What Do I Do Now, Mom?
by: E Walk
(© 2009-2011 by the Author)
 

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Chapter 61 

Drums and More

When I was leaving for school Wednesday, Wade was the only person going with me.  Walt had made arrangements with Mr. Swags to be gone for the next two mornings so he could help Michael move from Chicago.

When I arrived at school, there were a number of maintenance vans concentrated around the trailer area.  “Pete Logan, who was head of the maintenance crew, pounced me, “Mr. Adler, couldn’t you at least put the work order to have the trailers fixed up, before yesterday.  We’ll do what we can.  I’m sure the teachers are chafing at the bit to be able to get their classrooms ready.”

I nodded, “Pete, I wish I had known.  It will be interesting to see if the new people take advantage of the weekend.  We have some men who have volunteered to help if we need them.”

“Initially, they would probably be in our way.  We’ll try to have all the basic updating done by the end of today.  Perhaps they could do any painting and touch up tomorrow.  Fortunately, these trailers have been kept in pretty good shape because of them being used for the talented and gifted program.”

When I walked into the office, Gloria shook her head and put up her put her fists as if she was fighting.  I looked into my office and recognized the profile of the man as being Mr. Hamilton, the gentlemen I had replaced. 

When I walked into my office, I made no attempt to greet Mr. Hamilton,  “Mr. Hamilton, how can I help you?”

“You did it on purpose.  You placed my sons with the worst possible teachers at their grade level.  I want them changed”

I stood up then went around and sat on the front of my/his old desk, “Mr. Hamilton, you may not recall, but you are not the guardian of your two sons.  Your ex-wife and your two sons have already met with the teachers and they are happy.  Morally, I have no responsibility to honor any request from you.” 

I picked up the phone, “Gloria, call the police and tell them that we have an unauthorized visitor on the premises.”

Mr. Hamilton jumped up, “Adler, you ain’t heard the last of this.  You’ve already ruined my life once.  You’re not going to ruin it again.”

“Hamilton, you seem to have a memory loss as to who ruined your life.  I would ask you to leave.”

Mr. Hamilton took a parting shot.  “How much did you pay for your second teacher of the year award?  I sure didn’t write a recommendation for you to receive the award.”

I started to laugh, “That’s probably why I got the award.”

There was a knock on the door.  Two police officers were standing in the doorway.  The older of the two officers motioned to Mr. Hamilton, “Sir, if you will recall there is a court order restraining you from being in or on Birchcrest school grounds, or anywhere near your two sons.  Please come with us.”

The police officers forcibly removed Mr. Hamilton in front of some new people who were coming to register their children.  The lady asked, “Do things like that happen routinely around this school?”

Gloria answered, “No, ma’am, It’s not everyday that the ex-principal is escorted from the school grounds.  I have worked here over twenty five years and that is the first time I’ve seen someone physically removed during the hours when school was open for operation.”

I was able to placate the new people and show them that we were a very safe school.  I did take time to go to lunch since the paraprofessionals would be able to answer people’s questions.  At four o’clock, Gloria came into the office, “Hank, we need to get out of here.  If we don’t leave now, when we should, people will keep after us about things that can wait until tomorrow.  Tell Michael that the work he did on the data base last night was a lifesaver.  It is so easy to manipulate and will be a lifesaver keeping up with the enrollment and attendance figures.”

“I’ll be sure to tell him what you said when he gets back.  I agree that we need to get out of here, I’m exhausted.”

When I arrived at the farm, there was not a soul in sight,  ’Why should there be?  The guys were in the barn area doing the chores.  They were one person short.’

I changed into farm clothes and the stress started to float out of my system.  This was the life I was used to.  In fact, I began wondering how I had gotten everything done during the school year.  I guess I got up earlier and went to bed earlier since there was nobody to share the evening with.

I finally rounded up the guys and as we were walking toward the house Wally announced, “The kittens are finally potty trained.  They went to the bathroom in the litter box both ways today.”

“Good.  But you need to clean the litter box each day.  Kittens don’t like to go to the bathroom in a dirty litter box.”

