Break and Enter (16 page)

On the way back down Peachtree Street, we spotted a Toys “R” Us and took a stroll through it. We allowed Robbie to choose one item, and to our surprise, he selected a stuffed giraffe instead of a toy. We also stopped at a large Barnes & Noble and browsed a bit. While perusing the section marked “Of Local Interest,” I spotted a familiar name, so I purchased the book. We also found two or three books Robbie liked that were labeled as suitable for his age group.

Back at the house, I carried most of our purchases upstairs to our room. Then I went to the sunroom to find Mrs. Barnett. She was having a solemn conversation with Robbie as I walked up, and I handed her the book and said, “Will you autograph this for me?”

“My word,” she said, “where did you find this?”

“In the ‘Of Local Interest’ section at Barnes & Noble,” I said.

“I had no idea this thing was still in circulation,” she said. She signed the book and seemed genuinely pleased that I had asked her to do so.

“From the blurb on the jacket,” I said, “it sounds interesting.”

“It’s more than interesting,” Charles said. “And it got very favorable reviews at the time it was published.”

“I hope you like pee eye zee zee eh,” Philip said, spelling the word.

“Of course we do,” I said.

“Good,” Charles said, “because the gang is coming over this evening, and we’ll have it by the pool.”

“What about the little guy?” I said.

“Grace will keep an eye on him until he’s ready for bath and bed.”

“Doesn’t she have enough to do?”

He laughed. “She loves taking care of kids. Besides, she has a girl coming over this evening who helps her three or four nights a week.”

“The gang?” Mike said.

“Friends of ours,” Charles said. “Two couples, actually.”

“Great,” Mike said.

We left Robbie with Mrs. Barnett while our hosts showed us the rest of the house. We were particularly impressed with the master bedroom they had installed over the sunroom, and the huge stall shower in the master bath was a turn-on.

“Wow,” I said. “I’ve never seen so many showerheads in one shower. When we build our master suite over the garage, I’m going to copy this.”

“Be my guest,” Charles said.

“Charles is a shower freak,” Philip said, “as if you couldn’t tell looking at this installation.”

They showed us Steve and Roger’s room and the neat little office that had been set up for the boys in what had been a small bedroom. Then we walked around the grounds a bit and wound up at a small greenhouse. “The boys are rooting cuttings here,” Philip said, “and when the cuttings are fully rooted, they transfer them to larger containers and take them out to a nursery where they have leased some space.”

“Actually,” Charles said, “the old couple that owns the nursery is in the process of selling it to a corporation we set up for the boys. They do a fair amount of landscaping, and it will be good for them to have a really inexpensive source of shrubs and small trees.”

“Listening to them talk about their business,” I said, “it’s clear that they have the capitalist gene in full measure.”

“You’ve got that right,” Philip said.

“The wall around the grounds is nice,” I said. “It looks as though it’s been there forever.”

“That was our intent,” Charles said, “when we had it built a few years ago.”

“You certainly succeeded,” Mike said.

Back in the house, we followed our hosts up to the playroom once again. Robbie was at the train table, as usual, and Mark and Steven were with him. Grace introduced us to the teenage girl who was her part-time helper and assured us that Robbie would be well looked after.

At the train table, I got Robbie’s attention and said, “Looks like you really like Thomas the Tank Engine.”

“It’s so cool,” he said, and he started to show me, for the umpteenth time, some of the cooler aspects of Thomas.

“Great,” I said, making a mental note for Christmas. “Mike and I are going out to the pool, but we’ll be back in time for your bath, okay?”

“Okay,” he said, kind of absentmindedly.

We went back down the stairs and out to the pool, where the four of us began to once again swim some serious laps. As usual, I kept count. Thirty-six trips from one end to the other and back again in a pool that size adds up to just over a mile. When we finally stopped at the shallow end and stood up, I saw that we had an audience—there were four naked men sitting on the edge of the pool with their feet dangling in the water.

“What are you guys up to?” Charles said.

“Enjoying the show,” a very hairy blond said. “I think you and Philip have finally met your match in the lap swimming department.”

“That’s for sure,” the man next to him said. “I’ve never seen anyone else even come close to keeping up with you.”

