Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2002 11:19:17 EDT From: Bwstories8@aol.com Subject: The Castaway Hotel-book 5, chapter 19 Legal Notice: The following story contains descriptions of graphic sexual acts. The story is a work of fiction and has no basis in reality. Don't read this story if: **You're not 18 or over, **If it is illegal to read this type of material where you live, **Or if you don't want to read about gay/bi people in love or having sex. The author retains copyright to this story. Placing this story on a website or reproducing this story for distribution without the author's permission is a violation of that copyright. Legal action will be taken against violators. I wish to extend my thank you to Ed for his editorial assistance with this chapter. If you have enjoyed reading this story, you will find other stories by me at http://members.tripod.de/wolfslair, in the 'Other Stories' section. E-mail responses to the stories, story suggestions, or other 'constructive' comments or advice may be sent to: bwstories8@aol.com. * * * * * * * * Although the boys in these stories have unprotected sex, I strongly urge all of you out there to be smart and protect yourselves from various sexually transmitted diseases by using condoms when having intercourse. * * * * * * * * The Castaway Hotel-Book 5-by BW (Young-Friends). Copyright 2002 by billwstories Chapter 19 - Small accomplishments. March 2002 I started my job, as interim Superintendent of my old school district, and I went in to my office to get brought up to speed on what was on the agenda for now. I already knew much of what was happening, but there were a few things I was unaware of. It didn't take them long to fill me in on what I needed to know, and then I was ready to fly solo. All in all it wasn't too bad of an adjustment for any of us, and everyone was being super nice. I knew this was just the honeymoon period, and it wouldn't always be like this, but I'd try to enjoy it while it lasted. One afternoon, after I got home from work, I discovered a letter that had been sent me. Actually, it had been sent to the Tom Cole AEA Memorial Foundation and then forwarded to my attention. Someone from the foundation must have thought I should read this letter, so it was put into another envelope and addressed to me. When I opened it up, this is what I saw. To the person who founded the Tom Cole AEA Memorial Foundation, I just wanted to let you know that you helped save my friend's life. You didn't do it yourselves, but by letting me know how dangerous AEA is, you made me talk to my friend and make him make me a promise. I think that promise saved his life. Maybe I should explain how that happened. My friend and I are both 15, and he got into AEA because he heard his brother's friends talking about how kewl it was. They talked about what a rush you got, when you shot your load while doing that, and said it was even better than normal. My friend thought this sounded great, so he started to do it too. After our teacher told us about the dangers of AEA, I tried to talk him out of doing this any more, but he wouldn't stop. He said it felt too good to just quit. I did get him to promise me not to do it unless someone else was there with him, but he wouldn't just do it with anyone around. That's why I was always with him when he did it, and we both kind of just got off at the same time, you know. Even though I did it at the same time he did, I wouldn't try the AEA. One day he kind of passed out after he shot, with the piece of rope still tied around his neck. I was able to get it off him when I saw what happened, or else he would have died. I even had to give him mouth-to-mouth, cuz he stopped breathing. I'm glad I took that class from the Red Cross. I'm sure he would have died like that, cuz he had the rope tied to the bar in his closet and then around his neck, while he sat on the floor. When he passed out, he kind of laid back, with his body on the floor but his head dangling in the air. It was really scary. After that happened, I convinced him to give up messing around with AEA, cuz that really scared the crap out of him too. I thought I had lost my best friend, and I was just glad I had known about this, so I could be with him when it happened. After I thanked my teacher for telling us about that, he said it was only because of the stuff this Foundation sent him, so he told me I should thank you also. So thank you for helping me save my friend's life, and neither one of us will ever try AEA again. Your friend, Bobby I was really moved by this letter, and now I knew we had saved at least one life through our efforts, so maybe Tommy's death wasn't entirely without purpose. I decided to make a copy of that letter, to keep for myself, but I was going to send the original, along with an additional note from me, to Tommy's parents. I thought they should also know that Tommy's death had helped to save someone else from