The Castaway Hotel - 4 - 26. Chapter 26 - Opening Windows

Between the graduations and our Memorial Day celebration, Sammy and I had spent time together planning for his birthday, which was June 1st. He was turning thirteen this year and decided to have his party on Friday, which was his actual birth date. He also wanted to invite some of his school friends to stay for a sleepover, because he felt this might be the last time he would have one and this way he and his friends could also play together for most of Saturday too. I agreed to his suggestion, so he made out his invitations and sent them out to his friends, with some help from Andrew.

The celebration started off simply enough when the boys began to arrive in the early afternoon. Not all of the boys had been here before, so Sammy started off by showing them around the house, which included all floors – even the attic bedrooms. His friends seemed amazed by how large this place actually was and wanted to know what it was like to have so many brothers. After Sammy explained all the benefits, he admitted their were a few drawbacks too, like trying to go places with so many people in tow or buying Christmas and birthday presents for so many. The boys hadn’t thought of that and wanted to know how they did it, so he explained they pooled their money for birthday presents and drew names from a hat for Christmas. That was enough information to satisfy their curiosity, so they went back to investigating our abode.

After the grand tour, Sammy asked me if I’d take them out for a hike in the woods behind our house, since he wanted his friends to see how much land we owned too. Since our guests all seemed eager to do this as well, I took them out and spent the next couple of hours roaming around our property, which included showing them the ravine. They were impressed with their tour and quite worn out and very hungry by dinnertime.

I had ordered a several sheet pizzas in advance and set the delivery time for 6:00, since the extended family was told to show up at 5:30. I had also stocked up on other things to go along with the pizza, so we also had plenty of soda, salads, potato chips, dip and cheese twists to go along with it. As with most of these get-togethers, the food disappeared quickly and I had to urge the adults to make sure they got their share before the swarm of teenage locust devoured everything in sight. I believe each of them did manage to get his fill, or at least I’d hoped so, since there was only a few crumbs left over.

Now that they were sated, the boys went back outside and played around until dark or shortly thereafter. I left them to their own devices, which seemed to make them happy, while I stayed in with the older group and enjoyed their company.

Sammy and his friends did many things throughout the course of the evening and played a final game of hide-and-seek before they came in for good. They chose this particular activity because it was nice and dark out, as the moon was in its earliest stages and even that light was almost totally obscured by the cloud cover. The rest of us weren’t paying much attention to what was going on outside until I heard someone scream, so I raced out to investigate. Once I discovered the source of the disturbance, I had quite a bit of trouble stifling my laughter, but the young man involved definitely didn’t think his situation was the least bit humorous.

It happened like this. One of the boys lived up the road from us and had ridden his bike to our place. Unbeknownst to him, his dog must have followed his scent to our house sometime later in the day, looking for the boy. During their game of hide-and-seek, one of the boys had chosen to hide behind some bushes in front of our house, hoping he could go unnoticed there. While he was waiting for his chance to dart to safety, the male dog came up to the bush, cocked its leg and peed all over the poor unsuspecting boy. The commotion I had heard and responded to were the sounds of the boy screaming at the dog and then cursing about what the dog had done to him.

The other boys began laughing hysterically after they found out what had happened, except for the owner of the dog, who apologized profusely for what his pet had done. After I got the boys to stop calling the poor kid ‘urine pants’ and ‘the yellow scourge,’ I advised him he could go inside and shower, while I rounded up something that he could wear in the meantime. Once he was clean and changed, I would wash his clothes, so he would have them to wear home when the time came. He seemed grateful for my input and happily went inside to use the shower is my master bathroom, while I brought him clean garments and took his and tossed them into the washer.

When the rest of the boys came inside for the night, we had cake and ice cream, followed by the opening of presents. Sammy got a bunch of nice things, but I think he was more pleased with the camaraderie of his classmates than he was with his gifts. I was glad to see him beginning to blossom.

As the evening wore on, some of the adults began to leave and said their good-byes to Sammy and the rest of us. By the time the last of our extended family had departed, Sammy asked if I would tell one of my ghost stories for his friends – a request all of them seemed eager to go along with. Sammy had hinted earlier that he hoped I might do this for him and I think he was looking forward to having me give his friends a good scare.

After things quieted down and the boys set up their sleeping bags in the family room, I went in to tell them a couple of my infamous ghost stories. Of course, I had also set up something special for the finale, since I was forewarned of this possibility. The first story was about an old one-room schoolhouse that once stood just a few hundred yards from where we lived. Everyone in town knew the building had once existed and was eventually destroyed by fire, since it was included as part of the local history course taught in my middle school. I just took the story a little further, embellished it slightly and turned it into something that might cause a group of boys a bit of uneasiness.

