Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 17:30:39 -0800 (PST)
From: T. Chase McPhee <survivalgame@yahoo.com>
Subject: OLuFsEN & SONs 08

The story below is a work of fiction, set in the format of reality. Any
resemblances to real people, alive or in the hereafter, is entirely
coincidental in nature. It is not meant to accurately reflect upon persons,
in towns, cities, countries, nor governmental areas, which the story is
staged. If a sexual scene involving male-to-male relationships offends you,
then you should not read this story. Additionally, if you are under 18
years of age, in most state and countries, you are not allowed to read this
story, by law. Check with your local laws regarding such. % Sexual safety
matters. Remember guys, this is fiction. In real life, use protection.

%

OLuFsEN & SONs 08
wriTten by T. Chase McPhee

%

"I was ready to send out the army, navy and FBI after you two. What
happened to you two? I tried to get Gef on his cellphone!" he scolded Gef
and Nick.

Walking in with a brown grocery bag, Nick responded, "We got a little
detoured on the way home."

"I see," Erik replied, tapping five fingers in succession on the kitchen
counter, gaze shifting from one to the other. "Something you want to tell
big brother?" he asked Gef.

"Actually," Nick started in after each deposited their bags on the counter,
"we'd like to make it more of a joint effort."

Erik looked mystified but really had a notion to why they were late.

He wasn't surprised, but acted it, saying, "Oh my!" When the two caressed
each other with multiple kisses.

"So. When's the wedding?" Erik asked, giggling away.

Gef comes out with, "You better hurry up and find a guy bro so we can make
it a double ceremony!"

Nick agreed.

"Well I better rush into my office and sign on to gay.com right away!"

But they were interrupted by Jase and Zack, Jase asking, "Nick, when are we
gonna eat?"

"As soon as your uncle starts peeling the potatoes!"

"Me? Gef replied.

"Get used to it," Nick replied, giving Gef a peck on the cheek.

"Hey Uncle Gef," Zack got on the defensive. "You stealin' Nick away from
dad!"

He answered quickly lest the tug on his belt would make his pants fall
down, "Nooooo. Me? Steal Nick away from your dad? Nah. I'm jus' borrowing
him!"

"Is he allowed to do that, dad?"

Erik figured it better now than later, to confess, "Boys, Nick and I spent
some time together.... trying to fall in love, but it didn't work out."

The three waited for something more than Zack saying, "Oh."

Then Jase speaks up, the two crowding around their dad, "So who're you
going to get to be your boyfriend now, dad?"

Zack wondered too.

"Can't say," Erik said frankly. "Whenever Mr. Right comes into my life!"

They accepted their dad's reasoning. "Hey Nick, got anything to munch on?"

When he held up a package of baby carrots, the boys expecting chips, they
suddenly felt full.

"Almost forgot something," Erik said to himself more, but Nick and Gef
heard it.

"What's that?" Gef replies.

"Have to go see somebody in the hospital before he is released."

"Anybody we know?" Nick pries.

Reading them right, Erik responds, "It's not at all what you think. The guy
whose his arm was cut at Williams-Sonoma the day the boys and I were
there. Seems like he has no next of kin, so I thought it would be a nice
gesture."

Overhearing, Zack and Jase had given in, their little bellies calling out
for something to eat. So they got sidetracked, "Can we go see Joaquin too,
dad?" Jase asks.

"Yeah. Can we dad?"

"I suppose," Erik replied.

"Joaquin, eh?" Gef ribbed his bro.

But instead of Erik having to set the record straight of Joaquin being a
twenty year old college guy working his way through his middle years, the
kids filled them in, Zack accidentally blaming, "Yup. Jase accidently hit
the table and when the dish fell it broke. It almost cut us to pieces but
Joaquin caught it on his arm."

"And it's all my fault," Jase replied.

As quick as he brought it upon his ten year old brother, Zack removes the
curse, "But he's okay, right dad?"

"That he is and when I talked to him on the phone yesterday he said he was
glad he could save two nice boys from getting in harm's way."

"What's arms weigh?" Zack asks.

"Never mind. Got your jackets?"

