Journey to Love

Chapter Forty-seven

Rain in the Desert

by Sequoyah

edited by Cole, Peter and Scott

Preface warnings apply.

©Sequoyah

At the request of readers, the color scheme has been changed. Hope it works better.

"Ricky, you can go downstairs," the well dressed stranger said, without introducing himself. "Derek, Jayden, others, relax, you are okay. I'm here at the behest of my boss. It's concerning Big Walt and the people he's connected with. My boss is in the porn business. You guys decide you want to jerk off for pay or fuck—gay or straight—for college funds, no problem. My outfit would be delighted to have you and pay you well. What we will not do is kiddie porn. In fact, we will not tolerate it. Jayden, legally what you were forced to do was kiddie porn since you have to be eighteen to do porn, but you were close enough that no one would have questioned it except with all your body hair removed and as young as you looked, you passed as much younger. Our problem is both that you were not legal and were forced into doing it. My organization will not tolerate that in our business. And we will not allow drugs to be used to pay models. I wanted you to know that."

We just sat there listening, wondering where this was going.

"I guess you need to know as well, we are into other activities not quite as legal as good clean porn, but that's beside the point. What's not beside the point is that Big Walt and the organization of which he was a minor part, had been warned about kiddie porn and forcing people to perform in it and in regular porn. Had you two not brought Big Walt down, he would probably have simply disappeared on a walk in the desert. But you did bring him down and his organization feels very threatened by you. In short, as they say in my business, there is a contract out on you two. There's probably nothing to worry about as you have been under guard since my organization learned of the contracts. You haven't seen your guards and you won't, but they are there. We do need your help. We need to know your schedule and we ask that you not be alone in isolated places.

"Derek, I know you and your friends like to go walking on the beach, often on the spur of the moment. We don't want to take that away from you. If you decide to do that, beep the horn twice when you back out of the garage. Questions?

"How long will this go on?" Jayden asked. "Big Walt ruined over a year of my life already."

"Shouldn't be long. His organization just has to be convinced that bothering you two is costly. Think of it this way, had you not suffered at the hands of Big Walt, you wouldn't be in the arms you're in now." He actually grinned, stood and left.

"Damn," Levi said. "I guess you kicked over a major hornet's nest, Derek."

"Hey! But look what I got out of it," I leaned over and kissed the top of Jayden's head.

"So you two are officially boyfriends?" Jeremy asked.

"Yeah," Jayden answered, "but boyfriend sounds so middle schoolish."

"I agree, but what else can we use?" Levi asked. We had no answer. "So how's it going?"

"How's what going?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Derek," Levi laughed.

"You want the honest truth?" Jayden asked. "Derek has been so busy dealing with the funeral and especially with Geneva that we have barely had time for a kiss."

"But they are gone now and so are we, Lover Boy," Telvin said, pulling Levi to his feet.

After hugs all around, Jayden and I were finally left alone, really alone, for the first time since he arrived. We sat on the couch, facing each other, looking into each others eyes with smiles on our faces.

"Jayden, Beautiful Navajo, I love you. I love you so much."

Jayden pulled me to himself, covered my mouth with his, pushed his tongue into my mouth in a passionate kiss. I scooped him in my arms and took him to my bed—our bed—where I slowly undressed him. As I undressed him, more and more of his beautiful body was revealed and I realized I was making love to him. This was not about sex, it was about love. It was not about me getting my sexual needs fulfilled, it was about caressing his body to convey my love for him.

Jayden reached up and pulled my body atop his. His hard cock pressed against me for a moment, and then he rolled over and began to slowly undress me. When I was naked, he pulled me back onto him, so we were lying together. I could feel the precum we both were streaming between us as he made love to my lips, my mouth, my tongue. Suddenly it wasn't precum I was feeling between us. Without my having touched his cock, he exploded between us. His explosion set mine off as well. We held each other tightly as our shared climax went on and on. As it finished, spasms rippled up and down our bodies. When those subsided I rose up on my elbows and looked down into his smiling face. "Maybe we can last longer next time, Beloved One," he laughed.

"We have plenty of time to try again." I picked him up and carried him to the shower. He had his arms about my neck so I was able to hold him and start the shower. Having lived in the desert, we both appreciated the abundance of water as we played in the sprays.

