You Ain't Santa

Dan and I were awakened the next morning when Vince and Nathan arrived at the little house.  Nate came into the room, "I'm sorry, I forgot about taking care of the animals last night.  They look like they forgot to eat.  Me and Uncle Vince are going to the hospital so Uncle Alex and Ryan can come home for a little while.  Dad, what's going to happen to Little Mister X?"

Dan answered, "Right now, I honestly haven't any idea.  We'll see what the tests I prescribed for this morning show.  I wish he could talk so he could tell us what happened to him."

"But Dad, didn't those mean people last night do this to him?"

"Son, I don't think so.  There are bruise marks on his body from before.  He was hit last night, but I don't think that caused his speech problem."

We made our way to the big house and both sets of parents were packing to leave.  My Dad spoke for the four of them, "We really don't want to leave, but we do have commitments at home.  You will need to keep us posted on what's happening.  There certainly never seems to be a dull moment in your lives."

After the parents had departed, "Dan took off for the hospital in his car even though it was Saturday.  Nathan and Vince left for the hospital to relieve Ryan and Alex."

After the people had departed, Bruce commented, "I feel so helpless.  I feel like I should be doing something for that little guy.  I'm leery that Ryan, Nate, Vince and Alex are going to get too attached to him and they'll be in for more heartache.  I don't understand what it is about you, but you're always doing something to draw attention to you and the boys.  Not that it's bad, but people always seem to try to take advantage of people who are doing good."

When Ryan and Alex returned, Ryan was really upset, "Daddy and Uncle Bruce, you gotta make it so Little Mister X can tell us what happened.  He tries to talk but there is no sounds coming out.  He's too little to write notes to us.  Please, you gotta find a way so he will be better."

"Ryan, what did Little Mister X do when you and Alex left?"

Alex answered, "Ryan explained that Nate was his brother and would take care of him and that Vince was going to be Little Mister X's other Daddy after he got better."

Bruce asked, "What did Little Mister X do when Ryan told him that?"

Ryan giggled, "Little Mister X smiled and hugged Nate and Uncle Vince.  You should have seen Little Mister X when I told him that Dad Dan was my daddy and was his doctor.  He hugged Dad so hard that I thought Dad was going to stop breathing.  Come on Uncle Alex, we gotta go check the animals to make sure the Dads did a good job last night."

Bruce looked at me, "If anyone is going to be able to help Little Mister X, it's going to be Ryan and Nathan."

Alex and Ryan took all the guys and they were riding their horses to go check on the animals.  When they returned, they had Hodge, Podge, Snitch and Snatch with them.  The animals were exhausted so I took them to the Little House and made sure they had food and water.  I went back to Homebase for lunch when Dan arrived, "You're not going to believe this.  Little Mister X's tests showed nothing is wrong, and he seems much better.  When I left the hospital, Nate was reading a story to Little Mister X."

It was almost six when Nate and Vince returned to Belle Monte. Nate explained, "I told Little Mister X that his two Dads had to work tonight and that we wouldn't be back until after church in the morning and he seemed to be okay with that.  When we left he had eaten most of his dinner and the nurse gave him a pill so he could sleep.  I told him that we would go to early church in the morning; so Ryan and I could spend the day with him."

The next morning Dan and I were awakened by Ryan and Nate.  Ryan was pulling my arm, "Daddy, you gotta get up so we can eat before we go to church."

We fixed breakfast and it was a communal shower morning so nothing could happen.  We stopped at Homebase to see who would be accompanying us to church, and I was surprised when everyone except the McTavishes decided to go with us.  They were going to go visit some friends.  We had a procession of four vehicles going to the church. 

When we were seated, Nathan pulled out a prayer request card and started to print something.  He looked up at me, "Daddy, is this the way you spell miricle?

"Nope, the second I should be an "a" instead of the second "I".  It's one of those words that doesn't exactly look like it sounds."

I was curious as to what he had written but chose not to push.  I watched as he read it to Ryan, and Ryan got a big grin."

When the collection plate was being passed, Nathan handed the prayer request card to the usher.

After the sermon, the associate pastor approached the pulpit, "Ladies and gentlemen, please pray for these concerns of our fellow worshipers this morning in addition to the prayer concerns listed in your bulletins.  The pastor had read the first three requests and stopped.  It was quiet before he resumed talking, "Members of the congregation, I have here a prayer request from two very young people in the life of our church.  I need to read what they have written, in order to do their request justice.  Please listen and be inspired."

