The Boy on the Porch - 10. Pool Party and A Bit of Trouble

Sunday

As expected, friends started arriving around noon. Wayne Kane arrived just a bit after twelve, Jack and Andrew Markson arrived at quarter after twelve, and Lanny Harper at twelve-thirty. It was already eighty-three degrees when Lanny arrived, so everyone hit the pool right away. Brandon and Jack cooled off a bit, then sat on the pool deck.

"I had a talk with Andrew last night after he got home."

"Oh, what happened?"

"Um, he needed a little lesson in tolerance. He made a not too nice comment about you. I think he learned his lesson."

"He almost slipped with a slur after you left yesterday. He immediately apologized and I made sure he knew 'gay man' was the correct term to use. By him learning his lesson, did you..."

"I disciplined him. Nothing over the top, but enough to send the message."

"Okay. I don't want to tell you how to discipline your son, I just wouldn't want to see him hurt on my account."

"Nothing painful. A slap across the face, barely hard enough to notice, but hard enough that he got the message."

"Your kid, your methods."

At that point, there was a loud slap from the pool. Lanny and Andrew were both in front of Jill, who still had her hand raised as if to strike again. Lanny had his hands up to his face. Andrew was behind him, with an arm around him, pulling him away from Jill. Brendan and Jack were up in a flash to see what was the matter.

"Jill, what happened?"

"The little pervert groped me."

"Andrew, what are you doing?"

"I'm just keeping him away, dad. I didn't see it, but the kid swam up behind Jill, and when he stood up, she wailed on him."

"He put his hand between my legs."

Brendan wasn't sure exactly what to do, but he for sure knew that Lanny was leaving, "Come up here, Lanny."

When he started walking across the pool, Brendan saw a bright red imprint of a hand on his left cheek. He walked up to Brendan and looked down.

"Dry off, Lanny. You and I are going inside to have a talk."

Sniffling, Lanny found his towel, dried off some, and wrapped the towel around himself, following Brendan into the kitchen. Brendan had him sit down at the table. Lanny sat and watched the floor just lie there, doing nothing.

"Do you need a drink of water?"

"No. I'm okay."

"I need to hear you say it, was Jill's accusation accurate?"

"Yes. I touched her between the legs."

"I don't need to ask why, you're a thirteen-year-old boy. I think the why is obvious. But why did you think it was alright to do that?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think it was something that would be okay to do?"

"I guess not."

"Lanny, look at me."

Lanny looked up.

"I guess not, isn't good enough. The right answer is 'No that wasn't okay to do.' Do you understand?"

"You're not going to hit me or spank me or anything, are you?"

"No. It's not my place to discipline you like that. We're just talking."

Sniffling more now, "Okay."

"Do you know what could happen to someone who touches someone else in their privates without permission?"

"Uh uh."

"You could be arrested, sent to juvenile hall, like jail, and have a label follow you around for the rest of you life that you're a sexual predator. Do you understand what I mean by sexual predator?"

"I think so."

"It's basically someone who does things like that to other people. By being labeled that, your life would be difficult. You would find it hard to get a job. People will look at you as if were a piece of sh… trash. Do you want to spend the rest of your life like that?"

The sniffling got more intense, "No. You... you're not going to call the cops, are you?"

"Do you think I would be wrong if I did?"

Hanging his head again, "No."

"No. But I won't call the cops on my own. I'm going to bring Jill in. You're going to apologize to her and we'll see if she wants the cops called. She's the victim here. Do you understand that?"

"Yes."

Brendan got up and asked Jill to come in.

"I'm not going anywhere near that little pervert."

"You don't have to. Lanny, do you have something to say?"

"I'm sorry, Jill. I know it was wrong to do that. Please don't turn me in to the cops."

"I ought to, you little perv..."

"Jill. I know you're upset, but I think that's enough name calling."

"Okay, Uncle Brendan. No, Lanny. I'm not going to turn you in. But if you ever, EVER, touch me again, that will change."

"I know. I never will."

"And Lanny?"

"Yes, Mr. Nelson?"

"We would have to say something if we heard you ever did that to anyone else. Understand?"

"I won't do it again. I promise."

"Okay, I believe you. Go up to Steve's room and get dressed. I'll call your mother to come get you."

"I have to go?"

"Yes. You do. I can't let you think you can get away with that. Jill, send Steve in with his phone so I can call Mrs. Harper."

