William's Love - 2. Chapter 2

I wake the next morning and my entire back half is warm, but my neck felt wet. Liam must have joined me in the middle of the night. He’s a stealthy bastard. I gently turn to find Liam lying up against me quietly crying. I put my arms around him and pull his head to my chest. He tries to move his entire body closer to me, I lie on my side facing him so I can slip my leg between his so he can feel me from head to toe. I keep my crotch away from him, damn morning wood. We lie here awake, as he softly weeps into my chest. Cry number one.

“Tell me your favourite memory of your Dad?” I whisper.

He’s silent for a few minutes; I can feel him recall each memory. He has a couple of false starts but then I feel him smile against my chest. Wahoo! Smile number two.

“When we were about seven, Dad first got the old Mustang. Do you remember?” he recalls quietly, I nod my head. “He was in the garage with the hood up. We were playing star wars or something stupid in the yard. Dad called us into the garage and we would get the tool he needed and pass it to him, when he asked. Then he would explain what he was doing, why he was doing it. How it worked in conjunction with the rest of the motor. We were out there until about ten o’clock that night until Mom came and threatened she’d sell the car if we didn’t all march our cute little hind ends inside. It must have taken her about an hour to get the grease off of us.” He finishes.

“I remember the lecture he got for the next hour after we were tucked into your bed. Not to mention your Dad just took it and answered with a constant ‘Yes Dear’. It didn’t stop us though did it? We were out there with him, every single time that hood went up. Then he would take us for a drive in it, our heads hanging out the windows like a couple dogs. You were drooling from the front seat, me cleaning it off as it hit me in the face.” He slaps my shoulder.

“Maybe in the summer, Mom might let us take a road trip in the Mustang. It could be just the two of us, you and me against the world.” He says dreamily.

I smile and rest my cheek on top of his head, “That would be the great, can’t think of anything I’d rather do for the summer.” We lie here a little longer. He still has a small smile on his face. Yes! Smile number three.

“Why don’t you go check on your Mom, then have a shower and meet me in the kitchen. We’ll make your Mom and the Old Fart some breakfast because I’m starving and I don’t trust Dad to touch our food. Plus if I don’t pee soon you are going to feel a nice warm sensation up against your leg.” I suggest laughing.

Liam laughs. He actually laughed. Yay! Laugh number 1. We untangle from each other hastily while he makes grouse noises. I literally have to run to the bathroom. Aahhhhhhh!! Thank you legs I didn’t think I was going to make it in time. I jump in the shower and have a little fun and some cleaning. Wink, Wink.

After dressing I wander off to the kitchen and start making batter for pancakes. I heat the oven and defrost some bacon in the microwave. Liam comes in the kitchen to help. He reaches over to the radio and turns it on. Toby Keith comes through so he turns it up and we bounce along singing and dance around each other as we make breakfast. Liam seems to be okay this morning, which is great. He is on an up at the moment so I’m going to enjoy it. I hate when he is sad and hurting, but he needs to ride this out and we will do it together. That’s what best friends do.

He starts the hash browns his Mom has ready from yesterday and lays the bacon strips out and puts them in the oven. I cook the pancakes, and turn the temperature down on the oven, and slip the pancakes in with other food that’s ready and Liam starts on the fried eggs while I make the toast and watch the mushrooms cook. We are growing boys and we need food and lots of it.

I set the table as he flicks the coffee maker on and pours orange juice into the cold jug I have waiting in the refrigerator. We plate the food together, still bopping and singing along with the radio.

“AHEM!!!” My Dad clears his throat.

Liam and I look up and see Mom and Dad smiling, watching us from the doorway. My Dad, his Mom. The only Mom and Dad we have between us now. Liam turns the radio down to an acceptable level, while I walk over and pick his Mom up off the floor for a hug.

“Good morning Mom, you’re looking ravishing this morning.” I say as I pick her up.

She’s laughing, “God bless you for a liar Will, now put me down you big brut.”

