Ron’s Adventure
by Colin Kelly
colinkelly@xemaps.com

Chapter 2: Doug

This is a work of fiction. However, it is based on things that my friend Ron told me that he did in the 8th grade. The names, locations, circumstances, and a few of the events have been changed to protect the privacy of those who participated in the actual happenings.

This story is Copyright © 2005 by Colin Kelly. It cannot be reproduced without express written consent. The Nifty Archives has written permission to publish this story. No other rights are granted.

This story contains scenes of explicit consensual sex between minors. If reading this type of material is illegal where you live, or if you are too young to read this type of material based on the laws where you live, or if you find this type of material morally or otherwise objectionable, or if you don't want to be here, close your browser now. The author neither condones nor advocates the violation of any laws. If you want to be here, but aren't supposed to be here, be careful and don’t get caught!

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For the next couple of weeks, until school started, I spent every moment trying to do all of the things I had planned to do over the summer months. Of course, I failed, but had fun anyway. The last weekend my mom dragged me to the Glendale Galleria and we shopped for new school clothes and school supplies. St. Bartholomew’s, or St. Bart’s as we kids called it, didn’t require uniforms. That would come when, or if, I went to Cathedral, the Catholic high school. My folks had been talking about maybe sending me to public high school. Monte Vista High was supposed to be a good school and would be a whole lot less expensive because they wouldn’t be paying any tuition to Cathedral.

I was now in the eighth grade! The first day was great. My friends Jay and Norman and I lorded it over the little kids, especially those in the seventh grade. To all of the other kids we were now a lot bigger than they were. And there were no kids bigger than we were!

Eighth grade also meant that I’d be going to gym class. St. Bart’s didn’t have a gym. Hardly any Catholic elementary schools in L.A. had gyms. So the St. Bart’s eighth grade boys were taken to the Galileo Recreation Center once a week, on Thursday afternoons unless it rained, from 1 to 3, for two hours of sports and other activities. Because it wasn’t a real gym, just playing fields, there were no showers at Galileo. We had to wear our gym shorts and T-shirt under our clothes and take off our regular clothes in the eighth grade classrooms before we left school to go to the Galileo. Then when we got back we supposed to put our regular clothes on over our dirty, sweaty gym shorts and shirt before heading home. But most of us would strip to our underpants and hurry and dress before the teacher got back to the room to make sure we left so she could lock up the classroom by 3:45. I enjoyed this because it let me see other boys in their underpants and try to guess what might be hidden inside! Of course, nothing ever came of this.

There wasn’t much supervision when we were at Galileo. The two priests in charge set up baseball, basketball, and touch football games, then went to one edge of the park and sat on a bench where they smoked cigarettes and talked until it was time to have us boys collect the bats, balls, and other equipment and head back to St. Bart’s.

I really don’t like organized sports, so I didn’t like the so-called St. Bart’s “gym class”. The second time we went to Galileo I slipped away from a basketball game and wandered over to the playground area. Most of the boys from St. Bart’s didn’t go to the playground because ‘that was for little kids’, with swings and slides and one of those little merry-go-round things, and picnic tables under a lot of trees at the edge of the playground. As I approached the picnic tables I saw a new kid I hadn’t seen before, and he was dressed, not wearing gym clothes. He was Asian, the first Asian boy I had ever seen close up since there were almost no Asians in our part of town and none that I knew of at St. Bart’s. I was fascinated! I walked up and sat across from him. He was exotic looking with his almond-shaped eyes, full lips, short dark black hair, and golden color skin. He was way cute. I couldn’t keep from looking at him.

“You perving me?”

“Huh? I don’t know what you mean.”

“Well, you keep looking at me.”

“You’re the first Asian I’ve ever seen close up. You’re kind of exotic looking to me. Sorry if I bothered you.” I wasn’t about to tell him that I thought he was cute! Not yet, anyway!!

“Oh. I never thought that anyone would find me exotic. I see Chinese every day ‘cause I’m Chinese and I live with my Chinese family, so they don’t look any different than anyone else to me. And we lived in San Francisco where lots of Chinese and other Asian people live. Of course, you’re kind of exotic looking to me with that red hair and freckles.” He grinned at me and started to giggle.

I figured out what he meant, and burst out laughing. Of course, he wouldn’t think Chinese were exotic, he saw them at home all the time. And he wouldn’t see many red headed Scottish at home, either, so to him I was the exotic one.

“What’s your name, and when did you start at St. Bart’s?”

“I’m Doug Choi, that’s spelled ‘c-h-o-i’, and I just started today. We just moved here from San Francisco because my dad was transferred.”

“I’m Ron McGowan. I’ve gone to St. Bart’s since the second grade. Nice to meet you, Doug.”

