"Whoa!" "Daddy, this is awesome, the way you made Fafnir..." "You can tell it's him." "You can see how he didn't used to be a dragon here, and how he's turning into a dragon." "Like this part of him." "And he has a big arm just like in the story, Daddy." "And he has his... his what?" "His what?" "You know his helmet thing again." "What do you call his helmet thing again?" "Uh, wasn't it the helmet..." "Helmet of Terror or something like that?" "No, the funny word." "Oh, the funny word, huh?" "Pa, what was it?" "A Egishjálmr." "Well there you go." "A Egishjálmr..." "And this thing, what's this thing?" "This thing?" "Yeah." "What's this thing?" "Yes." "Tell me." "You want me to tell you what this thing is?" "Yes, tell him what it is." "You already forget the best part of the story?" "What happened to his heart..." "Oh yeah oh yeah, when he's lying on the ground like in the ditch, and then, boom!" "Right through his heart!" "It's his heart, okay, it's his heart." "Something like that." "Boom!" "You did good with Fafnir, Daddy." "You did good." "You did good, Daddy." "Uh, why do we know so much about dragons?" "But he can't do anything." "Chip." "Well, he can't." "Mr. Murrow is fat." "Really." "He's fat and he talks really slow." "What?" "He needs another job." "Even Mrs. Adams would be a better P.E. teacher." "Now, Chip, come on." "What?" "She said so." "Wait a minute." "Mrs. Adams said that?" "Yeah." "She used to play volleyball, she said." "So she can teach us something." "She says Mr. Murrow just teaches kids to get fat and he's doing a good job." "Chip." "Mrs. Adams really said that?" "Yeah." "At the store." "Yes, at the store, but Mrs. Adams said it." "Mrs. Adams really said that Mr. Murrow's teaching the kids to be fat?" "No." "She used the other word." "It means fat too." "Overweight?" "No." "Obese?" "Yeah." "She said, "He's teaching them to be obese and he's doing a good job... at it, John." I don't know who John is, but Mrs. Adams said it." "Well, I don't want you going around repeating what Mrs. Adams didn't mean for you to hear." "Okay, okay." "Why don't you give us reports about Mr. Murrow every day?" "Maybe we're forgetting some of the good things he does." "He can't do anything." "I think I remember a couple of good days in there." "Some good kickball days, tee ball days." "He can't do anything days." "Well, if he's really all that bad, we'll do something about it." "We've got connections to a very powerful member of the PTA." "You mean that guy?" "That guy right there." "He doesn't look very powerful." "Oh but my hearing is powerful." "You got it, Mr. PTA?" "On it." "I'm driving today!" "Better check out the first grade today." "Oh." "Don't get too obese now." "Come on." "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon." "Morning Betsy." "Good morning, Mr. Joey." "Yeah, Ed!" "Yeah, I got his message, but I went ahead and told Rick to come in anyway." "Yeah." "I figure it'll give you an extra man and a little less traffic today, yeah?" "So forgive me for last week?" "No, today it's just the great room architecturals." "You got it." "Betsy, have you seen..." "He's right behind you Miss." "Morning Marge." "Oh, Joey." "Everything okay?" "I'm not so sure about these." "Okay." "Now these are the shutters." "Do you have the other page?" "There we go." "Yeah, it probably makes sense to look at these two at the same time." "Okay." "Well, this morning I woke up and I was in a panic." "This looks nothing like last week." "These aren't new, are they?" "No, these are from last week." "Am I crazy?" "I'm not crazy." "Joey, there's something wrong." "Well, it's not a problem." "We've still got a little time before they do all the cutting." "So we'll make sure they cut you something you like, okay?" "Joey." "This is Sharon." "The glazier." "Right." "Sharon, good to meet you." "Now you only got till noon today, right?" "That's right." "Great." "Marge, if you don't mind, I'm gonna get Sharon..." "I didn't know Ed was here." "Yeah, we're letting them play out in the sun today." "So, Marge, if you'll excuse me for about 15 minutes, I'm going to get Sharon started here and..." "Oh!" "But you know what?" "What would be really helpful is if you could look at these, which we know you don't like." "And you've got that book." "Hold on a sec." "Sorry Sharon, I'll be right back." "I'm sorry Sharon, what is it you do?" "I'm the glass cutter, ma'am." "Oh." "You cut glass." "Yes, ma'am." "So you've got this book that should be good for some ideas." "So, look through the book and write down any page numbers that look interesting." "That you like better than the drawings, then we'll take it from there." "Sound good?" "Okay, but what about Sam?" "Don't worry, we're not about to do anything without Sam knowing." "This is just to get us started, see if we can figure out what exactly isn't working for you." "Then we'll get Sam in here to help us along." "Alright?" "Alright." "Great." "Thanks Marge." "Uh, so Sharon, let's go this way." "Now you know Bob from that Leighton House job, right?" "Yeah." "That was great." "Brent, would you put up our next problem, please?" "Julie, you're on deck." "Class, we see a problem like this, and our job is to..." "Simplify." "Very good." "Thank you, Brent." "Julie, would you draw an arrow to where we should start to simplify." "Dennis, you're on deck." "Great." "So, it looks like Julie started inside the absolute values." "Inside the absolute values there are how many operations?" "Tim?" "Two operations." "Very good." "Two operations." "And Julie started with which operation?" "Erin?" "Multiplication." "Multiplication." "So Julie started inside the absolute values where there are two operations, and she started with the multiplication operation." "Class, do we agree?" "Great." "Thank you." "Dennis, would you use Julie's work to show me how we can simplify yet again?" "Cet, you're on deck." "Hey." "Aren't you forgetting something?" "About today?" "Blake." "Get in here." "We forgot about Jamie's..." "Oh yeah, oh yeah!" "Hey, Uncle Cody." "Hey, Blake." "Alright." "Go." "Pa, can we get this one?" "Jamie!" "Happy Birthday!" "Hey there." "Double duty today, huh?" "Yeah, Dave and Eileen'll be by later to pick up Blake." "Carol!" "Come on in, come in." "Jamie, look who's here." "But, is Joey coming?" "Yeah, he should be here in a bit." "Hold on, hold on..." "Scratch that." "No, he's not going to make it." "Come on now, Joey, you are not leaving me alone with all these kids now." "Chip, where are you?" "Come here." "Daddy's stuck at work again." "Stuck with the Hawk Lady." "Yeah, stuck with the Hawk Lady." "Want to go by there after this?" "Yeah." "And we'll bring him some cake." "Alright, I'll let him know." "No, not about the cake." "It'll be a surprise." "Alright." "That one." "Which one?" "That one?" "Yeah." "Okay." "Can you read the name on it?" "Paiste." "Paiste." "That's pretty good." "And that one too." "Okay that one too." "You want to print them both out or just the one?" "Both." "Okay." "And can we find the stories?" "No, let's do that tomorrow." "It's getting late." "Yes, it's getting late." "We've got all week to find the stories." "Yessir." "Sounds like you're getting tired." "No?" "So it's not time for bed?" "I believe it's time for bed." "Time for bed, Chipmunk." "No." "Don't call me that!" "What, Chipmunk?" "You're telling me you don't like being called Chipmunk, Chipmunk?" "And Daddy keeps calling me..." "That's 'cause he knows you love it." "You know, I know what else you love." "Are you trying to get away from me?" "Huh?" "You love when I do this." "It's time for bed, Chipmunk." "It's time for bed!" "Nothing you can do about it." "I don't need two of you." "You've got two of us." "Someone help me!" "No one can help you." "It's too late for you." "You're done!" "You're done!" "Hey." "Sorry." "I didn't mean to wake you." "Long day, huh?" "Looong day." "Anne's pretending to be mad at you for missing her party." "Anne." "Chip's pretending to be mad at me for acting like you." "Chip." "You remember who has training early tomorrow?" "You do." "So who has to take Chip to school?" "I do." "You forgot, didn't you?" "I did." "Any wonder I fell for such a smooth talker?" "Hello?" "Hey Eileen." "You're where?" "What...?" "But what...?" "Is he..." "Eileen, is he...?" "Okay, yeah, I got it." "I'll be right there." "Yeah, we'll be right there." "Hey, buddy, we got to go." "But I'm not done." "Sorry, we got to go now." "But my shoes..." "I got 'em." "You can put them on in the car." "Let's go." "Let's go." "Dave, what's going on?" "Is he okay?" "Yeah." "They started the surgery a little while ago and they said they'd let us know if anything happens, so..." "What happened, Dave?" "Do you know what happened to him?" "I don't know." "They talked mostly to Eileen." "She just told me the part about the surgery." "Okay." "Who did Eileen talk with?" "Nurse's name was Rachel something." "I'm not sure..." "Are they talking now?" "But Eileen also talked to the doctor for a few minutes." "Okay, are they talking now?" "They're..." "No, no, doctor's in surgery now." "And Eileen actually had to go home." "Okay." "Is that the nurse you were talking to?" "No." "I'm sorry." "I don't see her, Joey, I'm sorry." "No, that's fine." "I'll figure out where she is, what's going on." "Do you remember the doctor's name?" "It was doctor... yeah, it was Doctor Sills." "Okay, great." "I'm just gonna go..." "Chip, Daddy's going to go talk to that nurse over there, okay?" "You