Seth’s Perspective
“I’m sorry guys, Tater Tot Casserole was all I could think of to pull together for dinner on short notice” I said.
“It’s good, thanks for having us over” River said. “We were freaking out just sitting in the apartment waiting for my dad to do something.”
Che was sitting across from him at the “Fancy table” in the dining room (as Freddy called it) and shoveling the casserole in his face like he hadn’t eaten in a year and added, “yeah, besides man, this shit is fuckin’ awesome!” Che barely got the words out of his mouth when he realized that he just said the two worse swear words in the book, in front of three kids.
“Oooooooooooo” Freddy said with a giggle, “the S-word AND the F-word. Oooooooooooo you’re in troublllllle!”
“CHEESE!” Izzy barked over Freddy’s giggling. “You say shit and fuck. Shit and fuck ow bad wodes, don’t say shit and fuck” she scolded shaking her head as she kept picking at her casserole. Zach excused himself to go into the living the room and laugh. Our two guests, Che, and River, sat at the table and looked down at their plates trying not to crack up.
Okay, that was one of those moments where, as a parent, I was torn: A) it was hilarious, and B) technically SHE wasn’t using the words, she was just correcting Che. C) but she did repeat the bad words… this was becoming a habit with her and we were pretty sure she knew exactly what she was doing. I had no clue how to best handle it, so I winged it (like I did with most parenting issues). “Izzy, you saying the bad words again doesn’t make it better” I said.
“I’m sorry, Izzy. My bad girl, don’t use bad words, okay?” Che said trying to right his wrong.
“Okay” she said. “You too Cheese, only say good wodes not bad wodes” she lectured the thuggish kid as Zach returned to the table with his composure regained. Che reached out his hand and the two pinky-swore not to use bad words, then fist bumped. It was cute watching the thug succumb to the charms of our three year old. I think it did the two guys a lot of good to spend some “normal” family time with us. River’s Dad (Shadow Wolf) hadn’t made any moves since he called Che’s car in and had the Sherriff try to arrest him, but we were all waiting for the other shoe to drop and it was getting to them. I think being around our family made them feel safe, at the very least it was a badly needed diversion.
Halfway through dinner they started asking questions about our kids and the BroMax kids. How did we “get ‘em?” Where were their biological parents? All that. The look on Che’s face when Freddy readily and without shame answered all his questions by telling them his “‘doption” story including his momma being bad and living with the police, a trip to Disney World, and culminating in him getting a new brother right before Christmas. Then he went on to talk about Teddy and the BroMax girls. The two guys listened intently and occasionally looked to me and Zach for clarification or confirmation. I gotta say it was fun (and damn interesting) hearing Freddy’s point of view on our world. He spoke about it all is if it were the most normal thing in the world… like all families formed the way ours did.
Che looked at River and said, “Da… Dang” doing a great job of avoiding the word “damn” and using only good words like he had promised Izzy. “Can you imagine us adoptin’ kids back home? They’d burn down our house and lynch us.” Freddy thought he was making a joke and laughed. He wasn’t. Back home they faced consequences for being gay that we had seemed to escape for the most part. Our little world was an oasis from bigotry and hate… yeah it existed, but we sheltered ourselves and our families from it as much as possible. I had a little chill at that moment realizing that our three kids would not be sheltered forever. All I could do was hope and pray that the world would catch up to our village by the time our kids had to live in it without us.
After dinner, River sat on the floor with Izzy as she filled his longish hair with barrettes and rubber bands, while just a few feet away Freddy and Che were playing Legos with Ali. Che was very attentive and helpful to Ali making sure to include him in every step. Petunia, of course, was in the middle of all of it keeping an eye on her three wards while they played with the two strangers.
While we were enjoying a quiet, family meets The Village night at home, my phone rang, it was Maureen (Ms. Elkin). “Hey Mo, what’s up?” I asked. I loved how our relationship had evolved into a friendship over time.
“Hey, Seth” she said quietly.
