Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2015 20:45:07 -0400
From: JAMES HEADY <vector18@msn.com>
Subject: a Safe Place--Chapter 14

A Safe Place
By
James

Disclaimer

This is a story that deals with sexual as well as romantic situations
between teenaged males.  Should you not be of the legal age to read this
type of material, or if you're offended by such material, then please find
something else to read.  Also remember to donate to Nifty so that these
stories can remain free to the public.

Chapter 14

Continuing in 2015

Caleb

The week opening November was dark and rainy.  I was happy for it, but a
significant change was coming and it came with the slamming down of a phone
among other things.

On a Thursday of that week, I came home and heard my mom yelling in to the
phone, something she hardly ever did.

"I don't give a fuck what you think Margery!" she shouted.  "He doesn't
deserve this!"

"No you listen to me!" she screamed.  "He's your son and I'm sick of seeing
you hurt him this way!  I love him as if he was my own son and I don't
think of him as a burden, but that's the point!  I'm pissed at how you keep
dropping him off on others, because of the pain it's causing him!  Fine,
I'll pick him up tomorrow!  This is fucking bullshit though!"

The phone slammed down and it was one of those old types that had a cord
and the bells inside that made it ring and that gave a ringing sound when
the handset was slammed down which was obviously what happened now.  I
closed the door and hung up my bag and coat.

"Mom?" I said hesitantly as I walked towards her.

"Hey Caleb," she said as we hugged.

"What happened?" I asked as we held on to one another.  "What did Aunt
Margie do this time?"

Although my mom and dad had virtually nothing to do with his or her
parents, we had my mom's younger sister and that was her only sibling.  My
dad was an only child so it was just his parents who were the main problem.
Anyway, my mom's sister had been drinking for years and she at the time had
a son named Justin.  He was my younger cousin and at the time, he was
nine-going-on ten years old.

He would stay with us for a weekend once in a while when his mom would want
to go and party.  We tried to talk many times to social services, but they
kept giving us the line that unless Margie got actively out of control,
then there was nothing they could do.  In other words, unless something bad
actually happened to Justin, they weren't going to do anything.

Justin was born a couple of months prematurely and due to a medical
mistake, he had to have his left leg amputated below the knee.  He had a
prosthetic leg ever since and it was about a month after he was born.  They
misread a couple of brain scans and based on these misreadings, they gave
him a drug through an IV under the mistaken belief that they were treating
seizure activity that wasn't even there once they did further testing.

One evening, a nurse replaced the I.V. in an artery instead of a vein then
injected the medication.  Gangrene set in a couple of days later and upon
further investigation, they found that he never had seizure activity in his
brain when they looked again at the misread brain scans.  So they did the
surgery to amputate his foot and he used a prosthetic ever since.  It would
cause friction when he would walk sometimes and it would rub the skin raw
so that was always something he had to deal with.  Adding insult to injury,
his mom would yell at him when it would start hurting and always find some
way to make it his fault whether it was something he neglected to do for it
or not like if he forgot to use lotion to keep the skin from getting dry,
but it never had been about his part of caring for it, as much as it was
his mom blaming him for his own situation.

Little was and, is still unknown about Justin's father.  The most we could
find was that he was some guy that his mom met in a bar one night and once
back at her place, they continued drinking throughout the night and
eventually had sex and a few weeks later she found out from the doctor that
she was pregnant with a son.  It was rare that she wouldn't drink while she
was pregnant with him and by the time she came to term and the doctors
delivered him, it was hard to know at that point whether or not a missing
leg would be the least of his problems.  So far though, they've found that
due to larger than normal amounts of oxygen given to him by the doctors,
that the retinas of his eyes were damaged.  He could still see, but he
needed to see things up close and even then, it would be down the road when
the doctors would know whether or not he'd lose his vision.  He had what
was called Retinopathy of Prematurity which is damage done to the retinas
due to higher than normal amounts of oxygen given to premature babies in
the hospital.  One thing that R.O.P. could predispose children to, is
Glaucoma and on the rare occasion that his mom got him to an eye doctor,
they'd check his eye pressure and so far, it was normal.

Through it all though, Justin was a sweet boy and was always nice and kind
when he was over at our house.  We just hoped that his mom's crap wouldn't
rub off on him in the way where he would start doing what she did.  I just
hoped that we could have some good influence over him in the end.

