Living in a Small Town

 

“This room is AWESOME, little bro,” Tommy grinned as he walked into the room he would be sharing with Kaden. He was looking all around when he suddenly screamed and jumped feet first up into the desk chair.

“What happened? What’s wrong?” Stan demanded as he ran into the room.

“That stuffed cat just moved,” Tommy whispered, while pointing at Kit, who was blinking up at the crazy human.

“You scared her, Tommy,” Kaden scolded as he went over to the cat’s bed and picked up the little kitten to cuddle her.

“Oh, it’s a real cat.” Tommy’s voice did not sound happy or pleased or relieved at all. “I don’t like cats. I got attacked when I was little. I still have some scars.”

Jude told Kaden to stay in the room and settle the frightened kitten while he and Stan took Tommy to the kitchen. The teenager was given a small plate with a very big homemade brownie that Stan had baked that morning before the doctor’s appointment. Tommy stared at the treat without moving.

“I want it, but I don’t want the face breakout,” he whimpered.

“Eat the brownie,” Stan said pushing it closer to the nearly drooling boy. “If you get zits, you get zits. We’ll deal with them. You can’t have worse acne than Jude did when he was your age.”

“Stanley, I thought we were never mentioning that time period again,” Jude pouted.

“Our son needs to know that he’s not alone and that we can relate to him,” Stan said as he hugged Tommy. “Now eat your brownie, kiddo. We’ll go shopping later with Granny and Aunt Ellie to get all the skincare products you need, along with some clothes.”

“My mother stopped letting me eat chocolate when I was twelve so I wouldn’t have pimples,” Tommy murmured as he melted into the embrace. “No pizza, either. Nothing that might cause problems.”

“You poor thing, you’ve been starved,” Stan exclaimed. “Well, don’t you worry. Around here, you will eat whatever you want. We can work off calories and we can scrub away anything else.”

“Stan’s love language is food,” Jude stage whispered to the teen with a shrug. “It’s why he fits in here so well with the small-town Southern folks.”

“If it means I get to eat brownies again, I think I’m going to like it here too,” Tommy grinned as he started munching the brownie and practically moaning over how good it was. “Oh my god, this is soooo good, Mama Stan. Thank you so much.” For the first time, he initiated the hug with Stan and didn’t hesitate at all over calling the man Mama Stan. He never saw the tears that came to Stan's eyes and Jude wisely ignored them at the moment.

Just at that moment, they heard a very soft noise. If they hadn't been hugging, they might have missed the sound completely. It was the front door opening and closing very quietly. "Where's little bro going?" Tommy asked as he pointed out the window on the front wall of the kitchen through which they could all see a little boy holding a kitten and struggling to walk carefully down the steps of the front porch. The difficulty seemed to be caused by the fact that Kaden was also carrying Kit's little round fluffy bed all while trying to keep his favorite blanket from his own bed wrapped around himself.

"Where is… Jude, do you see this?"

"Why would he take the kitten's bed out in the front…. Wait a minute, he's not stopping. He's… he's trying to leave."

"JUDE, you have to go stop him," Stan wailed. "Why is my baby running away from home?"

All three of them rushed out of the kitchen, into the living room, and out the front door. Jude yelled out Kaden's name and they all saw the tiny little shoulders shake as the boy started walking faster. It was as if he would run, but he couldn't while holding the cat bed and the kitten. Tommy broke into a run and quickly caught up to Kaden.

"Slow down, little bro, you can't show me around town if I can't keep up with you," he told the boy.

"Go back home, Tommy," Kaden ordered. "It's your room and your family now. Me and Kitty are getting out of the way for you."

"Is this because your kitten tried to make me pee myself?"

"She did not," Kaden defended. He then snuck a look at Tommy's crotch, and whispered, "She didn't really, did she? Cause she didn't mean to. All she wanted to do was say hi. She didn't mean to scare you, we promise, don't we Kitty?" The kitten mewed as if on cue, then went back to stretching up to lick the tears off her tiny human's face.

"Hey, I'm sorry I got so scared," Tommy said sincerely. "I never met a real live house panther before. The cat that hurt me was a mean, old alley cat and I probably shouldn't have been where I was when it attacked me. I've never been around a nice kitty before. I promise I will sleep on the sofa in the living room or something before I let you run away from home over me. Trust me your daddy and Mama Stan want you more than they do me."

"But you are real family, I'm just a little shrimpy kid that bleeded all over the front porch one night after my house blew up," Kaden sniffled.

"No, don't you remember how you got introduced to me at the hospital? Dad said you were my cousin before he agreed to adopt me. That means Dad and Mama Stan are your parents. When they adopted me, that made us brothers. We're both real family, now. Kitty is family too, if you and she let me get to know her nice and easy. No scratching me to death in my sleep."

"Kit only scratches her rope pole, like a good girl," Kaden defended the kitten quickly.

"That's good," Tommy smiled. "Now, let's go back to our room so you can tell me which bunk is mine. Let me carry the cat bed and the blanket so you don't trip and fall down."

