Free Shattered Lives by Joseph Lewis Page B

inscribed with the words Love, Always!  It had been given to him by his father on his tenth birthday, the year his mother had divorced his dad and moved to Omaha, Nebraska, and the only time he ever took it off was when he showered.  He considered it his most cherished possession.
    Danny was almost three years younger than George and the twins and was a close friend to them.  He was also something of a musical genius.  He had spent parts of the past two summers at Julliard in New York studying classical piano and guitar, though Danny had a penchant for rock and country with a bit of blues. 
    Danny, who could play just about any instrument easily and well, had posted a video on YouTube of himself singing and playing guitar, piano and organ on the REO Speedwagon song, Roll With The Changes .  It had caught the eye and the ear of Paul Schafer, band leader for the David Letterman Show, who invited him to perform the song with his studio band.  Since then, he had appeared on the Letterman Show three other times.  Schafer and Danny had developed a friendship and had texted and emailed each other often.
    Currently, he and Randy were writing songs.  Randy would compose the lyrics, and Danny would set them to music.  Both Randy and Danny could play guitar, though Danny way better than Randy, and they harmonized with each other easily, with Randy usually singing the lead.  Their plan was to get one or more of their songs into the hands of a country artist.  That was their dream, but both knew they were a long way off from that. 
    Randy had told George that Danny had close to an eidetic memory, though it wasn’t ever actually tested, and when someone would comment on it, Danny would only laugh and say that his memory ‘was pretty good’. Quite the understatement because Danny could remember anything he had heard, read or saw.  Billy added that Danny had skipped two grades, from fifth to seventh, and in the fall, would be in the same grade as the twins.  The principal of Danny’s middle school in Omaha had wanted him to skip three grades, but Jeff and his ex-wife, Karen, said that the social aspects of skipping that many grades would be difficult for Danny to handle, and that the school would just have to supplement his coursework.
    The five boys looked at Jeff curiously, George more so than the others.  He had a glass of orange juice in front of him, while Billy had a glass of milk.  Randy and Danny had ice water, and Jeff had a half-emptied coffee cup that he was rotating in small, clockwise circles.
    “George,” he began, “Randy and Billy are my god-sons.  Well, Randy is, but I treat Billy as if he was too.” He paused, smiled at the boys and then continued in a softer voice.  “Jeremy told me about the other night.  I don’t want to think about what would have happened if something had happened to you or if you had failed.”
    He paused, stared intently, but kindly, at George, who nodded, then lowered his eyes to the glass of orange juice he held firmly in his two hands.
    Jeff looked over at the twins and said, “I know I never told you this, but your dad is my best friend.  When Danny’s mom and I divorced, it was a tough time.”
    He paused, looked at Danny, who squirmed in his chair although his expression hadn’t changed.  He briefly made eye contact with his dad, but then he lowered his eyes to his hands.
    “I went through a tough time, and your dad helped me out of it,” Jeff said. He looked over at Billy and said, “When your father passed away, he left you a sizeable sum of money.”
    Billy blushed and nodded.
    “Jeremy is the executor of your father’s estate, and he and I set up a trust fund for you.”
    Billy didn’t like to talk about his father or his money, and he didn’t like being the topic of conversation.
    “What you don’t know, and what Randy doesn’t know . . . not even Jeremy knows, is that I set up a trust fund for Randy in the same amount at that same time.  I