the same fate and I thought it might give them a little solace, or maybe bring a greater sense of closure to their suffering. I hoped I would hear back from them about this. Other things at this time weren't going as well. The search for the new Superintendent was going smoothly, but more slowly than any of us would have liked. The school district had posted advertisements in the local newspaper, as well as the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh papers, and they had also posted it with some of the online job search organizations and in professional publications. The letters of application and resumes were now beginning to roll in, but not in the quantities we might have wished, and the committee would meet occasionally to go over them. The committee members would immediately weed out those that didn't meet the minimum requirements or the ones where the applicant's credentials didn't seem to be quite what we were looking for. If they made it through that process, then we would conduct telephone interviews with them, to get an impression about their personality, educational philosophy, communication skills, and whether we were interested enough in them to have them come for an in-person interview. When asked, we would tell them it would be a couple of weeks before we would contact those we were interested in, to set up a time for such an interview, and then we'd advise them our plan was to hire and have the person onboard by mid-August. Over 80% of the applicants who had reached that point were eliminated by the time we finished the telephone interviews, for various reasons. Some did not share the same educational philosophy or goals that the board had established, while others didn't seem to be able to think on their feet or their personality would be too abrasive to fit in with the locals. Others were eliminated because they didn't seem to have the required verbal skills necessary for someone in such a high position, as this person was in essence the spokesperson for the entire district. One was also eliminated because of the grammatical and usage mistakes he made when answering questions, such as choosing words that were inappropriate in that context. It appeared this would be a long and time consuming process, so we had to focus on the end results, and not on a speedy timeline. During this time I also started my new trio on their driving lessons. Although I wasn't so worried about Trey and Nick, I did have some questions where Vinnie was concerned. I wasn't sure if his muscular problems would cause him problems in driving or require him to use special equipment, like hand controls instead of the traditional foot pedals. I wasn't exactly sure how to broach this subject with him, as I didn't want him to think that I was trying to discourage him from getting his license, but I needed to know that he wouldn't be at a disadvantage or at risk because of his handicap. Eventually I just decided that I had to try to do this as tactfully as I could. "Vinnie, I know you want to get your license, but I do have some questions to ask you about this first." "Okay, that's not a problem." "I'm glad you feel that way, and I hope these questions don't offend you." "Don't worry about that. I owe you way too much to let anything bother me." "Well, I hope so. First, are you going to need any special equipment or anything different to learn how to drive?" "Nah, I know I won't." "How do you know that?" "Well, my dad used to let me drive the car on back roads, and I could operate the pedals with no problems. It wasn't that hard." "Okay, if you're sure." "I am. You'll see." "I'm sure I will. We'll go out Saturday for the first time, okay?" "Yeah, that'll be great." "Well, I'll let you tell Trey and Nick then. You three will make up this group." "That sounds good to me. I'll let them know. Thanks, Pop." The first lesson actually went pretty well, as I just gave them some basics and let them drive around the empty school parking lot, so I could get a feel for where they'd be starting from and how much work we'd have to do. This was the most diverse group I had worked with to this point. You see, there was Trey, my meek, quiet, and thoughtful one, juxtaposed against Nick, the aggressive, sweet-talking conman, and then there was Vinnie, who was bright and confident, yet had those limitations to overcome. I somehow knew this class wouldn't just be a repeat of the others, yet I surmised that it might be the most rewarding of all my efforts. In a way, I was really looking forward to this challenge, and the individual victories that awaited us at the finish line. After we got back home, I jumped on the computer and discovered I had received another email from Ricky. That reminded me of something. Even though it was only June, I figured I had to start planning for Ricky's birthday, which was on July 7th. I would talk it over with the boys, to see what they thought we should get him, but