Chapter : 10
Jason’s Coming of Age Story
Copyright © 2019, by Art West. All Rights Reserved.



Published: 23 Dec 2019


There were a few details to work out, like a mutually agreed upon move in date, how the buyers were going to finance their purchase, and getting everything down in legal terms so both parties were protected under the law. We told Lucas and Nate that we used Mr. Lane for our legal representative here in Massachusetts, and since he was a parishioner Nate knew him as well, and thought he could use someone else from the same firm for their side of the transaction, just to keep everything on an impartial basis.

We said our goodbyes after Lucas gave us a copy of his inspection of our home for our DCFS application and we adults all shook hands, as the boys did some sort of intricate fist bump thing, but then we saw them also give each other a brief hug. Nothing was said about that hug until after Logan had already gone to his room for the night. Almost immediately after that Mom and Dad said their goodnights and went to their rooms. Like a shot Mike and I were at Logan’s door which we knocked on and he called out to come in. I went to our little brother as he sat on the side of his bed taking off his sneakers and sat next to him. He still had that very pleased look on his face and looked at the two of us, Mike now sitting on the other side of him. I softly asked if he was happy the way things had worked out tonight, and his smile got bigger, if that was possible. He nodded and said that he had liked Blake since the first time he had seen him in church, and then he started at his school, and wouldn’t you know it, the hottest guy at the grammar school was now in his class.

Tonight, he and Blake had quite the talk and they realized that they liked each other, a lot, and from now on they were going to spend a lot of time together, in and out of school. We both hugged him from each side and encouraged their plan, but told Logan that if he had any questions, we wanted him to come to us with them, after all, we were his brothers.

Two weeks later all the details of the house sale were worked out and the closing on Logan’s former home was scheduled for the Friday just before the Columbus Day (October 12th) weekend was to be celebrated. This timing would give them the long weekend to move into the house, with a lot of help from us and Logan himself who had offered to help Blake one day when they were out riding after school. The bond was strengthening between the two boys as Blake was including Logan in his sports activities at school and from what we heard they were now considered Besties at school.

But that wasn’t the only event that happened that Fall. Jan reported that all the condos at the Steamplant had been sold and the rental units were also all rented out there. Jan reported that our profits were right around seventy million, just for our three-quarter partnership. The rest was split up by the other couples in the family, Jan and Matt included of course. Jan also reported that the other project was moving along right on time for a late Spring opening.

On the 16th of October Lucas called Mike and me in the evening and asked if we were free the next evening to go to the DCFS Boys’ Dormitory in Springfield, he thought it was time for us to meet a prospective foster child. It was to be one of those meet and greet things these state-run institutions run usually once a month, or more often, depending on the number of available children and the available number of prospective parents or guardians. I hated these. In my youth I had not been the most attractive child, being overweight and then into my teens with a bad case of acne. Add to those attractive traits, was the fact that I was known as “The Brain” or “Smartypants” by all the boys housed in my dorm, and by most of the staff. I would make the obligatory appearance, grab something to eat, and go and hide in my dorm room for the rest of the evening.


It wasn’t until a recent college graduate, one who had already gone through her apprenticeship of three months as a caseworker, was assigned to my case. She was young and soon realized that pretending to be Little Mary Sunshine wasn’t going to cut it with me. I was a twelve-year-old about to turn thirteen when I first met Carole. Instead of just being my caseworker she became a true friend and I’ll never forget that. She actually included me in her life, which in turn gave me a life. We shopped together, we exercised together, she taught me how to eat the proper foods, she introduced me to her boyfriend at the time and we started doing things together on the weekends, or Carole and I would go to one of the City gyms that Sam trained his clients at and we would work out while he attended to his client. We three would ride bikes out in the countryside or go to a city pool to swim.