As I put her on her feet I kiss her cheek, then sidestep to my Dad and pinch his cheek like he’s a five year old. “Don’t worry old man, you look just as handsome as ever,” this action earns me a smack to the back of the head; just like Gibbs does to Tony on NCIS. In our house we call this very aggressive action a “GIBBS”. It’s borderline abuse really.

“C’mon, all of you sit down. Will and I didn’t slave over a hot stove this morning for you old farts to let it get cold.” Liam says sternly, with mischief in his eyes. He takes two plates to the table, I follow suit bringing the other two.

Once Liam sits down, he is given his Gibbs from Dad for the old farts comment. I laugh and poke my tongue out at him. Now I am rubbing the back of my head – again. I get me another Gibbs in the exact same spot. Asshole! I hear Liam snicker as he bumps his leg against mine. Assholes as far as the eye can see this morning; geesh! However, I will take that snicker as laugh number 2 from Liam Sands, thank you very much.

We sit together and eat breakfast in a comfortable silence. I think we’re just hungry. I’m not sure any of us really ate anything other than breakfast yesterday. The plates are empty and Dad leans back, groans and rubs his stomach.

“I think you boys are trying to fatten me up,” Dad whines.

“It’s so we can run from you and you’ll be to slow to catch us,” Liam says smiling at me.

Dad reaches over to give Liam a Gibbs, but he’s too quick and moves out of the way.

“See it’s already working!” he laughs while picking up his plate and mine. He rinses them off and puts them in the dishwasher. He looks over to Dad and follows up with, “You should probably look after your plate and Mom’s; clearly you could use the exercise.” Liam sprints from the kitchen to his room to get ready for the day, cackling the entire way. Hehehe! Laugh number three.

Dad rises from his seat with a grin, suggesting he’s amused. He picks up the remaining plates to rinse and deliver to the dishwasher. He then proceeds to wash up. I get up and help him clean up after breakfast. Mom gets up and leaves the room after thanking us for cleaning the breakfast dishes.

“When we are done here, Kit – Liam’s Mom – and I want to speak with you and Liam,” Dad says seriously.

I nod my head and keep wiping up and putting the cookware in its place. When Dad and I restore the kitchen to its former sparkling condition, I toddle off to get Liam. I find him sitting on the edge of his bed staring at a pair of boxers.

“Free balling it today are we? Need a bit of airing out the nuggets, hmmm?” I ask.

He scoffs, “No these were Dad’s. Mom put them in my drawer by mistake.”

I take the boxers from him, fold them and put them on the bed side table. His left eye releases a tear. I use my sleeve covered thumb and wipe it away. I take his hand and lift him to a standing position, pulling him into a hug. Oh well, cry number two.

I say to him gently, “It will get easier, I promise. There will be things that trigger your sadness. Eventually most of these will trigger good memories, which will help you remember him. You can lean on me when it gets too much, I’ll always be here. Me and you against the world; remember.” He nods his head in the crevice of my neck and shoulder. After a few minutes we pull out of the hug. “Come on, Dad wants to talk to us. It’s probably about the birds and the bees again. Luckily, I have questions for him. I’m somewhat confused about a few things.” I say rolling my eyes at him.

Liam follows me to the kitchen while I waffle off a list of things that confuse me about the birds and the bees. He’s not really in the mood for my antics but I keep it up for my own amusement. I am going to be patient with him. I’ll try and keep up our normal banter with room for him to grieve. The key will be to adjust to each situation I guess. I wish I could make it all better for him. The only thing that will do that is time, a little bit of space, love and support. I hope. He’s my favorite person in this world, and one of the most important people in my life. I refuse to fail him.

I’m not sure we have had a single day; where we didn’t see each other or at least speak to the other. I’m not sure I’d cope without him in my life. We think alike, have the same sense of humor, we finish the other’s sentences, sometime we even know what the other is thinking and we feed off each other. Our interests barely differ. We are like one person split into two. When he hurts, I hurt. When I’m upset, he usually gets upset. When he’s happy, I’m happy. We have an impenetrable bond. People have tried to come between us, but they’ve failed miserably. He’s my other half. Liam and I are the best of friends and love each other as real best friends should.

