Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2010 21:04:17 -0700 From: dnrock@rock.com Subject: The Beneficial 17 The Beneficial by: dnrock(dnrock@rock.com) 17: Expressions of Talent "Harold how nice to see you, please come in." Harold stepped in grabbed Garth in a bear hug and planted kisses on his lip and well all over his face. He moved onto every one else. "Put this in the CD player, for me please Eddy," Harold asked. Eddy took the CD from Harold and fired up the machine. Firing up the machine is an interesting turn of phrase, since that would imply building a fire and raising steam, for example. Not at all what happened and not at all what Eddy did. Eddy pressed the power button, delivering an electric current to the circuits in this electronic device. Harold got everyone sitting down. "Now play track 4." Eddy selected track 4 and pressed play. It was of course him, recorded at the Foud-du-Lac, Wisconsin music festival last summer, he was singing Honor's "My Heart Will Go On". A hard piece for a 10 year old and he did it very well, they all said so. It was truly magical. Eddy was very proud and he was pleased that everyone else liked his work. "Now play trace 7 please." Eddy selected 7 and pushed play. This too was a boy soprano, a young man, well boy also 10, named Wilson Kirk-Roe. Eddy and Wilson had formed a quick friendship and e-mailed to each other often, including short mp3's of their respective work. Both boys were looking forward to the next festival. (Wilson is a character in the soon to be published story Delta Cubed) Harold went on to explain the relatively short time that a boy soprano has in that range. Sometimes his time can be extended if his voice is highly trained and sometimes not. The long and the short of it was they should get a recording ready by this time next year and Eddy should be thinking about some limited professional performances over the next two years. Tom made a copy of the CD a few days later and sent it on to Hoffman. Tom also noticed when ever Eddy was singing, in any room except the music room, the chickadee's all seemed to gather in the big Spruce and sing along. Maybe he was just imagining that, he rationalized. Now that they had two townhouses linked together there was a lot more room to move around in, each adult had an office and a bedroom as did each boy. Lloyd, Peter and Nate rented Edith's condo. Edith was taking a Saturday course and doing some traveling during the week. Garth liked this location, it gave him ready access to the airport as well as the corporate offices. Richard and Nate attended different high schools but they both had cars. Lloyd and Peter were in first year university , they saw that Conrad and Eddy got to and from grade 5 classes, at the campus grade school. With Garth's base, Lloyd's keyboard and Peter's guitar their little band was equipped to play almost anything, as long as Edith or Conrad were around to play drums. Eddy displayed a considerable talent for sketching, however he did not seem overly interested in it. While in the west Lloyd had discovered the nature photography of a new young artist Apollo Bidis, who works out of Bellingham, Wa. Lloyd was most taken with Apollo's images as well as the variety. He began purchasing some of his posters, that's all he could afford and studying his techniques. He had some of his work enlarged at a local professional lab in a effort to emulate Apollo. (Apollo is the main protagonist in Photo, another of my stories.) Fall had given way to winter and the holiday season was fast approaching. Harold had made arrangements for Eddy, Charley, James and Conrad to sing with a children's chores at the St. Paul winter carnival, which runs the last week of January and first week of February. Eddy would have several solo parts but over all it was just a lot of good fun. It was just coming up on the beginning of November when Carl called. Garth answered. Carl did not know Garth had returned so the call took a lot longer than Carl had planed. "Let me get to the point Garth, I must keep this to under ten minutes, they have me a very short lease these days." "Go for it buddy." "We have been invited to perform at two charity concerts in early December to help the Minneapolis and St. Paul fire fighters "Toys For Tots" drive. One performance in each city." "Is that the royal we or do you need our help?" "Eddy and I, you know the voice and the profile." "I'm sure he will be glad to Carl but I don't have his PDA." "Ten year olds don't have PDA's, do they?" "I don't know about others but Eddy does, shit I got to book him just to get a kiss. Anyway fax or e-mail the info, better send a copy to Harold too. He will want to influence the music selection. Tom has your direct line?" ............................... "Ladies and Gentlemen Eddy Anderson, Conrad Sample and Governor Carl Rolvogson" Much applause the curtain opens to an almost empty stage. On the right, in semi shadow is the grand piano, with Carl seated. Off stage to the left, Conrad starts to beat his drum. The piano comes in and still off stage Eddy starts to sing. He and Conrad move onto the stage and over to the piano which is now spot lit. They are doing their Little Drummer Boy act. It is becoming