Charles introduced the four as Richard and his partner Bruce, and John and Joe, who were also partners.

“Where are Roger and Steve?” Bruce said.

“They went to dinner and a movie with a couple of their friends,” Charles said, “so it’s just us. From the smells, I guess you brought the pizza with you.”

“That we did,” Richard said, “but now that the show is over, we’re gonna to get in the pool for a bit.”

We horsed around in the pool for quite a while and then went to a round table next to the Jacuzzi, consumed pizza and beer, and had a great time. Later, while soaking, we learned a little about each of the four newcomers, and they of course extracted pertinent data from Mike and me. From the Jacuzzi, we went back to the pool to cool down and then to shower and change.

In the house we found Robbie in the playroom, and he was too tired to protest when we took him downstairs for his bath.

Sunday morning after breakfast, Philip handed his car keys to Steve, and the boys drove us down the interstate and out to Six Flags. We got there thirty minutes before opening time, and there was already a small line.

“Do you guys like wild rides?” Steve said.

“We do,” I said, “but I’m not sure how Robbie will react to them.”

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Mike said.

It turned out that Robbie had the wild ride gene in full measure. He loved them—the wilder the better. Unfortunately, he was a few inches too short to be allowed on the rides that looped the loop, and he wasn’t too happy when one of us stayed with him while the other went on the ride. “We’ll come back here when you’re taller,” Mike said.

Finally, it became clear that we had all had enough, and the lines were getting longer and longer, so we went back to the car. “Take us somewhere so we can buy you lunch,” I said to Steve.

“How about The Varsity?” Roger said.

“What’s that?” I said.

“The world’s largest drive-in restaurant,” he said. “The original Varsity was built way back in the twenties, I think. There are several locations now, but the original Varsity is just across the expressway from the Tech campus. You have to see it to believe it.”

“By all means,” I said.

The Varsity lived up to the praise the two boys heaped on it on the way downtown. It was an amazing place. We had hotdogs, Cokes, and fries, and did a fair amount of people watching while we ate. Robbie was still so wound up by the Six Flags experience that he couldn’t stop talking about it.

Back at the house we rounded up our bags, which we’d packed before we left for Six Flags, said goodbye to Mrs. Barnett, and climbed into the Jaguar.

Charles and Mike talked airplanes all the way to the airport, while Philip and I sat quietly and listened. Just before we boarded the plane, our hosts gave each of us a hug. Robbie was sound asleep before we cleared the air space around Atlanta and didn’t wake up until we landed in Jacksonville. When I unpacked his things, he took his new stuffed giraffe and put it on the bed with Andy the Panda.

“What’s his name?” I said.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ll have to think of one.”

When Robbie’s birthday rolled around, Sarah Bridges rounded up a couple of her grandchildren along with two of their friends and had a nice surprise birthday party in celebration of Robbie’s sixth birthday. After seeing his shyness in the mall, we were careful not to expose Robbie to very many new people, which wasn’t difficult, given that our weekly trips to Atlanta for his sessions with Lydia left us with little free time on the weekends. We took him to the beach to see how he would react to the ocean, having arranged for the twins and their new boyfriends to meet us there one Saturday afternoon when they weren’t working, and Robbie took to the ocean like a duck to water.

On a Sunday afternoon in late July, we accepted a dinner invitation from our friends Tom and Noah and arrived at their house about ten minutes ahead of schedule. Tom answered the door, and we introduced Robbie to our hosts.

“Dr. Foster,” I said, “this is Robbie. Robbie, this is Dr. Foster.”

Robbie extended his hand and said, “Are you a doctor like Doc Jenkins?”

“I’m not that kind of doctor,” Tom said. “I have what is known as a PhD, which stands for ‘Doctor of Philosophy’. Why don’t you call me Tom?”

“Okay.”

“Well, Robbie Foster-Martin, why don’t you come in? This is my friend Noah.”

After Robbie and Noah had a ritual handshake, Mike handed Noah a bottle of wine, which Noah promptly carried to the dining room. Tom led us into the living room, and Robbie spotted the piano, which was clearly visible through the double doors leading to the studio.

“That’s the biggest piano I’ve ever seen,” Robbie said, looking toward the music studio.

