Fourth of July

Chapter 44

I smiled as we walked around town, looking around the coast of California. I wished Gerard could be here, I'm sure he would love it. We walked into a record shop and I looked at the boy behind the counter. He had dyed blond hair and was sitting on a stool as doodled in his notebook.

"Hey, you're Michael, right?" I asked as I walked over to him. "Michael Way?"

"Mikey, yeah," he said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Frank Iero," I said. "I'm the one who takes care of and adopted your older brother, Gee."

"Oh, yeah, right," he said, looking back down at his notebook as he scribbled with his pen.

"He's doing fine, just in case you were wondering," I said.

Mikey sighed and looked up at me.

"I'm sure he is," he said. "You seem like an amazing person, Mr. Iero. And I know you're doing everything you can to take care of him, I read about you in the magazine. But honestly I'm not close with my brother. He was kidnapped two years before I was born and my whole life my parents just compared me to Gerard even though he was only a year old when he was taken. They were always trying to mold me into what they thought he would be like. They thought he was gonna be some genius doctor or something."

"Well, i'm sure they got quite a surprise when they met Gee," I said.

Mikey snickered and nodded his head.

"They kept freaking out," he said. "When Gee lived with us for that short amount of time they would take away his toys and replace it with a book and Gee would flip. He would scream and throw the book because he refused to read it, nearly knocked my parents in the head a few times."

"Gee doesn't know how to read," I said.

"That explains why he got so upset when they tried to get him to read," he said. "They kept trying to fix him but Gee would only throw fits."

"Gee doesn't need to be fixed," I said. "He's perfect just how he is."

Mikey nodded. "I never said that he did need to be fixed. My parents just thought they were supposed to fix him so he could go to college and get a job."

"I wish he could but he won't be able to do that," I said. "The chances of him being able to catch up to people his own age is extremely slim. The doctors told me that they think the highest mental age he'll get to is maybe nine but he'll most likely stay around five years old."

"What about his size?" Mikey asked.

"No, he's permanently stunted because he was so malnourished," I said. "I mean, he's twenty and he doesn't even way fifty pounds."

"That's really sad," Mikey mumbled. "I can't travel because I'm still just in high school but if he's ever here then call me and I'll spend some time with him."

"Alright, thank you," I said. "My son is his brother and he loves having a baby brother. I think that he'll really like being able to have another brother."

"When he came to live with us I felt bad," he said. "I grew up hating him just because my parents were trying to change me into being how they thought he would be. And then I actually met him and I felt bad. He was just a scared little boy being taken away from everything he ever knew."

"He really is sweet, I know you might not have seen that from him throwing fits the entire time," I said.

"My parents just tell people that he's still kidnapped," Mikey said. "They would rather pretend he doesn't exist than ruin their image because they sent their kidnapped son away because of his disabilities."