we'd have to send it within a week or two, giving it plenty of time to arrive there. I would suggest that the boys try to get some ideas from Ricky, discreetly, when we talk to him on the phone or through the emails. They didn't seem to mind my request to discover what he might want, in fact I think they liked that idea, but I figured I'd probably send him some extra money tooo, so he could enjoy himself and be able to do more things while he was there. Hi Dad, My host parents took me to see some of the area over the weekend. It was really neat. They kind of live in the foothills of the Blue Mountains here, and they took me there to see some of the places that everyone comes to see. They took me to this place called Echo Point, so I could see what they call the Three Sisters. It's three mountains jutting up into the air, but it's supposed to be three sisters who were turned into stone. They said it's part of some Aboriginal legend. I guess that a long time ago there were supposed to be these three beautiful sisters in this tribe, and that three brothers from another tribe fell in love with them. The problem was that the tribes didn't really get along, so neither tribe would let them marry. This made the brothers mad, so they captured the three sisters and took them away, but this started a big war between the tribes. This put the three sisters in danger, cuz they might get killed during the war, so a witchdoctor from their tribe turned them into stone, to keep them safe. He planned on turning them back into women, after the war ended, but the witchdoctor got killed during the war. The problem was that only he could turn them back, so they have been left as these rock mountains ever since. Peter and I even walked up and down what they call the Giant Stairway. It's got like 800 steps to it, so that's why my host parents didn't want to go with us. We had a great time, but it can be a little scary. I slipped once and thought I was a goner. Peter just laughed at me and I just sat there, as I was afraid I crapped my pants, but that didn't happen, thank God. Well it was still a good time. I got even with Peter when we got back home, though. The next morning I sneaked into his room and pounced on his bed while he was sleeping. I scared him really bad. I think he even peed himself a little, but he wouldn't admit it. Oh, I forgot to tell you about their house. It's what we would call a ranch house, and it has three bedrooms. The biggest bedroom is my host parents' bedroom, and then there's Peter's room, and the guest room, which I use. They have a kitchen, dining room, and what they call a lounge room. That's kinda like our living room or family room. They have a pool too, so Peter and I will do some swimming. I'm hoping to talk him into skinny-dipping with me when his parents aren't home. Maybe we can get Kylie to come over and join us, lol. Oh, yeah, maybe I forgot to tell you. Kylie is the girl that Peter introduced me to. We've been talking a bit, getting to know each other. She's kinda nice. Well, I'll write again in a few days. Love you all and miss you, but not that much. Hehehe Please write me back. Love, Ricky Everyone got a kick out of Ricky's email, as it was vintage Ricky. It showed that he is still the adventurous one, the prankster, and he can have a good time with either boys or girls. He's very versatile and adaptive, and it sounded like he was enjoying himself. I did get a little concerned when I read about his slipping climbing those stairs, but knowing Ricky, he probably played that up to make it sound worse than it was, just for our benefit. It probably wasn't nearly as bad as it sounded, or at least I hope it wasn't. I'll try to get a couple of the boys to respond to his emails, after we get each one. That way he'll get a chance to hear from all of them, without being overwhelmed all at once. The search for a new superintendent was not going very well. We weren't sure if it was because this opening happened kind of late in the hiring season, which would have meant that most qualified candidates would have accepted other appropriate positions by now. As a rule, superintendents are usually brought on board as soon as the old school year ends, while openings for other positions might be filled up until the new school year begins. No matter the reason, we knew the quality of the applicants we were getting weren't meeting our standards. Out of all the letters of application and resumes we went through, we did phone interviews with fifteen, and only two of them were good enough to be considered for a face to face interview, yet we weren't totally thrilled with them either. We decided to extend the deadlines, hoping that others might apply, but we did invite those two to come for a two-day visit and interview. One of the candidates was male, and the other a female, but neither had a solid administrative background, nor did they give any indications of what changes they