The Castaway Hotel - 8 - 12. Chapter 12 - Spring Break

As we entered the house, Nick walked away, to deal with his issues. Knowing he needed some time alone with Shannon, I didn’t follow and went to use the downstairs bathroom instead. As I entered, I discovered something I wasn’t ready for. Andrew was busy disconnecting the showerhead as I walked in.

“What are you doing?” I asked, which caused him to jump. He was concentrating on what he was up to and hadn’t heard me enter. Not only that, but he hadn’t locked the door either. Realizing I was there, he froze and looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” I asked him. “You’re the guy pulling all these new pranks, aren’t you?” He didn’t answer, but I could tell by the look on his face that I was correct. I pushed the door to the bathroom shut, so I could speak to him without drawing attention or being overheard.

“Okay, what’s up and why are you doing this?” I pressed. He didn’t answer right away, but I think he realized I wasn’t giving up until he told me what I wanted to know.

“Well,” he hesitantly began, “I started doing those things to prove I was just as good, just as smart and could do the same types of stuff the older guys do, but that isn’t what happened. When I started doing those things, everyone just thought it was Ricky pulling the pranks again. That’s why I did things to him too, so they could see it wasn’t Ricky.”

“Oh, I see,” I told him, trying to give him enough encouragement to continue his explanation. “The thing is, you didn’t stop there. So, why did you keep going?”

“Everyone started saying whoever pulled that off on Ricky must be really good, so I just thought I’d see how good I really was,” he admitted.

I could tell Andrew was proud of himself and what he’d done, and I also knew he enjoyed how the others perceived him now. Even though they didn’t know he was the one who was doing these things, they still admired the ingenuity and planning it took to pull off some of those stunts.

“Wait a minute,” I continued, after thinking of something else. “Didn’t some of those pranks get pulled on you too?” He smiled.

“I did some to myself, but mostly I just told everybody it happened to me too, but I was only making it up.”

“Why did you do that?” I asked, although I assumed I already knew the answer.

“So they wouldn’t figure out it was me,” he responded, honestly.

“But I thought you WANTED them to know you did these things, so they’d be impressed by what you’d done.” He had a thoughtful look on his face now.

“I do want them to know, but not yet,” he admitted. “I want to make them talk about all the things I do and go crazy trying to figure out who’s doing it, because I know none of them think I could do all this stuff. That way, when they do find out it’s me, they’ll be even more shocked.” He smiled, but his planning and thoroughness really impressed me.

“Okay, I can understand that, but what were you doing when I caught you?” I asked him.

“I was loosening the shower head, so it would come off when the next person took a shower in here,” he admitted.

“You know that most likely would have been Jake or me,” I told him, and he grinned broadly.

“I know,” he conceded, “but I thought the guys would really think the guy who was doing these things was really good and had guts, if he would do something to either of you too.” I saw the logic behind his plan and was amazed by his audacity. However, I thought I had to do something about it, so I reached out and began to tickle him. He burst into laughter.

“Stop, stop,” he pleaded, but I didn’t let up.

“So, you thought you’d get Jake or me, did you, you little twerp,” I teased him. “Let’s see how you like being gotten.” He was squirming about wildly in my arms, laughing hysterically.

“Stop, Dad. Please stop,” he whined, through his giggles. Finally, I began to let up.

“Okay, Mr. Prankster,” I continued, “I’ll stop if you take Jake and me off your hit list.” He looked at my face and pretended to be thinking about my request, so I thought he needed a little more encouragement. I began to tickle him some more, so he was laughing and wiggling about again, while trying to break free of my hold.

“Okay, okay,” he conceded. “I’ll leave you two alone.” I started to ease up on the tickling, but did not quit altogether, just to see if he was going to try to pull something else. I was just about to stop completely, when he made another comment.

“For now,” he told me. That was a challenge, so I wrapped him up in my arms and started rubbing my stubble into his neck, which caused him to squirm and wiggle some more.

“Are you sure you don’t want to take us off your list permanently” I asked, as a hint as to why I was doing this. He giggled some more and then I eased up on my assault.

“You’re a cheater,” he announced, while looking at me and trying to fake a frown.

“Oh, and what you’re doing isn’t sneaky and underhanded?” I countered, which caused him to smile again.

“Maybe,” he admitted.

