Florida Shores - 1. A Change of Life

<<Charlie I need u home now>>

Charlie’s brother, Joey, never texts like that. It had him worried. He noticed it was sent thirty minutes ago while he was still in class and his phone was in airplane mode.

“Joey, what’s wrong?” he asked when Joey picked up.

“A cop was here.”

“A cop?”

“He wanted to know if there were any other adults that lived with me.”

“Were you partying too loud, bro?” he asked with a giggle.

“Charlie, he had me worried.”

“Is he coming back?”

“He gave me a card with his number. Said for you to call him when you got here … It’s Officer Ramirez.”

“I’m heading to the car. I’ll be there in about 30 minutes. Give him a call and tell him to meet us in an hour.”

“OK, Charlie. I don’t know what’s going on.”

“Neither do I, bro. Neither do I.”

Charlie pulled into the driveway of their home after a twenty-minute trip from the junior college he was attending. His parents recommended he get some of the basics out of the way before going to the State University in Tallahassee.

He was concerned all the way home. Neither he nor Joey ever got in serious enough trouble to bring the attention of the cops down on them. A couple of Charlie’s friends may but that wouldn’t have involved Joey.

Joey ran into Charlie’s arms before he even got in the house. “I’m scared, Charlie.”

“I am also but I’m here for you, bro. I got you, OK?”

Joey hitched his breath and nodded yes. The pair went into the house and got some water. Charlie sat his brother down with him on the sofa as they waited. The TV was turned onto some sort of program that neither could remember.

The doorbell rang and Charlie jumped up to answer it. He saw an older Florida Highway Patrol Trooper standing at the door with a grim expression.

He extended a hand to Charlie, “Sergeant Ramirez. You must be Charlie Hudson. May I come in and talk with you both?”

Charlie couldn’t find the words until the sergeant was inside and guided into the living room. “Um, want a water?”

“Thanks, son. That would be nice.”

When the three settled, Sergeant Ramirez cleared his throat. “How old are you, Charlie?”

“Nineteen.”

“Good, that makes this a little easier since you’re over eighteen.” The officer took a large breath and murmured, “I hate this part.”

He continued, tearing up, “Boys, there’s just no easy way to say this. You’re parents were involved in an accident on I-75 south of Tampa. It was bad. Their Explorer flipped over when two tires on the passenger side blew and were hit by two tractor-trailer trucks. They didn’t survive. I’m very sorry, boys.”

“NO!” Joey screamed.

Charlie grabbed him in a hug and repeated, “I got you, Joey.” over and over.

Sergeant Ramirez continued after a few minutes. “Since Charlie is over eighteen, both of you can remain here at the house. A social worker will come by though to make sure you both are OK and evaluate if Charlie is suitable as Joey’s guardian, which you seem to be, son.”

The officer pulled a paper from his shirt pocket. “This is the FHP accident report. You need to give this to your parent’s lawyer. I think you may have a wrongful death lawsuit.”

The sergeant got up and Charlie followed suit. The pair walked to the door. The sergeant pulled Charlie into a hug. “You have my card. I live in town. Call if you two need anything, OK?”

“Thanks. We may do that. It’s a lot to process.”

“Charlie, there’s so much to do. Ask for help. Do you have any relatives?”

“Nope, it’s just us.”

“Then make sure you call me tomorrow. Promise me.”

“Yes, sir. I will.”

“Good, son. You two have a good cry. Comfort each other.”

Charlie let him out and turned to look at Joey. He didn’t see him so he went into Joey’s bedroom. Not finding him there, he looked in their parent’s bedroom and found him hugging their mother’s pillow.

Charlie laid down facing him and pulled Joey into a hug. They let all their sadness out, falling asleep when they ran out of tears.

~~**~~

“Why did they leave me alone?”

“Hey, what about me? That hurts, bro. I stayed close in part because of you.”

“Huh? No, you didn’t.”

“I got accepted to Gainesville but didn’t want to go.”

“Did Mom and Dad know that?”

“No, I never told them.”

“Why?”

“I was waiting for you to tell me.”

“What?”

“That you and I share something.”

“Parents, house, air?”

“Who we like.”

Charlie felt Joey stiffen. “How did you know?”

“Well, I decided that girls were yucky around eight and never grew out of it.”

“You’re being a shit.”

“I’ve seen you looking at Peni. It’s the same way I looked at Jimmy before he moved away.”

“He is quite nice to look at.”

“Yes, he is. I have to be careful about watching him.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t want to make you mad and I wasn’t sure he’d appreciate it.”

“Yeah, I don’t know either. At least, he doesn’t say anything negative.”

