The Castaway Hotel - 2 - 21. Chapter 21 - Coping With The Hand You're Dealt

Nothing more was said about Frankie until later that evening. The boys had finished showering and we were sitting in the family room, when Trey spoke up. “I just want to thank all of you for coming to help me earlier. I was really scared when Frankie came after me like that.”

“That’s what brothers are for,” Dustin told him.

“Trey,” Ricky added, “one thing we all agree on is that no one has to do anything they don’t want to do, except for chores, of course.” He made a face when he added the last part and directed it at me.

“But I feel like I made you send Frankie away,” Trey acknowledged, admitting that he felt guilty about the whole incident.

“No, Frankie was the one who made me send Frankie away,” I countered. “At first I attempted to reason with him and then I made an effort to explain what type of things are expected and what isn’t allowed. When that didn’t work, I even tried to just make demands of him, letting him know how he was to behave, but Frankie just didn’t want to listen. I only sent him away because I was afraid he might harm someone if he continued living here. That, along with the other things he was involved with.”

“What do you mean?” Trey asked, still slightly confused.

“Look, I eventually realized that Frankie had been the one who organized the party at the house and you guys just covered for him,” I began.

“That’s not quite right,” Danny corrected.

“Yeah, we all agreed to go along with him,” Pat confessed. “We thought it might be fun.”

“Even if that’s true,” I countered, “I don’t think such a thing would have ever occurred, without his input and influence.” The boys just seemed to nod their heads, while looking back and forth at each other.

“But that wasn’t all he did,” I added, “but I’ve come to accept that Frankie caused his own misfortune.”

“Wait, what else did he do?” Ricky asked, picking up on my earlier comment.

“Just wait here,” I told them. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

I left the room, went upstairs, and soon came back to the family room. I walked in and handed the boom box to Kevin and Dustin. “I believe this is yours,” I informed them.

They looked it over and their faces lit up. “Yes, it is. Where did you find it?” Kevin asked.

“I found it in Frankie’s room, while I was packing his things up for him to leave,” I explained.

“Did you find my chain there too?” Danny asked, looking hopeful.

“No, I’m afraid I didn’t,” I admitted. “I also didn’t notice him wearing it either, so I’m afraid he probably sold it and spent the cash. I’ll get you a new one to replace it, though, and Ricky, Cole and Graham, this is to cover your losses.” I held out my hand and gave them a $50 bill. “This should replace the rest of the money he took from you.”

“I think it’s too much, Dad,” Ricky said. “You already gave us $20.00 and I don’t think we had that much more.”

“Keep the extra for the trouble and inconvenience,” I suggested. Hearing my reply, they smiled and eagerly accepted the money.

It was unusually quiet for the rest of the evening, as we all somehow still felt we had failed Frankie. The boys had always said we were there to help whoever needed it, and this was the first time we hadn’t succeeded. I think they were learning failure is something you have to live with from time to time, but it’s still never easy to accept. I looked at it optimistically, as one of life’s important lessons for them.

Before long, the boys began leaving me, as they headed up to bed. Dustin talked Trey into helping him assist Kevin, as our wounded warrior climbed up the stairs to my room. Too bad the new master bedroom wasn’t ready yet, or he wouldn’t have had to go through this. When Kevin finally got there, he sat on the side of the bed to rest.

“Trey, did you really mean the things that you wrote on the computer,” Kevin asked him, point blank.

Trey looked at Kevin, and for some reason he wasn’t afraid to admit the truth to either Kevin or Dustin any longer. “Yeah, I did,” he confessed, although he still couldn’t quite look them squarely in the eyes as he did so. “After we started doing things together, I wanted to do more, but I wasn’t sure how you’d react if I asked. I hope that doesn’t bother you.”

“No, not at all,” Kevin assured him. “I won’t be doing much for a while, but if you don’t mind waiting, Dustin and I will do whatever you want when I get better. We’ve already talked it over earlier and we’ve both agreed to it.”

Trey began to beam. “You mean that?” he bubbled, hardly believing his ears. “You two would really do that for me?”

“Yeah, if that’s what you want,” Dustin confirmed. “Heck, we’d be nuts to turn down an offer like that. You’re cute, maybe a little skinny, but you’ve got a nice butt and you’re probably really tight.”

Trey blushed. “I suppose I am,” Trey agreed. “I’ve never had anything up there before. It won’t hurt, will it?”

“We’ll loosen you up first,” Kevin assured him. “It may hurt just a little at first, but not for very long. After a short time, it will be feeling great.”

