The Castaway Hotel - 7 - 42. Chapter 42 - Many Distractions

After having a couple of cups of coffee and a little breakfast, I logged on to my computer, so I could check my emails. After deleting the never-ending supply of junk mail, which offered credit cards, better mortgage rates, access to porn sites, various drugs at cheaper prices and ways to enhance my male organ, I ran across an email from Nick. Although I hadn’t expected to hear from him until he returned to his host family, I was pleased to see his communiqué.

Hey Pop,

I’m in Rio and Carnival is a blast. It’s even a bigger party than I thought and there are tons of gorgeous boys. I introduced myself to several of them and got to know them better. I’m really glad I came here for this.

There are all kinds of parades, with people dressed in all sorts of wild costumes, and most of the things they wear don’t cover very much. If I was into girls, I’d be having a blast, but there are still a bunch of cute guys. I’m doing okay and there’s plenty of good stuff to look at.

I don’t know if I told you, but I’m taking a trip down the Amazon next, so that should be interesting too. I’ve already been warned not to go swimming in the river though, because there are schools of piranha that sometimes attack humans, but don’t worry. I don’t want to be attacked and have the piranha eat something I’d rather feed to some handsome boy. hehehe

I hope Vinnie’s home now and everything is back to normal. I’ll call you before I leave on my next trip. Tell everyone I said hi, especially Shannon. I want to talk to him when I call, so please let him know that.

Btw, if you were wondering how I did this, I stopped in a cyber-café to send this email. I’m smarter than I look. :-P

Love you all,
Nick

He did it again, I thought, as I finished reading his message. He hints that he’s been fooling around with a bunch of other guys, but then makes sure he sends a special greeting to Shannon and even requests that I make sure Shannon is there to talk to him when he calls. I wonder if he even realizes the irony or incongruity in those two opposing concepts of free love and faithfulness.

When the boys began to wake up and stumble downstairs, Jake and I began to whip them up some breakfast. Most had finished before Kevin joined us and had returned to their rooms. I guess he had been more tired than he thought. While Kevin was eating, he made a suggestion.

“Dad, can’t we go out and look for Vinnie today? Just you and me,” he stated, hopefully.

“Kevin, I don’t know where else we could go,” I pointed out. “We’ve traveled the interstates and stopped at all the rest areas and exits. We’ve also put posters up in all those locations, so I can’t think of anything else we might do.”

“You can’t have done everything!” Kevin challenged, before suddenly running off. I realized he was probably just upset we hadn’t found Vinnie yet and frustrated because we’d already done all we could. I concluded it would be best to give him a few minutes alone, before I went to speak with him. However, before I made my move, he came back carrying an atlas.

“What interstates did you go on?” he asked. He had the atlas open to the page with the map of Pennsylvania.

“Jake, I and your brothers traveled over both I-76 and I-70,” I advised him. Kevin studied the map for a few more minutes and then looked up at me.

“How about I-99, heading toward Penn State, or I-79, outside of Pittsburgh?” He looked between Jake and I now, hoping he had come up with more possibilities. I walked over and looked at the atlas with him.

“No, we didn’t do those routes,” I told him, “but I’m not sure they’re appropriate. Those highways both run north-south, and Vinnie was reported heading west.”

“But they might have changed direction,” he suggested.

“Yes, it is possible,” I conceded, “although not very likely.”

“Just in case, can’t we do those areas today?” he followed. “You said it is possible Vinnie might have gone that way too.” Kevin’s expression changed now, from being confused and uncertain, to pleading with us to do this for him.

“Yes, I said it was possible, but not probable,” I reiterated, although this still didn’t discourage Kevin.

“Please? I thought we were going to do everything we could to find him,” he pointed out, “not just the obvious things. Please? Can’t we just do this?”

“Okay, we’ll give it a try,” I relented. “I’ll go print out some more fliers and Jake can take I-79 and I’ll take the small part of I-70 south first, which we didn’t cover the last time, and then go on I-99 north. Is that okay with you?” I asked, hoping this would appease Kevin.

“Yes, but I want to go with you,” he stated, emphatically.

“Us too,” some of the others began to chime in.

This surprised me, because I didn’t even know they were listening in to our discussion. I quickly learned they had run into Kevin when he went looking for the atlas, so he told them what he was up to. They followed him back, but stayed out of sight, while listening to our conversation. Now, they wanted to be included too.

“Okay, but I’d like someone to stay here,” I offered, as a compromise, “in case we get any calls or Vinnie shows up.”

“We’ll do that, Dad,” Trey volunteered. He then went on to say that he and Dion would take the duty this time.

“That will work,” I responded. “So, who wants to join Kevin and me,” I asked next.

“How about us?” Graham asked, indicating Cole, Peter and himself.

“Sure. So that means Little Ricky, Sammy and Andrew will go with Jake,” I pointed out. “Anyone have a problems with that?” No one did, so we all got prepared to leave.