Please pray extra hard for a little boy who we found lying injured in the area outside our house.  He is in the hospital, but he is not able to speak.  Please pray that God can cause a miracle, and he be able to speak, so that the doctors can fix him and make him better and make it so he knows that we love him.

                                                                                    Nathan and Ryan

I looked at the rest of our pew, and Alex, Vince, Dan and Jacob had tears in their eyes.  I couldn't see the others.  When the pastor started the prayer, both Nate and Ryan were sitting with their hands clasped in their laps and it was obvious that they were putting everything they had into their prayers.

After church, as we were walking to the car, Dan whispered, "I hope our boys aren't too disappointed when nothing happens.  That was a pretty powerful prayer request."

It was just Dan, Ryan, Nate, Alex, Vince and me as we went to the hospital.  The nurse on duty started to give us static, until she realized who Dan was.  I think we overwhelmed Little Mister X by our presence.  Once he woke from his sleep, he started to try to talk, "Rrrrryyyynnn, whwhwht rrrroonnnggg?"

Ryan hugged the little guy, "You can talk, we came to check on you.  Don't try to talk too much, or you might hurt something.  We need to make sure that you're all better before you try to talk too much.  You know everyone except our other Dad, Dr. Richter."

I hugged Little Mister X, "Son, why don't you go back to sleep?  Some of us will be back after lunch to talk to you and hopefully you will be able to talk a little easier."

Little Mister X hugged me and nodded his head and waved goodbye as we went out the door.  When we arrived at Belle Monte, you can imagine the discussion that took place.  Nate wanted to call the grandparents and tell them what had happened.  He called and of course, neither set of parents was home.  He left messages telling them what had happened.

We took the two boys to the little house to change clothes and check on the animals.  When we were changing clothes, Dan shook his head, "I don't understand what happened to cause Little Mister X to start to speak."

I hugged Dan, "My man, miracles do happen.  In this case, Nate and Ryan believed that miracles happen and they somehow caused something to happen."

Dan nodded, "That may be true, but there must be a medical reason that makes it so difficult for Little Mister X to talk."

Ryan called up the steps, "Dads, Homebase called and said lunch was ready.  Do Nate and I get to go back to the hospital after lunch?"

Dan answered, "Guys, we'll talk about this over lunch."

When we arrived at Homebase, everyone was waiting for us.  As we were eating, Bruce asked, "Dan is there someone we could contact and ask them to come and examine Little Mister X?"

Dan shrugged his shoulders, "Bruce, remember, I'm rather new at this business.  I'm sure there is someone that we could call.  Let me check with some more experienced doctors.  It probably wouldn't do much good to call anyone today, since it's Sunday."

Nate all of a sudden stopped eating, "Dads, do we need to let Viola Swamp know that we found Little Mister X, like when you took us home?"

I looked up, "Nate, I hadn't even thought about that, but yes, we probably should.  I'll call Mrs. Belton as soon as we finish lunch and see what she has to say.  She usually goes to the late service."

Bruce interrupted, "Dan, did you inform the authorities that you had an unidentified young boy in the hospital?"

"Yes, the police came to the hospital right after we got there on Friday night.  I explained that we had a young boy about four, but he was unable to speak.  When they left, they indicated that there wasn't much they could do except see if there had been any reports of a child being missing who matched Little Mister X's description.  They said they would call if they were able to come up with anything and asked that we call them if there was a change in Mister X's condition."

Bruce nodded, "I guess there isn't much else we can do for right now."

I looked at the clock and decided to take a chance to see if Ginger Belton was home.  "This is the Belton residence, this is Will speaking."

"Will, its Kirk Richter; is your Mother available."

"Yep, she and Dad are sitting here reading the Sunday paper.  I'll put her on."

"This is Ginger Belton."

"Ginger, its Kirk Richter.  It seems that we have found another young man and we may need your help."

I could almost see Ginger frowning, "What do you mean you found another boy?"

"To be technically correct, Ryan and Alex found the young man lying along the side of the road in front of our house, on Friday evening.  Dan took him to the hospital and that's where he still is."

Ginger asked, "Kirk, how old is the young man and what's his name?"

"That's the problem, he has been unable to talk, so we have no idea what his name is.  Ryan and Alex spent Friday night with him and Nate and Vince spent most of yesterday.  We stopped in to see him after church this morning, and he was struggling to talk.  He was able to ask, 'Ryan what's wrong?' or we think that's what he was trying to say.  We left him to come home and change clothes and have some lunch.  We're getting ready to go back to the hospital shortly."

