Date: Sun, 08 Jan 2006 03:09:01 -0800 From: fritz@nehalemtel.net Subject: I Love Corey, Chapter Seventy-three Once again it is time to warn all you good little boys and girls about this hateful story. Perhaps if I do a good job, I can save you from a life of depravity or some such thing. Then again, maybe you don't want to be saved. First off, all you young people leave. I know you want to think and act like you are older. I know you want to know what it is that adults can read that you shouldn't. I know you want to know all about sex. Still, if you haven't attained the age of majority you don't belong here. Besides, you'll soon be old enough to read stories like this without getting in any trouble. I know it seems like a long time when you are young, but it really isn't. Just take your time and don't rush adulthood. Since there are many people that get upset when confronted with descriptions of gay sex, be warned that this story sometimes contains such descriptions and, if you are among that group, leave while there is yet time. For those of you forced to live in an area that bans the reading of stories like this, hide in the closet and be very careful. The bigots, who passed such laws, take great delight in catching people, like you, who ignore this warning. Be sure to come out of that closet occasionally so you get a tan and don't look like you've been locked up forever. A complexion much paler than normal and an oversized right arm will attract their attention. This story is complete and utter fiction. If you haven't figured that out yet, you haven't been paying much attention to the story. For any dim bulbs, the fiction part means that none of the characters exist and none of the actions described ever took place. However, please note that no trees were destroyed in the writing of this story. Sorry I can't say the same for electrons. Since this story is my creation, I hereby grant you permission to read it. Feel free to print it out if that helps you in that regard. However, if you choose to quote from it, please acknowledge me as the author, and also please share all those riches you acquire from the use of the story. Please understand that share means to share with me. Now that we've got that clear, I'll just sit back and wait for the checks to roll in. I wish I had words that would adequately express my thanks to Don for his editing. Sadly I don't so these will have to do. He makes the story much more readable. He finds most of my errors, for that I am grateful and you should be also. Feel free to write with comments, questions, complaints, or suggestions. I try to answer all such emails. Just put "I Love Corey" in the subject line and send it to fritz@nehalemtel.net and you may also request to be put on the chapter notification list by dropping me an email at the same address, and asking. With that said, I hope you enjoy the following chapter. Fritz ******************************************************************************* I Love Corey, Chapter Seventy-three It was a struggle, but I was starting to come awake. When my mind started to work just a little, I realized there was no reason to wake up. The phone wasn't ringing, the alarm clock was quiet, and there were no boys shaking my shoulder, nothing, no reason to wake up. I groggily peered at the clock and saw that it would go off in about ten minutes anyway, so there was really no reason to go back to sleep. By the same token, there was no reason to get up. So I just lay there in limbo, my mind drifting. I could feel a warm breath on the back of my neck. It felt so good. Then there was an arm draped over my middle, the hand almost touching my pubic hairs. I liked the feel of that arm. It almost seemed as if that arm was holding tight to me, unwilling to let me go. In my state of half dreamland, I knew that arm belonged to Corey and I just enjoyed the feel of it. As I continued drifting, I could feel little Corey, in its morning stiffness, pressed tightly against my butt. The thought of how nice it would be to spend a little time lavishing the proper attention on little Corey floated through my mind, but I just couldn't summon the energy to do so. It just felt so good where it was. Between his warm breath on my neck, and the arm draped over my middle, I just felt needed and wanted. The fact that the most wonderful boy in the world wanted me only made it better. