Benji in Control
by: E Walk
(© 2009-2010 by the Author)
 

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

Chapter 38  

The Games Begin

Burnsey finally released me.  He was really excited, “I gotta go tell the guys that I’m gonna get to go to school with the them.”

He was running from the room, not paying attention to where he was going, and ran into Cole who grabbed him, “Watch where you’re going, kid.  You could hurt me.  What’s your hurry?”

“Ask Dr. C.  He’ll tell you the good news.  I gotta go tell the guys.”

Cole sat down beside me.  I hugged him.  “Great game, my man.

Cole lay back against my shoulder, “We almost blew it.  On the play where we scored the winning touchdown, Coach Lewis had called a running play.  When I saw that the opposing team was lined up anticipating a running play, I called an audible and caught the other team off guard.”

“When I went back to the bench, Coach Lewis started to berate me for not following his instructions until Mr. Block and the assistant coaches pushed him away.  As I was driving home, I came to the realization that the Coach never seemed to have his head in the game, today.  It was if his mind was elsewhere.”

“As I was getting dressed to come home, he came up to me and apologized.  Not only that, he asked that I meet him at his lawyer’s office, tomorrow morning at nine o’clock.”

I hugged Cole, “Did he say why?”

“Nope.  I guess it’s going to be a short night.  What was Burnsey so excited about?”

When I told Cole about the conversation with Ms Bradford, he frowned, “Why would that woman have such a change of heart?  After the way she had been acting? there is something scary about all this.  I’m pleased for Burnsey’s sake, but something doesn’t seem right.”

“Cole, people do the strangest things.  Let’s face it, Ms Bradford’s primary interest is her career.  We can try to bring a little ray of hope to Burnsey’s life while he’s living with us.  I hope that Coach Lewis won’t try to interfere when he finds out that Burnsey is living with us.”

Needless to say, it was a short night.  The boys were up ready to go to school by six thirty.  Since I had to enroll Burnsey, I decided to take them all to school.  It was not easy, getting Burnsey enrolled without any paperwork.  I was finally able to get him enrolled and made my way to the college.  Someone was parked in my parking space when I arrived, and I had to park four blocks away from my office.

When I walked in, Karen and Alex were on the phone.  After they had hung up,  I attacked, “Okay, who’s parked in my parking space?  I’ll be so tired that I won’t be able to teach my classes today.”

Alex chuckled, “Well, it ain’t me.  Alexis and I rode with Uncle Walt this morning.  I think you know Ms Carpenter’s car, so I guess it isn’t her.  Do you want me to call and get the car towed or what?”

“That’s okay, it probably belongs to some poor starving college student who can’t read.  I’ll write a note, asking the person to come talk to me and threaten them within an inch of their life.  Alex, you can take it and put it on the windshield.”

After Alex departed with the note, I was sitting in my office when Lisa entered.  “Doug, we need to have you teach a third class.  People are still enrolling in classes.”

“Lisa, why haven’t they enrolled before now?  We can’t take everyone who wants to take classes.”

“”Doug, you’re the person who said we had to accept anyone who applied who lived in the Harwood area.   Everyone except Clark is going to be teaching at least three classes.  We figured that he would be so busy with the new construction that there was no way he can handle more than two.  Here are your class lists so far, and this is the class syllabus for the class that you’ll be teaching starting at 10:30, tomorrow.”

Lisa departed without giving me a chance to say anything.  I walked into the office, “I’ll be back after my eleven o’clock class.  I won’t have time for a lunch, since I have another class at one.  Karen, I hope that Clark is around to cover for me.”

Karen nodded, “His classes are both scheduled first thing in the morning.  He must be at the construction site.  I expected him back by now.”

When I walked into my class, there were twenty two students waiting.  I thought to myself, ’Why are there twenty two students taking this class?  It’s not the easiest class we’re offering.’

Class went fine and I merely introduced myself as Doug Christiansen.  Since the students hadn’t had a chance to prepare, I released them early and went to stop to talk to Austin and Derek.  They were so busy enrolling people that I didn’t bother them.

When I walked into my office, a young lady, who was in my eleven o’clock class was sitting there.  I looked at her, “Miss Bailey, did you come to complain about having me as your instructor?”

“No sir.  I had this note on my windshield saying that the President wanted to talk to me.”

I looked at Karen and Alex. “I believe that the President is on his way.  He was talking to someone the last I heard him.  Why don’t you show Miss Bailey into his majesty’s office?”

Alex almost lost it, but he escorted the young woman to my office.  When he returned, he started to laugh, “Dr. Christiansen, you’re absolutely evil.  Miss Bailey is going to need to go home and change clothes.”

