The Castaway Hotel - 2 - 34. Chapter 34 - All's Well That Ends Well

I was lying on the bed, starting to drift off to sleep, as they entered. When I heard the door open, I opened my eyes and was thrilled to see my boys again. They walked in and surrounded my bed, each one reaching out to touch me somewhere. Sally stood just slightly inside the entrance, watching us and smiling.

The boys were all talking at once, telling me how worried they had been and wanting to know how I was doing. I informed them I was a little sore, but otherwise felt fine. I explained what the doctors had told me earlier, which was that I could probably come home in a few days, although I would have some difficulty getting around for a while. It’s possible I downplayed what the doctors had said, but I didn’t want the boys to go home and agonize about me all evening. They didn’t need that and I didn’t want to have to worry about them losing sleep over me.

Quietly, Cole and Graham worked their way up beside me and handed me a small bag. I took it from them, thanked them and opened it. It was one of those little statues that said, ‘The World’s Greatest Dad.” Tears started streaming down my cheeks the moment I saw it, so I just looked up and thanked them as best I could. That’s when Graham announced it was from all of them and I just smiled and said, “I know.”

The boys visited for a short time, before the nurse came in to shoo them out, telling them that I needed my rest. They all came over and kissed me good night, with Andrew, Sammy and Graham needing a helping hand from their brothers to be able to reach me without jiggling my body or bumping my wounds. I kissed each and every one of them, thanked Sally for all of her help and bid them all sweet dreams. It wasn’t long after they left that my medications kicked in and I drifted off, into the land of oblivion.

Once they left the hospital, Sally quickly drove over to her place, so she could pack up a few items she would need for a stay at our place. She threw together only what she needed for overnight and would pick up more after work tomorrow, before she collected the boys again. At that time she planned to take enough to last her for a couple of weeks or more, because she felt she might need to stay there even after I got home, since I probably wouldn’t be able to do very much for a while.

After they got home, the boys all helped to take care of each other and made sure that everyone remembered to wear clothes at all times. There was a great deal of doubling and tripling up in beds that evening, as everyone desired company. Each of them was still upset about what had happened earlier and, therefore, didn’t want to spend the night alone.

Kevin and Dustin spent the night cuddled together and clinging to each other, while Ricky, Cole, Graham, Sammy and Andrew slept together on the king-size bed in the jungle room. Cole and Graham had Andrew securely tucked between them, since he was so upset, while Ricky kept Sammy wrapped under his arm most of the evening. Trey bunked in with Dion, and Pat slept in Danny’s room, so no one was alone – except for Aunt Sally, who slept in my room.

Before everyone went up to bed, Sally suggested they each say a special prayer, thanking God for letting me survive the attack. It didn’t take much to convince them to follow her advice, so the boys all did it together, in the upstairs hallway, before going to their rooms.

I don’t remember much about that evening in the hospital, since I was so drugged up, and the next day I spent much of my time alone. Sally understood I would have wanted the boys to go to school and resume their normal activities, and she went back to work, after promising she’d pick them up later in the day and bring them for another visit with me. Therefore, I had plenty of time to think about a great many things.

The first thing was to consider my mortality and start making plans for the boys, in case something worse should happen to me. I would discuss this with my older children too, to see if they had any suggestions, since I wanted to make certain the boys would be able to stay together. It would be tough enough for them if they lost me, without having to worry about losing each other in the process too. I was now committed to getting this done soon, just to be on the safe side.

After that, I began to consider if I should retire early, possibly even taking a disability related retirement, due to my injuries. I finally decided that would be much too drastic a reaction to what happened and decided to keep my job, and everything else, just the way it was.

The next decision was when I should schedule having the artificial knee put in. I made a tentative choice of a date, but I would have to talk to Sally first, as she would be the one getting stuck holding down the fort until I got better. I wanted to make sure this fit into her schedule as well, as I was already imposing on her far more than I felt I should.

As things worked out, Sally popped in to see me at lunchtime. She also had Steve Shay in tow. They both asked how I was feeling and promised me the boys would be taken care of and everything else was fine. Steve was also helping to run errands with the boys and taking care of anything else Sally needed a hand with. After several minutes of this and other mundane matters, they began to inquire into the details about what had happened the day I got shot. Steve wanted to know how I was feeling about what should happen to the boy who shot me, which seemed logical consideration for a family court judge. I informed him that the boy had been acting out of frustration and the intended victim had been harassing both him and Cole. I then explained that I felt the boy who did the shooting should receive psychological counseling, but no punitive sentence. When he thought I was hinting about what he should do, Steve quickly explained that he wouldn’t be handling this case, because of our friendship, but he would relay my suggestions, through unofficial channels, to the family court judge who would be filling in.

I then discussed possible operation dates with both of them, seeing they were both planning to help cover for me during my convalescence, and we came up with several possible dates, depending upon the doctor’s schedule. I asked Sally to let the boys know I was fine and she just laughed and confirmed she wouldn’t be able to keep them away from the hospital with several teams of horses. She informed me she’d be bringing them all over after she got out of work and I would be able to tell them myself.