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! The stupid clock roused me out of my dreamy state and started the morning. I'd been waiting for it to ring, and when it did, it startled the daylights out of me. I've never been able to figure out why having something like the clock, or telephone, ring when I'm waiting for it can startle me so badly. Not only that, I could now feel Corey starting to come awake. I'm not sure whether it was the clock that woke him, or the way my body jerked when I heard it that caused that, but either way he was now stretching and starting to move. Once the usual ablutions were accomplished, we headed for the kitchen. Corey started squeezing oranges and I plugged the coffee pot in and rummaged through the cupboards, trying to decide what to fix for breakfast. While I wasn't really awake yet, I felt surprisingly good. I must have gotten a real good night's sleep. All I could think of was that seeing Corey start to come out of the shock, regarding his mother's death, had allowed me to sleep better. Breakfast wasn't much, just a cantaloupe, some oatmeal, accompanied by toast and coco. Well actually it took most of two cantaloupes to fill the bottomless pits, along with a loaf of bread, but finally they appeared able to last until lunch. There wasn't a speck of oatmeal left either. At least Corey was interacting with the other boys better, so I figured he was starting to accept the loss of his mother, at least somewhat. I could only wish there was some way I could ease his pain but he would have to work his way through it. All I could do was stand beside him and make sure he knew I was there to support him all I could. However it was now time to head to school. The morning meeting was mostly me telling everyone what little I knew about the death of Mrs. Babcock and when the funeral would be. Mrs. Webb, one of the English teachers, asked if I was going to adopt Corey and I told her that Corey would have to make that decision. That produced some discussion about could I even adopt him, owing to the fact I wasn't married. We never really came to any conclusions, but everyone seemed to think it would be the best thing for him, if that is what he wanted. One other thing seemed to be a universal opinion, and that was that Corey was thought of as my son now. My colleagues just seemed to assume that the best place for him was under my care, much like it had been for most of the school year. In fact, I got the impression that they not only expected the arrangement to continue, they would actively work to make sure it did. There were several comments about how much he had improved in his schoolwork, and how much happier he now appeared to be. By the time the meeting was over, I was convinced that all the teachers wanted me to continue as his guardian at the least, and his adoptive father seemed to be their preferred option. Several of them told me that they would be more than happy to appear in court to help that course along. As the meeting was breaking up, Jerry surprised me by telling me I really needed to try to convince Corey that I should adopt him. His statement that, "It's pretty obvious that you love him and he loves you," somewhat startled me. At least I did get a chance to tell Jerry that I would accept the school board's plan of splitting my time between the middle and high schools. Trust Jerry to keep things on track. That whole thing had slipped my mind in all the confusion of the weekend. What surprised me was that Mrs. Downie hadn't already told Jerry, and for that matter, everyone else. The day didn't go badly. The kids were no worse than normal. I did have to explain where I'd been for a couple of days to a few of them, but most seemed to have heard. I was a somewhat surprised that everyone hadn't heard but just went ahead and explained why I had been absent on Monday and Tuesday. You could see shock on the faces of some of the kids when they learned Corey's mother had been murdered. As the day went along, fewer questions were asked. I even found time to check with a couple of Corey's teachers and they said he seemed to be holding up fairly well. Soon it was time to load the bus and go to the game. Thank God for lists. If I hadn't made lists of all the gear we needed to take, I don't think I would have remembered half of the necessary gear for the team. That was something I'd learned from my football coaching. I was sure glad we had packed most of it up while doing the laundry yesterday. When the bus was ready to roll, the boys jumped in the Gator and away we went. We had to go through Redding so it was easy to stop and pick up Corey's new suit. Even with stopping for that, I made good enough time to where I followed the bus into the parking lot of our opponent. Jeez, what a mess. This was our first game and no one knew where anything was packed. Most of the kids were hyper and weren't listening to anyone when we told them where to find things. It was so bad that Jerry Hooley was asking me where to find his uniform while he was standing looking at it. Granted that the number wasn't in plain sight, but all he had to do was look. We finally managed to get the kids in their uniforms and out on the field to warm up. Will Bentley was going to be the starting pitcher, so I got him warming up with Jerry Hooley and turned my attention to the rest of the players. The sheer confusion shown by everyone made me wonder how the game was going to go. Finally we were warmed up and ready to start. I turned in my line-up card and things got under way. Things looked pretty good in our half of the first inning. Some walks, a hit batter, a throwing error, and an infield