Howdy Doody

The Geppetto Project

Chapters 3-4

Chapter Three

Back to School

A van was loaded and ready to go with everybody's things before the boys finished breakfast and now awaited only Spencer's arrival with Anthony. The Team had decided that Spencer should leave first for obvious psychological reasons, and as Anthony appeared with the boy, Adam was looking down at an emotional basket case. The boy's face was swollen from crying and Adam was damned glad he wasn't Anthony. The van ride to Charlotte was just a little under two hours long, and it was a very long two hours as Spencer sobbed most of the way holding onto a six week old Cocker Spaniel like it was the only thing he had left in the world.

The plane ride to Miami took another three hours with a stopover in Atlanta, and by 4:00 the boys were back in a van on U.S.1 heading south. Adam watched out the van windows as they crossed one Key after another and by 7:00 the van pulled off the Highway and went through a gate guarded by soldiers complete with rifles and German Shepherd dogs at their sides. Looking at the face of a young Marine who couldn't have been more than 18 or 19 years old with his finger on the trigger of his gun, Adam remembered some Latin from school. Quis custodiet ipsos custodos? Adam, what the fuck have you gotten yourself into? He thought to himself.

Deep into the mangroves the van drove until it pulled up to a wooden pier with a boat sitting at the end of it. Spencer finally fell asleep after leaving Miami, and still asleep, Adam carried him onto the boat as the boys all headed directly to the Pilot House to bug the ferries Captain into letting them steer the boat.

It was very close to dusk by the time the boat inched its way into its berth and Adam looked at his new home for the first time. He wasn't impressed at all. First of all, mangroves stink. They're infested with crabs and things that like to bite you but are invisible. You know you're being bitten, but you don't see them. Mangroves look dead except for the birds that sit on them. Now and then a fish jumped out of the water, and pelican's watched Adam very closely as he passed by them. To Adam, downtown Stamford looked more appealing.

With Spencer more unconscious from fatigue and depression than asleep, Adam looked out the van windows as it moved along very narrow trials that were surrounded by standing water and very dead trees. Now and then an alligator lay along the banks of the swamp which impressed Adam even less. Adam wouldn't have been surprised at all if a dinosaur came flying out of the swamp. The only thing human he saw out the windows were signs from Uncle Sam telling you how many years in a Federal Penitentiary you were going to receive for trespassing on restricted property he owned.

After probably 20 minutes, the van moved through two gates that electronically opened and shut behind the van as it moved forward. As the van moved, so did cameras on both sides of the road watching silently. After the second gate, Adam found himself moving from Stamford to Newport. Mangroves were replaced by Palm trees. Alligators were replaced by flamingos and egret. Dead trees were replaced by Gumbo Limbo and Bird of Paradise plants. He wasn't in Kansas anymore. Adam now passed manicured groves of oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, lemons and bananas. Coconut tree's were full of fruit and littered the ground. This was no longer a swamp; it reminded Adam of Miami Gardens.

Cresting a small dune, the van now overlooked a turquoise green lagoon and beyond it, the Gulf of Mexico.

"There's Beachview Uncle Adam," Sammy said pointing to a pink house on a small rise of land.

"That's our new house for this year. There's Coquina. That's Uncle Sid's house and there's Bay Watch. That's Uncle Dan's house," Adam was now impressed. All the houses he saw were roughly the same design; in Florida they're known as 'Old Florida Style.' Roughly square in shape with a four cornered metal peaked roof, large windows with hurricane shutters and a wrap around porch. The houses were all built on pilings and the actual house stood probably eight feet [2½ m] off the ground.

As the van pulled up to the house there were three carts already there at the house and some people now exited the house and approached the van. Adam was in for a new shock. As he got out of the van with Spencer still in his arms, two women came up to him and reached for the boy.

"We'll take him inside Adam," one girl said as the other reached for Spencer.

"Adam, this is Gloria, and this is Jeanette," Dan said as he took Spencer from Adam and handed the boy over to the women. Quick hellos were exchanged, but Adam now had more than a few questions of Dan.

As Adam stood there, Gloria greeted all the boys by name and it was readily apparent to Adam that however the women were, the boys knew them very well as they hugged and kissed Gloria while Jeanette disappeared into the house with Spencer who was now waking up and crying into Jeanette's neck.

With the puppy firmly attached to Jesse, the group of boys entered the house surrounding Gloria all talking to the woman at once as they mounted the stairs. The kitchen had made a lasagna dinner and the table was already set and waiting as the boys entered the house with both Dan and Adam following. Adam now looked around. Outside, the house appeared neat and tidy, but fairly rustic or campy looking. Inside, it was anything but rustic or campy. It was two different worlds. The house was two stories, with a winding metal staircase that went to the top bedroom loft area. Two large bedrooms were on each side of the loft and a very large bathroom separated the two by adjoining doors. Downstairs, was a kitchen that would make Martha Stewart cream with excitement and a living room and dining room that very clearly was designed and furnished with extremely active boys in mind. Directly in the center of the house was an open round fireplace with a hood and it was obviously not there for show. Adam looked at the house thoroughly and came to the conclusion that whoever put it together, knew boys were living there and those boys were very active.

Adam took a very quick tour, but his primary focus was on Spencer.

"Gloria and Jeanette have known Spencer for years. I'd recommend they get him ready for dinner and bed, but that's your call Adam," Dan told him.

"I don't understand, I thought that women weren't allowed to be around these boys," Adam said.

"I'll explain it later after things settle down tonight, but these women are not in danger from the boys here," Dan told him.

"Dan, Spencer wants to know where Puddles is," Gloria called down from the loft.

"Hang on." Dan told the girl as he went to find Jesse and the puppy. Adam stood in the kitchen smiling to several people who were preparing dinner for the group. Questions he had tons of; answers, very few.

Adam's biggest fear when he agreed to take the boys back to school a week early was that he would be alone in caring for the boys, especially Spencer. As he sat there he watched as probably six people he didn't know not only took care of the boys, but did it without direction or comment. It was as if they knew exactly what was needed and provided it instantaneously. As the boys sat down to an Italian dinner that rivaled anything Adam had ever seen at an Italian wedding, Jeanette and Gloria came back downstairs with Spencer and the puppy in tow. Spencer was still attached to Jeanette, but he was now dressed in summer pajamas and had obviously been bathed.

To Adam, the boy didn't look happy, but he wasn't crying and he wasn't hiding himself either. As both girls sat down, Spencer stayed sitting in Jeanette's lap and after she was served, began to feed the boy from her plate as she conversed with the rest of the group. Adam said nothing, he just watched as the meal progressed. For the most part, the center of attention was the puppy, who was passed from boy to boy around the table as Spencer watched quietly, but diligently.

Closely watching Spencer, Adam also scrutinized the women. He guessed they were in their early 20s. The older one was Jeanette and whoever she was, she knew and was very familiar not only with Spencer, but with all the boys. As the boys around the table related summer camp tales to the two women, Jeanette listened, but was very obviously pre-occupied with Spencer who was molded into her lap as she fed him and never stopped petting and caressing him with her free hand. Spencer didn't look like he was ready to crack a smile anytime soon, but he didn't fall apart either.

Probably halfway through dinner, Spencer stopped eating and Jeanette reached for his glass of milk and put it close to the boy's face. Spencer put his hand out and pushed the glass away and laid his head down on Jeanette's chest. Adam watched from across the table as Jeanette leaned her face down and the two talked in very quiet whispers back and forth for probably 10 or 15 seconds as her hair fell over the both of them hiding Spencer's face in her hair. Then the girl lifted her head and spoke to Gloria as she arose from her chair and moved to the living room couch. The two sat down with Spencer still in her lap, but now sideways as she lifted her hand to her blouse and unbuttoned the top three buttons. Adam was fairly stunned as Spencer moved his hand inside her blouse and took out her breast and was now nursing off the girl as Jeanette rocked him slowly. Probably what amazed Adam the most was that every boy there knew what was transpiring and not one reacted in the slightest way!

It was close to 10:00 by the time the boys finished dinner, and none of them were unhappy when they found out they could forego evening showers. The boys were told it was going to be a busy day the next day, and without too much complaining, Adam walked Sammy, Joey and Trevor up the stairs and tucked them in. Returning downstairs, Gloria and Jeanette were back upstairs in the second bedroom with Spencer and Adam sat down with Dan in the living room.

"Spencer wants the girls to stay with him. If you prefer, they can take Spencer back to Camp Kenny where they live," Dan told Adam.

"I don't have a problem with them staying here, but I don't understand what's going on," Adam replied.

"Let me tell them to put Spencer down for the night and we can talk," Dan said as he got up and went upstairs. Coming back downstairs, Dan got two beers from the kitchen and sat back down.

"OK, it's time you got some answers," Dan said as he popped his beer open and took a sip.

"There are eight girls here at school, they're all assigned to the lower school and live there with the youngest boys we have. Right now, the youngest boy is 16 months old, the oldest is 7," Dan began.

"The girls are here because a lot of the boys are just basically babies, and girls take care of babies better than boys. Bert also believes that babies need a female figure to nurture them through the toddler era. The girls here at school are not your average girls, they're second generation Geppetto carriers," he told Adam.

"They've all had their tubes tied, and cannot become pregnant. Other than that, they're sexually normal."

"But she's breast feeding him. Doesn't she have to have a baby to do that?" Adam asked.

"No, she takes care of the youngest boys in Camp Kenny and she has been induced to lactate voluntarily," Dan replied.

"When Spencer first came, she fed him as a very little boy. What he's doing now is a developmental step backwards for him, but he needs the security and Jeanette is going to provide him with it," the man told Adam unemotionally.

"Bert assumed this would happen."

"How did they get here?" Adam asked.

"Most have brothers who are Geppetto boys. The Institute that runs the school keeps very close tabs on the families of our boys, and if there's a problem with one of the girls, the Institute agrees to take them in. Most of the girls just have a tubal ligation and go about their lives as normal. Some need much closer support and we provide that on a case by case basis," Dan told Adam.

"Jeanette came to us eight years ago and Spencer along with many of the younger boys were cared for by her when they first came. The girls are regarded as the boy's mothers or big sisters, they don't look to them for sex. At least not until they get a little older."

"Bert believes that the girls can smooth over the transition between you and Anthony and that's why he asked them to cover Spencer until he gets back on his feet," Dan told the man.

"Why not just have Spencer transferred to Jeanette?" Adam asked. Dan shook his head.

"The girls stay with the lower school children, having the girls around eight to 16 year old boys wouldn't be the smartest plan, by that age big sister figure or not, the boys would be trying to jump their bones. Let's face it, they are human!"

Adam smiled.

"So what do I do?" Adam asked.

"Let Jeanette and Gloria deal with Spencer until he's ready to venture out on his own. Bert thinks it will take a day or two."

"How are we going to know when he's ready?" Adam asked.

"Spencer hasn't had sex for the past two days because he's too depressed. Once he's back on track with his friends, all's right in the world of Spencer!" Dan replied.

"When we see a stiffy on Spencer, the fever has broken," Dan said with a small smile.

Jesse, laying on the couch giggled a bit.

"What you just heard was something not repeated to anyone, especially Spencer," Dan told the boy. Jesse nodded his head as the two prepared to leave for their house.

Adam's night ended relatively quietly. Sammy, Joey and Trevor were dead to the world when he came to bed. Adam awoke at some point in time that night to a room that was almost constantly illuminated by lighting. He lay there for a few minutes watching the lightning and listening for the sound of the thunder that was obviously getting closer and closer. He looked over to Sammy who was dead asleep as were the other two boys. Adam found that fairly astounding. The crack of lightning and the boom of thunder was incredible to him, he didn't understand how the boys remained asleep through it all. Adam got up and looked out the bedroom windows, first on the West side of the house facing the gulf and then to the South. The storm was coming from the South and it intensified. I'm in Florida one day and a fucking hurricane comes along? Adam thought to himself. Adam decided he should check the house and went downstairs.

"Hi," a voice called out as he reached the bottom of the stairs. Adam was a little surprised. He didn't expect anyone to be there and he was bare assed naked.

"Hi," Adam replied.

"Who are you?" he asked the boy sitting on the couch reading a magazine.

"I'm Jimmy. I'm on duty tonight for Spencer," he replied.

"For Spencer?" Adam asked. The boy nodded his head.

"Uncle Bert has Spencer on a 'Must Special'. He has to be watched 24 hours by someone," the boy replied.

"But Jeanette and Gloria are with Spencer," Adam said.

"They're asleep. They can't watch him when they're asleep," he replied. "If he gets up in the middle of the night and tries to sneak out, I'm here," Adam nodded.

"Is there a hurricane coming?" Adam now asked. The boy looked a little quizzical at first at Adam then smiled.

"This is just a little thunderstorm. We get them all the time in summer. Hurricanes don't come for another month," he told the man standing naked before him.

"This storm will pass in another 15 minutes or so, we might not even get any rain from it," he told Adam.

At that point, a flash of light and an immediate boom of thunder shook the house as Adam heard a tree falling outside and smelled the distinct smell of electricity. Adam was ready to head for the bomb shelter. Jimmy sat back down and picked up his magazine.

"That was a close one," he said as he went back to his reading.

"This shit doesn't scare you?" Adam asked the boy.

"No, all the buildings have lightning arresters on them. If we get hit, it just goes into the ground," Jimmy replied.

"You'll be fine unless you go outside and then you're dead," the boy told Adam like he was cooking mush.

Adam shook his head as he retrieved a bottle of water from the kitchen and returned upstairs. Jimmy smiled as the new teacher climbed the stairs. He had a funny story to tell the fellows when he returned to the Senior boys dorm. Adam returned to the bedroom and climbed back in next to Sammy and looked around. None of the boys had budged one inch.

Adam and the boys all awoke to the sound of chain saws. About 200 feet from his cabin an Australian pine tree was split in two and laying on the ground and a group of about twelve older boys and some men were cutting the tree up and loading it into trucks. Watching from the houses porch were five naked boys and a Cocker Spaniel puppy. Dan came in as Adam sat at the table on his second cup of coffee.

"Did you get woken up last night?" Adam asked Dan.

"No, you get use to them," he replied as he poured himself a cup and sat down.

"How did it go last night?" he asked.

"He fell asleep immediately, and slept through the night," Jeanette replied.

"He's very concerned that Anthony won't return."

"And this morning?" Dan asked.

"The tree has his attention right now, nobody's showered yet, so we'll see what happens. The faster we get him back to a normal routine the better it'll be for him," she reported.

"Seen any signs of life?" Dan asked the girl. She smiled.

"Not a hint. That's why I want to see what happens in the showers if he'll agree to join the group," she replied.

"Trevor's probably his best friend, let's shower Spencer and Trevor together and see if we can't get any sparks," Dan said.

"You and Spencer shower first and I'll send in Trevor after two or three minutes," Jeanette agreed.

"If it works with Trevor, send the rest of them in and we'll let nature takes its course," she said to Gloria. Adam looked a little confused.

"We're going to try to 'jump start' his batteries," Dan said without being asked. Gloria and Jeanette giggled a little.

While the plan was for the boys to bring Spencer back to life, it was Puddles in the end who came to the rescue. Halfway through the shower with Trevor and Spencer, Puddles found Trevor's penis and decided it was his mother's tit. Same general size, same general shape, the puppy got hungry and Trevor got stiff. Trevor put the puppy on Spencer's lap, and the puppy proceeded to find Spencer's tit among shrieks of giggles from both boys. Jeanette and Gloria excused themselves to go make breakfast and sent in the remaining boys. That morning's shower lasted very close to an hour and Spencer left the bathroom with a very pink and very stiff dick.

Adam wondered if Bert had it all planned out from the very beginning. Spencer wasn't ready to kiss the girls goodbye, he still stuck very close to them but he talked, he smiled now and then, he engaged in conversation and he was pretty much 'back' from the edge of the cliff. Adam hadn't seen dimples on the boy for almost two weeks now and they were back with their electro-magnetic pull.

As with all the meals, the central kitchen prepared the food and it was sent to each house along with a server and preparer. Basically, unless Adam decided to have a cook out, there was very little for him to cook, and breakfast was no different. For their first meal, there were five boys and four staff, and the boys were in one great hurry to get outside and investigate the downed tree and show Adam his new 'home'. Gloria returned to the lower camp, but Jeanette would remain with Spencer through the day.

Adam's first day was orientation day for him. He would tour the campus and be dragged from one area to the next by all five boys. Many things were different between school and camp, and the first thing he noticed was that the boys usually wore shirts and shorts. This was unusual at camp; the boys were almost always naked or damned close to it. There were two exceptions to the rule, swimming and in their houses.

The weather was another factor. It was hot in the morning, hotter at noon, scorching by mid afternoon and boiling by 6:00. Traveling around the campus, Adam saw very few people outside and by mid afternoon he knew why.

All the houses that held the boys were uniform in appearance outside, but vastly different inside depending upon the ages of the boys living in them. There were other, much larger buildings there, but again, these buildings all looked alike from the outside, but inside were completely different. One held a Kitchen/Dining room. One held a Laundry/Maintenance area. One was full of classrooms and office.

"Officially, we're a wild life research center and laboratory. That's what we look like from the outside, and that's all any outsider will ever see," Dan told Adam.

"Even the air space above us is restricted because this is a bird sanctuary for exotic and endangered species," he told Adam with a smile.

"Even the military can't fly over us without getting into deepest shit!"

Adam looked around.

"But anybody can just drive up in a boat!" he said.

Dan shook his head.

"See that water out there? See the color white? It goes out for four miles. There isn't enough water out there to float an airboat without it getting it's bottom ripped out by corral," Dan told him. "The only way you get in here is past the guard dogs, and around here we call them alligators."

Adam remembered seeing the gators the day before.

"Isn't that dangerous for the kids?" he asked.

Dan shook his head no. "We use 1/5 of this island for the school, the rest of it is all swamp and ringed by an electrified fence. The only way gators get to our side is by swimming here, and when they do, the cameras picked them up and they're shot on the spot. Besides, every child here is taught how to outrun a gator. Ask anyone of them and they'll show you," Dan replied

"What about coming in from the highway?" Adam asked.

"Before 9-11 we had a few locals asking questions about why the guards needed guns and dogs to protect a bunch of mangroves, but now, they just cite 'Home Land Security' and any questions just melt away like snow on a beach. You also have to remember who runs the show in Washington and who sits in Tallahassee.

"'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is our greatest security fence."

Adam was a Math Major, but when it came to history, it was his second love.

"I don't get it, if the Geppetto Project came into being right after the war, the Democrats were in power under Truman. Why would Republicans give a fuck if this stuff came to light, they could just point their fingers at the Democrats and say they did it on their watch."

Dan shook his head.

"Truman wasn't in charge, the military was. The military brought the scientists over, the military came up with the bright idea," Dan told him.

"Now, who was the Supreme Commander? Geppetto was his baby! And Nixon knew it as did Reagan. I'm not sure what George knows, but I'm sure someone's pulling his strings and making his mouth move!"

Adam shook his head, what a crazy fucking world he thought to himself.

By late afternoon, Adam was a soggy sweating wreck having been fried all day by the relentless Florida sun. The back of his neck was beet red as was his face and arms. The worst was probably the back of his legs and he didn't realize until after he returned to the house and sat down that he was burned to a very red crisp. He took a cool shower and came out about six shades redder.

"Welcome to Florida!" Dan said as he came in the front door.

A bottle of Aloe and a jar of Noxzema later, Adam looked a lot like Casper the Ghost as he sat for dinner among quiet little boy giggles. Dan and Jeanette did the honors at showers as Adam sat sitting in a recliner praying nobody would touch him or the chair wouldn't touch his skin on the back of his legs. Adam couldn't help but wonder if Sid knew anything about this as he stayed in the recliner all night trying to sleep. Adam spent Tuesday morning and most of the day avoiding human contact whenever possible. The boys spent the day helping Dan distribute books to different classrooms and swimming in the indoor pool. The boys were much too smart to be outside naked and even though their bodies were use to the sun and humidity, they avoided it whenever possible. Adam wished the fuck somebody had told him about it!

By Wednesday Adam could wear a very loose white cotton tee shirt and even take a shower without it feeling like he was being struck by arrows when the water hit his skin. Jeanette convinced him to go to the pool and just stand around in the water and it helped as long as the boys stayed very far away from him. By late afternoon the group was back at the house and a very familiar set of bells were heard.

"Uncle Sid!" said the boys as they all raced for the front door at once.

