High Seas Series : The Mary Joyce

Wil wandered back to the table set in the bamboo and said, "OK, what's up?" The young man replied and he pulled his wallet out of his pocket, "Sir, I am Danny Tangimora, I am your Housekeeper's son and I work for Kailua Security. I am also the head of your security detail. Mama also works for Kailua Security. We are going to keep you all safe, Mr. Lo Chi has informed us of the problems and those guys will have to go through us to get to your sons! We are going to move your ship closer to the house and put in a pier that we can walk down to check the ship regularly. We are not going to go around like policemen, we are just going to be regular fellows, but never fear, we are all well trained and there are more of us that you have not spotted yet!" He let out a whistle and men began to pour out of the bushes! He continued, "There will be six men on duty at all times. We all live nearby, so commuting is not a problem. We do insist, however, that we drive you wherever you wish to go and we will keep all your cars under our own control. We will do all the maintenance on the vehicles and no one but ourselves or you folks will be allowed anywhere near them unless you are with them and they are your guests. If you are ever being coerced or threatened, you or your family is to call out, Mr. Nagasaki, I need you! That is a code that you are being threatened." He showed Wil his credentials and the snub-nosed .38 Police Special he carried in a holster under his shirt. He looked directly at Wil and said, "Captain O'Toole, there is gonna be NOBODY get through us to hurt you OR your family! My youngest brother, Min, is also a licensed Third Mate and will be with you whenever you are onboard your ship."

They got settled in their new house and all the boys had started school.

Madam Lo Chi had called to notify them that she was relocating to Honolulu to be with her husband and children. The Music Festival would be held at the Waikiki Shell in December and she was counting on Jowto to be her featured performer. Wil chuckled as he replied, "Madam Lo Chi, I should have invested in a company that makes face tissue, Johnnie's singing is keeping the tear ducts in our eyes running clean!" He held out the phone so she could hear Johnnie practicing on the veranda.

She laughed and said, "I hear what you mean, that child make the stones of the mountain weep!"

Wil asked, "Have you heard his own composition, 'The Happy Boy Song'?"

She replied, "No I have not, is it good?" Wil told her that it was the most passion laden song he had ever heard, it would wring tears out of a dry sponge!

He had hardly hung up the telephone when it rang again, it was Jim Jenkins, formerly their Security Ops Controller. Jim said, "Wil, it is finally done with, I am retired. Is that offer to join you in Hawaii still open?"

Wil laughed, "Of course it is, Bill has taken over one of the bungalows and has it fixed up for a couple of old swabbies and whatever menagerie they can collect on our trips."

Jim replied, "How is that little rascal, Billy Junior doing?"

Wil could no longer keep a straight face, he started to laugh and couldn't stop.

Jim groaned and said, "Good Lord, what has he gotten into now?"

Between talking and trying to choke down his coffee, Wil said, "The little guy took the telescope apart to see how it works and it took Pedro three days to reassemble the darned thing!"

Both men had a good laugh over that and then Wil asked, "When are ya' gonna come out here and be part of the Family?"

Jim replied, "I have reservations to fly out the day after tomorrow. I have a four hour layover in Honolulu before I can catch the plane to Lihue, I should be in Lihue about six PM on Tuesday. Bill already knows, so don't worry about picking me up at the airport."

Wil said, "Jim, there have been some security changes here, we will need to send our car, with Bill in it, otherwise, you won't be able to get in the gate."

Jim asked, "Are you having some trouble there?"

Wil replied, "No, but we don't want any and prevention is a whole lot easier than having to rescue any of the boys!" Jim agreed with him and told Wil that he would see them in a couple of days. Wil was thinking that maybe they could use Jim in their surveillance business; he would have a discussion with him when he got there.

The phone rang again, Wil had hardly put the thing down and it was ringing again! The voice on the line identified himself as Navy Captain Peter Bullard and he would like to come over and meet with him the next day.

Wil laughed a bit and told the man, "Fly into Lihue Airport and I will send a car for you. Be sure to have lots of ID on you and anyone you bring with you, we have a new security system now.

Captain Bullard asked, "Are you having problems?"

