'They' say it is better to have loved and lost than it is to have never loved at all. But what happens when your lost love returns to your life nine years after fate tore the two of you apart?
They' say it is better to have loved and lost than it is to have never loved at all. But what happens when your lost love returns to your life nine years after fate tore the two of you apart? This is just the situation that Andrew Carver has found himself in. He has returned to the last place that he can remember feeling truly happy, if only for a short time. He had just run away from an abusive relationship and possibly a murder charge. The whole incident was still blurry in his mind. People say that when something goes wrong they see it all happening in slow motion right before their eyes. But Andrew Carver, being born blind, could only remember standing there, the feeling of the gun in his hand going off, followed by the sounds of breaking furniture. He knew he had to leave, had to go, somewhere... but where could he go?
Suddenly, shaken from his daze by a careless worker in a hurry, he remembered that he wasn't standing in that shattered apartment in Alexandria he was in Alabama, standing in the middle of the bread aisle of a supermarket that he remembered from his childhood. That got him thinking about when he was living in this town as a child, all the wonderful things that happened as well as a few not-so-wonderful things, such as his first 'boyfriend' Dusty Drake. It was about that time that he heard "'Drake, phone call. And make it quick, you already left early yesterday so unless the hospital is involved you need to make up for the time you lost."' called out, and he was almost knocked over by a large store-worker rushing to answer the boss that had pulled his attention away.
As the two bodies collided and fell to the floor the store worker caught the other man as he fell, and twisted so that he took the brunt of the fall, as they were laying there on the floor the store worker looked at the man laying on top of him. Suddenly recognition took the worker by surprise, so much so that he blurted out, "Drew?" before plunging headlong into a long suppressed memory from 15 years prior....
Dustin Drake was bored, well as bored as a nine year old can be when he has every game console on the market at his disposal, as well as most of the games that go to them. He and his family lived in Alberta, Alabama. Even with all that, he was bored. He was laying back on his bed when he noticed a flash go across the ceiling. Getting up and moving over to his window brought a moving truck into his view. Standing next to the moving truck was a boy about the same age as Dustin. His name was Andrew Carver and he would change Dustin's life forevermore with seven little letters.
Dusty & Drew: Chapter One: First Meeting
Andrew stood there with his hand on the door of the truck waiting for his mother to climb out and show him around their new home, the third one that he could remember. Andrew was upset with his parents for tearing him away from all he had gotten used to and dragging him here, hell he didn't even know where here was.
Andrew was getting even more irritated by the moment, standing there waiting on his parents to finish talking in the privacy of the truck. He wasn't really all that angry with his mother because she didn't have anymore choice in the move than Andrew did. His father worked for the Army as some type of administrative type paper-pusher, at least that is what Andrew thought he was. Little did he know that years in the future his life would be torn asunder once more, but we will come to that in due time.
So when his fathers bosses told him that they needed him in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in one weeks time, his father packed up the family, sold the house, and rented a U-Haul and started driving. So there Andrew stood in a place that he knew nothing about and where he knew absolutely no one. To say he was unhappy was like saying lava is warm. To top it all off he suddenly realized why the name 'Tuscaloosa' sounded familiar, it was home to the University of Alabama, but more importantly it was also the home of the Crimson Tide. Andrew was an Auburn fan so his discontent with the move redoubled upon itself due to having to deal with the 'enemy' on their own territory.
As he was waiting he heard the voice of another boy coming up behind him saying, "Y'all movin' into the ole' Baker place?" Andrew turned towards the sound of the young voice as it continued saying, "Momma told me the sheriff hauled all of 'em away after somethin' blowed up out'n that old shed, alls I know was they's was a big BOOM an' the whole neighborhood smelled like rottin' eggs fer a week." The young boy continued to ramble on, completely oblivious to the fact that his audience of one was clueless as to what he was being told, "An' I sure am glad the sheriffs done took them away, they was mean folk, didn't like kids I don't think.... OH shit, I forgot to tell you who I am. I am Dustin Micheal Drake, I live just over yonder 'cross the street." Dustin pointed off to the side towards his house then held out his hand to shake while he asked, "Why are you wearing those dark sunglasses? Don't you know it's almost nighttime an' you don't need 'em cause there ain't no sun at night?"
