When I arrived back home after a few minutes of walking, I found everyone, even the adult men, sitting at the table with grim expressions.
The younger ones, in particular, were rigidly in their places. Gabe and Sheldon were the least affected by whatever had happened in my absence. One was reading a comic book, while the other was gazing into space with a calm smile.
"PJ," Mom said, smiling cheerfully, "you're here. What's up with Dewey's family?" she continued with interest.
"His mother told me they'd be delighted to come. I gave them the address, and they said they would follow behind me," I explained to the now strangely cheerful woman.
"Good, good" she nodded slowly. "We're just waiting for them to come to have lunch," she continued, beaming at Bob, who mechanically nodded along with the other two present fathers.
As I took a seat between Gabe and little Dewey, my brother leaned in and whispered, "Mom went a little crazy when you weren't here," before slowly, even more slowly than he had approached, retreating to his original position to continue reading his comic with his back completely straight.
Looking around the table, I could see that the majority were uncomfortably seated, forcing smiles.
"So?" suddenly Georgie whispered, leaning over Dewey to speak with a suggestively wide smile.
"What?" I asked, intrigued by my strange friend.
"Oh, you know, your date with Regina," he said, even more suggestively, pursing his lips and exaggerating a disgusted sound as he hugged himself.
"Ew," my younger brother said with disgust, still with his comic book open but paying special attention to our conversation.
In a small bout of embarrassment, as my silly friend was drawing the attention of the adults on the other side of the table, I lightly tapped Georgie's side to get him to stop his annoying mime.
"Come on, we're friends. Tell me what happened," Georgie continued after recovering from the rib nudge.
Shaking my head in defeat, I began to tell Georgie, still over the big-eared boy's head, how the date went.
"So, you just talked?" he asked incredulously after I explained the more mundane parts of the date, skipping over the parts about Sarah and the end of the date.
"Well, yeah, more or less," I said, trying to downplay the significance of the date. A moment later, Mom stood up excitedly, "They've arrived," she said, smiling and pointing to the end of the garden.
At a small shabby truck parked in front of our house, a moment later, three more children and two adults, presumably their parents, emerged.
As the new family approached, the adults got up from the table to greet the newcomers.
"Do we have to get up too?" Gabe asked, frowning as he watched the adults introducing themselves.
"No, Gabe," I assured him as I stood up. "But if you don't want Mom to get mad, I suggest you do," I joked with the child as I ruffled his hair.
"Those are my brothers," Dewey suddenly pointed to the kids a few steps away from us.
The older boy from the new family, hearing Dewey, furrowed his brow as he approached the table.
When he was an arm's length away from Dewey, the older boy began to press the little boy's head. "Mom scolded us because of you," he said, obviously annoyed, ignoring the uncomfortable sounds the little boy made.
Despite being older than Dewey, Gabe, or Sheldon, the new boy seemed even smaller from my perspective. He didn't appear much older than Teddy, possibly around thirteen or twelve.
Taking his forearm and easily separating it from the little boy's head, I quickly took his hand and gave it a quick shake. "Hey, nice to meet you, I'm PJ Duncan," I quickly said to the boy, who hadn't seemed to notice my presence until that moment. Even though he was probably a few years younger than me, my head towered over his several times, making him lift his head to see my face.
"Francis," he quickly replied, avoiding my gaze and trying to get his hand back unsuccessfully.
Pulling the boy by the hand, causing him to slightly lose his balance on his feet, I leaned down to be at eye level with him. "Nice to meet you, Francis," I said with a big smile. "How about you sit next to my friend Georgie over there?" I continued, nodding my head toward my friend, who, understanding his role, smiled threateningly at Francis, or at least attempted to. "Burgers will be ready in a moment," I continued, capturing his attention again with a pat on the boy's shoulder and letting go of his hand to push him gently to the other side of Georgie.
"And who are you two?" I also smiled at the other two boys who came with Francis.
"Hi, my name is Reese, nice to meet you, sir," said the taller of the two, raising his hand with a smile that for some reason didn't feel natural in the child.
Shaking the boy's hand, I waited for the other to introduce himself.
"Malcolm," he said with a small friendly smile, but still uncomfortable.
"Well, Reese, Malcolm, nice to meet you," I said, smiling at the boys. "This is Gabe, my brother," I said, pointing to Gabe, who, still in his place at the table, returned the greeting by nodding his head.
