Published: 19 Aug 2019
Around the 16th of May, just as the boys had only two weeks before their Summer vacation started, Mr. Young called and invited Alex and me to an open house at the boys’ dorm, he thought we might want to meet a youngster that had been living there just about two weeks. He wasn’t going to bring him to us, he thought we might want to meet him first before we took him into our home. That certainly got my curiosity up and Alex told me to calm down, we’d know more about what Mr. Young was up to when we went in to meet this boy in another day. So, we did, we drove into the city two evenings later, on a Thursday, to meet the mystery boy.
I saw him as soon as Alex and I put on the sticker name tags while we signed in. He was standing facing away from us, staring at the gathering in the big oversized living room of the dorm, leaning against the door jam. He had on jeans and a flannel shirt. The jeans had a big western belt threaded through the belt loops and on his feet were western style boots. All the boy needed was a ten-gallon hat and a pair of pistols in holsters and he’d fit right in an old time western movie, or maybe as an extra on Gunsmoke. I pointed him out to Alex, and we made our way closer to him, Alex noticing his attire and the boots, but then crouching down to his four foot height and introducing himself to the lad. The boy turned to face us, and I almost started to laugh, the boy was clearly of Asian, or at least mixed Asian ancestry. I then introduced myself and we learned his name was Tyler, Tyler Wong. He was seven he told us, and I asked if he was waiting out here in the hall for someone and he told us no, but he was afraid to go in there with all those people in there.
There were about thirty or so adults and just about that many boys, chatting in little groups or in threesomes or pairs. There was the usual buffet table set up with snacks and cookies and cupcakes and I offered to get us all a plate of an assortment so we three could talk a bit, and Tyler said OK, we could sit on the bench by the sign in/sign out window behind us. So, Alex stuck by Tyler and I made up a plate and grabbed some napkins and then we three sat on the bench and got to talking. Tyler knew he looked different, but he didn’t know anything about his Asian father and had lived alone with his mother until she died of breast cancer just a few weeks ago. That is what led to him being at the dorm.
He and his mom had lived near our town and he had always spent time with her riding most days and working in their tiny patch of a garden. He didn’t like the city, there were too many people here. We liked him, he seemed to have had a basic country upbringing and was a polite boy, maybe just a tad too quiet. But that changed when I showed him the pictures of our property and the boys on horseback. We took turns telling him who was who in the pictures and how our boys came to be living with us. When Alex asked if he thought he might want to come visit with us for the weekend, and maybe for the next couple of weekends too, Tyler lit up. I knew then that Alex had made his mind up, as had I. I mean this boy was just adorable and even if he was a tad smaller than a seven year old should be, I thought we could give him a good home he would like being in and, just maybe, with the right diet he would begin to fill out a bit, as it was now he was very thin and his clothing just hung on him.
Mr. Young came up to us then, asking if we were all getting along, and Tyler told him that we had just asked him to come visit us at our farm. Mr. Young chuckled at his enthusiasm and asked what Tyler had told us about that. Tyler shyly told him he hadn’t answered yet, but if it was OK, he’d really like to come and meet our horses, and the boys too. Mr. Young told him that that sounded nice and how about if one of us came after he got out of school tomorrow and picked him up? Tyler turned to us and asked if that was alright with us and I told him I thought that was a great idea.
So that is how Tyler began living with us. Those first two weekends, having to return him to the dorm on Sunday nights, was hard on all of us. Tyler found that not only did we have a pony for him to ride, but that he liked all the other boys as much as the boys liked him. The increase in the pony population at the granddads’ place was totally justified as the granddads and uncles took to Tyler as if he had been born to us. They sometimes argued over who would do chores as they all wanted to ride with the boys whenever they had a chance. Steven, Barry, and John were tall enough for horses, but the three youngest, Josh, Jordan, and Tyler would be on ponies for another year or two at least.
Everyone got along great and soon the boys’ school friends started hanging around too and the uncles took a field that wasn’t that good a producer and retired it from planting to let nutrients build back up in the soil and they put a post and rail fence around it and opened it up to the boys for riding and racing their horses and ponies in. Tyler proved to be one of the smartest of the younger boys and even during that first Summer he was with us he helped the other two younger boys with their words, math, and reading. As luck would have it all three of the younger boys were placed in the same second grade when school started in the Fall, and even though there weren’t that many children of Asian descent at the grade school, Tyler proved to be one of the most popular boys in the lower grades.
To say that everything was going smoothly for all of us would have to be accurate. Alex had several building projects going all the time, as did my staff of six architects, our full-time model maker Glenn kept very busy, as did his new assistant, who not only built some models, he took over the printing of the blueprints and plans. Amy was a happy office manager, she had all of us on staff to keep track of, and a new home to go to every night where she had a great teenaged son to micro manage, sharing that task with Steven, the two teens now a dating couple when they were not working on their farm stand business or working in their plots of garden on the property, and the orchard.
