Conner saw the food first. It was sitting on a table in the middle of the room. Peanut butter and jelly, tuna fish, egg salad and cheese and bologna sandwiches along with a refrigerator that was full of small containers of milk. Conner had no problem with opening the sandwiches and scoffing them down.
Aaron and Jimmy weren’t so sure. It was a dream come true but what was the price? Both boys looked all around. There were six beds in the unit; all of them were made up with sheets, blankets and pillows. There was a toilet, it even had toilet paper. There was a large shower stall with 4 shower heads in it. In one corner stood a water cooler and it had water in it. Aaron, Jimmy and Mark headed for the cooler and left it half empty. There was a camera in each corner of the room and the red light on the top of each camera was on. Aaron and Jimmy were very confused. What’s the catch?
Aaron decided whatever the cost; he was going to take a shower. He picked up a handful of sandwiches off the table and sat down underneath the shower head. His first sandwich was tuna, and he ate it as half the sandwich disintegrated under the force of the water. An egg salad sandwich was next and he gobbled it down before half of it went down the drain. Aaron threw out the bread from the next sandwich; the water couldn’t wash away the cheese and bologna no matter how hard it rained down on it! Aaron finished the sandwiches and sat there in the bottom of the shower stall with the water raining down on top of him. His stomach was now full. He lifted his face up to the shower head and closed his eyes and let the water wash over his face for a long time. His mind was now free to start concentrating on other issues now that his stomach was full and he drank all the water and milk he possibly could. He sat there staring down with water pouring down around him. He thought about Albany, he thought about Danamora, he thought about Alex. Sitting under a shower fall of water is a great place to lose it because no one near knows what’s happening. Aaron could let loose without anyone around him knowing he did it. Aaron lost it burying his face in his hands.
“Aaron, Aaron, Aaron, can I come in with you?” Conner asked. Conner was standing next to Aaron by the shower when Aaron realized the boy was standing there. Aaron knew that the water masked any problems that he may have been having and he also knew that Conner wasn’t quite up to speed in the development department. To Aaron, Conner was nine going on six. He didn’t think Conner was a bean, but he didn’t think Conner was going to be a rocket scientist any time soon either. “OK” said Aaron. With the water flowing down, Aaron washed Conner sitting in his lap. The other boys now joined Aaron under the shower heads, and all 4 boys sat there until they all had wrinkles on their finger tips from the water.
Conner was sound asleep before he left the shower. With Aaron shampooing his hair, Conner’s head moved closer and closer to Aaron’s chest until it rested full on it and he was out like a light. Aaron finished rinsing off the little boy’s head and Aaron sat there for a long time just holding onto Conner. Aaron didn’t have a teddy bear to comfort him, he had someone who was living and breathing instead. Aaron put Conner in a bed and pulled the covers over him. He adjusted the little boy’s head on the pillow and just stared at him for awhile. To Aaron, Conner looked like the boy was sleeping like he didn’t have a care in the world. Aaron bent forward and kissed Conner on the lips. As he did, Aaron’s tears once again started to rain down and Aaron sat there with his eyes closed holding Conner’s face in his hands. He began rocking back and forth; he didn’t know he was doing it.
Both Jimmy and Mark saw the interchange between Aaron and Conner. In other times, Aaron probably would have taken an ass whipping for what he had just done with Conner, but these weren’t “other times” and both Jimmy and Mark wished that they had a friend like Aaron.
Aaron lay there in his bed for a long time and was almost asleep when he felt a tapping on his chest. “Please, can I sleep with you?” Conner asked. Aaron was surprised to see Conner; he thought he would sleep for days if allowed to. Conner wasn’t used to sleeping alone, it rarely occurred in his very young life. Aaron opened his blanket and Conner scooted in. Without asking, Conner got on top of Aaron and used Aaron’s chest for his pillow. Conner’s breathing told Aaron that the boy was back asleep within moments of getting back into bed.
Aaron still wasn’t sure as he fell asleep whether the little boy on top of him was receiving more security, or was it the other way around? He only knew that holding onto and helping Conner gave him some measure of decency and very little else did. It also kept his mind busy on things other than himself and he didn’t want to go there.
Jimmy and Mark looked over to Aaron’s bed and saw the 2 boys laying one on top of the other. In earlier days, Jimmy would have had a few choice comments to make. These weren’t earlier days and Jimmy closed his eyes. Mark on the other hand would have made no choice comments; he wondered what his family was doing right now. As was now the normal scenario, Mark fell asleep making a larger and larger wet stain on his pillow.
The morning came to the boys with the sound of doors slamming and bells ringing. Aaron woke up with Conner attached to his side. Conner had peed the bed which didn’t bother Aaron all that much, so did he. As it turned out, Mark also peed with Jimmy’s being the only dry bed in the unit. In earlier times, Jimmy would have had a field day with that information, but Jimmy figured they all had plenty of people dumping shit all over them and he wasn’t going to add to the pile. Aaron turned the water on in the showers and they all sat under the steaming hot water. It was almost worth being in jail Aaron thought to himself.
Aaron dried Conner and then himself. All four boys drank the rest of the milk sitting on the chairs in the unit waiting. They didn’t have a clue as to what was going on until the door to their unit finally opened up. “Move out!” came the order from a trustee and the boys moved to the corridor. In the corridor, Aaron and the rest of the boys saw about 15 more boys. Like them, they were also naked. Holding Conner’s hand behind him, Aaron joined the line.
Before the boys entered the room, there was talking coming from the mess hall. The boys could hear boys’ voices. Once they started entering, the room became very quiet. There were about 80 boys sitting at tables and eating. Half the boys had some clothes on, either orange jump suits or green shorts. Some boys had the suits and shorts sitting on their laps or next to them on the bench but they were stark naked. Aaron thought that was very curious; if the boy had access to clothes, why wasn’t he wearing them? The rest of the boys were naked like the new group. Some of the boys had a small ring right in back of their dick heads. Aaron couldn’t figure any of it out. The ends of some of their dicks looked very red and raw. Did this have something to do with the cameras the sheriffs were talking about? Aaron didn’t know. All the new boys walked forward as the line moved forward, and watched as the trustees filled bowls and put them on the trays that each boy held out to him. Then they moved down and another put bread on the tray. At the end of the line, the boys had to pass the cup and another trustee filled the cup with coffee from a container marked “Evacuation”. None of the boys knew what evacuation meant.