single allowed us to score three runs. We were off to a good start. Unfortunately we should have quit there because the bottom half of the inning didn't exactly go our way. Will's first two pitches were clear over Jerry's head. The next one hit the ground about half way to the plate. From there on it got worse. I suppose I should consider us lucky that we got out of the inning only two runs behind. If one of their runners hadn't over-run the bag, it could have been worse. Both teams were so hyped that neither one seemed able to do anything right. Things steadied down a little after that. We traded runs in the second inning. We did that again in the third inning. The fourth was our downfall. We scored two and gave up five. We were now down by five runs with two innings left. In the fifth we got hot and cut the lead to two runs once again, but the bottom half of the inning saw their lead climb back up to three. In the sixth, we only managed to score one more run and that was the end of the game. What more can I say, we lost eleven to thirteen. We scored plenty of runs, but couldn't seem to stop the other team from scoring. A quick check of the score sheet told me that half the runs were unearned and the official scorer was being pretty generous with what he called a hit. Walks killed both teams, but hurt us the worst. The team was down from losing. I tried to make them feel a little better by telling them that we just needed a little more practice, but it didn't seem to help. However, their spirits picked up when we headed for the restaurant. There just seems to be something about food that brightens up boys. The school had supplied a stipend to each boy to pay for his meal. While it wasn't that much, it would enable each to have a dinner. I handed out the money as they were getting off the bus on their way into the restaurant. Since the trip had been planned, the restaurant knew we were coming and had an area set-aside for us. I managed to arrange to sit with several of the players that seemed to think it was their fault we had lost. Mainly that consisted of the three pitchers I had used, and the shortstop, who had made several throwing errors. I spent most of the time trying to make the kids feel better, rather than paying much attention to what I was eating. By the time dinner was over, I think they felt better, but I had no way to be sure. All the time Corey just set beside me, not saying much. What I really wanted to do was to hold him and try to make him feel better, but that just wasn't possible. Finally everyone had eaten and it was time to head home. I had to follow the bus and help get all the gear back in the locker room. What a drag. By the time we finally finished and actually headed for home, it was getting close to bedtime for the boys. Once again the answering machine was full of calls to be returned. I reviewed them and returned a few of the calls, but most of them I thought it was too late to return. One was from Mr. Besslor asking if Corey would mind having Trevor and Jamall do the singing at the funeral, rather than Mrs. Johnson, whom Fr. George had recommended. I figured Mr. Besslor would still be up and returned his call. It turned out that Trevor and Jamall had requested the change and Mr. Besslor had talked with both Fr. George and Mrs. Johnson and they had okayed it. Corey thought it would be okay, so that was settled. In the end, I had a whole list of phone numbers to call whenever I could find time tomorrow. It was time to go to bed and get some sleep. Corey was in bed by the time I got there. He looked so little and helpless huddled there. Since I had no ideas on how to make him feel better, all I could do was go to bed and wrap my arms around him. As soon as I did that, I could feel his shoulders shake. I knew he was crying. All I could do was hold him and kiss the back of his head. Soon the crying stopped and he fell asleep. While Corey might have fallen asleep, that escape didn't come as quickly for me. LT's birthday was tomorrow, and I knew it wouldn't be the happy occasion it should be. To have a funeral foul up your birthday seemed cruel. Granted the funeral wasn't on the actual day, but that didn't stop the funeral from creating a somber mood. I'd ordered a cake last week and now was almost wishing that I hadn't. In fact, if I could have come up with any way to stall LT's birthday, I would have jumped at it. I didn't have any idea of what time Uncle Matt and family would arrive, but the whole thing was turning out to be a mess. I finally fell asleep, worrying about how LT was going to feel about his birthday. Lately it did seem like I no more than got one problem solved, and suddenly there were two more to take its place. All of the boys needed attention and there just simply wasn't enough of me to go around. My last thoughts, before I fell asleep, were on how parents managed to take care of their kids, especially if they had several. Tonight it was just beyond me. Thursday started out pretty well. I managed to intercept LT before