You see, this was another reason that Andrew was so angry with his parents, not only did they yank away everything that he was familiar with but, because he was born blind, he had no idea what was around him so he couldn't even walk over and wait by the door of the house. He was cautious person by nature, so he didn't want to move away from the truck for fear that he would stumble and hurt himself or get lost along the way.
Andrew looked towards the voice once more and stated in a matter of fact tone, "It wouldn't matter if it the sun was up, I still wouldn't be able to see anything. I'm blind, so it really doesn't matter if i take the sunglasses off or not."
Dustin cocked his head to the side for a moment then asked, "So you can't see anything? Why d'ya wear the sunglasses if they don't do nothin' to help you see?"
Andrew was starting to get exasperated with this boy Dustin, so he said, "I don't wear them to help me, I wear them because people say it is rude to stare and, since I can't see I don't know if I am staring at someone or not, so I have to wear these stupid things so people don't get pissed at me for staring."
Right at that moment Andrew's mother opened the truck door and heard him cuss. The next thing that Andrew heard was his mother yelling, "Andrew Micheal Carver the Third! I am going to wash your mouth out with soap if I ever hear one more swear word out of your mouth, and that buddy is a promise!"
After giving her son a stern look, that was totally wasted on him, Andrews mother asked, "And who is this young man? Aren't you going to introduce us, Andrew?"
Dustin grinned widely and said, "My name is Dustin Micheal Drake, I live just over there. I was jus' tellin' Andrew 'bout the people that done got hauled off by the sheriffs after the es..es..ex..exsplosion 'round back. They was mean people so I's glad they's gone."
To which Andrews mother responded, "Well then, I am glad to meet you Dustin, I am Honey Carver and my husband over there is Andrew Carver the Second, but everyone just calls him Junior. Do your parents know that you are over here, Dustin?"
Dustin replied, "Yes ma'am, my momma said that she would change clothes and be over here in a few minutes with Dad to help you get yer stuff in 'for it gets dark, an theys sayin' on the news that its gonna be rainin' tonight too." Dustin looked down the street and saw his parents headed that way so he turned back to Honey and Andrew to say, "There they is."
Honey looked up and saw a man walking towards them, as well as a woman that looked very familiar to her but she couldn't quite place where she could be familiar from. Then as the couple got closer Honey yelped in surprise, "Carolyn Lockheart! What are you doing here?"
The other woman got a perplexed look on her face, then with a dawning look of shock she said, "Honey Pannell! Oh My God, it IS you! What happened? The last I heard you were getting married to some guy in the military and ran away from town to get away from your family? Not that I blame you, with the way they treated you. And I am soo sorry i couldn't make your wedding, I was busy giving birth to this ten pound monster child that day. And it's Drake now not Lockheart." she said with a laugh as she put her arms on Dustin's shoulders.
Honey responded by saying, yeah I did marry a military man and my last name is Carver now, Junior is over there at the back of the truck trying to find the linens for the bedrooms right now. We decided to just make pallets on the floor tonight and worry about moving things in tomorrow. By the way this is my son Andrew, unfortunately I wasn't able to talk Junior out of making our sons name a number three, but it was his fathers last wish that the name be continued. Hey Dustin, why don't you take these keys and go help Andrew find his way around the house while us 'fogies' start getting the basics out of the truck?"
Dustin thought about it for a moment then shrugged his shoulders and said, "OK." then grabbed Andrew's hand and lead him off towards the house completely forgetting about the adults.
