The Castaway Hotel - 9 - 1. Chapter 1 - Getting To Know You

I was working on my computer the following afternoon, when I received an IM from Peter:

AussiePeter: Pop, are you there?
JoshC818: Yes, Peter. I am. I take it you got back safely?
AussiePeter: I did, but now I want to c if this gizmo works.
Can U webcam now?
JoshC818: Yes, I’m not busy.

A few seconds later, I received an invitation to web-cam from Peter, accepted and slipped on my headphones. After a slight delay, his face appeared on my screen.

“It works!” I heard him exclaim.

“I was sure it would,” I replied. “The web-cam, microphone and headphone are the best one the company offered.”

“I know and thanks,” he answered. “This is great. When I get through speaking with you, I want you to let the others know I’m on, so I can chat with them too. My buddy list is full with just the screen names of your family.” He laughed after saying this and I also saw the humor in his comment.

We chatted for a little while longer, and Peter thanked me several times for all we did for him while he was with us, and then his parents got on to thank me too. It was the first time I had actually seen them, other than in the photos and videos Ricky had brought back with him, and their accents were even thicker than Peter’s. I guess his might have become watered down a bit, after spending so much time with Ricky and then staying the better part of a year with us.

After we finished our conversation, I went to tell the other boys that Peter was online and soon some of them were chatting with him as well. Once they started, I signed off and left them to talk without me eavesdropping.

Shortly thereafter, I also called to make certain Barry had arrived home safely and his mother assured me he had. She also reported that he’s been talking, nonstop, since he arrived and has told them everything we had done. Well, I’m sure he didn’t tell them everything, and omitted what he’d done with Andrew and Jesse, but I got the idea. She and Farrell thanked me as well and assured me we’d all get together again, sometime soon.

As soon as we had all recuperated from our vacation and got our lives back in order, I informed the boys we had something else we needed to do. I had planned we would go out to the farm again and help with the haying, so the farm-homes could get as much stored away as possible.

Lester explained he had done the first cut with the boys right after school was out and they were now ready to do the second cut. He’d do a third cut between the end of July and before the boys started school again in August and was going to sell some of the bales from these two cuts to be transported to areas that had bad haying seasons, due to either a drought or excessive rain and flooding. I concurred that would be a good way to not only help out, but also ensure some additional income and make the homes more self-sufficient. I had no problem with his plan, as long as the farms had enough to meet their needs. Lester assured me they would, so I agreed it was a good idea.

When I asked about coming out to help with the haying, I was surprised by his response. “Josh, did you forget we got the round baler when we bought the tractors? That means we don’t need your help with the haying, but if you want to give us a hand with the other work, we’d be happy to accept your offer.”

I was a little taken aback, because I was thinking we’d be working with the rectangular bales again, like we had the previous year. I’d forgotten he’d talked me into purchasing the new baler and those bales were moved by a spear, which was attached to the rear of one of the tractors.

“Lester, we’d be willing to help any way we can,” I offered. “We could come out this weekend, if that would work for you.”

“Josh, that would be fine and then I can get some other things done, that I’ve been putting off,” Lester agreed. I then confirmed we’d see them Saturday morning.

I had to work the rest of the week at school, to make up for some of the time I’d been gone on vacation, but Saturday morning I got the boys up early and we headed out to the farm. I left Andrew and Jesse with Lester’s wife, figuring they could help her with the chickens and other chores, while the rest of us worked with Lester and the guys.

We started out assisting them with the milking first, and after we released the cows to pasture, Lester gave us a choice. “I know neither of these jobs is much fun and sort of messy, but they have to be done,” he began. “We need to clean out both the barn and the chicken coop, so I’ll let you choose whichever you’d prefer. Then my boys and I will do the other.”

He was right. Neither job was very glamorous and both would be smelly and very dirty. However, I’ve dealt with chicken shit before and would much prefer to deal with cow patties. Therefore, I opted for us to clean the barn. Lester smiled and spoke.

“That would have been my choice too,” he agreed, while flashing a slight grin. Then he turned around and took his foster sons off to the chicken coop.

It was a warm day, but I wouldn’t call it hot. The boys and I sure did work up a sweat though, while cleaning out the barn. We finished before lunch and when Lester came back to check on our progress, he was surprised we were finished. Slowly, he looked the area over.

“Not bad, for a bunch of city slickers,” he teased. “I actually came here to tell you the wife said it’s almost time for lunch. I didn’t expect you to be done already and was just planning to see how you were doing. Damn, you and your boys must have really worked hard.”