he made it to the kitchen. I gave him a big hug, wished him happy birthday, and told him I would try to make next year's birthday a lot better. I was surprised at how hard he hugged back. His whispered thank you made me feel a lot better. At least he seemed to understand. The day struggled along like a lot of days. There were good points and bad points. On the plus side I managed to get all the calls returned during my free periods. I'd been worried about the boys running over their minutes on their cell phones and now it looked more like I would. I had to snicker to myself when I thought of them taking my cell phone away for a month. I wasn't sure what they would do about the allowance part. At least I was getting my lessons caught back up after being off for two days. The bad part, well that had to be when Officer Harmon called and told me they had finally learned why Mrs. Babcock had been murdered. Sadly it was because she had been late in paying for some drugs she was pushing. Jeez, it had just gotten worse. Now I was left wondering how to tell Corey that his mother had been a drug peddler and was killed for not paying her supplier. The police were happy because they had not only captured the killer, but had also pretty well rolled up a fair sized ring. The killer was nothing more than muscle for the ring. Having his mother killed was bad enough, but to learn she had been involved in selling drugs, well I just didn't quite know how to tell him or how he would accept that. The only good thing was I was requested not to tell anyone because they were still on the trail of a couple more in the supply chain. In fact, Officer Harmon told me the only reason he had called me this soon was I had been so cooperative with him. After the call I was left wishing I hadn't been so cooperative. Then I wouldn't have to worry about how to tell Corey, and when. One thing about it did surprise me, and that was the amount of money involved. Fifty thousand dollars wasn't small change. I wondered what had happened to the money, but figured I would never know. I managed to put that piece of information in the back of my mind and carried on with the day. Soon it was time for practice. I spent the baseball practice working with the pitchers. I'd used three during the game and all had had the same problem. That problem was a loss of control. No, maybe a better choice of words is never finding any control. Anyhow it was pretty obvious that they were so hyped that they were trying to over-throw. That broke their motions down and resulted in walks and hit batters. So I spent most of the practice working with the pitchers, starting them out throwing softly and working up until they became wild. I pointed out that of the thirteen runs our opponent had scored, only three would have scored if it hadn't been for walks. Granted that was a pretty simplistic analysis of the game, but I could make a pretty good case for it. Then I tried to impress on them that they would be able to achieve success more from the placement of the ball, rather than how hard they threw. We got out the radar gun and I soon showed them that they didn't really loose much velocity in order to gain control. I also pointed out that no matter how good the individual pitch might be, sometimes it got hit. After all, you have only to look at the major leagues. Even the really good pitchers give up hits. The secret to success is to not put lots of runners on by walks. I also tried to stress that by pitching to different spots, that was more effective than about anything else. I also pointed out that some areas of the plate are harder to cover than others, and even if a batter manages to hit the ball. They didn't seem to believe that so I got out the adjustable batting tee and let them try to hit a ball on the inside edge of the plate and at the knees. They whaled away at it and soon discovered that by moving the ball out over the plate, even at the same height, they could hit it a lot further. In the end they seemed to start understand that location is more important than velocity or type of pitch. I knew we would have to work on this some more but hopefully I had made some progress. We had a couple more games before we got into the league play. As it now stood, I wasn't sure we would be ready. When things were picked up and the clean wash in the dryer, we headed home. Of course I had to stop for not only groceries, but also the cake. As we were wandering around the store, trying to pick out what to have for dinner, I suddenly noticed something. All the other boys were trying to defer to Corey. I mean it was LT's birthday, but it was like they were doing everything they could to try to support Corey. When I thought about it, they had been doing that since we left for the hospital on Saturday night. Suddenly I just wanted to hug all of them and tell them how much I appreciated their help. Even Kyle had been trying to help. He still wasn't opening up much, but he was watching Corey and offering any help he could. For all