By the time the weekend finally arrived, I was actually glad for the distraction of Trey’s party. It also gave me a chance to visit with some of the most important people in my life, our extended family. I took this opportunity to discuss many things with them, beginning with Vinnie’s disappearance and Little Ricky’s emotional conflict over Arlene’s deteriorating condition.
Steve, Mary, Jake and I did spend some time alone, so we could discuss the Vinnie situation in private. We didn’t want to accidentally alarm the others or cause them undue stress, if they overheard some of what we had to say. During that conversation, Steve informed me of something I did not yet know. He had called Captain De Luca before coming to the party and had discovered that a waitress in Somerset, Pennsylvania had reported serving Vinnie and another young man the previous weekend. She claimed the two seemed friendly and the boy on crutches didn’t seem distressed, coerced or to be there against his will.
This information confused me. Vinnie’s car appeared to have been stolen from a rest area east of our home, between here and Philadelphia, but Somerset is west of here, between our home and Pittsburgh. I could not imagine why he would be seen heading in the opposite direction.
Steve thought the waitress’ report was most likely a false sighting, but I doubted that. How many guys fitting Vinnie’s description and using crutches could there be? I didn’t think there would be too many. This caused me to wonder why he was traveling further away from home, whom the guy was that Vinnie had been seen with and where they were going.
If this waitress had actually spotted Vinnie, then it couldn’t have been a planned meeting with this other fellow. Vinnie had intended on spending the whole weekend with Kevin. So, how did this guy get involved? Could this be a voluntary pairing or was there something more sinister involved? I had no answers for any of these questions, which only heightened my sense of dread.
In an attempt to avoid ruining the party for Trey, I moved our discussion on to other topics. I hoped that doing this would distract me long enough to prevent my making a fool of myself or inadvertently bringing this affair to a crashing halt. I didn’t want my doubts to become too apparent or my fears too obvious, since most of the boys seemed to be able to read me like a book. Due to that fact, I had to keep my emotions under control and focus on making another son happy today. It also helped that I found some solace in focusing on the fact that the waitress who had seen Vinnie claimed he didn’t seem to be in distress or fearful.
Getting back to the task at hand, we sat down to enjoy Trey’s birthday dinner, which he had personally selected. He had asked for Bleu Cheese Chicken, which is a chopped chicken breast, served over bowtie pasta, and covered with a bleu cheese sauce, which also contained bits of bacon. In addition to that, we also served everyone a Caesar salad and had trays of raw vegetables placed on each table, to give everyone the opportunity to dip these various items in the extra sauce.
Once the meal was completed, Trey and the rest of the boys put on their coats, hats and gloves and went outside to have a snowball fight. It had snowed the previous day and I guess they figured they could work off their restless energy that way and have a little fun in the process. This proved to be especially therapeutic for Little Ricky, who had been so tense over the past few days that I sometimes thought he might snap. It was nice to watch him carry on like a kid again and have some fun with his new brothers. The boys hadn’t been treating Little Ricky with kid gloves, although they had been taking it a little easy on him. This now extended to the snowball fight they were currently having.
I was enjoying standing in front of the picture window and watching them laughing and having such a good time. When Little Ricky noticed me doing this, he smiled and then threw a snowball at the window. He didn’t do this hard enough to break the window, but the snowball did have enough force to let me know it was intended for me.
After shaking my finger at him, I ran and put on my own outdoor gear and sneaked out the backdoor. I also took the time to stop and make a couple of snowballs first, before I slipped around front. As I approached, I peeked around the corner of the house, so I could locate Little Ricky first, before I moved into the open. Once I knew where he was, I stepped forward and let my first snowball fly. I was amazed at my own aim, when the projectile hit him in the left shoulder and caused him to look up to see who had assaulted him.
When he saw me standing and laughing at him, he took the snowball he had in his hand and threw it at me. After he released it, he quickly stooped down and made another one. His first projectile missed, but I wasn’t about to give him a second chance. Seeing what he was up to, I threw my next snowball, which grazed his arm, and then raced forward and tackled him. This left both of us on the ground, lying in the snow and laughing hysterically.
Although Little Ricky was laughing, he was also trying desperately to get away. To prevent that, not only was I using one hand to hold on to him, but I was also busy using my other hand to scoop snow off the ground and toss it at him. The more I used my right hand to claw at the ground and push snow in his direction, the harder he laughed. Soon, he also had me laughing so uncontrollably that I could no longer hold him down. That’s when he got away and began to use both of his hands to heap snow on me.
By this time, the other boys saw what was happening and came over to assist Little Ricky. Before long, I had snow flying at me from several directions. Having to save face and not be bested by my boys, I began to grab them one at a time and pull them down into the snow, in one big pile. Then I managed to get up and position my body across the heap of wiggling forms, to keep them all pinned to the ground.
