Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 10:03:13 -0800
From: fritz@nehalemtel.net
Subject: I Love Corey, Chapter Forty-eight

	Here we go again, writing the hated warning and disclaimer.  What
you say, why should I have to write such a thing?  Well, it's like this.
There are all those young people out there who are sneaking in to read this
story.  Well, maybe one young person is trying to sneak in.  No matter the
numbers, all you young people leave.  After all, reading this story could
be considered child abuse, that is if you consider reading a bad story to
be child abuse.
	Sometimes I remember to put some descriptions of gay sex acts in
the story so if that offends you, leave.  I might remember to put some of
those in this chapter and it is not my intention or desire to offend you.
Then again, if you are offended that easily, maybe you ought to stick
around.  Enough exposure to such descriptions will probably dull such
reactions.
	Alas, I have heard that there are areas in which reading this story
is not legal.  Why someone feels he has the right to control what other
people read is beyond me.  I guess they think their perceived moral
superiority gives them that right.  Too bad that such perceived superiority
is a joke.  Much too bad that some of those people have managed to succeed
in passing really stupid laws.  Remember, certain churches tried to stop
the publishing and teaching of things that have proved to be true, like our
planet is not the center of the universe and that the sun doesn't go around
the earth.  People, who try to prevent the right of others to read what
they want, need to remember such things as the Inquisition and that it
might happen to them.
	Go ahead and read the story but remember I made the whole thing up.
There is no basis for it except my somewhat sick imagination.  Please ask
permission before posting it on another site and if you find something you
wish to quote in it, please credit me for such a quote.
	Please remember to pray for Ernie's health.  Without his editing,
the story sucks.  Well, it sucks worse without his help.
	Go ahead and take the plunge.  Write and complain, ask questions,
offer suggestions, or just comment on things you like or dislike.  I do try
to answer such emails.  Send them to fritz@nehalemtel.net Put I love Corey
in the subject line so I don't delete you.  If you make it through this
chapter, congratulations and I hope you enjoyed it.  Fritz
********************************************************************************

		I Love Corey, Chapter Forty-eight

	I was sleeping well, enjoying my Corey blanket, when the bed shook.
Then some covers were pulled over us and I drifted back off.  It was just
too much effort to wake clear up and figure out what was going on.
	Corey was on one side of me and Lee on the other when the alarm
went off.  I stumbled to the bathroom, listening to a bunch of groaning.
Time for another shower.  Corey and Lee walked in and Corey joined me in
the shower.  At least dried cum washes off easily.  Besides, it's fun to
wash it off, especially when it's on Corey.  We only played a little grab
ass because we didn't have enough time to do more.  Even that stopped when
Lee stepped into the shower with us.  I'm surprised I didn't drown.  My
mouth fell open and just stayed that way.  There was plenty of room in the
shower but I was just shocked that Lee would step in with us.  Corey didn't
seem to think anything of it and just handed him the bottle of shower gel.
The only thing said was when Lee told us it was a cool shower.  He
pronounced it cool rather than the exaggerated kewl that some of the boys
used.
	Robert was finishing his cereal when I got to the kitchen.  He told
me he was going in early to help Mr. Downie get caught up on his bacon and
hams.  The sparkle was back in his eyes and he looked happy.  He and Lee
visited a couple of minutes and Robert left.  They didn't say much but were
slowly getting acquainted.  Both seemed shy around the other.  For Lee that
was normal but I think Robert was still worried about the fight and was
afraid that Lee was scared of him.
	The day went well and I actually managed to get some math taught.
In fact, I covered a couple of day's worth.  The students were paying
attention and seemed to soak it up.  The only thing that went wrong
happened right before last period, which I had free.  One kid slammed LT
into the lockers and made some nasty comments.  Both Mrs. Webb and I saw it
and he was in the office so fast he had no idea of what was happening.  He
was one of the kids LT and JJ had mentioned and all the teachers had been
keeping their eyes on him and his friends.  I was surprised that anything
would happen after this long a time.  I would have thought it would have
happened right after the word about LT and JJ got out.
	Franklin Daniels was known as the school bully.  He had been in
trouble several other times.  He was big for his age and a little
overweight.  Well, maybe more out of shape.  He was about six feet tall and
must have weighed close to two hundred pounds, part of which was a spare
tire.  I'd never had him in class because he was in the lower ranking
classes.  I only got the students good in math.  I had taught some courses
in the lower math when I first started teaching but after the first year, I
ended up with all the advanced classes.  That meant that I had never had
Frank, as he was called.
	Mr. Mathers was pissed, Mrs. Webb upset, and I was just plain
furious.  It would have been enough to make me angry to catch Frank doing
that to any student but when it was to LT, I just wanted to beat the shit
out of him.  It took almost all of my self-control to keep from doing so.
	Frank tried to deny what had happened but with two teachers, eleven
students, and LT to refute him, it was no contest.  Mr. Mathers called
Mrs. Daniels to explain what the trouble was.  She showed up in about
thirty minutes.  By now most of my last period was over and I was worrying
about picking up the boys so I hoped it would go quickly once she arrived.