Wil replied, "No, not yet, but the folks who had kidnapped our latest acquisition of boys, has put out the word that they were going to take them back. We aim to prevent that!"

Captain Bullard replied, "Well, I will be bringing my own security expert, maybe they can compare notes!" They both signed off and Wil felt his stomach growling a bit, he looked at his watch and figured that it was just a few minutes until lunch, so he would wander up to the house and see what Mrs. Tangimora had fixed for lunch.

The boys were all at school, except for Pedro, who had pulled a Patrick stunt and tested out of his senior year. Pedro was drowning in booklets from various universities and several were asking if they could send a live representative to talk with him and his father! The boy was looking very hard at Texas A & M, their Galveston Campus looked like a place he would like to go! Wil told him it was a fine school and that he would get about the finest education to be had in all of America.

Andy McKesson, the Joyce's Boatswain (Bos'un), with little Kee holding onto his hand, came across the yard. Everyone had begun calling Kee, Little Boats, the little boy was not sure what "Little Boats" meant, but all the big boys said it with smiles on their faces, so Kee was pretty sure it was something nice. Andy had been to the Lawyer's that morning and completed the paperwork for adopting Kee and making him Kee Andrew McKesson.

The tiny boy was proclaiming to anyone within earshot, "Me Kee 'Kesson!" Wil smiled at the two, he couldn't figure out who was more proud, Boats or his new son!

As he entered the house for lunch, he glanced upstairs, he could hear Johnnie practicing and he spotted Trong sitting on the floor in the doorway, his eyes glued on his Jowto. There was no question, those two boys were a couple. They didn't hang on each other and smother the other, but he kept his eyes on Jowto all the time and was ready to go to war with anyone who looked like he was going to hurt the boy he loved!

There had already been a confrontation at school, the middle school bully was going to be out a whole semester so that he could heal!

As they sat down for lunch, Wil announced that the new Navy Intel Coordinator was coming for a visit and he would probably have a new assignment for them.

Mrs. Tangimora picked up her ears at that and made a mental note to let her son, Danny, know about the visit.

When she called him, Danny laughed, "Mom, Mr. "O" already let me know. By the way, how is that little singer boy, Jowto, doing?"

Mrs. Tangimora smiled and replied, "Danny, he sings like one of God's Angels, he is going to be a big hit at the 'Shell by Christmastime!"

All the boys had grown to love Mrs. "T's" cooking, there was never anyone late to the table! Her special lemon pie was worth killing someone for, or, at least maiming them for life! She always baked enough so that every boy could have seconds, sometimes, even Wil and Oscar could wheedle a second piece from her!

The day arrived that Captain Bullard was supposed to arrive. They got all the little boys off to school and Jowto and Trong were safely delivered to middle school. Only Pedro was at home.

Pedro was busy at the dining room table filling out his application for admission as a freshman and providing all his scholarship information. The doctors at the USPHS had pushed through their offer of a full scholarship for him and he had a ten pound wad of papers with all the information and numbers on them. He had borrowed the use of Wil's Xerox machine to make copies of each page and, by the time he had the application ready, he felt he was keeping the Postal Service in business!

The Captain arrived and Wil greeted him at the door, he introduced his Intel sidekick, Lieutenant Benjamin Ickes and both men came in the door.

Lt. Ickes laughed, "Sir, it would be easier to get into the Crypto Room at the Pentagon than it is to get through the gate of your house!"

Wil explained the need for all the security and then pointed at Pedro, filling out his forms at the table. He said, "That boy is one of the reasons we have the security."

Lt. Ikes said, "Yeah, I heard about him, he IS Pedro Robbins, right?"

Wil replied, "Yes, and it looks like he is going to Texas A & M, down at Galveston."

The Lt, grinned, "I sure hope so, that's where I graduated five years ago! It's a great school and the scenery on the beaches is wonderful, they build those girls something great in Texas!"

Pedro looked up and waggled his eyebrows at the Lt. and they all laughed. They didn't need to know that he and Patrick had sworn their life fidelity to each other. In fact, even Wil did not know for sure, but he suspected and knew when the time was right, the two young men would tell him.