“We still set for our home visit tomorrow afternoon?” I asked. Ali was still a foster child, so Maureen made periodic visits to check on him. They were routine and instead of showing up randomly, she tried to work around our schedules.
“Well, that’s what I wanted to talk about” she said before exhaling a sigh. “Ali’s father reached out, he is in the country and is insisting on seeing Ali, and we move our meeting to our offices?”
My heart sunk, we had dreaded this moment, the return of Ali’s father. “um… wait… um… WHAT? Ali’s father?” I asked in a panic of disbelief and dread. “Hold on” I said before going into the living room. “Zach, I need you” then I looked at Che and River and asked, “Do you think you guys can handle the three of them for a minute?” They readily agreed. I led Zach up the steps to our room, whispering the summary of my call as I did. We shut the door and I put Maureen on speaker. “Hey Mo, I’m back and have Zach with me. I updated him on our conversation.”
Maureen sighed again, “So, Ali’s father reached out. He’s in the states on business and is on his way to town to see Ali” she said, again sending chills through me. “He claims he doesn’t want to interfere with the adoption, he just wants to see him.”
“Do you buy that?” Zach asked before I could.
“I don’t know, I didn’t talk to him personally, I got the message from the department head.”
“Can we say no?” I asked.
“Not really. We can’t deny him access, especially since our office had reached out to him a couple of months ago asking him to step forward” Maureen answered honestly, she always shot straight with us. “Listen, Guys, this could be a good thing. If he is sincere about not wanting to interfere, we can get him to sign a written surrender which means you could move forward with adoption now.”
“Okay, Okay” Zach said with his eye closed as he ran his hand through his blonde hair, thinking through it, “So what if we have Dan write up the paperwork and we bring it for him to sign tomorrow after he’s seen Ali? Would that work?” He asked.
“You’d have to ask Dan, but I think so.”
“We’d need a Notary” Zach said as he formulated a plan.
“You can’t swing a dead cat around the office with hitting a notary, I can confirm that someone will be available tomorrow” Maureen offered. We talked through the plan, thanked Maureen, then hung up. We hugged each other as we tried to wrap our head around what had just happened. I went downstairs to relieve Che and River from babysitting duty, they were all playing and didn’t even seem to notice we were gone. Zach stayed in the bedroom and immediately got on the phone to Dan (our adoption attorney) and the two of them made a plan to get the paperwork together. I called Max and asked him to pick the boys up from school and take them to BroMax the next day until we got home, then I called Gina and asked her to get Izzy. God, I was dreading that meeting.
After the guys went home with their bellies full of tater tots, ground beef, and a shitload of cheese, we put the kids to bed. Zach tucked Izzy in, I tucked Ali in, and Freddy got to stay up just a little bit longer to play. I sat in Ali’s room and watched him after he fell asleep, stroking his hair, and freaking out inside. ‘What will our lives be like without him? What will his life be like without us? Would he be loved or would he be treated as his father’s shameful mistake? Freddy’s old enough to understand, but what will we tell Izzy? Would he remember us, his family?’ All kinds of questions went through my head, I had this vision of me driving the Atlas and looking in the backseat mirror just to see his empty seat. My heart was already breaking and my brain was concocting a lot of shit, but the truth was that nothing had even happened yet.
Zach and Freddy entered the room and interrupted the pity party in my head, it was Freddy’s bedtime. “What are you still doing in here?” Zach asked.
“Just watching Ali sleep” I answered. Zach put a hand on my shoulder, he knew what I was thinking, and was probably having a lot of the same thoughts.
“That’s stupid. He’s boring when he sleeps and sometimes he farts too” Freddy said breaking the tension by making me laugh as he crawled up the ladder to his bunk. I needed that. Me and Zach tucked him in together, then went back downstairs. Zach was busy researching our legal options (just in case) and I tried to work on my book. It was futile, all I could think about was my baby boy leaving us. Zach took me up to bed, but I didn’t last long. I was tossing and turning, sweating, and worrying about something that might never happen. I couldn’t sleep, so I just got up. I cleaned the kitchen and did a load of laundry, then tried to write again, nope. I thought of having a drink to relax, but instead I decided to take a shower.
