Saturday morning witnessed that battle of titans between the freshman soccer teams of Baltimore High and Clifton Prep discussed the previous evening. To the great chagrin of Brandon’s boys, the Prep team won, but only by one goal, and only in the last minutes of an exciting game. None of the new boys had been to a soccer match before, so they were coached by Mike, who was a senior, and by Tom and Paco, two of Brandon’s boys who were still in elementary school, and so not personally involved.
When they were all back at Brandon’s Boys, Brandon asked the three new boys to meet with him in the library. “Well, boys,” he began, “are we far enough along for you to decide whether you want to stay with us?”
“What does that involve?” Clint asked.
“First of all, you’ll have to answer some questions about your background. We’ll want to make all this legal, and get you assigned here as foster children. Then, there will be a battery of tests to see where you are in school. If you can, we’d like for you to start back on Monday, but if you’re not prepared for that, we can do home schooling until you’re ready. And then, as Dr. Castleman recommended, Clint and Brent will see him Monday morning to do some damage control on your rear ends, and we’ll make appointments for you with a dentist and an optometrist, to have your teeth and eyes inspected. Finally, tomorrow is Sunday. We’d like for you to go with us to church. That’s the Catholic Church. I think you indicated you had some Catholic background, but we will not insist. If for some reason you definitely do not want to attend church with us, you can stay here. Aunt Barbara and Paco attend the early Spanish Mass at St. Francis Xavier, so they will be here while we’re out at St. Rose of Lima,” Brandon laid it out.
“Can we have some more private time, like the other day?” Clint asked.
“Sure. Like then, come get me when you’re ready,” Brandon agreed.
And so, Brandon went and spent some time with the other boys, while Clint, Brent, and Tony consulted. After only about a half-hour, Tony came to fetch Brandon, saying they wanted to talk some more. He returned to the library.
“Tony says you guys want to talk some more, so I’m listening,” he invited.
“We decided we like it here. So far, everything seems on the up and up,” Clint began. “But there are some areas that might be problems.”
“Tell me about the problems,” Brandon requested.
“The most important one is that we’re afraid that, if we tell you about our old place, you’ll send us back,” Clint said.
“Let me put your minds at ease about that right away,” Brandon tackled that energetically. “It’s obvious to me from your condition when you arrived, plus some things you said, and what Dr. Castleman told me, that your previous home was abusive. That means you were treated very badly, in ways that no children should be treated. So, I promise you will not be sent back there. I know some of the people at the Child Welfare office, and I know a lawyer who is very good with cases that involve children. She’s called Anjali Pennington, and is on our Board, just like Dr. Castleman, so we can get her to go to court for you, and end whatever rights your parents might have, and have Brandon’s Boys named as your legal guardian.”
“The, uh, the guy there told us we got the treatment we deserve because we’re bad bastards,” Clint told him.
“No. That’s not so. I know kids can be good some of the time and some of the time not, but no kid deserves to be beaten, ending up with the bruises and scars you all have, and especially no kid deserves to have his ass torn up like you and Brent. None of that was your fault. I hope we can convince you of that before very long,” Brandon insisted. “We have a counselor on our Board who can help you with that.”
“What’s this Board thing?” Brent asked.
“The group home here, called Brandon’s Boys, is organized with a group of people acting to make decisions to help our boys as much as we can. I don’t do everything by myself, even if my name is on it. Our Board has some fine people who really care about boys. I’ve mentioned some of them. Besides me and Chris, there’s Aunt Barbara. I think you’ll agree she’s a very important part of what goes on here. And there’s Dr. Castleman, who you saw Friday morning, and Mrs. Pennington, the lawyer I told you about, and Dr. Spalding. He’s the counselor I mentioned. And some others. You’ll meet all of them sooner or later,” Brandon informed them.
“Okay. In that case, if you promise not to send us back, we’ll talk. But there are a couple of other things we want to talk about up front,” Clint said.
“What are those things?” Brandon asked.
“School, for one. None of use were very good in school. I guess part of that is because we were held out lots, but that’s a long story,” Clint said.
“Like I said earlier, if you stay, you will be in school, either the regular schools, or home schooling. You absolutely need school to get along in life later on, when you’re grown up,” Brandon insisted. “But the tests I will give you will show me where you are compared to where you should be according to your age. If you’re really behind, then we’ll use the home school option until you’re caught up some. And some of our boys are actually a year behind where they should be, but they want that rather then trying to catch up. But some way or another, you will get your schooling.”
“Okay. The home school thing sounds pretty good,” Clint conceded. “Then, there’s church. We went to a Catholic church for a while, but then things changed, and so we’re not sure where we stand on that.”
