Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2001 19:56:20 -0800 (PST) From: Zane Green Subject: Jaded JADED By: Zane Hunter-Green The copyright of this story belongs to the author. This is a piece of fiction not based on any real person. This story is for a mature audience as it has adult material. Let me know what you think of it. Please send E-mail to ZaneG7@Excite.com In our bedroom I was shocked to see the young boy lying across the bed with the light gleaming off his naked body. His uncle lay beside him stroking the silver-gold hair of the youngster. The older man beckoned me over and handed me a note. As I took the note from Anton's shaky hands, I couldn't help but stare at the golden boy-God lying beside him like a loyal pup. I was afraid that this note was going to finalize my fears that it would be his last will and testament I was in disbelief when I read the note. It called me the man of the present. The man of the past (Anton) desired that I would take the man of the future (his nephew) and make love to him now in the quiet room where he could watch. I ripped up the paper into the confetti of a New Orleans funeral..."No, I could never do that to you... to either of you!" I cried out. "He loves you." Anton whispered, speaking for the youngster. "I need to know that you'll be there for each other. Please, Ty, do it for me." A thousand reasons flashed through my brain for resisting this command, but the opposing one was greater. I reached towards the silken body of the boy, tasting the sound of his name. "Jaden"... I pulled him close to me rubbing against his velvet smooth prick which was as hard as the nails in a cof...no I couldn't think of that. This was a rare gift I was being giving, and for Anton I would team with life. We had gone through so much to have this boy with us. With that last thought I brought my lips to the sweet arched form of the boys moist lips, and we kissed until my tongue probed inside. I called his name again when our lips parted from that first serious kiss, "Jaden I crooned. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The name Jaden Pierce did not mean anything to me until I heard it from a social worker calling us from LA. Unwittingly, when she asked to speak to Anton, I said I was he. It was on the business line and I figured it was only another merchandise order. I was too stunned when I heard that this boy was slated to come and live with us to tell her that she was speaking to the wrong man. Finally, I had to admit to her that I wasn't Anton, and I would get him. There were two big problems though, The boy had run away from the group home he had been temporary placed in, and Anton (his uncle and my lover) wasn't in any shape to deal with a complication in his life now. When I got the call I, hesitated, but Anton was the only family this boy had left according to the social worker. I put the call on hold and went upstairs to see if Anton was awake. He was. After I explained what details I knew I remember him saying. "Honey, we need to find that boy. I'll be all right. I'm starting to feel like my old self. We're just not going to tell anyone down in LA how sick I am. That boy needs us. "Needs us", I thought, he would hate it here. We lived in a place I liked to call the other California, a rural community south of Mammoth Lakes. We ran a shop that specialized in fishing supplies, although most of our sales lately came from our web-site. We lived comfortably enough above the store. I looked around. There was no place in our lives where we could fit a young teen. I didn't have much time to visual what having a kid here would mean as Anton was packing our bags, and giving me instructions about getting gas in the car as he arranged to have our friend Michael look after the shop for a day or two. Late in the day, parked on a side street by the Los Angeles public records building. I found myself waiting in the car for Anton. He had to go in and sign an assortment of papers. I passed the time on the computer checking our E-mail, and describing some of the fly tackle that I was working on for the trout season to unknown fishing ethicists. If I was less detailed than usual when I wrote of the quality and color of the bird feathers it was because I kept thinking about how a boy would wreck havoc in our orderly lives. I secretly hoped that this kid had run away for good. Anton knocked on the car window. I leaned over and opened the passenger door for him. He sounded happy. " I never signed so many papers since we bought the store. You should have signed too, but I wrote your name in as his legal guardian if anything happens to me. Now we just have to find our boy. Here's what he looks like." his eyes shone as he handed me the picture. "What do you think!" He gave me an enlarged photograph. I looked at a picture of the kid. He wasn't at all what I expected. I figured he'd be dark like Anton, perhaps