Chapter 22: Facts Come to Light

During the first week Melissa and Bobby McIntosh were staying with us, I would hear Melissa wake up in the middle of the night screaming, "No, Uncle John! Please don't hurt me. I'll do what you say."

Just as soon as that would happen, Bobby would make a mad dash to his sister's room and hold her to comfort her. He was a truly loving brother to his little sister.

After a few times that happened, Grace and I suggested to Bobby that he sleep with his sister so maybe she would feel comforted and protected. Once he moved in there, the screams stopped and both of them got a good night's sleep. Many parents would abhor the idea of siblings that old sleeping together but those two were very close and had suffered through the worst abuse imaginable, so we could see no harm in them sharing a bed. Also we could not bear to see Melissa suffer through those nightmares effectively all alone every night.

After looking at the confiscated pictures I found out that they each had been through almost every conceivable sexual torture you could imagine, both individually and together. They truly needed each other for emotional support before they could even start the healing process.

John McIntosh, their uncle, was held without bail on a host of charges. His attorney was negotiating with the district attorney to try to get his sentence reduced by entering a plea on lesser charges. Even if the DA accepted his plea the defendant would be in prison until he turned ninety years old.

With the DA and detective Springer's permission, I went to the uncle's house to retrieve legal papers and the rest of the kids' property. It was appalling how much time their uncle must have spent making porn and how little time he spent providing a safe and nurturing environment for his niece and nephew. The house was filthy and infested with vermin. Bobby, it seemed, was the only one doing laundry to make sure they had clean clothes. I found out later that ten-year-old Melissa and fifteen-year-old Bobby were also doing all the cooking in the house.

Life at our Camelot was finally settling down to a predictable state. Slowly, however, bit by bit the secret that Grace, Kim and I were keeping under wraps started to leak out. While we knew the truth about our trip to Camelot as king and queen we did not feel that anyone else in the house would believe it. That's the reason we tried to keep it hidden. We had a difficult time explaining the tapestry of Grace and me hanging in the main hall.

When Chris asked about the story behind the tapestry she would get differing renditions from the three of us. Kim was the first one to slip and say that it was a wedding gift from Merlin. I am reminded of the saying, "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive."

A story that big was nearly impossible to keep totally under wraps forever, so we decided to come clean with Chris and George as to what had happened. After all, Chris didn't buy my story that all the pictures of Camelot on my computer were taken while we were taking part in a medieval re-enactment. She strongly suspected that they had come from somewhere else. Then she brought up our wedding pictures that were taken by some photographer that nobody could recall seeing there. Grace, Kim and I had Chris and George meet with us in my den behind a locked door so we could answer their many questions and relate the whole story to them.

I started out, "Chris and George, you are going to find what I am about to tell you difficult, if not impossible, to believe. Just bear with me until you have heard the whole story. We will then answer any questions you may have."