“When we talk, you can tell me about things changing. As I said, you will not be forced to attend if you really don’t want to. But we also have a priest on our Board. In fact, he’s Chris’s big brother. He’s pretty good at helping kids, and some other priests we know are, too,” Brandon suggested.
Tony dramatically moaned. “I know about big brothers. I just knew I liked Chris. We have a lot in common. I bet he was picked on all the time, too.”
Clint and Brent gave him disgusted looks.
Brandon smiled. “It’s kind of hard for me to think of Chris as being picked on. But you can talk to him about that next time you’re on the Farm. Oh, and Chris is also the youngest of the brothers. There’s a middle brother, but he’s named Tony, like you. Anything else?”
“Just one thing,” Clint said. “If we get into this, and it does not work out, can we leave?”
“I would not feel right about just turning you out on the streets,” Brandon said. “But, if things do not work out here, we’ll find other arrangements. This is not a jail.”
“Okay,” Clint decided. “We’ll talk. But after lunch. I don’t want to take a chance of missing one of Aunt Barbara’s meals.”
With a laugh, Brandon agreed, and so they all went in search of sustenance.
But after another great lunch, it was back to the library, with Brandon sitting before a computer ready to take down the information the boys would give him. First of all, some names and dates. Clint was Clinton DeWitt Wheatley II, born on 19 September 2002; Brent was Robert Brent Wheatley, born on 9 November 2004, and Tony was Anthony Joseph Wheatley, born on 3 February 2007. Clint did not know why he was the Second, but he had been told to always include that when he gave his full name. None of them had any kind of real identification, much less Social Security numbers. Then came the really difficult part, the home situation.
“Things were kind of okay when our dad was alive, but that was a long time ago. Our dad died while Mom was pregnant with Tony,” Clint related. “I guess he was named Anthony, too, because Mom said Tony was named for him. Mom worried a lot after Dad died. I think she was sad because he died, but I think there were money problems, too. We moved to the apartment where we lived all the rest of the time, and it was not as nice as where we were before.” Clint mentioned an address in a poor part of town, not familiar to Brandon.
“Then, about two years after Dad died, Mom married this guy named Gary Zillion. At first, I thought she was joking, but that really is his name. Besides, Mom did not joke much any more. When Dad was alive is when we went to a Catholic church. We kept that up for a while after, but when Gary came along, we didn’t go any more. Gary was always complaining about the cost of anything we wanted. He kept telling Mom about ways to cut back on spending for us boys. That was bad enough, but then he and Mom started arguing all the time. I’m not sure what they argued about. Maybe it was different things. But Gary always talked about ‘the business.’ Mom got really sad all the time. And she started to kind of space out a lot, so when we wanted something, she was not around. I mean, she was there, but she was not paying any attention. I didn’t know what it was then, but now I think Mom was on some kind of drugs. She never used to do that before Gary came along. Or maybe it was just after Dad died. She used to be fun, but then she started being mad all the time, or else just spaced out. So, maybe a year and a half ago, Mom died. I don’t know what caused her to die. She seemed just like usual. I mean spaced out or mad. But then she was just dead. Gary said we could not afford a funeral, so he just took her away. I don’t know where he buried her or anything. We boys were afraid, with both Mom and Dad dead. None of us liked Gary much.
“Then, just about a month after Mom died, Gary brought another woman home. She’s called Jaynie. I don’t know her last name, just Jaynie. She’s as mean as Gary. They started cutting back on all sorts of things, like no breakfast, and sometimes no lunch when we were home. And supper was kind of skimpy, like a bowl of soup. And we started skipping school a lot. When we looked bad, like with bruises or something, they would keep us home, and told us not to talk about that. Gary and Jaynie did something at night. I don’t know what, but they left us alone a lot at night, and slept a lot during the day. Our school was a long way away, and so getting there was a problem. Sometimes I would get the others up and we’d take the bus to school, but we didn’t have a pass, so we couldn’t ride on the school bus, and we didn’t usually have money for the regular bus, so we missed a lot. And we didn’t have passes for the free school lunch some of the other kids had. I don’t know why, but Gary said it was too much trouble for things like that for us bastards. And anyway, kids at school were making fun of us, because we didn’t have any new clothes or anything.
“Then Gary started hitting us more. I mean, he always hit us, but now it seemed like it was every day, and a lot of the time we didn’t know why he hit us. That was bad enough, but then he started fucking us. Me first. That started about a year ago. Dr. Castleman said my ass was torn up, and that’s why I bleed whenever I take a dump. And Jaynie made us lick her pussy. After me, they started in on Brent with the same stuff. I kind of think they were on something when they did this. Anyway, they talked crazy, and laughed kind of crazy, too, when they did these things. Gary said we deserved it, cause we were so much trouble. But about four months ago, when I heard Gary and Jaynie talking about starting on Tony, we got together and decided to run away. Oh, one more thing. Gary always called us the little bastards.”