Wil told them about Pedro and what he had done, both men were impressed and told Pedro so. Pedro picked up his papers and told Papa Wil that he was headed to the Post Office to mail them off.

Oscar arrived for the meeting and Bill was already sitting at the table, so Wil proposed they begin. Captain Bullard told them that there was a slavery ring operating out of Portland, Oregon and was collecting youngsters in Asia and delivering them to a depot in Portland for sale all over the United States.

Wil snapped at the senior officer, "Yes, we know, we have six of their slaves living with us right now! Just who do you think Pedro was working on as we came home from our last mission?"

Captain Bullard replied, "Yes, Captain, that is why we want you and your ship to put them out of business! The Coast Guard can't seem to get near them and the Navy seems to leak secrets like a sieve. They know when a Navy ship is looking for them and they lay low for a while." He growled, "They must have spies among our own people, if I ever catch whoever is funneling information to those damned slavers, there won't be enough left of them to hang!"

Oscar had entered the room and said, "You won't get a chance, Captain, we got a whole damned crew who would happily tear them apart, you can start with our Bosu'n, Andy McKean, USN, retired, Master Chief Petty Officer!"

The Captain was curious, "Why him and not someone else?"

Oscar replied, "'Cause Boats has one of those boys, he adopted him as his own son, little Kee isn't but five years old and they were gonna make a sex toy out of him!"

Just then, Boats came in the room looking for Kee.

Oscar said, "He is upstairs in Johnnie's room, last I saw, he was fast asleep."

Boats headed up the stairs and Oscar said, "THAT is Boats! He is six foot-eight and weighs in at three hundred and ten pounds. Not an ounce of that is flab!"

Captain Bullard shuddered and said, "My God, how does that gorilla even sleep?"

Wil laughed and said, "In a custom made bed, the same on the Joyce, we had a bunk made special for him!"

They all watched as Boats came back downstairs, cuddling a tiny boy in his arms. The little boy was hugging his Papa and planting kisses on his cheek. The two went outside and they watched as Boats was teaching the child to play ball.

Captain Bullard murmured, "I almost feel sorry for the slavers, if that man ever gets ahold of them, all that will be left are parts and pieces!" Wil replied, "Yup!"

They resumed the meeting and it was decided that the Mary Joyce O'Toole was to sail to Portland to look around and then sail back and forth across the mouth of the Columbia River and see if they could spot the slavers.

Captain Bullard said, "They seem to be most active during the summer and that would likely the best time to find them."

Wil replied, "That will be fine, but we must be free no later than the last day of August."

Captain Bullard asked, "Why is that?"

Wil pointed at Pedro and said, "See that young man, there is no way he would allow us to go after those slavers without taking him and he WILL be entering Texas A & M in mid-September! I would not survive telling him he could not go!"

Pedro was sitting in the chair, his arms crossed and a Cheshire Cat grin on his face!

Lt. Ickes spoke up, "It was you, Pedro Robbins, who fixed all those kids up, wasn't it?"

Pedro replied, "Yes sir, it was and Pop Wil knows right well that I will do anything to help put those buggers out of business!"

Lt. Ickes looked surprised at the "Pop", but decided he wasn't gonna rock any boats with these people; he wanted to go WITH them!

The Lt. looked down at his hands for a long time, then he said, "Captain O'Toole, I was a "lost boy" as a child and I grew up in an orphanage. I wouldn't wish that, even on someone I hated! I saw things and, yes, I had things done to me that only God and I know about. The Navy gave me a chance to climb out of that cesspool and make something of myself. I hope to be able to sail with you, sir and, just maybe, I can help save some other boy from the same fate I had to go through."

He looked at Captain Bullard and said, "Sir, as much as I love being in the Navy, I will resign my Commission, if need be, to be able to go with them this summer."

The Captain chuckled and replied, "Son, I have a better idea, how about you be the permanent liaison with Captain O'Toole and his crew. If the Captain doesn't mind, we will set up an office for you right here and you will be our contact in all this business."

The young Lieutenant looked at Captain Bullard as if he had just climbed from under a damp rock. He said, "What about..."