“Lester, we did, but you forget we’ve done this before,” I replied, “and Little Ricky grew up here. We used to come out and help Albert and him, from time to time, so we’ve had some experience, you might say.”

“Yeah, I did forget about that,” he confirmed, “but you did a great job. Now, just head over to the house and my wife will start feeding you, if you’re interested.”

“Lester, I appreciate the offer and we are,” I confirmed, “but would you mind if we went out and took a dip in the pond first. We stink and so do our clothes.”

“Josh, the misses is used to that, so it’s not a problem,” he assured us.

“Maybe not for you, but I think we’d have a hard time keeping our food down, if we don’t wash up first,” I replied.

“Ah, yes,” Lester drawled. “You city folk might know how to clean up a barn, but you still don’t have the stomach for it.” He smiled and chuckled after saying this, to let us know he was only teasing. However, he was right. Our stomachs would have probably returned anything we deposited in them, if that smell was around to accompany it.

“Sure and take your time,” he offered. “I’ll tell my wife to hold things up a bit and grab a bar of soap you folks can use to wash up. The smells still going to be on your clothes though,” he followed.

“Not if we strip down and wash our clothes first, before we wash ourselves,” I challenged. “We can rinse our boots off too and leave them outside.”

“Then you’ll be all wet while you eat,” he stated.

“We’ll strip down to our underwear first,” I began, “that is if the boys wore any.” After saying this, I glanced around and saw a few guilty expressions, so I knew I’d hit the nail on the head with some of them.

“We’ll wash our clothes first and ring them out, then we’ll leave them in the sun to dry while we clean up our bodies.”

“Won’t the boys be uncomfortable doing that?” Lester asked.

“No, we’ve all seen each other naked plenty of times,” I answered. “Living in a house with only guys, we tend to get a little lax when it comes to modesty.” Lester chuckled.

“Your family is more farm boy than city slicker, in my book,” he countered. “My brothers, my sons and I had all done similar things over the years. Hang on a sec and I’ll be right back.”

Lester ran off and came back carrying a couple bars of ivory soap. “Here, you go clean up and we’ll meet you back at the house.”

About that time, Lester’s boys came over and saw us heading out. “They going home?” one of them asked.

“Nope, they’re going out to the pond to clean up,” Lester replied.

“Hey, can we join them?” another voice asked.

“Not sure,” he answered. “Let me check.” Lester then called out to me.

“Hey, Josh,” he shouted. “Would you mind if some of my boys joined you.”

“No, they can come if they want,” I shouted back, “as long as they’re not modest. There will be a lot of bare skin out here.” I guess his foster sons didn’t have a problem with that, because more than half of them came racing out to catch up with us.

Lester had seven foster sons, ranging from twelve to seventeen, and only the seventeen-year old and one of the fifteen-year olds didn’t join us. I thought I’d better clarify what we were about to do, as we walked to the pond, in case they wanted to change their minds.

“Guys, we’re going to be stripping down out there, rinsing off our clothes and then skinny-dipping in the pond, if you’re still interested in joining us,” I explained. “I just thought I’d mention that, so you wouldn’t be surprised or in case you’d prefer to go back now.”

“Hell, no!” the fourteen-year old shouted. “We do it a lot too, well, most of us do. The guys that didn’t come with us are shier then we are. I think they got little dicks or something.” Lester’s boys all laughed when the fourteen-year old said this and my boys soon followed suit.

“Hey, it’s all right with us, as long as you’re cool with it,” I added.

“We are,” the twelve-year old answered. “I wasn’t at first, but since I’ve been doing this with the others, I’ve gotten used to it.”

“Hell, you should be,” the sixteen-year old answered. “You’re hung as well as some of the others, even though you’re younger.” The twelve-year old just grinned and puffed out his chest, after that fact was mentioned.

Before long we had proof about what we’d been told and noticed the twelve-year old was quite mature for his age. In a way, I was glad Andrew wasn’t with us for this, because seeing this boy might have sent him into another bout of depression.

We rinsed our clothes off first, rung them out as well as we could and then laid them out in the grass to dry. However, I told the boys that were wearing underwear not to bother about rinsing them out too. I felt they probably hadn’t gotten dirty, so there was no need to wash them out as well. Then we all hopped in the pond and washed off the best we could, with the two bars of ivory soap Lester had given us. Then, we just frolicked around in the water for a bit longer, but I herded everyone out to dry and get dressed.

