This
story
concerns adult and teenage gay
males who may be involved in sexual situations. If it is illegal for
you to
read such stories, or if you do not like to read such stories, please
leave
now.
This
story is
copyright 2006 by the author who retains all rights.
This
is a work
of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents
either are the product of the author's imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is
entirely coincidental.
This is my
third submission to Nifty. My
previous submissions can be found in the High School section under
Kiel’s Story. Any comments or questions are
welcome at: carl_holiday@att.net.
A warm
thank you goes out to all who
write. I appreciate knowing someone is actually reading this stuff,
whether you
like it or not. I try to answer all emails, even flames. (I’m a writer,
I live
for rejection.) Although sometimes it takes a little time to get back
to
you, I do
try to answer. If I'm remiss in replying to yours, I apologize.
The Pastel Cowboy
by Carl Holiday
Chapter
20 – You'll Die
“I was thinking we
should get
some yellow curtains for this window,” Zach said as he looked out the
kitchen
window of the small guest cottage at the McDonald estate. That was his
official
residence now, until he, or rather Bud McDonald, decided it was
financially
advantageous to move into a piece of real estate all his own.
In accordance with
Uncle
David’s revised will, Zach received a portion of the estate and Bud
McDonald was
named as the financial advisor. What that boiled down to in practical
terms was
that Bud was now Zach’s surrogate father, even though he was eighteen
and
legally able to fend for himself.
“He left you a lot
of money,
plus some rather choice pieces of property,” Bud said after they
returned from
the funeral. “His son is in prison, in all likelihood for the rest of
his life,
and David wanted to help you out, a little.”
“So, I’m like a
millionaire?”
Zach asked.
“No, you’re more
like the boy
with his finger in the dike,” Bud said. He was sitting next to Zach up
in the
train room. An express was highballing to its final destination. “You
have a
lot of potential, but you still can’t use any of it. It’s held in trust
until
you’ve met certain obligations, namely, finish your degree, get a job
or an
advanced degree, get a job or another advanced degree, let’s see that
would be
a PhD or some such, get a job. You see, eventually you’ll have to get a
job and
something substantial, too. David didn’t want you to end up like my son
who
didn’t value the responsibility he had been given; or, heaven forbid,
like his
son and turn his back on the potential he could’ve achieved.”
“So, what do I have
now?”
Zach asked.
“An allowance and
the
possibility to have a home of your own,” Bud said. “For the time being,
you can
have the small cottage down by Lower West Road, if you want it. It has
its own garage and a
separate
access gate. It was originally the caretaker’s residence, but I can
have it
refurbished, if you want it.”
“Sure, I guess
that’ll be
okay,” Zach said. He thought of Bruce and Paul, but they were moving in
together in Paul’s apartment and he’d be the odd man out, as Bruce was
going to
be sleep in Paul’s bed.
“I will allow
Jeremy to live
with you on the condition his grades don’t go down,” Bud said. “At such
time as
I deem practical and appropriate, we can look into moving you off the
estate
into a home of your own, but you and Jeremy are going to have to prove
you can
handle that, if Jeremy is still with you by then.”
And, so, nearly
seven months
later, Zach and Jeremy were in the cottage’s kitchen not talking about
what was
coming up in a very short time. They both knew what was going to
happen, but
neither wanted to broach the subject, till now.
“I wish I could go
with you,”
Jeremy said. He was behind Zach. His lips lightly kissed his lover’s
neck.
“We’ve been over
this
already,” Zach said. He felt his lover’s hard-on pressed between his
ass
cheeks. He wanted it thrusting inside him, but knew that was not to be,
not
tonight.
“I’m going to miss
you,”
Jeremy whispered. His hands slid up Zach’s abdomen and across the
smooth skin
of the chest until coming to rest on the bulging pecs and the small
nubbins of
excitement that firmed up in response to his touch.
“I’m going to miss
you,” Zach
said. He didn’t want this, but was helpless to stop what had to happen.
An
obligation was an obligation. He was family. Uncle David said so. He
had to be
there on the Salt Fork of the Arkansas. He had only the vaguest idea
where that
was.
Somewhere in Northwestern
Oklahoma, he thought.
There
was no getting out of this. He had to go, but Jeremy had to stay home
because
he still had four weeks of school. He felt Jeremy enter him.
“I wasn’t certain
you’d be
making this trip,” Paul said as Zach climbed into the backseat of the
BMW.
