If the idea of two men loving each other and expressing that love in a sexual manner offends you, then you have clearly come to the wrong place. Feel free to leave.

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Momentarily taken aback, I found my voice, and said, “Complications. What complications?”

“I don’t pretend to understand the medical details,” Charles said. “All I know is that a seemingly normal pregnancy has turned into one that is high risk. They’re going to keep us posted. By the way, everything is going well with the other pregnancy.”

Charles said good-bye to Gran and me, and left the room. I walked him to the door, kissed him good-bye, and returned to the breakfast table.

“Is he all right?” Gran asked.

“You know our boy as well as I do. If he wasn’t, neither of us would know about it, at least not until he wants us to.”

“Too true,” she said, as she handed a small piece of bacon to an eager Lance, who took it gingerly from her fingers. “All we can do is hope and pray for the best. Medical science performs miracles every day.”

Roger spent the following weekend with us. Charles and I were beginning to wonder if the two boys were becoming boyfriends, but had decided to wait and see, rather than inquire.

Saturday afternoon, we ran laps around the pool house, and when we went inside to the pool to cool off, we found the boys relaxing in the Jacuzzi. They had cans of coke on the ledge next to them, along with a large bag of chips. Lance, as usual, was lounging nearby, waiting for handouts.

We swam a few laps to cool off, and then settled in the Jacuzzi with the boys. Charles looked at Lancelot’s damp fur, and said, “Was Lance in the pool with you guys?”

“Yes sir,” Steve said.

“Be sure you give him a good bath, when you shower. It takes a lot of soap and water to get the chlorine out of all that fur. He’ll need a good rubdown with towels before he goes back to the house.”

“We’ll take care of it,” Steve said.

The days turned into weeks, and the time came to celebrate Steve’s sixteenth birthday. He invited all of the team members over for the occasion, and we held the party around the pool. Ten out of the twelve members were present.

In addition to Charles, myself, and Mason Cartwright, there were three other fathers present. There were hamburgers, hot dogs, and the usual side dishes, followed by birthday cake, and ice cream, followed by a great deal of horseplay in the pool. The adults sat around with glasses of wine or cans of beer, watching the boys have a good time. It was, incidentally, the first time that bathing suits had been worn in our pool.

After school the next day, I took Steve to get his driver’s license, and he passed the test with flying colors. He had, of course, been studying the Georgia Driver’s Manual for some time.

Marie and the girls arrived late Friday afternoon. I hadn’t seen my two nieces for several years, and I noted that, at ages ten and twelve, they were turning into carbon copies of their mother. I was also struck by the change in my sister. As I escorted her upstairs, I said, “What did you do, Marie, find the fountain of youth?”

“Not exactly,” she said. “The strain I was living under is going away, and I am beginning to feel like my old self, again.”

“Good,” I said.

“Frank is still in jail, my divorce will be final next week, and I’m really enjoying running the business. Speaking of changes, I can’t believe how my son has blossomed in such a short time.”

Steve had already escorted his sisters upstairs, so we were able to talk freely.

“Steve was living in fear, all the time you were living with his father’s infidelity. Removing Frank from the picture has done you both a world of good.”

“It’s more than that,” she said. “From his e-mails, and telephone calls, it’s quite clear that both you and Charles have done more to parent him in a couple of months than Frank did in fifteen years.”

“We’re enjoying having him here,” I said. “We also sort of see it as practice for what we will face in a few years with our own sons.”

“Speaking of the babies, how are they doing?”

“Just fine, and growing like weeds, as you will see.”

We reached the upstairs landing, and I said, “You’re in the same room you were before, the girls are next door to you, and you have plenty of time to freshen up before dinner.”

I left her to her own devices, and went down the hall to the office, to complete the paperwork that I had been in the middle of when they arrived.

Steve had planned a full itinerary of things to do with his mother and sisters, starting with a visit to his school, and then on to Stone Mountain. At dinner, he outlined his plans in some detail, and both Marie and the girls were looking forward to the next day. They were also very tired from the long drive, and retired fairly early.

They left shortly after breakfast Saturday morning. Charles had allowed Steve to take the Jag, and he was a bit overwhelmed with the responsibility.

