Box of Crackers - 10. Chapter 10

Word got out about our friend being arrested, several police officers resigned. Again, the newspaper was on top of it, identifying those officers who were involved in the sex traffic ring headed by our dead friend. The newspaper had a ball with that. It reached to pretty high places in the police force. People clamored for a thorough investigation, the mayor had to appoint a special task force and luck be holding, Fred was named to the task force.

For once, Butch felt his mother's agony had achieved justice. It was Bobby who told me that Mary had visited Butch when this was all over, she told him she can rest now. That weekend, we visited Mary's grave and planted a flower at the headstone.

I did get twin beds for the boys and Jimmy's brother brought the table when he took the original bed. The guys helped to pick out their beds. I found two small desks that could fit in the room as well. Everything was delivered at the same time, the boys pitched in, setting up their room.

I had one more shopping trip and that was to buy chairs for the dining room table. Jimmy had to come along to make sure they matched the style of the table.

With the boys and Jimmy, my partying days were curtailed drastically. Every time I saw the guys, they would tease me about be an old married guy. They meant it in fun, I think a few of them envied me.

I decided to contact my family, I hadn't talk to them since graduation. I was third in a family of four, I have an older brother and sister as well as a younger brother. My older brother wanted nothing to do with me when he found out I was gay. My parents were cold, but never said what my brother said. I thought of how I should contact them. I elected to tell my sister, she was the closest of my siblings.

I wasn't sure if she still lived in the same area or moved. I had an old telephone number so I gave it a try. The phone rang three times and I was about to hang up, when I heard ‘hello’. I asked for my sister, Evelyn. I waited a few moments and I heard ‘who is it’ ‘I don't know.’

“Hello”

“Is this Evie, this is Pete.” I didn't hear anything for a few seconds, I thought something happened.

“Pete, Pete, where are you and why has it taken you so long to call.”

“Evie, after Paul told me he didn't want anything to do with me, I thought maybe you all felt the same.”

“Pete, Paul was wrong, he was the only one who had a twitch up his ass. Where are you and how are you?”

I told her where I lived, what I was doing and I told her I had a partner and two children.

“Pete, you have got to come and see us. I want to see you and your family. Have you spoken to mom or dad?”

“No, you're the only one I called.”

“You have to come. I've got a big house and I know Don we'll be glad to see you.”

“The kids have a school break in three weeks. Maybe we can come down for a few days. Can you send me your address, I only have your phone number.”

That evening I told the kids and Jimmy that I had contacted my family. ‘We’ll make a trip to my sister’s house when school is out.”

Later that evening as Jimmy and I were in bed, “Are you excited about seeing your family?”

“That’s a yes no answer. My oldest brother disowned me when he found out I was gay. So I don't want to see him, but if he makes the first move, then I'll forgive him. My older sister and I have always gotten along, that’s Evie and that's where we’ll be staying. I have a younger brother, your age, Michael, I'm not sure if he’d be glad to see me or not. My mother and dad, I'm not sure. They weren’t happy I was gay but they didn't say they hated me as my older brother did. Oh, would you be able to take off for two weeks?”

“I’ll ask Dad, but first you have to love me.”

Loving Jimmy was an experienced in and of itself. He refused to you words like 'fuck' or 'blowjob', he said that they were crude and he was better than that. I remember the first time, he said, “I don't want you to fuck me, I want you to make love to me.” As weird as that may sound, I somehow knew what he meant. In a loving relationship the one giving has to feel the same love as the one receiving. For us, no top or bottom, it was a spontaneous action. Sometimes, I wanted to initiate the love and sometime I wanted Jimmy to initiate the love. But tonight, I was the one giving my love and he was the one receiving my love. In any relationship, the giving of oneself and the receiving of your partner is tantamount to a happy, enduring relationship. We had that.

The next three weeks seemed to really pass fast. As it got neared the time to leave, the kids got more excited. I had gone and bought luggage for them to pack. “Pete, did you see what the kids packed?”

“No, why?”

“They pack books, games and laptops. There's hardly any room for clothes.”

“I’ll rearrange their packing. Since we’re driving, they can take some of that along without packing it in their luggage.”

The night before we were to leave, we decided to have dinner at Luigi’s. I think that this was the first time Jimmy has ever left home, without his family. Luigi came and sat down at our table, Bobby and Butch gave their grand-dad a hug. We talked about the trip and how long it would take us to drive there. It was a nice family dinner. The gang came over and wished us a good trip.

I was up at six in the morning as usual and I was really surprised to see two boys at the table eating cereal. “You guys anxious to get going? Did you take a shower?”

Two heads nodded yes twice. I went to take my shower, as I was finishing Jimmy joined me. We chatted for a minute, “Better hurry up, don’t want the kids to tease us about taking long showers.”

I was getting dressed when Jimmy came into our room. “I’m a little nervous meeting your folks.”

“Don’t be, if they don’t like you, it’s their loss, not yours. I like you, in fact, I love you.” I grabbed him and gave him a big kiss. I heard Bobby, ‘they are at it again’. I went into the kitchen and got a cup of coffee. “Jimmy, have you had any coffee yet?”

“No” I made some toast, sat at the table with my toast and coffee waiting for Jimmy to get dressed and have his coffee.

The boys were anxious, we packed the car last night so there wasn’t much for them to do. “Guys, go to the bathroom so we won’t have to stop for a while.” One went down to the big bathroom, the other headed to the half bath.

At last we were on our way. The roads were clear and traffic was light. I figured it’d take about fourteen to sixteen hours of driving to get to my sister's house. We decided that we'd travel ten hours the first day and then six hours the second day. When I laid out our travel plan, I didn’t take into account the Interstate highway system. After the first four hours of driving, I recalculated our time and realized that I overstated the travel time by two hours.

We stopped for lunch and doing that stop, I called and reserved a hotel room with two double beds for one night. Four hours after lunch, I arrived at our hotel. “Pete, there’s a steak house just beyond our hotel. Let’s stop there for dinner.”

The food was very good, the boys said the desert was the best. After dinner, we arrived at the hotel. There was one thing I didn’t take into account, two gay men traveling with two kids. At first they wouldn’t let us check in until the kids showed their school ID’s and I showed my driver’s license. “We’re a family and if you even hint at something disgusting, I’ll file a lawsuit before the night is out.”

The manager came out from the back room and wanted to know what was the problem. The desk clerk tried to explain. “Ronnie, did you look at the ID’s. This is a family, times are changing Ronnie. I’m sorry sir here’s your key.”

“Thank you.”

The room was very nice, the boys took a shower and got ready for bed, Jimmy and I followed. Being in a car for eight hours makes you tired. It isn’t the driving as much as sitting and making sure you are paying attention to where you’re driving.