When Andrew felt Dustin's hand close around his own, he felt a tingling charge, almost like electricity, race up his arm and into his body before settling around his heart. This was a new feeling for him but he quickly identified it, though it also mystified him, and although he welcomed it at first after a few moments he became uncomfortable with this new feeling.
Once the pair of young boys were inside the house Andrew yanked his hand away from Dustin and said, "I can walk on my own, I may be blind, but I am not a two year old that needs his hand held every second of the day.
Dustin muttered, "Fine, I was just trying to help." then walked off deeper into the house, leaving Andrew standing there by himself not knowing that he was standing in front of the closed door on one side and a set of stairs on the other, and his father on the other side of the door about to open it with his arms overflowing with blankets.
Andrew was getting even more irritated by the moment, standing there waiting on his parents to finish talking in the privacy of the truck. He wasn't really all that angry with his mother because she didn't have anymore choice in the move than Andrew did. His father worked for the Army as some type of administrative type paper-pusher, at least that is what Andrew thought he was. Little did he know that years in the future his life would be torn asunder once more, but we will come to that in due time.
So when his fathers bosses told him that they needed him in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in one weeks time, his father packed up the family, sold the house, and rented a U-Haul and started driving. So there Andrew stood in a place that he knew nothing about and where he knew absolutely no one. To say he was unhappy was like saying lava is warm. To top it all off he suddenly realized why the name 'Tuscaloosa' sounded familiar, it was home to the University of Alabama, but more importantly it was also the home of the Crimson Tide. Andrew was an Auburn fan so his discontent with the move redoubled upon itself due to having to deal with the 'enemy' on their own territory.
As he was waiting he heard the voice of another boy coming up behind him saying, "Y'all movin' into the ole' Baker place?" Andrew turned towards the sound of the young voice as it continued saying, "Momma told me the sheriff hauled all of 'em away after somethin' blowed up out'n that old shed, alls I know was they's was a big BOOM an' the whole neighborhood smelled like rottin' eggs fer a week." The young boy continued to ramble on, completely oblivious to the fact that his audience of one was clueless as to what he was being told, "An' I sure am glad the sheriffs done took them away, they was mean folk, didn't like kids I don't think.... OH shit, I forgot to tell you who I am. I am Dustin Micheal Drake, I live just over yonder 'cross the street." Dustin pointed off to the side towards his house then held out his hand to shake while he asked, "Why are you wearing those dark sunglasses? Don't you know it's almost nighttime an' you don't need 'em cause there ain't no sun at night?"
You see, this was another reason that Andrew was so angry with his parents, not only did they yank away everything that he was familiar with but, because he was born blind, he had no idea what was around him so he couldn't even walk over and wait by the door of the house. He was cautious person by nature, so he didn't want to move away from the truck for fear that he would stumble and hurt himself or get lost along the way.
Andrew looked towards the voice once more and stated in a matter of fact tone, "It wouldn't matter if it the sun was up, I still wouldn't be able to see anything. I'm blind, so it really doesn't matter if i take the sunglasses off or not."
Dustin cocked his head to the side for a moment then asked, "So you can't see anything? Why d'ya wear the sunglasses if they don't do nothin' to help you see?"
Andrew was starting to get exasperated with this boy Dustin, so he said, "I don't wear them to help me, I wear them because people say it is rude to stare and, since I can't see I don't know if I am staring at someone or not, so I have to wear these stupid things so people don't get pissed at me for staring."
Right at that moment Andrew's mother opened the truck door and heard him cuss. The next thing that Andrew heard was his mother yelling, "Andrew Micheal Carver the Third! I am going to wash your mouth out with soap if I ever hear one more swear word out of your mouth, and that buddy is a promise!"
After giving her son a stern look, that was totally wasted on him, Andrews mother asked, "And who is this young man? Aren't you going to introduce us, Andrew?"
Dustin grinned widely and said, "My name is Dustin Micheal Drake, I live just over there. I was jus' tellin' Andrew 'bout the people that done got hauled off by the sheriffs after the es..es..ex..exsplosion 'round back. They was mean people so I's glad they's gone."
