Family Jewels

By Emery C. Walters

There is more to this dysfunctional family than meets the eye. Boy meets boy; girl meets girl in transition, and Dad has been up to no good.

Why did Mom abandon them all those years ago? Where did the cat go, and why does Dad have handcuffs hidden in his room? Fear is a constant companion in the lives of these youngsters, and it’s bound to reach a breaking point.

Maybe a party would help. Sure -- it’s Father’s Day. Let’s invite another dysfunctional family of big egos to celebrate with Dad and plan a family cleansing accident.

Can love and happiness grow out of such a scenario, even when the kids are the object of intended murder? Sit around a table groaning with the weight of good food and watch this mystery play out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Nov 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781611526721

Emery C. Walters

Emery C. Walters was born Carol Forde, a name he soon knew didn’t fit the boy he was inside. Transition was unknown back then, so he married and then bore and raised four children. When his youngest child, his gay son, left home, Emery told Carol that she had to step aside, and he fully transitioned from female to male in 2001.

Book preview

Family Jewels

By Emery C. Walters

Published by Queerteen Press at Smashwords

Visit queerteen-press.com for more information.

Copyright 2014 Emery C. Walters

ISBN 9781611526721

* * * *

Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America. Queerteen Press is an imprint of JMS Books LLC.

* * * *

Family Jewels

By Emery C. Walters

Chapter 1

Two more days until Father’s Day, well, one and a few minutes. Around this house it’s always Father’s day. We need a day when it isn’t his. He’s not physically abusive, don’t think I’m saying that, he just is, is—has to be—everything. You can’t have an idea unless he tells you to have it. You can’t want to go somewhere unless he’s already been there and then he’ll tell you it’s not worth it. And he has to be right. It’s—it’s deadening. And it’s all I have.

Mom gave up a long time ago. I barely even remember her. Her name was Ruby, after her grandmother. She didn’t like having such an old-fashioned name. She was thin and pretty and smelled good, except when she’d light up one of her ‘funny cigarettes’ as she called them. Took me years to figure out she was smoking dope. I dunno, I was only ten when she left and I’m seventeen now, well, tomorrow. Only one more year and then I am out of this stinking hellhole. Wow, I didn’t see all that coming. I mean I know I’m full of resentment and poison, but I thought I had it locked up and hidden. I have to. If Dad knew how I felt, he’d ‘retrain me’.

Like I said, he doesn’t beat us. There’s me, Nick, and my sister Crystal, who is fifteen. She doesn’t like her name either and goes by Chris. She’s is the only reason I haven’t left—run away—moved out—before. And I’m going to feel like a rat when I do go. If I make it till then, whenever it is. If I go now, Dad will call the police and report me as a runaway—again. The last time he did that I’d fallen asleep at a friend’s house and nobody let him know. It was an honest mistake, but I knew better than to let it happen again. Anyhow I couldn’t, at least not for the three months he grounded me.

I didn’t mean for this to be such a downer. I hope Chris understands. But I have to get out of here when the time comes.

No, he doesn’t beat us. It’s not like that. He’s a bit inappropriate and I always feel like he’s going to come into my room some night, but he hasn’t yet. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a guy or if he’s just not into ‘that’, thank God.

I’ve even asked Chris if he’s done anything to her, but she said no. I have no reason not to believe her. I know she’d tell me, I mean, I think she would, wouldn’t she? I’d tell if he did anything to me. Though a couple of years ago when he punished me by locking me in the basement overnight, I told our principal the next day, he called the police and I told them, then they called Dad in and he told them ‘his side’ and then everyone just stood around looking at me with pity. Not because of what had happened, but because of my ‘overactive imagination’ and, well, crap. They didn’t believe me; they believed him. Remembering that is making me cry. I guess I wouldn’t tell anyone if he did anything to me after that fiasco. That was so humiliating.

Sometimes I wonder if Mom isn’t still here, like, buried under her prize rose bushes or something. What kind of mother just wanders off and leaves her two half-grown children like that? Well yeah she smoked dope but I would too if I had to live with Dad—oh wait, I do. But I can’t afford dope and anyhow dope is for dopes. Besides, I tried it once and had a sinus headache that I swear lasted for two weeks. So don’t give me credit.

Well it’s officially the day before Father’s Day as it just turned