Howdy Doody

The Program III

Mark's New Home

Chapters 5-6

Chapter Five

Mack shook his head. "She ain't got that finger up her pussy to keep it warm mate!"

Mark didn't disagree with the boy, but at the same time, he knew that both Stuart and Gabrielle were in the same boat sexually. "You're right, but would you fuck her?" Mark asked. "Now you're being stupid!" Zachary replied. "Stuart's just the same as Gabrielle until he learns all about sex," Mark told them. "Let my Nana figure Stuart out and then he can decide for himself if he wants to fuck or not," Mark asked the boys. "We don't have to stop playing with him if he wants to, but Nana says we shouldn't fuck him because he's still a virgin." Zachary now intervened once again. "It's not like there aren't 33 other kids who'll fuck at the drop of his drawers, let Mark do it his way with Stuart Mack," he told his brother. Mack giggled. "Does that include Mark?" he asked. The trade off didn't bother Mark one bit. Standing up he took off his underpants and handed them to Mack. Sleep time for the twins and Mark came about an hour after lights out. Stuart wasn't fucked, but he learned a lot about the mechanics of it before the week was out. Stuart was told Monday night when the lights went out that he was invited to stay over at Mark's. He was ecstatic at the news.

The boys in the dorm slept six to a room, but not every bed was always full. By the second week every room was rearranged so that all six beds were side by side and usually the middle three beds held all the boys in that room. It wasn't unusual for visitors to sleep in other bedrooms. With 36 boys in the dorm, variety was preferred and kept things flowing at a steady pace. It also circumvented the "Homo" label; something none of the boys would accept no matter what they were doing with each other.

By Wednesday evening, Mark and Sebastian's friendship had grown and the two were doing a lot of studying together on the second floor. Sebastian used the session with Stuart and Mack to cut through a lot of embarrassing moments. He wanted to sleep with Mark, but boys just don't walk up to someone and ask them if they want to fuck (unless you happen to be a twin).

With his homework finished, Sebastian closed his book and waited for Mark to finish. "I watched you with Stuart last week," he said to Mark. "He's lucky to have a friend like you." Mark looked up from his work and smiled a little. "I saw you standing there," he said. "You did? What did you think?" he asked. "I think you're the best looking boy in the dorm," he told the boy.

Sebastian smiled and maybe even got a little pink Mark thought to himself. "I've seen you in the shower. You have a very nice looking tan," he told Mark. "Don't you wear a bathing suit when you swim?" Mark giggled a little. "Not if I don't have to. In Greece my beach is private and it's just me and my brother most of the time," he told the boy. "Don't you swim nude?" he asked Sebastian. "Only when I was a little boy. Once my penis started to grow and my hair started to come in my Mother said I had to wear a suit or the girls would want to have sex with me." Both boys laughed at the thought. "I see why," Mark said. "You have a very big penis." At that point there was no doubt about it: Sebastian blushed. "Did you ever measure it?" Mark asked.

The boy nodded his head. "My older sister measured it last year," he told Mark. Mark closed his book. "Really?" he asked. Again, Sebastian nodded his head. "How did you ever get her to do that?" Mark replied. "She wanted to know if I was bigger than her boyfriend," he told Mark. "Her boyfriend is 16." Homework was finished for Mark, his penis was now waking up. "Well, were you bigger?" he asked completely interested. "Yes, her boyfriend was 15 centimeters. I was almost 18," he told Mark still a little red faced. Mark was clueless. "How many inches is 18 centimeters?" he asked his friend. Sebastian shrugged his shoulders. He didn't think in inches. "I have a ruler upstairs, let's go find out!" Mark suggested.

Both boys flew up the stairs and dumping his books on the bed Mark went for his ruler. Mario was sitting on his bed reading and watched as Sebastian pulled down his underpants. Mario's reading was finished for the night as he came over to the bed next to Sebastian and looked at a penis about four times bigger than his. Mark came over and told Mario what was transpiring. "Let's measure yours first," Sebastian suggested. Mark's underpants hit the floor in seconds followed by Mario's. Mark handed Sebastian the ruler and stood at attention in front of the boy. "Me too!" Mario said as he stood up and waited next to Mark. Sebastian took Mark's penis in his hand and put the ruler at the base of his groin. "A little under nine centimeters," Sebastian reported. "How many inches is that?" Mark asked. Sebastian happily took Mark's penis back in his hand which was now forming some pre-cum on the tip. "Three and a half inches," he told Mark. Mark smiled as Sebastian's thumb coated his head with the pre-cum that was now beginning to droop to the floor. "Now me," Mario said as he moved his body in front of Sebastian. The boy didn't understand Greek, but he knew what Mario wanted. "With or without his foreskin?" Sebastian asked Mark. "Without," Mark replied. Sebastian looked back at Mario's penis. His own was now dripping pre-cum on the bed and it didn't escape Mark's attention. Sebastian took Mario's penis in his hand and slowly retracted the boy's foreskin. Mario had no pre-cum yet, but he did have a head full of smegma that made his head glisten in the light as the skin retracted. "Seven and a half centimeters. Three inches," Sebastian reported. As the boy pulled Mario's foreskin back over the head Mario's penis twitched involuntarily. Sebastian smiled.

"Now you," Mark said as he picked up the ruler from the bed and waited for Sebastian to stand up. As the boy stood up and Mark sat down on the bed, Sebastian turned towards Mark and Mark drew in his breath at the sight. Pre-cum was flowing to the floor and was about six inches long as Mark put his hand up under the stream and raised his hand to the boy's penis. As he did his other hand wrapped around Sebastian's shaft and he retracted the foreskin to reveal a head that was awash in pre-cum and smegma. Mark wiped the head of the boy's penis in the palm of his hand and then put his hand down to his own penis and coated it with the boy's juices. Returning his hand to the boy standing in front of him Mark reached for Sebastian's testicles and one by one, rolled them in his hand. Mark guessed that Sebastian's balls were about three times the size of his. "Did your sister measure your balls too?" Sebastian giggled. "No, but she did exactly what you are doing to them," he told Mark. "You can't blame her for that," Mark said as he took his hands off the boy's scrotum and returned it to his penis that was flowing pre-cum at an ever increasing rate. Mark held his penis from underneath as he put the ruler on top. "Holy fuck, almost 8 inches!" he told the boys. "How many centimeters is that?" Sebastian asked. "Twenty," Mark calculated. If Sebastian was a peacock, all his feathers would have been fanned out. He was very proud of his cock, it was now almost as big as his Father's and even the boy's Mother had told him he was going to be hung larger than his Father was. At 13, he was already twenty centimeters and he had another six or seven years of growing to do according to his Mother.

Mark now had a very difficult choice in front of him. He could pull Sebastian's foreskin back up and tuck it away, or, he do what he really wanted to do for the past five minutes. Much to Sebastian's surprise and delight, Mark slid off the bed and onto his knees. He took the boy's penis in his hand and licked the tip of Sebastian's penis and cleaned off the boy's head of any remaining pre-cum and smegma. Backing away, he looked at the boy's throbbing head as a small pool of pre-cum began reappearing from Sebastian's urethra. Sebastian and Mario watched as his penis slowly slid into Mark's mouth and down his throat. Mario was so enraptured by the scene he unconsciously started to jerk himself off as the boys who were passing by on their way to their rooms suddenly found something better to do. Sebastian had heard about boys and girls who could deep throat a penis without choking but had never had the pleasure. Sebastian didn't last two minutes before Mark had his well emptied. Mark had a new friend for life and a very appreciative room full of boys who came in for the show.

"Holy mother fucker!" Mack said as Mark backed off Sebastian and the full size of the boy became clearly evident. Sebastian's head was a deep red color as Mark went back to him and pulled his foreskin back over his head with suction. Sebastian's balls were slowly sinking back down his sack and taking a much needed rest as Mark sat back on the bed and Mario and more than a few of the other boys finished taking care of business. "How the fuck did you do that?" Zachary asked Mark. "Practice," Mark said as he laid down flat on the bed with a rod that needed some very quick attention. The twins looked at each other. "Odds or evens?" Mack said to his brother. Mack won the shoot out and dropped down head to feet on a very grateful Mark as Stuart entered the room. Mark didn't know he was there, but even if he did, Mark doubted that he would have stopped the twin, he was way beyond that point and happily had Mack's foreskin sliding up and down his shaft as the boy on top of him completely eliminated any possibilities of Mark getting a case of blue balls anytime soon.

Since Stuart's coming out party the little boy was becoming more and more adventurous. Mark had convinced all the boys in the dorm not to penetrate him temporarily, but just about everything else was fair game. Some of the boys thought it was mighty stupid, but since the twins were in agreement with Mark, nobody really wanted to test the twins' pugilistic abilities should they become pissed off. Stuart was clueless as to the details of the agreement, but he was still very shy and protective of his privacy early in the mornings. By bedtime however he was ready to drop his pants for a friendly suckle or circle jerk at the mere suggestion.

Showers that night were more lively than usual; those boys that weren't in attendance for the show were made aware of the feat by those who were. Sebastian's size was no mystery to any of the boys, and most had seen it in its full glory many times and shuddered at the thought of trying to make it happy. To now find out that Mark could make it completely happy impressed the hell out of very impressionable 12 to 13 year olds. Mark had no problems whatsoever with making friends.

With Stuart accompanying him, Mark sat down on the shower floor and began washing the boy's hair as he always did with Stuart facing him sitting on his stomach. Stuart didn't look like them, but to Mark, the boy reminded him of both Conner and Sean in many ways. Mark liked to be needed and wanted; it took his mind off his losses which were still only less than a year earlier.

His style of washing his smaller friend didn't go unnoticed among the other boys either. In the beginning, only Mark ever sat down in the shower to wash either himself or another boy. Now, two out of three boys were washing that way and the shower room was much less bedlam and shouting as the boys concentrated on each other rather than who could scream the loudest. Gabrielle noticed the change too and brought up a bunch or her tubby toys and sat down playing with them in a corner. She even managed to bring her thumb out of her mouth now and then to lift them up.

As Mark had a pile of shampoo bubbles all over Stuart's head and dripping down the boy's back and neck, the boy looked into Mark's face. Mark was concentrating on getting his hair and ears clean. The boy took some of the shampoo from his body and slowly began washing Mark's chest and arms and shoulders. Stuart's ass sat right about at Mark's navel and Stuart knew his friend's penis was just centimeters away from him. He scooted himself back until he knew he had to be somewhere within range if Mark decided he wanted him to make himself available. It wasn't something he was ready to do with the other boys, but his friend Mark was different: his friend Mark loved him and would never hurt him. As Stuart scooted himself back, Mark knew what the boy had in mind. He could feel the boy's cheeks sitting just on top of his groin at the base of his penis. If Mark went erect, his penis would be standing in the boy's butt crack. Mark looked into the boy's face and smiled. Leaning forward, he kissed the tip of his friend's nose as he slid the boy closer to his chest. "I would let you do it if you wanted to," Stuart said to him. Again, Mark smiled at the boy and kissed his nose again. "I know you would, but first we need to talk to my Grandmother this weekend," Mark said to him. That thought scared Stuart. "I've never talked to a woman before about sex," he told Mark. "My Grandmother isn't like any other woman. You can talk to her about anything and she doesn't think you're a bad person," Mark told the boy. "Does she know you fuck?" Stuart asked. "She knows all little boys fuck," Mark said as he moved down to the boy's face and neck and continued to wash him.

Stuart was silent for a little while, but Mark knew his mind was going at a mile a minute. "Does she know that you do stuff like you did tonight with Sebastian?" "She knows everything I do because I tell her when she asks about it," Mark told his friend. "Doesn't that make you feel all funny inside?" Stuart asked. "I could never tell my mother I did anything with my dickie, she would give me away!" he said. Mark didn't think that was such a terrible thing, but he didn't tell his friend that. "My Grandmother wouldn't give me away if I fucked someone on the dining room table," Mark said to his friend. Stuart giggled at the thought as his penis started to wake up. By the time Mark reached Stuart's stomach his erection was hampering the effort and Mark peeled down the boy's foreskin and cleaned the head and shaft as nonchalantly as Adell would this coming weekend. Stuart looked down at his stiffie that was now covered in soap suds. "Mark, do you have a stiffie right now?" he asked his friend. "No," Mark replied. "Why not, don't you like me like I like you?" he asked. Mark put down the bottle of shampoo he held and took Stuart's face in both hands. "I don't like you Stuart, I love you. If all I did was like you, I'd fuck your little balls off and not care anything about you. But I do, and I won't make love to you until I know you know what you're doing." Drawing Stuart's face to his, Mark kissed the boy until he realized that his penis was now standing at attention and sitting in between Stuart's cheeks ready for action.

Mark wrapped the boy in his arms up close to his chest, more to get the boy's anus away from danger than to cuddle with him which he was very content to do. "Jesus man, don't you ever give that thing a rest!" one of the earlier witnesses said to Mark as he left the shower room. Mark giggled as he got up with Stuart still attached to his chest and walked back to the room

still dripping wet. Putting Stuart down on the bed Mark got a towel and began to dry Stuart. "You certainly do have a stiffie!" Stuart said as Mark's penis stared straight out at the boy. Mark looked down. "That's because we were kissing, not because I want to fuck you," Mark said.

The twins were laying on their bed reading a comic book together. "Make a note of that line, maybe we can use it on somebody," Mack told his brother. As the room erupted in laughter, the lights flickered. 15 minutes later they went out as Sebastian came into the room and threw his pillow next to Jean-Paul. "Yes!" Zachary said as the comic book hit the ceiling and fell to the floor. "Are you into golden showers?" Mack asked the new visitor. "What do you mean?" Sebastian asked the twin. "Those four piss like racehorses, we stay dry," Zachary told the boy. Sebastian looked over to Mark. "Really?" he asked. Mark nodded his head. "Like racehorses," he said. Sebastian looked down at Jean-Paul next to him. "Me too," the boy said without being asked. "I don't pee, but I don't care either," he said as he laid his head down on his pillow.

"Listen," Zachary said as he moved his body over alongside Sebastian. "See this erection, it's not stiff because I want to fuck you." With pillows flying from all directions the twins erupted again in laughter. Sebastian didn't quite understand the joke, but when he was finally told about it, he thought it was pretty funny too.

"OK Stuart, it's time for your sleeping pill" Mark said to the boy as he laid him down between Jean-Paul and himself. "Choose your poison," Mark said to him as he laid one of the boy's legs over Jean-Paul and one over his own. Reaching for Jean-Paul's penis he took it in his hand as the boy returned the favor. The day's tension was released in barely three minutes as a sweating and panting Stuart rolled himself on top of Mark and hoped his heart wasn't going to explode out of his chest. Mark cupped the boy's ass cheeks in his hands as the boy's breathing and pulse slowly came back to normal levels as Mark kissed the boy's brow dry. Five minutes after his climax, Stuart was dead to the world.

Mario got up and Mark scooted his ass over to the bed next to theirs and rolled Stuart over onto his back. Mark looked down on the sleeping boy and studied his body from toes to head. Stuart was a stunner and Mark could almost taste the boy's beauty. Bending over he kissed him gently on the lips and pulled up the sheets and blanket. Laying back down next to Mario he looked over to see both Mack and Zack sitting on their elbows holding up their heads and watching Mark with Stuart. "If we ever lose our mum, we're going to look you up!" Mack said with a slight smile. More laughter with another pillow thrown at them was pretty much the beginning of the night for the six remaining boys.

Now that Stuart was down and out, they could get down to some hard core fun and as usual the twins lost no time in figuring out who they were going to party with. Mack latched onto Sebastian's penis faster than a monkey with a banana. Mario was very comfortable with Jean-Paul laying head to toe and Zachary had yet to enjoy Mark's full company since school began. Zachary slipped into bed in between Mark's legs and raised Mark's legs up until Mark's heels almost touched his ass. If Zachary wanted to, he could have blown the lid off Mark's cock in under two minutes flat. Instead, Zachary put him on a roller coaster ride that brought Mark not quite to the boiling point when he switched gears and headed in another direction. By the time he did allow Mark to come, Zachary had him on his back with his feet up on Zachary's chest and his penis pinned very safely as far into Mark's rectum as Mark's anus would allow. Mark's stomach was soaked in his pre-cum, and as he came it shot from his Pillow to his navel and everywhere in between. Zachary came with a grunt that probably Gabrielle could hear and after pausing long enough to regain his sanity, Zachary fell on top of Mark in a very hot, sweaty, sticky molten heap. With both boys' stomachs and chests rising and falling very rapidly, it almost sounded like a crackling fire as their skin came together and then separated. Mark knew damned well it was going to be a three shower day.

The peanut gallery in the room had long since emptied their wells and took in the floor show most appreciatively. Stuart was still sound asleep, but most of the boys now watching could very easily have rallied for the cause, but Mark was well beyond rallying. He figured it would take a month for his balls to recover from Zachary. It wasn't usual, but Mark and Zachary took another quick shower and returned to the bed with everybody but Mack asleep. Climbing in between the twins, they both gave him a very deep kiss and laid their heads down on their pillows as Mark did the same. Just before Mark fell into a coma, Zachary took possession of his penis while Mack made a very complete inventory of his balls. The twins never gave up.

Mark awoke to the sound of the bells and stirring going on around him. He had one hell of a night's sleep that came with an extremely erotic dream that he had faint glimpses of in his mind, but no completely clear memory of. He wasn't totally sure if his boner was due to a full bladder or was sexually connected. Stuart was almost on the opposite side of the bed and he would be waking up within moments. Mark knew the boy would freak when he fully awoke, so he slipped down to the bottom of the bed and moved over to where Stuart was. Slipping back in next to him, Mark pulled out a pair of Stuart's underpants that Mark always put in the boy's pillow the night before, and slipped them on his friend under the sheets so nobody else would see the little boy's naked body. "Is he ever going to get over that silly stuff?" Mario asked his friend in Greek. "At night he's having a party in his pants and in the morning he's back to keeping it hid," the boy said to Mark. "Nana says that some woman never let their husbands ever see them naked even though they have eight or ten kids. She says it's just the way they are." Mario thought about it. "So what do they do, have sex with their clothes on?" Both Mario and Mark laughed which woke the rest of the boys up as they slowly dragged their asses out of bed. Mark and Mario each took a foot and they pulled a groggy Stuart to the end of the soggy bed. His very clean underpants two minutes earlier were now yellow from the wet bed. Stuart didn't mind, his dickie wasn't sticking out and he had a piss hardon to keep under wraps.

Bypassing the toilets, most of the boys headed straight for the showers and Stuart took his place on Mark's stomach, underpants and all. Mario sat next to Mark and the twins arrived to promptly stand on top of the shower drain in the middle of the room and had a contest to see which one could piss the longest. In the beginning of the year, a lot of the boys would have been horrified by such an act. Now, it was the rule rather than the exception after the twins pointed out that the drain for the shower was the exact same one for the toilet so what's the difference they argued.

Mack won by about three seconds with his brother debating whether "Squirts" counted. They both sat down by Mark and Mario and poured shampoo on their heads to begin the day. The twins' water test reminded Stuart of his own bladder and the water around Mark got a tad warmer as he watched a small bubbling pool of water flow from Stuart's underpants and down his sides. Stuart had a twinkle in his eye, but said nothing. When the tap was shut off, Mark opened the waistband of his pants and squirted a bunch of liquid soap down the boy's pants and snapped them shut again. Stuart giggled.