We were just finishing dinner, when the phone rang.  Bobby answered.  “This is the Adler farm. … Oh hi, daddy. …. It was a quiet day.  Witt was helping design a garden so we would be able to grow food to sell at the stand next year. … Yep, Dad Hank is right here.”

“Hi Randy, what’s happening.”

Randy laughed, “The trip here was very quiet but the fireworks started after our arrival.  Michael’s stepfather is being a pain in the ass.  He said that Michael was forbidden to take anything from the property without his permission, since Michael’s mother had left everything to him.”

“Randy, it sounds as if you are going to be there more than two days.”

“Dr. Hubbard called some friends and had them come to the house and we found papers that say that Michael’s mother had left everything to Michael, with Dr. Hubbard as Michael’s guardian.  By the way, Michael’s last name is Longo not Witkowski as Michael and Dr. were led to believe.  It seems that Mr. Witkowski never adopted Michael.  The lawyers are going through the things in the house, which appears to owned by Michael.  We may be late getting back late tomorrow night.  I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

I said goodnight to my guys and went to Billy and Bobby’s room.  They had the aquarium filled with some tropical fish and other sea critters.  “When did you get the things for the aquarium?”

Billy grinned, “Dr. Hubbard had Witt take us to the pet store on Tuesday afternoon while you were so busy at school.  He wanted to pay for the animals and fish but we told him that we had enough money to buy our fish.  Boy are fish expensive.”

“I know, when we go get the rest of the fish for the aquarium, I’ll pay for the new residents.  Everything is looking great.”

Bobby giggled, “When we got up this morning, the two kittens were lying watching the fish.  It’s a good thing the stand is built so the  they can’t get to the tank.”

Thursday morning and I went to see who was up. The three youngest Lathams were still sleeping, so I decided to have an English muffin thinking that someone might bring snacks to school.

The Corn boys and Ted were already there when I arrived.  It was a good thing that Aaron and Erik Corn were still around.  They were working their butts off now, but at least they were getting paid for it.  The Corn boys had stopped and bought doughnuts and juice on their way to school.

The day went by quickly.  There were little fires to put out, but no big blazes.  I walked through the building as I was leaving, and over half of the staff was still working in their areas.

When I got home, I was in time to help the guys finish the chores.  We were walking to the house carrying the eggs and Witt announced, “Dad, since I didn’t know when the others would be here or if they would be here for dinner.  I just made a light meal.  I figured it will give the boys something to do to make big desert so they won’t die of starvation during the night.”

After dinner I worked on school work as I listened to the guys laughing in the kitchen.  I was having a hard time concentrating because I wondered where Randy and the others were.  I figured they should be back by now.

Wiley came into the room where I was working, “Dad, Witt and Wade said you were to give Wally, Willy and me a shower so we don’t make a mess in the bathtub.  We got a lot of the chocolate pudding all over our bodies”

“Let’s go.  You guys look as if you were rolling around with the pigs.  I hope you don’t smell that bad.”

Willy tasted a spot on his arm, “We really taste pretty good.”

After the three youngest were ready for bed, Billy and Bobby came into Randy’s and my bedroom looking concerned, Billy asked, “Shouldn’t Daddy and the others be here by now?”

“Billy and Bobby, your Daddy said last night that they had run into some problems.  I’m sure they’ll be back tonight, since Dr. Hubbard has a big presentation tomorrow in Council Bluffs.  I’m sure if there was a problem, someone would have called us.  I suggest you go to bed.  They should be home soon.”

It was almost midnight when a car pulled into the area in front of the house.  It was a black Camry, so it had to be Michael.  Walt climbed out, “Dad Randy is dropping Dr. Hubbard off,  Dad, is it okay for us to leave Mike’s belongings in the car and unload them tomorrow?”

Randy pulled in. “Come on, guys, let’s get the cars unloaded since we all have to be somewhere early in the morning.  We’ll put everything in the trailer until we decide who is going to sleep where.  We shouldn’t be driving around with all of the things in the back seats.”

An hour and a half later, we had everything from the two cars piled in the living room of the trailer.”

