Chapter 6

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Written By: Justin Case

Edited By: Ed

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October 17, 2001

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Disclaimer: This story contains sexually graphic material and may be offensive to some. It is a work of art created by the author, it is about alternative sexual lifestyles, both gay and lesbian. You must be of legal age of consent to read and view this material. The writer, his editor, and publisher accept no responsibility for the actions of the reader. The tale you are about to read is fiction, based on reality, any similarity to actual people, places, and events is purely coincidental. The creator of this tale reserves all publication rights, as this work is protected in accordance with the copyright laws of the United States of America©2001JCPCo

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SoapBox®: Hello to you all. I want to thank those of you that have written me about this story. I love hearing from you. If you would like to write me, the address is Justin69SK@aol.com and my website is located at http://Justinscorner.homestead.com if you'd care to view it. I'd like to remind those of you that are thinking of writing, but are too afraid to post your story on Nifty or one of those other large sites, you can send it to me first for consideration. I would be honored to post a story that carries a message of hope and love from a first time writer on my smaller, but more personal site. HeheJ So, if you're interested give me a shout, send me your work, let's get you started! As always, but not forever, Just Justin<>

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The two young lovers had been driving for over four hours. They had only made two short stops, one for gas at a highway rest area with a large Mobil truck-and-car service station somewhere in Massachusetts, and again, a short time after they crossed into Vermont. Jeremy wanted to check the map at the tourist center to make sure he knew which exit he needed to take for Lake Bomoseen.

Joanna's legs began to ache, and she was feeling restless. It was almost two thirty; Jeremy had been unusually quiet during the trip. She wanted to ask him what was bothering him, but knew he would tell her in his own time. It didn't stop the nagging feeling she had though. Joanna decided to concentrate on pleasant things to ease her mind. She planned Jeremy's birthday list out in her head, and delighted herself with visions of what gifts she could shower him with. His seventeenth birthday was less than a month away and only two weeks after hers. She couldn't believe how fast the time was moving now that she was going steady with Jeremy, `It's already the middle of October,' she contemplated silently to herself, `Christmas will be here before we know it,' she continued in her dreams. Finally, she decided she needed some verbal communication with Jeremy to reassure herself everything was all right with him, and to break the silence.

"Jeremy, I just thought, it's going to be dark when we get to the land. It's already dark out." Joanna laughed a little, as she wondered how the two would assemble the tent in the darkness of the fall night sky.

"Yes, Huggy, it sure will be. Are you afraid of the dark?" Jeremy's tenderness and affection for her sounded in his voice.

"No, silly. I was wondering how we would see to put the tent up." Joanna gently nudged him in the ribs with her elbow, as he drove the car.

"Oh, is that all? No problem, we have the headlights to get us started, then I brought a Coleman lantern. Actually, the tent is pretty simple, it's one of those umbrella tents, it practically puts itself up," Jeremy reassured her, he turned his head towards her to give her a quick glance and smile.

"Really?"

"Absolutely."

"Jeremy?"

"Yes, Huggy Bear."

"How much longer `til we get there?" she sweetly asked, with a slight pout that was obviously for effect only, and batted her brown eyes at him.

"Oh, I wanted to tell you what my dad used to say when I asked that question, but I won't. I think we should be there in about a half hour." Jeremy chuckled a little after he answered her; he kept his thoughts on the road.

He saw the green and white sign, the lettering was illuminated with the light from the headlamps, and he pulled the direction lever towards him to flick on the highbeams. It was the Route 7 sign that he had seen so many times when he was younger and his family traveled to their land in Lake Bomoseen. Now things were certainly going to be different for him. His father was gay. He only wondered if his father was happy.

For the last several hours of the drive, he had been thinking of what all this meant to him. He wondered if his father could truly be happy, making such a change in his life. He thought about how small a community Oakdale was, and about his grandmother. `How would she react to the news of her son being gay?' was his main concern, his grandmother was nearing ninety and lived in a nursing home, but very alert.

"Why not? What would he say?" Joanna broke his train of thought.

"Who, who said what?" he asked her.

"You said you wanted to say what your father used to say, but you didn't. What did he used to say?" Joanna wanted to keep the conversation flowing.

