Butterflies Fly Free - 14. Chapter 14 - Albert

Monday, when I went to work, I began asking my co-workers a few questions, beginning with the guy who sits next to me.

“Hey, do you know anything about a family named Katz?” I began.

“Katz? Do you mean Arnold Katz, who owns Uptown Realty and some of the best commercial and investment properties in the area?” he asked in return.

“Yes, that would be the one,” I told him.

“Shit, that guy’s worth major bucks!” he exclaimed, his eyes wide and his mouth open. “Why are you asking about him?”

“I just heard some stories about him over the weekend,” I fibbed, in an attempt to keep my tracks covered, “and I just wanted to verify what I’d heard.”

“What did you hear?” he eagerly wanted to know.

“Well, if I tell you, then I may sway what you might say, which won’t give me verification at all,” I reasoned, in an attempt not to have to show my hand.

“Well, I wouldn’t lie to you or make things up, but I can see your point,” he conceded. “I hear he’s a workaholic and spends every waking moment trying to expand his fortune. I’ve heard his wife, Patricia, is just as bad.”

“What about their family?” I pressed, hoping to see if he might know about Jason.

“I think their parents might still be alive, although they don’t live around here, but I’m not sure if either of them has any siblings,” he rambled.

“I meant more like children,” I snapped back, trying to steer him in the right direction.

“Easy, Leo,” he replied soothingly. “You seem a bit on edge here.”

“Just answer my question, please,” I pressed, although softening my tone. He looked at me suspiciously, as if he were trying to read my intentions.

“Honestly, I don’t think they ever found time to start a family,” he eventually answered. “With their work schedules, I don’t know how they would have managed to find any time to have a romp in the sack.”

“But I heard they had a son,” I explained.

“That’s news to me. If they did, then they must have had sex during a business meeting and she must have delivered the kid while closing a business deal,” he quipped.

It was easy to see that he didn’t think they were possible of performing, or more accurately had time to perform, such a normal human act as procreation. Seeing he wouldn’t be able to provide the information I wanted, I thanked him and went back to work.

I was chatting with someone else about the Katzes while we were eating lunch in the cafeteria, when my boss came over to join us. He discretely listened to our conversation for a few seconds and then made some remarks in response.

“I feel sorry for their son,” he told us, without being asked. “They parade him out for the company picnic, which they hold every summer, and then again for their Christmas parties. They have one party for their employees, another for their commercial tenants and then one more for their friends, who are mostly just business contacts anyway. I got invited to the party for the commercial tenants once, because at the time we were leasing office space from them.”

I didn’t comment and merely listened as he continued with his observations. What he was saying was confirming what I’d learned from Jason this past weekend.

“I also knew the nanny they hired to take care of their son, right after he was born,” my boss continued. “She told me the parents hardly ever spent any time with the child and she literally had to raise the poor boy alone. She said except for the various functions I’d mentioned earlier, Arnold and Patricia had very little contact with the lad. The nanny said she was excited when he was eventually old enough to start school, because he finally got to be around other adults and kids his own age.”

I now had confirmation about Jason’s situation, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with this new knowledge. I wasn’t about to tell Colt what I’d just learned when I saw him later, because I wasn’t sure if it might cause him to say something to Jason, and I didn’t want to make this any worse for Jason than it already was. I also didn’t want Colt to react or treat Jason differently than before, since I didn’t want Jason to feel we were only being nice because we felt sorry for him.

When I came home later that evening, Colt greeted me and explained that he’d played basketball with the same group again today and probably would do the same thing each day after school for the rest of the week. I told him that was fine and I was glad he was enjoying doing this with his new friends. Then I went to change, while Colt finished getting dinner ready.

Immediately after we finished eating, Colt went to his room and started working on his homework, without any prompting from me. I was wondering if his experience from this past weekend, after it took him a lot longer to complete his assignments than he’d expected, was what had motivated this change. When I went to bed later, I found Colt on the computer in my bedroom, because he was looking up some information for one of his assignments.

