Timber Stone

Chapter 9

Copyright / Disclaimer
Copyright 2002, Duke Price

This story contains descriptions of sexual acts between boys of similar ages. If this is not to your tastes or is not legal in your locality, please leave now! The story and its associated characters are entirely fictional and any resemblance to people, living or otherwise, is purely coincidental.

If you are going to engage in sex, remember to please be safe!

Like every other author out in cyberland, I would love to hear what you think of my story. My email address is priceduke@netscape.net

I waited for the two men to leave the room. Then I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and gazed upon Chris. Thinking about what lay ahead made me feel tired and so I laid back down next to him. ‘Why does loving someone have to be so difficult? Why can’t people just be happy for those who find love? And then there are our Grandfathers. The way they look at the two of us and the way that they are making such a big deal out of creating just the right environment for when we all get together tonight. It’s weird but I get this strange feeling that Gramps and Mr. Carlson find this whole thing almost amusing. I don’t get the feeling that they are upset over this at all.’

I rested my ear over his heart and listened to his heartbeat. I ran my hand over his warm soft skin and then squeezed his hard penis. I heard a soft moan and a sleepy sounding Chris say, "Sammy I have to pee."

I let go of his penis and turned to kiss him. "Good morning babe."

Watching him head for the door I said, "Ahem, aren’t you forgetting something?"

He turned around and looked questioning at me. I looked down at his crotch and then he said, "Oops, I suppose I should put some clothes on."

"I don’t know, maybe Gram would like to see you naked."

He frowned at me and said. "That would be gross."

"You might as well take a shower while you are in there. Gramps wants us to take the day off and be back here around 8 p.m. I’ve showed you some places that I go to escape; maybe you could show me where you go?"

Chris smiled at me amusingly and said, "Okay."

"Oh and there’s some clean clothes in the bathroom. Gram must have taken some from the clubhouse. You’ll have to wear some of my underwear. I hope there’s enough room for your crotch?"

"Or I could just go commando?"

"I don’t know man. That thing needs to be restrained. I wouldn’t want that thing peaking out at me in public."

"Oh come on Sammy. I can’t help that it likes you. Look at the way it stands at attention when you’re around."

"I wish I could give it some attention right now, but we have orders to bug out of here before our fathers wake up."

When I mentioned our fathers I could see the playfulness in face disappear and his penis go limp. "Okay Sammy."

We quickly showered and as we were dressing I watched Chris put on my underwear. I couldn’t help but snicker because my briefs were obviously too small and seeing the frown on his face was almost comical as he peered down at his partially exposed crotch. I have a 30-inch waist and I’d guess that he has a 32-inch. "Chris, I think you are going to have to go commando. They look too tight and barely contain the monster between your legs."

Chris took them off and picked up the pair that I had wore yesterday. He looked at me and smiled. "Is it okay if keep these? I want them in case things don’t go well tonight and we are barred from seeing each other."

I almost started to cry when he looked down at the floor. I went over to give him a hug. "Chris, you have to think positive. Besides, we can count on our Grandfather’s support."

"How do you know that?"

"I asked them this morning."

"This morning?"

"Yeah they came in here while you were asleep."

I could see his face turn pink. "But I was naked."

"Yeah, and they said it wasn’t anything that they hadn’t seen before."

"Shit, remind me to lock the door next time. So what did they say?"

"They said that they will support us the best they can."

"I hope that’s enough."

Wanting to change the subject I asked, "What are we going to do today?"

"Well, I was thinking that we could go to the gym and work out. Then maybe play some basketball?"

"That sounds like fun. Are they open this early?"

"Oh sure. There are guys who work out before going to work."

 I drove us to the gym. I thought to myself, ‘I hope he realizes that I don’t workout and the only time I play basketball is during gym class.’ I followed Chris into the building. A guy who was riding a stationary bike hollered at Chris, "Hey Chris! Where the heck have you been?"

Chris motioned for me to follow him. "Hi Ben! I’ve been busy working at Timber Stone. Hey I’d like to introduce you to my boss, Sam Johnson. Sam, this is Ben. He’s the best damn lineman on the team."

Ben put his hand out to shake mine. "Hi Sam. It’s good to meet ya. Hey Chris, did ya hear about Tom?"

