From: an27868@anon.penet.fi Reply-To: an27868@anon.penet.fi Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1993 19:12:34 UTC Subject: PLAYING IN THE MAJOR LEAGUES (man/boy) WARNING: This story will contain descriptions of a variety of sexual acts between men and MINOR boys. Violence and inter-racial relation- ships occur in the first few chapters. The story is NOT intended to be racist but is a 'realistic' portrayal of the life of a young Puerto Rican boy as he grows up and discovers that his 'preferred partners' are of his own sex. If this subject offends you, or you are under 18, do not read further! You have been warned! COPYRIGHT: Copyright is held by the author at an27868@anon.penet.fi. September, 1993. Fair use consists of copying and distributing via electronic means in the public domain only. In printed media, copyright protection remains for more than individual copies. COPIES OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS: Requests for earlier chapters etc. will not be met, primarily because of respect for the laws of other countries and the desire not to excessively burden the anonymous server in Finland. If you are missing some part(s) please contact the mail server at laff which is mentioned regularly in this newsgroup. I will only post out missing chapters if there is a good reason. FACT OR FICTION: The story is entirely fiction. It did not happen although there is some probability that a story like this has happened in the past. Any resemblance to individuals, alive or dead, is unfortunate! REPLIES,SUGGESTIONS,ETC: E-mail comments and criticisms to an27868@anon.penet.fi, or post to alt.sex.stories.d. I will generally respond to all sincere email. Your support and suggestions are both welcomed and appreciated. Please do not post here! Please feel free to comment or point me towards ftp sites for similar stories. The contination of this story will depend on the level of interest of readers. This story takes a lot of work and a lot of bandwidth. Your support, comments and encouragement are invited. SPECIAL THANKS: An anonymous reviewer has my special thanks. This individual had edited the work, suggested a wide of variety of changes and otherwise assisted in its production. Thank You! You know who you are. FINAL WARNING: If you're under 18, or man-boy relationships aren't your thing then exit now! PLAYING IN THE MAJOR LEAGUES Chapter 9. The Third Nightmare Remarkably, our first shower together did not involve us in any physical contact. This was the result of an abnormal amount of control on my part. All it would have taken in the slightest indication that it was acceptable conduct and Rafael would have been all over me. He tried to provoke me several times. Each time it took all my willpower to resist his advance. Each time my penis was so hard that it ached. I longed to hug the young boy against me and feel his wet naked body press tightly against mine. That his little penis did not respond to what was obviously an intense arousal for him helped as well but most of all it was the sight of his badly bruised penis and scrotum that made me keep my own raging desire under control. That, and the inescapable fact that I wanted Rafael to love me before we made love together. As he soaped his body I could sense the boy's attentive glances. His small body was white and slippery with soap, his hands slid up and down his slender brown torso and thighs. It was an intensely erotic show that he put on. It was calculated to arouse me beyond the limit of reasonable endurance. Had the boy's little penis even started to stiffen it would have been over in seconds. My testicles ached more than my throbbing hard penis, desperate to release their several days supply of sperm either onto or into the beautiful ten-year-old boy. It was with considerable relief that I finished my shampooing and took the soap from Rafael. He smirked at me with openly displayed enjoyment as he arched his back and let the water cascade down his belly and wash away the thick foam that now graced his chest, belly and groin. Now it was his turn to shampoo his hair while I soaped up. He had to concentrate on that activity if he wasn't going to get the shampoo in his eyes so he had to behave. He still grinned at me with a lust filled eyes every opportunity that he got. Trying to seduce me had now become a game that we both enjoyed. My role was to act as the responsible adult, Rafael was the 'horny boy' with one thing on his mind, and it wasn't Nintendo! Sooner or later we both knew that Rafael would win though the spoils of his victory would mostly be mine, at least for the time it took for his young body to accept mine as his master. Rafael followed me out of the shower and I tossed him a towel before I started to dry off. Most boys about Rafael's age begin to go through a period of self-awareness when their young bodies suddenly become the source of embarrassment. Rafael was the exception. Perhaps it was because he had grown up in the orphanage and had never known privacy before, perhaps it was because he trusted me implicitly, but Rafael seemed to be unconcerned that