12 and 13 year old boys can be very crafty little devils and if you add in twins that never stopped thinking up ways to get into things, the 8th Grade of 1989-1990 was up to the task and then some. "We figured out how to get soda and stuff," Zachary said to Mark as he sat there in a sea of shampoo. Mark looked over to his friend. "How?" he asked. "We all have money. When you go to your Grandmother's house, you go into town and buy stuff for us and have the store deliver it here to the dorm," he said. The twins were already conversing with some other boys in the dorm, and a small crowd now started to gather around them as the twins laid out the plan.

Mark was well aware of what Adell thought about soda. If he started drinking soda, she would know it the first time she had him take a piss. "My Grandmother doesn't want me drinking soda," Mark said to the boy. Mack and Zachary looked at each other. "So don't tell her," Mack said. In the meantime, Mario is sitting next to Mark clueless as to the goings on and tapped Mark on the arm. Mark explained to his friend in Greek what the conversation was about. "You know she's going to be checking our piss," Mario said to him. Mark knew it very well, but he wasn't about to explain it to all these boys. "She would find out," Mark said. Again, the twins looked at each other. "OK, so then don't drink it. We'll drink it," Mack replied. Mark was a little conflicted because he was being asked to do something that Adell might consider a betrayal of her trust in him. "I don't know, I don't think my Grandmother would approve," he told the boys.

"So don't tell her, you don't tell her you wank off do you?" another boy asked. "I don't have to tell her, she knows what boys do," Mark replied. That brought a lot of snickers from the crowd, but like Mark, the twins thought it was a stupid analogy. They didn't tell their Mother they jerked off, but she damned well knew it! "I don't think it's a big deal, we all get Care packages with soda in it don't we?" another boy interjected. That was true Mark thought to himself. With the stipulation to himself that he would not drink the soda, Mark agreed to be the runner. The twins felt a hell of a lot better about Mark's weekends now that it was to their advantage.

With the final arrangements left to the twins to develop, Mark finished washing Stuart and himself. When it came time to take Stuart's underpants off to wash his genitals Stuart looked a hell of a lot more comfortable than he did weeks earlier and besides, most of the boys were already back in their rooms drying off and getting dressed for the day. As Mark came back into the room with Mario and Stuart the twins were almost fully dressed. As Mark dried off, Zachary stopped by his way out of the room. "How did you sleep last night?" he asked his friend. "Fine. Why?" Mark asked. The twins giggled a little to each other. "Did you know you could come in your sleep?" Mack asked him. Like two little school girls the twins left the room giggling to each other. Mark now knew his "Dream" was a little closer to reality than he thought it was. "Don't they ever stop doing nasty things?" Stuart asked his friend. "Probably not!" Mark said as he showed Stuart how to tie a tie for the 14th time. Mario laughed as Mark explained his "Nocturnal emission dream" while heading out the door.

The language barrier concerning Italian was being bulldozed by the hour, especially during meals. Everything from "Pass the bread and butter" to "What's for desert?" was spoken in Italian and the boys, including Mark, were no longer translating the Italian back into their own language, they were thinking in Italian, English or, in Mark's case, Greek when they spoke the language and it saved one hell of a lot of time. As the weeks progressed, speaking strictly Italian moved from the Dining Hall to the class room and eventually, even to the dorms themselves. By January, Mario would no longer need to have Mark translate: they both understood and spoke Italian except when with Adell and Emily on the weekends. Mark was even picking up French almost by osmosis.

Despite the fact that Mark was now trilingual, he was still basically illiterate. He spoke English, Greek, some Italian and a little French, but other than English, he still couldn't read or write in anything but English and even that wasn't the best writing the free world had ever seen! While Sergio's official responsibility was to teach him Italian and Greek, the tutor also took it upon himself to teach the boy Math as well. Mark also had Mario to tutor him in Greek reading and writing along with Jean-Paul who took over the Italian end of the spectrum. Mark's experience at Turin was not restricted to himself. As Mark would learn, living, eating and sleeping around the clock with one group of boys had its distinct advantages, they all pulled together and assisted each other as a very cohesive group.

By Friday afternoon Mark had a pocketful of cash and a laundry list of things to buy at the store and have delivered to the dorm. He also had to figure out how to get Stuart to Adell's since the school knew absolutely nothing about the boy's plans. There was another wrinkle in the plans, Stuart's mother always called him between 6:30 and 7:00 every Sunday night. How was Stuart going to explain his absence if he missed his mother's call? Mark put the problems on the table and the twins solved the problem before they got cold. "Don't tell the school anything about his leaving; they don't know where the hell we are most of the time anyway," Zachary suggested. "If anyone starts looking for him, he's playing football, he's in the shower, he's at his tutor's. We could keep them looking for a week before they figured out he wasn't here," he continued. Mark thought about it and it was true. Unless you missed class, the school rarely knew exactly where the boys were.

From Kindergarten to Grade 6 the school knew exactly where each boy was at any given moment. Every Class from K to 6 had four matrons taking care of the boys after school and on the weekends, once the boys entered Grade 7 they were basically on their own. Like Mark's Class, a staff family lived in each Grade's house, but rarely came into direct contact with the boys. Mark had seen the House parents a few times, but other than Gabrielle, they rarely came upstairs. Stuart would never be missed.

As for the mother's phone call, it was a minor bump in the road for the twins to navigate around. "When his mother calls, we call you and put the phones together so they can speak to each other like this," Zachary said as he put two phone receivers together. "If she wants to know why the connection is so bad, we blame it on the cheap Italian phone company," Mack said. "We do it all the time and it works like a charm! Just make sure that Stuart is there to get the call."

Mark had Emily pick them up at 5:00 at Sergio's apartment after lessons. Mark had packed a half dozen pairs of underpants for Stuart; he'd have to share any other clothing he might need with either Mark or Mario. The trip to the house took about 20 minutes from school and was the first opportunity Stuart had to see anything outside the gates and grounds of the school. He was very apprehensive about meeting Mark's Grandmother, but he trusted Mark as a friend, and Emily sure did seem very nice to him when he met her.

Every week when Emily picked up the boys she always stopped at a grocery store on the way back to the house. Mark found the place ideal to set up the 8th Grade's Grand Plan for getting contraband into the dorm. The list contained very important stuff like gum, candy, cigarettes, comic books, soda and eventually a few bottles of wine and some girlie magazines. In order to ensure that the store owner was aware that the items were being ordered by adults and certainly not children, the twins devised a scheme whereby the owner would be completely set at ease. The first two items on the list each week was a tin of anchovies and a box of tampons. The boys naturally instantly threw these two items out, but they would serve their purpose; what child would want to buy anchovies or tampons? In reality, the store owner didn't give a rat's ass who bought the items as long as the money was good.

Stuart's first impression of the house was that it was a lot bigger than he had imagined it to be. Mark spoke of both a "House" and a "Cottage". This brick building was about half the size of his dorm which was three stories high and held more than 40 people. The house had woods surrounding it and there weren't a whole lot of nearby houses. This was "The Country" as far as Stuart was concerned.

Entering the house, Stuart followed Mark and Mario as both boys wrapped their arms around a small but friendly looking woman who was obviously very glad to see the boys as they were to see her. Once again, Mark had to do double duty because Stuart spoke only English, Adell spoke only Greek. "Nana, this is my friend Stuart," Mark said as he took Stuart by the hand and led him to her as she sat down in a chair in the living room. "Hello Stuart, my name is Adell," the woman said as she held out her hand to the boy. Stuart moved forward and took the woman's hand in his. It was softer than his mother's when he held it on shopping trips, but the woman's hands seemed warmer than his mother's. "Hello," Stuart replied as he stepped in front of the woman. "Mark tells me you are his very good friend and we welcome you here." Stuart smiled not sure exactly what to say. "Thank you," he replied. Adell looked from the top of his head to the boy's shoes. "You are a bigger boy than I imagined you would be when Mark described you to me over the phone," she said as she sat back in her chair. Stuart said nothing but he smiled a little. She thinks I'm big Stuart said to himself. He liked this lady whoever she was.

"Take your friend upstairs Mark. Emily will have dinner ready in about 45 minutes so wash up," she told the boy. Mark gave Stuart a quick tour of the house and eventually the boys found themselves in Mark and Mario's bedroom. Mark took Stuart's underpants out of the book bag he brought home and stuck one in a pillow and the rest in an empty drawer. Stuart looked around. By his standards, the bedroom was huge. He lived on a sheep ranch in New Plymouth, but the rooms weren't nearly as large as this, not even his parents' room who slept in separate beds. Mark's bedroom, like all the bedrooms in the house had a fireplace and it was burning with a soft glow and radiating heat. Stuart looked out the bay window at a view of the Alps that he had seen coming in on the plane, but from school, you could only see it from the top of the hill overlooking the old Chapel. "What does your Father do?" he asked his friend. "He grows olives," said Mark. Stuart didn't know olives made so much money.

Emily didn't know what little boys from New Zealand liked to eat, so she played it safe and made a prime rib dinner. Beef wasn't Adell's favorite food, but it was better than spaghetti and meatballs, something that for some strange reason, boys seemed to love.

With dinner over, the boys had a good hour before they had to be back in the house and with just two bikes, Mark rode Stuart double while Mario took the lead and they biked to a stream and small bridge that the boys had "adopted" as their quiet place. Fall was fast approaching and the leaves were falling as the boys's bikes sat sideways along the stream and they watched as the water barely trickled downstream towards Turin and the river that wound through it. Mark pointed out the slopes on the Italian Alps that they would be skiing on that winter to Stuart and the boy couldn't wait for the winter to start. He had skied in New Zealand with his Father and maybe really soon, he could do it again.

Sitting down on the bank of the stream, Stuart picked up a handful of pebbles and one by one threw them into the brook as he talked to his friend. "Your Grandmother is very nice," he said. "Yes, she is very nice Stuart, but she's also very honest," Mark told his friend. "So what?" Stuart asked. "So she may say things and tell you things that might make you feel funny," he told his friend. "You mean about sex and stuff?" Stuart asked. Mark saw no way of sugar coating Adell to him. "Yes. My Grandmother will tell you exactly how things are and they may make you feel funny," he told his friend. "My Grandmother knows everything about boys and what we do. You don't have to tell her you play with your dickie she already knows that. You don't have to tell her someone sucks on it, she already knows that." Stuart sat up. "She knows about Mack?" he asked his friend. "No, she doesn't know what Mack did, but she knows that someone did," he told him.

Stuart looked a bit distressed. "She couldn't know that unless someone told her!" he said. "Stuart, that's the fucking point. She knows that all boys do what we do all the time. It doesn't matter if we're here in Italy or in Greece or in New Zealand. Boys fuck and she knows that!"

Stuart was in a defensive mode. Everything he was being exposed to for the past three weeks flew in the face of what his mother had always taught him: Sex was bad, sex was evil, sex was dirty and sex was for moral degenerates. "But I never did any sex before I came here!" he said to Mark as his eyes started to fill up. "That's not true and you told me so," Mark said to the boy. "You told me you played with your dickie back in New Zealand." Stuart lowered his head like he was the biggest whore on the planet. "Before you came here, you had no friends back in New Zealand so maybe you didn't play with anybody else," Mark told him. "But you don't really believe that only boys in a school in Italy fuck do you?" Stuart didn't really know what to think, he only knew what his mother told him. Mark sat next to his friend for a few minutes and watched as the drops fell from the boy's face to the ground in front of him. At the same time his heart ached for his friend, he wanted to smack the piss out of Stuart's mother. Reaching out, Mark took Stuart in his arms. "Nana will know how to teach you about sex and I'll be there with you when she does," Mark said to his friend as Stuart wrapped his arms around Mark's neck. Mark's eyes were no longer dry, and even without knowing exactly what was just said, neither were Mario's.

Back in the States, Mark was raised as a Roman Catholic. His family wasn't over-religious, they just followed the crowd. Everybody was something, Mark was Catholic. Now, Mark would be baptized officially at the Grotto on Corfu just before his brother's wedding in December into the Greek Orthodox Church. Again, Mark's family wasn't over religious, but all Greeks belong to the Greek Orthodox Church. One of the very last things that Mark usually did was pray. On the way back to the house he was praying that Adell would cool her jets slightly and not blow Stuart out of the water with her frankness.

As the boys returned to the house, it was getting dark and that always meant bath time. Mark spent days explaining to Stuart that nothing the woman would do was sexual on her part, but try explaining that to an 11 year old standing in a tub naked as a woman is washing his dick. Stuart was use to his mother washing him, but she always used a hand rag and had Stuart turn his head sideways when she washed his dickie. Now Mark's Grandmother was washing him with her bare hands and she was actually peeling down his foreskin and washing the head of his dickie. Stuart didn't think his mom knew what it looked like let alone actually touch it! Stuart tried his very best to keep it from going bonkers but as it was being rinsed, it was in full bloom.

Mark was damned near in a panic. "Nana, he's being humiliated!" he said to the woman in Greek. Adell was unfazed. "Tell him I said he has a very handsome body," she instructed Mark. "Nana, he won't understand that. He's not like us!" Mark said to the woman. "Tell him," Adell repeated. Mark figured one more fucking prayer went down the drain. "My Grandmother says you have a very handsome body," Mark said to Stuart. Stuart was concentrating on his penis but he had a question. "What does she mean "Handsome body?" he asked. "She thinks you look very nice," Mark replied. "She has my dickie sticking out!" Stuart replied. Mark giggled a little. "No, you have your dickie sticking out, she just thinks it looks nice," he replied. Stuart looked over to Mark. He could either run screaming out of the tub or giggle. Since his friends were giggling, he chose that route. With Adell now concentrating on Stuart's legs, the woman spoke again to Mark. "Am I right to assume the humiliation is over?"

With Adell and Emily drying the boys Adell had a few more questions. "He is still a virgin?" she asked Mark. "Yes Nana," he replied. "Good, keep him that way," the woman said. "How does he sleep?" she asked. "Naked," Mark responded. "But he has to have underpants on in the morning." Adell looked over to Mario. "Your Poppa was the same way," she told him. "He wets of course," Adell said more as a fact than a question. "Yes Nana," Mark replied.

Stuart was sandwiched between Mark and Mario in the bed. Adell reached over and gave both Mark and Mario a kiss on the lips. Then she gave Stuart a kiss on the forehead and spoke to the boy. Stuart understood nothing, but smiled at the woman as she shut off the light and closed the door. "What did she say to me?" Stuart asked as he rolled himself over and got on top of Mark. "She said that tomorrow you would have many questions answered," Mark said to his friend. "What does that mean?" Stuart asked. "She's going to tell you all about the birds and the bees," Mark replied.

The night for the boys was a very early and quiet one. The past week in the dorm was a nightly romp and unlike the dorm, the mattresses and bed clothing at the house were extremely conducive to rest and sleep. The boys all switched positions and laid across the bed on their stomachs watching the fire in the fireplace as it hypnotized them to sleep. Stuart ended up on his tummy in the middle with both Mark and Mario on each side of him.

Stuart awoke first and after figuring out exactly where he was, searched the pillows and found a pair of underpants. Lying on his back, he lifted his legs and climbed into them and very quietly slid off the bed that was almost half his height. Once he was on his feet he had an urge to pee and walked into the bathroom. Pulling his pants down he sat down on the toilet and looked around. The room was very big, and had a window on the side that went from the floor to the ceiling. It overlooked the Alps in the background and reminded him of the snow capped glaciers of home. Stuart avoided these thoughts as much as possible: they hurt like hell and always made him want to cry. But what 11 year old boy cries except babies? With peeing out of the way, Stuart stood up and drew back his underpants and walked towards the window for a closer look. Just before he got there, Emily came in with an armful of towels. Seeing the boy, she smiled at him and said something in Greek. Stuart smiled at her as Mark's Grandmother came in the room with shampoo and stuff in her hands. Mark's Grandmother said something to him and again Stuart smiled.

Picking him up, she sat down on a chair in the bathroom as Emily brought over a box of stuff and the woman talked to Stuart slowly. Laying Stuart across her lap she began cleaning his ear as she hummed to herself softly. Stuart listened as the reverberations from the humming came through the woman's chest as his head lay against it.

Stuart had had his ears cleaned with Q-tips before: by his mother. It hurt and it left his ears red and sore. Sitting there now he waited to wince from the pain. Adell had one hand on the boy's face and one tending to his ear with the Q-tip. After a minute or two, Stuart didn't know which one felt gentler. Switching him around after about five minutes, she did the other ear. Adell never stopped humming, he never stopped listening. With sparkling clean and painless ears, Adell switched to cutting his finger nails and toenails.

Mark awoke and began stretching. Half way out his arm length he touched a body. The other arm kept traveling. Extended to its length, Mark's eyes opened and he turned his head. That side of the bed was empty. Looking up and over the body next to him, he saw no one. Mark sat up and looked down at Mario who was still on his stomach and largely asleep. "Oh Fuck!" he said as he bolted out of the bed. Stuart was nowhere in the bedroom, so he went straight for the bathroom where he found Adell sitting in the chair with Stuart in her lap. He was once again sound asleep.

"Jesus Christ Nana, you scared the shit out of me!" he said before he fully realized who he was talking to. The woman ignored the blaspheme. "Why, you thought I was molesting him?" she said. "No, Nana, I thought he was lost or ran away," he said. "Lost he might be, but why would he run away?" she asked. Mark had forgotten temporarily that Adell took things very literally. Shaking his head he just said "Forget it Gramma." Adell's eyebrows rose. She had heard the boys before refer to Stavros as their "Father" It was a significant move for a child to go from a generic "Poppa" to Father. Now she was hearing the boy call her "Gramma" instead of "Nana." At 46 she wasn't overjoyed at being called a Grandmother, but she very well knew the emotional difference it meant to a boy.

As Mark finished peeing, Mario came into the bathroom and joined him at the toilet. "Nana, he doesn't like people seeing him in the morning," Mark told his Governess. "Yes, I suppose it looks a whole lot different than it did last night," the woman said as she rose from the chair lifting the boy with her. Mario giggled. "Nana, I'm serious, he really doesn't want to be naked in the morning," Mark replied. "Not to worry Mark, I will go and put on blinders," she said as she reached the shower and turned on the water. Again Mario giggled more and it irked Mark that he wasn't getting any support from his friend. Adell lowered Stuart to the floor as he woke up for the second time that morning. Adell guided the boy into the shower and to Mark's utter amazement the woman didn't pull off Stuart's underpants and parade around Turin with them. When it came time for his genitals to be washed, she turned Stuart around backwards and squirted a bunch of soap down his pants and told him to wash 3;. his cock. Mark gave a small prayer for small blessings and Stuart seemed to have survived his first morning shower with Adell without too many severe emotional permanent scars. Then again, Stuart didn't understand Greek and never heard the word "cock" come from her.

Right after breakfast Stuart's education went into high gear. For almost a week material was being funneled to Adell from England concerning human sexuality. The teaching criterion laid down by Stavros was simple: he wanted 12 hours of tapes in four sessions of three hours apiece and it had to be geared so that an eight to 12 year old could understand it.