Jeremy stood at the cottage door trying to wave and wipe tears out of
his eyes
at the same time.
“I don’t think I
had a
choice,” Zach said. “Uncle David said in the letter I was to go with
you.”
“I figured the kid
would
pitch a fit,” Paul said.
“We worked it out,
okay?”
Zach waved as the
car drove
away. Jeremy turned back toward the house and Zach felt something
strange,
sickeningly deep inside him, as if a rope had been pulled so taut it
broke. He
didn’t have a choice. He had to go.
Paul drove south
and east
toward I-5. When he didn’t take the 520 or I-90 exits, Zach knew
something was
up. They were supposed to be going to see Paul’s first boyfriend,
Derek, who
was working with his partner, Peter, as caretakers at a millionaire’s
hobby
ranch in Eastern
Montana. When Paul
took the I-405 exit, Zach thought they
might be going to pick something up for the trip, but when the car turn
onto
the 167 off ramp, he scratched that idea. He couldn’t figure out where
they
were going.
All through this
Bruce sat in
the front passenger seat not saying a word. Zach figured whoever was
occupying
Bruce’s body would make their presence known when they felt it
necessary. Other
than at Thanksgiving and Christmas, Zach hadn’t seen much of Bruce
since moving
in with Jeremy. Bruce was not in the body, but Zach wasn’t certain he
friend
was gone forever. Carlotta and Paul came to the Thanksgiving dinner at
the
McDonald house, but Willy showed up for Christmas. Bruce wasn’t
attending North Park. Zach figured Bruce was the college student
and none of the others had
any interest in pursuing his education.
Paul took the
Sumner exit and
Zach was even more confused, but he was willing to let it play out to
whatever
solution Paul had arranged. He missed Jeremy. It was that simple. He
didn’t want
to go on this trip, but he had no choice. Uncle David asked him in
death and,
after his uncle gave him a huge pile on assets, Zach felt he had no
choice in
the matter. Yet, he missed Jeremy more than he imagined as each mile
clicked
over on the odometer.
The sickening
feeling Zach
experienced earlier was not getting better. He was fairly certain this
was not
going to be a fun trip and as his mind counted out the stops they were
going to
have to make, he couldn’t see any point where he might find something
to enjoy.
He was committed to Jeremy. It was as simple as that.
Paul turned onto a
dirt lane
leading toward a house and some farm buildings in the distance. Then
Zach saw
the reason for the side trip. Uncle David’s motor home was parked in
front of a
storage building that looked like it was specially built to hold it.
“I was wondering
where you
were going,” Zach said.
“Sally is letting
us use it
for the trip,” Paul said.
“She lives out
here?” Zach
asked.
“No, this is one of
her
properties,” Paul said as he parked the BMW in the storage shed. “You
know, you
have some properties, too.”
“Oh, yeah, Bud said
something
about a wheat farm or two somewhere east of here,” Zach said. He opened
his
door and got out.
Bruce remained in
the
passenger seat.
Zach gave a
questioning look
at Paul, who only shrugged.
“His medicine was
changed
last week and he’s mostly out of it all the time,” Paul said as he
opened the
trunk. “Help me with the luggage and I’ll get him inside.”
“You’re talking
like it’s
really Bruce,” Zach said.
“It is. He came
back a couple
weeks ago and the others are completely gone as far as me and Doctor
Cunningham
have noticed. If one of them shows up, let me know, okay?”
“Sure. It’ll be
good having
Bruce back.”
“It’s not the same
Bruce you
knew. He’s changed and he’s tired a lot. Whatever was happening in that
head of
his has done a big number on him.”
“You love him,
don’t you?”
“Yeah, I think
we’re in it
for the long haul, if he’ll stay. I keep hoping one of my models will
decide
I’m as good as anyone else, but they’ve all gone away.”
“Whatever happened
to my
project? What did you call it, ‘The Pastel Cowboy,’ or something like
that?”
“The boy found
someone to
love him and he moved away. I was hoping I could continue the project,
but Bruce
seems against it, for some reason, and, well, I haven’t talked to the
original
model for a long time, so I don’t know if the project is feasible. You
haven’t
heard anything about him, have you?”
“I haven’t seen him
for a
long, long time, but if I run into him, I’ll let him know you’re still
interested, if you can convince Bruce it’s a good project.”
