Copyright © 2026 by Julien Gregg
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The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.
THIRTEEN
Back at school I got a shock. Adam Hawn returned to school with a bruised face and his arm in a sling. There was a brace on his wrist. I went to him and asked him what had happened. He told me he didn't want to talk about it. I asked if his wrist was broken. He told me it was sprained. He'd be fine in time for baseball. That wasn't why I was asking, but I told him that if he needed to talk I was available. He asked why I was doing this. We weren't friends. I told him that I wasn't his enemy. I told him what Hank had done to us and how I'd been struck by lightning and told the doctor. He told me that his dad had beat him until he was unconscious. He said his dad was in jail, and his mother was running around trying to figure out how to pay the bills. He said he might not even be able to stay here.
Professor Watson's secretary got married and left the state. I asked Adam if his mother could do the job. He said she was a secretary before his father made her stay home to take care of him and his sister. I asked him if she would like to work for Professor Watson. I reminded him that children of faculty members went to this school for free. He called his mother. I went to talk to Professor Watson. He asked me why I'd come to him, and I explained Adam's problem. I told him that his mother was a secretary before her husband decided she should stay home and care for the children. I said he needed a secretary and Mrs. Hawn needed a job. He laughed and told me I was quite persuasive. He told me that Mrs. Hawn call him.
I relayed the information to Adam. He called his mother again. She called Professor Watson, and the rest is history. Kevin asked me why I was doing all of this for Adam Hawn. I told him what his father had done to him and told him he was a fellow traveler. He nodded. After that we both hung out with him. He didn't question it. When The Five included him in outings, he asked me what was going on. I told him he'd been adopted. He laughed.
Jake Addon came to me and asked me what had happened to Adam. I told him what Adam had told me. I told him that I had gotten his mother to call Professor Watson and he'd hired her as his secretary so Adam could stay in school. He smiled at me and told me I was a good guy. I thanked him. He asked me if I'd introduce him to Adam. I took him to Adam at the Phoenix Club. They talked for a long time. I didn't get involved in that.
I did buy model cars to put together. I did them in the art room. I asked Adam to help me, because I'd never done it before. We spent evenings in the art room putting together five model cars. His wrist got better and he helped. I gave him two of them to put on the shelf in his room. He tried to say no, but I told him to take them and shut up about it. I'd get more and we'd work on them. Sometimes Dustin came to work on them with us. Sometimes Kevin came to work on them with us. They treated Adam like any other friend. He got the picture.
Then one day he came to the art room and something was off about him. I watched him for a while. I noticed that he walked different. He held himself in a way he hadn't before. It was more mature. I put it all together and asked a simple question that floored him. "When did you come back?" I asked.
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"What year was it that you made it to before you opened your eyes in your fourteen year old body?" I asked.
"How do you know about that?" he asked, looking nervous.
"Because I came back in time too," I said. "I know the look."
"I was twenty-one," he said. "My father shot me in the head. I woke up in my room in Athens House to this."
"Your father shot you?" I asked. "Why?"
"He doesn't believe that I'm his son," he said. "My mother had an affair around the time she got pregnant with me. She did a paternity test, and he is my father. He just doesn't believe it. When I was twenty-one I came out of the closet. He shot me."
"Well, that's two things we have in common," I said. "I'm gay, too."
"I know," he said. "You were the reason I came out of the closet to begin with."
"What are you saying?" I asked.
"Not what you're thinking," he laughed. "You and Dustin were about to get married when I came back in time. You came back when?"
"I was twenty," I said. "I came back on my twentieth birthday."
"So about two weeks before my father shot me," he said.
"Okay," I said. "Then you really are my brother now."
"How do you figure?" he asked.
"We have to stick together," I said. "We're time travelers. You're creating ripples in time by being here. Everything you do will cause more ripples in time. They will cause changes that we can't predict and we can't stop."
"How do you know so much about time travel?" he asked.
"Because when I came back at twenty, it wasn't my first time," I said. "I came back the first time when I was forty. I landed in my twelve year old body. I made a lot of changes to the timeline when I got there. I put future technology in the wrong time and caused a war."
"Yeah, China was set to invade the US when my dad shot me," he said. "That was all you?"