"No. What about him?"

"He broke his right wrist."

"Shit!"

"Yep, you know what that means?"

"Nononononono! I don’t want to be quarterback!"

"Coach has been asking about ya. He wants ya to start practicing so you’ll be ready for the season."

As the news sunk in Chris whined to himself, "Quarterback?"

"Yeah man! Isn’t that great? Besides, I think you have a better arm than Tom. I think the only reason Coach never put you in as quarterback is because he knew that you didn’t have the desire to be one and the fact that you are so fucking fast."

Lost in his thoughts, Chris cut the conversation short and said, "I’m going to change."

I didn’t want to seem impolite and said, "Nice meeting you Ben."

"Yeah, same here."

I followed Chris into the locker room. Chris opened his locker and pulled out a pair of red gym trunks and a jock strap. Then I watched as he pulled the pair of my dirty underwear out of his pocket and throw them into his gym bag. He seemed lost in his own thoughts, so I sat down on the bench and waited for him to change. When he finished changing he said, "Come on Sammy. Would you like to spot me?"

"Sure!"

"We’ll get warmed up first on the stationary bikes. Then we’ll stretch and do some bench presses."

"Okay."

We went over into a corner away from everyone else and started pedaling. "Hey, what’s this LED display screen for?"

"Oh, we can race each other. If you press this button, you can select what biker you would like to compete against. This button selects the type of terrain and will automatically adjust the tension."

"Cool! Let’s pick the hilly terrain."

We were getting quite a work out. The sweat was dripping off of us. On the bike we were pretty evenly matched. Since he has a body of an Adonis I’m certain that the weight lifting will be a totally different story.

After about 15 minutes of biking Chris hopped off of the bike. "Come on let’s do some stretching."

Chris sat down on the floor and spread his legs out as far as he could. He motioned for me to do the same and said. "Sit down facing me."

Then he placed his feet against my ankles and reached out to grab my wrists. "Pull Sammy."

As I pulled I watched his upper body slowly inch forward. When he stopped moving he slowly pulled back and slowly allowed my upper body to inch towards him. My face came about 3 inches from the floor. "Okay, that’s far enough."

"You’re pretty flexible Sammy."

I smiled and pulled slowly pulled back. Chris slowly leaned forward. Since he was taller than me his face was practically in my crotch. He let go of my wrists and then stretched down to each leg. I followed his lead. With his legs so far apart, it was difficult for me to concentrate because I could see his bulging jock strap peaking out of shorts. I looked at his face and could see a little smirk on his face. I think he enjoyed watching me check him out. "Okay Sammy. Help me do some sit ups."

With his knees bent I placed my hands on his feet and pressed down. With his eyes closed he did about 200 sit-ups and then 200 hundred crunches. "Your turn Sammy."

As I neared my 200^th sit-up Chris quietly cheered me on. "Come on Sammy. Five more to go. You can do it."

I was only able to do 100 crunches. "Okay, Sammy, let’s do some bench presses. I’ll have you just start out with 75 pounds. Okay ba…buddy?"

Chris’ face turn red and I looked around but no one seemed to notice his Freudian slip. The music was pretty loud, so I’m reasonably certain no one heard it. I laid down on the bench. Chris was smiling at me as he brought the bar down to me. "Are you ready Sammy?"

I grabbed the bar and said, "Ready."

I did a set of five with relative ease and placed the bar back on the stand. Chris said, "Let’s add another 10 pounds."

I laid back down and performed an additional five bench presses without much difficulty. Chris said, "Okay, my turn."

Chris added weight so that he would be bench pressing a total of 200 pounds. Then he laid down on the bench and began hyperventilating. He reached up and lifted the bar off of the stand and proceeded to perform 5 bench presses. I helped him place the bar back on the stand. He stood up and added an additional 25 pounds and laid back down and repeated the performance. When he was finished he sat up and looked at me. "Doesn’t it feel great? I can feel the stress melting away."

"Yeah it does feel good. Maybe I should get a membership here?"

"I’ll talk to the owner. He’s a football fanatic and gives everyone on the varsity team free membership. I’ll tell him that you are my personal trainer."

I flexed my skinny biceps and laughed, "Oh sure, he’ll believe that."