It didn't.  Her little Frankie couldn't and wouldn't do something like
that.  The fact that there were thirteen witnesses plus LT didn't mean a
thing.  We were all lying because, well she didn't really have a reason why
we were lying, just that we were.  As things went their weary way I sent
word to Corey to gather up JJ and meet Lee and then wait for us in the
library.  Of course LT was with us.  He had a slight cut on his forehead,
which oozed a little blood, but the nurse put a band aid on it.
	I had managed to calm down but Mrs. Daniels was doing her best to
reverse that.  It wasn't intentional on her part but her words were having
that action.  It was pretty apparent that her words were having the same
affect on Mr. Mathers and Mrs. Webb.  Where Mrs. Webb had been upset
before, now she looked very angry.  When Mrs. Daniels wouldn't make her son
apologize to LT, or that little fag as she called him, Mr. Mathers told her
that her son was suspended until the school board meeting and they could
decide if he ever got to return to school.  It got real ugly after that.
She and Frank finally left amid much shouting about lawsuits and such.
Jeez, the day had really gone to hell.
	JJ was pacing the library when we finally got there.  We headed out
and stopped at Downie's.  By the time we got there, JJ had calmed down.  He
could see that LT was perfectly okay.
	There were several new people working and things looked fairly
orderly.  The store was still packed with customers but the check-out lines
were moving and things seemed under control.  The boys headed off to hang
up their jackets and get ready for work.  Mr. Downie had told them that
they would work from four-thirty to six-thirty.  He said that covered his
peak rush and should be their permanent schedule.  Ellen sent Lee back to
help his `step-father?' and grabbed me.  There was enough help so that she
could take the time to do so.
	I had to explain the whole affair.  Ellen was relentless in her
questions and wouldn't give up until she knew all about what had happened
to LT.  She didn't look all that happy by the time I was done.
	Since they had hired enough people to run the store, I didn't have
to help.  I got some groceries and headed home.  A bunch of the
neighborhood kids were playing ball in the driveway and at least stepped
aside and let me into the garage.  I put the groceries away and got the
mail.  There was a letter from a legal firm that was fairly thick.  I
recognized the firm's name because they had been involved in the
settlements of my parent's death.
	Why can't lawyers use English?  I started trying to decipher what
the letter was about.  The coffee was done and I was only half way through
the letter and still had no idea what they were trying to say.  For
Christ's sake, I'm a college graduate and this whole thing wasn't making
much sense.  There was some knocking on the door and I ended up inviting
the basketball players in for a cold drink.  I went back to the letter
while they were going through the fridge.  The drinks were about gone when
I finally started to make sense of the letter.
	Holy shit!  I had to stop and count off the zeros.  While I might
teach math, we normally don't use numbers that large.  It seems that there
had been some issues of maintenance problems that the original settlement
that had not been covered.  The foreign carrier had tried to cover them up
and get by.  There had finally been a settlement.  There was a number,
minus the lawyer's share, divided by the number of deaths.  Since both my
parents had died, that number was doubled.  Then there was interest added.
By now I must have looked strange because one of the ball players asked me
if I was all right.  I mumbled something about I was fine.  My eyes were
frozen on the last number.  The firm of attorneys wanted to know how to
transfer it to me.  The number, $13,687,415.22.  Thirteen million, six
hundred eighty seven thousand, four hundred fifteen dollars and twenty-two
cents.  My mind wanted to shut down.  All I could think of was that
thirteen.  A thirteen followed by six zeros, then a decimal point and two
more zeros.  It was way too many zeros.  Those kinds of numbers were only
supposed to be used in something like space travel, not money, at least not
unless you were some kind of government agency or something.  It was an
obscene amount of money.  I already had more money than I would ever need.
I couldn't even grasp what that much money would do.  I absently noted that
they said they were sending a registered letter with a form to fill out and
return, telling them how to handle the transfer.  I'd thought those
maintenance problems might amount to, at most, a hundred thousand dollars
or so.  In fact, the whole thing had been going on so long I really didn't
expect anything.  The doorbell rang and I absently yelled come in.  I
couldn't begin to stand up and do something like answer the door.
	Judy walked in.  She took one look at me and asked what was wrong.
I tried a couple of times to answer and just gave up and handed her the
letter.  I couldn't make my mouth work right.  All that came out was
gibberish.
	Judy accepted the letter with a look of fear.  She started reading.
After a while she looked up.
	"Are these numbers real?"
	"I think so," I managed to stammer.
	She turned back to the letter and turned to the last page.  She
read that page and turned to me.  "Even this last page?"
	I'd been so shocked I hadn't read the last page.  She handed it
back and I read it.  The first number was for the maintenance problems.  In
light of those problems, the original award was being raised.  There would
be an additional five million.  However they were sorry to report that they
had not been able to obtain interest on the five million.  My mind idly
noted that they really did sound sorry about the lack of interest.  Due to
a bunch of explanations I couldn't understand, the lawyers cut of the five
million would only be twenty percent.  So, five million, minus twenty
percent was still four million.  About then I saw that was per person.  My
mind about shut down.  There were way too many zeros running around in it.
Let's see, thirteen plus eight is...  I couldn't come up with the answer.