What I did is add the fact that the teacher had also died in the fire, after getting trapped in his quarters, which were attached to the rear of the schoolhouse. It had been a mandatory provision in his contract that he live in the two small rooms added on to the back of the school, so he could keep an eye on things, make sure the building was warm in the winter and be able to spend more time with his students. I also added the idea that after the fire the teacher’s ghost had been seen roaming the area and checking on children, especially the young boys, to make sure that they were behaving themselves and punishing them when they were not. Seeing the old school house had once stood close to where we lived, I made certain to emphasize the teacher might be spending a lot of time looking into our windows, to see if all of them were being good.

Although this wasn’t one of the best of my stories, I suspect it made the hair on the backs of their necks start to stand on its own and I saw more than one of them glancing at the two large picture windows in the room, to see if anyone was looking in. Now that the stage had been set, I began my second story, which I hoped would get to them even more.

This story was about a Civil War regiment that originated in our area and was part of the local folklore. It was also included in the local history class taught at the middle school, so most of these boys already had some limited knowledge of this event. Most of them already knew the men in this regiment were captured during one particularly disastrous battle and then sent to the notorious Confederate prison camp at Andersonville, GA, just southwest of Atlanta.

The conditions at this prison camp were sub-standard, at the very least, and particularly harsh. Many of the men imprisoned there ended up dying from various diseases, many of which were caused or worsened by the unsanitary conditions in the camp, or suffered a slow and agonizing death due to malnutrition, since food was very scarce. If the soldiers were lucky enough to survive those hardships, they might later be shot for crossing the deadline, which was an imaginary perimeter established to create a buffer zone and prevent escape, or executed for committing various infractions of prison rules. Only one member of this regiment survived his imprisonment there and made it home, so he could tell his and his comrades relatives what it had been like there.

Some of the bodies were also later returned to their families, so they could be reburied amongst their loved ones. Three of those returned were buried in the local cemetery and it has been rumored that ever since those corpses were placed in the ground, strange things began happening. Almost immediately afterward, many local residents reported seeing the spirits of these poor souls roaming the countryside at night and suspected they were looking for those responsible for their poor treatment and eventual death. Others claimed to hear the pitiful wails of these tortured souls, as they continued to react to the unbearable pain they had suffered before passing from this world. I ended by making a point that reports still come in to local law enforcement where someone claimed having heard or spotted these men, as they continue to do their duty for the Union and hunt those responsible for such an atrocity.

After I finished both stories, I stayed in the family room for a while longer, primarily so I could see what happened next and avoid being blamed for what was about to occur. Since most of these boys had never been to one of these sleepovers before, they would naturally assume that no one else would know which stories I was going to tell and, therefore, wouldn’t be able to carry out a prank specifically related to them later. If only they knew how wrong they were.

Earlier in the week, I had asked some of the older boys to help me with this little surprise, and gleefully they agreed. We had managed to procure costumes and props appropriate to the stories, white facial paint to make them look deceased, some old looking kerosene lanterns and even some wigs, so we could hide the natural color of their own hair. I gave my chief prankster, Ricky, the role of the teacher, and Frankie, Dustin, and Danny got to play three of the Civil War soldiers. Of course the lights had been off in the family room as I told these stories and shortly after I finished the second one, a lantern emerged in the picture window at the front of the room, where a black cloaked figure, wearing a flat black hat, stood looking in.

This sent all of the boys screaming and running in my direction, as they sought whatever protection they could find. They were all wide-eyed as they scurried about the room, wailing like banshees and trying to explain to me about who or what they thought they had seen. I acted as if I had witnessed nothing and asked them questions about what they had observed, before I suggested we go over and look out the window, so we could determine if anything was out there.

The majority of the boys pleaded with me not to do that, since they not only didn’t want to provoke whatever it was, but mainly because they didn’t want me to leave them alone for any amount of time. Still others were actually concerned for my safety, as well as their own. By the time I convinced them to let me do this, Ricky had turned his lantern flame out and moved away from the window, so he was now standing where none of us could see him. As I went to look out the front window, the other group saw this as their signal to do their thing and approached the window on the opposite wall of the room.

Without any of us seeing them, they lit their lanterns and moved in front of the other picture window. You see, the family room was built as an addition to the side of the original house. It was rectangular, with three additional walls being connected to the side of the old farmhouse, and picture windows had been installed on both the front and rear sides, to take advantage of the wonderful scenery. However, at this particular moment, the boy didn’t believe the view was so great.

