The Music in the Painting

Sunday morning found Drew wide awake just as the sun began to rise. He opened the French doors to the private balcony and stood at the railing without a stitch of clothing and watched the dawning of the day.

He returned to the side of the bed and considered snuggling back up to Bobby but the door gently opened and Mac peeked in to see if they were awake.

It surprised Drew that he felt no urge to cover himself and he stepped towards the door.

"Morning Grampa, how are you."

"I’m fine Drew. Did you sleep well?"

"Yes I did. Should I wake Bobby?"

"No, I think not, I was actually after you. I thought I’d see if you wanted to help with breakfast."

"You bet! I should probably put on some clothes though."

"Well suit yourself, I think Polly stayed over though so that might affect your decision."

"Okay Grampa, I’ll be down in a few minutes."

Mac leaned in and kissed the boy on the cheek and patted his little bare bottom. Then he pulled the door quietly closed and made his way to the kitchen.

Drew joined Mac in the kitchen and asked what he could do.

Mac told him he could stir the oats. Handing him a wooden paddle he directed him to a short stool in front of the range.

A large kettle of Oatmeal sat on low heat. Drew was instructed in the fine art of stirring oats so they didn’t scorch.

Mac returned to a trough of egg batter and dipped thick sliced bread in the batter. Once this was accomplished the bread went onto the griddle for frying.

Drew caught sight of a mountain of bacon sitting on a platter. Mac snatched up a slice and passed it to Drew.

"Cooking breakfast has its privileges; besides I can’t serve it without an opinion from a qualified expert."

"Yum," was Drew’s only reply.

"You can dump that molasses and butter in the pot now. Then in about a minute dump the brown sugar in and we’ll stir for another minute and I’ll slide the kettle back off the heat for you.

When the oatmeal was done, Mac asked Drew how he was with a knife.

"I slice the peppers and tomatoes at home all the time and I still have all nine fingers," Drew said grinning at Mac.

"I guess that’s enough to get the job done, you can get the cantaloupe out of the fridge and slice it up into wedges and any other fruit you fancy," chuckled Mac.

Having completed that task he was assigned to go out and summon Davey and Polly.

"Just knock on the door and let them know that breakfast is ready," cautioned Mac.

Drew flew out the door on his mission not really thinking about Mac’s warning. He zipped to the top of the stairs but his meager seventy-five pounds didn’t even make the treads creak. He arrived at the door prepared to knock but the door was wide open and the sight that greeted his eyes was truly astonishing.

Polly was straddling Davey with her head towards his feet. She appeared to be attempting to swallow the biggest penis Drew had ever seen. Polly looked up and disengaged just in time for the contents of Davey’s balls to cover her face. Drew stood at the door his hand still poised to knock and his mouth hanging open. He managed to squeak out "breakfast is ready" and then turned and ran back to the kitchen as fast as he could manage.

"You’re a bit red in the face, is everything okay?" asked Mac.

"Oh er yes! I just ran both ways, I’ll go get Bobby on his feet."

"Are they coming?"  

Drew turned an even darker shade of red and coughed out, "Yes sir."

He struggled with whether he should tell Bobby what he saw or not. He still hadn’t decided when he reached the bedroom.

All thoughts of Polly and Davey vanished when his eyes fell on the boy he loved. He lay there sleeping like an angel. He reminded Drew of a much younger boy like the one in Bobby’s family picture. Drew nuzzled Bobby’s ears kissed both eyes and the tip of his nose. He cooed at Bobby to wake up. He kissed both cheeks and said, "Wake up Bobby, Bobbeee Bobby Boo Boo."

At the last words Bobby’s eyes sprung open and the voice of a small boy said "Daddy!? Daddy I’m awake!"  Bobby gazed about the room and seeing only Drew curled up in the fetal position and wailed "Oh nooo. Daddy, Daddy." He sobbed uncontrollably despite Drew’s attempts to console him.

Drew ran to the top of the stairs and screamed for Grampa to come quick. In moments they were both by the bedside. Mac picked Bobby up like he weighed ten pounds and held him tightly. Bobby buried his face in Mac’s neck and sobbed. "He was here Grampa, Daddy was here, I heard him, and He used my secret name."

Now Drew began to crumple, "Oh no! I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I’m so sorry. I called him Bobby Boo Boo. I never thought it would hurt him. I’m so sorry Bobby, I love you, I wouldn’t have said it if I knew."

Mac reached out and pulled Drew into the hug and told him not to worry.

In a weak voice Bobby said, "It’s okay Drew. You couldn’t know. It’s just that when you said it I heard my Dad saying it. It’s what he called me when I was little."