"Jesus good buddy, didn't you ever hear of moderation?" Sid said to Adam as the man came into the house carrying two boys by the waist.

"Boy, you're going to be peeling for weeks!" Sid sat down as Sammy and Spencer brought the two men a bottle of beer. Sid took the beer from Spencer and put it down on the coffee table and put Spencer on his lap. Giving the boy a kiss on the cheek, he became serious.

"How's it going tiger?" he asked the boy.

"I spoke to Anthony last night Uncle Sid, Cuddles is fine," the boy responded.

"Yes, Uncle Bert told me about that this morning before I left. Uncle Bert will be here on Sunday and he's looking forward to seeing you. He say's hello," the man told the boy.

"How are you doing?" He asked.

"I'm OK, Puddles sleeps with us and even likes to take a bath with us." Spencer replied. Sid smiled and kissed the boy on the cheek again.

"That's from Uncle Bert."

Sid now turned his attention back to Adam.

"So, when you're not barbecuing yourself, what do you think of the school?" he asked his friend. All the boys giggled as they stood around watching the two men.

"Maybe a little warning?" Adam replied.

"Hey, I wasn't here, I was back in camp!" Sid replied sheepishly.

"Who knew you didn't have enough sense to stay out of the sun?" he asked.

Dinner was a noisy affair with five boys all asking Sid questions at once. Sammy could get back in Adam's lap without the man hitting the ceiling in pain, and bedtime showers found all three men washing the boys as Jeanette returned to the lower school leaving Spencer to Sid's care. Bedtime arrangements were set. Dan and Jesse would return to Dan's house, while Sid would remain with Spencer, Joey and Trevor at Adam's. Adam would have Sammy with him when the adults went to bed, but first, the men would talk after the boys went to bed.

Sid could joke with the best of them, but the talk was a serious one.

"We dodged the bullet on this one, Bert is very happy with everyone's efforts," he told the two men.

"Spencer and Anthony will be allowed to call each other on demand, Bert thinks that will taper off in time and we should be getting back to normal in maybe a week," Adam listened but still had questions.

"Is Jeanette still going to be involved?" he asked. "Only if Spencer insists upon it. Jeanette has two little one's who are highly dependant upon her and she's stretched very thin as it is," Sid responded.

"Why wasn't I told she'd be here when we got here?" Adam asked.

"The existence of the girls in the Program is never discussed by anyone at anytime outside of right here. Big brother doesn't know they're here and would have a fucking stroke if they did."

Adam didn't really understand.

"Why?" he asked.

"As far as they're concerned, females created the original problem and they don't want any repeats," Sid told Adam.

"But they can't conceive according to Dan," Adam replied.

"No, they have all had their tubes tied, but still, after the matron's debacle, they don't want females any where near these boys."

"So why do it?" Adam asked.

"Because we have two different goals," Sid replied.

"The Feds want these boys to disappear very quietly and go away. They don't particularly care about how they're nurtured through infancy," Sid said.

"We know that's impossible, there are too many carriers out there now. If we tried to raise these boy's with no females, we'd have hollow shells by the time they're toddlers. Babies need mothers. Babies need females to nurture them at least through year 3. It's just human nature."

"How can you keep them secret, anybody who comes here can plainly see them?" Adam said.

"In order to see them, that's exactly what they'd have to do; Come here. You'll never find one of them here, they would never take the chance of being associated in any way with these boys. They pay the bills and they keep the security net around us. Beyond that, we don't exist."

"If there's any hope of solving the problem, it's going to come from dna and gene research. We're going to have to figure out how to reverse the change that the original geniuses stumbled onto. If that happens we want whole healthy boys, not a bunch of empty, vacant zombies! That's where our goals are different, and that's why those girls are here."

Philosophically, Adam didn't disagree with anything he heard, but still, his stomach was churning as the meeting ended. Growing up, he was a Boy Scout and then an Eagle Scout. He was raised to believe that his Government was the best in the world. What the fuck happened?

Why did he feel like the Sword of Damocles was hanging over his head? How did it all go wrong? He had no answers, but he did know he was committed to the boys. He would teach them to the best of his ability and whatever happened, happened.

Adam spent a great deal of the next few days feeling like a snake shedding his skin as he began to peel from his sunburn. He constantly itched as the boys all volunteered to peel him. Spencer did a good deal of watching, but rarely became personally involved, preferring instead to tend to Puddles or to play with the other boys. Even during showers the boy allowed Adam to wash his hair, but balked at allowing the teacher any further access to his body.

"It's going to take some time before he allows anybody to get as close to him as Anthony was," Sid advised his friend.

"Especially since he knows you're an Outside Uncle."

Adam understood and accepted the boys feelings. Spencer would accept him when Spencer was ready, and not before.

Camp Returns

Bert shook Adam's hand as the two met in a group of staff.

"Nice tan Sitting Bull!" Bert said to the man.

Adam just shook his head. "I guess this is just some kind of initiation ritual huh Bert?" Adam said.

Bert smiled. "Look on the bright side Adam, people usually get burned just once before they learn," he told his friend.

"Sid here got sun poisoning before he smartened up!" Adam looked over to his friend.

"Gee, I'm real sorry to hear about that!" he said as he patted Sid's shoulder.

Whenever Bert and Sid came close together the boys usually gathered closely around. They knew that there was going to be horseplay involved, and they knew that their Uncle Sid would probably take the brunt of the 'attack' by Uncle Bert. Since mid summer, it was now a three way 'war' between Uncle Bert, Uncle Sid and now Uncle Adam. They watched intently from the sidelines to find out who came out on top.

"Oh thanks good buddy," Sid told Adam.

"Say listen, tomorrow we're going to have a beach picnic. How's about you joining us and maybe even improve your tan a little?" He asked his friend. The boys left laughing as Adam smiled to his friend shaking his head.

Dinner in the Dining Hall the first night back was roast beef with mountains of mashed potatoes, gravy and vegetables. It was clearly one of boys' favorite meals, and one that guaranteed an early night's sleep with bellies that almost burst once the strawberry shortcake found its way down the tables.

Once their stomachs were full, both Sammy and Joey rarely lasted more than a half hour or so at bedtime, and both boys reached Beachview House sound asleep on Adam's and Sid's shoulders as they were carried in and laid down. Both boys were undressed by the two men as neither spoke and the boys were tucked in for the night. By the time Spencer and Trevor were ready for bed, Adam and Sid sat down on the front porch overlooking the lagoon as Jesse brought the two men one more beer for the night and kissed both men goodnight.

"Are we staying here tonight Uncle Sid?" Jesse asked.

"Well he may as well, It'll just avoid him having to walk over here in the morning to harass me!" Adam told the boy in mock seriousness. Jesse smiled. He knew the two men would never stop kidding around with each other.

"Goodnight," Jesse said as he closed the front screen door.

Both men sat back in the porch chairs and said nothing for a short period of time. Adam listened to the waves hitting the shoreline as he rocked in the chair slowly. Now and then a screen door slammed in a nearby cabin, but other than that, one by one lights began going out and the stars took over as the main source of illumination across the property.

"This place takes a little getting use to, but once you do, it grows on you real fast," Sid said as he rocked slowly sipping his beer now and then.

"I hated the place when I first came. Too many bugs, too hot, too humid, too secluded," he said.

"Come November, the place makes a change. The humidity goes away, the heats more temperate, and the feeling of seclusion is something you come to depend upon."

Adam listened.

"If you had your 'Druther's' would you rather than be here, or in North Carolina?" he asked his friend.

"That's simple," Sid responded.

"I want to be here in the winter and up north in the summer!' he said.

"And if you could only have one?" Adam asked.

Sid thought for a good minute. "I'd have to pick here. Security wise, this is the safest place for the boys."

Adam digested the man's words. "Is security something that you're concerned about?" he finally asked his friend.

Sid smiled a little. "I'm always concerned about security, but then again, I've had folks looking to cut my balls off when I was Sammy's age, so you'll have to excuse me," he told his friend.

"Bert stays on top of that situation, so we don't have to start locking and loading," he told Adam with a wry smile as he resumed rocking his chair.

"Florida takes about two years to get totally use to. Once you do, you're not going back north anytime soon," Sid told his friend.

"People talk about your blood thinning out down here. I think it's true. I've been to Boston in the winter, it really fucking sucks and I was raised up north," Sid told his friend.

"Probably the only thing I miss is the change of seasons. Down here, it doesn't. What you see right now is what you'll see all year round."

Adam looked around. The moon was coming over his shoulder, but at night, all you could really see was the silhouettes of palm trees. A hint of Orange blossoms were in the air, but other than that, only the night sky was different as he looked up into the night sky and picked out 10 or 15 constellations he knew.

"Isn't that Auriga?" Sid asked as he pointed to a cluster of stars.

"No, that's Draco, we can't see Auriga right now, it'll be out in about three hours in the east," Adam replied.

"Shit good buddy, maybe we should scrap the Math and put you in Science instead!" Sid said. Adam giggled a little.

"I wouldn't know a Bunsen burner from a Bic. I only know the sky from boating on the Sound," Adam told his friend.

"My father taught me how to get home if I was ever lost," Sid said nothing, but he fell silent for awhile as he rocked. If Adam could have gotten up from the chair and kicked himself in the balls, he would have.

"How's it going with Spencer, is he showing any signs of warming up to you?" Sid asked.

"We get along very well; he's just not letting me get any closer to him than he has to," Adam responded very grateful for the change of subjects.

"I brought Bert up to speed on exactly what's going on; he feels that Spencer is keeping you at arms length to 'protect' his relationship with Anthony. We know it's going to diminish in time, but it needs to proceed at a rate that Spencer's comfortable with," Sid told his friend.

"I've no intentions of pushing it," Adam replied.

"That's wise, Spencer knows you're an Outside Uncle, he knows that any relationship with one goes very very deep."

Adam felt deep down inside that the conversation had somehow come full circle again. He knew it wasn't the beers, they only had three all evening.

"In school, I majored in Math. What did you major in?" Adam asked his friend.

"Psych," Sid responded.

"I have a Masters in Child Psychology and a Batchelors Degree in Early Childhood Education. It means I understand Sesame Street," Sid joked.

Adam smiled. "In Princeton Psych. Majors have a distinct advantage over the rest of us. Is it the same at Georgetown?" he asked his friend.

Sid smiled. "Georgetown Psychs are a whole lot smarter, but yes, we know what the rest of the dummies are really thinking!" he replied.

"If that's true, than Georgetown knows that the reference to my father was the dumbest fucking thing I could have come up with."

Sid again smiled. "Only if you're completely ashamed of your relationship with your father and everything that happened in your childhood," he told Adam.

"I'm certainly envious of what you had, but wouldn't ever find fault with it unless I had good reason to. Besides, I lost my parents much too young to have known them or have any memories of them. Kenny became my parents and that's always been enough for me," Sid told his friend.

"You know everything about me I'm sure, but I know little to nothing about you," Adam said to his friend.

"You know who Adam is, who's Sid?"

"Fair question!" Sid replied.

"I spent the first two years of my life with my family in Middletown, Connecticut. My family vacationed at the Jersey Shore during the summers and one day, we were traveling to New Jersey and we got into an accident. My father, mother and sister were killed. I was in the hospital for almost a year. I was two, so I don't remember any of it," Sid began.

"When I did get out of the hospital, I was put in an orphanage. If you can believe it, the name of the place was 'Warehouse Point'. I don't really remember anything about the orphanage, my first recollections came to me at about age five and I was living in a large room with other boys and rows of beds. It was a huge red brick building we lived in, I remember that the ends of the room had two doors, one at each end, and the doors had bars on them and were always locked," Sid told his friend as he stared off into the sky.

"I don't remember all that much about the place, but I do remember never playing or being happy. Then one day when the leaves were turning colors, a new man came to the ward and things changed for us almost overnight. He snuck in candy and comic books for us, he played games and made us happy, and he was the only big person we weren't afraid of," Sid turned to Adam.

"That was Uncle Kenny," he said and looked back to the sky.

"One by one, all our friends went to a new ward for a few days and came back with bandages on their scrotums. Just before Thanksgiving, Uncle Kenny gave me and three other boys a thick milkshake to drink and the next thing we knew, we were all waking up in a big house on the top of a cliff over looking the ocean," Sid told his friend.

"We all learned later that he had drugged us to sleep so we wouldn't make noise and he snuck us out of the Mental Hospital we were in on Long Island. It was called Pilgrim State. Now it's a prison," Sid thought for a moment.

"Come to think of it, it was always a prison," he said bitterly.

"We spent the winter there on the island and played like there was no tomorrow. The island was very nearly deserted in winter and we practically had the whole island to ourselves," Sid said with a very big smile on his face.

"You never ran into anybody else on the island?" Adam asked his friend.

"You bet your ass we did. AND they knew exactly who we were. Uncle Kenny's family had been residents there for almost a hundred years. Those people were all old islanders and were old New England stock," Sid said maintaining a grin.

"New Englanders don't have much truck for the Government; they don't like being told what to do," Sid told his friend.

"Not only did they not tell anybody we were there, they sheltered and protected us when a stranger came calling," Sid said.

"When someone's foot hit the beach, the whole island knew it within five minutes and we were whisked off the streets and into someone's house until the stranger left."

"About a week before the ferry resumed from Rhode Island, we were taken off the island by Uncle Kenny and taken to Keene, New Hampshire to a school. The rest is history good buddy," Sid told his friend.

"I grew up without a father, but we had the next very best thing; I've heard a lot of stories from boys about their real fathers over the year's and most of the time I wouldn't trade Uncle Kenny for any of them," Sid said.

"Uncle Kenny stayed with all of us until he died in his sleep about ten years ago in the junior compound. It's now called Camp Kenny in his honor," Sid told his friend.

Adam's sleep that night was somehow more restful than he thought it would be. As he climbed into bed and snuggled next to Sammy, the little boy didn't awaken, but seemed to sense that Adam was once again with him and molded himself against the man's form. Adam pressed his nose against the back of Sammy's head and breathed in the smell of the boy's hair. It was clean and pure and wonderful to Adam as he gently put his arm around the boy and placed his hand on the child's slowly expanding and contracting stomach. The boys depended upon the men for their security and their sense of belonging. Adam wondered who was receiving and who was supplying.

He hadn't met a single staff member he didn't like, and Adam was undeniably attracted to the boys emotionally, mentally and physically. None more than Sammy and that confused the man. Where did these feelings come from all of a sudden? Were they always somewhere in the back of his mind waiting to pop out at the site of a naked child? Adam dismissed that idea. He had seen plenty of children at the beach naked. He had seen his nieces and nephews playing under the sprinkler in the back yard or in the pool at his parents' house naked and never gave it a single thought other than the fact that they looked nice. Was it his own life's experiences as a child at camp? If it was, why was there an eight year interval between camp and his meeting the boys when he never even considered loving another boy? Sure, he had sex with his friends when they were children, but he was still friends with many of them in the interval and the subject never came up in their discussions or when they got together. It was just kids at camp having fun with each other, everybody he knew did the exact same thing! Maybe it wasn't a question for a Math Major, maybe it was a question for a Psych. Major. Adam decided just as he drifted off to sleep that he would split a few beers and have a talk with Bert one of these coming winter days.

The morning broke with the sounds of vehicles passing the house as Sammy turned himself around and was now clinging to Adam's leg and side. Adam looked down at Sammy's face as the little boys eyes began to open. The house was still quiet, and Adam moved a lock of hair that hung down and kissed the boy on the forehead. Sammy smiled a little and concentrated on focusing his eyes towards the window.

"What's that noise?" the boy asked as he lay there attached to his teacher.

"It sounds like trucks to me," Adam told the little boy.

Sammy thought for a few seconds. "Our trunks are coming back from camp, they always bring them back to us," Sammy told the man.

"Hi," Spencer said as the boy now came into Adam's room while cradling the puppy in his arms. Adam watched as the boy moved over to Sammy's side of the bed and put the puppy down next to Sammy. Sammy turned himself flat and picked up the puppy holding it over his body and then lowered it to his stomach as the puppy rooted around looking for something to drink.

"Our trunks are coming back," Sammy told his friend as both boys watched the puppy as both Joey and Trevor came into the room. Unlike Spencer, both boys were naked and needed a toilet break real soon as they came over to Adam and kissed the man good morning.

Promptly crawling over Adam, both boys joined Spencer and Sammy in playing with and watching the puppy on his grand search.

With the sound of the shower turning on, Adam listened as Sid began singing in the shower.

"What's that screeching?" Adam asked.

"Uncle Sid always sings in the shower, he says it gets him cleaner," Trevor replied as he giggled at the question.

"Why does it sound like somebody's hitting his toes with a hammer?" Adam asked.

Joey and Trevor left for the bathroom amid more giggles as they went to 'report' Adam's comment as Adam got up and reached for a pair of shorts. Spencer watched saying nothing. A shriek from Sammy told Adam that the puppy found something to drink from as the man headed downstairs for some coffee.

"He's not going to find any milk in there Sammy, let's get showered and then we can give him some real food," Adam said as both Sammy and Spencer now giggled and headed for Sid.

As Adam poured two cups of coffee, a group of senior boys came in with camp trunks and sports equipment of every description. Trevor's belongings included a box turtle, two baby rabbits and several salamanders. Adam wasn't too happy.

"Last year he brought back a snake Uncle Adam, so you're lucky!" one senior boy told him as they dropped off the gear.

"A snake? What happened to it?" Adam asked.

"It was a black racer, I think it got out somehow and the gators probably ate it by now," one boy told him. Adam hoped so.

"Morning good buddy, I hear you really like my singing!" Sid told his friend as he was handed a cup of coffee.

"Of course I do Sid, you know I'm a masochist!" Adam replied. Sid laughed as the boys wondered what a masochist was.

"All the camp gear is downstairs. Trevor, there's a zoo downstairs with your name on it!" Adam told the boy who was sitting on the floor of the shower with his friends keeping the puppy inside a ring of legs the boys were using as a fence. At the news, Trevor stood up and headed for the door very quickly followed by Joey.

"Did you know there was a menagerie on the way?" Adam asked his friend as Spencer picked up the puppy and began drying him off.

"Trevor's always been into animals, he takes really good care of them," Sid said.

"And the black snake?" Adam asked.

"Oh, you heard about him huh?" Sid said drying off Spencer as Sammy climbed onto Adam's lap dripping wet.

"Blacky just went out one day Uncle Adam. Uncle Bert said he probably went out to find a mate!" Sammy said to Adam.

"Yes, and he probably found your Uncle Sid!" Adam told the boy as he got up and carried the boy back into the shower after dropping his shorts on the floor.

"Uncle Adam, I already took a shower!" Sammy said as the man stood under the water.

"Yes, but that was with Uncle Sid, now we'll use soap like real people do!" Adam replied as Sid chuckled.

In what would become the routine, especially during the weekends, Adam and his boys, along with Dan and his boys and Sid with whichever boy or boys elected to stay with him for the night all ate breakfast together at Adams. The central kitchen would provide breakfast food that was either fully cooked or very easily cooked like eggs or pancake mix. That first Monday morning, Sammy, Jesse, Spencer, Joey, Trevor, Adam, Sid and Dan. all sat down to a community made breakfast complete with two rabbits, a turtle, three salamanders and a puppy that went from plate to plate looking for a handout when he wasn't living up to his name.

The scene after breakfast was no less chaotic as the boys emptied their camp trunks of the summer's collected valuables and began looking for places to keep them. Three shoe boxes of pine cones stumped Adam for awhile, then Sid shed some light.

"Christmas decorations," he told Adam. By about 10:00 it was time for a General Meeting, and the entire school would now meet centrally in Camp Kenny. As Adam would learn, Camp Kenny residents rarely left their compound, not even during summer. The only time they did leave, was either for a hurricane evacuation to either Orlando or Tampa, or a family visit to a house owned by the school on Islamorada. They were considered too young to travel, and due to their ages, too conspicuous to be transported in and out of mangroves without the locals asking a whole lot of questions of the marines with the guns and dogs.

For the first time, Adam saw the entire scope of Green Tree Academy for Boys. As he knew, the youngest was 16 months old, and had been at Green Tree since he was nine months old. Adam watched as Jeanette cared for him and he watched as the boy eventually went for her breast. Adam wasn't surprised. Several other girls were also breastfeeding boys, the only thing Adam noticed was that none of the remaining boys seemed to be aware of it or surprised by it. Quite obviously, these boys were use to seeing the women breastfeeding. Adam always thought only woman who gave birth could breast feed. Obviously that wasn't true the man said to himself.