“Thanks, I can’t
expect more
than that,” Paul said.
All of their
luggage was
stored away and Zach saw the fridge and pantry were well stocked, there
weren’t
going to be many stops at restaurants along the way. He stayed in the
motor
home while Paul went to get Bruce. This definitely wasn’t going to be a
fun
trip.
To simplify
matters, Zach
went to the driver’s seat and started the motor home. He figured Bruce
wasn’t
going to be much help with the drive and wanted to get his shift out of
the
way. Plus, by going first he thought he might get a chance to talk to
Bruce and
figure out for himself what was going on with his friend.
“What’re you
doing?” Paul
asked as he followed a catatonic Bruce up the steps behind the driver’s
seat.
“I’ll drive first,”
Zach
said. “I kind of know where I am and you want to go back to I-90,
right?”
“Yeah, I-90 all the
way to
twenty miles this side of Eldridge, Montana, then fifty-seven miles
north to a blue flag
hanging
from a cottonwood tree.”
“Blue flag, huh?”
“I guess there are
a lot of
cottonwoods up that way,” Paul said. “Peter said there’s a dirt road
heading
west up a creek. We’re to follow that for a couple miles to the ranch
house. I
guess we’ve got the run of the place. He said something about the owner
only
coming in a few times a year, mostly to hunt deer or elk, and never in
the
spring. I guess the guy kind of shows up unannounced.”
“Nasty!”
“Yeah, that’s what
I think.
You want some music? I think there should be a CD to your liking.”
“Anything except
Kenny
Chesney,” Zach said. “Steven liked Kenny and I can’t listen to him
anymore
without getting all teary eyed.”
“How about
Incubus?” Paul
asked. “You ever hear them?”
“Yeah, Jeremy
listens to that
shit.”
“Shit, huh?”
“Rock.”
“Oh.”
“How about Dixie
Chicks?”
“That’ll do.”
Zach drove as far
as the rest
area in Post
Falls, Idaho. Then Paul got behind the wheel and put
Oscar
Peterson in the CD player. Zach tried to listen to the jazz, but his
heart
wasn’t in it. He kept thinking of Bruce sitting quietly behind them in
the
sofa. He just sat there looking at nothing with empty eyes. There was
no
expression of happiness or sadness, just a blank stare.
Zach couldn’t take
it any
longer and got out of his seat.
“Where’re you
going?” Paul
asked.
“Talk to Bruce,”
Zach said.
“Good luck, he
hasn’t said
two words to me since coming back,” Paul said. He sounded defeated as
if there
was nothing he could think of doing to help his lover.
“I’ll let you
know,” Zach
said. He steadied himself as Paul changed lanes to avoid a slow moving
semi at
an on-ramp. “If you hear laughing, you’ll know I’m making progress. If
you hear
moaning, you’ll know he’s back. If one of us is moaning too loud, let
us know
and we’ll go back to the bedroom.”
“I don’t care what
you do as
long as you can get him to talk,” Paul said. “Now, hurry up and get
yourself
buckled in. There’s too much traffic out here to be walking around.”
“Okay, Dad,” Zach
said.
Paul glanced at
him, but Zach
just smiled. Bruce acted as if he hadn’t heard their conversation, nor
did he
seem to notice Zach was now sitting right beside him.
“You doing okay?”
Zach asked.
Bruce didn’t answer or even make the slightest movement that he’d heard
the
question. He simply stared across the motor home.
“Okay, so you’re
not doing
good,” Zach said. “Is there anything I can get you? You know, we could
go back
into the bedroom and get naked. You used to like getting naked with me.
If I
remember correctly, you used to go around the apartment with hardly a
stitch of
clothes on. What’d you call it? Oh, yeah, being nude. Course, we can’t
get
nude, now. Everybody’d see us.”
“You can’t imagine
how it
was,” Bruce whispered. He leaned back and slightly over towards Zach.
He rested
his head on Zach’s shoulder. “It was like I was asleep, but I wasn’t,
but I
wasn’t aware of the world, only pieces of it. It was like a dream, one
of those
reality dreams when you can’t tell if it’s a dream or not. I was
talking to
people I didn’t even know. I slept, ate, went to the bathroom, did
everything I
normally do, but I wasn’t here. And, when I slept, it was for days, but
everything started up like it was a movie you could turn off and start
up again
at the same place.”
