Marty's birthday was October 11. Henry began planning the party right after school started. Ostentatious or not, this was going to be one hell of a party. Henry had a nodding acquaintance with Eddie Matthews when Eddie played third base for the Braves in Milwaukee. Eddie agreed to be at the party. Henry didn't know where to go after that. He'd asked Larry what kids like at parties but as soon as he asked, he wished he hadn't. Larry had never been to a party.
Henry finally got some help from Marybeth Marshall. She took over and planned the party. Beside David, she had three older sons and had considerable experience with boys' parties.
As hard as he tried, Henry was not successful at keeping it a secret. Marty was too smart. He had never been to a party but he had heard kids at school talking about Birthday Parties and he could tell by stuff Uncle Henry did that he was up to something. Marty, of course, knew that his birthday was coming and with all those phone calls that ended so quickly when Marty entered the room and that silly grin on Uncle Henry's face, something was going on. Marty didn't know for sure but he knew how to find out. Out of the blue one day he asked, "Can Stevie come to my birthday party?"
The boy caught Henry so off guard that he responded, "How did you know about your party?"
Marty smirked, "I didn't until right now."
Henry grabbed and tickled the boy and ended up hugging him. "You little rascal. I'm a lawyer. I shouldn't have fallen for something like that."
"Old man like you can't outsmart a kid."
"Old man? I know a Little Bird that's looking to get his wings clipped."
"You couldn't catch that Little Bird."
"Well, sometimes that Little Bird comes around for a hug."
"What if that Little Bird decided not to hug you anymore?"
"O. K., no wing clipping. I don't think this old man could survive without Little Bird hugs.
"Do you really want me to see if Stevie can come? I'd have to get permission from Dr. Collins."
"Stevie's been in that hospital so long. He probably ain't had no fun since he got there. Anyway, he can be nice sometimes."
"Marty!"
"Oh, ya. He probably hasn't had any fun."
Henry had kept in touch with Sarah Collins regarding Stevie. The boy had just plain clamed-up after the Virgil incident. Each time Sarah alluded to it, Stevie became extremely angry, called her vulgar names and screamed that he was not a queer. Stevie's behavior outside his sessions with Sarah was also becoming alarming. He was not displaying a great deal of temper but he was frequently depressed. He also had periods of frantic activity. Sarah saw signs of the beginnings of manic-depression, a disease they were beginning to call bipolar. When Henry called about Stevie coming to Marty's party, Sarah saw her chance. Perhaps she could bribe the boy with the party to get him to talk.
"I won't get mad, I promise," Stevie said when told about the party.
"You haven't been very nice to me. Why should I let you go?"
"I'm sorry but when you ask about Virgil it makes me mad."
"Stevie, you have to level with me. I know that someone with a man-sized penis has been putting it in your behind. Dr. Marshall says your anus - do you know what that is?"
"Ya, your asshole."
"Dr. Marshall says that your anus has been torn several times and has lost much of its muscle tone. That can only happen when something large is put up there very many times."
"What does Dr. Marshall know about anything?" Stevie's remark was more pensive than angry.
"Dr. Marshall is a proctologist. Proctologists study the colon, rectum and anus. Do you know what they are?"
"I don't know colon but I know rectum is like your boy pussy."
"You want to tell me about it?"
"You won't tell people I'm queer, will you?"
"Of course not."
The telling was very unemotional - a kind of detached monotone. Virgil had become his mother's steady boyfriend when he was seven. They had been an item off and on for years. The first night Virgil slept there he came to Stevie's bed in the middle of the night, stuffed a sock in Stevie's mouth, held his hand over the sock-stuffed mouth so the boy couldn't scream and forced his already lubricated penis into Stevie's bottom. It hurt like hell and it bled a lot. When he told his mother the next morning, she said that he was lying and that his asshole was bleeding because he ate too much and that made his turds too big. It was big turds, not Virgil's dick that made his asshole bleed.
Virgil seemed to be his mother's boyfriend only when Stevie wasn't in foster care. The boy had been in foster care at least three months of the year every year since he had been a year old. He averaged about six months a year. When Stevie was in foster care, Laurie Zubor had no idea where Virgil was but as soon as Stevie was back "home", Virgil would show up. When Stevie was at home, it happened almost every night. The only times it didn't happen was when Virgil got too drunk and passed out. A lot of times when that happened, Virgil would make Stevie take a "nap" with him the next day. By the time he was nine, Stevie stopped trying to tell Laurie. If he did, he got slapped and called a liar. He knew that she knew. He had heard her and Virgil fucking one time and she asked Virgil if her pussy was better than Stevie's ass and they both laughed.