Camp Kenny boys ranged in ages from 16 months to 7 years. The six and seven year olds were interested in the meeting somewhat, but those younger all looked to Adam like they would rather have been out playing somewhere. The senior boys by contrast could freely mingle with staff from all three sections of the school, and took maximum advantage of the opportunity. The intermediate boys looked to the senior boys section, some of their friends were recently made senior boys and now they found them once again. Some of the younger intermediate boys gravitated to the junior boys, not so much to find friends, but old staff. Spencer for one sat with Jeanette as she fed her ward. All three campuses held a total of just under 250 boys with a staff of almost 180 more. The greater majority were Geppetto boys, just under 30 boys and staff were not.

Adam found the meeting fairly typical. An intro by Sid to Bert followed some banter back and forth by the two as the boys listened carefully to find out which man came out on top. Naturally Bert won, and Sid sat back down to a round of applause and laughter. Adam knew the stage was set, the 'war' between the two would continue through the winter. Adam watched the boys listening to the two men as he sat there. He also observed the interaction between the rest of the staff in attendance and the boys who sat near or next to them. Adam knew this was a very cohesive group, not a bunch of strangers thrown together at the beginning of a school year, but a group of people who were very much in 'tune' with each other. Adam wasn't an outgoing man; he was damned glad he had Sammy sitting on his lap. To Sammy, the man was his protector. To Adam, the boy was his shield. Adam wasn't sure who was protecting whom.

Lunch followed the meeting, and Adam was more than pleased to find out that meal protocol differed little at school than at camp. It was very informal, and more of a social event when the entire school convened together. Adam's rock of security was Sid, and with the man not very far away from him, Adam felt unusually at ease in the midst of basically strangers. The exceptions of course were the boys, and when Sammy, Jesse, Joey or Trevor were near, Adam completely relaxed.

"So, how's everything going?" Bert asked as he sat down next to Adam with a little boy of probably three or four in his arms.

"This little turnip is Scotty," Bert said as he picked up a French fry off Adam's plate and fed it to the boy. The little boy smiled at Adam as he ate the fry.

"I'm finally getting use to the fireworks show every night," Adam replied as he handed the little boy another fry. Bert smiled.

"Well, we are the lightening capital of the world," he told Adam.

"You'll find the weather down here a bit different than it is up North. Usually when it rains up North, it's raining for the day. Down here, wait and hour and the sun's back out," he told the man. Adam nodded.

"What about Spencer?" Bert now asked.

"The puppy has worked miracles. He still keeps his distance, but between the puppy and the other boys, I think he's holding up very well," Adam told Bert.

"And with you?" Bert asked Sid.

"Normal," Adam responded.

"That's to be expected. It's going to take some time for Spencer to be willing to commit himself again," Bert told Adam.

"It may not even happen in the end. He may be content to just be a member of the house with no commitment to you personally. Is that something you're going to be comfortable with?" Bert asked the teacher. Adam nodded his head once again.

"I can't keep up with one of them let alone all four," Adam replied.

Bert smiled. "OK, so we let Spencer work things out at his own pace. He speaks to Anthony every day on the phone and that should taper off in time. All the staff are watching him very closely for any problem signs of depression," Bert told the teacher.

"If he seems really happy, if he stops playing with the other boys, stops having fun, stops eating or is either sleeping too much or too little, we need to know about it immediately," Bert told Adam.

"Not a few hours later, immediately!" Bert cautioned.

"If he's happy, isn't that good?" Adam asked.

"Spencer is depressed. When you have a depressed person who seems all of a sudden very happy, it often means that they've made a decision. Our job is to make sure that decision is never acted upon," Bert replied.

"Don't let it get you down, Spencer can't belch without it being reported back. Even the other boys have him on constant watch."

"What about school, you have everything you need to begin tomorrow?" Bert now asked Adam.

"Yes," Adam replied.

"For the first day, I will have an assistant in class with you. His actual purpose will be to assist you in case something comes up that you're not familiar with regulations wise. If he makes a specific recommendation in a given circumstance, go with him and he'll explain the reasoning behind the decision later," Bert told the teacher.

"Generally the boys don't push the boundaries, but there have been exceptions to the rule and we don't want to throw you to the lions without some protection," Bert told Adam.

"Don't worry about it good buddy, we'll save you if we have to," Sid told his friend.

"Gee, I wasn't nervous five minutes ago, now that I know you have my back, that's changed somehow," Adam told his friend. Bert left with a smile and with his little charge grasping one more French fry in his fist.

The balance of the afternoon was spent with the boys separating once again into their groups and returning to their respective compounds. The boys then toured each classroom and received their books and desk assignments as Adam got to know each boy just a little better. He would have three morning classes with ten boys per class and in the afternoon, he would tutor boys when necessary on an individual basis in math.

By 4:00 it was time to return to the house and Adam walked along with his four boys and Puddles the puppy. Sid and Jesse walked with them past row after row of structures that were very basic and bleak on the outside, but anything but on the inside. Adam looked at building after building.

"That's the swimming pool, that's the gym, that's the art school, that's the science lab, that's the roller rink," the boys all informed Adam as they passed in front of each one. Adam just shook his head. From outside, nothing could be seen and gave no hint whatsoever of what was inside the buildings.

With the boys trailing behind Adam and Sid paying much more attention to Puddles, the two men walked slowly towards the house.

"The kitchen is always very flexible, they will provide the entire meal upon demand if given enough time. Tonight, a lot of the houses are eating a Turkey Dinner for example with all the trimmings, but some houses order chicken, or steak, or ribs and decide to cook for themselves. It's really up to each individual house. Let them know a day or two in advance, and they'll always accommodate you," Sid told his friend.

"You can do as little or as much cooking as you want to.

"How do you handle it?" Adam asked his friend.

"Usually, I have a steak or chicken in the fridge and cook it up unless I eat out. Most of the time I eat out because I don't keep a regular group of boys with me," Sid responded. Adam knew that to be true. Even at camp in North Carolina, Sid did not have a cabin of boys he stayed with regularly unlike most every other staff member Adam knew.

"If you wanted a house full of boys, you could have 20 lined up tomorrow. Why don't you?" Adam asked the man.

"Tonight, when Sammy, Joey, Trevor, and especially Spencer, go to sleep, they know exactly where you are going to be in the morning when they wake up," Sid told Adam.

"With me, I'm on the crises team, and I could be in Boston, Philadelphia, or Gainesville tomorrow morning dealing with an emergency involving one of our boys. If I had a group of boys living with me, where would they find stability? I'm a 'floater' in the boys' lives because I come in and out periodically. You on the other hand are a stable rock that they'll hold onto because you're always there for them and they come to depend upon that."

As the group came to the house, the boys overtook the two men talking and charged up the stairs with the puppy firmly in Spencer's grasp.

"You're joining us tonight I hope," Adam asked Sid.

"Sure, how's about we pool our resources and put together some food for the grill. The boys love to cook their own food, and they're pretty damned good at it!" Sid replied. Adam wasn't so sure.

"Is this another 'Pizza Party' trick?" Adam asked.

"Oh gee no, good buddy, I'd never do anything like that to you!" Sid replied with a mock hurt look on his face. Adam agreed to the central meal but didn't believe his friend for one second.

When Adam learned that the dinner was going to be a barbeque, he assumed they would eat outdoors like they did at camp.

"This is Florida and it's still summer. Only a fool goes outside when he doesn't have too," Sid said as he light a fire in the fireplace and placed grills over the fire.

"If the humidity doesn't kill you, the no-see-ums or lightning will!"

"Gee Sid, that's real good advice. Now if I had it a week ago, I'd have an extra layer of skin on," Adam said to his friend as they popped open the first of a dripping cold beer. Dan chuckled as Sid looked completely bewildered.

Adam watched as the boys cooked their own chicken, steaks, hamburgers and hot dogs. Some were a lot rarer than Adam would have eaten, some were a lot more well done than he would have preferred, but he heard no complaints as the boys cooked and relentlessly stoked the fire as the men watched from a safe distance. Adam watched as a puppy with hiccups slept on his lap as the boys all stood around the fireplace dressed in underpants except for the two most adventurous boys, Sammy and Joey who ran as free as the day they were born.

Adam smiled to himself as he watched both boys and recalled a time in his own childhood when he ran around the house naked with his youngest sister. Adam had no memory of ever feeling anything sexual concerning her, but one day they were playing together and his mother came into the parlor. Adam didn't know why, but he had an erection as the two played with some trucks and toy soldiers. His mother reached down and spanked Adam on the ass and put him in clothes. He was never allowed to go around the house naked again. He never took bathes with his sister again, he never saw her naked again. He didn't have a clue why or what he had done wrong.

Now watching Sammy and Joey, he was somewhat envious. They most certainly took things one hell of a lot further than Adam had ever even thought of doing, but were still comfortable enough around each other naked or not. This was a freedom he never knew; until now.

Sid's dinner as cooked by the boys was rare chicken breast, a green salad, and corn on the cob. Adam ate his very first, very well done, New York Strip, and Dan had two crunchy hot dogs. With very big smiles from the boys, the men complimented the boys on their excellent cooking abilities. Watching Sid eat his chicken, Adam wondered if raw chicken still contained the risk of salmonella. Watermelon completed the meal, and Adam had forgotten how sticky watermelon juice was until Sammy climbed into his lap very nearly ready for the sandman as the men talked of tomorrow's first day of school.

The boys had showered before dinner together, but the watermelon, chicken, and steak juice took its toll on each boy's chest and stomachs so once again, they found themselves back in the shower. Dan and Jesse went back to Dan's house, leaving Sid and Adam with the remaining four boys. As Adam washed Sammy's legs sitting on the shower floor with the boy in his lap, Sammy was gone for the evening very quickly followed by Joey as Sid washed him. Spencer, Trevor and Puddles were the last in the showers as both Sammy and Joey were put to bed in Adam's room.

Once all four boys were tucked in for the night Sid and Adam retreated for the front porch and one more beer.

"Eating that chicken was mighty brave of you," Adam told his friend. Sid chuckled a bit.

"I remember once when we were kids. We made Uncle Kenny a pizza. It was straight flour and water, ketchup and topped with a bar of Hershey's chocolate. He ate every single piece of it with a big smile on his face. It had to be the grossest shit in the world, but he sat there and swallowed every bite!" Sid recalled.

"I'm not sure if we ate any of that pizza ourselves, we probably did. But what I do remember was how proud of ourselves we were that we could give Uncle Kenny something that we made from our own hands and he loved it," Sid told his friend.

"When you were eating your shoe leather tonight, I watched the boys' faces. Uncle Kenny's pizza was more than 45 years ago, but the looks on the faces were probably identical," he said.

"So, you're ready for tomorrow? Sid asked after a pause of almost a minute in the conversation.

"I think so, but having never been a teacher before, how could I tell?" Adam replied.

"That's very simple. Forget about the subject unless of course you don't know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide," Sid replied.

"Knowing the subject is 10% of the job. The remaining 90% is knowing, understanding and relating to your students," Sid counseled his friend.

"The brightest mathematician in the world wouldn't make it teaching first grade if he was uncomfortable around his pupils."

"In that case, I'm ready for tomorrow!" Adam replied. Sid smiled.

"Yes, I believe you are!" he replied.

"By the way, Bert told me to tell you that all your papers are in order, Uncle Sam takes his damned sweet time, but after a month, your salary is now being direct deposited into your bank account and you're 'officially' a Federal Employee," Sid told Adam.

Adam hadn't even given that aspect of his new job a thought. He didn't remember even being told what his pay was going to be.

"I don't have a bank account," Adam told Sid.

"Yes you do, you just don't know about it. Every two weeks Uncle Sam puts your paycheck in your account and makes a matching payment into your savings account from the funds that you ordered deducted from your wages," Sid told his friend.

"But I didn't order any deductions," Adam replied.

"Yes you did, you asked that $250. 00 be put aside so now you have $500.00 every two weeks going into savings," Sid told Adam.

"See Bert tomorrow and he'll give you all the papers and information you need. You're now a Grade 15 Federal Employee with a starting salary of $72,000.00 per year," Adam was fairly stunned.

Bedtime for Adam came fairly quickly, he snuggled up to the back of Sammy and rested his hand on the boy's beating heart as he lay there listening to the boy's breathing. Sammy's bottom was a little chilly as it now rested on Adam's stomach and started to warm up with the heat of the man's body. His other hand drifted down the boy's stomach and over his abdomen as it reached the sleeping boy's groin. His hand was large enough to envelope the boy's genitals and cup them protectively. Sammy's own hand now traveled to his groin as he put his hand over Adam's. The boy's genitals were as asleep as the boy himself and that didn't bother Adam, he wasn't holding the boy to engage with him, he was holding him for the boy's security as he did for himself as a child. Adam kissed the back of the boy's neck as he drifted off to sleep wondering where he could possibly want to be more than exactly where he was at that moment in time. Tomorrow school would start and it would be a whole new world for Adam and all his boys.

Adam the Teacher

"What's the matter Uncle Adam?" Sammy asked as he yawned and stretched his arms from underneath the sheets.

"What's that noise?" Adam asked.

"It's just a woodpecker on the roof," Sammy replied as he turned himself around and adjusted the pillow under his face.

"A woodpecker?" Adam asked the little boy.

"Yeah, they do that all the time. They'll quit when they find out they can't drill a hole through the roof," Sammy said to his teacher.

"Usually, you can hear them tapping into trees, but sometimes they land on the roof and try to dig a hole anyway," the boy said.

Adam laid back down and thought about the bird trying to peck his way through the metal roof. Sammy for one couldn't care less about the bird, he was waking up fast and waking up frisky. The boy lifted his leg up and over Adam and had himself sitting on top of Adam's stomach and chest area in one smooth motion. Nobody had to tell Adam that Sammy was ready as the boy now adjusted his body and pulled one leg up alongside Adam's rib cage. With a face full of Sammy's hair, the little boy pulled his arms around and under the teacher's chest and waited. Adam kissed the top of the boys head and his arms slid down both sides of Sammy as one hand found the boy's groin and the other his cheeks. Adam's fingers wrapped around the base of the boy's penis and as Sammy gently lifted himself up a little bit, Adam cupped the boy's testicles in his hand as Sammy settled back down with his genitals firmly but safely being held and warmed by the teachers touch. Adam made no move to engage the boy, he was content for the time being just gently caressing the boy's very smooth and very full buttocks which were just slightly colder than the boy's testicles moments before.

"Doe's it feel the same way to you, that it does to me when you touch me?" the little boy asked as he lay there studying the feelings his body was experiencing by the man's hands.

"Well, I'm not sure, because I don't exactly know what you are feeling, but I can tell you that what I'm feeling is a sense that the little boy I'm touching is someone I love very much and he feels like an angel," Adam said.

"When I'm with you, I want to love you and hug you and squeeze you just like the character in the bugs bunny cartoons!" Sammy giggled.

"You mean George?" he asked.

"Uh Huh, Uh Huh," Adam replied mimicking the character as he gave Sammy a big hug with his free hand. Again Sammy giggled, this time a bit louder.

"You've already been to college, right Uncle Adam?" Sammy now asked in a more serious tone.

"Yes, I've already graduated," Adam replied.

"So you won't go away like Anthony right?" he asked.

"I came back to Green Tree to teach the boys here and to be with a little boy named Sammy. I plan to stay here as long as Sammy wants me to," Adam told the boy as he kissed him once again on the top of his head.

"Forever Uncle Adam," Sammy said.

"Then forever it is," Adam replied.

A light tap on the bedroom door was followed by the very quick appearance of Joey and Trevor who each carried a baby rabbit into the room. The fact that Adam and Sammy were still snuggling carried little weight with both boys as they got up on Adam's bed and put the rabbits down as they both gave Adam a good morning kiss.

"Uncle Sid is washing with Spencer, are you through playing yet?" Joey asked.

"No," came the reply from Sammy.

"Well, come on and do it, we need to still take showers and have breakfast and then school starts today," Trevor responded.

Adam sat in the bed with Sammy on top of him and looked over to both Joey and Trevor who were sitting on the bed Indian style like they were waiting for the movie to begin. Adam wasn't a prude, and had in fact engaged all the boys now on his bed many times as a group, but still, he wanted his encounter with Sammy to be something a tad more than a sexual romp with the peanut gallery watching their every move. At the same time, he didn't want to dismiss the boys as two leering voyeurs either. Adam was hoping Sid would come popping through the door any moment and rescue the moment, but the sound of singing coming from the bathroom told him that Sid wasn't showing up anytime soon. Adam went for the nudge approach.

"Why don't you two go in and start showering and we'll follow in a few minutes?" Adam asked the boys.

"That's OK Uncle Adam, we'd rather shower with you," Trevor replied with a small grin on his face as he looked at Sammy's penis wrapped in the man's hand.

Adam found himself back to square one. Adam really didn't want to romp with Sammy; he wanted to make love with him. For Adam, there was a difference. The problem was, for the boys, sex was sex was sex. They did it. He did it. Every Uncle they knew did it and every one of the boys they knew did it, so what's the big deal? Adam was going to need guidance in the subject; he didn't know how to tell the boys he wanted privacy without taking the chance of hurting their feelings. He hugged Sammy for all the little boy was worth and kissed his head one more time.

"We can play after showers Sammy, it's time to get ready for school," Adam told the boy as he arose from the bed lifting the boy up with him.

"Uncle Adam, I gotta go now!" Sammy protested.

"Me too, but let's get a shower for everybody first," Adam replied as he turned Sammy around and carried him into the bathroom with Joey and Trevor picking up the baby rabbits and following them.

As Adam stepped into the bathroom, Sid was just about finished showering with Spencer as the man carried the boy to the toilet top to dry him off.

"It's about time we saw you good buddy, I saved a little hot water for you," Sid told Adam as the teacher got into the shower and put Sammy down on the floor to begin washing him.

"Thanks pal, but you might have entertained my audience long enough for me and Sammy to wake up properly," Adam said to his friend as he sat down in the shower and adjusted Sammy onto his lap to begin washing the boy. Sid looked down on his friend and watched as the man took a bar of soap and began washing the little boys chest and arms.

"Doe's that mean that Sammy hasn't gone yet?" Sid asked.

"No, not with four people and two rabbits on the bed," Adam replied as he lifted Sammy's leg and soaped it up as the boy rested his back on the man's legs and sat back listening to the two teachers talking.

"Sammy didn't want to play with Joey and Trevor there?" Sid asked.

"Oh no Uncle Sid, I didn't care!" Sammy replied before Adam had the opportunity to answer.

Sid picked up Spencer off the toilet and motioned for Joey and Trevor to follow him.

"Adam, let's talk after breakfast, but Sammy needs to go now," he told his friend as he left the bathroom with the three boys and two rabbits in tow shutting the door behind him.

"Now can we play Uncle Adam?" Sammy asked the teacher as he reached for the man's hand and placed it in his groin.

Adam looked into the boy's eyes that were a mixture of emotions. Maybe a touch of longing, maybe some sadness, certainly he had the look of anticipation in his eyes.

"It wouldn't have bothered you if we played in front of Joey or Trevor?" Adam asked the little boy. Sammy now had the look of confusion in his eyes.

"We always play together Uncle Adam, we even played together with you lots of times!" Sammy exclaimed.

"I'm sorry Sammy, I thought you wanted to be alone with me," Adam replied.

"Uncle Adam, Joey and Trevor know what we're going to do. We do it all the time," Sammy said.

Adam looked down at the boy and realized he really didn't understand.

"I'm sorry Sammy, maybe Outside Uncles are a lot different from Inside Uncles and maybe I need to learn how to be an Inside Uncle for you," Adam told the boy.

"That's silly Uncle Adam, you can't be an Inside Uncle, you're not a Geppetto boy!" Sammy replied.

'Out of the mouths of babies,' Adam thought to himself.

"OK, how do you want to play right now?" Adam asked the little boy.

Sammy now smiled a little once again and laid himself back flat on the shower floor. Adam had to smile as the boy lowered his body to the floor, his penis stuck straight up towards the shower heads taking a bath in the water beating down on the both of them. As Sammy's head rested on the shower floor, Adam pulled the boy's body up on top of his chest until he was within reach and took the boy into his mouth as he brought him to his first mornings climax. Sammy sat back and closed his eyes. Playing was always fun for the boy, but having Adam play with him always seemed to somehow much more pleasurable. Sammy concentrated on the feelings now rising very deep within himself. He didn't understand at all what was happening, but it sure felt good to the little boy and he was happy he had found Adam.