“Then we’re even,” I told him, “so what do you say about leaving Jake and me out of this then?” He feigned a hurt look and then nodded.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” he gave in, “but the rest of the guys won’t think it’s as good, if I don’t get you and Jake too.” He looked at me now, as if he were expecting me to tell him I’d changed my mind.

“You’ll survive,” I responded, to let him know it wasn’t going to happen.

“What if we just pretend I got you?” he pressed. “You can leave the showerhead like this and then take a shower. You can pretend it came off after you got in, but nothing will happen to you. Okay?” I actually considered what he asked, because I hoped it might be the spark he needed to stop worrying about being a baby.

“And what do I get out of this?” I followed, while I considered his proposal.

“I’ll do anything you want,” he replied, quickly. “ANYTHING! You just name it and I’ll do it for you.”

“Well, I might just wait until I come up with something really good,” I responded, and then paused briefly, for effect. “Something really disgusting!” Andrew initially looked shocked, but then smiled.

“I don’t care, as long as you do this for me,” he confessed. “It will really get the others talking and make me look awesome, especially after they find out I’m the one doing it. I don’t care how gross the job is, I’ll do it to pay you back.”

Seeing this was apparently very important to him, I agreed. I told him I’d fix the showerhead later, after I was supposedly gotten. At this point, Andrew hugged me harder than he ever had before.

“Thank you, Daddy,” he told me, using his little boy persona. However, after this, I don’t think I’ll ever see him as a little boy ever again. I have to admit this has drastically changed my impression of Andrew, because I would never have thought he had it in him to do something of this nature. I guess I’ve been misreading him.

“Daddy, please promise not to tell anybody it’s me, okay?” he pressed. “Not even Daddy Jake.” I think he said it this way to butter me up, so I’d agree. I wouldn’t have ratted him out anyway, since I thought his stunts were quite comical and harmless. I really didn’t have a problem with anything he’d done.

“Okay, I promise,” I agreed, which elicited a huge grin from my boy. Then I added a kicker. “That is, unless you do anything else to either Jake or me.” Andrew looked crestfallen that I had hinted I might use this against him.

“I won’t!” he exclaimed. “I promise!” I guess that settled it.

Later that evening, I went in to take my shower early. I had left the showerhead loose, so I started the water and climbed in. A few minutes later, I finished unscrewing it and dropped it into the tub. Once it made a clanking sound, I screamed and started swearing. When some of the others came running to see what was wrong, I told them someone must have loosened the showerhead and it came off and smashed into my foot. I told them it might have even broken one of my toes. The boys looked shocked, except for Andrew. He was having a difficult time keeping a smirk from forming on his face. I really hammed it up and heard some of the others start commenting about the prankster. As Andrew suspected, they began saying things like, “Whoever is doing this has big balls to get Dad too,” and “Damn, this sucker is really good and even braver than Ricky. He never got Dad.”

I knew Andrew was in his glory now, so after everyone started to disperse. Jake and I reconnected the showerhead and went back to our room. As soon as the door closed, Jake confronted me about something else.

“It may not be the best time to bring this up, seeing your foot is probably still sore and all…” he paused momentarily and looked at me. He looked concerned, so I motioned my injury wasn’t a big deal and he went on.

“I’ve heard that Nick has genital warts. Knowing this makes me wonder what else he’s picked up?” I knew this was leading somewhere and was afraid where he was going. Therefore, I felt I had to respond.

“Nothing that we know of, but his test results will be back in a few days,” I replied, trying to downplay this a little. “Let’s not jump the gun and get all hyper, but we’ll know for sure before long.” Jake merely glared at me. He had a very hard and determined look on his face.

“I’m not sure I want Shannon to be with him any longer,” he eventually stated. I understood his concern, but felt I had to point out it wasn’t his choice.

“Jake, Shannon is old enough to make up his own mind now,” I advised him. “You can’t tell him what to do. He’s not a little kid any longer. You can tell him your concerns, but ultimately the decision has to be his.”

“Josh, I don’t want my son exposed to all this crap,” he shot back, as a way of letting go of some of his pent up frustration.

“And I can understand that too, but Shannon knows what Nick is like,” I pointed out. “If he’s willing to accept the risk that comes along with it, then I’m afraid you’ll have to learn to accept it too or take the chance of losing him.”

“Josh, I don’t want to lose him either way,” Jake explained. “I don’t want to push him away, but I don’t want to lose him to some sexually transmitted disease either.”