I saw him naked or used it as an opportunity to try to excite me. He dried himself off quickly and grinned at me as he playfully flexed his lithe muscles while he looked at himself in the mirror. All the time his dark eyes were watching me behind him. It was another display calculated to arouse me. I grinned as I finished drying. "Assume the position, Raf," I said as I picked up the tube of zinc oxide and removed the cap. He bent forward over the vanity and placed his small hands on his cheeks to pull them apart. I had a quick look. There really wasn't any need for more ointment. The anal fissure had all but disappeared. Still, I enjoyed doing it and I knew that Rafael didn't mind either. Every time my finger pressed into his little soft anus the boy would sigh quietly and his body would instinctively push back to get more of my finger inside him. I pretended that the white thick cream was lubricant as I smeared it into his crack. Once he pushed back even harder and my forefinger pushed inside him almost to the second joint before I pulled it back. Neither of us said anything. In that brief period my finger had felt the incredible heat inside him, the delicious tension that exists only inside a young boy's body. I felt his body's instinctive tremble as it tried to close me out, I felt the boy's body tense and brace itself, I felt his body relax before me, the tight sphincter slackening as he took control and tried to induce my finger to penetrate still further. That was, I realized the fundamental difference between a virgin and a boy like Rafael that had been violated. Finished, I gave the boy a playful slap on his bare bottom. Rafael pretended injury as he shrieked and then yelped in his high- pitched squeal. Rafael grinned as he turned around and straightened up. I barely saw the attack coming as I replaced the top on the tube of ointment. He moved quickly, swerving to the left before he feinted and darted to the left. His right hand flicked out and flipped my balls as he jerked back and ran laughing out of the bathroom with me hot on his heels. He ran into the living room and dived onto the couch as I came right after him. I grabbed him and held the struggling, laughing boy down on his back while I began to tickle him. Other than his still sore genitals, everything else was fair game and I made the most of it until Rafael was giggling hysterically and begging for mercy. As soon as I lightened up he tried to 'get me back' with lightening fast grabs at my balls. After nearly ten minutes of frenzied laughing and tickling we called a truce. There didn't seem to be any reason to get dressed for breakfast so I went into the kitchen. As always Rafael tagged along behind me. "What do you want for breakfast, Raf?" I asked. "Eggs again or something else?" The boy smiled. "I want what you're having. That cereal stuff. Should you have coffee?" I shrugged. "Sure, if you want but I can always mangle an omelette for you or something. My cooking isn't that bad. Coffee's not going to hurt me." Rafael grinned as he stepped closer. He didn't stop walking forward until his body was pressed tightly against mine. "You're a great cook. A lot better than what I had at Centerville. I'm s'posed to take care of you, remember?" "Yeah, but Raf that doesn't mean you have to eat cereal for breakfast. You're a growing boy, you need the extra food." "You want me to get fat?" the boy teased. He pushed his belly out and arched his back so that he bulged forward. When all I could see was the beautiful curve of his spine and the lithe firm muscles under his skin, the pose was ridiculous. We both started to laugh. "You're pretty sexy for a fat boy," I said at last. The boy exhaled and straightened up. He had tried to make his cheeks blow out but he had no chance while he was laughing. He tried one more time and then gave up in a fit of giggles. He shook his head in mock severity. "I want cereal, like you're having, okay?" I nodded and put the skillet down. "Okay, Raf, I like you the way you are too. I'm not kidding when I told you that you had a beautiful body." I poured out two bowls of cereal. Poured milk over both and passed one to the boy. He ate hungrily as he sat at the counter. I leaned back against the sink, and watched his graceful movements and his very sexy body." "What are we going to do today?" Rafael asked as he neared the end of his cereal. I looked up, dragging my attention and eyes away fro his smooth brown legs where I had been contemplating the slenderness and smoothness. "We have a big day Raf. First we've got to plan what to do about Luis. Then I want to go look at a condo I'm thinking of buying for us to live in." "What about Luis?" Rafael asked nervously. I wasn't sure what I should say. I didn't want to frighten the boy more than necessary but I also thought that he needed to know what I had planned during the early hours of the morning while he was sound asleep. "I know you're afraid of him, Raf. I know what happened, remember? I can't change what he did to you and the little girl but I can stop him from ever doing it again." "HHHHow?" Rafael asked. He