The Castaway Hotel - 5 - 18. Chapter 18 - Discoveries And Goals

Shortly after I got back from taking Frankie to his college, Graham approached me about another situation. It seemed that Brent had appeared to him again, but this time Brent was projecting impressions of Vinnie, a picture in a decorative frame and, oddly enough, me. Since neither of us could figure out what these things meant, I decided to include Vinnie in on our discussion, in hopes that he’d be able to shed some light on the situation.

Once Graham explained about the picture and what it looked like, Vinnie immediately announced he recognized what it was. That picture had hung on the wall in his room in Peabody and was currently on display in his new room. Seeing this appeared to be important, I suggested we all go and inspect it carefully, to see if it might help to solve this conundrum. It turned out to be a picture of Vinnie’s mother from her first teaching assignment. I looked at the picture, studied it carefully, and then turned to Vinnie.

“Your mother was a teacher?” I wanted to know.

“Yes, she taught fourth grade,” he told me, and Graham and I could see how proud he was of her.

“Do you know where she went to college and got her teaching degree?” I followed, wondering if this might play a part in solving this puzzle.

“Yes, she went to Villanova,” Vinnie told me, without hesitation.

“What was her name?” I pressed, thinking I had discovered the key.

“Rita,” he responded, simply.

“No, Vinnie, I mean, what was her maiden name?” I pressed.

“Oh, that was Callindona. Rita Callindona,” he informed us.

“I don’t believe this!” I exclaimed, as the connection suddenly began to form in my mind.

“You don’t believe what?” both Vinnie and Graham chimed, almost in unison.

“That I knew his mother,” I informed them, while noting the looks of shock that readily appeared on each of their faces. “She was my wife’s roommate at college. Of course, she wasn’t my wife at the time, but that’s where we met, and your mother used to join us once in a while, when we went places. My wife and your mother were very good friends.”

“Really, you knew my mom?” Vinnie asked, as if he were unable to believe what I’d just told him.

“Yes, and my wife and I kept in touch with her for quite a while after we graduated and even after we were married,” I explained. “I even remember learning that your mother was engaged and we were invited to the wedding, but my wife and I had two small children and another on the way by then and were in the process of moving, because I had just received a better job offer. Unfortunately, that prevented us from going, and after that we just kind of lost touch with each other. Now, I am beginning to doubt it was a coincidence that you came to my attention. I think your mother and Brent, and maybe even my wife, were all acting in collusion to bring us together.”

“What do you mean by that?” Vinnie asked, confused.

“What I mean is,” I began, “somehow your mother, along with my wife and adopted son are working together to get us the messages we used to locate you and eventually bring you here, to live with us. I have my suspicions that maybe your mother, in cooperation with my wife, selected me to take care of you and then worked with Brent to pull it off.”

Both boys looked at me for a moment, almost as if I had just lost my mind, but I knew Graham was just startled by all of these connections. However, I was pretty sure Vinnie was wondering how dead people could have pulled such a thing off and, therefore, I wasn’t sure if he agreed with my logic. After we discussed this a little more, and with Graham’s additional input, I began to persuade him to see it from my point of view.

Graham was very persuasive in getting Vinnie to agree with me, as he explained some of the stranger things that had happened because of his ability, but Vinnie wasn’t as quick to come over to our way of thinking. His first problem with our theory was with the fact that Graham had first told us about this even before it had happened. That’s when I tried to explain to him that the other side seems to view time in quite different ways than we do. Somehow, they are able to view our future, past and present with equal ease, which allows them to have knowledge of events long since forgotten or be aware of situations that had not yet happened.

It wasn’t an easy concept for him to grasp, as it dealt with very abstract concepts, and let’s face it, it wasn’t an easy concept for me to grasp or fully understand either. I think this idea might have had its basis in Einstein’s theory of relativity, so I wasn’t sure if there were many people who could fully understand how this happened, let alone explain how it worked. If there was, it was no more than a handful of the brightest in the world, so how could I hope to explain it to him. Nonetheless, Vinnie finally gave in and agreed with us, concluding that our coming together as a family had somehow been the result of a cosmic insider fix.