Sally then told me about how my gift was selected the previous evening, along with some of the discussion that had taken place before they settled on that little statue. She said the boys were worried about much more than just what would happen to them and that there greatest concerns were about me. They were primarily worried if I’d have any long-term effects from the shooting and hoped I didn’t become an invalid due to what happened. She emphasized that even though they did occasionally refer to possibly being split up or things of that nature, their main focus was on the fact that I recover completely, without any long-term disabilities, even if that meant we might not be together for a period of time. I was deeply touched by that information.

Sally then informed me about how she woke up in the middle of the night and decided to go upstairs and check on the boys. My first thought was I’d hoped they wore something to bed and she didn’t catch them in any compromising positions, but the boys seemed to be one step ahead of me on that front. She then explained who had slept where and with whom, for comfort, and she thought it was sweet that they had all taken care of each other. From her lack of negative reaction to her account, I assumed they had all been dressed appropriately and no one was engaged in any activities that might arouse suspicion.

As we were talking, one of the nurses came in and turned on my television, as there was something she thought I might like to see. It was then that I discovered the shooting had even garnered national attention. It wasn’t a lead story, because no one was killed, but it did receive a small mention on each channel’s news broadcast, and later in nearly every national publication of prominence. I think that was due, in part, to the earlier attention we’d received for our unique family composition.

The boys told me later that I was being portrayed as a hero for saving Henry Prosser from getting shot, possibly even killed. The anchorpersons were saying how selflessly I had acted and the boys told me how very proud they were of me, before admonishing me to never do anything like that again.

I replied, “Yes, daddies,” in my best childish voice, but no one laughed. Instead, they informed me they were serious and didn’t want to have to worry about me like this again.

“We like the idea of you being a hero and all,” Kevin told me, “but I think we’d all rather just have our dad. We don’t need no stinking super hero,” he added, in his best Cheech imitation, which brought a round of chuckles from the others, “but we do need you,” he added, in a more serious tone.

“Dad, if something like that happens again,” Pat informed me, “could you please let someone else handle it? We don’t want to have to go through this ever again.”

I looked at them and knew how they were feeling, but I didn’t want to give them false hope. Instead, I was honest with them. “In the future, I will be more careful in similar situations, if they should come up,” I agreed, “but if it comes to saving one of your lives or the life of another child, I can’t say that I wouldn’t do the same thing all over.”

“I guess we knew that’s what you were going to say,” Ricky confessed, “but we had to try. It’s just that we don’t want anything to ever happen to you.” I think a few tears slid down my cheeks at that point.

“I’m deeply touched by your concern,” I admitted, “and I will try to be much more careful in any similar situations. Will that do?” They all agreed and everyone seemed happy.

After a couple of hours, I informed them I had to get some rest and they needed to go eat. After having Danny get my wallet from the nurse on duty, I gave my credit card to Sally and told her to use it to cover all of their expenses. She said she hadn’t been concerned about such trivial details, but I knew I felt better knowing she had it. As they got ready to leave, I got another round of kisses and a great many ‘get well soon’ wishes.

When the doctor came in the next day, we scheduled my knee surgery. Since he thought I was doing well, he would just keep me in the hospital until it was done, three days hence. The doctor told me that not only was my quick recovery helpful and the fact I was still fairly young, but it was more important that I had kept myself in decent shape. I joked that it wasn’t hard to stay in shape, with eleven sons to chase around, which caused him to laugh. He then added he didn’t need to hear the details about what I had to do to keep up with them, before admitting he didn’t plan to ever have that many children, so he’d never find out that way either.

On my third night in the hospital, I had another surprise visitor. Sally and the boys had just left a few minutes before to go and get dinner, when in walked Hank Prosser and his parents. We exchanged greetings and then Mr. Prosser got the ball rolling.

“Hank, what do you want to tell Mr. Currie?” he prodded.

“Mr. Currie, I just wanted to thank you for saving me from Eddie the other day,” he uttered, in almost a whisper. The whole time he was speaking, he was looking at the side of my mattress and not at me.

“And what else did you want to say?” his father encouraged him, again.

“That I know what happened was mostly my fault, because I picked on him… a lot,” he added. “I promise I won’t do that ever again and I’m really sorry.”

“Are you promising that you just won’t do this to Eddie again, or do you mean you won’t do this to any of the other children?” I asked him.

“To anyone,” he responded, without looking up. “That includes Cole too.” As he confirmed that, he looked up and locked onto my eyes for the first time.

“We’ve learned a lot about what Hank has been doing,” his mother added, “and we’re going to make certain it doesn’t happen again. We hadn’t known any of this prior to the shooting, but Eddie Weeks and his parents have filled us in on much of it since then. We won’t say that what Eddie did was right, but we can see that Hank helped provoke his response.”

“We want you to accept our apology, as well as Hank’s,” his father continued. “We feel responsible for his actions and, therefore, partially responsible for what happened to you. Hank is going to repay all of the children he took money from and he’s going to apologize to them and their parents in person. He also got a good ass whoopin’ for what he did, but I think that knowing he was almost shot because of his actions was enough to scare him into not repeating his mistakes.”

