It wasn't too terribly late when Henry Jenkins Senior pulled up onto the curb in front of the Jenkins home. According to the clock it looked like it was 3:40 PM, and John figured there would still be some time as it had appeared that Ginger and her brother often walked home. And since couldn't see the high school from the Jenkins home, he'd figured that Ginger would still be walking home. John was quick to hop out of the truck and was fully prepared to head for the front porch to wait for Ginger to arrive on her way home.
"Easy there, tiger," Henry called after him and making John turn to the older man as Henry shut the driver's side door and walked back toward the back of the truck, "Let's get the paint and things in the garage. That way if it does rain... we don't have watered down paint or wrecked equipment. I can handle cleaning the brushes, but let's make sure everything else is put away."
John stopped and then nodded and made his way back to the tailgate of the truck where he met up Henry again. Henry gave him a small smile as he undid the latch and let the tailgate fall to a horizontal position.
"Don't worry," Henry spoke, "If Ginger hasn't been by yet, I'm sure she'll wait for us to finish."
John nodded to that and carefully lifted the trays they'd used. The plastic clicked a little against each other, and he could see the top most tray had a thin layer of paint in it that was still wet, but John did his best to keep things level and thus not spill anything. Henry collected the step ladder they'd used during the day and then lead the way toward the garage. They made there calmly and Henry carefully leaned the ladder against one edge of the side paneling outside the garage door and then moved to the "doorknob" that served as the opening mechanism for the garage door. Henry twisted the knob and there was an audible click as levers that held the garage door shut opened and freeing Henry to lift the door up.
"The sink is there in the back right corner of the garage," Henry said to John, directing him around the car presently parked inside.
Again, John nodded and carried the trays in. The sink was a fairly large plastic thing which John had to lean forward a bit in order to put the trays in it. As he finished he turned to see Henry setting down the ladder along the inside wall. From there it turned to a fairly easy task of moving things from the truck bed to the garage. The brushes and tarps were easy. The bucket of paint was the last thing they moved, and it was placed next to the ladder. As they brought it into the garage, John was a bit nervous, as he would have expected Ginger to arrive while they were moving things, but she didn't. It left thoughts of worry as to whether or not she was okay or if she wanted to see him. He thought she did, but then, if she did, he figured she would have arrived. But Ginger hadn't arrived and the only one he met coming into the garage was Jenny coming out the inside door to the garage.
"Hello, John," Jenny gave soft smile, "did you have a good day?"
"Yeah... pretty good," John said slowly, "a bit more to paint than I'd initially thought... but it was fairly quiet and not too hot."
"That certainly sounds better than all these rumors going around the college," Jenny commented.
"Rumors?" John spoke, wondering if there was something that carried over from his father's actions.
"Just the city council meeting tonight, which is most likely nothing, from what Harry's told me," Jenny assured him, "Nothing to worry about."
Henry was relieved at that, given that Lisa and him had had a civil action group call about this meeting urging everyone to come. It was something that often happened with special meetings, usually because big changes were theoretically possible when they were had. But in all the years Henry had lived in Moon Lake, the changes were rarely big.
"Did Ginger come by?" John asked, content that the rumors weren't about James Harper Senior, and hopeful to see the person he'd made friends with in Moon Lake.
"She did... just a few moments before you two got back here," Jenny answered, "She had a message for me to deliver... she said that she would be by at eleven tomorrow to go out for your walk."
"Our tour..." John said weakly, a bit saddened to hear that he'd missed her. Despite all the conflicts that he had within him over who he was and who he had interests in, Ginger was something special and he really had to acknowledge that he enjoyed talking with her. Even if their relationship remained as simple friends, it was a friendship that John found himself cherishing.
"That's what you said it was yesterday," Jenny gave a small smile, "she said she would be by eleven tomorrow."
John looked down for a moment and sighed heavily. He was glad to have gotten confirmation on when Ginger would come by for their walking tour of Moon Lake. It'd let him see more of the town that would be his home for the foreseeable future and be with someone besides his family that had been kind to him and under circumstances where there was no risk of punishment. Jenny noticed this and came forward enough to place a hand on John's shoulder and rub it softly. Something in her instincts simply told her that that would give John some sense of comfort.
