I rushed into the bathroom. “What’s wrong? Why did you shout? Did you fall? Did you hurt your arm?”

He turned and looked at me. He smiled and started giggling.

“You have a urinal in your bathroom! That is so cool!”

I shook my head and laughed. “Dufus! You scared me yelling like that. About the urinal, Mom insisted on it. This way Alan and I don’t splash on the floor as often as we would if we had to use a regular toilet.”

“Amazing. Just amazing. There are urinals in the boy’s bathrooms at the foster centers, including Hathaway, but I’ve never seen one in a house. I love urinals. They are much easier to pee into. That was the only thing Mrs. Adamsen would yell at me about, splashing pee on the floor, and it was because sometimes it’s really hard not to.”

I busted up laughing.

“What are you laughing about?”

I could hardly get the words out, but I tried. “You were talking about… getting pee on the floor… and you said… because sometimes… it’s really… hard.”

Carson looked at me like I was someone who should be in a mental institution, trying to figure out what was so funny. He finally caught on.

“Oh, that is SO bad!” But he did smile. Then he looked at me and sort of growled, “Okay, now I’m gonna use your urinal. But I’ll still have to be careful. It’s hard to pee when you only have one hand.”

“If you’re asking for me to give you a hand, forget about it!” I started laughing, and he could barely keep a straight face.

“OUT! If you’re going to keep interrupting me just get out of here. Before I pee on the floor for real!” He was grinning.

“I’m gonna stay, but I’ll be good. I’m going to wash my face and try to comb my hair. And I promise, I won’t peek.”

That made us both bust up laughing.

“You are so bad, David. I said that already, didn’t I?”

“Yup. Stay tuned, I have a million of ‘em.”

“Just you wait, Mr. David Dempsey. I’m gonna get my revenge.”

“Oooo! Is that a promise?”

“Just believe it!” We started laughing. That’s one of the things I like about Carson. We laugh a lot when we’re together. I’m a happy kid and I laugh a lot normally. It just seems that Carson and I click together. We really enjoy hanging with each other. Probably it’s because we’re both boys and we’re the same age.

When we got back in my bedroom, Carson asked, “David, are you going to change clothes?”

“Yeah, but not into anything dressy, just something more than this pullover and jeans. You look fine, you don’t have to change.”

“I brought a couple regular pants and shirts. I want to look nice for your family.”

“You look nice no matter what you’re wearing.” I realized what I’d just said and started to blush.

“Thanks.” Now Carson was blushing too. We both started to giggle.

To hide my embarrassment I opened my closet and went through some of my khaki pants. I picked a black pair and a grayish green shirt. I turned around and Carson had stripped down to his briefs and was taking his clothes out of his backpack and putting them on the bed. His back was to me and I thought about how I liked what I was seeing. He lifted up a pair of black khakis and a dark brown short sleeve shirt and turned. He looked even better from the front, and I blushed. He just stood there looking at me, grinning, not doing anything else, so I tossed what I’d picked onto the end of the bed and we both got dressed. I was surprised to see that he was able to put on his shirt over his cast. When we were ready we stood looking at each other.

Carson looked fantastic. “You’re hot, you know that?” I told him.

He bit the corner of his bottom lip and smiled. “No one has ever said that to me. You really mean that?”

“Yes, you’re absolutely hot.”

“And you look hot too, absolutely hot.”

I grabbed his right arm and pulled him so we were looking at ourselves in the closet door mirror. “We’re the hottest two guys who’ve ever turned fifteen. Be ready for everyone telling us how good we look when we go downstairs.”

Carson pulled us closer to the mirror. “We look a lot alike, don’t we.”

“Yeah. I never noticed it before, but you’re right.”

He turned and looked at me. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure. Why not?”

“Well, it’s sort of personal.”

“That’s okay. Ask away.”

“Your sister Lynn said something that was a little strange, and I’ve been thinking about it and I’m curious.”

“You mean when she said she’s a month younger than me, right?”

“Yeah. I thought maybe I didn’t hear right, that maybe she meant a year younger.”

“Nope, she is little over a month younger than me. Her birthday is on the third of January.”

“Uh… how…”

“I’m adopted. My folks adopted me when I was about two years old.”

“Uh… what happened, if that’s okay for me to ask.”

“My mother was killed in a traffic accident. I was injured and taken to a hospital. I guess they couldn’t find any relatives, so I was turned over to CPS and was in the natal care ward at Redwood Hospital for almost a year. I don’t remember any of that year.” I grinned. “I guess nobody would when they’re that young, would they. Anyway, when I recovered I was turned over to a temporary foster family, the Dempsey’s. Right after they got me they adopted me, and they became my real family. They adopted me because they wanted Lynn to have a brother her age. So I’ve been with my folks like forever.”

“You were injured and in the hospital for a year? What happened? Are you okay now?”

“I had internal injuries to a lung, a kidney, and my spleen. I’m fine now. It’s just that I only have one kidney that works instead of the normal two. I can do anything I want, except play any sport where my spleen or my good kidney might be injured. That’s why I play tennis. The only other thing I have to do is have a blood test every year to check that my good kidney is still working 100% and there's no problem with my spleen.”