Suddenly the screaming and commotion within the room started anew, as the boys saw this new spectacle behind them, but I pretended to keep looking out the front window and trying to see what was upsetting them so horrifically. What the boys didn’t realize was, I could see what was happening behind me in the reflection of the window I was looking out of.

My three soldiers hammed it up big time. They very stiffly walked up and peered into the other window, holding their lanterns low and weapons high enough to be recognized as being quite old, and this had the younger boys all nervous and jerky again. By the time the partygoers were able to explain to me that this was something different and happening at the back window, instead of the front, our ‘soldiers’ had disappeared. However, that didn’t stop me from pretending to look for our uninvited visitors appearing at the rear of the house and listening to the boys’ rambling barely coherent tales about what they had seen. After another futile search, I eventually talked my reluctant guests into helping me look out into the darkness to locate these apparitions, so I’d know what they had seen. Although most were very reticent to do this, a few of the braver ones eventually stepped forward and offered to give me a hand, but none of us saw anything at this point in time.

Although my boys who had been in with this group, Cole, Graham and Andrew, all had their suspicions about what was happening, they were good and didn’t spill the beans. Brent, however, was also new to my pranks and was just as stunned as Sammy’s friends by what he had seen. By the time he went out to tell the rest of my sons what had happened, about twenty minutes later, my actors had used the time between to clean up and change into their normal clothing. As Brent and the other boys filled them in about what they had witnessed, the older boys acted shocked by their stories. They even offered to go outside to see if they could find any signs that anyone had been out there. Sammy’s friends started raising a fuss about this suggestion, since they were convinced my boys would be placing themselves in danger if they were to leave the house, so my sons humored them and stayed inside. The younger ones did ask the older boys if they’d mind sleeping in the family room with them for the night, as additional protection – you know, safety in numbers – and good-humoredly the boys said they would.

After things quieted down, I got everyone into their sleeping bags and the boys turned in for the evening. Although I don’t think many of them fell asleep right away, we still enjoyed a fairly quiet remainder of the evening. About half of the boys were hesitant to even go to the toilet during the night without an escort, so throughout the evening I lay in bed and watched boys pass by my room, accompanied by at least one other person, as they made their way to the guest bathroom.

Recognizing their uneasiness, I eventually got up and put a nightlight in the bathroom to ease their concerns, and I also added one in the foyer, to make it easier for them to find their way back and forth. I think they were all grateful for this small gesture.

Judging from their appearance the next morning, I concluded most of them had not slept much before the sun began to penetrate the gloom, so I shut the door to the family room and let them sleep for as long as they wished, now that they felt safer with the emergence of daybreak. It was about three hours later before the first of them emerged and informed me he was hungry.

Sammy’s friends spent most of Saturday at our house too and everyone stayed through lunch. About an hour later, a couple of his guests had to leave, but the remainder stayed through dinner as well. In between, the boys did many things, including exploring around the house and the neighborhood, as well as looking for signs of our previous night’s visitors. I know my actors were finding it hard to control their laughter as all of this took place, but we had agreed, in advance, they wouldn’t tell anyone else what they had done, so we’d be able to pull similar stunts in the future. All in all, I think Sammy was very satisfied with his party and his friends were both impressed and frightened by their experience with us.

After Sammy’s friends left, the Spences returned. They had decided to go out after Sammy’s party the previous evening and then spend the night at a hotel, as they weren’t sure they were ready for the shenanigans I warned them we had planned for the evening. As they approached the house, they noticed me sitting on a lawn chair on the porch, as I was enjoying the cooler summer evening, and came over to join me. As we were sitting there chatting and enjoying what was left of the day, we began to hear some banging coming from my neighbor’s yard. Although he lived nearly a half mile away, the noise was still quite obvious, as he pounded a sign into his front lawn. As he stepped away and headed back toward his house, I decided to walk down and see what it was about. I was shocked when I saw the sign read, ‘For Sale By Owner,’ with his phone number listed below.

Since he was still outside, I hollered out to him and asked what was up. He quickly told me he and his wife had decided to move to Florida, as the cold winters were becoming increasingly harder on his wife’s arthritic condition. I had not seen this coming, but quickly told him I might have someone interested in buying his two-bedroom ranch home. When he asked me whom, I told him I’d bring them right down, since they were currently staying at my place. He agreed with my proposal, so I went up and sprang the news on the Spences.

Who would have believed that with John and Margaret already looking for a place, my neighbor would suddenly decide to leave the area and had exactly what the Spences were looking for. It made me wonder if a greater power might have had a hand in arranging this.