From 9:00 Saturday morning until lunch, Stuart watched a film about childbirth from conception through delivery. Mark and Mario thought they would go bike riding while Stuart learned about birds, bees and babies but soon after the little fishes swam, they stayed glued to the couch along with Stuart.

After lunch, Stuart sat down to watch a documentary about the development of a boy and girl from birth to puberty. Mark and Mario figured they would go bike riding after lunch, as the baby was prepared for the Bris, they sat down once again.

Dinner was more a discussion on sex and life than it was a meal. Stuart had long since stopped turning pink in front of either Emily or Adell, to Mark the boy looked almost comfortable talking about his body in front of two woman who a day before were complete strangers to him. Then again, he was speaking English and damned well knew that neither woman could understand one word he spoke.

After Dinner the boys finally did get a chance to go bike riding, and to Stuart's surprise, Adell had ordered a bicycle for him and had it delivered that day. The boys headed straight for their quiet spot on a warm fall day with the falling leaves reminding Mark of the Hudson Valley around Kingston where he spent the first 12 years of his life. But now, he wasn't looking at the Catskills, he was looking at the Alps.

As the boys got off their bikes they all laid down on the grass along the bank of the stream and Stuart rested his head on Mark's stomach using it as a pillow as the boy stared straight up into the sky. "How does your Grandmother know so much about sex?" Stuart finally asked his friend. "Well, she raised my Father since he was first born," Mark began. "And, she also helped her Mother when her brothers were born when she was a little girl," Mark told him. "She helped raise my Father too," said Mario. "But she's a girl not a boy, how does she know so much about boys?" Stuart asked. "Boys are the only people she's ever raised," Mark explained. "She's been looking at dickies all her life, she knows all about them," Mario said giggling. For about the first time in his life, Stuart giggled about something that had to do with sex. Reaching down inside his underpants, Stuart held his penis and squeezed it in his hand as it began to become erect. "I saw you with Mack," he told Mark. "I like Mack," Mark replied. "He's a really neat guy to play around with." Stuart's penis was now about as full as it was going to get for a few more months. "Remember when Mack licked on my dickie?" the boy asked his friend. Mark knew that Mack wasn't exactly licking, but let the reference slide. "Yea," he responded. "I pretended it was you who was doing it," Stuart told Mark as he avoided looking directly at his friend. Mark figured it would take maybe ten seconds for both him and Mario to get into Stuart's pants, but he remembered what Adell had told him. Stuart was finishing a day knee deep in human sexuality lessons and was primed for action. Mark had no problem fucking with his friends, but he didn't want to take advantage of someone who might regret it later. Stuart's education was incomplete, there would be plenty of times in the future with him once he figured out what his dick was really for. Mark sat up and looked down into Stuart's face. "I like you a lot too!" he told the boy as he bent over and kissed him. Mario didn't know what just transpired, he only knew that his friend was now kissing the boy beneath him who just happened to have his hand down his pants and obviously wrapped around his cock. Mario figured that shorts were going to be falling real fast as a tent arose in his shorts. "We're going to fuck?" Mario asked once Mark stopped kissing the boy.

Mark smiled at his friend. "No, he just said that when Mack was giving him a blowjob that he was thinking of me." Both boys giggled now as Stuart looked over to Mario. He didn't understand the talk in Greek. Mario just bent over and gave him a small kiss too. It made the language barrier disappear.

Showers and bed time followed the routine and Stuart's washing came without blushing, even when Emily washed the boy's penis. Now climbing into bed, Stuart got in between his two friends and with a little rustling under the covers, his hand came back out with his underpants in them and he threw them onto the floor alongside the bed. "I know you don't sleep in underpants, I see you two naked every morning," he told Mark. Adell didn't know what the boy said, but she did see the underpants get thrown on the floor. "He is very excited about what he has been seeing all day," the woman told the Greek boys. "It would be taking advantage of him if you have sex with him too soon," she told the boys. "Nana, he's played with the boys in the dorm before," Mario said. Adell looked down at Mario. She smiled as she bent over him and gave him a kiss. "Touching is touching. I'm not talking about touching and you both know it," she told them. Coming over to the other side of the bed, she bent over Mark and gave Stuart a kiss. His first. Then she gave Mark one as she turned out the light and closed the bedroom door.

Mario turned himself over and propped himself up on his elbows. "She likes you or she would have never kissed you on the lips," Mario said to Stuart. The boy smiled as Mark translated. "She kisses very nice, but not as nice as you do," he told his friend. Mark smiled. "Stuart how many boys have you ever kissed?" he asked his little friend. "Three," Stuart replied. "You, Mario and Jean-Paul, but you were the very first," he told Mark. Mark thought back to when he was about eight or nine years old. There was a little boy who gave him his first kiss. Mark didn't remember his name, but he did remember the kiss. He remembered he could feel it in his brain and he could feel it in his feet. Maybe that's what Stuart would remember years from now. "Go to sleep," Mark said as he gave Stuart a good night kiss. Mark called Mario over to the other side of the bed. With Mark now in the middle he reached over and took Stuart's genitals in his hand. With Mario now on his other side Mark reached over with his other hand to his friend's groin. Mario curled himself next to Mark and reached for his groin. Mark and Mario both fully intended to wait Stuart out until he went to sleep. Maybe it was the drug of security, but it didn't happen. The room fell quiet to the sound of three boys deeply breathing in minutes.

Mario awoke with the sun not yet completely up. He wasn't sure at first if he had to pee or if something was pulling on his penis. Reaching down he felt Mark's hair and head that rested on top of his groin. Not yet fully awake, he figured out very quickly what was going on. "Flip," he said and Mark shifted himself head to feet with his friend. Mario didn't know how long Mark had been at it, but he knew that he was somewhere between a piss and a climax as he took his friend into his mouth. If they were ever going to be even close to coming together he had a very fast job to do. Less than a half minute later, Mario knew the race was lost. "Mark, I think I'm going to pee," he told his friend. Mark didn't respond, nor did he stop. Mark had done this to him before, so Mario figured "Fuck it" and went back to his end of the deal. Mario wasn't really sure if he climaxed or peed or maybe even both at the same time. If it was a pee, it was one of the smallest he ever made. He knew his balls went crazy and he knew something came out of his penis. It could only have been pee. Mark backed off him as Mario tried to catch his breath. "You know what you just did?" Mark said to him as he pulled the last of an ejaculation out of Mario's red and swollen penis. "You just came!" Mark told him as he showed his friend some very sticky clear white stuff on the end of his fingers. By this time, Stuart was awake and sitting on the bed watching the two boys jabbering away in Greek. He didn't know what was being said, but he did know his two friends were sitting there with two stiffies and were obviously getting pretty excited. "Are you sure?" Mario asked his friend. "This is scum," Mark told him. "How do you know?" Mario asked. "Don't be fucking stupid. Don't you think I would know what scum looks like?" Mario looked down at his penis that was fading fast. "Holy Shit!" he said to himself as he peeled back his foreskin and saw some pool at the head of his urethra. "What's going on?" Stuart asked. "Mario just came for the first time!" Mark told the boy. Stuart looked over to Mario. "Just like it said in the movie," Stuart said as he came over and looked at Mario's penis.

Emily and Adell were already downstairs with Emily making breakfast. Adell heard the commotion and went upstairs. "What's going on?" the woman said as she entered the room seeing three boys studying one of their penises. "Look Nana!" Mario said as he held his penis up for the woman. "Mark said I just got scum for the first time!" Adell looked down at the boy who was obviously very excited. "Yes, it's the beginning of your seed, but it's not ready to start making any babies yet," she told the very proud boy. "Wow!" he said, "I have to tell Poppa about this!" Adell pointed to the phone as she took Stuart by the hand and led him into the bathroom. Stuart didn't really need a translator as the woman stood him in front of the toilet and peeled back his foreskin and patted his ass a few times. She was looking for him to pee, morning shyness or no morning shyness. Mark came into the bathroom as Stuart's penis finally settled down enough to release his urine. "Are you OK?" Mark said to Stuart as he pulled up alongside his friend and let go with a stream of his own. Stuart smiled a little but there was no blush. "It's OK, she's seen it before," he told his friend. Mark smiled as he told Adell what the boy had just said. Adell smiled and again patted Stuart on the ass as she spoke to him. "My Grandmother says to tell you that two boys became a lot bigger today, and not just Mario." Stuart looked up and smiled at the woman who bent down and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

Mario's call to his Father was received by the man as if Mario had struck the lottery. Speaking to Adell, he asked her to take the boys out to dinner in special celebration. Naturally, Adell would take them to the Palace Hotel.

Stuart's shower went routine except for the first time he was naked in the morning and seemed fairly unconcerned. After breakfast his education continued and he spent the balance of the day alongside Mark and Mario who had nothing better to do than to watch tapes and documentaries explaining sex from A to Z. By 3:00 the boys were out of tapes, and Stuart's primary question was yet to be answered. What was wrong with his mother?

Sitting down with the boys in the living room with a roaring fire going, Adell gave the only plausible reason she could come up with based upon what Stuart had told her about his birth and his mother and father. "Childbirth is a very, very painful experience for a woman to go through, and nature knows this," she began. "When a woman has a baby, her body produces a very special medicine (hormone) that makes her mind "Forget" about the pain that it took to give birth to her baby. The Doctors say that if this medicine wasn't there, most women would never have more than one baby. I think that your mother's body didn't make that special medicine and she remembers how much pain she had. Your mother doesn't see birth in the same way most women do; she only remembers the pain and hurt it caused her. That's why she thinks that sex is bad." For the very first time that Mark ever heard anything about Stuart's mother, he felt sorry for her.

The boys had about three hours before they would go into Turin for the celebration of Mario's coming out party. It was a beautiful fall afternoon, and once again, they opted to go to the stream which was quickly taking the temporary place of the Grotto on Corfu in Mark's heart. It was very quiet, it was very secluded and it was their "Secret" place to come and talk and think.

All three boys found a large tree and being the most experienced at tree climbing, Mark boosted both Mario and Stuart up the first limbs and then climbed up himself. The boys all climbed as high up the tree as they could and sat back against the trunk with their legs dangling over the limbs. Mark looked down. "If Nana was here right now she'd probably have a shit fit," he suggested. Mario was a little nervous. Stuart thought Mark was probably the bravest and most daring boy he ever met. His mother would never have allowed him up this dangerous tree.

At school, the boys all pretty much talked about their home life. Stuart heard about many of the lives of the boys in his class when they were at home, even Stuart talked about New Zealand. Mark on the other hand talked about Greece and Crete and his Family, but never talked about America and he was obviously an American boy. This intrigued not only Stuart, but a lot of the other boys as well. They all knew that America was the land of Cowboys and Indians, wild west shootouts, huge rock concerts and rockets going off to the moon from every street corner, but yet Mark never talked about any of it. "Did you go to a boarding school in America?" Stuart asked his friend innocently. Mark sort of smiled to himself. Yea, you could call it a boarding school he thought to himself. "No, I went to a public school," he told his friend. "Why did you leave America?" Stuart pressed. "I came back to Greece to live with my Father," Mark answered kind of wishing the subject could be changed. "What happened to your mother?" Stuart asked. Mark was extremely uncomfortable with the way the conversation was heading. "Stuart!" he said to his friend sharply, "I don't talk about my mother and I don't talk about America. EVER!" he told his friend.

Mark had never been sharp with the boy before and he was taken aback. For whatever reason, his friend was now mad at him and he wasn't really sure what he did to make him mad. "I'm sorry!" Stuart said. "Don't be sorry, just drop the questions, OK?" Mark replied. "What's wrong?" Mario asked as he saw the mood change from peaceful solitude to stressful tension between the two friends. "Nothing's wrong, he's just asking me questions I don't like," Mark replied. "About what?" Mario asked. Mark looked over to his friend. "About nobodies' fucking business!" he curtly told his friend. Both boys had now been blown out of their socks and neither one knew how they did it. Mark was too pissed to give a shit, and started climbing down the tree. "Come on," he said. "We're going to be late for Stuart's phone call."

Coming back into the house the look of the boys told Adell that all was not right. They had left in very good spirits, now, they were all much too quiet as Mark went straight upstairs saying nothing to anyone. Mario got a glass of water from the kitchen and came back into the living room. Stuart sat down in front of the fire looking into it in deep thought. What did he say that got Mark so angry with him so fast? Putting down her book, Adell looked over to Mario. "When boys are this quiet, something is usually wrong," she stated. "Mark got into a fight with Stuart and then he snapped at me," Mario told the woman. "Fight, what kind of a fight?" she asked. "I don't know, they were speaking English. But when I asked Mark why he was angry he got angry at me too!" Mario said. Adell knew she was getting no answers from Stuart, she couldn't speak to him. She decided she would find out for herself.

Mark had gone to the bedroom and was lying on the bed. He was pissed, but he was also sorry for yelling at his friends. Problem was, there was no way to resolve the problem, discussing his mother or America was out of the question. It was a closed chapter in his life and the end of the story.

"Only boys can leave friends and return an hour later at each other's throats," Adell said as she sat down on the bed and started to rub Mark's back. "Nobody's at anybody's throat Gramma," he said to the woman. "They think you are very angry with them. Why do they think that?" she asked the boy. "Because Stuart started asking me questions I don't answer," Mark said tersely. His tone told the woman all she needed to know. She picked up the boy's polo shirt and lifted it as high as she could get it while continuing to rub his back. Mark's body was about as tense as she had ever felt it.

"I think it's very reasonable for you to not want to bring up the past," she told the boy "But if your friends don't know not to ask you about it, is it their fault? Have you said to your friends at school that you don't want them to ask any questions?" she asked. Mark shook his head no. "You told me about some of your friends, doesn't that mean you asked them questions about their past?" she continued. "My past is different," Mark replied as he felt the welling build up in his eyes. "Yes, it is very different, but you owe it to your friends to let them know that being asked is something that makes you upset. If they're your friends, they'll accept that and not ask again. If they do, they deserve your anger," she counseled the boy.

Stuart's question touched a very raw nerve that Mark didn't really acknowledge he had. He never thought of his parents or family, when he did he very quickly shoved it to the back of his mind. There were no nightmares about Danamora, they were more like day dreams that he tore out of his mind as often as they appeared. He thought he built a brick wall between himself and his first 12 years, it was more like rice paper.

Adell moved up towards his upper body and lifted the boy's head into her lap. It might be the last time she would have to do this with Mark, but she doubted it. She had been through the exact same thing with Nicholas and Alexander and fully expected that any new boys would be just as emotionally destroyed by a Country and Judicial system that ripped children and families apart like toilet paper without giving them a second thought.

"When is it going to stop hurting so much?" Mark asked his Governess as he sobbed on her lap. "When am I going to stop wanting to see my mother again?" he asked her. "Time will ease the pain," the woman told Mark. "But I don't think you'll ever get over losing your mother. I don't think I would want to know a boy who could just wish his mother away," she told him.

Mark's unexpected blowup with Stuart and Mario strengthened their relationship in the end. Stuart would never learn of Mark's life in America, it would have served no purpose to either boy. Mario on the other hand would learn every detail as the boys' personal relationship grew. But the biggest winner was once again Adell as the woman's role in Mark's life was cemented. Mark's biggest fear from age 13 through 18 was that he would lose Adell and Stavros as he had lost his biological family to the Courts. Adell stood as a rock between Mark and his fears, and when he lost it, she was always there to bring him back to solid ground.

The evening, and even Stuart's phone call from his mother went smoothly, but nothing was really resolved between Mark and the two boys for the short term, it was more or less left to "Hang out" there as the boys returned to school the next day. In the meantime, this was the third or fourth emotional "Crash" that Adell had seen concerning Mark, and she placed a call to Greece.

Mark returned to school on Monday with Stuart and Mario and the boys were pretty much heroes to the boys in their Eighth Grade class. The "Care" package they requested from the local market had arrived on Saturday morning and one of the boys was there to receive it and bring it upstairs before the dorm parents were any the wiser. Just about everything the school banned was contained within that shipment and the boys were very proud of themselves for bringing off the coup. Mark acknowledged the accolades but his mind wasn't on the package, it wasn't on school either.

Mark's mind was still concentrating on the squabble he had with Stuart and Mario. While he knew neither boy was maliciously looking into his past, it was a closed chapter for him and he really didn't understand why he should have to explain anything to anyone. If Mario was his friend, he wouldn't ask. If Stuart was his friend, he wouldn't ask. To Mark it all seemed simple.

The school day ended as Mark and Mario went to Sergio's for their tutoring session. Sergio taught the boys Math, Italian and Greek. The day's session would contain none of that. As the boys undressed for class, Sergio would have had to have been a PH.D in American Elementary Early Education to have missed that there was something really wrong between Mark and Mario. Luckily for both boys, Sergio had never been exposed to the American educational system and he recognized that the boys needed to talk, not to be talked to.

As Mark took off his shoes and socks and basically looked down at the floor, Mario looked at his friend who really hadn't looked him in the eyes since yesterday. "Please tell me what I've done to make you angry with me," Mario said to Mark as his eyes filled up with tears and fell down his face. "I don't know what I said and I don't know how to make it right." Mark looked up at his friend and was a little surprised. He had been concentrating so deeply on his own thoughts not only on that day, but on the night before at his Grandmother's that he gave very little thought to Mario. "Mario, I'm not angry with you. It has nothing to do with you," Mark said as he reached out for his friend. "You're mad at me because I peed in your mouth. I promise I'll never do it again!" Mario said to his friend. Mark looked at the boy who still had tears streaming down his face. "Mario, what the hell are you talking about?" he asked. "Before I peed everything was fine between us. Now, you don't want to be my friend anymore!" Mario told his friend.

Mark's mind was knee deep in thoughts about his family, his past, his new relationship with Adell and Stavros, and now Mario was talking about peeing. If not for the tears flowing down his friend's face, he would have thrown his hands up in the air and left. "Mario, you didn't pee, you came," he told his friend. "I'm not angry at you for that, I'm glad you did!" he said. "Then why are you mad at me?" Mario asked again. Mark wrapped his arms around his friend and hugged him as hard as he possibly could. "You are my friend and you will always be my friend. I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at myself and it has nothing to do with you," he told the boy. Mark really didn't know how better to tell his friend what hurt him, he held him even tighter as both boys' shoulders knew the other was crying.

"Today's lessons we won't take here," Sergio said to the boys as he realized that whatever was going on between the two needed to be resolved before he was going to be receiving their undivided attention. "Let's tour the campus," he told the boys. Redressing, Mark and Mario took a tour of the campus of Turin for the next 90 minutes or so, saying little to each other, but then again, it wasn't necessary. The boys walked hand in hand with their tutor and took in the sights. It was enough to bring Mark back to Italy from America. Absolutely nothing was resolved, but it wasn't festering in Mark's mind either.

Arriving back at the house, Mark and Mario now faced a roommate who had pretty much been on his own for the past three to four hours with a class full of boys who wanted to know how his education had gone, and what he had learned. To say the least, Stuart was in a near panic. If he said anything, would Mark again go off on him? Would he lose the most important friend he had? Despite the fact that he was bombarded with questions from every angle, Stuart stalled the other boys all afternoon. When Mark and Mario finally returned, Stuart was pretty much an emotional train wreck.

