Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 22:11:34 -0700 From: Bain Taylor Subject: Inconvenient Youth. Chapter 5. Swinging on a Good Pitch If reading fictional stories about sexual relationships between under-aged males offends you, or if you are under 18 and/or it is illegal for you to read such a story, please hit the `back' button on your pc, and try something else. All rights to this story are reserved by the author. Inconvenient Youth Chapter five Swinging on a Good Pitch Once the laughter had died down, the kid wasted no time in shucking his clothes. He flew out of his cutoffs, kicking them off over his hiking boots, and stood there butt-naked as Carl and I looked on. It was fairly obvious that the dude was showing off. Coming from a small town with a miniscule gay population, I have a feeling that he saw this as a rare chance to turn a few male heads in his direction. He hesitated way longer than he needed to before descending into the water. Instead, he threw his arms above his head, stretched back, and let out an extended yawn. I'll have to say, as obvious as he was being, it still wasn't a bad snack. Normally I wouldn't have looked twice at him, or any other guy - or at least I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have. But apparently there's something about a naked dude in hiking boots that affects me. A couple of weeks ago, I would have completely ignored him. This was all Carl's fault. The other thing that had me going, was in knowing that Eric had season passes to plow the dude's ridiculously cute, stark-white bubble butt - at will. And there was something really sexy and cool about the fact that a senior, who would normally never give a freshman the time of day, was totally hooked on 'the enemy'. Sex does weird shit to dudes. It's a trap that God must have set for us. Finally, the kid walked to the water's edge, and made his way into the depths of the swimming hole, never bothering to take off the hiking boots. Eric was smiling over at me. He looked like a proud groom or something, watching my eyes as his trophy-boy stepped deeper into the water. Carl's eyes were working right along with mine, and he had taken in kid's exaggerated yawning pose as well. God only knows what he might have been thinking. And it struck me as I looked at him, that despite the kid's above average looks, he was no match for Carl. No one was a match for Carl. James came up to my side and stood there looking down at my still-hard cock, which I'd managed to forget was completely exposed to the entire world. I think my oversight had something to do with that last kiss Carl had thrown in at the end, just before the two had walked up on us. That would definitely explain it. I thought about diving out to deeper water, but it was a little late for that. James let out a 'whew.' "Damn, it looks even bigger up close," he said, smiling down at my 'problem'. Of course everything looks bigger when you stand up close. It was a ridiculous comment. I looked down and myself, and then back up to him. "It always looks big to me, I've never seen it from far away," I said, trying to make light of it. He laughed, which I took as a good sign. As he stood there, he looked me up and down, and turned a couple of shades of medium pink. I gave him my best, 'sorry, but I'm already taken' look. It didn't work. "I'll bet Carl likes wrappin' his lips around that fucker," He said, giving my hopeless hard-on a compliment it didn't need. I didn't dare look over at Carl. Luckily, Eric jumped in, trying to salvage my embarrassment. "James, ya'll don't need to be startin' off makin' bad impressions. Get your mind off sex, would ya? Go take yourself a swim," Eric said, looking as if it wasn't the first time he'd had to keep James in check. Carl ran with it. "James isn't hurting anything, he's just looking. Shit, who wouldn't?" Carl asked, laughing at how red in the face I must have been. I glanced over at him, and rolled my eyes at how ridiculous it sounded. "Exactly," James replied, but if I was you, I'd worry about him sneaking up behind you," he said, grinning over at Carl. Carl reached his hand up from the water, and moved his dripping hair from his eyes, all while laughing at the raw boldness of the kid. "Dude, that's the whole reason we came up to the wilderness in the first place. Jack would be screwing my brains out by now if you hadn't walked up on us like that. We weren't exactly planning on company," Carl said, lying through his teeth. "Damn, I'd have given my right nut to see him screwin' you with that big ol' thing. And, I'd give both nuts if we all did it together, you know, with me and Eric right beside you. I'd easily die." James said, pushing his luck. I looked up at Eric, and he was smiling, shaking his head in disbelief. Carl thought the whole thing was hilarious. "I'll tell you what, I'll talk to Eric about it and see what we can come up with," Carl said, "but off the top of my head, I'm guessing he wouldn't go for it. Isn't that right Eric?" he asked. Eric shrugged his shoulders, and grinned down at us. "If I had a good yardstick, I wouldn't likely rule it out," he replied. I had no idea what that meant. But James did. The kid didn't give Carl a