I was somewhat surprised to see all the foster boys that came out with us were all circumcised. I had a feeling some of them might have been uncut, but that wasn’t the case. However, no one questioned us about my boys that were uncircumcised, so I figured they’d either seen one before or learned about the difference in school. Either way, nothing was said and we all enjoyed the outing. Nothing sexual happened either and we merely had a good time soaking and relaxing.

Our clothes were still a little damp when we put them back on, but none of us cared. When we returned to the house, we merely took our food outside to eat, so we wouldn’t get the furniture damp. It was just sandwiches and potato salad, but it was good and filling.

When we finished eating, Lester suggested we go over to the other farm, so we could help them out too. I agreed and we all loaded up in the hay-wagon Lester had hitched behind one of the tractors. That way, we wouldn’t get our vehicles dirty once we were done there.

After we helped clean up the barn at the other farm, we rode back on the wagon with Lester. We then went back out to the pond to clean up again, before returning home. The same group of boys joined us again and I sensed they liked having us here. I don’t think any of them were sexually interested in my boys, but they did enjoy horsing around with others in the same relative age group. Everyone got along fine and we agreed to come out and visit, from time to time.

During this trip to the pond, we let our clothes get a little drier before we put them back on, so we didn’t transfer all that water to the seats in our vehicles. The boys with me happily chatted about what we had done and asked the other boys a lot of questions about themselves, after filling them in about their backgrounds. I think some of the foster boys might have been a little surprised that my boys had been in the foster care system and maybe even envious. I think some of them wished they had lucked out and ended up with us too, but I still believe this group was also pretty happy being where they were. I also had a feeling some of Lester’s boys might be willing to try some things with my boys, the next time we went out there. I think they might have even been agreeable to it during this second outing, if I hadn’t been there. I did warn my boys later that they would have to be careful about doing such things, in case some of the other boys reacted strongly to what they were up to.

We were now into July and the Fourth was approaching quickly. It fell on a Sunday this year, so I decided to have a cookout at home for the family. Monday was scheduled as the holiday, but the fireworks were still going to be set off Sunday night, so we looked forward to watching them too.

I contacted Lester and asked if he, his wife and the boys would like to join us and he said they’d be pleased. He also told me his boys still talked about when we came out there, so he knew they’d like to see my family again. I gave him a time and he said they’d be there.

I had also invited the extended family, so it would be a very big cookout. Mark would also be bringing his girlfriend and so would Duck this time, so the only one who’ll be missing will be Frankie.

Before Lester and his boys arrived, I warned my boys not to try to do anything with them today. I wanted this to be a day for family and group activities, so they agreed. Once everyone arrived, I explained what I had in mind, and after some slight hesitation, everyone agreed to give it a try.

I quickly split our attendees into teams, no exceptions. Well, that’s not quite accurate, since I told John and Margaret Spence they could sit out, since they were watching Arlene. She was doing fairly well so far, but we never knew when that was going to change. Vinnie and Andrew would be allowed to do other things as well, because their physical limitations would prevent them from participating in some of the activities.

As I placed everyone on a team, I tried to split the family units up, as much as possible. I did this because I wanted everyone to get to know the others better and the best way to accomplish this was by cooperating as a team.

The first activity I had planned was what I called the birdseed relay. Each team was given a small bucket of birdseed and a tablespoon, and they had to fill a plastic cup that was placed on one of our picnic table benches, about ten yards away. Each person was to scoop up as much birdseed on the spoon as he could and then race to the other end, without spilling it, and dump it in the cup, before racing back to hand the spoon off to the next person in line. The first team to fill their cup would win.

Vinnie and Andrew were going to be our judges, since this was one of the activities that would be too difficult for them. It was also made clear that their decision would be final, so my boys wouldn’t try to argue and belabor the point. I used birdseed for this activity, rather than something else, because I felt we could just toss it in the lawn afterward, at least what we hadn’t already spilled during the race, so the wildlife could feed on it.

I placed the boys first in each line, because I knew they were going to be extremely competitive, so by the time the spoons reached the adults, they would have no choice but to do the same. We were having a blast, cheering our teams on, until Vinnie and Andrew agreed there was a winner. It was the team consisting of Lester, Duck’s girlfriend, Dion, Graham and the 13-year old from the farm home. There was no prize involved, but they did have temporary bragging rights, until we finished the next activity.

The next event would require partners, so we split everyone up according to age. Once I had two lines, in descending order by age, with the older group being in the first line and the younger group in the second, we paired off. That way, the oldest in the first line was paired with the oldest in the second, so it should even out that each group would be competitive. This way, there would be a younger, more athletic person to offset what the older person had lost in physical prowess, due to advancing age. Unbelievably, I got paired up with Ricky for the three-legged race and he started giving me grief right away.