"Gentlemen, I think we've figured the riddle out," Sid began as he poured a ton of syrup all over his pancakes and bacon breakfast.

"The two of you knocked on the closed door as you should have, but you really didn't have permission to enter did you?" he asked both Joey and Trevor as the pancakes disappeared.

"No Uncle Sid," the boys responded.

"And when the boys came in, you didn't tell them you wanted private time did you?" Sid asked his friend Adam.

"No," Adam responded not quite sure where Sid was going with the conversation.

"Inside Uncles rarely ask for private time, it's not necessary between us Adam," Sid told his friend.

"You're an Outside Uncle and the boys all know you may want that from time to time," he said.

"If you find yourself in this position again, tell the boy or boys you want private time and they'll completely understand," Sid told his friend.

"I don't understand what the difference is between private time and any other time!" Sammy said as he listened to the conversation and ate his breakfast.

"I don't really think you believe that's true Sammy. Back at camp you asked Uncle Bert why doing it with Uncle Adam was different than doing it with everyone else. Do you remember that?" Sid asked the boy. The little boy nodded his head.

"Well, Uncle Adam feels the same way towards you, and wants to keep your play time a very special time between you and him. He also needs to know that you have very special needs and those needs have to be met," Sid told the boy.

"You've never had an Outside Uncle before, and now you do. Outside Uncles take a little bit of getting used to and even sometimes smell a lot different, but basically, they're just like the real thing, and if you want to trade them in for the real thing, you always have that choice!" Sid told the boy.

Four boys giggled as they finished their breakfast and ended the meal as they returned to the bedrooms to get dressed for the first day of school.

Adam watched as all four bounded up the stairs. "There will most certainly be times when you can pick and chose when to be alone with Sammy, but in the morning, once all the boys awaken, their driving force is going to be to engage and that's never the best time to choose to have private time," Sid told his friend.

"Eight to ten hours of sleep at their age is the best they can hope for before they need to relieve the pressure and it has little to nothing to do with intimacy," Sid advised his friend.

"So it's all pretty much a matter of mechanics," Adam said to his friend.

"Not at all," Sid replied.

"I guess growing up if someone hooked me up to a machine and made me come 12 or 16 times a day I'd be here, but I wouldn't be too much of a person. Uncle Kenny took care of our biological as well as our psychological needs and I think he did a pretty fine job of it. I don't think you're too very much different from Uncle Kenny and I think you'll end up raising some mighty spectacular boys once you figure out what makes them tick!" Adam smiled at his friend, but at the same time his eyes clouded over and went out of focus for awhile. When they came back into focus he had to wipe some tears from his cheeks. Adam was very well aware of the reverence Sid had for his original 'Uncle' and being compared to him took the man by surprise as well as humbled him to his core.

Sid once again smiled as he watched his friend.

"Uncle Kenny would get up very early in the morning if he wanted private time with one of us. It was either then or late at night," Sid told his friend.

"Once all the boys are up together, its party time as far as they're concerned and individual attention can rarely be accommodated," Sid told his friend as he put some cream and sugar in his last cup of coffee for the morning. Adam nodded his head.

Breakfast ended as both men returned upstairs to assist the boys dressing for the first day of school. As Adam walked into the room he was a little taken aback. Clothing was everywhere as the boys sifted and sorted their way through the entire wardrobe for something to wear. At camp, a pair of shorts, if that, was all that was worn. All summer he watched the boys as they played through the day at camp and clothing seemed to be the furthest thing from their minds. Now, polo shirt after polo shirt and pairs of shorts were strewn from one end of the room to another. The boys had been upstairs for probably 10 or 15 minutes alone, and had decided on which pair of socks to wear. Other than that, they were all still in their birthday suits.

"Pick a shirt," Sid told the boys as he sat down on a bed and waited. One by one, each boy chose a shirt and put it on and went over to Sid.

"Find a light blue pair of shorts," he told Trevor.

"Find a yellow pair of shorts," he told Spencer. One by one, each boy dressed and by 8:45 the group headed down the trail to school.

Sid and Adam walked in back of the boys as they met more and more of their friends on the way. The scene was little different from any other schools first day of classes, the boys were excited to see each other once again, and not all that nuts about being cooped up in a class room rather than going swimming, exploring or playing. Adam had 60 boys to teach in three sessions and an assistant as Bert told him he would. He knew better than half the boys by name, and all the boys were familiar to him from camp. In less than three days, all the boys were known by name and Adam didn't have one he wanted to see transferred to another class. His assistant was a Geppetto Boy of 22. His name was Scott and he had a twelve year old brother in Adam's first class.

Adam's first impression of Scott was that he was very likable. Adam had seen him at camp where he worked in maintenance. Adam questioned the fact that Scott had a brother in class, would this not present a conflict? "Scott has been a constant presence in Danny's life since Danny was born," Sid told Adam when Adam asked about the situation.

"He's very protective towards Danny and you can be assured he would react if Danny were threatened, but he doesn't molly coddle him or play favorite's. He'll expect Danny to tow the line and behave just as he would any other boy," Sid responded.

At 24, Adam was just two years older than Scott, the two were almost equals except for the fact that Scott chose not to attend college. He had no interest in higher learning, he was going to remain at Green Tree for as long as he could, and he was going to remain with his brother. Scott was a skilled mechanic as well as a teacher's aid; he had been both for the past six years. As Adam knew, Scott was there not just as an assistant, but as a referee in case there was a dispute or misinterpretation of the rules between Adam and the boys. Scott knew what the boys could and could not do. Adam, as a new teacher might make a decision that went contrary to what the boys were accustomed to. It was Scott's responsibility to see that all went smoothly.

"At camp, the boys can easily go from participating in activities to having to go," Scott told Adam.

"At school, they're a lot more confined and need a lot more concentration, so when they move from school work to thinking about playing, it's a lot harder for them," he said.

"That's why classes are 45 minutes long and then they get the chance to play if they need to. The problems come if a boy gets too involved and doesn't use his free time wisely and finds himself in class needing to go," Scott said.

"After awhile, you'll recognize it for yourself, but when a boy seems to 'drift off'. He's not going to be learning anything until he has the opportunity to relieve his situation and that can very often get the rest of the boys involved in a very big hurry," Scott told the new teacher.

"So how is it supposed to be handled?" Adam asked.

"The boys know they will never be denied free time," Scott told the teacher.

"Telling him he can't go is like telling a boy he can't urinate when his bladder is full. He's going to piss all over the floor. You tell one of our boys he can't have free time, he's going to be sitting there jerking off getting all the rest of the boys involved. You always let them go," Scott said.

Adam's first two periods went fairly routinely. There was little academic teaching going on that first day, most of it was spent getting to know each other. Adam had been warned by Sid that first impressions were extremely important to the boys, if they decided you 'weren't cool' you were in for a long school year. With Scott there, things went pretty smoothly, but right around 11:15 he was called to Bert's office and Adam now sat in front of about a dozen boys all trying to size up their new teacher. None of the boys in class were from Adam's Cottage, so basically, other than seeing the boys in and around camp, they were basically unknowns to the man. Adam passed out books to each boy calling them up to his desk as he read off the names. The fourth boy up was a nine year old.

"David says you're an Outside Uncle."

After a little over two month's amongst the boys in camp, Adam knew very well that everyone in camp knew he was an Outside Uncle. There just weren't very many of them around. He knew the question was leading somewhere, but, there was no way to avoid it.

"Yes Patrick, David is correct," Adam replied with a smile as he looked at a boy who looked pretty spunky.

With Adam sitting down, the boy drew a little closer and Adam knew without looking down that cute little Patrick had an erection poking the teacher in the knee cap.

"David says you really know how to fuck." Patrick said as he adjusted his weight back and forth on his feet until his penis found the slit in his shorts and the two were now skin to skin. The rest of the boys in the class were casually talking among themselves until Patrick brought up David's evaluation. Now, Patrick had their undivided attention as all conversation ceased. Adam wondered how soon Scott would return.

With a slightly pink face, Adam realized he needed to pick and choose his response very wisely, or when Scott did returned, he'd be walking into a full blown orgy.

"Is that something we usually discuss in school?" the teacher asked Patrick as the boy continued to sway. Amidst a whole bunch of nervous giggles from his classmates, Patrick smiled a little as his eyes twinkled.

"No, but we were just curious," he told Adam.

Adam nodded his head.

"If you're not a Geppetto boy, where did you learn to fuck?" the boy asked.

"Well, probably where every boy or girl learns regardless if they're Geppetto kids or not; with my friends at camp and in the Scouts," Adam replied.

"How old where you?" another boy asked.

"Probably ten years old I guess," Adam answered.

The boys looked at each other. "You didn't start fucking until you were ten?" a boy asked.

"Not even jerking off?"

"No," Adam simply stated.

"How did you have any fun then?" Patrick asked.

Adam now had to smile. "I had toys and stuff," Adam replied.

"We got toys too!" Patrick exclaimed excitedly.

"Yes, I know you do, but I'm talking about toys that you play with, not toys to have sex with," Adam said. Patrick looked a little disappointed, but he also didn't stop swaying and moving his penis across Adam's knee cap.

"Jesse says you sleep with Sammy all the time, but you play with all of them. Is that true?" A twelve year old asked.

"Did he also tell you I have a birthmark on my bottom?" Adam asked.

Again, in between a whole bunch of giggles, one boy stood up and turned himself around. Pointing to the center of his left cheek, he simply stated 'right here!' Once the laughing subsided, the ball was back in Adam's court.

"The resident's of Beachview have the same private time as do all the cottages, I just didn't know Beachview's private times weren't quite as private as everybody else's," Adam told the boys.

"That's OK Uncle Adam, we won't tell anybody," a boy of eight replied.

"Well, that's very comforting," Adam replied as he looked back upon Patrick.

"Would this be a good time for us to have recess?" he asked.

"Together?" the boy instantly asked. Adam kept his smile as small as he could but he had to bring the boy's face close to him and kiss him on the forehead.

"Patrick, perhaps one day you'll live in Beachview and then we'll play together. But my responsibility is to the boys in my Cottage," Adam told him.

"And sleepover boys?" Patrick asked. Adam smiled once again and nodded his head.

"Recess!" Patrick exclaimed as he bolted for the door tucking his erection back into his shorts for a brief trip to the bathroom.

By noon, Adam's first morning was over and the entire school sat for lunch together in the school cafeteria. The building was very long, and a third of it was the kitchen. The front two thirds held the intermediate boys and to Adam it was almost as chaotic as the camp mess hall scene he was use to that past summer. The boys sat where they wanted to, and intermingled with staff in a relaxed social atmosphere unlike any elementary or middle school that Adam ever went to. The food was served cafeteria style and the boys had multiple choices from hot dogs to fried chicken as they breezed through the line. Adam looked for Sammy several times during lunch, and like most of the other boys, the boy was drifting from table to table more like a summer camp picnic than a school lunch. Adam sat down with Scott and Sid and the gathering of boys around Sid was no less intense than it was during camp. Clearly, Sid was a very popular staff member, and the attraction didn't end with camp.

Halfway through lunch, Bert came in carrying yet another boy in his arms, a brand new student to Green Tree that had arrived the day before. Sitting down in between Sid and Adam, the Director exchanged hello's and a few quick jokes with Sid as turned the little boy around in his lap and sat him down with his arm around the little boy like the strap on a car seat belt.

"This is my new friend, his name is Caleb and he's just getting use to us," Bert told the group as he reached for a piece of chicken off Sid's plate and fed it to the boy. Adam looked at the boy who was probably about four years old. He was dressed in a polo shirt and a pair of bib overalls, no shoes or socks. With his face half hidden behind Bert's forearm, Adam didn't see much of the boy, but immediately recognized that the boy had a fair death grip on Bert's arm as he chewed the meat and ducked his face back behind Bert's arm. A kitchen worker came over and put down a plate in front of Bert and some milk for the boy as Bert asked the boys around the table how everything was progressing. Adam said little, he watched the goings on around him and watched the boy.

"Uncle Bert!" a shrill voice half screamed as Sammy approached the table and gave the man a kiss as he then climbed into Adam's lap and settled his head into Adam's chest and lifted his arms up around his teachers neck. Sammy looked at the little boy and said nothing, he had seen the scene many times before, Uncle Bert had a new boy and until the boy got use to the school, he would remain with him.

"Where's Spencer?" Bert asked Sammy.

"He's over there with Uncle Dave and the grounds crew," Sammy replied pointing several tables away. Bert studied Spencer from his seat.

"How's it going Sid?" the Director asked.

"No problems, he slept most of the night and had a good morning," Sid replied as he handed Bert another piece of his chicken. Bert took the chicken and put it in front of Caleb who shook his head.

"Green Tree boys always eat five pieces of chicken their first day, it makes their tummies big and fat and round," Bert told the boy and kissed him on the forehead.

"Show me how big you can make your tummy!" The boy smiled a little and opened his mouth taking the chicken from Bert's fingers. Again, Bert gave him a peck on the forehead.

"So Adam, how was your first day so far?" Bert asked the teacher as he picked up the milk and gave the boy a drink.

"No problems Bert. Scott has been invaluable, and even Sid has a few minor suggestions I consider now and then," Adam quipped.

"Really!" Bert said in a slightly raised voice as he looked over to Sid.

"Be careful Adam, I'm not too sure I'd take any suggestions from him!" Bert joked as the boys around him started giggling. The next five minutes or so was spent with one jab after another being passed back and forth between Bert and Sid, and with each jab, another boy or two wanted to know who was winning the war of the words. The men's biggest audience was probably Caleb, who was learning that Green Tree wasn't nearly as scary a place as his four year old mind thought it was, these boys around him were laughing and having fun! When it came to Child Psychology 101, he was with the Masters.

At four years of age, Caleb was diagnosed as a child with 'Precocious puberty' He was born and lived in Hibbing, Minnesota. By age two his mother knew something was wrong, and by age three she felt it was out of control. Caleb ate, slept and played with himself almost from birth. Until he was two, he was kept from siblings and peers. By age three, he was coming into contact with other children and engaging them. By age four, he needed around the clock watching or he was in his friends pants. Sending him to public or even private school was out of the question, and just one year away. Caleb was a Geppetto Boy having been born from a female who was a direct descendent of an original Boise orphan. Luckily, he made it to Green Tree instead of the Court's. Caleb would now grow up in a safe and secure environment but telling that to a four year old baby who had never been away from his family before was now the staff's job, and more specifically, Bert's accepted responsibility. Until Caleb was comfortable with Green Tree, he would remain attached to Bert until the boy himself chose another staff member to bond to.

Lunch was a full hour long and probably half that time was spent eating and visiting. After probably 15 minutes or so, Bert stood up and turned Caleb back around as the little boy attached himself to Bert's neck and half buried his face.

"Nice to meet you Caleb!" Sid said as he shook the boys foot in his hand. Again, Caleb smiled, but he wasn't exactly sure about this man that his friend Bert made fun of. Caleb wondered why the boys around him laughed. If Uncle Bert didn't like the man, he certainly didn't and what was funny about that? Caleb wasn't sure, but he was sure he needed to touch his pee pee again and then he would take a nap.

Adam invited Bert for dinner, but the Director patted Caleb on the back.

"I've already made a commitment, but I'd be happy for a raincheck. Maybe tomorrow or Wednesday," he said as he took his leave to go and touched base with Spencer. Adam and Sid watched as the two left the table.

"More likely Friday or Saturday," Sid said as he finished his glass of milk and put it down.

"Bert will have Caleb bonded to another staff member of Camp Kenny by Thursday, but it will still take him a few days to completely let go of Bert," Sid told his friend.

"Three or four days doesn't seem like a very long time to me, suppose the boy doesn't bond to another staff member?" Adam asked his friend. Sid smiled to his friend.

"Bert's the A team when it comes to knowing the boys. He can have a complete emotional train wreck of a boy floating on thin ice and happy where he's at within a week," the man told his friend.

"We'll see Bert for dinner, but I wouldn't set the table before Friday at the earliest." Adam shook his head and smiled. He had learned far too many times to doubt either man's assessment of the situation at hand.

The balance of the day seemed to go by at lightening speed for Adam, his afternoon was filled with math tutoring, and by shower time, Adam was more than ready to call it a day. Sid and Spencer showered first followed by Joey and Trevor and by the time Adam and Sammy hit the showers, Puddles was looking like a drowned rat and sleeping in a corner of the shower as Adam stepped into the shower and sat down with Sammy. With the little boy straddling his stomach, Adam picked up the bottle of no more tears shampoo and poured it on the boys head and whipped up a huge pile of suds as they flowed down the boys face, neck and shoulders. Sammy grabbed as much of the suds as he could and returned them to Adam's chest, arms and face as each washed the other in silence. Adam smiled as he looked down and a small pool of water gathered between the two submerging Sammy's genitals until the water climbed over the boys legs and fell to the shower floor.

"What's funny?" Sammy asked as he looked into his teachers face.

"Nothing's funny, I just can't believe how lucky I am to be sitting here with you right now in this place," Adam replied.

"What's lucky about taking a shower Uncle Adam?" Sammy asked very innocently. Adam again had to smile. Could he explain it to the boy? "It's not the showers Sammy. It's you!" he told the boy as he took the boys head in his hands and kissed the boys forehead.

"Uncle Sid told me that Outside Uncles were different. Uncle Sid sure was right!" Sammy told Adam as he gave the man a strange look. Adam sat back and smiled at the little boy sitting there wondering if the boy knew how very precious he was to the man.

"Well, OK, should I change and become more like an Inside Uncle? What does an Outside Uncle do that an inside doesn't?" Adam now asked the boy.

"Well, for one they don't make a big deal out of showers!" Sammy said after thinking about the question.

"And they don't make a big deal out of doing it."

"Ok, should I change and not care if you smelled like a horse and looked like a goat?" Adam asked the boy. Sammy smiled.

"As far as doing it with you is concerned, I don't think I could ever change that. I'm not a Geppetto Boy and couldn't possibly know what it feels like to be one. I only know that I love you, and when we do it, it means something really very special to me," Adam told the boy.

"Not only is it special, but it's always been something that Outside Uncles have had to keep very private. Green Tree Boys don't have to keep it private and neither do Inside Uncles, so in that respect, we're very different," Adam said to the boy. The little boy studied the mans words and smiled once again.

"So when you don't have to keep it private anymore, you'll be the same as Uncle Sid!" Sammy exclaimed in his eight year old logic. Adam reached forward and hugged the boy as closely as he could. "Your Uncle Sid is a very special person and I would be very happy to be as open as he is, but he is an Inside Uncle and I'm an Outside Uncle," Adam tried to explain.

"I don't think that either one of us likes all you boys any more or any better than the other, we just love you as the individuals we are," the man told the boy.

"It's pretty much what Uncle Bert told you when you asked him in camp why it felt so different to you when you did it with me. Does that help you understand better?" Adam asked.

"I guess so," Sammy responded. Adam smiled a little and kissed the boy on the side of the neck. Sammy giggled a little.

"Is it time to play?" he asked. Adam wasn't convinced that Sammy completely understood the conversation, but he had no doubt in his mind whatsoever that the boy understood his love towards him as he lay the boy a crossed his lap and made Sammy a very happy little boy.

"I was going to send a life guard in for you two!" Sid said as Adam walked into the living room carrying Sammy wrapped in a towel.

"I thought you drowned!" Sammy giggled as Adam sat down in a chair and began drying off the boy. Spencer came over to Sammy and picked up his puppy who was now looking for a place to pee for probably the 15th time that afternoon.

"He smells like shampoo!" Spencer said as he put the puppy to his nose and buried his face in the Spaniels fur.

"That's good! Take him over to your Uncle Sid and remind him what soap smells like," Adam replied. All four boys giggled as Sid feigned being insulted. Spencer sat down on Sid's lap. With the exception of Sammy who was still naked, the rest of the boys were now back in underpants. Joey and Trevor played with a video game while Spencer was content to play with Puddles for the time being. Drying off Sammy, Adam studied Spencer as the boy played.

Spencer had come a long way from the week earlier. He no longer attached himself around the clock to Sid. He didn't drift too far, or for too long, but he didn't feel the inner need to have constant physical contact with Sid either. With Adam, Spencer was still remote, but readily participated in conversation and smiled much more often than he originally did. The boy was coming out of his shell and his dimples made an appearance much more frequently by the day.

"Does anybody know what's for dinner?" Adam asked as he put the towel down and began to brush Sammy hair.

"It's Monday Uncle Adam." Trevor replied.

"So?" Adam responded.

"We always have meat loaf on Monday," Spencer told the man.