"On that side of the table are Missy, Chicken Boy, Teddy, and..." I continued, pointing at each child until I reached the little girl.
"She's Bobbi Sparks, and I'm Sheldon Cooper," Sheldon intervened.
"That's right, well, in case you didn't hear me a moment ago when I was talking to your brother, I'm PJ Duncan," I told the two boys.
The taller one quickly adapted, sitting in a free space at the table and starting to talk and get acquainted with Gabe, while the shorter one still seemed somewhat uncomfortable.
The four siblings were very different from each other. The eldest, Francis, quickly ignored any fear that Georgie might have instilled, sitting next to my friend and with him the both of them completely enthralled by my sister, who simply ignored them, entertained by playing with Missy and the little girl I now knew as Bobbi.
The youngest one was completely calm, sitting with his arms at his sides, completely undisturbed by what was happening around him, engrossed in his own world smiling and slowly shaking his head as if he could hear something that the others couldn't.
Reese and Malcolm were also different from each other, but surely, due to their smaller age gap, they had similar topics to discuss with Gabe.
"PJ, come here," I suddenly heard Bob shout from the grill, where again all the adult men were waiting.
Leaving my place at the table, I approached.
"What's up?" I asked, smiling at the new man there.
"I was talking with Hal about a job for you, I recommended you because you are quite responsible" Bob said, obviously proud, puffing out his chest.
Intrigued, I looked at the now known Mr. Hal, who was smiling oddly with a beer in his hand. "Hal Wilkerson," the man said, stretching his hand for a shake. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Wilkerson. I'm PJ Duncan," I quickly responded, shaking his hand.
"Your dad was telling me that you were looking for a job," the man said, leaning in a bit.
"Yes, I have a lot of extracurricular activities, but I usually have weekends free," I said, trying to be as friendly as possible.
"It's very hard to find capable babysitters," the man said, pausing to think for a moment. "So maybe you'd like to babysit on some weekends," he said, a little nervously.
"Sure, that wouldn't be a problem," I said to the man, who, for some strange reason, seemed relieved.
"I'd offer Georgie," Mr. Cooper, who was also sipping his beer with one hand on his back, said, "but, well," he said, a bit defeated, refocusing on the grill.
"You could also look after my kids," the other man present said, "Herschel Sparks," he continued quickly introducing himself, "one night a week to spend with our ladies, to keep the flame alive," he said, shaking his head with a big smile.
Mr. Cooper and Bob immediately laughed in agreement with Mr. Sparks, while Mr. Wilkerson took a few seconds, putting on an obvious fake laugh, trying to imitate the other men.
Seemingly ignoring my presence, the men began to talk about other things among themselves. Slowly fading from their fields of vision, I returned to my seat at the table.
"Not true," I heard Sheldon say, annoyed.
"It is true," Malcolm said, supported by Gabe and Reese.
"What's going on?" I asked as I sat down.
"PJ, these," Sheldon said, pointing at the kids in front of him, searching for the word to define them, "tricksters," he finally said, "are saying that Stephen Hawking came to the elementary school to give a lecture," he continued, offended.
"It's true, he talked to us about a new theory that contradicts his own black hole theory, only we can't discuss it because we signed a Non-disclosure agreement," Malcolm quickly said.
"So you're already breaking one of the agreements by telling me," Sheldon retorted haughtily.
"No, one of the contract clauses specified the ability to talk about Dr. Hawking's lecture, but not its content," Malcolm quickly countered.
Feeling cornered, Sheldon didn't know what to do, seeing the other kids' sinister smiles, I couldn't help but let out a small laugh, catching the attention of the little genius boy.
"PJ," Sheldon said hopefully, "it's not true, right?" the boy asked from the other side of the table, looking concerned.
Seeing the boy's face, I couldn't help it as I shook my head, causing the boy to celebrate and the other kids to look at me in disappointment. "Well, at least I don't think so, Sheldon. I don't follow the career of Stephen Hawking," I said, making the cheerful boy lose his smile. "What are the chances that such a well-known scientist would come to Medford? Surely not zero," I continued as I picked up a bottle of ketchup from the table and read its label.
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Sheldon lost his smile, furrowing his brow as he stood up. "My mom will surely know, she has connections with the city's pastor," the boy said as he quickly left with his mother, making the other kids laugh.