We were all laughing so much that we hardly heard the rapping on the picture window, but when we looked up, there stood the rest of the family enjoying our antics. They were all smiling, waving, or pointing at us, and we could tell they were getting as much enjoyment seeing us interact, as we were having taking part in this madness.
Discovering they now had an audience merely spurred the boys on and before long they had all escaped my grasp. Now, they were multilaterally renewing their attack on my person and the snow was flying fast and furious. It wasn’t long before I had so much snow clinging to my body and clothes that I was actually beginning to look like Frosty the Snowman.
I was now totally soaked and beginning to get chilled, so I decided to surrender to their magnanimous good will. I hoped they would take pity on an old man, but I should have known better. Seeing me acquiesce just encouraged them to utilize more devious plans against me. They were obviously going to make the most of this rare occasion when they were able to best me.
Using their new superiority, the boys made me get on my knees and stretch out prone before them. They were insistent I beg their forgiveness for every perceived grievance they had against me. They weren’t about to let me get off that easily though, because they were determined to watch me suffer a little longer.
Andrew and Little Ricky decided I also deserved a spanking for my affront, so with me bent over on the ground, the two moved behind me. They stood, one on each side, and began whacking me playfully on the butt, which elicited even more laughter from their brothers and those watching from inside the house. Once they felt I had been appropriately punished, they let me up and we all went to the back of the house to reenter. We did this so we didn’t track in snow and leave a watery trail throughout the entire house.
Once we rejoined the others in the family room, they had to give us their view of how they saw our little spectacle. For the most part, I heard that I probably deserved the spanking or it had been a long time in coming. Seeing I wasn’t going to get any sympathy or support from anyone here, I excused myself to go dry off and change, as did many of the boys. When I finished toweling off and putting on dry garments, I opened the door to my room. All I saw was a blur, before I felt two arms wrap around my body and squeeze me.
“Thanks, Pop,” I heard a voice say, before I looked down to see whom it was. Little Ricky was now entwined around me, like a constrictor. “That was great! I loved it. Thanks for coming out and doing that for me. I love you, Pop.”
Words escaped me at this point, so I just hugged him back, to let him know I appreciated his comments and loved him too. He didn’t seem to want to let go of me right away, so I stood there holding him until he decided it was time to break our embrace. As we walked back to join the others, I put my arm around his shoulders and we reentered the family room in that fashion.
As soon as we were in sight of everyone else, I put him in a headlock and gave him a nuggy. That’s when you rub your knuckles back and forth across the top of a person’s head, so the friction causes some discomfort, but not unbearable pain.
As I did this, I told him, “I always get in the last word… or action,” which caused another round of laughter in the room, from those watching us.
“You cheat,” Little Ricky wailed, before he began to laugh again.
“Nope. I just have impeccable timing,” I replied, before letting go of his head and pulling his whole body against mine, so I could give him another affectionate hug. He responded in kind, although he did have his own comment to make as he did so.
“I’ll get even with you for this,” he threatened, lightheartedly. This elicited a feigned hurt expression and a pout from me, which caused him to cuff me playfully on the shoulder.
Once we ended our frolicsome exchange, we turned our attention back to Trey, who had been enjoying all of our antics. Even though this was supposed to be his day and he should have been the center of attention, he seemed to be enjoying this too. Since I now felt bad, I pulled him aside, to apologize for getting carried away during his party, but he didn’t seem to want to hear it.
“I loved it,” he assured me, as he attempted to put my mind at ease. “I haven’t had that much fun in ages and wouldn’t mind doing it again sometime. Don’t worry, Dad. All of us had a great time.”
At that point, I felt it was a good time to have his cake and ice cream, which would also allow Trey to open his presents. My announcement met with approval from all, especially the boys. I guess they had burned off enough calories outdoors to take care of the meal they had only recently devoured, so I made sure to give each of them a little larger portion than was normal. It was lucky that Jake and I had mistakenly each ordered a cake, so we had more than enough to go around.
After the presents were unwrapped and all those who had given the gifts had been thanked, the topic of Vinnie was broached again. After telling them all I could, some of the extended family tried to think of ideas we might be able to use to locate our missing loved one – suggestions we hadn’t thought of before.
After a lengthy discussion, it was decided the best thing we could do was to start putting out more fliers along I-76 and I-70, the ones with Vinnie’s picture and our phone number on it. Seeing the last report we had about him was that he had been seen heading west, traveling with some other guy, we decided to put the majority of the leaflets out along the westbound lanes of those two interstates. That way, we might be able to generate more information as to his whereabouts. Although we weren’t sure how successful that effort would be, it was definitely worth a try.
We also decided that we’d notify the State Police in both Ohio and West Virginia too, in case Vinnie and this other guy decided to leave Pennsylvania. None of us had any idea why Vinnie might be with this person or if Vinnie even knew him. We weren’t sure if he was just hitching a ride, but if that was the case, Vinnie could have asked to be dropped off at the exit closer to our home as they passed this way. Did this suggest Vinnie was a captive of sorts, possibly abducted from the rest area? The waitress had said Vinnie seemed to be in a good mood and with the guy voluntarily, if it had indeed been Vinnie she had seen. Then again, what’s the possibility of another young man on crutches and looking like Vinnie being in that area?
