Simon’s Journal

Volume IV

Thirteen Summer Days
A New Beginning

Written by Danny

Chapter – 6

Wednesday

I ended up sleeping for so long that by the time I awoke again the entire apartment was flooded with darkness.

“Got to remember to tell them to put in some night lights, so I can find my way around this freak’n place.” I mumbled as I groped in the blackness for the covers I had apparently kicked off in my sleep.

The fingers of my left hand brushed against something warm and soft and I became instantly awake. When I say it was dark I mean it was completely and utterly dark in Ian’s apartment. I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face. It took a second for my fingers to find the warm, soft object again, but it took infinitely longer to figure out what I was feeling. In my heightened state of awareness and engulfed in darkness my brain, with the help of my finger tips, deduced that the object felt like warm mashed potatoes. What was odder was the fact that I seemed to be lying in a bed of the somewhat lumpy mashed potatoes.

“Why would I be sleeping in a bed of mashed potatoes?” I asked myself aloud.

“Sssshhhh.” A soft yet frighteningly familiar voice hushed me. What was so frightening about it was that I couldn’t tell from what direction the voice had come. It was almost like it had come from all around me and inside my head at the same time.

“Wh-wh-who’s th-there?” I stammered out of fear.

“Sshhhh, you are fine. Go back to sleep.”

“Wh-who is that?” I asked though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

“It’s Ian. I’m just changing your wet...”

“Ian?” I asked.

“Ssshhh.” He hushed again, “You’ll wake up Colin.”

“W-why’s it so dark?” I asked and finally my voice cracked, giving away how scared I really was.

“It’s ok Simon. You’re just wearing one of Colin’s sleeping masks.” Ian said softly, “Here let me help you with that.”

He removed the mask and I had to cover my eyes to shield them from what at first seemed to be a spotlight as bright as the sun, but later turned out to be one of those little plug-in nightlights like we have in our hallway at home to illuminate the way to the bathroom at night.

“How are you feeling?” He asked and before I could answer he said, “I bet you’re hungry. You’ve been asleep for a very long time.”

“What time is it?” I asked, my eyes beginning to adjust to light again.

Ian looked at his watch, “Ten to six.”

“At night?” I asked guessing that I’d slept the remainder of the morning and all afternoon. It hadn’t even occurred to me that I might have slept that long and still more.

“It is Wednesday morning.” Ian said as he pulled the front of my wet diaper open.

That was when it dawned on me that Ian was changing MY DIAPER!!!!

“How do you even know about my diapers?” I thought, but never verbalized ‘cause in the same instant I remembered that Ian had painted a picture of my brother and me wearing our diapers.

“That must be how.” I again thought to myself.

“What’s that?” Ian asked.

“Crap!” I screamed in my head, “You idiot! You thought that last one out loud!”

But I didn’t have to reply to Ian’s question because right at that very moment something happened that made us both forget about what I’d said.

From over Ian’s left shoulder appeared this green misshapen mud monster with these big eyes and lots of white showing. I let go a scream and using my feet and hands tried to push myself further up on the bed to try to get away.

My scream started Ian who turned in the direction I was looking and screamed as well. The monster screamed, I screamed again, Ian screamed and leapt onto the bed with me. The two of us cowards atop the bed pillow, our backs firmly plastered to the wall.

“WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING?! I JUST CAME IN TO SAY GOODMORNING!” The green mud monster said.

The overhead light came on allowing me to see the monsters complete form. Its chest was that of a human though rather hairy; it wore white boxer shorts and had very knobby knees. It was Colin.

Still somewhat scared and still on high alert I continued to scream, “WHY IS YOUR FACE MONSTER GREEN AND DO YOU HAVE A CRAVING FOR DEEP FRIED HUMANS?”

Colin dropped his arms with disgust, “It’s only a skin tightening face mask and do I have a what for deep fried what?”

Ian, trying to play off that he hadn’t been scared too, or maybe he had been playing that part as well, I’m not sure, anyway he told Colin, “Not a thing! The boy didn’t utter a single word!”

“Why are you two so freaked out?” Colin then pointed angrily at Ian who was still holding tightly to my t-shirt, “You lied to me! You told me this mask didn’t look gross!”

“It isn’t gross, but it is pretty scary.” Ian said into my ear.

I chuckled both because his breath tickled the insides of my ear and because my fears were ebbing, “Looks like you dunked your face in a bowl of green oatmeal!”

I’ve no idea if Colin was offended ‘cause I couldn’t see his face under all the green goop, but if his body language was anything to judge by he sure was. He forcefully shook his hands at the floor, grunted, turned and stormed back toward the elevator.

“Boy that was scary!” I sighed.

“I’ll say!” Ian said still clutching and holding me tightly, “We survived though.”

“Yeah.” I agreed and then giving him a shove I said, “Now get out of my bed you big dork!”

Ian rolled backward, fell off the bed and disappeared in that small space where the sloping ceiling came down and met with the short two-foot-high knee wall on the far side of the loft.

Ian wriggled back out from the cramped space nervously laughing and trying to straighten himself out like he was playing off the whole scene of his screaming and cowering like a frightened girl.

“Yeah I’m real safe in the care of Super Ian!” I mumbled.

Apparently Ian heard ‘cause he put the fingers to his chest and said, “Baby, you haven't seen Super until you’ve seen me in tights and a cape!”

“Oh brother!” I groaned at the image that had formed in my mind.

“Now scoot your naked clammy butt back down here and let Super Ian, super diaper you!”

“Can I take a shower first?” I asked.

“Oh baby ain’t no thang, but a chicken wang!” Ian said sounding very... uh... not cool! “You are going to love our new shower. It is the bomb!”

“You boys want some coffee?” came a melodious singing from down below.

“I’ll have one!” Ian called back and then asked, “How do you take your coffee?”

“With milk and ice, but tell him to hold the coffee!”

“Colin darling, our fabulous house guest would prefer a tall glass of milk with,” he put his hand to his chest again and asked me, “Would you like one cube or two?”

I couldn’t keep myself from grinning when I said, “Four.”

Raising his voice again he sent down, “With four ice cubes please.”

Ian then wiggled his fingers at me to try to get me moving, “Now come on and let me show you our bath. You are going to think it is just FABU!” he sang that last word.

“Honey, no singing! You’ll scare the baby!” Colin called out from down below.

I almost said something about the two of them calling me a baby, but then I decided I’d better just keep my big mouth shut. I got up from the bed as Ian reached for the back of my head to lead me to the elevator.

“Shouldn’t I put on a robe or something?” I asked.

“Why? We’re all men here.” Ian said with what appeared to be some kind of curtsy.

I mumbled under my breath, “I’m not so sure about that.”

“What was that?” Ian asked.

Plagiarizing his response from earlier I answered with, “Not a thing! I didn’t utter a single word!”

Ian eyed me and hummed, “Uhhmmmm.”

