Published: 12 Dec 2019
The doorbell rang as soon as I had a chance to remove my suit coat and put my briefcase down by my desk on the alcove of what should have been the dining room, but was acting as my home office. I looked at my watch and realized that that must be my overnight guest at the door.
I don’t have overnight guests usually, in fact, I guess the last person to share my home for any length of time had been a former boyfriend, three years ago, the one from college who had come to town to tell me he couldn’t see me anymore. Actually he had spent a three day weekend with me and told me this as he left on the morning of the third day, after we had spent most of the weekend making love, but I guess it was just sex, farewell sex at that. Thank God that asshole had a plane to catch or I just might have strangled him.
At the time I had just moved into the ranch style home at the end of the cul de sac. The homes were not that large but they were spaced kind of far apart as the lots were much larger than the normal suburban lot with a beginner home on it. Actually I had planned it that way. The cul de sac and the street that led to it had all been designed and built by me and the company of contractors and builders I had begun right out of college three years ago. The houses I had designed and built were not cheap by any means, the least expensive of them had sold on it’s four acre lot had gone for well over three hundred thousand, closer to four actually. The other eleven homes on the road and the four of them on the cul de sac, making my first independent building project a total of sixteen individually designed homes which sold for four hundred thousand or just under earning my company just shy of six million, and after expenses netted me close to four and three quarter million.
I took that profit and poured it into another development, and another one after that. So now I was 28 and had spent the last three years lost in my work, designing the homes my company built, whether on one of my developments or for a private client with their own land. My employees numbered about a hundred for full time workers and we had a loyal part-time workforce numbered in the hundreds also. My inheriting the land and several hundred thousand from my parents estate that year I graduated from college helped the start of my first development, which actually paid for my own home free and clear.
Of course I knew my neighbors well, after all I had designed their homes and my company built them. One of the purchasers of the first house before the cul de sac was killed in a car accident shortly after the couple had set up home in the completed house. He had worked as an insurance agent and I have to say, he left his wife and child very well set. The house was paid off by the insurance on the mortgage, plus I knew she and their son each received trusts in the millions, the son was now eight and probably my best friend outside of work.
Janice, the thirty-five year old widow, mother of eight year old Sam, had started dating and had asked me if I’d mind having Sam overnight this Friday night. I had known for two days and had immediately made up the guest room, augmenting the furnishings there with Spiderman sheets and some action figures and stuffed toys. So now that Janice had probably seen me drive by she had most likely just sent Sam down the road and into the cul de sac and told him to have a good time, she’d see him later on. That was just the way she was. Extremely self centered. Frankly I couldn’t stand the woman.
A month after her husband was buried she was on the make, pestering me with all kinds of invitations to get together or to come to her home to fix or adjust something, nothing even remotely serious, but then everything was a crisis to her. I had finally had to tell her that there were people ready to help her with these minor repairs or adjustments, these general maintenance issues could be handled by any of the staff at the construction company which carried the warranty on the homes. I myself had gone to the home several times to see just what she was complaining about and never saw what I would call a defect or something that would have been covered by her home warranty, but it did get me introduced to Sam. He was a pretty shy kid, kind of meek and not all that outgoing, but he seemed happy to see me each time he saw me.
I think Janice finally got the message I was not interested in her in the least, but then she would ask me to “sit” Sam so she could go out for what she called “me” time and I could totally see a recently alone parent needing that and since no one else in the neighborhood could stand her, and I thought Sam was a neat kid, I agreed to the occasional evening keeping Sam at my house until she got home, this would be only the third time she had asked me to have him stay overnight.
So when the doorbell rang after I had arrived home that Friday evening I knew it was Sam, or maybe Janice dropping him off. It was Sam, with a paper shopping bag with his clothing for tomorrow and his toothbrush in it. He stood on the front porch, grinning up at me when I opened the door. He had some familiar looking papers in his hand and I recognized them as the forms I had asked Janice to fill out and the form I had gotten from my lawyer that would give me permission to sign for any medical emergency Sam might incur while in my care. The other papers were information I had asked her to fill out as to Sam’s pediatrician, Sam’s allergies if any. And what food he really didn’t like. I know, it was only for overnight, but if I knew Janice, this was just the third of many times she would beg me to care overnight for Sam.
As it was, our evening together was kind of fun. Being an only child myself I had only had friends at school, and no nieces or nephews, but Sam seemed determined to have as much fun as possible in our time together, that evening and well into the morning, that night and every Friday night for the next month and a half. I had begun to feel that Janice was taking advantage of me, but on that Friday night in the middle of June it all came to a head.
Sam and I had just came in from the pool after an hour or so of him getting tossed by me into the water and him having another swimming lesson from me before play time in the water. We were dried off and changed into our regular clothes and had just finished eating dinner when the front doorbell rang, which is not an unusual circumstance, just not at my home out in the sticks of Amherst. The police officer on the porch asked me if I was Daniel Foster and I replied I was and asked him into the house. Sam was a bit intimidated by the policeman in uniform and was peeking out at him from where he was behind me, his small hand holding onto the belt of my jeans.
