The Castaway Hotel: Book 7

Little Ricky did have a few rough days after the funeral, but eventually he began to cope with his grief and loss. He also went to visit his mother every day, no matter whether it was a good or bad day for her, and I got him transferred to the local school district, so he could start attending classes.

The transition wasn’t totally without its problems though. Little Ricky had some bad dreams during those first few nights and also thought his classes were much harder than at his old school, but we knew he’d soon adjust. Little Ricky was a survivor, as I had told him before, and after all he’d been through in the past, he would learn to cope with these changes too.

I also called the Lawrences, Nick’s parents, to tell them about Albert. They apologized profusely about not calling me when they got back and expressed their regrets about Albert. They explained things were very hectic at their jobs when they returned and they got wrapped up in their problems. Unfortunately, these situations made them forget they were supposed to call me and let me know how their trip went. Belatedly, they filled me in on their visit with Nick and told me much of the same information as Nick had put in his email. Once they felt they’d caught me up with their exploits, they once again expressed their regrets about Albert and we said good-bye.

It was also time to take the college boys back to school and there were a few emotional partings before we could get away. Even though not all of them were starting class the following week, we didn’t want to have to make this trip twice, so they all went with us. The others could do what they wanted for the week, but they would have to do it on or around campus.

Danny and Brandon had a rough time saying good-bye, seeing they were at different colleges and wouldn’t be seeing each other again until school was out in May. They had enjoyed their time together over the holidays, especially their intimate sessions, since they would miss those activities until they were reunited again.

Little Ricky was also having a tough time letting Ricky go, since he’d begun to look to him as a protector and confidant. They spent a great deal of time together, while Ricky had been home, so I knew this would be hard for each of them. With that in mind, Ricky talked to Peter and got him to agree to watch out for Little Ricky for him and Peter happily agreed.

Jake was also having a tough time dealing with Shannon leaving again. Even though he’d be dropping Shannon off and would have a couple more days to spend with him, it still wasn’t easy. I’m glad Jake had spent so many nights with Shannon over the past couple of weeks, while Ted and Little Ricky were with me.

Although those separations were rough, the most difficult parting was between Vinnie and Kevin. Vinnie was having trouble being separated from his lover again, but this was possibly because he was still a little fearful of losing Kevin to a college man. Realizing this, Kevin had given Vinnie a key to his dorm room as a Christmas present, attached to a lovely silver chain. Kevin did this so Vinnie could visit any time and prove he had no secrets, but it still wasn’t enough to remove all of Vinnie’s doubts.

Vinnie tended to be very possessive at times, although not in a bad or mean way. It’s just that he liked to share all of his time with his lover and the rest of the world didn’t matter when they were together. That pair had spent more time alone and away from the rest of the family while Kevin was home, yet Vinnie was still having a tough time dealing with the fact that it would be four and a half months before Kevin would return. Unless Kevin decided to spend spring break at home, which was highly unlikely, this was the last time they’d be together until school was out for the summer. This was more than Vinnie was willing, or able, to bear.

Vinnie asked to ride with us when we dropped the boys off, and seeing we were using two vehicles again and splitting the route we’d have to take, I saw no reason to deny him this courtesy. However, I did warn him that he’d have to leave when I said so, with no whining or any emotional outbursts. He readily agreed and sat next to Kevin during the entire trip back.

When we dropped Kevin off, Kev took Vinnie and showed him his dorm room. He also introduced him to his roommate, who had arrived before him. Then, I gave them a half hour alone, before I announced we had to leave. That seemed to help, but Vinnie was still a little reluctant to go, so I slowly guided him into the van.

After we dropped the last of our college boys off, Vinnie and I had a nice long discussion about his feelings. I hoped getting it out in the open would help get him through the long dry spell until Kevin returned. By the time we got home, he seemed less emotional and maybe even a bit hopeful. It was possible that meeting Kevin’s roommate had helped, but whatever had caused this change made things a little easier for all of us.

That weekend I also got a phone call from Ted’s Aunt Jane. “Josh, I’m so sorry for not calling sooner, but I had lots to do here with my brother and sister-in-law,” she explained.

“No need to apologize,” I told her. “How’s Ted doing?”