To which Andrews mother responded, "Well then, I am glad to meet you Dustin, I am Honey Carver and my husband over there is Andrew Carver the Second, but everyone just calls him Junior. Do your parents know that you are over here, Dustin?"
Dustin replied, "Yes ma'am, my momma said that she would change clothes and be over here in a few minutes with Dad to help you get yer stuff in 'for it gets dark, an theys sayin' on the news that its gonna be rainin' tonight too." Dustin looked down the street and saw his parents headed that way so he turned back to Honey and Andrew to say, "There they is."
Honey looked up and saw a man walking towards them, as well as a woman that looked very familiar to her but she couldn't quite place where she could be familiar from. Then as the couple got closer Honey yelped in surprise, "Carolyn Lockheart! What are you doing here?"
The other woman got a perplexed look on her face, then with a dawning look of shock she said, "Honey Pannell! Oh My God, it IS you! What happened? The last I heard you were getting married to some guy in the military and ran away from town to get away from your family? Not that I blame you, with the way they treated you. And I am soo sorry i couldn't make your wedding, I was busy giving birth to this ten pound monster child that day. And it's Drake now not Lockheart." she said with a laugh as she put her arms on Dustin's shoulders.
Honey responded by saying, yeah I did marry a military man and my last name is Carver now, Junior is over there at the back of the truck trying to find the linens for the bedrooms right now. We decided to just make pallets on the floor tonight and worry about moving things in tomorrow. By the way this is my son Andrew, unfortunately I wasn't able to talk Junior out of making our sons name a number three, but it was his fathers last wish that the name be continued. Hey Dustin, why don't you take these keys and go help Andrew find his way around the house while us 'fogies' start getting the basics out of the truck?"
Dustin thought about it for a moment then shrugged his shoulders and said, "OK." then grabbed Andrew's hand and lead him off towards the house completely forgetting about the adults.
When Andrew felt Dustin's hand close around his own, he felt a tingling charge, almost like electricity, race up his arm and into his body before settling around his heart. This was a new feeling for him but he quickly identified it, though it also mystified him, and although he welcomed it at first after a few moments he became uncomfortable with this new feeling.
Once the pair of young boys were inside the house Andrew yanked his hand away from Dustin and said, "I can walk on my own, I may be blind, but I am not a two year old that needs his hand held every second of the day.
Dustin muttered, "Fine, I was just trying to help." then walked off deeper into the house, leaving Andrew standing there by himself not knowing that he was standing in front of the closed door on one side and a set of stairs on the other, and his father on the other side of the door about to open it with his arms overflowing with blankets.
Just as Junior started opening the door Dustin returned and, placing his hand on Andrews shoulder and said,"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have left you standing there like that. Your dad is coming in with some blankets, and there are three small steps down right here " as he guided Andrew down the three steps away from the door.
Dustin stood there for a moment, looking around at the empty house, before saying, "Where would you like to go? We have the living room through a door off to the left about three steps ahead, also what looks like an old library is on the right directly across from the living room...." And so it went with Dustin's hand just barely touching his shoulder, like a whisper, as he gently guided Andrew along the corridors, pointing out where all the possible problem areas such as stairs were, with Andrew's hand brushing lightly against the wall as they progressed down the hall, into the kitchen, to the back door and then towards the bedrooms.
Once they had reached the smallest of the three rooms they found Andrew and Dustin's mothers cleaning and vacuuming, getting the room ready for Andrew to stay the night in, until they moved all of the furniture into the room.
Looking around Dustin asked the two women, "Can Andrew stay In my room till all of his stuff gets here?"
The two women looked at each other and made some motions with their hands, which confused Dustin, then Carolyn said, "I think you should ask Andrew if he wants to stay at our house first, also I think that all four of us parents should discuss it before anything is decided." seeing the despondent look on her sons face Carolyn continued, "I know, I know, you really want to have your new friend over, and I don't have a problem with it, but his parents may want him to stay here for the first night."