“You still have your… what is it, your bad kidney?”

“Yeah, I have both. One doesn’t work, and it’s still there. The doctor says it’s complicated to remove a kidney, and there’s no problem keeping that kidney unless it starts causing problems.”

“What about your spleen? And what’s a spleen?”

“That was the biggest problem, and the reason I was in the hospital for such a long time. The spleen makes new blood cells and cleans bacteria out of the blood. My spleen had what’s called a recurring tear from the accident. Normally they'd just remove the damaged spleen, but because I only had one working kidney they didn’t want to remove my spleen, so they operated on it to repair the tear. I lost a lot of blood and had to have lots of blood transfusions. My blood type is O-minus which is rare and I can only get transfusions of O-minus blood. But I’m fine now, I really am. How about you, what happened?”

“I never knew what happened until I got to Hathaway House. Mr. Hagen thought I should know, so he did some research and found out what had happened to me, and then told me about it. It was foggy one night when I was about nine months old. Because of the fog there was a huge accident with lots of cars involved on Highway 80 in Vallejo. Several people were killed, including my mother. I wasn’t hurt and I was sent to a foster home for infants. Then I was bounced from foster family to foster home and back and forth until I was fostered to Mr. and Mrs. Adamsen. And now I’m back at Hathaway House, another foster home. The Adamsen’s was the best foster family I’ve had, but it’s still not like being with a real family. Going to a new foster family is like a crap shoot, you might get a good one or one not so good. The best is what you got, David. You were adopted. That means they chose you. That’s so amazing and wonderful.”

I’m not sure why I did it, but I pulled Carson to me in a hug, being careful of his broken arm, and he hugged me back. It was emotional. I had tears running down my cheeks. When we pulled out of the hug I saw that Carson was teared up too. fifteen year old guys don’t get emotional about stuff like this, but we did. I put my hands on his shoulders and stretched out my arms. We stared into each other’s eyes. “We’ve both started our lives with the same kind of tragedy, losing our mothers. I’ve been lucky and I was adopted. You’re a great guy and you deserve a great foster family. And maybe you’ll be lucky enough to be adopted too. Now we’d better wash our faces and get downstairs before Mom sends Brian up to get us and he starts banging on my door.”

A bunch of my aunts and uncles and grandparents were in the living room, and my cousins and sibs were in the family room. Mom and two of my aunts were in the kitchen getting things ready for dinner, so that’s where we started.

“Come look at the turkeys, Carson.” I turned on the oven lights and we peeked inside.

“Mrs. Dempsey, those turkeys smell and look so good. Thanks for inviting me to dinner.”

“You’re welcome, Carson. Let me introduce David’s aunts. This is my sister Elaine, and my sister-in-law Janice.”

Carson shook hands with my aunts and replied, “It’s nice to meet you,” then in a loud whisper to me said, “Your aunts are very pretty.”

Aunt Elaine, my cousin Brian’s mother, had to make a comment. She’s just like Brian that way. “Carson, you’re quite a charmer. I bet you have the girls chasing you, don’t you?” Carson blushed, and I noticed his ears turned bright red.

Aunt Janice shushed Aunt Elaine. “Don’t embarrass the boy, Elaine. Now, you boys go on out to the family room and get something to tide you over until dinner.”

Mom looked at us and grinned. “That’s a good idea. We won’t be eating dinner until about four.”

I was getting hungry, and I figured that if I was hungry so was Carson.

“Come on. Mom made lots of munchies, and if we want any we’d better find them right away. We need to brave the family room and my cousins.”

Carson grinned. “Okay. Sounds good, David.”

We got our munchies and walked through the crowd of relatives to the living room and sat down. Poor Carson got the third-degree interrogation from my grandparents and aunts and uncles. Eventually we escaped the living room and went to the family room where my sibs and cousins started their own interrogation. By the time Mom announced that dinner was served Carson must have had a major headache.

Dinner was great, I love turkey and dressing and potatoes and gravy and cranberry sauce and everything else that goes with it. Carson wasn’t able to cut his own turkey because of his cast and sling, so I did it for him. I could tell he was enjoying the meal because he had two second helpings. Or would that be a second helping and a third helping? Whatever. Yeah, yeah, I had two second helpings too. He kept telling Mom and my aunts how good everything tasted, and how this was his best Thanksgiving dinner ever.

Afterwards Carson and I put on jackets and sat together on the front porch to be alone for a while.

We looked at each other and I saw that he had tears in his eyes.

“What’s the matter, Carson?”

“Nothing’s the matter. I’m just so happy. This really is the best Thanksgiving I’ve ever had.”

“What about with your last foster family?”

“Mrs. Adamsen was a great cook, and having Thanksgiving with them was really nice. But they never had any relatives or friends come over for Thanksgiving or Christmas. So it was just the three of us. What is so great at your house is you have so many relatives, and everybody’s talking and joking and having fun. Everyone made me feel like I was part of your family. That’s the first time that’s ever… that I’ve ever been accepted like that.”

Around eight Mom announced that dessert was served. We walked into the dining room and Carson and I sat down next to each other. Once we were all seated, Mom and Dad brought in two birthday cakes, one for me and one for Carson. I looked at Carson and his eyes were open wide and he had the biggest smile I’d seen him have.