Brendan thought to himself, 'This is not going to be a fun phone call.' That would soon turn out to be a candidate for understatement of the century.

Steve walked in, holding out his phone, "You're c-c-calling M-Mrs. Haaaaaarper?"

"Yes. Do you have their house phone number in your contacts?"

"Yeah."

"Open it up to that, please."

Steve did.

"I'll bring your phone back to you. Go up to your room, make sure Lanny's dressed and ready to go. I guess this proves in j you wrong about him maybe being gay, huh?"

"Yeah."

Steve left, Brendan dialed, "Hello?"

"Mrs. Harper?"

"Yes, but you don't sound like Steve."

"No, it's his uncle Brendan. We had a little incident here with Lanny."

"He's okay. He's not hurt, is he?"

"No, he's fine. No harm more than a slap in the face."

Her voice jumped a couple dozen decibels, "Someone hit my little angel? Why?"

"Calm down Mrs. Harper and let me explain."

"Did your boy touch him? They got into a fight because you're teaching your kids to be fags."

"No, Mrs. Harper. If you would calm down..."

"Why should I calm down? My son gets into a fight because your little faggot quasi-son can't keep his hands to himself?"

Brendan took a deep breath, knowing getting angry at Lanny's mother would not help the situation.

"I was going to make Lanny tell you himself, but at this point, I don't think I can do that. Your 'little angel' groped my niece. Nobody touched him. He did the touching. My niece slapped him, once. Her boyfriend stopped her from doing any further damage. More accurately, he stopped Lanny from doing any further damage. I talked with your son..."

"You keep away from my son, you fucking faggot. I'm coming to get him. If I find out any of you fags over there did anything to him, you'll have half the police force over there dragging your homo asses to jail."

"He'll be waiting for you. Goodbye."

Brendan disconnected, not waiting for her to respond. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard.

"Uncle B-Brendan?"

"Yes, Steve."

"L-Lanny isn't upstairs, and the f-front d-d-door is unlocked. I n-n-know I locked it after he g-g-got here."

"Christ. Okay, go on out front and see if he's out there anywhere."

"I already l-looked."

"Well, take your bike and head toward his house, if you see him, try and bring him back."

"Okay."

After Steve left the room, Brendan mused aloud, "What a clusterfuck this turned into."

Five minutes later, the doorbell began ringing continuously.

"Ah, that must be the leader of the Gainesville anti-LGBT alliance."

Brendan went to the door and opened it.

"Where's my son? You said he'd be waiting."

"Mrs. Harper..."

"Don't try to hide him. I know he's here. You hid him so you can rape him later."

"Your son left. You need to do the same."

She burst past him into the house, screaming, "Lanny? Lanny, where are you, honey? Mommy's here."

"He's not here, and you need to leave."

"FUCK YOU, FAGGOT. GIVE ME MY SON!"

"I'm trying to be patient wit..."

"SHUT UP. WHERE'S LANNY?"

"He left."

"Left? Where did he go?"

"I don't know. Steve went to look for him."

"Probably just to drag him back here so you can have your way with him."

"Okay. I'm done being patient. Get out of my house."

"Or what?"

"I'll show you or what."

Brendan picked up his phone and dialed 9-1-1.

"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"

"I have a woman here at my house, she's unwelcome, being belligerent, and refuses to leave."

"YOU BASTARD. You're the bad guy here. HE KIDNAPPED MY SON. HE WANTS TO RAPE HIM."

"I've dispatched a car, is this the correct address?"

The 9-1-1 operator recited the address.

"That's correct."

"A car should be there within a few minutes."

All this time, Mrs. Harper was screaming insults, trying to make the operator think Brendan was the bad guy. Three minutes later, Steve came walking back in, followed by two policemen.

"U-U-Uncle B-Brendan. I c-couldn't f-f-find Lanny."

"ARREST THIS MAN, HE DID SOMETHING TO MY SON."

"Calm down ma'am."

"I WILL NOT CALM DOWN. MY SON IS HIDDEN HERE IN THIS HOUSE OF FAGGOTS."

"I won't ask you again. Calm down or I'll be forced to restrain you."

"But..."

The rather large cop raised his eyebrows at Mrs. Harper, who finally started settling down.

"Whose house is this?"

"Mine, officer."

"And you are?"

"Brendan Nelson."

"Okay, Mr. Nelson. Tell me what's going on."