The Captain interrupted him and said, "Benjamin, if you are here, we can cut out whoever is feeding the slavers information about what we are going to do before we know it ourselves." He then said, more kindly, "Ben, I think you would be more happy here than in that damned office in the Pentagon."

Ben replied, "That's true, Sir, I am not the social dandy that the rest of the junior officers are."

As part of her job, Mrs. Tangimora was keeping her ear tuned to what was going on in the meeting and she stopped one of the maids and sent her upstairs to put sheets on the bed in the spare bedroom and hand clean towels in the adjoining bathroom for Lt. Ickes. She could see a frightened little boy under the façade the young Naval Officer carried on his face, she was going to show him what a REAL home and family was like!

They got down to business and the Captain told them what they knew about the slavers. He said, "There is someone here in the States that coordinates the whole thing. He evidently sends an order to his contacts, probably in Hong Kong, and they snatch children off the streets from all over China and ship them out. Most likely on freighters and they are then turned over to smaller vessels in the Gulf of Alaska as they come around the Great Circle Route. These smaller vessels make their way to the Columbia River and deliver the children someplace between the mouth of the river and before they get to Portland. The smaller vessels are commercial fishing boats and they blend in with all the other boats in the harbor.

Pedro came over to the table and asked, "How many children do they pack into those fishing boats, Sir?"

Captain Bullard replied, "Not as many as you would think, they either are limiting their losses if one of the boats is caught, or they are being delivered to a lot of different places."

Pedro said, "I would suspect the later, Sir. If they use a lot of different dealers, should one get caught, they are not in trouble."

The Captain looked at Pedro in a new light, he thought, "This kid is sharp!" He replied, "Well, how would you go about tracking them down?"

Pedro thought for a moment and then said, "Start on the streets of Portland, find one of the kids that has just been sold into slavery and rescue him or her and work backwards. When you find a local dealer, dispose of him and replace him with one of our own people and wait for the next delivery. Then, POW!" Continuing, he added, "There can't be but a few locals involved, otherwise the secret would get out. Once you have the locals in the "can", you can find out who is their local contact and you move up the ladder until you know when the ship is due. Slavery is an international crime, the Law of the Sea will allow you to stop the ship and take it and its crew into custody, then you can notify the Crown Governor in Hong Kong who to arrest." (Author's note: this story takes place before Hong Kong was taken over by the mainland Chinese Government.)

Everyone thought that was a workable plan and Pedro gathered a couple of his brothers and they carried Lt. Ickes' bags up to the guest bedroom for him.

Pedro found him sitting on the bed in tears, he sat beside the young officer and, when he stopped crying, he held his hand and said, "Ben, all us brothers have been where you have been, we know what you are going through, please, let us help you through this." It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship, as strong as that of blood brothers!

They began getting the Joyce ready for sea. Min Tangimora joined them in preparing the ship. He got just as dirty as they did and he joined in all the chores that needed to be done. He was a cheerful young man, a slightly smaller version of his older brother, Danny. He certainly knew his ships, he tuned the radar and rove new lashings on the main sails, showing the boys how the lashings worked.

Min showed Wil the weapons he brought with him, including a three-inch rocket launcher along with two cases of rockets! He said to Wil, "Sir, I was not born into the Tangimora family, they rescued me from my owner in downtown Honolulu when I was six years old. His body was never found and I have received their love and shelter since that time. They even sent me to the mainland for schooling at the Maritime Academy, now, it is payback time. Those criminals are gonna pay for what they did to me and all the other children they have sold into slavery!"

Wil appraised the young man, he shivered a bit, this young man would have no mercy for the slavers, only their death and destruction. He was not a small man and he looked to have the strength of a bull ape!

Min was kind and patient, however, with all the boys living in the household and he soon became a favorite every time there was a group activity. Pedro watched him carefully, to make sure he was not a threat to his brothers, but he could find no fault in Min and the younger boys were rapidly developing a "Hero Worship" of young Min Tangimora.

