What Happened to Baby Cameron?
by: E Walk
(© 2009 by the Author)
 

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

Chapter 10

The Calls

We had just finished eating when the call came.  Cam went to answer the phone, “The is Cameron Rodgers, how may I help you? … Oh, hi Uncle Wayne. … Yep the two Dads are just finishing dinner.  … I’ll put my Dad on.”

Cam handed the phone to Hank, “Hi Wayne, what’s up? … Oh no! What happened? … They’re going to do an autopsy tomorrow? … Of course, it’s okay. … Let me know when you want it and I’ll make the arrangements. … Do you want one of us to come and drive back with you? … Call us tomorrow after you know something.”

After Hank hung up the phone, Cam asked, “Daddy, Uncle Justin died didn’t he?  Uncle Wayne sounded as if he was crying.”

Hank nodded, “Yes, he passed out and never came to.  They’re going to do an autopsy to find out why he died.”

Randy had a funny look, “Dad Hank, what’s an autopsy?”

Hank looked at me as if looking for help.  I answered, “Randy, it's like when you go to the doctor if you don’t feel good, and he checks to see what is making you not feel good.  The doctors are going to do the same to see if they can find out why Justin died.”

Cam shook his head, “Why do they need to know why Uncle Justin died?  Do they do one of them things on everyone when they die?”

Hank arched eyebrows, “Cam, Randy and Ricky, they do autopsies when a person hasn’t been sick and dies all of a sudden.  The doctors will look to see if he was poisoned or whether his heart just stopped working.”

Cam jumped on the word poisoned, “Dad, do they think Uncle Justin was poisoned?”

Hank sidetracked the discussion, “Guys, let’s wait until Wayne calls and then we can talk more about this.  We need to make arrangements for a memorial service for Justin.  Wayne would like to have it on Friday, since Saturday is New Year’s Day.  He wants to have it while some of you guys are still home.”

Cam asked, “Dad, what’s a mem.. whatever service?”

Hank was searching for an answer, “It’s like a funeral except that it is a more like a church service, and they talk about the person who died.”

Cam asked another question, “How’s Uncle Wayne going to get Uncle Justin’s body back here, if he’s in one of those big box things?”

Cam was asking some good, but hard to answer questions.  “Wayne is going to have Justin’s body cremated which means that he will have only the ashes from the body.  He wants to spread them over the hills here on the ranch.”

Ricky had tears in his eyes, “Do you mean that they’re going to put Mr. Justin in the fireplace to make him turn into ashes?”

Ellie stopped the discussion, “I need some people to help me take care of the cleanup.  Why don’t you three youngest ones take the dishes to the kitchen, and the college students can take care of the dishes?”

Cam, Randy, and Ricky started to take the dishes to the kitchen and Denise, Tim, Jacob and Gisele went to take care of the dishes.

As the boys were finishing, Hank suggested, “Guys, why don’t we make sure that everything you received to wear, fits, so we know if we have to exchange anything.”

Hank stood, “Randy, go get an empty laundry basket from the laundry room.  Cam, go get a pair of scissors out of the drawer in the kitchen under the phone.”

Ricky had a funny look on his face, “Dad, you’re not going to cut our clothes are you?”

Hank laughed, “No, Son.  If something fits, we’ll take the tags off of the item and put it in the laundry basket to be washed.”

Ricky shook his head. “Dads, you’re not going to put our cowboy boots in the wash machine are you?”

 

Hank chuckled, “No, but we do need to waterproof them.   We’ll take care of that, tomorrow.”

The three boys were trying on the clothes they received.  Hank was checking to make sure everything fit, and I was removing the tags. 

Ellie had handed me an indelible marking pen.  “Put an identifying letter somewhere on the items where they can‘t be seen.  Put an A on Randy’s clothes, a C on Cam’s and an I on Ricky’s.  That way it will be easier to sort them and make it easier for the boys to put them away.  The boys are going to need more storage space for all these clothes.  I’ll get some iron-on labels this week, so we can keep track of what belongs to whom, especially Cam and Ricky since they wear the same size.”

Randy and Ricky were walking around in their cowboy boots; Ricky commented, “These feel funny.  It almost seems as if I'm falling forward.  Why do we need cowboy boots, anyway?”

Cam answered, “You’ll see why when we get your saddle adjusted tomorrow.  You’ll get used to them and will probably wear them all the time like Freddie and Chase do.  My Daddy wears them most of the time, too.  That’s probably why Dad Michaels calls him Cowboy.”