Brendan explained the situation, without going into specifics to exactly what Lanny did.

"And how long ago did he leave?"

"I don't know exactly, it was about quarter of two when I told him to go upstairs and get dressed. Were his clothes up in your room, Steve?"

"N-n-no."

"So, I'd have to say he left between one-forty-five and one-fifty."

"You're going to believe this pervert? He's got my son hidden here somewhere."

Rolling his eyes, "Do you mind if we take a look around, Mr. Nelson?"

"No, go right ahead."

Mrs. Harper's cell phone rang before the officers could move.

"Hello?"

"He did? When?"

Mrs. Harper looked around like she needed to find a deep hole to hide in. Brendan knew exactly where one wad he’d love to throw her into.

"Okay. I'll be back home in a minute."

One of the officers asked, "Did that mean what it sounded like?"

"Yes... Lanny is home."

"Do you want to press trespassing charges, Mr. Nelson?"

Brendan thought to himself, 'I should, to teach the bitch a lesson,' but said, "No. I'm just glad Lanny is home safe."

"Miss..."

"It's Mrs., Evelyn Harper."

"Mrs. Harper, I think you should go home now and ask your son exactly what happened. It's obvious Mr. Nelson wasn't hiding him here for some nefarious reason."

"Yes. I... I’ll do that."

Brendan didn't say anything, just nodded toward the door. Evelyn slinked out the door without looking back.

"Is there anything else we can help you with, Mr. Nelson?"

"No, officers. Thanks for coming so quickly."

"You're welcome. Enjoy the rest of your day, if you can."

"Bye."

After the cops left, Brendan started to head back toward the back door, but Steve stopped him.

"W-what was all th-that about, Mrs. Harrrrper s-screaming?"

"I wish I knew. As soon as I mentioned Lanny being slapped, she went nuts, saying we were all fags and did something to Lanny."

"I g-g-guess th-that's p-partially my f-fault. I mentioned t-to him th-that you wu-were gay. He w-won't b-be allowed to come ooooover here any-m-m-more, will he?"

"I don't think so. But if he is allowed, I won't stop him from coming."

"Th-thanks, U.B."

"You're welcome. Let's go see if there's still any water in the pool. The way this day is going, something crazy like the pool water disappearing wouldn't surprise me in the least."

Steve chuckled and followed Brendan out to the back yard.

Jack asked, jokingly, "What do you guys do around here on holidays?"

Brendan played along, "Oh, we find kids wandering around the neighborhood, lock them up, and do nasty things to them."

"That lady was something else. I gather Lanny didn't wait for his mother to come pick him up."

"No. And she had the crazy idea that we locked him up somewhere to molest him later."

"I sure hope I never run afoul of her. I might not be able to restrain myself from choking the shit out of her. And I'm not gay."

"It wouldn't surprise me if she had something against men with mustaches."

"You may be right."

"I need a beer. Join me, Jack?"

"Sure."

Brendan went in and retrieved two bottles, and sat back down on the lounge chair.

"U.B.?"

"Yes, Jill?"

"I'm sorry I made such a fuss."

"You did nothing wrong, Jill. Lanny started it, he was wrong. Things just got blown way out of proportion. Don't blame yourself."

"Okay. I guess. Can Andrew and I go in and watch a movie or something, we've had enough sun."

"Sure. PG-13 or lower."

"Darn, I was hoping we could watch a porno."

"Not funny, young lady."

Jill snickered as she and Andrew went inside.

"You're going to have your hands full with that one, I bet."

Brendan raised his beer, "I'll drink to that."

The rest of the afternoon passed with no further excitement. When everybody left, the pool water was still in place.

*********************************

Monday came and went without issue. Steve did come home after school and told Jill that Lanny said he was sorry again. Jill just harumphed. Steve also said when his dad found out what he did to Jill, Lanny wasn’t able to sit the rest of the night. And he was grounded for two weeks. No phone, no Xbox, only Animal Planet, History Network, or the Discovery Channel for TV. Steve said he asked him if he’d be able to come back after his grounding was over. Lanny almost cried. He guessed that was a no.

Steve had his first psychologist's appointment Tuesday afternoon. According to the doctor, he was handling things well, as was his sister, but regular visits were recommended for him too. The doctor wanted to focus more on the stuttering. Tuesday evening arrived with an unexpected phone call. It said unknown number, so Brendan hesitated to take it. But it also wasn’t labeled potential SPAM, so he answered.

