Shadow of my Father - 1. Chapter 1

(JOSHUA POINT OF VIEW)

As soon as I pass through the gates of my father’s house, it just gives me the creeps all over. Nothing is wrong with the house. It is known to some as the people’s house and to others the White House.

This house back dates to our second president who ordered it built. The strange thing about the whole thing, this president didn’t believe in slavery, but the house was built largely on the labors of slaves.

Through history, forty five families have lived in this house including mine. Only one president never stepped foot in the White House, and this was President George Washington. The only reason I know so much about the history of this house is simple, I am one of the son’s of the now out-going two-term President. It is expected in our home that we all know the history of our country.

I get out of the car that picked me up at the airport and headed up to the private residence of the White House. I knew exactly where to find my father, in his private study. As I walked through the old house, the floor creaked and you could feel the presence of all those who have been here before.

I find my father sitting at his desk looking out the window onto the lawn of the White House. As I look at my father, I can see how bad this job has aged him. He gotten old before his time. He has lost a lot to get here and I think back to what he gave up in order for us to live our lives in private.

My father only had two more weeks as President and the new President will be sworn in on a Sunday, but in front of the American people on Monday. The constitution is very clear on what day the newly elected President needs to be sworn in on. Anyways the people have spoken and for the second time in American history they have elected a son of a previously elected President.

Wait, I am getting too far ahead of myself. Let me take you back and explain how all this came about from the beginning.

I can think back to a simpler time in our lives. It was a time that I remember when my father was young and in love with life. A time when running a nation wasn’t his job. The only thing he had to run was his family.

I grew up in a modest Hispanic home in the early ninety’s. It was a time the country was at it best, but we didn’t see it. My dad worked a lot to make ends meet to support his family.

He married my mom straight out of high school and started a family. My mother was brought up in the old ways and traditions and she was true to those traditions. She stayed home and cleaned and cooked for her family. She would have dinner on the table the minute my dad walked in the door. We all sat down and ate dinner together as a family. My mom wouldn’t sit down until all the men had their food and drinks. If we needed something, she would stop eating and get up and get it for us.

Let me introduce myself to you guys. My name is Joshua Lopez and I am the middle son of the family. I have two older brothers and one younger one. We all pretty much look like our father and take after him.

I stand about six feet tall, black short cut hair, brown eyes, not skinny or fat. I figure you can call my build a swimmer’s build. Dad required all of us to do some kind of sports in school as well a military class.

Oh yeah, I am gay! None of my family knows that I am gay. I have kept this from them because of our traditions and ways. It was against everything my father and mother believed in and was taught.

So I played the straight part very well. I had a girlfriend most all the time where my family never got suspicious about me. I never went further with a girl than kissing her. I just couldn’t get myself to go any further.

It was during my first year of high school that I realized I needed to break free from the traditions of my family. I knew I couldn’t keep living a lie. Simply put, eventually the girl I am going out with is going to ask me to have sex. But I will cross that bridge when it comes. Right now I need to keep my father happy.

My father is in the military, the army to be precise. He finally got stationed at Fort Bliss Texas. It wasn’t a huge army base, but it was the closet we can get to home. My father joined the army after realizing the private sector jobs wasn’t paying the bills. He had college behind him, so he went in as an officer.

We were not military brats as some call kids of an army parent. My father is very strict with us. We never got away with a thing as we were growing up. He never disciplined us when it wasn’t needed, but he did when it was called for.

My father moved us to a home off-post the day he joined the military. This is the house I grew up in. He wanted us to have as regular life as possible. It felt good not living on the base. He bought a house on the west side of town in a quiet, non-military community.

My two older brothers went to El Paso High school. So that means I will be going to the oldest high school in town, El Paso High School and following in their footsteps.

The first time I walked up to the school to register for classes, it spooked me. The school is a three story building shaped like in a v. The front doors of the school were surrounded by the stadium and football field. This school actually had a full concrete stadium all around the front side of the school.

When I walked in, it was a spooky feeling. You could look down the hallway and feel the traditions steeped into the very fabric of this school. My two older brothers already go to this school and are playing football. I am expected to follow them playing the same kind of sports.