Smiling he said, "Well, maybe I’ll just go talk to him alone."

I shrugged my shoulders and said, "I have money. I can pay."

Chris let it drop and said, "Let’s go play some basketball."

I followed him to the gym where I saw 6 guys running up and down the basketball court. One of the guys spotted us and yelled, "Do you two want to get in the game?"

Chris looked at me. I looked at him and said, "Why not."

I like basketball but standing at only 5’ 10", I never took up the sport. "What’s your name?"

"Sam."

"Sam, you can play on my team. Do you play much?"

"Nope."

He smiled and said, "No problem. You can play guard."

"Chris, you can play on the other team."

These guys were pretty good. I was doing good just bringing the ball down the court. Not that it made much difference in the game but they soon discovered that I was very good at the line by making every free throw whenever I was fouled. Chris was an animal on the court and was making shot after shot. His team kicked ass. At the end of the game I saw some of the guys talking to Chris. I heard one of the guys say, "You keep playing like that and you’ll have colleges begging you to come play."

Chris looked over at me. "I gotta go guys. Come on Sam. Let’s go get a bite to eat."

One of the guys said, "It was fun playing with ya…you too Sam!"

"See ya around."

I followed Chris back into the locker room. He was acting kind of odd and began undressing. I undressed too and followed him into the showers. I studied his face and said, "What’s the matter Chris?"

"I’ll tell ya later."

When we were dressed we exited the building and got into the car. Chris was still being quiet. "What’s the matter?"

I sat there waiting for him to answer but he just sat there looking down at the dash. "Chris, I know I’m not a very good basketball player. Next time I’ll just watch."

Chris looked up at me. "That’s not it at all. Did you hear what I called you?"

"No."

"Sam."

"Yeah, so?"

"So…I don’t call you Sam. I always call you Sammy."

Relieved that I didn’t do anything to piss him off, I laughed and said, "I don’t see what the big deal is."

"Don’t you see, I was afraid to call you Sammy. I think of it as a term of endearment."

Not wanting to down play his obvious concern, I put a serious look on my face and said, "Oh, I see. I didn’t really even notice because my family calls me Sammy and everyone else calls me Sam. I’m used to being called both."

"It upsets me because I’m afraid that people will find out about us. I hate that!"

"Chris, you can call me Sam or Sammy in public. It doesn’t really matter to me. Either way and I’m sure that people really won’t understand the special meaning for you."

That didn’t seem to make him feel any better and now I was feeling sort of irritated by something so trivial, so I started the car and said, "Don’t beat yourself up over something trivial."

"I feel like a coward."

He obviously wasn’t going to let it drop and he seemed to be really bothered by this, so I shut the car off and said, "You know Chris. I don’t think you’re a coward. I just think you are trying to choose your battles wisely…you’re just playing it smart. Now lighten up!"

"That’s not the only thing that concerns me and the more I think about it the more worried I get."

"What else is worrying you?"

"Being the team’s quarterback I will be in the lime light. I’ll have every girl in school trying to get a date with me."

"Ah, you poor baby. Maybe you’ll even get some guys who will want to date you too?"

Chris smiled at me and said, "Yeah, well there’s only one person I want chasing me around and that’s you!"

Smiling I rested my hand on his thigh and said, "I can see your predicament, but I can’t help you out with that one. Besides the people who know you would have to be pretty dense if they didn’t already know that you are gay. The reason I say this is because you are very good looking and you don’t have a girlfriend. And then when they see me tagging along, they will quickly figure out that we are an item."

"Does that bother you?"

"The only thing that concerns me is that there may be some homophobic assholes who may try to hurt one or both of us. Otherwise, how people feel about us is their own problem, not mine."

"Yeah, people may not like the idea of having a queer boy leading their team."

"We’ll just have to be careful when we’re out in public and if it really worries you we could always quit seeing each other."

Chris’ eyes got really big and then I went on to say, "Chris you have to prioritize what’s most important in your life. Weigh the consequences and make a decision. I think you need to think about whether or not you should comply with what is "socially acceptable" and then decide what will make you the happiest in life."

"I wish I could think things through as clearly as you do. You are able to objectively think things out and without reservations make decisions."

