Reaching Out

Chapter 19: Different…Really Different

By Grant Bentley

It was after 10:00 before we saw Jerry and Joey on Saturday morning. Neither one looked like they had slept a lot last night, but they couldn’t have looked happier. I told them that breakfast was in the oven keeping warm, and that they should just help themselves. They both looked a little surprised at that, but they went ahead and got their breakfasts from the oven anyway.

They both apologized profusely for sleeping in late and said it wouldn’t happen again. Ian and I just laughed and told them not to worry.

“But what about chores?” Joey asked. “Don’t we have chores to do on the weekend?”

“We all have chores, but we do them whenever they need to be done or whenever we have time. We don’t set aside the weekend to do chores. Weekends are for relaxing and having fun,” Ian told them.

“Really? Things weren’t like that at home,” Jerry replied. “There, we spent most of the weekend cleaning either the house or the church, and mowing the grass or trimming the hedges. The only time we had off was for church services.”

“Well, here you will be given some chores to do, but you’re to do them when you can. For example, Trevor vacuums once a week. Ian and I do the laundry once a week, we take turns with the dishes and mowing the back yard, and so on,” I told them. “We sure as hell don’t spend our weekends working. We do enough of that during the week.”

“I already liked it here,” Joey said, laughing, “but now I know I’m going to love it here.”

“Well, I hope so,” I said. “Finish your breakfasts ‘cause we have some shopping to do for you two.”

“Shopping?” Joey asked.

“Since neither one of you had much more than a small suitcase, Ian and I planned on taking you shopping today. There are a lot of things you need.”

“We’re good,” Jerry said. “We really don’t need anything. We have all our clothes and that’s all we had at home, so that’s all we really need.”

“Humour me,” I told them. “If you don’t see anything at the mall you want, then we’re good, but I’m sure you’ll find you need more than you think.”

We spent most of the day at the mall. Considering they ‘didn’t need anything’, I don’t think I have ever seen two boys more excited about shopping. Joey was amazed that he would be allowed to pick out his own clothes. Until then, his mother had bought all of his clothes and he wore whatever she chose. Needless to say, he made a beeline to the fashion jeans section and found the slimmest, tightest jeans he could. And, I must say, he looked very sexy when he came out of the dressing room to model them. He even talked Jerry into buying a pair. By the time we were done, they had completely new wardrobes.

As we were getting ready to leave the mall, we walked past a shop that did piercings and tattoos. Joey’s gait noticeably slowed as he looked into the display at the front. He turned and looked at us with a questioning expression.

“You want to take a look?” I asked him.

His face immediately lit up as he responded, “You don’t mind?”

“No, go ahead,” I said, “but don’t even think about a tattoo until you’re thirty.”

When we left the shop, Joey had his right ear and his eyebrow pierced and Jerry had his right ear pierced.

By the time we left the mall, we had two of the most fashionable, happy boys you could imagine proudly walking beside us.

We also stopped at an electronics store on the way home. We had to argue with them for at least twenty minutes before they would even enter the store. They were more than grateful for the new clothes, but felt that a TV, stereo and computers would be too much. They didn’t think they deserved that much and said that they were feeling guilty that we were spending so much money on them. We told them that social services was paying us to have them in our home and the money from that, as far as we were concerned, was meant for them. I don’t think they were convinced, but they gave in and went along with it.

The looks on their faces as they pondered which TV and which stereo they wanted were worth more than any amount of money we could spend on them. And when it came time to choose a laptop each, they were smiling from ear to ear. Neither had ever used a computer, except at school. In fact, TVs and computers hadn’t been allowed at home as they were ‘the tools of the devil’.

When we finally got back to the house, two extremely happy boys ran up to the house to be greeted by Trevor and Chase at the door. They helped Jerry and Joey haul their stuff into the house and the four of them disappeared upstairs to their room for the next half-hour. Trevor and Chase helped them set up their TV and stereo and set up their laptops so they could get onto the network and get online. They then proceeded to show them how to get onto the internet and do searches, how to bookmark sites like Codey’s World, The Mustard Jar, AwesomeDude, Penguin Huggle and You Tube–you know, the really important sites–how to set up a hotmail account and all the other necessary things teens need to know about the internet. It was so good to see Trevor being the big brother and he seemed to delight in it.

We decided to order out for dinner. I called the boys downstairs, gave them the menu and asked them to order whatever they wanted. Again, I got a look of disbelief from both of them. It was becoming apparent that they hadn’t been allowed to make a lot of decisions in their young lives. Trevor just grinned and led them into the kitchen, grabbed the phone and told them to pick exactly what they wanted.

Before long, we were spread out around the kitchen table, digging into whatever box held our favourite dish. The boys just stood to one side until Trevor told them to dig in. They looked at Ian and me as if asking for permission to eat. I smiled at them and told them that they had better start soon or there would be nothing left. As soon as they were given permission, they cautiously took small portions of what they wanted and sat down to eat.

“Is that all you want?” I asked them.

“You mean we can have more?” Jerry asked. I was beginning to understand why they were both so slim.

“You can have as much as you want,” I replied.

“Really?” Joey asked.

“Well, of course,” Trevor told them.

“At home, we weren’t allowed to eat until the adults were finished, and then our mothers would dish up what we could have,” Jerry explained. “Everything is so different here. It’s going to take us a while to get used to it.”

I just reached over, ruffled his hair and smiled at him. He gave me a huge grin back and started digging into the food boxes until his plate was piled high with a little of everything. Joey was right behind him.