Quickly Nick had explained dinner not being ready for another hour, so Erik
and the boys walked out the door.

Back to their work, Gef accidentally drops a potato on the floor. "I got
it!" he says, bending over to reach the potato.

`Hmm,' Nick thinks to himself, a smile crossing his lips.

"Hey, What's this?" Gef asks, looking at the business card on the floor,
turning it over to look at both sides.

"Oh that. One of the concession fellas at the arcade," Nick replies a
little hot under the collar, feeling guilty after trying to pick Patrick
up.

Reading the headline of the card Gef reads, "Fool the Guesser? Patrick
O'Cuinn? Does children's parties too?"

It was Nick's `out', saying, "Yeah. Maybe he could entertain at one of the
boys' birthday parties."

"I hope it's not one of these old guys out to supplement their social
security checks?" Gef reckons.

"Nah. Patrick's like 18 or 19."

"Hmm..." then as Nick goes about his business, Gef asks, "Cute?"

Nick drops the knife through the tomato, it hitting the board with a mighty
clunk.

"I was just asking," Gef replied.

No saint himself in the matter, Nick decides to turn it into a joke, "Very
cute!"

"Maybe we should have him over for a pool party. Y'know, entertain?" Then
with a last breeze of thought, "Does he do adult parties?"

"Of `that' I'm not sure," Nick replied. Not knowing about Patrick at all
except the strong possibility he is gay, he wasn't sure if Patrick would
like entertaining ten or twelve gay men at a no-suit swim party.

"Okay," Gef left it at, placing the card on the counter in front of Nick.

"Of course we could always call him and ask?"

Gef handed Nick the remote phone. He tapped the knife he was using to cut
up potatoes on the counter.

Nick put his hand on Gef's hand, cautioning him to stop. "Hi. Patrick?"

Gef was all ears, listening to Nick converse with Patrick, saying this and
that, but not mentioning, "Get to the party. Ask him!"

Then as if holding Gef his captive, Nick put him in a hold, still talking
nonchalantly, arm aroung Gef's neck, his hand secured over his mouth.

"What'd he say?" Gef eagerly asked when Nick hung up.

"He's coming over for dinner."

"When?"

"Tonight."

%

"Hi Wah-king," Zack jumps to the front of the line, Jase and his dad
following behind.

"Heeeeey!" Joaquin yells out. "How you doing Jase?"

"I'm Zack. He's Jase," Zack points over his shoulder to his brother.

"Oh Sorry."

Erik was glad the boys came along, Jase automatically asking, "Are you mad
at me Wah-king?"

"Mad? For what?"

Erik says, "Jase has been blaming himself lately for the little mishap
which caused `that'," Erik nods to the bandaged up arm.

Maybe it was Jase's fault and Joaquin didn't deny it, but wasn't going to
mention it so said instead, "My arm is doing good. The doctor said I can be
released as soon as I make some arrangements to go home."

"So, what keepin' ya?"  Erik asks cheerfully.

Skipping over the question, Joaquin asks, "Say, do you know if my car is
still parked at the mall?"

"Of that I'm not sure," Erik said.

"Oh," Joaquin said with glum. "I hope it didn't get stolen."

"Let me see if I can find out something. Boys, keep Joaquin company."

And that they did, telling Joaquin how much Nick liked his gifts,
especially the Spiderman decorating cakes.

"Yeah and he said when we have our birthday he's going to make us a
Spiderman cake!"

"When are your birthdays?" Joaquin inquires of the two.

"November eleventh," Jase replies.

Then to Zack, "Your birthday?"

"November eleventh."

"Wait. You're not twins are you?" Joaquin asks, not sure, but had his
doubts since they didn't look exactly alike, comparing Jase's brown hair
with Zack's blond.

"Everybody wonders," Jase tells. "Zack and me were born on the same day a
year apart!"

"Cool huh?" Zack asks.

"I'd say," Joaquin replies.

Then Erik shows up without a smile on his face.

"This is bad news, right?" Joaquin says, losing his happy composure.

"It's not entirely bad news. The police did tow it to the compound."

"Whew! Oh good," Joaquin said in relief.

"But the bad news is the paperwork got mixed up and your car was sent to
the junk yard and demolished.