I pulled out a pen and tried to add it up on the back of the envelope.  I
still couldn't come up with the answer.  There were still too many zeros
involved.  I was sitting there, looking at the back of the envelope when it
finally dawned on me there were no zeros in either thirteen or eight.
Let's see, thirteen plus eight equals twenty-one.
	Judy was trying to talk to me about Lee and Robert.  I still had
too many zeros floating around in my mind to be coherent.  Judy finally
snickered and said I wasn't much help and she would see me tomorrow.  I was
still staring at the letter.  Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see
was those strings of zeros.
	The phone ringing jerked me back from zero land.  Corey wanted to
know why I wasn't there to pick them up.  I realized I had been staring at
that letter for over an hour.  It wasn't just zeros I had been thinking
about.  My parents had been the primary focus of those thoughts.  All those
zeros didn't begin to make up for not having them around me, to share in my
triumphs and sympathize with me in my sorrows.  The letter was even soggy,
I suppose from my tears.  Suddenly it hurt just as bad as it had the night
I heard about it.  I managed to pull myself together and go pick up the
boys.
	What a rude way to get jerked back into reality.  No, not the boys.
They could see I was upset and to their credit, gave me some space.  It was
the phone ringing when we walked in the house.  Caller ID said Daniels but
I could have probably figured that out from the string of abuse and
profanity coming from the handset.  I wasn't in the mood for it so I hung
up.  Twenty seconds later it rang again.  Same thing, so again I hung up.
The third time it rang and showed Daniels I walked over to the base set and
took a deep breath.  I punched the speaker phone and shouted, "When you are
willing to talk and not swear you can call me.  Another foul word out of
you and I'll call the cops."  With that I punched the off button.  Then I
stood there, glaring at the phone, waiting for it to ring again.  I wasn't
disappointed.  It soon rang and the caller ID showed Daniels.  I debated
but finally answered.  Same old thing.  I hung up and called the police.
After explaining what was happening, they said they would send someone over
to talk to him.  It rang six more times with the Daniels ID before it quit.
At least Mr. Daniels had jerked me out of my funk.  I fixed dinner.
	It was quiet during dinner.  We were just finishing when Corey got
brave and asked me what was wrong.  He didn't seem to believe me when I
told him nothing.  I finally handed him the somewhat soggy letter and told
him to read the last few pages.  Six heads were soon gathered around the
letter, reading.
	"But this isn't bad news.  I thought you were sad," he finally
said.  "That's a lot of money."
	I was just tired.  Not only that, I didn't know what to say so I
said the first thing that popped into my mind.
	"What that letter means is that some insurance companies and
lawyers have finally decided what my folks were worth.  It isn't enough.
They couldn't put enough zeros to make it enough."  My eyes were closed and
I could feel the tears start to run down my face.  A few seconds later I
felt some arms wrap around me, followed by some more.  We stood there,
hugging and me crying for a while, all trying to come to grips with our own
private demons.  The seven way hug seemed to help.  As the tears slowed, I
felt a calmness descend.  My folks were gone and I missed them desperately
right at that moment but somehow I was ready to go on.  I knew they would
want me to.  I also knew they had loved me.
	Billy and Larry headed home after that.  Maybe the moment had been
too emotional for them or maybe they just wanted some time together or
wanted somewhere that wasn't quite so quiet.  Whatever, the rest of us were
all just sort of sad and quiet.  Not real sad, maybe more subdued.  The
funny thing was, I was probably closer to being at peace with myself than I
had been for years.  Maybe it was closure that the letter had represented.
There was a certain finality to the letter.  It was all over now.  My folks
were gone and I would never see them again but somehow it was all right.
They had loved me and I loved them.  No matter how much we would like to go
back, life goes on and we have to go on with it.  Maybe I had been waiting
all these years for something that allowed me to go on.  There was a deep
sadness but I was no longer angry about their deaths.  I just missed them.
	Robert got home and had some of the spaghetti I had fixed.  He
looked tired but happy.  He talked about how Carl was going to build a new
and bigger smoke-house.  The old one wouldn't be big enough to handle the
increased business.  Robert was going to be in charge of it.  He was going
to work tomorrow but would have Sunday off.  His friend would be there to
fill in.  I was only half listening but my mind kicked in and I asked where
his friend was going to stay.  Robert started blushing.
	"God, I forgot.  I was going to ask you if he could stay here until
he can find a place.  He can stay in my room with me.  Boy I'm sorry, I
really just forgot."  He would have gone on but I interrupted him.
	"Don't worry, its okay."  He apologized about a dozen more times
before I got him shut up.  After that we talked about finding him a place
to live.  He needed an apartment or something.  He probably apologized a
half a dozen more times during the conversation.  It was apparent it had
slipped his mind.  I couldn't blame him because things had been pretty
busy.  He had expected to have a few days to look around and all he had
done was work.  He had been leaving before I did and getting home after the
rest of us had eaten dinner.  It was finally time for bed.
	Corey was just kind of out of it.  He cuddled up in his favorite
position but didn't even kiss me.  He was just lying there, not sleeping.
I started rubbing his shoulder.  I knew he was thinking about something and
I was pretty sure I knew what it was.  As it turned out I didn't have to
ask.
	"I wonder where Mom is."  His voice sounded so little and helpless.
