The Castaway Hotel - 2 - 27. Chapter 27 - New Understandings

Things were going very smoothly and Sammy and Andrew were fitting in nicely. We were trying to make some concessions with the food, but we didn’t know all that much about Japanese meals. I did fix more fish and eggplant, tried to add rice as a side dish and made other similar changes in our diet, hoping that would help. Also, after talking to both boys, we agreed we’d eat Chinese once or twice a week too, which they also seemed to like, and I always ordered plenty of extra rice and vegetables when we did this.

It wasn’t until several days after Sammy had cornered me in my bedroom that he and his brother returned to approach me about my previous discussion with Sammy. “We’ve made a decision,” Sammy announced without any preliminary formalities.

“Why don’t we go into my room and discuss this in private?” I suggested.

“We don’t need to,” Sammy replied honestly. “We don’t mind if our brothers hear what we have to tell you.” I smiled at them, reading this clue as a signal about their decision. “Andrew and I want you to adopt us, so we are really your sons and brothers to the other boys.”

“You are anyway,” I quickly assured them, “but I will include you on the next adoption process, if that’s what you want.”

“We do,” Andrew added, “and we want to call you Daddy, like Graham does,” he added.

“I’ll just call you Dad, if that’s all right,” Sammy corrected.

“Are you sure?” I asked them both.

“Yes,” Sammy answered. “We talked about this with Graham, Cole and Ricky, and we all think it’s the right thing to do.”

“I hope they didn’t talk you into anything,” I countered, wondering if any undue outside pressure had been applied.

“No. They just helped us consider our choices,” Sammy explained. “They told us about all of the different names you had told them they could call you when they first arrived here, and they told us why they decided to call you Dad. We agreed with what they said, so we want to do the same.”

“And you don’t feel that this would be disrespectful to your father?”

“No. He knew we loved him very much, but we only called him ‘father’, in Japanese or English,” he explained. “We never called him Dad, so we don’t see anything wrong with calling you that. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Absolutely not. I will be proud to have you call me Dad and I will be proud to call each of you son,” I added, drawing another smile in response. “If that is truly your decision, then it is fine with me.”

“Thank you,” Sammy added. “Now we really feel like we belong and are part of this family.”

We all hugged and I also shed a few tears, so I immediately sent them off to play, as I needed a few minutes alone to compose myself. While I was doing that, I also whipped off emails to Ann and Sally, telling them about the boys’ decision. I was sure they would both be happy for all of us. I would call my attorney in the morning and have him include the pair into the adoption process, along with Pat and Trey.

I often think back to that time, just a few short years ago, when I sat in this house, sad and lonely. I think back to my decision to take in foster children and how frightened I was about what I was getting myself into. Now, in retrospect, I realize that day and that decision was one of the finest of my life. I couldn’t be any happier than I am about how things have turned out since then. I have all of these wonderful sons, am filled with so much happiness and am surrounded by all of this love. It only goes to prove that life is wonderful and precious, every minute of every day.

Throughout the weeks to come, things continued to go very well with the new boys and my attorney was working hard to clear up all of the loose ends for the adoptions to take place. I hoped we could have the ceremony in April or May, but I did encounter one major disappointment, when Judge Shay told me he wouldn’t be able to preside over this proceeding this time. Since we had gotten to know each other better, after I had taken in Frankie, we had become almost as close as brothers. Now, the boys were even calling him Uncle Steve and his wife Aunty Mary, so he felt it could be viewed as a conflict of interest, if he were to formalize the adoptions. Therefore, he would let another Family Court judge, from a neighboring jurisdiction; have the honor of helping me increase the size of my brood.

I thought I also noticed another small problem, which concerned Pat. It might have been just my imagination, but it seemed as if Patrick were acting differently toward Sammy and Andrew when we were out in public. There didn’t seem to be any change in how they got along at home, but I just had a strange feeling that something was different with Pat, at least when the family was around others. Before I make any rash judgment, though, I would first make certain to rule out the chance it was just paranoia on my part. However, I would also definitely be watching Pat more closely from now on, looking for signs of trouble or anything else out of the ordinary.

I also had one regret. Due to all of the time I had spent dealing with various situations, such as the addition of all the new boys, Dustin’s stay in the hospital and Kevin’s operation, I had been neglectful of making sure to attend the boys’ sporting functions. I had been to some of these events, but in the past I had made sure I attended nearly all of them. However, as the number of boys increased and the more unexpected occurrences took place, the number of times I was able to go seemed to diminish. Even though I could justify my absence, it didn’t make me feel any less guilty about letting my boys down.