“Josh, he’s a different kid now. You’re a miracle worker,” she gushed. “He talked about you and the boys the whole way home and he’s not so embarrassed about what he is now.”

“He shouldn’t be, because he’s a wonderful, loving young man,” I replied. “And I wasn’t the only one who was involved in helping him to figure this out, because he spent time with some of my boys too.”

“So I heard,” she giggled, like a schoolgirl telling secrets about her girlfriends and their beaus. “I heard about Sammy and Graham. He told me he got to try some things with them.” She released another schoolgirl giggle, after admitting this to me.

“I hope that wasn’t a problem?” I asked, somewhat concerned.

“Oh, no,” she assured me. “He needed that, to see if he was really gay. Now that he knows he is, he’s better able to accept it and himself.”

“I’m glad you see it that way,” I told her.

“I do, and I can also see he loves you more than my dumb ass brother,” she added, with a bitter tinge, “but we’re making progress on that front as well. I’ve finally convinced him Teddy had no choice in whom he is and he didn’t choose to be this way. After showing him some articles that backed me up, he’s finally beginning to accept Teddy’s sexuality. He’s still not happy about it, but he’s no longer making derogatory remarks to Teddy. I even saw them having a civil conversation the other day.”

“I’m really glad to hear that,” I admitted. “Ted really loves his father, but he was just hurt by his perceived rejection.”

“That’s what I told my brother, point blank,” Jane confirmed. “I hit him squarely between the eyes with a lot of shit, to wake him up, and I think it worked.” I hadn’t realized how feisty Jane was. I’d seen her loving and nurturing side, but now I saw she wasn’t the type to take crap from anyone, not even her brother.

“Well, I’m glad things have improved,” I admitted. “I had the feeling Ted might consider running away, at one point.”

“He won’t run away, but I’m sure he’ll want to come back for more visits with you,” she informed me. “That is, if you don’t mind.”

“Why would I mind?” I asked. “Ted is a wonderful young man and we all got along very well with him.”

“Josh, both of us really appreciate what you did for him,” she added. “He told me you even spent time alone with him and did things for him his father had never done. You helped heal some of Teddy’s longstanding wounds and got him moving on with his life. I truly believe he wouldn’t be able to bury the hatchet with his father right now, if he still felt those holes in his soul, but you helped fill them in for him. I think that, more than anything, convinced Ted the problem wasn’t with himself, but with his father. Once he figured that out, he could accept everything and cope with it.”

“Jane, I’m really happy for them and that’s what I hoped would happen,” I explained. “Even though Ted had asked about coming here to live, I knew it would be better for him if he could work things out with his father first. If that hadn’t happen, I might have considered taking him in, but only if that was what was best for him. I was hoping, if it came to that, things could be worked out amicably to get him here.”

“You’ve done more than either of us could have hoped for,” she added. “You also encouraged me, whether you knew it or not, and I finally did my job straightening out my brother. I let him know, in no uncertain terms, what an idiot he’s been. Teddy and I both thank you, from the bottoms of our hearts.”

“You’re more than welcome,” I told her, “but like I said before, I really didn’t do that much. I just spent a few wonderful days with a truly remarkable young man.”

“And I think his father is beginning to see Teddy that way too,” Jane informed me, “although you certainly did more than just that.”

The phone call ended shortly thereafter, and I told Jake and the boys that things seemed to be going better for Ted at home. Everyone seemed happy to hear it, except for maybe Sammy and Graham. Although they wanted him to work out his problems with his family, I think they both harbored hopes he would be coming back to live with us, so they might have a chance to get closer to him. Being slightly disappointed that wasn’t going to happen now, I wondered how they’d greet our guest on his next visit.

I didn’t have time to dwell on that concern, however, as I had many other things to deal with as well. As executor of Albert’s will, I had the lawyer arrange for me to become legal guardian of not only Richard, but Arlene too, as most times she wouldn’t be considered legally competent to make the necessary decisions. We cleaned up all the issues in the will and then moved on to the next item on the agenda: the farm.