We dried each other and returned to the bed. As we lay down, Jayden said, "Derek, we need to talk." He sounded nervous and looked very serious.

"Certainly, Jayden." I then told him the history of the kitchen table and how 'we need to talk' or 'I need to talk' was an imperative. "It means we will talk and we will talk until the issue is resolved or we can live with it."

"Not sure I want to go downstairs, but I do like the idea. I need to talk about lovemaking, about sex. I know you and Levi slept together for some time and you and Wolf were declared boyfriends, so I assume you have had sex just about every way possible . . ."

"Actually I haven't. I engaged in mutual masturbation with both, had oral sex with both and Wolf and I were doing frottage, but I didn't have anal sex with either of them."

"Derek, this is difficult for me and I thought after my encounter with the Old Ones, all that was behind me. Know I love you more than I could ever imagine loving anyone. I want to make you happy. We both know that I am still potentially HIV+. I have two negative tests, but there's still a potential for a positive one. I don't think there will be. Big Walt generally made sure of that. When Kathryn tested me, she found I was infected with both chlamydia and gonorrhea. She treated me for those. Derek, I'm beating about the bush and you know it. You knew about the infections because you are the one that shot me in the ass. What I'm avoiding saying is that in spite of my experience, no, because of my experience, can we take it slow?"

I burst out laughing. "Beautiful One, you were so serious I was afraid you were going to tell me you have changed you mind or something. Of course we can take it slow, as slow as either of us wishes or needs. We have years ahead of us, Jayden." I then straddled his body and started tickling him. He was trying to say 'stop,' but he couldn't get it out for laughing. We horsed around, then started kissing. Moments later, we each had our lover's cock in our hand, stroking slowly. We played chicken—how close can you bring your lover to the edge without his actual cumming—until Jayden gave me one stroke too many and I covered his hand and my stomach, and then I brought him off. After we cleaned up, I cradled my beloved Jayden in my arms and we slept.

Monday, Wednesday and Friday were my heavy class days as I had lectures in chemistry, biology and math. Tuesday and Thursday I had my art class and chem and biology labs. Of course, even two lab periods at twice the length of lectures were never enough time, especially for chemistry, so I usually worked over those two days. I explained all of this to Jayden and asked what I could do to keep him from being bored to death. He then told me that while he hadn't received his GED by the beginning of the semester, the Pueblo had enrolled him in online courses at a community college. "Someone took a disk with my work into Chinle and downloaded the next assignments on Saturdays. The Pueblo had no internet connection. I'll spend the time you are in lab working on my online classes. Should be able to finish them quickly here. When they are done, I can start the next group of classes. I should be able to finish a semester by the time you finish yours."

Jayden was a runner and was delighted to find the campus as an excellent place to run. I asked Coach if it would be alright for him to share my locker and shower at the pool. The dive team was doing so well Coach was happy to do anything that kept us happy. Jayden ran while I was at practice, then showered and watched as I finished, after which we walked home together. We had been doing that for about three weeks when I got a phone call asking that we take a different route home after practice. It shook me up because we had heard or seen nothing after the visit from Ricky and his boss. To be honest, we had pretty much forgotten about the threat. The caller specifically asked us to avoid a part of our present route which was pretty isolated.

The weekend following that warning there was no aquatics meet. Wednesday night as we were lying in bed after very satisfactory lovemaking, I told Jayden I thought it was time we went to see my mom and dads. He had been nervous about that because they knew about his appearance in kiddie porn and his time as a male prostitute; after all, it was in the national news. I reminded him that the Old Ones had seen to it that his past was washed away and that he had done nothing wrong in the first place. He reminded me that he knew that and I knew that, and it hadn't been on the national news; but his time as a porn star had and was still, he was sure, floating around on the internet.

"Jayden, I am my mom's son. Any man I love, my mom will love. My dads certainly understand your situation. Brad was put out of house and home. Sam had what he calls his slut period. DeAngelo? Honestly, I don't know, but he doesn't have room to talk about sexual morality. Anyone in Stanton who counts will accept you because they trust me and Jeremy as well and Jeremy certainly accepts you." Jayden was still nervous and I could understand why. Nonetheless, we, and Jeremy, were ready to leave for Stanton as soon as Jeremy and I got out of class at noon on Friday.