Looking at Gabe with a fake expression of disappointment, I tried hard to hold back my laughter.
"Oh, come on, PJ, it's a funny joke," Gabe said when he noticed my gaze.
"Yes, that was fun. I can't believe I fell for it, the current top exponent of theoretical physics here in Medford," Malcolm said ironically, also laughing.
Malcolm was strange, he spoke unusually well for a boy his age, and he knew about scientists that only Sheldon and I knew.
Seeing the boy, who had lost all inhibitions while laughing, I wanted to do a quick test. Still holding the condiment bottle, I pretended to read it more closely, "it has thirty-seven grams of sugar per one hundred grams serving," I said, placing the sugar in front of me, loudly drawing the attention of the other kids at the table. "I wonder how much sugar is in this five hundred and sixty-seven grams bottle," I said, pretending it was an inconsequential question, paying attention to the little boy who seemed puzzled, furrowing his brow like all the other kids at the table before continuing with their conversation. Seems he doesn't know.
A few moments later, Sheldon returned to the table with his head held high, snorting with sarcasm.
When the burgers were ready, the game had started, Bob and Mr. Cooper had pulled the television from our living room with extensions to watch the game.
The Wilkerson family seemed to be the least interested in sports, along with the mothers and the chicken boy.
When the game ended much later, everyone had finished their burgers, the children who had been sitting for a long time seemed to have accumulated a lot of energy, especially active in their seats, talking and laughing among themselves.
"Do you want to play with the ball a bit?" I asked the energetic children, receiving excited affirmations as they quickly got up, including Francis, who was forcibly lifted by Georgie, preventing the younger boy from getting too close to Teddy.
Smiling at the present mothers, I slowly walked behind the excited children who followed Gabe, running for the ball.
Malcolm, who was the last to stand up, calmly walked by my side. "Two hundred nine point seventy-six grams," he said quietly, taking me by surprise before running after the other children.
I knew it.
Together with the Wilkerson children, Georgie, and the chicken boy, we played a few plays, throwing the ball and trying to stop whoever was to receive the ball at that moment.
The day continued until the sky turned black. The Wilkersons were the first to leave on Mrs. Wilkerson's orders, not giving any room for debate. It seemed the children had fun as they grumbled, following their mother into the shabbily maintained van, the woman had her hands pressed on Dewey's shoulders as she made the boy say goodbye and thank you for the hospitality.
They were followed by the Sparks, who, needing to check on their chickens, walked to their house on the other side of the Cooper family.
Mrs. Cooper helped Mom bring in the necessary things, while Georgie, Gabe, and I took care of putting the chairs in our garage, followed by the folding table.
When there was nothing left to store besides Bob's grill, the Cooper children said their goodbyes on their mother's orders to prepare for bed, as there was a church service the next day. Missy once again intentionally ignored me as she huffed and walked out of our yard.
After Bob and Mr. Cooper extinguished the remaining embers of the grill and with effort moved it out of the front yard of the house, only Meemaw and I were left on our porch.
With a serious look, Meemaw leaned slightly, "are you sure about this, Aces? There's still a chance for you to retire," she said, taking out my envelope from her purse. "It's okay, Meemaw, I have a good feeling about Douglas," I said, trying to look as serious as possible.
Shaking her head in defeat, Meemaw sighed before saying, "Tyson is undefeated, Aces," looking at me with a raised eyebrow, trying to convince me. "I know, Meemaw, but still, I have a hunch that Douglas is going to win," I said, trying to show confidence. I really didn't know if in this life as in the previous one the fight would happen the same way, I hoped it did.
"As your wish, Aces," Meemaw said defeated as she turned around. "I'll be back on Wednesday, Aces, with a check or with an 'I told you so'," she continued, raising her hand in farewell.
Amused by the older woman's actions, I entered the house.
At the kitchen door, Mom was bidding farewell to Mrs. Cooper, who was insistently trying to stay and help clean up the pregnant woman. "It's not necessary, Mary, go with Sheldon and Missy, they're probably waiting for you," Mom said as she pushed Mrs. Cooper out of the house.
"But-" Mrs. Cooper was saying, "no, nothing," Mom interrupted her.
"Good night, Mrs. Cooper, don't worry, I'll help Mom," I said to the woman as I opened the door for Mom to push her out of the house.
"Okay, all right, see you later, Amy, PJ, good nigth" the woman said, bidding farewell as she accepted her defeat, leaving the house on her own.
