The Fremont Saga
by: E Walk
(© 2009 by the Author)
 

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Chapter 9 

You’re Hallucinating

Derek had stepped forward and offered that he and Lauren would do the dishes.  Timmy added, “Me and Tanner will help.”

Dad and Mother took me to the den and Dad asked, “Son, I don’t suppose you would like to explain why Morgan asked if we were going skiing over Christmas vacation?”

I felt my face getting warm, “Morgan and I were doing the dishes this morning and we were talking about Vicky and Morgan wanted to know what Vicky, Maria and Ingrid looked like.  I suggested that perhaps she could meet them and decide for herself when we went skiing at our ski lodge over the Christmas holidays.  I told her I had this friend that I would check with to see if we could use it, and that I needed to clear it through you.”

“Timmy was talking to me this morning and wanted to know if Ron was going to England and France with us on the trip next weekend, and Grandpa Nappy sent us a message saying that Ron shouldn’t go with us on this trip, but that the ski trip would be fine.”

It was dead silent.  Dad, finally spoke, “Brian, I’m beginning to worry that you’re hallucinating and hearing voices.”

“But Dad, both Timmy and I heard what Grandpa Nappy said.  It was the same when he told us that Tanner was one of us.”

I heard a voice, “Beau and Becca, I can talk to the boys, they can’t talk to me but I can hear their thoughts.  Let Brian handle the problems.  The trip to Switzerland has been arranged as has the trip for next weekend.  Trust your sons.  Believe me, they’re not hallucinating.”

Dad looked at me, “Brian, did you hear that?”

Mother started to cry, “Brian, I apologize for us doubting you. but it is going to take some getting use to us having five sons who are wizards.”

There was a knock on the door.  I went to answer and Tanner was standing there, “Brian, a Mr. Archie would like to talk to you.”

“Thanks Tanner, I’ll take it in here.”

I picked up the phone, “Good evening sir, you’re up late aren’t you?”

I had put the phone on speaker, “Brian, there is no night or day when we work for the likes of you.  I just called to see what kind of accommodations you would be needing when you come skiing over the Christmas holidays?”

I asked, “Since I have not been to the ski lodge, what options are open to us?”

Will came on, “We were thinking that two dorm like rooms would do for the guys and gals.  They each accommodate eight people and then we though we'd put your parents in a private room.  We need to know if you want to have the owner’s suite.  We have the accommodations reserved for your party from December 27^th  thru January 2^nd.”

“Guys, put my parents in the owner’s suite.  Me and Timmy will live with the rest of the guys.  I’ll have to let you know how many people will be coming, later.  My parents and I were just discussing this problem.  Are we going to be seeing you next weekend?”

Archie answered, “We’re going to be available whenever you say.  We’ll meet you at the chateau in France whenever you want us there.”

When we arrived in the family room, Timmy was playing Chinese checkers with Tanner, Ron, Derek, Lauren and Morgan.  I went to get an easel and my paints and started to do a painting.  Timmy won the first game and Derek challenged, “I think you were cheating and telling the dice what you needed.”

Timmy shook his head, “Nu uh, the good fairy was watching out for me to make sure that you big people didn’t cheat.”

The painting was going to be a good one.  I centered it around Timmy and he had his lower legs in the air.  Ron won the second game and everyone decided they had had enough.  Derek suggested, “Why don’t we go get some pizza?”

Tanner shook his head no, “Derek, I don’t have any money.”

Timmy cut him off, “Yes, you do.  Remember, we got paid for doing the yards.  I’ll go get it, so Brian can give you your share.”

I looked at the people, “I’m going to stay here with Timmy.  I have some things I need to do.”

Timmy returned with the money that the Leavitts and Dad had given us for mowing the lawns. Timmy looked at the money he had, “Here, Tanner, you get $15.00 dollars, Brian gets $15.00 dollars and I get $10.00 because I didn’t work as hard as you two big guys.  Besides, I don’t need any money.”

Timmy wasn’t done, “Brian, I don’t want to do anything else today.  I just want to stay here where I feel safe.”

Morgan got a sly grin on her face, “Timmy, if you don’t need the money, you can give it to me.”

Timmy shook his head no, “I’m going to take it to church and put it in the plate so the poor people can eat.  We have lots to eat but not everyone is so lucky.”

I heard a voice, “Timmy is even more special than I thought.”

I thought a message, “Did Timmy hear what you said?”

“No, that was for your ears only.”

Morgan finally conned Dad out of a $10.00 advance on her allowance to go with people to get pizza not realizing or caring that they would rather she not go.  Timmy and I took a shower and we started to work on the computer.  I checked all of the messages and sent some to the appropriate people explaining what our plans were.  I was relieved when Timmy finally decided he was bored and got off my lap.  He was lying on the bed reading a book.

