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

in question. They both grinned.
“Harry’s show runs every Tuesday and Friday at ten in the morning and then again at nine in the evening and everyone loves the show, they keep asking for more and we have to keep repeating them, he’s so popular,” Steve informed them. DJ laughed.
“He’s been getting more email than any of our shows and even Gertie and Bo get mail,” he said and they all laughed.
“Gertie and Bo are on your show?” Jan asked with a grin. Harry smiled.
“Yep and Gertie barks on cue,” he informed them and they all looked amazed.
“How on earth do you get her to do that?” Kathleen asked. Harry shook his head.
“That’s a secret and if I told you then I’d have to kill you,” he declared sounding a lot like their old Harry and they all laughed with relief. Harry went back to picking tomatoes and wanted to die. He wanted Jake so badly he ached. Jake would have loved his travel show and he could have held the camera and helped him with it, what a fun time they could have had doing it. Tears ran down his face but he turned it so they wouldn’t see.
Harry took his tomatoes home and just tossed them into his metal boxes. He figured he probably wouldn’t make the effort to make sauce or soup this year and just eat them plain or on salads or stews or whatever. Everything just took too much effort these days, he felt like all of his bones weighed three times as much as they should. The only time he escaped was when he was filming something interesting to show people, and then he forgot about himself and could concentrate on what he was seeing.
Harry decided to show everyone the furry-purry spiders next and had to butcher a cow to get enough meat. He hated the idea of doing it alone but then he hated the idea of doing it with someone more so he flew a helo out to the field and picked up a cow and flew it back late one night when everyone was inside and wouldn’t see him. Then he said the prayer, killed the poor beast and butchered the whole thing entirely by himself. It took him eight hours and he was exhausted by the time he was through. He took a lot of meat chunks in a bin for the spiders and then two bins of meat home for himself along with the usual pastrami and corned beef and left the rest for someone else. When he got home he sent an email to the farm telling them about the meat and saying it was up for grabs to whoever wanted it. Then he took a shower and went to bed. The doorbell woke him up around ten and pissed as hell he opened the door to a messenger.
“Are you Harry Talbert?” the man asked cheerfully. Harry nodded and then signed for a flat white box. Then the man left and he closed the door. Curious he opened the box to a framed wedding picture of Jake and Violet, a beautiful picture, but one he really didn’t need or want to see. She was stunning and he was as handsome as he had been the day he had married Harry and seeing him like this broke Harry’s heart all over again. Harry broke into tears, great big sobs and held the picture to his chest and fell to his knees. If Violet could have seen him, she would have danced around him with joy. Both dogs whined and licked his face. Harry just continued to cry and hold the picture. Then he crawled back into bed and stared off into space until he fell back asleep. Danny found him there hours later with a tear-stained face, still clutching the framed picture.
“That fucking cunt,” he spat and gently took the picture from his dad’s hands. Harry woke up and looked at him.
“He’s not coming back, he married her and he’s never coming home to me Danny, I’ve lost him forever, I want to die, please let me die,” he whispered. Danny sat on the bed and hugged him. He rocked him as he would a small child.
“Its okay, Dad, its going to be okay,” he whispered and brushed the hair from Harry’s face and kissed his cheek. “It’s going to be okay.” Harry nodded and closed his eyes.
“Have you eaten today, Dad?” Danny asked softly. Harry shook his head.
“I’m not hungry,” he whined. Danny laughed and he got up.
“You wait here, I’ll fix you some scrambled eggs and toast, you like that,” he said. Harry sighed and decided he might as well eat them; the kid won’t leave until he did. So he got up and washed his face, staring at the horrible face that stared back at him and then went into the kitchen and sat at the table and watched his son cook for him. The dogs came in and sat at his feet. He looked at them and then looked at the clock.
“Can you feed the guys too, I must have slept all day,” he asked and Danny nodded. He put eggs made with ham and cheese in front of him with toast and then went to feed the dogs. When he returned Harry was still staring at his food and he sighed and poured him a glass of milk and then handed him a fork.
“Eat or I’ll have to feed you and you probably won’t like that,” he said firmly. Harry laughed and began to eat. Once he started, he realized that he was indeed hungry so he ate it all, plus the toast and two glasses of milk but then he was stuffed and he refused the donuts his son offered to run and pick up.
