A Boy's World
by Jason Redfeather
Chapter 25
Over the following months, the colony grew quickly. The Red Catholics built their cathedral at the head of the valley, where they anticipated the colony expanding into. Everett was promoted to Emissary and, with TJ at his side, brought orphans and outcasts from a hundred colony worlds.
Back on Mandalay 2, Everett commissioned a monument. Logan was surprised when he came to the dedication. Beside the cathedral, a large, circular colonnade had been constructed, with a thick crystal dome over it. Inside were three gleaming, marble sarcophagi, containing the bodies of his parents and grandpa. Everett had them exhumed from the potter's field on the west side of the city, where they'd been taken after their murders, and entombed here.
In the center was a marble statue of Logan, as a fourteen-year-old boy, shirtless and in ragged cut offs and flip-flops, looking up, with stars in his eyes. Plaques gave tribute to Logan and enumerated the things he'd done to take care of the boys on the Strip and make Mandalay City a better place.
Rick and Michael returned to Mandalay to manage his holdings. He discovered that his uncle and cousins were far richer than he ever knew, and had cheated him and robbed him blind all his life. Rich had been given ownership of the barn and the row of clap-trap apartments behind the Regency, but that was nothing compared to what his uncle owned.
Dagwynn took his boys back to Mandalay and told Grandma all about Logan's new world. Two weeks later, they moved; Logan gave Dagwynn his own Brazil-sized island, which was mostly forest.
Grandma retained ownership of her house on Mandalay, and of Dagwynn's Rock, which they visited once in a while, just to remember where they'd come from.
Ryan took great joy in using Logan's airbike and so did Robby, Zane and Justin; they brought it with them when they moved to Janice. They each went on to found their own cities on Dagwynn's Island.
The mining operations on Janice quickly began turning up astonishing riches and, as the bots brought out tons of gold, silver and gemstones every day, Logan found himself with far more money than he knew what to do with. He built academies, hotels and group homes for new-comers that were as lavish as palaces, shopping malls with gardens and huge, free amusement parks, and tracts of beautiful homes. He built fabulous office buildings, expansive resorts and many other wonderful things, all of which were spread out to allow much of the natural environment to express itself as well.
Logan fully supported all new-comers for their first year on Janice, and longer for those who needed it, until they could establish themselves. Millions came, mostly teenagers from the Red Catholic orphanages, and other outcasts. They were joined with groups of like-minded kids in free houses, and cared for by service-bots.
As it turns out, Logan was not such a good administrator; he found it too demanding, and so, turned that over to Brian and his boys, who stepped into the job easily, along with managing their own personal, Nebraska-sized islands.
Logan, with Jeffy always at his side, spent most of his time traveling around the planet and creating new projects, new cities, new resorts and amusement areas.
Kevin accompanied Logan too, as much as he could, but often, he was wrapped up in his own burgeoning movie-production career. Logan had built for him an expansive studio complex, which brought video-makers, artists, designers and others by the thousands. As a hobby on the side, Kevin also continued to make porno vids for his dozens of websites, which netted him millions.
Nick and Nathan also stayed with and traveled with Logan and Jeffy and, when they came of age, were given two Texas-sized islands, which they named Nickonia and Nathanland. With the education they received from Logan's teaching machines, both designed many popular games and became rich in their own rights.
Jennica's baby wasn't the first born on Janice, that honor went to a girl named Lisa, who came to Janice, heavily pregnant with her own father's child. That little boy was born in Dagwynn's new house, with Grandma's help, before the new medical center was completed.
Jennica's baby boy was the first born in the new medical center and he had Brian's eyes. Logan and all the kids from the barn were present and Kevin video'd the whole birth for watchers around the planet.
Jennica moved to Brian's island, which he named after her, and he gave her the governorship.
Jimmy Legs asked for and was given ownership of the southernmost land mass on the planet, a beautiful, ice-bound subcontinent straddling the south pole, the one place on the planet that was cold enough that he couldn't show off his bare legs or wear his signature ripped-butt cut offs!
Logan built for him one of the most fabulous ski resorts in the galaxy. Jake and Kyle, and thousands of other orphans, joined him there, and the city they designed became a winter wonderland, a jewel of the colony.
Danya and Bobby paired up to develop a large, southern island, as did Josh and Zander in the north. The other kids from the barn, as well as Jamie and Chaz, and the kids that followed them, took over several island chains in the temperate zones around the planet, even claiming large areas of ocean, which they farmed. Logan also built many aquatic parks among them.
Tony and his boys were also given islands of their own, and the mines there gave them enough money to buy another star system. Unfortunately, the planets in their system proved to be usable only for mining by bots and drones. The system was bathed in radiation from a nearby pulsar, making surface development on the planets nearly impossible.
Tony and his boys returned to Janice, to bathe in the sun in their island resorts, to fish and swim, and enjoy the profits from the mining operations in the other system.
At the dedication of Logan's monument on Mandalay 2, a lone boy stood at the back of the crowd. He had not been invited, nor did anyone there expect him. In fact, few even noticed him.
He gazed at the statue, memorizing the face, the body, and especially, the name. He saw Logan standing among the crowd and paid particular attention when he was called up to the podium to speak. His heart swelled with joy as Logan made his invitation for any orphaned or outcast kids to come to Janice in the Logania System.
The boy slowly, carefully worked his way around the crowd, to one red-robed cleric, and stood, working up the courage to ask a question.
Jeffy noticed the boy, now standing near Everett, and pointed him out to Kevin on one of the video screens he was monitoring.
"He looks like he needs us," Jeffy whispered. Kevin nodded.
At the same time, Logan, coming down from the podium, spotted him and came straight to him. With a big smile, Logan put an arm around the boy's shoulders and pulled him close. "He's with us," he said to Everett, who nodded and smiled. "Are you OK?" Logan asked.
The boy teared up. "My Dad threw me out," he said. "He caught me with a friend, and..." His voice caught and no more words would come out.
"Come with us," Logan said. "We have a place that's just right for you!"
Jeffy was working his way through the dissipating crowd and, as he came near, called out, "Scotty!"
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