Being an ex-military man, Grandpa arose early. When he woke us at 6:00, he’d already been up and dressed for an hour.
He woke us by knocking on our door and calling, “Time to get up,” in a stentorian voice.
Nigel groaned. “Is he gonna do this every day?” he asked.
I didn’t answer, but I raced into the bathroom for the first shower. Ashley was second, and Nigel was a mumbling third.
Breakfast was dry cereal, orange juice, and milk. When I asked for coffee, Grandpa said, “Nope, it’ll stunt yer growth.”
As he sipped his own coffee, Grandpa said, “When yer done, we’re gonna drive to your old home in Boston. I need to see if there’s a will there, and you need to grab anything you want, because we’ll be emptying and selling that house.”
“What!” I protested. “We all grew up in that house.!” Then, noting Grandpa’s stare, I added, “Sir.”
“But now it would take money to keep it up, and it’s empty. It should bring a lot of money we need for maintaining you. Surely, you don’t believe I’m gonna keep housin’ and feedin’ ya fer nothin’.”
Nobody answered; nobody felt like arguing.
We finished breakfast silently and piled into the car for the trip to Boston, which proved to be almost four hours away.
When we got to Boston, Ashley gave Grandpa directions to the house. We pulled up in the driveway of our old home and silently climbed out of the car.
“I don’t suppose any of ya got a key,” observed Grandpa.
“No, sir,” I said, “but I know where one’s hidden.” I trotted around to the rear of the house, picked up a potted plant, and got the key. Back in front, I opened the door, and we all went in.
“Now, if there’s a will, where do ya think it would be?” Grandpa asked, looking around.
Ashley guided him to Dad’s office, where he sat and began going through drawers and the file cabinet.
The three of us went up to our bedrooms and searched for belongings we were anxious to take with us.
I looked in my room and sighed. I wanted everything in it but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I picked out some of my favorite books and put them in a box. Then I emptied my desk, adding the contents to the box. Finally, I looked at my clothes. I knew there wasn’t room in our bedroom for much, but I took some of my favorite shirts and pants, and my pair of dress shoes.
As I left my room, lugging a box and a bag, I heard, “Got it!” coming from the office. Grandpa had found a will. Actually, he’d found two because both Mom and Dad had one.
When I went into the office, Grandpa was sitting at the desk reading the documents. We all gathered in the room, and Grandpa said, “Well, they’re almost identical. What’s clear is that, in the event that both parents died, all the assets would go into a trust fund for the education and well-being of you three.”
“What’s a trust fund, sir?” I asked.
“It’s a fund in which money is invested for the three of you. It can be used for you by an executor, but you can’t touch it yourselves until yer 21.”
“Does the will say who the executor is, sir?” asked Nigel, who was finally catching onto the ‘sir’ bit.
“Well, that’ll be a bit of a problem, because in their wills yer parents named each other. Course they didn’t plan on dyin’ at the same time. I guess I’ll have t’ get in touch with a lawyer t’ find out what’ll happen.”
As we piled back into the car for the drive back to Preston, I think we were all worried what might happen if Grandpa got his hands on the money.
The rest of the day we spent in our rooms, trying to find space for everything we’d brought from home. Nigel and I worked together, squeezing clothes into the closet and finding space on the floor in the corners for our piles of books.
I hope Nigel hasn’t come across in this writing as a bad person. He’s not. In fact, he’s a good one. Sure, he’s moody and sometimes surly. After all, he’s a teenage boy. But most of the time he’s upbeat and, after our sib meeting, he’s been mostly kind to me.
In the evening, my phone rang, the caller ID telling me it was Rupert. We chatted happily until Nigel told me to hang up and get ready for bed.
The rest of the summer passed without incident. Nigel and I got along pretty well in our room. I suppose we had to as there was no alternative.
In the late summer, Rupert called to say that he was back in Preston. He wondered if we could get together the next day. He pointed out that it was nearly the end of August, school would be starting soon, and most of his days would be taken up shopping for school clothes and supplies with his mother. I checked with Grandpa, who agreed that I could meet up with Rupert. I really didn’t want Rupert coming into our house, but he said he and his mom could pick me up and we’d go to his home.
As I lay in bed that night, I was really looking forward to seeing him again.
Grandpa called us as usual at 6:00 AM. Ashley was cooking bacon and eggs when Nigel and I arrived in the kitchen.
Two hours later, Rupert and his mom arrived and I trotted out to their car. We drove through part of town and up the hill and along the street where I had seen the big homes. Mrs. Gordon pulled into a driveway, and I followed Rupert into the house and up some stairs to his room. When we entered, Rupert turned and hugged me. “I’m so glad you’re here,” he said. “I was afraid we’d never see each other again.”