All in all, everything was well in our world, until the day I got a call from Scott’s secretary at the statehouse in Albany. My ex had been diagnosed with AIDS and was dying a horrible, wasting death. She explained that he had requested that I not be notified, but she felt I should know, especially as she had once been a real friend to me, and she had been his secretary since before we had wed. She didn’t know just how long he had left, but the doctors were not giving him more than a few weeks, and she felt that deep down he had things to say to me, things he couldn’t say when we had dissolved our marriage. I thanked her for the information, but at that point I had to tell her that I would have to think about whether or not I would be out to see Scott. I had a family now; a loving husband, four boys, and also a business to run, and they all needed me.
When the boys were all tucked in Alex led me to our bedroom and sat me on the side of the bed and held me to his side as he sat next to me, asking what was wrong. He softly told me he could see that I was upset and preoccupied all evening, even if I was hiding it from the children, he could tell. So, since I was now feeling so conflicted about going to say goodbye to Scott, I had thought about this all afternoon at work, was I the kind of guy that would let his former lover go to the Great Beyond without even saying goodbye? Was I really such a prick I could do that, and live with myself after? I, no we, Alex and I, tried to instill in our boys to always do the right thing, couldn’t I follow my own directives? Alex let me go on and on like this for a good ten or fifteen minutes, and then he took me by the shoulders and looking directly into my now tear-filled eyes told me he thought I was the most caring, loving and accepting human being he had ever met, with one exception, his mother. He thought that if I slept on it tonight, I would know exactly what I should do, and he’d even go with me if I needed him to.
So now I knew what he thought I should do, whether he intended to reveal that or not. And his sensitivity made me cry. Not great slobbery sobs, but a gentle but steady dripping of tears from my eyes, which my loving husband kissed as they ran down my cheeks. He held me in his arms, and I told him I thought I should go, maybe if Scott got off his chest what his secretary thought he wanted to tell me, his death would be easier for him, he’d be able to go to his maker with a clear conscience. He told me we could drive out to Albany tomorrow at lunch time, he had a morning appointment, and we’d ask the granddads to watch the boys after they got out of school. We could be home by evening, if not soon after.
I clung to Alex, telling him how much I loved him, doted on him, cherished him and admired him, almost or at least as much as the two men who had rescued me from that boys’ dorm so many years ago. I told him he had become my savior the very day we had met, and he continued to be today, and I knew he’d be by my side as long as we both lived. I told him I admired him in so many ways. He kissed me then and then whispered in my ear, “Ditto, but you also admire me when I’m naked, don’t you?”. Not that he craved or needed that kind of reassurance on a regular basis, but my bedroom name for him was “Sexy Daddy”, and I knew he was proud that we both had kept very fit as we aged.
At the hospital the next day Alex let me go into Scott’s room by myself, not that he really wanted to go in and face the man that had cheated on me all throughout our marriage, and probably before too. The man on the bed was only barely recognizable as the young stud I thought had loved me, and only me, on our wedding day. He was ghost like and shrunken, a mere shadow of his former self. His head turned as I entered his room. He was the only occupant in the barren room. I took the metal chair at his bedside and sat in it. Before I could say anything, he said, softly, “Bradley, I’ve been thinking about you”. I told him I’ve been thinking about him too lately. He nodded and then told me that he wished he could have realized that I had been the only good thing to have happened to him, and he treated our love like a something that didn’t deserve to thrive and grow, like love should be allowed to do.
He asked me to forgive him and I did. In fact, I thanked him, and he asked me for what. I told him I was happily married now to a wonderful man and we had four children that we loved dearly. We each had successful businesses and a very good life together. I said this not to rub it in, but to assure him I had moved on, and he knew it. He nodded as I had talked and said that I got what he couldn’t give me, a happy home, a love all my own, and I had a family, something he had been too selfish to build with me. He was happy I was content and doing well with my business, and my life. He told me there was going to be a surprise for me after he was gone, and that I, of all the people he knew, deserved it, and it was his way of trying to make up for some of the wrongs he had done that forced us apart. I began to object but he told me it was a done deal, that he had made out his will just after his diagnosis and he didn’t have time left to change it now, his will would stand as it was, and the fact remained that I deserved it, even more now that he knew I had a family.
I left his room, after holding his hand for a minute and telling him I wished things between us had been different, but all the time wishing Alex was with me. Even these twenty minutes the nurse had said I was allowed seemed like forever without the man I loved with me as I said a final goodbye to Scott. He too said his farewell and I returned to Alex’s side and he held me as we sat on a bench in the waiting room. A few minutes later we left the hospital after leaving the nurse our home phone number after she told us that there were no other contacts they had for Scott, except his secretary and his doctor. I knew from talking with the secretary that his cremation would occur as soon as his body was released, and his ashes would be interred with his parents’ in their hometown cemetery. No services were to be held.
We made it back to Granby by six o’clock and we stopped to pick the boys up at the granddads who then proceeded to encourage us to all stay and eat with them and the uncles. We had a fairly quiet meal; the boys having been told by my dads’ that we had gone to say goodbye to a dying old friend of mine. As the meal went on I got the boys to talk about their school day and the ride they had all taken after school and they started to loosen up so that by the time we were all home later, and homework had been done and we had a chance to check the younger boys homework they were all ready to be tucked in. Each one said how sorry they were that a friend of mine was dying and I explained to each that the old friend was very sick and that he would be in a better place when he did die, there was no way to make him better now.
