Published: 3 Mar 2022

From Previous Chapter:

“I’m not going to push you to tell me all about yourself, at least, not just yet. I know my wife … she would be mad if I did that right now, and then you had to answer her questions later, which you may have already answered for me. So, if it is alright with you, we’ll just wait until later tonight to talk, or tomorrow,” offered Levi Golderson.

Billy smiled at how Mr. Levi was trying not to be overbearing, but was attempting to make him feel comfortable with them. While Billy was mulling that through his mind, he heard the man tell him to use the restroom and that they would head over to the ball field in about ten minutes.

Before long, Levi and Billy were up in the stands watching and waiting for Mark’s game to start.

Mark arrived on time for his baseball game. His team was gathering by their coach and waiting for instructions as to how they would practice before the game. As the visiting team that night, they had the field at 5:30, but before then they could play catch with one another and the day’s pitcher could warm up with the catcher.

Mark watched the pitcher and catcher and as he did, the coach came over and told him to catch with one of the other boys. It was then Mark told the man he wanted to be a pitcher, and he was learning to pitch.

Mark told him about how his dad and Mr. Oxtter were working with him and his friend, Kieran, and that his dad bought this book about the exercises he needed to do to build up his arm, shoulder and legs. The boy explained that by doing the exercise between now and next year he hoped to have a good strong arm, shoulder and legs in order to pitch.

That impressed the coach, so he asked the pitcher to stand aside and let Mark throw a few. Mark did some warm up pitches to get his arm ready, before he threw to the catcher. The coach was impressed with the boy’s ability and mechanics. The lad didn’t have a lot of power, that was probably because he was just starting out. The thing the coach was impressed with was the boy showed he was working on his control.

The coach asked Mark who was his catcher. Mark told him about Kieran and that he would be nine next month and they practice almost every day and were starting to do the exercises together. The coach told Mark to make sure they continue to practice together and to bring that boy with him next season to the try-outs and he’d see if he could get them on the same team together. The man then sent Mark out to play catch with the other boys.

When it was his team’s turn to practice on the game field, Mark and his teammates went out and took their positions and did some drills to get physically and mentally ready for their fourth to last game of the season.

Dad Levi and new foster ‘big brother’ Billy were up in the stands and watched the activity out on the ball field. Mark noticed them up in the stands and was happy to see them up there. Mark first told his coach that he had a new foster ‘big brother’ and that was who the person was sitting with his dad.

Mark then told his team mates that he had a new foster ‘big brother’ and he was sitting up in the bleachers with his dad. All the boys had to look at the new boy and they were all surprised the boy was much older than what Mark had told them his parents were going to ask for.

When the game started, Mark was batting in the middle of the line-up because of how good he’d done in his last two games. And tonight, the opposing team didn’t have their ace pitcher on the mound and that should play to Mark’s strengths at the batter’s box.

Mark didn’t get to bat until the second inning. He did make a good play to first from his second baseman’s position during the bottom of the first inning. The ball was hit to his left, glove side, and he was able to snare it, pull it from his glove and throw it to first to get the batter out. All that practice he was getting with his friends at the park was paying off for him.

Mark’s first at bat was also what the coach had hoped for. Mark had a count of 2 – 2 when the pitcher slipped up and threw the ball straight over the plate. Mark connected with the ball and sailed it right over the shortstops head and into the gap between the left and center fielders. As the ball went to the fence, Mark got a standup double out of his at bat.

The rest of the team came through as well. Mark’s team scored four runs that second inning and they never gave up their lead after that. Mark also did well on the field as he stopped a few hard-hit balls to him that allowed him to be a part of a 4-6-3 double play.

Mark batted in the fourth inning, but was called out at first when the ball didn’t get out of the infield. The team did get runners on first and third but they didn’t get any of them over home plate.

Mark made a few more good plays while playing second base that night. The opposing team never got a man past second as Mark’s good arm, with a relay from right field, caught the man trying to stretch a double into a triple and cut him down sliding into third.

Mark also batted in the top of the sixth. With two outs, he got on base, but he never got to second as the home team’s pitcher buckled down and struck out the next batter. They won the game, though, 4–2, with Mark going 2 for 3 that night.

Levi Golderson asked the boys where they wanted to go to get something to eat. Billy told his new foster dad that he didn’t care where he went. The teenager told the man that he enjoyed going out to eat and anywhere they went he would be happy.

Mark asked if they could stop by Dairy Queen for a chicken basket and some ice cream. Mr. Golderson asked Billy if that was OK with him. Billy told the man that he often went to a DQ for ice cream with his other ‘brothers’, but they had never eaten there. He said it would be a nice change to see how well the food was there. So, that was where they went to eat after the game.

