Changes

By Randy Nesbitt

Senator Jacobs has been groomed for Political Office for his entire life, and is now on the cusp to obtaining the Highest Office, as the Republican Nominee for the Presidency.    But his past is coming back to haunt him at the worst time in his Candidacy.   His son was a part of a foul crime the year before, and now Arnold Bradley is in the position of uncovering the crime and therein destroying Senator Jacobs opportunity.    So Arnold Bradley was going to have to die, as expediently as possible!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Randy Nesbitt
• Release date: Nov 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798989506019

Randy Nesbitt

Randy Nesbitt Sr., was born in Washington, D.C., and committed himself to a life of crime that ended up taking him through some of the roughest prisons in the United States over the last decades of his life.    A journey that only made him stronger, and wiser.    A man who has now written several fictional books for the enjoyment of the general public.

Book preview

Table of Contents

CHANGES

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-Two

Cover Letter

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Arnold Bradley was a social pariah, who always found it difficult to socialize with anyone other than his adopted sister Cheryl, but one day he ends up waking up with a hangover and scratches on his face, to the sight of a sister’s raped body.     A sight that left him mortified over the death, but also with a clear understanding that he couldn't have raped, or killed his adopted sister.  And even though he ends up getting arrested for the crime, he knows of the man who is responsible for killing his sister and vows to get his revenge.

But Arnold doesn’t know that a powerful United States Senator, who is attempting to become the next American president, is lurking in the shadows of his life willing to do whatever he has to do in order to keep Arnold from ever finding out the truth of his Sister’s death, because he knows that the truth about the murder will end his Political Career.

A real page-turner that will keep you entranced, and rooting for Arnold to get his revenge!

Chapter One

It was Christmas morning, and eight-year-old Arnold Bradley found himself sitting on the passenger’s seat of a brand new light green Cadillac sedan with an old lady who had been driving the car.     With the lady stopping the car in front of some red-bricked row houses on one of the numerous streets which were filled with these same types of houses, inside of the city of Washington, D.C.   The ‘old lady’, who asked him to call her Valerie, had just taken him out of a D.C. Orphanage where he had been residing for the last seven years, and he assumed that she was going to be his new mother.

He didn't know where his real mother, or father, were, and he was too young to know the reasons of ‘how’, or ‘why’, his young life had begun inside of an orphanage; as opposed to beginning in a home with at least one parent who really loved him, but the ‘old lady’ had been coming around to the orphanage for the last six months, and taking him on excursions outside of the orphanage at least once a week.  Sometimes they just went for a walk around the corner from the Orphanage to get something to eat, but there were also times when she would take him to the movies, or to an amusement park to ride on the roller coaster.  And he enjoyed being with her because she was always nice to him and treated him way better than the people at the Orphanage had ever treated him.  People who had always turned a blind-eye to the other children in the Orphanage when they picked on him, and called him ‘squirt’, because even though he was eight years old, his physical development resembled the weight, and height, of a child who had just turned five years old.

Come on Arnie.    You're home now.    Valerie had told him, once she opened up the passenger’s side door of the car.

Hey Cutie.     You don't have to be scared of anybody, or anything, ever again in your life.     Okay?  She said to him a few minutes later, after noticing that he was still hesitant about getting out of the car.     Kneeling down into the open space between the car, and the inside of the door then using her right hand to turn his face in her direction so that he could have the opportunity to see the seriousness of her facial expression.

Yes ma'am.     He muttered.     But he still did not unbuckle his seat belt.      And made no move to exit the car.

I know that this is all new to you, and a little bit scary, but I am going to be with you for the rest of your life, okay?      She responded in her attempt to coax him out of the car.

You promise?      He asked her.      Looking at her with the unsure wonderment of a child who already had too many unfulfilled promises visited upon him.      With Valerie trying to figure out why someone would ever want to treat her new son with any form of unkindness.

