It was a warm summer morning, I hear running coming toward my bedroom door, the door swings open, and Andrew says wake up Allen its time to go to Nana's. I sit up on the side of the bed and look towards him. Get ready, you know it a four hour drive. Andrew is so very excited, just like a child on Christmas morning. He hasn't seen his Nana in five years.
I stand up and Andrew is heading for the kitchen, I can hear him say jump in the shower and I will fix you coffee. I stumble to the bathroom, I do the three S's - Sh!t, Shower, Shave. I walk back into my room, there on my desk is a hot cup of coffee. I take a long sip. Ah that is what I needed. I hear Andrew heading towards my room again, he slings open the door. Are you ready? No I answer. Are you ready? Are you ready? jumping up and down as he asked. I stood up and calmly as I could mustered, and said, please try to calm down. We will be there before you know it.
The drive down was smooth, until we pulled on to her street, if that is what you want to call it. It had so many pot holes and over filled pot holes. I thought for sure we was going to blow out our shocks.
Andrew said hey this is where I grew up. He pointed to the field across the street and said that is where they normally have cows. We pull into Nana's yard, she doesn't have a driveway. Andrew was the first one out of the car and he is running to the side door, and in he went. I get out of the car and head to the house. I am nervous as all get out. I have never met his family. I walk slowly to the door. Just as I put my hand on the knob, the door swings open, Andrew said what took you so long? The smile on him was priceless. I could tell how happy he was. Allen come on, I head into the living room and Nana stands up. I walk over to introduce myself, I stick out my hand and she looked up at me and said what is that for, pointing at my hand. We hug our family members. We hugged for what seemed like a very long time.
Nana was this sweet little lady with a temper. I was told ahead of time not to piss her off. Nana said to Andrew, go unpack the car, I need to talk my newest grandson. Andrew said excitedly ok and he takes off running. She grabs me by the arm and she pulled me outside on to the porch, Nana said did you bring your swimming trunks?, as she leads me around her pool. I said yes ma'am. She said good you boys can go swimming later. I said sounds good to me.
We sat down at the table we chat for a bit, she wanted to know about me. She asked questions and I answered them. Andrew comes over and said done. Smiling from ear to ear. She said its kind of hot out here, how about a swim boys. We both agreed. We get changed pretty fast. Andrew was already in the pool when I got out. Come on Allen get in he yells. I go over and put my foot in the water, its freezing. I laugh and say nope, its to cold. Andrew swims close and splashes me. Come on get in already. I say what the heck and jump in. It was cold, the sun felt good. We swam for an hour or so. Nana comes out of the house and said dinners ready. We both get out and dry off. We go into the house and I change my clothes. The air is on inside and I started to shake. When I returned there sat my plate. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn and green beans. Yummy. We sat in front of the the TV. We watched her favorite shows, Wheel, Jeopardy, and the Walking Dead. When the shows were done, we all headed to bed.
The next morning, Andrew looked sad, I said whats wrong? He said we have to leave today. I said OMG really. We don't leave until tonight. Cheer up would you. Nana walks into the kitchen, she said good morning boys, we both said good morning. She then said now get out of my way I need my coffee. Andrew said no Nana I will fix them go on out to the porch. Nana and I head out to the porch. We sit down and about that time Andrew has our coffee in his hands. He hands Nana one and then me one. Andrew said now you two enjoy, I am going to go watch Star Trek. We are both sipping on our coffees and Nana takes a deep breath in and said, I need to tell you about Andrew. I said okay. She takes another deep breath in. When Andrew was 3 years old, he was Tortured. My mood dropped like a ton of bricks. Tortured? I asked. She looks at me and said the bastard took him and put him in a bath tub naked towards the back and then put spiders, roaches, ticks, and other bugs into the tub towards the spout. The bastard stopped up the drain, and then turned on the water slowly. The bugs ran from the water towards Andrew. Andrew screamed and tried to jump out, but the bastard would just hold him down.
Andrew comes out with more coffee, he looks at me and says whats wrong. As I started to speak, Nana interrupts me and says the tub. Andrew said well its time for me to go back to Star Trek, he turns and runs off.
Nana turns back to me and said there is more I am afraid to say. Then bastard took him and, taped his hands together and hung him in the closet, the bastard then turned up the music, and tied weights on to his balls. Andrew was screaming to loudly, the bastard tapped his mouth shut, and shut the closet door. He left him hanging there for hours Allen. I mean hours. Who does that?
Nana continues; he opened the closet door, pulls him down and throws him on the bed, now remember his hands are tied, and the weights are still tied to his balls, his mouth tapped shut. He screams from the pain, then the bastard penetrated him. This continued every night while his mom was at work, for over a month.
Andrew's mom came home early one night to find him on top of Andrew. She screamed, and by the time she called 911 he was out the door and driving away. Nana said they never caught the sick bastard.
I told Nana that it all makes since now. Andrew has woken me up to blood letting screams before because he saw a spider or from a night mare. I get up from the table and walk into the house, I walk straight towards Andrew. I lean down and hug him. He looks up at me and say stop that mushy stuff.
Andrew says now you know, huh? I just shook my head. I go back and sit back down with Nana. Nana says do me one favor, I said anything. Will you look after him? He trust you and you give him the safety he craves. I said of course. Even if you two dont live together, please take care of him. I promised Nana I would.
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