"It was the ripples caused by what I was doing," I said. "They were bad."
"So you're not going to do that this time?" he asked.
"Not even close," I said. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do later, but I know it won't have anything to do with electronics."
"You and Kevin were on the cover of Forbes Magazine," he said.
"That's in the past," I said. "The new future will be vastly different."
"What's happening in the world because you came back?" he asked.
"A lot of things," I said. "Gay marriage is legal. The Supreme Court legalized it in all fifty states at the beginning of this year. Gay Right activists are stunned. A bunch of conversion camps were closed and people were jailed for torture. There's a lot going on in the world that I believe are caused by ripples that I caused in time. You'll cause more. The world will change again."
"You have to help me," he said. "I don't want to change much. I just want to make sure that my father doesn't shoot me."
"You start that by telling the police the truth," I said. "Tell them what he did and that it wasn't the first time. Let them do what they do. Your mother has a job here. You're going to be here until you graduate. You'll get a scholarship because you go to Maxwell Academy. Take it and come to college with us."
"We're sophomores in high school," he said. "You're already talking about college."
"I'm planning it all, yes," I said. "I've done this twice before. I know what not to do this time. I've told no one but Kevin that I'm from the future. No one knows about me. No one can know about you, either."
"What about Kevin?" he asked.
"He's fine," I said. "You can tell him. But don't tell anyone else."
"I can handle that," he said. "I don't have many friends here."
"You do now," I said. "Robby, Pug, Dustin, Kevin, and I will be your friend. Jake Addon is trying to be your friend, though I suspect he wants more than friendship."
"I know him," he said. "We talk at the Phoenix Club."
"Right," I said. "He's also in Athens House with us."
"Then I'll give him what he wants," he said. "He's a good looking fourteen year old. Is it wrong that we date the fourteen year olds when we're actually much older?"
"No," I said. "The body shapes your world. You're fourteen again. I'm thirteen. I mean we're really fourteen and thirteen. We're going to have to get used to being this age again. Just do things a bit differently. Learn to ride the ripples and accept the changes in the world, and you'll be fine."
"So, you and I are friends," he said.
"I'd say you're my best friend at the moment," I said.
"I like that," he said. "That's a change."
"It sure is," I said. "The others will be your friend, too. You now have a group of friends, Adam. Don't reject them. They'll be your friends for the rest of your life. If I have anything to say about it, it will be a long life. What are you good at?"
"Research," he said. "I worked for an author in the future. I did research for him."
"You can do that again," I said. "I've been thinking about writing. You could do research for me. I'd pay you."
"Okay," he said. "We know what I'm doing in the future and what you're doing. What about the others?"
"Dustin will be an accountant," I said. "Robby and Pug will get into computers. Thalia and Chad will get into computers. I don't know what Kevin has planned. We're going to live our lives and be careful not to change too much in the timeline."
"Okay," he said. "Now I've just got to let my wrist get better so I can play baseball. All of these friends won't mean a thing if I'm not in Athens House."
Time moved on. Thalia got him a date for the Sweethearts Dance. We had a good time. I paid for his tux, though it embarrassed the hell out of him. I even paid for his picture packages. He didn't like it, but he let it happen. We went to movie night in the cafeteria as a group. Adam responded well to having friends. He started a relationship with Jake. Things were looking up for him. We continued to put together model cars. I'd had to install another shelf to hold the ones I kept. He took the rest, not because he wanted to, because I made him.
February became March and baseball trials began. We played six baseball games while the coaches watched us. They had groups of us sit in certain sections of the bleachers. Then they had us play each other again, but only two groups on the bleachers. He made adjustments, switched people to the other team, and then finally he announced that all of us sitting on the blue seats were the Junior Varsity team. That we me, Adam, Dustin, Jake, Kevin, Matt Watson, and another that we hung out with from time to time, Alex Porter.
We ordered uniforms when given the forms. I paid for Adam's. He thanked me. I got three of the home uniform and three of the away uniform. I got the same for Adam. I explained that this way we weren't constantly doing laundry. He even let me buy his jock straps. He blushed like crazy when I handed them to him in private. Then we had the first game. I was touched that Jason and Richard were in the stands. We played another prep school. We beat them by five runs.
