Shelter Kid
By: Jon Stewart
(© 2021 by the author)

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

jstewart@tickiestories.us

Chapter 33

Also in the spring, Annie and Nat had decided to get married. The only stumbling block was where to live. Nat had a nice house, in Madville. Annie had just the 2-bedroom apartment. One boy or the other would have to switch schools. The discussion went back and forth. Nat, when he proposed just assumed they would live in his house. He didn’t count on Billy’s loyalty to the friends he had in Hopewell.

“I don’t want to leave Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins, or Mr. & Mrs. Ackers, or my school, or Josh. Oh my God, I can’t leave Josh or Pops, no, not Pops. I can’t. I won’t. I’ll ask Pops to take me in, Mom, I love you, I want you to be happy. I’ll visit you as often as I can but I can’t leave these people. The Jenkins need me and so does Mr. Acker and Mr. Martin and Mrs. O’Mara and Josh is my brother and Pops is my Grandpa. For me, Hopewell is the best place in the world to live. I’m so sorry mom, I can’t leave.” During his outburst Billy couldn’t hold back the tears, so he just let them fall. Jeff went over and hugged Billy. Billy had always been so strong for him. He helped when he needed it the most. Billy whispered through the tears “I’m sorry, I love you, but I love these people and this place too. I’m sorry.”

Jeff said “I can switch schools, Dad. Billy will be there to help me and he’ll be my brother too after you are married. Hey you can rent out our house and save a lot of money on rent. Come on dad, this is so important to Billy. To me, where you are is home. He’s been homeless and for the first time in his life, he has this apartment and good friends here. It’ll be swell. It’s smaller than our house and maybe we’ll bump into each other but I like bumping onto you, guys.“

Nat looked at Annie. Annie smiled and nodded. “Ok, but I call first debs on the bathroom in the morning.”

The boys got up and ran to hug Nat and Annie. Billy kept saying “Thank you, thank you, thank you” and kissed Nat and Jeff and Annie. Later that night as Nat and Annie were in bed. Annie was wrapped around Nat strong arm with her head on his chest. “You know, I think we are really going to be a family here.”

“I do too. I love you and our sons.”

Jeff and Billy were in Billy’s double bed. They were cuddled together. Billy said “Thanks again for today. I just can’t leave. Thank you so much.”

“I know. I understand completely. Hey, we are going to be real step-brothers.”

“Say, can-step brothers get married?”

“Billy, are you proposing?”

“Oh, we are way too young for stuff like that but I have dreams about you and me and a family. They are more like happy, wet dreams. For sure not bad dreams.”

“You have those dreams too, so do I. Wow, Billy maybe we are meant to be together. How do you think we would have kids?”

“Well, there are surrogate mothers, who could carry the baby for us and we use our own baby makers.”

”That is the best way. I always thought two kids. You could father one and me the other. We would have to have a good lawyer to make sure the surrogate moms don’t renege. If we are real lucky maybe we could have the same surrogate mom.”

“That would be so kool.”

Billy kissed Jeff and Jeff kissed him back. Billy took Jeff’s hand and put it on his hard cock. Jeff took Billy’s hand and put it on his hard cock. They kissed again, they made love thinking about always being together and having a family. It would be so kool and it was.

The 4 years of high school flew by for Pops; everything was kind of in slow motion for Josh. He and Pops were a great team. Josh never forgot about Pops taking him in. He loved it, when all of Pops’ family got together at Christmas, birthdays and holidays. They were great people and always seemed to have fun together. He loved them dearly. Looking back, he had no idea what would have happened to him if he had been transferred to a group home. He always did what Pops had a hard time doing at his age; the snow, leaves in the fall, grass cutting in the spring and summer, and of course, the weekly house cleaning. Pops never had to ask him to help; he always jumped right in. Whenever he saw Pops doing something strenuous; he always said ‘let me give a hand Pops’. For Pops’ part, he was always there for Josh. Whatever was needed, he always seemed to have the answer. There was no one better if Josh needed advice

He was concerned for Pops when he went away to college. He talked to Bobby Edwards about the situation. Bobby’s youngest brother, Justin was going to be a freshman in high school as Bobby and Josh were in college. Josh laid out his plan, he would set Justin up to do Mrs. O’Mara, Mr. Martin and the Ackers and maybe even over at Billy’s apartment, if he promised to always take care of Pops first. The others would pay him and pay him well but don’t take any money from Pops. If you feel you need money for something, I’ll get it for you. He told Justin, “I owe that man my life, Justin. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know what would have happened to me. Please, please treat him right.” To Justin at 14 years old, Josh was one of his hero’s. He was upset, when he saw tears in the eyes of Josh. This must really be important he thought.