foresaw happening educationally in the near future, no matter how much we tried to draw them out. Above all else, the district needs a leader with definite visions for this job, so we'd just have to keep looking. The driving lessons were going pretty well, but we did need to make some adjustments. One was that we switched between the Grand Am and the 4-Runner Vinnie had donated to the family, because it seemed to be easier for Vinnie to operate the pedals in the 4-Runner. It might have had something to do with the angles of the seat to the pedals, as the Grand Am was lower, and laid out in a more horizontal fashion, but the other boys didn't mind switching back and forth. My biggest job with this group was trying to get Trey to be a bit more aggressive at times, like when he was accelerating to prepare to pull into traffic, and I had to pull the reins in on Nick, as he tended to be a bit over-aggressive. Vinnie, on the other hand, had learned he had to be a little aggressive if he wanted to succeed, just to overcome the obstacles he encountered in life, but he also knew he couldn't get too aggressive, because of his disability and the limitations it imposed on him. Surprisingly, at least to me, he seemed to be doing the best of all of them, and I wasn't even sure at the start if he'd be able to drive. The following Monday, we received another email from Ricky, and he still seemed to be enjoying himself over there. Hi Dad and everyone else, I had a really neat weekend. My host family took me to a couple of different places, and I had a lot of fun. On Saturday we went to the Australian Wildlife Park, which isn't very far from here, and it was really neat. Although I've visited other zoos and wildlife parks with you before, this one wasn't like those, because of all the different animals they have here. I knew about some of them before I came, but there are even more than that, and they were really neat. When we went to see the koalas, they had a raised platform that you could walk along, so you were even with the tops of the eucalyptus trees. That way you could see the koalas while they ate, and watch them where they really live. It was really pretty kewl. The koalas look like real-life teddy bears, and they're so neat that you almost want to grab one and take it home with you. They also have five species of Kangaroos there, even an albino kangaroo, and wallabies, which are like small kangaroos. They also have dingos, which are reddish brown wild dogs, and wombats, which look like really small bears. The emus look like small ostriches, and the goannas are lizards, well, actually they're sand monitors. The park had eye-level underground viewing areas, so you could see the wombats and goannas underground, where they spend much of their time. They did have other animals that were really neat too. They had fairy penguins, which are the smallest of the penguins. They only get to be about ten inches tall. They have blue feathers on their back and white feathers on their fronts. They also had some Tasmanian Devils, which surprised me, cuz I thought they were only cartoon characters. The real ones are about the size of a cat or a badger, and they're black, with a white chest. These are not animals to mess around with, cuz they can be really mean. They have lots of sharp teeth and they attack each other like all the time. Most of them have patches on them where the fur is missing. These are just scar areas from where they were bitten by other devils. I'm glad my brothers are that bad, well not quite. hehehe There was also this big saltwater crocodile, and some smaller ones too, but they said the big one was the largest one in captivity. It looked really ferocious, especially in the underwater viewing area. I probably wouldn't even make him full if he ate me, though I'm glad I didn't have to worry about that. lol Well, that was Saturday, and we spent the whole day there. Then Sunday we went back to the same general area, to go to Wonderland. That's kind of like Disney World. They say it's the largest amusement park south of the equator. They have all sorts of rides and shows, and they even have a thing called Blinky Bill, which is a giant koala costume, kind of like Mickey Mouse. Some of the rides were neat, even though some of it was geared to the little kids, just like Disney World, but it was still a great time. I think if I can get Kylie to go out with me, I'll try to bring her here. Peter and I have been really close and we've had lots of fun. It's like winter down here, so I couldn't get him to go skinny-dipping yet, but I will. Oh, I forgot to tell you about school. I'm taking all business courses down here, because I've decided I want to major in marketing in college. Dad, you've always said I could sell sand to a thirsty man or a bikini to an Eskimo, so I thought I'd go with my strengths. lol Well, I enjoyed all your emails, and Peter read them too. I had to explain some things