The Castaway Hotel: Next Generation Book 3 - 47. Small Gains

When we arrived home after work on Monday, I stayed in the car and asked Brandon to send Owen out so I could take him to exchange his bus ticket. As soon as Owen joined me, I asked if he had his ticket with him and he showed me he did, so we took off to see how this was going to work out. When we got to the bus station we had to stand in a short line to be waited on, and when we got to the window Owen handed the man his ticket and explained what he wanted to do.

“I called the bus company and they told me I could exchange this ticket for a one-way ticket home a week later.”

“Yes, I can do that for you, but it will cost a little more.”

“They told me that too, but I need to do this.”

The man told Owen how much more he would have to pay, which wasn’t as much as I feared. Owen took out his wallet, removed a few bills, and handed them to the clerk, who quickly printed out another ticket. I had Owen check it over to make certain the destination and dates were correct, and then we left to return home.

“Thanks for doing this for me,” Owen said as we were walking back to the car.

“It was my pleasure and it went much better than I thought.”

“Yeah, I was afraid it was going to cost more than that.”

“I did too.”

When we reached the house, Owen raced inside to tell Ryan the good news. Initially, I was shocked that Ryan hadn’t gone with us, but I quickly discovered there was a reason for that. Owen told me on the ride to the bus station that as soon as we arrived home from work that he and Ryan had heard Holly and Noah agree to play some games in the rec room while we were gone. Ryan wasn’t about to let that happen and leave the two of them alone, so he told Owen that he was going to stay behind and see if he could play too.

When pressed, Owen confessed that Ryan knew there was a chance that Holly might not be romantically interested in either of them. Even knowing that, he wasn’t about to give Noah an opportunity to increase his chances that she might become interested in him. Instead, Ryan told Owen to go without him and he’d find out how things went when we got back.

Once we went inside, I took a few minutes to say hello to everyone else, and then I went upstairs to change. When I came downstairs again, Dad signaled for me to come to his bedroom so he could speak with me alone.

“I’ve already mentioned this to Brandon, but I discovered something this morning that I thought you should know about. During the day I saw that Brandon had done a load of laundry last night, but after he folded everything he left the laundry basket setting on top of the dryer. I thought I’d take care of it for him and put the various items in the appropriate rooms. I decided to take care of Holly’s things first, since her room was right around the corner, and after I placed them on her bed I noticed that two of the cards she got for her birthday were open on her desk. I glanced down to see which cards were there and discovered they were the ones from Ryan and Noah.”

“I take it from your reaction that you saw more than just their names.”

“I didn’t intend to spy on her, but the cards were right there so I read the notes the boys had written to her. I assumed that’s why she’d left the cards out on her desk, so she could read them over and over again.”

“So what did the boys write in her cards?”

“Noah’s message read, ‘I hope you will think of me every time you put this ring on your finger, even if we’re far apart at the time’.”

“Now I understand why she put his card back in the envelope. What about Ryan’s card?”

“That one read, ‘I couldn’t pass up the chance to buy you a gift that’s as lovely you’.”

“And that explains why she didn’t want us to see his card either. I have to give them credit, though, because I’m sure their gifts and messages would have charmed any girl they were interested in. I just hope the conversations I’ve had with each one has made them realize that she may not feel the same way about them.”

“I’m not so sure about that, because she seems to enjoy spending time alone with each of them.”

“If we’re lucky that’s only due to the fact that she’s the only girl in the house and they’re the two closest to her in age.”

“It’s possible, so I hope that’s all it is. I’m afraid that if she chooses one over the other then it may cause a problem.”

“I agree, and I’m not sure what would be worse – she chooses one or she rejects them both. Either way, I’m afraid that Brandon and I will have to deal with one of two situations, and neither one will be good. I’m afraid the boys will either become involved in a feud or we’ll be required to console one or both of them.”

“I pity you no matter which of those outcomes you end up dealing with.”