“Just be your usual careful self,” Charles said, as we walked out to the car with them, “and you’ll be fine.”

“But what if I scratch the car?” Steve said.

“That’s what insurance is for,” I said. “Now go, and take care of your guests.”

We waited until they had disappeared through the gate, and returned to the house.

At lunch, Gran said, “Your sister has certainly changed a great deal since the last time I saw her.”

“She was under a terrible strain,” I said, “dealing with her husband’s infidelities. The source of the strain has been removed from the picture, and she is bouncing back.”

“Good for her,” Gran said. “Do you have anything planned for tomorrow?”

“I don’t,” I said, “but Steve does. However, if he manages to take them to half of the places on today’s list, they will need tomorrow to rest. He wanted to go out to Stone Mountain straight from the school, but I persuaded him otherwise. I gave him some cash, and he is going to take them to Phipps Plaza. They have lunch reservations at the Peasant Uptown. Then they can go to Stone Mountain, and walk off their lunch.”

“Good for him,” she said. “He has come a long way, in the short time he has been with us.”

“He has done that,” Charles said. “Lydia tells me that he is very nearly over his terror of going back to face his father in court. If he can look his father in the eye, and talk about what happened, it will go a long way toward completing the healing process.”

Steve and his charges returned around four. Marie went to her room to take a nap, and Steve took his sisters out to the pool, where they stayed until we called them to the house for dinner.

After dinner, Roger came over, and he and Steve took the girls to a movie. When they had departed, we took our wine glasses, and settled on the sofas in the sun room, to visit. Marie had been suitably impressed by the tour of Exeter Academy, and said so.

“I don’t think he really knows what he wants to do, yet,” I said, “but with his grades, and a Diploma from that school, he can go to any college in the country. In point of fact, many of them will be approaching him, during his Junior year. The better colleges recruit heavily at schools like Exeter.”

“He has such an affinity for plants,” Gran said, “that I sometimes wonder if he ought to consider landscape design.”

“Now that you mention it, I think he may be,” Marie said. “He said something to that effect this afternoon. There was so much to see and do, that it didn’t register at the time.”

“Now that he has his bicycle, he and Roger can go ahead with their plans to earn money doing lawns this summer,” I said.

“He told me about that,” Marie said. “He wants to buy a used car.”

“What sixteen-year-old doesn’t?” Charles said.

“It was his idea,” I said. “Right out of the blue, in fact.”

“How are things back home, Marie?” Charles said.

“Getting better all the time,” she said. “I’ve discovered that Frank had been skimming money out of the business for some time, to pay for his affairs.”

“How can you tell?” I asked.

“Because the volume of business remains fairly steady, but the cash flow has increased considerably since he has been in jail, among other things.”

“I don’t suppose it is worth a complete audit of the books, so you can lower the boom on Frank with that fact, as well,” I said.

“No,” she said. “I thought about that, but full-blown audits are horribly expensive, and there isn’t that much money involved. Basically, it appears that instead of allowing his family the occasional luxury, Frank was funding his affairs. I’ve been reviewing old credit card bills for the business, and there are charges from restaurants and motels that I’ve never visited. There were also several charges from a jewelry store, and he never bought me jewelry. Need I say more?”

“How despicable,” Gran said.

“Yes, it’s all of that, and more,” Marie said, “and I am determined to put it all behind me and get on with my life.”

“Good for you,” Gran said.

Marie excused herself to go to bed, as she was still a bit tired from the drive up. We assured her that we would wait up until the kids were safely home.

Sunday morning Steve and Roger took Marie and the girls to Six Flags, and we spent most of Sunday afternoon around the pool, winding up the day having a picnic, watching the kids play in the pool.

Marie and the girls left for Louisiana, very early Monday morning. A few days later, one of the members of the Board of Trustees of Exeter Academy resigned, citing health reasons, and Charles accepted a post on the Board.

The call had come just before dinner. At dinner, Charles asked Gran if she had been working behind the scenes.

“I thought about it,” she said, “but before I pursued the matter, two of the Board members called me, to inquire about you.”