that he still didn't really trust us, he showed that he cared in every way he could. When I thought about it, they had all been doing Corey's share of the chores, and doing them in a manner that just sort of slipped under my notice. Just like the team laundry today, where they had all pitched in and gotten it done without much help from Corey. They were acting like a family and supporting their brother as best they could. I was so proud of them. It was just a shame that it took such a tragic happening to show me that the boys were all coming together in such a way. We finally got a bunch of groceries gathered up, along with the cake and headed home. Dinner was going to be a little late because LT really liked pork roast and no matter how I tried to hurry it, the roast just took a certain amount of time to cook. He liked mashed potatoes and gravy with it, and also a carrot and apple salad. However I don't know about that kid, he loved cauliflower, something the rest of the boys could do without. Oh well, they would just have to get by with green beans. Since I was in a hurry, I had gotten two smaller roasts, a little over three pounds apiece, because they would cook faster than one big roast. Since LT also liked sweet potatoes, I would use them for the mashed potatoes. Even with the smaller roasts, it would take almost two hours to get dinner ready. I was surprised to see Uncle Matt's Buick in the driveway when I pulled in. I hadn't expected him until later, but at least I had enough roast to feed everyone. That plan went down the drain when I walked in the house and Aunt Sandy was busy in the kitchen, cooking chicken. Oh well, we could have the roasts tomorrow night. In fact, I could even marinate them, instead of just roasting them. The only problem with that was that Bruno and Sarah would be here by then, and with my bottomless pits, and Bruno's appetite, I would have to make another run to the grocery store and get another roast. A few more sweet potatoes would be necessary also. Dog was in seventh heaven, having two giggle boxes to play with him. It was pretty apparent he hadn't guarded the house, but instead welcomed the invaders. He was so busy following Kevin and Kristen around that he didn't even demand his nightly belly rub. Of course we all got big greetings and I noticed that Aunt Sandy hugged and held Corey for a lot longer than normal. Even Kristen and Kevin were more subdued in their greeting of Corey, hugging him instead of climbing all over him. However, subdued wasn't the way they all greeted LT. They were just like me, trying to walk a fine line in helping LT celebrate his birthday without making it too hard for Corey. Once the greetings were over, Aunt Sandy was giving me hell because she couldn't find everything she needed to cook. I pointed out it was all where it had always been and all she had to do was look. The next thing I knew everyone had abandoned Aunt Sandy and me to do the cooking. That meant I also got to put all the groceries away. Aunt Sandy had a huge kettle of chicken thighs fried, over which she had poured a cream gravy. There was also another kettle of regular potatoes cooking and, what do you know, green beans. I was put to work slicing up a huge red cabbage for cole slaw. That cabbage had to be the biggest one I had ever seen. I wasn't too worried though, because I knew the boys liked cole slaw and I figured they would pretty well demolish it. When Aunt Sandy asked me why I was slicing the whole thing, I just grinned and told her I hoped there was enough. She got a kind of shocked look on her face and immediately looked in the kettle of potatoes. What she saw must have reassured her, because she soon turned back, but I figured she had just barely enough potatoes cooking. In fact, on looking in the kettle myself, I went to the refrigerator and got out some boiled potatoes I had there. I figured I'd pop them in just long enough to get warmed up. I only added another pound or so of potatoes to the kettle. I was lucky that I had some in the fridge, but then I always tried to keep a few boiled up for things like hash browns. Aunt Sandy was shocked when all her chicken thighs bit the dust. She'd figured the leftover ones would make a nice lunch, but there were none left. The cabbage pretty much gave it's all too. There was about one serving left of the size that Kristen might eat. I would have only had to add half as many potatoes as I had, but there still weren't many left. However the thing that shocked Aunt Sandy the most was the size of the pieces of cake the boys wanted. Uncle Matt and Aunt Sandy, really I think it was all Aunt Sandy's doing, gave LT a lovely shirt. The giggle boxes gave him a video game, which they promptly made off with and headed to the play station, and of course he received the gifts we had bought him. Even Corey seemed to perk up and enjoy the party. As for LT, well he almost chocked up over all the gifts, especially the bracelet from JJ. He looked about as happy as I'd ever seen him, and he was