“Jake, there aren’t many fatal or debilitating sexually transmitted diseases any longer, with the exception of HIV. The rest can either be controlled or cured,” I reasoned. “I think you’ll have to trust your son’s judgment on this. You can discuss your concerns with him, but don’t try to issue any ultimatums. However, I suggest you wait until all the test results are back, before you start pushing the panic button.”

Jake finally agreed to follow both of my suggestions. He would talk to Shannon and explain what he was worried about, but he would also wait until all the results were in, before he did anything more than that. Now, we just had to wait for the doctor’s office to call.

The upcoming weekend was Easter and we were preparing for a big celebration. I had Vinnie call Duck, to see if he was still planning to join us, but he seemed to be having second thoughts.

“Are you sure it’s okay?” he asked Vinnie. “I mean, from the sounds of it, you’re having a whole lot of people over and maybe I should wait until another time.”

“There’s always that many people over,” Vinnie admitted, somewhat confused as to why that should make a difference. “No matter when you come, it will always be pretty much the same. It’s just that we have a very big family, and now you’re part of it, so you’d better get used to it.”

“But there will be so many people I don’t know,” Duck protested.

“You’ll know them after we introduce you, so it’s no big deal,” Vinnie assured him. “Come on. Pop really wants you to join us.”

“He does?” Duck sounded surprised.

“Yes, he does,” Vinnie reiterated. “He wants to introduce you to the whole family. He even said to have you bring your girlfriend with you too.”

“Tell him thanks, but she’s going home to be with her family. She invited me to go with her, but she’s taking a week of vacation then too, so she can spend it with her parents. I didn’t want to do that, because it’s a busy time at work for us.”

“Well, come by yourself then,” Vinnie insisted. “It’s not good to spend the holidays alone and you’re family now, so come spend it with your family.” I think that comment touched Duck.

“You really think of me as family?” Duck asked, not quite believing it could be true.

“Not just me,” Vinnie told him, “but Kevin and Pop too, and the guys who met you on the trip to Chicago. They think of you as another big brother. I’m sure the others will feel that way also, once they get to know you.”

“Well, it does sound nice,” he agreed, but then there was a momentary silence.

“Come on,” Vinnie whined. “You’ve got to do this at least once, so you’ll know whether you like it or not.”

“Okay,” I’ll give it a try,” Duck conceded, before adding something else. “Hey, Vinnie, tell your pop I really appreciate this. I haven’t had a family in years and I think I’m going to enjoy this.” Vinnie could sense the hint of excitement that had crept into Duck’s voice and was pleased he had agreed to attend.

“Duck, this is going to be soooo great,” Vinnie added. “I can’t wait to see you again. Why don’t you come Friday night and then stay until Sunday? You can leave after dinner, if you need to, but that way we’ll still have plenty of time to spend with you. It will also give you a chance to meet my other brothers before the rest of the gang shows up.”

“Are you sure there’s room and it would be all right?” Duck asked.

“Pop told me to suggest it, so I’m sure we have the room and it’s fine.” There was a brief delay, before Duck responded.

“Okay, if you say so, then I’ll do it,” he confirmed. “Actually, I can’t wait now.”

They ended their conversation shortly afterward and then Vinnie came to find me. He was thrilled and anxious to let me know Duck had accepted our invitation. It was obvious how pleased Vinnie was, especially since he had told me earlier that he thought Duck might change his mind about coming. He concluded Duck was somewhat intimidated when he learned about the imposing number of people that would be here for dinner, so that was why I had helped him prepare some arguments to use with Duck. It seems to have worked, so now we were both pleased Duck would be joining us. I only hoped Duck was as happy as we were about this.

Seeing this was the week leading up to Easter, we decided to go as a family to see ‘The Passion of the Christ.’ Even though we had heard a lot of pros and cons about this particular movie, we decided we wanted to see it and judge for ourselves. Before doing so, however, I made sure to explain to everyone that I had heard the film contained a great deal of graphic violence, blood and gore.

My biggest concern was about the younger boys: Andrew, Sammy, Dion and Graham. I didn’t want to tell any of them they couldn’t go, but I understood the vivid portrayal of the torture and crucifixion, as well as the amount of blood involved, had been difficult for even some adults to deal with. However, after going over all of these concerns in detail, they still wanted to see it, so I finally decided to trust their judgment and let them go too.

