Howdy Doody

The Geppetto Project

Chapters 15-16

Chapter Fifteen

The Return To Florida

The scene at camp was no brighter as the last bus rolled out and a quiet and calm overtook the camp it hadn't known since early spring. Neither occurrence came as a surprise to staff that, despite their own depression at the parting of their friends, now needed to address the children's mood and get them back on track. For the Florida bound children, the youngest were headed for a stopover at Disney World. The Pine Ridge children had a campus that would need to be transformed into a school for the winter. The first order of business for them was to begin preparing the stable for winter use as an indoor dressage ring. In between, they had dozens of boats, and a pool to keep filled, as the senior boys closed down the summer cabins. Fall was still a few weeks away from full bloom, but still, the beauty of the mountains that surrounded Pine Ridge didn't keep the mood glum for long. Bert and the staff had gone through hundreds of hours of meetings to make sure every person remaining behind had someone else to back them up, and only then were the bags for Florida packed. For the holidays, the Pine Ridge girls would take a trip to Orlando, and the Green Tree people would have the option of spending Christmas at school. Bert knew it was going to be tight, but they were a tight knit community.

On the busses nintendos, video games, CD players and television screens kept most of the boys occupied and relatively quiet until the bridge was crossed on I-95 and the Florida border was achieved. The boys cared little to nothing about Florida, but they all knew that Disney World wasn't all that far now. Four busses containing the youngest children from Camp Kenny exited the highway and spent the night at a motel on Amelia Island that had been reserved for them. They would continue their journey the next morning and be back at Green Tree by the following afternoon. Four busses rolled on and would go directly back to Green Tree with the senior boys and staff arriving there close to midnight. That left four busses, and these were bound for Orlando.

By 8:00 at night the busses rolled in front of Treasure Island as the remaining children headed for two floors of the hotel reserved for them exclusively. As far as Disney was concerned, the children were from a private boarding school on a trip. Their families were high profile government officials who demanded both high security and privacy for their children. The check was large enough and the folks at Disney asked no further questions.

Very, very few of the boys had ever been to Disney World before, none of the girls had. Bert had always considered the place to be much too much of a security risk for Green Tree, but 9-11 changed all that. Disney was now used to entertaining and housing high security profiled people around its complexes, from the relatives of Osama, to the grandchildren of ex presidents, presidents, and governors. When a few gentlemen in dark suits and even darker glasses made a request along with a check written on the Mellon Bank, all questions ended and armed escorts guided the visitors passed lines of normal folks waiting in lines, or simply closed that area down for a few hours of private use.

"Can we go swimming Uncle Adam?" Sammy shouted as he and five other boys lined the sliding glass picture window that looked down on the pool and the huts surrounding it below in the courtyard of the Hotel.

Adam came over to the window and looked down. He was surprised to still see so many people in the pool so late.

"Let's save it for tomorrow. It's been a very full day, and you'll be here for almost two days." The teacher told the boys.

The boys were disappointed, but it lasted until the pizza and sandwiches were approached. The rooms all adjoined, and one by one, doors were unlocked until the rooms went from one end of the building to the next in an almost uninterrupted flow. While half the children stripped for showers, the other half ate. By 9:30 or so, full stomachs and wet hair abounded as the main attraction remained the courtyard below.

"It's a damned good thing we're eleven stories up." Adam said to Sid as the two men watched a line of asses, both male and female eating Pizza and watching the swimmers below while standing naked at the windows.

Sid shook his head.

"It must be one hell of a scene below." he chuckled.

Adam could only guess at the final figure of the check that had to be written, but at $12.00 [€ 8.00] for a set of mouse ears and $40.00 [€ 26.00] for Cinderella dresses that neither Carla nor Jeannie would ever wear, he knew that his annual salary and seven or eight other staff's salary wasn't about to cover the expenses rung up in the next 36 hours. Better than ¾ of his time, and just about every other staff member around him was spent signing charge slips that Disney people never seemed to run out of. Sid was convinced that Disney staff's first words were "Would you like to have this little boy?" when they popped out of their mother's womb.

For Adam, the most interesting time was after lunch at the courtyard pool when it was closed to regular guests and reserved for a private pool party with Mickey, Goofy, Daisy and a few dozen other friends. The boys had been sold bathing suits (naturally) but these boys and girls weren't all that use to swimming tied down to textiles and most survived for a minute or two before landing on the bottom of the pool. 20 minutes into the party an assistant manager came out with his assistant and really didn't say all that much as he watched a courtyard full of about 150 naked kids.

"Sir." the man said as he continued to watch the kids as he addressed Sid.

"Sorry about that young fellow, but our children come from a private Swedish school." Sid told the man before he had a chance to say anything.

The Manager continued to watch the kids.

"They speak perfect English." he said.

"Yes." Sid said without missing a beat.

"It's a school for U.N. children taught in English." the man somewhat smiled.

"I'd tell them to put on suits, but they might get pissed off and report me to their parents." Sid told the man.

"Yes, well, that's OK, but they will return to clothing through the lobby won't they?" he asked.

"Oh sure, they don't run around buck naked all the time." Sid replied straight faced.

The manager looked at his assistant.

"Yes they do!" he replied as he left for the lobby.

"Gee, you figure he was down in the courtyard last night looking up?" Sid asked the staff sitting around the table.

Right after lunch the following day, four busses pulled out of Treasure Island probably with sighs of relief from management as they called for the armored truck. The trip to Green Tree was five hours and each bus rolled into the mangroves separated by a half hour. Reloading the children onto the Key could only be done by the ferry load which only held 15 children safely. Carla and Jeanette watched with wide open eyes and mouths as alligators watched them back.

"They won't hurt you if you know how to deal with them. Ask the boys tomorrow morning and they'll explain it all to you." Adam told Carla as the girl took his hand in hers.

Camp Kenny and the senior boys and staff had arrived the day before, and dinner was waiting in Beachview as Adam and his crew mounted the steps with the girls mesmerized by the scene laid out before them. The first time they had ever seen the ocean was an hour earlier on US 1 crossing the Keys. Now, the Gulf of Mexico lay out before them with the very last of the setting sun going below the horizon. They looked at the coconuts in the trees; the bananas, orange, grapefruit and tangerine trees all around them. Usually both girls were regular magpies. Now there was nothing but complete silence. Adam smiled to himself, he knew the feeling a year earlier.

Almost four days of non-stop activity, even on the busses, had the boys ready for bed by about 8:00 without being prodded in the least. With Anthony and Spencer remaining at camp and David with Doc, there was plenty of room to go around, and Adam figured he would have a nice quiet night with Sammy to himself. Carla and Jeannie saw it a bit different as both girls had their hair brushed after showers. Adam figured he wasn't going to get away with it, but he took a wild stab anyway.

"Those were really great pajamas you picked out at the Disney store. Have you decided which one's you're going to wear?" he asked as Carla sat straddling his leg getting her hair brushed for sleep."

"Don't be silly Uncle Adam. You know we sleep nakey like the boys." Jeannie replied.

"Dumb old Uncle Adam!" Sid replied as Jeannie's hair was finished and Sid handed her the brush.

Both girls giggled as they headed for the bathroom. Sid and Adam retreated for the side porch as the peppermint smell of toothpaste now permeated the upstairs bedrooms. The sound of the waves could be heard lapping against the man made breakwater that surrounded the salt water swimming area, and the sounds of activity in the bathrooms of nearby cottages told Adam that his wasn't the only cottage getting ready for bed unusually early. Jesse came in with two beers and opened Sid's. Taking a sip, he handed it to his teacher as he unceremoniously uncrossed Sid's legs and plunked himself down on the man's lap.

"5 or 10 more pounds [5 kg], and this old man ain't going to be able to hold you anymore." Sid told Jesse as the boy laid his head back on Sid's chest.

"You told me that two years ago Uncle Sid." Jesse replied as he took Sid's arm and wrapped it around his waist.

"Geez boy, you better start eating!" Sid said as he kissed Jesse on the neck.

With a very familiar patter of bare feet, the rest of the crew was on its way out on the porch with goodnight kisses and peppermint smelling breath. Sammy held back with the girls until the rest of the boys all took their turn.

"We're going to bed too Uncle Adam." Sammy said as he reached up and kissed his teacher.

With Carla and Jeannie next, Adam and Sid watched as the girls waddled off the porch following Sammy step for step.

"You must be awful fond of golden showers." Sid said as he turned back and looked out the screen.

Adam shook his head.

"Once in a blue moon they stay dry, but usually not all on the same night." Adam replied as he drank his last beer.

"That's because if Sammy wets, Carla will automatically wet!" Jesse said.

"Automatically? Why automatically?" Adam asked the boy.

"Because when Sammy wets, he usually wets on top of Carla. If Sammy pees on her, she pees back." Jesse replied.

"Intentionally?" Adam asked.

"What does that mean?" the boy asked.

"Is she awake when she does it?" Adam asked.

"Sure. Sometimes she even climbs on top of him and pees right on his dick." Adam looked at Sid.

"Don't look at me, I didn't teach her that!" Sid said without being asked.

Adam awoke as he usually did for the past 18 months in a soggy bed. It was impossible to tell who the contributors were, the queen sized sheet had stains of varying sizes and colors from about a foot on either side of the bed, from about the waist to the knees. For all he knew, he could have pissed his face off; his briefs didn't have a dry spot on them.

Since he knew he hadn't wet the bed when he slept alone since he was 12 or 13, he was reasonably assured that this flood was not of his doing. It really didn't impress him in the past one way or the other, but then again, he had always assumed the transgressor was sound asleep and without fault or blame in the matter. Armed with this new information that the bed was maybe purposely being used as a toilet, brought another dimension into the mix.

With the sun occasionally shining on her face through a palm tree, Carla was the first to open her eyes and stretch out her arms and legs as she yawned deeply. Adam reached under the girls arms and pulled her on top of himself and laid the girl's head back down on his chest as he moved her soggy hair away from his face. Carla's first thought was that she was in for one hell of a back rub as she opened her legs and let them slid down to the mattress. She knew the teacher would not consider penetrating her, but she also knew that there was one hell of lot more ways to make her body very happy and her teachers knew every trick in the book, especially Uncle Adam. Feeling her legs slide down Adam smiled to himself.

"Talk time, not play time." Adam whispered as he patted the girl on her bottom.

Carla was disappointed, but remained glued to the man as she lay there.

"Talk about what?" the ten years old asked.

"Let's begin with wet beds." Adam said as he moved his hand to the girl's temple and began stroking it with his thumb.

"Did Sammy pee last night?" he asked.

"Sure Uncle Adam, Sammy always pees." Carla replied.

"Did Jeannie?" he asked the girl.

Carla shrugged her shoulders.

"I guess so." she said as her hand went under Jeannie lying alongside her.

"Did you?" Adam asked.

"Sure, I guess I always do." she replied.

"Why, who cares?" Carla asked.

"Nobody cares if we're sound asleep. But there's a difference between peeing in your sleep and peeing the bed on purpose." Adam told the girl.

"What difference? Pee is pee. What's the difference?" Carla asked.

"For one, one is an accident, and the other is on purpose." Adam said.

"Bed's still wet ain't it?" the girl asked.

Adam now had to giggle a little.

"Yes, the bed's still wet but the name of the game is to try to stay as dry as you can, not to get as wet as you can." he told the girl.

"Sammy don't care, he told me so!" Carla now said.

"Told you what?" Sammy now asked Carla as the boy awoke listening to a very strange conversation.

"You told me you liked getting peed on." Carla replied

"Sure. Especially when it's cold out cause your pee is real warm!" Sammy replied.

"Was her pee warm last night?" Adam asked.

"Last night?" Sammy asked quizzically. Adam again smiled.

"Carla. Pee all you want on Sammy but if he's going to feel warm when you are doing it, he's going to have to be awake first!" Adam said as he kissed the girls cheek.

"What are you talking about?" Sammy asked.

"Getting warm!" Adam replied as he lifted himself up taking Carla into the bathroom with him. "Come on; let's get you smelling like a pretty little girl again!"

To both girls, the mornings at school began just as they did at camp, only the scenery changed. There was plenty of hot water, plenty of shampoo and soap, and plenty of ways to start the day with a very broad smile on your face. Unlike the boys, the girls didn't play during the day as a general rule, but after four months of practice, morning showers and bedtime became prime time to give and receive as many tingles as you could make. Both girls were slightly bashful in the beginning of the summer, especially around adults. But by August, if seeing them with their friends made you nervous, shut the door and go away! Adam rarely stuck around past hair cleaning time, if Carla and Jeannie were going to remain virgins though the winter, he didn't dare.

Bert had arrived back at school the afternoon before with the Camp Kenny little ones. As he usually did, little Kenny was shitting his brains out from being on the road for two days, and Jeanette was convinced he could only have become contaminated through her milk. Bottled water and camp food was the only thing the boy had ingested besides her milk, and yet, he was reacting like he just came back from Tijuana. She couldn't figure it out, because she didn't eat anything from the road either.

"Some babies don't travel well." Bert told the girl.

Unlike camp that ate together with a central kitchen doing all the cooking, school was set up to feed the student's in their individual cottages supported by kitchen staff except for lunch on school days. There was no central dining hall large enough to handle the entire school, and to the chef and his crew, the next eight months were a breeze compared to summer camp. The exception was the weekly beach dinner, and that was more of an outdoor party than a task for John and his crew. Once they settled back down to a routine, John and his crew were set for a smooth winter with the only interruption being a monthly trip for John with Dave and Thomas. John's new kitchen and dining hall was going in, and if Bert was going to get any peace during the summer, getting John's input was essential.

Probably the busiest person in camp was now Dave who coordinated both the building going on at camp and the day to day operations at school. He would now be returning to camp every other weekend to supervise the work. Alexandria had agreed with Bert that continuing to use commercial airlines was getting to be a risky business, and commandeering government jets along with their crew was equally as risky. Somehow, a Gulfstream 550 became entangled in red tape and disappeared off the radar screens of congressional oversight committees and would now sit at the beck and call of Bert and the other directors of Geppetto schools upon demand. The plane could land in Marathon and carry 14 people at 560 miles [900 km] an hour anywhere in the country without anybody asking "Who the fuck are you?" Nobody in Marathon ever gives the plane a second thought, it has a parrot on its nose and the locals just wink at each other very knowingly and go back to the bar. Now Dave no longer needed to carry his shoes into the airport.

Compared to his new cabin at camp, Thomas' cottage at school was a step down. It overlooked the lagoon from the Camp Kenny side, but it was roughly ⅓ the size of his former cabin. It was nice but clearly not a North Carolina lake front retreat. Thomas said nothing, but Bert immediately sensed the disappointment. As if he needed it, Dave had one more project; renovate the doctor's cottage in place without altering its appearance from above.

"Make it bigger, but you can't change its footprint image." Bert told his maintenance chief. In two months Thomas' cottage would go from a 1,200 square foot [111 m²], single floor piling home to a three floor, 3,500 square foot [325 m²] cottage, and from the air, it's no bigger than it always was.

"You know of course if a cat three strikes us, it's toast right?" Dave asked his boss as they looked at the plans. Bert smirked.

"In a cat 3, the whole fucking Key is toast." he replied. "Build it."

With the abbreviated school year now just beginning in mid October, the schedule had put a huge crimp in plans for both the Christmas program and the Santa's workshop for the students. Initial meetings for the Christmas program had already taken place at camp. In fact, Adam, Kevin and Sid were at the initial meeting for Christmas when Spencer had his fall on his bike. Now, Halloween was two weeks away, Thanksgiving was five and Christmas was just nine weeks down the road. They did not have Spencer's voice, they had Dave who was swamped in projects, and they had no time left.

"Like my shop teacher always told me, make it a KISS project!" Sid told the committee. Adam instantly had a mental picture of a rock band that looked stupid and sounded worse.

"What's that?" Kevin asked.

"Keep It Simple Stupid!" Sid replied.

"Let's just put on a nativity play and have them sing Christmas carols." he suggested.

"Where the hell did that come from?" Dan now asked.

"Sid figures the Pope's about to drop dead and he's bucking for his job." Adam quipped to more than a few chuckles.

"OK assholes, you come up with an idea that will work in nine weeks or less!" Sid replied as he poured an ice tea.

A few ideas were kicked around, but for one reason or another, they usually came back full circle. Sid's plan was adopted and suggested to the boys. With one minor modification, the nativity scene would follow the book. Except in the new version, Jesus was going to be twins, Sidney and Joshua. Beth looked a little sideways towards the idea, but she did have to keep in mind that Jesus was, in fact, Jewish so it wasn't like Joshua was being taken out of character. The boys pretty much already knew the songs, and all the babies had to do was lie there and coo once in awhile.

Gloria's days immediately following the end of camp where stressful for her as well as for Timmy. Basically, Gloria was raised at Green Tree and was very use to having Bert, Sid, and much of the staff around her that was now almost a thousand miles away. At 23, she was certainly a grown woman, but unlike before, she now stood basically alone. It was going to take some time for her to adjust and Timmy, except for the additional attention he was now demanding, wasn't helping all that much. Timmy was approaching three and the closest thing, male or female, to his age was Sidney and Joshua. Gloria's helpers, Caroline and Judy were forever with Timmy during the day, but Timmy needed playmates, not babysitters and Gloria knew well that Timmy was surrounded by females that weren't going to cut the mustard for very much longer with the boy.

In past years, once the camp season was over, the horses were shipped to a farm for the winter where they basically lounged around until the following spring. Now, with the Pine Ridge girls there on the property, the decision to keep the horses there was made primarily for the sake of the girls. For one, they rode Dressage and had their own separate breed of horse from the boys who did nothing but ride trail. Then, there was David's new horse 'Maria' who was pregnant with twins and would foal in the spring. The senior boys who remained behind also rode, and when they weren't working, took full advantage of miles of trails. Horse wise, the biggest winners were Spencer, Jerry and Marty, who along with Charlie, were all avid riders and now pretty much had their own horse to ride if the mood struck. As the winter progressed, Timmy would spend more and more of his time with these, the youngest boys now in camp.

By mid November, all the un-winterized buildings were shut down and closed-up, and everyone remaining through the winter was now housed in insulated and heated cabins. Work on renovating and winterizing remaining buildings began a week after camp closed, and life fell to normal for Pine Ridge until it would be time to board the busses for the Holidays. The senior boys were looking forward to winter; they had never seen snow before and looked forward to romping in the friendly white stuff that looked like so much fun to play in.