shivered slightly and his shoulders lifted up. The boy was cringing in fear as the terrible memories came back. "The first thing is that the police need to find the girl, Raf. We're going to help them as well as put them on the track to find Luis and friends." The boy's lips pressed tightly together. He thought deeply and then he whispered, "I ddddon't know. If the police find out about me,... they'll put me back in Centerville. We can jjjjust forget about it." I shook my head and came over to Rafael. I placed my arm around his shoulders. "They won't, Raf. I want you to live here with me forever," I said gently. "You have to trust me. I've been thinking about how to do it so they don't know about you." "How?" Rafael demanded. "They'll find out,... I know they will!" "I'm going to write a letter and post it from Savannah this afternoon. It'll say that there is a girl's body in the swamp near where I found you and that she was murdered by a man called Luis. We'll tell the police that he drives a red van, and he was last known to live in Florida. You can describe the house and streets around where you stayed." Rafael nodded slowly. He was unconvinced but there was little that he could say. He knew, as well as I did, that sooner or later, perhaps already, Luis was looking for him. It was just a matter of time before he found us. After breakfast was cleaned up Rafael followed me back into his bedroom and I sat down before my computer. The boy stood quietly beside me as I typed up the letter. As far as I knew I didn't think there was any way that the police could identify the output from a laser printer, certainly not in the same way that they could identify something that had been typed before computers came along. We didn't know what the two men had done with the little girl's body but I suspected that they had taken it down to the edge of the swamp in the hope that the alligators would carry it off. It would likely be somewhere on the western side of I-95, around where I had picked up Rafael. I described the area as well as Rafael could remember and gave some approximate distances from the exits. It wasn't very accurate but it would have to do. Even the description of Luis was vague. Still, I thought there couldn't be too many drug dealers in the Palm Beach area that met the description we provided. Rafael had started by being very quiet and unco-operative but by the time I was nearly finished he was getting interested. "You know," he smiled, "I think it might work. If they catch Luis we won't have to worry. I don't think the police will ever know about me. Luis isn't going to tell them there was a witness." I grinned. I hoped that there was enough evidence to convict Luis. There might be fingerprints and there was very likely some semen inside the girl, even though a lot had gone into Rafael's belly a few hours earlier. That was a very unpleasant thought and I tried to forget what Luis had done. It was horrible to think how close Rafael had been to being strangled as the man's penis had rammed into his slender neck. Except for the occassional hoarseness the boy seemed to have recovered that that terror at least. While I printed off the letter, Rafael dressed himself. It took quite a long time to print the letter and address the envelope. I wanted to be absolutely certain that there was no way that the police could ever connect me with it. Fingerprints were my main concern. I handled the paper by the edge and then wrapped my handkerchief around my fingers to fold it and put it into an envelope that I had selected carefully from the middle of five hundred others. I placed that envelope in a folder so that I would not touch it accidently. Maybe I was too cautious. Rafael appeared to be in a lot less pain this morning than he had been previously. His energy and vitality were gradually being restored but he still had a long way to go. He followed me into my bedroom and sat on the bed as I dressed. The boy never took his eyes off me the entire time. It was just after nine o'clock when we went down to the car. +++++ The drive into Savannah took more than an hour. I was even cautious about attaching the stamp but then I read a lot of detective stories! We posted the letter in a mailbox outside the main post office and walked away. I had no wish to drive home and we spent a very enjoyable hour walking on the waterfront boulevard before the tourists were around and before the sun was too strong. As soon as the Maritime Museum opened at eleven we went inside. It was cool and dark inside. We ambled from one exhibit to another. Not much of a museum but a lot of fun for a ten-year-old boy who was fascinated by the sailing ships of a bygone era. I had been a sailor for years and I knew a little bit about 'four-mast-ers'. The boy was both a quick learner and an eager pupil. It was also a good opportunity to practice his reading. We took turns to read the information cards that came with each exhibit. We emerged into the hot afternoon sun several hours later. Rafael and I had a wonderful time in the museum but we were both hungry. We ambled down the old cobblestoned