Date: Sat, 28 Dec 2002 20:31:53 -0600
From: Rhaven <rhaven2002@hotmail.com>
Subject: Avery's World Chapter Two

This story contains strong language and sexual content between boy/boyand
boy/man.
http://www.rhavensreply.com/home/rhavensreply.com

Avery's World
CHAPTER TWO
BY RHAVEN2002


      The house was quiet; sound seemed to echo forever on the plain walls
of the MacDowell home. Avery was sitting in his favorite chair, munching on
stale potato chips and thinking. He heard the shower come on; his mother
was finally awake. She normally slept most of the day; after all, she did
work all night to very early in the morning. Then she would party with some
special man that would catch her eye. His mother liked parties; she liked
drinking and most definitely liked men. He watched her stumble into the
kitchen, bathrobe thrown on haphazardly and pouring herself a cup of
coffee. At one time, his mother must have been beautiful, now she just
seemed tired and used.

"Morning." Avery said, although it wasn't morning, but that was what you
said to people when they woke up. He sat in his chair doodling on a blank
piece of paper; the thoughts of King King and the twins pushed aside with
reflections of his father. He was still mad, still aching from the
punch. Not that King King was that strong, but the humiliation hurt just as
much. However, Avery decided that it was a waste of time to dwell on idiots
like King King, not now that this alien was in town.



"What are you up to?" Jobeth mumbled rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Oh, nothing." He smiled. Avery had decided not to tell his mother of the
arrival of this alien. He wasn't too sure how his mother would react. What
if his mother wouldn't let him see the man? No, it was best to keep this a
secret. And just maybe... maybe he wasn't ready to share the man called
Eric with his mother.

"I need you to go to the grocery store for me." Jobeth said. She had walked
over to him and shielded her eyes from the sunshine flooding in from the
window.

"Ah mom! I..." Avery stopped talking as his mother shot out her hand.

"I don't want to hear you bitch. Just do it Avery." Jobeth sighed deeply
and seemed to age before Avery's eyes. "I don't ask you to do much Avery
and when I do, I don't need you bitching at me." Jobeth took a drink of her
coffee and almost spat it out. "What the hell did you do to your clothes?"
She fingered the ripped strap and frowned.



"Honestly Avery, I can't keep you in clothes. You know money isn't grown on
trees, you have to start being more careful with your stuff."

Money isn't grown on trees, how many times did Avery hear that? If his
mother didn't spend all her money on beer and cigarettes, then maybe they
would have a little for Avery to get new clothes. Of course, he didn't say
that, he wasn't in the mood to fight and he suspected she wasn't either.

"Take it off, let me see if I can fix it."

Before Avery could protest, his mother was unhooking the one good
strap. "Come on, Avery. I don't have all day." She said frowning as she
glanced at her watch.

He slipped out of the overalls and handed them over to his mother. She took
them with a shake of her head.

"Even the knee is ripped. Should I be worrying what you do with your free
time?"

"Ah mom." Avery moaned. " I don't do anything."

"Yeah, right, just look at this. Are you telling me, they ripped on their
own? I don't think so." She held up the overalls with disgust. She took a
seat at her sewing machine and huffed with a glance at her watch. "I can't
fix these right now. You are just going to have to wear something
else. Hell, you've had these on for over a week anyhow, Avery." She tossed
the clothes next to the couch. "They stink too." Jobeth wrinkled up her
nose and pulled out a cigarette. "Why you insist on wearing the same thing
forever, I'll never figure out. People are going to think we're
hillbillies."

"I... I don't have anything else to wear."

"The hell you don't. I just bought you some clothes. What about those
shorts I got for you?" Jobeth started heading to Avery's room.

"Ah mom." Avery darted ahead of his mom. "I don't like those shorts. Can't
you sew up the overalls?"

"What's wrong with the shorts?" Jobeth pulled out the drawer and rummaged
through it until she found the new shorts. Holding them up, she couldn't
see anything wrong with them. "Put them on."

"Ah mom."

"Ah mom, ah mom! Is that all you can say. There is nothing wrong with the
shorts Avery. You can't run around naked and I don't have the time to fix
your stupid overalls." Jobeth tossed the shorts at Avery. "Shit I have to
go to work. Bubo wants me to get there early today." Jobeth headed to her
room and started changing clothes. She looked back to Avery standing at her
door and sneered.

