Someone To Watch Over Me
by Purple Lacey
Part Four
As promised, Buck began on the lower floor of the house and took Ezra into every room. The décor was a wash of warm colors and masculine furniture that had been chosen more for comfort than style. The rooms were large and inviting with high ceilings and plenty of space for a little boy to stretch out and play on the thick, well-padded carpets that covered the floors. Wandering from room to room with his new foster father, Ezra thought it looked just like he had imagined a real home would look.
Buck started his tour at the back of the house with the wash room by the kitchen where he rinsed the boy’s hands and face of the lunch that had not made it into the little mouth. Since they were already close to it, next came the large dining room that could easily seat twenty people but still somehow managed to come across as cozy.
The living room was more formal. While still decorated in the warm earth tones that adorned the rest of the house, the dark mahogany wainscoting and heavy leather furniture in the room made it feel too much like the one in his step father’s home to be comfortable to the little boy. He didn’t linger there long.
Their next destination was more to Ezra’s liking, being the big den that housed a state of the art entertainment center complete with the largest television screen that the little boy had ever seen. There were three large, comfortable sofas and several large recliners spaced around the room, all with good views of the large screen TV of course. In one end of the room were a couple of pinball machines and a foosball table and a flat table that Buck informed him was for air hockey.
Ezra was enchanted by the big sofa that sat in the middle of the room facing the TV straight on. Buck showed him how to pull back the tops of the arm rests on each end to reveal video game controllers that could be used to operate the game system that was also hooked into the big television. Buck promised they would play some later after their tour and ride. The sofa also hid a telephone, and wonder of wonders, had switches that made different sections vibrate to give a very soothing massage. The child spent several giggle-filled minutes being vibrated before moving on.
Ezra was captivated with the floor to ceiling shelves overflowing with books that lined the walls of the library. Ezra loved to read and be read to. In the short time he had browsed around before they had moved to the next room, Ezra had discovered quite a few familiar children’s books on the lowest shelves and even more books he had never seen before but that he looked forward to reading with Buck later. Buck assured him he was welcome to help himself to any book that he wanted.
The big man encouraged the child to poke into closets, drawers, and cabinets and generally explore his new environment. Buck wanted Ezra to feel comfortable and at home in the house. Giving the child explicit permission to investigate everything was the quickest and most efficient way he could think of to do that. He also thought the boy would feel more secure knowing where everything was in the house.
He tried to gently impart the rules of the house as they went, wanting Ezra to learn there were boundaries but not wanting to come across like the house tyrant to a little boy that had already had too much experience with the breed. Buck had quietly pointed out the few things that the child was not allowed to touch such as the office machines in his home office – especially the paper shredder.
“You’re welcome to come into my office anytime I’m there, but I will ask that you not go in when I’m gone,” Buck said looking down at the little boy as he set down the rule. “Everybody needs some private space and this one is mine, alright? Sometimes I bring home work and there are a lot of important papers and stuff that I need. They’re not really very interesting, but I do have to have them so, please, don’t touch, okay?”
Ezra nodded solemnly and replied earnestly, “I won’t. I promise. I’ll be real good.”
Buck hugged him close and said, “I know you will.”
Eventually the pair went upstairs. Buck opened the door and let him look into JD’s room but didn’t allow him to enter, explaining that it was JD’s private space and they needed his permission. Buck’s room was across the hall from JD’s so the first bedroom Ezra was shown was catty-cornered to Buck’s and shared a bathroom with JD.
The room was large and was painted in a striking blue trimmed in white that Ezra found very attractive. The furniture was a modern style in a light colored wood. Ezra looked over the room carefully and thought it might make an acceptable bedroom, but decided to withhold final judgment until he had seen the other choice.
The second bedroom was next door to Buck’s and had its own bathroom. Ezra walked into the room and immediately fell in love. The walls were painted a rich, woodland green and trimmed with a lighter shade of green. The carpet was a matching hue, thick and luxurious. There were the requisite chest of drawers and a chifforobe along one side of the room with a matching desk and chair taking up space against the opposite wall.
It was the large four poster bed that drew the boy’s attention like a magnet. The bed was huge and obviously an antique. It was made of a dark wood that had been lovingly polished by generations of owners until its wood gleamed. It was covered with a charming patchwork spread that mingled greens, scarlets and browns in a clever pattern that made Ezra think of the sun rising in a forest.
“If you like this room we can get you some more furniture,” Buck informed him, thinking of the race car bed JD had loved as a child.
The dismayed look Ezra turned on him at the statement had the man backpedaling quickly, “Or not, if you’d like this stuff.”
Ezra looked relieved and answered quickly, “No! I like this. I want this room, please...just like it is.”