to him, but he's cool with everything. I even thought maybe he could come visit us sometime, so he could get to know all of you. I'm sure everyone would like him, especially you Dad. He's a little like me, that's why. Oh, and things I might want or need here, could you send some jockeys for Peter. The kind they sell here aren't as soft and he loves mine. He wears size 14/16. And maybe you could send something special for my host parents. They've been really great to me, making sure I get to see and do things while I'm here. I'll talk to you about that on the phone when I call, Dad, cuz I'm not sure what would be a good gift for them. I know you'll have plenty of ideas, though. As far as my birthday goes, just call me that day and wish me a happy birthday in person. Remember, it will be the 6th there, or the morning of the 7th, but I'll look forward to your call on that day. I love you all, Ricky A short time after we all read the email from Ricky, Nick came up to me and made an announcement. "Pop, I think I want to sign up to be an exchange student next year, like Ricky did." "Oh, really? I didn't know you were interested in anything like that." "Yeah, I think it would be neat. I'd really like to get to live in another country. I mean, you know I can survive on my own, I think I proved that before, so do you think I can?" "Well, before we decide that, you'll have to call your parents and get their permission first. If it's okay with them, then we'll get the ball rolling on that when you go back to school. Would that be okay with you?" "Yeah, that would be great. Should I call my mom and dad now?" "I'm not sure they'll be home yet. Why don't you wait until later tonight, or you can just wait until you go back there. Remember, you are leaving this weekend to spend a few weeks with them. Did you forget that you and Brandon are flying out together? He'll fly with you to Oklahoma and then he'll catch another plane to get to Texas. Don't forget, your parents took their vacations during this time, just so they could spend time with you." "Yeah, I remembered I was gong, but I don't really want to wait until then to ask. I want to know now." "Well, we still won't be able to do anything until the fall, so there is really no need to hurry this." "And I'm going to miss Nigel and the boys coming here too, aren't I? Dang, I almost forgot about that." "Only some of it. We'll wait until you're back for the fun stuff. While you're gone, we'll probably only take them to see Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and New York City. You've seen those places." "Okay, but I wouldn't mind going again." "I know, but you'll have fun with your parents. They are really looking forward to spending time with you, because they haven't seen you since Christmas." "I know and I'm glad they want to spend time with me now, so okay. I'll wait until I go there to ask, but only if you promise we'll get this started as soon as we can." "I promise. That won't be a problem. Have you narrowed down the countries you want to go to?" "Well, Australia sounds nice, but I'm pretty open. I'm pretty good at Spanish, as I had to use that a lot when I ran away, and I've even kept in practice with Carlos. We IM each other in Spanish most of the time." "Well, it sounds like you have thought this out." "Oh, I have. Every time I see an email from Ricky, I know I want to go. He sounds like he's having a real blast over there." "Yes, I think you're right about that. Well, it sounds like a plan, so we'll talk about it more when you get back." "Thanks, Pop. I knew you'd help me do this." "Don't thank me yet, not until your parents agree to this too. I don't want you to get too excited about this until they say it's all right too." "Okay, I'll try not to." Well, this was something I hadn't expected, but I knew I couldn't commit for him to do this without his parents' consent and input. I don't think this will be a problem, however, as I feel this would be an excellent opportunity for him to continue to grow and develop. I think maybe I'll have to sit down with him, to see what he might want to do with his life after high school, before we get too far into this process, but I think he must actually be thinking ahead now. That's an accomplishment with Nick, as he has always been more focused on what pleasure he could receive here and now. Except for his sudden interest in music and the guitar, I've never seen him become this committed to something that didn't have to do with sex. * * * * * * * * Author's note: Thank you to all of you have already written, and I see there are still some people interested in having me continue this series. I will let you know in the final chapter (20) of book 5 what I decide. Sincerely, Bill * * * * * * * * If you have enjoyed reading this story, you will find other stories by me at http://members.tripod.de/wolfslair, in the 'Other Stories' section. E-mails may be sent to: bwstories8@aol.com.