Cabin Boys - 4. Chapter 4

Monday morning Jim called Lenny and made an appointment to see him. That morning at breakfast he told the boys he was going to his office today. He was going to see his lawyer also. “I want him to start finding out what happened to your farm. He’ll also know someone who can find out what happened to your parents.”

“Will you tell us what he says?”

“Of course I will. If he finds out anything, I’ll ask him to come here and tell us all.”

Joey was too interested in his breakfast but Pete just smiled at Jim. “Pete, as soon as you finish breakfast can you make a copy of those papers for me.”

Pete, leaving an unfinished breakfast, went and made copies, gave them to Jim, and then finished his breakfast. Jim just smiled.

Jim went and got his briefcase, put the copies in, locked it. Pete said goodbye, Joey wanted a hug. He held out his hand, Pete shook it. Jim smiled wondering if Pete would ever accept him as his dad. Joey had and was even calling him Dad. Time will tell.

At lunch, Jim showed Lenny the copies of the papers. “Where are the originals?”

Jim told him they were home. “The oldest boy, Pete, didn’t want to let them out of his sight.”

“I’ll need to see them.”

“Why don’t you come out to the house and bring a notary with you.”

“What time is dinner?”

“Six”

“I’ll see you then.”

The rest of the afternoon, Jim tried to lose himself in his work. It didn’t happen. He left early, telling his secretary he had to make some stops on the way home and he’ll be in tomorrow morning. He stopped at the grocery store and picked up two rotisserie chickens, a loaf of frozen bread, and ice cream.

Arriving home, he found the boys studying. They were in his office, their office, during their homework. Jim, placed the bread in the microwave to defrost, the chicken in the refrigerator, ice cream in the freezer. Joey heard the noise and went to check. Seeing Jim, he ran and jumped on him. Jim saw him coming, braced himself, grabbed Joey, and lifted him in the air as Joey went to jump. Pete heard Joey scream and went to see what happened. When he saw Jim and Joey laughing, he shook his head and went back to his homework. Jim put Joey down, “What are you boys doing?”

“Our homework”

“Did you finish?”

“No”

“We still have time before dinner, why don’t you try to finish.”

Lenny arrived at five-thirty with his wife, Lois. She was a notary and could notarize the copied Jim had given to Lenny. “We have time before dinner, so why don’t we take care of business now.”

Jim called Pete, introduced Lenny and Lois, “Pete, Mr. Alderson needs to see the originals of those papers you copied.”

“He’s not going to take them.”

“No, he’ll compare them, then Mrs. Alderson will notarize the copies as being a true copy of the original. You can keep the originals.” This satisfied Pete although Jim noted he sat very close to Lenny and Lois.

Dinner was enjoyable, Lois asked Pete questions about his past. She wanted to know what he did on the farm and did he like farm work. I saw what was happening, Lois was getting Pete to relax. I enjoyed listening as well.

“Pete, tell them about your grandfather helping you to build your shack.”

I never was inside his shack but as I listened, his grandfather thought or knew the time would come when Pete would need to use it.

“Grandfather said I needed to make it comfortable. So we made a shelf that could hold our sleeping bags. I never had the chance to put our bags in the shack. I forgot until grandmother died and then I couldn’t get them. I did take some blankets and we slept on that.”

“Tell them about our escape route.”

“At the back of the shack, we had a small door that would let us crawl through. It led deeper into the woods. I was thinking of building a ledge in the trees so we could climb and watch from there. I saw some hunters had something like that. But, when my grandfather died, I didn’t have time. I had to help grandmother with the farm.”

“So except for what you could get before that man told you to leave, you couldn’t get anything else?”

“No, he put a lock on the doors. We did get two of the chickens before he killed the rest.” “Where are the chickens now?”

“In a pen outside in the backyard.”

“So Jim, you get fresh eggs now.”

“No eggs, we need a rooster and we don’t have one.”

“Why not?”

“I didn’t want to bother any neighbors with a rooster waking everyone up.”

“You don’t have any neighbors.”

“Not now, but I heard that the land on this side of the road was going to be developed.”

Lenny started to laugh, “Where did you hear that?”

“At the grocery store, the cashier asked me if I knew when the land on my side of the road was going to be developed. I figure if he’s asking then there must be some noise concerning the possibility of developing the vacant lots.”