Back to the Nursery

Thomas' Uncle Joel was 56 years old. As a doctor, Thomas was a little surprised at the news. His Uncle was also a physician and 56 just wasn't that old. Thomas' phone calls began immediately as David lay down on Bert's couch and the director put a blanket over him. Thomas had seven brothers in all and all were 'adopted' by their big brother Marty, who had died two years earlier. Uncle Joel was Marty's boyhood friend, and had helped raise Thomas and his brother's with Marty. Each brother was put through medical school by Marty, only two of the eight weren't physicians yet. One, Steven was still in medical school, and the last, was a 14 year old named Paulie who was the last of the 'brothers'.

Thomas' brothers knew where Thomas was, they did not know anything about Geppetto, nor was Thomas authorized to tell them. Joel, the stricken Uncle, did.

"Arrangements have already been made for me to fly up, of course I'm coming, but shit, he's only 56. How could he be having a stroke? Did he have high blood pressure? Wasn't he having regular check ups?" Thomas asked his senior brother who now headed Thomas' family.

All seven of Thomas' brothers were now on a conference line. Paulie, the youngest was in school in Indiana near Steven.

"Tom-Tom, you know Uncle Joel as well as the rest of us. Since when did he do anything healthy in his life? Since when would he listen to any of us to slow down or stop drinking, or eat the right foods?" the senior brother replied.

"Uncle Joel runs his own life and god help the poor slob who tries to tell him otherwise!"

"OK, so what's your best guess?" another brother now asked.

"He had a mini stoke at around 6:00 and a stronger one sometime past 10:30. It might be over, but then again, this may just be the beginning. They're doing cat scans now, but I think we all need to gather." the senior brother said.

Most of the brothers needed to get on the internet and telephone to make arrangements to fly into Boston. Since some where on the west coast, the entire group could not gather in Boston until 3:00 that afternoon.

"Uncle Joel's not in Boston, he's on Martha's Vineyard. He had the stroke on the island." the senior brother now reported.

Most agreed that dropped it back to a 6:00 gathering at best. Thomas now looked to Bert.

"The Gulfstream can land on the island. You'll be there by 9:00 in the morning." Bert told him.

Thomas reported his travel plans to the group and there were more than a few chuckles.

"Tom-Tom, I'm in Albany for Christ's sake and I can't get to the Island before 11:30. How the hell are you going to beat me there coming from Florida?" A brother asked.

Thomas looked at Bert who shook his head.

"I can be there by 9!" he repeated.

The largest problem was now Thomas' two youngest brothers Steven and Paulie.

"I'm not going to be able to even get Paulie out of school before 7:00 and then I have to get back to Fort Wayne." Steven told the group.

"I can get to Boston by late afternoon, but they don't fly after dark onto the Island in winter." he reported.

Bert did some quick checking.

"Can your brother get to Logansport with your little brother?" he asked Thomas.

After checking, Thomas nodded his head.

"You'll pick them up in Logansport between 7:30 and 8:00. You'll still be on the island by around 10." Bert told the doctor.

Thomas relayed the new information primarily to Steven and there was a noticeable silence from Thomas' other brothers.

"Tom-Tom, you ain't running drugs or guns down there in Florida are you?" a brother asked.

Bert smiled.

"Just tell them you have friends." he instructed the doctor.

"David will be fine, he has Adam. Sid and he can always stay here with me if he wants." Bert told Thomas as the man prepared to go back to Camp Kenny to pack.

Thomas, up to this point in time, hadn't thought about David. Now, he looked down on the sleeping boy.

"You know all about me and my brothers with Marty. If David is agreeable, I'd like to do the same thing for him. I'd like to put him through medical school if he wants to go." Thomas told Bert.

"I'd like to have him meet my brothers." Thomas said.

"I'd like him to meet my Uncle Joel before he passes."

"And if things don't go well up there?" Bert asked.

"Then that's all the more reason I'd like him to meet David." Thomas replied.

"Joel knows about Geppetto Thomas. Your brothers will not become involved." Bert told the man.

The doctor nodded.

"Then pack a bag for him too." Bert said.

By 5:30 a very groggy David sat in a van with Bert and Thomas as the two men clutched two coffee containers from 7-11 watching for the landing lights of a plane coming in to Marathon. David saw the plane first as it came from the opposite direction and was already very nearly on the ground. The airport wasn't yet even open, as the plane taxied to a stop alongside the van and the door to the plane swung out and opened. David was no longer groggy.

As the plane climbed into the still dark sky, David watched as the white van that held Bert got back onto US I and headed back down the Keys to return to school. David had flown just two months earlier to New Hampshire for the birth of Joshua, but that was on a government jet that was fairly plain looking inside and out. A Gulfstream 550 is anything but plain, and as the stewardess handed David a breakfast tray, the TV screen blinked on with a nose mounted camera that showed the view only the pilots usually saw.

Logansport was about 35 miles [56 km] south of Culver, and the Gulfstream was there probably 15 or 20 minutes before the stewardess came back to the plane escorting Thomas' brothers. Steven was a pre-med. student in Fort Wayne, and 14 year old Paulie was a student at a boarding school in a small town in the middle of no where ville (according to the boys at the school).

"Did ya rob a bank Tom-Tom?" Paulie asked his older brother as the two looked around.

By 8:00 the plane was airborne again as two more breakfast trays arrived along with a snack tray for David. Paulie's eyes were glued to the TV screen along with David's as Thomas and his brother got the chance to talk.

"Uncle Joel is still under going tests, but nothings really changed." Steven told his brother as he ate.

"Why did you bring that little boy with you?" he asked.

"He lives with me at school. I'm going to be sending him through school." Thomas replied.

Steven looked at his brother but said nothing as he continued to eat.

"I wanted Uncle Joel to meet him just in case anything happens." Thomas continued.

"Doe's everybody else know about him?" Steven asked.

Thomas shook his head.

"I just decided it myself a few days ago. I'm not asking that he be made a brother. I'm going to put him through school myself." Thomas said.

"Why? Don't you think they'd agree?" Steven asked.

"I'm sure they would, but it's not necessary. I have enough to put him through school myself, and even if I didn't, he has more than the means." Thomas replied.

Steven looked around the plane.

"Yeah, I guess he does!" Steven said.

Steven's meal was finished in silence, but Thomas knew there were a hundred questions waiting to be asked.

"Do his parents or the school know what your plans are for him?" Steven asked as he sat back with a cup of coffee.

"He has no parents, the school is well aware." Thomas replied.

"Is the school aware of us?" he asked.

"They know what Uncle Joel may have told Harvard connected people involved in the school, but they don't know any details and aren't interested in gathering any either."

"Why not?" Steven asked.

"Because they don't consider it to be any of their fucking business. They ask no questions of us, we ask no questions of them."

"Fair enough!" Steven said.

"It's not really a question, but is that kid going to freak out if Paulie makes a move on him?" Steven asked as he studied both boys.

"If Paulie throws him to the ground and starts ripping his pants off, probably. Then again, if David does that to Paulie, I'd expect Paulie to freak out too. Both boys live in a boarding school, they know their way around the mattress."

"Look at that Uncle Thomas!" David said as he looked out a window.

Thomas looked out.

"Remember Uncle Sid telling you about his Uncle Kenny and Block Island?" Thomas said.

"Yeah." David replied.

"Well, when we get back home you can tell your Uncle Sid you flew over it and saw it." Thomas said.

"That's Block Island?" David asked.

"Yes." Thomas replied.

"Wow! I can even see the cliffs he was telling us about!" David exclaimed. 10 minutes later the plane was landing in Martha's Vineyard. Thomas looked at his watch. It was just before 10:00.

"Obviously, I've taken up the wrong practice!" one of Thomas' brothers said to him as he greeted the group.

Thomas smiled as he hugged his brother and stepped back to introduce David.

"David, this is one of my brothers. His name is Michael."

Polite 'Hellos' were exchanged as Paulie leaped into Michael's arms and wrapped himself around the man. David said nothing, and Thomas had said nothing to him about his life with his family, and as far as David was concerned up to this point, he was watching a normal family gathering for a sick relative.

"David is on loan to me from school Michael." Thomas explained as they gathered luggage and loaded it into the van.

"Stuart's at the hospital. Uncle Joel is stable, but if there are any changes, he'll call immediately. Do you want to go to the house and freshen up first?" Michael asked.

Thomas had now been up since midnight and opted to go to the house.

"When are the rest getting in?" he asked.

"Everybody should be here between now and 4:00." Michael said.

Paulie had not seen his Uncle Joel now since the funeral of Marty, and to the boy, Joel was almost as important to him as Marty was. Now that he was ill, maybe more so.

"I want to go see Uncle Joel." Paulie told his brothers.

With Paulie and Steven headed directly to the hospital, Michael took his brother and David back to the house. For David, he was now in something of a culture shock. He was used to the cottages of school and the cabins of camp; he was even used to seeing large farm houses on field trips during his visit to New Hampshire for the birth of Joshua. As the van traveled, David listened to Thomas and his brother speaking of this family's 'beach house' or that family's 'cottage' as they drove to Aquinnah, but what David was looking at was clapboard beachfront mansions. Nothing he saw resembled a house or a cottage. He passed many huge restaurants, most of which were closed and tiny little shops with cute little names and little white picket fences out front. There seemed to be more bikes than cars and more walkers than bike riders, and as he got closer to Thomas' 'house', even less of them.

The van pulled onto a driveway with an electric gate and once open, the van pulled in past probably the largest grass lawn David had ever seen for a single residence. The van pulled alongside the house under a portico with tall white wooden columns holding up the roof on one side. As the van doors opened, a very heavy set woman walked down the stairs wiping her hands on an apron that hung around her neck. David needed no guide to tell him the wake had now begun as Thomas wrapped his arms around the woman's body as his uncle's brother carried bags into the house.

"C'mon, sport, give me a hand with these bags." Michael said to David as the man guided David into the house leaving Thomas with the woman.

David entered into the house from the kitchen portico and once again, he found himself in unfamiliar territory. David was use to kitchenettes at camp, full blown kitchens at school, and even commercial kitchens like Uncle John's at camp, but this one was half the size of his cottage, had more glass cupboards full of dishes and glasses and had almost as many stoves and ovens as Uncle John's kitchen at camp did! There were four or five people cooking, cleaning and preparing food, and he didn't understand one word they were saying.

Following Michael, David now walked through halls and past rooms. Pictures were all over the house, and now and then, David recognized his uncle as being one of them. He also saw pictures of Steven and Paulie. David knew little about Thomas' Uncle Joel, but the boy speculated that Joel was very heavily into glass. Mirrors were on almost every wall. Doors were almost always glass, and they stood twice a tall as David had ever seen doors before. Outside porch doors were glass, but not the kind that David was use to that slid, these doors swung open on hinges onto porches that were three times deeper than the porches at camp or school. David speculated he could have a football game with the gang on those porches and not run out of bounds.

"Who took all the pictures?" Davis asked the man.

"Uncle Joel." answered Michael.

"He loved photography, especially of flowers and outdoor shots." he replied.

David now smiled a bit.

"Uncle Thomas loves photography too; he has lots of cameras and takes pictures all the time." David reported.

"Yes, Tom-Tom got the bug from Uncle Joel." Michael replied.

"Why does everybody call him Tom-Tom?" David now asked.

Michael smiled and looked around.

"I'll show you." he said as he walked into a room.

David now stood in front of a very large picture hanging on the wall of a man and a boy riding horses and standing on a high hill over looking a valley. David instantly recognized the boy as being Thomas. The boy had a head band on and it had a couple of feathers sticking up from the back. The boy was shirtless, and had a beaded belt around his waist which held a front and rear flap. The picture was taken from the rear, and the boy quite obviously had on nothing else as a cheek clearly showed. Thomas was about 11 or 12 in the picture, and the seriousness and pride he displayed with a straight back and folded arms was clearly showing through in the photo. At the base of the picture was a small plaque with "Tom-Tom" inscribed on it.

"Uncle Joel took that picture and most of the pictures in the house." Michael said.

"Tom-Tom was the name Thomas called himself. What do you and the other boys call him at school?"

"Uncle Thomas." David replied.

Michael nodded his head but didn't pursue the matter.

"Let's get this stuff upstairs. We can show you all the pictures in the house after we're settled in. Your Uncle Thomas is scheduled to stay in the April room. It has two big beds in it. Is that all right or would you rather have your own room to yourself?" Michael asked David as they mounted the stairs.

"April room?" David now asked.

"Yes, we call it the April room because there are 12 bedrooms upstairs and they are each named after the name of a month to identify them." Michael replied.

"That's pretty smart." David said.

"Yes, the system was developed by Uncle Joel when he was a little boy so that he knew where people were sleeping." David nodded his head.

"It's OK if I stay in Uncle Thomas' room. We live together at school anyway." he replied.

Michael's curiosity grew, but still, he had no questions.

David's bedroom was wallpapered as were all the upstairs rooms and his had a pattern of light blue and yellow flowers and two beds that were the highest David had ever seen. He had to hop a little to sit down and when he did, he sunk down in the bed like he was sitting on a pillow. Like the downstairs rooms, there was a porch with huge glass doors that swung into the room when opened. Now closed because of the cold, David looked out at the beach and sea beyond. Whitecaps dotted the ocean of dark blue, and three or four seagulls sailed on the wind hardly moving their wings as they watched for fish below.

"Do you have pelicans too?" David asked the man.

"No, it's too cold here in Massachusetts for pelicans." the doctor said with a smile.

"I'll bet you have lots of them." he replied.

"Sure do, but Uncle Sid and Uncle Adam don't like them too much. They poop all over the cottages." David said.

Michael laughed.

"It sounds like the gulls. Dora spends half her day shooing them away from the porches." he replied.

"Who's Dora?" David asked.

"Dora is Uncle Joel's housekeeper. She's the lady who was downstairs when we arrived." Michael told the boy.

"Normally, Dora is a very happy person, but Uncle Joel's illness has her very upset. She's been with his family since before he was born, so if she seems a little upset, I'm sure you'll understand." Michael told the boy.

David nodded his head.

"Your Uncle will be going to the hospital in a little while. My family and my brother Stuart's family are already here, and by tonight, our other brother Cory's family will be here too, so you'll have lots of other kids to play with while we're gone." Michael told David.

"There will be three boys right around your age, and I'm sure you'll all get along fine." he said.

Again David nodded as he heard a ruckus outside on the lawn going down to the water. Five children of various ages were running after a football as it bounced along the ground.

"Those are mine and Stuart's children. Would you like to go downstairs and take a look around?" Michael asked.

"Yes Sir." David replied.

The grounds to Joel's house to David looked more like a mini camp than a normal house. There was a pool that was now half full and covered for the winter and tennis courts off to one side of the yard. As David now learned, what he first thought was the front yard as he entered the grounds was actually the backyard if there was any such thing. All four sides of the house had a center front porch along with connecting walkways that ringed the entire house. Any side could have been mistaken for the front of it, but to the owners, the side facing the water was considered the front. By any measure, the house was a mansion that wasn't the largest on Martha's Vineyard, but it was in very small company. As David would learn over the next few days, the house had been purchased by Joel's father immediately after the 1938 hurricane that pretty much destroyed Providence, Rhode Island and a damned good portion of the tip of Long Island in September of that year. Joel's house was severely damaged, and was very nearly burned to the ground. A three year rebuild saved the house from demolition, and Joel was born in the house in 1950. His next door neighbor and boyhood friend was Marty.

David met Thomas' brother's children, and as usual between kids, the meeting was cordial, but not immediately accepting of each other. Everyone was polite, but not yet overly friendly. A 'tour' of the house and grounds was suggested by Michael, and the children now became David's new guide. The Massachusetts children had many questions about David, and he had more than a few about them.

"My dad says that Uncle Tom-Tom really likes his new job. How come he brought you to the Vineyard?" a boy of probably twelve asked David.

"I don't know, I guess because we live together at school." David replied.

"Uncle Thomas and I have been together since camp."

"Camp?" asked another child.

"In North Carolina." David said.

"Uncle Paulie lived in North Carolina with Uncle Tom-Tom. Do you know him too?" a little girl asked.

Before the girl could get an answer the first boy asked another question.

"Why do you call Uncle Tom-Tom 'uncle'?" he asked.

"Because we call all our teachers and counselors uncle." David replied.

"So do you know Uncle Paulie?" the girl repeated.

"Yes, we met on the plane when we picked him up." David replied.

"So where is he?" another child asked.

"He went to the hospital with Steven." David told the group.

"David, come over here, I want you to meet someone!" Thomas now called from the porch of the house.

As the children now moved as a group to the bottom of the stairs, David climbed them and stopped at the top.

"This is Dora David. I want you to meet her. She's been here since I was a little boy, and when my Uncle Joel was a little boy too." Thomas said to him.

At Green Tree, David and the boys lived somewhat of a sheltered life. The closest they ever got to a black person was on the TV. Now, probably the largest woman he ever saw was not only greeting him, but giving him a very big hug to boot. The woman spoke with a strange accent, and was arguably the darkest person he had ever seen in his life. She was dressed in white except for a head scarf that covered her hair, and it was covered with multi colored flowers. The woman's demeanor exuded warmth and caring, and, to David, she seemed genuinely happy to meet him.

"He is a fine looking boy Tom-Tom. You must be so very proud of him." she said.

Her comment caught David off guard and he felt his face get warm.

"Oh my God, this one still blushes!" she exclaimed as she took David's face in her hands and kissed him on both cheeks.

David's heat deepened as she stood back up.

"Time to wash for lunch!" she told the group of children watching her with David as they immediately climbed the stairs and piled into the house like a tornado was behind them.

As David would learn, Dora was Haitian and had come to work for Joel's parents just before his birth. Joel's father, a physician, had gone to Haiti as a volunteer with a group of medical students in 1948 to work at a clinic for the summer. During his tenure, a farmer had cut down a tree and it had fallen on his son, crushing his leg. The consensus of medical opinion was that the leg had to be amputated to save the boy's life. Joel's father disagreed and had the boy flown to Cuba where medical facilities were much more advanced than anything on Hispaniola. Two months later, the boy and Joel's father returned to Haiti. The boy had a limp, but he still had his leg. The boy was returned to the father, who in gratitude gave his daughter to Joel's father. Dora was then 13 years old. Probably in Haiti, giving your children away was fairly routine, but being from America, Joel's father respectfully declined the offer and eventually returned to Boston.