Over the course of the next several days, Vinnie tried to wheedle out of me all of the information I knew about his mother. He wanted to know what we had done, what she was like in college and my impressions of her, as he tried to piece together what she was like before she met his father. After getting this information from me, he then confided that his mother and father had waited to establish their careers first and for his mother to be granted tenure, before they decided to start a family. However, after they had him and had dealt all of the problems he had suffered, they agreed not to have any other children.

Over time, I guess Vinnie was satisfied with what he’d discovered and now had a better understanding of not only his mother, but possibly even the how and why we had been drawn together. It was quite a remarkable time for him.

During late-January we had another remarkable, if not unprecedented event. Sunday afternoon, all the local radio and television stations were telling us to brace ourselves for a major bout of bad weather, but they were unsure as to exactly how it would play out. The only thing they seemed to agree on was that we were about to receive a massive amount of precipitation, however they disagreed as to whether this would be in the form of snow, ice or merely rain. Let me see if I can explain the reasons for this.

The local meteorologists all agreed there was a major storm moving up the eastern seaboard, which would bring a great deal of moisture into areas even miles away from the ocean. However, this was also playing into another variable, which was a major dip in an arctic cold front that was also anticipated to skirt the area. Therefore, none of the forecasters were certain if the two would touch, or maybe even collide, which would make a major difference in the way we received the expected precipitation. As it turned out, the two independent weather fronts did overlap slightly and resulted in a major ice storm.

Sometime during the night the power went out, due to the weight of the accumulating ice bringing down the power lines. I became aware of it when Andrew came in and crawled into bed with Jake and me. When I asked him what was wrong, he told me he was cold and the house was freezing, and that’s when I noticed the condensation of my breath as we spoke. Immediately, I wondered it the furnace went out, but then I noticed the bedside clock was dark and I wasn’t able to turn on the lamp. That’s when it dawned on me that we had lost power.

Hesitantly, I nudged Jake and explained the situation to him, so we decided it might be best if we got a fire going in the woodstove and the fireplace in the family room. I must admit, we’d grown lazy and complacent and didn’t use either of them often any longer, since it was easier and less trouble to rely on the furnace and central heating, but this was different. I was afraid the dropping temperature might cause the plumbing to freeze up, or worse yet, the pipes to freeze and burst, so we both got out of bed, dressed warmly and went out to haul in some wood, much to Andrew’s disappointment. I think he was hoping to share our body heat a little longer first.

As Jake and I carried armloads of wood to each device and attempted to ignite the logs and kindling, some of the other boys began to come downstairs to see what was going on. They had either awoken because they were also cold or they had heard us moving about below them, so we soon had some help bringing in extra wood to dry out, so it could be used later. Within the hour we had two nice fires started, which were beginning to throw off enough heat to warm up some of the downstairs. Before long, most of the boys were sprawled out in the living room, although dressed in sweats or thermal underwear and bundled in blankets. It was as if we were now living in a single room abode and the boys were even hesitant to venture out into the colder areas, even to use the toilet, which they only did when they couldn’t hold it any longer.

Since I wanted to know what was going on in the outside world, I asked one of the boys if I could use his battery-operated boom box to listen to the news, and he told me that would be fine, as long as he didn’t have to get it. Understanding his hesitation to leave the warmth we were now surrounded in, I left and went to his room to fetch the desired object. I hurried back to the family room, since there was quite a difference in temperature between the two places, and came back in and turned it on. Thank God some of the local stations had generators that kept them on the air during such emergencies, so we were able to listened to stories of what was happening around us.

Everyone was being advised to stay home and not go anywhere, as the roads were very treacherous and most places were without power. Schools had been closed, most businesses were shut down and the traffic lights weren’t even working, which increased the driving hazards, if the icy roads weren’t enough to deter you already. It looked as if we were going to be staying put for several hours minimum, if not a day or more.