"Chris, that’s where you’re wrong. I’m scared too. There are never any perfect solutions. You make the best decisions in life and then you go with them.

"What if you hurt people in the process?"

You can’t make everyone happy no matter how hard you try, but there are limits as to how far I will go to make others happy. As for family, I will do everything in my power to make certain that I treat them with care and respect but there again, there are limits because each of us are responsible for our own happiness. I have to love and respect myself enough to do what is right for me.

"And if that love and respect for yourself hurts your family?"

"It depends on how it’s going to hurt them. I’ve given much thought about our relationship. I’ve thought about how it may hurt my father. He may be disappointed…disappointed that I won’t be the stud that he once was…disappointed that he won’t have grandchildren…embarrassed that his son is queer…perhaps even disgusted with the thought of me loving a guy. He may even worry about me getting AIDS or beat up. All but the last two really only concerns him personally because it goes against his personal values or ideals of what it is to be a man. The way I see it, I have a choice of either being miserable in a life style that my father obviously enjoys or living a life style that would make me happy. There may be other concerns but if I don’t follow my heart and allow my father to control my love life, I will go through life being a very miserable humanoid and in the process make everyone around me miserable as well. Does that make sense?"

"Sammy, I hope you can be patient with me. You may have it all figured out but I don’t. In a way I’m a lot more like my father than I care to admit. Since I’m more in the limelight, I worry about what the community thinks of me. Life is hard enough without having a whole community coming down on me."

"There again you have to decide what’s most important to you and what is going to truly make you happy."

"In a couple of years when you go off to college do you think the community is really going to care if Chris Carlson is straight or gay?"

Chris nodded in agreement. He sighed and said, "You’re right Sammy. Years from now they may talk about the queer who lead them to the state championship but what they will really talk about is the team work it took to get there."

"State championship? Wow! Pretty lofty goal!"

Chris started laughing. "Yep and I think we can do it."

"I think you can do or be whatever you want to be. You’re physically beautiful, intelligent, caring, self-directed and when you play sports your body is like poetry in motion. I am totally captivated by you."

Chris blushed with a big smile on his face. "Stop, you’re going to give me a big head."

"I am? Ooh, I can’t wait!"

Chris laughed, "You are a naughty boy?"

What do you want to do now?"

Chris shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don’t know."

"Where do you go when you want to escape?"

"I go to the gym, mountain bike and promise you won’t laugh?"

"I promise."

"The public library."

"Cool! I go there a lot. Why haven’t I ever seen you there?"

"I don’t know. When do you normally go?"

"Usually in the afternoon."

"Oh, that’s why. I go in the evening. Usually right after supper."

I started the car. "Let’s go."

As we were driving to the library Chris said, "There’s something that I want to look up."

"What’s that?"

"I want to do a Lit. search on 778th Tank Battalion and the 384th Bombardment Group."

"Yes! That’s a great idea. Maybe we can shed some light on this mystery?"

I parked the car and looked at Chris. Chris looked into my eyes and leaning forward as if he was going to kiss me but at the last moment he grabbed the keys and handing them to me saying, "Don’t forget these."

When the shock of what I thought he was going to do in front of god and everyone wore off I laughed and said, "You are such a tease!"

Smirking he said, "Hey I’m just trying to help you out."

"Yeah right."

We jumped out of the car and went into the library. As we walked by the Librarian we both said, "Hi Mrs. Freeman!"

Smiling she said "Well hi boys! How are you two doing?"

We said, "Good."

"I’ve been wondering where you two have been?"

"Chris and I have been busy out at Timber Stone."

"Oh, yes I saw you both working out in the cherry orchard."

Chris said, "Mrs. Freeman, do you think that we could find anything about the 778th Tank Battalion and the 384th Bombardment Group during World War II?"

"Hmm, I will do a Lit. search for you. In the mean time go look in the history section."

"Okay, thanks."

The hours quickly passed by as we diligently looked in every history book referring to WWII. We had a huge pile of books on the table. My eyes were getting tired, so I closed the book and looked across the table at Chris who was also looking a little weary from all of the reading. "Boys, I think I may have found something."

I turned around to see a smiling Mrs. Freeman walking up the steps. "Here’s two books that refers to what you are looking for."

"Thanks Mrs. Freeman."

