This
is a fictional story which contains scenes depicting sexual acts. All the
normal legal warnings apply. To
all those who are reading this story on Nifty I encourage you to visit
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) and
~ PART
TWENTY TWO ~ There are few better ways
to start the day than by spending it on the beach, I have recently
discovered. It doesn't matter if I am
sitting on a surfboard, bobbing on the ocean, legs dangling in the cool seas
while waiting for a wave to catch, or just paddling along while watching the
eastern sky grow progressively lighter, admiring the changes in colour as
night turns to day, this is one place where I feel at peace. To the east I often see
clouds out over the water changing from grey to crimson to gold, or massive
storms sometimes building up and heading toward shore, spewing lightning
from their heavy, dark underbellies. And looking west, back toward land,
every morning I see the hulking, mountainous headlands dotted with
pin-pricks of light gradually emerge from the darkness, taking shape and
having their rich and vibrant colours restored once more for the new day
ahead. Yes, it is my favourite
part of the day, but not just for those reasons. I also love the solitude,
the chance to sit back and watch the world go by, the chance to be at one
with the world, or the chance to just sit and think, pondering life's many
questions. If you had told me a year
ago that this was how my life would now be I would have laughed in your
face. That year seems like a lifetime ago now, though. Maybe not in terms of
actual days and months, but I can guarantee that it was definitely in
another life. I often wonder what
happened to that confused and bitter boy. He had hated the world. He had
hated his life. Sure, he may have had a roof over his head, but he didn't
have a home. He didn't feel there was a place anywhere in the world where he
belonged, or anyone out there who loved him for who he really was. Yes, his
family may have loved him in their own unique way, but they didn't really
KNOW him, and he felt sure that, had they ever managed to get to know the
real boy, he would have been out on his ear quicker than you could have
said, 'Cock Sucker!' It was on one of these
early grey mornings, while sitting on my surf board on an almost glass-like
sea, about one hundred metres off the beach, when something happened that
made me realise that for the first time in my life I was at peace with
myself and with the world around me. For the very first time in my life I
knew what it was like to be loved and to feel what it was like to be in a
place where I actually belonged. There I was, my feet
either side of my board and just dangling in the water when I suddenly saw a
bullet-like shadow and felt something move past me in the water beneath me.
My first reaction was one of panic, with a few bars of the theme from JAWS
instantly coming to mind, but almost as quickly the surface of the water was
soon broken just away from me, firstly by one, then by two more cheeky
dolphins, all shaking their heads at me and chattering away as if we were
all old friends. With a hand I scooped up
some water and flicked it their way, laughing at them, which forced two of
them to dive but leaving the first dolphin still there. Using his snout he
flicked some water back my way, so I flicked him again, only to have him
flick me again. It was a totally amazing
experience. Here I was, having a water fight with a dolphin, while his two
mates cheered him on from close by, having popped back up on the other side
of my board. Glancing back at the beach
I checked to see if there was anyone else about who may bear witness to what
was happening, but at this early hour we, the dolphins and I, were all
alone. I lay down on my stomach
on my board, watching as the three of them played around me for about five
minutes. One of the inquisitive creatures even came so close that I could
have reached out and touched him, edging his snout up to the end of the
board right in front of my face, but then, moments later they all dived
together, and that was the last I saw of them, even though I sat there for a
few minutes more looking around and hoping they would return. As I started paddling back
to shore, my heart still pumping madly from the experience,
I found myself wishing that Scott or Matt could have been there to
share it with me, but that wasn't to be. Instead it was just me, and I found
myself wrestling with the decision of either sharing the details or keeping
it to myself; as one of those special, personal moments in life that should
be locked away and treasured. A strange calm seemed to
come over me as I paddled away. Never before had I felt so at peace. Never
before had I felt so much at home. For the very first time I actually
started to think of this place, Thompsonville, this odd little town with its
funny coloured houses, nestled between a lake and an ocean, as my home. It
really was my home now and . . . touch wood . . . I hoped it always would
be. With a smile on my heart I
caught the last feeble little wave and gently coasted into shore, coming to
a stop on the sand and getting to my feet, picking up my board as I did so. When I glanced back out to sea I noticed a break in the clouds and saw the sun starting to peek through, with bands of brilliant rays, like fingers of light, reaching down to the ocean. It was a sight to behold and as I set off up the beach, heading for home, I truly felt that on this morning I had been blessed. * * * On the way back home I met
a couple of my favourite lads, who were also heading down to the beach for a
surf. Aaron was a bit of a larrikin who had become like a kid brother to me
in recent times, while Tony was a relative newcomer to our town, but was
quickly growing on me as well. In the soft, early morning
light the pair of them almost appeared to glow, their tanned bodies taking
on an almost ethereal appearance which, under different circumstances, I
would possibly find to be almost tantalizing. They were about the same
age and in the few months since Tony had arrived the pair of them had
quickly become inseparable. I suspected that they had also become lovers and
reckoned should that be the case then I was glad of it, because if there was
one thing I had learned in recent times it was that we all need to be loved. 'Hey boys,' I said to them
when I met them on the path through the dunes and they stopped. 'Great
morning for it, eh?' 'Sure is,' Aaron replied.
