Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:40:42 -0500 (EST)
From: Bwstories8@aol.com
Subject: The Castaway Hotel: Next Generation, chapter 22

The Castaway Hotel: Next Generation - by BW
Copyright 2011 by billwstories
Chapter 22 -- A Major Surprise.

"Hi, Brandon.  Thank you for calling me back so quickly,"
Mark greeted him.

"No problem.  We missed you last weekend," Brandon told
him.

"I know I was telling Dad that I hated not being with
everyone, but unfortunately it couldn't be helped this
time," Mark explained.  "More importantly though, I
wanted to talk to you regarding the account I set up for
your son."

"Right, that's what Dad said.  What's going on?" Brandon
wanted to know.

"Well, after I talked to Danny, when we first set this up, he
asked me to make this a straight trust," Mark informed
him.  "He explained he wanted it to be the same as I did
when I started managing all of the boys' accounts."

"Right!  We wanted to set up an account like Dad did for
all of the others," Brandon confirmed.  "The lawyer in
charge of Elliot's father's estate was supposed to sell off
the house and other things, and then talk to you about
how to go about wiring the money into the account you
set up."

"That's what he did," Mark acknowledged.  "In fact, I
spoke to Mr. Courtney just yesterday.  During that call, he
acknowledged that everything had been taken care of on
his end and confirmed the money was sitting in an escrow
account, merely waiting for the wire transfer to happen.  I
had everything ready on my end, so I gave him the
account numbers he needed and the bank called my office
this morning to confirm that the wire transfer had gone
through without any problems."

"Great.  That's one less thing we have to worry about
then," Brandon confessed.  "I know Danny's been a little
concerned about how long the lawyers might take to wrap
things up and I know Elliot will be glad to hear it's all been
taken care of.  I guess you'll be sending us whatever
paperwork we need to sign then.  Right?"

"Well, there's a little more to it than that," Mark told him.
"I guess I should have asked more questions when I spoke
with Danny the first time, because we can't just dump this
much money into a savings account or certificates of
deposit like we did for everyone else.  It would be a foolish
move, because your son will end up losing a ton of money
in interest.  Had I known how to plan for this, I could have
set up some investments and made other arrangements."

"I'm not sure I understand," Brandon admitted.  "I know it
was a nice house, but it couldn't have sold for much more
than three hundred grand.  The cars and other possessions
would have added a little more to the amount, once they
were auctioned off, but I doubt that would have come to
more than another couple hundred grand.  I know that's a
lot of money, but it shouldn't be a problem for a financial
wiz like you."

"Brandon, when the bank called this morning they
confirmed a transfer well into the seven figure range,"
Mark advised him.  "I don't want to give specifics out over
the phone, but I will send you the paperwork, so you can
see the amount for yourself."

The line stayed quiet for quite a few seconds, as Brandon
tried to wrap his mind around the number Mark had just
hinted at.  In fact, Mark was beginning to think they'd
been disconnected.

"Brandon, are you still there?" Mark asked, hoping for a
response.

"Yeah, sorry," Brandon apologized.  "Are you certain there
hasn't been some kind of mistake, like a transposed
decimal?"

"Yes.  I had the bank double and even triple check the
information," Mark confirmed.  "Since then a few boxes of
files have arrived at my office that the attorney sent over.
I've got records here for financial transactions, stocks,
bonds, a hedge fund, some property in Pittsburgh and even
a few additional investment accounts.  My assistant is still
going through all of these records, but no matter what she
finds, it still adds up to a lot of money.  You mean you
guys didn't know about this?"

"The attorney never mentioned anything about a dollar
amount," Brandon replied.  "He just said it would be a
substantial amount.  He never indicated it would be that
large of a sum.  I guess he must have assumed we already
had some idea about what Mr. Kennedy was worth or that
Elliot had said something to us about it.  Unfortunately,
Elliot isn't much for talking about his former life, but I
would have thought he'd have mentioned that his father
was a millionaire.  All he told us was that his dad worked
for a bank.  We met some of his father's colleagues at the
funeral, but we never really had a chance to speak with
any of them, other than in passing.  It would explain why
they never mentioned anything either."

Brandon's mind was still reeling, thinking about the figure
Mark had hinted at.

"From what I can tell from the files I've looked at," Mark
continued, "Mr. Kennedy worked for Penn Capital
Partners.  That's an investment bank out of Pittsburgh.
He was not only a millionaire, he was one several times
over."