He had told his caseworker but she said that she could do nothing about it unless she had exact days and times and that no one would believe Stevie in court. Stevie asked, "Why did she think she could get Mr. Landover when I couldn't even remember anything and she couldn't get Virgil?"
When he turned ten, Stevie told Virgil he wouldn't do it anymore. Virgil said that if he didn't, he'd start with Melissa, Stevie's seven-year-old sister - possibly Virgil's own daughter. Stevie felt helpless. He had to protect his sister so he just let Virgil keep on until Laurie checked herself into the psych ward again and Stevie went to Miller's.
But that move was, in a sense, a sort of reverse malignity -going from the fire into the frying pan so to speak. Seventeen-year old Tony Miller's dick wasn't as big and he didn't do it every day. There was a ten-year-old and a twelve-year-old that Tony took turns with. "Sometimes he'd have two of us in his bedroom and he'd fuck one of us and suck the other. His mother knew it too. She had to. I know she could hear us laughin' and sayin' sex stuff."
Stevie ended his discourse with "With the other kids and Tony it was kind of fun but I ain't no queer."
Sarah's response of, "Of course, you're not", resulted in a violently sobbing Stevie cuddled in her arms.
Henry Schmidt had thought that he had had a pretty full life. He thought he'd seen or experienced most of what was important or exciting in life. But - fifteen nine and ten year old boys fueled with, hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza and an assortment of sugar laced comestibles has to be one of the world's great spectacles. Add to that, thirteen year old Larry, eleven year old Timmy and an assortment of siblings of varying ages and parents, some of whom were caught up in the pandemonium and chose to relive their childhood with their frantically animated offspring - you have some sense of Marty's birthday party.
Since Thomas Jefferson Elementary School drew, not only from the town of Jefferson but also from the surrounding rural areas, some of the children lived as much as twenty miles from Grünfelder. Both Henry and Marybeth thought it would be an accommodation to parents if they did not have to make that trip twice. Therefore, parents and any other family members they wished to bring were invited to stay for the party. Most did. Most people in Jefferson County were farmers. They had heard so much about Grünfelder and were impressed with the its spaciousness, its technical advances and the size and quality of the herd and jumped at the opportunity to actually visit the place.
Henry was more than a little surprised and very proud of Marty. It was obvious that the boy was excited but he was the perfect little host. He greeted his guests as they arrived and in typical Marty fashion organized the whole affair. But he did not come off bossy. He was helpful, and gracious and charming. Where on earth did he learn that? Marybeth told Henry later that she had done a little coaching but Marty's performance surprised even her.
Gifts were opened after the meal. Marty was more than a little taken back. He'd heard of birthday presents but, of course, had never gotten one. Now he had a really, really, really, really lot of them. Apparently Marty Moments were only private "family" affairs now. Marty was one excited, happy little boy but there were no indecorous antics.
Stevie stayed close to Sarah Collins. He was not the Stevie of old. Sarah explained that he had to be kept rather heavily sedated because he was currently in a manic phase. He did seem glad to see the kids from Troller's and did play for a short time with Marty and Freddy but it was obvious that he felt most comfortable at Sarah's side. It was sad to see the formerly cocky, aggressive little boy now almost a zombie. Marty said to Uncle Henry, "Stevie ain't Stevie no more."
"Marty!"
"Oh, ya, Stevie isn't Stevie any more."
LeAnn Murphy was there. Her brother, Richard, was in Marty's class. Larry about died. So did LeAnn. Larry apparently had reason to be drawn to her. She had thought he was cute since fourth grade but she was a little shy and he was a foster kid so the vibes both had picked up were not acted upon. Somehow, during the evening, the vibes became magnetic and they spent much of the evening in each other's company. She, as did almost all of the adults, wanted to see the barn. Reind proved to be an excellent tour guide. Most of the women wandered back to the house but the men remained for the fascinating lecture and demonstration of the most recent advances in dairy farming.
The lecture didn't interest LeAnn and Larry already knew all that stuff. Larry wasn't sure if he should show her his calf. Would she be mad that he named a cow after her?
It turned out that she was thrilled. He must like her as much as she liked him. When they went to the horse barn to see Midnight and Scout, LeAnn was ecstatic. She loved horses and Larry had named his calf after her and everything here was so neat and Larry liked her - so she kissed him on the cheek. "Oh, God" - Larry thought he'd die. He wasn't sure if from embarrassment or "love".