Mark and Billy both got the three-piece Chicken Strip $6 Meal Deal. It came with three pieces of tenderloin white meat chicken strips, crispy fries, their choice of dipping sauce, a 21 oz. drink of their choice and a sundae.

Dad looked at the 2 for $4 Super Snack Menu and chose the 2-piece chicken strips and a drink. The three then found an open table and, with the drink cups filled, they sat down and waited for the meals to be delivered to them.

“Billy … how many other ‘brothers’ did you say you had, you know, at your last house?” innocently asked Mark.

“I was the sixth boy in the house. So, I had five other ‘brothers’. There was a fourteen-year-old, a thirteen-year-old, twin twelve-year-old’s and an eleven-year-old. I never had brothers or sisters growing up, so I liked the idea of having them as my ‘brothers’. And, I’d have to say we got along very well,” answered Billy.

“You said you liked to skateboard. How far did you have to go to do that, and could you walk there, or … or did you have someone drive your there?” now asked Mark.

Billy smiled at the question, so he pulled out his cell phone.

“Oh, you have a cell phone?” remarked a surprised Mark. Even Mr. Golderson was surprised at seeing that the foster boy had a cell phone as well.

“Well, yea. Mr. Ken gave me one about two weeks after I got there. Don’t you have a cell phone?” asked Billy, turning the surprise question back on his new little ‘brother’.

It was then their meals arrived and the three stopped their conversation and began enjoying their quick second evening meal. Billy, never having eaten at Dairy Queen, liked the taste of the chicken along with the tasty country gravy that he chose as his dipping sauce. The fries also came hot which was a nice touch from other fast-food restaurants that gave you what was in their salting tray, which had the fries either hot or maybe lukewarm.

As they ate, Billy finally opened his cell phone and showed Mark the ramps that Mr. Ken had built for Robert after he first arrived. Billy showed them to the boy and his new foster dad and explained that when Mr. Ken had them built his ‘brothers’ friend’s dads helped. Billy then told the two how men from Mr. Ken’s construction company came by and really helped to get them all done in one day.

Mark was amazed that Billy’s former foster dad actually paid to have something like that built for just one foster boy. Billy said that his ‘brother’ had about six friends at the time, and they had two younger brothers who had also helped and that they also got to use the ramps.

Levi Golderson couldn’t fathom spending that sort of money to build five skateboard ramps for his foster son and his friends and their brothers. He knew that it had to have cost the man a pretty some of money. He wondered what sort of job he had that he could afford to do something such as that.

Levi then remembered that Billy mentioned that this Mr. Ken had a construction company and that some of the men came to help build the ramps. Mr. Golderson figured the man got the materials at cost, so even though it still cost him quite a bit of money it didn’t’ cost him anything as if it he was the one who had paid.

Mark then asked Billy that if he was the sixth boy at the house, how crowded the ramps were. Billy inwardly laughed, and scrolled through his cell phone pictures and showed his little ‘brother’ all the boys gathered around the ramps after he arrived and added his own friends.

“Billy,” began a wide-eyed Mark, after seeing the cell phone picture, “how … how many boys are out there using all those ramps?”

A smiling Billy said, “Well, when I took that picture I had only just arrived and I only had two friends, then. So … so, there are probably something like … let me see. (Billy then put his hand to his chin and began calculating the number of boys that were there at the time.) … There are about … forty-four boys using the ramps then,” replied Billy.

“Forty-four?” repeated an incredulous Mark.

“Yep, forty-four. Each of my ‘brothers’ … they each had their own group of friends. And then I eventually added five friends of my own, so you can see the ramps were very crowded,” laughed Billy.

Mr. Golderson told the boys they needed to get a move on and get home and meet up with their mom. But Mark protested that they hadn’t gotten their sundaes. The boy’s dad told both boys to go up to the counter and get their sundaes to go, and meet him at the van.

Levi misspoke when he included Billy when he said mom. He didn’t realize what he said, but Billy heard it, and he wondered if he would be able to eventually call her ‘mom’ and him ‘dad’. He knew only time would tell.

The boys met the man at the vehicle and they ate their ice cream concoctions as they rode home.

Miriam was waiting for her ‘men’ to return from the Little League baseball game and their stop to get something to eat afterwards. Billy helped Mark get the bike out of the van and put it into the garage before they walked into the kitchen where the four of them would talk.