My mind wandered as the warm water cascaded down on my naked body soothing my thoughts a little bit. I did my best to rid myself of negative thoughts and focused on what Maureen had said about this maybe moving things along faster. I soaped myself mindlessly and was deep inside my own head, lost in my thoughts when the glass door opened.
“What are you doing?” My boxer-clad partner in life asked me.
“Just trying to clear my head” I said with my head tilted back and my face in the water.
“Um… I see that. Both of them apparently” Zach responded. I looked over at him and he was staring at my dick. My hard, soapy dick, I had been mindlessly stroking myself to full mast.
I sniggered a little, “I didn’t even realize I was doing that.” Zach dropped his boxers, slid in behind me, and reached around… his hand replaced my own as it glided up and down my soapy pole with ease. He would start at the very base while he used his other hand to pull my balls, tightening the skin on my manhood, making every movement more intense. It felt so good! It was an escape, an oasis from the stress and my crazy, worry-addled brain. All the stress in my world moved to one spot… my raging hardon. He lingered at the head twisting his hand around making me gasp over and over. I was on my tip toes, just at the brink… the very edge of ecstasy when Zach let go.
I exhaled, resting on my heels, Zach nuzzled my neck and whispered in my ear, “just let it all go baby. It’s all going to be fine.” After the words left his mouth, his tongue entered my ear and his hand went back to my blood engorged spike, this time I could feel his hardness sliding up my soapy crack. I let out this guttural groan of satisfied pleasure that vibrated through both our bodies, “You like that do you?” Zach laughed breathily in my ear. He got into an amazing rhythm with his hand on my soapy member, his hardness in my soapy crack, and his warm breath on my neck working as a finely tuned trio of euphoria.
I inhaled deeply as he brought me to the periphery of jubilation. I was on my tip toes panting in orgasmic anticipation, “yes, right there, keep going” I whispered, “yes, yes…” then nothing! Zach let his hand slide off the tip of my cock. “Shit!” I exclaimed as Zach nuzzled my neck again, licking the nape and up to my ear. He licked and sucked my ear canal, pushing his cock into my tight hole, I welcomed the distraction. Pushing slowly, he invaded my insides then withdrew, over and over. His hand resumed its work on my enraged beast pumping me in sync with his fucking. It wasn’t long before I was on the brink yet again, “I’m so close, I’m gonna cum” I whispered, but this time Zach didn’t stop. In fact, his fist moved with more purpose… his strokes were faster and more deliberate as his ass drove his load into mine like a piston. Our shower escape culminated in a mutual orgasm that filled the little echo chamber with grunts, groans, and a little purring. After my load hit the tile, Zach put both hands on my chest and pulled me into him, I turned my head and we kissed.
After we rinsed off and dried off, we went back to bed. With the poisons evacuated from my system, and Zach’s strong arms around my I would surely sleep like a baby. Yeah, not so much. Within minutes my mind as filled with insane thoughts again. I got zero sleep that night.
The silver lining was that the kitchen was spotless, lunch was made, a cheesy, chicken and spaghetti dinner was in the crockpot, and breakfast was sizzling in the pan when the troops finally woke up. “You look like shit” Zach whispered as he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me.
“Gee thanks, a-hole” I sniped back with a chortle.
“Did you get ANY sleep?”
“Maybe an hour or two at best” I responded.
“You’re worrying about something that may never happen. Stop” Zach said trying to be strong and reasonable. I hated when he was right. He helped me serve breakfast and we sat there enjoying the chaos of our three kids (‘maybe for the last time’ I thought to myself, then I scolded my brain. ‘STOP IT! Quit thinking like that’). Instead, I decided to be in the moment. I laughed as Izzy babbled about everything, I relished every giggle from Ali, and couldn’t hear enough of Freddy telling me about his day ahead. This was our family, and we’d fight for it!