I chuckled, “And, by the way, you three young men need to go brush you teeth and get into bed.  You’ve had a busy day.  We’re going to be up, shortly.”

Cam hugged us, “We know that you just want to get rid of us, so you can sit here and cuddle.”

After the boys had gone up the stairs, I looked at Hank, “The conversation brought some questions to my mind.  What are we going to do about the bodies of Ricky and Randy’s parents?”

Hank hugged me, “Stevie, it has already been taken care of.  After what we had to put Randy through when he had to identify their remains, I decided to try to spare the boys anymore grief.  I arranged for  their bodies to be cremated and the remains to be interred at Memorial Park.  I’ll have a marker placed on the gravesite when the authorities can determine their real identities.”

I leaned up and kissed Hank, “I should have known that you would have already taken care of it.  I think you need to be punished for not telling me what you had done, sooner.”

“Okay, let’s go get the punishment over with.  You know how much I dislike having to wait for something to happen.”

Hank and I stopped in to check on the boys and all three of them were cuddled in a mass.  They were already breathing quietly.  We decided to not even kiss them goodnight since they were already asleep, and we didn’t want to disturb them.

I began to torture Hank as soon as we had shut the door to the bedroom.  I pushed him to the bed and slowly removed his clothes, making sure that I touched all the sensitive spots on his body that I knew about.  By the time he was naked, he was fully aroused.  I moved so it appeared that I was going to take his aroused member in my mouth.  I was within a inch of the prize when I stood and started toward the door.  “I’m going to go spend the night at the house on the hill.”

Hank was out of the bed and spread eagled with his back against the door, “Your not going anywhere until you finish what you started.  Now get undressed, and get in that bed, and I mean immediately.”

I wasn’t going to make this easy for Hank, “Yes, master.  I understand, master.”

I stood in front of the mirror and very slowly took off my clothes.  I was down to my briefs, and I turned so I was facing Hank as I started to push my briefs down and I stopped, “I think I’ll sleep with my briefs on.”

Hank pulled me onto the bed, “Either you take them off immediately, or I’m going to go get a razor and cut them off.  You know how nervous I get when I’m around a certain part of your body.  My hand will probably slip and cut your where it would hurt most.”

I laughed and slipped my briefs off.  After we had made a mess, we took a shower and put on some clean briefs, in case someone should come calling.  It’s a good thing we did. 

The first person was not someone whom we would have suspected to stop in.  Kevin came in after he had knocked and was given permission to enter.  “Dads, Mom Wright would like to talk to you about the weddings.”

I was confused, “Kevin, why would she want to talk to us?  We’re not planning them.”

“Dads, Cindy and I tried to tell the Wrights that you had nothing to do with what was happening, but Mrs. Wright has some concerns.  Please call her.  Dads, Chase and Freddie would like to talk to you.  They’re downstairs.”

Hank scowled, “Well, tell them to come on up.”

Kevin smirked, “Dads, the guys have never seen your suite.  Are you sure they’re ready to see this vulgar display of opulence?”

Hank jumped up, “Kev, what did you mean by that comment.”

“Dad Hank, relax.  Think about it.  The entire apartment where the guys are now living could fit inside this suite.  I’ll go get the guys.”

Kevin returned with the guys.  Hank and I were setting on the sofa and Hank invited the guys in and asked.  “Is there a problem, guys?”

Freddie and Chase were looking around and Chase asked, “Why would you ever want to leave this room?  It’s huge and has everything you need.”

Hank scowled, “You guys didn’t come here to talk about our opulent bedroom as Kevin described it.”

Freddie sighed, “Not exactly, we’re concerned about what’s going to happen to us, now that our mentor, Justin, is gone.  He and Wayne have been like another set of fathers to us.  Is Wayne still going to be living here, or what?  Are we still going to be moving to the apartment at the Summers’ spread?”

Hank nodded, “Guys, you’ve asked some good questions.  In answer to your first concern, you are now the head honchos of the operations department.  Freddie, since you majored in accounting and finance, you can take over the business manager function, now that Ross has retired.  Chase, you will take over the day to day operations of the ranches.  You should see if you can find some other strong backed buckaroos to help you.  Of course, that would necessitate a significant increase in your remuneration in turns of money.”

Chase started to laugh, “I always wondered what the two of you did up here.  Now I know; you’re turning into lexicographers.”

That caused everyone to laugh.

Hank continued, “I don’t know what Wayne might want to do.  We’ll wait until he gets here to find out the answer to that question.”

