Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2000 11:32:42 -0600 From: Tim Foure Subject: New Story: "Me and Dad the Sequel Ch 13" (inc) (MB) (MM) Me and Dad the Sequel, Part I Extending the Family (continued) Chapter 13 Charlie by Tim Foure copyright 2000 Tim Foure If you are under 18 or not permitted access to homosexual erotica where you live, then you should not read this story. The other usual disclaimers too. ___________ I've gotten a few emails asking when the story takes place. The year is 1977. Chapter 13 Charlie I was surprised how my decision to grow a moustache changed my relationship with Mike. At first when I mentioned it at dinner and he got excited about the idea, I thought it was going to be like a science project for him. I thought he might measure the growth of the hair or do something like that. It never occurred to me he would think of it as something he would be personally involved in. The first time he asked me if he could feel how much it had grown, I was completely amazed. I suppose the problem was I had never had any experience with young teenagers. I was an only child, and even my cousins were older than me. When I was Mike's age, I was more accustomed to dealing with adults or near-adults than with others my own age. So even remembering my teenage years didn't help me understand Mike. And Chris was an altogether different kind of problem. They always seemed to respond differently than I had expected, and they often did things which surprised me completely. I realized quickly that my having been stiff and awkward when I first met them was part of the problem. I expected the boys would have a problem changing their impression of me since I have trouble changing my own first impressions of others after I've formed them. Once I realized I was seriously interested in Linda, I decided to work on changing the first impression I believed I had created. There seemed to be no point in trying to accomplish that with Chris since he so obviously disliked me. And in the end, he was just Mike's friend, not a member of the family. So I did my best with Mike. And Mike surprised me by meeting my efforts more than half way. Along the way, Chris also mellowed toward me. But I didn't become as comfortable with him as I was with Mike. It was a matter of distance. I felt that there was perhaps not enough distance between me and Chris. Once he loosened up, he seemed to become uncomfortably direct in his manner toward me. The first time I actually noticed it was one morning after I had spent the night with Linda. Chris had spent the night as well. I walked into the bathroom to find Chris stepping out of the shower with an erection. It was clear to me immediately that he had been masturbating in the shower, and that he was comfortable doing it in front of Mike. Since Linda had told me how close the two boys were, I concluded they were jack-off buddies. I had read about such relationships but had never been involved in one myself. I tried to give Chris an easy way out of an embarrassing situation by acting as if his erection was the usual morning phenomenon rather than what it actually was. And Chris was obviously embarrassed to have been caught since his reflex action had been to cover his crotch with his hands. But then his manner suddenly changed. He removed his hands and seemed almost to thrust his crotch toward me as he asked why Mike and I weren't both erect as well. I tried to give him accurate answers to that and subsequent questions that he asked. Before long he was leaning against the counter next to me with his erection standing straight up his belly, a situation which I found odd anyhow. He was also pressing me for personal information. I was wondering what he would want to know next when he suddenly said, "Cool," and ended our conversation. I was greatly relieved when he and Mike left the bathroom. I decided in future I wouldn't go into the bathroom in the mornings when Chris had stayed over until after the boys had left for school. My relationship with Mike continued to develop. I made no effort to avoid him in the mornings, and he continued to seem comfortable with me there as well. At least once I came in on him just after he had finished masturbating, and one other time Linda had let me sleep longer than usual so as I entered the bathroom, I still had a significant swelling in my dick left from my morning erection. Mike noticed it immediately. "You just wake up?" he asked as he was drying himself. "Yes. How did you know? The creases on my face from the pillowcase?" "That too. But mostly how big your dick is." He pointed to my crotch. "You've got me there. But it's settling down now." "Does it get a lot bigger?" "About twice as big as it is now." I walked over to the counter and began laying out my shaving things. I was more comfortable discussing dicks in general and my dick particular when it wasn't on full view. "Wow, that's pretty big!" "Not really. I'm just average size." "If it gets twice