That morning I picked up Teddy from BroMax, dropped the boys off at school, and Izzy and Ali off at daycare. I explained to the kids that Zach and I had a meeting with Ms. Elkin and were bringing Ali. They asked a million questions until they realized they got to go home with their friends and play… then all was good. After I dropped the kids off, I went into the office, I parked the Atlas between Che’s car and the green Beetle, grabbed my bag out of the back and was going to walk to Marilee’s for coffee when I saw broken glass on the ground. Someone had broken out the back window of Che’s car, and his rear tires were slashed. What the hell? I went into the building and right up to the guys apartment and knocked on the door.
River greeted me, “Hey Seth thanks for having us over.”
“What happened to Che’s car?” I asked skipping the pleasantries.
“What you talkin’ about?” Che asked as he came up behind River.
“Your back driver’s side window is smashed and two of your tires are slashed.”
“What the F… hell” Che said pushing past river and me to head downstairs. We followed.
“That mother f…” Che stopped himself from finishing the word for the second time that morning (I guess Izzy got to him).
“Your dad?” I asked River.
“Probably”
“Probably, my ass” Che said in anger. “He’s makin’ sure we know he’s watchin’ us.”
“I can pull the surveillance footage again” I said then called the police nonemergency number.
When Che realized what I was doing he tried to stop me, “No cops, man.” I didn’t stop, they police were on the way.
“Listen, it happened here and I have to think about the safety of everyone in the building. You’re not in Iowa, the cops aren’t against you.” I responded. Che didn’t like it, but he understood. While we waited for the police, I went inside and started going through the surveillance footage once again. It didn’t take long until I saw shiny new red pickup pull up behind Che’s car, two big guys in red baseball caps jumped out. One took a bat to the window, the other had what looked to be a knife in his hand and went right to the tires. They were in and out of there in seconds.
“Lobo and Rattler” Che scoffed.
“You know them I take it?”
“They work for my dad on the farm” River said, “that’s one of his trucks.”
“They do his dirty work… and they’re fuckin’ here. They fuckin drove all the way here to let us know he’s watchin’, that’s how he works. He wants us to be afraid.” Che said. I could see the fear poke through the anger and frustration. No wonder he was such a... well, such a dick all the time. River’s dad was stalking and harassing this kid for the last six months. I looked closely at the footage, the plate of the truck was visible, I couldn’t see it well, but it might be enough for the police. The plate was distinctive and definitely not from North Carolina. I sent the footage to my phone then we went out back to wait for the police. The guys texted Ricky to let him know they’d be late for work, and BA and the police cruiser pulled up at about the same time.
“What the hail is goin’ on here boys?” BA asked as she got out of the big old Chrysler. The officer approached at the same time.
“Andy Booth, you still look damn good in a uniform” BA said as the bear of an officer bent down to give her a hug. That woman knew everyone.
“Betty Ann James, you old crow, how you been?” Officer Booth asked. “And how’s the old buzzard doin’ these days.”
“Ornery as ever. When you and Bea comin’ round for poker night again? It’s been a coon’s age since we hung out.” BA sniped back.
“You still makin’ hooch?” He asked her.
“Nope” she said with a wink.
“Good, then don’t save me a jar” he winked back before adding, “call Bea and set up poker night. They made small talk a little longer, then we got down to business. Against Che’s wishes I told them everything I knew… god, it was sad how much the tough, thuggish Che, feared River’s dad, the guy must have just terrorized him. I showed Officer Booth the footage, and he gave me an email address to send it to. He went into his cruiser and pulled River, Che, and Shadow Wolf up on his computer. Well, two outta three of ‘em come up clean. Then he looked at Che.
Che shook his head, “I told you, man. That guy made sure I had a record.”
Officer Booth looked at Che and said, “Well, it’s not your typical gangster record” he chuckled. “J-walkin’, broken taillights, speedin’ 5 miles over the limit, parking tickets up the wazoo. Looks like somebody just don’t like you” he said shaking his head. It was clear that he understood what was going on.