In the back of my mind, I understood there was more to Kevin’s request than just trying to locate Vinnie. Kevin also felt he hadn’t personally done anything to rectify his transgression, which he saw as causing this problem in the first place. He would have found it very frustrating to just sit around the house waiting for someone to phone us. He felt it was important to actually get out and do something to mitigate his indiscretion.

Since I hadn’t considered the north-south routes, because we had focused all of our attention on the east-west highways, I was actually glad Kevin had suggested it. Even though Vinnie had been spotted beyond where I-70 headed south and I-99 headed north, it didn’t mean they might not have backtracked or changed direction. I had to agree it was worth a try and better than sitting around and doing nothing.

These trips went almost identical to our previous outings and we stopped at the various rest areas and exits. We hung our posters in many different places Vinnie might have visited, and at each of these locations we also asked the employees working there if they recognized Vinnie’s picture. Doing this took all day to accomplish, but by the time we returned home and hooked up with Jake and the others again, we were a little more hopeful. Although neither group had discovered anything substantial during their efforts, we still felt better knowing we had done something more that might help us locate our wayward son/brother.

Once we got back, I went with Little Ricky to the Spences, so he could visit with his mother. Even though it was later than we usually went, I didn’t want him to miss an opportunity to spend time with her. The Spences were very understanding when we showed up and invited us in. Margaret went to get Arlene and I heard Margaret tell her she had company.

“Mommy, is it one of my friends from school?” I heard Arlene reply, and then I saw Little Ricky cringe. This was obviously not one of his mother’s better days.

When Arlene entered the room, she raced over to Little Ricky. “Billy, I didn’t except you to come see me today,” she told him. “And you brought your daddy too. I’m so glad you came.”

Little Ricky didn’t know what to do or say, so I jumped in, to take him off the hook. “Hello, Arlene. We just thought we’d come over to see how you were doing.”

“Why, I haven’t been sick and I saw Billy in school today,” she replied. “He knew I was fine.” Little Ricky winced again.

“I guess what I meant,” I responded, “is that we came over to see if you wanted company. We thought you might like to visit with us for a while.”

“Oh, yes, that would be very nice,” Arlene agreed. “Billy, would you like me to get a game from my room or would you like to play hide-and-seek.” Little Ricky sat speechless for a few seconds, before he responded.

“I guess we could play hide-and-seek,” he told her. “Why don’t you go hide and then I’ll try to find you.”

“Okay. You count to one hundred and no peeking,” she warned him, before racing off to find a good hiding place.

Little Ricky turned his head and began to count aloud, but I could see the tears streaming down his cheeks as he did so. I reached over and brushed away the moisture and then pulled him toward me, but he never stopped counting. He eventually reached one hundred, even though I was cuddling him in my arms, and then turned to face me.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” he admitted. “I figured she’d go off when I started counting and then I wouldn’t go look for her for a while. She’d think she was just a good hider, but it would give me time to think what I was going to do next. I can’t stand seeing her like this any more.” After saying this, he broke down and sobbed.

“Oh, you poor dear,” Margaret told him. “If you’d have called first, I’d have warned you she wasn’t herself today. Well, she is herself, just a younger version.”

“Margaret, that’s excellent advice,” I agreed. “From now on we’ll call first, to see how Arlene is doing. Maybe that way, we can keep Little Ricky from having to deal with her worst delusional states.”

John and Margaret both agreed, and then John spoke. “If you wish, you can return home and we’ll just tell Arlene you couldn’t find her and gave up.”

“No, I can’t do that to her,” Little Ricky replied. “I’ll wait a little longer and then go look, but then I’ll tell her we have to go home. If she wants to know why I don’t want to take my turn, I’ll just tell her I can’t, because it took too long for me to find her.”

“I think that’s a wonderful plan,” I advised him. “That way you won’t have to stay and watch her in this condition, yet you won’t hurt her feelings either.”

Little Ricky nodded weakly, but waited a few more minutes before he went off. He found his mother easily and then told her we had to leave, but he also told her why. She seemed to accept his explanation and we prepared to go home.

After returning to the house, we spent a little time with the rest of the boys, relaxing and unwinding, but I held Little Ricky on my lap as we did this. I knew he needed a lot of love and understanding, but it would also be best if he were in the company of others. I felt he’d respond more quickly if the boys were able to distract him from his emotional turmoil.

They did interact with Little Ricky and kept him busy talking about a bunch of different things. However, no one mentioned Little Ricky’s mother and I was glad they didn’t broach that topic. It might have made matters worse, but the boys diverted Little Ricky’s attention sufficiently to allow him to put those recent uncomfortable memories to rest, at least for a while.

After an hour or so, I told everyone to head to bed and get some rest. We’d all be going to church in the morning and I suggested we could say an extra prayer, both tonight and tomorrow during the service. I told them to ask God to protect Vinnie and have him get in touch with us again, so we could be reunited. Even though most of the boys were tired and ready to sleep, they still agreed to my proposal. They would all say a prayer before they turned in.