"They keep asking me questions," Stuart said as his two friends sat down on the end of the bed as they entered the room. "I don't know what to tell them!" he exclaimed. "Questions about what?" Mark asked. "My sex education," Stuart responded. "Who's been asking you?" Mark asked. "Everybody!" Stuart said. Without a doubt, Mark liked the twins very much. But at the same time, he really didn't understand why they didn't realize that not everybody in the world wanted to fuck twenty-four hours a day. "Where are the twins?" Mark asked Jean-Paul as the boy entered the room. "Playing football the last time I saw them," the boy responded as he climbed out of his shorts and prepared for dinner. Mark looked over to Stuart. "We'll answer any questions after dinner," he told his friend as the four of them dressed.

Just before Mark left for the Dining Hall, Zachary came in from playing football on the field and headed for the showers full of dirt and mud. "Why the fuck is everybody asking Stuart about his personal business!" Mark demanded to know. Zachary was a little taken aback. He was in a great mood, they just mashed the other team into the ground and now Mark was coming at him like an enraged bull. "What's the matter, what are you talking about?" Zachary asked as he stooped to take off his shirt and shorts. "You know what the fuck I'm talking about, why did you tell everybody in the dorm about Stuart's personal business!" he again demanded.

At this point, Zachary was no longer in a good mood. To him. Mark was being an asshole, and besides, the other boys in the dorm who hadn't already left were watching the two boys as Mark screamed at him. "Fuck you!" Zachary said to Mark. "I didn't say shit to nobody. And besides, who the fuck are you; his fucking mother?"

Whether it was the last two days with Mark dealing with his argument with Mario and Stuart, or his mood, or the mention of mother, for the first time in Mark's life he struck the first blow in a fight. As Mario and Stuart and four other boys in the bathroom watched including Zachary's twin, Mark slapped him across the face sending the boy to the floor. Before Mark struck, Zachary was already off balance from taking off his clothing, and now finding himself on the floor with a stinging face, Zachary was one pissed off little dude. The smartest thing for Mark to have done would have been to leap on top of the twin and wrap himself up with him so he couldn't swing back. Mark, being no fighter, allowed Zachary to get back up on his feet.

Zachary charged Mark and pinned him to the bathroom wall and within moments, Mark had a fat bloody lip and a bleeding nose and Zachary was on top of Mark pounding away at his face and chest as Mark slid to the bathroom floor. Normally during a fight, Mack would have joined in with his twin and beat the hell out of the opponent. Mack didn't know exactly what was going on, but he did know his brother was in no danger, and that the other boy, their friend and roommate, was bleeding like a stuffed pig and not fighting back.

Mack pulled his brother off Mark while the other boys stopped Mark from continuing the fight. "What kind of fucking bloody bullshit is this?" Mack wanted to know of both boys as Zachary settled down a little and Mark collapsed sobbing on the bathroom floor. "He went nuts on me for no fucking reason!" Zachary screamed as he watched Mark's blood spread across the bathroom floor. "He started it, he hit me first!" the boy told his brother. Mark's blood scared the hell out of all the boys, including Zachary, but nobody more than Stuart who was very nearly hysterical. "Shit, get him out of here!" Mack directed Mario. Mack figured he was now bound for another school with his brother. They would all be expelled. "We have to clean this mess up!" he told his brother as he slowly released his grip from around his brother's arms. Realizing that Zachary wasn't going to climb back on top of Mark and continue the pounding, Mack went over to Mark. The boy didn't really look into Mark's eyes he concentrated on his bleeding lip, the mouthful of blood and the blood coming from Mark's nose. "Oh fuck!" he said as he brought Mark into the shower and lowered him to the floor beneath a shower head.

Mario brought Stuart downstairs and tried to calm him down as he called Adell. It took the woman ten minutes to get there with Emily and she entered the shower room about five seconds before the dorm mother. As far as Mack could recall the only time he saw his brother cry was when he fell out of a tree at around age nine and broke his arm. He watched Zachary cry now.

Upon seeing Adell coming into the shower room and kneeling beside him, Mark completely fell apart. The blood was pretty much gone, but the fat broken lip wasn't as Mark sat there soaked in his clothing. Adell wrapped him in her arms as Mark buried his face in the woman's chest and cried once again like a baby. He really didn't give a shit anymore who saw or heard him.

Adell was at a complete disadvantage in the school. Neither she nor Emily spoke Italian or English, they only spoke Greek. Nobody but Mark spoke English, and he wasn't about to become an interpreter anytime soon. "Get me a blanket!" she ordered Emily who brought one back from one of the rooms. Wrapping Mark up she lifted the boy up in her arms and began to leave as Mario came forward. "Nana, please take me with you!" the boy pleaded as she walked out of the bathroom. "Emily, take his hand!" she said as she walked out of the bathroom and down the stairs.

Mack watched as the two women walked down the stairs with Mark and Mario. He didn't have a clue what they said, but he knew that they were leaving and there were going to be more than a few questions asked really fucking fast. "Shit Zack, what the fuck was that all about?" he asked his brother. "He hit me, what the hell was I supposed to do?" Zack asked his brother as he wiped his eyes. "Well, we're out of here, you know that right?" Mack said to his brother. Zack dropped his head. "I didn't start the fucking fight!" he said to his brother. Mack knew damned well his brother was right, but he wondered where his new school was going to be.

As Adell opened the door to the house carrying Mark, the phone was already ringing. The woman had called Stavros to tell him she was going to get Mark, and now he wanted some answers. Rather than speculate, she put Mario on the phone. Initially Stavros was ready to immediately return to Turin and see to it that the boy who hurt his son was removed from the school. After Mario confirmed numerous times that Zachary didn't throw the first blow, and that Mark was the aggressor, he backed off. The call from Adell the night before, and now this incident told the man that he needed to deal with Mark's problem, not someone else's.

To both Adell and Stavros, they felt that Mark showed every sign of depression brought about by the loss of his mother. The boy was unable to deal with dueling feelings of loss, abandonment, guilt, shame and anger.

Normally, it's a fairly simple matter: hire the best psychiatrist you can and maybe even put the boy on medication. In this case, that was not an option. Mark was a boy from The Program as were his two brothers, and that's not something you want published in the newspapers anytime soon. If Mark was going to receive proper help, it was going to have to come from the real experts: Mark's caretaker and Doc from The Program. Phone calls from Greece started immediately.

Stavros's first call was to Sergio who told Mark's Father about the problems that day between Mark and Mario and how he handled it. Stavros asked the teacher to monitor the school's response to the fight and to intervene on Mark's behalf if necessary. There would be no formal complaint from Stavros concerning the fight. Luckily for Sergio, two of the boys who were in the bathroom when the fight started spoke Italian, so he could gather the details. Mario was with Adell, he would speak to Mario later. With Sergio, Stavros had to put on a balancing act. He needed the man's help, but the teacher knew nothing about The Program. Recalling Adell, Stavros told the woman that Sergio was now involved, but was not to become involved in any way with The Program or its existence.

News of the fight came in a report from the dorm parents to the Headmaster the following morning. Both Mark and Mario were gone, and Stavros was an extremely powerful man who could cost the school hundreds of thousands of Lira. He didn't take the news very well. He scheduled a meeting with the twins and all the boys who were at the fight and he would get to the bottom of it. Hopefully, none of the parents would present a formal complaint. If that happened, somebody was getting expelled.

The twins and the boys in the dorm now also had a problem of their own. Questions were going to be asked, and one didn't simply respond that a fight was over whether another boy was ready to fuck or not. Any discussion about sex with the school was strictly out of the question. Fortunately for the boys, the first staff member they had a private conversation with was Sergio who had spoken with Mario and knew the gory details. On initial contact, the twins and other boys in the dorm were dumbfounded by Mark's attack, they didn't have a clue why he was so upset. Nothing was wrong, and nothing was said to him, he just attacked Zachary out of the blue the boys all told the teacher as they sat there looking completely and totally mystified.

Sergio had been in contact with boys who could "Clam up" before, and he figured he was standing before some fairly inept specimens. The school was not about to buy this load of garbage, they would just dig deeper and maybe even find out what they really didn't want to know. "I've spoken to Mario," the teacher began. "I know precisely why the fight started and he also told me that Mark struck first." With those words, Zachary and Mack were much more at ease.

They were surprised, as all the boys were, that the teacher seemed to "Know" the real story and they were still not quite convinced that he really did. The teacher's next statement erased any and all doubt: the teacher knew everything without question. "You will be asked about the fight by the Headmaster and nothing about Stuart can ever be mentioned," he continued. "I believe the fight was over a football game and that Mark was upset because he was on the losing team's side," Sergio told the boys. The boys all looked at each other. Mack smiled. He liked this teacher!

Because no formal complaint concerning the fight was made by any parent, the incident was over as far as the school was concerned. Mark was forbidden to play football for one month for losing his temper and would apologize to the boy he hit. The twins' blood pressure returned to normal. So did the Headmaster's.

Mark's wounds were limited to some scratch marks and a very fat lip where his tooth sliced into it. He didn't really care about the beating, he always knew that either twin could take him in a fight, he never really had any fights to speak of before, he just wasn't a fighter and he knew it. His real pain still came from within himself. The slightest jogging of memories of his mother weren't lessening with time, they were growing and he was doing everything within his power to stop them and to shove them to the very back of his mind.

Mark's night ended after Adell gave him a bath and managed to get the boy to eat a little soup and he fell asleep between Mario and Adell in the woman's bed which was quickly becoming his only known refuge from what felt to him like extreme loneliness and homesickness that he hadn't experienced since he first went to jail.

Mark awoke with Mario watching him. "Hi," his friend said as he gave him a little smile. Mario wasn't sure exactly what mood Mark was going to wake up in. Mark reached out for his friend and the two boys embraced not speaking initially. After a few minutes Mark spoke first. "I guess I really fucked up with Zachary," he said to his friend. Mario said nothing, Mark had "Fucked up." "I spoke with your Poppa last night," Mario told his friend. "He's going to have Sergio talk to the other boys today." "Is he angry at me?" Mark wanted to know. "No, but he was surprised that you started the fight." Mark closed his eyes. "What do you think the school is going to do with me?" he asked his friend. "I don't know, let's see what Sergio says about it. He's coming over at lunchtime," Mario replied.

Adell now came into the room and sat down on her bed next to Mark. As their eyes met, Mark was ashamed of himself and started to well up inside. "I'm sorry Gramma," he said to the woman. "What is done is done Mark, You don't have to keep beating yourself sick over it. It's a new day, and you will move on," she told the boy as she bent down and kissed him on the forehead. "Come, we take showers and then you eat. You ate like a bird yesterday and that's not good," she said as she raised him up and cradled him in her arms.

As the woman washed Mark, he stood there in deep thought. "What's going to happen at school?" he asked. "Sergio is coming over at lunch and we will know then. Your Father wants you back in school, but if that doesn't happen, we go home," Adell told him. That information now got Mario's blood pressure rising. "If Mark leaves, so do I!" he declared to the woman.

"Talking about anybody leaving is premature," the Governess told both boys. "First, we talk to your teacher."

Lunch with Sergio brought both Adell and Stavros up to speed on what was transpiring at school as a conference call was made to Greece. Mark spoke to his Father for the first time, and somehow Mark got through the conversation without too many tears. Mario's Father was also in on the call and if Mark was out, Mario would also return to Greece. Sergio had more than enough boys to tutor, but he had absolutely no intentions of losing these two students if he could prevent it.

Sergio explained the boys' "Story" as he outlined to the entire Eighth Grade class, and it would be the "Official" version of what transpired the day before in the bathroom. "I do not think anyone will be expelled for a sports argument, if it did, the school would be barren," Sergio reported to Stavros. "I think that it's important for the boys to return to school this afternoon with me and we can get this thing resolved," Sergio suggested. Stavros, Adell and Mario's Father all agreed.

Mark's meeting with the Headmaster was a heads bowed affair. The "Story" was followed as the twins stood there. The Headmaster needed to have all the I's dotted and the t's crossed so he first called the twins' parents in Australia. The reaction from them was two-fold. First, boys will be boys and getting into fights over sports is nothing and no harm was done. Second, the Headmaster didn't take into consideration the time zone difference and woke the both of them from a sound sleep for basically nothing. The boys both spoke to their parents and naturally, their Father wanted to know who won the fight.

Next Stavros was called and apologized for his son's loss of temper. Mark was instructed to apologize to Zachary and the "Official" apology was tame compared to the private one back at the dorm.

Mario's Father was called and the Headmaster was feeling fairly confident after receiving the apology from Stavros. He chided the boy for leaving school without permission and Mario's Father promptly informed him that where Mark goes, Mario follows. The entire way home if need be. The Headmaster got the message. The incident over, now all that needed to be done was solve Mark's problem.

At this point it was clear to Adell and Stavros that all they were doing was putting out small fires, but somewhere deep inside the boy an inferno was raging and it would most certainly reappear. Stavros was very much in contact with the Program's administrators, he was still actively searching for two more boys of Greek heritage. The Administrators had made millions from Stavros for Nicholas, Alexander and Mark, and there were millions more to be made. Keeping Stavros happy was a major concern to them. An equally major concern was The Program's Security. If it failed, there were going to be many people destroyed and in jail. Stavros wanted to have Mark evaluated and maybe even counseled by Doc and the boy's caretaker, Michael. It was an unprecedented request, one normally dismissed as too dangerous. Nevertheless, this was Stavros making the request and it was presented to the Senior Administrators.

It took almost a week for Doc to finally receive all the information he needed from Stavros and Adell before he was ready to present the problem to Michael and a team of senior caretakers. For security reasons, neither man knew where Mark specifically was, only that he was in a boarding school and came home for weekends to be with Adell. They also knew that Mark was with Alexander a great deal of the time and that both boys got along extremely well. The picture they got was that Mark was in a situational loss and was trying to resolve his biological family's abandonment of him against his growing feelings for his new family, very specifically, Adell. The woman was replacing his mother and his feelings of guilt over that was overwhelming him. The question now became, how was it corrected?

The consensus of opinion was that due to the relationship between Mark and Michael, Michael was the only person that could "Reach" Mark in any meaningful and therapeutic way. Furthermore, the two needed to be face to face. The Administrators agreed to let Mark return to Elmira to be with Michael.

Adell flipped out at the suggestion of returning Mark to America. Even the suggestion by Stavros that she could travel with him did not appease her, she flatly refused to consider it. "Let them bring him here!" she insisted. The request from Stavros to have Michael travel to Europe sent shockwaves throughout The Program. The security risk was immense.

"Suppose he decides to stay there?" one Administrator asked the Senior Administrator who would make the final decision. "Doc says there's no chance of that," he said to the assembled men. The man doubted that. "Let's see, I'm in prison for the rest of my natural life and I find myself in Europe where nobody can touch me. Do I stay there, or do I come back to America and prison?" He told the men. "Then, we have a loose cannon floating all over the deck ready to sink us all!" "The analogy is a good and sound one if we're talking about some scumbag sitting in Downstate, or Attica, or Danamora," the Senior Administrator said. "But we're talking about a man who has ties to probably more than a hundred boys out in the field and relocated around the world. The only way those ties remain in place is through The Program. If he runs, he loses any hope of contact with those boys," he said. "Michael isn't going to run, those boys are his life!"

The decision wasn't unanimous, but it was made. Michael would be secretly flown to Europe and meet with Mark in an undisclosed location. He would have a "Friend" accompany him.

Mark's return to the dorm after the fight was an emotional one for Mark and Zachary. Both boys liked each other, and besides the fight, they got along very well. More than anything else, Zachary was hurt by Mark's lashing out at him: he couldn't understand what made him do it. Mark's teacher had suggested that the nature of the questions were what got Mark upset, but that didn't make any sense at all to the twins, they asked and answered questions all the time from Mark and the other boys, it never bothered anybody including Mark. "Mark is very sensitive about his mother," Sergio told him and the other boys. "Keep her out of the conversations, and he'll be fine with the questions," the teacher suggested.

"I'm really sorry!" Mark said to the twin as the two finally got a chance to speak to each other alone. "Me too," Zachary told his friend. "I promise I won't belt you again even if you start it." Mark smiled a little as Zachary pulled up his lip to look at the small healing wound on his upper lip. "Does it hurt?" he asked. "Only when I eat something salty," Mark replied.

At about that time, Stuart came back from class and walked into the room. He was happy to see Mark, but unsure how Mark was going to react. For the past few days, Mark seemed to not want to be his friend anymore, or was getting into a fight over him. To say the very least, Stuart was confused and leery. "Hi," Mark said to the boy as he came into the room and put his books down on the bed. "Hi," Stuart responded. Mark could see the distinct look of uncertainty in his friend's eyes. "Come here Stuart. Please," he asked. Stuart had not been in the Headmaster's office, he was specifically excluded from any mention of involvement in the fight and had been at school all day long. He didn't know anything about what had transpired. As he approached Mark, Mark wrapped his arms around his friend and pulled him into himself. "I'm sorry Stuart, I didn't mean to be angry with you the other day," he told the little boy. "Have you been expelled?" Stuart asked his friend. Mark shook his head. "No, I had to apologize to Zachary for starting the fight and I can't play soccer for a month," he said. Stuart smiled once he realized the punishment. "But you don't play soccer!" he said with a grin. Mark smiled. "But the Headmaster thinks I do!" The sound of boys giggling once again filled the dorm.

Mark's fight with Zachary had a few immediate effects, some of which weren't really noticed for a few days. For one, Mark wasn't nearly as open in his relationships with the other boys as he had been prior to the fight. It almost seemed as if he was keeping himself at arms distance from them. Before the fight, Mark would have been one of the first boys with his pants off. Now, his pants still came off, but almost exclusively with Mario and then only at night in their bed. Sebastian noticed the difference as did Jean-Paul and the twins. The biggest loser was Stuart. To the other boys, delving into Stuart's sexuality was the root cause of Mark's blowup, so to avoid a repetition, they avoided involving Stuart. Mark's distancing compounded Stuart's problem, because now, even Mark was not available to discuss anything with him. Stuart was beginning to feel like a leper.

Chapter Six

The trip to the market for the week's care package went as planned and along with anchovies and tampons, the list was submitted. Emily was passed the list and took a quick look at it. "Tampons?" she said. "Why are you buying tampons?" Mark needed to think real fast. "We need it for class. It's for sex education." Emily didn't believe in the tooth fairy and she didn't believe Mark either. The store owner was only too happy to fill the order, it was twice as big as the weeks before and the profit margin on soda and candy was larger than the one for groceries; with or without the tampons.

As the car pulled up the driveway to the house Alexander was already in the driveway ready to pounce on the car. He was told about Mark's blowups and was instructed to tread very softly. The fewer questions the better; questions were what always sparked Mark's wrath. Mario stood by as Mark and Alexander embraced. The boy couldn't imagine what the reception would be like after a month or two separation, Mark and Alexander were together with Mario just two weeks ago and to Mario it looked like Alexander had been gone for a year. Alexander was just as happy to see Mario and planted a kiss on the boy that brothers rarely share together. After Alexander finally let Mario up for air, Mario looked at Adell. If she didn't like Alexander and him together, she wasn't showing it much he thought to himself. "Change for dinner," Adell told the boys. With Emily driving for six hours to pick up Alexander in Nice, they would go to the Hotel in Turin every other Friday and it was now becoming routine. Adell liked the Palace Hotel, they had altered some menu items for her, and she was eating Greek food that she really enjoyed.