Avery held the shorts and stared at them, as if it was a dead animal.

"Jesus Christ, give me the shorts!" she yelled. Jobeth knelt down and
forced the shorts on her unwilling son. "There!" she said, but before she
could stand, the shorts slipped to the floor.



"They're too big for me." Avery whispered.

"Why didn't you say something. Jesus, Avery I can't read your mind." Jobeth
found a safety pin in her sewing machine drawer. "I can fix this. Hold
still, unless you want to be pricked." With some tugging and a little
cussing, she managed to snap the safety pin shut. She yanked on the shorts
and smiled.

"There you go, safe and secure."

But Avery didn't look happy.

"Now what's the problem?" she asked.

Avery pouted out his lips and ran his hand over the front of his shorts.

"They're all puffy in front."

"Well, shit isn't that just horrible." Jobeth impatiently looked at her
watch and then marched into Avery's room. She returned with a T-shirt and
forced it on her son. It was long enough to hide most of the puffiness,
though his shirt stuck out oddly in front.

"Okay, that's the best I can do right now. I have got to go to work Avery."

She jerked her purse onto her shoulder and headed for the door. Avery could
tell she was pissed. Anytime he complained it reminded her how poor they
were. He didn't do it on purpose; he didn't want her upset over money.
Sometimes, he just wished he could keep his mouth shut.

"I may not be home tonight." She said looking back at the boy. "The grocery
list is on the table with the money."

"Okay." Avery said, he felt ashamed in upsetting her and couldn't look her
in the eye.



"I left a little extra, get you something to eat at Cowboys." With that,
she was out the door. Cowboys was the only restaurant in Haven, if you
could call it a restaurant. It was a concrete shanty, all kitchen with a
tiny window for order. The smell of cigarette, sweat and grease always made
Avery gag. Avery hated eating there, nothing but greasy hamburgers and
greasy french fries. He definitely wasn't going to tell him mom that. She
was pissed enough, sure didn't need to hear him gripe about food.

Avery snatched up the money and the list and jammed them into his
pocket. He had a mission to get back to, didn't want to waste all day on
stupid groceries. He ran outside and down the street. The day was turning
to dusk; long shadows painted the road. Haven was settling in for a warm
evening. If his shorts didn't look so ridiculous, Avery would have pulled
off his shirt. After going shirtless for over a week, it was strange
wearing one again; thank goodness his mother had insisted on him putting on
shoes. During the summer bare feet was the only way to go. Avery pulled out
the list, he hadn't thought of it before, but he sure hoped his mom didn't
want some of that personal hygiene stuff. He hated it when she did that to
him. Luckily, the list only consisted of sugar, toilet paper and a few
various cans of vegetables. Walking into the Superstore, Avery almost
screamed. The temperature change was so drastic that it made him feel
feverish. It was freezing in the store and he swore that the sweat on his
forehead was frozen. He grabbed everything on the list, along with a can of
coke and a sandwich from the deli, their specialty; the Super Club. As his
luck would run, he got behind an old lady with a thousand items in the
cashier line. That wasn't the worst of it, the old lady liked to talk and
kept the cashier busy answering question about each can of vegetable, every
jar of condiment and even toiletries. Avery stood there patiently, only
occasionally rolling his eyes at an extremely stupid question from the
lady. Finally he made it out of the store and again, the temperature change
almost knocked him over. It was like a cruel joke the store played on
everyone. Freeze them and fry them. Now that he was outside again, it felt
that the temperature had increased 100%, before going into Superstore, he
had been hot, but now he was HOT.  Sweat quickly bead on his forehead and
again he desperately wanted to rip off his shirt. Heading back up First
Street, a car caught his eye.



