ARROW - 206. Chapter 206

When we got close to home, Colin nudge me.”Wake up, we are almost home.”

As we turned into our driveway, Colin blew the horn. “Why did you do that?” Then I saw, my family was there to greet me home. The Grams were there as well as Pat and Mary.

I didn’t think I was gone that long. “Colin, why the welcome? I haven’t been gone that long.”

“You were gone almost 5 weeks, you may have been too busy to notice it, but that is a long time away from your family. They missed you and I missed you as well.”

And what a homecoming it was. I had to hug everyone. Walking into the living room, they had a banner on the wall, ”We missed you, Dad.” I was touched by my family and I knew I also had tears in my eyes.

The rest of the evening I let Carl tell about Paris and Charles. I had Little Ivan on my lap, we looked at the pictures Carl was showing. When Little Ivan went to his mother, I could see he was getting tired and probably be asleep in a few minutes. But my lap never got cold, now I had two beautiful girls sitting on my lap. Looking at them I kissed their cheeks. That was when they said, we missed you, Dad. The younger boys sat around me, on the sofa. Some sat on the floor leaning against my legs. It was as if they needed assurances it was me and I was home.

Ritchie and Ronnie came and hugged me, “Dad, we’re going home. Get some sleep and we will see you tomorrow.”

Are grown men too old to be hugged, they were not for these two, The hugs seemed to be confirmation I was home.

It seems after the first group leaves, everyone becomes aware of the time and soon the party is over. Little Ivan was asleep, I carried him to their truck. “We’re glad you are home.” I watched their taillight as they left

Mom. Dad and Mary were ready to leave when I entered the house.

I looked at my Dad, wondering how much longer will he be with us. Then looking at Mom and Mary the same thoughts came to me. My parents were in their 70s and Mary was close to their age. They aren’t going to be with us much longer.

“What are you thinking?”

“Our parents are getting old. We should think about spending more time with them. Come, let’s walk them home.”

Of course, as soon as the kids knew, now we had a parade.

Mary was the first, We waited until she was on the first-floor landing, leaning over the baluster, waving good night.

We walked Mom and Dad next door to their home. The kids all wanted a hug from Mom and Dad, even Charles. I hugged Dad and then I went to hug Mom, she told me the children missed me. “I hope you don’t make many of these trips.” I just gave Mom an additional hug. I knew I would have two more trips.

That evening tucking everyone in took a long time. The young boys said they were afraid I wasn’t coming home. Looking into their eyes you could see their tears. I hugged them that much longer. I wanted to say I’ll never leave you but I couldn’t. I knew I had at least two trips I would make to Paris. I looked at Colin, I guess I wanted some help in giving our children assurances if I do go away, I’ll be back.

That evening in bed, I couldn’t get enough of Colin.

“What is bothering you?”

“I'm going to need to return to Paris soon. Arnaud is dying. I suspect he probably won’t last a week or ten days. This will be hard on the kids, both of us will be gone for a few days.”

“Then we should start to prepare them.”

“That is going to be hard. I’ll talk to the older boys and maybe they can plan something for them while we are gone.”

That night, lying next to Colin I began to think about the next trip to Paris. Then I heard GG’s rocker. “GG, I don’t want to leave the kids again so soon after returning home.”

I knew she would be there when I fell asleep. I cuddled in Colin’s arms and fell into a deep sleep,

I listened as GG spoke to me. “Life isn't meant to be easy. Life is to prepare you for the next stage. How can you help someone who is struggling in this life if you haven’t experienced those struggles yourself? “ I thought about that. Is life as we know it a preparation for an afterlife? That thought kept me awake for several hours until I heard a whisper.

“Leave it, go to sleep.”

The next thing I knew, it was morning, and two girls were shaking me awake.

“Dad, Pop said to get up.”

I grabbed them and kissed them both. Getting out of bed I heard them, “Dad’s awake.”

Showered, shaved, and dressed, I headed for the kitchen. Never made it, I was besieged by the boys in the living room. Now as a group, we headed for the dining room.

As a family, we ate breakfast. I looked at Marie as she poured my coffee, “They wouldn’t eat until you came to the table.”

Now I felt bad because I took so long to get dressed for the day. I heard thwart creaking rocking chair.

“I need to tell you something. Do you remember our friends from Paris that visited us?” I knew not all of the boys would remember.

“He is very ill. Pop and I may have to go to see him.”

Leave it to David, “Is he going to die?”

“Yes, and Pop and I would like to go and see him one last time.”

“How long will you be gone?”

“Maybe 2 or 3 days. We will fly over on the first day, stay for a day and then fly back on the third day.”

“So we will be gone for one day. You can see us off at the airport on the first day and you can meet us at the airport when we return on the third day.”

I thought, thanks, Colin. It didn’t sound so bad when he explained that.