"Owwwwwwwwwwch!" Joaquin yelled out as he harshly fell back, his arm
hitting the bed as well.

Running to each side of the bed, Jase and Zack showed concern, Zack rubbing
the small hairs on Joaquin's right arm, telling, "Don't worry,
Wah-king. Dad'll help you out. Right dad?" He asks his dad.

"Sure. Whatever you need, Joaquin."

Then Joaquin levels with them, "My whole life was in that car."

"How come?" Jase asks, not understanding.

Erik didn't rightly get it, but had an inkling.

Instead of a plain answer, Joaquin thought at least he owed Erik an
explanation, saying, "When I came to town I didn't have much money. I had
run out of most of my money around Utah. From there I landed here and found
myself a job at the mall. It wasn't much, but.... my car is... was like my
home." Then instead of finishing up, "I can't believe it's all gone!"

"Did you sleep in your car Wah-king?" Jase asks.

"Yep."

Zack seeks the answer to, "Where did you change your clothes?"

"At the store, unless the store was closed. One time I found myself up on
Forest Drive and stopped at a picnic place and changed there right in the
woods. Sometimes I sleep there, using the picnic table for my bed."

"It's right down the road from our house!" Zack exclaimed.

Joaquin knew Erik worked at some corporation but never guessed he lived in
such luxury. "There are like million dollar homes up there!"

"Right," Erik said. "And we live in one of them!"

"We've got a swimming pool too," Zack says.

"Yeah and you can come swim in it," Jase said, then remembered to ask his
dad's permission, "Dad, can Wah-king come swim with us in our pool?"

"Of course he can, but I don't think with his arm all bandaged up it would
be a good idea."

"Do you think if they found what was left of my car there would be anything
to salvage?" Joaquin thought of the most important thing to him now.

Scratching the back of his head with one finger, Erik responds, "I kind of
doubt you would find much, Joaquin. Sorry."

"Oh man. This means starting over. All my clothes and papers.... oh man my
citizenship papers were in there. Now what am I going to do?"

"Dad, you gotta help Joaquin," Jase pleaded.

Zack took a different approach. "No problem my dad'll loan you some money
and we can go to the mall and buy you new clothes, right dad?"

"Um, I don't think that's a good idea," Joaquin turned him down.

It was on Erik's mind, thinking Joaquin had enough to worry about with his
arm getting better, however he sensed Joaquin wasn't too keen on a handout,
but he did leave it open-ended, "You could call it a loan and pay me back
whenever you get it."

"And we've gots of food, right dad?"

 "Plenty and I'm sure Nick and Gef are cooking up something special for
us. Why don't you join us, Joaquin?" Even though he could have gotten
pretty upset over the boys offering so much, Erik had seen something in
Joaquin way back before the accident when they did some shopping.

"Please?" the boys begged Joaquin. Zack even added, "And you don't have to
pay us back. Right dad?"

Erik smiled, saying, "On the house tonight!"

So Joaquin couldn't possibly have turned down the invitation with the two
angelic faces begging him.

"I'll see about your discharge papers," Erik said.

It's another reason why Joaquin suddenly had a headache, not having the
insurance to cover the hospital bill. But unknown to him, Erik wrote out a
check and made sure the billing department told him he was covered, leaving
it up to them to explain `how'.

"All set," Erik said.

"Like that? Didn't they give you a bill or something?"

"Nope," Erik replied, but went ahead to lie, "they said something about a
charity foundation and your bills would be paid out of that."

Joaquin says, "That's good in a way but someday I'm going to pay them
back."

Erik said he and the boys would wait outside while Joaquin slipped into his
clothes.

"But I think I need some help with my arm. I'm not sure but I think I'll
have trouble fitting my arm into the sleeve."

It was said more as asking, so Erik asked the boys to sit in the chairs
outside so that Joaquin could have his privacy.

"Right now I have the biggest challenge. Um, mind untying the back?"

"I can see where you need an extra set of hands!" When he untied the gown
at the top it just slid open. Facing him was the smoothest back he ever
saw. Naturally tanned, he followed the shoulder blades to the middle of
Joaquin's back, the small indentation and then Joaquin's ass. The back of
his legs sported a light covering of hair.