Adell and Emily's chief job that weekend was to monitor Mark's behavior and demeanor and report it back to Stavros who would pass it on to The Program. Unknown to Mark, the decision had already been made to arrange a meeting in Europe between Mark and Michael, his primary Caretaker. Michael would need all the information available concerning Mark when they would meet just one week later. For one thing, Alexander was a rock to Mark's stability; Alexander had been through The Program and was, like Mark, a ringed boy. Mark never had to be on the defensive with Alexander, his brother already knew all the answers to any questions, so Mark never had to answer any. Mark's second rock was Adell.

By the time dinner was over and they were back at the house, the groundskeeper had loaded all four fireplaces with wood and they were all burning brightly as the boys entered the living room and laid down on the floor. Fall was coming fast and there was a nip in the air. All three boys loved the fireplaces, especially the one in their bedroom that seemed to hypnotize them to sleep. Much of dinner was spent with Alexander telling of his week's activities. Now, the conversation was switching as he ran out of things to tell Mark and Mario. "How is your school going? Are you learning a bunch of Italian yet?" Alexander asked. Mark continued to look at the fire as all three boys laid in front of it on their stomachs. "Nana told you about it didn't she," Mark said not really presenting it as question. Adell looked up from her book.

"She told me you got into a fight and now it's over," Alexander replied. Adell started breathing again. "Did she tell you why?" Mark asked. "No, you tell me why," Alexander answered. "Everybody wants to know everyone's personal business. I just got mad when they wouldn't stop asking questions," Mark replied. "Some times my friends do that to me too," Alexander replied. "I just tell them it's none of their business and that's the end of it," he told his brother. Mark looked over to his brother. "Did Gramma tell you to say that?" he asked. "Gramma?" Alexander asked. "Nana!" Mark replied. Alexander had never heard Mark refer to Adell as Gramma; they had always called her Nana. "Nana didn't tell me to say anything. I just told you what I tell my friends," he replied. "Really?" Mark asked. "I swear," Alexander assured Mark. "Did you hear about his terrible punishment?" Mario interjected. "No. You were punished by the school?" Alexander asked his brother. "Yes, I'm not allowed to play soccer for a month," Mark responded.

There was about a three second pause in the conversation until the message sunk into Alexander's brain and then the giggling started until all three boys were rolling around the floor in laughter. "That's like telling me I'm not allowed to do homework," Alexander finally was able to say as the laughter subsided and Adell got up from her chair. "It's bath time for you jokers," she said as she and Emily got up and headed for the upstairs bathroom with the boys still giggling behind them.

Adell was very happy with the conversation mainly because Mark did not switch to English with his brother which would have left her in the dark. The fact that Mark was comfortable enough to have the talk with his brother and leave her in the loop saved a whole lot of time and demonstrated Mark's level of comfort with his Governess. During showers, she had another demonstration concerning levels of comfort when Emily washed Alexander as Adell washed Mario. Erections were nothing new to either woman when they washed the boys, particularly at nighttime. Morning showers usually saw limp biscuits once their bladders were empty, but evening showers always seemed to arrive just before the boys knew they were about to romp.

Morning or evening, Alexander was usually standing proud, but it's fairly easy to overlook on a boy with little attributes, Alexander was getting to the point were he was anything but little. Whether it was in the genes or the constant exercise, Adell was going to be buying Alexander the large sized Trojans to bring back to school with him very soon. Emily had been washing Alexander on and off for almost two years now, and it wasn't getting any easier as the boy developed.

Mario looked over to Alexander. Adell was washing his groin area and all his inhibitions were already out the window. "Emily, should we talk to Nana now?" he asked the woman. Emily looked over to Mario who was obviously interested in pursuing his relationship with Alexander. "No, it's a private matter," Emily said. "What's a private matter?" Adell asked. "Sex," Mario responded. Adell looked over at Mark who was sitting down in the tub waiting for Mario to finish being washed. "Should we wait to discuss this?" Adell asked Mark not knowing if he was involved or not. "It doesn't matter, we are private," Mark responded. Emily knew everything Adell did almost, it was pointless to leave her out, she would know exactly what they were doing anyway, Mark thought to himself.

Adell looked at Mario. "What about sex?" she asked the boy. "Is Alexander too old for me?" Mario asked. Adell now understood Emily's response. "If you are uncomfortable, I will understand," she told the girl. "I can finish up if you don't want to hear any of this," she continued. "If the boys are OK with my being here, I'm fine," Emily responded. Adell nodded. "Today, he is not too old for you, but he turns 16 very shortly and then he will be too old for you," she told the boy. "What happens then?" Mario asked. "Then boys will not make him happy, girls will," she said very matter-of-factly. "When you and Mark turn 16, the same thing will happen to the both of you. It is life," she said.

Alexander stood there listening to the conversation which pretty much flowed directly to him and his penis. "Nana has secretly installed a little switch inside our bodies," Alexander said with a very straight face. "When she throws that switch, the only thing you're going to want to do it with is a girl," he told the boy who was taking the conversation very seriously up to that point in time. Mark, Alexander and Emily now started giggling as both Adell and Mario stood there. "Don't pay any attention to them," Adell told Mario. "When the time is right, you will know where your cock wants to play," she told the boy. "But tonight?" Mario asked. "Tonight is your private business. When Alexander is too old for you we will no longer bed you together," she told him. "Is that how it happened with my Poppa and uncle Stavros," the boy asked. "What happened between your Poppa and their Poppa is their private business. If you want to know anything about that, you have to ask your Poppa," she said. "We are discussing what you do together, not what someone else does." Mario understood.

With a kiss goodnight from Adell, the boys stretched out on the bed and watched the fire glowing in the fireplace. "Do you think she's right?" Mario asked Alexander as the boys laid there with their heads propped up in their hands. "She's always right, but I don't really feel like never having sex with boys again," Alexander told him very candidly. "What about girls?" Mario asked. "We fuck girls at school, but it's different," Alexander told him. "You always have to be very careful that you don't get them pissed off at you or that you don't pay enough attention to them," he said. "They can be a pain in the ass but they're great to fuck if you don't get them pregnant." At that point, Mark was reminded. "Guess who can now give a girl a very fat belly!" he told his brother. Alexander looked over to Mario. "You're coming?" he asked the boy. Mario put on a huge grin. "Since last week!" he declared very proudly. "No shit!" Alexander said as he rolled Mario over and looked at the boy's balls. "Who took your cherry?" he asked as he looked over to Mark. "Mark's the only boy I do it with," Mario said as he reached down for Mark's penis and squeezed it softly in his hand. "What do you mean? We fuck!" Alexander said to him. "I mean at school, not here," Mario corrected himself. "Did you come a lot when you did it the first time?" Alexander wanted to know. "I don't know," Mario said. "How come?" Alexander pressed. "I swallowed it," Mark said. "Shit, I bet that felt good," Alexander said to Mario. Mario once again smiled. "Let's prove it!" Alexander said as he opened Mario's legs and slid in between them with Mario's penis reaching for the ceiling. As Alexander peeled down Mario's foreskin he sucked the boy's now bare penis head through his teeth and over his tongue as he took Mario down to the boy's groin. While Mark gave Mario French kissing lessons, Mario's first ejaculation of the night erupted about three minutes later and Alexander had ample proof of the boy's new ability to produce offspring. The boys were put to bed by about 9:00. Closer to midnight, Alexander was the last one awake comfortably attached to his brother as he held Mark's genitals securely in his hands. Mark slept like a baby for the first time in very many days.

Mark awoke with Alexander attached to Mario. Both boys were sound asleep as Mark leaned over and kissed Mario awake. Getting up, Mark went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. As he stood before the toilet Adell came in with a handful of towels and soap. Kissing the boy as he pissed, she looked at his urine satisfied that he was drinking properly. "We'll wash you while the other lazy bum gets himself awake," she said to the boy with a slight smile on her face. "How did you sleep?" she asked Mark as she began shampooing the boy's hair. "With Alexander, I always sleep very well," he told his Governess. "When you install that switch, it better be a big one!" he joked. Adell giggled a little with Mark as both Mario and Alexander now surrounded the bowl and let the river flow. Adell went over to the two. She was happy with Mario, not so happy with Alexander. "Drink more water and milk," she told Alexander. "What are you drinking at that school?" she asked. "Soda and wine," Alexander said. "Forget the soda," she told him.

Emily came into the bathroom and she took charge of washing Mario. The boy was still interested in picking Adell's brain regarding sex, and after the night before, even more so. Mario had never had the opportunity, but he would have taken any girl to bed that agreed. He liked the way they looked and he liked the breasts on Emily that he was looking down on as she washed the boy now. Emily smiled as she watched his three inches or so blossom in the shower as she washed him oblivious to the boy's new view.

"Nana, do we have to wait until we're 16 to have sex with girls?" Adell looked up from washing Mark. "Why, do you have someone in mind?" she asked the boy. Mario blushed a little as everybody else in the bathroom had a chuckle at his expense. "No, I just wanted to know if girls would have sex before then," he told the woman. "It's up to the girl, but they usually want to do the same things boys do by about age 12 or 13. It depends upon the girl and her family," she told him. "But how do you get a girl to do it?" he asked. "How do you get a boy to do it?" Adell responded. "You ask him, and if he says yes, you fuck," Mario told her. It was now Emily's turn to blush and it didn't escape Adell's attention. "Do you want to go downstairs and fix breakfast?" the woman asked the girl. "It's OK, I have four brothers and they all talk like this," she responded.

"Girls are a little different than boys. With girls you have to be a little more careful," Adell told Mario. "Yeah, you gotta beg them!" Alexander responded. Adell looked over to Alexander who was sitting on the toilet seat waiting his turn to be washed. "Girls take sex a little more seriously than boys do," she said as she turned back to Mario. "Don't pay any attention to Alexander, he still thinks girls only play jump rope and sneer at all the boys." Alexander now jumped in again. "The ones at Saint Cecelia certainly do!" Adell ignored the boy. "For boys sex is a toy and a game. For girls it is the beginning of their Motherhood. Boys have sex to feel good, girls have sex to fall in love, marry and have children," she told him. "But I'm only 12!" Mario said. "Boys don't marry at 12, some girls do. My Mother gave birth to me when she was 13," Adell told the boy. "How old was your Mother?" Mario asked Emily. "I am the second oldest," Emily said. "I was born when my Mother was 15," she told the boy. "How old was your Father when you were born?" he asked her. "When I was born, my Father was 21. He married my Mother at age 17," she said. Mario was extremely good with numbers. "Your mother was 11 when she married?" Mario asked. "Yes, and 12 when she gave birth to my older brother." Adell looked over to Alexander. "Maybe she didn't go to Saint Cecelia," she said.

Mark's mood had taken a distinct turn for the better. The banter and cajoling that went on between Adell and Alexander rarely stopped, and he loved the feeling of love, warmth and candidness that existed between him and everybody else in the house. He did not have to hide who he was or what he did, he did not have to evade questions from anyone, he was just Mark and he was free of worry.

After showers and breakfast the entire household took a trip to the Alps to see the turning of the leaves as well as to check out the ski areas they would be going to from school during the coming winter. Mario had never been on skies before, so he would learn with both Alexander and Mark teaching him. Adell chose Sestriere as her resort of choice, and located a chalet on the mountain. Like the house in Turin, it had a magnificent view and a fireplace that could warm any boy's chilly buns after a day on the slopes. The chalet also had an outside Jacuzzi and heated swimming pool that was surrounded in very tall glass and heated to a temperature that had steam rising from the water. In the dead of winter, you could swim in the pool outside and still be toasty warm. Mark watched as Alexander looked at the Jacuzzi and adjusted his pants. "Have you ever been in a Jacuzzi?" his brother asked Mark. The boy didn't know it, but he was in for a rare treat as soon as Alexander got him naked. "No," Mark replied. "Just wait!" Alexander responded and left it at that.

Mark very much looked forward to the coming winter and to his brother Nicholas's wedding on Corfu during Christmas break, he would be able to invite six of his friends to the wedding from school, and it was going to be a huge party!

By the time the boys returned to the house, it was close to 10:00 and nobody got to bed before 10:30. By that time, even Alexander was tired and fell fast asleep with Mark on one side of him and Mario on the other. With Alexander on his back and Mark on his stomach, Mark was draped half way across his brother's chest and watched the fire in the fireplace while listening to his brother's breathing getting deeper and deeper into sleep. Mario was already asleep as Mark lay there with the boy deep in thought. The past week had not been a good one for him, he had fought with Stuart, he fought with Zachary and he even fought with Mario. Alexander was his brother and loved by Mark. Mario was now his best friend. Mark wondered if Alexander was there the weekend before, would he have fought with him too? Mark couldn't imagine it, but he also couldn't imagine fighting with Mario either. What was wrong with him? Mark looked at his friend who had one leg over Alexander's, and his head nestled under his brother's armpit. He had to figure out how to avoid last week's anger, Mario was much too important to him to lose because he drove him away.

Sunday morning dawned a little late, Adell came in the bedroom twice before the boys finally started to roust themselves out of bed. Much to Mark's surprise, his side of the bed was dry. This happened occasionally, but not all that often and when it did, Adell took note of it. "Your body is ready to hold all your water through the night if you want it to," she told the boy as she washed him. "What about mine?" Mario asked. "I don't know," the woman told him. "You just peed five minutes ago. The next time you feel that you have to pee again, come see me before you go," she told the boy.

"What do you mean if I want it to?" Mark asked. "Your body can be trained to hold the necessary water to keep you dry through the night," she told the boys. Alexander giggled. "Nana means she's going to fill you with so much water during the day that your tonsils are going to float away," he told the boys. "When she trained me and Nicky, we thought we were water balloons!" he laughed. "Stick a washcloth in his mouth," Adell told Emily as Mark and Mario giggled along with Emily.

Adell's task during the weekend was to monitor not only Mark's behavior but his interaction between his brother and Mario. While the boys would have liked to go to their favorite spot at the stream, Adell convinced them that they should take a hike through the countryside instead, and that she and Emily would join them since the women really needed the exercise. Adell did a hell of a lot of mumbling under her breath for the next three hours, but she did manage to keep up with the boys as they walked, talked and played with each other with the women following along the roads, trails and countryside of Turin. At age 17, Emily had no problem with the hike. Adell on the other hand hoped she'd never have to take another one by the time lunch came around and they were back at the house.

Alexander's departure with Emily for his return trip to Nice was delayed until 2:00 in the afternoon. It was three hours each way, and Adell didn't like the idea that Emily would be returning to Turin largely in darkness. Alexander's departure went smoother than it did two weeks earlier. Adell didn't quite feel the resistance on the boy's part to return to school that she usually felt.

5 hours later, she received a phone call from Emily. The two had encountered severe rainstorms on the trip and were only now in Savonna. They were still a good hour from Nice and the storm was not abating. Adell instructed Emily to check into a hotel for the night and return Alexander to school in the morning when the weather improved.

Mark and Mario returned to school Monday morning by cab since Emily was still trying to get Alexander back to Nice. Adell's morning was spent coordinating Alexander's return to Nice and submitting her report to Stavros concerning Mark's weekend. The storm had subsided on the coast and Alexander was back in school by noon. Emily was back in Turin by mid afternoon.

Mark's return to school was once again met with a whole bunch of smiles between the boys. They had once again received the "Care" package from the grocery store and by now, just about every single boy in the Eighth Grade had his own personal stash of contraband. Knowing full well that Adell would detect any soda in their systems, both Mark and Mario did not buy soda, but they did buy ample supplies of candy and comics and maybe a pack or two of cigarettes.

Mark's first real opportunity to speak with Stuart privately came just before dinner when the boys were getting dressed after school. "How was your weekend?" Mark asked his friend as they dressed. "Do you care?" Stuart responded. Mark looked at the boy who continued to put on his shoes and tie them sitting on his bed. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Stuart was pissed, and Mark damned well knew it. He sat down alongside the boy as he continued to fumble with his shoelaces. "Stuart, you would have been able to come with me if my brother wasn't coming too," he told his friend. "Then how come Mario went with you and not me!" the boy retorted. "Stuart, if Mario stayed here, what would you say to him?" Mark responded. "If Mario stayed here, what would anybody in the dorm say to him?" he again asked the boy. "Nobody but me speaks Greek in the dorm and he would have been left totally alone. You weren't totally alone, you speak English. He doesn't speak anything but Greek!" Stuart thought for more than a few moments. "If he spoke English or Italian he wouldn't have gone with you?" the boy asked. Deep inside, Mark knew very well that if Mario knew every single language on the planet, he wanted him with him and he would have taken him with him. That was something he certainly couldn't say to Stuart.

At the same time, he knew that Mario was in fact alone in the dorm with regards to language, so Mark responded. "No, if there was someone else who could talk to him, he would have stayed here with you." Stuart was happy with the response and left Mark feeling like a fucking heel. Mark was back at school and he was lying and hiding and burying himself in guilt once again and it was only Monday. His mood was once again turning gray.

After showers, Mark sat on his bed listening to Stuart reciting his Italian lessons as Zachary came in and dried himself off as he sat down beside Mark. "How did your weekend go?" Zack asked. Mark told his friend about the visit to the Alps and the chalet. The twins skied the year before in France and were looking forward to skiing again, so Zack was excited about that aspect, but he was more interested in his friend's current frame of mind. The last time Mark came home, he was attacked. "We looked after Stuart, nobody bothered him at all," Zack told his friend. Mark looked over to the boy reciting his Italian. "You know he's not like us," Mark said to the twin. "What do you mean?" the boy asked. "We fuck at the drop of a hat and don't give a shit about it," he said to his friend. "If Stuart starts fucking because everyone else is, he's going to end up hating himself. Or us," Mark said.

Zachary wasn't quite following Mark's train of thought. "We all starting fucking sometime, why would Stuart think anything different about it than we do?" he asked. "Because we weren't brought up to believe that sex was dirty and evil and disgusting and the worst thing on the planet, Stuart was thanks to his fucking mother," Mark replied. "OK, so what now?" Zachary asked. "It's going to be silly for us to pretend that we don't do things with each other, he's going to see it. But it doesn't mean we have to fuck him," Mark said. "Even if he wants to, we shouldn't fuck him." Zachary looked at his friend. "Is that what your Grandmother suggested?" he asked. "No, my Grandmother told him all about sex and stuff, but she never said anything about us not doing anything with him," Mark replied. "Your Grandmother knows you fuck?" Zachary asked. Mark looked at Zachary. "Does your mother know you fuck?" he asked. Zachary smiled. "Touché" he said to his friend. That afternoon an agreement was struck between Mark and Zachary. Stuart would be off limits to the Eighth Grade boys of Turin when it came to anal sex. Everything else was on the table, but Stuart would not be allowed to be entered nor could he fuck another boy. Stuart knew none of this and completed the Eighth Grade a "Virgin" at least by Adell's standards.

