Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2017 11:39:25 +0000 From: revjpgibson@hotmail.com Subject: Home in the Woods chapter 3 A HOME IN THE WOODS By Rev Jesse Penfield Gibson, MDiv, DMin DISCLAIMER: This story is fiction. Any similarities between any persons, living or dead, is coincidental. It involves bisexuality on the part of teenagers, including intergenerational sex, as well as drug use. If this offends you, please reconsider your browsing choices. If it appeal to you, enjoy. AUTHOR'S NOTE: At the suggestion of a reader of another story, Under the Cherry Tree, posted in Bisexual/College, I am fleshing out a part of that story into this. It isn't necessary to read that story to enjoy this story but many of the characters are the same. The difference is that I have changed the location of the commune. Complaints, compliments and comments to revjpgibson@hotmail.com Please consider donating to Nifty. I have and you should too. It costs money to run the archive and there are few other places that would house stories like this. THREE It was in what passed for the cool of the night, two boys on a porch, both naked and sticky, talking. "Are you going to leave?" Mattie asked. Nate thought about it. He had no reason too, not really. No real plans. Things hadn't gone so great so far. He had done things that he had never thought he would -- begging and dumpster diving and stealing. Anything to stay alive. This second night here was the most free and happy that he had been in a long time, years. "I don't want to. I'd like to stay here with you" Mattie cuddled up next to him. That was a good sign, Nate thought. "Okay but right now, I'm living in the woods with Grandpa. I don't really want to leave, not yet anyway. If you want, and if it's okay with him, then okay. Otherwise, I'll have to visit when I can" "I want to be with you" Nate said "It's not like anything you know, living there" "I want to" Mattie cuddled in close again. Nate was certain. Whatever it was, he was game. But this feeling he wanted to last. It might not last forever but for as long as it could. He was happy. Happy laying there in the cool still air, naked next to another boy, a boy that wanted him to.Just a month ago he wouldn't have been able to imagine such a thing. Not when he had sat there in his father's office with the keys to the gun safe in his hands, thinking about what he should do. Well, that was longer than a month ago but still. The night that he overheard his father say to his mother that he would sometimes rather Nate dead than gay. The next night as Nate baited him and talked back and challenged him until his father enraged had hit him. Never then did he think that it could be this great, laying there next to a boy naked. Whatever happened in the future, this would be his life. He was gay and would never be anything but. He told Mama Ruth the next morning that he thought he would go with Mattie. She just shrugged and wished him well. Nate knew that he was an unimportant part of her life but he grown to really like her in the short time. He hugged her. "Thanks for letting me come here. It's the best thing that ever happened to me" Nate said She hugged him back. "Well good luck. Sounds like you need to some good things for a change" That much was true. He hadn't had much good luck since they found out last fall. He got his back pack with his limited goods and headed down the road with Mattie, the dust from the hard dry red clay kicking up in the hot June sun. Down the railroad track and past the creek, Mattie pointed out a worn away place in the clay bank the ran along side the tracks. Just a few feet inside the tree line was a ancient wire fence, probably the remains of some farm from decades ago with the woods having taken back over. There was path through a section where it had been pushed down. Just beyond was an old firebreak trench, now shallow and like a fossilized stream bed. Mattie took him down it toward the creek until they came to an open space in the woods about 40 feet down. At that point, they were only about 20 feet inside the tree line but Mattie lead him down a path, wide enough for one moving diagonally through the woods until they came to larger path, almost like a highway in the woods, that had been cleared by machinery many years ago and keep up as the main path throuh the woods. Like an off ramp, though, a little ways down, Mattie took him down a narrow path that actually crossed a very minor little stream in the woods and plunged even further back into the shaded darkness of the woods. They walked a while down that path further and further back until they came to a clearing. Off the left was a small log cabin set back from the path and in front of them was a wooden platform with some chairs around. Off to the