Varsity had a game. We went to watch. They did all right. They won by one run. We celebrated with them. A photographer took pictures. He'd been at the JV game, too. That's when I learned that we'd have year books. Robby talked about how this was the first year for those. We even had to have our pictures taken by a professional photographer for the year book. We could buy packages. I bought mine and Adam's. I got the biggest package that they had for myself. I let Adam pick his package. He tried to take the small package, but I cleared my throat. He got the medium, telling me that there weren't enough people to give pictures.
Dustin and I spend a lot of nights together. Coach gave us knowing looks but never said anything. We were winning every game, so he was happy enough with us that he let it slide. Alex began to spend nights with Kevin, and Adam with Jake. Coach never said a word. Our relationships were flourishing. We celebrated April's thirteenth birthday at the Phoenix Club. I had ordered the cake and ice cream. She had gifts from her friends, her brothers, and all of our friends. She was smiling wide when the party was over. She hugged me and Kevin. She told us that we were the best big brothers. I reminded her that for a few months we were the same age. She laughed.
We went into finals and the playoffs. I did well on finals, so did Kevin. We won all three playoff games. We were going to State. The others were excited because the game was being held at Wrigley Field. I was used to that. The night of the game, we played our hearts out. We won the game by three runs, and the crowd went insane. We were coming out of the locker room when I saw Ryan Flynn and a man who looked like an older version of my brother, Richard.
"That was damned fine baseball playing," Ryan said. He was smiling, but that wasn't what made me look at him closer. He was thin, very thin. He seemed to have developed a tremor.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked him.
"I have a brain tumor," he said, smiling. "It's going to kill me. I want to know my kids before I die."
"What's changed?" Kevin asked. "You didn't want us a year ago."
"I'm dying now," he said.
"Okay," I said. "This isn't the place for this discussion. Meet us at the Bluebird Diner in about an hour."
"We'll be there," the older version of Richard said. "I'm your uncle, Rick."
"It's nice to meet you," I said. "Meet us at the diner."
We got on the bus back to campus. Kevin looked at me, and I looked at him. I hadn't been expecting this and wondered which ripple had brought Ryan back into our lives. I didn't know what I was going to say. April and Richard were with Jason. We went to the bluebird to eat. I saw them at a large table in the back. We went and sat down. A waitress took our drink orders. Richard and April were stunned by Ryan's appearance.
"It's good to see all of you," Ryan said.
"You never wanted us before," Richard said. "What's changed your mind?"
"I'm gonna die," he said. "I probably have a year. I want to know my children before I die. I was a rotten father, and I know that. I'm not asking for you to forgive me. Just please let me know you."
"I'm prepared to spend time with you when I'm in Janus," I said, deciding on the spot. "I can't promise that anything will come of it, but I'll give you your shot."
"Then I guess I will, too," said Kevin.
"I will, too," April said. "If my brothers are willing, then so am I."
"I'll spend some time with you and even let you meet your grandson," Richard said. "We'll give you a chance."
"Thank you," he said.
"Where do you live?" I asked.
"I live with Rick," he said. "We live above a bar."
"We live above McClintock's Bar," Rick said, saying the first words he'd said since I'd met him.
"I know where that is," I said. It had been the very apartment I'd been living in at forty.
"How do you know?" Richard asked.
"I've seen the bar as I was driven past it," I said dismissively.
"You'll come visit me?" Ryan asked. The hope in his voice was almost heartbreaking.
"No," I said. "You will come visit us."
"At your grandma's?" he asked, looking uncomfortable. "She doesn't like me."
"You'll come to my house to visit your children," Jason said. He gave them the address. Then the waitress came and took our food orders.
"I can drop him off twice a week while I'm at work if that's all right," Rick said.
"That's fine," Jason said. "I'll have them over on those days. They can visit with Ryan."
"Thank you," Ryan said.
After we ate, Jason took us back to school. We had the pancake breakfast, awards, and baseball cards to get through. We stayed one more night in our room. Jason had rented a hotel room for him, Richard, and April. He'd pick us up in the morning. We sat on the bottom bunk. Dustin came to the room. He asked what had happened. I told him that my father, who never wanted children wanted to get to know us before he died. I told him he had a brain tumor and probably a year left to live.