"Oh... my... God." He said as the car passed him. It was Eric, the man, and
the alien from Hoffman House. Avery ran to the edge of the street,
balancing on the curb and stared. Eric turned the car down State
Road. There was only one thing down State Road, and that was the
cemetery. Eerie, this man moves into a haunted house and is now visiting a
cemetery. It made Avery's skin crawl. However, it was the alien, and no
matter what or where he went, Avery needed to know why. Immediately, Avery
headed that way, he had to know what this Eric was up to. He took the short
cut through the abandoned Sooner Inn; a motel as far as Avery knew had
forever been closed. At least that was what Avery thought, for all his
life; it was that way. He made his way through the forgotten woods behind
the motel; littered with rusting appliances and car parts, it was as if a
mad artist had created a bizarre outdoor museum. The junk was almost
beautiful intertwined with nature.  At last, he spotted the cemetery and
Eric's car. Carefully Avery sneaked closer, crouching down behind a
tombstone he could see Eric standing next to a grave. Avery sat down, so
that he was still hidden but could watch the mysterious man. He liked
looking at the man; it made him feel nice. Eric had kind features; he was
unlike any other man in Haven. The men here were hard and soured on
life. Eric had the look of someone that understood the beauty of a
sunset. After what seemed like hours Eric returned to his car and drove
away. Avery waited until the car was completely out of sight before coming
out of his hiding spot. He walked over to where Eric had stood.  The
tombstone was a small and simple plaque, a very plain memorial for
someone's life. It read 'Adam Hoffman, Born: July 6, 1948. Died: September
22, 2001.  Avery frowned; did Eric know Mr. Hoffman? And if he did, how and
why? If half the stories that Avery had heard about the old man were true,
then why would Eric be associated with such a person? It was a mystery on
top of a mystery. What was the connection between Eric and Mr. Hoffman and
Eric and Mrs. Randell? There had to be a connection, in every mystery novel
Avery had read, there was always a link solving the mystery. Avery just had
to discover the link.



It was dark by the time Avery made it back to his house. If it hadn't been
for the groceries and the fact he was starving, he would have probably
rushed over to the Hoffman house. However, it was dark and he had to admit
sneaking around at night wasn't something he really liked to do. Avery
instantly pulled off his shirt, throwing it towards the couch as he headed
for the kitchen. Why was he hesitating? All he had to do was go up to Eric
and ask 'Are you my father'. How hard was that?  He grabbed his sandwich
and the coke and plopped down in his chair.

"Awwwouch!" he yelled, jumped up from the chair and watched as if in slow
motion as his sandwich splattered on the floor.  Avery flung the safety pin
that had stuck him across the room.

"Damn it!" he yelled. His sandwich was ruined. To make matters worse, it
that was possible, his shorts were now around his ankles.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it damn it!" He kicked his favorite chair and it
clambered across the floor. Avery tugged up his shorts and with his free
hand picked up the remains of his un-tasted sandwich. He was pissed. Not
because he was hungry or the fact that all his clothes sucked. He was
pissed at life. A man had appeared who quite possibly was his father and he
wasn't doing anything about it. Avery walked over to the wastebasket and
threw his shorts in. He wasn't going to wear that crap again, even if his
mother threw the world's biggest hissy fit. Quickly Avery cleaned up the
mess and found his discarded overalls. He was out the door running even
before the overalls were on.

If Avery was going to learn anything about this mysterious man in the
Hoffman house, the only way he could gather information was to spy on
him. He wasn't too keen on spying, but how else was he going to learn
anything about Eric? Avery ran several blocks before finally slowing. It
was difficult to run, while your clothes kept attempting escape. With one
strap broken on his overalls, he had to be careful. It took him another ten
minutes before he spotted Hoffman's Field, with the full moon behind him,
the field seemed to be painted in fluorescent white. It was a good feeling
to see the peaceful fields he had come to love. Though he could have
stopped and spend some time just lying there in the field with his thoughts
and worries. Avery knew he needed to get to the house, he felt that if he
could see the man one more time, then all his problems would be
solved. Avery sniffed back a tear, he couldn't think of this Eric as not
being his father. He had to be his father.



Avery quickly made his way through the thick grass of the old field to the
house. The Hoffman house looked scarier at night, but that wasn't going to
stop Avery. As he approached the house, the strange blinking began in the
empty room. Avery raced over to the window. There was Eric, sitting on the
floor and the strange blinking light enveloping the bare room. Avery with
eyes squinted tried to see through the blinding light. Eric seemed
different this time. The man was holding his head and rocking, it looked
like he was in pain. Avery was tempted to knock on the window and ask if
the man was all right. He seemed so disturbed and sad, Avery wanted to do
something for him. He wanted to help Eric.