Apparently my mentioning of my parents had started him thinking of his
mother.  I didn't have an answer so I just kept gently rubbing.  After a
while he relaxed and went to sleep.  I just wished I could go to sleep.  It
took a long time and my mind covered a lot of things but in the end, there
wasn't much I could decide.  All I could do was think about a lot of
things, like how my parents would have accepted Corey.  I just didn't know
and had no way of finding out.  I know they would have liked my helping him
but the rest, well that was something I had no way of even guessing.  I
wondered if they were looking down on me and if they were, what they
thought.  For that matter, what did I think?  I was something I had always
been taught to abhor.  Was I taking advantage of Corey?  Would he be better
off without me?  Could I give him up?  I didn't have any answers, only
questions.  Two hours later I still didn't have any real answers but I had
made one decision.  For better or worse I would go ahead.  My parents were
now a thing of the past and Corey might be the future.  Only time would
tell.
	I was just dozing off when Lee crawled in beside me.  Once again I
knew I had to talk with him but couldn't do it.  Sleep claimed me.
	Saturday was strange.  I mean I was in a really weird mood.  It
wasn't that I was unhappy.  I just felt sort of strange.  For whatever
reason I was totally relaxed.  I think this was the first time I had been
totally relaxed in a long time.  I just hadn't realized it before.  It felt
really strange, but good.  It was one of those days that I was hauling boys
back and forth to work.  They were all on different shifts.  Granted the
shifts were short but I still had to haul them back and forth.  In between
I did housework with whatever boys were home at the time.  I finally got a
chance to talk with Lee.
	It was a really good talk.  He explained that he just felt safer
when he slept with Corey and me.  I explained that there was a lock on his
door but that didn't seem to satisfy him.  When I tried to explain that
sometimes we might be doing something he just told me he had heard us a
couple of nights ago and waited.  I could feel my face heat up just
thinking about that.  I started trying to find out what he needed to make
him feel safe.  I eventually came to the conclusion that what made him feel
safe was he thought we loved him.  No, not in a physical sense but that we
just loved him for who he was.  It didn't take long to realize that Lee
hadn't had much love in his life.  The time I'd spent working with him last
year, combined with the last couple of weeks had given him a sense of
acceptance and love.  For the first time that he could remember, someone
listened to him and talked to him.  No one was yelling at him or hurting
him.  All the boys had been trying to make him feel at home just as I was.
Watching the other boys showed him that he didn't have to be afraid.  At
the end of the conversation I just hugged him and told him to try not to
come in when there was any noise.  He giggled, but didn't pull away.  We
must have stood there, hugging, for ten minutes before he finally pulled
away from me.  He had a grin on his face but there were tear tracks on his
cheeks.  I couldn't even begin to imagine what his life had been like even
though he had told me.  My mind wasn't equipped to deal with conditions
like that.  I had no frame of reference.
	Lee couldn't stop grinning.  The rest of the day that grin was
plastered on his face.  When it was his turn to work, he bounced into the
Gator and when we got there, he bounced out.  I was almost in shock.  He
was a totally different person.  Watching him grin made me grin.  Like I
said, it was a weird day.
	When Judy showed up, Lee still had his grin and so did I.  Judy
looked at me like I had lost my mind.  Lee had finished his shift and told
her all about it.  I'd already heard the story but couldn't resist hearing
him tell it again.  He was so different than he had been and there was a
sparkle in his eyes and a lilt in his voice.  Ellen had sent him back to
help Robert and Carl.  Robert had taken the time to try to teach him a
little about cutting meat.  Lee was in seventh heaven because someone had
taken an interest in him.  Judy just sat there with a blank look while Lee
babbled on.  When he had answered all of Judy's questions, he gave her a
hug and left to finish changing the bed I'd assigned him.
	"What the hell happened to him?" Judy asked in a shocked voice.
Her expression matched her voice.
	"I think he finally feels safe."
	"Are you..." her voice sounded like she really didn't want an
answer to that question by the way it trailed off.  I think she felt she
had to ask it.
	I just grinned.  "Nope."  I probably could have said more but like
I said, I was feeling weird.
	Judy had a baffled look.  I could see her trying to figure out what
she wanted to ask.  I finally took pity on her.
	"Well, he's been crawling in bed with me in the middle of the
night.  We had a good talk about it this morning."  I probably should have
said more but I couldn't resist.  I was sure I was smirking.  Her
expression got even stranger.
	"W..W..What do you mean b..by that?"
	I could see she was about ready to explode.  She couldn't figure
out what to ask.  I went ahead and explained all that Lee and I had talked
about and my thoughts about him.  I stressed that no matter where he ended
up, he needed to feel safe and accepted.  I also filled her in on how I had
worked with him last year.  While I had mentioned it to her, this time I
gave lots of details.
	"Do you think he's in love with you?"  Her question made me think.
	"I don't think so. I mean he might love me but I don't think he's
in love with me."  I thought a little more and finished with, "In fact, I'm
pretty sure he's straight, although we've never talked about it."
	The conversation shifted to Robert.  Judy was still looking at me
in a funny way but her mind was once again on track.  I filled her in on my
thoughts on him.  I also told her about the fight and Kathy falling for JJ.