I shut down the computer and started to work on the paintings I had started, while the images were still in my little brain.  Sometime while I was working, Timmy had fallen asleep and I hadn’t realized it.  I had just finished the picture of the Chinese checker game when Tanner came in.  He was very quiet since I guessed he assumed that the littlest Benson boy would be asleep.

When he came out of the shower, Tanner had a towel wrapped around his waist and I noticed that he had a hickey on his neck.  I whispered, “I take it you and Ron had some fun.”

Tanner looked at me, “Brian, it’s your fault.  If you hadn’t had us pose for The First Kiss painting, I would never have dreamed that I would like Ron.  He really is a nice guy.”

“Tanner, I know that Ron is a nice guy.  I’m not trying to play match maker.  I thought it would be a good idea for the two of you to get together and see what it would be like to get to know someone who had similar interests as you do.  But please don’t take the ultimate step until you’re absolutely sure that you love him.”

Tanner put out his hands as if he didn‘t understand, “Brian, I don’t understand what you mean by the ultimate step?”

I was spared from having to answer, “What Brian was saying is that you and Ron not penetrate each other rectally until you are sure that you love each other and are of age.”

Tanner looked at me, “Brian, did you send me that message?”

I shook my head no, “That was Grandpa Nappy.  Let’s go to bed and I’ll explain tomorrow.  We’ll wake Timmy if we continue to talk.”

Timmy woke us up raring to go running, I had him go see if Derek wanted to go with us.  When Timmy returned he was giggling, “Mr. Derek, really had to go to the bathroom bad.  He had really big tent in in his briefs.  He’s going to go with us.”

When we were running, I started to give Derek a hard time, “Timmy said that you had a really big tent in your briefs this morning when he woke you up.”

Derek laughed, “I guess all you Benson guys are fixated on the male anatomy.”

“Derek, you don’t know the half of it.”

Derek stopped running, “Brian, what did you mean by that?”

“Oh, nothing.”

As we were walking back to the house, Timmy was walking with Derek, “Mr. Derek.”

Derek stopped Timmy, “Timmy, please just call me Derek.  I’m not that much older than you are.”

“Okay, Derek do you know how to ski?”

“Yes, I love to ski.”

Timmy asked, “Is it hard to learn to ski?”

Derek grinned, “Timmy, the first time I went skiing I spent more time on the ground than I did standing up.  You have to practice to get good.”

Timmy put me on the spot, “Brian, is Derek going to go skiing with us when we go at Christmas time?”

Derek asked before I could answer, “Where are you going to go skiing?”

Timmy looked at me, “We’re going to Swissland, right, Brian?”

“That’s close, Timmy.  We’re going to Switzerland.”

Derek shook his head as if to clear the cobwebs, “I’ve never been skiing in Switzerland.  My parents and I go to Colorado near Brian’s nude dude ranch.”

Timmy had a funny look on his face, “Brian, do you have nude dude ranch?  What is a nude dude ranch, anyway?”

Derek was chuckling, “Let’s see you answer that, Brian.”

“Timmy, the Morrison’s, who are good friends of Dad and Mother, own a ranch in Colorado where people go for a vacation.  There is a place on the ranch where some of us went skinny dipping which means, we went swimming without any clothes.  Derek is upset because he wasn’t invited.  That’s where Derek and Lauren became friends.  His family was there at  the same time we were this past summer.”

When we went into the kitchen, no one was there and it looked as if no one had been, because the coffee hadn’t been started.  “Guys, I’ll start breakfast while you go shower.”

It wasn’t long before Tanner returned, “Brian, we need to talk.  Timmy just showed Derek the paintings that you did of Ron and me.  Please tell Timmy not to show them to anyone else.”

“Why, what did Derek say?”

Tanner frowned, “It’s not what he said about the picture.  He looked at me and smirked, ‘Ah, that explains the hickey.’  I’m so embarrassed.”

“Tanner, I’m sure Derek will not say anything to embarrass you. Take the parents their coffee and make sure the girls are up.”

As we were eating breakfast, I looked at my parents, “Dad and Mother, Timmy and Tanner asked me some questions when we were coming home from Grandmother’s last night.  Timmy wanted to know how old Grandmother was?”

Mother answered, “She’ll be 93 on Wednesday.”

“I told the guys that I was sure she was in her nineties, and Tanner wanted to know why she is living alone if she’s that old?”

Dad answered, “Guys, Grandmother is a very proud person.  Tanner, she is Becca’s Grandmother.  It has only been in the last three months that she has started to deteriorate.  We’ve tried to get her to let us get someone to live with her, but she has steadfastly refused.  We’re going to have to do something, though.”

Mother added, “That’s why I won’t be going to Europe with you guys next weekend.  I think I need to stay here to make sure she’s okay.”

