“Well, David, I’ve gotta say one thing. You’ve got balls to kiss me right out here on the sidewalk where everyone driving or walking by can see us.”

“Oh, Carson, I love it when you talk nasty.”

That got us started laughing again, and we turned to continue our walk home. After about a quarter of a block I heard someone run up behind me and grab me from behind.

“Hey, dufus, what’re you up to?” It was Gary, one of my friends from school. I stopped walking because I couldn’t do anything else, and twisted around out of his grasp.

“Hey, Gary! Lemme introduce my friend Carson. Carson, this is Gary. He’s the Hillcrest High sophomore class clown. Or at least he thinks so.”

“Nice to meetcha. Note that I’m the official Hillcrest High sophomore class clown. Hey, what happened to your arm?”

“Uh, it’s sort of embarrassing. Wednesday evening I was being chased by a dog and I sort of ran into David, and I broke my arm.”

Gary thought for a couple of seconds. “The only dog around here that chases people is Woofie. Don’t tell me it was Woofie.” He saw my grin. “Oh, shit, it was Woofie. Carson, Woofie wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“That’s what I’ve been told by everybody. Trouble is, I didn’t learn that until after Woofie started chasing me. Thing is, when I was little I was chased and bitten by a big dog, so it freaked me when Woofie started chasing me. David just happened to cross my escape route as I got in front of his house.”

“I thought it must have been David’s fault.”

I bopped Gary on his arm. “It wasn’t my fault and it wasn’t Carson’s fault. It was a no-fault accident.”

Gary looked at me like he really didn’t believe me. Then he shrugged his shoulders and turned to Carson.

“You just moved into the neighborhood?”

“Yeah, sort of. A couple of weeks ago.”

Right then my stomach growled and we all laughed.

I grabbed Gary’s shoulder. “I’m starving. You have lunch yet?”

“No. You?”

“No. We’re just heading home for lunch. You want to come over?”

“Sure. Hang for a sec, I’ll call Mom to make sure it’s okay.”

While Gary called his mom I told Carson about him.

“I’ve known Gary since kindergarten. We’re good friends. He’s really funny, and tells jokes all the time.”

Carson looked serious. “Does he tell puns?” Then he grinned.

“Nope. Just stupid jokes. Last week he decided it was blonde joke season. That’s all we heard, dumb blonde jokes. Next week he’ll tell some other kind of jokes. I’ve never met anyone who knew so many jokes. I tell him he should become a comedian.”

Gary shoved his cell in his pocket. “Hey, it’s fine with my mom to have lunch at your’s. Let’s haul.”

On the way home I reminded him about my birthday party on Saturday.

“I’ll be there. Ya know, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you David. What’s your tie size?”

“My tie size? First, I don’t think ties come in sizes. And second, I don’t wear ties so I don’t have a clue what size tie I’d wear.”

“Hey, ties do come in sizes. You think a shrimp like you will wear the same size tie as a tall hunk like me? No way. Anyway, I gotta buy you a birthday gift. Don’t guys buy guys ties for their birthday? It’s something like that, I think.” He grinned.

“It’s Father’s Day and it’s sons who give their fathers a tie on that day. No one gives a tie to a guy for his fifteenth birthday.”

“Oh. That’s too bad. I had such a great looking tie picked out for you. All I needed is your tie size. Now I’ll have to start all over and try to find something appropriate for your birthday.” Gary and I continued to kid back and forth about my birthday party on Saturday, and Carson sat watching us, grinning the entire time.

Gary and I commiserated with each other about Hillcrest losing our football playoff game the Friday before Thanksgiving. Gary shook his head. “Hillcrest needs a better football team. You oughta join the team, David. Tom Fraiser’s going to be graduating this year, and you’d make a great quarterback. I’ve seen you pass the ball when we’re in gym class, and you’re really good. You’d have a whole year to get pumped up and ready to play.”

“Forget it. I don’t want to end up in a hospital bed in traction. I’m way too small to play varsity football. Now you, on the other hand…”

He interrupted and ignored what I started to say. “Carson, I haven’t seen you at school. You go to Hillcrest?”

“No, I go to Riverview. Our football team wasn’t very good this year. We ended up with a three and ten record.”

“You play any sports?”

“Yeah. I’m on the tennis team. I hope my broken arm heals up so I can make the varsity team this year.”