as big as that, then it's a lot bigger than mine is when I get hard." "You're not finished growing yet. You'll probably be just as large as me when you are." "My dad's dick is like yours. You know, not circumcised." "That's unusual. Most boys are circumcised as a matter of course." "Why?" "Lots of reasons. Cleanliness is the one you hear the most often." "I don't buy that. My dad's clean." "I'm sure he is." "And you seem like you're clean." I tried to take it as a compliment. "I do keep myself clean. It's not a very big chore." "Have you ever circumcised a kid?" "No, never." "Would you?" "If the parents wanted it." "Don't you think it's mean to do that when the baby can't say no?" "No, not really. It's not as if the baby could answer if you asked him or would have any reason for choosing one option over the other. And parents do what they think is best for their children. It's not as if they were doing it to harm the baby." "I wish it wasn't done to me when I was a baby." "Why not?" Then I decided to stop answering him as a doctor. I turned and looked at him. "You know, children will pick on another child for anything that's different about him. You already know most boys are circumcised. So they often pick on boys who aren't because they're different. Your parents kept that from happening to you by having your circumcised." "Did that happen to you?" "Yes, it did for a while. One boy in a group that traveled together saw my dick when we were standing side by side at the urinals at school. He made fun of me then and told the others in the group. They would stand around me in a circle and call me names. When I tried to fight them to get them to stop, they would gang up on me and beat me up. Then all of a sudden I had a growth spurt and I was bigger than the boys who were picking on me. It got so I could beat any pair of them, two on one, in a fight. I took every opportunity that came along to fight them in pairs. Pretty soon they decided it wasn't as much fun to pick on me as it had been." "Good for you! So how come you aren't circumcised." "Probably as simple as 'like father, like son.' Either my parents didn't ask to have it done or told the doctor not to do it when they were asked. It's more surprising that you are circumcised since you say your father isn't." "It was Grandfather that wanted it." "I don't understand what business it was of his since it wouldn't be a religious issue for him." "Me neither. I guess I'm just lucky he didn't have my whole dick cut off." I had to smile at that. "Doesn't sound like you like your grandfather very much." "I don't." "Well, I'll tell you a secret. I don't like him very much either." That earned me a smile. Just then, Linda tapped on the door and asked, "Mike? Are you still in there?" "Hey, I got to go! I'm gonna be late!" And he was out the door, but not before he had pulled on his robe and made sure it was closed. I remembered our conversation from another morning when he had asked if I had a robe. It still seemed funny that he was comfortable standing there naked in front of a comparative stranger but was embarrassed by the idea that the woman who had changed his diapers for the first two years of his life might now get a glimpse of him without his clothes. It wasn't long after that that Mike came home with information about a summer swimming camp open to boys his age that would be conducted at the pool in the YMCA downtown. It would give him access to a pool for most of the summer and training in various strokes as well as in life saving. He was very excited about attending. "But I gotta have a physical," he told his mother and me at the dinner table. "I'll call Dr. Byrd and make an appointment," Linda told him. "I don't have to go to him, do I?" There was a whine in his voice. "He's been your doctor since you were born." "That's what I mean. He's a baby doctor." I chimed in at this point. "It's not at all unusual for children to continue going to their pediatrician until they're teenagers." "His office is always full of screaming babies. I feel stupid when I go there." The whine was more pronounced. "I wanna go to a grown-ups doctor." Then, before either Linda or I could react, he asked, "Can't you give me a physical?" "I suppose so." There was a little twinge at the idea of taking over another doctor's patient, but I got over it when I considered it might be time for Mike to leave his pediatrician anyhow. "Sure, I can't see why not. What's the deadline?" The three of us bent our heads over the paper. "Can you give Chris a physical too? He doesn't want to go back to Dr. Byrd either." "That's up to his parents, not to me" I told him. "Please?" I had never heard that combination of whining and pleading from Mike before. "If it's ok with them, I'll do it," I told him. Somehow I knew it would be. Circumstances seem to conspire to bring about events you dread. "I'll call and talk to his mother," Linda told me. I wished then I had told Linda how uncomfortable I was around Chris, but