Naked, save for a t-shirt, I was lead by the hand to the elevator. Colin hadn’t been kidding yesterday when he said it was small. The two of us barely fit in it.

Ian stepped in first, turned so that he was facing me and then pulled me in. He released my head to close the door (it wasn’t automatic), which was kind of cool ‘cause I’d never seen an elevator where the door was basically just a regular door like you would see on a closet or to a bedroom. While my head was free I took the opportunity to turn myself around so that I was facing the now closed door as the elevator began its decent.

“How did it know to go down?” I asked.

“See those?” he said with a finger shooting past my left ear.

He was pointing to two buttons one with an arrow that points up and one with an arrow that points down.

“Oh.” I said, “I didn’t see you press the button.

“I didn’t, you bumped the down button when you turned around.”

“Oops.” I said.

It took no time at all to drop down one floor and when we stopped moving Ian told me to go ahead and open the door which I did. We stepped out; however he didn’t come all the way out. He was standing sort of half in and half out with a very pained and puzzled look on his face.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

He stepped all the way out and turned back around to look inside the elevator.

“Colin darling, why is the elevator floor wet?” Ian called out.

There was no reply from Colin.

Somewhat amusedly he called out again, “Colin, are you even listening?”

Still no reply.

“Hmm, must have gone out.” Ian said as he turned and saw me standing there shame faced.

“I-I think I had an accident.” I said meekly.

Ian slapped himself in the forehead and made a funny groaning sound of understanding. And then realizing he’d really embarrassed me, he tried to back peddle fast.

“I am very sorry Simon I didn’t mean to be so insensitive.”

I shrugged, “I just...” I shrugged again, “I didn’t even know it happened.”

“Noooo!” Ian said, “I wasn’t thinking. It is my fault for walking you around the house without proper protection.”

He then bumped my chin with his fist, “See, even someone as old as me can make a mistake, but now I know and will endeavor to be a better substitute mother.”

That last bit made me chuckle and crack a smile at the mental image of Ian dressed like my mom, but then I thought better of it and said, “No, you are my real dad, I rather Colin be the mommy.”

Boy you would have thought I just said the funniest thing in the history of funny. Ian nearly fell over ‘cause he was laughing so hard.

“Oh baby, I’ve not laughed like that in years.” he laughed and wiped the happy tears from his eyes.

It was impossible not to smile along with him though I hadn’t meant for what I said to be funny, it was just an observational thought on my part.

Ian placed a hand on my shoulder, “Tell you what, let’s just put you in the shower and while you are getting cleaned up in there, I’ll clean up out here.”

He leaned in close, put a secretive hand to the side of his mouth and added, “And we’ll keep this between you and me.”

I nodded and tried to smile as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and whisked me off to the bathroom.

Now I’d been in Ian’s bathroom once before. Well sort of. The only other time was when Ian had passed out in the bathroom both from exhaustion and ‘cause I’d sprung it on him that I knew he was my biological father.

The bathroom then and the bathroom now were completely different. Even the location of the sink, toilet and tub-shower were all different. Before the sink and toilet were on the left as you entered, with the tub against the back wall. Now the toilet is on the right side with the sink and the tub-shower takes up the whole left side of the bathroom. The old bathroom was all white fixtures against a sea of small white ceramic tiles with a black and white checkerboard floor. The new is all battleship gray fixtures against a sea of very large brown granite tiles. However, what blew me away was the shower which was an extra wide bathtub, but instead of a shower curtain it had pleated glass panels on the open side which hung very much like a plastic curtain would except it hung from way up at the ceiling instead of from a shower rod.

Ian turned on the water with the push of a single large chrome button and retrieved a washcloth and towel from the closet behind the bathroom door.

“I’ll leave you to wash up... Uh... you can bathe on your own right?”

“YES!” I said back sarcastically.

“Ok, ok! I just wanted to make sure. I’m going to go tend to the elevator floor.” And with that he slipped out of the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

I pulled off my t-shirt and jumped in the shower to find that the temperature was exactly perfect.

I have to tell you about the shower itself. See there is a large shower head thing up by the ceiling that is like two feet wide and rains water down just like if you are standing outside during a summer rain. It also has three more places on the wall were water comes out, the first shoots water right over my head, the middle one right at my chest and the very bottom one, regrettably, was dead level with my privates. I was standing under the raining water when I spotted the round chrome button in the center of the back wall. Not really thinking and letting curiosity rule my actions, I pressed the button which was about the same size as the palm of my hand. There was a one or two second pause as the water stopped coming down from above and began spraying out of the three jets. The force of which hit my chest and nads so hard that I gasped and breathed in water as I bent in half from the pain down below. I fell to my knees which only gave rise to getting shot in the face on the way down.

I must have made a lot of noise coughing and groaning ‘cause seconds later Colin and Ian came running in to see what was wrong. The water stopped coming out as the pleated glass was pulled back to give them access to me.

“What happened?” Ian asked.

“Your dang shower nutted me!” I moaned loudly.

Colin started to laugh out loud, but stopped abruptly. I twisted my head around only to see him and Ian staring at me with a look of horror. Colin’s face had gone crimson with anger whereas Ian had gone as white as a brand new bag of disposable diapers.

“What?” I moaned as I tried to support my aching boyhood parts with my hands.

“Oh Simon!” Ian gasped.

“I had no idea it was that bad.” Colin confessed; his voice cracking and his bottom lip quivering. It was one of the few times Colin didn’t come across as macho and that was also when I realized they had seen my scared back.

“Give me a towel.” Ian said to Colin who obeyed without delay.

Ian proceeded to cover me with the towel as he and Colin helped me out of the tub and down onto the toilet.

“I should have told you about that button.” Ian said.

Colin snapped back rudely to Ian, “Yah think?”

Not at all happy with the attention I was getting over something as personal as getting hit in the nards, I tried to get them to not argue by saying something cute.

“Alright ladies, shew-shew. I’ll live.”

“I don’t think so.” Colin said.

Remembering the whole substitute mom bit from earlier I said to Colin, “I’m fine mother. I just want to finish my shower now.”

Colin eyed Ian with a big question mark; Ian simply smiled and said, “It’s something private between a father and his son.” to which Colin rolled his eyes and stood upright.

“You know you can adjust those shower jets before you press the diverter right?” Colin asked.

Looking the fool I confessed while nudging my head toward Ian, “Well someone forgot to tell me about that too.”

“Yeah well pains a good teacher.” Colin said with a grimace.

“Have you been talking to Tom?” I asked humorously.

Colin then hooked Ian by the elbow and pulled him out of the bathroom while saying, “Come on, let’s give our little man some space.”

“HEY!” I shouted my objection to being called little.

“What?” Colin asked from the other side of the door before pulling it closed.

“Don’t call me little.”

“If you get to call me mother, then I get to call you little.” Colin said with a real snotty attitude.