"Always?" Adam asked.

"Sure, unless we decide to make our own dinner and have a cookout," Sammy told the man.

"Monday we have meat loaf, Tuesday we have roast beef, Wednesday we have spaghetti and meat balls, Thursday we have pork chops, Friday we have chicken, Saturday we have a cook out on the beach and Sunday we have Turkey," Joey said.

"The menu is kept constant so that the boys know what to expect. You can have a cook out anytime you want, but the boys all like the food and usually prefer to eat the cooked meals," Sid replied.

"Now and then they go for Chinese or a pizza party, but they can get a little messy!" Sid told Adam.

"Is that right!" Adam said as he stared at his friend. Once again, the boys giggled remembering the last pizza party Sid suckered Adam into back at camp. As Adam looked away, he caught site of Puddles heading for the front door that was open.

"Gee, maybe the puppies finally learning to go outside," Adam said.

"No he ain't Uncle Adam, look!" Joey told the man as he pointed to a small puddle on the floor in the middle of the room. Adam shook his head as the boys headed for the kitchen and yet another handful of paper towels.

"Maybe Puddles will be fully potty trained just about the same time your Uncle Sid is!" Adam quipped as he pulled up a fresh pair of underpants onto Sammy and snapped the waistband around the boys stomach.

As stated, dinner of meat loaf with all the trimmings followed and Adam watched as the plate of each boy was scrapped clean. The food at camp was excellent. The food at school was even more exceptional. Served family style, food is an extremely important part of the boy's upbringing at Green Tree. As Bert had explained it to Adam, food was considered an integral part of each boy's upbringing and considered as important as any physical or emotional need. Besides the huge caloric intake necessary to maintain these boy's activity, the psychological needs were weighed almost as importantly by the founders of Green Tree when the program was first started. Adam recalled in his own youth going to bed without supper, or not receiving desert for being bad. At Green Tree, that form of discipline was absolutely forbidden. Food was never withheld for any reason whatsoever!

With stomachs testing the outer limits of the boy's underpants, Adam and Sid opted to take a beach walk with the boys after dinner and followed them and Puddles down to the water. As with camp, many other boys and their staff had the same idea, and with the sun setting in the gulf, Adam and Sid had prime time for serious discussion whenever the boys were out of earshot.

"It's going to be a Florida sunset," Sid said as he looked up at the sky.

"What do you mean?" Adam asked as they walked along the shoreline in about three inches of water.

"See those clouds over on the horizon? When the sun gets a little lower, it bounces off the bottom of them and it's usually a pretty good light show!" Sid told his friend.

"Sammy got a little serious with me in the shower today," Adam said.

"He's very curious about Inside Uncles and Outside Uncles. How would you describe the difference?" Adam asked.

"That doesn't surprise me. Sammy's never had an Outside Uncle before," Sid replied.

"It's a damned good question, and one I've only been able to answer for myself because of my personal involvement with my Uncle Kenny," Sid said.

"For me, there was very little physical difference. Getting it on is getting it on and basically, there's just a certain amount of ways you can do it and other than some variations and a fetish or two, screwing is screwing. Complications set in when it's no longer just mechanical but gets emotional," Sid told his friend.

"It's a 'flaw' you have and we don't," the man told Adam with a wink.

"Until I met Uncle Kenny, I could fuck my brains out and never look back. Once he came into the picture, I learned I wasn't just eating sleeping, breathing and fucking, I was being made love to and it became different. Sammy's now at that same place with you and is trying to figure out why and how," Sid said.

Adam listened to his friend's explanation and agreed.

"OK, that helps to explain Sammy. Anthony is an Inside Uncle. Why is Spencer so emotionally entangled?" he asked.

"Basically, because Spencer and Anthony have homosexual tendencies," Sid responded.

"Some boys do, some boys don't. Geppetto boys are no different than other boys, some are gay and some are not. Sammy isn't gay, he most probably will never be and it doesn't matter one bit how many males he has sex with. When he grows up, he will prefer woman. Spencer on the other hand, will prefer men."

Adam was a bit surprised by Sid's remarks.

"It sounds like Spencer's already been put in a box and wrapped-up!" Adam told his friend.

"He's still just a little boy, why write him off so fast?" Adam questioned.

"Nobody's writing anybody off," Sid replied.

"We just look at the facts and make adjustments accordingly. If a boy is going to grow up heterosexual, we have to make plans to keep him from pro-creating and out of jail. If he's going to grow up homosexual, we've got to make plans to keep him from getting aids and out of jail. Society cares if he's straight or not, we really don't give a flying shit either way!" Sid told his friend.

"So how do I handle him?" Adam asked.

"His orientation is something he'll work out. To us, he's no different than Sammy, Joey or any other boy for that matter. Meet his needs as he requests them and don't worry about it," Sid instructed.

As they walked along the beach Adam observed the boys playing in the surf and playing with Spencer's puppy. He wasn't exactly sure how he was going to deal with Spencer in the future, but he decided Spencer's orientation, no matter what it was, was something he would embrace.

As the walk progressed, so did the evening sky and as promised, Adam was bathed in an orange red glow from the clouds overhead as the sun set and illuminated the bottoms of the clouds. Rarely had Adam seen anything like it as the air seemed almost to take on a neon glow. Unlike the clouds up north that were almost always flat on the bottom, the Florida clouds looked very much the same as seen from an airplane window. Light, puffy and looking like snow balls or cotton candy. Both Sid and Adam sat down and watched the show a few feet from the water as the boys ran up and down the beach chasing the birds who traveled in large packs digging in the sand for a clam or crab for dinner. Off to the south, a dark patch over the water that was covered by a huge cumulous cloud was pointed out to Adam by Sid.

"That storm will be here just after dark. It looks like we're in for some rain and a pretty good light show tonight!" Sid told Adam. Adam watched the huge cloud as a streak of lightning without sound surrounded the cloud and then disappeared.

"We'll need to be getting back," Sid told Adam.

"Lightening can strike 10 to 15 miles [15-25 km] away from a storm like that and we're the highest thing around here," he told his friend as he stood up and brushed off the sand from his bottom. The walk back to the house took about 15 minutes and as Adam climbed the stairs he heard the faint roll of thunder coming across the water.

A quick two minute rinse in the showers took Adam about 15 minutes to convince the boys they needed and by the time the windows were shut against the deluge that was pouring off the roof, all four boys were back in underpants and sprawled all over the living room carpet as Puddles went from boy to boy trying to lick each ones face as they covered their faces in their arms and giggled which encouraged the puppy even more. With a cold beer and Sid sitting beside him, Adam was fully content to sit there and just watch the boys play and having fun. Except for the blinding flashes of lightening and the boom of thunder almost immediately following, to Adam, it was a perfect end to his first days teaching. Sid very much preferred the boys listen to music rather than get wrapped up in the boob tube and he turned on the stereo that came with every house at Green Tree, one specifically engineered for the house by Sid himself. Sid's taste in Music never failed to surprise Adam, and watching the boys play at his feet, and watching the rain pour off the roof, the group sat there and listened to Tales from the Vienna Woods which the boys were completely familiar with.

"I understand you had a pretty interesting morning with Patrick," Sid said as the two men sipped on their beer. Adam shook his head.

"Is anything private in this place?" he asked his friend. Sid laughed a little and shook his head.

"How much money you have in the bank is private. Your medical condition might be private. Who you voted for in the last election might be private, but anything to do with sex is fair game around here," Sid replied.

"From what I hear, the boys were fairly impressed with you, so you're off to a good start," he said.

"Did my impression have anything to do with knee caps?" Adam asked.

"Knee caps?" Sid asked.

"Nevermind," Adam said smiling.

Last call to piss wasn't going to stop the floods that Adam knew damned well he'd be looking at in the morning, but it gave him a great excuse to get the boys into the bathroom to brush their teeth and prepare for bed. Sid would again be sleeping over and that kept Spencer both busy and happy. Maybe it was just coincidence, but even Puddles donated some water of his own in the bathroom as Spencer stood at the bowl having a sword fight with Trevor.

"How can one little puppy piss so much?" Adam asked no one in particular as he took some toilet paper and wiped up probably his 30th puddle of the day and that didn't include whatever the dog did on the carpet. Spencer's last giggle of the night came as he bent down and picked his underpants back up and slid them up over his very full bottom.

"Good night Uncle Adam," Spencer said as he approached the teacher and reached his arms up. Adam picked Spencer up and gave the boy a small peck on the cheek "Good night Spencer," Adam responded. The little boy smiled a little and looked at his teacher.

"That was a good bye kiss, not a good night kiss," Spencer told the man and kissed Adam very lightly on the lips.

"That's a good night kiss!" Spencer than told the man as he wiggled himself back down to the floor. Both Adam and Sid smiled.

"I like those better!" Adam said as he picked up Sammy and watched as Spencer was picked up by Sid.

Sammy's head hadn't yet warmed the pillow as the boy turned himself around and climbed on top of Adam in his now familiar sleeping position. Joey and Trevor had begun the night climbing into their bed alongside Adam's but it was clear to Adam that the center of their attention lay in his bed. Looking over, his eyes met two small pair of eyes. Lifting up the comforter, Adam said nothing as both boys scurried out of their bed and climbed in alongside Adam dragging their pillows with them. Sammy yawned as his face lay on Adam's sternum and his lower body molded itself down in between Adam's legs. Adam kissed the top of Sammy's head as he reached one hand to the middle of the boys back and the other slipped under the boys underpants and he cupped a warm, smooth, fluffy cheek in the palm of the other. Adam felt the flexing of the boys penis on his stomach that was more of a reflex than an invitation as the boys breathing began slowing down towards sleep phase. Sammy would be fully ready to engage in the morning, but for now, he was just a tired and sleepy little boy very content with his world. Adam drifted off to sleep as Joey and Trevor's underpants fell to the floor and the two went head to toes in their familiar sleep position. Tomorrow would be a new day, and Adam was looking forward to it.

Chapter Four

Trouble in Brookline

All signs of the previous night's thunderstorm were gone as Adam awoke to the sound of the shower. It was barely light out, and Adam wondered who was showering so early as he slipped out of bed and went to the bathroom.

"Close the door," Sid told Adam as the teacher came into the bathroom.

"There's been a problem up in Boston. Anthony was in a car accident last night and I'm flying up this morning. Spencer knows nothing about it, and the team doesn't want him to until we know the extent of the problem," Sid told his friend very quietly.

"Try to keep Spencer's schedule normal, but if he balks, we'll bring in Jeanette if necessary. Bert's going too, so you'll decide whether to bring her in or not."

"Where is Anthony?" Adam asked.

"Harvard Institutes" It's the only hospital we can use that has doctors who know anything about Geppetto Boys," Sid responded.

"Why would they know? Adam asked.

"They're all connected to Harvard," Sid replied.

"Green Tree is Harvard's program, it was developed by them."

"When are you leaving?" Adam asked.

"There's a jet sitting at Naples Airport right now. An airboat from Fish and Wildlife is on its way here now and we'll be in the air by 7:30," Sid responded.

"What about Caleb?" Adam asked of the little four year old.

"Caleb's taking his first airboat ride in about 15 minutes," Sid told his friend as he dressed without drying.

"I'm waking Spencer up and telling him I have a meeting to attend to and tell him goodbye. Have Joey and Trevor move in with him once I'm gone and keep things as normal as possible around him," Sid said as he put on a watch and put his wallet in his pants pocket. Adam knew Sid now for almost three months. He never knew his friend owned a watch or a wallet.

Spencer had very little reaction to Sid's leaving; he knew the man was an Administrator of the school and that he often went to meetings. Nothing was said beyond 'Meeting' and Spencer gave it very little afterthought. As he drifted off back to sleep, Joey and Trevor moved into bed with him and they would be awakening in another hour or so routinely as far as they were concerned. For Adam, it was anything but routine as he went down to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. As the morning light increased, Adam sat on the front porch as he first heard the faint roar of what he knew to be an airboats engine and then watched as a bright blue streak with a huge white tail of water flew across the bay and up towards Everglades City to the north. Adam didn't know airboats could travel that fast. He guessed the boat had to be going at least 70 or 80 miles an hour [110-130 km/h]. He wondered what little Caleb was thinking now.

As the airboat disappeared, Sammy showed up dragging a pillow and flopped himself into Adam's lap. Sammy was naked, wet and had the very distinct smell of urine about him as Adam rubbed his bottom to get it back to room temperature.

"You've got some pretty chilly buns pal," Adam said as he caressed the boys buttocks. Sammy was still more asleep than awake, but he snuggled in a little tighter as Adam continued to massage his back and cheeks.

"Why are you sitting out here Uncle Adam?" Sammy asked as he wiped his nose on Adam's chest and turned his face to the other direction.

"Uncle Sid had a meeting to go to and I got up a little early," Adam replied not expanding on the explanation.

"Oh," Sammy said as his eyes closed once more and he drifted between half sleep.

Adam got out of the chair keeping the boy attached to his chest as he got up.

"Come on little man, let's see if we can make you smell pretty again," he said as he walked back into the house. Walking back upstairs, Adam sat down on his bed and laid down with Sammy still on top of him. Adam figured he would rest a minute and then go take a nice refreshing shower. He awoke an hour later as Joey, Trevor and Spencer came bounding into the room with Puddles in hot pursuit.

"The door was wide open Uncle Adam, you don't want private time again do you?" Joey asked as he climbed up on the bed. "No problem," Adam replied as he looked down at a still sleeping Sammy. Rising up, Adam picked up Sammy and walked into the bathroom with all three boys and Puddles following. It was going to be a five person shower, and that was the end of that. Adam sat down in his usual position as he laid Sammy down on his back and pulled the boys feet and legs up and over his as he washed Sammy's trunk, groin and thigh area. Halfway through the shower. Sammy let go with a small fountain that pretty much started the ball rolling for the rest of the boys as Sammy fully awoke and was ready for the day and his first romp.

The contest was on. All three boys figured that Sammy flew about two feet [60 cm] up in the air before gravity took its toll and Sammy ended up with a golden shower. Joey, Trevor and Spencer figured they could do better, and decided that Adam would be the judge. Trevor, who was a year older than both the other boys, won the contest at just around three feet [90 cm]. Sammy's day began again amid a screeching of laughter as he dodged three fountains that weren't coming from Rockefeller Center.

"Now you Uncle Adam!" Joey said as he arose from the floor of the shower.

"Sorry guys, but I went to the bathroom just before I got into the shower," Adam replied as he reached for the shampoo and turned Sammy around.

"No fair Uncle Adam!" Trevor said.

"Well, I didn't know we were going to have an Uncle Sid bath," Adam responded.

"Next time, I'll save up!"

The boys once again filled the shower with the sounds of very happy boys. Given the day's beginnings, Adam was thankful for the respite.

With bladder erections now cured, the boys were beginning to concentrate on more important matters and began sitting down in front of each other. Trevor sat in front of Sammy, Joey in front of Trevor and Spencer sat as the locomotive. The boys had long ago perfected the 'Train' as they knew it, and weren't bashful at all even with a full grown adult sitting there with them. As Sid had said the day before, there were only a few ways you could get it on, and the boys had figured out and given their own names to each activity years before. Technical names were never used even when the boys knew them. The most common were the train, the sandwich and the circle. Three to six boys were a common play group, and it took very little imagination to figure out why four or five boys were trotting off when one suggested they make a sandwich. To Adam's huge surprise, it excited him in the very beginning; it became peanut butter and jelly by Christmas time.

One by one, each boy washed the hair of the boy in front of him and one by one, each boy got 'coupled' like all trains do. Yes, Sammy too.

After showers, the boys pulled up underpants not bothering to dry off. It was now September, and Florida in September is still very much a steam bath. It was already 76 degrees [25° C] and wasn't yet 8:00 in the morning. By the time school was out, it was going to be in the mid to high 90s [35-38° C] and staying cool was a very high priority for all the boys. Adam very quickly learned that in Florida in the summer, you go from air conditioning to air conditioning or you must be a very stupid tourist!

By the time the group arrived at the table for breakfast, the kitchen had arrived with the mornings food and had already been advised about Sid's leaving with Bert and Caleb. Usually there were two people from the kitchen, that morning three came and fully prepared the meal knowing Adam was alone.

Sid's departure with Bert and Caleb was a very quick affair. Bert received a call at two in the morning from a roommate of Anthony's who was also a Geppetto Boy. Anthony was on I-95 coming back from a weekend in Kittery, Maine, when he was involved in a road rage accident that left him in a ditch alongside a bridge abutment. The other driver never even stopped. Anthony was a passenger, and had a broken nose, facial lacerations, four cracked or broken ribs and was bleeding internally. He was in Harvard Institute and Harvard Medical was immediately called. Because of the internal bleeding, Anthony was listed in fair condition. They didn't yet know where the bleeding was coming from, and how extensive the damage.

Bert decided he would go, Sid would go with him, and Caleb would have to come along for the ride. In emergency situations such as the one now confronting Bert as the Chief Administrator of Green Tree, he had available to him resources not generally found in the general public domain. Geppetto Boys were a Government issue and Uncle Sam will go a very long way to ensure secrecy.

After sending a runner to awaken Sid, Bert got on the phone first to the doctors treating Anthony in Brookline and then to a very private phone number in Alexandria, Virginia. A plane would be sitting on the tarmac at the Naples Airport by 6:00 a.m. A helicopter was Alexandria's first choice, but it was decided that that would involve too many people. An airboat was dispatched instead, it had a crew of three and they were all certified with National Security clearance (See no evil, speak no evil.)

Now a lot of people are familiar with airboats, and Bert's first reaction was that he couldn't put a four year old child on a shingle with an airplane motor on it and go puttering through mangroves up Florida's west coast to Marco Island. There are airboats, and then there are airboats and Uncle Sam owns the very best. Bert and Sid didn't find themselves on a shingle with an old Cessna engine puttering along; they found themselves on a twin engine, Pratt and Whitney monster that pushed two blades with 600 horsepower each. Fish and Wildlife don't putter through mangroves, they move at 90 miles an hour [145 km/h] under the right conditions, and can't go any faster because the damned boat wants to start flying for some crazy reason. Bert, Sid and a still sleeping Caleb were taking off from Naples by 7:15 in a Gulfstream Jet that was flying into Boston at 550 miles an hour [900 km/h].

With Sid being sent out with Caleb to buy necessities like tooth paste, tooth brushes and clothing for the three of them, Bert went directly to Brookline and a meeting with Anthony's doctors who were still deciding if an exploratory was necessary. Anthony was passing blood through his urine but was it enough to warrant going in? When Anthony hit, he almost went through the windshield, but he also took a hard hit on his chest and abdomen. Was there kidney or liver damage? Is that where the blood was coming from?

Bert did not personally know any of the doctors but that was essentially unimportant. The doctors knew Bert was a PhD. from Harvard and ran a Harvard based program. Anthony was a student of his that was involved in the program and nothing else mattered to them. If they knew anything about Geppetto (which was doubtful) nobody said anything openly. Unless blood showed up in his stool or lungs, the decision was made to explore externally. He would go under the knife only as a last resort.

Sid in the meantime had a dual job. Since they left Florida with the clothes on their backs, they had nothing. He also had the responsibility to keep Caleb happy, interested and busy. As he knew, that could be tricky with four year olds; they aren't often the most rational of individuals. Walking around Boston with a screaming crying child of four was something that just might bring some attention where it wasn't really wanted.

Keeping little boys happy at camp or in school was familiar to Sid. Keeping a four year old happy who basically didn't know you and wasn't exactly sure if he even liked you or not in the middle of a city was another thing and Sid was doing a fair amount of praying. He decided his best course of action was to get out of the public eye and into a large suite real fucking fast so the boy could move about and play in relative obscurity. Less than a mile from the Institute, Sid found himself in a three room penthouse suite at the Holiday Inn. From that point on, Sid's afternoon was spent on the phone ordering in food, clothing, toys, and anything that might even possibly amuse a four year old.

Back in Florida, Adam kept as normal a day as possible for Spencer and the boy didn't really seem too concerned about the absence of Sid. Then again, Adam wondered what was going to happen that night when Sid was still in Boston. Worse still, what about Spencer's phone call to Anthony? Was Anthony even conscious? Adam's day progressed, but very slowly until a call from Bert around 1:00. Anthony felt like he had been hit by a train, but he was awake, and he would call after dinner.

Bert went to the hotel after seeing Anthony and Sid breathed a sigh of relief.

"We'll know probably by this afternoon if they decide to go in or not, they're hoping it's not necessary," Bert told Sid.