They invited me to their wedding, and you know that that was when I met Sam’s younger cousin, Mike. That changed my life. Nope, no denying it, that began everything, and now we were expected to meet a kid at one of these “open house meet and greets” that we liked, and if the kid felt comfortable enough to come home with us to spend a few days to get to know us and where we lived….well, in other words, to see if we all were good matches. This was scary. This was scary because I knew what would be going through the kid’s mind even as we met and talked at the facility. The same shit I had to deal with as a kid. Would they like me? What if I wore my other good pants? What if they were creepy? What if they were only looking for someone to do all the chores around the house? What if they didn’t love me?

Yeah, all that and more.

Mike and I didn’t exactly dress up for this, although Mom insisted that we wear dress shirts with our jeans. I mean you could wrap up a piece of shit in gold wrapping paper, the exterior would look good, but wasn’t it what was inside that was important?

We entered the entry hall and signed in and were given name tags to wear. We were pretty nervous, but we soon saw that there were other same sex couples there and a few singles as well. We saw Lucas talking to one of the couples, but as soon as he saw us, he excused himself and came over to talk to us.

He explained that the boys in this group would be about the same age as Logan, maybe a bit younger, some might even be as old as thirteen. He told us he had asked us to meet this age group as he knew we had another semester and a month to go until we both finished our own schooling and he thought that a boy who was in school during the day might be a better match for us right now. Plus with our support system (Mom and dad and our brothers) he thought our first should be someone who might not need a lot of attention when we were studying or not at home, and maybe by pairing with someone close to Logan’s age, he and Logan and Blake would end up being pals, that definitely would make the new boy’s transition better all around, both at school and at home.

Mike and I agreed and when the doors to the dorm were opened and the boys started to enter they too were given name tags to wear before walking through the entry hall to the big living/reception room, where we saw a long table covered in snack food and deserts, where the majority of the boys stopped first after getting their name tags on. One of the last boys through the dorm doors looked a bit wide eyed, as if this was his first meet and greet and this was all new to him. He kept looking around him, taking everything in. He wasn’t outstanding in any particular way. He was going to be a striking young man someday though, he just hadn’t grown into his features yet. What caught my attention though was that I thought he looked like a young Mike might have done at that age, which I guessed at about a year or two younger than Logan, about nine or ten, Logan was now eleven going on twelve.

Mike nudged me and whispered that there was a kid who had just come in and he thought he looked just like I would have if I wasn’t such a chubby kid, and he subtly motioned to the same boy I had thought looked like a young Mike.

I was about to say something to Mike about that when I saw the boy coming our way. I felt like I was going to panic, but Lucas was with us and I just figured the lad was coming over to talk to him.

Of course, I was wrong, what did you expect? Although the lad did say hello to Lucas, he held his hand out to introduce himself to Mike and me. His name was Scott and he was nine. Mike told him that he and his husband Jason were just 21 and college seniors, almost ready to start interviewing for jobs as teachers. For some reason I was fascinated by Scott and as we three moved into the big room from the hall I realized Lucas was no longer where we had left him, he’d gone off to talk with another couple that had just arrived.

We told him about our unusual family, and that we had a brother just about his age, and that he and a friend rode horses just about every day after school, and a lot of times on the weekends too. Scott seemed interested so we began to talk with him some more and just before I asked him if he’d like to come visit with us for a weekend Lucas came up beside us. Lucas asked Scott if he could talk to him for a moment and the two took off for a bench out in the hall as Mike and I were comparing notes on our own conversation with Scott.

We didn’t even look around to see any of the other boys, and I think we were in agreement on asking Scott to share our home, but there were steps to this process we were involved in; 3 home visits by the potential foster child, everyone agreeing that those visits should become a permanent arrangement, and then you, the parents, get granted permanent custody and in a lot of cases an adoption hearing can be scheduled after 90 days of residency by the child. Scott and Lucas were having quite the conversation on that bench, but we saw them hug when they were done and Scott scampered back to us and regained his seat, grinning like an opossum the whole time.