want to come with me or stay here with Uncle Dave?" "Come with you." "Alright, let's go, buddy." "Let's go." "Can I help you?" "Yes." "I'm Joey Williams." "I'm waiting here with Dave, and..." "I'm sorry Dave...?" "Yeah, Dave Robey over there." "We're family of Cody Hines." "He, he was in a car accident." "Yesss..." "And another nurse, a Rachel someone, I think, said he was in surgery." "Yes, now I have an Eileen Robey and David Robey listed as sister and brother-in-law." "Right." "Okay." "And I'm sorry, you are...?" "Joey Williams." "We live together." "This is our kid Chip, Chip Hines." "Okay." "Joey's still doing okay- Cody's still doing okay, right?" "Stable?" "Eileen told me he was stable, but that was a little while ago." "Do you know what's happening now?" "Nurse Edwards will talk to you about that." "Okay." "Okay, I haven't met her yet." "Is that Rachel Edwards?" "Yes." "Okay, can you tell me where I can find her?" "I'll let her know to talk to you." "Okay." "Alright, I'll be right over there with Dave." "I'll let her know." "And she knows what's going on with Cody, right?" "Because I don't really know anything." "I don't know how bad it was or what they're trying to fix now, or anything." "Nurse Edwards will talk to you about all that." "Or the doctor, can I talk to him now?" "Not right now." "Right." "Okay." "Thanks." "And, sorry, if you need me for anything, let me know." "Could you tell Nurse Edwards that?" "That if she needs anything I'm over there." "Like if she has questions about Cody or something." "Okay." "Alright." "And she'll be back soon?" "Any minute." "Okay." "You okay, buddy?" "Good." "We're going to be okay." "They didn't tell you what happened?" "What they're trying to do?" "No, they talked to Eileen about that, I didn't get much of it." "Hey, Chip, Daddy's going to make a call, okay?" "Hey Eileen, it's Joey." "It's about 9:30 now." "I'm here at the hospital with Dave." "I was hoping you knew what happened exactly." "I guess the nurse, Nurse Edwards is supposed to come talk to us, but I haven't seen her yet." "Hey, Dave, Sally knows right?" "Yeah, I'm going to go pick her up at noon." "Okay." "Yeah, so call me back when you get this and I'll let you know what's going on." "Or you can let me know what's going on." "Bye." "Did you call your work?" "Oh, no no." "I should." "Mr. Robey, we called this number that your wife gave us..." "Hi, are you Nurse Edwards?" "You are." "Great." "Is he okay?" "Is he doing okay now?" "Wait, are you also here for Mr. Hines?" "Yes, I'm Joey Williams." "I live with him." "This is our kid Chip, Chip Hines." "Is he still in surgery?" "Is he with the doctor in surgery?" "No no no." "He hasn't gone into surgery yet." "Mr. Robey, your wife gave us this doctor's information, but when we contacted his office, they didn't have any records for Mr. Hines." "No, that's not his doctor." "Do you have any idea..." "That hasn't been his doctor for years." "This is his doctor now." "Are you sure?" "Yeah." "Definitely." "Okay." "Okay, good." "Is there something else you need to know?" "About his medical history?" "He's allergic to penicillin and he needs... do you want to write that down?" "Chip, your Dad'll be right back." "Hi..." "Hey baby." "So they finished the surgery about an hour ago." "They got started really late." "I was here for hours before they started." "And it was harder than they thought." "The doctor explained a little bit more what happened." "It's awful, Eileen." "It looks like, it looks like Cody got pretty roughed up." "But they did a lot, so he's resting now." "They said that they would... they'd learn a lot from how he does tonight." "Okay?" "Okay." "I'll be right back." "Okay." "Hey Joey." "Oh, Eileen." "Hey." "I brought your stuff." "Oh good." "Thanks for picking it up." "Are you sure you don't want to go home and get some rest?" "No, tonight's important, they said." "So I'm gonna stick around." "Do you want Chip come home stay with us?" "No, that's fine." "He, he wants to stay." "Mr. Robey, Mrs. Hines." "If you'd like, you can see Mr. Hines now." "He's not conscious, but you can sit with him for a few minutes if you like." "Yes." "I'd like that, yes." "Good." "This way, Mrs. Hines." "Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Williams, only family members allowed to visit at this time." "Oh." "So you mean I can't see him?" "I mean, we are family, we..." "I'm sorry, Mr. Williams." "No, Joey, is..." "No, it's okay." "Chip, go with Grandma Sally, okay?" "I don't want to go." "Chip!" "Hold on a sec." "Hey Chipmunk." "Hey!" "I'm sorry." "I didn't even ask." "Yeah, I didn't even ask what you wanted to do." "You don't have to go in there if you don't want to, you know that, right?" "It's okay." "It's okay." "Pa got hurt, and it'll be hard to see him like that, I know." "But you know what?" "If it was me back there, now I'm just trying to think like Pa now." "I think I'd really like to have my Chip with me." "Yeah?" "Yeah..." "That'd probably be more important than just about anything else." "And my eyes may be closed, and maybe I don't say a thing, but I would know you were there." "And I'd feel a whole lot better." "Even if I couldn't move a bit of me to show you, I would feel a whole lot better." "I would know you were there." "Everyone knows when you're in the room, Chip." "Yeah?" "Now, Uncle Dave, you're never sure if he's really all there." "And I'm not sure Pa ever really liked Auntie Eileen all that much." "So you gonna go save Pa from Auntie Eileen?" "Yeah?" "Yeah?" "Okay, I'll go." "Come on, Chip." "Come on, Chip." "Why don't you go with your Grandma?" "So we'll be right back, okay?" "Hey, where'd you get that?" "Since I'm in my PJs, everyone thinks I'm sick." "They'll give me anything." "You want some?" "I'll give you one." "They'll give me anything." "No, Chip." "Chip." "Did something happen?" "No." "No change." "Mr. Williams, I wanted to give you this." "Please don't tell anyone I gave you this." "This is a Hospital Visitation Authorization." "If you fill it out, in the future you'll be able to visit him." "And he'll be able to visit you." "Just in case." "Wow." "Thank you." "Yeah, I'm kind of a moron when it comes to this stuff, so thank you." "I really appreciate it." "Hopefully, you won't need it." "Like I said, just in case." "Please don't tell anybody, I could..." "Oh a song came to the valley" "The valley of plenty" "And you stayed" "And I learned every word" "And now you are leaving the valley" "The valley so empty" "You are crossing the river" "now" "This is Gloria." "We never met, but I worked with Cody." "Hey Chipmunk." "How was school?" "Who are you talking to, Daddy?" "Is there a chipmunk back there?" "Is there a chipmunk in the car?" "No, just a Chip, Daddy." "Alright." "Settle down." "I'm 6, you know." "Oh, don't I know it." "Chip." "School was looong." "Where are we going?" "Back to school." "Gloria." "Hey, I'm Joey." "What do you know." "Finally get to meet face to face." "Cody said a lot of really great things about you." "Not like he needed to." "It's like our stomachs have known you for years." "Oh, uh, here you go." "Really sorry it took so long to get these back to you." "I have some lasagna." "Oh, you don't have to do that." "Gloria, I didn't come by for a refill." "Gloria, you're too much." "Really, we can't just keep taking your food." "Cody was a good one." "But he wasn't too good to eat my food, so don't you go thinking you're too good to eat my food." "You take the lasagna." "Gloria, you're too much." "And I'll take the lasagna." "Hey, have you met Chip?" "Hey, Chip!" "Come here!" "Come say hello to Miss Gloria." "Oh hey!" "Sorry about that." "Hold on, sorry." "I didn't see you there." "Joey, this is my husband, Cody." "Hey, how you doing?" "Hey." "With Gus gone, Joey's going to finish the renovations." "Okay, good." "I'm just here till the end of the month." "Be nice to him." "I'm trying to convince him to stick around." "Yeah, how's she doing?" "She convinced you?" "Three contractors in three months, and you're the best." "Please, Joey, please stay!" "This seemed like a better idea from up there." "We're not usually like this." "You're alright, yeah?" "Hey, Eileen, it's Joey." "Chip Hines, please come to the upstairs." "Hi Joey." "Hey Dave." "Eileen's in the kitchen." "Okay." "Hey Eileen." "Joey." "You want a drink or something?" "No, I'm okay." "Thanks." "I am just a little out of my league with all these papers." "I appreciate you letting me come over." "This was pretty much all Cody's department before." "So, I'm pretty sure everything's getting paid." "Definitely the big stuff like the mortgage." "There's some smaller bills I don't get, like this one from the bank, but I keep paying 'em." "These are all his accounts with money." "This is from the teacher's credit union." "So uh, you're not going to believe this." "I didn't find a will." "Instead, there is this... this sort of fill-in-the-blank deal." "Look at that." "He got as far as his name." "Isn't that hysterical?" "I guess the mortgage must be tough with just your money coming in." "Naw, it's not so bad." "I make enough, you know." "Chip and I wouldn't even know how to live it up, so we're doing fine." "I mean, I was scared at first too, but it helped when..." "Oh, okay, look at this." "So I found this budget Cody made." "It's a little old and all." "Hell, we probably talked about it at some point, but I don't remember." "I probably wasn't listening." "Well, I am listening now." "We're happy to help