Avery rubbed his eyes; the constant flashing was making his head hurt. He
was about to peek inside the window again, when movement caught his
eye. From out of the field, three figures were advancing towards the
house. Avery almost screamed. All he could think of was the horror stories
he had heard earlier. His mind raced with the possibilities; monsters,
demons and vampires all preparing to attack. Avery would have probably run
away screaming if one of the creatures hadn't spoken. It was King King, and
the two other had to be Teddy and Tommy.

"What the heck are they up to?" Avery whispered to himself. He crouched
down and watched the bully and his pals sneak towards the house.

"We're going to show this son-of-a-bitch, we don't want his kind here in
Haven." King King said, doing his best imitation of his father. "Fuckin'
get me in trouble for nothing. Teddy the TP." King King held out his hand
and waited for Teddy to dig out a roll of toilet paper from a plastic bag
he was carrying. Avery was fuming, how dare King King do something like
this. He had no right.

"Tommy..." King King whispered. "Keep an eye on the house."

Tommy nodded his understanding. King King and Teddy proceeded to toss the
toilet paper high into the guardian trees. It only took them a few minutes
for their vindictive deed and the front yard transformed into an eerie
phantom party, the toilet paper slowly dancing with the gentle west breeze.

"Can we go now?" Tommy whispered. Even in the dark, Avery could see that
King King wasn't satisfied. Brandon King was a bully, an expert of
terror. Avery was truly terrified looking at him now. He had never seen
King King look so driven.

"Fuckin' Randell, fuckin' freak and fuckin' Avery!"

"Come on, King King. Tommy and I got in trouble too. Can't we just go
home?"

"Fuck off, chicken shit.  My mom believed that bitch Randell. She fuckin'
took away my playstation." King King kicked angrily at the ground. Teddy
took a step back, looking towards his twin for support.

"I'm going to make them all pay. Trying to break into the fuckin' house my
ass. That what Avery probably told them, first this freak and then Avery."

King King dug deep into his pocket; whatever he pulled out, scared Teddy
enough for him to step away again from the mad bully. Avery dared to move
closer, it was too dark for him to tell what King King had in his hand. He
had to see, even if that meant exposing himself.

"Brandon, what are you doing?" Teddy squeaked. "This is crazy, man!"

"Shut up Teddy. You don't understand. She took away my playstation! Give me
a roll."

Teddy froze, either from fright or bewilderment, Avery couldn't tell.

"What's going on? What are we waiting on?" Tommy whispered as loud as he
thought safe.

"Give me a roll, Teddy." King King barked, ignoring Tommy's question.

"You're crazy." Teddy said. Avery inched closer; Teddy surrendered a roll
of toilet paper to King King. Then King King flicked on the lighter in his
hand.

"Fuck this freak, I hope he burns to death." King King put the flame next
to the toilet paper. Avery was up and running before he knew what he was
doing.

"Stop!" He screamed as he ran towards King King. The twins also screamed,
Avery's sudden appeared had scared them and they took off towards the
field. However, Avery wasn't worried about them, he had to stop King
King. He didn't give King King a chance to recover the shock of seeing
Avery appearing from no where. Avery tackled the boy to the ground,
knocking the toilet paper and the lighter from his hands.



"Mother fucker!"  Yelled King King. "Fuckin' crazy faggot!"

Avery tried to pin King King's arms, but the boy was stronger than he was.

"I'm not going to let you torch this house!" Huffed Avery, he started
punching King King wildly, hoping to get in a lucky hit that would subdue
him.

"Get the fuck off me!" King King kicked Avery on the side and knocked him
into a tree. Before he could recover, King King was crawling on top of him.

"Think you're some kind of hero? Saving the day? You ain't nothing but a
fuckin' faggot that has no brains." King King hit Avery in the face. "I
told you if I got in trouble..." another hit. " I was going to beat the
shit out of you." Again a fist to the face. Avery knew if he didn't defend
himself, King King was going to kill him. However, his arms felt like
spaghetti, his vision was spinning and each punch increased the maddening
ringing in his ears.

"Get off me!" Avery cried. But this made King King smile. It was fuel to
his fire, begging, pleading and crying was what he breathed.