“Hello?”

“Brendan Nelson?”

The voice sounded familiar, but Brendan couldn’t place it.

“Yes.”

“Hi, it’s Skylar Lewis.” Apparently, Skylar now felt it was worth the risk to try and see Brendan.

“Oh, hello Skylar, is something wrong?”

“No, no. Everything is fine. This is, um, a personal call, not business.”

“Okay. What’s up?”

“I apologize in advance if I’ve read things wrong, but I was wondering if maybe we could go out for a drink, or maybe just coffee some evening.”

Brendan was speechless for a moment too long.

“Shit. I’m sorry. I thought maybe. . .”

“No, no, you just caught me off-guard. Yeah. I’d love to.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“I was hoping the way you were staring at me on Friday, well, that I read that right.”

“You did. There was something about you.”

“Oh, God. You don’t know how worried I was that I misread things. Um, but because of our, um, business relationship, we kind of, you know, have to keep things on the QT.”

“I understand. You could lose your job and I could lose the kids.”

“Well, the first part, possibly. I don’t think you have to worry about the second part.”

“No?”

“No. The only other possible familial relationship is a definite no-go.”

“What would that be, not my Brother?”

“No. Well, he’s out due to the travel. No, Abel’s only sister, Eve, has an addiction problem. I probably shouldn’t even say that much.”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

“Thanks. So, maybe tomorrow, say seven-thirty?”

Brendan was smiling, “Sure. Just name the place.”

“Do you know Bourbon Brothers?””

“Downtown, near the IHOP?”

“That’s the one. Seven-thirty good?”

“That’ll be fine.”

“Great, see you then.”

“Bye, Skylar.”

“Bye.”

Wednesday evening came. Jill would kid-sit. She asked if Andrew could come over.

"I'm not sure I like the idea of you two being here without adult supervision."

"If you're worried about us doing anything, my father pretty much turned me off from sex. I don't plan on doing anything with a boy until I know him real well. I'll probably even wait until I get married to, um, you know. I'll be honest U.B., we might kiss, but nothing else will happen."

"Okay. I'm going to trust you. Don't make me sorry."

"I won't. I promise."

Brendan left to meet Skylar at the bar. Skylar was already there when Brendan walked in, waved to him, and stood up. Brendan walked over to the table and Skylar gave him a bro-hug.

"Oh. That was okay, right?"

"Yeah, it was fine. I might have freaked out a little if you planted one on me."

Skylar turned bright red, "Um, no, I wouldn't."

"It's cool. Been here long?"

Skylar was so nervous, he planned to lie about that, but apparently forgot his plan, "About a half-hour."

"Shit. You did say seven-thirty, didn't you?"

"Oh. God. I wasn't going to say that. Yes, it was seven-thirty."

"Okay. Calm down. Right now we're just two guys having a couple drinks together. You could have called, I would have come sooner."

"It's okay. I already had a shot to calm my nerves. I guess it wasn't enough. I was really worried about tonight. I haven’t had much luck with dating. Too shy maybe to push harder."

“Babe Ruth said something about baseball that I think also applies to relationships. ‘Never let the fear of striking out, keep you from playing the game.’”

“Wow. That’s interesting. Did you make that connection yourself?.”

“Yes, but I’m sure others have done it before me.”

The waitress came over, gave them both a good looking over, and took their orders.

Brendan chuckled, "I think she was hot for one of us."

"I'd say both."

"Boy, would she be disappointed."

That garnered a bit more than a chuckle. She came back with the appetizers, looked them up and down once more, and left to retrieve their drinks.

Brendan felt mischievous, "Do you want to freak out our waitress?"

"What are you thinking?"

"Just holding hands on the table. I want to see her expression."

"You're devious. Okay."

Brendan had two reasons for that, getting a rise out of the waitress was only one. He really did want to have some physical contact with Skylar. He saw the waitress coming out of the corner of his eye and he turned to stare at Skylar while gripping his hand. The waitress stumbled a little with the drinks, fortunately not spilling them on the guys. She did look extremely unhappy, though.

After she left, Skylar shared a thought, "We'll need to give her a nice tip after that stunt."

"I think you're right. Well, here's to a new friendship, and maybe more."

Next Up - “Growing Relationships, Home Ownership, and Court Looms”