"Sorry you had to hear that," my mom said once we were at the table with
glasses of chocolate milk in front of us.  It had been my idea and she
seemed to be enjoying it.  "Yes, my little sister strikes again.  Damn, I
just wish this was Days of Our Lives I was watching and that it was Sami
that I could be watching rather than this crap!"

She took a drink then set her glass down on the table a little harder than
usual.

"It's bad isn't it?" I asked.

"She called me a few minutes before you got home today," my mom began.
"She wants to go to one of the casinos on the other side of Sangger and of
course it's a place where they have alcohol and we know what that means.
So she asked if I'd take Justin for the weekend and of course we have
things, or I should say that she doesn't have the compassion to think that
we might have things going on this weekend.  Anyway, she asks if I can take
him in a way that is more like she's assuming that I'll take him.  I asked
her if Justin had anything going on this weekend and she said that he's
upset since she told him today when he got home from school, that she won't
be taking him to get a Christmas tree like she said they would a couple of
days ago.  Apparently, a couple of friends asked her to go with them when
they called her today and she just couldn't say no.  Of course she told me
to hold on a couple of times when I was on the phone with her so she could
tell Justin to shut up, because he was crying in the background."

"This is really messed up," I said and wanted to say another word so badly.

"I know what you're wanting to say," she said and smiled for a moment.  "I
agree with you and so when I talk to your father tonight after he gets home
from his surgery he has to do on his last patient, I'll ask him about what
more we can do for Justin.  I hate seeing what my sister is doing to him
and I'm really worried that he'll start making bad choices later in life if
we don't get help for him and unless we can get her to change just like
that and we can't do that, then he's going to have to be put in a different
living situation."

"I hope we can do something for him," I said.  "I really do."

"So do I," she replied.

I went off to start my homework and to try to put this situation out of my
mind for the moment.

0000

Justin sat on his bed trying to stop crying.  This had been the second
outing that his mom changed her mind on at the last minute.  The first one
was only a couple of days ago when he wanted to go trick-or-treating and
because she went to the bar at a little after 5:00 in the evening that
night and no one could take him, he had to stay at the house by himself
until she got home and by the time she arrived home at midnight, she gave
Justin a cheese burger from Burger King that she picked up on the way home,
then she went to her room and passed out.

There were other times where she would cancel trips and it was finally
getting to be too much for him.  As he sat on his bed, his mom came in and
slapped him across the face.

"You better fucking stop that shit, or I'll give you something to cry
about!" she screamed.  "I don't have all the time in the world to be
holding your fucking hand all the time, you little spoiled Bastard!"

"I just wanted'''," Justin tried to say.

"Shut up!" she yelled and slapped him, this time bloodying his lip and
splitting it open.  "I'm going out for a couple of hours and I'll be back
later.  Your Aunt Maria will be here tomorrow when you get home from school
to take you for the weekend and I don't want to fucking hear any more about
it!  I already called for a pizza so you'll have your fucking dinner for
tonight!"

She turned and left the room, finished getting ready then left the house
leaving Justin on his own like usual.

0000

Caleb

Once dinner was finished up, I went to my room to finish homework and that
left my parents alone since Alicia was going to her own room to do
homework.  I figured they'd be talking about how to change things for
Justin and I knew that they had deep concern for his welfare and I hoped
that there was something, anything that they could do for him.

0000

Justin's mom came home that night drunk and raging.  The guy at the bar she
was with decided that he needed to leave early and he said that he didn't
drink much the way she was doing.  She couldn't believe that.  She figured
that if he didn't want to drink with her, she'd just go home and drink
alone and if little Justin didn't like it, then fuck him.

She slammed the door and went to Justin's room.  It was a little before
7:00 P.M. that night and Justin was sitting in his room watching TV.  She
had left to go to the bar a little before 5:00 P.M. that night and the guy
who fucked her over left a little after 6:00 P.M. and she continued
drinking after he left.  At this point though, she couldn't keep it
straight in her head now if it was morning or night and she was getting
closer to thinking that it was morning.

"Get up Justin," she said.  "It's time to get ready for school.

"No it's not," he said confused and afraid.  "It's almost 8:00 in the
evening."

"Get up now!" she screamed.  "Don't fucking give me any of your bullshit!"

Hoping to keep her happy, he got dressed and walked with her to the front
door.  As they walked, she fell over the step on to the porch and he tried
to help her up.  She sat up on her knees and tried to keep her balance.
While she was doing that, he left to go back to his room.