boulevard looking at the shops and restaurants for the second time that day. A couple of times people stared at the boy when they noticed the dark bruise on the side of his face. It was a lot better than it had been the previous day but it was still quite noticeable. I made a point of keeping my arm around the boy's shoulders, first because it felt good and second because it made us look like father and son. Father and son! The idea of Rafael as the son I had never had captivated me. We finally decided to have a picnic lunch in a little park near an old wooden schooner. We walked over to a 'take-out' shop and bought sandwiches and drinks. We sat down on the grass, ate our lunch and talked about the old schooner. It was a lot of fun. It was like our first date. As Rafael talked about the schooner and how much he liked it I was more than convinced that I should buy the waterfront condominium. There was a deep water dock right outside the door and with luck I might be able to afford a boat as well. After lunch it was time to 'blow' Savannah. It was already in the low nineties and getting hotter. The Porsche was terribly hot inside so I opened the windows and the sun-roof for the drive back. As we approached the island I used the car phone to call the real estate agent who was handling the sale of the condo I was interested in. I had been hoping that he would be able to show it to us today and I was prepared to close the deal right then if Rafael liked it. Rafael had never used a car phone before and I had him dial the number and switch on the speaker phone. He grinned broadly, barely able to believe that we were doing sixty miles and hour and talking on the telephone. "Island Real Estate. Bill Duffy, here." "Hi Bill! It's John. Remember you showed me a condo a few weeks ago. The waterfront one near the nature preserve." I said. "Sure. Of course. It's still for sale," he said. "I was wondering if I could see it this afternoon. My,... son is here with me and it looks as if he'll be moving in with me. I wanted to get this worked out today if I could." Rafael gave me a big, very happy grin. His eyes shone with delight. "Oh! That's great! I'm sorry but this is bad timing. I'm on my way to meet a client," Bill said. "Well maybe tomorrow then?" I asked. There wasn't much I could say but I could see that Rafael was disappointed. "No! I have an idea. If you come by the office I can leave the key for you. You and your son can have a good look at it. I'll drop by later on and we can talk then." I smiled. "Great idea! I'll see you later." The afternoon traffic was already busy on the main road. Too many traffic lights and too many cars. That is the biggest problem with living at a tourist resort though it is offset by a steady influx of money and some great restaurants. Luckily there were a few quiet places on the island where the tourists generally don't get to and the 'condo' was in one of them. It is reached by a narrow road that winds through a nature preserve in one of the very exclusive 'plantations'. The condominium was one of twentyothers that had been built a few years earlier on the small cove that opened onto the Inter-coastal Waterway. I parked the car under one of the big magnolia trees in the fore-court and walked with Rafael across to the 'condo' that would soon be our home. The boy was quivering with excitement. He had never seen a place that was quite as beautiful or as expensive. I opened the front door and he followed me inside. The air conditioning had been left on 'low' but it was still a lot cooler inside. For the first time I realized that it would make the perfect home for the two of us. There were two bedrooms. The one upstairs would be mine, and I hoped for Rafael as well, while the bedroom downstairs that would be his, or appear to be his, when inquisitive friends came to visit. There was a study upstairs as well and like the bedroom, it looked out over the living room and dining room below. There were spectaular views through the sliding glass doors to the dock and the cove beyond. I took the boy by the hand and led him though the rooms. He was all eyes. He grinned constantly. Compared to the tiny room he had lived in at Centerville and even my apartment, this place was a palace. After we had inspected the kitchen, dining and living rooms he followed me into his 'bedroom'. "This can be your room, Raf," I said. The boy looked around and smiled happily. There were two twin beds that had brightly colored bedspreads. The 'condo' was being sold fully furnished, a good thing too because there wasn't much that I wanted to bring with us. There wasn't much to do to convert it into the ideal room for a ten-year-old boy. Suddenly his face fell. "You,.. want me,... to sleep,... in here?" he asked awkwardly. I turned and looked at him and smiled as I shook my head. "That's up to you. When you're better,... well you can sleep where you like, I guess." The boy swallowed nervously as the most important question he had ever asked me formed in his mind. "With you?" he whispered. "If that's what you want," I said noncommitedly. I wanted to shout out "YES". "Do you,... want me to?" the boy asked shyly. He paused and breathed out slowly. "Don't you want to sleep with me?" I shrugged, still trying to play it 'cool' but my penis had other ideas as it went from basic-blood-supply to raging erection in about one second flat! "Uh,.." I stalled and sucked my bottom lip. "Well?" he demanded. "What do you think?" I asked. I wanted it to be Rafael's decision. I didn't want to think that I had seduced him. I wanted Rafael as a very willing partner, not a frightened little boy who had turned to me when there seemed no other way for him to survive. He smirked cheekily. "I think you want to fuck me!" He started to giggle as he looked down at the very large bulge in the front of my shorts. "At least HE DOES! I'm not so sure about you," he teased. I blushed at the boy's sudden obscenity. It turned me on even more and my penis lurched in my shorts and began to throb hungrily. "Of course I want you in my bed, you little dummy." I started to laugh. "Do you think I'm straight or something? But, well,... what about our friends?" I asked. "What about them?" Rafael asked in surprise. "What are they going to say about the uh,... sleeping arrangements, huh Raf?" I answered. Rafael thought for a few seconds and then he smiled shyly. "Yeah, I see what you mean." He started to giggle, "So,... this is my 'room' as far as anyone else knows?" I nodded. "And I sleep upstairs with you?" I nodded again. "Only if you want to, Raf. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. This isn't Centerville, okay? Here you decide what you want to do." Rafael nodded. "So, let's go see OUR bedroom," he shouted. I started to laugh and he joined me. Th boy could always change his mind of course but I knew his decision, my decision, our decision had been made at last. I took his hand in mine and we walked hand in hand up the stairs to the second floor. I led him into the study first. Needless to say he wasn't very interested in that room until I explained that he could do his homework there or read on the couch while I worked in the evenings and even if he was watching television in the living room I'd still be visible to him. At long last I took him into the room we had both been waiting for. Our bedroom was nothing less that spectacular. The ceiling was vaulted as it followed the roof and it reached it's highest point directly over the king-sized bed. Rafael looked at me in amazement. "What a bed!" he exclaimed. "I've never seen one that big." "Just about the right size for a ten-year-old boy to have a lot of fun in I guess," I teased. "Big enough for a pillow fight and anything else you want to do," I added. Rafael smirked and pressed his hand into the mattress. He remembered the narrow beds and the hard mattresses at Centerville. He remembered the uncomfortable plastic covers and how he had sweated on hot nights. He remembered how Cal had been thrusting so hard that he pushed him up against the wall. He remembered how Cal had elbowed him with painful jabs into his ribs to make more room when he was too drained to go back to his own bed. The bed was huge and soft and wonderful. "Are you really going to buy this place?" the boy asked quietly. "Do you want to live here, Raf?" I asked as I sat down on the right-hand side of the bed and staked out my 'territory'. I looked up at the little boy before me and smiled. He smiled back at me and nodded, "I want to live here with you more than anything in the whole world.... It must be terribly expensive." I didn't answer. I sat quietly looking up at the beautiful young boy, looking into his deep dark liquid eyes. He returned my gaze. It was as if I could see the boy's soul. I reached forward and took his small soft hand in mine. His little fingers enclosed my thumb and he squeezed possessively. "I want you here with me more than anything in the whole world," I whispered. "I don't think I could survive without you." Rafael shifted on his feet uncomfortably. "How did you know that?" he asked uncertainly. "Huh?" "That's what I was thinking right as you said it. I thought I would die if you didn't want me here with you," he said. I pulled the boy towards me and he came down onto the bed and knelt over me. He grinned triumphantly as he enjoyed his position of power. I wanted to tell Rafael that I loved him but I didn't. I wanted to hear him say that he loved me but I knew that the words would come in time. He needed time to sort out his own feelings from the confusion of thoughts and desires that now filled him. Above all, he needed affection without the demanding pressure of sex. I was unable to resist the desire that so quickly that it easily overpowered me. I gently stroked his bare brown thighs, sliding my fingers up and down the smooth soft flesh from his little knees to the start of his shorts. "You wanna mess around?" he asked. His voice trembled with excitement and the expression on his face was one of unbridled lust. He shook his head and his dark hair jumped as he answered his own question. "You want to,... but you won't, right?" I nodded and pushed my hands further up his thighs, lifting