The Castaway Hotel: Next Generation Book 3 - 48. Problem Solving

When we got home from work on Friday night, as soon as we walked through the front door we noticed the younger boys were obviously excited about something. “Both of the pads in the carrier were dry this morning,” Hunter announced triumphantly.

“Wow! That means both of the puppies made it through the night without having an accident. That’s a good start, so now we just have to see if it continues.”

While we were chatting with the boys, I suddenly remembered about something else. When we finishing our discussion and the boys began taking off, I asked Revin to remain behind so we could talk to him about it. Tristan wanted to stay too, but I told him to go with the others and Revin would join him again shortly. He was reluctant to do as I asked, but eventually he left, and as soon as we were alone with Revin I began to speak.

“Revin, next week Tristan will be staying with you again, but the week after that you won’t be able to stay with us. We’ll be going away that weekend to attend a combination wedding/birthday party.”

“What am I s’posed to do then, cuz it will be my turn to be here?”

This was the reason I didn’t want Tristan to stay behind, because I knew Revin would be upset and I felt Tristan would only complicate the situation. I was hurriedly trying to think of a diplomatic way to explain this to Revin, but Brandon answered his question first.

“You’ll just have to spend the weekend with your mother. We’ll be back in time so you can stay at the house during the following week while your mom is at work, and then Tristan can spend the next weekend with you too.”

“Who’s wedding and birthday is it?”

“My brother Pat is getting married and he’s doing it on Grandpa Josh’s birthday,” I answered. “We’re celebrating both of those events at the same time.”

“He’s my grandpa too, so can I go with you?”

I looked at Brandon and he gave me a little shrug, because Revin was putting us in a tough spot and we didn’t know what to tell him. We didn’t mind if he came with us, but how would Becky react and would she allow him to go? I guess I’d have to go directly to the source for an answer.

“Let me talk to your mother about this when we’re at church on Sunday. I need to see what she thinks about the idea first.”

“Ok, but I’d really like to go with you guys.”

After we finished our conversation, we sent Revin to rejoin the other boys and Brandon and I then started up the stairs to go change. While we were walking up the steps, we ran into Elliot as he was on his way down.

“Wow, you’re all dressed up,” Brandon said after he whistled at Elliot. He looked really good in his suit and tie. “Do you have a hot date?”

“Something like that. Ian’s parents are taking him out for a farewell dinner and they’ve invited me to join them. We’ll be coming back here afterward, though.”

“Just have a good time and no drinking and driving,” I replied, and then Brandon and I each gave him a hug before he left.

When we came downstairs after we’d changed, Dion signaled that he wanted to speak with us, so we followed him into the dining room. “What’s up?” I began.

“The weather forecast for tomorrow hasn’t changed, so when do you want to give the kids the choice of what we’re going to do tomorrow?”

“Let’s do it at dinner.”

“Ok, that will work.”

After we finished talking to Dion, we went out to the rec room and found Ryan and Owen playing on the Xbox. “You’ve got to get some new games for this,” Ryan groused after we’d said hello to them.

“What’s wrong with the ones we’ve got?”

“Overcooked, Unravel, and Fru are good for the younger kids, but the rest of us need something with more of a punch.”

“Then why are you playing them?”

“It’s because the younger boys are hogging the PlayStation.”

“So you’re telling us that the PlayStation has better games?”

“Yeah, and we’ve had it longer so we have more games to choose from too.”

“Any suggestions for the Xbox then?”

“Yeah, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Halo 5: Guardians, and Fallout 4.”

“Well, you have a birthday coming up in October, so you can add those to your wish list.”

“Yeah, but Owen will be gone by then.”

“Ok, so what if I work out a deal with the younger boys to let you guys use the PlayStation until Owen leaves?”

“That would be great, but how are you going to convince them? They like using the PlayStation too.”

“Oh, I have my ways, so leave that up to me.”

“Deal, but we’ll still need some better games for this too.”

“Like I said, add them to your wish list for your birthday.”

We were just about ready to leave them alone when we heard Dad announce that dinner was ready, so the four of us went out to eat. After everyone had filled his plate, I decided to ask my question.

“Tomorrow isn’t supposed to be a very nice day, so we’ll have to do something indoors. Would you boys prefer to go bowling or see a movie, or is there something else you’d prefer to do?”

There wasn’t a consensus at first, so the boys started doing some wheeling and dealing with each other. In the end they agreed to see a movie, so we just had to decide which one.

“After you finish eating, grab your laptops and look up what’s playing, and then we’ll make our decision about which one we’ll go to.”

