"Ryan, Ryan where are you?" the boy yelled, as he looked for the teenager.
"Hold on there, Tiger. I'm right here!" responded Ryan. He then picked up the lad and swung him around and around getting him a bit dizzy.
"'Dad' said you'd show me some of the secrets of the house! I didn't know there were any secrets. Matter of fact, I haven't really been throughout the entire house yet even though I've been here all this time."
"Ok, but do you know what that means don't ya, if I show you the houses secrets?" Ryan asked in a sinister voice.
"No, what?" meekly asked Robert.
"I gotta KILL YA!" yelled Ryan, as he grabbed the boy again and tickled him mercilessly onto the floor while Chief barked at them for having fun without her.
Mary came into the hallway leading to the Study to find out what was going on. She knew the boys would wrestle and horseplay some but it sounded like Robert was being 'killed' he was screaming so much. When she got there, she saw Ryan had the younger boy on the floor. Robert was laughing so hard his screams were from fun and enjoyment he received from the older lad's attention. Mary, seeing the two were having fun, joined in on the scene with a laugh of her own while bending over to pet Chief and give her some much needed attention, too.
"Okay, now boys. That's enough, Ryan. Let him up so he can catch his breath and so he won't pee his pants," and the three hearing that all broke out into more laughter.
Mary watched the way the two easily interacted with each other even though they were almost six years apart in age. She was very surprised they were getting along so well and it had only been one day. She often thought how it might have been if she had had a second child for Ryan to grow up with.
Seeing him now with this younger boy, whom he called his 'Little Bro' at times, and treating him as if he were the 'little brother' brought light tears to her eyes. She was seeing her Ryan as a very mature teenager who was doing his part in making the younger boy feel a part of something big. She admonished the lads in a 'motherly way' and off the lads went in search of something that had to do with 'secrets'.
Ryan led his 'little Bro' upstairs to their bedroom and turned on the computer. After it booted, he made a few key strokes and a different Folder Tree appeared.
"Hey, where'd that come from?" queried Robert.
"Oh, this? It's been here all the time. You just didn't know the 'secret'!" Ryan shot back to the younger lad.
"Is this the 'secret' 'dad' told you to show me?" asked Robert.
"Naw, I figured it would be easier to show you by using the pictures I took while the house was being built. You do know that my Big Bro had me taking pictures and videos of the house while it was being built didn't you?" probed Ryan.
"No! There are tons of things I need to find out but 'dad' never mentioned you took pictures. How'd you get to do that? Weren't you kinda young, like I am, back then?" interrogated Robert.
"Yep! I was thirteen, or thirteen and a half, when we met. I'm not sure. Anyway, I used to come down to the construction site practically every day. One day, this young man, who I eventually found out was Mr. Ken Thomas, came by too and seeing me he came over to talk to me about what I saw.
The two of us talked for some time when this mean old night watchman came over to hassle us. Well, he was after me in particular, as he had been after me for being there a few times before.
"He'd never met Mr. Thomas, err Mr. Ken, before but he began to give him a hard time, as well. Did you know Mr. Ken was only about twenty years old when he began building this house? Anyway, he looked allot younger than that and I bet the old guy figured he was a bratty teen too, so he began to go after my Big Bro with his nightstick.
Mr. Ken got away quickly but then the man came after me. Mr. Ken saw that and he came back to confront the man but tripped and the man swung his stick at him. It hit him but not hard. The guy then came after me again and was going to club me when Chief ran up and attacked him. She was only a young pup then, but big enough to knock the man off his feet.
"Mr. Ken had gotten up by then and came over to check on me when the man got up and came after us both, again. Chief must have seen or sensed something bad was about to happen and she made a beeline at the watchman but he saw her and struck out at her and hit her.
Mr. Ken was now royally pissed! He grabbed the night watchman's nightstick and beat the living shit out of the guy. Well, it looked like it from my young perspective. In the meantime, the construction boss had seen what was happening and called the cops and came running to where we were. The thing is we were about 30 feet lower than where the Guard Shack is now. So we weren't that far onto the property.
"The construction boss had to constrain Mr. Thomas from beating the guy too bad. By then the cops showed and the old dude began crying he wanted us both arrested for trespassing and for assault and he rattled off a few more charges. The cops were gonna place Mr. Ken in cuffs when the construction guy spoke up.
