Chapter 23

"Bless us O Lord and thy gifts which we are about to receive, and thank you for bringing Taylor back to
us…"

Taylor was tiring of all the attention he was getting.  They kept asking him if he was ok and treating him as
if he was ill.  Technically, he was, but it had nothing to do with the abduction.  He had a killer hangover and
the smell of all the food was really getting to him.  He was now sitting in the living room of his aunt's home
where all the younger members of the family had gathered.  It seemed to him they'd been avoiding him all
day.  And they had. For two weeks now, the family had been abuzz about "poor Taylor" and how he'd
"never be the same", the "awful things" that had happened.   So, naturally, they didn't know how to act
around him now that he was "different".

Thankfully, Mackie came in and climbed up in his lap.  "Here, Ike said to give you this."  In his hand was a
plate with a turkey sandwich and two aspirin on it.

Taylor took the plate and sat it on the arm of the couch.  Mackenzie stared at him.  "What?"

"You hafta eat!"

"I'm not hungry."  He stated.

"Grandma says you need to eat or you're gonna waste away."  Taylor rolled his eyes and Mackenzie reached
up and took his face in his hands—"I don't want you to waste away, Tay.  I missed you last time you went
away and Mommy cried."

He grabbed the plate and said, "Okay, I'll eat this.  But,--"  Mackenzie watched his lips carefully, "I need a
Dr. Pepper first."

"Dr. Pepper?!"   Taylor nodded.  "I'll get it!" he exclaimed  and he jumped down and ran towards the
kitchen.  "Mom!"  he yelled— "Tay needs a Dr. Pepper.  I watched him and I heard him!"

"Oh, that's great, honey!"  Taylor heard his mother.

In a few minutes, he proudly brought a tall glass of soft drink to his brother.  Taylor smiled at him and put
his hand out for a high-five.  Mackie slapped his hand then sat on the couch next to him as he swallowed the
pills down with a long gulp of the drink.

Avery and Jessica walked in at that moment.  "What's wrong?"  the older girl asked.  Taylor pointed to his
head as he took a bite of the sandwich.  "Gotta headache?"  He nodded and took another bite, surprised at
how good it tasted.  "Scoot up."  She said.  He did and she slid in behind him sitting on the back of the
couch and started massaging his neck and shoulders.  Oh, yeah, he thought.  This kind of attention, I can
handle.

"Jess, quit it!"  Mackie spat at his sister.  "He can't eat if he falls asleep!"

"Oh hush!  I need him better so he can be on my team for football—you know he's got longer legs than
anybody.  And besides, Zac's already on the other team and Tay's the only one he won't tackle!"

"Ha!"  Avery retorted, "did you see how mad Zac was this morning?  He'll kill him!"

Taylor turned to his brother and sisters and glared at them.  "Hey!  I'm NOT deaf!"  he said as he pointed to
his ear for emphasis.

Avery patted him on the head and said, "We know, honey.  Now, hurry up and eat so we can go play."  The
two girls promptly got up off the couch and went out the front door.

Taylor looked up to see the eyes of all his cousins on him.  Zac entered the room with a large slice of
pumpkin pie in his hand.  He stopped at the door and looked back at Taylor—"You playing, or are you too
sick?"

It was obviously a challenge and everyone knew it.  Taylor nodded.  Zac went out the door followed by
almost all of the under 18 crowd that had been packed in the living room only moments before.  He grabbed
his sandwich and went out, followed by Mackenzie.  He finished it as he went down the concrete steps on
his way to the backyard.  There, the two teams were about to face off.             After about a half hour of
play, it was obvious to the spectators that Jessica's team had the speed and Taylor wasn't nearly as broken as
all the adults in the family led them to believe.  But, what the other team lacked in the running department,
they made up for in brute strength.  If caught by them, you were going down.  Somehow, Zac and the twins
all three ended up on the same team.  Everyone was afraid of Aaron and Kirk, they'd inherited their height
from their father's side but were solidly built like their mother.  They'd started out being easy on Taylor, but
had soon forgotten when he'd outrun them for two touchdowns.

When Taylor got the ball this time, they were ready.  He wasn't the only one to score on them but pride was
at stake, so they were determined it wouldn't happen again.  As he tried to go between them, Kirk was able
to grab his shoulder to slow him down and Zac, with a move similar to the one he'd used on his brother in
the infamous lip splitting incident, got him around the neck and slung him around and he hit the ground hard
on his side with Aaron falling on top of him.  Not only did they knock the breath out of him, but the pain in
his ribs, which had been injured a couple of weeks earlier, had returned threefold.  The testosterone high
wore off quickly as the other players realized Taylor was hurt.