his shorts upward and exposing more of his legs. "Not till I get a hard-on, right? So what happens if,... well if I can't get it stiff again?" The answer to that question had been bothering me too. I sighed. "That's not going to happen. It may take some time but you will,... eventually." "What if it takes a long time,.... like months? Are we still going to wait?" he asked curiously. I smiled at the excited little boy. "Then when you're better down there, okay?" "Not till I'm better? How long?" "Maybe a few more weeks. I want to take you back to the doctor again and make sure you're okay first," I answered. "A few weeks,..." the boy said with disappointment. "That's so long." "It'll be gone before you even know it. We'll both enjoy it more when it doesn't hurt any more. You'll just have to be patient, Raf." I stopped pushing his shorts up when the tips of my fingers touched the warmth of his groin. I hadn't meant to go that far and Rafael had no intention of stopping me. He smiled. "I guess.... You don't have to stop," he whispered urgently. "Yes I do," I said as I pulled my hands away and straightened out the crumpled cloth of this shorts. "I'm sorry, Raf. I want to too, you know?" "Yeah, I know," the boy said as his arousal diminished. He moved away to one side. I sat up and hugged him tightly. The words 'I love you', filled my consciousness until I could think of nothing else. Rafael looked around the room and then back at me. "I really like you a lot.... I,..." He stopped at that instant as we heard the front door open. His sentence was unfinished and his thought was still unspoken. "Hello! Anyone home," a voice called out. "It's Bill Duffy," I whispered as I came to my feet. "Upstairs Bill," I called out loudly. Rafael helped me straighten the wrinkles out of the bedspread and he ambled over and looked over the balcony and out the window below as Bill came into the room. We shook hands and I introduced Rafael. "My ex is Puerto Rican," I explained. "Raf was living with her up till a few days ago. Poor kid got in a fight at school and that was the last straw for her. If everything works out okay it looks as if he'll be living with me from now on." Bill nodded at the beautiful boy standing beside me. "Certainly got a real 'shiner, haven't you?" he teased Rafael. He turned back to me, "He's a handsome kid." Rafael smiled at me as we shared the compliment. "You should'a seen the other kid," my boy rejoined. Bill laughed kindly as he looked at the slender boy. It was impossible to imagine Rafael inflicting real damage on anyone. "You guys been out on the deck yet?" he asked. He walked over to the curtains and drew then back, unlocked the door and pushed it open. We followed him out onto the enclosed deck that formed the 'roof' to the garage below. It was sunny and very private. "I always thought it would be a good idea to put one of those jacuzzi things out here," Bill said to me. "It'd be a lot of fun in the winter or when you didn't feel like you wanted to go down to the pool. It's real private up here." "There's a swimming pool too?" Rafael asked excitedly. Bill grinned. Rafael was an easy customer. "Yup! Right over there, 'bout a hundred feet from here," he said as he gestured towards the left side. "Wow!" the boy exclaimed. Bill turned back to me and raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Well?" I smiled, "Maybe. Two-twenty is pretty steep, Bill. We both know it's not worth that, not even with your jacuzzi. The market is at rock-bottom too." "So make an offer," Bill said. "All they can do is say no. Your son certainly seems to like it." "Bill, let me be honest. I'm prepared to do one-eighty right now if your side will repaint it and put in the jacuzzi?" The real estate agent feigned shock. "One eighty?" "I think that's what he said," Rafael piped in. I grinned at the boy and Bill laughed. "Smart little bugger isn't he?" "It's been on the market for a year. I'm no expert but I figure one-eighty is fair, considering the market is real slow." I shrugged. "It's kind of a take it or leave it offer, Bill. I'm not going higher. It all depends on how much your client wants the money." Bill nodded slowly. "Let me call them. They're local." He turned and walked back into the bedroom, leaving Rafael and me outside. "This is really neat up here," Rafael grinned. "Huh?" I asked absently. "You could suntan in the raw and no one would ever see you," he giggled. "You could do a lot of things up here and nobody would know," I added. "Like what?" Rafael teased. I grinned and playfully rubbed my very erect penis through my shorts. "I really hope they take our offer. The jacuzzi sounds like a great idea too." We talked for a few minutes until Bill came back out to join us. He looked happy. His commission was five percent and he had just made nine thousand dollars. We went downstairs and wrote out the formal offer. I gave him a check for eighteen thousand dollars and we drove home. I would need to sell off some stock and borrow some money but I was excited. So was Rafael and he chattered incessantly the entire way back to our apartment. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool after I made sure that Rafael put on his shorts instead of his micro-briefs. I was taking no risks with someone spotting the dark bruises and discolored flesh of his lower belly and on the inside of his thighs. With his shorts on everything was covered and other than the purple-brown mark over his cheek and his still-blackened eye there was no other obvious damage. Rafael was in high spirits as he waited impatiently for me to inflate the 'hippo'. We carried it clumsily down the stairs, laughing as we bumped into each other deliberately. About halfway down the stairs Rafael decided to call the 'hippo' by my name and I was referred to as the 'hippo'. The boy had started to tease me on the way home and for a while I decided to let him get away with it. I was no child psychologist but it seemed to be an important part of his psyche. Perhaps he was testing the limits to see how far he could go before I disciplined him and exerted my adult role in his life. Alternatively, I thought that he might have been teasing me as a way of consolidating our friendship. But the more I thought about it, the more I considered it likely that Rafael was falling in love with me and he didn't understand how to control the strange new feelings that came to him. Frightened by the first strong emotional attachment in his life, Rafael was backing away and trying to become more comfortable with me before he accepted and returned my love. At least that was what I hoped was happening. Once we reached the pool he seemed to quieten down a bit though he quickly reverted to his ebullient self as soon as we were in the water. We splashed, romped and played together more than any father and son would normally do and I knew that we were attracting unnecessary attention. Still, it was too much fun to stop. His favorite trick was to put his legs around the 'hippo's neck and hold on tight while I swam underneath and surfaced directly below him. The objective was to knock him off and my efforts earned me the fond nickname of 'sperm whale'. When people weren't around, my official title was shortened to 'spermie' and whispered with crude leers or playful swipes at my groin. Rafael knew he was relatively safe from my revenge and he exploited his advantage at every opportunity. He also knew exactly what he had in mind because while his own ability to produce the little wrigglers was still several years away at best, or at worst, entirely doubtful, he understood exactly what sperm were, where they came from and where they went. That was, if reproduction was not an issue! Just after five o'clock we climbed out of the pool and lay down on deck chairs that we placed side by side. The afternoon sun was still strong but one look at Rafael's brown body was enough to know that he didn't need much in the way of protection. We sun- baked and swam, then caught the final rays of the dying sun before we went up for dinner. By eight o'clock my beautiful young boy was yawning and stretching and I went into the bathroom with him. We brushed our teeth and I watched from the 'corner of my eye' as Rafael urinated. The boy directed a thin stream of almost lemon- colored urine into the center of the bowl with deadly accuracy and control. He turned and smiled at me as he shook the last tiny droplets out. "I'm s'posed to pull the skin back and clean it so it doesn't get dirty and start to smell," he said, then he smiled again, "but I can't 'cause the skin's too tight. I used to get it stiff and then pull it back." I nodded. "Does it feel dirty underneath," I asked. Rafael nodded, "Yeah, I guess." "You want me to have a look?" I asked. Rafael grinned. "You wanna look at my dick?" he teased. "You're a dirty old man!" "I want to do more than just look," I laughed. "Come here, Raf," I added as I moved over and sat down on the edge of the bathtub. Rafael grinned and he turned to face me. His hands were on his hips and he smirked at me with a challenging look as he pushed his wet swimming costume all the way down to the floor. He took a single step, stepped out of them and stopped. Now totally naked, his cheeky smirk changed to a shy smile and he took another step so that he was standing next to me. Gently I lifted his little thin penis up and inspected it carefully. It was dark with bruises and the skin on one side was scraped where it had been abraded by the vicious kicks. His foreskin did seem unnaturally tight. The glans was completely covered by it and the end of his foreskin formed a tiny puckered point. The opening seemed very small, far too small to accommodate the small, hidden glans. "The doctor at Centerville said I might have to get it cut off when I'm older. That is if it doesn't get looser," Rafael volunteered. "I really wished it looked like yours." I grinned at the boy. "Well I'm glad you haven't been circumcised. If I had a son that's the last thing I would ever do to him." Rafael gave me the sweetest smile. "I wish I was your son," he said. He paused a second, he trembled and then he began to shake as the words overwhelmed him. Tears formed in his eyes and he