chance to reply. "Awesome," he said, practically beaming, "then it's a date." It was a disaster. Nearly all of my moving parts dropped: My heart, my jaw, my shoulders, my expression, and my eyes - all of them. Of course my dick went in the other direction, and stretched to a new high. And with that, the kid swam off with the biggest smile you've ever seen. And Eric climbed out of his cutoffs and boots, and headed towards the diving rock. I'd been tag-teamed. With the other two out of ear-shot, I took a step closer to Carl. "Dude, could you possibly dig us a deeper hole to climb out of? What were you thinking?" I asked. "Sorry man, I didn't think Eric would consider actually going for it. But hey, welcome to a day in the life of a queer boy. Don't worry, tomorrow it will all be over," he said, grinning. "That's it? You actually expect me to fucking screw you - in front of those two?" I whispered. "Only as a last resort," he said, with an unconcerned grin. "You'd need a year of therapy. Think about it. Dude, shouldn't there be a limit to how far we take this little ploy? I mean, we've already gone further than we were going to go with this," I said, as I tried to get a grip on my fucked up emotions. "Therapy? Dude, I'm totally unshakable. Besides, the kid will probably forget all about it ten minutes from now. Just go with it." he said, flashing me his dimples. And with that, he pushed off, and glided over in the direction of the other two. Fucking dimples. He had to know that he was killing me. You know what? Love sucks. The reason the world is so full of fucked up people like me, is because love screws everything up. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to reverse everything back to the way it was. I was much happier when I 'liked' Carl. I'm practically sure of it. I looked up at the diving rock, and muscle-bound Eric was standing on top of it, getting ready for his first dive. James was looking up at him in awe, like he was witnessing Moses preparing to part the Red Sea. It wasn't even a good dive. I looked down at my sex deprived dick, which was begging me to do it a favor, and then gazed further down to my refection in the water. 'Breathe, Jack. You can do this. Just breathe...' I said to myself. I dunked myself into my own reflection, pushed off the bottom of the stream bed, and swam underwater towards the opposite side of the swimming hole. The cool water rushing over my body felt good. I needed it. We must have been in the water a good hour after that. Carl and Eric had gotten completely absorbed in putting on a diving competition. The two seemed to hit it off. Between dives, they would rattle off sports statistics and relive past sporting events as if it were all that mattered in the world. It was actually kind of nice to see Carl interacting with someone new. He definitely needed more friends, and it didn't seem to bother him at all that Eric was a confirmed closet-case. James had made his way over to my side of the swimming hole, where I'd been leaning back on a perfectly conforming underwater 'rock recliner'. He sat up next to me, and together we took on the roles of diving judges. I'll admit I had a lot of fun, despite myself. And as the hour wore on, we all somehow melded into something resembling friends. It wasn't a conscious thing - it just sort of happened. During the breaks between ranking the dives of the other two, the kid and I had plenty of time to talk. He wasn't such a bad guy as it turned out, just immature and a little insecure. And once I learned his story, I couldn't help but feel for him. He was definitely bold, if nothing else. He poured out his thoughts and feelings like we'd known each other our entire lives. I got the impression that he didn't have anyone that he could talk to, other than Eric. And as we got heavier into conversation, he unconsciously eased off on the dumb blond act. It surprised the hell out of me. I won't get into all of the details of what he told me, but trust me when I say that his home life was completely screwed up. If nothing else, it made me appreciate my parents. What I will tell is the part about how he and Eric 'met'. It was nothing sort of bizarre... Get ready. According to James, it happened one Wednesday after school. He had stayed after hours, working on an assignment for a history essay in the Library. As he finished up with his work, it had dawned on him that he'd forgotten to pick up his gym clothes to take home for washing. So he threw his books in his pack, and decided to make a pit-stop at the locker room in what was to be a quick in and out before heading home. Not long after he'd worked his locker door open, he was approached by two seniors, one of which was a dripping wet, naked Eric Reynolds. The other guy was some dude James didn't recognize, who was fully dressed. James said they began laughing and taunting him, which is almost to be expected when you get caught up alone in a locker room with two seniors. But things went south when the two guys decided that James needed a 'humiliation shower', which is a fairly well known prank that's played on freshmen at Goldrun High. James didn't give all of the details of it, but they got him to strip down - probably by