The boys cheered when the heard the schools were closed, but their delight rapidly faded once they realized how little there was for them to do. Without electricity, they couldn’t do most of the things they enjoyed – such as watching television, using the computer or enjoying movies, and outside of this one room, it was too cold to go out and be affectionate with their partner, or at least that’s how they looked at it. If only they’d realized how much heat you could generate under a pile of covers when making love.

They did eventually slip out a few at a time, to retrieve their battery operated personal CD players, the handheld games and their laptops, although they weren’t able to get online. A few even asked Trey and Dion if they could borrow some of their books, when the pair went to their room to fetch something to read. Now that the sun was providing enough light for this activity, I saw several of my sons with their noses buried in the pages of various books. Maybe this was the silver lining in this cloud – getting them to read.

In due time the boys became hungry, so I encouraged them to dine on the cold cereals, pop-tarts and breakfast bars we kept in the pantry. We certainly didn’t have to worry about the items in the refrigerator or freezer, since mother nature was taking care of keeping the foods in them from spoiling, but we had no way of cooking anything. Before long, the boys came back into the family room carrying their breakfast, so they could enjoy it in the warmth generated from the fireplace, although the woodstove was now warming up some of the other parts of the downstairs. However, since there was no electricity to run the circulating pumps, the heat was limited to the area surrounding its location.

By late afternoon, power had been restored to the main sections of our little community, although some of the outlying areas wouldn’t benefit from the utility crews feverish effort for another day or two. The local schools remained closed for two days, since the superintendent was worried about driving conditions in the more rural areas of the county and didn’t want to risk the lives of the students, staff or faculty just for the sake of opening the buildings. Therefore, we enjoyed a minor holiday, although it wasn’t totally festive.

Once that crisis had passed, we returned to our daily lives. By the end of January, we had some more excitement, but this was the type we were eager to get. It began when Danny received his letter of acceptance from Penn State in the mail, followed closely behind by Brandon receiving his letter from the University of Pittsburgh, and finally with Temple University sending Kevin his acceptance the following week. It was quite an exciting time.

Danny had chosen Penn State, because he planned on being a pre-med major, eventually specializing in pediatrics, and felt Penn State offered the best course selection for his particular needs. Brandon, however, was intent upon pursuing a career in dentistry and felt the University of Pittsburgh offered the best program for him. Although Danny and Brandon had originally considered attending the same university, they soon realized that neither school offered exactly what each of them desired. Since they also realized their choice of institutions would greatly impact their future and they would need to remain focused on their studies if they hoped to achieve their goals, they eventually agreed that being together would only be a distraction, which might prove more costly than advantageous. They concluded it would be best if they spent this time apart and utilize their vacations and summers to more than make up for missing each other during the academic year. They were both determined to do well in school, and then in their chosen professions, and this would be the first step they would need to take in order to attain this goal.

Kevin had applied to Temple University, because he wanted to become a pharmacist. After studying the programs at several different colleges, he concluded the program at Temple best suited his needs and provided him with the atmosphere he desired. All three of the boys had always been excellent students, with a special aptitude for the sciences, and they had specifically chosen their majors so they could best utilize those abilities. Needless to say, I was very proud of all three of them.

After we had celebrated the news thoroughly and come down from the euphoric feelings that had enveloped us, I started to think about other things as well. For one, I not only considered what this was going to mean to the three individuals involved, but I also began to question how this was also going to affect those left behind, which most directly effected Vinnie. How was he going to react and handle things, once Kevin went away to school? The two of them had become extremely close and nearly inseparable since Vinnie’s arrival and Kevin had chosen to do almost everything with his newest brother. Kevin spent nearly every minute he had just to help him and assisted Vinnie in doing his exercises, both in and out of the water, and would spend the majority of his waking moments at Vinnie’s side.