“Who is going to stay with us?”

“Gram and Gramp. Maria will be here as well as Aunt Pat. I think Grandmother will be here as well.”

That afternoon I took a young boy to buy new clothes. I ended up taking all of the children shopping, which required the use of a bus. School would be starting soon so school clothes were definitely on the agenda. They didn’t mind wearing pass-me-downs which helped, but they always needed new shoes. They seemed never to make it to the next child down.

The boys who had done this before took a cart and two by two they went shopping. I was glad Maria took the girls.

Now I waited at the check-out cashier with an empty cart. As the boys approached with their cart, I would check the clothes and ask if they tried the shoes on. The first is always David. As usual, I would send him back for another pair of pants and shirts. One pant and shirt wasn’t going to last all year. I knew Ronnie gave him clothes but he needed a few new clothes as well.

Then came the other boys, if I heard, (Dad, I like this. Is it okay?) once I heard it a dozen of times. Most of the time I gave in. One thing that always happens one of the boys will find a jacket that the others like, which meant he would show them where he got it. They would go and get the same jacket. A lot of their clothes were the same style and color. They said it’s a family thing.

I knew that coming from different backgrounds, they needed some tangible item that said we are family. Clothes and jackets said that.

Carl took care of Charles. Later that evening Carl told me that Charles couldn’t believe the clothes I put in his cart, “I would put a shirt in his cart, he would put it back saying two is enough.”

“What did you do?”

Smiling, “I put it in my cart.”

One stop we always make is the hobby shop. There, the boys knew they can pick one item. I watched Charles. At first, he stayed close to Carl. One of the boys took him by the arm and led him to the model section. He showed him a model of the airplane that we flew in when we were returning home. He picked up the box, looking for me, and seeing me, he held up the box. I nodded yes. He went to put it back when two of the boys told him to take it to the counter. He said no, it was a waste of money. One of the boys took it and picked up a tube of glue. He placed it on the counter with the other items the boys picked up.

“All done?” They nodded yes, and I paid, the store clerk handed each boy their package attaching a sold sticker to the package. When he handed a package to Charles he looked at me and tried to hand the package back.

“Charles, the boys want you to have this. It wouldn’t be right for you to refuse it. When you start working at the club you will have your own money which you can spend or save as you want. But, for now, you are my and Pop’s son.”

Our next stop was agreeable to him. A hotdog from a street vendor and then a stop at our ice cream shop.

Arriving home, the boys had to show Marie their clothes. I often wonder how Marie kept track of their clothes, but somehow she knew.

At dinner that night, Colin asked the boys how did their shopping go. I had to listen to them telling Pop about Charles not wanting to buy anything.

“What did you buy at the hobby store?”

Then the boys told them except Charles. Colin noticed, “Charles, what did you get?”

He was scared to answer. His eyes began to water. “Charles, show Pop what you bought.”

He left the table, shaking, I looked at Carl and he took off after Charles.

“He didn’t want anything. He had two shirts, two sets of underwear, and a pair of tennis shoes in his shopping cart. The other boys had more clothes for him in their cart. At the hobby store, one of the boys took his model to the counter.”

Carl and Charles returned with his model still wrapped. Colin picked up the model and unwrapped it. Charles was beginning to cry. “Charles, when are you going to start building this plane? I’d liked to help you.”

“You are not mad?”

“No, why would I be mad? You are one of my boys, this is your home.”

In a flash, he was hugging Colin.

With one look from Colin and I knew, we need to adopt this child and put an end to this nonsense of not knowing his role in our family.

“Colin, we need to go fishing.” For some reason, going fishing seemed to draw the boys together. Maybe that will help cement the idea that Charles is a member of our family.

Colin called the Captain, he nodded with a thumb up. Fishing was on.

I phoned Tommy and told him fishing was on for tomorrow and let the boys know. Without our Italian contingency, there would be plenty of room. I called Charles to tell him that I needed to see him to construct a frame for us. Unlike Michael’s painting, this angel will not have a wooden backing. I gave him the dimensions and asked that he used oak wood. He said we could discuss it on the boat.

A few of the boys came and sat beside me. I knew they wanted something and I had a good hunch what it was. Before they ask, I said yes. “But not a whole class. Limit it to no more than 10.” I knew we could handle more but start with 10.

Colin started to laugh, “I’ll bet at least 15.”

“Better not be that many, you will need to rotate the boys between cleaning fish and fishing,” I knew there were 18 from Italy and we handled them without any problem.

The phone was busy for the next hour. Every once in a while one of the boys would ask if his dad could come. Colin always answered yes.

The next morning, the boys were ready but Charles needed a fishing rod. I told Carl to take one of the rods the Italian group left behind.

The bus from the Home arrived, and Pepe was driving. As soon as it stopped the boys boarded. We still had to wait for the boys’ friends to arrive.