“I understand, Josh, I’ll treat him just like if he was my grandfather. I know what he’s meant to you. Don’t worry Josh, I’ll watch out for him.”

In his senior year Josh was elected president, as well as captain of the basketball team. Graduation rolled around and he was Valedictorian. After all, Josh had become a celebrity; star player on the basketball team that never lost; the unofficial leader of the “Crusaders against Homelessness”; one of the smartest, if not the smartest kid in the whole school.

The auditorium was packed, of course, for the graduation ceremonies. Josh had 4 tickets for graduation. Pops, Luke, Mrs. Martin and Doc Brown filled the seats. They were all special people to him. Mrs. Martin had watched over him ever since that first day when she heard his story. For the last 4 years whenever he felt the needed help with anything. She had become the mother he had missed for so long. Doc Brown had become a dear friend one who always supported him; who patched him up and helped him to play through pain. Doc was a great player himself and taught Josh some great moves. Doc was always on the bench as team trainer for all the games. Luke was family, always giving of himself at the shelter; always there when you needed him. Pops, of course was Pops, his grandfather. There were no words for Pops. If every 14-year-old could have a Pops in his life what a wonderful world it would be.

Josh’s speech.

“Wow!! 4 years ago, I was a shelter kid from Queens crowding into the Manhattan homeless shelter. My Grandma died in that shelter, just about 4 years ago. Yet, here I am making the Valedictory speech at Hopewell High School. What a name for a town, Hopewell, I never really thought about it much. I mean who thinks about a town’s name. But I have to say Hopewell gave me hope and a lot of it.”

“I was a scrawny 14-year-old kid then, trying to feed my grandma soup; then one day holding her hand, she passed. I was all alone, no family, just a few shelter friends. Luke, the shelter director, his job was to send me to a group home. I will be eternally grateful to him, because for some reason he didn’t do it. He could have, should have, but he didn’t. Instead, he called his own father to keep the scrawny kid at least over the Christmas holiday. So, Pops came and took me home to Hopewell. That was the most special Christmas of my life. I got more gifts than ever before in my life and food; my gosh, his family must have been cooking for a week before. But the most special thing was the love of that group. Everyone accepted me and loved me just for being there. Their hugs and kisses made me forget the loss of my grandma and my parents. On the way home from that Christmas dinner, I said a prayer and asked Pops if he could keep me permanent like. He said he was 73 years old, what if something happened to him and he was incapacitated, or worse, died. He didn’t want that memory for me. But I was sure I wanted to be with him; to finish growing up with him; so, I begged and begged. Finally, he said, I’ll think about it. Well, during the week every time he said ‘I’ll think about it’, whatever it was I wanted; it happened. What I found out recently, he had called Luke and asked his help to adopt me, and made Luke promise if anything happened to him that the family would take care of me. That I would not go into the system. During the fall of that year, I stood before a guy in a big black robe and he said my name was now Josh Fitzgerald Calahan. After that, whenever Pops got a little upset with me, he would call me by my whole name, Josh Fitzgerald Calahan. Sometimes, I did stuff to upset him, just to hear him call me Josh Fitzgerald Calahan. I loved the fact that I was his. That he was my grandpa and I was part of his family. He fed the scrawny kid until he was strong; he held me when I had bad dreams about my parents’ death, he nursed me when I cracked my ribs and every other time I was hurt or sick. He always gave the best advice and gave me back my confidence that the shelter had robbed from me. In short, I wouldn’t have been able to do any of the things we have accomplished, like the basketball winning streak, the Crusaders against Homelessness, the coat drive for the homeless, if it wasn’t for Pops.”

“Traditionally, this speech is about saying thank you to all the teachers and parents who helped get us to this turning point in our lives. So, to all you parents that have loved and supported us graduates. Without you, we would be nothing. And a special thank you for my school mom, Mrs. Martin, and Coach Mathews, and all the teachers who helped us through all the subjects. But for me, the biggest turning point in my life was when Pops took me home to Hopewell. So, Thank you, Pops. Thank you all.”

The assembly stood and clapped and clapped and clapped. Luke helped Pops up. There were many with tears in their eyes, not the least were Pops & Luke.

To be continued...

Posted: 03/04/2022