"I hope you find what you are looking for."

We paged through the books to find what we were looking for.

_______________________________________

778 TANK BATTALION

On September 20, 1943, the 778th Tank Battalion came into existence
after the reorganization plan of the 11th Armored Division.

On September 15, 1944 the 778th Tank Battalion arrived on the beaches of Cherbourg, France. From there they went to join General George S. Patton's Third Army.

They entered combat on November 5, 1944
and engaged in 176 consecutive days on the front lines ...
the second highest number of days served in the European Theater.

The 778th Tank Battalion were the spearhead for the famed
26th, 94th, and 95th Divisions of the Third Army
in four out of five major European theater campaigns:
Northern France, Ardennes-Alsace, Rhineland, Central Europe.

The 778th played a major role in the capture of Metz,
(Prior to this the city had fallen only once by military attack -
to Atilla the Hun in 451 AD) and paved the way for the Third Army to sweep the Rhine by breaking through the Siegfried Switch Line…

_________________________________________

384th Bomb Wing

The 384th Bombardment Group (Heavy) was "activated" (brought into existence by the assignment of personnel) on 1 December 1942 at Gowen Field, Idaho. The unit's primary function was the strategic bombardment of airfields and industries in France, Germany, and surrounding Nazi-occupied areas. They flew their first combat mission as a group on 22 June 1943, bombing automobile parts warehouses in Antwerp. This first mission claimed two of the unit's B-17s and their aircrews.

By the time their sixth mission was completed the 384th had lost thirty-five of its original thirty-six aircraft. Replacement crews and aircraft constantly arrived to take the vacancies, but the losses kept mounting. On a mission to bomb the port at Hamburg the 384th first experienced the terrible reality of a "ghost squadron" -- all seven ships and crews of the 544th Squadron failed to return from the mission. The entire squadron was lost.

During their tenure in England the B-17s of the 384th Bombardment Group undertook bombing missions to the airdromes at Orleans, Bricy, and Nancy, the motor works at Cologne, an aircraft component factory in Halberstadt, the steel works at Magdeburg, oil storage facilities at Leipzig and Berlin, railroad marshalling yards at Duren and Mannheim, the ports of Hamburg and Emden, and ball bearing plants in Schweinfurt. They received a Distinguished Unit Citation for their raid on aircraft factories in central Germany on 11 January 1944 and took part in the heavy bombing campaign against the German aircraft industry during "Big Week" the following month. On 24 April 1944 the unit received its second Distinguished Unit Citation when, although crippled by heavy losses of aircraft and men due to almost overwhelming enemy opposition, the group led the attack on an aircraft factory and airfield at Oberpfaffenhofen…

I yawned and rubbed my eyes. "I’m tired Chris."

Chris closed the book and said, "Me too. Let’s go find a place to sack out."

We got into the car. "Where to?"

"Let’s go to Bill’s house. I have a key if he isn’t home."

"Why do you have a key?"

"He knows that Dad and I aren’t getting along. He said I could come over anytime I need to."

We knocked on the door. Wearing only underwear Bill opened the door. Bill scratched his chest and said, "Dudes, come on in."

Bill’s nudity didn’t seem phase Chris at all and walked right in. I couldn’t resist temptation to look him up and down. "What can I do for ya?"

"We just need a place to hang out for the next few hours."

"Is everything okay?"

"I don’t know. We’re going to have it out with our fathers tonight."

"Chris, I thought you already came out to your parents?"

"I did, but Sammy hasn’t and despite my better judgement he wants to come out of the closet."

Bill looked at me and then back at Chris, "I have to disagree with you Chris. Sam is the best judge as to when to come out. Just because you parents are reacting stupidly doesn’t mean that his father will."

"I pray to God you’re right Bill."

"Hey, you two look tired. Why don’t you two sack out in my bedroom?"

"Thanks buddy. I’m really tired."

We followed Bill into his bedroom. He picked up an old pair of Levi’s and put them on. Bill smiled and said, "Mom’s been bitching at me to pick my room up but I like my room trashed. I know where everything is and is easy access."

Then he picked up a sweatshirt up off of the floor, sniffed it and put it on. "My girl loves my manly smell. Hey, do you two…never mind, I don’t want to know."