Buck shrugged and grinned down at him agreeably to say, “Sure thing. If this is the room you want then it’s yours. We’ll let Nettie know so she can tell Bob which room to leave your new stuff in.”
Ezra beamed back and then ran to the large bed. He climbed up onto the high mattress and sat for a moment bouncing happily. “It’s so soft!” he squealed with delight and ran his hands over the pretty spread admiringly.
What Buck didn’t know was that the bed reminded the child of the one his “Aunt” Rebecca had owned. His mother had left him with the strange woman while she took off to get a divorce from her fourth husband, not wanting to be bothered with the care of the child while she waited to establish residency in an alimony state and started the hunt for her next husband/victim.
Rebecca had been one of the few adults in Ezra’s life to ever treat him well. In the nine weeks the child had stayed with the woman he had gotten a glimpse of what a real family could be. Rebecca had welcomed him into her home and treated him just like one of her own three children. One of the best memories the child had was snuggling up with the others in Aunt Rebecca’s big four poster bed on Saturday mornings and watching cartoons.
Ezra looked at the giant bed in his new room and felt that same sense of family surround him. Ezra looked over at the big man watching him with loving indulgence and patted the bed beside him in invitation, wanting to add his new family to the experience. Buck obligingly crossed the room and joined the boy on the bed. Ezra sidled up closer and nestled up against the man’s side throwing both arms as far around him as he could.
Buck wrapped his arms around the boy and held on tenderly.
“You really like the bed, huh?” he asked softly.
A little head nodded and green eyes turned up to look at him adoringly as the little voice whispered, “It’s a good bed. It’s a lovey kind of bed.”
Puzzled the man looked down and questioned, “A lovey kind of bed? What’s that?”
The little boy shrugged and held on tighter.
“It’s a bed for everybody to climb into to be together when it’s cold or scary or somebody is lonely or just to be with each other because they want to be. It’s for sharing and that’s a good thing. My Aunt Rebecca had a lovey bed and she let me snuggle in it when I was there with her family. I always wanted one too, but my mother never liked lovey beds. Now I got a family and a lovey bed of my very own!”
Touched beyond words, Buck swallowed back the lump that suddenly formed in his throat. The man knew that although Ezra was associating it with the bed, what the child had actually been wanting was the love and affection he had been denied by his own mother. Buck renewed his vow that the callous woman would never be allowed to hurt this precious child ever again.
“You’re exactly right,” Buck answered in a voice made hoarse by the emotions he tried to control, “that’s a real good thing.”
Ezra nodded and sighed in contentment. The pair was still sitting there companionably when Vin stuck his head around the door frame then entered the room.
“There you are. Me and Nettie thought you’d gotten lost”
“Look Vin!” Ezra cried out excitedly to the watching man. “I got my own room and my own lovey bed!”
“I’ll explain later,” Buck mouthed over Ezra’s head when the other man looked confused.
“Looks like you chose the best one alright,” Vin assured him with a smile.
“Come see!” Ezra said and held out a hand for the policeman.
Vin obliged the child and walked over to take his outstretched hand. Ezra determinedly pulled him down until he was sitting on the boy’s other side. Ezra kept one arm wrapped around Buck and shifted the other one to wrap around Vin. Vin dropped his own arm around the little shoulders, leaving Buck’s arm around the boy’s waist. Both men heard the boy give a deep sigh of happiness and could almost feel the joy radiating from the little body.
“Miz Nettie threw me out of the kitchen, too,” Vin informed them with a laugh. “She got mad at me when I snitched some of the frosting for the cake she’s making for tonight’s dessert without waiting until she was done with it. I got nothin’ to do now. I was wonderin’ if you’d mind some company on your ride?”
Ezra looked over at his guardian hopefully, wanting Vin to come too but not wanting to risk making Buck mad by answering the question out of turn. Buck smiled at the boy and nodded.
“Okay by me. The more the merrier, right Ezra?” Buck said.
Ezra began to nod then the men watched him stop and consider something seriously for a minute before asking, “Will we all fit on your horse?”
Vin and Buck laughed and Buck ruffled Ezra’s hair and reassured him, “It’s alright. Vin can ride one of the other horses. We don’t all have to ride on the same one.”
The little boy looked relieved.
“I promised you a ride, Ezra,” Buck said letting go of the boy and standing up. “I think you’ve waited long enough for me to make good on that promise. What say we head on down to the stables.”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Ezra cried with excitement, leaping off the bed and onto the floor to grab at Buck’s hand and turning back to look at Vin expectantly
“Right behind you, little pard,” Vin assured him, rising from the bed.
Ezra grabbed Vin’s hand with his empty one and started eagerly pulling the men toward the door.