Jeremy was in a rare mood since he had really struggled with a paper for his class and thought he would have a problem since he disagreed with the known position of the professor. It was returned with the comment that the professor was unconvinced, but the argument was great and he was receiving an A for his grade.

I was driving and Jeremy leaned up between the seats and he and Jayden got into a discussion about online courses. There were a couple of courses Jeremy had to take that he was considering taking online so he didn't have to attend class at a specific time.

As we were approaching the drive to Grace House, Jeremy and I were both hyper while Jayden got very quiet and kinda sunk down in the seat. Just as we turned into the drive there was sound like a rock hitting the back of the car somewhere. It happened a second time before we reached the house. Since the drive was gravel, we thought nothing about it. When we arrived, Jeremy immediately went to the back of the car and said, "Shit! That was no rock hitting the car. Someone shot at us!" He was pointing to two holes in the trunk cover. "Get inside!" he shouted and the three of us ran into the house from the garage. We burst into the house and Jeremy yelled, "Sam, Brad, call 911. Someone shot at us."

"What!?" Brad said, running to us. Sam, always the logical and practical one, was calling 911.

It was almost half an hour before a sheriff's deputy arrived, took a look at the bullet holes and suggested they had been made by a rock. Jeremy and Jayden looked at him as if he was from Mars. I thought he probably wouldn't be convinced if handed the bullet, which Jayden did after popping open the trunk, pointing to a hole in my gym bag, taking the bag out and feeling around it. The second had gone through the trunk and a brace on the trunk lid, so it was quite spent before it hit a cooler and fell to the floor of the trunk. "Well, I'll take the bullets and file a report. Probably a hunter . . . "

"What was he hunting? No season that would require carrying a rifle of that caliber unless Alexander County now has open season on elephants," Sam said, obviously pissed.

"I said I'd write a report," the deputy said, got in his car and drove off.

Back in the house, Sam said, "Okay, what's going on here? You three run into the house claiming someone shot at you, not something that most of us would even consider which leads me to believe something is going on and you know about it."

"Ugh, Dad Sam, Dad Brad, this is Jayden Marshall Fulton the fourth, your future son-in-law," I said.

"Hi, Jayden. Nice to meet you . . . Out with it Jeremy and Derek. You know you can't hide things from me . . . future son-in-law? Would you three like to go out and come back in so I can appear sane? Jayden," Brad said, "our youngest told us he had found The One and that he was beautiful. He was certainly on target on the looks. Do you feel like The One."

"No, not at all. That's Derek."

Brad extended his hand to Jayden and said, "Jayden, forgive our rudeness. Don't think our household is always this crazy. So, we need to talk."

My dads, Jeremy and I headed for the kitchen table as though we were locked into some guidance system. I had Jayden by the hand and as soon as we were seated he said, "Derek told me about the kitchen table talk rule."

"Good, so you know we'll be here forever or know what's going on . . . "

"Just stay calm. Everything's under control," a voice came from the office. "Come on in boss."

I placed my hands gently on the arms of my very startled dads as they began to stand up. "Hello again," I said as Ricky's boss—the only name we ever had for him—came in and sat down at the table. "First things first, Jayden, Derek, my apologies. You too, Jeremy. Somehow or other Big Walt's organization knew you were coming to Stanton and we did not."

"Mr. Houston, Mr. Hunsinger, I'm sure you know how these two fine young men got together and how they brought down a kiddie porn operation. As I told them, my organization is also into porn and if someone eighteen or older wants to spank the monkey or fuck in front of our cameras and fits the type we need for a site, he can be and is well paid, very well paid. Capitalism and free enterprise and all that God Bless American kind of stuff. Kiddie porn and porn or sex performed to keep alive or avoid being killed is something else. The only reason Jayden isn't dead is because the thugs Big Walt hired were lazy, so they didn't beat him to death as is usually the case with that outfit and because Derek found him and got him to the clinic. A second, more thorough, job was planned for Jayden and also Derek, but again, Big Walt miscalculated and this time not only did Jayden escape unharmed, but Big Walt and his organization—which is but a small part of a larger organization—was brought down. When it tumbled, it brought down other, ancillary operations, such as those of Brother Fitzsimmons here in the southeast.