When he walked into the kitchen, Billy knew he would be under the gun answering the Golderson’s questions. He figured they had to have at least a thousand of them, so he resigned himself to answering them as honestly as he could. He hoped they wouldn’t get to personal about his mom and step-dad, but Ms. Judy probably told them about them just as she had told Mr. Ken about them.

Miriam asked everyone if they wanted something cold to drink as they talked. She got them all flavored water and since it was going on 9 p.m., she told them they wouldn’t spend all night asking Billy a ton of questions. She said they had the following days to get all of their questions asked.

Levi deferred to his wife to ask their foster boy the first question.

“Billy … geez, where do I start? There are so many questions going through my mind right now. So, I guess, I’ll ask the important one. Billy … can you tell us why … why your previous foster dad … why he had you moved?”

Billy thanked his lucky stars they asked him what he considered a simple question. The teenager told them the full story of what happen that morning. He explained about the anonymous phone call, how the Estate Manager and Master found the small bag of marijuana behind an obscure panel in his walk-in closet.

The teen described how he tried to argue that if they hadn’t all touched the bag so much, they would never have found his fingerprints on it. Billy told his new foster parents how his Mr. Ken called his Sheriff Deputy friend who called a K-9 Officer and his dog over to certify that the bag was indeed marijuana.

Billy told the Golderson’s that Mr. Ken always said he didn’t want illegal drugs in the house. The teen added that the man told him that he was on record that he opposed them, and that if he kept someone in his home, after finding drugs in their room, that he was a hypocrite and the neighbors wouldn’t understand.

Billy told the Golderson’s that the drugs weren’t his. He told them he did have drugs with him when he first went to the home, but the Estate Master told him to flush them, and he did. He said he was being framed. Billy went on to ask how would a stranger know there were drugs behind an obscure panel in his room, when he didn’t even know about the panel.

Levi and Miriam just sat there taking Billy’s answer all in. They saw that the teen didn’t ever flinch while telling them his story. That the boy sounded truthful and honest and never once hesitated in his answer. They tended to believe him.

Levi asked the next question. The man asked Billy if he ever used any of the drugs his mom and step-dad were accused of dealing in.

Billy told the man and woman, and their son, that he used to use marijuana with his friends where he once lived. He told them he never used anything harder as his step-dad told him he’d kick his ass if he ever found out he had. Mark giggled when he heard Billy say ass.

“Bill,” began Miriam, “when Mrs. Turner was leaving earlier, you and her, ahh … you and she … you sort of teased one another about her son and the cooking of hamburgers and hot dogs. Can I ask you … how is it that you and her … how is it that you know one another that well?”

“Oh, that,” smiled Billy, as he began to answer, “you see Ms. Judy … her son, Eric, was one of my ‘brothers’ best friends and he was there all the time. So, Ms. Judy was there often, plus she was also my case worker. I guess … I guess I felt I knew her well enough that I could tease her like I had. I didn’t mean anything when I did that it … it just … it just came out.”

“Mom, you should see the ramps his old foster dad had built for his first foster son. Show her the picture Billy,” interjected Mark.

Billy got his cell phone out, which surprised Miriam. The teenager scrolled to the picture of the ramps and showed the woman them. Mark then told his mom that there were forty-four boys using them. That also surprised Mrs. Golderson.

“Billy … how is it that you have a … a cell phone?’ asked Levi.

“Oh, as I mentioned before, Mr. Ken … he gave me a cell phone about two weeks after I arrived. It is a pre-paid cell phone. All the boys have them. It came with 1200 talk minutes, 1200 text messages and 1.2 Gigabytes of download data. I really haven’t used many of them, but it was nice to have the Android phone that was just as good that any of the other boys had,” explained Billy.

“Billy … Mark said there were upwards of forty-four boys there at your former foster dad’s house. Is that … is that true?’ asked Miriam.

“Yes, ma’am. The last time we had a sleepover … there were upwards of fifty-three boys there, if Mr. Ken’s calculations were correct,” answered the teenager.

“How could he … I just don’t understand,” stumbled Miriam.

“Ma’am, Mr. Ken … he has a pretty big house. All of us boys … we all had our own bedrooms. Well, the twins shared a bedroom, but there was an empty room if they wanted to have their own. We all spread out and that was the first time in my life that I ever had a sleepover,” answered Billy.

“Billy … you were at other foster homes before being sent to your last foster home. Will you … can you tell us why you were moved from them?” asked Miriam.

“Oh, ahh, them. Ahh … to be honest with you, they treated me like a slave. It was as if I was … as if I was their servant and I had all these extra jobs to do around the house, even though they had their own children living there, too.

