Chapter 10

At a quarter after three the girls were wrapping up their shopping and were headed towards the food court. Roger, Collins and the boys had been browsing in the music store. Both Tony and Roger had purchased new strings for their guitars. Collins then went to the book store and made a few purchases. Then they all met back up and headed to the food court themselves.

The girls were already there and Tori, Gabriella, and Lea had gone to order some food. Gwen looked up and saw the guys coming. "It's about time they got here." she said.

Angel looked up as well. "Gwen, wasn't Roger pushing Alex's stroller when we got here?" she asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Because now he's not pushing it and neither is Collins. In fact I don't see Alex at all." Angel said worriedly.

"You don't think they…" Gwen said and trailed off. "Surely they didn't."

"I wouldn't put anything past Roger." Angel replied and got up. "Roger where's Alexander?" she asked.

"He's right here." Roger said back in exasperation. "Angel I can handle a few children. God it's not even that serious."

"Right where Roger?" Collins asked noticing that the child wasn't with them. "You don't have him and neither do I."

"Tony where's your brother?" Angel inquired of the boy.

Tony shrugged. "Uncle Roger was pushing the stroller and then I didn't see him after we left the music store so I thought that Uncle Collins had him."

"Okay nobody panic, I'm sure he's around here somewhere." Roger told them. "We'll just have to retrace our steps and Alex will be right where we left him."

"Right where you left him?" Tori said as she, Gabby, and Lea walked over to them. "You left Alex somewhere? Uncle Roger what were you thinking, do you know how many kidnappers and child molesters are out there?"

"Chill out Tori." Roger said. "We're going to find him. Look we'll split up. Angel you, Gab, and Roberto can go look up at customer service and see if anyone found Alex. Collins, you, Gwen and Lea go look at all the places you went to. Tori, Tony and I will retrace my steps. Whoever finds him will call everyone else."

They all went their separate ways. Tori pulled out her camera. "March 23, 2006 3:45 pm EST. My little brother is lost in the mall. I warned Uncle Roger about what could happen if he brought us all here. But did he listen to me? Of course not, no one does. What if he gets abducted by a rapist or a drug addict, or a serial ax murderer?"

"Would you can it Victoria?" Roger growled. "Okay I should have listened to you. But I didn't, and now Alex is lost. So you can stand around blaming me if you want, or you can help me find him."

"Fine." Tori huffed and put the camera away. They walked a little bit further and came upon the music store. Their was a commotion going on in front of the store.

"What's going on?" Tony asked a salesman.

"There's a kid in there that's screaming his little lungs out. No one's claiming him. Not that I blame them." he answered.

Roger, Tori, and Tony exchanged looks and hurried into the store. They followed the sound of the screaming and sure enough, sitting right in front of the Alternative Music section was Alexander.

"Oh thank God!" Tori exclaimed and picked up her brother. "Oh Alex I was so worried about you."

"Yeah it's good to see you little man." Tony agreed. "See Tori Uncle Roger was right. We found Alex right where he left him." He turned to Roger. "This is where you left him right?"

"Yes, this is where I left him. Let me call the others and then we'll get out of here. I've had enough excitement for one day." Roger responded.

Tori flipped out her camera once again. "So we've found Alex. He was safe and sound just like Uncle Roger said he would be and I'm so glad. I learned from this little outing that Uncle Roger is just as irresponsible as I thought he was, but he's trying and that's what really counts."

Roger smiled when he heard that and he put his arm around Tori. "Girl you are so much like your parents that it's not even funny. I'm sorry that I wasn't paying attention to Alex and I promise that I'll never let anything like that happen again. So, are we cool?"

"Yeah Uncle Roger, we're cool." she replied.

They met back up with everyone else, and headed out to the cars so they could go home. When they got there, Angel and Collins grabbed up their kids and left. Gwen left a little after dinner with a promise to return when Mark and Maureen got back. The kids and Roger settled down in front of the television to watch the Saturday night movie. At eight-thirty Roger put Alex to bed and Lea went around ten. Soon it was just Roger, Tori, and Tony who were up.

"Hey Uncle Roger?" Tony asked after a while.

"Yeah?"

"I was born when you guys used to live in that loft right?" he wanted to know.

"Yeah. We moved out about six months after you were born. Why?" Roger replied.

"Well that means it's a part of my history. I think I should go and see where you guys used to live." Tony responded.

"You'll have to ask your parents about that one Tony. It's so not my place to take you there if they don't want you to go."

Tony fell silent, thinking about what his uncle had said. Then Tori spoke up. "Uncle Roger, Daddy once told me that you, Aunt Mimi, Uncle Collins, and Aunt Angel were sick. But he wouldn't really tell me what you guys had. I mean it has to be something bigger than a cold, right?" she asked.

"Yes Victoria. It's much bigger than a cold. Your parents never told you about um, what we all have?" Roger responded.

"Mom tried to once." Tony replied. "But Dad stopped her. He said that we didn't need to know because it wasn't relevant at the time."

Roger shrugged. "Maybe one day he'll change his mind." he said. "Hey I'm going upstairs for a while. I'll be back." He went up to the guest room, pulled out his cell phone and dialed Mark's cell phone number.

"Hey Roger." Mark answered. "Which one of my kids is dead?"

"None of them are dead Mark." Roger replied. "Although we did have a little scare with Alex today at the mall. But that was quickly resolved."

"I don't even want to know." Mark said back. "Just as long as they're all okay."

"They are. Alex and Lea are in the bed and Tony and Tori are downstairs watching T.V. Their chores and homework have been done and everything's under control." Roger told him.

"Good. So what's up then?"

"I was just wondering why the kids don't know that Mimi, Collins, Angel and I have AIDS." Roger said gently. "I know that it's not my place to tell them, but why haven't you?"

Mark sighed. "It's not important right now Roger. You guys are doing fine and I don't want to worry them. You know how much my kids love you, they'd never let you guys out of their sight if they thought you were dying." he replied.

"But we are dying Mark. Slowly but surely, we are dying. Don't you think it would be more painful for them if we just died and they didn't know anything about why?"

"Why are you asking about this now Roger?" Mark wanted to know.

"Tori brought it up a minute ago and I was just curious." Roger was quiet for a while. "You know Mark, now that Mimi's pregnant there's a good chance that something could go wrong. And I hate thinking like that, but it's the truth. Our baby could come out HIV positive, and I really think that all the kids should know why."

Mark sighed again. "Look Roger. You have a good point. We'll talk about this when Maureen and I get back, okay?"

"Okay." Roger answered. "Night Mark. Tell Mimi to turn her phone on."

"Got it." Mark said and hung up.

Roger called Mimi and they talked for about an hour. Then he went back downstairs. The kids were asleep on the couch. Roger woke them up and sent them to bed. He made sure all the doors were locked and then went to bed himself.