with Chip." "Don't let him hear that." "No, we're good, Eileen." "We're good." "And we've got some money sa" "Cody had a will." "What?" "This bill from the bank is for the box where he kept his will and some other papers." "How'd you figure that out, I couldn't" "Cody told me." "Years ago." "Eileen." "Why didn't you say something?" "I thought you knew." "Joey, I'm sorry, I thought you knew." "I didn't realize until you called that you didn't..." "Uh Cody... he named me the executor in his will." "A friend of mine, she's been through this before, helped walk me through all the people to talk to and how to get the accounts transferred." "What?" "You transferred his accounts?" "I thought you knew, Joey." "I didn't say anything because I didn't want you to have to think about all this, not when you were dealing with everything else." "What does this mean?" "Uh... do I need to get that mortgage check back?" "Is it supposed to go somewhere else now?" "Yeah, you should get that back." "I'll take care of the mortgage now." "Really, Eileen, I can afford it." "Well Joey, the, the house is in my name now." "So that means that there's a mortgage in my name now too." "Cody left all his assets in my name, so that he could see that Chip was taken care of... by me." "But I'm telling you, I can take care of Chip." "There's no problem." "You don't think I can take care of Chip?" "Joey, no." "It's just, it's what Cody wanted." "Oh and you can't be telling me Cody thought I couldn't take care of Chip." "Eileen, this is from 2002." "Chip was just a baby." "It's his will, Joey." "I'm sorry, he never changed it." "You can't think that he..." "He had 6 years to change it, and he didn't." "It says "Last Will And Testament." It's, it's not fill-in-the-blank." "He knew what he wanted." "So you don't need to worry about the mortgage." "You can stay as long as you need." "And... you don't have to worry about Chip." "Of course I need to worry about Chip, I'm his father." "Joey, Chip is our responsibility now." "Our legal responsibility." "Cody named us as..." "Stop pointing to 2002!" "It's what my brother wanted, Joey." "Could you have a little respect for that?" "Just a little respect?" "What is going on here, Eileen?" "I don't get what's going on here." "Cody wanted to make sure..." "What is changing here?" "What is going on?" "We are his family and" "I am Chip's dad!" "Since when did that need explaining?" "Chip!" "Joey, please..." "Chip, come on, we're going!" "Joey!" "So..." "So, this is a really lovely moresque." "You see how it has elements like the wood detailing in the library." "It's like a leaf." "You see that?" "Except that it's a soft medium, it's a fabric." "So it will converse well with its neighbor." "You know, you won't feel like you're jumping around room to room, but it will still allow this room to have its own identity." "You don't think it's too dark?" "It looks like Paul's room." "Well, the ivories in the pattern keep it lighter, but you're right, it's not colorful." "But also remember that we're talking about fixed background elements." "And you may not want a lot of color in your fixed background elements." "You can use color on the chairs, or in pillows, something like that." "Something... like this azul." "This burgundy fleur pattern." "Oh my!" "And this is period?" "Well, it's not contemporary with when the house was built, but it's old." "So, so it would have, it would have been available then." "That's the nice thing." "Old things keep popping up overtime." "I mean the moresques were really popular in Europe around the 16th century." "But you saw them in places, like Venice, earlier by the 15th century." "And of course Muslim artists used them far before that." "Oh my." "Oh, let me help you with those." "Oh Paul!" "That's Joey." "And this is..." "I'm sorry dear, what's your name?" "Helen." "Helen is here." "That was my husband Paul." "Sorry." "Now this is a library." "Are you responsible for this?" "No way." "Your house, everything's so particular, there's an expert for just about everything." "No, I just make sure they get here on time and have what they need." "That's no small feat." "Pleasure to meet you, I'm Paul." "Joey." "Hope you don't have too many more of these." "We built you a little room to grow, but we went off the collection the movers had." "Damn movers packed everything." "These are new." "Well, new acquisitions." "Grandpa was kind of rough with them." "Yeah?" "Pages are strong though." "1799?" "Sure." "Ha." "You should get these rebound, you know?" "Kind of sad to see them like this." "A couple can probably just be restored." "You sound like someone who knows what he's talking about." "Just something I picked up at one point, from someone who really knew what they were doing." "That someone looking for work?" "Not right now." "But, I learned enough I can handle these." "Really?" "Sure." "Does this mean you go on the payroll with the other experts?" "Naw, don't worry." "I've got so much down time these days, it'll help me earn my keep." "Helen's pretty much in charge now, and she knows what she's doing." "No this will be good, you know." "Give me something to do between this and that." "That'll be great, Joey" "We should probably go over which ones you want done." "I noticed a couple over here that could use some work." "Hey Chipmunk." "Hey Daddy." "Hey Blake." "Dave." "So, how was the big game there?" "We won!" "You won?" "It was 18 to 0." "What?" "Nooo..." "Nooo..." "I don't believe you." "Come on. 18 to 0?" "Hey Sally, it's Joey." "Good, good." "So I wanted to check and see what we can bring for Thanksgiving." "Yeah, for Thanksgiving." "I mean when we come for Thanksgiving, you want us to bring anything?" "Sally, is every" "Yeah, yeah... we kind of did." "I" "Sally, she" "Yeah I know, but" "Sally, when did I become the bad guy all of a sudden?" "No I get it, but" "Sure, I'm not asking you" "Sure." "Okay." "Yeah, yeah, keep the peace, Sally, keep the peace." "You're at least going to let Chip come, right?" "Alright." "Yeah." "Okay, I'll drop him off then." "Hey, Chipmunk." "Come here a sec." "So, uh... here's an idea." "How would you like to have two Thanksgivings this year?" "You know, one day can be Thanksgiving." "Next day can be Thanksgiving too." "Did you make this up?" "I kind of did." "Can we have two Christmases too?" "Okay, let's not get" "Okay." "You said okay." "Alright, Mr. Smarty pants, we" "Alright!" "You said alright!" "What?" "I'm afraid to say anything now." "Fine." "Don't be afraid." "Say your things." "So uh," "I thought Wednesday you and me, you know, we could have our Thanksgiving." "And then Thursday you can go to Grandma's, have Thanksgiving there too." "Is this because you and Auntie Eileen are fighting?" "Yeah." "Auntie Eileen's not too happy with me right now." "And to tell you the truth, I'm not so happy with her." "So it's probably better we a little time to cool off." "It'd probably be weird to be in a room with us when we're both unhappy like that, yeah?" "It's just weird being in a room with you, Daddy." "You don't say." "Weird, weird, weird." "I'm not weird, Chipmunk." "And you call everyone Chipmunk." "Only those who deserve it, Chipmunk." "Okay, okay!" "We can have our weird Thanksgiving." "Thank you, Chipmunk." "Do we have to have turkey though?" "Are you kidding?" "It is our Thanksgiving, we can have whatever we want." "Rice krispie treats?" "Okay, rice krispie treats." "But uh, we should probably have something else too." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Chili mac." "Hey, that we can do." "What is that?" "Rice krispie treats." "And chili mac." "Chili mac..." "And we should probably have some veggies too, no?" "Nah." "No?" "Some greens, yeah?" "Green jello." "I don't think that's a vegetable." "Green MMs." "Nope." "I don't think that's a vegetable either." "Green cake." "You're not very good at this, are you?" "Nope." "Nope." "Not a veggie guy." "No, I'm not." "You ready?" "Yeah?" "Alright, go on." "I'll pick you up tomorrow afternoon." "You got it." "Can I just say I'm sorry right now?" "Get it over with." "It's okay." "Cody!" "Hey Dave, how you doing?" "Good to see you." "This is Joey." "Joey, Dave." "Dave, Joey." "You don't have to worry about Dave so much, he's okay." "Hey Eileen, how you doing?" "Hey Joey, I want you to meet my sister Eileen." "Eileen, this is Joey." "Joey, Eileen." "Hey Eileen." "Is that them?" "That's us." "Is that Cody?" "That's me." "This is Joey." "Joey!" "Oh, you must be Joey." "Welcome." "Welcome to, welcome to Thanksgiving." "Yeah Mama, Mama he knows what Thanksgiving is." "Welcome to our Thanksgiving." "Yes, let's all thank Joey for coming down from outer space for Thanksgiving." "It's okay." "Thanks for having me ma'am." "Mr. Hines?" "It's good to meet you." "It's really good to see you." "Oh what a polite young man." "I didn't know they made them like that in outer space." "Do you, do you, would you like a drink?" "You know, a wine cooler?" "What?" "I don't know what he drinks." "It's okay." "No, of course you don't." "It's okay." "How am I supposed to know what he drinks?" "Joey, could you come in here?" "There's this uh, shelf in the pantry that I would..." "Mama!" "You're not going to put him to work now." "Well, you said he was good at that." "Well Mama, if it's a shelf, Dave can take care of it!" "Dave, take care of it." "Well Dave is too tall." "Mama!" "I'm sorry, I'll be right back." "You're too tall." "What?" "What did I do?" "It's a low