threatening him somehow. So while James was taking his humiliation shower, the one guy made off with all of his clothes - which is where the humiliation part comes into play. And while he was busy out stuffing James' clothes in a dumpster somewhere, Eric made his way into the shower to put the finishing touches on the prank. As James told it, Eric made him go over to the wall, and bend forward with his feet spread - like you see policemen on TV do before frisking someone. And then he got his dick all soaped up and hard, and shoved it just barely between the butt cheeks of James. The whole idea was to put as much fear into James as possible, then to stop short of actually doing anything. That's how pranks work. But this one was different. For one thing, and unknown to Eric, James popped a major hard-on as he was facing the wall. If Eric had known James was gay, the little stunt he was pulling would have never happened. The idea was to humiliate a straight freshman, not to excite a gay one. Anyway, just as Eric was getting ready to let the kid go, the other senior returned, and came up behind Eric. He took in the scene before him, and then asked over to James, 'Hey punk, are you a virgin, boy?' And James nodded his head, knowing that the best thing to do was to agree with everything he was asked. So without any warning to Eric or James, the other guy said, 'Not anymore you aren't,' and then smacked Eric on the ass so hard, that Eric slammed against James, and was instantly balls-deep up his unsuspecting butt. James said it felt like he'd been shot - like he was going to die. The other guy ran out of the room, laughing his ass off, leaving Eric and James alone to somehow recover. Eric had been double-crossed by his own friend. And James had been brutally impaled by the dick of a gorgeous, hunked-out jerk (his words, not mine). As James told it, Eric just sort of held himself in that one position, in total shock - like his life was passing before his eyes. He said that he could feel Eric's cock pulsing inside of him, and rather than it dying down in size, it felt like it was actually expanding. He took a huge chance, and uttered the first words. 'Your friend is dead meat,' he said, cringing from the pain. There was only silence from Eric... except for his heavy breathing. James said that Eric had one hand on his shoulder, and the other one was wrapped around his waist, and that he was holding James tight against him - like he was trying to keep either of them from moving. James tried again. 'Dude, you can back off me any time now...' he said over his shoulder. He said that he could feel Eric trembling like crazy, and that he was prepared for some massive display of anger once it all hit him. But that's not what happened. When he finally spoke, Eric went into crisis management mode. 'Fuck, kid... I'm totally sorry. I'm SO fucking sorry', he pleaded. James said that he sounded like he was ready to lose it - maybe even ready to cry. 'Please, just back off of me,' James said again. 'Dude, I swear I'm sorry. Just don't move... whatever you fucking do, don't move,' Eric said through desperate breaths. James said that he knew to keep his mouth shut after that. Eric gave one final plea. "Oh shit. I can't cum... I fucking DON'T want to cum," he begged. James said he was certain that Eric was talking to God at that point, and not to him. Another minute or so passed, and Eric wasn't budging. The pain from Eric's dick- impalement had replaced itself with something bordering on pleasure. James said it was partly due to the pure and sweet revenge in knowing that once Eric lost his battle and shot off, he'd have to live with knowing he'd fucked a DUDE, for the rest of his sorry straight life. James said that it actually turned him on, and that he remembered feeling horrible guilt about it in the days that followed. I could almost see his point. Anyway, James' theory is that Eric was so scared shitless, and was shaking so hard, that the involuntary movement from his trembling body created the affect of unintentional body friction. And that the ever-so -slight jerking movement between their bodies was all that it took to send Eric off over the edge. Eric started shooting off into James, cussing out God and anything else he could think of through his pathetic cracking voice. James had me 'seeing' it all, like it was happening right before my eyes. In my mind, I could see Eric drowning in his own unwanted lust; pumping unintended blasts of his red- neck spunk into the kid. Something like that would kill most straight dudes. Near the end of his story, James and I sat back in the rushing water, and had looked up at Eric, who was getting ready to take another dive. None of what James had told me seemed possible. If what he had told me was true, it didn't make any sense that the two of them were now boyfriends. I looked back at James, and he continued on - to fill in the missing pieces. He went on to say that Eric was never his same 'jerk-self' after that day - at least not to James. A prank-gone-wrong had brought one of the biggest, bad-ass seniors on campus to his knees, and it had somehow changed him. He didn't go on to say how they actually got together as boyfriends. But