“Jim, had you ever looked at your deed?”

“No, you handled the purchase. I didn’t need to see the deed.”

“You own all of the lands on this side of the road. This was a farm, the owner died and left everything to his son. The son sold off the land across the road, built that house down at the turn and you bought the rest of the land on this side of the road. Unless you sell any portion of this land, you’ll not have any neighbors.” “

That can’t be right. He comes up here and cuts the grass on that property.” “

That isn’t all grass, I think he cuts the hay for his use. Next time you see him, ask him. You own this land.”

“Dad, does that mean we can raise chickens?”

“I guess it does Joey.” I saw two happy boys.

“Jim, to change the subject, you need to have a discussion with the boys about the other issues we have.”

“Pete, Joey, I have asked Mr. Alderson to look into the possibility of both of you being adopted by me in case he can’t find any relatives that you could live with. Pete, if you feel that you and Joey do not want to be adopted, then Mr. Alderson will get me appointed as your guardians until you reach the age of 18.”

We watched Pete, Joey whispers something in his ear, “We’d like to think about that. Do we need to answer now?”

“No, think about it and let me know. If Mr. Alderson finds your relatives, then you’ll live with them.”

I wasn’t sure what Pete would decide. I knew Joey would agree since he’s already calling me dad. I felt that Pete would prefer the guardian role, he wasn’t willing to give up the freedom he believed he had. Lenny collected his papers, I walked him and Lois to the door. “Jim, I’ll keep you informed if I find anything. In the meantime, I’ll file for guardianship.”

I could tell Pete was somewhere else, Joey was helping with dishes asking when can we get a rooster for the chickens. He was ready, “If we had chickens, I’ll take care of them. We’ll have fresh eggs. I can get them from under the chickens, they like me.”

“Maybe this weekend we can go and see if we can find a rooster.” He was happy, I got a hug out of that.

“Dad, what’s a guardian ?”

“It’s someone who acts on your behalf.” I saw the confusion on his face. “A guardian would be responsible for the welfare and safety of you and Pete. They would have to act in your best interests. Then when you reach the age of eighteen, you are responsible for yourself.”

“So then we would have to stop living here.”

“If you were living some other place maybe, but not here. You can stay here as long as you want.”

“Even if we get to be twenty?”

“Yes, and longer if you want to.” I got a hug out of that.

I had a good feeling that by the time Joey reached eighteen, this would be looked upon as home. I’m not as confident in Pete. He has already developed an independent attitude. I think it’ll be hard for him, he has been Joey’s parent in some ways. He’s more mature for his age, forced into that maturity with the death of his grandparents.

It had been several weeks since Lois and Lenny were here for dinner. I was wondering if he had any results concerning the parents of the boys. While we waited, Joey, Pete, and I worked on enlarging our chicken farm, as Joey called it. I did go and buy several chicks of which one was guaranteed to be a rooster. Even though Lenny said I owned quite a bit of the old farm, I was still concerned about that rooster crowing at sunrise. It was fun to watch Joey, every day he would check to see if there were any eggs. I figured it would take about eight to nine weeks before that rooster got around to doing his job. As it turned out we had two roosters, Pete said we had to kill one otherwise they would fight. Now that was something I wasn’t prepared to do. But I needn’t worry, Pete took care of it and we had roasted chicken for dinner that night.

I began to wonder if Lenny was ever going to find out about the boys’ parents. Getting ready to give him a call, my phone rang. “Hello, are your physic? I was just getting ready to call you.”

“I have tracked down information on the boys. Pete’s mother was the daughter of his grandparents. She married a guy who she met at college. They were killed in a car accident. Child services got involved and placed him with his grandparents. There was an insurance payment plus the selling of his home, I’m tracking that money down. Joey’s mother was also the daughter of his grandparents. She never married and died of an overdose. Child services got involved again and traced her back to his grandparents. Now the will, I check with the court and it’s valid. I’m now filing a lawsuit against the county which took the farm and sold it.”

“Lenny, how much of that should I share with the boys. I don’t want Joey to know about his mother.”

“Just tell them we have confirmed the death of their parents. Once I find out more about the money I’ll let you know. Now, is it adoption or guardian?”

“I don’t know. I’ll talk to Pete, I know Joey would go for adoption. I’ll get back to you.”