The construction boss told the cops that Mr. Thomas was only defending himself against an overzealous guard. The policemen broke us apart and talked to us individually. When they began to talk to me, Big Bro yelled over that I shouldn't answer any questions without my parents present. That pissed off the cops, Big Time!
"The cop then asked me for my home phone number and called my mom. She got there in about ten minutes. By then the construction dude told his story and from that they compared it to Mr. Ken's and the guards. They were waiting for my mom to get there so they could talk to me. Chief was lying there, hurt. I went down to her and Mr. Ken came over and looked her over as well.
Mr. Ken told me he'd get her taken care of and quickly made a phone call. The people he initially talked to didn't seem to want to help and I heard him tell them to look for a new job come morning because they no longer worked for him and he hung up! I'd never heard anyone fired before and I thought it was so cool.
"Mr. Ken made a few more calls and about 30 minutes later a Veterinarian arrived to look after the retriever. Of course the cops finally got my side of the story, after mom got there, and then they compared notes. Then the neatest thing happened. The Chief of the cops came there, too. Now the first cops, to me anyways, looked scared. Mom kept asking me questions and yelling at me for being there in the first place.
"The old watchman was talking to the construction boss and my Big Bro was talking to the Vet guy taking care of Chief. Oh, that wasn't her name yet. We named her that after the Police Chief took over and made the decision for the other two. The policemen kept calling the guy with a star on his shoulder, Chief, and whenever the dog heard that name she kept moving her head like she was responding to the name, so we kind of, named her in his honor."
"So, what happened? What did the Vet do for Chief? Did dad get arrested? What did your mom say to you afterwards?" Robert rattled off the questions like a machine gun.
"Ok, what happened was the Police Chief figured it was self-defense by my Big Bro. The big cop said that Mr. Ken did ask the man if he knew who he was before the man attacked and the watchman never even tried to find out who Mr. Ken was. He also said he had no reason to attack us with the nightstick as all we were doing was looking and NOT touching or roaming around.
"The Police Chief told the old watchman he was under arrest for assault and battery of both of us and for cruelty to animals for hitting and hurting the dog. The two younger cops took him away. The Vet loaded Chief into his van and took her away for treatment that Big Bro promised to pay for.
"Mom then went over to Mr. Ken and the construction boss and apologized for what I did. And, I didn't do anything! She was pissed, though, since she had told me to stop hanging around there! I decided to stay away from the adults. They were talking and I didn't want to be anywhere near them just in case they would gang up on me.
"The construction boss then walked down toward his trailer and mom and this young guy came over to me. I was standing there shitless! Then, mom introduced me to Mr. Ken Thomas and he shook my hand and said something like, 'Now what were we talking about when we were so rudely interrupted' and then he laughed. It was funny because he acted as though nothing had happened.
"The three of us stood there talking for some time and Mr. Ken told me that it was his house that was being built. He also said it was going to be Ok for me to go there and watch as long as I didn't get much closer than I was, when he met me, and IF it was Ok with my mom! I looked at mom and she had these 'wait until I get you home eyes'. I swear I thought I was gonna be dead meat when I got home.
"We said our goodbyes and mom yelled at me all the way home and, then some, when we got home. I thought I'd never hear the end of it. A few days later, I snuck over to the site and Bro was there. We talked some and he wanted to know how close I lived and why I was so interested in the construction.
"I explained I wanted to be an engineer, some day, and I thought seeing the house being built from scratch would give me some idea of what type of engineer. He got my phone number from me and later called my mom. A couple of days later he showed up at my house. He and mom then talked and talked.
"Anyways, a few days after that, mom told me I could go over to the site and wait for Mr. Ken. He met me and asked me if I was interested in getting a closer look at the construction, and maybe 'work' for him. I didn't know what to say but I went along with him to the trailer to meet the construction boss. The three of us walked around the site and the boss answered Mr. Ken's questions and Bro asked me if I had any questions.
"I asked a few and the boss said he was impressed at what I asked and answered them as if Mr. Ken had asked them. When we left there, Bro followed me home, since I had my bike. He and mom talked some more and then talked to me about maybe 'working' as a picture taker.
"Bro explained he couldn't be there too much, as he was still in college, and since I wanted to go I could be there as his representative and take pictures for him and send them to him. I liked the idea, but I wasn't sure how I could as I didn't have a camera and how would I develop and send them, so I asked.
