As Freddy tried to move on from the scandals surrounding his campaign, an unexpected visitor appeared at his front door the next day. While Michael was getting Evan ready for school that morning, a knock could be heard at the front door.
“I’ll get it” Michael said, as he quickly made his way from the kitchen to the front door.
Not recognizing the person at the other end, Michael opened the door slightly ajar in order to address them.
“Can I help you?” Michael asked the man curtly.
“Hi Michael, it’s me Josh” the man replied.
Josh looked disheveled and slightly unkempt, but better than he had in previous years. His clothes were worn, but not overly tattered. He gave off a funky smell, but it was not overpoweringly putrid. He looked homeless, but not tragically so. None of this mattered in Michael’s estimation. Upon hearing who it was, Michael immediately slammed the door in his face.
“Who was that at the door?” Freddy asked, as he came down the stairs in a neatly pressed suit.
“Nobody” Michael replied, as he turned to give him a kiss on the lips.
A series of knocks came from the door, as Freddy peered over Michael to see who it was.
“Josh?” Freddy asked curiously, as he gently pushed Michael aside and went to answer the door.
Freddy opened the front door to see his brother standing there, smiling softly, despite the years of wear and tear evident in his facial features. Happy to see him, Freddy smiled and gave him a big hug.
“Josh” Freddy said, as he embraced his brother. “It’s great to see you. Are you ok?”
“Can I come in?” Josh asked, as he let go of Freddy.
“No” Michael replied sharply.
“Michael” Freddy replied. “Be reasonable.”
“I’m being reasonable. No.”
“Michael.”
“Just for a minute, Michael” Josh said, as he tried to make his way in.
Michael stood in the door frame, blocking Josh’s entrance into the house.
“No” Michael repeated again.
“Michael, it’s my house too” Freddy said, annoyed with his husband’s seemingly petulant behavior “and I say he’s allowed to come in.”
“I don’t want your good for nothing brother to be bringing his drugs and problems into our house. We already have enough shit to deal with as it is. We don’t need anymore things to add to that list.”
“What’s going on?” Evan asked, as he approached the three of them with his backpack slung over his shoulders.
“Evan” Michael said, as he attempted to block his son's view of the front entrance. “Wait in the kitchen for a minute. I’m just dealing with an unwanted pest first.”
“Evan!” Josh yelled, as he pushed Michael away and went to try to embrace him.
Freaking out, Evan backed away, as Freddy put a hand on his brother’s shoulder.
“Maybe not the best idea” Freddy said, as Evan ran to Michael and hid behind him.
“Son of a bitch” Michael murmured under his breath, as he motioned Evan to get into the car.
“Michael” Freddy said, as he went to whisper in his ear. “Let me try to figure out why he’s here while you’re taking Evan to school. Maybe I can help him somehow and that will get him out of your hair.”
“He better be out of here by the time I come back. If he’s not, then I’m going to physically drag him out of the house and throw him onto the street where he belongs.”
“Listen, Michael” Freddy hissed angrily. “This is my brother you’re talking about. I don’t like you saying these things about anyone, but especially not about Josh.”
“Just get him out of here.”
Michael left in a huff, as he got into his car and drove off to take Evan to school. Closing the front door behind him, Freddy looked at his brother sympathetically.
“You shouldn’t have come here” Freddy said, as he motioned Josh to sit on the couch. “You know how Michael gets around you. At the very least, you should have waited until a time when he and Evan weren’t home.”
“I tried to call you” Josh replied, as he sat down with Freddy on the couch “but I couldn’t get a hold of you.”
Freddy blushed, as he remembered that he still hadn’t replaced his communication device. After the police confiscated his previous one during his arrest a few months earlier, he never had the chance to buy another one to replace it. Not with his campaigning keeping him so preoccupied.
“Yeah, about that. I haven’t had the time to replace my communication device.”
“Oh, why? What happened to your old one?”
“Well…”
Freddy began to explain to his brother about his campaign and the various issues that came with it. Leaving out the parts with his transformations into Buddy, Freddy told Josh as much as he was comfortable sharing with his miscreant brother.
Times hadn’t been very kind to Josh. When Freddy moved out of his house the minute he turned eighteen, it left Josh feeling lonely as he headed into high school. Not knowing how to deal with his feelings constructively, he began to act out more than he had before. Freddy’s parents, distressed over their son’s bad behavior in school, cracked down on him hard. This made Josh resentful and caused him to rebel against them and authority in general.
