn’t public sewers or water, and septic fields or tanks and well water would have to be used by the homes built on the land.

During the week we had Glenn and Ted over to dinner and since the boys all knew Glenn already, they had a chance to get to know Ted a bit. It was during dinner that the couple asked the boys to participate in their civil wedding service in the orchard in the Spring and once what they wanted them all to do was explained the boys were ready and eager to go out there now to practice. We explained that it was too cold to go out there tonight, plus by now it was pitch dark out and we would have to use flashlights, but a bit closer to the date chosen we would take all four out there to practice (all four, because John had been included too). Once dinner was done, we sat with the engaged couple and figured out which weekend they would use for their wedding. Once a date was chosen in late April, we checked the extended forecast on NOAA’s Website, and we determined that at the worst it would be in the low 60s for a temperature and mild breezes were predicted for a mostly sunny day.

Both Glenn and Ted thought that all was fine, and they were looking forward to the day they could wed. We marked it on our desk calendar, and I made note of the date to ask Amy to mark it off on the company calendar as did Alex for his work schedule. We told the boys the date to put on their calendars, which each had to schedule school functions which we had asked them to put on the calendar on the side of the fridge in the kitchen as well; it was one way to try and keep us all organized. That week Glenn announced his engagement at the office, and he received many congratulations from all the staff and Amy of course knew because Paul had told her what had transpired at our house at dinner the other day. She was given the official date to be marked off on her master schedule for the company. Even the three newest members of our staff had a good working relationship with Glenn so they too would be included in the invitations to the ceremony.

The following weekend we received the reports from the two inspections Alex had arranged to be done on the fifteen acres across from the orchard. The reports showed there were ten very good home sites on the property, but as Alex had requested these were cut down to six for now, with the remaining four, closest to my dad’s property, were covered and taped over on the plan drawn up by the surveyor. All the sites had tested out for septic usage, and water availability, the over one-acre plots drawn out on the plan, those being on the short hills, were the best placed ones, and there were six of those. The blocked out four were on a mild slope to more hills on the dads’ property. We agreed that the first lot, the one directly across from the orchard, where they would exchange their vows, would be the one we offered to Glenn and Ted as our wedding present to them.

To say the soon to be wed couple was pleased with their wedding present would be a total understatement. They were thrilled after we took them out there, well actually to the orchard, to get their take on exactly how they wanted their ceremony to go, and once notes had been taken, we rode our horses up the slope across the farm track from the grove. The boys were all waiting for us there and it was a wonderful late March day and we had about a month before the actual wedding date. The boys had been given the task of holding a sign that said; “Future home site of Ted and Glenn”. When the couple saw that, Glenn started to cry, and big Ted was just sitting there kind of weepy himself. We knew that they hadn’t found a lot for the home they wanted built to be started yet, but I had myself finished the drawings just the other day and Alex had a crew over this past week to start on the foundation, as we finally had dried out a bit from the end of winter thaw we had been experiencing.

They dismounted and looked around the almost half acre yard area, but we pointed out the boundary markers that had been pounded into the earth so they could see the entire almost 2-acre lot. We told them that the marked off area was what their gift was and the fact that a foundation hole had been dug already was just so that while we had the thaw the plumbing for the septic in back and the well from the front could be started, but if they didn’t like it, there were other lots they could choose from. Apparently, they liked it, and the views as they finally had a chance to take in the view of the mountains off in the distance. We all got hugged and kissed, the boys included, by the weepy couple. We explained that while their house was being constructed the access to it from the farm road would be paved and the new drive to the other lots off in the distance would be carved out and paved like a suburban street. They would have access to the home farm yard, just like Alex’s employees, and we were even considering connecting our property with my dads’ with a paved lane to make it easier to get from home to our offices on their land. It would all be quite the undertaking, but both Alex and I thought it would eventually be good for his business, as well as maybe mine.

We had the go ahead to build a home designed and for someone from our office, and the technical plans drawn up and produced by our office, and the house to be built by Alex and his company and our hope was that eventually we would have other couples, or singles, living in houses designed and built by us on the other lots. It was amazing how the older boys threw themselves into their friend Glenn’s wedding. Steven and John made a hand woven arbor for the couple to exchange their vows under, Barry and Josh practiced their roles a couple of times a week, and when the construction crew noticed these things they pitched in, helping to get the arbor positioned just right and securely, and offering to let the younger boys use them as stand ins for the couple to be wed or as guests to be seated.

All this interacting didn’t delay the construction on the new house, the first floor had been started and partially enclosed by the time the wedding took place, the couple would be able to stay in their apartment until the home was completed. Glenn told us they had both passed their parenting classes and were waiting for their home to be completed for the final nod to be able to qualify for permanent placement status of a foster son. Their wedding went off without a hitch, the weather cooperated, and they had a sun filled day and the temperature was a comfortable sixty-five degrees and the trees in the orchard had budded out and small green leaves were on every tree branch, adding a touch of new life to the day. Steven and John had woven fresh flowers into the arbor, and it looked beautiful and made the perfect setting for the couple to exchange their vows with the justice of the peace officiating.

Several of the wedding guests wandered about after and many walked the path to look at the other lots on our property. One that surprised me was Amy. She really liked the second lot and she told me that she had been offered a great deal for her house by a neighbor who wanted it for a relative. Since she was a single mother with only John, she thought a cottage style home on that lot would suit them well and she asked what we wanted for the land, because she had seen a model that Glenn had helped her John make that she thought she could afford to have built, if she got the land at a fair price.

She got the land for a very low price, and Alex would build his first tiny house, well not all that tiny. It had two bedrooms, two baths, a nice kitchen/dining area open to a good sized living room. There was even a small home office and Amy was sure she would be able to keep the place up easily even when John went off to college and started his own life away from home. (We hadn’t told anyone about the four plots set aside in the beginning, Alex wanted to gift those to our children when they graduated college, the fourth he said was for the boy we hadn’t met yet.)

Glenn and Ted were able to move into their home a month after getting married, and their home was inspected by the caseworker for a child they had begun to visit with both at the boy’s dorm and a few weekends at their apartment. The lad was a first grader named Jordan, and if you didn’t know that he was an orphan you would swear he was a birth child of both Ted and Glenn, he looked so much like each one of them. Josh and Jordan became good friends, sharing a classroom when Jordan was placed with the newlyweds’ full time. Barry started to act more like their big brother, and he made the perfect one at that, remembering how Steven had been with him, but not following in his older brother’s footsteps exactly, after all, he was closer to the younger boys’ ages than his teenaged brother’s. The three of them were like the Three Musketeers. They rode the school bus together, they hung out after school together, they rode horses together, and they came right to my office to check in with their dads right after school together.

After Amy and John’s new house was built Steven and John spent even more time together if that was humanly possible. They were finishing up their freshman year in high school and both were 15 that spring. They were spending a lot of time at the orchard and in the plots of land Alex had turned over to them to grow the produce they wanted for their farm stand later in the Spring and during the Summer, but apparently they had also planned to run it on the weekends in the Fall since they had planted pumpkins and some squash as well as row after row of lettuce and both yellow and green beans. We parents gave them permission to do this as long as their studies didn’t fall off. The two of them had had a successful track season, competing on the Cross-Country Team and they were thrilled that something they liked to do and did all year long was also something they could do to help their team out.

Let Art know you are reading this story: ArtWest at CastleRoland dot Net.

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