Bed time came with a very determined Stuart. He had lost his friend for the weekend, but he was now back and the boy was going to ensure that he received the lion's share of his attention. As the lights went out, Stuart climbed on top of Mark and wrapped his arms around Mark's chest. "I missed you all weekend," Stuart said as he nestled into Mark's chest. To say the least, Mark's feelings were ambivalent. Like any other boy in the dorm, he would have screwed Stuart's balls off in an instant and loved it, but something within him made him back off. Taking Stuart would have been easy, taking Stuart would have been a betrayal. Maybe not to the boy on top of him, but to himself.

Mark adjusted Stuart's body so that his head was just below Mark's chin. Mark opened his legs and Stuart sled between them and came to rest with Mark's penis somewhere around Stuart's navel. "I'm going with you next weekend right?" Stuart asked his friend. Mark kissed the top of Stuart's head. "Yes, you can come with us next week," Mark replied. "Now go to sleep," he told his friend. Stuart smiled to himself as he lay on top of his friend. He had made many friends in the house, but somehow, Mark was different. Picking up his head, he kissed Mark on the sternum and put his face back down on his friend's chest. He didn't have the foggiest clue why, but he knew Mark would always be there for him.

The school week saw little change for Mark, he became more proficient in Italian more out of necessity than scholarly pursuit, if he wanted to go to the bathroom or eat something, Italian was becoming increasingly more important to learn, and when it came to finding friends at night to play with, once Stuart was sound asleep, he was free. Still, Mark stuck very close to Mario, and rarely ventured out of his room with the twins and Jean-Paul so close by.

On Friday, Mark, Mario and Stuart were waiting at Sergio's for Emily to pick them up. "He can't go," Adell said as she got out of the car. Mark was surprised to see Adell there, the woman had never been there before when she picked the boys up from school. "Gramma, I promised him," Mark said to the woman. "We have private business this weekend, he cannot come!" the woman said. Mark looked at Stuart. How the fuck could he possibly tell the boy that he wasn't going once again? "Gramma, please!" Mark asked the woman. Adell was adamant. "Not this weekend Mark!" she told the boy. Mark once again looked at Stuart who was oblivious as to what was being said. If Stuart wasn't going this weekend, he wouldn't be going next weekend either since Alexander was going to be back. How could Mark possibly justify that to his friend since he promised him? Mark stepped away from the car. "I'm sorry Gramma, but if he doesn't come, neither do I!" "Nana, he made a promise. He can't go back on that!" Mario interjected into the discourse between Mark and his Governess. Adell clenched her teeth and closed her eyes. "Bring him!" she said as she got back into the car. Neither Mark nor Mario doubted that Adell was now very pissed.

It was a very quiet ride back to the house and for one, Mark was damned glad it was over as the boys mounted the stairs to the second floor and prepared for dinner. "Did I do something wrong?" Stuart asked as he got out of his school uniform and put on a pair of Mario's pants and shirt for dinner. Mark sat down on the end of the bed and pulled his friend to him. "In this house, you can't do anything wrong. Mario and I love you, my Grandmother loves you and that's all that matters!" he told the boy. As Stuart hugged his friend around the neck, Adell came into the boys' room. "Your Poppa needs to talk to you," the woman said to Mark. Mark arose from the bed after he kissed Stuart not really knowing if he were going to meet his Father in person or talk to him on the phone. Nothing to that point would have surprised him; he was beyond surprises and beyond caring. Mark was bone tired of the subterfuge and deception; he just wanted the bullshit to end.

Mark followed his Governess to the library and the woman handed the boy a phone. "Poppa?" Mark asked. "How are you Mark?" His Father asked. "I'm fine Poppa, how are you?" Mark responded. Stavros pretty much ignored Mark's last comment. "Nana isn't very happy that you brought another boy to the house this weekend," the man told his son. "Poppa, Nana knows the boy and he was here two weeks ago," Mark said to his Father. "I know all about Stuart, and all about what is going on between him and Nana. But this weekend Nana told you that you had private business. Is that right?" he asked Mark. "Yes Poppa," Mark replied. "Mark. In the future, if a member of the family tells you that you have private business to attend to, you will never again bring in someone from outside of the family. Do you understand that?" The man told his son. The weight of the phone in Mark's hand became unbearable to the boy and it dropped in his lap as he closed his eyes to shut out the tears. His Father was pissed at him, his grandmother was pissed at him and he was being told to abandon his friend. Mark didn't exactly know where he really wanted to be, but it wasn't there. Mark hung his head as the tears once again fell from his eyes just as they had the weekend before. Adell picked up the phone from his lap and spoke to the man on the other end. All Mark heard his Governess say over and over was "Yes Stavros." Putting the phone back on the hook, Adell sat down next to Mark and wrapped her arms around the boy. "Your Poppa isn't angry at you. He's very concerned that you are unhappy and has brought someone this weekend for you to speak to," she told the boys as she wiped his face with her handkerchief. Stuart may not see this man, and he will stay here with Mario tomorrow when you talk to him," she told the boy. "What man?" Mark asked as he stopped his crying. "Someone that your Poppa has spent a great deal of money on to come here and talk to you. You will see him tomorrow," she told the boy. "Who is he?" Mark asked again. "Tomorrow," Adell said as she arose from the bed. "Come, its dinner time," as she took Mark by the hand.

It was still dark outside when Adell came into the bedroom and woke Mark up from a fitful sleep for the boy. He woke up many times during the night and got up and walked out on the balcony outside his room. It was very chilly, but Mark ignored the cold. His thoughts were of pissing off the people he loved, and how it really bothered him. Adell and Stavros were the last people on earth he wanted mad at him, yet they were. "What's wrong with me?" was the question running over and over in his mind, and he didn't come up with any answers.

Half asleep Adell showered him and got him dressed. "Where am I going?" Mark asked. "You have a meeting in Sestriere at the chalet. Emily will drive you and I will have to stay here and take care of Mario and Stuart," the woman told the boy. "Who do I have a meeting with?" Mark asked more curious than ever. "Someone your Poppa has a very great deal of confidence in. You will know him when you see him," Adell said cryptically.

The drive to Sestriere was a little over an hour from Turin into the Alps, and Mark was in front of the chalet by 9:00 in the morning. Opening the car door, Emily told Mark she would return to pick him up and that he should go directly into the chalet. With an overnight bag that Adell had packed for him, Mark walked to the front door of the chalet as Emily watched him. "Hello Mark, please come in," a man said as the door opened when Mark reached the front stoops. Mark never saw the man before in his life. The man extended his hand to the boy who shook it. "My name is Jack," he said as he took Mark's bag from him. "There's someone in the Library who wants to see you," he said as he pointed to the door. "Who wants to see me?" Mark asked the stranger. "An old friend of yours," the man told him.

Mark walked up to the library and looked in back of him. The stranger was headed for the upstairs bedroom with Mark's overnight bag. Mark opened the door and stepped in. Standing in front of the fireplace was a man with his back to Mark but something about the man's hair caught his eye. The man had a ski sweater on and his hair was tucked under the sweater. It was obviously very long and very familiar looking to Mark as he walked closer. "Michael?" Mark asked. The man turned around and Mark was completely stunned as his caretaker from Elmira stood in front of him. Mark was speechless as the sight of the man was lost in a blur of water as the boy's tears fell down his cheeks like rain in a thunderstorm. Michael took the three or four steps necessary to sweep Mark off his feet and into his arms as he hugged the boy who had now completely broken down in sobs at the sight of his caretaker. Speaking was useless for the time being and Michael sat down in a large stuffed chair and let Mark's crying subside before he even tried to communicate with the child.

Once the decision was made to send Michael to Europe, The Program's Administrators needed to figure out how to get the convicted felon who was serving a life term in prison through Customs in both the United States and France. Minor details like the man not having a passport, driver's license or any form of identification might have seemed bothersome to some, but not to the Department of Corrections. Michael traveled as an undercover agent working on a case about an International art theft ring dealing with stolen works of art belonging to the Louvre. With a round trip ticket on the French Concorde, Michael didn't come into the Country under the radar; he came directly through it with handshakes by French and American Customs.

It took almost a half hour before Michael could even begin talking to Mark, and once the talking started, it didn't stop for another hour. Mark was extremely happy with his decision to leave America and be adopted by Stavros. He loved the man and his Governess. He loved his brothers, especially Alexander and he even liked school to a degree. He was making friends, and they were very good friends. Michael did a whole lot of listening and spent most of the morning feeding back to Mark every positive thing the boy commented about. By lunch time, Michael had all the information he needed concerning Mark and after lunch, he would begin tearing down the walls the boy had built around himself and explain to the boy what was making him so very unhappy.

Most of lunch was spent with Michael filling Mark in on the boys who were still in The Program. The boys would be returning to Elmira for Christmas which was now only nine weeks away and Michael promised Mark he would let Mark's friends know he was very well and very happy. As the stranger who opened the door at the chalet went to the restroom, Mark asked who the man was. "He's a guard," Michael responded. Mark kind of thought so.

Once back at the chalet, Michael went into high gear with Mark, he was leaving for America the following morning and he had, at best, eight or ten hours to steer the boy back on track. In the team's opinion, if Mark didn't resolve his issues he was very likely going to become severely depressed, if not manic.

"How much do you trust me?" Michael asked the boy as they sat together on a couch in the living room. Mark was sandwiched between his caretaker's legs as Michael wrapped his arms around the boy and kissed the top of his head as he spoke to him. "Completely," Mark instantly replied. "OK, so this is the way I see it and why you are sometimes unhappy and don't know why," he told the boy. "You love your new home and the people around you, you already told me that all morning," he said to the child. "You also have another family that very deep inside, you're trying to hold onto at the same time," Michael said. "When your brain starts to realize that it can't be done, you become very sad inside and you either fight it or get very depressed about it. From the time you were born until age 11 you had a very good and loving family. Through no fault of yours or theirs, that family was ripped apart and they are gone. Now, you must move on with your life and make a new one. That's not something that's easy to do, but it's something you have to do if you ever want to be happy again," Michael counseled Mark.

"Now, you have a new family and new friends that love you just as deeply as you love them and you have to know that they will always be there for you from now on," he said to the boy. "I think that one of the major reasons you are reluctant to let yourself be happy with your new family is because you think that maybe they too will be taken away or disappear from your life, and Mark, that's just not going to happen. Things aren't the same here in Europe as they are in America, kids just don't get taken away from their parents for silly stupid reasons. Stavros would never abandon you and I don't think you could get Adell out of your life if you wanted her to."

"I've seen hundreds of boys go through The Program and the three luckiest boys of them all are Nicholas, Alexander and now you. Stavros is one of the most powerful men in Greece and he's your legally adopted Father. Nobody could take you away from him," Michael told him.

Mark listened as once again his tears streamed down and burned his cheeks in their heat. For four hours the two talked, mostly Michael. By 6:00 it was dinner time and the resort's kitchen brought in a meal and right after dinner, the guard went back to trying to figure out what the television was saying as Michael and Mark got back to their conversation.

"Doc and I believe that you can resolve the conflict within you all by yourself. But if you can't and you need some help, Doc has sent a "Shake" recipe to Adell that will help you if you start feeling bad or angry," he told the boy. "You mean like Sean and Conner's shake?" Mark asked. "Well, Sean and Conner's shake was to help them gain weight. Your shake would help you feel better about yourself," he told the boy.

To a person, Doc, Michael, Adell and Stavros didn't like the idea of giving Mark anti-depressants, but if Mark made the request, he would be put on medication. "See how it goes when you return, and if you decide you want the help, all you have to do is ask Adell for Doc's shake and she'll make sure that the school has it for you during the week," Michael said to the boy.

Bedtime came for Mark with Michael right after a phone call to Greece and Turin. Emily would come for Mark by 8:00 in the morning and Michael would be flying back to the United States by mid afternoon. Michael would sleep in New York Sunday night after waking up in the Italian Alps that morning.

"Am I going to see you again?" Mark asked as the two settled into bed and pulled up the covers. "If you asked me that question back in July when you left America, I would have said no," Michael responded. "You are a very lucky little boy because you are surrounded now with people who love you a very great deal. If I needed to see you again, I ‘m sure Stavros would see to it," he told his friend. "But if I did, it would mean that you were in very poor spirits, so I hope that we don't need to see each other for many years to come," he said. "You just need to keep in mind that Doc and I are watching very closely, and if something's wrong, we know about it almost instantly and we're working to fix it with your Father and Adell."

By the time Michael and Mark were almost ready to fall off to sleep Michael curled the boy up in front of him and tightly wrapped his hands around Mark's chest area. Taking Mark's hand in his he placed it over the boy's heart where Michael knew the boy could feel it beating. Michael gently kissed Mark on the side of the boy's neck. "Every year I have to say goodbye to almost a hundred people that I love very, very much. People like you, and Alec, Aaron, Jimmy, Conner and Sean. I found a little trick that helps me stop feeling very sad when I think about all of you," Michael told the boy. "Want to know how I do it?" he asked. Mark said nothing, he nodded his head yes. "A long time ago when I was a boy your age I lost my Grandmother and it made me really sad. I loved her a whole lot and she was very special to me. I cried for a long time and eventually my Mother told me that the best way to remember my Grandmother was to imagine that my heart was like a big dresser full of tiny little drawers. If I put my love for my Grandmother in a drawer and locked the drawer she would always stay in my heart and I'd know she was all right. If I wanted to check and see if she was alright, all I had to do was put my hand over my heart and if it was beating, everything was fine." Michael paused for a few seconds and then continued. "Feel your heart beating?" he asked the boy. "Yes Michael," Mark said. "Now, every time I have to say goodbye to someone like you, I put my love for them in a drawer and close it until I see them again. I think if you put your love for your Family where you know it's going to be kept safe, it will help you as much as it's helped me." Michael again kissed Mark on the side of his neck and hugged him just a little bit. "Think about it Mark," he told the boy.

Mark was quiet for probably two or three minutes and then turned himself around. Laying his caretaker flat, he slid up on top of the man and stared at him nose to nose saying nothing. Mark smiled at his caretaker and gave him a kiss from his heart. Wrapping his arms around Michael, he laid his head down on the man's chest and listened to his heartbeat while Michael caressed the boy's temple and ear. It would be just over ten years before he would see the man again, for the Millennium.

Promptly at 8:00 Emily drove up the driveway to the chalet as the guard brought Mark's overnight bag to the car. Mark wasn't the happiest boy in the world at leaving, but neither did he fall apart. He knew exactly how Alexander felt when returning to school. Carried to the car by Michael, Mark kissed the man goodbye knowing it would probably be the last time. Backing away from his face, Mark lifted his left hand and showed the man his ring. "It will never come off," he vowed to the man. Michael kissed him on the forehead and put him down on the ground. "I love you too," Michael said as he opened the car door and Mark slipped in.

Walking back to the chalet the guard said "Cute kid, I've never seen one worth over a million five before." Michael didn't put a dollar figure on his boys; they were all priceless to him.

Mark's return to Adell went very smoothly. In his absence, Adell had taken the boys to Turin and brought Stuart some clothing. Mark wasn't overly talkative, but Adell learned enough from the boy to know that Michael had broken through a lot of barriers that Mark never acknowledged before, let alone discussed. Mark also told her about Doc's shake. Of the four adults, she was the most opposed to anti-depressants; she prayed he didn't ask for them. It would now be a waiting game to see if Michael did the trick, if Mark were going to blow, it could happen in an hour, a day, a week or a month or even longer.

The rest of the day went smoothly as Stuart was taken to the stream. He liked his new clothes, the pants had zippers on them that worked and his underpants weren't sewn shut. Quite incredibly, Stuart stood by a tree and pissed on it standing up and holding his penis in his hand for the first time without having to drop his pants to the floor and sit down on a toilet bowl. Stuart would be turning 12 in a few weeks, it was about time he learned how to piss properly Mark thought to himself.

Bed time was quieter than normal, Stuart and Mario fell asleep watching the fire as Mark lay there deep in thought about his conversation with his caretaker. By 11:00 Mark awoke and went out on the verandah. It was getting very nippy at night, and being naked, he didn't last all that long outside. For a few minutes he sat in front of the fireplace watching the fire die down to burning embers. Over and over, he listened to the words spoken by Michael replay in his mind. He could almost even smell Michael's cologne again.

Eventually he got up and looked back towards his bed. Mario had one arm around the sleeping Stuart and Mark smiled to himself. He liked both boys very much, he kind of wished he could sleep as peacefully as they were now. Mark's mind drifted to thoughts of Adell. Sleeping with her always made him feel really wanted. Mark crawled into bed with Adell and curled up alongside the woman, Mark laid his head down on her chest like he remembered doing with his Mother when he was a little smaller. Adell wrapped her arms around him and kissed the top of his head. "Are you all right?" she asked him. Mark didn't answer verbally, he turned his head and kissed her on the breast and closed his eyes. Mark fell asleep as his hand felt the beating of her heart under his hand as it rested over the top of it. He slept as soundly as Mario and Stuart as he envisioned a very large dresser with a whole bunch of little drawers in it. One drawer was closed and locked.

Mark's return to school with his friends went routinely as did the week. Much to the twins' delight, Mark seemed to be his same old self and except for the restriction on Stuart, everybody got exactly what they wanted when they wanted it. Even Sebastian was back in the room more often than not and the twins kept his testicles very busy making new supplies as fast as they could.

Three weeks passed and it was once again time to return to Adell, and it was once again Alexander's week to visit. Stuart separated without incident, knowing that he would go the following weekend. Emily picked the boys up and it seemed to Mark that the woman was pre-occupied with something. She was pleasant, but distant. The weekend went very smoothly and routinely and Mark returned to school with Mario on Monday morning. On Monday evening, the roof fell in over Adell.

The woman awoke around 2:00 a.m. thirsty. For her, this was highly unusual; she rarely got up in the middle of the night. Getting up, she went to the kitchen and got herself a glass of ice water and was returning to bed when she noticed that Emily's bedroom light was still on. Emily never slept with the light on, and Adell tapped on the door. Not receiving an answer, she went into the girl's room. Emily was on the bed lying on top of the covers and she held a piece of paper in her hand. "I'm sorry" was all it said. Adell didn't quite understand what was going on until she looked at the nightstand next to the bed where an open bottle of sleeping pills sat half empty. She looked down at the semi-conscious girl now realizing that Emily was attempting suicide.

Slapping and shaking the girl to try to get her awake Emily finally got the girl to the bathroom and draped her over the toilet. The woman knew enough to know that the sleeping pills would kill the girl unless she got them out. She turned on the tap water and made a mixture of liquid soap and warm water and literally poured it down the girl's throat. Two glasses later, Emily started puking warm water, soap and sleeping pills galore.

Stripping herself naked, Adell then undressed the girl and for the next hour or so, sat on the floor of the shower feeding Emily water as a fast as the girl threw it back up. Adell stopped forcing water on Emily only when the soap bubbles in Emily's barf cleared up completely. Emily was half convinced the woman was trying to drown her but she was too incoherent to fight.

By 4 a.m. Emily was back in bed under covers and still too emotionally upset for Adell to deal with. Adell made her first call to Greece and spoke to Maria, the housekeeper on Corfu. She instructed the woman to have the Family Physician call her immediately or find another client. The phone rang in less than three minutes and after listening to Adell told her it would probably be safe to allow Emily to sleep if Adell felt that the girl took no more than the 15 or so pills in the bottle. "If she still appears "Doped up" the girl should be taken to the emergency ward and have her stomach pumped," the Doctor told her. "Find me a Greek Doctor here in turn and get him here right away," the woman told the man. "But Adell, it's not even 6:00," he said. "I didn't ask you for the time, get me a Doctor here that I can talk to God Dammit!" and she slammed down the phone.