The door latched and I shrugged, “Oh well, in that case.” and stuck my tongue out at the closed door.

“I saw that!” Colin said through the door.

Amazed and wide eyed I went back to the tub, turned it on just as I’d seen Ian do before. I then stepped into the tub and adjusted the wall nozzles to hit me in less tender places. However, this time when I hit the wall button, I hid in the corner of the shower until I was sure where them dang jets were firing.

“That is much better!” I said to myself and stepped into the pulsating spray.

“OOOOH that feeeeeelllsss so goooooooood!” I moaned, “Where have you been all my life?”

“Are you going to stay in there all morning?” Colin asked and I poked my head past the pleated glass to see him looking in on me.

“It feels so good!” I said.

“Yes, but you’ve been in there for almost twenty minutes. Have you washed yet?”

I shook my head, “I forgot.”

“Well hurry up and wash. Breakfast is on the table and we’re waiting for you.

“Hey where’s your green face?” I asked and was suddenly struck with the grossest thought. “Ugh, please tell me that we’re not having green oatmeal for breakfast.

Colin chuckled, “Just hurry up mister comedian.”

I quickly lathered up the rag and scrubbed myself clean, making extra sure to get inside my crack and all around my privates before switching back to the steady rain shower to rinse off.

After stepping out of the shower I pressed the button and the water stopped again. As I emerged I found, lying on the lid of the toilet seat, a freshly folded towel and beneath that a Diaper, jeans, t-shirt, socks and my shoes were sitting neatly beside the toilet. Relief flowed through me as I realized that I wouldn’t have to deal with having one of them attempt to diaper me.

But then I realized, though I know the basic idea of how to diaper myself and had even tried before, there was little chance I could do it right. I did attempt it by pinning the diaper to the wall with my butt to keep it in place and I even got the diaper taped in place, but as soon as I stopped leaning on the wall it fell right down to my ankles.

Now, I don’t remember groaning, but Ian says I did. He came to the bathroom door, knocked softly and said, “You ok in there champ?”

“I can’t do it right!” I said out of frustration.

Ian then asked, “Need some help?”

Before I could answer the door opened and Ian stepped in. He closed the door behind him, saw immediately why I was having difficulties and proceeded to show me how to get the diaper on good and tight all by myself. Thankfully the diaper tapes were the adjustable kind so that we didn’t have to waste a perfectly good diaper.

“How do you know how to do it so good?” I asked after we had it real snug.

Ian smiled really sweetly, “I may not have ever had any kids of my own, but I’ve had more than my share of young bedwetting friends.”

I reminded him, “You did to have your own kid; me!”

He picked up my shirt and pulled it over my head before I had a chance to raise my arms, thus trapping my arms at my side. He took that opportunity to kiss my cheek.

“I meant to raise myself.” He said with a chuckle.

I gave him a leery eye and because I didn’t know what else to say to him I simply said, “Oh.” And then smiled as I leaned forward and returned the kiss.

While Ian was hanging up my wet towel I was able to stretch the t-shirt fabric enough to get my arms up and out the arm holes one at a time.

Dressed, but not yet wearing my socks or shoes we ventured out of the bathroom to find Colin sitting at a small bistro table off to the side of the kitchen waiting anxiously for me.

“You didn’t have to wait for me.” I said as I pulled out the chair and sat down.

Ian, who I know for a fact is a great cook picked up a large metal cover that had been covering all the food. Beneath it was scrambled eggs covered in cheese. There were also ham-steaks and toasted English Muffins with three different kinds of jellies and jams.

“Yum!” I said at the sight of the food as steam billowed up around the edges of the rising metal cover.

“I made the muffins!” Colin announced proudly.

“He stuck them in the toaster for twenty seconds.” Ian whispered, but still loud enough for Colin to hear too.

“Just because my part was done before yours doesn’t mean I didn’t have a hand in making the meal.”

Maybe the reason I ate so much was because I had slept through two meals, but when everything on the table was gone and after being offered Ian cooked me two more fried eggs and two pieces of toast. I also had two glasses of milk and washed those down with an apple juice.

“I ain’t never ate so much in all my life!” I exclaimed in very poor grammar when I finally pushed away from the table.

“I’m glad you are done, I was starting to get scared that you were going to start feeding off of us next.” Colin joked.

“Oh that reminds me of a funny joke,” I said with a chuckle.

“Oh no.” Ian said while grabbing his head in preparation.

“OK these two cannibals were sitting around a fire eating a circus clown when the one turned to the other and asked, ‘Does this taste funny to you?’”

Colin was sitting there looking at me with one eyebrow raised.

“Get it?” I asked.

“Oh I got it.” He said, “I’m just trying to decide how to respond.”

I giggled, “You are supposed to laugh.”

“I think I’d rather blow chunks of nasty chicken grease, Crisco oil and bacon fat! I’m gonna blow chunks just thinking of blowing chunks!” Colin said while pretending to vomit just a little into his mouth and then swallowing it back down.

I laughed at that, but Ian seemed to turn a sickening shade of yellow.

“Are you going to be sick?” I managed to ask while chuckling.

“So have you given any thought to what you are going to do today?” Colin asked as the three of us began to clear the table.

“Well I need to do my morning routine.” I said while taking my plate the sink.

“Routine?” Colin asked.

“Yeah, I read my bible, pray and exercise.” I said and then added, “I might also do some journaling after that.”

“Exercise?” Colin asked, “Like jogging?”

“No, more like cale...cale.” I started to say, but couldn’t get my mouth to form the right word.

“Calisthenics.” Ian said for me.

With a chuckle I responded with, “Yeah what he said.”

Colin chuckled too.

“Is that all you are going to do today?” Ian asked.

“Oh no, I’ll probably sit around here and aggravate you guys I imagine.” I said with all seriousness.

“Oh boy.” Colin said flatly.

“Don’t suppose you’d let me visit my friends and my brother?” I asked knowing they never would.

Colin looked to Ian who seemed to act as though he hadn’t heard me.

“Honey, I think the boy was asking you.” Colin said to Ian.

“No, not really.” I said, “I was kind of asking you both, but that’s ok. I know Tom said I am not allowed to leave the apartment.”

Ian surprised me when he said, “Oh poop on him. It won’t matter where you are as long as you are inside the building.”

“Really?” Colin and I said at the same time.

I reached out and tagged Colin, “Jinx, you owe me a coke!”

Colin then stepped around me, opened the refrigerator and pulled out a two-liter bottle of diet coke which he laughingly thrust into my bare arms.

Giggling madly I blasted, “Oooooh cold! Soooo very cold!”

I handed it back and said, “Here, don’t say I never gave you nothing.”

“I can say you never gave me anything worth while.” Colin said back.

“Nothing worth while?” I exclaimed, “That’s a whole thing of diet Coke. If you had some Mentos you could do a Diet Coke fountain.”

“Not in my house you won’t!” Ian warned.