I headed down to the gym where I could sign up for classes. When I walked in, there was a huge line already waiting to sign up for classes. I sat in line waiting my turn. When I finally reached the front of the line, it didn’t take long to get my class schedule.

As soon as I finished, I headed back home. One thing I like is that the school is within walking distance of our home. When I walked in, my mom greeted me.

“Josh did you get the classes your father wanted you to sign up for?”

“Yes mom, I did. I signed up for JROTC and picked swimming for my sport this year.”

“Your dad wanted you to take football not swimming. You were told that last night” mom retorted.

“I know mom, but I am just not built for football.”

“Your dad is going to be angry when he see’s your schedule.”

“I will talk with him when he gets home, mom.”

I headed upstairs to play video games on my Nintendo. Soon after I started playing, I heard my mom calling for us to come down to eat. As soon as I took my seat at the table, my father started.

“Josh your mom told me you didn’t sign up for football, son. I told you that you needed to join football not swimming.”

“I know dad but I……”

“No “buts”, son. You will listen to me when I tell you what to do.”

I knew when my dad got this way, it was best for me just to listen to him. I stayed quiet while we ate. Soon after we were done and my mom was clearing the table and my dad called me into the study.

I always hated going into the study because it was the room where my dad did the discipline. I walked in and waited for my dad to ask me to take a seat.

“Son, if you give me one good reason why you chose swimming over football, I will let you stay in the sport.”

I sat there thinking, knowing I had only one real chance to explain to him why I did what I did.

“Dad, I know I can succeed in this sport. You have always told us to do things we can accomplish. I know that I can swim really well and I might be able to get a scholarship in this sport.”

“Ok son, I will give you this season. If you do not do as well as you think you can, you will drop swimming and sign up for football. Do we have a deal, son?”

“Yes dad we have a deal!”

My dad excused me and I headed back upstairs to get ready for my first day of school. My dad was fair when it came down to it. As long as we can explain what we were doing, he would let us do it.

The next morning mom had breakfast ready as soon as we woke up. I ate and as I walked out the door, mom handed me my sack lunch. I didn’t know what to expect my first day of high school. All I knew it was going to be a brand new experience.

When I got to El Paso High, I was glad to see my good friend Eric sitting outside the side door of the school.

“Hey Eric what are you up to man?” I asked with a standard greeting.

“Just waiting and hoping to run into you this morning. Let me see your schedule!” Eric asked.

I handed Eric my schedule and he handed me his. I saw we actually had every class together except for JROTC. He had PE instead of JROTC. We both laughed as we handed each other back our schedules.

Eric comes from a broken home. His mother was the only one that supported the household. Eric was her only son and we have been friends since elementary school. He has grown into a very handsome teenager. He stood almost five eight, with these beautiful blue eyes, blonde hair with a well built body. I know he is straight as straight can be. But he was my fantasy when I jerk off.

We walk into the building heading to the cafeteria to grab something to eat. Eric was on the free lunch program, but I wasn’t. So I had to pay for anything I got. Eric and I have a routine down where he gets me free food as well.

My dad never gives me money to buy food at school. So Eric goes up and gets a tray of food and then goes right back and says he forgot certain things. It was a lie of course, but we didn’t care. We were teenagers.

We sat there eating and looking around our new high school. I know Eric is looking at all the hot girls. I was looking at all the hot guys, and there was plenty to look at.

The bell rang for the beginning of our high school experience. Eric and I headed to our first period class which was home room. We were assigned our lockers and books during this class. Pretty much everyone in this class had the same schedule except PE or JROTC.

The first day of school went by pretty fast. Before I knew it, it was time to go to swimming practice. When I finally found the pool, I was late. The coach wasn’t happy but allowed it this once. He explained what he expected this year from this team. He has several returning vets this year and a good freshman he could build his team around for the years to come.

Since it was a high school sport, he wasn’t going to cut anyone. Everyone had a place on the team. The only way someone would be cut is grades.

I surprised myself that day during practice. I swam pretty damn well. I actually beat the returning team members from last year. I knew coach was pleased with my performance.

As soon as practice was over I headed over to the locker room and showered. Soon after I was done showering I changed and headed home. I didn’t want to stay too long in the shower with the other guys. I was afraid I’d pop a boner looking at all the naked, fine looking guys.