“That helps.”

Joey got quiet again and started to cry. Charlie wrapped him in his arms again.

“I never got to tell them,” he blubbered out finally.

“I only told them a few months ago.”

“Were they mad?”

“Sad. I think they were looking for grandchildren.”

“They didn’t get mad?”

“No, but they weren’t jumping up and down, ya know?”

“Yeah. I miss them.”

“Me too, buddy. You want some food?”

“Mac and cheese?”

“Sure thing. We both need something comforting.”

They got up, washed their faces, and went into the kitchen to make dinner. Charlie added some hot dogs to cook with the mac and cheese Joey was making.

“Do you think they’ll try and take me away?”

“We’ll need to meet with Mom and Dad’s lawyer. I’ll call in the morning. You’ll come with me. I think as long as they see I can handle taking care of you, we should be good. Sergeant Ramirez said he’d help.”

“That was kinda nice of him.”

“Yeah, it was. I think he really felt sorry for us. Money’s going to be the biggest need. I don’t have much in my savings account.”

“Oh! I didn’t think of that.”

“We got to pay utilities and for food. The lawyer will know what to do.”

“I’m sorry, Charlie.”

“Hey, nothing to be sorry for. I don’t mind taking care of you. Besides, you’re fourteen. You’re not that high maintenance anymore.”

Joey hit Charlie on the arm. “Bullshit! Never was.”

“I changed a few of your diapers, so I know.”

That cheered Joey up some.

Joey started another line of questioning as they sat down to eat. “So, do your friends know you’re gay?”

“Yep. I was worried about it in high school, so I was quiet about it. Didn’t help being on the swim team. I think a lot of the guys suspected.”

“Yeah, hard to hide a boner in Speedos.”

“We all popped them. Showering was the worst. I was almost outed a few times but a couple of the guys shut it down. They were the ones to convince me to come out during my senior year.”

“Oh, so Drew is gay then?”

“Yep. There are a few teachers also.”

“Should I tell Peni?”

“Why don’t you wait and see? Maybe when you really crush on someone? That’s why I told Mom and Dad. I wanted to date Drew.”

“You gonna tell him about Mom and Dad?”

“Yeah, he’ll want to be here. I’ll tell him tomorrow and he’ll come home for the weekend.”

“We got a sucky day tomorrow.”

“I think it will be sucky for the rest of the month.”

The pair sat on the sofa after eating to watch some mindless streaming programs as they were lost in their own thoughts. When Joey yawned, Charlie checked the time and saw it was almost midnight. He helped his sleepy brother get up and get ready for bed.

“Can I sleep with you tonight?” Joey asked.

“Of course, you can.”

~~**~~

They were both numb as they went about their school day. Charlie picked Joey up at three from school for the appointment with their parent’s attorney.

“Joey, Charlie, I’m so sorry for your loss.”

Charlie took a deep breath, “Thanks, Mr. Noone. We have some issues we need to work out.”

“Indeed we do, Charlie. The biggest issue is making sure Joey and you don’t get separated. The next thing is to get you some money to live on.”

They sat down in the conference room. Charlie handed over the police report which the attorney had requested copied.

“First off, I’ve drafted a letter to Child Services stating that you, Charlie, have no issues being the guardian to Joey except for your age. If you were 21 it wouldn’t be an issue. Your parents and I had already discussed years ago what to do if for some reason they both preceded you in death.

They requested a trust be set up for the monies from their insurance policies and investments be placed in it. Since you are over eighteen, my job has become quite easy. I’ll be setting up a trust fund with your bank. They will deposit enough money into your account to pay for all your needs during the month. Of course, you will be getting a statement each month of what money is being taken out of the trust and how much interest you get on that money.”

“Is that better than just giving me the lump sum? It can’t be that much can it?”

“Well, there is their personal life insurance, the life insurance from work, the one from the auto insurance, the mortgage will get paid off and the property transferred to the trust (that’s to reduce the taxes), the investments you parents had, both of your money for college and finally, Joey’s Social Security payment.”

“Will it be enough to live on?”

“More than enough. It will be a few million. With no mortgage payment, I suspect you could live off Joey’s money alone.”

Charlie breathed a sigh of relief. “I was thinking I’d need to drop out of school and get a job.”

Mr. Noone smiled at him. “Nope. However, you’re college plans will need to change, Charlie. You’ll have to be home when Joey gets home or soon after. Child Services won’t let you keep him if they feel he isn’t being watched after. They will pull more surprise inspections also. Expect some weekend and Friday night ones. If you two go out, it would be best to leave a message with your caseworker so they can’t accuse you of being irresponsible.”