By the time Clint had completed his narrative, he was weeping, and so were the other two boys. Tony crept up into the chair where Clint was sitting and hugged him. Across the room, Brandon also had tears streaming down his cheeks, but he was also entering everything into his computer.
After a couple of minutes of silence, as they sort of recovered from hearing all that, Brandon said, “Boys, you have been abused terribly. Not only is there no way I will send you back into that situation, but Gary and Jaynie should be arrested. If you will work with me, and also tell your story to some people I know, that can happen. There’s one thing I want you to really remember, though. No matter what Gary said, none of this is your fault. I’m sure you acted up sometimes. All kids do. But nothing you did deserved being treated like what you just described. Right now, though, I think you need some comfort food before we do anything else. How about another trip to Bradford’s?”
“Yeah!” Tony immediately agreed.
“Okay. We’re all a mess. You three go wash your faces, and I’ll get myself ready, and we’ll stage a raid on Bradford’s,” Brandon instructed.
But in addition to getting himself cleaned up a bit, Brandon sent off copies of his notes to Zip Todd, to Anjali Pennington the lawyer, to Ken van Meter at Child Welfare, to Ben Spalding the psychologist, and to the newly appointed captain of the 4th Precinct of the Clifton Police Department, Nathan Winter. He accompanied it with the message, “Look at this. We’ll talk later.”
Bradford’s was a great success, of course. Ice cream is magical.
On the walk home, Brandon broached the matter of talking to others about the things Clint had related earlier. When asked who, he named the same people to whom he had sent his notes on the interview with Clint, along with Dr. Castleman.
“Zip Todd is the man who picked you up at the mall, and he’s Chris’s dad. He can find all sorts of things out on the computer. Mrs. Pennington is a lawyer, and a member of the Board for Brandon’s Boys. She’ll help us do things the legal way, and make sure Gary and Jaynie have no rights over you three. Mr. van Meter is a friend of mine, but he works for Child Welfare. He’ll help get you assigned to Brandon’s Boys as foster children, and will make sure Gary and Jaynie have no right to reclaim you. Nathan Winter is a policeman. Now don’t get excited. He’s a good guy, and related to Dr. Todd and Chris. He’ll arrest Gary, or if the address you gave me is not in his district, he’ll arrange it with whoever is in charge there. And Dr. Spalding is the counselor I told you about,” Brandon concluded.
“You promise we won’t have to go back,” Brent wanted assurance.
“I promise,” Brandon told him.
“Then I say we go along with what Brandon wants,” Brent said to his brothers.
“Yeah,” Tony seconded the motion.
Clint grinned, “I think we’re all in agreement on that. You succeeded, Brandon. We do trust you. But I’m still not sure about that school thing. Maybe we need to talk about that some more.”
Brandon grinned. If they were bargaining, their spirit was still healthy. “I think we can put those tests off until Monday. Or even later, if the people I mentioned want you then. After all, you’ll need lots of time to tell them everything.”
This time, it was Clint who said, “Yeah!”
And so it was, rather than taking a battery of tests on the rest of that Saturday afternoon, the Wheatley boys spend the time ‘hanging out’ with the other boys at Brandon’s Boys. Now, they were willing to talk to the others about why they were there, and in return they got some of the stories of the other boys. That made them feel better. They had almost convinced themselves that they were bad, and the cause of Gary and Jaynie treating them the way they did, but now they were sure they were just like the other boys, and it was those adults who were bad.
As a sign of how seriously Brandon took the story told him by Clint, that same Saturday evening there was a meeting next door, at Brandon’s own home, which involved Aunt Barbara, Zip Todd, Anjali Pennington, Ken van Meter, Lamar Todd, Nathan Winter, Ben Spalding, and Josh Castleman. It was in fact the Board of Brandon’s Boys, but with Chris Todd missing, still out at the Farm. They were willing to give up their Saturday evening in recognition of the need to do something for those boys, and to do it right away. Those not on the initial e-mail from Brandon were given copies, and were also appalled by Clint’s story.
Zip had spent some time on the computer, and had copies of three birth certificates showing the names given by Clint, with the parents being Anthony DeWitt Wheatley and his wife Margaret Ann Brent. It specified that the parents were married, so calling the boys ‘bastards’ had just been another put-down by Gary. He also had a death certificate for Anthony, but said he could locate nothing for Margaret, and raised the possibility of her death never having been reported. Nathan agreed to check into unidentified female bodies turning up any time since the reported death of Margaret.