"Both mom and he laughed. They had talked about how it would work but forgot to tell me. Mr. Ken told me he'd get me a SLR digital camera so I could take distance pictures, a laptop computer that I could use to download them to and then send them, via email, to him. The coolest thing was I got to use the laptop for school, too.
"Then he told me he was going to pay for us to have a high speed ISP and full cable TV. I was in heaven! Mom told me that was going to be my pay. The SLR, computer and hi-speed cable were going to cost a lot and she made the decision that was enough for any thirteen year old to get for taking a few pictures.
"So, there you have it! That's how I got to know my Big Bro, your new 'dad', and what I did for him while the house was being built. These folders are hidden inside the servers Bro has down in the computer room. Only he and I have the password to get to them. There are lots of other things on those computer servers that have passwords and even I don't know those. Now let me show you the pictures I was going to."
Ryan brought up the special section he created in order to have immediate access to them in case there was some need to modify the secret passageways or anything else that dealt with those. Then he chose one section and explained they were looking at the bedroom they were now in when it was all framed out but with no drywall. He zoomed into a section that he identified as the closet. Ryan then pointed out to Robert where a special ladder had been placed and asked the boy if he could figure out where it might be by just looking at the photo.
Robert closely looked at the picture first. He then went to the closet and then got down on his hands and knees but he couldn't figure out where the escape ladder was located. Ryan then went into the closet and showed him the access. Ryan showed the youngster a panel that looked like an ordinary access to the water shut off valves for the showers and sinks in the adjacent bathroom.
Ryan then explained the thing about the inner panel, when opened, looked about 8 inches square, but that it was just the frame around that opening. He then unlatched the frame from the inside and the opening became much larger. Ryan showed how the frame came away and the opening became about 20 inches square, large enough for a small boy or teenager to crawl through. He told the lad you would then replace the panel and climb to the upper attic and walk along the catwalk that was up there.
Of course the twelve year old wanted to try it out, but it was getting late and Ryan said no and that they would do it later. The two got out of the closet and Ryan turned off the computer. Robert wanted to know the password but was told he had to get that from his 'dad' as it was his to give, not Ryan's.
Ryan told the lad he had to live by the Rules of the House, too, even though he didn't live there. Ryan told him if he gave the password to him he'd be in big shit with the Big Guy, Mr. Ken! He insisted it was up to his 'dad' to give him any passwords for the 'secrets' of Three Finger Cove.
Tuesday began like the day before with both boys waking with their morning boners. Today, not being bashful one bit, they got up and peed standing side-by-side and took their showers. Robert was fascinated somewhat by the size of Ryan's dick. It was about 4 inches soft but when it got hard it stretched to what looked to be over 7 inches and almost 5 inches around. Robert knew his dick was still growing and it hung only about 3 inches soft and only got about 4 ½ to 5 inches long when standing tall and measured a close 4 inches around when hard.
Off to school the boys went while Mrs. Taylor got ready for her late morning appointment with a potential client who had an almost 7,500 square foot house nearing completion. She was hoping to land that decorating contract as that would be another major project she could show on her resume.
Around eleven, the doorbell rang and Maria let the clients, a Mr. & Mrs. Jacobs, enter into the Foyer with Mary arriving soon thereafter. After greeting the couple the lady immediately went over to the glass safety wall and commented back to her husband how gorgeous the view of the lake was.
Mary Taylor told them the outer glass window wall was approximately 32 feet high which gave that stupendous overlook out onto the wonderful lake. The woman next noticed the glass elevator and wondered how it worked since she saw no visible means of support from either piston below or cables from about.
Mary went on to explain the owner had it specially built using large scroll screws, on either side, and fork style hangers to support the cab, going on to say it was a unique one-of-a-kind, for now. The Jacob's asked if she always used her previously decorated homes to showcase her abilities.
Mary explained she was house sitting and the owner encouraged her to invite her clients to see what she had done for him. The couple asked if they could see more of the house and Mary obliged.
Mrs. Taylor explained the area they were now in was called the 'Misses' Room by the owner. She explained the area is a Meeting, Receiving and Sitting (MRS) place and acts as an informal Living Room while the designated one was down the hall. She motioned the pair to precede there. The man and lady totally loved the furniture and decorations in the Living Room and were taken aback by the luxuriousness of the Dining Room across the hall.
