The Kids Grow Up by Trish Hanan (novel24 .TXT) 📖

gushed. Kate stood up.
“Henry, why didn’t you build that factory the first year, that’s what I want to know,” she demanded and everyone laughed. Harry grinned.
“Frankly, Mother, I really didn’t pay much attention to the factories I brought down, now I really think we should build this one, who wants to help?” he asked and almost everyone stood up and raised their hands. Jake laughed.
The factory was up and running in a month and everyone took home a case of every single kind of cookie and cracker that Nabisco made. It was like Christmas and their birthday all rolled up into one and once again Harry was their hero.
“I swear that little bastard times this stuff so we like him after he does something we hate him for,” Max said and Linda sighed as she stacked boxes of cookies in the pantry.
“Well, the kids were moving out no matter what we did so we should be grateful we have crackers again, I missed my cheese and crackers late at night,” she told him and he hugged her.
“I wonder what factory he’ll bring out when the next set of kids move out?” he teased and she giggled.
“Oh, I hope it’s another golf course or something fun, I’m getting tired of that same old course,” she said and he agreed; another golf course would be fun.
“What other stores do you have, babe; that we can build?” Jake asked as they were getting ready for bed. Harry shrugged.
“We’ve got seventeen more factories but I don’t see where we need the stuff yet, we could start building furniture, that would be fun and the car parts factory could come in handy, so could the cloth factory if women wanted to do a lot more sewing, but I don’t think they do,” he explained and Jake nodded.
“That toy factory would be fun,” he remarked and Harry nodded.
“I guess we can build the pasta factory, people like pasta and noodles,” he remarked and Jake nodded.
“We’ll build that when the next batch of kids move out,” he said and Harry giggled.
“We should build that next year,” he told him and Jake shrugged.
“We should save something for people to look forward to,” he suggested and Harry nodded.
“Okay, honey, we’ll build that next time people hate me,” he decided and they both laughed.
That winter they took the kids to see the furry-purry spiders of Savannah for the first time and took with them plastic containers of raw meat. All the kids were excited and a little scared. After all, it wasn’t every day that you got to see spiders the size of dogs. All the dogs had to stay home except for Bo and Gertie who had seen the spiders before and knew how to behave.
“Oh, man, giant spiders, this is going to be so neat,” Sean exclaimed and his brother Ryan agreed. All the boys looked more excited than the girls who looked more scared. Steve and Kathleen rode up in the cockpit with Harry and Jake and they laughed over the reactions of the kids.
“I didn’t think Megan would come, she’s scared to death of spiders and that’s the little one,” Kathleen remarked. Steve laughed.
“She doesn’t want to be left out on any of the fun, honey,” he told her and she nodded.
“I think it’s easier to be scared of the little ones than the big ones,” Harry declared and Jake nodded.
“Once they start purring like cats, I’m sure she’ll be alright,” he said and all the parents hoped so.
Harry landed the Elizabeth and they all walked out. He and Jake headed the group and they walked towards the caves where they had found the spiders years ago. They had only been there a short time when the first spider peeked out and all the kids saw it.
“There’s one, I can see it!” Jackson exclaimed and they all shouted. Harry grinned at Jake who grinned back. Hesitantly the spider approached and all the kids were startled to see that the spider appeared to be scared of them.
“Aw, look its scared of us,” Emma said and she walked forward to pet it. Immediately the spider began to purr and all the kids were in love and rushed forward to pet it. Then more spiders came out and soon they were surrounded by dozens of them. DJ, Steve and Charlie kept a careful eye on the kids to make sure that none were carried away by the spiders who were obviously meat-eaters. Harry figured they were safe as long as they stayed together. Alone the spiders would probably attack and devoured them.
“Let’s feed them, can we feed them, Dad?” Cassie asked and he nodded. All the kids opened their containers of meat and soon the children were feeding the spiders raw meat which they gobbled up. Sean climbed up on a spider and got a ride which he loved but when the spider headed for the caves Harry lifted him off. Jake sighed with relief and his love grinned at him.
On the way home all the kids gushed about the spiders, even Megan had loved them.
“Oh, man, that was so cool, our parents are so cool,” Colleen gushed and everyone agreed, petting the furry-purry spiders had been the best thing every. Joon promised them they would come back and do it again.