"That's crazy," Dustin said. "What does he expect to happen?"
"He just wants to know us," I said. "We're going to give him a shot."
"Killian, you told me that you hate your father," Dustin said.
"I hate a version of my father," I corrected. "The man I saw tonight wasn't that version of my father. He's dying and seems happy about it. I know the tumor is causing all of this. It's the tumor that's making him think he wants to see his children. I know that, but I'm giving him his shot any way."
"Okay," he said. "I was going to tell you that my mom worked it out with your grandmother. I'm coming to Janus for two weeks this summer. My mom is looking for a job there. She wants to leave Nebraska. My uncle David is moving with us."
"That's great," I said, smiling. "You'll be in Janus for breaks and summer then?"
"When she finds a job and buys a house," he said.
"What does your mother do?" I asked.
"She's a lawyer," he said.
"She'll find a job fairly quickly," I said.
"I hope so," he said. "It's getting hard for us to live in Nebraska with my father's family breathing down our necks."
"I don't know anything about this," I said.
"It isn't something that you tell people about," he said. "They think that my mother is raising me wrong. They don't like Uncle David because he's gay. They think he'll rub off on me. I haven't told any of them that I'm gay yet."
"I'd hold off on that," I said. "I've not told Richard or my grandmother about me. Kevin hasn't either. He hasn't even told April."
"Well, they don't need to know anything yet," Kevin said. "We're thirteen. They won't believe us if we tell them now."
"I get that," I said.
Then Alex was in the room with us. We all went to bed. We got up early in the morning. We were packed and ready. We took our bags to the pancake breakfast. We sat with our teammates and ate pancakes and sausage. Then they passed out awards. We each got a smaller version of the state trophy. The actual trophy was in the glass case in the front of the gym. We also got trophies for home runs, grand slams, stealing bases, and so much more. I got two of the home run trophies and one of the grand slam trophies. Kevin got one of both. Jake got the steeling bases trophy. Then they handed out our baseball cards. We'd already gotten our year books. Once we had the baseball cards and the trophies, we were released. I used the phone and called Jason at the hotel. They came and we loaded our bags into the back of the van he'd rented.
Richard talked about Ryan all the way back to Janus. He talked about how different he looked. He said he felt sorry for him. Richard didn't know him the way that I did, but I let that go. I told him that brain tumors can do a lot of things. I told them that it was the brain tumor that was making him think he wanted to know his children. Richard didn't like that, but it was the truth. Jason said he didn't like the way that Rick looked at everyone. I told him that I didn't know Rick. In my original timeline Rick was in prison. I guess that hadn't happened yet.
Back in Janus, my grandmother asked about Ryan. She said it was sad that he had a tumor, but she didn't want him in her house until she knew what he really wanted. I gave her pictures from the three dances and two baseball cards. She liked that. Kevin did the same. Then we put our stuff in the bedroom and Mary served us ham sandwiches with chips and iced tea. I ate two sandwiches and a lot of chips. I was hungry a lot lately. Grandma smiled as she watched me and Kevin clean up the food.
"You boys are getting ready to start growing," she said. Then she laughed. "It happened to Richard at about thirteen or so."
"Is that why we're so hungry all of the time?" Kevin asked.
"You need fuel for the growth spurt," she said. "I'll get you snacks."
Two days later, we spent the day with Ryan at Jason's. Jason asked us questions about school, and Ryan listened to what we had to say. He was blown away by little Killian. The boy wanted nothing to do with him, though. He played on the floor with his toys while Ryan watched him. He asked us about baseball and girls. We told him we didn't have girlfriends, but we loved baseball. He said he'd played baseball when he was a boy.
"You boys are good players," he said, smiling at us. "You hit home runs."
"We do," I said. "We play hard."
"You had fun though," he said.
"Of course we did," Kevin said with a grin. "Baseball is fun."
"What are you going to do this summer?" he asked.
"We're going to get to know you," I said. "We'll be with you twice a week, and you'll get to know us over the summer."