She giggled over that.  About then Robert's friend came in with Corey and
JJ.  I hadn't showed up to pick the two boys up and he had hauled them
home.  Corey showed him where Robert's room was while I continued with
Judy.  He got unpacked while Judy and I finished up.  When Judy was done
finding out about Lee and Robert, she asked if I had gotten over the
letter.
	Of course I knew the letter she was referring to but truthfully it
had not crossed my mind all day.
	"I don't even know where it is.  Somehow I never thought about it."
A little thinking and I added.  "It's only about money and the letter
doesn't even have any of that."
	Judy looked flabbergasted at my remarks but left, saying she had to
get home and start dinner.  That got me thinking about cooking and I headed
for the kitchen.  Chuck Tanner, Robert's friend, was getting a glass of
water.  I'd been busy with Judy and had not met him.  The only reason I
knew who he was is that Corey had told me who he was when Chuck had brought
him home.  After introducing myself, I offered him some coffee, which he
accepted.  A couple of cups of coffee later, I had learned a few things
about Chuck and some more about Robert.  It looked like dinner would be a
little late.  In fact, it was almost time to pick-up Billy and Larry.
	The boys had just gotten back from riding their bikes somewhere.  I
offered Chuck the option of waiting a few minutes longer for dinner or
going and picking Billy and Larry up.  He chose the latter and so I asked
him to pick up a couple of items and tell Mrs. Downie that she should take
the money to pay for them out of Corey's wages.  In a few seconds I was
attacked by three boys with Lee encouraging them.  Chuck retreated and left
to get my part-time kids, as I called them.  I managed to hand him some
money as he left.  However, that money didn't lesson the attack.
	It was all a verbal thing.  The boys were trying to make me feel
like some kind of monster for even suggesting such a thing.  I was trying
to tell them they were lucky I didn't sell their scrawny little asses into
slavery.  We continued sparing all the time they helped me fix dinner.  You
could hear comments about their scrawny little butts wouldn't be worth much
on the open market and what great kids they were and how much they might
bring at an auction.  I'll leave you to figure out which of the above I
said and which ones the kids said.
	Even though there were lots of snide comments on both sides,
somehow we managed to get dinner started.  The meatloaf was in the oven by
the time Chuck returned with Billy and Larry.  I had five pounds of
hamburger, one pound of sausage, three eggs, a can of tomato sauce, a large
chopped onion and some spices all mixed, shaped, and in the pan when I
heard the garage-door open.  I was going to have a very decidedly unhealthy
dinner.  Unhealthy but good.  As soon as a little fat cooked out of the
meatloaf I was going to put a layer of baby carrots and lots of onion
wedges in the fat and cover it with foil.  When the whole thing had cooked
a little longer, some peeled potatoes would go in the pan and then the foil
would go back on.  Just before the potatoes were done, the foil would come
off, the potatoes would be turned over, and everything would be allowed to
finish cooking.  A green salad would accompany the meatloaf, along with
some beets, tossed in a little vinegar and a dab of butter.  None of the
boys were fond of beets but I liked them.  It was my turn to have something
I liked.  Maybe in a couple of weeks I could have some asparagus.  I was
getting a little tired of green beans and corn.  Those seemed to be the
only vegetables the boys had ever heard of.
	About then Bob walked in.  I introduced him to Chuck and after the
usual greetings, he and Corey left for Corey's room.  Chuck suddenly got a
strange look on his face.  It took me a few seconds to figure out what he
was thinking.
	I cracked up.  Chuck had this strange expression and I was sure he
thought there was something going on between Corey and Bob.  The two of
them had been making their usual weird comments back and forth before they
headed for Corey's room with Bob telling Corey he had this great DVD that
Corey just had to see.  I grabbed Chuck by the arm and practically dragged
him to Corey's room.  Bob had brought a DVD with a bunch of famous painting
on it and he and Corey had their noses close to the TV while Bob was
pointing out brushstrokes and explaining that they showed up a lot better
in the actual painting.  They had one picture frozen on the screen and then
Bob pointed to the picture on Corey's wall.  They moved over next to it and
Bob was busy pointing to subtle little effects that brushstrokes could
make.  Corey and Bob were so wrapped up in what they were talking about
that they jumped when they finally noticed us.  When Chuck and I left, Bob
was showing Corey some techniques to make a tree trunk look round.  I was
sure I couldn't do it but Bob was explaining that the effect came from
shading and brush- strokes.
	Bob had explained that Corey had a lot of natural talent and could
do a lot of the things he was trying to teach him.  He wanted to teach him
the fundamentals of how to paint and how to explain what he was doing.  I'd
already seen some of Corey's work and he could do a lot of the things Bob
was going over but by doing it this way, Bob had told me, Corey would have
a better understanding of what he was doing and why he was doing it.  It
was somewhat strange.  Corey would spend a lot of time going over what Bob
was teaching and when he decided to paint something, he was already far
advanced from what he was being taught.  I wondered if he ever felt
frustration over covering the basics when he clearly was much more advanced
than that.  If so, he never mentioned it or shorted his lessons.
	Corey and Bob had to be called for dinner.  The lesson wasn't done.