Charlie laughed, “It’s not like we partied all the time. I’m pretty boring, Mr. Noone. Just the occasional date and hanging out with friends.”

“I’ll be honest with you Charlie. They’ll be watching you very closely. I’d bombard your caseworker with texts and documents to stop them from making life difficult for both of you.”

The pair looked at each other and smiled. “We can do that,” Charlie told him.

“They will call you on Saturday or Sunday probably. I’m faxing the letter to the local office after you sign it.”

The attorney handed the letter to his clerk and then pulled a thick file over to him. “Now, you’re hand will get tired from signing.”

Charlie and Joey never saw so many papers that needed to be signed. When they finished, Mr. Noone asked, “Do you need money for the weekend and next week?”

“No, I’m OK with my savings as long as I can get some from my parent’s account in a few weeks.”

“If you do, call the office here and we’ll transfer money to you. The bank won’t release the accounts until they have a death certificate. This is a list of all the phone numbers you will need. You should get all your parent’s papers together that you can find, accounts and whatnot. This letter will at least give the bank the OK to print out the account balances for you to show Child Services. Most folks don’t have a check register anymore.”

“I’ll have to see if they locked the computer from me.”

“Ah, I forgot that.”

Mr. Noone consulted the file and wrote a web address and password down on the sheet. “That will let you into an account they set up with all their online financial account info and passwords. Your father told me he’d keep it up.”

The attorney got up and walked over to the boys. He hugged them. “Call me if you have questions. Read over the documents in the envelope you’ll get when you leave here. You’ll see my fees for handling the probate and setting up your trust. I discounted them a lot to help you two out because I don’t see anything needing a lot of work to take care of everything. I doubt we’ll need to go to court but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“That was a lot of stuff, Charlie. Do you understand it?” Joey asked as they got in the car.

“A little. At least Mom and Dad planned it out. Let’s go to the bank and get the statements in case Child Services comes by. Then we’ll get burgers. Maybe we should get some groceries also. I guess we’ll need to stay home this weekend. We’ll have Drew with us and maybe Peni can come over?”

“I don’t know if he’ll spend the night over. You call Drew and then I’ll call Peni. His parents will want us over there Saturday and Sunday I bet.”

“I hope our caseworker gets in touch with us. We’ll have people with us all weekend and probably next week. You know how many folks knew Mom and Dad.”

“Oh, that’s why you said it will be a sucky month. Folks will be saying how sorry they are.”

“Some may genuinely want to help. Others will be nosy. We’ll need to sort them out. Hopefully, no one makes trouble.”

“We’ll have enough of that coming I guess.”

“Mr. Noone wasn’t too worried. He’ll fight for us.”

They entered the bank and had to wait for the manager. The letter wasn’t enough and Charlie had to provide the police report. The manager told them Charlie couldn’t access the accounts until a death certificate was provided. He told the manager he understood that. He told the manager that their attorney said the balances were required for Child Services. Once that was cleared up, the account summaries were easily produced.

Charlie was stunned at the amounts and wordlessly handed Joey the documents.

“Holy shit, bro! That’s a lot.”

“It’s enough to keep us in the house. Don’t forget, I have no job so no money is coming in. We’ll need to be careful spending it. And, we don’t know when we’ll be able to get at it.”

“So, no lobster tonight?”

“You goof-ball! How about I take you to that place where you wear a bib when we get more settled?”

“I was joking but we could do the Fish Camp. Maybe take Drew and Peni with us?”

“That’s a good idea. I know they’ll be there for us so it would be a nice way to say thanks.”

“I’m gonna hate Christmas this year,” Joey said with a sniffle.

“Yeah, me too. Maybe we’ll get a new Christmas tree? Maybe a live one? Or go on a trip?”

“A trip might be good.”

They were pulling into the burger place when Charlie’s phone rang. “Is this Charlie Hudson?”

“Yes, it is.”

“I’m Debbie Fisher with DCS. I would like to meet with you tonight.”

“We could I guess. Joey and I were getting burgers and needed to so do some grocery shopping. Would tomorrow be easier for you so you don’t have a late night?”

“Are you safe at home?”

“I was with Joey for the week our parents were away. We’re fine.”

“I need to inspect your house and make a report.”

“If you want to come by, sure. We got nothing to hide. We’ll be out for at least two hours maybe three. I want to get food for the week so we don’t have to deal with that among the other things. Joey and I already know it’s gonna be a shitty week.”

“You need adults around you to help out.”

