Pinochle
by: E Walk
(© 2007 by the Author)
Editor: Will B
 

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Chapter 80
Talk About Innocence

This is Brian.

The morning came much too soon.  I must have slept through the alarm because Timmy was shaking me.  “Brian, are you okay!”

I started to get up and I realized I had a dilemma that I would rather Timmy not see.  Too late.  He looked at me and pointed to my penis. “Brian, are you going to make that white stuff come out of your thing?  It's so big this morning.”

I figured the damage was already done so I sat up and decided  to have a lesson in the anatomy of the male reproductive system.  “Timmy, the thing is called a penis.  Mine is big this morning because I have an erection which means I have to go to the bathroom really bad.”

Timmy followed me into the bathroom and he was watching as I pulled  down the front of my briefs, “Brian, how are you going to make your pee go down the drain when your penis is standing straight up?”

It wasn’t easy but I finally was able to relieve my bladder and thankfully the erection disappeared.  Timmy was watching my every move as I was getting dressed.  As we were getting ready to go to the kitchen, I hunched down so I could look into Timmy’s eyes.  “Timmy, please don’t talk about penises and erections to anyone.  Especially when you are around ladies.”

Timmy had a concerned look on his face.  “Is it bad to talk about penises and rections?”

“Timmy, it’s not bad, but many people wouldn’t like to hear you talking about them.  Timmy, I’ll get our Dad to talk to you about it later when we’re alone with him.  Please don’t say anything to anyone until we talk to Dad.”

Timmy grabbed my hand, “Okay. Now let’s go eat.  I’m starving!”

After we had finished breakfast, I felt as if I needed to talk to Dad. “Timmy, would you please get the things we collected yesterday for my art class.  I need to talk Dad about something.”

Dad must have realized that I wanted to talk in private.  He motioned for me to follow him to his office.  “What’s on your mind, Son?”

I told him what had happened, “Dad, I’m afraid that I didn’t do a very good job explaining things to Timmy.  I probably gave him the impression that it was really bad to talk about penises and erections.  I was just trying to help him understand that there are times and places that talking about those things is not acceptable.”

Dad nodded, “Brian, I’m sure that you did a good job, but you’re right.  I probably need to sit down and reinforce what you said.  In fact why don’t we plan to do it this afternoon after you get home?  Your Mother and I were talking when I got to our bedroom last night.  Perhaps it’s time for Timmy to move into his own room, so you can have some privacy.”

“Dad, I’m okay, I think that we need to let Timmy decide when he’s ready to move into his own room.  I’m afraid that if we suggest it now, he’ll think I don’t love him.  I’ll just have to take advantage of any opportunity I have to enjoy myself if you know what I’m saying?”

Dad hugged me, “I understood perfectly what you were saying.  Brian, remember I was your age once upon a time not so very long ago.  We’ll have to make sure that you do have opportunities to double your pleasure.  Now get out of here and have a good day.”

We were both laughing when we returned to the kitchen.  “Come on, Timmy, let’s get going, John should be arriving soon.”

As Timmy was getting out of the car, he looked at John, “Uncle John, tell your brothers I’ll see them at the football game tonight, okay?”

I looked John, “Did you understand your orders, Johnny?”

As I was walking to my fourth hour class, I remembered that I hadn’t checked the site that Mr. Peters had told me to check.  I’ll have to check it later.  I couldn’t really check it when Timmy in the room anyway. 

Mr. Peters looked at me with a questioning look and I shook my head no.

When I got to art, I was pleased to see that everyone was there except for Ron.  Not only were they there, but they all had brought the items that they collected.  When the bell rang, I started the class by telling them what had happened with Timmy and how he released all the living things and made us collect things that weren’t alive.  When I told them about the butterfly and the frog they started to laugh.

John spoke, “Class, you have to meet this Timmy person to truly understand how much fun it would have been to watch Timmy telling his big brother what he could and couldn’t do.”

“Watch it Mr. Waters, remember I’m the one who's going to be telling Mr. Cox what the grades should be.”

As  the students were finishing the projects, I walked around to see what they had done and the projects were indeed very good, especially John’s. Just before the class was to end, the P.A. system came on, “There will be a pep rally in the gym during the sixth period for those who would like to attend.  All football players are to report to the back of the gym.”

I looked at John and several of the football players and asked, “How come I didn’t know about this?”

John laughed, “Probably because you were playing hooky during the seventh hour yesterday.”

Talk about being blindsided, after the team had walked in, Todd walked to the microphone, “Here’s the star of last week’s game to get you psyched up, Brian Benson.”

The other players practically pushed me toward the podium.  I looked at the assembled people and raised my right fist and put my hand to my ear, and a resounding “Charge”, that would probably cause a minor earthquake, shook through the gym.

