Our Boys

The Name

Back in the house's study, armed with a pencil and a notebook, Josh and Ethan began compiling a short list of B and V names from several Hindu websites.

B

Bakul

Balaji

Baji

Bhajan

Bijal

Brajesh

V

Vajarit

Vanij

Vijay

Vikram

Vishnu

Logging off, Ethan leaned back in his chair, staring at the list in his hand. Now, he and Josh just needed a chance to test the kid....

A couple days later...

Josh and Ethan had begun spending even more time with their new little brother, bringing him on visits to the stables in a red wooden wagon that they'd carefully cushioned to protect the kid's leg. The boy had an obvious fascination with horses and was absolutely in awe to meet those owned by the family. Each member of the gang had their own horse and he seemed to love all of them, even Ethan's horse, Neil, who admittedly, wasn't the prettiest of beasts.

During their time together, Josh or Ethan would slip names into their 'conversations', pretending them to be names of kids that had stayed at the camp, checking for reactions on the preschooler's face.

Finally, they were down to the second to last name from the list they'd been randomly drawing from. If the last two names didn't work, they'd have to start over again, but the two were sure they'd been accurate in their selections of probable names.

That day Josh took Illuminate out of his stall and, holding the horse still next to the wagon, allowed the little boy to pet him.

"Yep, Illuminate's a really cool horse," Josh explained to the child. "Kind of moody, but I like 'im that way. More fun taking care of a horse with personality, wouldn't you think, Vik?"

The boy's hand froze mid-stroke and he turned to look at the older boy, his eyes wide with shock. No one had called him by his name in a long time now...not since....

"Yes! So we guessed right? Your name is Vik? Vikram?" Ethan asked giddily. "Nice to finally have a name for you, kid," he commented, ruffling the youngster's hair. "You sure did a good job keeping it secret, though."

Vik scowled at him as he attempted to right his hair again.

Ethan smirked. "Alright, you didn't hide it exactly, but you didn't exactly give any hints."

Vik glared harder at the comment that he'd been purposefully keeping his name a secret. Meanwhile Josh and Ethan high fived, ecstatic they'd managed to figure out the mystery on their own. They might be behind in school but neither boy was stupid by a long mile.

Dinner that night..

The Olatunji-Minter gang was gathered about the table, Vik safely placed in his new booster seat. Everyone tucked into fried chicken, corn on the cob, and buttermilk biscuits, a favourite in the household.

Josh and Ethan had managed to hold their juicy information inside almost all day, reveling in the knowledge that, for once, they knew something the rest of their family did not. Ethan however, just couldn't hold it in any longer.

Turning to the small boy, Ethan spoke out over the noise of conversations. "Hey, pass me some biscuits, would you, Vik?"

The table went silent and everyone apart from Josh turned to stare at Ethan and Vik. Cool as could be, Vik simply took a biscuit from the hot plate and handed it to Ethan, then took a bite of his corn.

"How..." Simon stumbled.

"When..." JJ questioned in utter shock.

"Oh," Ethan started, acting as if it was an after thought. "Me and Josh called Rachel the other day. She mentioned that a couple of the neighbors knew the kid's name was something Hindu. Said it was kind of not the usual name for a little boy, too. We just did a little research and figured it out."

"Why didn't you share this information with everyone else? At the very least, you could have shared with me and your papa!" Simon exclaimed. He tried to act upset, but he couldn't pull it off. He was far too excited to know the name of his new son, Vik.

Vik's attention remained fixed on his dinner plate while sneakily glancing at the others around the table. They were kind of strange, but they seemed to be nice people who genuinely wanted him around. The boys were fun to be with. Harry was always ready to teach him new games while Ethan taught him about football and other sports and Josh took him outside to see the animals and played video games with him while Tobi always spoke to him calmly and kindly. Simon and JJ were pretty nice, too. They made sure he had everything he needed and even things he didn't really need. More important to Vik than the toys and animals, this group of people gave him something that he'd never had before. They gave him a family. It was a new concept to the four year old and... he kind of liked it. He repeated the phrase in his mind, trying to get used to it.

His new family.

Yeah, he kind of liked that.