“Party pooper!” Colin said and then got this hungry look in his eyes.

“What?” I asked.

“How about later we do it off the balcony?” he asked me.

I turned to Ian, “You have a balcony?”

Colin messed up my hair as he said, “Of course we do silly.”

When we were finished cleaning up I asked, “So were you serious about letting me go out of the apartment.”

“If you want and only if you promise me that you won’t go near any of the exits and that includes the elevators and the stairs.” Ian said.

“Sooo, you mean stay on this floor?” I asked.

“No, not necessarily.” Ian said.

“Wait, how is he supposed to go to a different floor if he can’t use the elevator or the stairs?” Colin asked for me.

Ian chuckled and said, “How about this, if you want to leave our floor, you come and tell one of us where you are going?”

“I can live with that.” I said.

“That’s the idea.” Colin said as he tried to reach out like he was going to mess up my hair again, but I was too quick for him this time.

After breakfast and after we had everything cleaned up and the kitchen spotless Colin disappeared into their bedroom only to return a short time later wearing a sports coat over a sea-green Polo shirt.

“Are you going somewhere?” I asked from the stool I was sitting on while watching Ian preparing to work on a painting.

“Work.” Colin said.

“What do you do?” I asked.

Ian sniggered at my question.

“Now what was that for?” Colin asked Ian.

Really cute like, Ian snapped back, “I didn’t say a word love.”

Colin sat down on the leather sofa and began to pull on one of his shoes. Ian then leaned toward me, but was still a few feet away as he said in hushed tones, “He doesn’t do much of anything.”

I scrunched up my nose and grunted at Colin, “Huh?”

“It’s not like you work in an office full of Glamazon Women who are all six feet tall and perfectly waxed.” Ian said, but I had the feeling he wasn’t saying it to anyone, but was just thinking out loud.

Colin tilted his head to the left and I thought he was looking at me, but he was actually looking past me to Ian. But like I said, I thought he was looking at me when he gave me a look you would normal reserve for a two headed man walking an orange and blue spotted dog.

“Be nice!” Colin said sternly.

“I didn’t say anything! I was just asking!” I said, thinking I had to defend myself.

Colin fronded, “Not you precious; I meant Leonardo over there.”

Ian blew Colin a kiss, but I thought I’d be funny and acted like I snatched it out of the air before it got to Colin.

“HEY! That was mine!” Colin said real mean like which made me laugh as I stuffed the kiss into my pocket.

He narrowed his eyes threateningly which only made me laugh.

Colin then said to me, “I own and manage a coffee and music bar.”

“OK I know what a coffee bar is, but what is a music bar?” I asked.

“I pay armature singers and bands to play music while people come to drink coffee.”

“Oh ok well then that is cool!” I said while nodding my head to Ian.

“And occasionally we have other shows. Local theater groups, Karaoke nights, and we’ve even had a few mimes.”

“Oh that is good.” I told Colin, “You should have more mimes.”

“Why’s that?” he asked me, “Do you like mimes?”

“Not particularly.” I said honestly while suppressing a smile at knowing I had bated and hooked him, “I just think a mime is a terrible thing to waste.”

Colin and Ian both groaned loudly.

“Don’t blame me! Blame television. That’s where I heard that from.” I laughed.

Colin stood up and for some reason I thought he was going to come after me or something so I leapt from the stool, ran around Ian and hid behind him.

“What’s with you?” Ian asked.

In a cute little boy voice I tried to sound scared, “Mother’s mad again.”

Colin chuckled as did Ian who then said, “You’re going to regret letting him call you that.”

“I already do.” Colin said with a smile.

Colin left, Ian became lost in his painting and once I had completed my morning routine I got bored really fast. It wasn’t ten minutes after coming back down via the elevator that I decided to go visit my little brother.

“Is it ok if I go over to Jamie’s now?” I asked.

Ian, who was working on this itty-bitty painting, about the size of post-it note, grunted.

I took that as a yes and slipped out of the apartment as quietly as I possibly could.

Before I even had the chance to knock on the door to Jamie’s apartment it opened and I was greeted by his mother Marsha.

“All hail the concurring hero!” she announced.

Not realizing there was a reason for such a welcoming I smiled, waved in kind of a childish manner and asked like the smart-aleck I am, “Hello Mrs. Applegate can Jamie come out to play?”

Grinning she reached out and pulled me into their apartment by the scruff of my shirt with her long nails dangerously pressed against my skin.

“Where’s my favorite brother?” I asked just before I spotted him wrapped in a large blue blanket and lying on the sofa.

“Simon come look.” Jamie said with no greeting whatsoever.

Playfully, I walked over and sat down on Jamie’s feet. However, I was very careful to avoid his arm, which was in a cast and resting on top of the blanket and draped over his chest.

The TV was on the news, which was kind of amazing not ‘cause it was the news, but ‘cause Jamie was watching it.

“Watch this!” he said to me.

Marsha crossed in front of us and sat down on the arm of the sofa just to my left. Jamie then produced the DVR remote from under his blanket and proceeded to navigate to an earlier broadcast of the local news.

“What?” I asked somewhat impatiently.

“I’m guessing you’ve not seen the news from last night or this morning?” Marsha asked.

Mildly concerned, as I have thus far not had too good an experience with the media at large, I shook my head.

“I slept almost all day yesterday.” I commented.

Jamie was fast forwarding through the recorded eleven o’clock news broadcast from last night and stopped on this news story about an accident on I-75.

I looked up at Marsha for an explanation, but all she did was point at the TV and tell me to watch.

The accident story ended and the news lady in her fancy suit started to say, “Police responded to a silent alarm at a local convenience store this evening.”

The picture changed to a video outside the store.

“Oh crud!” I groaned.

Jamie hushed me, “Ssshhh! Listen!”

“According to police, three local youths were attempting to shoplift from this convenience store when they were thwarted in their efforts by our own boy wonder, Simon David Leonard.”

A picture of my pre-scared face was flashed in the corner of the screen as the news lady began to remind everyone of my previous news worthy escapades.

“Oh no! Turn it off!” I pleaded and thankfully Jamie did.

“Not again!” I moaned.

“Boy Wonder!” Jamie sniggered and attempted to raise his arm victoriously except it had been his broken arm he had moved.

“OW OW OW OW!”

“Be careful.” Marsha said concernedly.

I on the other hand chuckled, “Smooth move Ex-Lax!”

Jamie cradled his arm to his chest, “Crud that hurt.”

“Sure looked like it did.” I said.

I leaned back against the sofa and could feel Jamie’s feet pressing into my lower back. He must have been trying to tickle me ‘cause his little toes were wiggling madly beneath me.

“Why can’t they just forget about me?” I groaned.

“Kind of hard when you keep jumping in front of the camera.” Jamie teased.

“There wasn’t a camera!” I snapped.

Marsha, who had gotten up stopped and turned, “Oh Sugar, one of the customers managed to record some of it on his cell phone.”