Cross my heart.     She told him.     Using her right hand to cross her heart on the outside of the zipped up black ski-jacket, which was protecting her from the cold winter's day before she leaned forward to kiss him on his forehead, while reaching into the car and unbuckling his seatbelt.     So, can we go inside now?     Cause it's cold out here little boy!

She shut the car door behind him after he had gotten out of the car, then they made the short walk through about six inches of snow on the sidewalk, with the snow still falling all around them on the cold day.      Quickly making their way towards one of the connecting three story colonial row houses which could be seen on several streets all over the city of Washington, D.C.

Arnold held onto the safety of Valerie's hand as he followed her through the deep snow.     Turning his head inside of the hood of his white ski-jacket as he looked around him at the other houses, and cars, which lined the unfamiliar street of the new strange place.  With the walk being short and only taking them a little time to walk up the ten black iron steps at the front of the house, through a frosted glass fronted wooden door and then into a vestibule which led to another wooden door, where the ‘old lady’ used a set of keys to unlock.     Arnold continued to stand beside her with his right hand, resting tentatively on her left leg.     Continuing to look out of the door behind him at the street that they just left.

Through the glass doors, and inside of the house they went.     Walking into a living room that had thick beige carpet flowing all throughout the room, and even covering the wooden steps that seemed to lead to another floor of the house.

Mommy!     A nine-year-old girl excitedly exclaimed.    Jumping off of one of the two white leather couches which was positioned in the living room, as she ran over to Valerie with her long black hair hanging off to both sides of her head, tied up in pig-tails with yellow ribbons to match the yellow dress she was wearing.     A dress that was just a couple of shades darker than her pale skin.

Have you been good to Brenda while I was gone?     Valerie asked her.     Leaning over to hug the girl to her side, and kiss her on the top of her head.

Yes Mommy.     I'm always good!

Yes you are, my baby.     Yes you are.     She happily responded to the girl.     Hugging her close to the black jeans she was wearing.

Is he my new brother?     The little girl asked.    

Yes Cheryl, he is.     Valerie retorted.     Then leaned over and gently pulled Arnold closer to her, until the two children stood face to face.     With the little girl standing about three, or four, inches taller than Arnold.      "This is Arnold.

Arnold.     This is your new sister Cheryl.

Come on Arnold.    I've been waiting for you to get here so that I can open up my Christmas presents.       She squealed at him in her excitement.      Grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the Christmas tree which had multi-colored Christmas lights wrapped all around it, and was positioned in the living room, right in front of one of the windows.     With Arnold peeking around the side of the white hood that still covered his head at Valerie wondering what the strange little girl was going to do with him, while his little legs slowly followed her.

Well.     Go on.      You have plenty of presents over there that need to be opened too!    She said.     Smiling at him, and waving him away.    

He's adorable!     A young woman with short brown hair who looked to be about twenty years old, said to Valerie while walking out of the kitchen which was connected to the living room.

Yes he is!      She responded.     Her eyes still following Arnold, as she unzipped her ski-jacket and hung it on an oak coat stand by the front door, then took off the red ski-cap that she was wearing which allowed her shoulder length blond hair to flow down to her shoulders, and there the forty-eight year old ex-model stood in a pair of black jeans and a pink long-sleeved turtleneck sweater looking like anything other than an ‘old lady!’

I’d better be getting back home Valerie before my mother starts griping about me messing up her Christmas Day.      Brenda Told her.     Rolling her pretty brown eyes in mock frustration, with a huge smile on her face, then she walked over to the coat stand and took her white trench coat off of it. 

Oh.    Here.   Valerie excitedly said.   Reaching into one of the pockets of her ski-jacket.      I almost forgot.     Merry Christmas!

Wow.   Thank you Valerie!    Brenda replied.    Taking hold of the white envelope that had a red ribbon on it.

All college students can always use a little extra money!

You got that right.    Brenda retorted.    Then hugged Valerie.  Letting her unbuttoned coat engulf her, with her arms going around Valerie’s neck.   The bills just never stop coming.

Tell your mother that I said Merry Christmas also.    Valerie told her after she had opened the front door of her house and allowed Brenda to step out into the vestibule at the front of the house.