The boys went off to explore the yard around the house, Andrew was just interested in learning where everything was while Dustin wanted to see where the shed blew up and see if there was anything interesting left over. As he was exploring Dustin noticed that there was a metal box taped to the bottom of one of the half burnt and broken tables. Once he had retrieved the box he saw the lock on the front of it but, looking closer he saw that the metal tab that folded down was almost completely torn away from the box, so he went looking for something that he could use to tear the metal the rest of the way off.
On a peg board that was hanging onto the wall by one corner Dustin found an old rusty screwdriver. 'This will work!' he thought to himself, and so he removed the screwdriver and used it to pry the last of the metal tab off the box. When the metal finally released the screwdriver slipped across the metal box, and stabbed into his hand before he dropped it on the ground and continued to try to open the box but it was stuck. At first Dustin was so intrigued with what might be in the box and trying to force the lid up, that he didn't pay attention to the pain in his hand. When he went to readjust his grip he saw a smear of bright red liquid on the side of the box that hadn't been there a few moments before, so looking around he noticed that the bright red smear was blood, at this point he had the cut hand sitting on the corner of the box digging into the cut.
After dropping the box Dustin looked at the wound on his hand that was full of dirt and soot from the box, while leaking, what in his mind was a copious amount, blood. He started to slightly whimper at the pain that was now fully in his consciousness, as the whimpering got louder it caught Andrews attention. Being blind, the burnt out shed full of broken tables and other miscellaneous junk held little attraction for him, he had been busy thinking about that weird feeling that he got the first time Dustin grabbed his hand when they where standing in the driveway. After tuning out all the noise that Dustin was making it took a few moments to realize that the whimpers were actually coming from Dustin.
Once he realized where he sound was coming from he stumbled and dragged his feet towards the sound. Coming into contact with Dustin's shoe, Andrew realized that the boy was sitting on the floor, so he asked, "What is wrong, why are your crying?" Getting no response, Andrew carefully lowered himself to the floor and gently glided his hands along the other boy, trying to "see" what was wrong. Coming to the palm of the injured hand Andrew felt a significant amount of gritty viscous liquid escaping from a small cut on the other boys palm. Though it took a moment to understand what he was feeling, Andrew finally realized that it was blood.
Andrew tried to help the larger boy stand, up so they could go back to the house to let the adults fix whatever was wrong with Dustin's hand, but the boy wouldn't move so Andrew said, as he again tried to lift the boy, "Come on, sitting here won't fix your hand, so you need to help me get you back to the house. I can't do it on my own, I can't even see where the house is, so you need to be my eyes for this....COME ON, quit sitting there like a whiny baby!"
That statement was enough to finally draw Dustin's attention away from the wound long enough to say, "I am not a whiny baby!"
Andrews response was quick in coming, and just as sharp as it was quick, "Well then prove it. Help me get back to the house so we can at least wash the blood off of your cut so our parents can see how bad it is, and whether or not you need an ambulance to the hospital or not. Geez, you are stubborn and stupid!"
When Junior and Dustin's father, who Andrew would later learn was named Carl, saw the blood on Dustin's hand and arm they immediately reacted by demanding to know what happened, at the same time. Once Dustin was able to explain that he hurt himself with a rusty screwdriver Junior jumped into action saying, "Carl, get the wound cleaned up so we can see it and I will go grab my med kit from the front seat of the moving truck." Upon hearing this Carl took Dustin by the arm and almost dragged him over to the sink and proceeded to scrub off all the blood on his son, while Andrew stood there forgotten for the moment.
