Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 21:57:32 -0400
From: TgrPaw@gmail.com
Subject: can-you-spare-a-quarter - 5

========================
Can You Spare a Quarter?
========================

Dedicated to "D":

   We didn't meet this way, it probably wouldn't have been anything like
   this if we had met this way, but if we had, I hope it might have been
   something like this.   {{{{ hugs }}}}

Disclaimer:

   Names of people, places, companies, and so forth are completely
   fictional.  While this story draws inspiration from real events which
   involved real people, it is nonetheless a complete work of fiction.

Copyright:

   2002; All rights reserved.

Comments:

   Email can be sent to TgrPaw@gmail.com

   Flames, hate mail, and similar things will be ignored.

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5. First Steps

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Graham led Jamie to the elevator and then out onto the street and towards
his car.  Once again, Jamie was underwhelmed as Graham stopped at a
small white Geo Metro and began to unlock it.  Jamie didn't say anything,
but this didn't look much like the kind of automobile that someone who
supposedly had a house on Elizabeth Island would drive.  In addition
to being rather small, the car wasn't new by any measure, though it
was obviously in good working condition and clean.  The car did tend
to match the small apartment however, and Jamie concluded that whatever
else Graham might be, he did tend to exaggerate his lifestyle somewhat.

That didn't trouble Jamie overly much though, he didn't tend to be all
that accurate when someone asked him about his life.  Though he had to
admit he did let his guard down somewhat with Graham a little earlier
when he had cried on his shoulder.  A very strange and 0
fellow this Graham mused Jamie, who was shaken out of his thinking as
he heard Graham speak.

"What kind of food do you like, Jamie?" asked Graham as he pulled the
car out from the curb and onto the street.

"I'll eat anything," Jamie replied rather vaguely.

"Well, how about you tell me what you don't like then?" Graham suggested.

Jamie thought about this for a moment and replied, "Hmmm, I can't eat
peanuts, and onions do weird things to me."

"I see, I guess that rules out the Onion and Peanut Casserole I had my
heart set on," joked Graham.

Jamie giggled and added, "Honest, I like almost everything."

Graham suspected that this, while somewhat true, also tended to reflect
the fact that Jamie likely ate anything he could get his hands on, being
unsure when the next meal might arrive.  Still, Graham was a bit of a
food buff, and knew a variety of places in town that had excellent fare.
Taking into account the legendary appetite's of young boys in combination
with Jamie's situation, Graham selected a place and turned a corner to
head in the correct direction.

They drove along silently for a bit, and then Graham asked Jamie,
"After dinner, I need to do a bit of shopping.  Would you like to come
along with me while I do that?"

"Sure, I don't mind," Jamie replied.

"Excellent," Graham said with a faint 'Mr. Burns' accent.

This brought a quick grin from Jamie who was beginning to notice Graham
had a pronounced sense of humour.

Shortly, Graham turned into a parking lot next to a rather plain
pastel-coloured building.  It didn't look like much and Graham discretely
noted Jamie's puzzled look with amusement.  Those not familiar with the
place, would never guess it was a restaurant and a good one.  Graham knew
that one of the most important rules to always keep in mind was that
ostentation in a restaurant was often the best indicator of low quality.

Graham parked the car and they both got out.  As they walked towards the
building, Jamie saw the name of the place, 'The Boneyard,' and looked
at Graham with concern.

Graham said, "Trust me Jamie.  I know you've never been able to trust
anyone before, but trust me.  You're going to like this."

Jamie noticed the stress on the word 'trust'.  Trust was something
that Jamie never gave anyone - he had learned not to.  Despite that
however, Jamie found he was starting to relax a little around Graham.
Nevertheless, trusting someone to pick a restaurant was one thing,
for the rest Jamie trusted only himself.

Graham opened the door, and they went in.  As they entered, a variety
of new odours introduced themselves to Jamie.  He sniffed at them but
couldn't quite place the scents.  Graham walked up to the reception
area and asked for a table for two, and they were escorted into the main
dining area.

As they went in, Jamie's eyes were alive and scanning the interior and
then he spotted what it was that had been tantalizing his nose.  Ribs!
As they wound their way towards their table, Jamie keenly checked out
the plates of the other seated customers and his mouth watered; he'd
never had ribs before.