They all agreed, so we finished our meal. As soon as they were done, the boys took off to do as I’d asked. Before long they came back, and once again they weren’t all in agreement. After discussing their suggestions, we whittled it down to two choices, so Dion, Trey, Brandon, and I sat down to talk it over amongst ourselves. When we reached an agreement, we told the boys what we were going to do.

“We’ll go to the matinee tomorrow, and Brandon and Trey have agreed to take Wyatt, Hayden, Hunter, Tristan, and Revin to see Christopher Robin.”

“Yay, I like Winnie the Pooh and Tigger,” Wyatt shouted.

“We do too, cuz our mom used to read those stories to us,” Hunter added.

“That’s great,” I responded as I attempted to regain control of the discussion. “While you’re doing that, Dion and I will go with the rest of you to see Equalizer 2.”

“Isn’t that an ‘R’ rated movie?” Trey asked. “Don’t you think Joshie and Benny should go with us instead?”

“No way!” Joshie protested. “We want to see Equalizer 2. We’d rather stay home than watch Christopher Robin.”

“They’ll be fine with us,” Dion assured his husband. “If you think about it, they’re more mature than you’re giving them credit for.”

It was clear to Brandon and me that Dion was referring to the fact that the boys were sexually active to some extent. That also reminded me that Dion and I still needed to sit down with them to discuss their request about allowing them to have anal sex. I was surprised they hadn’t mentioned it to us again, so I hoped they hadn’t started doing it on their own.

Once this had been decided, we kept the younger boys behind so we could talk to them about something else. “Dobby and Flash are old enough and getting big enough so they don’t need to be fed four times a day any longer. Starting tomorrow we’ll only feed them three times a day, which means we’ll be cutting out the 3:00 p.m. feeding.”

“So they’ll be eatin’ at the same time we do,” Hunter stated.

“Yes, so you’ll just need to feed them before you sit down to eat, but there’s another change as well. We’re going to be cutting back on how much can food we give them. You’ll still use that for their first meal of the day, and you’ll be giving them more than you did before, but you’ll give them dry food for the next two meals. We bought a bag and Grandpa Josh will show you how much to put in their bowls.”

“Ok, we’ll do that then,” Hayden agreed. “Are we done now?”

“No, there’s something else we want to talk to you about as well. We did you boys a favor by buying the Xbox so you’d be able to spend more time playing games than watching the others play them. Now, we’re going to ask you to do us a favor.”

“What kind of favor?” Tristan immediately asked.

“Owen will be with us for one more week, so we’re asking you boys to let Ryan and Owen use the PlayStation whenever they want until Owen leaves. You’ll be able to use it if they’re not playing it, and you also have the Xbox out in the rec room. Ok?”

“Why can’t they just play that one instead?” Wyatt demanded.

“We bought it specifically for you boys, so the games we purchased were what we were told would appeal to you,” Brandon answered. “They aren’t the type of games the older boys like to play, but we have games for the PlayStation that they enjoy playing.”

“Ok, we can do that for one week,” Tristan agreed.

“Is he speaking for all of you?” I asked to make sure they were all in agreement.

“Yeah, we can do that for one week,” Hayden concurred.

“And we’ve got the puppies to play with too,” Hunter added.

“And I like playin’ those games on the Xbox,” Wyatt confirmed.

“Thank you for being so mature and cooperative about this.”

Now that we’d taken care of those two issues, we left the boys to do whatever they wanted while we went out to talk to Dad. “We told the boys that we were cutting the puppies back from four meals a day to three, and that the first would be the can food and the other two dry food. We also told them that you’d show them how much to give Dobby and Flash.”

“Ok and I saw you bringing in the bag of Blue Buffalo puppy food earlier.”

“And we bought a scoop to go with it. The guy said for now we should give them one scoop each at both meals, and when we cut them back to eating twice a day we should give them two scoops each.”

“Ok, then I’ll show the boys what to do.”

We then grabbed a cup of coffee each and joined Pop, Dion, and Trey so we could discuss upcoming events. This included getting Owen to the bus station a week from tomorrow, Pat’s wedding, and the fact that Noah and Elliot would both be leaving for college as soon as we got back from Pittsburgh.

“Aren’t you worried about them falling asleep behind the wheel, because we won’t be back until late afternoon?” Dad asked.

“We’ve discussed this with each of them and reached an agreement. It won’t be as bad for Noah, because he doesn’t have as far to travel, but they’re both going to sleep on the bus on the way back to help prevent that from happening later. Noah should be able to get to State College before he starts getting tired, and then he’ll check into a motel for the evening. He’ll set the alarm for early enough so he’ll be able to eat breakfast first and still get to the campus in time for orientation and registration.

“Elliot has agreed that he’ll only drive until he starts getting tired and then he’ll stop at a motel for the night. He’ll finish the trip in the morning and he should still be able to make it in time to attend the law school orientation and register for his classes.”