'How's the water?' 'Flat,' I answered him,
'but still pretty good.' Aaron was carrying his own
board, but Tony, being new here and without much stuff of his own he was
going without, so I held mine out for him. 'You want a loan of this?'
I asked him. 'Seriously?' he replied,
his eyes lighting up. 'Yeah, sure,' I said,
stepping forward and putting the yellow board into his hands. His expression
was reward enough. 'Thank you,' he said to
me. 'Any time. Just don't
bring it back to me with any shark bite sized chunk taken out of it!' 'Wouldn't dream of it,' he
replied, giving me a grin and a wink as he did so. 'I'll drop it in for you
on the way past.' With a laugh I slapped him
on his bare back and turned to leave. 'Enjoy yourselves, boys,' I said to
them, then continued on up the sandy path, coming out on Beach Road a few
minutes later, just a little way along from the caravan park. Scott was waiting for me
on the verandah when I walked up the path toward the house, holding two
steaming mugs of coffee in his hands, one of which he was sipping on
himself. 'Saw you coming, so I
thought you might like this,' he said to me as I climbed the stairs and he
handed me one of the mugs. 'Thanks,' I replied. 'What happened to your
board?' 'Loaned it to a grommet,'
I answered, then told him about meeting up with Aaron and Tony on the path
from the beach. 'And how was the surf?' 'Pretty flat today . . .
kind of like glass, nothing much doing at all, but hey, you won't believe
what did happen to me out on the water.' We sat on the deck chairs
and I excitedly told him about the dolphins as we drank our coffees and
watched the park come slowly to life. He could see my excitement
and said he was sorry he had missed it and that he was happy for me. I
wished he had been there as well. A short while later the
local newsagent made his delivery of papers for the little shop we had at
the 'van park, so while Scott dealt with that I headed inside for a long hot
shower, scrubbing away the salt and the sand and finding myself, somewhat
surprisingly, aroused when the image of meeting Aaron and Tony on the path
that morning popped into my head. I knew they were both under age and that
it was wrong, and there was no way I would ever dream of going there, but it
never hurt to look and at least imagine. Did it? As I reached down and paid
attention to myself and the tingling in my loins brought about by my wicked
thoughts, I was soon interrupted by a voice saying; 'I hope that's me you're
thinking about in there?' Startled, I looked up and
through the frosted glass of the shower screen I could see the shadow of
Scott standing there. I had left the bathroom door open while I showered and
didn't hear him come in. 'Of . . . c-course,' I
replied, but not very convincingly I thought. 'Good. Now how about I
come in and we see if we can't finish off what you've started?' 'You'll get no arguments
from me,' I replied, pushing aside the shower curtain as I did so. Scott
quickly whipped off his T-shirt and stepped out of his shorts, then came
into the shower, pulling the curtain back across behind him as he did so. Pushing me back against
the wall he came to me, locking his lips on mine, pressing his body against
mine and letting his hands slide down my already slippery body. Would you be surprised if I said that early morning was rapidly becoming the favourite part of my day? * * * The early morning cloud
drifted back out to sea by the time the day had started to gather momentum.