Almost a year later, Joel's father received a message from a convent in Haiti. Dora was at the convent being protected from the secret police of president Estime. Her family, including her now 13 year old brother, had disappeared in the middle of the night, and her life was in danger. Dora's father was politically active in his village, and that was, and is, a very dangerous place to be in Haiti. They were never seen again. Joel's father paid the Haitians $1,000.00 [€ 650.00] and Dora received an exit visa. She began working for the family six months before Joel was born.

Dora's chief responsibility once Joel was grown was as cook to the family. She did not need to continue to work, with all of her living expenses paid for, and her salary going directly into the bank for her, by 30, Dora was independently wealthy. She preferred to cook, and work at her hobby which was growing flowers. Now, at very close to 72, Dora was fully prepared to live out her days on the Vineyards. She had a household staff of five, all of them nieces and cousins from Haiti who spent a few years working in Aquinnah and then returned to Haiti with some pretty full pockets.

For David and his new found companions, lunch was far more important. Dora was not only a cook; she was a dammed good one as all the family knew. Half the fun of going to Uncle Joel's house for a visit was the cookies, cakes and pies that they knew would be sitting in the bakers racks lined up on the front porch cooling down.

Following lunch, David's tour of the house continued. Every room and every wall was full of pictures taken by Joel. Some were identified as coming from Thomas and some from other brothers, but largely, they were taken by Joel and the subject was almost always either the brothers as children or of Dora's flowers. Like the bedrooms, the downstairs rooms all had names. As a boy Joel and Marty identified the rooms by their names, and downstairs, all rooms were named after flowers except one, the nursery. The nursery was a large room that was next to Dora's living quarters, a three room section called 'Le Gardenia'. The nursery was accessed through Dora's apartment, or from the main hall. The nursery was not only Joel's bedroom; it was his play area where he spent the better part of his first twelve years playing with his next door neighbor.

For David, stepping into the nursery was like stepping back into time. It was more of a Museum than a child's play area. All the toys, mostly built by Joel's father by hand were there. three rocking horses, a jungle gym of wood off in a corner, a sand box, fire trucks, a wall lined with rows of electric trains, artist easels and a work bench with small tools still sat in the room along with two beds in the shape of cars. In one corner there were dozens of bright red metal boxes stacked up on shelves that went all the way to the ceiling. On the floor, mechanical shovels, bulldozers, tractors, and in the middle of it all, a three foot high Ferris wheel, all built from erector sets by Marty and Joel.

"They really work! You can look but you can't touch anything. Uncle Joel doesn't let anybody touch anything since Uncle Marty died." One of the other children told David.

The pictures that David now saw on the walls were much different than the ones in the other rooms. These were much smaller, and generally showed two little boys playing, either in this room, or outside on the grounds of the house. They were obviously very old, and most were black and white.

"That's Uncle Joel's mom and dad, and that's Uncle Marty's mom and dad. That's Dora when she was a girl." One of the children pointed out to David as he looked at the pictures.

"Dora says they took that picture before she learned how to cook apple pie." one boy said as he giggled.

In the picture, Dora was about Johanna's age David guessed and the woman was about as big as Johanna. She had on a very flowery dress and a bow around her hair. In school, David had seen pictures of girls like this in native costumes, and at Mardis Gras. She was an attractive girl; David had no doubt about that.

The rest of the pictures were crude stick figures, hand prints, and pictures of trees, houses, and airplanes. Model planes and ships were hanging everywhere from the ceiling. This was a child's garden.

By 1:00, Steven and Paulie returned from the Hospital. As the car pulled through the gate, the gaggle of children once again made a bee line for the door and went flying down the stairs to greet the two. The greetings surprised David a little. Steven was greeted as 'Uncle'. So was Paulie who wasn't very much older than they were. Once the children were finished, it was Dora's turn to hold up very well with Steven, but completely lost it once she had Paulie in her arms. The mood of the children visibly sank as Dora walked off towards the cliff with Paulie who had once again begun to cry.

"I prepared him as well as I could, but this thing is just going to have to play itself out." Steven told Thomas.

Thomas nodded his head.

"How's Uncle Joel?" Thomas asked.

"He definitely knew we were there. His respiration and pulse shot up once Paulie sat down on his bed." Steven replied.

"And the scans?" Thomas asked.

"There's definitely paralysis. If we get past 48, it'll be a long, slow recovery." Steven replied.

"Uncle Joel isn't going to like that!" Thomas replied.

Steven nodded.

"He's already ordered a DNR, Stuart registered it with the hospital yesterday." Steven told his brother.

Thomas shook his head.

"What's your guess?" Thomas asked.

"I think he's tired." Steven replied as he mounted the steps and they returned into the house.

By 4:00 the last brother, Charles, entered the estate along with his family. They had flown from Seattle, and his two boys were immediately enveloped by Dora. She had last seen the boys ten months earlier for Christmas, and unlike with Paulie, she held herself together much better than Steven or the boys father had hoped for. While David stayed pretty much with Thomas, Paulie now stayed very close to Dora. David was a stranger to the other children a day earlier, but their attitude concerning David's presence grew noticeably warmer once the children were told that Thomas was David's uncle. There was no question in David's mind that the phrase drew instant acceptance by all the children, from the youngest to the oldest.

Dora had prepared dinner of roast beef, a roast stuffed pork, and broiled salmon ahead of time, and once all eight brothers had gathered, preparations for them to go to the hospital with Dora were finalized. Dora was considered a member of the family, and would be the only non-brother permitted in the hospital room.

"I hope to be back before you go to sleep, but it all depends how Uncle Joel is doing." Thomas told David.

"I'll be back as soon as possible." David gave Thomas a hug and a kiss goodbye as the group filed into cars for the trip.

For David, it was a quiet dinner with normal chatter between boys and girls. Four of Thomas' brothers were married, and their wives were very nice as David recalled later. The main topic of conversation once the boys from Seattle arrived was the 'huge' jet sitting at the airport when they landed.

"There was a TV crew there taking pictures of it because it's so big!" the oldest boy reported.

"TV crew?" David asked.

"Yeah, with cameras and lights and everything!" the boy said excitedly.

David wondered if Thomas knew about that. Then again, he wondered if they were even talking about the same jet. After dinner, the TV was turned on and David's answer became clear. A TV reporter was standing in front of the jet talking about a rumor that a local resident was in the hospital and his physician family was gathering on the Vineyards for him. The plane was leased to a charter company registered in Delaware, but there was no further information according to the reporter. David watched the TV with no particular alarm, but wondered if Uncle Thomas knew about this. One of the boys' mothers was in the TV room and David asked her if he could call his Uncle.

"Why sweetheart, what's the matter?" she asked David.

"Nothing's wrong, but that's our plane." David replied as he pointed to the TV.

"Your plane?" she immediately asked.

The woman listened to the reporter for a few seconds than went to the library and came back with another woman. Like the first, she listened to the reporter for a few seconds and then headed for the phone.

Martha's Vineyard is an extremely affluent community, but perhaps in the off-season, there's not too much to do. Stuart's wife called him at the hospital and explained the situation to him. Thomas' jet was on TV, and reporters were digging to find out who brought it to the Island and why. Stuart figured it was nobody else's business, especially after Thomas told him that any information concerning anything was off the table. Martha's Vineyard is not only affluent, it's fairly well insulted and values its privacy and the privacy of its residents Stuart called the mayor, who called the police chief who invited the TV crew to the next available ferry off the island and stationed a cruiser at the dock and the airport. Uncle Joel was a very respected member of the community, and his privacy was being violated. The story died on the 6:00 news.

That was not the case at Uncle Joel's house as eight children now wanted to know from David all about the jet at the airport. David spilled no beans, because he had no beans to spill. He had no clue where the plane came from or who owned it, he just knew he rode in it from Florida and picked up Paulie on the way.

"Wow, you gotta be really rich!" one of the older boys said. David shrugged his shoulders. He had a horse, but it had come from Uncle Thomas. Other than that, he had about 150 points for canteen in his account!

For Thomas, the interference was both unwelcome and came at the wrong time. However, it couldn't be ignored. With the plane's registration number clearly on the tail, if the networks picked the story up, questions would have to be answered. Bert needed a heads up. Thomas got halfway through his conversation with Bert when a voice entered the conversation.

"It's OK Thomas, I know the man. Tell him what he needs to know." Bert instructed Thomas.

Thomas explained the situation once again.

"We heard from the pilot a few minutes ago. No one up there has any comment whatsoever about the family emergency, the plane is chartered to carry family members and that's what the official FAA logs show. You and your brothers are covered, David does not exist." the man said in a tone that didn't invite objection.

"I advise the family to ask the local police to keep gawkers away from the estate. You request privacy in your time of emergency. They will comply. Be very aware of paparazzi. They're like vultures and they all have cameras. David is invisible and he will stay that way. Do you understand?" the man from Alexandria asked.

"Yes." Thomas replied.

"Good! Now let me speak to Stuart."

Over the past six months or so, Thomas' life, like Adam's life, had been completely turned upside down. Green Tree life was an incomprehensible maze. Thomas now handed the phone over to his brother who was conversing with a man that Thomas didn't know existed until less than a minute before. Thomas only heard one side of the conversation, but clearly, his senior brother knew exactly who he was speaking to and why. As Stuart hung up the phone, he picked it back up and called the mayor once again requesting his uncle's house be protected from unwanted intrusion. If you did not work or live in Aquinnah that weekend, you were persona non grata and never made it past the causeway onto Gay Head.

Stuart returned the phone to its receiver and looked at his younger brother.

"Uncle Joel didn't leave any loose ends untied Tom-Tom, he knows he won't be around that much longer, and has made sure there's continuity in communication between the family. I've been briefed on your decision, and Uncle Joel put me in touch with the people from the program at Harvard. I know what I have to know and nothing more. Let's keep it that way." he said.

"If one of our kids hits the media, they're going to find out who they are and it's no big deal. If David's face hits the media, they're going to keep digging like maggots until they find out who he is and where he's from. We need to get him back to school with no pictures."

"Now?" Thomas asked.

"No, of course not. We're here until we know what's happening with Uncle Joel, but David stays in the house and out of camera range at all times." Stuart responded.

"I'll let the house know what's going on, you get back with Dora before we have two people in the hospital." he told his brother.

For the children, it was an exciting night. From the attic dormers, they could see a police blockade on both sides of the street as well as along the beach on both sides.

"Is Uncle Joel a president or something? I haven't seen so many police since President Clinton came here." the oldest boy said as noses pressed against windows. His mother laughed a little.

"No he wasn't a president, he is just a very good doctor." she replied.

"Man, I sure am glad I'm gonna be a doctor when I grow up!" a younger boy said.

"Me too!" reverberated in the attic as David listened and watched.

At the hospital, life remained relatively calm until the police arrived with sirens, lights and horns blasting every patient awake. It took a few minutes to calm them down, but once they turned off their lights and sirens, the police mellowed out and stood sentry duty at every door. Stuart shook his head, but knew that their hearts were in the right places. Once he made sure they had enough coffee and sandwiches to keep them happy, he returned to the real reason he was there.

As most any doctor or nurse can tell you, a patient lives or dies by their will. There are exceptions, but as a general rule, when a person decides its time to check out, you can put as many instruments and procedures into place that you want, the person dies. Joel had made no bones about the fact that the death of his boyhood friend Marty 'took the fun out of life' and not one of the nine people now around him didn't know that Joel just really didn't want to be there. That knowledge made nothing easier, especially for Dora and Paulie. All but two of the men were doctors and to them, death was no stranger. Still, that too didn't make things any easier either. Six men in the room knew how to read vital signs and no one left. Just after midnight, all nine of the immediate family was present when Joel passed away.

A Vikings Funeral

Maybe it's a black thing, maybe it was the closeness that the two held, but Dora's entrance into the house through the side entrance and into her apartment struck David the most. David retreated to the room and climbed into bed and put a pillow over his head to block out the sound. He never wanted to hear it again. Thomas came to bed finding David still under the pillow. Pulling David into him, Thomas kissed the boy on the neck.

"It's OK David. Go to sleep." Thomas said as he wrapped his arms around the boy.

David didn't really know why, but somehow, he felt that things were OK. Thomas' arms around him somehow gave him security and he put his arms on top of Thomas' and drifted off to sleep.

Little feet running just outside the door to David's room told him that morning had broken. Getting up, he went to the window. The lights were gone, but four police cars with policemen standing around them also told David that last night wasn't a dream.

"Uncle Joel is dead isn't he?" David asked.

"Yes" Thomas said as he came to the window.

"So why are they still here?" David asked.

"Well, primarily because other people have nothing better to do than to stick their noses where they doesn't belong and those policemen are here to make sure they don't bother your uncles" Thomas replied.

"Was Uncle Joel really rich or famous?" David asked.

"No, not especially except to us. Why?" Thomas asked.

"Why do people want to stick their noses then?" David asked.

"David, if I had the answer to that question, I'd be rich and famous!" Thomas said as he picked David up and carried him to the bathroom.

Before David's feet hit the bottom of the stairs, Thomas had learned that half the Duke's County Sheriff's Department and a goodly number of Massachusetts State Troopers were enjoying breakfast in the kitchen of the house or out under the portico.

"This is a little nuts. Don't fucking people die around here?" Thomas asked his brother Stuart.

"Yeah, they do all the time. But when a mourner arrives in a 15 million dollar jet, it peaks their interest." Stuart replied.

"Don't worry about it. Once they figure out we're burying a 56 year old country doctor, they'll be swarming a guy who eats 25 hot dogs in under two minutes and go away."

The morning brought the knowledge of Joel's death to all the children and half of them weren't exactly sure what that meant. They knew the place was swarming with police, they knew that there was no traffic outside in front of the house, but little else as they ate breakfast.

"Wow, look at that, we're on TV!" one little boy said as he ate his cereal.

Thomas turned to watch as the reporter was showing the spot on the ground where the jet once stood.

"It's been moved to an inside hanger as funeral arrangements are being made by the family..." the reporter said as the camera picked up an oil spot on the ground.

"Must be a slow day" Thomas said as he shook his head.

For the children who were banned from playing outside it was a boring day. For the adults it was a day to make decisions and begin planning for the future. It was known well in advance by all brothers that Stuart was the executor of the estate. Along with Charles, they would conduct the day to day business of the family and they would control the money. The greater bulk of the estate was the house they were now in and an endowed trust fund and foundation that was originally set-up by Marty. Now, assets excluding the house were bequeathed to the trust. The house, for as long as Dora lived, could not be sold. Even then, it could only be sold by unanimous consent of all surviving brothers. The trust was kept for the education of the original brothers and their offspring, natural or adopted. There were a few codicils. But basically, those were the terms. For Thomas or his brothers, nothing was a surprise; it had all been laid out in detail by Marty and Joel years before.

By 10:00 Paulie rejoined the group, he had been put to sleep by Charles with a fairly powerful sedative and it took him the better part of the morning to figure out what state he was in. Dora saw the kitchen by noon and she was so heavily medicated to keep her blood pressure under control that she didn't recognize her own niece.

There's a substantial community on the Vineyard of both Indians and blacks. Their history goes back to pre colony days in the case of the Indians, and civil war days in the case of blacks. Unlike Virginia Beach visiting blacks, the Vineyards blacks are upper middle class and even affluent. They believe in work, they believe in education, they believe in families, and they believe in a community, not just to give it lip service. The Vineyards Indians think there's more to life than gambling licenses and bingo parlors. For Indians, that's fairly unusual. Joel didn't really need a push, but with the help of Dora, he freely gave of his time and expertise to both communities and upon his death, they wanted to show their appreciation. The day after he died, his body was transported back to Aquinnah for the last time as tribute was paid not only him, but to his family and Marty and Marty's family. A very great deal of the ceremony David did not understand, but he fully understood the heartfelt emotion of the congregation as they sang 'Oh Happy Day' louder than his Uncle Sid's Voice of The Theater's could reproduce with 750 watts of power from his phase linear amplifier.

Much to his happiness, Thomas was happy to learn that the media was leaving the Vineyards in droves after finding out that the dead guy was just a local. No Bill Gates, no John Belushi, o Jackie O. Stuart too was happy, but for a different reason. Following the wake on Aquinnah, Joel was cremated as per his wishes and his ashes along with Marty's, were now set to be rejoined. Joel wanted to be buried with his boyhood friend, but in a rather unconventional casket.

The following day was brisk, but not unreasonable by mariner's standards. Breakfast was fairly early and Dora was back in her kitchen where she felt most comfortable. David watched as Thomas dressed.

"How come everybody doesn't go to the funeral?" David asked.

"Uncle Joel wants people to remember him as he lived, not when he died. He laid out the plans how he wanted his funeral to go, and we have to follow his wishes." Thomas said.

"And then we can go home?" David asked. At that point, Thomas stopped adjusting his tie and looked at David. Sitting down the man beckoned to the boy.

"I'm so sorry David, I haven't been paying too much attention to you over the past few days have I?" he asked.

David had never been to a funeral before; he had never been to a wake or memorial service. David really didn't know what death was up till that point in time, but he was on a fast learning curve. People around David had lost it over and over and the boy pushed it deeper inside himself for two days. Now, there was no way to hold it back any longer. He wasn't only battling the emotions of loss that he saw and felt all around himself; he was battling his own inner emotions of loneliness. Death or no death, funeral or no funeral, David's needs for the better part of three days had taken a back seat, and that was an inner feeling that David had never experienced before. Taken alone, it was cause for severe depression, but taken in combination, David was in crisis. He had held together for as long as he could, but David finally fell apart. It wasn't the most opportune time in the world for Thomas, but that no longer mattered. Death or no death, David was a Geppetto boy. Bert had made it perfectly clear that those needs had to be met regardless of Thomas' problems, and Thomas could have kicked himself in the ass for forgetting that fact.

Stuart had gone to the marina and had his boat loaded with provisions earlier, and now, had taken his Uncle Joel's boat out of its winter berth. Loading the water tanks full, he had 50 gallons of fuel oil pumped into her to the utter amazement of the dock hands.