The Mary Joyce O'Toole was ready for sea, Jim had asked to accompany them, he didn't want to be separated from his son, Bill. Wil thought Jim would be a good addition to his crew, he spoke Korean and several of the Chinese dialects, including the official Mandarin. He could also make himself understood in Tagalog, Portuguese and Spanish, all languages that were common in the Pacific. Besides, having a retired Navy Captain onboard could prove very useful in some circumstances.

Pedro demanded also to be included in the crew, he had a personal score to settle with the slavers! He figured they would be back home before he had to do anything further for school.

They sailed on a Saturday morning to the wails and cries of the children left behind. It broke all their hearts to hear their cries, but this was not one of the fun cruises, this was war and people were going to die. It was their job to see to it that those who died were on the opposing side!

Oscar had the bridge as they departed, he had promised the children that he would blow the air horn as they rounded the point leaving Nawiliwili Harbor and he would blow it again when they were coming home.

As the Joyce began her turn to clear the harbor, Oscar pulled on the rope that controlled the air horn, the horn sounded and echoed across the small harbor, he held on to the rope until the air tank was exhausted. All the children left behind, were gathered on the dock, their cries and tears, flowing as they watched the Joyce start her turn to leave the harbor. When Oscar blew the ship's horn, they covered their ears and waved "Goodbye" to their Daddies and older brothers.

Jowto and Trong were the oldest now, and they gathered up their brothers and held each one tightly, until their tears had stopped, they sat on the lawn as Johnnie (Jowto) sang his Happy Boy Song to his brothers and, pretty soon, their smiles began to emerge.

Poor Mrs. Tangimora was in the kitchen, crying her eyes out at the song Jowto had sung, she, too, had a loved one on that ship, even though Min was not a child of her body, she loved that young man beyond reason and his sailing off was tearing her heart apart! She prayed that he would be brought back to her, safe and uninjured.

Ben Ickes decided he would begin an intelligence clearing house, he had set up a code with Jim to transfer any intelligence sent to them by Captain Bullard, onto the Joyce. That evening, a message came from Captain Bullard, he knew of the arrangement and approved of it. He sent the name of the ship they were looking for, "DAWN GLORY".

Ben quickly encrypted the information, using the substitution code he and Jim had set up, using the Hawaiian language alphabet as the substitution. He sent the identifier first, 1-21. That would tell Jim that the letter "A" would be substituted by the 21st letter in the Hawaiian alphabet, and each other letter in numerical order would follow, thus "B" would be substituted by the 22nd letter and so on. He sent in the text, "NAME OF SLAVE SHIP IS DAWN GLORY, SAILED HK ON MAY 16." Numbers were sent in the clear. The radio operator on the Joyce copied down the garbled message and brought it to Jim.

It took Jim just a few minutes to decode the message and then he told the Radioman to deliver it to the Captain. Wil looked the name up in the Ship's Registry and found the Dawn Glory; Liberty Ship, triple expansion steam engine, 10,000 tons, China Registry, insurance cancelled. Wil's first thought was, "OH CRAP"!

He turned to Oscar and said, "The damned ship is a scrapper, probably on its last voyage. Even the insurance has been cancelled!"

He showed the message to him and Oscar's face went red in anger as he muttered, "Bastards".

Wil set their course to put them about two hundred miles off the coast of Vancouver in hope of intercepting the old freighter before it offloaded any of its cargo of children. Wil plotted an assumed course for the Dawn Glory and it approximately crossed their own course at two hundred miles west of Vancouver. He figured the Dawn Glory would be there about on May 28th, so he planned on being at the same place by the 25th. He ordered the engines put on line and the Joyce responded by leaping forward, as if eager to complete her mission.

Two days out from their hopeful intercept point, Min started laying out the weapons he had brought on board, he mounted the rocket launcher as high up as he could on the wheelhouse roof and the two 50 caliber machine guns were placed alongside it. He had three grenade launchers and he mounted one up on the bow, one up on top of the wheel house and one on the fantail. With what had already been installed, the little sailing ship bristled with armaments!

Min asked for some boys (he called them MEN) to man the machine guns and he would man the launchers himself.