The week went by fast. Between getting used to high school and the swim team, I was dead on my feet when I got home every evening. My dad didn’t let us rest or slack off from our chores no matter what.

To top it all off, we had to be ready in a suit after school Friday. My father was getting promoted to Major General. He has accomplished a lot in the military in a short period of time. He has only been in eighteen years.

After the promotion ceremony we went out to eat to celebrate my dad’s promotion. I always worry when he gets promoted. My dad is going to get transferred again, I just know it. I don’t want to move now, since I started high school.

In the past my dad would go alone to where ever they stationed him at. Even when he got stationed overseas! We missed him when he didn’t live with us, but again he wanted us to have as much as a normal life as possible.

The weekend was full of mowing the lawn and cleaning the gutters of the house. I did the mowing of the lawn because I was afraid of heights. So I wasn’t about to get up on the ladder and get frozen up there.

As soon as I got done mowing the lawn, I went back in. I walked by the study and heard my mom and dad talking. My dad got news that he was getting sent to Dessert Storm. He was going to tell us after dinner that evening. I knew there was a reason why he got the promotion. Don’t get me wrong, he deserved it, but as in the past, we loose him soon after he gets promoted.

As soon as we finished eating, we had a family meeting. In that meeting my dad did tell us he was getting sent over to Desert Storm. He saw the look of worry on our faces and tried to reassure us there was nothing to worry about.

“Look, once that dictator sees the huge army presence on his border, he will high tale it out of Kuwait and back across his border. There is no way he wants to take on the most powerful nation in the world; not if he wants to stay in power.”

We all shook our heads and agreed with our dad. We knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. But we needed to believe it to be so. The last war this nation was in didn’t go so well.

Monday morning we saw my father off. We drove down to the base and said our goodbyes before he reached his soldiers. Then mom took us to school and dropped us off. I was quiet most of the morning. Eric noticed I was quiet, but he already knew me. When ever I was this quiet, it was best to let me work things out in my head alone.

Through the day, I really wasn’t paying much attention in class as well. I got away with it because I wasn’t called on. During swim team practice, I wasn’t myself and coach noticed it. He asked me to sit out the rest of practice until I got my head screwed on right.

As I was sitting there, I noticed another freshman teammate just starring at me. I caught him every time I looked out of the corner of my eye. But when I looked at him directly, he would look away.

Finally I got enough nerve and walked over to introduce myself to him.

“Hey there, I see you sitting here all by yourself like me. I figure instead of us sitting alone, we could sit together, if that is ok with you?”

“That is fine with me!” he replied enthusiastically.

“By the way my name is Josh, what is your name?” I inquired.

“My name is Chris!” he said with the same enthusiasm.

Chris extended his hand and I took it. We shook hands and just sat there talking. Nothing really important, just shooting the wind to past the time. Every so often I would catch Chris looking at my bulge in my shorts. We only wore swim wear during practice, and in these tight fitting shorts, not much was left to the imagination.

Once again though if I would look at him straight on, he would either look away or down. I always caught him looking at me through the corner of my eye.

When practice was over, and Chris got up, it was the first time I was able to see him. He is one cute guy to say the least. He stood almost six feet tall; swimmers build just like me, light brown hair, green eyes. He had no hair on his body except for the hair leading from his belly button down and a light dusting of fuzz on his legs. That’s it, nothing more on this beautiful body of his.

As we walked into the showers, I wondered if I was imagining things with him, but soon my question was answered. While we were taking a shower and changing, Chris kept stealing glances at me. I really wanted to know if he played ball on my side of the fence.

We walked out together, but soon we separated because he lived in the other direction. As he walked away, all I could do is keep stealing glances at him. A couple of times he stole glance of me as well.

We played this game all through the week. Although he didn’t swim as much as I did, I still saw him watching me just a bit too closely. I started to feel I was right about him and I might have a chance with Chris. I was sensing an attraction on his part and I knew there was attraction on my part, with NO doubt!

Our first meet is next week and we all knew it. At the same time coach was hard on us about our studies. He expected our best in the water or in the classroom.