"Doc, you sure you wanna do that? That water's gonna freeze in them pipes!" the dock master said.

"We'll keep the heat on." Stuart said.

"Sorry to hear about Doc Joel. Will you be bringing her back?" the dock master asked.

"No, probably not. We're thinking about bringing her to Boston and selling her." Stuart replied.

"Shame, this old girl's been here since before I was born." the dock master replied.

"She's been here before any of us were born!" Stuart replied. The dock master nodded his head.

"You got that right." he said.

It was only 10:00 in the morning, but Stuart took out a bottle of Chivas and set it on the hatch cover next to the pilot house as he fired up first the starboard and then the port engines of his uncle's boat. As the engines warmed up and he monitored the gauges, he poured himself a water glass of scotch and dropped some ice cubes in. It was damned cold outside, but as the engines warmed up, the heat warmed the cabin of the old Trumphy that was purchased brand new by Uncle Joel's father in 1938. The 62 footer was the queen of the fleet in Martha's Vineyard for most of her life. Now she was a classic antique in fairly mint condition. She was no longer the biggest, but she was most certainly the prettiest and one of the most recognized boats in and around the cape.

Most boats owned by rich people sit at anchor 95% of the time. Not this boat. She had been up and down the east coast from Maine to Florida at least 30 times. Many of those times, with Uncle Joel and Uncle Marty doing the piloting and navigating. Every brother had sailed her, every brother had spent thousands of hours steering her. Stuart was the oldest brother and the 'rock' of the family. He hadn't yet taken a sip, but he did add water to his drink.

"Sir, we have good weather though midnight, but small craft will be flying by tonight." Stuart's Captain told him. Stuart nodded.

"Call the house, we need to be embarking by noon." he instructed the man.

Shadowed by Stuart's 72 foot [22m] Sport Fisherman, Stuart guided the Trumphy out of the harbor and handed over the helm to the Paulie who sat in the seat. Up to that point in time, no brother other than Stuart and Charles knew what the plan was.

"Uncle Joel has made a request and he fully realizes that it could be over-ruled. He wants to go down with this boat and he wants to be buried with Marty in it. I have both their ashes here with us. Uncle Joel has made a tape and he wants you to watch it." Stuart told the brothers.

Stuart put the boat on automatic pilot as the brothers all gathered in the main salon. Turning on the TV and a VCR, Uncle Joel now sat in the salon, obviously months before.

"You all know what a control freak I am, so the first thing I want you to do is to throw away that rot gut you're drinking and join me in a civilized man's drink." he said as he plunked a bottle of brandy on the table. More than few chuckles prevailed as Stuart put a fresh bottle of brandy on the table with a tray full of glasses.

"Secondly, you know how I hate to drink alone, so when I bend my elbow, you do the same!" he said.

"I'm gonna talk to each and every one of you, especially you Paulie before I'm through, but in the meantime, I really don't want to be interrupted when I'm trying to make a point so excuse me if I ignore you at times!"

"Look! I'm bending my elbow!"

Joel wasn't only a photography buff; once electronics came along he was into them too.

In the tape, he installed pauses and to continue the tape you had to press the play key. After a round of drinks was poured, Stuart resumed the tape.

"We have to start at the top of the heap, and the top of the heap is Stuart." Joel began. "Marty and I have the utmost trust in Stuart, he wasn't merely the first boy that was sent through school, he was the boy that we both held our hopes, our dreams and our trust in.

Not one of you has ever let us down, but Stuart has Scottish blood in him, and you all know how tight fisted them damned Scots can be."

Paulie had been severely depressed since he first learned of his uncle's stroke, now, even the boy was laughing. This talk was vintage Uncle Joel and he may as well have been sitting there talking to the boy.

"Both Marty and I spent many hours with the families accounting firm, find'em, fuck'em and fleece'em, to figure out how we can keep every possible dime where it belongs, in your pockets when we we're gone." Joel said as he took another sip of brandy.

Shaking his head, Thomas and his other brother's did the same.

"Stuart has all the books and records, and Charles has back-up copies just in case anything happens to Stuart. I'm sure he's going to substitute a nice Timex for a Rolex if the request is made, but basically, I want you all to rely on his good judgment and common sense, when it comes to financial matters." Joel said.

"With most of you already successful physicians and Steven and Paulie on the right road, you are already financially viable on your own. We want the money to be used primarily for educating your children, and both Marty and I are going to be doing a bunch of ass-whipping when we meet again if any of them turn out to be lawyers!" he said as he took another sip.

"Some of you are already married, maybe in time, all of you will be. If not, you know how the games played, 'your child' is who you say your child is if you choose to remain single. The system has worked very well for Marty and I, but times have changed and with the catholic church running out of money, the lawyers are going to be looking for new wells to tap." he said.

"As far as the estate is concerned, you guys get everything. What's left of my family has already been sent a copy of my will. I doubt it, but if any of them put up a stink, let Stuart deal with them. They did not approve of me, they did not approve of Marty, and they did not approve of you. Fuck'em!" Joel said as he took a gulp.

"One of the perks of my not being there today is that I won't hear Dora wailing. It drove me nuts during Marty's funeral, and I'm sure she's back in practice. The wailing notwithstanding, I've loved her as much as I've loved my mother. I know that you do too. Dora is as much a part of our family as any one of us. The house cannot be sold as long as Dora is alive. It cannot be closed down, it cannot be rented out." he said.

"It's my recommendation that Steven transfer to Harvard and return to live in the house. Naturally, Paulie should be returned to Massachusetts as well and live there. If I had my druthers, I'd put Paulie in the academy at Andover to complete his schooling and then ship him off to Harvard where he'll be back in civilization." Joel said as the machine went into pause for the 5th time. Steven and Paulie were now the center of attention.

"That's his recommendation, but I personally think it's a good one. We talked about it many times Steven, it makes good sense and nothing would make Dora happier than to have Paulie to spoil." Stuart told his brother.

Stuart now looked to Thomas.

"You're his legal guardian, what do you think?" Stuart asked his brother.

Looking to Paulie, Thomas tried to read the boys face. Paulie had never said anything negative about his school, but he wasn't bubbling over with excitement when he spoke of it either. Paulie's only real problem was the distance between him and Steven.

"I've never been to Andover, none of us has, but I have seen the place and I knew a few classmates who attended it and I never heard anything negative about it. I think the biggest advantage is the proximity to the Vineyards. It's a two hour drive and you could be home for the weekends." Thomas told his brother. Thomas now looked to Steven.

"You might lose some credits if you transferred now. You might want to consider waiting until the semester ends." he advised.

"No Tom-Tom, I want to come back home now. I don't want to go back to Culver!" Paulie stated.

"Maybe this is something the two of you need to discuss." Thomas suggested to Steven.

Steven shook his head.

"No, I think we'll do exactly what Uncle Joel suggests." he told his brother.

"Let's hope Uncle Joel isn't going to bend his elbow too soon." he said as he raised his glass.

"To Steven's and Paulie's new home!" as he took a sip joined by his brothers.

The VCR was taken off pause.

"Before we get to story time, there's the matter of where I'm going to be living." Joel said as he raised his glass.

Thomas shook his head and reached for his drink.

"We're all physicians and we know death on a daily basis in some cases. Personally, I think as human beings, we HAVE to believe there's more than just dying and nothing else. Maybe we're being stupid and foolish, but it helps. For some, it's heaven and hell, for some it's a cruise to Tahiti, for horny Arabs it's deflowing a dozen little girls a night. Whatever. For me, it's returning to the nursery so I can get back to playing with Marty. And that's precisely what I intend on doing." he said as his glass lifted.

"Stuart has two urns, and it's supposed to be us. Personally, I think the funeral parlor emptied the vacuum cleaner bag, but nevertheless, let's pretend." he said.

"I have no doubt that if she were left behind; you boys would love and care for this boat as well as I have. But eventually, she would either be sold or just run out of wood and end up in the dump like I've seen so many times before. I know they say it can't be done, but I'm going to be the first one that takes it with me. Stuart is on a course right now for the Andrea Doria. As a boy, my father took me out to see her when she rolled over and sank, and as a six year old, I decided that that was the way I wanted to be buried. As you all know, I've never grown up!" he said as the machine went into pause.

Thomas and his brothers all looked around. The 62 foot [19m] Trumphy was a registered antique. She was immaculately maintained, and had just been completely overhauled before Marty's death two years earlier. Joel had turned down an offer from a yacht broker of $750,000.00 [€ 500,000.00] six months earlier. They were not contemplating sinking a brick.

"I'm not exactly sure why Uncle Joel put that pause in the machine at this point." Stuart said.

"For me, there's nothing to discuss, he wants to be buried with Marty in her." he said.

"So turn the machine back on." Charles now replied.

The tape was two hours long, and the balance of it was what the uncle called 'story time' beginning with Stuart's encounter with a bout of diarrhea on a woods hike with Marty and Joel when he was ten years old. The story was never told before because Stuart had sworn the two men to secrecy.

"I lied" Joel told the group as Stuart sat there shaking his head as his brothers laughed. One by one, each brother got his measure of humiliating story time, and the last on Joel's list was Paulie. With an empty bottle sitting in front of him Uncle Joel asked to speak with Paulie alone as the screen went into pause.

It was a damned cold afternoon in late November as the Trumphy, shadowed by Stuart's 72 [22m] foot Sport Fishing boat, sped towards 40.30N by 69.53W as fast as the Trumphy could travel. The wind was picking up, as were the waves, but they were bow-on and presented no problem for the Trumphy as she sliced through the water like a porpoise. Almost half the bottle of brandy was gone, and Thomas for one had cold cheeks, but a very warm feeling inside as the brothers stood around ribbing each other about story time tales.

"I kind of knew all along that somehow Uncle Joel was going to get that story out. I froze my balls off that day because they washed me off in a stream and washed my underpants and corduroys off while I stood around a fire with the reddest set of balls you ever saw in your life!" Stuart recalled.

Probably five or six minutes after they left, Paulie came up from the forward salon.

"Uncle Joel says it's time Uncle Stuart." Paulie said as he approached Steven.

"Are you OK?" Steven asked. Paulie nodded his head, but said nothing more. He has never repeated what his uncle said to him during those last minutes of the tape.

Stuart went on the radio and spoke to his Captain.

"Where are we Captain?" he asked.

"At this speed, 40 minutes away." the Captain replied.

"I don't want to be on top of her. There's too many divers poking around that wreck, we don't need vultures circling the ship." he replied.

"It'll take me another five minutes or so to prepare, then we'll stop." he said.

"Roger." the Captain replied.

"Open all the portholes along port and starboard." Stuart instructed his brothers as he went forward to retrieve the urns from the Main Salon.

Handing one to Paulie, the men now went to the Master's Stateroom. Removing the seal, he unscrewed the cap and poured the ashes on the bed and stepped back as Paulie repeated the move with his urn. Once all the brothers gathered, he placed a bottle of brandy that was on the night stand on the bed and took a key out of his pocket and placed it on the bed on top of the pillow.

"Behave yourselves!" Stuart said as he guided Paulie out the door with all the brothers following him. Locking the door behind him, he put the key in his pocket as the group climbed the stairway back to the wheel house.

"OK Paulie, climb up there and take her out of automatic pilot. Give one long blast on the horn and back her down." he instructed the boy. Paulie did as he was told, and the boat slowly came to a stop as Stuart went below and came back a minute later.

"Should I shut her down?" Paulie asked as he sat at the wheel.

"No, Uncle Joel always slept better with the vibration of the engines." Stuart told the boy as the Captain of Stuart's boat now approached the Trumphy's stern.

"Abandon ship." Stuart ordered as the brothers all went to the stern and got into the waiting boat.

Stuart went forward and retrieved the half full bottle of brandy that they were drinking and put the Trumphy back into gear at dead slow. Climbing into the waiting boat, he cut the line as the Trumphy sailed on.

The Trumphy was shadowed by Stuart's boat for probably 15 or 20 minutes as the ship rode lower and lower into the water. Finally, her engines quit as the sea began to enter the lowest portholes alongside the ship. After probably another five minutes, the stern lowered while the bow raised up. A few minutes later, the bow slipped under the water last as the brothers raised one more toast and threw the glasses into the still bubbling water as the last of the air escape the Trumphy on her way to the bottom. Stuart threw the last of the brandy into the sea and then reached into his pocket and threw the key to the cabin door in as well.

Stuart picked up Paulie who had sunk to his knees along the bow rail and softly wept.

"Uncle Joel and Marty are back in the nursery playing where they want to be Paulie. That's what Uncle Joel believes, and that's what I believe too." he told his little brother as he kissed him on his neck and brought him back inside the warm cabin.

It had taken the better part of six hours to get to where they were in the Trumphy, but Stuart's sport fisherman could practically fly with two 400 horsepower [300 kW] turbo charged diesels. It was very nearly dark when Stuart ordered his boat back to the Vineyards, and with the seas kicking up, it was anything but a smooth trip. All the brothers had their sea legs since childhood, but Paulie also had a stomach half full of brandy. The brandy was good because it fairly well anesthetized the boy, but in heavy seas, it doesn't stay down all that well as Stuart's fishing well soon learned. The boat returned to the Marina by 8:00 at night. And by 9:00 Dora was having a fit all over Stuart as a very green looking Paulie slumped over the toilet bowl while the noticeable odor of brandy hung in the air. Stuart didn't mind the tongue lashing he was receiving all that much, Paulie's condition kept Dora from concentrating on Joel and Paulie was fairly convinced he was going to be joining his uncle at any moment.

On his way to the bedrooms, Thomas and his other brothers stopped in front of the nursery. The curtains were now drawn across the doors and windows facing the porch, but you could make out shapes inside the room through the curtain. The door was locked as Thomas tried the handle.

"That was the key Stuart put on the pillow." Charles explained to his brother. Thomas nodded his head.

Some day, the house may burn down. Maybe it will be hit by a hurricane or a tornado and be completely destroyed. But until it does, the nursery will remain closed and locked as two little boys play on undisturbed though eternity in peace and solitude.

Chapter Sixteen

The Reading of the Will

As you did when he was alive, when Uncle Joel asked you to join him for a drink, you drank! The video tape he made before he died wanted the boys to drink while he told them what their future plans should be, and Thomas for one wasn't about to say no, even to a man who was now dead, but that he loved very deeply.

Making sure he held very tightly to the banister as he climbed the stairs, he entered the bathroom and washed for bed and brushed his teeth. David was sound asleep, and the last thing he wanted to do was to awaken the boy. His head was swimming a little, and his hope was to get into bed and fall into a deep sleep as soon as possible.

"Did everything go OK Uncle Thomas?" 12 year old David asked as he stepped up to the toilet and began to pee.

"Yes David, Uncle Joel and Marty are where they wanted to be." Thomas replied as he rinsed his mouth with some mouthwash and dried his face. Thomas now headed for the bed as his ward finished peeing. Thomas looked on the bright side; maybe David wouldn't wet the bed tonight he thought to himself. As the wind howled a little and the distinct sound of the waves that crashed against the cliffs just a few hundred feet away could be heard, Thomas' head hit the pillow as the boy climbed back into bed and snuggled back into bed against his uncle's body as he pulled up the down comforter. Thomas' nose nestled into the boy's hair as the smell of Johnson's shampoo filled his nostrils. Thomas kissed the boys scalp and he wrapped his arms around the boy and David covered Thomas' arms with his. If need be, he would make David happy, but sleep right now was much more attractive to the doctor, as he lay there feeling the full warmth of the boys body from his chest to his ankles.

"Do you want to play, or should we be getting some sleep first?" Thomas asked. David giggled a little.

"We took showers tonight." David said very quietly.

"We? Who is we?" Thomas asked.

"Me and Karl and Jeremy." David replied.

Both boys were sons of Thomas' brother Charles and both were right around David's age.

"And?" Thomas asked.

"They know how to play." David replied.

Thomas smiled a little.

"I'm sure they do David, they're boys just the same as you, and all the rest of the boys at school." Thomas replied.

"Are they Geppetto boys like us?" David asked.

"No David, I'm sure if they were I'd have heard about it by now. But just because they're not Geppetto boys doesn't mean that they don't have sex; everybody has sex." he told the boy.

David again giggled.

"I'll say, they can fuck like hell!" Thomas had to giggle a bit, but he didn't want David becoming the Towne Crier either.

"Well, that's all very interesting, but it's something between you and those boys, it's nobody else's business." he counseled the boy.

"That's OK Uncle Thomas, the other kids were there too, but they just watched us fuck." David replied.

"Suzy said they fuck each other all the time." Thomas had no reason to doubt David, but this was the first time that any sexual involvement between his nieces and nephews were confirmed.

"Still, it's private business so you kids keep it between yourselves." Thomas told David.

"OK Uncle Thomas. Goodnight." he said as he took Thomas' hand and brought it down to his groin.

Thomas wrapped the boy's genitals in his hand as he kissed the top of David's head one more time. David's well was empty for the time being, and he was going to be getting some sleep after all as he felt David's erection withdrawing back to a flaccid state. Still, David had shown the man long ago how he always fell asleep when alone, and Thomas slipped his pinky finger into the boy's foreskin and nestled the finger against David's head as Thomas pulled the foreskin back over his finger and held it snugly with his other hand. Thomas had no clue how this felt to the boy, but he did know the feeling of security when he held his own penis at night. David was sound asleep before Thomas.

The rattling of the storm windows woke David as a high pitched whistling sound came through the cracks like a shrieking banshee. The morning before, there were some whitecaps on the water. This morning, it was a frothing mass of white. The steam radiators in front of the windows were perking like an old coffee pot. David had never seen this form of heating before and reached out to touch one of the fins. He never did it again.

"Shit! That's hot!" David said as he withdrew his hand and planted four fingers in his mouth.

Thomas giggled a little as he turned over and pulled David on top of him.

"Radiators are generally hot David." he counseled the boy.

"Aren't you afraid some of the little kids are going to get burned?" David asked as he watched the radiator with a very jaundiced eye.

"No, the children who have grown up in this house know to stay away from them. Even the babies don't get that close to them." Thomas told the boy.

"This house sure is noisy!" David said as he changed the subject.

"Can't it be fixed?" he asked.

"Yes, but we rather like the sound of the wind. It only comes through in the winter, and it reminds us to bundle up when we go outside." he told David.