They were passing Lake Coeur d’Alene and Zach, but it was early in the
season and
there
weren’t a lot of boats out. The blue waters intrigued him as Lake
Eufaula at home was mostly brown, or if there’d been
a
thunderstorm, reddish brown. Pine trees went down mountain sides almost
into
the lake. There were houses, not vacation cabins, but houses along the
lake. It
looked to him as if this would be a terrific place to live. Everything
seemed
so fresh and clean. He doubted if anyone around the lake had ever seen
a dust
storm or a tornado.
“Are you listening
to me?”
Bruce whispered.
“No, I was looking
at the
lake,” Zach said. “Sorry, this is all so different here.”
“It was different
where I
was, too,” Bruce said.
“You know, we could
go back
into the bedroom and get naked,” Zach said.
“I’m not yours
anymore,”
Bruce said. He put his hand on Zach’s thigh and ran his fingers along
the inner
seam of the blue jeans right up into the crotch. “You’ve got Jeremy and
I’ve
got Paul.”
“Then why are you
trying to turn
me on?” Zach asked. The tip of Bruce’s forefinger was running up and
down the
length of Zach’s cock. The barely perceived stimulation was more than
enough to
alter its state from urinary drain to sexual appendage.
“You didn’t let me
finish,”
Bruce whispered. He turned his head and kissed Zach’s ear. “We have
each other.
We’ll always be one with each other. You promised me a long time ago
the chance
to suck your cock. We could go back to the bedroom and do that right
now.”
“But, you did, oh
shit, it was
the others all the time,” Zach said. Bruce was unbuckled and had risen
to his
feet. He turned and looked at Zach.
Zach began to
wonder who or
what was this boy. He recognized the body and some of the ways Bruce
enticed
him, but the voice was slightly different. He watched Bruce walk back
to the
bedroom and shut the door.
“I guess we’re
going back to
the bedroom for some sex therapy,” Zach said. He stood up and went over
to
stand behind Paul. “You don’t mind do you?”
“No, I guess not,
you knew
Bruce before I met him,” Paul said. “I’ll try to keep it in the slow
lane.”
“I’m not completely
certain
that’s the same Bruce I met last year,” Zach said. “But, I guess I’m
going to
find out.”
“You know I’m not
up on this
mental disease shit,” Paul said. “Even with living with David for two
years, I
just never understood what he was going through. You go on and see if
you can
help him come back. I want the Bruce I know.”
“That might not be
possible,”
Zach said. “You might not have met Bruce, but don’t quote me on that.”
When Zach walked
into the
bedroom the blinds were drawn and Bruce was lying naked on the bed. He
wasn’t
nude. No, Bruce was naked and his erection was ready for action. Zach
looked at
it and wondered if that was the same dick that had fucked him so well
eight
months earlier. He quickly stripped and lay down beside Bruce.
“I’m kind of
nervous,” Bruce
said. He wrapped his fingers around Zach’s hard-on and he smiled. “I
think I’ve
done this before, but I can’t remember. I have sucked this and
swallowed your
cum, right?”
“I’m not certain it
was you,”
Zach said. The way Bruce was stroking him, Zach wasn’t all that
concerned about
having a blow-job.
“You can’t imagine
what this
is like,” Bruce said. He let go of Zach and rolled over.
Zach snuggled up
behind Bruce
and draped an arm over his friend. He pulled him close and whispered,
“No, I
don’t know, but I’m willing to help you however I can.”
“When I first met
you I, you
know back when the letter came to North Park before you even arrived, I
saw you
as someone who I’d like to get to know, maybe as a friend. You know
René isn’t,
wasn’t, one of the others. That was me. That was how I hid from most of
them.
When I was René I could remain myself. They wouldn’t come when I
wasn’t
afraid.”
“Are you afraid,
now?”
“No, not anymore.
When I met
Jerry and got to know him, you know, got to know him. We almost did it,
you
know? We were so close and, I found out later, we were both scared of
what that
might mean. Gay Pride did it. Carlotta took him. I couldn’t bring
myself to do
that. I couldn’t. And, then he tried to do that to himself and I
couldn’t go to
him. I couldn’t stop him, but you did. You weren’t afraid of him, of
what he
might mean to you. You know what I’d like to do, right now?”
“No,” Zach
whispered. He felt
Bruce might be on the verge of tears. His breathing was labored, almost
as if
he was already sobbing from his fear, of what?