When he heard his father mention the med kit he instantly knew that either Dustin had a worse wound than what he thought or, he was going to be in for a bit of pain when Junior returned, Andrew knew that the med kit contained almost every kind of medical supply imaginable because of the times that it had been used on him. His dad was given the med kit by one of his friends at work, who was a semi-retired Medic in the Army, after Andrew had started getting hurt regularly due to walking into things and just random boyhood injuries
By the time Junior returned with the kit Carl had already cleaned up the wound as best he could with just water. Since there was no soap or disinfectant in the house yet, Junior dried off the wound, that was still slowly oozing blood, and doused it with Merthiolate to disinfect the interior of the hole, Junior then asked Carl to hold Dustin's hand still and to not let him jerk. Andrew then knew that his father was about to put stitches into Dustin's hand, and cringed in sympathetic pains for what Dustin was about to feel.
Once the stitches were done Junior asked Carl, "When was his last tetanus shot?" to which Carl answered, "Umm...probably about a year ago, I think, when he broke his wrist climbing in the tree behind our house."
Junior replied, "OK, that is recent enough, but you need to watch that so that it doesn't get infected, because a puncture from something rusty could get bad really quick. I think we got all the trash out of the hole but you can never be sure of it totally."
The boys went back to exploring the yard under strict admonishment to stay within sight and away from the shed. Later that evening, once the basic items had been brought inside, Carl and Carolyn invited the new family over to their house for dinner. It was towards the end of dinner that Dustin asked the question that had been burning him alive from the inside out, "So can Andrew stay here tonight?"
The parents all looked at each other for a few moments, with head movements from each of the other adults, Junior looked at Dustin and said, "Well, I think...."
Dustin stood there for a moment, looking around at the empty house, before saying, "Where would you like to go? We have the living room through a door off to the left about three steps ahead, also what looks like an old library is on the right directly across from the living room...." And so it went with Dustin's hand just barely touching his shoulder, like a whisper, as he gently guided Andrew along the corridors, pointing out where all the possible problem areas such as stairs were, with Andrew's hand brushing lightly against the wall as they progressed down the hall, into the kitchen, to the back door and then towards the bedrooms.
Once they had reached the smallest of the three rooms they found Andrew and Dustin's mothers cleaning and vacuuming, getting the room ready for Andrew to stay the night in, until they moved all of the furniture into the room.
Looking around Dustin asked the two women, "Can Andrew stay In my room till all of his stuff gets here?"
The two women looked at each other and made some motions with their hands, which confused Dustin, then Carolyn said, "I think you should ask Andrew if he wants to stay at our house first, also I think that all four of us parents should discuss it before anything is decided." seeing the despondent look on her sons face Carolyn continued, "I know, I know, you really want to have your new friend over, and I don't have a problem with it, but his parents may want him to stay here for the first night."
The boys went off to explore the yard around the house, Andrew was just interested in learning where everything was while Dustin wanted to see where the shed blew up and see if there was anything interesting left over. As he was exploring Dustin noticed that there was a metal box taped to the bottom of one of the half burnt and broken tables. Once he had retrieved the box he saw the lock on the front of it but, looking closer he saw that the metal tab that folded down was almost completely torn away from the box, so he went looking for something that he could use to tear the metal the rest of the way off.
On a peg board that was hanging onto the wall by one corner Dustin found an old rusty screwdriver. 'This will work!' he thought to himself, and so he removed the screwdriver and used it to pry the last of the metal tab off the box. When the metal finally released the screwdriver slipped across the metal box, and stabbed into his hand before he dropped it on the ground and continued to try to open the box but it was stuck. At first Dustin was so intrigued with what might be in the box and trying to force the lid up, that he didn't pay attention to the pain in his hand. When he went to readjust his grip he saw a smear of bright red liquid on the side of the box that hadn't been there a few moments before, so looking around he noticed that the bright red smear was blood, at this point he had the cut hand sitting on the corner of the box digging into the cut.
