“Landen, I am worried about you,” Dad told me, once I was clean inside and out, and we were headed up to bed. “Sunday night, you were a sobbing wreck. Now you’re ready to sell your best friend off to a stranger, like he was some kind of thoroughbred racehorse?”

“Dad, I didn’t mean to…I mean, it wasn’t me trying to be dis-…dis-…mouthing off to you, you know?”

“’Disrespectful’, son,” Dad corrected me. “And that wasn’t how I took it. You just surprised the hell out of me, boy!” He smiled at me. “And Mr. Anwar seems quite impressed with you. For a D/C student, you certainly do seem to see into things!”

Canyon and Jeffie both sighed hard, like they were relieved.

“Thank you, sir!” Geeez, Mom never said ANYTHING like that to me!

“And you almost gave your brother a coronary,” Dad added.

“I’m sorry, Canyon,” I apologized.

“No harm done, Brother!” He hugged me. Then he yawned. Heck, we were all beat. No nap, and all that work. I was already sore.

We all got pain pills and muscle pills that night. I got another tranquilizer. Dad said he should be taking one, too! I laughed, but I was sooooo tired.

But I didn’t want to be alone.

That was the one thing that bugged me about Scott – he was down there all by himself, no one to touch him, no one to tell him it was going to be OK. Maybe I did feel a little bit bad about that part of it.

But not much.

“Landen, I want you to sleep in my bed again,” Dad said. “I don’t want you waking up all alone again. I’m sorry for that this morning.”

It was like he KNEW it or something?

I looked at Canyon. He grinned and got into bed. Jeffie got a diaper out of the nightstand without being told. I figured since he had no head on his dick, a stopper wouldn’t stay on him.

“You go with Father,” Canyon told me, and we all hugged and kissed goodnight. “You’ve got 12 years you missed, you know!”

We got them down for the night, then Dad grabbed my hand. “I want you to see something before you go to sleep, Landen,” he told me, and we went right instead of left. I got to thinking about the broken glass again when I shut the lights out. I knew why there was a big set of shutters on the inside of our bedroom window now. There was no glass in our room – the black shutter had kept it out. But our room only had 1 window. The Guest room was across the hall, and Dad’s was on the other end. So what was the room down at the other end? There’d been 2 windows facing my old house when they’d moved in, and both were blacked out.

I found out when Dad unlocked the door and flipped a light switch.

It was another room, all black, identical to Canyon’s room. There was the sealed window, two beds with straps, a nightstand, and two lights in the ceiling – white and red. But there was more.

My bike was cleaned up and standing in a corner. This room had shelves on the walls, and all my old stuff was there: my books, models, things I’d collected, even copies of pictures of me and Canyon – recent ones. There wasn’t a closet, but my sandals, work boots, and a new pair of tennis shoes were sitting behind the door. Only the white slip-ons had stayed downstairs in case of busted glass.

“We’re going to do this to your brother’s room, too, son,” Dad told me. “That way, if I have to go tell you to play in your room, you can. And you’ll find all of your things are here. Nothing was lost in the fire. Nothing important.”

“But…but Canyon doesn’t have any things, does he?” I asked.

“He has a few keepsakes, packed away, but he should, I think, display them proudly. It’s time he developed a sense of self, and you can help him do that. I did, after all. He needs to be more well-rounded, don’t you think?”

“Yes, sir!” I looked at the beds. “Hey, we can have friends spend the night now! You won’t have to share your bed!”

I guess that was a stupid thing to say. The Guest room was across the hall, and empty, like it always was. I yawned again, but thought of something.

“B-but Dad? I like sleeping in our old room?” No, this wasn’t right. It was like this stuff belonged to someone else, and I liked the empty, black room we’d been sharing a lot better. That, and I’d heard “go to your room” enough to last me a lifetime. I didn’t think I could stand it coming from Dad.

But I didn’t say anything, other than, “Sorry, sir. It’s just funny is all.”