“Leo, I’ll get off now, so I don’t bother you and you can go to sleep,” he stated, as I entered the room.

“It’s not necessary,” I responded. “You can keep working and it won’t bother me.”

I then went into my bathroom and proceeded as I normally would with my nightly preparations, before I came back out and got into bed.

“Leo, are you sure this won’t keep you awake?” Colt asked, concerned.

“No, Colt,” I assured him. “If it’s for a homework assignment, then you don’t have to stop and I’ll be fine.”

“I’m just about done, so I won’t be on here very much longer,” he added, to let me know he was being considerate.

His response sounded almost apologetic, even though I had told him this wasn’t a problem. In fact, I was impressed by how dedicated he was about completing his assignment. It was definitely quite a change in behavior for him and showed me that he was definitely maturing.

A short time later, Colt turned off the computer and headed toward his bathroom. A few minutes later, he crawled into bed with me, but stayed on his own side. He didn’t even try to cuddle with me tonight and I could soon tell by listening his breathing that he had fallen asleep. I assumed it was just because he was so tired and needed his rest, so I didn’t dwell on how unusual this was and allowed myself to doze off as well.

The remainder of the week went pretty much the same. Colt seemed to have a lot of homework, but that was to be expected, since this was his next to last week of school and the final week would be taken up with exams. He even fell asleep in his own room a couple of nights during this time, but I figured it was only because he had worked late and then passed out from exhaustion. When Friday night rolled around, I came home to find Jason with him again. Of course, I had expected both of them to be here, but I wasn’t prepared to find them studying in the living room, seeing it was the weekend.

“Hey, guys. What’s up?” I greeted them, as I entered.

“Hi, Leo,” Jason responded.

“Hey, Leo,” Colt followed. “Jason and I are just studying for the big math test on Monday. It’s going to be a killer.”

His expression told me he wasn’t pleased about the idea of having to study so hard to prepare for it.

“I’m glad to see you guys are taking this seriously,” I told them, truly impressed. “So, I guess the basketball games are on hold for this weekend?”

“Oh, no,” Jason told me. “We have a game scheduled for 11:00 tomorrow, but the rest of the weekend we’re going to be studying for our finals. Right Colt?”

Colt nodded in agreement and I was truly impressed by their commitment.

“Hey, I’m glad you guys are also taking a little time out to have some fun too,” I quipped. “I will merely suggest that you remember to only eat a small breakfast before you go over to play then.”

I almost laughed at Colt’s reaction, as he made an exaggerated face to indicate that it wasn’t as big a problem for them, as it was for me.

“You too, Leo,” Jason added. “We still need you to play, so I hope you’ll agree to join us.”

This time I could see Colt smirking, because he knew that I now had to heed my own advice, if I agreed to join them.

“Are you sure you want me to play?” I asked. “I thought after my awful performance last Saturday that you guys would have found someone else to fill the open spot.”

“Oh, you weren’t that bad Leo,” Jason lied, although not convincingly.

“Jason, you don’t need to try to make me feel good just so you can come over,” I explained. “You can spend time with Colt, even if you don’t include me in your games.”

“That’s not what I’m doing Leo,” Jason countered, obviously shocked by my implication. “I like you a lot and just wanted to include you in on the fun. Colt agreed that he thought it was a good idea too.”

When I looked over at him, Colt was nodding energetically, to indicate he concurred with Jason’s statement.

“Thanks, guys. I really appreciate that,” I told them, flattered that they wanted to include me in their other activities. “But if you’re hoping to see me barf my guts out again, then that’s not going to happen.”

Both boys feigned innocence after my announcement and then began to chortle. This let me know it had been at least a minor consideration in this current invitation.

Except for dinner, the boys spent the rest of the night by themselves. I simply left them alone and found other things to keep occupied. When bedtime rolled around, I stopped by to say goodnight to them, before heading off to my bedroom alone.

