The Peter Charles - 4. Chapter 4

Glen left the boat and went to get clean, then head back with the truck.

Loading the chests on the truck, “Glen, when you empty the small chests, wrap the fish and put them in the freezer. Bring the chests back, I still have to unload the shrimp and lobster.”

“The boys will clean the fish from the small ice chests. As soon as they are done, I’ll bring them down in the car.”

I thought all of the boys had gone so I jumped when Ron asked if he could help. “You scared me, I thought you went with the boys.”

“No, I saw you staying here so I thought you might need help.”

“Well, you can help, as soon as Glen brings back the empty chests we’ll need to empty the shrimp and lobster holds.”

Glen brought two chests back, “Let’s get the scoops we use to empty the fish holds. Here you take one chest for the shrimp and I’ll take one for the lobster.”

“I think I got them all.” I checked and he did get them all. I flushed the hold.

Now the lobster, I added a few lobster to the shrimp chest. Even with the full chest I still had some lobster in the hold. I went and got a plastic container, we put the extra lobster in that container. I flushed that hold as well. I picked up the money box and headed home, Glen drove the car back with the chests in the trunk.

“Did you have fun?”

“Yes, but getting up at four was a shocker.”

“Next week you’ll know to get to sleep sooner. Now we need to take a shower to get the fish smell off of us.”

“No one is here?”

“They are probably out delivering fish and possible shrimp and lobster. We give some of the catch away. All of the boys who work on the boat get to take some fish, and now shrimp and lobster, home to their families. I think of it as part of their pay.”

“Tomorrow morning, Marge who you met, she gets two fish and the deli where you got the sandwiches and chicken soup, she gets six fish and then Jim at the sport shop he gets some to sell, the rest are sold at the fish market.”

“Now the cleaning process is done in three steps to get rid of the fish smell. See the bottles marked 1, 2, and 3. Wash with bottle 1 including your hair, rinse well and then repeat with bottle 2 and 3. Ron, I don’t know how comfortable you will feel when all of the guys are here, they strip and we wash the clothes, they have to be washed three times as well. Even the shoes get washed. So if it bothers you to get naked with me, I’ll step out, here’s a towel.

I stepped out into the garage, “Kevin, you can come in. I’ll be okay.”

I went back in, added my clothes to the washer and started the washer. I glanced at Ron, he was developing pubic hair. I handed him a warm towel as I got into the shower. Finishing, I started the second wash. “Ron, did you get sweats when you went shopping?”

“Yes”

“Do you know where they are?”

“Yes”

“Go and put them on then come back down and we’ll have a late supper. The boys are having burgers at Nicky and Glen’s home. Let’s see what we can eat. I took out leftovers plus lunch meat.”

I fixed a 'left over' dinner, before we actually started to eat, Glen arrived with hamburgers for us. “Dad asked about you and Ron, I told them you were still unloading the boat. He sent these over.”

“It took some time, we could have done it sooner if we had more chests. I wonder if there is a way to get more chests on the truck.”

“I don’t see how, the bed is covered.”

“I’m, not going to get another truck. Maybe we can get two new chests like the ones we have. The old chests we can put in the trunk of the car. That will give us two more chests. We need to clean fish for tomorrow.”

“That’s done, the boys cleaned all but what we sell to the fish market. We need more knives.”

“Pick some up from Jim tomorrow.”

The boys came up from the rec room, Peter climbed on my lap. “Are you tired?”

He nodded, I squeezed him and kissed his head. The boys headed back down leaving Glen and I alone.

“The boys had a lot of fun today. You should have heard them at Grams and Charles telling his girlfriend. We’re becoming quite popular. Mom and Dad missed you. You know they are quite fond of you.”

“I’m quite fond of them as well, but I love you.” That resulted in a kiss. “Maybe we can stop sooner. We had a good load I estimated about fifty percent more than the old boat.”

Life returns to normal, I started working later. Glen hung around the office waiting for me but I knew he was anxious to get home. We opened a joint bank account to deposit the income from the boat. Most of the kids were getting a hundred fifty now, most but not all. Peter got a raise to fifty dollars and Ron was getting a hundred, but that will increase to a hundred fifty in a few weeks.

I found Ron’s previous address and his school records, I passed that on to Stewart. We petition the court to adopt Ron, only we used his legal name. Stewart was able to get a copy of his birth certificate, both of his parents were dead. Later that evening Bob called he wanted to see me. It was late and they kids were in the rec room cocooning.

“Hi Bob, come on in. Glen just made a pot of coffee.

“Kev, the Feds were in the station today, they wanted to know who was investigating a missing boy. I think that was Ron they were talking about.”

“Are you still looking into that?”

“No, I was told not to pursue the case but evidently someone else is and the only person I knew who would persist until they knew everything were you and Glen.”

“If I tell you what we know, you can't tell anyone. If the Feds find out , it could be terrible for you.”

“Okay, so it was you who has been looking.”

“Yes, we have a copy of his birth certificate and a copy of his school records. I have petitioned our favorite judge to adopt Ron using his legal name. We go to court this coming Tuesday. This is what we found and this is what we think happened. Ron was taken from Child Services and given drugs to block his memory. The Feds had a man destined for their witness protection program. Someone decided that if the family had a child, the disguise would be better. They moved the family and brought Ron home from the hospital. When he was at school, the Feds moved the family and forgot Ron. Guess how old Ron really is?”

“I don’t know, he said he was eleven.”

“Ron is actually fifteen and will shortly be sixteen.”

“You found this out from his birth certificate”

“I suspected, no eleven or twelve year old has the beginning of hair above his lip or pubic hair.”

“If the Feds find out you’ll be in trouble.”

“I gave the judge the same information I just gave you with the support papers. By Monday, I’ll have the names of the Feds who were involved. Tomorrow an officer of the court will deliver a cease and desist writ to the FBI. They will also be forced to turn over all information on Ron. I don’t care about his so called parents.”

“I get the feeling you aren’t done.”

“No, we’re going to sue the FBI for abandonment of a twelve year old boy and asked for a judgement against those that drugged Ron.”

“When is all of this going down?”

“Next Tuesday when we go to court.”

“I’m going to attend the hearing, what time is it?”

“Its schedule for two” Finishing our coffee, Bob said good night.

“Glen, we must keep Ron out of sight till Tuesday. If the Feds find out he’s here, they’ll come for him. Why are you smiling?”

“The boat, that’s a perfect place for him, in fact all of the boys. I’ll go with them till Friday when you can join us. Nicky can take the boat out one or two miles, they should be safe there.”

“Perfect, you’ll need to stock the boat.”

“I’ll stay home tomorrow but we need to tell the kids.”

“It’s late, maybe we can in the morning.”