"If they do?" Sid asked.

"If they do, we're here for probably a good week before we can transport him back to Florida. If they don't, we're probably out of here in two days or less," Bert said as Caleb fell sound asleep on his shoulder.

"How's he been?" Bert asked.

"Between playing in the tub and Sesame Street, real good," Sid replied.

"But if we have to stay here for a week, he's going to get pretty water logged!" Bert smiled for the first time in many hours.

"There are a couple of programs that I might be able to get him into at school on a temporary basis, let me speak to some people I know," Bert suggested.

By mid afternoon, tests showed that Anthony suffered no serious injuries to his internal organs that would require surgery. However, with a broken nose, three cracked and two broken ribs, he wasn't ready to go roller skating on the Boston Common either. He looked and felt like he was hit by a Mack truck. His phone call to Spencer was covered by his claim that he had a bad cold and was taking some medicine that made him sleepy. Spencer brought the story and thought nothing more of the way Anthony sounded.

While Spencer was easy, Caleb was a horse of a different color as far as Sid was concerned. With Bert gone to the hospital for a good part of the day, Sid was left to keep Caleb busy and happy. Sid decided he very much liked boys that were older than 6, younger boys were something he could easily avoid whenever possible. Harvard had several programs for young children with 'sexual disorders' and Caleb fit in as a visiting specimen quite readily. Caleb had a great time while he was there playing with the other children, but Sid took notice that Caleb didn't separate all that well and was a nasty little bugger all the way back to the hotel until Sid could plunk him back in the bathtub!

"I'm thinking maybe you should have brought Gloria to Boston instead of me," Sid told Bert on Wednesday afternoon after Sid's second trip to Harvard with Caleb. Bert smiled again.

"I would have, but I don't think I could have gotten her on that airboat!" Bert told his friend.

By Thursday morning, the doctors gave Bert the green light to take Anthony back to Florida. His nose was taped, his ribs were taped, and it would take a good month of rest before he was ready to go back to school. Seeing Anthony was going to be traumatic for Spencer, but it was going to happen sooner or later and Anthony would recover faster in Florida. Calls were made to Florida and a flight to Miami would bring them back by dinner time. Sid now smiled for the first time in days.

Adam's preparation of Spencer began immediately after school on Thursday. Adam knew that Anthony was already in the air, and would be there in a little under three hours. Bert decided that Anthony would stay at Sid's house with Spencer at night, Sid could either remain there or stay with Adam at his discretion.

"Uncle Sid and Uncle Bert will be having dinner here with us tonight," Adam began the conversation with Spencer sitting next to him.

"They have both been up north with Anthony in Boston for the past few days," he told the boy. Spencer's face took on a quizzical look.

"With Anthony?" Spencer asked.

"Yes. Uncle Bert and Uncle Sid went to Boston because Anthony was in a small car accident. They are bringing Anthony back to school so he can get well and then he'll go back to school," Adam replied.

"Car accident?" Spencer replied.

"Yes, but you know he's OK, you've spoken to him many times since the accident," Adam told the boy.

"Anthony got hurt?" Spencer asked as Adam felt the boy stiffening up.

"Yes, he has some bandages on and you'll see them, but he's going to be fine in just a few weeks," Adam replied.

"Does he have a broken arm?" Spencer asked.

"No, he doesn't have any casts on or anything, but he does have on some bandages on his chest and on his face." Adam said. Spencer said nothing for awhile, but Adam could see the boy was deep in thought.

"I want to talk to him." Spencer finally said.

"He's in the plane right now flying back. As soon as he lands, I'm sure he'll call us," Adam told the boy. Spencer again said nothing, he stood up and picked up Puddles and went to the window and looked out over the Gulf.

From Sid's point of view, the trip back to Florida was 'The plane ride from Hell.' As he would recount at gatherings both at school and at camp for many years to come. In deference to those directly involved, they must understand that Uncle Sid has an extremely low tolerance of incompetent bureaucratic nitwits and ignorant parents and they should excuse his judgment of them.

On the trip up to Boston, there were no checkpoints to go through and there was no 'security' for Sid to traverse. Now, the group was sitting at Login with a man that looked like he was in one hell of a bar fight, two older gentlemen, a little puppy and a little boy. Alexandria had issued electronic tickets in First Class for everybody including the puppy and they stared at 'Security' who wanted double photo I.D. for each one of them. Bert was good to go. Sid had a license. Anthony had his student I.D. Caleb and Cuddles had nothing.

"You may go Sir, but we need additional I.D. for the rest of your party." The security man at the entrance told Bert.

"Here's my license! See that's me!" Sid told the man.

"I'm sorry Sir, but I need two forms of photo I.D." The 'security' man told Sid. While Sid was ready to tear the mans throat out, Bert was on the cell phone to Alexandria. He had no I.D. for Caleb, and if things got out of hand, it could explode before it was resolved.

"Thank you Officer, we'll wait over here," Bert told the 'security' man has he practically had to drag Sid away from the x-ray machine with several 'guards' watching the group very closely as they gathered along the side of the machine.

As Bert sat down he motioned Sid to do the same.

"Sid, God fucking dammit, if it was just you and me and Anthony, I'd play with these assholes until they bled, but if these assholes get rowdy, Caleb could be entangled for fucking hours with them. Shut the fuck up and let's get out of here!" Bert told his friend. Sid was breathing heavy, but he also knew when Bert was putting on the brakes.

"Calls have been made. Sit fucking tight and keep your mouth shut!" Bert advised Sid. Fifteen minutes later, more brass appeared at the check point than could be found at the Boston pops. Sid said absolutely nothing to the 'security' man, but if he could have read thoughts, Sid would have been sentenced to about 250 years in Walpole as the brass escorted him through the checkpoint and onto the plane.

Sid had boarded many planes in his 48 years, and most of them were fairly insignificant events. This one however was a tad different. Everybody on the plane was watching him like he was the unibomber. Bert and Anthony sat down in seats on the left side of the plane and Sid and Caleb had the seats on the right.

"Would you like a drink Sir?" the stewardess asked Sid as if she were about to be disemboweled.

"Yeah, a triple Martini would be real nice!" Sid responded somewhat sarcastically.

"I'm sorry Sir, Federal FAA Regulations don't permit me to provide that!" she responded with the straightest of faces.

"Fine, then make it a screwdriver!" Sid told her.

"And for the little boy?" she asked.

"Fine, make it two!" Sid responded.

Bert covered his face and had to laugh.

"Stewardess, our nephew will have a Sprite, keep him in screwdrivers and it'll be a smooth flight!"

The flight to Miami was fairly uneventful for Sid until the plane was roughly over Charleston, South Carolina. Sid was sitting in the Isle seat and Caleb had the window. When Caleb got bored with the window, he rediscovered his penis somewhere over Long Island a good hour earlier. Sid saw the shift from window to pants, but he didn't give it a whole lot of notice. Sitting in the seats in front of Sid and Caleb was a family of four. Mommy, Daddy, young daughter and slightly older son. Mommy and Daddy sat on the left side of the plane in front of Bert and Anthony. Daughter and son sat just in front of Sid and Caleb. Unlike Sid, son did give Caleb's new toy a whole lot of attention as the seat he was sitting in kept lowering until the tyke had a very good view of Caleb at work. As he was accustomed to, Caleb played at will. Sid had purchased new pairs of bib overalls for the boy, and most of the time, Caleb was content with bopping his bologna under wraps. While it was extremely obvious that the boy was getting it on, little was seen most of the time. However, now and then Caleb saw the necessity to see his winky in action, and brought it out for some air. Six or seven year old son took notice.

Sid figured he didn't need another drink, he needed the whole bottle as he had a boy in front of him and a boy alongside of him whacking the hell out of themselves at 40,000 feet [12,000 m]! To Sid, come on down! Took on a whole new meaning.

Alexandria had decided even before Login took off that they were going to make sure that Bert and company made it back to Green Tree and invisibility without incident. The plane landed in Miami and pulled up to the ramp and the door didn't open for about five minutes. Most of the passengers on the plane were by now standing in the isle waiting to depart when the intercom announced that all passengers were to be seated for 'security' reasons. Once again, Sid felt like 'Jack the Ripper' As he was escorted off the plane with Bert, Anthony, Caleb and of course, Cuddles. Mommy and Daddy looked at Sid like he was Osama bin fuckup. Sid wanted to have son tested to make sure he wasn't a Geppetto Boy so he considered it an even trade!

Bert's arrival back in Green Tree came just before dinner. Adam didn't have a clue in the world what to expect from Sid, but he damned sure as hell knew that Spencer was working himself into an emotional explosion. Spencer said very little, but breathed very shallow. He didn't react, but his eyes told you he heard. To Adam, he was Mount St Helen's. The shit hit the fan when Spencer saw Anthony climbing the stairs. Spencer went fairly ballistic and it was helped very little when Anthony could not hold, carry or hug Spencer because of his injuries. What was planned as a 'welcome home' dinner practically turned into a wake if you considered Spencer's reaction. Reasoning with Spencer was beyond hope and even Bert gave up half way through dinner. Just about everybody there was happy it was over when Bert took Anthony and Spencer to Sid's house for the night.

Once they were gone, Sid began describing the trip from beginning to end so the entire night was not without happy times and laughter. As the story grew older, it grew more hilarious with Sid as the moderator. Anthony recovered from his injuries and was ready to go back to school in about a month. That was almost three years ago and he's not left yet. Spencer, now 12, won't even talk about it.

Sid opted to remain at Adam's which made Adam quite happy. Sid was good company, and Adam liked the man a very great deal. Not sexually, but as a friend. After dinner, the boys settled into the living room rug and listened intently to Sid's tale of Boston. Many roars of laughter later, the conversation returned to normal.

"So how were things when I was away?" Sid asked the boys.

"Neat, Uncle Adam doesn't need private time anymore Uncle Sid." Joey said to the man. Adam felt his face getting a little flush. He had no idea what was coming next, but he could guess.

"Really! He doesn't actually do anything in front of the rest of you does he?" Sid asked mockingly.

"Bedtime!" Adam said as he stood up surrounded by boys rolling around the floor giggling.

For probably the first time in over a week, Adam and Sammy had the bedroom to themselves. Sid slept in the other room with Joey and Trevor and Adam picked up Sammy as they walked into the room and tossed the boy on top of a pile of pillows on the bed. Sammy landed on his back in another fit of giggles. He knew what was coming.

Turning out the light, a bunch of goodnights from next door followed through the open door. Adam looked down on Sammy laying there in his underpants and Adam marveled at the boy's physical beauty. Lying down on top of the boy, he kissed the boys stomach that was full and as soft as a pillow. As Adam moved himself down Sammy opened his legs and Adam's hands reached the waistband of the boys briefs that were already tented by his erection as Adam kissed and suckled the boys navel. A small giggle told Adam that Sammy was enjoying his love making as he now moved his face down to the bulge in the boys pants and pressed his lips to the tip of the bulge and moved it back and forth along his lips as the boys penis flexed in spasms under the fabric. It took Adam a minute or two, to make the area completely wet and slowly the wet fabric became almost transparent as Adam took the boys penis in his mouth underpants and all as the boys hips began to slowly rise and fall with Adam's movements. Slowly, Adam worked Sammy's penis around and through the slit in the front of his pants with his tongue and brought it out to stand straight and tall as Adam worked the boys testicles out of the slit with the suction of his mouth on the boys scrotum. One by one, each testicle appeared as Adam drew them in and out of his mouth as the boys hips traveled higher in the air from the arching of his back. Sammy's first climax came with a low moan deep within the boy as he cupped Adam's ears in his hands and pressed his penis as deeply as he could into Adam's mouth as the mans tongue massaged the underside of the boys pulsating penis.

Adam was far from though for the night. He knew the boy could repeat his lovemaking in remarkably short time. As Sammy's body went back to a relaxed state, Adam pulled off Sammy's underpants as well as his own and returned to lay on top of him, this time, putting Sammy's legs over his shoulders as he laid the side of his face on top of the boys genitals. Adam wanted to take the boy to a place he had never been before. He wanted Sammy to experience why making love was something very special, and not always just a biological necessity. Sammy would have sex hundreds of thousands of times in his lifetime, Adam wanted Sammy to know and feel that his love for the boy was very special.

After Sammy climaxed, his penis retreated a bit, but didn't exactly go flaccid either. With Adam laying on it, and the boys anticipation, it was somewhere in limbo; not hard, not soft. Adam lay there for a good ten minutes occasionally kissing the boys groin area until Sammy was once again fully ready to continue the night's playtime. Adam was now ready to take Sammy to a place he himself was taken to as a young camper by his very best friend.

Adam put a pillow under Sammy's bottom and began once again at the boy's penis as he brought it back to full erection. Once he had it flexing on demand with his tongue, he moved down to the boy's scrotum and drew the boy's testicles back into his mouth until he knew Sammy was very near another climax. The boy's back was already arching as Adam now moved his lips under the boy's scrotum and gently kissed and suckled the area as he lifted Sammy's legs from his back and slowly gained access to the fold of the boy's buttocks. The warmth of the boy's anus told Adam exactly where he was headed and the quiet moaning from Sammy told him that Sammy was experiencing a love that was new to him. Just outside of Sammy's anus Adam repeated for the boy what his friend had shown him. Just underneath the skin, the boy's prostate was now being massaged by Adam as the man moved to massage it from within with his tongue.

Sammy was always a cute and quiet little boy. He was still cute, but he was no longer quiet and Adam was way beyond caring who knew the boy was now in ecstasy at the hands of his lover. The boy's sphincter muscle was closed tight when Adam reached it, but slow steady coaxing and licking had Sammy relaxing it and allowing access to Adam's tongue in short order. As Adam slipped it in Sammy sucked in his breath.

Sammy climaxed with a rush he had never experienced before as Adam massaged the boy's prostate and it convulsed with its dry production. Sammy was dripping wet from sweat and took minutes for his heartbeat and breathing to return to normal. Sammy was speechless for a very long time with his eyes closed and his penis clenched in his little fist. Trains and sandwiches and circles were great fun but this was a whole new way of doing things for Sammy. Sammy's private time with Adam came to a warm and comfortable close as the boys teacher filled him with his love and Sammy fell to sleep with the heat of Adam's penis still warming him long after he climaxed.

Adam awoke in the morning with Sammy staring at him from less than four inches [10 cm] away. The little boy was on top of him and had his penis somewhere tucked between his legs. He instantly knew he had an erection and he also knew that Sammy was moving his legs stimulating it. The boy had a very impish look on his face.

"Good morning," Adam said as he reached up and kissed the boy. Sammy smiled and then lowered his face to the man's chest as he stroked the teacher's shoulders with his hands.

"I don't ever want you to go away," Sammy said very seriously.

"I have no plans to go anywhere," Adam replied as he kissed the top of Sammy's head.

"Good," Sammy said.

"Hi," Joey and Trevor said as both boys walked into the room and climbed up on Adam's bed. After giving each boy a kiss, Adam looked at both boys. They were both naked and both had pretty fair erections.

"Is this playtime?" Adam asked the boys.

"No, Uncle Sid already did that with us," Trevor said.

"But we can do it again if you want," Joey interjected. Adam smiled.

"Sammy hasn't gone yet, so I'll wait for him," Adam replied.

"You sure did go last night," Joey giggled as Trevor instantly followed.

"Yeah, we could hear Sammy real good!" Trevor said as both boys returned to giggling.

"Well, I'm happy we amused you," Adam said.

"Amused hell, you drove the both of them into a frenzy," Sid said as he now entered the room.

"I didn't get to sleep until almost 10:00," Adam now giggled.

"And I'll bet they had to drag you kicking and screaming all the way to the bed," Adam told his friend.

"Oh no Uncle Adam, Uncle Sid likes to fuck!" Joey replied.

The kitchen staff entered the house just as a roar of laughter came floating downstairs.

The Albemarle School

Shower time was fairly uneventful until Sammy's erection decided it was play time. As all three boys waddled bare asses back to the bed, Adam and Sid headed for the coffee pot. Half way through the first cup Bert appeared with Caleb in tow. As Caleb climbed the stairs on all fours to join the boys, Bert poured himself a cup and sat down.

"I'm moving Anthony into the Infirmary in Camp Kenny and Spencer's joining him," Bert began the conversation.

"What about school?" Sid asked. Bert shook his head.

"Spencer's not dealing very well with this thing and I don't want him traveling back and forth between units. He's out of school until we get him back on solid ground," Sid nodded.

"It's not going to be easy when Anthony returns to college," Sid suggested.

"I don't even want to go there right now," Bert told the men. "There's one more thing that's occurring and it's going to affect everybody," Bert now told the men.

"The Albemarle School is closing. It has a hundred and fifty boys and they're being distributed to the five remaining schools who can take in Geppetto Boys."

Sid's back straightened.

"Closing? Why the fuck is it closing?" he asked the Director.

"Civilization. When it opened there were no neighbors. Now they're beating down the doors. It's getting impossible for them to remain incognito," Bert told Sid.

"It's too much of a security risk for Alexandria to accept."

"What's our part in it?" Sid now asked.

"We're taking in 40 boys and ten staff."

"Hell, that's easy!" Sid replied.

Bert shook his head. "It would be easy if we could spread them between all three units, but we can't," he responded.

"Albemarle won't split the boys up and our entire group will be intermediate boys."

"Shit Bert that's a 25% increase in our population!" Sid exclaimed.

Bert nodded his head.

"And Alexandria says they won't build any new housing until the kids have gone back to camp. They don't want workmen anywhere near these kids," he told both men.

"The only way we're going to be able to do it is to start consolidating our boys to free up houses for the Albemarle boys. I need eight houses empty by Friday."

"It's a damned good thing our kids are extremely compatible," Sid quipped. Bert and Adam smiled.

"Well, Bay Watch is usually empty. I can move in somewhere else, so there's your first house," Sid told the Director.

"You're more than welcome to move in here," Adam quickly replied.

"Thanks good buddy, I just might do that!" Sid told his friend.

"Get with the staff Sid and let's get this ball rolling. The kids need to know what's happening and consider voluntary shifting. I don't want anybody unhappy with their move if we can avoid it," Bert told his assistant.

"I'm suspending automatic transfers from Camp Kenny until further notice. We'll move boys up only as needed and not automatically. We'll also drop the transfer age to the Senior Boys unit to 12.6 All transfers will need committee review before acceptance," Bert told Sid. Sid nodded.

The pounding of feet on the floor and stairs told the men that the boys were on their way. Sammy, Joey and Trevor were packed into their underpants but Caleb's were noticeably missing as he came bouncing down each step on his ass down the carpeted stair way with a one inch [2½ cm] deeply pink penis in a very impressive erection. By the day, Caleb liked school more and more. At home, he could run around the house naked once his daddy went to work, but when he was home the boy had to wear clothing and his daddy never liked it when he touched his pee pee or his bum. Daddy never seemed happy with him, and he didn't know why. Now, he could go nakey any time he wanted to and touch himself whenever he wanted to. The only thing missing was his mommy.

Breakfast had the waistbands expanding by the mouthful, with probably the biggest and roundest running free on Caleb. As the boys headed upstairs to get ready for school Bert was ready to head back to his house.

"Panties or nakey?" Bert asked the little boy as he stood up.

"Nakey." Caleb readily replied as Bert picked him up and put him on his shoulders.

"Come on little man, I know a very nice lady I want you to meet," Bert said as he turned around and walked out onto the porch.

"Her name is Sarah and she loves nakey little boys best of all."

Caleb giggled as the dimples on his ass reminded Adam of Spencer.

"Well it looks like Fall is going to real interesting around here!" Sid told his friend as he stood up to get dressed for the day. Adam wondered what the next few months were going to be like.

By lunchtime, the entire school knew of the new boys' impending arrival. Adam now had three boys in his house and two adults if Sid chose to remain with him. He could take three or four boys with no changes, more if he got more beds.

"My recommendation is that you let the boys pretty much decide who comes in. Your life is going to be a hell of a lot easier if all the boys see eye to eye," Sid suggested to the staff as they met at lunch together.

"You also need to keep in mind that some of you are going to be absorbing staff as well," Sid told the group.

"We're all human, so keep in mind that some of these boys come with an adult attached and you're going to be living in close quarters for at least the next nine months until we go back to camp. If the guy has smelly feet, it's going to be a long winter!" Sid said.

"OK, so who's going to volunteer to take in Sid?" Adam quipped. As they almost always did, the meeting broke up with Sid pretending to be greatly mis-understood and unfairly maligned.