"I knew you were a faggot back in the First Grade. I should have kicked
your ass then, fucker!" Another punch, this time to Avery's chest.

"Think I like kissing? Shit I was faking it! I hated it and I hated you."
Two more hits to Avery's chest, he screamed as the brass button of his
overalls dug into his skin.

"Fuckin' queer, do you still want to kiss me?"

"GET OFF HIM!"

King King flew off Avery as Eric tossed him away with ease. "What is going
on here?"

King King stunned but still fuels by hate pulled himself to his feet. He
stared at the two, fists clinched and teeth gritted.

"Get out of here." Eric yelled stepping towards the mad boy in warning.

"Fuck you!" he yelled in defiance, but either common sense or by
cowardliness, he turned and raced into the field. "Fuck you all!"

Avery looked up, vision blurred by tears. Eric stood over him with a
compassionate frown.



"Come on, let's get you inside." With strong arms, the man picked up Avery
and carried him into the Hoffman house.

Avery had never cried in front of a man before. He was trying his best to
stop, but his face hurt, his chest hurt and his whole body ached from the
brutal attack. He wanted to stop crying, but try as he might, the tears
just grew until they were exhausting sobs of pain.

"You're all right now." Eric said, cradling Avery in his arms. "Everything
fine."

The man carefully laid Avery on a large leather couch.

"Let's get a look at the damage." He said smiling.  Avery sat up, and gazed
into Eric's eyes. The man wiped away the flood of tears with his thumb and
then fingered the cut on his bleeding lip.

"Not too serious." He finally said. "Did he hurt you anywhere else? Arms,
legs? Is anything broken or bleeding?"

Avery sniffed and looked down to his chest, he ran his hand carefully over
the brass button and said "here."

Eric carefully unlatched the button and frowned again. On Avery's left
breast was a perfect impression of the button. It was already turning blue
and swelling.

"That's got to hurt. Let me see what I have in the medicine cabinet to
help."

Avery sat in silence, the crying finally subsiding, and waited for the man
to return. The house smelled like his grandfather's closet, a combination
of cigar and mothballs. The room he was in was bigger than his whole house
and full of things that looked too expensive to left alone. However, what
really grabbed his attention was the huge television. The TV covered almost
one whole wall. It was the biggest thing he had ever seen. Not owning a TV
himself, his mind filled with all the wonders that may be on it.

"So you want to tell me what all that was about?" Eric said returning with
a handful of creams and a wet towel. "I can understand the TP-ing, hell I
did my share of that when I was younger. But what's the deal with... um,
Brandon right?"



"King King." Avery corrected. "Everyone calls him King King."

Avery felt so small with this man; he was a child with him. Not like the
way he felt with his mother, there he was Avery, her son, and her
problem. 'Be a man' was one of her favorite sayings. He didn't want to be a
man, not yet anyway.

 Eric gently wiped away the blood from Avery's lip and wrinkled up his
brow.

"So you going to tell me what happened. Why were you guys fighting? Didn't
you like the TP decorations? Eric joked."

"I didn't do the TP-ing,!" Avery blurted out.

At that moment, Avery had two thoughts that made him gasp audible. He was
face to face with the man he believed was his father, the spaceman from
beyond the stars here to take him away. And the second thought, made his
cheeks burn, did Eric hear King King? Did he hear the boy talking about
them kissing? It had been years ago, before Avery had realized he was an
alien, with a confused mind, thinking he was in fact a girl. He and King
King would sneak into the boy's bathroom and kiss. It wasn't romantic or
anything, just simple smooching together. How did Eric feel about that?
What if with a single word, King King had destroyed any chance Avery had of
reuniting with his father. Avery started crying again.

" I was just joking, I didn't think you were part of that group. The TP
doesn't bother me, it's that boy's temper that has me worried." Eric said,
rubbing Avery's shoulder for support. "Let's see Pearl said your name was
Avery, right? Avery MacDowell?"

Avery nodded.

"Well, Avery, I think you will live." Eric said examining his handy
work. He had smeared on an ice cold cream over the button bruise and
another transparent cream that smelled like feet, over his cracked lip. " I
think your lip will be sore for a few days, but nothing else." Eric
smiled. "Why don't you lay down. Is there a number where I could reach your
parents?"