After many delays, Gran’s book had finally been published, and she had reluctantly agreed to participate in a few book signing events. She limited them to places that were no more than two hours from Atlanta by car, but after she had exhausted the possibilities in suburban Atlanta, Macon, Athens, and Chattanooga, Charles persuaded her to let him fly her to Savannah and a few other places in the Southeast.

The book did very well regionally, and was extremely successful in greater Atlanta, as it dealt with Atlanta history from a personal perspective.

The end of the school year arrived, and Steve and Roger had already obtained grounds maintenance commitments from a dozen or so residents of the neighborhood, all of whom were referrals from their existing customer base. Most, if not all, of the new customers had existing arrangements in place, and they had all been canceled, effective at the end of the school term.

We hosted a pool party for the entire swim team on the day after the term ended.

By this time, we had met their coach, Ethan Forbes, who was a good-looking blonde about our age. He was present, along with Mason and the fathers of four other team members. The boys ate first, and then went back into the pool to enjoy it, leaving the adults to their meal.

As we were finishing our lunch, Steve, Roger, and three other members of the team came up to the table.

“Uncle Philip,” Steve began, “we need some ideas on how to raise money for the team, over the summer.”

“Why do you need money?” I said.

“There is an empty room next to our locker room that we would like to turn into a steam room, but there is no budget for it,” he said.

“True enough,” said Ethan. “The room is just the right size, and could be converted into a very nice steam room, but the athletic department doesn’t have the funds for it, right now.”

“We know we could hit up some of the parents for the money,” Roger said, “but we want to do this ourselves.”

“I have an idea,” Charles said. “Why don’t you offer car washes every weekend during the summer?”

Steve let out a groan. “Uncle Charles, every student group in every town does that.”

“True,” Charles said, “but you could give it a new twist. Try this on for size - get permission from Lenox or one of the other Malls, and set up a car wash tent in their parking lot. Call it the ‘Speedos Car Wash,’ because all the guys will be washing cars, wearing their Speedos.”

“I love it,” I said. “You’ll have matrons from the Junior League there every weekend.” To myself, I thought ‘and half of the gay community.’

“That would work,” Ethan said. “You could offer to wash their cars while they waited, or while they shopped.”

“Also, you could charge a premium price, and announce that a third of it was going to charity, say the Aflac Cancer Center for Children, and the rest for your team,” Charles said.

“You also need to have a couple of parents around to keep an eye on things,” I added.

“Will the School have a problem with this?” Charles said.

Ethan laughed, and said, “Not with the newest member of the Board of Trustees involved. Exeter Academy isn’t quite as stuffy as it was when you attended.”

“It wasn’t that many years ago,” Charles said, “but your point is taken.”

Steve excused himself, and ran back to the house, returning a few minutes later with pens and yellow pads. He and Roger polled the team, and got their enthusiastic agreement. A Steering Committee was nominated, and he and Roger found themselves jointly in charge of planning.

When the boys had all gotten back into the pool, Mason said, “Is there somewhere that the three of us can talk privately?”

“Sure,” I said. “We can go up to our study. There are enough adults here to keep an eye on things.”

We led Mason up to the study, and offered him a seat.

“What’s on your mind?” I said.

“Steve and Roger have gotten very close,” he said.

“True.”

“I’m glad, because Roger has never had a close friend before.”

“And?” Charles said.

“Do either of you think that the two of them are fooling around?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” I said. “They are both sixteen, and you know how the hormones rage at that age. Steve is definitely gay, and I’m certain that Roger is, also.”

“How can you tell?”

“I have a highly developed, almost infallible, sixth sense about such things,” I said.

“Would it bother you to learn that your son is gay?” Charles said.

“I’ve suspected it for some time, now, and it certainly isn’t the most wonderful thing I’ve ever had to deal with,” he said. “On the other hand, I know enough about such things to understand that it’s not something he chose to be.”

He paused for a moment, before continuing. “Actually, when I was a little younger than Roger, my best friend and I fooled around a bit. Then I discovered girls.”

“Most boys fool around with friends at that age,” Charles said, “and then, most of them discover girls and move on, but a few of them don’t.”

“Excuse me for a minute,” I said. I went down the hall to our office, unlocked a file cabinet, and returned with some pictures.