normally a pretty happy kid. Once the gifts were open, I made a quick run back to the grocery store and grabbed another roast and some other things for tomorrow night. Things had been so hectic for the last few days that I hadn't gotten the curtains up in the downstairs bedrooms. So, once the roasts were in the marinade, it was downstairs to correct that little oversight. We had managed to get the beds set up and made, but a few things had sort of been neglected, like the curtains and enough bath towels for the downstairs bathroom. It suddenly dawned on me that there was no reason not to use the shower in the sauna room, so I pointed it out and finally everything was about as under control as possible. Well all but one thing and that was which bedrooms the giggle boxes were going to use. I guess you know which one they wanted. All I can say is it's a good thing I have a king-sized bed. Why they were so determined to sleep with "Uncle Sam and Uncle Corey" is beyond me. Uncle Matt and Aunt Sandy were no help, not one bit. All they did was giggle at me. Even Corey started giggling as I tried to tell them how much they would enjoy the new bedrooms. Have you ever tried to reason with kids six and eight years old? It's a losing battle. Their minds don't use the same logic mine does. Of course it didn't help that everyone, including the giggle boxes, knew that I was a pushover for them. When I finally admitted defeat, everyone giggled at me. All I could do was glare at him when LT said he was going to remember some of those arguments to use against me. That produced even more giggles from the older crowd. As another example of how the younger set reasons, completely beyond me, it was time for Kevin and Kristen to go to bed. Now one wouldn't think that would produce any problems except suddenly I was expected to help Kristen with her bath and into her nightie. That wasn't really a problem as I had done so before, but when we started into the shower, I was informed I had to lock the door so Kevin couldn't see her. That was a total lack of reasoning by my standards. I just don't understand little kids. She had no problem with me being there, and in fact insisted that I scrub her back, but Kevin, well he just couldn't see her. That would be immodest. By the time I got her back scrubbed and got her dried off, I felt like a drowned rat. I dug out a dry shirt and dry pants and headed back to the family room. Then it was Corey's turn. Kevin had decided Corey would help him with his shower. Now really, both of the kids were old enough to take a shower on their own, but once again their reasoning defeated all adults, and sub adults known as my boys. I noticed Corey had changed shirts and pants when he returned. Obviously his were no more waterproof than mine. Even his hair still looked wet, but then he wore his longer than mine and it took his longer to dry. When we all finally headed for bed, the final touch took place. There was Dog, patiently waiting, right in front of my bedroom door. Of course the second it was open, he hopped right up and curled up at the giggle boxes feet. Like I said, it's a good thing I have a king-sized bed. The giggle boxes were in the middle with Kristen on my side and Kevin on Corey's side. I would have put on pajamas, but didn't own a set so it was into bed in briefs. Corey quickly found he had outgrown his only pair, so he did the same. Sometime in the middle of the night, Kristen woke me up. She needed to go to the bathroom. I managed to stumble over and turn the bathroom light on. That was followed by a request for a drink. I was still so asleep that I went to the kitchen and got her a glass of water, never remembering that there were both glasses and water in the bathroom. She had no more than lain back down and the whole thing was repeated with Kevin, so, another trip to the kitchen and another glass full of water. About the time my head once again found the pillow, I realized how stupid I'd been. There was a dispenser full of cups on the wall, right between the sinks. Full of disgust over my lack of thinking, I quickly fell asleep again. Well I suppose the morning could have been worse. When the alarm went off, Corey and I staggered to the bathroom to relieve ourselves and of course, allow a certain appendage to deflate. Who should walk in with absolutely no warning? Why the giggle boxes, of course. Kevin said wow, and Kristen just giggled. It was almost like they had just lain there, feigning sleep, so they could sneak up on us. They hadn't even quivered when we got up, but let the bathroom door close, instant action I guess. I finally managed to shut Kevin up about how big those certain appendages were before I was forced to kill him. I just wasn't awake enough to deal with those two. It might have helped if Kristen had stopped giggling. By the time we made it to the kitchen, I was left wondering why any children ever reached adulthood. Corey started squeezing lots of orange juice and I started breakfast. When I was well started, I sent