We batted the breeze during dinner, talking about a lot of things.  Of
course Bob got filled in on LT's fight.  Like the rest of us, he wasn't
very happy about it.  Lee said that nothing had been said to him about the
boys and no comments were being directed about either Corey or me.  That
made Chuck's eyes open.  Shit, an innocent comment was going to create more
problems unless I could figure out how to cover it up.  I could see Bob
flinch when he heard it and I know I did.  The boys didn't seem to even
notice it.  They just went on, chattering away.  While we finished our
dinners my mind was busy, trying to figure out if I could get by with a
less than full explanation.  In the end, I decided to try.  I wasn't
willing to just start talking about something that was so clearly against
the law.
	Bob and Corey returned to finish the lesson and the rest of the
boys cleaned up most of the cooking mess, after which they headed for the
television.  I saw that one of them had rented a movie.  I was torn by
wanting to know what they had rented and by needing to try to cover some
tracks.  I elected to cover tracks.  No movie they could rent could be that
bad.
	I didn't lie.  There were a lot of things I left out but I didn't
lie.  I will confess to sometimes putting things in such a way that one
might draw the wrong conclusions but I offered no such conclusions.  While
I was at it, I explained about the rest of the boys.  I also mentioned that
outside of Corey, the rest of the boys were with me because of Children's
Services.  That seemed to make Chuck feel a lot better about the whole
situation.  By the time I was done I knew I had to get both Chuck and
Robert out of the house.  This wasn't going to work.  There was no way
Corey and I could keep things a secret from two adults.  In fact, we
weren't doing a very good job of keeping it a secret.  Every time I turned
around it seemed like someone else knew.  So far no one seemed to have a
problem with it but I was sure that someday that would change.  I would
probably end up in prison then but I had decided last night that I couldn't
live without Corey.  If prison was the price, then I would have to pay it.
All I could hope was that I could get Corey to a place in his mental and
emotional development that would enable him to survive when that happened.
It would be a lot easier to do that if I could just keep myself from
jumping into other people's business.  Had I not decided that Lee needed a
family, Robert, and his friend Chuck, would not be here to create a
problem.  I kept thinking that I must have some kind of a mental defect to
keep getting into situations that were so dangerous to me.  Somehow I just
couldn't seem to help myself.  Uncle Matt and Aunt Sandy knew, Sara had
figured it out and told me so when she kissed Corey at the airport and that
meant that Bruno would know, Bob Asher and Carl Benson knew, Judy knew, I
was pretty sure that Billy and Larry had suspicions, of course all the boys
in the house knew, and then there were the Springers.  I wasn't sure what
they knew but there had been a few comments that led me to believe they had
some suspicions.  Who else, let's see?  There was also Russ Young.  He
definitely wasn't dumb.  He had to suspect.  The whole thing was spiraling
out of control and I couldn't seem to do much about it.  There were
probably others like Mr. Mathers and some of the teachers who had
suspicions.  Maybe I ought to just take out an ad and get it over with.  In
fact, what I couldn't understand was why the whole thing hadn't blown up by
now.
	Robert got home and he and Chuck sat at the table and talked while
Robert ate.  I saw the boys were watching one of those mindless action
movies and it looked no worse than most of the others I had seen.  I
decided to call Uncle Matt and fill him in about the letter.
	It was bedtime by the time I was done talking to Uncle Matt.  I had
to fill him in on the trip and explain how Lee was doing.  That brought up
Robert and of course required more explanations.  I finally got to the
letter and that took a bunch of time.  There was what to do with the money
and how I should handle having it transferred.  I even had to talk with
Kristen and Kevin.  Aunt Sandy kept throwing comments in so I was sure they
were on their speaker phone.  Even Uncle Matt seemed somewhat overwhelmed
when I told him the amount.  There was only a gasp from Aunt Sandy.  Her
gasp sounded about like the way I had felt, reading the letter yesterday.
Uncle Matt told me he didn't have any idea of what to do with that much
money right away but he'd think about it.  Aunt Sandy snickered over that
and her comment about was he sure he was capable of such an action met with
some whining from him and barbs back and forth between them.  All right, I
confess I added a few barbs to the conversation.  It was a good visit and
helped make up for not having quite as much time together over the holidays
as we had planned.  By the time we finished, people were heading for bed.
	I was in a real quandary.  I was almost afraid to let Corey sleep
with me and what about Lee.  There was a good bet he would join us before
the night was over.  The problem was, there were two adults downstairs.  I
was trying to figure out what to do and what to say when Corey got in bed.
My suggestion that maybe we ought to not do this was met with a flat no.
He didn't argue, he just refused to talk about it.  I did get him to say,
if that was the way it was going to be, I had better get them out of the
house.  I suppose I should have been thrilled that he was willing to stand
up for himself but in truth, I was pissed.  I started to head for his
bedroom and he just followed me.  That left me with little choice if I
didn't want a naked Corey walking around the house.  I gave up and went to
bed.  Corey didn't snuggle into his favorite place though, he just turned
his back to me and went to sleep.  At least I thought he went to sleep.