I hadn't. So there was nothing I could do about it now without making an issue of something that, hopefully, wasn't going to be a trial. That Sunday Dave came for dinner. Linda had talked to me about having him come after the two of them had had dinner the night she told him we were going to be married. I was a little apprehensive about it, but agreed anyhow. "He's really a nice guy. You'll like him," she told me. "I've met him, remember? I know he's a nice guy. I'm just think there's the potential there for a really awkward situation." "No, really there isn't. He's happy for us. I want the two of you to be friends. I know it sounds peculiar and unconventional. But I lived the first part of my life doing what Father thought was right. Now I want to do what I think is. And this is one of those things." "Ok. I agree. If this feels right to you, then we'll do it. No more argument." But I wasn't as comfortable with it as I let her believe. I knew they would talk about things they had done together that would necessarily exclude me. I would do the same and exclude him. I just couldn't imagine myself in Dave's shoes having a pleasant afternoon with the man who was about to become my ex-wife's second husband. 'A disaster is inevitable,' I thought. When Dave arrived, Mike met him at the door. I had been on my way to answer the bell when Mike sped past me, almost pushing me aside. He jerked open the door, grabbed his father by the arm, and dragged him into the house. Mike was literally jumping up and down in his pleasure to see him. 'Lucky man,' I thought. Then I looked at Dave as he walked up to me with his hand out to shake mine. I remembered him as good looking, but he was well past that. Why he wasn't a movie star or at least a model I couldn't imagine. As he shook my hand, he smiled. It was as if the room suddenly lit up. I wouldn't have believed it was possible for him to look even better than he already did, but I hadn't counted on the smile. Perfect lips opening the perfect amount to show just enough of his perfect white teeth and set in a jaw with just enough beard shadow. Fortunately I came out of my state of amazement in time to hear him say, "Hi, Charlie. It's nice to see you again. And it's really nice of you to have me over. I've been looking forward to enjoying one of Linda's good meals ever since she invited me." 'Perfect voice too,' I thought as I retreated behind good manners to prevent myself from doing or saying something foolish. "It's nice to see you too. It's been a long time." I was going to tell him we were glad he could come, but just in time it occurred to me that Linda and I weren't officially a "we" yet. And besides, it felt odd to welcome him into a house half of which should, in justice, still have been his. Mike, meanwhile, still had hold of his father's arm. It wasn't until then that I noticed he had hold of mine too in just the same way. I was more than a little pleased. Linda came in from the kitchen to rescue us both at that point. She kissed Dave on the cheek while giving him a friendly hug, which he returned. "Come sit down," she told him while taking both of us lightly by the arm and turning toward Mike, who still had hold of us by our other arms. "I think it's safe for you to turn loose of them now," she told him. As we went into the living room, Dave seemed to pause to see where I would sit. I wondered which chair used to be his favorite, hoping I wouldn't choose it. But he solved the problem for me by settling on the sofa. Mike sat next to him. Linda sat on the arm of the chair I had chosen. "So bring us up to date on you. What've you been up to lately?" Linda said. I knew she was just trying to break the ice. She and Dave talked every other day or so, and whatever he told her, she passed on to me. At first it made me jealous, although I tried to hide it. Then one night she told me she had told him the story of a small miracle that had happened with one of my patients. She went into detail, telling me the questions he had asked and the answers she had given him, hoping she had it all correct. She ended the story by telling me he gave me all the credit for what had happened, something I didn't think I deserved, and passing on his heartiest congratulations. After that my jealousy began to wane. It was hard to continue disliking someone who is telling the woman you love how wonderful you are. "Not much news on my end. My life's pretty routine work, home, the gym, an occasional movie. That's about it." "Janice has been telling me how good Larry's beginning to look now that you've started dragging him to the gym with you," Linda said. 