“Oh, God, no, Danny, I couldn’t eat another bite, I’m stuffed,” he said and grinned. Danny grinned, and then he looked at the white box the picture had come in and read the return address.
“Fucking bitch, I should go over there and slap her silly,” he declared and Harry grinned again. Then he sighed.
“She’d love that, just like she’d love to hear I fell apart from seeing the damned thing, don’t you tell a soul about finding me like this,” he wagged a finger at his son who nodded. “Now thanks for feeding me but I’m tired as hell and going back to bed, so clean up and get out of here,” Harry said and kissed him and walked back to the bedroom. At the doorway he paused.
“Thank you, Danny,” he said softly and left. Danny smiled and cleaned up and took the picture with him. But he did tell all of his siblings about what he found that night and the girls cried and all the men wanted to slap Violet and Jake for hurting Harry more than they had to.
“Jake probably didn’t know she sent it,” Emma defended her dad. Sean snorted.
“Old Jake thinks he and Harry should be good buddies and hang out, get real, he’s not living in reality these days, he’s been going to Gloria’s sex parties and slipping his dick into everyone that stands still long enough for him to do it,” he said and everyone laughed.
“That’s an image I didn’t need,” Cassie retorted and they grinned.
“Well, Harry will get over him eventually, he’s just going to need a little time that’s all, it’ll be hard but he’ll get over Jake and find someone new to love or at least to make love to and then he’ll move on with his life,” Jackson said reasonably. They all nodded except for Danny who didn’t think it was going to be that easy but he didn’t say anything, they didn’t see their dad the way he had or hear his anguished cries. He knew one thing, he wasn’t going over to Violet and Jake’s this week for dinner with the rest of them, he couldn’t look that bitch in the face after what she did to Harry. Not without saying something so it was better to stay away and say nothing.
Harry woke up feeling sluggish and slow like he had a terrible disease or was very old, that’s how he felt, very old. He sighed and took a long hot shower but that didn’t make him feel any better. It took him forever to load the ship for his trip and then put on the meat and remember the dogs but they jumped enthusiastically into the Elizabeth so he tried to put on a good show for them.
“Okay, guys, off we go to see the furry-purry spiders,” he spoke as cheerfully as he could and Harry lifted off. He found a good camp site far enough from the spiders so they couldn’t be tempted to show up and wander off with one of his dogs and put up a security shield just in case they did. They he lifted the bin of meat and set off.
“Hello, this is Harry with Gertie and Bo from Savannah and today we’re off to see the amazing furry-purry spiders of Savannah, say hello Gertie,” he said and Gertie of course barked. “Bo is the strong silent type,” Harry declared and hugged them.
“Now the spiders are quite large so don’t be afraid when you first see them and they’re meat eaters so don’t ever approach them by yourself because they’re sure to carry you off to their caves and eat you later,” he teased. “Here’s one now, lets put the camera over there. See him, oh, he’s going to be shy, now, there he is, he’s coming over, oh hello little fellow, I’m going to pet him, hear his purr. Now here comes more, they can smell the meat. Now I’m going to start feeding them. Gertie, you and Bo, go over there.” The dogs both obeyed him and ran off camera and sat away, they were scared of that many spiders.
“Now look at all of them, aren’t they magnificent, they’re quite spectacular, look at them attack the meat, they love raw beef the best. Hear them purr, that’s marvelous, now I’m taking the camera right up to the caves to get a peek inside, I hope they don’t attack me. See the webs, aren’t they beautiful, oh, look, that one doesn’t look too friendly, I’d better back off with the camera.” Harry brought the camera back to the crowd.
“Okay, the meats all gone, now its time to leave, they’re in a sort of feeding frenzy here and I don’t want to be their next meal so see you next time, this is Harry with Bo and Gertie, say goodbye Gertie.” Gertie barked and the film ran out. Harry grinned and lifted his vegetable bin and his dogs and ran for the ship and lifted off before the spiders realized he was alone and therefore edible.
The next thing Harry showed them was all of the gemstones just lying in the valley floor between the desert and the mountain range and he got a big laugh out of that and picked one up and faced the camera.
“When we were kids a bunch of us found these color rocks and asked me if I thought they were diamonds, rubies, sapphires, topazes and emeralds and I said no, I said they were just colored rocks,” he said with a