“Nice to meet you too, Ron. Everything’s happened so fast with the move and school starting that I haven’t met many other kids yet, just a couple in class this morning.”

“What grade are you in?”

“Eighth, the one taught by Mrs. Garcia. You?”

“I’m in eighth grade, too. I have Ms. Jefferson.”

“What subjects do you like?”

“I like most of them. Probably Geography is my least favorite. How about you?”

“I like most classes. Except Catechism and gym.”

“Yeah, I forgot about them. I don’t like those much, either. What’s it like in San Francisco? What school did you go to there?”

“I went to Mary Star of the Sea. I started there in kindergarten. San Francisco is really nice. I was able to go everywhere on Muni and BART. It’s not a big city in area so it’s easy to get to almost everything. And there’s lots of other Chinese people, too. I miss living there.”

“It must be tough moving to a new place. What’s Muni and who’s Bart?”

“Muni is the streetcar and bus system in San Francisco. The neat thing is they have these old streetcars from all over the world that they still use today. It’s fun to ride them. And San Francisco has cable cars, you’ve heard of them I suppose?”

“Yes, I’ve seen them on TV. Who’s Bart? Is he your friend? Or do you mean Bart Simpson?” I grinned.

Doug laughed. “No, BART, that’s all capital letters ‘B-A-R-T’, BART means Bay Area Rapid Transit and it’s the subway system that goes all over the Bay Area. The Bay Area includes the cities around San Francisco, sort of like L.A. and Glendale and all that, but not as big. BART trains are real fast. Beats driving because traffic is terrible. We used to take BART to visit my married sister who lives in Walnut Creek. That’s like 30 miles east of where we lived in San Francisco.”

“Do you like L.A. and Glendale?”

“It seems really big. I really haven’t seen any of it yet, except our house and St. Bartholomew and this park. We drove down Monday and the movers arrived and we moved in on Tuesday. My mom signed me up at St. Bart’s on Wednesday, and I started this morning.”

“Wow, you really are new here. I’ll show you around, our part of Glendale at least. I’ve been to some other parts of L.A. like where my cousin lives, my aunt and uncle have a ranch with buffalo, and to the beach, and to the Glendale Galleria mall, but mostly just here around our neighborhood.”

“Neat. Your cousin lives on a real ranch and has real buffalo? That’s awesome!”

“Yup, a real ranch with real buffalo, about a dozen of them. They are big and pretty tame, except for the bull buffalo, the male. He can be mean.”

“The mall sounds interesting. Is it far from here?”

“About 15 minutes. My mom is going to take me this Saturday. Do you think your mom would let you come with us?”

“Probably. She’ll want to talk to your mom first, though.”

“What do you like to do, Doug? I mean, do you have PlayStation, or Xbox, watch TV much, what music and movies do you like, do you have any hobbies, that sort of stuff.”

“I collect stamps, my uncle and grandfather gave me their collections. My uncle’s is really neat and has some valuable stamps. I’ll show it to you. I have a PC and lots of games for it. No game console, just the PC. And I have a digital camera, got it at the end of seventh grade for getting good grades. It’s really cool, and I have Adobe Elements software so I can fix up my pictures. Umm, music. You’ll probably think I’m some sort of long hair, but I like classical music, you know, Beethoven and Vivaldi and like that, but I also like soft rock and old stuff like the Beetles and the Beach Boys and the Eagles. I like to read, especially science fiction and mysteries. TV I like CSI but only the one in Las Vegas and comedies like Malcolm in the Middle, and Joan of Arcadia and Degrassi. Movies I like animation and science fiction, the first of the Star Wars and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Men in Black. I’m not into sports, and I don’t like gym class, but I like to hike in the mountains, and we used to go to Yosemite and Tahoe to visit and I could hike all I wanted. How about you, Ron?”

“I’m totally into computers. I’ve got two PCs, an eMachines is my main computer. My dad gave me his old PC and I’ve been upgrading it. He takes me to Fry’s sometimes and I save my allowance to buy parts for it. It’s set up as a server and runs Windows 2000 server. I just added a 160 megabyte hard drive and a gig of RAM that I got for straight A’s in seventh grade. I like to design web sites, and I even have my own web site. We have a fast DSL line so my web site will load fast when you visit it. I can’t wait to show you and see what you think! I have a digital camera, too, and take pictures around the neighborhood and at school and use Paint Shop to edit them then post them on my web site. My mom plays the piano, so she made me take piano lessons until fifth grade. I got tired of it, but my teacher said I should keep going with it ‘cause he thought I was pretty good, but I didn’t like all the time it took to practice. I like to the Beetles, too. I like soft rock and country, like the Eagles and Eric Clapton, but not rap or acid or any of that ‘cause to me it’s just noise. I like classical too and even opera. My folks took me to the L.A. Opera to see Pearl Fishers last month and it was fantastic and I want to buy the CD on Saturday, and we went to see Les Miserables which is a musical that’s like an opera but sung in English. Sometimes I listen to the opera from New York on Saturday mornings while I’m doing my homework. I like the same kind of TV shows you do, and the Discovery and SiFi channels on cable. My favorite movie of all time is ‘Galaxy Quest’ and I like ‘Monsters Inc.’ and ‘Finding Nemo’ and other animation too and comedies like ‘Men in Black’ and ‘Young Frankenstein’ and the ones you said, too. I’ve never been hiking in the mountains, but I think I’d like it ‘cause I like to hike in the hills above our neighborhood. I read a lot, too. My dad subscribes to Analog and Asimov’s science fiction magazines and I read those, and my dad belongs to the science fiction book club and he buys me books that I want to read, and I borrow science fiction books from the library. Sounds like we like lots of the same things.”