“Oh, cool. I keep trying to get dufus here to join our tennis team. But he’s too much of a wimp to do it.”

“I’m not a wimp!” I replied. “I don’t think I’m good enough to be on the team. Besides, I’d have to practice all the time and that would take too much of my study time.”

“Sheesh, David. I’m pretty good and you totally beat my butt every time we play. And you’re a freakin’ straight-A student. You can afford to give up some of your study time.”

“And why do you think I’m a straight-A student? Because I take time to study. Besides, to be on the tennis team I’d also have to give up my valuable free time, of which I do not have enough. Now, you on the other hand, Gary, could…”

Once again, he interrupted and ignored what I started to say. That’s a habit he has so he can change the subject and not have to reply to a question that might be embarrassing. “So, Carson, how’s the Riverview tennis team going to do this year?”

“Pretty good, I think. I was on the team at Foothill Middle School year before last and we won the league title. I was on the Riverview JV’s last year and I’ll be on the varsity this year.”

“Hey, congrats. That’s cool.”

“In varsity Hillcrest came in first in league last year and we came in second. I think we’re going to have a very good team and it’ll be an interesting matchup between us and you guys for the league varsity title.”

At that point we arrived home and went into the kitchen.

“Hi, Mom. We met Gary on the way home.”

“Hi, Gary. How are you?”

“Good. Like always, it’s nice seeing you, Mrs. Dempsey.”

“Thank you, Gary. That’s sweet.”

“When’s lunch, Mom? Gary’s going to join us. Is that okay?” I asked.

 “As soon as you go upstairs and get ready.” We started running upstairs. “Don’t run! And be sure to wash your hands.”

“Okay Mom!” We rushed upstairs, without running, and left Carson’s netbook in my room. Gary washed his hands while I hung my jacket in the closet and helped Carson take off his hoodie, then the two of us washed our hands. Well, Carson washed his one hand. Have you ever tried washing one hand without being able to use the other one? I watched Carson do it and I was impressed. The only thing he couldn’t do easily was wash the back of his hand. He solved that by putting his wet washcloth on the sink and rubbing the back of his hand against it.

We went downstairs to the kitchen.

“Hey, Mom. Are we it for lunch?”

“Yes, just the three of you. I already ate, Barb’s ice skating with Donna, Lynn went over to Kathy’s house, Alan and Jennifer should be in San Luis Obispo by now, and your father is still at his meeting. So, how’s a ham sandwich?”

“That sounds good, Mom. With Swiss cheese and lettuce and mustard, please?”

“Okay. How about you, Carson? Gary?”

“Same for me, please.”

“Me too, please.”

“You guys want chips or potato salad?”

I answered that for the three of us, “Both, please!”

“You guys get whatever you want to drink out of the fridge. David, get the potato salad while you’re in there, and grab a bag of chips. Why don’t you eat out back? It’s a nice day, sunny and warm. I’ll bring your sandwiches out there.”

“Sounds like a plan.” We grabbed our drinks, a bag of rippled potato chips, and a big carton of potato salad, and I led them outside onto our patio and we sat down.

Gary sat across the table from me and Carson. He was giggling, and he bit his bottom lip. “So tell me, did I see what I think I saw you two doing?”

I looked at Carson. “Damn! Caught twice in one day!”

Carson started laughing and then so did I. Gary sat there looking back and forth at me and at Carson. I don’t think he understood why Carson and I were laughing. Mom brought out the sandwiches and looked at us laughing and each of us barely able to catch our breath.

Mom shook her head. “Boys! I’ll never understand them.” She went back in the house, and we finally stopped laughing.

“Okay,” Gary said, “now I’ve got two questions. One, did I see what I saw? And two, what’s so freakin’ funny? Spill it.”

“I’ll answer number one. Yes.”

Gary just stared at me. “Bullshit.”

“Nope. You did see what you saw. I was kissing Carson.”

“Oh. My god! You were!” Now it was Gary who was laughing. Finally he was able to gasp out, “What? Why?”

“The why,” I answered, “is because he’s fun to kiss.” Carson nodded his agreement. I continued, “I’m not sure what you meant by the ‘what’ part.”

“I sort of forget what I was asking the ‘what’ part for, that I asked.”

I laughed at him. “Do you know how weird what you just said sounds?”