He also made it easier for Vinnie to adjust to his new school by showing him around, introducing him to those he felt wouldn’t make fun of Vinnie’s handicaps and finally by giving Vinnie the inside scoop on each of his teachers. Kevin even helped him with his studies, by tutoring him whenever he needed it, and made certain that Vinnie kept on top of all his coursework. It didn’t require a great deal of Kevin’s time, since Vinnie was a very capable student in his own right, but sometimes I think he would ask Kevin to help him, just to provide them with another opportunity to be close and make Kevin feel that he was doing something else special for him. They had a very good relationship building here, which I felt also had some very definite romantic underpinnings.

I also spent a great deal of time working with Frankie, as we attempted to come up with the best way to honor Tom’s memory and get this important information out where it was needed most. We also began to solicit donations from corporations, using our notoriety as a family to our advantage and by spreading word of what we hoped to accomplish, in order to gain their monetary support. As the foundation’s funds began to accumulate, we built a coalition of educators, medical personnel and other professionals, to help work out a suitable plan of action. After a couple of meetings with assorted members from these groups, we had devised a rough outline of how we were going to proceed and what we hoped to accomplish.

The first thing we were going to focus on was to devise an instructional unit for the school curriculum, which would be sent free-of-charge to any school district or college that requested it. This would be designed to be included in a sex education or general health course, where issues like this were normally discussed and dealt with. There would be three distinct units – one for middle school, one for high school and a third for colleges, because we felt the amount of material included and the focus of the discussion would vary slightly between these three distinct sections of the population.

In each of these packets, we would include materials to explain the medical effects that came about when AEA was used and the scientific explanation for how and why it brought about these results, without giving the specifics about how people actually did such things. We hoped this would enlighten the young people, without giving them too much information, which might actually tempt them into trying such things. We would provide the unit plans, statistical charts and any other teaching aids we determined might be needed by using the donations from our sponsors. This would make it available at no charge to any educational facility that wanted to incorporate this topic as part of their course work.

The next dilemma was how we would spread the word about what we were doing and let the various educational facilities know what we offered. After much discussion, we finally agreed to do this by sending letters out first, to school superintendents, school principals, college deans and department heads, as well as to the health/science teachers and professors. We would do this as part of a nationwide mailing barrage, which we hoped would enlighten the various institutions and individuals about what we were offering and explaining what they would need to do to get this material. All it would require was for them to send back a written request on the school’s or colleges stationery, letting us know which level of materials they were seeking. Once we received this letter, the package would be shipped directly to them, as soon as it could be arranged.

We didn't see how this program could fail. Since educators love nearly anything that is free and will save them time preparing lessons, we felt we had hit upon a win-win situation for everyone involved. We also realized there might be certain groups that would view our efforts negatively, since what we were trying to accomplish might conflict with their religious or moral beliefs about either trying AEA or discussing it with others. To address this, we prepared other information packets for our critics, hoping not so much to silence them, but to address their concerns and lessen their thunder instead. Along this same vein and with the hope it might give added impact to the seriousness of our mission, the entire program was going to be carried out under the sponsorship and direction of the Thomas Cole AEA Memorial Foundation, which would be listed on every piece of material that was sent out.

A special packet was assembled containing all of the items that had been prepared and sent off to Tom's parents. We not only wanted them to see the good that was being done in Tom's name, but we also hoped they would give us their blessing to continue. Within days, I received a phone call from them thanking me for my thoughtfulness and acknowledging their approval of what we had done thus far. It was a very emotional call for all of us. Now that I felt assured that everything was in order, we waited.

Within weeks, requests for the materials began to flow in. All my sons readily helped as much as they could, in order to make sure each order was shipped in a timely fashion. The boys eventually even asked some of their friends and classmates to assist us with this endeavor, seeing our program caught on more quickly than we anticipated and there was more than enough work to go around. I think everyone who participated felt good about what we were doing.

Once these packets were on their way, we all prayed our effort would prevent anyone else from dying or losing a loved one due to this dangerous ‘high.’ I think our goal was most wonderfully expressed by Sammy, when he asked me one day why anyone would have to try making an orgasm feel any better, when it was already awesome enough.