THIS STORY IS COPYRIGHT © 2019-2024 BY BOUDREAUX. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DISTRIBUTION FOR COMMERCIAL GAIN, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, POSTING ON SITES OR NEWSGROUPS, DISTRIBUTION AS PARTS OR IN BOOK FORM (EITHER AS A WHOLE OR PART OF A COMPILATION) WITH OR WITHOUT A FEE, OR DISTRIBUTION ON CD, DVD, OR ANY OTHER ELECTRONIC MEDIA WITH OR WITHOUT A FEE, IS EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED WITHOUT THE AUTHOR'S WRITTEN CONSENT. YOU MAY DOWNLOAD ONE (1) COPY OF THIS STORY FOR PERSONAL USE; ANY AND ALL COMMERCIAL USE EXCEPTING EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS REQUIRES THE AUTHOR'S WRITTEN CONSENT.
THE AUTHOR MAY BE CONTACTED FOR PERMISSIONS OR FEEDBACK AT: crazycajun@cornercafe.us
I had known Patrick didn't like being an only child. He had started in on my wife and I about getting him a brother almost as soon as he could talk. We wrote it off as cute and adorable for a while, but then he got a little older and he started getting pushy about it.
"Daddy, my friend Jamie invited me to sleepover at his house tomorrow night, so if you and Mommy have anything you would like to do while I'm out of the house that would be a good time." He was a seven year old boy channeling a Jewish matchmaker it seemed.
Unfortunately for all concerned, his having a full brother wasn't meant to be. Diane left us a few months before his eighth birthday. It was a rough time for all of us, but with Diane and I both finally coming to terms with the fact that we were gay, it was the right thing to do. Patrick and I struggled through getting used to it just being us in the house, and our lives had settled down quite a bit in the two years she's been gone. I knew that Patrick was getting lonely with just me at home, though. I didn't know how lonely he was until he walked into the kitchen the day before Thanksgiving.
On the day before Thanksgiving, while I was in the kitchen preparing my son Patrick's after-school snack, Patrick came home and another kid with him. Instead of saying his usual 'Hi Daddy, I'm home', his greeting nearly gave me a heart attack.
"Hi Daddy, this is my new Brother, Ben!"
I looked up and got an even bigger shock. Ben was practically the mini me clone of the guy I had been dating for the last few months.
"AIIIIIEEEEE!! How y'all are, Papa?"
"Oh my God you sound like Phillipe too," I blurted before I realized I had said that out loud.
"For sho I been look like mon père," Ben giggled. "Just like Patrick de spitting image of you. I see you smooching my père when I come home from the school early one day. Then I seed you pick up Patrick from the school, so me and him we made the talkings, and here we is. Mon père come in de house soon as he got them pizza out the car."
"Pizzas?" I asked blankly as I slumped onto a chair at the table in the kitchen.
"AIIIIIIIEEEEE mon Coeur, Merci for the invite. I feel the something special wit you too, but I don't spoke it yet for to made sure you feel it too. Only you send the bebes, to told me how you felt. That the most sweetest thing my whole life, mon Coeur. They decide for us they been frer. This the most happy day my life, cept the day I take my Benoit in my hand the first time."
"Phillipe, don't talk like that in front of the children," I scolded with an intense blush. Then I looked up at him finally and saw he was wearing denim bib overalls with the sides open just enough that I could easily tell that was ALL he was wearing. "Phillipe, I ummm well...." The next words out of my mouth were a surprise to me, but as I eventually got my eyes up to his eyes, I knew it was the right thing to say. "Welcome home, mon Coeur."
"Can we eat the pizza now, père?" Patrick asked. "I'm starving."
"Me too me too," Ben called out.
"We got that out right now, I'ma guarantee, mes petite anges," Phillipe grinned as he opened the warming tray he was holding. "This here my bebe Benoit most favorite pizza the whole world. Fried nutria, gator tail, and bake possum with boiled okra, boiled cabbage, onion, celery, bell pepper, and the fille roux sauce. Bon appetit, ma famille."
"They talk funny, Daddy, but I like having a père and a frère," Patrick grinned as he reached for a slice of the pizza before I could stop him.
"Best part this pizza, you don't got to swallow," Little Ben informed us. "Twixt the gator tail and the boil okra, it slide down all it's own."
I didn't hear much after that over the sounds I was making in the toilet, but my three guys brought me some water and crackers later as I lay on the couch recovering. "You don't told me you had the sensitive tummy, cher," Phillipe soothed. "I make you the gumbo for dinner tonight that put right as rain no time."
Someone once said the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Remind me to look that guy up when I am feeling better and punch him right in the mouth.