Avery jumped up, which was a mistake, his legs were wobbly and standing
somehow increased the throbbing of his head.

"I'm okay, you don't have to call my mom!" Avery tried to look normal, but
he had the feeling he was swaying back and forth. Eric seemed to think on
this for a moment.



"Avery it's kind of late." To clarify, Eric looked at the old grandfather
clock in the corner of the room. "Surely, your parents are worried about
you?"

Parents? Avery wondered why Eric kept saying parents. Did he think mom had
remarried? If his head didn't hurt so badly, maybe he could think
better. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate, his thoughts just
bouncing around inside his skull, like rubber balls.

"Mom is working, she won't be home until later tomorrow."

This seemed to make Eric sad. He left the room without a word and Avery
wanted to start crying again . Did Eric hate him now?

The man returned quickly to the room with a glass of milk.

"Drink this." Eric said, handing Avery the cool glass. Then it hit Avery;
Eric had left Earth before he was born. He might not have known his mother
was pregnant. It all made sense now. Avery drank down the milk and relaxed
back into the over stuffed couch.

"My mom is Jobeth MacDowell." He said pleased with himself. Eric's eyes
widened.

"Jobeth! You're mom is Jobeth?" Eric clapped his hands together. "I know
Jobeth, we were friends years ago."

Avery almost giggled. He was so happy. That had been the problem, Eric had
been ignorant of his mother's pregnancy.

"What a small world." Eric laughed. "I can't believe you are Jobeth's son."

Avery was glowing with pride as Eric flopped down on the couch next to him.

"The stories I could tell you of your mother..." he laughed again. But as
he looked over to Avery, the smile disappeared. "Avery I really should call
her, just to let her know you are okay."



Avery frowned, this would mean he was forced to share Eric with his
mother. He didn't like that idea. His mother would take up all of Eric's
time. Perhaps ever, persuade him in not taking Avery into
space. Reluctantly Avery told Eric where his mother worked. He watched
sadly as Eric walked to the phone in the other room.  Avery leaned forward
to hear what Eric was saying. All he could tell was that Eric sounded
happy. He wasn't sure he liked that. He didn't want to share Eric, he
shouldn't have to share him with his mother. She had her chance with him,
now it was Avery's time.

The phone call lasted forever. Avery fell back into the couch and pouted,
folding his arms across his chest, he debated about leaving and letting his
parents have their fun. Finally, Eric returned to the couch.

"Talked to your mom." Eric paused, a confused looked crossed his face when
he saw Avery's expression. "I told her about the fight. But I kind of
lied. I told her I didn't know who attacked you. I thought maybe you might
want to explain that one to her."

"Okay." Avery said, he was still frowning and refused to look at Eric.

"She said..." Eric continued. "She said, it was all right for you to stay
here for the night. I wasn't sure if it was safe for you to be alone."

Avery's mouth popped open, he really believed that Eric would rush over to
the Black Dog to see his mother. He wasn't sure if he had heard Eric
correctly, so he repeated it.

"I can sleep here tonight?"

"If that's okay with you." Eric asked. "I have several bedrooms in the
house, 'more bedrooms than butt cheeks' as Adam use to say."

Avery caught the reference to Adam Hoffman but didn't respond. There would
be plenty of time for questions and he wanted to wait until his head felt
better.

They sat there in silence for several moments, neither knowing what to
say. Eventually, Eric stood up. He looked down at Avery and smiled.

"How about a late night snack before bed?"

Avery had forgotten how hungry he was; he followed Eric into the large
kitchen and patiently waited at the table while Eric fumbled around in the
refrigerator.

Cold chicken, cottage cheese, microwaved warmed green beans and a slice of
bread with a heaping of butter. It was the best meal Avery had had in
years. Eric ate a little, not as much as Avery, but he seemed to enjoy the
meal just as much as him.



Then Eric led Avery up the stairs. The smell of cigar was stronger up here,
added with what Avery figured out to be cedar. A comforting aroma that dug
up memories of exploring.

"You can use this room." Eric said opening the door. "It's in better
condition that the rest." He laughed, but Avery didn't get the joke, if it
was a joke. "The bathroom is that door there." Avery looked across the room
to the door where Eric pointed. "And my room is right across from this one,
in case you need anything. Okay?"