“I guess the big question is;  do you want to find the cowboys to assist you, or do want me to find them?”

Freddie had a sheepish grin, “Since I assume that you would not have an objection to having another gay couple on the ranches, I think I might know just the people who could help us.  I’ll call them tomorrow and see if they are interested.”

Hank grinned, “Guys, it’s getting late.  Tomorrow is going to be another busy day.  We’ll talk to you in the morning.  You had better be ready to adjust Ricky and Randy’s saddles, or Cam will have your butts.”

Chase laughed, “That’s okay, we’ll have them so busy that they won’t bother you.”

After the two guys had departed, I hugged Hank.  “I was just remembering when we met those two young men.  I remember Freddie delivering the pizzas to the house on the hill during our first Christmas together and how Chase showed up here at the ranch.”

Hank laughed, “They’ve developed into very handsome young men.  Justin was telling me the other day how hard they worked and never complained.  He said it was as if they communicated with each other without talking.  We’re lucky we have them here, now that Justin has left us, otherwise you and I might be mucking stalls.”

I was just about asleep when the door burst open and Cam entered, “Dads, call Uncle Chris at the house on the hill.  Something bad is happening there.”

Hank bolted up, “Cam, why do you think that?”

Cam started to cry, “Daddy, please call Uncle Chris and make sure he’s okay.  I had this funny dream that there were other people in the house who we don’t know.”

I went and got the phone and dialed; a groggy Chris answered, “This is Chris Farway.”

“Chris, this is Steve.  Cam is in our bedroom crying, because he’s sure that  something bad is happening at the house on the hill.  He says that there are some people there whom we don’t know.  Please check the house carefully.  Remember, we found Ramsey there unexpectedly, so please be careful.  Call us after you finish checking the house.”

Cam was sitting on the bed shaking, “Dads, I know there’s someone in the house.  Shouldn’t we go to make sure that Uncle Chris isn’t hurt?”

It was approximately ten minutes later when the phone rang and Cam jumped to answer it, “Uncle Chris, did you find someone? … Okay, me and my Dads will be there as soon as we get dressed and break all the speed limits.  Bye.”

Cam turned to us, “Dads, get dressed.  Uncle Chris has two dangerous people trapped at the house on the hill.  We gotta go help him.  I’ll be back as soon as I’m dressed.”

Cam was gone before we could challenge him.  He was back before Hank and I had finished getting dressed.  “Come on Dads, we gotta go.”

Hank held up his hand, “Cam, shouldn’t you stay here and take care of Ricky and Randy.  What are they going to think if they wake up and you’re gone?”

“Dads, someone is still up, downstairs.  We’ll tell whoever it is that they need to take care of Ricky and Randy.  Now come on.”

Tad and Ramsey were downstairs talking.  Well sort of talking.  They were lying beside each other on the floor in front of the fireplace, but there was nothing sexual about the scene.  Cam went to them, “Me and the Dads have to go to the house on the hill to help Uncle Chris.  He’s captured two dangerous criminals in the house on the hill and we gotta go help him.  You need to make sure that Ricky and Randy are okay since everyone else in bed.”

Cam practically pulled Hank and me to the Hummer, “Come on, Dads.  We need to go to help Uncle Chris.  When we arrived at the Interstate highway, Cam was standing with his arms over our seats, “Dad, can’t you make this thing go any faster?”

Hank pulled over to the side of the road, “Cameron, we’re not going another inch until you get your butt  into your seatbelt.”

Cam sat down and buckled himself in, “Okay, Dad, I’m buckled in.  Now put the pedal to the metal.”

When we entered the house on the hill, Cam ran to the intercom system and pushed the all-call button, “Uncle Chris, help has arrived.  Where are you?”

 

Chris answered, “I’m in the basement.  I have the two culprits under my control.” 

Cam responded, “We’re on our way.”

As we were going down the steps, I was concerned as to what we might find.  I thought to myself, ‘Please don’t let anyone get hurt.  How was Chris able to subdue two people without any help?’    

To be continued...

Editor's Notes: Well, I can guess, but then, I'm really good at predicting these things.  Seriously, I guess he must have taken the two culprits by surprise.

Cam has had dreams before, I do believe.  It's a good thing that the adults are willing to trust him when he tells them things. 

I  wonder if the culprits are some of the people that were trying to kill the people that lived in the house that burned down. 

I guess we will just have to wait for the next chapter.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 10/23/09