Zip also had a marriage license for Gary Lloyd Zillion and Margaret Brent Wheatley, and Social Security numbers for both of them, but as there was no last name for Jaynie, he could do nothing there. All that information was shared with the others.
Anjali took that information from Clint’s testimony about the treatment of the boys, and said she had an appointment with the judge of the juvenile court first thing on Monday with the request that any rights Gary and the unknown Jaynie might have over the boys be terminated, and they be placed under the foster care of Brandon’s Boys, Inc. as wards of the state. Ken would work with her on this to get all the paperwork taken care of. He would act as the agent in charge until further notice. Josh told the others that his examination of the boys on Friday definitely indicated that Clint and Brent had been anally violated, which would strengthen the case for removing them from the authority of Gary and Jaynie. He provided a written statement concerning his examinations. He wanted Clint and Brent in his office first thing on Monday to have some repairs taken care of before they became infected.
Nathan had to tell the others that he had checked on the address given by Clint, and the apartment building was outside his jurisdiction. But, he had already discussed the matter with his opposite number there, and there would be no problem about police support. There had been no missing persons reported by those two or anyone else concerning the three boys. Gary Zillion and Jaynie would be arrested on a temporary order first thing tomorrow, and held until Anjali, Ken, and a judge could get the paperwork in order to keep them more permanently, awaiting trial.
Lamar told the group that the address given by Clint lay within the parish of St. Killian. There had been problems there in the past with the priests failing to report problems between parents and children which seemed abusive. There had been a reprimand, and a change of priests, but the priests most popular in neighborhoods like that were not ones with great records as far as being sensitive to abuse was concerned. They, like the neighborhood, tended to be kind of hard and inflexible.
Ben Spalding agreed to schedule the first of a series of meeting with the boys, in this case all of them at once, during the coming week. He would decide, depending on how that went, how often to see the boys, and when to see them together and when separately. He noted that it was fairly typical for victims of abuse to blame themselves, so he would deal with that first thing.
“See, we can act quickly when needed,” Ken said to Brandon as they broke up.
“But it will take you two weeks to get all the paper work straightened out, and if we had to wait until then to actually do anything, who knows what might have happened,” Brandon replied.
“That’s why we have guys like you,” Ken told him.
There was immediate follow-up. On Sunday morning, the Wheatley boys agreed to attend the 11:00 Mass at St. Rose of Lima with Brandon and most of the other boys. It definitely helped that Bobby and Bert were among the altar servers that morning. Clint said he had wanted to be an altar boy, but that was something else Gary said they could not afford. Brandon told him there were no fees or other costs associated with being an altar boy. The only possible expense was gas for getting to church. It was just another example of Gary refusing to give the boys anything.
Later that day, after Mass but before they sat down to a scrumptious Sunday dinner, Brandon got a phone call from Ken van Meter. Gary Zillion and his companion, Jayne Boyle, had been arrested that morning. Evidence confiscated by the police at the time indicated that they were heavily involved not only in using drugs, but in their distribution as well.
Still later on Sunday, all the boys walked down to Mansfield Park, where most of them engaged in a pick-up soccer match. As the Wheatley boys did not know the game, and as they were in poor physical condition, they did not participate, but they were the cheering section. Some day, they would be able to be part of that as well.
Early on Monday morning, Josh Castleman performed some fairly simple procedures on Clint and Brent. Even though he was not involved, Tony insisted on going along, although, to his disappointment, he was not allowed to watch as Josh did his job. The two older boys were told to be real careful for a while, until things healed back there. Tony loved getting back at his older brothers by making comments about sitting down, being a pain in the ass, and the like.
After lunch, accompanied by Brandon and Anjali Pennington, all three boys went down to police headquarters. There, they made individual statements concerning their treatment by Gary and Jaynie. Included in these statements were comments about their mother’s death and the disposition of her body. As far as possible, the date was recorded, and an investigation promised.
This ordeal was followed by another visit to Bradford’s. There, young Tony claimed his free treat from Mr. Anthony Bradford, who laughed heartily at the remembrance. That visit served to dissipate the tensions resulting from hours of interrogation.
It was not until Tuesday that the boys had to take those placement tests for school. And on Tuesday afternoon, Brandon taught his class for the Theater Department at the University, so it was not until Wednesday that he could talk with them about the results. As expected, they were all three well behind the curve. As a consequence, it was agreed that they would be home schooled until after the Christmas holidays, at least. And the other boys would help in the process.
And so, three more boys joined the group home at 1322 Chestnut Street.