I attended all my classes and they were hard. The amount of homework was getting more and more each day. Eric and I would study together for our exams every morning during breakfast. We had exams in at least one period every day.

English is my worst class and math was my best. I love the way my math teacher taught us. Mr. Becker never leaves a problem until everyone in class understood it. He always picks a student every semester to assist him in each of his classes. I really wanted it to be me, but it wasn’t. It was this girl I started to grow to hate. Her gender doesn’t help her case in my mind either.

Science was my next worst subject. I never understood the class because I didn’t see me using it in the real world. I wasn’t going to be a scientist or anything like that so I don’t know why it is a required course.

Then there was JROTC. I only took the class because my father required it for all of his kids. My older brothers were already officers in the class. I was constantly compared to them and told I was expected to do great things.

All I wanted was to get through the class with a passing grade. I felt that the instructors seem to care more about the after school teams than they did with the class itself. Once again, my brothers were involved in the teams on top of football. I was expected to follow in their footsteps. Up to this point, I haven’t joined any of the teams and have no intentions of doing so.

(CHRIS’S POINT OF VIEW)

All through the first week of swim practice, I kept looking at one of my teammates. I soon found out his name was Joshua, Josh for short. He seemed to be a very nice, easy going sort of guy. It didn’t hurt that he is a very cute guy also! No, let me rethink that; he’s not just cute, he’s HOT! Just being around him fueled me up for some wild fantasies in the shower and in bed at night before falling off to sleep.

I asked around about him, playing it off that I was doing a story for the school newspaper. I found out he came from a military family. In fact his father is very high up there in rank, a general or something like that.

I found Josh very handsome and I wanted to go out with him. He looked so damn hot when he wore jeans. His body just looked so damn good in them. As I said before, I fantasize about what delights are concealed under his jeans and swim gear.

I did watch him in the shower, but most of the time he was facing the wall when he was taking a shower. It did give me a good look at his bubble butt though. We had dividers between the stalls, so by the time he was walking to his locker; his towel was wrapped around him. I never wanted to look too hard because I was afraid on getting caught if I did.

Then it happened, Josh came up and talked to me. As I was told, he is as nice as people who knew him said. Man did I like this guy. I kept stealing glances at him and the bulge in his Speedos. I think I was caught a couple of times, but Josh didn’t say a word.

We walked together after practice home, but halfway to my house, we separated. He lived one direction and I lived the other. As I walked away from Josh, I kept looking back stealing glances at his nice bubble butt.

My mother died giving birth to me, so it was only me and my father. We lived in the lower part of the Westside of town. It is just down the hill from Josh, but the difference is the sizes of the homes. Josh didn’t live in the in rich house, far from it. He lived in basically the middle class homes area.

I on the other hand live in the house that is given to low income families. Kind of like welfare homes. My house is run down and falling apart because my dad won’t invest in it. The lawn is nothing but weeds and sand. The paint is peeling off the walls of the home and several of the windows are broken.

My father couldn’t hold down a job due to his drinking and always passed out when he should have been working. He is angry with life because he felt life had dealt him a bad hand losing my mom and having a faggot son, as he would often say.

I didn’t want to go home. I knew my dad was going to be there and he was going to be drunk as usual. I prepared myself as I walked into the front door. My dad knows I am gay, and never lets me forget it.

Every chance he gets, he hits on me. I have gotten so used to it; I know how to hide my bruises. When he starts going at it, I know how to get into a position that he can only get parts of my body that no one can see.

As always I tried to sneak in and head straight to my room. Most of the time my dad is passed out either in the living room or in his room when I get home. I wasn’t that lucky today when I walked in the front door. It felt like he was waiting for me to come home.

“Where in the hell have you been? Fucking some guy in the street, you fucking faggot?”

“No dad; I was at swim team practice as I am everyday after school” I replied being careful to not have any arrogance in my reply.

“What; you joined that team where you could see all the naked guys?”

“No dad, I joined the team because I am good at swimming!” I responded again being as careful as I could.

“Bullshit Chris, you fags are all are alike; sick in the head and wanting to rape all the guys you can get your hands on. Get your ass over and clean up the mess in this house. I am tired of seeing this house this damn dirty” my dad ranted.