This caused me to rethink the situation again. Could this guy possibly be someone Vinnie had known in the past? Was it possible Vinnie had called this guy after he saw Kevin with that other boy? There were so many questions and so few answers that it was driving me nuts. I didn’t think this was like Vinnie, because he’d never done anything even close to this before, but maybe it was just his way of dealing with Kevin’s infidelity.
Was this an attempt to run away for good or was he just trying to run away from a hurtful situation? No matter what his reasons for doing this were, the thing that bothered me the most was that he didn’t even call to let me know where he was or what he was doing. Hell, he had never even tried to call to discuss what he’d walked in on at Kevin’s dorm. I always thought we had a better relationship than what his actions now indicated.
After we had beaten this issue to death, the others went home and I set about printing more of the fliers. Jake and I would head out the next day, and seeing the two routes ran together for quite a while, we agreed that I’d stop at all the even numbered off-ramps, while Jake got off at the odd numbered exits. We’d also take turns stopping at the rest areas, but we’d make sure we left a poster on the bulletin boards before we left. We’d do this until I-76 and I-70 split, and then Jake would continue on I-76, and I’d follow I-70. From that point on, we’d stop at all the exits and continue on until we hit the state border.
While we were finishing getting things ready for our trips, Kevin phoned and wanted to speak with me. “Dad, have you heard from Vinnie yet?” he asked.
“No, Kevin, I haven’t?” I replied.
“Dad, I feel soooo bad,” he whined. “This is all my fault.” His voice was choked and full of emotion.
“I won’t argue that point now,” I told him, “but we have heard a report that Vinnie was seen at a restaurant west of here, so there’s still hope. Don’t get too discouraged yet.”
“I know, but I’m sooooo worried about him,” Kevin added.
“I understand and Jake and I are going out tomorrow to put up some more posters,” I informed him. “We are hoping doing so will generate some new information about Vinnie.”
“You have to let me come home and help,” he pleaded. “I can’t just stay here and do nothing. I have to help find him and apologize for what I’ve done.”
“Kevin, we won’t have time to come get you and then still do this tomorrow,” I explained. “I think it’s more important that we get these fliers out where people can see them, so you’ll just have to stay put and let us do what we can.”
“What if I take the bus home or find another ride?” He sounded hopeful.
“Kevin, there isn’t time for that and I don’t want you just taking off with anyone,” I protested. “That’s why it’s important for you to stay where you are for now.”
“But this would never have happened,” he reasoned, “if it hadn’t been for me and what I did.”
“That might be,” I agreed, “but it won’t change the fact that you probably couldn’t get here in time. Therefore, I want you to stay at school.”
“But, Dad…” Kevin began to whine, before I stopped him.
“No, this stops here and now,” I insisted. “I will do this much for you though. If Vinnie isn’t home by next weekend, someone will come to get you on Friday and bring you home or I’ll let you take the bus then. Deal?”
“But, Dad…” I cut him off again.
“It’s either that or you can stay where you are,” I offered. “Is it a deal or not?” He didn’t respond immediately, so I knew he was thinking it over.
“I can’t come home before that?” he finally asked.
“No. I’ll let you come home next weekend, but not before,” I reiterated. “There’s nothing you’d be able to do here and the rest of us will still be going to school and work, so you might as well just stay there and attend classes. Like I said, next weekend you can come home and then one of us will take you back before Monday.”
“Dad!!!” he bellowed into the phone, but I didn’t let him continue.
“Kevin, there’s nothing you can do by staying here,” I explained. “I will let you come back for the weekend, but only for the weekend. If you can live with that, then I’ll call you Wednesday and tell you what arrangements I’ve made. Otherwise, you can just stay there. What’s your choice?”
“Okay, I’ll do it your way,” Kevin replied, “but I’m not happy about it.”
“I know, but that’s the best I can do for you,” I offered. “I also suggest you don’t goof around with your studies during this time either. If you do, you’ll regret your actions later, when Vinnie is back home and everything has returned to normal.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll do what you want,” he agreed, but then he paused. “And just so you know,” he began again, a few seconds later, “I understand you think you’re doing what’s best for both Vinnie and me, so thank you… but I still don’t agree with you.” He did manage to get in his final shot, but I decided to ignore it.
“Okay. I love you and I’ll call you on Wednesday,” I reminded him. “If you need to talk before that, just call us, and we’ll call you if there are any changes.”
“Bye, Dad, and I love you too,” Kevin ended, and I knew he was being sincere.
‘Yes,’ I thought to myself, ‘sometimes you do have to put your foot down and be a son-of-a-bitch to be a good parent.’