“Nope. Somebody don’t like no black fag hangin’ with his son, I’m guessin’ you don’t like it much either.”
“Don’t be too quick to judge a book my its cover, son. I don’t much give a rats ass who’s hangin’ ‘round who. And all that stuff that happened in Iowa… I don’t give much of a rats ass about that either. But here, on my beat, someone broke into your vehicle and vandalized it… that’s what I give a rats ass about.” The officer gave BA a wink, and Che a smile. The look on Che’s face was priceless, he was in a state of shock, like for the first time ever someone was giving him a break. “I’ll see if we can pull a plate off that truck from the video and find out if it’s still around town.”
“Son, you gotta trust somebody sooner or later, Andy’s a good one to start with” BA said. Officer Andy gave Che his information and urged him to call if he had any more trouble. He was on our side, although I’m not sure Che was convinced of that. After the officer left, River went to work and I helped Che cover his window with some plastic we had in the basement from when we painted the apartments.
“Listen, Che. I know you don’t trust cops, but do you realize that you’ve had run ins with the Carolina Beach PD, the New Hanover County Sherriff’s Department, and now the Wilmington PD over the last few days?”
“Yeah, wait ‘til they hear Shadow Wolf’s version, then you can visit my black ass in jail. I keep tellin’ you.” Che said as he put tape over the plastic to hold it in place.
“I’ve been with you this whole time. These guys are all on your side” I argued.
“Yeah, ‘til they aint. Then the cuffs some out again.” Che wasn’t giving in. I don’t know if he was playing tough or if he was just so jaded because of River’s dad, either way, I believed he had the law on his side and I didn’t want to see him fuck himself over.
“I get it, but you need to trust us… and we trust these guys” I said.
Che stopped working for a second and looked me in the eye, “You good people Seth, I’ll trust you” he said. “Just don’t fuck me over… please” he said with a sad sincerity that opened a window to his past.
“Fine. But I’m telling Izzy you said fuck” I replied trying to lighten the mood.
Che laughed out loud then shook his head, “Damn, gay people with kids. We aint in Iowa no more.” I believed he was coming around. We finished the window and he went off to work.
The incident had taken my mind of the meeting with Ali’s father, I was truly dreading it. I left the office early to pick up my baby from Mrs. Mavis’s, Zach was going to meet me at DSS. Izzy was less than thrilled that Ali got to go with me and she had to stay, but after she realized she got to go to Maggie’s house to play, she was good. Ali said goodbye to everyone and we walked out to the Atlas. I couldn’t help but think it might be the last time he saw them… Shit… between the lack of sleep, and my raw emotions, I was on the verge of a breakdown but I held it together.
I buckled Ali into his seat, then got in the drivers seat. I looked at him in the mirror and said “Hi, buddy.”
“Hi” he said with that heart melting smile.
“Did you have a good day?” I asked once we were on the road heading to meet Zach.
“Ya’” he said, “We played trucks.” Ali didn’t talk much, but when he did it was clear and concise, I truly believed he had a whole vocabulary we just hadn’t heard yet. Of course, he didn’t need to talk much with Izzy around, she spoke for him. I talked to my little guy the whole way and he gave me short answers in that sweet voice as he looked out the window.
We met Zach in the parking lot, Ali was thrilled to see his other daddy who opened the back door and unbuckled him from his seat. With Ali perched on his hip Zach gave me the rundown of his meeting with Dan. “Dan said even if he does want him, it will take time, so he’s not going anywhere yet” Zach explained as Ali examined his nose. I breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ve got the written surrender with me, if the mood hits, I’m gonna ask him to sign it today, then we set a court date.”
“So, this could go either way” I said. Zach nodded.
“But it won’t. It’s going to go our way, Seth. It’s time to think positive.” We walked into the building together, Zach had one arm wrapped around Ali who was resting on his hip, his free hand was holding mine.
To be continued…