“Yeah, that’s neat. It’s great meeting someone who likes lots of the same stuff as me. It’s awesome that you got straight A’s in the seventh grade! I got one B, in catechism. You must have really studied hard! We’re having cable installed, and I’ll have a cable modem. But it’s going to take me some time to get all of my stuff unpacked ‘cause most of it is still in boxes, including my clothes. Our new house is huge, lots bigger than what we had in San Francisco, and I have a huge closet, so I want to try and get everything put away this weekend.”

“Where d’ya live, Doug?”

He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and read: “5687 Toledo Avenue.”

“Way cool! I live at 5664 Bennett which is the next street over from Toledo. Our houses are practically back to back!”

Both of us grinned, happy with the idea that we lived close to each other, and in my case because it seemed that I was becoming best friends with this exotic looking, and cute! Chinese boy.

“Hey, Doug, I just got an idea. Why don’t you come to my house after school today? I can show you my room and my computers and my web site, and introduce you to my mom and ask her if she will take us both to the mall on Saturday.”

“OK! Then we can go to my house, you can meet my mom, and we can ask about Saturday, and she can call your mom and get all of that introduction stuff done. I’ll show you my room. I have a huge room that’s almost the whole attic that I share with my brother Darryl. I’ll show you some of my stamp collection if you like.”

“Yeah, I’d like to see it, and your room.”

“Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“I have two little sisters. Nichole is 5 and she’s cute and fun. Deborah is 7, she’s in the third grade at St. Bart’s, and is a pain in the ass. She always wants to hang with me especially if I have friends over. That’s a real drag! Besides your brother Darryl do you have any other brothers and sisters?”

“We’re a typical Chinese family, lots of kids. I have three sisters and two brothers. My oldest sister Kathleen is 25, she’s married with no kids yet and is the one who lives in Walnut Creek. My oldest brother Jason is 23 and he’s in college in Pennsylvania. My next sister Lillian is 19 and she’s a freshman at Stanford. My brother Darryl is 14 and just started going to ninth grade at Cathedral High School. We share the attic which is our bedrooms, but it’s OK because it’s so big. My littlest sister Michelle is 7 like yours, just started third grade at St. Bart’s, and like yours is a pest. Maybe she’s in the same class, and we can get our 7 year old sisters together and off our backs!”

“That sounds like a great idea. Debbie is OK and I think she likes me but she acts like I’m there to play with her all the time.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean, Ron. Michelle’s the same.”

“Say, Doug, how old are you? I’m 12 and I’ll be 13 on November 20th.”

Doug looked at me like he’d just been told he was sitting in wet paint. “I don’t believe it! I’m 12 too, and MY birthday is on November 20th too!”

We sat looking at each other with our mouths hanging open for a few seconds, then both burst out laughing. “We’re twins!” I shouted.

Doug shouted back “Siamese twins!” That totally broke me up. “No way,” I said, “neither of us is Siamese, so we’d have to be Chinese twins or Scottish twins.”

“OK, but you’re not Chinese and I’m not Scottish, so that won’t work. How about half way between? Then we’re Californian twins. California is half way between China and Scotland.”

“Californian twins it is! Well, now that we know we’ve found out that we’re twins, let’s shake on it!” I reached across the table and took his hand to shake it. There was a buzz in my palm and fingertips like an electric shock, but the kind that really feels good. I didn’t want to let go. I didn’t want it to stop. I got a boner! I saw Doug’s eyes and mouth both open in astonishment.

Doug pulled his had away and stared at it. “Wow, what was that?”

“You felt it too? I don’t know what it was, but I sure liked it. Did you like it?”

“I’m not sure, I think so.” Doug blushed, heavy duty, and his ears turned bright red, and he whispered “It gave me a boner.” He looked at me like he might cry. “Uh, sorry about telling you that.”

