The Castaway Hotel - 5 - 30. Chapter 30 - Dreams And Concerns

Before the boys got home from school, I spent part of my time trying to decide just how I was going to break the news to them. Would I just sit down with the entire family and explain about the summons to all of them at the same time, or would I just get together with Cole and Graham first, and then wait to fill the others in after I had apprised them?

Eventually, I concluded it would just be best, and maybe even easier, to tell everyone at once. I would explain what was alleged in the summons and how I was planning to respond to it. After that, we’d just play it by ear, as I wasn’t sure if I could predict how either Cole or Graham was going to react to this news.

In the end, I also waited for Jake to get home from work, since I wanted his input on this as well. After dinner, I asked everyone to join me in the living room, so I could apprise them of the situation. Since this was going to affect all of us, in one way or another and to varying degrees, I felt it would be best to do this as soon as I could.

“What’s up, Dad?” somebody asked, but I didn’t even take notice of who had made the comment.

“Well, I got a summons today, to appear in court,” I replied.

“It’s her, isn’t it?” Cole asked, in a very hostile tone.

“Yes, it’s your mother who’s taking me to court,” I responded meekly, in an attempt to take the edge off of the situation. Cole just stared at me, mulling things over in his mind.

“Is she still asking for us to come live with her?” Graham wanted to know.

“Yes, she is,” I answered, very simply.

“So what does she think is going to happen?” Cole asked, defiantly. “I already told her there’s no way I will go live with her.”

“Well, that’s part of the problem, Cole,” I explained. “She’s claiming that not only did I take advantage of her being under the influence when I adopted you, but that I’ve also brainwashed you boys, making you hate her too.”

“I hate her because of what she did to us, not because of anything you’ve done or said,” he countered, although I think we already knew why he felt the way he did.

“WE both know that, but she doesn’t,” I explained, “so that’s what she claiming. She’s hoping this will help her to get you both back. I’m not worried, though, and I’m sure this will all work out in the end.”

“But I’m telling you now, I’m not going with her,” Cole stated, defiantly, “even if the court says I have to.”

“Well, let’s not fret about that quite yet,” I cautioned, “as nothing has been officially decided yet. We’ll just continue on as normal and wait and see what happens.”

“Won’t Uncle Steve be the judge?” Graham asked, naively.

“No, I’m afraid he can’t,” I replied. “He’s had to remove himself from the case as judge, because he’s our friend and lawyer.”

“Then who will the judge be?” Graham followed up.

“We don’t know yet, but it will probably be a judge from another county,” I informed him,

“That’s not fair,” Cole protested. “Uncle Steve knows us and would make the right decision. He wouldn’t make us go live with her.”

I opened my mouth to answer him, but then hesitated and looked toward Jake for support. It was obvious Cole had already heard all of my arguments and wasn’t buying it. Jake immediately understood my plight and jumped to my assistance.

“Well, when you know someone that well, you can’t be the judge on any of their cases,” Jake advised him. “That’s only so it’s also fair to the other side. How would you feel if the judge was your mother’s friend, instead of our friend?”

“Well, I’d think that wasn’t fair, but why do we have to worry about doing things fairly?” Cole asked, bluntly. “She’s saying things that aren’t true or fair.”

“Well, regardless of what she claims,” Jake tried to assure him, “the system is set up to be fair to both sides. We have to go on the assumption it is and both sides have to act accordingly. Your Uncle Steve will be there, but just as our lawyer, not the judge. That will work just as well for us.”

Some of the other boys had questions to ask about this too, since they were worried an unwanted decision would break up the family. Worse than that, I suspected more than one of them wondered if their parents might come back and try the same thing. After explaining I doubted anything as drastic as that would happen, I said we’d do our best to make sure things turned out in our favor and take this ‘one day at a time.’

Once Jake and I had answered all of their questions and the boys felt reassured, everything returned to normal, at least for the time being. However, that all changed the following day when Steve called.

“Josh, I found out who the judge will be,” he began. “It’s going to be Judge Mullen, from Indiana County.”

“How is he as a judge?” I asked, innocently.

“Well, let me put it this way, he’s not known for having a sharp legal mind,” Steve explained. Since I’d never known him to speak disrespectfully of any of his colleagues, I began to worry. “He’s an old country lawyer who got elected through the efforts of his ‘good old boy’ supporters,” Steve went on, “and he does a lot of things that have no legal basis and sometimes makes decisions most normal people would never even have considered. He’s had many of his decisions challenged, and some overturned, due to his lack of following precedent.”

“Damn, what will that mean to us?” I wanted to know.

“Well, I’m hoping he’ll react favorably to you, because of me,” he replied. “He knows my reputation and I don’t think he’ll try to challenge my knowledge of family court law. I’ve heard he is easily impressed by reputation, so hopefully that will work in our favor. Therefore, I think we’ll do fine.”

“Well, I’ll trust your judgment on that,” I conceded, “but do you know what time we’re expected to be in court?”