With the excitement over Adell now started shaking. She had never been in this position before and didn't like it. With Emily still crying, she got a cold wash cloth and sat down alongside the girl and put it on her forehead. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Emily kept repeating over and over as the woman tried to hush her. "Ssshh, don't worry, it's all right," the woman said. "Calm down and rest," she told the girl as she stroked her hair and rubbed her arm. Adell reached over and shut off the lamp next to the bed. Besides the light from the bathroom, it was much darker and slowly Emily's protest and crying faded over the next few minutes. By 5:00 Emily was in a restless sleep and Adell could finally start thinking again. The first thing she did was to throw the remaining sleeping pills down the toilet. On her way back out of the bathroom a box in the wastebasket caught her eye and she bent down and picked it up. There were two boxes, both pregnancy tests and both now empty. It answered a whole lot of questions for the woman.

By 5:30 a knock on the door brought a Doctor and his nurse. The man was a Greek National. Checking Emily's pulse, blood pressure and heart, he was satisfied that it was safe to let the girl continue to sleep until he learned a few facts. He began with Adell on the wrong foot. "It is mandatory that this be reported to the Ministry of Health," he said. "You will report nothing. You haven't been here and you've never seen this girl!" Adell told the man point blank. "Madam," the Doctor began to say when Adell interrupted him. "This girl is the ward of Stavros 3; 3; 3; 3; ," she told the man. "If this is reported, he will not take it too kindly." The Doctor looked at the woman for quite a few seconds. Then he looked over to Emily. "As you wish madam," he said. "What did she take?" the Doctor asked. Adell gave him the empty vial. "All of them?" he asked. "No, I threw out 14 of them, she swallowed 16 and I made her sick to get them out of her stomach," she told the man. "How did you get her sick?" he asked. "Warm water and soap," Adell told him. He looked back at the girl. "Yes, that will certainly do it." "Do you know why she tried to kill herself?" he asked. Adell shook her head. It was none of his business as far as she was concerned, he was here to make sure she was safe, not conduct an inquiry. "If the soap got into her system, she's going to have diarrhea. Give her as much liquids as she'll drink and I suggest she be taken to a professional counselor for help," he told the woman. "I would not leave her alone for at least the next few days." "Brilliant!" Adell thought to herself.

With the Doctor gone, Adell returned to the bedroom and picked up in the room and cleaned the bathroom. It was close to 7:00 by the time she got the opportunity to lay down and fell asleep next to Emily. Less than an hour later, the phone rang. Stavros was on the other end. "Dr. Stephanopolis called me 15 minutes ago. What's going on up there?" he asked. Adell explained her night to Stavros. She left out the part about the pregnancy test kits. The man's next ten or so questions were all answered the same way. "I don't know yet Stavros." The man was very exasperated. "Should I come up there?" he asked his Governess. "Let me find out exactly what's going on, and as soon as I know, we'll figure out what to do about it," she suggested. "What I am going to need is more help. Send Lydia and Rachael up here as soon as possible," she told the man. "They will be there this afternoon," he told the woman. "Nana, Dr. Stephanopolis says that you threatened the Doctor he sent to you. Is that true?" he asked. "I didn't threaten him, you did," Adell said as she hung up the phone.

As Adell got off the phone, Emily awoke and almost immediately started crying into her pillow as she held it over her face. Adell took a washcloth and basin from the bathroom and filled it with warm water and began washing the girl. Emily was racked with guilt and shame and couldn't possibly face Adell who was now giving her more of a massage than a sponge bath. Adell had no clue how to talk to a suicidal person. What was good to say to them? What was taboo? What would make them feel better? How did you get them to stop crying long enough to talk to them? Adell decided that the best tactic was to let the girl start talking when she was ready to.

Beginning at the neck, Emily's well seemed to run a little dry by the time Adell had reached her knees and the pillow began to fall back towards the bed. Pulling the covers back up above the girl's breasts, Adell took a clean washcloth and draped it across Emily's forehead and over her eyes. Adell could now talk to the girl while the girl avoided direct eye contact with the woman. Very much to Adell's surprise, it worked. "I will have to leave," Emily began. "If you decide to leave after you are well, you have that right, but you do not have to leave as far as Stavros or I am concerned," the woman said picking and choosing her words very carefully and deliberately.

"I betrayed my trust, I have to leave," Emily persisted in saying while chocking back another bout of crying. "I know of no trust that you've broken," Adell said as she massaged the girl's neck with a washcloth. "I'm going to have a baby, I'm pregnant," Emily said as her hands covered her eyes in deep shame. Adell had a burning question in her mind, but didn't quite know how to ask it yet. The girl had been in Italy now for three full months if she got pregnant in Greece, she must have known about it for weeks now. If she got pregnant in Italy, where the hell did she find the time or the man? The two of them were always together and Emily never went out on dates that she knew about.

"Being pregnant and having a baby is no reason to try to harm yourself Emily," she said to the girl. "Many girls have babies without getting married, that carries no shame anymore." "My Father will disown me," she cried, "so will Stavros." Adell now felt that she was on fairly solid ground. "I don't know how your Father will react. If he really loves you, he may be hurt, but he wouldn't disown you," she told her. "As far as Stavros is concerned, he would never condemn you for being pregnant." "You don't understand, you don't understand!" the girl repeated several times. "What don't I understand?" Adell asked the girl. "I had sex with Alexander, the baby is his!" she said just before she fell apart once again.

Adell's mind went fairly numb. There had to be a mistake. Her head dropped and she felt herself crying now. "When did you have sex with Alexander?" she now asked, no longer thinking out her strategy well in advance of the questions. "Weeks ago in the hotel in Savonna when we stopped for the storm," Emily finally answered the woman. "Are you sure that Alexander is the Father?" she asked. "I was a virgin; Alexander is the only man I've ever slept with," Emily said. "Alexander deflowered you?" Adell asked almost robotically. "Yes," Emily said in between sobs. "Did you tell him you were a virgin before he took your maidenhood?" Adell pressed. "Yes, but he said he loved me!" Emily responded. Adell closed her eyes and now sobbed in her own hands. Her plans for Alexander were down the tubes. This was something Stavros was NOT going to be taking very lightly.

It took Adell a good ten or 15 minutes to get her wits about her and when she did, it was time to start rebuilding and pick up the pieces. Stavros was sending two more women to Turin and Adell now had a 17 year old pregnant girl on her hands. The baby was a fact, now what the hell were they going to do about it? "We will face what we have to face together," Adell told the girl. "Help me make some breakfast and we will see what the Doctor has to say. Lydia and Rachael are arriving this afternoon, they are on their way," she said to Emily. "I can't see them!" Emily told the woman. "You can't hide your head in shame for the next nine months either. You are pregnant and there is a baby to be born," she said.

One hour later, Emily was in the Doctor's office who confirmed her pregnancy. The girl was four to five weeks pregnant. She received some vitamins and some booklets on childbirth. Since she was a little girl she lived and dreamed for this moment, now it was happening in shame and disgrace. The ride home was not a happy or dry one.

On returning home, Adell called Stavros. Lydia and Rachael would arrive in the early afternoon. He now wanted to get on the next plane for Turin himself. "Stavros, the girl is very upset and very fragile right now. Let the women take care of her for now until we get things under control," she said. "Right now, your presence would only make the girl feel that much worse." "What the hell am I supposed to do?" Stavros asked very exasperated at doing nothing. "Give me a few days, she needs to calm down before she faces you and her Father," the woman told him. "And Alexander?" the man asked. "Let's get all the facts first and then you can confront Alexander," Adell replied. Stavros agreed.

Lydia and Rachael arrived at the house by cab and the two girls were immediately brought up to speed by Adell. They were very used to the woman speaking her mind and speaking bluntly, but she seemed even more blunt now. "First, you work for Stavros and you are entrusted with keeping his confidentiality and privacy," she began. "If you feel you cannot fulfill that responsibility, I need to know it now and you will be returned to Greece." Both girls looked at each other. "Emily is pregnant and she says that Alexander is the Father. I have no reason to doubt her word." Both girls looked a little stunned. "Now, are you returning to Greece?" she asked the two. Both girls again looked at each other. "No," they both said almost simultaneously. "Good. As you can understand, Emily is very upset by all of this. She is very ashamed and very hard on herself. You will do nothing to upset her in any way," she told the girls. "For the next few days, Emily will not be left completely alone. Somebody must be with her at all times," Adell instructed. "Rachael you take over the kitchen and Lydia will tend to Emily. Emily's duties are suspended," she told the girls.

Decisions needed to be made, and first and foremost, was the question of the baby. The decision concerning the baby was primarily Emily's to make, but the matter was complicated by Adell's knowledge that Emily was a virgin and lost her virginity to Alexander. If Emily wasn't a virgin the decision would have been an easy one for Adell; recommend that the baby be aborted, fire Emily, have the Wrath of God come crashing down on top of Alexander's ass for screwing the help and move on.

That option for Adell was now out the window. She knew it was also out of the question for Stavros as well. Emily had joined Stavros's household at age 15. She came from a good family and was no run of the mill street girl. The girl would be disgraced by that action, and would most probably try to harm herself again, maybe successfully this time. If Emily agreed, Alexander was not only a new daddy, he was a new husband as well. Alexander was no longer a child or a boy in Adell's mind; he was a man even if he was only 15 years old!

Adell's first duty was to find out exactly what Emily was going to do about the baby and she went to Emily's room. Entering the room, Adell was not extremely happy to find all three girls crying together. She needed to talk, not to have everybody falling apart around her, and this wasn't helping. "I need to talk to Emily," she told Lydia and Rachael as she ushered the two to the door and closed it behind her. Sitting down on the bed, she dried Emily's face. "We need to make decisions, and we can't do that if we cry over something that we can't do anything about anymore," she told the girl.

"The options are that you can terminate the pregnancy, you can have the baby and give it up for adoption, you can have the baby and raise it yourself, or you can have the baby and marry Alexander," she told the girl. "Whatever you decide, Stavros will accept and provide the necessary support," she said. "But Alexander is only 15 years old," Emily said. "Alexander is the Father of your child. When he gave you a child, he was no longer a boy," Adell told her. "You need to think about what you want to do, whatever you decide I will support," Adell told the girl as she kissed her on the forehead. "I want a promise from you," Adell said as she arose from the girl's bed. "I want you to promise me you will not try to harm yourself again," Adell said. Emily nodded her head. "Good. Get some rest, I will have the girls come back up to keep you company." "Adell, would you have an abortion?" Emily asked the woman. "No, I would not," Adell said. The woman was not against abortion. Regardless of how the baby was conceived, it was Stavros's Grandchild. Abortion for her would not have been an option to consider, but that choice was not hers to make.

Before the end of the day, Emily ruled out abortion. She didn't know what she was going to do with the baby, but it would be born. Adell's next task was how to deal with Emily's Family. Adell did not know Emily was a virgin, but apparently, all Emily's sisters were raised to remain virgins until they were married. The picture Adell got of Emily's Father was that he was quite strict, and she in fact may very well be disowned when he found out she was pregnant and unmarried. Adell decided that Emily's Father was best left to Stavros. Since Emily was 17, he had to be spoken to and informed and that was a man's job and not a woman's. Since Emily was just four weeks pregnant, Adell suggested that Stavros wait until the baby was at least eight weeks old. If the baby was lost, there would be no need to involve the Father. Stavros liked the evasion and adopted it.

Stavros then brought up the matter of the pregnancy. The man wanted Adell's opinion regarding the girl. Did she think the pregnancy was something planned? Did she think the suicide attempt was staged? If Emily married Alexander, she was going to become an extremely rich young woman. Was this a set-up? Adell on her own had asked herself the exact same questions. Having one of Stavros's boy's babies was most certainly a ticket to paradise for any girl. These were very legitimate questions.

"I don't think Emily is the kind of girl who would do something like that," Adell told the man. "I think Emily was seduced into allowing herself to be deflowered," she said. "The suicide attempt wasn't staged, if I didn't wake up for water, she would have been dead in the morning," Adell told him. Stavros respected and accepted Adell's opinions. If Emily chose to marry Alexander, she would be accepted into the family.

Alexander was the responsibility of Stavros to deal with, the boy needed to be confronted and take responsibility for Emily. The girl was now carrying not only his child, but Stavros's Grandchild. Abortion had been ruled out by the Mother, so now, either the baby was going to be kept by his Mother, adopted out, or, Alexander had a wife. Emily decided by Wednesday that if Alexander did not marry her, she would raise the baby herself. By Thursday morning, Alexander was put on a plane from Nice to Corfu and didn't have a clue why his Father had recalled him to Greece.

Maria's husband picked up Alexander from the airport and drove Alexander back to the house with Stavros waiting for his son in the Library. His Father's demeanor told Alexander he wasn't on a social visit. Like Adell, Stavros no longer thought of his son as a child or a boy. He did not talk to him any longer like he was either. "How many times does it take for a man to make a girl pregnant when they have sex?" Stavros began the conversation. Alexander thought it was a strange question, but he responded. "Just once Poppa." "And if a man takes a virgin and makes her pregnant, what is his responsibility?" Stavros asked his son. Alexander was now getting very worried. "Why are you asking me these questions Poppa?" he asked. "Emily tried to kill herself because she is pregnant," Stavros told his son. "Pregnant?" Alexander said as his eyes started to glaze over. "Yes, she's been pregnant since Savonna," Stavros said. Alexander hung his head in shame and cried into his hands. "Emily says she told you she was a virgin. Is she lying Alexander?" the man asked. "No Poppa," the boy said in between sobs.

"Alexander, you're old enough to have babies, you're old enough to stop crying!" Stavros said as he handed his son a handkerchief. Once Alexander composed himself as best he could his Father once again spoke to him. "I won't tell you that I'm not deeply disappointed that you took a girl's virginity who was saving herself for marriage," he said to his son. "There are thousands of girls out there who would gladly lay with you for sex. Why would you chose to take a virgin without a thought regarding the girl?" he pressed his son. "Even worse, Emily works for me and I'm responsible for her to her Father," he continued. Alexander wasn't sure what he could say or what his father wanted to hear that would make him happy. To the boy, Savonna was but one more night of sex. Now, a baby was involved, and everybody was freaking out on him.

"We leave for Turin tomorrow. You will need to get together with Nana before you speak to Emily. She is now in charge of Emily, and you will follow her advice." Up to this point in time, Alexander forgot about Adell. Now he realized he was in really deep shit! He was not looking forward to tomorrow. "Emily has not made up her mind yet, but if she chooses to marry you, you will be married as soon as it can be arranged," Stavros told his son. "Married?" Alexander said to his Father. "But I'm still in school Poppa," the boy said. "Yes, and you will remain in school. Except you will be married," Stavros told the boy.

With Emily's decision to have the baby and not put it up for adoption, there were now only two choices left: either the girl would raise the child on her own as an unmarried woman or she would marry the Father of her baby and be saved from disgrace. As a woman, Adell had more empathy for Emily than she did for Alexander. Alexander chose to deflower a virgin. He now had responsibility to that virgin. To the woman, it was black and white. She loved Alexander greatly, but he had taken onto himself new responsibilities, and he would step up to the plate and meet them.

Mark was really looking forward to the weekend, the school week had gone especially well, and he looked forward to spending it with Mario and his brother. In third session, Mark received a message from his Grandmother. An emergency had arisen and he would not be going home for the weekend. Mark looked at the note and went to the office to call home. Expecting to be speaking with either Adell or Emily, Mark heard a strange voice answering the phone. "Put Nana on the phone," Mark told Rachael. "Gramma, what's the emergency?" Mark asked his Governess. Rarely did Adell lie to the boys but these were rare times. "Emily is sick and it would be better if you didn't come this weekend," she told the boy. "Who answered the phone?" Mark now asked. "That was Rachael, she's here to help me with Emily," the woman responded. "What's the matter with Emily?" Mark now asked his Governess.

Basically, Adell was out of answers because she realized that one answer would beget another question from the boy. Mark wasn't stupid, and he wanted to know why he wasn't going home for the weekend. "Emily doesn't feel well," the woman said to the boy. "Is Alexander coming this weekend?" Mark asked. "Yes," Adell responded. There was a long silence on the phone until Mark was ready to speak. "I'm coming home Gramma. Send the car for me or I will take a cab," he told his Governess. The last thing Adell needed was for Mark to be home that weekend, but she also didn't want to risk the chance of Mark going off again either. "I will send the car for you," she responded and hung up without saying goodbye.

Rachael picked up Stavros and Alexander at the airport and the three were back at the house before 3:00, two hours before Mark would arrive. The last person in the world Alexander wanted to face was Adell, but here he was with Stavros and Adell in the library as his Grandmother cried wrapped in Stavros's arms. Alexander felt like the lowest person on the earth, but was receiving no comfort from his Grandmother. After Stavros calmed Adell down to a reasonable state, he went upstairs leaving the woman alone with the boy. This Alexander dreaded more than anything. "I don't understand Alexander," the woman said to him after she composed herself. "Having sex with girls is natural for a boy your age, but why would you take a girl knowing she's a virgin and saving herself?" she began. "Aren't there enough girls in Nice who will drop their pants for you? How could you possibly deflower Emily?" The boy had nothing to say and no way to defend himself. In the heat of passion he was told that the girl was a virgin, but he was way beyond stopping at that point. "She's not Claudia who gives herself up in a barn or some schoolgirl who counts her triumphs by how many boys she let's enter her!" The woman said as the tears dripped onto Alexander's lap as he sat in the chair with his head bowed. "Now she's pregnant and tries to kill herself because of her shame!"

Stavros went upstairs to Emily's room and the two girls closed the door behind them leaving the man and girl alone to talk. Emily was deeply ashamed of herself, she allowed the man's son to have sex with her and now he stood before her. Stavros sat down on the bed next to the girl and took her in his arms. Rocking her gently, he let the crying abate before he even tried to communicate with her. "I will be furious with you if you try to harm yourself and your baby. Whatever happens, you are very important to us and we will always stand by you," he told the girl. Once again, the only words the girl could say was "I'm sorry!" The man took the girl's face in his two hands. "You did nothing wrong. You told Alexander you were a virgin and he should have immediately stopped. You did not give up your virginity, it was taken. Alexander will stand up and do the honorable thing if that is what you want him to do." "But all of the plans that have been made for him," Emily said. Stavros interrupted the girl. "Alexander changed his plans himself when he chose to continue. Now he's going to be a Father and some things will have to be altered concerning his plans," the man told the girl. "I don't yet know what the legalities are here in Italy, but if you cannot get married here, you will return to Greece and marry there," Stavros said. "Once you are married, I will speak with your Father for you," he told the girl. Once again, the tears came. "My Father will beat me with his strap if he learns I'm pregnant!" she told the man. "Once you are married, your Father will no longer beat you," Stavros said to her. "Once you are married to my son, you are my daughter not his and you are a part of my house."