“Sorry for what? It gave me a boner too!”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.” I grinned my nasty grin and wiggled my eyebrows. “You want to see?”

“No!” Then in a whisper it sounded like he said “Not here.” I filed Doug’s ‘not here’ away to think about later.

“Let’s try it again and see what happens.” I held out my hand and waited for Doug to take it. He hesitated, then slowly moved his hand to mine and we grabbed each other’s hand in a tight grasp. This time I couldn’t feel the buzz, and I guess he couldn’t either because he looked disappointed.

“Wait, Doug, stop, let go. We’re squeezing too hard. Let’s try it again, more like the first time, not squeezing so much.”

We pulled our hands back, then brought our hands together with less pressure like we did the first time. This time I could feel the buzz. It was really neat, especially in my fingertips! After almost a minute I reluctantly released Doug’s hand. He sat there looking at me and I looked at him.

“Ron, what’s this about? Is this weird or something?”

I looked at Doug. “I don’t think it’s weird. I really like the feeling when we hold hands.” God, I couldn’t believe I actually said that, ‘hold hands’ is way too gay sounding!

“I like holding your hand too. I suppose it’s kinda gay, but I don’t care because it feels so good. The tingle I get in my fingertips and palm is way cool. Maybe it’s because we really are twins!” Doug started laughing and I busted up too. Laughing relieved the tension I was feeling, and I suppose it did the same for him. I thought holding hands sounded gay, Doug said it’s kinda gay, but neither of us cares because we like it. And we both got boners.

I think Doug said he’d like to see my dick, but not here. One thing’s for sure, I sure want to see what’s in his pants. I want us to suck his dick and have him suck mine like I did with Billy! I wonder if Chinese cum tastes different than mine, maybe like Chinese food! That thought totally broke me up.

Doug grinned. “What’re you laughing about?”

“Just something really stupid.”

“So, you gonna tell me what’s really stupid?”

Just at that moment I heard the priest’s whistle in the distance. The timing was perfect, because I didn’t have to try to come up with a lie to keep from telling Doug what I had been really thinking about.

“That whistle means that we have to get ready to go back to St. Bart’s. We better hurry and get back to the other end of the park for roll call so we don’t get yelled at.” We got up and I was glad that my dick had gone soft, and we ran to the main playing fields where the other boys were gathering. I introduced Doug to Jay and Norman. On the way back to school Jay and Norman asked Doug about himself and his family, and Doug told them a short version. Jay kept telling us all about the baseball game he pitched and how many guys he struck out, and Norman told us over and over how many times he pulled the flags off the ball carrier in the flag football game. I just rolled my eyes at Doug when the others weren’t looking, and he grinned back at me.

When we got back to school I put on my clothes, we grabbed our backpacks, I met Doug in the front of the school, glad that Debbie and Michelle got out at 3 and had gone home already. We headed toward my house, actually toward both of our houses, which were about a two mile walk from school. I told Doug about the things we passed along the way, like the library and stores and Hillview Elementary School, and we told each other more about our families and things we liked to do. I told him about the stores in the Glendale Galleria, and how big it was, and he told me there was no big mall in San Francisco but the whole downtown was all stores and that it was way bigger than any mall. It seemed like we got to my house faster than it usually took me. We went into the family room, dropped our backpacks and took off our jackets. I led Doug into the kitchen.

“Hi, mom! I’m home, and is my new friend Doug Choi who just moved here and his house is like in back of ours it’s on Toledo and he just started at St. Bart’s today and he’s really cool and is my best friend and they moved in yesterday…”

“Stop! Slow down, Ronny, let me get a word in!” my mom interrupted.

“Mom, you know I hate it when you call me ‘Ronny’, it sounds like you think I’m still a little kid, and it’s embarrassing when you do it in front of my friends. Pleeease call me Ron!” I looked at Doug, and he was biting his bottom lip like he was trying to keep from laughing.

She grinned. “Oh, all right, ‘Ron’ it is. I certainly wouldn’t want to embarrass you in front of your friends.”

“Thanks, mom.”

She turned to Doug. “Hello, Doug, I’m Dorothy McGowan and it’s nice to meet you. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m this blabbermouth’s mother.” She tousled my hair and grinned. I hated it when she did that, another thing that makes it seem like she thinks I’m still a little kid or something.

Doug laughed. “I’m a blabbermouth too, at least that’s what my folks say about me, ‘cause I’m always talking and I say everything and never stop. It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. McGowan.”

My mother smiled. “Good grief, just what I need, two cute blabbermouth boys! Are you hungry? I’ll put together a snack.” She looked at me. “Maybe something healthy, like fruit? We have apples and tangerines, and some cheese, too.”