“Trey, we’d never hurt you,” Dustin added, “and we wouldn’t do it, unless we thought you’d enjoy it. We’re all brothers and we take care of each other and protect each other, so we’ll be as gentle as we can.”

“I’ve already found out that you guys protect each other,” Trey acknowledged, while thinking back to how they came to his rescue earlier, “and now I’m extremely glad I have so many wonderful brothers. When my parents and sister died, I spent most of the time feeling sorry for myself, because I had lost all of the people I cared about and who cared about me. I was totally alone and I was still feeling this way when I first came here. Actually, I’d even kind of convinced myself that I wasn’t going to like living here either. Then after learning only boys lived here, I didn’t want to leave. Being gay, I can only compare it to a person with a very big sweet tooth getting locked in a candy factory. The problem was, I couldn’t go around and sample the treats. I didn’t dare tell anyone and couldn’t act on my feelings, because I didn’t know how you guys would react. I was scared to death you’d find out and afraid I’d make some kind of a mistake, which would cause you to want me to leave.”

“Why did you think that?” Kevin asked. “I thought we were all pretty nice to you.”

“You were,” Trey agreed, “but I was scared that if you found out I was queer you’d hate me and throw me out. The longer I was here, the more I began to like being here. Then that night in your room, when we did those things, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Then earlier, after Frankie told everyone I was gay and wanted to have sex with you two, I just knew everyone was going to hate me after that. I was prepared to be taken away, instead of Frankie, or maybe even with Frankie. I was so shocked when Mr. Currie wanted me to stay, and now you two just offered to make my dreams come true. I’m so happy I’m living here that I can’t even begin to describe it.”

“Well, we’re happy you’re here too, Trey,” Kevin told him. “Trey, may I ask you a question though?”

“Sure, anything,” Trey responded, enthusiastically.

“Why do you still call Dad Mr. Currie or Josh?” Kevin followed. “I know he thinks you’re pretty swell and loves you as much as he does the rest of us.”

“I know he does and I’ve thought about calling him ‘Dad,’ but I just can’t get myself do it,” he confessed. “For some reason, every time I do, I think of my own dad and I loved him a lot. I just can’t see me calling anyone else that.”

“Well, how about this then?” Kevin began to suggest. “Brandon and Jay call him ‘Pop,’ heck so do Michael and Robert, now that I think of it. Do you think you might be able to do that, instead of calling him ‘Dad’?”

“Michael and Robert?” Trey asked, when those names didn’t ring a bell.

“Yes, Dad’s older sons,” Kevin told him.

“Oh, yeah, I remember hearing about them,” Trey mused. “And they call him Pop?”

“Yep,” Kevin responded, while also nodding his head. “I’m not sure why, but they do.”

“Oh, okay,” Trey mumbled, as he thought about that possibility. “Yeah, I guess I could,” he finally agreed. “I never called my dad that, so I guess it would be all right.”

“I think that would make Dad feel better too,” Dustin told him. “I know he says he doesn’t mind what we call him, but he loves us all like sons and treats us so well that I think the rest of us feel bad for him, when you and Frankie called him ‘Josh’ or ‘Mr. Currie.’ I mean, just look at all he’s done for us. He adopted the whole bunch of us boys and I’d be surprised if he didn’t offer to adopt you and Pat too. I guess maybe it’s more like the rest of us want everyone to call him either ‘Dad’ or ‘Pop’. That way, we’ll also feel more like a family too.”

“You’re probably right,” Trey conceded, “so I’ll try to remember to call him ‘Pop’ from now on, but remind me if I forget. Okay?”

“Yeah, bro,” Dustin said, with a huge smile on his face, “we can do that.”

The three boys sat on the bed, talked some more and were still chatting when I came up to bed. “Okay, I’ll see you both in the morning,” Kevin told them, as I entered the room.

“Sure thing, bro,” Dustin quipped back.

“Yeah, Kev, I’ll see you right after I wake up,” Trey confirmed, and then he walked over to me, which came as a surprise. He gave me a big hug and looked up at me, fluttering his eyes. “Good night, Pop, and thanks for earlier,” he told me.

I immediately caught what he said, but I wasn’t sure about his change in attitude. I must admit I might not have caught it if he had called me ‘Dad,’ but the word ‘Pop’ stuck out, because outside of my oldest sons, only Brandon and Jay called me that. In response, I smiled at him and kissed him on the forehead.

“Good night and I would have done that for any of my sons,” I explained, hoping he would catch the full meaning of my statement.