Dad just smiled at me. “You can both choose one, trade off,” Dad told me, “But for tonight, you sleep with me. I’m still worried about you, son. And I love you.”

I hugged him. “I love you too, Dad.” He picked me up and kissed me, and carried me back down to his room after I’d had a pee, as Canyon called it. He put the stopper back on me, too. I was so glad it wasn’t a diaper.

“Take your plug out, son,” he told me, after he’d put my blindfold on. “Just find the ring and pull, slow.”

I did that, and he took it.

He guided me over to the bed, and when he laid me down, I was on top of him. I felt his dick going into me.

“Surprised?”

“Y-yes, sir!”

It took a little bit to get me situated, but when he did, we just laid still. It was driving me nuts, and my head was spinning. My pills were kicking in, and the last thing I remembered was the soft blanket being pulled over me and him telling me how good it was to have both of his sons again.

No headphones.

I held onto him tight.

I would still be holding on in the morning.

He was still hard and inside me in the morning when I woke up. It was the first thing I knew! If I’d got off, I didn’t remember it. He must have, though, because when he kissed me good morning and lifted me off, I was kinda messy.

“Good thing you’re not a girl, or I’d be a father again!” Dad laughed. “How do you feel, Landen?”

‘Landen’? Yeah, that was my name now. I liked it.

“Good, Dad, yeah – pretty good.”

“You slept like a baby all night long,” he told me. “You feel like getting back to your routine today, before you get soft and wimpy again?”

“Yes, sir!”

We went and got Canyon and Jeffie up, and Jeffie’s diaper was wet. He was ashamed of himself, but Dad told him that was what it was for. Me, I had to pee so bad I hurt. I wasn’t hard, either.

“Well, don’t you just look stupid and satisfied?” Canyon laughed at me, after him and Jeffie had their morning loving and we were sent for a shower.

“Canyon’s jealous!” Jeffie laughed.

“I am!” Canyon nodded. “All these nights in Father’s bed! I’m beginning to think he likes you better!”

I dropped my towel.

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear at all. I didn’t know what to say. Canyon must have saw the look on my face.

“Landen, I was only joking!” Canyon told me. “Father would never play favorites. What one gets, so does the other!”

I shivered a little.

Did Canyon know I had a better room?

“No, I don’t play favorites,” Dad said from the door. He had my plug in his hand, and motioned for me to bend over so he could replace it. He didn’t plug my dick, either, but reminded me about diapers. I was embarrassed.

“Canyon, you’ve upset your brother,” Dad told him.

“Yes, sir,” Canyon just bent over automatically.

“No, Dad! It was me!” I held my hand up. “He was joking, and I didn’t get it! It was my fault!”

“He shouldn’t have teased you like that,” Dad repeated.

My eyes started to sting. I couldn’t stand it if he hit Canyon. “No, sir! Please! It wasn’t like that!”

“You can spank me?” Jeffie offered.

Dad just sighed.

“I’m asking Dr. Kent about these mood swings of yours, Landen. It could be a drug reaction, or the shots you were on, washing out of your system. In the meantime, breakfast!” He decided, and everything was fine again.

Canyon put his arm around me and just smiled. “Twins,” He reminded me.

Dad told him about the new room after breakfast. Canyon said it was “just smashing”, and that now we could have friends spend the night. Dad rolled his eyes.

“Guest room?” He asked.

“That’s for guests, sir?” Canyon said.

“I give up,” Dad groaned.

So it was back to our routine, except that the morning workout was different. Dad had boxing gloves, the kind that tied on, so you couldn’t get out of them. He was coaching while Canyon and Jeffie sparred and I worked out. It wasn’t like a match, either – it was like a real fight. I watched them while I did exercises, and it bothered me. It bothered me a lot. I didn’t like seeing them hitting each other. I kept quiet about it, though. Joe wanted Jeffie to learn how to fight, and from what I saw at the mall, Canyon knew how. I figured they’d both have some bruises by bedtime.

