SECRET LIFE SECRETS REVEALED

New Year Old Issues

As everyone prepares for the New Year's Cookout, Leo is making sure he has everything prepared for the day.  He has steaks, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, ribs, and vegetables ready for the grill.  He looks over everything hoping they will be enough to feed his guest.  He also looks at the games and activities he prepared for the kids.  As he is doing this he looks up at the outside tree in the garden where Ben's tree house stood.  He goes over and still wonders' how to get in.  Ben as a child asked the carpenter to make it hard to get inside.  He was always surprised Ben was so secretive about his business when he was in there but Ben did get the tree house after he saw Tom Cruise in "Mission Impossible II" and wanted to be like "Ethan Hunt".  Even now literally twenty years later not he, Henry, Alice, Chloe, or Camille had ever found a way to get inside.  When he asked the carpenter who built it how to get in he said that it was a trade secret only Ben would know.  The carpenter was good at his job, even now nearly twenty years later the large tree house still stood strong and firm through earthquakes, fires, storms, and the collapse of their family.  

Camille: Thinking about old times.  (comes up behind Leo as stands staring at the tree house)

Leo: Yeah, I was just wondering if Ben will ever tell me how to get inside.

Camille:  Maybe he will tell Sarah, and she can take the other kids up to take a look.

Leo: Maybe.  So they are coming?

Camille: Yeah, I don't think Ben wants' to come.  But Sarah, convinced him.  It seem's you Boykevich men are all wrapped around fingers of your daughters;.

Leo: It does seem that way.

Camille: Plus, Vincent and 3-Jay were already coming as dates to Lauren and Clementine, so I think Ben decided it was okay to come since he has back up just in case.

Leo: In case of what?

Camille: In case things don't go as smoothly as you are hoping.

Leo: I just can't get it Camille when did this all become a fight between everyone.  Ben was a good kid, they were all friends how did they become enemies?

Camille: Sweetie I don't know.  But to be honest, I think they were never really friends.

Leo: What do you mean?  Alice, Henry, and Ben grew up together they were like siblings.  Ben tried to marry Amy, and he was married to Adrian.  I mean yeah, there's bad blood between he and Ricky, but Ben was always there for all of them.  When,.. no why would he think of them as enemies now?

Camille:  Because he was always there for them, and they weren't really there for him if they were at all.  I mean sweetie, none of them, not even Adrian ever mentions Mercey.

Leo:  We don't talk about that either.

Camille: And that is why Ben see's us the same way as he see's them.  None of us talk about her.

Leo: But stuff like that is difficult to talk about, and it's painful.

Camille:  Yeah it is, but not talking about pain doesn't make it go away and it doesn't make you feel better either.  Ben had to deal with so much, and I think we all just ignored just how much he was put through.  No we ignored what WE PUT HIM THROUGH.  He was there for all of them, and us.  But none of us were really there for him.

Leo: But we tried to be Camille you know that.

Camille:  All I know is I never once asked Ben about how he felt after his mom died.  I never asked him about his relationship with Amy.  I never talked to him about his relationship with Adrian or how I never really liked Adrian or Amy.  I never talked to him about how he lost his daughter, or how he was dealing with the issues he Henry, and Alice were having.  I never even asked him about how he felt about your marriage, and divorce from Betty, or us dating and getting married.  But I did punch him in the face for what he said to me about us getting married on top of him finding out everyone else was getting married. We never even talked to him about us adopting Chloe.  We all just did what we were going to do and expected Ben to accept it, and deal with it.