Josh was suspended from high school three times, before he decided to drop out at sixteen. From there, he ran with a bad crowd, who abused drugs and committed petty crimes to survive. Feeling stuck in his home town and afraid of a crack down by the police, Josh moved down to Los Angeles to try to pursue a career in show business.
With no high school diploma and developing a drug habit, Josh found that he couldn’t hack it in Hollywood. Feeling depressed and isolated from his family, Josh spiraled further into a life of hard drugs and short stints in prison. Only recently did Josh get himself clean, something he was proud to tell Freddy in his conversations with him.
“That’s great, Josh!” Freddy exclaimed, as he gave his little brother a great, big hug. “I’m so proud of you.”
“Heh, thanks” Josh replied meekly. “It’s not that long and I’ve gone sober before, but I really want to stay clean this time.”
“First of all, good for you. You managed to kick the habit. That’s incredibly difficult to do and you should be proud of yourself for it. Second, every day of sobriety is another day to celebrate. Take it one day at a time.”
“I appreciate the encouragement, Freddy. I really do. But I didn’t come here for a pep talk. I really need your help.”
Freddy cocked his head, as he saw Josh nervously try to find the courage to ask him a favor. It wasn’t in Josh’s nature to ask for help. When he felt things needed to be done, it was important to him to take care of it himself. However, he found that he couldn’t overcome this obstacle, no matter how hard he tried. With humility, Josh gathered the strength to ask his brother a favor.
“Freddy, can I stay with you guys for a little while?”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Josh. Not while I have Michael and Evan around.”
“I know, but I promise not to bring any drugs into your house and I won’t invite the wrong types of people over either.”
“Josh.”
Freddy put his hands on Josh’s shoulders, signaling him to look him in the eyes.
“Josh” Freddy continued. “I appreciate you coming up here and asking me for help. I know it’s not easy out there, even with the changes that our government has made in recent years. I want to put you up, I really do, but I’m not the sole vote in this household. Michael will immediately say no and I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be around Evan.”
“Can’t you ask him?”
“You saw how he handled you even stepping foot in my house…our house. He’s not going to take it well if I ask him to put you up.”
“Just for a couple of days, Freddy. It’s hard for homeless people like me to get housing. The bureaucracy around here is so tough and I don’t feel comfortable making myself vulnerable to the police. They suck.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Please Freddy. Please try to reason with Michael that I’ll only be here until my number is called on the homeless housing list and then I’ll be out of your hair for good.”
“Why didn’t you try to get housing in LA?”
“Because I want to get out of that place, Freddy. It’s caused me a lot of trouble and only given me grief.”
“You got suckered into drugs here in our hometown, remember?”
“It’s different now. The drugs around here are gone. It’s easier to stay clean here than back where I was. Please Freddy. Please try to reason with him.”
Freddy sighed, as he tried to find a way to make all the parties involved happy. He loved his brother Josh, even if he didn’t live a totally straight and narrow life. He wanted to make sure he didn’t slip back into drugs. The longer he was out on the street, the likelier it was that he’d fall off the wagon again. He wanted to help his brother stay clean. More importantly, he didn’t want to lose his brother to an overdose.
On the other hand, he knew his husband Michael would put the kibosh on Josh staying in their home, even for just one night. He had an obligation to keep Evan away from drugs. Even though Josh said he was clean, he didn’t want to risk Evan getting caught up in it by his own brother.
Making a decision, Freddy looked his brother in the eye and gave him an answer.
“I will try to talk to Michael when he gets back, but you need to make yourself scarce when I do.”
“Where should I go?” Josh asked.
“Anywhere but here. Do you have Michael’s contact information?”
“No. Why would he give it to me?”
“Here.”
Freddy gave his brother Michael’s contact information and led him out the door.
“I will contact you one way or the other if Michael says yes or no” Freddy said, as he led his brother outside. “It’ll be easier to have this conversation with him if you aren’t physically present.”
“Ok” Josh replied, as he stepped outside “but actually remember to call me back.”
“Of course. We’ll talk later.”
Freddy gave Josh a hug, before he went inside and closed the door behind him. A few minutes later, after Josh had left, Michael arrived home and stormed into the house. When he got inside, he saw Freddy sitting on the couch in the living room.
“I hope that good for nothing brother of yours is gone” Michael said, as he stood over Freddy, looking extremely angry.