I walked into the living room and started picking up all the beer cans and bottles. Tossing them into a pile and then I went along and picked up the trash and old food that was thrown around the room. I was just getting to the bottom of the piles of trash when my father came stumbling in, trashing the living room all over again.

“I told you I wanted this place clean, not put in piles! Clean this place up and I am not going to tell you again!” he yelled.

When he started kicking the trash around, I ducked behind the couch as the trash went flying. I didn’t want to get hit with the flying bottles or cans. I started all over again, but this time I was putting the trash in bags.

As I was finishing up, I grabbed the vacuum cleaner. I plugged it in and started to vacuum the carpet. Before I knew it, I felt a hit at the back of my head. Right as I turned around, my dad’s fist hit me directly in the face.

“Are you fucking stupid or what? I was getting some sleep and you pull this stunt. You have been asking for a beating since you walked in the door. I will give you the beating you have been asking for!”

Before I could say a word, my dad started punching me. He started hitting me in the face and when I moved to protect myself, he started with body blows to the gut. I have gotten used to the beatings, and I was expecting this one.

As my dad was hitting me, all I wanted to do was escape from this moment. I taught myself to think of better times of my life. That was hard because I really haven’t had any good times. Still, just the same, I took myself into what life might have been if my mom had lived instead of dying.

I sat there curled in a ball just allowing my dad to hit me. It made the whole thing easier to just let him do it than to argue with him. My dad usually tires himself out because he is always so drunk.

When I heard my dad mumbling something as he walked away, I looked up. He was gone, so I got up. I put away the vacuum and grabbed the broom. I did the best could to clean the floor with the broom. I know I am going to get another beating because the floor isn’t cleaned right at all.

Once I finished with the kitchen and the hallway, I headed to my room. As soon as I got into the room, I looked into the mirror and already my eyes started to puff up. This time my dad got me pretty good in my face.

I went to the bathroom and cleaned myself up. Looking at the damage, I knew I couldn’t go to school for the next couple of days. Although it is hell living here at home with my father, I heard the foster care is even worse. At least I know what to expect here at home. Living in another’s home is an all new experience. Better to deal with the devil you know than the one you don’t.

(JOSHUA POINT OF VIEW)

All evening long I couldn’t stop thinking about Chris. I really like the guy but I still don’t know how I am going to ask him or even approach the subject. For right now I’d better stick to being friends with him.

On Tuesday I didn’t see Chris anywhere in school including practice. By Thursday I asked coach if he heard anything about Chris and coach told me he is sick and will not return to class until Monday. I think that is weird because when I talked to him on Monday he seemed to be just fine.

I really want to go and see if Chris is ok, but I don’t know where he lives. I just have this weird feeling something isn’t right. When I talk to him, he is like closed off to people. Some say he is an outcast; I think there is something more to it.

When I asked around about Chris, I found that he really had no friends. The few kids that know him just know he is alive and nothing more than that. I started feeling sorry for the poor guy. If he were to disappear from the face of this earth, no one would even know he actually is no longer among the living.

On Friday I got pulled aside by my older brothers during lunch.

“You know dad wants you to take advantage of everything in JROTC. You are just doing the bare minimum to get by.” Carlos, one of my older brothers said as he was pushing me against the wall.

“I know Carlos, but I really don’t feel like joining anything here in JROTC and I won’t be going into the army after high school” I said in reply.

“Don’t let dad hear you say that!” My older brother, Daniel Lopez II, butted in. Daniel made sure everyone knows he is the oldest and he is going to walk in my father’s footsteps. He believes that one day our dad is going to Governor or President.

“Look, I will check into the teams and see. If they don’t conflict with my swim team, I will join them. I already gave my word to the swim team and you know how dad is about keeping your word once given.”

Carlos let me go and Daniel and he walked back to his group of friends. I headed back to meet up with Eric in the cafeteria for lunch. As soon as I walked in, I spotted Eric sitting at our normal table minding his own business.

“Hey Eric, sorry for being late, man. My brothers stopped me acting like they are my dad.”

“No worries I knew something like that had happened. You know that kid you were asking about earlier this week?” Eric continued.