"Okay," he said. "I won't be here tomorrow. I have to go to the doctor for scans."
"Who is your doctor?" Jason asked.
"Dr. Minnick," he said. "He's a neurologist."
"Yeah," Jason said. "If you kids want to go to the appointment I'll take you."
"I'd like to," I said.
"I'm not leaving my son tomorrow," Richard said.
"I'll go with you, Killian," Kevin said.
"I'm going to be with my friends tomorrow," April said.
"When are your birthdays?" Ryan asked.
"Mine was three months ago," Richard said. "I'm seventeen."
"Mine was in May," April said. "I'm thirteen."
"Ours is in July," I said. "We'll be fourteen."
"You're growing up," he said.
"We sure are," said Kevin.
That day I learned that Ryan was diminished by the tumor. His personality had gone through a radical change. He was meek and mild. He was also a bit timid. He didn't like loud noises, and he flinched when we walked too close to him. I wondered about that, but I didn't say anything. We stayed until Rick picked him up at four. Then we went home. Grandma asked how it had gone, and I told her about how different Ryan was. I told her that he was a shell of himself. I told her about him flinching when we got too close to him. She said she thought that might be Rick's fault. She said he had a temper. I told her that if Rick was hurting Ryan we had to put a stop to it.
It turned out that we didn't have to put a stop to anything. He dropped Ryan off at Jason's on a Tuesday morning and said he had errands to run. We got down to playing a game with Ryan. His doctor said it was good for his mental acuity. We played the game for a while before there was a knock at the door. Jason answered and found a policeman. He told us he was sorry, but he was here to talk to Ryan Flynn. Ryan asked him what this was about. He told him that his brother, Richard Allen Flynn had been arrested for murder. He'd gotten into a fight at McClintock's bar and stabbed a man to death. Ryan thanked him for telling him. The officer asked if Ryan was all right. Jason stepped in to say that Ryan was fine.
"What am I going to do?" Ryan asked as he sat down. "I can't live alone. I have to take pills and I forget."
"You're going to move in here," Jason said. "I have a spare room. I use it for storage. We'll put a bed in there after I clean it out. I'm going to have to have power of attorney over you."
"Rick had that," he said sadly.
"It won't be hard for me to get it away from him as he's going to prison," Jason said. "Ryan would you like to move in here?"
"If you'll have me," he said sadly. "I don't know what else to do."
"Jason will help you," I said. "Ryan, you need this."
"Okay," he said. "Will you visit more often if I'm here?"
"I'll be here a lot," I said.
"I love you, Killian," he said.
"I love you, too, Ryan," I said and I hugged him. He held me a bit tighter than I thought he'd be able to. He let go of me and turned to Jason. "I have to get my things from the apartment."
"We'll go over there in a bit," Jason said. "Do you have a key?"
"In my pocket," he said. "I lost it once and Rick yelled at me. He yells a lot."
"We won't yell at you, Ryan," I said. "No one here will ever yell at you."
"Thank you," he said.
Jason took him to get his things while Richard, Kevin, April, and I cleaned out the spare room. I called a furniture store and ordered a single bed, dresser, and night stand. They said they'd deliver it once I gave them my banking information. I gave them the address and paid to have it delivered that day. We had stacked all of the boxes along the wall just outside of the bedroom. They came with the furniture an hour later. Jason and Ryan hadn't come back yet. They got it all set up in the bedroom and I gave them a tip. They left happy.
Jason and Ryan came back with three bags. They'd had to call someone to come for Rick's things. That's why it had taken so long. I showed Ryan his new room. He asked me where the bedroom stuff had come from. I told him I had bought it for him. He thanked me and hugged me again. He was crying. I asked him why, and he said no one had done anything so nice for him in a very long time. I hugged him again.
Jason did more than get his power of attorney. He got his social security information sent to the house. He had Ryan's card. His check was put on that card every month. He also met with Dr. Minnick to discuss removing the tumor. He told Jason that the tumor hadn't grown the way they had thought it would. This made it possible to remove it completely and save Ryan's life. Jason told him to schedule the surgery. We were all there. Even Grandma and Grandpa were there for this one. It took all day, but they got the whole tumor. Dr. Minnick told us that the damage to Ryan's brain was permanent, so he'd never be the man he was. We were fine with that. He'd be alive.