Noises just outside the door told both David and Thomas that the house was quickly stirring back to life.

"Let's get showered and find out what Dora has in store for breakfast. Usually on a day like today, it's very large bowls of oatmeal and farina." Thomas told the boy.

"What's that?" David asked.

"Something that will keep your stomach very warm for a few hours." Thomas replied, forgetting that either one of those items wasn't served all that often in Florida.

Thomas headed for the bathroom following David as the boy took off his underpants and sent them to the laundry hamper. Staying dry was a nice thought concerning David, but wishful thinking on Thomas' part. Luckily the mattress was protected, but the same wasn't true for the comforter. At school and at camp, shower time was play time as far as David and all the boys at Green Tree were concerned, and this would be the first morning since David flew to Martha's Vineyard with his uncle that he would leave the shower with sparkling clean hair, a sparkling clean body, and a penis that was immensely happy at all the attention it had received.

As Thomas had surmised, pots of oatmeal, farina, cream of wheat, pancakes and hot chocolate filled the dining room table as kids in diapers, training pants, underpants and pajamas filtered in and out with round bellies and faces full of strawberry preserve.

Thomas sat down as his brother Michael poured him a Bloody Mary. As Thomas knew well during holiday visits, one of Michael's Bloody Maries had the very worst hangover history before you finished the drink. Surprisingly, he had a small headache, but very little else. On the other hand, there was Paulie.

His last barf was sometime around three in the morning, and he had gone through three beds by morning. Michael offered the 14 year old a Bloody Mary, but a whack on Michael's hand with a wooden spoon from Dora altered those arrangements. Against every protest the boy could muster, Dora fed him spoonfuls of clear chicken broth until Paulie began feeling human again half a bowl down. By 10:00 Paulie was eating scrambled eggs, and by 10:30, he was headed for the French toast. His hangover was history and he vowed never to drink again in his life; wine at dinner notwithstanding.

For the adults, a morning full of legal papers to sign and have notarized was in order as the children 'helped' Dora and her staff at breakfast clean-up and house cleaning chores. Dora would slip into a deep funk now and then as she thought a little too much, but Thomas and his brothers all took turns monitoring the woman and placing one more baby in her arms to take care of, even if they had to pour a glass of warm water down a babies diaper so she would have to change it.

"These babies sure do make a pile of laundry. What you been feeding them?" she asked after one baby was presented to her three times in one hour by error.

The police presence lessened outside the estate and along the beach to discourage gawkers as the paparazzi learned that hiding in bushes and jogging on private roads on the Vineyard could find their asses in jail in plenty quick time. With less than 10 cops to keep fed, there were far fewer cops in the kitchen than the day before, but still, keeping David low profile was Thomas' obsession for the day.

After lunch, a family meeting was held in the library with all the brothers, their wives and Dora in attendance. The house staff monitored the children as they were bundled up and went out side for a football game, and even David, in a full body ski suit and dark glasses on got some fresh air for the first time in days.

For David, the weather was an experience completely new. The closest thing he had ever come to it was helping in the kitchens at camp or school loading the walk-in freezers or coolers with food. David was now standing in a walk-in freezer with no walls. Somehow, it felt exhilarating to the boy as he pretended to be smoking with his breath.

Stuart, as executor of the estate, explained to the wives and Dora what was in Joel's will, and saved the best part for last. For the first time, Dora learned that both Steven and Paulie would be returning to the estate to live and would now be going to school in Boston and Andover. Most of the brothers, along with Thomas had hoped the crying and carrying on was over, but it took another glass of warm water to stop them.

"If we keep this up, that babies going to be developing a fetish." Thomas' brother Philip said to Thomas as he lifted the baby up to plunk it into Dora's lap.

By 3:00 most family business was completed and the question now was when everybody was going home. The subject of Steven and Paulie came first, and Stuart for one thought that their returning to Indiana to pack and return to Massachusetts by car was unnecessarily risky, especially that time of year. He also did not want Dora left alone to dwell on her loss once the family all returned to their homes.

"Steven's car can be returned to him by auto transport. Paulie's belongings can be packed up by the school. You have friends at school, they can pack your belongings and ship them back C.O.D." he recommended to Steven.

"If anything happened to you or Paulie, it would kill Dora." he told his brother.

Steven agreed. That left Thomas to make a decision and he had to call the pilot who was staying with the crew at an island hotel. Thomas learned within the hour that he would be leaving the island at 6:00 the next morning.

"Alexandria wants the plane off the ground before the first ferry hits the island." The Pilot reported back to Thomas.

Stuart's plan was to keep Dora as busy as they could to keep her mind off Joel. He had requested a roast lamb dinner for the family that he knew would be one of the more involved for the woman. Popping a piece of meat in the oven was easy, it was the side dishes that came with the meat that was involved, and Stuart knew that very well as Dora fussed about the short notice. She only had 10 hours and she had no lamb.

Thomas and David packed following dinner and the balance of the evening was spent with the adults in the living room recalling their childhoods with Marty and Joel. She came close a few times, but with three babies in the living room and their mothers working rotation, Dora usually had one, if not two babies on her lap. The older children, including David, were down in the basement which had been converted into a playroom decades earlier. It spanned the entire house, and was large enough to ride bikes and roller skate in, which they spent the better part of two hours doing. By 9:00 several children came upstairs and had a whispering session with their fathers.

"The kids want to sleep in the attic." Charles told his wife as the boys retreated back downstairs.

"There's no heat up there." his wife told him.

"It warms up if they leave the door open and open the floor grates." Stuart replied.

"We used to do it all the time."

"If you're OK with it, I'm OK with it." Charles' wife told her husband.

Less than a minute passed and David appeared in the living room and spoke to Thomas. As David went back downstairs, Michael spoke first.

"I guess it's unanimous?" he asked.

Thomas smiled a bit and nodded his head. As the new head of the family, Stuart, who was the first boy originally adopted by Marty, was now basically making family decisions that affected all seven of his adopted brothers. Stuart was the oldest and generally considered by all his brothers to be the logical choice to now lead them. He, like all the boys, was, or would be physicians, and he was considered the most serious of the group.

"I understand you intend to put him through school." Stuart now said to his brother.

"Yes, but I have enough money to do it without using the trust." Thomas replied.

"Nonsense. We all have enough money to do it without using the trust, but that's what it's there for. He's part of the family and he's educated by the family." Stuart said not seeking further comment.

"Harvard's going to want to see transcripts when the time comes. I assume the school is fully certified." he said.

"Yes, it's a Harvard program." Thomas replied.

"Of course! Sorry, I forgot that." Stuart replied.

"That will only make things easier if his grades leave a little to be desired. Is he a bright student?" Stuart asked.

"Academically, I don't really know. We've only been back to school now for less than six weeks." Thomas replied.

"Well, his junior and senior year is going to count the most, stay on top of it, and get him extra help if he needs it." Stuart instructed his brother. Again, Thomas nodded.

The stomping of bare feet coming up the basement stairs told the adults that the children were on the move. With the smaller ones heading upstairs with their mothers to get pajamas on, the older children kissed the uncles goodnight and disappeared up the stairway. David's goodnight kisses were not only a goodnight; they were a welcome to family event that David didn't really expect. He had come to the Vineyard with one uncle, he left with another seven.

Dora was an early riser, and as expected she left for bed first among the adults, but not before she was requested to take care of a baby for the night that was coming down with a cold. As the door to Le Gardenia closed, Cory asked his wife when the baby had caught a cold.

"Maybe tomorrow." she replied.

Thomas smiled as he now prepared to go to bed himself.

"I have to be at the airport by 5:30." he reported as he gave each of his family members a hug.

As Thomas brushed his teeth and prepared for bed, the creaking of the attic floor boards told the man that more than a few of the attic dwellers were yet to be sleeping. Again he had to smile to himself; he had slept up in the attic more than a few times himself with Steven mostly. It had no running water, but it had a lot in common with the showers.

4:30 rolled around one hell of a lot faster than Thomas wanted it to, as his brother Michael shook him awake. Deep within himself, he had hoped that the house would be asleep and he could depart with David with minimum emotion. He had seven brothers and all seven were up, at least temporally to say goodbye. In all likelihood, they would all gather together again for another funeral, probably Dora's. They were now adults with children and families of their own and they were scattered across the country. Talk about a summertime reunion was floated, and Thomas thought that might be possible. Thomas and David almost made it out the door before Dora arrived in the kitchen, and minimal emotions flew out the window.

Stuart and Michael drove the two to the airport with David curled up in a ball on the back seat alongside Thomas as the station wagon pulled through the gates and parked next to the hanger. Walking inside, Stuart saw the plane for the first time.

"Yeah, even for the Vineyards, this is a tough puppy to swallow." he said as he looked at the jet. "No wonder the island went bullshit!"

The stewardess smiled as she gave Stuart and Michael a tour and a cup of coffee before the pilot indicated the plane was ready for pushback. David was once again sound asleep as the plane climbed to 30,000 feet headed directly for the Bahamas' with the horizon showing a hint of a blue/green glow off to the East.

"Is that the Keys?" David asked as he sat eating breakfast and looking out the portal close to three hours later. Thomas looked out the window.

"No I don't think so. There's too much water for it to be the Keys. It's more probably the Bahamas." Thomas said. David said nothing for a few seconds.

"How do you know so much?" he finally asked.

"When I was right around your age, I use to cruise in those islands with Marty and Uncle Joel." Thomas replied.

"Was that the boat you sunk yesterday?" David asked.

"Who told you that?" Thomas asked.

"Uncle Paulie." David replied.

Thomas nodded his head and smiled a little as he kissed David on the forehead.

"Yes, that was the boat." he said.

"The Captain wanted to know if David would like to sit up front for the landing." The stewardess asked Thomas.

Thomas didn't answer but David did as he climbed over the man.

"You'll be strapped into a seat, but once you're up there you can't speak. There is a tape recorder up there, and if anybody found out you were there, the pilot could get into trouble. OK?" she asked David.

"Yes Ma'am." David replied.

With headphones on, David sat mesmerized during his first landing. Maybe he should be a pilot instead of a doctor, David thought to himself.

A Florida Christmas

Bert had not met the plane because of a minor emergency at school. One of the Pine Ridge girls had been sitting in class minding her own business when the girl thought she wet her pants. Looking down, she didn't find urine but blood wetting her underpants. For the girl, it was a brand new experience, and she freaked. For Bert, it was a hectic first few minutes until he was told the girl had come into her first period and wasn't going to die anytime soon. The women thought it was fairly humorous after the fact, Bert DID NOT agree. As Thomas pulled up in a cart in front of Bert's office, Bert was still mumbling to himself.

"I'm sorry if the problem with the plane caused any problem." Thomas told the director. Bert waved his hand.

"It's happened before with that plane so Alexandria is use to it by now. We should have warned you it might happen. Alexandria has it covered, you couldn't find the origins of that plane if you built it yourself." he told Thomas.

"Let me ask you something Doc." Bert now said quite seriously.

"Ain't there a way you can tell beforehand that a girl's gonna start her periods?" he asked.

Knowing nothing about the girl in the classroom, Thomas was completely unsure of where Bert was coming from.

"For real?" he asked the director.

"Well of course for real god dammit!" Bert shot back.

"Not really. Sore breasts, cramps, maybe some spotting a day or two before. Why?" he asked.

"Never mind, welcome back, I'm glad to see you." Bert said as he walked into his office.

"What the hell was that all about?" Thomas asked Adam as the two left the porch.

Thomas hadn't really made any close friends as far as the staff was concerned during his first few weeks at camp and then school, but now with his trip over and his relationship with David on very solid ground, this was all about to change. Thomas was a doctor, and that in itself brought him respect. As such, he was considered administration. That and his handling of Spencer's accident back at camp cemented his acceptance at Green Tree.

Returning to his cottage in the youngest compound, he was more than a bit shocked to find that during his absence, the roof had been raised seven feet higher, and he now had a three story house. Inside, the place was completely torn apart as roof jacks lifted the roof to its new position and the walls were put into place. Under the cottage, which was a piling home, the sand floor was replaced by a cement slab, and walls now enclosed the area. This made the cottage extremely susceptible to water damage from strong storms, but it gave Thomas the additional living space that Bert wanted him to have to make life comfortable for him. There were still weeks of work to be done before it was a home, but the crew had worked 16 hour days while he was up north to complete the major structural work.

"It would probably be better if you moved out for a few days, that way the work could progress faster." Bert told Thomas as Thomas admired the work to date. There were probably 15 offers of housing available to him, and Thomas knew where he wanted to go, but he needed to speak privately with Bert first. Unless of course Bert still had little girl's periods on his mind.

Lunch time talk at the dining hall explained to Thomas why the director almost took his head off. Great pains were taken to insulate the 12 year old girl from any embarrassment; but Bert, like it or not, was the butt end of more than a few comments concerning his naiveté. It would take a day or two, but eventually he himself learned to smile over the matter.

David's return to school brought back a boy who in five days had changed enough for those staff and classmates closest to him to notice it. David had never known a family life; he was raised in foster care and had eight placements before he was age five. David's life prior to entering Green Tree, like most of the boys before and after him, was a horror story only the most sadistic that law enforcement and state child protective services could develop for any child. His one saving grace was that he was born in New England, and somehow, his DNA analysis reached the right researcher in the right lab at Harvard and he had found his way to Green Tree.

David never mentioned 'family' before. Now he did, and it centered on Thomas' family. He had never known death before and now he did. He talked about the wake, and the reaction of those around him concerning that death. He didn't have a morbid reaction; it was clearly one of empathy and compassion for Thomas and the rest of his family.

David never talked about the future before and now he talked about maybe becoming a doctor, or better yet, a pilot! Bert, Sid, Adam, Jeanette and Thomas listened to the boy talking to his friends and were savvy enough to know that David was crossing over from boyhood to young adult. Whatever chemistry was occurring between David and Thomas was positive, and the team took notice.

The only question Thomas had was whether or not David would be comfortable sharing himself with another. That question, probably only Bert knew. There was never any question that Thomas was attracted to and loved the boy, but, at the same time, Thomas liked and was attracted to women. That attraction was not only sanctioned by his brother Marty and Uncle Joel, it was openly encouraged by both men throughout his young adulthood. Neither man considered themselves homosexual, and neither man encouraged the boys they loved to become homosexual. It was a concept difficult to try to explain to non participants, but no more difficult than believing that the world as we know it was made in seven days by some guy out in space!

There were roughly 15 women now staffing Camp Kenny children, and Thomas knew all of them to be sexually active. All ranged in age from 16 to 26, Jeanette, who had just turned 26 was the oldest. She was also now the director of the Camp Kenny children, both boys and girls, ranging in age from four to seven. Thomas had his eyes set on dating Jeanette, not because of her position, but because of the obvious intelligence, poise, and she is quite a striking looking girl! She was fun to be around with a good sense of humor, and when it came to knowing children, she had few peers.

Thomas' first opportunity to talk with Bert came on a cart ride back to the infirmary after lunch. Thomas laid out his dilemma to Bert and sought his advice.

"As a Geppetto boy, I don't think you'll have a problem with David. He's most certainly not monogamous, he can't be." Bert told the doctor.

"The only time the green headed monster appears with these boys is if another boy attempts to interfere with the relationship they have with an outside uncle. That they would consider a threat." he said.

"However, the girls are never considered a threat, mainly because they don't view them in a sexual light. At least not in the case of girls like Gloria, Jeanette, Johanna, Sarah and the other girls who have basically raised them. I suppose there's some out there, but basically these boys don't want to fuck the girls, they consider them more their mothers than sexual beings. That may well change by 15 or 16, but at David's age, he's not looking to jump Jeanette's bones anytime soon, and wouldn't be threatened by it if you did. Naturally, that's assuming Jeanette goes along with your little plan." Bert said with a small smile.

"The only problem you would have is if you neglected David for Jeanette. He's going to get the bulk of the attention he needs from his friends, but if you ignored him to the exclusivity of Jeanette, or any other person, you'll find a pretty pissed off boy in very short order. David has chosen you as his outside uncle and there are certain things he does expect." Bert concluded. Thomas nodded his head as he thought back to his own childhood. The rules weren't all that different.

"Now, how do you intend on getting into Jeanette's pants?" Bert asked the doctor.

"Got any tips?" Thomas asked. Bert smiled.

"First of all, forget candy and forget liqueur. If you give her candy, she's going to assume you are trying to get her fat. She drinks two, maybe three drinks on a date and if you try to get her to drink more, she assumes you're looking to get laid and your date is over. She's an incurable romantic. Flowers, candlelight dinners, mushy cards and hand holding beach walks will work, but if you're extremely horny and looking for a quick dip, better look elsewhere. She takes time to warm up, but once she is, make sure the bed is glued to the floor." Bert advised.

"The best way to start the ball rolling is to think back to the 6th, 7th and 8th grade." Bert suggested.

"Her closest friend now is probably Sarah. Have a casual conversation with Sarah that you think Jeanette is cute, and it'll get back to Jeanette within the hour." he suggested.

"One more thing. She has about 50 big brothers who would be mighty pissed off if their 'little sister' was hurt or her feelings were trampled on." Bert told the man. "I'm one of them."

"What about my relationship with David?" Thomas asked.

"Not a problem. Jeanette knows what David's biological needs are; she'd be more pissed off if you ignored him. Naturally, that doesn't mean we have a party on the kitchen table nightly, there's a time and a place, keep it as discreet as you would any other relationship."

"Speaking of discreet." Bert said as he pulled up in back of Carla and Jeannie on their way back to the cottage from the lagoon.

"Afternoon girls. Getting a sun tan are we?"

Bert said as he blew the horn on his cart.

"Hi Uncle Bert. We were just going back to the cottage." Carla said as both girls hopped in the back of the cart.

"I guess this means you want a ride?" Bert said as he looked at the giggling girls in the rear view mirror.

"I could have sworn that when we came back from camp, your clothes were delivered back here too." Bert now said.

"They were Uncle Bert, but we just went swimming out to the island. Nobody wears clothes out there!" Jeannie told the director.

"Silly me!" Bert responded.

After dropping off Thomas at the infirmary, Bert swung the cart around and returned the two ten year olds to Adam's cottage where they had now taken up permanent residence.

Bert watched as both girls bounded up the stairs, bodies full of sand and nothing else.