“He’s gone” Freddy replied calmly. “Come sit down.”
Letting out an exasperated groan, Michael sat down next to Freddy, who put his arm around his shoulder.
“Calm yourself, Michael. He’s not here anymore. You can relax now.”
“He had a lot of nerve showing up like that and as I’m getting Evan ready for school. Evan’s anxiety levels are high enough already. I had to spend several minutes calming him down before I dropped him off for the day.”
“Well, is he calm now?”
“Yes, Freddy, no thanks to your brother. Or you, for that matter.”
“Michael, come here.”
Freddy gave Michael a kiss on the lips, which was returned with equal passion. After several minutes of making out, the two of them broke it off and leaned into each others shoulders.
“Are you calm now?” Freddy asked.
“As calm as can be expected” Michael replied honestly “considering all the shit I’ve been dealing with the last several months.”
“Michael, I need to ask you something.”
“Don’t say it.”
Michael sat up and scooched over to the other side of the couch. Respecting his need for space, Freddy stayed on his end and faced Michael with a look of pleading on his face.
“Michael, I have to ask.”
“Don’t.”
“Michael.”
“I know what you’re about to ask me and the answer is no.”
“Michael, please hear me out.”
“No.”
“Michael.”
“No, I’m not letting that good for nothing brother of yours stay in our house. Not for one night, not for one day, not for one hour. No, no, no.”
“Michael, please listen to me.”
“No.”
“Can I at least make my pitch to you first before you say no?”
“No.”
“I’m going to say it anyway.”
“Then I’m going to leave.”
“Please don’t leave.”
“Then don’t say it.”
“Michael, I have to say it. If you love me, like you know I love you, then you will at least hear me out.”
“Freddy, there’s nothing you can say that would even remotely change my mind. Why would you even want to needlessly agitate me, knowing what my answer is going to be?”
“Because I love you and I also love my brother and I think you owe it to me to at least hear me out. Please, Michael.”
“No.”
“Josh has been sober for one year now.”
“How do you know this? Has a professional guidance counselor certified this or are we going off your brother’s word, which is meaningless?”
“He said he’s been sober for a year now.”
“Uh huh, sure, ok.”
“And he recently came back here from LA because he wants to escape the drugs.”
“Good for him, but he’s not our problem.”
“First of all, he’s not a ‘problem,’ Michael. He’s my brother.”
“His problems are not our problems, Freddy.”
“And might I remind you, that by being married to me, he’s your brother in law.”
“He’s not my flesh and blood.”
“Neither am I, but I love you like you are anyway.”
“Freddy, I’m not letting him stay in our house.”
“Michael, he’s on a waiting list for housing in town and needs a place to stay until they call his number. I’m afraid that if he stays on the street, he’ll fall back into drugs.”
“Presuming he’s even sober now.”
“It won’t be a long time—“
“Freddy, let me stop you right there. I don’t need to hear your pitch. Let me give you a much needed reality check about your brother, Josh.”
Michael stood up and looked down at Freddy with a serious expression on his face.
“I’m going to rattle off what’s happening here” Michael went on “because I don’t even need you to tell me what Josh’s sob story is. I have heard this so many times before, I could recite it in my sleep. Josh is sober now, for a year, which is what they always say. He’s waiting for housing, which never seems to come, either because he never bothered to apply for it or it doesn’t exist. He needs a place to stay for just a few days, but as you very well know, a few days is really a few months or more.
“He’ll keep the drugs out of the house, as he smuggles in cocaine and heroin into the garage. He won’t invite the bad people he runs around with over here, as he hosts them until 4 or 5 in the morning. He’ll work on getting a job, which never seems to come, perhaps because no one wants to hire him. I’ve heard all this shit before and the fact that you allow yourself to get suckered into it is extremely upsetting to me.”
“I’m not giving up on my brother, Michael” Freddy said, as a tear fell from his eye. “He’s my baby brother and I love him. Maybe you don’t understand this because you didn’t have any siblings growing up, but as his big brother, I have a responsibility to look out for him, to take care of him and protect him. He’s not one to ask for help, Michael. If Josh is coming here now, then it means he’s desperate. That means, as his big brother, I need to be there for him at his time of need. He needs me right now, Michael. Can’t you understand this?”
“He’s trying to hoodwink you into hooking him up with a place to stay. He gives no definitive timeline as to when he’s going to leave, when he’ll get a job of his own or what his overall strategy in life is. You’re blind to this because of your support for him as his sibling, but you have to snap out of it and look at this logically.”