These weren't the tiny little pathetic excuses for spare ribs one found
in Chinese restaurants either, the kind where you licked the sauce off
and then put them back onto the plate.  No, these ribs were big, they
were covered in meat and sauce, and people were licking their fingers
and wiping their mouths.  Jamie's stomach began to make make its desires
known to him in unmistakable terms.

They sat down and Graham looked at Jamie and asked, "So, did I do a good
job picking?"

"Oh yeah!" replied Jamie with obvious excitement.  No matter what might
happen later he thought to himself it was going to be worth it now.

Graham picked up the menu and encouraged Jamie to do the same.
Looking down the list of selections, Graham contemplated the same
difficult decisions he always did here: beef or pork, Montreal-style,
honey-mustard, BBQ ... and of course how much.  Graham completely ignored
the obligatory hamburger and pasta dish that all specialty restaurants
had to include for those who for whatever reason couldn't or wouldn't
have the house specialty.

"What do you see that looks good?" Graham asked Jamie.

"Ummmm, I don't want to cost you a lot, and I don't know what to pick,"
replied Jamie as he scanned the numerous selections.

Graham noted Jamie looking towards the food on the tables surrounding
them and said, "How about you let me do the ordering then, OK?"

Jamie nodded and breathed a sigh of relief.  He would kill to have some
of those ribs, but the prices he saw next to them on the menu worried
him and he didn't want to annoy Graham and loose out completely.  At the
same time he couldn't help stealing glances at the tables around him
and the food the people were eating.

Graham signaled to a passing waiter, and began to recite off items
from the menu.  Jamie wasn't sure what exactly was being ordered, but
the descriptions all sounded wonderful.  Graham ordered a medium size
selection for himself and an extra large edition for Jamie.  Half to be
done Montreal-style and the other half in BBQ-style.  As an afterthought
Graham added an artichoke and cheese with tortilla chips appetizer that
he knew was good.

Graham sat back after ordering and noticed some of the people in the
restaurant looking at them and whispering.  At first he wasn't sure about
the reasons, but then taking another look at Jamie, the rather sad state
of his clothes suggested the explanation.  Cleaned up, Jamie looked quite
good aside from the bruises on his face, but even after washing them,
his clothes were pretty much beyond hope.  Graham mentally confirmed
his earlier thoughts that something would have to be done before they
returned home.

As they sat there, and Jamie looked about the restaurant with obvious
excitement and anticipation, Graham looked him over carefully.  Sitting
before him was a clearly intelligent, decent, and thoroughly normal
young boy.  How could anyone have harmed him, hurt him, and finally
forced him to retreat to the streets in order to survive.  The idea that
the streets could be a preferable place to live was something completely
out of Graham's life experience.  Still, Graham considered, perhaps it
was time to expand his horizons.

Graham was stirred out of his introspection by the arrival of the
appetizer.  Arrayed around a central cup of artichoke and cheese dip,
were layers of tortilla chips in multiple colours.  Each made from a
different variety of corn, the white, yellow, and red chips made for
quite an attractive display.

"So, are you hungry?" Graham asked Jamie with a smile.

"I'm always hungry," replied Jamie with a big grin.

"Well you'd better dig in then, or I might just eat it all on you,"
said Graham as he took a chip and scooped a bit of the dip onto it and
popped it into his mouth.

"Hey this is good!" exclaimed Jamie as he tentatively tried his first
chip with some of the dip.

Graham smiled broadly, and noted that after the initial hesitant tasting
of the dip, Jamie now dug in with determined vigour.

Graham got in several good digs at the dip and then let Jamie have most
of it.  As he watched, chip after chip made the journey from plate to
dip and then finally into Jamie's mouth.  Much to his surprise, Graham
found himself enjoying this meal quite a bit more than others he had
had recently.

"So do you have any hobbies Jamie?  Things that you've done in the past
that you enjoyed?" inquired Graham.

Jamie paused and reflected a bit before replying, "Well a long time ago
my uncle took me fishing once."

"What kind of fish did you catch?" asked Graham.

"I caught three trout," said Jamie with obvious pride.

"Say that's pretty good.  I've tried fishing a few times, but I'm not
that good at it," said Graham.

"My uncle was the best," said Jamie but with a touch of sadness.

Graham noted the past tense and decided not to press the matter further.
The last thing Jamie needed was some stranger poking into things that
might upset him.  Graham was helped in this by the arrival of the busboy,
who removed the well polished plate sitting in the centre of the table.