The officer introduced himself as Officer Simon Prouty and he whispered to me he had some bad news for me, and then looked down at Sam. It dawned on me that we should have the rest of our discussion in private, so I asked Sam to go to his room and finish watching the movie he had started the previous Saturday afternoon before his mother had picked him up. He nodded and trotted off to the room he had been using for the last month and a half every weekend. I led Officer Prouty to the stools at the kitchen island and we each took one and pulled them out to face each other.
He then described to me the car accident that had taken the lives of Janice and her date. They had been on the way to her date’s apartment after dinner and drinks at a local restaurant and apparently had begun their after hours activities a bit early in the front seat of the car as her date drove. He had somehow lost control of the car and had slammed head on into a large old tree on the side of the road. When the bodies had been extracted from the car. The driver had been in the drivers seat, his fly open and his penis chopped off they thought, until Janis was extricated from the footwell of the front seat and they found the missing five inches of the man’s penis in her mouth and throat, her panties around her ankles, both dead from the impact of the car hitting the tree.
In her purse was my name and phone number as an emergency contact, and a copy of the signed agreement that gave me emergency guardianship of Sam. This was the emergency none of us had ever expected to happen. I just sat there stunned, not in the way Janice had died, but the implication that Sam was, for now, totally my responsibility. The Irony was not lost on me and I explained to the officer that just a few years ago Janice’s husband, Sam’s father, had perished in an automobile accident caused by a drunk driver and I couldn’t remember meeting any other relatives of either him or Janice at his wake or funeral.
Young Officer Prouty confirmed that the man’s ID had no emergency numbers on it, and nothing indicated so far that either of the pair had any relatives to be notified, except Sam of course and he asked if I wanted him to tell Sam, but I told him I would do that in a while, but I appreciated his offer. He told me he would be by tomorrow with the keys for Janice’s house so we could remove some more of Sam’s things, at least enough to get him through the weekend for now, then it would be up to the lawyers and the family court to decide what arrangements would be made for Sam. He could see the anguish on my face as he said that and being a nice guy he put his hand on my shoulder and told me from his standpoint, I was the one Janice had trusted with the care of her son.
I truthfully told him I wasn’t sure I was ready to be a full time parent, but that I did love the little guy and if that was what was happening, then we’d make the best of the situation somehow. Officer Prouty, his hand still on my shoulder, told me that if I needed help to call him, he had plenty of nephews and a few nieces and he had helped care for them when they were younger. He then told me he’d see us again tomorrow and I told him that one in the afternoon would be a good time for us to meet to get more clothing from Janice’s house for Sam. He clapped me on the shoulder as he told me I could do this, and we’d see him tomorrow. That clap kind of stirred something in me and as I watched from the front door as he walked to his cruiser I realized that he was really filling out that uniform really well, and he was very attractive as well, but I had a job to do and I tried to form in my mind how to tell my little buddy that his mom had died tonight.
When I went in to Sam’s bedroom he was watching that movie with all those dalmatians. It was coming to an end and I sat next to him and he seemed to melt into me as the credits started to roll.. I held him to my side as I asked him if he understood why Officer Prouty was here tonight. He mumbled that he thought he did, and he was sorry for listening in while us grownups were talking. He then asked me where he was going to live. I told him that for right now he was going to stay right here with me, that he was like my best friend and buddy and I couldn’t think of a better place for him to live, could he?
He gave me a hug and told me he couldn’t think of any place other place he wanted to be.
Sam had a pretty rough night, but the third time I went into his room he was thrashing about and the covers were all wrapped around him like a cocoon. I gently unrolled him and by laying down on top of his covers I was able to cuddle him and he almost immediately calmed down and settled into a more regular sleep pattern. I fell asleep holding him and when I woke in the morning he was sitting up right on the bed, running his small fingers through my hair, I guess trying to flatten my bed head. When my eyes opened he started to giggle and so I tickled his tummy and asked if he had gone to the bathroom this morning. He told me he hadn’t, but he really, really had to go now as he hopped off the double bed and ran to the hall bathroom. I glanced at the wall clock over the bureau on the other side of the room and saw it was already eight thirty so I got myself up and into my own bedroom to get dressed and hit my own bathroom to wash up a bit and wet my hair before combing it into a more presentable shape.
Once done with that I checked to see if Sam was getting dressed and he was, but he needed a bit of combing to get his hair to lay down. I helped him to tuck in a bit and took him to my bathroom to comb his hair for him. He asked if we were going to have breakfast soon, as he was hungry and his tummy felt empty and I assured him that I would start breakfast as soon as we were done getting ready.
While I prepared his favorite, scrambled eggs with grated cheese, hash browns and toast, he had a few questions about the events of last night, but primarily about staying with me, and how did they know his mother wasn’t just sleeping, because sometimes after she went out even he couldn’t wake her up in the morning. I tried to explain that to him first, trying not to be so gruesome about it, especially as we hadn’t eaten yet. I explained how a person’s heart was like their motor and if that stopped the person died. I had him listen through my shirt by putting his ear on my chest so he could hear my heart beat. He thought that was neat. I plated up our food and we sat and ate and then he carried our plates and cups and silverware over to me at the sink and I rinsed everything before loading the dishwasher. I explained to Sam that I had some business calls to make so like other weekends when I watched him I asked if he could find something to watch on TV before we went to do the grocery shopping, just while I did some business on the phone.