Closing the door, Mom immediately let out a sigh. "I like her, but there's too much to hear about God, and then there's Mary Cooper," Mom said, laughing slightly as she walked to the kitchen, followed by me.
While we were washing the used utensils, Mom nudged me with her shoulder. "You're a very good boy, PJ," Mom said in a strange tone. "And now the girls are starting to notice. I'm sure you'll have a lot of them after you in no time," she continued with what I now recognized as a nasal voice. "And one day you'll choose one to marry and start a family," she said, now crying. "I just hope she's a kind girl who appreciates you for who you are, a very well educated boy with a great future" she continued while sniffing.
Uncomfortable with the situation and not really sure what to do, I reached out my arm to give Mom a sideways hug, and she immediately clung to my body, bursting into tears. I stroked her arm in an attempt to calm her down and decided not to make any comments to the obviously hormonal pregnant woman.
"Sweetheart..." Bob said cheerfully and excitedly as he entered the house, interrupted by the scene.
"Oh, you had to come in shouting and ruin the moment," in an impressive change of emotions, Mom was completely furious at Bob's intrusion, raising her hands as she left the kitchen.
Surprised, both Bob and I looked at each other for a few seconds before bursting into a complicated laugh. "Come on, son, we have to turn all that hamburger fat into muscle," Bob said, stifling his laughter as he flexed his arms.
"Yeah," I said as I dried the last plate in the sink.
Bob was once again the first to enter the garage, turning on the light. "Gabe won't be coming today, he's already ready to sleep," he explained as he picked up a disc and put it on the bar.
After finishing spotting for Bob, it was my turn under the bar. "Ready?" asked a sweaty Bob.
After nodding to the man, he helped me remove the bar from the safety of the rack. "One," Bob said when I raised the bar again, "so your mom wants me to do this now, two," he continued the count, "I know it can be a bit uncomfortable, but it's better to talk about it before something can happen, three." I didn't understand what Bob was trying to say.
Apparently noticing my puzzled expression amid my effort, Bob explained, "Well, when a girl and a boy really like each other, there may come a time when they have, certain desires," Bob said, and I immediately understood what was going to happen. For a moment, my grip on the bar loosened, causing Bob, as a good spotter, to quickly intervene. "Whoa, be careful there," said the man, who with effort and a little help from me lifted the bar to the safety stops.
I was about to say something, but a bad swallow of saliva made me start coughing, choking on my own breath.
"This is something that every father has to talk to his sons about at some point, and I think now is your time," Bob said, patting my back to help with my coughing fit.
Moving to the side of the bench, Bob sat down beside me and gave me 'the talk.'
I had never experienced this kind of embarrassment. I had studied enough anatomy classes to know how human reproduction works; heck, I might even know better than Bob how it works. Certainly, I had no practical experience, and Bob did. There were at least four pieces of evidence of that. But that didn't mean I felt comfortable talking to him about it.
After assuring him countless times, embarrassed, that I would always be careful with protection, Bob set me free from 'the talk' to continue exercising. In the end, Bob left the garage with a smile, tapping me with his hand towel. "Just remember what we talked about here," he said, amused, entering the house.
What happened that night would be something I would never forget, even if I wanted to.
After wiping the sweat off my body and going through my nightly routine before bed, I entered my dark room, finding my brother already asleep. Without wanting to disturb him, I quietly closed the door to the room and walked in the darkness to my bed, quickly falling asleep from physical and mental exhaustion, especially mental.
The next day, being Sunday, I woke up much later than usual, without the need to get up early for the daily run. Gabe was no longer in his bed. When I left my room, I found Gabe eating breakfast cereal while watching television. Following his example, I entered the kitchen to greet Mom and Teddy, who were having breakfast at the kitchen table, took a bowl of oatmeal with a banana, and returned to the living room.
Slightly nudging my brother's head, I sat down next to him on the couch. Gabe didn't take his eyes off the TV for a second and simply ignored my action as he put another spoonful of cereal in his mouth.
"Good morning to you too, shorty," I said, also eating my breakfast.
"Ah, yeah, sure," the boy said without taking his eyes off his program. It was a cartoon; I remembered seeing it in my past life. Four friends and a talking dog solving mysteries. Unknowingly, I also got caught up in the story of the funny cartoon.