We were let in to see him when he was placed in a room. He smiled groggily at us and thanked us for being there. Then he went to sleep. We left. We got back to Jason's and found Dustin sitting on the steps. He asked where we'd been. He'd been there for an hour. I told him about the surgery and that Ryan would not die from the tumor. He said that was great. Then he told me that his mother found a job already. She and David were looking at houses. He had gone to my grandmother's and she told him where to find me, but I wasn't here when he got here.
I apologized for that. I introduced him to Richard and Jason. I didn't say he was my boyfriend, and he was very respectful with them. He said that his mother was going to work for a law firm, and his uncle David could work from home. He was a software analyst. I had some idea what that was so didn't ask. He said that he was happy to be away from his father's family and their judgmental attitude. Jason asked him about that, and he told them that his father's family didn't like that he spent time with David because David is gay. Jason said that was no reason to not like him.
Our birthday arrived. Robby and Pug came down to Janus from Chicago and spent the day with us. They were thrilled that Gina, Dustin's mom had found a house. It was down the block from where we lived. They had gifts for me, and we had a great day at the Family Fun Center. Ryan was there, and Grandma was very nice to him. She said he wasn't the man who had wrecked her daughter's life. He was someone else, and she would treat him as such.
Ryan asked us about school and was shocked to learn that when we returned we'd be juniors in high school. He said we were only fourteen. I told him we were very smart. He smiled at this. He asked me if it was all right that he was proud of us. I told him of course it was. He smiled at that. I hugged him. I found myself hugging him a lot. He was so easy to love. He was just a bag of love now. He was so different than the man I'd been forced to live with in the original timeline.
Jason started work on his garage. I asked him what was going on. He said that his brother, Max was moving into the garage. I had never met Max in any timeline. I wondered which ripple was bring Max to Janus. I helped him clean out the garage. He called a contractor and had a room put in with a bathroom. It was great. It looked good when they got it finished. Max arrived in town a week later. He was a lot younger than Jason and had bleached blond hair and wore a rainbow necklace. I liked him in sight. He was careful with Ryan, and I got another shock.
"Ryan and I know each other very well, don't we Ryan?" Max asked, shocking everyone.
"We sure do," Ryan said, blushing.
"Are you saying that you two had sex in the past?" Richard asked.
"Of course we are," Max said. "Wake up and join the new world, Richard. Your dad is bisexual."
"I know I had a lot to stay about gay people in the past, but that was just me hiding what I was," Ryan said. "Are you disappointed?"
"I'm not," I said, smiling at him.
"I'm not either," Kevin said.
"What do I care?" April asked. "It's not like you're all over each other here and now."
"Well, El guess I don't care," Richard said. "I've never had to think about this before."
We got home and found Uncle Nick at the kitchen table. I sighed. This wasn't good. Were were Dianna and the boys? I didn't know and I wasn't asking any questions. He smiled at us as we came into the kitchen. Mary put plates of chili dogs and fries in front of us. We thanked her and I got us juices from the fridge. We sat down and started to eat. Nick watched us. He didn't say anything. Grandma came in and sat at the head of the table.
"Dianna filed for divorce," he said to Grandma. "She's suing for custody of the boys."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Grandma said. "Your dad isn't doing very well right now. He's got some kind of virus in his heart."
"Is it serious?" Nick asked.
"Yes," she said. "He's tired a lot, and doesn't always remember where he is."
It was starting. I was sad about this. I didn't say anything though. I just let them talk. Nick being here wasn't a good thing. I didn't know what to do about it, but I was going to do something. I called one of the members of the baseball team a little later. He lived in the same city as Nick and Dianna. I asked him to get me all of the information about Nick. I was sure there were newspaper stories and the like. He told me there was much more than that. He was facing charges of criminal sexual assault. Seven cases of it. I told him to bring me the information. He told me he'd drop it on his way to Quincy to see his girlfriend. He asked me if I was going to ruin him. I said I was going to ruin his chances of staying in Janus.
"What are you boys doing with your summer?" Nick asked me when I returned to the table.