As soon as I told the Spences what I had discovered, they became very excited and wanted to go see the house immediately. I agreed and Margaret suggested it was a lovely evening to take a walk. We strolled down to the adjoining property and my neighbor gave them a tour of his home. It was almost immediately apparent that John and Margaret liked this well kept residence and bonded with the older couple that owned it, so John got right to the point and asked him what he wanted for the place. After he got his answer, John wanted to know if he was taking everything in the house with him, and my neighbor told him he wasn’t. He quickly added he was planning to have a garage sale before they moved and was putting nearly everything up for sale, except for their personal belongings.

After hearing this news, John asked if Margaret and he could take another walk through their home, which was agreed to, and once they finished going through all of the rooms again, John made him an offer, which included all of the furnishings they were going to leave behind. He explained that Margaret and he liked the way the home was decorated and the furniture was in good condition, so it would save them from having to buy things and have them moved in. Everyone seemed thrilled, so the deal was struck and both gentlemen would get in touch with their lawyers and set a closing date.

The following Tuesday, I was scheduled to appear in Family Court, along with Frankie and Brent, to make the various adoptions legal. All of the boys wanted to go with us and we arrived early, so we’d have a chance to chat with Richard and his new family before the proceedings began. They arrived shortly after we did and we chatted with them in the hallway. We congratulated them on soon becoming a family and they thanked us for what we had done to make this moment possible.

From our interviews at the group home, I also knew Richard’s birthday was a little more than a week away, so I told them I’d like to throw a special birthday party for him at our house, a week from Saturday. I also informed them they would all be welcome to stay over that night, go to church with us on Sunday and then they could return home Sunday afternoon. Mr. Becker was a little uneasy about leaving his farm for that period of time, but I added that I’d pay whomever he had to hire to cover for him, so he wouldn’t have anything to worry about and couldn’t use that as an excuse. After seeing how excited his new son was over the prospect of a big party, he relented and we made it official.

After waiting in the hallway while all of the other cases were taken care of, we were eventually summoned into the court chamber. I could see Judge Rhinehart sitting on the bench, but also notice Steve, Mary, Sally and the Spences sitting in the gallery, bursting with happiness for all of us.

The Beckers went first and Judge Rhinehart even included a mention about the role the Castaway Foundation had played in making this happen, in the official court transcript. Then he complimented the Beckers and Richard on finding each other and overcoming the various obstacles that are normally encountered when adopting an older or hard-to-place youth. Once all of that had been discussed, Richard Aaron Calloway officially became Richard Aaron Becker.

Richard and the Beckers were glowing as they walked back to take their seats, once Richard had collected his official documents from the clerk. We could all tell they were bursting with pride, and before they took their seats, they also exchanged hugs and/or kisses with each other.

Frankie, Brent and I were called up next. Thankfully, Judge Rhinehart gave the short version of our last appearance before him and concluded by saying he was proud to be part of adding two more members to our unique clan. A few moments later, he announced Frankie would now be officially known as Franklin Albert Currie and Brent was to become Brent Alexander Currie, as he chose to use his former surname as his new middle name. Brent had told me in private that he had always hated his old middle name, Ivan, but had been stuck with it to honor a distant relative. When he realized this might be his chance to get rid of that dreaded moniker, he came to me to discuss it. That’s when I suggested he might prefer to use his former surname in its place, which he happily agreed with.

After we had finished at the courthouse, I talked the entire crew into letting me take them out to lunch, to conclude our grand celebration. Not only did I invite my family and the Beckers, but I also included Sally, Mary, Steve and the Spences too, and we enjoyed a truly amazing time. Fortunately, I’d thought ahead and also had a cake waiting for us after we ate, with the three new names prominently written across it in icing, so the new family members could see their names in writing for the very first time, other than just on their legal documents. The boys involved were quite pleased and impressed by that simple recognition, and everyone else told them how good their names sounded.

After we left the restaurant, I just took my boys and went home. After giving Frankie and Brent one more hug and telling them how happy I was they were now officially my sons, I busied myself with things I’d been neglecting and were long overdue. As I walked around the house performing these various tasks, I noticed there was a message on our answering machine. I hit the play button and listened to the recording.

“Mr. Currie, this is Dr. Bailey’s office calling,” the recording began. “The doctor wanted to let you know he has located a cornea for Pat’s operation and would like to schedule it for 10 a.m. Friday. Please call us back at 555-783-0655 and confirm, if this time meets with your approval.”

I was slightly stunned by the message, as I didn’t think anything would be happening so quickly. I knew the doctor was looking for a cornea and wanted to do the operation as soon as was possible, but I didn’t think either Pat or I expected it would happen this fast. Eager to share the news, I went and retrieved Pat, so I could play the message for him. I was surprised he didn’t show much of a reaction, once he heard what was said.