shelf, so..." "Ah, it happens." "Surprise!" "Happy Thanksgiving, Joey!" "Hey!" "Yeah, surprise." "You didn't think we'd let you spend Thanksgiving alone now, did you?" "Sometimes alone ain't so bad." "Well, come in, come in." "Hell, I may start a sneaking out Thanksgiving tradition." "Oh no." "Joey, no." "We are here for, what do they call that?" "An intervention." "That's right, an intervention." "We are here to save you from your own cooking." "Hey... now that was made with love." "Okay, it was made with Chip, but..." "Aaah." "We may be too late." "Hello, you've reached the Hines' home." "Hello?" "Oh, hello Sally?" "Oh." "Yes." "Sally, it's Joey." "Yes." "Joey." "Turkey must have really knocked you out, I've been out here ringing your bell." "Yes, I know." "Sally, what's going on?" "Why didn't you come to the door?" "Sally, is something wrong?" "Are you okay?" "Sally, are you there?" "Sally do" "Chip isn't here, Joey." "What do you mean he isn't here?" "I told you I was coming by to pick him up." "Sally, where is he?" "I'm sorry, Joey, I'm sorry." "But, it's okay." "Chip is with his family." "Sally, what's going on?" "Eileen." "You see, Eileen is the legal guardian." "She said the judge said so." "And she and Dave, they'll take really good care of Chip." "Sally!" "You've looked after him really well, Joey." "We all know that." "And we hope..." "Sally, I am Chip's dad!" "Joey, you were so good for Cody." "Cody after Rebecca." "And Joey, it was so nice... my Cody and Rebecca, the two of them." "And Chip looks just like Rebecca..." "Sally!" "Why are you doing this?" "Where are they?" "Where did they take Chip?" "Sally, where did they take Chip?" "No, Joey." "It'll just make it harder." "It'll just make it harder." "Thank you." "Come on, Eileen, I know you're in there." "Open up!" "Chip!" "Hey, Chipmunk, can you hear me?" "It's going to be okay." "We're going to go home soon." "Eileen!" "Eileen!" "You can bring them back now." "Hey, you okay?" "Whoa!" "Careful, I don't think you want to be swimming around in this mess." "This is Rebecca's..." "It's okay, alright?" "She loved..." "I..." "Sit back." "It's okay, Cody." "Sit back." "Okay?" "Sit back." "You know, this is nothing." "Yeah, we'll put this back together again." "I didn't mean to." "We'll put it back together again, no problem." "Yeah, just sit back." "Here we go, here we go." "Okay." "Good, um..." "Can't put her back together again." "Cody, I..." "She's gone." "Yeah." "I know." "She's gone..." "She was something else, wasn't she?" "Wasn't she?" "Yeah." "Hold on." "What is it?" "You need something?" "Sorry about that." "Yeah, that was a good one." "I didn't mean to." "Well, let me..." "No, no, no." "It's okay." "Just leave it." "It's okay." "I'll be right back." "Okay?" "Sorry about the mess." "Hey, it's Tennessee." "It happens." "Hey." "Cody, where's Chip?" "Oh." "Chip's..." "Chip's at his grandparents now." "That's where he is..." "at his grandparents... not here..." "Okay." "Okay good." "Good good good." "Then we only got one baby to take care of." "Let's uh, let's get you cleaned up, you've got some stuff..." "No, you don't have to do that." "Yeah, yeah, you just sit back and shut up." "What'd you say?" "Shut up." "Is that how you talk to a baby?" "Yeah, come on, you need some rest." "This you don't need." "Rest you need." "Come on." "I don't know what to do." "I don't know what to do." "I don't know what to do." "Sure you don't." "I mean, that's natural." "What am I supposed to do?" "Cody, you'll figure it out." "Don't you tell me to figure it out!" "Hey!" "I just need to know what to do." "I'm so" " I'm sorry, I just..." "No, it's okay, I'm..." "You're terrible at this." "Yeah, yeah I kind of am." "Yeah nothing makes sense." "Yeah uh..." "I've been there." "No." "You don't know what it's like now." "Yup, shut up, I have." "Yeah?" "Yeah." "Yeah, who died?" "Uh, sister." "Mother... father..." "Foster father... foster mother." "Seriously?" "Yup." "All those people?" "Yup." "See what we got here." "I think maybe I'd be a good contractor." "I think I'd be a good... carpenter." "Think maybe I ought to try it." "Okay!" "I think you need to sleep on it." "Yeah." "Yeah, come on." "Yeah?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Here we go." "Up." "Yeah I'll do it..." "These are kind of tough." "Good?" "Uh... don't you want to brush your teeth or something?" "Man, you're going to regret that, um..." "Here." "Come on, you'll feel a little less nasty in the morning." "Oh Betsy, have you seen..." "They're in the hallway, Miss." "So when I went to go look for him at Eileen's..." "Good morning." "Sorry, I, I didn't mean to interrupt." "No problem." "Did you need me or Helen?" "Helen." "Joey, I'll come find you after we're done." "Yeah, okay." "What the hell." "Joey, I'm so sorry..." "Oh, this is wrong!" "Helen, this is wrong!" "Yeah, you don't have to convince me." "Joey, what kind of beer you got?" "Never mind." "I can get it." "You sit down, Joey." "You just... sit down." "Gloria, hey." "Chicken pot pie." "You're an angel, Gloria." "Just thoughtful beyond belief." "Thank you." "Got it." "And do you have..." "Yeah, I have his number here." "Well, I'll let you get back to your guests." "Gloria, there's just a couple of us." "Can you come in for a bit?" "More company tonight would be nice." "Yeah?" "Wonderful" "Hey everyone, this is Gloria." "She teaches at Cody's school." "Gloria this is Helen and Anne." "And sorry, it's been a while since we've had company." "Can I get you something to drink, Gloria?" "Do you have tea?" "Sure, sure." "Joey, how many women you got feeding you?" "Can you believe what Eileen did?" "Seriously, the police?" "As if Joey would hurt anyone." "Who's Eileen?" "Joey, you got to let your people know what's going on." "We're good for more than just cooking." "Yeah, I know." "I'm sorry, Gloria." "Who's Eileen?" "Cody's sister." "She took Chip away." "Wouldn't let Joey see him, not a word of discussion." "Joey goes to pick him up one day..." "And sorry." "No." "You know what?" "He's our kid now." "We don't need you." "Can you believe that?" "And stay away." "Then this happened today." "A restraining order." "Okay, I have known Eileen for a while." "And you know our kids have grown up together." "But she should have gotten the restraining order on me, because I am going to kill her!" "Do it." "I mean what is she thinking?" "I mean seriously!" "Trying to keep Joey away from Chip?" "I mean, why do you want to spend your time on that?" "Why?" "Why that?" "We've been coming up with a list of names, people who have gone through some sort of child custody case or..." "Charles, it's Gloria." "Yeah." "Be in your office tomorrow at four, I'm sending a friend over." "Treat him right." "Yeah, his name is Joey Hines." "It's Williams." "Williams." "Sorry." "Joey Williams." "Yeah." "Charles did my divorces and my custody case." "Talk to him tomorrow." "How come I haven't met Gloria before?" "Here you go, Gloria." "Ah!" "She gets things done." "We like Gloria." "Thanks." "Yeah, it'll be good to talk to your friend." "I've talked to some lawyers over the phone, and uh... they pretty much can't get off the phone fast enough." "Well you got Charles tomorrow." "And all these people, Joey." "And these are friends, not just some stranger on the phone." "They're going to help you figure something out." "Trying to keep Chip away from his dad, I swear..." "Eileen..." "Get you another, Joey?" "Uh, yeah." "Helen?" "Please." "What's a Paiste?" "What's a who?" "Paiste." "Irish dragon." "She's a teacher." "They know things." "Chip, he's kind of going through a dragon phase right now." "We used to look up a dragon a week." "You know, look up all the stories about him." "Well that was Cody and Chip's job, to do all this research." "They'd give me these pictures and I'd make Chip a little block with the dragon on it." "He calls them blocks." "They're art." "Have you seen these things?" "Well he can definitely spell some really strange words now." "You know, since Chip started school, he wasn't so thrilled about Mondays." "So, Monday morning he'd get a new block, you know, give him something to look forward to." "I guess I just kinda forgot since Cody..." "I mean look at this." "Oh yeah, that's Fafnir." "Aaah..." "Norse." "Helmet and heart." "I went through a dragon phase myself." "Oh Gloria, you are full of surprises." "This was Chip's thing." "Man, of all the things to forget." "So make it." "Make him his P-, Pie-, Paste, Pasta..." "Paiste." "I'll give it to him." "No, I can't ask you to" "You're not." "I'm telling you, do it." "I'm telling you, she should have gotten one for me." "Okay." "Okay?" "Okay, good." "Would you mind also uh..." "Yeah." "Hey." "Chip's not feeling so well today." "Let's let him rest a little, okay?" "Okay." "Come on, Blake." "Hey Chipmunk." "So..." "I know it's been a while, but guess what?" "Daddy's got another dragon story for you." "Yeah?" "This is a story about a dragon named Paiste." "And the dragon was old, really old." "You know, they say Paiste was left over from the beginning of time." "And the beginning of time must have been a pretty scary place if everyone looked like him." "Yeah?" "He had these horns shooting out from his head, and each year they got stronger and sharper." "His body was long and huge." "His scales were like an armor he never took off." "He always lived with all his horrible parts." "And he was the original fire-breathing dragon." "In a single afternoon your whole village