“This is what Steve’s father did to him, the night he caught Steve fooling around with his best friend in Louisiana,” I said, and handed Mason the pictures. “It’s also why he is living with us.”

Mason looked at each picture carefully. I had given him all of them, including the groin shots.

“Jesus H. Christ,” he exclaimed. “How could a man do that to his own child?”

“My brother-in-law is not a man,” I said. “He is a sick and twisted son of a bitch. Sadly, he is far from unique. This is one of the reasons my sister divorced him, and it is also the reason that I now have legal custody of Steve.”

“We were told that Steve was here with you because his father was abusive,” Mason said, “but this defies comprehension.”

“I know,” I said. “Steve’s friend, Jeff, tried to pull my brother-in-law off of him, and failed. Finally, he hit him over the head with a brass bookend, and knocked him out. Steve was hysterical, and would not let Jeff take him to a local Doctor. He begged to be brought here, so Jeff and his older brother drove all night, arriving here early the next morning.”

“Steve was unconscious when they arrived, so we put him in bed, and I called our Pediatrician,” Charles said. “While I waited downstairs for the Doctor, Philip took those pictures as evidence.”

“Philip and I had a long conversation with Steve a day or so later,” Charles said. “He and his friend hadn’t gone beyond mutual masturbation at that point.”

“We told him two things,” I said. “Never to let anyone talk him into doing anything he wasn’t totally comfortable with, and never to practice unsafe sex.”

“If Steve, or for that matter, Roger, were to talk to us about sex, we would tell them the same thing,” I said.

“All of us in this household are very protective of Steve,” Charles said, “And that concern extends to Roger as well. Steve was very fragile when he came to us. He needed a friend, and Roger has been good for him. From what you’ve just told us, it appears to be a two-way street.”

Mason looked at us for a moment. You could see that he was choosing his words carefully.

“If I had met either of you in a business setting before all that publicity two years ago, I would never have pegged either of you as gay,” Mason said. “You seem so normal. Frankly, I thought all gay men were like those people who march in the parades.”

“Think of an iceberg,” Charles said. “Ten percent of its mass is above the surface, and highly visible. The other ninety percent is unseen. The flamboyant people you see marching in parades represent the tip of the iceberg, and, frankly, they are an embarrassment to the rest of us - the unseen ninety percent.”

“You probably come into contact with a great many gay men and women during the course of a typical week,” I said, “but you don’t know it, because they look and act like everyone else.”

“Mason,” Charles said, “It’s obvious that you and Roger have a good relationship. The time may come when he will want to talk to you about his sexuality. There is no way to predict when, but it will surely happen. All you have to do, is be ready for the conversation.”

“What about your wife?” I said. “Does she share your concerns?”

“We’ve talked about it at length, and all she wants is for Roger to be happy,” he said.

“What more could you ask?” I said.

“Would you like me to ask Steve anything about Roger?” I said, “Or perhaps suggest to Steve that Roger ought to talk to you?”

“Thanks for the offer,” he said. “I’ll have to think about that for a bit.”

I returned the pictures to the filing cabinet, and the three of us went back to the pool. Some of the boys were still in the water, but it was obvious that the ‘planning committee’ was in session.

We walked up to the table where the boys were in deep discussion. When Roger saw us, he said, “Dad, don’t you know some people at Lenox Square?”

“I sit on the Board of Directors of the parent company,” Mason said, “And, yes, I can probably get permission for the team to use the parking lot.”

“Thanks,” Roger said, and he turned back to the group. One of the boys was making copious notes on a yellow pad. Before the meeting ended, the boys had a full-blown plan of action in place, and Steve, Roger, and two other boys, went up to the house to type it up and print copies.

While they were gone, Charles said, “Listening to those guys talk about the money they’re going to make, and how they are going to do it makes me think we have a bunch of budding capitalists on our hands.”

“You’ve got that right,” Mason said.

“Ethan,” Charles said, “Are you certain about the school’s reaction to all of this. I may be on the Board, but only as a very junior member, and I certainly don’t have any clout.”

“A very junior member, whose father and grandfather before him were also on the Board, and a very junior member whose family name just happens to be on one of the buildings on campus,” Ethan said. “If I were you, I wouldn’t waste any sleep worrying about my lack of clout.”