Bobby freed an arm and hugged Drew into him.

"I think I’m okay now Grampa, you can put me down. Thank you, you always seem to know just what to do. I love you both," Bobby sniffed and Mac put him down gently on the bed.

"When you’re ready lads, Breakfast is served."

Mac turned and went back to the kitchen; silently cursing the miserable drunk that killed his son and destroyed his grandson’s family.

He found a flushed looking Davey sitting at the table.

"No Polly? I thought she spent the night," Mac said

"She’s just behind me, she wanted a shower first." Davey said. Is Drew upstairs? I need to ask him something."

"He’s up with Bobby, there was a bit of a problem when he woke up and he took a little time to settle." Mac said.

"Drew is still with him. Drew inadvertently called Bobby by a name only his Dad used and Bobby sort of fell apart for a bit."

"Oh no, is he okay? What did he call him; so I don’t do the same thing accidentally. I’d hate myself if that happened," Davey said.

"What’s going on with Drew, did he do something wrong?"

"No, I did. I’m really sorry, I left the door open for air last night and he saw something he shouldn’t have had to see," said Davey sheepishly. "I hope we didn’t mess up his little head."

"Oh I think he’s made of sterner stuff than that," said Mac. "I doubt you’ve got anything to worry about. It does explain why he was beet red when he came back."

"Poor kid, I feel awful, and so does Polly."

At that moment the boys walked into the kitchen. Bobby hugged his Grampa and then Davey. Drew hugged Mac as well but was a little leery of approaching Davey. He got over that when Dave stretched his arms out to receive him. Drew received a reassuring hug that told him that he and Davey were okay.

The doors to the veranda opened and in walked Polly. She was wearing a red and white checked long sleeve shirt and Levi’s with riding boots.

"Good morning gentlemen" she said pleasantly, and her greeting was returned.

She went to each one and gave them a hug. When she hugged Drew she asked if they could have a word outside. Drew looked to Bobby who nodded indicating he was fine, and he should go with her.

Polly led him outside to one of the benches under a large tree.

Drew tried to say, "I’m sorry about intruding on you this morning." But Polly cut him off.

"Drew sweetie, it's Davey and I that should apologize. We should never have left that door open or at least closed before we got carried away," Polly soothed. "Do you have any questions about what you saw?"

A long pause ensued and then Drew said, "How do you manage to get so much of him in your mouth?"

Polly was stunned. "Really? That’s your question?"

"Well I can’t get all of Bobby’s in my mouth; and he’s nowhere near as big as Davey," Drew began. "You’re not that much bigger than me so I wondered how you could do it. I’m sorry I stared but your expression was like Ollie when Stan brushed wall paper paste all over his face. And Davey just kept squirting and well I just couldn’t stop looking. I’m sorry. I won’t tell anyone what I saw, except well, I don’t want to keep secrets from Bobby. How about I tell him I saw you two doing it, I don’t think he’ll ask for details, he’s not really that kind of person."

"I think that sounds fine." Polly pulled Drew into her arms and hugged him. "You’re one straight forward little guy. I didn’t know you and Bobby were a couple let alone having sex. Wow! We can talk about how I managed later. I wanted to make sure you hadn’t been scarred by what you saw. I can see you’re not that fragile. Let’s get in and get some of that breakfast before it’s gone."

"Sounds good to me," said Drew and kissed Polly on the cheek.

Hand in hand the two of them made their way back to the kitchen.

In the few minutes they had been outside, Mac had completed the last details of breakfast and the table was laid.

Wash up and dig in children, before it gets cold.

Bobby truly enjoyed oatmeal. Especially the way his Grampa made it with molasses and brown sugar. He liked his with milk, brown sugar and walnuts.

When breakfast was done Bobby asked everyone to wait and then said, "I had sort of a problem this morning and got really upset. It wasn’t Drew’s fault because he didn’t know. Only Grampa knows. When I was little my Dad called me Bobby Boo-Boo. Usually when he put me to bed or sometimes when he was cuddling me. It was his secret name for me."

"I just wanted to let you know I’m not made of glass, and I can take it if someone calls me that without thinking. I had a rough day yesterday and Drew was just trying to wake me up and being sweet. So that’s it really it; except to tell Drew how much I love him, and that’s a lot."

Polly who had been standing between the two boys reached out and pulled them to her, kissing each boy in turn.

"Are you and Davey going riding today?" Bobby asked Polly.

"Yes we are; would you like to come along?" Polly answered.

"I’m not sure, let me see how Drew feels about it, okay?"

After a short consultation Drew decided that he would like to go out again and so arrangements were made. Mac opted out since he had a few chores he wanted to catch up on.