In this light, I went to attend a wrestling match, in which both Dustin and Cole were competing. I think they were thrilled when they heard I was going and most of the boys would be accompanying me. Cole wrestled first, since he was in a lower weight class. He did well, winning on points, but I was still quite impressed with his performance. Not only that, but I was somewhat taken aback with how the skimpy wrestling singlet he wore not only showed off his lean, hard body, but that everyone in attendance could see through the tight fabric how he was hung. I guess you couldn’t be modest and still wrestle.

When Dustin’s turn came, I was even more impressed, not with his physique or how well he was hung, but by how accomplished he had become at this sport. I heard a couple of girls gasp, as he removed his sweats and got ready to take to the mat, and then he disposed of his opponent in a rather efficient manner. Not only did he take him down quickly, but he also managed to get him on his back and pin him, before the first period was even halfway over. I think that feat impressed more than just me.

After the match was over, which our high school won, I went down and stood along the edge of the mat, as the other boys went roaming about, chatting with their friends and other classmates. As I waited for Dustin and Cole to come back out, after cleaning up and changing, his coach came over to me.

“Josh, you must be really proud of your boys,” he announced, with a grin. “They are both doing extremely well.”

“Yes, I was impressed with their performance tonight,” I agreed.

“Well, you should be especially proud of Dustin,” he replied. “Even though I had my doubts about whether to put him on the team this year, I’m certainly glad I did. He’s come along way and has the potential of doing well in the post-season tournaments.”

I looked at him, thinking about my response, before I finally addressed him. “Was your hesitation to place him on the team due to his skills as a wrestler or something else.”

“Josh, let’s be honest here,” the coach answered. “After that little episode at the end of football season and his stay in the hospital, the entire athletic staff was debating whether he should be allowed to play sports for the remainder of the year. You know our stance on drug use and ecstasy is definitely a drug.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” I told him. “So what made you change your mind?” I was just curious, not trying in any way to defend my son.

“I think it was the allergic reaction that convinced us that this was most likely a one-time mistake on his part,” he informed me. “If he had been using it right along, we felt he would have suffered from other such reactions, and because of that we decided to give him another chance. All of us screw up from time to time, and high school boys aren’t immune to that either, and we knew him as being a great kid otherwise, so it was an easy choice.”

“I hope his being my son didn’t factor into the decision,” I prodded.

“Actually, it might have a little,” he admitted, “but not in the way you think. I think we’d have given the same chance to any of our athletes who might have be surrounded by the same mitigating circumstances as Dustin, but because you were an administrator, we looked longer and harder at Dustin’s case, than we might have with another boy. We all agreed that we didn’t want to appear to be ignoring our own rules to bail out a colleague’s son. Therefore, we probably judged his case more harshly than we would have, had he come from a different family.”

“Actually, I’m very glad to hear that,” I acknowledged, which caused a momentary look of confusion to cross his face. “It’s because I don’t want the boys to think they can get away with things just because I’m their father. I’ve told them when they attended my school that I would come down harder on them than anyone else, because I knew what they were capable of and would expect more from them. I expect the same to apply as they go through their entire school experience. Once they are at college, no one will no me and they will be treated like everyone else, but here I, and hopefully everyone else in the district, will be holding them to a higher standard.”

“Josh, it’s refreshing to hear you say that,” he told me, “since last year a fellow teacher expected us to give her son more leeway, rather than expect more from him. I think your approach is not only more in line with the athletic department’s philosophy, but will also benefit your sons more in the long run.”

I thanked him for his comments and then he left, and a few minutes later Dustin was coming out of the locker room toward me, along with Cole. “Well, what did you think, Dad?” Cole asked me, as he approached.

“I think you both did a remarkable job out there tonight,” I told him.

“Oh, I did okay, but Dustin was really awesome,” Cole enthused, while looking with great admiration at his older brother. “Did you know that other guy was also undefeated before tonight?” he pressed.

“No, that I didn’t know,” I quickly answered, before looking at Dustin with a great deal more respect.

“Yep, they were the last two in their weight class who hadn’t been beaten,” Cole informed me, “and everyone thought it was going to go down to points, at the end of a long and hard fought match. Boy, were they wrong. Dustin polished him off so quickly and so convincingly that he’s going to be ranked first in his weight class for all the tournaments now.”

“Maybe,” Dustin corrected him, showing a bit of modesty. “We still have a couple of matches to go, before the tournaments start. Who knows what will happen between now and then.”