turned and bolted out of the bathroom. I followed him into his bedroom. He lay face down on his bed, burying his head into the pillow to escape the anguish in his mind. "You can't be my real son, Raf." I whispered The boy sobbed loudly and pushed his head down, trying to cover his ears and block me out. "Just leave me alone, okay," he wailed. I started to leave and the boy twisted over onto his back. "No! Don't! Please?" he cried. I came back into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed next to him. Lovingly I caressed his dark silky hair, rubbing my fingers against his scalp as I massaged his head. "You don't have to be my son, Raf,... for me to love you," I said gently. The boy was very quiet for a long while before the tension faded and he stopped fighting me. In the light that came through the door, one side, the bruised side, of his face was in shadow. Even in the dim light Rafael was a very beautiful boy. He was far too beautiful to be a boy. His facial features were not feminine but neither were they masculine. His beauty was timeless. My right hand moved in a circular motion up and down the boy's narrow chest. It relaxed him and he gradually drifted off to sleep. I stayed next to him for hours. Long hours, until I was sleepy myself and I finally leaned forward and kissed the boy's soft warm cheek. "God I love you," I whispered. "Sleep well my beautiful prince." I stood up and tiptoed out of the room. In my own bed, sleep evaded me. Constantly I listened, half-awake, half-asleep, my ears tuned for any sound from the boy next door. Sometime after midnight I fell asleep. During the last three nights I had slept perhaps a total of ten or twelve hours and it was beginning to catch up with me. Time and time again I woke up, sometimes dozing off for only minutes at a time. Twice I wandered into Rafael's room and stood in the darkness and looked down at the sleeping boy. I loved him. I loved him more than I could stand. I stayed with him for five minutes or more, waiting and watching over him protectively before I went back to bed and tried to sleep again. It seemed as if the boy's cry penetrated my consciousness almost as soon as I settled down and my eyes closed. It was a single cry and I leaped up and rushed into the boy's room. Rafael was shaking and he cried loudly. He was naked and the sheet I had placed over him was pushed to the bottom of the bed. "I wet the bed," he breathed out in horror. "I peed all over!" There was a large dark wet stain spreading out on the sheets underneath him. I shrugged. "It'll wash out, Raf. There's no reason to cry," I said gently. "You had another nightmare didn't you?" I asked. The boy nodded as he wiped his cheeks with the corner of the sheet that was still dry. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "There's nothing to be sorry about, Raf. It's okay," I said. I reached out and placed one arm around his back and the other under his legs. I lifted him easily and for the third time in as many nights I lifted him up and carried him into my bedroom. I eased him down so that he stood up. He shivered continuously, not cold, not afraid, just unable able to control his tired ravaged body any longer. The boy's body was wet with his urine and I went into the bathroom for a wash cloth and a towel. I carefully wiped him clean and then dried him off. Still shivering, the little boy climbed into my bed and I lay down behind him. Automatically Rafael squeezed back against me, seeking the warmth of my body. I placed one arm around his chest and hugged him. "You want to tell me Raf?" I asked gently. "I s'pose. I dreamed about Cal. He's the boy that.... " He stopped and twisted onto his side and looked at me guiltily. I nodded uncertainly. "He's the boy you first had sex with?" I prompted. Rafael moved his head so that he was staring at the ceiling. "He put his dick in me. Mr. Edwards had him do it so,... so I was ready for Mr. Baker. For what I was s'posed to do with him." My mouth fell open in surprise. Even though I was exhausted I listened attentively as Rafael poured out the story. Unlike the two nights before, his memory was clear and he described in all-too- vivid detail what had happened night after night with Cal. He told me about the first night when Cal had forced him down. Rafael didn't understand that he had been raped, he expected it always happened like that. He told me about the first night when he didn't fight back. That was the first night of many nights. His spirit, like his young body was broken and Cal knew it. From then on it got worse and he was unable to resist Cal's nightly forays into his bed. Then, as the weeks passed he began to look forward to the older boy's attention. At least then he wasn't lonely any more. Rafael told me how he had discovered that a man could have sex with a boy. He described what happened and how he felt as he watched Cal and Mr. Edwards. After that he could think of little else. After that, he was never the same again. I held him tightly as the ten- year-old boy emptied his shame and pain, then kissed his soft dark hair as he slowly fell asleep again.