'That explains why he's in such good shape,' I thought. Dave's arms were covered with black hair and looked muscular without being overly developed. He was wearing a knit shirt which hung free from his abs to his waist. I was keenly aware that my own shirt showed the shape of the small paunch beneath it. I also noticed the black hair of his chest curling through the unbuttoned neck of his shirt and ending in the hollow at the base of his throat. "Larry hasn't needed much dragging. He's enjoying it as much as I am." "I bet!" said Mike, who then broke out laughing and fell sideways on the sofa, covering his face. Dave looked at us as if to say, 'There's no accounting for what'll strike children funny.' I nodded in agreement, noticing that Linda was doing the same. "Well, whatever. There's no denying the results. You certainly look like you're in good shape too," Linda told Dave. "Yes, you really do," I added. "Thanks. I appreciate that." "Mike, come help me with drinks. Give them a chance to talk about me behind my back." There was a short silence after they left the room as we stared at each other for a few seconds. I looked straight into his dark blue eyes, thinking, 'Why on earth would she rather have me than him?' Out loud I said, "If she says that's what we're supposed to do, then let's do it. What awful things do I need to know about her before I marry her?" I was only half serious, but there was some curiosity. Making a joke based on asking the prior owner about a used car came to mind, but I decided it wouldn't quite do just then. "Truth is, there's nothing to know. Only good stuff that'll be more fun for you to find out for yourself. But I'll tell you this, you couldn't have done better. Watch out for her father, though. With him it's one hand to the jugular, the other to the balls every chance he gets. Fighting fair's not an idea he puts much stock in." "I already know about William. He and my father have known each other since they were children." "That's not the same as saying they've been friends all that time, is it." It wasn't a question. "He'll want you to call him 'Father.'" "He'll have to learn to live with disappointment." Dave laughed. "He's not going to like you any more than he liked me. But it sounds like you're ready for him. I wasn't." Linda came in carrying two glasses of ice tea followed by Mike carrying another and a soft drink for himself. "So, have you given him all the bad news yet," she asked Dave as she handed him a glass of tea. "Nowhere near. Go back to the kitchen for an hour or so and I might be able to make a dent in it. Give the man a fighting chance." "What I've heard so far's scared me, though," I added. "He's been telling me some pretty rough stuff." "Yeah. Nylons hanging in the shower. You step in and suddenly you're being attacked!" Dave said, waving his hand over his head as if he was warding off some invisible creature. "That's so true!" I added. "Now I know you're both putting me on. Neither one of you's ever found my nylons hanging in the shower. The men in this house have always used the locker room. The bathroom in my bedroom is my bathroom. If I want to hang the bedsheets in there to dry, that's my business." "I guess she's laid down the law about that," I said to Dave. "Sounds like it to me." "Did she ever hang bedsheets in there to dry?" I asked. "Dunno. I was always afraid to go in there. She's got a mean rabbit punch." "Let me show you this bruise she gave me," I said, slipping forward in the chair and making as if I was going to raise my shirt. "Just one minute here! I don't need this," Linda said "That's ok, Charlie. You can still share the bathroom with me," Mike told me. "What a treat that must be for him," Dave said. "At least he doesn't hang up his nylons in there," I said. "Hey! I thought guys stuck together!" Mike said. "No fair picking on me!" "If you guys want to eat dinner inside the house, I suggest you stop picking on me too!" Linda added. "I know when I'm beaten," I told Dave. "Smart man. Quick learner too. She'll have you completely trained in no time." "Both of you, into the dining room," Linda told us. Dave stood up immediately. "I see your training hasn't worn off yet," I told him. "You know it. When she trains you, you stay trained. Believe you me!" Linda had a complicated look on her face. There was some exasperation there, but under it was the beginnings of a smile. I was smiling too. But I was still having trouble understanding why this woman would choose me over a second chance with him. It continued like this through dinner with the conversation never hitting a low point. Dave never brought up anything that excluded me. I tried to do the same for him. At one point Mike brought up the swimming camp. "You already swim pretty well as I remember," Dave said. "But I don't know all the different strokes and how you do'em. They're teaching lifesaving too." "That was one of the things about it that sounded good to me," I told them. "Lifesaving training is a good thing to have even if you never have to use it." Dave and Linda both agreed. "You think the guys at the gym do that? I mean, with the pool and all, do you think they know how to save somebody?" Mike asked. "I know Bob's trained. It was part of his degree program in college." Dave then turned to me to tell me, "Bob's one of the trainers at the gym. He's