There was a big shout of “Happy birthday, Carson!” and then “Happy Birthday David” from everyone. There were 15 candles on each of our cakes and they were arranged to form the number 15. ‘Happy Birthday Carson’ was written in frosting on his cake and ‘Happy Birthday David’ on mine.

I grabbed his shoulder and he turned and looked at me. “Happy birthday, guy.”

“Thanks David. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” He turned at looked up and down the table. “Thanks, everyone. You’ve made this my best birthday ever.”

Lynn shouted, “Blow out your candles before they melt the frosting. You too, David.”

We got ready to blow out the candles, and Lynn called out, “One, two, three, blow!”

Mine went out a couple seconds after Carson’s. “It’s a tie!” he shouted. Everyone laughed, then Lynn shouted, “Where’s the ice cream?” and we all joined in, “Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream!”

Mom stood. “Quiet down. We’re going to move the cakes to the table in the family room and cut them there. There’s vanilla, chocolate, and butterscotch marble ice cream, and a couple other flavors that I’ve already forgotten what they are; Alan will do the scooping for everyone.”

We all got in a line, and it didn’t take too long before we were all back at the dining room table. It turned out that Mom got a white cake for Carson and a chocolate cake for me, and Carson and I had a piece of each. I had the butterscotch marble ice cream, Carson got three flavors, chocolate, mint chocolate chip, and butterscotch marble.

When we finished eating everyone moved to the living room so Carson and I could open presents. It was almost like Christmas with a pile of wrapped packages, just no tree.

I sat on the floor. Carson stood, not knowing what to do.

“Come sit down, Carson. You’re participating. It’s your birthday party too.”

“You guys shouldn’t have done this for me.”

“And why not?” Dad asked.

“I… well, I’m… I’m not a member of your family.”

“Well,” Dad replied, “you’re David’s friend. He’s a member of our family. That’s enough for us. Right?”

Everyone yelled “Right.”

“Now, David,” Dad continued, “start distributing those presents or it’ll be midnight before we know it.”

Most of the presents from my relatives were clothes, books, CDs, and DVDs. They guessed that Carson’s sizes were the same as mine, and that he’d like the same kind of books, music, and movies, and based on his reactions they guessed right.

The last gift was for Carson, and it had our birthday card on top of the box. It was fun seeing his eyes light up when he opened the envelope and discovered the iTunes gift card.

“Oh my god! This is fantastic. Now when I buy my iPod I’ll be able to buy lots of music. Thank you!”

He picked up the wrapped box. We’d put the gift wrapped iPod box inside a large gift wrapped box so it looked like it might be a shirt, and we stuffed it with wadded up newspaper so the box inside wouldn’t rattle. He opened the large box and when he found the other gift wrapped box he realized what it was because of its size and weight.

He turned around and looked at me. “Oh, my god! You didn’t!” And then he just held onto the box.

“Unwrap the box. You’ll never know what it is until you unwrap it.”

Carson’s hands were shaking as he tried to untie the bow, so I reached over with the scissors and cut the ribbon. I think it took him less than one second to tear off the paper. So much for all the time we spent wrapping it.

“Oh. My. God. You did get it for me!”

He carefully opened the box and lifted out the iPod Touch.

“Oh my god! It’s the 32 gig model!” He held the iPod in his hands like it was a precious gem. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!”

He put the iPod back in its box then got up and walked to where Mom was sitting and gave her a one-armed hug, then did the same with Dad, Barb, Lynn, and Alan. Then he walked over to me and smiled. He put out his right hand and I grabbed it and he pulled me up and hugged me. He whispered in my ear, “David, you’re my best friend. I love you, man.”

I whispered back, “And you’re my best friend, Carson. And I love you too.” And that was true.

After all of our relatives had left for home, Carson and I sat at the kitchen table. I watched as he took out his iPod and all the accessories and manuals. We went through the start-up booklet and discovered that the iPod had to be plugged in and charged before it could be used.

“Man, that’s disappointing. I guess the battery can’t come already charged for some reason. Can we plug it in in your room?”

“Sure, there’s a power strip at my desk with extra outlets. The iPod doesn't come with an electric plug adapter, so we bought you one of those. Otherwise you’d have to plug it into a USB port on my laptop. Apple should have included it. I think it’s pretty cheesy of them to leave it out. Anyway, it’s in my room and you can charge it tonight. You’ll have tomorrow to get your account set up and download some music and try it out. Hmmm… but maybe you’ll hate it and give it to me. Huh? Maybe?”

“NFW, David! This is the best gift I’ve ever gotten, and it’s mine forever. What you get is to be my best friend forever.”

“Carson, you’re my best friend forever, too.”

I looked at the clock and grinned. “Do you know that we’ve become BFF’s and we’ve known each other barely two days? I wonder what took us so long.”

“Yeah, me too. Now that we’re BFF’s we can make up for lost time, right?

“Right. It’s after midnight and I’m tired. Let’s head up to my room and get some sleep.”

“Sounds like a plan, David, sounds like a plan.”