he did say that Eric hung around him a lot after that, and over the course of the following weeks, he kept asking James if there was anything he could to do make it right. He said that you've never heard anyone apologize so much as Eric did. James knew that there had to be more to the endless apologies than met the eye, and it was confirmed when Eric confronted him with the truth, around three weeks after the prank had occurred. He told James that he couldn't stop thinking about him. He said that every fantasy he'd ever invented about girls, had been replaced by what happened during the locker room incident. He said that his sex life was over, and that he couldn't even get off, unless he was thinking about James. James said that Eric was an emotional basket case that day, and that he was worried that Eric might do something crazy to himself. So he told him the truth, and admitted that he had a hard-on the entire time that Eric's dick was stuffed in him that day. I would have loved to have seen the look on Eric's face. The way I figure it, is that since there was no one else at Goldrun High that had ever come close to entertaining so much as a waking gay thought, that they felt alone in the universe. All they had was each other, and so they made it work. Like I said, it was a bizarre story. Anyway, I was sure that after I'd heard the story from James, that the remainder day had no possible room for anything but normalcy. I could only handle so much. After we all got out of the water, and got ourselves dried off and dressed, Eric looked over at Carl and me. "Ya'll wouldn't mind if me and James made up camp here with you two tonight, would ya? I was definitely not expecting that. "Um, we plan on hiking back down the hill later on this evening, so actually, the place is all yours," I replied. "Tomorrow's Sunday, you gotta stay," James protested. He stomped his foot as he said it. The dumb blond act was back in full-swing. Amazing. I wondered to myself why he couldn't just be himself, like when he had told me his story. It was a strange transition. "Sorry guy, but we just never gave any thought to staying up here for the night. We don't even have blankets. Besides, my mom and Jack's parents are expecting us back," Carl said. "That's totally boring. Eric's got himself a cell phone, just call 'em, and make somethin' up. Or even tell 'em the truth," James replied. He sounded like a five year old. "I have enough blankets and food to feed half of Goldrun," Eric suggested. Carl looked over at me. "What the hell, Jack? It'd be better than going home to mom and my sister. I could get her to go for it, I think." I was tired of being the only one that bitched about everything - really tired of it. So I did something I never do - I agreed. "Fuck yeah, I think that would be a blast," I said, nearly choking on my own words. Carl gave me a stunned look. "Damn," he said over to me. His cheeks went slightly pink, and he was all grinning and happy. I swear I could see his dick surge in his tight cutoffs. The dude lives for the unexpected. I seriously need to shock him more often. And as I removed my eyes from his bulge, my heart flew back to my throat, which is where it belonged. I smiled and shook my head at how fucked up I'd become. It was a terrible time to admit to myself that I liked guys WAY too much. But that's when it hit me - when I caught myself staring at his fucking bulge right there in broad daylight. I didn't even try to hide it. That's about as gay as it gets. Add to that, that I'd snuck in several 'looks' at Eric and James - and bingo - a fag is born. I suddenly felt like a slut. Not that dudes can be sluts. Anyway, I never cry, otherwise I would have. That would have felt much better than smiling. Whatever. I'll live. "Cool, so guys, let's see if we can find a clearing where we can get ourselves a phone signal," Eric suggested, interrupting my melt-down. And an hour after that, the arrangements with our parents was a done deal - we were staying the night, and I was actually going to be sleeping next to Carl. I felt like high- fiving a tree or something. I shoved my newest crisis to the back of my mind, and it seemed happy to be there - probably because that's where it had been living all along. I shook it all out of my head. Carl and I were totally stoked. He and I started checking out different places that might be a good spot to set up camp. We explored over near the diving rock, and then a little further downstream toward the waterfall. James and Eric had headed off toward the mineshaft, which seemed like a rather creepy place to spend the night. But they seemed excited about sleeping in there as a possibility, so I kept my opinion to myself. We were losing light, so there wasn't a lot of time to fuck around being too picky. And we met back up with the other two around ten minutes later. By then, the decision on where we'd be setting up camp had already been made. James was determined to spend the night in the mineshaft, and it seemed he wasn't going to take no for an answer. Carl and I didn't want to make a big deal over it, so we politely agreed. We all gathered up our stuff, and with Eric leading the way with a flashlight, we made our way