The sound of the house phone and then Mom's shouts calling me brought me out of my daydream in the TV. "PJ, phone!" Mom shouted again from the kitchen.
Leaving the plate on the small table in the living room, I entered the kitchen to answer the phone after thanking Mom.
"Hello," I greeted on the other end of the phone, "SuperStar," I heard Brock's cheerful voice. "Hey Brock, good morning," I greeted my friend back, "so, do you want to go see the car?" Brock asked.
"Yeah, sure," I responded, not really caring much. I didn't know much about cars anyway; any car would be fine.
"Great, we'll pick you up in half an hour, SuperStar," Brock said on the other end of the line. "Pick me up?" I asked my friend. I thought Bob or Mom would have to take me again.
"Yeah, Dad offered to take you," my friend explained. "Okay, then, see you here, thanks" I said as I looked at the clock hanging in the kitchen. "See you later," my friend said before hanging up the call.
"Where are you going?" Teddy asked, being reprimanded by Mom with a light tap on the shoulder, making the teenager look annoyed at the pregnant woman.
Quietening her daughter with a facial expression, Mom turned her body back to face me. "Where are you going?" she asked, making Teddy open her mouth in disbelief.
"I'm going with my friend Brock's uncle. He's selling his old car, and I want to see it," I explained, amused.
Raising her eyebrow, Mom nodded slightly. "Do you have money for a car?" she asked as she stood up.
"Yes," I quickly responded, a little nervous, making Teddy mock me.
Ignoring Teddy's laughter, Mom approached, putting her hand on my shoulder and moving me out of the kitchen. "If you need it, you can ask your father, and if he doesn't want to, I have a little saved up," she whispered as we were outside the kitchen.
Surprised by her sudden acceptance, I stopped for a second. "I thought you deserved it. The nurses talk, and so do the teachers. According to George, all your teachers adore you," the pregnant woman said proudly. "Besides, you have a lovely girlfriend; you need a great car," she continued before quickly moving away from me. "Bathroom," she explained as she walked quickly.
The fact that the woman was so proud of me, along with the pride that Bob had shown me, squeezed my chest with a pleasant feeling.
"What are you doing?" Gabe asked amused, pulling me out of my trance as he sat from the living room couch a few steps away from me.
"Nothing, Frodo," I replied as I took my plate and garbage to the kitchen.
Preparing myself for when Brock and his father would come for me, took me long enough for it to be time.
"PJ, someone's at the door for you!" I heard Gabe shout.
In the living room, Gabe was once again sitting watching cartoons while the front door of the house was open, with Brock under the frame awkwardly waiting.
"Hey," I greeted my friend as I left the house, receiving a fist bump from him. "Hey SuperStar," my friend said as he guided me to his father's car.
The not so luxurious but well-kept car of his father was parked on the curb at the end of our yard. Brock entered through the passenger door, allowing me to open the back door to get in. "Good morning, sir-" I said, surprised because the man I found behind the wheel, being a completely different specter from his son, was a giant mass of muscle. His chest was so big that it seemed like his shirt would burst at any moment, he had muscles in his shoulders that I didn't know could inflate that way, his neck had muscles in his muscles. In short it was a little scary.
The man, with a big smile beneath his mustache, turned, stretching his impressively muscular hand. "Wayde Kingman, Joe has spoken a lot about you, kid," the man said, surprisingly friendly, still maintaining his pleasant smile as we shook hands.
---
Author Thoughts:
As always, I am not American, much less a doctor.
The other day, I watched the miniseries based on the world of John Wick, The Continental. I highly recommend it; I liked it a lot.
A few things I would like to clarify:
1. I am not 100% satisfied with my way of writing the Wilkerson family, but I hope to improve over time.
2. I know canonically Malcolm's last name is supposed to be Nolastname, but Wilkerson also exists, so that's what I'm going to choose. I hope you agree with me when you see that it's the better of the two.
3. Brock turned out to be someone "known" in the future, who is he?
Halloween passed, I dressed up and got drunk, but I also handed out candy. It was a bittersweet feeling to be the one handing out the candy now. I had never done it before; my family used to take care of it before the pandemic, but now it's up to me.
That being said.
I think that's all, as always, if you find any mistakes, please let me know, and I will correct them immediately.
Thank you for reading :D
PS: PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW, The title will change after a few hours, I realized that a big part of this site to attract readers is the name of the chapters, I will try to do it this way.