could disappear." "Yeah, just gone to ashes." "Well, there was this one village, a village with a funny name Daddy can't pronounce, so... we're just going to call it the East Village." "And the people of the East Village, they saw how every year the fires were getting closer and closer, and so they thought," "Man, we better do something about this dragon, or the East Village is going to be burned to ashes." "Now, there happened to live up in the mountains near the East Village... an old Saint." "The people thought," "Well, if anyone will know what to do, it'll be this guy." "So they went up the mountain and they begged the Saint and said," "Please help us, or the East Village is going to be burned to ashes." "And the Saint, well he said," "Sure." "Why not?" "So, you know, the Saint goes to see Paiste." "And, the dragon sees him coming, and he thought," "Great, the food's coming to me now." "This is the life." "The dragon says to the Saint," "Are you a sacrifice?" "May I eat you now?" "Dragons can be polite when they're pleased, you know." "And the Saint lied and said, 'Yes."" "Well the dragon opened its mouth to eat the Saint and the Saint shouted," "Wait!" "Your sacrifice needs to be properly prepared." "And the Saint started to do a dance." "Oh it wasn't a very good dance, but the dragon waited, patiently." "The Saint then started shaking some sticks in the air, and the dragon waited, you know, patiently." "The Saint then, he dropped the sticks along the dragon's back." "And the dragon waited patiently." "The Saint then started to sing and finally the dragon said," "Are you done yet?" "And the Saint cried, 'Yes!" you know." "He clapped his hands, and those sticks he dropped along the dragon's back, they turned into huge ropes that twisted around the dragon and trapped him." "Oh Paiste struggled, but he couldn't break free." "The Saint then yelled, "To the sea!"" "And the ropes carried the dragon to the bottom of the sea." "And there he is, even today." "Yeah, still alive at the bottom of the sea." "They say he's going to live there until Judgement Day, when they decide whether he was really evil or just a misunderstood dragon." "And uh, even though he's really old, and even though the ropes are really tight," "Paiste will still try to break free sometimes." "Oh yeah, he struggles and struggles and splashes around at the bottom of the sea." "That's why sometimes, when you go to the beach, after a lot of little waves, you'll get that one really big one." "Hey that's Paiste, trying to break free." "Hey Chipmunk." "Hey Chipmunk." "Mr. Williams?" "Yes, I'm Joey Williams." "It's good to meet you." "Okay." "Come in." "Yeah, Gloria had a lot of good things to say about you." "Well, they don't make 'em like Gloria anymore." "We've been through some times." "You from around here, Joey?" "Yeah, I grew up here in Martin." "Huh." "You don't say." "So, I'm sorry about the formality, we get so many folks in here, it just helps to keep things straight." "Sure, sure." "So it says here this is a child custody case?" "Well you want to tell me a little about what's going on, Joey?" "Yeah, sure um... so my kid Chip, he's six now." "His mom died when he was born, and Cody and I raised him together all this time." "And we did" "I'm sorry, who's Cody?" "Cody is Chip's dad." "I thought you were Chip's dad." "Yeah, what is it they say, Chip has two daddies." "So when Cody died, um, things were fine for a while." "I mean, they weren't fine, but there weren't any problems with Chip." "You know, we kept on the way we'd been doing." "And then, Eileen, now that's Cody's sister, tells me weeks later that Cody's will made her Chip's guardian." "They took him away, you know didn't let me see him." "A couple of days later I get this restraining order that tells me" "Now let me stop you there, Mr. Williams." "Now, Mr. Williams, you wrote on this sheet that this is a child custody case." "But I will tell you frankly, you do not have a child custody case." "Let me guess, I'm not the first lawyer you've talked to." "No, sir." "And my guess is they pretty much all stop you at this point and with good reason." "Mr. Williams, you do not have a child custody case." "Now, you may be able to dig and find some crackpot who will throw around some hallelujah phrases like psychological parent or "presumed parent" or shit like that." "And he'll feed you these words while happily cashing your checks." "But uh, I'm a moral man, Mr. Williams." "I cannot take your money to say to the world that you are really this kid's father." "Now, because you're Gloria's friend, let me give you this advice." "Even if you find your lawyer, you will never find a judge around here who will legitimize that kind of stuff." "Alright?" "It's the truth." "I'm sorry you had to come all the way down here to hear it." "You uh, you give my best to Gloria now." "Joey?" "Are you still here?" "Yeah, uh, wanted to finish up a couple little things." "Is Ed still here?" "No, he went home for the day." "Just you?" "Yeah." "Did you need something?" "No." "No." "Good night, Joey." "Good night, Marge." "Yeah, no I understand." "I appreciate you taking the time." "Yeah, uh, I definitely will." "Hey Joey?" "Yeah Ed." "Ready for you." "Alright." "I'm sorry." "Hello?" "Gloria, hey, this is Anne!" "Hey Anne, it's Joey." "I think you dialed the wrong number or something." "I know, Gloria, I know." "Anne, is everything okay?" "Oh yeah, absolutely." "Look, Gloria, please don't say anything." "I feel bad enough already." "I know, I owe you." "Just please, not another word about this." "You understand?" "Not really." "Not another word, okay?" "Okay." "Great." "I owe you big time Gloria." "Sorry about that Eileen." "Some people, there's an expiration date on forgiveness you know, so I had to call when I remembered." "No Blake, it's just this time." "Jamie's gonna be first mate just this time." "How come you're always the captain?" "Do you want to be captain?" "Yeah!" "Okay, then what's this part of the ship?" "What do you mean?" "I mean what do you call this part of the ship?" "I don't know." "How can you be captain if you don't know?" "I don't know." "A captain has to know, Blake." "But don't feel bad, okay?" "I'll teach you, and then you'll know next time." "This is the bow." "Okay bow." "The back is the stern." "This side is port." "And this side is starboard, got it?" "Okay." "Can I try now?" "Okay, go." "Bow." "And what's the back again?" "Stern, Blake." "Chip just told you!" "Port." "And starboard." "Okay, I'm captain now!" "This about your kid?" "Marge told me." "You going to be okay?" "Found a lawyer yet?" "No." "Can I see your list?" "Marge said you had a list of folks." "Doesn't this just read like the Book of Revelation?" "Alright Joey, you got yourself a lawyer." "You?" "Me." "I thought you were retired." "Hell, you're only retired till you're not." "You want a lawyer or not?" "Yeah." "Alright, you got one." "I don't know Paul, there's a lot of smart people on that list..." "Oh, I wouldn't go that far." "Well, uh, there's a lot of people on that list, and they seem to be telling the same story." "I don't know much about law, but when I try to read up on stuff, it also sounds like the same story." "Seems like I can make a big huff and cause some trouble, but uh, none of it leads to Chip coming home." "Joey Williams, can I say something?" "Let me just say how glad I am that I've taken you on as a client." "You are, in fact, my favorite kind of client." "I have a feeling you'll actually listen to me." "You are the kind of client who will actually listen to what I'm about to tell you and take it to heart." "You ready for this?" "Yeah, you got my attention." "Joey, I am old, and I have spent most of my life doing the same damn thing," "which is too bad for me, but it's good for you." "Because I've learned a little something about legal affairs that you should know." "Alright?" "First, just because the law has limits, it does not mean that it is our job to push up against and test those limits." "Those limits can be distracting." "So don't head straight for them." "Keep an open mind about where you're going to put your energy, okay?" "Okay." "And number two, just because the law has limits, does not mean our lives have those same limits." "Lawyers live in courtrooms, you don't have to." "The limits of the law apply in court." "But when you're out of court, when the person across the table is no longer an adversary," "a lot more is possible." "That's uh... that's a different way of thinking about all this." "I just..." "I can't see how me and the family get to talking again after all this." "Well... there may be a way for the law to help you get to that point when the person across the table is no longer an adversary." "That I haven't heard before." "Maybe I should put this down." "I'll write it down for you." "And I'll write down your homework." "So here's what you need, Joey." "You are not going to read case history." "You've got to figure out what's important here, regardless of the law." "Forget the law." "What's really important to change in your life," "what don't you want to disturb," "and what you're ready to give up." "And once you've got that sorted out, really think about who or what is in your way." "Live with these questions a while." "They sound easy, but they'll stir up a big mess." "And you'll just have to go over them again and again until you've mastered the mess." "Then we talk, okay?" "Okay." "And then" "I get to figure out how