I took the microphone and started to walk back and forth on the raised platform, “My fellow students of Fremont High, I regret to tell you that our illustrious captain, Mr. Messing, lies.  It was not me who was the star of last week’s game.  The stars were the entire defensive and the offensive line.  It was they who enabled us to make sure that Columbus went home with nothing but goose eggs.  With your support, we can send Omaha Central home with four more goose eggs tonight.”

I clenched my right fist and yanked it toward my stomach four times and yelled, “Goose egg, goose egg, goose egg, goose egg.”

I pointed to the assembled people, “It’s your turn.  Let’s make sure that they hear us at the pep rally at Omaha Central.”

The assembled people yelled, ‘goose egg’ every time I pulled my clenched fist toward my body.  I looked at the band director, “Mr. Hill, please have the band play the Fremont fight song.”  The team filed out after John and Todd left the platform as the assembled crowd was singing the Fremont fight song.

Todd and John were walking with me to my seventh hour speech class and Todd started on me, “Brian, you’re setting a very heady goal for the team.  You have raised everyone’s expectations now, and they will expect us to do things that we can’t do.  We just aren’t that good of a team.”

I took a deep breath and pushed Todd against the wall, “Todd, it’s thinking like that that will cause the team to crumble.  You, of all people, must appear to be optimistic.  We may not be the best team yet, but we need to be confident that we can give anyone a run for their money.”

I backed away and realized that I had probably made another enemy.  Even John didn’t say anything as we walked in and sat down in the public speaking class.  To be honest with you, I don’t remember a word of what anyone said in their speeches during the class period.  I was so upset that I was considering not even going to the game.

I was never so glad to hear the last bell ring and I started to walk to my locker to get my things.  I had just gotten my backpack and the silly piece of art I had done in art class out of the locker when I was  pushed against the lockers.  Todd was standing, “Listen to me, Benson, you had no right to push me against the wall as you did.  But I’m glad you did it.  It made me realize that football is a game of confidence.”

“Our former coach, before you took over, was always deriding us telling us how bad we were.  Coach Henderson, thanks to you, has been trying to instill in us the feeling that we can win.  I’m sorry I said what I did earlier.  Now let’s go give those Central High people some goose eggs to take home tonight.”

I pushed Todd away, “I am not a coach nor do I want to be.”

Todd hugged me, “Brian, you have to be blind.  The guys think of you as their spiritual leader.  In the four years I’ve played football here, this is the most excitement that I have ever felt in the student body.”

John was standing there laughing, “I say Amen to that.  It will be interesting to see how full the stands are tonight.  Come on, kid, I need to get you home so you can get your beauty rest before the game.”

As John was pulling away from dropping me off,  he yelled, “I’ll pick you up at 6:15.”

I was feeling very tired as I was walking into the house.  I was met by the Wildman of Borneo, “Come on, Daddy wants to talk to us.  Mother says we need to get the things ready for the trip.”

I grabbed Timmy, “Look, Mr. Benson, perhaps we can take care of one thing at a time.   Let’s go talk to Dad and see what he wants.”

Timmy led me to the office and knocked, “Daddy, I captured Brian.  Do you still want to talk to us?”

Dad, told us to sit on the sofa.   He got up from his desk and shut the door.  He pulled a chair so he was sitting, facing Timmy and me.  Timmy looked at Dad, “Daddy, are we in trouble?”

Dad smiled, “No, Timmy, you’re not in trouble.  Brian told me what you and he talked about this morning, and I thought maybe we should talk about it a little more.”

Timmy thought, “Daddy, are you talking about penises and rections?”

“Yes, Timmy, I am, and it’s erections not rections.  It is very normal for big boys like Brian and young men to get erections while they are sleeping.  Sometimes white stuff, which is called semen, comes out of the opening in the penis while they are sleeping.  The little round things below your penis, which are called testicles get full and it just comes out.  I know that these are a lot of big words but they are proper words to use.  Timmy, do you have any questions?”

Timmy shook his head no, “Dad, you did use a lot of big words.  I’m not sure I understand everything, but Brian told me that if I ever had any questions that I should talk to you and him about such things.  He said that we should never talk about such things in front of a lady.  Why not?”

Dad gave me a funny look and I could tell that he was searching for how to answer Timmy.  Dad let out a deep breath, “Timmy, it is just better to not talk about these things in front of a girl or a lady because they just wouldn’t understand what you were talking about.  You will understand why when you get older.  But Brian was right.  If you have any questions about these things, make sure you come talk to me or Brian.   Now you two need to go get ready for the trip.”

I stood and saluted, “Aye, Aye sir.”

Timmy mocked what I had done, and Dad hugged and kissed us on the cheek, “You’re dismissed.”

Timmy and I packed the things that we needed to take into one small suitcase.  I handed Timmy, two of the boxes of Chris’ photographs to carry down the stairs while I grabbed the suitcase and my art portfolios.  I finally just dropped the suitcase and took the portfolios and figured I’d get the suitcase on the next trip.