Just then, Jason and John wandered into the kitchen. Everyone got a hug from them, including Jerry and Joey. They each gave a little hug back, then they became shy and started blushing. It appeared that they hadn’t got a lot of love and hugs at home, either.

After Jason and John got what they wanted, they sat down on the kitchen counter and dug in. I noticed again that Jerry and Joey looked like they were waiting for either Ian or me to cut loose on them for sitting on the counter. I began to seriously wonder what their lives must have been like.

After we finished, the boys cleaned up and put everything away. Jerry and Joey were right in there, helping. After they finished, the six of them headed upstairs to Jerry and Joey’s room as Jason and John wanted to see what they had done with their old room. A few minutes later, John ran through the kitchen and down to the basement. It wasn’t long before he came running back through and upstairs with what looked to be a bunch of CDs and some pictures and posters. Soon, music was blasting and the familiar sounds of a bunch of boys laughing and having a good time filled the air.

A few minutes later, Joey came down to the kitchen.

“Is it okay if I get some cans of soda?” he asked timidly.

“Of course,” Ian replied. “Just help yourself whenever you want.”

“Thanks,” Joey replied, once again looking like he couldn’t quite believe what he had heard. He grabbed six sodas and headed back upstairs.

Just then, the doorbell rang. It was Pete, Ross, Aaron and Theo.

After we got our normal hugs, Pete asked, “Are Jason and John here?”

“Yep, they’re in Jerry and Joey’s room. Just go on up,” I told them.

It was just like old times. My boys, together, laughing, joking and having fun. After about an hour or so, the older boys headed up to Jason and John’s suite, leaving Jerry and Joey on their own. Jerry came down and asked us if we wanted to see their room.

Ian and I told him, “Of course,” and followed him upstairs.

The older boys had done a great job of helping them decorate. They had some great posters of landscapes and the two that Trevor had of the really cute boys with their shirts off. When we turned to look towards those particular posters, I could tell the boys were very nervous of our reactions. They broke out in huge smiles and giggled when we told them that we thought the boys in the posters were cute, but not as cute as them.

Sunday morning rolled around, as it usually does after Saturday night. Jerry and Joey were up before the rest of us by at least an hour. When Ian and I finally rolled out of bed, we could smell the combination of bacon cooking and coffee brewing. It didn’t take us long to find the kitchen. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by two lengthy hugs and two huge smiles.

“That’s the first time I ever did that,” Jerry stated, smiling. “Except with Joey, of course.”

“Did what?” I asked.

“Hugged someone,” he replied.

“Well, I liked it and I think you should do it all the time,” Ian told him.

“Yeah, I liked it too,” he said.

We were seated at the table and had our coffee and a big plate of bacon, eggs and hash browns placed in front of us. The boys then served themselves and sat down to eat with us.

“Where do you go to church?” Joey asked.

“We don’t go to church,” I responded, “but if you want to go, that’s fine with us.”

“Don’t you believe in God?” Jerry asked us with an amazed look.

“Yes, we do, but we don’t believe we have to belong to an organised church to be Christians.”

“But shouldn’t we go to church to learn what God wants us to know?” Joey asked.

“No,” Ian replied. “We don’t need someone else giving us their interpretation of the Bible when we are quite capable of reading and understanding it ourselves.”

“So, we don’t have to go?” Joey asked.

“No, you don’t.” Ian replied.

Jerry looked at us for a minute and then asked, “If we wanted to read the Bible ourselves and discuss what we think it says, would you read it with us?”

I looked at Ian and he smiled. I looked back at Jerry and replied, “If you want to do that, then sure, we’ll read and discuss the Bible with you.”

We both got a big hug, and with tears in his eyes, Jerry said, ”Thank you. I’d really like that because I don’t want to believe all of what my Dad preaches.”

I think the boys were surprised when they realized that both Ian and I had our own Bibles that actually looked like we had used them. From the smiles on their faces, we knew how much it meant to them that we would let them discuss and interpret the Bible as equals. It became our Sunday morning ritual to have breakfast and choose a verse or chapter, read it aloud and discuss what we felt it meant. More often than not, our interpretation was close to or the same as theirs. If it wasn’t, they knew they had the right to question our interpretation and give their own. I think their feeling of self-worth skyrocketed over those first few weeks.

It wasn’t long before the boys were totally relaxed and at ease with us. They began joking and teasing and bantering back and forth with the other boys and with Ian and me. It was good to see them feeling so comfortable and free.

In school, things had really changed for them, too. Their first day back after moving in with us, Joey, of course, wore his new skinny jeans and a tight-fitting T-shirt. Jerry was not so adventurous, but he did wear a nicely-fitted pair of fashionably worn and faded jeans and a blue and mauve striped fitted shirt. Combined with their new piercings, they couldn’t have looked more different if they had tried. They had come home that first day, excited about how people had stared at them and started talking and pointing after they walked by. I think they really enjoyed the attention.

Within a week, they had come out as boyfriends and joined the GSA, much to the amazement of many of the other students and some of the staff. A couple of jerks decided to give them a hard time one day, only to find themselves surrounded by several members of the football team. That was the first and last time they were threatened.

Trevor had really taken to the role of being a big brother for Jerry and Joey and they loved him for it. He and Chase often included them in outings to the mall or movie theatre. The boys were always welcome at Jason and John’s and would often go and spend time with the ‘big’ boys.

It wasn’t long before they were bringing their own friends over after school, too, and the house was again filled with the sounds of young people feeling free and having fun. Soon, Conner and Wes, Christie and Shane, and Jay and Michael became regulars at our home.

Chapter 20