the law fits into all these things you've figured out." "Okay." "So, no answers today." "Yeah." "And it may take a while, just us figuring it all out, before we file a single piece of paper." "Yeah." "You're alright with that?" "Yeah." "Alright." "Hey!" "So I guess this is it, huh?" "We better have a beer or something to celebrate, yeah?" "Yeah?" "Who would have thought George the mailman would be the one to miss me?" "That man sure knows how to say goodbye, over and over again." "Oh thanks." "And uh, here you go." "Sorry, I'm probably breaking all kinds of laws, but here you go." "Oh." "Thanks." "Well, place looks great." "I can hardly get over it." "Yeah." "Turned out pretty nice." "Oh and Chip loves his crib by the way." "Yeah?" "Oh yeah." "Good." "Yeah, I can go a little stir crazy... when everyone else around me is doing something, and I'm not." "You know, the crib was all left over pieces from Casey's project too." "Oh no kidding?" "Yeah." "He would have thrown away a crib and not even known." "So, is Chip uh..." "No, he's not here now." "He's with my folks, which helps, you know, having a day off now and then." "He's a good kid." "Yeah." "He's got lots of personality for a little thing, don't he?" "Oh yeah." "Well..." "I wanna thank you, Joey." "I really do." "For the crib, of course, and..." "Well, but for more than that, for... for helping hold it all together here." "'Cause uh... you know, Chip and I..." "It's just that your being here it's, it's been uh..." "I don't know what the hell I'm trying to say." "I guess I'm trying to say thank you." "You've done a good job." "Well you're welcome." "Yeah?" "Alright George, what'd you bring me?" "No thank you." "I know what this is." "Yeah?" "What is it?" "You ever hear of Chip Taylor?" "Sounds kind of familiar." "He's the guy that wrote..." "Oh, the guy who wrote "Wild Thing."" "You know Chip Taylor?" "Just that one song." "Oh well, this man has written so much stuff, so much great stuff." "Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait." "He did this album, right, with like this girl on the cover holding a fiddle." "Carrie Rodriguez." "Yeah, I think that's it." "Oh that's definitely it." "Absolutely." "So, uh, during the time they'd been making all those albums, he and Carrie, they were duet albums." "And this is his first solo record after that." "And because he'd written so many songs during the time that they were a duo that really didn't make sense for them as duets, they had to make this into a double CD." "And it's just brilliant, man, just so much great stuff, like he'll..." "Wait." "You know the songs already?" "Oh yeah." "On the CD you just got in the mail?" "Well I needed a new copy." "I gave the other one to my mom." "What's so funny about that?" "No." "I..." "Okay then, you're gonna have to listen to this." "C'mon." "You're gonna want one for yourself." "And since you laughed at me, I ain't gonna special order it for you." "No one laughs at Chip Taylor in my house." "I don't care how much of the house you built." "Oh God." "I hate this stuff." "Uh..." "No, I got it, I got it." "Alright..." "So many great songs on this." "That's not one of'em." "Hold on." "There you go." "You just throw little darts" "They keep on hurting me" "All that pain and still it's free" "What a lucky guy" "You just say little things" "Mixed with lies of wanderings" "I know they're just little things" "But they hurt me big time" "And then I watch you walk" "And I like the way you walk" "And I want something" "I want it all the time" "I'm sorry about that." "I didn't mean to." "I didn't know..." "Wasn't expecting that." "Yeah, I don't quite know what happened there." "This Chip Taylor really gets a hold of you, huh?" "I guess so." "Yeah." "We actually named Chip after him." "I mean, my Chip's named after this one" "Yup." "I remember Rebecca didn't even put up a fight about it." "She knew better." "I'm sorry about that, I didn't..." "Hey..." "I'm not complaining." "No complaints here, Cody." "Hold on a second, Cody." "Yeah?" "Just what kind of cheap date you take me for?" "Yeah don't think this is gonna be another one of your... your one beer, two track romances." "C'mon." "You gottta take me out on the town, spin me around a little." "Yeah, you might want a..." "Smart ass." "Okay, let's go." "I just don't know what I'm getting myself into here." "Morning, Joey." "Morning." "You ready for this?" "Yeah." "Now remember, they'll say whatever." "Awful things." "But none of that matters." "What matters is at the end of it all, you get your turn to talk." "And they'll be there?" "They'll be there." "Uh, Paul Hawks for Lee Simons at Myers." "He know you're coming?" "He knows." "Lee Simons." "People here to see you." "Alright." "Sign in." "Sixth floor." "Morning Cheryl." "Paul!" "Where have you been hiding yourself?" "." "Oh, ya'll be in Conference Room B today." "Thank you." "Jack doing well?" "Much better." "Thanks." "Tell him I say hello." "I will." "He'll be happy to hear it." "Jefferson." "Paul." "Mr. Williams, Jefferson Robinson." "Joey, good to meet you." "Paul Hawks." "Mr. Williams, why don't you take a seat right up here?" "Here you go." "Paul Hawks." "Pleasure." "You alright, Mr. Williams?" "If you'd like something to drink, there's water and soda over there." "Uh no, I'm okay." "Thanks." "Sure?" "Alright." "Any time you need a minute, you want to take a break, just let me know." "Okay." "Thanks." "Now I'm just going to wait until I get the okay from our court reporter over there." "I'm ready." "Alright, do you want to go ahead and swear him in?" "Mr. Williams, could you please raise your right hand?" "Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" "Yes, I do." "Great, let's go on record." "Mr. Williams, my name is Jefferson Robinson, and I am attorney for Mrs. Eileen Robey, and I'm going to be asking you a couple questions today." "Alright?" "Okay." "Now the first one is going to be really easy." "Could you state your full name for the record please?" "Joey Williams." "Alright, Mr. Williams, now uh, have you ever been deposed before?" "Is this your first time?" "Yes, this is my first time." "Alright, let me start off then by explaining a couple of things that'll make today go a little smoother." "This is for the record, which means our court reporter will be making a transcript of what we say here today." "To make sure we try and keep, um, misunderstandings to a minimum, please speak clearly so that the court reporter can hear you." "Also, please let me finish my question before you speak." "The reporter has a hard time dealing with two voices at once." "And the reporter cannot record gestures, so please make sure you speak all your answers." "That all make sense?" "Yes, sir." "And anytime you need to confer with your lawyer, you just let us know, and we'll go off the record." "Alright?" "Okay." "Now, Mr. Williams, this may be your first deposition, but..." "I have to admit to you that this is also my first deposition of this sort." "It's a unique set of circumstances that's led us to this point." "I'm going to place before you a document that was signed by you as well as my client." "Do you recognize that document, Mr. Williams?" "You can take as long as you need to look it over." "Yes, I recognize it." "Good." "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to take just a little time to review what's been stipulated." "And I mean I know the document has been executed, but just to be clear about it all since we're all here." "That alright, Mr. Williams?" "Sure." "Paul?" "Go ahead." "Alright, so as part of this stipulation, Mr. Williams, you've requested this on the record deposition to be attended by David and Eileen Robey who are both in the room now, is that correct?" "Yes, that's right." "So, the agreed format for today is that I'll ask some questions, and I really don't have that many, and then Mr. Hawks will ask some questions." "And then there'll be some cross if there are any more questions." "Is that your understanding?" "Yes, it is." "So, the requests are a little unusual, but my client has agreed to it." "For your part, Mr. Williams, you've agreed to release any claims you may have, underscore may have, uh, on the home at... 161 Woodland Street, the address at which you now reside." "Yes." "In addition, you release an potential claims on bank accounts or other assets that were held by Mr. Cody Hines or jointly by yourself and Mr. Cody Hines, is that correct?" "Yes." "Now, Mr. Williams, you understand that the releases you provide in this stipulation go beyond this case before us" "Yes." "Ah." "Sorry, just a little more to the question." "No matter what happens in this custody case, no matter the outcome, you are releasing those claims." "Now this means you cannot claim those assets in a separate lawsuit." "You understand and agree with that?" "Oh yes." "Sorry, I didn't know if you were finished." "No problem, and I appreciate you going through those preliminaries with me." "Now, um, you answered that... sorry, could the reporter read back the statement of full name please?" "Joey Williams." "No middle name, Mr. Williams?" "No, sir." "And you're not a Joseph?" "No, just Joey." "Hm." "That's a little unusual, isn't it?" "How'd that happen?" "My foster Mom and Dad called me Joey." "Their last name was Williams." "When they passed, I had my name changed." "Oh, so uh Joey Williams is not your real name." "It is my real name." "Oh, sorry, it is your current legal name." "What was your name