"You can't carry the blankie," Kaden whispered. "I didn't want to take nothing that didn't belong to me, so I don't got any clothes on under here."

"Kaden Truesdale, what do you mean you are…?" Daddy huffed when he caught up to the boys. "Stan, take the kitten, Thomas take the cat bed. I will carry our grounded for two days little nudist home."

"Technically, he's not nude since he is wrapped up in the blanket," Tommy pointed out.

"Not helping, son," Jude grumped as he scooped up his little boy after wrapping Kaden up like a burrito.

"Mama Stan, I think maybe you should work on a different love language," Tommy announced as he followed his new parents and little brother back to the house. "If it took that long for Daddy to catch up to us, he needs to diet so he can catch bad guys or they'll all get away."

"And now you're grounded, too," Jude said loudly. "At least you two boys can keep each other company for the next two days."

"Daddy is not fat, Tommy," Kaden scolded. "He's just trying to match Poppa and be big and cuddly."

"Besides, I was letting you talk to your brother and work things out," Jude defended himself. "I was pacing myself to give you more time to settle your issues between the two of you."

"Kaden, you know that you are every bit as much of our son as Tommy is, right?" Mama Stan asked as they all entered the living room.

"But he's real family cause he's Daddy's nephew. They got the same blood," Kaden explained.

"I'll let you in on a little secret then, angel boy," Jude began as he sat on the sofa cuddling his little boy in a blanket burrito. "The morning that we found you on our porch, you had lost a whole lot of your blood, but the hospital couldn't give you any of theirs because they didn't have the right one. Your Mama Stan gave you all the blood they would let him give you so you could stay alive for us. That means you and Mama Stan have the same blood, too."

"Yes, and your daddy gave you some as well, so you have blood from both of us in you," Stan said as he sat beside them and joined the cuddle.

"See there, that makes you the real family, and me just half since all I've got is Dad's blood," Tommy pointed out.

"That brings up a good point, Thomas," Stan said curiously. "Do you know your blood type? Jude and Kaden are both type A negative. I'm O negative."

"Yeah, the A negative thing is pretty strong in the… the people we came from," Tommy said with a shrug. "That's what I was told at one point, anyway."

"Yeah, my sperm donor was the same as me, his brother was too, and my brother as well," Jude agreed.

"Am I allowed to say that?" Tommy asked.

"Say what?" Stan returned.

"You-know-what donor," Tommy whispered. "I don't want to get grounded even more for saying a bad word."

"I was teasing about you two being grounded," Jude admitted. "I'm sorry that this happened, but it's as much on us as it is on either of you. And yes, you can refer to that murdering lunkhead as your sperm donor, if you have to mention him, but I'd rather we do our best to never think about anyone named Montgomery again."

"Sounds good to me, Dad," Tommy grinned as he hugged Jude super tight. "It's such a good thing school is already over for me, too. I have all summer to practice writing and getting used to my new name. Oh, I should find some superhero costume undies to wear," he added excitedly.

"Why superhero undie err... underwear?" Mama Stan questioned. "Not that I'm saying no, since we do need to get you some clothes. I'm sure you're tired of that outfit as nice as it is."

"Yeah, this was all I was allowed to get from my old house, and that's only because I was already wearing it," Tommy agreed. "But the superhero undies are a must. I'm Kid Dynamite now." When everyone still gave him blank looks he explained further. "My whole name is now Thomas Nathaniel Truesdale. TNT, get it?" Jude and Stan laughed and then tried to explain things to Kaden.

"My 'nitials spell a word, sort of," Kaden told his new big brother eagerly. "Kaden Alexander Truesdale, so I'm KAT."

"Kid Dynamite and his super sidekick Kat Boy," Tommy announced in his best imitation of a superhero cartoon series narrator, while he posed like the quintessential Superman image. Kaden quickly mimicked him, but then everyone started giggling because the little boy had forgotten he was still naked.

"Oops," Kaden gushed and ran for his room to get dressed again.

"Make that Kid Dynamite and his sidekick NudeeButt," Tommy laughed as he followed his little brother to their room. "Ok, bro, looks like you got the bottom bunk staked out already, so does that mean I get the penthouse?"

"There's no steaks on my bed, and wouldn't you rather have a bed than a house made out of pins?"

"Umm, yeah, I'll just settle in up here in the top bunk," Tommy answered while shaking his head and grinning. "It's going to be a real experience having a little brother." He got to the top bunk and squealed happily. "PURPLE SHEETS!"

"Well, what other color would you have for a purple bed?" Kaden asked as if his new brother was brain damaged.

"Exactly, my awesome little brother," Tommy announced as he hung his head over the side of the top bunk to see Kaden on the bottom bunk putting on his socks. "No other color would be acceptable at all."

"You really don't have to like everything I do, you know," Kaden said softly. "I know lots of kids who have big brothers, and they're mean and nasty and don't like anything their little brothers or sisters like."