I asked Scott if everything was alright and he said it sure was, that enigmatic grin still on his face. Mike asked if Scott would like to visit us at our home after he got out of school the next day and the imp jumped up and hugged us, hopping around pumping his fists in what we assumed was some sort of victory routine. I asked him if that was a yes, and he was nodding his head up and down so fast I was afraid he was going to hurt himself. He had tears in his eyes but he still grinned, letting us know he was just very happy.

We told him to bring some sturdy play clothes and a set of school clothes since we all went to church on Sundays. He didn’t bat an eye at the mention of church which pleased me. I did look him over especially closely though and figured that if he needed something either sturdier or warmer, even a pair of sturdy shoes or boots, that somewhere in Logan’s room or in the bin Mom kept in the laundry room of items Logan had grown out of, there would be something he could use for this weekend. I wasn’t sure of the procedure to be able to check Scott out tomorrow afternoon, so we waited to see if we could catch Lucas’s eye and I waved him over. He too had a big grin on his face as I asked him how we went about signing out Scott the next day for the weekend.

He told Mike and me that there was some paperwork that needed to be signed and we could do that now as then we would avoid the crush at the end of this get together. The three of us went to the bench and Lucas brought out a file and told us where to sign and he’d give us a copy, leave one at the sign in/sign out window, and retain one for his files. I noticed as I signed that the forms were already filled out, including Scott’s name. I looked up and saw that smile on Lucas’s face that made me think he had planned this, right down to filling out all the forms ahead of this evening, and I would bet dollars to donuts that he had filled them in even before he had called us the other night to invite us here tonight.

Even Scott had a place to sign and that was when he saw our married last names, Denver Clarke. He pointed to them, mouth agape. And I looked where he was pointing and then he moved his finger to his full name, Scott Denver Clarke. Lucas saw what we were doing and he said that when he called the other night he had realized the co-incidence and that an investigation had already been requested to see if there was any possibility that we were all related somehow, but that since it involved research in two different states it could take a while to get some results. He had an information packet for us to take that gave some particulars about Scott’s case that included his medical history as they knew it, just in case he needed medical attention while he was with us, but there were no known serious considerations in his case file.

Of course, that all made getting to meet him all that much more interesting, and a bit exciting for all of us. Scott asked when we were coming back to pick him up and Lucas told him he should probably pack his bag tonight, because he would be eligible to be signed out by us as soon as he got off the school bus tomorrow afternoon. Mike asked what time he usually got here after school, and he said three thirty. Since our last class was over on Fridays at two, we told him we’d drive here from Amherst right after our last class tomorrow to pick him up. We hugged the little guy and got hugged in return before he went through those doors, back to his dorm. Lucas assured us what we most wanted to know they would find the answers to as quickly as possible, before shaking our hands as we signed out to drive home and prepare the family for our visitor tomorrow, and get one of the spare bedrooms ready for him, there was a room right next to ours we thought he’d be comfortable in.

Yes, we had a lot to discuss on the way home, but most of that we would be able to find the answers to in the packet Lucas had handed us. We got home just as the rest of the family was cleaning up after dinner so we sat and had a cup of coffee and filled them in on our evening and as much about Scott as we knew at that point, but mentioned that for some unknown reason Scott had our last names, Mike and mine at least. That prompted Mike to open up the manila envelope that Lucas had handed us, the documents they had concerning his birth parents and a copy of his birth certificate.

Ken and Ben seemed very interested in this and they poured over the documents, even making notes about some of the particulars as we filled in the rest of the family about Scott. Logan was excited that another boy could end up living here and we all teased him about being an uncle to someone who was only about two years younger than him, but we assured him that we thought they would get along great. Of course, Mom and Dad were excited about their first potential grandson coming to visit and Mom thought that at least at first the double bedroom next to ours would be a good choice for Scott. She said that she’d freshen it up tomorrow while we were in classes at the University. Then she started to mutter about what to have for dinner tomorrow. We all heard her, and we all called out for lasagna as our choice, not that we always got one, but she agreed that that would make a good welcome dinner and she had plenty in the freezer and everything to go with it too.