As the plate for the appetizer was taken away, Jamie almost leapt out
of his chair as a waiter put his arms around him to place a bib around
his neck.  Jamie settled back into his chair though as he saw another
doing the same thing to Graham.  Just behind them Jamie glimpsed yet
another waiter heading in their direction while carefully balancing
several large plates.

As the main course was put on the table, Graham saw Jamie's eyes widen
and smiled.  Lemon-scented finger bowls were added next to each of them
and lastly a metal bucket was placed in the centre of the table and
then the waiters departed.  There was a bit of a look of desperation in
Jamie's eyes, and Graham could sense the young boy's conflict between
decorum and the desire to attack the food.

"So, let's see how these taste," suggested Graham and Jamie did with
gusto.

Graham had purposely ordered an extra large portion for Jamie, but
observing the speed with which Jamie ate, he began to wonder.  At the
very least it might do to keep a good hold on his own plate, he chuckled
to himself.

Approximately halfway through the ribs, salad, and curly fries a rather
sauce-covered Jamie paused for a moment and looked up at Graham and
smiled.

"This is totally awesome," Jamie said in between mouthfuls.

"I'm really happy that you like it," replied Graham while dropping a
polished bone into the bucket in the middle of the table.

"Do I ever!" said Jamie with obvious delight.

Graham smiled back at Jamie and nodded.  The food here, which had
always been very good, seemed even better tonight, thought Graham.
Graham didn't think the cooking had changed and wondered if perhaps it
was because he had someone to eat with.

Before too long, the bottoms of the plates became visible and eventually
shone. Graham looked over at an obviously very happy though somewhat
sauce-stained Jamie.  Jamie looked back at Graham with obvious pleasure as
he licked his fingers and wiped his face with the serviette.  Having run
out of pop, Jamie reached for his finger bowl and took a small drink
to rinse his mouth.  Graham smiled inwardly as he remembered the tale
of Queen Victoria and the Emperor of Ethiopia.  Graham decided that if
she could do it, he could, and picked up his finger bowl and took a sip
out of it.

"So, I guess this is an unnecessary question," began Graham, "but how
did you like it?"

"That was incredible!" exclaimed Jamie.

"Well, we'll have to make sure we come here again then," said Graham.

Graham signaled to a passing waiter and got the cheque.  After adding a
bit extra to cover the results of Jamie's enthusiasm, Graham nodded at
Jamie and they got up and went out.

Once back in the car, Graham started it up and headed out onto the road.
In addition to chatting to Jamie during the meal as he occasionally
came up for air, Graham had been doing some thinking.  He was of course
planning on getting Jamie some replacements for his clothes before
they got back to the apartment, however, there was something more on
Graham's mind.  Graham couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it felt
like he might be about to discover the key to some things that had been
troubling him.  If he could just bring it into focus and discover what
it was.

Jamie too, was absorbed with his thoughts and silent as they drove along.
Dinner had been wonderful and strange all at the same time.  Of course
there was the meal itself, delicious and so very filling.  Graham had
ordered so many things for him.  Jamie knew that Graham wasn't the type
to have ordered so much food normally and he was grateful for that.
At the same time, he had on occasion gotten lucky like this in the past,
finding a man who would treat him to a good meal.  However such meals
were normally accompanied by suggestive jokes about what would come later.
There had been none of that tonight, not even a trace.

Graham turned off the main road and pulled the car into the parking
lot of a large mall.  Graham liked to avoid shopping malls in December,
crowds were not something that he enjoyed very much.  Still it was only
the first week of December, and also being a Thursday night the crowds
weren't getting too bad yet.

As they got out of the car Graham asked Jamie, "I need to pick up a
couple of things, before we head back.  I hope that's OK with you?"

"No, I don't mind," replied Jamie.

"Great, we won't be too long, just a couple of things we need to do,"
responded Graham somewhat cryptically.

As they headed towards the entrance to the mall Jamie suddenly realized it
was the same one he had met Graham at.  Jamie also remembered the run-in
with the security guard after Graham had left and started to get nervous.

Passing through the main doors into the mall, Graham noticed Jamie
almost, but not quite clinging to him.  At the same time, Graham saw how
Jamie's head was moving back and forth as though scanning for someone
in the crowd.  From the combination of the two, Graham knew that Jamie
was worried about something, but wasn't sure what.