“Hey, old man,” he quipped, “you’re not going to slow me down and make me lose, are you?”

“I just hope I don’t break your leg while you’re trying to keep up with me,” I shot back, before disappearing into the house.

I came back carrying the strips of cloth Jake and I had cut up the night before and passed them out. While I was doing this, Andrew took up his position at the starting line, to get us going, and Vinnie moved down to the finish line, to declare the winner.

After everyone had one leg joined to his partner, Andrew gave the, ‘Ready, set, go!’ and we were off. There was some stumbling and a few pairs fell, some more than once, but we all made it to the finish line. The winners this time were Brandon and Lester’s 12-year old, but then we quickly moved on to our next event.

This time, Andrew and Vinnie were also going to be included too, because I felt they’d be able to handle this. Therefore, we had to modify the teams slightly, to accommodate them. This time we were doing an egg toss. Vinnie thought he could throw the egg using only one crutch for support, on the side opposite his throwing arm, and then drop to his knees to try catching the return throw. After each toss back and forth, every team whose egg hadn’t broken would take a step backward and increase the distance. In the end we had another pair of winners, but this time it was Mark and Lester’s 16-year old.

We kept the same pairs for the next activity, because it was very similar. However, instead of tossing eggs this time, we were using water balloons. A few people got wet, but no one seemed to mind, and John, Margaret and Arlene were having a ball watching and cheering us on. In the end, we had a new set of winners. This time it was Mary Shay and Nick. She had been very athletic in her youth and apparently hadn’t lost her touch, and she made sure to gloat about it with her husband afterward. Steve’s balloon had burst in his hand when he tried to catch it, so he not only lost to her, but he was also wet from the chest to the knees.

That was the end of the activities I had planned, so after we finished, the boys went off to play soccer, shoot baskets or just talk a walk around our property. Dustin had agreed to lead those who were interested in taking the walk, because I didn’t want anyone unfamiliar with the place falling into the ravine. Yes, it was similar to the ravine Andrew fell into when he had his accident, but otherwise they weren’t related.

While the younger ones were involved in those activities, we older folks sat around and chatted, after Jake and I provided everyone with a drink. We were all pretty parched by that point and I didn’t want anyone getting cramps from dehydration. As we talked, I was surprised to hear Mark, Duck and their girlfriends say how much they had enjoyed the various events and looked forward to joining us again. We all agreed it was different, fun and they got to know each other better, including the boys from the farm-home. They were really having a good time with my boys and Lester congratulated us for making them feel so comfortable. He said they were a little reticent about coming today, because they thought it would be lame, as one of the boys put it. However, he could tell by how they were acting, especially since some of them had won some of our competitions, that they were enjoying it as much as the rest of us.

Now, that things had quieted down, Jake and I fired up the grills and some of the boys helped us bring the other items out to the picnic tables. We now had several such tables for gatherings such as this and I was grateful I had planned ahead and purchased them. We used one to keep the food on and we would sit at the others.

Before it got dark, we drove down to where the fireworks were going to be held and found a good spot. It was quite an impressive display again this year, although most of it was of the aerial variety. However, once it ended, the Footes said they had to leave, because the cows needed to be milked and they had already put it off much later than normal. I told them I understood and we all said our good-byes, before they headed out. Tammy was the first to thank us for the great time, but then the boys started to come over too. One by one, they also thanked us and said they’d had a lot of fun and hoped we could do it again. I told them we would, although I wasn’t sure when, and they said they looked forward to it. Even the 17-year old said he’d had a good time, but he did ask if he could bring a date next time. When I told him that would be fine, he looked even happier.

Shortly after they left, some of the others began to take off too. Before long, all that was left was my family, Mark, Duck and their girlfriends. Duck and his girlfriend were going to stay in the guest room, because Andrew and Jesse had offered to sleep on the sofa while they were here. We thanked the boys for their offer and it took away a problem for me, as to where I was going to put them. Mark’s girlfriend was also going to be staying and would be staying in Mark’s room, since they were both consenting adults.

Even though the official fireworks were concluded, I suspected there might be some romantic fireworks going off tonight as well. I was certain some of the boys would be going at it, so I hoped everyone kept the noise down so Jake and I could get some sleep. Oh, hell. What am I talking about? We’ll probably be having our own fireworks display. After all, as Margaret Spence once said, we’re old, not dead.