“I like you, if
you’re
willing, and only if you’re willing, because it couldn’t be the same if
you’re
not willing. I know you’re committed to Jeremy. I remember him. I do. I
don’t
know why, but Jeremy always seemed so innocent to me. And, you love
him. I
don’t want him, I want you, right now. I know Paul wants me like you
have
Jeremy, and I want that too, but, right now, in here, with the world
passing by
outside those blinds, I’d be very happy if you’d make love to me like
you do
with Jeremy. Can you? Is it, will it be okay. Can I ask that of you?”
Zach kissed Bruce’s
neck and
began to nibble at his ear lobe. He scooted back a little and pulled
his friend
over onto his back. Their eyes met for only a moment before Zach lips
pressed
themselves onto Bruce’s mouth. The release was instant. All the fear,
dread of
what this might mean to Bruce was taken away as Zach felt the tension
in his
friend’s body sink into the bed.
The first thing
they noticed
was that the motor home wasn’t moving. The second thing that came to
them was
the sound of children playing. The two condoms, one for each, lay on
the floor
beside the bed holding their love offerings.
“How do you feel?”
Zach
asked. His arm was draped across Bruce’s quiet chest, as calm breaths
were
drawn in and expelled.
“With every nerve
in my
body,” Bruce whispered.
“Humor, that’s a
good sign,”
Zach said.
“Tonight I am going
to give
myself to Paul,” Bruce said. “I’ve been holding back, afraid, for some
reason,
but now I can do whatever might happen. You don’t know what you did for
me. You
can’t imagine.”
“You said that,”
Zach said,
“and, I don’t want to know. I’ve got my own problems.”
“Conan?”
“Yeah, he still
comes, now
and then, when I’m least expecting him. Doctor Cunningham feels he’ll
go away
eventually, but for the time being I have to take my medicine and be
ready for
Conan to assault my mind at the oddest moments.”
“I like her. She’s
been nice
now that I’ve come back. I’m afraid of them, coming back. It’s almost
as if
we’re a play and they’re standing in the wings waiting for their cue,
but I’m a
solo act, one never ending soliloquy. Can you understand that?”
“Yeah, I think I
can,” Zach
said. He sat up and stared for a moment at Bruce’s flaccid cock. He was
somewhat sorry that he’d done this with Bruce, but at the same time he
knew
this had to happen. “You know, we should put ourselves together and
find out
what’s going on with Paul.”
“Zach?”
“Yes?”
“Can I say that I
love you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you love me?”
Zach thought of his
love for
Jeremy, but Bruce wasn’t asking for that love. He leaned over and
kissed his
friend. It wasn’t a passionate kiss lovers give to express their
deepest
feelings. It was a kiss lovers give when they know what just happened
will
never occur again.
“I’ll take that as
a yes,”
Bruce said. “Come on, I feel, what? Exhilarated? It’s almost as if
someone has
come in and told everyone backstage to go away, they’re not needed
anymore. I
know that isn’t true, though I want to. Come on, let’s go see what my
lover has
gotten us into.”
The change was not
instant,
but Bruce had obviously broken through whatever was keeping him
subdued. He was
tentative in his actions, but the old Bruce slowly came out in the
words he
said and the way he carried himself, or simply smiled. He was
definitely more
animated around Paul, who seemed to be thankful whatever happened in
the
bedroom during his drive over Lookout Pass and across Montana to some
hot springs Paul wanted to stop at.
Luckily, most kids
were not
out of school, so it was just a bunch of little kids and their young
parents,
which to Zach meant a lot of young husbands who might not be happy
their wives
weren’t into oral sex as much as they wanted. He watched a few at the
swimming
pool, but didn’t get any bites on his lure. He wasn’t too disappointed
considering anyone one of them might actually be Conan.
They left the next
morning
and Zach drove over the Continental Divide and on to their exit at the
small
town of Erlington, which wasn’t much more than an old gas station,
c-store, and
a small casino. There were a few houses around, but the church was
boarded up
with a for sale sign in front. They headed north on the county road
which
deteriorated into a graded gravel road. At the county line, the road
became
paved, again, and had a state highway marker.
A little over fifty
miles
from the interstate they came to a small road with a blue balloon
stapled to a
fence post.
“That’s our
turnoff,” Paul
said.
“That isn’t a blue
flag on a
cottonwood,” Zach said.
“Trust me,” Paul
said. “You
don’t know Peter.”