before?" "Chin Mae Lang." "Sorry, could you spell that for me?" "Sure." "C-H-I-N." "Then M-A-E." "Then I-A-N-G." "Now um," "I have records of a Chin Mae Lang in the Martin foster care system." "Is that you?" "I doubt there was another." "I never met another." "Now, are you sure?" "Because from what I can see, this Chin Mae Lang seems to have a violent record." "Not sure what you mean by a violent record" "These records seem to show you got into a lot of fights in foster care." "Mr. Williams, do you mind taking a look at this, if it's okay with your counsel?" "Take a look." "If you can understand what he's talking about, you can respond." "Mr. Williams, do you understand the fights I referred to previously?" "Yes, sir." "Great, so I'll ask you again." "Did you have a violent record while you were in the foster care system?" "No, sir." "I'm sorry Mr. Williams, that file refers to you, yes?" "Yes." "And it describes fights, yes?" "Yes." "Could the court reporter please read back the original question?" "So, I'll ask you again, did you have a violent record while you were in the foster care system." "Mr. Williams, is your answer still no?" "It's still no." "Okay, maybe I'm not being clear." "I" "This is about fights I had when I was 12 and 13, in the orphan home." "You know, after that they moved me into foster care." "I didn't have any fights when I was in foster care, or living with the Williams, or after." "But you did change your name?" "Yes." "To separate yourself from this history of violence." "Mr. Robinson, I was 16." "I don't remember all that much from then, but" "I'm pretty sure I wasn't spending a whole lot of time regretting punches I threw when I was 12, or thinking about the future, you know." "I'm pretty sure changing my name had something to do with my mom and dad just dying." "Your foster mother and father." "My foster mother and father." "A lot of people seem to die around you, don't they Mr. Williams?" "And a lot of people seem to puke around you, don't they Jefferson?" "Can we move on?" "I'm just trying to understand some history." "Alright." "Let's keep it to that." "Mr. Williams, you entered the orphan home when your biological family, your father, mother and sister died." "Is that correct?" "Yes." "And then your foster mother and foster father died too." "Yes?" "Yes." "And did you know Rebecca Hines?" "Yes." "So Rebecca and Cody Hines too have died since you've known them." "Yes." "That's a lot of people to die in someone's life." "Yes." "And you think Chip would be safe with you?" "Yes." "Mr. Williams, how long were you at the Williams' home?" "Uh... two and a half years." "That's it?" "Yes." "Seems like they made quite an impression in two and a half years." "Yes, they did." "And how old were you when your biological family died?" "Three." "So, other than about 5 years of your life, you've not had a father and a mother." "That's right." "And you in fact did not have any family outside those 5 years." "Well that's not right." "No?" "There's Cody and Chip." "Okay." "And Dave and Eileen and Blake..." "Ah, sure." "Sally and Darryl." "Let's talk for a minute about Cody Hines." "How exactly did you seduce him?" "Excuse me?" "How did you seduce Cody Hines?" "I did not seduce Cody Hines." "Cody Hines did not engage in any deviant sexual behavior before he met you, did he?" "I object." "On behalf of the civilized world." "Can we keep away from conjecture and compound questions?" "Mr. Williams, as far as you knew, did Cody Hines sleep with men before he met you?" "As far as I know, no." "But he slept with you?" "Yes." "And this started when Rebecca was pregnant with Chip?" "No." "Oh this happened after Chip was born?" "Yes." "After Rebecca died?" "Yes." "Right after?" "No." "How long after?" "Uh... about seven months." "Mr. Williams, is it possible to get over the death of a loved one in seven months?" "I guess." "Have you gotten over the death of Cody?" "No." "Been about seven months, right?" "Yes." "And you, you're not over him yet?" "No." "You don't have another boyfriend?" "Nope." "Mr. Williams," "Cody Hines had never been with a man before you." "Why did he choose you?" "I don't know." "How did you seduce him?" "I didn't." "You didn't take advantage of his, his confusion of his mourning his recently deceased bride." "No." "I listened to him was all, when he needed it." "I talked to him." "And I didn't ask him for anything." "Oh, except a paycheck." "No." "No?" "You were working for him, right?" "Yes, but I didn't get a paycheck." "You know, when Rebecca died, I just felt awful for Cody." "And I really liked Rebecca too, you know." "And" "I had these other jobs at the time that were paying me fine, so I, I just billed through other folks' costs on Cody's project." "I didn't take any money from him during that time." "And did he know this?" "I don't know." "I can't speak for him." "And you don't seem to be able to speak of him either." "You didn't say anything at Cody Hines' service did you, Mr. Williams?" "No, I" "Now Mr. Williams, you..." "you're not a pedophile, are you?" "No." "If I were to look through your criminal history, I wouldn't find any charges?" "Under your name or any other name you've assumed?" "No." "Well thank you, Mr. Williams." "That's all the questions I have." "Joey, you may only have had a mother and father for a couple of years, but it looks like they at least taught you some manners in that time." "Yes, they did." "Now Joey, I'm going to back us up a little bit to where Mr..." "Robinson started the deposition." "Do you remember him talking about a document you signed and about you giving up the house?" "Yes, I do." "And it seems like you gave up your claims to the house and to your accounts with Cody in exchange for a deposition." "Now," "I love a good deposition as much as the next lawyer, but this is a surprising trade." "And it sounds like" "Mr. Robinson was surprised too." "Could you tell us why you decided to do this?" "Okay." "It's a big question." "Yeah." "But" "I think it'll help Jefferson and Eileen and Dave understand why they're here." "Okay." "Yeah, okay." "So uh..." "I've been thinking." "You know, being on my own now." "With the house so quiet." "With, with all this time." "I've been thinking, how'd we ever get here." "You know, how'd things ever get to the point they did." "And how'd they happen so fast, you know." "It seems like one day I was Chip's dad, Blake's Uncle Joey." "Then all of a sudden I'm Mr. Joey Williams on a police form." "I've been trying to think what exactly happened." "Sorry, it'll probably take me a while to get at your question." "That's fine, Joey." "That's fine, you take all the time you need." "Well at the beginning, all I wanted was to get Chip back." "And I was angry, so I wasn't one to think straight." "Now I look back, and all the times I tried to get through to Dave, Eileen or Sally..." "I was pretty much screaming my head off." "Even that first night Eileen told me about Cody's will, I got a little hotheaded." "And that night I took Chip away." "Right or wrong, it didn't help things." "It didn't exactly make me someone they wanted to come up and talk to." "So I guess the first thing I wanted to do is tell Dave and tell Eileen I know I had my part in the way things went bad so fast." "I'm not just mad at you, I know I had my part." "Okay, I think they heard you, Joey." "Okay, now about why I traded all the stuff for a deposition." "Good." "You're right, it's not for love of the thing." "I get that feeling." "Am I doing that bad?" "You're doing just fine, Joey." "You're doing just fine." "Okay, well uh... when you first said you'd be my lawyer, you asked me a question." "You asked me what was really important and what would I give up to get there." "And you figured it out." "Yeah, I figured it." "It took me a while, but I figured it out." "Cody kind of helped me figure it out." "Thinking about me and Cody." "You know, we had a good life." "A really good life." "He knew it, I knew it, but... but I guess the thing we didn't do was talk about the big stuff." "Each day kind of crept up on us and we never said big stuff." "Like I don't think I ever told him how happy I was." "It'd be nice if I did." "It'd be nice if we talked about big things like a life together and like wills, so bad on us, you know." "We didn't talk about it, so the other guy didn't know." "So I decided I am not going to make the same mistake twice." "I am going to talk about the big stuff in front of Dave and in front of Eileen." "I'm not going to assume they know what Chip means to me." "What Cody means to me." "So I want to tell them." "And this is important enough, you'll give up all that other stuff." "Oh, yeah." "I've uh..." "I've started from zero a couple times in my life." "Giving up these things, I'm hardly at zero." "But Chip is family." "Dave and Eileen are family." "I think it's more important they get me than some judge gets me." "I don't know if it's going to happen, but I want to give them a chance to get me." "So, why don't I ask a couple questions about some of the stuff Jefferson mentioned?" "Good." "You're going to help me out with questions." "I'm going to help you out with questions, Joey." "Now," "Jefferson mentioned you didn't speak at Cody's memorial service?" "Is that right?" "No." "I mean yes, that's right, I didn't speak." "Is there a reason why?" "I had no idea what to say." "But I knew I should at least try and say something, right?" "I planned on talking." "I sort of helped Chip up to