into the cave. I had brought along a bunch of candles, which I'd originally planned to use when I showed Carl my 'discovery' in the mine. So it worked out perfectly that I'd brought more than enough. I wasn't sure if I would let the other two guys in on my secret, but I gave it some thought as we buzzed about setting out all of our stuff. I was leaning towards sharing the secret with everyone. For one thing, it would probably take all four of us to repel down to the underground 'lake' I'd discovered. And the old, decaying wooden box, that is half- buried into the side of the shaft wall, would likely be too heavy to lift unless we were all in on it together. So that was it. I'd made up my mind. I'd share whatever was in the box with the other three guys. It would only be a matter of knocking off the rusted locked chains, and hoping for the best. Gold comes to mind. We settled on a relatively flat area in the mine to set up camp. It appeared to have been some kind of staging area back when the place was in operation. Judging by the size of the wide open 'chamber', it was most likely where the miner supervisors stored equipment and handed out tools to the workers. Eric and Carl went out to fetch a pile of pine needles for bed padding, while James unfolded the only two blankets they'd brought with them, and a fished a large white sheet out of Eric's backpack. "I hope Eric doesn't kill me for this," he said, as he tore the sheet straight down the middle, "but we only have one sheet between us." "Not anymore," I said, smiling over at him as I pulled out some containers of food from my pack. "Hey, James, can I ask you a question?" I said over to him. "Um, sure." "What's up with the little kid act whenever Eric is around? It's like you have a split personality or something. You're a really smart guy." "That's the way it is, Jack. As long as I'm dumb, blond, poor, and good in bed, I'll always be exactly what Eric wants." "Are you fucking serious? And you're happy with that?" I asked. "Just never let him know. But yeah, I'm serious. He gives me what I want, and I give him what he wants. I love him more than myself. Big men on campus like to be reminded how awesome they are, and the way I do that, is to be dumb and blond. If he saw the smart side of me, I'd be history. I figured that out... a while back." "Dude, don't take this the wrong way, but you are twice as hot when you are being yourself. I have two eyes in my head too, and you could take your pick with any gay dude you'd ever want - well - if there were any other gay ones in Goldrun." He smiled. "I rest my case," he replied. "Yeah, but why torture yourself? Why don't you just hang loose for the next four years, and when you graduate, move to a bigger town?" "Because I love the jerk," he said, looking away from me. "Ok, one more question. Why did you bring up all the shit about wanting to fuck side- by-side with me and Carl?" I asked. "That's easy. Because you are both drop-dead gorgeous, and because I like looking at cute dudes," he said. Shit James, you're one fucked up guy. But you know what? You're a nice fucked up guy," "Thanks man, and thanks for listening to me today, and thanks for keeping my secret private." So we went on about it like that, and even joked around as we got to know each other. I was liking the guy more and more. He was real, and yeah, he had his problems - just like I have mine. And after all that he'd confided in me over the course of the day, I wondered if I might do some of my own confiding. It was tempting. When I thought about it, my story about me and Carl was easily as strange as the one he'd told me about how he and Eric met. It was something to think about. Anyway, before long, we had put together a camp that would be worthy of a scout award. Our dinner for the night was a weird mix of things that you'd never normally see on the same plate. I'd have to say that my mom's homemade potato salad was the biggest hit. Eric brought up a bunch of sandwiches and junk food, which Carl and I ate out of politeness. Anyway, after we finished dinner, Eric gathered up what was left of the food, and I grabbed the trash. We knew enough not to leave it in the mineshaft, as the bears up in this area can get aggressive when they're hungry enough. So we headed out with it, determined to not only save our food from getting eaten, but to save ourselves as well. Carl and James hadn't given the bear possibility an advanced thought, so when Eric had given them the bear 101 course, they'd decided not to come outside to help us. It was kind of cute, actually. I mean, Carl played it off and gave some lame excuse, but he looked sort of scared. James was another story. He dove under the torn sheet that was draped over their blanket, as if that would somehow protect him from getting eaten. It took a little longer than I'd figured to find the perfect tree with the perfect branch to use for hoisting all of the food up off of the ground. But we eventually settled on one, and after several tries, we were successful in tossing a rope up over one end of a branch. After that, making the pulley and getting the food and trash out of bear-reach was a piece of cake. We couldn't have been gone longer than 20 