By ten o'clock, the time around which I had finished raking the leaves on
the ground near the barbeque area, the clouds were little more than a faint
smudge on the eastern horizon. The day was turning hot, with an early summer
sun gently baking our seaside town, bringing with it the promise of even
better days ahead. I hadn't given Aaron or
Tony another thought as I set about doing the few jobs that Scott wanted
done today, but when I had finished with the leaves and put the tools back
away in the garden shed I realised that Tony hadn't returned by surfboard. I
wasn't too concerned, although I have to admit that I was slightly peeved
about it, so I decided to head back down toward the beach and see if the
boys may have still been there, perhaps playing hooky from school. Scott was inside the
office, so I called out to him from the back door, without going inside,
just to let him know where I was going, then jumped off the verandah and
headed down the path and out onto the road, going the same way that I went
most mornings. A few hundred metres down
the road I came to the road that headed toward the beach. That road finished
with a gravel car park and from there it wasn't far through the dunes and
the dense, scrubby vegetation that grew on them, to the beach. When I came
to the car park, however, I found that it wasn't empty. There was a police
car parked near the toilet block and showers, although there was no one to
be seen anywhere. With a shrug of my
shoulders I kept walking, heading off down the winding path through the
scrub toward the beach, but until I came out onto the beach I saw no one. Shielding my eyes against
the sun I looked out over the blue waters and could see that the swell had
started to pick up and there were a few reasonable sized waves starting to
roll in onto the beach. There were a few people out on the waves, but I
could see no sign of my distinctive, bright yellow surfboard, or either of
the two boys. At the far northern end of the beach I could see a few more
people there, so I headed off in that direction, hopeful that Aaron and Tony
might be amongst them, but once again I was to be disappointed. Growing slightly more
annoyed I turned and headed back toward where the path up to the car park
came out onto the beach, then turned onto it and started to head back home.
About half way along the path I came around a bend, where I found Aaron and
Tony were sheepishly stepping out of the bushes, carrying their boards. 'What the hell have you
pair been up to?' I gently teased. 'Ssshhh . . .' Aaron said
to me, placing a finger across his lips as he did so. 'There's been cops
around here all morning.' 'What happened?' I asked
quietly, remembering having seen the police car at the car park on the way
down earlier. 'Dunno,' Tony replied.
'We've been sneaking about trying to find out what's been going on. The cops
were looking around the bushes near the loos. Not sure if they found
anything, though. 'Are they still here?' I
asked. Both of the boys shook their heads. 'Haven't seen them for a
little while, so don't know if they found whoever they were lookin' for, or
what,' Aaron replied. 'All right then, I guess
it's safe to head home,' I said to them. The three of us started
back up the path toward the car park and a few minutes later passed the
toilet block and came out near where the police car had earlier been parked.
As we did so we all noticed someone on the far side of the car park,
standing there watching us for a moment, before quickly ducking into the
bushes and out of sight. 'Did you see that?' Aaron
asked me, stopping me with a hand on my arm. 'Yeah, I did. Was it who I
think it was?' 'Yeah. Definitely.' 'Wonder if he's up to his
old tricks?' 'Wouldn't fucking surprise
me,' Aaron spat. Tony looked from one of us
to the other, his expression one of surprise. 'Am I missing something here?'
he asked. 'Yeah. I'll explain it to
you later,' Aaron said to him quietly, his eyes still focused on the spot
where the person had disappeared into the scrub. When we reached the main
road we stopped and Tony handed back my surf board, thanking me for loaning
it to him. 'Anytime,' I replied, and
meaning it. I waved them farewell and
walked the last few hundred yards home, standing my board on the verandah by
the back door before going inside. When he heard me come
inside Scott stuck his head out of the office door to see who it was.