Dad and Mom are already sitting at the table when we reach the kitchen. They stop talking as we enter the room. Liam and I stop moving and look at them. I can’t tell if we are in trouble or they have more bad news. The day started out okay and seems to have gone a little pear shaped.

“Sit down boys, we want to talk to you two about something.” Mom says more as a directive. You don’t mess with southern Mom’s when their serious. And if nothing else Liam’s Mom is a proud southern woman. Passed down from generation to generation, you can have some fun with her but you don’t mess with her. So we sit.

“Okay Liam, if you agree, you are going to give the Ford to Will. Your Dad would have wanted you to have his Mustang. Both you boys helped him whip it into the shape it’s in now.” Mom says. Liam makes a loud sob and leaves the room so fast the chair falls backwards. I get up and Dad waves me off and he goes to him. Now Mom is in tears, she barely kept it together for the talk. I move around to the chair next to her and pull her into my arms and let her weep. I look upwards begging for someone to take their pain away.

Dad and Liam eventually join us again with the sniffles and their eyes red and puffy. Mom has also finally calmed down. This is so hard. “Breathe Will, this isn’t about you,” I think to myself. I move back next to Liam, he lays his head on his crossed arms on the table. Cry number three. It will get better.

“I love you son, are you okay?” she asks Liam as she wipes his hair from his eyes.

“I love you to Mom, it’s just hard. I miss him so much,” he says to him Mom sadly looking up at her. A tear escapes his eye, he reaches with his finger and wipes it away.

“You’re supposed to, it’s normal. Don’t forget that while you grieve for him okay? If it gets too hard, you need to let us know and we’ll find you someone to talk with. I don’t want you falling into a hole of depression you can’t climb out of; it would be dishonoring your Dad. Always remember how much he loves you,” Mom says in a lovingly warm tone.

“You’re a good Mom, you know that?” he says to her.

“Thank you my sweet boy. Now as I was saying before our moment,” she pauses and gives him a soft smile. “John – My Dad – has agreed to let you boys drive the Mustang back to Kentucky instead of shipping it. School has only just started back, it’s not ideal for you to miss a couple weeks of school but I’m not sure you would concentrate that well if you went anyway. However, if you’re both willing to put in the work when you get back we are happy for you two to do this.” Liam and I look at each other in complete shock. “There will be rules for this trip and we expect you to follow them, to the letter or John will come to you, put you both on a plane and drive the rest of the way himself. Are we understood?”

“Yes Ma’am,” we both answer together.

“It’s not a done deal yet, Will, your Dad is going to speak with the principle today and see what he can organize. He will also speak with your boss. Depending the outcome is favorable you will have two weeks to get back to Kentucky. I suggest while your Dad is organizing his end, you two get onto google and map out a route, as well as what you would like to see along the way. Use this opportunity to do and see things you wouldn’t normally. I expect to see some educational stops not just fun parks and motor cycle museums.

“Once you have settled on your route, print a copy for both of us like an itinerary. We will organize accommodation for you along the route, it won’t be fancy but it should do. If you need tickets for anything you find you want to do, let us know tonight and we will organize a pick up from a window or have them delivered to your hotel. We are going to give you a credit card, it is for fuel and accommodation only. We will give you some cash for your meals, you also have your savings for other spending’s. If you tell us what tickets to get before you leave, we will pay otherwise it’s your money.

“Now the rules;

· No more than a total of eight driving hours in any one day, and none after eight pm.

· You will stop every two hours and switch drivers, if there are no sightseeing stops. If there is be smart and switch then.

· If you deviate from the route you have given us without prior permission the trip is over.

· You will text both of us every four hours and let us know where you are or the trip is over.

· You will also call us every night at eight pm or the trip is over.

· If we call you, you will answer or the trip is over.

· If you have trouble with the car, you call us immediately and we go from there.