To keep things as normal as possible for the rest of the night we college guys held our study group as usual and it helped Mike and me focus on the ordinary and not obsess about our visitor this weekend.

So that was how our relationship with Scott started. I’m sure you are wondering about the possible relationship between Scott and me, and Mike, but it took another week before Ken, with a lot of help from Ben and Dad was able to come up with a likely scenario of the events that led Scott to the orphanage run by the DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services) here in Western Mass. First, was Scott’s first weekend with us.

So that Friday it was almost impossible to concentrate in our classes, and soon one of our professors noticed that I wasn’t really paying attention and made a comment about it, saying that he had now noticed that both Mr. Denver Clarkes didn’t seem to be with the class that afternoon. “Jason or Mike, would you like to tell the class just what has you two so distant from us today? Is something happening that is distracting you from American Literature today? Or is it just big plans for your weekend?” This wasn’t one of those huge lecture hall classes, it was a smaller class for the University, only about forty students, the final class for senior students in Am. Lit., smaller to facilitate the open discussions and the back and forth between the professor and the students. “We do have huge plans for the weekend, Sir,” Mike stated, “We are planning out just how much time to devote to horseback riding, spending just the right amount of time with the rest of the family, what local attractions to visit and how much time to spend doing that kind of stuff, how to work Church services into the weekend, and a bunch of other stuff, Sir.”

I knew I was nervous about our weekend with Scott, but I hadn’t realized that Mike was also, and it helped me relax enough to pipe up and say to the room that we were going to Springfield right after class to pick up our prospective foster son for the first time and we were a bit nervous about that and all that could go wrong and that we didn’t want to disappoint the boy but we didn’t want to overwhelm him either. The room was silent for one second until one clap was heard and then the room erupted in applause, the professor included and then the suggestions started flowing, everyone having an idea of what would be fun activities for a boy to do, all crammed into one weekend. Everyone but the professor.

When the comments and suggestions ebbed he sat on the front of his desk and stated, “When my adoptive parents first took me home that first weekend we would spend together, they started by talking to me, telling me their story and why they wanted a child in their life. Yes, we talked a lot that first weekend, and I was able to ask a lot of questions of them, and eventually they had questions for me. We spent most of the weekend getting to really know each other. Oh, we did things together too, like taking in a local Pee Wee Baseball Game, we went out to eat the first night, but we also watched a few movies and played catch out in the backyard, but we always talked a bit during and after all those activities. It made me want more, more time with them. I hope you guys take it slow in all the activities, he’ll never get to know the real you if you try to keep him occupied the whole time, spend time getting to know each other. Now, class is excused early today, Mike and Jason have to pick up their foster son, and I have to go call my Moms, have a great weekend, all of you.”

He made to leave the room but stopped to come back to Mike and me and he shook our hands, telling us we were brave and caring men and he was proud to have us in his class this semester. He had a tear running down his cheek as he did then leave and went to call his mothers. Mike and I exchanged a brief kiss, now alone in the classroom and then we gathered our stuff and made for the student parking lot to go get Scott.

We didn’t have to rush but the half hour drive to the big city seemed to go by fast as we discussed all that went on in our last class, about what the professor had talked about; using the weekend to start the three of us getting to know about each other, no matter what activities we had planned. It seems someone else wanted the afternoon to go by fast and even if we were a half hour early to pick Scott up from the shelter, he was waiting on the bench with a packed bag and a school backpack on, anxiously looking up every time the door opened. When we walked in, he jumped up and ran to meet us as the doors were still closing behind us. We met in a three way hug right there in front of the doors as Scott told us he had begged the bus driver to alter his course and drop the kids from the shelter off a tad early, as he was going to be picked up today by what he hoped were going to be his new parents.