Merry Christmas to you also Valerie.      Brenda said to her on her way down the front steps.

Valerie shut the door and locked it behind Brenda then walked over to where Arnold and Cheryl sat on the floor in front of the Christmas tree.        Ripping off the different colored wrapping paper, which contained present after present.

Don’t you think that it is time for you to take that hot coat off Cutie?     She asked him.    At the same time she casually reached down and unzippened the little ski-jacket that she had brought for him months before while she waited for the adoption process to go through, then easily pulled the coat off of his shoulders while he unconsciously pulled his little hands through the sleeves, and went right back to the new laptop computer that was sitting on his lap, causing her to stand behind him for a few more minutes, watching the little boy.    A boy who had reddish hair which came down to his shoulders, with the little white jacket still in her hands.     Wondering if she, and her husband Jonas, would have been able to get a beautiful little boy like him; if Jonas hadn’t gotten himself killed five years before.    A victim of what you would call a car accident, while he was on his way home from his corporate law firm on K street.

Valerie walked over to the coat stand, and hung the little coat on one of the hooks.     Listening to Cheryl’s incessant, excited chatter to Arnold about this present, or another.   With Arnold just continuing to sit crosslegged on the floor, amazed with the computer sitting on his lap, never saying anything in response.

Valerie turned to walk into the kitchen, still smiling to herself, and reached up into one of the gleaming stainless steel glass fronted cabinets to grab a white ceramic mug which had ‘MOM’ emblazoned on it in big red letters then used a light blue folded dishrag to pull the still hot chrome tea kettle off of the spotless stainless steel stove by the handle.    With steam still emanating from the kettle, leaving hot vapors of steam wafting all around her, as she poured some of the hot water into her cup, intent on relaxing with a cup of herbal tea while continuing to listen to the giggles, and the chatter, from her two children; mostly Cheryl.

HER CHILDREN!

Throughout all of her successes in life, becoming a parent had always eluded her and being a parent was something she had dreamed about even when she was just eighteen years old with her modeling career taking her all across the globe.    But she didn’t want to have a child with just any sort of man; so she had waited.  Then she met Jonas ten years ago at a Diplomatic party inside of the U.S. Embassy in Paris while she was still in France to do a photo shoot for a modeling magazine.    And after two weeks of lunches, dinners, and conversations that on many occasions had kept them up until the light of a new day began to shine through the windows of one of their hotel rooms, which was when she had become truly comfortable with him, and decided to let her guard down just enough to allow herself to fall in love with him and they had gotten married six months later.    Putting her modeling career in the past, and moving to Washington, D.C. to begin the next stage of her life.    Becoming a wife;  and hopefully a mother in the near future!

She had loved Jonas, and would have followed him to Tibet if that is where he had wanted to live.    Falling in love with him was the one thing Valerie had never regretted.    She just wished that her body had been able to bring forth a child.

Valerie was depressed for a long time when she first found out about her inability to bring forth a child during one of her fertility examinations while she was attempting to find out why it was becoming so difficult for them to produce children and after the doctor told her that she would never be able to bear children, she began to wonder why she was so inadequate.    Which hurt her psyche greatly after having heard all of the platitudes from men and women alike over the years of how beautiful she was and how great her body looked, and here she was all along travelling throughout life with the defective body that GOD had given to her.  Oh, how she had cursed him.    A GOD that she had grown up loving, and believing in, only to find out that he had never given her the ability to produce the eggs that would give life to another human being.

When she found out eight years ago that she would never have a child through natural childbirth, she tried to overdose on some pills while she was lazily lounging in the bathtub with the enormous white bubbles of her bubble bath surrounding her.     Hoping that the thirty pills which she had taken would be enough to kill her outright, or that they would at least make her lose consciousness just enough to allow her to willingly slip under the water in the bathtub and to drown herself out of a life where she would never be able to have the one thing she wanted more than anything else; a child!