“I’ll show it to you,” Tom said. He led Robbie into the studio and instructed him to sit on the piano bench.

“Can I play it?”

“Sure,” Tom said.

Robbie began to peck at the keys. He was pressing first one key, then another, but not actually banging on the piano, and I walked up behind him, ready to stop him if he got carried away. After a few minutes I put a hand on his shoulder and was about to stop him, but Tom interrupted me, saying, “Listen for a minute”

I listened. Robbie’s random pecking at various notes had begun to morph into a tune that was vaguely familiar. Tom reached for a hymnbook that was lying on top of the piano, selected a page, and placed it on the music rack.

“Where did you hear that tune, Robbie?” Tom said.

“We sang it in church this morning.”

“That’s right,” I said. “I had forgotten about that. Robbie was quite taken with the tune and hummed it all the way home from church.”

“Not only did he get the tune right,” Tom said, “he got it in the right key. Listen.”

He sat down beside Robbie and began to play the hymn. Then he stopped playing, looked at us, and said, “This kid has a natural ability, and he needs lessons.”

“How much will they cost?” I said. “Not to mention the fact that we don’t have a piano.”

“I’ll teach him,” Tom said. “Call it a trade-off for all the times we’ve used your cabin in Maggie Valley, and you don’t need a piano at this point, just pick up an electronic keyboard. New ones aren’t that expensive, and used keyboards are dirt cheap. You can buy a piano later if he sticks with it and it seems justified.”

That was how Robbie’s musical education began. Tom told us what beginner books to purchase, and we scheduled a weekly appointment for piano lessons. Mike talked to Jonny, his helper, about keyboards, and Jonny found us a used one at a bargain price.

It took a few weeks to adjust to our new routine, but the progress reports from Lydia were worth it. We told Zeb and Zeke about Steve and Roger and their business, and they expressed an interest in seeing it firsthand. With that in mind, Mike and I put Robbie and Thor in the truck early on the Friday before Labor Day, and the twins followed us to Atlanta in their car. The invitation had been extended to include Josh and Norm, so they were in the car as well. We arrived at the Barnett home in mid-afternoon, and Philip met us at the door.

“Aren’t you going to take your bags out of the truck?” he said.

“Let’s wait and see how Thor and Lance react to each other first,” I said. “We can go to a pet-friendly motel if need be.”

We hadn’t been too enthusiastic about bringing Thor to their house, since we had no idea how two adult male dogs that hadn’t been neutered would react toward each other, but Charles and Philip had insisted. Steve and Roger appeared at the front door, and we introduced them to Josh, Norm, and the twins and left the young men in their care. Then I took Thor’s leash, and Philip led us back to the sunroom. Mrs. Barnett and Lydia were sitting at the far end talking and drinking tea. Lance was curled up on the floor at their side, but he got up and came over to us. Robbie was standing beside Thor, who began to bristle just a bit, and a low rumble came from his throat.

Robbie grabbed Thor around the neck and said, “It’s okay, Thor. This is my friend Lance.” He called Lance, and when Lance came somewhat warily over to him, Robbie hugged him.

We stood, frozen in place, waiting to see what would happen next. Lance had begun to lick Robbie’s face, and Robbie was giggling. Thor kind of sniffed around the two of them, and then he licked Robbie’s face as well.

“Well,” Philip said, “I guess that answers that question. I think you can safely bring in your bags.”

Lydia took Robbie up to the study for their session with both dogs following them. We walked over to Mrs. Barnett and said hello, and then Philip told us that we were in the same rooms we’d occupied the last time we stayed in the house. We retrieved our things and took them up to our room. Then, showered and refreshed after the drive, we put on clean clothes and went back down to the sunroom.

Roger and Steve had evidently just introduced the twins and their friends to Mrs. Barnett, and they were getting to know her. I watched with amused interest as Mrs. Barnett skillfully extracted four life stories in less time than I would have thought possible. She particularly managed to make Josh feel at ease. Damn, she was good—and had certainly missed her calling.

Finally, Steve said, “We’ve got a sprinkler job to do, and we thought you might want to come with us and see what it’s all about.”

“Won’t I just be in the way?” Josh said.