Chapter Five
Mr. Hawthorne and I stood watching each other silently, assessing each other and I was surprised by the faint smile on his lips. I heard laughter and loud voices and turned as four boys rounded the corner and walked straight toward us. They looked at me curiously and in return I assessed them automatically.
“Come along, boys, you can all get to know Kage on the jet.” His presence was intimidating, not only because he was tall and broad shouldered, but also because his aura demanded respect.
“Hey,” we all murmured to each other as Mr. Hawthorne turned down another hallway and I followed the group of boys who all seemed close and I was the outsider yet again.
I looked around uncertainly and I felt nervous as the other four boys followed him onto the tarmac. They greeted another man standing there with high-five’s and mounted the staircase and disappeared into the jet.
I made my way onto the jet and halted. Mr. Hawthorne watched me with a curious expression on his face and I was still awe struck by the lavish interior of the jet.
“Make yourself comfortable and strap in tight for takeoff,” he said. He was seated in a plush chair and adjusted his safety belt.
I mimicked his actions and sat quietly as he unfolded a newspaper and the pilot announced that we’d be taking off. It was the first time ever that I’d been on a plane and I gripped the sides of my chair as my stomach lurched into itself and my ears popped when the plane leveled out.
I had noticed the similarities between myself and the four other boys the moment I’d seen them. We all had blue eyes, were relatively tall but were in different stages of muscular development. The other boys looked happy, well dressed, well fed and they didn’t look poor like I did.
I was way out of my league here and it didn’t sit well with me. “Are you a weird freak with a kink for young boys? Because I’m warning you now, nobody’s touching me.”
Amusement flashed in his eyes as the other boys watched me with open mouths. “No, Kage. I’m perhaps a little odd, but I promise you, nobody will touch you.”
Laughter broke out and the other four boys were howling. Mr. Hawthorne smiled too, and I wasn’t sure if I was the butt of the joke here or if they just thought my statement had been funny for some reason.
“You are now a Hawthorne along with Sloan, Castiel, Miles and Endri. You can call me Alexander. We’re flying to Jamestown in North Dakota, where we will live, and where hopefully, you’ll settle in with us,” Alexander said.
“Alexander Hawthorne,” I whispered as recognition finally registered in my mind and I looked at the man in awe. “You played for the Rangers.”
“Do you like hockey?”
“Yeah,” I said and looked away.
Alexander Hawthorne had been a defenseman for the New York Rangers. He was a living, breathing legend and I knew his stats by heart. I hadn’t seen many pictures of him without his hockey gear on and he looked different now. He’d been one of the best, forced into retiring at the age of thirty-two after a serious knee injury from a car crash.
One of the boys got up from his seat and sat down next to me. “I’m Sloan and we’re all moving to Jamestown, so it won’t be just you that’ll be the new kid in town.” He had jet black hair and his eyes seemed to hold intelligence. His hands looked strong even though his fingers were long and lean.
“Kage,” I said, even though he already knew my name.
“I know you’re wary, Kage, but in time you’ll see that I have your best interest at heart. Just like your new brothers learned to trust me, I’m hoping you will too,” Alexander said.
For the rest of the flight I kept quiet and observed. I memorized their names and tried to get a read on Alexander, who seemed too good to be true. His words sounded sincere but the little life experience I had, told me not to trust anyone.
If something was too good to be true, it’s usually because it was.
Alexander didn’t do anything to alert me on the flight. A stewardess served us dinner and gave us headphones so we could watch whatever we wanted on the screens in front of us. They had an endless supply of snacks and sodas and for me it was like the Christmas I’d never had.
I didn’t sleep for the entire six hours we were on the jet, to afraid that we would crash. The thought of waking up dead made me smile but then I gathered that waking up dead might not be so bad. At least I wouldn’t know I was dying; I’d just be dead.
The same stewardess gave me a pillow and a blanket, and I could hear Alexander typing away on his laptop, every now and then a soft pinging sound came from it. I was to nervous to sleep or perhaps I was a little excited too. Hope bloomed in me that I had long forgotten existed.
I squashed that hope immediately. For as long as I could remember, hope was something that dragged you down. Hope didn’t bring relief, only pain. I would keep my head down and my eyes open and see what Alexander was all about.
There was no way that any person just adopted a sixteen-year-old because he was a good person.
I later learned that the other four boys had also been adopted by Alexander, all at different ages. Miles had been the first one to be adopted and Castiel the last one, three years earlier. I immediately thought of Stockholm Syndrome. They could be so brainwashed by his abuse that they really did love him.
“You seem hesitant, Kage,” Alexander said softly, and I sat upright.
“No offence, Mr. Hawthorne, but life has taught me to be wary.”
“Being wary isn’t a bad thing, being closed off to anything good is,” he said, reminding me of Joe. “I was in the system too and I was heading straight to juvie until I was adopted by a man that gave me hope back and ultimately, my life. I guess you could say that this is me paying it forward.”
“I think I’ll reserve my judgement for a later time.” Alexander nodded his head and gave me another smile, one filled with understanding.
“Whatever makes you feel comfortable. Just remember that life is what you make of it. There is a better way, family can exist without the bonds of blood. You can either be a part of this or not, it’s your choice,” he said.
I didn’t answer him because mostly I thought that the was full of shit. The landing a few hours later was a little bumpy and I let out a breath of relief as the plane came to a halt.