Once back in his room, he got undressed and in to bed.  While he watched
TV, he heard his mom a few minutes later screaming at someone on the phone.
He figured that it was some guy she met in a bar.  It seemed like she was
always meeting guys in bars and some would stay with her for only a week,
then leave.  He didn't like any of them and he especially didn't like how
they would always give him looks like he didn't belong there.

Eventually, Justin fell asleep while his mom continued to scream in to the
phone.  He hoped that things would eventually get better.

0000

At a little after 3:00 in the morning, the phone at Caleb's house rang.
Maria was the first to pick it up.  They had an extension in the bedroom
and she was able to know even while barely awake if it was her cell phone
or the house phone.  No one ever called at 3:00 in the morning unless it
was her cell and especially if it was an emergency.  With mounting fear,
especially given her conversation with Margie the afternoon before, she
suspected that it would be something bad.

"Hello?" she said now even more awake.

"Maria?" a severely drunken voice at the other end of the phone said.
"It's your sister."

"What is it Margie?" Maria said trying not to be angry.  "Is it Justin?  Is
he alright?"

"Fuck him!" Margie screamed in to the phone.  "Fuck that Bastard.  I just
called you to say how much of a fuck up my life has been!  I hate our
fucking parents, I hate my life and most of all, I hate you, you prissy
stuck up little Bitch!"

"Margie, just get some sleep," Maria said trying to calm down the
situation.

"Just tell that husband of yours as well as those fagot kids of yours that
I said goodbye!" Margie shouted.

"Margie!" Maria said now getting scared.  "Margie!  Answer me!  Are you
there!"

Maria was yelling in to a dead phone which she slammed down for the second
time.  Bill was sitting up in bed and watching her and he looked worried.

"Bill," she said turning to him.  "We need to get over to Margie's house!
The last thing she said was to tell you and the kids that she said goodbye.
Bill, I think she's trying to kill herself!"

"Oh my god!" he said and got out of bed at the same time she did.  "Fuck,
what else can that crazy Bitch do!  I hope Justin isn't harmed!"

0000

After waking the kids, Bill and Maria told them what might be going on and
made sure that they'd keep an eye on things and wait for them to come home.
Alicia said she'd stay up while Kevin and Caleb slept.  Once she agreed to
this, they said goodbye and left.  Once in the driveway of Margie's house,
they got out and went up to the door.

Locating the extra key under the welcome mat, Maria unlocked the door and
they both went inside.  Once the lights were on, they looked in the kitchen
and living room.  Once finding that Margie wasn't there, they went and
found her in her bedroom.  Bill looked down at her and he saw that her face
was turning blue.

"Maria!" he said as he ran to the bed.  "Go and find Justin while I help
your sister!  I don't think she's breathing!"

Maria ran to Justin's room where he was asleep and she knew at that moment
that his life would never be the same.

Justin felt himself being shaken and he wanted to stay asleep.  He moved
away from the hand that was gently, but firmly shaking him.

"No," he moaned.  "Go away mom.  Let me sleep."

"Justin," Maria said a little louder.  "I need to get you up.  You really
need to wake up."

Something in the voice alerted him and he was waking up faster and he
turned on his side to face whoever it was.  He opened his eyes and saw his
Aunt Maria standing over him.

"Aunt Maria?" he asked.  "Why are you here?"

"Justin your mom is sick and we're getting an ambulance here for her now,"
his Aunt Maria said.  "I need you to come with me.  Your Uncle Bill is with
me and he's helping your mom.  Let's go to the car and I'll keep you warm.
Okay?"

"Can I see my mom?" he asked.

"Not right now," she said as she walked with him to the kitchen and out the
door.  "She really is sick and it's best you don't see her right now."

Once in the car, they heard the ambulance speeding down the street and
stopping at the beginning of the driveway.  As the paramedics got out and
ran up to the door, Maria held Justin in her arms in such a way so that he
could rest against her, but so that his head was placed on her chest in
such a way as to keep him from seeing them bring out his mother's body.

Once the ambulance left, Bill got in the car and they sped away and drove
faster than he usually did down the road and through the cold and dark
night.

Once back at the house, it was nearing 5:00 in the morning and Justin woke
up as the car stopped.  They got him out and in to the house and in to a
bed in one of the guest rooms.  When they saw that he was asleep, they left
and Maria called the hospital to let them know that she wouldn't be in to
work that day given what just happened.