"The umbrella organization had been warned about forced sex and kiddie porn before. Porn makes big money, but if the public gets riled up, laws get passed and money dries up. Then Derek kicked the hornet's nest. I found out today, Arizona was the second place Derek had been involved in kicking the same hornet's nest. The first was when he was in on the rescue of a young man from Brother Fitzsimmons' gay-to-straight operation. Mr. Houston, Mr. Hunsinger, these boys have been under guard twenty-four/seven since Jayden arrived in Norfolk because we learned of a planned attack on them. We are an invisible shield around them and, I guess, got lax. In any event, they were well over half way here before we knew they were coming. We had no one in the area who could take over guard duty and Big Walt's outfit knew that and they knew your guys were coming. That organization did have someone close enough to have a sniper waiting for them. Fortunately, the fellow was a lousy shot.

"Can't the FBI or some . . . uh' . . . legitimate outfit give them protection?" Sam asked.

"Probably not, but even if they did, it would not be as good as what we'll provide. They would have to stay close to being within the law. We don't. Sometimes you need a thief to catch a thief. For your information, the fellow who shot at you refused to sign a confession which was his way out. His body will likely turn up somewhere far from here or he'll not turn up, but in any case, he got the death penalty. At no cost to taxpayers. Tomorrow, expect seemingly unconnected raids by the drug folks, the tax folks, the FBI and Homeland Security. The top dog will survive, but without an organization because the whole organization will be brought down tomorrow." Ricky's Boss then gave us a phone number and said, "If you make a sudden decision to take off, give that number a call. Now, goodnight."

With that bit of excitement we were wide awake and after spending half an hour discussing what we didn't know about our visitor and his organization, Jeremy said he had to get home and left.

Talk then turned to Jayden and his history. Sam and I mostly listened as he and Brad talked about being thrown out of their homes. Unlike Brad, who'd had Miss Grace, Jayden had had no one. Brad commented that Jayden had seemingly dealt with his bitterness toward his father amazingly well. There was some hesitation, but Jayden finally told them of his purification by the Old Ones which surprised me. I expected Sam to pooh-pooh that, but he didn't. In fact, he kept nodding as Jayden told his story. I was even more surprised when Jayden told him about his fears concerning sex—lovemaking. Jayden tended to be shy and here he was talking with 'adults' he had just met.

"Jayden, I was never abused and you need to keep that in mind, but focus on two things. Keep them in the forefront of you mind when it comes to sex . . . "

"Caveat," Sam laughed, "as nearly as you can keep anything in the forefront of your mind when it comes to sex."

"True," Brad grinned. "Well, remember your lover. You already know Derek is a kind, gentle, caring, loving man with just about anyone . . . well, that doesn't apply when someone he loves is attacked or in danger . . . and he is patient. He seldom allows the little head to rule his universe. Also remember when it comes to lovemaking, you are a virgin. You have had sex forced on you by necessity and by evil people. You are now making love and as we have reminded Derek, being gay and having a lover does not require you to engage in anal intercourse. We do, by choice and desire, but one of us would be almost as happy if we didn't, but he would be more than a little pissed if oral sex were ruled out. You're making love and the object is to let your partner know he is loved and desired, but also that you want him to know the pleasure of being loved physically. It's about him, not you."

We were still talking long after midnight so it was not surprising we all slept late. Jayden and I were still asleep when DeAngelo and Joe invaded my room. "Damn, Little Bro, where's this Indian you captured. I hear he's a looker if you're interested in such. Get your ass out of bed. Breakfast is ready and we're going swimming after."

" Scalp and kill that loud black white man," Jayden growled from under the covers.

"Growling Bear awakens," Joe laughed.

Sam and Brad came out of their room as Jayden and I walked out of mine. Downstairs, Joe and DeAngelo had breakfast ready—country ham, grits, eggs over medium, hot biscuits and apricot preserves. After half a cup of coffee, we were all awake and catching up with each other. About halfway through breakfast DeAngelo said, "Little Bro, sorry about Wolf, but by damn, you definitely got the better deal when you traded him in on this one."

"Agree," Joe added. "Agree one hundred percent."