We made three trips and had everyone’s luggage positioned at the back door.  Timmy looked at me, “Do I gotta’ take some of that water stuff again tonight so I don’t know how we get there?”

Mother heard his question and answered, “No, Timmy, you’re old enough to know what’s going on, but you can never talk about it to even your sisters.”

Timmy put his hands on his hips and looked disgusted, “Why does everything have to be a big secret?”

Mother came and hugged him, “Timmy, you will understand after you see how we go on the trip tonight.  No one would believe you if you told them.”

Morgan stopped any further discussion by her arrival, “Are you people going to be going on trips every weekend?”

I shook my head, “Cat, I hope this is the last one for a while or at least until Christmas vacation.”

I ate a light dinner, and John picked me up to take me to get ready for the game.

This is Beau.

When we got to the stands, it was almost time for the game to start and the stands were almost filled.  I thought to myself, ‘This is the most people I’ve seen here in years.’

When the Fremont team came onto the field, they had their fists raised and the students were yelling ‘Charge’.  I thought it was odd Brian was leading the team onto the field along with Todd and John.  I was to find out later that was what the team wanted.

We were seated just behind the home team and when the game started, Brian was sitting on the bench.  The Fremont team looked very lethargic.  The offense had received the opening kickoff and they could do nothing and had to punt.

Omaha Central took the ball and started to move it down the field.  Todd called for a time out and went to Coach Henderson and pointed in his face, “Coach, you need to put Brian in and do it now.  The team needs some spark and I am of the opinion that he’s the only person who can ignite it.”

Brian heard what was going on, “Todd, where am I going to play?  I’m not a defensive player.  In fact I’m not any good at any position.”

Todd turned to Brian, “Brian, shut up!  You get your ass out there now and take Logan’s place at middle line backer.  They’ve decided that he is the weak spot in our defense.  Brian, please, just do it.”

Brian put on his helmet and the team seemed to spark when he dashed onto the field.  He was all over the field and Central was stopped and tried to make a field goal which Brian blocked. 

When John led the offense onto the field Coach Henderson was talking to Brian.  Brian ran onto the field at the last minute and told John what the play was to be and he took the up-back position.  Brian started down the field and John threw him a pass and the score quickly became 21-0 in favor of Fremont as the first half ended.

I’m not going to bore you with the details of the game but the Fremont fans were celebrating,  The second half turned into a defensive battle and Brian was on the field for every play.  The coach even had him attempt a field goal which split the uprights so the score was 24-0.  The Omaha Central team was trying everything to prevent a shut out.  On the last play of the game, the Central quarterback dropped back to throw a pass, but Brian broke through the offensive line and hit the quarterback’s arm and the ball went straight up into the air.

Brian caught the ball and started to run toward the end zone.  When he got to about the five yard line, he fell down and started to crawl toward the end zone as if he was a worm.  The stands were in a frenzy yelling, “Go, Brian, go!”

An opposing player touched him as the gun sounded.  Timmy turned and looked at me, “Brian did that on purpose, didn’t he?”

When the gun sounded, Brian ran off the field as the stands reverberated with the  sound of ’Goose egg, goose egg, goose egg, goose egg.’

When John dropped Brian off after the game, Becca and I were both concerned that he was not feeling well because he looked so peaked.  He looked at us, “Dad and Mother, I’m fine.   I’m just a little tired.”

As he said that, the chariot and the white horses landed in the back yard and Jaime and Shamus appeared and helped Brian and Timmy load the luggage.

When we were all aboard and starting to ascend into the air, Timmy looked at Brian, “This is really how we went to see Grandpa Nappy last time, isn’t it?”

Brian nodded yes as we were descending into the yard of the bed and Breakfast in Ithaca to pick up the three gentlemen.  When they were loaded with their luggage, Jack looked at Brian, “Well, I guess we know who’s the boss.  The white horses are only used to haul the top brass around.  I always had the brown ones.  I never even rated the black ones.”

He hardly finished talking and we were landing in the yard of a palatial estate somewhere.

To be continued...

Editor’s Comment:  Well, I’m ‘charged’ up and ready for the next chapter.  Will B.  

Darryl's Notes:  It looks as if Timmy is now in the know, and he doesn't seem to be at all uncomfortable with the means of travel.

As I have said before, this story is, and has been from its start, one heck of a good story.  I want to point out that although this wonderful story is soon going to close, I have been assured that we will not lose track of the wonderful people whom we have all come to love very much. Please Let E Walk know how you feel about this story. 

I will point out, for the record, that I love it and want to see a continuation as soon as possible. 

There are way too many things that we still don't know, and I don't want to be left wondering what happened.  I certainly hope that the next chapter appears soon. I can hardly wait.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 03/27/09