“I didn’t mind doing them, it was just … it was … I was made to do the majority of them. Plus, the clothes they bought me … they were trashy and they made me look like … like I didn’t belong. They took me to the second-hand stores and that’s where they got me my clothes, while they used the clothing money, they got for me, on their own kids.

“I often complained to my caseworkers. But they wouldn’t do anything about the way I was being treated or move me. So … well, I stopped doing what I was being told. I didn’t play their little game. That went on for a while and then the parents began to complain about me. What a turn of events.

“I guess when I was moved from the third, or was it the fourth foster home that Ms. Judy got involved. She came and talked to me about why I was being so difficult. But when she heard what I had to say about how the foster homes were treating me, how they bought second hand clothes for me and that my complaints to my caseworkers went on deaf ears, she knew she needed to get involved. That’s why they moved me, Mrs. Golderson,” offered Billy, as an explanation as to why he’d been moved from his other foster homes.

“When they lost me, those foster homes lost all their CPS money for me. That’ll teach them. I hope Ms. Judy didn’t assign them any other foster kids,” finished Billy.

“After Ms. Judy got involved, it was then she took me to my last foster home,” finished Billy.

Levi and Miriam and their son sat their stunned at that revelation. Again, Billy didn’t hesitate at what he told them. They could tell by the tone of his voice and the way he angrily voiced his disdain for his previous foster parents that they believed him.

“Billy … what … what was so different at your last foster home that … that you seemed to like it there?’ asked Mark.

“Oh … well, Mr. Ken … he treated me … he treated me like … like I was part of his … what he called his ‘family’. He never treated me differently than he did any of his sons, or the other foster boys, there. He bought me a full set of clothes when I first arrived and he let me pick everything out.

“He allowed me to bring my friends over to the house. When the high school principal tried to railroad me, because he was attempting to get back at Mr. Ken for what happened almost four years before, with his first foster son, Mr. Ken hired a lawyer to represent me,” said Billy, but was interrupted by Mark.

“I thought the boy that the man built the ramps for was his first foster son?” asked Mark.

“No, he wasn’t. Mr. Ken … he had a foster son about three or four years before that. That boy … he was a sophomore and from what I heard he was attacked at the high school. Then, there was something about the teenager being interviewed by a DA without his attorney, or Mr. Ken present. It is all confusing to me, but somewhere along the line the principal almost lost his job over it because of Mr. Ken.

“Anyway, Mr. Ken … he made his house … he made it a home for me. That was something I never really had while I lived with my mom and step-dad. I had very good food every day. Momma Maria … she made these great Mexican meals. While there, I was also responsible for Chief. Oh, she was the resident pet. And, I got to travel some, too.

“Mr. Ken … he took all of us on a nine-day trip to visit his four amusement parks. He then took us to that park where the roller coaster fell off the track over the Memorial Day Holiday. When we came back, he took me on a special three-day trip up to Dallas. There we went to a Ranger’s night baseball game, we visited a railroad museum, and went to a place called Speed Zone, where we drove go-karts.

“I … I thought I had found my forever home, but … but it all came crashing down this morning when that man … when that man … when he made that anonymous phone call,” finished Billy, as the tears came pouring down his cheeks.

Mark ran to his new ‘big brother’ and hugged him. “I believe you, Billy. I believe you,” repeatedly said Mark.

Miriam went over to the teenager and tried to console him, knowing he had to be hurting inside from what he just told them. The teen leaned into her and continued to let the tears flow. It was the first real time the teenager was letting the hurt be released from his body and mind, and the woman’s touch, like Momma Maria’s, was what he needed right then.

Levi also went over to the teenager. He told Billy that was enough questions for tonight. He told the boy to sleep in tomorrow morning. That Mark would show him around the neighborhood and introduce him to all of his friends and their older brothers and sisters who were anxious to meet him.

Billy wiped his eyes and thanked the man for telling him that. Miriam told Billy that Mark would show him where the bath towels where kept and when he was ready, he was to come down to the kitchen for breakfast.

Billy thanked Mr. and Mrs. Golderson for being so kind to him. He told them he would try to be the best ‘big brother’ that Mark ever had. Mark, for his part, said that Billy was the first and only ‘big brother’ he ever had. That brought about a round of laughter in the kitchen. It helped break the sadness that was there just a few moments ago.

After Mark and Billy went upstairs to their bedrooms, Levi and Miriam talked in their bedroom. Miriam told her husband she couldn’t understand the previous foster dad sending Billy away on such minimal evidence. She argued the bag of marijuana may have been found in the boy’s closet, but she admitted she would have wanted to know how did that man who called know it was there.