We cleaned up after breakfast and headed for the pond. It was October and the weather was chilly and no one bothered to tell Jayden the water was warm. "Strip and jump in," I told him as the rest of us were doing. He looked at me as if I was nuts, but started getting undressed. Once he was undressed, I grabbed him in a passionate kiss knowing the results. We were both at full mast when I raced to the pond and dived in. Jayden followed right behind me, trying to hide his erection, unsuccessfully. He jumped in and started thrashing around in the water. I suddenly remembered I had never seen him swim. I grabbed him and asked, "Don't you swim?

"No! I didn't expect the water to be over my head since you came right up." I helped him to the side of the pond where the water was shallow and planned to stay with him. "Go ahead, I'm happy to stand here and watch. Do you dive from that high platform?"

"Sure," I smiled and gave him a kiss. "Want to see?"

"Aren't you afraid? I mean, this seems, well, kinda dangerous out here.

"Hell no! I love it," I laughed. "It's just the same as when you have seen me at school

"Okay, I'll watch."

After my second dive, I saw Brad and Sam were standing beside Jayden and soon he was having his first swimming lesson.

The rest of the weekend after the pond was even more wonderful than its start and we forgot about our visitor. Everyone loved Jayden and he and DeAngelo hit it off especially well. We spent time with Mom, at the Center, and went out to Jeremy's place to see the farm in operation. "I wonder what a bunch of Navajo could do given this soil and all this water. They do pretty well on bits and pieces of arable land with practically no water," Jayden mused.

Saturday evening we settled down to watch the news while Sam prepared dinner. As we watched, we remembered our visitor as there were reports of DEA drug raids in Arizona, Utah, Georgia and Alabama with hundreds of arrests and money and drugs confiscated. Nine states had kiddie porn distribution centers raided and dozens of arrests made by the FBI. The Brother Fitzsimmons organization was hit again in several raids. The IRS had search warrants and found hundreds of documents they would use in tax evasion cases resulting in millions in fines, back taxes and arrests. Politicians galore resigned and several at both the state and national levels were arrested on numerous charges. Prostitution, drugs, gambling—you name it and someone was busted for it. No one commented on the sheer number of raids and the amount of evidence which would result in further arrests, convictions, prison and fines. No one seemed to know why so many raids happened on the same day and it was never explained. We knew it was because someone decided to defy the big boys and it all started when I found a treasure in the desert.

Sunday we went to church for the Eucharist. Jayden liked it. After his mother's death, his father became a lapsed Catholic and Jayden, of course, knew he was gay by the time he was twelve and the church's stance toward him meant he would never go back. I'll admit that I did create a bit of a stir when I kissed him on the cheek at the Peace.

Back in Norfolk, school demanded more and more of my time. Jayden found school demanded more and more of him as well. He was also debating what to do next semester. Ideally he would enroll at OCU, but he lacked money and although I could help a great deal, the fact that he was out-of-state meant the tuition was very high. We almost argued about that, but he was very stubborn about not accepting any money from me for college. "You are providing room and board, I'll accept that, but no more." Then rain came to the desert: In the middle of October, Jayden and I got letters stating that trust funds for our education through graduate degrees and living expenses for the same period had been established by the estate of the late Walter (Big Walt) Simmons. We never found out exactly how that happened, but suspected Ricky's boss had something to do with it. We could use any or all of the allotted education funds ourselves or designate recipients for any or all of it. The fund was a godsend for Jayden since it meant he could enroll in OCU without worrying about the cost of out-of-state tuition. I gave a third of the scholarship to DeAngelo and a third to Jeremy and offered a third to Telvin. Designating money to DeAngelo and Jeremy was an easy choice for me to make. Both had scholarships, but still had pretty steep student loan debts and would have to borrow more. Their shares of the scholarship would cover both past and future loans. Telvin thanked me but refused, saying that in spite of his protests, Levi had said they were married in his eyes and what belonged to one belonged to the other. "I don't want to start that argument anew!" When I asked my dads, they suggested I use Telvin's third to help Joe. "He had a college fund, but his father had become ill and he'd used some of it just to keep the family's head above water.

Website: sequoyahsplace.com

Contact: You can contact Sequoyah at sequoyahs.place@gmail.com. 

Map: I keep a map with pins marking where readers live. I would appreciate an email from you so you can be pinned.

Donate: Bandwidth costs real money. A donation to Nifty will help keep Nifty sending good stories your way.