“Me too,” I said, hugging him back. I did like his hugs. They made me feel warm and wanted.
I think his room was big enough to hold all three bedrooms in Grandpa’s house with space left over.
Under the window was a large desk and a comfortable chair. There was a large TV and a collection of video games. Bookshelves lined the walls, and there were two dressers and a large closet. The bed was big, and there was an en suite bathroom.
I couldn’t help but exclaim, “Wow!” The first things I looked at were his bookshelves. Rupert appeared to have eclectic tastes. There was a mixture of fiction and non-fiction. The collection included classics, sci-fi stories, adventure stories, and some historical fiction, as well as some biographies and U.S. history books.
“If you see anything you’d like to borrow, feel free,” said Rupert.
I thanked him, saying that maybe next time I visited I’d borrow something.
“Let’s go outside,” Rupert suggested. When I agreed, we bounded down the stairs, Rupert told his mom where we were going and led me outside, through the back yard, and into some woods. As we walked, he took my hand, squeezing it gently. I squeezed back.
The woods were quiet and cool. Trees, mostly evergreens, towered above us. There were pine needles on the ground. As we walked, we came across ferns and mushrooms.
I said the woods were quiet, and they were, but they weren’t silent. Birds sang and chirped in the trees or bounded along on the ground ignoring us. A squirrel scolded somewhere above us.
Eventually we came to a little stream that babbled over its bed of stones and disappeared into the woods.
We sat beside the stream and talked about everything and nothing. Rupert hugged me again, and I melted into his arms. Despite all that had happened in my life that summer, his hugs comforted me and helped me relax.
“Garreth,” he asked at last, “do you have a girl friend?”
“No. Do you?”
“No.”
We were silent with our thoughts for a bit. Then he asked, “Do you want one?”
“Truthfully, no. At least I’ve never met a girl I wanted as a girlfriend.”
“Me neither. Mom says I’m not ready yet and that’s okay, but I’m not sure I’ll ever want one.”
Again we sat in silence.
Finally, he said, “What I want is you.”
“But I’m not a girl,” I pointed out, giggling a little.
“I know,” he said. Then he asked, “Can I kiss you?”
“Boys don’t kiss boys,” I said.
“I think they can if they like each other, and I like you.”
“I like you too,” I said. After thinking it over for a time I said, “Okay.”
He reached over, turned my head, and kissed me softly on my lips. His lips were warm and moist. Oh god, I thought I’d gone to heaven. When Rupert broke the kiss, he said, “That’s what I want.”
“Me, too,” I said, and kissed him back. I was aware that my thing had grown very stiff, but I didn’t understand what kissing had to do with my thing. I felt my heart pounding and I wanted to sit there forever, kissing Rupert.
When Rupert broke the kiss, I was disappointed, but he said, “I guess we’d better head back.” He stood, took my hand, and we walked back through the woods.
“Do you ever get lost in these woods?” I asked.
“I did at first, but as long as you keep going straight, you’re going to come out to civilization.
When we arrived back at his house, it was time for me to leave.
“I really enjoyed myself,” I said, “Can I come again?”
“Sure, but not tomorrow. I promised Mom we’d do some shopping tomorrow.”
He and his mom gave me a ride home. I was on cloud nine! I felt like I was floating up the walk to the front door. When I went to my room, I met Ashley in the hall.
She said “Hi,” and then looked at me closely and said, “Well, you look happy.”
“I am,” I said. I floated into my room and fell on my bed.
I dropped off to sleep and had a wonderful dream of me and Rupert kissing.
Nigel called me for supper. When I first woke up, my thing was as hard as it had ever been and I wondered why. I had to wait for it to go down before I went to the table.
There was some comfortable chatter over supper as the three of us tried to push out the thoughts of our Boxton home being sold.
Ashley said, “Garreth seemed to enjoy himself this afternoon.”
“What did you do?” asked Nigel.
I’m sure I blushed bright red, when I answered, “Oh, Rupert and I just went for a walk in the woods and sat beside a stream for a while.”
Grandpa gazed at me and seemed to smile just a little. It was the first time I’d seen him smile.
That night as I lay in bed listening to Nigel pleasuring himself, I fished out my thing from my PJs and began to rub it. For some reason, as I did it, I thought of Rupert and his hugs and kisses. A warm feeling came over me, and then something down near my thing began to tingle. I’d never felt that before, but I liked it. I wondered if it had anything to do with what Nigel was feeling.
When I stopped, I snuggled under my covers and was soon asleep.
Copyright © 2025 Alan Dwight
Posted 30 April 2025