the podium, and he went first." "I kind of stood with him while he talked about his pa." "And Chip, he was just up there telling everyone this story and that about his pa." "Had everyone cracking up and bawling all at once." "And you know, it was the first time all day it felt like Cody was close by." "When everyone else talked, it was like he was slipping away, but Chip brought him back." "And I just thought it was the right way to end things, you know." "Let his kid have the last word." "Yeah, Chip did us all a big favor that day and I wasn't about to undo it." "Joey, do you think you can share with us a few words about Cody now?" "Maybe some of the things you were thinking about saying that day." "Okay." "Uh..." "I don't really remember what I was going to say that day..." "Why don't you just tell us a little bit about you and Cody." "Okay." "Well uh... me and Cody was pretty much a surprise to both of us." "It wasn't just you guys, we were surprised too." "I mean, I never expected we'd get together." "He was just this nice guy I sort of knew, you know." "We got along and all." "And uh..." "I guess he had the idea first and one night he... out of the blue, sort of kissed me." "And uh... it just set something off." "You know?" "Suddenly everything was really fun." "And I just wanted him in every minute of my life." "The more I got to know him, the more I couldn't believe I never saw all the good stuff before, you know?" "Like um," "I have these musician friends, but I learned more about music just watching Cody listen to some Chip Taylor song." "Man, he loved his Chip Taylor." "Yeah, he loved his Chip Taylor, you make sure you get that in there." "He'll want that written down." "Oh Cody loved a lot of stuff." "It was kind of contagious, you know." "He saw good things in people." "Sometimes I don't know where he was looking, but he convinced us it was there." "I think it's a little harder for us to see some of the good stuff now." "Without him, I mean." "Yeah Cody was the guy I wanted to grow old with." "But uh... he's also the kind of guy you have in your life a little while, and you know you're a lucky bastard." "Now Joey, you talked a little bit about your foster parents earlier." "Can you tell me more about them?" "Sure." "Um... my mom, her name was Irene Williams." "My dad was Joseph Williams." "And that's where the Joey came from?" "Yeah." "What did they do?" "My dad, when he was younger, he used to build boats." "He's originally from Louisiana." "As he got older, the things he built kind of got smaller." "In the end he was mostly building guitars." "Also had a shop where he bound books." "Really good with the leather bound." "And he taught you how to do some of that stuff?" "." "Yeah." "We were kind of dangerous together." "You had a man who could teach you how to make anything in the world and a kid who just couldn't get enough." "It was just too cool." "Did you ever build a boat with your dad?" "Yeah." "Not many people can say that." "I tell you it doesn't even begin to describe the guy." "He told me to call him Dad from day one, and he lived up to it." "You know, growing up without a family, you kind of get used to this look from grown-ups." "Yeah." "They kind of look at you like, what-am-I-gonna-do-with-you." "Dad never had that look." "He knew what he was gonna do." "He was going to be my dad, that was that." "And it was the most natural thing in the world to him." "And what did your mom do?" "Oh... she was full-time crazy." "But just about the most beautiful kind of crazy you can imagine." "Yeah?" "Dad made the guitars, and Mom had the friends to play them." "She loved like mountain music and dancing." "And with Mom, every week it was something new." "Yeah, you didn't know if it was going to be Mom the writer, or Mom the archeologist, or..." "I swear, there were a couple of months there where all she did was make personalized urns." "Seriously, she did all this research into people's lives after they died to make the perfect urn to fit their personality." "Just out of her gourd." "It's uh, it's funny, her life was all noise and adventure and stuff, but um... when it was just the two of us, it was usually just quiet." "You know I, I guess everyone has to come down a little at some point." "But uh, us around the house, not really doing anything." "I don't know why, but that's what I think about a lot." "People like the crazy stories, but uh, that nothing around the house stuff, um, that's what I miss about Mom." "It sounds like they set a pretty good example for you as parents." "They did." "Now." "Can you tell me, Joey, why you think you'll be a good father to Chip?" "Well, uh..." "I guess I never really had to think about that question before." "Sure, I thought about how to be a good dad, but I didn't spend a whole lot of time trying to convince people I was up for it." "You know, I just did it." "And tried to do it better." "Now it's like I'm interviewing for the same job I had for the last six years." "But I've tried to think about the question." "You know, take myself out of it, and think about it seriously." "And I'm not about to say I'm the world's best dad." "But this is what I got." "I got a Mom and Dad who taught me how to love like a reflex." "Yeah?" "If you do it all the time, it gets easy." "It gets into every little thing you do, and your kid's going to have the important stuff." "Cody, he taught me a lot." "Cody was really smart." "People sometimes forgot that about him 'cause he had all this other stuff going for him, but he was crazy smart." "Chip's the same way." "Yeah?" "They are both way out of my league there, but" "I saw how Cody taught Chip." "How he taught him to be creative, find out more about stuff he liked." "Yeah, you live with a real teacher like Cody and um, you learn how to help people get better." "Much better than you." "So, I know Chip will grow up to be smarter than me, and he'll go on to do important things." "But I can help him get there." "I know that's my job." "And uh, Chip is such a good kid, there's gonna be all sorts of people lining up to help him in his life." "But I'm gonna be at the front of that line." "All the time." "I know Dave and Eileen are in that line too." "They're like me, I think." "They really miss Cody, and they want to make sure Chip gets the best." "Mr. Robinson, you're right." "I've lost a lot of people in my life." "But I won't lose someone I love if I don't have to." "Yeah, I won't let Chip think I stopped loving him before I'm cold in the ground." "My life is all about that kid." "Every thing I think, he comes into the picture." "I've got his college fund going." "And I am going to teach him to throw that perfect spiral." "He is really into dragons right now." "I've got the next five lined up." "Or whatever he's into, I'll line it up." "And I'll make sure he gets every Chip Taylor album, just like his pa wanted." "He'll do his homework, eat vegetables, all of that." "Hell, we might even build a boat together." "But it won't be so he can build boats all his life." "Yeah, he's going to learn to captain the boat and all." "I swear to you, I'll give Chip everything." "I will be a good dad to him." "I know how, and I will do it." "I raised my hand today and swore to you I wasn't going to lie." "I will swear to be a good dad to him." "As many times as you need me to swear it." "Thank you, Joey." "No more questions." "Alright." "Why don't we take a quick break and we'll come back and see if we can wrap this up before long?" "Alright, going off the record." "Want some coffee?" "There's a kitchen around the corner." "Yeah, that'd be great." "Mind if I follow you?" "Sure." "Heard about, something about coffee." "Um." "We don't have anything else Paul, so we're done for the day." "Mr. Williams." "Joey." "Hey, Dave." "You guys left in a hurry today." "Oh yeah." "Sorry Joey." "Eileen she..." "You know," "I've been sorry about this since the start, I..." "It was good to hear you talk." "We did hear you." "It's nice to be, to be talking again." "Yeah, we're just talking up a storm here, aren't we Dave?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "I didn't know the lawyer was going to say those things." "They, they were awful." "Eileen and me both, we couldn't believe what he said." "Eileen okay?" "Um, not really, no." "You all could have just talked to me before talking to the police, Dave." "Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know." "I know." "And I, I think Eileen knows that too." "You were right, what you said, we have all been... we've been confused since Cody." "But she's, she's really been working hard to figure this out." "She's trying real hard." "Now I don't know if you believe it, but she is." "I believe you, Dave." "She, she's just trying to figure it out." "She know you're here?" "Yeah, she's in the car." "She's not going to come out and talk to me?" "I don't know." "She don't know." "But she, she wanted to let you know, uh, this is from her now, you don't have to move." "I know we signed whatever, but this is your place." "She's got that much figured out." "Still don't know what to do about uh... about everything else, but uh," "you'll give her some time, yeah?" "She's not like she was where she's saying," "This is how it is." "She, uh, she really doesn't know." "Yeah?" "Yeah." "Dave, you can tell her, tell her I" "Oh hell, this is ridiculous." "Eileen!" "Eileen, get out here and talk to Joey!" "Daddy!" "Surprise!" "Chip!" "Hope you don't mind a guest tonight."