“Yes, it’s set for 2:00 p.m., so we’ll get together this weekend and go over everything in advance,” he suggested. “Does that sound alright to you?”

“Yes, perfect. Thanks, Steve,” I replied. “You’re a great friend and I’m proud that you’re going to be representing us.”

Steve thanked me for placing my trust in him and then promised he’d do everything possible to keep our family in tact. After agreeing that I knew he would, we set up a time to get together on the weekend, so we could plan our strategy and discuss all of our options. We planned to have Cole and Graham sit in for at least part of this, so Steve could also get their input and judge their reactions for himself, but we would make any and all decisions about how to proceed. It was going to be an interesting time.

Steve showed up right on schedule on Saturday, and he and I discussed many things. He also took some time to chat with Cole and Graham alone, to get their input for this hearing, before we brought them in with the two of us, so we could explain what we thought might happen. Steve told them he didn’t think much would be decided at this initial court date, since the appearance would be mostly for the lawyers to make their motions and set the tone and groundwork for what might take place later. It might also give us some indication of what types of surprises Ms. Van Cott’s lawyers might try to spring later, while also giving the judge an opportunity to weigh some of the issues, before the real battle began.

We ended up spending slightly more than two hours discussing the issues and answering questions. By the time we finished, I think we all had a little more confidence about our chances and a better understanding about what to expect. Now, we just had to get through the rest of the weekend without worrying ourselves to death.

When Monday came, I went alone to the courthouse, since Steve and I agreed it would probably be best not to bring the boys along. This decision seemed to really upset Cole though, since he figured he’d be there to tell his mother AND the judge why he felt the way he did and that I had nothing to do with his attitude toward his mother, but that wasn’t to be. Since I knew very little would be accomplished at this first meeting, I thought it best that Cole, Graham and the others go to school instead. Therefore, they went to class, while we went to court.

I drove down and met Steve at his office and then walked to the courtroom with him. We went inside, took seats in the gallery and waited for our case to be called. When it was, Steve and I walked up and sat at the defense table and waited, while Ms. Van Cott and her lawyer went to the table on the other side of the room.

“All rise. The Honorable Richard Mullen presiding,” the bailiff announced. We all stood as the judge walked into the room and took his place behind the bench, and then we took our seats when he told us to do so. The case was announced and things got underway. First, her lawyer requested that his client be given temporary custody of her children while the case was being heard, but the judge denied that motion on the grounds that she had made no effort to contact them for over four years.

Steve countered, saying that we were prepared to allow her to have visitation rights to see the boys, either at our house or under the supervision of DSS, but her lawyer quickly claimed that wasn’t acceptable. He countered that she shouldn’t need to have her visits supervised by anyone, since she was their biological mother, so Steve quickly withdrew our offer, by saying that he was concerned she might try to take the boys outside the jurisdiction of the court if the visits were unsupervised.

He had made this offer knowing it probably wouldn’t be acceptable to the other side, seeing she had rejected a similar offer shortly after we first met. The thing was, we wanted the judge to understand we were willing to make an attempt to work things out with her, but she was unwilling to compromise. Since I was intensely watching the judge during this exchange, I could see he quickly caught on to that fact.

In return, Steve asked for an immediate dismissal of the case. He explained that the adoption, and everything preceding it, had been done according to the letter of the law and suggested this indicated there was absolutely no basis for this suit. The judge denied this motion as well, saying that particular issue was what we were here to decide. He did say he would have someone investigate both parties, to determine our fitness as guardians. He also stated he would use someone from the county he was from to do this, seeing I was extremely close to various members of the local DSS and that might influence their appraisal of the situation.

Steve immediately objected to his bringing someone in from another area, saying the local department was more familiar with the circumstances surrounding the case, but was quickly overruled. After that, the judge instructed both Ms. Van Cott and me that we’d both be contacted within the next few days, to arrange for such a meeting. That person would also meet with the boys separately, then talk to the administrators at their schools, and finally question their teachers and possibly a few of their classmates. We didn’t see any of that as posing a problem, so we didn’t object.

Steve and I discussed the situation further before we parted company and he assured me everything went basically as he expected, with the exception of the outside investigator, but he saw that as no big deal. He explained that the report from DSS would carry considerable weight, but also the testimony of those indicating what Ms. Van Cott’s mental status was at the time she made the decision to give up the boys. It would be up to her lawyer to convince the judge that she didn’t have the requisite ability to make an informed and unclouded judgment about what she was doing at the time, otherwise the adoption would stand. However, if she could open that door successfully and was able to convince the judge she couldn’t possibly have made an informed decision at that time, she’d still have to convince the investigator she was now totally clean and capable of being a fit parent. He told me that wouldn’t be easy for her to do, especially with her history, but quickly added that almost anything could happen at that point. I didn’t really want to hear she had a chance to win, but I knew Steve spoke the truth and it was better I realized what could happen up front.