Caleb

Once I got up that Friday morning and got dressed after showering, I went
in to the kitchen where my mom was sitting and placing food on the table.
I walked up and hugged and kissed her.

"How did it go?" I asked.

"It's really bad Caleb," she said close to tears.  "Please don't say
anything to Justin when you see him, because he doesn't actually know what
happened yet.  I had to tell him just that she was very sick."

"Mom?" I asked.  "What is it?"

"She wasn't breathing when we found her," she said and now she was crying.
"Your dad had to give her C.P.R. and even then she couldn't breathe on her
own.  We don't even know how long she was without oxygen.  Your dad thinks
though that since he saw her face starting to turn blue, maybe that she
wasn't without oxygen for long, but it's really hard to say.  The
paramedics had to use a bag and mask on her, but Justin didn't see any of
that while we waited in the car since I held him against me and his head
was down in the direction of the floor so that's all he could see.  They
kept ventilating her while they carried her out of the house and to the
ambulance."

"You think she won't make it don't you?" I asked beginning to cry myself.

"I don't know," she said as she held me.  "Bill did say that there was
vomit beside her head when we found her, and it looked like she threw up
whatever she took."

"Whatever she took?" I asked as I dried my eyes.

"When she called me this morning, she said that I needed to tell your dad
and you guys that she said goodbye," she said.  "We think she tried to kill
herself."

"Oh man," I said feeling sick.  "So Justin slept through it all?"

"It looks that way," she said.  "I'm staying here with him today and we're
going to have to decide what to do.  Assuming that they can save her and
she doesn't have any brain damage, she'll have to get help.  Unless she
does that, nothing will change, but whatever happens in the long run,
Justin won't be going back home this Sunday.  We might be keeping him here
with us for a long time.  It's just hard to say.  I want him to have his
mom in his life, but not like this.  I can't keep watching her do this crap
to him."

"I agree," I said as I finished my food.  "If you want me to stay here with
you to help out, I can do that," I suggested.  "I won't tell Nathan the
whole story, but just enough so that he understands."

"I'm sure it'll be alright if you go over to Nathan's this weekend," she
responded.  "There's not much you can do and what needs to be done is for
your dad and I to do."

"Okay," I said.  "Just let me know what I can do if there's anything that I
can do."

"I will," she said and hugged me.

Once at school that day, I told Nathan just enough, but left out the parts
about Aunt Margie trying to kill herself.  I just said that because of her
getting out of control the night before, my parents had to come and get
Justin from her house this morning.  He said that he hoped that something
could be done for him and we continued on with our classes for the day.

Kevin

Once I finished the class before lunch that day, I put my books in my
locker and as I closed it I saw Sarah walking towards me.  Over the past
couple of days, she kept asking more and more about me dating her.  I knew
that she wouldn't stop and I was worried that I'd have to out myself to her
just so she'd stop.  I didn't want my outing myself to her to cause
problems for Cody, but I wasn't completely sure what to do at that point.
She stopped walking once she got up to where I was standing and smiled.

"You look good this morning," she said.

"Thanks," I said as I turned to face her.

"So have you thought any more about dating me?" she asked.

"Look," I said trying to keep my cool.  "I'm not looking for anyone right
now.  Unlike some of the sexed-up guys around here, I'm actually trying to
use this experience of being here at school to hopefully learn something
that'll help me with what I want to do when I become an adult."

"Well, I guess you've shown me what you think of me!" she yelled.  "Oh, and
I see the way you and that blond boy look at one another."

"She had met Cody a couple of times and she didn't act very nice to him.
She'd say hi to him when he was with me, but she'd mostly ignore him and
focus on me.

"What does that even mean!" I said as I began to lose my cool.

"I mean," she began and stepped closer to me.  "That you and him look at
one another like a couple does who are in love.  Is that what it is?  Are
you two, just a couple of fags!"

I then looked to see Andrew her boyfriend walk up beside her.  He was a
jock and he always enjoyed bullying other kids regardless of age and size.

"How about it pretty boy," he said to me.  "You a fag and is Cody your fuck
doll?"

"You both can go to Hell," I said and turned.  I felt the hand settle on my
shoulder and it pressed down hard.  I turned and grabbed Andrew's wrist and
squeezed hard.  He gave a yell of pain and I flung his hand away.