· Saying all these rules, I don’t want you to be afraid to call us. Remember we love you and there isn’t anything that will stop us loving you. So if you get into trouble, or you’re unsure of how to deal with a situation, you call and we deal with the rest later.

· And last but not least, you WILL, enjoy yourselves and you WILL have fun. Or else.

“Are we understood gentlemen, and I use this term loosely,” Mom smiles at us.

“Yes Ma’am.” We say again.

“Okay, go into the office and plan your trip on the computer. I don’t want to see you again until you’re done or have to go to the restroom. Now off you go and I love you both.”

As we reach the office, I tell Liam I’ll get us some water and head back to the kitchen. Dad and Mom are still sitting at the table having a coffee.

I drop my voice to a whisper, “Can I quickly ask a favor?” They both look at me with an unsteady anticipation like all parents do when teenagers ask for favors, “its Liam’s birthday while we are away, I’d like to take him to Talladega and give him a NASCAR experience. The one where they let you go with a driver, I think we are too young to do the one where you get to drive. Dad do you think you can afford to help me with that and I’ll give you a percentage of my pay until I pay you back?”

“Let me see what I can organize for you, even if it’s only a tour of the facility, let me see what I can do and we’ll worry about the rest later. Okay?” Dad says smiling; I don’t think he’s surprised I would want it for Liam.

“Thanks Dad, you’re the greatest.” I hug him enthusiastically, taking two waters from the refrigerator I return to the office.

It takes us four hours to plan our trip. I purposely deviate our trip away from Talladega in case Dad can’t pull of the tickets or tour for us. We give them our itinerary with a list of places we would like to visit. Dad seems impressed with the list,

“You can cut anything you want, this is kind of a wish list of what we would like to do and see. We realize it’s too expensive to do everything. But if you could leave Six Flags on there for San Antonio and the Air Space Museum in Tucson that would be okay?” I say sheepishly. “We also have a few things, if you wouldn’t mind overnighting to meet us at the hotel in San Antonio. Like one of our laptops, Liam’s Camera bag and our hiking boots please.”

“Okay boys, leave this with us. I have a list of supplies you will need for the car. I would also like you to take the two man tent and sleeping bags as a precaution you never know. If you don’t use them; there’s no harm done but I will have peace of mind. Take the Subaru and go to the mall and get what you need from the list.” Mom says.

Liam runs upstairs to put on his shoes; I give Dad the alternate route I printed while Liam was in the bathroom which includes Talladega. He quickly puts it in his pocket and winks at me. I take the keys from the peg board and tease Liam with them when he re-enters, “that’s right, I’m driving sucker,” I think to myself. His eyes are saying “Shit No!”

When we come back from the mall, we wash and dry all our dirty clothes into our suitcases. We learnt how to use all the emergency equipment and put them in the car. Finding the camping tent and sleeping bags is a pain, we finally got to them and in they went next to the suitcases. Dad went through Frank’s tools and made us a tool kit with everything we would need for minor hiccups as he calls them. We plug our phones in to charge overnight.

We take a pillow case each to put our dirty clothes in along the way to wash when we could. We also had the forethought to pull out what we would need for the morning to dress and smell pretty for the day. By the time we are done it is eight o’clock and exhausted. We go into the kitchen to get something to eat.

Dad looks at us with a sad face and states, “Sorry boys, I hate to tell you this but your school wouldn’t give you the time.” Then he just leaves the room.

We stay silent and drop into the chairs, “This sucks,” I say to Liam.

“I know. I was so looking forward to it. Two weeks, just us running amok. The open road and all the things we could see.”

“Maybe Mom and Dad will let us do it in the summer break.” I try to look on the bright side.

“Yeah maybe! We better go unpack the car.”

Dad jumps back into the kitchen yelling, “Suckers!” laughing and shaking his head, “You boys are so gullible. Well you better get something to eat and get to bed you have a long trip starting at six in the morning. See you round the candy store – suckers.”

"Asshole!" we say in unison when he's out of earshot.

Our tally for so far; cries – 3, laughs – 3, smiles – 2. Not too bad for the day after the funeral I think.