A Good Year at Linwood High, Chapter 10
Kathryn's new kitchen was finished in time to host Christmas Dinner. Perhaps, one should call it "Carson's kitchen" because he had done a lot of the research into the newest appliances and best contractor to hire.
It had been a family project because William liked to cook as did the boys. When it came to preparing for Christmas, all pitched in to pull it off.
The guest list was basically the same as the one Terry and Joaquin had for Thanksgiving with the addition of Uncle Ken and Evert, his partner.
Naturally, Griff and Nolan were disappointed that Levi, Eli, and Jason had other obligations. However, they were looking forward to spending time with their buds during vacation, and Ashton had sent an invitation to all of them for New Year's Eve at Havel House.
The large dining room with it's huge table was big enough to accommodate all of the guests without having a separate one for the teens. Again, they were served a glass of the wine William had chosen to pair with the turkey.
All the traditional favorites were included as side dishes and there were a lot of leftovers. The desserts were in the form of several varieties of pie - pumpkin, apple, cherry, French silk chocolate, and lemon meringue. The Butler's and Orman's had insisted on bringing them. Needless to say, several adults vowed to go on a diet come January 1st.
When the leftover food had been stored and the kitchen put in order, they all gathered in the parlor to sing carols while Terry accompanied them on the piano. They sounded really good. Terry said the boys should all consider trying out for choir in the new term.
Later, Terry had Ashton, Griffin, and Rhett join him in playing a bit of jazz. Since it had been planned ahead, each guy had brought his own instrument.
Joaquin, Evert, and Ken surprised everyone by vocalizing with the combo, including doing some scat. They encourage the other adults and teens to join them. At the end, they all sang, When the Saints Go Marching In, with Ashton improvising on the trumpet. Several people used their phones to record it. Of course, it didn't sound as good as it did live. William vowed to invest in a more professional recording system so they could do it again in the future.
Some of the phones picked up voices which sounded like they were offering words of encouragement. Terry said it could be interference from a cell tower. Ashton and Rhett weren't convinced. They hoped it might be coming from a presence or two within the house.
Delores Nunez hosted Christmas in their little house in Postville and invited Luis and his new family. She used the turkey she hadn't needed for Thanksgiving, so it didn't put a big dent in her food budget. Sabrina insisted on bringing some of the sides and dessert. She would have brought a ham as well but didn't want to make her hosts feel that she was playing the role of a wealthy benefactor.
The dining room was too small to accommodate everyone comfortably, and there was a children's table in the kitchen for Angel and Jose. Gavin felt bad that they couldn't be with the rest and asked if he could join them. They were pleased. He quickly became their best bud.
Despite being a humbler setting, the food and fellowship were great. Sabrina could see why Luis had turned out so well. What the Nunez family lacked in money, they made up for in love.
Although some of the boys like Griffin and Nolan didn't get to spend Christmas day with their besties, they did get together in various combinations over the following days. For Nolan, there was a sleepover at someone's house almost every night. Griffin and Levi spent time at each other's houses and would be together at Havel House to see the new year in.
Back when she'd hosted the Christmas dinner, Kathryn had floated the idea of having a large, multigenerational New Year's Eve party at their house. Her guests said that they would be delighted to come, but only if she let them bring all of the food and beverages. They felt she shouldn't have to entertain to that scale twice in the season.
Coleen took on the role of organizer and contacted the families of the close-knit band boys, and friends of their younger siblings, to let them know about the party and the way it would come off. She was pleased that the Lamb's and the Woods' were eager to attend and to bring goodies to share.
About the only thing Kathryn would need to do was to provide eating utensils and prepare the location. William insisted that she hire a cleaning service and they should schedule them regularly in the new year so she wouldn't have the responsibility of keeping up a place as large as some small hotels. She didn't turn his idea down, and he received the reward for his thoughtfulness later!
All of the boys who'd been invited were asked to bring sleeping bags so they could stay over. The adults were told that they could also be accommodated overnight if they felt they had consumed too much holiday cheer to drive safely. In all cases, one of the spouses promised not to imbibe to excess and, of course, the Butler's had only a short walk across the street anyway.