“Ok, that makes me feel better,” Dad confessed.

I then excused myself for a few moments so I could send the younger group upstairs to shower and get ready for bed. Once they were complying with my request, I returned to talk with the others about a few more issues. We then discussed Holly leaving for college and our plans for Labor Day weekend, and then we let the rest of them know that we’d be attending Parents and Family Weekend at Penn State in the middle of October.

“Damn, that’s going to be a busy month,” Pop observed.

“Yes, it will. We’ll have Wyatt, the twins’, and Ryan’s birthdays, Parent and Family Weekend at Penn State, getting Dobby neutered and Flash spayed, and Halloween to deal with.”

“Are you planning on having the Haunted House again?” Dion asked.

“We planned on talking it over with the boys to see what they thought about it. Basically we’ll just have Ryan, Benny, and Joshie to help get things ready and then oversee the different attractions, because the others are too young and we’d rather see them go through it.”

“Maybe Ryan has some friends who would want to help. Noah’s friends liked to give us a hand,” Trey pointed out.

“That’s true and I’ll have to ask Ryan about it.”

When we finished our little chat, Brandon and I headed upstairs to read to the boys. As soon as we reached the end of the chapter, we tucked the boys in, kissed them on the forehead, and said goodnight. We then made our way to say goodnight to the others, and when we got to Ryan’s room we shared some good news.

“We talked to the younger boys and they’ve agreed to let you use the PlayStation whenever you want until Owen leaves.”

“How the hell did you pull that off? I didn’t think they’d ever agree to it.”

“I told you I had my ways, but I also made some promises to them too. I said they could use it whenever you weren’t on it, so if they happen to be playing a game when you get there, be kind enough to let them finish their game before you take over.”

“Yeah, ok. We can do that.”

“Thanks for doing this, Dr. Currie,” Owen added. “And thank you for letting me stay an extra week.”

“You’re welcome, so enjoy it while it lasts. Sweet dreams and goodnight.”

After we said goodnight to Noah next, we noticed that Elliot’s door was closed so we decided not to bother him and Ian. I saw them returned home while we were meeting with the others in the dining room, and they didn’t say anything at that time and merely headed upstairs to Elliot’s room. We felt we knew what they were up to and decided to leave them alone and let them enjoy the evening together.

The next morning, Ian and Elliot came downstairs before Brandon and I left for work, so we got to say goodbye to Ian before he left town. Elliot said they were going out to have breakfast together before he took Ian home, and he also stated that he’d be home by the time we got back. We told Ian to drive safely, seeing we knew the roads would be wet and slippery, and then we said we’d see him again over the holidays. After we finished saying our goodbyes to him, we headed to the health center.

When we returned home later, we had lunch with everyone, and Elliot was there as well, so we asked if he wanted to join us when we went to the movies. He inquired about which movie we were going to see, and after we told him he agreed to go with us to see Equalizer 2.

Shortly after we finished eating, we drove three vehicles to take everyone to the cinema complex, and then after purchasing the tickets we split up to go to two different theaters. We met up again when the movies ended and discussed what we thought.

”How was your movie?” Brandon asked first.

“It was violent and had some questionable language and activities, hence the ‘R’ rating, but I enjoyed it. Denzel Washington played the lead character and did a great job, and there were some really unique action scenes too.”

“It was bloody, but awesome,” Noah agreed.

“One guy had his eyes gouged out and another was shot with a spear gun,” Joshie added, which caused Trey to visibly cringe.

“Yeah and there was a lot of stabbing and shooting,” Benny added.

“I liked the car crashes,” Owen stated.

“I thought the big explosion was really neat,” Ryan offered.

“There was a lot going on and it was really exciting,” Elliot followed.

“How about you, Holly? You haven’t said anything yet,” Pop pointed out.

“It was ok, but I didn’t like it as much as the boys.”

“How about you, Dion?” Pop continued.

“I don’t have any regrets about going to see it,” Dion added, “or for letting Joshie go with us.” We knew he’d added that last comment for Trey’s benefit, and then he directed his next comment to his husband. “So how was your movie?”

“It was cute,” was Trey’s abbreviated answer.

“It was about Christopher Robin, but he was all grown up?” Hunter stated with a touch of disdain in his voice.

“But we got to see Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore,” Hayden added.

“And there were a lot of old cars. There was a war going on too,” Wyatt observed.

“It’s because those things were happening at the same time Christopher Robin’s father was writing the stories about Pooh,” Brandon informed him.

“Yeah, it was during World War II. We learned about that in school,” Tristan confirmed. “And I liked the movie.”