“Did you know that boxing gloves were sometimes used at night, to prevent masturbation?” Dad asked me. I didn’t know that! But with them on, there was no way you could jack off, that was for sure! It was funny watching Canyon and Jeffie trying to get out of them.

Lunch at noon, then our afternoon workout was cleaning up the yard. With the fence back up, we were safe and didn’t have to wear anything but shoes. I had to go up and get my boots. We got our usual sun time, with the tape player, and more language practice. The pool was still kinda dirty, so since we couldn’t swim, we cleaned everything up into a pile. By 4, I was ready for our nap. But the yard was clean again, right down to every bit of broken glass picked up. I was glad to get those boots off.

Canyon picked out a tape to watch at 6, and he told me it was a special one. I asked him what it was.

“Well, since you’re wanting one too, Landen, I thought you should see the movie of my circumcision,” Canyon told me.

“Ewww, is it bloody?” I asked. OK, I was curious, yeah. I wanted to see what he looked like before. Maybe even what he looked like with his balls.

“Well, what do you THINK?” Canyon laughed. “Of course there’s blood! It’s surgery, silly!”

It started with a smaller Canyon being strapped down to a frame-like table, and then getting shots in his dick to numb it. He did have balls, too, and not much different looking than mine. Then the doctor used a syringe to shoot some stuff into Canyon’s pee-hole, and got a catheter out. He pushed the skin back a little to show the tip of his dick’s head.

Then he started pushing it in. I got hard, but I still couldn’t feel anything. I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t looked down. I wondered if that was how Kim felt when he got excited? It was like nothing there to touch.

“I had to wear that bloody thing in me for a month!” Canyon cringed. “Pissed myself all the time for a week once it was out, but Father didn’t want me up and moving until I was perfectly healed!” He told me.

Canyon had had a lot of skin on the end, like a sock over his dick. The doctor rolled it all back, put a clear tube down on it to hold it back, and that made the skin stretch tight. You could see the flap underneath. He tested Canyon with one of those spikey wheels, and when he couldn’t feel it, he got the scalpel out.

I made it as far as the doctor slicing his frenulum off before I fainted.

Movie blood was one thing, but seeing my own brother having his dick cut on was something else!

I woke up with my nose burning and Dad laughing. Smelling salts.

“I take it you don’t want to watch the rest, the castration video?” He asked.

I just shook my head.

“Make you change your mind, Landen?” Dad asked.

I looked at Canyon, then at Jeffie. “No, sir,” I said. “It won’t hurt when he cuts it off, right?”

“Hurts like hell when the shots wear off, though,” Jeffie told me.

“Oh, don’t be so wet, Jeffery,” Canyon told him. “You’ve only got like an inch on Kim!”

They laughed about it.

“I had so many stitches, I looked like Frankenstein,” Jeffie told me.

“Stop, please!” I said.

“Landen, you don’t HAVE to do it,” Dad reminded me.

“But I WANT to do it, sir!” I told him. “I…I feel…different.”

I did feel different. I felt left out.

“I can call Dr. Kent, anytime, son,” Dad said.

I thought about it.

I was numb already, and I didn’t have to watch.

“Can he do it JUST like Canyon’s?” I asked.

Dad nodded.

“Does he have to put a catheter in me?”

Dad shook his head. “Not unless you want one?”

“NO, SIR!”

“’s’not so bad,” Jeffie told me.

“NO!”

They laughed.

So did I.

“Dad?”

“Son?”

“Call him, please.”

OK, I was shaking and starting to sweat. I’d just asked to have my dick remodeled, you know! I knew I was going to bleed, it was going to hurt when the shots wore off, but when I healed up, I’d look like Canyon.

And Dad would be happy.

I just hoped I didn’t puke.

“You see, if you start off with that, Landen,” Dad said, “You can still exercise some. Just nothing that puts any pressure on your penis.”

“And no swimming until it’s healed,” Canyon added.

I hadn’t thought about that – but it was too late then.

Dad made the call, and Dr. Kent came right over. I was surprised to see Mr. Anwar with him.

