I slept peacefully all night and woke up in a wonderful mood. I kissed Peter several times and squeezed his dick but he didn't budge.
I pulled on my cargo shorts and a Tee and went downstairs. Mom and Dad's door was still closed so I was alone downstairs.
I turned on the TV and watched How it's made for an hour with the volume real low. I felt a kiss on the top of my head.
"Morning Mom, did you get some sleep?"
"Off and on, my brain wouldn't shut down."
"Could I talk to you about the accident?"
"I suppose, Honey, what do you want to know?"
"How did you get through it; I've always been so focused on what it did to me I never thought about how you felt about it. I'm sorry."
"I did okay, Honey, it affected me deeply but with a good therapist I was able to put myself back together. I was pretty useless for almost a month, but your dad saw to everything we needed. I was horrified by the carnage but I didn't see them die like you did."
"What happened? I don't understand where the car came from so fast."
"The car that hit the people was hit by another car causing the driver to lose control and it went through the cross walk into the florist shop. It killed three people inside and the driver was badly injured. The man that caused the accident tried to run away, but he was hit by someone who was looking at the accident and he died as well."
"So much death, why would God let that happen?"
"I don't know, Honey, you'll have to ask God about that
"He's got a lot of explaining to do and he better have some answers if he wants me to take him serious."
"Well that's an interesting attitude."
"Well, I'm not sure there is such a thing as God. Some all-knowing being that runs the whole show. I read a book that suggests that humans made up God or gods because they couldn't explain the things they saw."
"It's a little late for me to try any religious indoctrination on you at this point. I've been a lapsed Catholic since I met your father in school. He was tired of the religious community having so much sway and I was disgusted with a church that would allow pedophiles to perform Holy Communion."
"I believe you have the right idea, just do your own thinking. You know what's right and what's wrong. You don't have to be religious to be a moral human being. Frankly, religion has been nothing but trouble since we climbed out of the trees."
"I think that's all anybody can do Mom, but doing your own thinking is hard and some people are too lazy or stupid to do it.
"You must have thought a lot about this stuff, you sound very mature when you speak about it."
"Thanks, I am trying to decide about a lot of things."
"Well for now, let's decide about breakfast. Shall we give Peter a good feed? I'll bet he hasn't gotten his fill of bacon since before those twins came along."
"He doesn't get any bacon at home; the twins can't eat it. He can't even order it at a restaurant if they're along. He says his dad and him go out just to eat bacon."
Mom made Belgian waffles and I cooked enough bacon to feed an army. The aroma drew Peter and my dad out of hibernation and we had a great Sunday breakfast.
"I'm not keeping you from church am I?" Peter asked.
"I suppressed a chuckle and told him it wasn't an issue."
"What's funny?"
"Oh, it's just Mom and I were discussing religion before we started breakfast. I'll tell you later. Are you supposed to go?"
"No, Mom was taking the twins, but Dad wouldn't go and didn't like the look of the Sunday School teacher's adult son. So, after a big argument they stopped going. Dad was right though; the guy was messing with a couple of the boys and got arrested."
"Serves him right, the bastard!" my Mom said even using her childhood Irish accent.
"I'm with you, Ma'am."
"Don't you Ma'am me Peter John Keswick, there's not a gray hair on this head just yet. Call me Nancy or Nan if you like, but not Ma'am."
I grinned at Peter, "You"re in dude, she likes you."
"Yes, I suppose I do," she agreed.
"You sounded just like Nana McInnes just then, Mom."
"Well, it's no small wonder, she practically raised me herself when my Mam was so sick."
I turned to Peter, "Nana McInnes was my great-grandmother. She was from County Clare in Ireland."
"But that's where my family are from, at least according to our family tree," Peter blurted.
"Sure, and isn't it a miracle that we should meet here in the new country," I said mimicking my Uncle Dan who actually wasn't my uncle but my dad's.
"That's pretty good man, I can't do accents, I don't have the ear for it. I can't sing either, ask my parents."
"Are you like tone deaf or did you just never learn to sing?"
"I don't know, anyway I just don't sing except when I'm alone."
"That's too bad; singing has helped me stay reasonably sane. Or at least that's what my giant Mongoose, Ted says."
"I don't know what to say to that; I mean that you think you're reasonably sane? I think you need more time with Uncle Ray."
"Okay you two, get out of my kitchen with that nonsense and take Ted with you. He isn't fully house broken."
We left the kitchen giggling while my dad wiped up the coffee he'd just snorted out through his nose.
"Do you have to be home at a special time?"
"They didn't mention one and I told them to call me if they needed me to come home."
"Great, what would you like to do?" I inquired.
"Doesn't matter, I'm with you and that's the best part of this whole weekend."
We returned to my room and I asked again what he'd like to do.
"Could we go back to that park where we talked, I kind of liked it and I didn't see a lot of other kids."