But somehow, Jonas had come home early that day to get some documents which he needed for a court hearing, and found her unconscious body in the bathtub, with him never stopping to think about taking a chance on waiting for an ambulance to arrive at the house, and quickly wrapped her body up in a blanket to keep her warm, before carrying her to his car.     Speeding through the streets of Washington, D.C. in his haste to get her to the Emergency Room of Georgetown University Hospital, where the doctor told him that, if she had not been found when he found her, that she would have died.

When she regained consciousness days later and realizing that she was still living her life inside of a defective body.    The first person she saw was Jonas while he was sitting in a chair next to her hospital bed watching her.    Disheveled.   Looking as if he had been sitting in that same chair for days.

Her eyes had come open and turned to his face, when she saw him peacefully resting in the chair, but she did not realize that Jonas had only been half-asleep, and saw her eyes once they had come open causing him to start to silently cry, and with tears of joy running down the sides of his face he lowered one of the steel guardrail on the side of her bed, and climbed into the bed with her while he was still fully dressed;  sobbing out his relief.   Telling her over and over again not to leave him in this life all by himself and holding her tightly while his body shuddered with the sobs of his happy anguish.  They stayed in that hospital bed like that for hours, with the conflicted man continuously asking her how could she even think about leaving him.    Or telling her that everything would be okay.    That he would make everything right for her, just please don’t try to leave him again.

She already knew that Jonas loved her, but she never really understood the depth of his love for her until that day.    Which only made her feel even more guilty about her attempt to kill herself, while coming to the understanding that her near death experience was something she could never put him through again.

Jonas loved kids, and wanted children also.     Which was one of the reasons why she loved him so much!      He was even the one who came up with the idea about them adopting children but she had kept telling him that she was not ready to discuss that prospect yet.

Three years later they ran out of time on one horrible day, when Jonas just happened to be crossing a street he crossed every day for years while he was on his way to the garage where his navy blue seven series BMW sedan was parked, when a light gray, fast moving GMC van turned the corner with three men inside of it firing a massive amount of bullets at the police car with two police officers inside of it that was right on their bumper, when the van crashed into Jonas, and crushed the life out of the only man she had ever allowed herself to fall in love with.     Then the van kept going down the street after rolling over his body like it was just some piece of insignificant trash while the police car followed right behind the van, never even stopping to look at the life that they had just destroyed.

And now she was worth over seven million dollars.     With two beautiful children that she had been blessed to be able to adopt in the last three years.     Only wishing that God would give her the opportunity to give all those millions of dollars away just so that she could bring Jonas back to share the rest of this life with her and the two children that she considered hers and Jonas's.

It just amazed her that he ended up dying and leaving her, because of a freak accident and here she was now with the boy and the girl Jonas always wanted.      But she made a vow to him in her heart to take care of both of their children and to keep them safe for her, and Jonas, for the rest of their lives.

She continued to think of Jonas, on the greatest Christmas day of her life while she walked out of the kitchen and towards one of the sofas in the living room with her cup of hot tea in her hands, then sat down on one of the plush leather cushions at one end of the sofa and tucked her long legs under her, slowly sipping some of the hot tea while she continued to watch her two giddy children in front of the Christmas tree.

A few minutes later Arnold stood up with the laptop (that was almost as big as his whole midsection) still in his hands, and walked towards her without even taking his eyes off of the screen.     Do you mind if I play with this for a little bit longer?     I promise not to break it.

That's one of your Christmas presents, Cutie.   She replied.  Happily mussing up his hair once he'd gotten closer to the sofa, giving her an expression of shock, with his mouth wide open once he began to understand what she had just said.  It’s mine?     I can keep it?

It’s all yours Arnie.    You can play with it anytime that you want to.     She told him.     Noticing at the same time that he also had an obscure website on the screen of the device already which she had always found it difficult to get too, and he had only been in the house for twenty minutes.     You must have loved playing on the computer when you were in the Orphanage?

This is the first time that I ever touched a computer in my life.     I did see them in some of the offices at the Orphanage, but we were never allowed to go into any of the offices.      And I watched people messing around with them on different television shows whenever I got a chance to watch television.    Arnold told her as he shrugged his little shoulders.