There was one exception to their going along with my request. Kevin wasn’t about to give in and go to bed without a protest.

“Dad, can’t we do something else first?” he pleaded.

“Like what, Kevin?” I shot back. “We’ve spent all day on the road and put up many more fliers, so what else do you think we should do?”

“I don’t know,” he countered, “but I just feel we have to do something more.” He looked sad and despondent.

“We will. We’ll pray,” I advised him, hoping this would satisfy his need to do more. After a minute or so of thought, he merely nodded and started to walk away.

“Are you going to be all right?” I asked, since I could see from his body posture that something else was bothering him.

“I don’t know,” he replied, honestly. “I feel so damn awful and guilty about all of this. I just wanted to do something more.”

“Why don’t you spend some time with one of your brothers then,” I suggested. “That might make you feel a little better.”

“No, from now on I’m not sharing a bed with any other boys, not even my brothers.” He was adamant about that.

“I didn’t mean you had to have sex, but I don’t think you should be alone tonight,” I advised him. Kevin didn’t respond right away, so I continued.

“I’m pretty sure Jake won’t mind if you spend the night in with us, so what would you say to that instead. I don’t think we’d count as boys and I’ll even sleep in the middle,” I chuckled, as I silently admitted I hated that position on the bed. It was definitely not my most desired spot.

After thinking about my proposal briefly, and looking to Jake to get his nod of approval, Kevin finally agreed. I was glad, because I really didn’t think it would be good for him to be alone. Even at college, his roommate was only on the other side of his dorm room, even if he was still in his own bed. That meant Kevin hadn’t been alone even then, even if he may have felt he was at the time. This caused me to consider something else. I wondered what he had told his roommate about why he had been so miserable and depressed. I’ll leave that alone for now, but I will question him about it at a later date.

After the three of us said a group prayer, we all snuggled together in bed. I was glad I had opted for the king-size bed for my room all those years ago, because now it was proving to be very fortuitous. I was in the middle, lying on my back. I had one arm under and around Jake, while my other arm was holding Kevin tightly against my side. A few seconds later I felt Jake’s arm slide across my chest, but I soon learned it wasn’t merely for my benefit. Instead, he located Kevin’s hand and held it, to signal that he cared about him too.

I’m not sure how long we stayed like that, but I didn’t suffer from the progression of dreams I had endured the previous evening. I’m not sure if it was due to the fact that we had made those additional runs and put up more fliers or because I was sandwiched between Jake and Kevin all night. It might have been that I was just overly tired, but whatever the reason, I felt better when I awoke the next morning.

We got up, along with everyone else, and prepared for church. I made sure we arrived early, so we could say a couple of extra prayers as we waited for things to begin. It was a typical service, but I was surprised to discover the sermon happened to be about the prodigal son. I thought that was ironic.

Once the service was over, we all went out for our normal Sunday brunch, but we hurried through it and finished quicker than we normally would have. I believe everyone was anxious to get back home, in case the phone rang. Once we arrived, we changed and got comfortable. We spent some time relaxing and watching television, as I figured this would keep everyone calm. During one of the commercials, I told Kevin we’d leave around 2:00, so I could take him back to his campus.

Even though I could tell he wasn’t happy about leaving so early, he realized it was a long round trip for me to make. It was also imperative I get back early enough to get some rest, because I still had to work tomorrow. After calming down a bit, Kevin came over and sat on my lap, so he could talk to me.

“Can I come home next weekend too?” he wanted to know.

“May I,” I corrected him.

“Will you stop being a educator and answer my question?” Kevin shot back, mildly annoyed.

“That’s like asking me to stop breathing,” I teased back, “ but I suppose it would be all right if you came home next weekend too. I just need your assurance your studies aren’t suffering because of this.”

“They aren’t,” he confirmed. “I promise.”

“Okay. Then you may take the bus again,” I agreed, “but this time I’ll give you the money so you can buy the ticket yourself. Get a round-trip ticket, to and from York, so neither Jake nor I will have to spend very much time on the road, driving you back and forth. Okay?” He nodded.

Once I felt Kevin was fine with what we had discussed, I excused myself and summoned Little Ricky. I asked him to call the Spences, to see how his mother was doing, which he did. When Margaret informed him his mother was about the same as yesterday, Little Ricky advised her we wouldn’t be coming down today. He couldn’t take another day of seeing her that way. Margaret agreed, and since I’d heard the gist of his conversation, I called Little Ricky to sit with me.

He was on my lap and I was trying to console him when the phone rang. Kevin jumped up and started for it, but I advised him I wanted to answer it. I didn’t want Kevin taking the call, just in case it was bad news. After asking Little Ricky to excuse me, I went over and picked the receiver up somewhere between the fifth and sixth rings.

“Hello,” I greeted.

“Hi, Pop,” the voice responded. “It’s me – Vinnie.”