"Woodcrest? It's mostly an older people's park, but there's lots of benches and trees to sit under. I saw two guys sitting on a bench kissing once; they were like thirty, I think."
I threw Peter some cargo shorts which is basically my personal uniform. We put on our shoes, informed my parents and hit the sidewalk. The midday sun felt wonderful. It was warm for October and I was enjoying it.
During the week, many of the gates for Woodcrest are kept locked. I don't know why, but the gate closest to my house was open and we took advantage of the easy access.
There weren't many people, but two men were of great interest to me, they walked hand in hand. One was dressed very neatly in tan Dockers and a pale orange golf shirt. The other man was wearing jeans and a plaid shirt leaving it unbuttoned over his t-shirt. They were both the sort of men that women would think handsome except for the handholding. I looked to my right to see Peter watching them as well. I reached out and took his hand. The men stopped at a bench under a tree and when they sat, they saw us walking behind them hand in hand. The man in the orange shirt elbowed the man in plaid and nodded our direction. Both men smiled at us as we walked past and we smiled back and kept walking.
We found a bench under a willow and sat in the dappled fall sunlight, the tree hadn't lost its leaves yet because of the mild temperatures most likely. We sat on a bench that allowed us a view of the path.
"This is nice, I really like this park, don't you Jules?"
"Yes, it's really peaceful; I think I understand why they don't want kids playing ball or people walking yappy dogs here. It's meant to be quiet and pleasant so you can think or hold hands or kiss."
Peter turned my way and I kissed his lips gently; nothing super romantic but sweet. He's very kissable and it's hard to leave him be.
"That was nice, can we talk about um, you and me Jules?"
"Sure Peter, I kind of wondered where we were headed. I know where I'd like it to go but you go first and then I'll tell you what I think."
"I um, it took all the courage I had to keep trying to make friends with you. I would get home from school and cry because you avoided me. Once I had to hide in the boy's room to cry."
"I'm sorry, Peter."
"It's okay, I didn't know about your problems then. But I kept after you and now we're out here together and I feel really good about you now. I mean I really like you a lot and I think I might even love you."
"I think I feel the same way. Since I met you and we talked I haven't had that bad nightmare; except for the version where I didn't see the really bad part because you made me look at you."
"Do you think about that boy a lot?"
"I used to; I wondered if we could have been friends. I wondered if he went to heaven right away or if he felt any fear or anything at all when the car hit him."
Peter leaned against me and I put my arm around him and kissed his temple. "In a way it was good that he was looking at me. He didn't have to see it coming and get scared and Mom said he would have been gone so fast he couldn't have felt any pain. She said it was odd but I had suffered more than he had."
"I don't know how I would have reacted to something like that. You must be pretty strong inside to live with what happened."
"I don't know, sometimes I don't feel that strong. I just want Mom or Dad to hold me and make it go away."
"So, you said you'd tell me later what your mom and you were talking about. Was it about going to church?"
"It was more about religion in general. I don't have a problem with people who believe in God, but I don't think that works for me. Maybe there is an intelligence in the universe, but to say it's some guy in a robe that does shit to you to see how you react like a guy in a lab; that doesn't cut it for me," I explained.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. If you came here from another world and read the bible it would probably just be a good story."
"I don't want to affect your religious training if you've had any. I just wanted you to know what my feelings were about that since you asked."
"I think we're a lot alike Jules, I don't think I'm bragging when I say I'm pretty smart and I know you are. But you're also thoughtful. You think about stuff that most people don't tackle until they're at least in college. But you have good reasons for that and I understand them now. But what I really want to tell you is that I think I love you."
"I feel the same way, I'm pretty sure that I love you too; what a weekend eh?"
"You said it Jules. Jules... Jules... Jules... I really like your name. It's really unusual."
"My dad picked it; Jules Verne was his favorite author of all time. And he said it had class."
"I never really liked my name, I was named for two of the apostles because my grandparents said it was a tradition for the first born of the first born. Dad says I can change it when I'm eighteen. But he calls me Peej and it's okay."
"Did you ever consider just using your initials?"
"P.J.? I don't know; it sounds like sleeping clothes. Of course, to some guys "Peter" means dick. Hi Peter, how's your peter. You can call me Peej if you want. I think I'd like that, just not at school okay?"
I pulled him in to a long kiss. "I love you Peej. Yeah that sounds good. I suppose we shouldn't kiss at school either. Most people won't care, but guys like Adam and Billy are jerks."
"They are the lamest bullies I've ever seen, even the first graders aren't afraid of them."
I laughed along with him and kissed him again. He lay down on the bench with his head in my lap and I stroked his hair. I looked up and had a jolt of fear but it was just the two men we had seen earlier. They just waved and kept on walking hand in hand.
Next: Mitchell visits Jules in a dream, and Jules talks to his mom about details of the accident.