	I was just lying there, trying to figure out what to do when the
door opened and Lee came in.  He slipped quietly into bed but he wanted to
talk.  We were whispering back and forth when Corey stuck his oar in.  Lee
had been trying to pin me down on what I thought of Robert and I was being
somewhat evasive.  I mean I figured he was a pretty decent guy but still
wasn't well enough acquainted with him to say for sure.  Lee was pretty
taken with him.  The little they had talked, while Robert was teaching him
how to cut meat, had made a big impression.  I still had reservations about
him because he had hit the boys.  Corey wasn't too happy because he had
struck me.  We both seemed to overlook being on the receiving side and were
still upset over the other person's having been hurt.  Almost an hour later
Corey again turned his back to me and this time he did fall asleep.  Lee
snuggled up and did the same.  Since I couldn't think of a good reason not
to, I joined them.
	Corey woke up first and when he left to relieve himself, it
disturbed me.  I struggled out of bed and followed him.  I turned on the
shower and Corey joined me and we were soon joined by Lee.  This had to be
one of the strangest things I'd ever been involved in.  Lee and Corey
seemed to think nothing of it.  Needless to say, there was no playing
around in the shower.  It's surprising how much faster it goes under those
circumstances.  We were soon headed for the kitchen.
	We had the paper read and some coffee drunk by the time Robert, or
Rob as he was now insisting I call him, showed up.  I started fixing
something for breakfast and when it was far enough along, I sent Lee to get
the other boys.  Rob was telling me all about the list of places he had to
check out.  It seems that he had managed to take a couple of minutes to
contact a real estate agent and ask about rentals.  While we were eating I
looked over the list.  I was only familiar with a few of the places and
ruled a couple of them out.  He was going to meet with the realtor after
lunch to examine the rest.
        We spent our spare time finishing the housework.  Then it was time
to go to church.  I was surprised.  JJ and LT were no longer complaining.
They acted like they had always attended and enjoyed it.  Maybe it was all
the cookies and things that were always served after services.  I swear
they were like vultures.  They could spot one cookie like a buzzard flying
over a road kill.  When it involved a whole plate full of cookies, look out
buzzards.  The air turbulence created by their swooping in on that plate
would disrupt the flight of a 747.  I'd heard more than one adult laugh
over the antics of the boys and the rest of the young people who attended
church.  There was usually something over forty young people who were
heading back for seconds by the time the adults even got to the dining
room.  I have to confess that the ladies of the church made some awfully
good cookies.  That reminded me.  Next Sunday I was scheduled to take a
cake or two and I noted it on the calendar.
        Mr. Besslor was there and playing the organ.  Fr. George was his
usual brief self and soon the boys headed for the dining room.  Mr. Besslor
stopped in long enough to say hi and then left.  It wasn't long before
Fr. George and his wife cornered me and they were chuckling about him.
They thought it was as funny as I did.  Mr. Besslor had been positively
bubbling before he left.  He had a sappy grin on his face that no one could
miss.
        The boys finished grazing the table before we left.  If I could get
them to a Costco I probably wouldn't have to feed them for a week.  Of
course no one else would get any samples but that wasn't my problem.  I
needed to make sure Uncle Matt sold my shares in Costco before I did that.
The stock price was bound to go down after such a visit.
        Rob was getting nervous.  I apologized to Fr. George for leaving
early and took him home so we could change and meet with the realtor.
        The boys wanted to go with him and look over the places.  Even
Corey decided that we could go to the trap club on another weekend.  What
the fascination in looking at rentals was I wasn't sure, but it was fine
with me.  Rob had asked me to go with him because he thought I might have
some idea of what he should do.  We all piled back into the Gator and it
was off to look at various apartments and houses.
        What a joke.  If it was big enough, the rent was through the roof.
Not only that, most of them could best be described as somewhat rundown.
Well, I'm trying to be polite.  It didn't take long to figure out this
wasn't going to work.
        "Rob, where is Chuck going to live?"  I already knew Chuck was
divorced and had no children.
        "He was going to get a small apartment," he replied.
        "Ever think of going together and getting a somewhat bigger place?
You could share the rent."  By now the realtor had run out of places to
show us and we were headed home.  "I don't really know him but you said he
was your best friend and something like that might be best for everyone.
The additional rent would open up a lot more possibilities."
        Rob didn't say much as we continued home.  He was clearly
disappointed in what was available in the price range he had told the
realtor.  I wondered if the rents in California were higher than Kentucky.
I hadn't really paid any attention to what rents were going for around here
but Rob seemed to be looking at the bottom of the scale.  Since we were
going past Downie's, I decided to stop and pick up some more food.  It was
either that or start having the delivery trucks start stopping at the
house.  It didn't seem like the Gator could haul many day's worth the
supplies when the boys were in it.
        Rob headed back to talk to Chuck while the rest of us started
filling carts.  Well, only one and a half carts.  There was once again a
sale on oranges and a few crates about filled one cart.  When we were ready
to check-out, Rob said he was going to stay and help Chuck.  I suspected
there was going to be some talking as well.
        The Downies had told the boys that Sunday was their slowest day and
none of them would have to work on that day.  I liked that because it gave
us a day to be together.  Since the meatloaf had suffered such serious
damage at dinner last night, I decided to fix a pork roast.  I'd thought
that meatloaf would be sufficient to allow for some sandwiches and perhaps
soup for dinner this evening.  I could still make the soup but the sandwich
idea was clearly out.  Their snack had taken care of the last little bit of
that poor meatloaf.  I felt bad.  I really liked meatloaf sandwiches and I
hadn't gotten any.  I was going to have to start making bigger meatloaves.