"Ah, but I have something none of those other big brothers have," Tommy said as he flipped over the edge of the top bunk to land on his feet beside Kaden and then sat down next to the boy.

"You do?" Kaden asked him, wide-eyed from seeing the gymnastic trick. "Are you really a superhero? Cause you just did that flippy thing just now and I bet you could beat up bullies super easy."

"Well, I might come in handy for scaring your bullies, if they aren't too big, but I think we'll let Dad handle the bullies, since he has the badge and the gun. No, my secret is that none of those other big brothers have you for a little brother. I really have wanted a younger sibling for my whole life, and I finally got one and you already like all the important stuff that I like. And I don't like everything you like. You and Kit have to work on me about liking cats. I think that's doable, but we might need to work on it for a little while. Let's see, what else do you like besides purple and kitties?"

"Well, I really like Janie."

"Eeww, you like a girl? Cooties!" Tommy squealed and buried his face in the pillow on Kaden's bunk.

"Janie was my best friend and now she's my best cousin," Kaden explained. "OH, that makes her your cousin, too."

"Really?" Tommy questioned his brother seriously, as he sat up again. "You guys were for real about that? We got cousins?"

"Just Janie. Her grandpa is Granny's little brother, only he's not little anymore and he's a judge who goes fishing a lot. His name is Uncle Henry, and his wife is Aunt Ellie. Aunt Ellie likes to go shopping and she makes the yummiest coconut custard pie ever in the whole universe."

"I'm going to get so fat in this family," Tommy whined. "But I'll be happy and fat."

"Maybe you could work in people's yards like Kenny does," Kaden suggested. "He had a friend helping him, but Sean decided to like girls and now he's got no brains left for mowing and weeding. Now poor Kenny has to do almost all the work himself because Dummy Sean keeps running over flowers with the mower cause he's thinking about Callie."

"Well, I had to do all the yard work at my old home, and I do like flowers," Tommy mused. “I will definitely not get distracted by girls. YUCK. But what if I get distracted thinking about my boyfriend?”

“I don’t think boys are as distracting as girls, cause boys aren’t weird like girls,” Kaden explained seriously.

“You got that right,” Tommy agreed. “They smell funny, they talk funny, they act crazy.”

“Some girls are ok, though, like Granny and Aunt Ellie, and Janie. Janie is the best girl in the world ‘cause she beat up a boy at school on account of he spit on me one time, and when I was in the hospital, she let me have her teddy bear so I could get better quicker.”

“Some kid spit on my little bro?” Tommy gasped. “I’ll kill the little pi… err… peasant.”

“No, don’t hurt him,” Kaden pleaded quickly. “Nicky’s my friend now, plus he helped me go pee in the hospital so Nurse Auntie Jenny Sue didn’t have to see me naked again.”

“Hold up, this kid spit on you, but then he helped you go pee?” Tommy questioned. “Oh yeah, I gotta have a talk with this Nicky kid. Wait, he’s not your boyfriend, is he?”

“Nooo,” Kaden giggled. “Nicky likes Janie, and you can’t tell nobody, especially Nicky, but she likes him too.”

“How come we can’t tell him?”

“Janie says he has to earn being her boyfriend since he’s been such a dummy all year,” Kaden explained.

“Smart girl, this cousin of ours,” Tommy said with a nod of affirmation.

“Thank you, but I bet you’re lots smarter than me, since you’re a big kid.” Both boys turned to see the girl in question standing in the doorway. “Hi, I’m Janie, I mean Jane Higgins.”

“Hi Janie, I’m Thomas, but family and friends call me Tommy, and that includes cousins,” Tommy answered.

“Janie, get out. I don’t got clothes on, just undies and socks,” Kaden squeaked, hiding behind his new big brother.

“Oh, please, Kady,” Janie scoffed. “I saw you in the hospital just wearing a dress that didn’t even have a back.”

“Hey now, no embarrassing my little brother,” Tommy said as he guided Janie back into the hallway and closed the bedroom door. “That’s my job.”

“I heard that. Big meanie,” Kaden called out from inside the bedroom.

“He just called me names,” Tommy gasped in shock. “He’s too little and cute to call me names.”

“If it’s your job to embarrass him because you’re the older brother, then that makes it his job to call you names because he’s the little brother,” Jude told his oldest son. “You should have heard some of the stuff I called your sperm donor back in the day.”

“I believe as a law enforcement officer, it is your job to fight corruption, not encourage it,” Granny said with a frown as she smacked Jude on the arm. She didn’t hit him hard, but it was enough to catch his attention.

“Now I know I got a Mom for real,” Jude crowed proudly as he picked up Granny and spun her around in his arms. “I got the smack on the arm from Mom. I love you, Momma,” he blurted and gave her a huge kiss on the cheek.

“Mercy sakes, Pet,” Aunt Ellie laughed. “Imagine what he’d have done if you hit him on the head with a wooden spoon.” The whole family laughed over that.