The answer suddenly supplied itself in the form of a booming voice,
which shouted out, "You there!  What are you doing in here again?".

Feeling Jamie grabbing hold of him tightly, Graham turned towards the
source of the voice.  Graham saw a burly man in a uniform moving towards
them at a run.  Jamie jumped behind Graham and continued to cling for
protection even though they'd only met just that afternoon.

"Please, please, don't let him take me," whimpered Jamie.

Graham's hair stood up on his neck as the guard approached, but he found
himself saying to Jamie, "Don't you worry, no one is going to touch you."

"What are you doing in here again?  What are you doing bothering this
man?"  exploded the guard at Jamie who was now quivering while trying
to hide behind Graham.

"And just who might you be?" demanded Graham in a voice loud enough to
attract the attention of passing shoppers.

"I'm Mall Security, sir, and this ... boy, has been causing problems
and I won't have him in here bothering people," replied the guard.

Graham heard the emphasis on 'Mall Security' but at the same time
noted the honorific form of address and analyzed the situation rapidly.
Graham was no longer worried, he knew this type all too well from his
business dealings.  Self important, oversized ego, and probably in a
position one step past his abilities.  The guard probably outweighed
Graham by fifty pounds and was much taller, yet Graham smiled.

"This boy?  Bothering me?" inquired Graham with innocent politeness.

"Yes, he's been causing problems and I won't tolerate ..." the guard
began.

"You?  You, won't 'tolerate'?" interrupted Graham with a slightly menacing
tone while locking eyes with the guard.

"Well, what I mean is ..." the guard began.

"Yes, indeed, do tell me what you mean, my son and I would love to know
what you mean?" continued Graham emphasizing the word 'son' and taking
a step towards the guard.

"Your son?" the guard asked with wide eyes.

The guard took a single step back, and then Graham knew he had him.
Graham took a step forward towards the guard with Jamie still clinging
to him but now looking at him with a very shocked look on his face.

"It looks to me like you are engaged in harassment of two legitimate
customers," said Graham in official sounding tones.

Digging into his memory for the name of the managing director of the
mall complex, Graham continued, "I believe Mr. Saunders would be very
interested in how the employees are treating his customers, don't you?"

Seeing the guards eyes widen, Graham was thankful that his company
handled the IT servicing contract for the mall.  Saunders was a stuffed
shirt in Graham's opinion, but was known for one quality above all else,
he had a quick temper.

Graham pushed his advantage even further by pulling his cell phone out of
his pocket and began to dial as he spoke, "Yes, let's just see what Bob
has to say about how you treat a father and his son on their night out,
shall we?"

That was the final blow for the guard.  Realizing that this short little
man in the overcoat knew the director well enough to call him by his
first name and even had his phone number completely shattered the
guard's confidence.

"I'm terribly sorry sir, I must have been mistaken ... I mean, I think
it was another boy ... I mean ...," stammered the guard now terrified
for his job.

"Yes, I think we both know what you mean," pressed Graham with force.

"Really sir, I'm terribly sorry, I hope that it won't be necessary for
you to have to ...," pleaded the guard.

"Yes, I certainly hope that when I see Bob tomorrow I will have forgotten
this incident," said Graham.

Then pressing home the dagger, Graham said "Oh, and should my son mention
to me in the future that you, or any of your cohorts, have bothered him
again, I will suddenly remember tonight very clearly."

The guard took off not quite at a run, and as he disappeared into the
crowd, Graham began to chuckle.

Jamie had released Graham as he saw the guard being demolished by Graham
but now hugged him tight again.  Graham began to feel a little like he
was about to become the main course of a young Boa Constrictor.

"Oh, thank you so much!" Jamie exclaimed.

"I told you, I'd look after you," replied Graham with a big smile.

"But he's so much bigger, how did you know he wouldn't hurt you?" asked
Jamie.

"Well you see Jamie, after you've suffered though as many business
meetings as I have, you start to know how to size people up.  The key
is to do or say something that throws them just a little off balance,
and see if they will back off and retreat.  If they back off even just a
tiny bit, that's the signal.  Once you see them crack just that little
bit, then you know you have them and you just go onto the attack.
Never push too far, but once you are on a roll, you just keep going
and if you do it right, you can have them eating out of your hands.
Sure in a regular fight he could kill me, but the best way to fight is
always using this", said Graham while tapping his head.

"So, shall we do what we came here for?" asked Graham with a smile.