When Joaquin turned around he found Erik looking down and not up. "Checking
me out huh, Erik?"

"Whatever do you mean Joaquin?" Erik tried pulling a fast one.

Then, instead of undressing the gown he let it fall to the floor, the left
side getting caught on his bandaged arm. Still, much could be seen. They
looked at each other, Erik forcing himself not to look downwards.

To break the ice, Erik says, "Here, let me help you with that." He busied
his hands with working the sleeve down around the fat bandage.  He did
notice something and made the mistake of mentioning, "You're tan all over."

"Right," Joaquin said, not mentioning the obvious. In his hand he had a
pair of tightey-whities. Erik helped feed his right leg into it, but had
trouble adjusting his left arm. "Do you mind?"

"Of course not," Erik replied. Squatting down, holding the open leg, Erik
came within inches of the soft cock lying on a bed of dark brown, almost
black hair and two nice sized balls. So as not to make himself obvious, he
quickly brought the elastic waist up along with rising up from down. He
didn't mean to, but followed the thin treasure trail up to Joaqin's deep
innie and then the same thin trail up to the small patch between his pecs.

They stood there, the eighteen year old looking into Erik's
eyes. Surprisingly, he mentions, "You know Erik, I don't know you well at
all but I like you."

It shocked him, but didn't bend Erik completely out of shape, maybe a
little flustered as he said, "Thanks. I mean I think it's great. I
mean.... where's your pants?"

Producing a pair of jeans, holes here and there, Erik helped him feed his
legs into them. Then he stood back, waiting for Joaquin to finish.

"Um, sorry Erik, but with this bandage wrapped aroung my hand, I can't do
the button."

If Erik didn't see the gauze crossing over Joaquin's hand, keeping his hand
from flexing, he would have thought Joaquin was coming on to him.  "No
problem," he responded. However as he buttoned up the jeans the back of his
hand was rubbing against the tight, thin treasure trail. He started to feel
static electricity in his own pants.

"Sorry. Same story with the shirt."

Erik was as gentle as can be, holding the shirt for Joaquin's left
hend. From there he had to work it a bit to get it up and over the
bandage. Placing the shirt over Joaqin's head, when he couldn't see for a
second, Erik quickly scanned the latino's bod. "There! All set! You look
like a million bucks!"

"I'll take that as a compliment."

When Erik inquired if Joaquin had a jacket he turned up zilch. "It's
getting chilly in the evening. Summer usually comes in like a lamb around
here, but fall can be as vicious as lion!"

He excused himself, "I came from a warm climate. I don't own much more than
a longsleeved shirt, well did at one time. Right now all I have are the
clothes I'm wearing."

He didn't want to take Erik's jacket, but Erik made him take it, again
helping to feed it onto his one arm, zipping it half up to enclose the
other arm.  "That'll do," Erik said.

When they made their exit, Zack asks, "Hey dad, how come your jacket is on
Wah-king?"

But instead making Erik explain, Joaquin told the boys his name didn't have
a `g' on the end and taught them how to say `Wah-keen'!

%

"Patrick, this is Gef. Gef, Patrick."

"Great to meet you Patrick," then offering the worn out cliche, "Nick has
told me so much about you."

`Really?' Patrick thought to himself, knowing they've only met briefly and
hadn't any kind of chat which would result in nothing more than one
fact. However maybe Nick was talking to him about what he thought, things
they hadn't talked about.

"C'mon in," Nick offers.

"Mmmm, something smells heavenly," Patrick says, motioning his nose like
his breath is sucking in everyone's aroma into his lungs.

Gef says, "Nick whipped up some cabbage, carrots and pork." Then proudly he
adds, "And I made the potatoes!"

"Sounds sort of Irish. I haven't had a good old-fashioned Irish meal in
years," Patrick informs.

"What about St. Patrick's day?" Gef asks.

"Nah. I don't know anybody who celebrates it." Patrick really wanted to
mention he didn't know anybody except his boss at the arcades. He had
wanted to get out and socialize, but that costs money. Money he didn't
have. His only luxury was having a cellphone.