Of course if the boys hadn't had a few meatloaf sandwiches just before bed
last night, the picture might have been different.  Oh well, pork roast
sandwiches are good.  While the school cafeteria was better than some, I
still liked to take my own lunch.  I put the boys to work, preparing things
for dinner.  We laughed and joked around and they even learned a few things
about cooking.  Maybe someday they would be able to cook enough to survive.
It had been a real shock when I got to college and didn't have Mom to cook
for me.  I hoped the boys would be better able to handle that experience by
the time it came around.
        When the dinner preparations were under control, the boys jumped on
their bikes and headed for the school grounds for a pick up game of
basketball.  I yelled at them to be home before dark and started getting
all my lesson plans and grading caught up.  Things went better than I
thought they would and everything was done before the boys got home.  They
were hot and sweaty and headed for the showers.  I was thrilled that
Corey's limp was almost un-noticeable.  Since he had started playing ball
and getting a lot more exercise, it was really improving.  The fact that
improvement was happening so quickly was almost unbelievable.  He was still
doing his stretching exercises but the last few weeks had made a noticeable
improvement in the way he walked and ran.
        Clean boys started showing up and it wasn't long until dinner was
ready.  It was nice to have just the four boys and myself.  Both Larry's
and Billy's mothers had the day off.  That meant that they would eat at
home.  Lee was becoming a lot more open and joined in the teasing and
joking we were doing.  There was lots of giggling and wisecracks floating
around and everyone really enjoyed themselves.  Now if I could just get Rob
and Chuck out of the house, maybe things would be all right.
        The boys were watching some dumb program and I didn't have anything
I needed to do so I booted up the computer and finished up my e-mail.
About then, Rob and Chuck got home.  They told me they were going to have a
quick bite to eat and then go look at a house they had heard about.
Mr. Downie had over-heard them talking and suggested they get in touch with
a friend of his and maybe rent a house that friend had.  They had and were
going to look at it tonight.  After learning that, I started surfing the
web.  I hadn't had much time to do that lately.  In the back of my mind was
still the need to finish "The Talk" with the boys.  I didn't set out to
look up anything but just settled back and started surfing.  The next thing
I knew I was reading about hepatitis.  You know how it is?  You start
reading something and then following links.  A few links later you are
reading about something that isn't even close to what you started on.  A
couple of sites later I suddenly realized something.  Statistics said gays
had a higher incidence of it.  Not only that, the reason appeared to be the
result of certain sexual practices.  I got the boys to come into the
computer room just as Rob and Chuck were leaving and started showing them
what I'd found.  It appeared that not keeping clean and especially rimming
were dangerous.  The boys were chattering away and giggling some about what
they were reading when they got to the part about rimming.
        "Jeez, you mean we can't do that anymore?  I liked it," Corey
turned to me and blurted out.  I wanted to fall through the floor.  We'd
only done that once.  Of course the other boys were instantly all eyeballs
and ears.  About then Corey realized what he had said and turned almost as
red as I was.  It showed up on him better because of his fair complexion.
There were three boys with their mouths open and Corey and I were in
melt-down.  I couldn't even begin to say anything.  In fact I was having a
hard time even breathing.
        "Oh shit."  Corey was trying to figure out what to say and those
words just escaped him.  I knew just how he felt.
        "Looks like shit is the problem," LT giggled.  "At least that's
what those studies say.
        "Gross."  JJ didn't have much to say and that one word was his
contribution.  The way he said it spoke volumes.
        I was still trying to get myself together enough to say something
when Lee started giggling.  Then he giggled harder.  LT joined him and then
JJ started giggling also.  Soon all three were rolling on the floor,
laughing.  LT was still laughing like a hyena when he left to relieve
himself, telling us if he didn't he was going to pee his pants.  He
couldn't even walk very well.  He had to keep stopping and lean against the
wall while laughing some more.  Every time JJ and Lee would start to slow
down, one of them would point at either Corey or me and it would start all
over.
        I finally pulled my shattered psyche together enough to say
something.
        "If anyone ever says anything about this I'll kill him."  Of course
that brought more laughter but they didn't know just how close to the truth
that statement was.  All of a sudden JJ got it.  He realized just how upset
I was.  I couldn't help myself.  I was shaking and I just wanted to die.
It didn't take him long to communicate his worries to the others.  Corey
wouldn't look at me and I was so upset there was no way I could begin to
talk to anyone.  I felt like I would be physically ill.  I headed for the
bathroom just in case.  I did a lot of swallowing before my stomach calmed
down.  I was trembling by the time that happened.

        	To be continued...

        Those wishing to check for health risks regarding hepatitis can run
a Google search for something like Hepatitis+gay.  Believe me, you will get
all kinds of hits.  This one gets right to the point.
http://www.glma.org/hepatitis/whatis.shtml There are lots of others that
also do a good job of explaining the risks.  Please, practice safe sex.
After all, I need every reader I can get.