highly refined. In the middle Eddy stops singing and players stop playing. "Did you know that last year there weren't enough toys to for every needy child to have one?" Conrad did a short drum roll. "No Eddy, I didn't know. Is that why we are here tonight?" Another drum roll. "Yes, we are here to show the people of St. Paul how to give." drum roll. "They know how to give, they sure give me a hard time," the audience laughs. "We mean give presents, not political advice," Conrad added. The audience laughs again. "We, all the performers on tonight's program, are giving our most treasured gift to them, the Audience," Eddy announced. "We are giving of ourselves, so they will give of themselves," Conrad added. "No child should be without or in need, our children are our greatest treasure. Let them know just how valuable that treasure is." Carl said, winding up the piano, Conrad picked up the beat and Eddy finished the song. There were many other acts, amateurs and professionals. After every three or four Eddy, Carl and Conrad would come back some times alone, sometimes with the FD quartet and sing. Eddy and Carl closed the show with "I Dreamed a Dream" from the musical Les Miserables. The show was a sold out smash, which was repeated in Minneapolis two nights later. ............................. With happy events like the "Toys For Tots" benefit, school and boy's choir performances, school plays, the Festival of Lights and so on, things were progressing all very well, thank you. In fact they were progressing just a bit to well. Eddy and Conrad managed to get a ride the Fire Chief's car, with the siren and lights on. Which was probably more of highlight then the performances. Tom was highly productive and his work was in increasing demand. He was getting commissions from magazines he never thought of approaching. Garth liked his new job and living arrangements. Edith had been promoted. Eddy and Conrad were both toping out their grade 5 classes. Everyone was getting all the sex they wanted. Lloyd and Peter had made a smooth transition from high school to first year university. The political bad boys were out of circulation. Carl was gearing up for the campaign in the fall. Abdula was home and the family was getting it together. The Mendes twins and Jack were frequent visitors. All was well, almost all anyway. Nate and Richard were some months away from 18, the age of emancipation in Minnesota. That did not mean that Peter and Lloyd expected them to respect it by not drinking their beer. Some of the parties were a little on the wild side and Garth had to enforce the no pot rules on more then one occasion. They seemed to listen to Garth, who is accustomed to being in charge of things, better than Tom. Edith, being to token women and house mom, was often politely ignored. ..................... Tom was writing a brief piece for a popular press, medium circulation magazine, aimed at men's health and fitness. He was examining the influence of day length and other natural rhythms on general male behavior and attitudes. "Do male attitudes and outlooks change with the season?" "Is there anything to the young men and spring thing?" Tom is a first class scientist if nothing else and we know he is a lot more than that. In addition, to his reading of books and Journals, Tom felt the need for at least one, if not more, experiments. He knew perfectly well his sample was small, not truly representative and probably biased. The observational results probably useless. That did not mean collecting those results would not prove to be lots of fun and highly pleasurable. Garth leaned over placing his hands on the back of a chair and displaying his naked butt. It is a nice butt, smooth and firm with small hollows on either side. It is rounded with thin blond hairs. He leaned over spreading his legs and pushing out his hips. "Put it in Tommy" Tom moved up and prepared Garth's half opened anus slipping two KY coated fingers of his right had inside, while using his left hand to fondle his buddy's manhood. Tom held his erection in his right hand easing its large head into him. "Put it in Tommy, yes, yes, all the way in" Garth said. Tom did as requested kissing Garth's back and slowly drawing his hands over his smooth skin. Tom pressed against Garth smooth white ass. Garth's sphincter gripped the evader tightly holding it in place. As Tom bent over Garth kissing his back he exposed his anus to Lloyd, who need no invitation. Lloyd moved in behind Tom and mimicking his actions entered his mentor. Sliding his long thin upturned member to its hilt. Leaning forward and kissing the back of Tom's neck Lloyd exposed his delightful and relatively small ass to Richard. Richard started things by slowly withdrawing about half way from Lloyd who followed, to Tom who followed, then thrusting back in with a full chain reaction. It took a few attempts to establish a smooth rhythm. Once going they picked up the speed a bit but this was still one sweet, long, slow fuck. Tom and Garth had not done that for years since they were boys of Lloyd and Richard's age, having fun at league functions. In those days they would get up to eight in the fuck chain. It was not all that often lately that the older boys could all