“Ms. Fisher. I know I’m technically not an adult, but I’ve been helping take care of my brother since he was born. We both can cook. We’re not going to starve. Our attorney is handling the money issues so we won’t be losing our parent’s house. We have at least one neighbor family that will be in our lives playing Mom and Dad for us. We can survive the night. We did last night even though it was emotionally difficult.”

“I’ll be there at 10 PM. Be home.”

The lady hung up on him. “Is she going to be trouble, Charlie?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Let me call Peni. We’ll get him and his parents over or at least his Dad.”

“His dad would be good. He’ll scare her off,” Charlie said with a grin.

“Let’s eat and I’ll call them. I told Peni I needed to talk with him tonight anyway.”

They went into the storefront and ate their dinner. Normally they both loved the burgers and fries here but tonight they were going through the motions.

“Peni, bro. It’s Joey.”

“Like I didn’t know that.” He answered. There was a slight accent to his words even though he lived in the mainland most of his life.

“I know it’s short notice but can your Dad come over with you? Charlie and I had bad news about our parents and we need you at the house.”

“Hang on.” The phone went quiet as Peni talked with his father, Kekoa. “Yeah, Dad said he’d walk over with me. Are they hurt?”

“Worse, Peni. They got killed in a car crash. We found out about it yesterday.”

“What! How come you dis me and not call!? I’m hurt man!” Peni growled.

“Charlie and I just fell asleep after crying. I wanted to tell you at school but I choked up.”

“So that’s what that hug was and you sobbing this morning when you saw me and wouldn’t tell me?”

“Yeah, I couldn’t get it out. Charlie’s here holding me while I tell you.”

“Forgiven, man. We’ll be over right away.”

“No, we’re out shopping so we can be home all week when we need to be. Charlie said we’ll be home around 8:30. We need your Dad because we think Child Services is going to want to take me away.”

“Should Dad wear his police uniform?”

Joey looked at Charlie, “Charlie said yeah.”

“The Kaiwis have your backs.”

“Thanks, man. Love you, bro.”

“Aloha Nui Loa, J.”

Charlie and Joey arrived at the supermarket and picked up what they would need to survive until the end of the week. Charlie made a note to check his bank account soon so he’d know how much was available to them until he had access to their parent’s accounts.

They didn’t dawdle shopping and deciding what to get. They grabbed pretty much what they always got but avoided getting some of the more pricier junk foods. They could do without this week and live on what was in the house. Luckily the freezer was full so they just needed dairy and fresh vegetables. They did splurge on two quarts of ice cream.

Charlie had just pulled into the driveway when Joey spotted Peni and his dad walking out of their house. Joey rushed to his friend. Peni grabbed him into a hug. Kekoa did the same when Peni released him.

“Man, we’re so sorry, bro. Mom says you need to come over to dinner with the ohana tomorrow.”

“I hope I can.”

“I’m not sure I can prevent them from taking you, Joey. If we need to, we can tell them you both will be with us or I’ll be there with you tonight. I’ve seen Child Services be a little aggressive,” Kekoa assured him.

“Thanks, Kekoa,” Charlie said as he approached them. Hugs were again exchanged as was a touch of noses for him and Kekoa.

“If need be Charlie, I’ll fight for guardianship based on our long relations.”

“Mr. Noone thinks there won’t be a problem eventually. Should I call him?”

Kekoa thought about that and said it would be a good idea to leave a message.

All of them grabbed the shopping bags and went into the house to put the groceries away. Peni helped Joey straighten out the few things that needed to be put away. Charlie fidgeted in the kitchen. Kekoa grabbed two bottles of water out of the fridge and sat him down at the kitchen table.

“Do you have a copy of the police report yet?”

Charlie got the folder on the table and withdrew the copy he had. Kekoa noted down the number.

“OK, the first thing will be to arrange transport of their bodies from Tampa. I’ll check with the coroner and find out how bad they are. I’ll be honest Charlie, they may be very badly mangled. If they are, we’ll decide what to do then.”

Charlie broke down and cried again. He was drawn into Kekoa’s arms to cry it out.

Peni was sitting on Joey’s bed with him. “Did you two sleep together last night?”

Joey nodded yes. “Good. Do you want me here tonight for you?”

“Charlie needs me.”

“You both need people for you. You aren’t alone in this. I’ll stay the night. All three of us will be together. We all slept that way when Kupuna Kane passed on. Ohana is there for those times, bro.”

“We were there for the luau.”

“We’ll have one for your parents. No worries.”

The doorbell rang and they got up to join the other two in the kitchen.

Charlie got up and opened the door. “Ms. Fisher?”