“Me too, and it showed Pooh and the others as stuffed animals that talked,” Revin concurred.

“That’s because Christopher Robin’s father wrote the story using his son’s stuffed animals for inspiration,” Brandon clarified.

“It was still good and I’m glad I saw it,” Hayden followed.

“Me too,” both Hunter and Wyatt confessed.

“Then I guess you boys chose wisely, since everyone seemed to enjoy the movie they went to,” Dad concluded.

“Yeah, even us old guys like the movie we saw,” Pop offered, since they had gone to Equalizer 2 with us.

“Then I think it’s time we head home,” I suggested.

When we reached the house, I pulled Dion aside after the others had gone off to do other things. “I think you and I need to have a chat with Benny and Joshie tonight after they go upstairs to get ready for bed. We never had that discussion with them about anal sex, and I think we’ve put it off long enough.”

“I forgot all about it,” he confessed. “Why didn’t they mention it to us again?”

“Possibly they thought it was our way of telling them we didn’t want them to start doing it yet, or it could be they’ve gone ahead without our advice.”

“Shit, I hope that isn’t what happened.”

“I agree, but if it happened that way obviously neither one was hurt, because I didn’t hear any complaints about either one having a sore rectum.”

“Do you think they would have said anything even if they did?”

“I’m sure it would have been painful enough to seek help, and I hope they would have come to me about it, seeing I’m a doctor.”

“Yes, you’re probably right. Who else could they have confronted about something of that nature?”

We never mentioned this to the boys, but I told Brandon he’d have to read to the younger boys tonight because I had something else to do. I then explained what it was, so he said he’d cover for me.

The rest of the day proceeded normally and everyone remained in a fairly upbeat mood, even Elliot, although it appeared there was something on his mind. It was a short time later when he asked if he could speak with me alone, and I agreed, so we headed up to my bedroom to chat.

“What’s up?”

“I just wanted to apologize and warn you that we’re probably not going to finish working on the tree house before I return to Yale. We’ve all had a lot going on, so it’s been tough to find time when the three of us could get together to work on it, and now we’re busy preparing for other things as well.”

“That’s fine, because the boys haven’t mentioned anything about it either, since they’ve had a lot going on too, so it can wait.”

“Grandpa Jake said he’ll help us cover what we’ve done so far with tarps to protect it, and then we’ll finish it just as soon as Noah and I return home next summer. It’s going to be twice as big as the old one and we’ll have it done before the boys get out of school next year.”

“Ok, that sounds good, and thanks for keeping me informed.”

The rest of the evening passed quietly, and eventually it was time to send the boys upstairs to get ready for bed. While Joshie and Benny were in the shower, Dion and I waited for them in their room. They were surprised when they returned and found us in their bedroom.

“Is something wrong?” Joshie asked as they both stood naked in the doorway.

“No problem, but we just remembered that we forgot about a promise that we’d made to you boys,” Dion responded.

“Promise about what?” Benny asked.

“We promised that we’d talk to you about how you should prepare yourselves before having anal sex,” I followed. “Have you done that yet?”

“No, we thought you didn’t come back to talk with us about it because you didn’t think we were ready to do it yet,” Benny confessed.

“That was part of it, but it was also due to the fact that we’ve had a lot of other things on our minds,” Dion replied.

“So are you going to tell us about it now?” Joshie followed.

“If you boys are still interested in doing that,” I agreed.

“Fuck, yes!” Joshie shouted, and then he noticed his father frown. “Is that look on your face because of what I said, or because of what we want to do?”

“It was my unconscious reaction to your language, but seeing we’re going to be letting you do that very thing, I guess I shouldn’t say anything about you using that word – this time. Just don’t get in the habit of using it, especially at school.”

“Ok, I won’t.”

We then had a fairly lengthy discussion with them and it was very similar to the chat I’d had with Ryan and Owen when they first became involved with anal sex. We explained how they should stretch each other first, and I told them I’d dig out the dildos that Ryan and Owen had used, since they’d always used a condom with them. When we finished, we asked if they had any questions, and then we answered each one before I asked both boys to make a couple of promises. The first was that they’d tell me if they experienced any problems or had any pain, and the other was that they wouldn’t actually do this until after Joshie’s thirteenth birthday. Once they agreed, we bid them both good night before I went to see how Brandon had made out with the other group.

“The boys wanted to know where you were and I merely told them that you had something else to do, and that seemed to suffice. How did your errand go?”

“Very well, and I think we should expect that they’ll probably start doing it soon, although they agreed to only practice with the dildos until Joshie’s birthday. He turns thirteen in a little over a month, and Dion wanted him to hold off until then.”

“I’m glad they agreed,” he responded, and then we got ready for bed.