with his starting blue eyes, but this boy had such blond hair that I remembered thinking the term, platinum. He also had jade-green eyes. I wondered if that was how he got the name Jaden. He looked young for his age, and very cute. I hate to admit it but the pangs going through my heart were not love for this boy, who looked like a gay little angel, it was raw and painful jealousy. "When was this picture taken?" I asked controlling the emotion in my voice. "A few weeks ago. It's his school picture, and you know that no one looks good in one of those, but he does He's a beauty isn't he. His state guardian wanted me to have him listed as a runaway, but I told her politely where to shove it." "You didn't! I said." " Well, I used legalese to berate her for not contacting me the minute my sister had died. I think she was rather disappointed when she saw me. The boy is listed with the state anyway, but since I'm his legal guardian I shut her up by implying that I might sue for mishandling of a traumatized boy. She was glad then to shove the problem of the missing youngster in my lap." "You look tired Anton, are you alright?" "I'm okay. Listen I'm telling you the game plan here" "I'm listening." I hunched over the wheel so he couldn't see my expression. The smog was making his conversation break as he coughed. Looking for this kid could kill him I thought. We'd never find this kid, and the search and frustration would be too much for him. "We're going to drive around the Woods." "The woods?" I asked. "Hollywood, I keep forgetting that you're not from the West Coast, any way I know that kid is starting to make the same mistakes I made. He's got to be selling that cute little ass so he can eat." I felt that Anton was right. The boy was living off the streets as trade. Anton had come from the same dark path, I knew he had been fifteen when he was kicked out of his home. Anton looked sad. "I don't kid myself that we'll find him easily. Tomorrow morning I'm going to fly home. We can't leave the store, and I know that the Doc's told me I had to get bed rest or I'll have a setback. I would rather stay, but I have to be realistic, when we find our boy it isn't going to be easy to get him adjusted to living with us either. I have to get better. Tyler, I know you have the best chance of finding him, you could pass as a prostitute yourself." "Thanks man but I won't take that as a compliment." "What I want to say is you have the energy to hunt for him, if you don't want to do it I'll understand. We can hire a Detective I guess." "Look, we're wasting time, let's drive around, maybe we'll be lucky." I had already paid the parking toll- machine, and the gate was going up. The city streets were clogged from rush hour traffic. This was the time of day where a boy might start to work, hoping that men going home would stop for a quick blow job, to release the tensions of the day; before the men drove home bumper to bumper on the freeways; to a wife who pounced on him with un-paid bills, and complaints about the children, the world, the car, the neighborhood, their lack of a sex life. What we saw creeped me out. There were kids on the streets, hanging, looking for action. They looked older than Jaden, but hopeless. We cruised the blocks, I watched the traffic, and Anton looked at the crowds. "We're going to have to stop, and walk around." He finally admitted "You up for that Anton? Maybe we can go into a dinner, get some coffee, and talk to a few of the street kids. Show them his picture. You know buy them sandwiches or something." "Ty, that only happens in movies, but it's a start" "You sure he's on the streets?" "Where else could he be, my instinct says he has to be out here." "What if something happened to him?" "Well it already did, or he wouldn't be here." "What if someone already offered him a home, maybe he ran away from the group home to be with someone." "Nay that only happens in movies too." "So you're sure he's around here, this is a ugly scene for a boy." "That's why you're going to find him. We ended in a generic Coffeehouse, where the cups were chipped, and the embossed name of a major chain wasn't stamped anywhere. As Aston fiddled with a street map my eyes were glued to the cutest little ass on a stool at the counter. I watched as a nondescript man came along put his arm around the lad, before sitting down beside him. "Too bad" I said. "Too bad what, repeated Anton. "That's not your nephew." "He's too old." "You never told me, have you ever met him before?" "No, I didn't even know my sister had a child, strange isn't it how families can just drift apart. Well this time when I find him, I won't let him go, at least not until he's all grown-up." I looked at the bitter grounds of the expresso I had ordered. It was shaped against the cup like dark brown tears. "Anton, you really think we'll find this kid?" "We have to find him." Next: (The Search)