Gef tells him, "I don't think you'll find much celebration on St. Patrick's
Day what, with us Danish folk!"

Nick begs to differ, "Well `Stavos' isn't exactly Irish, but we celebrated
the holiday anyway."

"Before Eric had the kids," which was easier for Gef to explain than
bringing up marriage, "he and I used to hit the bar every time the holiday
rolled around. Ever drink green beer?"

"No," Patrick replied, nodding his head. The ninteen year old didn't want
to make mention of why he hadn't celebrated the `green' holiday since he
was sixteen, being he wasn't around the house after having a bad argument
with his father over a particular gay issue, coming out!

The conversation dropped dead, Nick and Gef looking at each other when
Patrick stood there with nothing else to say, but also a strange, quietness
abounding.

"I wonder where Erik and the boys are?" Nick asks.

After Gef said he didn't know, he wanted to make Patrick inclusive in their
conversation so asked, "So Patrick, Nick tells me you're a mindreader. So,
what question did the boys ask you?"

"Which school they went to."

Nick jumps in, "And Patrick guessed it right away!"

"Almost right away," Patrick put his two cents in. But he left out the part
about Nick getting mad him, then minutes later the glances they
exchanged. If Patrick was mindreading things right now he was guessing Gef
and Nick were more than friends and didn't want to upset the apple cart.

"That's cool," Gef said. "Tell me though, what grade do you think I'll get
on final cooking project?"

"Tell you what," Patrick said as he leaned on the counter enjoying a beer
with the two, "most of the time I'm right but there have been times I've
been wrong. It wouldn't be too nice if I told you and then I was wrong?"

"He's got a point there," Nick said.

"Rats!" Gef replied. "Why'd you have to mention that?"

Nick smacked Gef in the back of the head, saying, "Get the man another
beer, idiot!"

"See how he treats me?" Gef joked as he handed Patrick a second beer.

It could have been the beer loosening him up, but Patrick thought this a
perfect time to ask, "Um, are you two like... um.... more than friends?"

Nick and Gef stare at each other and smiled. Nick says, "We're hoping it
works out this time."

It then led into the conversation of how the two were once madly in love
and after three weeks called it quits.

"Too bad. You two seem so good together."

"Yeah," Gef said, "but we're hoping this time we make it to three months."

Nick knew what Gef meant, but Patrick was in the dark about their special
mating ritual.

"What Gef is saying is we had this pact. After a week we were madly in love
and expected to keep it that way for three months and get the other one
pierced. But we never made it past three weeks."

"Well, looks like I'm way ahead of you guys!" Patrick pulls up the middle
of his tee shirt to his chin. "I mean they're not rings." They look upon
the nineteen year old's bod, taking in the treasure trail which hiked up
about four inches to his navel, then up to his chest where the blond hair
seemed like peach fuzz, making the silver, miniature barbells looking more
pronounced.

"Nice," Gef said. Nick agreed.

"I thought about having my navel pierced," Patrick lay his thumb above his
navel, finger below and stretched it open, "but I ran out of cash."

It's then the kids came rushing in, Jase's arm around Joaquin's, Zack doing
what he always did with Gef, holding onto his belt loop. "Hey everybody,
this is Wah-keen!"

Joaquin didn't exactly care for the way he became introduced but at least
he thought, `They got the name right!'

"Hey guesser-man," Zack says to Patrick, "how come you got your shirt up
like that?"

Patrick didn't rightly know. He could have blamed it on the beers, but then
he would be deluding himself of the thoughts of laying eyes on an Adonis!
"My shirt. Oh... I was showing Gef and Nick something." He let his shirt
drop.

Erik enters saying, "Set one more plate for dinn-dinn, will ya?" And then
to the boys, "Jase and Zack will you show Joaquin to the jon to freshen
up?"

Zack asks, "Why dad? He just got out of the hospital. He's clean!"

"They have germs at the hospital too, `idiot'!" Jase tells him.

Erik wondered where they picked up the word `idiot', though he was happy
Jase answered Zack's question.

Nick thought he better watch himself. At this age the kids were picking up
on everything said.

"Which jon?" Zack asks.

"Pick one!" Their dad replied.