Ken and Evert would be part of the guest list as they had been at Christmas. Terry and Joaquin were very pleased to be in the company of another same-sex couple again. They found it sort of ironic that this was happening in small-town Iowa instead of the larger city they'd lived in while residing in Arizona. It gave them another reason to feel their move had been a good one.
William had enlisted his sons in moving the large-screen TV from the family room to the ballroom for the occasion. The slightly smaller one from the master bedroom replaced it, temporarily. In both locations, they would leave the sets on low so their guest could watch the ball drop in Times Square as well as later celebrations in Chicago.
The newly remodeled kitchen had a large island that was convenient for cooking. It also served as a great place to set up food for the party. Beverages were placed on the breakfast bar.
There were coolers with non-acholic drinks up in the ballroom. Since it was likely to be where the kids hung out, there would be less temptation for them to get into the booze.
For the first half hour, there was a steady stream of guests flowing through the foyer to the kitchen area. Each family brought either an hors d'oeurve or dessert plus a bottle of wine to share.
Before the party got going, members of the Havel household offered tours of the various parts of the house. Ashton and Rhett showed off the ballroom and the secret rooms. Carson and Brianna took care of the second floor. Griffin led the way to the widow's watch. William and Kathryn handled the downstairs.
Soon, Ashton turned on the sound system in the ballroom and got the dancing started. He played salsa music at first but switched to other genres later, including some line-dances which didn't require a lot of fancy footwork.
Down on the first floor, Terry was persuaded to play a number of old favorites while several adults gathered around the piano and sang. Of course, Auld Lang Syne was one of them. The locations were far enough apart that the sounds from one didn't interfere with the other.
The guests made many trips to the kitchen to refill their plates and glasses. Everyone had a great time. Most of the people stopped what they were doing to watch the ball drop in Times Square. Then, they resumed their activities.
Fifty-five minutes later, William and Brant circulated throughout the house bearing trays with plastic flutes containing Champagne for the midnight toast. The ones for the kids were smaller, but they didn't complain. Some of them didn't like the taste of it anyway. However, they all were pleased to be included in the ritual.
As the grandfather clock in the parlor began to strike midnight, a general cheer rose from various floors of the house. A new year was ushered in.
After helping to pick up in the kitchen, the adults began to leave. The boys who were staying over began to sort themselves out in different bedrooms on second floor. Nolan, Jason, and Eli chose a king-sized bed to put their sleeping bags on in the same room. Griffin and Levi headed for the room which had been Griffin's when he stayed with the Havel's. Ashton invited Carson to join Rhett and him, but Carson said he'd be fine in his own room in the newer wing of the house.
Again, he felt kind of sad that he couldn't sleep with Brianna, but he knew it was too soon for that kind of relationship even if their parents would have approved of it.
On January 2nd, it was back to school to take on the new semester. And with it, a lot of other activities. The swing choir would continue to perform well into the term. Concert band and jazz band were ramping up now that marching season was over until spring. There would be several concerts and a competition for the jazz players in February. These would be the highlights for Griffin, Levi, Ashton, Rhett, and many of their friends.
Basketball, swimming, and wrestling would occupy the jocks. Raymo would be busier than he was in the fall and would have to cut back some of his hours at the store. He hated to do it because he wanted to keep the same hours as Luis, but that would be impossible. Luis was going to try to arrange his work schedule so he could attend at least some of the matches to cheer Raymo on. It was going to be difficult to do everything he wanted to!
Sabrina was upset when she read a small item in the Gazette mentioning that Robert Barker had been allowed to post bail while awaiting trial on charges of child pornography. His legal staff had successfully argued that his health was deteriorating, and he wasn't a threat to anyone nor a flight-risk since his passport had been seized.
The tiny article failed to make note of the other charges, including attempting to molest her son. While she was thankful that her family's name wasn't associated with the man to whom she'd once been engaged, she hoped he'd have to pay for what he'd done to Raymo and how the situation had led to Raymo's brief disappearance.