Sitting in class after lunch, Adam looked up as both David and Jesse now stood before him. Both boys, along with Sammy were the very first three boys Adam met when he came to Camp Green Tree and the man liked both of them extremely well.

"David and me want to come and live with you now," Jesse told the teacher. Forgetting the grammar, Adam was deeply touched as he looked at both boys.

"What about Uncle Dan?" Adam asked Jesse.

"Uncle Dan has four boys who want to move in together with him. They can't if no one moves out, so I suggested I go with you and he thought it was a good idea since we already know each other so good," Jesse responded.

"So well," Adam corrected the boy. Jesse rolled his eyes up.

"Uncle Adam, you're a Math teacher not an English teacher!" Jesse reminded him. Adam smiled.

"And David?" he said now looking towards the boy.

"I never lived with an Outside Uncle before and Joey and Trevor said you were a real good one!" David replied very matter of factly.

Adam put his hand up to his head and scratched his forehead a little.

"Any other reasons come to mind?" Adam finally asked.

"You like us?" David said after a little deeper thinking.

Adam had to smile once again. "No David, I don't like you boys, I love you very deeply," he told the boy as he brought David to himself and hugged the boy for all he was worth.

"Have you spoken to the other boys?" Adam asked. "No, we figured to find out if you wanted us first," Jesse replied.

"Speak to them and let them know I think it would be a great idea. You also need to let Uncle Sid know what your plans are," Adam told the boys "Which reminds me, Uncle Sid will probably be living with us too!" Adam replied.

"YES!" both boys exclaimed as they went charging out the door.

By 2:00 Sammy, Joey and Trevor came into the class room with two boys in tow. Adam recognized one as a boy who 'helped' him unpack his things back at camp. He was a nine year old named Christopher. He had mid length light brown hair with sun bleached stands of blond hair and a deep tan. Adam recalled the boy swimming at camp. It was obvious that Christopher's favorite piece of clothing was his birthday suit. He had seen the boy probably 100s of times at camp but he didn't recall seeing him in anything more formal than Sylvester Underoo's. Unfortunately, he was now fully dressed but no less beautiful to Adam. Probably the only thing different concerning Christopher was his pierced left earlobe which held a diamond and not a shabby diamond at that! As a policy, Green Tree forbid body piecing of any kind, but Christopher had received the piercing as a baby from his mother who was now deceased. There were occasional exceptions to the rules, and Christopher's ear was one of them.

The other boy was Christopher's best friend. Matty had black hair, somewhat curly, and silky soft to the touch. He was a bit taller than Christopher, but average for a nine year old. Matty said very little mainly because he had a speech impediment but he had a very impish smile that looked like it could produce some pretty fancy mischief. After introductions Sammy popped the question.

"They want to move in with us. Can they Uncle Adam?" Adam sat back in his chair and studied the boys for a very few seconds.

"Did you already speak to David and Jesse?" Adam asked his boys.

"Yes, they said you said they could move in," Trevor replied.

"And are you happy with that?" Adam asked.

"Sure," Sammy replied.

"And does Christopher and Matty know and get along with David and Jesse?" he asked the boys.

"Sure Uncle Adam, we all lived in bunks together in camp before. We don't fight," Joey replied.

"If you think you boys all get along well together I have no problems with it," Adam told the boys.

"Let Uncle Sid know what you're planning, and if he thinks it's a good idea, so do I," Adam told the boys. Like Jesse and David did before them, a stampede headed for the door and Uncle Sid. Adam now had seven boys and when Spencer came back to him he would have eight. He wondered where he was going to find the stamina to keep them all happy.

The school day ended at 3:00 with the entire campus somewhat electrified. The moving was an adventure to the boys and they liked the idea that they were pretty much controlling it. All seven of Adam's boys ranged in age from eight to twelve, and they all had fairly compatible interests. All were sports active, all were into computer games and outdoor living and most didn't care about school one way or the other. Since there was little to no competition between them, there were rarely fights or arguments, and they would readily jump into each others pants at the mere suggestion. It was Sid's responsibility to evaluate each houses potential cohesiveness since he knew every single boy in school, and he gave Adam's group a 10 rating on a 1 to 10 scale.

Each house was roughly 3,000 square feet [280 m²] of living space. Neither a huge house, nor a small one. With the adults, they were now nine people. The house had four queen sized beds in two bedrooms and that now needed some adjustment. Housekeeping removed two of the queen sized beds and replaced them with four double sized beds. Each room now held three beds, which gave anybody room to stretch out alone if the mood struck them (which it very rarely did). Unlike camp where the boys wore next to nothing, at school, each boy had a wardrobe that could only be described as extensive. Dressers and chest of drawers needed moving and closet poles where installed between each chest of drawers to accommodate hanging clothes.

The bathroom was already very large by normal standards, but still, it would not accommodate the entire house at once. Naturally, the boys could care less about showering, but it was a higher priority for both Adam and Sid despite the jokes to the contrary. Shower time became a little more hectic and a little more stretched out, but by taking turns, everybody got what they wanted in the showers sooner or later. Seven boys made three times the noise at mealtimes than three or four did, but even that Adam would get use to within a week or so. Sid never seemed to notice the change.

Adam arrived back at the house bringing Sammy, Joey, Trevor, David and Jesse with him. The following day was the 'official' moving day for those boys who had already decided where they were going, and Christopher and Matty were still in their old house. Housekeeping was upstairs taking measurements for the new furniture and closet poles.

The boys watched with interest as the men and senior boys took measurements and jotted down information on a notepad, but their primary goal was to get naked and get to playing. The getting naked part was the easy one. With sneakers flying into their closets, socks, pants, shirts and underpants soon piled up in the laundry chute as five little bare assed boys now waited lying on their beds. If absolutely necessary, they weren't against publicly engaging, but Uncle Bert wasn't a fan of wide open orgies and asked them all to maintain decorum. They weren't dead sure what 'decorum' was, but it seemed to have something to do with fucking in front of a whole bunch of other people.

"The new beds and furniture will be coming in tomorrow Adam, we will have you set up by dinner time," Dave from Building and Grounds told the teacher.

"Unless the boys give us the bums rush again."

"Bum's rush?" Adam asked.

"They're on a mission," Dave said pointing towards the ceiling. As the senior boys were packing up tools, they chuckled.

"Oh, Sorry," Adam said.

"Don't worry about it. It happens all the time," Dave said as he himself chuckled.

As Dave left in his cart, Sid pulled up in his and the two exchange greetings and horns. Dave had an old antique car horn while Sid had his bar of old ice cream truck bells. Adam smiled as the horn and bells told the boys upstairs that Sid was back and he could hear the commotion it was stirring upstairs.

"Well, at this pace, we should be ready for Albemarle by Tuesday or Wednesday," Sid said as he came into the living room and headed directly for the kitchen. With two beers in his hand, he sat down in the Barco lounger and handed one to Adam.

"I have four empty houses and tomorrow probably another one. The last three are going to slow things down because everybody's already where they want to be," Bert said as he reviewed his notes.

"You know you have David, Jesse, Christopher and Matty coming in right?" Sid asked Adam.

"Jesse and David are already upstairs," Adam replied.

"Christopher and Matty will be coming in tomorrow," he told his friend.

Sid nodded his head. "I could have moved two more boys in. You were their first choice," Sid told the teacher.

"They were willing to move in even knowing they'd be getting all stinky with your showering," Sid chided his friend.

Adam said nothing, he just smiled.

"Speaking of choices, I already know everything I need to know about David and Jesse, what about Christopher and Matty?" Adam asked after taking a sip of his drink.

Sid nodded his head. "It's Bert's call to give you access to the boys personal information, and he usually does after about a week or so of you knowing the boys for yourself," Sid said.

Unless it's something special like Spencer for example, you'll be told about a boys particular problem if it could hurt the boy or cause him problems, but Bert wants you to first evaluate a boy without your receiving pre-conceived notions concerning him," Sid explained.

"It's like a teacher who's handed a class and told all the kids are fuckups. The teacher expects nothing from them, and they end up being fuckups."

"There are two things about Christopher and Matty that you do need to know immediately and up front. First, Christopher's mother was a Geppetto carrier who ended up committing suicide because of what she brought upon him. Even worse, it was Christopher who discovered her body after she slashed her throat. He was five at the time and has vague memories of it," Sid told his friend.

"His last nightmare was nine months ago. It may not be the last he experiences. Unless he brings the subject up, never speak of his mother and never refer to his ear," Sid instructed.

"If he does bring her up, relate all conversation back to Bert immediately," Adam nodded.

"Concerning Matty, he has a moderate speech impediment. It's not neurological or physically induced, it's psychologically based. Growing up, his step father beat the shit out of him every time he found him masturbating," Sid told the teacher.

"The team's decision is for all staff to completely ignore the stammering. Learn very quickly to understand what he's trying to convey. You may not correct his speech or even ask him to repeat a sentence. The word 'what?' doesn't get spoken in front of Matty for any reason," Sid told his friend.

"Sexually, Matty takes a very long time before he'll even consider engaging with an adult. It'll happen, but it'll happen when he's good and ready and trusts you," Sid said. Again, Adam nodded.

The thunder of feet upstairs told both men that playtime was at an end and so was any serious conversation between the two. Adam noted to himself that Sid could go from a deadly serious conversation to a party persona in the blink of an eye and then he could go in reverse. Except for the fact that Sid was always in complete control of activities around him, Adam had always been taught that this was manic behavior. Was Sid nuts or was Sid a psychological genius? Adam's college training was in Mathematics. Bert, Sid and a very large percentage of the staff were trained in psychology, very specifically, Child Psychology. Maybe Adam needed to take a few courses himself!

"Hey bruiser!" Sid exclaimed as Jesse landed on top of the man after a flying leap.

"I hear you're going to be living with old stinky," he said to the boy as he grabbed two fist fulls of the boy's buttocks and gave them a gentle squeeze. Jesse giggled a little as he backed away from Sid and gave him a kiss.

"Uncle Sid, you're staying with us right?" Jesse said as he sat in Sid's lap like a jockey ready to ride.

"Well, I figured if I didn't, Uncle Adam would have you all drowned in perfume and smelling like a bunch of girls in a week!" Sid replied.

"Somebody's got to stay with you guys and make sure you smell like boys."

The remark had the rest of the boys laughing and giggling as the kitchen appeared at the front door with dinner. Being Friday, the boys knew it was chicken, but they didn't know how it would be cooked.

Bert in the meantime had his hands fairly full; quite literally. As a four year old Caleb was a handful. When brand new to school and extremely depressed, the little boy was fairly manageable. Now, close to week into wall to wall attention by Bert and Sid both in school and up in Boston, Caleb was coming out of his shell. Like a cannon!

At home, his mom was fairly tolerant of his playing, but once his father made the scene, Caleb was under constraint. Not physically, but certainly psychologically. To Caleb, his father was always mad at him, or just didn't want to play with him. He rarely had other children to play with, and when he did, the adults around him usually looked very unhappy with him. His mother loved him, but he didn't really have anybody else around him that was anywhere as nice as she was. Now, he had been sent away and he was living with a man who always carried him, always had time to play with him, didn't yell or seem very angry with him, he was just a nice man. There were also a lot of other boys there, and they played with him all the time. Even when they played without clothes on or in the bathtub, nobody seemed unhappy or mad at him and his friends. Caleb didn't know where he was or where his mommy was, but it was fun a lot of the time.

As Chief Administrator of Green Tree Academy, Bert's plate was forever more than full. He ran a clandestine school of over 250 boys and another 200 staff and now, 50 brand new people were moving in on less than a weeks notice. His responsibility was to tend to these people and their individual needs. In his spare time, he could rest.

Leaving Adam's house earlier in the morning, Bert returned to his office with Caleb steering the golf cart. Caleb was too small to sit in Bert's lap and steer, so the boy stood on the seat in between Bert's legs as Bert mercifully controlled the power lever. Caleb was more intent on pushing Bert's horn than deciding which tree or person he was going to crash into and it took probably ten minutes to make the three minute trip from Adam's house to Bert's office. Once there, Bert carried the boy into his office/house, and Caleb scooted off for the play room as Bert sat down at his desk to a pile of files numbering 50. He would need to know who was being transferred and become somewhat familiar with their life's histories before they arrived in less than five days.

Since Bert's front door was never closed, hearing the screen door slam was no surprise to Bert as he looked up from reading a file. Jeanette, a 22 year old counselor from Camp Kenny, came in and handed him a very tall glass of iced tea and sat down with her own glass in front of Bert's desk. Bert smiled at the girl but said nothing as he turned around and handed her a file from a cabinet.

"Caleb." Was all he said to the girl.

The intuitive nature of the relationship between the man and most of his staff was such that frivolous talk was rarely necessary. They knew what each other was thinking and how to relate to the boys in given situations, so, For the next 15 minutes or so, both people read through files and except for an occasional sound of a little boys imaginary play in the room next door, nothing was said between them. When the girl was finished her reading she placed the file in front of Bert who then put it back in the cabinet.

"I don't see any problems with Caleb, he'll assimilate well. He's a spunky little guy. Keep him with the older boys, he's fairly advanced. He'll probably cling for a day or two, but nothing unusual," Bert told the girl sitting in front of him.

"We'll have dinner tonight together at camp and put him down in Cabin 3. He'll do fine there." Jeanette listened as she drank her tea.

"The bigger problem we have is his mother. She's on the edge, she's facing possible divorce and she wants close contact with Caleb," Bert said.

"I want video of Caleb showing him to be well, happy and safe. No female voices speaking to him, no other children identifiable, no identifiable landmarks in the background. Caleb is well and happy and here he is. Period.!" Bert told the girl.

"Audio?" Jeanette asked. Bert sat back in his chair and thought for a few seconds.

"Nothing identifiable to where he is, but normal speak and play talk is fine. Keep in mind, if she watches the tape and figures Caleb is having a ball without her in the picture, that's just as bad as her thinking he's having his fingernails pulled out. The tape needs to show her that he's well and being taken care of, not that he's in Disneyworld and doesn't need her or in purgatory and she can't protect him. Either one can cause her to pull the plug!" Jeanette had been in this situation many times before. She nodded.

"Let's move on to Spencer!" Bert now told the woman.

"He's in the Infirmary with Anthony and just fine as long as he stays with him." Jeanette told the Director.

"Gloria is the only one who can reason with him. Anthony's lucky he can go to the bathroom without Spencer freaking out wanting to know what happened to him," Bert sat back and listened to the girl.

"What's Gloria's suggestion?" Bert asked the girl.

"Spencer's sense of security has been seriously undermined. The only person in the world Spencer's going to respond to is Anthony and we're going to have to wait until he recovers enough from his injuries to even start working with him to work on Spencer. Gloria thinks we're in for the long haul."

"Medication?" Bert suggested.

"It's been suggested. Gloria thinks it's a great idea if the medication can reverse Anthony's injuries and turn back the clock for Spencer." The girl reported.

"You know how Gloria feels about medication and Anthony totally agrees with her. Neither one of them is going to allow Spencer to be drugged down without a fight," Bert nodded.

"Let's keep the status quo regarding Spencer."

"The team has a problem with the moratorium on advancement." Jeanette now told the Director. Bert closed his eyes.

"I have a problem with the moratorium Jeanette, but I need fifty beds in five days," Bert told the girl. Jeanette understood where her boss was coming from, but had a boy on her hands that was not a happy camper!

"Arthur has been told for the past five months that he's joining his friends in the Intermediate Boys School. He was devastated when Billy and Ethan left him behind and the only way we had to console him was to tell him for the past five months he would join them. Now he's not going?" Jeanette asked the Director. Bert took off his reading glasses and rubbed his forehead. Maybe he should have listened to his father and opened a practice in Marblehead.

"And how many more Jeanette?" Bert asked the girl.

"Just Arthur!" the girl replied.

"Don't come back for another drink at the well!" Bert told the girl. Jeanette smiled.

"OK, let's spend a nice calm relaxing day at Camp Kenny," Bert said as he arose from his seat and finished his ice tea.

"Where's Kenny?" Bert asked the girl.

"He's taking a nap with Sarah." Jeanette replied. With Caleb back at the wheel, Bert and Jeanette made their way into Camp Kenny without running over anybody. Camp Kenny, as opposed to the Intermediate boys school was run completely different due to the ages of the children involved. Camp Kenny contained the very youngest of the Geppetto Boys; they ranged in age from 16 months to seven years. The youngest boy was Kenny who was assigned to Jeanette to care for him.

These were the 'babies' until they were transferred to the Intermediate boys. Seeing Jeanette, a little boy approached the golf cart on a dead run.

"Did you ask him?" The little boy said as he leaped onto the cart and into Jeanette's lap.

"Yes Arthur, you will be moved tomorrow morning after breakfast." The girl told the boy. The boy looked up and smiled at Bert.

"Who's Him?" Bert asked. The little boys smile deepened.

"You are Uncle Bert!" he told the Director with a timid giggle. Bert smiled as he said Hello to the boy who promptly leaped back off the cart and ran towards his cabin.

Camp Kenny boys lived in four large cabins that were spread around the campus area. Each cabin contained four units that could house eight boys apiece if necessary. The boys were separated mostly by age, some boys were housed as determined by their functioning level. Cabin 3, where Bert intended Caleb to live was a cabin full of high functioning four and five year olds. Cabins 1 and 2 contained the boys who were generally the youngest and most dependent. Those two cabins also contained the units with the girls over seeing the boys care. These boys needed a mother, and that's best performed by a female according to Bert, and he ran the show. (At least when he was around).

Caleb's introduction into Camp Kenny came as every boy had been introduced. He spent his first few days with Bert, and then Bert would evaluate the boy's needs psychologically. Caleb was as tender and needy as any four year old would be, but he was also already showing signs of independence and security that told Bert he would be leading the pack in weeks, if not days. Cabin 3 had fairly independent boys in it, but they also weren't all that far away from the girls whenever they needed it. His counselor was a girl named Sarah who had a very special way with the four to six year olds, and Caleb walked into his cabin with Sarah and didn't really look back. Bert smiled.

Unlike the Intermediate and Senior boys units, Camp Kenny was set up non academically. There was no pre-school, there were no classes. These boys 'graduated' when they were emotionally ready to move on and above age seven. Their day consisted of play and recreational activities. Caleb's tenure at Camp Kenny began fittingly enough still in his birthday suit as Jeanette and Bert gave the boy a tour and showed him his new home for the next few years.

After lunch, activities were purposely scaled back for the boys so that those who needed it could take a rest or nap if they chose. Caleb was usually awake by seven a.m., so by 1:00 he was down for the count most of the time for about two hours. This gave Bert the chance to see Gloria in Cabin 1 with her charges, the youngest children in Green Tree. At 24, Gloria was the oldest girl at Green Tree and she was also there for the longest time. She was 14 when she first arrived, more than ten years earlier. Now, she was a Senior girl, and had gone back to school to earn several degrees in child rearing. Like Bert and Sid, she was an expert when it came to knowing and understanding boys, and specifically, Geppetto Boys. Like Jeanette and all the other girls at Green Tree, she was a Geppetto carrier, having been born with the trait and capable of passing it onto her children, but for being sterilized at age 13. The decision to have her sterilized was both hers and her parents. She had a Geppetto brother.

Of the eight Geppetto Girls at Green Tree, three had chosen to be induced to lactate. Their charges were the youngest boys, and some came to Green Tree still breast feeding. That included Timothy who at 20 months was the second youngest boy then living at Camp Kenny. Gloria was his surrogate mother and one of those who was capable of feeding the child. As the girl sat on her porch with Timmy more asleep than awake, she was rocking him as Bert climbed the stairs to her cabin and sat down. Timmy's eyes were closed, but every now and then, especially when Gloria spoke, the little boy's throat would indicate he was taking a sip and then he'd drift back off for a few seconds or so.

"How's he doing?" Bert asked the girl as he sat down.

"If he keeps gaining weight I'm going to need a crane." Gloria said jokingly as she looked down at the boy. Timmy wasn't fat but he was healthy with a capital 'H.' At 20 months and recently separated from his mother, the team had better things to concentrate on than potty training him, and the boy was still in diapers which took the largest size available. His thighs bulged from the leggings, and his stomach sat directly on top of the waist band of the diaper. Any more tension and the tape wouldn't hold. He had blond curly baby hair and a big forehead that displayed his pulse now and then. One arm was wrapped around the back of Gloria, but the other rested on top of her left breast as if to say "This is mine for later." If Timmy was having any difficulty, it was masked very well. Bert wasn't surprised. Gloria and the girls he allowed near the boys were the very best he could find, and he searched very carefully for them.