There weren’t any
other
indications the one and half lane dirt road was going to take them
anywhere, but
Zach turned off the highway and headed toward a range of snowcapped
peaks that
appeared less than five miles away. The road wasn’t as bad as Zach
first
thought, but it meandered a lot and took a lot of time going toward
their goal,
whenever that actually was because the valley seemed to grow larger the
closer
they got to the mountains. They generally followed a creek full of melt
water
which they crossed on numerous fairly substantial wood bridges.
There weren’t a lot
of trees
away from the creek, but there were a lot of cattle and a lot of
calves. They
were all Highland cattle, a breed Zach wasn’t familiar with
and when he
first saw them, he stopped the motor home and got out of the drivers
seat to
get a better look.
“Where’re you
going?” Paul
asked.
“Look at a cow,”
Zach said.
“Do we have time?”
Paul
asked.
“Why are you in
such a hurry
to see your old boyfriend?” Bruce asked.
Both Paul and Zach
looked at
him, but probably for different reasons. As far as Zach was concerned,
Bruce’s
voice sounded a bit jealous. Or, was he fearful his recent rebirth
might not be
enough to hold Paul from straying, again.
“I’m not in a
hurry,” Paul
said.
“Good,” Zach said.
He walked
down the steps and across the recently mown shoulder to a three-strand
barbwire
fence. About ten beeves were standing under a cottonwood with the
mindless
stare of future beef burgers. Mostly, they ignored him. A few looked
his way
then turned back to do whatever they weren’t doing before he arrived. A
young
calf looked as if it might have a bit of curiosity, but no it didn’t.
It just
needed to piss.
As Zach walked back
toward
the motor home he noticed the mountain air was full of the smell of
sharp tangy
shit and piss that sits on the tongue like a bad peanut. He didn’t miss
home as
much as he thought.
“They have anything
interesting to say?” Paul asked. He was in the drivers seat and put the
motor
home in gear before Zach had a chance to sit down.
“Do you have to
shit, or
something?” Zach asked. “You are in a hurry, aren’t you?”
“Look, I grew up on
a farm,”
Paul said. “We may have raised apples for money, but we had beef for
food.”
“Did Daddy butcher
Paulie’s
baby calf?” Bruce asked.
“Yes,” Paul said.
“His name
was Spotty.”
“Spotty?” Zach
asked.
“Yes and I had to
eat it,
too,” Paul said.
“Eww, roast Spotty,
that must
have tasted absolutely delicious,” Bruce said, “with farm fresh
carrots, red
potatoes, green beans with diced bacon, apple pie and ice cream. I’m
hungry.”
“Do I know you?”
Paul asked.
“You must, you
fucked me last
night and you’re a bottom who doesn’t fuck, ever,” Bruce said.
“Yeah, I did,
didn’t I?”
“You guys fucked
last night?”
Zach asked.
“Of course, we’re
lovers,”
Paul said.
“What about me?”
Zach asked.
“You left your
lover at
home,” Bruce said. “You’ll just have to settle for Mr. Palm and his
five little
friends.”
“You could just
save it up
until you got home,” Paul said. “You’ve been with Jeremy for how many
months?
When was the last time you two fucked? Last week? The week before?”
“About an hour
before you
picked me up,” Zach said. “But, we hadn’t done it since last night, so
I guess
I owed Jeremy one last fuck.”
“You sound like
you’re not
going back,” Bruce said.
“I do?”
“Yeah, you do,”
Paul said.
“Is there a fly in your porridge?”
“No, it’s a
booger,” Zach
said. “My lover doesn’t use a hanky when he blows his nose.”
“Ewww, you win!”
Bruce
exclaimed.
“Win what?” Paul
asked.
“The booby prize,”
Bruce
said.
“Ah, the booby
prize,” Paul
said. “I forgot about that.”
“What’s the booby
prize,”
Zach asked.
“A free orgasm,”
Bruce said.
“Courtesy of Mr.
Palm and his
five little friends,” Paul said.
“Right!” Bruce
exclaimed.
Zach looked at them
and knew
Bruce was back. He also knew they were in love, but he worried for
Bruce
because Paul’s reputation was not the best for holding onto love. He
always
seemed to be looking across the fence and wondering if all that green
grass
tasted better than all the green grass on his side of the fence. Zach
hoped
Bruce knew where the gate was and had the key to the lock hidden in a
safe
place.