He must have, because he immediately gave me another hug right after I said it. As soon as he released his grip on me, Dustin and he went off to bed and I changed Kevin’s bandage, before I crawled into bed beside him. Before we fell asleep, Kevin eagerly filled me in on what the three of them had talked about, before I arrived, at least as far as the sex was concerned. After he did that, he also told me about what motivated Trey to start calling me ‘Pop.’

Concerned about how this had come to pass, I explained they hadn’t needed to force Trey into doing it, if he wasn’t ready yet, but Kevin insisted Trey was ready. “It wasn’t that he didn’t think of you as his dad and even wanted to call you that,” Kevin informed me, “It was just that he needed another option for the word ‘Dad’, because of his own father and all. The only thing Dustin or I did was to give him that option.”

I thanked him and assured him I’d also thank Dustin later. We positioned ourselves to go to sleep and I made sure we stayed on opposite sides of the large bed, so I wouldn’t accidentally bump against his healing region. Fortunately, we made it through the night without incident.

Kevin seemed to progress nicely throughout the week. Each morning, Dustin and Trey would help him get down the stairs, so he could be where I and everyone else would be. Then, once they got home from school they tried to stay downstairs, around Kevin, unless they needed to use the computer.

On Wednesday, I took him back to the physician’s office, for his next examination. After being led to the examination room, the doctor came in, examined him and announced Kevin was doing nicely and should be able to return to school the following week, with a few restrictions, of course. We were already planning on the restrictions, but were surprised at how soon the doctor was going to let him go back to class.

Kevin’s physician also informed us that the biopsy on his testicle, plus the other test they ran after his surgery in the hospital, had all come back. The testicle had indeed been cancerous, but the other tests indicated they had caught it in time, before it had spread to other areas. The doctor wanted to run another series of tests on Kevin in a month, but was confident the problem was now behind us.

Kevin and I were both greatly relieved, after hearing the news, so I took him out for a banana split, to celebrate. The other boys were also pleased to hear about the test results later, so it looked as if we would soon be able to resume our normal lives.

As ironic as it might seem, the following day the contractor finished up work on the new master bedroom and bath, which meant that Kevin wouldn’t have to walk up and down the stairs any longer, even though it was no longer a major problem. I thought it would also be appropriate for me to purchase a new bedroom set, to complete the transition, so I went and did some shopping Friday after work. I picked out a king-sized bed, dresser, chest of drawers and two nightstands, all in a dark walnut finish. I had them delivered and set up the following day, so I officially moved in to my new digs that evening.

For the time being, I would leave two rooms that had been created from the upstairs master bedroom unoccupied, until I could decide how we were going to utilize them. I also donated my old bedroom set to the terrible trio, to replace the two twin beds they had pushed together. They wanted to continue to spend most of their time together anyway, and my grandsons would most likely be joining them over the holidays, and this way, no one would have to sleep in the crack between the mattresses.

We placed their old twin beds in the two newest rooms, along with splitting up their other furniture and adding a few more pieces to those areas. Now, it would be easier to plan out the Christmas sleeping arrangements, for when my older children came to stay for about a week or so.

I also explained to the boys that I doubted they would need to use those recently installed locks any longer, since we were fairly certain our culprit was gone. There was no longer any reason to turn the house into Fort Knox, so the open door policy was back in force, unless they needed a little additional privacy for certain other activities. They all chuckled at my implication, but were nonetheless relieved. Each had secretly worried they’d lose their keys or something worse, and now they wouldn’t have to think about such things any longer.

“Does this also mean we’re no longer grounded?” Ricky asked, hopefully.

“Sorry, champ, but that still stands,” I informed him.

“But, Dad,” Cole whined. “You know now that it was Frankie’s idea and he was the one who had somebody else buy the beer, so why are we still grounded.

“Because you still went along with him,” I replied. “Not only that, but you also covered for him, when I asked whose idea it was.”

“We were kind of scared of him,” Ricky admitted. “He threatened to beat the crap out of anyone who told you about it. I don’t think he could have really done that to Dustin or Pat… or maybe even Danny, but the rest of us were scared shitless he’d do that to us, if we told on him.”

“That may be true,” I agreed, “but now you have to pay the piper. I’m not going to beat you up, but you still have to finish your punishment.”

“Daddy, does it still have to be for so long?” Graham asked, but I think the others had coaxed him into doing it. I believe they felt his cuteness would make me vulnerable to his suggestion, so I think my next statement surprised them even more.

“Punishment ends December 17th, as originally sentence by the court.”

They all hung their heads and slunk out of the room, disappointed that a cute young boy and the Christmas Spirit had not gotten me to relent. Chalk that up to another of life’s valuable lessons for them.