It had been a long time since I had seen a movie with subtitles, and I’m not sure if some of the boys ever had, but I think it added to the realism of what was happening. It was almost like standing in the background and watching the events unfold in person, especially since the dialogue was in Aramaic and Latin, which would have been spoken at the time.

I will give you my observations about the movie itself, but I will also tell you it’s probably best to draw your own conclusions, if you decided to see it too. First of all, concerning the big hoopla about it being anti-Semitic. I didn’t feel the movie singled the Jews out as a race, but merely showed that there are good and bad in all groups, whether it’s a nationality, a race or a religion. It also showed there are also certain people who have their own agendas when it comes to specific issues and they do things to protect their own position and self-interests, such as Caiaphas, the Jewish High Priest. However, I did not see that as a rap against all Jews.

On the contrary, if anything offended me, it was the seeming barbarity and callousness of the Roman soldiers and how they appeared to enjoy inflicting pain.

As far as the violence and bloodletting, I think that was way over the top and could have been toned down and still have been effective. First of all, just seeing all the blood that flowed so freely all over the place, I don’t think Jesus would have had any left in his body after the flogging, if that had really happened.

Second, with the severity of the beating Jesus had to endure, because you could see chunks of flesh ripped from his body by the barbed whips that were being used, I can’t believe he could have even stood afterward, let alone carried a heavy cross. I think Gibson could have done that a little more realistically and not lost the impact of the pain, suffering and humiliation Jesus had to endure before being crucified.

On another level, I was disappointed that Gibson also stuck to some of the historical inaccuracies that seem to have followed the story of the crucifixion since it happened. The first problem was he made Pontius Pilate look like a weak administrator who couldn’t make his own decisions. Although the bible did infer this in one of the gospels (Matthew), history has shown Pilate was a very aggressive and often very cruel governor. He was very capable of using violence, and even death, to his benefit.

The second thing I found disappointing was the fact that Gibson had Jesus drag the whole cross to Golgotha, which most likely didn’t happen. The most common practice at that time was to strap the cross beam to the person who was to be crucified, as was done with the two thieves.

Another problem I had was when the Romans drove the spikes through the palms of Jesus’ hands. I think it has been proven that this practice would not have supported the weight of the body and the spike would most likely have torn through the tissue of the palm. I suppose they could have also used ropes around the wrists or put blocks of woods over his palm before the spikes were driven in, to keep this from happening, but that’s not what Gibson did. Therefore, the body weight would have caused his hands to rip off of the spikes and the upper half of his body would have slumped off of the cross. As another alternative, most people who have studied Roman practices would agree the spike would most likely have been driven through the wrists and heels, which would have held the body in place.

Another thing that bothered me was when the Roman soldier stabbed Jesus in the side with his spear. Although it does mention in the gospels that Jesus’ side was pierced with a spear, it also lets us know this was done to assure he was already dead. Therefore, the blood would not have spurted from the body, as was shown in the film, because there would have had no pressure, as it would if the heart had been pumping it. Instead, it would have trickled down his side, using only the force of gravity to drain from the body.

The final problem I had with the film was it made it appear as if the crucifixion was the most important aspect of Jesus’ death. In reality, it was the resurrection that brought significance to his death and gave us the promise of salvation. I felt this point was way underplayed and, therefore, belittled and overlooked one of the most important aspects of Jesus’ life on earth. Although his death was important, the resurrection was crucial, and I was saddened it had so little to do with the movie, overall.

Although I still enjoyed the film and thought it made the final days of Jesus life more vivid, I think it could have made a greater impact if the violence hadn’t been so overdone and certain aspects were more historically accurate. I think it was a good vehicle to show how much the Son of God had to endure to cleanse the sins of man, and I think the film might even help to create a revival in religious beliefs, but I still feel the impact could have been even greater. I observed others who were watching the movie at the same time we were and noticed some of them react violently to all the bloody scenes. Although I think some of the brutality was essential, as I said earlier, I think a good share of it was unnecessary.

All the boys made it through the entire flick, even though I think some of them may have closed their eyes or looked down during certain parts of the film. I believe some of them looked away during the scourging or when the crow plucked out the eyes of the one criminal, but we all agreed that Jesus had suffered greatly before he died. I was glad we had seen it, but I think I would be extremely hesitant to allow or encourage pre-teens to view this film.