We described what we drove through as we rode home, Scott informing us he had never been out this way before. When we reached Granby and were on route 202 through town he began to guess what house we lived in, but as we turned down a side road to get to our house he began to get quiet, wonderment in his eyes and voice as the houses were a lot bigger than the ones on the main road we had been on. When I did turn into our property about two miles down this side road he let out a gasp and took in a big gulp. I think he felt the same things I had felt the first time we saw the place with Grandpa. I couldn’t believe it either, it was probably the biggest private home I had ever seen up to then, but just like Scott, I didn’t know that the end section was really a separate living space, even if it was connected to the main house by a connecting door, the space Sam and Carole lived with their daughter Kate.

We took a few minutes to show him, from the parking pad in front of the garage section, where people lived, Ben and Ken over the garage, Sam, Carole and Kate in the middle section, and of course, Tim, James, Mike and I, Mom and Dad and Logan in the big main part of the house. I made sure to mention that there was plenty of room for him too. Once we gathered up our stuff and walked in the front door we were greeted by Mom, Dad and Logan, who seemed excited to have another kid around for the weekend. I asked where Blake was and I was told that he had chores to do at home after school, but he was coming to spend the night and have dinner with us a little later.

Scott had Logan’s help in getting settled in his room, but then I remembered the important lesson we had been taught that afternoon and I told Mike that we had missed a great opportunity to bond with Scott by letting Logan help get him settled in his room. Mike smacked himself on his forehead and said we could always go up and let him show us how settled in he was. So we went upstairs and outside his room we heard Scott telling Logan how he had been on a couple of these weekend visits before, but nothing ever came of them, the grown-ups had expected him to be mostly by himself except for dinner time, and then it was back to his room watching TV until falling asleep.

We went in the room then and asked Logan if he would give Mom a hand with dinner, and being the great kid he was he took off to give Mom a hand. We asked Scott how he liked his room, letting him know there were others, but we had chosen this one because it was closer to us and we thought at least for the first weekend that would be a good idea. He actually agreed with us, but told us that this is the room he would have chosen for himself as it didn’t get the morning sun and he liked the color of the walls, a beigey tan that would go with everything. We asked him where he had stowed everything, and he showed how he had neatly stacked his meager belongings in the dresser and Logan had hung his church clothes in the closet. His bathroom items were neatly on the shelf next to the sink in there and Mom had placed fresh towels on the towel bar by the shower in there. Scott said he never had a bathroom to himself and he thought he was really going to enjoy himself this weekend.

We all went and sat on the edge of his bed and Mike started off by telling him about growing up in Denver with Mom and Dad and how Sam became more of an older brother to him after Sam’s parents had died while Sam was in his senior year in high school. I then told him about my birth at the hospital in Denver and without any known relatives at that point, or even the hospital knowing my mother’s last name, I was given the name of the city for a last name and the first name of a nurse’s dead relative for a first name. I told him some of the story about being raised in an orphanage run by the State of Colorado, which was run much like the shelter that the DCFS ran for this state where we had met him. He did ask how I got out of there, but at that point Mom asked us to please come down for dinner, everyone was waiting and there were still some people Scott hadn’t met yet, so I told him we could talk later, or tomorrow, because as Mike said, there is a lot to tell Scott.

So, dinner was a riot. Not that way, it was funny as all get out. The first thing we did was introduce Scott to the ones he hadn’t met before, but it turned out he knew Carole, or at least he knew her from the resident’s hall he currently lived at. She recognized him as one of Lucas’s clients and they seemed to have some funny stories about some of the kids at the dormitory. He seemed to like everyone and for a kid brought up in an institution he seemed very friendly and interested in everyone. Blake and Logan sat with him at one side of the big table that separated the kitchen and the family room, with Mike and I bookending them on that side. What made the meal so amusing though was Kate. When her parents told her there was a new boy next door, she was expecting an infant, or at least someone she could play with. She kept saying it wasn’t fair and she wanted her mommy and daddy to get her someone to play with, which led to some good-natured ribbing of her parents about not supplying their daughter with the essentials to a happy childhood, siblings.

