ICE STORM
Part 3
“Games. That is a good idea,”
said Deb. “Michael get them out of the
closet.”
Michael brought down several boxes
and placed them on the coffee table.
“Let’s see. We have Scrabble,
Monopoly, Parcheesi, chess, checkers, Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, Scattergories,
Yatzee…”
“Give me the Scrabble,”
Brian interrupted. “If I have to suffer through this, I might as well
be challenged. What do you say, Sunshine? Want to test your
vocabulary?”
“Okay,” Justin
smiled.
Brian turned to Melanie, “care
to be embarrassed?”
“Since the only way you could
ever do that is to use every vulgar and disgusting word you can think of,
I’ll pass.” Mel answered.
“Chicken,” Brian
responded. “So, Theodore,
how about you? You’re boring, you probably spend dates playing this,
I bet you are very good. Practice makes
perfect.”
“Gee thanks, Bri. But okay,
I will play.”
“Ben?” asked
Justin.
“Sure.”
“I have a 1000 piece puzzle
that I can’t get done. All the pieces are practically identical. I
can’t even get the outer edge done.”
“Ooohh, I love puzzles, did
them all the time with my granny in Hazelhurst,” said Emmett clapping
his hands together enthusiastically.
“You are still working on that
same puzzle?” Michael
gasped.
“It’s so frustrating,
I don’t take it out very often,” admitted
Vic.
“Let’s get it. Maybe between
the three of us we can get it started,” said
Emmett.
“I guess that just leaves us
girls,” said Lindsay.
“How about Yatzee, it doesn’t
take long and when I need to fix lunch you two can just keep playing and
it won’t screw up your game.”
“Good, I like that game. Of
course, you know that we won’t let you do all the cooking. You have
been so nice to let us all stay here, so we all will do the work,” corrected
Lindsay.
Relative silence filled the room.
An occasional argument over the validity and meaning of a word occurred as
Brian and Justin tried to outdo each other. During one particularly heated
exchange, Brian demanded a dictionary from Debbie. He was not too pleased
to concede to Justin, that one word, quincunx had been worth 131 points.
He had both triple word score and double letters scores coming from the X
already placed on the star giving him eighty-one points and then a fifty
point bonus for using all seven letters. Justin smiled knowing he had hit
the jackpot word for this game. His eye mischievously saying
‘gotcha!’ Brian jabbed him in the rib with his
elbow.
“How do you know that word,
anyway?” Brian asked.
“From my still life class.
It is a grouping of five objects.”
Emmett possessed a surprising flair
at spatial relations and was making quite a difference in the puzzle. Michael
was not as successful. A more experienced Debbie was easily winning her third
game of Yatzee.
After awhile Deb and the girls went
to the kitchen to start lunch. Gus, having spent time at each activity, was
getting cranky. He couldn’t understand why he couldn’t roll the
dice or play with the wooden tiles Dadda had.
Melanie returned with a graham cracker
for her son. He eagerly grabbed it and retreated to his father’s lap.
Justin and Brian were virtually tied but in a last minute run of luck, Ted
won the game with a final word scoring thirty-five that handed him the game
with two points to spare. When Brian started to say something to Ted, Justin
poked him and pointed to Gus, “watch your
language.”
Deb went to the front door and opened
it. “The freezing rain has slowed. Would we be able to set the grill
up in the garage with the door open? We should try and use up some of the
meat and would take forever to cook in the
fireplace.”
“I don’t see why not,”
answered Michael. “I’ll go set it
up.”
Michael, Brian, and Ted went to
the garage and started the grill. Inside Debbie and Vic peeled potatoes to
make potato salad. Lindsay sliced mushrooms and onions to have with the meat.
Emmett and Ben opened the packages of meat. Justin and Brian had brought
very expensive filet mignon steaks, Ted and Emmett were going to have sirloin,
Michael and Ben chicken breasts, Debbie and Vic had chosen pork chops from
their freezer and Mel, Lindsay, and Gus would have boneless, skinless chicken
breasts.
Michael and Brian were talking,
waiting for Ted to return with the pot of potatoes to go on the gas burner
attached to the grill. When Justin walked outside carrying
Gus.
“What the hell are you
doing?” Brian asked.
“Gus was getting a little hyper
inside, so we are going to burn off some energy, aren’t we Gus? Maybe
he will actually have a nap today.” Justin
explained.
Justin and Gus chased each other
around on the ice slipping and sliding and even falling all over the place.
Gus’ little feet actually had more luck on the thin sheet of ice that
covered the snow. Brian and
Michael laughed as the two boys slid about laughing. Gus would let out a
happy screech whenever Justin got within a foot of him, but then quickly
scamper away. “Dadda hep”
squealed Gus as he ran toward Brian.
“That isn’t going to…
Whhooaa,” said Justin as he lost his footing. He slid and fell against
the side of the garage with a large thump.