On Wednesday, the investigator showed up unexpectedly at the house, as they seemed to like to do, so you couldn’t put on a show for them. He interviewed me first, alone, but it might have been because I was the only one there at the time. He asked me a great many questions, some of which I couldn’t see as being relevant to the case, but I cooperated and answered them just the same.

When the boys arrived home after school, he questioned Cole and Graham separately, and then he also spoke to some of the other boys. Once he’d finished with that, he merely announced he was finished and left rather hurriedly, without giving us any indication about what he thought. He seemed like an odd little man, at least to me, and after he left the boys told me much of what had taken place with them. They informed me about some of the questions he asked them, and it didn’t seem as if those questions were very probing or even relevant, so we weren’t sure what his angle was. Maybe I had misjudged him and he was already leaning in our favor, and that’s why his questions didn’t seem to be drawing out anything damaging against us.

A couple of days later, Steve called me, but I wasn’t expecting to hear from him again so soon. “Josh, I just got a copy of the DSS report and we’ve got a problem.”

“Really? What kind of a problem?” I asked, surprised by his pronouncement.

“A major problem,” he countered, which startled me even more.

“How can that be?” I wondered, aloud. “The guy didn’t really do or ask anything while he was here.”

“I think that’s because he had made up his mind before he arrived there,” he explained, “but after he talked to various people at the school. May I come over right now?”

“Of course you may,” I replied, “unless you’d prefer I come to your office.”

“Well, that might be better,” he agreed. “Maybe the boys shouldn’t know what he’s said just yet.”

“Okay, I’ll be right down,” I assured him. I quickly grabbed my keys and headed for the van, after which I hurriedly drove down to Steve’s office. As I entered, I could see he had a very worried expression on his face.

“Is it really THAT bad?” I asked him, while beginning to panic myself.

“Yes, it couldn’t be much worse,” he explained. “The investigator is saying that neither of you is a suitable parent and the boys shouldn’t be with either one of you.” I was shocked to hear this news.

“Why the hell would he say anything like that?” I nearly screamed. “What the hell could he have seen or heard that was that bad?”

“Maybe I should read you an excerpt from his report,” he offered, while looking at me to gauge my reaction. “The Currie household is male dominated, with no female influence at all, and the head of the household clearly promotes something other than traditional values. It is my understanding that many of these boys are openly gay or bisexual, probably at the prompting and encouragement from Mr. Currie, who may also have his own gay lover. It is my belief that he has promoted his own warped ideas of sexuality to these boys, thus encouraging them to become gay or bisexual themselves. This is clearly not something the Department wants to support, so we strongly recommend that the court re-evaluate all placements made here, with the idea of rescinding all prior adoptions and removing said minors from the premises and away from his influence.”

I was too stunned by what he read to say a word. Instead, I just sat there and stared at Steve. It was a few minutes before I could put my feelings into words. “Could that little shit really be recommending that they take away all my sons?” I asked. “Who made him the moral guardian of our society and gave him the authority to do such a thing? That wasn’t even part of this case and wasn’t something he had any grounds to get into. Can he really take all of my boys away from me?”

“I don’t think all of them, but possibly he could get Cole and Graham removed,” Steve explained. “I’ll do all I can to keep that from happening, but this judge is just so damn unpredictable. I don’t know what to tell you and I can’t even venture a guess as to what will happen.”

“What’s our next move then?” I wanted to know.

“Well, we’ll start lining up character witnesses, like Sally and my wife, and I’ll have a group of different psychologists interview the boys,” Steve explained. “Once the psychologists have written their reports and I have read their opinions, then I’ll know what to do next. If they support our position, as I suspect they will, we’ll parade them to the witness stand to speak on your behalf, but we’ll also line up some of the boys’ teachers too, so they can state how well they’re doing in school and how they relate to their peers. That should help to negate much of what the investigator has said in his report.”

“Do you think that will be enough?” I wondered, concerned that maybe we should be doing even more.

“With any other judge, yes, but with this one, I’m not sure,” Steve admitted.

“Damn, haven’t you got any GOOD news for me?” I shot back.

“Josh, you know I’ll do my best to keep you all together,” Steve explained, “but I think it’s time we met with Ms. Van Cott and tried to reach an agreement outside of court, if it’s not already too late for that. If we can agree to something, maybe we can prevent any of his bias from getting into the public record.”

“Do you think she’ll listen and cooperate?” I posed.

“She will, if she wants to be in her boys’ lives,” he replied, “because the recommendation is equally harsh on her. It refers to her as a ‘chronic drunk and a long-term junkie,’ so she won’t have a leg to stand on, to get the boys on her own.” Steve had read the part about her being a drunk and junkie directly from the report. “If she doesn’t want to cooperate with us and reach a compromise, then she probably won’t ever see the boys again either.”

“Okay, set up a meeting with her, so we can work this out,” I agreed. “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep my family together.”

Steve acknowledged my comment and then I headed back home, to sort out my concerns and talk things over with Jake.