“I came along to offer advice,” he smiled at me, and gave me a wrapped present. He looked around. “No celebration? No party?”

“Again?” Dad asked. “We just had one?”

“It is a custom to bring gifts for the boy, and since you don’t remember it when you were a baby, Landen, this counts!” Mr. Anwar said. “Perhaps I can make a special dinner, since your father is an uncouth barbarian?” They both laughed at that.

“Thank you, sir!” I hugged him, when he offered.

“And you decided this, for yourself, Landen?” He asked. I nodded. “Very, very good. I am proud!” I didn’t know what to say.

“Well, while I’m here, we can kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Now that he’s all soft and loose, our young man downstairs has a lot of skin that can come off,” Dr. Kent said.

Mr. Anwar rolled his eyes and nodded. “Much! You have to save the gift until after the surgery, though,” he told me.

So that was it.

I was about to get ‘trimmed.’

We went down to the basement, and Doc suggested the gurney. Dad helped me up, and I was strapped down to it – just like Scott had been. I couldn’t move. Mr. Anwar put a pillow under my head – a big one, so I could watch. Then he got out a movie camera.

‘Great,’ I thought. But I didn’t say a thing. It wasn’t like the whole world would see it, and Dad a film of Canyon’s. Equal treatment?

Dad took a picture.

The red AF light was pretty, too, so bright…I smiled. I liked having my picture taken. Mom never did. We all said ‘cheese’!

Doc tested me with the wheel, and decided on another shot to be safe. Then he went in to check on Scott. He must have ungagged him.

“Hurts,” Scott was moaning.

“Do you want the doctor to fix it, Jimmie?” He was asking.

“Yesssss, hurtsssss,” Scott cried. I looked at Dad.

“He only thinks it hurts, son,” Dad told me. “As far as he’s concerned, he’ll do anything to make it stop hurting now.”

I wondered how they could have convinced Scott to agree to anything, but they had. Doctor Kent came back in to see to me. He had gloves and a mask on, and put towels over me. Just my bits were sticking out. Then he washed me down, down there, in brown stuff that smelled.

He started by pulling back all the skin he could, then securing it with a plastic tube. Dad had a little sponge from his kit, and the doctor got out a scalpel. Canyon held my hand. Jeffie held my other one.

“It’s going to be fine, Brother,” Canyon told me. “And you’ll love how it looks.”

“Like yours,” I said to Canyon, and he nodded. “Twins, remember?”

I shivered.

The doctor touched the scalpel to my little tab, and started slicing it back. Dad sponged, and the frenulum-thing came of pretty quick. It left a bleeding raw spot, but the doctor put something on it and then got out his sewing stuff. I didn’t faint, I didn’t puke. I was just fascinated – I was watching him cut skin off of my dick!

“Very nice,” Mr. Anwar said.

“Glad you approve,” Doctor Kent snorted. “I’m just the doctor, what do I know?”

It didn’t take long, or I didn’t think it did, for Dr. Kent to have my cut stitched and cleaned up. He held up a little mirror so I could see it better.

I was starting to swell up a little, but the tab was gone. It was smooth under my dick’s head – just like my brother’s. Just some stitches that looked funny. He put a little bandage over that part.

Then he started pulling skin from the back up over the tube. I was surprised how much he got on it, when he pulled out a metal ‘thing’ and locked that onto it. It had a cap on the end that fit the tip of my dick, and it matched up with the tube, locking it all in place. He tightened it.

“No going back now, Landen,” He told me. “The skin is crushed.”

I was shaking again. Good thing I was strapped in tight.

Then he started cutting around my dick in a circle.

I was thinking, ‘What if he slips? What if it comes loose? What if I end up with a 1” stub like Jeffie?’ – what if, what if, what if…?

I think I fainted then.

When I got the smelly salts again, I was loose. My little dick was wrapped up in a white bandage, but Dad had a Polaroid of it with the stitches in. Mr. Anwar was still filming with all the bright lights on. They let me loose.