Brian looked up from his approaching
son at the sound of Justin hitting the garage. The way the teen landed, all
that was visible to him were his hiking boots. Brian’s concern grew
when his lover’s feet weren’t moving.
“JUSTIN?”
Brian rushed around the side of
the garage to see Justin starting to sit up.
“JUSTIN?”
“What?”
“Fuck, are you okay? Did you
hit your head? Here let me help you.” Brian said as he grabbed the
boy’s elbow to steady him.
“What happened?” Ted asked,
having heard Brian yell from inside. Emmett and Ben were standing beside
him on the small deck attached to Deb’s house.
“He fell. Can you get Gus and
take him inside?”
“Brian, will you let go. I
am okay? LET GO,” yelled Justin as he pulled away from Brian, Unfortunately,
the sudden motion made him slip again. Brian grabbed him yet again to steady
him.
“NO. Now stop it. We are going
inside,” answered Brian as he guided Justin toward the
house.
Once inside, Brian lowered Justin
into a kitchen chair and removed his hat. He gently placed his hand on
Justin’s head, directly over the scar. When he didn’t feel a bump
he did the same thing to his whole skull. Relieved that there seemed to be
no apparent injury he squatted until he was looking directly into Justin’s
eyes. He focused on the pupils
for a minute. “Do you feel dizzy or
nauseous?”
“No, I am pretty sure that
I didn’t hit my head.”
“I heard the thump. Does your
head hurt at all because I don’t see any sign of anything? You know
what let’s go to the emergency room anyway; it’s not worth taking
any risks. Do you want me to call your Mom?”
“She is out of town, remember?
And I am not going to the emergency room. I am fine. I didn’t hit my
head. I think it was my knee that hit the garage,” he replied, rubbing
his left knee.
“I don’t know. I think
we should go just in case. You know what the neurologist
said.” Brian said, as he
looked at Justin’s knee.
“Brian, will you STOP! I
am fine. I did NOT hit my head.”
“You’re
sure?”
“Yes. I hit my knee but it
is okay. Now, who is watching Gus?”
“Ted, Mikey, and Emmett are
all out there.”
“I’ll go get him and we
can get him cleaned up for lunch,” offered
Justin.
“No, I’ll get him, you
stay here.”
Brian left and went outside after
his son. Vic, Deb, Mel, Lindsay, and Ben were all staring at Justin.
“I’m okay, really I am. He
overreacted. He gets a little
weird about me hitting my head. A couple of months ago, I hit it on the desk
at the loft. I had dropped my pencil and straightened up too soon. He flipped
out and we spent four hours at the hospital. The ER doctor said I was fine
but Brian insisted that my neurologist examine
me.”
“He’s right, Sunshine.
You can’t take chances. You are very lucky. We are very lucky to have
you back. There was a time when we didn’t think we would,” said
Debbie, giving him a hug.
“MOMMY,” screamed Gus,
as he squirmed to get out of Brian’s arms. “Food,
food.”
“You’d think he was YOUR
son the way he loves to eat,” said Brian, smiling at
Justin.
Justin and Brian quietly went into
the living room. Brian discreetly had Justin slide his jeans down. Brian
knelt in front of him. After a moment he got up and went into the kitchen,
and returned with some ice wrapped in a towel. He placed it on the teen’s
slightly swollen knee.
A short while later, everyone sat
down to eat. They used paper plates to conserve hot water. Quiet conversation
and Gus’ excited attempts at talking were the dinner entertainment.
Clean up took no time at all.
Lindsay took Gus and started to
get him ready for a nap. The boy wasn’t interested because there were
too many people to watch.
“Let me try,” said Justin
as he brought a book over to the boy.
“I give up. I don’t think
he is going to settle down but feel free to
try.”
Justin led Gus to Vic’s big
easy chair. They both climbed in and snuggled comfortably. Justin opened
the story book and started to whisper the story.
“No whiper, Jus tauk,”
Gus said loud enough for the others to hear.
The blond whispered his reply and
Gus giggled. They quietly enjoyed the story. Soon, Gus was yawning. Melanie
watched in awe, “I didn’t think Gus would
sleep.”
Brian looked over at the two boys.
“Justin really has a way with him. The thing is he usually falls asleep
too.”
Several minutes later, Justin slowly
eased out of the chair. He carried the sleeping toddler to the playpen and
gently placed him in it. Gus stirred a little. The teen covered the boy,
rubbing his back until he was still again.
“I guess we will have to keep
it down,” said Ted.
“Just for a few minutes. Once
he is sleeping soundly, a freight train could run through here and it
wouldn’t disturb him.”
Justin rejoined the others. Lindsay
kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you. He would have been unbearable later
if he didn’t nap.”
“That was amazing. Can you
come live with us? Asked Mel.
“It’s a trick I used to
use with Molly. For years I was the only one who could get her to sleep if
she was cranky or overtired.”
“How about another game?”
Vic asked