"It's gonna be a long winter" Bert said to himself as he spun his cart around and returned to his office.

David's return to school found him sitting on Sammy's bed after lunch surrounded by the mafia as they wanted to know every last detail of his trip, especially about the plane. Once the important stuff was out of way, they wanted to know about the other kids that he had met. Were they nice? How old were they? How many of them? Boys or girls? Did they sleep together? Did they fuck?

"They were nice in the beginning, but once I got to know them, they were really great!" David reported.

"We didn't do anything until the 3rd day, but once we figured out we all fucked, we had a great time." David said.

"So how did you find out?" Christopher asked.

"We were playing down in the basement and I had to go pee. While I was peeing one of the boys joined me and took out his dick. He just asked me if I bopped the bologna, and I told him yes." David replied.

"Then what?" Joey asked.

"Then he asked me to prove it, so I did." David told his friend.

"Then what? Sammy now asked.

"He dropped his pants and then his brother came in and we all jerked off." David replied.

"After that, they were really friendly, especially at night!" David told his friends.

"As friendly as we get?" Matty asked as he took off his pants. David stood up and began getting undressed as he talked.

"Kids in Massachusetts know how to fuck as well as kids in Florida." he reported as talk gave way to play.

Carla and Jeannie came in at the tail end of the event, but missed very little of the action once they rinsed the sand off. With almost a dozen bikes laying on the ground and resting against the bottom of the stairs to Beachview cottage, Adam knew full well that with the front door closed, he was about to step into playtime big time. Adam knew that there are certain times of the day when you had to be especially careful about where you found yourself, or you were knee deep in one hell of a party. Besides wake up and bedtime, after breakfast, after lunch and before dinner was playtime if more than four kids got together. Adam estimated in excess of 12, maybe twice that many were inside the cottage, and the place was as quiet as a library.

As he pulled up in his cart, he rang his bell, and sat there for a few seconds before the door finally opened and a few boys began filtering out on the porch. Figuring he wasn't about to step into a full blown orgy, he mounted the stairs as decidedly tented shorts in various stages of interests bounded down the stairs as their owners said hello and goodbye.

"Has Uncle Thomas decided where he's going to be staying yet?" Adam asked David as he picked up a small pile of underpants and shorts and dropped them into the laundry chute.

"I don't know yet." David replied as a beet red penis disappeared into a clean pair of underwear.

"Well, the both of you are welcome to stay here. We have the room." Adam replied as Carla and Jeannie now appeared from the bedroom with a pair of underpants in their hands.

Handing the underpants to Adam, Jeannie stood before the man first and steadied herself as she lifted a leg. Adam shook his head a little as he lifted the pants up and covered a vagina that was the same color as David's penis. He wasn't about to ask the girl if she was still a virgin, the answer was always the same; 'The boys don't fuck us in the front pussy Uncle Adam, only in the back pussy.' Getting these girls to age 14 in one piece was going to be a major accomplishment. Of that, Adam was sure!

Once Carla was stuffed back into panties, each girl needed her hair brushed out, something Adam and Sid were now finding themselves doing three, four and five times a day. If Adam could have gotten away with it, he would have cut both girls' waist length hair, but he knew if he did, Jeanette and Sarah would have cut his balls off! Sitting on the front porch brushing out Carla's hair, Adam watched as Thomas drove up in his cart. Handing Thomas a brush, the doctor sat down and brushed out Jeannie's hair as the two men talked.

"Anthony and Spencer's apartment is still available, if you want it, you're more than welcome to join us!" Adam told the doctor.

Knowing David's connection to the man, as well as to Sid who also lived in Beachview cottage, Thomas accepted. David now joined the group having put on a pair of shorts and a polo shirt. Now once again barefooted, David was back on home turf.

For Anthony and Spencer back in North Carolina, the fall progressed at lightening speed. Spencer's fall off his bike had him in bed for almost a week with a very sore back because of his cracked scapula, but within days, Spencer was receiving and practicing his singing lessons for the Christmas program from Kevin. Spencer understood none of the requests for holding notes for 20, 30, and 40 seconds or more from Kevin, but then again, he didn't understand why he had to do the same thing for the production of Oliver either. Since Spencer didn't read music, he had to be taught notes by sound. Kevin devised a system of karaoke for Spencer to follow to teach Spencer the Ava Maria in Latin, and now, he was teaching him a German song as well. Spencer understood none of the words, but thought they were very pretty.

The idea of a nativity program for Christmas had a few staff shaking their heads, mainly because Green Tree staff wasn't exactly choir boy material. It would be kind to say the staff was agnostic, if not atheistic. Most had seen first hand, the kindler, gentler hand of Christianity in their lifetimes, and like patriotism, wanted very little if anything to do with either farce. Kevin was well aware of the attitude, but to him, beautiful music transcended politics and ideologies. Almost a year earlier he had discovered Spencer's singing voice, and he knew that at best, Spencer had another 12 months before his voice cracked.

Next year, Spencer would no longer be able to attain and hold the high notes of songs like Ava Maria, which Kevin accepted for its musical beauty rather than any spiritual connotation. Spencer was taught to sing in Italian, he was taught to sing in German. In the interim, Kevin had his musicians in school practicing their parts. As in his plays before, he never brought all parts of the production together before the curtain went up. In his own quiet little way, Kevin was forging together a production that neither student nor staff would soon forget. Kevin was determined to show that both Peter Pan and Oliver were not flukes concerning the boys' talents. They were good, and he wanted them developed, particularly Spencer.

While Anthony's and Spencer's clock moved quickly, the girls, especially the Green Tree staff girls, saw time dragging excruciatingly slowly despite the work load of preparing for the winter and raising two brand new babies. Even Gloria, as the director of Pine Ridge, found herself in a deep funk most of the time. None of the girls had calculated the depth of their connection to Green Tree and its residents. If Gloria were given the opportunity, she would have handed over the reigns of the school to another and returned to Florida on the next plane. Weekly briefings with Bert kept him informed, and he was well aware of the brewing problem. Much of the Pine Tree staff was merely counting the days until they would load on busses for Christmas vacation in Florida. Already, 1/3 of the people in North Carolina had canceled their plans to go to Disneyworld, and were heading directly for the Keys instead. That included Gloria. Bert could hear the depression in the girls' voices and was hoping Christmas would solve the problem.

The babies grew by the week. Both Johanna and Beth now lived in winterized cabins on the lower campus, along with Anthony, Spencer, Charlie, Jerry and Marty who lived in Bert's cottage. Thomas' cottage was used by Dave and his crew when they came for the construction, and Thomas, when he came for his monthly visits. Having almost 50 Green Tree people there at Pine Ridge helped the situation with the girls, but they weren't Bert and they weren't Sid, and those two were the catalyst that held the whole thing together.

The busiest person now at school was Dave who was coordinating no less than eight major building projects while at the same time, having to maintain all normal services of maintenance and daily operations of both Florida and North Carolina. With a third of his crew up in North Carolina, he was short handed and adjustments would have to be made concerning the work force. Bert opted to press the intermediate boys into service with the carrot of extra canteen points, something the boys highly valued if they wanted sweets and new video games. Now, the boys' time went by even faster due to the new chores, school work, club participation, putting on the Christmas play and making Christmas presents. The weeks between Thanksgiving and just before Christmas melted away faster than snow on Marco Island.

Finally, travel day was at hand for the girls at Pine Ridge and the number of people foregoing Disneyworld for Green Tree had risen to roughly 50%. To prevent further defection, Bert split the vacation for the girls to one week in Orlando and one week in the Keys in order to keep as many girls away from the island as possible. The island was showing the strain of the load of people that now inhabited Green Tree. Chiefly, the septic, electric and water systems were incapable of handling the load.

"300 people can be accommodated without major revisions." Dave told Bert.

"If we don't get down to that figure and no higher, the systems are going to collapse." he said in a meeting a few days before the girls were due.

Dave returned to Pine Ridge on Wednesday to assist in the traveling and to see to it that the horses were taken care of during vacation, as well as to close down the school and meet with the corps of engineers who would be winterizing cabins while the place was empty. On Friday, five busses and two tractor trailer trucks pulled out and Gloria had a smile on her face for the first time in months. Two busses were headed to Orlando for the week, and the remaining three would arrive at Green Tree the following day.

All went according to plan until the next morning when one of the busses blew a turbo charger just outside of Melbourne, Florida. Just getting another bus and continuing was out of the question for security reasons. The bus had to be repaired, and it was Saturday. Gloria found a nice motel just off Interstate 95 that was operated by a Pakistani family (who could have guessed) who were more than happy to rent the entire motel to the group for a few hours so the children could stretch, rest, swim and whatever it took to keep them happy until the driver appeared with the repaired bus. Neither Gloria nor Dave were happy campers!

At school, Saturday broke clear and sunny. It was going to be 82 to 84 [28-29°C], there was going to be a bivouac at the beach for dinner, and the mood was holiday festive. Gloria, Johanna and the girls were arriving just after lunch, and preparations began immediately after breakfast. By 2:00 the busses were still in Melbourne and the mood began to take a dive.

"What the hell is the holdup?" Bert asked Dave on the phone.

"The bus company is sending down a turbo charger. It's on its way now." Dave told Bert.

"From where?" Bert asked.

"Atlanta." Dave replied.

"Atlanta! Atlanta is eight fucking hours away from Melbourne!" Bert screamed into the phone.

"I know it, but it's the only place we can find a turbo charger today." Dave replied.

Bert relayed the information to Sid who was sitting in his office.

"Somebody's not thinking here." Sid replied as he held his hand out for the phone.

"Dave, Orlando's one hour away from you. Get a fucking bus that's sitting in some fucking parking lot over there and have them drive it to Melbourne!" Sid said.

After a few seconds of silence Dave replied.

"I'm on it." he said and hung up the phone.

Neither man spoke as they sat looking at each other. Finally Bert got up and made himself a Gin and Tonic. Handing Sid a beer, he sat back down.

"From now on, one of us goes on the road when these kids travel." he said as he took a very stiff drink.

Dinner on the beach was a happy noisy place, but not as noisy and happy as it could have been as the sun set and Sid's music picked up the tempo while the evening progressed. The absence of the arrival of the girls had put a heavy damper on the mood and by 8:00 it was fairly somber. Then, the refrains of another song came through the speakers and both Kevin and Adam quickly noticed that the beach had pretty much fallen silent. Adam watched as the boys both looked to each other, and began looking around.

"What's going on?" Kevin asked Adam.

"Search me. What's that song Sid just put on?" Adam asked. Kevin shrugged his shoulders.

"Sounds like Bob Dylan, but I don't know which one, they all sound alike to me." Kevin replied.

For the boys, there was no question in their minds. The harmony began and they instantly recognized the refrains of the song as they now stood up and looked around. Sid was famous for not just playing records, but for having a reason to do it at the same time. Adam once again watched the silent communication between the man and these boys, Sid was sending a message, and they were receiving it.

Sid was nowhere to be seen as the music foretold the arrival through the cypress trees of carts from the ferry. Almost a minute and a half into the song, Bob sang the lyrics that had the boys standing long before most adults knew what was coming as 'Visions of Johanna' played just a little louder from the voice of the theaters. Johanna and Sidney Bertram were in the first cart coming through the orange orchid as a good deal of pandemonium erupted from the boys, especially the intermediates. There were going to be more than a few emotional scenes before the holidays were over, this was merely the first.

The boys' departure from school every spring for camp and their return eight weeks later was always emotionally charged for the boys, particularly the intermediate boys, but for the most part, it was a brief separation and one the girls always handled very well until now. Gloria, Johanna and Martha who had stayed behind at Pine Ridge were basket cases as they each ran the gauntlet of greeters on their way down to the lagoon. They had finally gotten back on the road at 3:30 and then had to stop to feed the children. They had been on the road or sitting at the motel for the better part of 12 hours.

To David, it almost looked like he was back at the Vineyards for Uncle Joel's funeral. Most of the girls were crying like they had been lost in the wilderness for a month. The only difference was that these were 'happy tears' as the boys were taught to call them, and to the boys, girls seemed to do an awful lot of 'happy' crying.

What started as a very slow meal by Green Tree standards, now escalated into a full blown boogie as Sid's music was cranked up to the music of Jimmy Buffet and Jimmy Cliff as steaks, tenderloins and scrimp filled the grills and coolers full of soda and beer disappeared as fast as they could be replaced. Beach bivouac usually ended by 9:00 for Sammy and the rest of the mafia, this night, he'd still be standing between Adam's legs as Sid related one more story out of his boyhood with Barry that had the crowd laughing well past 11:00.

Bert's night ended with a swim out to the island in the lagoon with Helen. His relationship with the girl was becoming a routine everyone noticed at school, and this for Bert was a first. He had never taken a steady girl before, preferring instead to stay uncommitted to a single girl. Partly, because of his wife who was deceased. Partly, because he damned well loved each and everyone of the Green Tree girls, and liked variety as well as the next man. For Helen, Saturday was a very stressful day. Sunday morning however washed all of the stress away along the shoreline.

At camp Helen had six girls in her cabin. two of them, Carla and Jeannie were now more like Green Tree boys than girls and even lived with Sammy and Adam in Beachview cottage. Her four remaining girls opted to go directly to Green Tree with her and now slept in Bert's cottage. Helen's remaining girls were 13, 14 and two 15 year olds who were not quite as spunky as the ten year old Carla and Jeannie had proven to be. Helen's remaining girls were well aware of the boys around them, the 13 year old wasn't that interested yet.

She had observed the boys during the summer, but preferred to masturbate alone. The 14 year old was taking notes and guessing penis size, and reporting back to the younger girl, but basically was also taking care of her own needs for the time being. The two 15 year olds were moon eyes over a few senior boys, and pestered Helen almost nightly about sex and what it felt like to have a boy 'do it' with you. Somehow, they all still had their hymens but on Carla's and Jeannie's part that was a bloody fucking miracle. The boys would naturally fuck a duck if they could figure out how to part the feathers, and Carla and Jeannie weren't in the least unwilling to explore how to do it with the boys right up until the head met the door. It was a clear as mud to Sammy and the mafia, but as long as the girls made the back door available, they could live with it.

"Would you do that Aunt Helen?" one of Helen's 15 year olds named Claire asked the counselor when Carla and Jeannie once discussed their adventures with the boys on a sleepover during the summer.

"It's part of sex girls. In the days before the pill and condoms, girls were taught by their mothers to present themselves backwards to their husbands if he wanted sex and they were fertile during certain times of the month." Helen responded.

"For thousands of years, it was just another form of birth control like masturbating him, or having him come orally." she told the girls.

"Yuck!" the 13 year old now replied. Helen smiled.

"Today 'Yuck' let's see what occurs in the future." she said

"You would do that too?" Claire asked.

"Is that why you shave now?"

"It's a part of lovemaking girls. You don't go out with a person and say to yourself, I'm going to suck on his penis. If he makes you happy, you make him happy." she replied.

"And that's why you shave?" the girl repeated.

"Yes, some men prefer to have their women shave." she told the girls.

"Like Uncle Bert?" Carla now asked. Helen smiled somewhat.

"Among others!" she replied.

Helen noticed no difference several days later on Carla and Jeannie mainly because they were still bald anyway. The 15 year olds however were anything but; until two days after the talk when they appeared at the pool. Helen smiled to herself sitting next to Beth who was feeding the baby.

"You haven't been paying to much attention Aunt Helen, very few of the girls run around with rugs anymore, the words been out for weeks!" she told the counselor.

"The boys aren't interested in bushes; they want to see the beaver!" Helen shook her head.

"Cover the boy's ears if you're going to talk like that." she told Beth as she looked down at the three week old.

Both girls giggled as a gaggle of boys now flew through the doors and jumped into the pool.

The morning broke for Bert a little later than his usual five to 5:30 nonsense, but Helen did notice that there was some kind of light trying to break through the trees to the east. For Helen, one of Bert's most attractive attributes was that he was an evening man who was still there in the morning. Bert didn't practice wham, bam, thank you ma'am. If a girl woke up with Bert in the morning, he was back in the saddle and you were a happy girl. Even then, showers and grooming took up another hour or so, and by 8:00 he had put a very deep smile on a girls face. If you walked away from Bert unsatisfied, you needed a blowtorch to unfreeze your ass. All of this, the grapevine had already informed Helen about almost six months earlier.

"Jeez Uncle Bert, you guys have been at it now since you woke up. Ain't you through yet?" Stephanie, the 14 year old asked Bert as he sat on the bed propped up by pillows as he brushed out Helen's hair, who was lying between his legs.

"Why, you don't brush your hair in the morning?" Bert asked as all four girls now came into the bedroom. Bert was glad he was in his underpants, but he wondered at the same time who made teen girls pajamas. If it wasn't Victoria's secret, it damned well should have been as budding breasts and small vaginas blossomed without much imagination through the fabric.

"Not for two hours!" Claire replied as the girls sat down on the bed and watched the director.

"What are we going to do today?" 13 year old Robin now asked.

"Well, you could have been going to Treasure Island, but you took the wrong bus." Bert replied.

"That's because Aunt Helen wouldn't come with us. She wanted to come here instead." Stephanie replied.

"Well the place isn't Disneyworld, but we think it's a whole lot better, and we know it's a lot cheaper!" Bert told the girls.

"After breakfast, we'll figure out what's on the agenda. In the meantime, do we want to eat here, or eat in the dining hall?" Bert asked. Once the 15 year olds found out the senior boys would be found there, the choice was made.

Sammy's morning began as it usually did with Adam. Likewise Adam's morning also began as it usually did, with Sammy, Joey and Trevor. Adam's night always began the same, with him and Sammy in the bed. By two or three in the morning, Joey and Trevor made the scene, and for the three boys, it was fun and games straight through showers.

With Anthony and Spencer back, every Beachview bed was taken along with more than a few 'guests' on the porches. The cottage, like all the cottages, could easily handle twelve people quite comfortably. It now housed fifteen 'officially' and another eight or nine sleepover guests would double the population, at least through the holidays. Adam had himself to blame, he allowed Sid to move in with him, and Sid was a magnet for fun as far as the boys were concerned. Adam had no problem with the guests, but rationing the shower time was becoming a full time endeavor.