How did you get to this website then?     She asked him out of curiosity while she pointed at the screen.     With him leaning against the sofa with his back against her leg.

I don't know!      I just messed with it for a little while, and it came up.     He responded.     Never thinking of what he had done as being something that was a big deal.

She made no further comment because she already understood that her new little boy was probably an exceptional child, who warranted further testing by individuals who really understood how to test a child's intellect.    With it never being a question in her mind that she was going to enroll him into the same prestigious school that Cheryl was currently enrolled at, which was the most exclusive school in the D.C. Area.     A school where the Ambassadors from foreign lands, Congressman, and even the President of the United States sent their children in order for them to get the quality of education that their parent’s financial status required, and to give their children the opportunity to mingle with the other children from other financially established families from the D.C. area, who they would grow up with in their lives.      It was called ‘networking’ at an early age.

Mommy!     Mommy!     Cheryl yelled out as she finished ripping the rest of the wrapping paper off of another present that she held in her hands.      Jumping up from the carpeted floor by the Christmas tree with a little white box still in her hands as she ran over to the sofa where Arnold and Valerie were.      You got the cell phone for me!     You got it! 

Of course I did.    And you knew that I was going to get it for you, just don't forget what our deal was, okay?     She retorted.     Using her right hand to hold her cup of hot tea up high in the air so that the fast moving little girl did not accidentally knock the cup out of her hands when she ran into her body, hugging her Mother in her excitement as she also brushed up against Arnold.

Aw Mommy!     Do I really have to?

What was our deal, little girl?

Cheryl looked at her mother playfully, as if she was ashamed of what she had to say.     That I have to text you between every class, and that I have to call you at lunch time, and when school lets out too.

Arnold started to giggle as he continued to play with his computer with childlike glee.     Thinking that his new sister was being forced to do something she really didn't want to do.

And what are you laughing at Cutie?     Valerie asked him.     Using the index finger on her left hand to jab him playfully on his left side.     Making him lean to the right a little bit more while he attempted to get away from her fingers.      If you would have continued to look through the rest of your presents, you would have noticed that you have a phone also.

But, I didn't do anything!

You didn't have to do anything, little boy!    You are not being punished, I'm just asking that the both of you text me at different times during the day, so that I won't be worried about my children.    That's not too much to ask; is it?      She asked him while she gently pulled him closer to her and Cheryl.     With Cheryl stepping back just a little bit away from the couch, so that Valerie could pull Arnold closer to her.

No ma'am.     He responded.     Looking at her as he held the computer down by the side of his body with his right hand.

You see.     The both of you have got to understand that you are now part of a family, and anytime that you are away from me I'm going to be worried.       So text me once in awhile to let me know that you are okay.

Yes ma'am.

Is that alright with you?      She asked him before she began to tickle him under his left arm.

Yes ma'am!      Yes ma'am!     He responded with giggling guffaws of laughter.     Doing his best to get away from her murderous fingers, with Cheryl playfully blocking him on his right side, so that he couldn't get away from Valerie then began to join in on the fun by tickling him all over his midsection.      Making him laugh, and giggle, until tears of laughter began to roll down his face, with Arnold slumping down on the floor, while doing his best to get away from both of them.

Good.     Now that we have gotten that settled.     Don't you want to see what your bedroom looks like?      The smiling woman asked him.     Leaning over the side of the couch, and lovingly ran her fingers through the hair on her son's head.     With him still lying on the carpet laughing.

I have my own bedroom?      He asked her in amazement once he had finally gotten himself back together and began to stand back up next to the sofa, close to Valerie.      Knowing that he had always dreamed of having his own bedroom.      Some place that he could go without having to share it with anybody else.

Of course you do!      Cheryl has her own bedroom.     I have my own bedroom.      And you have your own bedroom also.

Come on.     I'll show you where your bedroom is.     Cheryl offered.     Then she began to pull him away from the sofa by his long-sleeved blue button-down shirt.