Morgan spoke, “Why do the guys get to go to Europe and Lauren and me don’t?”

Dad shook his finger at Morgan, “Young lady, you'd better watch what you say, or you won’t be going skiing at Christmas time either.”

Morgan muttered, “You just like the boys better than us.”

Dad stood, “Morgan, one more word, and you’ll find yourself grounded for a very long time.”

The rest of breakfast was extremely quiet.  While Tanner and I were getting dressed for church, he asked, “Is Morgan always so self centered or is it me?”

“Tanner, she has had a difficult time adjusting to the fact that she’s no longer the baby of the family.  She just turned thirteen and I’m sure that has something to do with her behavior.”

When Tanner and I went downstairs, Timmy met us, “Grandmother just called and wants us to pick her up for church.”

I looked at Dad, and he nodded, “She specifically asked that you guys pick her up.  Tanner, take the van. It’s easier for her to get into than the car.”

When we arrived at Grandmother’s condo, she must have been watching, because she was coming down the sidewalk before Timmy and I could get out of the van.”

I had her get in the back, so she was sitting beside Timmy.  Timmy talked to her the entire way to the church.  We were ushered to our seat by Uncle Chip, and Grandmother made sure she was seated between Timmy and Tanner.  I was sitting next to Timmy.  I heard him ask, “Grandmother, how do I make sure that this money helps the poor people who don’t have any food?”

Grandmother showed Timmy which envelope to use and showed him how to write how much money he was giving to the food pantry and where to write his name.  I think she was amazed when he wrote his name, Timmy Benson, so neatly in cursive.

She took out her checkbook and talked to Tanner.  He shook his head no, and she handed me her checkbook, “Brian, make out a check for $100.00 and designate that the funds are to be used for the food pantry.”

I did as she asked and she signed the check and put in an envelope as Timmy had done.  I figured, what the heck, and put my $15.00 in an envelope for the food pantry as well.  I heard Grandmother ask, “Timmy, who gave you the ten dollars?”

He ginned, “Brian, Tanner and me mowed and trimmed two lawns yesterday, and we got paid for doing it.  I don’t need anything, so I decided to make it so poor people could have some food.”

Timmy was a model child during the service and helped Grandmother when she needed help.  As we were leaving, Father Wanamaker looked at Grandmother, “Grandmother Gleason, you’re looking well, I see you have some handsome young men with you.”

Father Wanamaker turned to me, “Brian, if you have time, could you come talk to me sometime this week?”

“Yes, sir, I’ll find the time to come talk to you.”

Dad and Mother were waiting for us when we got to the parking lot, Dad gave directions,  “We’re going to go to the club for lunch, Brian direct Tanner as to how to get there.”

When we walked into the club, everyone else was seated waiting. Mother asked, “Grandmother, would you like to go through the buffet or would you like to order from the menu.”

Grandmother looked at Timmy, “Which would you like to do, Timmy?”

“Why don’t we go through the line?  It will be faster and everyone can get however much they want.  The big guys need a lot of food.”

Tanner helped Grandmother through the line first while I helped Timmy.  Once we had them seated, he and I went back for our food.  Tanner commented, “This certainly looks a lot better than the food we had Friday night.”

After lunch, we took Grandmother to her condo and made sure she was comfortable, and reminded her that we would pick her up at five o’clock.  Timmy treated her as if he was a mother hen.

When we arrived at the house, I stopped to talk to Dad and Mother, “Dad and Mother, Grandmother seemed extremely alert today.  She had me fill out a check for her for $100.00 for the food pantry.  I noticed that she also put a regular envelope in the offering plate as well.   Can she afford to give away money like that?  I thought maybe I shouldn’t have done it.”

Dad hugged me, “Your Grandmother Gleason can afford to write a lot of checks like that.  Usually she has your Mother write the checks for her.  What caused her to decide to give $100.00 to the pantry fund, not that it really matters?”

“I think that when she saw that Timmy was putting in his $10.00 from mowing yesterday, she decided to do something, as well.  I even felt compelled to put the $15.00 that I had with me in the fund.”

Dad started to laugh, “You guys sound like your Uncle Spencer.  He always used to do the same thing.  In fact, he was responsible for getting the food pantry started.”

To be continued...

Editor's Note: I do believe that we have come to the end of another chapter. 

I had sort of hoped that Morgan had softened a bit, since she had been pretty nice to Brian for a while there, but, I think she is slipping back into her bad habits again.  I think that Beau is getting a bit upset at her selfish attitude. Let's hope that she can somehow be the recipient of an attitude adjustment, before she finds herself in some sort of trouble. She needs to learn that you can catch more flies with honey than she can with vinegar. Although, I can't really think why anyone would want to catch flies. 

I am sure the next chapter will be just as interesting as this one was.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 02/05/10