"Oh, that. He used to say when I would ask, `How much longer until we get there?' `As soon as we do I'll let you no, and not a minute sooner.' I hated it," Jeremy explained.

"I see," came her simple response.

Jeremy suddenly applied the brakes to the car; he recognized the turnoff onto Route 4 as he was passing it. He quickly checked his rear view mirror before he made a U-turn. He made the quick left turn and flicked on the high beams again.

"I'm sorry," Joanna quietly said.

"For what?"

"Distracting you and making you miss the turn."

"Oh, you didn't, it's just been so long since I've been here, and at night it looks so different. I guess lots of things are different tonight," he continued.

"Really?"

He wanted to tell her, he just couldn't seem to find the words. He had to tell someone, he didn't know how to feel about it himself. Jeremy's hands tightened their grip on the steering wheel. He glanced towards Joanna, and let out a slight breath. He took in a much deeper breath and held it for a few seconds before releasing it. He loosened his hands on the wheel, and glanced back to the road.

"Yeah, I don't know. When we get to Lake Bomoseen, I'll set the camp up, and then I want to talk. OK?" He still couldn't seem to find the words to say what was on his mind. He really didn't know what his thoughts were.

"Sure."

A few moments later, the Buick was bouncing over the ruts and rocks on the unimproved roadway into the camp that Paul owned. The sounds of Moby could be heard coming from the car's stereo. The headlights were ricocheting off the trees and their leaves in the darkness, and they seemed to becoming alive as the lights hit upon them. The two teens were rocking with the motion of the car as it meandered down the dirt road to the campsite.

"Here we are, Huggy Bear, this is it," Jeremy announced as he turned the wheel into a smaller dirt driveway.

The driveway ran into a clearing that was an open field where trees had once stood. When Jeremy was younger, he and his dad had cut down most of the trees in the quarter acre area. It sat atop a hill and in the daytime you could see all the way into New Hampshire from the perch. At nighttime, you could see the lights of Mount Killington on the next mountain over, and down below you saw the lights of Rutland twinkling in the darkness.

The two young people got out of the car, the crisp, damp, air held the odor of the trees and bushes, as well as some remnants of wood burning in the distance. It was chilly, as the night temperatures had dipped into the forties since the beginning of October in southern Vermont. Neither was prepared for the sudden temperature change, it was still in the fifties and sixties at night down in Oakdale. Luckily, Jeremy had packed some sweatshirts and sweaters.

"God, it's cold out here," Joanna observed as her teeth began to chatter.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot to warn you about that. I brought some warm clothes though," he offered as he opened the trunk of the car and lifted out his backpack.

"Wow, this is spooky," Joanna observed as she spun around and tried to adjust her eyes to the night's darkness.

"I'll protect you, Huggy Bear," Jeremy reassured her.

"Do they have them here?" she asked, sounding startled.

"What?"

"Bears, they do. Vermont has bears, Jeremy. Will they eat us?" Joanna sounded a little frightful.

"Gee, I don't know. What did you have for lunch? Bears have a great sense of smell, if you had anything with honey in it or even sugar, I heard, they'll come sniffing around. I hope there aren't any hungry ones out tonight," Jeremy teased at her.

"Really, sugar? Oh my God, Jeremy, I had sugar in my cereal this morning. Hurry, put the tent up. Where's that lantern you talked about?" Joanna was starting to sound upset.

"Come on, I was only kidding you. I've never seen any bears here. A few deer, but the bears stay down near the dump. I'll take you tomorrow night, they come out at dusk. They don't really smell what you eat, and as long as we keep our food covered they shouldn't bother with us," he reported to her with confidence.

"You didn't tell me about the bears, Jeremy." Joanna was still a little nervous.

Jeremy thought it was somewhat funny, he had never thought about the fact that bears lived in Vermont. He just accepted it; it was never a cause for alarm in his mind. He understood how Joanna must have felt. He would just have to do his best to console her. He was beginning to realize how different they were, and it would be his job to make sure he thought of her feelings with his own from now on.

"I am sorry, Joanna, I never gave it a thought. I'll do better from now on. I promise."