Up the carpeted stairs the two children ran.     With the happiness of two children who had no concerns in their young lives, while Arnold used his right arm to clasp his precious computer to his side.     With Cheryl pulling him up the stairs by his left hand; talking the whole way then stopped in front of one of the rooms on the top floor, with its door already standing open showing him a bedroom that he would have dreamed of, if he had ever thought something of that magnitude could ever even exist for him.      A bedroom with one single bed in it, that had a dark brown comforter on it which almost hung down to the bare dark brown wooden floor inside of the room.     With two huge pillows on it, that were almost as big as Arnold's whole body was.

There was a white wooden dresser on one side of the room with a twenty-five inch silver flatscreen television sitting in the middle of it, with a matching white wooden desk sitting in one of the corners of the room with about ten hardback, and softback, books stacked neatly on top of it.      With a white wooden chair neatly pushed under the desk.

Cheryl led him into the room, talking the whole way.      Stopping in front of a closed wooden door inside of the room which she opened while she and Arnold stood in front of it.    And this is your closet Arnold.     Mommy has already put some of the clothes in it that she brought for you.     I'll help you bring the rest of your stuff up here whenever you want to.

All of the stuff is mine’s, Cheryl?     He asked her in amazement.     Looking in the closet at all of the clothes already hanging inside of it.      With ten pairs of tennis shoes, and hard soled shoes, neatly placed on the floor.

Yep Arnie.     Everything in this room is all for you!

Everything in this whole room is mine's?      And I don't have to share my stuff with anybody?     Arnold asked.      Quickly riffing questions off at her while he turned around looking at his bedroom.      Attempting to understand why Valerie would have the desire to treat him as good as she had been treating him.

Cheryl moved the stand directly in front of Arnold, and placed her right hand on his left shoulder.     You are home now Arnie.     Mommy did these things for you because she loves you.

But.     But, I'm only adopted!

Arnie.     I'm adopted too!    Cheryl told him.     Smiling at him.      "And for the two years that I've lived in this house, Mommy has treated me just like a child she has given birth to.       And I know that she loves me too! 

You’re adopted too?     Arnold gasped out in disbelief.     But you call her Mommy, and I call her Valerie.

Yep.    I'm adopted too Arnold!      And I call her Mommy because I love her, and in my heart, she is my mother.     She explained to him.    Happy to be able to let him see how she really felt about the woman who he knew by the name of Valerie.     I never even knew who my mother was before Valerie walked into my life.     That was when she showed me how a mother was supposed to be.     She treats me wonderfully, and deserves for me to show her the love that I feel for her.

But nobody ever wanted me before.      An uncomfortable Arnold muttered out, with downcast eyes pointed at the wooden floor.

Well that woman downstairs wants you to be her son.     Cheryl told him.      Using her right hand to lift his chin up until their eyes met, as if she was now an adult, who had reached the age of enlightenment.    And this girl that is standing right here in front of you, wants you to be her little brother.      Is that alright with you?

Yes.     Arnold happily responded as he gleefully nodded his head.      With a huge smile beginning to light up his whole face.     I would like that a whole lot!

Well I have some more presents to open so I'm going back downstairs!     Cheryl said to him.     Skipping across the wooden floor of Arnold's bedroom with child-like haste until she stood smiling back at him in the middle of the doorway to his bedroom.     Happy with the fact that she now had a little brother to share her new life with.      Are you coming?

Can I stay up here for a few more minutes, and look around my bedroom?

Sure you can.     Just don't forget that you still have Christmas presents to open down there also.       She told him.      Waving at him one last time before she turned away, and ran down the steps knowing that this was going to be the best Christmas of her lifetime.  Arnold continued to stand in front of the closet looking inside of it at the myriad of clothes that had been placed inside of it for him.     And periodically turned around to look at the bed and the rest of the things in the room with his mouth wide open in awe.      Still finding it hard to believe everything in the bedroom was his.