Unlike meals at camp, most meals except school day lunches were served in the individual cottages. The boys had gotten use to eating together, and the mafia usually chose one of the three cottages of Adam's, Dan's or Kevin's to eat together in. The greater majority of the time, Adam's cottage took the brunt of the attack.

"Well shit buddy, we are in the middle ain't we?" Sid said to Adam as a group of boys bounded up the stairs as they blew past the men sitting on the porch watching the parade go by.

In Camp Kenny, Jeanette quite happily opened her doors to Gloria, Johanna and Beth. This meant the population of her cottage 'Martinique' had gone from six to eighteen overnight.

The cottage awakened at 6:00 for the first feeding of the two newborns contained in the house, and most didn't bother to go back to sleep because it was fairly senseless. Kenny and Timmy would very shortly follow, and the girls watched the darkness disappear sitting on the side porch over looking the lagoon and the gulf beyond. In North Carolina, the fall had given over to winter and sitting on the porches wasn't really done anymore by Gloria, Johanna and Beth. As they sat now in nightgowns and bathrobes as the babies mellowed out either back asleep or not very far away from it, Gloria looked out almost with a glaze in her eyes.

"I forgot how really pretty it can be." she said as Timmy lay across her chest more pacifying himself than drinking her milk.

"But you do remember how humid it gets around here right?" Johanna asked with a slight giggle. Gloria nodded agreement.

"I'm not going back." Johanna said quietly. Jeanette now looked to her friend.

"Not going back? What do you mean?" she asked. Johanna didn't look up; she continued to look at Sidney who was now sound asleep.

"This is my home, I'm not going back to North Carolina until everybody else does." she told her friends. Gloria was fairly stunned. She knew Johanna had missed being in Florida, but talk of leaving was never mentioned. Gloria now felt a wave of depression taking over her. Johanna was the closest person to Green Tree she had at Pine Ridge, if Johanna prevailed in her decision, Gloria would feel that much more isolated from her friends. Beth was a very nice girl, but nothing like Jeanette and Johanna were to the woman.

"Have you spoken to Bert?" Gloria asked feeling herself loosing it as her voice cracked. Hearing Gloria, Jeanette looked to her friend, who now had some very full eyes holding back a small pool.

"No, but I've thought about it for weeks. This is where I want to be." With Gloria's cheeks now running with tears, Jeanette knew the conversation had to end immediately.

"The first thing that needs to be done is to sit down with Uncle Bert. We don't make our own plans." Jeanette told the group.

"I won't change my mind." Johanna said not aware of Gloria's reaction.

"Johanna, stop it, look at what you're doing!" Jeanette told the girl as she stood up with Kenny. Johanna now looked to Jeanette and then to Gloria who was now standing up herself.

"Gloria, what's the matter?" she asked as Gloria returned inside the cottage. With Jeanette following Gloria, Johanna and Beth were now alone with their boys on the porch.

"What happened?" Johanna asked.

"I think you surprised her." Beth responded.

Timmy was still pretty much asleep, and Gloria laid the boy down on the bed beside her and turned her face into her pillow as Jeanette came into the room and laid Kenny down on the other bed. Walking over to Gloria she sat down and began rubbing her friends back.

"This is the first Johanna said anything about not wanting to be in North Carolina?" she asked her friend.

"Did you two have a fight?" she asked. Gloria shook her head no, but made no verbal response.

"Did she have a fight with somebody else?" Jeanette asked.

"No fights." Gloria said now turning her head sideways as she wiped her eyes.

"We all want to come back; it has nothing to do with fighting Jeanette." Gloria told her friend.

"Why? Isn't it nice up there?" Jeanette asked.

"It's very nice. It's just not Green Tree." Gloria said.

"I'm sorry. But if Johanna leaves, who's going to replace her?" Gloria said.

"Replace her?" Jeanette asked.

"You and Johanna are my best friends." Gloria told the girl. If she leaves, I'm basically alone." Gloria replied.

"Gloria, there are almost 150 people up there; a lot of them are from Green Tree." Jeanette counseled her friend.

"Want to trade places?" Gloria asked. Jeanette didn't reply, the answer was 'no'.

"We need to sit down with Uncle Bert today and have talk time." Jeanette said as Johanna and Beth now came in the room. Bert's breakfast with the senior boys was a happy time for all concerned; it would soon change as Bert received a note from Jeanette requesting immediate talk time with her, Gloria and Johanna. Bert nodded his head as he read the note, it wasn't unexpected.

The routine for Carla and Jeanie was now set in stone. Once their hair was brushed out by Adam, Sid, Anthony, Doc or whichever male staff they could find and crawl up onto their laps, they were off for the day. On this Sunday morning, they would find their summer counselor Helen and tag along with her to vesper if she was going, or better yet, to the beach. With Bert waving goodbye from his porch, the girls arrived. Bert expected the three girls, he did not expect Beth.

Bert looked at his ship's clock on the mantle. He was very sorry it wasn't after noon.

"We've explained the ground rules to Beth for talk time Uncle Bert." Jeanette began the conversation once the babies were settled in and Timmy and Kenny played on a quilt laid out on the back porch. Bert came back from closing his front door and poured a glass of iced tea.

"I gather we're having talk time together." Bert said as he sat down.

"Everything's fine up at Pine Ridge, and there's nothing that they don't have that they need." Jeanette began.

"But Johanna wants to return to Green Tree and if she leaves, Gloria wants to return also." Jeanette told her director.

"And when can we expect their colds to be getting better?" Bert asked.

"Colds? What colds?" Jeanette asked.

"The ones that are giving them laryngitis and preventing them from speaking." Bert replied straight faced. More of a smirk than a smile came over Jeanette's face as she shook her head.

"They're looking to crack the ice slowly so you don't take off their faces." Jeanette replied as she sat down. Bert now smiled a bit.

"My mentor never told me I'd have to have the wisdom of Solomon and the patience of Jobe when I took this job, he let me down." Bert said as he stood up and walked over to the screen and looked out towards the rec hall.

"You're lonely, you're homesick and you're depressed at not being here." Bert told the girls.

"Now, let's figure out how we can eliminate those three things from your shoulders or bring you back home." he told the girls.

"Beth, I fully understand Gloria's and Johanna's motivation for being here, but you're a Pine Ridge girl. What are you looking for?" he asked the girl.

"If Gloria and Johanna come back here, Joshua would be the only baby left." she replied. Bert turned around and looked down at the baby who was less than three months old.

"For the next nine months or so, Joshua wouldn't care if he were the only baby in the world as long as his belly was full, he was warm and maybe even clean and dry." Bert replied.

"If Jeanette's right and you're aware of the Ground Rules for talk time, you are also aware that nothing can get resolved unless you tell me exactly what the problem is, and I tell you what I can and cannot do about it. In other words, we both speak the truth and not beat around the bush." Bert told the girl.

"Nobody at Pine Ridge has ever raised a baby before, including me. I need Gloria and Johanna around me to make sure Joshua is OK." she replied. Bert nodded his head.

"I'll accept that. I would have preferred to hear that you've bonded to Johanna or Gloria, or maybe even both and don't want to be split up from your friends, but we can use Joshua as a cloak for now." Bert responded as Beth blushed a bit.

"I told you he was a son of a bitch!" Jeanette said as she got up and reached for the pitcher of iced tea.

"I know where you guys are coming from and I'm not all that surprised that you don't want to be away from here. I'd be deeply depressed if I moved away from this place, it's not just a school or even an institution, it's a home, and a home where most of us are very tightly knit together. This place has been the only home you've known for almost half you're lives." Bert told Gloria and Johanna.

"Right now we've got a huge problem on our hands, and in all probability, most of us are going to be moving to camp a lot faster than I originally planned on. We will be going back to North Carolina, but when you do, you'll have the support around you that you'll need." Bert said.

"You're moving Green Tree?"

Gloria asked.

"Two thirds of the people have to leave. This Island won't support more than 200." Bert replied.

"When?" Johanna now asked.

"As soon as we can get the cabins at camp winterized; certainly before March if the weather up north cooperates." Bert told the girl's. The girl's were now happy, now Bert had to explain the situation to the rest of the staff.

Johanna's request to be returned to Green Tree was relatively easy for the girl, she hated not being at Green Tree and her presence at Pine Ridge wasn't critical to anything. Gloria on the other hand was tormented by her desire to return to Green Tree knowing how important her role was, not only for the girls at Pine Ridge, but for Bert as the director of the entire program. She felt she had let him down, and he was the last person on earth she wanted to disappoint. As the other three girls left, Gloria stayed behind. Bert knew that words were unnecessary as Gloria returned to tears for the 3rd or 4th time that morning.

"Not to worry pumpkin." Bert told the girl as he held her "We'll get the problem solved." he said.

Sunday morning was always a lazy morning at school, those that wanted to go to vesper and if Sid was there, even tolerated his singing which even he admitted was mighty bad. Now and then, usually when it was raining out, Adam would be convinced to join the boys. Kevin took advantage of vesper to get some practice in for the chorus, and with Christmas exactly one week away, one of the last opportunities he would get for 'Silent Night' and 'Little Drummer Boy' was now upon him. Still, he had Spencer sing with the chorus, even though Spencer had practiced for weeks to sing both songs and three more as lead singer. Adam received a note in the middle of the service that he was scheduled for an afternoon meeting at Bert's office. With both Adam and Dan holding their notes concerning the meeting, they shrugged to each other.

Lunch on Sunday at school was always a relatively light affair. Dinner was anything but. As Adam finished his lunch and watched his kids race off for the pool, he was joined on the short walk by Dan, Thomas and Kevin. Nobody had a clue what the meeting was about, but as they approached Bert's cottage, the accumulation of carts told Adam it was more than just a casual get together. It was well past noon, and Adam was directed to the fridge and the cold beer as more than a few Screwdrivers, Gin and Tonics and Margarita's flowed from Bert's bar.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we've got two problems. First, this postage stamp we're living on is no longer big enough to hold us all. Second, the girls at Pine Ridge aren't over flowing with joy at being separated. We've known about the over flow problem, and I was hoping we could use the next year to expand Pine Ridge in an orderly fashion and move the bulk of the school up there by next year." Bert began the conversation.

"If we don't radically reduce the load we're putting on this place, the locals are going to want to know where all the shit is coming from within weeks. Dave has put dye in the septic system and it's beginning to appear in the mangroves and out in the bay. We're out of time." he told the group.

"So far it's been a mild winter up north and the machines can still dig. Our major problem is water. The camp water lines would freeze in winter if left with water in them. The corps of engineers has shifted all of its energy to winterizing the water system for every cabin. The day after Christmas, the maintenance and logistics crew along with the senior boys will return to camp and insulate, heat and winterize each cabin." Bert said.

"As space becomes available, the busses will roll out of here beginning the day after New Years. The girls will be housed in Pine Ridge, the Camp Kenny children will live on the hill, and the intermediates will live on the lake." he told the group.

"What about the island?" Dan asked.

"We retain the island for the senior boys not needed at Pine Ridge and for vocational training." Bert replied.

"We can also use it for holiday times, but we can't exceed 200 people without stressing out the system." Bert replied.

"You're going to get a million questions that need to be answered, jot them down and we'll try to answer them as quickly as we can. In the meantime, let's get through the holidays." Bert said.

"I'm well aware that we live very closely together, but for the next few weeks, I need everybody to keep showers at a bare minimum. We've got a pool, and we've got the lagoon. 30 minute shower time play is out for the time being, Now I know not showering as thoroughly as you're use to might depress a few of you, but I'm sure the younger boys and Sid will manage very nicely." Bert quipped.

"It will also help if the boys didn't flush after every little tinkle. As a friend of mine had posted in his summer camp: 'If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down.'" Bert told the group.

"Now Sid, that don't mean I want to see flies buzzing the bowl!"

"When do we tell the kids?" Adam asked.

"Secret's are a fucking bore. The senior boys are going to know about it, and that will spread it to the little ones faster than lightening. Make an announcement at dinner, and let them know we'll keep them in the loop regarding the details. But basically, nothing happens until after the holidays." Bert told the group.

"If you need an incentive, you need to reinforce in their minds how distressed they were about the separation of the girls. This means that they'll be living together again and we'll stop seeing very long faces. Questions?" Bert asked the gathering.

"Do I have to start flushing the bowl again regularly once we get to camp?" Sid asked.

"No Sid. We're building an outhouse out back just for you!" Bert replied not missing a beat.

As rehearsals for the Christmas play intensified over the next week, much of the staff was huddled in groups establishing the groundwork for the new school. Storage trailers began arriving in the mangroves off U.S. 1 as books and school supplies were loaded and deposited at the FEMA depot back at camp. Logistically, everything that wasn't needed for the next few weeks was packed up and shipped out. Adam's astronomy club gear went north along with classrooms of furniture. 450 people require a lot of 'stuff' and Green Tree has more than its share. The holidays and the return of the girls had the boys excited enough, now with the move, the air was practically electric as very few minutes of the boy's waking hours were spent idle. For Bert and most of the staff, eight hours of sleep was a luxury; six hours was the norm.

Christopher Makes a Move

"Well, Merry Christmas to you too Matthew, and to all your people. How're things going up there?" Bert began the conversation as he put the phone on speaker as he and Sid sat back.

"Oh fine Bert, they all wish they were at Green Tree right about now, it's 36 degrees [2°C] out and the winds blowing in off the lake at about 30 [-1°C]." Matthew replied.

"Oh well shit, send them on down." Sid said.

"Well, now that you mention it, that's part of the reason for the call." Matthew said as Sid and Bert looked to one another.

"I've got a small problem up here, and we've been meeting about it for a few weeks now and everybody agrees that if anybody could come up with a solution to it, you two could." Matthew said.

"Who's we?" Bert asked his friend.

"My staff and boys at the institute." Matthew replied somewhat less perky than seconds before.

"Bar's open!" Sid said to Bert as he got up. Bert sat back in his chair as he watched Sid make a Gin and Tonic.

"What's the problem?" he asked his friend.

"He's a wonderful little boy with a sparkling personality that could melt anybody's heart and up here, he's foundering." Matthew replied.

"You're quite a smart boy Matthew and you have a cracker jack staff. You've got what, 500 boys up there? What's the problem with one more?" Bert asked as Sid handed him his drink and sat down with a beer.

"He's very young for his age, and he doesn't really have any friends up here. The institute thinks that if he were down there, he'd flourish with the kind of attention you and your staff could offer him and he's really a magnificent little guy!"

Both Sid and Bert kept eye contact.

"Hi Matthew, how are you doing?" Sid asked the man.

"Great Sid. Barry's sitting here alongside me and wishes you a Merry Christmas." Matthew said.

"Yeah, we'll do all that later, but I had a question. So far, the kid's wonderful, with a sparkling personality, he melts hearts and he's magnificent." Sid ticked off on his hand.

"So what's wrong with him?" There was a few seconds of silence on the other end. Finally Matthew spoke.

"He hasn't reached his full developmental potential yet."

Both men looked at each other and Bert shook his head.

"Neither have I Matthew." Sid responded.

"What's wrong with him?" Sid repeated.

"He's 12 going on six and we're not doing him any good up here." Matthew said after another pause.

"Why is he 12 going on 6? Deprivation?" Bert asked.

"Partly." Matthew replied.

"What's the other part?" Sid asked.

"Retardation." Matthew responded.

Sid nodded.

"Bingo." he said to Bert.

"You've got a retarded Geppetto boy?" Bert asked.

"Technically, yes." Matthew replied.

"Matthew, what the fuck does that mean? Is he retarded? Is he a Geppetto boy? Either he is or he isn't!" Bert replied.

"He is retarded, and he is a Geppetto boy but he's not sexually viable." the director told Bert.

"How so?" Sid asked. "He was born with un descended testicles. The doctor's never fixed the problem."

"So now he's sterile?" Bert asked.

"Actually, he's asexual." Matthew replied.

"I've never heard of an asexual Geppetto boy before!" Sid said.

"Neither did we or the institute before Christopher came along." Matthew replied.

"If he's retarded and asexual, he has no business being with Geppetto boys. Our idea of fun is fucking, for this kid that would be rape!" Sid said.

"You said he's 12 going on 6. What level has he been tested out at?" Sid asked.

"Low 60s more likely somewhere in the 50s" Matthew replied.

"You're talking Down Syndrome!" Sid replied.

"He's not a Down, but he does show sign's of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome."

Sid sat back a bit deep in thought. When it came to pediatric mental retardation, Bert was not in his league. Sid was more knowledgeable than he was in that particular aspect of children.

"Matthew, there are schools for these kinds of kids that would make him much less vulnerable to being taken advantage of. It doesn't sound like the wisest idea to me." Sid suggested.

"Normally, you'd be 100 percent correct. However in this boy's particular case, he's safer around our Geppetto boys than he would be in 'normal' society. The institute doesn't think any of our boys would take him to bed any faster than you would." Matthew told the man.

"Why is that?" Sid asked.

"Our kids have empathy. They might screw their balls off, but only with other kids who want to play with them. When's the last time we had to deal with a rape situation in a Geppetto school?" Matthew replied. Sid nodded his head, but said nothing.

"Take this boy, and if you don't think it will work out after a reasonable amount of time, or you feel that he's in danger, we'll try another placement." Matthew said.

"I think this kid needs you Bert." Matthew told his friend. Sid's eyes now went up to the ceiling.

"If reason fails, play the guilt card." Sid told Bert as he got up for another beer.

"I mean it Bert. We'll relocate him if it doesn't work out." Matthew repeated.

"OK, send him down, we'll be in North Carolina in early January, send him down sometime in the middle of the month." Bert told Laconia.

"You'll take him?" Matthew asked.

"Yeah. Send him down once we get settled." Bert replied.

"We can't do that Bert." Matthew replied.

"Why not?" Sid asked.

"He's landing in Marathon in about an hour." Bert's ex-friend told Bert.

Christopher stands about 40 inches [1 m] tall and weighs about 68 pounds [31 kg]. He has black straight hair that is cut on the long side, almost in a page boy style. He has a round face, green eyes, a full forehead, small nose, a ready smile and dimples that are visible most of his waking hours. To look at, you would guess him to be about eight years old. Naked, make that a chunky, big six year old. He has no muscle tone, and his body is pear shaped. He's all stomach and all ass. This greeted Sid and Bert on the tarmac at Marathon a little over an hour and fifteen minutes later. The stewardess held Christopher by one hand, and a barf bag in the other with Christopher's underpants in them. He had had an accident on the flight. Christopher was dressed in a flannel shirt and blue corduroy bib overalls.