"I saw Spencer this morning." Gloria volunteered without being asked.

"Jeanette gave you a report?" she asked the Director.

"Yes, it was depressing but informative," Bert responded.

"I don't think it would have been so bad if Spencer didn't see Anthony until a lot of the facial problems resolved." Gloria offered.

"Probably true, but we couldn't leave Anthony in Boston without back-up," Bert offered.

"It's fair to say that our credibility with Spencer is out the window. He doesn't trust us to keep Anthony safe and it's going to take some doing before he lets him out of his sight again on anything even resembling a voluntary basis." Gloria told the Director again without being asked to give her opinion.

"Well, first we get Anthony back on his feet and then we concentrate on getting Spencer back on an even keel," Bert told the girl. Gloria nodded.

"What about Arthur?" she asked.

"Jeanette has him packing his bags, but one of you is going to have to explain it to Sid. If I tell him, he's going to go off and I'd much rather you broke the good news to him!" Bert said as he arose from the chair. Gloria smiled as she lifted up Timmy and put him over her shoulder and began patting his back. After about six or seven strong pats, Timmy belched pretty well and then came the unmistakable sound of a bowel movement in progress.

"You tell him Timmy!" Gloria said to the boy who was still sound asleep.

Bert spent the balance of the day pretty much shadowing Caleb and keeping in touch with Sid and his staff through runners. For security reasons, cell phones and walkee talkees were out. Bert slept that night in his room at Camp Kenny in case Caleb awoke in the middle of the night with reservations about being newly independent, but Bert's night sleep went uneventful, and Caleb was well on his way by morning time as Bert returned to the Intermediate Boys and a fair amount of chaos.

Dinner for Adam and Sid and the Beachview boys was of course chicken since it was Friday. The Kitchen always prepared the meals in several different ways for variety, that night it was a choice between Chicken Paprikosh and Roast Stuffed Chicken. An early thunderstorm halted any plans for a beach walk after dinner, and the night ended on the living room rug with most attention going to the rabbits and Leonardo, the Turtle. Adam was planning on having some intense talks with the boys to convince them to give the animals to the nature shack for all the boys of Green Tree to enjoy and not just a greedy few.

"You can try that skam on them good buddy, but I don't think they'll buy it!" Sid told his friend.

With seven boys now at Beachview adjustments would have to be made in the shower routine. As much as it was Adam's favorite time, especially with Sammy, he had to adjust the schedule. There simply wasn't enough time or room to wash all seven boys at one time. The boys would be allowed to decide amongst themselves, but two shifts, one with Sid and one with Adam was put into place and showers would begin almost immediately after dinner. The routine was tough on Adam, but the boys thought it was a wonderful new way of doing things. Play time for them was effectively extended by almost an hour a night. Likewise, morning showers began closer to 6:00 than 7:00 which was the old norm, and that too, wasn't something the boys looked unfavorably on. While Adam was diligently washing them to get them clean, they could romp in the bedroom to their hearts content. At night the lions share of Adam's attention had always gone to Sammy. Now, Sammy had Joey, Trevor, Christopher and Matty to share 'his' uncle's attention with. Adam knew he was walking a very loose tightrope; keeping Sammy's sense of security and stability intact was going to be a formidable job in and of itself.

Once again, Sid came to Adam's rescue.

"What has always worked very well in the past is for you to set aside a specific time when it's Sammy's time and nobody else's," Sid told him.

"When I was growing up, Uncle Kenny had four boys from our original group. Each of the four of us got one night a week that was specifically ours. And either Saturday or Sunday morning or evening. I had Tuesday night and Sunday morning," Sid told his friend.

"Tuesday night and Sunday morning was the most important times of the week for me, because that's when he was all mine," Adam decided to adopt the plan. When the necessity came, he would know how to keep the peace.

Bedtime came after a good hour of Adam teaching the boys on the porch how to identify the constellations in the nighttime sky and observe the moon through a telescope he had since he was just a little boy himself of ten. The Jason Model 327 Observatory had given Adam thousands of hours of pleasure looking through and had grown dusty in recent years. Now, not only his boys, but Sid was fascinated by literally racing to keep up with the moon traveling across the nighttime sky through the scopes lens. Green Tree had many clubs for boys with special interests, now, they had an Astronomy Club and Adam would order in ten new telescopes the next Monday.

"Uncle Adam, do you think anybody lives up there?" Sammy asked as he snuggled into bed with Joey and Trevor. As Adam bent over to give each one a good night kiss, he chuckled a little.

"Well if they do, they need some pretty warm pajamas to keep their buns warm, its freezing up there," he told the boys. Sammy's night ended with a giggle which was the way Adam liked it best.

With David and Jesse in with Sid in his room, Adam stretched out for the very first time in his bed all alone with Sammy, Joey and Trevor sleeping in the bed next to his. After close to three months sleeping with at least one if not four boys at one time, the feeling of now sleeping alone surprised Adam. He stretched out his arms and his legs to each corner of the bed and felt no one. He had forgotten what that felt like! Adam drifted off to sleep on his stomach with his pillow underneath him. It was a short lived seclusion, as one by one, first Sammy, then Joey, then Trevor climbed in with him at some point during the night and by 2:00 his dream of waking up dry went up in smoke. He hadn't woken up dry yet, and he wouldn't for another two years or so.

Most mornings, Adam awoke to the gently swishing sounds of the water washing up the beach in the lagoon less than 600 feet [200 m] away, or the sound of gulls, crows and pelicans not very far away. With a crack loud enough to wake the dead and a snap instantly following, lightning had everybody who wasn't six feet [2 m] under awake and listening to a boom of thunder that sounded like it was out on the front porch. Muttering to himself, Adam got up to see if everybody in Sid's room was still alive.

"I thought you told me the rainy season was over!" Adam said to Sid as he walked into the room.

"Well hell buddy, it ain't raining is it?" Sid responded. About a second later, the rain drops started on the metal roof and the sound increased until it was a dull roar with water pouring over the windows shutters. Jesse started laughing which got David going.

"If Willard Scott drops dead, don't apply for his job, OK?" Adam told has friend.

"Welcome to Florida!" Sid yelled out as Adam retreated for the coffee pot.

Adam returned upstairs with two cups of coffee and Sid in the shower with five boys all having a simultaneous conversation.

"It's like living in a nuclear reactor," Adam said as he sat down on the toilet seat and began shampooing Sammy's head as the boy approached him with a bottle.

"We all have our warts and Florida's is lightning," Sid replied as he worked on Jesse's hair.

"Just remember to look up before you walk around. If you see a dark black cloud, stay inside," Sid advised his friend.

"Aren't you afraid one of these kids is going to get hit?" Adam asked.

"Any one of us could get hit, but if we were in California, we'd be looking at earth quakes. In Oklahoma, Tornado's, in New York, taxi drivers. It's all relative," Sid said. Adam smiled a little, but he just wasn't use to a bolt of lightning every time he turned around. As he finished Sammy, he sent the boy back in and Joey came over to him. Now washing Joey's head he asked his friend what was on tap for the day since it was raining out.

"Forget it. It'll be gone in a half hour," Sid told Adam.

"Thanks Willard," Adam replied as the boys all giggled.

Saturday mornings usually started off very slow and with minimal traffic outside. Once the sun came back out, kids and carts were flowing freely past Adam's since the lightning ripped everybody out of bed. Golf carts full of boys and their clothing reminded Adam that it was moving day, and by right after breakfast, Christopher and Matty showed up with clothes piled high. The bulk of the morning was spent retrieving all four new boys' belongings and finding places to put them all. Clothes were the least of Adam's worries; these boys had enough toys to make Santa Claus depressed at the load.

Sid was gone right after breakfast but lunch time brought all of Beachview Cottage back together along with Dan's group from Bay Watch Cottage which meant the core group now consisted of fifteen boys and four staff. Dan had teamed up with another staff member, Etienne, who had merged his house with Dan's to free it up for the boys from Albemarle. Like Dan, Etienne was born from a second generation Geppetto girl, but his arrival on the scene was a severe blow to the number crunchers in Alexandria. His arrival indicated that Geppetto was now international. He was from St. Catherines, Montreal. He came to Green Tree at age eight, he was now 20 years old. His origin was traced back to the Montreal Worlds Fair which his grandmother attended as a teenager. She was a first generation Geppetto girl.

Saturday night dinner was going to be the usual beach picnic so lunch was relatively light by Green Tree standards.

'Make your own sandwiches' was a very popular lunch fare for the boys, less so for the house staff, since it was only slightly less messy than a 'Make your own Pizza Dinner.'

"Any time you hear the words 'Make your own' duck!" Dan advised Adam as the four men watched bologna and jelly dripping down the table cloth to the back porch floor. With the combination of the sandwiches, lemonade, iced tea and watermelon dripping down fifteen rotund stomachs, Adam decided that a swim in the lagoon was going to take the brunt of the damage, as the men sat on the porch watching the boys trot their way down to the water. A shower under the house took off the salt water once the boys returned from the gulf, and the scene an hour after lunch looked more like Lord of the Flies during a filming break than a boarding school for boys as they stretched themselves out to dry off on lounge chairs that surrounded the house in screened porches.

"Gee guys, you running a nudist colony or a school here?" Bert said as he pulled up to Beachview in his cart. The men smiled as Bert pulled up a chair with a boy bringing him a tall glass of iced tea.

"You spike this Sid?" Bert asked the man.

Sid looked at his wrist with no watch on. "It ain't five o'clock yet boss," he replied as a few boys around the men giggled from their loungers as they watched the men jousting for position.

"Speaking of spiking, tell me about Arthur," Sid said as he took a sip of his lemonade.

"That wasn't my doing; you need to speak to the girls," Bert replied.

"See that you guys, there he goes hiding behind a bunch of silly girls again!" Sid said as he looked over to a group of four or five boys watching the two men intently.

"Boss, I can't empty the place out if you keep filling it up!" Sid said to the Director.

"I was told that Arthur was the one and only," Bert replied.

"You're just an old softee. They need to put someone strong and brave and smart in charge," Sid told his boss.

"Gee Sid, I don't know anybody like that!" Bert replied. A few giggles told Sid the objective was reached.

"OK you guys, rest period," he said as the boys put their heads down but never closed their ears.

"How's the count going?" Bert asked Sid in serious conversation.

"I've got six empty as of tomorrow and will probably be able to deliver the remaining two by Tuesday, Wednesday the latest," Sid responded.

"Things are getting a little tougher now, we're trying to convince foursome's to split into twosomes," Sid told his Executive Director.

"The main problem is plumbing. We've got the square footage to increase the bodies, but the plumbing won't support anything over ten."

"Isn't there anything Buildings and Grounds can do about the plumbing?" Bert asked his assistant.

"In five days? No!" Sid responded.

"Let's not forget, we've got waste from close to 500 people that aren't even sitting on this mangrove pile and that doesn't include the kitchen and laundry," Sid told his superior.

"If things start breaking out into open water, more than a few Conservation fruitcakes are going to want to know where it's coming from!"

"That's easy," Bert replied.

"National Security!" Sid smiled along with the other men, but at the same time, he knew it was a problem and would need to be resolved before they themselves became refugees like Albemarle now was.

During the conversations and kidding, Adam chiefly sat back and listened. He had learned weeks before that running Green Tree wasn't just a group of people who were operating a school, they were also treading a very thin line between security and discovery. Public disclosure of their existence could mean disaster for the boys involved. These boys and men presented a very real and present danger for the powers that be who paid the bills and maintained the security net around them and that made them very vulnerable. It was a topic Adam avoided even in his deepest thoughts whenever possible.

Bert rarely took time out for himself; he had too much to do and too few hours to do them in. He stole the next five minutes or so watching the gulf waters drinking his iced tea. His relaxation ended with a cart pulling up to Beachview and a note being handed to him. Bert took his leave without comment just as the housekeeping truck pulled up with dressers, chests and trunks of the boy's belongings that were moving in. Dave and his crew smiled as he climbed the stairs to the house surrounded by boys.

"I hope you don't expect me to move all of these boys into one house," Dave told Adam as he carried a chest of drawers up the stairs with two helpers.

"Blame Sid, he can't count," Adam replied as several of the senior boys helping Dave looked at Sid not knowing if the two were kidding or not. Sid never missed a beat as he sat up in his chair.

"Let's see, one three, eight, five, two. Yep, there's just eight of them!" he said as he got up and walked down the front porch steps.

Beach Dinner was a time when all three sections of Green Tree gathered. The dinner was served buffet style, and the mood that was set was casual and warm. Music played that was usually Key West or island style and always began with Classical Conservative Steel Band music which slowly but inevitably progressed to Junkanoo, Harry Belafonte and Jimmy Buffet by desert. It was very fair to say that beach dinner was the most popular meal at Green Tree, and this beach dinner would be the last one before the Albemarle boys joined them and became a part of Green Tree.

Showers at Beachview began at 5:00 and one by one, the boys were washed, dressed and trotted themselves off for the beach. Dinner would start at 7:00, but the gathering always started by 6:00 by the earliest intermediate and senior boys and staff. This was a social event, and Bert expected the boys to keep it social. Only very rarely did anybody overstep the line. By 6:30 Adam and Sid arrived after all seven of their boys were satisfied with their appearance, and the party for them began.

For Adam, probably the only thing different between this gathering and a lawn party at Choate was the water, which was feet away from them, and the humidity, which was keeping him tightly glued to a Margarita that Sid handed him upon his arrival. Boys stood around dressed casually and chatted as they sipped their drinks. Adults stood around in clusters and an occasional bunch of laughter drifted out from among the group, and smaller boys darted in and out among both groups chasing each other. Then closer to 7:00 Camp Kenny arrived. This was something not seen at Choate.

Arriving in clusters of probably six to ten each, much smaller versions of the intermediate boys accompanied by their staff came in and took tables centrally located at the buffet that were reserved specifically for them. The girls followed, some with one or two boys in hand, some with a single boy being carried. Gloria came in with Timmy sound asleep in a carriage while another boy 'helped' her push it. Once Camp Kenny boys were located at their tables, Adam watched as the girls were literally encircled by intermediate boys who were recently moved up. This was the only opportunity they had to 'make contact' with their former caregivers. Within probably five minutes of their arrival, the food started flowing and Adam sat and ate as he listened to Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart as performed by the Pan American Steel Band. Most he picked out by the fifth note. Those he didn't, Sid and the boys did. That got Adam to thinking.

Adam had noticed that the boys taste in music was very far from the norm. Adam figured that most boys listened to Metallica or New Kids on the Block, or Korn. Personally, he thought they all sucked. He was into Classical Jazz and New Orleans's Jazz. His boys didn't know who Korn was and didn't care. They were into Leon Russell, Delanie and Bonnie, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Joe Cocker, Pink Floyd, Jackson Brown, The Eagles and The Allman Brothers. At the same time, they knew classical music and even Broadway show tunes. They could sing, word for word, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma!, The King and I, West Side Story and South Pacific. Adam smelled a rat, and the rat smelled like a horse. Adam would take it up with Sid later.

Bert appeared at the table probably halfway though the meal. The man rarely sat down to a full meal with a single group, and when he did, you knew it was a very special occasion. Bert came over and smelled Sid's hair.

"Glad to see you got this guy to take a shower!" Bert said to Adam as the boys all around him snickered.

"T'wernt easy!" Adam replied without missing a beat.

"8 a.m," Bert said patting Sid on the shoulder. Sid nodded as he continued to eat his prime rib completely oblivious to his recent shame and humiliation at the hands of his boss.

Beach dinner really began after dinner when the music went from Bach to Buffet and beyond. As Dinner progressed the sun went down, and by dinner's end, the mosquito torches were light and began reflecting off the tables as the music picked up the tempo. Camp Kenny departed after Matilda by Harry Belafonte. The intermediate boys departed after Southern Cross by Crosby Stills, Nash and Young and the senior boys returned to their compound after the long version of Red, Red Wine by Bob Marley and the Wailers. Adam appreciated a good sound system and couldn't figure out how Bob wasn't being heard back on Key West.

Unlike the night before, Sammy wasn't ready for sleep and neither was Joey, Trevor, Christopher or Matty. Christopher and Matty were popped happily into their bed while the remaining three boys waited for Adam to slide into bed so that they could move in next to him. Good night kisses were given to Christopher and Matty as the last refrains of Roxanne came from the beach and the intro to Red, Red Wine began. Adam sat back and listened as seven little boys ranging in age from eight to eleven all sang every single note (with definition) to the song as the sound of the steel band in the background seemed to bounce off the mangroves that separated the boys from 'society.'

Adam's eyes shed tears as he laid there with Sammy on top of him. Not for fear or shame, but for the purity and beauty of the boys he had come to love and vowed to protect, no matter the consequences.

The closing of the Albemarle School was a crushing blow, not only to the schools staff, but to the boys themselves. Some of the boys were there since they could remember. They were babies when they arrived, and it was the only real home they had ever known. Now, it was being closed because they could no longer sustain their anonymity. When the school opened its doors it was built in the middle of peat bogs that nobody came near with a fifty foot [15 m] pole. Now, it was Prime Real Estate that was worth millions to folks who wanted a vacation home in the country.

Albemarle, like Green Tree was stocked with Geppetto Boys, and now they needed to be relocated. Only six schools in the country could take in these boys, and Green Tree would now take in 40 of them and ten of their staff. The Chief Administrator at Green Tree didn't really think the boys would present that much of a problem assimilating, the staff however, he feared wouldn't do quite as well.

If we needed labels, Green Tree was being run by a northern liberal from Harvard. Albemarle was being run by a southern conservative from Virginia A&M. Two of the major differences between Albemarle and Green Tree philosophy was the use of outside uncles and women. Religion was always a fun way to start a war, and Bert refused to even consider anything beyond Vespers for the boys on a strictly voluntary basis.

A third difference Bert was completely unaware of when he originally agreed to take in the boys. Albemarle boys or staff never engaged in sex. Bert and Sid looked at each other; Sid laughed.

Without a question in his mind, Bert entered discussions with the head of Albemarle knowing that he could be in the man's shoes but for fate. If Green Tree were built on the bogs, and Albemarle built in the mangroves, he would be in that mans seat trying to salvage his boys and his school. Bert would bend over backwards to help the man in whatever way he could. Bert felt that he didn't get a whole lot of help.

"I'm unalterably opposed to the use of perverts around my boys. If that's the proposal, we need to find another solution," the director of Albemarle told Alexandria.

"It's my understanding that Green Tree uses men who have access to their boys who are not Geppetto Boys. We don't run whore houses for perverts," he said.

Bert was ready to take Albemarle's moccasins and cut them into two thousand pieces before he put them back on. Direct talks between Bert and Albemarle were suspended.

The agreement, signed by both sides, was that Albemarle boys would remain under the direct control and supervision of Albemarle staff in their housing situation. Staff would be responsible to Green Tree Administration, but report to Albemarle Administration. Disputes would be decided by Alexandria. "This shit looks like something the U.N. drafted," Sid said as Bert showed him the agreement.

Bert was beside himself and damned near close to tears. It infuriated him that he had turned his staff and school upside down to accommodate Albemarle and his reward was to be accused of turning Green Tree into a whore house. Sid observed his superior.

"Boss, this fucking piece of paper ain't worth the paper it's printed on. We both know that the only people who are going to decide how they're raised are the kids, and let's face it, once the Albemarle boys come into contact with ours, who do you think they're going to follow? Sign any damned piece of paper they want, once the boys taste freedom, its all confetti!" Sid told his boss.

"Where the fuck do they come off accusing us of being a whore house," Bert fumed.

"Jesus Christ Boss, you're talking about folks who think Ronny was a God. Do we really care what they think?" Sid countered.

By Wednesday all agreements were in place and Bert signed the agreements without reading them. There was no necessity to read them, he was going to run Green tree as he always had, and if Albemarle didn't like it, they could complain to Alexandria. Cooperation was a two way street and Bert found himself on a one way ramp. After signing one of the last documents, the representative from Alexandria sat back in his chair and looked at Bert. "You just signed away your pension," he said to Bert.

"That's nice," Bert replied.

"You have no intentions of following any of these requests from Albemarle do you Bert?" the man asked.

"Absolutely not, and neither will the facilities that take in their junior or senior boys either. They're complete assholes," the man from Alexandria sat back once again and sighed.

"That's not the first time I've heard them described that way. This is going to be a real fun transition." He then filed the papers in the proper box and moved them on.

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