Finally, the motor
home
rounded a bend through a grove of cottonwoods, crossed another bridge
over the
creek, and before them growing out of an expanse of crumbled granite
was a huge
log house with a cowboy sitting on the covered front porch. Zach knew
it was a
cowboy and not some city fellow dressed up to look like a cowboy. If
you knew
what you were looking for, you could tell and Zach knew exactly what to
look
for.
All of them walked
out of the
motor home and over to the porch. The cowboy stood up and walked down
the
trimmed granite steps to meet them. He opened his arms and Paul
practically
fell into them. So, this is Derek, Zach thought; or, was it Peter? The
man
seemed about Paul’s age and Zach knew that Peter was about ten years
younger
than Derek, so there was a fairly good chance the man hugging Paul as
Derek.
“Hey, boys, I want
you to
meet my first love,” Paul said as he extricated himself from the
cowboy’s arms.
“Zach, Bruce, this is Derek.”
“Howdy boys, you
don’t know what
a pleasure it is to meet such young hunks of flesh as you two,” Derek
said.
Zach felt something
strange
in the middle of his back. There was no offer of a hand or hug. Derek
simply
stood there as if he was more interested in Paul than either of them.
Or, was
it something else? Whatever it was, Zach promised himself to be on
guard around
this man.
“I’m sorry, but
Peter isn’t
here,” Derek said. “Had to call the local ambulance last night and they
took
him into Livingston and then down to Billings. I just got back myself a
couple hours ago.
He’s not
doing too well.”
“Oh, god, Derek,
maybe it’d
be best if we didn’t stay,” Paul said.
“No, he’s in good
hands,”
Derek said. “His family flew in this morning and, well, you know how it
is, me
not being family and all. They appreciate me getting him to the
hospital in
time, but that’s about the extent of their thankfulness, if you know
what I
mean.”
“Unfortunately,
yeah, I do
know what you’re going through,” Paul said.
“I don’t have
anything
prepared for supper,” Derek said. “But, I’d really appreciate some
company, at
least for tonight.”
“Bruce? You’re the
cook
around here,” Paul said. “Why don’t you get in the house and see what
kind of
magic you can perform in the kitchen.”
Zach stood there a
moment as
Bruce walked away, but the uneasiness being around Derek only got
worse. So, he
said, “I think I’ll go with him.”
“That boy certainly
has a
nice ass,” Zach heard Derek say as he came to the steps.
“I’ve always
thought so,”
Paul said.
Zach stopped for a
moment,
uncertain whether he should go back and tell Derek he was unavailable
or simply
ignore the compliment. He chose, for the moment, to continue following
Bruce
who was already entering the house.
Immediately inside,
the house
opened up into an immense living room without a ceiling. Three stories
up the
roof timbers and logs kept out the sun, but lots of windows and
skylights
filled the air with an abundance of light. Zach felt it, again. That
uneasiness
in his back or was it in his gut? He walked across the room to the
doorway into
the dining room and further on into the kitchen.
“You know, Zach,
there’s
enough food in here to feed more people than just us,” Bruce said. He
stood in
front of a big, double door refrigerator. Next to it stood a matching
freezer.
“What’re you going
to fix?”
Zach asked. He’d opened the freezer and saw roasts, steaks, cutlets,
chops,
ground beef, ground pork, whole chickens and other birds he didn’t
recognize,
plastic bags of all sorts of vegetables, and a plastic bucket of ice
cubes. He
looked at the refrigerator and it had an ice maker on one of the door.
He
looked at the bucket of ice. Maybe, someone was expecting to throw a
party and
they were saving up some ice.
“Well, we’re on a
ranch in
the middle of cattle country,” Bruce said. He pulled four packages out
of the
refrigerator. “And, it looks like someone planned ahead and put out
these
steaks to thaw, but why are they only four? Shouldn’t there be five?
Didn’t
Derek say Peter went into the hospital last night?
“What do you
think?” Zach
asked. “Maybe we walked into a murder mystery?”
“Oh sure, Derek
killed Peter
is a fit of jealous rage,” Bruce said. He took the steaks over to the
range and
then looked out on the back porch. “You know, there is a barbecue out
there. If
there’s gas, we can cook these out there.”
“What else are you
going to
cook?”
“See if you can
find where
they keep the potatoes,” Bruce said. He walked out the back door.