“OOOOOH NOOOO!” I moaned.

“You made me stop it before we got to that part.” Jamie said.

I covered my face with my hands and spoke through my fingers, “That’s it! I’m going to start wearing disguise whenever I go outside.”

“Are you going to wear a mask to cover up that face?” Jamie asked.

“Jamie Tiberius Applegate!” Marsh snapped at him for making fun of my scared face.

I wagged my finger at him and tried to look as upset as Marsha, “Yeah you better be nice to me or your mommy will spank your bare bottom!” and I pinched his leg through the blanket, but it must not have hurt ‘cause he didn’t even flinch.

Jamie didn’t seem fazed by either of us snapping at him. While throw off his coverings he went right on talking like normal, “Or did you mean a disguise, like all super heroes wear?”

Before I could come up with a good comeback Jamie announced to his mother, “We’re going to go play in my room.”

Marsha was almost in the kitchen when she responded, “Alright, but there will be ZERO ROUGH HOUSING!”

I stuck my finger in my brothers’ face, “You heard her. No messing with me!”

Jamie grabbed my finger and pulled himself up to a sitting position.

“If I do hear any rough housing, more than Jamie’s butt will be heated up.” Marsha warned.

Jamie eyed me and wiggled his eye brows menacingly at me. I simply smirked and helped him get up by getting off his feet.

In his room Jamie stretched out on his bed and moaned a bit.

“Does it hurt that much?”

“No it itches, but mom won’t let me put anything in there to scratch it.” Jamie whined.

“Yeah well now you know how I felt when I was all messed up before.”

“That doesn’t count.” Jamie complained.

“What?” I baulked, “It does so count!”

I walked back to the door, peeked out to make sure Marsha hadn’t followed to spying on us. When I saw the coast was clear I slunk into Jamie’s closet.

“What are you up to?” he asked.

“Oh hush and watch out for your mom.” I said.

I came out holding an empty wire hanger which I began to bend all out of shape.

“You’re killing it.” Jamie said.

Ignoring him I went back to the door and peeked again... still no Marsha.

I had pulled the large part of the hanger so that it was now long and unable to support any article of clothing. It wasn’t pointy, but it was narrow enough that it would easily slide down inside Jamie’s cast.

“Oh man that feels good!” Jamie sighed as he slowly, but intently worked the hanger in and out.

When he was done I took the hanger and hid it all the way in the back of his closet.

“What are you doing now?” he asked.

“Hiding it!” I said and then I told him where it was if he needed it again.

“Oh wait! I forgot!” Jamie said as he sat up and joined me in his closet.

The funny thing was, with Jamie and I both in his closet; I was suddenly struck with the memory of being at Lowell’s in his closet. I must have blushed ‘cause Jamie pointed it out.

“Why are you so red?”

“Am I?” I asked and tried not to look guilty even though I was feeling that emotion rather intensely.

“Yeah! Like really red.” he said with mild amusement.

Trying to change the subject I asked, “What did you come in for?”

“Can you reach that up there?” he pointed to a blue and white shoe box on the shelf directly above me.

Stretching and grunting I managed to just reach it and pull it down. Jamie opened it and inside was a lot of junk that was probably important to him. Jamie pulled out a piece of black fabric, stuffed it in his pocket and then told me I could put the box back on the shelf.

When I came back out of the closet Jamie was back on his bed trying to use the fingers of his broken arm along with his other hand to smooth out the black fabric thing. It was a lot longer then it had seemed at first and it wasn’t until Jamie held it up that I realized just what it was.

“Where’d you get that?” I asked.

“I traded someone at school for it a long, long time ago. I only just remembered having it.”

It was a black mask like bandits wear in them old time movies. Jamie motioned for me to come sit in front of him so that he could tie it for me. But his fingers on his bad arm wouldn’t allow him to get it right.

“Here let me.” I said and reaching back I was able to tie the mask in place.

“Now you look like a real super hero!” Jamie said.

“Think this will keep people from noticing me in public?” I asked as sat backwards in his desk chair with my arms crossed over the back rest and my chin resting on my arms.

Jamie laughed, “Probably make people see you more.”

I laughed out loud, “Well it is still cool.”

“I’m glad you were allowed to stay with Ian.” Jamie confessed.

“Why?”

“‘Cause I just am.” he said defensively.

“Yeah well when Tom finds out I’m over here he is going to kill me.”

“What do you mean?” Jamie asked quizzically.

“What do you mean, what do I mean?” I asked.

Jamie gave me a look meaning he wasn’t amused and I chuckled.

I finally said, “I mean Tom is going to flat out kill me.”

“Don’t just say it in a different way. Tell me why you think he’s going to kill you.” Jamie said and I noticed how much he sounded like his mother right then.

I moved to the foot of the bed and sat down with one leg bent and tucked under the other. “Tom said that I wasn’t supposed to let anyone know I was in the building. Though he didn’t actually say it, I got the idea that I was sort of like grounded to Ian and Colin’s apartment. But Ian said I could go but only on this floor. If I want to go to a different floor I have to go and ask first.”

“Wait, I already...I mean we...” his face went hard and red with anger, “hang on a second! Tom was here yesterday and told mom and me you were here.”

“WHAT?” I shouted.

“You boys need to hold it down in there.” Marsha called from out in the living room.

“I don’t believe...” I started to say.

“Why would I lie?” Jamie said defensively.

“No, not you nimrod! I mean I don’t believe he did that!” I said while reaching up and readjusting the mask ‘cause part of the fabric was obscuring the vision out of my right eye.

“You mean about telling us you were staying with Ian?” Jamie asked.

“No, I mean mess with my head like that.” I said and Jamie chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

Jamie rolled himself over so that he was able to set up. He was still sitting on his bed, but he was about as far from me as he could get without getting up. He tried to hide a smile by looking the other way.

“What?” I asked.

“OK, we both know I can’t keep a straight face!” Jamie said and I’m not sure why he said that ‘cause out of the two of us, he was the better actor.

He continued saying, “Tom told us that he told you that only because he knew you wouldn’t listen to him.”

Getting off the bed I repeatedly punched my fist into my other hand, “After everything that happened yesterday morning he was still messing with me?”

“Yeah well.” Jamie chuckled.

“So you really gave the money back?” he asked right out of the blue.

“Yes.” I said without thinking, “Wait, you know about that?”

“Duh, I just said Tom was here yesterday.” Jamie teased.

I walked over to Jamie, grabbed a fist full of shirt and asked, “What all did he tell you?”

“Well,” Jamie began, but then paused before saying, “He said you finally got your head on right and gave back the money and that...”

“Got my head on right?” I repeated too loudly.

Jamie held up his one hand defensively, “Hey I’m just telling you what Tom said. Don’t kill me.”

I audibly growled, which made him express a sense of satisfaction. I think he liked that he was ahead of the game with me.