As I looked at them, I considered what they’d said. I’d known the Prossers for some time, as Hank had both an older and younger sister, and they were good working class parents who had always shown a great concern for their children. They had always been an active part of the school community, attending school functions and actively taking part in parent-teacher conferences. That’s how I knew they would be true to their word.

“Hank, I hope you’ve learned an important lesson from this,” I told him. “There’s an old saying that says, ‘what goes around, comes around.’ It almost came around to you in the worst possible way. I was going to be speaking with you that afternoon anyway, because Cole and I were discussing what you were doing to him again, when I heard the commotion in the hall. You’re lucky that Cole had kept me in my office to tell me about his problem or I might not have been around to help you.”

“Yes, sir. I’m sorry and you can whoop my butt too,” he agreed, “when you come back to school. I know I deserve it.”

“I’m not sure that will be necessary, if you’ve truly learned your lesson,” I informed him, to his extreme relief. I wasn’t sure if it was his idea to add that offer or if his parents had suggested it to him before they arrived. Either way, I think he was grateful it wasn’t going to happen. “I will keep it in mind, though, if you should start up again,” I added, to give him another slight deterrent.

“Yes, sir. Thank you, but I won’t do it again,” he reiterated.

“Good. I’m glad to hear that,” I agreed.

I said good-bye to Hank and his parents and they left. After thinking about everything that had happened, I concluded I’d be happy to have more parents like the Prossers. They didn’t have much money or a bunch of degrees, but they did have values, common sense and loved their children. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t the Norman Rockwell portrait of the ideal family either, but they took responsibility for their own actions and those of their children, and they did their best to instill a good moral code into their offspring. Children sometimes refuse to follow their parents example and rebel, but these parents were still doing their job and Hank was going to fall into line, whether he liked it or not. It may have taken an incident like this to drive the point home to Hank, but he would have gotten it sooner or later.

When Sally and the boys returned, I told them about my visitors. Cole piped up and told me that I should take Hank up on his offer and spank him good and hard. I understood where he was coming from, but I would follow-up on this and discuss it more with him later, instead of doing it now. Instead, I visited with the boys for an hour or so, before encouraging them to go home, do their homework and get ready for bed. As they were leaving, Danny and Dustin hung back. They promised me that, as the two oldest, they would take care of all of the boys, so Aunt Sally wouldn’t be bothered, and they guaranteed me each of them would wear clothes, as long as Aunt Sally was there. I thanked them for their help, gave them both hugs and then they left. As I watched them exit my room, I realized how proud I was of the fine young men they were growing into.

Two days later I had another unexpected visitor, but this time it was Eddie Weeks and his parents. He had been released into their custody after his initial hearing, but he was staying home from school for the time being, until things settled down. They came in shortly after lunch and Eddie walked in with his head hung low, as he walked up to my bed. Slowly, he lifted his face and looked at me, scanning my body from one end to the other, checking out all of the bandages that were visible and staring at the tubes sticking into my body.

“I’m really sorry, Mr. Currie,” he apologized. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I really like you. You’re a nice principal. I feel really bad that I hurt you like that. I just couldn’t stand Hank picking on me like he did and I was going to stop him from doing it any more. I didn’t want to hurt you. Will you forgive me? Please?” He looked sincere and very sorry for his actions; at least the part that concerned what happened to me. I wasn’t so sure he was sorry he’d missed hitting Hank with a couple of bullets though.

“Yes, Eddie. I’ll forgive you,” I told him, with a stipulation, “but only if you’ll promise me that you’ll talk to me first, if you have any other problems.”

“I promise, Mr. Currie. I’ll always come to you first,” he agreed, while barely cracking a smile. I reached out and took his hand, planning to shake on his promise, but instead he lifted my hand up and held it against his face. His parents stood back and merely watched what was going on.

Eddie had very good and caring parents as well, but he had just reached his breaking point and that caused him to do something foolish. I knew his father had handguns, shotguns and rifles, in his house. He was a hunter and owned his own farm, so he sometimes also used them when slaughtering a cow or a pig. He had taught Eddie how to use and respect those weapons, but Eddie simply forgot his previous training, due to his rage. I didn’t blame either him or his parents for what happened to me.

“Mr. Currie,” Eddie’s father began, “we’re all very sorry about what happened. Eddie has felt real bad about everything, especially about you. We’ve had several talks about what he did and I can assure you he won’t ever pull a stunt like that again. Right, Eddie?”

“Yes, Papa. I am sorry, Mr. Currie,” he confirmed. “I hope you don’t hate me for what happened, but I could understand it if you did. I still like you, though.”

“And I like you too, Eddie,” I confessed, “and I accept your apology. You behave and I’ll see you in school when I get back.”

They left my room and I thought about their visit. Both boys and their parents had come to me to apologize, in person. I know the boys probably had little choice in the matter, but I thought it showed remarkable humility and concern on their parent’s part. They were taking responsibility for what had happened and not making excuses for their sons, as well as making them promise they wouldn’t do anything like that ever again. I guess what happened wasn’t totally bad, since another valuable lesson had been learned and I was the only one who had been injured.