Avery ran to the house immediately, not waiting for an order.  Jessica tried to get everyone to back up a
little—Taylor's face was an alarming shade of red and the grimace on his face left no doubt he was in pain.
He hadn't been able to take a deep breath yet, his lungs just weren't cooperating.  He rolled over onto his
back and finally was able to breathe again.  Zac now was bent over him—"Tay, I'm sorry—we didn't mean
to hurt ya—Aaron got tangled up in your feet—"

"Let me through!"  Walker's voice overpowered Zac's.

"Dad!"  Jessica shouted, "he got smashed!"

When Taylor was able to get oxygen finally, his head cleared and the fear gave way to anger.  Walker made
it to his sons just in time to see Taylor punch Zac in the chest hard enough to knock him backwards and
cause a domino effect with some of the onlookers.

"Taylor!  That's enough!  Zachary, help me get him up!"  Zac got on one arm and Walker on the other and
they pulled him up to his feet.  No one was sure what all he was saying to Zac, but the meaning was pretty
clear as he wrenched his arm away from him.  He walked slowly to the house with his arm held tightly to his
side as everyone watched.

As they approached the deck, Diana lit into him.  "Are you insane, or just stupid?!"  Now, everyone relaxed,
if his mother was yelling at him like that, then he must be OK.  It was decided the game would
continue—the absence of Zac and Taylor was no problem, the teams were still even.

Inside the house, Taylor was surrounded by not only his mother, but the aunts.  The men had gone back to
the family room to revel in real football, leaving Zac and Taylor to be dealt with accordingly.  As Donna,
who was a nurse, was looking at Taylor's ribs, Zac was being ripped by his mother.  "He shouldn't even have
been playing, let alone being tackled by you!  Good grief, Zac, what were you thinking?  You outweighed
him by thirty pounds a month ago, now it's probably fifty!"

"I didn't force him to play, Mom!"

"I don't care, you should have known better!  Now, get in the living room and stay there!"

Zac got up and slunk in the other room where "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving"  was  playing on television.
He flopped down on the couch and mumbled a few things under his breath.

"Do you want to continue this conversation with your father, or are we finished?"  He didn't say anything
more and she said "That's what I thought."

Isaac walked in the front door with the whipped cream he'd been sent for and saw his little brother sulking
alone in front of the TV.  "What's wrong?"

"Nothin'."

"Where is everybody?"

"Outside."

"Then, what're you doing in here?"

"Watchin' TV."

"Oh."  Isaac realized he wasn't going to get anything out of Zac so he went to the kitchen to see his other
brother with his shirt pulled up, flinching as their aunt pressed here and there on him.   "Now what?"

Taylor looked at his brother with disgust on his face.  His aunt Sandy took the bag from him and explained
that his brothers had gotten into a little football mishap and so were in trouble with the parents.

"Man, I miss everything!"

"Shut up, Ike!"  Taylor's mouth moved, but it was Zac's voice.  It was enough to send the room into gales of
laughter.  Zac didn't know what was so funny, but he was sure he didn't appreciate it, whatever it was.   It
was decided that Taylor had probably just irritated the fractured ribs and that he was probably no worse off
than he had been a couple of weeks ago.  He was wrapped in a towel and some safety pins, given four Advil
and sentenced to lay on the couch with Zac.

Knowing they'd been crabby with each other that day, Isaac decided to sit between them.  He carefully
picked up Taylor's long legs and slid under to sit.  The room was starting to fill up again as the football game
had ended.  Without the arch enemies, who were now glumly sitting on the couch it just wasn't the same.

Taylor's foot started going along with the music that was ever present in Peanuts cartoons and after about
five taps to Zac's arm, he slapped the socked foot hard.  "Chill, Zac."  Isaac said to him.

"Well, tell him to keep his stinky feet off me!"  Immediately, Taylor stretched and stuck his foot right under
Zac's nose.  Though funny to their cousins, Isaac was in no mood for their crap.  He backhanded Taylor
perilously close to his sore ribs and the flinch it caused hurt much more than the slap.

As Zac began to laugh, Isaac quietly told him to lay off Taylor.  "Why?"

"Because, I don't care how big you are, I can still knock your head off and because he's a big boy and if he
wants to fuck up his life that's his business.  You're not responsible for him."  Zac just looked back to the TV
and Taylor pondered over Ike's statement, not sure whether to thank him or be pissed.
 
 
 

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