Avery nodded his understanding. Eric frowned and ran his hand through
Avery's hair.

"Are you feeling all right?"

The truth was Avery wasn't feeling all right. He's head was really hurting
now, his lip felt ready to explode and his chest pulsed as if electricity
was flowing through it. No, he wasn't feeling all right.

"I'm fine." But Avery betrayed his lie, by rubbing his head.

"Yeah, sure you're fine." Eric said and then looked to the bathroom door.

"I think a hot bath might help. What do you think?"

Avery looked to the door. A hot bath did sound nice; all he had at home was
a stupid shower stall. A hot bath was like a dream.

"Okay." Avery agreed. Without a thought, Avery unclasped the brass button,
stepped out of his overalls, and handed them to Eric.

"A hot bath it is then." Chuckled Eric looking at the overalls with a
smirk.

Avery stood by Eric as the man filled the tub, checking the temperature
occasionally with his fingers.

"It's ready." He said and helped Avery slide into the bath. "Just lay back
and relax, let the warm water ease your aches and pains."

Although Avery was almost comatose from the relaxing water, he could tell
Eric was nervous about something. His mother had once said that men with
darting eyes had secrets, Eric was very darty.

"Why don't I leave you alone for a moment." Eric said, his eyes still
dancing around. Eric left the bathroom before Avery could protest. But
Avery knew what the problem was, Eric had finally realized that he was his
son. It must be a shock to return to Earth and discover that you left
behind a child. Avery wasn't angry, he didn't blame his father for
this. Most likely, his mom had hidden the pregnancy from him. That sounded
like something she would do.

Avery must have sat in the tub for twenty minutes before Eric returned. The
man leaned through the door and asked if he was ready to get out. Avery did
feel better; the pain wasn't as bad.

"The towels are in that cabinet over there." Eric pointed with his nose, a
habit Avery's mother had too.

"Which cabinet?" Avery asked standing in the tub. He didn't want to drip
water all over the floor, but he didn't think he could reach the cabinet
while still in the tub. Eric huffed, and walked into the bathroom.

"Here you go." He said handing Avery a clean towel. "You sure aren't shy
are you?"

"What do you mean?" Avery asked as he dried his hair.

"Most kids I know... well, most people I know are kind of... don't want to
be seen..." Eric laughed. " Oh never mind. I found you a T-shirt, I thought
you might want to sleep in." Eric held up a gray shirt, the iron-on had
faded away, so that Avery couldn't tell what it once was. Avery handed the
damp towel to Eric and frowned at the faded shirt.



"I don't sleep in clothes." Avery said. "Is that all right?" Was there
something wrong with sleeping in the nude? He had done it all his life and
couldn't imagine wearing anything now. Of course, if Avery had a choice,
he'd never wear clothes. The only reason he started wearing clothes around
his mother, was the fact he was tired of her comments on how small his
penis was or how cute it looked. He didn't want a cute penis and he sure
didn't want to hear that it was small.

"Nothing wrong in sleeping in the nude." Eric finally said. "I do it
myself." Eric cleared his throat and suddenly remembered he was holding out
the T-shirt. He was still nervous, Avery wished he could think of some way
to make him feel better.

"Ready for bed?" Eric asked. Avery looked passed the man to see he had
pulled down the sheets, the bed looked like a solid cloud. Even from here,
he knew it was comfortable. Avery climbed into the huge marshmallow bed,
that seemed to hug him and yawned. Eric pulled the soft sheet over him and
before he stepped out of the room, reminded Avery that his room was next
door, if he needed anything.

"Sleep tight." Eric said as he walked across the hallway. Avery should have
been afraid; after all, he was sleeping the most haunted house in
Haven. However, he was tired and happier than he had ever felt, ghost
didn't bother him right now. He wrapped his arms around the pillow and
kicked off the covers. This was wonderful, here in the same house with his
father. And yes, Eric was his father, he was sure of that now. He still
didn't understand the connection between Mrs. Randell and Adam Hoffman, but
he would figure that out later. Avery turned so that he could stare out the
door into Eric's room. After a few minutes, Eric turned off his light and
Avery could hear him climb into his bed. King King beating the crap out of
him was the best thing the best thing too ever happened.