Jamie nodded and they resumed their journey through the mall.  From time
to time as they went along, Jamie looked at Graham with a new expression
on his face.  Jamie had never seen anyone deal with someone like that
before.  Jamie knew just from Graham's size that the guard or anyone
else could have polished Graham off in less than a minute, and yet he
had made a guard back down in fear.  There was definitely more to this
man than met the eye.

Graham and Jamie came to the entrance of one of the large department
stores that were situated in the mall and they entered.  They made their
way towards the escalators and traveled upstairs.  Shortly Jamie and
Graham found themselves in the boy's department looking at a rack of
underwear in various sizes.

When Jamie realized what Graham was up to, the cold shiver he knew well
came back to him.  Of course, it made sense now.  Graham wanted to dress
him up right so that he'd look more attractive to him.  Well, it was
true Graham had treated him well so far, fed him, and even protected him,
so he had more than earned the right.  On top of everything else he was
going to get an extra bonus of some underwear to replace his old worn
out pair.  Jamie looked at the balance sheet and accepted the inevitable
with quiet calm.

"What size are you?" inquired Graham as he looked over the various
colours and styles of boys shorts and briefs with some embarrassment.

Jamie turned his back towards Graham and peeled his pants down a little
bit and said, "What does the label say?"

Graham, taken completely by surprise, was overtaken by a fit of coughing.
In addition to the obvious visual aspect of Jamie's response, Graham
detected a distinct wiggle while being treated to the impromptu display.

When Graham caught his breath, he suggested, "Perhaps these?" while
pointing towards the first package of white briefs that caught his eye.

Jamie smiled inwardly at Graham's discomfort and pointed instead at a
blue-coloured pair that were the correct size and countered, "How about
these instead?"

Graham nodded silently and took the indicated package, privately hoping
that Jamie wasn't planning on any encore performances.

Moving along towards the undershirts, Graham looked at the size on the
underwear in his hand, and selected a package with the same colour and
size from the rack.

Graham knew that Jamie also needed socks and the running shoes he had
were in very poor condition as well.

"Do you know your shoe size?" asked Graham.

"No, not really," replied Jamie with a puzzled look on his face.

Jamie understood why Graham wanted new underwear for him, it was important
to look nice for later.   However, Jamie couldn't make any sense out of
why Graham was asking him about shoe sizes.

Looking up, Jamie saw Graham signalling to one of the store clerks who
eventually came over to measure Jamie's foot.

"This will only take a second," the lady said to Jamie as she motioned
for him to sit down.

Jamie removed his left shoe and placed his foot on the measuring stick
that the clerk had brought.  Jamie jumped as the clerk reached down and
adjusted the slider to determine the measurement, and she couldn't help
noticing the general condition of Jamie's old running shoes, his socks,
and his pants.  The clerk didn't say anything, but Graham spotted the
turn in her face as she worked.

"It looks like you are a size six," announced the clerk as she looked up.

Looking at huge display of running shoes that covered one full wall of
the store, Graham felt at a complete loss.  He had no idea of what was
sturdy, let alone looked decent by current standards.  Surrendering to
the forces of marketing, Graham pointed vaguely towards a pair of shoes.

"What about something like those?" suggested Graham.

Jamie looked at where Graham was pointing, and tried to conceal a bit
of a groan.  Graham might be trying to be a nice guy, but he definitely
needed to learn something about what was 'in'.

Jamie looked at the clerk and the clerk looked at Jamie and they both
grinned.  The clerk, being more in touch with current trends, was in
instant unspoken communication with Jamie.

"How about these instead," suggested the clerk as she walked over and
picked out a pair.

Graham looked at the rather frantically coloured shoes being offered,
but one glance at Jamie's smile settled the matter.  Graham nodded,
knowing full well his ideas of fashion were limited to ensuring that the
'naughty bits' were covered.

As the clerk left to find a pair in the correct size, Jamie was trying
hard not to show his excitement.  New shoes!  Jamie had heard talk of boys
who'd gotten lucky and found a man with money and the desire to spend
it on a boy.  Maybe he'd hit the jackpot and found one of these guys by
accident, though Graham's car and apartment contradicted that possibility.

The clerk returned and Jamie sat down to try the new shoes on.
After taking off his right shoe as well and putting on the new ones,
Jamie ran to stand in front of a mirror to check how they looked on him.
Moving to and fro in front of the mirror, Jamie's beaming face let Graham
know that these were the right shoes.