Zach started
looking through
cabinets, drawers, and what he assumed might be doors to a pantry.
Someplace
cold and dark, that’s where you’d keep potatoes, he said to himself.
When he
found the pantry, he went inside and renewed his search through
cabinets and
drawers. He finally found what looked like a cabinet door, but was
actually a pull
out bin. It was divided into three sections for red, white, and baking
potatoes. He felt a hand on his ass and it wasn’t Paul’s or Bruce’s.
“I said you had a
nice ass,”
Derek whispered.
“I have a
boyfriend,” Zach
said.
“So do I,” Derek
said, “but
you still have a nice ass. You like to fuck?”
“Yeah, sometimes,
with the
right person,” Zach said. Derek definitely knew how to rub an ass
because he
was getting hard.
“You like this,
don’t you?”
Derek asked.
“Yeah, it feels
okay,” Zach
said. He felt himself being pulled back and up by the collar of his
t-shirt. Another
arm was around him and a hand grabbed his dick.
“I’d say it feels
more than
just okay,” Derek said.
Zach was having a
little
trouble breathing with the collar of his shirt tight around his neck.
He
started to struggle, but he was held tight against Derek’s body.
“You ever have a
man who
knows how to take care of his boys?” Derek whispered in Zach’s ear.
“No,” Zach gasped.
“You stay with me
tonight and
I’ll show you what I can do.”
“Okay.”
And, then, just as
suddenly,
Zach was falling to the floor. He hit hard on his feet then fell
backwards onto
his ass. He looked around, but Derek was gone. His neck was sore and he
felt
uneasy about something. Derek was definitely into physical sex.
Neither Paul nor
Bruce seemed
surprised Zach chose to stay inside with Derek. They acted as if they
expected
him to cheat on Jeremy. Well, Zach thought, that was his basic nature.
If a new
dick came along, he was always interested in straying of the path. He
just
didn’t have to tell Jeremy and even if Jeremy somehow found out, like
if Bruce
told him, Zach knew he could explain it away. Jeremy loved him too much
to
throw him away.
“I’m happy you
decided to
stay,” Derek said as they watched Paul and Bruce walk out to the motor
home.
“Come, let’s get started.”
“Just like that?”
Zach asked.
“No foreplay? No seductive enticements?”
“Come on, Zach,
I’ll show you
foreplay,” Derek said. He walked back toward the kitchen.
Zach followed him
into the
pantry where he opened a door Zach hadn’t gotten to in his search for
the
potatoes. The door was locked and Derek had the key. There was a
staircase
leading down toward what Zach assumed was the basement.
“I’m going to have
to
blindfold you,” Derek said. He held a long black cloth that looked very
much
like a silk scarf.
“Why?”
“The rules,” Derek
said. He
slipped behind Zach and all went dark.
“Let me take your
hand,”
Derek said. “That’s it follow along. Don’t worry about bumping into
anything
because there’s nothing in your way. Come on, over here.”
Zach tried to
listen for any
sound that might betray where he was. He smelled something. It was
almost like
shit, or maybe it was piss. Maybe it was both. The floor was hard. He
had to
assume it was concrete. He felt Derek take his right hand and raise it
over his
head. He heard a click and he couldn’t move his hand. While he was
struggling
with that hand, the other was raised up and another click was heard. He
felt
himself being raised up. His arms almost immediately began to hurt.
“This is my little
chamber of
horrors,” Derek said. “If you didn’t have that blindfold, you’d
probably piss
yourself from fear.”
“What are you going
to do?”
Zach gasped through the ache in his arms. He thought of Charlie and his
own
Derek, the boy who was burned.
“Ever been to a
barbecue?”
“Yeah, sure, all
the time.”
“Ever have
barbecued feet?”
“No!” Zach shrieked.
“From the screams
I’ve heard,
I guess it’s extremely painful,” Derek said, matter-of-factly. “It’s
not as
painful as being skinned alive, but that’s kind of messy and, beside,
it takes
too long. You’ll die, of course. They all die. You’ll beg me to kill
you. With
your last breath you’ll beg me to put you out of your horrible misery.
But I
won’t kill you because you can’t die until I come. Then, only then,
will I slip
the knife into your neck, but you won’t feel it. No one feels the
knife. Pity,
that.”
Zach mind raced
through all
sorts of scenarios, but they were stopped short when his feet began to
get
excruciatingly painful.
He screamed.