Plans needed to be made, and Stavros had already started making plans before he left Greece. In all likelihood, the girl would want to be married to save face and that meant Alexander would marry her. Alexander would continue school in France but he would become a day student living in a house with his wife. Stavros was already on the hunt for a house in Nice that would be big enough for Emily and a housekeeper, probably Lydia, her best friend. Alexander's bi-weekly visits to Turin would end, so would his relationship with Mark. Alexander was a man now making babies. Not a child romping with his friends and brothers. Stavros anticipated an overnight transition on Alexander's part, and he recognized that the hardest hit would be Mark. Mark and Alexander were close to inseparable. As far as Stavros was concerned, Alexander's impending fatherhood couldn't have come at a worse time, but parents don't make that decision.

Once Adell and Stavros's meeting was over with Alexander and Emily it was time for the two to get together themselves. Emily had not yet made her decision concerning marrying Alexander, but Alexander was told by both Adell and Stavros that his decision had already been made if Emily approved. When he took her virginity, he had agreed to marry her. Now it was his duty to convince the girl that he wanted her to marry him. At 15 and 17 years of age, it was a very awkward meeting basically between two children who were about to have another one.

When Mark arrived, Alexander was still up with Emily in her room. Mark was stunned to see his Father and immediately assumed it was due to his meeting with Michael. Leaping into his Father's arms, he hugged the man as tightly as he could. "Thank you for bringing Michael to see me," he said to the man as he kissed him repeatedly. Once Mark was finished, Stavros picked up Mario and gave the boy a big hug and kiss and told him that his Father would be coming the following week for a visit. Mario was ecstatic at the news and immediately went to the library to call home.

Adell came from the Library and Mark now latched himself on to the woman for her embrace. One look told Mark she wasn't overjoyed at seeing him, in fact, to Mark it looked like the woman had been crying in the not too distant past. "I'm sorry Gramma, but I had to come!" Mark said as he backed away from the woman. "How's Emily?" Mark asked.

Adell didn't answer the boy, Stavros instead took Mark's hand. "Let's go for a walk, I want to talk to you," he told his son. Stavros knew it was a matter of minutes before Mark would find out about Emily's pregnancy and decided it was better if he explained it to the boy. Stavros left out the part about Mark losing his brother's bedtime attention, but filled him in on the rest. Mark was confused to say the least. It never dawned on him that Alexander and Emily would ever do anything together, she was a household worker. She was asexual as far as Mark was concerned and besides, Adell told them that sex between them and the household help was off the table. Now she was having Alexander's baby? Now it was Alexander's duty to marry her? "What about the girl Nana has for Alexander to marry Poppa?" Mark asked the man. "Your brother changed those plans when he made Emily pregnant," Stavros told his son. "That's why Nana gave Alexander Trojans. Just so something like this doesn't happen," he told the boy. "You mean if she wasn't pregnant, he wouldn't have to marry her?" Mark asked. "No Mark, your brother is getting married because he took her virginity," his Father said to him. "But he took Claudia's virginity and doesn't have to marry her!" Mark responded. "Claudia and Emily are two different types of girls Mark," his Father tried to explain. "Claudia lost her virginity because she wanted to have fun and play. Emily lost her virginity because she was in love and Alexander took advantage of her." "I don't understand Poppa!" Mark replied. "You will when you get a little older. But the bottom line is that if you take a virgin, you may very well end up with a wife." Mark said no more, but decided he was fairly happy that fucking girls wasn't his top priority. The whole thing was much too complicated and not worth the hassle as far as he could see.

Stavros's talk with Mark ended with his Father cautioning him about Emily. "Regardless of her decision, she's now a member of the family unless she decides otherwise. Be very gentle with her, she's very upset and very ashamed of being pregnant and we don't want anything to happen to her," he told his son. "Does that mean she's my sister?" Mark asked. "No, if anything, she's your sister-in-Law like Maria will be at Christmas time," his Father told him.

"Your brother and I will be returning to Corfu tomorrow with Emily and Lydia," Stavros said to Mark at dinner. "Nana and Rachael will be staying here to take care of you and Mario. As soon as we know exactly what the plans are, Nana will let you know," the man told the boy.

Mark had figured that all was slowly going to be getting back to normal. Nothing could have been further from the truth. For one thing, from that day on, only Adell bathed the boys whether they were at home or at school. For another, Adell now made it her business to find out if a girl was a virgin when being considered for employment in the household, the woman wanted to know up front who she needed to protect to avoid any repetitions. Lastly, Alexander was now considered an adult and would have to abandon childish things. He was no longer free to engage his school mates or his younger brother.

The following week, Alexander and Emily were married in a quiet civil ceremony on Corfu. They would be formally married in the eyes of the Church two weeks after the birth of the baby sometime in July. Alexander returned to Nice with Emily two days after the marriage and re-entered school as a day student. Emily and Lydia set up the house and awaited the birth of the baby. A month before the baby would be due, Emily and Lydia would return to Greece with Adell and the baby would be born on Corfu.

Everybody cooperated in the plan and followed it to the letter with the exception of the baby. Emily learned two weeks after returning to Nice that she wasn't having a baby, she was having twins. Mark didn't quite understand how or why, but the impending birth of twins changed everything. The atmosphere went from doom and gloom to downright celebration by the adults around him. By Christmas vacation time, Alexander and Emily's return to Corfu almost eclipsed Nicholas and Maria's wedding. That went over like a lead balloon with Nicholas who needed a long sit down with his brother.

Christmas vacation was just a little over two weeks long for Mark and Mario and they would be allowed to bring guests with them. Since the wedding was planned for the weekend before Christmas, the twins, and Sebastian were able to come and then fly home for the Holiday from Corfu with their parents' permission. Both Stuart and Mark tried as hard as they could, but Stuart's mother refused to allow her son to leave Italy. Instead, he went to his Grandparents' house more determined than ever to get away from his mother and back to his Father in New Zealand. Jean-Paul returned to his Father also with a very long face.

Mark and his friends arrived back on Corfu on Friday afternoon just before dinner and to Mark's great delight learned that all the children involved in the wedding would be housed on the ship which would be anchored off the beach in front of the house. Mark immediately claimed the Master Cabin, his Father's Stateroom, which allowed Mark and Mario along with the twins and Sebastian to sleep in one room together. Regardless of what the other kids did who were invited, the boys from Turin had their sanctuary.

Including Mark and Mario, there were now 16 kids sleeping on the ship, all between the ages of 8 to 15. By nightfall, the boat deck looked like a nudist colony for children as one by one, bathing suits disappeared. The twins were calling Australia to see if they could come home for Christmas next year instead.

For the twins who were not that enamored with wealth, Corfu was a quaint little island that was sunny and warm and they had just come from the frozen Alpine regions. Then they saw the house and the ship. Standing in front of the big house looking down on the ship the twins looked at each other. Zack spoke first. "He didn't look this rich to me. Did he?" the boy asked his brother. Mack's eyes were trained on the ship. "Just think, you bopped him one and we could have lost all this!" he said to his brother. Hearing the conversation, Mario looked at the two brothers. "What are you talking about?" he asked them in Italian. "Nobody told us he was the Prince of this place!" Mack said. "Prince? Mark isn't a Prince," he told his friends. "Who owns that boat?" Zack said pointing to the ship. Mario looked to the ship. "Mark's Poppa!" he told the boys. "Then he's a bloody fucking Prince!" Mack said.

From the ship, Mark looked towards the house to view a scene he hadn't seen before. The house was almost surrounded by very large tents that had been erected for the reception and the place looked like a scene from a circus. The center of attraction was Maria and Nicholas and Mark looked at the girl now with slightly different eyes. Months earlier, she looked like any other girl, now she had a radiance about her that struck Mark. While she was still shadowed at every turn by her chaperones, she seemed to move around a lot more gracefully than he had witnessed on Crete. His brother Nicholas was as handsome as ever, Mark wondered what he would have been like when he first came to live with Stavros just four years earlier. Nicholas was very nice Mark thought to himself, but he was an adult. Alexander, on the other hand was still all boy and Mark related very well to boys.

By Greek standards, Maria's wedding was not huge. By the time it came around, there were roughly 250 people in attendance, almost half were Maria's Family, the rest were from Stavros's side of the Family and his invited guests, employees and staff. The adults certainly had a good time all weekend long, but not nearly as good a time as the children. In the beginning of the weekend, the smaller children stayed very close to their Mothers. By mid Saturday, if they were out of diapers and weaned, they joined the growing pack of children usually playing at the Grotto or out on the ship. Except at dinner time and during the ceremony, about the only time an adult saw them was usually bare assed naked running back down to the shoreline.

While the adults stayed dressed, the children in attendance were another matter altogether. Once the kids hit the water either at the Grotto or in the pool at the house or on the ship, they stayed buck naked, boy or girl. The twins were giddy with light headedness. They had seen naked girls in magazines before, but never standing right next to them. Both boys began the vacation trying to hide their appreciation of the girls around them. By day two when they found out the girls were actually intentionally displaying their attributes to create stiff little poles on the twins, it became a contest to see which twin could remain hard the longest. "Look all you want, but don't touch!" Adell reminded both boys very often.

Alexander and Emily flew in early Saturday morning and news of the twins impending birth had reached everybody's ears. Emily at first was very shy and withdrawn. Her pregnancy wasn't something she had planned to announce anytime soon and she was pretty much the center of attention now. While it was known she was a married woman, it was also known that it was a civil ceremony, not a religious one. Unspoken, everybody naturally knew why, which was not a comfort to Emily.

Stavros however had taken the bull by the horns. This was his daughter-in-law, this was his son and in there, were two of his future Grandchildren. Emily got pink a few times, but she learned to get used to it. She also had to get used to Stavros, who up to that point in time had been her employer. He was a strict and demanding boss, but now, he had been treating the girl like she was a member of his own Family. Lydia, her best friend and now her housekeeper in Nice smiled when Emily told her about her confusion about Stavros. "Emily, you're not an employee anymore, you ARE a member of his Family," she told her friend.

Emily's Family was invited to the wedding, and it was attended by her Mother and three of her siblings, two brothers and a sister. Her Father refused to come. Stavros saw the hurt in Emily's eyes and vowed to have a chat with her Father before Emily's "Official" wedding in July. Emily was no longer a part of her Father's family; she was a part of his.

The wedding was very nice and a lot of fun as far as the twins and Sebastian were concerned, but not nearly as much fun as the Grotto and the ship. For one, the Grotto was off limits to adults except for housekeepers like Lydia and Rachael and the girls from Hania who were brought over to help with the wedding. Likewise, the ship was off limits to the adults except for the housekeepers and an occasional Mother of a very young child. Even most of the male crew was ashore at the house. The twins and Sebastian along with the other children found themselves basically alone with the only adults around them intentionally oblivious to whatever they were doing unless they were putting themselves in danger. Mack and Zack thought they died and went to heaven. They were praying mightily for an airline strike.

Things stayed very much under raps for the first night and was contained within individual staterooms. However by about 10:00 Saturday morning, the twins found two boys in the Master Stateroom who were pouring over the photo albums of Nicholas, Alexander and Mark. The twins thought the photos were very nice, but they thought the erections on the two boys who were very actively jerking each other off were even nicer. Once there were four boners in the room, the rest of the weekend was a free-for-all as far as the boys were concerned. As it turned out, the two boys were Emily's brothers, aged 11 and 12. The twins instantly recognized that the boys were no strangers to doing what boys liked to do best.

The ceremony was held on Sunday afternoon, and by Sunday morning, the children were all moved off the ship which was now preparing to leave on the couple's Honeymoon. The twins went into a bit of a funk over the loss of the privacy of the ship, but by noon were back in full swing at the Grotto.

For the children at the wedding the most fun came when the party progressed and the wine started to flow in their direction. It seemed the happier the adult, the more the wine flowed. About 6:00 Nicholas and Maria boarded the ship and sailed and the party then began on Corfu in earnest. Few boys over the age of 12 remembered when they went to sleep the next morning. Most were surprised to find themselves at the Grotto rapped in blankets that they didn't have the foggiest clue of where they came from.

Maria and Nicholas wanted to go to the Lesser Antilles, and Captain Sophis had agreed that the weather was favorable for an Atlantic crossing. The ship would cruise for a month skipping from the Canary Islands, to the Cape Verde Islands, to Antigua, to Martinique and Saint Barts before it returned to Europe with Maria who was by then four weeks pregnant. By Adell's calculations, Maria was pregnant before the ship left the Mediterranean. Her baby would be due in September, two months after her 13th birthday. Maria was hoping for a boy as she did each time she got pregnant. She understood that four or five males were expected of her, and if it took ten or 15 girls to reach the quota for boys, so be it.

By Monday, the party wound down and the Grotto was left pretty much to immediate Family members and friends which included Emily's brothers much to the glee of the twins. Besides Mark, Mario and Sebastian, her brothers added a spice of life to the party of seven boys, and the twins were always into variety. With the ship now gone, the boys were housed in two bedrooms, Alexander's old room and Mark's. Alexander and Emily were now in Nicholas's old room. Mark and Mario both missed Alexander enough to hurt, but not quite as much as Alexander did. For the twins' part, Mark wasn't at all surprised when Mack suggested that Emily's brothers sleep with them which left Mark, Mario and Sebastian together in the other bedroom.

The next three days went at warp speed as far as the twins were concerned. In Australia on their Father's ranch, riding bare back and bare assed was no big deal, there was nothing but rabbits to watch them on the open range. Once they got used to the fact that the workers in the orchards were about as attentive as the rabbits to their nakedness, the horses rarely rested without at least two boys on them walking down to the Grotto. By Friday morning and back in clothing, the twins and Sebastian left for their holidays with their Families leaving only Mark and Mario and Emily's brothers behind.

Mark's first Christmas with his new family would have been perfect as far as Mark was concerned if he still had Alexander. As far as he was concerned, he had peace of mind thanks to Michael, he had Stavros and Adell, he had his best friend Mario and he had his friends at school. Still, he missed his brother who he had not been with now for the past five weeks. Over the past six months or so, there was one thing that Mark learned well, Adell ran the house, and she could make things happen.

Mark awoke in the middle of the night, not really sure what time it was. He first went to the bathroom and returning to his room decided it was time. He turned around and went to Adell's room. Climbing in next to the woman, he put his head on her chest and closed his eyes as she turned herself to the boy and placed a hand on his shoulder. Pitch black, the woman knew it was Mark by the smell of his hair. "Gramma, I want to sleep with Alexander again," he told the woman, very grateful that it was so dark nobody could see him. The boy waited. Hearing nothing from her, Mark decided to press the issue. "I haven't been with him for a long time now and I miss him very much," he said as once again the woman felt the boy's tears fall down his face and onto her chest.

If the roles were reversed and it was Alexander asking, Adell would have cut the boy off in a heartbeat. "Mark, your brother is now married and needs to move on in his life," Adell said to him. ""But that doesn't mean I don't love him anymore!" Mark said. "That doesn't mean I don't need him anymore." Adell closed her eyes with Mark's words screaming in her brain. The woman was frantically looking for the words to heal Mark's wounds when Mark himself spoke up again. "Emily knows what we all do together, she knows what her brothers do. Why is it so different between Alexander and me now?" he asked his Governess. "Boys make love to boys, it been going on for centuries Sergio says," Mark told her.

The best Adell could come up with was a promise to look into it in the morning. Mark fell asleep on Adell's chest knowing full well the woman would grant him his wish. He didn't have a clue how, but he knew she would come through for him. At breakfast the next morning, Adell announced that she and Emily would be flying to Athens to have an ultrasound done with Emily's mom and Lydia. They women would be gone until the following day and would return in the afternoon. Mark didn't have a clue in the world what an "Ultrasound" was, but knew that his Grandmother had cleared the way for him to get back to his brother.

Mark would have preferred to meet with Alexander in the Grotto, but the December weather didn't really cooperate. After playing together all day, Mark and Mario along with Alexander and Emily's brothers found themselves upstairs in the house and well into the night the boys played musical beds. Alexander and Mark were the only two left awake together by midnight as the rest of the crew lay sprawled before them. It was really the very first time Mark had the opportunity to talk to his brother without having to closely guard his words and as the evening progressed, they would become very much less guarded.

"I missed you," Alexander said to Mark as the two boys lay side by side. Normally, Alexander took the initiative and laid on top of his brother at this juncture in their social history, but Alexander made no move, so Mark took it and rolled over on his brother's body and wrapped his arms around him for the first time in too many weeks for Mark to even think about. Alexander lay there for a long time and when Mark didn't move, he figured that it was time for him to talk. "Are you feeling bad again?" Alexander said. "No," Mark said. "But I've missed you. I love you and I've missed you," Mark said as his tears once again spilled onto his brother's chest. Mark felt no tears from his brother because they fell on his hair as Alexander held him. "Shit Mark, no matter what happens, I'm here for you." Alexander's words were never platitudes; they hold true to this day. Mark didn't need, or really even want his brother to screw his balls off; he wanted to be with him and to let him know that he loved him. Mark felt like he did that in the morning, and his Grandmother helped him do it. One hell of a lot faster than either boy wanted it to happen, Mark and Alexander's sexual life together pretty much ended with the inception of the twins. Their love and devotion to each other never ended, it holds to this day.

Emily's mom and her brothers returned home after they returned from Athens. While Stavros was unaware of it, Emily's brothers did more to bring Emily's Father around than any talk he could have had with the man. His daughter was married, was having twins and a huge Church wedding was taking place on Corfu right after the twins were baptized in the Grotto in July. From Christmas through June the boys talked of little else, and would be spending the summer on Corfu with their sister. It was clear to the man that he could either stand alone, or stand with his Family.

Christmas itself was a time for Stavros and Adell to hold their breath. If Mark was going to sink into a depression, the Holiday would most likely trigger it so they watched very closely. From Mark's standpoint, the Holiday went just fine. He had his Father and Grandmother, he had Alexander very close to him and he had Mario.

He went shopping a few days before Christmas with Adell and he brought presents for the family. Adell helped him with one present, one he wanted to give to Mario. On Christmas Eve he presented the present to his friend, a small gold band that he placed on Mario's pinky finger. Mario wears it today.

He really looked for nothing concerning presents that he wished for, he already had what he wanted; people around him that loved him and would be there for him. Mark did get presents that Christmas morning but he didn't really remember what they were a year or two later. He did remember Mario's ring, it was the only one he ever gave to another boy until his own sons were born.

The day after Christmas the entire Family gathered in the Grotto to attend Mark's Baptism. Mark had attended Baptisms before back in America, but they were Catholic Baptisms. Some water sprinkled on a baby's forehead and a few prayers and you were out of there. Greek Orthodox Baptisms are little more involved as Mark was instructed prior to the Ceremony. Adell smiled as she put a white nightshirt on Mark after washing him. "Just think of it as a regular shower you take everyday," she counseled Mark as they prepared for the Baptism. "Nana, I don't usually stand there taking a shower with 25 people staring at me buck naked. Suppose I get a boner?" he said to the woman. "Then you get a boner and they'll all know you are a very healthy male!" Adell told Mark. "I've seen babies get stiff at Baptism, it's a sign of a happy boy." Mark shook his head. "Thanks Gramma, that helps a lot!" Mark told her. Adell smiled. Mark made it through the ceremony without a rod, but he didn't allow his eyes to look at any of Maria's sisters at any time, despite hearing the giggles as the night shirt hit the beach.

NEXT PART