Sounding a little annoyed, Chris said, "Bye, Bill. If we aren’t up by 7pm, please wake us up."

"I’ll do even better than that. I’ll have dinner for yas at 6:30."

"Okay. 6:30 then. Thanks Bill."

Bill shut the door behind him. Chris came up to me and gave me a hug. "Just ignore me Sammy. I worry too much. In fact my friends sometimes call me WWW.worrywart.com."

"Yeah, you do have a tendency to worry too much. I love you babe."

"I love you too."

Chris kissed me and stripped off all of his clothes and encouraged me to do the same. "Won’t Bill mind?"

"No."

I stripped down to my briefs and crawled into bed with Chris. As I snuggled up to Chris I could smell Bill’s scent mingled in with ours. I kissed Chris on the cheek and went to sleep. "Hey guys. It’s time to rise-n-shine."

I opened my eyes and stretched. "Okay Bill."

"I’ll let you wake up your boyfriend. He’s grumpy."

I giggled and said, "Thanks Bill."

With my hand on Chris’ chest, I gently nudged him to wake up. "Chris, it’s time to wake up."

"Huh? Oh, okay."

Chris rubbed his face and rolled over on his side so that his back was now facing me. "Chris, wake up."

Chris rolled onto his back. "Wow, I died. Is it 6:30 already?"

"Yep, get up babe."

I jumped out of bed and put my shorts and shirt on. "Chris, where’s the bathroom?"

"Go out the door and make a left."

As I was walking down the hallway, I met Bill. "Oh good. It’s time to eat. Is Chris up too?"

"He’s getting dressed. Where’s your bathroom?"

Bill pointed at a door, "Right here."

"Thanks."

"Hey, Sam."

"Yeah?"

"I want you to know that if you two ever run into trouble, you can call me anytime day or night. Chris’ Dad can be hot headed. If you haven’t noticed already they are two of a kind and that’s part of the reason that they don’t get along. They used to be the best of buds but this sexual thing has torn them apart and they’re both miserable."

"Well, I guess I’ll have to see if I can get them to see eye to eye on this issue."

"I don’t know…"

Bill’s focus moved to behind me, "Hey Chris it’s about time you got your ass up."

"I need to take a piss. Move aside."

"See what I mean? He’s grumpy."

When Chris was finished I stood next to the commode and took a piss. Chris and Bill remained in the bathroom and washed their hands and face. "I hope you like tuna fish sandwiches? It’s the best I could do."

I smiled and said, "I love tuna fish."

Chris didn’t say anything. Bill said, "What the fuck are you so pissy about?"

Chris looked up at Bill. "I saw Ben at the gym today. He said that Tom broke his right wrist and coach wants me to quarterback."

"And that’s a bad thing?"

"You know why the fuck I don’t want to be quarterback."

"Yeah, I know. Every girl will want a piece of your ass but they’re going to be disappointed when they find out that you are a one-guy man."

"Everyone will know."

"I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but I think people already suspect. You’ve always had girls drooling over you and now over the past few weeks people have seen you chasing pretty boy here around town like a buck in rut practically with your nose up his ass. It’s pretty fucking obvious."

I choked on my milk and started coughing and laughing at the same time. Bill looked at me, "Sorry Sam. It’s true Chris. I’m not trying to be mean. You know I love you like a brother and I would never lie to ya but I think you are worrying yourself sick over something that people already know about and don't really give a shit. We both know that you want to be a quarterback and we know that you have a better arm than Tom. You’ll just need to work on your accuracy. Sam and the rest of us can help you with that. Right Sam?"

I slammed my hand down on the table and said, "Yes! I couldn’t agree with you more Bill! If being a quarterback is something that you want do then I think you should do it!"

Chris leaned over and kissed me. "Thanks Sammy."

Chris looked over at Bill. "I won’t kiss you. You’re too damned ugly."

In mock disappointment Bill whined, "Awe, I feel sort of left out."

"Hey, I kissed you once and if memory serves you didn’t like it much."

Bill and I started laughing. Bill looked at me, "It’s true Sam. He did kiss me once. We were messing around during an over nighter. I was curious and only wanted to cop a feel of that Anaconda between his legs. But I was totally grossed out when he laid a wet one right on the lips. How old were we Chris?"

