A Deep Love By James
Disclaimer
This story deals with sexual as well as romantic situations between teenaged males. If this story offends you, or you're not of the legal age to read such material, then please find something else to read.
A Deep Love: Book 2
Chapter 7
Two Weeks Later
Michael
We finished unpacking the last few boxes, all of this was done with a grate since of happiness, but also with some sadness since we lost both Mine and Josh's houses. True Larry and his asshole friends were dead, that was for sure this time, but at the same time, none of us had any idea just how deep their criminal ring went. As my dad said once we were on our way to the new house, Larry might not even be behind all of these crimes, at least not the way we thought.
While Larry and his friends slowly created, then executed their escape, my dad and the other members of the team did even deeper investigating on Larry and the people who were over-seeing our care at our high school. They found that large sums of money were being deposited in to Larry and our new principal's bank accounts as well as in to hidden accounts about which the government knew nothing. Furthermore, hidden recording devices on the principal and his other friends showed them meeting with a person who was always covered in black clothing with a black hood over the head and face. The voice was disguised with some electronic device, such as what one uses to make the voice sound higher in rap music. From certain ways in which their conversations had been conducted, it suggested that the "Person In Black" as we grew to call him or her might be behind the whole mess and Larry was just a player in the game who took it too far. All of the evidence suggested that murder and rape, at least rape in the sexual form were never to be a part of the operation.
The operation was simple enough, at least in the beginning. The group including Larry, was supposed to come to Sangger and convert I as well as Josh and the other boys in our group. They weren't going to stop there though, they would also go on to convert other kids in the city. Convert them to what, why to being straight like them of course. I was scared, but I was glad in a way that the operation came together. We all used to think that in the beginning, that Larry Marks as well as the new principal along with the other antigay adults were separate assholes we had the unfortunate luck of having to encounter, but since we now knew that it was all part of the same criminal group, we at least had the hope of isolating them and taking them down. That is, if we could find "The Person In Black" and more to the point, find out who the hell they were.
0000
"The Person In Black" drove the limo through the dark rainy afternoon and thought about the operation. They knew that it had for all practical purposes, gone straight to hell and the hooded figure could only hope that they could protect themselves from discovery. They understood that should they be discovered, then everyone would hate them, especially people in Michael's group.
"Damn Larry Marks and his fucking perverted ways!" the figure screamed in their head. "That fucking bastard ruined everything. I could have had that whole group of faggots converted to my way, the only way of living that would make happy the lord our God, but Larry and his fucking rape obsession just had to fuck up everything!"
Andrew and Chad did more work that day to see if they could get the truth out of the recordings they had of the person in black. They had the person under round-the-clock surveillance, both with audio and video, but the prick was saying nothing that would incriminate themselves. This was most frustrating, but they weren't giving up, not in the least.
"Once we find out the identity of this asshole, I would love to have the pleasure of just fucking taking them out," Andrew said. "Fuck all that Due Process."
"A part of me feels the same way, but our Government's increasing disregard for the law is part of what got our country to where it is today," Chad said. "True, our country hates people who practice Islam and now it's just taken on a life of its own. Now many groups are being scapegoated, especially homosexuals."
"Yeah, you're write," Andrew said. "I just want this fucking thing to be over. I mean, how many times has that Bastard Larry come back in to our lives, then Michael blows him and his shit bag friends straight to Hell, then we find out recently that this fuck isn't even the root of the problem, and the one who is, proves to be someone we don't even know. Fuck, we don't even know if the person is a man or a woman!"
"Maybe it's an alien," Chad said.
"Grate," Andrew said wishing he could generate more humor. "The fucking press can get ahold of that and run with it and say that this creep might be an alien like the Mr. Smith killer in that one James Patterson book."
"Yeah, I know," Chad said. "I'm sick of this as much as you are and I'll be glad when it's all over."
Michael
Josh and I were sitting in our new room in the new house holding hands and talking about our up-coming commitment ceremony. It seemed like a long time since we had actually had a chance to plan for it much less talk about it. We finally decided to have it in the early Summer with John Martin performing it. He would help Bengy, Ashley and I with our public service, and in his spare time he was a minister, but a largely liberal one who took seriously the defending of the GLBT Community.