get together and just enjoy each others bodies in a display of unabashed lust; unless those get togethers were structured. This experiment was highly satisfying if not definitive. Yes, the length of the day did have subtle effects on hormone levels and yes, those levels generally had optimistic and positive attitude adjustments. Those effects could be translated to increased sexual arousal in men. This is not to say women are unaffected, in fact, they may be even more greatly effected. Tom just didn't have any experience with that, not being a woman. His personal experience did not back any of this up. He and his crew were so highly charged under normal conditions, a change in season was not noticeable. ................................. The family's famous conductor had been pressured by Harold and others to put together a special spring program which would be recorded. It was hoped the sale of CD's would enhance the coffers of the music programs at the summer camps. All of the family's professional music makers were invited to perform with the amateurs and children. Everyone had been rehearsing their parts, some of it quite technically demanding, since the Festival of Light. Everyone wanted to take part in every part, of course. That was not possible. The program started with the Copeland's Fanfare For The Common Man. It was a mostly Copeland program. For Example, from Appalachian Spring the chores sang the old Shaker hymn Simple Gifts. Right in the middle of the orchestral portion which usually runs about 5 and a half minutes the cores began to sing with Eddy taking a solo portion of the soprano parts, that were then repeated by the choir. The end was masterful. Conrad came on the empty stage and beat a slow march as the singers took their places on the risers. The course hummed quietly as the conductor introduced "Our President, Mr. Lincoln". They were preforming Copland's Lincoln Portrait, written in 1942, he uses music to express and simple text chosen from Abe's own words and in doing so expresses, some of highest ideals of the land in music. Lloyd stepped to a small podium on the side of the stage and the course stopped humming. Lloyd was made up to look like Lincoln. The strings and wood winds began playing softly in the background, it is a mournful tune beginning low and building with brass and drums coming in to join the strings. The music dies off, plays a simple melody punctuated with low frequency stings giving way to up temp strings and brass playing parts of old folk songs building to crescendo ... "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. That is what he said, that is what Abraham Lincoln said: "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history ..." the text ends with a few lines from the Gettysburg Address. Lloyd's baritone voice was masterful his modulation was clear and powerful. Eddy and the singers gave a spirited version of America the Beautiful. Wynne thought "Kate Smith eat your poor, dead heart out." He was that moved by Eddy. Next the players moved to the Largo from Karl Jenkins' Palladio while Lloyd recited the Gettysburg Address in his baritone voice. When he finished the music died away and Eddy began "Mine eyes have seen the glory," he repeated this time with all the sopranos, they repeated with the Altos, and so on until the bases came in then the entire group continued the the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The conductor said some words about honoring our founders on this 116 anniversary of our founding and so on. The music struck up again with the 4th movement of Beethoven's 9th the Ode To Joy. Harold in the tenor lead and Eddy in the soprano lead, with the whole course adults and children. The music then moved on to Also Sprach Zarathoustra a tome poem by Richard Strauss. This pice usually takes about 34 minutes to play. The conductor shortened it to about 10. Most people are familiar with the opening bars which are like a fanfare. They ended the first part with Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings op 11. The remainder of the evening was just as eventful and inspiring. The evening ended with the playing Promenade from Pictures At An Exhibition (by Modest Moussorgusky) followed by a dark stage with Conrad play his drum again in a loan spotlight. He stops and the light switched to Eddy who did "I Have a Dream" this time with the piano in the pit. The light went out while the Promenade played and came on again illuminating Lloyd again, still dressed a Abe. "Our nation was born in conflict and has been tested." Photographs of uniformed veterans flashed on a large screen behind him. "We have always passed that test. We are being tested again but let us resolve not to enter into conflict for the sake of conflict alone, the end does not, nor can not justify the means, military conflict must be the last resort, not the first. All humanity dreams that dream, let us strive to make it a reality." (note to the reader, this DVD was recorded about 45 days before the war in Iraq began.) Eddy made sure to send copies of the DVD to some of his singing friends the ones he had met at festivals, like Wilson. Tom made sure Hoffman also got a copy .................. "Dad, Dad!" Eddy