"Kirk, have the police been notified of the whereabouts of the young man, and approximately how old is the young man?"

"Dan, notified the authorities and they have not let him know of any missing children matching Little Mister X's description.  We estimate that the young boy is about four."

Ginger took a deep breath, "I guess that rules out a visit from Viola Swamp.  I'll meet you at the hospital in an hour.  In the meantime, I'm going to call the police and see what they might have come up with, if anything."

Alex and Vince decided to go the hospital with us, since they had nothing better to do and I decided that they may be becoming attached to Little Mister X.  We took three cars not knowing what to expect.  When we arrived at the hospital, Mrs. Belton was waiting for us.  Since she didn't have a name, she didn't know where she should go. 

When we walked into Little Mister X's room, he was having a glass of juice.  His face broke into a big smile when he saw Ryan and Nate.  He pointed to Ginger and tried to talk, "Hoooo?"

Ryan put his arm around Mrs. Belton, "This is Grandma Belton, and she's here to help you.  We need you to try to answer some questions for her.  If it hurts too bad, don't try to talk."

Little Mister X nodded and tried to sit up, but Nate pushed him back against the raised bed, "Please, don't try to sit up.  You might hurt something."

Mrs. Belton asked, "Young man, can you show us how old you are?"

Little Mister X nodded and put up four fingers.  Ryan asked, "So your four, right?  You look pretty big.  I thought maybe you were five or six."

That caused the Little Mister X to grin and shake his head no.  

Ginger asked, "Can you tell us your name?"

The little guy tried but all he could get out was, "in."

Nate asked, "Does you name start with an N?"

Little Mister shook his no and tried again, "KW N."

Vince asked, "Then your name ends like KW N."

Nate started at the beginning of the alphabet and asked, "Is your name Ben."

The little boy shook his head no.

Nate had gone the through the alphabet and tried every name he could think of that it could be ended in en.  Little Mister X was getting frustrated and tried again, "KW N."

I smacked my forward, "Is your name Quinn?"

Little Mister X clapped his hands and smiled and nodded yes.

Ginger asked, "Is that your first name or last name?"

Little Mister X held up one finger and put two fingers and spread his hands far apart.  Alex nodded, "So your first name is Quinn and I think you were telling us that you last name was a long one, is that right."

Quinn nodded yes.

Ginger asked, "Quinn, can you tell us you last name without trying to talk."

Quinn looked around and shook head yes and pointed at Dan. 

Ryan asked, "Doctor?"

Quinn shook his head no,

Nate asked, "Dad?"

Again a negative shake of the head. 

I thought to myself, 'It can't be Thornton so it must be Dan.'  "Quinn does you last name start like Dan?"

Quinn broke into a big smile and nodded yes. 

Ryan asked, "Can you show us some more of your name?"

Quinn sat up and held his stomach and then leaned off the bed like he was going to throw up.

Everyone was a little mystified by the clue.  Dan asked, "Quinn you look as if you were sick, but sick doesn't make sense.  Can you show us what that part of your name sounds if it isn't sick?"

Quinn looked at his bed tray and pretended to take something out of a little container and put it in his mouth and took a drink of water and swallowed.

Dan nodded, "So it sounds like pill.  That must mean you name is Dan ill something?"

Quinn had a big grin on his face and was nodding yes.  Vince asked, "Can you show us what the last part of your name sounds like?"

Quinn pointed at me and then pointed at Ryan.  He pointed at me again and then at Nathan.

Ryan looked at me and then at himself.  He looked at me and at Nate and broke into a big smile, "I get it.  The last part of the name is son or sons.  I think your last name is something like Danillson."

The young man clapped again and laid down.  Dan looked at us, "I think Quinn is getting very tired and may need some medicine.  Vince and Alex, why don't you take Ryan and Nate home and they can come back to visit Quinn again after dinner."

After the guys had departed, Dan nodded, "I think that we have a very intelligent young man here. I don't know many four year olds who would have been resourceful enough to be able to convey his last name as he did.  I want to show you why I suspect that Quinn had been abused before Ryan and Alex found him."  

Editor's Notes: 

Quinn is quite a resourceful young fellow.   I do suspect that Ryan and Nate will find that they have a new little brother. 

I would sure enjoy reading another chapter soon!