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

buying up all the money, to force me to use the gold in the vault as collateral to print more money and then they’ll come back and demand their gold back and when I don’t have it, they’ll all laugh,” he informed him. Brian shook his head.
“So what are you going to do, boss?” he asked. Harry grinned.
“I’m going to use my forty-million I’ve got at home to print more money and let them try to buy all of that,” he said. Brian laughed.
“There’s no way they have forty million,” he declared.
So Harry went home and got forty million and Steve and DJ helped him print more money and make more coins. They then announced the printing of the money to everyone and the addition of forty million dollars to the economy of Edenville. Everyone gasped when they realized how rich Harry was and how he practically owned the town. And when they read that he had used his own money and not the money from the bank vault they were frustrated.
“But he’s got to be broke now, he only had forty million,” Violet gushed and they all laughed. Jake shook his head. He loved his new life, but he just didn’t understand why they all hated Harry so much. But they did try to keep him out of the loop as much as possible and didn’t rant against his former husband or make homophobic comments when he was around. They knew not to push it too much. They didn’t want to lose their black stud or make him unhappy.
The Halloween party came and Adam brought the bar and Sean and Ryan brought the sodas and everyone dressed up and had a great time. Harry flew to Savannah and camped out and everyone sighed and missed him. Jake and Violet dressed up as a sultan and his harem girl and everyone gushed at their costumes which they purchased at an Alterian shop. The alterians didn’t understand Halloween but the kids loved the dressing up and getting the candy and they embraced the holiday as they did all of the human customs.
“Harry didn’t come?” Kate asked her grandchildren who all shook their heads.
“We called but he ran away to Savannah as usual,” Emma told her. She sighed.
“He’s never going to get his life back as long as he runs away and hides from everyone,” she complained as she surveyed the crowd. Her eyes found Jake and the other Farm One crowd and she frowned.
“Your father looks happy,” she observed. Cassie laughed.
“He’s drunk already, he’s drinking scotch with Max and Charles and smoking those nasty cigars,” she said and Kate frowned.
“Good, when they all get lung cancer my Henry can heal them,” she said with satisfaction. All the kids laughed.
Thanksgiving came much to everyone’s disappointment Harry ran off again and even phone calls from his kids couldn’t bring him back.
“We haven’t eaten together as a family in years, you kids all eat with your friends so don’t play the eating as a family card on me, just eat with your friends as you always do and I’ll eat with Bo and Gertie and I’ll be fine. I don’t feel like a big community affair this year, so don’t push it or you’ll annoy me,” he said firmly. Jackson sighed.
“You know, Harry, this running away to Savannah routine you’ve got going on is beginning to annoy the hell out of us,” he told him. Harry laughed.
“So who the hell are you kids to tell me how to live my life,” he told them. “I don’t tell you how to live your life so stay out of mine, I’ve always wanted to explore Savannah and that’s what I’m doing.” They all sighed.
“But holidays are for families,” Emma protested. Harry sighed.
“We’ve had ninety some holidays together and we’ll have thirty thousand more, skipping this one isn’t a big deal and you know it, besides not everyone is going to show up at the Center anyway. They don’t do that anymore and none of you do anymore either, so why make a big fuss about it this year, just because I’m divorced? That’s a silly reason, I’m fine,” he told them firmly and he hung up on them. Danny sighed.
“That’s the trouble, Dad, you’re not fine,” he whispered. But what could he do; what could any of them do, Harry was all the way in Savannah and their helos didn’t have the range to make it that far. Only the Engineering ship could travel there and Harry had the only one. He could just fly away and there was nothing they could do to stop him.
Then Christmas came and it was the same thing, but this time he did it one step better. He turned off all of his phones and refused to talk with them. He left a message for them all and stayed off line until January when he flew back. They were all furious with him and rushed over to yell at him but when they took one look at his weary haunted face they didn’t have the heart to yell and just hugged him instead.
“Don’t ever turn off you phone again, Harry, you scared the hell out of us,” Jackson admonished him gently. Harry nodded and accepted the hot cocoa made with green milk Emma handed him. He looked like he had lost twenty pounds and his face was all sharp angles. He hadn’t shaved in weeks and looked terrible. He sipped the cocoa and smiled.
“You need a haircut,” Adam told him and picked up the scraggly hair that hung past his shoulder blade. Harry shrugged.