He put his arms around her and kissed her lightly on the lips. She held onto him tightly, almost not wanting to let go. He could feel her heart beat as her body pressed against his. He felt the warmth of his own body, as it seemed to rise from the depths of his belly and flow throughout. He wanted to hold her in his arms forever. He gently rubbed his hands up and down her back as he lightly brushed his lips across her cheeks.

"I got to put up the tent. You must be tired," he finally said to her.

She nodded her head, and released him from her hug. He got the rest of the things from the trunk, and began setting up the four-man tent. It didn't take more than a couple of minutes to set the tent up. The two of them were snug in their sleeping bag within twenty minutes of setting the tent up. Jeremy had put the cooler of food outside the tent; it was something he had been taught by Paul. If the bears did come, hopefully they would take the food and not come into the tent.

He lay on his back, next to her, his arms and hands behind his head, as he searched for the words he wanted to tell her. He had given it great thought on the ride up; he was ready to tell her. He wondered how she would take it. He couldn't imagine it changing how she felt about him. He felt certain of that; he was more worried about other people. He had reasoned that he didn't have to tell anyone he didn't want to. However, he felt he should tell her.

"Do you want to know what my father told me today, that has had me so quiet?" he blurted out.

"If you want to tell me."

"He and Marty...well it seems, uhm, well you see..."

"They're gay, right?" Joanna broke in.

"Yeah, that's it," Jeremy announced.

"Really. Wow, that's cool. I guess. What do you think?" Joanna took it all in stride.

"I worry about my mother and grandmother. I mean, how do you think they'll take it? Jeremy confided his concerns.

"Your mother, well, she has Leslie to help her through it. I don't know your grandmother that well, but I guess we'll find out when the time comes. I mean, your father and Marty deserve to be happy, and if that's what makes them happy, who are we to question it?" she reasoned.

"You're right, but my grandmother is so old, I don't know how she'll take it. I can't even begin to imagine." He sighed as he finished saying what bothered him most.

Joanna rolled onto her side; she held her face next to his cheek. She put her arm over his chest, and held him close. She wanted to make sure he felt what she was going to say next, and know she was sincere.

"Well, that's between him and his mother. I understand your concerns, and she's old, but that's really his and her business. All we can do is be there for them," she told him with conviction.

"You know, you're right. There is nothing anyone can do to change how my father is, or how he and Marty feel about each other. I wonder how long they have felt the way they do, and kept it secret?" Jeremy rationalized.

"If I had to guess, I would say their whole life."

"I can't imagine. What it must have been like, to love one another and not be able to share it. Worse than that, he had to tell me, his only son. How difficult that had to be for him. I just wished he wasn't so tough on me all the time. Maybe we'd get along better."

"Well, maybe you shouldn't be so tough on him either."

The words seemed to flood into his brain. It was like someone had opened a door, and a bright light shone in. He had never realized how what he said affected his father; he always looked at it from his own point of view. Suddenly he felt like a piece of shit. Of course, she was right, he knew it, for the first time in his life he understood that his father had only been doing the best he knew how. Just like he knew he himself had done the best he knew how, so had his father. It was so simple, yet it took her to point it out.

"Thanks Joanna," he whispered to her.

"For what?"

"Just for being you."

"Jeremy, I'm sorry, but I'm tired,  can we talk more in the morning?"

"Sure. Good night. I love you."

"Love you too."

Jeremy lay awake for quite a while, he thought of all the things he would say to his father. He wanted to call him right then and there, but knew it was too late. He would call him as soon as he got up in the morning. He never really cared for Marty, but that was something he knew he'd have to get over. He also worried about his mother. He thought of her long drive to Boston, and hoped she'd get the job. He knew how important working was to her. So many things kept him awake, so many worries. He began to toss and turn. He could hear Joanna's shallow breathing as she slept comfortably next to him. He felt the heat from her body that was so close to his. Finally, he found his own comfort and dozed off into a deep sleep.

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Well, there you have it. How do you all like it so far? It is getting a little more interesting as we go along, at least it is for me. Let me know your thoughts. Until the next chapter, take care.

Thanks, Ed, for the fine edit job.

As always,

But not forever,

Just,

Justin