side, in front of the cabin, were three connected platforms built up in between pine trees with tarps over them for shelter. A girl was sitting on the edge, dressed on in boy's underwear and topless, with breasts that Nate judged to be medium sized in his limited knowledge. He smiled at her and she seemed to ignore him. Mattie introduced her as Tempest but she didn't feel compelled to speak. Nate walked around as Mattie showed him to lay of the land. There was a well and and further away, an outhouse. The woods were tranquil but there was the usual noise of birds signing and the leaves rustling as squirrels scampered around out of site. The walked around the cabin and Nate saw a man, average height with long gray hair laying limply down and a gray beard but lean, muscular and fit, was walking out of the cabin. "Who the fuck are you?" "Grandpa" Mattie said, "This is Nate. He's my friend. Nate, this is Grandpa." "Butt buddy?" Grandpa said Nate looked at Mattie, wondering if this was a good idea. "Yeah" Mattie said. "How fucking old are you?" "I'll be 16 in two weeks" Nate answered. "Who the fuck are you? I don't know you. When did you turn up here? How'd you get here" "Um, a couple days ago. Mama Ruth let me come" "Ah, fuck. That cunt. Why don't you take your shit and go back where you came from, faggot" Nate bowed up. "Don't call me a faggot" "You got some spunk, huh? Okay, I don't give a shit. You can put your shit, what little you got, anywhere in there you want. But you got to obey my rules, got it fucker?" "I don't know. What are they" Grandpa laughed and slapped him on the back. "When it's time to work, we work. When it's time to get fucked up, we get fucked up. When it's time to fuck, we fuck. And I know more about shit than you do." "And it's okay if me and Mattie ,,," " Yeah, everything is good" Mattie said "But right now, we gotta work" Grandpa said. Work included walking down to the creek to check on the still. Grandpa decided to test him and asked Nate to take them to the creek. It was just him and Mattie as Tempest had seemed to disappear. He knew the general direction and stumbled about a bit but found the trail and actually even found the still. It was tucked up in a open space a little uphill from the creek on a bend. It was almost just the smell that led him to it. A definite odor to be sure, like sourdough bread rising. Into the clearing, there was a clay and rock furnace with a metal cone on top and flu over to a large barrel that was connected at the top with another barrel. That one had a tap at the bottom. Spread around were barrels that were covered. "We need to thin out the mash and add malt" Grandpa said. Nate watched. Grandpa stuck a stick into the barrel and it stood on it's own in the half full thick mash. They had to bring water to him in jugs from the stream that he poured in until the stick fell over. "Add a double handful of malt and a gallon of sugar across the top" Grandpa told him. "Don't you want a lot of sugar?" Nate asked. "Not yet" he answered. They moved on to the remaining five barrels and did the same. Lugging water up and pouring it in. Once he had shown them, they had to do it. Finished, that was it for the day as to moonshining. Mature had to do its thing. Grandpa made Nate lead the way back. Once on the path and about 500 yards down, Grandpa stopped him. "If you hungry, there food to eat around here?" Nate smiled. He knew he was being tested. "There's some blueberries over there and there was a fig tree as we came up to the cabin. You can eat the roots of the palmetto bushes but it's a lot of work" "For not fucking much" Grandpa said "No" Nate agreed. "There's other stuff too, probably. Wild cherries maybe, peaches. You know more about that than me" Grandpa looked at Mattie. "I guess he's all right. Too fucking old, if you ask me but fuck it ain't like you shave no how. I guess. You a total fag? Don't want pussy at all? What's the girl supposed to do, keep on twiddling her twat? I'm an old fucking man. I can't keep her fucked up good like she wants. You two gotta help me out" Nate was uncomfortable about it. "I came because of Mattie" "This is the way it is" Mattie said. "It's just fucking, kid. Living and fucking. You'll figure it out. I'm going up to the cabin to find her if she ain't been trailing us the whole time. Get as much as you can" Grandpa said. He headed off down the path alone. Nate seemed frozen to that spot and Mattie hadn't made a move either. IN a minute, they heard a rustling in the woods off to their left. Nate, startled, turned and saw Tempest emerge from the trees. "What are you doing?" he asked "Watching you two jack off. I heard you talking" "It doesn't mean anything Tempest" Mattie said. "Nate just got here. He doesn't know" "I ain't begging nobody for