I grimaced. “Aw, mom…” but Doug interrupted “That sounds great. Tangerines are my favorite!”

“Jeez, fruit and cheese, that’s SO boring. Can I have a peanut butter sandwich instead, please, mom?”

“How many time do I have to tell you, don’t say ‘jeez’, Ron!” She glared one of those ‘mother glares’ at me.

“Sorry, mom, I’ll try to not say it again.”

“Thank you! And yes, you can have a peanut butter sandwich, but you can make it yourself. Would you like a peanut butter sandwich too, Doug?”

“No thanks, I’d prefer the tangerines and cheese. I love cheese but I don’t get it at home ‘cause the rest of my family gets sick if they eat cheese or ice cream or milk. And I really like fruit, and tangerines are my favorite.”

My mom looked at Doug with a big smile on her face. “I’m glad you like to eat healthy snacks, Doug. We have jack and cheddar, which would you like, or you can have some of each.”

“If it’s no trouble, I’d like some of each, please.”

“OK. I’ll get it ready,” and my mom went to the refrigerator. She gave me the bread, peanut butter, and apricot-pineapple preserves, my favorite, and the carton of milk. I started making my sandwich. Mom sliced some of the cheese for Doug, and gave him three tangerines. “Is three enough, Doug?”

“Yes, ma’am, thanks.”

“You want some milk, Doug? I’m going to have a glass with my sandwich.”

“No thanks. I don’t think that milk goes very good with tangerines.”

“OK.” I poured a large glass for myself, put the milk carton back in the refrigerator, and we sat down at the kitchen table.

“Tell me about your family,” my mom asked Doug as he peeled his tangerines. He told her the same things he had told me at the park, with a little more information. “My dad is a lawyer and he works for the state of California. He got transferred to the Los Angeles office. It was a real rush thing because he was given a big case that he had to take over here. My mom does medical transcriptions from home.”

I interrupted. “Mom, Doug and I have the same birthday, and we’re both going to be 13 on November 20th!”

“Well, that’s very interesting!”

“Yeah, we decided that we must be twins!”

My mom laughed at my comment. “Well, let’s see, you’re both 12, your birthdays are both on November 20th, you’re both blabbermouths and at least Doug admits to that, you’re probably right, you must be twins. Do you agree, Doug?”

“Yes, ma’am. And besides all those things, we’re interested in lots of the same things. We both like science fiction, and classical and soft rock music, and photography, and computers and computer games, and the same kind of TV shows and movies, and we both like school and get good grades. We’re not into sports. Hmmm… oh, and most important, we really like each other!” Doug looked at me and grinned. I looked into his eyes and grinned, too.

My mother looked at both of us with a strange expression on her face. “I’m glad you two are such good friends after only knowing each other for one day. Doug, it sounds like you’ll be like a brother for Ron, and that’s a very good thing. I think all boys need a really close friend, someone they can confide in and tell them anything and everything, and Ron hasn’t had a friend that fits that bill.”

“Aw, mom, you’re embarrassing me again!”

“That’s OK, sweetie, that’s one of those things that mothers do.” God, I hate it when she calls me ‘sweetie’ in front of my friends. I looked at Doug and once again he was biting his bottom lip and looked like he was going to totally bust up laughing.

We finished our snack and put the plates and my glass into the dishwasher. “Mom, I’m going to show Doug my room. Then I’d like to go to his house and meet his mother and see his room. And meet his brother Darryl if he’s home. Oh, and would it be OK if Doug comes to the Galleria with us on Saturday? He’ll ask his mother and she can call you to let you know if it’s OK with her. Then I’ll come home and do my homework.”

“How much homework do you have?”

“Just reading a chapter each in history and geography, nothing else.”

“Of course Doug can come with us to the Galleria on Saturday. And it’s alright for you to go to Doug’s house now, but you need to be home by 5 o’clock so you can finish your homework before dinner. We’re going to eat at 7, and remember your grandmother is coming over for dinner and afterwards she’ll show us the pictures of her trip to Hawaii.”

I had forgotten. “But it’s after 4 now, and I want to show Doug my room and stuff before going to his house, so can I come home at 5:30? That’ll give me lots of time to do my homework.”

My mother bit her cheek, which she did whenever she was thinking something over. “Alright, you can come home at 5:30.”

“Cool! Thanks, mom! Come on Doug, let’s go upstairs to my room.”

I grabbed my backpack and jacket, and we ran up the stairs, down the hall, and into my room. I dropped my stuff on my bed, and turned around and saw that Doug was looking at me. “Your mom is neat. I like her. Umm, Ron, you told your mother I was your best friend. Do you really mean that?”

I didn’t realize that I had said that. But it was true, I had found a best friend, even if we had only known each other for less than 4 hours.