the giggle boxes to wake up the other boys. I should have known better. "Uncle Sam, yours is lots bigger than Marks," Kevin piped out when they returned. Uncle Matt and Aunt Sandy had just walked in and were pouring their first cup of coffee. "Corey's is lots bigger too," he added. Deciding that there was no possible way to defend myself, I just blushed in silence. There was snickering from Uncle Matt until Kevin artlessly followed that with, "Daddy's is still the biggest." At least that shut Uncle Matt up, but I can't say the same for Aunt Sandy. She got the giggles, and I thought I was going to have to hold her up she was soon laughing so hard. She laughed so hard she spilled about half of her cup of coffee, and probably would have spilled the rest had she not set it down. With that start, I wondered what the rest of the day might bring. Dog got a good breakfast. Just because the food had to stop briefly on either Kevin's or Kristen's plate didn't seem to bother him in the least. At least there were no more embarrassing comments from the giggle boxes. I couldn't wait to get out of there and head for school. Aunt Sandy agreed to start the roasts and with that I left. Aunt Sandy was still snickering every time she looked at Uncle Matt, and I just needed to get away. I figured school couldn't be worse, and for once, I was right. In fact the day went really well. There were no problems and even practice was pretty good. I was still having problems trying to convince all the team that control, whether while swinging or pitching, was the secret to success. The next game would be next Thursday, so hopefully they would get it before then. After that, we had a week off for spring break and then the regular season and league games would start the week after that. Hopefully we would be ready. Bruno and Sara had arrived and Dog had found new friends. Dog was absolutely enamored with Candy and Lisa, especially Lisa. The few months since I had last seen them had produced what could only be described as a major improvement in Lisa's motive powers. At Christmas she had been just barely able to toddle around. Now she was a real maniac on feet. Her steps were short, but she made up for it by taking lots of them. Dog thought she was perfect. Her face was just the perfect height to lick, which produced lots of giggles from her. He didn't even have to raise his head to give her a swipe with his tongue. Kevin and Kristen acted almost jealous of Dog's change in loyalties. I have to confess that it was really nice to get home and have dinner already started. Add in that I had all the help I could ask for, and things went really well. The roasts were excellent, as was the rest of the dinner. I suppose I could have gotten by with only two roasts, but having the third assured that there would be plenty for sandwiches, something that the boys really liked just before bedtime. Besides, the extra roast meant that there was more gravy, which went really well on the mashed sweet potatoes. We also had a couple of the casseroles that were piling up in the refrigerator. People I hardly knew were bringing casseroles, not to mention the ones I knew better. At the rate it was going we wouldn't have to buy any groceries for months. I just wish I liked green bean casserole better. We had two others, plus the one we had heated up this evening. Sadly there was enough of it left to last another meal. The only ones to eat much of it were Kyle and Mark. I also noticed Dog didn't like it, even though he normally ate anything offered. You could always tell when he didn't like something because he would go over and stand by someone else. Kevin tried him on the green bean casserole and he immediately moved over to Kristen. When she offered him a bite of it, he acted positively disgusted and quickly moved over to stand beside LT. Aunt Sandy was watching and she started to giggle. I knew she hated green bean casserole. I think Dog just got an ally, as if he needed one. However, I really needed the recipe for the corn casserole. It was marvelous. The Jell-O salads weren't as good as the carrot and apple salad I had originally planned, but I figured we had better start using them, since there were so many of them. There weren't too many calls that I had to answer, so the evening went pretty well. Even the ones I did answer were only for information, not earth-shaking problems. It had really helped that Uncle Matt and Aunt Sandy had handled most of the ones that had occurred during the day. I actually had enough time to make sure the boys' dress shirts were all washed and ironed. Not only that, having the little ones around seemed to help takes Corey's mind off his mother's death. Of course the little ones didn't much care about that and to them, the whole thing was almost a big party. Having some of LT's leftover birthday cake seemed to reinforce that idea in their minds. Finally the little ones were all in bed and it was just the adults and the boys sitting around, talking. Well actually, the adults were