“Thanks, and I don’t look forward to performing either of those tasks.”

Once we finished our conversation, Dad went to rejoin Brandon and Trey as they finished making dinner. When I walked by the kitchen a few seconds later, Brandon gave me a look that told me he was just as concerned about how this might work out as well.

After dinner, Brandon and I spent some time with the kids before we went upstairs to read to the younger boys, tuck them in bed, and then make our rounds to say goodnight to the others. When Brandon and I got to our bedroom, we finally had a chance to talk about what Dad had told us.

“I’ve got to give Noah and Ryan credit, because those messages were very romantic,” Brandon began. “I know I might have fallen for someone who gave me a gift and a card with a similar sweet message written inside.”

“You did,” I shot back, “but what do you think we should do about it?”

“I’m glad we know what they wrote to her, but for now I think we should just keep an eye on the situation and see how things play out. It’s been over two weeks since her birthday and nothing outrageous has happened yet, and if things continue on like this we might not have to step in or do anything.”

“Ok, I agree with you, but I hope we’re reading the situation correctly.” I then told Brandon what Owen had revealed about why Ryan hadn’t gone with us to the bus station.

“That is troubling, but I still think we should just monitor their activities closely and see if anything else occurs.” I agreed with him and we got ready for bed.

When we got home the next evening, we kept an eye on Holly, rather than trying to follow both boys. We took the chance that this would only escalate if Holly was caught in between them, so we took turns focusing on her. This included Dad, Pop, Dion, and Trey as well, because they had all volunteered to give us a hand.

None of us noticed anything over the course of the evening, but the others continued keeping an eye on the situation when Brandon and I went upstairs to read to the younger boys. When we made our rounds to say goodnight to the others later, no one seemed upset or anxious, so we slept soundly that evening.

When we walked into the house after work on Wednesday, the younger boys came racing out to meet us. They appeared to be very excited, so we wondered if there was a problem, but we didn’t have long to wait before we found out.

“When we went to change the pads in the carrier this morning, one of them was dry,” Tristan explained. “I think it means that Flash didn’t pee on it last night.”

“Why do you think it was Flash?” Brandon asked.

“Cuz she always sleeps in the back and Dobby stays in the front, near the door.”

“So did she pee when you took her outside?” I asked this to see if there might be a medical explanation for why she hadn’t urinated.

“Yep, as soon as she got outside on the grass,” Hunter answered.

“Even though she’s still young, she’s technically old enough to start controlling her bladder. I know because I checked the age range for when they might be able to get through the night without urinating. I did it when I was researching the subject after we decided to get the puppies in the first place.”

“I think your rambling and talking over their heads,” Brandon warned.

“Right, what I mean is there’s a good chance that she was able to make it through the night without having an accident. Now we just have to see if she’s able to do it again tonight.”

“Ok,” the boys agreed before they took off, and then Brandon looked at me and made an admission.

“When I saw the boys rushing out to greet us, I was worried they were coming out to tell us that Ryan and Noah had been fighting.”

“I know. I had a similar thought when I saw how excited they were. At least it was good news, not bad.”

“Yes, this time, but what will it be next time?”

“Let’s pray it never gets any worse.”

After we said a quick hello to everyone else and had checked in with Dad, we went upstairs to change. When we came down again a few minutes later, Dion asked to speak with us.

“Any ideas about what we might do with the boys this weekend?”

“I was thinking that maybe we could take them to one of the state parks and go for a hike or a swim in the lake. I think everyone is a good enough swimmer to do that.”

“The only problem with your idea is that the weather forecast for Saturday doesn’t look good. There’s a seventy percent chance of thunderstorms.”

“Damn, I didn’t know that. We could probably have dealt with rain, but we can’t take a chance with thunderstorms. We’ll just have to do something indoors.”

“Let’s wait and see how things look on Friday, and then we can discuss this again at that time,” Brandon suggested.