When I awoke the next morning and exited my room, I noticed that the door to the spare bedroom was wide open again and the bed hadn’t been used. I guess the boys must have worked late and then passed out in Colt’s room, so I went on to the kitchen. After I made a pot of coffee and grabbed the newspaper, as per my usual morning routine, I was halfway through reading the various news articles when Jason wandered in to join me.

“Hey, Leo,” he mumbled, as he sat down at the table. He was clad only in his boxers again.

“Let me know when you’re ready for breakfast,” I told him. “Would you like some juice?”

“Yeah, thanks,” he answered, “but I can get it. You don’t have to wait on me.”

I merely nodded in response, as he got up to get a glass. He then went to the refrigerator to get the orange juice and I went back to reading the paper. I knew it would take a while before he was completely lucid and ready to eat, but before that happened Colt came stumbling into the kitchen too, wearing only a pair of boxer briefs.

“Morning, sunshine,” I teased.

“Yeah, whatever,” he mumbled back.

I could tell he probably would have slept longer, but Jason had either accidentally awakened him when he got up or something else had disturbed Colt’s slumber. I waited until both boys were somewhat coherent before I fixed each of them a small breakfast to tide them over, and once they’d finished eating, I suggested they should get dressed for their game and then they could relax until it was time to leave. They had no problem complying with my request, while I puttered around the house and performed a few other chores. About twenty minutes before the game was to begin, I herded them out to the car and then drove us to the high school.

We still must have been a little early, because only Albert and Gary were there when we arrived. As soon as we’d climbed out of the car, Bert came over to greet Jason, but ignored the rest of us, and then he dragged Jason out on the court to warm up. Undeterred, Colt and I grabbed Gary and went to the other basket and began to shoot a few hoops. Over the next ten minutes or so, the rest of the boys showed up and went to one basket or the other to warm up as well. After several more minutes, everyone was ready to play.

The boys quickly decided they wanted to keep the same teams we had the week before, because the game had been very close and the losing team wanted a chance to redeem itself. This meant it was Bert, Jason, Ben and I against Simon, Colt, Ron and Gary, and we started out going full-court again.

The early pace of the game was fast and furious, and I did my best to keep up. Even though I was giving it everything I had, it still usually took me a second or two longer than the rest of them to get from one end of the court to the other, but my teammates covered for me until I got there. The game had been fairly nip and tuck the whole way, when suddenly Colt stole the ball from Jason and headed toward the basket to score. Out of nowhere, Bert went charging after him and blocked his lay-up. The problem was, not only had he blocked Colt’s shot, but he also crashed into Colt and sent him sprawling on the blacktop. Colt immediately leaped back to his feet and charged Bert, which caught us all by surprise, so some of the others jumped in between and physically separated the pair.

“What’s the matter, you wuss?” Bert taunted Colt. “Can’t you handle a little contact?”

“That was not a little contact, it was an intentional foul,” Colt screamed back. “You meant to take me down and you did.”

“Maybe I did,” Bert conceded, defiantly, “but I also blocked your shot, which shows I was going for the ball.”

When it looked as if things were going to get heated again, Jason jumped in between the pair and slowly got them to calm down, but Bert continued his arrogant strutting around the court. This only kept the fire simmering in Colt’s eyes and his temper smoldering, so the rest of us kept a close eye on the pair, because we were fearful another skirmish would break out again at any second.

The biggest difference between this game and the previous one was that Ben’s shooting hand had gone cold and he wasn’t scoring nearly as well as he had the previous week. This meant the rest of us had to make up for his scoring slump, and although I was dragging, I did my best to help pick up the slack. Over the next few minutes, I manage to score a few times, which helped our cause, but it wasn’t quite enough, so my team was trailing.

The more tired I got, the slower I moved and Gary took advantage of my lethargy. He was much quicker than I was to begin with, but now I was even a step or two slower than before, so Gary was able to shed me easily and broke free for a shot, but fortunately he missed it. Bert came down with the rebound, and as Colt ran past him, Colt took a playful swipe at the ball, in an attempt to knock it free. Colt didn’t even come close to touching the ball, but Bert reacted and threw an elbow, which caught Colt squarely on the jaw and knocked him to the blacktop again.

