Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:54:28 -0500
From: Brian Tanner <btanner72@hotmail.com>
Subject: Safe Home Chapter 1

The following is a mostly true story about me growing up in western South
Dakota in the 80's. It's about my first relationship and contains some m-m
stuff.  If you aren't old enough or this is illegal where you live, please
stop reading now.

Well enough of that. ... On with the story.

You can call me Tanner, most of my friends do (and even most everyone else
as well).  Tanner's my middle name. It's a family thing.  The first boy
born in the family has had the middle name Tanner for the past seven
generations. And we always use it as our social name. I live, as I said
above, in western South Dakota.  West River, as we call it (the Missouri
River cuts our state in half).  Out here we're ranchers. The lands a little
too dry and rugged to grow corn and beans like they do east river, but
you're not here for an ag lesson. :)

My mom and I live about 9 miles outside of town. Let's just call it Cloud,
SD. (No, there's not really a Cloud, SD -- this is why I'm calling this
*mostly* true). The town itself has about 2000 people. It's mostly there to
support the ranchers, but some use it as a bedroom community for one of the
larger towns. Our homestead is about 1/4 miles off one of the county roads,
so it's an easy, if curvy ride from town. But you can always take the more
direct route -- through our land, which butts up against the town. The next
closest homestead is 2 miles away, a little less crowded than say New
York. :)

You'll notice I didn't mention my dad; he passed on when I was 12.  He died
in a car crash, when a truck lost control on an icy road. Besides the
obvious change, my life had 2 other new realities descend upon it.  First,
my mom, who had been a stay at home mom up until that point, had to go back
to work.  Second, I, who had been home-schooled by my said stay-at-home
mom, had to attend the public schools. I didn't start until the next fall,
when I entered 7th grade.

** I should probably note here, that for those of you who are looking for
guys romping around in the sheets 2 paragraphs into the story, you might
want to look elsewhere. Reality doesn't often follow fantasy.  But for
those who enjoy a journey, I assure you there will be lots to see at the
final destination -- and along the way as well, I might add. **

In order for this story to make sense, you need to understand a little
about my mom and living in a rural area.  My mom is gone quite a bit.
She's a consultant.  Apparently before she married my dad and settled she
was something of a wiz-kid on wall street. She had made a nice fortune, but
then wanted to get out of the rat race and come back to her roots.  I think
my dad was also the draw. Ranching was in his blood, and nothing could get
him to leave it for New York. So, without boring you about their romantic
story (and I tell you, although I might be biased, I think it'd be a great
plot for a rom-com), let me continue. The short of it is that when my dad
died, and she decided she needed to go back to work, she found work as a
Consultant.  Frankly, I don't know what she did as a consultant, but what
it meant for me is that she was often gone for 3-4 days at a time.

At first I would stay at my uncle's (my dad's brother). He was a deputy
sheriff for the county and lived in Cloud. This past year, my mom and uncle
decided I was OK to be left at home while she was gone.  I was starting
high school, I was almost 15 (my birthday is in August and I started school
a year late.) They also trusted me.  I was an A student, I didn't get in
trouble and I had a desire to go to one of the military academies.  They
knew I wanted that so bad that I policed myself really well.  During the
times my mom was out of town, Uncle Andy or one of the other deputies would
stop by in the evening and check on me. They'd also swing in during the
night and just make sure everything was OK. For those of you who live on
the coasts, this might seem a little unbelievable, but for those who live
in rural areas, you understand.

This meant I had a lot of time on my own, especially that first summer.
You have to remember this was well before the internet. We were too far out
to have cable, and my mom thought satellite an unnecessary expense. I did
have an Intellivision (with it's keypad controller -- I really liked a
Spider Attack game) and a Commodore 128. I even had a floppy drive! (5 1/2
in of course and yes I am talking about computer equipment and not my own).
I spent my days helping on the ranch (my mom rented out the land after my
father died), programming games on my C-128 (there used to be magazines you
could get that gave you machine code or something like that. The games were
pretty lame compared to today's games but cool at the time), playing Bard's
Tale, or riding around on my four-wheeler, something which had become a
vital piece of equipment on a ranch.

The second change in my life came from transitioning from home schooling to
public schools.  A lot of people have this impression of home-schooler that
we are socially in-ept or something like that. That's not true.  We
interact with a lot of people. My mom constantly took me to events with
other home schoolers. I worked with the ranchers on the land. But the thing
is, all of the events were in the big city of Swifton (again not it's real
name). I was in a choir and band, I played sports, etc, etc.  But I didn't
know any of the kids in the Cloud school. So it was like I was the new kid
when I started. Most of the other kids already had their groups. I wasn't
into the big sports, but I did have a desire to go to an Academy, so I
needed a sport. I ended up in Cross-Country and Track. I developed some
good friends on the team, but outside of that, I really didn't know a lot
of people. And track and cross-country guys are way cool, but let's be
honest, if any athletes could be considered geeks, it's long distance
runners.

Well enough back ground for now.  Don't worry, you get more later.  This
story starts one June day. I had spent the morning attending to the ranch
business, which pretty much meant riding around on my 4-wheeler saying hi
to the various farm hands. A herd of cattle needed to be moved from one
pasture to another. Feed had been delivered that morning and needed to be
stowed properly. Jobs like that. I was the land lady's son, so I did have
any specific job, but just bounced around lending a helping hand where
needed. Since my dad died, the ranchers took me in like I was their
favorite nephew or something. I pitched in and they appreciated my
willingness to work.

Most of the work was finished up around noon, so I came in, washed up and
had dinner. (Dinner on the ranch is served at noon, not in the evening). My
mom had always prepared dinner for the crew before my dad died. She still
did on days she was home. But on days she wasn't, she had my aunt come in
and prepare the meal. We normally had about a dozen extra hands
working. Dinner time was always a loud and fun time.  After everyone was
done, my final chore of the day was clean up. By time I'm done, the house
has become pretty quite.  The ranchers have headed back to the fields and
from there they head home.

Up until this point, the day had been sunny and warm, but not too hot. A
breeze started blowing in and I decided to get a work out in. My dad had
built a work out room off the back of the house. Inside was a free weight
set (which I never used, cause I had no one to spot me), a nautilus set, a
treadmill and a stair master.  About half way through my work out, I head
drops start to hit the roof. I looked out and saw a storm cell had blown
in. Safely inside, I thought nothing about it. 5 minutes later, I heard the
front door bell. I figured it was Uncle Nate checking in me for the
evening.  I was only wearing a pair of work out shorts with no shirt.  I
was alone after all.

By time I got to the door, the storm had increased in ferocity.  By now it
was raining cats and dogs -- might have even been some hail going on. The
front window lit up as lightning slammed down somewhere a little way
off. As I opened the door, lightning again lit up the sky. And my heart
skipped a beat.  It wasn't Uncle Nate in the door way. It was Conner James,
linesman from the school foot ball team. And he was standing in my door
way, dripping wet, wearing only a pair of white running shorts, that left
nothing to the imagination.

To be continue....

Comments please write me at btanner72@hotmail.com