“That’s not a bad idea, but we should have a back-up plan just in case of bad weather,” Dion recommended

“How about we go to the state park if it looks like it’s going to be a nice day,” I stated, “and if not we can do something indoors, such as taking them bowling or going to see a movie.”

“I like that idea,” Dion responded.

“And if the weather forecast is still for thunderstorms by Friday, we can ask the kids which of those things they’d prefer to do or see if they have something else for us to consider,” Brandon suggested. “If they want to go bowling then we won’t have to do anything to prepare for it, but if they want to see a move then we’ll go online and check out what’s playing. That way we won’t have to waste time doing it on Saturday afternoon, because we’ll be rushing around trying to eat lunch after we get home from work to ensure that we can get to the theater on time. Once the boys have decided which movie they want to see, we’ll make a note of the time it starts and which theater it’s at, and if they want to do something else we can follow a similar process.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Dion concurred before we ended our discussion.

During dinner, I noticed that Elliot wasn’t at the table, so I asked if anyone knew where he was. “Yes, he’s spending most of his time with Ian this week?” Dad answered.

“And he couldn’t come home to eat with us?”

“Cameron and Erin wanted the boys to have dinner with them, and then Elliot and Ian will spend the night here. It was a compromise they made with Ian’s parents.”

“Elliot’s upset that Ian is leaving for college on Saturday,” Noah informed us. “He says it’s not fair that Ian didn’t get home from Stanford until a month after he finished up at Yale, and now Ian is going to leave for Harvard two weeks before he has to return to Yale.”

“I’m beginning to understand what’s going on now, but why didn’t Elliot tell us this sooner?” I responded.

“It’s because Ian didn’t tell him until Monday,” Noah explained. “Elliot said Ian told him that he didn’t want to break the news sooner because he knew Elliot would be upset and it would ruin his summer. This way it only messed up one week and they got to enjoy four of the five weeks he was here.”

“I guess that’s one way of looking at it,” Trey muttered. “I just know that if it were me, I would have wanted to know this as soon as he did. That way we might be able to come up with another alternative.”

“Such as?” Pop challenged.

“Well, maybe Elliot could have gone to Harvard with Ian and spent the two weeks with him there. Then he could have driven to Yale and still made it in time for his first day of classes.”

“I’m not sure if that would have been an option, because Ian will be under a great deal of pressure and spending long hours in class and studying,” I offered. “Even if Elliot went to Harvard with him, I doubt if Ian would have been able to spend much time with Elliot.”

“Ok, maybe I’m wrong about working something out, but I still would have wanted to know sooner.”

“But I think Ian was merely keeping it from him because he thought it would be best for Elliot,” Brandon followed. “I know Elliot fairly well and I believe he would have let the knowledge of this bother him. It would have eventually begun to fester, until it turned into anger, and it would have ruined the rest of his summer. Hell, it might have even caused them to break up.”

“I agree with you,” Dad told Brandon. “After seeing how Elliot reacted to the news, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. I believe it would have ruined the entire summer for Elliot.”

“I just hope he perks up before he heads off to Yale, otherwise he might get off to a shaky start academically in law school,” I followed.

“Yes, we don’t want that to happen, so we’ll all have to do our best to perk him up before he heads back to Connecticut,” Dad agreed.

Now that we’d depressed the adults at the table we finished eating, and then Brandon and I went to spend time with the younger boys after they’d taken Dobby and Flash out for a walk.

“Did you remember to give them a treat after they did their business?”

“Yep, we take the bag of treats out with us and give them one just as soon as they pee or poop,” Hayden answered.

“Great, so what would you like to do now?”

“Ummm, would you go with us so we can take the dogs for a walk down the street?” Tristan asked. “I want to show Dobby and Flash to some of the other kids I know.”

“Sure, I suppose we could do that, as long as you boys don’t fight over who’s going to hold the leashes,” Brandon responded.