It was Bert's practice not to review a boy's file until after he had made his own assessment of a boy. He did not want to be influenced by pre-conceived notions of a child or of his potential. Many small details were not told to Bert by his old friend back in Laconia, minor details like Christopher being basically non verbal. With speech and incontinence now affirmed, the trio returned to Green Tree as impulsivity and hyper activity showed themselves quite clearly. Sid and Bert watched as the boy was being restrained by the ferry crew from swimming with the alligators as he climbed the walls of the ferry.

"Well look on the bright side, moving a school of 600 people is now going to be the easy part of the job!" Sid told his boss.

The move itself was a massive undertaking, and that itself had nothing to do with the Christmas holiday that was now just five days away. The Christmas program would be put on for Christmas Eve, and the Friday before Christmas was parent's visiting day with those boys who had parents to visit with them. Sammy saw his parents twice a year, and for Adam and the parents it was a difficult time. Sammy's life since age five was Green Tree and he was quite happy there. He liked the two nice people that came to visit him every six months or so, but, he'd rather play with his friends. Now try to explain that to two parents who loved their child to their very core! Most staff hated visiting day; it never allowed the wounds to heal.

Bert knew well that all of this was now pending days away, but first, there was getting to know Christopher, and more specifically, how to deal with him.

"You know a lot more about these kinds of kids than I do. I think you should be in charge of him." Bert suggested to his assistant. Sid's first reaction was to tell his boss to fuck off. Not literally, but it was on his mind.

"If you really think that's the best way to handle him, that's what we'll do, but I have the Christmas program, visiting day, the move to coordinate with Dave and the packing around here with our staff. If I take him on right now, he's going to be sitting on my hip for the next two weeks listening to me tell other people what to do. When am I going to have time to pay any attention to him and give him the attention he needs?" Sid asked Bert.

"When am I?" Bert asked his second.

"You're the boss. Delegate authority to those you know can do the job and find out what makes this kid tick in the meantime. You can have a meeting in your office and pay a hell of a lot more attention to him than I can; hoisting speakers around a stage or driving to the motel on Islamorada with kids to visit their parents." Sid suggested.

Christopher came with a file about eight inches [20 cm] thick in a three ring binder. Bert's first move was to place the file on a shelf in his office as he sat down at his desk as Christopher went from toy to toy on the back porch and inspected each one. Bert's first task was to find the best way to communicate with the boy as he called Christopher over to him. Christopher was a boy of very few words. Most folks would say that that was being kind. He followed verbal commands, but his depth of understanding was murky to say the least. His attention span was seconds long unless he was involved, then it was anybody's guess and it could be lost or thrown away in a heartbeat. Bert's initial reaction to Christopher as the boy approached him with his never ending smile was that this boy had an instantly magnetic personality. True he smelled like shit, but we all have our warts.

"How's about the first thing we do is get you out of these heavy weather clothes and take a nice warm shower?" Bert asked the boy.

"Hey" was Christopher's reaction as his smile broadened and he unbuckled the straps on his overalls. Bert learned a few things; the boy understood what was being said, used the term "hey" for verbal approval or acceptance, and didn't have a modest bone in his body. What now stood before Bert was the smallest 12 year old boy Bert had ever seen in his life. Christopher's shower went smoothly, right up until it was time to wash his genitals. As Bert put soap in both hands and washed. Christopher backed up a bit and rubbed one index finger on top of another to Bert. Bert instantly recognized the sign.

"No Christopher, no shame, we're just washing. Understand?" Bert asked the boy. Christopher furled his eyebrows at Bert as he once again stepped forward. And once again as Bert took his penis to wash it, Christopher again backed up and gave the same sign.

"OK, you wash your penis." Bert said as he handed Christopher the soap bottle.

"I-ee?" the boy asked as he handed back the soap.

Bert held a doctorate in Early Childhood Education, but he was now fairly dumfounded. What did 'i-ee' mean or signify? He seemed to understand, but how did he communicate his wishes and intentions.

"OK, I wash your bottom, let's pretend your penis is clean for the time being." Bert said to him not really thinking the child would react in any way. On the contrary, Christopher's smile returned with an excited "hey" as Christopher turned around and put both hands flat on the shower floor. To Bert, whatever else the boy did or did not understand he clearly recognized "clean bottom." as he stared at a boy on all fours with an anus the stewardess didn't pay all that much attention to.

"Well, that explains the stinky boy." Bert said not really expecting a response as he washed the boy.

"Hey" Christopher replied with an upside down face peeking through his legs.

As Bert and the staff would learn over the next few months, Christopher had a vocabulary of less than 50 words, and most of them were monosyllabic. Depending upon the question put to him, the staff could generally interpret 80% of Christopher's needs. As far as Christopher comprehending instructions or intentions from verbal requests, it was a mixed bag. If you told him to go get a ball out of his toy box, he would, but if you told him to get you a red ball, he might, but it was pure luck. Christopher knew neither colors nor numbers. Despite his lack of communication skills, you knew exactly when Christopher was happy, sad, hurt, cold, tired, hungry and sleepy. What nobody ever saw in Christopher was anger. He was completely devoid of malice, hatred or anger in any form. Christopher was about as defenseless a human being as Bert had ever met in his life. All staff knew that Bert took all the children at Green Tree seriously. By Christmas Eve, they knew that nobody would ever take Bert's son Robby from his heart, but Christopher most certainly had the man's undivided attention.

Through Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Bert learned precisely what made Christopher tick. Impulse and mayhem drove the machinery. Christopher was into life from daybreak until he fell asleep exhausted along with those around him. He was rarely dormant, even at meals or sitting on the toilet.

As Laconia had said, he was asexual. This, Sid wanted to explore. As a Geppetto boy, retarded or not, he should have been screwing his balls off. Why wasn't he? Did he somehow hold the key to unravel the mystery? Christopher was quite capable of an erection, but took it no further. If he was stressed, he would masturbate a few strokes, but nothing more. Someone had taught him the "shame" signal, but who? When? Why?

As Christopher dug himself ever deeper into Bert's heart, Sid was more in an investigative mode. Once they got to North Carolina, Sid was going to be spending a whole lot of time looking into Christopher's background.

Santa Claus

The animals from a petting zoo were a big hit, as where the baby Jesus. For Christmas 2005, the baby Jesus was a twin. One was Sidney Bertram, and the other was Joshua David. Sidney was now almost five months old, and Joshua was just over three months old. Naturally, with two baby Jesuses, we needed two Maries while Joseph did double duty. The slight modification didn't really disturb the children, and none of the staff felt that the Lord would be all that pissed off either.

Facing what Kevin most certainly knew was the toughest audience he had in a long time, the show opened with Spencer singing 'Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht'. Kevin usually did things the hard way, so Spencer sang the song in German as it was originally composed. All the boys recognized the tune, but 'Silent Night' somehow sounded a little different to them. Adam played piano and Sid played his Hammond B-3 organ.

As Kevin always did, none of the three had practiced together before. Quite literally, what was produced was as much of a surprise to the participants as it was to the audience. Maybe you just had to be there, but it was simple, it was pure, and it was moving.

The music transcended both religion and politics. If you could listen to Spencer's singing voice and listen to the music and not be moved, you were dead inside. Even Christopher, who some just might consider hyperactive was attentive to the music and in a 'mellow' mood as he lay in Bert's lap sitting on the blanket listening to the music as Bert cradled the boys face in his hands and caressed his temples with his thumbs.

As the boys played out the next scene of the 'Wise Men following the Star', Spencer sang 'Cantique de Noël' in French as the chorus sang it in English simultaneously. Again, Adam and Sid played, while the summer camp buglers, Jacob, Eddy and Craig played muted trumpets. There were close to 550 people sitting on the beach and lawn, except for a sporadic younger child, the crowd was hushed.

What most people waited for was to hear Spencer sing the Ava Maria again. He did, but the first time he sang it at Easter, he sang it in Italian. Now, Kevin had him sing it in Latin. For Easter, Kevin had both Adam and Sid do a duet on piano. For this performance he had a CD made of Johann Sebastian Bach's arrangement of the Shubert song played on the organ of Katharinenkirche in Frankfurt am Maim, Germany. Sid's phase linear amplifier and voice of the theater speakers had all they could handle reproducing the massive pipe organ and Bert was quite convinced that if there was a ship 15 to 20 miles [25-30 km] out in the gulf, they got one hell of an earful. The crowd on the beach thought that the Easter version could never be topped. They were wrong. If there was a dry eye in the crowd, Adam for one didn't see it as the klieg lights faded down.

As far as the twin Jesuses were concerned, it was a nice peaceful night of sleep until every 10 minutes or so the damned fools sitting there got to clapping, and woke them up.

On the third try, Joshua said screw it and had a snack for the next 20 minutes or so. Sidney wasn't hungry, so he lay in Johanna's arms as she rocked him and he studied the taste and texture of his thumb. The babies were a pretty big hit with the crowd, but none were more fascinated by them than Christopher. Bert learned a new word in Christopher's vocabulary that night as Christopher looked at and pointed to the babies and then to Bert "Babee?" he asked quite loudly. Bert assured him they were in fact babies for about the 25th time that night.

The 4th song of the evening had the chorus receiving the brunt of the accolades as they performed 'The Little Drummer Boy'. As a finale, Kevin chose to go politically correct as he chose to showcase a minority group song in order to keep everybody happy. He had the boys and girls costumed as the Muppets as they sang their version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Miss Piggy was cast by a spicy little eight year old named Jacqueline whom it was rumored by the boys in the mafia could give Carla and Jeannie a run for their money. The program started on a very serious note, it ended on anything but!

Bedtime for the intermediates, after all the hoopla, was close to 10:00. With pillows and blankets in hand, Carla and Jeannie arrived on Bert's porch for an overnight sleepover. Bert thought it was a beautiful gesture on the girl's part to show their loving acceptance of him, and to their fond connection to Helen. Helen on the other hand figured the girls were looking to double-dip on the Christmas present scene.

Bert was very keen to have a very nice, relaxing Christmas Eve romp with Helen once the children went to sleep. Putting Christopher and the girls to their beds, Bert had a little time before he'd have to get up and begin distributing presents throughout the campus for the next few hours. His grand plan worked out really well for the first five minutes, then Christopher climbed up onto the bed and planted himself in between the two adults. That was followed in a minute or two by the girls who got on each side of Bert and Helen, and Bert's Christmas romp was at an end. Maybe next year!

Christmas dawned on Green Tree clear and sunny, as the children traveled from cottage to cottage distributing the gifts they had made for each other. With everybody out delivering presents, as usual, nobody was at home to receive them. That didn't really bother the kids, because they left the presents under the cottage tree anyway. By the time they returned, they, like their friends, had a bunch of presents to unwrap.

Every year at Christmas, Bert's major concern was that the gift giving would turn into a popularity contest between the students to see who came up with the most. Naturally if I received 12 presents and you received 3, I win! This scenario, Bert wanted to avoid.

Between the kids themselves, Bert did not get himself involved. However between the staff and the children, Bert wanted a list of exactly who was going to be getting what. Bert's golden rule was that everybody received the same amount of presents from staff.

It never worked out that way, but it was a very nice rule.

"I really don't want this thing turning into a pissing contest. Each child gets four or five presents, one from his cottage parent; one from the school; one from a special staff member and one from Santa." Bert suggested.

Everybody agreed it was a really great plan.

Christopher received ten presents last Christmas, six were from Bert and Helen. Adam and Sid looked at each other as Christopher ran his electric fire truck into the tree on Christmas morning. They're not exactly sure what's going to happen this Christmas yet.

As for Carla and Jeannie, they somehow managed to come home with twice as many gifts as the boys in the cottage.

For the mafia as well as the rest of the entire school, Christmas morning began sometime really close to 6:00. At Christmas time in the Keys, 6:00 is pitch black out. The sun's not even thinking about getting up yet. Adam suspected that more than a few reasons the boys were up that early was because, as a school policy, Santa Claus was very much alive and well. Even if you thought you were a little too old to believe in Santa Claus, it was heresy to say so aloud. Even as senior boys, one present they received they never saw before and didn't help wrap.

Until dawn, the boys could not go outside, mainly because you never really know when a friendly neighbor from the mangroves may have made their way into the compound. But once the light showed the grounds clear, the annual show of brand new remote controlled race cars, boats and airplanes made their appearance on the lawns and in the lagoon. Once showers were accomplished and the staff had downed at least three pots of coffee, present distribution began as staff visited each cottage wanting to know who won that years pool on earliest to rise (Sarah won $380.00 at 4:38 from a six year old girl who was back asleep as she collected the money.)

For the boys, Christmas morning began with Egg Nog, Christmas cookies and Hot Chocolate. For the staff, who barely made it to bed by 3:00 distributing gifts, Christmas morning began with Bloody Maries, Irish Coffee and Egg Nog with rum or brandy, preferably rum. Ladling a spoonful of extremely powerful Egg Nog into mugs, Helen gave Adam and Sid each one as they made their way out to the back porch of Bert's cottage. With almost a dozen staff already there, both men waded past a small mountain of wrapping paper, ribbons, boxes, Styrofoam and toys.

"Jesus Adam, the way they wrap four or five presents these days, makes you wonder how they can make a profit out of these toys!" Sid said to Adam.

"Wise ass! You know I have five kids living here now." Bert responded once the other staff stopped chuckling. Sid looked around.

"Gee Helen, I didn't know that girls played with fire trucks, tanks, tractor trailer trucks and jeeps!" he said.

"Which one of those four girls of yours uses a Bozo punch bag?" he asked as the chuckles only increased.

"Looks to me like Christopher won the pissing contest." Sid said.

"Me?" Christopher now asked in his high pitched voice that always trailed higher at the end of a word. Sid smiled deeply to Christopher as he held his arms out. As he had learned in short order, Christopher was a lap boy. He preferred to be carried rather than walk. He didn't discriminate, anybody's arms would do. Staff also learned in short order that Christopher was a kisser. Again, he didn't discriminate. If he met you, he kissed you. Christopher kissed babies, toddlers, young children, teenagers, men, women, boys, girls, dogs, cats, cows, horses, goldfish, rabbits and turtles. Christopher was an OK kisser, but you really had to ask yourself who he had recently met. He was also a hugger. Once Christopher got his arms around your neck, you were thinking boa constrictor.

Christopher had now been at Green Tree less than five days, but there was no doubt in anybody's mind that he wasn't being transferred out anytime soon. None of them including Bert knew a god damned thing about how to raise and deal with a retarded child, but they didn't need to get hit over the head with a baseball bat to know that Bert had taken Christopher on as his personal commitment. Once Sid got his neck back and Christopher was back at the tree trying to figure out how to climb up it, the staff got back to telling their Christmas morning adventures as the Egg Nog and the Bloody Maries flowed.

For Adam, Christmas 2005 was a complete success. Buying a present for Sammy that Christmas was particularly hard; mainly because Sammy really didn't want or need anything. He knew he'd get presents from school and from his friends, and he kind of knew what he'd receive from Santa because he had written his letter along with the rest of the boys in the cottage listing three things that they'd like, and Santa would chose one of them.

"Well, then suppose we send some boys and girls who really don't have anything as present, and it will come from you to them." Adam suggested.

"How would we do that?" Sammy asked.

"Well, when I was a little boy in school we heard about a bunch of kids in a West Virginia town called Centralia who were very poor. We sent them boxes of stuff from school to the post office there, and the post man delivered them to children on his route that he knew would be happy to receive them." Adam replied.

"So we could send a box to Centralia!" Sammy exclaimed.

"Well, there are still people there who I'm sure could use the gifts, but a lot of people sent packages there because they were in the news. There are hundreds of places we could send the gifts to, let's look on the map and chose a town." Adam suggested.

One of the smallest towns in the middle of the coal belt Sammy and Adam could find on a Rand McNally map of West Virginia was identified, and the laundry filled 10 boxes of good clean clothing from the lost and found. That, along with a money order for $500.00 was sent anonymously to the postmaster for that zip code with instructions to distribute the clothes to families that could use them, and use the money to buy groceries for families the local postmen knew could use it. Adam had no way to know if the gift was used wisely, but he slept well, and Sammy slept even more soundly.

By Christmas Dinner, even John in the kitchen had enough Egg Nog in him to maintain the Christmas spirit. His kitchen was being shipped out by the pick up truck, and he had sworn that whoever reached for his knives was going to be in the next crate out!

Christmas Dinner was always a special occasion, but this one was a tad different; this one was the last for the group as Green Tree School on the island. While it was very true that John loved to bitch about the heat and humidity, this was home.

Bert ran the school, but John ran the kitchen. The man was determined that this meal would be something special but that in itself had problems; how did you make a 'special' meal to people who were use to food that they considered routine fare?

John had no budget, so whatever beef, pork, lamb, poultry, fish, seafood, dairy, vegetable, fruit and nuts he asked for, these people ate.

To John, it was like being a chef on a cruise ship.

"How do you razzle and dazzle people after the midnight buffet?" he asked his crew a week before Christmas.

"We can roast tons of turkey and miles of Chateau Briand, but the sit down meal doesn't really fit with this crowd, the table's just not large enough." one of John's apprentices said.

John listened to the logical arguments about the problems of feeding real close to 600 people in some kind of reasonable and manageable fashion from a kitchens point of view before he asked the apprentice to explain "the table".

"They know just like we all know this is the last supper. They're not going to be sitting there in front of plates no matter what we put in them, they're going to be all over that room so why try to contain the meal? Make it an open buffet and they'll pick up exactly what they want to eat!" the apprentice told the meeting.

The last Christmas Dinner was held on the Key in 2005. It was an open buffet with everything on the table from Avocado to Ziti. For the boys and girls, the biggest hit of the night was the desert tables. Normally, a Christmas Dinner took about an hour from start to finish. This meal took two hours, and nobody was in a hurry to go back to the cottages.

Christmas 2005 was at an end as Sammy fell to sleep snuggled against Adam's side tucked into a pair of all cotton Dr. Denton pajamas with Daffy Duck prominently displayed on them. Adam's last conscious act was to kiss Sammy on the neck as the boy slept on peacefully with just a momentary glimpse of a dimple appearing on his cheek.

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