When she showed it to her firstborn later, she was surprised at his calm reaction. He said he'd go through it all again for the same results -- that of finding his soulmate. Sabrina smiled at how quickly her son had rebounded from the stress which had made him leave home in late spring.
One Friday morning at breakfast, Raymo announced that he had asked Luis to become his husband. Luis smiled and blushed as they awaited Sabrina's reaction.
"When are you planning to do this? I need to know so I can help with your wedding."
"I was thinking tomorrow would be a good day. We have it and Sunday off."
"Oh dear, I can't do much more than make reservations at a restaurant in that case. Whom will you invite?"
"We were hoping Gavin and you would come," Raymo replied. "We don't need anyone else."
"I'll be there for sure! Can I be best man?" Gavin grinned.
"Of course. I was thinking we could go to lunch at El Paraiso afterwards."
"I'll send you to Key West for your honeymoon over spring break," Sabrina offered. "Isn't it in March this year?"
"You shouldn't spend that kind of money on us," Luis shook his head.
"I can afford it; and who better to spend it on? While I'm at it, I'm going to start giving both of you an allowance every month so you can cut down your work hours. You can still send some of it to your parents if you want."
"You are an angel!" Luis exclaimed, as he hugged his future mother-in-law.
The guys' sudden announcement reminded Sabrina of the old proverb, "Marry in haste, repent at leisure," but she didn't voice her thoughts. She remembered marrying Raymo's father after knowing him only a few months. They had recognized immediately upon meeting that they were soulmates. Their union had been as loving and lasting as any she'd witnessed until cancer took him from her. Had they waited two more years, like her mother advised, it would have been that much less time together. Sometimes old proverbs didn't apply.
At Sabrina's prompting, Raymo and Luis dressed up with jackets and ties for their special day. Gavin and she wore their Sunday-best too. She wanted them to have attractive photos to treasure over the years.
Their wedding ceremony at the Linn County Courthouse was brief, but Judge Anderson included time for them to repeat their vows. She hoped to give same-sex couples the satisfaction that their union meant as much as anyone else's.
After lunch at the Mexican Restaurant, the pair drove out to the hotel at Kirkwood for their first night as a wedded couple. Sabrina gave them her credit card to cover the cost. She also slipped them a small bottle of wine and the two plastic flutes she'd saved from her own honeymoon. Raymo was touched by her gesture of acceptance.
The grooms spent the afternoon in leisurely lovemaking. It reminded them of the quality time they'd shared camping back in July, only this time, they had the luxury of a large comfortable bed and a full bath at their disposal instead of a tent and shower house.
They ate dinner in the elegant restaurant operated by the students who were taking courses in the school's hospitality program. The food was excellent and they were waited on hand and foot.
At the end, their waiter asked if they were just out for a pleasant evening or if they were celebrating something special. Both guys grinned and held up their left hands, displaying their matching titanium rings.
"Ah, we have a lovely dessert for you share in honor of this occasion," he smiled. "I'll be back with it in a moment."
He returned with a large crème broulee and two spoons. He also took several photos of them feeding it to each other and offered to text them to their phones. It was another special remembrance of their day.
Back in their room, they drank a toast to each other and consummated their union again.
Despite reducing their hours, there were still a few occasions when Raymo and Luis were scheduled to work late. It was about 10:00 PM on a Saturday night when they were returning from their job at HyVee. Both were tired.
Luis had driven his car and they had just pulled into the garage. As he pushed the transmitter button, clipped on his visor, to close the overhead door, it stopped and went back up. He pushed it again, thinking it must have malfunctioned. He got out of the car and saw someone in the doorway holding a gun.
Luis shouted a warning as he hit the floor in an evasive move. Raymo tried to duck behind his car to avoid being struck. Several shots rang out. Raymo was hit. Luis looked around for anything he could use as a weapon. He spied a couple of empty wine bottles in a bucket for recycling glass. He grabbed them and stood up, throwing one after the other toward the gunman. The first one broke on the concrete with a resounding crash as the man fired a shot in his direction. The second one hit the man in the head, causing him to reel backward, spoiling his aim, and sending another bullet into the ceiling. Luis hurled several smaller bottles toward the retreating figure. He pushed the button by the kitchen door to close the garage door and then went to the side of his lover.
