Juvenile Detention

By: Rick Masters
(© 2015-2016 by the author)

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

masters@tickiestories.us

Chapter 39
The New Home

Karl opened the door and called out, "Honey, we're home." Turning to Josh he said, "Come on in and meet Esther, and then I'll show you to your room. Simon will be home later; he has some after school activity to attend today."

"Josh, at last I get to meet you. Welcome to our ... your new home. Thank you for agreeing to stay with us. I think Karl would have driven me crazy if you had not." Esther pulled Josh into a hug and then whispered in his ear, "Talk about a man obsessed. " Esther pulled back from the hug with a huge smile on her face at her little joke.

"Thank you so much for having me. I don't really know what to say, and 'Thank you' just seems too little."

"There is nothing more to say. Come on, I will rescue you from the clutches of this woman. For a few minutes anyway, while you unpack, then I will show you around the house and fill you in on how we do things around here."

"You mean it is not just doing whatever Esther tells you to do?" Josh quipped; his nervousness at meeting her had vanished as soon as he had seen the genuine welcome in her expression.

"See, he's got your measure already," Karl said.

"Or he knows the truth," Esther retorted. Both the Silvey's were smiling and Josh knew he would enjoy their banter.

Karl led Josh down the passage to the room he would be calling his own for a while and said, "I am guessing you are a guy with a bit of a thing for orderliness and neatness, so I will leave you to unpack your things by yourself. When you are ready come down to the lounge and we will have something to refresh ourselves with. Just go right out your door, straight down the passage, and through the door at the end of the passage. You can't go wrong."

Josh did not take long to put away his few bits of clothing. He put his toiletries into the top drawer of the dresser until he could find out what to do with them. He moved over to the bed and sat down on it. He smiled as his butt sank into the bed and then he just could not resist kicking off his shoes and lying down the full length of the bed, luxuriating in its softness and comfort. A far cry from the unforgiving hardness of the coir mattress he had slept on for the last six months. He would have liked to remain lying on the bed for several hours but knew he could not be so rude, so he got up and set off in search of the lounge, leaving his shoes by the bed. Turning right he walked down the short passage to the door straight ahead of him, which was open. Something else he would need to get used to was having doors that were not closed to him, and remembering to close doors when he was changing and using the bathroom.

As Josh got close to the lounge he heard Karl telling Esther about the teen they had met in the TK Maxx. At first Josh was tempted to eavesdrop for a few minutes but thought better of it. Instead he gave a slight cough to warn of his approach and stepped into the lounge.

"What would you like to drink?" Esther asked. "We've got tea, coffee, juice, or plain water. Or you could have some milk if you would like."

"I'm afraid that dishwater they served up as tea has kind of put me off tea, for a while at least. I think a glass of juice would be nice, please. Can I come and help you do the drinks?"

"Not today. Today you are our guest. Tomorrow you can start learning where things are and give a hand with the chores. We all do a share of the work," Esther told him. "Today you can just sit there and talk with Karl while I get the drinks ready."

As Esther left the room Karl told Josh that he had been filling Esther in on the journey home and the interaction with the teen ex-inmate at TK Maxx. "I have not told her about your boyfriend or the picture you showed me. If you want anyone to know about that then you tell them. Personally I do not mind if you tell Esther or Simon, but I don't think you should make that one of the first things you tell Simon. Let him get to know you as he sees you first."

"Okay, but I don't mind if you tell Esther privately. I think it is something she should know about early on."

"What should I know about early on?" Esther asked as she walked back into the room with a tray with two coffees and a juice on it.

"I want to be totally honest and open with both of you. I have already told Karl, I met another boy that Karl brought to the Academy. He is my boyfriend, and if I can work it I will try and visit him there at the Academy, but if not we are going to try and work out a way to meet up again once he gets released."

"That is a bit of a long winded way of coming out to me. But I guessed it a while back from what Karl shared with me about what he had learnt about you and your time in that place. I don't think it would be good for you to be this forward with Simon just yet. Try and build up a relationship of some sort first before telling him you are gay. I don't actually know how he feels about gay people. But rest assured we don't care about that sort of thing and you are still welcome to look on this home as your own home. Like Simon, feel free to ask for anything you need and if we can help we will."