Colt was furious and rocketed back to his feet. I could see blood flowing from his mouth, as he stormed toward Bert, ready to throw a punch at Bert’s head. Since I realized what he was about to do, I moved quicker than I thought I could and managed to grab Colt’s arm, thus preventing a fight from breaking out. This was supposed to be a fun game among friends, not a donnybrook.

“What the hell was that about?” Colt screamed, as I restrained him.

“You tried to steal the ball, so I reacted and tried to prevent you from doing that,” Bert sneered.

He seemed exceedingly pleased with himself, so I thought I’d better defuse the situation.

“Let’s take a timeout,” I suggested. “Colt you come with me to the water fountain, so you can rinse out your mouth. Then I’ll check and see how badly you might have been injured.”

Reluctantly, Colt gave in, but only after I nearly dragged him away, in an effort to get him to comply.

“Did you see that?” he asked, as soon as we moved away from the others.

“Of course I did,” I responded. “Now, rinse your mouth out and let me have a look inside, so I can see if there’s any damage.”

“What the fuck is his problem today?” Colt asked, before he did as I’d requested. “That’s twice he’s gone out of his way to hurt me.”

“I noticed, but there is a chance that both incidents might have just been accidental,” I offered, although I didn’t truly believe what I was saying. “He was going for the ball the first time and he might have just swung his elbows in an instinctive move to keep you from knocking the ball away from him.”

“Bullshit,” Colt screamed in response. “He was out to nail me both times and that’s exactly what he did.”

“Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt,” I suggested. “I don’t want our friendly game to end up as a battle.”

“Well, if it does,” Colt countered, “it will be his fault, not mine.”

I had never seen Colt this upset, and although I couldn’t blame him, I didn’t want this escalating into something worse.

“Just rinse your mouth out, so I can see how bad it is,” I ordered, while watching Colt glare at Bert, just before he did as I asked.

I quickly checked Colt over and discovered a small cut on his lip and another on the inside of his cheek. These seemed to be his only injuries from the encounter, other than his head might be a little sore from the contact with Bert’s elbow and he might end up with a headache later. I told him to rinse his mouth out again, get a drink and cool down, but I could tell he was still pissed about what had happened, even though he didn’t seem quite as volatile as he was a few minutes before. After we rejoined the others, I learned they had decided to declare the other team the winner, which was the team with Simon, Colt, Ron and Gary. Seeing that game was over, the boys picked new teams, so we could play again.

This time Bert, Ben, Gary and Colt made up one team, with Simon, Jason, Ron and I on the other. I think the boys felt there would be less hostility if Colt and Albert played on the same team, but that decision merely led to other problems. Neither Bert nor Colt were willing to pass the ball to the other one and each went out of his way to make the other look bad. Due to this fact, my team jumped to a very a sizeable lead, because the other team never provided us with much competition. That’s why the rest of the boys eventually decided it might be best if we stopped playing today and I agreed wholeheartedly with their decision.

Although I kept an eye on Colt, just to make sure he didn’t go after Albert again, in an attempt to get even, but he made no move in that direction. I got both boys into the car and started to drive away, when Colt started ranting again.

“What the fuck was up with Albert?” he asked Jason.

Jason looked almost panicked, as if he was afraid to answer, but he eventually did.

“Bert always plays a little rougher than he probably should, because he doesn’t like to lose,” Jason explained, although I don’t think that was what Colt wanted to hear. “You just can’t take it personally.”

“How the hell am I not supposed to take it personally?” Colt shot back. “I was the only one he smashed in the face with his elbow or that he knocked to the blacktop. He never did anything like that to anyone else, just to me.”

Jason didn’t respond to Colt’s last comment and both boys remained silent during the rest of the ride home. As I watched them go into the house, I hoped Colt would continue to remain calm and we’d be able to enjoy the remainder of the weekend in peace.