The first thing that came to me was, ‘It’s still there!’ THAT was a relief. I checked to see if I still had balls.

They were still there, too.

‘Good, no misunderstandings!’ I thought. That kinda scared me, even though I thought it was a good idea and Canyon was and liked it. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d woke up and they’d been gone!

Dad and Dr. Kent gave each other a look.

“Someday, but not today, then,” Canyon nodded at them. I wondered if he meant me getting castrated?

Yeah, it scared me.

I thought I wanted to do it.

But I was still scared. Maybe I did need time to think about it?

“Should’a’ lost the end,” Jeffie sighed, but he grinned at me. I smiled back at him and shook my head.

“Well, it’s close to dinnertime,” Canyon checked his watch. “Father, Landen needs a watch, you know.”

“Do you want to see what came off?” Dr. Kent asked me, and he showed me anyway before I could say ‘no’.

That was a LOT of skin!

Then he went in to see to Scott.

Long story short – Scott got the same thing. He might have agreed to it, but he was asleep when Dr. Kent started on him. Mr. Anwar seemed pleased with that, too.

I had to wonder, though, if Scott was drugged, or hypnotized, did his agreeing count? I wasn’t even sure why I’d wanted it so bad just then, but, I got through it with only fainting and no puking.

That was one thing down – and Dad and Canyon were really proud of me, too. I liked that.

Dad had helped me down, but he carried me up the stairs. I didn’t feel like eating, but I didn’t wanna puke either. I was really kinda hungry when the food was done. I don’t know what it was, but Mr. Anwar had made something with beef tips that was so good that we cleaned it up. We even got some whipped cream on fruit for dessert.

My present was a white outfit, and a small book about circumcision. Mr. Anwar said I could wear the outfit the next time we had a field trip. I tried it on for him, and Dad took pictures. There was even a little hat and shoes like slippers.

“A little Arabian Prince,” Mr. Anwar told me, and he kissed my cheek, even! “This is so much better!”

“Sir, did you bring one for Sco-, I mean, for Jimmie, too?”

I guess if they were calling him that, I should to. Oh, and his middle name was “James” – and he hated it. You never called him “Jimmy.”

“I did, and he can have it when he feels better!” Mr. Anwar smiled. “But for now, I think it is past your bedtime, boys?”

“It is,” Dad agreed, “And given Landen’s condition, I think he gets a sponge bath and then right to bed!”

“Don’t let the covers rub him, and lay him on his back!” Dr. Kent said.

My cleaning up and out that night was fast, short, and gentle. Dad was really careful, and didn’t even get my bandages wet.

He put me in my own bed, not my new one, and asked Canyon to come sleep with him. Mr. Anwar had this little thing to put over my middle to keep the blanket from rubbing me, too. It was like a little tent frame.

I wasn’t in any pain, and Dad gave me some pills before laying me back to strap me in. I went to sleep, and I do remember having a dream that night.

I dreamed I was being held, and told by everyone – even strangers – how proud they were of me, and how much they loved me.

It was one of those dreams you hate to wake up from.

The rest of the week went by, and not much happened. I got my bandages changed twice a day, and some feeling started coming back by Thursday. When it did, it hurt, too! I couldn’t do anything in workouts that might tear my stitches, but the thigh and waist straps on the exercise benches prevented that. I could still do weights, but I couldn’t go swimming once the pool cleared up.

I figured that Dad had to be taking care of Scott – or Jimmie, like they called him now – when he wasn’t with us. I wasn’t sure if you could live off an IV line for more than week, so they had to be giving him something he could swallow. I didn’t know, and I didn’t ask. All I knew was he couldn’t move, he wasn’t ever with it when we were down there, and the lights were almost always flashing at him.

I didn’t ask about the thing they put on his head, either – that thing that made the lights go dim and made him have convulsions or something. I didn’t wanna know.

All I cared about was he couldn’t squeal on us again.