“I’ll go to the barber tomorrow, right now I need some sleep, I haven’t been sleeping so good,” he said. They all sighed.
“Have you been eating, you’ve lost too much weight, let me fix you some eggs,” Danny offered. Harry shook his head.
“Eggs make me nauseous, maybe I’ll heat up some soup,” he said. The girls stood up.
“We’ll heat you up some,” Cassie offered and they rushed to the kitchen. They looked amazed at the pantry. No spaghetti sauce, no tomato soup, nothing like usual. They found some chicken noodle soup from a can and heated that up with some crackers and brought that out. Ryan and Sean were telling their dad about the wild New Year Eve party they had gone to. Harry was laughing.
“I hope you two boys had more sense to carry booze over to Medford after midnight on Sunday morning,” he said and they looked sheepish. Harry shook his head.
“Those alterians are really serious about their liquor laws and if you get caught with an open bottle in Medford after midnight on a Sunday then you’re going to jail for a year, human or not. That’s part of the treaty between the two species, they have agreed to obey our laws when they’re in out city and we’ve agreed to obey their laws when we’re in their city and if they catch you, you’re in jail,” he informed them. Jackson grinned at his brothers.
“You two idiots are going to love alterian jail, I’ve heard they’re very nice,” he teased. Ryan threw a pillow at him. The girls brought the soup out and stopped a major fight. They all watched Harry carefully and made sure he ate all of the soup and most of the crackers and then tucked him into bed. The boys feed the dogs and Danny promised to milk the cow in the morning so he could sleep in. Harry sighed.
“I’m sorry to be such a pain in the ass, Danny,” he apologized. Danny grinned and kissed his forehead.
“You’re not a pain in the ass, Harry, I love you,” he whispered and turned out the light on his way out. All the kids exchanged worried looks as they left.
“Well, the first holiday without Jake is going to be the hardest,” Emma reasoned and they all nodded.
“Ninety-nine years is a long time to love just one person,” Adam declared and they all agreed that was a long time.
“He’ll get better, he just needs a little more time, it’s only been ten months,” Cassie said and they all nodded.
Harry woke up the next morning and for a moment didn’t know where he was, the bedroom was so strange and then he remembered and cried a little. Then he got up and made some French toast for breakfast and looked out at the snow.
“And I can’t even go to Hawaii to get away from it because that fucking Violet has my beach house,” he swore to the dogs who wagged their tails. He decided to spend a few days making spaghetti sauce instead and made that, tomato soup, chicken noodle soup, turkey soup, potato soup with ham, cream of every kind of soup he could think of and cooked up a storm. The only thing he couldn’t make was banana nut bread, he couldn’t face that alone. He did fly to Hawaii, to the other side and picked mangos and other fruit and sliced and canned them for the summer. When his pantry shelves were fully stocked and his appetite better he felt better and butchered two pigs.
Then he spent the rest of the winter playing video games and watching movies on the view screen, eating popcorn and just hanging around. When everyone announced they were almost out of coffee, he gathered up a crew of kids and took them over to Savannah to pick some and some tea. Then he took them to the nut oasis and they gathered nuts and he made a batch of peanut butter and left that at the Mill for everyone to split. He took a whole case for himself figuring he deserved it for doing all the work.
Then March came and it was the hundredth anniversary of their wakeup and arrival on the planet and they planned a big celebration. They wanted Harry to help plan the party because he always organized the best parties but he informed them he was going to be too busy with his travel show. So all of the women from Farm One took charge and planned it. They charged everyone five hundred dollars and hired an alterian caterer and band tried to do it as cheaply as possible so they could split the money left over and keep it for themselves.
Harry was supposed to give the speech as usual but he got all dressed up in his tux and then panicked at the thought of facing all those people and Jake and flew off in the Elizabeth and went instead to Mykonos to sit on the shore and gaze at the six waterfalls and relieve the whole experience by himself. He cried when he got to the part where he and Jake shook hands and sparks flew and they fell in love. He cried so hard he threw up and fell asleep with his face in the sand while his dogs huddled close to him to keep him warm.
“Where’s Harry, this party blows,” Victor Warner exclaimed as he surveyed the crappy food and water-down drinks. All the kids agreed.
“We paid five hundred dollars for this crap, I bet Linda and the other women bought this cheap shit and kept the money for themselves,” Eric Jones said and everyone glared at the group of women who