Once dinner was over and we had some time to ourselves, Mike and I took Scott with us to the stable where we introduced him to the horses and the dogs. Standing on their feet the three dogs stood just over half of Scott’s height. It was an all-new experience for him, but it did open a big line of communication with him. We explained the history of the “Newfies”, as the Newfoundland’s were called and of course he got a lot of licks from the girls, and they in turn became familiar with his scent and he became another human to protect. The horses were other creatures of enchantment for him and we promised him plenty of riding time, starting the next day.

While out there we talked to him, and he to us. Scott and I, both having been raised “in care” had a lot of similarities to our childhoods and Mike listened to us, asking the both of us questions to get us to open up more. I was able to open up about how Mike’s parents welcomed me into their family from the first time Mike and I got together for studying after Sam and Carole’s wedding.

We were sitting on bales of hay in the attached barn when the subject of Grandfather came up. We explained what had started it all off, the DNA testing in our high school science class. Mike nudged me and I looked at him and then at Scott and just nodded my head, we had silently agreed to have all three of us submit samples of our individual DNA tested to see what that test would reveal. The investigations would continue, but we didn’t need those results to know that Scott was somehow related to both Mike and me. Everyone at dinner had noticed the resemblances between us and wondered if sometime in our past we had blended our sperm and had a surrogate carry our child.

Blake and Logan pestered us at breakfast to go riding with them and Scott seemed to want to also so once we had all helped Mom clean up the kitchen, Dad went to the stable with us to help get Scott prepared for his first horseback ride. Ken and Ben joined us and Ken gave Scott his first lessons as the rest of us got the other rides needed ready and once we were all mounted we let Ken and Scott ride around in the paddock just to get Scott comfortable in the saddle and how to control the horse he was riding. We all spent the rest of the morning riding the property and showing Scott around, getting him acquainted some more with all of us, but also with the property as well.

Scott was shocked when Lucas and Nate stopped by late in the afternoon to pick up their son. Scott hadn’t put two and two together and figured out that Blake was Lucas’s son, but everything clicked when he saw Lucas get out of their car, Lucas told Scott he wasn’t checking up on him or anything, but he did want to know how his weekend was going. Scott told him he’d never been happier in his life and he felt this family was where he belonged.

So, Scott had had an exciting day, followed by dinner, this time with just us guys, Sam having a work-related function that he and his family had been invited to. Mom had made what Scott had said was his favorite meal (second favorite now after tasting Mom’s lasagna last night!), fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. After the kitchen clean-up we all settled in the big family room to watch a movie. Part way through Mom and I went and made a big batch of popcorn and we all settled back to watch the end of Second Hand Lions, a thoroughly delightful movie. The day must have been a long one for Scott as he fell asleep right after the ending and when we noticed I gathered him up and Mike and I took him upstairs to his bed.

We were able to spend some time in the afternoon on Sunday out by the pool. Dad had turned on the heating unit the night before and with the temperature in the 60s and the water in the 70s it was actually refreshing. Scott followed the church service pretty well and he even seemed to recognize some of the hymns sung by the choir, then it was a big breakfast before Blake and Logan went to get the horses saddled for a ride and Scott was included in their plans so the three kids spent a few hours riding and then Scott joined us by the pool where Mike and I were working on some assignments as the boys were off riding. We stopped what we were doing so Scott could tell us about his ride with the bigger boys and then he asked some more questions about my Grandfather.

We all talked for another hour and a half before we risked the chill and we three frolicked in the pool before getting cleaned up for an early dinner. Scott had to be back and checked in by six thirty that evening. Scott got a lot of hugs when he said his goodbyes that evening and we three were alright until we neared the shelter and his dorm, but before we got out of the car we talked a bit more and we made it known in no uncertain terms we wanted him to come next weekend too, and we hoped he did too, because we wanted his third time in two weeks to be the last time we were separated from him. The little imp somehow got his rear seatbelt undone and he was squirming his way between the front seats to hug and kiss us, as we were hugging him and kissing on him too. It was three happy guys who walked inside to get him signed back in, but three sad guys who had to say a final goodbye until next Friday afternoon.