Mary explained the Dining Room was currently set up for a dinner party of twelve but could expand to sit eighteen comfortably. Entering the Kitchen and Breakfast Nook, Mrs. Jacob was overwhelmed by its well-planned layout and function and commented how well decorated the Nook looked. Mary explained the owner told her he wanted each room to portray or be representative of a certain percentage of appeal of man to woman.
Mary explained the Nook was 60-40, the Living room was 30-70 and the MRS area was set as 60-40, man to woman. They continued the tour and the couple were highly impressed by the choices of colors and fabrics and the way the home had that feel for both men and women without being overly pretentious to one gender or the other. They signed her on, right then and there, to begin the decoration process for their new home.
At school that day, Robert had a difficult time concentrating and his buddies saw that. They cornered him during the morning break and got him to explain what was up. He then explained how Ryan showed him the boats and told him what work he did for Mr. Ken. He then proceeded to tell them how Ryan met his 'dad' and worked for him taking pictures and videos of the house while it was being built.
He also told them how Chief got her name. Then he told them of the secret computer Folder that only Ken and Ryan had access to. Robert was very hyper all day long. He couldn't wait to get home that night for several reasons but mainly to see more of the 'secrets' that lay hidden inside the estate.
As soon as Robert arrived home, he went immediately to his bedroom and turned on the computer and did a Google search for average household incomes for the past and future years. He was curious how much his dad was worth and he needed that info to do some math. While he was calculating the numbers, Ryan stepped into the room and began talking to his 'buddy'.
"What you up to, Tiger?" inquired Ryan.
"Well … I'm trying to figure out how much money 'dad' possibly had. I went to the net and did a Google search for average household incomes and extrapolated what a man could earn over the period of his lifetime if he began working at age 21 through 65. I found the average U.S. Bureau of the Census income numbers for past and projected years and came up with an astounding number."
"OK, buddy, what did you find that is so interesting, if I may ask?" a curious Ryan asked.
"Ok, here goes. Looking at average income levels for age brackets and multiplying the average incomes by the number of years in the bracket then adding the six different brackets I came up with a total amount of money he could earn by the time he is 65.
"Have you any idea how many dollars, Ryan, will flow through your hands if you live to be 65? It will be close to $1.85 million, not counting investments and any interest you may earn. That then takes the total over the two million dollar mark!" concluded Robert.
"Geez, I had no idea that I will have that much money to play with over my life span. I sure hope I meet those expectations but I surely want to exceed that amount. So, why are you looking into this?" now asked Ryan.
"You said 'dad' told you something about 'you couldn't spend all his money in a thousand lifetimes' so I did the math. If you add three zeroes to that two million you'd make in this lifetime it amounts to over 2 billion dollars he must have had when he told you that. I can't even visualize two million dollars let alone two billion of them."
Hearing that, Ryan had to sit down on his bed to think about what his 'little bro' just told him. The two talked about how they'd spend that much if they had it and got a bit carried away with their wishes and dreams. After dinner, Mary told the boys to get their homework done before doing any more exploring of the house.
"Ryan, will you show me how to enter that secret area in the closet, and … and can we go up the ladder and you show me where it leads?" eagerly asked Ryan's new 'lil bro'.
"Sure! Is all your homework done? Mom will probably ask us later and, if it isn't done, I know she'll ground us tomorrow and watch over us until we get it done. I know from experience how that sucks, so make sure she can't find any fault with it. We may only be staying the week but while she is here she'll be your 'mom' too and treat you the same as me!" Ryan had to tell the preteen.
"You don't have to worry about me. When I lived with my real mom and dad they made sure I got my homework done as soon as I got in off the bus. It is now a regular habit for me to get it done. I kinda like it that way now, too. With it done, I can fall asleep watching TV and not have to do it before bedtime. Ok, when can we start?"
Ryan showed Robert how to open the smaller access panel and then unlatch the larger panel. They both got into the secret area and the teen showed the lad how to re-latch the panel, so it looked as though no one went that way.
Ryan had Robert climb up first and explained the lighting in the attic was installed to be soft enough to see things but not bright enough that light leaked out to give them away. Ryan also told the lad that the lighting came on when the panel was removed and would stay lit for about 30 minutes. That should be long enough to get to the safe exit.
Arriving at the top, Robert saw a series of catwalks along the rafters. He noticed one led from each of the six 'family' bedrooms and one each from the guest suites. He saw they all met in the center and small arrows were stapled to the rafters pointing to go towards the garage attic. Ryan explained the best way to go was to the garage as it led to an access to the outside.