"No sweat," Zack replied, a phrase they heard Tony use.

Up the stairs and down the long hallway the boys came to a closed
door. Opening it, Jase says, "Dad calls this a sweet."

"Because it's got two bedrooms. See?" Zack tells, the two leading Joaquin
into the second room of the suite.

"I only see one," Joaquin replied.

So the two led him into the room from which they came, crossing it and
walked into another one.

"Looks the same as the other room," Joaquin said of the lavish bed gear and
drapes, plus two dressers and two armchairs. Off to the side was a desk and
hutch, a computer sitting on it and a mahogany swivel chair sitting in
front of it. "I've never knew a person could have a bedroom this big!"

"The jon!" Zack called out. The two led him out of bedroom number one and
into the adjoining room. To their left they led him into a third room.
"How do you like it?"

"Wow!" Joaquin said taking a quick assay of the large room, almost as big
as the bedrooms. "Is that a hot tub?"

"Yup," Jase reports. "This is one of the guest rooms and our dad says he
wants people who visit to have anemonities."

In his travels, on the road since he was fourteen, Joaquin had once worked
as a bellhop in a fancy hotel in New York City. He knew the word and how
Jase called it. "Amenities," Joaquin corrected him.

"Okay," Jase plainly said, more excited to show Joaquin how everything
worked. "Dad showed us how to turn the tub on."

The three approached a panel on the wall.

"You start with the white button," Zack said.

Jase butt in, "I'm telling!"

Seeing the brother rivalry, Joaquin asks, "So... after you press the white
button then what do you do?"

It made Zack's frowny face light up, Jase taking over and saying, "Then you
push here."

"What does that do?"

"Look!"

They turned to the hot tub and water began gushing out of the faucets.

"You don't have to get up to turn the water off," Jase told him.

"Yeah," Zack says, "It turns it off all by itself."

More scientific, Jase regains control, "When the water comes near the top a
senzster tells it to turn itself off."

"So you can be in the tub and relax with somebody if you want," Zack put
it.

Jase adds, "Or by yourself!"

"Sounds nice."

"You want to try it out?" Zack asks.

"Um, not right now, but could you show me where I wash up please?" Joaquin
asks politely.

The boys lead him over to the modern vanity, towels on shelves
underneath. Jase takes a bar of soap and quickly tears through the paper
covering. "Here you go," he tells Joaquin."

"Oh," Joaquin replies.

"Whatsamatter?" Zack asks.

Jase says, "You can take it. Here."

"Um, I have a little problem. I can't get this wet," He holds the bandaged
arm up enough to get the point across.

"We can help!" Zack says.

Going to work, Zack and Jase soap up their hands. "Give it here," Zack
says.

Smiling, thinking what smart boys they are, Joaquin hands his bandage-free
hand to them. As if scrubbing stuck food off a pan they rub away. Zach
leaves Jase to grab a towel.

"I think that's clean enough," Joaquin tells Jase.

"Rinse!" Jase yells out pulling Joaquin's hand under the faucet, causing
him to bend a little.

So excited to be helping Joaquin out, Jase passes Joaquin's hand along to
his brother, Zack announcing, "Time to dry it!"

"Wow!" Joaquin says after his hand is washed and dried, "I think that's the
cleanest my hand has ever been!"

Walking him back downstairs, Jase and Zack told him if he wanted the rest
of himself clean their dad would have to do it. Joaquin smiled, thinking
how wouldn't might it a bit!

Downstairs they were ready to sit. The kitchen was good for a family of
four. A fifth could be squeezed in, but with Patrick and Joaquin as guest
diners, Nick and Gef made a corporate decision to hold dinner in the dining
`hall'.

"Are these paintings real?" Patrick asks.

"If I'm not mistaken, this is `Life In The Jar' by Jose Vasco-Velasquez?"
Joaquin says of the painting Patrick is looking at.

Erik exclaims, "Wow! You know your art, Joaquin."

"And this," Joaquin says, moving on past Patrick, now acting like a
curator, "I don't remember the exact title, something like
`Grading... something', but the artist I believe is Jake Idnani, but not an
original. Idnani's artwork doesn't come cheap!"