Almost on schedule, they spotted the Dawn Glory come up over the horizon, laying down a cloud of oily, black smoke along her course. The ship was clearly on its last legs, they could hear the floating scrap heap clanking and pounding at every revolution of the main engine

Wil steered the Joyce on an intercepting course and, as soon as he had range, Min dropped a rocket on the Glory's bow!

Wil got Jim up on the bridge and handed him the loud haler, Jim shouted out in Mandarin, "STOP SHIP, LOWER ACCOMMODATION LADDER, NOW!"

It took another rocket before the ship's master obeyed and Oscar led a boarding party of men and the older boys, all armed to the teeth. The Captain met them at the ladder, protesting loudly about pirates! Min shoved his machine gun in the man's stomach and said in good Mandarin, "You want to die?"

The old Chinese Captain went pale and backed off.

Min demanded, "Where are the children?" The man tried to claim no knowledge of any children and Min let off a burst of 50 caliber bullets between the man's legs. The old man promptly wet his trousers before he led them to a cage in the forward hold.

They left two seamen on deck, covering the crew, it took only once for one of the crew members to move, the bullets struck the deckhouse inches above the man's head. He never moved a muscle after that, nor did any of the others.

When Oscar saw the condition of the twelve boys in that cage, his own anger went off like one of Min's rockets, the boys were covered in their own filth, their clothing, what there was of it, was in shreds. The boys crowded away from these newcomers and would not come out of their cage.

Oscar hollered for Min to come down and speak to the boys, they finally came out of the cage, timid and very frightened. They had always been told that the white men were bandits and thieves and would hurt them. When they saw Min, who was Chinese just like themselves and he spoke the Exalted Language, they came out of the cage like frightened rabbits. (Min was a Chinese boy who had been rescued and brought into the Tangimora Family, which was Japanese) They were covered in filth and smelled like an open sewer, but the men from the Joyce did not care, they were boys and they were hurt!

They got them down to the launch and Min told the Captain of the Dawn Glory, "You may go, we are reporting you as a slave ship, maybe you can get back to your masters before some ship spots you and blows you out of the water, but I doubt it. If I ever see you again, I will kill you with my bare hands!"

As soon as they got back to the Joyce, Min had the radio operator send out the message on the common band, "DAWN GLORY APREHENDED CARRYING SLAVES ANY SHIP FIRE UPON DAWN GLORY AT SIGHT!" That message would also be received on the Dawn Glory, they would know they were doomed.

They got the boys cleaned up and everyone donated clothing for them. Most of it did not fit well, but it did cover them and help keep them warm. Pedro sat with them and attended their wounds, Min translating for him.

One of the older boys spoke a little English and he asked Pedro, "Yu brown boy, slave too?"

Pedro was very serious, he spoke slowly so all who could, would understand him, "No, I am the Captain's son, he rescued me like you have been rescued. He made me his own son and I will soon be going off to University to become a real doctor!"

The boy began to weep and said, "Me no got father, soldiers shoot him. Will he be me Papa too?"

Pedro screamed for Wil to come down to the mess, quick!

Wil hurried down to the Mess and was greeted by twelve nearly naked boys being bandaged by his son by association with Oscar, Pedro. Their wounds were awful, oozing sores and untreated cuts. Several of the boys showed signs of having been beaten with a lash, and gobbets of flesh hung loosely on their backs. Pedro was busy trying to treat their wounds as Min spoke to Will and told him what the boy had said.

Wil went over to the filthy boy and knelt down beside him, "Yes, I will be your Papa, or any other man on this ship will be your Papa. Can you tell the other boys what I have told you?"

The youngster nodded his head in the universal sign of "Yes" and began speaking rapidly to the other boys.

Min was now standing beside Will and told the boys in their own language, "None of you boys will be turned out, we will care for all of you."

Wil said to Min, "Tell them we are taking them to our own home, not some government intern camp." When Min had translated that, the boys looked at them in wonder, several said, "no slave more?"

Wil said for them all to hear, "NO SLAVE, YOU FREE BOYS!"

Jim composed a message to be sent to the Pentagon, telling them that they were returning to home port with a load of boys they had freed from slavery and that the Dawn Glory had been identified and it was headed back to Hong Kong.