"And it struck me that she cares for you and sincerely," Jenny spoke softly, "so... regardless of whether you ever consider her girlfriend material... or you make different choice... I would think you've managed to find some one who will always be a friend and be there for you... You don't have to be afraid."
"Thanks, Jen," John sighed before walking in.
"And Lisa says that it'll be awhile before dinner is ready," Jenny commented, "if you're quick... you could shower and get yourself presentable to stop by and catch up on things."
John gave a small smile to that and soon picked up the pace and headed inside. Jenny stood by and watched him head in while Henry flicked a small switch turning on the lights in the garage and then moving back to shut the garage door. As it slid down, Henry was alone with his daughter-in-law with a fairly quiet atmosphere. With that he took advantage of the fact that things were quiet and that John had gone inside to shower to bring up what had been a concern in the back of his mind through the day.
"So... how DID he do?" Jenny asked, her tone of voice a bit more worried.
"He did fine with the painting," Henry said slowly as he walked along the far side of the car and toward the sink that he had there for whenever he had painting projects to clean up after. "Some "newbie" mistakes, but nothing that would be noticeable to anyone but a professional contract. In that, John did quite well."
Jenny nodded, but while that was a good thing to hear, it wasn't the answer she was looking for and something in Henry's tone of voice also gave some indication that there was actually more to the answer. That was the thing that worried Jenny the most, particularly with John. Janice seemed to be doing quite well, if a bit over excited that Moon Lake had weremers and openly attracted to the sort of fantasy type connections that they would represent, which wasn't too much of a bad thing. It wouldn't surprise Jenny if there were some things that Janice had internalized over the years, as there had been a lot that Jenny knew that she had internalized over the years. Thus her whole decision to never return to Alabama and pay her way through Moon Lake College on her own if need be.
But John's situation was a bit different. Particularly if what Jenny had seen in her dreams about John potentially being gay, or at least bisexual. There was nothing wrong with that, and Jenny had met a fair number of Moon Lake's werecats that went to the college that were pleased with their sexuality and didn't face any of the stigmas that seemed to be forced on many outside of Moon Lake because of who they were. It told Jenny that Moon Lake would be a good place for John to grow up, assuming the damage that their father had done wasn't so traumatizing that honest kindness couldn't help.
"But..." Jenny said slowly, nervous about the answer.
"He is highly troubled on who he is," Henry said with a heavy sigh, "likely your father's doing. It is as if he is constantly battling with those sorts of things all at once. Figuring out if he is gay, straight, or bi... wrestling with some of the pressures that your father put on him, which made him afraid of actually figuring that out on his own before coming hear. Which in a way has left him with some feelings of guilt over the fact that he'd had a friend that he might have been into, but could never return that attention because of your father... even assuming he'd figured out who he was and all that."
Jenny clinched her fists for a moment, angry at just how much damage her father had done to an innocent child through years of abuse. She'd hoped that being in Moon Lake and being shown real kindness would help with a lot of that, and perhaps it was. But it didn't seem to be doing enough if John was not only still wrestling with who he was but even showing signs of frustration over things that happened in the past. That was ultimately one of the private concerns she'd had that related to changing her major to focus on psychology as a future profession, but that'd still take time and she did recognize that with John, things might be a bit too close for her to help even if she already had a psychology degree.
"It might be a good idea to let him see Doctor Twist," Henry then said slowly while he started washing the trays and the brushes in the sink, "not only let him get things out of his system... but release them in a way that actually helps him. Because we've all tried to assure him that things are fine for him here and that he'll be accepted and free to figure that all out..."
"And yet he's still struggling," Jenny said weakly and gave a frustrated sigh. "But... if I... I don't want to force him into anything..."
"I know... your dad's example is not one many people would truly follow," Henry nodded, "but you and I both know that the kind of stresses your father put on John is not going to be something easily solved. It will take time... and without the right help... he could end up scarred in more ways than one. Permanently unsure... afraid... unhappy."
Henry then looked up and over to Jenny, "but I'm sure Doctor Twist can help John. She helped you deal with the mental stress related to completing your transformation... I'm sure she can help John, and give him someone to talk to with more training than you or I."
Jenny slowly nodded, and privately agreed.