called out as he rushed into the house. "Dad I got to get ready, grandfather will be here soon he needs my help." "Wow little man, slow down some. How do you know grandfather will be here soon?" "The Chickadees told me." Eddy stated in a very matter-of-fact way, bolting up the stairs to his room. I few minutes later the phone rang, it was grandfather, he needed Spirit Eyes and would pick him up in about 30 minutes. "Tell him he needs his ceremonial costume, Tom." "I guess the Chickadees told him that too, he is up stairs putting it on as we speak." ................... "Tom look at those boys, do they remind you of something?" "Yes, of you and I at 11 our mouths glued to each other cocks just like they are." "Remind you of anything else? Well on a few occasions our fathers joined us and we both thought that a real good thing. But unlike our fathers we are not strangers to their butts." "True but I think our appreciation had more to do with the community than the reality." Tom and Garth disrobed and move up to Conrad and Eddy who seemed oblivious to their presence, being totally engaged in pleasuring each other. Tom lay down next to Conrad and began pressing his tongue into the boy's butt crack. Sliding it along the crevice and dancing over his anus. Eddy's eyes were fixed on Tom studying his movements. Eddy could feel Conrad react to Tom's tongue especially as it pressed into his opening. Garth settled in behind Eddy and after kissing his butt a few times and Conrad's cheeks he began tongue fucking Eddy's anus by pressing his tongue into the opening and wiggling it around. Conrad could feel Eddy's reactions too. As the men tongue fucked the boys they fucked their little buddies willing mouths with their now 4" rock hard penises. The men slid up along their boy's back in unison but without any overt signal. Boy flesh is so smooth and supple. Boy curves so gentle and sensuous. Reaching over the boys Garth took Tom's penis and inserted it into Conrad. Tom pressed into him with a slow and steady pressure full to the hilt. He reached over and directed Garth's manhood into Eddy's now open hole. Garth's hand grasped Tom's butt and Tom's hand Garth's hip they slowly but steadily began fucking in and out short strokes. Quickly setting up an easy rhythm. Keeping as much pressure on the boy's prostates as possible and disturbing their oral ministrations as little as possible. This would be a slow and pleasurable time a time of love and sharing not lust and passion. It was a wondrous time that brought the men back in time to when their fathers would do the same thing for them. Tom knew Conrad would be pretending he was Con just as he pretended Garth's dad was Wynne. Kinderszenen (child sense) the Schumann melody was running through Tom's head while the tender and sensual action was playing out. He thought that when he makes love to the older boys Richard or Peter it is more like Revell's Bolero, sensual and passionate, even tender but driven and building. This was more like the Schumann's music easy, steady, loving and simple. ........................ Little did Tom or Garth, well any of them know that serious storm clouds were gathering. Tom's article on current research and the accompanying essay, covering the ethics and philosophical underpinnings of stem cell cloning, was about to cause a major disruption in their lives. The essence of his essay argument was: the nature and direction of this kind of research should be directed by logic not faith based rationality. He did not cast a vote for or against. He did point out the faith base approach, as more greatly flawed then a logical process, which operated from the premiss that all humanity, in fact all life, holds an intrinsic dignity which ought to be respected. He demonstrated the process more important than the final result. Clearly demonstrating the end can not justify the means and that to begin from an a priori position of faith, dictates the end. That in a world with no absolutes, an absolute answer was impossible. His work was highly praised and well received by the academic philosophical and science communities. The religious orthodox decried it as atheistic and pseudo-science people, such as creationists, attached. The christian right and the anti abortionists jumped on the bandwagon. Soon the popular press and some politicians were heaping condemnation on him and on the publisher. Tom needed a Huxley but no one as articulate or adroit as the great Thomas H. came forward, so Thomas A. would have to do it himself. He did have one strange ail, however. Klein quickly found himself defending Tom's right to his opinions, as miss guided as they may be. What pissed off Tom was that the most vitriolic comments were directed at things he had never written or said. The most vocal were antiabortionists. This puzzled Tom the most, he had never addressed the issue in way shape or form, at any time. Nor had he addressed the issue of when a person or human becomes such, the debate ranging between conception and birth. One could apply his logical processes to the issue but he had not done so. Not that he did not have ideas and opinions on the subject, he did. He had opinions about abortion too but he never articulated them.