nothing. You do what you want to do" Tempest said, heading off in the woods with one of the pails to gather blueberries. Nate followed in behind her and so did Mattie. The three of them went into the bushes and started picking. "Do you really have sex with him?" "Yeah" Mattie answered. "And with Liam when he was here. You'll see, it's just fun. And everybody likes everybody so it's not wrong." "You ain't ever been with a girl?" Tempest asked "Barely been with a boy" Nate answered. "I don't care if you and Mattie are boyfriends. I just wanna get fucked some too, you know" "It's all good" Mattie said. The amazing bit is that they did work. Gathering the berries, picking wild cherries and the figs. But then Tempest gave it to them and headed off away from the cabin area down the path further in the woods. Mattie told Nate that she had a place she held up at sometimes, a dugout covered in tarps and hard to find. It just was the way it was. Eventually Grandpa would take her food and fuck her or she would come back and eat the leftovers. She came and went as she wanted. In the cabin, Grandpa gave them a lecture and demonstration of wild dill and sorrel. Once back, some of the berries went to wine but the rest to jelly, which required cooking, which required wood. Supper had to be made, deer sausage and fried cornbread and beans and wine. By then NAte was tired and hungry and it tasted good. Really good. They settled down outside, having really not ever having gone inside the cabin much during the day but the mosquito's and gnats were growing. Nate, feeling a bit closed in, went over to the wooden platform to think a bit. Grandpa followed him a minute or two later. NAte was lost in his own thoughts, not knowing what was going on exactly but could figure out the general lay of the land and he wasn't sure he liked it. Grandpa and Tempest seemed nice enough but it wasn't what he wanted. The older man didn't speak, merely reached in and got out a joint and lit it, taking in a big toke and handing it over to Nate. Nate shook his head. Despite the last two days, he was pretty sure that smoking marijuana was wrong. Grandpa shrugged and took another toke. "You wanna help me gather some cat tails down by the creek?" the older man asked. Nate was a bit annoyed by that. They had just been down there and he could have done it then. But it's his place and Nate figured he was a guest at least until he left and he was growing increasingly sure that he would. But he wanted to talk to Mattie. If Mattie would come with him, he would leave in a minute. But until then, he just nodded and stood up to go. The path was darker as they walked. It was no longer daylight and not quite dusk it seemed although it was still early for that since it was June and the days were long. But the shadows were long and the woods were growing eerie. Grandpa was ahead of him and neither were speaking as NAte continued to think about his situation. But then it got darker still and Nate began to get concerned. Grandpa was ahead and he could still see him but less clearly. "You know the way right?" Nate heard Grandpa's voice say up ahead of him. He couldn't see him now. "Yeah" he answered. He was uncertain. "Or you can turn around if you want, go back. Leave even." "No" Nate said. "I can help you" "YOu're not helping me. I'm helping you" Grandpa said. Nate came up short. He had lost the path. He didn't know where he was. Nothing looked the same as before. Grandpa appeared next to him. "Lost?" "Yeah" "Yeah" Grandpa said. "You're way fucking lost. You have no idea where this path leads. You in danger, boy? Bout to lose somethin?" "I don't know" Nate said. He was scared. 'Yeah, you are. Tell me, boy, what did those boys call you when they beat you in that bathroom? Huh?" "How did you ..." Nate started. "Fag. Faggot" "And them Christian people at that school, or prison, what was it? What did they call you?" "Faggot" "Then what do you care about their fucking morality? You ever even thought about the bullshit they've been teaching you? How do you even know any of it is even fucking true? Huh?" "I don't know" Nate answered. "Listen boy, ain't nobody gonna force you to do anything you don't wanna do, okay? Sooke the pot or don't. Drink the wine or don't, fuck or don't. Say bad words or not. But them people, the ones that called you fag, faggot, they think fucking is bad. They talk about joy but they ain't got none. They talk about love but not the wrong kind huh? Not your kind anyway. They don't even want you to do their kind that much. They think it's wrong. You gotta if you gonna have children but it's dirty to them. But here's the thing: it ain't. It ain't. And you ain't broken. You just been lied to. That's all. You just bought their bullshit. When you gonna figure out your own shit?"