“What else did he tell you?” I asked.

“That you were sleeping and if I woke you up he was going to break my other arm.”

That one made me chuckle.

“So how did you do it?” I asked.

“Do what?” he asked.

“Break you arm.”

“I don’t want to say.” Jamie said.

“Why not?”

“‘Cause you will laugh.”

“No I won’t.”

Jamie huffed noisily out his nostrils the way horses and bulls do.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! Just spill it.” I said.

“The toaster popped up my bagel and scared me.” Jamie finally confessed in a sort of muffled mumble.

“Huh?” I grunted.

“I jumped and was only wearing my socks and I slipped.”

“Huh?” I grunted again.

“When I tried to get up my arm was broken.”

“Huh?”

“Would you stop saying huh?!” Jamie growled.

“Now wait a second! You fell in the kitchen and broke your arm because a bagel scared you?”

“Don’t say it like that!” Jamie complained.

Totally trying not to laugh I said, “How am I supposed to say it then?”

“Siiiimmmoooon!” he whined.

“What? I ain’t laughing I’m just trying to figure out how you did a boneheaded move like that.”

He scowled at being called a bonehead.

I smiled as I said, “But I love you even if you are a bonehead.”

Jamie gave me a pained smile as he said, “Um, thanks?”

“You need to come up with a better story, like the elevator door closed on your arm. Or maybe you were trying to save a little old lady from getting hit by a bus.”

I was making Jamie giggle with my ridiculous ideas.

“Noooo! I don’t want to lie.” Jamie said.

“Since when?” I scoffed.

Jamie stuck his tongue out at me and tried to kick me, but there wasn’t a whole lot of effort behind it. However, I immediately thought of his mother and didn’t want to risk it going further so I moved back to his desk chair. As I lowered myself down I spun the chair and spotted something lying on his desk.

“What’s this?” I asked as I reached for the spiral bound notebook that had been left open on the desk.

I was only able to read, “I couldn’t believe he was letting me put it in his mouth while taking it up the back way.” before Jamie had launched himself from the bed and snatched it away from me.

“Don’t read that!” he said low and angrily.

Once the adrenaline burned off in his system he began to regret acting so rashly. He cradled the notebook and his cast to his chest, turned and sort of melted onto the bed. With his face buried in his pillow I heard several venom laced curse words make their way free of the pillow stuffing.

Partly chuckling and partly concerned I asked, “Dude you ok?”

He said something I couldn’t understand into the pillow then pulled his face free and whimpered, “Get mom.”

With just those two words I knew Jamie wasn’t ok. I was up and out of the room so fast I’m surprised there wasn’t a sonic boom as I left.

“Marsha!” I shouted from the middle of the living room.

She appeared from her bedroom looking concerned.

“Jamie is hurt.” I said and she whooshed past me.

“What did you do?” She asked as she tried to get him to relax.

“He moved to fast I think.” I said for him ‘cause one look at his face and I knew talking was something he wasn’t able to do just then.

I also noticed that the notebook seemed to have vanished.

“I told you that you have to take it easy for a while and let those bones nit.” she said to him, almost sounding mad that he was in such pain.

She looked over at me, “Were you two wrestling or something?”

“No! I swear!” I said backing off half a step, “He got up from the bed too fast is all.”

Marsha produced a small white bottle from her pocket; got Jamie to open his mouth and then using what looked like an eye dropper she placed several drops of something under his tongue.

“I want you to lie still, relax and let the pain go away.”

I don’t know what that stuff in the white bottle was, but man it must have been magical ‘cause in like less than two minutes Jamie’s face softened and his body seemed to relax.

“You ok bro?” I asked as Marsha stood up.

Jamie was lying there with a soft look on his face.

Marsha then asked him, “Feeling better?”

Jamie nodded and exhaled loudly.

“I need to run downstairs for a few minutes. Are you going to be alright while I’m gone?” Marsha asked Jamie.

Again Jamie nodded silently.

“Do you need to go potty before I go?” she asked which I found to be an odd question.

This time Jamie shook his head.

“I won’t be too long. I promise.” she said while leaning over and kissing Jamie’s forehead.

As soon as we heard the front door close Jamie said to me, “I need to go to the bathroom.”

“But you just told your mom...” I started to say.

“Just shut up and help me up.” Jamie snapped and for a second there he sounded like the little bratty brother I knew from over a year ago.

He seemed wobbly on his feet at first, “That medicine works so good, but man, it makes me feel stoned.”

“How do you know what it feels like to be stoned?” I asked.

Using the wall a lot, Jamie made his way from his room to the bathroom with me right behind him and holding onto his ribs. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised when he needed my help getting his pants down around his knees so that he could sit down. His face strained for a moment then there was a PLOP sound followed by relief all across his face. He tucked his penis so that it was aimed down into the bowl and just sat there. I waited, feeling kind of weird watching my own brother take a dump and a leak. At the time it didn’t even register that he wasn’t wearing a diaper or some sort of Pull-Up like GoodNites. I also didn’t give it a second thought when he asked me to help him wipe, which only took a single wipe seeing how it hadn’t been a messy poop. Then Jamie asked me to look close to be sure he was really clean back there.

“What?” I balked, “And by ‘WHAT’ I mean... EEEEWWW!” I said.

“Just look.” Jamie whined and I did.

“You’re spotless.” I said and gave his left butt cheek a pinch.

“Hey no fair pinching a guy back there.”

My brother is a serious goof! I mean it! With his pants around his ankles he did a full pirouette of sorts then covered his mouth and made this funny giggling sound at his reflection in the mirror.

“Oops saw my tushy!” he said.

“Oh, that was more wrong then the time I saw Santa peeing at the mall!”

“HEY!” Jamie objected, “That wasn’t you that was me!”

I chuckled, “Oh yeah! I knew it was one of us.”

“You’re a dork.” Jamie said.

I helped him get his underwear and pants back on before we headed back to his room with Jamie hanging on me, not ‘cause he needed to, but ‘cause he wanted to. He had his good arm draped around my neck so that our heads were almost touching.

Back in his room Jamie seemed back to normal. He wasn’t in any pain and wasn’t acting stoned anymore.

“You ok now?” I asked.

“Yep.” He said with a smile.

“Soooo are you going to tell me what the deal is with that notebook or do I have to tickle it out of you.” I asked and that single word, ‘tickle’ caused Jamie to wince at the idea.

“It’s private.” he said.

I sat back down on his desk chair, backwards of course, just like before.

“Stop staring at me like that.” He said as though my eyes were burning a hole in his head.

“Simon stop!” he whined and diverted his eyes.

A few more seconds of staring and he finally confessed, “You aren’t the only one that likes to keep a journal you know!”

I was reminded of a time when Marsha had told me that Jamie idolized me and wanted to be just like me.

“Oh.” I said and then a question popped into my head, “So you can read my journal, but I can’t read yours?”