Canyon and Jeffie kept having fighting lessons in workout time, too. I got used to it, since Canyon wasn’t really trying to hurt him. Jeffie even got a couple good shots in on Canyon, and he had a fit lip on Wednesday night! Jeffie went hysterical, but Canyon just told him how good he was doing and blew it off.

Joe would come by at night on his way in to work, and he liked my circumcision too. We saw a lot of Mr. Anwar, too, and even went to dinner at a really fancy restaurant one night. He had me wear my new white outfit, and I got a lot of weird looks. Some couple that must have been from Mr. Anwar’s country even came up and hugged me, and gave me $5! Canyon had had his suit altered a couple times, the one Mr. Anwar had given him when he was 9. The difference was, Canyon had got castrated at the same time, too. Mr. Anwar didn’t correct them, but talked to them for a while in their language.

We saw a lot of Bob and Bobbie, too, since all the windows had to be replaced. Bob had got the contract for fixing up the Smiths’ place, too. The only problem there was that Mrs. Smith, with all her grandkids living halfway across the country, decided that she was going to ‘adopt’ Jeffie and Canyon (and me, since she thought we were the same boy!).

Dad just had fits.

OK, he didn’t get mean, or threaten to kill her or anything. He’d just throw his hands up and talk to himself a lot when the subject of Mrs. Smith came up. Our fridge was beginning to fill up with sweet stuff, too.

“Doesn’t she know what saccharine is?” Dad would just gripe.

“Or honey, Father,” Canyon would add.

“I won’t have fat boys!” Dad would just sputter.

“She says we’re too skinny, Dad,” I told him.

And I was getting there. I’d lost a lot of weight, and I was beginning to show some muscles. Joe said I was getting wiry, but firm. A lot of the sweets went home with him, Bob, and Dr. Kent! Dad even took a box of it to Mr. Thomas & Mr. Fred at the law office, and we got to go.

“See if they can fatten up Ty,” Dad mumbled, while he looked at some papers. “Oh, this is just smashing!” He yelled, which made us all jump.

“Told you I could do it, Martin,” Mr. Fred said.

“Father?” Canyon asked. “Whatever is the matter?”

“Your brother is now an official, naturalized, British-American!” Dad smiled at me.

Come to think of it, I was born there? I never thought about it before.

He showed my new birth certificate, with my new name on it. Same birthday, and just like Canyon’s. But they both said “Mother Unknown.”

“Now if we can just fix that bloody accent of his,” Canyon smiled at me.

The worst thing about waiting to heal up, besides not being able to go swimming, was that I wasn’t allowed to fool around. Not even a little. I had a lot of the feeling back in my crotch, but I still hurt. It was one of Dad’s orders, though, and I didn’t argue.

Bob found time that week to put up some shelves in our room – well, Canyon’s room. He made the two rooms look identical, and Dad was glad to see Canyon go and find something of his to put on the shelf. It was a first for him.

“Dust-catchers and what-nots,” he called them.

He had a porcelain figurine packed in a little box, and he put it on the top shelf very carefully. It was a naked boy with dark red hair, but I figured it was supposed to be an angel. How many boys had wings? The little statue only had a small bump between his legs, too. He even had a halo.

“He reminds me awfully of Jeffie,” Canyon said.

Jeffie liked it. “I think he looks like you!”

The little figurine DID look like Canyon. Like us. Freckles and all.

“I had a friend in London who made these things,” Dad told us. “He was a genius. Could make anything at all that you wanted, just by looking at a picture.” He looked at me. “Landen, can you draw, or sing, or anything like that? Terribly short-sighted of me not to ask before?”

“I…I dunno, sir,” I told him. “I used to get B’s in art class?”

“Canyon, I think you should put some of your sketch pads, and all of your supplies on the shelf. We’ve neglected your art studies lately, but we’ll pick back up with that in the winter. I hear it’s just beastly around here in January?”

“It’s a bitch, sometimes, sir,” I said. Then I covered my mouth.

Dad laughed.