Arnold’s face lit up with a smile that only a child's face could bring forth before he ran across the room, and climbed onto the bed; jumping up and down on it.      Holding the closed laptop in both of his hands over the top of his head, with a look of pure elation on his face.     Finally understanding that all of the things in the room were meant to belong to him and that he had a place, and someone, he really belonged to.

He fell flat on his back on the bed with one of the huge pillows on the bed engulfing his little head, while he used both of his hands to clasp the computer tightly to his body.     Thanking God for bringing some people into his life who wanted only to love him.

After lying on the bed for a few more minutes, and took his time to enjoy the softest mattress that he had been blessed with feeling in his short life, he lay his laptop down on it and climbed off of the bed, running out of the bedroom as quickly as his little legs could take him.     Hurrying down the steps, until he came back into the living room where he saw Valerie and Cheryl sitting on the carpet next to the Christmas tree giggling and laughing, while Valerie hugged Cheryl close to her body with her left arm.

Arnold walked across the carpet and came up behind them until he was close enough to Valerie to brush her right shoulder with his left hand.      Trying to get her attention.     Valerie.     Thank you for getting me all of this stuff, and giving me this nice place to live.     When I get big, I am going to get you something nice too!

Arnie.     You will never be able to get me any sort of present which is more precious to me than the one you have given me today.  The elated woman responded before she pulled him onto her lap, with his back pressed against her breast.     Kissing the top of his head, and smelling the fragrance of his hair as she hugged her new son tightly to her body.

But.      I didn't get you anything!     The confused little boy unsurely answered.     Attempting to understand in his child-like innocence, of what she possibly could be thinking that he had given her.

Oh.     But you did!     You gave me you!     No amount of money will ever be able to buy me any present that will mean more to me than you do!     She told him.    With Cheryl leaning away from the two of them on crossed legs while she smiled at the tranquil scene which was playing out in front of her.     Enjoying the opportunity to be able to watch something that she always wanted to have an opportunity to see, the happy interaction of her family members.

Getting a chance to see the genuine look of love coming from the lady she had grown to love no less than she would have loved a biological mother, and a boy who was only a year younger than she herself was.  A boy she had met only an hour ago;  whom she already considered her little brother and believed in her heart that life could never get any better than her life was on that day.     With the thought coming into her young mind on that cold winter's day, probably being the truest thing that she had ever had an opportunity to feel.     Because even though they continued along into the future for many years as a happy family.      Just the three of them against all of the hatefulness of the outside world.     Valerie ended up developing breast cancer many years later, and died two months after Cheryl's nineteenth birthday.

Valerie was fifty-eight years old at the time of her death.     But she had been an avid runner, who was known to run continuously for at least two hours, six days every week, while even coming in second at the Boston Marathon the year before her death, and had even been a vegetarian for the last five years of her life.      But none of this had saved her from the horrible monster known as breast cancer.      Cancer that had only been detected by her physician during an annual check-up two months prior to her death, with the disease being too ingrained, and too far along, for even the best of medical care to destroy.  Cheryl was just finishing her first year of college at Georgetown University, where she was studying for her Law Degree when all of this transpired.     The death of the only parent she had ever known.      One of only two people that she had ever even allowed herself to grow to love;  and her friend.

The turmoil in their lives was so tumultuous at the time, that Cheryl never really grasped which one of them had taken their mother's death the hardest, because Arnold was probably more inconsolable than she was.      Crying for days, as he locked himself away in his room with Cheryl doing her best to comfort her little brother.      But at the same time, she had wished that there was someone around who could console her also!

At the time of Valerie's death, they had been suffering through the notorious Washington, D.C. heat waves of summer.     Right after Arnold had graduated from high school with the intentions of beginning his first semester at Virginia Tech that next September with thoughts in his mind of striving to get his Degree in Computer Science, so he did get a little bit more time than Cheryl did to adjust to his new life without the lady he had grown over the years to call ‘Mom’ instead of Valerie.

If it wasn't for Valerie begging the both of them to go to college; neither one of them would have been able to.     They would have just wallowed in their own sorrow, and locked themselves up in their house until some unknown form of destruction had been given a chance to come around the corner of life to take the both of them to join their mother in the afterlife.