They walked along the catwalk careful not to fall into the insulation and thus fall into one of the bedrooms and then they came to the crawl space over the garage. There Ryan pointed out the ladder that led down to the unfinished bedroom closets that would put them over the garage. Ryan said that in an emergency the person had to distinguish when it would be safe to descend down further to the garage and sneak outside and to freedom.
Robert couldn't understand why they needed such an escape plan but Ryan told him that a person with Big Bro's wealth could be targeted for kidnapping or, worse, for holding the family for ransom. He installed this escape route in case the bad guys would let the family use their bedrooms and then some could escape.
Ryan led his 'lil bro' down through the unfinished bedrooms and then down to the garage and showed him how to disarm the alarm for that door ONLY, and get away. Robert was ecstatic over the adventure he just had. He wanted to do it again but Ryan said once was enough and took the youth back to their bedroom.
Back in the bedroom, Ryan got on the computer, once more, and into the secret Folder and showed Robert another 'secret' but it was more a safety measure in case of fire and both stairwells were blocked by flames. He showed Robert the same framed bedroom area but this time the window where an escape ladder had been discreetly placed.
Then Ryan took Robert over to the outside wall where the fire escape ladder was located. He moved the desk that hid the access panel. This time, for obvious reasons, they didn't try it out. Ryan explained that if they took the collapsible ladder out the fire alarm would go off and the fire department would respond and they really didn't want that.
The younger boy was amazed over the precautions his dad had thought to build into the house and was happy the man had done so, but hoped he'd never have to use them.
The two lads then went to the bottom floor and Ryan asked his protégé to see if he could find anything that might be where another escape area or 'secret' area could be located. Robert searched for almost 35 minutes when he said he couldn't find anything and gave up. Ryan had watched the boy search and he almost found one place but not knowing what to look for thwarted the boy.
"Here, look at this wall by the Wine Cellar. See anything that doesn't appear to be what it should be?" solicited the older teen.
"Hmmm, let me look at this," announced Robert, as he studied the Wine Cellar and Bar areas. "If you hadn't mentioned anything, I probably wouldn't have seen that the room isn't as deep as the Bar area next to it so there must be something hidden back there? Am I right?" expressed Robert.
"You are correct young man!" confessed Ryan, and opened the Wine Cellar door for them both to enter.
"Look back here and tell me what you see!" smiled Ryan as he asked the question.
"It looks like a lot of wine racks nailed to the wall," informed the pre-teen. He then tried to move the racks but they didn't budge, but it sure looked to him as though they should. Remembering the inner latch upstairs, he started looking for something that could be moved or unhinged to allow access to the hidden area.
Ryan watched the adolescent and saw he was getting close to figuring it out. Seeing Robert searching for a secret latch or similar device he gave a hint and the lad found the small-concealed wooden door handle. The youngster was beside himself that he found a way to the secret room behind the wine.
Ryan explained that room contained the digital recorders the video cameras fed their data into and the high-speed DVD recorders make the permanent record of what they collected. The boys walked into the very cool room and Robert remarked how cold it was. Ryan explained the equipment put off loads of heat and there was a special air conditioner just to keep all that expensive hardware from going belly up.
Robert lost count at over 50 camera feeds but saw only 35, or so, recorders were actually connected. Again, Ryan stepped up and divulged the cameras only caught motion and did not record 24/7. He also clarified the extra feeds were for future monitoring if something else was added to the estate. After being in there for almost 20 minutes, they felt the cold begin to penetrate them and backtracked out into the Great Room ensuring the latch was properly seated.
"Ryan," then began Robert, "do you know about Mrs. Johnston attacking and hitting me?"
"Yes, I heard something about that, but I didn't think it was my place to ask my Big Bro about it, so I didn't ask. Why?" replied Ryan.
"Well … I was thinking … if those cameras catch all the movement near them … I wonder if they caught everything she ever did to me? I also wonder if 'dad' ever looked at them to see what she did to me all those times?" speculated Robert.
"There is only one way to find out, Tiger, and that is to ask your new 'dad' all about it. Then you'll know for sure and you won't be wondering about it. Now, let's continue with the 'tour'," suggested Ryan.
"OK, what else is there for me to see, Ryan?" appealed the younger boy.
"It is getting late and this will be the last one for now, Ok?" asked the older teen.
"Sure! Lead on my fearless leader," teased the preteen.