They heard later that the Dawn Glory never made it back to Hong Kong, nor did it show up at any other port and was presumed lost at sea.

As soon as the boys had been fed, Wil turned the Joyce around and headed for Hawaii, her throttles wide open!

Pedro worked with the rescued boys the entire time it took the Joyce to return to Nawiliwili Harbor, treating their wounds and combatting infection.

All twelve boys were undernourished in addition to their wounds, Cook broke out anything he thought would encourage the boys to eat, Min showed him how to fix Chinese and Japanese specialties and, by the time the Wailua Light was spotted, the boys had become more alive and they were eager to see their new home. They even had smiles on their faces, it had been days before the first boy beamed a smile!

Just as it was getting dark, they spotted the Nanini Point Lighthouse, marking the entrance to Nawiliwili Harbor. As they steered the Joyce around the breakwater, Wil pulled on the rope for the ship's horn and, as he had promised the children, he let out a blast that ended only when the air tank was exhausted.

To their surprise, the little harbor was filled with small boats, blasting their own horns in salute to the Joyce! Cars were parked in the parking lot and their horns added to the noise greeting The Mary Joyce!

Wil's Family and close friends were waiting on the pier, as the first line went over, they heard the clear sweet notes of Jowto singing his Happy Boy Song to the newcomers.

The children they had rescued didn't know what to make of all the celebration, they had been poor and like slaves even before they had been captured, nobody had ever helped nor loved them before.

By the time Jowto (Johnnie O'Toole) had finished his song, the new boys were in tears, as well as most of those looking on.

Pedro led the frightened boys along the pier and onto the lawn, where Mrs. Tangimora stood, standing guard over a table laden with food. She knelt down as the boys drew near and said in their own language, "This food is in celebration of your arrival and for you to know that you are all safe and welcome among us."

The boys timidly looked around, there were no men with whips, nobody was holding out chains of bondage for them and there was a group of boys who looked just like themselves, there was the boy who sang to them, surely he must be one of the Gods of Heaven!

Jowto walked out with his true love, Trong, and welcomed the boys home. He sang the Gladness Song before saying in the High Language, "Eat, my BROTHERS, eat your fill and, if you remain hungry, we will bring out more food for you!"

The rescued boys walked slowly up to the tables, expecting at any minute for the whips to lash out, but none came.

There were no whips, no hateful words or commands to step back. There were only boys like themselves standing there and filling plates to be given to the new comers. One little boy among the newcomers, he looked to be no more than four or maybe five years old, held up his plate and asked for some more food, Jowto and Trong both led the child up to the serving table and filled it again with the foods the little boy pointed out.

They both returned to the table with their own plates and sat on either side of the small child. Halfway through his second plate, the child could not keep his eyes open any longer and he nodded off to sleep. The two teens laid the child across their laps and growled at anyone attempting to take him from them.

Wil was under no illusions, he KNEW he had another son in his family, maybe a Grandson! He had seen it before and all the signs were there, Jowto and Trong had selected themselves a son.

All the folk who had come to welcome the boys home were invited to the feast and many came away envious of those that lived at O'TOOLE HOUSE, they had the best food in town!

When all their guests had departed, the new boys were either carried or led into the house and shown the big bedroom where they all could sleep together, until they became used to living with them. That is, except for the little boy whom Jowto and Trong had carried up to the house, he was headed for their bedroom and would soon be their son!

They gently washed the boy and found some pajamas that kind of, almost fit him. They laid him on their own bed, sleeping between the two big boys. Trong sang softly, the Sleeping Song that Jowto had written, just for him to sing to their new son.

The adults were standing in the hallway, just outside the bedroom where the little boy had been taken. There was not a dry eye in the lot of them, after Trong had finished the song. Trong sang like a frog, but nobody cared, they were all weeping at what he had sung to the little boy.

Wil was not sure how he was going to arrange it, but that little boy belonged to those two and he was determined it was going to happen! If he had to march through Hell and drag the water back!

One slave ship down, but there are others and the gangs at both ends of the trail have yet to be dealt with!