Brandon's head was really spinning now.

"Listen," Mark continued, "I've got a lot of work to do
here to make sense out of all of these files, but I wanted to
let you guys know I'm working on a new strategy, now
that I know how much money we're dealing with.  Once I
have everything set up, I'll have a bunch of paperwork
that you guys will need to sign."

Brandon finished his call with Mark by confirming their
full faith and trust in him to handle this account on
Elliot's behalf and would see him at Christmas.  Still
somewhat dumbstruck, Brandon called Danny and shared
Mark's revelation with him.  Not surprisingly, Danny was
also at a loss for words.  Once he regained his composure,
they decided they would need to have a conversation with
Elliot this evening.  They mainly wanted to discover if
there might be any other little surprises that were still
waiting to reveal themselves.

Even though Brandon tried to keep his focus on his
patients, he often found his mind running over the last
several weeks to see if he'd missed anything.  Elliot had
never mentioned that his father had such a sizeable nest
egg and they'd never thought to ask.  Yes, Elliot's home in
Fox Chapel had been very nice, well tended and in a very
lovely and upscale community, but it wasn't huge or
overly elegant.  It was merely a comfortable home, which
you might find in any of the upper middle class suburban
neighborhoods just outside one of the major metropolitan
areas.

Brandon also remembered helping Elliot pack his things
when they went back to his old house and had notice that
most of Elliot's clothes bore high-end labels.  That might
have been his first clue, if he'd been paying attention.
He'd even seen the tuition bill for the Benjamin Rush
Academy and noticed how expensive it was, so that should
have been a second red flag.  Maybe he should have
expected this.

Yes, Elliot could also be a little haughty at times, but he
seemed to be aware of this minor flaw and tried hard to
curb it, as much as possible.  Danny and Brandon had
merely chalked up that particular trait to his being an
only child.  They figured his father had probably spoiled
him to some extent, but he certainly wasn't a brat.  This
led Brandon to start questioning if Elliot even had a clue
about what his father had left him.  If he did, he hadn't
hinted that his father's death would require them to deal
with this amount of money.

For the most part, it had been a fairly typical day for the
rest of us.  After Mark called, I went back to my coffee and
took some time to read.  Before I knew it, the boys were
storming through the door and heading off to their room
to change, after they finished saying hello to me and
grabbed a snack.  Jesse explained he had a considerable
amount of homework to do, so he wanted to get an early
start on cracking open the books.  Elliot didn't have as
much homework, so he offered to help me keep an eye on
Joshie while I started dinner.  He was trying to teach
Joshie how to play 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' on his
piano when Brandon arrived home and found me in the
kitchen.

It was my turn to be shocked, when Brandon shared the
contents of Mark's call with me.  I was as surprised as
Danny and he had been.  Once I got over the initial shock,
we sat down and had a cup of coffee while we waited for
Danny.  Once he got home, the two of them talked for a
few minutes and then called their son to join them in
their room for a little family chat.

When he walked into the bedroom with them and looked
at their faces, Elliot thought he might be in trouble.  His
first concern was that they'd learned what Jesse and he
had been up to.  He had no idea what he was going to say
to them about it, if this was truly what the meeting was
about, so he opted to play dumb.

"Hi, uh... what's going on?" he asked, tentatively.

"Elliot, we were just wondering if you could tell us what
kind of work your father did before he died," Brandon
began, getting right to the point.

"Oh, he worked for a bank," he answered, a little relieved.

"You mean like Chase or Bank of America or something?"
Danny asked next.

"No, it's called Penn Capital Partners," Elliot replied.  "It's
not like a regular bank, with saving and checking accounts
or stuff like that.  It has something to do with businesses
and investments."

"Do you know what your father did for them?" Brandon
continued.

"Yeah, he was a vice president," Elliot answered.  "He
tried to explain to me what he did once, but it was really
complicated.  All I know is, he spent a lot of time traveling
around Europe, where he met with boring financial people.
That's why he put me at the Rush Academy.  He got a
promotion about six months ago and it meant he'd be
traveling a lot more.  He didn't want to leave me home
alone, so he put me in boarding school.  Why?  What is
this all about?"

Danny and Brandon exchanged looks, before answering
Elliot's question.  They were beginning to realize that
Elliot really didn't have any idea how much his father had
been worth or what he'd inherited.