talking and the boys were listening for the most part. Anyhow, we were discussing how to handle things tomorrow. The ladies of the church were holding a luncheon after the services and after that I figured a bunch of the people would wander over to the house. I had a huge roast I was going to put in the oven first thing in the morning, and we decided that we could also use up a bunch of those casseroles. I wasn't sure just how many would show up, but I wanted to be prepared. There sure wasn't going to be a shortage of food, at least not if I could help it, and Aunt Sandy seemed to feel the same way. We were about done talking about the food when the topic of conversation changed. Aunt Sandy just had to tell Bruno and Sara about Kevin's comments this morning. I think she did so just to try to embarrass me. Of course Bruno and Sara laughed, but the crowning touch was when LT couldn't keep his mouth shut and had to make a wise-crack about maybe we needed to hold a contest. It soon got worse with Sara and Aunt Sandy giggling like crazy, saying they were the only logical choices for judges. I knew I couldn't do anything with those two, but I could get even with LT for suggesting the contest in the first place. "Just a second, I forgot to give LT his last birthday present. I'll go get it," I told the group, heading for my bedroom. It only took a few seconds to dig out the tailor's tape I had bought for LT some time back. I also grabbed the little notebook I had gotten at the same time as the tape. I returned to the family room with it and started in. "LT, since you suggested the contest, it's only fair that you furnish the equipment for it. I forgot to give this to you yesterday. Now understand, it may look a little strange, but I heard that JJ complains because you've been using my carpenter's tape to measure him. I can understand that because those metal tapes are probably cold, not to mention stiff." I couldn't help it; I snickered some when I said stiff. When I managed to quit, I continued. "Therefore, in light of the torture you have been putting JJ through, I give you this tape. Hopefully it will make his life more pleasant. It might even make yours better too." By now the adults were giggling and LT was a very bright red. Well so was JJ. In fact, I was beginning to wonder if perhaps I'd better move further away from them so I didn't get burned, their faces were giving off so much heat. It was probably a little cruel to JJ, but LT definitely had it coming. In fact, I'd been waiting for a chance to get back at him over several things he'd pulled or said. By now, everyone was laughing, well everyone except LT. He oscillated between bright pink, and fire engine red. Even JJ was giggling, but the part I liked best was Corey. For the first time since we learned about his mother being in the hospital, he was roaring with laughter. When the laughter finally died down I turned to LT and said, "Paybacks hell." That produced another round of laughter. When everyone was done laughing, I started in again. "Also, in order to keep track, I present you with this record book so you can keep track of such important measurements. That way there will be no argument over the numbers." Poor LT, he had just managed to stop blushing and now he started all over again. So did the laughter from the rest of us. Aunt Sandy managed to choke out, "I always knew you were cruel," and that just added to that laughter. Bruno said he didn't want in the contest because he didn't want to embarrass the rest of us, and Sara almost chocked to death she laughed so hard. She did manage to say she wasn't worried about that. I really figured Aunt Sandy had brought it up to try to lighten the mood. Well it got a lot lighter than she ever expected. Then Uncle Matt opined that only anal-retentive types would keep track of such measurements, and suggested I was one that would. What could I say, he was right. However my blushing just added to the laughter. When the laughter finally died down for good, it was time to go to bed. Thankfully the rather somber mood that had descended upon us, while discussing tomorrow's funeral, had dissipated. I knew that mood would soon be back with a vengeance, but for now, we were relaxed and somewhat cheered. As we finished brushing our teeth, Corey turned to me and kissed me. This was the first affection he had shown since we learned about his mother. It felt marvelous to have him in my arms. I don't know if he really wanted it to go further, but since we still had the giggle boxes in our bed, it was just a loving kiss. When we finally broke the kiss, he gave a long sigh, as if he was now willing to start to put things behind and move on with life. We just stood there for a while, holding each other. Another gentle kiss and we headed for bed. The giggle boxes had switched sides so I had Kevin next to me this evening. He cuddled right up and soon I fell asleep. Tomorrow would bring what it would bring. I knew I needed my sleep so I could be strong for Corey. To be continued...