I went in and left the door open so Alex and Karen could hear the conversation, “Good morning, Miss Bailey, why did you decide that it was okay for you to park in my parking space, today?”

Miss Bailey didn’t bat an eye brow,  “First off, why didn’t you identify yourself as the President when you bored us to death?  The reason I parked in your slot was that I had been driving around for almost fifteen minutes trying to find a place to park.  I didn’t want to be late for my first class.  I figured that if you weren’t here by eight forty five on the first day of classes, then you wouldn’t be coming to school today.”

“Miss Bailey, the reason I wasn’t here by eight, was that I was enrolling a young man in elementary school.”

“Why didn’t you have a sign posted saying that you would be arriving later?  I’ll go move the stupid car if that will make you happy.”

“That’s okay.  I need to get ready for my next class.  I’ll see you Wednesday and try not to park in my space again, please.”

When I walked into my one o’clock, Alex and Miss Bailey were talking.  When Miss Bailey saw me, she moaned, “I’m doomed.  I might as well quit college, now.”

I could tell that this was going to be my favorite class.  When I arrived back at the office after class, Karen handed me a package.  “Dr. C., these faxes arrived for you.  There are some things that you need to sign and send back so the documents can be filed.  I have my notary with me so I can notarize your signature.  Clark is in his office so he can act as the witness.”

I looked at the cover letter, “Dr. Christiansen, I think that this would be everything that you would need to be the guardian and person responsible for Ray Jr. should something happen to me.  Under no circumstances are Ray or his bitch to be able to get their hands on the funds that will be at Ray, Jr.’s disposal, if something should happen to me.   I never want Ray’s bitch to have anything to do with Ray, Jr.  She’s nothing but a money hungry wench.  She has probably been in bed with most of the interested men in Atlanta, by now.  Please have Ray, Jr. call me tonight, since I’m leaving tomorrow.  I want to hear about his first day of school.  Gwen.”

When I was on my way home, I was thinking, ‘What caused the lady to have such a change of heart?  I don’t think the Military School closing is the sole thing driving what’s happening.  I can hardly wait to tell Cole what’s going on.”

When I arrived at Summerhill, the six young guys came to meet me.  They all started to talk at the same time.  “Guys, slow down; everyone will have a chance to tell me about their day, at dinner.  I need to go change, and you need to get ready for dinner and see if there is anything that you can do to help Patty.”

As we started to eat, I pointed to Mikey, “Mikey, since you’re the youngest, why don’t you start?”

I had made sure that the boys were not in the same classroom, especially the twins, because I didn’t want them to be competing with each other.  The youngest three were really hyped up.  Benji had just started to tell about his day when the garage door opened.  Everyone stopped eating, thinking the worst was happening, since we weren't expecting anyone.

Everyone was watching the door to see who would be coming in.  Cole appeared at the door.  “How come you didn’t wait to for me to eat?  I suppose you gluttons have eaten all the food and I’ll have to starve.”

Benji grinned, “Gee, Mr. Weaver, we don’t have any record of your reservation.  You didn’t make one until you got back from San Diego this weekend.  Pull up a chair and park your body.  I’ll go see what we can find for you to eat.”

There was lots of food, and Cole ate as if he was starved, even though the food wasn’t exactly hot anymore.  Benji was just finishing telling us about his day when the phone rang.  I decided that I would answer, since it was probably for me.  “This is Doug Christiansen.”

“Doug, it’s Gwen Bradford.  I was notified an hour ago that our flight had been moved up tonight.  May I speak to Ray, Jr..?”

“Burnsey, it’s for you.”

He took the phone, “This is R. B.”

“Hi Mom.  The people at school started to laugh when I said my name was Burnsey.  So I decided on using my initials. … Mom, you don’t know how great it is to be a normal kid. … No one made us march to classes, and we didn’t have to practice marching for an hour in the hot sun. … No, we didn’t even have to run the obstacle course and run for five miles. … We had P.E. and the teacher asked us to see if we could run for a mile.  I took off and the teacher was running beside me.  Everyone else had quit and sat down and was resting.  Even the P.E. teacher finally quit and I was the only person who was able to do it. … Mom, you don’t know how great it was to be able to talk to my friends while we were eating and not have to eat a square meal without looking at the food.”

“Mom, we didn’t even have to listen to someone talking about the wars and how brave men needed to act. … Our spelling words this week are all words that start with ‘am’ instead of words like adjutant, quartermaster and other military words.  Do you know how to spell ambivalence? … Mom, you’re wrong.  That’s the way I spelled it on the pretest.  The e sounds like it should be an a. …. Yep, we had to look up the words and write sentences to show we understood what the words meant. … Mom, school is really great.  No one yelled at us and made us do push ups or sit ups if they didn’t like what we did. … Okay, here’s Dr. C.   Have a safe trip.”