"Keep your fucking hands off me," I said.  "You already have Andrew, so
that should be enough."

The slap came without warning and I put my face in my hands and held it
there for a moment, then looked up at Sarah.  I stepped closer to her and
put my face inches from hers.

"Keep your fucking hands off me as well, Bitch!" I said and stepped away
and turned, then ran towards the exit.  Suddenly, I saw Cody coming up to
where we were.  I grabbed his hand and told him to walk with me quickly.

Once out in the rain, we ran to the restaurant and quickly ran in and sat
down.

"What happened back there?" he asked breathlessly.

He had caught the last part of our argument and I told him as we ran that
I'd let him know once we got to the restaurant.  So I told him what
transpired.

"Do you think they'll try to hurt us?" he asked and took my hand and held
it tightly.

"I hope not," I replied.  "I'm not taking any chances though."

I had him take a picture of the marks on my face from where Sarah slapped
me a few minutes before.  I hoped that it would serve as evidence.

Once we finished lunch, we went back to school and for the rest of the day,
no one bothered me and they also left Cody alone as well.

Caleb

After school that day, I decided to make a stop at home before Nathan and I
got together at his house that afternoon.  We talked about it while we had
lunch and he agreed that he'd go to his house and I'd stop at mine, then go
from there over to his house.  So I walked through the door to my house and
closed, then locked the door.  I heard my mom and Justin at the kitchen
table.  She was helping him with the last of his homework and it seemed
like it was a Math assignment.

"Okay, so 9+9 =," my mom said and waited for the answer, but me being the
smart ass I could be cut in.

"9,999," I yelled out as I came up to the table.

"Caleb," she said looking up at me.  "Don't confuse him."

She was laughing and I smiled.

"Yeah," Justin said.  "That answer will work."

"I don't think so," she said smiling and turning back to him as she
laughed.

He gave her the correct answer, then they packed up his books and put them
back in his bookbag.

"So to try this again," I said walking over to where Justin was sitting.
"It's good to see you."

I held out my arms and we shared a hug.  He was small and a bit chubby, but
luckily he wasn't out of shape which was what we worried about, given all
the fast food and other fried garbage his mom would give him.

He sat back down and finished his snack which was a cookie and some milk
before going to his room.

Once in his room, I sat with my mom for a moment.

"How did it go here today?" I asked.

She explained that she got him to school on time and she let the teacher
know where he'd be for the weekend and probably longer.  She then got
reports from the doctors about Margie and they said that she was able to be
saved, but she was in a coma right now.  They thought it would be
reversible, but it was mainly because of the fact of her brain needing to
rest.

"Does he still not know that she tried to kill herself?" I asked softly so
that Justin couldn't accidently over-hear.

"I just told him that she got really sick from all the drinking she's been
doing and that she had to go to the hospital to get better," my mom
replied.  "I also let him know that he'd be staying here for the weekend
and for a couple of days after that so she could go to a place where they
could help her get off drinking all together."

"But it's more serious than that isn't it?" I asked.

"Definitely," my mom answered.  "It's true that physically, she's sick from
all the drinking.  The doctor told me that her liver is thick in some areas
with scar tissue.  He also thinks that she might have some brain damage
based on some of the brain scans they took.  My point is, that even if she
didn't actually try to kill herself, that she's not going to be able to
keep this up much longer."

"This is horrible," I said and reached out.  We hugged and held it for what
seemed like forever, then we separated and I went to check on Justin before
leaving for Nathan's house.

I knocked on the door to Justin's new room and he said to come in.  I
opened the door and he let me know that he was lying on the bed just
resting.  I walked over and sat on the edge of the bed and reached out and
found his hand.  I then reached down for a hug.  We held on for a long
time, then he let go.  I sat back up and he turned to face me.

"You guys have a nice house," he said.  "I always have liked it here."

"I'm glad you feel that way," I answered.

"So you're going over to your friend's house tonight?" he asked.

"Actually for the whole weekend," I replied.  "I'll be back on Sunday
probably in the late afternoon."

"Well, I hope you have a nice time there," he responded.

"Thanks," I answered.  "I'm sure I will."

We hugged once more, then I left to go to Nathan's house.

Author's Notes

I know that that was a deep and dark chapter, but this goes on and it's
high time our society began to deal with it and to deal with it honestly.

So everyone have a good evening, and I'll see everyone in Chapter 15