“That’s different!” Jamie retorted, “What I write is super mega-gigantic like personal.”

I tried to stifle a smile as I gave him a, “Uh-huh.”

“I’m not letting you read it!” he said as though he really meant it.

“Ok.” I said.

“I’m serious!” Jamie said with finality in his voice.

“That’s cool.” I said, all the while still staring at him.

“Siiimmmooonnn!” he whined as though pleading for me to let him off the hook.

“Jaaamieeeeeee?” I whined back mockingly.

He narrowed his eyes threateningly, I followed suit.

“I don’t care how much you stare at me; I won’t let you read it.”

“Ok.” I said as I started to get up and leave the room. Of course I was just bating him a bit.

“Simon! Don’t be like that!”

“Don’t be like what?” I asked, “I’m just going to go watch some TV.”

I made it as far as the bedroom door when he loudly surrendered, “OH ALRIGHT!”

I spun around and skipped back into the room, held out my hand and waited for him to produce the spiral bound notebook.

“First you have to promise...” he started to say.

“Yeah, yeah, I promise now gimme!”

“No I mean really promise...”

Again I cut him off, “I PROMISE ALREADY! JUST GIVE ME THE DANG BOOK BEFORE I BREAK YOUR DANG HEAD!”

“Not until you promise right.” Jamie said as he tried to cross his arms, but was hindered by the cast.

“Don’t hurt yourself again.” I warned.

Jamie made a face that said he wasn’t relenting on the whole promise thing.

I exhaled loudly as I said, “Alright, what do you want me to promise exactly.”

Jamie made me recite this long, stupid pledge that he made up on the spot before he pulled the notebook out from under the bed.

“You are such a dork! You know that right?” I told him.

Jamie’s rebuttal, lame as it was, was like his final unconditional surrender as he hand the notebook to me, “Yeah well you are more of a dork you... you dork!”

OK, for starters the notebook was closed this time and the cover had been embellished, but not wisely. It was one of those spiral bound notebooks where the colored cover can be decolorised if you use a pencil eraser or one of the big pink erasers. I have erased just enough color on some of mine in the past to give me a space to write what school subject it was for, or to give me a white place for my name. Jamie, however, had erased in big block style letters, “TOP SECRET DO NOT READ”. To any moron (myself included) that would just make someone want to read it all the more.

I was only a couple lines into the first page before I realized that I’d fallen for the old switcheroo. Jamie had tried to con me into thinking that the book I held was the real deal, but it wasn’t, it was a cleaver fake, probably for his mother to find and read. I slammed the cover closed, which would have been more dramatic had it been a hard cover book, but Jamie got the idea that I wasn’t fooled when I threw it across the room like a Frisbee.

“What’d you do that for?” Jamie asked as he stood up to retrieve it.

I got to my feet and put on my phony angry face, “Where’s the real one?”

“This is the real one!” Jamie tried to make me believe; by the way, I take back what I said about Jamie being the better actor.

“Wrong! I read enough of the real one before to know that is one you made up for your mom or someone to find and think was real.

“No you didn’t!” he argued while at the same time allowing me to see a hint of fear in his eyes.

“Dude, I so did! You left it lying wide open. All I had to do was look down and read what you had scribbled on the paper.”

If I hadn’t been looking right into his face I would have missed the microsecond smirk that told me I was right.

“AH-HA!” I shouted, “Keep it up and the rivers will run red with your blood...”, but before I could finish the movie line Jamie quickly said, “and yellow with your urine!”

He smiled knowing he’d bested me yet again, “See you aren’t the only one that watches TV.”

Through clenched teeth I said, “Give me the real one or I’ll break your other arm.”

Jamie returned the fake journal to where he’d got it from and then went to his closet where he disappeared for a few seconds before reappearing with the real journal.

“How the heck did you get it hid in there so fast before?” I asked.

Jamie just shrugged and started to hand it to me, but at the last second he jerked it back. I shot him my, “Don’t mess with me” look.

“Please don’t make me give it to you! I really don’t want you to read it.” he whined.

I knitted my eyebrows together to make him think he was really ticking me off, but in reality I was finding the whole exchange rather amusing.

“I can either read it now with your permission or later when you are asleep.” I warned.

I held open my arms, smiled ruefully and said, “I’m Captain Simon! I can do whatever I dang well please!”

“Not if I hide it somewhere else.” Jamie said.

I cocked an eyebrow, “Do you want your other arm broken?”

Jamie recoiled, “That ain’t funny!”

“Do you see me laughing?” I said while trying to keep a straight face, but ending up smiling.

“YES!” He shouted and pointed which only made me smile wider.

“What could you have wrote in there that you wouldn’t want me to read?” I asked.

“Lots!” was his reply.

I took a threatening step toward him and he responded by backing into the closet. I was worried about trying to grab it from him and hurting him so I stopped and said, “If you don’t let me read it, I’ll go back to Ian’s and won’t visit you anymore.”

I was surprised when he said, “OK!” so quickly.

I growled.

“Don’t growl at me dog-boy!” he tried to slip past me, but all I had to do was side step to stop him. He quickly withdrew back into the closet.

“Jamie, take it easy. Relax, you’re going to hurt yourself again or make me hurt you. You don’t know what you’re doing. You’re acting out of panic and not thinking about that arm.”

It might have sounded rather sincere, but it was totally an act. I lunged forward, but didn’t actually make contact with Jamie or his journal.

“Give me that book!”

“I never should have left it lying out like that.” Jamie said.

I snarled like a dog and showed him my teeth, “Yeah, that was dumb, but you did and I saw it now give it here!”

Jamie stomped his foot like a four year old, stuck out his bottom lip and said, “Ohhhhhh, how I hate you!”

“Yeah, well get over it! Now give me that notebook or...”

“Or what?” He challenged.

I realized I had been inching closer and closer, but stopped and stood erect. The corners of my mouth began to curl as an idea began to form in my evil, twisted brain.

“Or I will tell your mom about your porn collection!” I said.

“HA! I don’t have it anymore!” Jamie said.

“Liar!”

Jamie shook his head, “I got rid of them!”

“You’re a lying liar who’s lying out of your lying face hole!” I said real snotty like.

“Am not!” he said.

“Are to!” I argued back.

Jamie and I got into each others faces.

“You do so still got ‘em!” I said emphatically.

“Do not!” Jamie said while pressing his nose against mine.

“You win this round.” I head-butted him, not hard, just enough to make him back off as I surrendered with disgust.

“No really!” he said trying to convince me, “I took them and dropped them down the trash chute.”

“Did you really?” I asked.

“Yep!”

“Why?” I asked and I’m not sure why I was feeling so disappointed.

Jamie shrugged.

“Well then I’ll tell your mom about the secret room!” I threatened.

Jamie smiled really wide.

“UUUUGGGHH! Does she know about that too?”

Jamie smiled even bigger, “We found out like two days ago that they have known all along about it.”