"I think we were thirteen. I enjoyed it but Bill didn’t. I think that was the first time that it occurred to me that I might be different."

Looking at me Bill said, "Yeah, I like kissing girls…not boys. Don’t get me wrong. Chris is a good looking guy but I’m not into guys."

Trying not to smile I said, "Good because he’s mine."

Chris and Bill smiled at each other. "What?"

Smiling at Chris, Bill said, "I think Sammy is a little jealous."

"I am not!"

"Chris, let’s find out. Lay a wet one on me."

Bill leaned towards Chris trying to kiss him. Chris looked annoyed and said, "Get the fuck away from me you ugly bastard! I can’t believe I kissed you. I wouldn’t touch you with a ten foot pole!"

Laughing Bill said, "I guess I’m lucky that you only have a foot long pole."

"Shut the fuck up!"

"Lighten up Bro!"

"How can I lighten up when I’m about to have it out with pops and Sammy is going to tell his father that he’s queer."

Sounding sympathetic Bill said, "I don’t know. All I know is that you and your father are miserable and you need to bury the hatchet."

"We gotta go Sammy. It’s 7:15."

"Oh sure. Run off when things are just getting fun."

Chris said, "Thanks for the grub and letting us sack out here."

"No problem dude. Call me if you need anything."

"Thanks Bro."

We got into the car and slowly drove back to Timber Stone. I laid my hand on Chris’ thigh. "This is it buddy. Everything’s going to be out in the open and I for one am looking forward to it."

"I hope you’re doing the right thing Sammy."

Wanting to change the subject I said, "Hey, man, I had fun today! I hope you didn’t mind me tagging along?"

"I had fun too. I hope we can go workout together again."

"Yeah and we can get together with your friends and have you practice passing the football."

"I’d like that."

"Good. Maybe tomorrow after we finish mowing we can call your buddies and play some football."

Chris picked up my hand and kissed it. "You’re so sweet Sammy."

I parked the car and got out. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach as we walked to the clubhouse. There was a sign on the door that read. ‘Boys, we’re upstairs, Gramps’.

Usually there are a few patrons sitting at the bar, but not tonight. The clubhouse was dimly lit and I could see rays of light escaping from under the door of the attic. I grabbed Chris’ hand and pulled him along. Chris squeezed my hand and followed me up the stairs. When we reached the top of the stairs I slowly opened the door and immediately could smell the smoke from our Grandfather’s pipes and the sound of men carrying on a conversation. I turned to Chris who had a look of fear in his blue eyes. I kissed his red lips, took a deep breath and pulled him into the room with me.

Gramps smiled when we entered the room and said, "Oh good, there you two are."

I could see Chris’ father’s smile fade when he recognized who had just come into the room. It was at that moment that I realized that our fathers didn’t have a clue as to why they were invited up here. Chris’ Grandfather motioned for us to sit on one of the sofas.

Taking a hit on his pipe, Gramps stood up and sat down on the edge of his desk. "Gentlemen, you may be wondering why we’ve invited you here. Fred and I feel that there are some…how should I put it…well depending upon your view point…important things from the past and present that need to be brought out into the open and discussed. Deceptions only serve to hurt and destroy the relationships that we hold dear. Family secrets have also been the root of guilt and pain for Fred and I."

Chris’ father stood up, "I can’t believe this bullshit. You two are…"

Fred removed the pipe from his mouth and with fire in his eyes sternly said, "Be a gentleman son and sit down."

Chris’ father looked at his Dad and without saying another word obediently sat down.

My father looked utterly confused as to what was going on and I felt sorry for him.

Gramps spoke up, "I’m going to set some ground rules. Anyone who has the floor shall speak freely and will not be interrupted. Anything said in this room, stays in this room. Agreed?"

Gramps looked about the room. Each of us nodded in agreement. Satisfied with our response, he went on to say, "I also want to let you know that Fred and I are prepared to stay here the entire night if need be until what needs to be said is out in the open. Only then can we come to grips with the issues at hand and begin a healing process so that all six of us can move forward happily in our lives."

My Dad sat forward, "Dad you’re beginning to worry me."

Ignoring Dad’s comment, Gramps focused on me and said, "Sammy, you have the floor."

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