"Elliot, do you remember me telling you back at your
house that once your old home was sold and all the
paperwork was done, I'd have Uncle Mark open an account
for you?" Danny asked.  "We were going to have him
invest that money for you, so you could use it for college
or to get started in life."

"Yeah, I was pretty upset back then," Elliot answered, "but
I do remember you telling me that."

"Well, Brandon got a call at work today," Danny explained,
"and Uncle Mark told him it's all been taken care of.  Your
father's estate has been settled and all of the money has
been put in a trust for you."

"Oh, cool," Elliot agreed, and then he got up to leave.
"Can I go now?  I told Joshie I'd be right back, so I could
finish teaching him that song."

"Just a little longer," Brandon answered.

"Elliot, did your dad ever talk to you about money or what
to expect, should anything ever happen to him?" Brandon
continued.

"Well, one time, right after 9/11 he did.  What happened
that day really scared me, so I asked him what would
happen to me, if something happened to him.  I knew I
didn't have a mom or any family, so I was kind of scared.
He just told me not to worry about it, because he'd made
sure I would be taken care of, but we never really
discussed it after that," Elliot stated.

Elliot started thinking back to the night when he'd asked
his father about what would happen if he died.  His dad
was tucking him in at the time and looked surprised that
Elliot had asked him that question.

"Elliot, we found out today that your father left you a very
large sum of money, in the millions," Danny advised him.
"We don't know the exact amount, because your Uncle
Mark didn't want to give those details out over the phone.
He will be sending us the documentation however, and will
give us the exact amount then.  I take it that you didn't
know how much was actually there."

"HOLY SHIT!" Elliot exclaimed.  "Err, sorry about that.  I
meant holy crap.  I had no idea that my dad had that kind
of money."

"That's probably because it wasn't sitting in a bank or
savings account," Danny informed him.  "It was tied up in
a bunch of different type of investments.  Some of it was
also tied up in some property, but that has all been sold
and the money is sitting in your account now.  He
certainly took very good care of your financial future, so
you shouldn't have to worry about a thing."

"I had no idea he had so much," Elliot confirmed.

Danny and Brandon were both smiling now.

"We didn't think you knew," Brandon confirmed.  "I've
been thinking about this all day and I couldn't recall any
time where you had mentioned such a large sum of
money."

"No, I hadn't, but what happens now?" Elliot wondered.
"Can I get a new tennis racket?"

Danny and Brandon shared a laugh.

"We'll talk about a new racket when the snow melts,"
Danny offered.  "In the meantime, nothing really changes.
That money is for college and for you to get a head start
with your life after school.  It will just be a bigger head
start than we originally planned.  Uncle Mark is going to
come up with some investment ideas and see if he can't
make that money work for you a little, while it's sitting
there waiting for you to grow up."

"So that means no Ferrari when I turn sixteen?" Elliot
whined.

Brandon chuckled and then reached out to tousle Elliot's
hair.

"Nice try, sport, but I think the best thing to do is to keep
this quiet," Brandon suggested.  "You won't have direct
access to this money anyway, so you shouldn't go showing
off and telling others.  Besides, you don't want people
trying to suck up to you just because they're hoping to get
something out of you.  Do you?"

"No, I don't want that and I understand," Elliot concurred.
"Remember my friend Thomas?  You met him at my old
school.  Anyway, his family is loaded and some kids were
only nice to him because of that."

"Well, just keep this to yourself then," Danny advised him.
"If you do, you'll have nothing to worry about.  Right?"

"Right, mum's the word," Elliot agreed.

Just then, I called the family together for dinner.  Once
we were seated, I noticed Danny, Brandon and Elliot all
looked much more relaxed after their chat.  We all enjoyed
a pleasant dinner and then the boys went off to do their
homework.

Once we were alone at the table, Danny and Brandon
shared the details of their chat with me and I think they'd
handled things very well.  I believe we all went to bed that
night thinking of the opportunities this money would
provide for Elliot's future.  That's a lot of money for a
young person to deal with and it will be our job to make
sure he's ready for the responsibility when the time
comes.  Fortunately, Elliot's father raised a boy with a
good head on his shoulders, and all the Ferrari jokes aside,
I think Elliot will be an excellent steward of his father's
legacy, once he is old enough.

Now that Thanksgiving weekend was officially behind us,
we immediately began to gear up for the next major
holiday, Christmas.  As is usual with having so many
children, this means there is a considerable amount of
shopping that will need to be done.  In addition to that
task, this year I also wanted to spend some of my time
making Christmas cookies with Jesse, Elliot and Joshie's
help.  This would allow me the opportunity to help them
gain a few cooking skills, while giving all of us some extra
treats to enjoy, even though my waistline doesn't really
need it.