Confused, I asked, “Who is ‘we’ and ‘they’?”

“‘We’ is me, Vanessa, Noah and Paul except Vanessa hardly ever hangs out with us anymore. And ‘they’ is our parents. Heck even Ian knew about it.” Jamie was still grinning like a goofball.

“Why are you so happy about that?”

His reply was simple, “‘Cause now we don’t have to sneak. We got permission to go there whenever we want. We were even given our own key.”

He pulled a bit of black ribbon out of his shirt which had a normal looking brass key hanging from it. “So that way, only the four of us can get in there and none of the others in the building can go in there and mess it up or take it over.”

“Are you serious? That is awesome!” I exclaimed, “Now give me the book!”

Grinning real big Jamie said, “Nope!”

“Uuugh!” I groaned again.

“That’s it! I’m going back to Ian’s!” I said and turned to go.

“Can I come?” He asked.

“Can I read the notebook?” I asked again.

Surprisingly he handed it right over just like that.

“Why were you being such a pain if you were willing to give it to me just now?” I asked.

“‘Cause it was fun to mess with your head.”

I shook my head and acted like I was going to punch him in the arm, but I didn’t dare do it for risk of causing him to hurt his broken arm again.

“Do you think your mom is going to be cool with you coming over to Ian’s?”

“I bet she’ll be glad I got out of here for a while.” Jamie said.

“Huh?”

Jamie sniggered, “She says all I been doing is sulking.”

Right as we were exiting the room Marsh returned from her trip downstairs.

“Can I go over to Ian’s with Simon?” Jamie asked.

She seemed slightly out of breath as she asked, “Don’t you think you should try to go potty first?”

“I went right after you left.” Jamie announced with pride.

“All by yourself?” Marsh asked with equal pride.

“Well Simon had to help a little.” he said while presenting his cast as evidentiary proof that he needed assistance.

Marsh grabbed my face and planted one on my cheek.

“You are such a good boy!” she said.

“You’re just saying that ‘cause it’s true.” I said to which Jamie responded with, “Oh brother!”

“That’s right I am and I am your big brother!” I said which left me wide open for attack.

“You mean my older littler brother.” Jamie said as he jabbed a single finger into the padding of my hindquarters.

“I want you two to be extra good. No roughhousing, no fighting,” she then stuck her finger in Jamie’s face, “And no getting hurt anymore!”

Neither Jamie nor his mother had seen me stuff the notebook into the back of my pants and cover it with my un-tucked shirt. It wasn’t until Jamie and I were out in the hallway with his apartment door closed behind us, that he asked with a bit of panic what I had done with his journal.

My acting was better then his had been only a few minutes ago! I opened my eyes real wide to give the impression of panic and said, “Oh crap I must have dropped it!”

Now I had expected Jamie to spin around and run back inside, but he didn’t. Instead he flushed white as a ghost, or a diaper (take your pick) and seemed as though he was going to pass out. I quickly reached out and gave him the worst titty-twister of his life.

“AAAAH!” Jamie moaned and clutched at my hand which was still clamped tightly to his left nipple.

“Dude, I was only kidding!” and with my free hand I pulled the notebook out of my pants and showed it to him.

I released my death hold on his nipple and I saw it coming, but I let him hit me anyway, I deserved it after scaring him like that.

“Geeze man! I thought you were going to do a nose dive into the floor for a second there.” I said while rubbing my aching chest.

Jamie cussed while trying to massage away his nipple pain, “You are such an ass!”

“Yeah, that was mean. I am sorry.” I said still rubbing away my own pain ‘cause I’m here to tell you he really hit me hard. Man, why couldn’t he have broken both arms?

However, when he tried to hit me a second time I didn’t let him. I leaned away from his swinging fist and watched it move in slow motion as I reached out and used his own momentum against him. Now the way Fyer had taught us, we just pull the person right over and beat the crap out of them, but I wasn’t about to let Jamie get hurt again so I only pulled enough to make him realize he was risking further pain if he kept it up.

“Whoa! That was awesome!” He said after thrusting out his left leg to keep from falling.

Still holding his wrist with vise like pressure I asked, “If you are steady I’ll let go.”

“I’m good.” Jamie said with a laugh, “But you’ve got to teach me how you did that.”

“Not until you are better.” I said as the two of us started for Ian’s place.

“By then you will be off on another adventure without me.” Jamie said which stopped me dead in my tracks.

“What?” He asked like he didn’t have a clue he had just said what he said.

“You are still mad at me for leaving you behind before!” I proclaimed without even trying to hide my disappointment.

He shook his head, “No way man! I didn’t mean it like that.”

Feeling like Jamie had just kicked me in the stomach I said, “Yeah right.”

He tried to reach out and put a hand on my shoulder, but I instinctively recoiled, which caused him to quickly jerk his hand back in alarm. Not sure what to do with his hands at that point, Jamie shoved his good hand into his pants pocket, but only hooked the thumb of the one in the cast on the pocket as he hung his head shamefully.

“I swear I ain’t mad about that bro.” He said solemnly and I didn’t respond ‘cause I didn’t know what to say.

“I only meant that you are always doing cool stuff.” Jamie said and a part of me almost believed him.

“You call getting addicted to Opium, breaking into people’s houses, and getting people killed cool?” I asked, but the way it came out kind of scared me ‘cause I hadn’t meant to get so upset.

“Simon, listen! What happened wasn’t your fault everyone knows that!” Jamie said.

Without thinking about it I stood there stuffing the notebook back into my pants and covered it with my t-shirt again while I said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

I tried to walk past him, but he wasn’t about to let me off the hook. He jumped in front of me and despite his broken arm he gave me a huge hug around my neck. At any other time that gesture would have been fine, but not right then. I tried to push him away, but he held on tighter which only made me use more force to get free.

“AAAH!” Jamie grunted ‘cause I’d done the one thing I didn’t want to do, I caused him to hurt his arm again.

But God love him, he didn’t let go of my neck. He held on despite his pain, or maybe because of it. That gesture was enough to make me realize that Jamie really did forgive me for leaving him and Lowell behind.

Once Jamie had recovered from the pain, which hadn’t been as bad as before, we made up and went inside Ian’s where we hung out for a while. I showed him the cool loft bedroom they had put together for me and we spent some time just hanging out until Marsha called for Jamie to come home. I’m not sure why I thought he would be right back ‘cause he wasn’t. Actually, I didn’t see him again for the rest of the day.

For the rest of the day I hung around Ian’s place. Mostly I sat on his sofa journaling and watching Ian paint. When Colin came home that evening the three of us had dinner, laughed and had a very pleasant evening. Oddly enough, neither one of them asked me about the black bandit mask I had been wearing ever since Jamie had given it to me.

Note from the Author: If you have enjoyed this chapter as much as I have enjoyed writing it, I would very much like to hear from you and your thoughts on it as well as the full story. You can email me at [email protected].