Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2011 22:08:40 -0500 From: Brian Tanner Subject: Safe Home 2 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. From part 1 .... 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.... ************************************************************************************* OK, I know what you guys are thinking -- this is supposed to be a true story and sounds like I ended with the classical intro to a Hustler magazine letter. And I'll admit I took a little bit of artistic style to 'draw you in', if you will. The truth is Conner did appear at my door dripping wet. The truth is he was only wearing running shorts (and shoes and socks or course). The truth is he was so soaked from the down pour that his shorts did cling to him, especially since back in the late 80's, spandex was all the rage with runners. But the truth is also that my heart did not skip due to lust or hormones. No, it skipped from something more primal -- or least from a different primal instinct: fear. Again, some background -- I ran cross country and track. I was relatively new to the school (I was the only person to transfer into my school during all of 7th and 8th grade). We are in rural South Dakota, unless you started in Kindergarten, you are forever labeled the "new kid". Again, I ran cross country. Conner, on the other hand, played football, basketball, and base ball. The Trifecta of the "cool" sports. I'm sure the social pecking order isn't that much different at your school for you to understand this. Finally, and please don't call me racist for this, but he was black. And I mean black. Remember, RURAL SOUTH DAKOTA. We were settled by pasty northern Europeans. We have a lot of Native Americans who got placed there by our benevolent and oh so caring government back in the 19th century. We have a lot of hispanic people, mostly those who had moved up to help on the ranches 2-3 generations ago. If you looked at my high school year book, most of the kids are so pale, your eyes hurt from the brightness. And then there was me -- I don't think I've described myself yet. Back then at 15, I had yet to hit my growth spurt, that was still a year or so in my future. The day Conner showed up, I was only 5' 6" or so. Now I wasn't scrawny, by any means. (I live on ranch and spend enough time pitching feed and working with tools that I got a lot of tone, even if my muscles weren't bulging). I also ran quite a bit and thankfully had a high metabolism. I mentioned the northern European background of a lot the folks around here (think blonde hair, blue eyed). I guess my folks were a little more southern European, cause I actually had brown eyes and a dirty brown colored hair. Even though big hair was popular, even with the guys, I sported a flat top, advertising my intent to go military after high school. That and the x-country team thought it would give us "less drag" as we ran. My chest was flat, but not developed -- no six pack here. And as for below the belt -- well I'll let you imagine for a little bit (fantasy would be much better than reality, a porn star I am not. ) Then, there was Conner standing in my door. Conner had been adopted from somewhere in Africa. So when I say he was black -- he was (and still is for that matter) that deep dark tone that almost glows in the dark. At the time, the thought that I might be attracted to him never crossed my mind. (Looking back and thinking about the first meeting however, still gets me hard!) He had definitely had a growth spurt. He was close to 6 feet. With his football work outs, he definitely had at least a 4 pack and nice and tight pecs. The whites of his eyes seemed to blaze in contrast to the pitch black of his face. The storm had caused it to become pretty dark outside, and I had turned on the porch light when I walked out to answer the door. (Our house had one of those full length enclosed porches on the front of our house. The front is one long window with a door in the middle. Beyond that is then a wooden deck, that we can enjoy the weather.) All this to say, I was a little worried (Ok freaked out, to be honest), to have Conner standing there. My mouth went dry, and I just stood there silent. Conner however, wasn't. "Hey Tanner, sorry to bother you." As I said, we're in a rural area, everyone knows everyone else, even if we don't hand out together. "I was out for a run when this storm came up. I would have ran home in the rain, but then the lightning and wind started." If you've never experienced a midwest late spring, early summer storm, you might need a little explanation. Two hours ago it was around 80F clear sky from a high pressure system. With in the last 30 minutes or so, a cold front moved in like a frieght train. If you hadn't looked a t weather report, (and even if you had), you might never have expected the weather change. "Can I come in?" Having stopped running, I could see Conner start to shiver. The temperature had dropped a good 20 degrees, if not more. I looked him up and down. No, I wasn't checking him out. (Although that memory of him that day is oh so good for my alone time now :) ) I was noticing all the mud all over him. He'd been running in a down pour for the last half hour on a dirt shoulder and then our quarter mile dirt drive. I'm sure he was hoofing it the last bit. Such running in such conditions makes for a very messy combination. You get mud everywhere from your waist down, and I do mean EVERYWHERE! I hesitated. Not for fear of him this time, for his explanation was perfectly logical. Conner's family's ranch was on the land on the other side of the state highway. Their homestead, though, was another 3-4 miles up the road. I'd seen Conner out running often this time of day, now that I thought about it. There's not a lot of natural trees, so you can see along the state road almost all the way to their house. No, the fear this time was for my mom. But Conner needed to get out of the cold, so I told him the only solution. "Hey Conner, that really bites. Sure, you can come in, but not through here. You mind running around back and coming in through the back door. My mom would kill me ... and you I think ... if you dragged that mud in." "No problem man." And then Conner did something that changed my world, though I didn't realize it at the time; He smiled. I mean when Conner showed up at my door he looked menacing to me because he was pretty scared. He had been running in a pretty intense lightning storm that could also spawn a tornado or two. The closest house to me is Conner's, there is nothing else. In the midst of that chaos and danger, I had provided him with a safe home away from the storm. The relief on his face translated to most awesome smile I'd ever seen -- his pearly whites shining down upon me. Looking back, I know now that my heart skipped again, this time not in fear, not in love yet either, but in joy at helping Conner. Little did I know that this would be but the first of storms from which I would provide Conner a safe house. To be continued.... I had problems with hotmail today, so switched to gmail. Any comments please email me at btanner72a@gmail.com.