“Pat, are you okay with this?” I asked, trying to find out what he was thinking.

“Yeah, I guess Friday will be fine,” he replied, in a very subdued manner. “I do want to see again,” he added, after a brief pause.

“Yes, I know you want to see again,” I confirmed, “so I thought you’d be happier and show more emotion when I played this message for you. What’s up?”

Pat was very nervous and didn’t answer right away. I could tell he was conflicted about something and I couldn’t figure out what was bothering him. I gave him some time to gather the courage he felt he needed to tell me whatever was on his mind and, finally, he spoke. “It’s just that I’m kind of scared too,” he informed me. “I know I need to have these operations done, if I hope to ever see again, but I also know things can also go wrong while they’re working on me and it’s possible I might die.”

I could see Pat was visibly shaken by this notion and thought it a very real possibility. In order to comfort him, I hugged him to my chest and waited until I felt him begin to relax a little, before I responded. Finally, I felt it was time to address his concerns.

“Pat, that’s always a possibility whenever you have surgery, but in this case I’d say it was an extremely small one. I won’t try to tell you the risk isn’t there, but it’s highly unlikely to happen. Even the doctor will tell you anytime you’re under an anesthetic there is always a slight risk something like that could result, but I think it’s more important for you to focus on the gains you’ll make by having this done. This operation is vital to giving you at least part of your vision back, even if you decide against further procedures after this operation. The plastic surgery isn’t really necessary and is purely cosmetic, so you won’t have to do that, if you don’t want to. Sure, it most likely will reduce some of the obvious scarring around your eyes, but it doesn’t look bad as it is. You’re still a very handsome young man.”

“If I decide to have the operation on my eye,” Pat quickly informed me, “then I’m going to do it all. I don’t want to see again, only to discover I’m ugly and a scar-face.”

“Believe me, you’re far from ugly,” I replied, “but you have to make up your mind for yourself. You know I’ll support you, no matter what you finally decide to do.”

“I know and that’s very important to me too,” he agreed. “I’m not sure if I’d have been able to handle this without you here to help me get through it.”

“Well, I’ll always be here for you, as long as I still have breath in me,” I confirmed, “so don’t worry about that. Just think about what’s best for Pat, for now.”

“Thanks, Dad, and I think I’m ready to do that,” he replied. “Call the doctor back and have him set up the operation for Friday, as long you’ll be with me the whole time.”

“Well, I can’t go into the operating room with you,” I acknowledged, “but I will stay by your side the rest of the time. Your brothers should be fine with Mark and the Spences here, but I’ll also ask Aunt Sally to look in on them from time to time while we’re gone, just to be safe.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Pat offered in response. “I just can’t tell you how much it means to me to know you’ll be there and won’t leave me,” he nearly choked out, as he was beginning to get emotional about this topic.

“Well, I think I do, because it means just as much to me,” I agreed. “I wouldn’t let you go through something like this without being by your side for as long as I’m able. I would go nuts if I weren’t there for you, and I still might go nuts anyway,” I teased.

“You won’t go nuts from this,” Pat stated dryly. “If we haven’t driven you crazy already, then you’re safe, especially after what you’ve put up with from the three stooges.” We both chuckled, knowing exactly what he was hinting at, even if it wasn’t very subtle.

For the rest of the week, we spent much of our time getting things together and preparing for the big day. Before we left, I also gave instructions to the other boys and tried to tie up all the loose ends before we took off. Even though Frankie joked it was a good thing I hadn’t gone away and left them alone when he first lived with us, they all promised me they’d behave and all I had to do was take care of their brother. I thanked them from the depths of my heart and then relayed their comments to Pat.

Pat ended up staying in my room both Tuesday and Wednesday nights, since he was in need of a little extra TLC from the old man to help calm his nerves. Thursday night, the two of us spent the evening in a hotel room in Philly, while mentally preparing ourselves for what still lay ahead. We both woke up on our own before 5:00 Friday morning, but neither of us could eat anything – Pat because he was told not to have any food before the operation and I didn’t want to eat in front of him. Besides, I don’t think I could have kept anything down, even if I wanted to, because I was worried about him.

Once we were dressed, we half-heatedly listened to music until it was time to leave, and then I drove to the hospital. We got him checked in and then an orderly wheeled him off to the waiting/preparation area. I was able to stay with him while he changed into a hospital gown and then helped him onto the gurney. I was holding his hand when he got the shot to put him under and kissed his forehead before he was wheeled into the O.R.