The boys returned with a copy of their plan for each of us to review, and gave each of us a pencil to make any changes or suggestions. We all studied the document carefully, and a few changes were suggested and agreed upon. The boys made another trip to the computer, returned with corrected copies, and the party broke up.

By the following weekend, the Speedos Car Wash had become a reality. The boys staged a preview on Thursday afternoon. The local media had been alerted, and the project managed to make the five o’clock news on most of the local television stations. Friday morning, the cars began arriving, and there was a steady stream of customers all weekend long.

The boys had scheduled two parents to be on hand at all times, and as the various parents changed shifts, they kept the boys supplied with food and bottled water. The boys had a ball. As they hosed cars off, they frequently hosed each other down as well. They also managed to maintain enough self-control that they did not hose down their customers as well.

Three of the boys had opted to wear swim caps and goggles, just for the heck of it, and a couple of them had brought swim fins, and occasionally put them on for show, especially when there were cameras in evidence. The media was again present on Friday afternoon, and by Sunday, one television station had put together a full-blown piece on Exeter Academy, as well. It was scheduled to be aired late Sunday evening.

In addition, a local Baptist Preacher had publicly railed against what he referred to as the immorality of young boys washing cars while immodestly dressed.

Charles’ position as the newest, and youngest, Board member made him fair game, and he was interviewed at length about the school, and his family’s long association with it. The reporter asked Charles about the Baptist Preacher’s statements, and he laughed, telling her that perhaps she should go interview Dean Mangrum at St. Phillip’s Cathedral, and ask him how he felt about his son participating in the Car Wash.

The Reporter did so, and taped an interview with the Dean, who was in full regalia, just after a Saturday evening service. With a few well-chosen words, he put the bible thumper in his narrow-minded place.

The Reporter had also asked Charles why rich kids from a private school needed to raise funds.

“First of all,” Charles said, “not all of them are, as you say, rich kids. There are slightly more than two thousand students at the school. Ten percent of them are there on full scholarships. Just over half of the rest are from middle-class, or upper-middle-class families. These families pay huge amounts in real estate taxes to fund government schools that have clearly failed their children. Because of that failure, they are willing to sacrifice whatever they must to ensure that their children receive a decent education. The rest of the students do come from more affluent backgrounds, but so what? Do you equate affluence with indolence? The boys came to us with a genuine desire to do something for themselves, and not incidentally, something for a good cause, rather than having to ask for a handout. I think it’s commendable, and speaks very highly of them.”

After the Mall closed on Sunday evening, we had the entire team over to our pool, along with many of the parents. Before everyone was fed, the Steering Committee conducted a full-blown postmortem of the weekend’s operation. Everyone was delighted with the event, and the boys had raised a great deal of money. In fact, the final tally was more than 400 cars washed, at ten dollars apiece. The boys had also split a substantial amount of tips amongst themselves.

The Committee held a brief meeting, and agreed to continue the same schedule for the rest of the summer. There was no dissent from anyone, parents included.

Charles had been given a rough cut of the television piece and interviews to preview. We had set up a wide screen television set at the pool bar, and played the preview tape for the group.

At the end of the interview, everyone applauded.

“As far as we know,” Charles said, “this will be aired late this evening, and perhaps some time next week, as well. I have no idea how much of it will be cut in the interest of time. My answer to the reporter’s last question clearly wasn’t what she wanted to hear, so it will probably wind up on the cutting room floor.”

Everyone said that they planned to watch the report, and tape it.

Monday morning, I took Steve to a local Credit Union, so that he could open a Savings Account. He used his share of the tips as an opening deposit. That afternoon, he and Roger began doing lawns in earnest.

Just after lunch on Tuesday, my cell phone rang. It was Charles.

“Babe, I know this is short notice, but can you pack an overnight bag for each of us? We have to fly to Boston.”

“Why, what’s happened?” I said.

“Good news and bad news,” he said. “I’m on the way home, and I’ll tell you about it when I get there. If you can find Steve, you might ask him to stand by so he can drive us to the Airport around four.”

-To be continued-

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Your feedback, as always, is appreciated, be it good, bad, or indifferent.

Etienne.Reynard@Comcast.net

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