We had a great time in the kitchen and the boys
frequently ended up covered in flour or their faces were
smeared with excess icing.  No matter how much of the
ingredients wound up on them, they had a good laugh and
did a great job.  We made several different types of cookies
and the boys were eager to sample them, both before they
went in and after they came out of the oven.  It appeared
that they were enjoying baking the cookies, as well as
spending time working with each other, despite the
differences in their ages.

They also helped me decorate the interior of the house,
while their fathers and Jake worked to put up the lights
and other decorations outdoors.  Since some of us have
allergies, we put up an artificial tree and Joshie, Elliot and
Jesse helped me trim it, once I had strung the lights.
They each dug through the boxes of decorations, which
included handmade ornaments either they or their uncles
had made over the years, and selected the ones they
wanted to see on the tree.  I made suggestions as to where
they should put each item though, so they were spaced
out on the tree and not all clumped in one spot, and then I
helped Elliot place the angel on the top.  Jesse was
actually the one who suggested that Elliot should be
allowed to do it this year, and I immediately agreed.  I
think Elliot was thrilled when we gave him this honor.

I also wanted to make certain that Elliot's first Christmas
with us would be a memorable one.  After all, it was clear
this kid should be entitled to enjoy a decent Christmas;
especially after all of the crap he's had to deal with.  With
that in mind, I sat down with Jake, Danny and Brandon,
so we could discuss what we were going to do for him and
what gifts we were going to buy.  I didn't feel it would be
good for us to make it appear as if he was getting more
than anyone else, but I thought it would be wise to make
sure the things he got were items that would have a
special meaning for him.

As we entered December, it was time for us to keep
another obligation we had made.  We'd promised Kevin
and Vinnie that we would help them move.  After Kevin
rented a truck, Jake and I, along with some of the other
boys, helped Kevin load his bedroom set and other items,
so Vinnie and he could take them to their new place.
Before we got to their apartment though, we also stopped
by the Shays house, since they had told the boys that they
had a few extra pieces of furniture they wanted to donate
to them.  After loading those items in with the other
things, we dropped it off at their new home and then they
showed us around.

It was a first floor apartment, which made it easier on
Vinnie, and it was quite nice.  It had two bedrooms, so
they'd have one for visitors.  After seeing their guest
room, I told them they could also have the bedroom set
we'd just taken out of Elliot's room, if they wanted it.
Once they agreed, we drove back to the house to pick it up
and move it over as well.

Once we had everything in its place, we returned the truck
and I told Kevin and Vinnie that I'd meet them the
following day, after they got out of work.  At that time, I'd
take them to the furniture store, so they could choose
some of the other items they were lacking.  I was happy to
offer my help to do this, and they seemed pleased that I
was willing to do it for them.

The following afternoon, I drove over to meet them, so we
could go together to the store.  After they picked out a
dining room set, some end tables and a recliner, I told
them I'd split the cost of it with them.  I explained they
could consider it as part housewarming gift and part
Christmas present.  They thanked me for doing this and
then they arranged to have everything delivered.  Once all
of these items were in their new home, they'd be able to
enjoy their newfound privacy in semi-comfort.

Now that I'd done this for them, I went back to preparing
for Christmas.  Actually, other than the decorating and
shopping, this Christmas season was fairly mild for us, at
least when compared to what we had experienced in the
past.  Since Jesse didn't play an instrument and wasn't in
the chorus, there were no commitments of that nature to
attend with him.  Elliot, on the other hand, was a different
story.

Once the music department discovered how well Elliot
played the piano, they recruited him to play with the
orchestra and asked him to accompany the chorus when
they performed at the holiday concert.  After seeking
permission to do this from Danny and Brandon, Elliot
enthusiastically agreed.

This meant we would have two concerts to attend this
year.  We'd go down to listen to Elliot play with the
orchestra and chorus, but we'd also be attending Joshie's
first concert.  He would be performing with his class, when
the kindergarten through fourth grades performed at the
elementary school concert.

Joshie's concert was held first and Dion and Trey made
sure he was dressed up for this big event.  When he came
out to join us, he was wearing slacks, a dress shirt, vest
and bowtie.  He looked positively adorable.  As soon as we
got to the school, Dion and Trey took him down and
dropped him off at his classroom, while the rest of us went
to find seats.