I was then brought back to the present by the doorbell sounding. We had one for regular visitors to use with its own sound, and another bell that was used for people to use who were or might be potential guests. We also had both buttons properly labeled. It was the second bell that sounded. I got up and turned to my love.
"Looks like we may or may not have our first customer," I said. "I'll walk beside you to the door. I think it's best if they see us both."
"I agree," Josh replied.
Once at the door, I saw a couple of people standing at the door. Since it was still light out and the son faced the front of the house at that time of day, I couldn't see the faces of who was there, and even if I could, we had to use an intercom to have people vocally identify themselves before we let them in.
"Please announce yourselves," I said as kindly as I could. There was a few seconds of dead air. "It's okay," I said. "Just tell me your names. I can see that there are two of you. You'll be alright."
"His name is Ryan," a female said. "I was trying to help him say it for himself."
"Good," I said. "Here at this place, within reason, we really try to help people with speaking for themselves."
"I'm sorry Mr. Williams, but it's not that simple this time," the woman said.
"I understand, but I still need your name at least," I said. By this time Chad and my father after hearing the woman's voice on their portable radios that had a frequency for the front of the house came up to where Josh and I were standing.
"My name is Cathy Evans and I'm Ryan's case worker," she said confidently, but kindly.
"Okay," I began. "I'll buzz you in."
I pressed the code in to the keypad on the remote that was in my hand and the door unlocked. I then opened the door the regular way and saw a tall and thin woman with black hair and blue eyes standing there. Beside her stood a small boy with dirty-blond hair and dark-brown eyes. His face was covered in bruises, some old and some fresh. His lip was scabbed over from where someone had either punched or slapped him across the face. I also saw that he had on only sandals and that his feet, at least the tops of them had a large covering of bruises and scabs. Some bastard had trashed this kid good.
"Hi Ryan," I said holding my hand out to the boy. He drew back from it as if it was a poisonous snake and he looked at Cathy.
"It's okay Ryan," she said looking at him and speaking softly. "These nice people are here to help you. This might be your new home for a bit."
"That's right," Josh said stepping forward. "We have a room with a lot of things in it that might be of interest to you."
"We might even have something for you to eat for a snack," I said smiling. I was trying to not sound like I was on Sesame Street talking to little kids. This kid looked like he was about 10, or 11, but he could have passed for younger since he was small for his age. I suspected that he wasn't getting much in the way of nutrients wherever he had been staying before.
"Do you guys have ice cream?" he asked in a small extremely shy voice.
"I think we do," I said. "I'll make a deal with you, okay?"
"Okay, what's the deal?" he asked looking up at me directly this time.
"If you come with me and at least check out one of the bedrooms, I'll let you have some ice cream," I said this, and the boy suddenly looked at Cathy and grabbed her hand and held it hard.
"Ryan?" I said stepping closer and kneeling down to his level.
"No, no bedrooms!" he said starting to cry.
"Just give me a moment with him," Cathy said. "The driver who brought us is really good with him and I'll let Ryan stay in the car with him for a moment while I talk to you guys."
"What's the driver's name?" I asked pulling out my notebook to write his name down. I quickly wrote down her as well as Ryan's names.
"It's Frank," she replied.
I wrote it down and waited for her to take Ryan back to the car, then return to talk with us. She was quick about going then coming back and once she was back, we all five went in to the large sitting room of the house. Once sat down with drinks, I began speaking.
"Okay," I began. "What if anything can you tell us about this boy? Why did he get scared suddenly when I mentioned of all rooms, the bedrooms?"
I had an idea, but I needed her to say it out loud.
"Okay," she began. "Here's what I know about Ryan so far. He's 11 years old, but he definitely doesn't look it. He was born to parents who are addicted to both alcohol and drugs, and for the past four months, at least from what we can get out of Ryan verbally, his father has been sexually molesting him every night."
"Exactly how did Social Services become involved?" my dad asked.