It was so late when we finished unloading that we were soon ready for bed and no one wanted to talk or listen about what happened in Chicago.  That story would have to wait until tomorrow.

There was no question that the travelers were exhausted,  When Randy crawled. into bed all he said was, “I didn’t know people lived like that.”

Randy was still asleep when I left for school.  I had checked and our five oldest and Michael were all out of bed. I went to check on the guys, “Anyone need a ride to the high school?”

Walt shook his head no, “We have two teenage chauffeurs.  We’ll be in hog’s heaven.  See you tonight.”

When I arrived at the school, I made a tour of the classrooms and the public areas, and it looked as if they were school ready.  When I walked into the trailers, the first trailer looked ready to go.  The second had signs announcing that the paint was still wet.  While I in the trailer, Ted came in with two fans. 

Ted complained, “Once we got all the gifted and talented materials off the wall, it became apparent that the two rooms definitely needed to be painted.  Aaron and Erik spent all last evening painting them.  I brought these two fans to help get the paint dry.”

When I walked into the office, I had Gloria put out an all call for the specialists, asking them to meet me in the media center.  “I looked around.  “I can only imagine how frustrating this state of unsettledness must be for you.  In fact, some of you don’t even have a space to call your office yet.  I’m going to be meeting with the central office at one o’clock to talk about specialists problems at Birchcrest. It will be interesting to find out what they are going to recommend.  If you have any ideas, please give them to me by noon.  “I’m sure the central office is just as frustrated as we are.”

When I arrived at the Central Office, they were assembled in the board room.  Dr. Brown stopped the meeting from going very long, “We’re well aware that most of you are concerned with the specialists and where they are going to be housed.  We’re going to be looking into that problem this afternoon and Monday, since school will be only in session for half a day;  we will we have a better picture of our enrollment numbers.  We are well aware that we may have to hire qualified persons if we can.  I suggest you go back and take care of getting ready for your students arriving and placating the specialists.”

Katie commented, “Dr. Brown didn’t seem to be himself.  Someone on the staff must not have been paying attention to business, as to how many new students might be expected.”

When I walked in, Gloria handed me the phone.  It was Randy. “Hank, you need to meet us at the high school.  We’re trying to register Michael, but some of the paperwork needs your signature, since you’re going to Michael’s legal guardian.”

“I’m what?”

“You heard me.  It shouldn’t take long, since Dr Hubbard has everything organized.”

“Gloria, I’m needed at the High School. It seems that there are some papers I need to sign.  Don‘t ask me what they’re concerning.  I haven’t really had a chance to talk to the guys since they got back from their trip to Chicago.”

When I arrived at the high school office, I was surprised to see Uncle Mark there.  It seemed that I needed to sign some documents concerning becoming guardian for one Michael Longo.  After the papers were signed and notarized, they were faxed to a lawyer in Chicago and the school where Michael previously attended.

I looked around at the people assembled, “Did, this have to be done today and why am I the person who is going to be the guardian for Michael?”

Dr. Hubbard nodded, “Good questions, we’ll explain more when you get home this afternoon.”

“Man, talk about planting wild seeds in someone’s mind.”

When I arrived at the farm, I decided to unwind and not delve into what happened in Chicago until the younger guys were settled.  Of course, Mother and Dad took that opportunity to arrive.  Dad commented, “Mark, suggested that we be here so the Chicago people would have to describe their ordeal only one time.”

“Make yourselves at home.  I’ll collect the others who need to be involved.  With everything that has happened since they got back, I’m really curious as to some recent events.” 

I decided to only invite Witt, Walt and Wade since it was going to be above the other boys’ heads.  When they were assembled, I asked, “Who would like to be the person to describe what happened on the trip? 

To be continued...

Editor's Notes:

I was wondering why it is that so many chapters seem to end before we find out some really important fact.  It's almost as if the author is trying to keep us interested so we will come back next time to read the next chapter. 

Of course, I was once told that a chapter ends when it ends, and I guess it just ended. I know that I will be here ready for the next chapter whenever it arrives,

Thanks E Walk for another wonderful chapter.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 08/05/11