The plan for the farm was coming together nicely too. The Becker’s neighbor, whom I’d talked to at the funeral parlor, had agreed to take the job of running the farm and supervising a home for children. I had both farms appraised and then showed him and Little Ricky their offers. Both seemed pleased with the amounts, even though I knew Little Ricky would have been happy with almost any sum. However, since I was also his guardian, I had to make sure it was a fair price for the property.

Little Ricky did tell me in private that he thought he should take less, seeing he would still be able to work on the farm and be around the kids who were placed there. I eventually convinced him that wasn’t necessary and he should accept it all, to ensure his future. Besides working on the farm, I also knew Little Ricky would make sure the supervisors made the farm-home a loving and safe place for all the children, not just a self-sustaining farm.

The final documents for the sale of both farms were signed within a couple of weeks, seeing the Foundation was paying cash for the properties. The money for the Beckers’ farm was immediately set up in a trust fund for Little Ricky, which would be handled entirely by Mark, with my approval and oversight. I had decided on letting Mark handle this, because I was so pleased with the way he’d been handling both the Foundation’s and my own money. I doubted I’d ever disagree with his suggestions, at least not in the near future.

I also heard from Nick again. He told me a lot of things, including what plans he had, before returning home.

I thought that was an interesting email. It wasn’t so much what he said, but what he implied. He is excited Little Ricky is coming to live with us, probably so he can have sex with him. I’m pretty sure he’s had sex with more than his share of boys in Brazil and this might continue during his trips. Then, before he leaves, he’ll go back to have a final fling with his host brothers, as sort of a parting gift. Surprisingly, he still sent Shannon his love and hopes they can still be close. Is that chutzpah, or what?

For those of you who don’t know what the Yiddish word chutzpah means, I was told it would describe a man who killed his parents and then begged the court for leniency, because he was an orphan. I don’t think what Nick just did is too far out of line with that description, only that his chutzpah was in a sexual context.

During this transitional period, Frank was taking Little Ricky out to the farm every day to do the chores. Some of the other boys would join them from time to time, to help out. Before Ricky went back to college, he would always accompany Little Ricky, but now the other boys split the duties. They rotated who would be going out to the farm to help out and I was amazed they were able to keep things going for most of that time alone. Sure, the neighbor we had hired was helping out too, but it was primarily Little Ricky’s private mission to keep the farm running.

The boys were determined to help him with his dream and worked really hard to make it happen. Soon, responsibility for the farm would be lifted from Little Ricky’s shoulders, even though he still wanted to be connected with it. The farm was still a very special place to him, where he had spent some of the best times of his life. However, from this point on, he would be able to work on the farm at his leisure, without having all the worries and responsibilities he’d had to bear in the past.

The end of January also produced another surprise, when law enforcement finally caught the guy who actually assaulted David Hubbard. Locating him happened totally by accident and it all started when the cops busted a guy for drugs and searched his car. That’s when they found a bloodied bat in his trunk. After running DNA tests on the blood, it proved an undeniable match to that of David Hubbard and then the rest of the story came out.

As we learned later, Hubbard had sold this guy some drugs, except what he sold him wasn’t what it was supposed to be. Hubbard had ripped him off by substituting another substance and claiming it was the drugs the guy wanted. When the sucker discovered the fraud, he was furious, not only that he had been cheated, but also because he lost a sizable amount of cash in the process. It was then that he began planning his revenge. When he heard the rumor about Hubbard throwing a party, he hid out in the woods and kept a close eye on Hubbard, while waiting for his chance to make his move.

When his opportunity arose, he snuck up behind Hubbard and beat him senseless with a baseball bat. He also took all the cash Hubbard had on him at the time. The cash was never reported as stolen, because then Hubbard would have had to account for how he came up with such a large amount of greenbacks. It was that omission that misled the investigators and sent them chasing ghosts.

Even Hubbard’s friend, Tim Wood, didn’t know about the drugs or money either and really did think my boys had assaulted his friend. He later admitted he had never seen the car or them and had made that story up, after Hubbard told him it was the Curries who had beat him. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize he had just admitted to perjury by saying this, so he ended up being sentenced to six months in jail for that crime.

All in all, everything worked out and the right person was convicted. Although Hubbard couldn’t be busted on a drug charge or fraud, since there was only the assailant’s account of what happened, Hubbard had been dealt a different form punishment – a lifetime in a wheelchair.