On Tuesday evening of the next week I answered the ringing phone, only to be told by the nurse on duty in the ward Scott was in that he had passed an hour earlier. He had no family alive to send condolences to, but I did send a note of condolence to his secretary. Two days later I was again called at home, this time by Scott’s lawyer. He informed me that except for a small legacy to his secretary Scott had named me the only beneficiary of his estate. I was floored when he told me the value of this, and the lawyer told me that since we had divorced his parents had died, as well as a few other older relatives and Scott had inherited from them all, and there was the house and a few cars that Scott had instructed the lawyer to sell. He gave me the impression that these sales were already in the works, because he said he hoped to have the entire estate, all the cash and bonds, and stock certificates ready to transfer next week. To save me the trip he would process everything with my bank when all was ready, so I gave him the name and phone number of my account manager at my bank. He had some forms he would overnight to me and if I would sign them and have my signature notarized, I could then retain my copy and return by overnight mail the other copy to him. I agreed to do so.
When the overnight service delivered the package to me at work the following day, I opened the package in my office alone. I removed the copies of the documents that the lawyer had sent, the acknowledgment of my acceptance of Scott’s legacy to me. I took the copy that was intended for me and read it through, still amazed by the amount of the estate Scott left behind. Three million dollars was the value stated. The accumulation of the inheritances left to him by his aged parents and his aunt and uncle that had passed away before Scott himself had died. There was a note attached to my copy that indicated that the life insurance benefit for the policy Scott himself had paid for was not included in the total, but a check from the insurance carrier would be sent directly to me, since I was named as the only beneficiary on that too. The check should be for another million dollars.
I called my account representative at my bank and briefly explained the circumstances and the fact that I needed to have a notary witness my signature on the legal documents just delivered to me. He suggested I come in as soon as I could make it there and he would go over the documents with me and have his secretary notarize my signature and I could send the other document back to the lawyer from there. When I got there he came out to greet me and we went directly to his office and he read the document and suggested we get that signed and witnessed and sent off which we did, after I presented my ID to his secretary who used her notary public seal in the space below my signature on all the documents and she then sealed the lawyer’s copy in an overnight envelope and called for it to be picked up for delivery.
I spent another half hour with my account manager, detailing how I wanted the incoming funds disbursed and with his advice I think we had done an admirable job of it, keeping aside a chunk to be able to cover the high taxes expected to be imposed on me personally. Fifty thousand dollars was to be placed in each of our four boys trust accounts, and I set up another account for John, who I just felt was going to become a son in law to Alex and me one day. Disbursements would be made to both Alex and my personal accounts and to an account we held jointly for household expenses. Separate amounts would be placed in both of our business accounts to be used as operating capital if needed. There was one more thing I wanted to do with some of this legacy, and that really was twofold. A very generous donation to the NATIONAL AIDS FOUNDATION, and one to the hospital that Scott had been treated at.
I explained all this to Alex when he stopped by to have lunch with me that noontime and he told me I had done good. As he held me, I felt that the funds from Scott would help a lot of people in the future, and that Alex approving of what I had done was the icing on the cake, so to speak. The rest of my day was spent with new clients, going over what they needed from a new home so I could come up with preliminary plans and then pass them on to Glenn to enable him and his assistant to create a model for the clients to approve, or make changes to, before blueprints were drawn up and created. There was a sense of something that came over me that afternoon I realized, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, just that I felt comfortable. Serene, not quite that, but maybe a touch of that, a touch of “at peace with myself”, a feeling that everything was alright and would continue to be alright no matter what was thrown at me, at us as a family.
The boys all checked in with me after the school bus left them off and they went off after, Steven and John to tackle some homework after checking on their garden plots. The younger boys to go for a ride with their grandpas and uncles before dinner. As I walked back home over the newly paved lane between the dad’s property and ours, I finally knew what that feeling was as I watched Alex get out of his work truck and catch sight of me walking toward him. His smile lit up his face and he came to meet me part way, a look of eager anticipation on his handsome face as we neared each other. The feeling was contentment. Scott’s legacy made that possible. Yes, I had love in my life, on so many different levels. Everyone I truly loved was healthy and happy. The dads and uncles were happy with the life they had created for themselves, and they all felt that our boys were as much theirs as they were Alex’s and mine, the boys gave them an added purpose in their lives. Alex was living his dream. He says he has a sexy lover in me, someone he would move the earth for, someone who made his dream of fathering a reality. The boys who all made me so proud of them every day, in so many ways, from a spelling test they got an A on, or by one of them helping another brother out with their homework, or our oldest son becoming a popular and much loved entrepreneur at fifteen, and for finding someone who turned out to be his soulmate at such a young age.
Yes, I was content, yes, the extra money did add to our financial peace of mind. I reflected on all this as this handsome stud walked toward me on the lane, that look of: “I want to kiss you” on his face as we neared each other. I just hoped my expression told him that I was feeling exactly the same. Even without the extra money giving us a welcome cushion in our lives, I have to say that yes, I was very lucky this second time around.
THE END
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