“I really mean it, Doug. I know we just met, and hardly know each other, but I feel like you’re already my best friend. Jay and Norman are my friends, and I’ve known them since we moved here in the second grade, but, I don’t know, you’re more like me and it’s like I’ve known you all of my life. It’s like you’re the brother I’ve never had before, the brother I’ve always wanted. Maybe we are twins, separated at birth!” I grinned and started to laugh, but stopped when I saw that Doug had a really serious expression on his face.

“Ron. Mmm… it’s hard for me to say this. I want to tell you something but I’m embarrassed and if I tell you, you might freak.”

“Tell me. I won’t freak, no matter what you tell me. I promise!”

“Ron, it’s like you really are my twin brother.” Then, in a whisper, “Actually, more.”

My eyes filled with tears. “Oh, God, Doug. me too, like you’re my brother but more than just a brother, more than even a twin brother. It’s probably weird, but when we touched our hands at the park it was like some sort of electricity or something and it felt like part of you came into me.” I started to cry.

“Why are you crying?”

“I don’t know. I never cry. It’s just… it’s just so… it’s so weird… it’s so wonderful!”

Doug walked up to me and grabbed me in a big hug. Then he started to cry, too! “I know what you mean, Ron. It’s like we’re crying because we’ve found each other after being separated.” He stepped back, rubbed his eyes on his shirt sleeve, and put his hands on my shoulders. “You said I was like the brother that you never had and wanted. You also said I was your best friend. That’s what I mean! We’re like twin brothers, but are best friends too. Better than brothers, the very best friends. I have a brother, Darryl, but he’s two years older. I can’t talk to him about things I want to talk about, like, umm, like sex.”

Doug stopped, and looked into my eyes to see my reaction. “I know what you mean, Doug, I think the same.”

“So, Ron McGowan, you are officially my new twin brother, my very new best friend, and that’s lots better than either one alone. I feel like I can talk to you about anything, things that I’ve had to keep in my head, things I would never say to anyone else, things that have to be kept private, kept secret. Things that I’d never, ever say to anyone else especially my family. Can I talk to you about those things? Can you keep those things private, keep them secret? I tell you that YOU can tell ME those kinds of things, private, secret things, and I’ll never tell anyone, ever, I’ll keep them private, keep them secret.”

“Doug Choi, you’re the brother I’ve never had, a twin brother, and my very best friend.” I paused, and thought about my real biggest thing that was only in my head to be kept private and secret. Should I tell Doug? That I wanted to have sex with him like what Billy had taught me about? That was way scary! I could blow everything if Doug totally freaked.

“Hello, hello! Ron, you still there? Is anyone home?” Wow! This was what Billy had said to me in back of his barn. I started to laugh. I used my ‘computer’ voice, the voice that I used when I was joking around with Jay and Norman and other kids at school. “Ron-is-home-he-is-in-a-processing-loop-computing-everything-that-you-have-said-and-everything-that-he-has-said.”

I looked at Doug, and then he looked at his watch. “Ron, it’s 4:20, how about showing me your room?” We both broke out into laughter. I turned, and grabbed his left hand in my right. I waved my left arm around in a big circle.

“OK, this is my room.” I started pointing to each thing in the room. “These are my computers. The one on the left is the server, it runs my web site. The one on the right is my eMachines, the computer I used every day. That’s my desk, and that’s my monitor it’s an LCD display, that’s my desk chair. Over there is my closet door. Inside my closet door is my closet where I keep my clothes.” Doug started to laugh. “That’s my bookcase, with all of my books. Lots of them are science fiction. Over there is my dresser. Some of my clothes are in the dresser, socks, T-shirts, underpants, pajamas, handkerchiefs, swimsuits, sweaters, stuff like that. And there’s my bed. That’s where I sleep. It’s a double bed, so there’s room for more than just me.” I wiggled my eyelashes at Doug. We both burst out laughing.

“Neat. You’re room is neat. You’re a neat freak. Everything is tidy. Your mother must be proud of you. I’m a neat freak, too. My mother doesn’t ever have to tell me to clean my room. It’s always clean. Darryl isn’t a neat freak. He’s a slob. You’ll see all that when we go to my house. Which we’d better do like really soon, if you’re going to see it and meet my mom and anyone else who’s at home so you’ll still get back home here at 5:30!”

“OK, but first we need to exchange addresses and phone numbers and email addresses and I want to give you my web site URL.” I sat down at my desk and wrote out my information and handed it to Doug, then let him sit down and he did the same. Then I put on my jacket, we headed downstairs, and Doug grabbed his backpack and put on his jacket.

“Mom, we’re going over to Doug’s house. I’ll be back by 5:30.”

“You better hurry, it’s almost quarter to 5. Doug, what’s your phone number and mother’s name?”