Burnsey, or I guess we were to call him R. B. handed me the phone, “Mom, wants to talk to you.”

“This is Doug.”

“Doug, I had no idea what was happening at that military school.  It sounds as if Ray, Jr. is excited by going to school in Harwood.  Thanks for returning the documents so promptly.  My lawyer already has the copies and will be taking care of any legal work that needs to be done.  Please keep Ray, Jr. away from his father and that wife of his, as best you can.  I need to go.  My ride to the airport is here.  I’ll call the first chance I get.”

I looked at the phone as it went dead. 

Since we had heard R. B.’s description of his day, I turned to Rocky and he gave his report.  The boys started to clear the table and I looked at Cole, “Is something wrong?”  Why are you here?”

Cole shook his head, “Doug, I’m totally confused by what’s happening.  Why don’t you tell me what’s going on with Burnsey or R. B.?  Perhaps, that will help explain why I’m here.”

I showed Cole a copy of the paperwork I had signed and he shook his head in disbelief, “This gets more preposterous as we go.  I have some more papers that you need to sign and have notarized that I received from Coach Lewis and his lawyer, this morning.  I think it would be good if you call Uncle Howie and ask him to come over to look at all these papers.  There’s something that we haven’t been told.”

I called Uncle Howie and he and Mr. Nixon arrived approximately twenty minutes later.  I handed Uncle Howie both sets of paperwork, and as he was reading them, I was telling Mr. Nixon about the sudden surge in enrollment.  He laughed, “Dad must be out there doing a soft shoe routine.  This had been his dream for the last ten years.”

Uncle Howie finished reading the two sets of papers. “Doug, I don’t know all of the particulars, but it is obvious to me that these sets of paperwork are aimed at preventing the current Mrs. Lewis from sinking her claws into this Raymond, Jr. person and getting access to any funds that he might have.  What do you know about the young man’s financial state?”

“Uncle Howie, R. B.’s financial status has been the least of our worries.  The young man has no love for either of his parents and certainly not his Dad’s new wife.  He threatened to take his life and or even worse disappear if they tried to take him away.  It’s been a couple of long hard weeks for me.  He’s happy here and we need to make sure that he stays that way.”

Mr. Nixon asked, “Doug and Cole, you aren’t ignoring the problems that the young man could bring to you’re your son’s and Rocky, are you?”

Cole answered, “Mr. Nixon, you need to meet the young man to know that he would not intentionally do anything to hurt any of us.  I don’t understand what’s happening, but the one person in all this mess that I’m wary of is the current Mrs. Lewis.  While I have never met the lady, it is obvious that R. B.'s parents have very little respect for the woman and R. B. absolutely detests her.”

The young guys arrived and changed the direction of the conversation.  Benji took charge, “Uncle Howie and Mr. Nixon, I'd like to introduce our newest brother, R. B. Lewis.”

Burnsey was very proper and shook Uncle Howie’s and Mr. Nixon’s hand, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sirs.”

Benji grinned, “Dads, we’re going to get ready for bed.  We’re kinda of tired, since you made us get up so early this morning.”

I took exception, “It wasn’t me who woke everyone.  It was you guys.  You can ride the bus in the morning, and I’m going to sleep until noon.”

Benji hugged me, “I’ll believe that when I see it.  Goodnight, everyone.”

Uncle Howie suggested that I sign the paperwork that Cole had brought home for me to sign, since there was no financial liability involved.  After Uncle Howie and Mr. Nixon had departed, Cole and I made two extra copies of the documents.  When we finished, I asked, “Cole, my love, when do you plan to go back to Atlanta?”

Cole grinned, “I figured that we might just as well take advantage of my presence here and have a good time.  I’ll leave at six in the the morning.”

I hugged him, “You’re determined to wear me out.  Maybe I’ll sleep all day.”

“Yeah, right.  I can’t see the guys letting that happen.” 

To be continued...

Editor's Notes: Things certainly are jumping, aren't they?

I wonder if Burnsey's birth parents are actually in agreement over the fact that this new wife of Burnsey's father is somewhat less than trustworthy, and is, in fact, after Burnsey's money. 

It seems that greed knows no bounds, even when it comes to trying to deprive a child his rightful inheritance.  Let's just hope that people are doing what is needed to protect Burnsey and anything that he is entitled to.

I can hardly wait for the next chapter.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 10/01/10