We had a big dinner on Saturday night. Nothing like the party last week, but Mr. Anwar came over. So did Dr. Kent and Henry. Bob and Joe came, and I was really surprised to find out that Bobbie and Mickey were taking Kim and Ty out to a movie over in Brownstown. (It was an hour away on the highway.)

“Of course we’ll hear everything they say,” Bob reminded me, and I remembered that our collars had bugs in them. I was still worried that I might have a spanking coming from some of the things that Dad would have heard me say. Heck, he knew everything I’d did since I got it put on me.

“Landen, why didn’t you ever try to remove it?” Dad asked me.

I hadn’t thought about it. I didn’t think I could, since the first one didn’t have a clasp. “You saw how I cut it that one day?”

I didn’t know what to say. I almost started crying.

“These mood swings should be stabilizing by now,” Dr. Kent said.

“Sir, you let them go out alone?” Canyon asked, when he was nodded at. I was learning those signals, too.

“They’ve got to learn things,” Dr. Kent said, and Bob agreed. “They’ll be off to college soon, and they have to have some latitude. We can’t take care of them forever, you know.”

Dad looked sad about that.

“They grow up so fast,” he sighed. “It won’t be long before there’s little ones running around calling me ‘Grandfather,’” he laughed.

“Only if I adopt,” Canyon grinned at him.

Dad hugged him. “That IS the plan, son.”

That made me think about getting castrated again. If I was, I’d never be able to have kids either. But then again, I didn’t like girls. I got hard and ‘turned on’ watching the boys do it on the pornos. Margaret got on my nerves to no end. I couldn’t imagine being married to her!

“That bothers you, doesn’t it, Landen?” Dad asked me.

How did he always know that stuff?

“Yes, sir.”

“Why? Haven’t we said already that there are so many boys out there who need good homes?” Dad told me.

I nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Then don’t let that sway your decision,” Dad said. “It doesn’t matter to me if any children you end up with are biological or not. I don’t remember my own real father that well, and the man who took me in – for all intents and purposes – IS my father. Well, he WAS. He loved me, he cared for me, and that is ALL that matters. Whatever YOU decide will be fine by me.”

I guess I lost it then.

Dad was holding me, touching me, telling me it was OK and to just get it out. Dr. Kent was saying something about it only being a week, and how messed up I had to be.

“Just care for him, Martin,” Someone said. “That’s all he really needs.”

It wasn’t all that that was bothering me.

What I was worried about was things like ‘What if I screw up, and Dad doesn’t want me anymore? Where do I go? What if he gets mad and sells me off to someone like Mr. Anwar?’

That, and the older boys were out ‘practicing’ or something. It made me think about what I’d do when I grew up, since I still didn’t think I was smart enough to go to college. What was I supposed to do for a job? What if I had a boy, but I wasn’t a good dad? Bobbie was going to be a contractor, Mickey was going to medical school, but what about me? I wasn’t good at anything.

One thing I thought about made me feel better, when Dad decided it was time for me to get a bath and go to bed: I had him to take care of me.

Scott didn’t have anybody now.

Served him right.

Mr. Anwar solved that problem for us, though, once we got ready to go downstairs. I guess he was feeling left out, too. Jeffie was all clingy with his daddy, and he had to go to work. Jeffie didn’t want him to leave. Henry wasn’t saying much, but he never did. I was getting my clean-out when Mr. Anwar told Dad, “Martin, I will solve this problem for you. I am not burdened by the moral problems that you seem to have, and I will take the boy as originally agreed. I will have to consider Landen’s advice, once I have the boy safely home with me.”

I looked at him, scared that I was in trouble.

“Martin, this boy is a genius, and has given me MUCH to consider!” Mr. Anwar smiled.

“I’ll start working on getting him prepped for transport,” Dr. Kent said.

I guess that was the end of the Scott problem.

Like I said, I hope he wasn’t allergic to sand or camels.

But something clicked in my head - I had an idea of what Dad did for a living now: "A quarter a pop." - He was going to SELL Scott to Mr. Anwar!