The next weekend they went to Mykonos and the kids all got to see the waterfall and swim in the lake. There were purple goats to pet and lemons and limes to pick and small mountains to climb and they had a picnic by the shore and Ryan was informed he was conceived on a blanket right over there.
“I could have lived for a thousand years without knowing that, Dad,” he told him and everyone laughed.
Then in January they all went to Hawaii and had fun. Harry let all the boys surf until one o’clock and then when the sharks came batting at the nets all the kids came out of the water and had to swim in the lake by the waterfall. They all protested by secretly they were glad; those big black sharks gave everyone the willies.
At night Jake and Harry would take moonlight walks, holding hands and stopping to kiss. All the kids made fun of them but secretly they were glad to see this kind of behavior, it made them all feel secure. They all knew from talking to their friends that all of their friend’s parents had open marriages and slept around. This was so common that no one minded. Everyone did it, even the old married people like Jenna and Carl and Frank and Fiona had decided that if they were going to live for thirty thousand years, their marriages weren’t going to stand up for that many years. So swapping husbands and wives had become the hip thing and parties had become popular. Gloria and David had the reputation of throwing the best ones.
But all the kids knew that Harry and Jake’s marriage wasn’t like that. There were no overnight adult guests at the Talbert home and there were no plans to have any. They were more in love today than they had been when they had first met and everyone loved that about them. They were never just Harry or just Jake, they were always Jake and Harry or Harry and Jake.
The next year the next set of kids turned fifteen and their parents took them down to the Jeep dealership and they picked out cars and Jeeps and, of course, Harry gave them to them for free and all the kids thought that was the coolest thing. Now they were free to hang out in the clubhouse and they could go shopping in any of Harry’s stores for free. He was their favorite person in town, especially since all the girls had been to him for birth control shots when they were fourteen and fifteen already. None of the adults knew about that until Linda went snooping in her fifteen year-old daughter Maribeth’s computer and read her email intercepting an email from Harry reminding the girl that it was time for her ‘health shot.’ This made her curious and she confronted her daughter and they had a big fight and the girl sneered and told her mother what kind of shot it really was. Linda hit the roof and while her husband didn’t agree with her, Linda got all the other mothers worked up and they called an emergency town meeting.
“Harry, is it true that you’ve been giving the teenage girls birth control shots without their parents permission?” Linda stood up and asked him. Harry shook his head.
“I’m sorry, Linda, but that’s none of your business,” he told her calmly. Jenna stood up.
“Excuse me, did I hear you correctly, did you just say that our teenage daughters were none of our business. Who the hell do you think you are?” she shouted and all the women began shouting at him. Dr. George sighed and stood up.
“Ladies, ladies, please calm down, listen to me,” he shouted and they all calmed down. “Now Harry hasn’t done anything that I wouldn’t have done if they asked me,” he told them. Fiona stood up.
“Birth control for children, are you insane, Dr. George?” she snapped. Dr. George sighed.
“Well, what would you prefer, that I perform an abortion on your fifteen year-old daughter or give her a birth control shot, because I’ve already performed six abortions and I really don’t like to do them,” he snapped and they all looked shocked. Kate stood up.
“Dr. George is correct, as much as we hate to admit it, our children will experiment with sex and there is nothing we can do to prevent that. We cannot lock them up or put chastity belts on them, therefore we can only take precautions and the only precautions we have are condoms and birth control shots and the shot is one hundred percent effective,” she told them. Jenna stood up.
“Fifteen year-old children should not be having sex,” she said and a lot of women nodded. Harry stood up.
“That’s a nice thing to say, Jenna, but how do suggest we stop them?” he asked calmly. “I was having sex at fifteen and there was no way my mothers could have stopped me and there is no way you can stop your children. If they want to experiment they will find a way, you can’t stop them, all you can do is make them as safe as you can and teach them all that you can and make sure that they know as much as you can so that they can make the right decisions and pray that they don’t get hurt. I don’t like giving the shots, really I don’t, but when the girls come to me, I give them because I know with or without the shots, they’re going to have sex and I don’t want to see them coming to Dr. George pregnant and asking him for an abortion. That would be devastating for these girls and would hurt them far more than a simple shot.”
“We should preach abstinence,” Reverend Milo suggested. Reverend Phillip stood up.
“Milo, abstinence has never worked and you know it, I don’t like this anymore than anyone else does but fifteen year-old children have been having sex since the human race has existed and we can’t change hormones. All we can