“Our phone isn’t installed yet, so I’m giving you my mom’s cell phone number and her name is Nora, and also here’s our address.” He wrote all this on the piece of paper my mom gave him.

“Thank you, Doug. When you get home, have your mother call me about going with us to the Galleria on Saturday. We’ll leave about 10, we’ll pick you up at your house, we’ll have lunch there, and we should be back about 2. Maybe your mother would like to come with us, we’ll talk about that when she phones me.”

“Thanks, Mrs. McGowan. And thanks again for the snack. See you later!”

“Bye, mom, see you later.”

We left the house and walked the two blocks to Doug’s house. It was three houses further up Toledo than my house was on Bennett. It was a larger house, with three stories and a three-car garage in the back. The front yard was grass with three big trees and a lot of flower beds. The driveway was two cars wide all the way to the garage. There was a Honda Civic and some sort of SUV in the driveway, back by the garage.

“Nice house, Doug. Looks a lot bigger than my house.”

“Well, there are five of us living here now, and when Jason and Lil come home from college there are seven of us. At Christmas when Kath and Bob come from Walnut Creek there are nine of us. We need a big house with lots of bedrooms. And bathrooms!” Doug giggled. “Our house in San Francisco only had three bedrooms, one for my folks, One for me, Jason, and Darryl, and one for Kath, Lil, and Michelle. What’s worse was that there were only two bathrooms, so we had to start getting up around 5 in the morning in order to have enough bathroom time for everyone. We had a posted schedule, and we switched who had to get up for the early shifts every week. Now we have six bedrooms and 7½ bathrooms, plus the attic that Darryl and I use as our bedroom.”

“Is there a bathroom in the attic?”

“Yes. You’ll see.”

We had been standing on the driveway while we were talking. The front door opened and a woman came out. “Dougie, who’s your friend?”

He mumbled to me under his breath, “Damn, I hate it when she calls me ‘Dougie’ like I was still in first grade.” I giggled.

“Hi, mom, this is Ron, I met him at school today. I’m going to show him my room. He lives on the next street over, so it’s real close.”

“Hello, Ron. I’m glad that Dougie has found a friend so soon. We just moved in yesterday. We’re from San Francisco. Come on in!”

“Thank you, Mrs. Choi.” We walked into the house and followed Doug’s mom through the living room into the kitchen.

“You boys want something to eat?”

“No thanks, mom. I stopped at Ron’s house on the way here and we had a snack there. He and his mom are going to the Galleria, it’s a mall, on Saturday morning at 10, and his mom asked if you’d like to go too.”

Mrs. Choi smiled. “And I suppose you will want to tag along as well?”

“Wow, mom, that’s a great idea!”

“OK, Douglas, don’t get too carried away!”

“Here’s Ron’s mom’s phone number, her name is Mrs. McGowan.”

“My mom’s name is Dorothy. She asked if you could phone her so you two could talk about Saturday.”

“Thank you, Ron. Dougie, why don’t you take Ron up to your room and I’ll phone his mother.”

“OK. But, mom, pleeeease call me Doug, not ‘Dougie’. Especially when I have friends over. ‘Dougie’ makes me sound like I’m still a little kid.” I almost laughed, but I bit my bottom lip so I wouldn’t. Our moms were exactly alike!

She looked at Doug with a kind of puzzled expression, then grinned. “Alright, ‘Doug’ it is, from now on. Just remind me when I forget. I guess that I want to hang on to my last little boy. Who isn’t so little any longer because he’s almost a teenager.”

Doug hugged his mom. “Thanks, mom. You’re the greatest!”

I looked at the clock on the kitchen wall, and it was a little after 5. “Doug, can we take a look at your room? I have to leave in about 15 minutes so I’m home by 5:30.”

“OK, let’s go upstairs.” Doug led the way up two flights of stairs to his room. Actually, his and his brother Darryl’s room. The stairs took us to a landing in the middle of a long room that stretched to the left and right. Ahead was a separate room, the bathroom. Doug turned left, and we walked into that space. It was huge! “This is my end of the room. What do you think?” There was a large bed, it looked like a queen size, a desk with a computer, built-in bookshelves were along the long wall to our left, a closet with sliding mirror doors along side the bathroom at the right, and boxes of stuff everywhere, some open and some still taped closed. There was a big window at the end of his room, and two dormer windows on the right wall.

“This is a great room, Doug. I wish my room was this big. You could practically have a basketball game in here! You sure have a lot of boxes to unpack.”

“Yeah, I know.” He sighed. “Looking at how much there is to unpack I guess that I’ll be in high school before I get it all sorted out.”

“You want some help? Maybe I can come over tomorrow after school and give you a hand. You’ll have to show me where to put stuff, but with two of us it should take half as long to get it done.”