minutes, but when we got back to the mineshaft, James was sleeping like a baby. I was instantly relieved, knowing that we'd escaped the duel fuck session that he'd been all excited about. Of course it would have been interesting to see Carl try and worm his way out of it once the chips were on the table. There's no way he'd have gone through with it, despite all of his big talk. I'm sure about that. The three of us stayed up and talked for a while, but it didn't take long for Eric to go into yawn mode, and before long he was under the sheet with his buddy, softly snoring away. I kicked off my boots and shorts, and set them next to where Carl had tossed his cutoffs. He looked up at me with a crooked smile, but said nothing as I got under the sheet behind him. We were both on our sides, propped up by one arm. We took in all of the noises and shadows, without saying much for a while. As the sun slipped down behind the trees, the mineshaft grew darker - so dark, that the two candles I had lit became the only source of light. And with that, the place took on an eerie life of its own. The flickering glow of the miniature flames danced off of the granite rock, and as the light reflected at random angles, you'd get these flashing glimpses of old iron pipes and tarred beams 50 feet deeper into the shaft, which seemed to be reaching out through the death of time. And as you looked back out towards the entrance of the mine, the slowly dimming light of the fading sun made the opening of the cave look like a creepy, jagged-edged movie screen, with nothing in view but the trunks of a few old trees, and nothing to hear but whistling wind and hollow echoes. "Dude, this is fucking cool," Carl finally said. He was talking in a whisper. I looked at his broad shoulders spanning in front of me, and followed my eyes down to his tapered waist. It liked looking at him when he wasn't noticing. "Glad you like it man," I replied softly. "Hey, guess what?" he asked at me over his shoulder. "Hmm?" I asked. He reached his hand back to hand me something. "The kid wanted me to give this to you. I guess he was expecting another show," he said. I took the small object in his hand, and brought it into the light. It was a tube of petroleum jelly. "He's a horny little fucker," I said. "Yep. He'll be pissed that he let himself fall asleep when he wakes up tomorrow." "Were you really going to go through with it? You know - the fucking stuff?" I asked. "It would have depended..." he started. "On what?" I asked. "...On whether you would have gotten all freaked out or not. I keeping thinking you are like me, and that you're in it for the fun. But you take shit more seriously than I do. I need to remember that." "Cool," I said. "So... would you have gone for it?" he asked. "Nope, no way," I said. "Too scared?" he asked. "Yep. Too scared I might have liked it, and too scared it would fuck up our friendship." "Life's all about chances, Jack." "Dude, did you hear what I just said? I said that if I would have fucked you, I might have liked it - in fact, I know I would have liked it," I admitted bluntly. He didn't respond. "Carl, I don't gamble with my life, or your's either for that matter," I added. "Maybe you should. You know, just roll the dice and see what you get." "And?" I asked. "And if you come up with a bad shake, you dust yourself off, and at try again," he replied. I melted. He knew. He had known what we were in for all along. "Carl, a gay dude and a straight dude could never be like boyfriends, if that's what you're suggesting. That's insane." I said, admitting the ugly truth we had both been avoiding. There was a long silence. "You're my best friend," he whispered, un-phased by my admission. "I'll never be enough for you, and you know it. This ride we're on will eventually crash and burn," I said, through my trembling voice. He came down from his propped up arm, and rested his head on his backpack. And after a minute of thinking about it, he scooted back into me, so that my throbbing, blood engorged cock nestled snuggly along the full length of the crevice of his perfect ass. "Just shut up, and go to sleep," he said, so softly that I barely heard it. I dropped my head to the blanket, and draped one arm over his shoulder. Carl was asleep within five minutes. I must have stayed awake half the night, never moving from that position. Until then, I'd never realized that if you smile for too long, it can actually start to hurt. And if you think it's easy to go to sleep with your jacked up dick snuggled up against the faultless ass of a fucking god, you should try it sometime. It's harder than it sounds. Go figure. *This seems a good place to end the story. I'd rather leave Jack and Carl on the edge, than to have them fall into a boring, sappy love puddle. That wouldn't be any fun. Thanks so much for reading, and for being patient with me when I was dragging my feet between chapters. This has been a great learning experience, and without your support and encouragement, chapter one would have been a solo story. I'll be sticking around, and trying my hand at a new story before long. Best wishes and many thanks to you. I'd love to hear any final comments. My email is dozedaze@gmail.com Bain