With Sam watching the big TV in the living room I retreated to my desk in what would have been the third bedroom, but it now acted as my home office. My first call was to my lawyer at his home. I think he sometimes just waited for me to call. He always seemed to answer right after the first ring, something I knew his secretary at his office tried to do as well. He had been my parents’ lawyer for all the years they had run their construction company, and after their deaths he had been there for me as I finished my last semester of college and tried to keep the company going at the same time, and he acted still as my mentor and company lawyer. I explained as clearly as possible what had occurred last night and the implication that the officer had received from the guardianship form Janice had filled out. He commiserated about Janice’s death, but then asked me if I didn’t want to raise Sam. I told him I did, that I thought it might be the only way I’d ever have a child of my own, plus I really did like the kid. I enjoyed his company, he kept me active, he made me feel needed.
Marc, my lawyer, told me that he thought the guardianship papers he had drawn up would stand up in court and he would now prepare to file those and a permanent custody request with the family court either Monday or Tuesday. He thought that going over to Janice’s house with the officer was a good idea, if only to snoop around and try to find where she had kept important papers and who her lawyer might be, maybe by looking through her phone directory or address book. He also reminded me to take any perishable food out of the fridge and cupboards and to let him know after the visit to her house if I had found any further information.
Sam and I went shopping after the call to my lawyer was completed and we picked out some food for our weekend and enough to carry us into the next week. Not that Sam ate a whole lot, but he was another mouth for me to feed, a person with his own likes and dislikes and the trip turned out to be another kind of bonding experience for us. We ate lunch at a cafe in the shopping center and we then went back to the big grocery store to pick up our perishables that they had held for us until we had eaten. We unpacked the four bags of groceries and had just finished when the doorbell rang and Sam ran to let Officer Prouty in.
He looked even better today. I was much more focused today, not having the shock of the reason for his visit last night playing with my mind. He was just about my height, his summer uniform was either grown into or spray painted on. His sandy hair was tousled as if he had been out in the wind and the collar button of his uniform shirt was open and a tuft of sandy chest hair was peeking out of the shirt top. His grin when he saw us standing at the door competed with the bright sun on this summer day and Sam, having met and seen him last night did something I wanted to do, he hugged Officer Prouty around his legs. He knew that the good officer was the one that let him stay here with me for now, plus what little kid didn’t want a cop as his friend?, I know I did.
Officer Prouty explained he was going off duty for the rest of today and for the next two days so I suggested we have a cup of coffee before he took us to Janice’s house to retrieve some of Sam’s clothes and maybe a few games and for me to try and find the information my lawyer needed. Simon agreed that we should remove any perishable food from Sam’s house so when our coffee was downed we gathered some grocery bags and a couple of trash bags and we drove up the street in my SUV. Simon opened the door for us and Sam ran to his room to fill some of the brown bags with his favorite toys.
Simon offered to do the fridge clean out and as I went to gather some of Sam’s clothing I poked around Janice’s former bedroom looking for her address book. I found it by the land line phone on a small desk in there and then proceeded to help Sam in his room down the hall. It didn’t take us very long and we both went to see how Officer Prouty was doing in the kitchen. Bottles of milk and juice were packed and there was a fresh package of hamburg among the items he had bagged up. All in all we had spent only about an hour there and then we loaded up and I drove us back to my house at the end of the cul de sac. There we unloaded and Sam was in his room setting up his space with the added clothes and toys as I made room in the fridge for the items Simon had removed from the fridge in the other house.
Since we had fixings for a cookout I invited Simon to dine with us that evening, after he had officially signed out for his days off and he smiled big and told me he would enjoy that. Both Sam and I saw him out and he told us he’d see us in about three hours, after he had a chance to go to his apartment and change, Sam told him to bring his swim suit with him when he came back. I took Sam to his bedroom to help him get his clothing sorted and in the right drawers and I noticed that he had sorted his toys into the bookcase in there and he had added a few stuffed animals to his bed.
We then went to the kitchen and I put the store bought potato salad and cole slaw into bowls for serving and I had Sam open the bags of hamburger buns and separate them onto a platter and once that was done I opened the hamburger package and made some good sized patties to be grilled outside after Simon returned.
Sam kept up a constant chatter, intermixed with questions I found somewhat hard to answer as his comments on his school, his teacher, the kids in school with him, and his life with his now dead mother were really quite funny and had me in stitches the whole time we prepared for our guest.
It’s now ten years later and my husband Simon and I are watching our son Sam graduate from high school with his senior class. Sam’s been accepted at UMASS here in town and wanted to attend as a day student, living off campus with his two dads. We couldn’t be prouder of him as he gave his Valedictorian speech.
The End
The only payment Art receives are the emails from you. Let him know if you enjoyed reading this short story. Email him at: ArtWest at CastleRoland dot Net