"Thank you. You people are being very kind to me. I don't want to be a burden and if I do, please tell me and I will find somewhere else to go. But in the meantime, tell me what to do and it will get done. I might have to grumble a bit because I am still a teen but I will do it."

"Simon should be home fairly soon now so I need to go and get started on the tea. You two amuse yourselves with the telly or something." Esther got up and went through to the kitchen.

"I really feel I should be in there helping her."

"You heard her earlier. Today you are our guest. Tomorrow the work will start. Did you get to watch much television at the Academy?"

"Not really. The evenings we were not entertaining ourselves in our cell blocks we got to watch a bit but then lights out was around ten and if you were not in your bed by then you had a struggle on your hands because there is no light in the cell block when they turn those lights out."

"You'll get more opportunity here if you want it. Now we will expect you to do a share of chores around here. Esther does the lion's share because she only works part time, but both Simon and I help out. Simon is responsible for keeping his own room clean and tidy and the same will apply to you and your room. I will let Esther decide what else she wants your help with in the rest of the house. We don't do ironing in this house either. If you want something ironed then you do it yourself and that applies to all four of us. We will respect your privacy and we expect you to do the same for us. If for some reason you are not going to be home for a meal, then you must let Esther know well in advance. And the rest you will pick up as you go along. Let me show you around the house and then we can come back here to watch something."

The tour of the house did not take long. Being the English form of a bungalow meant there was no second floor. Josh easily worked out he had been given the guest room, leaving them without a guest room now. His room was next door to Simon's and opposite the bathroom. Simon's room was across the passage from his parent's room. The kitchen was an open plan kitchen/diner and a set of glass doors led out from the diner section into a conservatory which in turn led out into an enclosed back yard. Access to the back was either through the house or through the garage. With all the houses that surrounded them also being bungalows, their high panel fence meant that their back yard was totally private. Back in the lounge Karl went to the mantelshelf above the gas fire and took a key off the shelf. Holding it out to Josh he said, "This is your front door key. You will need to let yourself in when you come home from being out."

"Gosh! Are you sure?"

"Josh, we know you are an innocent and also honest person. If we did not trust you we would not have offered you a place to stay. Yes, we are sure."

"Thank you. I had only just been given a key to our house when I got arrested, but he took that and my mobile phone when he came down to the station and stitched me up."

"By 'he' I take it you are meaning your father?"

"No, my father died. I am meaning the man who screws my mother."

"Josh, I have to ask this. Forgive me, but what are your intentions concerning your mother and this man?"

"I am not sure. I don't want to see them yet. I think I want to get my name cleared first."

"They are your still your parents though."

"Only in the legal sense. They have done nothing to try and help me. Even when my real father was dying they didn't tell me and didn't help me to get to see him. He had been dead for three days before they even told me. My own father. The man I loved the most and they kept that from me because he said it would do no good for me to know. And where is my mother? She has not seen me since before I got arrested. No attempt to see me before the trial. Not even present at the trial and not even a letter while I was inside. More than six fucking months and she has not tried to contact her own son. Steven's wife and your Esther have been more of a mother to me than she has."

The pain and bitterness that Josh felt about what he saw as a rejection by his birth mother was showing and Karl saw that the dam was near to bursting so he changed the subject and moved on to fill Josh in on what he had been able to do. "Tomorrow you will have to amuse yourself in your own way. Then on Thursday Esther will take you to meet with a lawyer who is taking on your case to clear your name pro-bono. That means he is not charging you for it. Like many of us he is disgusted that the justice system has let you down so disgracefully and he wants to do what he can to help make some amends for it. I have already given him the names of the three people you were at the movies with and their addresses. I have also given him Steven's contact details and I know he has been in contact with some others. It seems that there is a lawyer from the Public Prosecutions Office interested in your case too."

"Thank you. You have done so much for me. I really am grateful and just don't know what to say."

"Josh, you are beginning to sound like a stuck record. There is nothing to say. We have already said all that is needed on that aspect." Karl tossed the television remote control to Josh. "Go ahead and find something you want to watch."

As Josh picked up the remote and began to look at the buttons on it, they heard a key being fitted and turned in the door. Josh put the remote down and stood up, ready to meet Simon.

To be continued...

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Posted: 07/15/16