We quickly found a spot fairly close to the front of the
auditorium and shortly thereafter Dion and Trey returned
to join us.  Then Joshie's mother and other grandparents
showed up and sat behind us.  True to his word, Dion had
been keeping them involved in Joshie's life and had
informed them about the concert, so they could see Joshie
perform too.  We had a fairly substantial wait until the
concert began, so we sat and chatted with each other,
until the principal stepped out on the stage to greet us.

The kindergarteners were up first and Joshie was on the
top row, just right of center.  His class sang two songs, 'Up
On the Rooftop' and 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.'
They were absolutely precious and received tremendous
applause after each number.  In between the two songs,
Joshie tried to coyly wave at us, once he located where we
were sitting.  He had a huge grin plastered across his face
and I could tell he was enjoying this as much as we were.

We then sat and listened as grades one through four each
did their two numbers and it was a cute and pleasant
outing.  Once it was over, Dion and Trey went down to get
Joshie from his classroom and they took Joshie's mother
and other grandparents with them, so they could spend
some time with Joshie before we left.  After Dion and Trey
returned from retrieving Joshie from his classroom, they
met up with us again, back at the car.  Now, we began our
return trip home.

"Was I good, Papa?" Joshie asked, once he was inside.

"You were fantastic," I agreed.

Then he asked similar questions of Jake, Jesse and Elliot.
He had obviously done the same to his fathers, mother
and other grandparents when they came to fetch him from
his classroom.  We thought it was adorable that he was so
concerned about how he had performed.

A few days later, it was Elliot's turn to shine.  Everyone
came with us again and once we arrived at the school,
Elliot had to go off to meet up with those he'd be
performing with.  The rest of us went in and tried to find a
good spot to watch him from.  We located seats on the left
side of the auditorium, fairly close to the front; since
that's the side the piano was located on.  After we got
comfortable, we had about a twenty-minute wait until the
concert began.

The orchestra was up first and Elliot came out and took
his place at the piano.

"Hi, Elliot," Joshie yelled out, when he saw him.

Elliot merely turned his head in our direction, smiled and
gave Joshie a shy little wave.  It was enough to make
Joshie happy though.

I could tell Elliot was slightly chagrinned that he had to
play an upright piano here, instead of something as nice
as the baby grand he had at home, but he didn't let it
affect his performance.  The orchestra played four
numbers, two traditional pieces and two holiday
selections, and they were actually pretty good.  We didn't
hear a lot of squeaking strings, as you typically hear from
novices, and there were very few sour notes.  I may be
bias, but I thought Elliot did a terrific job.  Once they
finished playing, the members of the orchestra stood up
and took a bow, to the heartfelt applause from those who
had listened to them play.

The band came out next, but Elliot wasn't part of this
group.  They also played very well, but I was eagerly
waiting for Elliot to return, along with the chorus.  When
the band finished playing their final tune, they bowed and
received their applause, and then they exited the stage.
As soon as they were gone, the chorus filed out to stand
on the risers, which were slightly behind where the band
and orchestra had been seated.

Once the chorus was in place, Elliot took his seat at the
piano again and then received his cue to begin playing.
The chorus also performed four selections and I thought
Elliot played brilliantly.  When they finished and had
taken their bow, the high school vocal music instructor
acknowledged Elliot and had him stand, so she could
recognize his talent.  She also thanked him for his help
and mentioned that he was the only instrumentalist to
have performed with more than one group.  She also gave
him a very nice compliment.

"Elliot did a wonderful job playing tonight, even though he
still has a cast on his right wrist," she stated.  "This
means that next year he'll probably blow us all away."

He received a wonderful round of applause after she said
this and the teacher encouraged him to take another bow.
Even though Elliot seemed slightly uncomfortable about
being singled out like this, I knew he would be inwardly
pleased by the recognition.  I thought it was very nice that
the choral director had done this for him.

Now that the concerts were out of the way, we began to
look ahead to the big day.  I made sure I spent a little
extra time with Elliot in the interim, so I could find out
more about his likes and tastes.  I wanted to make certain
the gifts we got him were ones he would truly enjoy and
would make him the happiest he's been since his father's
death.

As the big day drew near, we were all looking forward to
spending time with family.  The house was going to be full
again, and for us, that's what makes the holiday so special
and enjoyable.  I was convinced this Christmas was going
to be a truly wonderful and magical time.