"That's what is one of the good things about all of this," Cathy said. "About three weeks ago, Ryan was staying with an older married couple a couple of houses down the street from his and he got there on a Friday night. The couple was babysitting him while his parents were out at the bar. Anyway, when the man was tucking Ryan in to bed for the night, Ryan slipped up and asked him if he wanted to play the grown-up games with him. The man thought he knew what Ryan was talking about and he began to tell Ryan that he shouldn't talk like that."
"What happened then?" Chad asked.
"Well, the man saw a scared look on Ryan's face when he asked his question and Ryan suddenly began crying after the man began to correct him. The man sat down on the bed beside him and after he got him calmed down, he had Ryan tell him the whole story. Ryan told him everything and after he got him calmed down, the man went out in to the living room and after talking with his wife for a bit, they called the police and Social Services the next morning and they were able to get the organization to listen to them and they sent me."
"When you say that Ryan asked the man if he was going to play the grown-up games with him," I began. "Are you saying that Ryan didn't know that what was being done to him was wrong? It sounds like he might have known on some level, but still thought that it was normal, but still scary, like the way a child has to get a vaccine from the doctor."
"That's exactly what it was," she said looking at me directly. "He came close several times to telling his teacher and the school nurse, but he was afraid of his father finding out and beating him more than he already was."
"I hope we can help him," Josh said.
"As do I," I replied.
"Okay," Andrew said. "I'll have you get Ryan back in here if he wants to and is a little calmer than before and I'll have Michael and Josh take him with them if he agrees to it. If that all goes well, then Chad and I will take care of the paper work of getting Ryan registered as having this place as his residency."
"Okay," Cathy responded. "I'll go out and see what happens."
A few minutes later, Cathy returned with a smiling Ryan and He came up to me and wrapped his arms around me. I hugged him back and I knew that he wasn't ready to let go.
"You're my new best friend," he said happily.
"Thank you," I said after we ended the embrace. "You're my new best friend too."
Ryan then turned to Josh and gave him the same treatment. They both smiled and Ryan then told us all that he wanted to stay here for as long as we'd have him. Cathy then went to have us sign the usual documents. I smiled. It seemed like things were coming together with the house and what we wanted to do.
Author's Notes
It would be nice if a place such as this existed in the reality-based world for kids such as Ryan. I've slowly and sadly reached the conclusion over the past few years that our society doesn't give a damn about kids. Turn on any television set and you'll find the movies, sitcoms or trash talking talk shows mainly Steve Wilkos and Beyond Scared Straight in which kids are put in jail for a few hours and screamed at by the various inmates.
This is nothing more than demonization of kids as far as I'm concerned. Want to know why 14-year-old Billy smashed in his Nabors's window, look at his home life. These kids don't exist in a vacuum and I have nothing but contempt for when I hear parents always saying things like: "Yeah, but we tried to put him or her in counseling and it didn't work." Or if that's not half-assed enough, then it's something like" "Well, it was probably those damned Heavy Metal albums he was listening too that made him hit his girlfriend."
Our society has forgotten assuming that it ever knew, that children's behavior in the negative aspects as well as an abusive home life more often than not go hand-in-hand. Instead, we externalize evil on to children, rather than understanding that evil and bad behavior is something that in varying degrees we all have to struggle with. It's only by understanding this fact that we can fight and keep evil and bad behavior at bay.
If the example above doesn't show our nihilistic attitudes towards kids, look at the problems of childhood obesity that I keep hearing about in the news. From The First Lady and the highly paid pundits on MSNBC to the well paid doctors who sit on their fat asses speaking with these pundits, they all express grate and deep concern for the pancreases of our children and wring their hands about kids drinking that hateful and evil Pepsi, but they practically do nothing about the 14-year-old Michaels or 12-year-old Susies who are being cussed at by their parents, being beaten by family members or in back bedrooms being raped and molested night after night. Our society likes kids, but they don't like the screams of the kids. These television personalities as well as every-day people can't have it both ways. We all either need to care about both the children and their pancreases or we need to go back and examine just exactly what it is we mean by caring for children!
So everyone take care, and I'll see you guys in Chapter 8.