All for Acceptance II

By: Rod
(© 2010-2011 by the author)

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

Chapter 6 

The recommendations of Judge Hamilton James Townsend had procured the advisement of others and a program was developed for Paul.  Part of the day he would spend with special tutors and the rest of the day he would assist in the classroom.  The classroom and subjects would change regularly allowing him to contribute to all levels of the students in the home.  Likewise this arrangement allowed all of the teachers to become acquainted with him and observe his peculiar way of presenting ideas to the students in different ways, ways none of them might have thought of, but, the students seemed to grasp quickly with increased interest in whatever subject offered.  Paul was soon becoming quite revered among the other students.  All the more proud was Kelley as he laid claim to being Paul’s little brother and roommate, a position envied by many.

Phillip and Tony were always in peak form.  Any time someone needed something one of the two usually had it ready and usually before the person even knew they would need it.  After dinner they would return to either home.  Sometimes the evening would be spent with Phillip II and sometimes with Travis and Allan.  Mammy had her suspicions but no one but the boys really knew just how close they had become.  Over the period they had been together they had progressed beyond the so-called normal “boys will be boys” experimentations and were in love with each other as much as they knew Travis and Allan were.  At their age they didn’t feel it would present a problem but still, they wanted to keep things to themselves and not divulge their secret to any of the adults.  Phillip II, Travis, Allan, Mammy and Earnest had discussed the possibility between them and concluded that when the time came for the boys to tell them they would try to be surprised, but, deep in their heart they knew they wouldn’t be, instead they would just be relieved that it was finally in the open.

Tony took every precaution to hide the relationship when they were with Travis and Allan, and Phillip IV did all he could when he was around his grandfather.  Even so, every so often some little detail would be overlooked and the adult aware of the slip would inwardly chuckle as they continued their façade to ensure the errant individual would not be aware of the slip.

Fortunately it wasn’t too difficult to hide the fact that several times during the night Allan or Travis would awaken to hear some noise from Tony’s room that could only be explained by a deepening relationship between the boys.  But who were they to say anything as the boys often snickered between comments to each other after breakfast, indicating they too had overheard something from the bedroom shared by Allan and Travis.

Allan and Travis were growing closer each day.  The catering business was going well.  It seemed each quarter brought better recognition to their endeavors.   Allan had begun to make a name for himself as he had focused on slightly different areas of endeavor than Travis.  Between the two they were very busy.  The catering business was enough to keep them busy, but they were now on several boards as well.  Most important of all was the Phillip’s Second Chance Home.  If they weren’t busy with their main business they were doing something to enhance or simply care for the needs of the home.  They knew the involvement of the boys was one of the most valuable assets, and their job was to assist in providing anything else needed to make the job of the staff easier, in turn making the life of each of the residents more fulfilling.  With the addition of Paul, things were becoming even more exciting every day.  The little bit they had heard of Jeffrey made things even more interesting.  It was quite certain there would never be a dull day around the Home.

Officer Burke had driven for over an hour before Jeffrey finally woke from his slumber.  As he stretched within his seatbelts and finished his yawns, he finally came back to the land of the living.  Lunch and the nap had done wonders.  He was still a bit apprehensive,  but Officer Burke and Ms. Fairbanks had done everything possible to put him at ease.

“Hello, Jeffrey, did you have a good rest?” asked Ms. Fairbanks.

“Yes, ma’am.  I feel a lot better now,” replied Jeffrey.

“Glad to hear it buddy, do we need to make a bathroom stop for you?” asked Officer Burke.

“How’d you know?  That was going to be my next question,” said Jeffrey.

“Let’s just say the number of years I have worked with young men like you [comma] and the fact that I can remember a particular younger brother of mine and how at about your age every time we were on a trip and he went to sleep in the car, as soon as he woke up he would start a litany of begging our father to stop at a bathroom,” laughed Officer Burke.

“I guess you got me there.  Please can we stop?”

“Sure, a rest stop is just ahead.”

Once they had pulled into the rest stop the three exited the car. 