After dropping the box Dustin looked at the wound on his hand that was full of dirt and soot from the box, while leaking, what in his mind was a copious amount, blood. He started to slightly whimper at the pain that was now fully in his consciousness, as the whimpering got louder it caught Andrews attention. Being blind, the burnt out shed full of broken tables and other miscellaneous junk held little attraction for him, he had been busy thinking about that weird feeling that he got the first time Dustin grabbed his hand when they where standing in the driveway. After tuning out all the noise that Dustin was making it took a few moments to realize that the whimpers were actually coming from Dustin.
Once he realized where he sound was coming from he stumbled and dragged his feet towards the sound. Coming into contact with Dustin's shoe, Andrew realized that the boy was sitting on the floor, so he asked, "What is wrong, why are your crying?" Getting no response, Andrew carefully lowered himself to the floor and gently glided his hands along the other boy, trying to "see" what was wrong. Coming to the palm of the injured hand Andrew felt a significant amount of gritty viscous liquid escaping from a small cut on the other boys palm. Though it took a moment to understand what he was feeling, Andrew finally realized that it was blood.
Andrew tried to help the larger boy stand, up so they could go back to the house to let the adults fix whatever was wrong with Dustin's hand, but the boy wouldn't move so Andrew said, as he again tried to lift the boy, "Come on, sitting here won't fix your hand, so you need to help me get you back to the house. I can't do it on my own, I can't even see where the house is, so you need to be my eyes for this....COME ON, quit sitting there like a whiny baby!"
That statement was enough to finally draw Dustin's attention away from the wound long enough to say, "I am not a whiny baby!"
Andrews response was quick in coming, and just as sharp as it was quick, "Well then prove it. Help me get back to the house so we can at least wash the blood off of your cut so our parents can see how bad it is, and whether or not you need an ambulance to the hospital or not. Geez, you are stubborn and stupid!"
When Junior and Dustin's father, who Andrew would later learn was named Carl, saw the blood on Dustin's hand and arm they immediately reacted by demanding to know what happened, at the same time. Once Dustin was able to explain that he hurt himself with a rusty screwdriver Junior jumped into action saying, "Carl, get the wound cleaned up so we can see it and I will go grab my med kit from the front seat of the moving truck." Upon hearing this Carl took Dustin by the arm and almost dragged him over to the sink and proceeded to scrub off all the blood on his son, while Andrew stood there forgotten for the moment.
When he heard his father mention the med kit he instantly knew that either Dustin had a worse wound than what he thought or, he was going to be in for a bit of pain when Junior returned, Andrew knew that the med kit contained almost every kind of medical supply imaginable because of the times that it had been used on him. His dad was given the med kit by one of his friends at work, who was a semi-retired Medic in the Army, after Andrew had started getting hurt regularly due to walking into things and just random boyhood injuries
By the time Junior returned with the kit Carl had already cleaned up the wound as best he could with just water. Since there was no soap or disinfectant in the house yet, Junior dried off the wound, that was still slowly oozing blood, and doused it with Merthiolate to disinfect the interior of the hole, Junior then asked Carl to hold Dustin's hand still and to not let him jerk. Andrew then knew that his father was about to put stitches into Dustin's hand, and cringed in sympathetic pains for what Dustin was about to feel.
Once the stitches were done Junior asked Carl, "When was his last tetanus shot?" to which Carl answered, "Umm...probably about a year ago, I think, when he broke his wrist climbing in the tree behind our house."
Junior replied, "OK, that is recent enough, but you need to watch that so that it doesn't get infected, because a puncture from something rusty could get bad really quick. I think we got all the trash out of the hole but you can never be sure of it totally."
The boys went back to exploring the yard under strict admonishment to stay within sight and away from the shed. Later that evening, once the basic items had been brought inside, Carl and Carolyn invited the new family over to their house for dinner. It was towards the end of dinner that Dustin asked the question that had been burning him alive from the inside out, "So can Andrew stay here tonight?"
The parents all looked at each other for a few moments, with head movements from each of the other adults, Junior looked at Dustin and said, "Well, I think...."