“We’ll take turns,” Wyatt offered.

“Yeah, two of us can hold onto them when we start out, and then the other two can take over on the way back,” Hunter suggested.

“Ok, that sounds fair, so who goes first?” I asked.

They talked it over and then answered my question. “I’ll do it first and then I’ll let Hunter do it next,” Hayden answered.

“And I’ll let Tristan go first, cuz he wants to show Dobby and Flash to his friends,” Wyatt added.

“I can definitely use the exercise, so go get the leashes and fasten them to their collars so we can get started.”

While they were doing that, I let Dad, Dion, and Trey know what we were going to do, so they wouldn’t worry if they couldn’t find one of us. Trey decided to go with us, so the three of us followed the boys as they walked the puppies down the street.

Every time we passed a house where someone was outside, the person would either make a comment about the puppies or walk over to see them. It didn’t make a difference if it was an adult or a child, because they basically did the same things, and Dobby and Flash seemed to enjoy meeting new people. Their tails would wag like a metronome clicking away while sitting on a piano, and they would lick the hand of anyone who petted them. They would also lick the legs of anyone wearing shorts, and this generally made any child it happened to giggle.

“They certainly are friendly,” one woman observed.

“Yes, they are, and this is the first time we’ve taken them away from the house,” Brandon replied.

“They’re definitely cute,” a man told us at another location.

“We think so too,” Trey confirmed.

The boys knew some of the kids who came over to see Dobby and Flash, and this included some of the kids Tristan had referred to earlier. We let the boys answer each of their questions, and we also let them explain how we got the puppies. In the end, our little stroll didn’t turn out to be the kind of walk you would take to lose weight or get in shape, due to the fact that we were constantly stopping and starting again. However, it was a nice day and we enjoyed being outdoors in the fresh air with the boys.

When Brandon, Trey, and I agreed that we had gone far enough, we had the boys give the leash to their partner, and then we walked back on the opposite side of the street. This meant we walked by different houses and other people came out to chat with us about the puppies, especially the kids who’d seen us earlier but weren’t old enough to cross the street on their own. Eventually we made it back to the house and the boys began telling everyone else about the things that had happened during our little excursion.

Once they finished, we sent them upstairs to shower and get ready for bed, and then we went up to read to them. After we finished, we went through our nightly ritual and made our rounds to say goodnight to each of the others. Elliot and Ian were in Elliot’s bedroom, so we decided to see how Elliot was doing.

“We heard the news about Ian leaving on Saturday, so how are you holding up?”

Elliot merely looked up at us with a pained expression on his face, so Ian answered for him. “He’s not taking it well, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I had to stay at Stanford until classes ended and I’d graduated, and now I have to drive to Harvard on Saturday because classes start on Monday.”

“It isn’t fair,” Elliot barked out as his anger began to rise.

“No, it’s not, but life isn’t always fair. Sometimes things are out of our control and we just have to make the best of it.”

“Yeah, I know, but the platitudes aren’t helping. I just wish he’d told me this as soon as he got back.”

“What good would that have done?” Brandon asked. “If he’d told you then, you’d probably have been upset all summer long, but at least this way you had some fun and the two of you were able to enjoy your birthday present at Hershey Park.”

“Yeah, I suppose.”

“So make the most of the time you have left,” I told him. “You have a choice – you can either be miserable until he leaves, or you can make some new memories that you can recall when you’re at Yale. It will help you survive until you’re back together again at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Trust me, Brandon and I went through the same thing.”

“Ok, I’ll try.”

“And I’ll do my best to help him,” Ian added.

We bid them goodnight, hoping we’d put Elliot in a better mood, and then we called it a night a short time later.

When we got home from work on Thursday evening, the boys announced that Flash had apparently made it through another night without peeing in the carrier. “Has she been peeing when you take her outside?” I followed.

“Yep, and she goes lots,” Hunter answered.