Raymo was lying on the floor bleeding but conscious.
Armed with a Ruger 380, Sabrina opened the kitchen door to see what was going on. She found out the details by listening to Luis as he called the emergency number.
Sabrina then went to the front door to watch for the police. She turned on the porch light and looked out the window but didn't open up until she saw the officers on the step. She was afraid that the gunman might still be around and try to force his way in.
She led the policemen through the house to the garage where they found the victims. They had barely started to get the details before an ambulance arrived, but it was long enough for Raymo to identify their assailant as Robert Barker.
"May I ride in the ambulance with my husband," Luis requested.
"I think you should," one of the EMTs said. "I think you've taken a bullet too."
It wasn't until then that Luis felt the soreness near his right shoulder. The adrenalin in his system had masked the pain. He'd been too concerned for Raymo to think about himself.
Officer Fiker said he could wait until the guys were tended to in the emergency room before interviewing them further.
"Which hospital do you prefer?" the ambulance driver asked.
"Mercy is a couple of blocks farther, but the guys' medical records are there," Sabrina answered. I think that might speed things up. Gavin and I will be along as quickly as we can get there."
Sabrina and Gavin may have been worried about the guys' wounds, but they kept their emotions under control. They grabbed their coats and Sabrina's purse in order to follow the ambulance. She asked Gavin to drive while she kept an eye on traffic as well. Thanks to unusually favorable traffic lights, they managed to arrive right after the ambulance.
The emergency-room doctor assessed the young men's conditions quickly and sent Raymo to surgery first. He'd taken two bullets and one wasn't far from his heart. Luis's bleeding was minor.
Fortunately, the hospital was equipped with a surgical robot which could precisely follow the path of the bullets and extract them with a minimum of damage in the process. It wasn't long before Raymo was in the recovery room and Luis was being operated on.
When Raymo was conscious and being transferred to a regular room, he immediately began to fret over Luis's condition. He'd been told that his own injuries were worse, but he wasn't going to be satisfied until Luis was with him. Gavin assured him that Luis would be there soon. Sabrina had insisted on their being together in one of the few hospital rooms that still accommodated two beds. In fact, she was conferring with the surgeon that very minute about Luis's prognosis as he was in recovery.
Not more than 20 minutes passed before Luis was wheeled into the room on a gurney, followed by Sabrina. Both guys wanted their beds close enough so they could hold each other's hand. The orderly it would be okay for a few minutes but their beds would have to be far enough apart to allow nurses to tend to them easily. Gavin volunteered to move Luis's bed later so the orderly could return to his duties elsewhere.
That brief period of physical contact had an effect like plugging a cell phone into a powerpack. The difference in the analogy was that it seemed to charge both without draining either!
Officer Fiker came in to check on them and ask a couple more questions. Before he left, he suggested that Sabrina and Gavin consider staying at the hospital overnight because Robert was still on the loose.
"I'm sure you have an alarm system and I know you'd sleep better in your own home, but I'll sleep better when I get off duty knowing you're here."
"I think we will too," Sabrina agreed.
There was a sofa and a reclining chair in the room. Sabrina insisted on sleeping in the chair so Gavin could stretch out. There were blankets and pillows in a cabinet for that purpose, and soon all four were able to fall to sleep -- some more soundly than other.
As a 16-year-old who was exhausted, Gavin could have fallen asleep on a concrete floor. The older teens were feeling the residual effects of the anesthetic and could hardly keep their eyes open. Sabrina stayed awake for another half hour, ruing the fact that she'd ever dated Robert Barker in the first place.
Author's notes:
Again, I'm not posting names of all who emailed last week because the list is incomplete due to my Internet outage. Hopefully, it will be back by Thursday.
Thanks to David (Boxerdude) for editing this chapter.
Thanks to Nifty for providing this free venue.
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If you enjoyed this tale, I'd love to hear from you. Please write to me at: dlee169@hotmail.com . Please put the title of the story in the subject line in case your email ends up in my junk box!