"We're visiting with our father," I said. "He lives with our guardian, and we're there with him a lot."
"Ryan Flynn is not a good guy," he said. I thought, "Pot, kettle."
"Ryan had a brain tumor that almost killed him," I said. "He's a shell of the man he used to be. Now he can barely get out of his own way. We're building a relationship with him."
"A tumor, huh?" he asked. "Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy."
"People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," I said.
Grandma looked at me. I looked back at her. She didn't say anything. She just kept looking at the mail. Nick was glaring at me now. He was about to say something when Richard came in with Little Killian to make him a sippy cup of juice. Nick started in about the fact that Richard wasn't eighteen and already had a son. I waited for him to talk about God and then I was going to slam his deeds down his throat. He started in about sex before marriage and God.
"Did you think of God when you were raping boys?" I asked, looking at him hard. Grandma looked up, and Richard turned around.
"What are you talking about?" he demanded.
"The fact that you are facing charges for seven cases of criminal sexual assault of minors," I said. "That's why Dianna left you. That's why you won't get custody of your children. I have friends that live in your city, Nick. People talk incessantly."
"You little prick," he yelled.
"That's enough of that," Grandma said. "You are in my house, and you will not yell at the children. They've had quite enough of that in their lives. If what Killian says is true, then I don't think I want you in the house."
"Mom, it's all lies," he said. "I didn't do anything to anyone."
"Those boys are telling everyone what you did to them," I said.
"I'm moving here to escape the lies," he said.
"There are police officers here, too, Nick," I said. "You're facing criminal charges. If they decide to charge you, the police here will arrest you and take you back there to face the music."
"You think you know so much," he said. "You're just a fourteen year old boy. What do you know about any of this?"
"Plenty," I said. "I know that you tried to intimidate two of the boys so they wouldn't testify against you. I know that they talked to the state's attorney about you just yesterday, and I know that they are just about ready to charge you with criminal sexual assault of seven boys that you were supposed to be mentoring in your capacity as a minister. It's funny to me that ministers are always in trouble for one thing or another. It's the same story every time. They reach for what they have no right to. Usually it's money. This time it's worse. Much worse."
"Mom, are you going to let him sit there and talk to me like that?" he demanded.
"Nick, I want you out of my house," she said. "I don't want you to come back, and for the sake of all that's sacred, leave the children alone. You're in enough trouble already."
He got up and walked out of the kitchen. I heard the door slam behind him. Grandma looked at me and shook her head. She asked about what I'd heard and who I'd heard it from. I told her that Jeff Lake lived in the same city as Nick was running from. He was coming this way on his way to Quincy to see his girlfriend. He was bringing me all of the newspaper articles about it. I told her I'd show here when it got here. She sighed.
"I'm so disappointed in both of my children," she said. "One let a man beat her children so she'd have a stable income. The other rapes boys and preaches from a pulpit of lies."
The next day the information arrived. Jeff told me that Nick was a nasty fucker. I agreed. I showed Grandma the newspapers. She cried. I hugged her and told her I was sorry that this was happening. She told me that it wasn't my fault, and she thanked me for telling her about Nick before she let him stay here with us. I told her I was going to make sure that no church in town would touch him. Then I asked Richard to give me a ride.
We went to every church in town after I'd copied the information. I left it with every minister we found. I told them that Nick Walsh was my uncle, and he was a pedophile. He couldn't be trusted around the youngsters. When I was done, we went home. Richard told me to let him know if he ever pissed me off. I looked at him and told him that sexual assault was a terrible thing, and I wasn't letting a sexual predator get a foothold in Janus.
I went to Jason's to spend the day with Ryan. We were playing a game when Nick burst through the door. He grabbed me and held me against the wall. Ryan came and tied to pull him off of me. He elbowed Ryan in the mouth and knocked him down. Jason came out of the other room just as Nick punched me in the face and then in the chest. I gasped and had trouble breathing for a moment. Then he dropped me and I fell to the floor. He started to kick me. The police came through the door and arrested him. Jason knelt beside me and asked me if I was all right. I told him I needed to go to the hospital. The police officer said that someone would talk to me at the hospital about charges.