“Awesome! Thanks, Ron. That will be a huge help. Let me know tomorrow if you can come over after school. You want to see my stamp collection now?”

I looked at my watch. “I better go now, its quarter after five and I have to get home. Let’s see what our moms decided about Saturday.” We went down to the kitchen. Doug’s mom smiled at us.

“It’s all set for Saturday, boys. Doug, Ron’s mother will pick us up at 10 and we’ll go to the mall.”

We both said the same things at the same time, “Awesome! I can hardly wait! This will be so neat!” and burst into laughter.

Doug’s mom looked at us and said “You boys say exactly the same thing at exactly the same time. Your voices even sound the same. Goodness, one would think that you were twins!” Of course, that made us do a double-take then double up with laughter. Doug’s mom grinned at us, shook her head, and looked up toward the ceiling. “Boys! I don’t know what to do with them. Maybe some day they’ll grow up!”

After recovering, Doug told his mom “Our birthdays are on the same day and we are both 12 and we like the same books and music and movies and Ron’s going to come over tomorrow night to help me unpack and we think we must be twins too and we’re best friends…” when his mother interrupted. “Alright, alright, that’s enough input Doug! Ron has to get home, and you can tell us all about it at dinner.”

I said goodbye to Doug and his mom and headed home. I felt like I was walking on air all the way home. I thought about what Doug and I had said to each other, and how I had confessed that I want to have sex with him, and how he had said that he wanted to have sex with me, too. I wondered what would happen next. Maybe as soon as tomorrow after school when I was helping him unpack all of his boxes. I could hardly wait!

When I got home I went into the kitchen to talk to my mom. “Mom, can I go to Doug’s house tomorrow after school to help him unpack because he has so many boxes of stuff stacked up in his room and it would take him forever to do it by himself, and thanks for taking Doug and Mrs. Choi to the Galleria with us tomorrow, and remember that I’ve saved some of my allowance and want to buy the Pearl Fishers CD so we need to go to Tower, and since we’ll be on that side can we go to Borders I want to look at some computer books.”

My mom grinned at me. “Whew! Aren’t you out of breath? I didn’t think you were ever going to stop talking. And you forgot to say ‘hello’ to me.”

“Hello, mom. So, can I?”

If you mean ‘can I go to Doug’s tomorrow after school’ the answer is ‘yes’. If you mean ‘can I go to Tower Records and buy the Pearl Fishers CD’ the answer is ‘no’. If you mean can you browse the computer books at Borders the answer is ‘yes’ but don’t expect to buy any of them, the prices for those computer books are ridiculous.”

“OK.” There was a pause while I thought back to what she said. “Wait. Why can’t I buy the Pearl Fishers CD?”

She grinned. “Because I decided to buy it for you.”

“Awesome! Thank you! I love you, mom!” I hugged her and she hugged me back. My mom is fantastic!

“Now, get upstairs and get changed and finish your homework. I’ll call you when your grandmother gets here so you can say hello to her.”

With an “OK” I ran upstairs to my room.

My mom shouted after me, “Douglas McGowan, how many times to I have to tell you, don’t run up those stairs!”

“OK, sorry!”

I changed from my school clothes, putting on clean khakis and a shirt. I pulled out my books, sat at my desk, and opened my geography book to chapter three. It was about the world’s people. We were to go to the U.S. Census Bureau web site and look up information about the U.S. and world populations, how many people were being born and how many died every second, and how the world’s population was growing. This was sure more interesting than seventh grade geography! I turned on my PC and started looking up answers to the questions.

I finished reading the geography lesson. The history chapter was on the crusades. There were only three questions, about Arabic writing, but It was pretty dry reading to find the answers on the web site. But it’s interesting that Arabic is written from the right to left, and there was a neat web page that showed the strange looking Arabic alphabet and when I moved my mouse pointer over a letter it spelled out the sound and played it over my speakers.

I finished my homework in about an hour, just as mom called me to come downstairs and say hello to my grandmother. Grandma is neat, she travels a lot, and takes great photos wherever she goes. She just got back from Hawaii and that was a place that I really want to visit some day. As I put my books and papers into my backpack I thought about Doug. He was Chinese and the Chinese alphabet was probably just as strange as the Arabic alphabet. I wondered if Doug spoke Chinese, and if he could read and write Chinese. I wanted to know everything about him, but I didn’t know hardly anything. After school tomorrow I could ask him all kinds of questions and he’d probably ask me all kinds of questions too. Thinking about Doug made me smile, and I thought about how cute he is. Mom called me again, so I zipped up my backpack and went downstairs to have dinner with grandma and see her pictures of Hawaii.

To be continued…

Colin Kelly
collinkelly@xemaps.com