Even Levi defended Billy by saying the man didn’t even give the teen the benefit of the doubt, and even try to see if any part of the boy’s fingerprints were on the plastic bag. Levi also told his wife that the teen was more than he expected. The man said Billy wasn’t what he expected for someone in the system. The man said Billy seemed honest and mature, was polite and definitely had manners.

The husband and wife were in agreement that accepting Billy into their home was a good decision. Though, they both said they needed to watch the teen and they needed to talk to Mark on the side to see how they were getting along, and if there were any conflicts with his friend’s older brothers or sisters.

Miriam then asked Levi if he was going to take Billy to the shooting range that weekend. Her husband said he had forgotten that this weekend was when they went there, with their friends, to sharpen their skills with their household guns.

Miriam said they should at least start teaching him how to use them, even if they didn’t tell him the codes to the lock boxes where the guns where kept. She said that their other friends would be taking their sons and daughters and that with Billy now a part of their ‘family’ he should be included in those things they did as a ‘family’.

Levi mulled that around for a few seconds and then agreed with his wife. He agreed that if Billy was going to be a full-time member of their ‘family’, he needed to know what they had set up as protections for them in case their home was ever invaded, because of who he was and where he worked.

Upstairs, Mark talked with Billy in his room. Mark wanted to know more about the things Billy did at his previous foster home and, in particular, the trips Billy told them about down in the kitchen.

Billy asked Mark if he could wait until tomorrow, as he was tired from everything, he’d gone through that day, and that he was physically and mentally tired and just wanted to lay down and rest and get a good night’s sleep.

Mark persisted and asked his new ‘big brother’ to tell him just one thing.

Billy heard the pleading in the boy’s voice, so he said he’d tell him just one thing and after that he had to go to his own bedroom and go to bed. Mark agreed.

Billy told Mark about when he first arrived at his last foster home and they were getting ready for an Easter Egg Roll. Billy told the youngster about how he helped make coupons for the Easter eggs and then filled the plastic Easter eggs with the coupons, candy and small coins.

Billy explained about how they had all these prizes for the different age groups of children and that on the day of the Easter Egg Roll he, his ‘brothers’ and their friends set out a thousand Easter eggs. Billy then told Mark about the three different age groups running to collect the plastic eggs with the hopes they would find a coupon for a big Easter basket prize.

The teenager explained that after all the plastic eggs were found the boys and girls opened their eggs and turned in their coupons. The teen told how if a person had more than one coupon, they could only get one prize and the unclaimed prizes were placed back in a second chance drawing.

Mark was mesmerized at Billy’s last foster dad holding an Easter Egg Roll with a thousand Easter eggs and having the neighborhood children running on his property to collect them. Mark was equally fascinated that the man paid for everything and allowed that many people to participate.

Mark wanted to hear more, but Billy told him there wasn’t much more to tell and that was the one thing he agreed to tell him about. The teen then added that he was tired and wanted to rest.

Mark moaned at hearing that, but agreed that it was one thing Billy told him he would tell him about. Mark unexpectedly hugged his ‘big brother’, and then ran out of the teen’s room.

Billy laughed at the young boy’s antics. It kind of reminded him of Matthew. He then thought about how the young Cover would be doing about then and his other ‘brothers’. A few more tears came to his eyes as he thought back to all he’d gotten to do at The Cove.

Billy stripped off his shoes, socks, shirt and shorts and then walked to the bathroom to relieved the pressure in his bladder before going to bed. He met Mark coming out of the facility and was glad he had kept his boxer briefs on.

“Is that … is that what you wear to bed?’ asked Mark.

“Yes, it is. Why? Is there a problem with me wearing just my boxer briefs to bed?’ asked Billy.

“No. Not that I know of. I hope my mom doesn’t see you. She might get mad,” answered the youngster.

Billy went into the bathroom and forgetting where he was, he didn’t’ close the door. Mark heard the strong urine flow into the toilet bowl and snickered at that. When Billy came out of the bathroom, Mark was there and told his new ‘big brother’ that he probably should close the bathroom door just in case his mom comes up to say goodnight to him.

Billy said goodnight to Mark and went to his own bedroom. There the teen did close the door and then laid on top of the bed. He lay there thinking back to what happened to him that day. The tears came right away and he cried himself to sleep.

Sometime during the night, the almost ten-year-old snuck into the teen’s bedroom and climbed into the bed with his new ‘big brother’. Both boys slept very well that night.

The saga of Three Finger Cove continues. Let Chowhound know you are reading his story: Chowhound at CastleRoland dot Net

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