“I believe I will avail myself of the facilities,” said Melanie as she headed towards the Ladies room.

“I guess that was a nice lady-like way of saying she needed to go to,” said Jeffrey as he laughed holding onto Officer Burke’s hand as they approached the Men’s room.

“I can use the facilities as well, so I’ll be nearby,” commented Officer Burke.

“I better use a stall,” said Jeffrey.

Jeffrey had no sooner sat down when he saw some fingers wiggling through a hole in the wall beside him.  Almost too scared to move he managed to quickly finish and exit the stall.  As soon as he cleared the door he ran for Officer Burke and as quietly as possible explained what had happened.  Officer Burke looked over at the stalls and saw the man was still in the stall next to the one Jeffrey had used.  He then entered the stall Jeffrey had used and within a matter of seconds the fingers reappeared. 

Officer Burke took but a few more seconds to exit the stall and order the individual out of the adjoining stall.  Of course the man denied his actions, but with what Jeffrey had said along with what he had seen, Officer Burke had the man in handcuffs and was reading him his rights.  After a quick call on his cell to the local police he went to find the janitor responsible for the rest stop.  When he found him another call was made by the janitor to his supervisor so an appropriate report could be issued.  It seems there had been a problem at the rest stop for a while and they had been unable to catch the culprit who had reportedly had sex with several others there.  Up to now they had been unable to catch the person.  Between Jeffrey and Officer Burke he was now in custody.  It took about ten minutes for the local police to arrive and another fifteen or so for the reports to be finished.  Finally, about a half and hour behind schedule the three were able to get back in their car and resume their trip home.  The local police were overjoyed to have been assisted with the collar.

It was a few miles down the road before Jeffrey could contain himself with his excitement.  He had been scared when the incident started, it brought back memories of some of the things he had been forced to endure during his stay with Professor Saunders.  Then he had realized he was with Officer Burke and he couldn’t believe that Officer Burke would have set something like that up or condoned it.  When Officer Burke handled it the way he did, Jeffrey felt more comfortable in his care.  He would begin telling them about the latest turn of events, that which had made him call Children and Family Services.

Over the next half an hour Jeffrey explained how difficult things had been at the University.  Most of the time Jeffrey wasn’t on campus but somewhere else instead, he was either with Professor Saunders, Brad, his assistant or Rory.   Rory was a graduate student that had the responsibility for most of his care when Jeffrey wasn’t with either of the other two.  Occasionally Rory would have to do things neither of them liked,  but they were always on the orders of Professor Saunders.  Rory had taken to Jeffrey as if he was an older brother. 

As a matter of fact, Rory had a younger brother close in age to Jeffrey but due to circumstances, he had not been able to see him or talk to him in quite a long time.  Rory was estranged from his father for various reasons and his brother had encountered the same problems.  Unfortunately his brother wasn’t in a position to leave for college and had instead taken the route of committing suicide just a few months ago.  Because of Rory’s problems with their father, he had been unable to communicate with his brother.  If only he had been able to communicate with him, he could have prevented the brother’s death. When Jeffrey had cried on his shoulder that weekend and told him how he wanted to commit suicide, Rory decided he had to do something.  If nothing else, he had to do something in memory of his brother.  He could not allow another individual to cut short their life because of someone else and how they treated someone.  Between them, they decided to use the story of suicide and Rory would dispose of the body, so far as Brad and Professor Saunders knew.  Rory did have some relatives that had always been kind to him here in Minnesota so he called them, explained the circumstances and made arrangement for Jeffrey to get to their home.  They would care for him until something could be done. 

When Rory heard of the investigation, he called Jeffrey and explained, more convinced him that he needed to call Children and Family Services and let them know of his whereabouts.  Only with this and Jeffrey’s explanation would Rory and his relatives not be chargeable for some type of offense, or at least he hoped.  Jeffrey agreed this was the most logical thing for him to do.  Just as Jeffrey was finishing his story they were pulling up to the home.

To be continued...

A special thanks to Jesse Mercer for editing.

Posted: 01/14/11