“Yeah, Chris is one of my team members on the swim team. What about him?” I asked.

“Well, I found out a few things about him. Knowing your dad and family it is best that you stay away from him” Eric cautioned.

“Why is that Eric?” I asked honestly not having a clue.

“Because, from what I understand; he is gay. No one can positively say he is, but all arrows point that direction with him.” Eric said being as honest as he could be without being a gossip.

“So what if he is gay? It’s not like being gay is catching or something. He needs friends and I want to be his friend” I said, perhaps a bit too defensively.

“I know you want to be friends with everyone that has a lost puppy look on their face but this guy is bad news. He will only give you a bad rep if you become friends with him. I am trying to save you from yourself, Josh.”

“Look Eric, he needs someone to talk to and from what I can put together, no one wants to have anything to do with the poor guy. He deserves better. We all deserve better.”

“Well that isn’t all Josh; I also found out other stuff. Now keep in mind I do not know how true all of this is, but I found out he lives with only his father and his father always beats on him whenever he feels like it.”

“What? And nobody has done anything about it?” I said in disbelief.

“Well, no one has actually seen the bruises or cuts. If he is asked about it, he denies it. But it does explain why he hasn’t been around in the last couple of days, doesn’t it?” Eric extrapolated.

“Yeah, that does explain a lot. I knew he wasn’t sick because he didn’t look sick Monday at practice. I figure all we can do is wait and see what is up.”

“That is true, and that’s all you can do. Are we still on for the movies tonight?” Eric said, changing the subject.

“Heck yeah; I have been looking forward to this for awhile now. My dad gave me permission to go, so I won’t miss that” I said.

We finished eating and headed out to class. Once again it was science and we have a quiz. Damn, this quiz was full of the damn periodic table and I couldn’t remember that stupid table. When I handed in my quiz, I knew I flunked it. So I went over to the teacher to see if I could get extra credit.

“Mr. Baker I know I didn’t do well on the quiz today, I was wondering if I could have extra credit to bring up my grade” I inquired.

“Josh, if I give you extra credit whenever you don’t do well on an exam, I would be grading you only on the extra credit work.”

You don’t understand Mr. Baker; if I flunk this class my dad will not be happy with me” I said nearly pleading.

“Josh, the best I can do is getting you a tutor. Other than that, you will have to do like everyone else in this class and pass the quizzes.”

I walked back to my desk thinking that I should ask my dad to bomb Mr. Baker’s house. What a prick this teacher is.

Finally, the final bell rang and school was out for the week. I am ready to go home and just relax for two days without worrying about a test or any school work. I had homework and I will do it as soon as I get home but the rest of the weekend is mine to relax. In the back of my mind I know I really should study my ass off on science, but I’m just not going to.

Eric and I went to the movies and just had a lot of fun, like we always do. We sat making fun of the plot and the actors in the movie. We got a little loud this time because we were shushed by the others in the movie.

After the movie ended, we grabbed a burger at McDonald’s. I love the Big Mac at McDonald’s. Eric couldn’t stand the Big Mac; he gets the Quarter Pounder with cheese.

After we ate, we called it a night and headed home. When I walked in, Carlos and Daniel were not home yet. Mom was sitting in the den waiting for us to arrive. I went in and greeted her. I gave her a kiss goodnight and headed upstairs. I knew there was something bothering her, but she didn’t say a word.

After breakfast on Saturday, mom sat us down in the den to talk with us.

“I spoke with your dad yesterday and he gave me some news. The President has given the order for the American troops to be deployed to Kuwait and prepare to push the invading Iraqi military back. He will command the first string of troops that are being deployed.”

We all stayed quiet when my mom gave us the news. I really don’t know what to say to what she just told us. All I knew was dad was going to war and we are over here waiting to see what is to happen to him.

“Mom, don’t worry, dad is strong and smart. He will be back, you will see.” Daniel said as he got up to rub my mom’s shoulders.

We all sat there for a few minutes and then headed to our rooms. I just sat in my room on my bed for a while. I am afraid it was going to be a repeat of the last war. We won’t win and pull out after losing way too many lives. I just hope that will not be the case this time.