“You’ll win twice more,” Cole quickly told him, “and THEN you’ll be ranked first for the tourneys.” I could see Dustin think about arguing this point with Cole, but instead let it drop, realizing he wasn’t going to find a way to dampen Cole’s enthusiasm and rosy outlook concerning his wrestling future.

As we drove home, all of the other boys were congratulating both of our heroes and Cole was still telling the story about how great his older brother was. I think Dustin was both slightly embarrassed, yet pleased by Cole’s adoration, and I think it brought the two of them a little closer than they were before.

As January ground to a halt, I turned my attention to the next big event on our social calendar, Trey’s fourteenth birthday, which would happen on February 16th. That was still a couple of weeks away, but it would be his first birthday since he came to live with us, so I wanted to make it special. I started making plans with Danny, Dustin, Ricky and Kevin, but I made them promise they would keep this secret from everyone else. I understood I needed their help to pull this party off, but I was afraid the other boys might let something slip, if they were also privy to our plans. The boys rapidly agreed to my terms, and we began to brainstorm about what type of party we should have and what we should get Trey for his birthday. Within an hour we had a rough idea about what we wanted to do, but this plan would need much refinement before it would be acceptable.

To my complete surprise and absolute delight, the boys almost completely took over the planning operation from me, as they considered how important this was going to be to Trey. Dustin and Kevin offered to do most of this work, since they were the closest to Trey and felt it would go a long way to ease some of Trey’s lingering doubts about being totally accepted, along with possibly burying his last reminders of the incident with Frankie and putting it totally out of his mind.

While the boys did that for me, it gave me some additional time to bond with all the latest additions to our family. In an effort to keep him occupied so the others would not have to worry about him coming into the room where they were making plans for his party, I would take Trey places with me or do things for him. During that time, Trey opened up more and more about himself and gave me greater insights into the young man inside.

Besides his fondness for reading, Trey also had a latent desire to write. Although he hadn’t really acted upon this, other than keeping his journal, he told me how he either wanted to write a story or a play, but he wasn’t sure which. I told him that was a fine ambition and suggested I would like to read whatever he did, which caused him to blush, slightly.

“It probably won’t be that good,” he informed me. “It’s just that I want to give it a try.”

“Well, I won’t read it, if you don’t want me to,” I agreed, “but I won’t be overly critical. Maybe I can even give you some suggestions or offer places you can go to make it even better.”

“Maybe,” he compromised, “but I’ll see after I finish it, whatever it is.”

I was also able to spend time with Pat, Sammy and Andrew, although I never did it at the same time. Not only was there a large age difference between them, but Pat also seemed to become more aloof, whenever he was part of a group. Therefore, I would do things with him alone, in an attempt to find out more about him as well.

At times, Pat was quite happy being with me and fairly open, but he was turning out to be quite a complicated young man. Despite his solid, somewhat athletic build, he wasn’t really interested in sports. That may be a by-product of his moving around so much as a child and never having an opportunity to participate in such things. His academics were improving, now that he was attending classes frequently and had a stable school schedule, and now that his appetite for knowledge had been whet, he seemed eager to learn as much as he could. I was pleased with that aspect of his development, yet knew there were other areas we also needed to focus on.

Pat’s social skills weren’t as developed as they should be for someone his age, but again, that was probably due to the fact he had always been mainly around adults for much of his life, although his contact with them had been limited, often negative and sometimes inappropriate. He sometimes overreacted to minor situations with the boys, like the first time he saw them parading around nude, yet at other times he could be very patient and understanding. I wasn’t sure why I was getting all of these mixed signals from him, but he was still somewhat of an enigma to me.

I also got to spend more time with Sammy and Andrew too, learning more about their past and their hopes for the future. They were both very bright and more than eager to work hard at almost anything they did. Although they had those characteristics in common, it was quite obvious they were two very unique and distinct individuals. Sammy seemed to be more analytical than his brother, being able to look at something and figure it out, where Andrew seemed to be more creative and artsy than his sibling. Together, however, they were a pure joy to be around.

Both boys had bonded more with Graham than the others, on several levels. Some of this might have had to do with the fact that they were closest in age, had rough and isolated beginnings and were all physically similar. By that I mean, they were all quite small in stature, had slender builds and were all uncircumcised. I wasn’t certain as to how much that affected their closeness, but Graham’s mothering over them when they first arrived only added to it. Even though Cole and Ricky had also lent a hand, Graham seemed to take over the majority of the load when watching out for the pair and both boys realized and appreciated that fact.

As February began, I was glad I’d had this time with the boys and got to know them a little better, but I would work hard to make sure I didn’t get out of touch with them again.