Noting the clerks strange looks at them, and feeling somewhat
uncomfortable, Graham tried to deflect her attention.

"We'll take the shoes, but first we need to look at a couple more things,"
he said.

"Would you like to wear them, or put them back in the box?" asked
the clerk.

"It looks like he wants to wear them," replied Graham with a smile as
he looked at Jamie still admiring his new shoes in the mirror.

Still feeling uncomfortable, Graham added, "My wife's been neglecting
our son while I've been away, and I'm trying to rectify that."

The clerk nodded, though it was clear to her that Jamie was suffering
from more than just simple neglect.  One saw many things working in a
department store, and the clerk had long since stopped trying to make
sense out of what people did to each other.

As Graham spoke, Jamie had come up and heard what he'd said, and looked
at him again with a puzzled look.

"So, I think we need some socks to go with those shoes," Graham suggested
to the clerk.

The lady, following Jamie's eye, took down a package of white athletic
socks and Graham nodded.

"We need to get some new blue jeans for my son as well," said Graham.

Rather than risk a second performance by asking Jamie what size he wore,
Graham asked the clerk to measure Jamie's waist.

As the clerk walked away towards the piles of jeans to find an appropriate
pair Jamie looked at Graham with a big grin and raised eyebrows and
quietly asked, "What's the matter?  Afraid to check the size yourself?"

Fortunately Graham was saved from having to reply, by the clerk's return.
While Jamie went into the change room to try them on, Graham inquired
about t-shirts and the clerk suggested a couple of possibilities.
Graham asked if she could take them in to Jamie, and a few minutes later,
Jamie emerged.

Graham was taken aback.  The young street boy, now looked absolutely
spectacular.  The smile on Jamie's face was as bright as day, and Graham
felt happy inside that he'd been able to do something substantial to
help Jamie.

"We'll take the lot," he said the to clerk while handing over his
credit card.

Jamie ran over to Graham and threw his arms around him, "You didn't need
to do all this you know."

"I know, but I wanted to," said Graham returning the unexpected hug.

Seeing the clerk returning, Graham added, "Now you'd better change back
so we can buy them and head back."

While Graham checked the total and then signed the receipt, Jamie ran
back into the change room and returned shortly in his old clothes.
As Jamie passed the new clothes to the clerk, Graham noticed they had
been carefully folded.  The clerk then placed them in the bottom of
a large shopping bag and added the underwear, socks, and the running
shoes box,which now contained Jamie's old running shoes.

As they headed out of the store, Jamie struggled to carry the heavy bag.
As Graham was about to offer to help, he couldn't help seeing the big
smile on Jamie's face and decided not to interfere.

Graham unlocked the car and they both climbed in.  Graham started the car
and headed back onto the road towards the apartment.  He looked over at
Jamie who was sitting quietly with his arms wrapped tightly around the
oversized shopping bag which held his new clothes.  Graham could also
see in the reflected from the street lamps that Jamie still had a smile
on his face.

Jamie turned towards Graham and said, "This is really great of you."

"Well, the things that you had were starting to look just a tiny bit
rough around the edges," replied Graham.

"Yeah, it's kind of hard to keep things clean and in good shape ... out
there," said Jamie.

"I expect it's rough out there just in general," added Graham.

"You don't know the half of it," replied Jamie.

"I was wondering if you'd like to spend the night?" asked Graham.

Here it was thought Jamie, but he replied, "Sure, I'd like that a lot."

Graham wasn't entirely sure he should believe Jamie's last statement,
but he didn't say anything.  Now was not the time.

Keeping his concerns to himself, Graham pulled the car in the parking
lot of the apartment, and parked it in his spot.  They got out and Graham
locked the car after them.  They headed in and then up the elevator, Jamie
clutching the shopping bag tightly like he might loose it at any moment.
When the elevator stopped and they were in front of the correct door,
Graham dug out his keys and let them into the apartment.

"So let's take another peek at how look in your new things," suggested
Graham.

"Can I?" responded Jamie.

"Of course you can, they're yours, you can do anything you want,"
replied Graham.

Jamie paused for a second and then began to reach for his shirt bottom,
and Graham said, "You may want to take everything into the bathroom
with you."

