The Summer Job - 30. Reactions

In the Green household, Detective Chris Butler was standing beside Rochelle Green. They had been talking over coffee at the kitchen table when the four boys called them in to see the news segment.

Rochelle asked, “Are you sure that’s him?”

James nodded and Marcus said, “Yeah, that Jeffry’s friend all right. We didn’t know he had lost his Mother and best friend.”

Jon-Jon said, “He’s really nice. He brought Baskin-Robbins over and talked to us about the Y.”

Detective Butler said, “I haven’t met him but, he’s the one that talked to Detective Oswald and got the ball rolling so they could go.”

Rochelle smiled and said, “I’ve got to meet this boy.”

In Jeffry Cumming’s apartment his mother asked, “What is he like?”

Jeffry said, “It’s weird. You just know you can trust him.”

At the McGraw household, Patrick said, “He’s the one that got Andy settled down. I met him today. He’s an easy guy to like.”

The elder McGraw asked, “What do you think of him Stevie?”

Stevie thought of the tall, handsome Phillip, shifted in his seat to hide his growing erection and answered coolly, “He’s all right. I didn’t know about the other stuff about him. I kind of like him. Excuse me.”

Stevie got up and went to his room, locked the door, stuck his finger up his ass and jerked off furiously after watching Phillip on TV. Stevie didn't just like Phillip. In his own spoiled brat way, he was in love with Phillip. Granted it was mostly lust, but Stevie he wanted him... so... bad...

He misjudged his ejaculations. Normally they would have gone in his toilet but, he painted the wall with four powerful jets.

In the Hudson household, Tanner said to his mother, “It’s like Mikie Hendrix’s Mom said: you can just tell Phillip is something special.”

Mr. Hudson asked, “Have you talked to him?”

Tanner replied, “Yeah. I like him a lot. Britt has met him too. I think they’re going to be buds.”

Scotty Cross said, “We talked for about twenty minutes this afternoon... about stuff I’m too embarrassed to talk to you about.” He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and said, “He told me to give you his number.”

Ryan Johnson said, “I talked to Phillip today. I was in a bad mood and was mean to a sixth grader. Phillip didn’t yell or anything. I felt bad because I disappointed him.”

Mr. Johnson asked, “I know we've had a few discussions about your temper. Did you learn from it?”

Ryan, hoping he wouldn't get hard at the memory of his spanking said, “It turned out really well. I apologized to Sam, and we’re friends now. Phillip even invited me to come over and visit.”

Mr. Johnson grinned and said, “He sounds like the kind of friend I want you to have.”

Reverend Curtis asked, “You know the Wright boy?”

Bobby answered, “Yes sir. He’s good people. We talked to him this morning.”

Ronny added, “He invited us over tomorrow to spend the night. He doesn’t live far and has people over most nights to hang out and swim.”

“His former Minister said some very good things about him.” The Reverend drew the boys into a hug and said, “You can go. You two are always on your best behavior, so I don’t have to remind you. Invite him to visit our church. He would make a fine addition to our youth group.”

Sammy Lewis said, “Today an eighth grader was mean to me and Phillip stopped it cold.”

Sammy Senior asked, “That’s not a common thing, is it?”

Sammy replied, “Not really. I was sure glad he was there when it did. It’s OK now. Phillip talked to the other boy and, the boy apologized. We’re friends now. He was just in a mood about something and apologized.”

Sammy Senior grabbed Sammy junior, pulled him into his lap, tickled him and said, “Now, who could be mean to this cute little pup.”

Sammy giggled and said, “It’s a mystery.”

Timmy Callahan said, “He’s really nice Mom. Everybody likes him.”

Karen Callahan said, “He sure has charisma. I’ve seen politicians that could take lessons from him on how to look good on camera.”

Marion Jackson was sitting in the waiting room of Holman’s Tires and Brake Service when she saw the news. She thought, So that is who is looking after Billy. What a good-looking boy. If I were a little younger, I’d just eat him up. For a hot boy like that, I might just turn cougar.

Owen Jamison’s Mom and Dad were intrigued by Phillip and asked Owen more questions than he had answers for. All they could tell from their son’s answers were: he liked Phillip a lot and thought he was totally cool.

Once he was out of the room, Mrs. Jamison said, “From what I just saw, I agree with Owen. This Wright boy does appear to be totally cool.”

Awinta Gray asked, “Isn’t he the boy you visited Tuesday night?”

“Yes Mam. He’s a good guy to know”, Johnny Gray replied. “Unlike a lot of older boys, he thinks before he speaks and never throws his weight around.”

She smiled at her son and said, “You must like him. I got two whole sentences about him out of you.”

Johnny grinned back and said, “I do. He is... ᎠᏥᎸᏉᏗ. Did I get it right?”

Awinta said, “Very good. I see you’ve been studying your Cherokee. So you think he is honorable?”

“Yes Mom, I do.”

Phillip Wright Senior’s phone pinged with a text a little after eleven at night in London. He looked at it and was surprised. It was from Brian Kellum, one of the senior partners in the firm: Our local ABC affiliate just made your son their person of the week. He is a very impressive young man. Phillip’s father opened his laptop, went to the station website and pressed play on the video. It ran slow as molasses, so he put it into the background to download and went back to his notes.

Flag of Convenience states like Liberia were a serious thorn in the side of the traditional maritime states like the United States and Great Britain. Every year fewer merchant ships were built and flew the colors of the US and the UK. More ships flew the colors of the “convenience states” where regulations and taxes were much lower. The consequences of no regulations were the shipping lanes were filling up with the sea-going equivalent of junkers that were accidents waiting to happen.

It became less and less economically feasible to operate out of the US, UK, Japan or Australia for the big shipping firms and, much easier to flag their ships out of states that were happy to get the cash, never mind the consequences. If the teams working on the International Commercial Standard Maritime Agreement (ICSMA) could make it fly, it would change all that by standardizing regulations and fees. Any international agreement was like an exercise in herding cats and trillions in commerce were riding on their efforts.

The laptop pinged that it had finished downloading the video and, he watched the news segment about his son. He was stunned that the newsies had gone in such depth and detail and, that Phillip had openly addressed their family tragedy.

By the time it was over, his face was wet with tears and his heart was filled with a great swell of pride in his son. Little Phil wasn’t simply going to be all right. He was headed for extraordinary.