“Screw you too.” He grinned. “I think I wanted to ask ‘what, are you gay?’ So, are you?”

Both Carson and I said ‘NO!’ at the same time, then looked at each other and smiled.

“Okay guys, now I am totally confused. You’re not gay, but you kiss each other because you both think it’s fun. How about explaining, please.”

“It’s a long story. Before we start on that part I think Carson should tell you about how he came to live in our neighborhood.”

So while we ate that’s what Carson did, about being an orphan and being moving from foster facility to foster family and back, and finally being fostered by the Adamsens. Then moving to Hathaway House a couple weeks ago because Mr. Adamsen got sick and is in the hospital.

Then I told about how Carson and I accidentally ran into each other and he broke his arm, about finding out we were born on the same day and we just turned fifteen. Then how we invited him to my house for Thanksgiving and a joint family birthday party for me and a surprise birthday party for him, and that he’s staying over until Sunday.

Carson finished the story. He said that when he and I were talking about him being a foster kid it made him sad, and since his arm was broken I couldn’t hug him so I kissed him. And we discovered that we liked kissing each other, a lot.

With questions from Gary, the whole story took about a half hour to tell.

“Cool,” Gary said when we finished.

I was surprised. “Cool?”

“Sure, David. If you and Carson like each other that way, then go for it.”

“So,” Carson asked, “you think It’s okay for two guys to like each other, and if they want to… uh… you know…”

Gary interrupted. “You mean gay, right? Well, whatever floats your boat.”

I started laughing. “Whatever floats your boat? I love that. Where the heck did you get that from?”

Gary grinned. “My grandpa says stuff like that. He’s  got a million of ‘em. Like, that’ll take the crowd out of the game, that’s thinking with your other head, if that's your tree go climb it, whatever rubs your bubba, anything that turns your crank, and lots more. He’s got a saying for just about everything.”

“And you’ve memorized all of ‘em, haven’t you?” I asked.

Gary grinned. “Yup. A comedian has to have a great memory, and I do.”

Mom came out with a plate of her chocolate chunk cookies.

“Thanks, Mom. These look great.”

“Well, you boys enjoy them.”

With the arrival of Mom’s chocolate chunk cookies the topic of conversation changed completely. We talked about school, about the college bowl playoffs and which schools would end up at the top. I said Stanford to much derision from Carson who picked Auburn and Gary who picked Ohio State.

After about a half hour Gary checked his watch.

“Gotta go, guys. Great to meet you, Carson.” He turned and looked at me for a couple seconds and grinned. “You know, David, I’ve had a great time with you and Carson today. I like finding out about people and what makes them tick, how they’re different from each other and how they’re the same. I’ve found out about things I’d never thought of, and it’s cool. Thanks.” He grabbed me in a quick hug, and then, carefully, he hugged Carson, too.

He waved as he left. “See you at your birthday party tomorrow, David, and you too, Carson.”

“See you, Gary!”

We sat down and Carson grinned. “He’s a nice guy. I can tell you’ve been friends for a long time.”

“Yeah. I was five years old and we started kindergarten together. It just seemed right for us to be friends, right from that first day. And we have been, ever since. I guess Gary and I are real good friends. Not quite best friends like you and me, but close.”

“Why aren’t you best friends?”

“We never talk about personal stuff, and I’d feel weird doing that, and even more weird if I told him any of my private thoughts. On the other hand, I feel like I can tell you anything at all, and we already talk about everything including personal stuff.”

“I see what you mean. But I think maybe Gary is moving closer to being one of your best friends. You do know that you can have more than one best friend, right?”

“Sure, I read about that in a book on teens that I found on amazon.com. Hey, I just realized that you were going to do something today, Carson. You know what it is?”

“Oh! To get on iTunes and download some music to my iPod. Right?”

“Yup. Let’s go in and get your netbook and set it up on our network.”

We brought in our dirty dishes and put them in the dishwasher then went upstairs to my room.

Carson and I sat down at my desk. “Our network has both wired and wireless. I think you should use the wireless. That way you don’t have to sit where there’s an Ethernet connection. So, how do you connect to the internet?”

“At Hathaway House I could plug into an Ethernet connection in the computer room or use Wi-Fi. I always used Wi-Fi so I can connect from my room. When I’m at school I can connect to the Wi-Fi there but only for school stuff. If I can find free Wi-Fi then I can connect to the same ISP that Hathaway House uses for email. If I can’t find free Wi-Fi then I’m stuck, no internet.”