Jason took me to the hospital. They took x-rays and I had no broken bones, but I had a bunch of cuts and bruises. A police officer came and took my statement. I told him that I was playing a board game with my father when my uncle Nick came through the door. He'd grabbed me and slammed me against the wall. He'd punched me in the face and then the chest. He'd dropped me to the floor and started to kick me. He asked if I wanted to press charges. I told him I was fourteen. He said it didn't matter. I told him I wanted to press charges. He wrote it down and told me that someone from the state's attorney's office would contact me. He had me sign the statement.
Nick was charged with criminal assault of a child and seven counts of criminal sexual assault of a minor. He was going away for a very long time. I wasn't moving very fast after the beating. Dustin fussed over me, and Grandma gave him a look. I told her there and then that Dustin was my boyfriend. Richard sucked in a breath about that. He asked me if I was gay. I told him I was, but right then I was trying to breathe. He told me that I was brave to have come out like this. Grandma said it didn't make any difference to her. I was her grandson, and she loved me. She told Dustin that he'd better never hurt me. It was surreal.
I spent a lot of time in bed. The pain medication made me sleepy. Kevin sat by my side and angrily talked about killing Nick. I told him that Nick was in jail and he wasn't going to get out for a very long time. We had to go to court to face Nick. I told the judge all that he had done to me. The judge found him guilty of criminal assault of a minor and sentenced him to thirty years in prison. Then he was extradited back to his home town to face charges of criminal sexual assault of seven minors. He was convicted on all counts and sentenced to more jail time. He as taken to prison that very day.
Jason brought Ryan to the house so he could see that I was mending. Ryan cried. I saw the bruise on his split lip and cursed. Jason told me to watch my mouth, but he smiled. I held Ryan's hand and went off to sleep. I was down until we left for school. Jason didn't want me on the train. He drove me to school and helped me carry my footlocker to my room. Professor Pritchard asked me if I was able to start classes. I told him that I had to move slow, but I was ready. He nodded. He told me that he was very sorry that this had happened to me, and he'd make my professors understand that I was moving slow and might be late to classes.
Jason left, but he didn't look like he wanted to leave me there. I was alone for a few minutes before Kevin arrived. He moved his footlocker into the room. I sat up, slowly, wincing from the pain. He asked me if I had pain medicine. I said I hadn't refilled the prescription, because I didn't want to get strung out on pain meds for the rest of my life. He nodded. He told me that Dustin was worried about me. I told him that I was going to be fine. It was just going to take some time.
Coach came to my room to see me. He looked at my bruised face and winced. He asked if they had arrested my uncle. I told him that my uncle was already in prison for what he'd done and left it at that. He asked me if I needed anything. I told him I was just moving slowly until I healed. He nodded. He told me that Dustin could stay in my room with us and help me out. I smiled at this and thanked him. Dustin came in a few minutes later. He looked at me and started to cry.
I held him but it was painful. I told him over and over again that I was going to be fine. He just kept crying. He told me that he was so scared when he heard that Nick had hurt me. He didn't know what he'd done, but he was afraid that he'd killed me. I told him him that he hadn't hurt anything that wouldn't heal. He was in prison where he belonged, and I was going to be fine. He just sat on the edge of my bed and cried.
Adam and Jake came into the room and took one look at me, and Adam swore. Jake looked at him, but he asked me how I was feeling. I told him it felt like I'd been hit by a mack truck. He nodded. He told me that he was happy that Nick was in prison. No one seemed to know about the other charges. I was thankful for that. I was sure the story would get out, and I'd have to deal with it sooner or later, but at that moment I was trying to find the right position to lay in so that it didn't hurt as much to breathe.
Classes started, and I made it on time to each of them. Professor Grant looked at my face and asked me how I was doing. I told him it was painful to breathe but I was alive. He laughed. He told me to just take it easy. He started the lecture. This was a college course now. We were getting three college credits for this class. I paid attention, and I took notes, but it was painful. When the hour was up, I stood up slowly and grabbed my backpack. I didn't put it on. I just carried it with me. I went to my next class and then the next. When I got the table for lunch, Robby took one look at me and cursed. He asked if I was really all right. I told him that I couldn't wait to go back to bed.
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