But life does heal many wounds we humans suffer through and both Arnold and Cheryl continued along with the educational plans at their chosen colleges in their quest for the college educations that Valerie had provided for them before her death.      Honoring the promises they had made to their mother before her death; and continued on with their promising young lives.

*     *      * 

Chapter Two

ONE YEAR LATER, life found Cheryl and Arnold still living in the red brick colonial row house on eighteenth street in northwest Washington, D.C., right off of Dupont Circle, engrossed in their college studies.     Happy with the directions their lives were headed in, but still missing the one person who they could never forget; their Mother!

Valerie made certain her two children were taken care of in her will before the end of her life had come.     Establishing trust funds in the amount of three million dollars for each one of them which would be turned over to them by Valerie's lawyer when each one of them turned twenty-one years old.     With the four million dollars from her life insurance policy being turned over to them during that same year also.  Then she sold the house to her children for one dollar each.    Making them co-owners of the house before she died, in order to keep the house from being held up in Probate Court, and some unforeseen complication occurring which would cause Cheryl and Arnold to lose the house they grew up in.     Then she put one million dollars, a piece, in two separate bank accounts for each one of them to be used to pay for their college educations.      With all of the things that she had done for them financially before her death, making the monetary transaction from her to them effortless.    But the grief in their hearts that they had been feeling over their mother's death, only had one cure:   pain and time!

So they poured themselves into their studies.      With Arnold moving down to the Blacksburg Virginia Campus of Virginia Tech during the weekdays.      Always driving his three-year-old dark green Mini-Cooper, with yellow racing stripes Valerie brought for him on his seventeenth birthday back to D.C.; and home every weekend.      Knowing that his sister Cheryl needed him around, just like he needed her around him.

And through all of this, his first year at Virginia Tech had been great for him, educationally.      He was just a phenomenal student!      Straight A’s every semester.       And he had already taken enough of the credits required for him to obtain the Associate's Degree component of his college education, with all of his Professors loving the focus of the young man in his quest to obtain his degree in Computer Science.     He was just an educational sponge and he had a natural aptitude for anything which involved computers.

His knowledge of computers from either side of the computer spectrum was just amazing.     It didn't matter if he was learning about the software, or the hardware, side of computer technologies, he was just the best student that his Professors had ever had the opportunity to observe, and two of his Professors had been hired away from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, so this was high praise.

Even though he was amazing with computers, and educating himself, he was just the opposite when it came to his interactions with other people.     With his shyness pushing him further and further into the realms of anti-social behavior, which bordered on an unvarnished hatred for other human beings, and in his mind he still saw himself as a little boy from the Orphanage that the other kids called ‘squirt.’    Who would always just pick on him for no reason at all, so he basically grew up embracing his anti-social behavior, and would rarely even end up holding any form of a conversation with anyone.  Not understanding how to overcome his shy and introverted ways, or how he could just have fun around other people.     With his sister Cheryl being the only person he ever became animated around.     His sister was the only one who could make him smile, and Cheryl was the only person that he had any overt desires to even want to hold any form of a conversation with.

Arnold was still small in stature.     Which had always made him wonder what his mother and father looked like, and were they small just like he was, because at nineteen years old, he was still only five foot two inches tall; weighing one hundred thirty pounds.      With him being the epitome of everything that you had ever heard about a person who was been classified as being a nerd!      With him only missing the black plastic glasses with the white tape in the middle which was holding them together, and the pocket protector which was filled with a myriad of pens and pencils in his shirt pocket.

Having grown into a handsome young man with clear skin, and still hadn't had a reason to shave.     He still had shoulder length reddish blonde hair and many times when he was walking across campus on his way to one of his classes, some of the other male students on campus would come up behind him thinking that he was a woman, until they moved in front of him to see his face.

So instead of being called ‘squirt’ now he was being called ‘homo’, and ‘fag!’   And many times when he was approached by these people,