Walking over next to him, Patrick asks, "How much would a thing like this
go for if it was real?"

"Two or three million," Joaquin replies. "Idnani's works are only in
museums."

The boys are hungry, but are entertained by Joaquin and Patrick when their
dad informs them, "It's an original. Shall we sit down to eat?"

Patrick watches Joaquin giving him a signal, taking up his napkin from
under his fork.

"Oh yeah," Patrick replies, swiping the piece of cloth from the table,
unfolding it and placing it over his crotch.

After the food is passed around, the boys taking potatoes and meat, Erik
looks at Nick after seeing the heaping plates Joaquin and Patrick have
mounded up.

Zack asks, "Geesh. You guys gonna eat all that?"

Patrick tried answering with food in his mouth. Joaquin wiped his mouth off
with his napkin and answered, "Remember... I had to contend with hospital
food for two days?"

At least the adults understood.

While Jase and Zack looking over their guest's plates, Nick spoons some
cabbage, carrots and a floret of broccoli on each of the kid's plates.

"Hey! Where did they come from?" Jase asks. Zack had the same reaction, the
two staring at the French china, zoning in on the orange, light and dark
greens, knowing they didn't put it there themselves!

With his elbow leaning on the table, mouth again full, Patrick says, "A
man's got to eat to survive!" Patrick would know, living in a tiny room at
the arcade, a place where only business is supposed to be conducted. Yet he
never minded sleeping with boxes of supplies and a refrigerator which
sounded like a freight train, in the middle of the night.

"Ain't it the truth," Nick reinforced the statement, looking at Zack and
Jase.

But Zack had all the answers, saying, "But we're kids. Kids don't need as
much as big people!"

They felt like being ganged up on when their dad said, "Just eat what Nick
put on you plate please?"

"Do we have to?" Jase complained.

"Yes you have to," Erik replied.

Both had the worst faces when forcing a piece of broccoli between their
lips. Zack made like he was gagging, grabbing his Spiderman glass to clear
his throat. Jase thought he was doing him a favor, slapping his hand
against his brother's back. But when he did, the glass of milk flew out of
Zack's hand, it landing in the middle of the table, it's contents firing
like a cannon, Patrick directly in its line of fire.

"You stupid pinhead!" Zack yelled at his brother.

Instead of fighting back, Jase replies, "I'm always doing bad
things. Everybody hates me!"

"What was that all about?" Gef questioned Erik when Jase got up, almost
overturning his chair and raced out of the room.

"Guilt complex. Be right back. Excuse me gentlemen," Eril said.

While father and son were gone, Nick took on the job of father-hen, helping
to sort out feelings Zack was feeling now.

But before he could, Zack tells even more, "I didn't mean to make my
brother mad at me."

Nick replies, "What happened to you was an accident. Jase was trying to
help you, but it's the choice of words you used which made him feel the way
he did."

Then Zack says, "Maybe. But maybe not. I don't hate Jase."

"I'm sure you don't," Nick replies as the other three men follow the
conversation. "But I think maybe if you didn't say what you said afterwards
Jase might still be eating dinner with us. You have to learn to control
your self."

The others agreed.

"But it's not only me."

"Oh? How's that go?" Nick asks.

"Dad told us it wasn't true, but Jase thinks Joaquin hates him."

"Hates me?" Joaquin said out loud as if he was being accused.

"Yeah," Zack confessed his brother's thoughts. "Jase says it was all his
fault the plate fell and broke and then cut you to pieces."

It was a bit exaggerated, only one slit along Joaquin's arm taking him out,
but the message got across. Nick then placed the problem in Joaquin's ball
court.

"Maybe I should see how your father is making out," Joaquin said, taking
his napkin out of his lap, folding it neatly with one hand and two digits
of his bandaged arm, placing it under his fork.

The other two were busy chatting with Zack, Nick following Joaquin out of
the room, not because he thought he had a hot ass, but seeing the tender
side of him.

%

Copyright 2009 T. Chase McPhee

This story may not be sold, nor made part of any collection, without prior
consent from the author.



The more you stretch, the more you can fit in... 'spread' happiness!
TCMcP.....