The two then began walking towards the Theater. They two passed a closet, used for overflow of hats and coats for the party goers, then passed the Theater, an Exercise Room, a small half-bath and the Utility Room, housing the heater and AC equipment for that part of the house. They then couldn't go any further as the garage foundation wall stood in front of them.
Robert knew that from the outside there were restrooms located under the garage with access only from the outside. Those he knew were for the large parties Mr. Thomas gave and that kept the people from entering the Great Room to use the party restrooms located underneath the MRS Foyer area.
"Robert, what do you see?" teased Ryan.
"A dead end," laughed Robert.
"Look closer!" asked Ryan.
"I've been in the half-bath and Exercise Room and they take up the right amount of space I'd say. The only other place down this area where anything could be located is in the electrical and furnace room … but I've never been in there," explained the lad.
"That's exactly why Bro put the next secret room there. Go on into the room and take a look around. Tell me what you see!" urged Ryan.
Robert entered the room and began to look around. "I don't know!" the puzzled youngster replied.
"Come on … you're not trying. This is the fun part of 'hide-and-seek', so keep looking!" encouraged Ryan.
Robert looked and looked and only saw metal flues and pipes and electrical panels. He paused at the electric panel and saw how big it was. It was as tall as he was so he considered that might be the access. He searched all around and couldn't see how that panel could move without having the wires come disconnected so he pleaded with Ryan to show him.
"You are correct. The electric panel IS the secret access. Do you see these conduits coming down from the ceiling … as if they are going into it? You also see these lines coming in from the side marked for the Emergency Generator? Reach up and pull the second large pipe from the right. That's the one. Pull it towards you and begin pulling the panel out towards you!" explained Ryan.
"Wow! Look at that!" exclaimed Robert. "The … the whole panel swings to the left and … the pipes above are fakes. Awesome!" squeaked out Robert. Then, peaking inside the concealed room the smaller boy exclaimed, "Holy shit! Look at all the stuff in here. You could stay for weeks if you had to!"
"Yup! Bro said this was the emergency shelter in case of tornados, or, of course, if the family was being besieged by person or persons who wanted to hold them for ransom, etc. Of course, in case of tornados or severe weather, you could also use the inside restrooms out in the Great Room or the Pool dressing area as they are all underground and would be good for that as well."
"There aren't these kinds of things located in those restrooms so why is there all this stuff?" a troubled Robert needed to know.
"Little Bro … that is so if you had to hide from the bad guys you could hide there for weeks and they would never find you. Ever!" responded Ryan.
"Ryan, do you know if 'dad' ever had to use this?" the curious pre-teen asked.
"Well, Big Bro never did but … he did have Collin use it that one time," responded Ryan.
"Collin? I've heard my 'dad' talk about him a few times but I don't know all that much about him other than he lived here before he had to go live with his grandmother. Is there more I should know? Can you tell me?" queried Robert.
"Ah, I better not Little Bro. Mr. Ken should be the one to tell you about him and why he had to use this place. But, let it be known, it worked as designed," Ryan assured the lad.
"Please?" Continued Robert.
"No! Ask your 'dad' about Collin and why he had to use the secret room. I bet whatever he tells you … you won't believe it. That's all I'm gonna say," finished Ryan.
"Did you know Collin, Ryan?" asked Robert.
"Yes, I did, and now that's enough questions. Let's go see what's for our snack," finished Ryan.
Not particularly satisfied with Ryan's refusal to answer his questions there wasn't anything Robert could do. They had found more secrets of the house and now the boys went looking for their evening snack. Of course, the first thing Mary asked was if they had their homework finished.
Both boys looked at each other and burst out laughing. That caused Mary to frown and the boys to tell how they knew she'd ask, so they made sure it was done when they first got 'home' from school. Ice cream was the preferred evening treat and the lads ate it while watching a movie in the theater.
The day's adventures were over and Robert felt tired. Up in their bedroom, he kept asking questions about the reasons for all the precautions and all Ryan kept saying was what Mr. Ken told him originally. He had nothing else to add other than to suggest the boy ask his new 'dad'.
It didn't take long for the boys to fall asleep that night. Both had exciting dreams. Ryan's was about this particular girl he wanted to get in bed with, Whereas, Roberts was about bad guys coming to the house and him using the escape routes to get help. These were dreams that boys of those ages would remember when they awoke the next morning.