Tuesday at dinner Ben and Ken asked if we had a few minutes to spend with them before we all met for our study group. We told them we did, and would they like to meet here or privately, and they said that here at the big table was fine, they didn’t have anything to say to us in private, yet, but what they had was some questions about my Grandfather’s search for my mother after she went missing, and about the guy who had fathered me. That certainly piqued my interest, and Mike’s so I went up to our room and returned with the file my Grandfather had compiled over the years of the search, which is one of the boxes we had moved up here and I stored the file box on the top shelf in our closet.

Ben had gone and collected his research, which he admitted was fascinating as it pertained to both Mike and me and he had been actively working on it every spare minute he had had since Friday night after dinner, Ken also doing a lot of the work, guiding Ben when he came upon a brick wall in his searches, and sometimes getting so involved he took the researchers role and used Ben as his assistant.

What they now wanted to do was to verify some dates and places that they remembered Grandfather having mentioned. I dug out the synopsis of the hired investigator’s reports and handed that to Ben to see if that was what he needed. He and Ken looked it over and Ken let out a WHOOP!! when they got to the college in Denver the investigator had concentrated his search for my father at. Ken explained that my mother had told her father that her boyfriend, that had unknowingly impregnated her, attended the University of Colorado in Denver, so that was where the original investigator searched for him, but what if she had misunderstood, and he really had been going to attend the University of Denver, in Denver, Colorado. It would be a simple mistake to have been made. So that is what he and Ben had been doing for the last five days, researching male transfer students from the Community College of the Keys to the University of Denver, with a transfer date in the year 1999 or 2000.

He had found two such students, but one was the wrong age, having served in the Army for ten years and he had a family as well as being too old to fit the profile. The other one not only was the right age, but he ended up marrying a Jessica Long and they married after his graduation and they moved to Northampton, Massachusetts where she attended Smith College and he became a professor in the History Department. They had a son six months after their marriage and that son impregnated a student named Beverly Clarke ten years ago, a transfer student from a high school in Denver, Colorado. At least that was the story put out at the time, but the son wasn’t really old enough to impregnate anyone and after a police investigation it was found that the boy’s father had really impregnated the girl, Beverly. That baby went unclaimed at the hospital and the baby, Scott, was remanded into the care of the State. The administrators had used the same logic the ones at my Colorado State home had when naming me, just using the mother’s last name, and as it turned out, the father’s last name really was Denver.

My head was swimming by this time and Dad was on his cell at the other end of the table and he told us that a distant cousin of his had a daughter by the name of Beverly but she had died of carbon monoxide poisoning along with her parents three years ago at their home in Connecticut. He had just called an old neighbor of theirs from the Denver area that had kept in touch over the years. She had verified that Beverly did have an unwanted pregnancy about ten years ago.

Scott was my half-brother, that kept swirling around in my mind, but he was also a cousin to Mike, albeit three times removed, but still a cousin, Scott was related to us!

I know, pretty convoluted, but as Ken plotted it all out on paper, with Ben making sure the timeline was correct, Mom and Dad on one side of them, Mike and I on the other, we watched as they wrote and we saw it all unfold before us. I was in tears with Mike holding me, I had a half-brother who happened to be related to my husband! There was no way he wasn’t coming back to stay with us, no way!

THE END??????


Editor’s Notes: This is one of the most fascinating stories yet.

I loved it.

It seems that all their research paid off handsomely.

But you still haven’t found Jason’s birth father, or at least not yet. There could, of course, be a sequel.

Grin

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Art receives no payment for his efforts other than your emails. You may contact him by email: ArtWest at CastleRoland dot Net

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Jason’s Coming of Age Story

By Art West

Completed

Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10