'You manage to find them OK?' he asked me. 'Yeah, they were off
hiding in the bushes,' I said to him with a grin, to which he simply raised
his eyebrows. 'The place was crawling
with cops apparently,' I continued. 'Don't know what has happened, but the
boys said they were sneaking about trying to find out what.' 'Sounds rather worrying,'
Scott replied. 'Yeah. Funny thing was,
when we came back up through the car park we spotted Thompson lurking about
in the scrub.' 'Is that so? You sure it
was him?' 'Yeah. Aaron spotted him
first I think and said it was definitely him.' 'Well, if it was him, he's
been pretty quiet lately.' 'Yep.' 'Sounds like we'll have to
keep our ears open and see if we can find out anything.' 'Yeah, I agree,' I
replied, while wondering to myself if Aaron would go and talk to the police
if Thompson was indeed up to his old tricks. As Scott went back into
the office I retrieved a cold drink from the refrigerator, then I headed out
on to the verandah where I sat in the small area of shade on offer and
sipped at the contents of the can and watched the world go by. After what had been a
brilliant start to my day, I now found myself in a far different mood,
unable to get the image of Thompson skulking about in the bushes out of my
head. I could deal with the fact
that people sometimes went to those places for sex, hell, I'd even picked up
there myself in the life I had led before finding a new home here with
Scott, but after what had happened to Aaron that time I realised that what
some folks went there for was sometimes for purposes other than just sex.
Sometimes they had motives that were less than honourable and it was people
like these, continually preying on the young and the vulnerable, whom I
found difficult to stomach. I hoped that if Thompson
was once again up to no good then he would really get what was coming to him
this time. When lunch time came
around I headed downtown to meet up with Matt at the local pub for a counter
lunch, which seemed to be about the extent of our socialising these days,
now that he had himself a new job. Our friendship had gone from strength to
strength since we had worked together with Cye and the others on the old
fishing boat, even surviving our enforced unemployment, and there was nobody
happier than me when I found out that he had scored himself the job. I was there waiting for
him at our usual table when he arrived and even I had to admit that he
looked pretty damned hot in his new uniform these days, of dark trousers and
red polo shirt with the company's logo on it. Luke was certainly a lucky guy
to have him, I thought, just as Matt was lucky to have Luke in his life.
When you saw these guys together you couldn't help but see the love there
was between them and it only reinforced my newfound belief of how important
it was to have love in your life. Over our Fisherman's
Baskets and beers I told him about my morning on the surf board and the
dolphins, then our later experiences on the walk back home. His demeanour
went from one of sharing the excitement of my beautiful morning to one of
disgust when hearing about Thompson. 'If it was him that was
there causing trouble, then I hope they lock the bastard up,' he remarked. 'I couldn't agree more,' I
replied. 'I would just like to try and find out if it actually was him they
were looking for. If he's done something again then maybe we could get Aaron
to say something to the cops as well, though I doubt if he would be keen on
that.' 'No, I can't really see
Aaron being up for that, but I'll keep my ear to the ground anyhow . . . you
never know what might get said somewhere around the traps.' We finished our beers and
Matt looked at his watch. 'OK mate, it's time I got back to work,' he said
to me. 'All right then,' I
replied. 'Are we still on for the Trivia comp on Friday night?' 'Absolutely,' he answered
as we stood up from our table and started for the doors, receiving a
friendly wave from Harry, the barman-cum-waiter-cum-cook. Just as we reached the
heavy oak doors with stained glass inserts in them, mirroring just about
every other old-style pub I had ever been in, they were suddenly opened in
front of us by two people coming inside. I couldn't ever recall having seen
the pair of them together and my immediate reaction as I stepped back to let
them pass was that I thought them to be rather strange bed-fellows. There
once would have been a time when I would have almost cowered in a corner
upon being confronted by these guys, but these days I felt nothing but
contempt for both of them. One of them I had already
seen once this morning, while the other, with his distinctive red hair, was
someone whom we had all had run-ins with on other occasions. Glancing up at Matt I
could almost see his lip curl back in disgust. I stepped back to let them
pass, but Matt stood his ground. Thompson stopped in front of him and looked
him up and down, then with a smirk on his face he stepped around Matt and
kept on walking, only once glancing back at us. I also saw Harry standing
behind the bar, a glass in one hand and a tea towel in the other, stop and
watch what had happened. Not a word was said, but
you could have cut the air with a knife. We turned and walked outside into
the sunshine, stopping on the foot path. 'That was fucking weird?'
Matt said after a few moments. 'Wasn't it just? What do
you think the pair of them would be hanging out together for?'
EDited by Ed |
As always, your
comments are most welcome.
Please email me at
mp_ponyboy@hotmail.com
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© Mark Peters 2002-2012. All rights
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