"Oh, OK," said Jamie with a puzzled look on his face and sounding
slightly disappointed as he took the bag of clothes and headed towards
the bathroom.

Emerging a couple of minutes later, Jamie once again looked smashing.
Graham decided that Jamie clearly had a much better sense of fashion
than he did.  The results were clearly worth every penny.

Now that Jamie was clean, and in a new set of clothes, he would
definitely catch attention.  The marks on his face slightly took away
from the picture, but Graham knew they would fade.  Provided of course,
he reminded himself, the reasons for them were eliminated.

Finally Graham declared to Jamie, "You're gorgeous, did you know that?"

Jamie blushed and stammered and looked down saying, "No one ever told
me that before."

Graham felt bad for having embarrassed Jamie and said, "Well, maybe I
shouldn't say gorgeous, but handsome for sure."

"Thanks a lot for these, Graham, it's been a long time since I had
anything new like this," began Jamie.

Now it was Graham's turn to be embarrassed.  He was only doing the decent
thing, the thing that Jamie's parents should have been doing.  It wasn't
something he should be thanked for.

Graham covered up his discomfort by changing the subject, "Well I've a
lot of work to do tonight.  Would you like to watch some TV, or would
you like to get some sleep?"

"Going to bed would be nice," suggested Jamie with a grin.

Graham caught and purposely ignored the hint and cleaned the things off
from the sofa, and shortly he was showing Jamie the bed that pulled out
from it.

"It's nothing amazing I admit, but then I just stay here during the week,"
said Graham.

Jamie nodded and didn't comment on Graham's spartan accommodations.
A tiny Geo, a bachelor apartment, now a pull-out bed.  The image of
those didn't quite square with that of a man who less than an hour ago
had bought him a new set of clothes without blinking.  In Jamie's eyes,
Graham was a mass of contradictions.

Suddenly Graham realized that Jamie didn't have anything to sleep in.
He thought frantically, but given that he didn't use pajama's himself,
the best he could offer Jamie was a t-shirt.

"I don't have any PJs that I can offer you, but would that t-shirt you
were wearing earlier be OK to sleep in?" asked Graham.

Jamie thought it was a silly question as he knew full well what was
going to be expected, but replied, "Sure, I usually just sleep in my
underwear anyway."

"OK, so why don't you wash and change into it, and then climb in,"
said Graham while nodding towards the bathroom again.

Jamie went, washed up, and changed, coming out in the t-shirt that
Graham had given him earlier.  Graham once again noticed that Jamie was
carrying in his arms the new clothes and that they were carefully folded.
They were placed on top of the old clothes, which were also folded; both
sets sitting on Jamie's outstretched arms.  Jamie came over and stood
next to Graham.  Looking about for a moment, Jamie then moved the large
shopping bag with his foot to a spot next to the sofa, then placed the
stack of clothes on top of it on the floor.

Graham pulled the blankets and top sheet back on one side of the bed
and held them for Jamie to get in.

Once Jamie had gotten in, Graham pulled the covers back over Jamie
and turned off most of the lights in order to make the room darker.
Leaving only a small light on over the table in the dining area, Graham
came back and stood looking down at Jamie.

"Will you be OK now, if I do a bit of work on the table over there?
Will the light bother you?" Graham asked.

"You're not coming to bed now?" asked Jamie moving slightly sideways in
the bed clearly suggesting he was making room for Graham.

"No, I've lots to do, and tomorrow is going to be a big day," replied
Graham.

"OK, I'll be fine.  The light won't bother me," said Jamie.

"Great.  So you sleep well and rest," said Graham.

Jamie smiled slightly at Graham and visibly relaxed a little.

"Nothing will happen to you here, you'll be perfectly safe.  Good night,
Jamie," Graham quietly added and then walked towards the table off to
the side.

Jamie turned over on his left side so he could watch what Graham was
doing.

Graham pulled out his briefcase, removed some papers, and a laptop
computer.  Plugging the laptop into the wall socket, Graham turned it
on and sat down in front of it and shortly began to click away while
reading and shuffling through the papers.

After watching Graham for a while, despite being rather tired, Jamie
finally decided that nothing was going to happen tonight.  Jamie rolled
over in the opposite direction and yawned.  Closing his eyes, Jamie began
to think about the day's strange course of events.  Sighing at the luxury
of having a warm place to sleep, he pondered the mystery that was Graham.
Jamie soon fell asleep to the sound of tapping keys.