I played Nintendo for the rest of the day. I already mastered all the games I had, but I kept replaying them anyway. I just wanted to do something to pass the time. The weekend I was looking forward to changed to a nightmare weekend.

I was happy now that Monday came around so quickly. At least at school I could drown myself into classes and swim team. When I was walking to school, I ran right into Chris on the way. “Hey there, Chris! It’s good to see you up and around. How are you feeling?”

“I am feeling better now! I just needed to rest and get over the bug I had.”

Chris wouldn’t even look at me when we talked. I was wondering why, and then he turned and faced me when I asked him a question. I couldn’t believe what I saw. He had cuts on his face and it looked like his eyes were recently black and blue.

“Please Josh, don’t say anything about this. I am already embarrassed about the whole thing and now you have to see me like this” Chris pleaded.

“But who did this to you Chris?”

“I am used to it. This time I just didn’t protect my face like I usually do. It isn’t anything big, so please Josh, let’s just leave it alone.”

I really didn’t want to drop it, but Chris did. So I just let it be, but I really want to know what had happened. We walked all the rest of the way to school in silence. When we got to the main building, Chris headed to the attendance office and I went and met up with Eric in the lunch room.

I didn’t see Chris the rest of the day until swim team practice. He was sitting on the bleachers in the same spot as usual. Coach never cuts a swimmer unless he doesn’t pass his classes. Soon that might be me.

As we were doing our laps for warm ups, this guy comes stumbling in. At first I didn’t understand what he was saying. When I looked over at Chris, I could see he is scared as hell. I then put two and two together and figured out this was his dad.

The drunken guy stumbles over to where Chris is at and starts yelling at him. Chris is trying to hide at first then he just worked to try to get his dad out of sight of the rest of us. He tried to get out of the pool but his dad pushes him back in.

Then I saw his dad grab onto Chris’s hair and start to pull him out of the pool yelling.

“I told you to head straight home after school. You were not to come here with all these faggots in tight underwear. Get your ass out of the pool.” Chris’ dad ranted.

As Chris’s dad is trying to pull him out of the pool by his hair, he is so drunk he actually falls in. We all start laughing at the scene unfolding before us. But as soon as Chris’s dad got above water, he was even madder than before.

Chris’s dad gets out of the pool, dripping wet, and grabs onto Chris. He actually starts hitting him right there in front of us. The coach goes over and pulls the man off Chris, but he is too wasted to care.

He actually throws the coach onto the bleachers. I think it was more the wet floor than Chris’s dad actually pushing him. Still it’s not stopping him; he starts at it again with Chris. I can’t believe what I am seeing unfolding before my eyes.

We all got out of the pool at the same time and went running over to Chris. We tried to do what we can to help out Chris. As we reached Chris and his dad, we………

TO BE CONTINUED……………….

WRITER'S CORNER:

{Hey guys I decided to write a new story for your reading pleasure. I am not giving up on Jacob Finding His Way for those who are into the story. I am so far ahead on writing the story; I decided to create a new saga for you. This story has been bouncing around my head for awhile. I already wrote it, but I am rewriting the story with a different theme for you all to read. Please enjoy and watch as the story unfolds.

Let’s see about Josh and where he is going to go. Will he break away from his up bringing or continue dating girls like he is supposed to do? His father is going places and he needs his sons to be untouchable. Poor Chris, he is in a house of abuse. His dad is a drunken idiot who only knows how to beat on his son. Let’s hope he gets away from this abuse and lives with someone that cares about him. There is so much to come and new characters to develop as the story continue. Stick around there is a so much to answer in the chapters to come. Keep reading the future chapters, and enjoy!

Please email me (and “Daddy” Rick, my editor) and let me/us know how I/we am/are doing at jacobmillertex@aol.com All comments are welcome and appreciated, however flames will be ignored. Remember, the only pay authors and editors get is your e-mails! Thanks!}

EDITOR’S CORNER:

Well, our esteemed weaver of tales has done his usual great job of leaving us hanging! Just so you all know, I don’t read ahead, so as I type, I’m on the exact same page you are and I’m anxious to see what comes next.

As Jacob says, please let us hear from you. Your participation as readers is welcomed and appreciated.
Until next time….happy reading!

“Daddy” Rick