Apparently LeAnn wasn't as shy as Larry had thought and, as it turned out, neither was he. As the two thirteen year olds walked hand in hand back to the house, Larry had to find out. He kissed her lightly on the lips and she kissed back - not so lightly. It was love! Oh, God! It was love. It might have been puppy love but it was definitely love. Both Larry and LeAnn were kind of out of it for the rest of the evening.
The highlight of the evening remained, however, the antics of fourth grade boys. Eddie Matthews just didn't show-up for the party but it made little difference. The kids played hard, acted silly, and were in constant motion. And - they ate prodigious amounts of food. Aaron Goldman was a kind of fat kid but he was fun. He got to showing off and ate five hamburgers, six hot dogs and a whole bunch of pizza. He had so much stuff in him that while the boys were roughhousing latter he puked. Everybody laughed, even Aaron but his mother didn't. She was embarrassed but Marybeth assured her that boys will be boys. Fritz and Corky started to eat Aaron's puke. Yak! Uncle Henry and Uncle Reind washed it away with a hose and you couldn't play in the back of the yard anymore.
Jerry Dissler commented to Steve Brainard, who Marty had insisted be invited that the man ought to make $200,000.00 a year to put up with this. Steve said that schools were a little more organized and that they tried not to let the kids get quite so many sugar fixes. Jerry's words were said in jest, of course. He was getting as big a kick from all this as was Henry who was in a state of almost euphoria all evening. Everybody was having fun and was happy but mostly his Little Bird was very happy and when his Little Bird was happy, Henry was happy.
When Larry was walking LeAnn to her parent's car, they sneaked another kiss after LeAnn had told him what a neat name she thought that Midnight was for his horse. When Larry said that she could come out and ride anytime she wanted, Larry got another kiss. He didn't know that his dad had seen them and teased the boy for weeks afterward, especially after he saw them kissing again when LeAnn came out to ride. She was a little afraid to ride Midnight so Larry asked Uncle Henry if he thought Marty would mind if LeAnn rode Scout. They rode from about four until dark. Reind wouldn't let up but Larry really didn't mind. He liked LeAnn and LeAnn liked him and he really loved his dad and they kind of liked teasing each other. Larry teased Reind about the way he talked.
Betje finally made Reind stop about LeAnn. "You kissed me when we were eleven and tried to do so much more that I had to punch you in the eye."
Larry wondered what else his dad had tried to do but was told that it was none of his business. Larry thought he knew, though.
Most of the left over food was sent home with the Trollers. Dexter and Marybeth and Jerry and Cindy stayed to help Henry and the Friesemas clean up. The people from Madison would come for the tent and the other games tomorrow but by nine o'clock, the place looked pretty good. With all of the kids except their own gone, beers all around were appropriate. It was a relaxed, congenial time. Henry realized that this was the kind of socializing that he most enjoyed. Just like when a kid on the farm - a few friends, and you can't be German without a few beers and some good conversation. Henry was "home" again.
While their parents relaxed, Marty, Larry, Timmy, David Marshall and Daren, David's twelve-year-old brother, frolicked in the hot tub. Their raucous noise and giggling added counterpoint to the joyous music playing in Henry's soul. He had made his Little Bird very happy and it was a wonderful joy to see so many other children having so much fun. One of Marty's boisterous comments, however, drew a chuckle from the adults. "You ain't got a black ass. It's tan."
Daren said, "If my dad ever hears him talking that way again, it will be black - and blue".
Henry hollered, "Marty!"
"Which one, Uncle Henry? Ain't or ass?"
"Both."
"Sorry."
At ten the confab broke up and Dex called to David, "Bring that black ass of yours out here David so I can blue it up a little".
There was a brief tinge of anxiety until David saw the grin on his dad's face. Everyone left and Marty who had been the center of attention for hours had loved it. It was fun but it was not his real world. He quickly put his world back in proper order. Marty was in Henry's lap - thanking him, hugging and kissing him but most importantly doing his very favorite thing - snuggling into him and being kissed and caressed.
The boy was sleepy but he was also thinking. He had no idea that people did that sort of thing for people's birthdays. He got so many presents and he really, really, really liked them but it was happening too fast. Just a few months ago, he had nothing. Now he had so much stuff that he didn't have time to play with everything he had. When you are just ten some things are kind of hard to figure out. Maybe this had been the best day of his life but he kind of felt that something was wrong. It took a while to figure out.
Oh, ya - he had too much stuff and the kids at Troller's didn't have hardly anything. It didn't take him long to arrive at a solution, however. That stuff was his. If he wanted to, he could take some of it to Troller's and share. He finally felt like his birthday was really, really, really the best day of his life. Uncle Henry got a very long, hard hug and kiss.