“Okay, now let’s get you hooked up to our Wi-Fi.”

We spent the next half hour getting Carson’s netbook set up on our network and making sure he could connect to everything he needed to connect to, like Gmail and Messenger. The he went online to Apple and downloaded and installed the latest version of iTunes.

“Now we’re ready to connect your iPod. Do you have the instruction book?”

“Yeah, I should. Only thing is, where’d I put the instruction book? Oh, here it is.”

There was a quick start guide and a tip booklet, but no user manual. The quick start guides was one of those that doesn’t tell you much except how to charge the battery, plug in the earbuds, and turn it on and off. The tip booklet wasn’t real useful for getting connected; the most useful and funny tip said the iPod won’t work if you drop it in a bathtub or a swimming pool.

“Let’s check online and see if we can find a user manual, David.”

“There’s gotta be, don’t you think?” I started my PC and did a search for ‘ipod touch 4.02 user manual’ and after a few dead ends found the Apple site with the User Guide. It was a 228 page pdf, so I downloaded and printed it. Fortunately my laser printer does double sided, and is fast, so we were ready to go in a few minutes.

David was reading the Getting Started chapter in the manual. “Geez, I coulda downloaded the manual to my netbook.”

“Having a printed copy is handy because you don’t hafta switch from what you were trying to do, then switch so you can read about it in the manual, then switching back to what you were originally trying to do, then back to tha manual, and back and forth and back and forth.”

Carson referred to the manual to get his netbook and iTunes to recognize the iPod, and then he created his Apple ID so he could buy music.

He started to browse Indi music on iTunes, switched to looking for his favorite bands and singers, and decided to buy the R.E.M. album ‘Document’ using one of his iTunes gift cards. He discovered he had to enter the gift card redemption code first, and he did that then bought the album and downloaded it.

“Wow! It’s easy to buy albums! Maybe too easy. I could use up that gift card money in a few minutes if I’m not careful.”

“Yeah, it’s a good thing you’re not using a credit card, isn’t it.”

“Come on, David. No way we could get one. We’re too young. I think you have to be like 18 or something and have a job to get a credit card, don’t you?”

“I don’t know, maybe it depends on the bank.”

I didn’t want to embarrass Carson by telling him my folks set up accounts at the bank for me, Alan, and Lynn, and we each have a credit card with a spending limit that’s linked to our account. Our folks put our allowance in our account each month. Barb will get hers when she’s 13. When Carson becomes our foster brother he’ll get his own account too.

“So after you use up the gift card, how are you going to buy more music?”

“Easy. I’ll just buy an iTunes gift card with the money I saved up. It’s like having a credit card without having a real credit card. I think some stores even sell them at a discount.”

“Cool.”

“Okay, lemme see what else I might want.”

Carson got absorbed in looking through iTunes, and I got bored. I grabbed a book and started reading, but I lost interest after about ten minutes. I was rescued by Mom.

“David, can you come downstairs and give me a hand?”

“Sure. Carson, I’ll be back in a few minutes. Is that okay?”

Carson looked up. “Uh huh. See you in a few.” He turned his attention back to iTunes. I saw that he’d plugged in the earbuds and was listening to some music.

Mom and I walked downstairs. “What do you want me to help you with?”

“Wait until we get to your dad’s office. He’s back and wants to talk to us.”

Well, that was interesting. I decided it was about Carson and my folks getting the okay to be his foster parents.

We walked into dad’s office and Mom closed the door. Mr. Hagen was there, so I was certain it was about Carson.

“Uh… hi, Mr. Hagen. How are you?”

“I’m okay, David. Why don’t you and your mother sit down and we can talk.”

We sat and I waited for someone to start talking. I couldn’t help it, I started to worry. Even though Dad and Mr. Hagen weren’t frowning, they weren’t smiling. I looked at Mom and she wasn’t smiling either. Oh, my god, what happened? Did CPS find another foster family for Carson? Or were we rejected for some reason?

I looked at Dad. “What’s going on?”

“David,” Dad said, “we have some news about Carson. We’re not going to be his foster family.”

I blinked and felt tears run down my cheeks. “Why? What happened?”