“That’s a good sign, and now we just have to wait and see when Dobby is able to do the same thing.”

“Will that mean we can stop puttin’ them in the carrier at night?” Wyatt followed.

“Possibly, but they’ll both have to go several nights without having an accident before we can do that.”

“Can they start sleepin’ upstairs with us then?” Tristan wanted to know.

“When they’re completely potty trained and can climb up and down the stairs safely on their own, we’ll buy a doggy bed that’s large enough for both of them to sleep in.”

“But we want Dobby and Flash to take turns sleepin’ in both of our rooms,” Hayden whined. “If they only have one bed they won’t be able to do that.”

“Unless they both sleep in one room one night and then go to the other room the next night,” Brandon suggested. “You’d just have to move their bed.”

“Can’t you buy two beds, so we can have one of them in our rooms every night?” Hunter followed.

“You have to think about what’s best for Dobby and Flash, not what’s best for you,” I replied. “They’re used to sleeping together, and I’m afraid they’d get upset if the other one wasn’t there with them.”

“They won’t be lonely if they sleep with us,” Wyatt suggested.

“I’m afraid that won’t happen until they can jump up on your bed and get down again on their own. Otherwise they could end up making a mess in your bed.”

“Ok, but I hope that happens soon,” he relented.

Since we’d answered all of their questions, Brandon and I went to our room to change. When we came down again, Dad signaled for us to join him.

“What’s up?” I asked once we were all together.

“I don’t know what you said to Elliot last night, but he seemed to be in much better spirits today. I just thought you’d like to know that your efforts were effective.”

“Thanks, and that’s good to hear.”

“They’re having dinner with us tonight, as well as sleeping here, and then Ian’s parents are taking him out to dinner tomorrow night and Elliot is invited to join them. They’ll be staying here tomorrow night as well, and then Elliot will drive Ian home in the morning so he can leave.”

“When will Ian pack his things and how will he be getting to Harvard.”

“Elliot said Ian’s getting his mother’s old car and driving there, and tomorrow Elliot is going to help him pack the car with the things that he’s taking with him.”

“He seems to be handling it better, so that’s a good sign,” Brandon stated.

“Yes, and I think you two deserve much of the credit.”

“We don’t care who gets the credit, as long as he’s not moping around the house until he leaves for Yale,” I replied.

Brandon and I then went to say hello to the rest of our family, and when we entered the rec room, the younger group quit the game they were playing and came over to see us.

“Flash didn’t pee in the carrier again,” Hunter announced.

“That’s great. One down and one to go.”

“Do you mean Dobby?” Hayden asked.

“I believe so, unless one of you is wetting the bed at night.”

“Nah, we haven’t done that since we were babies,” Wyatt responded.

“Yeah, or we wouldn’t be sleepin’ with each other if one of us did that,” Hunter confirmed.

We chatted with them until Elliot and Ian arrived, and then we went out to talk to them. “You appear to be in a better mood tonight,” Brandon said after we greeted them.

“Yeah, and you were right. We’ve been making lots of new memories to take with us,” he replied with a grin and a wink.

“We’re glad to hear that, but I think you gave us too much information,” I responded, but I was merely trying to make light of the situation.

We continued chatting with Elliot and Ian until Dad announced that dinner was ready, and then we went out to eat. The meal was delicious and everyone was in a really good mood, which lasted for the rest of the evening.

After we read to the younger boys, we made our rounds and stopped in Elliot’s room last. “We just wanted to say goodnight to you two before we turned in.”

“Thanks, and not just for saying goodnight. If I hadn’t listened to you I wouldn’t have had the fantastic time that I’ve shared with Ian today.”

“We’re just glad you’re in a better mood and you two are getting along again,” Brandon explained.

“Me too,” Ian added with a killer smile.

“Then we’ll leave you guys alone to make even more memories. Sweet dreams,” I told them, and then Brandon and I left and headed to our own room.