"Might I remind you, Michael, that your mother fell into drugs and managed to turn her life around and get herself sober."
"First of all, don't you dare talk about my mother like that. And she got herself clean and stayed clean because she actually listened to her parents and got her shit together. She had a plan and stuck to it. She went back to school, got married and got a good paying job. Josh has done none of this, so you have a lot of nerve to try to compare your good for nothing brother to my mother who is an absolute saint."
“Michael, you have to listen to me.”
“Aren’t you concerned about what kind of influence Josh could have on our son? It’s bad enough he’s dealing with all the stress and pressure from your useless campaign for mayor and the fact that you don’t spend enough time with him. Now, at a vulnerable moment in his life, you’re going to introduce a bad influence who will steer him in the wrong direction? You complain about who his biological father is, but then want to flare up his genetic weaknesses by making him susceptible to drugs?”
“Michael, I know all of what you’re saying has validity to it, but I just want to help him out.”
“What about us, Freddy? Why don’t you help us out for a change? Why don’t you stop trying to be the world’s savior and start trying to be a superhero to your actual son?”
Freddy started to sob, as Michael looked down at him sympathetically. He sighed, as he sat down on the other end of the couch and waited for him to finish crying. When he was done, Freddy looked up at him and spoke to Michael softly.
“Why didn’t you try to comfort me just now?”
“Because I didn’t want you to rebuff my advances, especially since you’d say they were insincere.”
Freddy thought for a minute, before realizing that Michael may have been right.
“I guess you’re right” Freddy said as he sniffled, wiping the tears away from his eyes. “I just don’t know what to do. I'm really worried about him, Michael. I know I need to be there for you and Evan more than I have been, but I also feel that I have to put Josh up somewhere where I know he’ll be safe.”
“Why don’t you ask your parents?” Michael suggested.
“I don’t think they are going to want to put him up.”
“I wonder why that is?” Michael remarked sarcastically.
Freddy glared angrily at Michael, whose gaze was ignored. He continued to sniffle, as Michael tried to come up with a plan. Before he could do so, he saw Josh’s name pop up on his communication device.
“Son of a bitch, Freddy. Did you give Josh my number?”
“Yes” Freddy admitted. “It was so I could keep in touch with him.”
“Ugh! Oh great. Now we’ll never get rid of him. You know the minute you get a new communication device, which you should have done months ago, I’m blocking his number.”
“Hello?” Freddy said, ignoring Michael’s comment.
“Hey” Josh replied on the other end of the call. “So what did he say?”
“What do you think I said, asshole?!” Michael yelled, as Freddy tried to shush him.
“He said no” Freddy replied “as I told you he would.”
“Did you tell him I’m sober and that I’m just waiting for my place on the housing lottery?” Josh asked.
“I told him everything you said to me and he still said no.”
“Why don’t you go stay with your parents?” Michael asked, with a nasty tone in his voice. “They’re supposed to love you unconditionally, seeing as no one else—“
“Enough, Michael!” Freddy yelled.
“I’m sorry to be a bother” Josh replied. “I don’t want to hold you guys up anymore.”
“No, wait! Let’s go over to mom and dad’s place and see if they’ll put you up.”
“They aren’t going to put me up, Freddy.”
“It’s worth a try."
"Michael is right. I'm good for nothing and don't deserve to live. I'm going to go now."
"No! Josh, wait! Where are you now?”
“I’m by the dog park, where we used to play with Fido and Shadow.”
“I’ll be over there in five minutes. Wait for me there. Try not to run off.”
“Ok, Freddy, but again, mom and dad are not going to take me in and I don't see where else I can go.”
“Let me try to talk to them. I’m heading over there now. See you soon. Don't go anywhere.”
Freddy ended the call, as he looked at Michael with an annoyed expression on his face.
“I hope you’re happy” Freddy said, as he got up to leave.
“Freddy” Michael responded indignantly “I’m not happy. I’m just trying to do what’s best for our family. I wish you could see that and do the same thing.”
Freddy huffed, as he stormed out of the house. Sinking on to the couch, Michael let out a long sigh. He knew that Freddy was attached to his brother, unreasonably so in his estimation. However, he hoped that someone else would take him in. Even if he didn’t want to admit it, he’d feel guilty if Josh ended up dying on the streets.
When Freddy took his brother Josh to see their parents, they….