got a degree in physical education." "I have to have a physical before they'll let me do it, " Mike told him. His face broke into a very satisfied smile as he told his father, "Charlie's gonna give it to me." "Had enough of good old Doc Byrd, huh? Well, it's probably time for you to have your own doctor. From what I've heard, you couldn't do better than Charlie here." I was actually embarrassed at his compliment. Dave continued, "In fact, I've been thinking I ought to find a doctor of my own too. The one I've been seeing since I was a teenager moved his practice to Florida last year. I'm ashamed to say how long it's been since I had a physical. Are you taking any new patients who aren't family?" "He's taking Chris," Mike told him. "Give him a chance to answer without trapping him into anything. I'm sure he's taking Chris as a favor to you." "Yes, I am taking new patients. And whoever you decide to see, you should have a physical if it's been a long time. You probably don't remember if the last time you saw a new doctor was when you were a teenager, but the first physical is usually more extensive. It establishes a baseline that future examinations can be compared to, so it's a good thing to have it done when you're feeling well. I'll give you a card before you leave with the office number so you can make an appointment if you decide you want to see me." "I've already decided. I'll be calling for an appointment." "I'll look forward to having you as a patient." "How about some dessert and coffee?" Linda asked, receiving a chorus of "yes" answers in reply. "Clear the table, will you. Mike?" she asked. As Linda disappeared into the kitchen and Mike began carrying dishes away from the table, I told Dave, "I probably ought not have dessert." I patted my stomach to indicate why. "I'd guess you're too busy to get much exercise. I hear that most doctors are." "That's not the same thing as not needing it though. I've thought about joining some sort of fitness center, but I've never followed through on it." "You sound just like me. I thought about it for years, but I didn't do anything about it until after Linda and I separated. Then I needed something that let me build a little self-esteem. Linda's father and his lawyers ripped me up pretty good." It amazed me the way both he and Linda could talk about their divorce as if it had happened to two other people. It was also hard to imagine that anyone as handsome as he was would ever have a problem with self esteem. As Mike brought in desert plates and silverware, I asked Dave, "How did you pick the fitness center you go to?" "I went to a different one every time until I found one I liked. I let them show me what they had and explain why I needed each thing they offered. Then I decided for myself. The one I picked is called 'The Clubhouse'. It isn't near either my work or my apartment, but it has everything I want. I've been very satisfied with it. I go on Mondays and Thursdays after work. If you'd like, I'd be glad to take you as a guest sometime. Just let me know." Linda came in with a cake on a stand and put it on the table as Dave finished speaking, "You should take him up on it," she told me. "They've got a great pool. And a sauna and steam room and lots of machines," Mike added. "And an indoor track." "I'd like to do that. I'll have a look at my schedule tomorrow and give you a call." "Terrific!" Dave said. He seemed genuinely pleased. As Linda served the cake, Dave made a joke that she'd be cutting another cake before long. "We're thinking of a smallish wedding," Linda told him. "Just family and close friends." "Remember Bill's bachelor party? You think there's any chance your father'd let you get away with that?" Dave asked. Then he turned to me. "Bill's friends planned a bachelor party for him. His father took it over, turned it into a black tie affair, and invited all of his own friends. Bill hated it but there wasn't anything he could do about it. His friends arranged another one for him in secret." "Maybe we should elope," I offered. "Keep talking. I could be convinced," Linda told me. She reached out toward me. I took her hand and squeezed it, continuing to hold it. "This isn't any of my business, but I'm going to stick my nose in anyhow," Dave said. "This is your wedding. Think of yourselves first." The conversation moved on to other topics as we lingered over coffee. When Dave said it was time for him to leave, I was sorry to see him go. As we walked him to the door, I told him, "Please come see us again. And make it soon." "Yes, do," Linda added, squeezing my hand as she said it. "I'd like that. Good night." Linda had been right about him in every way. I was still baffled why she had chosen me over a second chance with him, but I was glad she did. To be continued _______________ Comments appreciated. Send them to TimFoure@hotmail.com. Flames ignored. "Me and Dad" and earlier chapters of this story are archived at http://www.nifty.org/ in the gay male/incest section.